Guess what I got yesterday?

I got my goal keyring at Weight Watchers! That means I’ve reached my goal weight. I was pretty excited about it yesterday. Today I have a cold, and I’m feeling pretty miserable with it, so not so much.
But hip hooray!!
In knitting news I’m halfway through the second border of the Shetland Shawl. 46 rows down, 44 to go. I figured out yesterday morning that if I did just 5 rows a day, I could have this border done in 9 days.
Then the cold started to seep in, and by last night I just couldn’t be bothered and went to bed early, so I’m already behind on that goal.
I have been working on the Angora Supreme Sweater though.

Head removed due to aforementioned cold.
The body is done, and I’m up to the armholes. Now I get to knit the sleeves. Usually I knit both sleeves at the same time, but these are in the round. So I can either knit them one at a time, or bite the bullet and try to relearn two at once on two circs. I’m undecided so far, the one time I tried two at once on two circs, I just didn’t like it.
A bland weekend ahead. The weather has been ridiculously cold, and Harry Potter of course comes out tomorrow, so there’ll be mock fights over it. David has agreed to let Em read it first, but he won’t let her know that, just to antagonise her. Then he’ll be nagging her to read it more quickly so that he can read it.
I wish they’d just get two copies!!

I almost always have a sock on the needles at some point.
For me, socks are my basic knitting. They’re the “I may have to wait at the doctors”, the singing lesson, the car waiting knitting.
Easy, mindless, take along knitting with interrupt-able, relatively short rows.
After tossing aside the Lupine Lace socks due to yarn problems, instead of starting new socks, I started Elbac for Em. I usually have 3 projects on the go at once. Socks, Lace and something else, usually a garment. Until I finished Elbac, it was scarf/shawl/ Angora Supreme Sweater.
But Elbac is finished, so it’s time for more socks.

So I cast on my Twisted Flower socks.
The ribbing was fine, the first seventeen rows were good. Then I hit row 18.
Oh my.
This isn’t going to be an easy, take-along, mindless knit.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not impossible. There are two different kinds of cable stitches, and in my cockiness, away I went.
I used the wrong freakin’ cable stitch the first cable row.
They are fun, they are satisfying, but they’re most definitely not mindless. And not singing lesson or waiting at the doctors material! I’m sure they’ll get easier as I get the hang of the pattern, but maybe I’ll cast on another pair for mindless knitting time.
In other news, I got mail! Rose Red had a blog competition a couple of weeks back, and I was one of the very fortunate winners. My lovely parcel arrived today.

She’s had trouble with parcels in the past, so to be on the safe side, she also put on address label on the inside, but the main reason I showed this parcel was the ribbon.

How cool is that?!?
And inside the parcel.

(Inside a signature ziplock bag, of course!)

Two hanks of Classic Elite Miracle, a 50/50 alpaca/tencel blend. It’s gorgeous. In fact, it’s right in front of me, in prime squeezability location.
Thanks Rose Red!

Finally, Elbac is dry, ends woven in, and modeled.
The scarf.

Pattern: Elbac from Knitty, Winter 2006.
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran in Navy, 3 skeins.
Needles: 5mm

It’s a ingenious design, using ribbed cables, so that the scarf is reversible. The pattern itself is pretty easily memorised, although I’m sure that in one or two places I added too many rows between the cable rows.

I love the ends!
Casting off was a little stressful though, as I was pretty sure I was going to run out of yarn. Not being able to calculate easily how much yarn I needed for each row made casting off an experience!
The finished scarf is 150cm (60″) long. I would have liked it a little longer, but Em’s happy with it. The pattern calls for 64 pattern repeats in the middle, but I only managed 36 repeats.
Modeled on the recipient.

Oops! Wrong pic.

She looks pretty happy with it, doesn’t she? School went back today, and I’m informed that all her friends are jealous, and want one just like it.
I hope their mothers can knit!
And guess what? I got my Ravelry!! Hip hooray! Feel free to add me – my username is RandomKnits.

You can check your position on Ravelry now!

So close!!

Saturday Twilight sky. It’s been a beautiful day, nice and sunny, but just a little bit cold. Perfect knitting weather, but we’ve been running around too much for knitting.
I have been working away at the Shetland Shawl, but it gets a bit disheartening sometimes, because I knit for hours, and it looks like theres little or no progress happening.
Here’s where I’m at.

About 20 rows in on the second border. Each row currently has somewhere in the vicinity of 300 stitches, and each row decreases by 2 stitches. Not fast enough!
I haven’t touched the Angora Supreme sweater all week, but I have been just a little unfaithful. More on that next time, when I actually remember to take a picture.
That’s about it for the knitting updates.
Many of you asked about Em’s dance trophies. So I took some pictures to show you how many she has. For reasons that will become apparent, I didn’t bother to count them.
First off, the trophy shelf in our living room.

These are the “Big Deal” competition trophies. There’s 30 or so of them.
The wall unit in the dining area.

Exam trophies.

The other shelf in the dining room. (I really need to clean that glass!), more exam trophies, and a few special ones, like “Most Promising Baby” from an eisteddfod when she was only 5 or so, and encouragement awards and the like.
Now we enter her room. All of these are just competition trophies (1st, 2nd 3rd and so on).
Top of the wardrobe.

3 or 4 deep up there.
Narrow bookshelf beside the wardrobe.

Main bookshelf.

The one in the centre of the top shelf is a teddy bear instead of a cup or a dancer. It was the first competition trophy she ever won, and is still her favourite to his day.
The floor in front of the main bookshelf.

The floor in front of the second bookshelf and the bottom shelf.

Second shelf of the second bookshelf, along with her mini Blythes and her candles.

And there’s some more boxed up out in the garage.
I have no idea how many there are in total. She used to keep count, but got bored and gave up.
In a way it’s a bit sad, because she doesn’t get excited about winning them any more. She doesn’t really compete to win though, quite often as soon as she’s left the comp, she’s forgottem what she got for each section!