Yesterday, I took pictures - not great ones, because the light was behind me, but Em had fun making sure she got into every one!

Unfortunately, since Friday my knitting has slowed down. The hood is progressing, but at a much more leisurely rate!

I started something new.

I bought the pattern for Rogue about six years ago. I figure it's been aging nicely in the stash and is probably about ready to hit the needles. The yarn I'm using is Nundle Woollen Mills 8ply. It's marketed as an 8ply, but every time I've used, I've knit it at 18 sts/4" and been happy with the drape and density. Knit at 22sts/4", I find it a bit tight.
So far, it's all coming along swimmingly!
The impetus for casting this hoodie on was the booking of the Bendigo trip for Ailsa and I. Yes, we're Bendi bound! Bendigo hosts the annual Sheep and Wool show every year in July. Out flights, hotel and car are all booked. Excitement!

In squishy mail excitement, the latest Needlefood sock club package arrived on Friday.

The rumours that there may also have been lollies in the package will remain unsubstantiated. At least here. The yarn is called "There's Flowers in my Salad!" I've not been into variegated yarns of late, but I really like this one! Now I just need to find the perfect pattern for it. And I'll try not to let it marinate in the stash for six years!!

In other news, Twinkie is so comfortable with the idea of being a showgirl that she sleeps in her feathers.

And the annual dance photos of the other showgirl arrived.

I can assure you that the ability to do that didn't come from me!

I finished it at TAFE yesterday afternoon, and as soon as it was done, I tried it on. I know it's cropped and only has three quarter sleeves, but three different people asked me if it was for me or Em. Really.

Next project has been swatched and will hit the needles today!

Specs:
Pattern: Bonnie by Kim Hargreaves, from Heartfelt
Yarn: Rowan Bamboo Soft in 102 Almond (Shade now discontinued), 2 balls.
Needles: 2.75mm
Mods: The pattern calls for a crochet band, but seeing as I can't crochet to save my life, I went with the knitted alternative, a moss stitch band. I'm actually thinking about ripping it out and changing it to a 1x1 rib. The moss stitch has no elasticity. A friend suggested some elastic, and I might try that first.
I thought it was going to be a quick, in front of the TV knit, but it tricked me. It's knit flat and then seamed, and I thought about doing it in the round, but there's lace patterning on both sides, and I was too lazy to try to adapt the pattern.
It's a nice hat, very pretty and chic, but a little more hassle than I prefer in a hat pattern! Em is happy with it, though, so all in all, I'd call it a success.

And she looks so cute in it, doesn't she?

Apart from that, it's all Featherweight, all the time. It now has a body and sleeves, and the neckband/collar is all that remains.

(Less than stellar picture is brought to you by the iPhone, courtesy of a lack of batteries for the big camera)

As you can see, it is almost done. It has occupied 100% of my knitting time. Well, what's left of my knitting time after I waste hours trawling Ravelry looking for the next project, that is.

There's been no Twinkie update for a long time, as has been pointed out. She's a bit cranky, but otherwise well. We've been having some yard work done, and she's not happy about it. She refuses to go out the back unless we pick her up and force her out. And when we do that, she goes and hides in the long grass to let us know how displeased she is.

She's a bunny who doesn't deal well with change!!

I've been trying out Project Monogamy lately. It's very unlike me, I get bored far too easily to stick to it for very long. However, it's very productive. Makes sense really, don't know why I've been so surprised!

I'm currently working on the Featherweight Cardigan. I saw Ailsa's and straight away decided that I had to make one. And we all know that I'm not lacking for laceweight yarn! So I had a dig through the stash and surfaced with some Dream In Color Baby in "In Vino, Veritas" (Love that name!) that I'd acquired from The Loopy Ewe some time ago. It's a heavy laceweight, made from Australia Merino. Nice and squishy!

I swatched, somehow got a needle size three sizes than recommended, and cast on. A sane person would have figured then that 3 sizes smaller could be problematic, but I've never been known for thinking things through.

After knitting for a while, I began to think that maybe it was looking a little small. So I measured it, and sure enough, I should have been using bigger needles. I was feeling particularly lazy (again, not unusual), so instead of frogging the whole thing, I decided to get clever.

I was using 3.25mm (US3) needles, so I pulled out a 2.25mm (US1) needle and threaded it through a row of stitches quite a few rows back.

Then I just frogged it back, reknit the stitches onto the bigger needle, and didn't have to worry about losing any stitches anywhere. (Still recovering from the Cap Shawl debacle here).

I decided to rip it back to that point for a few reasons. I could have just frogged it and started over, but like I keep saying, I'm inherently lazy. I then convinced myself that because the cardi is knit at such a loose tension, having the first few rows around the neck in a tighter gauge will help add stability. (Yes, I can justify anything). At any rate, it worked nicely, the armholes are still deep enough, and it's pretty much flying off the needles.

My camera hates this colour for some reason. Of course, now that I've mentioned how quick it is, something is going to go horribly wrong. Stay tuned.

Mind you, I'm seeing the benefits of this project monogamy stuff!

Again, thanks to Ailsa for the pics. I really love this scarf!

Specs:
Pattern: Lacy Kerchief Scarf by Lisa Daehlin from Interweave Knits, Summer 2005. (Also available online from their store)
Yarn: Knitabulous FIftyFifty (50/50 Wool/Silk, fingering weight) One skein, 400yds.
Needles: 3.75mm
Mods: The pattern is written for worsted weight, and I can't imagine how huge it would be! It's 180cm long in the fingering weight on 3.75mm needles! I worked the pattern as written, although I left a repeat out in the middle because I thought I'd run out of yarn. (And I would've!)

Love the yarn! I asked Ailsa to dye some pink yarn for me ages ago, and this is what she came up with. I don't know if there was an official colour name. Maybe she should call it "Whining Donna". In any case, love the colour! Ailsa recently used the FiftyFifty to make her Featherweight cardi, and it also looks gorgeous for that project.

The pattern is not too bad, although the lace is an 8 row repeat, and the increases/decreases happen in 6 row repeats, which gets kind of confusing! I took it along to the Sydney Knitters Christmas get together, and it didn't work very well with champagne. I thought I was on the home stretch, and on the train on the way home, I realised I'd made a mistake in the pattern about 40 rows back and had to rip it out. Otherwise, it was pretty straightforward and reasonably quick.

It took one skein, so around 400 yards - highly recommend as a sock yarn type stashbuster!

Fortunately though, I went down and helped Ailsa out with her yarn store stuff today, and she took some pictures of my finished projects for me!

Finally, I get to show off Rosa.

Isn't she just beautiful? I'm so pleased with it, I think it may be my favourite finished project yet!

Specs:
Pattern: Rosa by Kim Hargreaves, from the Thrown Together book.
Size: Small
Yarn: Rowan 4ply Soft in Tea Rose. I used just a smidgen more than 5 balls.
Rowan Kidsilk Haze in Pearl, 1 ball.
Needles: 2.5mm and 3mm.
Mods: None.

I knit it exactly the way the pattern said, and I'm over the moon with it. It was super quick for me, too. I started it just before we left to go on holidays in December. We were away for a little under two weeks, but all the car time gave me the opportunity to do the front, the back and the sleeves. After I got home I only had to do the neckband, seaming and ruffles. I think those bits took as long as the rest of it did.

But I'm so happy with it that I can't even put it into words. If I was to change anything at all, it might be the ruffles. The pattern calls for them to be knit separately and then sewn into place - I'd probably pick up stitches and knit them outwards. Seeing as I have a few more of her ruffled designs in my queue, I might try that next time.

So far, 2010 appears to be the year of the small project. That suits me just fine, the satisfaction of a quick and dirty project is sometimes just what I need.

On Sunday, I pulled out a single ball of Noro Silk Garden Lite that had been kicking around, and trawled Ravelry looking for a suitable pattern. I decided on the Waterfall Scarf.

Started on Sunday night, it was finished on Monday afternoon!

Happy Supermodel shot!

Specs:
Pattern: Waterfall Scarf by Cosette Cornelius-Bates
Yarn: 1 ball of Noro Silk Garden Lite, Colourway 2032, Purchased an aeon ago at The Wool Inn at Penrith
Needles: 4.5mm Birch straights
Mods: I added one stitch to either end, and began every row with a slipped stitch, otherwise, it's as written. I just kept knitting until I ran out of yarn.

Overall, it's a nice, quick knit with a good finish. Would make a good gift knit, I think.

To get over the trauma that was the Cap Shawl, I have cast on a Neibling doily. With #30 cotton and 1.5mm needles.

Lets all hope I don't drop a stitch on this one!

Seeing as Rosa is all done bar the buttons, I cast on for a new garment, too. I'm still feeling the Kim Hargreaves love, and I love me some sparkle, so I pulled some KidSilk Night out of the stash and began knitting Precious.

Those are the fronts, I actually finished the back in a couple of days while I was at a dance comp with Em. The pattern actually has little seed beads all over, but because the KidSilk Night is shot with silver, I'm only putting the beads around the edges.

That's all my knit news, I had the mopes for a few days after the Cap Shawl debacle! That yarn has been shoved down deep into a stash box until it learns it's lesson. I will admit though, that I've already been looking at alternate patterns for the yarn, I don't think I could bear to do the same shawl again!

I cast on the shawl on June 12, and have been working on it intermittently in the seven months since. I started to work on it again on Monday, because I had plans to enter it into the Sydney Easter Show, and needed to get back to work on it. By this morning, I was up to row 135. Not long after I began my first round, I discovered this mistake.

I contemplated it for a little while, but decided it couldn't be fudged, the stitch count was out and it would affect the pattern in that section. It's twelve rows back and I didn't much like the idea of tinking back 12 rows when there's somewhere in the neighbourhood of 700 sts per row.

I decided to be brave and try surgery to remedy it.

I carefully undid that section back to the mistake. I sorted out the threads and pinned them out of the way.

So far, so good.

It was all downhill from there. I dropped stitches that I couldn't recover and lost the pattern entirely.

The Cap Shawl is no more.

Seven months of knitting, twenty minutes to frog. You'll find me in the corner, with a box of tissues.

I knit most of this sweater in 2 1/2 weeks while on holiday, and it's taken me the 5 days since we got home to knit 6 ruffles and do some seaming. Ah, life!

I've spent some of this past week ruminating over the past year and thinking about the new one. We had a generally pretty good 2009. No major dramas, a few hiccups, but that's what life is about, isn't it? I started a full time course, David started a new job and things flowed along pretty nicely. It was certainly one of the better years for us.

In 2010 there'll be a few changes for us, a few Big Deal type things. I'll finish my course and hopefully get a job after being a stay at home mum for almost 9 years. Emily finishes High School towards the end of the year, and to be honest, I'm just trying not to think about that one too much. I'm going to try to just go with the flow with everything and not worry too much about any of it. And that's kind of a Big Deal for me anyway.

We've made a habit over the last four years of spending New Years Eve somewhere different every year. First was Bundaberg, then Las Vegas, Sydney and finally the Gold Coast. That's something I'd like to continue with every year, so maybe we'll think about a holiday towards the end of the year.

Onwards and Upwards!

Knitting wise, I got thinking about resolutions, goals, aims, whatever you'd like to call them. Last year I did the Personal sock club, with a pair of socks a month, and that was pretty successful. I could join the 10 shawls in 2010. Or knit only from stash. Knit a pair of socks from every sock book I own. Aim for at least 6 sweaters. Gift knit, charity knit. There's a great many respectable knitting resolutions and goals out there. So which one am I going with?

None of 'em. Not a one. This year, I'm going to knit what I want, when I want, with whatever I want, from wherever I want.

And I'm going to enjoy it.

The holiday was great, lovely and relaxing. No stress until we arrived home!

Knitting wise, it was very productive.

Who was expecting a completed garment? (Rusty, I'm looking at you!)

I almost managed it.

That's a front, back, two sleeves and a neckband. Not bad, huh?

Most of it was done in the car - two days up to Queensland, various travelling around, then two days back. Well, I got the front and most of the back done. The back was finished on Saturday afternoon, in the carpark of Armidale airport, a couple of hours from our final destination (for Saturday) of Nundle. I began the sleeve on the way there.

Nundle is a very small country town. Very small. It has no mobile phone/mobile broadband access. Well, it probably has Telstra, but no Optus, no Vodaphone, no 3. So we were stuck there, on a Saturday night, no internet, no phones, nothing open, except the pub where we went for dinner. It was the best meal we had for the whole holiday, too!

After dinner, we went back to the hotel to watch TV and II finished the first sleeve and half of the second. So the night wasn't a total waste!

The next morning we headed over t the Wool Mill, but it was a downer. Waste of time, I'm afraid. Last time we went, I scored some nice pink 8ply wool that I made into a cardi for Em, and a kit for a stripey jumper. They had seconds, and patterns, and kits and it was well worth the trip. This time, not so much. There were two baskets in the back room, both almost empty. That was it for seconds. There were no kits at all. No patterns, even.

The yarn is lovely, but it was marked at $9 a ball. It's only $6 on the website. In the end I left with a Rowan magazine, and nothing else. Very disappointing.

But it was more than made up for when I got home and picked up my Christmas parcel from Jill. There was Bugga! in there!!

Bugga!! And it's the most beautiful shade of blue. This will go on the needles next, I think - I just need to find a pattern to do it justice.

I got Polar Bears for Christmas, too. A candle from David and Em, and a Poo-lar bear from Jill. This made us giggle for a while - yes, we're 5 years old. So what?

Now I'm going to go knit ruffles!

It's been a great trip so far, much knitting has been achieved, yarn has been purchased and places visited. There's been good weather, woeful weather, family and friends.

Tomorrow we leave Surfers Paradise, and head to Nundle for the final leg of our trip. We'll visit the Wool Mill, and get home again on Sunday night.

I think I'll need two more weeks to recover.

And just to add some colour, I've ripped off an idea from Bells, RoseRed and DrK, and made a mosaic of my finished projects for 2009 (33, counting the Lace Kerchief, which is technically finished, just not blocked yet)

1. Lacy Kerchief scarf, 2. Venezia, 3. Twinkletoes with Twinkie, 4. Gail(Nightsongs), 5. Mingus, 6. Entrelac Socks, 7. Poppy, 8. Swirl scarf, 9. Sophie, 10. Elijah, 11. Firestarters, 12. Em's Cabled Hoodie, 13. Rick socks, 14. One Row Scarf, 15. February Teddy Sweater, 16. Urbanista, 17. BFF socks, 18. Pink Hoodie, 19. Emily Selbu Modern, 20. Scrunchable Scarf, 21. Rivendell Socks, 22. Aeolian, 23. Twink & Marilinda, 24. Em Baroness Beret, 25. Bling-y Shoulder Warmer, 26. Whisper Lace Socks, 27. Flit n Float, 28. Not Pink Puzzle Wrap, 29. Robin, 30. Autumn Rose, 31. Ankle Biters, 32. Chameleon Socks, 33. Esther socks

Happy New Year!

The Lacy Kerchief is finished, but not yet blocked. The silly season has gotten the better of me over the past few days, I fear. I did however, start something new.

Funny, after Venezia, working on a garment in just one colour seems so fast, even when it's 4ply (fingering) on 2.75mm needles!
This is the start of the gorgeous Rosa by Kim Hargreaves. The pattern calls for Rowan Cashsoft 4ply, but I'm substituting Rowan 4ply soft in Tea Rose.

This is my road knitting - 1,000km each way, so hopefully there'll be plenty done by the time I get back.

I did pull the Cap Shawl out of hibernation last night, and did 3 rounds on it, but I remember why it's been in hibernation now. It's boring! I had planned for it to go into the Easter Show, and maybe it will - not sure what year though!

I also had forgotten to mention the wonderful last sock club package in this round from Needlefood!

Chocolate, and yarn in a gorgeous colour!

As well as a cute little pouch, stitch markers, a sock pattern and a handy note with kitchener instructions. It's a great sock club! If you're interested in signing up, the next round will open up in mid/late January. If you sign up for the newsletter at the website, you'll get a heads-up when it's about to happen!

If I'm not back here before Christmas, (I'll be popping in on Ravelry, and on my email and twitter - I love my iPhone!) I wish you all a wonderful day with family and/or friends, with much love and comfort, I hope you enjoy the silly season, even if you don't celebrate!

This is possibly the most time any garment has taken me. According to Ravelry, I started it in mid-August, and finished it on Monday, December 14. Four months! Thanks, TAFE.

Specs:

Pattern: Venezia by Eunny Jang, from Interweave Knits Winter 2006
Yarn: Jamieson & Smith 2ply Jumperweight. I've listed all the colour subs on the Ravelry project page.
Needles: KnitPicks Harmony, 2mm, 2.25mm and 2.5mm.
Pattern Mods: None. I do wish I'd made it a little longer, I think my row gauge was a little too tight, but it's still wearable.

In the end, I had almost two whole balls of the edging colour left over, but I ran short of two colours on the second sleeve. I knit the 34.5" size, and needed to get an extra ball each of the 106 Mooskit and the 183 Sand equivalents. I was only about 3 metres short for the Sand!

David and Emily bought me the yarn for my birthday back in May, and I reordered those two colours about 3 weeks ago - and they were exact dyelot matches! Even though it wasn't totally necessary in the Fair Isle. I'll never have that kind of luck again.

It's going to be wonderfully warm - I had it on for about 5 minutes for the photo shoot and couldn't bear it another minute. (It was about 30C!) Emily took some pictures in the morning, then in the afternoon, Ailsa took a bunch more for me. There are a heap more on Ravelry.