Saturday sky, just a little bit late.

Saturday afternoon, at Stitch n Bitch.

Saturday evening, on the way home.
Stitch n Bitch was great fun, again, it’s always so good to catch up with everyone and to see what everyone is working on. The local paper did indeed come along, and there were pictures taken of the Shetland Shawl. If it’s published, I’ll try to get a copy.
Not very much knitting happened, as per usual, although the baby cardi is coming along nicely now.

One front done. The pattern called for the shoulders to be cast off and then seamed, but I prefer to use a three needle bind off, purely for lazy reasons!
A little while back, Yarn Magazine had a Borders promotion, where they wanted to see pictures of the magazine instore at Borders.I sent along a picture from my local store, and my prize arrived on Friday. Look at my yummies!

A set of 5.5mm Brittany Birch DPNS, 2 balls of Rooster Almerino Aran in Strawberry Cream and 2 balls of Dale of Norway Ara, in variegated blue. Thanks, guys!
I caught up on some of my sewing.

Twinkie still has a thing for tutus.

Stitch n Bitch meeting tomorrow, and apparently the local paper are coming along to do a piece about our group.
What am I going to wear?!?
Knitting updates!
The Shetland shawl is inching along.

The first repeat of the centre pattern is done. Here’s a close up.

Each row right now only has 183 stitches, so it moves along quite quickly, when I have tome to sit down and work on it.
In the top photo, you can see the slight colour difference between the balls. It’s right along the row of eyelets. The close up doesn’t show it as much.
I’ve been working on the baby cardi, too. See?

What do you mean it looks exactly the same? Can’t you see the progress?
Can’t you see that my gauge was off, I was all the way up to the armholes and I had to frog it and start again, and that I’ve gotten this far?
I was not a happy knitter. And I even did a gauge swatch, I swear.
Knitting time is being sucked away as we’re heading back into costume sewing season. My shadow prefers sewing season to knitting season, because when I’m sewing I get down on the floor with her, and she can supervise my work.

And like any workplace, work is slowed down immensely due to management meddling!

Tuesday already?
The weekend flew by with the dancing event on. Saturday night, Emily danced until 10.30 or so, we got home at about 11.30pm. Sunday night, she danced until 11.30pm, and we got home at 12.15am on Monday morning.
Needless to say, everybody was on the tired side yesterday.
She wore her newest costume on Saturday night. (The one I was working on a few weeks back)

She won that section! In fact, she competed ten dances on Saturday night, and won five. She placed second in another, and third in yet another.
Here’s Saturday’s haul.

We headed back on Sunday night for the two big sections. Now that she’s 14 she has to compete in the Senior sections. She was a little nervous about it.

She needn’t have been, she came second in one of them, and first in the other.
She collects trophies the way I collect yarn!
A little bit of knitting happened along the way, but not much.
Rose Red started her sockapalooza socks last week in The Knittery’s Cashmere Merino sock yarn. That reminded me that I’d started a sock in the very same colourway, so I went and hunted down the sock in progress.
The sock I’d started was a pattern of my own design, but I wasn’t enjoying it, which is probably why it got tossed aside.
After contemplating the yarn for a while, I decided that it wanted to be the Lupine Lace Socks from Fiber Trends. (I got the pattern from The Wool Inn in Penrith for $AU6).
I haven’t gotten very far yet!

I’m knitting them on my Celtic Forge sterling silver 2mm DPNS. Cashmere on Sterling Silver. This is the life!
I also started a baby cardigan.

I feel quite safe popping it up here, even though it’s a gift. I know quite a few expectant mums, and at least 3 of them read this blog, so none of you know if it’s for you!
That is the entirety of the knittng acheived since Saturday morning. I did sit down to work on the Shetland Shawl last night, but my head was aching, and I was so tired that I knew I would stuff it up, so I put it aside.
A few days back, Librarylass tagged me for the seven random things meme. I’ve spent a few days thinking about it.
1. I am a baby about the cold. Despite the fact that we have relatively mild winters here in Sydney, I sleep with a hot water bottle. Last night was the first time I’ve used it this year. It has a fuzzy cover, and I dreamed last night that I was cuddling puppies.
2. I’m relatively shy, and although I love to meet people, I’m not good at meeting new people in the flesh. Despite that, I flew alone interstate to meet David (and others) for the first time at a Usenet meet.
3. I’m a lousy housekeeper. Really lousy. But I get stressed if the house is a mess. Therefore, I’m stressed a lot.
4. I love to eat, I love to read cookbooks and cooking magazines, but I hate to cook. I can make a pretty good banana cake and anzac biscuits though.
5. Every report card I brought home from school in High School said “Donna talks too much and is easily distracted”. Some things never change.
6. I’m one of five kids. I was the eldest until my mother died and I went to live my Dad and my stepmother when I was 8. Now I’m the second eldest. I have two sisters and two brothers.
7. I’ll be 36 in 9 days.

I’m feeling a little despondent today. All of my local knitting buddies are at Knitting Camp.
I couldn’t make it, Em has a big dance thing on this afternoon and tomorrow. So I’m stting here feeling sorry for myself. To try to cheer myself up, I’ve been not-shopping.
Internet surfing, finding things I like and want, and putting them into my basket, then not finalising the order, because I really shouldn’t be spending so much money.
Besides, I was buying yarn for socks and lace, and I have plenty of both in the stash. Of course, that’s never stopped me before.
I didn’t buy:
3 balls of Kidsilk Night in Starry Night or Ballerina for the Pink Puzzle Wrap. I have the pattern, not the yarn. The pattern is gorgeous though, totally droolworthy! The sparkle in Kidsilk night is doing me in.
I also didn’t buy Socks that Rock in Lovers Leap, Mustang Sally or Lemongrass.
I didn’t buy Colourmart Silk laceweight in dark red for the Dragone shawl.
I didn’t buy any Louet Gems Pearl in any colour, no matter how tempting.
And I didn’t buy any KnitPicks Gloss in Black, Burgundy or Dusk, but it wouldn’t matter if I had’ve, because Knitpicks don’t think I’m good enough to buy their yarn.
I also didn’t buy Cables Untangled, tempting though it was.
There was more, I’m ashamed to admit. Lots more.
I don’t need yarn. I shouldn’t spend the money. Doesn’t stop me wanting it, though!
In happier news, it’s a sunny Saturday in Sydney again!

And I finished the Prisma Garter Rib socks.

They fit, he likes them.
Specs:
Yarn – Opal Prisma in 1194
Needles – 2mm
Pattern – Garter Rib socks from Sensational Knitted Socks.
Super easy pattern, and it’s fun to find something different that works well with a self striping yarn.
Oh, look!
Hat and socks together!

It’ll take his back a week to recover from that!

I am so proud of myself that I need to open with a little bit of boasting.
See what I got today?

A gold star from Weight Watchers. That means that I’ve lost 10% of my original body weight.
Yay me!!
Okay, boast over.
The cobweb has landed. It could be worse.

The new one is the one on the left. It’s lighter and whiter than the original yarn. Not to be deterred, I began the centre square with it. It’s not hugely obvious, especially in the photos, but it’s definitely different.

In case you really can’t see it, I’ve marked it here.

I’ll try to reserve final judgement until it’s finished, but I’m pretty sure it’s going to be dyed to cover the difference. I am a little disappointed. Although I’m not a huge traditionalist, I had really wanted this one to be white, or off white.
It all depends how it looks when it’s done.