To do...

Only one of a multitude of projects I've made recently. Tomorrow my itinerary looks like:
1) Take knitting photos
2) Work on some school work
3) Do some work on my blog (YAY!)
4) Do some knitting (double YAY!!)
5) Enjoy the fact that it's a long weekend here (triple YAY!!!)

Check back tomorrow for a much more impressive entry!

D-Day

Back to work tomorrow, at a new school...I don't think I've ever been as nervous as I am tonight. I've been knitting all day to try and hide the symptoms but now that it's time for bed I'm uptight (I can actually feel my shoulders getting tighter and tighter) and fidgety. I'm finding it hard to settle to one task, let alone sleep!

Oh, I know I'll be fine in the end an dit's not that big a deal, but for some reason this school intimidates me and I'm shit scared I'll fail the challenge it's setting.

My nervous energy has been useful today though. This morning I decided to make some fingerless gloves for a friend whose birthday was yesterday. I figured I'd get them done by the end of the week and in the mail after the long weekend. Imagine my surprise when they both got finished and sewn up by 8.30pm tonight!! I'm impressed. I'll pop them in the mail for her tomorrow - it will be interesting to see her reaction, she has no idea I'm planning this. Here's hoping she likes them *crosses fingers*

No photos again today - I've got some to show you, but I've been slack and haven't got them ready for the blog yet. Soon, I promise!

Wish me luck!!!!!

I may not survive the term...

I got my uni stuff for this semester the other day. I'm just doing the one unit - "The Swinging Sixties: the 1960s in Britain, America and Australia", sounds really interesting and as I work through my first reading (see, I'm a good girl, getting a head start!) it is interesting and I'm thinking I'm going to enjoy the work.

What I will not enjoy though is the assignment load - one 1000 word essay, one 3000 word essay and an exam in which I have to write three essays! Oi, oi, oi....

I haven't been as knitting productive as normal today, just haven't been much in the mood. A lot going on on the homefront and prorities sadly meant that knitting was not high on the agenda. However, I did finish off another headband, a cabledone this time and I love the pattern and the process of it, but sadly the colour doesn't suit me :( So, I've dug deep in the stash and found a more agreeable colour and will start work on it once my bright yellow woven headband is done in a couple of days! I'll put up a pic tomorrow of today's FO.

Did you like my Jane Austen character last night? I thought it was pretty well suited. I've been in love with Austen's books ever since I had to study Pride and Prejudice in high school. Something about her heroines that I click with.

Got to love Lady Austen and her heroines.

Take the Quiz here!

FOs

To your left you will see two of the finished Quant's (http://knitty.com/ISSUEwinter07/PATTquant.html) I've already raved to you all how much I've enjoyed this pattern and the way it worked with this wool.

To the right you can see the completed Woven headband (http://www.kidsknits.com/woven_headband.htm) for the nephew. I love it. In fact I've cast on for the second this afternoon - one for me using scraps from my stash. I'm altering it very slightly though. I'm going to try a provisional cast on and then grat the two ends together. I have no idea if it'll work, but it's worth a try!

When things just click...

My apologies for running off with barely a passing word the other night, I was feeling far too negative to frame a decent post and it’s taken me this long to really get motivated to try and do a proper write up.

It’s been a good week of knitting for me – despite the challenge of juggling a six year old and knitting. For some reason things have been flying off the needles – and I’m enjoying that feeling of accomplishment that comes with that. In the space of five days I have completed THREE Guant’s and am just about done a Woven Headband. It feels good to have so much going on.

While reading Yarn Harlot’s, “Knitting Rules”, I laughed out loud in many parts but I felt the urge to share the guidelines and suggestions for finding more knitting time – particularly the discussion about knitting in public. After reading her suggestions I felt prepared to brave a few KIP moments. It started on my train ride into the city last week – I knit the entire time, nearly two hours of uninterrupted knitting time. It was blissful and I didn’t notice any strange looks or hear any whispered comments, so that was encouraging.

My second foray into KIP was the most daring to date. While we had the nephew we decided we’d take him to the movies as a treat (for future reference check with the child what they’ve already seen so you can plan accordingly BEFORE getting to the cinema). Because we hadn’t yet learned that important skill we got the cinemas only to find out he’d seen the movie we’d planned on taking him to – OH NO! So, quickly enacting Plan B (which was made up on the spot) we took him to see a film we’d already seen but he hadn’t – The Golden Compass. It’s a good film and I didn’t mind the idea of watching it again, but I wanted to keep knitting, so as the lights went down I pulled out my project (another Quant) and started to work away. Hearing a snicker I turned to look at hubby and saw that he was trying desparately not to:

a) Laugh out loud when the movie was just starting, and
b) Move away from me in embarrassment, afterall I was knitting – IN PUBLIC!

I continued on knitting right through the movie, in spite of his embarrassment, and I was proud of that.

So, overall my KIP has been a success and I’m sure to do more of it in the future.

The other thing I’ve been doing a lot of lately is hanging out on Ravelry wow! There is just so much stuff going on over there I really could lose an entire day! I’ve joined a HEAP of groups and even put my hand up for a couple of swaps. I’d love to join a KAL but I’m just not brave enough for that. I’m off to set up flickr tonight so I can start getting pictures happening here again. I’ve got some waiting to upload, but I don’t want to chew the bandwidth while hubby is playing WoW. So hopefully I’ll have some pics up tomorrow at the latest!

Until then – knit what you love!

KIP

I knit in a cinema today - surprisingly I was successful.

I have more to talk about but am suddenly not in the talkative mood. I'll try to shake this negativity before I write anymore.

Busy little bees

We've been babysitting our nephew. He's six and has been running us ragged. It's been a fun filled five days but to be honest I'm looking forward to dropping him off at his parents place on Tuesday. Afterall, he's affecting my knitting time!

I have managed to get a little bit of knitting in whilst he's been here. In the car I've done a few more squares for Dad's blanket - about a gazzilion to go! But at home I've been working on the Quant headbands for I promised my mates as late Christmas presents.

I'm using wool from my stash, I remember buying this yarn. I coveted it for weeks before I gavein and bought it. I have long ago lost the details of the company, but I remember it's from a NZ company and is 100% wool. The colourway it gorgeous - blues, purples and a pink that somehow ties it all together by being the odd one out. I've tried to use this wool for a number of things over the years but it's just never worked out, I've not liked the way the colours have fallen together, or just felt that the pattern didn't do the yarn justice. This is no longer the case. This pattern, with this wool - to die for! I love it. I'm so in love with it I will actually have to knit one up for myself! (I rarely get this urge to keep something I've made).

The pattern is great too - it's easy and despite my limited knitting time I've managed to get two of these off the needles in two and a half days (less if you take away all the hours not spent knitting)! Even teh icord I was nervous about is addictive.

I've spent my downtime tonight surfing Ravelry, trying to get my bearings. I've not yet got flickr sorted out, so no pics at this stage, but I've poked my nose into a few groups and joined a couple of KALs. If anyone's interested my username over there is Kiansha - can't wait to get to know a few of you all!

They're done!

The sleeves for the jumper are done! I just need to o the collar now, but that's on pause. I'm catching the train into the city today so I needed something I don't need a pattern for. So todayI'm beginning the squares for my dad's blanket. I'm going to make a mixture of 20cm x 20cm and 10cm x 10cm squares. I'm going for a patchwork, slightly random look to the finished product. We'll see how it goes.

In exciting news - I got my Ravelry invite!! I haven't set anything up yet, so I'll revel my user name another day!

Have a great Wednesday!

Short and sweet

A short one tonight - and again no photos. I was under prepared and let the camera batteries die...my bad.

I'm still plugging away at the jumper sleeves, hoping to finish them tonight or tomorrow.

It has to be an early one for us tonight, we've got an early start down at the Animal Refuge scrubbing and cleaning for the kitties.

We did go to the library today where I picked up a couple of books and an audio book to listen to while I knit. I'm going on the train on Wednesday and can't be sure my podcasts will be out for then, so this is my back up plan! And it's a good plan!!

Right, back to the grind...

Plotting

I finally finished the front of the jumper last night and immediately cast on for the sleeves. I'm trying something new this time doing them both at the same time on a circ. I'm liking it at this stage, it means I wont have to worry about whether they'll match like I do when I do them separately. Once the sleeves are done I do the collar and then sew up - I'm hoping it'll be done by the end of the week!

Once the jumper is out of the way I'm planning on casting on for what will be my first foray into interlac (and where I also finally learn what the big hype over i-cord is): http://knitty.com/ISSUEwinter07/PATTquant.html

And then I've got a BIG project in mind. It's been lurking there a while now, ever since I saw the absolutely gorgeous blanket made dfrom squares donated through the Mason-Dixon Knitting blog - http://www.masondixonknitting.com/archives/2007_12.html#002292

In honour of my Dad's 50th (which may or may not have been in 2007, and which may or may not be in 2008 - it is NOT my fault that I can't remember his birthday, he's spent the last 15 years training me to forget and now suddenly he wants me to remember!!!) I would like to make him a blanket. And so, soon the beginning of the process will begin.

Mum's 50th is also creeping up on me and while I was browsing through the blogs the other week I saw a gorgeous pattern for a shawl called Pretty as a Peacock. However, it wasn't until I saw Paradise Found's latest FO photos that I was overwhelmed by the urge to knit this lovely shawl. You can see her pics here: http://paradisefoundkerrie.blogspot.com/2008/01/fo-pretty-as-peacock.html. This is now earmarked as my lace project for 2008 as a future gift for my mum.

I spent much of today knitting, and plotting in my little head about future projects knitting and non knitting - I seriously need to convince hubby to help bring in my sewing desk tomorrow. It's been disgustingly hot after all our recent rain so sitting under a fan has been a survival technique - hence small projects currently.

We did go to town and see P.S. I Love You the movie. I want to read the book, but there's a waiting list at the local library presently and I can't find it in any bookstores just at the moment. It's an absolutely gorgeous storyline and there were definite teary moments.

No pics today I'm afraid, maybe tomorrow.

Letting it rip ...again...ARGH!

I have no had to rip large sections of the front of the baby jumper THREE times!!!! I just keep making the stupidest mistakes, it's beginning to frustrate me

Anyway, I have other things to distract me.



A little light reading that has to get done before the end of my holidays. I wasn't able to get all of them, there are 4-5 I have to source from elsewhere, but this is a good start, don't you think?

I read "Walking Naked" by Alison Brugman from that pile last night (well finished it off this morning), it was really good. Very powerful, a very real depiction of bullying and its consequences. Hubby has started "The Wave" by Morton Rhue, which is about an in class experiment exploring Nazism going very very wrong and spreading into the school community. I'm really interested in reading that one, it's based on a real event apparently. And I've just picked up "No Worries" by Bill Condon, so far it's good. A very realistic main teenage male character, so we'll see how it pans out.

Because of all the ripping back there's not a lot to show for all my knitting of the last couple of days (how annoying!), but another book purchase yesterday reminds me not to hate knitting, no matter how rough it may get:



"Knitting Rules!" by Yarn Harlot! I've coveted this book secretly for a while now and when I saw it on the shelf I couldn't resist any longer! It's very funny and easy to read and is full to the brim with fabulous information. It'll be something I'll dip into time and time again for many years to come I'm sure.

In parting today, can I just take the time to thank Donna who apporved my membership to the Aussie and NZ Knitters webring while on holidays in the USA. Wooohooo! I'm a member of the ring now *happy dance*

A short one today

We did four hours at the animal shelter this morning - hard work, tiring work, but it was good and it's definitely going to be something we do again.

After my early morning and hard labour what better way to spend a rainy afternoon than this:



I holed up in the spare room (tentatively my craft room at present) with a hot tea, the cat and my knitting. I plugged my ipod in with my fav podcasts on, watched the rain and got lost in the stockingnette stitch of the front of the shawl collar baby jumper. I actually had to rip all 17" out the other day - silly me miscounted the cast on...I do that far too often, so today I managed to almost get back to where I was before that disaster became obvious. So my afternoon was quiet, peaceful and good for the soul.

Wet, Wet, Wet

Well, after years of very little rain a week of wet and wild weather makes for a welcome change. However it has left many of us unprepared for coping with extended periods of such weather.

Twice this week I have made plans without considering the weather. The first was to meet my mates and hit the local markets. Wonderful idea...unless it's absolutely pouring and the entire town has sold out of ponchos! We still had an absolute blast - ducking and weaving (and more than a little splashing!) our way through the stalls. Was very good to catch up with them.

That market could be a dangerous place for me - so many lovely things to buy! But today (in keeping with my determination to try and be better with my money) I was pretty good. I had hoped to stumble upon some funky wool stall - but I'm afraid that such a meca was not to be found. Instead we found these absolutely gorgeous wrap skirts with screen printed panels taken from various art works (a lot of Asian ones, but some gorgeous ones by Dali and Monet too). I couldn't resist and came home with:



When I got home it was time for some running repairs. There's been so much rain a lot of the watercourses are clogged and so the driveway was literally a creek bed:

Good thing we own a 4X4!

So, a little waterway diverting was in order:



Whilst the construction was underway I wandered about taking pics of my feet in the conditions:

Heralding a new year

So last night was a fairly quiet one for us, a mate came over and we played board games, watched the fireworks on telly and had a few drinks. It was nice, relaxing. A quiet end to a hectic year.

So the first day of 2008 and guess what - it's raining again. No huge surprise there really, but it's fantastic all the same. Our lawn is all squidgy - it's going to take days for it to dry out properely.

Since waving our mate goodbye early this arvo we've been sorting through boxes from the move and repacking the garage so that it's neater (at least). It means I haven't start 2008 with a frenzy of knitting, but I'm about to go put a dvd on, make myself a cup of tea and knit a few more rows.

A short one today and no pics :(...next time!