Little lace, it moves along so quickly!

Scarf with Attention Seeking Rabbit.
It’s flying along. I’m a little bit surprised how much of my knitting time was being sucked up by the Shetland Shawl. It’s so nice to have a break and work on something different.
As usual, my tension is a little loose. The pattern recommends 4.5mm or 5mm needles. I started with 4.5mm needles, did a whole repeat, and then decided it was a little too loose, so I ripped it out and restarted on 4mm needles.
This is the first time I’ve used Kidsilk haze, and it’s nice, but I’m sure it’s exactly the same as Madil Kid Seta. Either way, I love to knit with it. It knits up into such a nice soft, fine fabric.
I’ve done a little bit of work on the Twisted Flower socks, until today when I came across this.

A knot in the middle of the skein. Yet another of my pet peeves. In fact, this one is right up near the top of the list. I hate knots in my socks. Hate it. Hate weaving in ends in my socks. That’s one of the reasons why I haven’t done any colourwork in socks, because I hate bumpy bits on my feet.
I’ll get over it, but it’s put a serious bump into my love affair with Louet Gems Merino. I was totally enamoured until now. Hopefully it’s a one-off, and the next skein will be perfect.
Who wants a free t-shirt? I first saw this over at Stitching Mum’s blog.
If you follow this link to the Remo General Store, you can get a free t-shirt. The only catch is that you have to pay for the postage. It cost me $AU8.50 for postage, and it’s a nice quality t-shirt. It’s available to anyone, anywhere in the world. Shipping to the USA looks to be around $US13 for airmail.
There’s 160 designs to choose from, and I couldn’t make a decision as usual, so I went basic and chose the cupcake.

On the site, the cupcake was white, not fluoro pink, but I can live with that. You can choose fitted or not, long or short sleeves, mens, womens or childs sizes.
You do need to order before August 16 though. There’s no catch, apart from paying for the postage, they’re giving them away as a form of advertising, trying to drum up business.
I love me a freebie!

So what did you do last night?

I got up close and personal with my Shetland Shawl, the TV remote and my “Knitting Answer Book”, which had the clearest instructions I could find in my extensive Knitting book library for garter stitch grafting. Actually, this is a pretty nifty little book, with lots of helpful information in it. Some of it is really basic stuff, but I often find answers I’m looking for in there.
Anyway, back to the point. The grafting wasn’t as painful as I’d feared, but it came pretty close. I didn’t have any major stuff ups, and several hours later, I had this.

It’s done! It’s grafted!! (you can also see the dye lot difference in that picture. The centre is one dye lot, the borders are another.)
I am ridiculously proud of myself. Here’s how it looks in detail.

Sorry it’s a bit blurry. Here it is in up close type detail.

Not bad, huh?
Now I just need to knit and graft two more borders. Yay. Or something.
I only ever have one lace piece going at a time, and this has been my lace project since mid-April. Last night, while spending interminable hours grafting, I made an executive decision.
Now that the second border is done, I’m going to take a tiny break from this shawl. Just a little one. I had a dig through the stash and came up with this.

2 balls of Kidsilk Haze in Liquer, and Evelyn Clark’s Cocoon Lace scarf.
Yum!
So a little lace scarf interlude, then back to the Shetland Shawl. For my sanity, you understand.

Sleeves. I think I’ll start knitting vests.

As you can see, I wimped out and went with one sleeve at a time on DPNS. I know some people think that two-on-two-circs is quicker, and maybe for them it is, but the avoidance tactics I employ mean that it would actually take me far, far longer.
And I’m hoping to actually wear this garment at some point!
Boring knitting, though, isn’t it?
To brighten my knitting world, I bought yarn. Debbie Bliss Cathay, to be precise.

This is intended for ChicKnits Nicole.

Look at that! It’s sleeveless! I think I also chose this in the vain hope that warm weather will, one day, return.
I’m nearing the end of the second Shetland Shawl border, and I’ve come to what some would consider an unsurprising realisation. I need to graft 183 stitches.
I detest grafting in all shapes and forms.
Worse than that, it’s garter stitch grafting.
I’ve never grafted garter stitch in my life. For that matter, I still need to use a video to Kitchener my toes. Yes, even after a billion socks.
Any volunteers?
And finally, I downloaded the pictures off my mobile phone. What happens when you cross a 14 year old and a mobile phone with a camera?





And that’s only a small selection!

Knitting updates.
The Shetland Shawl is growing. Very slowly, though.

I’m up to row 60 of 92 on this border. Here’s how it looks stretched out and pinned.

I would’ve got more done over the weekend, but whenever I get a cold, reading charts makes me nauseous, similar to motion sickness. Why is that?!?
That also prevented much work getting done on my Twisted flower Socks, but I did finish the first pattern repeat.

I’m liking them, and the pattern is getting much easier, but now I’m a little worried that they’re going to be too big. I’m not having much luck in the sock department lately, am I?
Today I decided to act like a “good” housewife and vacuum the lounge area, which desperately needed it. The damn vacuum cleaner bit me and bruised my thumb. Is this an example of my poor housekeeping abilities? Or a good excuse not to use the vacuum any more?
Twinkie wants you all to know that it’s been cold here this past couple of weeks.

That’s a heated towel. Yeah, she’s spoiled, so what?

No 14 year olds were hurt in the process of obtaining this picture. (And just in case you’re wondering, it’s almost entirely staged and yes, she’s got it now!)