Hey My Sweater, Finished

Posted on April 23, 2012 by Annette / Soft Like Kittens

I finished that sweater I’ve been working on for ~~ever~~ two months! Yeah!

Here I am, super awkwardly posing in our garden, holding the mushroom cup because I didn’t know what to do with my hands. Seriously, you know how models say their job is really tough, and you think “psssh, you just put on clothes and stand about” – THEY ARE RIGHT. IT IS EXCRUCIATING. What are you supposed to do with your arms, and legs, and hands, and face, and everything?!

Anyway. That’s what it looks like. I’m really happy with the finished result. The yarn is soft and warm and I think I’ll be wearing it a lot when the weather cools down a little more.

Project: Hey My Sweater
Pattern: Hey Hey My My by Reiko Kuwamura (with significant alterations)
Yarn: Patons Classic Bluebell 5ply in 4335 Teal, 11 balls
Needles: US 4 / 3.5mm Hiya Hiya steel interchangeables
Started: February 22nd, 2012
Finished: April 21st, 2012

My full technical notes are on my Ravelry project page.

It’s Willow

Posted on April 22, 2012 by Annette / Soft Like Kittens

We’re more than a month past Willow’s second birthday already? Sheesh, time flies!

One of her presents was a bucket of giant chalk for festooning the driveway. She does like to scribble little runes here and there (and make me draw hearts for her) but she really likes to take all the chalk out and line it up neatly, over and over again. Sorry darling, you got that from me!

She also likes to make up sequence puzzles, in the style of Team Umi Zoomi, and pose them to herself. She’ll say things like “red, green, blue, red, green, blue, red, what’s next?, green!, YAY!”, and sometimes she gives herself a little applause too which is doubly hilarious.

Her hair is approaching ridiculous 70s shag territory, but I really want to grow it out long all over so we’re persevering with hair clips (“earkwip!”), when she can leave them alone. I am well aware I’m forcing her to have the long girly hair I was never allowed as a child, but I will cut it when she asks. Until then, it’s all mine :P

Pegs are another good outside game. Into the pot, out of the pot. Again! Again!

And there’s always stomping around the garden with a little spade and admiring the flowers.

This is a super sleepy baby, crashing out after lunch. I’m so grateful she’s started taking afternoon naps again!

I’m not sure how much sleep some of the naps involve, since when I go in to wake her she’s often surrounded by books, but reading quietly in bed is almost as good, and a habit we’re keen to encourage. (90% of my parenting strategy is ‘encourage reading’.)

Sometimes when I wake her, particularly in the morning, I take the camera in. Groggy babies are hilarious! This video also features bonus Otto.

There are other good places to read as well, like a wheelbarrow.

The Duplo is still popular. When she wants us to join in she says “let’s making!” which makes her sound like a Japanese craft book. I love it.

If you blow in her face she laughs crazy giggles. I love that too.

She’s a busy wee thing. Yesterday I spent an hour running laps around the house with her. (OK, she ran, I walked, it’s about the same speed!) She loves to BOUNCE and JUMP and RUN – running always starts with a funny bent-over starting position and the cry of ready-set-GO! She hasn’t worked out how to get both her feet off the ground in a jump yet either. Hee. Sometimes she makes me jump for her, then says “Good girl! Now another jump!”, which is sort of like having a tiny personal trainer…

Even watching TV usually involves stretching and contortions and gymnastics. I can’t say that cobra pose on the coffee table is the viewing spot I would choose, but it seems to work for her.

Other recent awesomeness includes:

Referring to feijoas as hedgehogs, which seems bizarre until you consider that the ‘eijo’ and ‘edgeho’ sounds are very similar :) “Mum, this hedgehog is yummy!”
Introducing herself as baby. “Hi butterfly! I’m baby!”
Lots of drawing. “I want a paper. I want another paper! Now, where’s cwayons? Let’s drawing!” Oddly, she always wants us to draw octopuses for her. I think I saw some attempts at faces the other day, which is pretty exciting. Sometimes pencil and crayon end up on the walls, which is less exciting, but those magic eraser cleaning sponges really are magical.
“Daddy, kiss Mummy!” Then, after he gave me a smooch, “Aw! So cute!”
Counting in Spanish (!!) which she busted out one day, 1-10, with no input from us. Thanks, Dora!
A new game, invented while changing the sheets on our bed, where I lie crossways slowly rolling from head to foot while Willow stands in the middle and clambers over me each time I pass. It’s hard on the ol’ kidneys (pointy baby feet!) but rather fun.
Saying I’m “so pwetty!” – which is lovely, but she also says it to cardboard boxes and crockery and the sticker from an apple.

Having waxed lyrical, I must now admit that my parents have taken Willow to the beach for the weekend, prompted by a mini-meltdown on my part earlier this week. I’m feeling mostly-better now but still very grateful for the break. We’re having a quiet weekend with lots of sleeping, and attending to those little household jobs that are tough with Curious Monkey Paws in the mix…

Hey My Sweater Progress

Posted on April 12, 2012 by Annette / Soft Like Kittens

I’ve finished the body of my Hey My Sweater! Let me tell you, making a sport weight sweater at 24st/4″, to fit a 2-3XL body, is a lot of work. But I really love how it’s coming out.

I abandoned the pattern at the bottom of the armholes and worked out the shaping by trying it on frequently and doing a little maths. I needed a lot of body increases, and putting them all at the sides would have made a weird pointy shape, so I decided to create a feature and run them down in lines about where a princess seam would be. There are shaping lines on the front and back, plus some decreases under the bust on the front, short rows at the side of the bust in front, and more short rows at the back hip.

I didn’t like the hem in the pattern, so went for simple picots (one row of *k2tog, yo* on the fold line) and sewed down the live stitches on the reverse side for maximum stretch. I really like how the shape of the picots echos the blackberry stitch on the yoke.

In these photos I’ve given the hem a tiny blast of steam, but no proper blocking. I’m confident it will sit perfectly flat when it’s done.

My purl faux-seams sounded like a good idea in theory, but in practice they were loose and looked like I’d seamed very poorly. I thought about dropping them down and re-hooking as knit stitches, but I did want some definition at the sides (for blocking and folding as much as wearing) so I tried hooking up a column of knit stitches out of the purl bumps without dropping the stitches down. Not a technique I’ve seen elsewhere, but it worked perfectly! On the right side there is a distinct column of slightly smaller knit stitches, and on the inside what’s left looks like knits as well. Very tidy, with nice structure and anti-droop protection.

Now it’s time to do the sleeves. I started last night at GUnit, and hope to finish each one within a week or so. A little trim at the neck and I’ll be done!

Poppa

Posted on April 10, 2012 by Annette / Soft Like Kittens

My grandfather passed away last Wednesday. He’s had several years of increasingly fragile health, but also many amazing recoveries, and even though he was 88 years old it was a shock to realise that this time he wouldn’t be getting better. Willow and I visited him in the hospice on his last morning, and he was tired and struggling but still lucid, so we got to have a little chat and say goodbye for which I’m very grateful.

I’ve spent most days since then at my parents’ house keeping Mum company, providing distraction in the form of an adorable infant, and catching up with all the relatives coming into town. His funeral was today, and it was a lovely ceremony, though very sad of course. I feel a little closure from the formal goodbye, though there is still a lot of work for my mother and uncle to do in tidying up the estate, and I hope I can help them with that.

Poppa was a kind and loving grandfather to me, always supportive of all of his children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren, impeccably honest, generous, and he meant a lot to all of us. We’ll miss him.

March Reading

Posted on April 2, 2012 by Annette / Soft Like Kittens

Long time no post, I know – the usual reason (slumpy mood) but all is now acceptably well.

Here’s my March reading list, with titles that I’d particularly recommend in bold.

24) The marriage plot : a novel / Jeffrey Eugenides.
25) Beat till stiff : a woman’s recipe for living / Peta Mathias.
26) Fifty shades of grey / E. L. James.
27) Hit list / Laurell K. Hamilton.
28) Sisters by a river / Barbara Comyns.
29) Ready player one / Ernest Cline.
30) Moxyland / Lauren Beukes.
31) Zoo city / Lauren Beukes.
32) The rook / Daniel O’Malley.
33) Man crazy / Joyce Carol Oates.
34) A writer’s house in Wales / Jan Morris.
35) The hunger games / Suzanne Collins.
36) Catching fire / Suzanne Collins.
37) Mockingjay / Suzanne Collins.

The month-in-books didn’t start off very well. I’ve enjoyed other books by Jeffrey Eugenides, but The Marriage Plot was a barely tolerable slog. I had no interest in any of the characters, and there wasn’t much of a story line to make up for it. If it hadn’t been from an author I felt lingering loyalty to I would probably have given up halfway through, as it was I finished but there was a lot of skim reading. Then was the Peta Mathias book, a collection of ‘essays’ with little coherency of opinion but plenty of wildly sweeping generalisations about Women and Men which just irritated me. Don’t bother.

Fifty Shades of Grey I picked up since it kept being mentioned in tweets and articles, and I was curious how a book adapted from Twilight fan fiction ended up as a #1 bestseller. It’s really not good. The characters are so flat and the writing could have used a lot of editing. The author repeats the same phrases over and over, sheesh, how many times can Christian set his mouth in a hard line?!, and the sex got fairly repetitive too. The articles I’ve read discussing how women are embracing ebooks to read erotic titles like this were much more interesting than the book itself! I gather there’s two more in the series but I wasn’t that curious.

After that the Anita Blake book seemed of much greater quality than usual – though that series suffers from many of the same flaws. I can’t count how many times Anita has met someone with hair that a normal person would consider black but she knows is actually very dark brown because her hair is really black. (I mock, but I keep reading them, so I can’t be too harsh.)

Sisters by a River is a memoir about a family of odd neglected children in the 1920-1930s, written in a haphazard naive child’s voice, and it was definitely better than any of the above but didn’t charm me in the way I was expecting from the recommendations.

After all that lot I decided to dive into some books I knew I’d enjoy from my favourite genre, which is the variety of sci-fi/fantasy set in the present or near future which focuses on either technological or sociological themes. (Is there a concise name for that?! Basically, not too many spaceships from the year 2846, or dragons, or wizards with names like Bel’thranzalar of Garlatharan.)

Ready Player One is simultaneously chock full of futuristic virtual reality and 1980s pop culture geek references, and follows the band-of-adventurers-on-an-epic-quest storyline in a fun way. I read it on the recommendation of JSR, who is the precise target audience – I’m a bit young to have actually played the games mentioned, or seen the movies when they came out, but living with JSR for so long I’ve absorbed most of that stuff through osmosis and really loved the book ;)

I picked up the Lauren Beukes titles primarily because they were blurbed by some of my favourite authors. Moxyland was a quick dystopian romp, which definitely owes a significant debt to William Gibson and Neal Stephenson, but enjoyable nonetheless. I felt it showed a lot of promise as a first novel, so I was keen to see how Beukes had developed her style for Zoo City, and was not disappointed; it’s one of my favourite books this year. Urban fantasy set in an alternate-reality South Africa it manages a unique twist on the concept of familiars or spirit animals – the protagonist has, quite literally, a sloth on her back. She’s smart and sarcastic and likeable, yet undeniably morally ambiguous. The plot follows a mystery to a (word of warning) rather grotesque conclusion, and I really had trouble putting it down.

The Rook also came onto my radar through a reference to an author I like, Charles Stross this time, and while the setting of ‘Her Majesty’s Supernatural Secret Service’ does sound an awful lot like his Laundry novels it goes in quite a different direction, and there’s room in my heart for more than one paranormal government department! Fun characters, and a surprisingly lighthearted and humourous tone given the two major spy-thriller-life-in-danger and eldritch-horrors-about-to-decimate-Britain plot lines. Another new favourite.

Then I skipped over to my shelf of books waiting to be read. I rarely buy physical books these days, since I use the library a lot and go for ebooks whenever I can, but I used to be a maniac for those giant charity book fairs and library disposal sales and I still have a dozen or so unread titles left. The Joyce Carol Oates was middle-of-the-road, some of her books I’ve loved and others I’ve ditched partway through. This one was in the middle, since I finished it but wasn’t enthralled. A Writer’s House in Wales was a nice, gentle discourse on the nature of homes, writing and being Welsh.

I finished up the month with the Hunger Games trilogy. I like to read things that are being talked about a lot so I put the first book on my library request list, only to find myself #1450 in the queue. I mentioned the lengthy wait on Twitter and my friend Josh offered to lend me the whole series. Hooray, thanks Josh! (Thosh.)

I read the entire trilogy in two days. I found the first book a little predictable since it seemed obvious who would win and there weren’t many twists and turns, plus I felt the explanation for the existence and structure of the Games wasn’t entirely convincing, but Catching Fire was a lot more intriguing. By then I’d taken the setting of Panem on board and I definitely didn’t foresee many of the plot points as motivations and agendas were slowly revealed. Mockingjay was grim, but the characters had a hold on me, so much so that I shed a few tears near the end. It’s definitely a compelling series, and I keep finding myself thinking about it days later. I initially thought I wasn’t very interested in seeing the movie, but I might be changing my mind…

Willow’s 2nd Birthday

Posted on March 18, 2012 by Annette / Soft Like Kittens

Willow turned two this week. We had a family celebration with all her grandparents, a chocolate cake, a fancy dress, and one very excited little girl. She doesn’t really get birthdays yet, but she definitely likes PWESENTS! and CAKE! so it was bound to be a good day :)

Dressed up and getting psyched about the celebrations.

Gazing longingly at the birthday table.

Here we go…

I’m not a fantastically skilled cake decorator, but Willow liked it.

Reading one of her new books with Grandad and Nana (my parents).

Trying out the balance bike.

Sometimes the camera catches Wil at a particular angle and she suddenly looks so grown up. Definitely not a baby any more…

Hey My Sweater in Progress

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Annette / Soft Like Kittens

I calculated today there’s around 2500 stitches per inch of length in the body of my sweater in progress, and I’m currently knitting rows at the bottom of the yoke that include the upper sleeves as well, so this part is probably closer to 4000 stitches. Eeeee! It’s taking some time, but I don’t mind, you don’t start knitting for quick results :)

I’ve finished the textured trinity stitch section and it’s all stockinette from here down. In about ten more rows I will split the body off from the sleeves and work them as separate tubes. I’m going to put in a purl faux-seam down the sides, which I haven’t tried before. It’s all in one piece so there’s no seaming at the end, but I will need to crochet an edging onto the neckline and keyhole.

I love the family of blue-green colours. Duck egg, robin’s egg, aqua, teal, turquoise, mallard, peacock, yes please!

(Speaking of robin’s egg, I love these cute speckled nails from The Dainty Squid! I’m really not a nail polish person – I own clear for stopping runs in tights, and a sheer pale pink I bought for our wedding – but these are sweet.)

Nectarine Cake and Piles of Yarn

Posted on March 9, 2012 by Annette / Soft Like Kittens

Yesterday I realised I had not only spectacularly over-purchased nectarines, but they were all ripening at once and frankly, they weren’t very tasty. (Is it just me, or has all the stone fruit been rather insipid this summer?)

I didn’t want any of them to go to waste, so what to do, what to do?

AHA! CAKE TO THE RESCUE!

I’ve never tried to cook nectarines into a cake before, but Kindly Grandza Google found several possibilities. I loved the look of this Upside-Down Nectarine Cake from Lola Elise, but making a pan of boiling caramel on the stove with a very inquisitive toddler underfoot did not seem like a good idea, so I filed it away for the future, and went with the Nectarine Golden Cake from FoodRepublik.

It’s a very simple recipe – a thick batter spread in a pan with pieces of nectarine on top. As it cooks the nectarine sinks into the cake, and the pieces in the middle become soft and moist while those poking out the top roast and retain some firmness. The finished cake has a rustic look and isn’t overly rich or sweet, but it’s perfect to go beside a cup of tea in the afternoon, or for supper. I’d make this again with any number of fruits – I think it would work well with peaches, apricots, apples or pears.

Today was the mail delivery I’ve been eagerly awaiting all week, the order from Webs I made with my birthday gift card. (THANKS MUM AND DAD!)

Look at all that beauty. It makes me happy just to think about. The three cream skeins are the background yarn that I need for my Hobbergobber Blanket, the brown balls are intended for a specific monkey amigurumi I have a pattern for, and the rest is dual purpose: they’re yarns I’ve been eyeing up with a mind to use them for knitting clothing, and they’re also to go towards my next crochet blanket.

My reasoning behind the assortment is as follows: If I want to buy a garment’s worth of yarn, but don’t have a specific pattern in mind, it’s difficult to know how much to get. I have to estimate generously based on a yarn-hungry scenario and probably spend quite a bit more than necessary. But it’s also difficult to pick a pattern for a yarn I don’t already own, because until I knit a swatch I don’t know how the fabric feels and drapes, or the gauge at which I would prefer to use it.

So I’ve bought a selection of single balls in shades that fit the colour palette of my next blanket project. I can knit them into swatches, decide on suitable patterns, calculate exactly how much of that yarn I would need for that pattern, then unravel the swatches to use in the blanket. I like to use a variety of yarns to get different visual and tactile textures in a blanket anyway, so this way nothing gets wasted.

And also, I get to play with lots and lots of different yarn :)

Recent Reading and Motherly Adoration

Posted on March 1, 2012 by Annette / Soft Like Kittens

I meant to blog about my 2012 reading every month, then promptly forgot at the end of January. GOOD JOB, ME! So here is the first two months of my reading list. Titles in bold are those I particularly enjoyed.

JANUARY
1) The Wilder life : my adventures in the lost world of Little House on the Prairie / Wendy McClure.
2) Farm anatomy : the curious parts & pieces of country life / Julia Rothman.
3) The alchemist / Paulo Coelho.
4) The Devil’s larder / Jim Crace.
5) Temples of delight / Barbara Trapido.
6) Micro green : tiny houses in nature / Mimi Zeiger.
7) Uncle Petros and Goldbach’s Conjecture : a novel of mathematical obsession / Apostolos Doxiadis.
8) An artist of the floating world / Kazuo Ishiguro.
9) One night at the call centre / Chetan Bhagat.
10) Four souls / Louise Erdrich.
11) The family Law / Benjamin Law.
12) The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society / Mary Ann Shaffer.

FEBRUARY
13) Astounding knits! : 101 spectacular knitted creations and daring feats / Lela Nargi.
14) Zero history / William Gibson.
15) They draw & cook : 107 recipes illustrated by artists from around the world / Nate Padavick & Salli Swindell.
16) What to do about everything : a manual for domestic life / Barbara Toner.
17) Blood, bones, & butter : the inadvertent education of a reluctant chef / Gabrielle Hamilton.
18) Gold / Dan Rhodes.
19) The bedwetter : stories of courage, redemption, and pee / Sarah Silverman.
20) Hoopla : the art of unexpected embroidery / Leanne Prain.
21) It itches / Franklin Habit.
22) Cinderella ate my daughter : dispatches from the frontlines of the new girlie-girl culture / Peggy Orenstein.
23) The case of the imaginary detective / Karen Joy Fowler.

I’m recording both fiction and non-fiction in the same list. The only exclusions are craft books that are primarily patterns, but I have included those with substantial additional text. It makes sense to me :)

Zero History is the surprise entry here – surprise that it took me this long to read! In fact it’s been sitting on my iPad since it was released, but I kept procrastinating about diving in because I enjoyed the first two Blue Ant books (Pattern Recognition and Spook Country) so much. I knew it would be a special treat and didn’t want to ‘use it up’, which is daft, especially since the longer I left it the more likely I’d run across spoilers. In the end I still managed to approach it unsullied, and a good thing too, as there was one plot revelation so exciting I had to stop reading and text JSR to say OMG OMG OMG. And of course it isn’t ‘used up’ at all, now I can re-read all three as many times as I like.

I didn’t actually realise how much I read until I started writing it down. I thought I’d like to try for 50 books this year, but it doesn’t look like that will be any challenge!

An installment of Willowpics. She’s nearly two! Suddenly it’s going so quickly.

A pink-cheeked nap on the couch.

She plays with her Duplo every day. We ask what she’s making and there are, so far, three potential answers: TOWER!, CASTLE! or ROBOT!

Running around outside in her pyjamas. What, we all do that, don’t we?

Dressed up for my birthday dinner last weekend. I love this dress so much, I wish I had one of my own!

Checking out a hole in our lawn. (Formerly home to an old fence post set in concrete. That was a job to get out, I tell you. My arms ached for days.)

I know I’m biased, but she is a GOSH DARN CHERUB.

Her freshly washed hair is getting SO curly. Mind you, mine was too when I was her age, and it didn’t last. I sproing those little ringlets every chance I get in case they disappear too :)

Hello 29

Posted on February 26, 2012 by Annette / Soft Like Kittens

I can’t believe I forgot to mention in my last post that I’ve gone back to work!

Yep, Nut and Bee is open again. I’ve temporarily pulled a couple of products where my production processes need an overhaul, but most things are back in the shop and I’m starting to post new drawings/prints too. I was a bit nervous because I usually find it difficult to resume drawing after a break, but it’s all gone well so far.

Our new family schedule where everyone gets up early with JSR’s alarm turned out brilliantly, as Willow has resumed afternoon naps, and I have a couple of hours of time to myself every day without relying on anyone else. That makes everything so much easier; I couldn’t have started working again otherwise. (And I’m really hoping she keep it up for a while!)

On Wednesday I couldn’t go to GUnit, as JSR had taken the car to go and goth out at a Sisters of Mercy concert. I was planning to have a quiet solo-knitting-night at home, then Rachel suggested I could Skype them instead – brilliant! After I introduced Willow and Otto to everyone they put me in the corner on a laptop and I knitted at my desk for much of the evening. I even got a tour of Rachel’s bedroom and yarn stash. THE FUTURE IS AWESOME.

Josh, Rachel and Zeb, with me on the little screen. Sadly technology did not permit me to eat any of those delicious-looking scones. (Photo, and scones, by Clint.)

Yesterday was my birthday, celebration #4 of the month. I didn’t feel like doing much – the stress of trying to organise an event was too intimidating, plus seriously, who cares about me turning 29? Such a boring, nothing of an age. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t have a good day! I ate Giapo gelato in the morning (Himalayan Salted Chocolate and White Chocolate with Chocolate & Hazelnut Cake flavours), read a lot, had a great nap in the afternoon, and went out to dinner with JSR, Willow and my parents.

I got perfect presents too – new pairs of Thunderpants, a Webs Yarn Store gift voucher to buy the last of the yarn I need to crochet my Hobbergobber Blanket, some chocolate fudge, a Farmers gift voucher, and a wee bit of cash which will probably go on groceries, but that’s fine, it’s a week of groceries I don’t have to worry about buying!

I might do something more celebratory next year, since I am rather looking forward to 30. I’m quite enjoying not being a young person any more. It seems a lot easier to be myself and not give unnecessary hoots as time goes on.

Soft Like Kittens

Idle life with yarn, cats and a small hu-man.

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