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!

Ben

This is the second such post on this blog. and yet it's far too soon

Today, my cousin died. He was 20 years of age and he had leukemia. He went through two rounds of treatments. After the second one they told him there was nothing more they could do. He could stay on meds and last another six months, or go off the meds and last six weeks.

He lasted 5 months.

I didn't see as much of him as I would have liked, though I saw him regularly when we were all little. At the family picnics at manly dam and clontarf, he used to rub sand in my hair, throw sand in my face, dunk me in the water, and generally treat me like a very young male treats a similarly aged female relative.

He grew up though, and he was a promising young man.

I'm sorry Ben. Really, really sorry.

Oh dear...

Well, I've been extremely quiet of late. I'd apologise, but in truth I have been rather busy.

In the past few months I've done something extremely out of character: I got an assignment in on time without stressing, panicking or otherwise losing my head. I even had a draft done in time to have a tutor look over it before handing it in!

I've been knitting, but also spending far too much time in ravelry than I really ought to, particularly when I have uni work to do. It's strange that a site dedicated to knitting and crocheting can actually sap the time you used to use for those activities! I suppose I've just been having problems keeping this going, when ravelry effective does what this blog was designed to do. I'm going to keep it though. Ravelry does not include a blog.

As far as knitting goes, besides adding things to my ravelry queue, I've been knitting socks. I currently have four socks on the needles and I've also knitted a mug cozy.



Interestingly, it does actually help keep my tea warm. I'm planning on knitting another one today or tomorrow. Can't hurt to have more than one!

I'm also taking part in a sock swap and for that I'm knitting this sock.


I really have to get to work on it, but I'm suffering from a slight case of anxiety with it. I've had to mod the pattern a bit for many more stitches and I'm not entirely sure it'll work. I suppose I just have to have faith


I'm also knitting along on mum's socks. There isn't a deadline on them really, seeing as they're made from a cashmere blend and she wont be able to wear them till next winter. I'm really enjoying that pattern though!



The other two socks I've posted about before. They're the cablenet and the summer daze socks. I've started the second summer daze sock, and I did a few rows of the cablenet last week. That's really all I have to say about those two!

The mystery stole is still on hiatus, though a row was worked on it yesterday.