Christmas, Stress and other Stuff

I guess this is the time of the year when everyone's blogs are looking a little bare and neglected. It's only because I've been so busy.
So, last time I posted, Denise was in Melbourne doing her law placement, and loving it, and I was in the middle of Nanowrimo madness.
Denise is now back, has had her graduation ceremony (doesn't she look so smart!) and is now enjoying being a lady of some leisure (with Christmas also comes the mad Christmas house cleaning!) Now she just has to wait to see what happens in regards to a placement for her graduate diploma, and if this placement she's just done also nets her a job. Fingers crossed.
I was happy with my Nano effort. I knew I wasn't going to finish, but I did get more words up than I was expecting. I did hit the 30,000 word mark, expecting only to get to 25,000. On the last friday of November I joined some of the other Adelaide members at the 24 hour bakery for an all night write-in, where I stayed until 2am writing. It was great. I was in such a good space, physically and in my head, that I got a lot written. Now I have 10 months to prepare the plot for my next story. I had inspiration on the 14th of November for a novel that I may actually work on enough to publish. Here's hoping.
At the Adelaide KTog group we had an end of year Kris Kringle type of gift giving. With a $10 limit I decided to make stitch markers. Someone on the glbt-knit list made some and posted pictures. I loved the idea so much I realised I just had to give them a try. Lincraft were having a sale on beads, and I found these beautiful little charms to add to the end. I tried taking pictures, but shiny things reflect flashes. I've ended up taking them so far away so not to cause reflection, that a lot of the detail is lost.
Anyway, the charms on the end say Unite, Inspire, and Imagine.I hope the people that received them liked them.
Despite all the Christmas crazies, I've still managed to get a fair bit of knitting done. I tried making the Origami Slippers in the 2007 Knitting Pattern a Day Calendar. I had no idea what I was doing, and Denise had to give me a hand figuring out how I had to sew it up. I may go looking to see if there are any pattern corrections for it. It doesn't seem quite right. I'm also 80% through a pair of socks. I'm surprised with myself. I started these last week, did a fair bit of the knitting on the trip up to Renmark for work, and have almost finished both. No second sock syndrome this time. I'm getting happier with my standard sock pattern. I knit them top down, do a short row heel, and shape the toe down and finish with kitchener stitch. I tried toe up socks, but didn't find a cast on that I liked. Plus I like to think that my kitchener is pretty good, and I like to show it off when I can.
Denise is currently working on a pair of socks for her grandfather for Christmas. Yes, a bit late, but we'll just put it down to Christmas postage. This is the second pair of socks from this ball of sock wool, although the cuff, toes and heel are done in a different yarn. She also made two crocheted baby hats for my cousins' kids for Christmas. The kids looked quite cute in them. With the rush on the gifts, the arrowhead scarf has been put on the back-burner for a bit.
And now with Christmas over, we're spending a day doing... well, nothing. Denise is currently playing Transport Tycoon on her old computer, which I finally got around to fixing. And later we've got plans to set up the new TV table we bought together for Christmas. We may get around to it.
Anway, only 4 more sleeps until my birthday. I'm turning 25 on Saturday. And realising that without warning I've grown up. Shit! Who made me an adult!

Quick Update

Wow, its been ages since I wrote here. Well ages for me at least.
Well Denise has finally finished her exams, and assignments, and University. Yay. She graduates mid-December, and there will be lots of pictures posted to the blog of her in the graduation gown.
But since she's finished her exams, it means she's now over in Melbourne doing her legal placement. It's four weeks of working in a law firm to see how it all runs, what they do, and basically work experience, but it sounds fancier. She's having a great time (well except for being apart from me for the past 6 days and 6 sleepless nights), they've put her in the property law section, so she's loving it.
She's coming back for this weekend, where we get to celebrate Picnic in the Park together, as well as my work Christmas BBQ. Then back for another week of work, then I go over for a visit and some great shopping. I've got plans and an itinery. Bridge Rd, St Kilda Markets, and Queen Victoria markets (if we have time). And there's a party that Denise has been invited to.
So that's our life in a nutshell.
The rest of our life is in those little green bars on the side of the blog. You can see how many words we've written for the nanowrimo. I know I won't make it to the 50,000, but I'm aiming to get to 25,000. Next year when I have a good plot and my own characters to play with, I'll have a better crack at it.

Multi-Directional Scarf

Here's a dodgy paint-brush altered picture to show the knitting direction of my scarf. I know, there are thousands of better picture editing programs out there, I have plenty of copies of such software, however they all tend to eat into my precious hard drive space I use for music. Which is more important? Hmm?
Anyway, I put some further details in the comments to the last post in response to Tallguy. As you can see I'm not knitting with two colours at once, but more in rows of green then purple. When I start a new colour I have two stitches of that colour, and I increase one stitch on the outer edge, and pic up another on the inside. Two get the two colour effect, I've changed colour when I change direction. If you click on the picture you can see a bit more of the stitch detail.

Nanowrimo

There's a new icon that's popped up on our side bar. It's for Nanowrimo, or National Novel Writing Month which is running in November. The goal of the month is to write a 50,000 word novel. And that doesn't have to be 50,000 Pulitzer Prize winning words, but whatever drivel you can pull out of... well wherever you can pull it from. I'm a little behind my daily allowance of about 1600 words, but I'm slowly gaining momentum, up to 1400 in total. And its guaranteed not to be an award winning novel of any type. Denise persuaded me to try and get back into writing again after not having written for fun since the beginning of uni. Denise is also writing something and she's written about 3000 words. Not bad as she's studying for her exams too. Makes me feel soooo slack!
So the posts may be a little brief for this month, because I'm trying to focus my words towards my novel.
I'll make up with pictures though. This is the diagonal scarf I'm knitting at the moment. It's a multi-directional diagonal short row scarf. I've modified it for two colours, the original colour suggestion was to use a plain yarn or a yarn with a large verigation. This was some yarn I saw at Lincraft that just screamed out 'KNIT ME' and it's not often that Lincraft yarn does that.
Denise is knitting a wave pattern scarf out of two colours of alpaca wool. This is from an Alpaca farm we visited a few weeks ago.
And normally Frankie doesn't look this evil, but she was sitting on the bed, and I had the camera out, and this is the pose that turned up on the camera. Or maybe she's still annoyed at me for taking away her bug she was trying to eat. I don't mind her catching all the moths she can find. They are hatching from the pantry at the moment, and I still haven't found the source. And I prefer the moths to enjoy the taste of flour or lentils or popcorn, than all my yummy wool.

My Computer Shows Me No Respect

I hate dial-up Internet. It's slow, and fussy, and at the moment it's not having too many good days. It's taken to dropping off for no reason, so now I have to figure out the reason. On a good night we only drop off twice. Needless to say, our phone bill has gone up, as has my frustration.
This week Denise and I were in a hurried knitted gift making frenzy. My cousin's daughter was being baptised and we were invited. While we knew of this for a while, I thought last week that a knitted something would be very meaningful. So Denise got out the crochet hook and made a baby's sun hat, I went downloading, and got the pattern for the Katja baby top from Knitty. We'd have pictures of these items, but I finished the top 10 minutes before giving it to the baby. Denise's sun hat was a hit. Everyone loved it, and as little bub was being passed from person to person, she needed something on her head. I'm sure Denise will be making another for her friend in Ballarat with the little one, so I'll grab a pic then.
One thing that has been finished is my Christmas stocking. It's a great big fluffy stocking, and I can fit plenty of wool in it (I know, I tried it to take the picture). Now I'm hunting down the next pattern to try for Denise's stocking. Denise suggested doing a Picot Cast Off so that the stocking has points on which to hang small bells. Although I think it may be so she can hear Santa putting the gifts in her stocking!
So far I've tried Wendy Johnson's Generic Toe Up Sock. Not bad, although I don't really like provisional cast ons, I never feel like I'm catching all the stitches. So next time I'm going to use the Figure Eight Cast On from Knitty's Tiptop Toes article.
Still have to figure out how to cast off loosely enough. Denise had this problem with her first pair of toe-up socks. Asking around on GLBT-Knit, Fiberqat suggested a row of single crochet to cast off. Have to give this a try, although it probably won't matter too much with the stockings.
Anyway, this was just meant to be a short post as I managed to get on and to say that we're still here. Denise is busy studying for her final university exams. She sat in her final lecture ever, and is looking forward to the 11th when the only thing left to do will be to walk across the stage and get that certificate.
Yay Denise!

I'm Back and I'm Knitting Again

I’m trying to get the blog updated a little more often now. Blogspot isn’t designed for a dial-up connection. Some days it takes me 10 minutes to get to the front page, then another 10 to navigate to write a new blog. And don’t ask about photos.
To top it off, I just found out we have occasional interference on our phone line which has caused it to drop off. Hopefully they have fixed it and we can be online for more than 30 minutes at a time.
I figured if I load the pictures up at work I’ll be able to post a little quicker. So no more saving drafts of this blog and posting it a week later when things finally work.
On a positive note, I think things with my shoulder are finally working out. I figured why my recovery suddenly went bad. I was given an exercise to strengthen my neck muscles, and I got it wrong. I’ve been strengthening two at the front of my neck by accident, not the one in the middle. I’m glad my physio worked this out, because I was at the stage of ‘well it aches when I knit, and it aches when I don’t know’ so I rationalised that I may as well do what I enjoy. Which has been really bad, because I’ve picked up my knitting with a vengeance.
My mum loves her toe-up sock pattern, and while I want to try it, I’m not able to commit to two toe-up socks. A while ago Denise and I found some nasty sparkly yarn on special in green and red, and I got inspired. Christmas Stockings!!! I don’t mind the pattern, or the toe, or the heel, I just really don’t like all the stitch wrapping in the pattern. I’m using Wendy Johnson’s Generic Toe-Up Sock pattern.
At least by experimenting with the patterns on christmas stockings I don’t have to commit to that second sock. And I can experiment with gauge too. The yarn I’m using is by no means a sock yarn. It’s a nice big chunky yarn, and I’m using nice big needles (5.5mm). So while I’ve cast on the amount of stitches the pattern says, I’m getting a nice big sock I can fit both feet into.
Denise is also trying the pattern. She hates kitchener stitch used for top down socks (where as I love it, my stitches always look so perfect!) and anything that can avoid it is great. However she doesn’t like the heel and is looking for a toe-up pattern with a flap heel. So it’s not the perfect pattern for us, Denise thinks she is closer to that pattern that is just made for her.
Last week one of the women in our local knitting group has brought along some sock yarn with the proceeds going to charity. And who can argue with that. Denise got three balls, her favourite in red, blue and white, which is the colours of her AFL football team, the Western Bulldogs.
At least she finished off her last pair of socks before starting on these ones. Yay, now I have a pair of purple cotton socks knitting by my love. For some reason the pattern didn’t continue through the second sock. Nothing changed, same dye lot, same amount of stitches, same size needle, but it gave a different pattern. I love them though. Excuse the scary hairy legs though. I don’t believe in shaving, it would make my morning routine so much longer, and people don’t notice the operation scars on my knees when all they see is hair.
One thing I’ve been meaning to show off for a while is the magpies in our area. Whenever we have stale bread (or we find a loaf with freezer burn hidden in the freezer) I’ll throw it out the front for the birds. We have two families of magpies in our area, and they seem to be well fed by everyone. Our neighbours also love putting bread out for the birds too. Rather cruel since we both have indoor cats who love to watch the birds out the front. Its funny to sit out the front when the magpies come in and see Frankie, Chakra and Cashmere sitting in their windows, staring at the birds.
The magpies are just beginning to bring their young down for a fly around the area. These gray squawking little teenage magpies are so cute, but so demanding. We also have one with a broken beak. The ends of both top and bottom beak seem to have snapped off. She doesn't seem to have any problems though. She's the one in the foreground of the picture.
The other day we decided to be decedent and buy a banana. Whoop-dee-do you say. That banana cost us $4.05. For ONE banana. But it was so worth it. It’s amazing what you miss when you can’t have it. By the looks of some of the odd shaped bananas beginning to arrive down here, the first crop of bananas after Cyclone Larry seem to be ready. Bananas and strawberries for desert were wonderful.

OKC (On Knitting Content)

Looking back over my past few posts I realised how little knitting content there is. I've been trying to help my shoulders by not knitting, a hard task when there is a stash tower overflowing in the living room that is begging me to pay attention to it, and project deadlines.
Well I got the bag finished for my work colleague. It was a struggle to finish it on time. I took the photo with the scissors next to it so I could get some perspective when I felted it, but then I forgot to take the second photo. Idiot!
The bag was basically two pieces, a flat piece with the beading in it, and a cord made with a home-made tomboy stitch. Yes, that is the top of a juice bottle, four nails and lots of tape. It worked quite well, and not as easy to crush as a toilet roll is when you sit on it. Once I felted it, it made a really thick cord, much thicker than anything I could have knitted or crochetted, and it doesn't seem to stretch as much as the handle on my satchel does. My problem was that I finished sewing it up at 12midnight, ran it through the wash, and it felted slightly. So I got up early and ran it through the wash while I was in the shower. Worked fine, but now it was wet. So I thought a low iron would be okay. I would have if I'd kept the iron moving the whole time. Burnt one side of it. The good thing was that Terezia still loved it. I asked her to send me a pic. She used her phone so its a bit out of focus.

So I sit here with my cup of mint tea made from fresh mint I picked from my 'edible' garden, as Denise likes to call it. The garden is coming along nicely. I'm hoping that the next few days with the heat wave we're expecting, doesn't kill it. The lemon tree has just pushed through a few new leaves and they are looking really healthy. Its amazing what a lot of chicken fertilizer will do. The beans love it too. They're about the start galloping up the fence frame. And my seedling nursery on the kitchen window is getting bigger. The dill has its second leaves, I FINALLY have basil growing, the cherry tomatoes are ready to go outside.
Yes, this last bit had nothing to do with knitting, but what the hell, if I can't knit, I'll garden!!!

Whale of a Time

Denise and I have been going stir crazy recently, and we just had to get out of Adelaide for the day. After being washed out a few weeks ago, finally had decent weather to go to Victor Harbor.
Weather was warm, although a bit blowy. We went for a walk around Granite Island, although we didn't see any Fairy Penguins. I'm offended, the name of these cute penguins have been changed from Fairy Penguins, to Little Penguins. Why? Because it might offend gay people?!?!?!?! That's political correctness gone overboard.

Some of the rock shapes on Granite Island are amazing. This picture of me isn't to show how small I am, but rather how big the rock is. It's quite an large hole that I've sheltered myself in.
Denise found herself a similar hiding place, although it seemed to be a well worn path. There were trails all over the island, some leading dangerously close to the rock edge or cliff, some going over the middle of the island, and one we took led right into a collection of rocks, with no sign of which way to go. I'm writing this, so we did figure it out.
And after all that exercise we just had to reward ourselves with strawberries and cream. And had to endure music pumping out of the kiddy ride.
We also went down to the Whale Centre to see if there were any local sightings. As luck would have it there were 3 in the next bay around, a 10 minute drive away. They would have been maybe 200m offshore. Thankfully I had my binoculars, so we were able to get an even closer view. Seems there was a family out there, two adults and a calf in the shallow surf playing in the waves. He surfaced several times, riding the waves, rolling around and blowing water into the air. The zoom on my camera isn't the best, but the black mark in the water is a whale fin as the calf went on a spin.Yes, I know its been a long time since my last blog, and the date stamp is really out on this. I've been saving and adding to the post several times, swearing at how long it takes to log in and load up a picture. Finally managed to do it.
Will try to post a bit more often. Have plenty of pictures waiting on the camera.

Cat Ate My Homework

The title of this blog relates to our darling furry daughter, and her antics the other evening while Denise was spread out over the bed with papers and text books. Frankie, being her cute self and wanting attention, did it in the best way she knew how.She didn't quite understand that it was mummy's Evidence lecture notes for an assignment due the next day, and not her dinner. She was so cute when she did it though.
Why is it cats know exactly where you are reading, and sit right on it?
Unfortunately Frankie is now shitty with us. She attempted another escape attempt on Saturday. As responsible cat owners we don't let her out to roam, mainly so she doesn't kill wildlife, but also because she is rather anti-social when it comes to other cats. We have many cats in our block of townhouses which she'd like to fight. She even tried to beat up our vet's cats.
Anyway, the escape attempt involved her scaling a 2m high corrugated iron fence (with no capping, so a sharp edge) and down over the other side. When I got the roller up, she stared at me with that guilty look. So, trussed up, I carted her back inside, and gave her some time out in the 'Sin Bin', which is the downstairs toilet. Small room, high window, she hates it. A minute in there and she scooted upstairs to sulk when we let her out.
This time of the year I get to enjoy one of my other passions. Gardening. Finally having the owners permission to remove a small Candle Pine from under the washing line, I've done a bit of renovation in the garden. Gone are the miniature roses that were neglected when we moved in, and slowly being replaced by a practical herb garden. Flowering, nice smelling and useful. Plus any future tenants don't have to attend to it like roses should have been. Part of the agreement I had with the owner about removing the Pine tree, was that I would replace it. We now have a lemon tree. Sick, iron deficient little thing, but I have bags of chook poop to nurse it back to health. Against the fence is a trellis, the remnants of something still entwined around it. I found raspberry canes at the local plant store. This year I hope to taste my first real fresh raspberry (not frozen or in cordial).
Also 'borrowed' a few polystyrene boxes from the bins at the Central Markets. They make the best portable vegie patch. From winter I've still got broad beans and brussel sprouts growing. I bought a punnet of lettuce seedlings, and they are now big enough to pick a couple of leaves for the odd sandwich every week. I planted radishes for Denise and I'm waiting for the tomato seeds on the kitchen window sill to get stronger before planning them out into the garden. I also have chillies and capsicum coming up everywhere. Whenever I use one for cooking I'll put the seeds in a pot and see what comes up. Lots of plants to give to friends too. Although I still have my four year old chilli plant, and it's still going strong.
Being a little lazy in the garden recently, I still have some plants that didn't quite die over winter. The rainbow chard has picked up again, and the rocket has gone to seed now the butterflies are about, hopefully to give me a huge box full by summer.
It seems like a lot of fuss to go to, and the results will be a handful of things to eat, probably what we'd eat in a week, but the results are so much tastier.

Show Time

Yes, the Royal Adelaide Show has come to Adelaide, and I managed to build up enough flexi time to get a day off of work.
The main aim of the day was not to stuff our faces with sugar and hurl ourselves around on rides, but rather to enjoy the real show things, the stalls, the produce, the animals, and to hunt down some beautiful wool. I think we succeeded. My stash bag was full, and the ideas and inspirations just wouldn't stop. Money did eventually.
My first purchase was at an alpaca stall. Big bins full with skeins of alpaca yarn in 5, 8 & 12ply in cream, brown and pitch black. Some beautiful twists of cream and brown, huge skeins to make jumpers, some ready made scarves, jumpers and mittens. I fell in love with a small bag of black 8ply wool. It was the only bag of black wool, which was a pity as the wool smelt strongly of mothballs and mustiness. I hope it washes out because the wool is so soft and beautiful. When I went to pay for it the woman commented 'Oh that will make a lovely scarf.' To which I replied that it was going to make a lovely pair of socks.
Next stop was the Spinners and Weavers Guild, where I found several small skeins of an electric blue handspun wool. Each skein was small, so all up I think I got around 300g. Again 'that will make a lovely scarf.' No, this will be used to make a vest, I've got a pattern in mind. Leftovers from Knitty.com. It will just be plain, not striped though.
The hall this was in also had a lot of old fashioned machinery, sheep shearing, processing and a guy who talks about how to use many of these things, while surrounded by ducks, hens and a dog. Rather fascinating, but I am so glad I don't have to go through all of that for my wool.
We made our way though the craft entries for judging, and found the SACSOS stall (South Australian Coloured Sheep Owner's Society). Beautifully coloured wools, and after looking at the wool I realised this is where I got the wool I made my big thick beanie from. Almost considered getting some more of their chunky wool for those bed slippers I still haven't made. But I did find a nice fine skein of reddy brown wool that I realised would go well as an edging for my planned vest. Denise also found two balls of purple wool because it looked nice. (tut tut, buying wool without a plan, not like Denise at all!) Again the comment 'that will make a lovely scarf.' No, this will go with some other wool I've purchased to make a vest. And I pulled out the electric blue wool, and she marveled at the colour too.
One last place had balls of wool, and that was in the fashion hall, where a lot of clothing companies who mainly made woolen and cotton clothing were set up. There was a stall selling Marino wool clothing and a small stash of wool. I picked up a tightly wound skein of lace weight yarn. Yet again 'there's enough there to make a scarf.' And then she told me that the 80g skein was $28. I smiled nicely, put it down and walked away. It was veeeery nice though.
Anyway, you may have noticed a pattern developing here. Everyone thought that this 20ish couple had fallen down in the latest wave of knitters and only knew how to knit scarves!!! And talked as though scarves were the only thing to knit out of the most beautiful wool. This wool was sitting there waiting to be turned into something beautiful, something artistic and creative, something that would enhance its colour and characteristics. I was almost tempted to buy more to save it from being turned into metres of garter stitch. Denise and reason saved me. Next time though...
We visited more 'real' show things too. The kids farm barn is always a good visit. Piles of baby animals, adults making goo-goo noises, kids in strollers, pigeons mating. Snapped a couple of photos, though not of the pigeons. In the main pen they have sheep, goats, ducks and more baby chicks than you'd think natural. You can imagine that after 4 days the animals are getting tired of thousands of faces and these peeping chicks. One of the goats had sat down to rest, and the chicks decided that this was a good place to sit, one even making it up to his horn. I remember my chicks use to love perching on high things, shoulders and window sill a favourite.
But the best place for baby hens was in the Agriculture shed, where the agriculture schools and TAFEs had set up stalls with animals and other farming related things (wheat, bread, solar power, oysters). By far the most popular part was the shallow pen with hundreds of fluffy chicks and 4 students carefully handing chicks over the young kids (and the occasional adult) to hold. I picked up a little runt, who contently sat just under my chin. My chooks loved sitting next to a warm body when they were babies. Yes, they loved it under my top.
Denise's chick seemed a bit flighty at first, but quickly got comfortable, and soon seemed asleep in her hands, as you can see. We had to come back for a second visit that day.
We also spent time wandering around the stalls selling amazing new inventions that have no practical purpose, businesses trying to cram a whole shop into 4m², and lots of samples. We were having a great time, holding hands in public (not just so that I wouldn't lose Denise in the crowd), we walked past the Christadelphian stall, with their smoking volcano with two of every animal depicting the Garden of Eden, or God's Kingdom, or something bible related. The two extremely conservatively people looked at us then deliberately turned their backs on us. It wasn't just turning around to see something, it was deliberate. Once we got over the surprise, I cracked up laughing. Really, what else can you do? Had half a mind to go back and find out their explanation of tolerance from the Bible. Hmmm.

Fun Summery Days

Denise and I had the greatest day together on Saturday. The weather in Adelaide was just perfect, nice and warm, but not too hot. Also the new East End Markets had opened up in the city, and we just had to visit.
Got quite a compliment about my knitting and designing skills that day. I was using my felted shoulder bag I made last year, and one of the craft stall holders commented on it. When I said that I made, it she mentioned that I should sell them. It got me thinking, while the bag may take me a bit of time to make, felted purses, small shoulder bags and coin purses would be perfect. Be a good excuse to perfect my pattern for the bag too.
Also picked up some jams and a loaf of sourdough bread while there. Then spent some time in at the Central Market and did the healthy thing. Bought lots of salad stuff, lots of fruit, large turkish pide, then went home and feasted on the whole loaf of bread and the jams while sitting in the backyard watching the cat meow at birds. It was so relaxing. Almost made me forget the housework! (Almost? queries Denise sarcastically)

Anyway, I have to go back about a week, because I had pictures I wanted to share but couldn't get them loaded onto my computer. Denise and I took our knitting goodies up to the Guardian Pharmacy to send over to Mongolia. We get our little thankyou badge in the mail after they order more in. In total we had 17 items this year, although some where items I finished just after last years closing date.
We had:

• 9 beanies
• 5 pairs of socks
• 1 pair of booties
• 1 pair of mittens
• and the Beige blankie
  

The socks were so much fun, playing around with different sizes, trying to figure out how the pattern worked and how I could adjust it. I've got some small mateless socks sitting in my knitting pot waiting for me to find the time to cast on a match.
There was another crocheted blanket that I was going to send off, but in comparission to the Beige Blankie it was tiny and I realised that it might fit a newborn but that's about it. So I hunted down some more mottled yarn and started hooking some more chains around and around and around. I'll let it continue to grow until I run out of yarn. The ball is 170g.
The Beige Blankie finally finished off at 1m square, which is a lot of beige, brown and muddy coloured yarn. Despite the holes in the blanket, it is actually quite warm. I'll miss having something so nice sitting on my lap as I work.
One thing is for certain, our little girl is not happy about losing her nice place to sleep. When laying the blanket out on the bed to photograph it, the cat decided that it was hers and she was going to claim it. She was looking at us as if to say 'Sorry mummy, this is mine and I'm not moving for you.' Thankfully we were able to get rid of the blanket and keep the cat. Although I have promised her that I am going to make her her own blanket out of the nasty big cone of super chunky yarn I picked up from the Goodwill Op Shop. $5 for a cone that is 10cm in diameter!!!
Other good news, my shoulder problems are slowly lifting. I spent a week of absolutely no knitting or crocheting, and it's worked. My problems have cleared up enough that the physio was able to get to the root of the problem, not just fix the symptom. So I'm doing exercises that are strengthening the core body muscles. It seems to be working. I'm slowly picking up my knitting again, and it takes me longer before I get to the stage of having to stop. I've got more movement in my shoulder than I've had since I started work. Its great, although I am very aware of my posture. No more slouching for me.
And because I can knit again, my Tubey jumper is now at a length that it covers the essentials, although not much further yet. And I've started on an urgent pair of wrist warmers for work. This spell of lovely warm weather has meant I went to work the other day in a t-shirt, only to realise that the airconditioner still works. In fact, with a completely sealed office, no open windows at all, the air conditioner will continue to work and spread its nasty cold germs. So by lunch time I was ready to go and sit in the sun to thaw out, only to go back inside and lose feeling in my fingers as I typed. So wrist warmers for work are the call for the day. And I've set myself a challenge too. I was knitting at lunch in the office lunchroom and one of the women who works in my area did the usual, "what are you knitting?" To which I told her wrist warmers. She laughed and commented "oh, they'll be ready for next winter then?" "No, next week!" I replied. I can get them done in that time, it just depends on whether wrist warmers also suffer from second sock syndrome.

Vegetable Patties

This is one of my mum's recipes, loosely based around German Kartoffelpuffer (Potato Pancakes).
This recipe is another great way to get rid of vegetables, and getting kids to eat those nasty vegies, like spinach and zucchini.

Potatoes
Vegetables (such as grated sweet potato, zucchini or carrot, shredded spinach or silverbeet, frozen diced vegetables, corn, peas)
Salt or Powdered Stock to taste
Herbs such as basil or thyme (optional)
Eggs
Plain Flour

Grate or shred vegetables as needed.
Add salt/stock and herbs if wanted. Mix.
The amount of eggs and flour needed depends on the amount of vegetables it needs to 'glue' together. Roughly two eggs to every one cup of flour.
Mix until the egg and flour are well combined and no longer lumpy.
Heat a frying pan, adding a light covering of oil.
Add spoon-sized dollops of mixture to the pan, spreading out to the size of a pikelet or
Cook until golden brown and easily comes away from the pan. Flip and cook other side.
Serve with sauce. Tomato, BBQ or Sweet Chilli tastes good.

Variations: for a meat version add finely chopped cooked meat, or seafood meat/stick. Works well with most leftovers, including BBQ sausages.
Also similar to Okonomiyaki, or Japanese pancakes, and can be served with oyster sauce and mayonnaise.

The Dreaded Lurgy

Seems I've come down with the dreaded lurgy. I currently feel like I have a bus parked up my nose, and that I've been eating sandpaper. Foolish me thought that I was immune from colds since I'd already had one this winter. So I'm dosing myself with echinacea and lots of tea, and I've had a couple days off work. Problem with this is that I'm also have a knitting free week. So I've had two days off of work, and I can't knit. Maybe I'll try a little, see how I go. I've been itching to try my new sock wool. Although I'm also keen to get my Tubey jumper finished.
Also I've been working on the website for the Adelaide KTog group. I am so proud of all the pics that I've made up. Believe it or not, but those balls of yarn are pics I've taken off wool I had laying around the house. Using PhotoEditor (you know that basic picture editing program that came with MS Office) I've used the stamp effect to give the outline, and then paintbrush to colour it in. Yup, really basic programs, and I still get a decent clipart picture. I've still got a lot of work to do, but its building nicely.
As you can see, I've also started adding recipies. I've got the list code almost sorted, so that will go up in the side bar soon. The lasagne is one of my favourites. One of those meals that Denise won me over with. I've always loved lasagne, but I thought it was rather involved to make it.
Actually I told a small lie before, I have been crochetting on my time off. I've finally finished the beige blankie. I finished the edge, washed it, and measured it. 1 metre square.
I also came across a surprise find in the back of the wardrobe too. A bag of beanies I knitted last year to go to the Guardian Angel program. I think I found 7 beanies that are suitable to go (one is too small to fit any head, except for a doll, and the other is made out of wool that I'm now using to make the purple blanket, and I need every scrap of that wool I can get.
I've washed everything that is going, and we'll take a photo of the whole loot before sending it off. I'll also have a final tally of completed knitted goods.

Denise's Vegetarian Lasagne

This recipe is one from Denise's family, is a great meal for impressing people with, and it gets rid of all those limp carrots and other vegetables sitting in the bottom of the fridge.
Our recipe involves the wonderful help of a food processor, but if you have the time and a sharp knife, chop away.
I'm a near-enough cook. I don't believe in measurements, that near enough will still turn out okay. These quantities can be changed, if you like more garlic, or no garlic, or if your tomato sauce doesn't have enough tomatoes in it, add more. However try to stick the the quantities for the Bechamel Sauce otherwise you'll have thick or very runny cheese sauce.

Vegetable Sauce
Process 1 onion. Saute onion in large saucepan with oil and garlic (1 crushed clove or 1 tspn of minced) until cooked. Turn down the heat so it doesn't burn.
Use any vegetables you want: maybe 3 potatoes, 2 carrots, ½ sweet potato, 1 capsicum, broccoli, basically anything in the fridge. Leafy things such as spinach can be roughly chopped or ripped and added later.
Put the vegetables in a food processor until minced, add to onion mixture.
Add sliced mushroom, peas and corn if you wish.
Simmer on the stove with 1 large can of tomatoes, parsley, basil, any other herbs, and leafy vegetables, stirring often.
The mixture is cooked when the vegetables are soft and not starchy.
The best test would be if you are happy eating it in its own right as a pasta sauce.

Bechamel Sauce
Melt 1½ tablespoons of butter in smaller saucepan over low heat.
Add 3 tablespoons flour, cook 1 minute.
Add 1 cup milk, stir continuously, making sure to blend the butter/flour mixture into the milk so that it is not lumpy.
When the milk mixture is thick, turn heat off but leave on stove.
Mix in grated cheese (mozzarella is preferable but tasty is good too).

Constructing the Lasagne
Put one layer of lasagne noodles in the pan. Put vegetable sauce in a layer on top of it.
Put another layer of lasagne noodles in the pan. Put bechamel sauce on top of that.
Put another layer of lasagne noodles in the pan. Top with more grated cheese.
Bake for 30 minutes in the oven, 180 degrees.
Remove lasagne, top with a mixture of cream and parmesan cheese (usually one small 300ml carton of cream is adequate, parmesan mixed in so that it is plentiful, but so that it will all blend in). Bake for another 15 minutes in the oven, 180 degrees.

Eat!!!
(it tastes even better the second day, if there's any left)

A disgusting variation we tried once, omit the vegetable sauce, and make layers of cheese sauce and lasagne sheets. Oh decadentent!

Frankie and the Beige Blankie

Back from Ballarat and I have to say, I was mildly disappointed. It wasn't that cold that the really warm winter woollies were needed. It was still cold, and big warm jumpers were essential, but I ventured outside without my beanie several times (and considering my hair is once again short, I need the extra warmth in winter).
The knitted gifts were appreciated though. Denise's mum got the Red Tweed socks (not me or Rodney), Nan got the Port Wine socks with the white heel and toe, Pop got Alpaca wrist warmers, and Denise's dad will be getting blue twist wrist warmers. Everyone loved them (or will love them, Denise will be sending the wrist warmers for her dad up on Monday) and Nan even took her thin shop bought socks off straight away to wear her new woollen socks, and showed them off to everyone she saw. She told us that her feet hadn't been that warm in years. So this is spurred Denise to make lots of socks for her Nan. We've been out twice in the last day to get more sock wool, two balls of Sirdar Town and Country sock wool from Needle Nook and some really nice Sirdar Snuggly Fair Isle baby wool from Yarn Barn. Hmm, imagine how nice and soft that is going to be on the feet!!
Well I didn't get to take my crochet hook on the plane. Seems that while Jetstar's website only says knitting needles, there is a Federal law that goes into further detail, that includes crochet hooks and sewing needles. I'm going hunting those laws. But I think thanks to the latest security scare in the UK, knitting needles are the least of my worries. I can't justify paying $5 for a lousy bottle of water.
But I did learn how to finger knit. I picked up some balls of Moda Vera fluffy acrylicky yarn stuff from Spotlight (it's on clearance at the moment) and in the scarf pictured there are two strands. I was going to add a third strand of plain yarn but I forgot to pack it in the rush to leave at 4:45AM!!!!!
Denise watched me part of the way, and we decided that to make anything of any size to wear as a scarf, it would probably be better to make three of these ropes/mini-scarves and plait them together. Denise was going to make herself a scarf to go with her brown business suit for an interview. She was going to make three mini-scarves of three different shades of brown and then plait them. If only I'd known before I started on the Beige Blankie.
Talking of the Beige Blankie, I'm just edging it now. Finishing it off in dark brown. I'm enjoying making it now, despite how long it takes me to do a side. I sit with it across my lap like an old granny and it keeps me so warm. And Frankie loves it too. Whenever I work on it, she'll jump on my lap and cuddle down. She's going to be sad to see it gone.
As you can see, she was annoyed at being disturbed having private time on the blanket.
So far the tally of things to go to the Guardian Angel Program is:

• 5 pairs of socks
• 2 beanies
• 2 small crochet baby blankets
• The Beige Blankie
• 1 pair of mittens

I think that's a lot of good karma knitted there, and its given me a lot of fun playing with the different sizes of the kids socks.
Actually there were 6 pairs of socks to go, but one is about to be sent off to Ballarat for Denise's no longer pregnant friend. She had the baby yesterday evening, a baby boy we've been told. No name yet, but he already has some nice warm goodies being sent his way.
Also, I've decided to start adding instructions for some of my creations to this blog, namely some of my knitting patterns and vegetarian recipies. Denise and I are both vegies, and me not being able to follow instructions too closely, I've learnt how to fix my disasters and adapt meals to better suit us. I love cooking from Super Food Ideas magazines, although there are a lot of meat meals. So I use meat substitutes or extra vegies. And eventually they are so far different from the original recipe, there is no way you can call them the same thing. Same goes for many things I knit. I even knitted my felted bag designed on a free promotional satchel I got at uni. So they will start popping up between posts, and a drop down list is being designed to go in the side bar so you can search through them. That may take a bit more fine tuning though.

Leaving, On an Airplane

We're off to Ballarat for the weekend. I enjoy going, it's great to get away from home for a bit (although we both miss and worry about Frankie), but it does involve a plane trip, and one and a half hours without my knitting!!!
Logic seems to escape when it comes to knitting needles on a plane. In America, a country seemingly so uptight about security and terrorists, you can knit to your heart's content over those stressful flights. But here in Australia, sharp objects (and how sharp is any needle over 3mm really) have to be declared and put in your luggage. I'm going to test it to see if it extends to crochet hooks (completely different object in my view, nothing like a knitting needle), especially plastic ones. Otherwise I may have to resign myself to some alternative knitting. Knitty.com had an article in their last edition about finger knitting. So I bought myself some fugly acrylic fluff from spotlight (forgive me, for I have sinned) and will pair it with some... feathers yarn and maybe a third strand of whatever in my stash matches, and make myself a finger knitted scarf. Could be kinda cool, could be really nasty. Have to wait and see.
Alternatively I'm hoping to get up into the old suitcase that houses the other half of my stash, including some super super chunky yarn that looks more big hairy spider legs than yarn, and try hand knitting. I read this in the Australian Creative Knitting magazine a few years ago, and I bought the yarn last year when Lincraft had their special get rid of everything old super cheap sale. But do I really want a really loose shawl? I'll see if the yarn still grabs me when I get the suitcase down.
The other thing hiding in that suitcase that I want to get my hands on before the trip to Ballarat is some lovely handspun, hand-dyed chunky wool that is just begging to be made into some thick house socks/slippers, and a long beanie. When temperatures average 10 degrees C, then I'm glad I'm a knitter. And my lovely cable beanie cannot be pulled down far enough to keep me warm. (Some days I try to get it to keep my nose warm!)
And on the beige blankie front, I casually mentioned to mum that I was knitting this thing to get rid of all my beige/brown yarn that was breeding in the stash, so she decides to offload some of her stuff onto me! So now I have enough yarn for a second blanket. Out of most of the balls there isn't enough yarn to do one round, so I figure if I make this next one in several small panels I'll have enough of the same colour in large blocks.
Today at work I took Denise's pair of Fetching with me. So nice and warm, and no mouse hand frost. Nothing worse than sitting at a computer all day, using mainly the mouse so you have one toasty hand which can be shoved under thighs, under armpits, or around the coffee mug, and the other one so cold and blue you can barely click with it. And forget about scrolling.
Hmm, maybe I should design the geek's mouse mitt for cold hands. Ideas forming.
Thanks to Denise for the spell check.

Amendment:
To amend everything I have said about knitting needles not being dangerous, I have done something really, really, really stupid.
I managed to stab myself with a knitting needle this morning, and more than just a bruised point under the skin. I up-ended our tin of dpns on the floor to find one, and lent forward into a small (I think it was a 2.5mm) dpn needle. I don't know how far it went it, but it hurts to walk. I have a puncture hole just above my knee. Thankfully my tentanus shots are up to date.
Maybe karma is out to get me for complaining too much about needles not being sharp and dangerous.
So to amend my idea, you have to be really strong (or really stupid) to be able to do damage with a knitting needle, and really only under a certain size anyway.

Back in Business

Finally I know that I'm not crazy. Went to the Physio today and after a lot of poking and prodding around, it seems I have a bit of strain on my neck muscles and, whatever they did, it's made my shoulder feel a whole lot better. Not completely healed, but much better than it has been in awhile. I'm sure it's going to involve a lot more trips back to the physio, but at $5 a visit for a undergrad student and tutor, I'm not complaining. Very well run - before poking and prodding me, the student conferred with the tutor, who also checked to make sure everything was okay.
If anyone else in Adelaide is interested in cheap physiotherapy through UniSA go to: http://www.unisa.edu.au/hls/clinics/physio.asp.
The upside of this is that hopefully I'll be firing on full thrusters when it comes to my knitting.
Which is good, as I'm slowly cleaning out my stash and preparing to buy more. [Denise groans].
Thankfully the beige blankie is growing nicely, devouring all beige yarn in the stash tower. 85cm of granny square is a lot of yarn, but despite the colour, it will be keeping someone in Mongolia warm next winter. And me warm as I make it.

We've both finished a few other projects recently. I've finally finished a baby beanie that I've had on the needles for a few months. It's made out of this horrible baby cotton nylon stuff, it has no stretch to it, feels too smooth to be natural and doesn't have much warmth to it. But it does look kinda cute now I've got it finished. The bear is Richie the handmade bear, one of Denise's creations. As well as knitting, Denise also handsews bears and other stuffed toys (we have a cat pattern somewhere waiting to be cut out).

Rodney Rooster is our next model. Denise got him for me, for the first birthday I had that Denise and I were together. He's an overstuffed, over bright rooster, and he was great to cuddle all those nights Denise was in Melbourne and not with me. He's modelling Denise's latest cast-offs - her maroon socks, which are wonderfully warm (but they have another owner already, and it's not the rooster) and a baby beanie she's made for her (still) pregnant friend. The baby is imminent.

I've been making beanies to get rid of those odd balls that honestly go with nothing else in my collection. The black and fluoro beanie was the first odd ball project. And Al Bear makes such a nice model.
I made this from my generic circular needle beanie pattern. I cast on 88 stitches on a 40cm 5mm circular needles, knitted til I had just enough yarn to finish it, started decreasing at regular intervals, got to the end and realised I had a bit to much left and made a pom-pom. It fits my head though.

I've got a big box full of clothes and such to go to the Angel Knitting program. It's helped me deplete my stash of all those odds and ends that together can end up making a pair of socks or a beanie, or a hideous big beige blankie. And it's surprisingly warm.
Thanks to Denise for fixing my 'typos'.

Too Much Time Knitting to Blog

Its been a while since we wrote. Been too busy knitting. Well that's my excuse.
Well Denise now has a toasting pair of toes and I have another item of clothing to add to my shoe box full of knitted items for the Guardian Angel Program. Slowly getting things finished.
My plan was to try and get some of my UFO's finished and off the needles. So wednesday I picked up my 40cm circulars and cast on again for another beanie to try and eat up a spare ball left over when I only had two rows to finish on a project. Will I ever learn?
That's how much I got done during my Graduate Development course. Yes, it is as neon as it looks. Why did I buy it?
I almost thought I had the beige blankey finished too. I was looking at doing a thick edging, and thought I better check through the stash, in case more beige yarn had bred. Yup, found a bag of 25g balls we got from Denise's gran. So the blanket is still growing.
Also started on another blanket. On thursday I went on a work trip to Kingston SE. Its a nice 4-5hour trip down there, very interesting and changing landscape. I also got a lot of time to sit and watch the traffic go past and crochet. And talk.
Anyway, things didn't go quite as planned, and what could have been quite simple, seemed to create problems as we went. But that's computers for you. So it meant that 6pm came and the Service Consultant that came with me made the call to stay the night. And we got put up in a hotel for the night. Went back the next day, solved one problem and created another. Eventually at 2pm everything was fixed and they thought I was a genius. So I've had a big head for the past few days too. It was good to get out of the office for a while and the best part was I got paid to knit while we travelled.
Went to see my mum on the weekend for her birthday. She'd kill me for revealing her age. Naturally, its older than me. But we all sat down knitting and crocheting; me, Denise, mum, Anita and Jenny. It was a great way to spend some time. Mum suggested that we all make my grandmother some hand knitted goodies. Anita is going to knit a scarf, Jenny is crocheting a beanie, and Denise and I are making the Fetching wrist warmers. I'm making the right one, Denise the left. So far our tension looks very close to the same. It saves us from second sock/glove syndrome.
Denise has discovered that her lecturer is a knitter too, and was showing off some of her wool she bought online from New Zealand. http://www.thewoolcompany.com Some of their colours are beautiful, and Denise is drooling so much her laptop is in danger. Apart from knitting she's been in serious study mode still. It will all be over soon. And when it is she promises to write a blog or two.
Denise only detected 4 spelling errors this time. I'm getting better, or using words I can spell. And to think, I use to get full marks in spelling tests in primary school.

Milestone

Yesterday Denise and I reached another milestone in our relationship. We've been together for three years now. And we celebrated in big style. We had dinner at a cafe and rented two movies and sat at home watching them. Ahhh, there in no better way to enjoy time with a loved one than doing something you both really want to. And some days that's sitting down relaxing, wearing pyjamas and ugg boots, and enjoying each others company.
Ahh, all those memories from three years ago, student conference, few too many drinks, dribbling shit, talking about Harry Potter, and many things that we've both forgotten, or don't wish to remember.
Although it does remind us that we have now been engaged longer than we haven't. And we still haven't done much about it. Ok, we do have a celebrant, ceremony venue and reception venue. The other stuff would be nice too. Gotta get organised.

Poor Frankie had an accident yesterday. Seems she found out exactly how close she should get to the heater as she's managed to singe her some of those long hairs in her eyebrow. Poor little sook got a cuddle, and laughed at. Probably a good reason never to get an open fire, she won't just a black cat because of her fur.
But as our editor we can't say too many bad things about her. She may decide to start cutting things we say about her. Just one of her dirty looks and she can put us in our place.
Hmm, who does run this household?

Denise has finished her Magic Stripe Socks that everyone in her class has been watching her make. They are really cool. She's since started on a new pair as a surprise gift for someone out of the Bendigo wool she got from our last trip up there.
I've worked a bit on my toddler's hot socks, I turned the heel today, then realised I should stop again. May consider asking Omi (german for grandmother) to teach me continental knitting as Nancy commented. Seems like way too much yarn action and very little needle, but it obviously works.
But the beige blankie is growing bigger. Its surprisingly warm to have sit on my lap as I work on it, although I don't sit like that on the bus with it.

And a breakthrough with Frankie. She now sleeps in her bed again, not ours. I ran her blankets (two old jumpers) through the dryer before we went to bed, and she curled up in the middle of them and slept there all night. What a relief.

Knitting in Moderation

I'm hoping to get some project percentage markers up and running tonight. I found them on Jess's blog and I loved them. Plus it might help me to keep track of how many projects I'm working on. If anyone else wants to find them they are at Yarn Tomato. It does help that I have a background in html coding, so I can figure out how to play around with all these things. My next task is to teach myself CSS, or Cascade Style Sheets. Don't be surprised if the side bars disappear or run into the text.
This weekend has been an unadventure in housework, more housework, and a bit of knitting. The more I do the more there is. Currently the shirts are flying around in the dryer in hopes to dry then, iron them and get the tissue off. Somedays the tissues stay intact in the pockets and come out the other end a soggy mess in the pocket, and other days they cling to every surface of each item. Today its the latter, and I have only one work shirt for the week.
Well it is meant to be raining the next few days, so I want to empty the rainwater tank by washing all our clothes using that water. Oooh, makes the nicest softest sheets. Its so worth lugging the 7 buckets for each cycle.
One of these days soon I hope to get our backyard fixed up. We may only be renting, be we recently got permission to rip out the pine tree that was planted almost under the washing line. It took me 30 minutes to cut down all but the stump. Once we get that out I want to plant a lemon tree (quite a bit futher away from the washingline) and some herbs. If it was our garden I'd pull out all the flowers and plant vegetables, but in the mean time the vegetables grow in polystyrene boxes. This winter I have brussle sprouts, garlic and broadbeans growing. I also have a bit of rocket that has clung on since summer and is just going to seed. I also have a 4 year old birds eye chilli plant. Still get about 20 chillis off it a season.
I've had a gardening bug since I was little, my grandfather had the most beautiful vegetable garden and I remember enjoying strawberries from his garden. When I was old enough I took over mum and dad's vegetable patch, fighting to keep it growing despite attacks from my chickens. Each Christmas I use to take pride in being about to bring Pa some beans and tomatoes fresh from my garden while his garden was only just sprouting because of the cold Mt Gambier spring. Now Denise reaps the rewards of my garden, with our pathetic pea plants struggling the produce 7 pods of peas. And I got a handful of beans. None of them made it to dinner.
I know there is very little in the way of knitting this time, simply because I haven't been able to knit as much as I'd like. My shoulder is playing up again. No one has been able to tell me what is wrong with it, the doctor said it could be a bursa, or inflamed tendon, scans showed that it wasn't but the specialist gave me a shot of steroids in the tendon because 'it couldn't hurt it'. The woman holding the ultrasound wand said it was probably my knitting (but she also said I would faint because of the needle. Ha!). I've been cautious and tried to slow down with my knitting, then tried crochet (I figured that its a different action), and that worked for a bit, but now crochet is giving me problems. I'm too stubborn to give up, especially since I can't get any conclusive answer. So I'm giving physiotherapy a try in a few weeks.
If all else fails, I get myself a knitting machine and become a Borg knitter (half knitter, half machine).

Frankie the Heater Hog

Denise is off at work tonight for stocktake, so I'm left here on my own with only the cat in keep me company.
And this is where we often find the cat. Don't worry, she's not dead, just resting, UNDER the heater.
Its one of those bar heaters with fan and an element at the base. And she's figured that the warmest place she can be is under it.
Its quite cute to see these little white paws sticking out from underneath it.
I think Frankie is the luckiest cat around and I'm sure she's greatful that she adopted us from the Animal Welfare League. I was worried that a 2yo cat would be too set in her ways for new owners/slaves, but she's grown to love us as much as we love her. She was the only cat at the shelter that actually came up and said hello to us, and meowed against the cage until we came in to talk to her. Came back the next day with a carry cage and a woollen blanket for her.
Maybe she could smell the wool on us, because she definitely is a wool snob too. She's taken to sleeping on our bed during these freezing nights, and I'll wake up with a cat pushing me out the bed. So we bought her some fluffy material from Spotlight, but she won't have a bar of it. Prefers to sit on my crochet blanket while I'm crochetting, on her first blanket, or her Kitty Pi Bed.
But she definitely is loved.
Anyway, to my knitting, I spent time today helped one of my colleagues to remember how to knit. Its so much easier teaching someone to knit when they have done it before and just need a refresher. It really made me concentrate on how I knit though. I've got to a point where I don't think anymore, I just do it.
Gives me a chance to scare people when I don't watch what I'm doing, and I watch them watching me on the bus.
Yes, I am an unashamed public knitter. I guess I'm use to the stares we get holding hands, so when I whip out the needles on the bus, I cheerfully smile back.
Well my nasty feathers/flutter edging on my last crochet blanket has made me rethink that blanket. Its sitting on the couch with half a side done. Its so bad it made me want to crochet a beige blanket. Okay, for some reason I have a lot of beige yarn, I don't know how, I never remember buying it. In fact I have found 5 balls of the stuff, so I will just keep crochetting until I run out of yarn.
But here's one I finished earlier. Actually its my first blanket. Its only 54cm across, but I figure it will be a nice over cot blanket.
Sad news today for sock knitters in Adelaide. There will be no more Hot Socks yarn at Lincraft. Its discontinued. NOOOO!!!!! Denise's sock will be unique in this house (although if I only knit the one it will be very unique).
However I did find myself 5 more balls of rainbow Marino Bambino. I just love the colours, and I know that if I don't stock up now we won't be able to get it when we decide to have children. I can just imagine it now, rainbow booties, hat and mittens, plus a little jacket and that cute baby top from the last knitty. Our kids are going to hate all the knitted goods we'll make them.
The Beige Blankie awaits me.

Knitting Unadventures

Had a rather disappointing knitting day. I subscribe to every bit of knitting junkmail I can (yes, I am the sad type of person who doesn't have a No Junkmail sticker on the snail mail letter box simply so I actually get something in there) and heard that Spotlight were having a Knitting Party at all their stores nationwide. To put it simply, it couldn't have been lamer if I'd organised it. No one turned up, those that did seemed to be the people with nothing else to do so they thought why not, and some that did turn up didn't realise it was meant to be a party.
I went with my sister Anita to the store at Clovercrest. Having just renovating the shop, and that they run craft classes, you would think that there would be a nice open space, tables, chairs, etc. Nope, three tables in the middle of the main aisles. They had a table of women knitting squares out of bright balls of acrylic yarn to make blankets for the local charity. They used one of their counters for kids craft making pom poms, and the counter was taller than some of the kids. Then the third table with some staff members (well they were wearing the t-shirts) with some crocheted blankets, those circular weaving looms and panels of those weaving things you can use to pretend you knitting a scarf when all you're doing is weaving fun fluff. I commented to one of the ladies at the table how nice the blanket was. She responded with a very condesending "Yes, that's crocheted." Wasn't in the mood for a sarcastic response back, but I did let her know that I knit and crochet, and that I was looking for more yarn for my current blanket.
In all a BIG waste of time.
In regards to that crocheted blanket, it's dark maroon and blue, and I'm still getting used to how much yarn these granny squares can use. So what starts off as more than enough 70% 30% acrylic wool mix, has turned into me hoping that Lincraft will magically find a spare ball somewhere for me. So I added the complementing dark blue for three rounds, then back to maroon. And now I'm out with no more yarn :-( Poop! So what does idiot do, "Hmm, think I might add some fun fluff to the edge of it. Spotlight has specials this weekend." Idiot here has bought 4 balls of flurry/feathers yarn in the nicest shade of dark green.
FEATHERS YARN IS EVIL AND DEMONIC AND SHOULD BE DESTROYED! AND NEVER BE USED TO CROCHET WITH. Idiot idiot idiot.
I shall persevere though. Problem with it, if you miss the loop or forget if you did that last loop you can't see it, so I find I treble 3, chain 1, undo one, chain again, treble 2, undo one, etc.
Other news, I'm trying to learn AusLan (Australian Sign Language). Having worked for many years with young children with disabilities and picking up the essentials (look, listen, sit down, stand up, toilet) I thought I might learn a bit more. So I've been visiting Auslan Signbank where you can sign up for free and access their database of signs.
So I'm progressing from the essentials listed above, finger spelling, and the few words I've picked up at student conferences (yes, I know the bad words too).
And my first word, knitting. The second was crochet. For Denise I've learnt marry, and mum wanted to know fart (it was kinda obvious, wave your hand in front of your nose twice). To make decent sentences I've learnt me, you and I.
Now I'm finding words I can use with me, you or I. Today's word, shit (and there are other good signs associated with it). Trust me, this database does not limit itself to polite converstaion.
Denise is sitting next to me as I'm showing her all these signed and shaking her head.
Oh, and after reading through this, she's made multiple spelling and grammatical corrections for me. Thanks honey.

What We're Up To

Well this can't be a knitting blog without showing off our yarn stash. It started as a few scrap balls my mum didn't want, and slowly grew as my obsession did, consuming Op shops, craft shops and now mail-order catalogues.
It grew until it overloaded the box we bought the microwave in, and Frankie tried to break into the box and dive into it, like Scrooge McDuck into his money bin. Denise's suitcase zip busted and the plane company refused to let us take the bag on anymore (at least not without three roles of packing tape), so that got loaded up with yarn that has a plan and purpose. My Zhivago jumper, some beautiful handspun just waiting for the right moment, some house slippers. Hmm, must revisit that suitcase, I'm forgetting what I left in there.
So I hung out until Ikea opened in Adelaide this April, and I bought this kid's tidy tower on our second visit (my third visit was to return the original one because there was a slip up the wood, making it three visits in as many days since opening). I love my stash tower, it's easy to access what I want, I can organise things (wool, baby yarn, fun fluff stuff, Bendigo Mills wool, more Bendigo Mills wool), I can pull out one crate and spread it all over the floor to find what I'm looking for without messing the whole collection, and when I fill this one, I can buy another, bolt them together, and have more. Yes, it does look like its already come to that stage. I seem to have found some large cones of yarn, which just don't fit in there. My favourite being three cones of mohair lycril blend. The tag looks very 70's, I have no idea what Lycril is (some acrylic I assume) and its 3 ply, but it has made the most beautifully warm shawl. Actually the shawl is piled up in the pic, its the blue thing in the pile on the right, at the same level as the blue tub. I'm not really a shawl person, and I never wear it in public, but it's one of these great things to have lying around the house when it's too cold, but you're too comfortable/lazy to get up and do something about it.

I also want to show off one of the things currently on my needles (although not for too much longer). It's my first attempt at cabling. Denise helped me a heap with it, although she found it frustrating that I am yet to remember to use a row counter. "Honey, which row did I just knit?"
The Beanie is Coronet from Knitty.com. You knit the cable first in a small strip about 25-30 stitches wide, join the ends, pick up stitches on one side and knit up. I'm using some of the seconds Alpaca yarn I bought from our trip down to the Bendigo Woollen Mills over Easter. Ooooh, that place is the best. I blew $129 on wool, and I know that I easily could have spent more. Anyway, the Alpaca wool is so soft and warm, but slippery as anything to knit with. Denise has made the same beanie, finished it and wove everything in, then it sprung a leak. The top just started unraveling while she was wearing it. Mine hasn't done that, I just have to finish it off. Currently still on the needles, although it sits beside my computer waiting for me to start decreasing.

And while I'm talking about current projects, Denise started her third jumper the other day. Knitting in Bendigo Classic yarn, its a Cleckheaton cable jumper. This is the back panel. The picture may not show it as clearly, but its a right twisting cable.
Unfortunately Denise won't be working on it too much over the next few days. Essays and assignments due, she's spent the last few days working on an assignment due next Monday, the same day as the Intro for her Graduate Diploma program, which she still doesn't know if she's in yet. Bureaucracy and meetings seems to have pushed the final decision making back so far that she may not know she's in until after the intro lecture. Hmm, that works ;-/
Today at work one of my colleagues who has been watching me knit during my lunch breaks told me she has bought a set of needles and a ball of yarn, and wants me to teach her to knit. So now I have to figure out, how the hell do I teach someone else to knit!!! I shall try.
My beanie is calling. Once I finish the beanie, I can get my hair cut, and once I get my hair cut, I'm going to put henna through my hair again, just to be different. Don't follow my logic? Don't worry, I don't either.

Socks, socks and socks

These are our little unnamed knitting mascots. They hold (most) our current projects and other UFO's. Mine is the hat-less pot with the escaping yarn. I got mine from my mum, who suggested that I use him to store potatoes in. Denise's pot was found a few weeks later at the Op shop around the corner. Maybe they were just meant to be together. Hmmm.
Today I spent my lunch break down at Spotlight with Denise fighting our way through other knitters as there was a 20% off day. I only walked away with 6 balls, a pack of thick plastic crochet hooks and stitch markers. We made up for it by going out to one of the stores in the suburbs and buying more. Although we got mainly sheets of fur for Denise's handmade Teddy bears and polar fleece for a baby blanket. One of the sheets of fur was bought for the cat. Since she loves the faux mink blanket on the bed soooo much, we thought we'd buy one for her so maybe she'll start sleeping on her bed, not ours.

So these are Denise's first socks. Top down and knitted from Bendigo Woollen Mill Sock Yarn (its a cotton blend). They are the odd socks that aren't odd. Knitted out of just over one ball of yarn, one has a lovely patterns coming out, the other looks like TV static. The only difference between the two was we got our first pair of 30cm Addi Turbo needles between sock one and two. The good thing is there is still another ball of yarn. Knowing Denise's luck if she were to knit a third sock, it would look different to the first two!


On the other side is what happens when I get an idea in my head and a generic pattern. So what does happen when you modify the dimensions of a sock pattern, smaller needles, less stitches, larger yarn but less stitches. It started with the purple/blue Fair Isle socks (first on the second row) and turned into me experimenting with all sorts of odd yarn in my stash. I've even had Carol from the Adelaide Ktog group give me her left over sock yarn to use up.
As you can see with scraps of yarn I don't bother with matching up the patterns. Actually I was lucky to finish the blue toed socks. I had to substitute Marino Bambino baby yarn in the toes to finish it. These are all for the Guardian Pharmacy/World Vision charity knitting. I figure I can play around with the sizes because some kid out there will fit them, and I get more of an idea how this wonderful sock pattern works.
A nice cup of white tea is beckoning me. White tea being tea made from the youngest and tenderest tea leaves. A definite taste difference between white and black tea, which I drink without milk (so is it black white tea?).

Day Two

In think I'm figuring out how this whole thing works. I've managed to get a picture of the three of us.
That's Denise in the pink shirt, me (Helen) in the black, and Frankie looking like she'd rather be anywhere but in front of the camera.
Today we had knitting with the Adelaide Ktog group at the Cafe in the South Australian State Library. I was so indecisive about what to knit that I brought 4 projects with me, the granny square, baby socks, baby beanie and my cable beanie. And I brought along my A5 folder to start filing away all those free patterns they give away at Spotlight and Lincraft. I found out I'm not the only one who picks up the most hideous patterns for the simple reason that they are free. Honestly, who is going to knit a cardigan out of feathers yarn????
My granny square blanket is currently sitting at 34cm and growing.
Denise was quite happy, she got her socks finished (camera has been found, pic will be uploaded tomorrow) and a scarf she was knitting for her friend who is pregnant. Two projects in one day!
I'm going to play with my settings on this thing. See if I can figure out how to set our profile. Let's hope I don't accidentally delete things.

The Beginning

Guess I'll start with the basics. I set this up to show off my knitting and to have a place where I can post pics of what I have made.
I live with my fiance Denise, and our beautiful daughter, Frankie the Cat. From time to time Denise will post here, and Frankie will more than likely sit on the desk, correcting spelling and fixing our mistakes.
Both Denise and I knit and crochet. Denise is a methodical knitter, she buys her yarn for a specific project, knits one project at a time, then moves onto the next one. Whereas I am a hoarding, impatient knitter, there will always be room in the stash tower for one more ball even if it doesn't yet have a purpose, there will always be 5 or more projects running at a time, patterns are never never meant to be followed and will work out if I sorta know what I'm doing, and there is always an empty set of needles just waiting for me to cast on. This is probably why I still don't have a jumper finished.
As of today I have on the needles:

• Tubey jumper from knitty.com


• Baby sock for the Guardian Angel Program


• Baby beanie for Denise's pregnant friend


• Granny Square blanket


• Baby blanket for... at the speed I'm going probably us in 5 years


• Cable Beanie from knitty.com


• Face cloth


• Baby jacket I started 2 years ago

Pictures of these will be added when I remember where my camera got to this time.
So at the moment, thanks to the wonderous speed of 56K dial-up I have the granny square sitting with me, a few more loops each time I wait for a page to open.
But I'm warm. I have my Blueberry Waffle socks and a beanie pulled down over my ears. And when the night temperature dips to 5 degrees C I consider wearing it to bed too. Which incidentally is where I think I might head to. Without my crochet or knitting!!!