Project Monday #11

the alleged turtle / green peanut.. finished!!it's Sheldon from Knitty, but knit in 8ply... it's actually fairly easy, if rather time consuming & finicky...

and now i'm working on a xmas ornament swap, and a small knitted elephant.. still also got three hobby horses & a dragon & a bunch of baking to do before xmas, but hey.. i'm sure the remaining 3.5 weeks will absolutely not fly by.....

*gulp*

late night Project Monday #10

it's a turtle. allegedly.

we'll see....

i've also accidentally designed a small, girly, doll's party dress! i need to get around to making a second, with a few tweaks, and then i might even share it!

or just get embarrassed at my designing ineptitude & hide lol...

Project Monday #9

Ok, so as per usual i still can't share pics of any of my current WIPs....

BUT

i have actually finished some things!!

firstly, the penguin skittles for eli's xmas-
they took a lot longer to make than i expected, but in reality if you were only working on these, had kids who actually went to sleep before 8.30-9pm, and then *stayed* asleep for the rest of the night, then they'd mostly likely only take a beginner-intermediate crocheter 1 evening for each penguin body, 1 for the ball, 1 for the tummies, and 1 for the rest, at most.

these were all knit using stash-burn yarn, stuffed with wool fleece & a disk of wood in the base (just used a hole saw on our drill), with embroidered eyes :-)

i knitted the beaks cos i just wasn't winning with the crocheted version, and it was much simpler to do a basic turkish cast on style..

pretty cute huh?!

and i also spent the weekend painting the toilet-
(excuse the dimness, it was too bright for my poor little camera earlier! the photo below is a better indication)

it used to be sponged in various shades of blue, which in such a small room had begun to get a bit much after 8ish years!

so we stripped & sanded it all back, did all the necessary filling, sugar soaping & undercoating, then i painted the bottom half with left over paint from our bedroom, the top half with a slightly warmish white (but NOT cream!!), and added a polished metal trim along the border...

then it just took the addition of a new, smaller cistern, chrome toilet paper holder & door stop, and some 'commissioned' art by alexis-
it's looking rather nice i think!
it's a shame the toilet is now by far the nicest room in our house, (it's making the rest look decidedly shabby.. good thing i bought extra paint!) but i'm very pleased with my work!

Project...umm... "Monday" #8

you know, it's really hard to keep a public record of your WIPs when they are mostly secret.

cos you end up with posts like-

two almost used up balls of wool-
i can't show you what they've been used up with, cos it's secret.

pretty gripping stuff really.

but anyway, i'm still chugging along with the penguins, and another of my (unseen) secret projects, but i also snuck in some time to make eli some new nappies-
his ones (size small!!) were getting a bit low in the rise, but were still ok around the leg, whereas lexi's old ones are good for him in the rise, but much too big in the leg, which necessitated the drafting of an almost-medium skinny leg size pocket nappy lol... happy to say they fit perfectly!

Project Monday #7

i'm making good progress on my horde of so-far-faceless penguins, though i'm actually having to rip them back to make them shorter, before adding their bellies!

i've done one eli sock, and have started the second.. yes, my son will have lacy socks.

i discovered a very cute little cauliflower head hiding in the depths

and my biggest mission at the moment?!

this-
it's a knitting chart.
90 rows x 40 stitches, in two colours, that has to be completed twice, plus a whole pile of plain knitting besides.
i've never knit from a chart before, nor done any colourwork... and this is to a deadline!

what was i thinking?!?!

Project Monday #6

Today's Project Monday is celebrating a wonderful day... after roughly 10 months i have finally finished my...
Tofutsie Socks!!
yay me.

the yarn still isn't exactly to my taste, but never fear, i have a colourway i much prefer ready for the next pair! ;-)

and since i don't have knee-high sock blockers, or indeed any at all, i had to resort to-
(the elastic bandaging is to hold the picot points flat lol)
i suppose feet count as sock blockers though right?! it's a pretty chilly way to do it however..

and as a total sucker for punishment, last night i cast on-
at least this time i have the good sense to do them eli sized!

(and hey sha if you're reading.. that is that Grignasco Strong Print sock yarn stuff, you can see how fat the stripes are on 40sts, so would definitely self-stripe on adult size ones!)

Project Monday #5 - sad but true...

It's a sad tale i'm afraid... a whole week later and i'm *still* working on the never-ending tofu socks (duh), pointy secret & fluffy secret of almost a whole month ago.. and still going on the penguin skittles too.

so no Finished Objects (FO's for short) and no new work-in-progresses, or should that be works-in-progress??

hopefully i'll have something to share tomorrow, though judging by the little not-sleeping boy about to accost me, i'm thinking perhaps not.

good thing i didn't sign up for the blog post per day in october challenge huh? lol...

Project Monday #4

what i'm working on right now....
and if that isn't enough of a clue, then perhaps the link to the penguin skittles pattern will help ;-)

they're going to be for eli's xmas present, i reckon they're an excellent way to learn & practice some basic crochet techniques, and are a good way to use up part balls of yarn too! (they take about 30g)

Project Monday #3

now that i've finished the spring butterfly & matching (sort of) doll dress, it's onto other things!

the red fluff is multiplying & has been seen accompanied by some green fluff-
and i've almost almost almost finished this little something for a friends new baby-
almost.

hopefully tonight.. and then it'll be straight onto a little something different for a friends other baby ;-)

Project Monday #2

is much the same as last week quite honestly...

i've made quite a bit of progress on the pattern i'm test knitting-
(i just cannot get the colours to show correctly! i can't even seem to adjust them properly in a paint program... any tips would be much appreciated! the bodice is a dark plum, and the variegated part is pretty jewel tones...)

it might even be finished in 8 rows, just have to check first!

and apart from that, i've done a lot of weeding & compost spreading in the garden, but won't over-excite you with pictures of that....

introducing.....

in which i attempt to regularly (ie theoretically on a monday) share what is going on in my Work-In-Progress pile!

a window into the creative process, if you will...

beginning with....

the never-ending tofu-socks of doom!
so close, so very very, yet unmotivatingly, close!!

a test knit spring cardigan for lexi, designed by a very clever friend of mine-
(camera was determined to over-expose that one sorry..)

a pointy secret-

and a fluffy secret-
and that's what i'm working on this week!