Impatience

I am fidgeting about flitting all over the place. I really, really, really want to start the Central Park Hoodie.

Instead I have finished the Blue Opal socks, cast on and undone the purple mittens....... wrong size needles. Cast on yet another pair of fetching, this time in a pale blue Zhivago.

I probably should work on the purple jumper but all I seem to be doing is playing with yarn and mentally rearanging the craft room.
Nothing fits as it is and of course however I move it , it isn't all going to fit.

The problem is that the whole house is like this, so there isn't anywhere else to move things to in any other room.

I think it's time for a clean out. Blah. Why do I always want to do these things in the middle of term when the holidays would be a much better time for it.

Anything to avoid assignments I guess.

On changing my mind

I started knitting the purple handspun, I had knit most of the ribbing.
Then I decided it looked way too pretty to go on my foot. So I think it will become a pair of mittens instead.

I am still sneaking in rows of my sock when I can and I really need to learn how to knit and read at the same time.

Does anyone know how to type and knit at the same time????

Drowning in books

Surrounded by papers and books and of course not the books I would like to be reading. Books I have to read to write another essay. Sitting in amongst all the books is my blue opal sock and I keep sneaking in a row whenever no one is looking.

I have given in and started a pair of socks from the handspun yarn I bought at Mt Pleasannt. I couldn't wait anymore. Besides, it's better to start a sock than start the Central Park Hoodie. Only a few more days till the KAL starts.

Computer is still down

But I am still here and sneaking in a read of your blogs when I get a chance.

My Blue opal socks are growing, the purple jumper is growing very slowly and my assignment is glaring at me. Why is is knitting research is fun but any other research just isn't???

I am still restraining myself from starting any new projects like the hoodie top and I really want a pair of socks from the handspun yarn I bought at the Mt Pleasant Fibre festival.
I spent too much!!! I bought fibre and a drop spindle....... even more stuff to distract me from homework.

And the computer sleeps

My computer seems to be permanantly sleeping at the moment. A nasty virus has snuck in and stopped my computer from working. Hopefully I can fix it but at the moment I have no idea how. Throwing the computer out the window is sounding pretty good about now.

Sunday was knitting day

Miss B and I caught up with Tigers and Miss A who also gave Miss B a knitting book for her birthday. No picture of that yet. Why is it I always forget I haven't taken pictures until I am sitting here blogging?

I think I knit all of 3 cm of ribbing on Sunday and it ended up having to be frogged. I miscounted the cast on row. I really shouldn't try to talk and count at the same time.

Knitting this week seems to be slow as all I have managed to achieve is fixing up what I did on Sunday.

I got mail yesterday. My tin needle protector arrived!!!!
Nat has been hunting these down and solving all the niggly shipping issues and being a fantastic enabler. Thankyou also goes to Donna for thinking of me when the idea of getting these needle protectors first came about.
So of course I had to start something on dpn's just to try it out.

My first toe up attempt. I really don't know if these will grow into socks or not, but it was good to try out a new method.
And of course in the needle protector.

I love this, no more lost needles in the bottom of my bag.

No more stabbing myself when the needles poke out through my bag.

Today...... So far I managed to wash my hair with conditioner again.......The bottle is nearly empty and I suddenly can't read the label anymore. I have no idea what that is about.

Miss B is home from school..... She had a headache and a sore throat yesterday but said it was ok. I was thinking I would just keep her home today and hope she can fight it off with some rest.

Well she woke up today and has a cough too. So the keeping her home I had been thinking about became a definate, possitive, has to happen.

All I can hope is that she doesn't decide to share.

Now to see if I can get my knitting to behave.....................

And my brain is where???

I seem to be having one of those days where my brain just refuses to function. After forgetting to boil the kettle for my cup of tea this morning I thought I would go and have a shower while blogger decided if it would load pictures today or not.

I then tried to wash my hair with conditioner instead of shampoo....... was wondering why there were no bubbles.

I am almost to scared to pick up any knitting today in case I mix that up too.

Anyway here are the pictures blogger was holding out on.
Is there some kind of bribe /sacrifice /offering thing with blogger I don't know about cause it sure seems to like keeping my pictures for itself.

The Shawl that finally ended.

And the sock that got forgotten.


Ok not forgotten but I just couldn't seem to get around to that heel for months.

Now do I try and make my brain function and knit or just go back to bed???

And it's done!!!

Thanks to Tigers who suggested I work on it for just a little bit each time I knit before I pick up what I actually felt like knitting, the never ending shawl actually ended.
Well it's cast off and now I have to wash it and figure out how to pin it out. I haven't done this before so me and pins, um yeah.

I have joined the Central Park Hoodie KAL and of course I want to start right now. It doesn't start till September.
Do you think they would mind if I started early? You know, just swatched..... and kept knitting?
I would still finish late as assignments and things will get in the way later.

Oh Ok I'll wait.

And make a cup of tea and read blogs. It would help if I had actually boiled the kettle first. That mouthful of lukewarm tea when you are expecting nice hot tea is just gross.

And just cause it has been looking incredibly lonely and unloved I picked up the blue opal sock. It now has a heel. Lets see how long it takes to actually get a foot.

Never ending shawl

still hasn't ended. It is growing though. Just very slowly.
Nearly there..................

Blah

Why is it I am now halfway through this jumper and suddenly I am really not liking it much at all???



Probably because I know I have Bendigo yarn to play with.

Stash enhancement

Courtesy of Bendigo Wollen mills




I now have 5 balls of Rustic in Pink Opal




and another 5 in Bluestone.




I couldn't make up my mind so I ordered both.

The pink is to make an adaptation of the ballerina wrap I saw over at Cindy's and the blue is for the Central Park Hoodie that Tigers and I have been drooling over.

I did end up shuffling bookshelves around and now I have to keep shuffling to make everything fit. Funny how stuff never goes back how you thought it would.

On living with a teenager

BLAH!!!

Miss B was officially 13 yesterday and is now of course totally full of herself. She has also warned me that she fully intends being even more obnoxious, irritating and disrespectful than usual, as that is a teenagers job.
My reply was that I wouldn't bother putting much effort into that job as it doesn't pay well.
She kind of huffed and walked off LOL.

Realistically apart from being totally buzzed up on chocolate, chips, lollies and pavlova she has been fine.

We spent the afternoon with friends and family. Miss B and Granny tickling each other and dragging/sliding each other around all over the wooden floor in the lounge. I knew there was a reason I didn't bother mopping the floors.
My mum is totally nuts, but then so is Miss B so they get along fine. I just stand there shaking my head at the pair of them and leave them to it.

So amongst all the chip, lolly , pavlova and roast dinner eating there was no knitting done.
I thought I would make up for it today instead and take the abandoned sock to tafe with me. OOOps , I took the pattern but left the sock at home.

Maybe some will get done tonight, or maybe some bookshelves will get shuffled about, or maybe I'll just go to sleep.

So today is the last day of my holidays before re submerging myself into endless study and not much knitting.

I had hoped to finish a few more things before Tafe started up again, but then of course I got distracted and started some new things too.
There had been so many things I wanted to do this holidays that I didn't get quite as much knitting time as I had imagined. Then again I think I always imagine I can knit more in a certain amount of time than what I actually can.

This blob represents the never ending shawl I really, really want finished so I can focus on the DSF.







And after starting again this is the Sirdar Eternity swatch that grew bigger than a swatch.

Saved

Saved by a $2 purchace made in April.

Yep the 6mm circular I bought at a thrift store in Bundaburg earlier in the year is the one that seems to be fixing the guage issues......... for now anyway.

And here I was thinking I didn't own a 6mm circular and would have to go and buy one. Hmmmm maybe there is method to actually listing what needles I have.

mystery guage???

Instead of working on anything I have going like the shawl I really should finish or fixing the mixed up row on the DFS I swatched for yet another project.

Swatch using Sirdar Eternity met the required specifics of 17 sts and 24 rows to 10cm.

Start knitting get past the ribbing........... progress to the stocking stitch.
Think it is all looking a bit small.
Measure guage and go blah.
Somehow it changed and I am now getting 23 stitches for 10 cm. No wonder it's looking small.How does this happen??? That's an extra six stitches. Blah.

Looks like time for a needle change.

Somehow I am guessing I will be needing one of the sizes I don't have in a circular.

Back to the projects I DO have the right size needles for.

Finally a picture

Blogger has been consistantly painful with it's persistance in eating my pictures. But finally here is the minute amount of progress on the diamond fantasy shawl.



I need to recount the stitches on the current row ( again and again, if I count it enough times I will eventually come up with the number I am supposed to have........ right??) and then I will hopefully be able to move on to the next chart sometime today. Sooo pretty, so much concentration.

Beginnings and endings

I spent a fantastic day shopping at the LYS with Tigers yesterday. We spent the day shopping and talking yarn as you do. The discussion got around to our current projects and why we can't wait to finish some things and others are left sitting there untouched for unspeakable amounts of time.

One of my untouched projects has been Rogue.
I love it and I want it finnished so I can wear it.
But I am hating the striping I am getting from trying to blend the two dyelots.
For a while I was trying to talk myself into believing it would all be ok when it's finished. But I am not even working on it let alone finishing it.
So to the frogpond it is going. The yarn will be seperated into the different dyelots and then can be reassigned a few smaller projects.

Of course as soon as there is a place cleared in the que something else needs to be started. Diamond Fantasy Shawl has been started.
With lots of frogging I am almost done with chart A.

Lace totally befuddles me and I seem to loose yarn overs consistantly.
I spend more time counting my stitches than doing any actual knitting.
But it's soooooooo pretty. I will just have to keep practicing.

Fetching 3

All finished!!! Miss B's blue fetchings are done!!

So of course I am itching to start on something new ( Like the Diamond Fantasy Shawl) but have been trying to work on some of the stuff sitting on the list. I spent a couple of hours last night working on the shawl I currently have going. The rows are really long now and take forever. It seems I am not getting very far and will more than likely cast on very soon.

Why is it that at the start of a project you can see a lot of progress and yet once you get just over halfway done it doesn't seem to matter how much you knit it doesn't grow??

Totally awed....

I will never cease to be in total awe of knitterly peoples generousity. They share their time and their knowledge, they let us learn in our own way and they listen.

It seems knitters are amongst the people who believe in sending surprise packages just because.

Donna
was the source of some amazing surprise kindness and Kit just had to check it out.

Sorry about the bright flash/colour distortion but I had to take it before Kit ran away.... she is really camera shy.

In there is some Zarina and fluffy stuff to make Miss B a pair of socks. That's if I don't run off with the purple yarn myself he he.

The pattern for the Diamond Fantasy Shawl I have been drooling over at Cara's. And to leave me totally speachless Donna also sent some Twinkletoes yarn so I could start right away. How is that for enabling???

I do have one problem...... I can't see through the happy tears to cast on.

Oh and the chocolate......... it was yummy :)

Thankyou so much Donna.

Fetching 2

Fetching 2 off my hands for 2 seconds so I could quickly take a pic.
The colours appear a bit more muted in person but I love them. I can see myself making more of these later as I am going to want some for when these are in the wash. They may need constant washing as the cats have already tried to spill a cup of tea all over them this morning.



Off to start Miss B's pair and try and sqeeze in an appointment at the Dr's.
Miss B has an ingrown toenail..... surgery was recommended.
Now that the surgery date is near it seems to be pretty much healed of it's own accord. Typical. The infection has gone but it's still a bit lumpy. So I want to see if it will be ok on it's own now or if she still needs the surgery. I am hoping the former for her sake as well as mine. I really don't think I can sit in the room with her and watch them cut her toe up. I know she will want me in the room with her, but I just want to be far away so I don't have to watch.

I can happily watch Doctors give me needles and things but not on my little girl.