A couple of weeks ago I showed you two pretty little baby hats from an Australian Cleckheaton pattern leaflet. Tracy admired the little hats, and a swap was born.
I received this lovely little parcel in the mail.

A yummy ball of Regia sock yarn, a little knitted gift and the most squishy and adorable polar bear ever!
And the little knitted gift was this lovely washcloth.

I had admired it on her blog when she posted about it, but it’s even prettier in person. Thank you, Tracy!
The Fair Isle Gloves have begun.

They were actually further along than this last night, but the first time around, the green I chose was too dark, and there wasn’t enough contrast with the blue.
So far, so good!
I’m with Wendy on corrugated ribbing though – definitely my least favourite part.
Em and Twinkie actually like to cuddle this way.

She makes a very good cushion – it’s all that padding.

Yeehaw! Zippity do dah! Hip hooray! Woo hoo!

The sleeves are done! Done!
Mind you, I had to knit pretty fast on the pink stripes. I was getting worried about running out of yarn, and we all know that if you knit fast enough, you can beat the end of the yarn, right?

Not as close as it could have been, but pretty damn close.
Now we shan’t talk about the blocking and seaming and ends weaving, okay? For a day or three, I’m not even going to think about that bit, and I’ll just wrap myself in my delusions that the worst is over.
What’s next?
These.

Floral Fair Isle gloves. The pattern is a free one from the Interweave Knits website.
I’m using the leftovers from the Fair Isle Sampler Hat I knit last year. I gave the hat to David’s sister for christmas, and she’s going to the UK in August to teach for a year or two, so I’m going to knit her gloves, too.
Hopefully they’ll make better blog fodder than a stockinette sweater!
Apparently I’m not the only Polar Bear lover in the house.

(No Polar Bears were hurt in the process of taking this picture)
Really, she only wanted the tag, but the Bear has now been moved to a higher vantage point.

Thank heavens it’s a holiday weekend here, because I needed today to recover. Seriously, I didn’t get up until 11am.
The whole weekend was spent in a freezing school hall, with early mornings and late nights.
However, I have this to show for it.

Yes, I started and finished the scarf. Here’s David modelling it at the dance comp.

(Crappy phone pic)
He’s happy with it, and was especially happy when I finished it, because it was freezing. Well, freezing by Sydney standards.
It was a great knit. It didn’t take up much yarn (I have still have 30g of the Cascade 220 left), and was easy enough to knit without paying too much attention. You can’t see it very well in the pic (I’ve folded the centre under) but the cables are only at the start and end of the scarf, with 2×2 rib in the centre.

Here it is at home this morning, unblocked, but done.
Now it’s back to the Nundle sleeves.
Here are some more crappy phone pics of Em practising in the tea break.


Twinkie has a favourite spot in the yard. She like to sleep under the outdoor table. You can see in this pic that it’s been raining, but it’s nice and dry in her spot.

Well, we decided it was high time to put the furniture away until the weather improves again, but Twinkie has pretended not to notice.

I don’t think she’s going to be impressed when it rains again and the groove she’s created with her butt fills with water!
Oh, and Ailsa (or Knitablulous, if you prefer), has been named as a finalist in the first challenge for The Amazing Lace for her hilarious introduction post.
Go and vote here!

Chugging along on the sleeves, finally! I’ve had one of those weeks where you work your butt off all week (or at least it feels like it) and I’ve achieved very little. I’ve done bits and pieces of sewing, run around to lots of appointments and assemblies at school, and generally did lots of nothing all week. So yesterday afternoon I planted my butt on the new lounge and got moving on the sleeves.

I’m a bit over this sweater now, so I just want it done. Well, I don’t know if I’m over the sweater or just itching to start something new.
Em has a dance comp this afternoon and all day tomorrow, but after much consideration, I’ve decided not to take the sleeves. Mainly becuase this is a pain to cart around.

Or maybe I’m just looking for excuses to start something new. I’m also vaguely worried that I’m going to run out of yarn. Both the pinks are running very low.
In any case, I’ve promised my family that the next things I start will be for them. Emily wants purple socks with fun fur cuffs.
The things we do for love.
David wants a scarf. And a Cthulhu.
So I’m taking this with me to the dance comp.

The lovely Wendy of Cat Knits sent me a copy of One Skein for my birthday, which will be perfect for using up those odd balls in my stash.
I’m going to knit this for David.

The yarn is Cascade 220 in 7920, and is a bit darker and greener than it looks in this picture.
Of course, whenever I take knitting to the dance comps, I never seem to get any done. There’s also a great glove pattern in the book, and I have another skein of the 220, so he may also get a pair of gloves. Someday.
Twinkie is watching the world go by.

It’s Worldwide Knit In Public day, maybe she’s looking for knitters!

Never whine about the stash.
It’ll get you back.
I was hunting through one of my nice, new, heavy timber stash boxes, and the lid crashed down on my head. The corner of support post hit me square in the middle of head.
Ouch. It really hurt.
I went to the doctor yesterday, and he sent me off for a CT scan straight away, because I has a splitting headache and was feeling nauseous and dizzy.
The good news is that I have a brain and it’s not bleeding. It’s just a minor concussion, and I do feel a bit better today.
Today was the first time I knit since Sunday, so I don’t have much to report. But I did finish the body of the Nundle sweater.

Do you see what I see? A shitload of ends waiting to be woven in!
I’ll use them to seam the sides, but they’ll still need to be woven in. The pattern called for the front and back to be knit seperately, (including the collar) then cast off and seamed in the shoulder. Seeing as I was knitting them together anyway, I decided to go with a three needle bind off for the shoulder seams, leaving the collar stitches live, then knit the collar in the round.

If I’d thought further in advance, I would’ve knit the whole thing in the round, eliminating side seams entirely, but I’m the queen of hindsight. I’m happy with the shoulder seams and collar though.
Now I just need to knit the sleeves and seam it all up. The sleeves have been started, but not much more than that.
Twinkie says “Peekaboo!”