*yawns*

Been a busy day knitwise today.  I finished off a teeny-tiny lace cardigan for Cheddar, grafted the toe on a sock that I actually finished knitting about 2 weeks ago, started the huge task of picking up the stitches around one of the armholes of Dad's pullover and started work on one of the 25 squares needed to make up a baby blanket (the blanket is actually supposed to be knit in one piece but there's a tiny mistake in the counting on the chart for one of the motifs and it was screwing me up).

I also sat down and made a list of all the stuff I've already started on and the bits and pieces that I promised people for Christmas in an effort to get a little more organised so I don't find myself getting to Christmas Day and having half of it not actually started yet alone finished!

Dearest Cheddar,

While I love you with every fibre of my being, your mother is driving me mad by not letting me know whether you're a boy or a girl!

It would be so much easier to knit stuff for you if I had an idea of what precisely to knit.  At the moment, you're going to have a wardobe full of multi-coloured (mostly made of self-patterning sock yarn) booties, mittens and hats with the ocassional white cardigan thrown in. 

It's only approx 10 weeks until you join us on this fair planet so please, instead of kicking your darling Dad in the ear, kick your wonderful Mum and tell her to get on with letting us know what you are!

Much Love,
Auntie Emma.

In other news, I discovered today that pattern designers are not Gods.  I've completely falled in love with an absolutely gorgeous baby blanket for the little one mentioned in the above sweater that's knit in Hummingbird Alpaca.  The slight problem is that I haven't attempted anything that big before so am naturally a little nervous about it.

The lovely lady who works in my not-so-local yarn shop (seriously, it's a 2hour round trip by bus and I live in London!) sat me down and talked me through the pattern and then informed that even the blanket is made up of one piece, it's actually made of blocks of different patterns and could therefore be knitted up in separate pieces and then sewn together.

This idea astounded me!  The thought of actually going against something that's written in a pattern had honestly never occured to me before.

*is thoroughly plastered*

The dream of every knitter has come true for me this weekend.  I chipped a bone in my ankle yesterday and have today been informed that I am to stay off it as much as possible for at least the next 2 weeks.

The chipping my ankle bit wasn't fun but I now have an officially sanctioned excuse for sitting on my arse in front of the tv for the next 2 weeks!

Grr Arrrgh!!

Dyspraxia has been playing up lately so not got much knitting done because I'm just not co-ordinated enough when I'm like this to manage the needles.  Tried working on one of the many pairs of socks that I'm working on as Christmas presents and had to rip it back so many times today that I ended up losing my temper and throwing it across the room.

I've given up on the Christening gown because there seems to be an error in the pattern somewhere.  Even my Mum tried it and she was going wrong on exactly the same row as me so I know it can't just be my ineptitude.

One thing I have managed to finish recently is my first pair of gloves!  They're not perfect but considering that I've only really been knitting for 5-6 months, I think they're pretty damn good!

Oops!

Spare a thought today, dear readers (if there are in fact any of you out there), for my darling Mother who spent 2 months knitting an absolutely beautiful circular lace Christening shawl only for one of our 19 year old cats to decide today that it would make the perfect place for a nap and in the process pulled all the stitches off the needle.

Suffice it to say that it will be a bloody miracle if said cat makes it to 20!