dolly dimple knits

A Tale of Two Hoodies

Sometimes life just gets in the way of blogging. It's a pain. I used to have a fairly regular weekly updating schedule but recently, I don't know, it's all gone to pot. I'm going to try and do better - especially when I have lots to tell you !

Thank you for all the cheerleading on the St Aula front. I did keep on keeping on and the body is finished !!! Ta dah !

Acres of fairisle and it's done. Now I've just the hood to finish but on account of it's being plain navy stocking stitch which I suspect you may all have seen at some point in your lives, I'm not showing a picture. (I find it a bit odd that some bloggers seem to show every stage of progress in every plain stocking stitch black / navy/grey sweater they've ever knit ? It's like deja vu every time you happen across them ...... just 2 inches longer.)

So instead you get to see a picture of this hood in progress

Yep. I was at the hood stage of the Cable Hoodie in Noro Sillk Garden
before Christmas but I got led astray by the arrival of the St Aula yarn. I am a knitting tart.

I'm roughly halfway through this hood and I figured that if I knit each of them alternate nights then I might finish them about the same time as the St Aula hood knits up faster being so plain. That way I'd have TWO finished projects to show and all in the first few weeks of the year ! That would have to be some kind of record for me.

I've set myself a next weekend deadline as after that I'm going to be pretty busy.

What do you get if you add 4 metres of velvet, 12 metres of silk and 50 (yes I said 50) metres of tulle ? Why, it's obvious, you get a WEDDING PARTY !

Al's sister gets married at the end of March and on account of my past-life skills I have the joy of making the dresses. Whoop.

When I was a teenager and early twentiesish student type, I made a lot, maybe most, of my clothes. I had unusual tastes. Tastes that weren't catered for in the Edinburgh shops. You know, vintage fifties skirts with slash backed tops, fishnet tights and Doc Martens. I looked fabulous darlings ! (Actually I probably looked okay - weird - but okay seeing as how I was 17 and you can pretty much get away with anything at that age)

I slowed down on the dressmaking front in my twenties as the increased income / decreased free time ratio kicked in but still did enough to make my own wedding dress and bridesmaids dresses 12 YEARS ago. Then I made a wedding dress for a friend 7 YEARS ago - and after that I swore off it. And haven't touched a drop since.

The friend's wedding dress was a difficult experience. Not helped by being 8 months pregnant and having to spend 5 hours sitting on the floor hemming the f$%^&*g thing ! It's a big pressure trying to make someone else's fantasy come to life so it kind of put me off.

But this is family. And seeing as how I'm the Heid Bummer Bridesmaid and my 3 daughters the baby bridesmaids, difficult to refuse.

So once the fabric arrives the rumours that this is a knitting blog shall cease. And for a few weeks anyway, you'll be welcomed to "Dollydimple Sews - WHAT ?"

Off to knit whilst I still have time .........

Danger, Will Robinson ...

I feel like I ought to have my very own Robbie the Robot standing waving his arms behind me for I AM at a dangerous point. There's a point in every project for me (usually more than halfway through) when even tho' it's NOT finished, I start to feel like it's finished. And that means I start planning the next one. And sometimes planning leads to leafing through patterns .... and we all know where that leads ....... and before you know it, I've gone and started something else !

But I'm trying really hard not to this time. See how far I've got in this incredibly crappy photo ....

The body and first sleeve complete. Only the second sleeve and hood to go. I think the problem is that now that I've done acres of the fairisle pattern I've kind of got it taped. I'm definitely a process rather than a product knitter so I'm always looking for the next challenge or bit of interest - and tho' St Aula is an interesting and beautiful hoodie sweater, when you break it down it is a fairly simple 2 colour fairisle ........ the steeking is fun tho '!

Here she is in all her pristine steeky glory with her rows of solid edge stitch at either side -

and then, with every knitterly thought in your head screaming at you "You can't CUT your knitting !!!!", you do this -

so she looks like this, all open and vulnerable -

but then you come to her rescue by picking up along the edge stitch. I picked up the back loop so I have a solid line of the navy colour at the the sleeve join, which I like. If I'd picked up the front loop, you wouldn't see that -

and that's her done. All ready to knit the sleeve -

So I need some knitting cheerleaders to stand at the side lines and wave some pompoms while spelling out all the reasons I SHOULD keep going and finish St Aula. Anyone ??

This year I've decided not to make any resolutions. Me and my conscience know what needs done so we're just going to fight it out amongst ourselves with no spectators - I'll let you know who wins ! But I did find a little bit of New Year whimsy on someone's blog so I nicked it :0)

[A is for age:]
39. Ye Gods ! The last time I looked I was only 27 ..... do I get a long-service award ??

[B is for booze of choice]
Red wine, beer, Cointreau & Ice - and Bailey's. Except after getting through 2 bottles of that over the holidays I'm a bit Baileyed out at the moment ....

[C is for career]
Playing dead. Except maybe it's not just playing ......

[D is for your dog's name:]
Cat Food. I like dogs as a concept but the reality of them is just too needy. And smelly.

[E is for essential items you use everyday:]
Yarn, needles, oxygen. Oh , and Oil of Olay "Touch" moisturiser with SPF 15. Yes, I know I live in Scotland. Sometimes the sun shines here too .....

[F is for favourite song at the moment:]
Sweet Little Mystery (John Martyn NOT Wet, Wet, Wet - they nicked it off him)

[G is for favourite games:]
Sardines - preferably played with lots of unbelievably attractive men in a very small cupboard ;0)

[H is for hometown:]
Edinburgh (0-18yrs)
Glasgow (18-39+)

[I is for instruments you play:]
Ehemmmmm, the triangle ? And I can sing a bit.

[J is for jam or jelly you like]
Sweet Chilli Jelly, Mango relish

[K is for kids?:]
Yup. 3 girls - 10, 7 and 3 years old.

[L is for last kiss?:]
That would be a yoghurt encrusted smooch from the 3 year old. Apparently, I'm her "best mummy" - the others must be really crappy .....

[M is for most admired trait:]
I would say honesty - but I'd be lying.

[N is for name of your crush:]
Move over Al. Make way for the second Mr Dollydimple .....

[O is for overnight hospital stays:]
4. 3 babies and one really bad bout of food poisoning 2 weeks before my first daughter was born. The upside of that was losing 10lbs in the last 2 weeks of pregnancy - straight back into my jeans ! Yo Babe ! But I don't recommend it. Honestly.

[P is for phobias:]
Belly buttons. Fish.

[Q is for quotes you like:]
"The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity."
Dorothy Parker, (attributed)
US author, humorist, poet, & wit (1893 - 1967)

[R is for biggest regret:]
Not being a six-foot raven-haired siren called Pandora. Then I could have called this blog "Pandora's Box" - but think of the google searches that would have thrown up !

[S is for sweets of your choice:]
Dark Chocolate Gingers

[T is for time you wake up:]
6.20am GMT

[U is for underwear:]
Most days. Tho' I have a horror of VPL so I can be flexible on this one ....

[V is for vegetable you love:]
Orange peppers, minted peas, potatoes in any form - pretty much anything except celery, which shall be declared illegal when I rule the world ...

[W is for worst habit:]
Procrastination.
Shaving my legs with his razor (alledgedly).

[X is for x-rays you've had:]
Eh, teeth ? I think that's all so far !

[Y is for yummy food you make:]
Mushroom filo pastries, lemon polenta cake, carrot & ginger soup

[Z is for zodiac sign:]
Leo. Meow.