stitch detail

back and front

beginning of sleeve

It Is a Bed Jacket

It is a bed jacket but I don't plan on wearing it in bed. I am going to make the sleeves a bit longer and instead of having a ribbon on the front I will make a button and loop closure or I may make a crochet chain tie. I have had the wool since my birthday last year, my friends and SILs gave me a gift voucher from my LYS. Speaking of SILs I am waiting on some wool from the one I am knitting the fair isle for, I haven't seen her for a while and I need her to pick up some more wool so I can get it finished. We are using the pay as you knit scheme from my LYS, but at $14.00 a ball I am not going to go and pay for it. I must chase her up.

I am going to Melbourne on Thursday, that means I have to do my least favourite thing in the whole world, fly. I am a leader for a girls group my daughter is in and we are having a national conference in Dandenong, so we are leaving a day earlier so that we can hit the shops in Melbourne first. If anyone knows of any good wool shops in Melbourne?? Please let me know, I would be very greatful.

I must finish by telling you of a very embarrasing moment I had yesterday. I had just made some cup cakes with lovely bright pink icing on the top and realised I hadn't bought any Metro 10 bus tickets yet. Metro 10 tickets have 10 fares for 96cents a trip as opposed to $1.20 if you buy the ticket on the bus and as my children catch buses to and from school this becomes quite costly. Anyhow I had this lovely bright pink icing on my fingers and did what any Nigella hopeful would do I licked my fingers. Jumped into the car went to the newsagent and bought the bus tickets and as I was getting back into the car I licked my lips, which were very sweet. I felt my lip and there on my hand was now a big blob of BRIGHT PINK ICING which was on my top lip the whole bloody time. No wonder the woman who served me looked at me a little strange. Oh well as the saying goes shit happens, till next time oh and don't forget to let me know of your favourite LYS in Melbourne.

Works Well

The wool I ordered from Coloured Jules arrived in the mail this morning. So I could finally use the wool winder and the swift which my dear Dad made for me and they work together brilliantly. The wool, which has that beautiful straight from the sheep smell is so soft and the colours are gorgeous.

And a big thanks for all the lovely comments left for the feather and fan shawl, I wanted to make something using this stitch as it was one of my mothers favourite patterns. I posted a question for it on Knitters Review Forum and I was told about this shawl and so decided to make it in memory of my Mum, I have one of her brooches which I will wear with it. So it is a very sentimental item and will become a sort of heirloom to pass on to Janelle one day.

Okay enough of being morbid, Cathy what has happened to our football team? We have a couple of tough games coming up so it is not looking too good. Oh well they gave us something to get excited about for a while.

from this

wool winder and swift

to this

Feather and Fan Shawl Is Finished

I finished and blocked it yesterday, the picot cast off edge was easy and looks just like crochet. I had to cheat a bit with the blocking because it is such a big piece and I don't have the room in my house to spread it out so I washed it and blocked the top across the ironing board and let it just hang (I know all the purists are cringeing at this, sorry) and it worked out fine. It is a beautiful pattern and was a delight to knit, definately in my 'will do again' list.

What now? Finish SILs jumper. Oh and did I mention I ordered some more, yes more wool from Bendigo Woollen Mills and some from Colored Jules, please will someone hide my credit card. But I don't clothes shop so my wool buying habit is probably not too bad, do I sound like I'm justifying here!! Anyway the kids are just walking through the door so I will go and have some afternoon tea with them catch ya.

picot edge cast off

Feather and Fan Shawl

I've Been Tagged

Thanks to Suzi I have been tagged:


PICK FIVE AND FILL IN THE BLANK:


If I could be a scientist…
If I could be a farmer…
If I could be a musician…
If I could be a doctor…
If I could be a painter…
If I could be a gardener…
If I could be a missionary…
If I could be a chef…
If I could be an architect…
If I could be a linguist…
If I could be a psychologist…
If I could be a librarian…
If I could be an athlete…
If I could be a lawyer…
If I could be an inn-keeper…
If I could be a professor…
If I could be a writer…
If I could be a llama-rider…
If I could be a bonnie pirate…
If I could be an astronaut…
If I could be a world famous blogger…
If I could be a justice on any one court in the world…
If I could be married to any current famous political figure…

Now choose three more people to tag.

The five I choose...

IF I COULD BE A FARMER - I would keep lots of merino sheep to keep me in constant supply of wool.
IF I COULD BE A MUSICIAN - I could keep the hours my body clock prefers, stay up all night and sleep all day.
IF I COULD BE A CHEF - Hopefully my kids would never say YUK at the dinner table (do Nigellas children I wonder?)
IF I COULD BE AN ATHLETE - I might just have the perfect body.
IF I COULD BE AN INN-KEEPER - I could purchase my favourite bottles of red wines at cost price.

Now who do I tag? got no idea, most who I know read this have been tagged, so if you stumble across me, feel free to be tagged.

Ten Rows to Go

Yes I have 10 rows to go and I can cast off the feather and fan shawl. It is a picot edge cast off which I have never done before so wish me luck. The edge is finished with an I-Cord which I also have never done before, other than the knitting Nancy or French knitting way as a kid. So I will be learning 2 new techniques here, hopefully. Agfest was great, there were a few wool sites but still nothing which grabbed me with the WOW factor, except for maybe THIS They had 12ply Boucle Mohair in beautiful colours, and their business card has a pattern for a scarf and shawl knitted on 8, 10 and 15mm needles for a real quick knit. I did however buy some more Fiber Trends patterns, I was especially interested in the felted clogs, I have just found my very first felting project. They are knitted in 10ply doubled so I will be placing an order with Bendigo Woollen Mills for that as I know that Bendigo Wool felts well. I will of course be starting with a small childs pair as a trial run. Will post some pics of the F&F shawl soon.

Recipe For Date Scones

2 cups self-raising flour
1 egg
1 desertspoon sugar
3/4 cup chopped dates
1 tablespoon melted butter
1 cup milk (1/2 water 1/2 milk can be used)

Mix all together and knead mixture on a floured surface and cut into rounds bake in a hot oven for 7-10 minutes. Enjoy.

It's Raining

It is raining outside so that to me is the perfect excuse to bake some date scones, the kids will love them when they come home from school and I will have one with my morning coffee YUM. I really don't mind when it rains because it means I can stay inside and knit. I am planning on going to Agfest tomorrow with my SIL Lesley so I hope it doesn't set in too much, but we do need rain so I shouldn't be selfish. Agfest is a HUGE rural show, which is held once a year with everything from tractors to gumboots and slippers and of course lots of craft and yes WOOL. It runs over 3 days and they expect around 80,000 people to pass through the gates, now in Tassie that is a lot of people. A lot of people from around Australia come down for this event, including many exhibitors from the 'mainland' as well, so yes if I sound a little bit excited about it, I am. I go every year and have only missed a couple when the kids were babies.

Had our SNB meeting on Tuesday which is always a lot of fun, goes too quickly though, doesn't time just fly when you are having fun. Katt bought along her UNO coffee machine and we had real coffee which was a bit of a treat. I had never seen a UNO in action before and it worked a treat, so quick and easy to use and the best part great tasting coffee.

On the knitting front I am still working on the feather and fan shawl, lots of stitches are on the circulars now, my SILs jumper, must get a move on with that one it is her birthday on the 13th May but I did cover myself and said that she may get it after her birthday phew!! glad I said that and the opal socks, no hurry to finish those. I do have a pattern coming from here so no doubt I will want to start that when it arrives. It is one of those trendy wrap, lacy cardies that are in all the stores for winter, but I would much rather make my own, but as usual the pattern companies here in Australia are behind in what is in and we wont get any decent patterns for them till next season. I do wish I was clever enough to design my own as I have always got ideas in my head what I am after but putting them to a pattern is another matter. Oh well I am off to brew a coffee and have a scone, see ya.

Date Scones

Never Too Old To Learn

Twelve months ago I didn't even know how to send an email, didn't know how to surf the net, download what was that. All that has changed and I have gotten over my initial fear of computers, still have a lot to learn mind you. Well anyway you are probably wondering where I am going with this, the other day I noticed the button (which I didn't put on because I didn't know how) for the web ring I am in had disappeared. Thinking oh well too bad at least the ring is still there and working that will have to do as I have no idea how to fix it. Then a wonderful person who is in the same web ring who had the same problem emailed me with instructions on how to add buttons to your blog. So a big thankyou must go to Joan for her help. She had the same problem and she got help from Emy so a big thankyou to you as well. Aren't knitters just the greatest bunch of people.

I also learnt a new tip for knitting lace this week, as the feather and fan shawl grows and there are more and more repeats it is easy to lose your way, however by placing a marker at the beginning of every new repeat it is easy to keep track of where you are. So you never are too old to learn something new.

I have my local SNB today so I look forward to catching up with everyone and see what they have been working on. So I had better go and get my knitting bag sorted to take, so till next time, happy knitting.