Train coming...or The light at the end of the tunnel

So here I sit, typing away for my blog when I really should be knitting. I've been knitting like the proverbial demon for the past week..maybe two...trying to put the wraps on the Christmas knitting. Internet adventures have been curtailed in an effort to get to the bottom of the Christmas knitting pile, and I'm scraping the bottom even as we speak. The only "official" project I have on the needles right now is mom's "mystery" project, which is rather close to completion, or at least, rather close to completing the actual knitting part.

I finished the last hat today. It's a hat for mom's defacto. He owns a racecar, and I was going for something racey with the colours of his car in it. Why I took the photo on the side with the jog in the stripes I'll never know, but here it is none the less:



I used some stash yarn, about 1 and a half balls of Shepherd's Colour 4 me yarn for the main colour, and some scrap wool of undetermined genre for the stripes. The pattern is a pretty standard hat pattern, with a k4,p2,k2,p2 rib stitch pattern.

Non-officially, I'm also knitting a 7in by 7in square in a bright cheerful yellow shade of the Heirloom Easy Care 8ply range. Lots of us are making squares, and then we send them to a Ravelry friend who is going to sew them all up (lucky her, lol) and produce a blanket for another Ravelry friend who hasn't been feeling well lately. As I'm not sure if a square can technically be classified as a project, I haven't added it to my project list. I will finish it tonight or tomorrow morning at the latest anyway, so it's of no real concern. I'm further along on it now, but this is what it looked like this morning:



There's a project in my Sculptured Knits book called the Vasarely Vest, which is more a halter top than a vest. While it's not dynamic where style is concerned, I just loved the stitch pattern in it. It's called the Gordes stitch, and is rather simply: Row 1 *yo, k2, pass yo over 2 knit stitches*, Row 2 purl, and of course, repeat for pattern. For the square, I'm making it in a bigger gauge than in the Vaserely pattern uses, but I just wanted to get a feel for the stitch, to help me make up my mind if I wanted to make the top or not. Or perhaps use it for a design of my own. I do like it. I think I'll try it again in a smaller gauge, maybe make a dishcloth out of it, and see how that flies. At any rate, I got more bang for my buck out of the square, and killed two birds with one stone.

So in real terms, I only have 1 (as in ONE) project on the needles right now, Mom's Christmas present. This 1 WIP phenomenon doesn't happen to me that often. My average is three. Three is a good number. Usually, that's one "big" project, one smaller but complicated project, and one simple dimple small project.

So, by tomorrow at the latest, the time will have come. Yes, that glorious time when you choose a project, find your needles and yarn, and cast on those first stitches. Most knitters agree: Starting a project is more satisfying even than finishing one. When you start a project, the possibilities are endless, the anticipation devine.

These projects will have a special significance. They will be the first knitting I've done for myself in months. I've already decided on knitting the top I mentioned in the last post, using the beige Cleckheaton 4 ply cotton from my stash. I'm also going to cast on a sock, probably the Honey Bee Socks by Kiri Fitzgerald-Hillier from the Spring 09 issue of Australian Knitting magazine. Australian knitters might recognize the designer's name, she's the owner of Yay for Yarn, an Australian online knitting store that I have shopped at and would certainly recommend. The pattern calls for Lorna's Laces Sock yarn, but I have sooo much sock yarn around here right now, I can't see buying more, so I will stash dive for this project.

I'm positive I'm going to knit these socks eventually, but I did mention my desperate need for plain wearable knit socks in my last post. So option two is to cast on some simple stockingnet stitch toe up socks first, and do these later. Option 3 is that I could cast them both on, work on the easier socks at work or whenever mindless knitting is handy, and the more difficult Honey Bee socks at home when I have some concentration time.

That sounds like the perfect solution, and would be, if I didn't also with a passion want to cast on a lace shawl from my Victorian Lace Today book. Which shawl I'm not sure yet, I like them all. This was my dream at Bendigo S&W show(when I was buying all that laceweight yarn), to go lace shawl knitting nuts after the Christmas knitting was done. It's still an appealing dream. The trouble is, aside from wearing to fancy dress balls at Western Action events, I don't need a lace shawl. The next fancy dress event of that nature is in May, so there's plenty of time. Meanwhile, I desperately need the socks, and I would really love to get a summer top knit and on my back before it's too late and it's winter all over again. So necessarily, they must take priority right now. If I don't start a shawl project this week, I will definately start one as soon as I finish one of the projects mentioned above.

Well, enough of the future talk. I'm just so wound up and excited about getting started on some selfish ME knitting that I could ramble on and on about it for decades. Lets move on, though, to what else I've done this week.

The double knitted Celtic Beanie project went very well and very quickly. I'm happy now that I was "brave" because double knitting was neither hard to learn, nor was it particularly slow. Sure, it was a bit slower than regular knitting, but not by much. I think it took me 5 days to finish the hat, four of which I had to work, so that's not too shabby at all. The reversability of it is just fantastic, and I got lots of ohhh's and ahhhh's from my coworkers who knit, or at least, know how to knit. They were impressed, and curious as to how it was done, and none had ever seen the technique before, so it was definately a novelty item there for awhile.

Without further ado, the "right" side, or the "dark side" as I like to call it:



and the "wrong" side, or the "light side":



I'm very proud of this project, and had about as much fun making it as I've had in ages. It's great to learn a new knitting skill, and double knitting is incredibly cool. You feel awesome when you've mastered it!

Yesterday, I decided to get started on my blocking, so I put the first load into the utility room sink and gave it a wash. Here it is, all layed out on the dining room table to block:



I still have a couple more loads to do, but at least I've gotten started with it.

While I am nearly done with my Christmas knitting, I do still have little finishing details to do here and there, such as sewing a button on Ayla's cardi. I'll take care of those details here and there when I have days off and such.

So there is a light at the end of the tunnel after all.

I have another couple of days off coming up in less than a week. I'll try to do a small update post during that time about what I have decided to cast on. Until then...

Namaste Bag Quickie

This is going to be a quick post, and done a bit on the fly. I'll do another post to catch up on what I forgot to put in this one soon.

The Big news is that I ordered a Namaste Malibu bag in a lovely olive green from American Yarns. They are having a 20% off sale on all in stock merchandise this weekend, and it was just too tempting to resist. (For anyone interested, sale ends at midnight tonight, and you can go to the American Yarns group to get the sale code.) I'd been oggling these things for a month or more, and had it narrowed down to either getting the Malibu or the Hermosa. Both were about the right size for my needs, but I finally decided to get the Malibu as a more practical bag for taking everywhere.

I got a note from Gabrielle, the owner, saying she had sent the bag off from QLD Saturday. I was driving home this morning from work, trying not to get my hopes up. I knew getting it today would be sort of the "best case scenerio". I actually squealed when I heard the postie's knock at the door this morning.

Without further ado, my lovely olive green Nemaste Malibu bag:



The interior is nice and roomy and all sectioned off for all the bits.



Needless to say, it will be very useful for taking with me to Bendigo this year! I'm just thrilled with it. I'm rather sick of taking my knitting around in cloth grocery bags.

Now, on to the quick catch up bits. I finished the Unmentionables from Knitty, or "Blooming Bloomers" as I call them, made with Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in the Putty colourway. I haven't blocked them yet, which I'm sure will help the lace around the legs, and just put my yellow cord in for taking this photo. But I'm rather happy with them as they are, and they fit perfectly.



Also, I've very nearly finished the "Peace in the Hood" Central Park Hoodie made using Peace Fleece wool. I just like making the crocheted button loops and adding the buttons. It is, as expected, too big, as I started making it before I lost the weight. Hubby says it's okay, but lets face it, it swamps me. No pics of me with it on, but here's a shot of the back.



Also in the "almost finished" pile is the scarf I've been making for a workmate. I made her a hat last year in 2x2 rib, and this year she requested a scarf to match. I made the scarf in 3x3 rib, and it's long enough. I only need to cast off, sew in the ends and block.



The only project I've really got on the needles right now (gasp!! yes, just one...but that's due to change soon) is a pair of socks I'm knitting for a gift. At the recipients request, I'm knitting them with Heirloom Easy-care 5ply. I was knitting them 2 at a time, but had to separate them to finish the gusset increases and turn the heels.



Spinningwise, I have been working on the alpaca I got from Woolywombat. It's lovely and soft, but alpaca spinning is like alpaca knitting...those darn stray fibres get everywhere. I'd never spun alpaca, so it's been a learning curve, but I think I've got the hang of it now.



Also in spinning news, I'd been on the waiting list for Southern Cross Fibre Club for a few months, and finally got my invite to join. My first months fibre arrived last week...115 grams of Shetland wool top in lovely greens (we know I love greens).



I just love the earthy tones of David's fibres. I'm just sort of over all the pastels and bright bold colors that are pretty, but rather impractical for actual knitting when your...well...39 years old for the umpteenth time.

I also stopped by Spotlight yesterday. They were having a 20% off everything sale, and I actually went in looking for towels. I walked out with 14 balls of Cleckheaton Naturals Cotton. I found them in a bargain bin for 2.49 a ball, plus the 20% off, and they were quite a bargain indeed. Since they're "Naturals" they aren't really dyed, but they come in different shades varying from a creamy white to a brown. I bought 10 of the darker shade, and 4 of the lighter shade.




I was thinking the varying shades would work together, but after looking at patterns for "all cotton" garments on Ravelry, I can make something in my "new" size from just the darker shade if I like. Most all the summer cardi or top patterns call for roughly 7 or 8 balls in my size. Lordy, will I ever get used to being this small again?

Well, as stated, I'm rather sure I've forgotten a half a dozen things I intended to put in the post, but lucky me, this is my "slow week" at work, so I'll have lots of free time to do another post soon if need be. Till then..

A Week in Time

Sometimes I think that I should change my style of writing this blog. Maybe write more about feelings, or do a kitzy essay about knitting, or something along those lines. But then, I thought, really, this is more of a knitting diary, and while deep thoughts have their place, I'd rather keep this as more a journal of what I'm doing at this point in time. So, I think I'll keep it as it is, and if I do decide to do a bit more "creative" writing, I can always make another blog and link it.

Over the past week I've managed to finish the knitting part of Peace in the Hood, which is my version of the Central Park Hoodie. Given that I started it almost a year ago (I was knitting on it during the Bendigo Sheep and Wool show last year!), one might say "About time!" and be perfectly justified. It spent many months in hibernation, and I had it marked on Ravelry as 95% done. HA! Hardly. The hood was a huge square of knitting. Then there was still the button band. Not your average button band, by any means. It went from the bottom front piece up and all the way around the hood and then back down to the bottom of the right side. Three hundred and seventy eight stitches in all, first to pick up, and then to knit the longest 2 1/2 inches in width I have ever knit in my entire life. It took, literally, days. I was so heartily sick of it before I was halfway through. All that is done now, however, and it still needs stitching up. That, however, will have to wait. I have more on my plate right now, and as it's not going to fit me anymore anyway, there's no hurry. It will, however, make a dandy Christmas present when it's finished.





I've been knitting on my Blooming Bloomers as well. I've been doing the legs at work, as they are stockingnet stitch in the round, and you just can't get any easier than that. During these days off, I really wanted to knit a bit on it, so that I could get myself up to the crotch part, where the legs join and you start knitting the body portion, but that was not to be, due to the aforementioned excessively long time it took me to finish the hoodie. So, I will simply take them to work over the next few days, and face that problem when I come to it, which could easily be tonight if things are quiet, tomorrow night at the latest. The join looks slightly complicated, but not terribly so. I'm using my knit picks for the knitting, and my Denise cords to hold it on. I'm taking both sets with me to work, so I should be able to knit them off with no problems.



Just last night, I started another project. It's a market bag for my mother in law, June. I'm calling it "The June Bag". I'm using a pattern I found on Ravelry, called the Saturday Market Bag. I must say I don't like it. I'm sure the pattern is fine, but I'm not terribly fond of trying to do stringy lace with 10mm needles. Nope, it's a labour of love. And the desperate need to make something she might like very quickly. Of course, it's so tedious, I can't do it even while watching TV. Taking it to work is also not an option. But, I have one side almost half completed already, so perhaps my agony will be over quickly. A good thing, since her birthday is next Friday.



I tried to begin with to work it in the round, but that did not work at all. I just couldn't wrap my head around it, so I'm working it now per pattern, which means two sides that are eventually stitched together, although how I'll stitch the stringy mess is beyond me at the moment.

There are a couple of projects in shouting distance of getting started. The first is a scarf for a coworker. I made her a hat last year our of Basics Entwine yarn from Spotlight, a nice bulky yarn, in a creamish colour. This year, she has requested a scarf to match. This shouldn't have been a problem, but it was. Entwine had been discontinued at Spotlight. (It seems few yarns there make it past a years run before they are discontinued). This is where Ravelry comes in, and one of the many things I love it for.

After writing a friend in Whyalla about looking to see if they had any available there, and getting a negative answer, I went to the Australian Knitter's Group on Rav. They have a "in search of" (ISO) thread, so I put the word out that I was in need of some. A lovely Rav member just happened to have some in the colour I needed, we negotiated a price (more than reasonable) and in a few days I had 5 balls in my mailbox.



People on Ravelry are the nicest people in the world. Knitters are always so kind and helpful and willing to help another knitter in distress, and it's this general feeling of goodwill and comraderie that makes knitting not just a hobby, but a way to make, and keep, some really fantastic friends. I've known this for a long time, but just little things like this remind me of what a wonderful community we have in the crafting world, and the knitting world in particular.

The other project waiting in the wings is the Anchor's Aweigh vest, from the book Son of Stitch and Bitch. I found this pattern on Ravelry, showed it to Chris, and he actually said he would wear it. So, as I mentioned in the last post, I ordered the book from Fishpond. It arrived this week, and I set about searching for yarn. I went first to the local LYS, then to a bigger one in town, but 5ply in Australia is quite limited, particularly limited in colour choices, so I wound up going back to Gabrielle at American Yarns and ordering the Brown Sheep Nature Spun 5ply that it called for, in exactly the colours used in the photo below.





The yarn is a preorder, so it will likely take a couple of weeks to get here, but that's fine. The price was reasonable at $5.50Au a ball, but I probably ordered more than I need. Still, I didn't want to get stuck without, and I do need to modify it a bit to make it long enough to suit Chris. Besides, if I have much extra, Brown Sheep can be a hard brand to come by here, so I'm sure I can resell it.

For the past year or so, I've been getting books from Librovox, and listening to them mainly on my rather long commute to work and back, but also while I'm knitting and need to watch my stitches carefully, and sometimes on the treadmill when there's nothing to be watched on TV.

Librovox.org is a free service that provides books in the public domain, read by volunteers and offered to the public as free downloads. Due to copywrite laws, these tend to be the classics, or books written in the early 1900's or earlier. Many of them are British or European, as the US has stricter copywrite laws than the UK or some European countries. I had a great time at first, going thru all the Jane Austen novels. I listened to the ones I hadn't read first, and then listened to the one's I had read. For awhile, I was finding some interesting books, but after 9 or 10 months, this became harder and harder. Not that they don't have many books on there. They have hundreds and hundreds. But of course, like anyone, not all of them fit my taste in reading (or listening, for that matter). But after slogging thru a few questionable titles, and getting a couple that I couldn't even force myself to finish, I started looking elsewhere for something to fill my ipod.

Since Librovox downloads chapters to my itunes in the form of podcasts, I started searching podcasts available. Needless to say, the first thing I decided to search was knitting. I found way more than I expected to find, but the first podcast to catch my eye was "Sticks and String", which came with a little description, something like "An Australian Bloke Who Knits". So I went to the site and eventually downloaded everything he'd ever done, from his first podcast a couple of years ago to the present, put them in order on my ipod and began to listen.

This guys name is David Reidy. You can find his website and podcast HERE. He's got a voice that would melt butter, and his podcasts are very topical on Australian knitting, although he appeals to alot of people overseas as well. He did a tour of ACS (Australian Country Spinners) mills in the Melbourne burbs that I particularly enjoyed, but I do love all his on the road shows.

I'm caught up with his now, but still listen to the latest when they come out. Meanwhile, I've decided to go back and listen to all of Brenda Dane's Cast on podcast, which is also a very professional sounding broadcast, and full of information. It's quite entertaining, although I must say I like David's music better. I'm more into the "mellow" stuff, and even though she plays a decent mix, alot of it is more contemporary than what suits me. When I get caught up with hers, then I'll start hunting up another one.

That pretty much covers the goings on this week, except for buying three knitting magazines this morning. I bought the most recent issues of Yarn (I really need to subscribe to this one), Creative Knitting and Designer Knits. I just went on a magazine buying frenzy, I suppose. I haven't even looked at them yet though. I just tucked them into my knitting bag, and I'm saving them for my breaks at work over the next few days.

I'll be back with more as soon as more happens! Apologies for the terrible pictures, but it's been cloudy or raining here for a week. Not the best picture taking weather.

Playing Cowboys and Indians

Now that the glow from finishing the Bustaroony has started to dim, it's time to move on. Time to finish a pair of desperately needed socks. Yes, "needed". I've worn holes in two of my old pair, leaving me with only one pair of wearable socks. I do know there is such thing as darning, I just haven't found the time to learn how to do it.

This years Winter Roundup, our annual big Western Action shooting event was a success. It was (and I don't say this lightly) the best one yet, for me at least. Our posse (that is what our group of shooters are collectively called) was run by a husband and wife team, and things ran so much more smoothly than they have in the previous few years. We got thru the matches in record time, and even had a few minutes to sit and BREATHE between the matches on Saturday and the fancy dress get together on Saturday night.

Below, a picture of Chris in his civil war cap mom sent him from the states:


And me on the range Sunday, waiting to shoot. It was quite chilly, so the poncho stayed on until the last minute:



and shooting, minus the pancho because I'm dreadfully afraid a pistol will get stuck under it and I'll shoot my foot off:



That's "Coyote" behind me, husband in the couple who were our posse leaders/range officers for the shoot. Just wanted to give him and his lovely "Violet Rose" a two thumbs up for a job very very well done.

Now, most (if not all) of the shooters attending hadn't seen me since, at the very latest, last November. While Western action goes on all year round on a club level, most of the interclub shoots are done in the winter, so my weight loss was more than evident to them all. Twenty seven kilos gone is hard to hide, assuming I would even want to, which of course, I didn't. Consequently, I got lots of kind comments and congratulations on my weight loss, and that was fantastic.

Friday morning, I got two books that I had ordered in the mail from Colonial Lake Books. One was Victorian Knits Today, and the other was Colour in Spinning. Both were books I'd been pining over. Victorian Knits today is just pure sheer joyous eye candy, with the most exquisite pictures, equal to any coffee table book for sheer "flipthruability". As a bonus, it also contains stunning lace work patterns, and the only downside is that they are all so beautiful, how do you choose which one you want to knit? It has occured to me to start with the first one and work my way thru, which would take, ohhh, probably the rest of my life.



Color in Spinning is more of a text book on dyeing and using colour in fibre, and how to play with, blend or change up color during fibre preparation, using combs, hackles or carder. It's an older book, and it had been out of print and quite expensive if you could even find it, but has been put back into print as a paper back, and if you are a spinner, you should definately read this book. I had no idea I knew so very very little about color, and I'm only up to the third chapter.

I also took along just two projects. The first was my "Peace in the Hood" (CPH) hoodie, which I got next to nothing done on while there. The second was my Indian Corn socks. On the way there on Friday afternoon, I realized it was time to start increases for the gussets. They are being worked top down, with a Widdershins heel. Otherwise, they are plain ole stockingnet stitch and easy as pie. So, getting there at roughly 2 in the afternoon, I figured I'd have plenty of time to do the gussets and heel on both socks. HA! I did very little Friday night other than knit on those darn socks, and still was only just reaching the first heel by the time it was bedtime. I worked on them during my spare time over the weekend, which was minimal.

I wound up finishing the second heel on Sunday afternoon at the awards presentation. There were about 150 people in the room, sitting at long tables, and crowded all around me. The light was dim at best, and here I sat trying to pick up the short row raps and finish the second heel practically in the dark. This from a woman who, a mere 6 months ago, waited until I was alone, took the phones off the hood and found a quite corner to meticulously work the heel with no distractions.

Consequently, and it's no wonder, I did make a couple of boo boos on that heel that I had to paste up last night when I finished the socks. But all in all, I just wanted a pair of socks that were wearable until I could figure out how to darn the wholey ones, so they will do for their intended purpose.



In spinning, I've actually gotten quite a bit done. I spun up the merino and glitz batt from Wooleywombat, mentioned in the last post:



I plied, washed and set it yesterday, and it's now beautiful and dry:





I like to let my bobbins "relax" for a few days before I ply them, so after I got it all spun up, I went digging thru my fibre stash for something to put on the wheel next. I had in mind some alpaca, but when I went exploring, I found a second roving from Kathy's Fibres in the exact same colourway I had spun up before, the one I called "Navidad" when finished.



It then dawned on me that I had bought two rovings, and seeing more potential in having 200 grams of yarn rather than 100, I decided to spin that up in the same way as I'd spun the first one. I got one bobbin finished before I plied Wooleywombat's batt, and have the second bobbin now started on the wheel.

Yesterday morning, I recieved one of two books I ordered recently from fishpond. I really needed "Son of Stitch and Bitch" for a vest pattern in there that Chris actually likes. It's called Anchors Aweigh, by Kim Hamlin, and not surprisingly, has little anchors all over it. It's been a long time since I did stranded colourwork. By long time I mean I tried it once 20 years ago. To be frank, at the time, I didn't like it and moved on. But I'm all keen to try it again, and it's a project that Chris actually LIKES (oh, I mentioned that already, didn't I??)!!

The only way to get the pattern is to buy the book. I checked the local bookstores and Ebay.au, no luck. I checked the destash pages on Ravelry. Still no luck. So I went to the online book sellers. Now here in Oz, the online sellers list like bazillions of books, but in reality, they only keep the most popular in stock. Most of the books you order, they then order from overseas and ship them on to you. Consequently, delivery time can be tragically long. Thus my search in "other places" for something more expedient.

Fishpond offers free delivery for orders over $50, and their prices are reasonable, so I went with them. The Son of Stitch and Bitch Book was around $28, and I figured if I looked thru their knitting books, I'd find something else I wanted. Well, I found lots, really, but settled on Elizibeth Zimmerman's "Knitting Without Tears", which is a classic that I just didn't own. Fishpond must have had it in stock here in Oz, cause it arrived yesterday.




I haven't really had time to look thru it yet, but I've heard wonderful things about it. There's probably a lot I already know, but alot I don't, as with most knitting books I buy.

Sadly, the book that I actually need for the Anchor's Aweigh pattern is on that apparently fishpond didn't have on hand here in Oz, and it's likely to be another week before I get the book and the pattern. I've already been sourcing yarn though, and Gabrielle from American Yarns can get the Brown Sheep Nature Spun Sport the pattern calls for. I've thought about trying to source yarn here, and still might, but Bendigo Woolen Mills is the only place I can think of that has multiple colours of 5 ply wool. Hummm, well, we shall see. I'll likely go with the original yarn in the original colours, as it just looks so darned spiffy in the picture.


Ah, there's something I meant to write about in the last post, but forgot, so I'll include that now. On Mother's Day, we went to my inlaws house for lunch. My mother in law went digging around and pulled out a lovely cardigan she had bought over a decade ago when visiting Scotland. It's an Aran cardi, and I believe the wool is Shetland but I'm not positive. I'm really thrilled to death with it.



The trouble is, it has a few holes in it now, and I need to figure out how to repair them. I will need some similar yarn, but I think it will be worth the effort.



I also started a new project. Saturday, I realized that I was nearing completion of the Indian Corn Socks, so I went to Ravelry and looked thru my queue for my next project. I decided that I would cast on the "Unmentionables" pattern from Knitty spring 07. I decided to use the yarn called for by the pattern, because drape and stretch seemed important in this pattern, which was Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece. I ordered the yarn from American Yarns up in QLD a few weeks ago, so I was all ready to go.



The cast on was a bit tricky, for me at least, since I'd never done one like it. It was a crochet provisional type cast on, where you made a crochet chain with waste yarn and then picked up and knit the stitches thru the back loop of the crochet chain. I've started on the stockingnet part of the leg, and then will come back later, pull out the waste yarn and have live stitches to use for the ruffle at the end of the leg.

I was really in a bit of a hurry to get it started though, because we had a boat trip planned on Sunday, and I was afraid I would finish the socks on the trip and not have anything simple and reasonably small to knit on while out on the boat. Turns out, I didn't finish the socks until Monday, but I did get a dozen or so rounds done on the Unmentionables (mine are called "Blooming Bloomers" on Rav) while out on the boat.

The boat trip was as nice as it could be, given the condition of the river. I had never met the couple that came along. She was a coworker of Chris' and her husband worked for the Hills council. Amanda and Bob turned out to be very pleasant guests and shock of all shocks, it seems Amanda spins wool she gets from her parents farm, so we had things to talk about. Here's a pic of Amanda and Bob at the helm:



I also made another major purchase this past week. AustralianS are switching to all these "energy saving" globes. They're all you can find in the shops anymore, and I really, really have trouble seeing things clearly using them, particularly seeing to read or do my crafty work. Some rooms are so dim, the light bulb sort of glows rather than shines. So I bought a Daylight Lamp from Spotlight. I had been looking at them for awhile, and remembered that the distributor was at Bendigo Sheep and Wool Show last year, so I had considered waiting until then and getting one there. But push came to shove, and I got really tired of straining to see, so I broke down, stopped at Spotlight on my way home from work Saturday and bought one.



I absolutely love it! It spoils me though, as I can really notice the difference when I'm knitting at work and don't have it. It gives natural light, just like your working outside in full daylight, and it has a neat magnifying glass attached that you can pull over if you really need a close up look at what you are doing. It's a marvelous piece of equipment.

I also stopped by the LYS last week and bought myself a few balls of yarn. I bought two balls of Sirdar Naturals and one ball of Sublime. The sublime is much like the Cashmerino I've bought in the past, and I'm hoping it works well for a pair of "Fetching" fingerless mitts I plan making someone for Christmas. I haven't got plans for the Naturals yet, I just want to try out the yarn, but it looks as if it would dye well if nothing else.






Well, that's more than I had time for today, but that seems to be a pattern for me when it comes to blogging. I need to renew my vow to start blogging more often, but life just seems to get in the way.

Hope everyone has a wonderful rest of the week. As for me, I'm working the next 6 days straight, so it's going to be a busy one. Still, when it's all over, I'll have 3 glorious days off in a row. I reckon that's worth waiting for.

Sewing up Blues

I know I've mentioned before that I despise sewing up knitted garments. For the record, I still despise it. I'm quite excited and impatient to finish (and wear) the Bustaroony cardi. None-the-less, I'm still not motivated to sew my fingers to the bone to see it done. It's been sitting on my couch for about a week now, and I sit and stitch up bits at a time. I haven't been allowing myself to knit at home, because if I did, I would never get it done. So it's heaped up on my couch, and whenever I sit there, I sew.

I've sewn in all the ends, which took literally hours, but wasn't particularly hard. I've sewn the shoulder seams. Piece of cake. But now, I'm attaching the sleeves to the body of the garment. This is where things are getting a bit tricky. When attaching sleeves, of course, you are attaching the top cast off edge (assuming you knit the sleeves from the cuff up) to the side edge of the garment. Normally, I do this using an amalgamation of mattress stitch (on the body) and fake grafting (on the sleeve), which makes a nice smooth seam. However, the textured patterning in this garment, when working on it from this angle, seems to go every which way, and there are few nice neat easy bits to stitch.

Terrible picture, but here is the sleeve lined up to the body for stitching. Maybe you will see what I mean.

As you stitch along, because of the patterning, particularly in the tree patterned bits, stitches are heading in diagnal directions right up to the edge of the fabric. I'm doing ok, a bit of wobbling around but nothing I can't live with. It's just a bit slow and tedious. The first sleeve is attached, and the seam looks fairly good. I just passed the halfway point on the second sleeve so I'm getting there. Just very slowly. Then come the long side seams, which will at least be fairly uniform for mattress stitch. I will finish this thing someday, I promise.

Im making another one of these as a gift, and when I do, I'm leaving a couple of stiches for seam allowance, no matter what the pattern says, or doesn't say.

Moving on, I've gotten a bit of knitterly things lately. I added a bit to my knitting library, getting the book "Knit Fix: Problem Solving for Knitters" by Lisa Kartus. To be perfectly honest, it hasn't told me much that I didn't already know, but does have a section on altering finished knitting which I might find helpful down the track. It would be a great book for a reasonably new knitter, and as problems arise, even as a more experienced knitter, I might find it more helpful than I did on the general read through. It's written with humour and, for a technical type book, is actually fairly entertaining.




I also bought the April09 issue of "Knit and Style" magazine, purely because I hadn't bought it before and liked some of the patterns at a glace through. It IS a very nice magazine, with very wearable patterns. You know, things normal people would wear. I think what I liked best was the photos of the finished items. They were great photos, and allowed you to see detail well. Which lead me to my favorite thing about the magazine. The modeled garments look like real knitters knitted them. I found the ever so slight imperfections very refreshing.

I dropped by Needlenook a while back to get some more of the plastic yarn sewing needles I like using (and breaking) and they happened to have their 5ply Heirloom easycare wool on sale, so I bought a couple of 50g skeins. The color is sort of a goldeny brown, and the final intention is to make some thick socks with them, probably for a gift. Hence the "Easy Care", as I've found many gift recipients don't appreciate the special washing handling regular wool often needs.



As mentioned earlier, I haven't allowed myself to knit at home in a few days so I could concentrate on the seaming. But I have gotten quite a bit finished on the Saloongirl stockings at work, and only like a half a dozen or so pattern repeats finishing the second sock. I have cast on the second glove, but have gotten no further than that. As soon as I finish the stocking, I'll dedicate my time to the glove. It will knit up fairly quickly at any rate.

I've been meaning to mention what I've been listening to lately. After running thru most of the books on Librovox that I was interested in, I decided for a change to check out some knitting podcasts. Of course, I'd done this before, but I must have picked the wrong two to try out. The sound quality was miserable, scratchy and rather more irritating than entertaining, so I hadn't really bothered with them in awhile, but not having anything interesting to listen to on my Ipod was getting a bit old. My trip to and from work seemed to be getting longer and longer every day. So I went on a search, looking specifically for Australian knitting podcasts this time, and ran across Sticks and Strings. It's done by a fellow named David Reidy who lives in the mountains outside of Sydney. The sound quality is great, his voice is perfect for "radio" and his topics, on the whole, are very interesting. Even better, he talks at least some of the time about Australian yarns and Australian events. I went back to show number 1, and I'm now at show number 63, which was recorded sometime last year. I'm really getting a kick out of listening, and would recommend the podcast highly.

I finished spinning up the merino I've been working on:



and finally got around to plying it:



I'm very happy with the result. I named it "Navidad" because it has a definate Christmassy look to it.



Sorry, the closeup is a bit blurry...



No plans for it yet. I'm just enjoying admiring it right now. It came out quite thin, and would be thin enough for some thickish socks I reckon, which was my original intention. One can never have to many socks.

That's it for today. Until next time when, hopefully, the Bustaroony cardi will be ready for display!

Away and back again

Once again, it's far too long since my last blog post, but I have resolved now to do much better in the future. Resolved I tell you! The posts might get shorter, but they also just might get more interesting. As it is, I let things go for so long, and there is so much to write about and show photos of that I tend to rush thru without saying the things I want to say.

Things are moving right along with the knitting, although the spinning has been going along much more slowly, and the fibre preparation, despite the new drum carder, have almost ground to a halt. Not enough has been done to warrent photos. I've produced another few batts of the undyed grey corridale. Just more of the same, so it barely warrents a mention. I still haven't figured out what colour I'm going to go with. I'm actually considering leaving the majority of it grey, which would be a nice manly colour for Chris a vest or some such project, but then, given the interesting colours the grey wool produces, that just seems such a waste. I'm still deliberating.

I have managed to finish spinning up the fibre I got from "Kathy's Creations", which was a gorgeous colourway. I still need to ply it, and finish it of course, but the hard part is done. I spun it rather thin, but that doesn't really explain the time it took. I only worked on it a bit at a time, when my fingers were itching to spin, but just in short bursts and sometimes days apart. The knitting I've been doing has been the most time consuming thing going on. I could have had it finished much sooner had I not been in such a knitting frenzy lately.




Still, it's looking good so far. I plan to ply it up over the next few days, so it should be finished for the next blog post (the one I'm going to do SOON, remember?).

I finished the knitting part of the Bustaroony Cardi! Now for the dreaded stitching up. I haven't even started on that yet, even though I finished the final sleeve almost a week ago. With the weather getting cooler, it will provide some welcome warmth when I get it done. Added incentive...but man, I hate stitching up.

Having finished the Bustaroony, I had only the Salloon girl stockings left on the needles. With a bit of a holiday coming up, I had to get some other WIP's going. The first thing I did was drag the "Peace in the Hood" jacket out of hibernation. It had been in hibernation so long, I'd forgotten why I put it there. I think maybe because I needed to concentrate on my Christmas knitting, but I don't remember for sure. Unfortunately, I didn't write myself a note on Rav or even a date of when I put it in hibernation, so I'm only guessing here.

Anyway, I had made alot of progress on it. I had done the back, both fronts and both sleeves. I was at the point where I needed to start picking up stitches for the hoodie when we left for our short holiday over to Point Turton on the Yorke Peninsula here in South Australia. I got some knitting done on the hoodie there, and it looked like this on the day we left to come home:



After all the lace I've been doing lately (the shawl and the socks) and the intricate and constant textured/cabled work on the Bustaroony cardi, I found the knitting on the hoodie to be extremely dull, but it did make for excellent TV knitting, when I wanted to pay more attention to the show than to the knitting, so I mainly worked on it in the evenings when we were in the cabin watching the tele.

The Saloongirl stockings have probably gotten the bulk of my attention. I finished sock one, which is looking just great, and have moved right along on sock 2. I actually started sock two before finishing sock one, so that I wouldn't have to be starting it while on the road, and because sock one, when nearing completion, required me to transfer it off of the DPN's every few repeats to try them on, which was time consuming but necessary. However, it's not so convenient to be transferring needles and trying on socks on a road trip,so I wanted the second sock for times when I couldn't be doing the fiddly stuff.

But I did manage to get the first sock done except for the casting off part at the cabin, and was happy to have the second sock at the stage where I could take off and just start knitting. Here's another picture of the progress on the stockings right before we left for our trip home.





After getting home, I managed to get the casting off done on the first stocking:





(Please pardon the bad photos, but we haven't had much sun lately, requiring more indoor shots that just don't seem to have good lighting. Damn "save the planet" light bulbs don't help much with that.)

Which brings us to the "cigar" gloves, which I started right before the trip, and did manage to get quite a bit of work done on them. They are pretty easy, really, but require alot of 'waste yarn' to hold the stitches to be use later.

Here's the progress I made on the first glove during the trip:


Notice that I had put the pinky and thumb on waste yarn. But after I go home, I got the bright idea of using my Harmony needle cords to use as waste yarn instead, which worked out much better on the three middle fingers, and certainly sped up the process.






That first night after arriving home, I managed to finish the first glove, except for weaving in ends, but I haven't gotten a picture, and wil show that to you in the next post.

And of course, no post would be complete without a few holiday piccies.

Here's the lovely lighthouse at Corney Point, Yorke Peninsula, South Australia:


And a neat bit of rocky coast down the coastline south of Corney Point. The waves crash up onto the rocks, and a miniature waterfall is created when the tide is going out off of one of the rock shelves:



A picture of me standing over a beach near the cabin we stayed in in Point Turton:



And me standing near the rocky outcrop where the mini-waterfall is created (mentioned above). It's a beautiful and very secluded area.



A hazy sunrise from the varanda of the cabin we stayed in:



The rocks seen from the veranda of the cabin where we stayed. (Just sitting on the veranda and knitting was so enjoyable!!)



And of course, me knitting at a parking spot overlooking the beautiful western coastline of the boot at the foot of the Yorke Peninsula:



Hopefully, in the next blog entry, I will be able to at least show some progress made on finishing the Bustaroony, even if it is a bit optomistic to think I might actually have it done (remember, I'm dedicated to getting another post out SOON), more pictures of me using the new drum carder, and even some of the fibre I card in it actually spun up. I'd also love to have the spun merino from Kathy's Creations plyed. And I have tons of sewing to do for winter roundup, and would love to have the second "Saloongirl stocking" finished and ready to go, and in a perfect world, the "cigar" gloves as well.

Till next time :)