The perils of mobile Hexipuffing

I know you are all dying to know what pitfalls can befall the plucky knitter who likes to get her Hexipuff fix whilst out and about. What dreadful event could have left me with scraped raw knuckles, dishevelled hair and a slightly wild-eyed expression?

I always knew that DPNs were tricksy little creatures and normally I avoid them like the plague but such was my Hexipuff love that I overcame my DPN dislike and carried a little set of bamboo 3.5mm DPNs in my 'out and about' knitting bag.

Having dropped the children off at the holiday club I was enjoying a quick 10 minutes peace and quiet (coffee from my trusty Thermos and a Hexipuff) in the car before entering the usual mid-week work mayhem. All was going well and I had just finished a particularly lovely Hexipuff. So lovely in fact that I put my DPNs down in my lap and held up the little Hexi to the light - all the better to admire it.

It was this one:

In case you were interested - sorry but I have no idea why my PC has suddenly rotated it - never mind.

Busy admiring my little Hexi I failed to notice that one of the DPNs was slowly sliding off my lap. I looked down in time to see it slide gracefully down into the little gap between the seat and the front section of the car where the handbrake is. The gap is tiny but that didn't stop me trying to shove my hand down there to rescue it. I managed to get my finger to it and then, predictably, it slid beyond reach.

I am ashamed to admit that some cursing took place, at DPNs in general, at Skoda seat manufacturers in particular and at the fact that I had to endure 6 hours at work and then waiting to collect children from holiday activity du jour without any knitting.

It was not my finest moment.
On the plus side, I found £1.50 in change, a lost stitch marker and the partner to a small childs mitten which I thought had gone altogether.

In the end I was resourceful and merely used 2 DPNs and a 4mm crochet hook to make the next one. It was a little awkward and I think it may have produced a slightly bigger Hexi - but knitting peace was restored.

Not knitting

No new knitting to share today but just wanted to blow my own trumpet for a second for starting the Couch to 5K programme. Spurred on by some on-line knitterly friends on the Phoenix Forum I downloaded the podcasts from the NHS Choices website, dug out my trainers and went for it.

I have done two out of the three runs for Week 1 so far and have been surprised at how good I have felt. On previous attempts at starting to run I made do with timing myself on my mobile phone - which is fine except that it eeks out every second and makes it seem like a lifetime.

With the podcasts you just zone out, listen to the music and wait for the nice lady to tell you when to stop. Much easier and makes the time just fly by.

Off for run No. 3 tomorrow, or not, depending on how much wine is drunk this evening.

PS; Hexipuff total.....25.... just sayin'

The addiction continues

My name is Madmum and I am a Hexapuff-aholic. The addiction continues unabated, the laundry is piling up around my ears and the Hexipuff population is well into double figures.

In an effort to regain some balance and so that DH doesn't think that I have entirely lost the plot, I am limiting the Hexipuff craze to when I am out of the house. Because of their eminent portability they have become my on-the-go project. I am seriously considering buying a  few more appropriately sized crochet hooks and DPNs so that I can have a bag in the car, a bag in my handbag, a bag in my enormous, wet-wipe filled 'mummy bag'. You get the idea.

Trying to remain consistent with my recently found monogamy, my in-house project is the lovely Hourglass Throw by Anne Hanson which was recently published in the fabulous 'Wool People' by Brooklyn Tweed. I am using some lovely, squishy Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran in a deep charcoal gray as a present for a great-gran who needs a minor operation soon. I originally bought the yarn intending to make Warriston - a great casual 'smock' for outdoor wear but it soon became apparent that the yarn was too soft and squishy for that purpose.

It is a lovely soothing pattern and the yarn is just right for the cabling detail - all-in-all - a very enjoyable project.

It just isn't a Hexipuff!

Hexipuffs

It started out so innocently. A quick peak at this gorgeous inspiring pattern sparked an interest in these cute hexagon motifs. But I closed the laptop and walked away - no harm done.

A few days later my interest was sparked again by a fun Ravelry discussion on the wonderful Knitting Goddess group and I accidentally downloaded the pattern, just to see how those cute motifs were constructed.

Then suddenly a few of these little cuties appeared,

and some more....

Oh dear - they really are remarkably addictive. I must step away from the DPNs and do the bare minium of housework!

Thrifty find

I would love to be able to claim the credit for this amazing piece of work but this was my latest charity shop find - for the princely sum of £2.

I don't know whether to be pleased at my find, or heartbroken that someone has put all that time and effort into making such a beautiful blanket only for it to end up in a charity shop.

Anyway - it was spotted by my 5 year old (DS2) who fell in love with it. He has good taste.

He has been complained for some time now that his feet poke out of the end of his other handknitted blankets (as I made them when he was younger) when he watches Saturday morning TV in his PJs. I find it rather endearing that even though his TV watching is veering away from Fireman Sam and towards the horrors of Ben 10 and Batman, he still wants to watch them while snuggled up in a pink Granny Square blanket.

O is for 'Oh no!'

I seem to be experiencing my first ever bout of RSI which has meant that the sock knitting A-Z challenge has rather ground to a halt. I have been having some aches in my wrists and hands at work (I do a lot of keyboard and mouse-work) but of course, never did anything about it. Anyway things got much worse last week although fortunately I had a few days off work and was able to rest.
My 2.5mm circular needles though were agony to use and so I had to spend a day or two Not Knitting - horror. I did some physio exercises and things settled down a little but anything smaller than dk weight yarn on 4mm needles isn't good at the moment.
I am just doing a little every now and again but have decided to stop the A-Z challenge for now. I will still carry on at my own pace later in the year - after all I have more sock patterns queued now than I did when I started!

The power of monogamy

In a strictly knitting sense of course.

I've always been a bit of a serial caster-on'er with no less than 3 or 4 projects on the go at any one time. But this past 2 weeks has seen me working on a single solitary project, finishing it and then moving on to another - strange behaviour.

I have to say though, that I have been mightily impressed by the speed at which I can knock out a finished object when my knitting time isn't divided between several projects. The baby blanket below was knit in an amazing 5 days. Granted, it is knit in aran weight yarn (Debbie Bliss Rialto Aran) and I omitted the time-consuming Honeycomb stitch that the pattern suggests (replacing it with simple garter stitch) but I was genuinely surprised by how quickly the thing flew off the needles.

Thrilled with my success I quickly cast on for an Olearia and this again was finished in a matter of days

Again, admittedly I knit the smallest, newborn size but even so the power of monogamy was impressive.

I'm not sure how long this phase of mine will last - probably until my friend finally has her baby and I cast on for some huge sweater project for me (only to run out of steam and start something new - my usual modus operandi). But for now I am embracing the monogamy!