Busy busy busy

Busy like a beaver. But not much I can show for it. I ordered some Zara in pink from STYK, and thanks to Janette's super service, it was here Monday morning.

But it's another secret project, and I can't say what it's going to be. Well, I should say what it is, because it's done, and it's blocking right now. Here's a hint.

I can't say I'm entirely happy with the project, because it's come out much larger than I'd hoped, but I hope the recipient likes it. I'm done with my secret knitting now, so hopefully I'm going to have blogworthy stuff! The secret projects will be revealed in good time.

I have also been working on Buttercup, and despite the fact that I don't normally like working with cotton, I'm really enjoying this project.

I've made some good progress on the back. It's a fun knit, just a seven row repeat, which isn't' nearly as difficult as it looks, although a few rows back, I left out one row and had to frog back, but I just wasn't paying attention.

And I picked up a long neglected project, although I haven't given it nearly enough attention.

The Shetland Shawl has been brought out of hibernation. I have plans to enter it into the Sydney royal Easter Show, but I figure I'd better finish it first.

Thank you to everyone for your continued good wishes for the recovery of my foot. I'm still not wearing decent shoes, there's still some bruising going on, and I'm still hobbling, but it is improving.

As to whether Twinkie is repentant.

Does she look like it? Her only concern is her belly!

Monday, Monday

Where do the weekends go?

I have another finished project! Flicker is finished!

I knit it almost twice, but I'm pretty happy with it. Bathroom mirror shots coming up.

The hat was purchased as a kit from Kim Hargreaves, here. It wasn't a difficult pattern, I just can't seem to learn to swatch.

I used 3.5mm needles in the end, the yarn is Rowan Wool Cotton in "Misty". This is the first time I've used Wool Cotton, but I think I'll be using it again, it's a really nice yarn. Not at all stiff like some cottons, it feels much more like wool. It stood up to the frogging very well indeed.
And here's what was supposed to be a shot of the back of the hat. Not an easy picture to take!

I'm not usually a hat wearer, but I'll wear this one.

I also finished the top secret project, but I can't show you that one just yet. And I started another secret one!

I also started a new scarf for Em. Just because she doesn't wear any of the others that I've knit for her. I'm a sucker.
I started it a few weeks back actually, but it wasn't going well.
She wanted a pink and white scarf, and I wanted to do it in a chevron pattern. I flicked through my beloved Barbara Walker treasuries, and came up with this.

I was pretty happy with this, but I didn't like the back.

So I tossed it aside until this weekend, when I came across the perfect scarf in Scarf Style, ZigZag stripes.

But now I don't think I'm going to have enough yarn!

For the Twinkie fans, here's her new trick.

To get a "kiss" from a bunny, hold a grape between your lips!

24 days until we leave for the USA. I'm not sure if I'm more anxious or excited. I've already had bad dreams about the flight!

Finished Project Friday

Well, I've finished Nicole. Finally. But I have to say I'm not 100% happy with it.

Please excuse the very bad hair day.

It's a nice top, and I love the Cathay, but I'm not sure about it. I don't think I'd wear it out in public the way it is. (And what does it say about me that I'm saying I won't wear it out in public, but I'll put it up here, on the internet for potentially thousands of people to see?)

The lacy bit on the front is possibly a little bit too lacy to be worn on it's own. And it's not my style to wear it over another top. It's not uneven at the bottom the way this picture would suggest, btw.
And I think I would definitely need to button it up all the way to the bottom. I'll leave the navel baring to Em, who has a nice flat tummy, thankyouverymuch.

So, I'm undecided. And I think that's why I haven't been in a hurry to finish it. I'll have to think on it a little longer.

I did start something else.

It's my Buttercup shrug by Kim Hargreaves! (Why do I keep calling it Butterfly?) All is going well so far. Let's hope it stays that way.

And something else may have been resurrected from the WIP pile....

I wish I'd been knitting..

I'd like to say that I've been absent because I've been sitting with my foot up, knitting.

But I'd be lying, I'm afraid. I've been flat out.

Ailsa's birthday party was wonderful. Great food, great people, great atmosphere.

Too many drunken pictures, but here's one of Ailsa and her hubby.

Most of the others on my camera are blurry or too dark. No idea why, it certainly wasn't the ridiculous amounts of alcohol that were imbibed!

For Rose Red, even though today isn't Shoesday, here's a picture of the one shoe that I wore to the party.

Nothing flash, just something not too high, comfortable, just nice black strappy shoes that can be worn anywhere. And yes, I wore the single shoe. As you can see, my toe is healing up nicely, apart from the pretty colours! (But I still can't get any decent shoes on my feet.

Em's mobile phone got pinched on Friday night, so most of Monday was spent trying to unlock an old mobile phone for her to use, and then she had dance photos Monday night. Yesterday, I did some long overdue housecleaning, then I finally sat down to knit.

I'd almost finished my Flicker hat over the weekend, before the grim realisation that it was just too big hit me. I tried to deny it, but Ailsa confirmed it for me on Sunday morning. So I ripped it out, and yesterday morning, I'd managed to get it back to here.

So no real progress there, but it's this close to finished now. And I finished something else, too. No pics yet, but this afternoon I wove in all the ends, and put the buttons on Nicole. I haven't even tried her on yet, but if all goes well, pictures at the weekend, I promise!

And my Ravelry t-shirt came.

Now I'm all news-d out!

Stupid Rabbit

So at lunch time today, I was walking from the kitchen into the lounge room. Twinkie decided to run between my legs and beat me to it.

I kicked my little toe on the nice solid wall unit. And cracked the bone.

It hurt.

A lot.

But at least it isn't broken.

Mind you, I just bought pretty new strappy shoes to wear to Ailsa's birthday party tomorrow night. At least I can wear one of them, I guess.

Stupid Rabbit.

In knitting news, I got tired of working on the Top Secret project, so I cast on for the first of the Kim Hargreaves kits.

It's the Flicker hat! Here's a close up of the beaded bit.

I'm really enjoying the Rowan Wool Cotton. It's a 50% Merino/50% Cotton blend, and it's nice and squishy. I am a little worried that I'm going to run short on beads, because some of them were just too small to fit on the yarn, but we'll see how we go.

Swanknitter has tagged me for another meme.

This is a reading one, and David and I got a really good laugh out of it.

"open the book you’re currently reading to page 161 and read the fifth sentence on the page, then think of 5 bloggers to tag."

I'm currently reading "Dreams Made Flesh" by Anne Bishop. Despite the sound of the title, it's not p*rn. But Page 161, sentence 5 is the start of a sex scene. It mentions part of male anatomy, and leather trousers, and.. oh, my.

Enough said!

I'm off to elevate my foot and knit. And maybe read a little!

Warm hands

Between finishing up all these costumes for Sunday's photos, and working on the super secret project, I still don't have much to blog about.

I do, however, have another FO to show you all.

David will have nice warm hands in New York.

Specs:
Yarn - Cascade 220, Turtle Heather (2452) from Yarns Online
Needles - 3.5mm dpns
Pattern - Basic Glove Pattern from Ann Budd's Knitters Handy Book of Patterns

This is a pattern I've used a few times, it never lets me down!

The actual gloves close up

The secret project continues, and all I can show you is this.

All will be revealed in good time!
My friend Tammy tagged me for a meme. I won't bore the anti-meme people, so if you want to read it, it's after the jump.

The sun came out!

So finally, after a week of rain, the sun came out yesterday. I woke up, spotted the blue sky and immediately dumped the Hemlock Blanket into the bath.

And now it's done.

I'm pretty happy with it, but not totally. Gauge shouldn't really matter on a blanket, but I think I'd have been happier if I'd used a bigger needle. It hasn't blocked out as nicely as I'd hoped it would.

I stretched it out as much as I could, but it needed to be stretched more to prevent the bubbling in the feather and fan sections. But the radial stitches between each feather and fan section are as tight as I could get them. I think a bigger needle would have made the blocking easier.

Apart from that issue, yes, I'm happy with it. The fancy cast off was a pain in the butt, but it's pretty!

And I love the centre flower.

And it's the perfect size for a lap rug.

Well, it will be when the weather cools down again. It only stayed there long enough for the picture to be taken!

I don't have much...

It's all a bit slow around here lately, with the sewing taking up all of my time. So lets do some odds and ends!

I have managed to work a bit on David's gloves, usually while watching late night TV.

I started the second one yesterday, while having a tea party at Lara's with Ailsa, and some other lovely knitters.

Ailsa was working on Jae's gorgeous Pretty as a Peacock shawl. She test knit the teal coloured one you can see at Jae's site, in sportweight, and now she's knitting one in Fuchsia zephyr lace weight, and it's gorgeous. It's definitely going on my to-do list. Not quite sure when it will reach the top! If you're interested, Ailsa has started a knitalong here.

Speaking of adding things to the queue, who has seen the new Knitty patterns? I love Oblique. Love it. I want to order yarn and start it now. Now, now, now.

But I'll behave, I have all those gorgeous Kim hargreaves designs to keep me busy.

And I really need to get back to the Shetland Shawl. And I have a top secret project that I need to get moving on. Or two!

Lets do a meme, it's been a while. This is from the Southern Summer of Socks Knitalong. (I need to start more socks!)

1. What’s your favorite sock yarn? (please note that the word “yarn” is singular. Just pick one. I know it’s hard.)

Just one? Louet Gems Fingering. I think.

2. What’s your favorite type and brand of sock needle?

Crystal Palace bamboo, 6" length, usually 2mm with fingering weight.

3. Do you knit your socks toe up, cuff down or sideways?

Cuff down. I started out doing them toe up, but I prefer cuff down. Even though I detest kitchener.

4. Do you knit both socks at once or just one at a time?

One at a time, thankyouverymuch.

5. What’s your favorite toe and why?

Standard toe, with decreases at the sides. I like the way they fit.

6. Favorite heel?

Standard flap heel, eye of partridge.

7. Do you prefer plain or patterned socks?

Patterned! In plain yarn right now. Subject to change, of course.

8. Who do you knit the most socks for?

Me!

9. Do you darn your socks? If not, what do you do with them?

Only like the Yarn Harlot. I hold them over the bin and say "darn!"

10. Do you only wear handknit socks?

Probably 90% of the time. DH wears his always. Well, unless I'm behind on the laundry. I really should knit him some more.

Bonus Question: What pattern, if any, is your basic “I-just-need-a-pair-of-socks” sock pattern based on? Do you keep it written down or memorized?

64 stitch, cuff down, stockinette stitch, eye of partridge heel. Memorised. Kinda. I've been known to wing it! And I always need to check how to do kitchener.

Puttering along

Friday night and Saturday night I sat, and I knit. We had the dance comp Saturday afternoon and Sunday, but I knit my little fingers to the bone for the rest of the weekend.

And progress was made! Nicole grew in a satisfying manner.

And I started David's gloves, and made excellent progress on those, too.

The yarn is Cascade 220 Heathers, in Turtle Heather from Yarns Online, and I'm using Ann Budd's "Knitters Handy book of Patterns".

And I was really glad that these projects are moving along so well, because today I got mail!

David saw the boxes this afternoon, and said "Mmmm, cake!" No, dear. Better.

Knitting kits from Kim Hargreaves. Opening these boxes is like having Christmas morning!
Box number one.

Isn't it pretty?!? And inside the first layer,

Two balls of Rowan Wool Cotton in Misty for the Flicker hat, and a little bag of beads. And sharing this box,

Six balls of Rowan 4ply Cotton for Buttercup, and the glass buttons. And beautiful patterns printed on lightweight card.

And in box number 2,

More beautiful wrapping, and ensconced within,

Eight balls of RYC 4ply Cashsoft for Evie.

Three gorgeous kits, because I'm greedy. (And there's another on the way!)

So, I had all these wonderful plans. I was going to finish Nicole and the gloves, and dive into those gorgeous boxes.
But all the best laid plans go awry, don't they?

It's dress rehearsal week at the dance studio this week. All my sewing is done, I finished the last bits and pieces last week and was feeling very proud of myself.

This afternoon I got a call from a distraught mother. The woman doing her sewing has botched her costumes. All of them. Delivered them at the last minute, and they're atrocious. How could I say no?

See Donna chained to the sewing machine again?

But here's a warm fuzzy thought.

This is the warmest, softest, snuggliest part of Twinkie. It always makes me feel better.

Stop the world I want to get off!

Slow down!

Right now, everything, slow down, or I'm going to have a freakin' temper tantrum. Or something.

I'm having one of those weeks, where everyone I have any contact with seems to want something from me, where my list of tasks awaiting my attention just gets longer and longer, no matter how much I do, and nothing is coming out the way I expect.

I'm just having one of those weeks.

And to top it all off today we've reached our broadband limit and our speed has been throttled. I'm surfing the internet in slow motion. And I don't like it!

Not a lot of knitting has been achieved this week. I did finally finish the Stupid Slinky Socks last Friday. I've been waiting to get a picture of the Empress wearing them, but it just hasn't happened. (Back to that flat out thing). So I gave up and took a picture on the sock blockers.

They're fraternal twins, and I'm just glad that they're finished. The first one was done on two circs, which I detested. I had trouble with the foot length, the toe and the afterthought heel.
The second one went much more smoothly, thankfully!

Specs
Pattern: Slinky Socks by Rae Blackledge, from MagKnits.
Needles: 2mm. Two circs on the first sock, dpns on the second. Different gauge for each method!
Yarn: Four Seasons Hot Socks, with KnitPicks Essential for the toes and the heels.

And now they're done, I'm over them.

I did manage to finish the Hemlock Ring Blanket. It took 4 hours to cast off, all of which was done during Em's dance lessons. But it isn't very attractive yet.

Yet to be blocked. The only space I have big enough to block it is my bed. And it's so thick and heavy, I'm going to have to wait for a nice hot, dry day. Today it rained, so no blocking.

Apart from that, all I've managed all week is one repeat (8 rows) of Nicole. So now I'm heading to my sofa, where I'm going to spend the rest of the night, with my feet up and Nicole in my lap!