Sneak peak

Hmm... is there an ISE4er who likes these colours? This might be your scarf in the making...

A few firsts for me:

1. First knitted garment with one of my hand dyed yarns

2. First time using something with alpaca in it

3. First time knitting with a 12ply/heavy worsted yarn

4. First time doing cables (other than a mock cable that I did a nephews jumper with)

5. First exchange garment

6. First International Scarf Exchange

and a second: my second knitted scarf.

The yarn is Pear Tree Merino (with alpaca) 12ply from purl yarns, and dyed by me.

And here are the results....

Excuse my lame attempts at handballing - it's not the tidiest lot of wool I've seen. It didn't help that one of the balls (the blue one) kept coming apart as I skeined it before dyeing - I was quite annoyed since it was a brand new ball with the ball band still in place but as soon as I skeined it I found half a dozen poorly spliced joins that just split apart as I skeined. I figured dyeing the broken ball with the solid colour was the best option to avoid breaking up the colour pooling when I knit with the varigated wool. The new varigated ball turned out more vibrant than I imagined it would, and very green. I think I like it anyway, and took the pic of all three balls together so you can see how they work together. The pink varigated will not be on the same garment as the green varigated but both matching garments will have the blue trim. Still not telling though! You'll just have to wait and see.

AND I am frothing at the mouth waiting for this wooly mail! Come ON already!!

Signed, the impatient knitter!

Playing with colour

My woolymail still hasn't arrived to start work on my ISE4 scarf, so tonight I decided to give hand dyeing some more practise.

I have thought of the perfect project for that little ball I dyed with jelly a few weeks ago, and had two matching cream balls in the cupboard that were just asking to be dyed to match it.

While I won't reveal what my plans are just yet (just in case the giftee pops her head in here), I can tell you it requires a contrasting variant and a solid. So I tried to match the blue with another packet of jelly, and also dyed a third of the second skein with it. This time the water went absolutely clear like I never believed it would, and the yarn is a bit lighter than it came out the first time (probably because I was dyeing more wool), but that's fine as it will still work well with the first ball. Then, with the remainder of the second skein I got to business blending jelly and food colour, and came out with a gorgeous teal green. It looked more blue in the jelly water (just divine!), but came out more of a green on the yarn, so there is a lesson for me. I still like it though and just have to remember to try and keep an open mind when dyeing - I can try to make it the colour I want, but in the end I just have to be happy with what comes out of the pot, and really that is half of the fun of it. It's like a surprise!

I'm still itching to try real dyes so will be arriving home with baited breath again tomorrow night. The yarn I dye with those will be turned into my secret pal's scarf for ISE4. I bought the colours I want to use rather than just buying primaries and mixing myself. They won't be as versitile, but less risky until I gain some more confidence. I like the same colours so will be happy to use them again on a project for me or Austy.

My scarf pattern has been developed, taking an existing pattern and swapping the lace pannel for a cable pattern I liked and adding a few extra stitches. I'm really happy with how it looks (tested with the remainder of Austy's capri pants wool) and am looking forward to starting it with my very own hand dyed wool.

Austy's pants are almost done (just have to graft the gusset, darn all my ends and add the elastic) and the good news is, I tried them on and they fitted him nicely, despite my gauge dilemma. Looks like making them two sizes too big and length to fit was a good idea. Pictures to come soon! I'll wait till my new vibrant baby wool is all balled up and post them all at once.

Now I really need to get myself to bed before I crash. Austy hasn't been well, he has had a nasty virus since last week, and this morning woke up at 4am wanting nothing but Mummy-milk. I gave in since he is sick, and hasn't been eating or drinking much other than water (he normally just gets Mummy-milk at bed time and we are weaning him off it as I have pretty much lost my supply since going back to work full time.) Then, my head hit the pillow at 4:45 only for my alarm to go off an hour later for work, and I swear I got no sleep in that hour, not for lack of trying...

Just before I go to bed... look what I found: This knitter is amazing with plenty of free patterns to boot!

In love...

...with this colourway!!! I was a little dissappointed when I first started knitting with this stuff as it looked a bit washed out. The outer edges of the ball were MUCH lighter than the inside, and also because the colours were pooling quite a bit on the larger rounds. But... I finished the first leg of the longies last night and despite my dissapointmet that there are white spots in the denim yarn, the moonlioght colourway has won my heart. The smaller rounds show off the colour much better and the intensity is GORGEOUS! Check out how the teal blends with the purple! Now the teal really looks like teal instead of a light teally grey. The blue stripe is the denim yarn used on the cuff but the rest is the moonlight colourway.

The colours are pretty accurate here as it was taken in natural light, unlike the pics in my previous post which are a little yellow from the downlights in our loungeroom.

Cutest little critters!

I was soooo happy yesterday when my new stitch markers arrived in the post. I got a set of woolly little sheep and a set of colourful cats from Etsy, where I had stumbled across this great seller. Of course, I couldn't decide so I got both sets! They are absolutely adorable and well made so no bits of metal catch on my yarn, and I'm afraid Iwas a bit mean and didn't let them get over their jetlag for long before I set them to work. They told me they are much happier playing around on the needles anyway and needed some fresh air after being in the well packaged box for their trip over from America. Here is one of them, making friends with Gryffin who is not a very good tour guide as you can see.

My favourite would have to be the little black sheep as he is so cute and sparkly. The picture doesn't really show just how tiny they are - they can easily fit the base of each one on my little finger nail - seriously TINY! I can not imagine how she managed to stick those pin prick sized eyes on.

Now what are they cuddling up to? WELL, it was supposed to be a pair of longies or 3/4 pants for Austy to wear as pj bottoms over his night nappy, but stupid here couldn't work out what a US 2 ply was and they have come out mighty small, as it's definietly not 8ply. I didn't bother doing a gauge check first (despite the pattern writing it in big bold print!) because I figured I will need a pair in smaller sizes for the next bub anyway, whenever that happens to be. So far bub #2 has more wool soaker pants than Austy! I was keen to get onto these tonight to split for the legs and use my stitch markers, so I'm afraid if it wasn't for the stitch markers, they'd be a dreaded UFO for a long while. However I do love the colourway (except it has a little too much grey and not enough teal for my liking so I added a few random stripes of this to blue it up some more), it's very nice to knit with and I don't have much to go now so they will get finished sometime soon, and put away with the other 2 soakers. Poor bub if it's a girl - it will be wearing boyish colours at night. The colours in the photo are a bit off because of the downlights. I will try and get the finished photo in daylight. The marooney colour is more a deep purple, and the teal is stunning, it's just that as soon as it gets to the teal portion, it's over in a few stitches and there are plenty of grey stitches till it turns lavender. It's not that I don't like grey, I do, but I like the deep purple and teal more. I am thinking of knitting a piece in the shape of a star with the denim yarn and stitching it on the bum of the pants, just to add a special touch!

I did see a gorgeous blue/teal/dark chocolate colourway in the right ply that I loved on etsy but they didn't ship to Australia. DOH! I have some acid dyes on order and now know where I can order a 12ply undyed yarn, so Austy's pair will be a hand dyed project - my first go at acid dyes! Then I will be able to make almost any colour I want, hopefully...

I have also started work on a cotton jumper for Austy because the evenings have been a little warm for kniting wool, and because I couldn't resist buying the jo sharp cotton on sale. I am just wary of doing what I did last year when I started Austy's cotton jacket in the Autumn and didn't finish until Winter. Finding it a little chilly for cotton, I started making a warmer one. When I bought the yarn, I was looking for wool as I only like natural fibres but the guy at the shop convinced me SIDAR Snuggly was the way to go as it was machine washable and more wear resistant for kids. Silly me didn't realise I was not buying wool, and halfway through the project I looked at the ball band and saw it was nylon. I freaked out, and put it aside for awhile, not returning to it until October when I got over my silliness, realising that in the old days most baby clothes were made with nylon for it's softness. So the hoodie didn't get finished until just before Christmas. Result - two little jackets that have hardly been worn as they were finished in the wrong season.

So, having learned my lesson I have started the cotton one in a size 2-3yrs so, while it will be okay for the warmer Autumn days if I finish it before Winter, it will fit him best NEXT Spring/Summer. Think I will do the same with the brown chunky knit I want to make him, and make it to fit this winter (it will be a nice thick, warm, woolly 10ply so good for our ski
trip) but fit best next winter as he already has the 4ply hoodie for this winter.

Okay, better get back to these longies and see if I can finish leg one while I still have the motivation. I need to finish one of my 3 WIP's so I can start on the ISE4 scarf when the yarn arrives.

Some hints for my scarfer and Austy pics

As some of you may have read here or seen me post in the ISE4 blog, you may be aware that I am taking on my first ever knitting swap, that being the International Scarf Exchange. As a newbie to this kind of thing, and being terrified of missing out, I think I left my mystery scarf knitter a tad in the dark, as I was a bit vague with my survey responses. Since thinking about it a lot more and browsing lots of scarf patterns, I thought I would dedicate a bit of time to hint dropping so my scarfer has at least some idea of what I like (please excuse my vagueness in the survey!) . I think I would prefer something a bit textured, so more into the cables and other textured patterns than the lace. I love things like this or this, just to give you a bit of an idea of my taste, or even something with a bit of a honeycomb or seed stitch panel through it. Think warmth (we are going to the snow this July) and texture and you will be on a winner with me. As I said, blue is my favourite colour, especially teal tones, or else anything earthy (chocolate, moss, sage, beige, warm greys etc.). Okay I'll shut-up now and let your creativity take over!

OOOPS! Forgot to say... I hate anything tweedy. THe little lumps make the yarn look pilly and dirty imho, so I would never wear it. I can't believe I forgot to mention it - it's really my only yarn peeve.

Now for the promised bunny bum... It's been a busy household the last few days and my little man has been super exhausted by bedtime and not a very cooperative model. As a result, I only have these substandard pics to show off, he just won't stay put! Oh well, here they are:

And a FO from December last year that I just love on my boy (photos are from just a week or two ago - he's growing up!):

I was making it for last winter (it's a nice soft and warm Sirdar Snuggly) but was a bit slow, so it's a good thing I made the 12-24m size as it will fit him this winter (thank goodness he stopped growing rounder, and he's only sprouting legs now!). He hasn't had much chance to wear it as it's been so warm here, but we've had the odd cool night at the inlaws house for a BBQ dinner out the back. I love the hood and teh little pockets on the front. The buttons were $1.10 a piece and teh lady at the shop asked me if I was sure, but they were the best buttons to suit the hoodie and there was no way I was putting something cheap and nasty on my knitting after spending all that time (I hate knitting hoods - the jumper looks almost finished at that point but there's still so much more knitting to go with the hood! At least hoods look super cute though).

Bunny Bum!

Here is a preview of what my boy will have on his bum tomorrow night!

My pattern (basic pattern, add stripes and embroidery as you choose)

SIZE: XL – made to fit my tall 15m old who is 13kgs. Will fit him for a long while yet so I’d say 12kgs to toilet training.

Materials:
8ply treliske organic wool – 2 x 50g balls - Try Ecoyarns, that's were this lucious stuff came from. I have used on e ball cream and one ball silver.
4mm needles

Back Waistband
Cast on 37sts.
1st row rib: k3 *p1 k2* to last stitch, k1
2nd row rib: k1 *p2 k1* to end
Work 1st and 2nd rows 5 more times then 1st row once more (13 rows rib in total)
Maintaining rib pattern, increase 12 sts evenly across row (approximately every 3rd st). 49sts
Next row: K2, m1, k3, m1, k to last 7 sts, m1, k3, m1, k2. 53 sts

Back
Starting with a purl row work in stocking st until work measures 17cm from start of st st. End with a purl row. (Remember to knit first and last st of every row for selvage).
Start of rib pattern:
K8, *p2, k3* to last 5 sts, k5
K1, p7 *k2, p3* to last 5 sts, p4, k1

Repeat both rows once more then begin leg shaping, continuing with rib pattern as set.

Cast of 5 sts at the start of next two rows (43sts)
Next row:k2, k2 tog, pattern to last 4 sts, k2 tog, k2
Next row: Pattern to end.
Repeat last two rows 5 times.(31 sts)
Next row: k3, k2 tog, pattern to last 5sts, k2tog, k3
Next row: Pattern to end.
Repeat last two rows 2 times.(23 sts)

Continue in pattern until work measures 22cm from start of st st, ending with a WS row.

**Next row: K2, m1 pattern to last 3sts, m1, k2
Next row: Pattern to end**
Repeat last two rows once more (27sts)

Continue in pattern for 4 rows

Repeat from ** to ** 3 times
Cast on 7 sts at start of next two rows (47sts)

Work four more rows in pattern, then switch to plain st st for the rest of the front.

Front
Work until length matches back (between leg shaping and waist band ending with a knit row.
Decrease purlwise ten times, evenly across row (approx every 4th sts) – 37sts
Complete waistband to match back

Leg bands:
Pick up and knit 62sts around legs and work in double rib for 10 rows. Cast off loosely in rib.

Make Up:
Using back stitch (or preferred seam stitch) stich side seams.
Thread 3 rounds of shirring elastic though waist band to fit child’s waist (and leg bands if desired). Elastic avoids the need for a drawstring and helps the wool keep some elasticity in the bands. While organic merino is wonderful for softness, wool allergies and comfort overnight any 100% merino will lose it’s shape a little over time so the shirring elastic helps the soaker keep it’s shape and stay put.

*please note - this pattern has not been heavily tested, I just used it once to make the soaker pictured above.

I have made a promise...

Now can I stick to it?! I have promised Austy he'll be back in wool at night (to cover his nappy) by the week's end. As I sat on the couch watching House tonight I nearly did a naughty thing and started a new project as my second sock needs turning and with a head cold coming on (thanks Austy!), I wasn't up for the counting etc that goes with that and jsut wanted some plain easy knitting on normal needles. But as I discovered last night, my circular I bought to do his shorties and longies (next lot of urgent projects to get him sleeping well in a wool bum) was far too long. I bought a 60cm as my brain wasn't able to comprehend the inches recommended with the pattern and work out the right length in cm. The needle needs to go back pronto and swap for the right length but I forgot to take it to work with me today.

So there I sat, pondering. Sock turning, bunny embroidering, or start something new (but what? I have wool for longies/shorties but no needle). Then came the inner voice... "Finish that bunny now Joy, or you'll never be allowed to knit another thing!" As a result, the bum of Austy's organic soaker now has not only one bunny but a pair of them keeping each other company (the bunnies were an embroidery design from a vintage pattern book and remind me of traditional "bunny" rugs). But wait, there's more! I even completed one leg cuff, because now that the bunnies are there, I was able to do the easy knitting again in a double rib along the leg. The second leg would be done too, but a girl has to eat and go to bed at some stage. Hopefully I can keep my promise and will be able to show you my cute bunny bum boy by the weekend, and make up a new forum signature with the pic to promote "Reusable Nappy Week".

Zzzz.....

Oh no - I knew I wasn't in a very creative frame of mind when I came up with my blog title, but silly me forgot to do the all important google search before I set the name in stone in my blog address. Apparently there is an embroidery company called Joystitch Designs... I had originally thought to call my blog Joystix Knits but wasn't sure I liked the sound of it. Now I'm wishing that perhaps I did call it that, although pending the google search, that's probably taken somewhere too! What do you all think - should I change my blog name? It would still have the same address though so will eternally be using the Joystitch name unless I start a fresh blog, which at this stage, I'm unwilling to do as I am only just starting to get people to find me as it is. Here are my potential name candidates: Joystix Knits (using my name, and referring to the knitting needles), Klickety Klack (I mostly use metal needles), Knitting Still or just keep Joystich Knits. I'm still not in the right creative frame of mind to come up with wonderful names so all are a tad corny, but oh well.

Time to be honest with you all. I am really not enjoying my hectic life at the moment and wish I could spend more time with the little love of my life, Austin. I get 2hrs every night between getting in the door, and kissing him goodnight, and in that time there's probably only about 20 mins where I can actually chat to him, read to him, play with him, snuggle with him and generally be what a mum should be (at the moment I'm only an ounce of the mum he deserves). The rest of the time I'm getting changed out of my work clothes and putting the nappies in the wash from the day, cooking dinner, feeding him dinner (as much as I try to get him to self feed, he doesn't really eat much yet unless I feed it to him), tidying up the cooking mess, clearing the dinner dishes, washing him down, changing him and feeding him his boob/bottle mix for bed (my milk supply has dropped drastically since going back to work full time and I just don't have enough for him anymore - looks like I'll have to stop breastfeeding well before the 2yr mark I was aiming for). You get the picture. As soon as I get in the door it's all rush, rush, rush and "Sorry Austy - no piggyback tonight I have to get dinner on so we can eat". At least when I was working only part time, I could always tell him "Guess what baby? It's Mummy and Austy day tomorrow! We'll go to the park, I'll be with you ALL day!", which cheered me up immensely after a long 8-5 day at work and nearly an hour away from him. Plus he gave me big huge smiles - enough to cheer anyone up.

So what has this all got to do with knitting? Well, after he's in bed and the dishes are done, the nappies hung out and another load of washing on, clothes out for Austy and me for tomorrow and all the toys packed away, I sit on the couch if there's something half decent on telly, needles in hand and destress. Knitting has become my therapy over the past few months of full time work, even if I only get little bits doen at a time. On the nights when I've had lectures (after all the housework is done for the evening I get stuck in front of the laptop watching a downloaded videostream for 2hrs) or assignments due, I really miss my knitting. I have been known to sit on the couch with the laptop on the arm of the chair playing lecture vidoes while I knit - the beauty of studying by correspondence and at home! If there's nothing on the box, and I don't have assignments to do then I'm in here, "meeting" other knitting bloggers and reading about their creative process. So far I have found being a part of the knitting web community a very warm and uplifting experience. So I wanted to thank you all for welcoming me in with open arms. It is surely appreciated!

I look forward to my first knitting exchange with great vigour and am looking forward to getting lost in a warm woolly scarf to help me wind down in the evenings. Can't wait for next week when I get to find out all about my buddy and choose a yarn and pattern - I have several ideas brewing, I just hope one of them is the perfect fit. ISE4 starts next Thursday 15th March and it couldn't come around soon enough. The other good project I am looking forward to sink my teeth into is Austy's chunky knit jumper in a nice chocolate brown of some kind (to match his stunning eyes!!!). So far I am tossing up between this (Debbie Bliss)

this (Debbie Bliss)

and this cable knit jumper from Zoe Mellor's Adorable Knits (knitted in DB cashmerino).

I think I like the first one the most but Austy's minimink hat (modelled below - he's also wearing an outfit I made him in that pic at about 6 months old) will fit him perfectly this winter so I would like him to be able to wear it with the chunky jumper since they will be about the same colour. So hard to decide... any help much appreciated!

I am still stuck for ideas on how to use my handyed wool. I knitted a swatch (now unpulled) and love how it knits up. Not bad for my first ever dyeing experience if I do say so myself. Maybe some baby socks? I'd probably have to do newborn size though with only 25g - it would have made great socks for Austy's 16m old cousin Elizabeth, but I don't think I have quite enough for that size.

My woolly mess pics

As promised, I am here to post pictures of my wooly mess, destickied, washed and dried. I was quite surprised at how intense the colour turned out as I thought the strawberry jelly would make more of a pink colour. When I mixed the wine jelly, the colour was very similar to the strawberry soi I added quite a bit of natural food colour (blue) that came in a pack of four coulours that I bought for Austy's 1st birthday cake icing (wanting to keep the artificial colours out of him). They were no good as food colours as I needed so much to make them work unlike normal artificial colours that take the tiniest drop, so I didn't care about emptying half of the blue to my jelly for a dyeing cause.

I think I like this (it's growing on me) and I call it "Bubbleberry sorbet" as it reminds me of mixed berry icecream and bubblegum icecream all rolled into one. Just as I was taking the photo (making the most of natural light to showcase the colours properly) this happened...

...and just like that, a certain little person ran off down the hall with my precious sample. Not to worry I figured, I'll get him into bed and pick it up when I come out of his room (after his bedtime feed). That would have been fine, but in the meantime a certain furry friend decided to be playful (9yr old Siamese - Gryffin, my other baby) and the end result was a tangled mess that I am STILL trying to ball up, hours later...

Another knitting advance for me tonight (last night's was the dyeing) - I learned to graft, and completed my first sock. I mean REALLY completed it, and it's currently keeping the toes of one foot warm. I will make another one I promise, but I need a break from 5 needles. I love my new sock though and have finally decided that I love the colour too.

Tool talk and sticky fingers!

Having knitted a complete sock with my new bone needles, I figure it's time for a tool review. Remember though, that this was my first time with circular needles, which I found quite challenging at first, especially holding five of them in the 2.75mm size on such a small project. I was worried about teh needles slipping out as I read somewhere that metal needles tend to do that, so I bought myself a bone set to try to avoid that, since the wooden set would have cost me an arm and a leg. Unfortunately the bone sets only had four needles in a pack, and the pattern called for five, but luckily my needle stash (including lots of odd needles handed down to me from my beloved Nan) was able to pull through with a 3mm metal needle. I know, a size up from the set I was using but the tutorial at knittinghelp.com told me that one needle a size larger or smaller shouldn't affect gauge at all as the needles rotate through the work. Phew! Upon opening my new bone needle package, a strange and strong aroma filled the air. My husband thought it was an electrical burning smell, but I don't mind it - it smells like knitting to me! Or perhaps a slight undertone of piano keys, which I like too. Not sure why the bone has such a strong smell, but I am sure it will fade with time so Andrew no longer notices it while I knit away next to him while watching TV. I am a metal needle fan from way back, as I like the stiffness since I am a tight knitter and broke or bent many a plastic needle in my teens, before giving up on them completely and spending teh extra $$ on metal sets. However with the discovery of hand died yarns on the web, I began to expand my needle collection with a few pairs of bamboo needles. I experimented with these while knitting 8 - 10 ply soakers and absolutely love them for the feel and for the resistance to thread splitting that they seem to provide. I have also used tortoiseshell needles (given to me by Nan) which flex a little too much for my liking and are a little blunt in the smaller sizes. So in comparison to metal, bamboo, tortouseshell and plastic, the bone needles are probably very high up on my list of favourites. They are stiff like the bamboo and metal, but with a little bit of flex, not too much, just enough. The stitches slide easily along them and I didn't lose a single stitch to the needles dropping out. Although, it didn't happen on the metal needle either so maybe my tight knitting style protects me from that. I can imagine they'd be much nicer than metal in the winter when the needles are cold, and the pointiness was just right too. I split a few stitches along the way, having to undo and restitch a couple of times but it wasn't too band. The pack says that the needles grow with you just as you will grow to love them the more wear they get. Well they were right. I give them a 4/5.

No knitting tonight (I have decided that I have to either embroider the bunnies or graft the toe of the sock before I can start the next sock or finish the soaker's leg bands) so I procrastinated and tried my hand at dyeing with jelly. Here is my creation, looking rather like a sticky mess (and feeling like it!). I will update with more photos once the skein is rinsed and dried and looks more wool like. It is just a scrap 25g ball of Patons dreamtime I had left over from a previos baby project. I had 2 and a half of them all ready to dye but thought I'd perhaps be best to start with just one. Might make a pair of baby booties with it as I have no idea what else youy can do with just 25g of wool - open to suggestions though! Now, I think I may have started yet another crafty addiction... Wait till I get my hands on real wool dyes or koolaid!

Back from a wonderful escape

After a busy weekend last weekend with my friend's wedding on Saturday and then the Parade food and wine fair on Sunday, we flew to the Goldcoast for a much needed family break. The weather was perfect despite forecasts for rain that never eventuated, and we had a great time exploring dreamworld, seaworld and wet'n'wild with our little man Austy. Over te five days we were there, Austin just seemed to grow up so much before our very eyes. He started saying so many new words, like "copta" (helicopter), "merry" (go-round) and "cute" and also really took off with his walking. He was very excited to go on the plane and loved the beach as we hardly take him when we are home.

Monkey socks (knitty) - my first ever adult sock!

While we were away I got stuck into my sock knitting as we were stuck in the apartment (with foxtel luckily) for each evening while Austy slept and ocasionally while Austy had a morning nap (most of the time we let him nap in the pram but he came down with a cold so we stayed back for morning naps after that.) I am enjoying the lace pattern and while the first few rounds gave me a sore forehead (frowning with concentration!) it's easy now. I wasn't sure about the colour at first but it's growing on me.

A closeup of the lace pattern - colour is a little off - somewhere between the two photos.


I took Austy's bunny soaker with me to finish it off too but forgot my bunny graphs so that just came along for the ride with no progress. I could have stitched up the side seams and made the leg bands but thought it would be easier to embroider flat so it's still sitting there as the socks are more fun than knitting embroidery.



Back to my hectic life tomorrow with my work week commencing again, but I am halfway through my study for this semester so I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and more time for my craft (I also sew and scrapbook). Our next trip away will be to the snow in July so I have been planning to make some snuggly warm things for my little man and the son of the couple we are travelling with (to share babysitting duties so we can all get to ski). I have decided that Austy NEEDS a chocolate brown chunky knit jumper to go with his brown eyes so am thinking I might splurge on some DB Cashmerino! Always wanted to try that stuff.



Must run now as Austy wants only me and is crying in the lounge room while my hubby is sitting on the couch telling him to stop...