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.