kei te nitiniti tokena

Man, it's taken me forever to start and finish this update! D isn't sleeping very well at night at the moment, so I spend all my Dali-free time catching up on much-needed sleep. But I have managed to get some knitting and crochet done - the time between when he goes to bed and when I do is my precious me-time.

I've started my first pair of socks in a year and a half, and they're coming along nicely: the pattern is Jaywalkers, and I'm finding it quite straight-forward so far. The yarn is quite horrible though - it's some red fluorescent acrylic I found in a bulk bag and it splits constantly. I think the colour is repulsive but a couple of friends have expressed interest so they will probably be a gift for someone - lucky them! These are a practice run for Xmas gift socks.

Yikes, Xmas! It's only a couple of months away, and I'm being seriously overambitious with my handmade gifts. Oh well, I guess there's always the shops for backup.

Also, a finished object finally! It's the Babette throw from Interweave Crochet, done in various scrap yarns. I'm pleased with how it came out - it needs to be blocked a bit better, but most of the squares are pulled into shape by the others so it doesn't look too bad, plus I kinda like its crinkly look. The last strip was done a bit later than the rest and it shows: the yarns are slightly darker. But still, not bad for a first effort. I want to make another but not straight away - maybe in purple, or khaki and lime greens.

Almost finished the jersey for my boy, but I'm stuck at the making-up stage - there's just so many little strands to weave in, and it's dead boring, but I'm going to force myself to finish it tonight.

I've started another jersey, this time for a friend's boy who is turning 3 next weekend. A whole jersey in a week and a bit? Highly unlikely but I'll do my best :)

Went up to Christchurch for the long weekend, which was a lovely break, although not exactly relaxing! Stopped off at the Ashfords factory on the way, where I could fondle and sigh over the Noro yarns, but I was well-behaved and only bought a couple of Tekapo oddments from their sale bin. Checked out the Arts Centre Markets and bought some delicious Blue Earth soaps - I fell in love with a coat from Morphic Creations, but it was way out of my budget. Also stopped off at Borders to check out their knitting book selection, and walked away with Dominknitrix - a few patterns in it I really like, I don't know whether it was worth the $40+ but I thought I deserved a treat.

And finally a D photo - this was taken at Orana Park Zoo last Sunday. I'm so proud of my clever little boy. He's quite mobile on his bottom, and can speed along the lino (towards the cat dishes!) at a rate of knots. He's so smiley and friendly to strangers, and his newest trick is a very enthusiastic wave. He eats pretty much anything we offer him and is growing like a weed. He turns 1 next week, and it's hard to believe that this time last year we were still looking forward to meeting him :)