Pooling is a funny thing.

I have currently been making some hats for the World Vision Guardian Angels program as part of the Woolaholics team. This is my first go at charity knitting. My Mum is the charity knitter in the family and has about 15 jumpers, 20 hats and a pile of toys and scarves ready to be sent off. Sure makes my few paltry hats look scungy!

Aside from a few hats made from bits and bobs of Lamb's Pride and Country Silk, I have made three hats from MIYO hand-dyed 12 ply in the blue, green and brown colourway. This is what I have done so far:

Cute huh? As you can see there are three different sizes there - a 72 stitch, 64 stitch and 56 stitch cast on. Now check out this shot:

Can you believe the difference in the pooling? Check out the 64 stitch cast on! now I will tell the truth. If it was for me I would have yanked it out and redone it with a different number of stitches but given that it will still keep someone's head roasty-toasty warm it has been saved from the frog pool. I really do love the striped effect on the other two though.

I swear, there is a mathematics doctoral thesis in colour pooling!

Have I really been that busy?

I am not that sure that I have you know? There has been the usual stuff - work, uni, kid things and all that - and I guess a few things out of the ordinary. Sam and I took the kids to the museum the Friday before last and Sam, Tania and I went to Rach's Blessingway yesterday. Both were great days. Outside of that it has been really dull stuff like doing journals for my two university subjects.

Let's be very clear about this - I HATE JOURNALS! Never was a suckier assessment task created than the reflective journal. I would rather drink monkey pee than write a reflective journal. This being the case of course I had not written a word all semester and thus have had to do both of them over the past two weekends. Dance last weekend and drama today. At least now they are done. One semester down and one to go.

Next semester is easier than this. Given that the subjects I am doing are education subjects, I have the 9 weeks off when the other students are on teaching rounds. This semester that meant 3 weeks off, next semester I get the other 6. Add to that a November finish and the vast majority of the work is done.

In between all this I have got a little knitting done. I would do some sewing but my sewing area seems to have been overrun and needs a serious clean out! These are Rachel Calado's Symmetrical Braided Gauntlets. They are knit with about 60g of Lamb's Pride on 4.5mm needles. The pattern was fantastic and I thoroughly recommend them!

I also got around to whipping up a few things for Rach's bump (and what a cute bump it is). I knit another size of my Seamless Kimono pattern and a Baby Squash Hat from 101 Designer One Skein Wonders. I used Paton's Serenity DK that I found in the smallest LYS in town. It is just deliciously soft, perfect for baby things if you ask me. I delivered them yesterday at the Blessingway.

This was my first Blessingway and it was lovely. A peaceful and respectful celebration of the impending birth and blissfully free of cheesy baby shower games. It was a great chance to spend some time with the mother to be prior to the birth. Most impressive. I am just sorry that poor Rach will carry my dodgy henna painting skills around with her for the next month or so. hopefully my birthing-bracelet-construction skills make up for it.

I have also completed another couple of projects but for now they remain under wraps.....

Oh and head over to Stickyfinger's blog to see how The Yarn Harlot, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, squealed at her version of my seamless kimono! Now that is a compliment!

Know what I love?

When you dig a 10 year old bottle of $5 Margaret river Cab Saub out of the cupboard and it is great!

Now this is appreciation!

Excuse the dodgy phone camera picture, it was the best we could do...

This is my little friend Holly, yes "Holly's Jacket" Holly. Hasn't she grown? Anyway, I have been doing a little knitting for Miss Holly and I whipped her up a seamless kimono somewhat because I was dying to knit something in Panda Starshine (a very "little girl" yarn) and also because I wanted to do some test knitting of my resized pattern. Wouldn't you know that the kimono took 2 balls plus a femptometer of yarn and thus I had a fair amount of the Starshine left over.

Whilst I think the yarn is cute as can be, see..

It really is not something I am ever likely to use again. Hell I am 36 and I have three boys for goodness sake! That being the case I decided that my best course of action was a matching hat. Now wouldn't you know it. I had lots of leftovers but not a hat sized quantity. As we all know, when this happens the answer is (and always will be) stripes!

Off to the stash I go, grab some Cleckheaton Machinewash that I had left over from Rohan's Lightning A-Queen hat and I am off and racing again. The end result (as seen at the start of this long and protracted story), a rather cute red and white striped hat with a pom-pom on top. Is there anything cuter than a pom-pom on top of a little girls' hat?

Well, to cut a long story short, Holly is in love with her new hat. How in love you might ask? I got a call from Holly's Dad the night that I presented my gifts. It would seem that Miss Holly had had to answer a call of nature prior to her bath. Thinking it would be easiest (and least messy) Dad decided to strip her down for her trip to the loo. This was going smoothly until the removal of the hat. According to Dad, that hat was not coming off for anyone and any attempt to remove it ended in rafts of tears. Holly ended up sitting astride the throne wearing nothing but the hat that Auntie Jack made her.

Now that my friends is appreciation!

A beautiful, unexpected gift.

I am sure that I have mentioned my love of the handknit sock before and whilst I knit a few pairs, I do them as on-the-run projects so I am lucky to churn out a pair every few months. Now Sam, she is the queen of socks. I swear she knits a pair a day (okay a slight exageration) but several pairs a month at least. These beautiful Mingus were knit by Sam.

They were too small for her and given that I have wee little pixie feet she gave them to me! I have coveted these socks since she first cast them on and I was so excited to get them. What a lovely and totally unexpected gift. :)

Handspun Lace Scarf

I found this lovely handspun at the craft market that is run at the kid's primary school each month. It was so cozy that I felt a scarf coming on. I wanted one a little lacy so as not to be too bulky and came up with this!

If you are interested....

Get some bulky handspun (or spin your own if so inclined). For the record I used about 220m and got a scarf about 140cm long.

Find some 6mm needles.

Cast on 27 stitches.

Knit one row.

Then do this for a while (either the end or until you have had enough) :

Row 1: k1, *k1, sl1, k1, psso, yf, k1, yf, k2tog* repeat to the last two stitches, k2

Row 2: k1, p1, *p2, k1, p3* repeat to last stitch, k1

Knit one more row.

Bind off

This pattern is provided free for your own personal use. You may knit it for yourself, as a gift, a swap or for charity. This pattern is not intended for commercial use. Any intended commercial use requires permission in writing.

Trav's Balaclava

Just a quickie whipped up for my brother-in-law to keep him warm at work. When I tried to find a basic balaclava pattern on the web I was sorely disappointed so I have written this one up for you. It is pretty much a modified Jacques Cousteau Hat (give or take a few bits).

Materials:

150g of 8 ply yarn

4mm 40cm circular

4mm dpns

darninng needle

5 Stitch markers

Glossary

pm: place marker

SSK: slip, slip, knit

Gauge: 22sts / 10 cm in stockingette

Pattern:

Using the circular needle, cast on 120 stitches. Join to work in the round, place the marker and work 25cm of 3x2 rib (knit3, purl 2).

Bind off 45 sts at the start of the next round and work 11 rows of rib back and forth on the remaining stitches.

Cast on 45 stitches and rejoin to work again in the round.

Work a futher 8cm of rib.

Continuing with the rib, work 26 sts, SSK, pm, work 28 sts, SSK, pm, work 28 sts, SSK, pm, work 28 sts, SSK, pm, p2.

Continue in the rib performing the SSK on the last two sts before each of the placed markers. Continue this until there are 12 sts left. Cut yarn and thread through remining sts.

This also makes a great knights helmet for a little boy if you are interested and also pulls back over the head to make a neck warmer or easily allow you to eat!

This pattern is provided free for your own personal use. You may knit it for yourself, as a gift, a swap or for charity. This pattern is not intended for commercial use. Any intended commercial use requires permission in writing.