Well. I'll tell you what. It's gone on knitting these buggers:
I am inordinately proud. LOOK AT THEM! Bloody hell. Haha. Read more here.
I'm still not quite ready to tell you what they're for but they have been collected and the person is very happy with them and you will find out a week tomorrow. I think.
You know how brill I am at washing though? Well... The big one was pretty much done two weeks ago, I blocked the body bit, did the embroidery on the lion, sewed the arms in, did the neckline and thought I'd leave the final blocking until they could be done together. So, on Monday night (after twoooooo days off frantically knitting (and getting mighty drunk in between)) all of the bits for the little one were done by about half past seven so I thought I'd skip the blocking by hand bit and send them both in for a quick wash and spin. Then I spent a few hours tidying, showering, sewing the sleeves on this beaut (which is much more beautiful than the picture suggests):
Which is a shrug that Verity crocheted for me which was just a bit too small, together to make a cowl which hasn't been off my neck since and generally having a 'Sunday' evening. It was lovely. Just before bed I nipped downstairs to grab the bits and bring them back upstairs for blocking. And, you guessed it (especially if you're on facebook) the white bits were pink. I genuinely nearly cried, spend about an hour scrubbing with some oxy-whatever-cleaner and googling what to do.
In the end I left them both to soak in the bathtub with heaps and heaps of two different kinds of oxy cleaner. In the morning they didn't look much better so I shoved them in the washing machine with more oxy cleaner and some colour liquid and hoped for the best. When I got into work I went and spoke to the ladies at the dry cleaners up the way and they told me about some colour corrector stuff so I got June to cover the shop whilst I madly ran around town spending far. too. much. money on all sorts of colour correctors, colour catchers and stain removers and headed back to mine on the bus. Got to Canning Circus and realised that I'd forgotten my keys. Got off the bus. Walked down to the shop and started again.
When I got in and checked the jumpers they were almost right all by themselves! Again, I nearly cried!!! I rang June to make sure I was doing the right thing by still using the colour correctors and she said she would so I did my thing and sent it all back into the washing machine. Then I went back to the shop and after that knit club (which was much needed after the stress). Thankfully when I got back in the evening they were sorted so after dinner I got the embroidery done and sewed it all up. Went to bed at 2am very pleased with myself. I finished the neckband yesterday morning and the job's a bloody good'n ain't it!? :)
So, with that finished yesterday, I decided to do a bit of *sort of* selfish crochet which has been on the go for a while. It's actually for Verity's baby and I'm glad it's finished but I can't work out if it's quite right and the terrible thing about giving things to expert crocheters is that they know when you've done it wrong... Anyway, I bought some beautiful ribbon this morning to go on that and at some point I'll write a blog about the bits I've done (when I've actually got anything properly finished. Everything I've made for t'babbeh so far is buttonless/ribbonless/final-rib-less... Oh well. It was only due last Sunday...).
And then I started back on this beaut:
Remember? Oh yes. I bought the buttons this morning from Pikes (I was hoping for neon yellow. They have every neon but yellow... so I bought wooden instead which might be more sensible anyway). I intended to spend about an hour finishing it but it's actually taken all day because I really didn't think about what I was doing so I ended up with hundreds of ends and some weird 'half' seams to sew and for some inexplicable reason I decided to use 13 buttons instead of a sensible eight. 'On what!?' I hear you say:
OOOOHOHOHOHOH yes! This is the bit I couldn't work out how to describe... Essentially, you know those Breton jumpers with the three buttons at the shoulder? Like this?
Yeah? Well I decided to do that but alllllllll the way down the sleeve! YEAH!? Good iDeA!?!? YEAH!?!?!? I know. I'm a bloody genius. Only, I didn't take into account the button band on the sleeve and how many fewer stitches I'd need so there's some weird decreases hiding there but I actually don't think that affects things. What does affect things is that the buttons are on the left hand sleeve when they should be, and I wanted them, on the right sleeve. And there are loads of buttons. And I should have sewn the plackets together first and the buttons later - as it is it's a bit wonky. But whatevs. I actually think I'm in love:
That was literally the best photo we could take today (things with boyf are still going well and last night he cooked me dinner with THREE DIFFERENT KINDS OF MEAT(!!!) in it and I think I'm still digesting...).
Now, the bottom needs more rib to balance out my fat arse. And I have about a third, maybe a bit less, of a ball left so I'm going to take the cast off out and just carry on until that's gone. I haven't sewn the tail in to that end:
Stylish.
So, that will be done.... Maybe. My lovely friend Sue sent me a bike in her big house clearout so I think the first real outing will be this Saturday when boyf and I are cycling around Attenborough (weather permitting) and/or to the pub. :)
Thinking about it, if I'd have actually thought about it before casting on, I would have done many many more cables. Maybe another six? Oh well. You live and learn. I can't see me needing another jumper with neon cables so I'll just have to appreciate the one that I've got. :)
That's it. It's six o'clock. I need to answer e-mails and get to Dee's to get fed and watered.
Love,
Eleanor. xxx
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