Progress

has been made in several areas.
Firstly the weekend away was great. Cute neighbour guy and I had a lovely time and grew closer as a couple. He wore the vest I knitted all weekend which was so sweet of him. It's going so well that I am yet again working on his jumper. I've finished the front and the back and have now started on the sleeves. Just as well as the weather has begun to grow colder and it wont be long before it will be needed. He is getting impatient for it as well, and loves telling people that I'm making something for him.
I also responded to a cry for help from a friend who had attempted a scarf only for it to turn into a monster blanket, wrap affair. The only option was to frog and start again. Trouble was there was a deadline. Only three days to get it finished. Yikes!

It was black and a scrumptious blend of possum and merino. My friend had bought 8 X50g balls each covering 120 metres. She'd cast on 120 stitches. I cast on 35 stitches and just knitted every row until I'd used three of the eight balls. It looked long enough. Deadline met. Just.

Better go and do some more knitting I think I might just be on another deadline. One that it gives me great pleasure to be on.

Milestone

I am so excited. Cute neighbour guy and I are heading away for a weekend together without children! It's going to be so good to be alone with him at last. Of course it's taken the kind of organisation that would make organising a world conference seem like a walk in the park.
Between us we have 6 children, 3 dogs, 2 cats, 10 rabbits, and 2 fish to find carers for. It wouldn't have surprised us if arrangements had gone on well into the next decade. But somehow the planets have aligned in our favour and things have fallen magically into place.
So early on Saturday morning we're heading South to Thames, a beautiful town on the Coromandel, for some well deserved us time. Let's hope the sunshines on us and we have a wonderful time.

Dilemma

As you know from the previous post I have been busy. Busy trying to not be hurt because cute neighbour guy doesn't know what he wants. For a few weeks it was all full on and then I asked him outright if he was willing to be my boyfriend. I know that you're not supposed to do this but really seven months is long enough surely to decide if you like a person enough to do more than have a cuppa with them. I knew after the first week but then I do tend to operate at super sonic speed. His answer was vague and confusing, so I took it to be a resounding NO. Luckily having wept several continents previously I was able to avoid being washed away this time. I met someone else online and we decided to meet. It was fun, it was relaxed and it definitely has potential to continue. So we met severl more times and then he asked to meet the kids. Then my youngest let slip to cute neighbour guy mummy had a boyfriend. Funnily enough cute neighbour guy's reaction was that he thought he was my boyfriend. Maybe I'd skipped off to another planet during that discussion!! He then said he was ready to see where things might take us, if I wanted to.
My dilemma, what if he's only doing this because he doesn't want anyone else to have me. Should I trust him given that he's inadvertently hurt me twice now. My heart says him, regardless of the pain, but my head says new guy is a much happier and healthier option. See how dizzy my head is with it all.

The Curse

There is no doubt December has been a tough month to live through. Not withstanding the challenges of living with two teenage girls, it seemed for a while that the sweater curse was going to land on my head with a resounding "Take That" and how dare you be so smug as to think you could avoid me. Needles lay neglected mid row, I add in deep shame. Yarn held no attraction despite its siren call and the lure of wondrous things to make. The duvet looked warm and snuggly and more inviting that getting up and pasting a smile on my face.
But I am a big girl and there are only so many tears you can cry before you start to feel distinctly soggy and in need of wringing out. Plus puffy eyes and a red nose only works on those blessed with supernatural beauty. I just look plain ugly when I cry. Having run out of brown bags to wear over my head and thus unable to avoid scaring the neighbourhood kids, (Halloween being long gone,) it was time to shake off the dust and step out bravely.
Cute neighbour guy realised after my short hibernation period that I was more important to him than he had realised and the curse has been beaten back to a respectable distance. I fear it may still be hovering somewhere in the vicinity and I am not yet ready to continue with the sweater requested and started. Perhaps a safe pair of socks instead!
Happy Christmas to you all and roll on 2010.

Finished

but no photo because it was grabbed hot off the needles so it could be worn to Christchurch down on the South Island of NZ where the temperatures are a little cooler than our Auckland norm.
Yes I finished the second piece of knitting for cute neighbour guy. And it fits him. Beautifully. He looks so hot (the good looking kind, not all sweaty) in it.

It was a simple sleeveless vest as seen in 500 Days of Summer and Couples Retreat. I had no idea it was going to be so trendy, when I started knitting it. I think I may have slightly aggravated my cinema companion when I kept nudging her to point out for the 100th time that the vest on screen was identical to the one my needles were clicking away furiously trying to finish. I don't think she cared after the first twenty times. He wanted it so badly I didn't even block it. The pressure was on, he even thought something might have gone wrong with it because it was two days later than expected and he hadn't seen me knitting it. He was right.

The first time I got to dividing for the neck I had two less stitches than expected. Usually this wouldn't faze me but with the other effort turning out too small I just couldn't risk it. So I frogged back to the armhole shaping. Away I went again, staying up late to try and make up lost time. As I started to divide for the neck I realised that I had inadvertently been following the instructions for the crew neck when I wanted a v-neck. A few choice phrases were to be heard especially as I had to go back to the armholes again. Of course the last time cute guy had seen it, only the neck needed doing, hence its disappearance for a few days while I caught up. I'm thinking these minor hiccups are protecting me from any other bad karma possibly linked to the giving of knitwear to a male someone special.

I used the Zhivago pattern book, weekend knits, a book that I have used so often it's beginning to look a little sad. Why didn't I photocopy the pattens first. I wish I had now. I didn't use Zhivago though, I used Spotlight's basics Merino, which was only $3.99 for 50g. I used 300g in total so not a bad price. It was surprising even to knit with and not at all scratchy. BUT it does mean he can't just throw it in the washing machine, however, I intend being close enough to leap to the rescue should it end up spinning where it has no right to spin.

Now though he loves it so much he wants a jumper. He really really wants a jumper.

I have, of course, already cast on. No curses here.

Confession

is they say good for the soul and while I can try to hide I know my sins will always find me out. When you choose to put things into the public arena then you have to expect there to be some kind of accountability. Thus it is with me. I asked about the supposed "sweater boyfriend curse". I explained my cunning plan to devise a way of thwarting any such possibility, but curses are not so easily fooled I have discovered. I decided as you might know to knit a sleeveless hoodie, as surely the lack of sleeves made it safe. It was safe. Very safe. After hours of knitting and even more hours of sewing up especially sewing up the pesky hood, and a lot of cursing and tweaking with the zipper to be ready just in time for cute neighbour guy's birthday, disaster struck. I was gutted. I didn't see it coming and I still can't explain what went wrong. No we didn't split up. The sleeveless hoodie zipper thing was too small. How bad did I feel, definitely smaller than Tom Thumb. I would have liked to take the offending article and crawl away to my lonely rock somewhere while I tried to work out where exactly I'd made a mistake. I measured him, I checked my tension, I knitted the correct size. But it fits me, not him. The curse clearly outwitted me.



But all is not lost, being the wonderful cute guy he is, he has very sweetly allowed my transgression to be left to gather dust, unspoken of, until today when he shows me a picture in a magazine of a guy wearing a V neck slip on vest and says, "You could knit me one of those couldn't you. You could use the yarn from the other thing to save it going to waste"



I was speechless. Not only does he still want me to knit him something, but he totally understood the concept of frogging. Not that I have any intention of frogging it. I like it far too much for that. It could have been made for me don't you think?
So I am set to cast on for the slip on vest after all I no longer have any fear of a curse. This cute guy likes my knitting even when it goes wrong, he suggests frogging and is ready to ask for more. How can we not be meant for each other?

Any good confession also has some atonement and I have already made amends for my sin. I knitted a pair, yes a pair of socks. I am so pleased with myself. It's the first pair ever off my needles.



They are knitted in Patons dreamtime 4ply which is 100% wool but very soft and cuddly. The beads were put on using a 0.75mm crochet hook rather than threading them on prior to knitting. I thought it would be quicker that was as I am way too impatient to spend time on threading. It wasn't quicker but I did enjoy the level of concentration required, thus the reason why two socks were created. Next time though I'm not using such a light colour.

Thank you

for all your wonderful comments. I've cast on for a sleeveless hooded vest in the hope not having arms makes it a non sweater and therefore exempt from any possible universal curse vibes. Of course I know it's perfectly safe because the curse is aimed at boyfriends and cute neighbour guy and I are not yet at the point of being that closely linked, at least not to the rest of the world. Maybe at some point in the future who knows. I hope so. For now though we're just having fun, hanging out. The knitting is keeping me focused and busy that's for sure.