Alpaca, socks and a cat

Tempting Alpaca, I am still hunting around for patterns. This yarn is sooooo soft I want to make something really really nice. I'm not sure exactly what yet but I will know it when I see it.




Lucy stalking the grass and avoiding the camera

And stripey socks, hotsocks from lincraft, are done!!!

Now after saying I will never knit another pair of gloves, C came home from work saying his hands are cold can I make him a pair of gloves.

Hmmm nope I don't think so. Mittens have been started though.... don't hold your breath.

The Boss is mean.

On Sunday, Miss B, C and I spent the afternoon in Hahndorf ( a totaly touristy German village in the Adelaide Hills) where they sell gorgeous Alpaca yarn.
Amongst rolled eyes from Miss B and glares from C I bought myself 10 balls of alpaca yarn and spent a fortune in the process.

Monday morning I of course tell my friend all about the weekends stash enhancement and cringe at the expense.
Monday night she tells her husband who also happens to be my boss.

Tuesday morning the boss decides to be Cruel funny and send another coworker to torment me.
Coworker comes up to me and starts asking about yarn, saying alpaca isn't anything special is it? It's pretty cheap stuff isn't it???
I ask why.
She says Oh I just sold some on the weekend for 50cents a ball.
I just looked at her and told her to run..... run very fast.

A bit later on the Boss comes out giggling like a little kid, very amuzed with himself.
Cheeky bugger kept giggling all day.

It's ok Mr Boss person, I may just forget your Turkish Delight addiction next Easter and give you a ball of alpaca instead.

Wandering sidebar

I seem to have lost whatever it was I had in my sidebar, my computer decided to have a snooze halfway through publishing a post and it all dissapeared.
At the moment I am having a bit of trouble remembering what was in there. Links to blogs of course and finished objects, but what else???

Reminders are welcome as well as any suggestions :)

Pictures

Green Hat???


Shawl, Seems to be coming out very small.
Might have something to do with not using recomended yarn or needles.
Still pretty though:)

Startitis hits

It seems the more homework and assignments I have to do the less settled I am and the less I stick to any one thing.
This results in little or no progress on current wip's and the start of a couple of new ones.

A green varigated hat......... really not sure if I like how it is knitting up but I loved the colours in the ball.

Evelyn A. Clark's Shetland Triangle from Wrap Style, got to love the library for that one.
I seem to be doing ok on this one after mixing it up a bit in the beginning.
Lets just say I found it is possible to do a yarn over wrongly. So the first repeat doesn't have the lacy little holes it is meant to. So far I am pretty happy with it.

Rogue has just been sitting there waiting for me to attatch another ball of yarn.

Stripey socks have a heel so they might end up finished soonish.

I think I need to start using progress bars for my assignments although it would probably scare me too much. Most of them are at the " have books" stage and not much further.

A quick thankyou post

As I was trying to type that last post I kept getting new mail messages coming in........seems all us Aussies have picked up the kids from school and got on line :)

Thankyou to everyone who commented or e mailed with get well wishes.
I am feeling a lot better than I did. Just a little frustrated with all of our wonderful technology being unable to tell me what is actually wrong.
At least I know what it isn't............ LOL


Anyways I'm off to drool over that shade card and imagine the perfect jumper.........

Not quite so crappy

Just still a little sore but definately able to think about knitting.
I recieved my copy of interweave knits today and am seriously wondering if I will bother to re subscribe. This is the second issue in a row that nothing has really got my attention. I just have this fear that if I stop getting it, it will suddenly be full of fantastic patterns. Maybe they do this so I actually finish some of the things I have started.

I ripped the P socks and have decided they will be done with different yarn and on circular needles to try and beat the big gaps I get between dpn's with patterned socks. The circs should be in the mail soon.

Very tempting is the colour card from Bendigo wollen mills.
So many beautiful colours to choose from and they don't charge postage if you order over $30.............

Crappy crappy crappy

Headache and sniffly nose is what I have left after staying in hospital a couple of days earlier in the week. I went in with pain and left with a bonus cold along with some residual pain. Not quite what I had planned.
No knitting happened while I was there but a little has happend since I came home.

So I have one striping sock done and am almost to the heel on the second sock.

I am seriously thinking about frogging the P socks , I don't like the holes that sit between the needles.

And Rogue.......... I love the cables, but am really not happy with the striping from the two dyelots. Perhaps I could dye the whole thing after.


Oh and I got my Lynx clicker in the mail. Just have to keep it away from C and Miss B.

Rogue

I am loving the cables on this.
I am also loving the stocking stitch in between so I don't have to be thinking the whole time I am knitting.
There is some striping as I am using two different dyelots........ one from a garage sale and the other from spotlight. I am changing yarns every two rows but it is still showing.
Once I wash it and wear it and get it all grubby myself it should all work out.

I can't wait to have this finished and wear it.

While shopping for a friend's birthday present I found this.........

MOOOOOOOOOO!!!

A box

First day back at Tafe and I'm feeling overwhelmed already with the amount of homework and assignments being handed out and that was just in one class!

After class I decided to have a look about in a second hand store and under the dust found this






It needs cleaning up but I can see it being a perfect storage spot for all those little bits that seem to have legs of their own, stitch markers, cable needles, scissors and tape measures.

Now homework for an hour so I can justify the time I intend spending on knitting tonight:)

Jaywalker 3

Pics taken in the middle of the night ( almost) and a little news.

My brother has resurfaced along with his phone and is still wanting to come and surprise mum. Lets just hope he doesn't change his mind and vanish again.

Zooming along

It seems all I needed to get past my dose of unsettledness was to accept it and acknowledge the cause of it. The knowledge of an upcoming knitting get together might have helped too.

Miss B and I spent Sunday afternoon at the State Library Kiosk with lots of knitters. I met some new people and got to know others a little better and just feel I was with others who understand and are happy to talk while they knit. No one expects you to put your knitting down and be polite because no one thinks that knitting while you are talking is rude........ Bliss.

Miss B's Jaywalkers are done and I have started on another sock. This time a self striping yarn in pinks and purples, hotsocks from Lincraft. I love it so much I had to go back and buy myself another ball.

Unsettledness.

I am still knitting Miss B's Jaywalkers, just very slowly.
Unlike many knitters who seem to find their knitting soothing when their brain is all flustered, I find I seem to freeze. I sit there holding my knitting , but don't actually seem to move my hands, my brain is just too distracted.

The cause of this is my little brother. ........ He isn't actually very little 6" something plus and 26 years old.
I hadn't seen him or had any contact with him for 8 years and recently contacted him.He has been living in Sydney where as I am here in Adelaide. We spoke on the phone and exchanged text messages.

I told him I wanted to arrange for him to come home to Adelaide and surprise mum for her birthday. She turns 50 this year.
He was all eager and excited and would have come down straight away except her birthday isn't til May.

Now it is nearly May and I can't get hold of him. I want to arrange his transport here and what dates he will be staying and I can't get through on either of the mobile numbers he had given me. Both phones go straight to message service when I try and call and he hasn't responded to any text messages. I have been trying for a week. It's possible he is out of range of the phone service , but I hate not knowing.

I know mum doesn't know what I am trying to arrange, but I still don't want this to all fall apart and let her down and neither do I want to disappoint Miss B. She has been looking forward to seeing her uncle.
I feel all flustered and floundering and unsettled.

Looks like I'm back to where I was when I first tried to get in contact with him.
Back to the humble letter delivered by Australia Post.
So much for technology.

I'm really not sure.......

About the gloves, I'm not sure what I want to do.

I could re knit one and make them match, but I really hated knitting either of them and am not keen to repeat the experience just yet. Right now I don't like they golves or the yarn.

A burning ceremony was suggested....... sounds like it could be fun, epecially if you add some marshmallows to the mix.

Either way I am not fussed, I am just happy to get them off the list of WIP's, they had been sitting around for way too long.

For now they are just sitting in a basket, a reminder for me to knit socks, mittens or gloves together.

Ummmmmmmm

It would seem I wasn't the only one who decided to set myself a deadline or mimimum limit of how much I had to knit this weekend before I could move on to something else. Tigers also set herself a knitting minimum of getting to the heels of her socks before casting on another pair.

I set myself a goal of finishing those Zhivago gloves that have been sitting around forever and getting the leg of the Jaywalker sock done.

I managed to complete the challenge, but look what happened...........







Ummmmmm............ are you speechless???

I was.


The big glove was knit first, I am guessing about 6 months ago.
It was also knit flat.
After knitting it flat and having to seam all those fingers, I hated it and ignored it.
When I came back to do the second one I decided to avoid seaming and knit the glove on dpn's in the round. This worked in theory......... just gave me a totally different gauge. That and the amount of time left in between. OOOOPs.

Lessons learnt..........
*I hate knitting fingers and will probably never make another pair of gloves
* I will happily make mittens
* Must make mittens immediately after one another to solve sizing issues.
* Dpn's are definitely the way to go........... I hate seaming .

It's cold

No idea on the actual temperature but it's just after 5 pm and I want to put the heater on already.

Miss B and I were pretty cold while out and about this morning as well. ( sneaky little trip to get some cleckheaton country 12 ply for beanies sugar.)

You would think this would be perfect for doing some knitting.
Somehow my hands don't think so, they are blue from cold.

Instead I have been drooling over other bloggers knitting and ignoring my own.
And looking at the projects in the upcoming interweave knits. Nothing I absolutely love, but Interweave patterns have a way of growing on me.
Vogue Knitting on the other hand just kind of scared me.

We have pics :)

It really helps when you actually plug the cord in properly and don't just whinge about the ports not working............. oooops.
So there was nothing wrong with anything except that I couldn't see the back of the computer. After climbing all over the desk to reach the stupid place things need to be plugged in we have..........

Spotlight yarn $2.99 a ball.

Two balls later we have a completed Shedir.





And after some grafting we have a finished Jaywalker 3.

I have cast on for the second one so Miss B may get a complete pair sometime this year.

She would have had more hope if Lincraft didn't have Hotsocks self patterning yarn 100g at a very nice price.

Where have the pictures gone?

Seems the pictures are still in the camera. After swapping cords and usb ports with the printer and finally getting the printer kind of working, I am not ready to swap it all again just yet so pictures will have to wait.

But I have finished Shedir.

I used two balls of spotlight brand pure wool in the olive colour.
3.25 mm circ and dpn's.
Very sore hands.

I figured as I don't actually wear hats and just wanted to see if I could follow the pattern and make cables it would be fine to substitute a less expensive yarn.

I was pleasantly surprised, for a low cost yarn it feels nice to knit with.

Sock dramas.

Last night when I had only the last 16 rows of the toe to knit on the Jaywalker sock, I decided it would be a good time to get Miss B to try on the sock.

I have made two pairs previously and they were fine, so I honestly wasn't expecting much to happen except perhaps to be told to hurry up and finish them. Nope Miss B turns around and says "I can't get it on my foot".

Blah! What the???

I have spent all that time knitting a sock that will fit neither of us.

I wanted to cry.

I knit some more of shedir and kept glancing at the sock.
Nearly an hour later I got up and got out the other Jaywalkers and compared.

They look right, they are the same size.
Admitedly the other ones made of Patonyle seem to stretch a little easier, yet they both stretch to the same point.

I tried the sock on.

It fits fine.

You have to totally scrunch up the foot to get it over the heel, typical Jaywalker quirk, but it's fine.

Miss B had wanted to go off and watch tv so she just kind of rushed so of course it wouldn't go on her foot.

Sheeeeeeeeesh I think I might keep these socks for myself after all that.

P socks started........

Blah, what is it with dpn's and pearl stitches? I get big holes.
The start of the repeat in the middle of the needle looks fine, but the one where I go from one needle to the other is crap. I just don't seem to be able to keep the tension even going between needles.

Perhaps I'll try this on a circular and just hope that going down from 2.75mm to 2.25 mm doesn't make the sock too small.

I really like the look of all those gorgeous P socks I have seen on other blogs and really want a pair for myself. So I will just have to mess about with needles and yarn for a bit.







Something that did work was adding candles and crystals to the shells we collected when we saw Great Grandma last month.

And the shells I brought back over the New Year.

Catching up

Finally a pic of Tubey. I still have to get a better one later, but it will do for now.

I still haven't decided on yarn for the P socks and I have been totally ignoring the jaywalkers. Bad I know.

But I have been knitting the hat. It's not just a hat really, it's Shedir.
I was too scared that I wouldn't be able to do cables so I just called it a hat to make it seem not so hard.

I am loving the cables, but my hands aren't which is making for really slow progress. Especially on the rows where you cross just about every stitch over.
I may have to learn how to cable without a cable needle one day. Perhaps that would speen things up.

The New Magknits is up. Go take a peek.
I'm not sure I'd actually wear it but the Nezumi is pretty cute. I could make it just for fun. Actually I could see Miss B running off with it.

Startitis has hit

It is 7am on Saturday morning and I have already knit a couple of rows on the brown scarf , picked up Jaywalkers 3 and got on line to drool over the Pomotomus socks on Knitty.

These socks have been sneakily calling me for a while, but now I may as well admit it, I am going to make them.
I was trying to keep my WIP list down, it's nice to only have a couple of things going and see them get finished. But I was right, after finishing Tubey, I just want to start everything I was ignoring before.

Now I just have to choose some yarn. What colour??? I'm thinking a solid colour would show the pattern better. Teal patonyle? Burgundy sock something or other? Guess i'll go and look, see what else is in the stash.

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.

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.

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:)

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.

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.

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.

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 :)