Is it really Feb already?

Back in September, I started making a jumper for Al. Nothing too exciting, just an every day casual thing which will probably be worn down at the allotment. I didn't think that much about it. He choose a pattern, and I choose some practical yarn, and now I wish it were more exciting because I am struggling to finish it. I just don't want to work on it. Blah.


But my displacement activity has been very productive...


I have made a lot of hats...

...and some bunnies...

... a pair of shorts...

...a 30th birthday present...

...an 18th birthday present...

...a fifth birthday present...

 ...and a few things for Christmas...

...plus four Xmas hats that didn't get photographed.


I only have one sleeve to go on the Jumper. It will get finished. Eventually. But in the mean time, not finishing it seems to be motivating me to finish everything else. :-)

Merry Christmas and good-bye 2012

I'm not very energetic these days. I blog in my head, as if I am living my life for an audience sometimes, but finding the motivation to get my fingers to write things is beyond me for the moment. However, some things I do with my hands make me smile. :-)

Here are 3 teenagers, all wearing hats I made for them.

WIPs

Works in Progress
But I am talking knitting and crochet here, and I count 17 of them. Sweaters and hats and gloves and socks all waiting to be completed at some point. And all I want to do is start things. I have no time to finish things, but I like the creative process involved in choosing a project, a pattern, a yarn, a recipient, and getting started.
Somewhere, somebody has no doubt labelled this a syndrome or some kind of disorder. For me it is fun, the only downside being one of storage....

I want to go to sleep with the earth...

The title reflects my feelings of October. It seems that we have done so much, I have been so busy, we've had birthdays and parties and meetings, and yet accomplished so little. There are still salad leaves waiting to be composted, sweaters waiting to be knit, Halloween candy waiting to be bought (Shit, what's the date?) and sleep waiting to be slumbered.

I love autumn. I love the coolness, the slowing down of life and rhythms, the colours of the leaves. I don't like the fact that urban life with children carries on apace.

Tomorrow is November 1st. Less than two months to Christmas. Shit. I already feel exhausted. Have done no Christmas knitting. And it does have to be knitting because I have developed a repetitive strain injury from too much crochet. So the Totoro amigurumi that I started for The Babe is on hold, as well as the hat I was doing for The Boy, and the one I was doing for myself. I will have to knit hats instead.

Except my hands are already tired from typing.

And I have signed up for NANOWRIMO?! What the hell am I thinking? I have no ability to do the things I need to do, as well as the things I want to do, now!? How the hell am I going to fit in 50,000 words in November.

I should be joining The Boy and his dad in Movember. I am getting to that age where whiskers are going to be easier to accomplish than words anyway.

Boring jumpers

I finished The Changeling's jumper.

 It is so soft and comfy and like a giant hug. She loves it. Thank goodness! But I am supposed to be making two other jumpers, 3 actually, which are all stocking stitch. I want to do something a bit more exciting and challenging. But stocking stitch it is. Miles of it. How boring.

This is Vanille for Al. And  Oatmeal for The Meister. Much more stocking stitch. Alas.

Crochet has been happening too.

I finished this bright baby blanket in Sirdar Supersoft Aran for a friend's baby girl. This is one of my square designs. :-)

 And made my self a hat,

with which I am very pleased.

Pattern available here.

There are other things happening, too. But if I told you about them, then my husband might realize just how much yarn there is in the house.

September Slog

I am trying to get a couple of things done for the Changeling, who is off to uni in ten days. She doesn't seem to want the things I want to knit though. I am more than halfway through a baggy top down raglan sweater that she wants. So lots and lots of boring stocking stitch. It will be lovely for her when it is done. A bit like a big warm cuddle, in Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Chunky, but it is not fun to make.

I have bought a couple of patterns for things to make as well. One fitted sweater that I would wear if I had the body for it. Funnily enough, she has her own taste, so I will have to convince one of her sisters that they want to wear it. :-)

I spent two days doing two shrugs for the Babe as the weather called for it.

They are both in Sirdar Supersoft Aran which I think is fab for little ones. The green one is the Shortie Sweater from Holland Designs and the pink one is my own design.

My eczema has been bad on and off, which means I keep accumulating things I want to do, and looking at patterns, and not actually doing that much. Still have the two Lily Go shawls to work through. Plus I started something for my on the new Addi click Tunisian crochet hooks. I just wanted to start something with them. And I am making some slippers from a pattern that I can't quite figure out size wise. So I am going to have to make them to see how big they are and who they will be for. :-)

I can already tell that my New Year's Resolution for 2013 is going to be to get a big of focus with my projects, and finish off my WIPs.

So what is it that is up?

I am now a Ravthlete. I have partaken in the Ravelympics - Or rather the Ravellenic Games 2012, since the USOC decided knitters and crocheters were deemed inappropriate people. :-)

This is what I have made

I was working on some hexagons as well, for the modular relay, but I haven't finished those yet and I don't think I will as I have lost my motivation. I am too busy putting up with PITA teenagers and toddlers and moping about being a crap parent. Definitely in a bit of a funk. But at least I made a cool teddy bear.