Courtesy of Her Royal Majesty, Queen Elizabeth of England, we get a holiday today. Hooray for Lizzie! An extended weekend is always a lovely thing.

To celebrate there has been a little sewing. Lets backtrack a little. There’s been a whole lot of things going on here at Casa del Random over the past few weeks. As you all know, Calico & Ivy closed at the beginning of May. That meant four of us out of work. I was fortunate that I also had my casual job at the library, so wasn’t left completely high and dry. I’ve had the job at the library for about two and a half years, but its a casual job, so no job security, no benefits and a whole lot of uncertainty. I had an interview for a more permanent part time role at my library in the middle of April, but hadn’t heard anything. I also had an interview at another library for a full time job. Up until now, in two and a half years of looking for library jobs, I’d managed one interview, which I didn’t get.

In the past week or so, I got word that I’d won the full time job. But I really wanted the part time one. After much agonising and driving the family bonkers, I declined the full time position. It was a risk – library jobs are notoriously hard to come by. 300 people applied for the full time job. Almost 200 applied for the part time one. Last Wednesday I got the call to say I’d also won got the part time job. Yay, me!

Emily also landed a secretarial job at a nearby law form around a month ago, so for the first time ever, everyone in the family has a permanent job. I cannot even begin to tell you how relieved I am. I knew I was stressed, but didn’t realise how stressed until it was all fixed.

In other news, my birthday was a week or so ago. David bought me a set of Dyakcraft’s Heavy Metal interchangeable knitting needles.  I love these! Sizes 2mm – 3.25mm metal needles in interchangeables. I’m a loose knitter, and I usually work with finer yarns. It’s a rare day when I use a needle bigger than a 4.5mm (US7). I already have a set of the Dyakcraft Darn Pretty wood needle, but they’re bigger than I usually use, so these are perfect for me.

The 2mm are already in Arielle! The only thing I didn’t love was the case. Batik print isn’t really my style, and autumnal colours are most definitely not my style! So I made up a version of my interchangeable case in colours that are much more my preference!

I can’t remember if I ever mentioned my Darn Pretties here before. These are just gorgeous.

In Positively Pink (duh!). My Heavy Metals are the 5″ length, the Pretties are 3.5″. I like both. The wood needles are gorgeous, but not strong enough for smaller sizes, which is why they’ve come up with the metals. I cannot sing the praises of these needles enough. I love them. Love, love, love them! Thy’re smooth and warm and the join is perfect. They’re not as slick as Addi’s, but they’re plenty slick enough for me.

 

The only downside? The wait. Heavy Metals ship relatively quickly, the Darn Pretties don’t. I waited about nine months. Some people have waited far, far longer. I also ordered a set of sock needles on June 15, 2012 and I’m still waiting for those. Yes, a year. Is it worth the wait? I think so, but you may not. (Understandably!)

I made both cases – the pink one months ago while I was still waiting for the wood needles, the little one this weekend. I put a zip pouch in the wooden one, that hold the cables and stoppers as well as small scissors, a tape measure and a few stitch markers and things. I didn’t bother with the little one, because I intend to just put that one inside the bigger one!

I also finally finished a little something thats been floating around for months.

 

 

A little scissors holder in linen and Liberty. What’s not to love?

What? What’s that? Knitting? Oh yes, I still do that. Arielle grows.

 

Slowly. Funny how 4ply yarn on 2.75mm just doesn’t move quickly.