I stopped procrastinating.. for once!

Well, no promises that this isn't an isolated incident!! But for a very long time now I have said "I know how to knit, I just don't *get* knitting". With my lil miss having a birthday on Feb 18 (she'll be 4) I asked her what she wants. It went something like this..
"bub, what do you think mummy might like to get you for your birthday?"
"umm.. but I am just getting a Dora cubby house" (Dora the Explorer playhouse)
"yeah but babe daddy is getting you that, what might mummy get you? what would you like?"
she looks long and hard at me crocheting, unawares to her that I am making Barbie clothes as part of her present
"hmm..." she says and thinks some. she looks so cute when she thinks! Then crochet in sight she pipes up quite happily and very cheerily "a new scarf"
She looked so proud of herself! I just looked at her bewildered
"a new scarf? you want a new scarf??"
Jess gives me a "yes" with that 'don't be so silly mummy' tone of voice with a little hint of 'are you deaf?' thrown in there too! Right.. a scarf.. It's mid summer and averaging 40C every day and Jessi wants a scarf?! Ok, so I can crochet a scarf yeah? Of course! What do I decide to go and do? Knit one!!

I've barely touched knitting needles since I was 12yrs old. I was alright at knitting back then. I suck nowadays! But Shell had asked me to find her a nice pattern for some cashmere she wants to use and I found one or two I really like. I think knitted lace looks soooo much nicer sometimes. Late Tuesday evening I decide to make Jessi a knit scarf, using one of the patterns I found when linking Shell. It had eyelets and all. I didn't bother reading through the pattern, I just opened Lion Brand's how to knit pages and sat it side by side with my pattern and hopped to it. I had to frog my first attempt after only 7rows. I kinda missed the whole 'yo' thing in row5!! I started again and made sure I actually read the row this time. I had to copy and paste the pattern to a Word document and throw in all the lines they bunched up and had completely out of order (what was with that?).

It is far from perfect. I had to drop a stitch here and there, there is an extra eyelet here and there and some of the cats paws aren't too great, my tension changes and my cast off was a bit sloppy at first. Overall I am extremely pleased! I mean really, all these years of not knitting and I pick up a pattern like that and just do it. Ok, so I should be accustomed to my ability to just do things, but knitting has given me hell the last few years! What's best is that I can now try all those gorgeous lace patterns I have wanted to for so long. Not sure when as my wrists are sore from knitting for the last 3 days. And even that was sporadic! I want to get back to Barbie for a while too. Knitting is interesting when you only have 2 pair of needles to select from!! *hehe*

I have purchased a new Barbie doll, some clothes, some Kelly dolls and hope to get a furniture set for her soon too. My plan is to give Jessica my bedroom and move myself out into the "craft" room that has been unused for months and months as I just craft in the living rooms. The craft room is just as big as my bedroom, so it gives Jess more space for all her STUFF! That child has soooo much stuff. Plus I want to give her my Barbie house (yes, from when I was a child) as part of her birthday present. She is really into Barbie and playing house and the like so i think she will really appreciate it. I saw a new Barbie house in a toy shop the other day and it was $250. As much as I would love to get it, I just don't have the $$ to buy her anything at the moment and shouldn't have bought the dolls and clothes I did. I just couldn't bare the thought of buying her nothing. I wont eat well for a week, like that is something different for me! I know she will love the clothes I make just as much as the ones I bought, but it is mummy's issue not hers. I am sure she will treasure the doll house too, especially as it was mine. She is very intuitive like that. So grown up for a little girl and wise beyond her years. My baby has been on this earth before, I swear it.

While I am on the whole my-baby-is-the-best kick, I was setting up the climbing frame my mum bought her for xmas on Wednesday (mum had to bring it back from Perth and we only just got it). I was getting extremely irate at the silly thing and cussing a bit. Jessi had on foot on the seat of her seesaw and one foot on the bar of it and says to me "mummy will you be quiet! I am trying to concerntrate". Right then and there I was ready to bop her, I was pretty annoyed at having no help and her being a little smarty-pants so I very nearly told her to shut up. Looking back on it later that day when all was calm and nice again all I could do was laugh. Such a cheeky monkey!!

**Jessi's scarf was knitted with Panda Regal 4ply cotton in a deep purple-pastel purple variegate on 4mm needles, eyelets are threaded with cream double faced satin ribbon. Scarf measures roughly 78cm long (30.5") and about 10cm wide (4"). There are 13 cat paws, and I have no idea if it is going to fit! It needed bigger needles to get the effect seen on the pattern page, but I like it all the same. The recommended needle size for the 4ply cotton is 3.25mm. I used about 2/3 of a ball so cost is well under $3 for the scarf. Funny how I can crochet a whole top for the child in just over 1 ball and yet wouldn't get more than 1 scarf from a ball!