Countdown

I'm knocking off yet another post before leaving for Bendigo. My mind is simply whirling with all the preparations. I'm pretty sure there are weddings being held all over the world that required less thought and planning than this 6 day excursion. I started a "Things to take and To Do" list on the computer, and I'm already on my third page.

It's slightly less than three days now until we leave. I have been hemming new pants, scouring patterns and starting projects to take on the road with me. There's an ever growing pile of books and notebooks next to the computer here. Books I MUST have with me...just in case. (Just in case what? I wonder. Just in case I'm lost in the jungles of Victoria and need paper to start a fire with???)

Knitting wise, I have finished the my "Go Go Bendigo" hat made with Bendigo Woolen Mills Alpaca in the Oceania shade. (Stuck to the theme, didn't I?)



It matches well with the Alpaca Jacket I made, both in color and in stitch, and I wore it for a couple of nights to work, but it's a bit scratchy to my forehead, so right now it's taking a soak in some wool wash to soften it up a bit. I'll take it out before leaving for work tonight, and it BETTER be dry in time for the trip. If not, it's coming along wet and can dry at the cabin.

I found a simple pattern on Ravelry for Basic Fingerless Mitts, which I want to make with the rest of the Bendigo DK alpaca before I REALLY need them at the Rav Brekky next Saturday. Pictures and pattern are found here. Trouble is, I haven't even started them yet! I plan on doing that tomorrow, hopefully, but with only 7 days to go, I really need to get crackin.

NOTE TO MOM: You can see pictures of these specifically on that link, but there are many many prettier designs out there. This pattern is the one I found that best matched the stitch pattern on my jacket and the size yarn I have to use for the project. But it is plainer than most. There are some pretty cable ones that Feisty Wench mentioned in a comment on my last posthere that I plan on making for the shoots, or lovely lacy ones here. Of course, there are many many more besides these, and I'll email you more links if you are interested in "browsing" for some.

I've decided on a sock pattern for the boaty "socks ahoy" socks I'm making with the Koolaid dyed Patonyle. It's called Widdershins. After much searching on in my sock pattern books, searching Ravelry pattern browser, and even considering designing some of my own, I finally decided on this pattern I found on Ravelry. It's ropey design seems "boaty" enough, and it looks like a fun, but not TOO complicated knit. However, the size on the pattern is too small for my chubby feet, so I'm going to have to add knit stitches along the sides (at least four..perhaps more..I'll see as I go) Still, they are quite pretty.

I have them cast on, and have now almost finished my increases at the toe. It should be a fun knit, and a good "traveling" knit.

My other active WIP, the "Peace in the Hood" hoodie/cardi has been going to work with me. It has been seeing fairly slow but steady progress, and I'm now about halfway up the right front. I imagine I will start on sleeves during the trip, unless I get too fully into the socks. Who knows. No pressure, at any rate.

Well, this post was more words and links than pictures, but I'm rather waiting until the last minute (probably Monday morning, as Monday afternoon I'm sleeping, Monday night I'm working, and Tuesday morning at 0900 we are leaving) to take pictures of my WIPs. Then it will be easier to judge any knitting progress made during the trip.

That's the plan anyway. If nothing upsets my applecart, I'll post the final "Pre-Bendigo" post Monday morning.

Detours and Roadblocks

For the last few days, since finishing my MIL's jumper, I have been working on the "Hirohito's Revenge" scarf. I'm so glad to be finished with that blasted Noro. I will NEVER buy that stuff again. Maybe I'm a bit heavy handed, but still, one wouldn't expect the stuff to fall apart quite as easily as it does, and I've never had that problem with other yarns. I can only imagine the stuff was made for delicate little Asian ladies, certainly not a roughneck like me.




But I'm reasonably pleased with the results of the scarf. I think it looks pretty good, considering I mixed the two colorways, and types, of Noro. I'm hoping it will soften up after a good soak in some wool wash.

One would think, at this point, I would have dived into the "Central Park Hoodie" project, as eager as I have been to start, but I haven't. I ran into a bit of a detour, deciding instead to start on a hat for myself to wear to Bendigo. I decided this for two reasons. I need a decent (ok, fancy) looking hat to wear to a 8AM breakfast in the park where a bunch of us Ravelers are going to meet and greet, and I thought it might be great to get a feel for knitting with the Peace Fleece before committing to the larger project.

So I have started the hat, which I found on Ravelry under the title of "Cabled Force", but I have retitled my version to "Copper Topper". I'm using the Sheplova Mushroom colorway of the Peace Fleece I ordered thru the co-op. This colorway is absolutely smashing when knit up, and I'm thinking it would make a great color for a jumper or cardi, or even a jacket. I'm loving it so far. It's definately knitting I have to concentrate on, but fun nonetheless, and the pattern is so fun to watch grow. I'm thinking I'll have this baby finished in no time flat.



I must pick up Chris' vest as well, and I promised I would before I started the hoodie, so I'll likely get to that very soon, and work on the Fringe jumper in the meantime.

I'm sort of placing some roadblocks in my way, I know, but in a fashion I'm trying to use my impatience to start on the Central Park Hoodie to inspire me to finish some projects that are well overdue for completion. Like dangling a carrot, so to speak.

I also recieved a lovely package in the mail this week. Awhile back, I sent one of my Ravelry buddies some Koolaid to try out, and she in turn sent me some silk caps that she had died with it, in pretty pinks and blues, for later spinning (if I ever get around to spinning agian!!). It may inspire me to get to my spinning, as I'm incredibly curious to see how these colors will spin up.





Well, that's it for now. Until next time...

"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!

The Ravelry Tornado

Let me explain this mess, shall I?

I've been setting up my "notebook" on Ravelry, a knitting and crocheting website I mentioned in an earlier post. You have spots for your "projects"...WIP's (works in progress), finished items, and even projects that have gone into hibernation. You also have a place to list your "stash", that is, all those juicy bits of yarn you have lying around the house. You take pictures of your yarn and/or projects, add those pics to flickr, then add them in the appropriate place in your notebook. In this way, your knitting life is more organized, and you have about 70,000 people who can potentially ohhh and ahhhh (lets assume their not gagging for ego's sake) at your work.

You also have a practically unlimited source of yarn info, links to patterns using this yarn, free patterns, for sale patterns, where its sold info, yarn swaps or sales, knitting forums for advice, sharing, help, or counseling. The possibilities are almost infinite. I'm gushing, I know, but it's a deserved gush.

Let me give you a for instance. Say I bought some Yarn Brand X on sale on Ebay. No pattern, no helpful shop attendant. Just me and Yarn Brand X. Normally, the standoff is on! In my previous life (BR...before Ravelry) I would be at the mercy of google, and the chance of me finding a pattern I was interested in, even for a price, in the same hemisphere as I'm in, was slim to none.

Now, I go to Ravelry. I add the yarn to my online "stash", and I automatically get links to all the other nearly 70,000 Ravelry members who have that yarn in their stash, or who have finished, or are working on, something in that yarn. It will tell me where to get the pattern, (and many, many are FREE) and I can see, usually, a picture of the actual finished product made by actual knitters, and often modeled by the actual knitter or real life recipient. NOT a picture of some size 00 model with something professionally done draped over her lithe figure. See what I'm getting at here???

Ok, now, about that mess. See, in order to photograph and get the info off of the yarn, I have to actually find it first. Also, Ravelry actually has a spot for you to tell where it's stored. I've been giving that a pretty good guess up until today.

So, in the interest of organisation, I pulled out all of the decent yarn and my 2 hibernating projects (a sweater I started for my son back, I think, in June, and my hubby's vest, which only needs trimming). To do this, I needed to clear out the chest completely. It had some tablecloths, sheets and the like in there, which were either bagged for the shed, or relocated to linen closet, where they should have been in the first place. I also had a stack of fabric I had bought here and there, mostly for Western Action costumes, but some for work pants. I decided to give the fabric half of the chest.

The only thing I didn't drag out was the three big black garbage bags full of bits and pieces that my girlfriend at work gave me here while back. They are crammed safely under the guest room bed, and most of that is unidentifiable. Those, I think, I'll save for another day.

Ravelry

Wow, I finally got my invite to Ravelry!!! www.ravelry.com Seems they had sent it months ago, but I finally got it today. Apparently it got caught in my spam filter. When I got to thinking about it today and went to the website to check and see where I was in the queue, I found out the sordid details, and another invite was automatically sent.

Ravelry is an online nirvana for knitters, with all sorts of links and gadgets. It's still in the beta testing phase right now, but soon it will be open to all. In the meantime, you can sign up and then wait in a queue just like I did until the invite arrives to join the beta testing. It's a work in progress, but still chocker block full of goodies for yarnaholics.

So here I am, after working all night, totally exhausted, and I've spent two hours past my bedtime playing around on ravelry, and I haven't even scratched the surface of what they have to offer.

When I get time to do the tech stuff, I'm going to add a link for it to this blog, and to flikr and have all my knitting ducks in a row. In the meantime, I'm going to crawl into bed and kiss my pillow.