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.

Eeeek!!!

Eeeek!!! I misread the hood decrease instructions so I now have a very pointy hood. OOOOPs. All that nice grafting has to be frogged and about ten rows need to be ripped back and redone. Hopefully I'll get to it tonight.

Essay was at 1004 words yesterday morning and by 9:30 last night was all done 1957 + referencing bringing it up to the 2000 words needed. Got to love referencing when the brain simply refuses to come up with any more words. Well no , the brain thought of lots of words, just none that were polite or even remotely related to the essay topic. Blah it's not actually that many words......... it's putting them in some kind of order that makes coherent sense that is the problem. And never being happy with what I have written and re written and blah. But for now it is as done as it is ever going to be and that will have to do.

Hoods and things

I nearly didn't make the Central Park Hoodie because when I first saw it I didn't like the seam running down the centre of the hood.

Introduce the magic of grafting and there is no seam.

YAY!!!

Just got to pick up way to many stitches for the band eeeeeeeeeeeek!

Distraction socks are all done........... pity the essay they were distracting me from isn't.

Focus on books....... hide yarn............. eat chocolate.

Ohhhhhhhhh Looky

After reading instead of studying as usual I read Angela's blog and wow, she has some socks. Nothing like seeing a pile of someone elses knitted socks to make you want to start another pair.

I sat and watched some CSI last night and now have the hood started on the Cenral Park Hoodie. I am loving how this is all coming together. I just want to spend all day on it........

The weather has been crappy as I thought, but my mindset on it has changed. I decided to to not worry about blocking and trying to get things dry and have instead been enjoying listening to the rain hitting the roof most of last night and this morning. Doesn't make for good sleep but is a great sound to knit to.

Sleeves all done!!

I have no idea why but that second sleeve seemed quicker than the first one?? Anyway now I have to put it down so I can actually do some work and try and get an essay written.

Of course all I want to do is put all these peices together and knit the hood and finish.

The weather is all crappy and probably going to be wet all weekend so blocking the peices is going to be fun....

Ok OK back to the pile of books and papers.

One sleeve, two sleeve

Well not quite, one is done and the other is started so at least the first one finally ended.

Miss B was in a performance at the Festival Theatre on Monday night. Part of the "Festival of Music" which is held each year and consisted of students from 13 different schools all singing together. Each school practices alone all year and then all get together for only two rehersals together before the final performance.
I have to say I was impressed with the performances the children gave and the way it all came together.
On the night I also bumped into my neice , Miss J, who was also singing. Neither Miss B nor Miss J had realised the other was involved. I'm glad I did manage to bump into her as her mum hadn't been able to come and watch her. At least she knew someone was there in the audience watching. Funny how things turn out.

I really should go and attack this other sleeve, but I'm tired. Maybe I'll just go and hunt down some chocolate instead.

Never ending sleeve

I always think sleeves are smaller than they actually are, so when I actually knit them I can never figure out why they take so long. Maybe it's just because they get bigger and bigger and I prefer to knit things that get smaller like socks and beanies.
I am still stuck on the first sleeve.

I have to admit I might have got past the first sleeve if I didn't decide I feel odd with no socks on the needles and start a pair. I am calling them Distraction socks, they are in Heirloom Heatherwood shade 581. A bluey torquisey colour.

The presentation is done. I'm not sure how as it was only the day before it was due that I only had one page of scribble. On the actual day I had pages and pages of typed notes, handouts for the class, synopsis for the teacher and managed to keep it together and not run away.

Now I just have to get it together and put together a sensible sounding essay. Nah. Lets just forget all about it till next week when it's actually due. No idea why but this seems to be how I work best.
I'm not going to argue with it, especially if it means I get to knit for another day or two.

Speaking of knitting, how much do you love it when a friend says "Lets go to the yarn shop."
How much more do you love it when this friend is a non knitter????(Yes I am trying to convert her. Give me time.)
That's what happened on Friday and of course some yarn came home with me. The Heirloom Heatherwood and some Merino and Fur. 30% Possum Fur 70% Merino.

Love and hate

Loving:
Central Park Hoodie now has a back and two fronts. Still need some sleeves but I am loving how it is knitting up. I am having to force myself to put it down and actually do some work.

Hating:
My assignment is just hanging about and not moving very fast. Some how it just doesn't seem to be coming together this time. A week ago I thought I pretty much had it all together and just had to type it up. Now as I go to type it I keep finding myself taking more and more parts out and it hasn't left me with much to work with.
Just to top it off I am feeling all crappy like I'm coming down with a cold and my brain isn't making any sense of what I am reading.

Deadline is looming so I am thinking at least half of what I took out is going to have to get thrown back in, re worded, juggled, shaken about, stirred anda crazy miracle has to occur for it to actually work out.

30 minute presentation ......... 30 minutes of standing in front of people having them all look at you crazily while you stand there and pretend you know what you are on about.


Anyone want to swap places???

Offer only open to people who spend their days knitting and drinking cups of tea :)

When yarn is nice

I am loving the Bendigo yarn. I loved how I got most of the back of the central park hoodie out of one ball of yarn. Great big ball of yarn that seemed to just go on and on and on. I was begining to think it wouldn't ever run out at one point.

Just as well I love the yarn so much as more arrived today. Another ball of the blue rustic just in case and 6 balls of classic aran magnolia for my Mum.

The central park hoodie is so much fun to knit I am having to hide it from myself to get any homework done. I have another presentation due this week and of course all I want to do is knit. Then again when don't I??? I always want to do something else, rather than what I am meant to be doing.

So the back is done and most of the left front. I have to frog about ten rows because I was having too much fun and just kept going. Suddenly it seemed a bit long and I checked the pattern. and then measured. Oooops. Oh well at least it's only a little bit. Perhaps I am unintentionally dragging the knitting out just to avoid the sewing up part.

Spam that isn't spam

Oooops..... I nearly ignored a readers e mail thinking it was spam.......... then me being me just had to open it even if it did contain yet another virus.

C has got my computer going enough that I can get on line but will be reformatting it later. Hence why I still have no nero installed and no camera software and lots of other little things I would normally have on my computer but haven't bothered because he is only going to take them all off again and then re install them and blah. All too hard.

Anyway the e mail didn't have a virus......... yay!!!

It did have a request ....... one of which I am not totally sure of the answer.

Is there any store in Australia that sells tortoiseshell needles?

Are they even manufactured anymore?

And am I right in thinking we really only get them in secondhand stores? ( thats the only place I have seen them, well the only place that will let me buy them, everyone else wants to keep theirs :) )

Let me know as I may have responded with incorrect answers totally due to ignorance.


Anyways I am feeling way behind and kind of lost without being able to post pictures.

All this talk about tortoiseshell needles reminds me of the stitch markers Sharon sent me as a thankyou for the needles I sent her. The markers are made by Sharon and are beautiful. See I need my camera software. Perhaps this post can be my reminder of all the things I need pics of.

I need a pic of the craft room for Kimberly......... I'm not sure about the whole room but maybe the yarn corner :)

I need a pic of the Central Park Hoodie. Knitted in Bendigo rustic, Bluestone. ( scroll down through the posts and there is a pic of the colour somewhere)


It's up to the armholes on the back piece, ready to start decreasing, but some things you just got to leave alone when you have people talking to you and making sure you will loose count. Especially when said people start counting 2, 5, 8,15, 66 have you lost count yet???
I know, I only had a few stitches to decrease and probably could have done it but I figured I would enjoy it more if I left it till today.

What else... oh yeah I forgot to tell you about the spinning wheel that jumped out at me and insisted I take it home.

Yeah, a spinning wheel that I have absolutely no idea how to use, what the bits are called or if it even works properly. Total crazyness. What can I say? It was cheap :)

Luckily Tigers can come over and take a peek and then tell me exactly how crazy I am.

What the???

After being all impatient and skitting about all over the place this week I finally get to Friday 1st September where I can cast on for the Central Park Hoodie. The knit that I have been trying so hard to not cast on for...... and what do I do? I spend the day rearranging furniture and don't knit a stitch. Not even the cast on row.

At least now my craft room actually looks like a room and I have room on the desk to actually write on paper and do some homework. Damn maybe that wasn't such a good move.

Why is it that to move furniture about you have to move 3 other pieces of furniture to get one thing where you want it???

Oh and you have to empty everything first so it's not so heavy. I don't mind that bit too much, it's having to put it all back......it never seems to go back how it was.

Time for a cup of tea and some casting on....

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.