The cure for startitis

I finally found the cure for startitis. No more barely worked pieces lurking in cupboards and baskets. None stuffed under the bed, or by the side of the bathroom chair (top tip - knitting whilst the littlies are in the bath, they're happy, you're happy....), or in the glovebox of the car. No casting on items that will be too small for the wearer before you even finish. If it doesn't have a deadline then it doesn't get started.

You want to know my cure?

Although it might not work for all of you....

Well here goes......................

Are you ready.......

Although warning you, you might just dissolve into a gooey mush.......

 

A beautiful, smiley, cuddly baby!

Since Ivy came along I finally realised that you can't spend much time knitting with an elastic baby. One that doesn't like to be separated from mama unless within complete eye distance, and still with a high level of communication going on. This baby means that what little time I get to knit needs to be spent productively. Think of item, cast on item, work on item, cast of item, use item. Two or three at a time is fine, more than that - no chance of completion....ever! 

So want to cure your startitis and knit more productively? Go get yourself an elastic baby.

By the way - the playmat? Nothing to do with me. Jen's partners mothers friend (or something like that) sent one down for Jens baby and when I professed how cute it was she sent another for Ivy. How kind was that? Acrylic yarns, DK and/or eyelash type held in 4 strands, and then worked up into a giant granny square. It's one of those things, you know, you look at it and know how it's done, but you're never going to do it. Granny squares - yeah. Giant granny squares with 4 strands of yarn and a mega sized hook? No chance! It is very cute though.

Oh well, the elastic baby is fidgetting once again.

Let me know if you try out the cure ;)

-x-

Cuddling up.

Take a (4mm) hook and start making these:

Squishy Debbie Bliss baby casmerino and James C. Brett pure merino - mmmmm.

Reverse the colour sequence (more than once!):

Run out of lemon when edging the last square and make an emergency trip to the LYS for some more, feeling extraordinarily pleased to discovered that two years apart the dye lot is the same! Use the same lemon to join the squares AND edge the whole thing:

Find some pretty co-ordinating soft cord and try to avoid too much pinning and sewing by machinestitching the backing to the inner edge of the outer round (confused??) and so making a pretty little trim:

Stuff with a pillow and place not-so-artfully on the mama made throw on the Papa revamped chair, and admire:

Yes that is a potty with an L plate - a certain little girlie is finding it a bit cold up there using the toilet ans likes a potty downstairs just in case......

Aaaahhhhh, lovely........... the cushion, not the potty!

Now back to the Hitchhiker.

-x-

Great Granny's.

 

So I said I was working on a little something for Owen? A little something using an old stash of granny squares and lovely yarn? Well I finally finished weaving in the last few ends and decided on the nicest way to join them altogether. 

In fact the hardest part of this whole make was deciding how the squares would fit together and I ended up removing two reds and adding two blues instead. It's a little harder to settle for the right design when limited by using only stash of a particular yarn. For this make I was using only Mirasol T'ika cotton DK and as it is no longer available I only had what was in the stash - 7 skeins of red, 6 of fuchsia, 3 of royal blue and 1 of green.

I wasn't sure that the one green would be enough to complete a border row so I decided to use it to join the squares together instead. When the squares were all joined I needed to think of a way to edge it, and as this is a make for a boy boy I decided on a simple treble crochet border all the way round in alternating stripes of red, blue and fuchsia. I repeated the red and blue once more and was going to add another fuchsia but decided that the blue final row gave just the right contrast and set off the limited blue squares perfectly.

Ideally I would have liked to have another skein of the lime to work the first border row but I didn't and so that was that. I could have done with blocking the squares a little better too but  it's quite a heavy blanket anyway so it will drop into it's own shape soon enough, and Owen was too impatient to wait fr me to do much more with it.

So here we go in all it's glory:

And now back to that in between stage of deciding whether to work my way through the W.I.P.'S, or to work on a little easy finished quick fix, or to start on the next big project......although I haven't decided what that will be yet!

Well begun is almost done........

.......I hope!

First sock of the three pairs I have to have made within the next two weeks:

Really easy pattern which was gifted to me by Lucie several months ago and used often since. Anyone wants a copy then let me know. Yarn used is Regia self striping sock yarn, you didn't think I knitted all those stripes in did you?
And as a break in the monotony of going round and round on DPN's a couple more quick crochet granny squares to add to the throw. Was hoping it would be a nice cover up for snuggling on the sofa with a newborn but think the completed throw might take some time yet ;-)

Inspiration..........or otherwise!

Found some lovely cotton fabric in the local haberdashery shop last week, these two remnants of fabric, just on one metre each, for only £1 a piece.

Not sure what to do with the pirate fabric yet but the pink has been turned into these:

Pj's for Sophie for when she stays over with us.

And inspired by Shell and the idea of a lovely crochet throw for wrapping up with baby on cool summer evenings, I have learned to make granny squares! The yarn I'm using is the Mirasol T'ika mentioned recently. Not sure how big the throw will end up, I'm getting six squares to each skein and have seven skeins each of red and fuchsia. Maybe I'll have to add some squares in another colour if there isn't enough, but at the moment I'm just happy to keep going and see where I end up.
The first squares, not perfect but a memory in the making:


And now for the disaster:

I knew right from the beginning that this wasn't right, so why did I continue? I suppose it was just seeing the colours coming through and wanting not to admit defeat. Mmm, note to self, trust your instincts. So now it is pulled down and ready to be made into something else. Hopefully with more success.