Friday, March 31, 2006

Sunday Knitting

Ok just cause now I'm totally not knowing what week it is anymore, there is Sunday knitting at the Botanical Gardens. Just not at the library.
I did say I would be knitting on Sunday.

I just bought the latest issue of creative knitting. I'm no crotcheter but Miss B as well as one of her friends like the tapestry hat. Blah. I know it says it's advanced but what kind of instruction is blah blah blah on this row till the begining of introducing the new colour????
How about something like X many dc in this colour and X many in Y colour, something us non crotcheter's could at least have a go at understanding.

And where is the option for a single colour hat?
All the increases are in colour this or colour that.......... not helpful at all if you aren't changing colours.



So I am looking for a knitted option.
Any suggestions would be great.




Thursday, March 30, 2006

Crap

I was so looking forward to going knitting in the library this Sunday that I misread the dates. Turns out it was last Sunday and I missed it.

I still plan on making this Sunday a knitting day whether I decide to knit at home or somewhere else.
I deserve it after all the crazy paper producing I have been doing.
It would be really nice to knit more than three rows in one day and to actually be able to see some progress.

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Busy Week

Busy Busy Busy. Study and work and work and study. Read and type and reword and edit and on it goes. The only knitting that has been happening is a couple of rows on the heel of Jaywalker 3 and the rest is just in my imagination. But on Sunday there is knitting in the library, so I will be doing my best to make it there and get some actual knitting done.

Must say something nice about my Boss or he wont let me bring a table home from work to hide yarn under use as my writing desk.
What can I say? He is a cool boss who spends half the day playing with the kid's toys and pretending it was someone else that beeped the horn, opened the book that plays songs or turned on the engine on the fire engine:)

Friday, March 24, 2006


Sorry, still no pictures of Tubey........... Taking a picture of yourself in a black jumper is pretty much impossible. I will try as soon as I have someone else around capapble of actually taking a half decent photograph.

I do have a picture of something else that was Great Grandma's.

The ball winder.
I love it. Miss B and I have been playing with it and wound up all those odd tatty balls of yarn, and then a couple of others just for fun.


Ummmmmm sidways picture......... ok.

Thursday, March 23, 2006

A finished Tubey and 4 out of 5 homework papers done

It seems the only way to get any homework done around here is to let myself knit for half an hour between papers. Otherwise I just procrastinate, get up and look at my knitting, search the net for patterns, read blogs, dream about sitting and knitting and nothing gets done. Neither knitting or homework.
I still have one more paper to do for this week and at least two for next week, but YAY, Tubey is all done.
It's taken me a month, but I have a jumper I love.

Now whose idea was it to make it be 34 C tomorrow???

After all that knitting on just one thing I am really itching to start a million little things. Serious startitis. What is really tempting me is hats. I stopped by Jo's blog earlier and her hats are so cute. Hats are quick to knit and you have a FO pretty much instantly.
Ok not quite but a lot quicker than you get a jumper.

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Tubey has not been forgotten

Just delayed. Homework seems to be taking over lately and not much knitting is getting done. So so so frustrating as there really isn't much more to go, another ball and a half perhaps. I really wish I could write and knit at the same time. Or type and knit, either would be fine about now.

Saturday, March 18, 2006

Things that jumped into my suitcase

Some of the things that came home in my suitcase last week.

Needles, lots and lots of needles. These ones were great grandma's.


More of great grandma's needle's

As much as I love that she gave these to me it's also sad. It means she will no longer knitting. I can't even begin to imagine not knitting.

To be honest she hasn't been knitting for years due to her eyesight and the Queensland humidity is horrid. It really doesn't make for pleasant knitting enviroment which probably explains the huge amount of knitting needles and patterns available in the second hand shops there.

These circulars were all in one store. Yes I bought them all.

And to show you exactly how little knitting while I was gone, here is the start of Jaywalker 3.

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Just because...

I love it so much.

And the previous photo really didn't show how cute the bag Donna made me is,
here is another pic


Glad to be home



Being home is fantastic!!!

It means I can pick up my mail :)

The mail that's been sitting waiting patiently at the post office for the week I was away.
I can also open it before I remember to take a picture of the parcel.......

At least I remembered to take a picture of what was in the parcel, thats the bit that really counts.



And then I can check the letterbox and find even more mail.

Yep , I already opened that too.


It was a surprise to be getting even more mail as I had forgotten that Donna had said she was sending something.

But look!!!


She has made this amazing bag and sewn on all the little beads and its just gorgeous. The bag is just beautiful, I love it. And there's more.....

In the bag was sock yarn in gorgeous colours, no Miss B can't have it, and my favouritest favourite chocolates.

Ok so maybe not so much of the chocolate is left......... it's meant to be eaten.......... right?


Monday, March 13, 2006

Home Again

I survived the flights.
All 4 of them.
I knitted on pens.
I got ink all over my hands.
I will be undoing what I did knit on the plane as it just isn't what I wanted.
But at least I got to knit during the flight.

Meanwhile Miss B's Nanna was trying to convince me it's ok, the plane is really a big bus....
Some bus......... I don't know of any busses that don't stay on the road where they are supposed to and I sure don't know of any busses with wings.

I'm glad to be home, I missed my own bed, my own space and my knitting. Most of all I missed my cats.

As to where I actually was for a week, I was in Bundaberg QLD.
Miss B's Great Grandma was celebrating her 81st birthday and all the family went.
And yes I mean all the family, even those of us who aren't technically family, we just happen to be the mothers of the great grandchildren.

I almost felt sorry for Miss B's dad as he had two of his ex's aswell as his current girlfriend all staying at the same place. I said almost, o k I lied, I found it amuzing.

I also found it reassuring, I definately did the right thing leaving him all those years ago.

Unfortunately the humidity there killed me, very little knitting got done at all even with all the time spent sitting around consuming rediculous amounts of alcohol and having random discussions just because it was too hot to sleep and everyone wanted to chatter and catch up.

So no finished tubey to show as I was hoping, but I did come home with some goodies. Pics later when I can be bothered unpacking the camera :)

Saturday, March 04, 2006

What pattern is this?




I found this unfinished knitting in a second hand store and thought it was pretty. Does anyone know the stitch pattern?
Can you tell me how it is done?

I bought it for the needles that were also in the bag. Two sets of tortoiseshell needles and a set of the ordinary grey ones. Like I really need any more needles. Umm yeah, but I like them.

There is progress on tubey, the body has grown about 10 centimetres, maybe a little bit more. I haven't actually measures yet. I am into the eighth ball of yarn and have four more so should be fine.

I have an encounter with a plane coming up. Actually four of them.

You know, the big ones that take you way too far from the ground.

I have every intention of still knitting Mr Quantas, even without knitting needles.

Is it crazy that I am raiding Miss B's pencil case to see what I can knit with in there?

I never knew her lead pencils were 7mm.............

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Don't be Scared

But I actually swatched this time.



I swatched the Debbie Bliss Aran Cashmerino for tubey and got the stitch gauge but not the row gauge.I am a couple of rows short but you can always just keep knitting till it's long enough......... right??? Just say yes ok.


While I was swatching I aslo swatched the blue gusto yarn on a 9mm needle.


Way. To. Small.

The 10mm needles I used originally obviously made it Way. To.Big.

Do I try using the smaller needle size and make a pattern size larger?
Does that work?
Or is there another option?

Get someone who can actually get gauge to knit it for me??
Ok Just dreaming.


Tubey finally has both sleeves. Can I just say I never really realized how long my arms are. No they probably aren't any longer than anyone elses. They just seem really long when you have to knit every single stitch of every single row to cover them.

And picking up all those stitches . Argh. Way too many stitches that just didn't want to be picked up evenly. The first time I tried most of the stiches were on one side of the body and very few on the other.

I spent a day procrastinating over this but finally managed to do it........ kind of. The stitches could still be more evenly spaced but it was about as good as I was going to get without wearing out the yarn.

And so onto the body. And ribbing.

I have all of 2 cm of the body done. Ribbing hurts my hands. But at least there are no more stitches to pick up.

It feels weird to not have finished something by now. I have gotten used to working on lots of small things, that have fairly quick results. I am looking forward to making something quick once Tubey is done.

I also know I will appreciate tubey so much more for the time it took to make. I just wish it would hurry up!