Just before Christmas in 2003, there was an addition to our family.

I had this stupid idea that this little bunny was going to live in a cage in the yard. She trained us up good. It’s been over ten years. I had no idea at the time.

Such a funny little thing. She liked to steal chocolate.

And potatoes, even though they were bad for her, and we had to steal them back, and eventually hide them from her altogether.

I didn’t know she’d become such an integral part of our family, that she’d come to mean so much to us.

Twinkie left us today. She’d been unwell, and her age caught up to her. We knew she was declining, but it really became obvious in the past few days. She’s better off now.

And while we’re better off for having loved her, it’ll never be the same without her.

I’m sure this only applies to Aussies of a certain age, but I have a jingle stuck in my head. Remember Mental as Anything “The Nips are getting bigger”? It keeps running through my head.

“Woah-oh, the lace is getting bigger

Woah yeah, it’s getting bigger”

But yes, the lace is getting bigger.

Slowly, as lace is wont to do. I am already having issues about the border (which I should get to in approximately 10.5 years). The yarn (Yarn Place Graceful) has long, gradual colour transitions. This is fine for the lace, it’s not going to distract from the pattern in the way a heavily variegated yarn might, but at the end it has a knitted on border, so the direction of the knitting will change, and instead of continuing to grow outwards, I’ll be knitting around the edge.

I’m worried about the effect the colour changes will have. Right now I’m thinking I’ll use a plain yarn in a solid purple to match one of the purples in the yarn. I don’t want it to scream “Different border!”, but to look as if it’s a natural transition for the yarn. So I’m looking for a readily available cobweb weight (900yds/50g) non-superwach merino or wool yarn in a solid purple. Baruffa Cashwool is discontinued, Centolavaggi might be an option, but I can’t think of any other yarns that might work – mainly because I don’t think picking it off a screen is going to work. I could end up with a great deal of mismatched purple laceweight! Rosered has suggested colourmart, and theat I might be able to send them a sample to get them to match it, but the colour changes are so gradual, I think I’d have to send half a ball. (Which I might need, because Yarn Place isn’t available in Australia, and they’re ignoring my emails about how to order from outside the US). Ideas?

The lace is happily back on track!

Hooray! And it’s off the double points, so less chance of something going wrong!
In other knitty type news, I had a couple of deliveries this week!

Seriously, who doesn’t love a brown paper parcel tied up with string? (These are a few of our favourite things!)

A little while back, Suzyhausfrau announced that the loooooong awaited MadelineTosh order was finally on it’s way, and she was having a presale. I had a very serious talk to myself about how I have plenty of yarn, and I haven’t used the Merino Light from my last Suzyhausfrau MadTosh order and I don’t need any more yarn. Also, I was a t work when the presale happened, which was fortuitous, as I wouldn’t be able to place an order.

However, I can now strike “place a sneaky yarn order from a toilet cubicle on my smart phone” off my bucket list. Suffering from a severe case of Fear Of Missing Out syndrome, I couldn’t help myself.

Mmmmm. Four skeins of Tart, one each of Fragrant and Charcoal and a single skein of Shibui Knit Staccato to make up a shortfall. What is all the Merino Light going to be? Pfft, as if I plan that far ahead!! I honestly have no idea. The Shibui however, is already on the needles.

I also got a couple of Rowan books. (Not from Suzy! From CucumberPatch in the UK)

The Angora Haze book is gorgeous, and seeing as they’ve discontinued the Angora Haze yarn, I wanted to get the book while I still could. And the last ever Studio booklet. Sniff. I’ll miss Studio…

I think I’ve forgotten how to knit lace. Actually, that’s not true. It’s not the knitting of it causing me a headache. I got started just fine, and it was going swimmingly!

Then last night after I got home from work I sat down to work on it some more. I had a stitch count problem on one needle, and there was an errant fly buzzing around, driving me mad. I put the knitting down and jumped up to find the flyspray, pulling out a needle in the process. (The bright green yarn is marking the start of the round. For yarn this fine I find locking stitch markers too heavy, and can’t use a stitch marker on the end of a DPN! I find this the easiest way.)

Frogged, begun again. Attempted to begin again, anyway. While I proudly got the circular cast on perfect the first time, it would not cooperate last night. Multiple attempts resulted in me throwing the yarn across the room. End result?

But I refuse to be defeated. Refuse.

In Twinkie news, she’s doing okay. She’s over ten now, and I’m afraid it’s starting to show. She has a recurring eye infection that has her on constant antibiotics, and is pretty much totally blind now. She moves a lot slower than she used to, but she still knows exactly where the treats are kept, and the best way to get one from us. We gave her a spa day the other day.

She was far more amenable than expected, but she did spend a great deal of time afterwards licking the bath off!

Let’s try this again!! To be fair, 2013 was an exceptionally busy year. I’m trying, really I am, but some things are sliding. Sadly, it seems so far to have been the blog and actual knitting.

For the past few years I’ve done an annual wrap up, talking about the knitting I managed in the prior year. Lets just say that I checked Ravelry this morning, and in 2013 I managed to finish 16 items. All year. I was disappointed a year ago when I only managed 26 in 2012. In 2011 I did 32. 2010, 35. 2009, 33. Sliding!

But it was a big year. I finally got a permanent job after more than 2 years of casual employment. Calico and Ivy (sadly) closed. I enrolled in Uni. Then I spent two months trying to get re-enrolled. Still trying. We bought a block of land, and are int he (exhausting) process of trying to have a house built on it.

I lost a lot of prime knitting time when Calico & Ivy closed in early May. In mid June I was made permanent at the Library, and got a 20 hour a week part time job. Ha! I don’t think I’ve done less than 30 hours a week since I started, and often 40 hours or more. Uni has been taking a lot more time and effort than I was expecting. The work has been a rapid learning curve, but the last two months of trying to fix my enrolment have just been a constant, exhausting, frustrating nightmare. The house building is another exercise in frustration. Everything moves so slowly and requires so much paperwork. The land is ours (well, the banks!) the house is chosen, all the exterior colours and upgrades have been chosen, we’ve even decided on where to put all the electrical points, blah, blah, blah. Now there’s paperwork and red tape in our way. At this point, we’re thinking we might see the slab laid in April.

But I started today by doing my best to increase the finished item count for 2014.

My Pink Texas is done!

Specs:
Pattern: Texas by Lisa Richardson from Rowan Studio 31
Yarn: Rowan Wool Cotton 4ply purchased at Calico & Ivy (the shop might be gone, but there’s still a lot of stash hanging around from there!) in String, White, Petal and Flower
Needles: Dyakcraft 5″ Heavy Metal circs in 2.25mm & 2.75mm
Mods: None! Well, almost none, apart from the colour change. The pattern does say to use smaller buttons for the three lower ones, then bigger ones in the top part. I had both sizes, but there was no way the bigger ones were going through the button holes. Fortunately, I had plenty of the smaller ones.

I’ve bought some fabric to make a dress to go with it, but I haven’t got around to that bit yet!

Next up, I’m getting back on a long neglected horse.