Whoops! I seem to have lost a fortnight!

I am a domestic Goddess! (Stop laughing down the back!)

I am making lamb foot-long pizza from this month's Delicious magazine. I don't like the confit idea too much, so I have made a double lot of onion marmalade from a recipe in the Women's Weekly Healthy Heart Cookbook (if you've got it kicking around it lives with a crusted lamb recipe!). This has meant I have been in floods of tears while onions were sliced because I am the world's worst onion slicer and cry for hours.

Many years ago, the Accountant used to wear contact lenses, and had no problem with onions. We used to eat a lot of French onion soup in those days, and this onion marmalade was a staple for things like barbeques and cold meat. Then he had laser surgery on his eyes, threw away the contact lenses and now is almost as bad as me in the onion department!

It's the first really lovely warm springlike day we've had today. The washing line is full and being breezed and sunned upon, things have been tidied up and stash has been enhanced. (Drat)

Rosered has been recording all her yarn ins and outs. I am too scared to do that. There has been some enhancement going on to what some people may refer to as my stash. After a recent large order, and the fact that I also did a Bendigo order while the Allegro was still on sale and then this morning found out the aran and cotton had been reduced (even though the colours are less than inspiring) I was forced to order some nut brown. Just in case.

I have not yet photographed my gorgeous sunshine yellow Flair, although I have worn her several tiimes. The Wicked I frogged has morphed into a February Lady Sweater, and I think I will like her much more that way. I have managed to knit 10 garments so far this year (when the FLS is finished) which I am quite proud of, although my sock knitting has suffered. So for Southern Summer of Socks I will be finishing WIPS and pushing over new boundaries (toe-up and 2 at a time). That's the plan.

I also intend to join Bells and knit a Shetland Triangle in Wollmeise (Indisch Rot, I think), and there is a KAL of the knit for yourself variety, so I may do 'Hey Teach' or Sprout for that.

Work is great, but time consuming, and I will be handing back Amy's manuscript, edited, over the weekend. (another reason why not a lot of blogging has happened - I have been deep in the world of Bitter Moon2 and thoroughly enjoying it!)

Have a lovely week - I'll try and get photos ready for next blog post!

Ciao!

Always Take the Weather With You

Hurrah for Carolyn – who remembered what I had forgotten! – I could see in my mind’s eye a pair of gorgeous red lacy socks with a balck beaded cuff (and due to the fact that my brain disappeared at about the time my daughter appeared I didn’t know whether it was a fabulous design idea of my subconscious, or if I’d seen it somewhere). A cursory search of the usual suspects (own books, Knitty.com, some free internet patterns) didn’t turn it up, but she did! Of course, the Yanr Harlot made one from a kit!

So here’s to Carolyn and her functioning brain! – mine gave out years ago! I’ve emailed the kit supplier, and asked if it would be possible to buy a copy of the pattern, and am awaiting their reply. I really hope they say yes, because otherwise I am going to have to design my own, and we know what that will mean! Nightmares and a probably unwearable sock! Not to mention copyright issues, unless I make it entirely different. Ay me!

For those of you who have signed up, the Southern Summer of Socks starts today!!! – Unless, of course, like me, you have a handicap because you started early! So my SSS starts tomorrow – Yay etc. I will probably try to finish my Clapotis before I continue on the socks though – because having too many WIPs is slightly stressing me – I am so close to finishing Juno and the Clappy has 4 repeats to go before I start on the decrease section.

I really like the Happy Clappy. And I think I may make a wool one next autumn, but next on the needles are several pairs of socks, some Christmas presents, Black Dog’s swing jumper in Silk Garden and Bella in the Amerah silk and Bendigo cotton. That’s more than enough to keep me occupied until nearly Christmas.

It’s been a very blustery and changeable end of September. We’ve had gales, huge amounts of rain, hail, some sunshine, snow in the mountains and yet, spring still marches on.

You’ve got to love the way nature goes “Nup – don’t care about the weather. This is spring, and I’m going to wear my best clothes!”.

My Princess is currently sick – she went to the cinema for the very first time on Saturday with her best friend and best friend’s mother and came home complaining of a headache and sore eyes. She’s been running a fever since then, along with general down-ness and complete lack of appetite (most unusual for the Princess). She’s better today, but still somewhat demanding, so I’ll leave this now.

But as I leave, just a thought. KMS was discussing the’Friend’ thing on Ravelry. I’m with her, in that I don’t think that Ravelry’s a popularity contest. But just to make me feel better, all my blogpals are Ravelry friends, right? Have I missed anyone I should have invited? If I have, it’s because I haven’t had a chance to spend much time there, but I really don’t want to feel like Sleeping Beauty’s mother – let me know if you’re feeling overlooked and sad, because trying to exclude people is not the aim (despite being elitist and invitation only!!). Remember, it’s about yarn and knitting and the size of your stash!!!

The Handicap Stakes

I’m glad we’ve got that whole handicapping thing out of the way. Most of you seemed to think that holding off and giving the SSS a days head start was a reasonable handicap – so we’ll stick to that. I do enough frogging because I’ve completely stuffed up – it sort of seemed to be mocking the knitting Goddess to frog when you haven’t made a mistake!

It’s been a particularly tumultuous day here in Tassie – in 24 hours we’ve had torrential rain, sunshine, blustery winds, hail, more sunshine, more rain, more wind and generally more of everything – we’ve probably had snow up in the mountains.

My mother used to use an old saying about March in the Northern Hemisphere coming ‘In like a lion and out like a lamb’. That probably accurately describes September in Tasmania. Some days let you know that summer isn’t far off, and other wild blustery days point out that it’s not that long since winter finished. As September finishes in 2 days, I hope the weather gets its act together and goes out like a lamb (mmm….. lambswool).

A friend of mine’s mother has just returned from a holiday in New Zealand and purchased for me some glorious Touch wool (in turquoises and greens) some Touch brushed mohair (in green, turquoise and purple) and a boucle mohair mix in reds and browns – she also snagged a tiny sheep and 2 gorgeous sheep buttons and the lovely bag it all came in. I owe her some money but she’s got great taste!!

I think I mentioned in a previous post the prospect of incoming books. I decided to blow this months allowance on Amazon.com and purchased some knitting books which are either ludicrously expensive or completely unobtainable in Australia. I am awaiting their arrival and will dutifully add them to my ‘IN’ list when I have them in my hot little hands. They don’t count as ‘In’ till they’re here (just as they don’t count as ‘Out’ till they leave the premises!).

The Accountant returns in a very short time – we are looking forward to his return – especially the children and especially the Princess (did I hear any murmurs of ‘Daddy’s little girl’? – too right she is!).

I’ll pop this up and try to get photos of the new wool soon. In addition, I’d like to point out that Donni’s yarn is tooo gorgeous – but will not be cast on until after the official SSS start date. (I won’t be caught again!) But certainly (as per some backroom discussions) the thought of the Rosered yarn in a lacey pattern with a yet to be determined black cuff and even possibly beads (which I have never knitted with) is rather fetching. All ideas and pattern pointers gratefully accepted!

And the Answer Is........

Well, in answer to the question posed in a recent blog, most of you seemed to think there was rather a dead heat between knitting and sex, but that knitting while talking about knitting (and eating Kate’s orange and dried cherry brownies) was pretty darn good (notice how I get my ‘G’ rating). There was some thought that knitting during sex was probably NOT a great idea, but that crying out ‘Yarn over, mohair oh mohair!’ during the throes of passion may also cause a little trouble in the marital bed!

On the plus side, life has remained fairly good, as although the Accountant is away on business, my wonderful and entirely un-evil stepmother is staying which means I have an adult to talk to during the day and, as she knits, I have an adult knitter who loves my children to talk to during the day – a wonderful state of affairs.

The Princess finally went to her first class at Circus School and thinks it is wonderful. She’s the littlest one in the class, but was trying to hula hoop while spinning herself (don’t bother trying it – it really doesn’t work!), doing forward rolls, balancing on a board on a cylinder and suspending herself upside down from the uneven bars – heaven in fact!

Destructoboy has used his powers moderately wisely in recent times – not destroying too much, but is enjoying Grandma’s visit.

I have knitted on my Clapotis, popped some pictures up on Ravelry – made a mistake about when SSS was starting and fallen off the wagon in both the yarn and shoe departments. Oh, and the book department, too – just in case I forget later.

I have ordered some Neon from Bendigo, received some glorious sock yarn from Donyale (Rosered and Burnt Butter – too, too gorgeous – I had to snap them up, and now I feel like a yarn pig but they’re mine, mine I tell you hahahahahahahaaa… Sorry – just lapsed there for a moment).

The mistake was casting on a sock for a party, and then knitting a bit while chatting to the Knitting Knight. What? Of course you take a sock when you go to a party. This meant I jumped the SSS gun, so, while I did consider frogging and starting over, I have decided I would offer a compromise. As I have spent around 2.5 hours knitting this sock, I offer the option of taking a handicap. I suggest that I don’t start the SSS KAL until the 2nd of October, which would make me about even with the 2.5 hours of knitting I’ve done and therefore, fit into the spirit of the KAL and salve my conscience.

What do you think? Would honour be satisfied with this solution?

In the throwing myself wholeheartedly off the wagon department, while roaming childlessly through our local CBD, I saw, fell in love with and bought these:

These are very high and very narrow red polka dot wedges which I couldn’t resist. I also bought 3 bras on sale, so my ‘IN’ count in the de-cluttering report will be rather higher than I was thinking. (And my ‘OUT’ count not as high as I was hoping).

Visit SSS and sign up – even if you think you might only knit one pair – it’ll be fun and I am looking forward to it. For those of you who think I’ve rather stuck my neck out on the personal challenge front, consider that one pair of socks could satisfy nearly all my challenges – if I, for instance, were to knit a toe-up pair of fairisle cotton socks with a cable! (I’m not really planning to but…)

I also think that Donni’s Rosered yarn demands something very lacy and sexy (perhaps that I cold wear with high polka dot shoes?). I’ll get back to you on that one.

Oh, It's a Beautiful Day!

Hurrah for school! Princess is back at kindergarten today, I have the house to myself this morning and all is right with the world.

It is a beautiful day, so what am I doing? Well may you ask. I am uploading photos to my Flickr account, blogging and playing with Ravelry!!! Yay – I’m also intermittently looking out the window and deciding that I’ll take Destructoboy out to play when I bring him home.

So while my photos upload, I thought I’d update you all.

The Happy Clappy has been making progress – to the detriment of Juno – I’ve had a couple of evenings when I haven’t been able to concentrate much on the pattern for cables, so I’ve been working on the Clappy instead. I’m enjoying knitting it, although last night I frogged a row four (get that – four) times because I’d been so tired the night before I’d left cryptic instructions as to where I was up to when I finished for the evening. The instructions were SO cryptic I tried four times to get the counts right until I finally realised that my note meant I had FINISHED row 6 – and NOT THAT I WAS ABOUT TO START IT!!!!



Once this minor problem was sorted (and an hour of knitting time wasted) we were all fine. Now, I should have picked this up before – and, indeed, most people with half a brain WOULD have done so. The problem was compounded by my suddenly getting distracted (Look – something shiny!!! What was that again?) and attempting to knit row 6 of the next section. When I finally realised I needed to knit row 8, it was all plain sailing! (Some days I am soooo dumb!)

In the middle of all this, I realised that I would need some simple knitting – OOOOOOHHHH way back on Friday night – so I head-started myself on Summer of socks and cast on a Feather and Fan sock in The Knitting Ninja’s Tulip colourway. This is sooo pretty – dusty rose, spring green, pastel blue and wine. I have been knitting a plain sock in Patonyle blue faux fairisle, but I’m very bored with it.

Casting on a new travelling sock is breaking a number of self imposed rules. This brings my WIPs to 4, makes me put the Patonyle’s into hibernation, slips Juno down my list – and enrages the Accountant – mainly because I took Tulip to a party on Friday night, evangelised about knitting and chatted to a lovely Grandmother about the best heels!

I decided on another Feather and Fan for a travelling sock, because I have knitted so much of this pattern that I find it easy to knit in cars (or at parties), and I wore my other F&F socks in my Mary Jane’s the other day and was entranced by how pretty the pattern looked!

So, Southern Summer of Socks Challenges:

These are self imposed and I’m quite looking forward to all of them:
1. Knit at least 5 pairs of socks (in addition to normal knitting)
2. Knit at least 2 pairs of Red Bird Knit Sock club socks (yes, the September parcel has been posted and I have knitted no kits)
3. Knit at least one pair of Toe-up socks
4. Knit one pair of real Fairisle socks
5. Knit at least one pair of cotton socks
6. Knit socks only from stash (or socks kits) with one exception – I am allowed one ‘Get out of jail free’ card providing it is to meet one or more of the requirements above (eg. a purchase which assists me in knitting a fairisle, toe-up sock in cotton – well , maybe not, but you get the picture!)

If I meet all these challenges, I will do something nice for myself, like buy some more Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn or something – the reward needs to be thought on a little.

I’d also like to ensure everyone notices that (apart from the socks) all knitting is being carried out by Knitpicks Options needles – quick plug – don’t forget Donyale’s competition and the fact that you can get Knitpicks from her – including the new options later in the year in the lovely wood – but get behind me because I said I wanted some first!!!

Speaking of Donyale, I was a total Yarn Pig yesterday, and bought two of her lovely Yarn Cakes – remind me to stick them in my ‘In’ list at the weekend. I also threw myself off the wagon in order to purchase a Turkish Spindle from Yarn Magazine – who have their Spindle Special on again.

That’s more than enough for today – most of you are probably so bored you’ve already left.

I will have pertinent, witty and amusing stuff for you tomorrow – or the next day – bah!! Who am I kidding? It’ll be the same stuff – you know – wool, yarn, knitting, that stuff – see you then!