Monday, January 30, 2006

Feather and Fan Socks


After seeing quite a few feather and fan socks on knitting blogs I decided that they would be the perfect socks for me to do as they combine my favourite stitch pattern with my favourite summer knitting, socks. I went on a search for a free knitting pattern for them and although there were many out there, none of them had the version of feather and fan that I know and love. So what else is a girl to do but sit down with her needles and yarn, which by the way was frogged from a previous toe up sock which I was not happy with, and make my version of this popular sock. The yarn that I used is Patons Patonyle 4ply but any 4ply sock yarn would be great, especially those who are fortunate to live overseas and have access to such great yarns. I found THIS SITE the other day, aren't the colours just beautiful but unfortunately they don't ship outside of the US, probably just as well, the last thing I need at the moment is more sock wool.

If you would like to knit my feather and fan socks I have written up the pattern for them and it can be found in the sidebar in My Pattern list or HERE. If you decide to knit them I hope I have made the pattern user friendly and that you find them as fun to knit as I did.

Saturday, January 28, 2006

I've Been Tagged.

It has been a while since I have had one of these but thanks to MICHELLE I have been tagged with a meme:

Four Jobs You've Had in Your Life:

1. Deli Chick (I never made it to the checkout)
2. Waitress
3. Video Wholesaler
4. Full time mother (this has been the toughest job I have ever, ever had.)

Four Movies You've Watched Over and Over:

(In previous answer you will notice that I was a video wholesaler (DVDs weren't even invented yet) well anyway I watched hundreds of movies and there were a few that made it into my private collection four of which are:

1. A Hard Days Night ( this was where George Harrison, who happens to be my favourite Beatle, met his first wife Patti Boyd, who had a very small part)
2. Ghost
3. Sound Of Music
4. Grease (our very own Olivia Newton John starred)

Four Places You Have Lived:

1. Campbell Town, Tasmania
2. Launceston, Tasmania

Four Places You Have Been on Vacation:

(Boring old me has never left Aussie shores, but hey when you live in the best place in the world why do you need to!!!!

1. Perth
2. Adelaide
3. Hamilton Island
4. Tasmania (of course and the best place I must say)

Four Websites You Visit Daily:

1. THE WOOL SHACK
2. KNITTERS REVIEW
3. EBAY
4. All my favourite blogs over in the sidebar

Four of Your Favorite Foods:

1. Seafood
2. Potatoes (in all their prepared ways)
3. Chocolate (only Cadburys and Dove)
4. Red wine (surely it is a food!!!)

Four Places You Would Rather Be Right Now:

I actually am very happy right here in Launceston, Tasmania and can't imagine where on earth I would rather be but if I could do an 'I Dream Of Jeannie' thing and blink and visit four places and be back in time for tea:

1. Liverpool, England so that I could see where the Beatles began
2. Port Arthur, Texas so that I could see where Janis Joplin grew up
3. San Francisco, so that I could see where Janis Joplin became a star
4. The best yarn stores in the world wherever they are


Four Bloggers You are Tagging:

I am going to tag my fellow Launceston Stich and Bitches (that sounds terrible, I am talking group name here not them) on this one.
1. CATHY
2. CINDY
3. KATT
4. SUZI

Thursday, January 26, 2006

Let Me Knit In Peace


As mentioned in a previous post about how Rocky attacks my knitting, Here is proof of it. I sometimes wonder is he jealous because if I'm knitting I'm not paying 100% attention to him.

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

When Is Too Much Not Enough?


Look what arrived in the mail yesterday, all the way from Germany. I found this seller on EBAY and as she had the colours that my LYS didn't have in stock I decided to buy from her. She even packed some lollies in with my order, yum!! I don't think I will be in need of any sock yarn for a while, but my fellow S'n'B members are going to do an order for some Regia, so maybe.....??

On the knitting front I am 1/2 way through second feather and fan sock, hope to post a photo and the pattern within the next couple of days, I just have to double check the workings of the pattern. I will take the sock with me today to S'n'B and hope to get a bit done there, mind you I seem to do a lot of talking and not much knitting, now anybody who knows me will not be at all surprised by that. I have also started (yes I am having a slight case of 'startitis') a Patons 'Bubbles' baby blanket, but more about that in my next post.

Rocky, is doing well, I did have to take him to the vet this week for a check up and the vet discovered that he has a slight virus, he is now on medication and is extremely active so I don't think he is too sick. I love to sit in my favourite chair and knit, but this has become a bit difficult as Rocky loves to jump on my chair and grab my wool and chew my needles, bad cat. I find myself sneaking off somewhere quiet to knit, unless of course he is asleep, which he does a fair bit, thankfully.

Friday, January 20, 2006

My Blog Is One Year Old Today

Twelve whole months ago I took the nervous plunge into the world of blogging, I say nervous because I had only a few months earlier worked out how to send emails to people. So you can get the picture here, I was not very computer minded at all but after discovering DONNA'S BLOG I was hooked and then went looking for others and realised that SUZI and KATT my fellow S'n'Bs had one and then as you do, decided that I definately wanted one too. Little did I realise what 'nervous' fun I would have along the way, learning how to add a photo for one and then learning about html which was all totally foreign in the early days. But the best thing of all has been the wonderful people you meet along the way, the knitting bloggers community out there is awesome and it is a great place for sharing ideas and getting help when we get stuck on a pattern or want to know how to add something to our blogs or simply show off our latest FO's. Not to mention where we find so many things that we 'must knit' because we have coveted the finished item on someones blog, anyway it has been a wonderful year.

The Opal Doktorfisch Socks, I used my sock pattern which can be found HERE, I can knit these in my sleep now I have used this pattern so many times but it is a good fitting easy sock pattern. As you can tell by my white legs, I wear long skirts or 3/4 trousers in summer, come to think of it I don't even think I own a pair of shorts!!

On Tuesday we went to the RSPCA to adopt a kitten, well isn't that the most difficult decision to make, their little faces all look at you with a look that says 'pick me, pick me'. The lady in charge told us to take our time and one would choose us, and one did

meet 'Rocky', he is about 9 weeks old and yes he definately chose us. When we first walked into the place where the kittens are kept he was in his basket and spun his little head around to look at us and then when we walked outside to look at the kittens who were outside he followed us. I left the choice up to the kids and all three of them looked at me and said it has to be that one, he is following us he must like us. He is such an affectionate little kitten which is exactly what we all needed after the upset of losing both Tabby and Tiger. Rocky is going to become one spoilt cat let me tell you. I was sitting in my favourite chair reading Delicious magazine which had just arrived in the mail, surprisingly before it hit the supermarket shelves this month, when this is where he decided he wanted to have a nap.

This has definately been a much longer post than my very first but I definately am looking forward to another fun year of knitting and blogging xx

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Everybody's Knitting Socks

Sock knitting is taking over the world it seems, everywhere people are knitting socks well the peoples whose blogs I have been reading anyway. I too have been knitting socks but only one pair at a time, until I visited CINDY'S BLOG and saw her feather and fan socks. I went through the WIP basket and frogged the toe up socks I was working on but I wasn't real happy with and voila I now am working on feather and fan socks too. I did a search and found many variations of feather and fan socks but I decided to do them 'my way' I will write the pattern up when I am finished so that I can add mine to the growing list of patterns available out there for these socks.

I also discovered something else on Cindy's blog that made me very excited, there is a new on line yarn store YARNS ON LINE AUSTRALIA and they sell Brown Sheep Lambs Pride, yippeeee!! I had been chasing this yarn last year and found it was going to cost an arm and a leg to get it here to Australia, as unfortunately most overseas yarns do, unless you can buy them off ebay using PayPal. The colour range for Brown Sheep Lambs Pride is huge and it comes in both worsted and bulky or 10 and 14-16ply for us Aussies. So a big thanks Cindy for that, DH may not agree he he.

Friday, January 13, 2006

Knitting Purist
You appear to be a Knitting Purist.
You are an accomplished knitter producing beautiful
pieces with a classic feel. You sometimes
lament losing half of your local yarn shop to
garish novelty yarns. Perhaps you consider fun
fur scarves the bane of knitting society and
prefer to steer new knitters towards the wool
and cotton blends. Some might call you a bit of
an elitist but you know that you've been doing
this craft long enough to respect the history
behind it and honor it with beautiful piece
that can last a lifetime.
http://marniemaclean.com


What Kind of Knitter Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Why Leave Comments???

BECAUSE YOU COULD WIN A PRIZE
Katt got her 500th comment on her blog and as it was me who left it, I won this

So that is why you should always leave comments!!!! Thanks
Katt as I am a real chatterbox I find it hard not to leave comments, but this time it paid off see.

I am a chuffed little person this week, why? If you scroll down the sidebar of my blog, you will notice that I now have percentage bars that I have been admiring on everyone elses blogs lately. When I investigated further how to get them, I realised that I was way out of my depth and decided that 'SHAZZAS KNITS' just wouldn't have them *sigh* That was until I went on Knitters Review Forum and lo and behold some wonderful man, whose wife just happened to be a knitting blogger also wanted percentage bars and had realised that you needed some sort of degree in computing to work it all out, figured out an easy peasy html only way of making them for her and has shared it for all of us computer challenged knitters. There is a link in my sidebar for easy peasy percentage bars which goes to this guys site, so that you too can have them.

I must be off now as I am looking after my niece and nephew this morning so I had better go and get myself organised.

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Doktorfisch Socks (Regal Tang)




Can you see a resemblance??? The yarn is part of the wildlife series put out by Opal in which they have produced lovely coloured yarns to represent different animals. If anyone has watched the movie 'Finding Nemo' Dory was this fish species but of the blue variety. Anyway with the weather being very humid and hot here recently, makes a change from Christmas when we had to have our electric heater on, sock knitting is about all I feel like doing. I will be taking them along to S'n'B today where we can knit in comfort as our meeting room is nice and cool, we now meet at the old Coats Patons building which is very appropriate as it used to be a thriving woollen mill up until the late 70's early 80's. Not quite sure exactly when it closed down but I can remember buying wool from there on my days off so it must have still been operating in the early 80's but in a much smaller capacity than in its heyday. Unfortunately the 80's were a decade where knitting was considered a very daggy thing to do and a hobby for the elderly only, and as such the woollen mills suffered because of this. Now a local church owns it and they have a cafe and hire out meeting rooms, our local op shop City Mission are also there temporarily after their building was destroyed by fire. So we can knit, eat, drink coffee and shop at the op shop while catching up with what everyone has been up to over the holidays today, sounds like a perfect combination to me.

CRICKET NEWS!!!
Just a little footnote about the cricket, Australias captain Ricky Ponting comes from Launceston and as he has been in the news lately I thought a little bragging wouldn't hurt!!!

Monday, January 02, 2006

I Love Holidays

Yes as you can probably guess by my lack of posts I have been busy partying over the holiday season, catching up with friends and relatives and of course eating and drinking and being merry. Holidays you got to love them, even if my waistline doesn't. I have had some time for knitting though, finishing off my UFOs which are all now waiting for me to sew them up, my least favourite side to knitting garments. I have started Alice Starmores 'Mystic' which once you establish all the patterns isn't as daunting as I thought it would be, however I do only manage a few rows at a time as I have too many distractions around me to be able to concentrate on it for too long. I did start and finish the Rowan Tweed socks, being 8ply they knitted up very quickly.

I always have a pair of socks on the go so I started yet another pair of opal for my mindless TV watching, sitting in the sun project. We are having real funny weather at the moment, one day can be cold and wet and the next day hot, weird. I am now going to go and make a nice cup of coffee and catch up on all my favourite blogs and knitting forums.