In which I update my sadly neglected blog (Warning - picture heavy!)

Almost three months since I last updated my blog. Disgraceful. And vaguely terrifying. Where did the time go?

Well here's where it went in knitting projects anyway.

I knitted this shawl to go with the dress for my cousin's wedding in Melbourne. My deathly pallor in the photo is thanks to the dreadful flu/virus I had for the ENTIRE weekend, which was spent in the hotel room with a raging fever. I made it to the wedding ceremony but missed the reception.



A few weeks after that was the Quilting and Craft fair at Darling Harbour. There was some gorgeous gorgeous stuff for sale. And walls of wool!



It's possible I went a leetle bit nuts - but not too dreadfully over budget. Here's my haul.


And here's my OTHER haul.



Yes folks, I took out the guessing competition at the World Wide Knit in Public day event for Sydney. Thanks again to Sally (Pompom on Ravelry) for organising it and to Mosman Needlecraft for the delicious basket of yarny goodness!

What else...I finished the boss's scarf (only took a year), knitted some baby booties for a friend's baby shower, started a cardigan for the baby once it's born, and squeezed in most of a pair of fingerless gloves for myself. Sadly I did not do a good job of matching yarn to pattern; the yarn is beautiful but the semi-solid variegation hides the "dragon scales" of the pattern. Oh well, they're still yummy and warm.



And that's about it folks. Next on the needles are some legwarmers (started but I discovered knitting with plastic needles = very sore thumb so waiting for a new set), a hat for a friend and the return of the woodland shawl.

In which I wonder what to knit

I'm at a bit of an impasse, trying to decide which way to go. This was all triggered because I finally finished the baby blanket for my friend, hurrah! The blanket was my "big easy" knit - large needles, simple pattern. I'm still working on my Woodland Shawl which is more of a "small needles, think a bit" project.

So do I pull out the jumper I started last winter? Lots of mindless knitting there. Do I knit a chunky scarf to satisfy the big needle longing? I did start one but have abandoned it because I'm not happy with the colour combination of the wool. Plus I really should finish the scarf I started for my boss, that's plenty chunky but I have to pay attention to the pattern. Or do I get stuck into the pair of gloves or socks that I want to make?

Tonight I shall be virtuous and get stuck into the boss' scarf. And dig out the jumper. New socks and gloves can wait....unless someone can convince me otherwise...?!

In which I am linguistically challenged

Feeling a little verbally challenged tonight, so I'll just post up a pic of my latest project.



And some lovely lovely stitch markers that my friend messicat made....she's only a beginning knitter but she beads with the best of them.



I have been putting a lot of thought into the package for a swap I'm participating in with the Fairytale and Folklore group. I'm hoping messicat will be able to help me create some stitch markers to go with it. :D

In which I knit my first sock!

Baby sock
Originally uploaded by jedi_enna

Check it out - my first sock! The kitchener stitch for the toe is a touch loose and I have a slight hole at the ankle where I picked up the stitches at the heel. But otherwise I am quite please. Now I have to make the other one. Sigh.

Ostara and Amina Khaleegy Sydney Multicultural Festival

Ostara and Amina Khaleegy
Sydney Multicultural Festival
Originally uploaded by Nico Nelson

Here are two of the girls from "Desert Roses", Josefina Daley's bellydance troupe that I'm part of. This dance is in the khaleegy style, from the United Arab Emirates. The dancers pick up the front of that voluminous robe and use it as a prop. The other very important prop is hair - it gets swung around a lot in this style of dancing.

The photographer, Nico, is the husband of Chani and takes lovely photos. We're very lucky he comes to all of our performances!

In which I have a birthday...oh, and finish some gloves

I've been quite remiss in updating my blog of late. Things have been very busy both at work and socially and I must confess when I get home I just didn't feel like writing! So there is lots to catch up on.

Firstly - I finished my Strawberries n Cream Gloves!



I am really really pleased with them, they are both the most complicated and most elegant project I have completed yet. Cabling wasn't too hard once I got the hang of it, and the wool (Knitting by Zen 100% alpaca) was just gorgeous to work with. Seaming them up was a nightmare - matching moss stitch to stockinette is not easy. The recipient seemed quite pleased,
I hope she does enjoy wearing them.

Secondly - I got older!



Not that I'm a particular fan of getting older, but at least there are some compensations - such as:





The needles were a combined present from my mother and brother (Harmony tips, yayayayay!). The needle roll was made by my talented mother-in-law, I LOVE the knitting chickens on it. I also got a snuggly dressing gown and the DVD set "Long Way Round" in which Ewan MacGregor and Charlie Boorman motorbike around the world. Great stuff.

I also picked up a couple of beautiful hairclips with the last of my money - here's one:


That little clip holds all my hair - IF I manage to put it in right, which is a bit of an art. But I'm getting there.

So there you go, the last couple of weeks all in one rush!

In which I holiday by the seaside

Over the weekend hubby and I went on a holiday with another couple, good friends of ours. Destination: Beach Cove, Dangar Island.

The first step was loading up with four days worth of gourmet food. As we squeezed 6 bottles of wine, juice, milk, 4 different types of cheese, biscuits, fruit, snacks, BBQ supplies and a BBQ chook into the car we wondered whether we were overdoing it. Turns out we weren't - we left with about 10 bags of shopping and came back with just 3. The weekend was one long feast - and we loved it! We did not, however, love carting all that shopping AND our luggage (including bellydancing and fire twirling supplies) over the sand from the wharf where the taxi dropped us. Always remember to travel at high tide folks, you end up much closer to your destination!

Aside from preparing and consuming copious quantities of food, we knitted (me), spun (Camee), drew (Craig) and juggled (Sean). We walked through the front yard onto the beach and swam at high tide. Sean and Camee kayaked around the whole island one morning. I started to learn some tricks with Camee's poi, although I seemed to spend more time hitting myself than spinning the darn things. We read, we watched dvds, we napped. We told the kookaburra who tried to steal our dinner where to go (at the top of my lungs). Altogether it was the most wonderful, relaxing holiday. The current debate is whether to return next year or head for the snow...decisions decisions!

More photos up on flickr.

In which I am injured but heroically knit on

Last night I went to Opera in the Domain (open air opera) with some fellow Ravelers. We had a fantastic time knitting and picnicing before the opera started at 8. But there was one slight hitch. Who would have thought you could slice yourself up with a garden-variety picnic knife while cutting an avocado? These aren't steak knives, they're for eating picnic stuff like cold chicken. But I tell you what, they were bloody sharp. Literally.

So there I am with this deep slice in the tip of my left index finger, and it's a real bleeder. Bandaids one and two don't do the trick, so it's off to find some of the first aid folk wandering around. There is much drama, taking of details, swabbing of gauze, wrapping and taping and by the time they are done I have a pretty impressive bandage on my finger It takes three of them to do this, which makes it all look very dramatic (although I think they HAVE to go around in groups of three). Apparently it's the most exciting thing they've done all night (well it is Opera in the Domain, not the Big Day Out rock festival).

So we all settle back down, finish off the picnic (complete with avocado), and then as we're packing up Camee does EXACTLY the same thing with one of the knives. Yeesh. Luckily hers didn't bleed quite as badly so we didn't have to call the first aid folk back!

So my dramatically bandaged finger has put a bit of a crimp in my knitting speed, which is very frustrating, especially as I want to finish the Strawberries and Cream gloves by tomorrow so I can give them to the birthday girl. Typical. Oh well, at least I'll have a good tale to tell when I provide the excuse!

Yarn Raffle for a great cause

Just found an amazing yarn raffle for a very good cause. Ravelry member PeaceSoup recently lost her sister, who left behind a young boy to be raised by his father and grandparents. PeaceSoup wants to give him an amazing birthday present so she is raffling off a chunk of her stash and some beautiful donated yarn for $5 a ticket. And this woman has some serious stash!

The details are here. I’m hankering for the Elizabeth Bennett Apple Blossom - and even if I don’t win, it’s a fantastic cause.

In which I am suspicious

I have a horrible feeling that I am coming down with a cold.

I really cannot afford a cold as I have a 3-day conference this week, which I am also presenting at. It's going to be hardcore as I will be spending a lot of time at the CCH booth talking with conference goers, as well as actually attending conference sessions.

I have rugged up as much as one can for summer, and will be going out to the chemist later to pick up anti-cold meds like zinc and vitamin C.

In the meantime I am going to sit and sulk and knit.

This had better not be a cold. Please, please just be allergies!!!!

Oh. My. God.

I just spent AU$270 on a suit.

Never mind we are broke, it's the first payday after Christmas and we have credit cards and a holiday to pay off.  No, I am presenting at a conference next week which warranted the purchase of a suit that is a) good quality and b) actually fits.

But still....two hundred and seventy dollars!!!!!!

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Ah...the weekend!

First week back at work was huge, lots of really interesting stuff going on. I was so braindead by Friday night, I just got home and switched off!

But I am really looking forward to a quiet weekend pottering around, cleaning and trying new recipes. Plus big plans to watch Fellowship of the Rings on our big new TV and knit knit knit! And seam up that first glove....I hate seaming.

Holidays are over. :(

Last day of the holidays. I shouldn't be sad, there are lots of great things happening at work. But still, it's quite nice wake up whenever you want and do whatever you want. Lots of reading and knitting and shopping and mooching and I even managed to get a bunch of chores out of the way so I feel pretty satisfied.

The first cable glove is done bar the seaming, I am very pleased with how it came out and doing the thumb wasn't as scary as I anticipated. The blanket is also proceeding apace, I have worked out how the pattern grows which means I can work out where the yo's etc go without counting every single stitch.

Someone lent me the first two Twilight books which are definitely interfering with my knitting time. I've read them once before but from memory I was unimpressed with the second book and never bothered reading the rest of the series. Now it's such a big fuss with the movie and all that I thought I would give them another shot. The first was as good as I remembered, much better than the movie which doesn't quite convey Bella's acerbic and amusing narrative style. Just starting New Moon. The annoying thing will then be whether I can wait on the reserve list for Eclipse at the library...or cave and spend $20 on the book instead of the yummy Malabrigo yarn I have been virtuously resisting. This budgeting/saving business is hard.

Save me from the Boxing Day sales

No, not masses of shoes from Myer or even stacks of half-price towels and sheets (although I did get one set).

Yarn.

All of the Aussie online shops are announcing their sales, and it was just too hard to resist. Wired for Fibre won me over (poor Yarn and Kisses experienced a server move at the worst possible time). So I picked up some 4ply alpaca to make mum the socks she requested. And you may as well fill up the satchel, right? So I bought some merino 4ply as well. I talked myself out of some merino/silk laceweight, so there is some hope for me yet.

Better get back to knitting to justify my latest purchases!