I’ve been a very social blogger over the past few days.
Last Thursday night I spoke to Donni on the phone. On Friday, Em and I had coffee with Lynne.
On Monday, we visited with Ailsa.
And yesterday, we went to visit Rubi & Lana (at long last!) and Lara. We got to meet all of Lara’s beautiful bunnies, and Cocky, too.
I had also hoped to go to Canberra this weekend and drop in on Canberra SnB, but alas, it isn’t to be this time around.
I had my camera with me at every one of those social visits, and I failed to take it out of my bag even once, sorry.
I did get a great deal of the Angora Supreme sweater done at Ailsa’s.

I’m very happy with the way it’s working up. I love the way the yarn works up. Here’s a close up of the stitch detail.

On my monitor, this colour is pretty accurate. The yarn does have all those little angora fibres that do tend to stick to you, and fly up your nose, but I’m loving the way it feels.
I was pretty restrained at Rubi & Lana yesterday. I picked up a ball of On Line 6 ply sock yarn in some pretty vivid greens, for socks for David.

Yes, he likes it!
And somehow Em conned me into buying her a new knitting bag.

It’s pink and has frangipani’s. She was in ecstasy.
And somehow, some lace weight followed me home. Are you all surprised? Come on, everyone knows that lace weight is just like sock yarn. It doesn’t count as stash.

Red. Rich, rich, ruby red.
This is destined to eventually become the “Heere Be Dragone” shawl. Michelle did hers in red, and it’s gorgeous. I had narrowed it down to three colours – a rich teal green, purple or red, and Rubi & Lana helped out by only having red in stock. That decided me!
Twinkie would like to be a ballet bunny. She has a thing for tutu’s, and wants to learn to dance.

Either that, or she’s trying to trip Em over while she practices her ballet!

Saturday sky. On a Saturday. Wonders will never cease!
This felt like the first time I’d actually taken the time to look up the sky in days. I’d noticed some really pretty clouds on the way home, but I didn’t have the camera. This was all that was left by the time I got home.
Two and a half days spent at a dance comp again. Thankfully, this is the last one until the end of August.
Thursday night at the comp, I finished Elbac. The last few rows were nail biting.

That little bit of yarn? That was all I had left. Ten rows before the end, I was sure I wouldn’t make it, but I knit on hopefully, and made it. Barely. Sorry for the mobile phone picture.
I have this wonderful digital camera, and I forget to take it out with me, all the time. At least the mobile phone has a camera I guess, even if it is kinda crappy.

The finished scarf, unblocked. Another crappy picture. Will block it and take a better one.
So I finished the scarf on Thursday night, and that left me with nothing on the needles, except the Shetland Shawl. And I can’t take that to a dance event. Seriously, I’d ruin it completely in the first five minutes.
So what should I do?
Start something new!!

And from the stash, no less!
This is going to be a sweater for me. The yarn is the (sadly) discontinued Cleckheaton Angora Supreme in shade 05, an Aqua blue. The colour in the picture is not accurate, it’s actually a bit lighter and brighter.
For the pattern, I loaded up the Sweater Wizard and worked this out. I’m aiming for a tunic length deep V neck raglan in stocking stitch. I’ve used a cable rib for a bit of interest. So far, so good.
We were at the event all day yesterday and most of today, so I got a fair bit done on it.
We did escape for a little bit yesterday morning to meet up with Lynne. We met up at the Wool Inn in Penrith and went for a coffee. I didn’t buy any yarn!!
The coffee was great though, and it was fun to meet Lynne. Thanks, Lynne!
And Em had another successful run.
This weeks haul.

She didn’t win the big ballet award this week though.
She won the big tap one instead.

Anyone want a trophy?

I’m a Rockin’ Girl Blogger!

I got nominated twice! Once by Sue, and again by Natalie.
I rock!
Someone please tell Em that.
Now I’m supposed to nominate five other Rockin’ Girl Bloggers, but I’m finding it difficult. I have 307 feeds in my bloglines. How am I supposed to narrow it down to 5?!? I’m still thinking about it.
But I finished something while I was thinking about it!

The baby cardi is done, and I even whipped up a little hat to match.
I finished the cardi on Monday night, then yesterday Em and I headed to the button factory to begin the button saga. This colour was hard to match. I found some cute little buttons with kitties on them, and cute little flowers, but they were the wrong shade of pink, or too large for the cardi.
So I wimped out and went plain.
The shawl continues. Many times in the past weeks I’ve sworn I’ll never make another Shetland Shawl after this one.
So I’m not quite sure how this got ordered and landed in my mailbox.

The Cameron Shawl from Heirloom Knitting. Here’s a better look.

More evidence that I have no willpower.
I like the construction of this one a lot better than I like the one ‘m working on now. This one has you work the centre square first, then pick up all the stitches around the square and work outwards. You can work each side separately, then seam them if you like, but I’m not a fan of seaming or grafting.
The pattern was a little pricey, about $AU35 shipped, but it’s gorgeous.
And included were some yarn samples, and a postcard.

And on the back of the sample card is a handy chart key, and Sharon herself wrote me a note on the postcard.

Little extras are the key to my heart. And my bank balance. (Or lack thereof 😉
Startitis is biting. I want to start this shawl, and I don’t even have the yarn for it. Yet.
I also printed out the first clue for Mystery Stole 3, and I’m itching to start that, too. But if I do, I know the Shetland Shawl won’t get done.
Oh the angst!
My art director was on hand for all photo sessions.

She gets paid in craisins. And yoghurt drops. And cuddles.

What peeves me off part 14,367.

Balls of yarn that collapse.
Another weekend spent in a chilly school hall watching children dance about. I actually don’t really mind these weekends, except that it’s been the past 4 Sundays, the past 3 Saturdays, and is happening again this Thursday night, and all day Friday and Saturday. By this stage, I’m a little bit over it.
And unlike the rest of Sydney or what seemed like it, I missed out on the craft show.
It does make good knitting time though!
Apart from rewinding collapsed balls and undoing tangles, I managed to do a good bit of the Elbac scarf.

The colour is totally inaccurate, but it makes the pattern show up better! I’m really enjoying this pattern. It’s not too difficult, and it’s reversible. I’m not overly keen on scarves that have pattern on only one side, so you have to make sure it’s laying correctly.
Emily is pleased, because the scarf should be finished by the time school goes back in a fortnight.
Yes, it’s school holidays again.
By the way, she won one of the big ballet awards.

The look on her face when she got it makes it all worthwhile.