The very old, and the very new

My birthday has now come and gone. I did very very well, I do believe. But let me start where I left off, more or less, and take things in order.

After my last post, I had a couple of nights work, with a couple of days of trying to sort things out with my spinning. I worked on finishing the brown yarn, and have, by now, almost completed it. The more or less leftover slivers I have spun on two bobbins now, and will, likely, get about half a skein out of it, but as I plan on using it all, I figured spinning it all up would be a good idea. But we've seen the brown...on several occasions, so I won't include it here.

Last Friday, I came straight home from work so that I could be home just in case the laptop we had ordered for my birthday present from Chris turned up. Alas, it didn't, which in one respect is a good thing, since he would have had a hard time keeping me away from in. But it made me anxious. There is no Saturday or Sunday mail here in my part of South Australia, so that meant that either it showed up Monday, on my actual birthday, or (heaven forbid) it would be late. That didn't leave much room for error.

On Saturday, we met the inlaws at Dundee's Pub for a nice birthday lunch from their buffet. My mother in law gave me a tray, a boaty tea towel, and a card with $100 in it, which I expected more or less. That was already earmarked to be my "wireless router" money. Normally, they give me a gift certificate for one yarn shop or the other, but this year, Chris told them to just give me cash. It was a lovely lunch, but as I had worked the night before, and was about to work again that night, it was necessarily a short one.

Sunday we went to the Murray Bridge show, which was fun, but had only about half of the things they had there last year. I'm not sure why, but there you go. We did enjoy ourselves though. I bought a bag/purse type thing to replace my old one, which has seen better days, and some fudge, and nachos (a rarity around here) for lunch.

One amazing thing about the Murray Bridge show, from my perspective anyway, is an event that they call "sheaf tossing". It's an old Scottish game, apparently. A pitchfork type instrument is used to toss a "sheaf" over a pole that looks sort of like a goal post at a football game. The sheaf is bag of wheat..although I can't swear wheat is what's in there. I get the impression that it's the weight and balance of the sheaf that matters.

The idea is, you jab your pitchfork into the sheaf and swing it about a couple of times to warm up or get momentum or something:



And then you toss it over the crossbar pole:



Those who make it over the pole in this round, move on to the next round. The pole is raised a bit higher, and they start the process all over again.

It's really taken pretty seriously, and is surprisingly fun to watch. Apparently, there are teams who do this from all over the world. Some fellows from Ireland were at the MB show last year, but this year it appeared to just be the locals. Contestants range in age from their teens to seniors, but the main age range seems to be 30 to 50 somethings.

Whenever I want to think this sport odd, I just remind myself of how others see my Western Action Shooting, and I stop being so judgemental.

Just across the way from the sheaf tossing was the old standby, my favorite in any show, the sheep dog competition. Here's one brave working doggy going thru the paces:



I find these dogs pretty amazing, really, and their trainers as well, since I could never get a dog to do anything it didn't want to really. I admire their patience and skill.

I think though, what we had the very MOST fun watching was this thing they did this year, and I have no idea what they were calling it, that was sort of like kneeboard skiing on the grass. The teams were made up of four. One had to ride the kneeboard, while the other three pulled the ropes and drug that person on the board across the grass along a course, then turned (and could switch board riders at this point) and drug the rider back to the start.



It was an absolute hoot. I don't know who made this game up, but it was clear everyone participating was amatuers. The cursing, the falling, the tripping...it was hysterical. It was, in short, the best time I had at the show this year.

After all of this gaity, I wandered into the crafts building. I looked around a bit at all the lovely fleeces (prize winning and otherwise):





I just love to wander amongst the fleeces, and I can't keep my fingers off. I do restrain myself though, because what I'm really tempted to do is roll around in them all.

I then paid a visit to the booth set up by the Murray Bridge Spinners and Weavers Guild.



These ladies proved to have a marvelous sense of humour and no small amount of skill! I was most impressed with one ladies little bear she was making with a hot felting method. A very interesting craft, but as I later told Chris, probably not one I would be any good at. It looked as though you must have some sort of artistic talent to pull it off, as it was essentially a little felt sculpture.

I had a chat with them, told them I was a fairly new spinner, and they invited me around to visit them on Wednesday afternoons when they meet. I could go every other week at least, as that would work well with my work scedule. I can't wait to pay them a visit, but it will probably be after the school holidays now before I will get a chance to. I DO plan to go though. They were so friendly and inviting, how could I NOT want to go.

Which brings me to Monday, my actual birthday. I was off work Sunday night, so I had a good nights sleep and was up bright and early in the morning. Chris was up early too, as he was spending the day preparing for his upcoming boating outing with workmates. We also both had in mind that the delivery truck might come early, as it often does here, and we didn't want to miss it.

I had no idea who "the deliverer" was going to be. AusPost always..ALWAYS...shows up between 8 o'clock and 9:30 in the morning, but when 10 o'clock came and went, I was starting to get a wee bit nervous. I hadn't given up yet though. I pottered around the house as best I could. I got on the computer and checked my mail, and I had a fantastic birthday email from my youngest son, so sweet it almost made me cry.

My mom then got online and caught me on MSN and told me she was about to call. She had sent me a present, and it had arrived about a week before, but I hadn't opened it yet. I opened it while we talked on the phone. Now I had given her some pretty specific ideas of what I wanted, and she didn't fail me in the least. In the package I found a lovely dress for me to wear during the Western Action shoots, something very difficult to find here in Australia:



I was pleased as punch, and as you can see, it fits! Even the length is just right, which is a rarity for me, short as I am.

Later, Chris was in the kitchen, preparing a dinner that he was going to take on the outing with him when the phone rang. Consequently, I answered the phone, something I don't do often if Chris is here...it's always for him. It was the delivery fellow, checking to make sure I was home. He must have heard the delight in my voice, I was over the moon when I told him to come on and hurry.

The laptop arrived and I could barely contain myself. It seems silly almost that I should be so excited over something, and yet I was terribly excited. I wanted to rip into the box, but contained myself and opened it carefully. Inside was my beautiful yellow Dell laptop! I loved it at first site:





I got it out, plugged it in, turned it on, unplugged it and let it run on batteries, and generally poked and prodded it, learning where it's bits were located and generally what I could do with it. It runs Vista, and I've never worked on Vista before, so that's a learning curve I'm still dealing with. I can't tell you if I like it or don't yet. I'm still not used to it though.

I still had yet to get a wireless router. I only got the money Saturday, and Sunday we went to the show, and both were workdays, so I simply hadn't gotten it done. So an hour or two after getting the laptop, I loaded it up gently and took it to town with me. I had originally planned to shop for the router in Mt Barker, particularly at Harvey Normans, but at the last minute I decided to look in Murray Bridge first. I do prefer to shop local, but mainly I just wanted to get it and get my new toy online ASAP.

So I went down to Bridge Computers and found just what I needed for only $75 dollars. Now I knew they had one on sale in Mt Barker for around $60, but once you factored in fuel costs to get there and back, I would have only broken even and wasted time. So I bought this Netgear Wireless Router G :



and brought it home.

When I got home, Chris was on the desktop computer, which I needed, of course, to hook up the router. I pretended to be patient, and indeed, I did have other things that needed attention, but I was less than patient in my heart. I'm glad now, though, that I was, because Chris gave me a shout soon and said that Justin, my oldest son, was online and looking for me. So I talked to Justin through Chris' MSN and he wished me a happy birthday! I was so happy to hear from him!

I told him about the computer and the router and what I had to do and how badly I wished he was here to do it for me. He's so good at things like that, and always used to program my TV's and VCR's and hook all the cable thingies. I miss him dreadfully all the time, but particularly at times like these.

He assured me that it would be easy as eating cake, and after we finished our conversation, I found out that he was absolutely right. I had these awful images of ISP numbers and having to delve into those remote areas of the computer that I hate to deal with, but in the end, all I had to do was run a disk and bingo bango, I was online and wireless! I was stoked.

So, of course, the very next thing I did was take my new laptop outside, and make sure the range made it to the veranda, where I am banished to smoke my nasty fags when Chris is home. It worked! I was sitting in the beautiful South Australian sunshine typing away in Ravelry! WHAT A GAS! I trotted around the rest of the house then, testing it in every room. I don't think I put the computer down for the rest of the evening. I took it outside every cigarette. I set it up on my table while I sat on the couch watching TV with Chris. I even sat right there and checked the TV guide online for him, because the TV book that he had had "TBA" written under one timeslot. So cool!

Monday night, I even took it to work. Work that night, however, was an absolute mess, the details of which I'd rather not relive, so I didn't even get it out of the bag, much less get to know it better. But still, like a security blanket, it was there.

The next couple of days were more work and very little play, but today, finally, I have time off and can enjoy it to my satisfaction. I went this morning, and bought a cordless mouse for it:



which hasn't exactly improved the computers performance, but more my performance on it. I've never like the little "fingerpad" navigation on a laptop, and with this mouse, all I have to do is plug a little gadget into the USB port and wahhhlahhh, the mouse does the rest. Much, much better!

Over my day off, I've picked up the spinning again, and finally moved on from the ever lasting brown. I took out the roving I had dyed with koolaid recently, and began to spin it, keeping the colors in sections:



I've managed to get almost a bobbin full so far, and I like the way it looks. I might do the second bobbin with the colors reversed, starting on the other end of the roving, and then see how that plies together. Or maybe finally do that Navaho plying. I haven't made up my mind yet.

I took the picture at the very top of this post to show how my little section of the living rooms looks right at this minute. On reflection, what an interesting picture. The very old craft of spinning blended, right in my living room, with the present day advanced technology. It rather boggles the mind when I think of it.

I've done a bit of knitting, and almost finished off the sleeve to the CPH. I only like about an inch of knitting in pattern and then the shoulder shaping. I'm going to try and finish that off tonight, and also do the maths for an upcoming project that will remain nameless, that I will start on in the next couple of days. I've also started another Christmas project, but in the name of surprises, I will not post about it here. I will, however, have them up on Ravelry soon.

I have to work all weekend, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, and then I'm off for 3 days. We are leaving out Tuesday morning for a short 2 day trip to Port Victoria, which is my favorite place on earth. We have rented a seaside cabin there, and I plan to knit by the sea, and perhaps even take my spindle and a bit of fibre to try and hone my spindle skills (which are sorely lacking).

My laptop will be taking it's maiden holiday trip, but I'm fairly certian the cabins we are staying in don't have internet access. But I'll make do. I've downloaded my Scrabble game and some card games, an audio book and my Canon camera's download program, so I will have bits to do on it. I've also thought I might write my blog on there, each day as things happen, and then transfer the data to here when I get back and get online. Ah, the possibilities!

Disaster theory

My darling husband teaches society and environment, and he tells me that everytime it comes time to teach a section on man made or natural disasters, one happens. For instance, he's teaching about earthquakes today, and last night there was one in Los Angeles. I think its a coincidence, but maybe not.

Sunday I had my own personal disaster, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Friday night before work, I decided to pull out the spinning wheel and give the new spinning book I bought in Bendigo a chance to teach me something. I had gotten a couple of rovings from a friend at work, and had spun up a bobbin full of the grey. I got out the other color, a sort of brownish orangy color, and spun it up as well. It went fairly well, and for awhile at least, I felt like the spinning wheel and I were working with one another, rather than working against one another as it's often felt in the past. I went to work and took up the spinning again when I got home Saturday morning. I finished an entire bobbin of the stuff, but the book says to let the bobbin "set" overnight to allow the yarn to relax before plying. So I did.

Sunday morning, feeling I needed to keep going while the "spinning mojo" was still with me, I began to ply. Chris had stayed up late to watch the Tour De France, so he was sleeping in and the house was nice and quiet. Plying did not go as well as spinning had done. I kept getting the threads tangled. Every time I needed to change the yarn to a different hook (which is often when plying), I had removed tension on the two singles and kinks and tangles ensued. A couple of times I forgot and let go of the twist all together, which of course meant it ran almost all the way up to the bobbin and 15 minutes of untangling was required.

Finally, after much trial and error, a bobbin full of plyed yarn resulted. And dammit, it looked pretty good.



I was immensely proud of myself, took pictures, and went to brag on Ravelry of my success. I also wanted to look and see if the yarn once again needed to "relax" or it I could skein it more or less immediately. Now that it looked like I was getting somewhere, I was anxious to have some finished product. I also had the idea that, lacking a Niddy Noddy, I could just skein the stuff on my skein winder.

The rest of the story I am now borrowing from a post I made the next day on Ravelry to some encouraging friends. It tells the story well enough, and given the sad nature of the affair, I don't want to retype the trajedy here:

I could find nothing saying I should wait before skeining my yarn, and I couldn’t figure out any reason why I couldn’t use my skein holder for this purpose, so I decided to jump right in with both feet. I brought my Lazy Kate into the study where the umbrella type skein holder is, postitioned them properly, and began winding the yarn on. I noticed right away there were a good many kinks in the yarn, so I held the yarn taught, as I had read somewhere that I should, pulling the kinks out, and kept winding. What I DIDNT notice was that my “umbrella” was closing ever so gradually…probably due to the tension I was putting on the yarn and the tension of the thousands of kinks trying to re-kink themselves…until of course, kinks started showing up in the first part that I had wound on. Of course, they had been wound on when the skein holder was fully open, but now at half mast, they didn’t have any tension on them anymore. I tried to push the umbrella back open, but of course the last few dozen rounds of yarn had been wound when it was smaller, so it wouldn’t go up. Ok, so I try and wind them back off, but then the kinks just started getting out of control, and suddenly everything was a tangled mess. After giving up, untangling and winding the rest at the smaller circumferance, I took my lopsided “skein” off, and all I can really say is that it bore a striking resembalance to a blue and brown unclipped poodle! I’m too embarrassed at the moment to include a picture, but I might start seeing more humour and less mortification in the business in the next few days and put one up on my blog.

I’m thinking I might need to patiently sit down and rewind it all on the bobbin, then reskein using my old arm…then do the wash thing and hang…oh I don’t know…my car maybe…on it to straighten the kinks out. Here’s hoping. As it is, it won’t even do as novelty yarn!

So that's the whole sordid story, and today, finally, I felt brave enough to take a picture of my "yarn poodle".



I had thought to sort and and wind it back on the bobbin today, but I had way more stuff to do, and not the heart to sit thru all those tangles. So, I suppose the poodle will have to "relax" and wait for another day when I feel more courageous.

On a more positive note, yesterday I finished those heel turns on the "Socks Ahoy" project. The Widdershins heels are a cross between the old fashioned heel flap and the short row heel. I searched thru Ravelry forums and found a post that directed me to this blog entry by K2Knits called Revisiting the Widdershins Heel. It literally saved my bacon. The pattern itself is only in one size, and unlike short row heels, there isn't just this easy "knit to the last wrap" thing going on that will adjust to any size. So for my fat feet, I needed adjustments, and the worksheet on her blog was indespensible, given my arithmatic retardation.

Even armed with the numbers, I still procrastinated about a week, rereading things in my spare time to try and get the idea of how it was done in my head. But yesterday, the first day of my two whole days in a row off, I was determined to get into it. The first one went slowly, both because I was being cautious and because I had two socks on the one needle, and I had trouble keeping the sock I wasn't working on out of my way.

So I knit the first sock off onto my new bamboo knit picks needles, and boy did they work a treat. I had never knit socks on bamboo before, and I know some don't like it, but I loved the way the bamboo held on to the slippery sock yarn. I could knit closer to the ends of my needles without worrying as much about dropping a stitch, and all it all it at least "seemed" faster. And the cords seem much more flexible than the Addi's. I'm going to order me some more, in a longer length. The ones I got in Bendigo are 80cm, which is big enough to magic loop a sock, but not two socks at once, which is how I'd much rather do the thing.

So the heel is done, on both socks. I finished them both yesterday, though I admit I didn't get much else done at all. But I'm very very happy with this heel, and I think I will use it again and again. No holes or gaps AT ALL. It's really a nice, clean, good looking heel, and not that hard once you have the tools to resize it and have knit it through to figure out how it works. In fact, I may never use another type of heel ever again! (Ok, I probably will...but it IS a nice heel).



Now, I'm ready to start working on the leg.



Meanwhile, I'm still knitting on the "Peace in the Hood" (CPH) hoodie, but I haven't gotten much done past the last post, so no picture is really necessary. I am working on that now, though, as I'm almost finished with the ribbing on the first sleeve, and would like to establish the pattern so it will be ready to "travel" when I'm back to work again.

Ok folks, that about catches things up. Off to knit now.

Preparing for the best

Again, I've neglected my blog. Work has been more or less exhausting, and...shock and awe...I've actually been doing some knitting.

After the historic fix (mentioned in my last post)I went on to finish the back of the "Peace in the Hood" cardigan. In all honesty, you can't really tell where the fix was, unless you look very carefully, and I'm still feeling rather proud of myself over that bit of magic. I'm confident now that whatever little evidence of the fix is still visible, it will be virtually unnoticable once I block.



Once I finished the back, I moved on to the left side. It went pretty quick, being naturally half the size of the back. There will be a button band added to each side peice, although I suppose I need to read ahead on the pattern and figure out exactly how that will be knitted on, as there are some odd saved stitches next to where the button band goes that I don't quite get.



I've got a workmate who asked me quite some time ago if I would make her a hat. I told her sure. She kept saying she would buy some yarn, but never got around to it, so she finally asked me if I would get her some, in a cream sort of color. I told her I could probably "suffer" thru a shop for yarn, so I stopped by Spotlight on my way home from work and bought some Basics Entwine. It's reasonably priced, 50% wool, 30% acrylic and 20% alpaca. She specifically asked for warmth, so some alpaca content seemed a good idea.

She wanted a simple rib hat with a fold up edge, so I looked on Ravelry and found a nice hat pattern called "Noodle Cozy", a rib hat knit in the round. It only took me a couple of days to make, and turned out quite nicely. I took this picture of her this morning before coming home. She wore it in to work this morning, and is quite happy with her new "boggen".



After this, I started knitting the right side of my Peace in the Hood cardi, and got most of the way thru the ribbing:



Then I decided I needed another hat, one that matched my alpaca jacket. I made the alpaca jacket with two different colors of Bendigo Woolen Mills alpaca, Pistachio (a light green) and oceania (a seaish blue with green specks). I still had some of the Oceania left, so I'm now knitting away on a hat for myself in that color. It's about 1/3 done, and I'm calling it "Go Go Bendigo".




Next week I'm leaving for Bendigo, for the Sheep and Wool Show and the Ravelry breakfast get together, which is in the park at 8:30 in the morning, midwinter, and bound to be terribly cold. Thus the need for the matching hat. Originally, that's what I made the "Copper Topper" hat for, but it doesn't cover my ears well, and this pattern and yarn will match the jacket much better. If I finish this soon enough, and I feel froggy, I might use the last of the Oceania alpaca to knit me some mittens, or fingerless mitts. We'll see.

I'm so excited about my upcoming woolie holiday! Only 9 days away now! I'm already doing some preparations, digging thru patterns and writing down the amounts/meterage I might need for this or that. The last time I went to Bendigo and visited the woolen mills, I went in rather blind, with no idea of what I wanted to make, much less how much wool I would need. It worked out in the end, but only after careful pattern searching...trying to find patterns to match the amounts I had, rather than the other way around.

This time, with the wool show and the woolen mills on the agenda, I'm NOT going to go unprepared. Hubby is already discussing "taking the trailer to haul all the wool back in". I love the way that man thinks!

I've also cast on a pair of socks with the white Patonyle that I splash dyed with red koolaid, creating a white with red blotches effect.



I've always planned on that lot to go for some socks that would match my favorite summer boating outfit, so that's the plan. I'm doing them two at a time using the magic loop method. I wanted to get them cast on, as I still have trouble with the provisional cast on, and didn't want to be attempting that while on the road. And I wanted a small project to work on during my travels, so of course, socks are the best. I haven't quite decided on a pattern yet, but something fairly simple I reckon, to make for easy travel knitting. Besides, they are to wear on the boat. Anything too lacy or intricately stitched would look silly.

Ahhh, but back to the Bendigo trip. I'm super excited about the breakfast as well! I wish I'd had more time to spend on Ravelry lately, but it will be so great to catch up with some of the folks I have met on there. There's a few I will be particularly glad to see! I suppose I'm a bit nervous too. While I know everyone in "internet land", that's not quite the same as having met face to face, so I revert back to high school and wonder "Will they like me?" Silly me, but that's the way of it.

But anticipation and "saving" for Bendigo did not completely keep me from buying any "stash" in the past couple of weeks, but I did limit it to one small purchase. My LYS here in MB had Sirdar Ultra Denim Tweed at half price. It's a blue denim colored cotton/wool blend. She had 3 balls left, so of course I got them all. It's super bulky stuff and will be great for whipping up quick easy Christmas presents. Or that's my excuse anyway.



After the Bendigo trip, I plan to start working on some Christmas gifts in earnest. Yes mom, that means your jumper, among other things. It may mean I have to hibernate, or simi-hibernate, a couple of my WIPs, but that's ok. I'll still keep the "Peace in the Hood" on the needles, but it's all for me at any rate, so there's no deadline. And I should have lots of time to work on the "Socks Ahoy" and the "Peace in the Hood" over this holiday. Yippee!

I will try my best to make one more blog entry before leaving for Bendigo, although it might be short one. But when I get back from Bendigo, I want to dedicate the entire first post to my woolie holiday, so I want all the loose ends tied up in advance.

Till then...

Beautiful June

I don't mean the month. Here in South Australia, June is rather a bleary, bleak month compared to most of the other times of the year. It's been cloudy, drizzly, foggy...well, just about anything but beautiful.

No, I'm speaking of my lovely MIL June. We celebrated her birthday Saturday a week ago, and she was, as usual, a kind and gracious hostess. I presented her with the Sudden Storm jumper, and she was quite pleased with it. It fit her well, even her "oragatang arms" (her words, certainly not mine). Apparently, while June does not knit, her mother did, and used to complain about her long arms. From my perspective, I find that quite lucky, as I tend to knit arms too long as a rule, so in this case, I actually, if accidentally, got it right.


(Pardon the blurry photo. My FIL took the photo, and hasn't quite gotten used to his camera yet. MIL hates to have her picture taken, obviously).

She was pleased with it, but it was my FIL, who was almost in tears (how much wine did he have anyway?) and thanked me profusely, telling me how much it meant to June, and how grateful he was that I'd made her so happy, and well, it's every knitter's dream to have their work so appreciated, but I was left more or less speechless by his reaction, which was entirely unexpected.

I did finish the "Copper Topper" hat in no time flat. In fact, I finished it in about 24 hours all together, but I was home sick at the time, with DH waiting on me hand and foot, so I had plenty of time. The only trouble is, it doesn't cover my ears. It ends about halfway down them, with the earlobe sticking out, and I can't bear for a hat to not cover my ears. I even added a cable repeat, because as I was making it, I could already see there was going to be a length problem, but even that didn't quite fix it. I reckon I'll wind up making myself another one, with perhaps an extra inch to inch and a half of ribbing for the bottom border. That should fix the problem. Meanwhile, someone with a smaller head than mine will likely get this one.


I also picked up Chris' vest, and finished the neckline trim. It was so frustrating working with that fuzzy, messy yarn again, and I don't even like the way it wound up looking after all that. Disgusted, I put it right back down again...and didn't even take a picture of what "progress" I made. I have half a mind to chuck it out (no, not frog it, I don't ever plan to touch that yarn again) and start a new vest for him using REAL yarn.

I'm not exactly on a yarn diet, but I have cut back quite a bit from my regular yarn and accessory purchasing habits. The Sheep and Wool show in Bendigo is just a few short weeks from now, and I must have a bankroll to take there. I did however do a tiny wee bit of shopping this fortnight, and picked up a couple of balls of Grignasco Strong Print. As IF I needed more sock yarn! Still, I liked the colors, and I got it for a good price. I also picked up some Addi's, 4mm this time, because I'm not trusting the 4mm size in my Denise set, which doesn't agree with my gauge at all.



Also, at DH's suggestion, I got some new storage bins for my yarn on sale at Kmart. It's a neat little plastic job that rolls around easily, so I can move it here and there. Right now it's here with me in the study, where it fits neatly between the filing cabinets and the computer (when fitting in yarn, you have to be creative).


On the Ravelry front, Handmadam, a fellow Raveler who is from South Australia but now lives in Canada, sent me a pair of clear plastic shoes she found on sale. They are perfect for showing off handknit socks, and should be a hoot to wear when it warms up a bit. I love them dearly, although DH looks at them as if he's not quite sure I (or my Ravelry friend) are exactly what one might call sane.


But I suppose the big news of the past couple of weeks is that I finally got started on my "Peace in the Hood" jumper. It's about time! I just couldn't wait another day, and got it off the ground on June 13th. I'm almost done with the back now, and it's looking great. I love the way the Peace Fleece Zarya Fog colors look knit up, and the cables form an interesting pattern without being overly complicated, so I can still knit on it "on the go". The only drawback is needing to keep accurate count of my rows, pattern rows, etc. But between my "Peg it" knitting counter and a small notebook, I've kept on top of it very well. It's beautiful knitting, and I love the feel of the Peace Fleece. Fair enough...it is a bit scratchy, but it's nice none the less, and not "delicate" like the Noro was. I'm loving it!



However, my spinning is going NOWHERE. I do plan on getting out the wheel soon, and promise that I will. I do have time, as nothing very pressing is going on. I'll have to start mom's jumper soon, and I would like to get more spinning done to see if any of the stuff I spin up might be suitable for her jumper.

Till next time!

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!

Ironing things out

I don't know if it's my ironing board, or just ironing boards in general, but I just cant seem to get any of the covers to fit right. I keep buying them, and they are either way too small, or they are usable, but big, and I have to scrunch them up under the "nose" of the ironing board and then wrap the excess material in a rubber band to get that all important "tight fit".

About a year, maybe more, ago, my friend Ang gave me a box of old material scraps her mom had left at her house. She knew I took these odd fits of sewing, and thought they might come in handy. Some of it was potentially usable, including a nice huge peice of organze, but frankly, a lot of it was hideously ugly stuff, looking like remnants from projects making kitchen curtains and such in the 70's, with big teapots and flowers and such on them. The only thing I had previously used a piece for was to put under my kitchen stove so it wouldn't rip or scratch the linoleum when it needed pulled out from the counter to get fixed.

When my old "rubber-banded to fit" ironing board cover bit the dust, I was ready to go out and buy a new one, resigning myself to the poorly fitting option. They are cheap after all. Just the cloth to make one would generally cost you more than the already "made in China" products. Then I thought of the "ugly kitchen fabric" that I had resigned to the "i'll probably never use" box in the shed. I drug it out and found the tolerable fabric which you can see in the picture. Besides, it's an ironing board cover, not a peice of clothing or curtains or anything you really need to worry about looks-wise.

I used the foam backing from the old cover, which I had already trimmed down to fit the "nose" of my ironing board better. I would suggest this, as the foam backing practically never dies, and as a form of recycling, it's good for the planet. I'm not the tree hugging sort generally, but really, foam takes a few eternities to break down in a landfill, so if it's not necessary to change it, I can see no reason why you can't reuse it.

But, if your old foam backing just won't do, you can buy 2 or 3 mm thick foam commercially. Find a place in your home with enough floorspace, lay the foam on the floor, turn your ironing board upside down on top of it. Trace around the edges and trim a bit. Easy as that.

The amount of cloth you need is pretty simple, just measure the length of your ironing board and add on about 5 inches (12 cms). Now, you can either make a template for your cloth cover, or just do what I did. Lay your cloth out on the floor, wrong side up, and again flip over your ironing board. Grab a peice of chalk (I'm a huge fan of common colored chalk for marking sewing projects). As my ironing board is about 2 ins. (5 cm) deep, and you have to allow for the seams, I marked the fabric with a little chalk dash every few inches all the way around the board at about 4 inches (10 cms) from the edge, paying special attention to the curvy bits. Then I just whizzed around connecting the dots with my handy dandy La Sarta electric sewing scissors (which works a dream, I hate cutting out).

I did have to purchase some thin elastic. I got 2-1/2 meters of the stuff, which for my ironing board worked out well, with quite a bit left over. Total cost from "The Bridge Agency", or habadashery here in Murray Bridge, was $.75.

I went round the fabric, ironed under about a 1/4 inch, then did the same all over again. Then I sewed down this doubled hem. I took out the elastic, stretching it out as I went, and sewed that over the hem all the way around.

VIOLA!!! My ironing board cover. I know, I know, it's not knitting....but for a change, other things can be fun too. And best of all, it actually FITS!!! When ironing, I'm not constantly trying to straighten out my ironing board cover. For me, that certainly makes it worth the effort.