So much to say, so little time! (And the holiday pics are still on the hubby’s camera!)
The holiday was great, lovely and relaxing. No stress until we arrived home!
Knitting wise, it was very productive.
Who was expecting a completed garment? (Rusty, I’m looking at you!)
I almost managed it.

That’s a front, back, two sleeves and a neckband. Not bad, huh?
Most of it was done in the car – two days up to Queensland, various travelling around, then two days back. Well, I got the front and most of the back done. The back was finished on Saturday afternoon, in the carpark of Armidale airport, a couple of hours from our final destination (for Saturday) of Nundle. I began the sleeve on the way there.
Nundle is a very small country town. Very small. It has no mobile phone/mobile broadband access. Well, it probably has Telstra, but no Optus, no Vodaphone, no 3. So we were stuck there, on a Saturday night, no internet, no phones, nothing open, except the pub where we went for dinner. It was the best meal we had for the whole holiday, too!
After dinner, we went back to the hotel to watch TV and II finished the first sleeve and half of the second. So the night wasn’t a total waste!
The next morning we headed over t the Wool Mill, but it was a downer. Waste of time, I’m afraid. Last time we went, I scored some nice pink 8ply wool that I made into a cardi for Em, and a kit for a stripey jumper. They had seconds, and patterns, and kits and it was well worth the trip. This time, not so much. There were two baskets in the back room, both almost empty. That was it for seconds. There were no kits at all. No patterns, even.
The yarn is lovely, but it was marked at $9 a ball. It’s only $6 on the website. In the end I left with a Rowan magazine, and nothing else. Very disappointing.
But it was more than made up for when I got home and picked up my Christmas parcel from Jill. There was Bugga! in there!!

Bugga!! And it’s the most beautiful shade of blue. This will go on the needles next, I think – I just need to find a pattern to do it justice.
I got Polar Bears for Christmas, too. A candle from David and Em, and a Poo-lar bear from Jill. This made us giggle for a while – yes, we’re 5 years old. So what?

Now I’m going to go knit ruffles!

I’m still on holidays, but I wanted to put up a quick post so that the front page isn’t totally blank!
It’s been a great trip so far, much knitting has been achieved, yarn has been purchased and places visited. There’s been good weather, woeful weather, family and friends.
Tomorrow we leave Surfers Paradise, and head to Nundle for the final leg of our trip. We’ll visit the Wool Mill, and get home again on Sunday night.
I think I’ll need two more weeks to recover.
And just to add some colour, I’ve ripped off an idea from Bells, RoseRed and DrK, and made a mosaic of my finished projects for 2009 (33, counting the Lace Kerchief, which is technically finished, just not blocked yet)

1. Lacy Kerchief scarf, 2. Venezia, 3. Twinkletoes with Twinkie, 4. Gail(Nightsongs), 5. Mingus, 6. Entrelac Socks, 7. Poppy, 8. Swirl scarf, 9. Sophie, 10. Elijah, 11. Firestarters, 12. Em’s Cabled Hoodie, 13. Rick socks, 14. One Row Scarf, 15. February Teddy Sweater, 16. Urbanista, 17. BFF socks, 18. Pink Hoodie, 19. Emily Selbu Modern, 20. Scrunchable Scarf, 21. Rivendell Socks, 22. Aeolian, 23. Twink & Marilinda, 24. Em Baroness Beret, 25. Bling-y Shoulder Warmer, 26. Whisper Lace Socks, 27. Flit n Float, 28. Not Pink Puzzle Wrap, 29. Robin, 30. Autumn Rose, 31. Ankle Biters, 32. Chameleon Socks, 33. Esther socks
Happy New Year!

So dark and early tomorrow morning (just 6.5 hours from now), we’re road tripping for Christmas. We’re off to sunny Queensland to visit the in-laws. Then a few days on the Gold Coast before coming home via Nundle (and the Wool Mill).
The Lacy Kerchief is finished, but not yet blocked. The silly season has gotten the better of me over the past few days, I fear. I did however, start something new.

Funny, after Venezia, working on a garment in just one colour seems so fast, even when it’s 4ply (fingering) on 2.75mm needles!
This is the start of the gorgeous Rosa by Kim Hargreaves. The pattern calls for Rowan Cashsoft 4ply, but I’m substituting Rowan 4ply soft in Tea Rose.
This is my road knitting – 1,000km each way, so hopefully there’ll be plenty done by the time I get back.
I did pull the Cap Shawl out of hibernation last night, and did 3 rounds on it, but I remember why it’s been in hibernation now. It’s boring! I had planned for it to go into the Easter Show, and maybe it will – not sure what year though!
I also had forgotten to mention the wonderful last sock club package in this round from Needlefood!

Chocolate, and yarn in a gorgeous colour!

As well as a cute little pouch, stitch markers, a sock pattern and a handy note with kitchener instructions. It’s a great sock club! If you’re interested in signing up, the next round will open up in mid/late January. If you sign up for the newsletter at the website, you’ll get a heads-up when it’s about to happen!
If I’m not back here before Christmas, (I’ll be popping in on Ravelry, and on my email and twitter – I love my iPhone!) I wish you all a wonderful day with family and/or friends, with much love and comfort, I hope you enjoy the silly season, even if you don’t celebrate!

And finally, she’s done.

This is possibly the most time any garment has taken me. According to Ravelry, I started it in mid-August, and finished it on Monday, December 14. Four months! Thanks, TAFE.

Specs:
Pattern: Venezia by Eunny Jang, from Interweave Knits Winter 2006
Yarn: Jamieson & Smith 2ply Jumperweight. I’ve listed all the colour subs on the Ravelry project page.
Needles: KnitPicks Harmony, 2mm, 2.25mm and 2.5mm.
Pattern Mods: None. I do wish I’d made it a little longer, I think my row gauge was a little too tight, but it’s still wearable.

In the end, I had almost two whole balls of the edging colour left over, but I ran short of two colours on the second sleeve. I knit the 34.5″ size, and needed to get an extra ball each of the 106 Mooskit and the 183 Sand equivalents. I was only about 3 metres short for the Sand!
David and Emily bought me the yarn for my birthday back in May, and I reordered those two colours about 3 weeks ago – and they were exact dyelot matches! Even though it wasn’t totally necessary in the Fair Isle. I’ll never have that kind of luck again.

It’s going to be wonderfully warm – I had it on for about 5 minutes for the photo shoot and couldn’t bear it another minute. (It was about 30C!) Emily took some pictures in the morning, then in the afternoon, Ailsa took a bunch more for me. There are a heap more on Ravelry.

What an awesome weekend I had!
Bright and early Saturday morning I got up and went to the Inner City Guild meeting, and afterwards spent the afternoon knitting outside the Sydney Opera House with a bunch of great people. I started trying to link them all, but there were many, many Sydney and Canberran knitbloggers in attendance. Alas, I didn’t take very many pictures, but Bells has some great ones.
I spent the day working on my Lacy Kerchief scarf. It’s relatively mindless, easy knitting.

Can’t go very wrong, right? Right?
I knit merrily away, making a mistake or two in the lace part, but ripping it back and fixing it. Then I got on the train. And looked at it again.
I’d stuffed up the lace more than 80 rows back. And while it wasn’t blindingly obvious, I knew it was there. And for about 30 seconds I considered ignoring it. But I couldn’t. SO I spent half the train trip home ripping out most of the knitting I’d achieved.
The red line indicates where I’d been up to before I frogged it. (The cable shows where I’m currently up to – the scarf is folded in half)

And this picture was taken after I’d reknit about 5 repeats!
In happier news, when I got home on Saturday afternoon, I got stuck into Venezia’s second sleeve. And guess what?

Those sleeves are now attached, and she’s blocking, right this very minute!