It's my birthday!!

Today, no food has points. I'm gonna eat cake and icecream and all sorts of things I shouldn't. And I'm going to enjoy every morsel!

My lovely family gave me some beautiful gifts. There's another candle sconce that I'll show you after I hang it, and a Pandora bracelet, which I've been wanting for ages.

Along with a bear charm from Sharon and a kitty (that looks like a rabbit to me), from the sneaky Donni.
My best friend for the last 22 (!) years, Megan, took me out for coffee this morning, which was lovely, and there were lots of other knitterly gifts, yummy bath things, chocolate and birthday wishes too, thank you everyone! :)

You all know just how to make a girl feel good.

My family are taking me out to dinner tonight, and I'm going to eat whatever I want, with no guilt whatsoever!

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.

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!

Well, I am pleased to let you all know that the first ball went further than I thought it would. I sat and knitted, wanting to finish up the ball, and see just how far it went.
It went on and on and on and on. All the way to the end of row 59 of the border.

There are 90 rows in the border, and they are decreasing in length. That's good news. Here's what the shawl currently looks like. (This is roughly one repeat.)

Looking pretty good, huh?
The bad news is that I definitely do not have enough yarn. Well, according to my rather sad mathematical skill. There are around 200,000 stitches in the entire shawl, and I've done around 27,000. I think I need around 7 and a half balls, and I have six.

When I ordered the yarn, around two years ago, I got it pretty cheap becasue it was advertised on the Jamieson & Smith website as a discontinued colour. But the ballband just says "White".
So I called them up and ordered two more balls of white. Let's hope it's a half decent match. If not, I think I'll finish the shawl and throw the whole lot into the dyepot.
I've changed from my Inox needle to a KnitPicks circular needle that I ordered from Donni. (BTW, it's Donni's brthday tomorrow, pop on over and wish her a Happy one!)
I love this needle! I'm not finding it too slippery at all, the cord is fantastically flexible and the join is nice and smooth. I've also ordered an Addi lace needle from the US for comparison purposes, but taking into consideration how much more expensive the Addi is, it'd have to be really good to be any comparison.

I've been working on my other projects, too. The Sirdar cardi is growing, but I'll save that for another day. The Opal sock is growing too.

I'm really liking this pattern with this yarn. (It's the Garter Rib pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks)

Twinkie's feeling undignified.

No wonder she hates to be picked up!