I’ve had a couple of queries about our safety in regards to the bushfires currently burning in Victoria. Rest assured, I’m miles away. Over 300 miles away, in another State. And while there are a few burning in New South Wales, they’re miles away from me, too. We did spend a large amount of the weekend watching the news coverage. There should be a special, torturous punishment for arsonists.
But if you have a hug to spare, please keep fellow Aussie knitter Rachael and her family in your thoughts, her husband is missing, her home is burned. If you’re so inclined, a prayer wouldn’t hurt, either.

Folks, we have joinage.

Late last night I finally finished the sleeves and go the bits joined up. There’s somewhere over 300 stitches per round now, so I’m not expecting fast progress.
And it’s currently 37C here (99F), and we’re expecting temperatures between 40 and 45C (104 and 113F) over the weekend, so I don’t expect much progress at all!

Twice in the past week or so I’ve been told I need to update more often. And I agree. Now if someone could make the days slow down a little, I may be able to oblige!
The entries for the Royal Easter Show closed this week, and I managed to get my entries in. Now I need to knit them! Autumn Rose is coming along nicely, the sleeves are halfway done or so.

I hoping to have it all joined up by the end of the week. The other thing I’ve been working on is my “Ankle Biters” socks, which I purchased as a kit from The Loopy Ewe last year. This kit was offered up to those of us who didn’t make the sock club last year. When I put my name in for the sock club again this year, I thought I’d better make an effort to work on the kit I got last year.
This sock has given me trouble. It’s not a hard pattern, I’m just an idiot. First off, I stuffed the pattern by working too many decreases. So I ripped it back to the toe and started it again.
Then, I followed the pattern to the letter, working the foot length as stated, ignoring the little voice that kept telling me the foot was too long. Then I worked the gusset and started the heel shaping.
Then I tried it on. Yep, too long. Ri-i-i-i-i-ip back to before the gusset shaping and started it over. Now it seems to fit at least!

I like my socks to fit very snugly. If they’re a little bit loose they move around too much for my liking!
Not much other news to report, Emily is settling into her new school nicely. Dancing started again this week, so my main occupation once again is taxi driver!

I love my daughter to pieces, I really, really do.
But today she went back to school after nearly 10 weeks of holiday, and I am so glad. There’s been no Disney channel, no MTV, no buzz of the mobile phone.
Mind you, I’m sure she’s just as sick of the sight of me, but it’s so nice to have my house back. She was a bit of a wreck this morning, she’s going to a new school for the last 2 years of High School – (All girls!!), and she’s never been the new girl before, so there was a little stress, but as soon as we arrived she saw someone she knew, so it was all good.
So I’m about to sit, on my sofa, fan pointed at only me, and knit. With some crappy daytime TV that isn’t teen-oriented.
I think I’ll work on Autumn Rose. I’ve started the sleeves.

I’m still doing two at once. I am definitely not ready for Fair Isle, two at once on two circs, so I’m just using two sets of DPNS, and doing a few rows on one, then catching up on the other. So far, so good.
The tutu is finished. Due to the sunburn, there are no pictures of her wearing it, though. It’s basically the same as the last tutu I made for her, just bigger.

And the sunburn? Better. There’s a picture, but I hid it behind a link – it’s not the worst sunburn I’ve ever seen, but it ain’t pretty. (This was Wednesday afternoon, after the burn on Saturday)
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It’s not bright red any more, but it’s a little bit blistery and gross. She won’t skimp on the sunscreen again.
And despite the heat, we had the appearance of snow yesterday afternoon.

There’s almost a whole other bunny in there!

So I’m harping on about the weather again, because it’s the only excuse I have for not having much knitting. But it’s been hot. All week. It all came to a head yesterday, when the temperature topped 42C in Sydney. That’d be 107.6f for you US readers.
We escaped and ran away to the beach where Emily proceeded to fib about the correct application of sunscreen, and came home looking like an overcooked lobster. With sunstroke. Because I’m just her mother, and what would I know? Today she’s paying the price.
I’ve begun a sleeve for Autumn Rose, and that’s about the sum total of the knitting that’s occurred. In other knitting news, I put my name into The Loopy Ewe sock club lottery again this year. And yet again, I missed out. I was pretty bummed about it again. I mean, who doesn’t like the idea of a surprise package arriving in the mailbox, complete with sock yarn, a pattern and some fun extras too? But it seems to be a club I’m not meant to be a member of. I felt a bit dejected and unwanted at first, but then I decided to copy a couple of my favourite bloggers. I’m going to have my own Personal Sock Club this year. It’ll be so exclusive that I’ll be the only one in it! And there’s going to be some yummy, yummy yarns and some pretty nice patterns, too. (No fun surprises though, it’s a bit hard to surprise yourself, I’ve found!) I noticed that this concept is going around – I saw it on another blog I read this morning, too.
So, I’ve taken 11 sock yarns at random from the stash, spent a few hours matching them up with sock patterns from my queue, and made my sock club kits.

I’ve already finished one pair of socks this year, and I started another this week, so I’m hoping I’ll get to all of these this year. I’m not telling what’s inside, so all of you can be surprised when I open a package. Hopefully I’ll forget what I’ve packaged up too.
The packages have been put up out of Twinkie’s reach, because she seems to have a thing for paper bags containing yarn.

The curiosity may have been aroused, though.