Yes, while men were decorating their faces with all manner of unusual bum-fluffy 'tasches for Mouvember, a goodly portion of us were taking up the needles for National Knit A Sweater Month.
Where you, erm, knit a sweater in a month.
I had plans, reader, PLANS!
I was all set to knit Nero a sweater to keep him all toasty and warm as he pitty-pads mournfully around my big, echoey (is that a word?!), Victorian home complete with drafts, chimneys, stone floors and the odd mysterious happening at the top of the stair...... (that's a tale for another day!)
I myself am kitted out in two sweaters, a thermal vest, thermal leggings and jeans as I type this to you, so don't go thinking that I'm being cruel to the dog by giving him a poloneck. He needs it. Sonshine has so many layers on, he looks like The Incredible Hulk Mini Me.
Anyhoo.
My NaKniSweMo month crashed and burned, but I have talented chums. Enter Stage Right, the lovely Viv.
Viv is to knitting what Mozart was to music - bloody irritating to those of us who languish in the Beginners' Recorder section).
Here's what SHE managed to achieve in November:
Look - there's CABLE and button holes and other fancy-pants stuff in this! Isn't it wonderful?
AND not only did she knit this sweater, she finished off this:
It's knitted fucking LACE!!!! I *know*!!!!! Apparently it is really bad form to use loads of exclamation marks but I DON'T CARE!!!!! Loooooooook aaaaaaaaat iiiiiiiiit!!!! If that's not worth four or five exclamation marks, I don't know what is.
BTW - she doesn't always knit in pink.
You can follow her kitting progress on her blog, here, where the sharpness of her needles is only slightly less than her sense of humour. I luffs her.
I has another, equally talented chum called Ania - she also makes corsets and wedding dresses and all manner of lovely tight-waisted stuff! She decided to knit her dawgie Dexter a jacket too. She's not quite finished yet because she had to rip it up and start again *hears Orange Juice track inside her head* but here's her Work In Progress, as modelled by Dexter. Isn't he cute as a button?!
What did I knit?
that ephemeral pink thing - i needs to have it. NOW. can you hook me up?
ReplyDeletealso - you need to lower your expectations. anytime i "set out" to do something at an officially established rate or frequency, i fail miserably. so i just say NO to all the letters that people attach to november. well, maybe, in a few years, i shall be able to grow a moustache, so i shall join in then.
Yep - click on the link for her blog and send her a message (I don't want to put her e-mail here in case she ends up with a ton of blogger orientated spam lol. That particular pink one has been gifted, I think, but she can work to commission.
DeleteI ripped back the original because it was too capacious and I'm not sure that he'll grow into it, but that's to the reason I didn't finish. 'Twas on account of test knitting a shawl during November and being all frazzled out because it went on FOREVER
ReplyDelete!http://images4.ravelrycache.com/uploads/Gwiazda/195951820/IMG_0511_medium2.JPGD
I demand a photo of the shawl for m'blog, is that ok?
DeleteNero is very elegant, the epitome of a well-dressed dog-about-town :D
ReplyDeleteFranls - I took him out for a walk in it the other day and NO ONE LAUGHED, but it was so windy that it blew the snood right off his head and I had to chase after it lol! Think Nero would have been happier just to see it vanish!
DeleteHe does have a long neck though
ReplyDeleteHe does - and his wee ears get cooooooold! My mother says taht I fuss over the dog more than I ever did Sonshine. Which is NOT true. But Sonshine's nose is all out of joint after her comments lol!
DeleteI wonder why women always have to compare themselves unfavourably in public to other women.
ReplyDeleteI'll have a go myself here. "I am far far worse a music sociologist than Lydia Goehr, who I'll be meeting early in the New Year."
Nah, wouldn't even bother with it.
I'm being deliberately awkward Alison--you're just wanting to compliment her on it, but it's just fascinating to me as a man how you go about doing it. Anyway, you're the Queen of Stained Glass--no-one can take that away from you!
Looby - the two of them ARE fantastic knitters and I really do want to show off what they have achieved because, through my own tiny effort, I can see how much work and time have gone into Viv's cardigan and Ania's shawl :-D
DeleteAlso, I have to structure the blog post to wring every scintilla of humour for my reader....and bigging up my pals first and then revealing my own tiny effort seemed like another way to do it. :-D
And I am, as you rightly pointed out, De QUEEN of the pointy sharp clear stuff!
Hey, at least Nero's ears will stay warm, if he manages to keep the snood on :) And you did that in a month! It took me 8 months to finish my last tarot bag, probably about the same size as that snood, and less complicated. So, all is not lost, or at least there's one person in the world who's a worse knitter than you! :D
ReplyDeleteCx