Merry Xmas

Merry Xmas All!!!

Christmas is coming

Well so much for finishing my christmas cards!
After cruising the dreaded mall on a sunday with god knows how many others i forced myself outside only to realise that evening it had been a lovely 38 degrees- and I wonder why I am having trouble even walking - let alone doing anything creative.

The only good part of my day is that in that mall I found my knitting-a-day calender !!! YEHHHH my christmas gift to myself- along with alot of chocolate

As far as knitting goes, I bought the wool for the fuzzy slippers and the cabled hat from S&B Nation- and have cast on the hat- in these temperatures I am considering that an achievement.

Marybella Update: Row one of beading- Done!!! yes its slowwwwwly getting there.

Too Hot to Knit

wow, its been a whole week (almost) since my last entry. And I have finished nothing, started a few things- socks- started, frogged, started, frogged, started, frogged- got fustrated and put in the to do later basket.

plus it has been way too hot to knit. In fact its been way too hot to even move away from under the fan and the aircon duct- expect to go to work- which with extended trading hours for christmas has been more and more.

Now lets see-

Sunday = 38 Celcius

Monday = 41.5 Celcius- (hottest day on Record in December)

Tuesday- cool change- only 30 but very humid

anyway since then I have been making embroidered and beaded christmas cards- very late but hopefully they will arrive in time. Should finish them off on the weekend with them all posted by Monday.

I am slowly working on Maryella from Knitty. I do one row every night at the moment to try to get used to the needles. Hopefully I will go a bit faster when I reach the actual beading bit.

Off to make more christmas mess- at least its not too hot!

Percy the Penguin

Look who I finished tonight- Yes it's Pasha the Penguin (aka. Percy)!!!

He is made from Heirloom Merino Magic- Its an 8ply so I used 2 strands together.

For a front view go here.

I am soo proud of him, he is cute and he stands (sits??) unassisted.

ok, Next project please.......

Sophie- Finished and Felted

Well here she is- the before and after shots of Sophie- in my love-to-knit noro.

In other knitting news my Knit Wit book arrived with a great suprise (some lovely purple yarn and some berocco optic blue/purple yarn! Thanks Carole!!

So another book to sigh over :)

Meanwhile Sage (see below) has been put on hold as the winter Knitty fever takes hold- first up is pasha- so far my version- percy, has a back, 4 feet and 1 wing.
Then i will try MaryElla- I have the beads and even found the needles!

As Well As

Also just found and HAD to document is the new winter knitty.

I am also in love with at least half of the patterns and will no doubt be playing rock paper scissors or pull the pattern out of the hat with this and S&BN to decide what to do first!

Knitting Nirvana

Yes Yes Yes
Today my S&B Nation arrived. I am lusting over at least 90% of the patterns and am trying to decide what i can do first. The section on making a pattern your own is fantastic and will surely come in handy. But i must finish my 4 on the go projects first.... well at least sort of. I am refusing to reopen the book until sophie is finished and i have done at least 20 rows of the front of sage. Then we shall see...............................

Must knit, Must knit, Must knit!

Finally- the finished back

Well here we go.... Finally the back of 'Sage' is done! After lots of hours, lots of unknitting and reknitting it is finally finally done. Now only the front to go!!

In other knitting news i have started the sophie bag- the bottom is done and i have started on the sides. It is alot smaller then i had thought it to be i hope it doesnt shrink too much. Oh well, back to the knitting-

Felted Mini Tote

I have just placed on my finished objects page a pic of the mini-tote after felting. Interesting enough, it shrunk in height but not in width. hmmmmmm

The felted fiaso finished and other adventures.

Over the weekend i was a busy little worker bee but still got some knitting done.

Here is the before and after shots of my unfeltable bag- by the looks it has shrunk about an inch so maybe it worked a little.


the felted fiasco


in other felting news i found some big kureyon and made a mini-tote - see here.

I also felted a swatch of Jo Sharp Silkroad aran- it worked extremly well, even in my front loader machine. I lost 2cm in lenght on the first wash, none on the second- and width-wise i lost 2.5cm first, and another half a cm 2nd wash. So i may have to do a felted project with this yarn now that i know the finished dimensions.
btw- the swatch was 15stitches by 14 rows on 8mm needles.



I am still plodding away on my top but am also starting a sophie bag from that yummy kureyon i got the other day.

ps: no S&B Nation in the post today- however they have all week to deliver it before i start foaming at the mouth.

pps: on friday my parcel from canada from a swap with carole arrived- interweave magazine from winter and spring. Sooooo many good patterns- i now have a reallly reallly long future projects list!!

S&B Nation Update

Well I have just rung my book shop and it looks like my S&B Nation will be here by the end of next week. YEH!!!

In that case i'd better get knitting and finish off my other projects so i can attack the book!

Noro Yarn

well i got my yarn voucher - and haven't spent it yet.
However what i did do today was swapped the non-feltable yarn (yes i have given up after 6 washes) for some noro kureyon- colour 90.




looks yummy and apparently felts really well too. I am still going to use the hello yarn pattern but will use the mini skull pattern but knit it in the round ala the lopi pattern on size 7mm needles- as then i do not have to buy another set of needles.

and this time it should felt. YEH.

PS: apparently my S&B Nation order is still 'in process' whatever that means.

Tomorrow Is My Birthday ... Or (One More Sleep)

November 24 is my birthday

I will be 27- feeling suprisingly not old. Have started on the armhole shaping after frogging 5 inches off the back the other day. Feeling better as i can now see the end of one side.

I won't be posting tomorrow as i am out to dinner with my parents and sister, and grandparents for a birthday meal. Should be a good day- have hinted at wanting a gift voucher to lys, so we shall see.....

I was notified of my main present the other day- a 6-day trip to Kuala Lumpa to visit a friend of mine!! Yeh!! I guess that means the yarn buying must stop so i can save some money for shopping in Jan! Oh i hope i get a lys voucher- i'll need it!

Off to knit now- i wan't to do 10 rows before bed- i am a slow knitter.

tomorrow is a new day- and for me- a new year!

Why reading the pattern PROPERLY is important

well after a long and beautiful day out on the boat ( it was 37 deg C today) i came home and whilst watching the Australian Idol final kept on knitting. BTW Casey won! YEH

After having a glance at the pattern i saw i needed 28 and ASSUMED it was inches as every pattern i read is normally in them. After getting to row 90 i thought id give it a measure and have a look. Well 17 inches long and im having a few queries about the lenght of this top. I take the offending article to mum who looks at it and says well just adjust the pattern- looks at the pattern, turns to me and says- you said 28 inches didn't you- i replied yes, to which she thrust the pattern in front of me, rolled her eyes and said in that tone of voice only mothers can do- look the pattern says cm- not inches. Soooooo
after some serious head banging against the wall it was time to rip- and 4 days worth of (very) sparodic knitting (27 rows or 5 inches later) i had the lenght i wanted. I am making the top a little longer than the pattern states as i prefer things a little longer rather than on the short side.

So i am now going to commit my stupidity to immortality and memory and hope no one else makes the same mistake.

Felting Fiasco

Summer is officially here today
a nice hot 31 degC here as i type- really should be in the pool - but am going out on the boat tomorrow as it shall be 34 so that should make up for today

why....

well despite spending all day cleaning, i decided to try my luck at felting my bag.

I am now on my 4th quick wash cycle and still no luck.
But i have put up a call for help on theknittyboard so hopefully someone will head the call. Otherwise it is going in with my general wash tomorrow.

i live in hope and heat!!!!

Finally....................

after 3 days of back and forth slogging away
i finally got the comments working- Yeh!!!!
ended up not using heloscan - at the moment anyway.

no knitting today and yesterday- work work work instead. Thankfully a nice hot weekend is coming up so it may inspire me to actually get something done.

I did get confirmation of my order for Stitch and Bitch Nation today - which has me excited!!! However It will take approx 60 days to arrive seeing as it has to come from the US of A :(

Oh well 1 down = 59 to go

On the needles................

This is my current project: Sage from Rowan's Summer Tweed Collection.
Eventually it should look like this:



Right now however, the back or front (they are the same) looks like this:



My dog skeeta was wondering what i was doing with the camera- isn't she cute

This is Hard!

ahhh well i have comments, but cannot find the heloscan comments-
i don't know- email me if u can help me and i'll send you my tangled web of code
..........................
ahhhhhh
knitting is soooo much easier than blogging

Well Here Go's Nothing

Well here we go!

It has been suggested that the best way to show pic's of FO's online is to have a blog.

Hmmm, well here we are- now I just have to work out how to operate this thing.
No knitting tonite then!

Finished Objects

Gallery of FO's is now up here.
Now how do i add this link to the side bar???