Yarnivorous

G'day all! Well the knitting fun never stopped whilst I was away. I got my knit mojo working well and truly! Be warned, this is a pretty big post. This month I knitted: 2 pairs of socks 3 sets of fingerless mitts (two child sized) a beanie a cowl a scarflette a small shawl a sleeve of Nathan's pullover and started a colourwork beret Alas I forgot to take pics of the beanie (from my handspun, knitted top down with ribbing on 4mm needles) and the fingerless mitts (one adult sized in cashmere, two kid size in handspun). Plain toe up socks (one with afterthought heel, one with short row heel, both with gussets) knitted in Serenity sockweight yarn by Deborah Norville (50% wool, 25% bamboo, 25% nylon). I used about 80% of the yarn. Note the twiddly bits on the cast off. This yarn is quite soft and didn't irritate my delicate ankles. It cost $3.24 a ball (plus tax). Crikey! I knitted half the first sock on the trip to Neuschwanstein. The second sock was knitted on the tri...

G'day all! Today I finished the blocking, tidied the ends and handed over the Faroese Shawl (rav link) for my LYS. I am so glad to see it gone. Not that it was hard to knit or anything or any sort of a problem - come on I was knitting with cashmere! Reclaimed, less guilt making cashmere. No it was just it had been about for Long Enough and I needed to move on and start something else. Or just spin madly for the Tour de Fleece. I guess you'd like some pics, eh? Before blocking (can't believe that I took a pic almost a month ago that basically shows the very same image only half as long!) During blocking - blasted hard to block cos of the shoulder shaping, so only the back is being blocked here (and now a front) the shoulder shaping that lets it do this and this (Stunning self portraits, eh? That grin is one of relief, a) because it is finished and b) because I didn't have to drink another litre of water and hang on until I was busting. TMI? Want more? Did you k...

G'day all! I'm sitting here, feeling sore, editing pics when I start wondering if I am going to do something like faint. Not that I ever have (though once was close!). I was seeing black spots before my eyes. Nope, not fainting. There are black spots before my eyes. They are known as flies. There's a bunch of flies that hang around under the shade of the birch trees. Sometimes they move along and hang around under the ornamental pears. Sometimes they come inside here cos I leave the door open cos it gets warm inside. Our place is not a meat safe. It also does not have anything to attract flies apart from shade. I've been beavering away at the Neatby Faroese shawl for my LYS. My progress up to today has been steady. I've now completed 40% of it and it is too wide to be stretched out on the 1.2m long needles. My knitting progress today is slow. My progress on anything is very slow. I did something odd to my shoulder or ribs last night and boy am I still p...

G'day all! About 10 months ago, I embarked on making a curtain for our 3 X 1.3 m window. We don't get a whole lot of light in the loungeroom in summer - we get better light in the bedroom even though it faces north (being in the northern hemisphere, the sun sits to the south). I thought a curtain would be better than the vertical blinds we have. Anything put in their place has to a) block people staring straight in and b) comply with our lease - no bright colours. Wellll things being what they are and a three metre wide curtain being pretty boring, it soon got put aside for birthday knits and shop knits and spinning and anything else. I dragged it out last week and started working on it. I only have another metre to go. Over 30cm done! Hooray! Scuse the ratty shot - it is a bit crumpled. It does seem to work as a curtain though, small as it is. The shop shawl that I am making is also a slow knit. I have done 38 rows so far with "only" another 108 to go. As it ...

G'day all! Whilst knitting the shop sample and the eyesores, I've been beavering away, in the nicest possible sense!, at the shawl that nearly got eaten by a Canada goose. Purdy eh? I quickly pinned it out to see how it is going. It is wider than a sweater rack now. I have added another two or three rows to it this evening. I realised that maybe it was time to stop when I yawned massively twice in about 15 seconds and I kept forgetting what row I was on. But I have to sit up because Nathan is working on thesis corrections! YAY! It passed but he has roughly 8 problem things to fix and some typo stuff or incorrect use of grammar - one of the examiners turned out to be a grammar and spelling pedant (or pedanticist as we like to tell our pedant friends, the ones who are even more pedantic than we are, or should that be pedanticistic?). I think I should pull out the sock I am working on. No counting on it! Knit, purl or *k2tog, yo* for whole rows. I hope I don't stuff t...

G'day all! Thanks to all those who commented on my Hey Mooch! :-) Last week, as I've mentioned before, I went for a ride up the Los Gatos Creek trail (I've blogged a whole heap of pics at my other blog ). I thought it would be very pleasant to do a little knitting whilst sitting by the lakeside. Little did I know of the horror approaching me! It seemed friendly enough: Pretty curious even. It brought a friend. The friend was pretty bored - it seemed to be saying "Let's go, love, this is dull! You brought along a snack but I didn't!" Then another friend showed up And some more (Don't you love the feet on these coots? Blue and black stripes) and another and a few more came to join the party.* Let me tell you that I was really glad that not all of these ones saw me sitting on that park bench, swinging my legs (bit of an erosion problem on their part, not mine!). There is nothing quite like having several hundred hungry birds all running at you at the...

G'day all! Lookie what arrived the other day! A prezzie for me :-) One of my good English buddies promised me a certain sort of yarn . But I got more than that! Thanks, Dreamcatcher ! Of course you want close ups of the yarn. Here you go! Lovely, eh? The one with white in it is from the Yarn Yard and the pink/blue/mauve one is Posh Emily in Jolly. Oh boy, I just can't wait to find a good project for these - any suggestions? Plus I bought a little something from Fearless Fibers : Getting accurate representations of these purply colours is almost impossible. That one is called Midnight Passion and oh boy is it a luscious 4 ounces/550 yards of purply goodness! (BTW, for any of my Aussie mates, if you want something off one of these etsy places or some place on the web that only ships within the USA, you know who to ask! You can use my address and pay me back the postage to Oz via paypal. Email me if you want my address.) You wanna see some recent knitting? Well I am onl...