Well, I have spent the best part of the past two days in tutu hell. At midnight last night I sat down to knit 2 rows of the shawl, simply because I hadn’t knit a stitch all day. This is what it is like trying to get the damn thing under the sewing machine.

On Thursday night I made a bodice from scrap fabric. Yesterday morning, I tried it on Em, and made all the necessary adjustments, then for the best part of yesteray and last night, I made the real bodice and basque, then pinned the basque to the skirt.
This morning I sat down and tried to sew the basque to the skirt by machine.
I swore, I threw a tantrum, I kicked the tutu across the room. The piece of shit would not go under the machine foot. There was simply too much fabric. The feed dog was jamming, and the fabric wouldn’t feed properly. Then the machine wouldn’t run. I found out that was because Twinkie has chewed her way through this stinking cord as well. This is the second sewing machine cord she has massacred. However, I just taped it up and went on. But I had to give it up. It simply would not go under the machine.
So I hand sewed it.
Yes, I hand sewed the entire basque to the skirt. It took three hours. But it’s done.

(pic is clickable)
Well, the worst parts are done. It still needs to be flattened (also by hand) and decorated. (Yep, by hand).
But no more wrestling fabric under the machine. My arms are aching from holding it all out of the way and constantly reaching over it.
In not-so-breaking news, Twinkie has a fat face.

And just to show you all how pretty Fuzzy is when he isn’t dripping wet,

He also has a fat face 🙂
Marti sent me a lovely gift, which arrived yesterday, pics tomorrow.
I’m not finishing the tutu tonight. In fact I don’t think I want to look at it again for at least a week!

I got mail! Christmas parcels. This is great fun, it’s making Christmas last forever 🙂
My friend Jill, who is now blogless, sent me this lovely package.

Pink Opal Magic, Purple Opal Mosaic, my beloved magazines, two gauge-o-knits, one in imperial and one in metric, a little bead container and tape measures! Here’s a close up of the tape measures.

And they have cute little tabs.

I love funky tape measures!
Cathy sent me a gift, too. Yummy chocolates!

Both DH and Emily are home on holiday, so in no time at all, the chocolates looked like this.

Second day in a row that I’ve blown my New Years’ Diet. But I enjoyed it!
And there was more sock yarn.

Isn’t it pretty? It’s Knitpicks Sock Memories in “Easter”. Em went in raptures as soon as I opened it, and wants socks for herself from it. We’ll see!
A little knitting last night, but for the most part I finished off a little bag for myself. This is going to hold my sock knitting.

This pic doesn’t do the beading justice, so here’s some close ups of the details.



I’m getting a bit tired of sewing now, so it’s back to the shawl again. Which I’m also getting a bit tired of!

Well, I’ve been upgraded to Moveable Type 3.2 in an effort to defeat the spammers. This particular war may never be won.
However, so far I quite like it. I’ve had a bit of a peek around, and the control menu looks pretty spiffy. I use Firefox for my browser, and some of the buttons from Moveable Type 2.661 didn’t work, forcing me to learn some basic HTML, but in 3.2, I can see them all in Firefox. Hoo-freakin-ray!
Now, seeing as this is purported to be a knitting blog, I guess we’re overdue for some knitting updates, huh?
The shawl, she is growing. Albeit, slowly.

There’s around 560 stitches now, so the rows are taking far too long for the shawl to grow to my satisfaction. I’ve said it before, shawls make boring blogging. Here’s what the pattern bit looks like now, close up.

I have also been working on DH’s Trekking XXL socks.

They’re not going very quickly either, are they?
I’m sure that it really is quicker to knit two socks at once on two circs, but it doesn’t much feel like it. I’m using Inox US0’s (2mm), and they feel smaller than my DPNS. Which they’re not. However, at the end, I’m sure I will be glad to have both socks done, and that it is quicker than doing them one at a time on DPNS.
But at this stage, I think I prefer my DPNS. Old habits die hard.
DH is apparently on holidays from work, but yesterday he had to go in and take care of something that the office monkeys can’t be trusted with, so Em and I tagged along, and window shopped in the city ehilst he took care of business. I knit on the socks most of the way there and back on the train, but still didn’t seem to get much done.
When DH was done, we went to The Crepe Cafe for lunch.
Em had a Carnivale crepe. (Strawberries, Bananas, icing sugar, chocolate, icecream and cream)

DH and I had Original Crepes. (Strawberries, liquer, icing sugar, cream and icecream).

Yum. January 3, and I had already blown my New Year’s Diet. It was fun, though 😉
And today, Em and I baked a banana cake.

See, I can cook when I want to! And it was from scratch, not a packet mix. Although DH did the frosting, I was bored with cooking by then.
Twinkie thought it would be a good idea to hide if I were cooking.

And who could blame her? 😉
That, by the way is the Gum tree that was cut down a year ago. The real estate has done nothing about getting rid of the stump, and the tree is doing it’s best to come back. It’s becoming Twinkie’s favourite hiding spot.
I got mail today, check back tomorrow to see what!
Hmm, I’m liking Moveable Type 3.2.

It was 24C here today! Can I get a hallelujah??
According to the news, yesterday was the hottest day in Sydney in 67 years. If we don’t have those temperatures for another 67 years, I’ll be more than happy.
So did I knit?
No. I tutu-ed.

I uploaded both pics, because neither one is right. It’s closer to the dark pic than the light one, but it isn’t quite that dark. However, the important bit is that all the tulle is now attached. I wish that were it, but I still have to make the bodice and basque, get it all together, sew in some kind of fastener, and flatten and decorate the damn thing.
But I’m glad all that tulle is done!
As I mentioned yesterday, it was hot. The person who seemed to suffer the most was our budgie, Fuzzy. At about 5pm, he was really distressed. He was on the bottom of his cage, panting with his wings spread out. I was really worried about him. So we got out a water spray bottle, filled it with cool water, then sprayed him down with it all afternoon. He spread his wings out and just sat there, letting us wet him until he was waterlogged.

I don’t think he could have been wetter if we’d dumped a bucket of water over him. I’m pleased to say that he is doing much better today.
Now I’m going to go knit.

It’s kinda hot today,so we went to see Narnia, so we could sit in the air conditioning.
We have to drive past a local club to get to the cinema.
This is what their time/temperature board said at 11.01am, on our way there.

This is what it said an hour or so ago, on our way home.

(42C = 107F, 48C = 118F)
Send snow.