So the dance concert is over, and for a little while I have my life back. Or so I thought. My just-barely-teenaged daughter has gone and got herself a social life. Stuck to my fridge are four party invitations. There’s also the senior’s night out for dancing coming up, and a multitude of other social events, including my niece’s dance concert this weekend. All before Christmas, bar one of the parties.
She has a better social life than I do!
Some pics from the concert.

I actually took heaps more photos, but they all have other kids in them, and I don’t have permission to put them up here. I’d hate for someone to come across a picture of themselves. Although seeing as no-one I know knows about this blog, it’s highly unlikely.
Knitting! Isn’t that what this blog used to be about?
There’s been a little. Hopefully now there can be a lot more.
The Lace Panel Sweater sleeves are growing.

They’re looking very narrow. I don’t have skinny little stick arms. I’m getting worried. Nat? You knit the other cardi from the book, and the sleeves look similar. Opinions?
However, I’m going to ignore than gut feeling and knit on. Bet I’ll regret that later on.
What else?
P-p-p-p-p-socks.

I was charging on down the leg to the hell, with only 12 rows to geo, when I realised that I’d forgotten to move the stitches around at the start of the last repeat, and 12 rows had to be frogged. Live and learn.
The other side looks like a totally different sock.

And the purple blob, previously known as Spring Blossoms.

Looks exactly the same as the last time I showed it. I’ve not touched it at all. I’m not even sure what I’ve done with my chart which shows me where I’m up to, which may be a problem. I’m sure it’s here somewhere.
Christmas? I’m in denial.

That’s where the christmas tree should be. I’m having some anxiety issues with putting it up. Earlier in the year, we replaced our end tables with these stash boxes. The tree goes on the table. There’s nowhere else to put the tree in our little house. So, it has to go onto my stash box.
What if I want something from in there? All my sock yarn is in there. I had a fleeting moment where I considered emptying the box, just in case, but I realised I have nowhere to put the yarn. Maybe I can use it to decorate the tree. Then it’ll be right at hand!
Mind you, it’ll only be up for three weeks or so, and I’m sure that the other yarn around the house will keep me busy until then. But what if??
So I got some more yarn, just in case.

Because you never know. 3 skeins of Jo Sharp Alpaca Silk Georgette, intended for Faina’s Scarf, and a skein of Merino Cashmere Sock, in “Water Lilies”, both from The Knittery. Like I said, just in case.

Saturday sky.

Grey, rainy, taken from the roof of Jussi’s building. What a hostess! We had a lovely soiree, complete with wonderful company and yummy food. Jus can cook as well as she can knit, it was a feast of gastronomic excellence.
She even served yarn.


As modelled by Ailsa. It’s Iranian fairy floss, called Pashmak. (I think). Yummy, and definitely looked like yarn.
There was cheesecake.

Donni ate all that. Seriously. Or not.
Then she tried to show us precisely how Em leapt over the step.

There was some delightful company.

Lara.

Sandra, Mary-Helen, and Ailsa.

Em, Ailsa, Donni, and the lovely Jussi herself.
And one more blurry pic of everyone in attendance.

We had a great time, it was just a shame that more people didn’t make it.
There was knitting.
I should never have said that the Lace Panel Sweater was going too well. It’s done nothing but stuff me around ever since.
At some point yesterday, I realized that I was short a stitch in one of the lace panels. Emily insisted that it was because of the wine I’d drunk, but in fact the mistake was made before I’d even left for Jussi’s party, and I’d just blindly knitted for 10 rows past the mistake.
That may have been the fault of the wine.
So most of the work I did yesterday was frogging.
I’m beginning to dislike this sweater.

You know how I said it was all going just a little *too* well? I was right.
I started the sleeves, and immediately realised that somewhere, someplace along the front I had a total screwup moment, and I rearranged the lace pattern.

See all those circles? In every lace repeat I’ve circled, I only did 8 rows of lace pattern, not 10.
Now the question is can I live with it? It’s not a hideously obvious mistake, but of course, I know it’s there. I don’t think I can. Of course, that means I need to rip out half of the front.
I’m going to finish the sleeves then see how I feel about it.
Here’s the sleeves.

What puzzles me most is that I stuffed one repeat on the front, then I got one right. Then I stuffed up three, then I got two right, then one wrong, one right then the whole right front wrong. Totally clueless.
I got a new book from Amazon today!

Louisa Harding’s Modern Classics. I really like this! Modern Classics indeed. Very simple, timeless designs.

That’s most of the designs. There are three sections in the book, DK, Worsted and Aran. This is the design I saw that made me want the book.

That one’s in worsted weight. And am I the only one who thinks this model has no idea of how to knit?

To me it just looks like someone has thrown the needles at her and said “Here, hold this!”
Just because there hasn’t been a picture in a while, here’s Twinkie, as cute as ever.

This is what David came home to today, Twinkie and me cuddle time.

And finally, if you’re from Australia, NZ, the UK, Europe or any other country or continent that Knitpicks refuses to ship to, and you’re disappointed because of it, pop on over to the petition that Ailsa started and have your say.
Maybe if enough of us have something to say, Knitpicks will realise how much money they’re missing out on and will do something about it!

Saturday sky, just a few days late.

Once upon a time, I used to blog every day. Where did I get the time??
The carpet rose is blooming again.

This is all thanks to David, I can’t grow anything. Lack of attention span and forgetting to water anything at all may have somethng to do wth it.
Saturday was Stitch n Bitch, followed by our christmas dinner. A great time was had, but the only picture I took all day was of Miss Bronte. She wasn’t very happy on Saturday, and didn’t want Sharon to knit. Sharon managed to finish this headscarf however, but I don’t thuink Bronte wanted to be the model.

Still adorable, regardless!
I seem to be going through one of those patches where we’re lurching from one minicrisis to another lately. Nothing dramatic, or really very serious in the big scheme of things, just very, very wearying.
This amused me, though.

A new polar bear, in very poor taste, but enough to make me giggle every time I look at him.
I also bought David a gift, with an ulterior motive.

A gingerbread man cookie cutter. It caught my eye, and I love gingerbread, so I bought this gift in the hope that it brings me little gingerbread men. I may also have bought all the ingredients to go with him.
All the avoiding of the kitchen has resulted in plenty of knitting time.
Enough that I got the front of the Lace Panel sweater done.

I’m loving it, but I haven’t cast on for the sleeves yet. I wish all my projects knit up this quickly. It’s almost going too well. There’s going to be something at some point that’s going to trip me up, I’m sure.
And just in case anyone has been wondering about Darwin lately, he’s doing very well, thank you!

The honoured position!

Look what I got.

This book is just gorgeous. And my wish list just got a lot longer. If I knit everything that’s on that list, I really need to find a way to live about 100 more years than the average human being.
This list of things I want to knit from this book alone is about a mile long. Why is nearly everything I want to knit made from laceweight? If I liked more things knit in Aran weight, my list would move a whole lot faster.
Like the Lace Panel Sweater, which is moving along very nicely, thank-you-very-much!

Half way up the front, and all is well so far. I’m enjoying this knit immensely, in fact. The fact that it’s going so quickly might explain a large part of that.
As a result, Spring Blossoms is being sadly neglected. I haven’t even picked it up in days.
I may have accidently started something else though. Not the Krista tee! I’ve managed to resist ordering the kit. So far. I do look at it about 5 times a day though.
I had to go to an appointment near the city yesterday, and in my infinite wisdom I decided to catch the train. The stop I had to go to is on my train line, and yet I had to catch three different trains to get there.
You go, Cityrail!!
Anyway, I decided that the sweater was too big for the train. i took along my beautiful new book, but I decided to start a sock, too.

Pomatomus. Yes, I’m a bit late to the party, as usual. Why dd nobody tell me what fun this pattern is? The yarn is KnitPicks Sock Memories in Easter, which is sadly discontinued. The minute Emily saw the colours, she claimed it. She hasnt had new socks in a while, so I grabbed this yarn from the stash, printed out the pattern and hopped on the train(s).
What a dilemma. I couldn’t decide whether to knit or read, and the pattern is a little complicated for both at once. So I’d read a bit, knit a bit, get off the train. Read a bit, knit a bit, get on the train. Read a bit, knit a …. oh, you get the idea.
And I had my first ever approach from a stranger about knitting in public while sitting on Strathfield station. (Waiting for a train – theres a surprise!)
It was a youngish guy, looked like a bit of a nohoper, but I may just be casting aspersions of course.
He walked past me, stopped, then walked back. I made sure my bag was nice and close, then realised he was looking at my knitting, not my purse.
He siad “What are you making?”, so I told him it was a sock. “And you need all those needles?” I explained that is was knit in the round, so it would be seamless. He just stood there for a minute or two, watching me knit. Then he said “That’s incredible” and walked away.
I’m glad he walked away, becasue I didn’t quite know what to say!