Been a bit quiet round here of late…

…and I’m not sure why. It’s not like I’ve been madly busy, in fact the complete opposite.

I have spent quite a lot of time staring into space and wondering when the jobs market might pick up. And I’ve come to the realisation that I am a persaon who needs to be very busy in order to achieve anything, and that I need to have some structure to may day other than when the little chap might wake up (or not), I need to make a bigger daily decisions than whether to watch Gilmre Girls at 11.55am or 3.3opm. It seems I am a ‘the more you have to do, the more you will get done’ kind of girl.

I haven’t been totally idle though, I have a rather smashing looking vegetable garden, and here is the NEW GREENHOUSE:

I’ve spun up the majority of the jacob I’ve had for…two, ish…years, and some of the hairy herdwick (goodness knows what I’ll do with this, I’m thinking messenger bag at the moment, there will be 400g of it eventually):

And on Sunday I made a baby sling for the little chap (who is now quite a large chap, but not yet on his own two feet, quite) to sit in and which will save my arms from hideous strain if I just need to pop in for a pint of milk, or something:

I look wierdly baggy here on account of floppy trouser issues. A slight diet would do me no harm though! The blurredness was his fault The sling was made from remnants and  this pattern here, and in making it  I learned how to do a French Seam too.

Isn’t it a lovely feeling when you finally get around to doing something you’ve been meaning to do for ages…?

I have been keeping my straight knitting needles in a large zippy plastic bag for…oooh…about three years. They poke through it and annoy me, they remove themselves mysteriously from their rubber bands so I can’t find a twin pair, they roll out of the cupboard and annoy N.

So generally, this wasn’t working. As usual it’s taken me some time to sorting out a Better Solution. I knew what The Solution was and I knew there were lots of lovely Solutions for sale on Etsy, for example. But I am from Yorkshire and I have remnants* and a sewing machine, so I was darned if I was spending money on something I could make myself.

I give you, the Slapdash Knitting Needle Roll:

It’s made from part of a remnant (the inside) bought in Oxfam and a fat quarter (the green outside) I bought in Village Fabrics in Wallingford (*OK so it’s not ALL remnants, but I swear that shop must have the same effect on quilters as a good yarn shop would on a knitter – I felt quite dizzy myself – I only bought two fat quarters). The pattern came out of my head, though obviously influenced by all those other needle rolls out there. Except I think mine has MUCH deeper pockets than usual.

Inside it’s bright blue. The pockets are really deep as, well, that’s how I wanted them:

…I’d like particularly to draw your attention to the artfully posed babywipes, vaseline and biro in the background. I don’t think Jane Brocket has anything to worry about should we both enter a “photos of crafts” competition. I like to call it ‘realism’…though actually I’m just not very tidy…hmmmmmmm.

Big pockets one end for big needles (the largest in here are 8mm, my 9 and 10mms are all ‘novelty’ ones and live in a vase on the shelf):

And smaller ones the other for narrow needles:

I don’t do much chunky knitting, obviously!. But also, does anyone need 5 sets of 3 1/4mm needles, really?

And it fastens together with a cord you wrap around and then round itself, and knot, I find ribbons just undo themselves. I need to melt the end of this cord to stop it fraying:

And, did I say, I love my spotty plastic Alex proof table cloth?

But still, there are some orphans. Like the River John Swing Needles (they’re too long for the case, but still lovely and sadly unused):

also some very narrow (2 1/2mm) and short needles, and of course the Giant Crochet Hook of Fable:

What would one use a giant crochet hook for? I inherited this from my Grandma via my Mum. I am mystified. it’s an Imperial size 4, if that’s any use. Answers on a postcard (or indeed, a comment) please…