I saw a funky cotton infinity scarf kind of thing in Big Blue. It was modled in the shop over a T-Shirt and I was thinking that with Autumn (at that point coming up) it would make a great season changing T-Shirt accessory.

I decided to use Bamboo to be a cool spring/autumn type of scarf. I knitted and frog a few ideas. Bounced a few ideas around when had tea with Di one day. I was really not happy with the one way I was doing it and chatting to her I decided changed the whole thing.

It started as a tube, to avoid rolling, but knitting a tube was using a lot of yarn and I was worried about not having enough length and the pattern did not feel very inspiring. So I frogged it.

Next I decided to knit it across casting on the 400+ stitches. I love the pattern but when changing the pattern from a flat pattern to a round I did not feature in the stitch that had to move one to the left in the 2nd pattern repeat so it did not stack up as I wanted it to.

It blocked a normal size

Wearing it made it grow vertically a lot! And it has the tendency to roll, which is what I was trying to avoid in the first design

Now when I wear it I have made peace with the fact that it rolls and I just embrace the garter stitch Wrong Side look. Bamboo stretches a lot and I can now wrap it 4 times!

So where to from here for the pattern. I am going to try knitting it length wise instead of width wise, Fix the pattern error and maybe maybe go back to the tube idea so it can’t roll. Not a waste, lessons learnt

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Being a tall girl I have the problem of my clothes not always approximating in the middle well. This makes for a cold belly and back.

The Japanese have the solution a Haramaki. Originally worn by Samurai warriors, sewn by their women for luck and to protect their Chi around their middle.

We loose a lot of heat through our middle and so a modern take on a Haramaki is a good option. As we can see from the picture below, they really do work.

Rachel has been wearing a scarf around her middle for the last 2 days and is sold on the idea. I think I might knit myself one. Maybe even design one.

Or if you sew you can follow the tutorial on Planet June

The post I need a Haramaki – Belly Warmer appeared first on Pink Hair Girl.

Yet I still dreaded Monday with a sinking sick feeling in my stomach. A weight that descended on my body making it hard to breathe.

The thing is that being a mom is the hardest thing I have ever done, and I used to look after dying people! Now that is an emotionally stressful job, but it has nothing on being a mom.

When people hear I home school they think I am brave, mad and that I must have a lot of patience. While I agree that I am mad, I am neither brave not patient. In fact if you asked my mom I think she would tell you I was the least patient of her kids. I just believe in the love of learning enough to have my kids around 24 hours a day. And I agree with Sugata Mitra – schools are obsolete, but that is for another blog post.

I think our society has done many great things in the name of civilization, and many awful things too, but the greatest disservice we might have done is to mothers.

I don’t think anyone who had not looked after a brand new baby on their own day after day, can ever understand the loneliness. The more kids the more you stretch yourself between them loosing more and more of who you are.

Many moms juggle the guilt of returning to work but I think for most there is a small part of them glad to escape for a while.

It did not used to be like this. No new mother in a tribe ever looked after a baby all alone. And while there are many good things that have happened for the equality of women and women’s rights since those times, the way we mother alone is not one of them.

But we don’t get to talk about not enjoying this. Somehow it feels like we are saying we don’t love our kids. The 2 are separate issues. I love my kids, I am struggling with being a mom. Or we feel guilty for those who can’t have kids. I think I would have always wanted kids if I could not have them, it would probably have become a slight obsession ruling my life, I would have felt I missed out on something. Having had kids I wonder if in fact I would have been better not to, but you have to have them to know that! Otherwise you long for what you don’t have.

As a parent we are allowed to moan about a sleepless night or a difficult stage but we can’t say “I want out” “I just want to get in the car and drive far far away” so we pretend it is all okay and that we are all in control.

We all pretend, we smile and keep the mask up, so in the end if you are struggling it is hard to admit into the sea of perceived perfect parents out there.

I looked at the medicine box on Friday and contemplated if there was in fact enough in it to be a permanent solution. It was a scary place to be. When your stress hormones are in hyper drive, from trying to cope. After breaking up the 5 thousandth fight, and control hurricane Titus and pick up his destruction for the millionth time, the worry about not schooling enough. And the mess, I can not describe the overwhelming chaos if having 3 kids in the house all the time.

These things don’t sound bad but constantly they wear you down. The noise bombards your brain. The screaming they seem to do just for fun pierces your soul. Until you have nothing left, your nerves and ability to cope it totally eroded away.

I locked the door of the bedroom on Friday to protect them from me and me from them. I sobbed and looked at the pills. But I love them too much. I thought of them thinking it was their fault and how it would change their lives and that hurt more. This is not their fault as individuals. They are lovely normal children.

I whatsapp’ed with a friend also struggling and we decided to count down the hours together. I got the kids in the car and took Rachel to swimming. Anything not to be alone in the house with them and my fractured mask of coping.

We went to the beach after swimming and I made sure we were home after The Geek was back, then I knew we would be okay.

Yme was great over the weekend and despite studying he protected me a lot. So Mother’s Day was fine, but today is Monday…

The post Excuse me lady, your mask is slipping appeared first on Pink Hair Girl.

1) Hat and fingerless mitt set
2) Diamond
3) Hearts
4) Just do that cardigan already!
5) Gold

And on those cryptic notes, I end Knitting Blog week. It has been fun

The post 4BCWDAY7 Looking forward appeared first on Pink Hair Girl.

But I got stuck on the word Covet, and I am known for loving words. According to Google it means

cov·et

Verb
Yearn to possess or have (something).
Synonyms
crave – desire – hanker – lust

So I am not going to tell you about my needles, or books, or stitch markers or other stuff. I have very little that is fancy. I still want a swift and a ball winder. For now my daughters arm and hands are what I use to wind skeins into balls.

BUt what I covet and longingly dream about is a circular sock knitting machine

This one is a new one made in New Zealand, the NZAK, most that you get now are old vintage ones that get restored. I am not sure that there are even any available in South Africa.

Here is a video if you feel the need to know more

But imagine how much of my stash I could use and how many lovely socks I could make for my family and friends if it just took 3 hours or less!

Then I could use the rest of my time to knit all the other things that I want to knit. As all knitters know the one thing we actually covet more than anything else ever is Time

The post 4KCBWDAY6 – A tool to covet appeared first on Pink Hair Girl.

The Geek helped out so I get double points because I don’t usually have guest bloggers, he made me a Derpina Knitting Rage Comic.

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4KCBWDAY4 Colour Review: What are your favourite colours for knitted or crocheted projects. Have a think about what colours you seem to favour when yarn shopping and crafting.

Now think back to your house animal – do the colours you have chosen relate to your animal in anyway – if you are in the house of peacock, for example, are your projects often multicoloured and bright?

I am drawn to pink, I know this sounds obvious as I have pink hair but I also struggle to say that it is my favourite colour. I love blues, greens, purples, oranges, grey, neutral etc too I think there is a trend here. As much as I find that I flit from project to project so I don’t get bored, I think the same is true of colour. I need a variety.

Looking at my projects I have ( not all of which are on Ravelry – I realized i need to add a whole lot of missing projects)

10 pink
2 red
5 brown
8 grey
5 muticolour ( mostly toys)
12 blue
4 yellow

Now to my stash
I am very proud that my stash all fits in this one box and yet I still feel overwhelmed that I will not get to knit it all. I want to knit it all as I got most for a very specific reason, other were given to me and I love knitting with gifted yarn it has a warmth from the giver than creeps in and makes you happy.

You can’t see the colours too well but I was not taking them all out of their individual plastic packets. I think my stash represents what I said about colour. While there is a lot of pink there are a lot of other colours too. I like colour

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Then I decided to show you what I do and what Clare my wonderful tech-editor does with it. I have the creative process, whatsapp her all the time with my pictures, progress, questions and doubts. She is so encouraging and makes me not throw it all in the bin in self doubt moments. I then send her a word document ( usually with half the info missing. It looks like this

I send her a bunch of random pictures and she makes this!

So that in a pretty picture is why I have Clare

Edited to add: Just to prove her awesomeness she made me this!

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I thought of 2 kinds of projects that maybe reflect what kind of a knitter I am

1)The “idea still to be knitted” project

Rather than a yarn, button or pattern I have my tools of design
- my ever active brain that thinks up more designs than I could knit, but there are those that just grab me as they form in my mind and I have to knit them straight away. Often the idea comes to me as I fall asleep like Winter is Coming
- then I have my tool of the trade. A stitch dictionary, my pattern notebook, a pencil, calculator, papers with randomly drawn sketches as I have the idea and just have to jot it down and of course a faithful cup of tea

And

2) The “I wish I had thought of that design” project

I have a photography friend Andre and he says there are moment when he will see a picture and think, wow I wish I took that image it is wonderful. I love looking at what other people are designing and having moment when I think, wow that is great I wish I had thought of that. This is both inspiring and humbling in a terrifying way as it makes me think I am such a small fish is such an experienced sea of designers.

But the ideas keep coming into my head and so I keep following their lead. I have always said I am an ideas person.

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Why the random letter to tag the post? If a unique sequence of letters and numbers is used then it is easy to google and find other people participating in the blog week.

Each day there is a topic, today is choosing a house. This is much like the Harry Potter houses and while we might have aspects of all the houses it is to pick the one we identify with most. To pick a house read all about them here

I am definately a bee: The House of Bee: Bees are busy and industrious, but can flit from one interesting project to the next as bright and shiny things capture their interest.

While I am not attracted by bright shiny things in the sense of bling, I am distracted by yarn, patterns and ideas. This means that I always have a lot of project on the go at one time. These in the knitting world are known as WIPs ( work in progress) I have to have many sets of needles in sizes I use often as I will more often than not need to have more than one project going on a particular size needles.

I get bored easily and so I need to have different projects to keep me interested. I also have different project to do at different times. When I sit and wait for Rachel at swimming I need an easy project that does not require much thinking or counting, so a complicated lace pattern is out. I usually knit socks or a simple shawl.

Then for in front of the TV I like to have a project to knit, this can be slightly more complex than the simple going out project. I will follow a pattern in front of the TV or make notes on a design that I am working on.

I also usually have a complicated pattern that will require attention but these get knitted very very slowly as I don’t have that much uninterrupted time just to concentrate on knitting.

Besides these, there is usually the project I just had to cast on because I had a design idea and wanted to see how it would work. There are often present and gifts for people that added in quickly as I need them.

At the moment these are my WIPs

 I am nearly finished my design for a bigger Winter is Coming The original is a single 100g sock weight shawlette and is perfect for round your neck in winter. I wear mine all the time. Many people asked for the bigger version, the new season of Game of Thrones inspired me to work on the big version. I am 6 rows from casting off.

It has not been without its challenges but I think it is nearly done. When to write it all up from my scribbled notes and see if Clare my tech editor can make it pretty and

This is a My Son’s Hero I am working on for a friend

This was my inspiration: I thought of my own boys and how every mom is her little boy’s hero. We learn to love getting stones and not flowers. We learn that while they can be rough, they need a safe place in their mother’s arms. We need the strength to help them grow into men with honourable characters; the space to let them learn, fall, get up and succeed. Every boy’s mom needs a cape to remind us of our important job. This is my modern take on a hero cape for moms.

I love this shawl, my own one is languishing in packet as right after I finished it Titus cut it.  I needed super powers of control not to kill him!

These are Vanilla Toe Up socks by Carle that I am working on for The Geek’s birthday. You will note how he is being brave and letting me knit stripped socks for him and not just plain grey. This self stripe grey called Granite is dyed by Carle from Nurturing Fibres and I am really enjoying it. I am thinking of pushing The Geek’s boundaries with a colourful heel.

This is my wedding shawl that I just ran out of time to finish and I think I have a new idea, I sketched something yesterday in the middle of knitting ( see I can’t focus on one thing for very long) but I am not sure whether to finish the plan I had for this and then start another project for the new idea. It is really not this colour but a much more pink and less orange. It just did not photograph well with my phone.

I am totally in love with this Hippo called Happypotamus it is the cutest crochet hippopotamus ever! My Friend Heidi designed this cute toys which was released on Ravelry last night and is in the top 10 new projects at the moment. I don’t really know how to crochet. I have made some simple amigirumi Star Wars toys for the kids but they were just single crochet round and round. But this toy is so cute that I have worked through the African Flower tutorial on Heidi’s Blog. And am really keen to make more so I can make this hippo. I am quite proud of my crochet attempts for a beginner. I am going to use My Nurturing Fibres Kommetjie Club yarn for my hippo

I wrote down all the projects I thought I had on the go first and then then went to take the photos. And discovered a few more Wips

This is a shawl I started with a totally different idea and then it morphed into something else. I had to stop when I got busy with wedding stuff but I am actually keen to get back to it.

And of course my own Dragon’s Hope in grey which I am really looking forward to wearing this winter.

So this is why I am a bee, and we will not talk about all the other project at the bottom of the cupboard that I have not looked at in years. These are just all the current ones I am actually working on now.

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