So, now onto that project I mentioned. I want to make a knitting pattern. I want to actually create another one to put up on Ravelry and start to move more into that direction of knitting. I want to knit a great deal in my life, and I want to create patterns, too, as a means of giving back.

I have a folder of patterns, 436 of them, and about 500 favourite patterns on Ravelry, with a small overlap. Probably about 5% of the patterns I have on my computer – oh goodness, that’s not even counting one’s I’ve previously printed off and have in a drawer! – are for sewing patterns, and the rest are for knitting.

Nearly all of the patterns I have were free. I’ve bought two patterns, so far I think, though I’m planning on buying a few more soon. I’d like to give back, because I think part of what’s made knitting so accessible for me and many like me, is the abundance of free patterns!

I’m thinking of designing a cute little sparrow bird, or… well I don’t know. There’s not all that many patterns for muffatees, and I think they’re cute and sort of useful, so I’d like to make up some. Nonetheless, I will set my mind to making more patterns at some point.

I got a small amount of cash a week ago from selling my old mobile phone for recycling, and I’m hoping to go pick up some yarn with it. Perhaps I’ll be inspired by what I see in the yarn store?

Now for a pattern… I don’t wear tank tops, but this heart lace top is pretty.

Whilst I’m waiting for my new Lantern Moon needle to turn up, so that I can continue knitting the MidWinter Wanderer, I’ve set myself to two sorts of projects.

I’ve finally started on the Nightingale Shawl again, actually up to row seventeen! Gasp! Yeah that’s a tiny amount done so far, but this is my first large lace project so I don’t mind going slowly with it.

The other thing I’m going to be knitting whilst I’m waiting for that needle are toys. I’ve made those two Tiny Pigeons that I mentioned, which are adorable. Especially the one I knit on 2.75mm needles, the one on 4mm with yarn doubled isn’t as cute. I’m most of the way through one bunny nugget, which I’ll make more than one of, and I’m also going to make a Chibi Tototro!

As I don’t have a printer at the moment I have to write patterns out by hand unless I go into Uni to print them out, and I’m really lazy so don’t get out there much. So I’ve written out about half of the pattern, and only continue when I feel like it. I do, however, write all these patterns out in little books – I’ve got two so far – that I keep so that if I want to remake the same pattern, as in the case of small toys, I can easily do so!

Now for a knitting pattern! I’ve decided that I don’t like this shrug because of the stitch pattern – the texture grosses me out – but I do like the way it hangs. Things to think about…

Needle fails for the lose. What I meant to say before, when I was talking about all the little toys I was making, is that I’m knitting those whilst I wait for a replacement needle.

There I was, knitting along again, finally, on the MidWinter Wanderer. I’d finally gone and bought the 40cm 6mm needle I needed to make it, and I was going along quite well. With my yarn being slightly thinner than what was called for, and my being a super tight knitter, this time the thing was actually large enough for an adult’s head.

I was knitting, gotten to row ten of the chart, so not far in, when suddenly I noticed the tension at the join between the cable and the needle was no longer there… I checked and the cable had come right out of the needle… Ah crap.

This time, I decieded I’m not going to go and buy a cheap aluminium needle again. Nope. I’m going to buy a Lantern Moon Rosewood circular needle! Same size, 6mm, and same length, 40cm, but this time in a top notch needle. I’ve not yet bought a Lantern Moon circular, so I’m looking forward to seeing how it goes. I adore my straights and my DPNs, so I really can’t wait to expand into circs. Eventually I want the entire range of Rosewood needles… Even if you go for Circs, because you can always do straight knitting on those, too!

Now for a knitting pattern… hmm… I quite like the cableing on this waistcoat, but I wonder about the rest of the pattern. I like the yoke, but not the sleeves.

I hate looking for a job. Seriously, it sucks. The upside to not having work, though, is that you get to stay at home a lot! I love staying at home with my fiancé, and as we’re both waiting to go back to Uni next year to do our degrees together, it’s nice to share that, too.

I had an interview last week for a retail job, and during the interview the lady asked what my dream job would be. Of course I said something working with craft related things, so a yarn, fabric, or craft store would be fantastic, my absolute ideal sort of job at the moment. It’s not completely out of the question for my city. There’s two chain craft stores and one local yarn store. I don’t think I’ve any chance of getting work at the yarn store, as it’s just one little old lady in the tiny overstuffed store, but the two chain stores are potential places of employment. Next week I’m going to cold canvas them on the off chance I get a job out of it. It would be epic.

The lady also asked me what sorts of jobs I don’t want to do, and at this stage I said anything in hospitality or cleaning, even office cleaning. I’ve worked in hospitality before, and I don’t like it, people feel too comfortable being rude to you. As for cleaning, I like to keep my hands in good condition for crafting, and as they’re given to dryness anyway, I don’t fancy the idea of working with chemicals that could make that worse.

So whilst I’ve got this time at home, I’ve got a project I want to start on… But more on that later! Now for a knitting pattern! I like so much about this pattern… this knitted dress from DROPS, save the garish heart on the bodice! Yick!

I’ve been reading this story book, a collection of bed time stories, actually, and it got me thinking about something. More than one of the stories contained the same thematic device. The locked door. You’d have a seemingly happy couple, and there’d be one requirement to their continued contentment. That the wife, who’s allowed free roam of their lucious castle, isn’t allowed to go into one specific room. Of course, at some point, the wife is overcome with curiosity and has to go search the room.

In one of the stories the wife finds out that her husband is cursed by an evil witch and because she didn’t obey him he has to go and marry the witch’s ugly daughter. But the wife goes out and finds him, and he regains his memory at seeing her and the curse is lifted and all is well. In another of these stories, the wife opens up the door that she was forbidden to, and finds the severed heads of all her husband’s former wives – great bedtime reading for children, I know! – and then her husband turns up and says he’s going to kill her too, but the wife begs for time to say her prayers, one night, and in that time she tells her sister what’s going to happen, and then her brothers turn up and kill her husband and the family all goes home safe.

Old fables have meaning, they were often used as ways of imparting advice to children without directly telling them that piece of information. I can’t help but think that these locked door stories are telling girl-children that they mustn’t always be ignorant of what they’re husbands are doing, but I suppose I’m surprised that it’s couched in the guise that by doing this, the women are being disobedient… As if they’re really not meant to be in the know, that society says they’re supposed to be ignorant, but that that’s a societal rule they’re meant to break. Interesting, isn’t it?

Now for a knitting pattern! This adorable Minirock Skirt is something I really look forward to knitting, though mine might be a little longer than the pattern… another two repeats I think would look nicer.

Ah, finally back to blogging. It’s been a while, no? I’ve been sick with the flu, which I think I wrote about, and the wisdom teeth issue. I had one of those nasty teeth pulled on Tuesday and it was a mildly traumatic experience. It didn’t take long, but it was uncomfortable and distressing, nonetheless.

But at least it’s all over, and I’ll be unconscious during the other three wisdom teeth that have to come out.

In the mean time, I’ve been knitting again. I’ve made two gorgeous little birdies from the Tiny Pigeons pattern, and I’m also working on a Bunny Nugget for a friend from my old work. I’m giving it a face like that of the Grumpasaurus because I think she’d like a Bunny Nugget with ‘tude. Hehehe

I’ve also been sewing a bit again, too. Those two little mini capelettes for the swaps that I was making are almost done, just need to be finally hemmed and have the clasps sewn on, but they’re not sitting right at the moment… Something about the front panels as they’re cut on the bias, but the lining piece for the front, the stabaliser, isn’t cut on the bias, so if you use an overlocker along the bottom, sewing the two together to get ready to be hemmed, it comes up a little odd… I’ll have to think about that to see what I can do to get it to sit right.

My big ol’ faux fur cape has finally gotten closer to completion. The lining is sewed to the outer and whilst I have sewn on the clasp, I think the placing could be better so I’m going to re-do that part, and the final bit of hemming, where you pull the whole thing through after sewing it inside out, well that has to be sewn too.

Lots of crafting for me!

Now for a pattern! This Knitted Dress from DROPS – goodness I hate how long their pattern titles are! – is very pretty, I think. If I started knitting now I might be done by the Winter after this next one… Hehehe

My fiancé and I are pretty happy with our phone service, and we’ve even got a nice cordless phone, rather than the BT phone that was in the house when we got here. The range of services offered by our current provider are certainly better than some! See link included. Hehehe And whilst we don’t need phone systems for a business or anything like that, we do like to ensure that our phone is reliable and won’t cut out on us willy nilly.

Anyway, so we want to change our phone number, because there’s too many people who have the number who we don’t want to have the number. We’re just hoping that when we call up on Monday to have the number changed, they don’t charge us heaps and heaps or making us buy some digital dect cordless phones or something lest they just not change the number. Our phone company seems to sometimes enjoy ransoming certain services, at least, that’s what it feels like when you call them to ask for something.

They’re not a bad company, really, but their customer service leaves a lot to be desired. They were bought out a while back and whilst they’ve since been easier to get on the phone, they’re seem a little more big company than they did before, if that makes sense.

Anyway, onto good things! Knitting!!! This pattern is a funny little pattern. It’s a Cat Hoodie. Now, that’s a very cute idea, and I really want to make one. Seriously, can you see how cute the cats are in their little hooded jumpers there? I know many of the kitties don’t like to wear their little tops there, but they look so cute, and I’d make one for each of my cats just in case they’d not mind wearing it. Perhaps not unsupervised, just because they could get caught it in or get it caught on something and get stuck, but when I’m around, I’d love to see them napping in a nice little handknit!

So, we both don’t know how to drive yet, so if we were to consider getting our licences, then we’d have to take driving lessons. We don’t have anyone who could teach us, so it would be paid lessons all the way. Those are expensive, and with all the added extra things, like insurance and so on, it’s going to rack up very quickly.

That’s partly why we’ve not done this yet. We know about all the claims for compensation after accidents these days, and it’s rather off-putting. First off, the worst thing in the world would be if my man was hurt. I love him so much and I’m very protective of him, even though he doesn’t really need my protection, but that’s the way I am. Now, if the worst were to happen and my love was in an accident, about the only thing that could make it worse would be if someone tried to make a payday for themselves out of it phoney claims for compensation for a whiplash injury.

There’s so much messed up behaviour going on out there on the roads at the moment, with all the fake insurance claims, the fronted insurance issues, and of course, the generally insane drivers out there, that it’s not straightforward as to whether one will learn to drive.

If you live close to a major city with good public transport, there’s not the greatest need for a car, either. I don’t know, I just don’t like all that underhanded stuff that’s going on, and think it’s about time something was done. I know that not all solicitors will offer legal services to those they think aren’t fully on the level, that they won’t help out insurance fraudsters, but on the other hand, no law society has stood up and denounced one of their own who is known to be guilty of such behaviour.

My fiancé and I do want to learn to drive some time, but until we’re earning quite a bit more I can’t see us being able to afford it all.

Now for a knitting pattern! I saw this adorable skirt earlier and absolutely have to make it at some point! The Chelsea Skirt Pattern is one that I think you could knit up five different times with five different yarns and have five very unique skirts. It just seems to lend itself to customisation.

Many knitters seem to have seaming. They’ll knit up an item that’s so much larger than anything I’ve ever knit that I feel like a big noob, and then they say on the forums or to me personally that they hate seaming and the garment will take a bit longer at this stage of the game than it really ought to.

As a sewer, I don’t mind seaming. It doesn’t bother me all that much, and at least it’s a zen sort of thing to do. Slowly taking your time to seam a garment properly. Now, what I hate doing is blocking. That’s when, after you’ve knit an item, you soak it for a while in warm water, maybe with a drop of a soft soap of some kind, and then you lay it out flat and pin it in place.

I really hate doing this, and as such, have two finished projects sitting on my desk in front of me right now that have to be blocked. In one case it also has to have it’s two halves sewn together, but… wait, now, because I was just discussing the fact that those two halves had to be sewn together, I paused writing this for a few minutes to quickly create the seam and the item now just has to be… blocked. Hehehe

I’m sort of planning to get those two items blocked later today, but I’m not really sure at this stage. Depends on how busy I am, I suppose. I think I dislike that you have to work fairly quickly when you block. That you’ve got to wait for about 20 minutes whilst the item soaks, then you’ve got to wring out some water, but not all water, whilst not agitating the wool too much, and then you’ve got to get the whole thing pinned out before it gets too dry! Sheesh!

Now, onto a knitting pattern. You know what doesn’t need to be blocked? Anything that’s felted! There’s a process to the felting, but I don’t mind it nearly as much as I mind blocking. So here’s the How do you catch a squirrel felted acorn bag.

So, I was knitting up the MidWinter Wanderer and… well… my gauge was just too tight so it was coming out far too small. Then when I realised I had to go up needle sizes to a 6mm, I knew I’d run into trouble. My 6mm circular needle was far, far too long for this piece, at least for the beginning stages of it, so I had to go and buy a shorter one.

I love the Lantern Moon needles, so I thought I’d start there. I checked out ebay for cheap circulars, a 40cm 6mm needle, and the cheapest was still about £15! Can you believe it! Well, normally I would just pay the amount, because really these needles are amazing, but at the moment I just can’t afford them. So I went to my local yarn store, and found some for £4. They are aluminium, which I don’t like to use because of the possible link to arthritis – which every woman in my family suffers from – but I can’t afford the nice wooden ones, and all the bamboo ones had 80 or 140cm length cables which is far too long for the project I’m working on.

I’ve also not really figured out the knitting with two circular needles thing, and magic loop doesn’t work with the bamboo circulars I can get from my local yarn store because the cables are far too rigid.

I know you can make your own needles, and I’m honestly thinking about it at this stage. If I got one of those needle size guide cards so I could be sure of how thick I was making them, I think I’d love to make my own needles. I mean, who says straights have to be straight? Why? I think a slight bend would be nice because then they wouldn’t hit my elbows or get caught in my sleeves. SO ANNOYING! Hehehe

Now for a knitting pattern. This one whet up the other day and I think it is epicly fantastic. The Kathy Kelly Cabled Capelet has some incredibly nice celtic cabeling in there and I honestly can’t wait to make this in a nice weighty yarn of some sort!