My husband has been feeling unhappy and unappreciated in his job of late. Today they showed him their appreciation. And they couldn’t have chosen a better way.

A genuine replica light sabre from thinkgeek.com. Honestly, there is no gift they could have got him that would have made him happier.
I told him to tell them he has taken up knitting and in future would like gifts of expensive yarn 😉

I feel a little guilty about my yarn stash of late.
So instead of buying yarn today, I bought knitting books 🙂 Just as much pleasure, less than half the guilt! Yes, I can justify anything 😉
So off I went to play at Amazon. One of the biggest jokes of the known world is how much cheaper it is to buy pretty much anything knit-related in the USA as compared to buying it locally. I was perusing the Rowan collection. In Australia, I can get Rowan Junior for $AU 52. I got it from amazon today for $US13.97 (AU20.22) See what I mean? Now the postage costs can hit you where it hurts, but it still works out much better to get stuff from the USA.
So I finally ordered Rowan Junior, Pipsqueaks, 365 Knitting Stitches and The Knitter’s Handy Book of Sweater Patterns. I put stuff in my cart, I took stuff out. I dithered and I played about and finally settled on those four books. Good Lord I hope I made the right decision!
Now I have to wait until October 6 – 13 to get them. 🙁
Why? Because I also ordered the final Stephen King Dark Tower book which is not released until September 21, and I asked for it all to be shipped in one shipment (Those postage costs, you know!) Now I have to wait a month before I get all my beautiful books! And it’s the Stephen King book I’m really dying to get.
So, what knitting books do you swear by? Which ones can’t you live without? Let me know, so I can order them next time! 😉

I’m reaching that stage in this project where I’m getting slightly bored with it and am starting to think about what to do next.
Especially now that I’m up to 250 or so stitches and I’m just knitting around and around. And I figure I’ve done around 9 inches, so I’m only about halfway there.
Anyway, so I’m debating what to do next. I really like Bonne Marie’s Lacy Poncho. However, I don’t have the yarn in my stash, and I don’t want to buy any more just yet. And I have a Suss poncho Kit to make up too. Maybe I’ll do that next.
DH’s sweater sits, 3 inches done, awaiting my attention, but I just can’t get into it for some reason. I have the yarn for a pair of Broadripple socks, but I should really knit a pair for DH or Em next. And the next Six Sox pattern will be along within a couple of weeks.
I’m dithering. Can you tell? 😉

I gave in and did the icord 🙂

Once again, I used the Knitters Book of Finishing Techniques to figure it out. It wasn’t nearly so hard or time consuming as I expected it to be!
Here’s a close up of the icord.

So things are progressing nicely 🙂
Emily’s school had an “All School Concert” this afternoon, beginning at 4.30pm. Now, Tuesday afternoon is the only afternoon that we don’t have dance class, and it is normally sacred, but this couldn’t be helped. Em, of course, volunteered to be a “helper” so we had to be there at 3.45pm. School finishes here at 3pm, so we had to rush home to get dressed, have a snack and get back. Now all day it had been grey and cloudy, but no rain. We got to school, Emily wandered off, and I found a seat. Outside. They held the concert in the playground. At 3.55pm, it started to sprinkle light rain. I had no umbrella. I knitted on, absolutely sure that either it would stop raining or the concert would be cancelled. At 4.15 the kids sat down on wet mats on the playground, parents filled the wet chairs. At 4.30, still raining, the concert began. Now the rain never got really heavy, but it certainly was cold and wet. It took the damn school until 5.10pm to decide to bring the concert to a halt and send us all home.
However, it’s not all over. We get to go back and do it all again next Tuesday. If it’s going to rain, lets hope it starts at 2pm this time! Well, provided that we’re not all sick again from sitting in the rain for over an hour!!

I’ve done a bit of work on the poncho this weekend, in between laying around on the lounge sniffling pathetically 😉

It’s coming out much better this time around! I’ve done double increases front and back (with yarnovers to make the holes) and invisible double increases at the shoulders, so that it is wider at the shoulders now. I stopped the shoulder increases after 2 inches or so.
It’s rolling all over the place, in this picture I actually pinned it to her sweater so I could see it. As you can see, the neck is quite large. Em likes it like that, I think it’s too big. I know the fashion is to have it big, so I shall live with it. The waste yarn is also a heavier weight than the yarn I’m using for the poncho, so it’s probably stretched out a little. I’m tempted to do the i-cord now, just to see how it comes out. I started on 116 stitches, and am already up to over 200. I don’t think it’s going to be as quick a knit as I’d hoped!
Thankyou for all the lovely comments and emails about my socks! I wore them yesterday, and they’re the best fitting socks I’ve made yet 🙂