Stripey Socks are done.

The Lion Brand Magic stripes socks are done. I can't say I particularly like these, but it was good to try out a new (to me) yarn.





After knitting socks on 2.25mm or 2.5mm needles I found it felt really wrong to be knitting these on 3.25mm needles. The knitting felt all sloppy.
I am looking forward to working with some patonyle again soon.

And in UFO news I have decided that seeing as March is already halfway over, this months project will be one that doesn't involve a great deal of work.
In fact it wont involve any knitting at all.

The lotus blossum tank has been sitting in the basket untouched for months.

Everytime I pick it up to work on it I am doubtful. I don't like how it sits on the model in the picture. And in person it looks really big. Wide big. Wide like it could go around me twice.

Solution: frog and reclaim yarn. Some knits are just not meant to be.

Knitty

Yes, the new Knitty is out and I totally love Dashing.

I have managed to resist casting on immediately, but that doesn't mean I didn't hunt through the stash for a suitable yarn. :)

Public Speaking

I am a very shy person and generally don't have much to say for myself until I get to know people and feel comfortable. This is often misinterpreted as me being standoffish, rude and snobby.
Crazy Aunt Purl does a fantastic job of explaining the fears and anxieties of meeting new people, of entering a room full of people and feeling they will judge you that you should go and read her and then come back here.

Most people have some fear of public speaking, but seeing as normal speaking can be scary for me, public speaking is just HUGE.


I completed Certificate IV of my studies last year but the graduation ceremony wasn't held until this week.
It was at this ceremony that they wanted me to speak.
Not only did they want me to speak, I was to present some of my work.
Share it for all the world (ok not the world, 60 or so people) to see.
Shall we just say denial.......
For weeks I have been living in denial, not reading through my work, not practicing presenting it.
Stubborn, hope it all goes away, denial.

Just as stubbornly the date of the ceremony got closer.
And closer.

Until the 8th of March showed up in my face and it was just there.
I considered not going.
But I really wanted to see my classmates and see what direction everyone had gone in.
I figured I could go and if it got too bad I could just leave...

So I went and I got my certificate from the minister of education and training.

And I sat, and listened to the rest of the stuff that goes on at these ceremonies.

And I waited....( they seem to think it's funny to put me last so I have to sit terrified and shaking even longer.)

And finally ( it always feels longer when you are waiting)
it was my turn.

I went up there, I found my page, I said my stuff.

It flowed. I didn't mix up my words. They were listening.

They were paying attention and taking in what I had to say.
They were understanding what I was saying and laughing where they were supposed to. And in that moment I forgot to be scared.
I was almost a little bit excited......... ( I said almost).

And then it was done.
I had spoken in front of all those people, and the people with titles and I was still alive.

And the best part......
was when people, people I don't know, people who came there to support other students, came up to me to say they had liked my work.

I had feared and done it anyway.
I went home on such a high.
I couldn't sleep for hours.

No I don't want to do it again, speaking in public still terrifies me; but that rush of getting past the fear, for even that moment..... maybe bungee jumping isn't such a bad thing.

What does this mean?

A few stitchmarkers and the remnants of a ball of Rowan Calmer, what does it mean?

It means that I finished Shedir. All of it. Every last twist. Every last stitch.

I really don't enjoy knitting all those cables.

I love how it has turned out and all those cables are worth it.

This was my main project for Project Spectrum this month aswell as my UFO for February. It is really nice to be able to cross this one off the list.

Catching up

It feels like it has been so long since I have actually had a decent chunk of knitting time let alone actually finished anything, so it is with a feeling of relief that I have managed to finish the happy feet socks.




Cleckheaton Marino Bambino knit on 2.5mm circs.

All yarn was from the same dyelot, yet one sock pooled and the other didn't.

The softness of this yarn more than makes up for any misbehaviour of the colours.

Bright and cheerful, a nice contrast to the gray of Shedir.

I came home from tafe on Friday to find one of thos little slips in the letterbox saying I had to go to the post office and pick up a parcel. I am expecting a few things soonish but nothing just right now so spent all night wondering what it was.
I ended up deciding it must be some promotional materials from Yarn magazine for a display I am putting together for my studies. Yes I managed to include knitting in an assignment :).

Miss B and I went to the post office Saturday morning to find it wasn't what I was thinking at all. It wasn't any of the things I thought it might have been.

Kimberly had sent me a belated birthday present. I had no idea this was coming which made opening the parcel even more fun. Of course Miss B insisted I open it all before we got home and is now trying to claim the knitting notebook.

Coffee, Lindt chocolate, notebook with divided sections for notes on needles and patterns, tea and yarn.

Yummy Yummy alpaca/silk yarn from Misti Alpaca. This is one of those yarns I have been seen about on line and have been dreaming about. Now I have my very own to to go and pet every 5 minutes. It is so, so soft. Thankyou so much Kimberly.

Something else I bought a few weeks ago, but is still in hiding as it is to be a gift, was some yarn from Lynne. As much as I can't show you the yarn right now and the colours are not what I would have chosen personally, I love the yarn. It is soft and there are lots of colours I want. The service was friendly and fast, with Lynne happily responding to my request of using money order.

I have been avoiding this site purely because I don't trust myself not to order any more yarn from her now that I know just how nice it is. But that doesn't mean I can't send you over there :P Go on, have a look.

Happy Shopping.

Knitting has a life of it's own.

Blue yarn for project spectrum.

Classic 5 ply in Aztec from Bendigo Woolen Mills.




I started the Lace Leaf Shawl and I am loving how it is knitting up.







Until I look properly and see all the mistakes.

10 of them, already.

Time to make a cup of tea and start over.

Busy Busy Busy

Classes have started up again and so of course the knitting seems to be making only minute progress. A row here and there but hardly worth blogging about.

So far I am excited by my classes, a big change from some of the classes I was doing last year, and am really looking forward to learning new things. Things that were problems before seem to be slowly resolving or turning out not to be as much of a problem as I had anticipated. Having said that this is still the first week, ask me about it all at the end of the term.

This week seems to be a time of catching up with people I haven't seen much of lately, one person in particular I hadn't seen for 11 years, and there have been lots of discussions of the 'you have changesd so much variety'. I have to say it's rather weird chatting to someone who knew me before I had Miss B and who I didn't see as much of once Miss B was born. Someone who is able to remind me of the teenage person I was and who I apparently no longer resemble. ( I am hoping that is a good thing). I have decided that some teenage things are just not meant to be remebered. ( The haircuts, the clothes, the boyfriend, etc.)

My life has changed so much in the last few months and yet the past has snuck up on me and part of me feels like I am right back there. Almost a circle, but when I think about it, it's not really a circle as everything else has changed.
It has been good to look at where I was and realise how far I have come. It's nice to look back on the people who helped along the way and to now be able to really see how much their input actually impacted on different levels. It would seem I still have a few people to catch up with and thank.

It still amazes me that it is sometimes the person you had the briefest contact with can be the person who made the biggest difference.


Who made the biggest difference in your life?

Ok it's a little late

I finished January's UFO Project ( Shhhhhhhh about it being halfway through February)
The pattern was not something I would normally choose. I don't really like the triangles of knit and purl stitches, but I did want to play about with beads, so this was a good project to try that out on. I learnt how to thread the beads on with some fine wire and then I learnt it was even easier to get beads threaded if I let Miss B do it for me. So finally finished are the Rolling Thunder socks.

Slow progress

Here I was wondering why Shedir has been sitting around for so long. After knitting all of about 6 rows I remember why I put her aside in the first place. Cables, lots and lots of cables and small needles hurt my hands. Other knitters seem to fly through this knit, but me, I just have to crawl.



Knitterly progress was dramatically slowed by visitors as chatting, catching up and drinking tea took over. Athough at the end of the day I do have this.







A pile of pieces ready to be washed and seamed together. Then a collar to be added and a zipper.
Hmmmmm zipper.......... procrastination.........
Maybe I'll go and start another sock.

Starting Project Spectrum

I missed out on Project Spectrum last year and so was determined to join this year. With the February/March colours being blue, white and gray I had assumed I would pick something blue.


I hunted through my WIP's thinking they were mostly purple and that I had nothing going in the right colours and that I would have to cast on something new, then I found Shedir.





Poor Shedir has been sitting neglected for way too long and needs some attention. The gray is perfect for Project Spectrum and can double as my February UFO .

It is 40C or 104F here today so I don't know how much actual knitting will be happening today.

Would it hurt the knitting if I took it for a swim???

UFO Update

January's UFO project isn't complete but it has definately transformed and grown from it's beginings of a shawl and changed into a sock and a half. Only some foot and a toe to go.

The fetchings are done!!! So a Fo for January.

I had really, really wanted Urban Aran to be my FO for January but it just didn't happen. Too many days spent hunting around for back to school stuff and uniforms and generally just being busier than I had anticipated got in the way.

It's funny how quickly holidays go and how little of that holiday time you actually end up getting to yourself.

I am almost certain I get more knitting time when I am in the middle of an assignmnet.

Coming or going?

It seems I don't know what I am doing....... I am flitting from project to project and dropping one to cast on yet another. I can't seem to make up my mind. I started something else.

Another pair of Fetchings, this time in Cleckheaton country silk. This is the first one and it still needs a thumb.

My knitting behaviour seems to be reflecting my state of mind in other areas too. Unsettled and debating the decisions I have made as well as the ones I need to make.

Miss B started High School today, she went off all on her own and suddenly seems quite grown up. ( Don't remind me I said that when she is overtired at the end of the first week and starts behaving like a two year old.)

I enroll in the city on Thursday for my new course. I start next week. New course, new campus, new people, new everything and all very scary.

Moving on from a relationship that was rather toxic. It left me drained physically and mentally and generally made me feel crappy. I kept holding on longer than I should have, I guess I was hoping I was wrong and that things were OK.... but they are not.

You get comfortable being with someone when you have been with them for a few years and it's scary to suddenly be on your own again.

Although being single is having it's advantages.... no one hogging the computer, no one complaining about the amount of yarn I purchase or how many projects I start.

Urban Mistake

You know that funny feeling......... the one that tells you your knitting has something wrong with it........... it surfaced last night. I ignored it for a little while and kept on knitting.

I made a cup of tea and kept on knitting, all the while wondering what was wrong.

Dodgy Knitting How it should look

I looked at my knitting and couldn't figure out why I was trying to decrease in the cabled section. Then I got out the other front piece and went OOOOOPS!!!

Somehow in between cups of tea and conversation I had missed the part about putting those cabled stitched on a stitch holder.

Guess what I will be doing today....................

Ummm

I am still messing about with the blog, I have tried several colour changes to the background and didn't like any so far so I am back with the white ......... for now.

Tigers has given me a few hints on how to make a few other changes, all of which involve me taking pictures, making decisions and not deleting the wrong things. We will see what happens there.......

When it comes to anything involving sewing and pins I am hopeless.
Miss B doesn't want to wear crooked uniforms so yesterday we bribed Nanna into taking up the hems.
Lots of cups of tea and chocolate chip cookies were involved.

After all of that sugar my brain couldn't focus on anything patterned so a pair of plain socks were cast on

Lost sidebar

Once again in the process of updating my sidebar I seem to have managed to make it dissapear.Me being me, I hadn't got the sidebar to a point I was happy with from last time and so of course hadn't saved it.
At least the posts are still there and it gives me a chance to mess about with templates and decide if I want a change.

Progress

Finally, one of my projects has gotten past the 50% mark. It feels like it has been a really long time since that has happened.

I have finished the beaded section on the second Rolling Thunder sock and I have finished the left front for the Urban Aran cardie. Who knows maybe I will get something finished and off that list this month.

Comparing yarns

I had a birthday this week and therefore have some money to buy yarn.

All is good as I go hunting about on line. I had almost decided what I wanted to buy and was just debating between two colours.

The problem came when I checked out the same yarn on another website. The colours look totally different and I don't like either of them on the second site.

How do I work out which is the true representation of the yarn?

I don't want to order something and then have to mess about with returning it if I hate the colour when it gets here.

What do you do???

One sock done

The first Rolling Thunder sock is all done and ready to be grafted. Progress on this sock seems incredibly slow....... possibly something to do with the garter rib?

Or perhaps it is due to me being distracted by an
other knit. Another knit called Urban Aran

The colour is a little more pink than this and I am loving how it is knitting up. Rustic 12 ply in Pink Opal from Bendigo Woolen Mills

UFO Resurrection for January

I have joined UFO Resurrection 2007 over at Kat with a K's.

I need some motivation to finish some of the things just sitting about instead of starting more and more things. Having all those things sitting over there in the sidebar is gatting a little overwhelming. I need to be honest about what I am actually going to finish and what just isn't working.

So each month I have to pick one thing and work on it, thereby taking it out of the UFO pile or frog it and reclaim the yarn.

So first up is the Diamond Fantasy Shawl, that as much as I love and I still want to make one, this yarn just isn't working for me.



Yarn was frogged and reclaimed.


Rolling Thunder Socks from Knitty.

Joining.....

I've just joined up for project spectrum over on Lolly's Blog. I like the idea of working with colours I wouldn't normally use and this seems the perfect way to try it out.

Also new are the Rolling Thunder Socks. This yarn started out as the beginings of a Diamond Fantasy Shawl.

The diamonds were being hidden in the colours and I have decided to try the shawl in a solid colour instead.

I am loving how the socks are going and I love the beads.

Edit: I would love it if blogger would load pics too.

A knitter without a row counter.........

My mum has knit forever.

Ok, not forever, but since she was five.
I don't remember a winter that she didn't knit while I was growing up.
She doesn't knit as often now, work takes away knitting time, but when she does find time her work is beautiful, especially her aran jumpers.

In all the years I have watched her knit I have never seen her use a stitch marker like what are used now, it was always just a scrap of yarn.

So I made her a set of stitchmarkers and also included one with a row counter attached. I figured she probably already had one but figured it wouldn't hurt to have another. I know I like having extra for when I start yet another project.

But no, Mum has never had a row counter either.

I am now wondering what other knitting gadgetry has Mum missed out on.

It's 2007

We were woken up by a car crashing on the corner at the end of our street just before 7 am. By the time I had stumbled outside along with a few other neighbours the driver had already run off. Stolen car? Drunk driver? Both are probably likely.

Not a Happy New Years for someone.

As for Miss B and I it is a good day.

Changes have been happening in our situation and I am still up in the air with a lot of what will be happening for us this year. Decisions need to be made, school, transport, relationship etc, but I am now feeling confident I will be able to make the right ones.

Knitting..... No I haven't started an Afghan, I don't even have the yarn yet (notice the yet), but I do want to make one.

And today is really good, either that or Miss B is just in a really good mood. Here is Miss B modelling Tubey for me.





Although the sleeves are a tiny bit long and the body is a couple of cm's too long on her, she could get away with wearing it out. It's frightening when your child fits into your clothes.
And dammit, she looks good in that green.
Anyone get the feeling this may no longer be my Tubey???

Tubey 2

The final FO for 2006.

Miss B and I spent Friday visiting Tigers and Miss A. We spent the day knitting in her craft room with her working on her Central Park Hoodie and me on Tubey.
I had cast off by the time I left, but had cast off too loosly and needed to redo the cast off.

I was sent home with orders to finish Tubey as it was so close to being done. What did I do? I came home got distracted and ignored poor Tubey. So today I decided to get it done and I did. Tubey is all done and ready to be washed.

Tigers has got the idea of knitting an afghan planted in my head. I really, really want one and I know I would love it when it's done. I also know how often I change projects and that I am not likely to finish something that big. Doesn't stop me from wanting to try anyway.

I am dreaming of this in a green to go with my lounge.

I am also dreaming of it knitting itself.

And I was dreaming to think I wouldn't want to buy any more yarn.

Well I wont be buying any more yarn this year.

Happy New Years!!!

Loving Thuja socks.

Unfortunately Cindy didn't want to knit these for me so I had to do it myself. Not hard at all considering Miss B has come down with a virus and we are now housebound. The complete opposite of the mad rushing about all over the place we were doing only a couple of days ago.

So Thuja socks are done, but sending a few things like cards and other bits are not.



Finishing something always makes me want to start something new. Then of course I look at my list of UFO's and figure I really should work on some of them. Then I start thinking I really should work through some of the stash.

It seems a lot of people are feeling the same way about knitting from the stash if you read the comments over at Wendy's. Scroll down to the December 16th entry and she talks about knitting from the stash 2007. Something she intends doing for nine months.

I'm not sure that is something I could stick to,nine months is a long time and as soon as I decide not to buy any more yarn I seem to accumulate three times as much as I would normally.
I think for now I will at least go through the stash, perhaps write a list of some sort so I know what I actually have and generally tidy it all up. The cats love swiping ziplocked bags of yarn off the shelves when I'm not home and there are a few sitting at the bottom of the shelves that I just got sick of picking up. Maybe someone is telling me to knit them.

Holidays

It's school holiday time here and of course I was hoping this would mean that some knitting would happen.
All that has happened so far has been a mad rush around the shops in an attempt to do some christmas shopping, and then another day spent doing food shopping.

What I really want to do is go yarn shopping, maybe after christmas is all done.

I am slowly working on the Thuja socks and I am loving them, I just keep being called away to do other things.
Cindy is able to knit these socks a lot faster than me and I am thinking of sending them over to her :P

Miss B and I took a peek over at the new Knitty. Argosy is my favourite and I am contemplating adding Rolling Thunder to my 'one day' list. Adding beads to my socks is something I have wanted to try since seeing some of Donna's socks.

Time for a cup of tea and some knitting I think.

Scarves or socks.......

I was going to start on the Grape Hyacinth Scarf.

I did start.

I did the begining and one repeat and hated every single p2tog- tbl.

I ripped it out and started these socks instead.

Thuja socks from Knitty. These I am loving. Loving them so much I may just have to make myself some more later on.





I am also loving that classes are over until next year.

My 1 hour presentation was graded, my essay was graded, all the other bits and pieces are all done and graded.

Distinction!!!

I love that word.
I have officially completed Certificate 4.

Now I can enjoy the holidays and knit and maybe even finish a few things.

And now I can breathe...

It really feels like I have been holding my breath for weeks, waiting, working and wondering if I would manage to meet assignment deadlines. As usual I procrastinate and as usual this causes me ridiculous amounts of stress. I really don't know why this happens as I alocate plenty of time to study, I just don't seem to get much done in that time . For some reason I need that intense deadline of something being due immediately before I can actually get going and have my work start to make any sense. The other downside to working under intense deadlines is the tendancy to make stupid mistakes.

Anyway it's done and handed in and I can't do anything about it now.

But I can finally knit, and I have been.
Tubey has grown





And of course I started something else




And I want to start another something else with this




Any guesses what?

And so it goes

Tubey is growing rather slowly, a bit like my essay.

Mindless 3x1 rib for the rest of the body, perfect for getting my thoughts together in my head.

I just need to learn how to keep knitting while I type everything up.

Everything is due this week and then I just have one more class next week.

I can see some knitting actually happening around here then.

Where do they go?

I had 17 balls of yarn when I started Tubey, more than enough.

I have finally picked up the stitches and started the body.

I only remember using 4 balls, maybe 5.

There are 10 balls left in the yarn bag.

Does this mean I knit up an extra two balls of yarn without noticing or did two balls of yarn get bored and decide to play hide and seek?

Knitting where???

Ummmmm not here. Nope, as tempted as I am, it is all study here at the moment. A one hour presentation to do next week and I am only about half way prepared. Eeeeek!

Actually I don't think it is possible for me to ever be totally be prepared for a presentation as I always hope that I somehow wont have to do it.

Standing in front of the class for a whole hour...............I feel sick.

I got mail!!!!

This would be the weather we are having today, weird as yesterday was 34c or about 90 F.

Mail makes it a much better day.

Kimberly at Somebunny's love and I organized a trade between ourselves.

We decided on sock yarn, chocolate and tea. A fun way of trying something from the other side of the world.

I had an assistant. Kit loves playing with paper.

It is really really dark today, but here are the goodies. Four different types of tea to try and chocolate, yummy, yummy chocolate.

Green and Black's Almond as well as Hazelnut and currant.

A tin of Cocoa Bon's Tahitian Vanila chocolate caramel and hiding in there are some sitch markers and of course, yarn.

All wonderfully new to me.

I can't wait to try everything.

And the yarn is olive mahogony a merino tencel blend from mindseye yarns. So, so soft.
No one minds if I ignore my assignments and cast on right now do they???

I love it!!!

Thankyou so much Kimberly for doing this swap with me. I hope you love your parcel as much as I love mine.

Green Tree Frog Socks

What a difference some sleep and some knitting makes to your perspective on the world.

Buses still suck, but no one said Miss B couldn't ride a bike to school.

Parenting is still hard and should be a job that is shared.

Unfortunately it isn't always shared, thank god for friends and phones.

Essays and presentations are still horrifying, I have one page more done than I did yesterday. ( one more page than none, gulp)


And knitting............ A FO

Green Tree Frog Socks.

These socks are going to live in Queensland with Miss B's Great Grandma.

Great Grandma has green tree frogs that live in the pot plants outside her windows.

And the socks have lots of green....

On envy

Blah!!!
A bus company recently shuffled our bus services around "to be more beneficial to more people".

My bus no longer goes past the 3 schools it previously went past. One of the major factors in deciding on which high school to send Miss B to next year.

Now to get to a school that previously took one bus and less than ten minutes to get to, she will have to catch two busses with about 25 minutes in between. She will have to wait in a place I am uncomfortable with her being alone in and it will end up taking an hour if not a little longer to get there.

Tell me how this is a better service???

After calling them and being told the old bus route will not be reinstated and that there had been no complaints ( what was my call then??) they were unable to tell me how I was meant to actually get Miss B to school in a reasonable amount of time, on time and safely. So much for customer service.

As far as no complaints......... that would be because most people would be sending their complaints to another bus company instead, not realising that first bus company are the ones in control of the changes. ARGH!!!


I am filling out my SATAC form for tafe next year and have just realized that the course goes for longer than I had previously thought and I am really wondering if I can do it.
I don't know if I can keep up with the essays and deadlines and assignments and fitting in things around Miss B.

Next year I will be studying at a different campus with different class times.
I don't know if I will be able to be home for her after school how I have managed to be so far.

I am tired, tired of constantly juggling, tired of feeling I am not spending enough time with Miss B,tired of doing homework, tired of feeling I should be doing more.

And then I read a post. It mentions how hard parenting is when their partner is away.

And I giggle.

And giggle.

And laugh.

A little bit evily.

And really, really envy this person the support they have in raising their children.

And envy the time they have at home with their children.

And envy the choices they have.

And envy the knitting time they have.

And the time at home with the children.

And the knitting time.

And and and...........

And then of course reality kicks in and I have to acknowledge that of course I am just having a crap day and am feeling sorry for myself.

I have no idea on everything that goes on in their life and so of course am only basing this envy on my perception of the bits of their life they choose to share in their blog.

Who knows, maybe there are some days ( days that yarn follows me home perhaps) that someone out there envies me....

More yarn but very little knitting.

A package of yarn arrived yesterday.
Yummy yummy yarn!!!
Pictures when blogger will allow.

For now knitting is going slowly as the assignment and homework level increases. Only a few more weeks and I can breathe knit again.

Fizzle and stash.

Ok it's done. I finished Sizzle.
But I'm feeling a bit blah about it. The coal colour isn't quite what I was hoping for and the neckline while definately wearable, doesn't sizzle.
I checked and rechecked the pattern and my measurements and I started the neck where I was supposed to.

I just got Miss B to try on Sizzle and it Sizzles where it should. Seems if I were to make another I need to adjust for height for the neck aswell as adding extra length.

Halfway there with the socks for Great Grandma.

Stash additions from the craft fair. Noro shade 87

And Debbie Bliss pure silk

Feeling better

I still seem to get tired quickly and sore if I do too much ( shhhh about walking around all day at the quilt and craft fair) But am feeling almost normal.

For the last week I seem to have been unable to interpret what I am reading and have spent as much time undoing knitting as what I have been knitting.
I am happy to find that my brain seems to have returned and I can actually follow a knitting pattern again.

Hopefully this means I will actually finish something.

Catching up?

I wasn't quite up to going to knitting in the Library/gardens on Sunday and after reading the group posts it didn't seem many were going anyway.
So I spent the afternoon with Tigers and Miss A, knitting outside in the sun.
Miss A and Miss B went off and watched dvd's while Tigers and I attempted to not get chocolate cake on our knitting.
I have to say catching up with Tigers at home was very enjoyable. There was no expensive hot chocolate or mouldy cheesecake to worry about and the girls had fun. Neither of them started on the "I'm bored/ can we go now?" thing that usually seems to happen at some point when we knit elsewhere. If anything they wanted to play longer.


I have been fighting with my computer for weeks and it has been going slower and slower , with more and more pop ups jumping about all over the place. It decides to just stop at the most inopportune times and I cant open or shut pages , usually when I have just found something I have been looking for.
So today I downloaded and installed the free avg antivirus and spyware software.
I ran the scans.......... 1208 files were infected. No wonder it wasn't going very well. Surprising it went at all actually.
Now it seems to be running really well, lets hope it stays that way.

This is what I finally gave in and attempted yesterday




It was 200 gms of white 4 play yarn, now it's just pretty.

On my coffee table

My cofee table is a mess!

Trying to find the remote under all the yarn and half done projects is a challenge.

First up is Tubey , so far I have done the back and most of one sleeve. It's actually a lot more green than blue.





Then there's a sock with the heel flap knitted. Behind it is a closer interpretation of Tubey's real colour.

This tangled mess is the tea pot mat. 1/3 of a row and a cast off to go. Blah procrastination.

The start of Shedir. Blue Rowan Calmer, so so soft. I may find this a little hard to part with.

And Sizzle which for some unknown reason is looking increadibly grey on my computer. It's actually a dark charcoal, not quite black.

Funny, everything is blues, greens and blacks at the moment. Where did all the pinks and purples go???

What is on your coffee table???

On Knitting

I've been feeling better and so of course knitting has been happening. Not much but definately more than none. It feels good to be actually knitting again instead of just staring at balls of yarn and wishing it to grow.

I have finished the back of sizzle and keep swapping between projects as I can't seem to settle on just one thing right now.

Mary....... the Central Park Hoodie is a cardie. I love it and have been wearing it a lot.
The only problem I have with it is that Miss B wants to run off with it.

Perception.

I seem to have an unrealistic perception of time. More to the point I seem to always think I will get more knitting done in a certain amount of time than what I ever actually get done.

I thought that during these last couple of days at home I would get a lot knitted, perhaps even something else finished. It seemed realistic. I am at home and not at tafe or work this week. ( convieniently forget about all the work I have to catch up on next week)

What actually happens is that I get tired and fall asleep, probably exactly what I should be doing but it doesn't get any knitting done. Or I find I am too sore and uncomfortable to sit still for very long so not much knitting gets done then either.

So instead of these hours and hours of knitting I imagined, it is the first hour and a bit where painkillers work really, really well and then I sleep.

Having faced that I am not going to get anywhere near as much knitted as I hoped, what do I do???

I start two more projects.

Sizzle, just because I love it.

Shedir for the lovely lady who shared a room in hospital with me. She has bowel cancer and is going for her second lot of chemo in a week or so.

Home again.

Not that many of you knew I wasn't at home hidden under balls and balls of yarn quietly knitting away, but I wasn't and now I am home again.

I had some keyhole surgery done last week and it seems the doctors had lots of fun rearranging my insides. More rearranging than they had originally planned on which meant more time spent in hospital than planned on too.

It is just so nice to be home, sit in my own chairs and drink tea from my own cups.

Now I just have to rest and heal and of course knit.

Central Park Hoodie

Halfway there

After a ridiculous amount of time spent procrastinating, I managed to actually pick up the pieces of central park hoodie. With books in front of me that really didn't explain how to attach the sleeve to the body I fudged about and came up with something I am reasonably happy with.

Once I got past the curved part and on to the straight parts all the bits I had been reading about seaming suddenly made some sort of sense. I now have one sleeve attatched and seamed and one side seam done.

The seam went a bit wonky when I got to the ribbing so I think I am doing something wrong there. I am going to un pick that part and try again.

And wow, seaming takes soooooooooo long. Who would have thouht???

It's time

Oh and look blogger is playing nice today.

The finished opal striped socks. I love how these turned out.

The fourth pair of Fetchings



Time I stopped being scared and at least had a go at seaming up the central park hoodie. All the pieces are just sitting there tormenting me .

Every time I pick up something else to knit I stuff it up and end up frogging. It seems I am not going to make any knitting progress til I do this.

Wish me luck!!!

Eeek!

Blogger has eaten my pictures. Mean Mean Mean!!!.

Anyway I have finished the zhivago fetchings, the purple fluffy sock has grown a bit, the lotus blossom has grown by all of two rows and the central park hoodie is still in pieces.

I have way too many projects going and I don't seem to focus on any of them. Shhhhh about the teapot mat I started from the Jo Sharp book Knit Issue 2.

Time to check out the bendigo shade card and work out some yarn substitutions.

Holidays are for.......

Fixing a few things on the computer. Putting the camera software back on for starters and actually posting a knitting pic!!!

Holidays are also for totally giving up on whatever it was you spent the last term intending to knit in the holidays and just knitting whatever you feel like knitting.

The start of Lotus Blossum Tank.

Yarn: Jo Sharp soho summer dk cotton in Orchid.

The Distraction Socks

Yarn : Heirloom Heatherwood Shade 581

The start of more socks

Yarn : Hotsocks from Lincraft

And of course

Central Park Hoodie awaiting my mum to come over and teach me how to sew pieces together.

Yarn: Bendigo 12 ply Rustic in Bluestone

I'm also enjoying my re-aquaintance with pots of earl grey tea.

A long weekend

Knitting at the library on Sunday was great, Maybe a little too great....... I knit a tad too far on fetching and have to rip back a few rows. Either that or grow really long hands.
I got to see the burgundy harmony Em was using for her Sizzle. I love the coulour and I love the pattern. I could see this in a block too. Not so sure about the actual knitting of the black. Oh well I can think about it. It's not like I don't have anything to knit.

I also got to spend some time with Tigers and her fantastic stash. So much sock yarn. Such friendly cats. Even the one who got stuck on the other side of the fence forgave me for laughing at it and came over for a cuddle.

I spent Sunday night and all of Monday at C's. It was nice just spending time together without Miss B or any pressure from dealines and just be.
Miss B ended up staying out with her Nana longer than planned and a new project mysteriously started.

Giggling and stuff

Ooops still giggling. It's all Tigers fault with her quiz results and the antics of her cat. I can't help it if I find the idea of her running around her backyard in jammies at 7 am in the morning trying to help her cat get back over the fence really, really funny. Now I know it probably wasn't funny and I wouldn't be thinking it was funny at all if it was my cat. But really, the way she described it you can't help but start giggling just a bit. Go on, read it and tell me you didn't giggle or at least smile. See ..... you can't.

As far as results go well I think mine had something to do with sending the aliens back to eat the fat little 5 year olds he he he


And knitting....... Central park hoodie is all knitted. I just have to wait till I see my mum in the holidays, she has promised to teach me how to sew all the peices together.

Confession time. ......... As much as I love knitting I have never bothered to learn to sew things together. Tubey = no sewing. Socks = no sewing. Shedir = no sewing. I have read books and I have tried to figure it out ( C's Mittens ARGH!!!) but somehow mine looks nothing like what it is supposed to. Lumpy and bumpy and not at all even. I don't think it will ever fall apart but the seam sure looks like crap. Obviously it is something I need to see done in person and am not able to get from a book alone.

Funny, I can graft fine, but sewing............. I think it has more to do with I am not sure where I am meant to be threading my needle through. With grafting the stitch is on the needle still so it's totally obvious what is next.

Mum got giggling too once she realised that as much as my knitting has been improving, I have no idea how to put all the bits together. I think she liked that there is something she can teach me.