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!!!