Sunday 2 December 2007

It IS easy being green!

Planted out the garden last weekend and have already harvest a wee bunch of herbs or two. Every time I’ve gone into the grocers this week I keep thinking “Won’t it be awesome when I can just go and pick some tomatoes or capsicum and don’t have to buy it?"....I even scoffed at paying $4 for a bunch of basil and picked some leaves from my wee plants.


I’m out there pondering my garden most evenings when I get home from the orifice. Looking at how things are going, lamenting the fact that the wandering jew has reared it’s ugly leafy head again around the brickwork....damn, damn, damn I hate that stuff!!



The tomato plant that mum and dad bought down for me revealed some a few wonderful surprises….not only is it covered in flowers, but there were already some happy lil green baby toms happily growing, hiding under the leaves.



Then things got green again during the week, I received my Rowan Yorkshire 4ply Tweed, in this amazing green with flecks of gold and turquoise in the mail….and this afternoon, I decided to sit down and start stringing some of my green beads into a necklace, like I’ve been meaning to for ages!!....so you see it is easy being green!


Monday 19 November 2007

Lemons on a stick and a blank canvas


It was a weekend full of gardening goodness, Mum and Dad came down on Saturday and blitzed through the backyard, fixed the front gate, put the bbq up. Well, ok Dad did all those things, Mum and I went to the nursery and purchased greenery for the getting there garden. Biggest hugs and kisses to them both for doing so much around here too....helping us move as well as the garden!!


Hubby’s long time buddy Dave unearthed a little Lemon tree on his farm for us, after my drunken ramblings on Friday night about wanting citrus, bless his little cotton socks. Ok, at the moment it’s really just a stick with a few leaves, but with a bit of TLC, we’ll be harvesting lemons in no time! I can feel a batch of lemon curd coming on. There are plans for a lime and maybe a blood orange too, nothing like sipping a good vodka, lime and soda whilst munching on a straight out of the oven piece of blood orange syrup cake....but I can’t do everything at once!



So the mushroom compost has been dug through and there’s been a bit of daily watering happening, the newly created blank gardening canvas will start to get planted out this coming weekend, weather permitting. Now the thing's empty, I have a whacking great 1.4 x 3.3m to work with!!


Can't wait to start harvesting all the fresh herbs and getting my hands dirty again....I’m getting a bit excited!

Sunday 11 November 2007

Our House




Tomorrow marks 2 weeks since we moved into the new place and it’s been all go, go, go ever since, not only are we unpacking, but there was so much cleaning and fixing and tidying up that has to be done to get the place more livable.

Living in brand new units has cocooned us in certain ways, but it’s also raised our expectations when it comes to the state of where we live….and let’s just say this new place wasn’t entirely up to scratch when we moved in! It’s getting there though, and it’s been great actually getting up and doing things.

Today we got out and cleaned the front out of potential roach motels and mowed our “lawn” (well, hubby mowed), as well as tidyed up a bit in the back yard and getting about 4 loads of washing out on the line….that fresh smell of sun dried clothes is something I’ve missed dwelling in stacked concrete boxes.

I was thinking about what we would have been doing if we were still over in Wobbly Creek and the short answer would have been sitting on our arses, on the computers or knitting in front of Foxtel….well, I would have been knitting, hubby would have still been computering. So even though the place is a lil tired and needs lots of TLC, it’s so good shaking off our sedentary states and getting out in the sun for some photosynthesizing and vitamin D.

I’m really excited about having a garden again. I’m still in the planning stages of what I’m going to do, mostly because our bins keep getting filled up with “unpacking” things and there’s no room to piff the manky plants that are taking up precious space. I’m going to go mad with the herbs and some smaller growing vegetables, like tomatoes and capsicum, oh and strawberries!!! Joined Diggers Seeds finally (been meaning to for about the last 15 years now!) so I’ll be giving some of the heirloom varieties a go. My sisters (and their niblets) are keen veggie growers and Dad’s never without a tomato plant surrounded with basil, so it means I’ll be able to share all the seeds with them too!!


Above is a shot of what the garden looks like now, I’m going to use that big empty terrible-cotta (sorry, that’s a dad joke) pot for the strawbs, just dig the pot down into the soil a little and I’ll get a similar pot for a couple of varieties of mint, so it doesn’t take over. The plot’s about 1.5m deep by about 2.5m wide (once I dig out the mystery plants) so of course my heads going a million mile an hour thinking of all the herbs I can plant. I mean, do I really need things like lemon verbena or bergamot, possibly not….actually they’re only on my maybe list at the moment. I’m going to be sensible to begin with and get things that I’ll use plenty of established first, like thyme, marjoram, oregano, rosemary, parsley, chives, basil, chillies, etc, etc, etc….all the obvious culinary things. There are also plans afoot to get a multi-graft citrus going in a big pot, oh and I just thought, a bay tree might be nice.

So once I get things going out there, I’ll post some more pics….and I’ll have something other to talk about other than the knitting. (I’m not even going to bang on about the ball winder I finally went and purchased today, or the fact that I’ve picked up the pointy sticks again, getting 2 whole straight repeats on the Clappy done last night. Yay, I’ve got my knitting groove back, oh and I bought some teeny knitpiks needles for the Baby Casmerino project, but enough of that!!)

One gorgeous thing though, is that our neighbours have been very thoughtful at some point and have planted a Frangipani, Jasmine and Murraya alongside the shared fence, so I can’t wait till they’re all in bloom and their heavenly scents are wafting through our back door.





Anyways, I’m off to carve up the rack of lamb, that I just happened to stud with fresh garlic and lemon thyme….playing house is starting to agree with me.

Sunday 4 November 2007

Moving Sucks....but at least it's over!

Well, almost! We've been in our new place now for about a week, cute little house that it is!

It's a bit of a reality check moving from shiny and new where we've been living for the last few years into an old cranky terrace that's been severely beaten with the DIY stick. There's also the becoming reacquainted with nature that's proving to be a bit tough, because nature comes in the form of GIANT black cockroaches that have a habit of scampering across your path in the half light or come flying in through open windows whilst your pouring yourself a stiff whiskey to recover from the last altercation with a 6 legged beast sibling!

I got all evil on their arses during the week and went postal with a can of fast-knock-down-lure-and-kill-till-dead-dead-DEAD roach spray and we were greeted by a sea of carnage the next morning, all over the front yard, all over the footpath and up the street. There were corpses strewn everywhere, I felt so happy surrounded by so much roachy death. I'm having to watch my back though, I know they're plotting revenge most foul!

The whole knitting thing has gone by the way whilst I'm still elbow deep in boxes. I had all my WIPs set aside all ready for the move so I could find them straight away, but I just can't get into anything that it contains at the moment (including the clappy). I've tried, but while I'm still surrounded by chaos and it does my head it trying to count rows, it's just not going to happen. I need everything in the right place before I can feel at home enough to knit again.

I'm looking forward to getting the sewing machine whirring and the needles clicking and the beads a'beading....and everything shall be as it was, just in a different location.

Oh....almost forgot the best bit....I have a garden, it's only small, but there's plenty of room for all the herbs I could ever want to grow!!

Monday 15 October 2007

The yarn stops here

I, like many knitters, am afflicted with a terrible malady, the inability to stop purchasing yarn. I reckon my yarn purchasing to actual time to knit with said yarn ratio is easily 8:1….for every 8 garments worth of yarn I buy, I really truly only have time to knit 1 of them.

Photographing my stash for Ravelry has definitely highlighted the issue….that and having to stuff packets of yarn under the sofa and bed, because I’ve run out of space in my “craft” area. Hubby even cleaned out some his computer things shelves and I filled them in about 5 minutes flat.

Sometimes I buy the yarn with no particular project in mind (like the Knittery purchases below, they’ll become some sort of wrap, just don’t know which ones) other times I become obsessed with the idea of knitting a particular pattern and just HAVE to get the yarn NOW to knit it, but then something shiny distracts me and I’m casting on something else.

The 10 balls of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino I ordered from the states haven’t even arrived yet, again I was obsessing about knitting the Short Sleeve Vintage Cardi in the new Jo Sharp Knit 4, but I’ll be too busy with the Clappy to even think about it for a couple more weeks.

Anyway, I guess the point to this tale is that I’ve decided NO MORE YARN will be purchased (except if it’s for something specific, like baby things, seeing as my little sister and dear friend in Canada-land are both expecting). I just can't do it, I have to knit with what I have, I know there are more and more gorgeous things out there in yarn-land waiting for me to stretch forth me little mitts to grasp with glee, but they are just going to have to wait.

So, here it in writing:

I, Larissa, being of soundish mind but less sound body, hereby swear not to purchase any yarn in a frivolous fashion till half my stash has been transformed from fuzzy balls of yarn into wearable garments or usable things.

Now let's see how long that lasts shall we....

Tuesday 9 October 2007

No apologies


Started my Clapotis on the weekend and it's knitting up a treat, I've always been a lil bit scared to start because it looks a bit complicated and beyond me....but pfft to that....it's easy peasy pants!! There's nothing scary about it at all, just a weeny bit of concentration needed....so I banish my husband from the room while I knit. I love knitting it so much it'll be finished within the next week or so, no doubt!! I'm doing it in the Handmaiden Seasilk and the drape and feel of the fabric that's being created is stunning!

Got me thinking though, about a knitting class I used to go to and how it used to be such a great social outlet for me, but ended up with me being embarrassed to take anything too interesting to class.

I've been able to knit for years, mum taught me when I was younger....but I didn't pick up the pointy sticks again in earnest till about 2004. I was a dab hand at knitting garter stitch scarves, but not much else, so I decided to do a knitting class through a local evening college. It was great, I learnt how to knit rib (I didn't actually know about yarn forward thing) and read a pattern, the girls in the class were a lot of fun, some returning term after term just for the social aspect. So I decided to join them and kept enrolling. Anything more advanced in terms of technique I taught myself or shuffled of to “shock horror” a class at Tapestry Craft, the evening college teacher had an open dislike of lace knitting or anything that involved more complex than moss stitch and often made comments about me knitted complicated things to show the others up.

Ok, I know most of the people in the class were beginners and that the perfect place for them was spotlight or big w, because of their cheap and cheerful yarn range, and when you have NO idea what you're doing, a $2 ball of acrylic is a great place to start, but as my confidence in my ability grew the more I began to appreciate better quality yarns and the results I’d get from them.

The first special project I knit myself was a feather and fan scarf in the softest cream baby alpaca....I was pretty chuffed with the result (even though there was a mistake or two), but when I took it to class to show them, it was all about how much the yarn cost...."you paid $11 a ball and it took 5 balls???????"....um, yeah, 5 balls, but it's really beautiful and soft and it was less than $60 and you couldn't buy the same thing for that and besides, I love wearing it....but some people couldn't get past the cost.

Then I had the audacity to turn up with a couple of balls of Noro Silk Garden, the uproar that caused because I'd spent $17 a ball!! After that I was labeled the DINK (double income no kids) and I never went back.

Anyway, I don't like that I was made to feel bad about having a bit of spare cash....hey, I work hard, so does hubby....we can spend what we like on whatever we like....and I chose to buy beautiful yarn that I can fall in love with before it even hits the needles and shoes....he buys rare whiskeys and things for his computers....we're grown ups, we're allowed!!

And speaking of beautiful yarn....I discovered The Knittery.











Monday 1 October 2007

How to end a long weekend.


With a glass of Wine and some Raspberry and White Chocolate Muffins fresh out of the oven.

Thursday 20 September 2007

I baffled the doctor

In the early hours of Wednesday morning I woke up with the skin on my thighs on fire and not in a good way!!


The doctor didn't actually know what might have caused the big, red, burny, itchy welty rash that covered both my upper thighs and stomach but finally after sitting around trying not to scratch for 2 days things have finally starting to calm down. Not sure if my body has just weathered the storm or it's all the steroids I'm ingesting in the form of prednisone and aristocort, don't really care as long as it goes away soooooooon.


And for the brave here's a very sexy picture of one of the welts on my leg!

Friday 14 September 2007

Back from holidays and back to reality


Just spent an amazing week driving around the South Island of New Zealand, it’s so incredibly stunning, so many snow capped mountains and rampaging rivers and the quiet, the blessed quiet.

Then back to inner city living, where there’s nothing but the constant hum of traffic and rev-heads who think it’s fully sick to do burn outs around the round about 7 floors beneath our living room.

Anyway, back to NZ….

We landed in Christchurch and drove to Hamner Springs, which was a gorgeous little town surrounded by huge rolling hills. Soaked in the hot springs, mmm rotten eggs….but man were they GOOD. It was like 20 years of dead dry skin just rubbed off me when I was getting changed, my elbows have NEVER been so soft! And oh, soaking in that hot stinky water was like melty, gooey heaven.

From there we headed down to Fox Glacier, where we were all set to go Heli-hiking, but the clouds rolled in and the helicopter was too scared to fly us to the top of the Glacier, so we just walked into the face of it and ooh and ahh’d at the sheer massive, magestic nature of it all.

Onto Wanaka and lakeside tranquility. Apparently this town is the less (s)wanky place to go skiing in NZ and it was so lovely. Even though there were people hustling and bustling about the place, it was so tranquil.


We flew over to Milford Sound, across the mountains, again stunning. Hubby poo’d his pant when the 10 seater plane we were in got jolted 200 feet straight up, when an updraft off a mountain caught us, which was kind of funny, but I was cucumber girl and it didn’t bother me that much. After cruising around the sound (I’m not even going to bang on about how gorgeous that place was) and flying back, we spent the rest of the afternoon pottering around a toy and transport museum, which had a wool shop attached.

Ah, yes, I’ve finally gotten to the yarny bit.

Got some lovely handspun things in Wanaka, nice dark brown stuff that was the natural sheepy colour and some very pretty lilac and pale blue 2 ply, both will make great scarves.

Apart from that the wool situation around Christchurch wasn’t that crash hot, I popped into Knit World and Knitters Warehouse and both had a FANTASTIC selection of Cleckheaton and Patons, but hey, that’s what Spotlight’s for. Knit World had Jo Sharp and Rowan, but there was nothing I couldn’t buy over here or source cheaper on the net. So it was a lil disappointing on that front, although I did pick up the Rowan 39 book for about $45, so YAY and some Twilleys Freedom Spirit (in the Fire colourway) for $5 a ball.

As for possum yarn, definitely not for me, it did feel lovely and soft and like it would be toasty warm, but the actual possum fibre is really short, so when it’s spun with Merino, you get lots of sticky outy fibres just falling about the place that would have just driven me mad with all the fluffing and getting all over everything, so it stayed in the shop.

Christchurch is a pretty little city too, strange mix though, the “cultural precinct” lasts about 2-3 blocks between the river and the Cathedral, but anything away from that is all second hand clothing stores or empty shops. We did find this gorgeous little art deco street called New Regent St, that was all divine little nick-nack shops and Hubby found a Cuban Cigar place, that also sold cuban coffee!! I won't even mention how I pawed pathetically at the windows of the Cashmere shop, the stuff in there was soooo grown up and stylish, so I didn't go in :p

Coffee is just divine over there too, lattes served in near bowl size cups, which you sip to wash down your freshly toasted bagel (like the French Toast Bagels we had for breakfast one morning at Yellow Rocket) YUM!!

Speaking of sourcing yarn cheaper on the net, just invested in 10 balls of Noro Silk Garden Colour 252, at $11 a ball for my Lady Eleanor Entrelac Stole.

Just have to get the Clapotis out of the way (GOD DAMN that Handmaiden Seasilk is like sex in yarn form), oh and the Montego Bay Scarf and the Blue Sky Cropped Cardi.

The brother-in-law just got engaged too, there was vague talk of a Christmas wedding, so I might have to whip up some of interesting lace stole-like creature for that, just so everyone can ooh and ahh at my pointy stick prowess, or not.

Saturday 25 August 2007

YUMMY....


Spiced hot chocolate....I made it myself!

When good knitters do naughty things


I was bad today!

No, I didn't spend too much in Tapestry Craft, in fact I didn't even hit the $70 mark! They didn't have the Ball Winders in yet and I was soooooo good and put back the Noro Silk Garden that I was pawing with the Lady Eleanor Entrelac Stole in mind. Even though I've ordered the yarn for the Clapotis, I've become obsessed with the idea of Entrelac, so much so I sat down last night with a tutorial to teach myself how to do it, but then Hubby came home a bit bleary-eyed and wanted to watch the Henry Rollins Show.

So where does the badness come in?

Um, I was in Borders today and copied the Chevron Scarf pattern out of the book Last Minute Knitted Gifts. I love the look of this Chevron because of the waves it creates, rather that zigzags....but I REALLY didn't want to fork out the $53 the thieving bastards wanted for it! I do intend to buy the book one day, I do, I really do, there's a very cute lil elephant pattern and some super cute lil people beanies.

Silly thing is I didn't really need to look at the pattern, because I'd worked out how to do it a couple of nights ago when I was trying to get my head around how it might be done....feather and fan without the yarn overs....just KFB's, although, I might try make 1's with a twisted stitch to avoid the ridge that the KFB's form.

The yarn pictured is what I want to use for the Chevron Scarf, another skien of sock yarn that won't be made into socks :p

Anyways....it's back to the Entrelac, me thinks....till I get bored with concentrating and cast on the Chevron.

Friday 17 August 2007

*Sigh* I’m in love


There are 2 new loves in my life….my set of Knitpicks and Ravelry.


Both have been around for a few weeks now, there are already a couple of new projects on the knitpicks and I’ve only just had the chance to really sit down and play with on the ravelry site.


My new needles are a dream to knit with, all shiny and smooth, but not too slippy and that memory-less cord, pure ecstasy. They are making the knitting of the eyelet swirls scarf so easy! I finished my nephew's hoodie with them (they could not have been MORE perfect for picking up stitches!) and I’m now attempting the Blue Sky Alpaca Cropped Cardi....never fear fragile readers, I am making it longer because I look like a stumpy box in anything cropped.


Looking at all the profiles over on Ravelry, I’m feeling all inspired to now pull my entire stash to pieces and start photographing every last ball/ hank/ skein and every near done, half done and newly cast on project I can lay my hands on. I’ve been trawling through all the pictures of cardigans people are knitting, falling in love with the look of patterns that I’ve previous skimmed over, it’s funny how much more appealing things can look in a different colour.


There are scores of knitters out there creating things from Fitted Knits, a book I’ve owned since its release, looked through a few times, but always put aside in favour of other projects. Had to re-evaluate that somewhat, now I’ve seen what other people have done with the patterns. And there’s something about Interweave’s Nantucket Jacket that I’m really starting to like.


Just what I need, more things to add to the “Some Day” pile!! *Sigh*

Tuesday 31 July 2007

Back to the knitting


Finally got through the final pages of Harry Potter on Sunday, so the knitting has started again in earnest!

Nearly done with Mum’s silk garden scarf, I’ve been working on it at lunchtime and all the girls at work think it’s just gorgeous, so BIG YAY!!! My version in the Aurora has come to a grinding halt, it’s such yucky yarn to knit with I’m kind of avoiding picking it up again.

The lil hoody is finished, sort of almost, just got some seaming to finish, but I’m using crap light as an excuse again and I’m only working on it on weekends, when I can sit on the balcony with all the lovely natural light making my job much easier.

I’m onto something else already of course, a scarf in Filatura di Crosa’s Zara (see the pic for the pattern I’m using, from the first Vogue Stitchionary – I am hoping to get the WHOLE book for my birthday, fingers crossed). This yarn is so stunningly easy to knit with, it’s light and lofty and a complete and utter dream. The scarf is already about 2 balls long and in a lovely pale bluey mauve colour (think it's called periwinkle)….YUM YUM YUM, love it to bits.
Almost forgot! I really liked the final Harry, some of the loses were heartbreaking when they happened but it was such a great end to a much loved adventure, wrapped up in a way that seemed just right. I’m thinking sometime in the not too distant future I’ll be starting the whole thing again, when Harry was still living under the stairs in Privet Drive.

Tuesday 24 July 2007

Strange things are afoot!

It belongs to my new toy (see below)....I just don't know what it actually does yet!!

It's the new arrival....



An early birthday present (seeing as I had to go and pick it up myself, thanks hubby o' mine!)

Haven't dared switched the thing on yet, the "before you start" part of the manual is as thick as a kid eating perkins paste and I have to save my reading eyes for Harry and Harry alone!!

Spoke to Sis the Youngest today and she's already finished and so desperately wanted to discuss all things Harry (as we always do after each volume) but couldn't in case she revealed something she shouldn't! I'm on Chapter 22, I'm getting there....I swear I am!!!

Oh and if you're really that interested in the new sewing machine it's a Brother NX-400.

Plush-o-Rama arrived today too (woo for Amazon, how i adore thee and the AU dollar is a bit spiffy at the moment to boot!) so I think the first thing I'll make is something plushy-toy like!

Saturday 21 July 2007

And the knitting stops

Just while I read Harry Potter of course....

Chapter 9 and I'm already emotionally exhausted....I'll be a wreck before I get half way!!

Saturday 14 July 2007

Owww, my bleeding fingers.


Ok, I’ll come right out and say it, there’s nothing all that nice about knitting with Noro Silk Garden or Aurora. Some relief came when I transferred from bamboo to metal needles, but it’s scratchy and crunchy and dream crushing.

Oh Noro, you enticed me into purchasing you with your luxury yarn price tag, like some holy grail of knitting-ness!!

Everyone bangs on about “woo Noro this” and “even bigger woo Noro that” but really, for me all it has going for it are the amazing colour combinations. Honestly in future I’ll be spending the money on some squishy soft alpaca or cashmere blend. Something when I’m knitting it feels like I have an itty bitty kitty in my lap, purring away as it grows.

The fabric itself once knitted isn’t as icky as the knitting, it’s not baby-bum soft, but nor will it take away sheets of skin in some exfoliating frenzy either. And those colour changes….STUNNING!

I’m knitting the Orca Tail Scarf in Silk Garden for mum and in Aurora for me. I will admit to loving the way they are knitting up though, the way each repeat seems to be flowing underneath the next, they’ll be a perfect splash of scarfy colour if the weather ever decides to warm up.

They’ll certainly be a labour or love, seeing as I have a few balls of Filatura de Crosa’s Zara staring at me. And those massive, space consuming balls of wool from Bendigo whispering “knit me, knit me” those bastards just KNOW they’ve swatched perfectly for the countless potential projects.

Got my Ravelry invitation last week too, so I need to embark on a photographing orgy so I can document the stash and all the UFOs/ WIPs. She who dies with the most yarn wins!

Then again, it’s a nice bright sunny day, perfect for dealing with dark yarn and there’s a little navy striped hoody that needs some attention.

Saturday 7 July 2007

A boy and his almost hoody




The yarn didn’t arrive until Thursday so only 1 sleeve got finished before Saturday.

Good thing that I hadn’t finished the jumper though….because it’s TOO SHORT! Yep, so now I have to un-cast on the bottom and add another stripe or two.

Twas a lovely 1st Birthday party though, kids running about in manic fashion, scoffing lots of party food, grown ups running about in not so manic fashion, scoffing lots of party food. I can’t get over how much my little nephew changes every time I see him, such a manly man is he! He'd just woken up when he tried on his hoody though, so he wasn't overly enthused.

Monday 2 July 2007

The night Panda became a Jedi



hehe....Panda's just modelling the seamed hood and shoulders of the lil striped hoody! I think he looks a bit cute.



But man, this is going to be one thick arse jumper, the cold weather had better keep up or Lil Sir Niblet is going to have to pack up his toys and move to a colder clime, somewhere like the Arctic maybe?

Oh and Panda has been with me since I was born, so he's a very old and very loved noseless Panda.

Oh noes, I runned out!!

Yep, there’s no navy wool left! The cupboard is bare. The well is dry. And there’s a lil jumper with a back, a front and NO SLEEVES!!

Luckily I foresaw this catastrophe and ordered another ball on Friday, unfortunately it means a mad knitting rush late this week. I have a lil bit left that I’ll use to start seaming with tonight, tried to do it last night, but oh my lordy the weaving in of the ends started to drive me to distraction. Dark navy yarn is rubbish to weave in at night, you can’t see a damned thing.

The new members of the stash were calling out from their bags yesterday, I fondled a little and even cast on a few stitches in the Noro Aurora (ack, that yarn is going to make my fingers cranky) but I was good and picked up a couple of half finished scarves and worked on those a bit more.

Thursday 28 June 2007

Stash enhancement


Spent a few hours today wandering around the Craft Fair, it was mostly a nightmare of scrapbooking paraphernalia and several other naff crafts that seem to attract the 65+ crowd, but there were also some opportunities to add to the stash!

A couple of my favourite suppliers were there, Bendigo Woollen Mills where I picked up 2 colours of gorgeous fluffy mohair for $3 a ball and some divine 8ply in a cobalt blue and violet twist (all enough to furnish the wardrobe with some spanky new cardis!). Kaalund were also there, I’ve bought 2ply lace yarn from them before and their colour combinations are like walking into a gelato shop in spring.

Got me lil mitts on some Colinette Jitterbug sock yarn (for scarves, not socks) and some Noro Aurora, which I’ve not seen before. New Zealand were represented by a company called Touch Yarns and I’m now the proud owner of some 2ply Mohair/Merino mix, feels so nice, I want to curl up and sleep in it!

So, I’ve now got even more to keep me busy! Because I didn’t have enough yarn to do that already, did I??

Not a lot more to report on the lil stripey jumper, I’m about half way up the hood. Just couldn’t knit last night, my bodgey wrist was giving me grief and I can’t keep knocking back the pain killers to get me through. I’ll hopefully have that finished over the weekend, so I can start playing with my new yarny friends.

Oh yeah….colour knitting class tomorrow at Tapestry Craft too….WOOOO!!!


(Sorry about the rubbish pic of my purchases, the light was terrible)

Wednesday 27 June 2007

Show us your back, love


Ok….and I’ll show you most of the front as well!!

So, I’m a little behind where I wanted to be by this stage, I was hoping to have had the front finished and be starting the sleeves tonight. Didn’t knit a stitch on Monday night, bad me and I wasn't happy the few rows of the neck/hood shaping I did last night , so I’ve just finished un-knitting them.

I’m dreading weaving in all those ends, which I’m thinking will have to be done before I start the seaming. Note to self: next time with stripes, do the maths before you start and just carry the damn yarn up the side!! Oh well, live and learn, etc….

Loving the yarn I’m knitting with though, it’s from Bendigo Woolen Mill, a lovely 12ply machine washable 100% wool. It’s twisted, not crepey like some machine washables can be. As much as I would have loved an excuse to go out and buy the pale blue cashmere blend that the pattern called for, there’s no way I could be that mean to my sister! Hey sis, here’s that jumper I told you I was knitting for Lil Sir Niblet for his big first birthday, it’s hand wash only and cost a bomb, so make sure he doesn’t get it dirty, you know by doing little boy things in it and all.

I must admit though, it’s been tough being a one project girl since the weekend, there are a couple of unfinished scarves on the coffee table begging me to pick them up and knit a few rows, but I’ve been strong.

Although, I really want to drag out the balls of deep mauve Cleckheaton Studio Mohair I have in the stash once I’ve finished this. One of the girl’s in the office had the most divine cardi on today, fitted, round neck, 1x1 ribbing around the waist for shape, but then it was decorated with rays of graduating sequins (I think) coming from the neck, I know, makes NO sense, sounds naff, but it looked great and I want to knit then bead something similar.

Actually, I bid on 10 balls of the same yarn in a gorgeous delicate mint colour on Ebay today….was thinking same sort of cardi with the same beading, maybe self coloured, maybe in a lovely contrasting lilac. All lovely and soft and pretty….very unlike me!

I have promised Mum a scarf before I do anything else, got a couple of balls of Noro Silk Garden for her for Mother’s Day back in May, she’s approved the colour but I haven’t settled on a pattern to do it justice yet.

Curse my stash and it’s seductive ways.

Friday 22 June 2007

Fearing the jumper....



Ok, I posted on Tuesday about how I was SUPPOSED to start knitting my nephew a jumper….well, I did start….but it’s only about 7cm of starting.

The stripes are kind if bugging me, it’s a hoody, so I’m thinking the stripe thing just isn’t going to keep traveling up as well as I envisaged . Might just go stripes to the shoulder seams and have a solid navy hood, I don’t know, it’s thrown me into a tizz. So much so, I’ve been picking up every WIP and UFO in the place and working on them rather than this one, itty bitty jumper.

I FEAR THE JUMPER!!!

It’s 12ply yarn knitted on 5mm needles, for a whole 30cm, so it’ll knit up in no time for poo sake….so why can’t I just settle in for the night, in front of some crap TV, glass of wine at the ready and KNIT??

The scariest part now is that I have less than 2 weeks to complete it, his party is on the
7th July, I’m going to have to really pull fingy on this on L

To make things worse, there’s a Craft Fair thing on next weekend, where I’m going to go on a yarn bender AND I’m doing a colour knitting class at Tapestry Craft. The temptation to start phaffing around with things that I’ve either learnt or purchased will be completely overwhelming, I might have to locked in a room with only the wool for the damn jumper and my 5mm bamboos….oh and that glass of wine.


Tuesday 19 June 2007

Brrrr.....

It’s cold and it’s wet and the rain won’t stop.

AND we’re supposed to be getting a BIG storm tonight sometime too. I’m longing for just a few hours of sun and something resembling warmth!

Luckily the yarn I ordered to knit my nephew’s birthday jumper arrived in the mail today, so that will keep me busy and glued to the lounge. It’s a cute little hoodie from a Debbie Bliss book, except I’m doing it in navy, cream and maroon stripes. It might even be my first finished knitted garment!! I’m a wiz at knocking out the scarves, however I have bags full of half knitted jumpers and cardis! Bad me!!

Well fingers crossed, I have a July 6th deadline to meet….ARGH!!!

Saturday 9 June 2007

To Blog or not to Blog….

I’ve umm’d and ahh’d about this whole blog thing for ages, probably for as long as I’ve been reading other people’s blogs. Always lurking, never commenting, just wallowing in the inspiration they so delightfully deliver on a most oft daily basis.

Every time I’ve been just about to jump on the ol’ blogging band wagon I’m overwhelmed by the lack of anything interesting I’d have to say about anything! Then I thought fuck it….

So here I am, about to commit most probably a large amount of shite and drivel to a cyber world already full of shite and drivel….and lots of naked chicks.

Friday 25 May 2007

baby steps....

Woo, my very first post. If only I could think of something witty and jovial to say.

Give it time.