Dying? Or overdyeing?

This started life as an extremely ugly skein of yellow nettledyed BFL, but I got the dyes out and played. Oh, how I played! There's some black in there, and some red (to create brown, you understand) and then I did the whole thing in blue, and I love it. I absolutely love it.
It's destined to be the cowgirl slipper socks from last autumns IWK for a swap package, but as I know she isn't a knitter I think the chances of her reading my blog are somewhat remote... (I also know that she isn't sending to me. I'm organising the swap.) Unfortunately, I can't find my dpns in the right size, so I think I'm just going to have to keep plodding on with the circle jacket. I have the first arm finished now, so I'm nearly up to the interesting increases.

And in other news, I LOVE the new knitty. So many things to knit, so many of them for me :) What more can a girl ask for?

Natural cleaning....

Well, one of our missions for this week/month is to tidy our bedroom. It SO isn't happening, it's not funny. Something else we've been thinking about, though, is going greener- right now we're kind of at the midpoint on the green continuum- we think about it a lot and talk the talk, but sometimes our footsteps are those of someone wearing factory-farmed Nike trainers. So this is our mission at the moment.
In some ways, I'm doing good. We haven't used the tumble dryer at all in over a month, all the lights in the house have low-energy bulbs and we're using green washing up liquid all the time and as many commercially produced "green" cleansers as possible. OTOH, ecover does NOT get the boys crap off their clothes, and I either need to get more proactive with stains or handle the idea of dirty clothes. And I've tossed a LOT of clothes this week for no other reason than staining :(

So, this afternoon I whipped up a batch of cleanser from a recipe loosely based on one given in the guardian:
8 tablespoons sodium bicarbonate
4 teaspoons of vinegar
Juice of half a lemon
And I added four drops of cherry plum flower essence, given that me and cleaning have issues at the best of times.
And you know what? It worked. The bathroom sink looks beautiful, the bath is pretty good and the cooker hob is clean (and oiled) too. I feel really, really, really proud.

Put the sheep poo down...

Sarah and Rowan from MDC were in the country this month (aka Spughy and offspring) and they came and spent a few days with us. I think the insanity and noise and bustle and hysteria of a large family may have been a bit much and we should have prepared them gently- feeding time with a pack of ebullient monkeys or something, perhaps? Anyhow, yesterday we took them to Avebury so that they could run around like toddlers and we could drink beer. They ran- a little- but mostly they played with sheep poo. We drank (and I'm back on the diet coke, but not as badly. Blurgh.) And it was great.

Oh, and Sarah stayed at http://www.lowershawfarm.co.uk and I want to say a huge ginormous thankyou, should they ever find this, for looking after my friend so well. They really did :)

Skirt or sack?

5 days, umpteen hours, knitting so darned much that I gave myself carpal tunnel syndrome, and for what?

Mummy, is that a skirt or a sack?

Grrr. It is, of course, the back of the sunrise circle jacket from Interweave Knits, and available free from their website. And being both fat and pregnant, it's a big knit. LOTS of knitting. So that was 5 days work, and there's two sleeves and two front bits still to go.

The good news is that we seem to be in the middle of a heatwave, so hopefully I won't need warm woolly jumpers yet. And the yarn, predictably, is Peace Fleece, because I couldn't have afforded to knit it any other way.

2.25 skeins in, and the back down. I have 8, and I'm just hoping I don't run out. I bought enough yarn for Arwen (also by Kate Gilbert. Shorter, with a hood) and changed my mind on the pattern last minute. It has to be said, though, this cardigan is going to be HUGE.

Awesomely autumnal socks.

Oh socks, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

1) You're cashmere and silk, and handpainted and beautiful

2) When I started knitting, sock 1 was the perfect colour for autumn leaves and made me feel better about the coming winter. Seasonal knitting is perfection. (I know sock 2 is a different colour. That's because they're made from handpainted yarn.) Sock 2 is the perfect colour for autumn.

3) You fit. Beautifully.

And, erm, yeah. I love you to squishy pieces, socks, and I am desperate for the heatwave to end so that I have an excuse to wear you.

The yarn is Eva 4ply in crabapple from http://www.poshyarn.co.uk and the pattern is Falling Leaves from Knitty, but with the addition of a twisted rib cuff because I have fat legs even when I'm not pregnant.

Labour of love

These pictures are here primarily for blackmail purpose. I wasted 6 hours of my life on tidying my sons' bedrooms, throwing away large quantities of lost/ broken and disassembled toys, and I swear, I have never felt quite so awful in all my life. These pictures are here as the before shot, because if that room EVER goes back to the way it looked before, I am posting the after shots on the internet and giving all their family members my blog address. AND inviting Kim and Aggie around for tea. Non-coercive parenting is one thing, but living in a hovel is another.
On the bright side, our central heating gets fitted on Tuesday, so I get lots of lovely hot water and all the deep and soothing baths in the world :) It seems a fair trade-off for that much work.

Sorry for the sideways pictures, I'll fix them asap. This is Skye's daisy cardigan (pattern free from The Garter Belt), with an applied i-cord trim to the front and no embroidery cos I just don't do that sort of thing. And I love it, and she loves it because she knows how to take it off :) Bless. Size 2T, in cheap cotton from Texere, and yes, it's far too big for her. I still love it anyhow...

Baby Surprise Jacket

Well, in a moment's madness I started knitting baby things again. Actually, I just started knitting full stop- but I digress. Here is a 3/4 finished BSJ, complete with lifeline and stitch markers. The reason it is only 3/4 finished is because I just ran out of yarn, and DH has put a parental lock on www.getknitted.com to stop me buying more. Isn't it cute? Isn't it truly bizarre, the way it goes from blob to jacket? I love this pattern, I really do.

I've also nearly finished a daisy cardigan for Skye, from the free pattern. Yesterday morning, I had knitted as far as the armpits- today, I have two sleeves and I'm most of the way down the body. True to form, I'm also running out of yarn :(

Rainy day

Today, the boys were to have gone to their dads, but we are seriously rained in. Top of the street, turn left, the road is flooded. Turn right and you see the police have closed the road. We tried, but it took us an hour and we couldn't even get out of Swindon. It's just not safe.

My father-in-law just survived an operation to remove a metal plate from his leg. It was put in several years ago when he broke his leg, and in the meantime they finally spotted the osteoporosis and started treating that. The hope is that now his leg is strong enough that he might be able to weightbear with assistance (which he needs anyhow) without crumbling into a pile of dust.

So, the shetland is spun, and is gorgeous. It's the first time I've ever had the guts to leave a single as a single and it feels quite daring, but I haven't yet set the twist because I don't think I can get the yarn dry again. The above is some wensleydale curls that I bought from Wonderwool Wales and am combing and spinning worsted-style. (Or, you know, mostly worsted.) It is fantastically soft, and much easier to spin than I was expecting. I think I'm getting better at home-prepared fibres.

Works in progress

Well, frankly I feel far too tired to achieve much these days. I have done at least 30 seconds spinning each day- generally closer to 10 minutes- and have managed to spin a whopping 2 oz of laceweight shetland as part of my Tour de fleece challenge. It's a beautiful oatmeal colour, came from Antannie from MDC, and god, I love this stuff. It isn't as soft as the white I get from Scottish Fibres but it spins like a dream and the colour is incredible. It's going to be a stole for my mother, when I get around to it.

So, from L-R. The wild flower shawl, pattern from Posh Yarn, body finished and finally bound off, edging yet to go. The yarn is Crab Apple lace from HPY. The loaded bobbin, and my daughter on her first ever carousel ride, complete with a very rare picture of yours truly- which is there mostly because my lovely Jenn posted a pic of herself on her blog too.

The last six months...

Well, it's been a heck of a time. The bad news, as it were, is that I miscarried early in February. Brighid was born at 11 weeks on the 2nd of February and hir sibling, Bride was born on the 3rd- exactly 24 hours apart, give or take. It wasn't the most fun time I've ever had, but some positive things came out of it. Through listening to and accepting what my body was telling me I needed to do, I came through it, and it really helped me deal with some of my emotions surrounding my daughters birth, with weeks of prodromal labour and then an incredibly fast labour.

So, that's the past. The future- as you probably guessed from the fact that I haven't frogged this sweater yet- is that we started TTC immediately and our new baby is due on- give or take- the 2nd of February. Imbolc has always been a strong and heavily emotional time of year for me- my first girl was due on the 2nd of February, though she was born in October, and it tends to be a very dark time of year, with lots of glimmers of hope. Here's hoping that next year turns out to be full of hope for us too.

In knitting news, I ain't really done much. The sweater was knitted before the twins were born, from some beautiful organic merino from Posh Yarn and an Erika Knight pattern. Fun knit, I'm not loving the pooling- but I have two boys in the house who believe that having a Superman sweater is the ultimate coolness, and every baby is a superbaby, after all. I'll sew the seams up once I get a twelve week scan done - we had one done last week which showed a heartbeat, but I don't want to tempt fate. I made a huge beautiful Harry Potter scarf for an MDC swap and forgot to take pictures, and some socks and toys as well. I'm working on the wild flower shawl from posh yarn, and having a horrendous time getting the cast-off loose enough to block the way I want it to. Spinning is going better- I've just finished spinning up some shetland roving, sock-weight, which is going to be knitted up into socks for a good net-friend of mine who never EVER knits for herself, and I signed up for this year's Tour de Fleece as well. My goal is to clear the stash, because I have FAR too much roving and tops of all descriptions, but I'd settle for spinning every day.

holy cow, I got my blog back! Lengthy update coming soon... thanks blogger!

In the immortal words of Granny Weatherwax...

I aten't dead.

Not yet, anyhow. The reason I haven't updated in such a long time is because my computer has been foul, and naughty, and I haven't been able to log on to blogger since Christmas.

There are other reasons too: http://mylasthomebirth.blog.co.uk being the account of one of them. We have a new bean due in September (or October, or knowing me, possibly even November) and so a new person to knit for and spin for and stuff. Right now, I'm just about at the stage where I can face the idea of knitting again.

Lots of pictures to come: the first yarns I spun on the wheel, including one jar-dyed merino that has been sent off to Kentucky as part of the mystery skein swap. A calorimetry, and pictures of my mother wearing Samus. She loves it, by the way, which is always a good thing to happen when you have just spent six months of your life knitting continuously on the same garment.
And, one bit of sad news. My adorable, beloved husband killed my spindle by dropping a heavy box of books on it. Can we say, ker-snap? Oh dear.

More longies

How pleased am I with these? Now yeah, OK, its a trillion rows of stocking stitch but they're cool and beautiful, and the yarn was worth the wait. That's organic cotswold for the waistband and cuffs, and the main yarn is the organic merino fromhttp://www.hipknits.co.uk.

I don't normally do close-ups of bums, but I am so, so, so chuffed with the way the short rows came out I figured it was worth it. I really hate them, really struggle with them so for me to create something that flows as well as this felt really good. I'll spare you the crotch shot, but that's even better :) Instead of casting on two for the legs, I increased by knitting into the stitch below the end gusset stitch, still in the round, and so- by magic- look ma! No holes!

They aren't destined for Skye, although she's kindly modelling. They're destined for a little girl on the other side of the pond, who is several inches taller- and hopefully, there's enough growing room in them to last her a few months.

Finished the longies!

The bleeding yarn was fixed, mercifully, the lanolising completed and they're all set and ready to post. I just really, really hope that they're long enough, and that the little boy they were knitted for likes them. There is a duff stitch in the back on one of the short rows, but it's not too conspicuous. I'm hoping to get a second pair finished in the next week, as well, so he can have one on and one in the wash. What do you think? If it was your boy, would he wear them?

Urgent help for yarn pron required....

If you're reading this, you probably care about knitting. Please, take a minute to give me your ideas on how to fix the problem of kettle-dyed yarn which is bleeding fairly badly and losing colour. Please?
It's dyed using vinegar and fibre-reactive dyes, is the one in the picture below and needs to be in the post to the US by the end of next week. At the latest. Please, please, help????

Meet Samus

I can't believe it's finished- and blocked (badly) and just needs the zip applied. But, in truth, it is so. Thank Maude. I'm just hoping and praying that it fits my (absolutely minute) mother when she opens it on Christmas, because otherwise I'm going to cry.

Ideally, she'd like it as well. But as this is the woman who made me wear jumpers made from carpet wool as a child, and knitted me a stripy horse blanket not so many years ago, I'll live with the consequences if she doesn't. I know she'll appreciate the work and effort, even if she never wears it.

Oh, the sleeve does sit straight, I just accidentally bunched it up for the photograph.

Finished daisy cardigan

Knitted in parma violet DK alpaca merino from The Natural Dye Studio- unfortunately, it's not destined to live in our house. Instead, it's going on a long journey across the sea where it will be worn by another very lucky (and very warm) little girl. Isn't it beautiful? I just love the way that the stripes have balanced themselves out perfectly (which they have- I'm just absolutely crap at tying bows so it's not sitting straight on the coathanger. Given how random space-dyed yarn can be, I love, love, love, love, LOVE how the pattern has come out.

I have noticed the absence of daisies: I tried, and tried, but embroidery is just not one of my strong points. I can handle this , I really can. It's still a beautiful cardigan.

Demeter

I figure every good spinning wheel needs a name: and honestly, what better name for a wheel who lives in such a household as ours? She was rescued from a skip by the secretary of our local spinners guild, and came to live with me yesterday. Isn't she beautiful?

I have been knitting this week, honest. I have a cardigan for a trade that is blocking downstairs, and half a pair of the most beautifully masculine longies on the needles ready for Holiday Helpers. Pictures will follow- oh, and the neckband on Samus is finished. I just have to complete the applied i-cord round the arms, and then wash and block it.

Yarn pron!

I won an ebay auction for 500g of very cheap BFL aran, and it arrived yesterday (Saturday.) I love this stuff, I really do- I've been petting it and stroking it. And, of course, tipping large quantities of vinegar and dye over it to see what happens!


The end result is a kettle-dyed blue/green yarn, destined to be a pair of longies for the MDC holiday helper appeal. It's kind of sad to think that for the cost of these 200g, I wouldn't be able to get even one ball of Rowan or Jaeger or something like that.
The best thing? I checked on ebay tonight, and there's another 500g listed. This could get expensive.

The Skye at night

I love Bonfire night. I love the anarchy of it's history, I love the colours, the smells, the excitement, the opportunity to stay up late. I love it all.
This weekend, we've had lots of fireworks, and lots of bangs and oohs and ahs. Skye's new hat was finished on Friday night, just in time for me to make her wear it everywhere over the weekend (and I did. Oh yes, I truly did.) It's amazing- 27 people have told me how gorgeous it is over the last two days, and 26 of them told me how gorgeous my daughter was- NOBODY mistook her for a boy. Both the girl and the hat are very adorable though.
The socks are well underway- the short row heel is turned, the stripes jog less than Jordan in the run-up to a marathon, and they still feel fantastically soft. Back to Samus.

Knitting ADD

This is a very new and exciting experience for me, but I'm enjoying it. We went out to John Lewis at Cribbs Causeway today and I got some pretty new yarn to make Skye a winter hat. It's Soho, the replacement for Debbie Bliss maya and feels gorgeous- there was some lovely DK alpaca silk as well, but I resisted (desisted?) Samus is nearly there- one sleeve in, one sleeve on the needles, and I got a badful of goodies- leather and suede scraps and some gorgeous florals- from the local scrap store. Some of this will be a pointy kitty, some a pincushion, and the rest- who knows?
I've been working on a sock for Skye as well, striping pink RYC baby soft with the leftover fuschia alpaca from her cardigan. The sock is beautiful to feel, but ugly beyond belief to look at- the stripes are here, there and everywhere and the short-row heel looks more like fishnet stockings.So it will be frogged, and reknitted.

Avebury

The boys have been a little, erm, hyper recently, so we took them out for a nice long Sunday ramble yesterday- at least, that was the plan. Instead, they dragged me up a steep, muddy and grassy bank, and down a steep, muddy grassy bank until I fell in a panting, breathless heap at the front wheel of the buggy and begged for mercy. Pretty much a typical day, then.
The banks were surrounding the largest stone circle, Avebury which is as breathtakingly beautiful and spiritual as I remember it. It's still one of my favourite places, and there's a beech grove just inside the circle where the boys could have stayed for hours, just sitting, under the trees, enjoying the crisp autumn day. Truly magickal.

And in knitting news, Samus is going well and now has one arm. Pictures will follow, eventually.

Dum de dum, dum de dum

As you know, Doctor Who is a BIG deal in my house. Having formerly been married to an obsessive fan, I have two small boys with an avid interest in the programme and a recreational hobby for the grownups is taking the michael out of it.
So, on the wettest morning of half term, we packed the children (and my mother) on a train to Cardiff- a whole different country- to go and look at Daleks. And it was absolutely fantastic. The boys loved the exhibition, daleks, cybermen and all, and the grownups loved Cardiff bay. And Skye, bless her, just sat and watched the world go by with big blue eyes.
If you're ever in Cardiff bay, I heartily recommend a little place called Kemi's (which is in the craft at the bay centre) for lunch. We had paninis, which were huge, or soup- tomato and butterbean- which was spicy, hearty, filling, and probably the best thing I've eaten all year. Absolute bliss, and a truly fantastic day out.

And so the end comes... with candy.

Well, my sock wars socks came today- or to be precise, they came on Tuesday. And I love them. They're soft and comfortable, and bless her, came with a packet of candy for the boys and some stitch markers. Absolutely fantastic.
I've actually really enjoyed doing this, and am totally up for another one, should I ever get the chance.

A couple of FO's

So, first of all I managed to prise the knitting needles out of Skye's grubby little firsts and finish the socks. No kidding, I know now why Yarn Monkey calls them socks of doom. I love the colourway, regardless of what anybody else thinks. And THEN I whipped up a little hat for myself (a chunky lace cap, apparently) from a pattern someone linked to on MDC many years ago) out of the magic ball of yarn, trimmed with a little of my handspun.
And then I discovered that the faeries have eaten all of my stitchmarkers, and I need them for my next project.
BTW, my mothers birthday was Thursday, and Samus was not finished. It is her Xmas present instead, but this means that I'm short of knitting time for the next few days, seeing as I have to knit something else (less secret) instead.

An enemy in the ranks...

Well, sock wars socks mark 2 are here- and I have to say, I love this yarn. It's german, Schoeller and Statt (sorry for the spelling, the ball band is downstairs and I'm not) in very warm autumnal colours.
What I don't love is the honking great big mess that my adorable (hah) daughter made when she decided to pull the needles out of sock 2 and then crawl around the living room eating it. Bah, humbugs. It's taken me three days of perfectly good knitting time trying to get gauge on this blasted thing (its original knitter was a bit random with her gauge) and then this happens.
I really need a sulk smiley on here. Oh, and my socks are currently somewhere over the Atlantic- though where, I couldn't tell you. I reckon they'll be here by the end of the week.

The magic ball of yarn turned into...

a very pretty midnight garden peacock type of thing. I love it. It took a LOT of work (and some very purple cuticles) but the colours are exactly what I was hoping for- maybe slightly darker than I'd planned, but dark is always good. It's going to be a hat, and a cuff for a matching pair of mittens. Bonfire night is coming up, and that means that I need something to protect my hands from the sparklers. Hee, hee, I can't wait.
I hadn't realised, but autumn comes earlier to the west side of the country. I was looking for some interesting berries to dye some roving with, and almost everything has blown over already- there's only haws, hips and crab apples left, and a very few sloes. It feels very very autumnal today too- windy and blowy.

Magic ball of yarn

Isn't it bonny? I wish I could spin like this- it may be thick and thin, but it's thick and thin with consistent wpi along the length (I checked) and really rather nice to touch and to play with.
It's a present from the Magic Ball of Yarn swop (wrap goodies inside the yarn, as you knit, presents fall out) on MDC from laprettygurl, aka Pauline, who spun it herself. I've used all of my Christmas present opening skills to remove everything possible from it- and eventually reskeined it, to find that the only thing I missed was three stitchmarkers. I NEED a ballwinder so badly.
The body of Samus is finished, and I'm on to the arms. I don't know if I'm going to finish on time, though- it may have to be an Xmas pressie.

Steady does it

Samus is going slowly. Very slowly. It's the acres of stockingette that are dragging on me, plus the fact that now my daughter is mobile, I can no longer go to the park, sit her in the buggy and get a couple of hours knitting time in whilst my boys play. That, plus the fact that there's 160 stitches in a row, and I knit more slowly on circulars: I don't know when I got into the habit of tucking my needle under my armpit, but I notice when I can't do it.
Life continues on here. My father-in-law is conscious now, but terribly confused and in a certain amount of pain- and the blood tests are still not showing better results, so we have no idea what to expect any more. The waiting is pretty hard on Steve- if you're reading, please keep us in your prayers.
We took the kids to Cotswold Wildlife Park last weekend, which was very very cool in a kitsch and camp kind of way. Imagine, if you will, a traditional English stately home, with impeccably kept front lawn. Then, if you will, imagine half a dozen zebra and a few rhino roaming around on the front lawn. Incongruous? You could say that. Despite that- and the weather- we had a wonderful time. Skye now has an infatuation with monkeys and penguins, Isaac was crying over the otters calling to their keepers, and we all got very very wet.
Other than that, it's a very quiet week. Oh- one other thing. My victim in Sock Wars is organising a knit-in the weekend after next. So check out her blog- lots of cool ideas for charity knitting- and if you're in the area, go along. That way, I won't feel so guilty about having sent her socks in the mail.

It's the middle of the night

and I just finished the socks for Sock Wars.

So here they are. It's been a busy day (dad ain't so good) and now I'm off to bed.

Two amazing things happened whilst I last posted.

More or less simultaneously, my FIL sat up in bed and started eating (or at least, opened his eyes and ate with help. He's talking too) and yarnmonkey sent me the sock wars pattern, two days before I'd expected it. For some reason I was convinced it started on Monday, aka today.
As you can see, I have finished a sock- and I'm loving the colourway. This is not a recent picture, but that's all I'm giving away. The goal is to have both of them on the way to Colorado by the end of today.
Oh- and for the record, I didn't swatch, but gauge is spot on.

On cabling, knitting and life and death

The bottom band of Samus is almost finished.
For some reason, I'm actually really uncomfortable working on this now. It's intended as a gift for my mother's birthday (19 October) but I'm working on it with the phone permanently next to me, waiting on news of my father in law. Dad is in hospital with suspected septicaemia, malnutrition, pneumonia, probable liver failure and an awful lot more besides. Because nobody knows exactly what's wrong with him, apart from the very nasty varicose ulcers on both legs, they have no idea where to start treatment, so they're trying to address the symptoms. And because we don't know what's wrong with him, nobody knows what the prognosis actually is.
And in the midst of this, I'm working cables, woven in and out of another like a tightly knitted family. Somehow, I don't know how, it doesn't seem respectful: it feels like I should either be working on something for dad, or for the kids or myself, but not a gift for another. Does this seem weird to anyone? In a lot of ways, I'm going to be relieved when the Sock Wars pattern is posted on Monday, as it'll provide me with a distraction: well, at least for a while (n.b. must swatch.)
His 70th birthday is October the thirtieth. I have no idea whether he'll see it or not.

Assembling the arsenal

Am I ready for Sock Wars? Heck, no. My goal is to finish the first pair of socks, if possible.
I have decided not to go faffing about with socks on two circulars, or magic loop, but to stick to the technique that I know: the biggest advantage of which is that it will slow my killer down slightly if they prefer magic-looping. I'm loving the teddy-bear needle holders that came with me dpns.
And in happier news, I'm on repeat 6 of the band for Samus, and only need to do 7, not 9. So I'm very happy.

Out of the knitting funk...

and cracking away on the band at the bottom of Samus. I'm kind of cheating somewhat: I may be a bit plus-sized, but my first venture into knitting full garments for grownups is for my mother, who is literally only half the woman I am: and also, really feels the cold. So this is a hug-in-a-box for her birthday (or Christmas, depending on how long it takes.)I'm now 3.5 repeats in, and I need 9, so it's going well. I really want to have the band finished by the time Sock Wars starts on Monday though.

As promised, pictures of the cardigan on Skye. The background is one of those kiddie cars or toddler taxis or whatever they call them- you know, a car on wheels- that my local shopping centre hires out. My back was breaking carrying her, and we didn't have a buggy with us so it was a real treat for both of us. See how big the smile is?
We've found another favourite shopping place: Cirencester, which is another Roman town, similar in many ways to the one we just came from. More importantly, it has a really cool toyshop which sells neither Barbie, Action Man nor things that require batteries. Total bliss.

Knitting under the influence

First, I'm sorry I'm being so crap at updating. Our new house has the computer upstairs, and no chair, so net time is spent standing up. It's done wonders for my resolve to cut down on the time I spend online.
Secondly, I discovered three cool and fun things tonight.
1) I can knit whilst drunk.
2) Knitting whilst drunk (OK, tipsy) is a good and painless way of sobering up.
3) I need to buy more yarn.

The cardigan for Skye is finally finished, and I love it. It needs a button for the inside, and a model, but hey, who cares? The pattern is Dolly from Jaegar book 29, knitted in Artesano Alpaca's inca cloud in fuschia, with Rowan beads. Incidentally, the inca cloud is now cheaper, ounce for ounce, than the standard 4ply merino over here, which is always a good thing to know.
The pattern, however, is a bugger to follow, as it assumes that you have proficient pattern following skills. I don't. I have mummy-brain, and therefore, some of the beaded rows are a bit wonky- there's lots of instructions to follow in pattern- which is great, but not if you need to take decreases and increases in and out of the equation. I am still incredibly proud of it, and desperate to find an opportunity for her to wear it.

Other than that, my stash has a new cupboard. Seeing as I just moved my peace fleece to the WIP bag, I now have a very small stash. It's a little worrying, to be honest, especially now I no longer have a yarn shop within walking distance. Must buy more yarn.