It's an invasion

Ann & Kay have a lot to answer for.
I'm talking the Dishcloth Invasion of 2006, all started with a small little book called Mason-Dixon Knitting. I have yet to see it, but I am intrigued by the thought of knitting a dishcloth. And why is it so addicting?

I must admit, the thought of using a knitted dishcloth to wash my dishes invokes images of mucky, disgusting, germ central. Is it like that? It makes me squirm. We joke at our fortnightly knitting group about making them, yet they seem to be EVERYWHERE and suddenly the coolest things to knit. Heck, there's even a whole KAL for it (well not just for it, but check the amount of people in this KAL, and the overwhelming amount of Dishcloths! An invasion!) And here!

TAKING.OVER.THE.WORLD

Enlighten me people, this is one fad that I just don't get.

Anyways, onto last posts disasters - now a frogged and reworked (and STILL A BIT LONG - AAAAHHHHHH) bag. I think the handle is too big, I knitted it fairly short, obviously not short enough. Thankfully it's a quick fix, one I might do if I get tired of having a knot on my shoulder where I have shortened it.



And Vanille, up to ball #2, almost back to where I was. I won't know if it's going to be too small until I put the armholes on scrap yarn (it's a top down knit, LOVE YOU TOP DOWN) so keep everything crossed for me.



Yesterday I was perusing K-Mart (as people with kids know, K-Mart is your best friend for clothing your children that seem to grow weekly. Hello! Cheap!) I saw the K-Mart 100% wool that was on sale a month or 2 ago. And you know what? Pretty soft, and I'm thinking it might work a treat for the very cute Tomten as seen here done by Abi, so so cute. And a stash buster project in the form of a hot water bottle cozy for Little Man's bed. He's usually a big lump of molten lava - that boy is so hot, but I do feel for him getting into a cold bed everynight as I jump into my electric blanket warmed one. So a cozy it is, just gotta decide on the yarn and off we go.

Ok, off to check that cotton in my stash and see if it would work for a dishcloth....

If you're going to stuff up...

do it with style, I say.

Here is my demonstration of how to look chic when your fruit and vege are hanging around your ankles.

1. Wear a fabulous cardigan (thanks to the lovely Jordana and her even more lovely Starsky).
2. Place a look on your face that says 'oh look, there's those organic Vanilla beans that would be just fabulous in tonight's Creme Brulee that I'm going to whip up for a party of 10! Hurrah!'
3. Ignore daggy 70's wallpaper that the landlords', in their wisdom, decided not to paint when they painted the entire house.



And look how the progress goes on Vanille. Quite stunning, don't you think? I especially like the drape.



So here we have a wonderful example of 'TV Knitting' (otherwise known as 'I should have stopped knitting about 5 inches ago but was too engrossed in whatever was flicking in front on my eyes'). And also, a wonderful example of 'The Boyfriend Sweater Curse: The Husband Edition' (otherwise known as 'trust your instincts; when you think it is not going to fit don't keep knitting' and also 'didn't you learn anything from The Monster Jumper?')

.....

Vanille is too small...

sigh.

Wind, rain and dust

Every year about 200 people from South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales converge on a little town called Hay.
It takes about 8 hours for us to drive there, and along the way we see a lot of this



Yep, it's brown and dry everywhere in Australia. Droughts do not help the situation.
We arrive in Hay on Friday afternoon, and promptly start this.


And well, we have other ways to keep warm.



Yes that is a wall of empty alcoholic beverage bottles.
The last time it rained in Hay was last year just before the Queen's Birthday weekend. So you can guess when the skies decided it was time to open again.
Yup.


We watched the sky. There was NO WAY it was going to stop. All day Saturday it poured down. The parade through town went ahead, as did the show and shine (although there wasn't much shining going on).



We watched the sky some more, even when it was dark. No way was it going to stop. It looked liked the motorkhana was not going to happen on Sunday.
So what did we wake up to on Sunday?



Blue skies. Ground dry as a bone. And a DAMN FREEZING wind blowing. Perfect weather to be standing in a paddock for about 8 hours in. (can I just say, YAY for my Torino crew clothes).

But as much as it felt like the arctic circle out there, we had lots of fun. And we consoled ourselves with the fact that at least it was just windy, not wind AND rain.



Yep that's me kicking up the dust.

Later that night is the presentation. This year we were punks. Here we are in all our glory.



How hard are we.

Lots of knitting was done, but alas no pics - work keeps getting in the way of daylight hours. I'm halfway down on Vanille, but I'm VERY worried about the size. We shall see. Also still truckin' (I reckon I listened to the truckies on the CB WAY too much on the way home) (must say they're hilarious to listen to though) on the Saturday Market Bag, I love it. Just gotta get myself to the Gourmet Market so I can actually use it.

We're all going on a... winter holiday

Well, we are off until Monday now (that's 'off' as in away, not 'off' as in gone bad) for a few days of this



and some of this



and this



and hopefully not much of this



Think of us in inland NSW where the temps are currently 2 degrees C at night... mmmm toasty. And I would be wearing a mini skirt to the Punk fancy dress on Sunday night (last year we were 80s sports stars, DH was Eddie the Eagle, I was a white Flo Jo) (and here you will see reason #378 why you shouldn't brush curly hair).



So tomorrow 5 hours of knitting time in the car. Except for when it's my turn to drive (although we have borrowed a car more suitable for towing and it has cruise control so there is possibilities there....)

Have a good long weekend Aussies, see you all on Tuesday.

New toys

It's all excitement around here today!

New Yarn!!



It's TLC Caramia from Spotlight, nice and soft, good colour (I will get DH out of black, I WILL) and cheap as chips at $4.99 a ball. Even has angora in it, nice. It's going on the needles to be Vanille.

Another shot of a huge lump of nothing! (otherwise known as Saturday Market Bag. I love it, it's heaps of fun to knit.



And progress with the Crack Silk Haze!! Here in the form of a swatch for Rufflette



I'm off to play with it all now (maybe not all at once though, might get a bit messy...)

It doesn't rain...

Stop everything! I have found a WHOLE SCORE of patterns that I just have to knit now.
The new issue of MagKnits is up and I'm lovin it a whole lot (sorry didn't mean to turn into a McDonalds ad there).
I must say that usually MagKnits doesn't get me that excited. Maybe a few patterns here and there, but with exception to Jaywalker I had never knit one thing from an issue. Now I'm all a-flutter and I want to knit just about everything from this issue!!



First up, I have already started on Saturday Market bag just because it is so damn cool. You can see it in this huge lump of nothing here. I'm making it with the hemp/wool I got from my secret pal, Lucia



Also loving, Rufflette, maybe a replacement for Caterpillar (formerly known as Butterfly).



And Emily, such a cute little summer top.



Lux is pretty darn sexy too. (although maybe not in green, I'm not a big fan)



And I think I have found the answer to all my prays for DHs jumper in the form of Vanille. Maybe in a nice cotton/wool blend, I gotta have a hunt around for something. Anyone have a fave lightweight yarn?

I've said it before...

And I'll say it again - I love Borders.



I went in yesterday in the hope that I would find Martha Stewarts new offering, and there it was. Three rows of it. Oh my.

I'm thoroughly enjoying it. I joked to DH that it may be a good substitute for my fave magazine Living etc. as I have stopped buying it recently (after buying it monthly for almost 10 years... and I still have them all sitting in my cupboard for reference when we have our own home one day. Well, one can dream.) but maybe not when you check the price they are hocking it for in Borders (that would be $11.50). Lucky it's good. I'm such a magazine ho.



I've done the Jaywalker piece for the quilt. I like it, it's a easy repeat and nice to look at. Of course, that leaves me with nothing on the needles. I'm still doing the Big Search for the next jumper for DH. After much procastination, I do think that Leo might just send me round the bend (maybe I learnt my lesson with the acres of fisherman's rib that was involved in the Monster Jumper). I hope I find something soon as we have the annual Queen's Birthday long weekend trip away next weekend, which will involve 8 hours of knitting sitting in the car (and how funny is it that most Commonwealth countries celebrate the Queen's birthday with a public holiday, and the UK doesn't) (and of course we celebrate it nowhere near her actual birthday, any excuse for a public holiday eh?).