Temperance

I have been thinking about getting another cat for a while but wasn't quite ready. I even looked at bunnies for a while. Black Kit Kit bunnies. That was the whole problem, whatever animal I looked at I wanted it to be Kit. I wanted it to behave how Kit did, miow how Kit did and most of all love me how Kit did. Kit greeted me when I came home, slept with me and rarely sat with anyone else, not even Miss B. She had chosen me and that was it.

I adored her just as much and for a long time was lost without her. Nothing seemed to matter anymore.

Lucy spent her time between Miss B and me, gradually spending more time with me than Miss B.

I gradually stopped looking at black bunnies and looking for black kittens.

I played with kittens in the pet shop. Cute, affectionate, but somehow not quite right.

I looked at give away kittens in the next street. Cute under the dirt and fleas, but still not quite right.

Two days before Christmas we visited one of Miss B's school friends. Their cat had had kittens.
Christmas eve Temperance came to live with us.

Yarn overs aren't so bad.

I still don't love them and much prefer cables, but yarn overs sure do make a pretty baby cardy.

I still have the sleeves to sew up and some buttons to find, but the knitting is all done.

I also have to convince a friend to have a baby and that it would be a really good idea if that baby was a girl ;p

Babies and Yarn Overs

I really seem to have trouble with yarn overs. I either forget to do them or I drop them way to

often for my knitting to look anything like how it is supposed to.

I know it is just a matter of practice and it probably wouldn't hurt if I stoped trying to watch tv at the same time. It's just that while I am knitting it is usually when I am also watching tv.

Elizabeth Zimmermann's February Baby Sweater has been on my list of one day I would like to make this list for a few years now, but I have never had a reason to make it and I wasn't about to play with yarn overs just for the sake of it. Sneaky dissappearing little things that they are.

Then I found out that my niece was pregnant. Out came the pattern and yarn. Out came lots of muttered swearing and two attempts later I have a collar and one sleeve.

It is actually looking like it is supposed to.

I may have done a happy dance or two around my loungeroom.

Then sister came over and told me that my niece had a baby boy. Eeeeek.

Can anyone suggest cute boy jumpers?

6 Things About Me

I have been tagged by Kate to do the the 6 Things About Me meme.

I think there are some rules about tagging six others once you are done and letting your tagee know when you have posted your 6 things.

Anyway, here goes.........

1. I forget passwords incredibly quickly.

5 seconds after I have thought of that word or phrase that I can't possibly forget - I have forgotten it. Yet I can ask Miss B my password from some thing I signed up for 6 months ago and she can remember it off the top of her head.

2. I read my horroscopes every day.

3. While I could now be sleeping in the middle of the bed seeing as I have it all to myself, I somehow find that I still stay on my side. I'm not complaining, making the bed is much easier this way.

4. I don't like my foods touching on the plate, unless it is gravy on top of my food.
I happily eat combinations of food, but I have to have been the one to combine them on my fork.


5. I don't mind doing laundry and washing dishes, but really dislike vacuuming.

6. I'd rather mow the lawn than vacuum. It doesn't have to be done as often and it has no weird corners or things in odd places to manouver around.

I think most people have done this now but if you haven't, then consider yourself tagged and let me know when you have posted. I'd love to read your 6 things.

Casting off, ripping and casting on.

Casting off - Porom.

I saw this on Brooklyntweed's blog and had to have it. I raided the stash for the totem I had bought last year when spotlight had a clearance.
Like any other hat I make Miss B gave it a nick name. This one is affectionately known as the onion hat.


Pattern by Jared Flood.
Yarn - Patons Totem 2 balls.
Needles - 4mm and 5 mm.


I ripped the purple Koolhaas. The Moda Vera Mousse is just too fuzzy and was looking worn out while still on the needles. So it is back in the stash and I am wondering if it would felt........

I have also cast on a something pink with yarnovers in it. I may just be crazy.

What Cobblestone?

Um the one folded up and stashed in a zip loc before being abandoned in the corner. Not only does it have wonky decreasing it has one arm longer than the other. Is anyone else getting the idea that this yarn may not want to be a Cobblestone?


After some encouragement from Tigers I dragged Rogue from it's abandonment and have gotten it back up to the arm shaping. It's really not so much fun the 2nd time around.









I finished the stripey socks








Yarn:Four Seasons Hot Socks - purchased at Lincraft a few years ago
Needles: 2.25mm
Pattern: Usual - cast on 72 sts.








Intended as something to look forward to after finishing Rogue






Berroco Inca Gold, this is scrummy stuff.

Rogue may be competing for knitting time with this.

Cobblestone hates me

Otherwise known as

'Just because it looks simple doesn't mean I don't have to concentrate'.



Cobblestone is done. Sort of.

Remember the ripping back because the neck was too long?

Yeah um. I ripped back and back and back. Then started again.

Then realised that back where I had ripped back to I had managed to also rip out a decrease row. So all this knitting has been happening on too many stitches.
I tried to fudge it and threw an extra decrease row in.......

But it looks crap.

All puckered and wrinkly.

Guess who gets to rip .......... again.......

Or shove Cobblestone in a corner and knit socks.

Plain stocking stitch socks.

And watch Lucy roll around in the sun.

Knitting in the black hole.

Garter stitch scrunches up on itself and no matter how often you measure it, it just doesn't seem to grow.

Until you knit 3 inches past where you should be.

Let's rip and re do. Argh.

Pink anyone?

Apart from missing Kit incredibly and not feeling overly motivated to do much without her supervision, I somehow got it into my head that Cobblestone is almost finished and I shouldn't blog until it is done.

This sounded good in my head but really doesn't work when I actually want to blog but Cobblestone still isn't done. So I am blogging and somehow everything I have been knitting is pink.



I wasn't wearing my first pair of Fetchings at the original length, so I ripped back the cast off and extended them. Now I think I may wear them out.



I finished Elbac finally. Ribbing and cables take forever,but the end result is worth it. I love, love, love this scarf.



An example of knitterly logic.

Cobblestone is taking forever to knit, so lets throw in a quick project. Lets make a beanie when I still don't wear beanies I just like making them. Lets ignore the fact that Cobblestone isn't being knit in the time I am knitting a beanie.
I finished the beanie, looked over at Cobblestone and wonder why it is taking so long to be done...........

A daytime class option would have been nice.

Tafe offers their multimedia subject in two ways.

A) A 1 week block (think brain overload)in the shcool holidays or

B) One class a week for the term.(more realistic as far as having time to absorb the information)

The problem with spreading it out over a term is that then it is only offered as a night class. Leaving Miss B home alone every Tuesday night and coming home myself, by train, alone and in the dark was not an option.

So Miss B spent the week with her nanna and I left my brain in the classroom amonst all the electronic components.

The advantage being that I was so busy in class that I had no time to just stay home and sulk.
When I came home and did sulk and stomp about, Miss B wasn't there to see it.

Lucy our other cat was pretty thrown by the sudden changes. Kit gone. Miss B gone. Me being gone all day and getting home later than usual. She made herself very comfy on my lap when I got home each night.

I loved the class, my brain exploded several times, and I managed to get all the tasks done. I also passed the prac test that we were all scared of . YAY!!!

Our lecturer John was fantastic!

Patient, understanding, non critical, approachable.

While he obvioulsy knows his stuff, he never once made anyone feel silly for not being familiar with the equipement.
He didn't expect us to understand it all instantly and explained things as many times as we needed.He explained things simply, yet never came accross as condescending.
He would tell us what wasn't working and leave us to think about what line was wrong, letting us figure it out for ourselves, but was always there when we got totally confuzzled and needed more explanation.
We must have driven him nuts, yet he never got flusterred or irritated. Even when we had wired up something totally back to front and inside out.

Now to clone him and have him lecture the other subjects..........

Kit was my favourite.

I know parents aren't supposed to have favourites amongst thier children, but does that rule apply when it comes to cats?

My scaredy cat Kit, who runs and hides from people let alone cars, somehow managed to get hit by a car last weekend.

We burried her in her sunny spot, but it doesn't feel real yet.

Coming home to her not being here is strange.
I keep expecting her to walk in and have her miow at me for being out all day.
Or to come sit on the keyboard so I stop studying and pay her some attention.
Or something.

I can't believe how much I miss her.

Rogue? What Rogue?

Do you remember Rogue?


That happy red blob that was knitting up so fast and squishily.

It went to the beach to have it's picture taken and then just vanished.

It is too small. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!!.

Today is the day I face it.


I will be the one in the corner surrounded by the pile of frogged red yarn.

Family History and the Cemetery

One of the other things that has been recently distracting me has been family history.
Part of puttting the pieces together is either going to the cemetery or looking at the records.

Wandering around the graveyard and praying that your relative is not the one burried under the unreadable headstone, wondering if you will be able to find it at all and secretly hoping the headstone says a litttle more than just the date of death is all part of the process.

Time consuming, fascinating and frustratitng as the procedure can be, I accept all of this as part of the search.

What I didn't like was when I went to search for a relative in the Cheltenham Cemetary here in Adelaide, was that there are no searchable records accessable to the public.

No link via the council pages.

No nothing.

The way to access information for this particular cemetery is to contact their admin office, put your request in writing along with a fee and wait four weeks for a reply.

I have to say this disgusts me.

I have been able to search every other cemetery for free. I haven't come accross this before and it has totally thrown me.

What happens to those who have travelled to search for relatives? They don't have four weeks to wait for a reply.

What if the relative isn't burried in that particular cemetery? Is it fair to be charged for this?

What if? What if?

The records are obviously there. Why are they not available to the public?

I really feel that this information should be freely given.

What say you?

And another project begins

I met up with Kate, Em, Helen, Denise and others for WWKIP Day.

Of course everything I have on the needles requires concentration throughout the whole project, or it is at the point where concentration is required.

So what did I do?

Cast on a new pair of socks.......

A busy week

Last weekend Miss B and I went to the Spinners and Weavers open day at Little Hampton with Miss A and Tigers.

Dispite the yarn and ready made knitwear on offer, I found most of it just wasn't me. I did find myself fascinated with the bits and pieces in the stall offering shawlpins, tapemeasures and earing holders though.

What did others think of the offerings???

I finally got Miss B to stand still for 5 seconds and model Black Black Black.




She loves it.



The Bendigo Classic seems to pick up and hold every bit of fluff and fur possible. It probably would have looked better knitted at a tighter gauge and I really don't like the neck. It's what Miss B wants though so I guess for now it stays.




I finished my fetchings.

Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran in Black - 1 and a bit balls leftover from making Tubey.

Needles: 4mm dpns.

I had a discussion on Stash with a class mate.

Hi Marcus :)

His mother is a quilter and therefore he totally understands the concept of stash.

There is no such thing as too much stash, there is only the question of having enough for a particular project.

Usually you don't have enough of a particular item and therefore purchasing more stash is entirely appropriate.

Marcus's Mum has taught him well!!!!

I started Elbac

and I received an Options Folder with I managed to snaffle in the Destash Thread on Ravelry.

Thanks Barb!!!

Snug feet

I finished the Thuja's just in time for the cold nights. I think I have made 3 or 4 pairs of these now, and each pair I love more than the last. Probably something to do with knowing in advance how snuggly they are going to when they are done.

Pattern: Thuja

Yarn: 2.5 balls Cleckheaton Country 8ply -Burgundy

Needles: 4mm dpn's

Also finally cast off, seamed, washed and drying is Black Black Black. Miss B's never ending black jumper.

Hopefully I can talk Miss B into modelling over the weekend.

All this finishing, I think it's time to cast on some fetchings

Even cuter than I had imagined..........

I don't normally like soft toys or bears at all.

They don't do anything, the collect dust and they take up space that I could fill with yarn or books.

But somehow even I can't resist the hedgehog.

It's all Donna's fault, hers was soooooooooo cute and she even sent the eyes and nose so I just had to drop everything else and wrestle with the floof.

The hegdehog is done and I am totally sucked in by the cuteness. Thankyou Donna for being so evily enabling :)

Kit on the other hand isn't so sure about the blue floofiness and the attention it is getting from the humans.

Yarn Update

The international yarn supplier will be sending the replacement yarn at their cost. YAY!!!!

Now to go and sew up a hedgehog.....

A question

I ordered some yarn from somewhere overseas.

It has arrived but they sent the wrong colour.

I have e mailed them to let them know and they have replied asking "Do I want the correct colour sent?"

Duh, I want what I ordered, but I am unsure what happens if I say yes...........

Do they then send me the correct colour, but I pay for that yarn and postage?

Do I return the wrong coloured yarn, meaning I pay for postage on that?

I am not sure how it works out without me paying more money in some way, and I already stretched the budget to get the yarn in the first place.

Or do I just accept the colour that was sent to me?


How have you dealt with this issue?

Inspired by the cuteness........

Just because it's cold and I wanted a quick fix, I started some Thuja's.

Burgundy Cleckheaton Country in 8Ply.




But then Miss B and I were distracted by the cuteness over on Donna's Blog and just had to have some for ourselves.

Seriously, when the teeneage member of the household is trying to figure out how to reach through the monitor and swipe a knitted project, even promissing to knit it herself (note: teenage inhabitant generally refuses to knit, so project must be super special), you get your hands on pattern and yarn quick smart.


Unfortunately I wasn't quick enough to keep her interest, she has been distracted by a pumpkin headed person from a creative knitting Halloween issue, but at least she is knitting.

I have to try not to giggle every time I ask her to do something and she responds with "But I want to knit." or "When I finish this row."


The result is I get the privilege of knitting the Hedgehog :)




Half the back to go.

Discoveries and decisions.

Discovery.

Knitting is kicking my butt at the moment.

Gauge keeps lying to me and I find myself needing to reknit the body of Cobblestone.


Decision.

Ignore the body for now and work on a sleeve.






Much more enjoyable than tempermental knitting was spending Thursday with Tigers and drooling over her spectacular sock yarn stash.
Otherwise known as the NOT Stash, everyone knows sock yarn doesn't count - right?

There are going to be some seriously warm feet in that house.

Small projects

Small projects don't always equal a small investment in time.
I know this and yet I am repeatedly surprised at how long it takes to complete a pair of socks.
I realise that the stitch count for a pair of socks is some where up there with the stitch count for a jumper, yet I am always horribly dissappointed that socks just don't grow fast enough.
Especially when I am only so so about the colour.

The opal sock yarn was bought a few years ago when Miss B was in orange mode.

She is now in Green/Black mode so I will have some brightly coloured feet this winter.

And something I enjoyed working on sooooooooo much more.

Gretel, this time for me.

Once again in the discontinued Angora Supreme and once again Miss B insists that the cables look like trees and that the 'Tree Hat' shouldn't ever be worn.

Meh, Miss B is also on school holidays and happily giving her opinion on anything and everything.

I am conspiring to drag her to a yarn store where I can cover her in so much yarn that she can't talk for 5 minutes or so ;p

Either that or knit her a bobbled bikini. :)

About time...

It feels as though I haven't finished a project for a very long time. Everything seems to be hanging on forever and going so slowly around here. Especially these socks.
I really, really didn't like working with the tangly yarn and am glad I sent the other two balls to a new home so they couldn't sit there staring at me, making me feel guilty, knowing that I was never, ever, going to knit them up.

Now that they are done though I am glad I persisted as somehow I do like them.



They are a little scratchy but should come good with a wash.



I enjoyed finishing something so much that I decided to cast on a (hopefully) quick knit.

Koolhaas just because I wanted a purple one for me even before I made the grey one for C.






Gretel is growong slowly..............

And I am about to start the sleeves on the Cobblestone Pullover.

Fighting tangles

Sometimes you just have to sit down and do it, wether it's type up some homework or untangle some sock yarn.

The sock is progressing and is almost up to the toe, funnily enough homework is moving its way forward too.

Now if only people would stop tempting me with their never ending ravelry ques. You know who you are ;p

Settled now?

Between moving, classes starting up again, personal happenings and the ridiculous heat we have had lately, I just haven't felt settled.

Funnily enough my knitting seems to follow the pattern of my current classwork. Scattered and all over the place.
I start off all enthused and race along until something gets tricky/ I make a mistake/ I don't understand something. Then I skip ahead to the next section as best I can.
Ultimately I have to come back to that point and fix it to be able to finish it.

Guess what I am doing this afternoon...........and no it's not knitting :(.




Where does that leave me with my knitting?

Spotlight socks - Yarn needs major untangling.

Opal socks - I need to rip back a few rows, my feet aren't THAT long.

Black Black Black - I need to sew up the pieces.......... someone send seaming mood.

Mitts - I need to rip back......... I forgot to increase for the thumb duh.......... oh and what do I do with all those ends? Do I just leave them and sew them in later? Do I sew them in along the way? If so........ how and where?

Rogue - I love this. I have separated the front and back.
Working on the back and eeek, my tension seems to have changed.

I think I know how to fix this, I am just not in the mood to rip back just now.



That is one pile of uninspiring knitting staring at me. It all needs fixing of some sort.


What to do, what to do.......... ohhhhhhhhh I know cast on............

YAY!!! Cleckheaton Angora Supreme in grey. Cast on Gretel for me.

Knit, knit, knit.

What the ??? Broken yarn........

Join yarn.

Knit, knit, knit.

Broken yarn......... eeek moths have been munching.

Throw yarn down in disgust.

Get out other ball of yarn and wind it to check for damage.

Perfect ball, nothing wrong with it. Trust me to have started with the moth eaten ball.

Wonder why moths ate one ball and not the other. Decide it doesn't matter and just be grateful they left me something to knit with.

Decide it's time to work on the one thing that doesn't need fixing.

Cobblestone.

Jo Sharp Silkroad DK Tweed raided from stash.

So called bargains...........

I bought the Moda Vera Socks from Spotlight the other week.

I am sure I had decided not to buy cheap sock yarn again after last time, but I think it whispered something about encouraging the local craft stores to stock sock yarn and I got sucked in. It came home with me.

I chose the burgundy/ khaki combo and I like how the pattern is knitting up.
The yarn is a little thicker than the Moda Vera Adore that I tried last time but still pretty thin compared to other sock yarns.
It is not super soft like patonyle, yet I am not finding it scratchy at all either.







But damn does it tangle and stick to istelf when you try knitting from the centre of the ball.
I will finish this pair, just because I am stubborn, but I can't see myself using it again.

So if anyone likes dealing with tangles and wants the other two balls of this I have in my stash...... let me know. It's all yours.

Just promise not to tell me that it was only my ball that was tangly.

A finished swift

The swift is done and I love it.
I love it so much I want to buy yarn just so I can sit and wind it.
OK, I would probably still want to buy yarn anyway, but this makes it so much more fun.
I almost think I owe C another Koolhaas for this.







And knitting......... this is Rogue at the beach.

The body is now done and I am ready to separate the front and back.

This is one of those knits I don't want to put down.

Just one more row.

Just till the cable does that next bit.

Ohhhhhhhhhh pretty, just till it twists that way again.

I am beginning to think making another of these for Miss B is going to be no hardship at all........

Project Spectrum - Fire

It took me a while but I finally decided that my Project Spectrum for the fire element would be Rogue.

I have wanted to make this jumper for a few years and even cast on at one stage.
Wrong yarn, wrong colour, and mixed dyelots. Eeeeeeek!!!!
Yes that attempt did get frogged.





Now that I have started (again), I don't want to stop.

I am really enjoying watching the cable emerge and the brightness of the yarn.

Bendigo Rustic 12 ply in Red Currant.

Knitting at last.

Thanks to the enablement of Donna and Kate I have been able to get back to the knitting.

Koolhaas is finished and modelled by the recipitant.

Did I enjoy knitting it? Yes

Does the reciptant love it? Yes

Does it look good on the recipitant? Yes

So far so good.

Do I look stupid in hats? Yes

Am I going to make one for myself anyway? Probably :)

Does kit care? Only if she can sit on it.

Still surrounded by boxes...

It would seem that I am still surrounded by boxes.

While it is driving me crazy and it will get worse before it gets better, that the end result will be worth all the craziness.
There is yarn in one of those boxes isn't there?

At least we are no longer crawling under the kitchen table to get to the back door, a very elegant manuver at which the cats stared at us strangely for.

At the other end it was all go, go, go to get those boxes packed.
This end I have run out of puff and am taking my time unpacking.
It is a great chance to sort each box of stuff as I unpack and decide whether the contents are really relevent to our lives anymore.
More often than not I am finding that most of my stuff is just stuff and I kept it simply because I could. I am a great believer in 'I might need it one day'.

To counteract those boxes are the other boxes of which every item must be kept, even though there is no corelating home for them at this house. Finding homes for things in a half unpacked house is tricky.

The good news is that I am finally getting to the boxes that contain some yarn. (No, still no Koolhass pattern).
Mostly yarn I had forgotten about so far, so it has been fun to explore and see how my taste and yarn purchasing habits have changed over time.
Is it only me that shakes my head at some of the ' What was I thinking?' purchases?

One ball that did make it to the needles was a ball of Opal Hundertwassers in an Orange/ Yellow/ Green/Purple colourway. I think I bought this under Miss B's 'I like orange' influence. She has since changed to 'I like green and black'....... Ah well, looks like I will have yet another pair of very bright socks.

Now to hunt down the box containing my Bendigo Rustic to start my Project Spectrum project.

How much longer?

My house looks like this





Every single room. Boxes from floor to as high as I can reach.
Some filled, some taped and waiting to be filled and some still flat.
Every day it gets that bit harder to get through the house and every day there are more things I wish I hadn't packed yet.

Like the yarn.............

and Koolhaas...........It isn't finished, it isn't packed, but I think I packed the pattern.........




Kit keeps helping.......... she packs herself into that fruit box. She doesn't want to get left behind.

Firsts

First - FO for the year



Patonyle socks with picot edge.
72 Sts on 2.25 dpns

I have little ladders in these and am reminded why I like those little circulars so much.





First- Absolutely love this knit

Koolhaas.

I am making this in exchange for someone making me a swift.

It is nice and squishy and I am going to have trouble parting with it. I am already scoping out yarn to make one for myself.

First - Colourwork.

I saw these mitts over at Chrisknits and just had to try them.

I was having so much fun with them I forgot to do the increases for the thumb....... Oooops also first mistake for the year.

First - Ripped Project.

The Sirdar Eternity jumper is no more.

I started it in 2006 and have worked at it on and off ever since.

The yarn is a mix and while I don't mind it, I just don't love it enough to keep going. It has been ripped and re wound into balls.