Stuff and things

Here are a whole bunch of photos of yarny goodness that I took ages ago (note the lack of leaves on the trees!) and never got around to posting.

An old finished object (around August from memory!) Made from my first handspun yarn :)



Another FO. With the gorgeous ruffles yarn my lovely friend Alice bought for me in Germany. The colours aren't as bright or horrible as the photo makes out. My camera just doesn't seem to do reds.
A purchase from the ACT Craft fair... sparkly brown merino.


Some merino purchases from EGMTK. The one on the left is called clown face!
Gorgeous 2ply alpaca which I bought in the alpaca shop in beechworth and am going to turn into a travelling vines scarf.


Another goreous laceweight, which I got at the Craft fair, which took me two evenings to wind into a ball and has convinced me to invest in a swift and ball winder! I was very close to throwing the whole thing in the bin in tangled frustration. It's becoming a feathers and fan scarf. Which I started knitting sitting in a hut in the snow near the top of Mount Buffalo! Lace projects are perfect to take on a backcountry ski trip - lightweight, but can keep you amused for hours while your more skilled mates rip up the slopes!So... the stash is getting bigger and there's very little knitting going on. I'm putting that off until after I've had time to sleep and do last weeks dishes. It's been a long week!

Knit-Con*

*obscure reference to Can-Con - in Canada, the radio stations have to play a certain quota of Canadian Content (or Can-Con) .

I realised it's been a while since I posted any knitting content, so here it is!!

Finished a couple of weeks ago: My Mum's tea cosy! Mum specifically requested a tea cosy to fit her favourite tea pot, which doesn't cover the handle so that the handle doesn't get super heated. This is the first tea cosy I've made, and I just made up the recipe. The wool is hand spun and dyed that I bought at a gorgeous little handcraft shop called The Purple Paddock in Keith, South Australia. I used a basket weave cable. (officially my first cables. So many firsts!) If anyone would like the pattern, let me know in the comments and I will put it up (it's pretty straight-forward).


And last night in the middle of the night when I couldn't sleep, I looked up some info on how to knit up the funky tape-like yarn that my mate sent from Germany. It's called Geniale by Schachenmayr Nomotta (50% Merino, 50% Acrylic). And thanks to the ever amazing Ravelry, I discovered that it is very similar to "Linie 194 Solo' and saw lots of examples of things people had knit up with it. (I also saw that Jejune had stashed some way back when.) Anyway... it's kind of fun, kind of awkward to knit with, and automatically makes little ruffles. I liked the look of the skinnier scarves people had made with it, so this is just 5 stitches wide. I've twisted the tape at the end of each row so that the purple shows up on one side of the scarf, and the orange shows up on the other. I like how it's turning out so far. Thanks Alice!! :)

So much to tell you!

WARNING: Very long and overdue post follows...

Well... I'm still alive, and have been up to lots of stuff... but just a bit behind in posting about it!

Since I last wrote, I've had a birthday. My first birthday present was D & E having their bub on my birthday!! (thanx guys, that was sweet). She is a beautiful, perfect little bundle of joy! And I think she likes her new bunny 'Herm', who I can now finally post photos of. Yay!!
He was crocheted from a pattern in the US magazine Knit Simple.

In other finished items news, I made Mr Purl a stubby holder! My first colour work... (It says 'Nancy' which is his Rat Patrol name...)

And, speaking of Mr Purl, the wonderful man got me a spindle for my birthday!!!! (and he hasn't seen me much since!!) He got it made by Pete Filmer at the OBD Markets... not sure at this stage what type of wood it's made of, as Mr Purl didn't retain that information... but I will find out. It's absolutely gorgeous!!

And that purple roving I got from Helen now looks like this:

Two little balls of plied yarn, and one ball of singles yet-to-be-plied. You can certainly tell what order I spun them in... I'm getting less uneven (although some people say that unevenness is a desirable feature). I'm a little over half way through the 50g of roving... and thoroughly enjoying the process! (so much so that I've done very little knitting since I got the spindle!!) I also really like how the slightly different hues of purple are all showing up when it's spun :)

And in other birthday goodness, my beautiful friends were very generous... including a gift voucher for Stitch 'n Time in Mawson, and some homemade goodies! Pol made me this gorgeous bag... which happens to be just the right size for my spindle and roving!

H. made me this stunning knitting needle roll. She's a talented lady!! (and sweet too).

I got great enjoyment out of deciding where to slot in each pair of needles!!

I've also been playing with some alpaca fleece which some of mum and dad's mates generously gave me (thanks also goes to the alpacas Monty and Ruben!). On my way down to mum and dad's last time I stopped in at Ashford and dropped a substantial amount of money on some stuff... including carders (which, incidentally were way more expensive than I expected).
Carding takes a long time. And is dirty. But still kind of fun. I did quite a bit of it in the evenings at mum and dad's, sitting in front of the telly.

And I spun up one little ball of Monty's fleece just to see what it looked like:

Other things I've been up to include my first picot edge - performed on the sock I'm making out of my first ball of home dyed wool :) (oh, and in other dyeing news... the mulberries are out... soon to be made into a dye bath!)

And this... (no, not me, but a dear friend who got hitched on the weekend).

Right... that's all. As you were.

Hooray socks!

Well... I've been realising that I may not actually have time in my life to upkeep a blog. But ah well... I'll do what I can!!
Anyway... excitingly... here are some pics of the turtle walk socks!! YAY for my first pair of socks ever!!! A big thanks to Spidey for the expert guidance in her sock workshop, which definitely gave me the confidence to try making a pair of socks at all!! These are for my sister, who I'm pretty confident doesn't read my blog, so I should be safe to post the photos here!

This photo is taken on Lady Musgrave Island... where Mr Purl proposed... of the fresh bebe turtle tracks in the morning... my very own 'turtle walk'!! :)

Oh...

Oh my goodness! Apparently I had signed up for Ravelry... and then promptly forgotten! So I'd never been checking where I was up to on the waiting list etc, because I didn't realise I was on it!! Then this evening, trawling through my junk mail folder I found an invite!!!! Craziness!! I spose I'd better say goodbye to that last sliver of time I had!!

In other news... I've signed up for the Southern Summer of Socks. Here are my personal goals for the KAL as posted on the SSS blog:

1)To knit my second pair of socks ever... from wool I've dyed myself (my first foray into dyeing - yay!)
2)Potentially knit my third pair of socks ever... from the very special 'purple trainwreck' colourway, hopefully coming my way from the lovely Julie, care of the lovely Bells!! These socks will definitely be for ME! (also a first...)

And... excitingly, I've finally finished the turtle walk socks!! What an incredibly satisfying feeling to have made my first pair of socks and have them turn out roughly the same size etc!! Sorry for the lack of photo... one coming soon!

Simple Joy

I'm amazed how little time I've had this past week!! I've barely had time to turn the computer on, let alone blog or read/comment on everyone else's blogs. Where does all the time go? Partially to being sick I spose. And partially to catching up on a serious backlog of housework. And a big part to starting an exhausting new job!! (and very little to knitting unfortunately!) Anyway... here I am now. Procrastinating about cleaning the bathroom... feeling like I really should be in bed. But here are some long awaited (well for me anyway) pics of my finished objects.
Mum looking lovely in her shrug... which she LOVES!! (thanx for loving it mum!)

And Dad's beanie and with the last minute card I made for him. In the end I think the beanie was a bit too short. There's probably something to be said for following a pattern...

Thanks to everyone for all your kind words! This week is going really well. The kids are really fun (except when they're being little monsters)! And some moments are just magic... like when a helicopter flies over the yard, and the sheer joy they derive from that... I can't help wondering if the pilot realises quite how much joy she is causing??
And today while we enjoyed the gorgeous sunshine, we went blossom-spotting in the yard, and talked about spring and sang a spring song. Not a bad way to spend your afternoon really...

I sneeze when I look into the sun today

Well... I'm still alive (just!). In case some of you were wondering!!
What a week!! My first week of childcare has been thoroughly exhausting!! I think I caught every single virus that every kiddy in the centre has... all at once! Aargh! Then a fairly traumatic day at work on Friday left me absolutely floored! Hey... it can only get easier from here on in! On the up side, every one is nice, the kids are cute, and I'm settling in well.
Also last week I finished Mum's shrug. She loved it!! I have pics of it and Dad's beanie to post. Super soon, I promise!! Now... I'm due in bed!
Hugs to all for their well wishes the past couple of weeks!
Oh and hooray for the 18 degree day (though maybe it was warmer than that?) And to 5 loads of washing all drying today!!

Two more days

Thanks everyone for your kind words about my life changes... they make it all a bit easier!! Thanx in particular to Mez, my beautiful colleague from SA... I'll miss you the most... but will still be in contact of course!

Slogging my way through the last week at work has been tough... but it's been cheered by a couple of lovely nights of knitting!! The first Inner North SnB happened at the Front cafe and gallery on Monday night. It was great to meet Mick finally, and all the other lovely knitters who I hadn't met before!! We had a great old chatty time, and discovered a few more instances of what a small city/country it is!!

Then last night was a lovely Knit and Talk Sh!t at R's house... with her two big husky dogs very intrigued by all the knitting folk!!! :) Thanks to K for the delicious roo stew!!

AND... 2 hours before his birthday (today) I finished Dad's beanie!!! Got up early this morning to block it... I was a bit disappointed that I couldn't hear the air fizzing out of the wool like George did... because I was quite excited about the prospect of that!! :) So it's sitting obediantly at home now drying out... and will be all ready to give to Dad when I see him tomorrow night! I'm pretty happy with how it turned out... maybe a bit too short, but ah well, I spose that's what I get for not following a pattern! I'll post a pic of the finished object soon!

I'm excited to do some work on the lovely turtle walk socks this weekend!! (I'm going to be hanging out with Mum and Dad, so I can't work on the last little bit of mum's shrug - which I need to finish off sometime between now and next Wednesday...)