I’ve been working on the shawl again.

I really should finish the test pattern on the swatch, but I screwed up the maths, and the chart needs tweaking. I couldn’t be bothered playing with it right now, so I decided to go back to the shawl, and knit up to the bit that I know is right. It’s growing very slowly, but there is only about 6 more rows before the next pattern shift.
Em was supposed to be cleaning her room yesterday, but seemed to be spedning a lot more time stuffing about. She found every hat I’ve ever knit her, put them all on and took a picture of herself. This is what I found on the camera this morning.


She’s a dork.
She complains about having nothing to do, but funnily enough, if I give her a job, she finds a million creative ways to avoid it!

Hey, guess what? I do knit!
I finally finished the Never Ending Knee Highs.

Obviously, she didn’t pull them up very well, but they’re done. They really felt like they took forever. I don’t think I’ll volunteer to do plain knee highs again in a hurry. They’re made with Lorna’s Lace’s Girly Stripe, knit on size 0 (2mm) rosewood DPNS.
And of course, it’s far too hot to wear knee highs (or any wool socks) right now.
Next, I plan to learn 2 socks on 2 circs, but I think I’ll be concentrating on the shawl right now. The chart is causing me some grief, my math skills are more than a little rusty it seems.
Guess who I saw while out and about?

Sorry for the crappy picture, I took it on my phone. See Santa on the escalator? It just tickled me to see Santa wandering about the shops all by himself. Looking for last minute bargains perhaps?
Happy Weekend!

Three days since the last post, and not enough knitting time in those three days!
I’ve been finishing a few crafty christmas endeavours, and running around like a chook wth it’s head cut off.
The Ballet was absolutely beautiful on Tuesday. It was the Australian Ballet, performing The Sleeping Beauty at the Sydney Opera House. We had great seats, and the performance was wonderful. Of course, the camera remained in my bag all night. I should have taken some Opera House and Sydney Harbour at night pics!
The mailman has been very good to me 🙂
Gifts from the tribe arrived, all lovely!

Polar Bears and Christmas items galore! Thank you, Annie, Jus and Shannon.
BTW, I have two sisters and two brothers. When we were children, I always remember Dad calling us the tribe, and signing Christmas cards “and the tribe”.
And to finish off today, here is my idea of male beefcake.

Man in kitchen, baking fruitcake. Anything will do, but it’s fruitcake this time.

I think I am pretty much finished with my christmas shopping. Apart from a television, which is what my sisters and I are getting my mum. But of course, they’re arguing about which one would be better. I’ve thrown up my hands now, and told them just to tell me how much to give them.
Em’s concert went very well, but I only took a couple of pictures, and they came out blurry. I spend the whole concert running around like a mad woman! Em’s dance teacher gave me a gift to thank me for the sewing and stuff I did.

A polar bear snow globe!!
So there has been knitting going on. Finally! I’ve proceeded on the swatch, which is really just a test pattern for the shawl.

And apart from that, I’ve been busy doing this.

Charting the next bit of the pattern. There is more maths involved than I like 😉
However, I think I’ve got it, so we’ll soon see. It certainly takes longer than I thought it would.
We’re off to the Sydney Opera House tonight, to see the Australian Ballet perform Sleeping Beauty. Em’s excited, and I’m looking forwad to it, too!

Busy, busy, busy. Unfortunately, I’m not very busy knitting. Some has been happening.
Here’s the swatch (for lack of a better word) for the shawl.

I’ve just run out of green sock yarn, so it’s going to be continued in white acrylic baby yarn. I’ve done the shawl as far as the swatch.

I haven’t decided where to go next with the pattern yet. Em’s dance concert is tomorrow, after that I’ll hopefully get some life again. Yeah, who am I kidding?
Our lino is laid!

I should’ve taken a picture of the old crap to show you what a vast improvement it is! For a start, there’s no holes in it, and no bunny chewed edges.
Twinkie isn’t so happy with the new stuff, but she’s starting to lay on it now.

Still life Lino with Rabbit.
And the Christmas preparations have finally begun at Casa Del Random.
Em put up our tree today.

We actually have a beautiful 7 foot tall tree, but the house is too small, and we have nowhere to put it, so we have this little 4 foot one that fits on top of the table.
And DH started soaking fruit for Christmas cake!

Because I’m too impatient to wait, he baked me a Dundee cake.

I love a man who bakes!