I finished the back of the DH sweater! I really should think of a better name for it than that.
Anyway, I finished the back today, and now have to do the sleeves.
The pattern numbers were a little odd, so I fudged the numbers, and did a three needle bind off. I love the three needle bind off! Anything that saves me from another seam is more than welcome 🙂
If I had knit the pattern as written, I would have had 42 stitches cast off on one front shoulder, 43 stitches on the other front shoulder, and 46 stitches on each of the back shoulders. Weird, huh? So I fudged it so that all the shoulders had 43 stitches, and then cast off.

The shot isn’t very clear, sorry. Here’s the finished front and back together.

I had him try it on as is, got several good humoured smartarse remarks, and then he pointed out that he was looking forward to next winter when he could wear it. *sigh* I’m knocking myself out to finish a sweater that is becoming far too warm to wear. Still, if I put it aside now, it’ll never be finished!
So I’ll do the sleeves now. I do both at once to try to avoid second sleeve syndrome. Then it’s just seaming, plackets, and collar. Just 😉

When we got up this morning, we decided that we were long overdue for a day out. We looked out the window and the sky looked like this.

I kid you not, that is a picture of the sky here in Sydney this morning. So where did we decide to go?

To the beach! (Sorry Becky, I should have painted my toes to match my fingernails! 😉
To Cronulla Beach, to be precise. It’s a very pretty beach. (This picture is clickable for a bigger view)

I may be biased, because I grew up in the Sutherland Shire, and went to Primary School in Cronulla. 🙂
However, now it takes an hour for us to get there. Anyway, so we set off, but we took a few detours. Several of those included showing Em the hospital where I was born, and my childhood home for several years. Which now looks completely different. I took some pictures of that for my mum, because she’ll never believe it. It was a 2 bedroom fibro cottage with an outdoor toilet – and we were a family of five kids! Good Lord, my mother deserves a medal.
Anyway, it wasn’t really warm enough for a day on the beach yet, but we had a great day anyway. Emily never lets a little thing like cool weather stop her 🙂


The sun was shining, we ate fish and chips and icecream, and I blew my diet entirely!
I did take my knitting, but the wind was blowing, and I didn’t want to get sand in my sweater 🙂
So I’m off to knit now – I hope you all had a lovely and relaxing Sunday too.

I started my next sock in the Six Sox Knitalong, Fluted Bannister Socks.

I’m using some Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn in a colour called “Champlain Sunset”. Bright isn’t it? 🙂
I received this yarn in a swap early this year and it’s lovely! I haven’t knitted with it before, and I’m enjoying every minute of it. I’m unsure about whether the pattern and the yarn are working well together yet, but a few more pattern repeats will help.
I’m also pushing through with DH’s sweater, I’m 3/4’s of the way up the back. I have decided that I’m going to finish this, and Em’s Lime and Pink sweater, then if Butterfly is still screaming out “Make ME!”, I’ll get the yarn.
I’ve already been researching what colour and where to get it 😉

I am developing an unhealthy obsession with this.

I’ve been seeing it on blogs all over, and it’s calling my name. Julie posted the pic of hers finished and it’s gorgeous! Wendy has started one, and it’s flying off her needles. (What doesn’t fly off Wendy’s needles? 🙂
So I took the first step today and bought the book off eBay. I have only used Kureyon for a Booga Bag, but I really liked it.
The problem is that since I posted the evidence of my stash, instead of getting through it, I’ve added to it. I’ve bought some teal coloured sportweight wool, earmarked for Bonne Marie’s Lacy Poncho. I won sock yarn from Brenda, I bought lace weight for the Flowerbasket shawl, some DK weight silk/alpaca/mohar/wool blend just because, and Bliss sent me that gorgeous cotton blend.
So much for using up stash!
And I really can’t afford the Kureyon right now. And I have projects out the Wazoo waiting in the wings. Including plenty of projects for me, which I keep putting off in case I can lose more weight.
But the Butterfly is calling my name.
My name is Donna and I am a newprojectaholic.

I’ve been working hard on DH’s sweater, and am already halfway up the back, yippee!!
No pictures, because it’s still boring, LOL! Look at the picture from the front a few days ago, and imagine it only half way up. 🙂
Em has been busy, too.

That’s her “Little Friend”. She is knitting it as a gift for a teacher for christmas. That’s the face that she’s up to now. She has followed the pattern to the letter, but I think I’ll have a look at it before she knits another, and eliminate that first ridge on the “neckband” where you can see where she changed colours.
After the face, she does a few rows of “hair” then casts off, sews it together into a tube, ad sews the top closed. Then we knit arms and legs with a french knitter.
Becky asked the other day if we have a French Knitter. The kit for the Little Friend came with a cute little one 🙂

Here in Australia we commonly call them French Knitters, Knitting Nancy’s or Knitting Nanna’s. At the end, the whole lot is felted, so it is very forgiving of little mistakes that may happen 🙂
She’s moving along on it alot faster than I expected her to, and she apparently has plans for a whole army of little Friends for Christmas Gifts.
Look out, World 🙂