Yarn along and Pack up... again.

I know how tedious this must be getting to hear that we are packing boxes... AGAIN.

Think how it feels for us though! 

 I am truly and sincerely hoping to just settle after this.

 Our little yellow farmhouse in the country is a rental but I have every intention of not thinking or dreaming or wishing for anything different for a LONG LONG LONG time.  This will be our third move (fourth home) in 9 months. For a person who likes to nestle in, get to know the inside-out of a place, learn the little signs of the changing seasons, know where the warmest shaft of sunshine lands, find the best patch of blackberries and anticipate the harvest: the last 9 months have been a slow cruel kind of torture.

This packing job is a breeze though. We have some furniture (mostly bought at the awesome Lytton Salvation Army ) and the bulk of our possessions, already here, came in five suitcases and will leave the same way and I've been doing new home shopping in the last two days and have more than quadrupled the things we had with us. However it does mean I now have crockery (goodwill) glasses and mugs (goodwill/Khols/Target) and some pots and pans (family/friends/goodwill/Target) and can actually prepare food for my family in the new place.

 

Matt believes he can read my stress levels by how much knitting I get to do. I am happy to report that the crochet hook (a useful and fun tool but not my preferred modus-operandi) has been tucked away and the knitting needles are out again! I finished the tissue box cover, which was a lot of fun to design but I would change some things next time.

 

The base I did as a granny-rectangle (is there such a thing?!?) because it takes up less yarn and I only had one left-over ball of grey and just the dregs of mustard and aqua. That was great but I should have gone through only one loop on the round when I turned up the side of the box, and again at the top, which would have made it more willing to conform to the shape of the sides of the box.  By the time I realized my mistake (and being essentially very lazy) I couldn't be bothered to undo all the stitching and redo it again.

Delphine is almost done. She needs some buttons and a silk ribbon. So I'm holding off sharing till she is there. The fit is truly spectacular even though I had quite a few "Hang on this looks minute and is never ever going to be my size" moments before and during blocking.
 

I've made quite a lot of headway into Paloma  using Rowan wool cotton in Ship Shape. It is a delicious soft wool but I think it may be too heavy for the pattern. I bought the wool with help from the knitting ladies at John Lewis before I left the UK but sadly they were not entirely correct. I have since found that there is a great conversion chart UK-USA yarn weights on Wikipeadia and indeed: my beautiful Ship Shape wool cotton is too heavy. However before anyone starts to wonder that a tension square didn't notify me earlier of the issue I would like to remind you of the afore mentioned fact that I am essentially very lazy... and heartily sorry for it. So I'm in two minds. Do I carry on and hope for the best or pull it out save my beautiful and delicious Ship Shape for another day?

  

Jo xx