grumpygirl

Knitting malaise

I am so uninspired by knitting at the moment, I just can't get into it. Even with stuff like these 3 skeins of Sundara's aran silky merino in Ruby Port. Finally a colourway from the yarn club that is actually one I'd like for myself. That's the last instalment, I think. I won't be re-subscribing because it's so expensive. Mostly down to the shipping. She uses a huge priorty mail box for usually one skein of yarn. Insanity.

I've been knitting the practical cotton stuff like burpcloths and washclothsm but they're not the same as a 'real' project. I even finished off a second bib and sewed in some buttons, I was that practical.

I've been a bit stressed that I haven't really knit anything 'special' for the Bump, but I kind of want to wait until it's here. I have however, started a vest version of Brooklyn Tweed's Cobblestones jumper, but again, not inspired enough to finish it.

I really need to knit more blankies, but can't settle on a pattern and colours I like.

There is the apricot scarf which I'm re-chugging-along on. It's supposed to be 204cm long, but I'm only 84cm of the way through. Do you think I'd be done and have it blocked by Thursday morning? Maybe a challenge will get me out of this rut?

One

I finished these last night, and they turned out much nicer than they looked in the ball. 8 days of knitting on and off. 
So now I'm down to a single wip. Did you hear me people? ONE wip!
And ONE day left of work.

Work FOs

After over 2 months, I finally blocked the latest Birch shawl.
The blocking wires arrived a few weeks ago, and boy oh boy, I can't tell you how much easier and quicker blocking has become! I gave it to Pam with whom I enjoyed working really closely with last year. She was really chuffed, and being a quilter and former-knitter really appreciates handknits.

Also on my list of recent-ish FO gifts when either they or I leave a job, some modified retro-rib socks for Kim.

I've sewn together the blankie for R's daughter M, but still need to wash and block it. I also need to work out how to work in some kind of attachment with their names. No idea how I'll do this - a label will probably fall off.

After the current socks I've got on the go, there are two more gifts on my list - one a scarf and the other one I have no idea about. It's my last week at work, so the latter two recipients will have to wait.

Then I might be able to concentrate on knitting for the Bump. I kinda want to wait until I meet them and have a real-life model. And after the sex is confirmed.

Sockies

I've made some slightly shorter ones in some green Baby Cashmerino as well. Pattern from Pink Lady Knits, only I carried the cables all the way down.

No bumpy knitting

I'm suffering from a serious case of the guilts about the lack of knitting for the Bump.

There has been a cabled baby hat from Hey Julie's pattern and Cashmerino Aran. I'd do it again only decrease more frequently at the top. Gave it to Carol for bub #2.

Then there was this blankie for Kiera's bub:

A wip for Majella:

New sockyarn - bronzed forest from Sundara and Bloody Mary from The Knittery.

And even a hot air balloon sighting from the backyard.

But no bumpy knitting.

Not so smurfy

I now have 4 washcloths:

And the makings of a burp cloth:

I love the sproingy squishy fabric that the stitches make. The spew won't be able to get through so easily. Only the colours look a little...greek. Which is fine, if one is greek and feeling particularly patriotic. BD says they're smurfy colours, but I don't see it so much.
It's a good thing I've several other pregnant people to knit for.

Autumnal

The latest installment of the Sundara Yarn Club arrived last week. Silky wool in Autumn Rose. It's slightly browny apricotty. And not as shiny as I would have expected from 50% silk. I chose the autumnal colours this time. Maybe next time I'll go for the winter colourways if I resubscribe.

Preparations for knitting Zimmerman's Baby Suprise Jacket.
1. Get yarn

2. Splay yarn out to see pretty colours

3. Put on swift

4. Wind up and knit.

The colourway looks like it might be a little dark for a little person. And the instructions are insanely sparse, which is driving me nuts.

My first dishcloth

This is what all that crazy cotton is for:

It's a lot bigger than I thought it would be! I stopped at 12 sets of rows rather than the pattern's 13 to keep it square. The ombre colourway is Sour Green Apple and the plain colours are Chocolate and Cream. I would have called the 'Cream' Yellow, but that's just me. It's now finished and weighs 50g. Thinking about casting on for the Striped Burped Cloth. Or I could make more dishcloths/washcloths. It's a bit addictive.

Cotton hoard

Now that it's here, I'm not quite sure where to start. Some colours are not what I expected, but the range is way better than Bendigo's colours.

Itty bitty

Yesterday I started and finished the beanie in Jo Sharp's Soho Summer DK Cotton and then cast on for the bib which I finished today. The bib doesn't look so messy after washing - I decided to allow for 3 buttonholes to cater for growth.

Here they are with three sizes of the aran raglan sweaters. I'm trying for unisex.
Some of this will be gifted to other babies.

A friend from work also lent us some clothes that her little girl had grown out of. Little did I know what she meant when she said 'a few' items. So generous. So little. So cute.

What now?

I stared and finished a second raglan sweater (this time for a 3 month old rather than a 1 year old) on the same day. Feeling cocky, I decided to cast on for a 6 month old version that is striped and knit from the top down.

Only now I'm 10 increases down and no idea how to cast on more stitches and separate for sleeves and body. Barbara Walker's instructions are a bit vague for me, and I just cannot visualise.

HELP!!!

Cotton head

Overtaken by a sudden urge to knit all things cotton for the house and the Bump, I appear to have just erm, overdone it on the buying front. Yessiree, 45 balls of it.

I've been a bit cranky this week

For the last few years, I've been a Rowan International member. I couldn't remember whether or not my membership had run out, so contact Rowan and asked them.

I get this email back from them saying that they can't find me on their database, THROUGH MY NAME, what is my address.

So I email back my address.

She still can't locate me, can I please advise her what my membership number is.

Huh? Cause I just happen to know that of course.

So I email her back and say. Well, actually, strangely enough I have no idea what my membership is. It's not like I have a card that I carry around. You send me mail, I throw away the address slip and I keep the magazine. All I wanted to know was whether my membership had expired and when. Perhaps I had paid for a 2 year subscription, I couldn't remember. I had received the last issue, so surely they ought to have a record of me.

She wrote back saying well seeing as she couldn't locate me in the database so she 'thinks' that means that I'm non longer a member. But not to worry, I can still renew my membership and get the latest magazine. THINKS?

WHAT? So I'm to hand over $80+ to someone who not only can't tell me when my membership expired, but can't even find me on the database? What I am still a member but they've somehow managed to delete me? What if they had sent me my last issue, deleted me from their database, issue doesn't arrive, I make a query AND THEY HAVE NO RECORD THAT THEY EVEN SENT IT? Gees, you don't need to be a business analyst to see that that's a bit of a crappy business process.

Only 2 WIPs left

This is the first pair of socks I've had that don't like being machine washed. Could be the mohair content. They're now slightly felted and now snug. Not bad snug, just not any snugger.

Here's Heavenly Birch which I just finished casting off this arvo. Needs some blocking, but first I need to get some blocking wires. It's my 7th Birch (8 if you include Kiri). This has taken me the longest. But I did have a months holiday and pregnancy as excuses.

Also Erika Knight's Cable Scarf which I finished, oh, last week? Needs to be washed and shaped a little. A lot of work for a hole.

And lastly, something else I've just finished today, the Raglan Sweater from Debbie Bliss' Baby Knits book.
Gee, what didn't I change about the pattern. I knit it in the round and on 4.5mm rather than 5.0mm (but still it was too loose). I also had to keep on decreasing up the neckline as it was far too low. THEN, I had to unpick the cast-on bottom and knit the body much longer than the pattern's 14cm. Hope the proportions are ok. It looks far more in proportion now than before my mods. The colours are awful, but will take a proper pic after blocking and before gifting.

Now I'm down to my only 2 sockin' WIPs.

4 WIPs too many

I've fought off a Desperate Urge to buy yarn and knit baby hats. This is the closest pattern i have to what i want. Except that it is for 8ply and a bit poofier at the top than I'd like.

And I'm so groggy/sleepy that best I not get behind the wheel.
And I've got 4 WIPs on the go that I must finish before I cast on anything else.

Baby bear

Just about to cast on for BD's matching socks.
Speaking of which, because I obviously don't have enough sockyarn, here are some sockyarns which BD chose himself from Imagiknits in San Fran. Some Lorna's, Shibui and alpaca.

Loverly

I was just thinking what a lovely weekend this has been, when I realised that it wasn't actually. I mean there were bits like having a really bad headache after yum cha on Saturday and going to bed early, and some visitors for lunch today, but despite these, my general feeling is that it has been a lovely weekend. How odd is that? Maybe I am just enjoying the sunshine, the breeze and the clean, clean house.

We did a bit of a pram scout on Saturday and so commences our slippery slide down the depths of baby shopping. Because of course, we like the expensive stuff, y'know. And BD is worse than I am.

But here is some home-made stuff finally blocked and dried.
The Green Granny Blankie. I love, love LOVE Rowan Handknit Cotton DK.

I thought I had done a bad job of blocking it into a square until I remembered/realised that it is a 6x7 rectangle. Duh. I'm keeping this one.

And this is blocked too, but I need to buy some ribbon and sew on a button. Looks a bit like a dress, but it's supposed to be a top for a 2 year-old. Sometimes I forget to use a smaller needle. Gauge smgauge. This was one of the few things I knit whilst away. Mindless knitting in the round. No increases, even. Ran out of yarn and had to buy some more in a completely different dyelot which is luckily a great match.

Bronzed Sienna

Another instalment of the Sundara Yarn Club arrived this week.
I was remarking on how the colourways of both sockyarns have been very much ones that really suit miss coxendix. At which point BD piped up with a 'hey, i could wear this colour too!'

Rushing to the post

I'm a bit behind in photographing the FOs.
Like these Sweet Georgia socks for BD which I finished whilst we were overseas:

And the Beau Pullover which I finished just to time before the trip. The buttons were sewn in over there. The sleeves are too long, and I suppose I could frog back a little and re-knit the cuffs, but can I be bothered? BD quite likes the length anyway.

And a chessboard blankie for Theoretic Gal's impending arrival which I finished in time to gift today:

I figured the concept would be erm, sufficiently nerdy.

I still have the eyelet vest to photograph after I buy some ribbon and a needle small enough to sew in the button. And block. Also waiting to block my granny squares blankie for The Bump. Maybe tomorrow.

Sockies

I knit sockies and give them away. They don't feature on my sock count or my photo albums.
But here is what I have at the moment. I'm about to give some away in the next few days, so I figured I'd better get a group shot.

The most recently finished ones were the leftovers from the socks I knit BD out of Sweet Georgia's Stillwater which I mixed in with some navy 4ply Soft, the red ones from my Mountain Colours Barefoot, and the Tiger Opals, which I finished sewing up on the way to work this morning.

Yarn haul

Well, this is the sum total of my yarn haul from Liberty of London.

These arrived whilst I was away. Two itty bitty skeins of Sundara yarn club yarn each in a HUGE paper box.

Unwrapped, there is sock yarn in 'Mossy' and 100% silk in 'Copper over Bamboo'.

No plans as yet to do anything with these. Nor anything with the other Sundara or Socks that Rock yarn that I got before Xmas.

Holiday knitting prep

I'm planning ahead for a whole month without all my knitting supplies.
The plan is to take along several projects that I can work on o/s but that are portable and mindless enough for me to occupy my hands. Complication is, I don't knit very much that is mindless, so there's a lot more prep I need to do.
Such as with this eyelet vest below. It's now at a point where I've done the top and all I need to do to finish is knit a ball of stocking stitch. (You'll have to excuse the dodgy picture that I took with my new camera - it's much more celery-coloured and less blury in real life)

This is what it is supposed to look like:

Maybe it was just the cuteness of the model and his feet that drew me.

Warm

From Lisa: soooft Blue Sky Alpaca scarf and a pick from her sockyarn drawers.

And the Shetland Triangle Shawl blocking (have just taken out the pins). It's huge now. It was so easy to block, no fuss or much stretching at all.

Definitely taking these on the trip.

Hurrah

This weekend has been GREAT. The success of Kevin07 and the decimation of the Liberal party were more than enough to make my weekend.

A lovely day was had yesterday chatting and knitting with friends. I got some gifts which I'll have to post pictures of during the week.

Today healthwise, not so great. But I did finish knitting and seaming up the Beau jumper. Buttons still need to be sourced and stray ends sewin in after it is washed and blocked, but otherwise, it is looking mighty spiffy. It was absolute torture sewing in the set-in sleeves, but in light of our recent victory, I forced myself to persevere to the bittersweet end.

I also washed and blocked the Shetland triangle shawl which I had frogged back a little and extended. It's much bigger now and the end scallops nicely are bound off such that they're not so tight anymore.
T'will be great to throw about myself in the British winter.

The love continues

I heart Holz und Stein...

This new delivery means I can now knit the sleeves of Beau on 5mm dpns. And crochet with ebony and rosewood. And generally drool as I knit.

Stillwater

Sweet Georgia's Stillwater colourway.
I cannot begin to tell you how nice this yarn is to knit with.
Nor how nicely it knits up.
Onto the second sock now so I can get them both to a stage where I can finish leisurely.

Bored? Me?

A view from the back porch whilst I am hiding inside. Too tired to knit.

And ms ceels, does this tempt you enough to come and get your yarn?
Click and drool.

Where handknits go...

Just fixed up my photo albums too.

Life is not very exciting at the moment. I got puffed getting dressed to go to the doctor today. I should try to sleep but the breathing, it is hard when lying down. And the coughing, anything to avoid the coughing. Oh woe is me.

Praise be to the sub-prime mortgages gods

BD thinks I should be prepared for lots of irate spam.
As though I seem to have an erm, readership or something.
So just to explain, I'm not saying that people being thrown out of their homes is a good thing (although I'll go out on another limb here and say that borrowing more than you're able to repay is...not smart), but well, isn't lending what banks do for a living? You'd think they'd have got the hang of it by now.

Anyway, so the consequence of all this is the excellent exchange rate that allows me to BUY MORE YARN.
How is a girl to see this as a bad thing?

See pretty Blue Moon Fibre Arts sockyarn? Much nicer than what they show on their website, oddly enough.
The three on the right are for someone else. Come 'n' get 'em, ms coxendix!!

I also got some from Sundara. From left: Black over Violet 100% silk laceweight, Evergreen over Lime sockyarn and Espresso over Brick worsted merino. And I joined her sock club.

No more yarn buying for me.

A-countin'

Purty purty cotton. I think I need to find some more boy colours.
Although the seams and most of the border will be green.
The other three grannies have now all been gifted - this one's all mine. 

Also finished the Zebra socks. It's only my 7th pair of full-length socks (sockettes don't really count). I haven't actually been keeping count, so when I went a-countin' I discovered that there's a pair of Opal Lollipops that I haven't got photos of. And no idea of when I knit them.

But I need more. For my European winter trip. Did I tell you about it? SEVEN weeks!!!!

Cobblestone Jumper

C'est fini.
Well, it was officially fini almost a week ago, but I had to wash and dry it.
Just sewed in the ends and took the photos today.

I made the small and it only took 10.5 balls, even though I bought 15 just in case.
My stitch gauge was spot on, but my row gauge required far less knitting.
The sleeves are a bit bulgy where it goes from garter to stocking stitch, but hoping being worn will fix that.

Not bad for less a month of knitting. BD loves it and it's coming with us on our European sojourn.

In the bag

Another one of the knitting bags which BD brought back for me from London:

Inside we have the Beau pullover:

And Cobblestones:

And spotted driving on the freeway:

Is Chunky. Is Good.

Can you believe this took me 2 days? I started it at Lisa's after lunch yesterday.
Here it is blocking. I've still got 2 hanks left. Shouldn't have got Susan to buy 5 hanks, but how was I to know? I just made it up as I went.

Yarn: 300g Debbie Bliss Donegal Tweed Chunky in 292110 (dark blue with red and light blue flecks)
Needles: 5.5mm (ribbing) & 6mm
Designer: me
Started: 15 September 2007
Finished: 16 September 2007

Lazy Knitting

Sunny Saturday in the backyard with my gals.

Jaywalking

It took forever to knit and forever for me to get around posting.
Very clean bathroom tiles, wot?

Spring is here

It's a bit early, but I'm not complaining.
I'm sitting here on our back veranda soaking up the sunshine.
To my right sits my laptop, on my lap is my knitting, and to my left is the second pastel crochet blanket blocking faster than it ever would inside.

Ravelry

Finally, my invite to Ravelry has arrived! Off to go exploring.

Rannoch

I love love LOVE Rowan 42. It's the best issue I've seen in ages. I'm making the Rannoch dress. And then the Doon jacket. I am, I says, I am. Will post links once I can find pics online.

4 days

Yep. Took about 2 weeks to get 'round to blocking it though. But I did give it away 2 weeks before L's last day, so maybe I'm not as accomplished a procrastinator as I thought.

Knit up like a dream on my Holz und Stein ebony/rosewood circs. And only two balls. I probably have about 2 metres left, but it was touch and go there for a while, I tells ya.

I gave away something else today. Remember the little pinky/purple dress? Finally got around to sewing on the button on last night. After 5 months. Does this tell you how much I hate sewing?

I must've got over my aversion to sweaters. I've cast on for this A-line jacket.

If it doesn't fit, it will if I keep up this gym-going-ness.

Pastels

New project:

Not sure about the two darker colours on the edges - I may save them for the border. Also haven't decided how I'm going to sew them together - a seam that doesn't show on the front or an actual border around each square in the same colour as the overall border.

I'm quite surprised at the pastel-lyness of this project. Maybe I've been reading too much Posie gets Cosy.

It's been such a pain trying to pick colours that go together. I'm awful with combining colours. See how I bought these, none of which go together properly?

Maybe I'll use the Raspberry to knit something from this book:

The cardi on the left. Although I like the hood on the right too.

Priorities

O Holz and Stein needles, how I love thee.
and O Kidsilk Haze, how I love thee too.
The two of you together - beyond heavenly.

This weekend, I'm going to have to somehow knit with you and read Harry Potter, at the same time.

Priceless

I learnt today that there is yet another person leaving the project that I'm working on. And realised that I've less 4 weeks to knit something. And I can't just knit something crap. It's gotta be well, noice. Oh the pressure.

Anyway, being able to shop for the perfect gift in your own stash?

Priceless.

Warming

Apologies for the not-having-much-to-blog-ness lately.
I've been going to work and coming home to knit, and that's about it.
I love that winter is finally here, even though it's resulted in my going into hibernation mode a little.
I'm trying to resist this awful urge to cast on a million little warming homely projects and the effort is very tiring.

The girls came over for a sit and knit yesterday and it was so nice to have space to entertain.
I love this house. See my new bookshelves in my yarn room:

And what's this?

My new Ashford umbrella swift.

Almost done with the Jaywalkers. So not fun to knit 84sts on 2mm needles. It had better fit and he had better like it.

I love the drape of this scarf. Only 2 balls so far and it doesn't even have that gartery look.

I like the Mischief scarf the more I knit it. The edges curl back ever so slightly and the scarf doesn't curl at all. It's very stiff at the moment but will get much softer as it wears.

On the flip side, something that hasn't turned out so well: the scarf with Bjars cables from Elsbeth Lavold's Viking Patterns for Knitting book. I really like the cable motif:

But the scarf, how awfully it curls. Bad yarn, bad pattern combo. I've tried so many time but really can't do anything with the yarn. I think I'm going to have to give it away so it doesn't sit there and mock me.

Drapey

Some recentish finished objects.

Copy of Brooklyn Tweed's Noro Iro scarf. These are so BD's colours.
Knits up so quickly on 8mm needles. Washed up softer than I thought it would, but still not soft enough for me.

Speaking of soft however, we have here the Lorna's Laces Lion and Lamb which I frogged from Clapotis.
Wearing it now. Oh the drape.

Gartery goodness

Went shopping today for my additional ball of Jo Sharp DK in Brocade.

Looking at the Noro yarn on the shelf, I encouraged BD to pick a colourway. I couldn't remember what Brooklyn Tweed's was made out of but I did remember that it was in BD's colours exactly. Turns out he picked out the EXACT yarn and colourway. Without having even seen it online!

Two WIPs I've cast on in the last few days.
Teva's Braided Mischief Scarf with my new 4.5mm Holz & Stein ebony & rosewood needles. Using Rowanspun Aran in Shark, having finally found a recipient for this colourway.

I really wanted to use my other new Holz & Stein needles and unfortunately, the only project I could match it with was my Plain Jane alpaca garter stitch scarf from the Bendi backroom. In black.

Seems I'm going through a really homey gartery phase at the moment.

You know you have a problem when...

...you search the house, tearing apart your yarn stashes, disbelieving of your being able to pack your yarn into so few boxes, SURE that you'd bought another bag of the teal, and unable to log into your ebay account to confirm.

Orange

My own version of the Log Cabin Socks, made up from looking at a picture:

Done, done, done, done

Finished the Bayerische tonight. Finally. Never before has it taken me 4 bloody months to knit a pair of socks. It's also been a bloody long time since I've knit top-down socks (toe-ups are much less stressful).

These socks are, however, absolutely lovely. The twisted stitches make everything stand out
beautifully.

WIPs are back down to socks and the crochet throw. The throw I still have about 10 balls and 20-odd squares to make. The ones I've made so far have been blocked and sewn together. Blocking was the BIGGEST pain. I plan on making the remaining ones looser to avoid having to block so rigourously. Did I spell that right? It looks wrong. Anyhow, to find a new project before or after the move, that is the question.

Revisiting the birthday squares

Finally, the first get-together chez Sockmonster of 2007!
See that red blanket - isn't it cool?
Those squares - we (read I) got her to get them out...

And order them.

Next thing would be to sew them all together.
My head hurts just thinking about it.

Flying off the needles (slowly)

Another cab off the rank, well in time for a another farewell on Friday.
Why are nice people always leaving?

It was my first foray into knittng with more than one colour simultaneously. I did intarsia for the Harry Potter sweater, but that was in 2004. Think I will go back to lace and cables for another little while again.

Alphabet Blocks

Ta-da!
Handover day today. And then it will wing it's way with Dr F next week to London.

Pattern Source: Debbie Bliss' Baby Knits Book
Yarn: 328g Rowan 4ply Soft in Bluebird
Needles: 3.25mm and 2.5mm
Started: 17 March 2007
Finished: 17 April 2007
Mods: Check Debbie Bliss' errata website. Also, do not pick up 227sts for the side borders - pick up 187sts. And knit it the borders in the round.

The trouble with blocking...

...is that I may not be home to do it.
I've just finished the alphabet blanket in time for the handover on Friday.
However, it needs a soak and a block. And I'm not home for much of tomorrow or Thursday night.
Argh, looks like an early morning tomorrow.

Flipping

I thought I had better give an update as to which letters I've completed since my last post.
So I went to my charts and flipped them back and forth, trying to work out which row I was up to.
And then the penny dropped.
So I looked at my knitting.
Duh.

Classic example of my week. Shouldn't complain though. It ended a lot better than it started. Hopefully lots of knitting time this weekend. The deadline is looming closer. It needs to be in Dr F's hands before he steps on that plane to London. Preferably early enough for him to acutally put it in a suitcase.

I - R in case you were wondering.

S-Z

I'm onto the 3rd of 6 alphabet block rows.
I'm having to constantly refer to the charts and am starting to look longingly at the 8 balls of Debbie Cotton Angora I bought last week. A little blanket consisting of rows and rows of moss stitch is looking very attractive at the moment. And on 5mm needles it should speed along very nicely.

Procrastinator

I procrastinate. Why do something today when I can leave it until the absolute last minute and whip myself into a frenzy of activity whilst having conniptions about missing the looming deadlines?

I thought I'd averted this tendency with my knitting, only I offered to knit a baby blanket for Dr F to take to London as a gift for his friends and their new bub. Furthermore, I decided on the very large and complex
Alphabet Blanket with its huge 258 row charts and time-consuming border. By the end of April. Yep.

So anyway, the goal is at least 10 rows a day. So far, I've done 48 rows in 3 days, so I'm ahead.

Bags of yarn

I love my new bag. It fits an A4 notebook and what's that? 10 balls of Rowan 4ply Soft in Bluebird?

That's a ball there on the bottom left.
At the top is some Artyarns I picked up for Ceels. $10 down from $16.65.
And the rest are balls of Debbie Bliss Cotton Angora I got for $6.50 EACH. Had to get MinnieG to go back and get me more of the light blue. Unfortunately (or fortuntately?), there were only two balls left.

Oh, and I tried to knit with the Knit Picks, but I found them so heavy. My Holz and Steins however - oh how I love them. They are better than Addi Naturas. Did I tell you I love them?

Isobel's Cardigan

Having spent the last 12 hours immersed in Hamish Macbeth, I've a mind ta be slipping a wee 'aye' or 'cannae' into every conversation.

Wanderlust levels have increased too. Who wouldn't want to wake up to such scenery? Perhaps the theme of our next european sojourn will be lochs and laghi.

I also love this cardigan that Isobel wears. The raglan sleeves, the stand-up neck, the bigger cables interlaced with the smaller ones.

See how the pattern goes up almost all the way to the top of the neck? And well, can you blame the lass for looking at Hamish so longingly?

From the front:

And lastly, a side view

Ebony and rosewood

This sleeve, it is wrong.

How wrong? Well, it's 10% bigger than it should be gauge-wise, and I tried, I really did. I knit so tightly my fingers got cramped. I managed to get quite close with the stitch gauge, but the row gauge was way way off and has resulted in the sleeve being way, way long.

But the drape of the cotton is beautiful so I'm knitting another sleeve. On smaller needles and a smaller size. So I can knit normally again. And it will hopefully fit.

Now, these came over a week ago:

Handmade especially for me by Holz & Stein in Germany:
- 15cm dnps in ebony and rosewood (the rest are on the Bayerische socks)
- 20cm rosewood 4mm needles with ebony ends
- 70cm long 3.5mm circular needle with one ebony and one rosewood needle (I'll be using these to knit most of the Bolero with)

And for Tana who commented - here is the best close-up of the neck opening I could get. I've yet to sew on a button, but you can see how I've sewed on the side with the cast-on sts (left) to the body of the dress with a little overlap with the opening on the right side. Not sure if this is what if I was supposed to do, but it works for me. Good luck!

Mariloise

I've always been a little ambivalent about the Old Shale pattern - I think I've seen it done too frequently in awful ackrylicy colours to be able to fully appreciate it. But here it looks quite pretty and airy. I think I'll skip the centre ribbing though. Am hoping 75g will be enough.

Sick again

I've got this awful cough and have been home sick since Tuesday afternoon. I haven't felt like doing much knitting at all. But for some odd reason, I suddenly deemed the light indoors to be sufficient for some photos. Maybe I have been indoors for too long and my eyes have become used to the subdued levels of light. Apologies now if your eyes have yet to evolve.

First up, I did manage to knit this. Miles of stocking stitch. Hopefully it will look as cute as it does in real life once it's washed and blocked. Not sure who the recipient will be as yet. Rather pissed that I still have 27gs left though, as this was a stash-busting exercise. Might've helped had I realised I was using a 3mm rather than a 3.25mm needle sooner though. Duh.

I'm also about to finish this scarf (which incidentally was also a stashbusting exercise which will leave me with about 50g!).

I'd also started Eunny Jang's Bayerische socks a while back. The 96st rounds will take me a while.

Now to the yarn porn. Did I ever show you the Sweet Georgia yarn that came just before Christmas? Voici Stillwater pour lui, et Libertine pour moi. I tried knitting the Pomatomus socks from the toes-up with the Libertine and gave up and frogged. Only Sockmonster, who dropped off some goodies today tells me that Felicia is taking an indefinite travelling break.

Sockmonster? Goodies? Why yes.

Three books I got her to bring back from the US (she forgot Victorian Lace which was very considerate of my pocketbook). There are quite a few things from Romantic Style I'd knit, some reprinted from Rowan magazines I already own. One Skein is slowly growing on me - I'm taken with the idea of using up single skeins. I knew the crotchet granny squares book would be either hit or miss, not having seen the book in person. I think I'll give it to someone who would love it.

But the red hank of yarn there? A gift of Mountain Colours Bearfoot sockyarn in the yummy Ruby River colourway. It seems too nice for feet.

And what's this?

Knit Picks Options Interchangeable Needles! They're US59.99 which is about AUD76 (+ some conversion fees). If you're desperate for them and you can get them from Tapestry Craft in Sydney for $129 (or $99 if you pre-order). I think I got a better deal though. Thanks Sockmonster.