Why I (very neatly) sewed the ends in on one side of this sleeve, but not the other?
Answers on a postcard, please.

…because doing it on the train seemed vaguely wrong. See, even *I* have a sense if what’s socially acceptable, even if it gets in the way of my knitting!

I still haven’t recovered from the sore shoulder I gave myself last week when ten pin bowling, meaning I now have, hopefully temporarily, two manky shoulders making my usual sleeping position very uncomfortable. It’s possible I haven’t slept well all week.

So, today although I initially had help, I’ve basically single-handedly turned this:

…into this:

(Please note the carefully fenced off salvaged garlic in the nearside corner.)

And this:

…into this:

I’ve uncovered the blueberry bushes and at least 2 of them aren’t dead. I think they could use a new location, though.

I also had a culinary triumph in country beef with herb bread, made in the slow cooker. Even if I say so myself…

To anyone who knows Our Joel, this scene will feel familiar. I don’t know what he was telling his favourite English Uncle Pete (there are too many Petes in our extended family. Just sayin’), but he’s giving it the (n)usual level of detail. And I’m pretty sure Pete wasn’t generally looking as bored as he is here ~ his brother in law was playing dancin’ music so I think he’s leaning over to listen better rather than hanging his head in a “will it never end” style that a quick glance might suggest…

Slightly further on, this small bay was christened “the volcano”:

We went up to the highest point nearby, and admired the lake district, where it looked like (for a change) it was raining

It turns out it’s just as well I wripped back as I’ve found at least one row (a lime green one) and possibly a cream stripe that I’d missed out the first time… Although I just discovered a little ball of cream under my arse, so I can’t be confident about the cream stripe…

With the latest Twist out, and a set of knitty.com extra surprises, I thought it was time for a quickie.

I have some textured yarn which I want to do something a little different with. I’ve got several ideas in my head for something unique to me, but this Laresca tank top might be just as good…. if I have enough of the yarn!

Looking through, this Brookline cardigan caught my eye. It’s more feminine than the stuff I usually go for, and my width might make it an unwise choice. Also, I don’t usually go for structured stuff, so on that basis, it could be a good choice.

And finally, socks. I think I have some lovely blue sock yarn in the stash, which would be ideal for these Campanula socks. I’m very much liking bluebells, which given how many of them there are around at the moment, is probably a good thing…

So, there you go – my highlights from Twist this season, with apologies to Lorna

Oh, nearly forgot Knitty. This scarf was mentioned to me on Saturday. I may never make it, but I love the fact that it exists, and applaud the sentimentality behind its creation.

…is a little depressing. I discovered I’d decreased by a stitch at the end of the ribbing, which I was prepared to overlook. But then I apparently gained a stitch while shaping the armhole, and that was one mistake too far.

Better, in the long run, that it’s right, I thought. In 2 years time I will have forgotten I had to do this. Although, knowing me, there’s every chance it will still be festering. Less than if I hadn’t, though, I like to think.

…about a year ago…

…today.

And now, unless there are further developments, I will stop going on…

What’s in the parcel?

Ooh. It’s a lot furrier than the other one.

I like him.

He doesn’t have a hole in his ear, though.

Thank you!

We’ll just call him Diggy Digger, not Diggy Digger 2.

Job done, well done Daddy.

Let me start by saying that I’m not a chef, which Neil is, but I do like food. I might not know my jus from my runny sauce (and please don’t tell me) but I know my ice cream from my sorbet and that’s all the qualification I need for this blog, whose audience already lags far behind Neil with up to 20 views from 3 continents. And that’s per post, readers, per post.

Last week we were on holiday in the Algarve. The southernmost region of Portugal is well known for its Piri-Piri chicken and grilled sardines, both of which we sampled. We also tried the cataplana, which sadly wasn’t that good, with only one prawn per diner. However, we also stumbled upon a couple of restaurants with Proper Food, so here are my thoughts on one of them.

ONZE is a Mediterranean-Greek restaurant overlooking the town square/beach in the centre of Carvoeiro. (I want to make a quip about turning it up to 11 here, but inspiration escapes me. Partly because the try-hard that that implies isn’t appropriate here. Attempts in the comments if you’re inspired!) The staff were friendly, and as is often the case in Abroad, made a big old fuss of the children. The decor was slightly alarming, with “high fashion” pictures of women with food. One in particular which showed a topless woman with a big fish slung round her shoulders made me quite… Itchy. Let’s not dwell too much on that, though, eh. I was sat with my back to it after all, and the otherwise top combo of dark wood and white marble was pleasing.

There wasn’t a tasting menu, otherwise I would have had it – we had to settle for menu items instead.

The bread was lovely, but as always, there wasn’t enough. It was ciabatta-style and they gave us 4 slices. I don’t know whether they expect the children to not have any, but it didn’t seem like much, especially when Lily could trough a whole loaf on her own.

For my starter I had a thing I can’t remember the name of, but it was described as filo parcels of Greek black pudding. They were definitely filo parcels, but weren’t like any black pudding I’ve ever had. They were light, caramel-y and had pine nuts in, and were gorgeous.

For my main course I had the moussaka which was a fine example of its genre. It was quite filling, though, and I left some of the potatoes… Lily had a margarita pizza which was heavy on the cheese and presented on a mickey mouse plate. Joel had tomato-sauce pasta, which was a bit big for him. I can’t remember what Steve had, but it all looked lovely. The food presentation lived up to the stylish interior design, but without the raw fish overtones.

To drink, because Steve was driving, I had the House Rose. I have no idea what it was, other than a generous glass of rose wine, but it was just the right kind of light crispness to go with the weather.

I wasn’t going to have dessert, but given that Lily was determined to have the chocolate cake with melted chocolate mousse in the middle, I let them tell me the dessert specials, and when I heard about pineapple with coriander sauce, how could I say no? Joel and I shared the thinly sliced pineapple (“it looks like paper… but it’s pineapple!”) with syrupy (and yummy, with a mere hint of coriander) sauce and a dollop of pineapple sorbet, as we were advised that a single one was more than enough for two, especially if one of you is six. I chose not to have the “my son is a real & present danger to Carmen Miranda’s headgear” conversation.

The waiters continued to make a fuss of the children throughout the meal. The restaurant wasn’t busy – 3 occupied tables out of 10 or so – so attention wouldn’t have been a problem anyway. When the conversation turned (as it does) to the story of Frankenstein, the younger waiter shuffled onto the end of the bench the children were sitting on to hear the story Lily had announced she was going to tell. We never heard the story, as she was giggling too much to say anything. I think that gesture may have made her holiday complete.

As Steve said, if the food had been rubbish, the waiting style would have been overblown and annoying. As it was, it was endearing and helped us to enjoy the evening even more.

And the final touch? In Joel’s words: “Lily, you have to check out the toilets – they’re REALLY swanky!”

This was our shade for lunch on Tuesday at Vale do Lobo. What you can’t see here so well are the five sparrows, one of who pooed on Steve’s hand just before the food arrived…

Classy.

(Boscobel scarf, from knitty.com, using House of Hemp plum bought at iKnit London several years ago)(and yes, it is _a lot_ like string, I’m hoping it will soften with washing & wearing)

But have been somewhat distracted by this…

Bummer, eh?!

Lily drew this a couple of years ago. I like the way Jesus looks unhappy rather than rapturous. Keepin’ it real.

Yummy yummy

So, naturally, I went & fetched the camera before getting her down.

’nuff said.

Bizarrely, the colours look closer to reality with my arm in the shot. So I took this picture with my nose…

I’ve just noticed the latest addition to my nice tidy mantlepiece…

That’s about 175 stitches. I need 220. Plus it’s 2×2 rib, so the next row will be a nightmare, too.

Just as well it’s worth it, eh

“Gotta go my own way” nearly made me cry when Troy broke in with “what about *us*?”

Too many hormones, anyone?

This book is from the library. Lily loves it and wants me to get us a permanent copy. This pleases me. Although at the moment, she purls better than she knits.

She opens it up and said “hurray, it tells you how to cast off!”

Like I don’t know and couldn’t show her that. At least 3 different ways.

I finished the Big Main Bit of the top I’m currently knitting, but need to be done with so I can knit my exciting new summer cardi. Big circulars are freed up, and now I need to knit the sleeves (which are this week’s train knitting) and we’re done. I then have over 7 months to sew up and finish the neckline. Should be doable, even for an avoidance specialist like me.

But wa-hey cardigan!

Dammit, just remembered I haven’t swatched. Apparently that’s where I’ll be starting tomorrow night

Joel was punished this morning, and so wasn’t allowed to watch TV or play on the Wii. Instead we made Buzz Lightyear Smoothies and smarties cup cakes. I can’t help feeling I’ve been suckered somehow…

Why *would* you use the steps or slide provided?

At Christmas santa gave her some over the knee red and black stripy socks which she seems to like a lot, so I thought some over the knee socks were in order, and as she only has thin legs, I thought a skein intended to make normal-length adult socks should do the deal.

I got this season’s issue of sockupied, partly because I’ve always wondered what it was like (well, since they started publishing it) and also I was attracted by the claim of having instructions for a naive gusset for toe-up socks. I really like to knit socks toe-up. That way, if you are cutting it a bit fine with the yarn, you can adjust the leg length to mean you have 2 socks the same length, OR carry on so that you use up as much of the yarn as possible. The drawback I’ve found is that so far I’m not great at the short row row-end for short row heels, and I haven’t taken the time to work out how to do flappy heels in reverse. Don’t get me wrong, I have the skills and I have the guideline instructions I got from an iKnit workshop with Yarnissima – it’s the number of stitches and how soon up the foot to start that I need to ponder/get a calculator out for. I’m at the point with short row heels that I can knit them without a pattern, so sitting down with a calculator and ruler feels a bit regressive. BUT the real disadvantage to short-row heels is that by themselves, if you have a bit of an arch to your foot, the sock can be a little snug around your heel. Which is where the naive gusset comes in.

So, I looked at these instructions and they make quite a lot of sense, and it was recipe-like enough for me to decide that I could work with it…

These are my plans.

As you can see, I kept it nice and simple. So, the ribs on the foot divide in the middle and for one iteration disappear into the side. Then they stop disappearing into the side which gives the extra stitches for the gusset. Then you work a short row heel. Then, working up the leg, I decreased a stitch each side on each row as I was still creating new stitches every other row in the centre front of the foot.

I carried this on until I had (or so I thought) 40 stitches again, then just did straight 2×2 rib until the leg measured 46cm then did a Russian Bind-off (k2tog, slip stitch back onto left hand needle, continue to the end) – I wanted it to be flexible but not so that the socks will fall down.

Other than having 44 stitches left on the leg, which I only realised when I was doing the second sock *deep sigh* having turned the heel too early, and so having to do it twice, these seem to have worked out pretty well.

They fit OK.

…and Lily got to stand on the table, which is always a welcome thing to do…

Just please try to ignore how high she’s letting her skirt ride up and appreciate that I’ve taken the photo from *this* angle and not another one!

The only downside is that immediately after this photo she realised the socks were itching her legs and so they came off immediately. Keep your fingers crossed that a quick wash does the magic, or they may never see daylight again!

She’s always had a reputation for being fat, but really there’s nothing to my little ball of fur.

amended to add: quack quaaaack (evil ducks)

Just watched the first 20 minutes of Invisible Children’s STOP KONY video (it stopped streaming @ 20 mins )

I’m really glad that our children get to be children and can sleep soundly at night. Or could, if they didn’t have such wild imaginations.

At least their nightmares aren’t realistic or likely to come true.

After nearly a year, another cycle on the home made fruit gin occurs. With child labour writing the labels for me…

The crystal-growing results. They liked the bowl more than the stick!

She’s poorly. She looks really small…

I recently-ish started a policy of having something on the needles for someone else most of the time. Apart form when I’m in between the projects for other people.

Lately, my thoughts have turned to Lily and the few mummy-made sweaters she has available. I made her a poncho a few months back, but after an initial very happy reception it’s spent a lot of time in the cupboard.

Largely I’m at ease with that. I remind myself that I enjoy the process. It’s rare that something is not enjoyable to knit, and it’s also rare that I spend “proper” money on yarn for something for the children, so we can live with something not being worn out.

Many moons ago I made Lily a cardigan using a sirdar demin self-patterning yarn. When I’d finished it, she said it was lovely, but it wasn’t pink enough. So I gave it away.

Since then she’s moved on from the pink a bit, but I’ve learnt my lesson. I wanted to knit her the same cardigan, only the yarn I had enough of in the stash was turquoise. I checked that a turquoise sweater would be acceptable. Turns out, she thought it would be.

So, allowing both of us a bit of room, I started on the age 10-11. As previously documented, the skirt around the bottom felt like it would take for ever. So I decided that, seeing as this was going well, we would stick witht he length of the 10-11 age size, but, given that there is absolutely nothing spare on Lily, we might go with the 8-9 width. This meant I could stop knitting 5cm earlier on an interminable length of stocking stitch.

However, once this skirty length was finished, it seemed to grow amazingly quickly.

I was really pleased to be able to use my new favourite cast on – the alternate cable cast on – for starting the sleeves. I loves it, I do. And after some practise, I can do it without having to do it all in one go, keeping track of whether I’m purling or knitting and woe betide all of us if I lose my place.

The next problem I created for myself was to try to find a matching bind-off. I knew about sewn kitchener bind-off, but the instructions I was aware of (on knitty.com) were an adaptation for working in the round. I interpreted them fully incorrectly for working in the straight, but the results came out quite pretty ON THE SECOND ATTEMPT GRRR so they stayed.

I found the proper instructions which basically said to do the set-up rows, then split onto 2 needles, then graft. This made sense. So I started doing it on the button bands (see how I’m missing out the dull bits, Dad?!) and sadly it pulled in by about 1/3rd, completely distorting the cardigan…

By this time, I just wanted to finish, so I did a normal bind off. And after all the other faffing, it was simple and looked fine. DEEP SIGH.

I’d been in dilemmas about the join between the sideways skirt and the upright body and had consulted both @CurlyMinx and Mark at knitwise. I think my eventual solution may have included suggestions from both of them, so thanks to you both for being top sounding boards.

The pink yarn is from The Stash, the buttons are from Knit Wise and were purchased as a pack to get the buttons used in my other recent project for Lily, which I haven’t blogged about yet

Anyway, the reveal:

the front… and the back:

I even ironed it before taking a picture of it.

I’m insanely pleased with how this has turned out. I’ve shown these pictures to *everyone*. If you know me and you haven’t seen these, you clearly haven’t seen me in the past week.

35 days. The beginning bit felt like a *very* long time, but it was worth the glorious finish.

And the bonus? Lily says she likes it.

Today’s revelation. Vases and bowls can be used for things other than flowers & fruit…

Whaddaya mean you’ve scoffed it all? We LIKE bananas!

Which, given that they have a combined dog age of 210 and move slightly faster than snails, was some achievement.

We tried to do the “all feet” classic shot, but the dogs were in the way a bit…

The children wanted to play in the stream for a bit, so while Debbie & Bryon foraged for food (in the local shop) they had some cold, wet fun…

…while I admired my warm new leg warmers…

Debbie is prepared for a week where Bryon, who works ridiculously hard for steve’s telecoms nemesis, basically crashes, so there are many craft items in the house.

This morning she introduced her god daughter to the joy of turning fluff into yarn.

First they unplaited and separated the fluff into strips. Then there was demonstrating.

Then lily was shown how to do it…

Then the training wheels came off.

She got through a whole strip. It got quite thick towards the end. She seems to be willing to leave it there for now, and given the cost of spinning wheels I’m hoping she is…

Cracker seemed unmoved.

Further to my last post, my back is apparently more resilient than I thought. The body of the cardi is now ALL DONE, and this is a sleeve.

Take that, scarily big cardigan.

As a foot note I decided to go with the slightly smaller size, which meant 5cm less knitting on the skirt. I kept the length, though, and am knitting slightly longer arms. Because although lily isn’t wide, she’s getting quite… Long.

I’m knitting a Cardigan for Lily. The first time I used this pattern she was 3, and so several “heads” shorter than she is now. The difference might be in plain vs self patterning yarn (I’m using plain this time), given that the latter adds a bit of interest and makes it seem to go faster, but honestly.

Making the size 10/11 (see how I’m allowing myself a bit of leeway in the sizing – I don’t want this to be too small before it’s done) IS TAKING FOR EVER.

The structure of the cardi is a skirt which is knit sideways (the pattern says in 3 pieces, but I’m electing to do it in one piece and include the bottom ribbing), then a bodice which is picked up from the edge stitches and set-in sleeves. The skirt is of course wider than the small size, but the main problem is that it needs to be 90-something cm long.

I’ve been at 40-something cm for about 3 years now and each time I measure it doesn’t appear to have grown.

This is somewhat cushioned by this morning’s rationalisation that once I’ve done the skirt I’ll be roughly half way through or, as we cavalier knitters like to say, I’ll have “broken the back of it”. If it hasn’t broken mine first…

My next project is a bit like that, only not black & yellow.

These were deferred and changed after Steve demanded lovely-socks for which I’d decided to use my new favourite wool. They went from plain 2×2 rib in one colour to stripy stocking stitch.

The colours were chosen because I like them, but they are slightly reminiscent of Leeds’ purple & green and Manchester’s purple. And blue, just because I’m loving this colour blue.

They are based on these Kingsbridge legwarmers, only (clearly) using fewer colours. They grew surprisingly quickly, and I overshot on both of them. Because, apparently having not paid enough attention the first time, I didn’t learn for the second time. I like to think if I had 3 legs, I’d have got it by the 3rd one.

Maybe if I team them with golden yellow leggings, they’ll be Corporate enough for Purple Wednesdays…

I’m a bit concerned that they are unaware of the forecast for this weekend…

Getting over the ramp was a lot easier once she stopped braking on approach. And yes, for the first time ever she is helmet-less. We forgot to wear it.

It seems that the way to get Lily to practise is to be playing yourself and allow yourself to be kicked off.

Plus, hands up who thinks she looks freakishly like steve here.

Air guitar/mike is nearly always better with badminton bat accessory. This is what the theme to “Magi-Nation” looks like…

A sprout is not just for Christmas. At least, not in this house.

Having finished them, making them a little wider, they are now (of course) too wide and stand off my hands mostly. Well, at least the cuffs fit…

The intention with the fingers is to give additional dexterity without having to take your gloves off. However, it turns out that most of the things I want to do, I need to take my gloves off altogether anyway. It was a nice thought, anyway.

And so, I give you Tridactyl Gloves, made with some malabrigo that my bezzie gave me…

It’s really rare that all of the washing up is on *that* side of the sink…

Taking inspiration from habitblog.com