i heart knitting
Thursday, March 30, 2006
  photos as promised!
Hi all, some photos for your viewing pleasure. Firstly, here is some of what I saw yesterday. Some of the people I was with had never been in a cave before, and I had not been since I was a small tacker, so we made some discoveries together. I was blown away, and not even a little bit claustrophobic. There were only a couple of squeezy parts. At one stage the guyde turned off the lights and it was just so dark, I was glad I could hear voices. In that sort of darkness you can not tell your elbow from your - well, you know.



And, a koala!



And now, the MIL scarf. I have tried and tried lace patterns over the past few weeks, this is very easy to do, a simple repeat and I have decided all that I am up for of an evening whilst watching the box and having a couple of quiet drinks. Anything else just confuses me. I don't want to have to think too hard. I knit for relaxation for goodness' sake. I quite like this, and think she will too. Can you spot the error? No prizes, sorry.



The yellow sock, I have begun my April Project Spectrum early. I have a small orange vest which will come apart some time in the next week or so which may become something else, not sure what yet.



This is what I am doing with the cheapy cheap yarn from mother. Tiny madam requested a bag to take things to Brandma's or Branny's, so I am doing this for her. She loves to pack some things to take with her.



And, the lengthened stripe on the manly. I have not done anything to this for two days, so once I have posted I will pick it up and do a bit. I feel guilty, and with the mornings getting colder I am sure SS will appreciate something toasty.



Speaking of toasty, thanks for the comments on Little Purl's blog. She was tickled. Poor dear is in bed now with a MASSIVE SORE THROAT! Why do other people's children have so many germs?

TTFN, happy knittin'
 
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
  is blogging an inherited affliction?
To begin, an apology. No pictures today (only one in the FOs which I barely dare mention due to its plastic horridnous)! I have not done much worth photographing, although I did finish the back of the Manly only to find it was wayhey to short, so I have increased the width of the green stripe. I am paranoid about running out of yarn. I have also done about 15cm of the lace scarf for the MIL and have cast on one bright yellow 8ply sock for Project Spectrum. I have also received some yarn from Chickenfeed from mother, 5 balls of shiny bobbly purple stuff. Oh, I did finish the beanie for the daughter, who from now on shall be called Little Purl. Check out her blog and leave a comment if you have time, she will drop dead with excitement. Oh, and I did knit a scarf for the smallest daughter on Sunday, which she loves. I will photograph tonight and blog again tomorrow.

And the name of my post? Well mother has a blog, I have a blog and now Little Purl has a blog too. Where will it end? Mum concentrates on her health and wellbeing and seems to inspire others to lose weight and generally become fabulous. When I say others, that is other than me. I now wear her fat clothes. I'm a busy girl! And I love Twisties!

On another note, I went on a 'business' trip today to a wildlife park and a cave, and gee willickers we are lucky to live here. Such natural beauty. Interstate visitors - visit! It is truly wonderful. And guess what? Tasmanian Devils are cute. And they don't spin, not even a little bit.
 
Saturday, March 25, 2006
  what self control!
Well, I am very proud of myself today. I went into numerous shops today and did not buy a thing. I browsed knitting books in bookshops, yarn in yarn shops and knitting magazines in knitting magazine shops. Not one purchase! Even though SS was with me encouraging me to go for it. Nothing jumped out and grabbed me. Not even the possum/merino blend (!) in a gorgeous shade of purple. Actually that turned my stomach. I hate possums.

I am looking to knit Clapotis in the nearish future, and have been looking for an appropriate yarn to use. I can not possibly afford the suggested Lorna's Laces, as it is a 50/50 wool/silk blend I am wondering about the Cleckheaton Country Silk. Any advice for me?

Here is what I have been doing lately:


These are my socks, and I love them. Yes, they are baggy. Yes, 8ply socks are completely impractical because they will NOT fit into shoes. But who needs shoes? I never wear shoes at home anyway. Just my new green and purple socks. I am unsure whether I will ever knit another pair. But, I have done these. Challenged myself and been successfulish.


This is a very simple roll brim hat knitted for the smallest member of our family who is three, and who loves pink. I have actually undone and reknitted the end of this twice as in my enthusiasm to finish I made it too small. Twice. Anyhoo, it fits now, with a bit of room to spare. Now the first daughter wants a beanie, in time for camp on the 5th April, so I have done this tonight:



The yarn is disgusting acrylic which is fat and skinny and oh so plastic, but this is what she chose at Spotlight last weekend. She is knitting a bit too.

And finally, this:


Which is the bulk of the back of the Manly Sweater from SnB. I really like it and so does SS. I am finally in the swing of the 5 1 rib. I like the green stripes. The other colour is black - I have 'enhanced' the photo and it looks brownish. I don't know whether Cindy has been sending vibes my way, because gee willickers I am into green at the moment. What the heck am I going to do for Project Spectrum next month? Orange! Yellow! Eek.

I have added and subtracted from my wishlist. MIL is about to get a scarf, a very simple lace pattern. Are any of you going to knit for the Guardian Angels this year? I thought about knitting something a couple of years ago and never did. Now those morons at Sunrise have alerted me to the project, I think I will become involved. And will work to involve others, which I can do through my work.

TTFN!

 
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
  New FOtos
I have been updated my FO blog, so you can see some pics of the things I have finished lately. Very very soon there will be a pair of socks as well. I have always had a thing about green and purple together (until I watched Barney ayuh!) and have put them together for these sockies. I love them. However my incredibly loose knitting has meant they are slightly loose fitting. I am wondering whether I would need to use kebab sticks to knit 4ply!

What do you think of this little guy? My daughter knitted him and filled him with rice so she can zap him to put in her pocket on the cool mornings we have been having. His name is Mr. Toasty! He looks bemused at the moment, but his mouth can be rearranged to match his mood.

 
Monday, March 20, 2006
  Long time, no blog
No, I have not dropped off the side of the planet. I have been very busy in the past week, knitting and otherwise. On the knitting front, I have finished the raspberry jumper, which I really like although my seams are a mess. I think I will make some kind of embellishment to add to the joy, as it is a bit plain. I have also finished the Odessa hat, plus a beanie for the smallest child in my care, and have knitted and seamed the posterboy bag, but it is yet to be lined. Nor have I lined the pink ribbon bag.

I have also knitted a sock. Congratulations to my fellow Launcestonians who were successful in their WWSock Competition. I don't think mine would win any prizes, but my heel is fairly neatish and the toe is really good. I have done them in 8 ply, so they will be no good to go in shoes but fabulous for Tassie winters.

Photos to follow.

The Manly Sweater from Stitch n Bitch is on the go, in black which is a bit silly and difficult to knit at night, but it is looking good. I think I will put a stripe in it around the chesty area to break up the black. Oh, and also because I didn't buy enough black yarn and when I went back to Spotlight there was none of the same dyelot left. Go figure. Who knew so many people were buying black wool? While there I also bought a set of six bamboo pairs of knitting needles in a hideous tapestry case, and I am in love. They are so light and sturdy. I am sure that you can get them slightly more smooth than these, but they are fantastic none the less. I also bought two skeins of machinewash 100% wool for 99c a ball. I should have bought more, but I have no idea what to do with this as it is.

Does anyone know how I can give up a fairly well paid job and knit all day?
 
Saturday, March 11, 2006
  Who needs to pay for a ticket?
Well, here I am in suburbia and the noise from MSFest is assaulting my ears. There is a music festival on tonight and the bowl that Launceston lies in is behaving like an enormous ampitheatre. I can only thank my lucky stars I am not at the festival. My ears would not cope! Sometimes I feel so old! At least the money is for a great cause.

I have been knitting up a storm. I have done this: (The raspberry jumper is all knitted and I love it in its un-constructed form. I am nervous about putting it together in case it makes me look like a little red ball of fluff, but I think it will be okay. I completely ripped the sleeves and reknitted them, they are now the right length at least.)



And this: (The pink bag took me all of about two hours, it is not sewn nor lined, but I found some handles at Spotlight which I liked, so I will cut up an old cream camisole that never fit for the lining and finish this as soon as I get near a sewing machine. Really looking forward to sewing shiny fabric. May try to convince mother to do this.)



And this: (Posterboy is coming along nicely, with about 25 rows to go. He is lumpy and I have made mistakes, but I like it anyway. I will need to buy more yarn to finish and as I noticed the woman restocking shelves at Spotlight I probably won't get the same dyelot but never mind. He was really an experiment and as I am not wearing it I think it will be okay. May blend new yarn in.)



And this! (This is Odessa. This almost stumped me. I did not know what SSK meant. I fiddled around for two days before googling Slip Slip Knit and finding a list of extended abbreviations. I know SSK means Slip Slip Knit thank you very much, but I thought it meant slip one, slip one, knit one. Could not for the life of me figure out how I would then yarn over without ending up with infinite stitches. Going along famously now! This is about two hours work. [Minus the five or so cast ons that came before!] Like my stitch marker? I made it myself!!! It is much less blurry in real life.)



Guess what? I asked the aforementioned woman at Spotlight if they had a new wool/silk blend yarn as mentioned by Cindy, she tried to sell me some ribbon yarn. She had not a clue what I was talking about. I accept perhaps she had not seen the new yarn, but should she not know what a wool silk blend might look like? Heavens to Betsy. I ended up apologising for bothering her! Then heard her complaining that some supplier had sent more colours! The horror!!

Does anyone else think it is a bit strange that most of my current projects already fit in the Project Spectrum colour for March?

I am planning to use some extremely cheap beads from my three year old daughter's bead stash and some yarn left over from the alien scarf to knit up a little purse. I am also planning a lace scarf for MIL for Mother's Day. Strangely enough, the yarn used in this pattern is the same as the yarn I used for my raspberry jumper and Odessa, I really like it although I know it is not pure nor wool. It is soft and knits up to be almost felted in appearance. I thought Yarn Harlot's post was quite good recently, talking about yarn snobs and the like. If it works, it works. Who cares? Besides, I have a really nice jumper, and two skeins left over for $35! Woohoo!

 
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
  The Dreaded Lurgy
My goodness me what a few days I have had. Unfortunately the only knitting news I have is backwards, in that I finished one and five sixths of the sleeves of my raspberry jumper and they are way too long, so I have undone one and am reknitting. The pattern said to increase every six rows, I am going to do so every four and hopefully this will fix the issue. Live and learn (again). Still, I have plenty of time on my hands, in our little family we have fallen one after the other with terrible icky sickness. Every one of us. So I am up to day two off work.

All this began last Thursday night, then that one recovered enough for me to go ahead with a planned girls night (mother, mil and best friend) over for a knitting/crochet evening. We were all set up when . . . oh oh, I don't feel so good. Friend and mil took off like shots (who can blame them?) with mother left to hold the fort (bucket!) until SS came home from work. Then he fell, then daughter two and last night daughter one. That's it though, unless it spreads furhter afield to grandparents and various others we have been in contact with.

Do you like my little picture? This is what can happen when I have too much time on my hands. Sure I could be cleaning the house or knitting, but a girl needs a break every now and then! Have fun you Launceston SnBers, I am thinking of you, wishing I was there! And let me know the upshot of your market talks!

Here are some of the patterns mother has found me at the new op shop. I will let you know if I decide to knit anything retro. Something with parrots perhaps, a la Kath Day-Knight! Can you spot Lavinia Nixon??

 
Thursday, March 02, 2006
  Another first for me!

Here is my Olympic Gold medal. I think this is my third ever medal - and it's virtual! I don't really feel like I deserve it as the scarf did not stretch me that far, but none the less...

I have finished the back and front of the raspberry jumper, and have not done much more of the bag. I am going to knit the two sleeves together, so hopefully I will have that jumper finished b the end of the weekend. I am quite busy at work, so it is nice to go home and vegetate with the television and some mindless stocking stitch! I will probably have enough yarn over to do Odessa, so I will find some yummy beads on Saturday.

I joined a knitalong! I am so excited. It's a funny thing, I keep finding different and new things that I want to try. My obsession is not waning, it is growing and gaining speed. And in this instance instead of visualising a snowball, I see a yarnball somehow winding itself up into a bigger yarnball!!

Mother has supplied me with some excellent knitting patterns from the new City Mission shop that has just opened. She was there for ages sifting through the apparently gazillions of pattern books there. Of course some of the stuff is incredibly dated, although weirdly that is generally the knitwear that is less than fifteen years old! What were we thinking dressing ourselves in enourmous knitted sacks? SS also got me seven books from the library, I had to return SnB this week, so he raided the shelves for some more fuel to the fire! What a sweetheart.

A grammar question. Do you say knit or knitted for the past tense? I have always said knitted, which is correct (I checked) but I notice a lot of bloggers use "I knit this last year". What do you think?
 
Knitting . . . creating something from not much at all.

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Location: Tasmania, Australia

Too busy to knit but can't help myself.

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