Mud glorious mud...

Other places have snow right now, even sunshine but here in our little corner of the South West of England, we have mud. Big time. Husband is outside as we speak, jet-washing the encroaching tide of mud that sticks to our car wheels, our shoes, our children, our dog....

Not that it's a weather emergency - just normal November conditions for a farm only reached by a mile-long muddy track. I say I need to take the car out and the jetwasher looks at me in disbelief saying "but I just jetwashed the car...". Currently it's impossible to stay clean outdoors without head to foot waterproof gear including wellies. I've been out, at school, shopping, in the library thinking that I look fairly presentable until one of my girls asks "Mummy, did you know that you have a LOT of mud on the back of your skirt/ jeans/ boots?" Sigh.

We're spending a lot of time fighting alligators when just perhaps we should be draining the swamp. BUT, we can't sort out the lane just now because it's too MUDDY!

When I'm not clearing up mud I have been doing a little knitting. When I say little, I do actually mean little.

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I once caught a fish this big!

Of course, it's just a turtleneck egg cozy from Weekend Knitting. A whole sweater in an evening! The finishing took longer than the knitting....

Also on the (double-pointed) needles is a little something for one of our nephews. He's two years old and has every toy known to man already in his possession so I thought what could be better than a little hat knitted with love? I'm using the excellent Umbilical Cord Hat pattern from Stitch 'n Bitch which is actually written for a six-month old - I've just sized it up a little. (As I said to my nine-year old just this week "You know, that eight-times table will come in useful one day...")

MJ - this is a good little project to crack out those circular needles for!

The Minisweater

Now I need a little input on this one, I've finished knitting the body, the sleeves are currently on holders and I'm running very low on yarn. I thought that I might extend the body to hit the top of my jeans and I cast around in my stash to see what I've got that would work colour-wise. I've got some Cotton Tape in a good green colour so I've given it a go but I'm just a bit iffy as to how it will work out.

Here's the front (it's very difficult yarn to photograph) and here's the back which shows my extended body idea a little better. I was planning on doing a 3/2 rib all the way down, Click here to see an extreme close-up that actually shows the colours really well.

Now do you think I'm doing a good thing here? Should I go out in my car, get muddy and choose another yarn instead of the Cotton Tape (perhaps All Seasons Cotton?) or should I carry on given that I'm creating a "one-off" sweater-type-thing here? Am I investing too much in this little sweater? After all, if I want a cardigan (which I do) I could just put some effort into that beautiful Noro Kureyon which is languishing on a shelf currently... All suggestions gratefully received. I asked the jetwasher what he thought and he said "I don't know - ask them (that means you!)"

But listen! The jetwasher has stopped momentarily - must be time for a cup of tea! Either that or it's time to take the car out again...

Posted by Anita at November 26, 2004 01:48 PM