In a sneaky naptime moment

Somehow I have managed to get two small children asleep at the same time, so I am trying to do too many things at once to make the most of it. (It's not actually entirely surprising, apparently having a ride in the pram after walking a mile, playing for a couple of hours, and visiting the library is somewhat sleep-inducing. Thankfully!).

I have started work on typing up my next shawl design. I have knit one prototype, but it is for the ravelry shawl exchange and I haven't sent it yet, so no photos. I want to change a few things to make it a bit closer to my original vision, so I will be knitting another one soon, in a completely different yarn. And then maybe another one in a heavier yarn...

I have also been participating in sock madness, and am nearly halfway through the second sock of the pair for this round. Unfortunately my hand is starting to complain a bit about too much sock knitting in too short a timeframe, so these may be my last socks for a while.

On the sewing front, I have just cut out a long sleeved shirt for the monkey, cut down from an old one. This is my first attempt at upcycling in this way - I have preserved the button bands and sleeve plackets, shortened the cuffs, and will work out how to use the collar mostly as-is when I get that far. I think with the effort I have put into doing all those things it would actually have been easier to do them all from scratch, but never mind. I have also just made some size 3 overalls, from a self drafted pattern. The basic block was roughly copied from a Burda pyjamas pattern, and tweaked a fair bit. There are a few changes I need to make, but I'm pretty happy for a first attempt, and there will be more in the future.

We bought a marble run in the weekend, and some junior meccano (bigger, with plastic screws). They have been a great hit so far, apart from the rule about having to pack up one before the other can come out!

Photos of everything to come. Eventually. Well, maybe not the toys...

What am I working on today?

Sock madness has started over on ravelry, so for the next week and a half I will be trying to finish a pair of socks. I cast on Monday night, and am not too far from starting the heel flap, so with any luck I will manage. This is the third year I have participated, in the past two years I didn't get past the first round. 

Yarn is hand dyed sock yarn from Creative Yarns in Tauranga, bought on holiday about 3 years ago.

I have also cut out two pairs of winter pyjamas for The Monkey, they've been added to my pile of stuff to sew as and when I get to them.

Seagull square

In making this square I learnt that sewing while tired is not a clever idea. I think I managed to invent a whole collection of new mistakes. As well sewing pieces with the wrong side out, and messing up placement so the patch didn't fully cover the area it needed to, I also managed to use the wrong colour a few times despite having the pattern clearly marked.

I gave up for that day after sewing a piece on the wrong way for the third time (wrong side up, out by 90°, any wrong way you can think of). I came back to it the next day to discover that actually I had it right after all!

Now I need to print out the some more birds and trace them, to see what I'm in for next. (I'm tracing the patterns onto lunch paper, because it is a bit thinner to sew through, and I didn't want to be worrying about printer ink on my iron).