Study

Isn't this the most pleasant of places to study on a mild winters day? We're at Shelley beach

I have a new hat!

I wanted a new hat. I wanted to try stranded colour. Here is the result! Better photos to come

Swallowtails Ahoy

This is the second one of these I've knitted this week. This one is in colourmart pure cashmere in a pale yellow. It was started last Thursday and finished last night as a gift for a friend, whose birthday is today. Hope she likes it!

Felting II

And done! And I'm really happy with it!

Felting I

The felted bag i cast on for yesterday. This is it pre- felting

Frost flower socks

Making good headway on these. Only started them this week and I should have the first one done by the end of the week

Hand dyed

My first ever hand dyed yarn, that also happens to be handspun. With luck, my sister will like it, it's to be knitted into socks for her.

Knitting and the great outdoors

I've started taking a bit of time out at uni for knitting. With a view like this, why not? It'd be nice if i could bring my wheel out here!

Ooooh! Technology!

Technology amazes me. The previous post was sent to blogger using my mobile phone. Way back when, (i.e. 6 months ago) I got a pamphlet in the mail saying "Look! Keep your mobile contract and get a new phone!" so I rocked up to the three store and this little sales kid convinced me to get a nice sony ericsson to replace my old nokia. I was all for continuing the contract and keeping the nokia, but I got the sony anyway. And it came with this mobile blogging function. I can take a photo and write a post and send it to the blog, all without having to use a computer! Woo!

Anyway, the photo down there is the shrug mentioned while falling off the wagon. Not much more work was done on it, on the grounds of being in a knitting overdose. I'm knitting a bit here and there, just not as much as I would have liked. The mystery shawl is still on the needles, but you knew that didn't you? You knew that if I'd finished everyone from here to Timbuktu would know! But I'm not that far off finishing, I just really need to sit down and do it! I've also picked up the rainbow barf socks, AKA Summer Daze, from the tofutsies club.

I'm currently trying really hard not to cast anything on till I've finished a few more things. Such as mum's socks! I've managed to finish those, finished them on Monday actually. I'll blog a photo of those when I next get my hands on them. Mum's been enjoying them, though she says they're a bit warm to wear just yet.

Camee's shrug

The sleeve and some of the back of my red shrug

Ooops...

Ok, i think I've fallen off the wagon... I have a mystery shawl on the needles, a drop stitch scarf for Anne (but it's in a fantastic microfibre ribbon yarn), two pairs of socks, and another lace shawl. And what do I do? Find a beautiful shrug pattern in a magazine an order yarn for it, with the intent to wear it next month...

Is there a Knitters' Anonymous group?

Mystery Shawls

I may or may not have mentioned in the previous post that I was once again working on a mystery shawl. You may remember my first foray into the world of mystery knitting, that being the Swan Lake or MS3 by Melanie Gibbons. I got on rather well with it, but fell behind and lost my motivation. It's currently nearly finished, but living in my knitting bag until I can suck it up and get on with it. 

However, in the mean time, I've started another one Dem Fischer sin Fru. Yes, I know. I'm rather hopeless. Anyway, I finished the first clue on time, and have worked one row of the second. Here are a few photos for you to enjoy while I head off to knit like a maniac to keep up

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Oy...

I'm currently knitting like a fiend. I cast on the triinu shawl while I was away at Kandos last week. I haven't been treated well by it though. I cast on, discovered my needles were the wrong size, knit away thinking it made a good practice swatch, made mistakes, ignored them because it was a swatch, got home. Found out my needles were the right size, but I had to rip out what I'd done because of the errors. It's now back on the needles, but a new, improved version. I went through and changed all the decreases to make it neater. MUCH neater.

However, I'm also taking part in a mystery shawl knit-a-long: dem fischer sin fru (The fisherman's Wife) which needs the same size needles, of which I only have one set of tips. The plan is to use the tips on the triinu after finishing each clue for the mystery shawl... At least until the new set of tips arrive! May be a while though, since they're currently out of stock.

I assume you'll be wanting some more photos of the recent happenings.

I spun some yarn on the lovely ashford joy my grandmother has generously lent to me:

The yarn has graciously allowed me to knit it into a pair of booties, since it spun up at about 4ply/fingering weight. The booties will be given to a pregnant friend for the baby's going home outfit.

I also knitted a practice bunny for the baby:

Definitely not to be given, the thing isn't machine washable and I wouldn't do that to the poor mother!


However, on a brighter note, last year I took part in the Knitters Tea Swap. My swap partner, Amy Artisan, sent me this wonderful parcel!

Detail shot of the yarn:


Not pictured: the three blocks of chocolate also included in the parcel!

I've not yet knitted any of the yarn she sent, I'm trying to think of the perfect pattern for that sock yarn! The biscuits were tasty, and the tea delicious. I'm really looking forward to this years swap. I'm considering gathering things together now so when it starts I wont be behind the 8 ball again!

MIA

Ok, I'll admit it. I've been away for a bit. A bit you say? A BIT?! Well, if by bit you take me to mean nearly three months, then yes, a bit. You can all blame ravelry for this. But then, you can't really see it right now unless you're already in. Just now it's still in beta and thus not open to the general public. It has been sucking my time tremendously though. What with piles of forums, easy to browse patterns, being able to track what people are up to and so on, why wouldn't it suck my time? All in all though, it's been sucking my time away from my knitting budget.

So you'd like to know what I'm up to, now that you know I'm alive? Well, here we go.

These socks here?


They've been frogged. I really wasn't happy with them, and they didn't fit too well. Instead, I knitted these:


They were much more fun to knit, if a little frustrating at times. I certainly didn't get gauge and had to make the adjustments as I went along because maths is one of my big hurdles. They should fit their new owner though! The mini-cables are so very pretty though, and here's a detail shot of them:


So that's one of them so far. I'll leave it at that for the moment and update again soon with more of my exploits of the past three months! If you check the sidebar, you can see little progress bars showing what I'm actively working on at the moment. Enjoy!