Okay, lets talk about the super quick sneaky project I did last week.
I try to have only three projects on the go at a time. A sock, a lace project and one other. Right now, that’s the Prisma socks, the Shetland Shawl and the Sirdar cardi.
But last week I got a burst of startitis, and I had to start something. More precisely, probably, is that I wanted to finish something. I needed to do something different.
I should have gone and found a quick project in the stash, but I didn’t. I went to Ozeyarn and ordered some yarn. Four balls. Enough for a hat for David, and a hat for me.
I ordered the yarn late Tuesday, and it was here Thursday morning, just in time for a day at Ailsa’s. I got Jo Sharp Silkroad Ultra in Nero (black) for the Reversable hat in Jo Sharp’s Knit 3.

Chunky yarn, easy pattern, 6mm needles, started Thursday at Ailsa’s, ripped it out after an hour or so, restarted it and finished it Thursday night.
Side one.

Side Two.

It’s just a basic broken rib pattern. I got quite a bit done while chatting away, then decided I didn’t like the pattern as it was written. For some reason, all the Jo Sharp hat pattern’s I’ve ever knit have been designed to be knit flat. Personally, I think it’s far easier to knit them in the round and not have to seam them. So I knit it in the round. Otherwise, it’s exactly to the pattern.
I highly recommended the pattern and I love this yarn. In fact, I love all the Silkroad yarns. I love the way they knit up, and I love the way they feel.
David is happy with it. I was trying to wait and get a picture of him wearing it, but I forgot all weekend, and through the week I don’t see him in natural light. So you get a picture of it on my head.

Lucky you!
Personally, I hate beanies for myself. I don’t think it looks too bad in this pic, but usually I look like a complete dick in a beanie.
So for myself I chose the Tweed Beret from Knit 3. I’ve never worn a beret, but I liked it.

One thing I’ll mention about the Silkroad Tweed yarns is that it’s really, really hard to pick the colours from a computer monitor. I ended up getting the Silkroad Aran Tweed in Potpourri. I was aiming for a dark grey tweed, but it’s an odd sort of a colour. It’s a very dark purplish shade, with lots of different colours in the tweedy bits.
I’ve started it.

The nice ladies at Ozeyarn sent me a sample card for the Silkroad Ara Tweed so I can pick the colours better for next time, but it’s growing on me.
I also highly recommend Ozeyarn! Fantastic prices and service. I get all my Jo Sharp from there, or from The Wool Inn at Penrith.
I did finish the sleeves on the Sirdar cardi, so it’s just awaiting seaming now. I’ll get to it.
Sooner or later.
I had visitors this morning.



Two rainbow lorikeets clinging to the window sill, tapping on the glass and peering in at me.
Personally, I think they’ve heard on the grapevine how well fed animals are in this house, and wanted to take advantage of the hospitality!

I promised knitting updates yesterday, and I didn’t give them. I’m sorry. I was busy.
Cleaning Em’s room.
For seven hours.
With help from David. We actually had to take the mattress off of her bed and remove the slats so that I could get to all the crap she’d stashed under the bed.
Seven hours, people. I kid you not. I took her to dancing at 2, and came home to tackle the mess. We finished at 9.15pm.

That was around an hour in, after all the dirty clothes had been removed. You can’t see the stuff that’s been moved out to the hall so there’s room to move.
It is now clean. For a while, I doubted it would ever happen.
Onto knitting news.
The Shetland Shawl is stalled, but the first border is done.

I’m ready to start the centre square. So what I’ve decided is that if the two extra balls of cobweb yarn are a reasonable match, I’m going to use them for the centre square, and use the balls I have for the borders. So I’m waiting for the cobweb to arrive.
The Sirdar cardi is powering along, the fronts and the back are done, and I’m working on the sleeves.

I’m sure it’ll be at the finish line soon.
And my current sock project, the Prisma socks are also coming along nicely.

These are for David, and are my portable knitting. Also heading for the finish line, then I have to decide which sock project comes next.
A big stash is not always a good thing, sometimes there’s just too much to choose from!
There was also a sneaky project this week, but more on that next time, after I get another picture.
A side effect of cleaning Em’s room was the four loads of laundry that appeared. I ran out of clothesline space, and the airer had to be pressed into service.

Someone thought it was fun.
Happy Mothers’ Day to all! I got some lovely gifts, breakfast in bed, and a generally lazy day (apart from the laundry!). Although, after yesterday’s epic, I think I deserved it!

I’ve got Bloomin’ Feet!

A package with chocolate, coffee, icelandic yarn and a wonderful pair of socks, designed by my pal herself.
They fit perfectly.


They’re made from Socks That Rock, and it’s gorgeous! Not available in Australia, though I do have a skein of it in the stash. Maybe I need to pull it out and knit with it!
The socks are perfectly timed too, it’s just starting to get cold here, as a matter of fact, I’m wearing them right now.
I sent my package to Madame Purl. This was a fun swap, many, many thanks to Amanda for organising it.
Obviously, despite the fact that she weighs 4.5kg (10lb!), Twinkie thinks she’s not well fed. She decided that she would like an apple, thankyouverymuch.
She was caught in the act.

The damage.

Knitting updates tomorrow!

The shawl doesn’t look like there’s much going on, but there is, I swear!

Row 77 of the edging. Only 15 edging rows to go, then 5 rows before the center square.
Then 3 more borders. Ouch.
In other news, my Addi Lace needle arived today. I got it from the USA, because as far as I know, they’re not available in Australia yet. With postage, it came out to around $AU21 for the needle.
As soon as I got home, I knit my shawl onto it from the Knitpicks options needle. (Available in Australia from Donni, for $AU9.70).
Both of my needles are 2.5mm (US1), and are 80cm long. The Addi is the gold needle, the Knitpicks is the silver.
First off, the tips.

The Knitpicks are a little pointier than the Addis. Not a whole lot, but for cobweb yarn, the pointier needle does make a difference for stitches like K2tog.
The needle part itself is fractionally longer in the Knitpicks than the Addi, but not enough that you actually notice the difference.

The point does taper a little more in the Knitpicks, too.
I didn’t take a picture of the cables, but both cables are nice and flexible. Whilst knitting, they’re much the same, but if you’re playing with them, the Knitpicks cable is a bit more flexible.

However, the Addi needle is lighter than the Knitpicks needle.
The Knitpicks needle is more slippery than the Addi. The Shetland cobweb yarn is a “sticky” yarn, so it doesn’t make much difference to me, but if I was using Alpaca or something similar, I’d probably go for the Addi.
Overall? I like the pointier tip of the Knitpicks, but I like the lightness of the Addi. If I was using slippery yarn, I’d like the surface of the Addi, but with the yarn I’m using, the Knitpicks is fine.
Taking the price into consideration, I could buy two Knitpicks needles for the cost of one Addi Lace needle.
I’d stick with the Knitpicks needle overall, I think. Unless I was using slippery yarn. That said, I love them both, and I’ll probably end up with a full set of both.

Sunny Saturday Sky in Splendiferous Sydney.

It’s been gorgeous. The weather started turning cold a few weeks back, but it’s warming up again. Winter may never come!
Twinkie wanted someone to come out and play.

She’ll sit at the back door like this, looking in until someone gets the guilts and goes outside to play with her.
Emily was busy tying herself in knots.

Knitting. The sirdar cardi is coming along beautifully. The back is done and I’ve started the fronts.

As usual, I’m knitting both at the same time. You may notice that I’ve changed the shape of the fronts. The original pattern had bolero style shaping on the fronts, but I decided I wanted a more traditional shaping, so I pulled out the pencil andpaper and rewrote the pattern to suit myself.
This is one of the reasons I knit both at the same time. I tend to make changes as I go, and forget to write the changes down. If I knit them both together, they actually stand a chance of being the same!
So I have my usual three projects going, socks lace and something else. Faina isn’t being counted, she’s still in time out, but I think she’s headed for the frogpond.
But i’m itching to cast on something else. I’m trying to finish the cardi so I can!