to cut a long story short ...

i started knitting my first ever cardigan

the maths was done to make it smaller than the pattern

the yarn overs turned out to be make ones

yet i carried on fearlessly.

my phobia for double pointed needles

and lack of 'magic loop' knowledge

left me no choice but to use 12" circular pins

when i came to the sleeves.

suddenly my loosey goosey knitting ways

became quite tight and tortured

 yet i carried on fearlessly

one sleeve finished and Mr Lurgy came to call,

i lay in my bed, hot and bothered

with little knitty cogs racing inbetween restless sleeps.

on the 3rd day i arose

bedraggled with bird's nest and no sense of smell 

thus skipping a shower

and taking up residence on the couch

to stare blankly at the telly.

my cardigan called from the other room

my head and my hands told me to ignore her.

i happened upon Outlander set in the wilds of scotland

two hundred years plus, ago.

i cared not for the naked bodies nor violence

i cared only for the knits.

after a while a need to make the knits before my eyes

became of the utmost importance

and thus i declared surely a light hearted knit

nothing too taxing 

would be perfect for my recuperation period upon my couch.

after a ganders through ravelry

i noted i was not alone with wishing to own Claire's Outlander knits.

i found the capelet, 

i found some yarn in my stash, 

two different colours of wool

and set about a bit of knitting therapy,

all the time ignoring my one armed cardigan.

after some knitty time and some telly time

i came to the conclusion my capelet was very zizzy

and also after much studying of Claire's capelet on freeze frame

it needed to be bigger than the pattern in my hand suggested.

i fell in love not with the capelet

for honestly lost on the highlands, 

i felt my cowl would be most fitting

lost in my local grocery store

it may well not be quite so fitting

but i did not care, for what i loved, 

what made my knees go weaker than Mr Lurgy had left them

was the two tone yarny fabric growing in my hands.

i knew nothing else that day except

 i knew i needed to make a cardigan 

with such lovely zizzy qualities.

one that did not require sleeves knit in the round

with tricky dicky yarn overs and whatnot.

surely resplendent in a zizzy cardigan

life could only be grand

in the highlands or the local grocery store

yesterday i found two woolly worsted weight sweeties

one cream, one gray/sludge, 

both with flecks,

together they created a match made in heaven.

i crafted a swatch when i should not have been, 

i had 12 stitches to 4 inches

and now i needed a pattern to match my lovelies.

by this time i had put my one armed cardigan in a basket

hidden from view.

out of sight, out of mind.

i went a searching in the late hours,

gripped by a need to know what was out there.

i happened upon the perfect fellow,

one who sensibly  has her sleeves knit flat

and then i fell down the rabbit hole

into the extraordinary world of Celily Glowik MacDonald

and i never ever wanted to leave.

i have become a fan,

a fanatical fan

i would like one of every cardigan please

i would like them today

i would love them all so equally 

i would wear them all at the same time

so none would feel left out.

i am wondering if Celily would adopt me.

i have been practicing her name 

for it is most marvelous

just like her knitting ways.

but then i would have guilt

if i wore all those cardis all at one time.

guilt for the one armed cardigan tossed aside 

by my 'sleeves knit on 12"' avoiding ways.

so as of this morn,

i have struck a deal with myself.

i may allow myself to finish up my Outlander capelet

by sewing in the ends, 

felting it a tad, not a lot, just a tad

and i may also allow myself

to plot and plan my zizzy cardigan

from the world of Celily Glowik MacDonald

but then i mustly must get over

my second sleeve syndrome phase

and finish up my mustard misses in time for

Tolt Yarn and Wool's anniversary big day

or....

perhaps i could find a sleeve lying around the place

and stitch it on.

 oh yes, then i could just get on with my zizzy knit

by jove!  that does sound like a stroke of genius 

in the thinking department

to cut a long story short:

i lost my mind

on the Mr lurgy knitting thrifty fruit flies blogging front...

on the lurgy front, the best thing about Mr Lurgy leading you a merry dance is when he buggers off to find another partner and you are left to your own quiet thoughts, a renewed sense of energy and enthusiasm for getting things done comes along. 

alas his presence distracted me from my deadline path for frock sample making, however as of today i am back on track and even better than that, i am actually enjoying the track rather than dreading it. 

i have high hopes i will be sending off my samples and pattern ahead of time, (said in a whisper as not wishing to tempt fate) and this would be a grand feeling indeedy!

on the knitting front i must confess i have second sleeve syndrome. i fear sleeves and i will never be friends. can one rock the one sleeved look i am wondering?! 

i think the only way i am going to get past my sleeve phobia is to knit them flat and deal with my purl phobia. for the wonder of knitting in the round is you just knitty knit knit to your hearts content without a purly bod in sight. but knitting flat the purly bods are unavoidable and as my purling is actually rather dodgy due to me using my right knitting pin like a hook, it all becomes quite the drama. it could be i may have to learn the magic loop for i have an allergy to double point needles and my 12" circular needle is leaving my fingers all gnarly and witchy like.

on the thrifty woolly waif front things are going tremendously i cannot lie. i cannot decide if i live in a small area of woolly cast offs or if this is the norm across the whole of this big land. i now have a hanging rail full of warm fellows in a multitude of grolly sludgy colours, some i have changed buttons, some i have added felted elbow patches too and some i am thinking require knitted pockets. i have even dared to branch out from my cardigan loving ways and embraced two sweaters i happened upon. both made of wool. one in a lovely grolly green zizzy yarn with a giant roll neck and sleeves which flare at the end. it is rather tight fitting and as i struggled to get it over my head in the thrift store yesterday and haul it down over my layered frock ensemble, i marveled at two things.

 firstly how it did look quite the treat layered upon layers and secondly, i would no doubt be kept very warm and cozy if i were to wear this peachy friend. i also fleetingly thought about the possibility of a hot flush gripping me when in this tight little knitted number and a panic attack would surely follow as i tried to remove said friend in a speedy manner. a vision of getting stuck in the roll neck, flaying around madly, never to see the light of day again flashed across my mind where upon i dismissed the thoughts pronto and reminded myself i was not going to have a hot flush ever again because i had promised myself a while back and i could not go back on my word.

on the fruit fly party front in our mossy shed. thank you muchly for the all fabby and wise words folks sent me on my continuing infestation of the pesky fellows. things were starting to clear up nicely, Twig Pig received a bath and a serious hair cut by my man and i paid special attention to leftover dishes and glasses, until i fell pray to Mr Lurgy that is. word must have got out, two and a half days in bed with the fellow and the fruit flies are back i note, taking advantage of a sickly middle aged woman really isn't 'a-okay'.  

on the blogging front, each and ever day i blog inside of my head and yet it rarely finds its self tippity tapped out on colin the computer. i am pondering this event which has been going on for a while, i am pondering how when i had four children under the roof i was a prolific blogger/crafter and now i have just but one left, i appear to be unable to achieve half of the things i used to do in a day. i have pondered and pondered and i will ponder no more. that was then, this is now. i find myself at a place where i am happy more often than i am not (it took a while to reach this place) and thus i am thinking, there is no point in wishing for what has been but every point in wishing to find the happy in the every day presence and the things to come. and less i forget, the back of the toilet door can always reminds me

fruit flies, fiber & florals ...

fruit flies

we are under siege, it started quite harmlessly with a piece of fruit here and there, past its best. before we knew it, our little pesky friends had had a party, got a little frisky, had lots of fruity babies and now we are under daily attack. 

alas and alack, 

Mister Muchly and his trusty sidekick Twiglet Piglet are permanently entertaining them in their abode despite Our #4's best attempts at 'snozzling' them up every eve before bed. (that would be the fruit flies and not the piggies, for one should never ever vacuum a little piggie). somtimes when you are sitting ever so quietly, perhaps with peppermint tea close by and knitty goodness in hand you are lulled into thinking they have buggered off and moved to another nest. this false sense of security disappears the moment you have to get off your derriere and realize they were there all along, close by, resting a while in your 'up do'. i am beginning to feel somewhat like pigpen from peanuts. i am hoping the chilly weather will send them packing

fiber

tomorrow we set up a Tolt Yarn and Wool stall at the Nordic Knitting Conference in seattle. i am tres giddy about this. i will be helping set up and then working behind the stall on saturday. my cunning plan to be there was hatched when i asked my manager if i could work the stall, for i wished to not only visit the space which is the museum but catch glimpses of knits, nordic style. now the time is near i fear my lack of nordic knowledge may let me down and those around me. but fear not on my behalf dear reader for i have hatched another cunning plan, i will wear my icelandic cardigan i was given for my birthday, (so very kindly picked up by Our #1 on her way through iceland a few weeks back) thus blending in quite nicely i feel, whilst giving me an air of one who knows what she is about. 

i have done a test run in it for i was not sure the lopi yarn and myself would get on due to its itchy ways but i am delighted to report i lasted a whole day in it and without a rash a sight. my cardi is a children's size thus it is more fitted and the sleeves become delightful three quarter length little numbers. i am pondering a button change, i am thinking wood, i cannot think of anything else when it comes to buttons these days. wood buttons and woolly knits are a match made in warm weather wear heaven, if you ask me.

florals

i finished up my floral ink last friday, t'was a question of shading needing to be done on one of the roses and now it is finito. 

i had been thinking for over a year or two about this ink, for it is not a thing to do on a whim. one of my biggest ponderings was considering when i was wrinkly and crinkly, then i pondered further and decided if i live to a ripe old age to witness my bod and my tattoo looking all wrinkly and crinkly then quite honestly, i will count myself to be most fortunate.