Woolhugs

At last I can reveal the stealth project of the last month or so!!! Our dear Tinkingbell has had a bit of family stress, so after a bit of fussing and wondering what on earth I could do to help when I live three hours' drive away, I stalked some of Tink's online knitting buddies and organised a blanket for her, to give her some 'woolhugs' (thanks Zeph for the word!)
As squares arrived I started laying them out on an old sheet:


Then I tried to crochet them together - not a success. And very v-e-r-y s--l--o--w... so I abandoned that plan and went with bold whip-stitching, and offset the strips, to create a very rustic blanket:


We drove up to Tink's place Friday evening, with me madly whip-stitching squares together in the car on the way (thankfully the MOMD does not object to me having the light on while he is driving). I then had to resort to some trickery and deception to get it finished: yawning on Sat morning, I blamed the neighbouring cows for keeping me up to midnight - not entirely true, I got several strips sewn together! Waking up reasonably early on Saturday, I got an hour of sewing in before appearing for breakky; and during a quiet moment after lunch, I checked on Miss V - and stayed up there for an hour - another two strips!! When the small people were eating their dinner, I claimed a headache and went upstairs for some quiet-time, fending off Tink's offers of pharmaceutical assistance (I was a little weary, but didn't need actual drugs) and got it finished! I came down, just in time to confess to my bending of the truth and give Tink and The Accountant their gift - Tink was quite overcome, and nearly burnt the prawns! She could not believe that I had been so sneaky, and that so many people had contributed without even a whisper of a hint reaching her - and she stayed thrilled from then until we left after lunch on Sunday. The Accountant had a gleam in his eye that boded ill for anyone who tried to wrest it from him during evenings in front of the tele, and Tink spent ages patting each square and trying to guess who made them. (I took pictures of all of them individually, so give me a shout out if you need a pic of your bit/s)
When we took photos outside yesterday, Tink said she loved it so much she could just wear it forever:


Now I am home again, and normal knitting can resume - aside from all the xmas gifts on my list that is!

Oh, and I have one more square I found hiding on my living room floor - that must be why there is an unbalanced corner - it was fate! My apologies to the knitter - I'll send it up there asap!
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Saturday was my Funday

Further to the effort to catch up on all belated news, I give you Saturday!

Saturday was our monthly snb at a cafe near the wharves. Penni came to pick me up, a little later than anticipated, but still she had to sit and watch me finish some sewing for one of our knitty friends, because even having about 3 weeks notice is not enough time for me to complete a one-hour sewing job. Just call me Last-Minute Lucy (my Mum does)...

So we wander in a little late, and find that the charming Kim from Alaska had arrived before us, and had had to introduce herself to the more punctual knitters - who had not known she was coming!!! Kim comes to Hobart every October for work, and this year decided to use the Power of Ravelry to seek out Hobart knitters, namely Penni and then your humble blogservant here. So we three have been e-chatting for a few weeks and very much looking forward to this snb date! Kim promised to wear her Kauni Forest Canopy Shawl (go and look at it!!! REALLY, LOOK AT IT NOW!!!!), and I said I'd be in my TechniColour Dream Cardi, so there was no need for rosebuds or secret handsignals :P

While we are standing there doing intros and gasps of admiration etc, in walks another new knitter, Housefrau, who we hope to see more than once a year, since she's a local! Housefrau is another Ravelry connection, and we had fun discussing knitting preferences and stash obsessions and weird kindergarten hours that leave no time for important things like trips to the LYS :>

Saturday was always going to be fun, but wait! There's more!! Blackie brought her brand new Phoebe to visit, and had we not all peeped inside the babysling, we would never have known she was there! Blackie departed the snb with various prezzies peeking out the top of her bag, including the reason I made Penni so late!

We sat and knitted and touched Penni's Koigu (I didn't even try to steal it!! Honest!) and ogled Kim's rainbow shawl (want Kauni. want Kauni now) and ate nice things and drank nice hot things (pretty cool here still - I was glad though, coz I would've cooked in my cardi if it was warm, and no way would I have worn anything else for the visitor day!!!) I got this far with my Stormy Rainbows sock:

And one of the best bits? Kim surprised me with an AWESOME early bday gift!!!
the cutest card:

This fantastic book:

I finished it that night (had to skim a few bits to reach the last page before bed, because I was worn out from all the excitement - my life is just so like a 24 hour amusement park, hey?) and then rescued it from kids on Sunday and had time on Monday morning to sit in the sun and read the sweater patterns properly, and immediately started evolving plans for some JS DK in my stash... but I have to finish some socks and gifts and whatnot first.. alas and alack!
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I remember meeting Tink...

Dear Tink,
Can you forgive me? It's been two weeks since the last post about my trip, and I still haven't got to the driving force behind our drive - meeting you!

I remember the drive from Launceston up towards your place, watching the signposts and taking a wide variety of photos of landscape, sheep and spring lambs, a variety which is united by their blurriness...


I remember driving up the main street of your town, going over the bridges and then spotting your house, and the enormous gasp of envy as we took in its magnificence...

I remember marvelling at our good fortune in finding such a nice B&B so close to the home of the soon-to-be-in-person friend from blogland...


I remember the next morning, after a leisurely breakfast, we assembled the children, the brownies, and the vitally important knitting bags, and wound our way down, and along, and found ourselves at your place..

I remember feeling at home the moment I walked in your kitchen (which by the way is MUCH cleaner and tidier than mine), finding you making bikkies and negotiating with children (the one activity being the cause of the other)..

I remember your pleased surprise when my son gave you the bag he made for you, his first ever machine sewing effort, and you made him so happy when you told him it would be your sock-knitting bag...


I remember talking, and tea and coffee, bikkies and brownies, and laughing, playing show-and-tell with our WIPs, and coveting your Cat Bordhi books, and using my Powers for Good by putting back the Cherry Tree Hill and Jitterbug you showed me...

I remember strolling around your garden admiring the giant camellia trees and commiserating with you on the evils of grassy weeds...


I remember the kids running around outside, climbing trees, calling for someone to push them on the swing, dashing inside again to play with toys or find some lost item that they needed right now...

I remember the awesome ham and cheese muffins you threw together for lunch, and the fruit salad that followed...

I remember seeing the glory of your stash, and touching things like Rowan Tweed for the first time, and using my Powers for Good by putting them back...

I remember the Knit Picks needles and discussing the merits of wood, casein and metal, and dpns versus circulars...

I remember meeting your charming step-mum, who joined the MOMD in distracting the children while we got on with the really important stuff (socks and dishcloths)...


I remember discussing patterns and designers and yarn substitutions and broadband accounts and the wonders of the knitblogosphere...

I remember you whipping up dinner for everyone, and handing me the most enormous glass of wine, and my sorrow at having to leave so early in the evening...

I remember stopping in to say goodbye the next day, and leaving two hours later, with a bag of cuttings from your garden, an armful of prezzies for the kids, and a wonderful feeling of joyful satisfaction at having affirmed our online friendship in person...

I remember the twisted German cast-on you taught me as I began the Stormy Rainbows Broadripple socks with our cuppas on Sunday, and I used it to cast on my Mermaid sock when I got home again, and I bless the stretch as I try on these two socks...

And I love the photo we took to remember our weekend by:


Thank you for such a wonderful time, and I hope we can have even half as much fun when you come to visit us,
Love,
Kate
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In Which We Meet the Wonderful 2Paw!

To continue our story:

After wending our way vaguely northwards from Hobart, and stopping in Ross for lunch, where we admired the Ross Bridge and I sauntered past Rambo on the way into the Wool Centre (16.5 micron lamb's wool??? words fail me...), then back into the car, and time to put the finishing touches on a dpn wallet for a very starry blogger...
With great amazement we got ourselves to the meeting point right on time, and shortly thereafter 2Paw found us and took us to an excellent cafe, where we sat and tea'd and munched and chatted and gifted until the sun went behind the building and it was time to go.
We headed back towards the car, bumping into Amanda along the way, then packed ourselves and our goodies in and off we went towards the Hometown of Tinkingbell.

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SO, I know you're all dying to know about my weekend!!!!

Well, where do I start?
With the first meeting?
With the road trip?
With the late start?
With the last-minutes?

No!! With the reason!!

So, about two weeks ago now, I was emailing back and forth with Tink, who said wouldn't it be fun to meet up if ever I was up her way, which of course I thought was a fabulous idea, so I shared it with my husband, who said "what've we got on this weekend?" SQUEEEE!!! Do you see why this is the Man Of My Dreams??? While not interested in providing me with unlimited credit for yarn shopping, he is quite happy to suggest a road trip to meet knitbloggers, knowing full well that there would be endless talking about knitting, and he would be doing a whole lot more child-wrangling while I ignored them as much as possible!! I LOVE this man!!!!

So, that weekend was not good (Sunday already allocated to knitting with Penni and Jen), so we looked at this past weekend, and thought - yes, why not? Tink would be free, 2paw indicated her willingness to meet up as we passed through her hometown, the MOMD took an RDO on Friday, and we got on with it.

So, Thursday night, some less-than-cooperative children and resultant lethargy conspired to tell me that before anything else (including packing) I must finish Harry Potter 7!!! So I did, it was good, some excellent twists which I hadn't predicted at all, and all tied up neatly at the end. *happy sigh*

So, preparations. Where's that prezzie for 2paw....oh. Cut out, ironed, and NOT FINISHED!! Sewing machine, pins, dpn to check sizes etc - 12.45am Friday I clipped the last thread and declared it done. (ribbons to sew on in car) Brownies for Tink? Do in the morning...

So, Friday morning, I get up and make orange cherry brownies (oh yes), then there is sorting washing for clean clothes to take, breakky for peoples, bags for kids, toys for kids, etcetcetc, and young mr 7 says
"I want to make something in the car"
"what do you want to make?"
"A knitting bag, to give to Tink like you made for your other friend"
"um, I don't think it will be very easy to sew a bag in the car..."
"can I use your sewing machine please please please please?"
"wait till I finish making these brownies and I'll teach you"
So, mr 7 had his first outing on the sewing machine, and it was good!!


So, we eventually get it all together and pack the car, and I check the mailbox - Dishrag Tag, after all this time, arrived the morning of my road trip!?!?!?!?! The Knitting Muses (I'll have to check the earlier series of Cast-on to figure out which one in particular - maybe Thalia (for fun) or Erato (for knitting for others), or Clio (knitting that holds memories)) were no doubt rolling around laughing with tears streaming down their faces: they had, of course, been watching me dither around my house for half an hour deciding what knitting to take for car and room and visit knitting, only to have it all completely changed by the importance of casting on my dishrag moments after opening the box!

So, I get the box, get my pattern, put computer and purse and cables in the bag, dash for the car, and off we go! And half an hour later I realise the computer and purse and cables are still in the bag in the rumpus room :P (Thus the lateness of this edition of knitty news)

So, I have the box, I have the camera, I open the Dishrag Tag box with great excitement, and see:

Then I have to explain the whole pass-the-parcel/tag/race concept to the MOMD:

Then I have to cast on:

So I used the Dishrag Tag as my Road Trip Knitting (I haven't quite managed to stick to socks as travelling knitting yet - I'm not sure why...)

NEXT: We meet 2paw!!
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Knitting updates

Fast and furious, 'coz it's 11 pm and tomorrow we're going on a Road Trip to the Latrobe Valley in the north of this fair state, there to meet a couple of excellent bloggy friends, 2paw and Tink! I am very very excited, and still dithering wildly as to what knitting to take for in the car, while cafe-meeting, and for kids-are-in-bed time!!!

Till we come back, this will have to do you:

I've been spending too much time on Ravelry looking at blankets: behold, the swatch that is keeping the mitred squares blanket at bay!



I want a throw out of some Colinette, have made a start but think that the needles are too small:



This is not my foot:



And the good news??? The Pinwheel Cardi is very close to being ready for sleeves!



I'm thinking that with several froggable projects, maybe I need to console myself with a travelling sock?
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Random as a Quantum Butterfly

What a beautiful spring day we had today - I say had, even though it's only 4.21pm, because the clouds have come over, the breezes have changed from refreshing to goosepimply, and Squeally Baby Hour is Nigh.

Today, I started to catch up on a few blogs, but got no further than Donni's week of interesting posts; I followed links and discovered why Lime&Violet go beserk over Wollmeise sockyarns - I'd have to say that I think the squees are totally deserved, and if I had $36 Aust to spend on socks, I'd spend it there.

Also, reading widely and avidly has paid off:

Your Vocabulary Score: A

Congratulations on your multifarious vocabulary! You must be quite an erudite person.

How's Your Vocabulary?

In other news, today I shovelled compost to make 3 new circles for veges, about a metre in diameter each, so I can have an Asian circle and an Italian circle and so on and so forth. There was also weeding. Admiration of the lovely peas swelling in their pods. I had a handful of baby rocket leaves in my sandwich at lunchtime. I love my vege patch.

The MOMD has spent today working on the fence again - large sections of white pickets have been removed, privet hedge roughly trimmed, and the newly beautiful green and red fence is starting to take shape. Lots of oomph, I love it and want the front door to be red too.

I am a tolerant mum. Despite quantities of dandelions and daisies remaining unscathed across the lawn, I have not lost my cool over the shredding of the hyacinths and pansies, the whacking of the jonquils or the excavating of the strawberries. I deserve extra chocky for that, don't you think?

Kids went off to play with neighbour's kids across the road for the first time today. Now we really start to feel like we're getting settled.

I need to plug in the ergonomic keyboard - my wrist has been bothering me a little from resting on the hard edge of my laptop (I'm sure that kitting nearly every night has nothing at all to do with it)

I did a wool wash today, so tomorrow I will have candy feet - yay! In a sad development, however, I tried on my first monkey leg to check the depth of the heel flap, and only managed to get it on due to an extensive range of foot-yoga movements taught to me by dedicated monks in the hills above the Dilmah plantations... otherwise known as wriggling a bit while pulling on the cuff really hard.
Option A) frog and find some needles 0.5mm bigger.
Option B) ask Mum whether she fancies them
Option C) put needles and wool in a bag in a box somewhere and wait until the pain subsides before doing anything rash.

Tomorrow is my Mid-Month Meet-up with Penni, and also Jen. The local bakery, while not stocking eye-boggling chocky cakes or other such cafe stuff, does reasonable tea and coffee, and of course bakery fare, and has comfy little chairs and tables that we can shift around to suit ourselves. Added bonus of being 2 blocks from my house, and handy to supermarket for grabbing milk etc before heading home. Must do some ufo hunting tonight so as to have knitting for tomorrow, since monkeys are no longer a possibility.

Squeally Baby Hour has well and truly arrived. Time to go!
Blog you later :>

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There was Knitting In Public this weekend!

Saturday afternoon was S'n'B, so I jauntily headed off, only 15 minutes late, to collect Penni and head into the city. About 3 blocks from my house I realised that I had not double-checked the directions to Penni's house, and couldn't quite remember the number either - all I had lurking behind my eyeballs was "turn right in front of the Caltex" and "about 300m" :{
But I had confidence in my ability to find her house anyway, and I was already late, and I didn't have me phone so I couldn't call home to get help from the MOMD, so merrily I continued along, found the right street and cruised along in it in as suspicious a manner as is possible in a suburban 4WD wagon. No joy, so around the block and back for a second pass - starting to feel pretty silly... Parked the car (after being looked at funny by the guy putting catalogues in people's mail boxes - the drive-by look as performed by scatty female on a Sat afternoon? weird...) and got out to walk back up the hill in search of a red car like Penni drove last time, or failing that, inspiration! I had an idea that #29 was close, so I knocked on the door and asked the lady, very definitely not a relative of Penni's, whether she knew a Penni who lived around here, has a young baby? She said hm, maybe, there was one living up there (vague wave up and left), but she didn't think that that was the name... So I asked if I could borrow her phone book for a minute, and discovered that Penni's house was number 30!! Furthermore, it was just up and to the left a bit!!!! (You wouldn't believe how difficult it can be to guess street numbers in Hobart - geographic proximity has little relationship with numerical order on opposite sides of the road!!!) So I ran straight back up the 45* angle path, blessing the past year's gym membership with every footfall, and started to dash down to the car so I could take it back up the road to Penni's place, but was halted mid-asphalt by Penni waving at me from her driveway ;P So I confessed my sins, and we sauntered down to the car (it's pretty hilly here, thus the ups and downs), and headed into the city to a trendy place called JamPacked (a cute pun which would take far too long to describe right now), to greet the peeps and get stuck into caffeine, cake and KIP!
At the s'n'b, I displayed my awesome Rock Candy Socks, to much admiration (thank you, thank you!), ordered tea and a brownie (and a truffle - but it was really small), and got out my First Ever Ballband Dishcloth, hoping I only had eight rows to go, so that I could triumphantly cast-off halfway through the s'n'b, and start my next pair of socks (printing out the pattern for which being one of the many reasons I was late). Penni, with painful truthfulness, told me that there are usually 13 brick rows, so I actually had 20 rows to go, not merely eight :P
I was not deterred: I had set myself a limit (a very tiny, barely there limit): no new cast-on till the dishcloth was done!! Then the tea and brownie arrived, and there was sipping and nibbling, there was scintillating conversation (yes Helen, I agree, the current Martha Jones was the chicky who became a CyberWoman in the previous series, and Saturday night's Doctor Who was excellent!!), there was knitting, there was tinking, and at the end of two hours, I had 1 row and the cast-off left to do:
An evening in front of Doctor Who (which was really really exciting so 1 row and casting off 45 stitches took the whole 45 minutes) and I have something pretty to show in the Sunday sunshine:
After Doctor Who I was allowed to start my next pair of socks - any guesses on the pattern? (not you, Penni!)




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Belated KIP blogging

My deepest apologies to my Knitty Peeps Penni and blogfree Jen - we had a bit of a KIP'n'cuppa on Sunday, and I did not immediately blog, and *gasp of horror* I forgot to take the good camera out of my bag and do pics!!!
So, not a good blogging week for me, obviously.
The KIP'n'cuppa was great, though; topics ranged from the unavoidable (what're you knitting?) to the hypothetical (what're you planning to knit?) to the cyberspatial (what knitty stuff have you seen recently on the net?). We also touched on work, family, Web 2.0, Library 2.0, whether any nuns still taught at Penni's workplace, (Jen used to go to school there way back when), why I talk in inches for little measurements (but also mix in a few mm for tiny things), the weather, etc etc etc.
I came home feeling fab after more than an hour of childfree conversation - the glow, despite all that children and showers and dinner and stories and housework could throw at me, lingered for hours....
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Attention Jen

Hey Jen! tomorrow between 1.30 and 2 till we're sick of it, or email me at knights_dont_knit (symbol) yahoo.com.au - I forgot to grab your email address!!!


And for everyone else, my second sock is nine rounds from starting the heel!!! Wish me luck as we daytrip today!!


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KIP with Penni

I have just had a nice relaxing afternoon KIPing with Penni, eating one lamington too many, and talking knitty stuff - lovely lovely lovely. (Note: excellent picture and recipe for lamingtons here)
We did actually have one person comment on what we were up to - an elderly gent who was a little hard of hearing, but very impressed by my Noro cardi! He later gently jested that he hoped we weren't supposed to be working at the bakery, because we'd been there so long :)
As for the cardi, I believe that the sleeves are done (needs one more proper try-on with the neckline on more circs), and Penni agrees with me that the buttonholes do need to be shifted, because the other side of the neckband is much brighter and prettier and more in keeping with the whole Technicolour DreamCardi effect (I think I've just come up with a Name for the Noro cardi, don't you??) - Wonder how much I can get done tonight? I'm going to wield a crochet hook and tink back each buttonhole and knit up again (yay for all of those posts reviewing Knit Fix!), then insert buttonholes on the other side in the same way. But not in front of GA!
In other news, there will be TdF knitting, and stealth knitting also (I'm not telling you what it is until there's been three guesses!!)

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What Penni Saw

I met up with Penni today at Loaves (local bakery cafe - as you all deduced, I'm sure), and showed her the nearly-doneness of the Noro cardi:

In turn, she showed me the beauty of her Noro Silk Garden Lite Argosy (and I'm really sorry about distracting you so much Penni!), which looks just charming and quick and fun to knit - I'm thinking about a wider version (I'm not one for fine, elegant scarves - I like 'em cushy) - AFTER the TdF KAL, of course. While I am not going to start anything new for the next 3 weeks (other than Jean-Pierre and Sandrine), the WIPs are allowed to provide a little light relief (hopefully not of the comic kind).

PS: 2paw, I keep trying to find a phrase for TopDown, but end up with stuff that sounds slightly rude, so maybe Haut Tricot?? Rhymes nicely!!
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Knitty Peeps

Just got back from my first ever Hobart S'nB afternoon - thank you to the 5 Knitty Peeps who were warm and friendly and included me in their conversations without fuss or fanfare - I'll see you next month, in my new cardi (I am determined)!!

I swatched for Sandrine, but I'm not enjoying the wool with these needles, so I'll try it with bamboo.















I worked on Plumberry 2.0.1













I was remarkably quiet and restrained and hardly flapped my hands around at all (ladies, you have been warned).
All in all, it was just lovely. Sitting, knitting, wandering from topic to topic... just lovely.
The perfect way to spend a rainy-ish Saturday afternoon.
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