Saturday

Yep, another gorgeous sunny Sydney Saturday sky.
Saturday isn’t my favourite day of the week, because it tends to be one of the busiest days, driving Em here, there and everywhere. Between dancing and her social life, I think I need to install a taxi meter.
Knitting. Yes, please?
I have managed a few rows of the Fern Garden Stole.

It’s growing nicely.
This stole is labeled an advanced knit, and I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m not finding it all that difficult. Essentially it’s the same two rows over and over, but they move over a little in each row. That said, there have been a few little mistakes, but they’re really easy to fudge if you need to, and you can’t be bothered ripping back.
Here’s a close up of the stitch pattern.

I’m using Zephyr 50% silk, 50% merino which is my absolute favourite lace weight yarn. It’s available in Australia from Yarns Online, whom I highly recommend for your yarn fix.
And speaking of Yarns Online, a fix may have arrived yesterday. Just a little one, I’m trying to cut back on my habit!

Melody sock yarn in y-24, and the Heartstrings Sock Journal. Because there is no such thing as too much sock yarn or too many sock patterns.
I was going to knit some socks for David’s Mum for Mothers Day with the Melody, but I think I want to keep it for me. Because I’m selfish. And I’m not good at sharing my toys.
But remember the sock pattern I shared? The one up there in the top right hand corner of the blog? The Zig Zag socks?
Dandy knit them! Go have a look. I’m so excited, they look wonderful!

Well, we have a winner.
But it wasn’t in the race until yesterday.

Meet Frog Tree Alpaca in fingering weight. (4ply for the Aussies). I went through the stash yesterday and found this. It was sent to me in a swap by a lovely lady, and for some reason I had it in my head that it was sportweight, which was why I hadn’t considered it. But I’m very glad I found it!
I’m crossing my fingers that it’s fourth time lucky. It’s still a bit wider than I’d hoped, but I think it’ll be closer to the finished size of 10″. Mind you, I’ve had to go down to fingering weight on 2.75mm needles to get there!
In other news, the second Bloomin’ Feet sock is on the finish line.

I’ve actually come quite a bit further since then. The toe is finished, and all I need to do is the dreaded kitchener. Once I got up to there, I put the sock aside, and I haven’t touched it again. Give me cables, give me lace, give me tiny little yarn on tiny little needles, anything at all and I’m fine. Give me Kitchener, and I’m lost. I just can’t get it.
How many pairs of socks have I knit?
I still need to go watch this video to help me graft the toe, every single time. I have no idea why, I just can’t get it.
Thank heavens for the video.
In other news, it rained again today. Well, it poured. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. Like every other Australian, I’m overjoyed when I see the rain. In fact, I think it’s rained more in the last two weeks than it has in all of the past year.
But why does it do this just as I’m walking out the door to go pick up Emily?

Did I mention that Emily “borrowed” my umbrella last year, and it never made it home again? I was soaked through just getting to the car. But maybe it was just what I needed, I laughed for the next ten minutes.

Faina, Faina, Faina. The bane-a of my life right now.
(Well that, and Dreamhost servers crashing when I want to write blog posts!)
Faina and I are having difficulties in our relationship. I have restarted the scarf in a different yarn. Well, two different yarns in fact.

Faina in Wagtail Yarns fingering weight pure mohair. I love the colour, I love the way it feels.
But I’m not loving the halo on the yarn. It’s not really fluffy, but there’s fuzziness going on.

Faina in “Touch” fingering weight merino. Love the stitch definition, not too sure on the variegation.
So help me to decide, please!
And in the fun and games department for today, we’re playing spot the bunny.

Faina’s Scarf.
Now you see it.

Now you don’t.

Let me explain.
I love the yarn.
I love the pattern.
Together they just weren’t working for me.
t dawned on me late last night that this is a very, very wide scarf. Allow me to demonstrate.

The pattern claims that using sportweight yarn (check) on 3.5mm needles (I was using 3.25mm) would give a finished width of 10 inches. I hadn’t really thought about that.
Then when I had a good look at it, and then measured it, mine was coming out at 11 inches, unblocked.
I live in Sydney. Our winters just don’t require a scarf that wide. So I put it aside and thought about it for a while, then this afternoon, I ripped it out. I was at row 100.
Sigh.
It will be restarted in the Wagtails Yarns 4 ply (Fingering weight) on smaller needles. I’m 40 yards short, but hopefully the smaller needles and finer yarn will make it go a little further.
However, I do have progress to report on the Bloomin’ Feet socks!

I’m on the home stretch now! Better start gathering some goodies to cushion the package.

Lets talk once again about the wonders of blocking.
I know, I harp on a bit, don’t I?
At about 11pm on Saturday night (around the time I get all my wonderful ideas), I took a good look at Faina’s Scarf and got a bit worried.

Pardon the blurriness, it was 11pm after all, and my camera’s night vision requires more steadiness than I’m patient enough to provide.
Anyway, the point is, see the way it’s curling? I was a bit worried that I had cast on too tightly and that the curl wouldn’t block out.
So I needed to make a decision before I went any further. Should I rip it out and start over? Should I knit on, and have faith that it would come out alright?
Or should I block it as it is and see how it goes?

I went with option 3.
I got out a hand towel, pins and a water spray bottle. I spritzed the knitting (being very careful near the bamboo needle!), pinned it out, and left it overnight.
Sunday morning, I awoke to this.

Why did I ever doubt?
None of the colours are accurate, by the way, but the top two are closest.