Needles on the Move

Apparantly mum was right. But coincidentally - I was very keen to show you my new purchase which I got rather too excited about last night when I walked past a Putney store and saw it in the window…

A project bag with chooks on it :-D

Some of you may call them chickens, but where I come from a chicken is a baby one, or the meat when you’re eating it.

Not only is my new chook bag just perfect for a sweater project, it’s waterproof too so they’re all safe from the floods ;-)

The aforementioned pics of rain. Mum’s too busy rescuing chooks so I’ll post them for her.

This creek has been dry for years.

Two finished objects in one week! Not to mention one nearly finished which will almost certainly be off the needles by Thursday.

New socks for me: Yarn is from Middle Earth Yarns; Pattern will be available as soon as I have a few more photos.

The other FO is a secret I’m afraid, I’ll publish a pic on July 9th (which just happens to be my mum’s birthday ;-))

It seems to be the way things work around here. I have a habit, when the urge is upon me, to start lots of things at the same time. This somehow (even taking into account vastly different completion times) leads to finishing lots of things within a short timeframe as well. Perhaps it’s all to do with the guilt of too many wip’s on the needles - I get finishing fever.

Of course, finishing things frees up space on the needles for new things to knit! Now what could I be doing with this …

This is also from Middle Earth Yarns, Cairi’s new merino sport weight. Now that I’ve finally finished admiring it and having the occasional fondle ;-) I have wound it up, and will be swatching tonight.

Britain doesn’t seem to have registered the fact that it is supposed to be summer here. While we lay on the beach in the sun last week it poured here practically non-stop. Interestingly, as we drove home from the airport at 4am yesterday (don’t get me started on how competent Neil is at booking flights) it was already getting light - it’s a loooong time since I stayed up until daylight ;-)

The good news is, it is also raining in Victoria and the farm has had about 7 inches over the last week or so. I expected pictures of the rain but mum’s more excited about the new sheep.

Aren’t they cute :-D they will all be single mothers come spring, I pity them.

- - - - -

Thank you all for the advice about Spanish yarn. I didn’t see any I’m afraid, in fact I didn’t see anything Spanish. The resort at Palma Nova in Mallorca is about as English as you can get in a sunny place. The food was English, the people were English, the beer was English. I don’t recommend the hotel we stayed in - it was full of drunken (English) yobs who liked to yell down the corridor and bang on each other’s doors at 4am. To get any sleep at all it was necessary to go to bed early and snooze before they came up. Sigh, yes, I know. I’m an old lady.

But oh the SUN!

I’m really not a beach person but I could have stayed all week. Neil wants a boat to cruise the Mediterranean in :-D anyone know how rich we have to be for that?

- - - - -

Spain having created a bit of a backlog in the ‘things to do’ I have decided to give everyone another week on SSAL #2. Entries are now due on the 2nd, #3 should be up this Sunday.

Ciao!

Sorry all, I meant to have an interesting post with pictures but I got home late and have to pack.

What does one knit in Spain? And where might I find all the yarn shops ;-)

See you Monday xx

It occurred to me this week that I seem to have been doing this bloggin thang for a while. So I tracked down the old Blogger blog, trawled through the archives and …

Yep. I missed my own Blogiversary :-(

On June 11 2006 I decided to start a blog. I was inspired by the Knitsmiths, who I tracked down through searching for sock patterns. This had brought me to Alison’s blog and I used her short-row pattern for my first ever socks and many subsequent pairs.

As I have nothing better to show you today (too much sneakret knitting and spinning going on here) I will send you on a little trip down memory lane where you can laugh at my first ever posts.

And because a no-photo post is kinda dull, here’s a couple to remind you that…

Yep, you should be getting in those entries for SSAL #2: It’s all in the Wrist! Which can be found here.

The winner of today’s prize draw for Crinkle Cut is Anne P  :-D I’d show you a piccy of what I’m sending her, but then it wouldn’t be a surprise so you’ll have to wait a couple of days ;-)

Thank you to everyone who participated, I will be donating £9 to Tricoteuses sans Frontieres for the entries received, and I know that there were a lot more people lurking around who did not send in photos. Keep telling your friends, and don’t forget, all you need to do to enter the prize draw is to spin a little sample and send me a pic!

Happy spinning,

Click here for SSAL #2: It’s all in the Wrist

1. Gather essential supplies:

Essential supplies which do not appear in this picture: newspaper, syringes. I spent a long time looking for newspaper - normally there are piles everywhere, right? There wasn’t even any out in the hall where the mail for the last 73 residents mounts up rapidly between periodical cleanouts. I eventually found some packing paper in the recycle bag. The syringes I replaced with teaspoons (now clearly labelled ‘not for stirring tea’).

2. Layer as follows: protective newspaper scrounged packing paper, plastic wrap, … damn, forgot to soak the hankies. Okay, I was doing this at the end of the day running on very little sleep from the night before.

2. Soak stuff you plan to dye in water and vinegar for 1 hour as long as you can bear to wait.

3. Layer as follows: protective newspaper scrounged packing paper, plastic wrap, hankies.

4. Paint on the dye using a syringe teaspoon.

5. Roll up into a neat cooking parcel.

6. Zap in microwave.

7. Admire :-D

The roving was even more fun than the hankies. Roving being prone to felt if not carefully handled, I decided to leave it to cool absolutely before I rinsed it. Having decided that no harm could be done by just gently having a poke at it in its cocoon, I unwrapped it a bit and decided it hadn’t been cooked long enough. So (very gently of course) it was rewrapped and bunged back in the microwave. Then I thought I’d better be sure so I dropped it in the sink and ran hot water through it. It came out fine ;-)

8. Shop for proper equipment (lol).

Or, plying from an Andean Bracelet

I spin a lot of samples. For articles, photo shoots, to test out an idea or to find the best twist amount or wheel ratio. Being of a fairly unenergetic persuasion, I quickly tracked down a way of getting my short samples plied up without having to resort to spinning little bits on many bobbins and constantly unscrewing the flyer on my wheel …

For the whole tutorial click here

Thank you to everyone who has sent in entries for Crinkle Cut (it’s not too late). I will be drawing the winner at 9:00am tomorrow, and the gallery will be up soon so you can see everyone’s work.

SSAL #3 will be a quickie as I want to squeeze it in before I go on holidays later this month, SSAL #4 is a while away but I was thinking maybe silk hankies :-D I’ll let you know in plenty of time what you’ll need.

Happy Spinning!

Recently this arrived in the mail:

Can’t see properly? How about now:

(Squeeeee!)

And doesn’t this look dull:

I have a whole weekend ahead of me - yes, I have lace to knit, but there will definitely be time to play!