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?