So what’s next?
Lace, of course!!

It’s the yarn and pattern my lace pal Chloe sent me. Well, one of them. It took some deciding to figure out what to start. I went with this, because I’m thinking I might use the Graceful yarn she sent to knit the spiral shawl from “A Gathering of Lace”. The yarn seems to have long variegations in it, and I think a spiral shawl will show off the variegation the best.
So this is the Fiber Trends “Spring Blossoms” shawl. The pattern calls for Zephyr on 3.5mm needles. I’m finding this yarn is lighter than Zephyr, and on 3.5mm needles, it was knitting up to airily to show the pattern well.
So I’ve dropped down to 2.75mm needles.
I cast on on Friday night, and for the first 24 hours I was uncertain if I was feeling the love. There may be a few problems with it.
When knit with Zephyr on 3.5mm needles, the finished size is 44″ square.
Obviously, mine will be smaller, as I’m using finer yarn and smaller needles. But I’ll also use less yarn, so hopefully I’ll get in an extra repeat or two.
I detest circular beginnings. Every time I do one, I feel like I’m all thumbs for the first few rows.
Now I’ve done a full repeat, I’m liking it a whole lot better!
And I got mail. Carol organised a Knit Picks order months ago, so I got some dye your own fingering weight and some Shadow in Grape Jelly. I’d actually forgotten all about it when she let me know it had arrived.

I think I’m having a purple fetish lately!

Saturday Sky.

So, are you guys sick of random blue squares of sky yet?
Somehow, we seem to have skipped Spring this year and jumped straight from late winter to Summer. 30C (86f) today!
Thank you for all the good wishes for my mum, I’ll keep you all posted.
I finished something! Hooray, at last!

My dishcloth. I’m still having a hard time believing that people go to all the trouble to knit these pretty squares and then use them on their drty dishes.
I finished another dishcloth too, and got my parcel off for the Dishcloth Shuffle. It’s winging it’s way to the other side of the world as I type.
Am I the only person who has a hard time knitting for another knitter? Suddenly I have the hardest time deciding. On the yarm. the stitch pattern, everything.
I even blocked the silly dishcloth for the swap.
And speaking of swaps, I got an email this morning that the final parcel for my half of the Lace Swap arrived. How cool is that? Every single swapper played nice. Way to go, ladies!
And thank you to Ailsa, there is no way I could have run the swap alone and not gone completely insane.
The sewing? Well, I have been going to extraordinary lengths to avoid it. Procrastination is my secret middle name, I tell you.
I even baked muffins to avoid sewing. In the kitchen! With the oven!

Okay, it was a packet mix, but even that is adventurous for me. Honey and banana muffins. Lord, I miss bananas.
Let’s play spot-the-bunny.

This is where she has spent the past few days. It’s been pretty hot all week, so she’s been laying in the hard packed dirt in the shade, where it’s cool.
Oh, did I mention I’d finished something else?

Aren’t I mean, making you read through all that other crap before mentioning Cece?
She’s done! All done! Well, apart from the blocking. I’m much happier with the size now. I used this much less than 3 skeins of the Cascade Sierra.

Cutting it close. And this of course, means I started something new. Stay tuned!

I’ve been crazy busy again. I’ve done no sewing all week, so I was a little in front last week, but now I’m behind again!
Monday I had canteen duty at school. Enough said, moving right along. Terrible headache Monday afternoon and evening, and still off colour yesterday.
Yesterday, I took my mum to the doctor to get her test results for diabetes. She doesn’t have diabetes. That’s good! As an afterthought, she mentioned to the doctor that she had a little lesion on her shoulder that has been bothering her.
It’s skin cancer. That’s bad.
It has to come off within the next two weeks.
Hopefully it’s been caught in time.
Today I went shopping. That’s good! And bad. (For the bank account, anyway.) I have a love/hate relationship with clothes shopping, but I got a few things.
A few months back I bought myself a new necklace that would go beautifully with a top I bought today, and I have spent the past hour ripping the house apart looking for it. I have no idea what I’ve done with it.
And I’ve been knitting some.
Cece is growing.

I’m getting a little bit tired of it now, and I’m at that “I’ve had enough, what can I start now?” stage, but I’m trying to battle through. The size looks more realistic now, but it’s not quite at the stage where I can try her on again.
To beat the itchy fingers, I started a washcloth.

A washcloth is good for a change, and it knits up quick. I still haven’t used one though!
To be honest, I want to do lace. I keep going through all my lace patterns and patting my lace stash. Soon, my pretties!
And now my keyboard keeps stopping. I think new batteries are in order.

Just another perfect day in paradise.

Or Saturday Sky in Sydney, take your pick.
Lost Season 2 is wonderful for knitting progress. Cece is growing fast, I’m almost back up to the front shaping.

Of course, the kitchen needs mopping, the bathroom needs cleaning, and the carpet is way overdue for a vacuum, but you need to get your priorities right, don’t you?? I’ve got two weeks of knitting to catch up on.
While Cece is kind of lacy, I’m finding the pattern is easy enough to follow while I’m watching TV. It’s an 8 row, 9 stitch repeat, and at this stage, the only shaping is once every 10 rows at the sides. Of course that helps. If I had started a shawl instead, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have got this much done.
I did start something new, though.

Socks! It’s been a while, hasn’t it? I think my sock stash gets in the way of actually knitting socks. I open the box, look in and I’m immediately wracked by indecision. Which yarn? Which socks?
Who would ever have thought that there was such a thing as too much sock yarn?
But I finally made a decision. I needed something small, easy and portable for fill-in knitting. In the car, waiting for Em. To work on while Em has a singing lesson. Waiting at the doctors or whatever.
So I got out this gorgeous Fleece Artist sock yarn that a lovely lady named Alexis from Canada sent me in a swap ages ago. I have no idea what the colourway is called, but there is a “736” handwritten on the label. I love the colours. There’s pink, purple, and various shades of green.
I’m just doing a plain sock, with a “Little Shell Insertion” on each side that I got from the “365 Knitting Stitches a Year” calendar.
Easy to remember, but enough to keep me amused.
The sewing is ongoing, but the end is in sight. Last night I was getting some more done, and David took a picture of Twinkie’s preferred position to keep me company while I’m sewing.

Well, in the interest of full disclosure, this is my preferred position for her. She prefers to sit on my feet, which makes treadling kinda hard.

You all probably don’t know yourselves with all the posting going on around here lately.
To balance out the crappiness of discovering that Cece needed to be ripped, I had a most excellent day today.
First thing, I headed out for errands, and there was a parcel for me from the USA. More on that later. Gloria Jeans has just opened at the local shopping centre, so I started the day with a Caramelatte and warm Banana Bread. Best way to start the day. Probably not so good for my hips, but you deserve to splash out every now and then, don’t you?
I got home, hung the laundry with Twinkie sitting on my feet (no easy task) and did a bit of sewing, then headed out for some grocery shopping. I wore my Zhivago lacy cardi for the first time ever. (It’s been too cold up until now). I was at the bakery, and the lady asked me if my cardi was hand knitted. I answered “Yes”, and she asked “Did you knit it yourself? It’s beautiful!” (Nora, are you paying attention??)
I was feeling pretty good about then, so I came home and did a little knitting on Cece.

I’m just going to pretend all the knitting in the last couple of weeks never happened, and this is the first time I’ve cast on. Leave me with my delusions. Please. At least I know I’m smaller than I thought I was.
First though, I knit a dishcloth. Just to make myself feel good. It knit up quick and it doesn’t matter whether it fits or not.

The colour in this picture couldn’t be more wrong. The cloth is actually this colour.

Then, this afternoon, it was out with the old,

And in with the new.

How new?

It’s going to take some getting used to, but I love it. On the way home, there was a gorgeous sunset.

As I said, an excellent day.
Oh, and the package?

Know what I’m doing tonight?