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!

Fingers and Thumbs and Needles

So in the last few weeks I've tackled projects requiring two new skills - cables and double pointed needles. Not the same project, I'm not that crazy!

The cable project is fingerless gloves (flat with seams) for my assistant. They are knitting up very well and I'm loving them. Holding the cable to the back is a bit tricky, I'm not always sure whether the yarn goes behind or in front. It was cool enough before Christmas to get started on them (they're alpaca which is very warm) but since then it's just gotten too hot to think about.

So I decided to get started on a cotton blend baby blanket instead. Not for me (everybody asks) but for a friend up in Tamworth. It's a circular blanket knitted on dpns. The biggest challenge was casting on 8 stitches and trying to join them up and knit in the round. Took about 3 goes but I'm well established now and sailing along. Here's my progress so far.

Tangled Branches

I am feeling a little discouraged at the moment. I think I am on my fifth attempt to get through the 6-row pattern for Branching Out correctly. I plunged in rather ambitiously, starting with the lovely mohair straight away. Bad idea - very difficult to rip out mistakes in mohair. I was also cursing my cheapie 4mm needles which are impossibly blunt. It was a rude shock to go from my lovely pointy knitpicks to these, especially when the pattern calls for you to knit 3 together!

So after the third or fourth attempt, I switched to some 8ply practice yarn and my 4.5mm knitpicks. Much easier. But I still somehow ended up with the wrong number of stitches by the fifth pattern row. Sigh! I shall persevere, but what I really should do today is take up the hem of my bellydancing costume in preparation for our peformances in a few weeks.

Rosewood

I am in love with rosewood knitting needles. I just visited Sydney's Tapestrycraft sale and the rosewood needles were 75% off. So instead of coming home with some cheapie bamboos from Lincraft, I now have 3 beautiful pairs of rosewood needles. Dark, beautifully polished and smooooth....so smooth to touch.

I don't know that I would ever buy them full price (over $30 AUS each, ouch!) but by golly if they are on sale again I would buy more. The salesgirl told me that she inherited her knitting needles from her grandmother, and these rosewood needles are the sort that could indeed be heirlooms. What a lovely thought, to pass down knitting needles.

I can't ever imagine buying plastic or aluminium needles again. It's going to be bamboo or wood for me.