So very long...

I've been neglecting the blog again. When I was thinking of what to write about today, I realized how much (and in some ways, how little) had gone on since the last entry. Now, being blessed with more thoughts to express than time to express them, I will, by necessity, have to make this as brief an update as possible.

Shopping wise, I've hit some high notes. Chris returned from the Flinders on a Friday. His father had picked up a satellite phone for him to take along (on the schools tab, of course) for emergencies, and it needed to be returned to his dad so he could return it properly, so after work that Saturday morning, I went and had a cuppa with his mom and dad and handed over the phone. Not wanting to waste the opportunity of a little city shopping, but being too tired to make an occasion of it, I decided to drop by the Highgate Needlenook. I'm trying to fill out my collection of Addi Turbo circular knitting needles in any event, but also decided to pick up some white Heirloom easy care, mainly to see how well it would take Koolaid dyeing. It will, most likely, wind up as some color or another socks.



A few days later, I decided to peek in my LYS here in Murray Bridge. She had gotten in some of Heirloom's "Jigsaw" yarn, which is a self patterning sock yarn. I bought the pattern to go along with it, as it will work fine with any Jigsaw colorway. Seemed the thing to do, and I like to support my LYS. But with Ravelry, it seems silly buying patterns of any kind. That doesn't stop me though, now does it?



Yesterday was the last of my yarnie shopping excursions. They are building a street full of courtyard homes almost directly across the road from my house, and were going to shut my electricity off for a good part of the day, I suppose so they could run power lines over there. So, knowing I would have nothing to do...no TV, no computer...I stopped off in Mount Barker, had a bit of breakfast at McD's and then waited for Spotlight to open.

For the record, my previous trips to the Mount Barker Spotlight have not been that satisfying, at least not for yarn. It's a new Spotlight. It only opened it's doors last spring, and there was a bare bones "summer" supply of yarn to begin with. Half of the regular yarn space was being used for Christmas space. Then a couple months ago, when the fall yarns finally started to trickle in, they would sit in the boxes in the aisles, for days or in one case a week (that I know of). It was as though they had staff for every part of the store but the yarns and crafts. I was NOT impressed.

I had heard they had some decent, cheap sock yarn this year. Also, I wanted to get this years "Knitting Essentials" book, which has the patterns for their "house" yarn, Moda Vera. This trip, finally, the yarn section looked all put together and was in order, more or less. I found the sock yarn, but there was no price on the shelf. A salesgirl checked and told me it was $4.99. I thought, perhaps, she was mistaken, and half expected it to be higher when I reached checkout, but I got two balls of Moda Vera "Socks". To add to my blessings, they had the book I was looking for as well, although some of the patterns are simply repeats of last years, and all in all I'm not as impressed. Maybe it will grow on me.



As for my knitting accomplishments, I finally finished the "Magic Fruit Loops Socks", and I'm reasonably happy with them. The spiral rib pattern on the leg part did give me some fits and starts, and at one point I had to rip out about 30 rows...which was seriously frustrating, particularly when I was trying to get the two socks back on the one needle properly.



I started a pair of socks for Chris with the black Patonyle. I'm doing them in a similar fashion to the last ones...toe up, two at a time, magic loop. I'm basically improvising a pattern. Chris hates tight socks, so I'm doing a 2x2 rib on the top of the foot and will do the same for the leg. They are getting along. I'm about half way down the foot I imagine, perhaps a bit more.




I recieved the pattern from my Ravelry friend, and it looks fantastic, and I can get gauge with the Peace Fleece. The only problem that I can see is the size, which wouldn't fit me...and I haven't been awake and alert enough to read the pattern thoroughly and see if there is anywhere I could easily increase the size. Also an option...bigger gauge, but I'll have to play with that a bit. I don't want it looking gappy, so I'll see how far I can push the Peace Fleece and take it from there.

Speaking of Ravelry, I also recieved a lovely package from a fellow expat in the Random Acts of Kindness groups. American candy (Peeps, Reeses Peanut Butter Cups and M&M's, a lovely card, and a book by Diana Gabaldon called "Crossstitch" which from all accounts is devine reading. I'm reading Debbie Macombers "Return to Blossom Street" right now, but as soon as I'm finished, I can't wait to dive into the Gabaldon!




Last but not least, I've done a bit of spinning, and promised mom a pic of me at the wheel when I did, so here's one for mommy!



So much for being brief!

"My" week begins

I finished the socks last Thursday! What a journey! I love them, they fit like a glove and they are ever ever so comfortable and snuggly warm. I'm wearing them now, in fact.




I've started another pair. I wanted to do socks using the magic loop method. I wanted to knit two socks at one time. I wanted to knit some toe up socks. Then I found a pattern...well, no, it's really a tutorial. which is what I need anyway, since I had no idea how to do any of those things. I'm using the yarn I dyed, with a few alterations to compensate for the dyed yarn having a smaller guage. Things are going fine so far. The hardest part was casting on. A fiddly "figure 8" cast on, which felt like you were knitting stitches into thin air...in fact, I reckon I was from time to time.





Which brings me right up to today. Monday! I woke up at 3:15 AM to see Chris off. He's left today for his geograpy camp, a working week away in the Flinders Ranges with about 35 Year 11 students. Tonight and tomorrow night they will be staying in a relatively modern campground at Wilpena Pound, but Wednesday, they seriously go bush, with no toilets, no kiosk, no conveniences of any kind. It's a wonder how he ever gets any teenage girls to go!

And here I am. On my own! Boy, am I stoked! I love Chris, I really do, but I really really really was needing some serious downtime! Which, now, I have. I have so many knitting, dyeing and spinning things on my TO DO this week list that I almost don't know where to start. But start I did, at 3:15 this morning no less.

After seeing Chris safely off at 4:30 (I even did the Aussie stand outside and wave till they're gone thing), I came back in, put a tape in the VCR and started knitting on my jumper. Yes, the long neglected Fringe jumper..the one I mentioned WAY back in the Alpacomplete thread. The one I've put aside in the quest for a finished PAIR of socks. The one with the really big needles and the obscenely long rows that hurt my hands, forearms and even shoulders. Ahhh, what we do for our craft! Well, this morning and on and off thru the day, I got a bit accomplished. Quite a bit really, but it doesn't really look like it because the thing is soooooooo long!

I came and got online at around 7:00AM and saw my youngest son on here. We got on the webcams and phoned over Yahoo messenger, and I got to wave and blow kisses and talk to the grandbabies, which was certainly the highlight of my day. Then I made a quick trip to the grocery store before the crowds showed up.

I mentioned in the last post how I had gotten two black balls of Patonyle, and should have gotten 3. Well, I decided to get any big drives behind me, so at a bit before 9AM I left to go to Stirling to pick up the other ball. I wound up getting 4, the last 4 they had, but now I've gotten enough for 2 pair of dull black conservative socks. Ah well, it will justify my much needed trip to the optomitrist if nothing else, trying to SEE the stitches in all that blackness.

On the way back, I decided to check out a little shop in Hahndorf that carries some local homespun along with regular commercial yarn. It was off the beaten path, but only by a little, so I went. I got there to find the shop didn't open until 10AM. I had 10 minutes to burn, so I went in search of a toilet, which happened to be a bit over a block down the main street. On my way back, I passed a candy store, but what caught my eye was not candy.

Mom, if your reading this, you'd better be sitting down!

There, right inside the doorway, on a shelf, was a pile of cans of DR PEPPER. My mother had almost refused to come visit me when she found out that there was no DR PEPPER in Australia. I had searched everywhere locally. US Foods in Melbourne had them, but cans of soda pop are not light, and never mind the steep (by US standards) price tag...the shipping costs made it prohibitive. Anyway, I felt like I hit the jackpot. Maybe, just maybe, she would come back to visit her loving daughter now.

She wasn't here now however, so I didn't bother buying any, but I did decide to go inside and look at what other treasures this store might offer. To my utter Shock and Awe...they had...yes, that's right...Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. My food group of choice! I bought as many as I could afford, which wasn't nearly as many as I wanted (and sent one off later to a fellow expat). But now that I know where they are, I WILL go back. I've eaten only two cups so far, which certainly attests to my strength and fortitude. I want to savor them slowly. If you can make out the price tag, you will figure out why.




There were lots of pretty things in the wool shop, but nothing I could afford after buying the Reeses, so I made my way home. Since then, I've messed around on Ravelry, mailed off my RAOK to my fellow US expat, knitted on the Fringe jumper some more, knitted on the Magic Fruit Loops socks, watched a couple of programs I had on tape, retied (with cotton) some more TeAwa Natural wool I'm going to dye tomorrow and threw it in the utility room sink to soak, and skeined two balls of the white Patonyle that I plan on dyeing tomorrow.




Not bad for day one. Tomorrow I WILL pull out the spinning wheel. I WILL dye the TeAwa and the Patonyle and maybe, if I feel particularly froggy, some of the white alpaca fleece.

I'm on a ROLL!