Pictures! At last! And haven't I been busy...

You can tell I'm putting off an essay, can't you?

My socks *singing*
I love them, I love them, I need more!
(damn my thirsty soul)

The Jo Sharp cotton bag.

It's supposed to have a wash-cloth and hand towel to match, but I was reluctant to spend all at once (ha ha), so they might come later. I think this would make a nice present-set, especially if you bought some matching soap-holders, etc. A little pricey, but.

This is the Jo Sharp cardi that I started. I am making good progress, no? Not that it's much more exciting than knitting a cushion right now, but the end product is much more worth it. Can you see the shiny-ness?

Yum. I love this wool. I love Bendigo Woolen Mills! Am planning another wool-haul, some for chrissie stuff (I know, I'm a trifle tardy) but mostly for my Arwen knit along. Very exciting. Anyway, to break up the monotony of cardigan-ness, I've been working on My sister's scarf - Voila!











And whenever the incessent un-tangling gets too much for me, I switch back to the cardi. Actually, the scarf is going quite well, I rolled it up and pinned it, because the length was tangling with the threads dangling from my needles. So now progress is much faster. It's not almost finished, but it is almost almost finished. And i also remembered I had those fingerless gloves for her, too. Christmas, here I come!

Weekend summary

Well, how was your weekend? Mine was pretty good. Went down and spent the day in town with my cousins on Saturday. Went to the library and overloaded.. some good fiction, but I hit their knitting section pretty hard. There were a couple of books I was thinking about buying, and I've since decided against one and for another, on the strength of what use I might get out of them. Saw Private Lives with two of them and my grandma (it was hilarious), and then hung around at their place until late. There was a fantastic thunderstorm, and it rained big, fat heavy rain all night. Lovely. Just lovely. Check this out for a pic or two. It put paid to my one rose, but there's another just come out.


I'd thought about taking some knitting with me, but my sock didn't seem very mobile, given the trouble I'd been ahving, and I didn't think I'd get time to do it. however, there was an hour or so that evening when I was just hanging around, and my fingers positively itched. I didn't get home till late, but even so, I had to knit a few rows before I went to bed. And then the next morning, we got this:


Sorry about the shine, but it's my sock. Or almost. I have to detatch it from it's umbilical cord, and then I can wear it. Just the one, I don't care. I'm so excited. I think I might be hooked on socks. The best thing is, I worked it out all by myself. I just feel so clever, I'm almost glad I made all those mistakes!

I thought about starting the next one, but by that time my cupcake hat was on the needles I would have needed. I knitted that in one day: yesterday, Sunday, in between doing other things. And I knitted furiously in the evening, once it got close to finishing I couldn't stop till it was done. My fingers hurt.


Here it is, doesn't it look scrumptious? Raspberry chocolate, good enough to eat. I bought the wool on Saturday, it was $1 a ball. I'm thinking a chocolate pompom and some choc sprinkles in the form of tube beads. I think this one will be a chrissie present for one of my younger cousins, but it does fit me, and I love it so much I'm going to have to make one for myself. I'm also wondering how hard it would be to make it into a tea cosy...

I sort of wish I'd made the ribbing longer. Nevermind, there's always next time.




Today it was lovely and drippy and misty when I got up. Here's a photo, although by the time I took it I'd missed the mist. (How poetic of me)


It's all cleared up now, and it's quite sunny.

The lawn has almost dried off. I know, because I just went and sat on it to cast on my next project. 101 stitches, and now my bottom's damp.




Had some nice native birds singing. Our garden's been infested with Starlings, which start out sounding pretty, but they've begun to drive me crazy. But, yesterday the magpies were out in force. That's got to be one of my most favourite sounds ever. They're absolutely beautiful, especially in the early morning or just when the sun's going down. Althought there'e one around here that seems to think that the hour between midnight and one in the morning is the perfect time to be singing.


Then we had a couple of kookaburras. One even landed on the electric pole. Can you see it? Not really, huh. I didn't want to get too close and scare it off, but I needen't have worried, he was quite unconcerned with me.


Had two Jehova's witnesses today, they scared the bejeezus out of me when they knocked on the door. Two middle aged women. Very enthusiastic. last time it was two very cute young men (well, they were. Don't look at em like that!) and the time before that, two angry looking women. I hate having a Kingdom hall nearby, I just don't want to know, but I feel bad for them, which I'm sure they'd be very surprised to know. They have to go around doing this, I'm sure some of them feel as awkward about it as I do. So I just nod my head and be polite when I really would like to disagree... only then they'd never go away. And if you knew me you'd know how hard it is for me not to argue ;P It's all very character building, I expect.

I hit podcast alley this morning to see if there were any knitting podcasts. I am now subscribed to about a million of them... I'll let you know if they're any good! I love my podcasts, and I aspecially love to sit down with my knitting and my headphones and listen to something interesting or educational or diverting while I make something beautiful. So I'm looking forward to discovering some interesting new people to like.

Well, that's the miscellania. I'm going to go get some more material for my nascent quilt tommorrow, which is exciting. I'm hoping I will be able to restrain myself money wise. Also, I'm hoping my order from Bedigo woolen mills will be here today. Can't wait!

My sort-of quilt

This is a pic of the quilt cover I did for my sister years ago, that I mentioned earlier on. I made it the year I graduated from high school, when I had started holidays but no one else had yet, so I had the house to myself.

It was Lord of the Rings themed, since the first movie had just come out
and we were both on a Tolkien kick. See, there's the ring in the middle, painstakingly copied out.

A better shot of the ring picture:

You can't really see, but in the red part, I painted on the runes or whatever they are that say "one ring to etc etc" It was hard. I did the same on the pillowcase I made to match. I originally wanted to embroider it, at least on the pillow, but it got too hard. I might give it a go if I was doing it again now, and I had enough time.



The thing I loved best (apart from having the final product all done) was choosing the fabrics. Check them out:

You can't really see very well. The top looks all fiery and lava-like. The red on the bottom looks like tangled branches. The idea was to sort of describe the journey they had to take to get rid of the ring, with the ring in the centre. The picture below shows it better.
I was thinking of putting some foresty fabrics on the edge, but I ran out of room, and the colours didn't really go.

My sister still uses it on her bed, although with different pillowceses now. Which is pretty flattering if you think about it. Or maybe not - she did use a fairy quilt set she got when she was tiny up until just a few years ago when it fell apart...

Anyway, I'm surprised by how good it still looks. It was my first proper project, and still my only really big one. Hmmmm... I'm being tempted into doing something similar... cos I totally need new project, I don't think.

It's a texture party!

Here is a super-easy project from my copy of Creative Knitting. They're the pair of fingerless gloves from page 29, and they are so quick and easy. Unfortunately I didn't read the materials properly, and I'm one ball short. Until this fact pulled me up, I happily knitted three of the four pieces in a bit over an hour, I'd guestimate. And yes, they're for my sister (gee, I took the quiz in the back of the same magazine and it said I always knit for others. I guess they were right... should I be worried?)

They're quite long, about twice the length of my hand. If the sister doesn't like them, I can always make another pair shorter. I could probably fit it from the new ball I'll be buying.

They're quite pretty and lacy, and that makes them fun to knit. The palm-side (right of photo) is ribbed.


Ooooh, pretty... It's actually black, though.

It's free for a reason...

This is a beanie-and-fingerless-gloves pattern I got for free from spotlight. I now know why it was free. I got it cos le sister wanted fingerless gloves, and the wool I got is sort of school colours for her - but isn't it ugly?

I don't know if you can tell that those two blobs are gloves. They're just two knitted blocks, folded over and then you sew to make the fingerholes. simple as can be. I ahd half a ball elft, so I started on the hat. Now I have to buy another abll to finish it, which will also be left unfinished... curses!

Can you tell they're gloves now?

One scarf to despair over

Here is a variation on the purple scarf from the last post. It's DK Tweed, of course, in Beach and Brindle. Looks cool, huh? It was also supposed to be ready for my sister's August birthday, but it's so darned fiddly. It's the allowed colours for her school, so I thought I'd be all clever and tricky.

Since the scarf is 9 'blocks' of knit/purl alternation, (5 stitches wide, 12 rows high) I decided to do it in four seperate strips and whip it together when it was done.

Whenever I get to the 12th row, I have to go through a bizarre ritual of passing the other colour along the block as I knit so I can use it to start the next row. That's not very clear, but it's hard to explain. Anyway.

As you can see from the photo, I knitted the first two sections fairly quickly - they're only four accross, so it wasn't too tricky. However....



Here we see the trickiness that ensued when I had to add another ball of wool. Everytime I change the verticak block they get ridiculourly tangled, and it's driving me nuts! I pick it up every now and then, knit two blocjks, grit my teeth and knit another two, and then, very carefully not hurling it against the wall, put it away again.

If I ever get it done, I bought enough 'Beach' (the lighter colour) that I could do another one, just in that colour. Which would be nice. And easy.


If she's very, very lucky, my sister will get this for christmas, but it's not looking good.

Two scarves to gloat over

Here are two scarves that I finished this last winter. Both are Jo Sharpe patterns, from Knit Issue one.




The one on the Left used up most of the 3 balls of Alpaca Silk Georgette that the instructions demanded. The wool is delicious to work with, it's so smooth, although it probably would have been better with bamboo needles, the metal ones I used made for some slippy times. It's also delicious knit up, you just want to keep touching it. Definately luxurious.





I made it for my sister's birthday in August, and I whipped it up in about two weeks, probably about 20 hours of knitting. Does that sound like too much? I wasn't counting at the time. The scarf's quite short - as per instructions and also my sister's request - but the silk is so fine that it takes a lot.

Here's a pic from the magazine, with a closer view...



The purple scarf on the right in the first pic is done in Silkroad DK Tweed in Eden, and was for me. The pattern says 3 balls, but I still have one and a bit left over - nevermind, I can always use more wool!


The pic on the left is a closeup of Jo's version from the book, to show you the texture. It's yummy to wear, and the colour is all wintry and nice. That whole range has beautiful washed-out colours that are perfect for winter.