dolly dimple knits

Giving In

Okay - I give in. I rarely do memes but having been double tagged by Yvette and now Sam I reckon it's fate.

Here's how it works tho' I'm sure you all know this as the entire knit blogging world has now done it -

1. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
3. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Got it ? Right. Mind is now a total blank as I've probably already mentioned anything remotely interesting about me so prepare for boredom.

1. I don't do well with authority and conforming. I was expelled from school when I was 8 and thrown out of the Girl Guides when I was 12.

Both times my parents dealt with this brilliantly. Whilst not being immensely chuffed with my behaviour they helped me to understand that sometimes challenging organisations about the way they behave is the right thing to do.

In the words of Groucho "I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member. "

2. Number 1 does not mean I'm a difficult person to get along with. I'm pretty easy going except when it comes to table manners. I have a horror of bad table manners and noisy eaters make me feel physically sick. I refuse to respond to people who talk to me with their mouths full - sometimes this causes me problems as people don't get why I'm not answering. Here's a clue - it's because it makes me want to PUKE people !

3. I know I've mentioned this before but in case you missed it, both of my parents (now dead) were totally blind. This shaped my life and views on disability in lots of ways. It was also very useful when I wanted to sneak out of the house dressed in something entirely unsuitable for a teenage girl not planning a future career as a table dancer - or when I wanted to relieve anger and frustration at being told off by flicking the finger to them. Never let anyone tell you there aren't advantages to having parents who can't see what you're doing.

4. I was a serious ballet dancer and gymnast until I was 16. Then I discovered boys and had better things to do with my evenings and weekends than train. Now I do no exercise at all. I don't feel guilty about this.

5. I'm a bit scared of fish and not that keen on birds. Like Kathleen I'm not really an animal person tho' we have 2 cats - but they belong to my daughters. Sometimes I taunt the cats by telling them they're halfway to dead now that they're 7. Of course, now that I'm 40 they could be telling me the same thing right back.

6. I haven't been single since I was 17 years old. I met my husband when I was 21. Sometimes I wonder if I would have been a different person if I had drawn breath and spent time just being me on my own but I can't imagine not being with Al.

7. I have been told I'm very direct and driven. But I'm also easily bored so frequently lose interest before seeing things through to the end. For this reason I almost always read the end of a book before I'm more than a third into it.

8. I have an unfeasibly large collection of clothes - far more than I ever wear. I blame it on being the youngest of 3. My sister always got new things because she was the eldest, my brother got new things because he was a boy but I got to wear the 4 years out of style hand-me-downs. I blew my entire first ever wage packet from my weekend job age 16 on a suede mini-skirt and haven't stopped yet.

I ruined the mini-skirt 2 months later throwing up vodka and blackcurrant. I haven't touched vodka since.

Being my non-conformist self, I'm not tagging 8 people - most of you have done it anyway. Being a nosy bugger, I'd be interested in the YP's and Glacia's responses but don't feel obliged girls. Feel the freedom - do it if you want to.

Added Later : Out of left field and because she says such nice things about me :0)), I'm adding Emma to my tag list ! I couldn't believe she hadn't been tagged already seeing as how she pretty much knows the entire knitting world. She's Amundsen to my Scott - always trekking just one step ahead of me .... No wait, that means I get to freeze to death in a hut .......... let me re-think this analogy !

Getting Back on the Horse ...

Having decided to draw a discrete veil over any recent knitting sizing disasters (and yes thank you, my blood pressure has now returned to safe levels and the crying and screaming have stopped. Almost.) - I've spent the last week or so convincing myself that I DO know how to knit a decent project. I DO I DO I tell you !

This is particularly important because of the arrival of the first materials for something very welcome and really interesting but a bit scary and daunting at the same time .... "ulp !" indeed India.

Nan (or YP as I think I'm going to call her just to keep in line with her naming policy) I notice, hasn't even mentioned getting hers. Do you think she's in shock ? Left the country ? Built herself a yarn igloo at the back of the shop and is lying in there sucking her thumb and moaning quietly ??????

Anyway, back to the actual knitting as opposed to the future stuff. In my search for a consolatory project to make up for the disaster that shall not be mentioned again, I found my way to the YP's place last week. Their personalised colour matching machine swung into action and I came out with 3 balls of this - which 2 evenings later had turned into this

It's a bit of an amalgamation of designs. Mainly it's the A-line shaped DB cardigan in the Baby Couture bit of the current Vogue Knitting but it's knitted in DK weight instead of 4 ply and in place of the knitted contrast trim on the collar only, I used the sewn on velvet piping idea on one of the designs from DB's Special Knits book.

The red piping isn't really as bright as it looks in the photo and I love it - nearly as much as I love the buttons .......

Aren't they cute ? They're from my new favourite online trimmings place - Bedecked. I bought a whole load of other stuff too from them but I shall eke it out and only let you see it as a I use it !

At the weekend, I was back in Hamilton at YP's 5th birthday party - tho' personally I think she looks a bit older than that ;0) ............ party games included a fab crochet workshop with the lovely Carol Meldrum and - well to be honest, I got so into the crochet I didn't really notice what else was going on behind me. I did see a whole lot of folk knitting and a fair bit of cake eating at one point tho ' !

I really enjoyed my afternoon and so did Rosie, my 12 year old tho' she has decided (on the basis of 3 weeks experience !) that knitting is MUCH easier than crochet. Carol got me started on a project that's been on my to do list for ages -

Nova by Kim Hargreaves, from Denim People. I'm going to try it in some Sirdar Denim that I've had stashed for a couple of years. It says on the label that it shrinks and fades like the Rowan denim yarn and I think Kathleen has used it successfully, so I'm hoping it will make a good substitute !

And don't panic - in deference to my advancing years and 3-babies-later-belly - I WILL be knitting it a bit longer ! Oh, and any suggestion that I came back from the birthday/crochet party and immediately ordered Carol's beautiful book is nothing but a malicious rumour ........ at least until tomorrow when it arrives hopefully !

AAARGGHHH !

When you combine cutting corners by not swatching with skewed body image - what do you get ?? A sweater that you could fit into twice that's what !

I realised last night that I'd done it again. I assumed I needed the large size in Turbulence and I didn't check my gauge but as the sweater was growing I had a sort of uneasy feeling that it wasn't right. So last night I measured the blooming thing and then took it off the needle and tried it on. Oh bum.

It measures 52 inches around. I am a 36/38 bust. I do NOT need this much ease. AAAARGGGGH.

I checked the schematics. The large size is supposed to measure 49½ inches. I am a 36/38 inch bust. I do NOT need this much ease. AAAARGGGGH.

I checked my gauge. It measures 20 stitches to 4 inches. It is supposed to measure 22 stitches to 4 inches. I should have swatched. AAAARRRRGGGGHHH !

One day, when I have stopped screaming I will rip out the 15 INCHES of completed sweater, go down a needle size and cast on for the MEDIUM. But not now. AAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHH !

I need a consolatory new project to cast on. Maybe a scarf - where size doesn't matter !

Where did April go ?

Good lord - what happened to April ? I must have blinked and missed it. Told you I was busy :0)

I still AM busy. Not just at work but at home too. We're doing a bit of, what I think Americans call, remodelling. To you and me it means having 2 bathrooms completely refitted (1 at time thankfully so we can still function !), the hall decorated (hopefully) and swapping round the bedrooms so that each of the girls has their own space. It means we lose the playroom but as it's more of a junkroom than anything I'm not too heartbroken !

The trouble is we live in an old house. It's over 100 years old - we bought it following the death of the previous owner whose father had bought it in 1922 from the guy who built it in 1905. So it's not had a lot of owners and nor has it had a lot of work done to it either. This gives it an alarming tendancy to fall apart whenever we start anything. Seriously. Bits of the wall just fall. Off. Just like that.

We reckon the previous owner last decorated around 1972 so the need for redecoration is MASSIVE. Just like the hall. The ceiling is well over 15ft high (which makes it 30ish feet high at the stairwell !) and there are 11 doors plus skirtings and cornicing to be painted. HUGE I tell you. So we're not doing it ourselves. Which brings me to the joy of finding good, reliable, reasonably priced tradesmen ........ yeech. You know where this is going, I won't bore you with rest. But if you ever need to know anything about bathroom fitments, I'm your woman. Go on. Ask me anything.

Naturally this is all leading to my pitiful excuses for tiddly amounts of knitting. I have swatched the sister slogalong sweater but you don't really want to see a plain black stocking stitch swatch do you ? So how about what I was working on last night ?

Turbulence in Norah Gaughan's book Knitting Nature. Here's one someone else finished earlier. Oh, and another - this one shows the neckline better which is why I like it.

I'm using Louisa Harding Grace Wool & Silk (possibly my current favourite yarn to knit with !) and I've aded a contrast colour hem and some waist shaping - should hit the neckline pattern tonight. Halleluyah ! I'm hoping this will be an easy throw on with a pair of jeans and still look good sweater. I'll let you know.

Meantime. Here's one I finished earlier. The Scoop Necked Cardigan from Debbie Bliss's Noro Collection (printed 2001. Now out of print I think) in Silk Garden Shade 251.

Some day if I can persuade Al to act as a photographer, I'll let you see it in action. I like her :0) !

But for now, I'll leave you with this. Spookily accurate. Really.