Satin is done!
Well, the knitting is. Unfortunately, the weather has been too crappy to block her yet. I prefer a full wet block, but if the weather doesn’t improve, I’ll just do a steam block. Unfortunately our house is too small to lay anything out for any length of time. Usually I leave things to block on our bed, or on the floor, but if it takes too long to dry, it ain’t pleasant sleeping with the smell of wet wool.
So I had to decide what comes next. Em chose the “Pink Pullover” from Vogue Teen Knits around a year ago, and I have the yarn, so I decided on that.

It’s made in Lion Brand “Imagine”, which is 20% mohair and 80% acrylic, but Em loves it. It’s a bit sheddy, but apart from that, it ain’t all bad to knit with. Especially seeing as I only started it yesterday, and this morning I had this.

It’s also not as scratchy as I thought it’d be. I am finding that I’m dropping stitches though. I was expecting crappy yarn something like the true crap we get here in Australia! It ain’t Lorna’s, but it’s pink and fuzzy, and that’s all Em cares about 🙂
It is the recommended yarn, and I surprised myself by getting gauge. We are making a slight adjustment to the pattern – I’m not keen on the idea of putting metal studs in my knits, so I’m going to do a white intarsia star on the front instead.
Twinkie has this thing about following me around when I’m sweeping up her dinner spills. (She’s a somewhat enthusiastic eater – she likes to try to get into the bowl in her excitement) Took a while to figure out what she was doing, until we found that she likes the broom.

Please ignore the thick ankles and unwaxed legs! I told you I had tree trunk ankles 😉
Em also got new bunny slippers. Twinkie likes those, too.

And speaking of the Empress, she lost a tooth.

She has a friend coming to sleep over tonight, so I don’t think any of us will get much sleep!

Not an awful lot of knitting going on. We’re going to see the Tap Dogs in two weeks, and I have nothing to wear, so I’ve been sewing myself a new black linen dress, and a coat. The coat is in the pink wool fabric I showed here a few months back. I tried to make up the black and pink fabric in the vintage pattern I also showed, but the pattern was screwy. Weird pattern pieces, and different seam allowances in different parts of the pattern. Most of the pattern only had a 7mm seam allowance, which didn’t even cover the fraying of the wool! So I got the poops, threw it and bought a new, longer line pattern.
The dress is done, bar the hem, and I’m having difficulty finding the right colour lining for the coat.
So that’s my excuse for lack of knitting content.
Lex left a comment the other day, asking if I knew of a sock pattern to wear with these shoes.

She reminded me that I had recently bought a pair of similar shoes for Em.


Don’t mind the band-aid marks, that’s why she needed new shoes! I love these shoes, I think they’re so cute 🙂
Unfortunately, I have a large foot, and all the ones I’ve found locally for myself look too broad. I do intend to get some for myself though.
So, help! Does anyone know of a suitable pattern? I can see me knitting these a lot 🙂

My local-est yarn store is The Wool Inn at Penrith. Anita is a really lovely lady, and I love the store. It’s small, but there’s so much yarn stuffed into the nooks and crannies that I could sit in there for hours. Even Em spends ages oohing and aahing over everything.
But it takes an hour to drive there, so I don’t go over often. There are some eisteddfods that Em dances at that are just a few minutes away, so we usually pop in then. I was in there on Tuesday, but I’ve been feeling a little guilty about the stash lately, so I didn’t buy much, but I wanted a lot! When I got home, I thought about it for a while, then decided that I really should have bought some of the Baby Alpaca 4 ply that I’d played with.
I called Anita, and she had it to me overnight 🙂

Mmmm… I can’t fins it on the ‘net anywhere, it’s from an Australian alpaca breeder, and it’s yummy. Just one lonely ball, for this.

I really hope that DH’s cousin has a girl 😉
I’ve just jinxed them you know! They’ll have a boy for sure now.
And Satin will never be done, LOL!
Here’s a sight to warm a knitting mother’s heart.

She’s knitting a sock for her beloved cell phone. The one with no credit. I wonder how long it will take her to finish. 😉

Mail Day!! I felt like my birthday came early and no one told me 🙂
I have received so much mail this week, that I’m expecting customs to come around to check what I’m importing, LOL!
Jill came through with lots of magazines 🙂

And Lorna’s Lace’s sock yarn in Purple Club! Mmmm.. sock yarn.
And Evelyn of the comments who doesn’t yet have a blog, sent me goodies too!

More sock yarn! Lang Jawoll in Hot Pink. And chocolatey goodness! My silly camera has not picked up this colour well at all. It’s not so watermelon-y, it’s much more of a true Hot Pink.
I think Em actually started foaming at the mouth. She now thinks that while she is at school I do nothing but pick up parcels stuffed with gorgeous sock yarn, knitting magazines and chocolate, then come home and eat it all before she gets here, then hide the evidence, LOL!
So I had to share the chocolate. And she wants the sock yarn knitted up into socks for herself.
Good luck, kid 😉
I have been knitting, although when I laid out these pieces to take pics, Em asked “Haven’t you finished that yet?” This from a kid who knits an average of 2 stitches a week.
I did point out that she has kept me just a little busy lately.

No, Bliss, it’s not a bikini top 😉
Satin’s sleeves are done.
No problem here, except that I ran out of yarn one row before the cast off edge. I hate that – but not enough to rip back a few rows 😉

The front is coming along, but once again, I’m tired of stocking stitch. I’m up to the 12th ball of yarn. The first eleven were great, not a single knot among them. This one has had 2 knots so far. Isn’t it always a way? There’ll be plenty of ends to weave in. Yay! Not.
I’m enoying to Jo Sharp DK, and a hint for anyone else who likes to knit with it, WEBS is having an Anniversary sale. There is some seriously good stuff here, including Cascade 220 for $4.70 a hank, and Jo Sharp DK for $28 a bag. $2.80 a ball. I thought I got mine cheap!
Now I think I’ll try to convince my family that my Birthday did come early and I need a chocolate cake 😉

**Phew**
Why do I detest school holidays so much?
Does the fact that I am sitting down (briefly) for the first time since Friday have anything to do with it??

Em danced at a presentation on Saturday, and competed in groups on Sunday. Monday and Tuesday (yesterday) she competed her solos. She did well, and I chauffered and dressed her. The competition was an hour’s drive away, and she danced Monday evening from 3.30 to 8.30 and yesterday from 8.30am to 11am, and was supposed to dance at 9.45pm last night (!), but they were running late, and she didn’t dance until 11pm. She came third in that last section, which just astounded me, considering that she was so tired, I was waiting for her to trip over her feet and start snoring onstage 😉
That equals six hours driving in the last two days. We did get to visit the no-so-local-yarn-store, which was a happy bonus, and Krispy Kreme, but they weren’t baking. (Boo!)
I did get a little knitting done, but not a whole lot.

The bearfoot sock. First pattern was too small, then I chose different pattern, on 2.5mm needles. Too Big. Now we’re on 2.25mm needles, and all is well. The pattern is the Purl Lace socks from Socks, socks, socks. The yarn is Mountain Colours Bearfoot in Crazy Woman.

My Amazon order came! At some point, I am even going to sit down and read some of these books, LOL!
Em arranged a movie date for 8.45am this morning. Considering that we got home at 12.20am, I was unimpressed. The mum of her little friend was coming to pick her up. I had not been home and done any cleaning, so I got up this morning and did some surface cleaning before they arrived. After they left, I did laundry, I vacuumed, I did dishes, I cleaned up after the rabbit. Now it’s 12.57pm, and I’m supposed to pick up my mother to take her to the doctors at 1pm.
Am I stressed? Yes!!
When I get home this afternoon, I’m taking my knitting books, and going to my bedroom to sleep. Tonight’s meal is in the slow cooker, and the phone is coming off the hook.
Then I will lay down, cuddle my books, breathe for a while, then nap, LOL!