Despite wanting to be a better blogger, with fabulous FO’s and photos to match, I fear all I have to offer this week is a progress photo and greetings from Purl.

I can lay some of the lack of finished objects blame, fairly and squarely on this despicable weather we’ve been having. I didn’t even get to bake this weekend (yep, I still haven’t made cookies, ever), because I dared not to venture outside in this heat to gather said ingredients. I’ve also been rather busy at work, extremely busy and this has fatigued me by the time I’ve reached the couch this week.

Next week will be better, with a home delivery of groceries, at least baking cookies will be probable. Like all my English friends, I declare, I want to move somewhere cold.

The socks have been a joy so far, despite messing up the cable twice in two rows. This was due to the loss of a cable needle on a ride in a monster truck. I also accidentally flung a stitch marker, which was the stand-in cable needle, and it too disappeared before my eyes. Sometimes travel knitting doesn’t work.

Phew! How busy has it been? Last weekend we celebrated my youngest sisters wedding, it was a big day which left me pretty well exhausted for the remainder of the week. Here’s a photo of my outfit for inquiring minds. My feet are still sore from wearing the heels.

This weekend was our wedding anniversary and we celebrated by going away for the weekend. Whilst our home was being cat-sat (the yarn stash was safe), we missed Purl greatly. Luckily we had a ‘privacy cat’ as a stand-in. The stuffed toy amuses me much more now than it has in the past. A good sign I’ve crossed over to being a cat person. The upside to the toy cat is she doesn’t mess with my yarn and I could leave knitting projects unattended.

Speaking of knitting… My first installment of the Cookie A sock club arrived this week just in time for the weekend away. Apart from starting my socks 3 times, I’m really really enjoying the knitting and yarn so far. The club is proving to be a lot of fun already, and oh my gosh, I might even bake some cookies, I have never baked cookies.
Till next time.

Sorry for the blog silence. I’m exhausted. After a rather happy and fun first week with Purl, Purl got a little ill last weekend. I took her to the vet, it wasn’t anything serious, I’m not really sure what it was or what caused it. But it was traumatic for me, traumatic for her, thermometer anyone? And quite frankly the stress of being a parent kicked in.

I knew she was well again yesterday after she was being very very naughty. Her eye is almost right but not quite, I’ll stop worrying when I stop having to put ointment in her eye.

On top of that, she is having trust issues. She’s due for more vaccinations next week, awesome!

Right now she’s sleeping in her favourite spot. Sweet dreams little trouble-maker. Knitting time.

I was tired this morning, so was ‘Purl’ (this is her current name, thanks for all your suggestions, I just didn’t think it would be this hard!).

I went into the living area and couldn’t find Purl. Then I got on my hands and knees and found her nestled beneath my yarn shelf. Yes, the yarn shelf. Where the two lower layers have yarn and fibre bagged up in ziplocks. I ran out of ziplocks. So far the yarn and fibre is safe, a pillow case is covering my wheel (apparently some cats like to chew on the Majacraft drive band). So far there hasn’t been an avalanche of bags falling off the shelf. So far so good. But I haven’t pulled my knitting out yet.

We played and played and played last night. I was a little afraid she would be expecting the same this morning. Thankfully she was too tuckered out to come out from under the shelf, I think she’s a night owl. Currently she is banished to the front of the house, mumma has to have her rest.

Leaving home this morning, I felt different and responsible and happy to have such a lovely kitten. Hopefully she’ll stay this way.

Here are some first photos that Damian took of her tonight.

 

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The new Boeing 787 Dreamliner can carry about 250 passengers. This blog was viewed about 1,700 times in 2012. If it were a Dreamliner, it would take about 7 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Today I attended a craft market put on by some of my friends (Robyn came too and was equally excited). It was held at Jo’s beautiful home, which was made over for the purpose.

These are some of my oldest friends, i.e. we’ve known each other since we worked together over 10 years ago. They are multi craftual and incredibly talented, and when I walked into Jo’s home this morning, I wanted to buy everything!

I went away on a crafting weekend with a few of them less than a month ago, so I had a little taste of things to come, and I made sure I got there early today!

I got a little bit of Christmas shopping done, but let’s be honest, I got some beautiful things for me as well. When I entered the first room, I spotted my name embroidered on a sweet little project bag; why of course I had forgotten about placing a pre-order with Bek whilst away on our weekend. Luckily, no other ‘Sonia’s’ had snapped it up!

I was rather pleased to find Karen had completed the baby playmat I saw her work on and I quickly picked that up for yes you guessed it… Marilyn. She did her first deliberate rollover this week, I got a cute video emailed to me to prove it, I was impressed by her acrobatics.

I loved the padded coat hangers by Rae, and the screen printed teas towels by Jo. I also bought ‘one of each’ of Jo’s desserts to take home for my sweet (not pictured here for good reason!). So many beautiful things and I didn’t buy it all. I feel so happy to be able to keep (some) of these things and I know the hands that made them. I hope they do it again next year.

Word of mouth can be a very powerful thing. It is the purest form of advertising and the most honest.

This week I used word of mouth, so that I wouldn’t buy fibre… It sounds quite evil but I assure you, I was quite capable of buying this fibre on my own. but I didn’t, because I hadn’t, I had let this fibre sit in this online store for weeks and weeks, knowing full well it was the last of it… and when a friend asked me for a recommendation, I sent her the way of the fibre. That’s what friends do. Although I didn’t tell her about it intially…

Now that my friend has been and gone from the store, I could go back and get the couple of tops that I’ve been thinking about that she hadn’t purchased!

I want to use word-of-mouth here again today. For the same reasons as above, so I don’t buy all the fibre! My friend Melanie who’s passion for fibre extends beyond my ‘oh that’s pretty’ knowledge, has recently started blending fibre using hackle combs and what not. She has started selling some fibre from her blog, here’s where you come in. I need you to start reading her blog, preferably before me, so I don’t buy all the pretty. It’s too late for Raspberry Milkshake, how could I walk away from that?!

I’ve begun spinning another batch of Melanie’s blended fibre, and what can I say… little clouds of joy 🙂

I love getting recommendations from friends about fabulous fibre and stripey sock yarn (more on that next time), feel free to leave a comment if you have any sources you’re willing to share, so I can help you to not to buy it all…

My original intention for these 3 separate tops of IxChel’s BFL seaweed angora was to 3 ply them together. Under the influence of fibre fumes at a lovely spin-in at Charly’s farm late last year, I was bedazzled by the combination of the 3. I’d also recently learnt how great 3 ply yarns looked compared to 2 ply.

If I 3 ply them together as originally intended, I’m probably going to get something that is between 8 and 12 ply. Or I could 2 ply them, switching the bobbins around to get an evenness of colour. Or 2 ply two of them and navajo ply the third on its own. What would you do?

One of life’s little luxuries is a pair of hand-knit socks. I wear nothing else about the house and I rarely wear them outside of home. Put simply, I feel the most comfort when they are upon my feet. Since I’ve discovered this pleasure I’ve done my best to boost my personal hand-knit sock tally. It’s true I only have two feet; but the reason I strive for many pairs of socks, is so that I’m never without a clean pair and more importantly I want to extend the wearing cycle to limit the wear and tear on them. Socks get holes…
Finally, my love of spinning and socks have come together in these…

The fibre was from The Thylacine sock club from earlier this year. I was lucky enough to score an extra 50 gms from Melanie, so I could make extra long socks (Thanks Mel!). The fibre was spun as singles, then Navajo plied to maintain the colour gradients, this part makes me excited, I could spend hours staring at the magical transitions between burgandy and bright red and back again. To further maximise my handspun, because I hate having leftover sock yarn, I used the universal toe-up sock pattern from Knitty. It was a very well written pattern and was adjustable to whatever your gauge. I would use this pattern again, it was my friend.

Just a little catch-up with my other projects: my cowl and mitts have been finished and in use for weeks; I did fall short of making a hat to complete my winter set, but I don’t really wear hats and I had another pressing baby knit to do. The Baby Yoda sweater was a fun little knit and I got to do a bit of i-cord. I’m looking forward to seeing my niece in it as soon as I can schedule a meet and a cuddle.

I haven’t done a Bendigo wrap-up, because well… the yarn fumes. The stash shelf has been rearranged to accommodate, the only thing I didn’t squeeze onto the shelf was 2kgs of Pear Tree ::gulp:: My stash and I are an island.

Lastly, I’m running a little comp over on the Richmond Knitters Blog, follow that blog and you’ll have a chance to win a skein of my handspun! Details over on the Richmond Knitters blog.

I’m off to cast-on Golden Wheat, have a great week!