dolly dimple knits

There's a hole in my bucket ...

Brace yourselves guys, hold tight ... we ... have ...a ... FINISHED OBJECT ! YAY ! In fact, not only finished but started, knitted and finished. How smug am I ??

In lieu of getting on with my first knitalong commitment to Lis on Elfin and a bit bored with my second one on Audrey, I decided it was about time to get going on my spring/summer bucket knitalong with Becky.

So here she is - Rowan in her holey bucket !

Knitted in crisp white stash Handknit DK Cotton, you will note the tasteful band of lace hearts around the bucket - yeah, I don't know what possessed me either ??? Lace and I have a "difficult" relationship (if we were married we'd be throwing the good china at each other !) but it seemed right. And it's mainly worked out okay apart from the bare patch at the back where I didn't quite get the placing right - but YOU can't see that as I'm in charge of the camera !

Anyway Rowan loves it and wore it all morning in the house ..... then took it off the moment she stepped out into the sunshine.

The sunshine this weekend has been glorious - not to mention unexpected. But we took advantage and headed off to spend a couple of days on the Cowal Peninsula.

We stayed here last night, which was absolutely lovely and then pottered round Loch Eck "The Jewel of the Cowal" for a while - before heading off to Lochgoilhead at the head of Loch Fyne.

Two of the most beautiful lochs for my money and only an hour or so's drive from Glasgow. But we felt like we were in a different world.

That was the week that ....

...... one of my projects went so over budget I couldn't speak, my job-share partner resigned, I did the exit interview for my longest standing team member as she retires in 3 weeks :0(((, I managed to lose the only copy of a paper my boss wanted comments on urgently, I caught whatever made the children sick last week but still had to go work as I had so much D*** work to do, I ran out of clean knickers as I've got so behind with the washing, Hazel emptied an entire tub of glitter over Rowan's head (for FUN ????!!) and 3 days on she's still sparkling at us, it's only Wednesday ........ and you wonder why I've not done much KNITTING ! Ain't the life of the working mother grand ? !

Quick someone play me whale music !!! ..... or better still, DAVID BOWIE as Lis would perhaps say.

Aah, David - one of my first loves. Aladdin Sane was the first album I ever bought in about 1982 I think when it was re-released ??

Rosie, my eldest is now a big fan although she struggles with the notion that he could be her Grandpa .... whilst me, I don't think of him in that context at all ! Like Davey boy, Rosie has odd coloured eyes - both brown but one light and the other very dark - so actually, she could be his secret love child ...... okay, I'm going just slightly too far here maybe ?? ....

Anyway, enough of my fantasies. I did squeeze a teeny bit of knitting in on Sunday when I was feeling too "fragile" (from the 40th birthday party we were at the night before) to do anything else. So Audrey now has a back, a sleeve and about 3 inches of another sleeve - but no pictures because I can't find the S****** camera. It's been a good week, did I mention that ?

Speaking of fantasies though, the rest of my time this week I've spent Fantasy Knitting. It's like Fantasy Football - only better.

First of all imagine your time is entirely your own. Naturally this means supposing that your partner, children, wider family and job have disappeared entirely (stop smiling, it's not real you know !)

Now spend, oh say, half a day of that free time just flippin' through pattern books - on a sunny bench somewhere, with a glass of really chilled white in one hand and a bag of Kettle chips in the other. Of course that makes flipping difficult so put the crisps down for a minute.

Pick out 5 or 6 really beautiful designs. Don't worry about that silly little coding thing about Beginner / Intermediate / Advanced - you can knit anything ! And every style will suit you perfectly .... and of course the pattern is sized for you ....

Now close your eyes and when you open them again you'll be in the most wonderful yarn shop you could ever imagine - either that or Julie's - which is a pretty wonderful place too.

Gather up those arms full of yarn. Every colour, texture, price range you fancy. Take it to the till. Reach for your purse. But no, wait .... because you are such a good customer your entire selection today is ON THE HOUSE !

Head off home (now here you can choose according to mood) either a) back to the sunny garden and the birds singing or b) in front of a roaring fire (it's snowing outside naturally) and the best movie schedule you have seen in years.

Grab those needles and start knitting. Swatching is for wimps ! Besides, remember your tension is always spot on .

Now this is where the real fantasising comes in because unbelievably, every single one of those designs is such a quick knit it just flies off your needles and by bedtime you have a whole pile of knitted pieces just waiting to be sewn up.

Climb the stairs to your stupendously comfortable feather bed and sleep until your body (rather than the children, the alarm clock, your partner or the cats) decides it has had enough.

Trip lightly down the stairs and there will be .............................. a WHOLE pile of blocked and sewn up fabulatantotallytastic knitwear.

Completed overnight by The Brownies ....... who else ?

T..T..T...Tension

Salvage 1 :

Guess what I did this afternoon ? I finally frogged that Tillie sleeve .... and all I've got to say is, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, phew, woah there, never again etc etc !

(I'd also like to apologise formally to my neighbours for any offence or alarm caused to anyone sitting out in their garden listening whilst I frogged the Tillie sleeve........... I could have been a sailor you know, but it would probably have still made me blush.)

Anyway, I owe major thanks to Polly in respect of this amphibian exercise.

I reckoned I would need to frog down to the last increase

but thanks to a quiet little comment from Polly about "was I sure this would be enough ?" - I DOUBLE CHECKED (yeah, I know, I don't understand it either, it's SO unlike me to check anything)

Anyway, my knitting fairygodmother was right ! I needed to frog about double the amount I thought ..... just move the lower needle in the photo down about the same again and you'll get the picture.

Now at one level this was fine - I was frogging anyway so no big deal. But HOW on earth could I have got it so wrong ??? Naturally my first assumption was an error in the pattern rather than an error on my part (yeah right !) so I checked the pattern again.... and oopsy !!

I swatched for the fairisle and needed to go up a needle size to get gauge (plus I'm using Jaeger Siena rather than Cotton Glace with the Rowan Fine Chenille) - but being a lazy blighter I didn't bother swatching for the lace.

In the words of Pretty Woman, Julia Roberts, "BIG MISTAKE".

Of course, if I was a proper, dutiful knitter I would frog the lot and start again after swatching but life is just too darn short ! So my cunning plan is to start the sleeve-head shaping from the point I frogged back to and keep measuring it against the armhole as I go - and when it fits I'll just stop .... and then kind of gather it in when I sew it up !

Please feel free to tell me all the reasons why this approach won't work but be prepared for a huge petted lip - and tears.

(But then I could always owe the fabulous Polly yet another debt and take her up on the offer of doing my sleeves for me in that case ! )

Salvage 2 :

My second salvage exercise wasn't a knitting one. Inspired by Emma's beautiful garden photos I decided to try to begin to salvage our somewhat derelict garden.

Our house is an old one. Built in 1906, the chap who built the house, lived in it and then sold it in 1922 to a Robert Thomson. We bought it in 1998 from the estate of an old lady who had passed away - Miss Thomson - the daughter of the second owner. She had lived here all her life and not much had been done to the house in recent years and vegetables (rather than flowers or even a decent lawn !) were clearly her passion when it came to the garden.

Suffice it to say, that given that Rosie was not quite 3 and I was heavily pregnant with Hazel (since then we've also had Rowan !) - minor details like putting in central heating and a kitchen were more of a priority than the garden. So it has just got sadder and sadder over the years.

It has some lovely gems within it. I love this clematis that covers part of the old red brick wall

.

And this beautiful peony rose is so me (can't think why ...... yes, okay it's PINK!)

But we're also struggling with great swathes of soil barren of anything except fireweed and creeping elder - plus other old plants in need of some loving attention.

So think of yourselves as a kind of Gardener's Question Time Panel now.

Smiley faces all round to anyone who can tell me how and when I should lift and split a huge clump of Iris ? They're beautiful when they flower but the patch is getting wider and wider with a horrible ugly bare bit in the middle and I think splitting the clump is the answer ??? (Please tell me if I'm wrong !)

This salvage exercise could run and run ......

Simply Frilling !

Decision made .... I am going with frilly rather than lacey for Valerie's cardigan.

I've added one Elfinesque frill to the sleeve and I think it's enough don't you ? (Yes, I know it's pink and purple again but I promise I DO sometimes knit in other colours)

Going for the full Elfin 3 frills would be too much in Aqua cotton - definitely verging on the Elizabethan ruff - but 1 is rather cute. Of course it does mean I had to rip out the moss stitch border and graft the frill on to the bottom of the sleeve but hey, how much do I love my sister ? .... I'll answer that question when I decide whether I can bear to rip out and graft round the bottom of the cardigan !

Rather than going for the full Elfin copy, I'm going to put a frill round the lower border rather than up the front. I think it might look too heavy up the front .... though round the bottom might emphasise an area she'd rather forget .....

AAGH ! another decision to make. Now I know why I could never be a designer. Apart from the lack of actual talent that is ;0)

On the Tillie front I have to confess I haven't frogged it yet but I WILL. I think I need daylight whilst doing it though in order to keep my sanity - and as the chances of me getting an uninterrupted couple of hours during the day are about the same as the proverbial snowball's, this may take some time !

I've been working on Audrey instead and have completed half of the first sleeve this week ( Hey look ! It's not pink or purple !) and I'm still really enjoying it.

Audrey is rapidly becoming my - "I'm late in from work and totally knackered but would like to feel I'm achieving something I want to do rather than something I'm paid to do but I can't bear to do anything complicated" - project.

So given the way life is at the moment, expect a finished project in the imminent future !

It's been quite warm and sunny here in Scotland recently so I'm also thinking about the summer bottom's up bucket I'm planning for Becky's bucket-along.

I'm not a hat person myself but quite willing to inflict all sorts of headgear humiliation on the children (they'll thank me for it in the future when they have no sun damage or wrinkles !) Now I just have to pin one of them down long enough to measure for size. Either that or start knitting and the lucky recipient is whoever it fits, in a kind of "first up, best dressed" fashion.

Besides it would be perfect if I follow through on my current fascination with the notion of holidaying in a centrally heated teepee in Perthshire this year ..... perfect whatever the weather and the midges throw at us !

Borderline

As part of the grand plan to finish some of my WIP's before starting anything else, I thought I might get on with Valerie's cardigan next .... so far this has been more than a year in the making so I reckon I probably owe it to her.

I knitted my neice the Heart Warming cardigan from the Jaeger Children's book JM07for her first birthday and Val liked it so much she decided she wanted something similar, only different, and bigger, MUCH bigger.

Somehow teeny cardigans in Aqua cotton are fun but big adult sized ones just seem to go on foreverevereverevereverever - a bit like Polly's 4ply for her husband.

Being a good little sister I embarked upon a cardigan last Spring planning to give it to her for her birthday in July - last July. Now July 2004 is not that far away and the d*** thing is still not finished ! I'm one sleeve and a border style away from finishing and that's where it has stayed for months.

I've used Jaeger Aqua for it with the main colour Cranberry and the border in Grape - but that's where I just can't make up my mind. So far it has a simple moss stitch border with the body done in stocking stitch and slightly shaped - the shaping's loosely based on the design for Sweet - can't remember which magazine it was in originally but it's also in The Knitter's Bible.

But the border is the real sticking point.

Do I go frilly or lacey ? It definitely needs something more than the plain moss stitch but I just can't decide what. I love Elfin style frills but I also really like deep lace borders. Not sure what Valerie likes but hey, who's knitting this thing ? !

What do you think ? Answers on a postcard please !

Of course all of this is procastination to keep me from thinking about the awfulness of what lies ahead of me. I've been working on my Tillie sleeve again and tonight I had just started the sleeve head shaping ..... and then I measured it.

Clearly this design was planned with the cardigan needs of orangutans in mind and as my knuckles don't actually scrape the ground I can only assume it's too flippin' long !! AAGH !

I have 3 choices here. I can :

1. Continue knitting and just put up with sleeves hanging over my hands. After all they'll keep my hands warm and the sleeves in the picture look a bit long for the model so maybe it's a design feature ? No ?

2. Attempt to cram the sleeve head shaping designed to be worked over about 50 rows into, say 10 rows ? Of course that would make for a pretty odd shaped sleeve top but hey who'd notice ? ..... You would notice ? Oh.

3. Face the inevitable and frog back down to the last increase and start the sleeve head shaping from there - which would cut about 2½ inches off the length. I KNOW, I KNOW, I KNOW that this is the mature and grown-up thing to do but the thought of frogging all that lace. I could cry.

I'm going to bed now to sulk in the hope that things will look better in the morning - after all as Vivien Leigh would say "Tomorrow IS another day ...."

There's bad news ...and there's good news !

The bad news is that I missed getting together with like-minded fanatics in Edinburgh this past weekend. On Saturday I was supposed to be meeting up with Jill, Nancy and India (and who knows who else !) in Julie's fabulous shop HKHandknits - which is everything your not-so local yarn store should be - but I had to cancel because my mother-in-law is not so well these days :0(

Missed my fix of knitting chat and the opportunity to fondle all that lovely yarn ....... but looking on the bright side, did not spend any money as a result ! :0)

The good news is that it also gave me time to actually make some progress on Audrey - I did mention I had started Audrey didn't I ?

TA, DAH ! One finished back !

It's a nice straightforward "barely need to shift your gaze from the TV screen knit" which is just as well as I've been a bit self-indulgent this weekend and watched a couple of chick flicks on rental from the DVD shop. Chick flicks is a wide category in our house - largely covering almost anything Alan doesn't want to see, but these were the genuine article - Love Actually and Calendar Girls. I know I'm incredibly behind the times and the entire population of the western world saw these yonks ago - but they are good fun aren't they ? !

Speaking of which, on Sunday we all continued what has become a family tradition for us and went to Maydaze* at Glasgow Green. Alan and I first went to this together 16 years ago not long after we met and we haven't missed it since -even last year when it rained so much we were up to our ankles in mud and could actually wring the water out of the children's knickers when we got home. Oh the joys of a Scottish spring !

Feeling full of maternal generosity I have finally acquiesced to Rosie's request to knit her a hoodie top rather than the plain roll bottom sweater I was already halfway up. But does she want just any old hoodie ? Don't be ridiculous ! This girl has taste ! She is my daughter after all .....

She wants me to knit the famous Rogue as designed by Jenna, the Girl from Auntie. Humungously gorgeous pattern indeed ..... but not exactly a walk in the park, knit it with one hand behind my back, hardly need to concentrate on it pattern, is it ? This child is going to owe me, big time.

Now bearing in mind that I am trying to stick to my word to Lis that I will finish off some of the WIP's before I start anything new, I'm trying to decide exactly where Rogue falls ?

I have already started a jumper in the yarn (Noro Kureyon Shade 89 - can't find a picture but it's largely reds/pinks/purples) and it is in the carpet bag behind the couch .... but if I rip it out and start Rogue instead am I technically defaulting - even though it is the same yarn and for the same recipient ?

I did have a moment of doubt thinking that I would have to adjust the pattern - she's only 9 and the smallest finished size measures 35.5 inches but I reckon it will take me so long to knit it will either fit her by then ...... or I'll want to be sure she has plenty growing room in it after slaving over it !

This follows my late mother's school of thought on children's clothes, "get the bigger size, they'll grow into it" - she clearly spent most of my childhood anticipating I'd be a six footer ......... which I am ........ not.

Either way, whether it fits her or not, I'm going to make her wear it every day for a year after all the work I'll have to put into it !

* In common with other May Day celebrations around the world, the Glasgow event is at heart a re-affirmation of the principles of socialism and solidarity with others. This is one of my favourite songs about a famous Glasgow socialist from the days of Red Clydeside. John MacLean was a schoolteacher turned political activist who was imprisoned in the early years of the 20th century for speaking out against the First World War. Such was the public outcry that he was released a few weeks later and returned home to Glasgow to be met by 200,000 people welcoming him back. John MacLean March