Like a woman possessed

I've been knitting away exclusively on the short-sleeved cardigan for DD1 that I started last Wednesday.

Because it's mostly stocking stitch, I've been able to knit whilst watching the Olympics so it's been a quick knit and - look - last night I cast off the bottom and picked up the stitches for one sleeve from the waste yarn (it's a seamless construction).

For the sleeves, the pattern says to pick up and knit one round (picking up two extra stitches at the under-arm), then knit five rounds of ribbing, decreasing the under-arm stitches on the first ribbing round, before casting off.  However, I talked about it with DD1 yesterday and she'd prefer the sleeves to be a little longer, so I'll do an inch or so of stocking stitch before doing the ribbing.

On Monday, while DD2 was at her holiday club, DD1 and I went into Colchester to do a bit of shopping (she wanted a new game - another Sims add-on I think) and on the way back to the car park, we popped into Franklins, the local yarn/haberdashery shop to look for buttons.  I didn't have my knitting with me, so I was going by eye, but I spotted these:

They're an excellent match, if I do say so myself.  The buttons are slightly larger than the pattern calls for, but I prefer to have to stretch buttonholes a tad rather than having buttons that risk slipping out of the holes.

DD1 and I also went into the music shop to have a look at clarinets and she was able to have a try-out of the two models that her music teacher had suggested.  Of course, the one that she preferred was the most expensive one, so I now know that it's going to cost me just over £800.  The full price is a bit over £1000 but because she's a full-time student, there's a scheme whereby the purchase is made via the county music service and the VAT's deducted.  I've now got a bit of a dilemma as I was speaking to my mother about it and was saying that I should be able to have the money saved by the end of October so that DD1 can have her new clarinet by the time she takes her Grade V exam in November.  When I got back from the supermarket a little later that afternoon, the phone was showing that my mother had phoned again while we were out, so I called back and my parents have offered to pay for the clarinet and I can pay them back over the next few months.  Other than my wedding when my parents allocated a certain amount towards the cost, I've never borrowed any money from them, so I feel a bit odd about it.  I messaged my sister about it via Facebook and she's basically told to me to not be silly and to accept their offer because, in her words "they've got the money and they want to help".  I haven't broached the subject with hubby yet - he can be a bit funny about things like that.  Maybe I should just go ahead and tell him afterwards - it's doubtful he'd even notice that DD1 had a new instrument anyway!

There's not much else going on round here, to be honest, but I will show you these:

I gave DD2 the Next catalogue last week so she could look through and see if there were any clothes she particularly liked.  There were - I ended up spending just over £100!  Some of them are part of her birthday present (her birthday's at the end of August), including these shoes.  As I've mentioned before, being autistic, her speech isn't very good and she struggles to convey what she wants, but with these shoes, she pointed to them and said very clearly "Mummy, please may I have red glitter shoes, please".  She's worn them every day since they arrived, from when she gets dressed in the morning to when she puts on her PJs in the evening.  She's also got a new dress, two new skirts, various pairs of tights and some new long-sleeved t-shirts (she doesn't 'do' short sleeves).  I might have to buy a pot of red glitter though as it's already starting to flake off.

I'm off now to do the first sleeve of the cardigan and, if all goes to plan, I'll be back tomorrow with the finished thing (or Friday - depending on how long it takes to dry and if I can persuade DD1 to model it).