Blocking central

Yes folks, don't faint, I am close to finishing a garment. I know, it's a shock to me too. (please excuse all the nasty flash photos in this post, late afternoon in autumn is not the best time to take pics inside)



Starsky is now blocking away like a tropper in the spare room, and I'm plugging away on the 63 inch belt. I'm hoping the blocking will be dry by the time I finish the belt.

So my thoughts have been moving to what to do next. Trying to avoid my usual End of Project Confusion, I'm thinking ahead before I have nothing on the needles, I also have DH's socks on the go, as well as French Market Bag (shiver) (knit central, sleep inducing) and Butterfly (shiver) (lace central, brain frying). So I'm thinking of doing Girlfriend's School Spirit Sweater but without the v-neck this time, maybe more of a rounded neck. The lovely Wendy advised on how I might go about making it more rounded, fingers crossed I'm going out on a limb. I rarely stray from what the pattern says, I need that set in stone reassurance in front of me so I am a bit nervous. I guess if I wasn't knitting it with my freshly spun and dyed yarn I wouldn't be as nervous, but the last thing I want to do is have to frog it. I've started swatching for it today so here's hoping it will be an easy knit rather than a 'do a tonne of maths to make it work' knit.

A few posts ago I stepped out of the comfort zone and mentioned I might want to do a quilt and have been thinking about what I want to do and what I want it too look like. Today I had a revelation (they sometimes happen) and thought about all the bedlinen I made for Little Man when he was in a cot (I must have had a truce in place with the Singer at that point) (either that or the child in my stomach kicking my ribs was keeping my mind off wanting to throw the sewing machine through the wall).


So instead of it all going to waste I'm going to make it into a quilt. The colours are so nice and bright and will go fab with his current sheets (don't they remind you of a Roald Dahl illustration? I love them, they are from Ikea, the Hokus range by Silke Leffler). I'm quite looking forward to it, more the finished part than the sewing part.

A developmental milestone

Yesterday, Little Man (age 2 years and 2 months) walked up to my yarn stash, pointed at it and said 'yarn'.

I'm so proud.

Sydney chickas

Just a quick one to let you know I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, just using my free time lately to knit like a crazy woman (pics to come tomorrow) and to let the Sydney ladies know that there is a knitting morning tomorrow at Rubi & Lana's in Gordon (in the arcade that joins to the station carpark). Around 11 till 2ish, only a few of us go so would be great to see some new faces. Also gives you a chance to check out Rubi & Lana's gorgeous store (and I hear Paula has some new stock for us to fondle look at).

Thunderbirds are go

It is all action all the time here. Since my bout of E.O.P.C many decisions have been made, many projects have been started... none finished yet but hey it's a start.
Firstly, months ago you may remember I received a large bag of fleece straight off some lovely merinos back. Well, this weekend (cause what else does one do when they have 4 days of eating choc... uh I mean public holidays) I got around to washing some.
Some befores



Mmm doesn't that look like a nice bath you want to soak in for a few hours...



And some afters.





I think I may be washing it for a while because this lot didn't even make a dent on the HUGE PILE of fiber.
When I first spun it it was unwashed and came out brown. After 3 washes (3!!) it has shown me it's true colours.



A dent was made, however, in Starksy. I'm powering through it, finished the back




and onto the front. I am seriously concerned about it's size though (as my psychic powers told you a couple of posts back).

I finally finished spinning up a huge bag of merino I bought when I first started spinning, so I decided to make a jumper for Little Man out of it (pattern yet to be confirmed. Well I can't go using all my knitting brain power all at once can I? Too many decisions make me faint.) White is not the most suitable colour for a child who's best friend is dirt and muck, so I'm going for a deep red (looking decidedly pink in this shot). I dyed that up this morning.



Also I found my Mickey Mouse watch that I had as a child. It has no bands so what a perfect way to do Wendy's Boogie Time for Little Man! Excited about starting that one.

And the biggest most exciting news. I was pondering what else to knit a few nights back (as you do when you have a few hours to fill in before your favourite trash TV shows start) and DH said to me 'aren't you going to make me some bed socks?'

Wha? Huh? uhh... eh?

He has NEVER asked me for socks. NEVER!!! So, excited little worker bee me dashed off to the stash all a blather, dashed back again, grabbed DH saying 'you have to choose the yarn' to him while dragging him back to the stash. He kept finding the cheapy, acrylic stuff while I slowly edged him towards the delights of angora. So deep purple and beige it is. I'm so excited!

A day in the life

What do you do when you are unwanted and unloved?

Take some time to play on the swing,



kick back...



... and have a beer.



Do some sight seeing,



Go for a drive.



Try myself on Little Man (beanie courtesy of my mum and some lovely Mollydale he will wear that beanie even when it is 30 degrees Celsius outside)






obviously itchiness runs in the family.

Here's the specs on what not to wear, I mean Backyard Leaves.



Backyard Leaves from Scarf Style, knit with yarn from hell, I mean Heirloom Alpaca.

When good yarns go bad

Finally some knitting to be shown. I have started on Starsky, it's going great guns (Starsky, guns, get it bwahaha I crack myself up). I was going to take the lovely Donni up on her offer of employing the services of her yarn pimp to get the illusive Knit Picks as required by the pattern, but I was itching to start (more about the itching later) (don't worry it's not as gross as it sounds) so I popped into my lovely LYS and picked up some Cleckheaton Merino Supreme (which, by the way may be my new fave. It is SERIOUSLY soft) (maybe I should have used that to stop the itching...). And at a great price of $5.50 a ball you can't go wrong. But not before stopping by in Lincraft to check what they had in. After coughing up a faux fur/glimmer/glitter/whatever latest fuzzy novelty yarn they had in store fur ball while passing by the ROWS AND ROWS of this stuff they have (one day they will realise that we are not all 12 and wish to use REAL WOOL!) I found a few semi normal yarns, lots of Katia (which I really quite like, especially great for kiddies knits as they don't pill and wash easy!) and some Cleckheaton Merino Supreme, but not many balls of that to be of any use to me.
So here's a pic of it visiting my HUMOUNGOUS basil plants (I have never been able to successfully grow basil anywhere but it is coming out of my ears at this house. Must be all the neglect.) It is much darker than the photo shows, more of a chocolate brown, not this wishy washy brown.



I must have been having some sort of fit today because I actually felt like finishing something. As in blocking it. As in SEAMING it (albeit a seam that is shorter than a dpn but still it is something like seventh hell to me). That 'it' that I felt like finishing is none other than (trumpet please in Closing Ceremony fashion) BACKYARD LEAVES!! Yes my Olympic/Paralympic/'could have been a Commonwealth Games knit if I had been organised enough' knit is finally done. I steamed blocked, I pulled out my needle, sewed that puppy up and whipped around my neck with a flourish...

... and promptly whipped it off and threw it to the ground with a look of disgust on my face.

IT ITCHES. BIG SCRATCHY ITCHY ITCHING.

How does this damn thing itch? I tried the yarn when I bought it, put it up to my face, felt it with my hands, over and over and over so much so that I was getting funny looks from the LYS owner like I had some kind of yarn fetish (but I did stop short of sniffing it) (oh who am I kidding I probably did that too) (and hey what is it with my overuse of brackets today?) (and... nah just kidding). I am so sad, I was really looking forward to popping it on when the days get cold (whenever that will be, being that it is about 30C here today. It's autumn is it? Could've fooled me), swaning about town looking fab. Now it will be relegated to only being worn over things that totally cover my neck.. kinda defeats the purpose. You'll get some photos when it is cold enough for me to don thick enough clothes so I can't feel the itching.

Hmphf. I'm off to watch some trashy TV in the form of America's Next Top Model (I'm sorry I cannot get enough of this crazy trash. And project Runway too, the tears! The tantrums!) and knit my Starsky (which I suspect is gonna be a bit too small... I now have a record of when I should have come to my senses so when I have almost finished it and it IS too small I can come back to this post and sob) (and I just had to put one more lot of brackets in! It's all gone to crazy land here!)