A lonely hedgehog

Sock one is finished, and I love it. The pattern is, perhaps, not the most flattering to pregnant, swollen, water-retaining feet (particularly the heel flap), but by heck is it flattering to hand-painted yarn. And sometimes, it's all about the process.

I know I've said this a few times recently, but I'm loving facebook. It's so strange seeing people on there that I haven't seen in person in years- and in one case, discovering that one of the sweetest guys I know is a happily married dad of three. Just- whoa. A nice way to heal a cold.

Today's cold cure is a mug of sliced ginger, honey and lemon, but I can't honestly say that I think it's working.

Hedgehogs and snouts

Urk. Work is carrying on slowly on all of the knitting, and not one, not two, but three WIPs are in the knitting void. My hedgehog socks are being knit and knit and not getting longer. The longies are stuck on the second leg, and I need the dpns to work on the cardigan I started for bean. And I have snot EVERYWHERE. In my nose, out of my nose, and smeared all over my clothing, for Skye has a cold too.

So, the best things about having a toddler with a cold?

1) She can blow her own nose. It's not always on a tissue, and is occasionally on a blanket or a t-shirt, but she can do it.

2) It's not a nose any more. It's a snout. She snuffles, and so she has a snout. It's so adorable, in a very messy kind of way.

Tonight is the new knitting group at Lower Shaw Farm, and I won't be going, I just don't feel well enough. I love the idea of curling up around the fire with a mug of tea and a slice of cake and some gossip, but really? An early night with a mug of hot ribena and some cinnamon toast is more my style.

Pay it Forward

OK, it's been a stupendously good week here at chez chaos. Not one, not two, but three missing friends are back in touch. Karma gave us an unexpected windfall, I had a brilliant (yet scary) parents evening, Isaac's asthma remains under control and I've made it safely to my third trimester of this pregnancy. Right now, I have a LOT to be grateful for.

Inspired by this: http://stitchandbitchlondon.wordpress.com/2007/11/05/pay-it-forward-sharing-the-stitching-love/ I want to join in, and share the stitching love. My family has had a lot of generosity over the years and I want to send some out there to the rest of the universe.

To participate, please leave me a note in the comments, and I'll craft something especially for you, the first three (only three?) respondents and post it out within the next 6 months. It could be knitted, might be sewn, might be some beautiful handspun. Depends who it's going to, if you see what I mean? Also, if you can, please consider doing the same yourself. I know a lot of knitters give a lot to charity, but this isn't charity. It isn't because there exists a need, or a void to be filled. It's because you'll make someone smile, and make the world a better place.

Found her!

One stray friend present and accounted for, with a telephone number and everything. I'm happy.

Handspun

This is the yarn that I've been spinning up the last few days (with help and loving guidance from Skye and Isaac) and I love it. It's BFL roving from http://www.elliebelly.com/ in the artichoke colourway. The colours are kind of somewhere between the two in terms of brightness and saturation, but I wanted to get a picture up today so didn't wait for daylight. It's a muted kind of purty, but I can see it looking great on the new bean.

In other news, I turned the heel on the hedgehog socks and ran out of yarn on the longies. Hardly most the exciting weekend I've ever had. The builders start digging the foundations for our extension tomorrow, so life is going to be quite- erm, interesting for a while. And probably also loud and chaotic. It'll be worth it in the end, though.

Hedgehogs

At the moment, it feels like almost everything on my needles is from http://www.elliebelly.com/ There are probably worse ways to be: I might not be knitting, for example, or I could be working solely on a newborn pair of longies in organic naturally coloured Lleyn wool for a trade with an outstandingly crafty mama. Instead, I'm spinning and knitting with some of the most fantastically coloured yarns I've seen in a long time.

This is the band of the rock and weave socks (pattern from Blue Moon Fiber Arts) in Joyce's hedgehog colourway, and once I actually read the pattern properly and started slipping all of the stitches in the right direction, it's going swimmingly. And oh my goodness, this yarn is to die for! I haven't knitted anything that blends this appealingly since: hmm. I'll get back to you on that one. I just cast off a pair of longies for the same swap in one of Joyce's other colourways in BFL, and that's gorgeous too. And the roving: well. I'm in love. I really am. The rate at which I'm going, I should have a spinning picture for you by the end of the weekend, which hasn't happened in a while.

So, the socks are swimming along. I ordered some beautiful tiny hedgehog buttons for the cuffs which should be here LONG before the socks are finished, but I'm trying to decide: solid coloured feet? Or variegated? Either could be good....

SHONAIDH!!!!!

Sorry to everyone else, but normal service needs to be interrupted. Right now I'm bouncing up and down on my superduper, deluxe, overinflated because the toddler likes it, birth ball with excitement wetting myself.

Shonaidh, I can't contact you, I'm a crap, weak, useless person who has lost your email address and it isn't in your profile. My mobile number hasn't changed, or I'm at h.(mysurname)7@ntlworld.com - Obviously, take the brackets out and put my surname in.

And to everyone else, the said Shonaidh is the one person who can make the horror of the school run bearable. AND she's the worlds best fifth columnist at changing corrupt school systems from the inside. And I miss her, and I'm a crap friend.

Still here, still knitting

Photographic update coming soon. The longies I'm working on for a trade with a fellow MDC mama are nearly done, and I've just taught myself how to spin with a toddler on one knee whilst balancing on the birth ball, because all my chairs hurt my bum. Quite an achievement, huh?