finally waking up

I've Moved!

2009-02-02T19:37:00.003Z

You can now find finally waking up on Wordpress, my new URL is

http://finallywakingup.wordpress.com

There's a new post up already so please find your way over there, ignore the current ugliness until I finish moving the furniture around how I want it and update your bloglines/Google Reader etc!

See you there!

Facebook Ate My Life!

2009-01-24T12:17:00.002Z

Being pretty behind in all things internet I have recently discovered and become slightly addicted to Facebook... Far too many hours on there finding people I've not talked to in forever and looking at different silly things (vampire wars anyone?!?).

I have done some sewing and I will post about it soon, not as much as I wanted to do, haven't met my 'one for them, one for me' goal at all, but I did make something that actually fits me just right right now so that was exciting!

I also want to change the look of my blog but I need to save a copy of everything I've written in case it all blows up on me before I start playing with the template. I think it's time I update to Beta considering it's been around for a few years now...

Anyway, I'm still here, still working on stuff and will attempt to get off Facebook enough to deal with the rest of my life and the blog!

Summer Pyjamas and Crash Bang Whollop

2009-01-07T13:17:00.006Z

OK, so it's January and it's freezing here at night (and most of the day!) but I wanted something cheery to sew and something easy and bright to get me back into the sewing fray so I pulled out Simplicity 4319 and some very cute fabric I've had in the stash for ages and made myself a pair of summer pyjamas.

I made view C in a size Medium (the finished dimensions on these are huge compared to the measurements given for the size they're supposed to fit). I made a couple of changes along the way. To begin with I added 2 inches to the length of the top as it wasn't long enough for my liking. I didn't add a ribbon onto the shorts or top like the pattern called for as I didn't have anything that matched well and I used elastic in the waist of the shorts rather than a drawstring as I'm not a fan of drawstring pyjama bottoms, I find that they just don't stay comfortably done up for me.

These are pretty easy to make and they took me 3 morning sessions (which weren't very long sessions really) in total, although one of those mornings I was cutting them out rather than sewing.

This is the fabric close-up. I got it from Abakhan a long time ago with no idea of what I wanted to do with it at all, but it was so cute I bought 3-4 metres of it, there's still enough to make something else, I'm wondering if I could get a pair of pyjama bottoms out of it so I could use the top with either the shorts or the longer trousers, will have to pull the pattern and remaining fabric out again and have a look.

I cut out a pair of cord trousers for Piggle after I finished the top this morning so I will get sewing on those tomorrow. It's a very easy pattern that I've used for Jim a few times before so it's pretty brainless sewing, but that's the kind of thing I need at the moment, to make progress on projects and reducing the fabric stash resulting in cute garments to make me feel like I'm doing something and being constructive.

In non-crafty news, last night about 10.15 I was sitting in my living room minding my own business watching Buffy and thinking about going to bed when there was a rather large crash outside my house. I live on the edge of farmland so it's usually pretty quiet around here, the only noise I tend to hear are cars going by and as the road that my house is actually on is a dead end we don't get through traffic in front of the house, just to the side onto a single lane road.

Outside I rushed in my slippers wondering what the hell had happened and hoping that someone hadn't cut the corner too much and run into the back of my car. Instead I was faced with a truly bizarre situation which I really don't think occurs all that often.

Mercedes SUV slid on black ice and met the telegraph pole:

Telegraph pole met the stone wall

and then carried on and met the top corner of my house.

Top corner of house (the coping stones luckily rather than the actual wall of my house) became detached (three large pieces along with a lot of smaller pieces and debris)

and met the top of my car.....

These pictures were obviously taken this morning as it was pitch dark when it happened. The poor man who did it lives less than a quarter mile away, I can see his house from outside mine. He was really shocked about it all, apparently he'd felt it start to slide and had decided to try and pull into my road rather than go down the steep hill beside it which he presumed would also be icy. However, the SUV had a mind of it's own and decided to split the difference and go into the pole instead...

I'm now waiting for his insurance company to ring to say when someone can have a look at, and hopefully fix, my car. It's got a large plastic bag tucked into the hole at the moment as you can actually put your hand in and feel the headliner which isn't too good considering it's decided to rain today.

I realised this morning that it could have been far worse. Luckily the stones hit the car and road rather than going through the roof as the window that you can see in the picture with the pole is the boy's room and it would have probably landed on one or both of them. Their bedroom ceiling now has a crack that wasn't there yesterday but besides that there was no internal damage done and they both slept right through it!

My only worry really is that they will try and write off my car which will leave me in a really bad situation as I couldn't get another one that's as good for the amount they'd give me for it. My landlord will sort out the house stuff and have it fixed (claiming on the man's insurance of course) and British Telecom have been out to check on the pole and will re-sit it soon (also on the poor man's insurance no doubt) and I will wait and see what is to become of my little car... It's the best car I've ever had so I'd be very sad indeed to see it go, so fingers crossed it can be fixed and the frame wasn't bent or anything by the impact.

I think I can safely say though that there was a very small chance of this ever happening so I'm not going to worry about it happening again anytime soon!

Thank You

2009-01-06T13:42:00.003Z

Thanks so much for all the suggestions! I will try the audiobooks, is there a particular site that anyone could recommend to me to get some good stuff that I can download to my MP3 player to listen to please?

I managed to get some sewing done this morning, I tried just to redirect my thoughts or actually listen to the music I had playing rather than just having it as background noise and that seemed to cut out a lot of the brain 'buzz' that I seem to have going on.

Perhaps I should clarify that I'm not trying to get over the whole divorce/new girlfriend for him/marriage breakup thing by ignoring it. I have pretty much come to terms with it all, although obviously it still hurts. For some reason though my brain just won't let go of it and I seem to torture myself over and over again. I don't want him back, I don't need him back, fine I'm not happy that he moved onto someone else so fast but that's his (and her) problem not mine and I want to get on with my life now thank you very much. I guess I've been used to thinking about it so much, especially in the last few months since he started a new relationship and thought it necessary to rub my face in it whenever he could, that my brain now can't let go of it and find something new to think about. I have found that the longer I go without speaking to him the happier I am so I am avoiding all conversation that isn't absolutely necessary (ie important things to do with the boys) and after 5 days I feel much better about life in general so I intend to keep that up as much as is possible and use email instead of the telephone to tell him what he needs to know about the boys.

I've not posted much about the break-up etc as I guess I kind of felt that I didn't want to put my 'woe is me' out there online for all to see. I also felt like I'd failed and no one, in particular me, likes to be a failure and advertise the fact. I've worked through and am working through a lot of issues still and I do give myself time to think things through and to grieve, but I don't want my whole life to be about getting over this, I think it's time to let it go and move on to who I want to be and what I want to do with my life now that it's over and done with (well, the divorce won't come through for another few months but you know what I mean!).

So, I've set my goals out and I'm going to move forward now, part of that moving forward being not thinking about the whole damn mess so much and letting myself heal. I'm excited about the future again, there are so many things that I can (and do!) do that I could never have done with him around and I feel free (as free as you can do with two kids to raise that is!) again and ready to make my life what I wanted it to be before I went and married the wrong man.

Thanks again for your support, and hopefully I will have something sewn to show you tomorrow. My new sewing goal is to make something for me and something for one of the boys each week. It could be as simple as a t-shirt or some pj pants or a more complicated dress etc, but I want to get back in there and get making again. I loved it when I would wear mostly handmade stuff and as I'm almost back down to the size I was when I achieved that (and the clothes are all waiting in a suitcase for me to be able to wear them agian) I want to add to the wardrobe and try some new styles, plus I have one hell of a lot of fabric just sitting there that should really be seen!

Thinking

2009-01-05T21:38:00.003Z

Over the holidays I was pretty busy, getting ready for Christmas then the events themselves and I even managed to keep myself busy while the boys were away for 5 days by reading a lot and watching a lot of films. The last few days since they came back have been filled with more reading really so today when Jim went back to school I figured I would go and do some sewing, finally get back into the routine. I had fabric picked out, I had a pattern all ready to go, I was set and excited to be back in the sewing room working on something for myself.

Then it hit me, the major reason that I've not been sewing much in the last few months, when I sew I think and when I think I obsess and go over and over things in my head and it drives me insane.

So I'm now looking for ways to distract myself besides reading and watching tv/films. I can't fit a tv in my sewing room, hell I can barely fit me in my sewing room and music just isn't working. Obviously I can fill the evenings with the reading and tv watching activities but I would like to get through the rest of my day without my brain going over and over the same things and driving me loopy. Thing is I don't know how to distract myself, I don't know how to turn it off. I am someone who's brain runs from the moment I wake up until the moment I finally fall asleep.

How do you all distract yourselves and stop thinking about things you don't want to? I am ready to move on, I want to move on, I need to move on and I thought I was doing really well over the last couple of weeks, that is until I realised that I can't spend every waking moment with my head in a book when it's not holiday time..... I'm sorted for evenings as I've got plenty to read and my Blockbuster subscription plus I got the complete Buffy on DVD for Christmas so that will keep me going for a fair while, but it's during the day when I'm trying to cook, tidy up, drive the car and most of all at the moment *sew* that I need to find a way to keep the ickiness out of my head. Any and all help appreciated!

Books I Read 2009

2009-01-04T15:42:00.003Z

Here we go again with the 2009 list, I hope to read more this year and to not have months at a time where I don't pick up a book.

January

Dead as a Doornail, Dead to the World, Definitely Dead and All Together Dead - Charlaine Harris
These are the second part of the box set that I read the first 3 of in December. Really enjoyable and easy to read romps through the supernatural world with a great sense of humour and some mystery thrown in. I'm looking forward to the new one coming out!

From Dead To Worse - Charlaine Harris
I was going to wait for this to come out in paperback but I found a secondhand hardback copy online so I bought it. This was probably the most disappointing of the whole 8 books though. Although there were 2 big events that happened in it I still felt at the end that not a lot had happened. I think a lot was setting up events for the next book though so I hope it's worth it when it eventually comes out!

Book Count To Date - 5

Yearly Roundup

2008-12-31T10:00:00.002Z

So I've nothing new to show for this week alone, I realised that I just needed time to decompress and do as little as possible so reading, film watching and starting to work my way through the complete Buffy The Vampire dvd's that I got for Christmas have been my sole accomplishments this week, along with getting dressed as few times as possible.

I have been doing some knitting though, I cast on and am about three quarters of the way through a circular kitchen mat. I got some more extreme knitting needles for Christmas, one set being 2 dpns that are 19mm, so using 5 balls of yarn I cast on 4 stitches and have been knitting i-cord all week. I have a few more balls of yarn that I want to add in and then I will call it done. I'm interested in measuring exactly how much i-cord I have knit but not so interested in the sewing up that will be required once it's cast off!

I've not been that productive this year compared to previous years which isn't that surprising considering the split from the ex, moving home and trying to figure out how to be a single parent. I was surprised actually at how much I had done, it feels like far less, but as is the tradition here is the list of all the items that I managed to complete in 2008.

Sewing

1 pair of adult Pyjamas
2 nightdresses
3 shirts
2 t-shirts
4 dresses
12 kids t-shirts
9 pairs kids trousers
1 skirt
8 pairs of kids pyjamas
1 pair of kitchen curtains
1 halloween costume
1 bag
2 gratitude wraps

Knitting

6 pairs of socks
4 jumpers
3 scarfs
4 hats
1 hot water bottle cozy
1 cardigan
2 kids jumpers
1 blanket

I have to say that I will be glad to put this year behind me, it's been a rough one and I have spent a lot of it either upset or depressed which is really no way to be living my life. I'm determined to make 2009 the year where I get myself together and begin achieving my goals whilst at the same time leaving the past behind me. My life is so much better now than it has been in years which is great on one level but also manages to make me feel sad on another level if that makes any sense. I have made great leaps towards finding myself again and being who I want to be as well as starting to take care of myself better and to accept who I am. That sounds like an odd combination, changing myself and accepting myself at the same time, but as I figure out more who I want to be I also find sometimes that I'm already like that in some ways and I just lost track of it under the crap I've had to deal with.

Another thing that happened this year which I've not written about is that Jim was diagnosed with mild Aspergers Syndrome. It runs in both families and from some of his behaviours I figured he probably did have some symptoms but actually getting a diagnosis was hard. At the moment his school and I are trying to get him a 'Statement' which basically means proving to the local Council that he is in need of extra help and getting them to pay for it. At the moment Jim has a Teaching Assistant looking after him full time at school as without constant support he gets distracted and is unable to function in the classroom. His TA is wonderful and he loves her to pieces but he needs someone who is just there for him (she has to do her 'proper' job as well which is probably pretty rough on her although she doesn't show it). If we can get the funding from the Council someone will be specifically hired to be with Jim through the whole time he's at this school and it will make it so much easier for him. He's an incredibly bright child (and that's not just the Mother in me talking!) and I am confident that as he grows up he will be able to find a way to function in the world and deal with his issues but for now he's just a little boy who doesn't know he's any different from anyone else and doesn't understand why he finds the world such a confusing place.

In a way having the diagnosis has helped a lot as I can finally see that it's not the way I've parented him and it's not that he's a naughty child, it is what it is. Had he been my second child I probably would have known much earlier that he had issues as he and Piggle are so completely different that it would have been obvious. However, now that I do know (and he doesn't know, I'm not telling him until he asks as I don't see the need to burden him) I can do everything to make life easier for him and to help him get the help he needs. I've filled in an awful lot of very depressing forms this year telling people what is 'wrong' with my child and I'm hoping for less of those forms in the New Year and for less appointments with Educational Psychologists, Speech Therapists and Paediatricians for Jim. The process should end in May and there are still many more hurdles to leap and reports for people to file.

I don't really do resolutions but I do want to set out some goals for the new year and I thought I would share them here in case anyone else is interested or trying to achieve some of the same things.

I want to carry on loosing weight. So far I have lost 30lbs, ok I gained 4 of those back but they will go again soon. I have just been eating more healthily and exercising a bit and it's coming off well. My first major goal was to loose 60lbs so I've a way to go yet but I know I can get there and my goal to reach that 60lbs is May which is totally doable.

I want to make exercise a habit. I tend to exercise for a few days and then when I get to a day off I don't get back to it for another week or so! I want to be exercising 5 days a week without fail and to aid me in that I've bought myself some yoga dvds to work from.

I want to get my finances more under control and pay off as much debt as I can. I am paying back my parents the money that I borrowed when I moved (I make the last payment to them in March) and I have been making larger payments to my credit card than they ask for (although I seem to always have an unplanned expense that has to go on the credit card...). I have a plan and by the end of the year I want to be as debt free as I can be which should be possible and leave me just with a credit card debt that will hopefully be small (barring emergencies of course).

I want to carry on looking after myself well. A lot of this is girly stuff like painting my toenails, doing my hair, dressing better, wearing jewellery etc but for many years now I've put myself last and not felt that I was worth taking the time or money over. Since I have been looking after myself I feel so much better and more confident and I want that to continue.

I want to move on emotionally. I know I can't put a time limit on this and healing takes time but I am no longer willing to wallow in what happened or let it bring me down the way it has been. The divorce will go through before the summer and I want to let it go. I am not the type of person who forgives and forgets, I will never be able to do either of those things, what I need to do is to learn to accept it, even though I don't like it and even though I'm still mad as hell and incredibly hurt. I have to let it go and go onto new things. I wasted too many years on a relationship that wasn't worth it and a man who wasn't right for me in too many ways to count and I refuse to waste another one.

I want to find out my options for studying and make moves towards my PhD. For a while this will just be me reading around the subject I'm interested in and figuring out what I want to actually do the PhD in but I can also make practical moves in finding out how much it will cost, where I'd like to do it and what my financial options are. This is my big dream which will hopefully lead to the career I want once both the boys are in full time school and I need to get going on it and get my brain back into learning and discovering so I can begin the long walk down this new path.

I want to do more sewing and knitting. I have really missed it and when I have managed to get stuff done I have felt wonderful about it. The sewing especially has suffered this year and that has a lot to do with the weight issue (I refuse to sew for myself at such a large size firstly because I hated being that size and secondly because it seemed like a waste of fabric if I was planning to loose weight) but now that I'm smaller I can make stuff that I know will last longer and be worn and get back to working on creating my 'style' which I've been debating and dithering about for years and still haven't managed to find!

I want the boys and I to be happy. We are all so much happier here than we were at the old place and this house is filled with a lot of laughter and love which was always my goal. However, depression has robbed the boys of a lot of emotion from me at times and I'm going to try and cut that out and get back to giving them all I can. They make me incredibly happy and I intend to do the same for them. I know I can't be happy all the time but the long periods of Mummy being grumpy are going to stop.

I think that's just about it really. My major goal is to live my life, not just go through it watching the days pass. Sometimes living will be like it has been this week, in my pyjamas relaxing and taking care of my mental health, at other times it will be doing new things, meeting new people and getting myself out of the house more. Whatever living requires I want to do it, I wasted too many years in a life I wasn't happy with and was bored with and I don't want to waste any more time.

The title of this blog came not just from a great Ani Difranco song but also from how I felt when I was coming out of the postnatal depression I had after having Jim. Again I feel like I'm finally waking up, realising that my life wasn't what I wanted it to be and I now have the power to make it what I want it to be and that I can choose which path I follow next. It's both empowering and very very scary. I didn't expect to be facing it alone and with 2 children at the age of 36, but I have infinite possibilities and very little to hold me back so here's to a year where I hope to face those possibilities with excitement and be open to new things and I promise to blog more so you can all come along for the ride!

Here's to a more productive 2009, as always I have a ton of projects either underway or in my head and I hope to find more time to get things completed! My final goal is to blog much more, I've missed you guys and your input so expect to 'hear' from me more in 2009!

Films Watched in 2008

2008-12-30T21:15:00.000Z

A new list for a new year!

January

Breaking and Entering
Anyone else bored to tears with films about how someone has an affair and then realises what they would be throwing away? Me too... Jude Law is also a bit annoying in general so lord knows why I put this film on my list. It wasn't terrible as the genre goes, just pretty predictable and slightly dull.

Resident Evil
I'm not a fan really of films that make me jump, I don't find fear fun or funny so that tends to put me off most horror films but a liking for Milla Jolovitch made me add this one to my list and it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Films based on games aren't normally the most interesting things to watch but this film kept my interest, just when you thought it was over and the credits must be about to roll something else happened. I have added the next one to my list, if nothing else I'd like to see a bit more character development as there was so much action in this one you didn't get to know a lot about her.

Ghost Rider
This was a pretty poor film despite having Nicholas Cage in it. It's an adaptation of a Marvel comic so I shouldn't have expected that much really, but I thought NC being in it might raise it above most films of this genre, sadly I was wrong...

Sin City
Blockbuster obviously thinks I want to see all the comic book type films right now. I liked this film, I'm not really into directors but I am a Robert Rodriguez fan and his sense of humour really shows through in this film. It was an interesting film to watch too as I saw a documentary about the making of it ages ago and the fact they shot it all in front of blue/green screens and added the rest of the shots later was genius.

The Shipping News
I watched this on and off whilst trying to comfort an unhappy baby so I'm sure I didn't catch all of it or get the full effect but it was still enjoyable and the community that they lived in was really interesting. A bit depressing as well though, everyone was so messed up and had had so many bad things happen to them.

Freedom Writers
I thought this might be a bit crap but fancied having a look anyway and it was better than I thought it would be. It's the story of a teacher who turns around the lives of her students that are affected by gang violence and generally growing up in LA in the 90's. I didn't realise Patrick Dempsey was in it, nice to see him not wearing scrubs for a change. Good acting and an interesting touching story, not the best film ever but not a dud in my book!

The Aviator
I didn't know anything about Howard Hughes besides he had something to do with planes and was a recluse. I loved this film, which isn't surprising considering that I've loved everything Scorsese has directed (although I didn't know he'd directed it until it was over and his credit appeared!). HH was a really interesting character and did some pretty amazing things. I have ordered a book about him off Amazon along with one on Katherine Hepburn as I don't know anything about her either. Looking forward to finding out more about them both.

Resident Evil: Apocalypse
This wasn't a brilliant film but interesting enough to sit and knit through and to keep me interested enough to see what happens to Alice in the third film. Standard 'zombies are attacking us so lets kick their ass and defeat the company that created them' stuff.

Hairspray
I remember seeing the original of this many many years ago and really liking it so I wasn't sure of what I'd think of a remake. To be honest I don't understand why they keep remaking everything, surely there are enough stories to be told without having to re-tell the same ones? Has Hollywood really run out of ideas already? This was an enjoyable film though with cute songs and everyone in it did really well so I'm glad I took the time to watch it. I still won't be watching every other remake to rear it's head though!

Flightplan
This was an ok film, once again I wonder what is so wrong with Sean Bean's real accent that he can't use it in a film, not everyone from England is posh for goodness sake! It had some clever moments and some silly moments but was worth the viewing.

Edison
I really enjoyed this film, the cast were all really strong and the characters interesting. It was pretty violent and harsh in places but that's what the story called for. I thought Justin Timberlake really held his own and did a good job with his character and LL Cool J was amazing really, in the past I've always seen him laughing so to come across so well as someone so serious was great.

Evan Almighty
A funny film, if anyone is going to play God I think that Morgan Freeman is a pretty damn good choice for it! Evan has to build an arc and encounters some great scenes along the way to doing so. Sometimes you need a bit of silliness to cheer you up!

February

The Simpsons Movie
This was just like watching a very long episode of The Simpsons, which I guess is what it was intended to be. I like the Simpsons, although I don't go out of my way to watch it whenever it's on, so I quite enjoyed this film.

Transformers
I didn't play with Transformers or watch the cartoons when I was a kid so I didn't know any of the characters before I watched this and I had a hard time telling them apart except for Bumble Bee who was a lovely car (how did they give him so much emotion using just headlights?). I am really glad that they did this film with humour, if it had tried to take itself too seriously it would have been horrible to watch but instead it was quite enjoyable.

1408
I enjoyed this film although I have to admit that it kind of lost me at the end and I wasn't sure exactly what happened. I like the odd Stephen King now and again and I like John Cusack so it was a good pairing for me. Although it was sort of a horror film it was more psychological and spooky than making you jump scary all the time which was fine with me as I'm not someone who enjoys being scared.

Death Sentance
I can't honestly say whether I enjoyed this film or not. Kevin Bacon was really good in it but I really couldn't get my head around the whys and wherefores of the plot. Basically his son is killed by a gang so he goes and kills the member who killed his son and then it escalates into a full war between him and the gang. It just seemed so stupid to me that the situation escalated so much and the ending was a little vague (did he die, did he go to prison, what happened to his other son????).

Cinderalla Man
I'm not a Russell Crowe fan or much of a boxing fan but I really enjoyed this film which is a true story about the career of James J Braddock during the 20's and 30's. I am very interested in the Great Depression so that helped but it was also a really touching interesting story and was really well acted and told.

Black Snake Moan
I loved this film! The whole mood to it was great and the was it was stylised. You really felt for the characters too, even the ones that you thought you wouldn't like very much. Going to buy this one sometime definitely.

Shrek The Third
I like Shrek and this was another nice tale with all the fairytale characters in it. Little One didn't seem too impressed although he did ask a few days later if we could watch the film with the green monster in it again.

Wild Hogs
This was a really funny film, silly, but funny. I am still laughing at the line 'I'm fine, I only hurt my face!'. William Macy was hillarious and the rest of the cast were really fun as well. Good film to bring a smile to your face.

Sunshine
I'd read that this film was terrible but as it was a Danny Boyle film I thought I'd give it a go. Unfortunately the reviews were right, this film sucked big time. You never got any time to get to know the characters or to feel any empathy for them or get a feeling for the situation on earth, so when they started going crazy and dying you didn't feel very much for them. Plus they all had such silly names that I couldn't remember who was who except for Cassie... Pretty effects but not much else going for it.

Daredevil
Another superhero Marvel comic adaptation. Not too bad but not amazing and it doesn't really link up to what I can remember about the Elektra film even though Elektra was in it. Passed a bit of time and gave me something to look at while I knit but I wouldn't recommend it unless you're into comic book type stuff!

Next
This was a really good film, the concept of Nicholas Cage's character being able to see into the future was handled really well and in a very interesting way which made you think along with what was happening and really get into the action.

Factory Girl
I expected this to be a little crap to be honest but I actually really enjoyed it. Sienna Miller was very very good in it as well which surprised me as all I knew of her was what I'd read in passing in gossip about her personal life and I presumed she was just as bad an actress as the rest of the gossip fodder. The story was very very sad and really drew you in. I'll be reading more about Edie Sedgewick in the future I'm sure.

March

Resident Evil: Extinction
You can't beat a good bit of Alice kicking some ass really to pass an afternoon whilst knitting. Nothing for the brain to think about but some good action with a bit of gore.

Sicko
I didn't think this was as good as his previous films, mainly because he focussed more on how European and Canadian healthcare systems are different (and didn't show a lot of the problems that those systems have) rather than really exposing everything he could about the US system. I that what really upset me the most in this film though was the way that the kids whose parents went bankrupt due to health charges treated them. The daughter didn't even give them a full room or get any furniture for them (obviously never heard of Freecycle) and their son was complaining about how their problems made his life hard because he had to help them move (even though he hadn't). They both needed some manners I thought!

Solaris
This film had an interesting concept but didn't do anything about developing it or giving the viewer any kind of explanation about why things were happening. I adore Clooney but he doesn't do emotional depth that well and unfortunately this film was trying to rely on emotions to keep you interested so it fell flat, especially as I wanted to slap the actress who played his wife for being so dull and making it through the film using only 3 facial expressions....

Rendition
I was really looking forward to watching this as I like Reese Witherspoon, but was annoyed when she was only in it for all of 10 minutes. It's not a very thrilling thriller and in the end was a pretty dull affair really, didn't live up to it's reviews at all in my opinion.

Murderball
This is a documentary about the US Parapalegic Rugby team. They play in wheelchairs (obviously!) and basically bash the hell out of each other. The people in it were really interesting and their stories were really varied but equally interesting. We both really enjoyed this.

I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry
I thought this was going to be terrible and the beginning of it is pretty terrible but then it got better and actually quite funny in places and I stopped cringing and enjoyed it. I'm not a huge Adam Sandler fan but this passed the time nicely with a few laughs.

The Banger Sisters
This could have been better and covered more ground than it did but not a bad film all in all and quite funny in places. I love Goldie Hawn and Susan Sarandon so it was worth watching just to see the two of them together.

10 Things I Hate About You
I don't know whether this was made before or after Clueless but it was poor in comparison. Still quite cute though but sadder than I thought to watch Heath Ledger in something.

Life or Something Like It
This was a cute funny film, nothing heavy on the brain but an enjoyable way to pass the time. It was nice to see Angelina Jolie do something lighthearted and I think she pulled it off really well.

A Mighty Heart
Blockbuster obviously thought I was in an Angelina Jolie mood so sent me two of her films at the same time! I enjoyed this a lot, it was a really sad story but also very interesting how they went about trying to find her husband and the different organisations involved.

April

Just Like Heaven
I really enjoyed this romantic comedy. Reese Witherspoon was her normal good funny self in it and it was nice to see a different leading man for a change. It was different enough from other rom coms to keep it interesting too which was nice.

Lord Of War
Nicholas Cage is someone who's films I always try and see and I really enjoyed this one as well. It was interesting to learn more about the arms trade through it as well as just being an interesting story with interesting characters and amazingly some laughs as well.

10 Items Or Less
This was quite a cute film about 2 people who are very different but come together for one day and are friends. Morgan Freeman plays an actor who meets a checkout girl when he is doing some research for a film. It was a really short film though, I'd have been really annoyed it I'd paid to see this in the cinema.

The Brave One
Interesting but slightly disturbing film this one. Jodi Foster's fiance is killed and she's left for dead and then she goes on a killing spree eventually killing the people who attacked her. The characters were good in it and it kept your interest but I'm not sure I'm comfortable with the morals of it.

New York Doll
This is a documentary about the bass player of the New York Dolls leading up to their being reunited after 30 years. He was a really interesting character and the story was very absorbing. I had no idea he was dead though so the end came as a bit of a shock to me!

Surf's Up
An animated film about penguins surfing. It was a really cute story with a lot of laughs. Like a lot of these films I think it was actually better for adults than for kids as they wouldn't have understood a lot of the references or jokes. Good clean surfing penguiny fun!

Just Married
This wasn't as horrid and crap as I thought it was going to be. It was still a really silly comedy film and I can't decide whether Ashton Kutchner is really annoying or not but it passed the time with a few giggles so not too awful.

The Match Maker
This is quite an old film but it looked funny from the review so I thought I'd try it and it was indeed funny and cute. A nice romantic comedy.

Mindhunters
This was quite a good thriller about a group of FBI profilers on an island to do their final test to qualify for the job only to find that one of them is killing the rest one at a time. Christian Slater is in it for a short while as is Val Kilmer, neither of whom I've seen in a while so that was nice. Enjoyable and kept me guessing right until the end as to who the baddie was.

Dixie Chicks, Shut Up and Sing
I've been waiting to watch this for ages and I have to say I was disappointed. I wanted to hear more about free speach and what people said to/about them rather than seeing them get their hair and make-up done over and over again. Saying that it wasn't terrible, just a little thin.

Run Fatboy Run
This was quite funny. A man tries to win back his ex-fiancee by running a marathon but he's incredibly out of shape and unhealthy. Gave me a few giggles so that made it worth watching.

May, June, July and August (in no particular order)

Seasons 1-3 of The Unit
I really enjoyed these, interesting characters in interesting situations and a little eye candy along the way. It's not so deep that it loses you but it does have you using your brain now and again to figure out what's happening.

Season 1 Heroes
I enjoyed this but not as much as the hype said I should! I thought the finale was terrible, the final showdown could have been so much more than it was. I will watch the next seasons though and see what happens.

Elizabeth
Really nice to watch, the cinenamatography was great. I did find it a little confusing at times as to who people were and what they were cooking up but still a good film

I Am Legend
I thought there could have been a lot more to this and the end was pretty poor I thought. Still an interesting idea and not too bad as far as zombies go, I'm not much of a horror fan it has to be said!

The Golden Compass
I thought they did a really good job with this film and the characters were pretty spot on to how I'd imagined them. There was no way that they could have included everything in the book or it would have been a five hour film but I thought they picked well. Shows how good Harry Potter films could have been had they tried harder!

The Kingdom
Not a great film and definitely not the 'wonderful thriller' that they said it was going to be.

Enchanted
This was a sweet film and I really enjoyed it. Sometimes you just need something to make you smile and this film did it for me!

Elizabeth The Golden Age
Again like the first one, pretty to watch but I got a little lost on who was who and what they were doing. Obviously I lack an education in that period of history!

Atonement
I can't decide if I really liked this or not. The story was interesting but I'm not a huge fan of the author and whats her name the lead actress really annoys me.

Into The Wild
I wanted to see this to see how they had adapted the book. Thing is no one knows what really happened to him as he was out there alone, it's all speculation and he was pretty stupid to put himself in the situation he did, which the film just confirmed to me! Pretty scenery though!

August Rush
I enjoyed this more than I thought I would, it was a nice story and uplifting at the end. Escapism which is what I want from a film most of the time!

Lions for Lambs
Can't really remember much about this except that I really didn't enjoy it which I guess is enough!

We Own The Night
This was ok but it could have been a whole lot better.

The Nanny Diaries
Another escapist film which wasn't brilliant but made me smile for a little while. Doesn't Scarlet Johanson look so much better with dark hair?

National Treasure 2 Book of Secrets
I loved the first one and really liked this one, nothing like a bit of treasure hunting to keep you interested and make you smile!

The 11th Hour
I thought I would find this very interesting but I really didn't. What annoyed me the most was that there was nothing to tell you what you could do to help, it was all doom and gloom and scientific stuff over my head sometimes but no solutions.

The Assasination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
I shouted at the screen at one point 'just get on and bloody well shoot him' if that tells you anything. Then there was no relief after he had shot him as it just carried on. Quite dull, could have been brilliant, but Robert Ford worked my last nerve and couldn't speak clearly enough to understand half of what he said, Brad was as good as usual though.

Juno
This was funny in bits, cute in bits and sad in bits but I didn't think it was up to the hype, Little Miss Sunshine is still a much better indie film in my mind. I also found Juno quite annoying.

Feast of Love
The only thing really going for this film was the Portland scenery which really upset me as I so want to be in Portland and can't be so it wasn't a great hour and a half for me.

Michael Clayton
Another one that could have been a good film but lost it somewhere along the line and just became conveluted and dull.

PS I Love You
Obviously I have something for romantic comedies as I really enjoyed this film. It said it was a weepy but I didn't find it that way at all.

Cloverfield
I really couldn't stand this film and feel I have lost an hour of my life that I can't get back. I hated the cinematography, wasn't interested in the characters so wasn't affected when they died and generally thought it was over rated and dull.

American Gangster
I enjoyed this. Can't think of much else to say about it though!

Stardust
As I said in my review of the book there were bits that they left out that I thought were important and the fact they changed the ending completely upset me a bit but besides that I thought it was a pretty good film and I still adore Clare Danes.

No Country for Old Men
I thought this was crap and had no ending to speak of despite Tommy Lee Jones trying his level best (I adore him!).

Definetely, Maybe
Again another cute romantic comedy which I enjoyed, I obviously can't stomach serious stuff at the moment!

In the Valley of Elah
Another Tommy Lee Jones film but this time better. The ending just had my mouth hanging open as the man explained what happened and why they'd done what they did. A bit hard to watch at times but good all the same.

Sweeny Todd
Didn't really enjoy this and the singing got on my nerves after a while.

Martian Child
This was cute, John Cusack was as good as he normally is and the child was very good as well.

27 Dresses
I've heard people slag this off but I enjoyed it in my 'nothing to serious' mood. I thought she was very cute but I did think she and the main bloke were an odd match...

Vantage Point
I was looking forward to watching this and it was a let down. Not a lot of plot repeated over and over again.

The Badge
I've only just watched this (a few days ago) and I couldn't remember what it was about which tells you something about it. Lacking in plot, characters weren't that great and generally dull.

The Astronaught Farmer
This was kind of cute although not so brilliant. Probably didn't help that the dvd went wrong halfway through and I had to wait for a replacement though.#

September

The Good Night
This was a really odd film and I have to admit that I'm not sure I actually got it. Some parts of it were interesting but I didn't feel like I got to understand the characters enough to figure out what was going on and the ending was a tad bit annoying for my liking.

Happy Go Lucky
This was an enjoyable watch but also frustrating as I find most Mike Leigh films as they don't seem to go anywhere and are more a slice of life than a real story. The main character was lovely to watch though and made me smile.

Evening
I really enjoyed this film although it was pretty sad in places. It's about a woman on her death bed reliving a period of her life so you go back and forth between the two times. The acresses involved in this film were all excellent, well worth a look!

What Happens in Vegas
I was disappointed when I turned this on and realised it was Cameron Diaz rather than Kate Hudson in it as I much prefer KH and find her much funnier. Anyway, it was a brainless film with a few small laughs but nothing to write home about.

North By Northwest
I have added a load of old films to my Blockbuster list to give me a bit more variety. I enjoyed this one, although Cary Grant was little bit too suntaned for my liking! I love the difference in acting from back then, they didn't go for complete realism and some of the lines are pretty corny and funny when they're not meant to be. It wasn't a gripping thriller but it was a good watch anyway and the house near the end was fabulous!

Forgetting Sarah Marshall
I didn't really enjoy this, it felt like a really amateur film to me, some of the editing was dire. I thought that Russell Brand was the funniest thing about it and normally he just annoys me. Not a very good romantic comedy.

The Bucket List
This was really cute and funny and touching story about 2 men who have terminal cancer and are living out the things on their 'things to do before we kick the bucket' list. It sounds really depressing but it was very funny in places. I really enjoyed it a lot.

South Pacific
I didn't really enjoy this much, I found the technicolour washes they used on it particularly annoying and the songs seemed to hold back whatever little plot there was rather than help it along.

Fools Gold
This was a funny comedy about a divorced couple looking for lost treasure. Nothing more than a romantic comedy with a bit of adventure but fun all the same.

The Wild One
Am I one of the few people on earth who don't think that Marlon Brando was god's gift as an actor? I find his voice particularly annoying, it seems far too high for a man his size. Anyway, I still enjoyed this although at the end I was questioning what it was the writing at the beginning thought should be prevented from happening again, a group of youths (who didn't look that youthful!) having a wild weekend and wrecking a town or a malitia of bigots trying to kill them? I also wondered whether they actually had a continuity person working on this film or just thought the audience wouldn't notice the big jumps that occured?!? I'm glad I finally watched it though to see MB say 'what you got' and to know where the group BRMC got their name!

Margot At The Wedding
I find it hard to like a film when I can't like any of the characters. This was a pretty dull film about a woman who basically needed to get over herself and stop overanalysing everything.

Hells Kitchen NYC
Another terrible film, even Angelina Jolie couldn't pull it back with lines like 'you expect me to f**k you? You just f***ed my Mother'.... Plus 2 of the male characters looked and talked so alike I couldn't tell them apart and no one seemed to speak up enough to make much sense of what they were saying....

The Flock
I had a run of bad films here it seems. Clare Danes did try her best but this wasn't a 'thriller' at all, just a dull plodding along film with Richard Gere playing a real weirdo who you couldn't have any sympathy for at all. Also it didn't seem to hinge on reality at all, if someone had come to CD's house to try and kill her surely there would have been some police involvement or she may have been a bit worried about being on her own, but apparently not...

October

Brief Encounter
This is one of those films that you think you should have seen but I never got around to it until now. David Niven did some amazing camerwork in it, it's not often I sit there saying 'wow that's a great shot' as I try to ignore my film background and just enjoy films for what they are, but this was beautifully shot. The morals of the time were amusing though considering what is considered normal today, they only knew each other for 5 weeks tops and didn't do more than kiss and yet it was such a scandal! Really good film, especially if you like trains!

21
A passable film about a student who joins a club who go to Vegas and count cards to make money. Quite enjoyable and brainless.

Penelope
They really could have made Christina Ricci look more pig-like in this film, to me she just looked like Victoria Beckham with a slightly bigger nose... A cute story though, I like a good fairy tale like romance and CR has grown on me over the years.

High Society
This was the first thing I think I've ever seen Bing Crosby in (I know, where have I been?!?) and it was also the first time I could see what people saw in Frank Sinatra as in his later days I just find him annoyingly scrawny and dull. It was a really sweet film with lots of nice costumes and some Louis Armstrong thrown in.

Gia
This was a HBO movie about the first 'supermodel' and her life story. It wasn't that brilliant but still interesting and incredibly sad as she was one of the first women to die of AIDS and had terrible problems with drugs.

Lucky Number Slevin
This was such a clever film and really enjoyable to watch. The twist at the end wasn't hinted at at all until you got there which made it fun. The characters were good and it was really well acted, wish there were more of these around!

Smart People
This was another film without very likeable characters which always makes it hard to relate to what's going on. It was ok but I wouldn't give it very many points.

Knocked Up
This was funnier than I thought it was be but it's still not a great film. Passed the time with a few giggles which is what I needed at the time though.

November/December

Wanted
I really enjoyed this comic book type film about assasins who are a little bit supernatural. It had action, a twist in the plot and a little bit of humour which made it fun to watch.

Hostage
This wasn't too bad, Bruce Willis tends to do some good films in my opinon. Not groundbreaking or anything but entertaining enough.

Gone Baby Gone
I have come to the conclusion that Casey Affleck just drives me insane, and not in a good way. He is one dimensional and he mumbles which makes figuring out what the hell is going on in any film he's in impossible. This was a pretty dull film anyway even if he'd not been in it.

Speed Racer
This was colourful and fun, I do like me a comic book type film and I really enjoyed this one, good fun without having to think about anything.

Indiana Jones - Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
This wasn't as good as the originals but it wasn't a bad attempt at a follow on from them. Same action (although there seemed to be less of it to me) and funny lines here and there.

Edge of Love
This was crap and I didn't even finish watching it. I found the acting dreadful, the plot incredibly dull and hard to follow and the characters totally unsympathetic. Rubbish.

Wall-E
I really liked this and Jim enjoyed it too, fun kids animated film, I will probably buy it for him when it comes down in price.

Street Kings
This wasn't that good a film and Keanu Reeves seemed to struggle even for him in his role. Didn't like the twist at the end and generally found it pretty dull.

We're No Angels
This was really funny and a sweet film, a good oldie.

Mamma Mia
Everyone has been raving about this so I caved in and gave it a go. I didn't think it was as fabulous as I'd heard but it was enjoyable and made you bop around in your chair whilst watching it and Meryl Streep was fabulous in it.

The Air I Breathe
This started off being really interesting and then just fell apart at the end. I think it was trying to be more clever than it was and then just lost it's way leaving me wondering what the hell happened anyway but not really caring.

.45
This seemed for a little while like it would be good and then it just turned rubbishy.

The Mummy -Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
I really enjoyed this but then I do love the Mummy films. It carried on really well from the others even though there was supposed to be a long length of time between the two. I think the actress who took over the female lead did a really good job of it too which was great. Lots of action, special effects and some fun.

Playing By Heart
This was ok, it was broken up into 5 different stories which turned out to be interlinked (which was pretty damn obvious so not a surprise at the end that I'm giving away even though I think you were supposed to be surprised). Some of the stories were a lot more interesting than the others but it passed the time and didn't bore me to death!

Total Films Watched in 2008 - 110 and 4 TV Series

Books I Read 2008

2008-12-30T09:22:00.000Z

January

Garlic and Sapphires - the secret life of a food critic - Ruth Reichl
This was a lovely book, I really enjoy RR's writing, so much that I can forgive her all the foi gras she ate (and she ate a whole lot of it) and the long descriptions of different parts of animals she consumed (sometimes it made me a little queasy but her love of food always made it bearable). The book tells of how she disguised herself to dine out unnoticed for her reviews for the New York Times and includes the actual reviews to go with the stories she tells along with recipes (nothing I could use or even veganise though unfortunately). I read this book in 3 days whenever I could get a few moments to pick it up and it was one of those that I wished was a whole lot longer. I've now read everything she's published to date and I do hope that she writes another book soon!

The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
This was a really clever book, I haven't read one where the main character actually being deal worked so well. Reading not only how her family felt but how she felt about her death and how they were reacting to it and living their lives after she was gone was really interesting.

Eclipse - Stephanie Meyer
I finally got my hands on the third book in this series (not a trilogy as I thought, another book near the end of this year, yippee!). This one was just over 600 pages long and again I read it all in one day. I'm going back over it now as I know I probably skipped some detail trying to find out what happened next! I enjoyed this book a lot, I love the Edward character (the vampire) and his family and I'm looking forward to finding out what they get up to next.

Northern Lights - Philip Pullman
This book had me going to bed early for several nights in a row so I could find out what happened next. I guess I'm into young adult books at the moment! I have never really been a sci-fi fantasy kind of reader outside a brief spell reading Terry Pratchett but this book was very interesting and the story had so many different levels and intrigues that it made you keep going. I've ordered the next 2 off Amazon so I can find out what happens next!

Diet For a New America - John Robbins
I think I've read too many of this type of book, I get a bit worn down by them and have been reading this book on and off for what feels like forever. It's a good book, don't get me wrong, but for someone who is convinced already that a vegan diet and living an environmetally friendly life is best for myself and the planet all this book could do for me is provide me with more ammunition, and as it was written quite a while ago a lot of the statistics are out of date.

February

The Subtle Knife - Philip Pullman
This is the second book of the trilogy and equally as enjoyable as the first. It covers four different universes and the pages are marked with symbols that tell you where you are reading about which was pretty useful sometimes! The characters in these books are really lovely to read about, the type where you get upset when they die or bad things happen to them. I've got the third book waiting but I want to finish another book I'm reading before I get lost in that one!

The Amber Spyglass - Philip Pullman
The other book I was reading annoyed me (will explain why when I finish and review it!) so I picked this one up and of course couldn't put it down! The ideas and images in these books are just amazing. The middle book was really a bridge to get you to this final epic part of the tale which covers different universes, creatures, ideas on religion and many many battles and deaths. I wouldn't let Little One or Tiny read these until they were at least in their middle teens as the characters are so involving that you get really upset when they die (and so many of them do die it hurts). If you've not read this trilogy please pick it up and give it a go, I have so enjoyed my time with Will and Lyra I was sad for it to end.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle - Barbara Kingsolver
This is the book that annoyed me so it's taken me a while to read it. I want to start by saying that it's a good book though, the ideas are great and it's a really nice tale of seasonal eating and growing your own food/buying local food. What annoyed me was that in several places they came down really hard on vegans and used really silly arguments as to why them eating meat and dairy products was better than being vegan. Now, veganism is by no means perfect, but neither is meat/dairy eating and I felt that their arguing against veganism was really out of place in this book. If they want to eat meat/dairy then fine, tell me about how you do it locally/personally raising the animals but don't try and tell me that my diet is less environmetally friendly than yours because I don't consume those things because you're very wrong. I am happy for people to make their own choices and eat their own way and I admire the way this family eats, taking respoinsiblity for their meat/dairy consumption etc but when the message of the book is to try and do as much as you can to be local and eco friendly spreading information that is badly researched or just silly about another eco friendly way of eating is unnecessary. Anyway, as I said I enjoyed the bits that didn't annoy me but I do have a slightly bad taste in my mouth from the bits that did....

Howard Hughes The Secret Life - Charles Higham
This book was ok to start off with but by halfway through it was really dragging and the writing style was very irritating. The author would start off calling people by their full names, then go to last names, then back to full names and it made it very hard to figure out who the hell he was talking about. I can't say I enjoyed it all that much but I was determined to finish it just so I knew the whole story, now it's done I won't be reading it again that's for sure!

Manhatten When I Was Young - Mary Cantwell
This was a really interesting book to read, it's a biography about her life in Greenwich Village and she tells each part of it around the address that she lived in at the time. She's really honest about her mental state (not always good) and her jobs with fashion magazines (not really mentally taxing) and her relationship with her husband and kids. She wrote two other biographical books as well so I have added those to my future reading list.

March

I'm A Stranger Here Myself Notes on Returning to America After Twenty Years Away - Bill Bryson
This is a collection of essays that appeared in a British Newspaper covering a whole range of topics about America and BB's experiences in only the way he could write about them. Some of the stuff I've read before in other books and I'm sure I must have read a few of the columns in the newspaper as well but I still enjoyed the book and had a few good laughs.

False Memory - Dean Koontz
This one was much better than the last Koonz book I read, the characters were up to his usual standard and the plot really interesting and kept the pages turning. I think they could have edited a good 5-75 pages from the 818 pages though as he did waffle on a bit about stuff that wasn't that interesting and didn't move the plot forward. I still thought it was a good read though.

The Bean Trees - Barbara Kingsolver
I really enjoyed this book, the story of a woman who ends up looking after an unwanted child and the people they meet when they arrive in Tuscon. There is a second book with the same characters that I've just ordered secondhand and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens to them next. BK always weaves a good story and her characters are interesting and varied which keeps me reading her stuff.

The Ruby in the Smoke - Philip Pullman
This is another children's book by PP, although I often wonder reading his books what age they're aimed at as there is always a lot of death in them and this one included a bit of opium smoking as well just for good measure! It's a mystery story about Sally Lockhart, a ruby and the death of her father and was a really enjoyable read. There are 3 more in this series so of course, as per usual, I'm sure I'll be buying those soon!

The Friday Night Knitting Club - Kate Jacobs
My Mother had this out of the library so I started to have a read while I was at her house and got totally hooked on it. It's not heavy literature but the characters are interesting and well developed and it's nice to hear about people knitting! I flew through it in about 2 days and was sad to get to the end of it.

The Mommy Myth - Susan J Douglas and Meredith W Michaels
I have been reading this since November, not because it was a terrible book but because it is quite heavy going mentally and being tired from having a small baby my brain just wasn't functioning very well. The book traces how the media has idealized motherhood and undermined women. I found it really interesting and it made me think which is always good. I have a few other books on Motherhood that I will now attempt to read as the brain appears to be waking up!

April

The Shadow in the North - Philip Pullman
This is the second of the Sally Lochart mysteries and it was another good read. Again though I do wish he'd not kill off important characters that you really like, it gets a little depressing and frustrating! This mystery was about weapons, spiritualism and money set in Victorian London. Looking forward to reading the next two when I can afford them!

The Post-Birthday World - Lionel Shriver
This book tells the story of a woman's relationship with 2 different men but interestingly it covers the same period. In one story she leaves her partner of 10 years for another man and in the other story she stays with him. There are 2 of each chapter, one telling each side and both covering the same period. I did enjoy this book but have to admit that I found Irina's self absorbtion irritating at times. Who in real life has that much time to analyze everything as much as she does and think in so much detail all the time?

The Tiger in the Well - Philip Pullman
The third Sally Lockhart mysery and a really enjoyable read. Sally now has a daughter and is served with divorce papers from a man she's never met who wants to take her daughter and all her money etc (they're set in Victorian times so what was hers was his). Another good one from PP, I really do enjoy his writing.

The Tin Princess - Philip Pullman
The fourth and final Sally Lockhart mystery that only has Sally in it for a tiny bit at the beginning and end. Instead it's a story revolving around her friend Jim and Adelaide who appeared in the first book of the quartet. Another great read, I have more PP books on my list to buy and I'm looking forward to reading them.

May, June, July, August (in no particular order)

Candy Girl - Diablo Cody
This was recommended on a blog I read so I gave it a go. It's quite funny in places but I don't think her writing is that good (I wasn't a huge fan of Juno either). Pithy pass the time reading.

Speaking With Strangers - Mary Cantwell
This is the third of her biographies (haven't read the first one yet) and she is brutally honest about her life and where she went wrong as well as went right. Very interesting to read but it felt a bit short.

The Host - Stephanie Meyer
I'm not one for science fiction but this book was a really good read. The charcters were likeable and the ideas and observations about the human race were really interesting. Apparently she's writing a sequel and although I don't think it really needs one (the book can stand alone and wrapped up well in my opinion) I will no doubt read it.

Laura Ingalls Wilder A Biography - William Anderson
This was written for children so it's a bit basic but still interesting. It relates her life to the books and gives a nice overview of her life and the woman behind the writing.

Animal Dreams - Barbara Kingsolver
I really loved this book, the characters were great and you wanted to be involved in their lives and find out more about them. I really rate BK as a novellist and look forward to reading whatever she publishes next.

A Handful of Honey - Annie Hawes
This is different from her previous 3 books which were all about her life in Italy. In this one she travels to Morocco and Algeria on a journey to Algiers to try and find some people she met when she was a teenager. There was a little too much history for me in this one and I wished she'd said what happened at home (what happened with Marco especially!) but still a good read and I will continue to buy her books as I like her writing style.

Cross - James Patterson
This books is part of a series about Alex Cross and I've not read any of the others but it was still a pass time time no brainer of a read and enjoyable.

Stardust - Neil Gaiman
I'd not read any of his novels before (I used to collect the Sandman comics but sold them all a few years back on Ebay) and I enjoyed this book. It's basically a fairytale and the characters were fun and the fairy world he created was great. I watched the film and although it was good it left out a lot of bits in the book that I felt were important and also completely changed the ending which was a bit sad for me.

Vanilla Beans and Brodo - Isabella Dusi
I thought when I picked this up that it was going to be like the Annie Hawes books and give a look into foreigners living in Tuscany but instead it's a history of Montalcino and how that history effects everyday life in the walled Tuscan village. An interesting read but a little dense at times.

Ana's Story - Jenna Bush
This could have been a great book, it's the story of a young girl with HIV, but instead it was terribly written (who calls 2 paragraphs a chapter for god's sake?) and didn't go into any depth at all.

A Cuppa Tea and an Asprin - Helen Forrester
I've read most of HF's books and this was a disappointing one. I think she's better at writing non-fiction than fiction and she didn't carry the story very well. Still interesting looking at the 'courts' in Liverpool (which were not far from where I lived) and everyday life of the very poor in the city though.

Diva's Don't Knit - Gil McNeil
A funny easy to read novel about a lady who takes over a knitting shop after her husband dies (they were just about to separate so it's not as simple as her being a widow). There are some really funny bits and she knows how to write about young boys very well.

Breaking Dawn - Stephanie Meyer
What a let down and a terrible way to end this saga. The other 3 books were wonderful but in this one she goes totally off character and has some really unbelieveable things happen (I know a vampire love story is unbelieveable but she goes way beyond what you could even consider believeable in this book). It wasn't even that well written which was sad considering the great job she did with her other books....

There were probably more that slipped through the cracks or were written on scraps of paper I've since lost!

September

Our Farm - Rosie Boycott
My Mother got this out of the library and it looked interesting so I borrowed it. It's about how she and her husband set up a farm with pigs, chickens and lots of plants. It's not realistic for anyone who might want to do the same unless they have £90k plus to invest but it was still an interesting read. There were a few bits that I skimmed where she was going on about topics not related to the farm that I wasn't intersted in but the rest of it was a good read, even the bits about the local politics in the village they live in and the fight against Tesco and a one way system. Apparently she's writing another book about the farm so I will keep my eyes open for that one.

Needles and Pearls - Gil McNeil
I managed to get hold of a copy of this from the local library, it's not the type of book that I would spend money on so I'm happy to get it for free! It's the second part of Diva's Don't Knit which I really enjoyed and I enjoyed this one as well, the characters were still interesting and the events were funny and interesting whilst at the same time not being too heavy or involved. A nice light perky read!

Incantation - Alice Hoffman
Can't say that AH is light and perky! This is one of her teenage books and it's about betrayal. Set in the 1500's during the Spanish Inquisition a girl falls out with her best friend and then her family suffers greatly. I love AH and haven't read a book of hers I didn't enjoy and this one adds to that list. I guess it was easier than her adult books as it's meant for teenagers but the subject matter and the way she deals with it are wonderful.

Fireworks - Elizabeth H Winthrop
I found this in a book sale and it sounded interesting, it's about a man who's life is coming unravelled spending the summer alone after his wife leaves saying they need a break from their marriage. In the end though it was disappointing and a bit dull and there was no real ending to speak of.

Running For The Hills - Horatio Clare
This is a true story of a family who go and live in a really remote farm in Wales. It's written by the son as a grownup using his parents diaries and his recollections of life there. It's a really lovely story and they are all interesting to read about, the Mother in particular. I really enjoyed it.

October

The Broken Bridge - Philip Pullman
Another young adult book by PP. It's the story of a young girl who discovers that her life isn't as she's been lead to believe and that there are things in her past that she isn't aware of. I love the way PP develops a story and keeps you interested in the characters and plot, another good read.

Angel Landing - Alice Hoffman
This wasn't one of AH's best books but it is a pretty early one so I'll let her off the hook! Still it had interesting characters and an interesting situation. I think the ending wasn't how she would have written it ten years later (happy endings aren't really her thing!) but I enjoyed it all the same.

November/December

Amish Society - John A. Hostetler
This is basically a textbook about the Amish written by a man who was raised Amish. It was very interesting, although sometimes a bit dry with the statistics etc. I wanted to know about the Amish way of life and what they believed etc and I got all that from this book, but it took me an age to work my way through it!

Hillbilly Gothic - Adrienne Martini
This was recommended on a blog and sounded interesting so I found a secondhand copy on Amazon. It's a biography about a woman who suffers from a breakdown after the birth of her first child. I found some of it really close to home from my own post-natal depression episodes. It is written with humour though and is very honest, not glossing over the harder parts and I really enjoyed it.

Digging To America - Anne Tyler
This was another recommended on a blog, I've not read any Anne Tyler since I read The Accidental Tourist as a young teenager and I really enjoyed this book. It's the story of 2 adopted Korean girls, one is adopted by a wholly American family and the other by Iranian Immigrants. Each chapter is from the perspective of a different family member going back and forth between the two families and it traces their stories and the way the different families raise them. A really good read.

Dead Until Dark, Living Dead in Dallas and Club Dead - Charlaine Harris
I treated myself to a box set of the Sookie Stackhouse books after they were recommended on several blogs. They are really easy reads, vampire mysteries with a sense of humour. I really enjoyed all these.

Total Books Read in 2008 - 46
That is much better than I thought as I had periods where I hardly read at all for months, but I guess the periods where I read almost non-stop made up for that!

All Done!

2008-12-24T11:39:00.004Z

I finally finished off all my holiday crafting last night, I had forgotten that Jim would be off school so the sewing was relegated to the evenings instead of my usual mornings, but I managed to get it all done and I'm excited to see what the recipients think of what I've made.

So, here are the final things for your viewing pleasure:

First up is the Yarn Harlot's pattern for a One Row Scarf for my Brother In Law. The finished length of this was 62" and I used one and a half balls of Cascade 220 Heathers which I had left over from my Dad's Cobblestone Pullover. Although this scarf was really long it actually wasn't a boring knit and I had memorised the pattern after the first 2 rows which is unusual for me, I normally have to look it up over and over again no matter how simple!

Next was another Kwiksew 3144 nightdress, this one for my older sister. I used the long pattern and shortened it to just around knee length as that's how she prefers them. Again this is such an easy sew and didn't take any time at all really.

A close-up of the fabric for anyone interested. I used PRR Snowflake print which I dyed with Kingfisher Dylon in the machine. It was supposed to be a darkish greeny blue but as I dyed more than the package recommends I got turquoise which is still ok for the colours she likes.

This was another quick knit for my Brother In Law and brought the total up to 3 hats for him.

The pattern is the Runnin' Beanie from Woolly Wormhead and it was really fun to make and only took 2 evenings to knit. I used one ball of Rowan All Season's Cotton in Fern. I must have miscounted somewhere though as this hat came out a bit more punk rock than the pattern, for some reason my dropped stitches aren't even and the distance between them varies quite greatly, not sure where I went wrong as I followed the pattern exactly. Anyway, I love this hat and I'm going to make myself one using the same yarn as I have another ball leftover from the sweater I made from it.

I made this last night in about an hour after having traced the pattern and cut it out during the day. It's from Jalie 2005 and is for my Mother. I actually said I'd make this for her during the summer but never got around to it so she's getting it for Christmas instead, hopefully she will still like the fabric she choose from my stash! Sewing for my Mother makes me giggle as she's so small it's almost like making kids clothes and I seem to use so little fabric on her, I've got plenty of this left to make myself a t-shirt in the future.

This scarf wasn't actually a present. I found the fun fur scarves I had knit a few years back and gave a couple to my Mother. When we went out for the day with my parents a few weeks back my older sister tried to steal one of the scarves from my Mother so when we looked in Sheepish in York she found herself 2 balls of fun fur for me to knit her a scarf. I cast on 22 stitches on 6.5mm needles and used the full 2 balls for this, a very fast knit and she's really pleased with it.

And this is for Marie of the shiny red boots, a close-up of the fabric I used for my Mother's nightdress.

I'll be back with perhaps some more projects in the week after Christmas as the boys are away for 5 days and I'm raring to get going on some sewing for myself now! If I don't manage to make anything (I also have a load of books on the way from Amazon so I may just slob out and read for a week!) then I will definitely be back with my year-end roundup.

Here's wishing you all a wonderful Christmas and New Year!

More Christmas Gifts

2008-12-15T10:31:00.004Z

I have slowly been working away at my list of Christmas gifts, 3 left to go now and plenty of time to get them done (she says optimistically!) so I'm not worried. No doubt I will be up at midnight on Christmas Eve alternately sewing and knitting now that I've said how well I've done!

I apologise for the bad photo, it's really hard to take one of something this long when it's too small to go on the dressform and the light is bad...

The first thing I finished was another nightdress for my Mother. The hardest part of this project was deciding which piece of fabric from my stash I could bear to part with! Since I cleared out all the fabric from my business I'm left only with the bits that I kept for myself because I really liked them. I pulled out several pieces and then put them away before finally deciding on this butterfly rib knit which I do love but I'm sure she'll like too!

The pattern is Kwiksew 3144 and it's basically a long raglan t-shirt that goes together in a flash. I used the fabric for the neckband as it was ribbing and I'm pretty happy with the results.

Next up was another Gratitude Wrap, this time for a Secret Santa that I'm taking part in. I used fabric from my stash and only had to buy the bias binding and the things to go in it, saying that though I still spent more than the limit before adding in the fabric and time but there you go...

Blogger is flipping photos for fun again...

I bought some note cards, stamps and a moleskin notebook to go inside. I was really annoyed when the notebook arrived though as this time I followed the instructions properly about how much I should turn under for the pockets seam allowance and the notebook won't fit in the pocket it's supposed to... I guess she can put a pen in there for something else. As the wrap was completely done before the notebook arrived I wasn't about to unpick the binding, the basting and then the pocket seams though so it will have to do how it is. I really like this one, it seems so different from the other one I made and shows how much fabric choices can change the look of a project.

So, still to come are a scarf, a t-shirt and another Kwiksew nightdress. I'm aiming to get the first and last done this week and the t-shirt done next week.

I also finished another knitting project, this is my Extreme Knitting blanket from the kit that I bought at the Knitting and Stitching Show.

It was knit on 24mm needles using 5 balls of yarn at a time. I am happy with the way it came out, it's big enough to cover my lap and down to my feet when I'm sitting which is all I really need. Jim loves it and is often found sitting under it whilst watching tv!

Other knitting projects are coming along slowly. I am about to start the first patterned section of the Printed Silk Cardigan, I hadn't realised how difficult the chart seemed so I'm putting that off for a little bit and may knit a sleeve before I attempt it! I finished the back of the Vest with Lacey Shoulders and have started the front, it's plain knitting until the shoulders so that is a good one for tv watching and should knit up really fast if I keep going on it. I'm about halfway done with the Christmas Scarf, I'm using the leftover Cascade 220 Heathers from my Dad's Cobblestone and the Yarn Harlot's One Row Scarf pattern, I'm liking the way it's knitting up and it's pretty mindless so it's going fast on 5mm needles. I've not knit on the shawl at all or on my socks, just haven't been in the mood for them but I'm sure they'll get done sooner or later, most things do around here eventually!

I'm going to try and get back into the blogging swing in the new year and post more, I do miss posting about my projects and life and keeping a good record of what I've been doing and how things are going and I miss the intereaction I got from comments when I was posting more regularly too...

Some FO's to Share

2008-12-02T14:48:00.008Z

So, I have been knitting and sewing but I just haven't had the time to blog about them. Here's a catch-up post of what I've been up to recently!

This is a sweater for Piggle that I cast on and completely finished within 2 weeks, I think it's one of my fastest ever sweaters, even the ones I made Jim in a similar size took me longer than this!

Blogger has decided you should see this picture sideways even though the photo I uploaded isn't sideways...

This is Sirdar 2256 sized for a 2 year old, the yarn is Sirdar Crofter DK which I will admit has 15% wool in it which does make me feel slightly bad, but not as bad as the fact that Piggle is 17 months and I'd not knit anything for him. The yarn is mock fair isle which makes it fun to knit with as you're looking for the next pattern to arrive and on 4mm needles in such a small size it knits up really fast and evenly. Hopefully it will wash well and he'll get a lot of wear from it, it's still too big for him yet but the colours should really suit him a lot. The whole project including the pattern cost me just over £10 as I only needed 3 balls (only used 2 and a half of them).

My Christmas sewing is coming along nicely too. I made this bag for my sister using the Loes Hinse Weekender Bag pattern that I've made twice before. My family never seem to ask me to make new and different stuff for them, I seem to repeat the same patterns over and over again, but I guess if it makes them happy then it's worth it!

The fabric is a needlecord from the stash that I seem to have a ton of (which is good because I love it). I used a thick iron on interfacing on the fabric but not the lining which is a natural cotton. The lining and toggle are also from the stash, the only thing I had to buy was the zip for the pocket.

I hope she likes the fabric, I think it's her colours, at the moment she has kidnapped the green version of this I made myself so perhaps I can get that back when she has one of her own!

My next present was this Gratitude Wrap which is a free pattern on the Soulemama blog. I cut out the fabric ages ago but for some reason I thought it was going to be hard to make and fiddly etc. In the end I made it in just over a hour start to finish and I'm happy with the way it came out, although with practice I will get better at putting on bias binding around curves, mine are a little messy but not so bad a non-sewer will notice.

The fabric is from my stash as is the batting inside, I bought the bias binding and the cards, notebook, pen and stamps that I put inside it for her which meant it actually cost more than I intended and I won't be making her a bag as well (she's also getting a pair of handknit socks).

I really hope she likes this, she does travel a lot with work so I thought it would be handy for her to pick up and know it has cards etc in it ready to throw in her bag to take with her. I fancy one of them for myself now but I don't know why I'd ever need one! Perhaps I will do one for Jim now he's getting into emailing people I could do one and get him into letter writing too!

In other knitting I probably won't finish the Icarus Shawl by the end of the month considering I've not touched it in ages and it's onto the complicated charts now which require lots of attention and Jim has very kindly given me the cold he's been suffering with for a week now. I have cast on for another project though, the Vest With Lacy Shoulders from the Twilleys Freedom Gorgeous book with the bamboo Freedom Gorgeous yarn I got from the Knitting and Stitching Show. I'm almost up to the armhole decreases on the back already and it's knitting up really evenly which is great. I've also been working on the blanket here and there which is still great fun.

Hopefully I will have more to show soon, I still have a few simple sewing things to finish off for Christmas and I am also working on my first quilt top, it's pieced together and waiting for me to sew the strips together now I've laid it out (which was harder work than expected not to get fabrics next to each other!) but I won't be able to afford the backing and batting for that until after Christmas.

The Knitting and Stitching Show, Harrogate - 22nd November 2008

2008-11-23T12:54:00.003Z

My Mother and I hit up the Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate yesterday and had a really good time browsing stalls and encouraging each other to buy things to make! She came away with a bag to knit, a Japanese fabric bag to sew and some knitting notions. I came away with rather a lot more, I have never spent that much on yarn and fabric, or actually ever spent that much (just over £100) on things that I just wanted rather than needed in my life and it was both fun and a little scary! Some of it will be paid for from any Birthday money I may receive next week (my lovely Grandmother normally sends a cheque) but the rest was just to treat myself and things that I'd not seen before in person.

My largest purchase was made within about 5 stalls of the main door when I came across the House of Hemp stall. A really long time ago I made a purchase from House of Hemp for yarn for 2 garments and after having a terrible time winding it into skeins (if you buy a lot of one colour they send it in a HUGE skein that has to be wound by hand and mine tangled terribly and literally took me weeks to unravel a bit at a time) I didn't get any further. I discovered that the yarn also shrinks a bit when it's washed but forgot to measure my swatch before I used it which meant that I couldn't figure out how much it had shrunk and I basically just abandoned it after that.

However, I have always wanted to try their yarn properly and after seeing the sample for their cardigan called Linda I really wanted to give it a go. To make it easier they sold the patterns separately so I didn't have to buy their book so I picked up these skeins of a lovely blue that changes colours in the light.

I have just realised that in my excitement I didn't realise it is a one size pattern and that size is a 37" bust which obviously I'm not... Will have to have a think on it a bit, perhaps go up a needle size to make it a little bigger, I did buy an extra skein just in case I needed it and I guess I could buy more if I should run out, sending them a sample of the shade I got so they can match it. That's excitement buying for you, the sample looked quite a nice size but I probably should have tried it on and looked at the pattern a bit closer but the stall was quite packed and I really wanted the pattern and that shade of yarn! Apparently my House of Hemp complications will continue! This pattern is also an advanced pattern, small gauge with quite rough yarn (until it's washed) so it will be a long term project rather than one I rush to get started on right away.

At the Web of Wool stand I found some Panda Soy to add to my sock yarn stash. These are Green Fields and Stained Glass. I'd never seen it before and hadn't gotten around to ordering any online yet so it was exciting to find some. They also had Maizy and Panda Cotton, both of which I really like, but most of the colourways I already had and the few I didn't I wasn't that keen on.
My Mother and I both agreed that the staff on the Web of Wool stand were the most friendly and helpful at the entire show along with the last stall I will talk about later. She was so sold on them that she's planning some purchases online in the next few days, some bits for my Birthday that they had run out of and some circular needles as they didn't have any at the show. We both thought that the majority of the people on the stalls weren't that communicative or helpful, even when you were trying to make a purchase. On the Habu stand the woman running it actually had her coat on and her bag on her shoulder so she looked like a customer, we didn't realise she was in charge until someone else started asking her questions. I asked about a scarf that I really liked and said I didn't want to use cashmere for it and she just wandered off rather than offering any other yarns that might be suitable so they didn't get any of my money.

We later found a Japanese Fabric stall that had some great bag kits. My Mother got a shoulder bag kit and I found this little bag (sorry the picture is sideways) that I intend to try and add a waterproof lining to so I can use it as a sponge bag.

The fabric I picked is this lovely cats print and I'm looking forward to making it up, the instructions seem really simple. I will need to find some waterproof fabric first though, I may still have some PUL in my stash that I can layer between the 2 fabric layers rather than using batting, I will have a play soon!

I was then looking at a stall that carried Twilleys yarns and discovered a bamboo I'd not seen before called Freedom Gorgeous. I had a 2 page list of patterns that I wanted to find yarn for but couldn't find one to fit with the gauge of this yarn so I ended up buying the pattern booklet as well as 7 balls of yarn to make the vest shown.

The colourway is called Acorn but it is a bit grey as well. It seems like a really easy knit so I'm looking forward to casting on for it soon.

We passed a fabric stall a few times that had some really simple tote bags made up with hessian handles so on our second walk around each hall I gave in and bought half a metre of this plums fabric along with 6 metres of hessian strapping.

I really love the colours of this and the hessian gives it such a nice touch, it was only 50p a metre which is why I stocked up for future projects, plus I've not seen it anywhere before and wanted some in my stash.

My final purchase was quite by accident. The first time we walked past the extreme textiles stall we actually kind of made fun of it, we liked the texture of the knitting but wondered who would try such a thing, apparently it's me as I cast on last night!

The stall was owned by Rachel John and her daughter was knitting as we went by the second time so we stopped to watch. She answered everyone's questions so well and the colours and textures were great, what sold me was when she offered to let me have a go and I found out how fun it was and much easier than I thought! I bought a bag of 1kg of yarn and some 25mm needles (no, that's not a typo, they're like branches!) and cast on as soon as I could last night to make a blanket. I'm using 5 balls of yarn at the same time and the texture will alter through the blanket as I swap one yarn for another as they run out, I'm just about to make my first change on the next row but I couldn't make up my mind which ball of yarn to grab next so I stopped knitting last night. My Mother and my sister have both requested blankets and I will be buying some huge dpns from Rachel as soon as I can afford them to make myself a kitchen rug and I have plans for a bathmat as well using craft cotton and moss stitch!

The yarn in each pack is mostly non-wool but there is a little thrown in here and there. However, she puts the kits together from charity shop finds and leftovers donated from people's stashes as well as new yarn so I decided that the 1 ball of wool in my pack was forgivable. I'm really looking forward to seeing how this grows and to trying more projects, it does take a little bit of concentration to make sure you have all 5 strands for each stitch on the huge needles (the one I knit at the show was 10 balls at the same time which was pretty amazing). I'm looking forward too to being able to use up all the odd balls in my stash making things, I'm thinking maybe some cushion covers which would knit up super fast and some more throws and blankets, perhaps a bedside rug too. They also do massive crochet hooks if hooking if your thing. Can you tell how excited I am about this? Rachel and her daughter were both so helpful and interesting to talk to, I'm sure I'll be a customer for a good long time.

I wandered into the Hipknits stall to look at the pretty colours without reading the sign, Kerrie recognised my Sitcom Chic (I must finish another cardigan, I wear this one everywhere!) and I had a quick look at her name tag to check she was actually Kerrie (was pretty sure she was as her husband was also on the stand!) and then we had a nice chat about my plans for some Rowan 4ply cotton that I bought from her a few years ago when she had a stash clearout and have finally found a pattern I want to use it with! She was as nice in person as my conversations with her online and it was good to put a real face rather than a photograph to a person.

Get Knitted weren't there which I was a bit sad about as they're my favourite online yarn store and I get a lot of things from them and was looking forward to browsing their stall. Maybe they'll be there next year.

So, the shopping was great, I'm happy with all my purchases but the not so communicative stallholders and the complete lack of anything for me to eat beyond a banana and a packet of crisps were a bit of a let down. I also didn't find any blocking wires which were on my list to buy, perhaps they were too small to be stocked at the show or something, I will have to hunt some down online.

We will be going next year though so I will have to make sure I have a good lot saved up for more spending!

Butterick 4406 FO

2008-11-11T16:21:00.003Z

It's been far too long since I've done any sewing at all, I just haven't been in the mood to get into the sewing room, but from the weekend onwards I've been starting to miss it and needed a new fun quick project to get me going again. These pyjamas were just that.

They are made from killington flannel which is a lovely soft double napped flannel (which means it's brushed on both sides) and it comes in a natural unbleached shade. I threw it in the machine with some burgundy dylon and because I dyed so much fabric with one tub of dye it came out this dark pink shade. It was a stroke of luck though as the fabric totally matched the thread I bought the other week to use on one of my sister's presents!

The pattern is one of their Fast and Easy ones and it was all that. These took me two mornings to put together and only a couple of hours in each of those sessions with plenty of breaks for other things. I used size Large (I am so happy, before my weight loss I'd have to have used the XL so it's a real accomplishment for me to get into the larges!) and changed the pattern slightly by adding two inches to the body of the top and 3 inches to the length of the sleeves as on the pattern they're 3/4 length and I like to hold my sleeves in my hands when I'm going to sleep.

The sewing was simple, it's actually the best v-neck I've ever sewn as I didn't have to re-sew it due to it being off-centre like I normally do. The top stitching I added, the bottoms call for you to sew down the elastic casing and then top stitch around the top of it and I liked the effect so much that I used it on all the hems and also top stitched around the neckline. I then decided that I wanted the facings to stay laying flat, I can't imagine anything more uncomfortable than facings being all rumpled when you're trying to sleep, so I sewed them down as well.

I was considering putting on an iron-on applique onto the top but I couldn't make up my mind so they will stay plain and unadorned for now until I can come to a decision. I also didn't sew up the back of the elastic casing as I'm hoping to have to adjust the elastic in the new few months as I continue to loose weight (I'm feeling pretty motivated right now, long may that continue!).

I'm really happy with the way these came out and they feel so soft and should be really warm which is good as this house is colder than the old one. I'm also happy to have a slightly more 'grown up' pair of pyjamas in my drawer, all mine are kids prints and really baggy flannel pyjama bottoms with t-shirts and I'm starting to feel a bit of a mess in them, so having something slightly smarter is great.

I think I will be using the bottoms pattern as my standard pyjama bottoms pattern too, I'm fed up with the tapered legs of my current pairs and these are nice and straight without them being huge and really baggy, plus I didn't have to shorten them 4 or 5 inches like I do most pyjama patterns.

Now I need to make sure I keep sewing, Christmas presents are calling and I have some easy and fun things that I want to get made so I need to keep the momentum going.

The Pictures

2008-11-08T15:21:00.006Z

Jim is feeling better today so I got a chance to steam the two knitted FOs and get some pictures of them.

The first one I finished was the Frontier Blues Jacket from Knitscene Winter 07 / Spring 08. I used the yarn called for which was Rowan Cotton Rope and it took me 11 and a half balls to make this in the 41.5" size. As I mentioned I did find some ribbon to go on it but it turned out not to be wide enough, as I had gone to all the effort of knitting the moss stitch I figured it may as well be seen! I used 5.5 mm needles, dpns for the sleeves and a circular for the body. For the first time I can actually see the difference in my tension between the dpns and the circs, I knit much more evenly on the dpns and a little bit tighter. Normally there isn't much difference, I'm wondering if it was the knitting back and forth on the circulars that caused the difference this time, the 5.5mm circulars really hurt my hands and I could only do a few rows at a time. I also found the yarn really splitty and not a great pleasure to work with so I won't be buying any more of it in the future.

Anyway, here it is:

It is bright but not quite as bright as this picture. The yarn shade is 071 and my Mother said it's coral so I will trust her on that! I actually went off the colour halfway through knitting which is one of the reasons it took me so long to finish. I cast on in March and didn't finish it until October 30th, stalling stupidly once I had joined the sleeves onto the body and only had the yoke to knit. Once I picked it up again and got going it was finished within a matter of days so it was a nice quick UFO to get done.

I'm not going to put any sort of fastening on it, it will make a nice throw on cardigan for the summer over t-shirts or dresses I think so hopefully I will get a lot of wear out of it. I did worry about it being a bit shorter than I wanted it to be but once I tried it on I realised that although it is a little shorter than my Sitcom Chic (which I wear all the time) it's still an ok length for me and not cropped.

The next UFO I finished had been under construction for even longer than the Frontier Blues Jacket! My ex started this when he was going through his knitting phase which must have been 2 years ago now. He knit the back and one sleeve and then gave up on knitting and it sat in my knitting basket until a couple of months back when I picked it up again. At some point I had knit half a sleeve but never got any further.

I've talked about how I had to re-knit the back and the sleeve as I discovered that our gauges were totally off and it wouldn't fit together. You can tell which bits have been knit from the unravelled pieces but I'm hoping that the first wash will even it out a bit. When I picked up the stitches for the hood instead of stopping just before the front ribbing I accidentally picked up across it and I wasn't picking up 157 stitches all over again so I left it. When it came to sewing in the ends I sewed down the ribbing where it joined so it looks like I've done it properly and I don't think anyone will notice unless they look really hard.

Sorry, it's hard to take a picture of something with a hood...

I used Sirdar Denim Tweed DK for this, it's mainly cotton with a little bit of wool in it, my ex picked it out as obviously I would personally have bought an all cotton yarn or a synthetic. It was a really nice yarn to knit with though and my Mother says she'll be using it to make things for the boys from in the future. I made the 5/6 year size and used 4mm and 3.25mm needles and four balls of yarn so it wasn't too expensive. It fits Jim perfectly at the moment so he should be able to wear it for at least a year. The pattern starts at 1/2 and goes up to 11/12 and has a cardigan version on it as well so I'm sure I'll be making this a few more times for both the boys in the future. Unfortunately I will have to tape the pattern back together as Piggle got hold of it and it's now in three pieces!

So, I'm down to just the shawl out of the long list of things I wanted to get done before the end of the year. I have 22 more rows of the first simple chart to do and then I move onto the more complicated lace but it's not a big proportion of the shawl so I'm confident that I can get it done by my deadline if I keep working on it each day.

I'm now looking for a project that has some simple plain knitting in it as I will be going to 2 knit and chat things soon and I can't count and knit very well at the same time, I always loose my place. Right now I am swatching for the Printed Silk Cardigan from Interweave Knits Spring 2008. I had this cardigan in my list as soon as I got the magazine but couldn't think of a substitution for the yarn and I want to try and knit up some of my stash as I have 2 drawers of it and can't really afford to buy new yarn. Looking on Ravelry I discovered that someone made it out of Rowan 4ply Cotton and I have a ton of that waiting to be knit so I decided that as I need a black cardigan I will use up the bag of black that I have. I'm a little bit short on yardage but I'm hoping that the 42" size doesn't actually use up all the yarn called for in the pattern but should I get right to the end and run out I have the Lucky Clover Wrap Cardigan that I made from the same yarn that I have been intending to rip out ever since I finished it and saw how bad it looked on me so I can always start taking that apart to finish this off.

I am still debating the size to make actually, I am steadily loosing weight at the moment but I think the 38 would be too tight even when I do get to my goal weight, however a 42 seems a little too big (I'm shooting to be a 38/40 inch bust when I'm done dieting) but I guess if I want to wear it over things then it's best to go for the bigger size. I am swatching on 3.25 mm needles at the moment (the pattern calls for 3.75) and it seems to be on gauge so far, the 3.5mm needles I tried with first gave me the wrong gauge in both stitches and rows. The pattern seems like a nice combination of easy stocking stitch with some patterning thrown in at the top of each piece so I'm looking forward to making it and using up a bag of yarn I've had now for probably going on 4 years!

The Groovy Socks are coming along slowly but I'm in no rush to finish them off, they're just to give me something different to knit on when I get bored with the shawl. The shawl will still obviously be my priority but I will take the Printed Silk Cardigan when I go out and work on the stocking stitch sections when I actually want to watch something on tv rather than just glance at it every now and again!

Still no sewing, I was shocked to realise that I've not sewn for 2 weeks now, I just seem to have lost the mojo which is silly when I have so many Christmas presents to make. I'm dyeing some fabric for some pyjamas for me at the moment and I'm hoping that they will give me back my mojo and get me going again as I'm pretty excited at how the fabric is looking in the machine and about having some nice new cozy pyjamas to cuddle up in during the cold weather. I did cut out the Soulmama Gratitude wrap that I'm going to make for my sister, that is the project I really want to get on with first, then there's 2 nightdresses and 2 bags that I want to make for presents as well so I should get going. I do have the advantage this year of not having to deliver presents early or post them as the whole family is coming up here this year so I can sew through until Christmas Eve if I need to, but I'd obviously prefer to get it done sooner than that so I can finish up some other things on the many piles I have made yet again (although I'm not sewing it doesn't seem to stop me from planning sewing and pulling out patterns and fabric...).

Well....

2008-11-07T11:07:00.003Z

I do actually have two knitted FO's to show you, the Frontier Pinks Jacket and Jim's Hoodie. The plan was the steam them with the iron today and take some pictures but that's not going to happen now. Jim's been up all night throwing up so he's now asleep in my bed. Hopefully he will be better soon and I can get the pictures done.

I have cast on for another pair of socks, they're the Groovy Socks by Sock Pixie and I'm using Sock Pixie Vegan yarn for them. The colour repeats in the Vegan yarn aren't actually the right length to get the pattern to work how it should be I like the lace effect I'm getting with it so I shall keep knitting. I am a bit concerned at how thin the knitted fabric feels, I'm not sure if they will wear well at all. I have another skein of the yarn in a different colourway so if I don't think these socks are up to the wear and tear they'll get I think I will knit a small shawl with that, I have 400 yards which is 37 yards short for the listed yarn requirements of the Swallowtail Shawl, I shall peruse Ravelry to see if I actually do need the full yardage or not.

Just one more UFO on my list to get done before Christmas and that's the Icarus Shawl. I think I have another repeat and a half of the easy bit before I start the complicated lace so I'm off to watch some tv on the computer and get knitting on it whilst keeping an ear out for a sickly little boy.

Pictures As Promised

2008-10-28T11:17:00.004Z

I'm feeling much better this week, there is nothing I can do now to change the situation and I know I did absolutely everything I could have to prevent the split so now it's time to move on with my life and be happy with what I have, which is a home I really like living in, two little boys who make me laugh an awful lot and exciting things to look forward to in the future. Of course I'm going to hurt from time to time, I really did believe that I would be married to the ex until I died and the fact that it didn't work how I thought it would does make me sad. Grieving takes time and I don't intend to rush myself or I will never get over it properly, I just wish that some periods weren't as hard as they have been, but considering a lot of the relationship, especially towards the end, was so hard I really shouldn't expect the aftermath to be much different really!

So, this is the simple knitting that has been keeping my hands busy while I try and distract myself with tv. I used the same pattern 3 times but did make changes to it after reading Ravelry and realising myself that as written it was never going to fit my Brother In Law!

The pattern is the London Beanie and for the first one I used some of the leftover Cascade 220 Heathers from my Dad's Cobblestone Pullover. I cast on 90 stitches and increased to 102. I then followed the pattern (without the stripes obviously) until the decreases where I not only added a row of knitting between each decrease row but I also added a further 2 or 3 decrease rows before finishing it off. It fits me fine and as the BIL has a slightly larger head than mine I'm happy that it will fit him too.

This is the second one using the pattern exactly the same way as the first but adding the stripes (in case you've gone blind in the last few seconds). I used some of the Hemp/Wool that I've had for ages (if you remember that far back I was assured I was ordering hemp/cotton so I got 3 bags of the stuff from a co-op and when it arrived it wasn't the cotton at all but it was too late to do anything about it). I'm not so happy with the ribbing on this hat and this yarn can feel pretty rough. I think I'll advise my BIL to soak it in some fabric softener before wearing it (or I may ask my Mother to do it for me as I don't own any), but I am happy with the colour combination.

Does Blogger flip anyone else's photos like this? Anyway, this third had I used the pattern numbers and cast on 72 stitches. When it came to decreasing I knit between the decrease rows and also added an extra decrease row as I thought there were still too many stitches. This is made from acrylic and is for a charity Christmas shoebox my Mother is doing for a boy 5-8 in a poor country (presumably one that gets cold...). I tried it on Jim and it will fit that age range so this pattern definitely is sized strangely...

I want to do a couple more hats still, they're so easy to knit and I have yarn to use up and more patterns I want to try. I also have plans for some more of that hemp/wool for a sweater for Jim once I've cleared through the WIP's and the Christmas stuff.

So, this is the back of Jim's Halloween costume for the party they had at his school.

I have no idea why he decided he wanted to be a house but I do my best to give him what he wants if I can. I originally thought of using a cardboard box and then realised that he wouldn't be able to sit down and storing it at home afterwards would be a real pain. So I found some white sheeting and bought some Dylon fabric pens and made the above. The front is similar except the door is in the middle and there are 4 windows, plus a pot of flowers by the front door. The hat is made out of craft paper and has bricks drawn on it so it's a chimney pot. He wore it all afternoon at school (including the hat which is amazing for him as he hates hats) and then wore the tunic until bedtime and all the next day as well so I guess he liked it!

It was pretty easy to make and I may do a bit more finishing on it at some point if he stays interested in it as I just overlocked the edges and there's no hem at the bottom or around the neck or armholes. I was feeling quite ill the night I made it so I just did the best I could at the time. My drawing skills are also pretty terrible, I think they should teach constructing costumes and making school projects when you take your antenatal classes, for some reason schools seem to think that all parents are able to do these things and I do find it quite hard work at times. At least with a house all I had to do was use a ruler and not draw anything fancy, maybe next year he'll let me use the costume book I bought years back in anticipation of costume making and do something a bit more interesting!

I picked up the Frontier Pinks cardigan 2 nights ago and I'm now doing the decreases on the yoke so it should be finished pretty soon (I hope as I only have 2 balls of yarn left!). I'm finding it easier to knit sitting at my desk watching tv on the computer as I can put the weight of it on the surface rather than having it on my hands which hurt after half a row. I still need to pick up Jim's Hoodie again and I will get on with that soon but I fancied working on something different for a little while so I let myself, it's better than casting on for something new anyway!

No sewing of late, I didn't get motivated last week at all to do any and this week is half term so there won't be much chance except in the evenings when I tend to be too tired to go up and get going. I did cut out a Christmas present for my sister and I'm excited about trying it soon so hopefully I will have that to show you soon. I need to get cracking on the Christmas stuff so I'm not rushing in December, most of it is pretty easy and it's just a case of dyeing some fabric and tracing a pattern or two, once Jim is back at school I will work my way through them.

My only exciting news to report is that Piggle is almost walking! He has been taking 2-3 steps and falling down but today he walked back and forth across the living room holding onto a wheeled trolley that we bought for Jim and he never used. Piggle was pretty excited and proud of himself so I will have to watch out and not get run down once he gets the hang of standing up to use it himself and Jim is very sweet applauding him as he goes so it won't be long until he's even more into stuff than he already is (which is an awful lot!).

I've Just Got Hats

2008-10-24T13:24:00.003+01:00

This week has not been an emotionally good one for me. I don't tend to post about the split as I'm sure it would be pretty dull for everyone to hear about it and generally I am positive about my life and getting on with things. However I've had to deal with the fact that my ex is now dating again which I have to admit threw me completely out of whack and hasn't made me the most pleasant person to be around recently, I'm even getting a bit fed up with myself which is never good.

So, I've not done any sewing to speak of except for a Halloween costume for Jim which I will get a photograph of when he gets home from school as it is their party today because they are having half term next week (we won't do trick or treating). I've also done no knitting besides hats for my Brother In Law for Christmas, so far I've made 2 using the London Beanie pattern that's easy to find on Ravelry (I had to cast on a lot more stitches than the pattern said which I will detail when I get some pictures to post) and I'm now on my 3rd version of the pattern using the original numbers for a 5-8 year old for my Mother to put in a charity shoebox she's doing for a child in a poorer country.

To add to the irritating things going on this week my Blogger Pro account has run out so I'm unable to write the dates on the back of the 127 photographs I got from Photobox this morning and it's near impossible to remember how old a child is in the photo or when exactly we went on his school trip so that I can put them in order. I need another photo album too, I was sure I still had some room but apparently not.

Life is trying to test me at the moment it seems and sometimes I pass and other times I fail miserably but I'm still wading along and I hope to get back onto the crafting path after half term ends.

Kwiksew Weekend

2008-10-19T19:16:00.006+01:00

I decided to finally get the winter pyjamas out of the way so I'm free of having to make anymore until warmer weather rolls around. I do wonder what I was thinking promising myself that I would make all of the boy's pyjamas because depending on growth spurts I could end up making 12 pairs a year, but for now I will soldier on with them as I love seeing them wearing them and Jim really seems to appreciate them.

I made these for Jim on Friday, they're Kwiksew 1556 again in size 5.

I can't remember where I got this flannel from, I'm thinking it was from someone's stash sale on a sewing group I'm a member of as I'd never buy 4 yards of any children's flannel, I always only get one or two. As Jim loves having matching pyjamas with his baby brother I whipped these up on Saturday for Piggle.

They are Kwiksew 3126 in size T1. I still have about a yard of this flannel left so one of them will be getting a pair of pyjama bottoms from it at some point with a bought t-shirt I'm sure!

A week or so ago another lady had a stash clearance on the group I mentioned and I picked up a load of fabric from her for a very reasonable price. Included in my bundle were some scraps from things she made her kids and when I looked at them I realised that there was only enough to make Piggle t-shirts in the size he is now so I cut some out and sewed them this weekend.

They are all Kwiksew Sewing for Toddlers size T1, this one has cowboys and cows on it, the ribbing is all from my stash.

This is PRR Safari which came dyed this colour. I wasn't sure about the ribbing but I didn't have much that would go with it and now that it's on I am quite happy with the way it turned out.

This is PRR dinosaur sweatshirt fleece. I cut out a sweatshirt for Jim from it (which I will tell you about in a moment) and saw that there were still plenty of scraps leftover. In order to get the sweatshirt cut for Piggle I had to cut the front in 2 pieces and sew it together and one of the sleeves is cut on the bias which if you look closely you can tell from the way the dinosaurs face. However, once I'd cut all the other pieces and just needed one more sleeve I wasn't going to let a bit of pattern direction stop me from getting a garment out of it and I don't think people looking at it will notice (at least I hope they don't!).

This is the sweatshirt I made for Jim from the same fabric. The ribbing on these is a medium green which the photos don't show too well as the light is horrible this time of year. This isn't actually a Kwiksew pattern, it's Ottobre 3/04 #23.

What's funny about this is that the front is supposed to be in 2 pieces like Piggle's is, but in my cutting out frenzy I totally forgot and cut it on the fold! It looks nice this way too though and he seemed to like it when I showed it to him. I used the 98cm pattern that I'd already traced but added 2cms to the sleeves and hem to give him a bit more wear from it (he's between 98 and 104 at the moment). I did all the hems for the sleeves and bottoms of these t-shirts and sweatshirts 2cms rather than an inch to give them both more length. Piggle isn't ready for T2's yet but the T1's aren't going to give him much wear without whatever length I can add to them.

So, that was a wodge of stuff off my list of sewing and now that those are out of the way I can get on with my Christmas presents (which includes totally re-sizing a bag pattern for my sister, I hope my math is up to it!) and also some trousers for Jim which are up next. I made the matching t-shirt for those in the summer and it's short sleeved but just never got around to doing the trousers so it's about time I sewed them. It's an Ottobre pattern with a ton of pieces so it will take a bit of work, hopefully it will be worth it though.

On the knitting front I finished the front of Jim's sweater, I just need to pick up and knit the front facings and then sew the raglans and pick up for the hood. I haven't cast off the sleeves or the back as you pick up as many stitches as you cast off which seemed silly to me. I'm hoping it will fit him, it looked ok when I held the back up to him but he's growing fast at the moment so I'd better get a move on with it. I also cast on for the first of the hats I'm making for my Brother In Law for Christmas, I have 2 more rows to go and then I start decreasing so it was a fast pattern and pretty easy, I think I'll do a ribbed one next and then consider my options from there, I fancy making Jim a hat to match one of the BIL's as he likes to have things like other people.

Hopefully I will have more FO's to show you soon!

California Dreamin' Clog Socks FO

2008-10-14T14:50:00.005+01:00

So I intended to work on Jim's sweater but I decided to cast on for the second of these socks so that they were at least underway and they've been all I've knit for the last few days whilst watching the first season of The Practice (which I've really enjoyed). These were such fun socks to knit, the colours are so bright and look so good together (you should always mix pink and orange I think) and the pattern was pretty easy as well, add to that the fact that it was Panda Cotton which is so soft and great to work with and there was no way these socks could really loose.

The pattern is free online, I used under 2 balls of Panda Cotton in Red Cinnamon on 2.5 mm dpns. I could have done another repeat on the leg but I was worried about running out of yarn as Panda Cotton is a bit short in yardage, once I'd finished the first sock and seen how much yardage I had left I just couldn't be bothered to rip back the whole foot and knit the fifth repeat though so the yarn will go into my leftover sock yarn stash for which I am formulating a plan.

I'm getting there on the projects I want to finish this year, I am now down to Jim's Sweater, the Frontier Pinks Jacket and the shawl. I'm really happy with the progress I'm making on my UFOs and I'm happy that I should be able to get them done within the time limit I set myself. There are still other things that I didn't include on the 'finish this year' list, like the Scale Skin Socks and Martha which I started when I was pregnant with Piggle and only managed to knit one sleeve of before putting it away for when my brain was less muddly. Those things will get finished, but they're not close enough to completion for me to realistically manage this year.

I looked in my old photographs and I've not finished a shawl this year at all which is very sad considering that I have 3 of them on the needles at the moment. Once this one is finished I am determined to get the other 2 done so I can cast on for a really hard one on really tiny needles that I've been longing to make since I bought the yarn a few years back. One of the shawls in progress is for my sister and her Birthday is in April so that's good incentive to get it done, the other is the Diamond Fantasy Shawl which I adore using yarn I adore but I can't do anything except listen to non-distracting music while I knit it as I have to keep an eye on the chart, but I will bring it down and do a few rows a day until it's finished, these things really shouldn't hang around so long!

Next up should be Jim's sweater, unless I get distracted again that is!

And Another One!

2008-10-10T16:22:00.004+01:00

I can't believe I've finished another project off, I feel like I'm finally getting through my knitting UFO's and that there may be an end in sight, of course more and more keeps being added to the list of things that I *want* to make, but besides the hot water bottle cover and the second socks I need to knit nothing has been cast on which is pretty good going for me!

Unbelievably I started these socks way back in January and I remember that the first sock was really easy and fast to knit, so why they sat around until October before being completed is beyond me. I did use the needles for another sock in the meantime which probably didn't help, especially as that sock stalled to (Scales Skin Socks, lovely pattern, bitch to knit). However, once I got this second sock on the needle it too flew along and I now have a completed pair.

The pattern is free online and the yarn I used is Maizy in Hibiscus that I won on a competition on the Vegan Sock KAL blog. I used 2.25mm needles and there was plenty of yarn leftover had I had longer legs or bigger feet.

Here's a closer shot of the pattern

and a shot of the top of the sock, nice and plain so it won't rub against the shoes.

So, one more done and dusted. I've cast on for the second California Dreamin' sock and I'm at the raglan decreases for Jim's sweater so I'm still zooming along. Fingers crossed I can keep it up!

I Never Promised You a Rose Garden

2008-10-09T19:36:00.004+01:00

But I did, however, promise you a FO yesterday, and there *was* a FO yesterday, just not the one that I was talking about!

This is the fastest project that I have ever knit I believe, 4 days start to finish and I'm so pleased with the results it's silly. The yarn was a gift from Gina a long time ago now and it is Blue Sky Cotton in shade 603 (thank you Gina!). This picture is more true to colour than the photo of the skein that I took when I got the yarn. I used the full skein which was 150 yards, the pattern calls for 190 yards and thus I only managed to knit 5 inches of ribbing at the top rather than the 8 inches the pattern called for. Instead of folding the ribbing down I have just tucked it inside the top of the hot water bottle and it works perfectly.

This yarn is so soft it's hard to believe it's cotton, I really wish I could afford enough to knit a sweater, but alas it's out of my price range and were it not for Gina's kindness I probably would never have had the fun knitting with it that I did or get to cuddle this lovely yarn every night during the winter! I used 4.5mm needles, started off on 16 inch circulars and finally allowed myself to come to the conclusion that I will have to part with all the 16 inch circulars in my needle collection and stick to dpns as my hands just can't take the shortness of the needles, they just hurt to use. Once I had swapped to dpns this just flew along. I finished it just after 10pm last night and by half past it was in use! You can't really ask for more than that from a project.

But fret ye not, I did also finish off the sewing project that I was talking about, just a day later than was intended as I didn't feel like working on it yesterday so I just cut out some more bits for the boys that will be sewn up soon.

A little while ago I stupidly let myself look at the Etsy shop Pomadour's Craft Cafe (be careful all who enter...) and after 2 orders I now own 6 Japanese sewing books. The patterns in the books only go up to a 37 inch chest, which is obviously too small for me, but I wondered how much ease was in them as some of the garments are designed to be very loose. This was my first test garment to see how much I would generally need to size things up, it's from this book which is called Stylish Dress Book.

The tunic I made is the one on the cover, I'd been wanting to try it for ages but I was a little intimidated by the fact that finding the pattern pieces was harder than even Ottobre patterns and that these were the full instructions.

Not a word of English to be seen! However, once I'd located all the pattern pieces and traced them then had a good look at the instructions I realised that they were all that I needed to put it together and were actually easier to understand than some written instructions I've tried to follow in the past.

This is my finished garment using some fabric that I like but have had so long (from The Joy of Sewing Co-op) that I wasn't going to cry if this turned out tiny or didn't go together right.

My dressform is set at a 41" bust, so you can see that I was right about the amount of ease in this pattern. 41" is still smaller than I am at the moment though (I'm working my way down slowly, have given myself a year to loose 2 babies worth of weight and am already 7lbs down after just over a month so slow and steady progress is being made) but I will be holding onto this for when I am that size to see whether there is actually enough room in the shoulders to move or if adjustments need to be made to the pattern.

This is a close-up of the lovely pleats on the boddice.

That front piece was amazingly wide (I used the full 2 yards of fabric I had for this project) and the pleats really pull it in a lot so one option for making it larger if need be will to sew narrower pleats and add some width to the back as well (which will mean re-working the sleeve cap which I've never done but it's about time I learnt).

This is the back, not plain and dull like the big 4 would make it but with a yoke and gathers, very pretty!

You can't see from the poorly lit photos but I used black thread for this which I think works really well with the pattern of the fabric.

So, I am proud to have finally given it a go and I look forward to having a go at some of the other patterns in the books I have. I definitely will have to alter and enbiggen the tighter fitting stuff but with the looser stuff I know that the ease worked in is plenty to fit larger sizes.

I may have been late posting, but it was 2 for 1 so I'm sure you'll forgive me. Tomorrow it's back to the pyjamas to get the last 2 pairs made for the boys, I'm almost at the end of my long list of stuff that was out ready to be sewn, unfortunately, as is my way, I now have a second list which is almost as long as the first one was, but that's just the way it goes!

Kwik Sew 1556

2008-10-06T19:38:00.002+01:00

So last week I didn't really feel like sewing much, I think I was probably a little burnt out from the amount I'd done the previous weeks so I just made these pyjamas for Jim slowly and let myself be.

They're from the new to me Kwik Sew pyjama pattern that I got from Moms Patterns a few weeks back which I think came from the 80's. When I finished making them I had plans to straighten the legs on the pants and straighten the sleeves a little bit but when Jim put them on they suit his tall thin frame really well, so well in fact that not only will I not change the pattern next time but I'm going to do this version rather than the version with the collar for his final pair of winter pjs!

The flannel is embroidered and I got it from the Color Me Flannel Co-op several years ago now. In case it's unclear from the photo the embroidery is crabs. I sewed them using red thread for a contrast and I'm really happy with the way they came out, as is Jim who declared that he looked 'very smart' in them! Two more pairs of pjs and I'm done for the winter, they're next up after the smock that I started this weekend from one of my Japanese sewing books, just the sleeves and the hem to do tomorrow and it's all done and dusted, so I guess I'm back on the sewing horse!

My not casting on pledge was broken the other day when I cast on for a hot water bottle cover. It has been really cold here and I spent one night last week shivering for a few hours in bed unable to sleep so I borrowed my Mother's hot water bottle and then on Saturday she very kindly bought me one of my own as my Grandmother will need hers when she comes to stay at my parents house next week. I'm really happy with the way the cover is going so far, I'm using the Blue Sky Cotton from my stash (won't link to the photo as it makes it look blue and it's actually a lovely dusky purple). The yarn is lovely to work with and very very soft but I'm not sure I will actually have enough to finish the pattern as written, we will see.

I've been working away on the second Fools Rush sock though and have just finished the gusset decreases so it's only 6 more pattern repeats to the toe. These socks really fly off the needles, I can't remember why I didn't just cast on for the second one after the first, but they will be done in the next few days and be another thing ticked off the list.

I've also been working on Jim's sweater, I am about a third of a way up the front, it's nice and easy back and forth stocking stitch so good for watching tv whilst doing it. Once the front is finished it's just a little bit of seaming, the hood and them a little more seaming and that will also be checked off the list. I'm hoping to get it done next week, but don't quote me on that!

My Mother and I went to a 'Knit and Chat' for an hour on Saturday in Guisborough which is about 15 minutes from where we live. We decided to just go for a short while the first time in case it wasn't our cup of tea, but we both had a nice time and will be attending the next one in November. It was kind of funny to be talking about Ravelry and 'where did you get your yarn', 'what pattern are you using and where did you find it' with real people as they were pretty much the first knitters I've met in real life besides my Mother! Next time we're intending to stay for the whole session so I will have to make sure I take a good lunch and find an easy project to work on, I thought the Fools Rush socks would be fine but I kept loosing my place in the very simple pattern repeat whilst listening to the conversation and looking at the different projects and patterns that were around the table!

Besides that things are pretty slow around here, just normal day to day not very interesting stuff so nothing to report of any consequence. Hopefully I'll have another FO to show you tomorrow and some knitting FOs to show after that if I can keep the momentum going. My hands are starting to get sore again though, I'm not sure if it's the weather, the metal needles I'm using for the socks or what but I really do not like being woken up by the pain in the middle of the night. If it doesn't stop soon I will have to get to the doctors and ask for some more physio on my back like I had a few years ago. For some reason I tighten up in my upper back and loose my range of motion which crushes the nerves to my hands making them fall asleep and then ache. I thought I had gotten past it as it was happening when I first moved, but now it's back I will have to do something about it, I've got knitting to do damn it!

Green Tea Raglan FO

2008-09-29T10:03:00.004+01:00

Ok, so I know you weren't expecting to see this until the start of October, or even excuses as to why it wasn't completed going by my previous record, but I got to work on it yesterday and finished the thing off and I feel all virtuous and good for having done so rather than leaving it lying around in pieces for an age!

The pattern is from Interweave Knits Spring 2007 and I used South West Trading Oasis in Natural. It took 4.25 balls and I used 4.5 and 5mm needles. I started this way back in February and knit the sleeves very quickly. Then came the seed stitch front and back and I put it down and didn't pick it back up again until a couple of months ago. The yarn is lovely to work with and has great drape, I hope to use it again when I can afford to buy more, I got this on sale from Get Knitted.

After my last post on this sweater where the neckline was too tight I had a look on Ravelry and read what other people had said about it. There was on review where the knitter said that the neckline was too high and I realised that it wasn't just a case of my cast off being too tight but that it was indeed just too high for me. So I ripped back 5 rows on each piece, reknit the finishing row and then cast off using an 8mm needle and it came out really well. I thought it would be a real pain in the ass to do as the yarn is quite slippery but it went really quickly and I managed to make myself sit still and do all four pieces in one go! Then I re-did the tops of the raglan seams and finished off the side seaming quite quickly.

I'm really happy with the way this came out, it's such a simple sweater but I think it will be really comfortable to wear and it can be dressed up or dressed down which is always good. I do like a good three quarter length sleeve too, it's a great thing for someone with small kids who is always washing their hands and for someone who likes to cook and is forever dipping their sleeves in stuff!

Next up is Jim's sweater which now has 2 sleeves and a back. I've started the ribbing on the front and hopefully that should get done quite quickly and then it's onto some seaming and the hood. I also cast on for the second Fools Rush sock and want to get onto the lace ribbing section of that today as it requires concentration but once you're past it the socks knit pretty quickly.

I'm still feeling motivated to finish off my UFO's by the end of the year and although I've thought about what I'd like to cast on when they're done I've managed not to get as far as looking for yarn and needles which is a bloody miracle for me!

Hmmmm

2008-09-26T12:32:00.002+01:00

I did the raglan seams of the Green Tea Raglan yesterday afternoon, held it up to have a look at it and realised that I have done the casting off far too tightly (the cast off edges form the neckline of the sweater, there's no other finish around the neckline). I can get it over my head, but if I actually want to be able to breathe whilst wearing the sweater I will have to re-do the casting off on much larger needles.

So today I've unpicked the top of each of the raglan seams which took longer than I'd anticipated (apparently when I finish a garment I really *finish* it and hide the ends really well!) and now I will have to figure out what size needle to use to make it drapey enough.

I knit it on 5mm needles so I'm thinking maybe 8mm? Anyone got any idea how much larger is too large (that could be construed wrongly!) or if 8mm might still be too small to get a loose enough neckline?

This yarn is really slippy so I'm not looking forward to the unravelling, and I'll also have to start a new piece of yarn for each cast off as the bit I unravel obviously won't be long enough when I'm using the larger needles... Yet more ends to sew in, I just hope it looks ok and works as I'm pretty happy with the way it's going together.

Oh well, at least I got a pair of pyjama bottoms made this morning, might not get to the top until Monday but it's a start!

Onion Blouse

2008-09-25T14:06:00.004+01:00

I finally managed to finish off this blouse yesterday. I'm sorry the picture is difficult to make out, if you click on it you will get taken to a bigger version of it which is much clearer and you can see the design details rather than it looking like a big brown sack. Also, it's too big for my dressform which is why it's hanging like that (but it's not too big for me) and Piggle wanted lunch so I didn't have time to dial it up to a bigger size.

The pattern is Onion 5026 and the fabric was from Abakhan quite some time ago. As I've said before it was a really thin fabric, the thinnest I've ever worked with, but it has great drape (I think it's a cotton synthetic mix) and I love the colour and pattern on it and I'm glad it's worked so well for this pattern.

Before I could make progress on it yesterday I had to unpick all the top stitching to the top of the middle band, unpick the zig zag stitching on the seam allowances for the pleats and then unpick the seam stitching for the pleats on the right front. I then ironed them flat, re-pleated them going the right way, sewed the seam, sewed the zig zags and then re-did the topstitching and I actually did a much better job with the topstitching this time so it was worth all the time it took to unpick.

After that it was pretty plain sailing putting the bottom panels on (six pleats on each panel), the side seams and then the hemming. I decided for the hems to turn up the 2cm allowance and then fold it in half and sew a small hem as those are the bits that will flip up and people will see them and the zig zagging wasn't nice enough for anyone to see. I had added enough to the sleeve hems to do the same thing (I have no idea why I added that much but I was glad I did!) and although they gave me a little trouble under the arms I think it looks good and it's definitely neater than it would have been the way the pattern said.

If I'd been a brave sewer I would have done french seams on this but from the number of times I had to unpick things and the stupid mistakes I made along the way I'm actually glad that I didn't try that for the first time on such a flimsy bit of fabric.

This is a close-up of the front of the blouse so you can see the panels and the pleats, I think they really add something to the shaping of the blouse and it's general style.

I'll be using this pattern again in the future I'm sure as I really like the style of it. Unfortunately it's already too cold her to wear this blouse this year so away it went into the cupboard to await next summer, but I'm happy that I finally got it done after having had it sit about waiting to be sewn for so long.

This morning my patterns arrived from Moms Patterns and I traced off the boys Kwik Sew pyjama pattern that I got and cut out a pair for Jim. I have been looking for a Kwik Sew pattern the next size up from the one I've used over and over again ever since Jim grew out of it last year and this was the first time I'd seen one so I snapped it up. It's got 2 versions on it and I'm going to do a pair of each for this winter, so those will probably be my next projects as they are easy to get out of the way (I've got one more pair I want to make for Piggle too).

My list of things that I have stacked up waiting is growing shorter day by day and I'm really pleased with that, some of it has been around for ages and it's nice to clear the decks and see it finished. I've even managed not to get anything new out to make which is amazing for me, we will see if my willpower continues or not!

Forgot to say that if you use Onion patterns we'd love to see the finished items at the Sew Onion group on Flickr!

The knitting is coming along, I finished the first California Dreamin' sock and will graft the toe tonight. I've also finished the second sleeve of Jim's sweater (he asks me almost every day if it's done yet!) and am now re-knitting the back as I was right and the raglans of the sleeves I knit and the back his Dad knit didn't fit together. I'm being lazy and knitting right from the old back without unravelling it first and I'm about 4 inches into the back already so hopefully this project will carry on knitting up fast.

I haven't touched anything else though, the clock is ticking on the Green Tea Raglan, everyday I say I'll take it out and sew some of it and then I never get to it, perhaps this weekend I will manage while the boys are playing.

Emergency Sweatsuit

2008-09-23T14:26:00.005+01:00

I found out on Monday afternoon when I got Jim from school that they're going to be doing PE outside once a week and he needs a sweatsuit to wear. Of course he doesn't actually own one so he and I went stash diving when we got home to see what I could come up with.

He asked for blue, which was irritating at the time as I could only think of the red and yellow sherpa that I had in my stash and the light blue sweatshirt fleece I found wasn't big enough for a full sweatsuit (plus it would have ended up filthy unless I dyed it which I didn't have time for). Then, a thought came from somewhere in my head reminding me that I did actually have some blue sherpa in the stash that might work and I managed to find it and drag it out and Jim gave it his approval.

Then came a five minute discussion on what colour ribbing I should use. He wanted bright yellow, I was trying to talk him into something a little less shocking and pulling out piece after piece of whatever I could find that was ribbed when I re-discovered the ribbing I'd dyed dark grey (whilst trying to dye it black) and we both agreed that it would go quite well.

So, last night I cut it out and overlocked all the pieces, this morning I did the sweatshirt and the leg seams of the trousers after doing the food shopping and while Piggle had a nap and this afternoon I finished off the trousers.

The patterns are the Kwik Sew Sewing for Children t-shirt pattern which is wide enough for him to wear as a sweatshirt (size small) and Ottobre 3/04 #20 with no pockets at all. I dug around through my labels and found another Lamington Lane one to make it look a little bit more interesting (it has racing Beetles on it) and then had a flash of inspiration and sewed one of the size labels I have and will probably never use elsewhere in the back of the trousers so he won't have to ask his teacher which way around they go (he knows to look for the ribbing join in t-shirts I've made him but can't figure out trousers so I will use up the rest of the labels in any trousers I make him).

I'm happy with the way it came out even though it looks a little more home made than hand made due to the way sherpa stretches when you sew it (and it's low melting point when you try and iron it). Of course it helps that he's only 5 and doesn't care that he'll be wearing something totally different from the other kids, this would never work with a 7 year old I shouldn't think! I just hope it's warm enough as the sherpa isn't that thick but I'll send him a vest along as well and he probably won't be standing still long enough to get cold anyway!

And what is it with my photography that whenever I lay out trousers to take the picture they come out looking like one leg is longer than the other? Honestly, they're exactly the same length!

Got my thread today for the Onion blouse so it's on with that tomorrow, hopefully I should be able to finish it if I don't make any more stupid mistakes!

Sewing for My Boys

2008-09-22T12:59:00.002+01:00

I am getting through the long list of things that I have out in the sewing room to make and this weekend I got going on a few bits for the boys while they were at their Dad's house. First of all I made this really simple velour sweatshirt

The pattern is from Ottobre Spring 1/05 and it's number 5. I used some cotton velour that I dyed before Piggle was even born and found some ribbing in my stash that was just about the same colour. The label is from Lamington Lane and it says Cyber Baby on it. I made the 80cm size which is a bit too big for him yet, but as he has a drawer overflowing with clothes since I finally located the box with Jim's old stuff in it I don't mind that he won't be able to wear it for a few months.

The ribbing on the cuffs was quite loose but I kind of like that the sleeves are finished with ribbing rather than pulled in by it. If I want sleeves pulled in next time I use this pattern I have a note on the envelope full of pattern pieces to take some length off the cuff piece.

Once I was warmed up I move onto another pair of pyjamas for Jim.

Again these are Kwik Sew Sewing for Children in size Small which is a little big for him but he seems to be growing fast at the moment so I wanted something that would last. The fabric is a Carters Knit (I adore Carters knits, they're so soft) and the ribbing I pulled out of my basket full of leftover ribbing pieces as I was getting tired of sewing white ribbing on everything (and I'm running out of white ribbing fast).

When those were done I decided to work on a sweatsuit for Piggle and pulled out the Ottobre magazine and the fabric thinking that I needed to trace the pattern only to discover that I'd already done it so I was very happy about that!

I sewed the bottoms of this on Sunday and the top this morning and I'm really pleased with the way it's come out. Sorry the photograph isn't so good, the weather has taken a turn for the worse here and there's very little light.

The patterns for these came from Ottobre Spring 1/06 and it's called Baby Sweater and Baby Sweatpants, they're numbers 2 and 3. I had traced a 74cm but I added some length to both the shirt and the trousers as I want him to be able to wear it for a while (this will fit him now). The fabric is PRR ABC sweatshirt fleece that I dyed dark green and all the topstitching is done in bright yellow.

You can't see too well in the photograph but both the top and bottoms are pieced together, the trousers were in 3 pieces and the shirt has 3 pieces on the front and curved seams for the shoulders. This seems to be a standard Ottobre ploy to make clothes a bit more interesting, they slash apart pattern pieces and then have you sew them all back together again. Luckily this time it didn't take too long and I think the topstitching looks nice and adds a bit of fun to the outfit.

In case you're wondering why I stick to certain colours with my boys (I do a lot of green and browns with a bit of blue) it's because they are both redheads which means that there are a few colours that would look terrible on them. They're also both very pale (goes with the hair!) so stuff that's too bright wears them rather than them wearing it! I like them both in green, I think it suits the colouring, which is why you see a lot of it here!

I'll be getting thread for the Onion blouse tomorrow so I'll try and finish that on Wednesday. I couldn't bring myself to do the unpicking over the weekend as when I start working on it again I want to finish it rather than do a bit and then stop again, plus I'm hoping that I can get away with just undoing part of the seam rather than the whole thing which means I need to sew it again right away before I forget what I'm trying to do and I don't even have enough thread to do that.

I didn't get a lot of knitting done this weekend, just a bit more of the sleeve of Jim's sweater (which had to be ripped again after another bout of notreadingthepatternitis) and I'm almost ready to start the toe of the first California Dreamin' sock so that should come off the needles very soon.

I decided today that I want to get as many knitting UFO's completed as I can by the end of the year. That should mean at minimum I finish the Green Tea Raglan (don't ask, still not started seaming), Jim's sweater, the Frontier Pinks Cardigan (which the ribbon I bought it too narrow for so I'm thinking of just not adding any), one shawl and two pairs of socks. I also have hats to knit for my BIL for Christmas so that should keep me plenty busy as the cold long winter nights come in.

Gauge Gauge Gauge

2008-09-18T11:43:00.004+01:00

I picked up Jim's sweater that his Dad started knitting a *very* long time ago, checked that the size would still fit him and then started working where I left off on the second sleeve.

First of all I knit the wrong size so had to rip back a bit and start my decreases earlier, after that finishing the sleeve was easy, checked that off and went to work unravelling the raglan of the other sleeve as I'd noticed when comparing them for size that the decreases had been done incorrectly.

So there I am blaming that little mess up on myself thinking I'd knit the first sleeve and done a bad job when after knitting for a little while whilst watching the season finale of Weeds I look down and notice this.

The gauge is completely different... So I check both needles to make sure they're the right size and the same size, check the other sleeve to see what the gauge is like on that and then come to the sudden realisation that I actually didn't knit the first sleeve and that when it was knit Jim's Dad was using some seriously tight knitting... I mean, I tried to knit that tight thinking I was slacking because I wasn't paying attention whilst watching the screen, but there is no way I can knit that tight, I'd have to go down to a smaller needle and probably a whole 1mm to get anywhere near that tight. Add to that the fact that for some reason I had knit about half an inch more of ribbing for the cuff than he had and it had to go.

So, this morning I ripped out the whole sleeve and will start again but I've also realised that I will probably have to rip out the back and re-knit that as if our gauges are this different there is no way my sleeve raglans are going to fit the raglans on the back.... It's not a hard sweater, I've made him one of these before in the next size down, and it knits up fast on easy to work with yarn, but it's a liiiiitttle more work than I'd anticipated.

And no, before you ask, I've not sewn the Green Tea Raglan together yet, I'll get there, my goal is by the end of the month so look for it on the 30th after I've stayed up late to get it done!

I have no Onion blouse to show you either although I have been working on it. I had a few problems getting the front to match up properly but got there in the end and then I ran out of thread so I am going to look through my Mother's thread collection tomorrow and see if she has anything I can steal (I mean borrow obviously) and if not I will have to wait until Tuesday when I go anywhere near a shop that sells thread. I also noted with disappointment this morning that somehow I have managed to sew the pleats on the front going the wrong direction on one side. I have no idea how I did that but it now means that I have to unpick not only the seam but also the zig zagging on the seam allowance and the top stitching to re-do them the right way around. I am less than happy at that idea as the fabric is seriously fragile but it will annoy the hell out of me and look stupid if it stays the way it is. I only have about an hours work on it once I've made that alteration though so it will be done soon. In the meantime I've traced and cut out a simple velour sweatshirt for Piggle that I will get sewing on tomorrow.

So, that's where I'm up to, getting there but screwing it up along the way, it's been one of those weeks.

Coughs, Bears and Socks

2008-09-15T12:10:00.006+01:00

Piggle's cold has made a turn for the worse again which meant that last night was pretty awful for me (and him too I'd assume). When he did settle down for a while on my bed I spent 2 hours drifting in and out of sleep coughing my guts up. Then at 5.30 this morning he obviously felt really unwell as he woke up and started to scream, right in my ear.... By the time I settled him and got back to sleep I only had an hours rest before the alarm went off and it was time to start again...

I wouldn't have minded but the night before wasn't much better. We got in late as we'd been to the Harrogate Flower Show with my parents and sister, eaten at her house and then arrived home at about 10.30pm. There was no sign of Lorenzo so I kept going out calling and finally got him in at about 11.30. Luna then had a fight *through* the cat flap (her speciality it seems) at about 1.30am which I sorted out and then at 3.30am the cat she'd been fighting (I assumed) was sitting outside my back door yowling.... I chased it off and when I got back upstairs Lorenzo wasn't on my bed, so of course I panicked and thought perhaps it was him yelling and he was hurt and I'd chased him away etc etc etc. So, outside I go again calling him and wandering around in my pyjamas. When I came in to go to the toilet intending to go back out again, there he was asleep on the bed again, so he'd obviously just been hiding when the other cat was around, brave thing that he is....

Anyway, I've had a pretty productive morning despite still coughing all the time while Piggle's been trying to sleep the cold off and made up the super easy teddy pyjamas for him from some cotton interlock I got at Abakhan and have had in my stash forever.

Again these are Kwik Sew Sewing for Toddlers size T1. They literally take just over an hour to make up and the fabric is really soft so they should be nice and cuddly to sleep in. I have 2 more pairs of pjs that I want to make him and I also need to do a few more pairs for Jim as he is too tall for a lot of his now. I'm not going to trace the next size though as they still fit him really well, instead I'm just going to add a couple of inches to the length of the legs and shirt and an inch and a half to the sleeve length and use the pattern I've already got traced.

I like to have my next project lined up and ready to go before I leave the sewing room and looking at my list I saw an Onion blouse that has followed me from the old house and is still waiting to be sewn. I pulled it out and read through the instructions thinking there must have been something that put me off making it, but it seems pretty straightforward. I then wondered if I could be bothered to pin it out but when I unfolded the fabric I discovered that I'd already pinned out the pattern and it just needed cutting. After a quick iron on the wrong side to get the creases out of the fabric and pattern I cut it out and will get to work on it next time I get in there.

I think what was putting me off is that the fabric is really thin, probably the thinnest I've ever attempted to work with and as I normally overlock the edges of my pieces I hadn't figured out what to do with this as the overlocking would show through it (I can never be arsed to change the thread so I overlock everything in white, lazy I know...). Anyway, I realised that I can just zig zag the seam allowances (just like the pattern tells me to do, duh...) and it will be fine, so I'm looking forward to seeing how it makes up now I've gotten past my actually non-existent stumbling blocks....

I then came downstairs and grafted the toe on the Greenwood Fibre socks that I finished off last night whilst watching North by Northwest (well, the second half anyway, I'd watched the first half a few days ago) and drooling over the house shown near the end of the film. As I mentioned these are a Christmas gift for my sister who called them 'the most perfect socks ever' when she tried on the finished one. I'm not that fussed with them and only cast them on to get the yarn out of my stash and give me some simple round and round knitting (which is actually isn't as this yarn is a pain in the ass to knit with).

No pattern for these, just plain basic 72 stitches on 2.25mm needles and a heel flap. So now I'm going to cast on the second Fools Rush sock and get that going as I seem to remember it was pretty fast going after the lace cuff. The Scales Skin Socks are lovely to look at but quite irritating to knit so they'll be a long term project! The California Dreamin' socks on the other hand seem to fly off the needles and I just need to do the rest of the pattern repeat I'm on and then I can start the heel of the first sock, I love the way those are looking.

Digging around I also found a sweater that husband had knit the back of for Jim before giving up knitting. I have knit one and half sleeves and figured I'd best get this one off the needles next or Jim will be too big for it (if he isn't already, I will check when he gets in from school). Of course it's never as simple as just 'get it out and work on it'. For some reason I had put the pattern away and had to track that down, there was only 1 needle in the bag so I had to find another one and the end of the needle I did have fell off so I had to superglue that back on. Perhaps next time I get it out I can actually knit it (after I figure out where the hell I am on the sleeve that is...).

So, that's it from here for now except to let you all know that it's impossible to check if you've fixed your brake lights when you're on your own. In the end I had to get Jim out of the house in his pyjamas (he decided that yesterday was a not getting dressed day) and have him stomp on the brake peddle to see if they worked and trust that he wouldn't take off the hand brake and run me down. He managed to stomp and not touch anything else but I hadn't fixed the lights. For some reason the handbook for my car lists a fuse for every single other light that the car has (and that my model doesn't have) but no fuse for the brake lights so I'm going to have to take it to the garage and pay to have it fixed which is irritating and an expense I could do without... I wanted to take it today but Piggle is too ill to sit there and wait for it to be fixed, I'm hoping he's better tomorrow so we can get that done and then go and do the food shopping as we're running short of a few things.

Please send any 'stop coughing' vibes this way for the both of us!

Simplicity 4045 FO

2008-09-12T15:45:00.004+01:00

I've had this shirt on my to do pile for ages now, I got it out when I wanted to make myself something simple to get me sewing again, and then I found other things that I wanted to make more so it got pushed aside for a while.

(please excuse the darkness of the photos, it's horrible weather today and the flash just made it look awful, the true colour is a bit brighter than shown. The sleeves are raglan, I just poofed them out to show the shape.)

This is one of those patterns that the envelope does no favours, had they made this up in a couple of cute prints instead of a cream dress and a horrible paisley jacket I think they could have sold a whole lot more of them. I originally didn't put it on my list of patterns to buy (doesn't everyone have a spreadsheet of patterns they want?!?) but then I saw one that a blogger had made and added it and I'm glad I did.

It's a pretty simple pattern, although the facing on the neckband was a little fiddly to get looking right, but it has this cute pleat detail on the sleeves that the pattern doesn't show you a picture of at all.

A funny thing about this pattern too, once it's made up it's horrible to try and iron. The fabric ironed really well when I did it flat but once I'd joined it up with the other pieces and ironed one bit it resulted in another bit becomming creased, I'll have to figure out the best way to do it so I don't look like a complete mess when I wear it.

The fabric once again is Anna Marie Horner, I got this from the sale pages at Fabric Shack a good while back now and had been looking for something simple to do with it. I bought 2 yards and this pattern used about a yard and a half (pattern says 1 and 5/8 required) so the scraps have gone into my quilting basket for future use (I'm thinking a quilt made up of only polka dot fabrics, I seem to have a thing for dots...). I added an inch and a half in length as when I did my technical 'hold it up against me to see how long it will be' test it seemed a little short.

There is a whole lot of ease in this pattern, I made the 18 which is for a 40" bust (short interjection, Jim has just come downstairs after getting changed from school wearing green jogging bottoms, put on backwards, that I made him, a dark blue proper shirt I made him and a bright yellow jumper that my Mother made him, he's been sent back up to try again!). Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, it's for a 40" bust and the finished garment has a 46 1/2" bust so if you're planning on making this check your sizes and figure how much ease you want before making your usual size.

This made up in about 3 hours and I was taking my time with it. It's cut out diagonally so that it has a nice drape even with cotton which I think is a nice touch but obviously wouldn't work with a fabric that had a directional pattern on it.

I think I will get a lot of wear from this shirt and I will probably make at least one more of them next summer, trust me to finish off a summer blouse just as the weather takes a turn for the worse (although summer was a bit of a wash-out too!).

(Jim has found the t-shirt that matches the jogging bottoms and has turned the trousers the right way around, the yellow jumper has come downstairs though as it's a bit nippy today!)

As for the knitting, I finished off the the Green Tea Raglan last night so now I just need to sew it up, hopefully I can motivate myself to do that over the next few days. Sewing by hand really hurts my hand so it takes me a while to seam things. I've done another repeat on the California Dreamin' socks, they look good I think. I also discovered that I skipped a needle when I was knitting the Greenwood socks so I will have to cut the resulting length of yarn on the inside and sew in the ends when I do the finishing, I've never done that before so I guess I *really* wasn't paying attention when I was working on them! They are my next project to work on until they're done and then I will move on to either a shawl that's nearing completion or the cardigan that I'm on the yoke of (it's knit on largish needles which also hurt my hands I've discovered which is why it's taken so long to make).

Anyway, some progress finally and it feels good, hopefully it will spur me on to getting more done. I've already cut out another pair of Kwik Sew Sewing for Toddler pjs for Piggle that won't take long to sew up, but I don't normally get much sewing time over the weekends when I have the boys so they probably won't get done until Monday.

Chugging Along

2008-09-11T11:15:00.003+01:00

I finally did some sewing this morning, I'm working on a really simple blouse (it's Simplicity I think) that I've had the fabric and the pattern out for a few months to make and just never got around to it. It's going together really easily, I just have to put the neckband on and then hem it and it's done but I felt like a break so I will leave it until tomorrow.

I'm almost done with the Green Tea Raglan, just a few more decreases on the raglan left to go and it's all done and dusted and just needs seaming. I'm looking forward to seeing it put together to see if it's as nice as I think it will be. It's such a simple sweater and I've picked a plain colour for it but I'm hoping it will be understated but lovely (don't ask for much!).

I'm also working on the Greenwood sock, I will get there in the end with these, I'm not much of a fan of the yarn so I'm glad this is the last lot in my stash. I find it very sticky, splitty and difficult to knit with and I've not been that impressed with the colourways I bought.

Of course, I tried and tried to resist but couldn't stop myself from casting on for another pair of socks. The idea was to *finish* stuff rather than start new stuff and I have 3 pairs of sock on the go already but sometimes for me knitting is colour therapy and I just couldn't resist the California Dreamin' Clog Socks (click on the name under the photo for the pdf) pattern in Panda Cotton Red Cinnamon. I've not knit that much yet but I'm enjoying it and I hope that the yarn will work out with the pattern. The Panda Cotton has pretty short yardage so I will be checking how long I made the cuff on my other PC socks so I don't run out on the foot. I will get the other socks done too, I guess my brain just needed something pretty and new!

So, hopefully next time I will have something finished to show you either sewn or knit. I've just not felt all that productive recently and having a cold hasn't helped matters as it's made me very tired and out of it. Anyway, as I'm sure I said I'm determined to get all these old projects finished before the end of the year and to get sewing again as I have stacks of stuff all over the place once more that I want to make (including the quilt for which I've cut out all the bits now).

Sorry it's quite dull around here at the moment, I think it's the transition from summer holidays to school. It seems very quiet here all day without Jim around the place, nice and quiet, but odd.

I've Got Nothing

2008-09-07T12:03:00.003+01:00

The boys were with their Dad this weekend so I was hoping for a productive time, to clean the house up a bit after the summer holidays and to get some sewing in, but I have come down with Piggle's cold (no way to really avoid getting a cold from a baby, especially when they sleep on your bed for two nights because they can't settle) and feel quite rough and flakey. I went out with my Dad yesterday morning and he bought me lunch and then I came home and had a nap and just watched the last 4 episodes of the last series of Lost in the evening whilst doing a little bit of knitting.

Today I did manage to cut out a blouse but when it came to starting the sewing I just couldn't face it so I will leave it and hope I feel better tomorrow morning and can work on it then. This afternoon once the washing is finished I'm going to settle down and watch a film and work on the Green Tea Raglan and then go and pick up the boys.

I've been looking at my stats again for the blog and there seem to be quite a lot of people reading which is really nice to see. Can you give me a shout out in the comments so I can see your blogs and well and know who's out there please? It's always nice to know what everyone is up to and where they're from so I'd love to be able to catch up with your blogs and get you in my Google Reader. Thanks!

Little and Large

2008-09-03T12:03:00.004+01:00

I finally finished off these pyjamas today for the boys, the bottoms have been waiting over a week to be done and I just hadn't got around to it for some reason.

The fabric is PRR sheep and the bottoms for Jim are some white interlock that I had in the stash. I dyed them with emerald cold water dylon in the washing machine and because I did so much fabric in one go it came out a nice minty green. For the first time ever though the pictures on the fabric also got dyed (the fabric is made with the pattern printed on so only the background should change colour, very clever stuff). I don't know if this is because the fabric is quite an old design (it was from before I started buying PRR which was 5 years ago) and maybe the printing has started to break down a bit with age or something. Anyway, here's a closer picture of the print, sorry for not ironing them nice and neatly but as they're going to wear them in bed I figured it wasn't worth it!

The patterns are Kwik Sew Sewing for Children and Sewing for Toddlers, Piggle is a T1 and Jim is a Small in the respective books. The only changes I made were to not take quite as much off to allow for the ribbing on the bottom of the tops and the cuffs of the trousers, Jim always grows out the bottoms before the tops and I figure the cuffs will stop them going over his feet until he grows into them properly.

Besides these I've not done any sewing in a while but as I said I'm hoping to change that now that Jim is back at school all day and Piggle is still napping. I started to cut out some pieces for a quilt I'm going to make myself, I'm not sure if I will actually have enough fabric as the pattern calls for 11 half yards and I got 22 fat quarters which aren't yielding as many pieces as I thought they would but I'll see when I've got it all done. I need 198 pieces and so far I've cut 60 so a way to go yet.

I am also going to start my Christmas sewing soon as I am very strapped for cash now and won't be able to afford presents. I have a bag planned for my sister and another small project and I'm trying to figure out what I can make other people out of my stashes. I'm also going to knit my brother in law some hats with the leftover Cascade 220 from my Dad's Cobblestone, I sent him a link to some patterns and am waiting to see which ones he likes so I can get started on that.

Besides trying to get back into sewing and having a pretty major financial crisis on my hands things are going quite well, lol.

I'm really getting back into my cooking and food blogging and am back trying to loose an awful lot of weight over the next year, slowly but surely rather than all out dieting or else I won't re-educate myself on how to eat properly and will just put it back on again as I've done over and over. I'm basically trying to loose the weight I gained with Jim, the weight I gained on top of that with Piggle and then the weight I gained on top of all of that after the separation, so quite a long haul for me but I know it will be worth it in the end and so far it's not been too bad.

Knitting wise I'm doing another 'finish everything off' period to try and clear the decks for some new projects. I have the foot of a plain sock left to knit and I've finished the back and started the front of my Green Tea Raglan which has been on hold forever. I'm also working on a shawl, I've almost finished the main piece which is pretty simple (although there are an awful lot of stitches now) and then I have the border to knit which is quite a bit more complicated.

So, hopefully I will have something else to show you soon!

Stuff for the Kid

2008-08-29T09:14:00.006+01:00

The main sewing I've managed over that last few months has been stuff for Piggle, poor Jim hasn't had a look-in, but I do have some pyjamas underway for him and a pair of trousers to make at some point too.

I kicked off with his first pair of pyjamas using Kwik Sew 3126 size 1 and some flannel I got from the first US fabric shop I ever bought from (but I can't remember which one it was now!).

I straightened the leg as I tend to do with Kwik Sew patterns but besides that I didn't make any changes and I think they look really cute. I have a few more pairs to make him and fabric picked out for them, just need to get going. He doesn't need flannel pyjamas yet though and these are still a little bit big for him anyway so there's no huge rush.

I got this pattern from Moms Patterns ages ago and have been waiting for Piggle to grow big enough that I can use it. Now that he's almost the size of a 1 year old (he's in 9-12 month clothes) I pulled it out and made 2 pairs in two days!

These are from an old pair of my jeans that I wore out. It's slightly stretchy denim and I like the way that the different wear patterns have shown up on the new dungarees. You can see a pocket mark on the bottom of one of the backs, I tried to cut around it but there just wasn't quite enough fabric, but now it's there I think it looks ok. The lining is some plain blue cotton I had in the stash.

I used earthtone jeanstitch in a twin needle to topstitch these for a bit of colour and the buttons are little blue mushrooms from my button stash for that 70's feel!

These are a case of the stash coming together! Again, a pair of my trousers that had worn out, these were cord, then I remembered the iron on in my stash (from Asda of all places, the UK Wallmart stores) and that I had some of the skull cotton too. The buttons are from my stash as well, I don't 'do' gold so pieces of silver it is instead!

I'm really looking forward to him wearing these and I would like to make a couple more pairs if I can find some fabric that I think will work. However, as I'm also planning on making him a different pair of dungarees I'm not sure that he needs too many more pairs, poor boy won't know what trousers are!

This is another Kwik Sew Sewing for Children outfit. I dyed this cotton velour lime green for some strange reason and then didn't know what to make with it. This could be a sweatsuit or it could be pyjamas, I can't make up my mind. The labels are from Lamington Lane and say 'oopsies' on them. The legs are actually the same length, I just took the photo oddly.

Of course these aren't for Piggle but are something I made and forgot to show in my last sewing post. Very simple curtains for my kitchen, I just ripped the fabric the right length plus 2 inches, tore it in half length wise and it was wide enough to cover the whole window with one length and then hemmed all 4 sides. They're hung using clips from Ikea so I didn't even need to put rufflette on the top of them!

There should be more sewing to show soon, Jim goes back to school on Tuesday so I'm hoping to be able to get back into the sewing room more regularly. I just have the bottoms of 2 pairs of pyjamas left to make, as usual when I had a few days alone to sew I didn't really feel like it so I only managed to cut out the pyjamas and sew the tops (Kwik Sew again so easy).

Cobblestone Pullover FO

2008-08-26T13:46:00.004+01:00

I started this sweater way back in March and actually cast it off in late June. However, I didn't get around to grafting the underarms until two day's before my Dad's Birthday last weekend so it looks like it took me longer to knit than it actually did!

I used 6 and a half skeins of Cascade 220 Heathers, the pattern called for 8 skeins so I'm not quite sure how I used so little yarn but there you go. I really enjoyed knitting with this yarn and, as I'm sure I've said before, if I knit with wool for myself I would be stocking up on it as I found it really easy to work with and love the way it looks knitted up. I bought the yarn off Ebay for a really reasonable rate but it was still more than I could really afford so my younger sister and BIL paid for half of it. The sweater is knit on 4.5mm needles and goes really fast even though I knit a 51.5" chest!

As you can see it fits my Dad really well and he said that he really likes it so I'm more than happy with the result. It's back at my house at the moment for a quick stitch to the end of one of the underarm grafts where I've not closed a hole completely but after that I hope he will get a lot of use out of it and I pity my poor Mother having to handwash a sweater this big!

ps if you're interested in my blatherings on food the please visit my other blog Vegan Food For Thought where I seem to have rather a lot to say of late!

Catching Up

2008-08-22T09:30:00.009+01:00

So, it's about time I tried to catch up a little with what I've made whilst away from the internet.

The first thing I finished was a dress which took me until June to get done, having started it at the old house, as my sewing room in the new house was a bit of a mess:

I did get it sorted out eventually and used one of the Ikea chest of drawers like so many sewers online have done to tidy up my patterns and yarn stash. Luckily there is quite a deep alcove in the room for fabric storage (although it's a pain in the ass to try and find anything and means moving my dressform).

This is the third sewing room I've had and each time I've moved my things the new room has been smaller than the last. I wasn't sure I could actually fit everything into this room but somehow I managed it (I did get stuck behind furniture at one point without having any clue as to how to move the furniture so that it would fit!) and I'm pretty happy with the results. The only irritation (besides contorting to find fabric) is that I have to have my ironing board in my bedroom so I'm walking back and forth a lot whereas in the last room all I had to do was literally stand up and turn around to iron things.

Anyhow, the dress I finally finished was Butterick 4849 from some Anna Maria Horner fabric and some plain quilting cotton my Mother got me from a local shop (it wasn't such a local shop when I started the dress!).

I'm pretty pleased with the way it came out, there was a lot of hand sewing involved in this project, so much that when it came to the hem I figured I'd sewn so much by hand I may as well do that by hand as well. I've wanted to make a 'Duro' for ages so I'm glad that I finally managed it!

I have some kids clothes to show at some point but I'll save those all for one post and move on to the only other adult piece of clothing I've made recently which wasn't even for me! I made my Mother a Jalie 2005 t-shirt a few years back and she's always really liked it. She asked me to make her another one so I went stash diving and came up with some choices for her (that was hard work as my fabric tastes are very different to almost anything she'd wear!) and then threw together this for her in a few hours (I love this pattern, must make some more for myself from it).

She wore it for the first time on our girly weekend trip to London for my sister's 40th Birthday (Mum, both sisters and my Aunt) and the colours really suit her and it fits her well so I'm pleased. Still waiting to be made is a boatneck version of this pattern in a plain fabric also for my Mum, I'll get to it one day!

So, as I said I will update with the kids sewing soon as I can. The boys are with their Dad this weekend so there will be more sewing underway, I have dyed some fabric to make them matching pyjamas and as I'm going to use the Kwiksew patterns I should be able to get both pairs done in a day no problem. After that I am going to try out a Japanese pattern from one of the Japanese sewing books I've recently bought, that is if I can find the pattern piece for the front of it, I've searched and searched and can't see it at all so I'll have to spend some more time trying to figure that out!

On a more general note when we moved here I brought Luna with me but left Lily with my husband as she is his cat (he's since gotten her a kitten as a friend as she's never lived alone). I knew that I wanted a black boy cat and it turned out that my older sister had decided that four cats in the house she is currently living in was a bit too much along with her five dogs!

Lorenzo is still a bit shy but I think that's just the way he'll always be, but when he wants to be loving he won't leave you alone and he generally sleeps on my bed most nights. He's not a big fan of kids and doesn't come in much when they're around so this summer hasn't been great for him with Jim being home and there being so much rain, but I'm sure he'll cheer up when school starts and the house is quiet during the day. This is the only picture I have to hand of Lorenzo, he's lying on the flat room outside my sewing room window!

Must fly, Jim has just returned from camping overnight in my parents garden with my sister, hopefully they didn't get wet!

Finally Back

2008-08-17T11:18:00.002+01:00

Well, I never intended to take a break of any sort from the blog (or internet) but after problem after problem with providers and general bad luck it took me 3 months to get a broadband connection at the new house, but I am finally connected and wondering what it was I did online that took up so much time, I seem to have found new things to fill the day with.

Anyway, we are well settled in the 'new house' as Jim* calls it and he enjoyed his new school who have been very good at trying to help with the issues he has which was a relief. The boys are getting used to travelling back and forth every other weekend (I could do without the £60 diesel cost but there you go) and I've had 2 full weeks (seperately) on my own while they were with their Dad which was a little bizarre but nice too.

We've not really been up to that much besides settling in and finding out what's available in this area. It's so nice to have pretty scenery everywhere, although it has been a little odd getting used to tiny windy hilly roads after driving in Liverpool for so long! I drove Jim to and from school as the walk, although it's only a mile, is up and down some really huge hills and I didn't think that either of us would make it, perhaps sometime during the next school year I will attempt it at least for one of the school runs!

My most recent find is an Organic farm that does a box scheme. I can't explain how happy I am to have finally found somewhere to do this with, there was no one at all who delivered to our area of Liverpool unbelievably and I made the decision to try and buy as much organic as I can (my rule is that if there is an organic version of what I want available then I buy it, if not I buy the regular version, don't have time to visit 4 shops to get what I need) so having a box delivered weekly is very exciting to me. They provide everything that they can themselves that's in season and then buy in anything else they need to keep the scheme going all year around, but it's so much better than supermarket organics which have been flown in from around the world. I will have to learn a new way to cook, making menus from the vegetables to hand rather than making a list and going to get everything I want but I'm looking forward to the challenge, and hopefully it will rejuvenate my food blog too. I've signed up for the £8 box to start with (they do £6, £8 and £12) and will see if it's enough to keep us going (our house is 99% vegan now which is so nice), if not I can move up to the £12 box, which is about what I spend on veg anyway, Piggle likes to eat!

I don't have an awful lot to show for myself on the sewing and knitting front, particularly knitting as it appears that I haven't finished anything at all in the last 3 months (I do have my Dad's Cobblestone almost completely done as it's his Birthday next weekend which is something I guess), and my sewing rate is well down on what it had been before, but as it's summer holidays and I have Jim around all the time sewing has to take place in the evenings and I tend to be worn out by then so I don't get much done except when they're with their Dad. Anyway, I will post an update with some photos as soon as I can, my younger sister is here for a week so time online may be limited.

Well, it's nice to be back! Hope that everyone is ok etc etc and that I still have some readers left after the long break!

* I've decided to call the boys by the nicknames that I actually use in real life to make typing easier here for me, plus Little One isn't so little anymore (he's 5) and Tiny (now 1) isn't so tiny either. So, from now on Little One will be known as Jim and Tiny as Piggle, hopefully it won't confuse anyone too much!

Moving Along

2008-04-26T12:01:00.003+01:00

So, we had a buyer for the house and I found somewhere to move, signed Little One up for school etc and then she pulled out...

But, I have decided that as it's all set up I'm going to move anyway. It will mean paying off credit cards month by month rather than in one go as I would have been able to with the house profit but that's just life really and the school and house both fit us well so it would be silly to loose them and perhaps have to settle for something not as good in the future.

I have 2 weeks to get everything packed and ready to go (we go on the 10th of May) so my knitting and sewing will be pretty slow I'd imagine! I will also be offline for at least a week, if not more, once we've moved due to setting up new Broadband and waiting for the desk the computer is to go on to be moved from my sister's house to mine (she's had it on long term loan).

Anyway, I do intend to finish off the dress I've been working on before I move so I will have that to show you. The Cobblestone Pullover is coming along nicely as well, I have about 3 inches to go until I join on the sleeves and I'm really happy with the way it's looking so far. Besides that I've not picked up any other knitting really but I have started a cross-stitch of Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny for the boy's new room. I haven't done cross-stitch since I was a kid but I'm really enjoying it, like I really needed another crafty hobby!

Rib and Cable Socks FO

2008-04-15T10:56:00.005+01:00

These socks suffered an unexplained holiday in the middle of being made, I raced through the first one and then raced down to the heel of the second and then put them down for about a month and didn't knit a single stitch. On Saturday I turned the heel and started working on the foot and by Sunday evening they were done and dusted!

I'm really happy with the way they came out, the pattern is from Interweave Knits Fall 2005 and is by Nancy Bush. The pattern is really easy to follow, the toe is a little bit odd though, you purl the decreases and it's a round toe rather than decreasing on each side like I'm used to doing. Anyway, it works and it looks fine, I just found it a little strange to knit but I'm all up for trying new ways of making socks! The yarn is Panda Cotton in Seascape and I used 2 balls. I left out one repeat on the cuff and was glad I did so when I got to the toe of the first sock with only a tiny bit of yarn left. They're knit on 2.25mm needles for a nice firm fabric which should hopefully wear well and the Panda Cotton is so silky, it feels really lovely.

I'm now working on the Fools Rush socks which were abandoned many moons ago. I think I should be able to finish the first sock really soon, hopefully the pattern repeat I'm on will be the last one before the toe on the first sock. Again with these I flew through the first cuff but then just lost interest which is sad as the pattern is pretty easy and looks nice in the yarn I'm using (Maizy in a plain colour).

My Dad's Cobblstone is coming along really well, it's actually the project I've been knitting on the most recently as it's just simple round and round knitting and you only have to pay attention for the garter stitch panels on the side. I am enjoying knitting with Cascade 220, if I used wool for myself I would definitely be stashing more of the yarn.

Besides that everything else is either being ignored or having a row here or there done on it. I'm happy to get another project off the needles though and I'm hoping to have the willpower to finish the Fools Rush socks before casting on for another pair, we'll see how that goes!

Up and Down

2008-04-11T10:54:00.003+01:00

My mood changes by the half hour at the moment, I can go from excited and optimistic to staring into space depressed to frettying so much I can't stay still in such a short time it makes my head spin.

At the moment I'm trying to sort out the exchange contracts on the house, sort out our financial stuff through mediation, fill out huge financial declaration forms with tons of details I don't know the answer to, keep hold of the house I want to rent near my parents while we wait for the exchange on the house and later on I have to go and see a solicitor about the separation which I know is going to be upsetting and hard and I'm really not looking forward to it.

I was excited yesterday because we finally had the appointment to have the survey done on the house today which is a big step towards exchange. However, now that he's been I'm worried that he found lots of things wrong with the house which will put the buyer off and the whole sale will fall through. With the housing market here in a nosedive we could be stuck with the house for a very long time if we can't sell it right now to this buyer.... I know I should try and not worry about things until I know for sure what's going on but I am a worrier by nature and can't seem to turn it off, at the moment I jump from one worry to another and emotionally it's wearing me out.

So, while I'm busy worrying and fretting and trying to sort things out I'm not getting to do the things which help to improve my mood and keep me sane, ie knitting and sewing, and that makes it harder. Even when I do get a chance to do either activity I find it hard to stop stressing enough to enjoy what I'm doing, my mind will just not let it go.

I know that all this will pass and things will ease up eventually, but I can't even be certain when that will be. Once we have exchanged on the house then I know I can move on with my life and start sorting out the new life, but until that happens, which could be another month, I'm stuck in this round and round and round of worrying about one thing, sorting out what I can, finding something else that needs to be sorted, worrying about that etc etc etc.

To top all this off I'm also really frustrated because there is so little I can actually *do* right now. I can't buy stuff for the new place as I'm not sure I will get it or when we will move, I can't start packing or find a moving company for the same reason and I am reliant on other people to do all the stuff that can be done right now, the most I can do is ring once a week and bug them. I'm really not good at waiting. When I know what I want I get on and do it and this is one of those times where I can't do that, I just have to wait it out.

Good thing I don't bite my fingernails or I'd be down to my knuckles by now and fingerless before this is all over....

A Couple of FO's

2008-04-02T11:19:00.005+01:00

I finished off the Phiaro Scarf before I went to visit my parents for a week but didn't get time to post it before I left.

The pattern is from the newest edition of Knitscene and it was a really easy fun piece to make. Basically you knit a tube and then while you're casting off you drop the stitches. I really love this scarf, the colours, the drape, the pattern, everything about it really and I can see myself making a few more of these in the future. The pattern calls for 3 balls of SWT Soysilk but I had 2 balls of SWT Bamboo in my stash so I used those instead. The only difference is that my scarf is only 17 inches wide as opposed to the 22 inches the pattern says it should be, but I think it's wide enough for wrapping around the neck, 22 inches would make it more like a shawl. The colourway is tequila and the balls I had were two completely different colourways which really showed up when it was knit into a tube but don't stand out after all the dropping of stitches has occurred.

The other thing I finished was the dress that I've been working on for what feels like forever. The pattern is Burda 8075 and the fabric comes from Fabric Shack from a collection called The Roaring 20's, I used 3 yards.

(I couldn't be bothered to adjust the bust of my dressform which is why the dress is hanging on her a little bit!)

I am happy with the way this dress came out, it will fit me for the summer as I made a largish size and it will be pretty comfortable to wear I think (I can get it on now but it's a little too tight around the baby flab stomach I'm sporting). I left off the welt pockets in the end, mainly because I chickened out as I've never done them before and I wasn't in the right frame of mind to try anything new or fiddly. I also only put on 3 buttons instead of 4 as I will never do up the top one so it seemed a bit of a waste of time to put it on. The buttons are vintage from my Great Aunt's collection, I had some lovely ones that were a better match but I only had 3 and broke one trying to sew it on with the machine as it was more fragile than I thought....

I'm making another dress next, a Duro finally, and am looking forward to how it's going to come out. The print I settled on is pretty bright but it will have dark brown for the neckbands, waistband and cuffs so that should tame it a little bit! My Mum bought me the fabric to go with another brown fabric I had but when you compare them in the daylight they're not quite similar enough to work out and they also didn't go with the other brown background fabric I have so the print won in the end. Nice to have a fabric stash to shop in at times like that!

I have cast on for my Dad's Cobblestone pullover and I like the Cascade 220 colourway I picked for it. I'm working on a sleeve first and then will cast on for the body which is going to take forever as I'm making the 51.5" chest! I also am working on the Frontier Blues Jacket, again from the most recent Knitscene, and have finished one sleeve and am a couple of inches into the body of it, simple knitting on all projects at the moment.

In the rest of life the boys and I had a good time at my parents and also got to spend time at my sister's new farm. Little One loved being with the animals (she's lambing at the moment and also has a horse, goats and chickens) and he's asking when we get to go back so he can ride the horse!

While I was away we accepted the offer on the house, the housing market looks like it's about to crash here and so it seemed silly to pass up a half decent offer and risk not being able to sell it for less later. I also found a house I want to rent which is an 8 minute drive from my parents house and overlooking open countryside. So now I'm trying to sort out the house exchange as fast as possible so I can sign the lease on the new house. As soon as we have exchanged contracts I should be able to move which is very exciting as I love moving house and the new place seems great (I actually haven't been inside yet, I looked through the windows as it's empty and my Mother viewed it for me and says it's a good house so I'll trust her as she rented my sister's farm without my sister seeing it until the moment she moved in!). There's also the sorting out the separation which is pretty depressing stuff and hard work emotionally but hopefully it will all be done in the next month or so and I can move on and start the next phase of my life, fingers crossed.

Dawn FO

2008-03-17T11:04:00.005Z

I finally finished off the seaming of Dawn this morning, I knew it was going to be a real pain to seam which is why I kept putting it off. With the looseness of the fabric I had to make sure that I didn't pull the seam stitches too tightly or the shape of the sweater would go all funny. I got there in the end though, I'm not entirely happy with it but I can't see how I could have done it better so I will leave it alone!

The pattern is from Rowan 35 and I used 7.5 balls of All Seasons Cotton in Fern. It is knit on 6mm and 12mm needles, you knit the 12mm and purled the 6mm. The ribbing is on 4mm needles. The only change I made was to just knit 2 inches on 4mm needles for the neck ribbing rather than switching to larger needles and knitting a longer collar which would fold over. The fold over collar was what put me off making this sweater when I saw it in the book but after seeing one with the changed collar on Ravelry I thought the design was much nicer.

Besides working on Dawn I have been knitting away on the Phairo Scarf, I have about a third of a ball left to go and then I get to the fun of dropping the stitches and making the scarf look like more than a tube. I've also been working on the second Cable and Rib sock, I started the heel flap and then for some reason compared it to the first sock and discovered that I had done one repeat less on the second sock so had to rip back and bit and do that. I'm working slowly on the Green Tree Raglan, a few rows here and a few there. I don't mind moss stitch (seed stitch) but it can get a little dull after a while.

I ordered the yarn for a Cobblestone Pullover for my Dad. I wanted to make it out of nice yarn and the only affordable one was Cascade 220 which has been used on quite a few of them looking at Ravelry. I found it over here but it was going to cost £49 ($97) which was a bit more than I wanted to pay. My younger sister agreed to come in on the yarn purchase with me but I still thought that it was going to be incredibly expensive. I was just about to order it anyway and did one more Google search for the colourway I wanted and found an Ebay shop that was selling it much cheaper and managed to get it for £36 ($72) which I'm much happier about, so now I'm just waiting for it to arrive. His Birthday isn't until August but I want to get going on it not just because I have to knit a 51" chest but because if I have to move before then I won't have as much time for knitting while I pack and unpack etc and I would like to be able to wrap up a finished sweater for him instead of some balls of yarn and some needles!

Sewing wise I'm very slowly working on the Burda dress I mentioned before. I am almost done with the bodice, just need to do the armhole facings and the buttonholes and then I can start on the skirt which has set in pockets, something I've not attempted before. I am liking the way it looks so far though so I'm excited to see it finished this week so I can move onto something else from my pile of waiting projects.

We had an offer on the house last week but it was too low so we had to turn it down. Hopefully we will start getting more viewings as the weather gets nicer, it's incredibly stressful waiting for people to want to view it and waiting to move on with everything. I am not a patient person so it sometimes really gets to me and depresses me which is why I haven't been doing as much sewing and knitting as I would like, I find it hard to motivate myself to do anything when I feel down. Fingers crossed this won't last that much longer though, the housing market has to pick up soon (she says hopefully!).

Got It Finished

2008-03-06T09:48:00.005Z

This skirt has been hanging around in the sewing room for far too long half finished, so yesterday I forced myself to work on it and actually managed to get it done just before I needed to go and pick up Little One from school.

The pattern is Simplicity 4086, I originally cut the pieces for pockets but I couldn't get the linen to lie properly and they looked terrible so I left them off. The fabric is from Sewing Supply Co-op many moons ago and I've tried about 5 patterns in the past only to discover that I didn't have enough fabric (I had 2 yards) but this pattern worked with that amount.

It wasn't a hard skirt to make, I stalled at the zip. Zips are my sewing hurdle at the moment and I don't know why. I'm not actually that bad at putting them in (saying that it took me 3 goes with this one and I still had to do a little hand stitching inside where I'd not quite caught the seam allowance in) and they prevent me from even starting garments and from working at them when I reach the zip installation point. I really need to get over my block and just sew them before they become a really big deal. There always seems to be something that I don't like doing or am put off doing with my sewing, not sure what causes it, I just seem to loose my confidence now and again.

I went through all my pattern boxes last night and couldn't find a single thing I wanted to make which is a bit worrying. I think it's because I have some Burda patterns on the way from Sewing.com and I know there is a dress pattern in there I'd really like to make with a particular fabric I have if I have enough of it. I have been hoping all week that the package will arrive, if it doesn't come today I will just have to get on with Little One's trousers or perhaps trace some patterns for Tiny and get going on the things I want to make for him. I've got some fabric in the machine dying at the moment for a vintage overalls pattern I found last night in one of the boxes sized 1 year, hopefully it will come out ok.

I discovered that I may actually have enough yarn to finish off the cable sock, I am going to try and do one more pattern repeat and then do the toe, it's going to be close but I might just make it, fingers crossed. Besides that it's same old same old with the knitting, a few rows of the scarf and a few rows of the Green Tea Raglan and avoiding the seaming on Dawn!

Where Was I?

2008-03-04T17:05:00.009Z

I seem to have wandered aimlessly away from the blog, sorry about that. The sewing has slowed down but I do have two things to show you, the first of which is another Onion 20035 t-shirt for Little One

The fabric is PRR race cars jersey, I think it's dyed Bahama Blue, I really should write down what dye colours I use as I always think I'll remember but I never do. There will be some cord trousers to go with this t-shirt at some point, I've traced the Ottobre pattern I want to use but not cut it out yet.

The second finished garment are these Baby Jeans for Tiny, they are Ottobre 2/03 #5 that I said I'd cut out from the final scraps of the stretch denim. I had thought I would get a 74cm pair from it but in the end it was only just big enough for the 65cm size which is what he's wearing at the moment. To give him a little bit more wear from them I used 3/4 inch elastic rather than 1 inch and did a 1.5cm hem rather than a 2cm one which in total gave me about 1cm more length.

I used light blue thread, it was actually what I had in the sewing machine and then I thought out of laziness that it might look nice and give a bit of contrast on the dark fabric so I tried it out and I think it looks quite good. The applique on the back pocket is from Abakhan as well, I found two packets of ones this size of varying vehicles and snapped them up as I can use them for either of the boys to add a touch of colour to plain garments. It's an iron on one so very easy to apply and it has the added benefit of my being able to say to Tiny 'you got a rocket up your ass? Oh, yes you apparently do!' which adds a small giggle to the day for someone like me with a stupid sense of humour.

Since finishing those jeans I've done nothing sewing wise besides staring at the projects I'd like to work on and getting rid of my mending pile which made me feel good. I sewed buttons on the black cotton cardigan I finished many moons ago, sewed some elastic onto some pj bottoms, put a button on a school shirt for little one and mended the inseams of a pair of my trousers so those items are no longer there to taunt me every time I go into the room.

What is now taunting me are the pieces of Dawn, I finished the knitting about two weeks ago and still haven't managed to do the raglan seams so I can do the neckband. I don't know why I have just abandoned it there but I do intend to pick it up soon.

Knitting that has been grabbing my attention is the Diamond Fantasy Shawl which I've not touched in probably over a year. I have done just over one pattern repeat since Saturday and that includes ripping out 6 rows after dropping a stitch, the first time I've ever used a safety line I put in all my shawls and I was so glad it was there! I have four more pattern repeats and then I will just have some short rows and an attached i-cord to do. Of course as the shawl grows every other row the second half of the shawl knitting will take longer than the first half but I'm excited to be knitting on it again and to have started the second of three balls of yarn.

I finished the second sleeve of the Green Tree Raglan and will now be making very slow progress on the front and backs, miles of moss stitch (seed stitch) which I don't mind for a short while but does get dull. To give me something plain to work on I have cast on for the Phiaro Scarf from Knitscene Winter 07. I'm using SWTC Bamboo rather than more of the Oasis that the pattern calls for (which I'm using for the Green Tree Raglan). I also only have 2 balls instead of 3 so it won't be as wide but I adore the colourway and needed something where it wouldn't matter that the two balls I have are from different dyelots and this should do the trick. Basically you knit a tube until you are almost out of yarn and cast off whilst dropping stitches to make the scarf as long as it is. I remembered halfway through casting on the 195 stitches the first time that I needed to use a long tail cast on rather than my normal knitted cast on or else the whole bottom would unravel when I dropped the stitches. I did have several periods of irritation trying to do the cast on but I got there in the end and have done about five rows today, plenty of plain knitting left for television watching.

So, slow progress on a lot of things (I have abandoned the cable socks for the moment as I'm sure I'm going to run out of yarn and I HATE it when you get an inch from the end of the sock and run out, I am going to try and see if I can figure out how to unravel the cast on and knit some of the yarn from the top and then cast off again should I run out of yarn) but nothing major really. Hopefully I will be able to show you Dawn soon and I ordered some needles today for the Frontier Blues Jacket (which will be the Frontier Pinks Jacket for me) from the same issue of Knitscene as the scarf so I'm sure I'll cast on for that pretty soon as well, more plain stocking stitch, although back and forth in this case with a seed stitch border, for me to enjoy. I feel like I need a colour injection in my knitting at the moment so these projects will balance out the cream of the Green Tea Raglan for me.

I'm rambling horribly so I will disappear again, but hopefully not for as long this time.

On A Roll

2008-02-23T21:15:00.007Z

I'm really enjoying doing this sewing for Little One, I just wish he'd stop chewing on the t-shirts I make him as it's really annoying to see the cuffs and necklines all out of shape (it's a habit he's had for a while now and it drives me crazy).

So, another outfit for him, although the pieces can obviously be worn separately too!

The t-shirt is Onion 20035 again. The fabric is PRR jersey which I dyed with Dylon (can't remember the shade). I had to use the grey ribbing again as when I pulled the ribbing I dyed with the fabric from the washing machine I discovered that I'd dyed two small pieces rather than a larger piece folded in half and the pieces I have weren't long enough to cut the collar from. Anyway, I think the grey worked well with this in the end.

The jogging bottoms are another pair of the Ottobre 3/04 #20/31, the main pieces are from #20 and the pockets are from #31, I left off the back pockets again. I didn't have any FOE that would work for the pockets so I cut a strip of the fabric and used that instead, I didn't finish the edges leaving it to unravel a bit like the other edges of the pockets will do.

Little One liked the bottoms but said that motorcycles were too fast and noisy.... I'm sure he'll wear it when it's a bit warmer and he forgets about the noisy fast motorcycles!

Today I had a bit of a planning spell in the Sewing Room and picked out what I want to make for Tiny from the fabric I have lying about for him. I ended up putting a few bits into the Freecycle bag (I give away my scraps on Freecycle when I have a full bag of them) as they were too small for anything now he's grown or I just didn't feel like looking at another child wearing that print or colour! I cut out a pair of trousers for him from the leftover denim and traced a pair of trousers for Little One to go with the t-shirt that I cut out yesterday and sewed a little bit of today. I also found a pattern to go with the final bit of cord fabric for Little One and picked out a few more patterns for Tiny for when he needs some clothes, I still need to figure out exactly what he has and what he needs in the next size, I seem to recall he has a huge stack of trousers so it will probably only be tops that he's short of.

I cast on the Green Tea Raglan from Interweave Knits Spring 2007 a couple of weeks ago now and have been making slow progress. I'm using South West Trading Company Oasis (Soy Silk) in Natural and I'm loving the way it's knitting up. I've finished the first sleeve (the sleeves are stocking stitch and the body is moss stitch) and amazingly I've still got a load left of the first ball of yarn, I love the fact that there are 240 yards per ball, it makes it worth the money (especially as I got it on sale!).

I'm up to the raglan decreases on the final piece of Dawn as well, I hope to finish that off early next week and then figure out how to block and seam it so I can knit the neckline.

Sockwise I'm stalled on the Fools Rush socks but I have knit the cuff of a cabled sock from Interweave Knits, more info on that one when I can be bothered to dig out the magazine to tell you what issue it comes from. I'm using Panda Cotton again and I'm a little worried that I won't have enough yarn, all I can do is keep knitting and see I guess.

More Onion 20035

2008-02-22T10:48:00.003Z

I'm still working on things for Little One and will be probably all through next week unless I get bored, it's a nice chance to do a bit of stash busting and fill up his drawers with clothes that will tide him over until the next growth spurt!

I made this t-shirt on Wednesday, I've had this fabric out for a t-shirt for him ever since I made him the last lot and just never got around to it. It was worth it in the end though as when he saw it on his bed (I leave stuff out for him to have a look at when it's finished) he said that he liked it and wanted to wear it right away, so he did! The fit of this t-shirt pattern is just right for him at the moment, long enough for him to grow a few more inches and narrow enough that he doesn't look like he's wearing someone elses clothes. In case you can't tell from the photo the fabric has ants all over it, very suitable for a 4 year old!

I didn't change the pattern piece for the neckband at all for the self fabric even though this fabric doesn't have a lot of stretch. I discovered with the first shirt that the pattern piece is actually a little long so I just cut it as was for this t-shirt and for the next one I've cut out (yep, you'll see this t-shirt pattern a good few times yet!) I left off the seam allowance for the end of the piece so it isn't quite as baggy.

These trousers were yesterday's effort

These took about an hour and a half to sew including overlocking all the pieces, I do so love sewing for little people! I love this pattern and could keep making it over and over again (and I will in larger sizes I'm sure!) but for now I'm putting it away and will dig out some Ottobre patterns for the other fabric I have ready to go. I bought my thread on Wednesday so I'm set now.

This fabric is PRR Twill and I got it pre-dyed from someones stash clear out so I don't know what colour it was dyed. I have enough left for another pair of trousers as well, whether those will be for Little One or Tiny when he's a whole lot bigger I don't know. I am trying to use up my kids stash whilst still leaving enough prints for Tiny to grow into, but I don't want him to be only dressed in PRR when I realise he's about to be too old for it and I need to sew it up right away!

Next up is a short sleeved t-shirt and some more jogging bottoms as those are Little One's choice for after school, then I'll be onto some cord trousers from Ottobre and another short sleeved t-shirt I think, unless I fancy a short break to make something for myself or Tiny from our stacks of fabric.

It's so nice to have my sewing mojo back, my mood has improved hugely since I've been sewing a couple of hours a day when Tiny has his afternoon nap, hopefully I can keep it up and stay inspired so that I can get through the piles of stuff I have planned!

And yay for Blogger spellchecker finally working again, although when I opened Blogger today it was, literally, all in Greek! Very odd!

Sewing For Little One Again

2008-02-19T10:47:00.005Z

Two of the t-shirts that I made for Little One in June are pretty much ready to be thrown away (no decent charity/thrift shop would sell them!), he didn't get a bad run from them though, as those of you with 4 year olds know they're pretty hard on their clothes! He's also almost grown out of all the jogging bottoms that I made him over a year ago (he seems to grow out of tops before bottoms for some reason) and a lot of his store bought clothing so it was time to dig through the stash and make him some more clothes.

I started off with this outfit from Onion 20035 in size 104 cm.

The denim was leftover thinnish stretch denim that I used for my maternity jeans (there is enough left for some trousers for Tiny too, using up all the scraps and leftovers!) and the knit was from a co-op but I can't remember which one now, I've had it a while.

These went together really fast and easily, I really love the trouser pattern and I have some more fabric earmarked for another pair. The t-shirt will be my default pattern for him in this size as it's nice and narrow rather than too wide which the Kwiksew patterns all seem to be on him at the moment. The directions can be a little odd for these patterns though, the t-shirt I read through the directions and then put them away and made it using the Kwiksew method. I don't see the point in putting the neckband in last when you can put it in as the second step when the t-shirt is still flat and I couldn't bring myself to try and sew in a stretch sleeve that had the side seam already sewn when I can put it in flat really quickly and easily. The trousers instructions say to sew the side seams and then sew the front seam and do the mock fly. I did the front and mock fly first and then did the side seams to avoid having all that extra fabric flapping around when I was doing the top stitching. Besides that though I had no problems and I still adore Onion patterns, I traced two for myself the other day and am looking forward to making both of them.

I have more fabric all ready to go for Little One for some more trousers and tops but discovered that I could only actually make to t-shirts from the stack of fabric as I need to go on a thread buying expedition before I can sew the rest.

I have been doing a bit of knitting here and there making progress on things. I cast on for a new sweater and a new pair of socks as well, I'll get around to updating Ravelry sooner or later!

Orange Dress FO

2008-02-18T10:32:00.003Z

I finally finished off the dress, last week was half term here so I had Little One at home all week which meant no sewing for me. On Saturday I got some time to myself and put the sleeves on, sewed the skirt to the boddice, put in the zip and hemmed the dress and I'm pretty pleased with the result.

The only bit I'm not happy with is the zip. For some reason there was a little more fabric on the front boddice pice than the back which has resulted in a small twist in the fabric. However, it aligns with a flower on the fabric so you can't actually see the twist unless you are staring very hard at it. I also messed up the top of the zip a little bit, pulling the fabric over a bit too far trying to cover the top of the zip (I didn't have an invisible one in my stash). Again, it's not that noticeable unless you're staring hard and as it's under my arm and this was the hardest zip I've put in for a long while I'm not going to mess about with it and try and fix it unless it really bothers me later on.

This is what the collar came out like in the end in case you were wondering.

As I said I'm happy with the dress and hope to get some wear out of it, unfortunately this fabric really holds the creases and the way the dress is constructed makes it pretty hard to iron so it will be a dress that gets worn only when I have the time and energy to give it a good press right before putting it on!

The pattern is Simplicity 4116 and the fabric is Heather Ross which I bought from Sewing Supply Co-op many moons ago.

Crap

2008-02-12T15:44:00.000Z

This is the current state of the Tree Jacket. I'm not going to have enough yarn to finish it by my calculations.

I noticed that I was running a little short on yarn so I started on a sleeve to see how much yarn it would take to knit the sleeves so I would know if I had enough to finish the body. I had 13 balls of this yarn making a total of 1092 yards, the pattern calls for 1050 yards and I'm knitting to gauge so I'm not sure what has gone wrong. This Mission Falls 18/24 cotton has such stupid yardage, 87 yards per ball is really short, I only get 3 inches of the body from each ball and there are ends everywhere especially the yoke where I was getting about an inch from each ball.

So, to finish the sleeves I will need almost 3 balls for each one, then I have another 5 inches of the body to knit so that's another 2 balls. I've knit 1 ball for the first sleeve already so I need a total of 7 balls to finish and I only have 4. The sleeves are huge so I could start decreasing earlier but that isn't going to save me 3 balls of yarn.

Looking on Ravelry there is yarn in this shade for sale but the dyelot is in the 90000's and the yarn I have is dyelot 59580 (shade 300) so I really doubt that there is any for sale anywhere and with the dyelots being so very different it could be a totally different shade by now.

So, it looks like I could be ripping. I don't actually feel too gutted, I'm not sure if I could pull off the turtleneck on this and I think the garter stitch bothers me and will make my chest look a lot bigger than it is (not something I really need), it's just the fact that I've been working on this since November that annoys me and also that I will have to put yarn back into my stash that I don't have faith in, I mean is it the yarn or the pattern that is at fault here if my gauge is right? No one else on Ravelry has had a problem with the yardage given in the pattern so something screwy must be going on with the yarn.

I think I'm going to bag this up and put it out of sight for a while and think on it a bit. Right now I'm just thinking 'rip it' but I don't want to regret that tomorrow!

ps is anyone else having problems with the spellcheck on Blogger? It's not worked for me for ages now so please excuse any typos I've not found and corrected...

Cafe Curtains Socks FO

2008-02-09T11:28:00.000Z

I finished off the Cafe Curtains socks, did the knitting yesterday evening whilst half watching tv and then did the final kitchener this morning. The pattern can be found here (it's a PDF link) and I used 2 balls of Panda Cotton in Strawberries and Limes and 2.5mm bamboo dpns. The only change I made to the pattern was to do 2 extra repeats on the cuff as I had more yardage than the pattern called for. I could have done another 2 repeats on each sock as I had plenty of yarn leftover (I hate wasting it....) but I was cautious as I didn't want to get to the toe and have to frog the whole sock like I did with another pattern I tried with some Panda Cotton.

These are the first socks I've finished with Panda Cotton and I really love the yarn. It's really soft and silky feeling (it's bamboo and cotton) and it knits up really nicely. It is splitty but knitting almost exclusively with cotton I'm pretty used to that. This was my first short row toe and I finally feel like I'm getting the hang of short row heels and toes now. I definitely prefer the yarn over method of short rows over the wrapping method, I just find the wrapping confusing and it always looks messy whereas yarn overs don't confuse my brain and come out looking a lot neater. Now we just have to see how they wear, hopefully the bamboo will give them enough strength to hold together for a long time.

In other sock news I frogged the Fluted Bannister socks I was working on. I realised that I hadn't touched them in ages because I wasn't happy that the pattern was showing up with the yarn. There was no real point going to the effort of knitting a pattern into socks where you can't see it so I will save the pattern for some plain yarn in the future and find something else to make instead out of the many many sock patterns I have in my Ravelry collection. I only have one pair of socks on the needles at the moment which is amzing for me, but I'm feeling like I want to clear out some projects (same old Anna cycle, cast on for tons of things and then feel overwhelmed and try to cut down the number of projects!). I'm really enjoying the socks I'm making so I will stick to them and try not to cast on until I've at least got the second one cast one.

I did make progress with the Tree Jacket this week but didn't do anything on Dawn. I will try and do more work on both of those next week, the Tree Jacket in particular feels like it's taking me forever and I don't know why that is, perhaps it's because it's in the round so I do the same thing over and over again and only get about half an inch in length which is a bit frustrating.

Thanks so much for all the comments on the dress. I am going with the collar and sleeves which is what I originally wanted to do. I made a little progress yesterday and I have the whole afternoon to work on it some more so hopefully I can get it almost finished today. I feel like I'm really slacking with my sewing at the moment, I noticed in my Flickr folder that I've only completed one project this year and that is so not like me, I really need to get myself up into the sewing room and making stuff as it makes me happy and I have so many projects that I want to work on.

Need Dress Guidance

2008-02-05T10:19:00.000Z

My sewing has really slowed down lately, I got bored with the skirt I was making and put it aside, something I don't normally do, sewing UFO's are pretty rare for me as once I start sewing something I want to see how it will look finished.

Anyway, I put aside the skirt and cut out a dress that I had been wanting to make for ages. I was chugging along happily when I realised that when I cut the collar I managed to get the print going a funny direction. I don't have enough fabric to re-cut the collar and I'm now stuck trying to figure out what to do with this dress.

These are the options:

Sleeveless and collarless. I made this dress that way once before and it looks nice. I wanted something a bit different this time around though so this is my least favourite option.

With sleeves but without collar. I'm not sure if this balances out right or not. I wanted sleeves on this so it was a little more formal for office wear, I think that sometimes sleeveless can come across as a bit too casual and that's not the look I'm after with this dress.

Final option is with the collar and sleeves. If you look closely you can see that the print on the collar runs the wrong way. At the back it runs the right way with the rest of the dress. I know it won't bother me when I'm wearing it as I won't see the collar but I don't know if it will bother other people looking at it with the print going that way, does it look funky?

So, what does anyone think? I really want to finish making something soon before my sewing mojo totally disappears (mind you, I have to go and buy bias binding for this dress so I can't finish it off until I visit Abakhan anyway). Please let me have your opinions, I just can't make up my mind and keep going between collarless with sleeves and just putting the collar on and forgetting about the funny pattern placement!

Knitting is coming along, I have now finished the second sleeve of Dawn and have cast on for the second front/back piece so that will be a FO in the next 2 weeks I'd hope. I finished the cuff of the second Cafe Curtains Sock yesterday whilst watching the Superbowl on video (it didn't kick off until 11.30pm our time and I'm asleep before that!) and also did a few more rows of the Tree Jacket which is growing very very slowly. My goals for this week are to work on the Tree Jacket and Dawn and to finish off the second Cafe sock, I'm going to go and do the heel of that right now.

Thanks for your help!

Reaching Goals?

2008-01-28T16:44:00.000Z

Well, I came down with a cold last week which slowed me down and is still slowing me down now. I didn't finish off the skirt, I have the zip, waistband and hem to do and then it will be done. It's looking ok so far, I didn't put the pockets on in the end as they looked pretty terrible and I couldn't get them to look neat enough for my liking. Hopefully I will have it done to show you soon, I hate it when I get caught up on a project that isn't thrilling (it's a nice skirt and I'll wear it but it's not as fun as a bright coloured dress or top!) and holds me back from more fun stuff.

I finished off the first Cafe Curtains sock and have done the cuff and about 2 repeats on the second sock, just need to keep on going with these, the pattern requires attention though so I can't do it and watch tv fully but I want to get these done asap as I really like them. My only irritation is that I could have done about 3 more repeats on the leg as I had tons of yarn left, I hate to waste yarn like that especially when I've had it sent all the way from America and it's pink and green....

The Tree Jacket has grown a bit but not too much more, I worked on it through a film and have done a few bits here and there but not as much as I'd hoped, the cold had me sitting staring at the tv rather than my normal knitting along with it.

I finished off the front of Dawn today, the raglan took about 40 minutes of knitting including stopping to let my hands stop hurting, I think I'll do the second sleeve this week as I'm still finding it really fun, it's great to have a project that grows so fast!

Of course, with everything else I have on the needles and not making as much progress as I want to I ended up casting on for another project last night. I'm making the Fools Rush socks (that link is a pdf file). I'm using the plain Maizy in Hyacinth from my stash and they're looking really good so far. I don't think I've ever knit a pair of socks in plain thin yarn before (I've done some in Fixation) and I've not done a pair with a pattern just down the side for years now, I forgot how fast they move! I'm about four inches into them and really enjoying it, plus as the pattern is only 9 stitches on each side and every other row is plain I can knit these with tv which means they should keep growing at an ok speed.

So, I'm happy with my progress but have nothing to show you which makes for a pretty dull post really, sorry!

New Dress

2008-01-21T09:54:00.001Z

Little One saw me carrying this out of the sewing room to hang it up in the cupboard and said 'oh, pretty!' which was nice to hear! Mind you, he did then ask me if it was another dressing gown but I'll take the compliment anyway!

This is Vogue 8351 made from some thin jersey I got from Price Immaterial on Ebay. I have adored this print since I saw it and had to own it and I wanted to make more than a t-shirt from it so I was glad to find I had enough to make the long sleeved version of this dress. The top isn't quite sure how to hang but I think it will look better on real boobs rather than the dress form.

I'm really happy with the way this came out, it was pretty easy to make (it's an Easy Vogue pattern) despite the gathers. Once again with the gathers, I seem to sew them all the time and as I've said before I really don't like sewing them but I guess I like the look of them as they are on most of the garments I'm making at the moment! There are ties at the back which worked really well and should give the dress more shape when worn. I say 'when worn' as this is still a bit too small for me at the moment but I am slowly loosing weight so it will fit in the next few months.

Next I'm onto a skirt that I cut out before this dress but when I found out that you have to do the fiddly hems around the pockets first I put it down and worked on something else. Fiddly first instructions on any pattern tend to put me off a bit, I like to ease myself into the sewing rather than starting with the details but I feel ready to face it now so that will be my project this week.

Knitting wise I didn't finish the Cafe Curtains sock, I just have the toe to do and as it's a short row toe I need to have a period of time where I can knit the whole thing start to finish otherwise I will just get lost and confused. I finished the yoke of the Tree Jacket and have done about four repeats on the body, it is growing far more quickly now I'm down to about 180 stitches from over 300! I also cast on for Dawn and am about to start decreasing for the raglan on the first sleeve. This is such a fun quick project, it's knit on one 12mm and one 6mm needle giving it a nice open look and with that size of needle it flies along. I have to figure out how to join on a new ball of yarn now though, I'm not sure if knitting a few stitches with the old and new yarn will show up badly so I will give it a go and hope it looks ok.

So, my goals for this week are to make the skirt, finish the Cafe Curtains Sock and get going on the second one and to get at least halfway down the body of the Tree Jacket along with finishing the first sleeve and a front or back of Dawn (they are the same). Hopefully that is all possible, only time will tell how this week will pan out!

Lana Grossa Socks FO

2008-01-16T14:24:00.000Z

I can't believe it's been this long that I've not posted, quite a long break for me and totally unintentional! I finished off this last pair of wool socks, I don't think I'll be knitting any more from wool (I do have a wool sweater planned for my Father at some point though). This was the last ball of sock yarn in my stash for the Husband. It's Lana Grossa Meilenweit 100 Multiringel shade 5020 and I knit them on 2.25mm Knitpicks metal needles which I actually found really nice to use, I will be adding some 2mms to my collection sooner or later as I have some patterns that call for teeny tiny needles and I think I would bend or break bamboo that small (although I will probably buy some Knitpicks coloured dpns in 2mm to test my theory, what can I say they're cute and cheap).

I've been quite down over the last week or so which has meant that I've not been sewing and the knitting has been slow progress. I frogged the Dollar and a Half Cardigan last night, I will still make it but my brain isn't up to the lace pattern at the moment, I need knits that are simple and fun to make so I will cast on for that when I feel like I've regained the brainpower.

The house is now on the market and we have 2 viewings booked for Saturday. I have been more upset about selling the house than I thought I would be. I did finally realise that it was the house that was the problem for me and that it wasn't connected to the splitting up, even if we were still planning on Portland I would be upset about selling the house (even though I really do want to move). I have put a lot of time and effort into turning this house into a home from the wreck that it was when we bought it and I brought both my babies home here. It would be sad to leave it no matter what the circumstances and once I accepted that I began to feel better about the whole thing and am dragging myself back into the land of the living.

I'm working on sewing a dress at the moment, I would like to have that finished by the end of the week (perfectly possible) and carry on with some of the fun sewing projects I have lined up for myself. It's annoying that when I feel down it's hard to drag myself into the sewing room when I know that sewing always cheers me up...

Current knits include the Cafe Curtains Socks, I want to finish off the first one this week and get started on the second and my Tree Jacket, I am almost done with the yoke of it which means there are a whole lot of stitches on the needles, it will get faster once I've taken the sleeves off and work down the body without having to purl every other row. I intend to cast on for another sweater or cardigan soon as well, I am thinking it may be Dawn from Rowan 35 as that should be quite a fast fun knit but I also ordered some Rowan Cotton Rope from Ebay for a cardigan from the new Knitscene so if I fall for the yarn in person when it arrives it may be the one to be cast on next. Whatever I cast on I'm going to be setting myself knitting and sewing goals each week so I keep moving along with things, I always achieve more when I put what I want to do on my mental 'To Do' list, that way it feels justified to sit down and knit for an afternoon or a few hours because it's something that 'has' to be done!

Thermal FO

2008-01-04T12:18:00.002Z

Finally, 8 months after casting on this sweater is finished, and I'm pretty pleased with the results.

I used 11 balls of Phildar Licorne which I acquired very cheaply from Abakhan, this sweater cost about £4 ($8) which is a bit of a bargain really! It took an awful lot of knitting, Ravelry kindly tells me that I used about 1441 yards of yarn, knit on 3mm needles in waffle stitch it's no wonder it took me so long to make it!

I knit the 40 inch bust size and it's very stretchy, being cotton I'm sure it will lengthen with wear, it's a tiny bit short at the moment but there's no real point blocking cotton like this as it will do whatever it wants when you wear it anyway. The only change I made to the pattern was to not knit the buttonholes. I knit the first one 3 times and it looked terrible each time so I decided that as I would never open the buttons anyway I'd leave them out and just sew the buttons through both layers. I also knit the first stitch of the button band in regular ribbing rather than twisted rib as it looked really loose and horrid. When putting the buttons on I discovered that I was right about the top of the neckline being open bugging me (it was the only thing I wasn't so sure about with this pattern) so I added a third button and I think it looks really nice. The wooden buttons were in my stash and I'd had them in mind for this right from the start so I'm glad they looked ok when it finally came time to sew them on!

I feel like a great knitting weight has been lifted and my knitting basket looks so much emptier without this in it! I can now get on and finish one of the three pairs of socks I have stashed in there and work on my Tree Jacket without feeling guilty that I'm not finishing Thermal!

The Collection - Gioia Diliberto

2008-01-03T15:58:00.003Z

I was very kindly sent this book to review by the Publisher far too long ago. I read it right away and what with everything else that has been going on around here I've just never managed to type up the review!

The book is set in Paris in the workrooms of Chanel and traces the story of Isabelle Vartlet who is a seamstress there. It gives you a ton of information and a real feel for what it might have been like to sew for Chanel and other designers of the period and the descriptions of the clothing are wonderful.

I have to say that Isabelle was a bit annoying and not very interesting. It was where she went and what she saw that kept me turning the pages rather than what she thought or felt about it. It is pretty improbable that she would have walked into the job she did with the experience that she had but it was wonderful to read about the system of sewing, the customers and Chanel herself.

I have to admit that I knew very little of the period and I'm not a disciple of haute couture, but this book was a good place to start learning (it has a bibliography of factual books) and I really enjoyed reading it.

The book did the rounds of bloggers a few months back now so I will leave my review short and sweet. If you're interested in what it might have been like to sew for Chanel then pick it up, I know I will be reading more about her and the sewing rooms in the future after reading this.

2007 Round Up

2007-12-31T16:24:00.000Z

So, here we are again, counting up what was made this year. I'm also going to include what was read and watched as I kept track of that as well!

What with being pregnant, then having a baby and adding to that a whole lot of stress I haven't done as much knitting this year as the previous two years where I managed 37 items. My knitting totals for this year are:

14 pairs of socks
2 cardigans
1 jumper

So 17 projects, which isn't too bad, but is way below what I would have liked to have knit! I can't believe I didn't finish a shawl this year, especially considering that I have 3 on the needles! I must get back to my shawl knitting next year for sure.

Thermal didn't make it to the FO list, it's almost there, I have finished the sleeves and am halfway through the neckband. After that I just need to sew in some ends, put some buttons on and sew on the sleeves. It will be done very early in 2008 and even though I didn't meet the deadline of today that I set myself (probably due to doing a lot of reading instead!) I'm happy that it's almost finished.

Sewing totals were down as well, but not by as much as the knitting. This year I managed a total of 80 items, broken down like this:

1 dressing gown
2 skirts
12 items for Tiny
5 shirts
7 kids tops
3 kids bottoms
1 coat
9 pairs of pyjamas (adult and kids combined)
2 dresses
10 tops
1 knitting needle roll
3 bags
16 nappies
3 cot sheets
3 pairs of trousers
1 apron
1 nightdress

So, not too shabby. I will try and pick up the pace a bit next year and work through some of the stash and project ideas in my head. I will need a working wardrobe so I will be sewing away on that a lot to start with.

In reading I managed to read 43 books this year. That's an average of three and a half books a month which isn't too bad considering I don't get to read as much at night as I would like to as I tend to fall right asleep as soon as my head hits he pillow! I've read some great books this year and some poor ones. The best books would have to be:

At Risk - Alice Hoffman
Living The Good Life - Linda Cockburn
We Need To Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid - Bill Bryson
Water For Elephants - Sue Gruen
Tender at the Bone - Ruth Reichel
Prodigal Summer - Barbara Kingsolver
Twilight - Stephanie Meyer

As for my viewing pleasure, this year I have managed to watch 84 films and 11 tv series. The tv series don't include all 3 CSI's, Gilmore Girls, Greys Anatomy and Bones which I watched as and when they aired. That's an average of 7 films a month which isn't too bad, I think we got our moneys worth from the monthly fee. My favourites were

Medium and Weeds, great TV!
The Inconvenient Truth
Little Miss Sunshine
The Departed
The Last King of Scotland
Night at the Museum
Die Hard 4.0
Alpha Dog

So, that's what I've been up to this year with my spare time in 2007, I'm looking forward to what I can get up to in 2008!

2007 Books I've Read

2007-12-30T13:01:00.000Z

I've been meaning to create a book's read list for ages, I will link to this post in the sidebar and just update it whenever I finish off something. I think it will be interesting to see what I get through in a year and to keep track of what I thought about things, gone are the days when I can remember the plot of every book I've read, I think I've just read too many now!

Again, I'll be bumping this at the start of each month to make it easier to find.

January

Scar Tissue - Anthony Kiedis and Larry Sloman
Autobiography of the singer of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. This book was an amazing read, the stuff he did and the names he drops had me amazed and captivated. It's amazing he's still alive but lord what a life he's lead! Picked this book up in Powells on sale while we were in Portland.

The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd
This was a nice light read and pretty enjoyable, nothing particularly taxing. I picked this one up in a charity shop sometime last year.

Knitting Rules! - Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
I got this for Christmas after reading excerpts of Kathy's copy whilst in Portland. I have to admit I skimmed a lot of bits, I don't need to know how to knit a scarf or a hat at the moment but I'm sure I'll come back and look at it later when I do. Not as good as the first 2 books I don't think but still worth having in the collection.

At Risk - Alice Hoffman
I have been looking for this book for years as it's out of print for some reason. It deals with the reactions of a small town and the family of an 11 year old girl who is diagnosed with AIDS. As depressing as that sounds it wasn't a horrific book to read, Alice Hoffman can deal with subjects like this and not have you sobbing into your bedsheets but instead wondering which of the characters you'd react like. Great read, really enjoyed it and so glad I found it in Powells!

No More Bull! The Mad Cowboy Targets America's Worst Enemy: Our Diet - Howard F. Lyman
I really enjoyed his first book but this one was a bit of a letdown. It's half information about how bad meat is for you and half recipes. Neither of the sections are done in enough depth, the information section is all stuff that if you're already vegan you'll know and the recipes aren't all that inspiring. This was a Christmas present.

Covered Wagon Women Diaries and Letters From The Western Trails, 1850 (volume 2) - Edited and Compiled by Kenneth L. Holmes
I really love these books (I have volume 1 and intend to collect them all), they are unedited diaries and letters of women travelling to Utah, California or Oregon. Just amazing stories and events and makes you realise how easy we have things, especially when it comes to travel! This was another Christmas present.

February

I Put A Spell On You - The Autobiography of Nina Simone
For some reason I decided about 8 months or so ago that I should know more about Nina Simone so I bought a compilation cd and asked for this book for Christmas. I was a bit disappointed at how thin the book seemed but lord did she pack a lot into the chapters. She seemed to me to be a very strange combination of arrogant and naive and I got to the end of the book not knowing how I really felt about her, whether I liked her or not. I guess at least I've achieved my aim of knowing more about her though!

Pioneer Women The Lives of Women on the Frontier - Linda Peavy and Ursula Smith
This is a large format book with lots of pictures telling about all aspects of the lives of women on all the different frontiers of America. It covered a huge range of issues but none of them very much in depth. It was an interesting read though and lovely to see pictures for a change, most books about the Frontiers are light on the photographic evidence. Bought this from Amazon Marketplace.

March

Pregnancy, Children and the Vegan Diet - Michael Klapper MD
This book is 20 years old so it's interesting to read how much the vegan diet has changed in that time and what a difference the range of products we can find nowadays makes things more interesting, it really would have been a challenge in 1987 to eat a vegan diet I think. It had some interesting bits despite being out of date so was worth reading.

Skinny Dip - Carl Hiaason
I've read all his adult books except the one that just arrived at our house last week and they're always a good read with bizarre characters dealing with some sort of crime in the Everglades. This one pushed the environmentalism a little less than the rest. A fun read.

Living The Good Life - Linda Cockburn
This was a great book, I really enjoyed it. It's about a family in Australia who go for 6 months using as little power, water and money as they can. I learnt quite a few tips and read some amazing statistics in it which have made me even more determined to reduce our impact on the planet. However, it's not a great guide for city dwellers really as we have no use for grey water (no garden only a concrete back yard!), probably couldn't install a composting toilet (and would have nowhere to dispose of it's contents due to lack of garden) and we have no room to install rainwater collection tanks. They spent $21,000 Australian to get ready for the project (over a period of time, not right before they began!) and have a huge garden with a lot of fruit trees etc so it isn't quite as useful as reading a book about someone living with a regular toilet, water supply and electricity supply but it was still interesting and inspiring and I'm sure I'll go back to it many times.

Mothers Who Think, Tales of Real-Life Parenthood - Edited by Camille Peri and Kate Moses
I've wanted to read this for ages and I was disappointed with it. It was mainly stories of women who were divorced, which is valid obviously, but has nothing really to do with my experience of parenthood. At least I didn't pay full price for it so I won't mind selling it onwards again on Amazon Marketplace!

April

Plain and Simple A Woman's Journey to the Amish - Sue Bender
I wanted to read something about how the Amish live, unfortunately this wasn't the book I wanted, the lady stayed with them a couple of weeks and was concerned with answering questions about her life which I found pretty dull. At least it was a short book, back on Amazon Marketplace it goes and the hunt for the book I do want to read goes on.

The Big Picure - Douglas Kennedy
This was a really fast read, not only because his books are easy to read but because you want to know what's going to happen next so you keep reading when you should be doing other things. This is the first of his books I've read where the main character is a man. It was a good story but not as involved or quite as interesting than the others I've read.

Vegan The New Ethics of Eating - Erik Marcus
I haven't read a book about veganism in a while and as this month is my 3rd anniversary of being vegan I figured I'd have a look at another one. It covers the standard health, environmental and ethical reasons for being vegan, although a lot of statistics seem out of date as the book was written in 1998. Still an interesting read and nice to remind myself why I do what I do and that I'm not alone in what I think and feel.

May

Nature Girl - Carl Hiaason
Another quick and funny read, although this one wasn't as good as his earlier books. His characters are so vivid and strange, they're always entertaining even if the plot is a little bit thin.

New Active Birth - Sheila Kitzinger
Trying to get ready to have this baby!

June

Made In America - Bill Bryson
I think I've read every Bryson book there is now except for his most recent which I bought last week. I really enjoyed this book but it took me forever to read, I've literally been reading it almost every night for a month! It's about words and where they come from linked into the history of the US, all very interesting but also very heavy going at times!

Not Buying It - Judith Levine
I had been waiting to read this book for ages and was excited to get my hands on it. Unfortunately it wasn't what I wanted to read about, I wanted a book about the experiences of living without buying anything for a year and instead I got a book about the politics, economics, trends etc of spending. It was ok but not as interesting at it could have been had she added more personal stuff about how it affected them and what they did without.

We Need To Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver
I have been meaning to read this for ages and I'm glad I finally got around to it. It was a bit hard to get into to begin with, it is written as letters and the writing style of the letters is quite involved. The story unfolds through the letters and is really interesting and gripping. I am sure I'll read this again in the future to try and pick up bits that I missed as I read it in the hospital before and after having Tiny so I was very tired!

July

The Life and TImes of The Thunderbolt Kid - Bill Bryson
I really enjoyed this book, started it in the hospital and had to try not to laugh too loudly at 3am, didn't want to wake anyone else up! I read most of the book in fact in the middle of the night whilst feeding Tiny, it was amusing and light enough to keep me interested and amused, I didn't want it to end!

Disease-Proof Your Child - Feeding Kids Right - Joe Fuhrman MD
If you've read anything about nutrition (especially vegan nutrition) this book doesn't deliver much new information. What it gives is a link between diet in childhood and diseases in later life. I wasn't too impressed with the recipies in the book, there weren't many that I would want to try, and I can't see our household going completely onto Fuhrman's plan but it did have some interesting points and tips that I will try and implement to get us a bit healthier.

Wiped! Life With a Pint-Size Dictator - Rebecca Eckler
This was recommended on a blog I read as being a really funny take on parenthood. I have to say that I didn't relate to it at all and found it really irritating in the end. My ideas on parenting and lifestyle are so completely different from the authors that I couldn't find her stories funny at all (I won't be going to Maui for 2 months with my small baby, buying my children items of clothing costing $75+ and also will never be sitting either of my children down in a restaurant with a portable dvd player so I can have a meal without having to deal with them, to name but 3 things), althoug I'm sure there are many parents out there who would agree with her and be able to relate.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - JK Rowling
I really enjoyed this book and thought that it wrapped up the whole series really well. I think a lot of adults forget that the series is designed for kids so the neat ending annoyed them, but it's that kind of thing that kids need and like in books and I think it was important to show Harry's later life and give him a happy future after all he'd been through. I'm looking forward to reading these books to Little One and then Tiny in the future, I hope they enjoy them as much as I have!

Where Did It All Go Right? Growing Up Normal In The 70's - Andrew Collins
This book is supposed to show a flip side to all the books about how horrible people's childhood's were and it does a good job. My DH loved it and told me that I'd love it, but I had a very different type of childhood, no less happy, just lacking in the package foods and vast amounts of tv that this book talks about. All the same it was a good read (mainly in the middle of the night while Tiny fed) and I'll get around to reading his other 2 books sometime.

August

Water For Elephants - Sara Gruen
This was another book that was recommended on someone's blog ages ago and it took me until recently to buy it. I adored this book, I had to keep making myself put it down to make it last longer, and even then I only managed to make it last 3 days, I found myself reading 'just another chapter' at 4am after feeding Tiny! The story is about a circus during the depression, it's very sad and there are some horrid bits in it involving animals, but they were all part of the story which was really entertaining and gripping, a book you can sink into and don't want to end.

Blackbird House - Alice Hoffman
I've had this book for a few years now and couldn't remember why I hadn't read it (my MIL bought it for me for Christmas the year it came out). When I started reading I realised why, it is short stories, and I'm not a short story fan. However, these stories were all based around the same house and told a tale of each generation of inhabitants and was really interesting, especially when one character showed up or was mentioned in the next tale. I love Alice Hoffman and I was sorry I put off reading this for so long.

Life After Birth - Kate Figes
I bought this book when we were just considering having Little One. All the books about pregnancy and birth are centred on the baby, which is fair enough, but what I wanted to know was how I would feel and how my life would change after having a baby, and this book answered a lot of questions. I read it again now after having Tiny and it still rings true, and also makes me feel better that I am not alone in the way I feel and the changes I am coping with. I'm passing the book on to my sister and I hope that when she decides to have children it will help her as much as it did me.

Skinny Bitch - Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin
This is a diet book that advocates an organic vegan diet. Despite the title it's not all woman hating stuff, it's main aim is to get you to eat an animal free healthy diet and to exercise more and stop eating when you're full. Not rocket science but better than most diet books out there!

Brand New Friend - Mike Gayle
I've read all but Mike Gayle's new book now and they're very easy reads about thirty-somethings and relationships. This one is about a male and female being friends. It was a good read but not too heavy for those 3am reading sessions whilst feeding a baby!

Wish You Were Here - Mike Gayle
I figured whilst on a Mike Gayle kick I may as well read the new book as well! I actually enjoyed this more than BNF, I found myself staying up to read just another chapter after feeding Tiny in the night which is always a sign of a good book! There were more characters than BNF and more happening. A very enjoyable read.

September

Reefer Madness - Eric Schlosser
This is about the American Underground, ie porn, marijuana and migrant labour in fruit and vegetable harvesting. It wasn't as interesting as Fast Food Nation and it was a little heavy going in some places and then rushed past stuff that you would have liked to have known more about in others, but overall not a bad read. Might have been easier going had I not read most of it during Tiny's 3am feeds!

The Legacy of Luna - Julia Butterfly Hill
This was a very quick easy read, it's about a lady who lived in a giant redwood tree for 2 years to protect it and the trees around it from being cut down. I would have like a little more detail about the day to day challenges and routines of living in a tree but it was mainly about the struggle away from the tree and how they went about saving it. Still a good read though and pretty inspiring.

Tender at the Bone - Ruth Reichl
This was everything a memoir should be, amusing warm stories all tied together showing how the main love of the person's life (this being food as Ruth Reichl is the Editor In Chief of Gormet magazine and a Restaurant Critic for the NY Times) developed. I didn't want this book to end and I'm really looking forward to reading her other 2 books, one of which is already on it's way to me.

October

Comfort Me With Apples - Ruth Reichl
This wasn't quite as good as the first one, but the I enjoy reading about the 50's more than I do the 80's so that was bound to be the case! Still a really good book though and very enjoyable. I will be buying her 3rd book as soon as I can.

The Collection - Gioria Diliberto
I was sent this book to review on my blogs, an enjoyable read but not a lot of substance to the plot, the clothes were the real starts!

November

Life On Air - David Attenborough
I found this book for 10p in the charity shop! It was a lovely read about his career at the BBC, ending in 1997 so there is a lot that isn't covered (including my favourite Life In the Freezer). I really love these programmes and intend to buy them all for Little One so it was nice to read about how they were made and what went into them. I learnt a lot about DA as well, I had no idea that he'd held so many positions in the BBC before starting to make the nature programmes.

The Jewl Garden - Monty Don and Sarah Don
I didn't enjoy this as much as I'd hoped to, the garden jargon went right over my head and I really had no idea what the majority of the plants they were talking about looked like. I adore 'Fork to Fork' by them which is much more approachable to someone with limited gardening experience, plus that's more about growing food which is the area I am most interested in whereas this was about flowers.

Prodigal Summer - Barbara Kingsolver
I really enjoyed this book. It's 3 stories set in the same county which are kind of linked together. The characters were all really interesting as were their lives and views. The kind of book you wish would last longer even though it was 444 pages long!

December

The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver
This is an epic tale of a family who go to the Congo to be missionaries. The story is told by five of the characters which made it a bit bitty to begin with and hard to get into, but once you got used to the different characters and the way they told their stories it was really interesting and pulled you along. I have more books by BK on my Amazon wishlist to buy soon as I'm really enjoying her writing!

The Eyes of Darkness - Dean R Koontz
I used to read a lot of Koontz many years ago, the novels are easy going but the characters are always really well written and three dimensional. The characters in this one were't a let down, however the plot was a bit thin and nothing of any real consequence happened until the last 20 pages, the whole point of the novel was just skimmed over in a hurry so the book could end it felt like. I bought another one of his from a sale at Little One's school so I'll give that a go soon and hope it's a bit better.

Twilight - Stephanie Meyer
This was a Christmas present, read cover to cover on Christmas Day! It is an older teen book about a vampire, very well written and easy to read with a lot of tension in it. I went right online and ordered the next 2 books in the trilogy, I hope they get here soon!

New Moon - Stephanie Meyer
Again I read this in one day! It wasn't as good as the first one I didn't think, Edward wasn't in it enough and Bella was so slow on the uptake sometimes it was painful. Saying that though it was still a good enjoyable read. I'm waiting for the third one to come into stock at Amazon, it apparently should be the second week of January, it's going to be a long wait!