Monster Rug.

Finally he is laid to rest......




.....About 150 t-shirts later and it is done.




This was a mammoth project but well worth it in the end. I love it. It is warm, cushy and cosy. Many of the t-shirts used were no longer wearable, with holes and many stains so it is a wonderful way to recycle. The entire rug was done in single crochet with a big mother of a hook (here is my crochet ignorance - how do you measure hooks if you don't have a hole thingee? What part is measured?).


Excuse the space, it has not yet been renovated. And watch that chair, it is next on the upholstery block! (Ooooh springs....)

This has been a big part of my creative time lately, along with the blanket. I may have to take a break from the blanket soon. I knit and knit and yet there are still more squares to go! I now see why crochet blankets are more popular (and sensible). I did cast on for the monkey socks but changed my mind on the yarn. It is a handwash only cashmere sock yarn, it didn't take me long to realise the folly of handwash socks in this household! I think I will save that yarn for something else. Anyway hopefully I will have some more interesting knitting going on around here soon.

Dirty Little Secret...........

A while back I made a scribble scarf.

It is made out of Rowan Kidsilk Haze and a mohair/tussah silk hand spun from Mendocino Fiber Art. It is garter stitch done on size 19 needles. Fast and easy (so many jokes I could make with that one but since I have already used the words "new baby" and "skank" in the same sentence this week I should take a break.....)

For some reason this scarf has attracted more attention, more compliments than all of my other handknits combined. It is a garter stitch scarf. Thankfully it is not the pinnacle of my skill. Sure it is pretty but it is no fancy lace masterpiece, no cabled labyrinth and yet it inspires awe and respect. For a while there I would reply with the old "it is nothing and any idiot....." and then I really heard myself and now I just say thank you. Maybe it was about the same time I realised that no one else was as nasty, had ever been so nasty to me as I was to myself. And I always felt I had a pretty good self respect. But one day it hit me, if anyone else talked to me the way I talked to myself, about myself, I would not be friends with them; you know after I had decked them. God damn, if I had only read all those self help books like everyone else did in the '80's!

So it is our dirty little secret, I am that "ever so clever, so very artistic, wish I had the talent to do that" knitter who knitted that gorgeous (garter stitch) scarf, ssshhhhh.........

Why are they all getting in the way of my knitting?......

Life has been full.

I have returned to part time studies.

I have returned to part time work.

I have 2 kids that seem to demand never ending care and attention.

An old house that is constant in it's cry for renovation.

Oh and yeah I am now on Ravelry and all I want to do is spend hours exploring it.

I have decided I need a house elf.

Oh now I get it..........

I whipped out another pair of Fetchings. That is how it feels, you just whip them out, these gloves fly off your needles. The first time around I added some extra rows here and there because quite frankly they felt skimpy to the point of being indecent and when it is a gift for someone you don't know indecent ain't right. This time I did as I was told and I am loving them. I am in the midst of a long dark winter and are feeling the cold. These gloves have become my new best friend.



The yarn? It is a Knitpicks yarn that I got a couple of years ago. I had ordered a selection so I could swatch their yarns before doing a large purchase, this was one I never got around to. Once again the colour leaves me a little cold but the yarn is luscious. It is Knit Picks Andean Treasure, 100% baby Alpaca, 110 yards in Sunset. I had just enough, with no swatch. I knit them up in size 5 needles.


I even wear them under these when out and about:



My kick-winter-in-the-ass felted mittens.



Kiwis think heat is for whoosies. In fact on our road we are seen as a little soft in the head not only due to the fact we have put in heat (and god damn it we even turn the heat on, in the day!) and insulated our home but because when it is hovering near zero (Celsius) we insist our kids put on hats and gloves to go out and play, all while the neighbour kids are playing in freakin short sleeves.

In spite of all this winter dreariness I love that when I look at my kids I see them covered from head to neck to hand to foot in my knitting love.

If only for this, winter is worth it.