Thanks Secret Pal!!

I received a package from my secret pal today! (Snoopy happy dance)
Note the scissors at the bottom ready for action. Before I ripped into it I remembered to take a photo.

You made my day!
Ok wanna peek at the gifts? Yep customs took a peek too.

There are 2 bars of gorgeous smelling soap: Rosemary Mint and Red Currant, 4 balls of Fun Fur in blue and pink. A beautiful journal with one of my favourite flowers (irises) on it. There are 2 lots of soy silk to spin, and some soft fleece?? a greeny one a grey and a creamy coloured one. And some chunky yarn, could it be my Secret Pal's Handspun??

Ok Secret Pal I have a few questions:

1: What kinds of fleece are they? I have no experience, but at a guess the grey and cream may be bunny fleece. (Do you call bunny fur fleece??) It is extremely soft. They all are actually.

2. Did you spin this beautiful yarn yourself? I aspire to spin like this!

Thank you heaps!

Days bathroom remains yucky until I give up and clean it myself: 3 so far. Do not expect pictures of this!!

Snowed under

I was hoping to be able to finish an item for the Knitting Olympics ( garter stitch novelty scarf hah, that's all that I could conquer at the moment ) but I don't think I'll finish. I have become soo busy here with work and studies - haven't even looked at my assignment properly yet and it is due in two weeks! Work is following me home because the computers at work are not functioning properly. I haven't heard my daughter read this week and she needs attention too, she's in the kitchen let loose on my sewing machine, churning out garment after garment and going way too fast. The bathroom needs cleaning yuck, I did drop hints to Mr Ex seeing as though he has most of the day free before going to work but....still yucky when I get home, don't get me started in that department!! I can feel a whinge coming on. ( deep breath )

I am just knitting for relaxation now, not for finishing anything.

Oh, my parcel from Get Knitted arrived I had purchased some great patterns - Shoalwater Shawl, the fibretrends butterflies and blossom sock patterns, oh and the leaf one too, another ball of opal sock yarn and Kiddy Print 600

I've given up on hearing from angelyarns.com, (never ever going to order from there again, they still have to send me two magazines and are not answering an email I sent them from 4 weeks ago!!! ) about the Kiddy Print 600 (they sent me number 6) so I ordered from Get Knitted and it's here already.

It was terrific ordering from Get Knitted I highly recommend it! Great service, timely delivery and good price.

Off to do the dishes/laundry/hear reading etc

Finally Finished (Felted) Fing

Yay I have a finished object. It doesn't count for the Knitting Olympics and sadly I don't care. The final of a series of felted slippers for my daughter and I.
Behold the purple felted slippers!

As to the Knitting Olympics, the yarn for the shawl is on it's way and I still want to knit it and the other poncho so they will now be next in line, after the garter stitch scarf I am currently knitting as a breather.

In between all this my daughter wanted to learn to use the sewing machine. How could I say no?

I am trying to get her to learn knitting she is interested but not really in to it yet. She can french knit but it kicked her once when a few stitches (3 cms) unraveled on her whilst in her bag and she hasn't done much since.

Anyway after sewing stitches on a square of fabric she decided she wanted a cape so off she went. She designed, cut out and sewed a very simple cape and superhero mask all by herself.

Getting her to take it off is the trick. Aah, another crafter in the family.

I give up

I have not had so much trouble with projects before. First the shawl now this.
Last night I decided to make this,

I have a substitute yarn on hand, I have the needles, nothing to go out and buy. So I cast on and join and knit until 10pm then I get up early and knit some more till I find that I had twisted it whilst joining ?!? now I checked real well when I joined it and didn't see it. So ripped it out and took it to work to knit on during breaks. Have now decided to knit back and forward for a bit and then join it.
Why am I having such terrible luck? Where is the Knitting Goddess when you need her??
(There's a Knitting Olympics on - where do you think she is?)

The time to finish something is fast dwindling. I cannot believe how things are turning out. I am beginning to doubt my abilities, I know they are there but everything I touch knitwise has gone belly up.

I think I should just go with a garter stitch scarf, can't muck that up or can I?

The reason I didn't do my dishes last night...

This is Kitty. Her full name is Itty Bitty Sh*tty Kitty, she was really small when we got her and she likes to use the bathtub if ya know what I mean. She's a quiet little cat she hardly meows at all. She sleeps on the end of my bed and will sometimes wake me at 5.30am for a pat and a cuddle. She likes to squeeze herself into little places.

Kitty used to have a little mate called Smoochy, we bought them at the same time and they went everywhere together. But unfortunately he got hit by a car, very sad. It happened just after my husband and I separated and Smoochy was his cat. They would lick each other to sleep and chase each other round the house you were in danger of getting bowled over by them, the house was full of life. I thought they would grow old together. After Smoochy died Kitty was very quiet for weeks, she would just sit there it was heartbreaking.

Ah I just remembered - Smoochy loved playing in water. We would find their water bowl empty quite often and wondered how they could drink so much. Then one day we heard water splashing and peeped in just in time to see him flicking the water out of the bowl and trying to chase it.

Even though we have two other cats we had to get her a new friend. And so Scrappy came to live with us. He is Mr Ex's cat, ( as are the other two he informs me, funny I thought they were ours oh that's right their isn't an "ours" anymore) Kitty's new friend and he loves playing in boxes. They'll chase each other but it's not the same, Smoochy was gentle with Kitty and you could see that he was going easy on her, Scrappy pins her down and makes her hiss.

He'll meow to go in and out and meow a thank you as he comes in it's really nice, makes getting of your butt for the fifth time to let a cat in/out worthwhile.

Two more to go. Our cats are all (except one) adopted from the Animal Welfare.

This is Gypsy, she used to live next door but decided we were the ones she wanted about 8 years ago, a lovely placid cat who would sit right next to you when you sat down and wanted to be patted. When our neighbours moved they let her stay with us. She will sleep in the rain,we have to go out and bring her in if it rains. She is getting older now and has been a joy to know. This is when she was a little younger, her fur is not quite as white and she doesn't clean herself as well as she used to.

This is Puddy ( yeah we're creative on cat names ) She was 3 years old when whe came to live with us. She likes to sleep on tables and up trees. Last night was the first night she ever sat on anyone's lap and she'll rarely jump up on the lounge. Mr Ex ( on one of his rare visits into our half of the house - he lives out the back, my daughter and I have the front part ) sat in the loungeroom to watch a DVD and she hopped up and laid her head on his lap!

So we have four cats in all and wouldn't be without any one of them.

I'm supposed to be knitting

I took a break from the shawl and decided to organise my stash.

I feel so ashamed, I don't know how it got that bad, I didn't know it was that big either. This is not including the 3 bags from the wardrobe.

Last year I stuck heaps of yarn into 3 space bags and sucked them down in size to fit into my wardrobe. It is mainly acrylic and enough yarn for complete jumpers and that blanket that I thought would be a good idea to knit as a mindless project. They are still in the wardrobe, what I needed to sort out was the stuff left over, my good sock yarn, scarf yarn etc and put it into plastic bags. I've seen moths!





This is a picture of the main stash - scarfy type yarn. I have soo much feathers it's not funny!

There's a bit of coloured fleece to spin when I get better at it.

And a couple of kits also containing feathers type yarn!






This is my sock yarn. The white yarn is my dyeing stash it's Patonyle and dyes really nicely, see the wound balls underneath it, I dyed them :)

All but the yellow one actually, that's Opal.
But the orange/black/white that's my hand dyed tiger yarn. That was lots of fun to dye up. I used the book "Yarns to Dye For : Creating Self-Patterning Yarns for Knitting" for instructions. I hope it'll knit up like tiger stripes. Not game to use it yet.









These are the new additions to my stash. You've seen 'em before. We won't mention the yucky, wrong coloured yarn will we? (bottom right) We'll imagine it pink and white and fluffy. I wish that I had tried knitting with mohair before I bought 10 balls of it.






The Shawl
I am not pleased with the way it is turning out. I am thinking it would be nicer with something else like angora knitted with it. And I really don't like the big ugly holes either.

I guess I could tell that I wasn't going to finish it after finding myself doing other things. Like bagging up my entire stash and taking photos, and spending hours online. Added to this the fact that I don't go out anywhere to wear a lacey shawl and I feel that I would like it better if it was thicker if you know what I mean.

I have found out that I am a product knitter - if I don't like the product I can't bring myself to knit it.
The pressure to finish something that I wasn't happy with is gone, and it feels good.

I still have time to knit a teddy scarf though don't I?



Update
I found some 100% wool on ebay in a nice silver grey that I think will go nicely with what I have for only $2.50 for 100m. Cheaper than the Angora Supreme I was thinking of at $8 per ball.
I wonder if their shrinkage rates are different? Should I skein and wash them both first?
Didn't think of that did I, see what I mean about jumpin' right in. They won't shrink if I use lukewarm water will they? Hmmm, any advice?

Now just have to work out how to increase 4 times across the row without yarn over holes. Perhaps stick to the M1 increases at the edges and add the same M1 increase either side of the centre stitch that should eliminate the counting I hope.

Now if you can see that I am going to go wrong here please, please let me know.

KO Shawl progress

I just pulled a little on one side of the shawl - I was actually evening out the stitches along the lifeline that I had run a few rows back, the pink yarn was not even ( It's gotta be even right?) - and not watching the other side, out of sight out of mind and all that, picked up the ends and there were about 6 stitches sitting in mid air. I started to panic, my heart fell, but then I calmly and shakily slid the needle back through the visible stitches. I think I should have counted them then but didn't, anyway I counted them about 4 rows on and discovered 1 stitch missing. Where did it go, I thought I got them all?? On looking closer there was a bit of a loop sticking out about 4 rows down, this has to be it right?
Executive decision was made, yep that's a stitch. So I hooked it back up best I could, looks okay.
Counted stitches and now the count was correct. The only tell tale sign is that the big, ugly holes in the middle went wonky about 4 rows down (well that is now 14 rows down, nup, can't stop gotta keep going) It's toward the bottom of the shawl so it shouldn't be seen too easily. Anyway I'll wear it around non knitters and they'll never know. And I just know the first time I wear it I'll get it caught on something stupid like the fridge door and pull a thread. My luck is like that :)


It is getting better to knit as I go along, but I really have to concentrate on the stitches - every single one of them. And I thought socks were hard, can't wait to knit another pair.

Here is a picture:

Knitting Olympics - or- What have I done!

I chose to knit the Gossamer Triangular Shawl and chose the *proper* yarn for this project.

Aargh, it is like knitting with a spiderweb!
What have I committed myself to?

It's funny though, I showed my daughter (9 yo) and her mouth fell open and she says "Aw Mum you shoulda knitted a teddy scarf of something, just tell 'em you've changed your mind"

It was even funnier when trying to do a M1 increase and all the stitches on the right hand needle slid off. Heehee I am going to go nuts knitting this thing.

The pattern shows lovely, even holes right up the middle of it, which I don't like and have no idea how I can increase there twice without it having huge, ugly holes right up the middle of it.
Blocking is supposed to work wonders that's it I'll knit myself crazy on this thing and the blocking will fix any mistakes right? I don't even know how to block!

Well we are supposed to take on projects that will challenge us and this certainly does.

I am wrestling with the yarn overs and the make ones whilst trying to keep the stitches from falling off the needles. Oh and I thought I might be able to use stitch markers to count stitches and mark where the yarn overs should be Nooo! the position changes don't they 'cos you are (well I am) increasing in 4 spots across the row and it throws it all out.

I ended up typing out the pattern row by row, now I have 3 pages to follow and it goes right up to like: slip1, make 1, knit 102, (k1, yo, k1) all in the one stitch!!!, knit 102, make 1, knit 1.

I figure if I can do 10 rows per day then I can finish it in 12 days leaving 4 days spare for accidents. But then I remembered that it gets bigger as I go on, so it will take longer to knit the larger rows, Doh!

Added to that, I just got my next assignment for my 'Certificate 4 in ICT' course that is due soon which cuts into my knitting time.

Here's the first picture.

Wrong yarn colour update (see a previous post, everytime I think about it blog it I get upset) : Still haven't heard from company, emailed again yesterday, now giving up and ordering again with someone else. Will keep yucky coloured yarn and hope that they still send my 2 back ordered magazines. :(

The next blog entry might be titled : Finished Knitting Olympics Project - Teddy scarf. :)

Nothing much to blog about lately.

I've made progress on the purple slippers - well I thought I had until I noticed I had too few stitches on the needles and had to tink 5 rows. That's set me back about an hour. But I'm still enjoying them.

I decided to take my knitting to work and sat in the classroom by myself and knit a few rows on a scarf in Velveteen. I am not comfortable yet, to sit in the staffroom and knit. I think there are a couple of other people who knit but I think they are either telling fibs or are not maniacal about it like I am.
Surely if there were other knitters they would have been seen by now? Although there I am hiding away, maybe they hide too. All this Hush Hush bizzo about it. Tch.

As soon as I mention that I knit and spin people begin to look at me strangely. Does anyone else get that. Please let me know, otherwise I'll know for sure that it has nothing to do with knitting and it is just me.

I still haven't heard back from the company that sent the wrong yarn. I am almost beside myself, checking emails twice a day, obsessive, nah, not me ?!? I hate loose ends like this and will rest easier when I have heard from them. I've decided if I haven't heard from them by Friday I will email again. Hmmm...

Have a great day

Add it to my 'To Do' list

Aaah, I love getting parcels, I must love getting parcels more than eating. This is what was waiting for me yesterday:




OK we have:

• A ball of Yoyo - Damson Mist lovely colour
• Yoyo jacket pattern - most patterns for Yoyo use just one ball, why did I think this wouldn't be different (I have 3 balls of Yoyo, all different, oh well just an excuse to get more yarn, but at $50 a pop......)
• Sirday Firefly pattern - I thought this might work with the ladder type stuff from Spotlight and as I have 3 balls of that already I don't have to buy too much more. I want to make the poncho thingy and yes, I need a pattern.
• Opal Elemente 1071 sock yarn.
• Opal Rainforest Flamingo sock yarn
• Opal Rainforest Parrot sock yarn
• Laines du Nord Kiddy Print 3 balls- THEY SENT THE WRONG COLOUR! yes I did shout!! I ordered colour 600 pinks and white and got colour number 6 black /green /blue /magenta, not happy! I sent an email to the company and now I have to wait for them to get back to me. I could bitch about how a large company shouldn't make a mistake like that, but what good would it do?? I'm just really disappointed and these things happen, hopefully they can organise to send the correct yarn etc.
• Simply Knitting number 10 I like this magazine. I am missing issues 4, 5 and 6.

Now I have to pull my finger out and actually get knitting. I haven't knitted all week, been so tired after work. Now that it's the weekend we'll see what happens.

Secret Pal Stuff

My Secret Pal emailed me with a questionnaire, I like questionnaires :) I wish my Secret Pal would email me more often, I'd like to get to know them better. I have made good friends with the person that I am SP for and we email each other several times a week.

So for future posts I hope to introduce my pets that will have to be a series.

Have a good weekend.