Who receives a cardi for a birthday present in January?

Our precious friend Millie. That is who.

It does feel strange when it is meltingly hot preparing to gift this, but at least it will be ready for the cooler weather. I have made this one with a machine washable nylon acrylic blend to keep things as simple as possible for Millie's Mum.

Pattern Helena by Alison Green Will

 Ravelry Pattern Page | My project page

Yarn sirdar snuggly DK

Needle 4.5, 4 and 3mm

Making use of odd balls

Like just about every other yarn crafter who has been at it for a while, I have quite a big stash. A sizeable part of my collection is leftovers from larger projects or small amounts bought on sale; not enough to make more than a very small project. Inspired by the blanket from my PJ friends on Ravelry, I have decided to make some more. A local  church collects 20x20cm knitted squares so any that don't fit in can be donated and go to someone in need.

I will make a few different afghans based on colourways and fibre content, starting with wool. I am also aiming to put a photo of each square listing fibre, what else I used it for and the stitch pattern in my projects page on Ravelry. Here's to some lovely blankets and a much leaner yarn kitty.

My blanket

I have something very special to show you today which has been created by twelve women from opposite parts of the globe who are different to each other in many ways. What we have in common is we love to knit and we also share the guilty pleasure of wearing PJs all day when we get the chance. About 18 months ago we took part in a swap where we would send knitted squares 20x20cm so we could each make our very own blanket in a colour scheme of our choice.

This is the photo that I shared with the group to give an idea of the colours I was hoping for was this one, taken near a family member's home.

The squares all arrived in the weeks before H's birth and as I have mentioned, life became rather hectic for a while so they sat in storage waiting. Finally I have made my squares to go with it and sewn them together. I love this blanket so much and feel like I am getting a hug from my PJ soul sisters whenever I snuggle up in it. 

 Project page on Ravelry

A knitty and kitty new year

With the monsoon we have been experiencing and the lack of school run in the day I have been able to make some time for knitting. This is the Helena I mentioned in my last post, just about finished and ready to be gifted to our friend.

For mindless evening knitting, I have completed Baktus though don't have any photos yet as I have not sewn in all the ends. 

Other than that, there really is not much more to report other than the sad news that our very old cat, Venny has gone to kitty heaven where she is no longer annoyed by children, having to wait a whole two minutes for her food and the big cat next door. 

An actual post about knitting

Yep. Finally a FO worth photographing and sharing. This yarn started out as a cardi I was working on for H while she was in hospital, but I just could not get into it. Maybe that was not the colour to be working with in a surgical ward...

Anyway, now it is a lovely scarf for me and also a sling for B's favourite doll. Meanwhile I am already halfway through my next project, Lacy Baktus a gift for someone special.

Pattern 5th Avenue from Tentenknits blog

 Ravelry Pattern page | My project page

Yarn Pure bamboo worsted by Wendy

Needle 6mm

Six months on...

Talk about a journey and life changing six months. We have all grown so much during my bloggy hiatus.

In the days after my last post we got the news that we would be leaving Dubai. in a bit of a hurry Not quite Maria and Captain Von Trapp style but at the time it felt a little like it.

We returned to my birthplace for a lovely Queensland winter. I never thought I would live here again, but I have a feeling we will be here or nearby for quite some time to come.

So what else has been going on?

Not long after we returned, husband got a new job. Not quite as challenging as the last but in my opinion there is nothing wrong with that, for a little while at least.

Around the same time our G became a preppie at a gorgeous little school a bit of a drive from our place. She has truly blossomed there and will be very sad to say goodbye to her teacher at the end of the year. I love the school run and having a goss with the Mums each day.

E is growing up so quickly too. She still loves to sing and dance. She will break into song and put on an impromptu show often. Both girls started dance class at the local youth club a little while back and took to them like a storm.

As for my bump....

In mid September at 42 weeks + 1 day gestation I gave birth to a precious girl. We had the most beautiful birth with the most amazing midwife present. I had been 5cm and having contractions that were going nowhere for weeks so consented to ARM. Two hours later our darling was in our arms no need for any further intervention and my birth plan was followed almost to a T. She has the most amazing blonde hair in a mohawk (of course) and sparkling blue eyes.

The day before her birth I was having an ultrasound because I was post dates, just to ensure that baby and I were still going well when it was discovered that our darling has a cleft lip. At the time they suspected bilateral but after her birth it was confirmed that she has a complete unilateral cleft lip and palate. Her palate's cleft is quite significant (the women folk in our family don't tend to do things in halves!)

I can't say enough about the hospital I birthed at and how I felt completely safe and nurtured by all the midwives and nurses in the maternity ward, the speech therapist and gorgeous social worker. A couple of the ultrasound technicians who I had met even came up to check in to see how we were going.

I will devote a whole post to our darling and the journey we have had over the last seven weeks since her birth. I am so stoked to have another little girl and am so in love with her and her huge smile.

On the knitting front, since my return here I made quite a few new baby things as well as some little gifts for G's teacher who is expecting her first child early next year. I also took part in a fantastic swap with some great women on Ravelry. There were 12 or so of us participating and we made an 8x8 inch square for each member so we could all make a blanket. I still have not put mine together, but am really looking forward to it as the blanket will come in handy come January when the first of H's operations is anticipated.

It feels so good to be dusting the blog off. I hope I can be back often.

Long overdue update

I can't believe it has been almost a month since I have posted. This is a combination of several things including an obsession with Twitter, illness earlier in the month and I have been knitting up a storm.

My bump is growing beautifully and our wriggly little one is 18 weeks. It is such a relief to be past the nausea and other early pregnancy complaints. It is nice to enjoy all the foods I love again and even had a little of my Beloved's curry when we ordered Thai a few nights ago.

Speaking of the fella, we celebrated our 7th Wedding Anniversary this week. Time sure does fly!

On to my knitting. Last year while I was in Australia I became involved in knitting scarves that went along with swags for homeless people. I have decided to make a head start this year and have joined the Yahoo group Knitting for Brisbane's Needy. Here are a few things I have made so far that will be making the trip back to Au with us in two months time.

For my family I have made some doll hats and clothes, a soaker and a sweet little tunic for our bubba. The WIP is a kimino top that I need some motivation to finish.

Some friends in Australia will be having babies soon. Here are some little gifts I made and sent off.

The girls and I have been dyeing wool with Kool-Aid. It is unbelievably fun and easy to do. Here is our first attempt. (Katanya, it is the Merino I bought from you. I hope you are not offended that I used Kool Aid on it instead of a more professional dye!)

Further details about the knitting I have done this month can be found on my projects page at Ravelry.

So that has been our month. The girls are going very well. G can tell the time now and wears her watch everywhere. B is heavily into counting, adding and subtracting. She is also very insistent that our baby is a girl... we'll see.

Small knits for a small person

*~ OUR SMALL PERSON ~*

We are thrilled to bits with the news that we will be welcoming baby number 3 later this year. As soon as my stomach started churning and I gained my superpower sense of smell I decided to cast on these yummys knit in BFL in a colourway that I am calling Very Hungry Caterpillar. Though it looks more blue than green in my photo.

So we have some newborn sized longies in the Baa Bum pattern that my gorgeous friend and owner of the Small Things blog created. My go to infant hat, Umbilical Cord from Stitch n Bitch and a teeny tiny pair of Simply Sweet Socks.