Weird Yarn Acquisition

Yesterday I acquired some yarn........

But it's all rather weird.

Weird in the way that each ball consists of three or four small leftover balls and wound up together. Each ball is different colours than the others. So I have about ten or twelve multicoloured balls of yarn that would probably work out to about a 12ply or maybe even 16 ply to knit up.

What to do with this multicouloured randomness???
None of the balls particularly appeals on their own, but when all put together they look good in a rather strange way. So maybe something that incorporates all of them.
Random squares? Random crochet?

Sewing = Scaring People

Sewing........ umm me sew. Yes it's rather amusing.

Firstly I scared the lady in Spotlight as I bought fabric and not yarn.
Secondly I scared Miss B by running off with the extention cord that is normally reserved for playstation.
And thirdly I scared myself ........ what the hell was I trying to do? I can't sew.
Or cut straight . Or anything even remotely necessary to make anything resemble what I want it to look like when a sewing machine is anywhere near me.

But I tried it anyway. And made myself a needle roll for my dpn's.

And ended up learning that you really should sew up all the lines for the inside part before you attach the backing. Otherwise you have lines going through all the pieces of your fabric.
Some of my lines are really rather wonky even though I did use a ruler and mark them out. But no you really shouldn't mark it out with pen........ tailors chalk would have been the better option..... I was just too lazy to go hunting for some.

Overall I am still really happy with my needle roll as considering I had NO idea of what I was doing I ended up with something that looks pretty much like I wanted it to and is totally usable. Actually I love it. Damn so does Miss B. Actually Miss B seems to be loving all my stuff at the moment. I think I need to find some good hiding places.

Whoot Socks Recieved!!!

And what gorgeous socks they are , yummy scrummy purple goodness. I adore them. So does Miss B. ( This could be a problem) They are from Katie in Indiana. Thankyou so much Katie.
Actually Katie sounds a lot like me. She worries about the little mistakes in her knitting. You know....... the ones no one else would even notice and even another knitter would really have to hunt for. Believe me most of us knitters are more worried about what mistakes we are making in our own knitting to worry about yours. Besides I have given up....... I can't seem to complete a project without having one mistake in it somewhere. Even if I think I have done it perfectly, months later I will find it. It being my "one mistake trademark".

The funny thing is that since I have accepted my one mistake thing I seem to be making less mistakes.
SHHHHHHHH I shouldn't have said that cause now I will be stuffing up absolutely everything.

Pink Socks Done

Yay for productivity! Got to say I love a FO. Especially one that has been sitting there staring at me begging me to complete it for weeks. The one that when I actually worked on it got done pretty quick. A rainy day where I didn't do anything much but knit and watch Mr and Mrs Smith didn't hurt with the progress either.

I even frogged most of the retro ribby sock so I should be back to where I was before I somehow stuffed it all up. This is not a sock I want to frog again as picking up those itty bitty stitches is almost impossible. I know I have picked most of them up the wrong way and will have to fix them as I knit. But it was the only way. Otherwise those lil things would have just gone and run all the way down and I'd have nothing to pick up and work with.

Iv'e been peeking over at Black Olive's and damn does her stash look heavenly. I probably have nearly that amount of yarn but the majority of it is scraps and odd balls. Yarn that would be perfect for one of these.
I'm not sure I will actually ever make that but I like the idea of it. It looks so snuggly and cosy.

Teaching Knitting?

I found an add in the local paper. A woman wants to learn to knit and crochet. My first reaction was to call her and offer to teach her to knit. But then I got scared. What if I can't teach her? What if I suddenly stuff up everything I try and knit? If I did try and teach her where would I do it? I don't want a complete stranger coming to my home. What if she has already found someone to teach her?

Part of me would love to do this as I'd love to find more people to knit with and I enjoy watching people as they suddenly grasp how it all works.

Crap. I've just jumped in and sent a text to this lady with my number and saying I can teach her to knit. Well I guess now it's up to her to get back to me and discuss what she wants to know and arrange a time to get together. A text probably isn't the best way to go but I don't see that I should pay the cost of calling her mobile when it's me that would be helping her out. I hate calling peoples mobiles and tend to only do so in an emergency.

And in knitting news I am knitting C's brown beanie. Damn is this one slow going, 128 sts on 3mm needles. I must be insane as its killing my fingers........ I hope he doesn't want it in a hurry as it is quite likely to get put down and then pushed aside and hidden while I work on other projects. Really I should be working on other projects........ some things have been waiting way too long and others wouldn't take much to actually finish. And others....... well maybe I'll frog them..... its a really quick way of finishing . Just not very satisfactory as there is no finished object at the end.

Scarves hmmmmmmm

Ok. I finished the Debbie Bliss Lace Scarf.
Just have to sew in some ends and block it.
But I love it.
So then I decided to work on Branching Out.
Here comes the hmmmmm bit. For some reason I stuffed it up and ended up with extra stitches and just decided that undoing it all was easier than trying to tink back each sticth to figure out where I had actually made the mistake.
So at this point the needles are back in the box and the yarn is wound up and I am not even sure if I will make Branching Out with this particular yarn afterall as it seems to catch so very easily. Well that's one way to clear off two projects in one day, finish one and frog the other.

Scarf knitting

The Debbie Bliss Lace Scarf is moving along nicely. Will probably only need one more ball of yarn to finish. Whoot a project thats for me. So nice.
Then I still have my huge list of UFO's to work on. And the list of things I want to make that are still all in my head. Blah. I have to say I am loving having everything added to the side bar even if I do keep remembering something else to add after I publish the blog. It makes it easy to see what I am doing and choose what to work on.
I also don't feel so bad about the UFO"s since I can also see the FO's. All those FO's have been started and completed this year in between starting other things, studying, working and raising Miss B. Ok a lot of those projects are small like socks, but since I started studying I don't get much knitting time anymore so I am quite proud of what I have finished. Especially as I know just how easily distracted I can be by yarn shopping and blog reading, both of which take away precious knitting time.

Apparantly the waiting list just got longer as two of my sisters visited on the weekend and both mentioned that handknitted socks would be nice for Christmas Hint Hint.
Well I made them both measure their feet and said no promises about Christmas or any other particular time but at least this way if I happen to feel like making more socks I have their measurements. Hmmmmmmm I wonder they would be happy if I gave them each a sock pattern, some sock yarn and some dpn's for Christmas.........lazy lazy knitter aren't I?
Nooooooooooooooo don't answer that.

What colour?

Your Blog Should Be Purple

You're an expressive, offbeat blogger who tends to write about anything and everything. You tend to set blogging trends, and you're the most likely to write your own meme or survey. You are a bit distant though. Your blog is all about you - not what anyone else has to say.

What Color Should Your Blog or Journal Be?

Actually I quite like my pink and anyone else is more than welcome to leave comments and say whatever they want :)

Messing about with the sidebar

Yep the sidebar had indeed been messed about with. I actually figured out how to add the percentage bars and the list of projects I am currently working on. Ok So i'm not working on all of them right now............ some of them have been sitting in a corner all on their own for quite some time. And I have possibly forgotten a few. And I haven't added everything to the on the waiting list section.... just because I'd never be able to add absolutely everything.This list is constantly changing anyway depending on what I see in magazines, what I see out there in blogland and what yarn I happen to get my little mitts on.

The sockpal2za socks were sent off on Friday along with another package which is going to a friend in London. Now I just have to wait for everyone to get their packages. Oh yeah..... and I have to wait to get mine.
Isn't it funny... the whole time while making the socks for someone else you are so distracted by making them that you pretty much forget you are going to get some socks yourself. This is the time you start wondering about who your sock pal is and what socks you will recieve. Will they be the colours you like? will they fit? Basically all the questions you wondered about the socks you were sending but now in reverse.

As for the second package I know it will be liked as it isn't for anything in particular, just a surprise. Just a lil thinking of you package.

A Button

Whoot I made a button............

Now I just gotto figure out how to put it where I actually want it

Photobucket

This is a test post from Photobucket.com

Knitting

This is a snippet of an e mail I sent to someone explaining my feelings on knitting.

I love starting something, seeing the texture and colour, watching the pattern emerge and how the yarn knits up and watching it grow. Because at the begining of a project it all seems to grow really quickly.

But then you get to The Middle. By this point I am curious about other patterns/yarn , am sick of the sight of the colour of the yarn I am using. The growing of my knitting seems to be non existant no matter how much i knit.

This is the point I usually start something else aswell as mentally start/imagine many projects. Enough said argh.

But then If I can get past that....... Usually it involves a sock or beanie distraction before I can look at first project again, makes it almost seem like a new project again. ( blah even a sock can call for a sock distraction, the heel =middle LOL )

Then I get to The End.............. and I LOVE the end, that last third or quarter of a project where you can totally see how it is all going together. The part where you know you should have enough yarn left but still always wonder with every project. The part where for some strange reason the knitting is growing again and the closer you get to The End the faster it grows. Just when you were enjoying knitting it again, it wants to finish on you.

And then it's done. And I just sit and stare. And am always amazed. Amazed at what I have managed to create with just needles and yarn, some patience and time.

Sockpaltwoza socks are done

They are finally done!!! Yipeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Socks are finished. Finished. Finished.
I finished them last night and now I just have to post them. Hope my sockpal likes them. Guess I can't do much about it now.
Oh well, at least now I can look at other projects. Just got to decide what I should be finishing next........ probably more socks.

Progress, what progress??

Well unfortunately very little knitting progress.............. one toe almost done but the other not even touched. And instead of completeing database stuff I spent 3 or 4 hours stuffing around on my powerpoint presentation. Everytime I looked at it I found something else I could change. But its almost to a point i'm happy with which means I should be able to spend some of this weeks powerpoint class time doing the database stuff instead. Hopefully I'll sneak in some knitting on toes time in today because I really Really want to move on and work on something else. Am thinking of checking out a yarn shop today for inspiration.

Monday Morning

Yep. It's Monday morning again. I can almost breathe, I slept a little and I even managed to make my hands co - operate with my brain......... I managed to knit on the socks.... they are up to the toes, so hopefully, hopefully will be done sometime today. I would garantee they will be done except fot the fact I have to go to Tafe today and the fact that I still feel ok for a while and then totally unexpectedly need to lay down . Which of course means nothing may end up being done on these socks afterall. But having said that the fact that there are only the toes to go should be some sort of incentive. Especially as if they are finished I can actually do some guilt free knitting and knit something else. Who knows I may even get motivated to try and finish something else. Or maybe I'll just cast on for something else with the needles that would be freed up if these socks were done. Either way it would be some very welcome variety.

Crap

Can't sleep, can't breathe, can't knit.
Blah. Miss B seems to have been rather generous and shared/given me her cold. She could have kept it. Really. I wouldn't have minded.
I have been awake since 4am this morning blowing my nose and trying not to rub my incredibly itchy eyes. It is taking incredible effort to even lift my head away from the pillow as it feels so damn heavy. Have taken panadol and codral and drank too many cups of tea.
Have aslo picked up a sock several times , looked at it and then put it down again. For some reason knit 13 sts, knit 2 tog, knit 1, turn is something my brain doesn't seem to comprehend right now. Well actuall it does, its just my brain can't seem to get the message to my hands, they are just holding the needles and going..... Yeah... and?? Don't think we are actually going to move do you?
The only residents in this house enjoying this are the cats as they are getting lots of company.
Why is it that I have two days off work/ study that I could actually do things in and I feel too crappy to actually make any practical use of this time?

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh Funny Funny People

He he..... Thats for the funny people that found my blog by searching for ohhhhhhhhh.

Knitting stuff........ Well I have one sock done........ but with one of those stupid holes in the side of the heel you get when you pick up the stitches wrong grrrrrrrrr, and two socks that are ready to have the heels done. Yes I know that is three socks.......
I figured I will be undoing the completed one and to make sure I actually get two socks the same it might help to knit them at the same time so I can still remember what I did at each point. This has meant do ribbing on one, then ribbing on sock two, knit twenty or so rows on sock one, then knit twenty or so rows on sock two. It all seems to take so much longer this way, but I think it will work out better in that after having finished one then two is so close to being done that I will finish it. Especially as the dreaded deadline is rapidly creeping up on me........Sep 15 Argh