Thank you Secret Pal!

When I got home today I had a surprise waiting for me to collect at the post office (We all love getting parcels now don't we?)
This is from my Secret Pal. This post is big on pictures as blogger was behaving today.

First up is the magic box - Customs had a peek inside and confiscated the kitty treats :(




Inside we have a lovely selection of lollies, yumm. I give 'em till the weekend then they'll be all gone. There is some jam too. Wonder what flavours looks like umm raspberry and apricot but I'll let you know when I taste 'em.




Some lovely hand creams and toiletries. Can't wait to try these.


Kool Aid for dyeing - soo much Kool Aid. Now I have to go and buy some yarn to try it on. I've used up all my Patonyle dyeing stash. Thinking about trying some Bendigo sock yarn......

Oh and I thought the little round things were lollies, hah luckily I read the packing slip, I think they are the Easter Egg dyes...would've been nice to try and eat those. (No wonder customs had to open the package)



This is some Silly Putty I had some of this when I was little and played with it for hours. I think this was supposed to go to Miss A...hmm maybe I'll have to have a go at it first ;)



PomPoms you should have seen Miss A's face when she saw these. She has a PomPom fetish big time. The cats now have some new toys aren't they just great it seems a shame to let the cats have a go at them. Andy loves the balls!




Some yummy Knit Picks yarn...Shimmer this I chose for a shawl. Some sock yarn we have Stargazer Lilly, Pansy and Grandma.



These were the best part of the surprise. My Secret Pal took all sorts of photos and had added some notes on the back. These were very interesting. See the one of the Coral snake? This actually bit her soon after she took the photo! Ouch! Beautiful pictures SP.



So thank you, this has made my day!
Now if you'd like to leave a comment and let me know where your blog is I'd really like to take a peek.

The scarf is done!

The black alpaca scarf is complete and is now blocking on Miss A's bed and will probably be there for the next few days. It is in her room with the door shut so no puddy cats can mess it up. It's cold in there with the door shut so I am disappointed to find it is going to take a few days to dry.

I have cast on for some mittens with Spotlights Piuma yarn (very soft). Knitting them one at a time with 2 circulars. Unfortunately I mucked up the first two increases and had 2 little holes where the thumb gusset stars so I ripped it back to the ribbing this morning. Luckily I was able to rip back successfully, and ended up with the right amount of stitches on each side, and the correct amount of rows worked as well. So It's ready to go later on today. It is more of a grey and then a pinky purple not the nice blue/purple it looks like on my monitor.


I am just starting to take risks with my knitting, like ripping back a bit and not restarting the whole project from scratch. Also considering deliberately dropping a stitch on something just to see if I can pick it up without panicking.
Oh also considering lace! Evolution of a knitter??

Today I finished the last assignment for one of my Cert 4 courses. Yay. Hopefully not much will come back with more work needed to be done on any part of it.

It is a beautiful day outside here it's a bummer I can't move the scarf and put it somewhere warmer to dry. I dare not move it.

Yesterday Miss A and I baked. She made Gingerbread Biscuits and I made my favourite, Lemon Slice.
Gingerbread Biscuits are from the book: Women's Weekly Kids Cooking.

Lemon Slice is an old family favourite. I remember it being called Marie Biscuit Slice because it uses Marie biscuits.

Recipe as follows: I double it cos otherwise you have half a tin of condensed milk leftover.

Lemon slice
1 tin condensed milk
250g butter
grated rind of 4 lemons
500g crushed plain biscuits
6 tablespoons coconut

Lemon icing
Icing sugar mixed with lemon juice

Melt butter and condensed milk over a low heat, do not boil.
Add crushed biscuits, coconut and lemon rind.
Mix well.
Press into a shallow tin, set in the fridge.
Ice with lemon icing cut into fingers (or big huffing chunks) to serve.
Really healthy.....yeah, right.

Oops, when doubling this to write out I just realised I only used 125g of butter and only 3 tablespoons of coconut and it still tastes good. Hmm ,well there you go, I just halved the amount of fat in it perhaps now it's a bit healthier? Better go and have another piece just to check.

Have a good weekend.

Guinea Pigs and socks....

As promised earlier, here are the pictures of the finished socks, we also have Guinea Pig pics!

Made from cheap Big W acrylic and some eyelash yarn - pattern link in a previous post cos I'm too lazy to add another link and must do some more of my assignment tonight.



Isn't he the cutest? I am soo glad he's done as I think the gauge was wrong it was tight to knit, so next time I'll use larger needles. He needs a friend and some babies. Oh and some food too.

Here are the socks in Opal Magic - yellow. I should have made these a bit bigger too as I don't think they'll fit for very long. And she won't wear them now!!

Top view:


Bottom view:

Side view: You can just see the Eye of Partridge on the heel ;)






I have only three assignments due (two are half done) before I finish up the Cert 4 in ICT yay! Then the Cert 4 in Business Admin starts up this Wednesday. phew.


Knitting Knews

The yarn has come in for Rogue and I haven't had a chance to swatch yet but definitely will.
I am lusting after some Bendigo Rustic in 12ply so that will have to wait till next pay day.
I am still on the 4x4 ribbed scarf and think that I am about one third the way through, so I'll do some more this weekend.

I've had a bad cold this week I think I had one weeks break between this one and the last one I posted about and am looking forward to the long weekend.

I knitted a quick scarf in some pretty yarn from Needlenook this week while I was sick and should block it this weekend, I'm trying to make it a little bit longer and open out the stitches so will post pics when that's done - don't hold your breath but.

Have a great weekend wherever you are.