Birthday Prezzies!!

Thanks Mum! (and Dad - I'm not sure how much input you had, but thanks anyway!!)
I got home this afternoon to a parcel of loveliness - the birthday prezzies for the MOMD and I had arrived today!!
My share is (brace yourselves) yarn and buttons!!!
100m/100gm of Debbie Bliss Donegal Chunky Tweed
and 495m/225gm of Harris DK in 'Gaelic Green'
and Butterfly buttons!
I had given Mum some ideas and my colour preferences and waited to see what she came up with, which was beautiful as you can see!!!


Slightly overshadowed by the above glory was the arrival of a package from Sydney - I couldn't resist the 30% off sale!!

(Note the boy in the background - total camera floosie.)
The yarn may or may not become socks, and the circ needle is most definitely going to begin making socks for the MOMD a possibility - I started some for him months ago but could not bear the catching of the yarn on the bump after the join for every single stitch!!!!
I shan't blather on any more - I need to put children to bed so I can play with my goodies uninterrupted!!!

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SProStaR

D'you like it?

SProStaR - Spring Project Status Review

All I wanted to do was to sort out a few WIP socks, mentally clear the decks for a cardi I want to design and another I want to alter. But something happened...Each bag led to another, and then to a tub, and another, and another.... until every tub of stash and every project bag and every WIP and every UFO launched themselves at me, taking over the newly cleared and vacuumed floor...

(that's not all of it, oh no, there were TEN TUBS of assorted stash and UFOs to add to that)

So, would you like to know what ended up in my basket of current WIPs (plus a couple of mindless long-term items to round it out)?

1. WIP socks, 2. Baby cardi all but done, 3. Child beret needing darning, 4. Alpine cardi, 5. Plans, 6. Pinwheel cardi, 7. Child's raglan, 8. cabled cardi, 9. Argosy scarf, 10. Magic ball swatch, 11. Vest of Neverending Jet, 12. endless clappy

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

1. Since Sunday, I've done some more on the Spicy Orange socks and Monkeys
   
2. I discovered that I need to review my seaming technique
   
3. I have darned the beret.
   
4. The Alpine cardi needs altering to fit me (too wide in the shoulder, too narrow in the sleeve. Must be the gym biceps).
   
5. I want to make a bamboo cotton top-down raglan cardi with some interesting extras.
   
6. I need to find the pattern for the pinwheel cardi and work out where I'm up to on the border, finish it and add sleeves (preferably before next September).
   
7. The pink/red/purple cardi was an impluse item a little while ago, but should be good for Miss 2 this summer.
   
8. The purple alpaca cardi has been on hold for ages, so I want to finish the sleeve and block it to be my swatch, and see whether I still want it.
   
9. Argosy has been in my bag for a while and the needles keep pulling out - I have to get it set back up and put it in something that will keep it together.
   
10. In the SProStaR I found this Magic Ball Swatch and fell in love again. I must work out how I want to deal with it - there are going to be fifty billion ends, so do I weave in as I go, darn them in later (oh dire death) or tie knots and line it with something?
11. This is a vest in the endless suply of Jet - I swear the original purchase has been reproducing itself - every time I toss the stash I find another calico bag with more Jet...
12. The Endless Clappy continues. Every so often I do a few more rows, and one day it will be gorgeous and enormous.

SO!!! Who dares to match me?? I freely admit to chronic startitis, totally unrealistic expectations, sudden wild enthusiasms and a lack of speedy follow-through. But this is a hobby, I've learned to cast on children's clothing a size or two larger to compensate for my Knitting ADD, and I give myself plenty of time to be really sure that I want to finish :>


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(Nowhere Near Full) Disclosure

For ease of access (ie total laziness) I have gradually accumulated a pile of Big Tub of Knitting and Accessories and Implements, Rainbow Basket of Knitting, Plastic Tub of Cardigan Yarn, and about Four Bags of WIPS, and a 20cm deep Pile of Knitting Books and Magazines beside my preferred spot on the lounge.

'So?' I hear you cry - 'Perfectly natural knitter behaviour'

Well, yes, however there is the small difficulty of having a small person in the house who is fascinated by things that fascinate those around her - so she will grab needles, yarn, bags and books at random from my Knitting Stuff and carry it off until

1. she is discovered
2. she gets bored and drops it wherever she happens to have wandered to
   
3. she gets herself so tangled in yarn that she wails for release.

Thus, over the past little while, some of my WIPS have lost needles, had skeins of yarn unwound, rewound and thrust back in their general direction, or have parted company with their patterns. After the latest event (unpacking my Harmony needles and snapping a 2mm one) I decided it was time for a bit of Affirmative Action.

Behold, the mess transferred to my bed:

Half-sorted:

The tub of implements needing further sorting:

Weird random stuff excavated from the depths - take particular note of the acorn, the scallop shell, the screwdriver, the Bill Granger cooking cdrom, Lunaria Honesty seeds, and a shoe sponge:

And the Final Line-up:

All those WIP bags are now safely tucked into my big purple tub, tucked away in a different spot where it is slightly less tempting for that smallest person with destructive powers inversely proportionate to her size.

Now, where'd I put that sock bag?


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There were two in the bed last night

Two extras, that is!
When I abandoned the repeats on tv and hied me to the bedroom, I found DD#1 asleep in the middle - not surprising, other than I thought she'd already gone back to her own bed an hour earlier. The second occupant, however, normally sleeps outside - my lovely dog Holly (thankfully recently washed) had opened the gauze sliding door and come a-wandering in, trotted around the bed a couple of times (judging by the straw mulching there this morning), then discovered a convenient pile of clothes from which to launch herself onto the bed, where she snuggled up on my side, against my pillow, beside the sleeping DD. I gently encouraged (ie picked up and carried) Holly outside, and requested that the MOMD put DD#1 in her bed. Some turning of pillow and brushing of linen later (girl and dog were on top, not actually under the sheets, thankfully) I was able to hop in, fondly recalling scenes from Holly's puppyhood, when she would nest in the basket of (dirty) washing, and find smelly socks to chew on...

But that's not why you're here, is it?

You want pictures!!! (Well, Tink does, at least :D )

Progress on the Clapotis:

(Click here for big)

The start of the Daughter Tunic:

(Click here for big)

Progress on the Jacobean Sock the First:

(Click here for big)

Accidental Alpaca Acquisition:

(Click here for big)

Magical Mystery Vest Magic Swatch:

(Click here for big)

(May I just say, because it makes all those linkys so much easier, that I LOVE Tabbed browsing!!)
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Now that the Technicolour Dream Cardi is done...

Penni and I had a lovely time at the S'n'B on Saturday; tea, conversation, lovely lovely 'Poached Chocolate Mud Cake' (I have no idea in what way it was poached, unless it was done in a bain-marie like a baked custard??) and the chance to finish my Technicolour Dream Cardi in front of an appreciative audience! Would you like to see the picture that BlackCrow took?

On the way home, Penni asked what I would like to make next, and started laughing as I listed the numerous ideas I have floating around in my head, not mention the various half-done items and UFOs lingering in bags and boxes... So in front of the tv on Saturday night, I played with various piles of wool, and took photos yesterday:

(Sorry, 2Paw, I only had one ball of green:} But look! Lots of purple for Jess!)

And what did I start?

For Miss 4, a cuff-to-cuff cardi, which I am making up as I go along :)

Anyone want to guess what I'm (still) wearing today???
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Finish, Frog or Felt?

These are the options when you discover what lies beneath... the top layer of boxes.

Stay tuned for:
A sock that fits me!
RagRug Rumble
Fluffy Pink Fairy Princess Flingwrap
My Mohair Phase
Colinette Conundrum

and other items as I unearth them... I am marking uni assignments for the next two weeks and may not be knitting very consistently, so I will set up the above items to post themselves! Oh the wonders of post-dating! (If it works ;>)

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After the Fair

Thanks to Penni, I realised that the Hobart Quilt and Craft Fair was on today, and immediately planned how and when I might get there, preferably without children :P
I turned up for J's school's Bunnings BBQ (fundraiser at entry to large hardware store), to discover hubby already there and happy to keep going, so I went to the Fair! Sadly, this meant taking 3 small people with me, a move that nearly proved fatal to two of them - thankfully, I was able to restrain myself from providing sensational Sunday paper headlines

Crazed Craft Fair Mum Strangles Offspring with Alpaca Silk; Stall Owners Demand Payment for Soiled Goods

Back to Bunnings, buy sausages and drinks for 2 kids, sit watching for half an hour until hubby is ready to hand the till over to the next parent volunteer, explain slowly and clearly that I AM going to the Fair, hand over baby and car keys, and off I whizzed to surround my self in explosions of riotous colour!
As I walked around, I noticed many many people carrying these:

so I went for a look and bought one! Inside was a motley collection of "women's interest" items:

The kids ate the Gummi Bears, we don't have a budgie, I don't watch BH&G, but the bag had pretty pink stripes, so a must for miss S. Oops! Forgot the cutlery!

The same stall had this for $20 (HALF the RRP!!), so I couldn't leave it there, could I?

Trawling around the place I found Jules on the Web, whose stall was just a complete rainbow; then there was Prudence Mapstone, who had some of her amazing freeform crochet creations up on display - I am overawed by the artistry and colour-sense, but can't see myself diving into scrumbling - I think you would really have to be a crochet person to do it properly, and it would work better if you already had a fairly large repertoire of stitches and patterns to go nuts with. A lovely lady though, and she kindly sold me one of these:

Elsewhere I found *gasp* SOCK YARN - specifically, Online Supersocke 100, wool 4ply and cotton 4ply:

(sadly I bought one at $17 from one stall and found it elsewhere on special for $13.50, and couldn't bring myself to go back and swap #1, because the lady there had let me fondle everything before only buying two skeins. They even had Addi Turbos. I played a little)
Guess which family members these are intended for?:

Also on special were these:

so now I have enough to go with the 100gms I had begun as a drop-st scarf but decided it just wouldn't work - now there is enough for a wrap or vest, and I thought maybe I'd knit it together with a strand of navy something or other - add a little softness and depth ...
So that was my 2 hours at the Fair - I have yarn on either side of me, plans whirling through my brain, a blog post to share my joy with everyone, and no time to start anything because it's 11pm and I really need some sleep!
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