dolly dimple knits

Taking stock

Thank you all for being so lovely to me and sympathising over our burglary .... and yes, I would like to do every really bad thing you suggested to the culprit but as it's unlikely he'll ever be found (I'm assuming it's a bloke , is that sexist ?) instead I've been taking stock.

Losing some things I really cared about made me think about the amount of "vital/must-have" things I have accumulated in my, ahem, decades on the planet and you know what ? I have a lot of JUNK. I need one of those scary american women who come round your house and tear your lifestyle to shreds .... either that or I just need to get rid of some the damn stuff !

So I'm planning a major de-cluttering. A colonic irrigation of the fibre related type - actually ALL colonic irrigation is probably pretty much fibre related but I mean getting rid of some of the stash. And not just the stash. I'm getting rid of some of the hangers-on as well.

Like ....... the umpty books on embroidery and needlepoint from the 10 minute craze I had for that years ago, the quilting LIBRARY (I have never actually made a quilt but ask me any question on it and I'm sure I have just the book to tell me about it ....), the acres of fabric lengths from my dressmaking days - given that my last serious foray into dressmaking was probably making my wedding dress and it's our 12th anniversary at the weekend, I kind of feel I've moved on from this hobby.

You get the picture ? I have a serious textile habit. Give me a textile related hobby and I'm a sucker for it. Sorry, WAS a sucker for it. Not any more. This weekend I shall be sorting into eBay/charity shop/bin piles and streamlining my life. (I actually suspect this will take more than one weekend but ever the optimist ;0))

Of course I realise this will undoubtedly bring me into close contact with some of my, whisper it "unfinished projects". I have one or two.

Like

Audrey - the back and one sleeve in, I'm seriously thinking of frogging and converting her into this.

Or I may come across

Granny Squares sweater - the body's finished but once I'd proved to myself I could crochet I ground to a halt !

I might even unearth this

Tillie - I DO love this. The back's done but those damn lace sleeves, they just sit in a bag and mock me every time I walk past ....

I'm actually planning to dig out and frog

C-r-apotis - I have nearly finished this since this photo was taken. Nearly because I have run out of the stupid, discontinued, who-chose-this-stuff-anyway, YARN !! I toyed with frogging back to a certain point and making it narrower (at the moment an entire troop of Girl Guides could comfortably camp out under it) but NO, that would be too sensible. Better to destroy the thing in a fit of pique, shove the rumpled hanks in a carrier bag and bury it back in the stash until either it or I am mature enough to deal with it .....

There are numerous other candidates in the long forgotten, I once liked this floorshow of my knitting life and once I get a new digital camera (are you listening insurance company ??? Don't get me started on that one) I might just share some of them with you.

Hey, we could start up a sort of Roman gladiatorial forum where you guys could decide if each project lived or died ...... bearing in mind, of course, that I'm the Empress round here so what my thumb says goes ! Hmmm, I feel a Russell Crowe moment coming on ........

Think of a four letter word ...

double it, add 10, multiply by 100 and then say it as loud as you possibly can. Thanks, I feel better now. I had run out of my own personal brand of swearing.

Why so ? Because some thievin', effing, sodding, b"$£%^&ding, GIT - broke into our house yesterday. Guess what, they didn't take the computer. Can you tell ?

They DID take my Grandma's antique ring, the opal ring my father gave me, the opal earrings Al bought me on our honeymoon, 6 pairs of silver earrings he bought me for various Christmases, the gold pocket watch left to Alan by his Great Uncle - oh and the digital camera. Hence no photos for this post. Specialist jewellrey thieves with a keen interest in photography, who knew ?

I'm most upset about my Grandma's ring as Dad and Alan are still around and whilst I loved what they'd bought me it didn't, yet, hold the weight of my past and memories of someone I cared about.

Grandma and I didn't always see eye to eye. She was born into a well-off family and grew up in a time when well-off people still had servants - and to be honest, I don't think she ever really got over that. I'll never forget her "sacking" her social work Home Help (she was in her 80's by this time) because "the woman refused to do windows or polish the silver !" Grandma didn't really understand the concept of Home Helps.

She was a tough cookie and had a tough life. After the Depression years, the family were not so well-off and Grandma had to earn a living so she trained as a teacher - which is how she met my Grandpa, also a teacher in 1936. (It is an eternal mystery to me how I could possibly be the grandchild of a Maths teacher and an Arithmetic teacher - I must have got all my genes from my Dad's side ...)

They married in 1938 and of course, we all know what happened just a year into their marriage. Two months after my Mum was born in 1939, Grandpa went off into the RAF, where with his maths skills he was trained as a navigator for the Met Office. He was sent down south to rural Oxfordshire to fly reconaissance missions in advance of bombing raids and Grandma was left alone in Edinburgh with a young baby.

They obviously got it together at some point 'cos in 1943 my Aunt Morag was born - I have her name as my middle name. But serious disaster struck in 1944 when my 5 year old mum was out walking with her 14 year old cousin. They stopped to watch 2 boys fighting. One picked up a stone and hurled it at the other who ducked and it hit my mum in her right eye, severing the optic nerve. Although not hit by the stone, her left eye was traumatised and at the age of 5, Mum was left totally blind overnight.

Grandma and Grandpa went on to have my Uncle Iain in 1947 and had a fairly settled family life until early 1950 when Grandpa was diagnosed with tuberculosis. His favourite sister had died of TB in the 20's and he pretty much fell apart but Grandma held it all together.

He had half of one lung removed and spent the next 12 years of his life in a convalescent hospital. Grandma was effectively a single parent again and had to go back to work as a teacher to support the family - probably not the life she imagined as a moneyed golden girl in the 1920's.

Just as Grandpa had recovered sufficiently to come out of hospital, return to family life and take up work again in the Maths department at Bathgate Academy, another disaster struck. In 1963, my Aunt Mo was admitted to hospital with Crohns disease. She suffered a perforated bowel, horrible infection and died a few weeks later. She was training to be an opthalmologist, as she was so close to my Mum that she had developed a passionate interest in eye problems and trying to help those who suffered from them.

Out of her 3 children Grandma had seen one become totally blind (the consequences of which for her life are a story for another day) and had lost another at only 20 years old.

Things were never really the same, especially for my Grandma and Mum, after Mo died but life goes on and Grandma had her husband to care for - he suffered lung problems for the rest of his life and developed diabetes as he got older - and 5 grandchildren, 3 through my Mum and 2 from Uncle Ian.

Grandpa finally died in 1985 aged 71, far older than anyone ever thought he would reach and much of that is testament to Grandma's care, support and determination - but there wasn't much she could do when my Mum was diagnosed with terminal cancer around the same time.

Mum fought really hard but when she had to let go in 1988, Grandma gave up too. She had just got too old and too tired. Overnight she became a frail old lady, stopped driving, stopped looking after herself and eventually had a stroke and spent the last 3 years of her life in residential care.

She died in 1995 aged 86. A tartar to the end in some ways. When my sister came up to visit, heavily pregnant with her first child, she waspishly told her "she had lost her figure and she'd better watch out or her husband would wander .."

We often fought. I hated her right wing views and treatment of others as if they were servants. She hated my disrespect (as she saw it), my dyed hair and "trollopy" mini-skirts. But underneath we really loved each other.

She was a strong woman and part of making me the woman I am today. The ring she left me was given to her by Grandpa on the birth of my Mum and so was extra special.

I hope the bastard who stole it, one day reads this and feels like the shit he is.

Did I mention ......

how much I LOVE pink ? I did ? And what about how much I ADORE the new Knitty issue ?

Put the two together and in the words of dear old Rolf "Can you see what it is yet ? ...."

Take two strands of vivid pink Plassard bumfluff from Yvette, one strand of Rowan Wool Cotton and one strand of discontinued Jaeger Alpaca and what do you get ?

Be a real smart-arse, use a pretty button and you can even wear it without the flower ....

I was going to try to cheat and use this fabulous pattern for my Mommy Chic-Along entry but I've decided to push for something a little more challenging. The scarf is certainly chic but I'm not sure that the "Mommy" is ......

(Don't I look worried ? Probably wishing I had longer arms to let me take a better self-portrait in the mirror ....)

Given that this pattern is so chic and so QUICK (was that the magic word folks ??:0)) I've started another already. Anyone care to join me ?? Just let me know !

The ubiquitous ....

One Skein Wonder - or in my case 2½ Ball Wonder - makes an appearance.

Yep. In common with half of blogland I have been whipping up a quick return project in the form of this OSW which I'm going to hang onto to give my 13 year old neice for her Christmas. (Is that a Scottish thing ? My Liverpudlian ex-flatmate always used to say "You're so possessive you Scots ! Talking about "I got this for MY Christmas ... or I'm away to MY bed" ... Who else's bed would you be going to ??" Don't answer that.)

Anyway, possessiveness aside. This took me 2½ balls of some stashed Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk in Black - very teenager friendly I hope. I decided to edge the sleeves with a little picot but kept the 2x2 rib edging for the body so it wasn't too fancy for everyday wear.

And do you know, I really like it :0) I think I may have to knit several of these as Christmas gifts ...... of course, it may not look quite the same on generously endowed friends pushing (or in some cases hurtling past !) 40 as it looks on a pert size 8, 13 year old but we can dream, can't we ?

(Actually the trouble with getting 10 year old daughters to model their older cousin's knits is the inevitable " can I get one of these too ?" - so I may be making many, many multi-generational versions of this over the next few months ;0))

I got a little 4plyed out with the Dolly wraparound for my littlest neice so I'm skiving off (her birthday's not till November, I'll be fine !) and have started what I hope will be the perfect project for this

I LOVE this yarn. Which is weird 'cos normally I don't do citrus colours. But I saw 10 balls of this on eBay ages ago and just fell in love with its vibrancy. I managed to get another 5 balls from a different eBay seller and what do you know - the SAME dyelot even though they were from opposite ends of the country. Serendipity :0)

I'm keeping you in the dark on the project I've started with my tangerine dream until I'm a bit more established but let's just say I have to cut back on the red wine for working this one ....

Feeling a bit ants-in-my-pantsy I've been stash raking for yet another project to cast on just for a bit of variety. I know. I have all the focus of a flea. But see what I found

I have two balls of each. The one on the left is from Cascade and was a surprise gift ages ago from Kay and the one on the right was a gift from Yvette - who had to move all the way from Scotland to France before I met her.

But the best thing - they're both PINK. I haven't knitted anything pink for ages, I think I must be ill. So I'm thinking, these are destined to become maybe a Birch stole or a River wrap (you have to scroll down a bit to see these finished projects but they're worth it !) or a Froth scarf ?

Of course I may go blind trying to knit them in this whispy bumfluff but hey, no worries, I have a friend prepared to leap from tall buildings to help me out if that happens :0) Go help her out. NOW. It's really worth it.