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.

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?

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 :)

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.............

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!

Sleeves are done

Wow sleeves are long.
Very very long.
Onto the sixth ball of yarn now and wondering if I will have enough left for the body.

I can feel startitis creeping in.
It would be nice to knit something other than black.
Socks are sounding nice, or maybe a scarf, those gloves still need finishing.
Maybe I could swatch for that gusto jumper and work out a size or just go shopping for some new yarn in colours other than black.

Minute amounts of progress

Sorry Melissa I haven't received the invite yet. I will let you know when I do.

Tubey has grown a little.
The back and one sleeve is done. Another whole long sleeve to go.
Who made arms so long???
The thing I am definately loving about this is that I wont have to sew up any seams.
I hate sewing up.

I got mail!!!
Interweave knits arrived and distracted me yesterday afternoon, I love the socks, the cami tops are cute but not much else grabbed my attention.
That is untill Miss B ran off with the magazine and came back saying she likes the hand warmer thingy's. I like the handwarmers too. No fingers to make.

Tubey

Tubey is just that......... a tube. A never ending, seemingly never growing black tube.
Luckily the Debbie Bliss Aran Cachmerino is so wonderful to knit with I don't mind stretching the the knitting time to continue working with such soft yarn.
But black........ at night.... yeah, fun.....

Finally!!!

WHoot!
Finally!
This is how this post was meant to be the other day.

The Cleckheaton Gusto Blue Jumper.



I made this about two years ago, before I started reading blogs and knowing anything much about knitting other than plain and purl. It is the first jumper I ever finished. I didn't swatch, I tied knots ( I didn't know any better) , I seamed shockingly ( didn't know any better about that either). The bottom rolls up. It is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too big. I could fit me and Miss B and probably C in there too. The yarn is lovely and soft ( and cost me more than I could really afford at the time). It has been sitting lonely in the bottom of my wardrobe because I couldn't face the disaster it was. I wasn't ready to undo all that bad seaming and start over. I was trying to say it's not that bad. It's only a little bit big. Right..... In defiant kidsilk haze avoidance tactics............. this is what happened.





And then this happened Miss B's Orange socks were done.







And because Bliss made me go all gooey over her puppies........ Yes Bliss I AM blaming you :) This came home with me. Tincat.





I love her. She doesn't run off with my yarn. She doesn't sit on my knitting projects or in yarn boxes. The other cats aren't jealous in the slightest. She doesn't cost anything to feed And best of all she doesn't stink up the cat litter

Blue Gusto Jumper

This is the blue gusto jumper from the previous post. Blogger seems to be going nuts. I have tried adding pictures to the previous post yet again ( 5 times again actually) and then tried adding them to a new one. Nope, blogger just wants to eat them all.
So you get one lonley little picture.

Blogging and blogging

I have been blogging this week.

I know you can't see it. Neither can I.
Blogger keeps eating it.
Or not adding my pictures.

Apart from that I have my mail working again :)

Rachael sent me two more stitch markers that were meant to be sent with the others. YAY I love stitch markers. ( They still don't make me magically able to count but they look pretty)

Donna got her Zhivago. I was beginning to wonder if her postie person is a knitter and ran off with it. I was having visions of the postie leaning up against the mail box knitting a row before dropping of any letters.

Tiger has a cat that looks pretty similar to my Lucy, except her cat is helpful and tries to do the dishes for her.

A jumper, some socks and a cat.

The Cleckheaton Gusto Blue Jumper.

I made this about two years ago, before I started reading blogs and knowing anything much about knitting other than plain and purl.

It is the first jumper I ever finished. I didn't swatch, I tied knots ( I didn't know any better) , I seamed shockingly ( didn't know any better about that either). The bottom rolls up.

It is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too big. I could fit me and Miss B and probably C in there too.
The yarn is lovely and soft ( and cost me more than I could really afford at the time).

It has been sitting lonely in the bottom of my wardrobe because I couldn't face the disaster it was. I wasn't ready to undo all that bad seaming and start over. I was trying to say it's not that bad. It's only a little bit big.

Right.....

In defiant kidsilk haze avoidance tactics............. this is what happened.


And then this happened

Miss B's Orange socks were done.

And because Bliss made me go all gooey over her puppies........ Yes Bliss I AM blaming you :)
This came home with me.

Tincat.
I love her.
She doesn't run off with my yarn.
She doesn't sit on my knitting projects or in yarn boxes.
The other cats aren't jealous in the slightest.
She doesn't cost anything to feed
And best of all she doesn't stink up the cat litter

Mail

I tried blogging on Friday but Blogger was hungry and ate my post.

My whole computer seems to be going nuts at the moment and I can't open my mail. I guess I'll have to wait till I get to class later in the week and read it there.

Speaking of mail......... I got two packages on Friday.

One from Rachael which included some bluebell I wanted to match up with some odd balls I had here. Thanks so much Rachael.

And because she knows how badly I count she included some stitch markers and a row counter, YAY!!! Maybe I can count to 299 now :)

And from Yarnsgalore I got my super long addi needle and another 30cm one for socks. I was one short as I had given one to my Mum

The long needle is to start this total craziness. Craziness being some kind of blanket/ throw thingy where I just keep adding all the odd balls of pink and purple yarn till it is big enough or I go crazy. I will probably change my mind on this one but for now I am just playing about with it.

Kit says she doesn't care just turn the light off and let her sleep.

Knitting Kitty??

Lucy says the odd balls of yarn box is the best place to sleep.

A little detour

Yep detour, you know....... the one to spotlight when you should really be catching the bus home so you can get in an hour or so of homework before life takes over.

Spotlight were evil and are seriously trying to corrupt me, but I resisted. I only bought the 5mm circular I had gone into the store for. They have refilled their sales bins and tempted me, very mean of them.

Ok Ok I also bought this

But it's not for me. It has Donna's name all over it :)

Blue Cami

Firstly I was bad, I didn't swatch. Luckily my guage must have been pretty close for once because the cami fits.

Secondly I have a really really long torso. I kind of knew this but hadn't realized exactly how much I would need to add to the pattern.I was worried about running out of yarn so I only added an extra couple of cm to allow for this and really could have added a couple more. I like my tops to overlap my pants a little and not only just meet them. I actually ended up with a whole ball of yarn left over........ blah.

I'd also like the waist shaping at the bottom to be a little more gradual, it kind of just goes blah suddenly.


Thirdly it's sparkly. Ummmmmmm very sparkly. I'm not sure I'll ever wear it sparkly.

Fourthly, I had a lot of fun making this and have learnt a lot about my owm preferences, so definately worth the knit. Besides it was a quick knit and you got to love that :)

So no I'm not going to re knit it and add the lenght I would need. I am just going to put it aside and wait for Miss B to try and claim it, pretend I don't want her to have it.... and secretly giggle as she sneaks off with it ;)

Knitting Furiously

The Blue Cami is almost done!!! I spent most of the weekend knitting it and glaring at the kidsilk haze from accross the room.
After knitting socks for so long I had forgotten how quickly dk weight yarn knits up. I now have an almost completed project. It just needs the ends sewn in and the i cord adjusted and attatched.
It looks how it is supposed to (from what I can tell so far anyway) and is definately a much needed boost to my knitting ego after the kidsilk haze's sneaky fluffiness.
Even Miss B likes it. She wasn't sure about it to start with when it was just a circle of twisted ribbing, but now it looks like it is something else I will have to hide from her.

Blue Hands

The Blue Cami is growing nicely. The problem I am having is the blue dye coming off on my hands. The yarn is designed to fade or so it says on the label. I have no problem with that. I just didnt realise it was going to fade before I even finished making it and transfer its colour all over me.

I am wondering if it will end up being wearable as a garment once it's completed or wether I will turn blue if I even think about trying it on.

The picture makes it look black and sparkly , when really it is blue and sparkly.

The yarn is elle True Blue pure indigo dyed cotton.

LOL

Now that I've read the label properly it says:

Colour sets after the second wash.

May discolour hands when being knit up.

Well not only does it discolour hands it also dicolours keyboards due to typing with discoloured hands.

Kidsilk Haze 1 Knitter 0

Kidsilk haze is a pain in the butt. I appologize to all of you out there that love it, but right now I don't.
It is mean and sneaky and doesn't let me see what I am doing. It waits till I have cast on 299 stitches and recount them to make sure. It says 298. I count again, it says 297. I count again 299. ARGH.
I knit the first row and must have had the stitch count right , it went fine. Purl the second row , also fine.
Ok this thin yarn on biggish needles isn't so bad

Knit third row and am two stitches short........ somewhere in that long, long row I have stuffed up. Lost track of where I was up to and been momentarily distracted. ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!
And with this yarn I can't seem to see what I have knitted, was it a y fwd or k2 tog or is it just a heap of pretty fluff. Bad lighting probably doesn't help.
Rip back to cast on row.

Repeat all of the above.
For some unknown reason I seem to loose concentration somewhere in the middle of the third row and for last night at least could not get past that point.

Time to give the kidsilk some space, maybe it just doesn't like the heat, and work on the blue tank.

another sock done and a cloud

I just finished one of Miss B's orange socks........ yes I know more orange and I think I am just about all socked out. I still want to make more socks and definately more Jaywalker socks. But I also want to make something other than socks for just a little while. I am seriously considering casting on for Birch, but am just a little bit frightened of that beautiful Kidsilk Haze. It looks so gorgeous in the ball, I don't want to ruin it. There is yarn that's just meant to be looked at isn't there???


And just cause I was curious to see what mine would look like.......... here is my word cloud. I thought socks and chocolate would be a lot bigger.

Finished Opal Chameleon Socks

I started with this

And ended with these

And poor Kit got woken up and wanted to see what was finished.

I'm really not happy with these socks, actually no the socks are fine, it's the yarn. It isn't very soft and the stripes are nowhere near matching up.
The dark green stripe near the gusset was a lot shorter on the second sock than on the first. A lot shorter. There was no break or knot in the yarn, it was just mis-dyed. I could have cut the yarn and joined it later to make them match, but it just seemed like a lot of work for a pair of socks I am just not loving. I figure that having spent the money on striping sock yarn that it should stripe how it says it will without me having to cut it and fiddle about with it.

I did love Lynne's comment yesterday regarding my frogpond knits. "Off with their heads" LOL It's probably what I should have been saying as I was rescuing my needles. And the yarn has found a new home with Miss B. Just because I think it's ugly and scratchy doesn't mean she does.

On saying goodbye

It's time to finally say goodbye to two knits that have been sitting in the sidebar being totally ignored the whole time I have had this blog. The blue jumper and Miss B's Blue jumper. Different yarns, different blues but both in incredibly cheap, acrylic, scratchy yarn started when I totally doubted my ability to read a pattern correctly. Both were hideous and never photographed. ( Some things you just don't want proof of)

It's time to be honest and admit that not only do I not want to knit them, but that I will NEVER knit them. Putting them on the list of ufo's did nothing to inspire me to work on them. It just increased the guilt I felt for not touching them.
But knitting is meant to be fun and I want to work on things I enjoy and with yarn that feels nice. So bye bye blue guilt inducing jumpers. They are no longer on the list, they are no longer in existence and I have some more needles back in the stash.

Now why didn't I just do that before? I feel so much better :)

Jaywalker 2

A finished object for January........ just in time.
Jaywalker socks , I love them, love them, love them.
Patonyle in discontinued colour knitted in the larger size.

What is whith Blogger and it rearranging all my pictures??? It doesn't seem to matter what order I put them in they come out all mixed up. Anyways I have been playing about with some scrap yarn and have a Birch swatch. No it's not in right weight yarn, I just wanted to make sure I understood the pattern. Now I just need to time and the courage to actually use the Kidsilk Haze. Thankyou Donna and Ann for helping me get hold of the pattern :)

Ummmmm Spotlight is bad..... good....... bad umm yeah, they had 10 balls of yarn for $8.

80 cents for some sparkly stuff that there is no way I want to wear but am happy enough to play about with every now and again just cause its pretty and girly and fluffy and totally crappy novelty stuff.

And 80 cents for some zhivago to make a scarf out of sounds pretty good to me too. Takes away some of the guilt of spending soooooooo much on the Kidsilk Haze that I am too scared to knit with yet.

Next, from a local salvation army store....... I have no idea what it actually is except that its laceweight and soft and cream. Oh and theres lots of it :) If anyone has any more idea of what it is then let me know.

All about socks........ again.

Even in the 40 degree heat ( 104f) I have still been knitting.......... Just very slowly. I seem to be doing more planning of knitting than actual knitting. I suddenly want to knit blankets or throws. Things that you use when it's cold. I want it to be cold. I am so sick of being hot, of not wanting to do anything much or go anywhere and just feeling tired and drained from the heat. I want some cold days where I can really enjoy knitting and not just do a few rows here and there because it's too hot.

I don't even know why I want to make a blanket as I will probably never finish one........ I just want to .... hmm

But yes anyway........... socks




No one said they had to match.

The start of the second sock, picot edging still on dpn's

Sock slowly growing and transfered to circular

Proof that I have started the second sock of each pair. Also proof that I am officially crazy . Putting socks on in 40 degree heat just to take photos is crazy........ right?

A day out with my mum

Pigs
More pigs ( photo's came up in wrong order....... Blah )
And more pigs.

For some strange reason we have these pigs in the middle of Rundle Mall. Kids love them, you quite often see kids trying to put their fingers in the pigs noses. I tried to take a pictue of the little boy doing it but his Mum started giving me funny looks.

Cupid displays in shop windows. Ready for valentines day already.

Miss B was in a weird mood and wasn't letting us take pictures of her so this is what we got. Her feet.

We spent the day walking and walking and walking. Up and down the Mall, into Spotlight and Lincraft to look at yarn ( of course), into the camera shop to get pictures developed, into Hungry Jacks for lunch. Down one arcade and up the other, just looking looking and more looking. Once we had enough with the looking we decided we need another day out at the real yarn stores, you know , the ones that actually sell sock yarn and stuff........

I have no Idea when this outing will eventuate but it is definately one that I will be making happen. Might be an idea to wait a couple of weeks and put some money aside.

I do have one problem though....... Do I really want my Mum to know how much I am prepared to spend on yarn???

Sleepy Happy Dances

I seem to still be receiving birthday presents. Not just actual gifts as such(although I am still getting those :) ) but nice things are happening, things that matter. My mother and I are actually getting along, not only are we getting along but we are being honest with each other, we are bonding.

I was thinking this last Tuesday on my birthday after spending nearly 2 hours on the phone with her then. I was too scared to acknowledge it then in case it was just one of those things..... You know....... Mum was in a good mood but next time we speak it will be as distant as ever.

To totally understand what I am trying to say and how big a deal this is you need to realize that my mum and I generally only speak two sometimes three times a year.

Usually once around Christmas and then again in July for Miss B's Birthday.

It's usually stilted and awkward and uncomfortable with neither of us knowing what the hell to say to each other.

For those of you close to your Mothers I realize you probably can't even begins to understand this..... but it's how we have been for years.
Several times we have both tried to talk more and spend more time together but I don't think either of us was totally ready to just be ourselves and say what needed to be said. There was a lot of you annoyed me when you did blah and it hurt when you said blah and none of us was ready to just say it.

So for us to be able to be saying some of those things and asking questions and really listening to the answers is a big thing.
Previous family history is coming out and emotions are being discussed honestly instead of being denied or not accepted. We are just being us.

Our reasoning for different things is being discussed and we are getting to know how each other thinks, what matters to us, what our priorities are and why we value one thing over another.
We are finding common ground with Knitting and craft. Yay for knitting!!!

I called Mum last night to confirm the time and place we are meeting up today. I called about 6:30 pm. We didn't get off the phone till 1 am.
6 and a half hours......... That would have previously been about 3 years worth of contact. And I get to spend today with her too.
Amazing.
It has only taken me till I am 30 to finally get my mum back. She is no longer the person called mum that I feel I should call every now and again. Now she is MY MUM and I want to call her and I want to know what she is doing, how she is. I want to send her silly things just cause. I want her to know what I am doing, how me and Miss B are doing. I want to share things with her.
Does that explain why I am doing sleepy little happy dances all around the house this morning.

Oh yeah knitting content........... Well there is none......... Blame mum and the phone call ;)

Jawalkers don't go any faster when it's hot

I'm loving these sooooooo much, they are colours I wouldn't normally put together and if I was choosing colours I personaly would have skiped the orange and green. But in this I love them. Unfortunately as the temperature gets hotter the knitting gets slower so I am only knitting a row here and there. Today is going to be 41c or about 106f today so send cool thoughts this way.

For some reason the colours are showing ok in the heel but the rest of the sock looks muddy. Imaging the whole sock as bright and cheerful as the heel.

My birthday gift

12 Balls of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran................ To make Tubey.
I figure having a Birthday is a fantastic excuse to go wool shopping. Oh wait, who said I need an excuse.........

Knitting in the park

We have knitters, real life proof that I am not the only one here in Adelaide that knits.
Miss B hiding behind the start of her scarf. The ducks that kept us company during our knitting, They would wander from the lake and creep up to the edge of the tables and quack. Maybe they wanted to knit too.
More knitters

We had a great day, with most of the knitters being new to the group. It seems I wasn't the only one who just couldn't go on a wednesday night. There was lots of shawl making and pattern testing going on aswell as some socks and scarves.

It was fantastic to be with others who share my love of knitting and the best part........ no one asked me why on earth I was making a sock.

Disapointing socks

Opals chameleon. Looked gorgeous in the ball but just isn't that great knitted up. I'm thinking perhaps it's the stripes, I'm not liking the wider stripes. Is it just that they seem so plain after working on the jaywalkers? Whatever it is these socks leave me feeling rather blah.

Good news though. Today I get to meet up with other knitters YAY!!!!

Looky Looky

What do we have??

Besides a serious case of unsettled startitis where I don't seem to be able to work on just one thing ( even more so than normal) and want to start even more things. I have the start of my second pair of Jaywalkers. This time with the picot edge. I am loving these even more than the first pair, mainly because I know the pattern and don't have to think too much this time. Also because the pattern just works so well for this yarn. It turns what would otherwise be a rather blah smudgey mish mash of colour into something just amazing. How can you not love that?