Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Yarn along and Pack up... again.

I know how tedious this must be getting to hear that we are packing boxes... AGAIN.
Think how it feels for us though! 
 I am truly and sincerely hoping to just settle after this.
 Our little yellow farmhouse in the country is a rental but I have every intention of not thinking or dreaming or wishing for anything different for a LONG LONG LONG time.  This will be our third move (fourth home) in 9 months. For a person who likes to nestle in, get to know the inside-out of a place, learn the little signs of the changing seasons, know where the warmest shaft of sunshine lands, find the best patch of blackberries and anticipate the harvest: the last 9 months have been a slow cruel kind of torture.

This packing job is a breeze though. We have some furniture (mostly bought at the awesome Lytton Salvation Army ) and the bulk of our possessions, already here, came in five suitcases and will leave the same way and I've been doing new home shopping in the last two days and have more than quadrupled the things we had with us. However it does mean I now have crockery (goodwill) glasses and mugs (goodwill/Khols/Target) and some pots and pans (family/friends/goodwill/Target) and can actually prepare food for my family in the new place.
 
Matt believes he can read my stress levels by how much knitting I get to do. I am happy to report that the crochet hook (a useful and fun tool but not my preferred modus-operandi) has been tucked away and the knitting needles are out again! I finished the tissue box cover, which was a lot of fun to design but I would change some things next time.
 
The base I did as a granny-rectangle (is there such a thing?!?) because it takes up less yarn and I only had one left-over ball of grey and just the dregs of mustard and aqua. That was great but I should have gone through only one loop on the round when I turned up the side of the box, and again at the top, which would have made it more willing to conform to the shape of the sides of the box.  By the time I realized my mistake (and being essentially very lazy) I couldn't be bothered to undo all the stitching and redo it again.

Delphine is almost done. She needs some buttons and a silk ribbon. So I'm holding off sharing till she is there. The fit is truly spectacular even though I had quite a few "Hang on this looks minute and is never ever going to be my size" moments before and during blocking.
 
I've made quite a lot of headway into Paloma  using Rowan wool cotton in Ship Shape. It is a delicious soft wool but I think it may be too heavy for the pattern. I bought the wool with help from the knitting ladies at John Lewis before I left the UK but sadly they were not entirely correct. I have since found that there is a great conversion chart UK-USA yarn weights on Wikipeadia and indeed: my beautiful Ship Shape wool cotton is too heavy. However before anyone starts to wonder that a tension square didn't notify me earlier of the issue I would like to remind you of the afore mentioned fact that I am essentially very lazy... and heartily sorry for it. So I'm in two minds. Do I carry on and hope for the best or pull it out save my beautiful and delicious Ship Shape for another day?
  
Jo xx

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Just click your heels together three times...

When we saw it on Craigslist we fell in love.
When we walked through its rooms we felt at home.
When we learned we were going to get to live there we danced for joy.
 
 
 Its a little yellow farmhouse out on a country road. It sits on enough land for our vegetable patch and some chickens. Perhaps a porker if our landlord is willing. 
In one week time its our home God willing.
 
Jo xx

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Yarn Along and nesting

 
Between rental hunting, homeschooling resettling and just the crazy hurley-burly of building a household routine from scratch all my creativity is being crammed into tiny little bursts of crochet. And all these tiny little bursts of crochet are making tiny little items of homeliness to dot around the 'not quite home' like space we are living in at the moment. So already down are coffee mattes (made out of the leftover Rowan yarn from Delphine), a short runner and a little doily which looks lovely under a gorgeous blue vintage hobnail jug I found at an antiques market in the gorgeous little town of Healdsburg where Matt works.
 
At the moment I am creating a crochet box cover to fit a tissue box.  Instead of there being a hole for the tissue to pop out of I'm covering the box bottom and sides so the top can be cut off and the box makes a handy  *pretty*  holder for tape/calculators/glue sticks/erasers etc that tend to wander homeless around our schooling space. Next in line for a cover is a small coffee can for a pen holder also for the girl's homeschool desk.


I'm almost there with Delphine. She is at the point of blocking but I haven't had an iron or a suitable place to block since before we left the UK. So she sits in a corner of the cupboard languishing for want of blocking. I've also started Paloma in a slow/haven't got the focus/haven't got the time/ haven't got the mental energy for a lace pattern sort of way. So she mostly sits in my knitting bag languishing for want of focus perhaps another yarn along she will make an appearance in all her gorgeous teal coloured yumminess.

Also... did you see those little people by the hobnail jug... Really. So delicious. They are my little souvenir from Paris. There were whole cityscapes for sale (v. v. expensively) but these little folks with their sweet little dog looked very Parisian to me. Maybe sat by the Seine admiring the view of the Eiffel Tower.
X Jo