the knitty gods shone down on me ...

a few days back i sent out a prayer to the knitty gods, for i truly doubted the little itty bitty ball of yarn i had left would be enough to finish the job in hand...

and the knitty job in hand was the little sweater vest i had cast on just over a week ago. 

a little vest that tested my knitty skills and ripping back ability to not quite the limit, but nearly the limit.

the knitty gods obviously heard my plea, got together and pondered, they then must have decided i deserved a little good yarny luck my way, having shown great perseverance in continuing on my knitting path despite my ripping back ways.

and thus, my little knitty vest, (recipe from Lullaby Knits by Vibe Ulrik Sondergaard) was finished with just over 2 yards of Malabrigo Rios yarn left to spare.

i did not weep, but i could quite easily have, with relief.

i love my knitty vest, it is all i hoped it would be and so much more, for it has given me the confidence to move on to the next knitty item for my granny trousseau... my lending library of little knits for my clan. 

and as i learn, i have found my little cogs have started turning, thinking of things to make and ways to do it for myself. 

this is making me most happy indeedy!

i have rambled about my little knit over on my ravelry page for those that may care to take a look see and know any nitty gritty. 

next up i am going to be making this little sweater vest. i am beyond in love with the design, so much so, i have a cunning plan. 

i will of course need the knitty gods to shine down on me but i am hopeful they will. 

for when i have made an itty bitty size, i am going to do the maths and make a bigger size for myself. 

for surely a tweedy sweater vest with side buttons over a floral frock would be really rather perfectly peachy.  

 

magical and magnificent...

when Our #1 came to stay it was both magical and magnificent for two and a half weeks. in between work hours we plotted and planned a road trip to Portland where we spent our hours wisely in secondhand stores, just like the old days. and then on other days, when i was doing my thing, she was busy doing her own with Miss Ethel.

in just a few short months Our Meg has learnt to sew clothes and not only that, but cut patterns for clothes and even more impressive to me, put in zippers. until now i have never sewn a zipper, however after a lesson from my daughter it is true to say zippers are making a scene around here.

she made me two frocks, oh lucky lucky me...

i am thinking the green wrap~around frock may well have an outing when Our #3 graduates in a few weeks time and the little brown frock with its handy dandy 'built~in' bloomer shorts underneath? well surely that is the perfect attire for wearing on a breezy day whilst cycling around and about.

i miss Our #1 now she has gone, it has been ten days since Mossy Shed lost a bit of its sparkle and in just a few months Our #3 will be leaving the nest too, choosing to go back to his roots across the pond. 

my nest is becoming quite empty... in the space of four years, three will have flown far far away. 

 i like to think i have got used to it, i tell myself that each and every day, but i must confess, it is a terrible fib.

 for with them, i am whole and without them i am a little bit broken and i am beginning to suspect one never truly gets used to it, one just gets better about fibbing to oneself.

a booky moment ...

i think my man is ready to pack his bags and leave. 

i am not a nice person to live with at the moment. i put it down to many things, a list i could write as long as my arm but none of the things on my list excuse being a 'bah humbug' and taking it out on him. 

i am hopeful he will stick around a tad while longer and ride the storm out...

i did not intend to wake up this morning and do what i did, but a chance conversation with my adopted auntie yesterday afternoon led to me pulling up my knee socks this morning and rustling around the kitchen drawer for my book writing cap. i must confess when i found it, it was rather dusty, a little moth eaten and most definitely wrinkly. 

i then spent quite a few moments unearthing scribbled notes from months and months ago, once again, telling myself off for not being better organized and having a terribly pants habit of writing in the middle of odd notebooks found lying around the place and then moving onto another random notebook found elsewhere. 

i am wondering if i need to go on an organizational camp, i expect such a thing exists.

and so i sat down at Colin the Computer this morn at precisely 8:09am after my morning walk with my little black cloud and tippity tapped away... the outline of a book i have been carrying inside of me for a year came outside into the fresh air to breath.

i know this book needs to be written, however i do not know whether i have the courage to go through the whole process again. letting it go out into the world for others to take hold of and add their vision to. to let them do so is tres tricky for me. i tell myself this time i am older, i am wiser and i am stronger than before, i tell myself many things to keep Mr Doubter from my door...

but the thing i tell myself most is, i love the working title i have. 

it alone makes me want to write another book.

'clever crafting for small beings, little critters and other folks'

and i love what i see inside my head, of what this book could become, now i have dared to peek inside.

 i have no idea whether i will be allowed to keep such a title when the time comes, nor if my booky vision will ever see the light of day beyond our Mossy Shed's four walls. however for now it is my jumping off point into a place i ran away from not so long ago. a place i now find myself running back to, with my heart beating a little faster, and noting a little black cloud slowly but surely being left behind...

the goldfish and the caterpillar...

today i am a goldfish,

a goldfish that cannot walk nor talk

"ummm, actually Tif, is not that true of most goldfish?"

ah, good point dearest reader, as my grandmother would have said,

"there are no flies on you"

i cannot walk because i did yoga

i cannot talk because i went to the dentist

and i am a goldfish because

ever since i did yoga my short term memory

has been zapped

this makes me a little fretful for my small beings knitty vest i embarked upon yesterday. after quite the rocky start (and i do mean a rocky start) i am on my way

i am thinking i would like to make it into a little knitty frock but no, no i must not, i must stick to the master plan and stay strong. NO wavering allowed on this knitty watch! my goldfish cogs will not allow such fool hardiness, plus i only have one skein of 'love you like no other colour' greeny goodness. (good point)

and on that knitty note, 

yesterday before i became a goldfish i joined Ravelry.

i have been pondering this for some time, the pondering grew quite long due to 'dottie angel' not being available on Ravelry. (sniff sniff) after i got over this upset, i pondered for 3 further months till yesterday i threw caution to the wind and joined.

you can find me right here.... did you find me?

it will take me a little whiles to set up my new home but for now, it is looking semi-spiffy i feel.

you will also find my first published crochet pattern. 

well i suppose that is not quite true as some are published in books, but the first to be officially put out into the world as such, in quite a big arena, amongst dearies who know a thing or two about yarn, if you see what i mean? truth be told, i am a little shaky about the whole thing.

and so it came to be, my lovely place of work and loitering, invited me to design a crochet pattern for the local LYS tour (local yarn store) which happened to happen this past long weekend. 25 knitting stores in this area of quite a bit of largeness participated. that is quite extraordinary is it not? 25 yarny stores! i think that does warm the yarny heart. 

well now the tour is over with, Tolt has popped both my crochet cowl pattern and Veronika's muchly loved hat pattern up on Ravelry.

if you are a crochet dearie and you have a Mr Hook then you can find the 'Entwistle' pattern right over here on this fine page

so that is that, and this is this, and if perhaps or perchance you are thinking, this is quite a marathon of a ramble for one who claims the memory of a goldfish. i will confess, this was all scribbled on paper for fear not one thought would stay long enough in my gold fish cogs to tippity tap this post.

and now if you were to test me, to say "Tif, tell me what you wrote up the top of this post, what was your first bit of ramble?" i pinky swear, i could not tell, even if the little caterpillar in my back yard's life depended upon it.... 

"ummm, would that be the one you trod on Tif?"

well, yes but it was an accident and one that left me traumatized

"interesting, and rather horrid don't you think Tif? swearing on his life, knowing it had been taken, just days prior... so how come you can recall that, not such a gold fish after all eh?"

ha! i see your sneaky tricky ways, trying to trip me up, i will confess the caterpillar crime happened just a few days ago, i will confess i lost sleep over it, however in my goldfish state of mind defense, can i point out i have only become a goldfish since this morning and thus everything since this morning is lost the moment it is thought, in a black hole somewhere out there... never to be seen again

"a bit like the little caterpillar eh Tif?"

ummm, yes, tis true...

and now i must away laden-ed with guilt, to my knitty vest, hopeful the memory of what i did stitchy wise last night, is still rolling around the cogs this afternoon.

"that's the spirit, Tif"

merci my petit pois

rusty and dusty...

i fear my little blog has has been left so long

it is rusty and it is most certainly dusty.

i fear i have lost the ability to ramble,

what if i have?

what if i will ramble no more?

the only thing to do is to put one rambly foot

in front of another rambly foot

and see what happens.

i am thinking my crafty knee socks

need a jolly good pulling up.

oh and my yarny cogs, 

poor poor yarny cogs

for they appear to be at an all time low.

completely dusty and oh so rusty!

i cannot for the life of me

feel settled and content with a yarny project.

i am restless and i am irritable

with my inability to find contentment

amongst my yarn.

there is a lot riding on this little knitty vest

to pull me through and out the other side

of this funk i find myself in.

'tis a lot to ask of a little knitty vest.

it may be too much 

then again, it may not,

only time will tell...