I'm a bad, bad blogger

How is it possible that I haven't had anything to say about knitting for over 3 weeks? *blushes*

And now I come to you without pictures. I am truly the crappest knitblogger in the universe. Ah well - all I can say is get used to it. My RL friends have and they have had to put up with this sort of unreliability for many a long year now, poor souls :)

Anyway, other than bemoaning my crapness what do I actually have to say about knitting?

1. Tempting is nearly finished. Again. Sizing is looking much better this time out but once again I am dithering over the shoulder shaping. I think I need to take her off the needles and try it on before I make my decision. But hopefully there should be pictures of her in all her glory sometime next week.

2. I just sent off 7 hats to the Dulaan Project. If you don't know about this one, check out Ryan's blog over at Mossy Cottage Knits. Heck, even if you do know about it check out her blog anyway because she has posted some really powerful pictures of the kids this project has been set up to help. I promise it will inspire you to get out your needles and make something really warm to send them.

3. My SP4 has a sense of humour. At least that's what I hope it is. After a little post office related confusion I received an April Fool's parcel from her this week, focussing on my deep suspicion of crochet. It contained (and I quote) "yarn so cheap that it doesn't matter if you make a mistake" (Acrylic. Pink. Dayglo. Need I say more?) and the most frightening pattern book I have ever seen in my born days. Really there is some stuff in there that my granny wouldn't crochet and let me tell you, that is saying something. I am particularly drawn to the crocheted tie. I wonder if I made it for my dad for his birthday if I could then persuade him to wear it? There will definitely be pictures of this wonder of publishing once I get my arse in gear. It is far too good not to share with y'all.

So anyway that's it for now. Look forward to a return to more frequent blogging in the near future :)

OMG, I feel like jumping out of my bath and running down the street naked!

Today I have had a true Eureka moment.

Since I last wrote I have been fretting about my Tempting disaster. Yes, my weight loss will account for some of the difference in sizing, but surely not the handfuls of spare fabric that I was left with when I tried it on last night? And given that the next thing I want to knit is the Shapely Tank from White Lies it seemed to me that it would be worth doing a bit of research to crack my seeming inability to get a fitted sweater to actually, you know, fit me.

So I did a bit more Googling, read lots of knitblogs, and came across a vital piece of advice from the Shapely Tank KAL. Apparently most knitting and sewing patterns are sized for a B cup. So if your boobs are more on the ample side cupwise rather than measuring around your full bust to determine what size to make you should measure higher up - basically under your armpits. Then you deal with the extra boobage either through the use of short rows a la Shapely Tank or via the inherent nature of the fabric a la Tempting.

It's so simple when you think about it I really can't believe I hadn't worked it out before. Now me & my 34D's can return to the Tempting fray with confidence that I might actually be able to get some wear out of the finished product.

*dances the happy dance of a better educated knitter*

Well, there's good news, a bit more good news and then bad news

First the good news. While I was away on holiday I received a fantastic Easter surprise from my Secret Pal 4. She has really been doing her homework because when I opened it I was over the moon. My favourite colour and useful for my other crafty activities too. Here it is - a purple variety bag from Texere. I love, love, love it - thanks Peep!


Thanks Secret Pal!

Second the other good news. I finished Tempting!

But I'm not going to post a picture of it because of the bad news.

It is VAST! And by vast I mean unwearably 100% frogging required VAST. I have hidden it away in my knitting bag for the moment but I think the unravelling starts tomorrow. Although the silver lining in this very dark cloud is that allowing for the vastness I think when it is the right size it will look really good so I think once I am over the dissapointment I will be raring to knit it again. Plus I have also realised that I think I am going to need to add some shoulder shaping to keep the thing up due to my 34D chest *blushes*.

So what have I learnt from this debacle? Two things, I think:

* Firstly, make allowances in the sizing if you are in the middle of losing weight while you are knitting a project. Doh!

* Second, read other people's knitblogs before you start. If I'd just done a quick Google I'd have found out about the general vastness of the pattern and the requirement for the chestier among us to add shoulder shaping. There's plenty of comments on it, if only I'd bothered to read them. Double doh!

Anyway, you live and learn I suppose. And I'm still hoping for a sexy sweater at the end of this process. At least it shouldn't take so long to knit this time, seeing as I am planning to go down by 2.5 sizes.