Brainsnap

I've done it, I've taken the plunge. All this pink has driven me nuts. I've moved my blog to typepad in order to take advantage of some of their features. You can find me here. See you there!

Pretty!

I confess I flogged this photo from the yarnomat website cos I'm too damned excited to wait till the yarn shows up to share it. I went to Spotlight yesterday, where they were having a massive sale of discontinued yarn (which I didn't know about till I walked into the knitting area) and emerged unscathed. No really, I got the DPNs I went for and that was it. As a reward, I had promised myself this gorgeous yarn. The wool is machine knitted into squares and then given to artists to paint. The other colourways didn't do much for me, but I had to have the pretty pink spotty one. :) It's getting express posted so I should have it Wednesday at the latest. I'm wondering what it will look like as socks!

Tofutsies

I have this most gorgeous sock yarn called Tofutsie. I cast on with it yesterday to see how it would go using the same sock pattern as I did for my other socks. Unfortunately after about 4 hours of knitting on 3.75mm dpns it came to my attention (when I slipped it on my ankle) that it looked more like lace than a sock. Not too much of a drama, except that I'm pretty sure that one reason I couldn't get to sleep last night was because I was wondering if the yarn would work out on the size dpns I was using. So I ended up sitting up until 2 (yes, that's am) to get them to the point where I could actually have enough to get them on my foot to make a decision. Given that I spent more on this yarn than I normally would (the Yarn Harlot's "use the best yarn you can afford" mantra must be kicking in somewhere in my subconscious) I didn't make my usualy decision to just keep going, it will do. So there I sat, watching appallingly bad music on Rage (Dear Rage programmers, there are people up at ungodly hours of the morning, please for the love of all things rock and roll, put on some music that lived!) and frogging my lovely blue-green creation. I've now had a grand total of about 4 hours sleep (because the witchlet doesn't take the "don't wake mummy up" rule terribly seriously) and I'm about to cast on with 2.75mm dpns to see if I have better success. I should do, it's what the ball band recommended. So today I have learned that while chunkier thread can tolerate a bit of hithering and thithering with needle sizes, for anything under about a 4 ply the needle size on the ball band is more than just a serving suggestion. Oh, and according to the doctor I have faryngitus, and the back of my throat looks as though someone's taken to it with a meat tenderiser. Nice. Clearly I'm too boring to work up to laryngitus, but I'm all good with that. At least the antibiotics have broken the temperature so I can get back to the blankie today. Or should I do socks first? Dammit, I wish I had another set of hands.

Ta Da!!!

You know you're addicted to knitting socks when you've cast on another lot when the first lot isn't off the needles yet. I have a feeling this is going to do bad things to my currently pretty tame UFO totals ...

What I learned today

A person who is ill with a temperature in the middle of the Brisbane summer should never work on a blanket, no matter how well she thinks she can handle it.

Update!

Man things have been a little hectic here. I'm looking forward to the witchlet going back to school next week - hopefully it will help me regain some of my sanity. I've been busy, busy, busy since I last posted. The Juicy Blue Hexie blanket is well and truly underway with 60 hexagons completed. Also, my tube socks are now complete. The tube socks have taught me that it's virtually impossible to weave in ends when you don't have a seam to sew them in to. This has made me vow to use really pretty variegated/self patterning yarn in the future. (Like I need an excuse). Also, my love of Ravelry continues. A wonderful lady started a group for people using a book I bought recently to make their first pair of proper socks. Work started on January 14, and I'm proud to say that my first proper sock, with heel and everything, has been completed. Well mostly, still need to sew the ends in. I used an angora blend which will be gorgeous for winter. For my next pair I'll use a lighter yarn. And last but not least, my lovely sun flower has bloomed. We've been basking in her glory for about a week now. Also, it seems an appropriate time to say congratulations and good luck to President Obama. How fabulous to start the year with a new American President who does represent all the good that the States has to offer.

And we're off!

I've discovered that it's quicker if I do a heap of circles and them join them together with the hexagon shape. It seems to reduce thinking time (which is always a bonus). As it's a brilliant morning here in Brisvegas I thought I would show you a few pictures around my garden. I live in a little townhouse, so I don't have much of a garden, but I love my herbs. These are my native violets. They go mad this time of year. The Rosemary is starting to flower And so is the Peppermint. Don't they both look like they are loving life right now? I also have loads of little spiders in the garden. This little St Andrew's Cross got a bit agitated with me taking his photo. He's very at home in my Jasmine. And wonder of wonders, what is that? I feed the local birds on top of my shed. It looks as though some of the seeds have fallen into the potting mix bag and held on for dear life. And amazingly enough, one of those seeds must have been a sunflower! I've always thought about growing sunflowers and never tried because I thought it would be difficult. Now I have one growing all by itself! I can't wait till it flowers!