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... with the skein of "Paris", which found it's way into my possession on Monday. *sigh*. I just want to walk around the house, patting it and holding it and singing little wee songs in it's honour. It's. Just. That. Perfect.
This picture was in 'Ravelry' where the Aussie Sock Knitters gather to chat - Irene from Jolly Jumbuck put this up in December to illustrate the beautiful shipment of Hand Maiden she'd just got in. And I think I can see my (MY!) precious skein, right there! Okay, now I sound really weird.
It's like someone took a Monet 'waterlilies' painting and wrung it till the colours poured down into this yarn, which is just so amazingly soft and yet has the most beautiful sheen to it. Even after a little snafu with the post returning it back to Jolly Jumbuck (damn you, Australia Post!) I received it most happily and gratefully, with the added little surprise of two little beaded stitch markers, marked 'Jolly' and 'Jumbuck'.
The wonderful Irene at Jolly Jumbuck added a lovely note to my receipt, saying "Thanks Jenny, I hope you enjoy this heavenly yarn. Irene"
I love Irene. I really do.
Ah, Valentine's Day. The day that florists and card companies look forward to more than any other in the year.
Pete and I don't 'do' Valentine's Day, apart from cards, and we like it that way. I prefer cards actually cause I can keep them. Flowers die and chocolate gets eaten, but I keep cards.
I have chosen to mark today in all it's pink and perfume-scented glory by making pikelets. Half are plain, for raspberry jam, and the other half have blueberries stirred through. Why? Just felt like it. That's why I cook most things.
I do have something of a heart-motif to show y'all today though - I have finished the first row of stars and hearts in the aptly named "Hearts and Stars Blanket". So far, so good, I have to say. The pattern is engaging and not boring, while also not being challenging enough to drop the whole thing off a tall building. I seem to be motoring along on it quite well and I'm also pretty pleased to see that this row has taken two balls of yarn (Shepherd 'Colour 4 Me' 50g balls) to complete, so I feel I'm pretty well on track for gauge and yarn usage. Niiiiice.
I'm *hoping* to have this completed and ready to give by the end of March, but I'm also trying to be realistic. my problem, as with all blankets knit on circular needles, is the time it takes me to complete each row. So, if there's something even remotely interesting on TV at night, sometimes I'm lucky to get just one row done. Ouch. Must try harder.
Ooh - good news - I just checked my account at "Jolly Jumbuck", to find that the lovely people there have shipped my 4ply! Hooray! So I am expecting this gorgeous bundle:
...to be arriving in my letterbox early next week. That'll make the ol' Monday/Tuesday combination a little more tolerable! It's a Hand Maiden 'Casbah' sock yarn, 80% Superwash Merino, 10% Cashmere, 10% Nylon and has THE most beautiful name for the colourway. It's called "Paris", and they just got it so right. I think that's why I liked it so much straight away. I actually found the yarn first , and then went searching on Ravelry for a pattern I could use it in. I don't really want to use it for socks, mostly cause of the cashmere (I don't want to wear holes in it!!) but also because I love love love the colours so very much, I want it to be a garment that will really show them off.
So, in the spirit of the upcoming Aussie autumn and winter, I plan on knitting it into a lace scarf called "Branching Out", by Susan Lawrence. It's free pattern featured in Knitty Spring 05. I can't wait to see it teamed against my black coat, or with several three-quarter sleeve tops I have, in either blue, black, pink, teal or even brown. I am so looking forward to this glorious really, truly Hand Maiden deliciousness being in my hot little hands that I'm just a little worried for the current projects...
More on my current sock. Here we are at our current position (as of last night - I took it to Sydney today for an appointment and knit the rest of the pink stripe in the waiting room), presented in all it's sockular glory by my stumpy, stumpy phalanges...
The yarn is Heirloom Jigsaw 4-ply, which I bought from the lovely people at Ozeyarn for $AUS18.50.
And, Melinda - thanks for your kind compliments on the Baby Sleeping Bag. It was well received at the baby shower, too. Lots of questions on that nature of knitting in general these days, asking how long I'd been knitting for, and observations on how difficult it must be.
I used the usual responses I developed from comments made be the wise and knowing Yarn Harlot, saying, "Nah; if you can read, you can knit" and "Well, it was just garter stitch, so it wasn't very difficult". The second is not one that Stephanie Pearl-McPhee advocates making; in actual fact she believes that we knitters are too quick to tone down praise for our hard work. Maybe I should make a habit of saying "Gee, thanks for the kind words. What you hold in our hands is nine hundred and seventy eight hours of my life".
Still, either way it's lovely to receive compliments for my knitting. Or incredulous disbelief, which is what I got today whilst waiting for my appointment.
The receptionist came over to me, saying "Oh, you're knitting?" and then, after a slight pause, "With FIVE needles?!". I explained briefly about the nature of sock knitting, and she was pretty well just amazed with the idea of knitting a tube without a break in it. She said, "Not many people knit these days, do they?" I responded by saying somewhat jokingly that knitters had gone underground, highly informed and organised over the internet.
The discussion we had about the cost of knitting was the one that amused me the most, though - she commented that it must be very expensive to knit as a hobby. I acknowledged that although some beautiful handpainted yarns spun from superfine merinos, cashmere and silks can cost a fair bit, but you don't always knit with that sort of stuff. I pointed out that you could spend $300 on exquisite yarns to knit a garment that might cost $500 in a shop when it's produced commercially. Her response? "Well, I suppose I'm more practical".
Hehe... It's always a fun ride talking to non-knitters.
Wonderboy and I seem to be getting back into our "Mummy's work week" routine, having spent this morning getting the supermarket shopping done. Usually a child happy to help out with the groceries, he spent the first half an hour of today's shop screaming at the top of his voice for me to give him the shopping list. Often a spare bit of paper from my bag will do it, but not today. Man, you know it's bad when little old ladies come over to the trolley to try to calm him down. Ugh.
It got better, though, when I started handing him items to hold. He gets very proud of himself when helping, and likes to announce this to other shoppers:
"Pasta. Hold it!"
"Hold it, bottle. Daddy bottle hold it!"
"Open? Nooo..."
That last one was Wonderboy reminding himself (and others) that he wasn't going to try opening the bottle of salad dressing. Didn't last long though, and he was soon busily flicking the lid open and shut (thank goodness for tamper-evident seals under the plastic lid)... until he pinched his finger in it.
Oh, and did I mention that this epic adventure through the supermarket took place *after* I went back to work to collect my keys, which I had conveniently left there on a windowsill yesterday afternoon.
Man, it's been an interesting first week back at work. Hence the desperate need for some "Me Time".
Today's "Me Time" has been brought to you by the lovely Brenda Dayne, her warm, genial sense of humour and her lovely soothing voice.
It's taken me a little longer than usual to get to her most recent podcast over at Cast On, but it's always worth it. I grab my latest project, settle in on the lounge, and wait for my favourite opening line:
"It's time to pick up your pointy sticks and Cast On"
And I breathe deeply and start knitting. It's lovely to knit along to her words and music, and she makes some beautifully described and presented points about life and knitting in ways I never would have thought of. In her last podcast, Brenda described in the most delicious way, 'Starting as you mean to go on'. She drew a beautiful parallel between the story behind a farmhouse near her property, life at New Years', and starting on new knitting projects.
"Dream awhile with me", she wrote in her podcast Blog, "...as we pause in the space just before the old year gives way to the new".
That, I find, is similar to what I end up doing when I listen to Cast On. I give myself some "Me Time", where I can pause, and be in the moment with my project, my mind and my chocolate...
...Before Wonderboy wakes from his nap and we start the whole thing over again!
There's nothing like a little "incentive" to get one's needles moving and bloody well finish a project that's becoming a bit of a drag to complete (especially when there's a lovely new baby blanket and a pair of socks making eyes at you)...
My incentive was the baby shower, planned for my dear friend Alison, held yesterday at her mum and dad's place in Sydney, just round the corner from where I used to live. Now, as of Wednesday last week, I still had to finish the collar, and hadn't even purchased a zip to close up the front. Never mind the fact that I'd never sewn in a zipper before. Thursday came... and went, and all I had done towards completing my one and only gift for this shower was buy the zip. Late Thursday evening, I thought I'd better pull it out and deal with the collar. As I bound off the final row and held up my work to admire it, I remembered with a gasp... Blocking.
Dum-dah-duummmm!
This project was knit in cream 12-ply, and after been dragged about in my knitting bag/s in various states of organisation and disarray. It was chunky, and a little scratchy, and desperately needed a good soak in eucalyptus wool wash and a decent wet-block to finish it before I could attempt the zipper.
And so, while Pete got ready for work and Wonderboy happily smeared honey toast and soymilk in his highchair on Friday morning, I was up to my elbows in cream coloured wool and delightfully eucalyptus-scented bubbles. Left to dry with a fan pointed at it all day Friday, and the heater turned on briefly Saturday morning, it was dry and ready to sew in the zip by about 9.30am Saturday.
Bear in mind I had to be leaving the house by midday! But thankfully, I was successful and had it wrapped and ready to go. Which brings me to my secondincentive...
I have been a nervous driver ever since a broken leg in a car accident nearly ten years ago, and have never tried to drive to Sydney from our place (about 90 minutes away) either alone or unaccompanied. But on Saturday I sucked it up, got in the car and got to the baby shower safely. Yay me!
So I guess I can thank Ali and her baby shower for providing me with the incentive to get one project out of the way, and to try doing something new and daring (daring for me, anyway)... And, as a happy by-product?
Two new projects cast on. A baby blanket, and a pair of socks for me.
I have to type quickly, as our new kitten, Luna (as in 'Lovegood', for all the Harry Potter-philes out there) is insisting on helping me here.
Today is Pete's and my fifth wedding anniversary, which to people who have been married twenty-plus years I'm sure is a mere blip in the greater scheme of things. However for us, it's a bit of a big deal, especially since this year is also the tenth anniversary of our first meeting.
And so, in the spirit of that sentiment, I splurged a little on Pete, treating him to a voucher to race a real, live V8 racecar at Eastern Creek raceway! It was lovely to see him so excited when he first looked it over, thinking it was a ride in a V8, a 'hot lap', till I said "You do know, they're gonna let you drive the thing, don't you?"
I'd fully explain his response, but since most of it involved the repeated use of the word "Bullsh!t", I feel that everyone would already get the general idea of his surprise and happiness... the V8RACE Experience website is here, for those interested in seeing how much I love my husband!
I love surprising him and making a big deal of special events and gifts, and I especially love his reactions when I put these things together.
In return, Pete is taking me to Sydney next weekend for a lovely overnight stay and dinner on a Harbour Cruise, which will be divine. I love being able to relax on a boat, and Sydney Harbour would have to be the ultimate place for it - beautiful at all times day and night.
In knitting-related news, I am waiting desperately for the Baby Sleeping bag to dry after I wet-blocked it this morning... Since it's cream and I've been knitting it so long, I really felt that a) it definitely needed a bath in a nice woolwash before giving it away (it's lovely and soft and smells of eucalyptus now), and that b) I should block it properly before attempting to sew in the zipper.
The downside of all this careful thought and planning is that now I'm desperate for the damn thing to dry so I can sew in the zip, as the baby shower for this particular expectant mum is tomorrow at 2pm. In Sydney. Where I will be attempting to drive all on my own (I'm not the most confident driver, and this is my first trip to Sydney alone).
I don't need this kind of stress!
This picture was in 'Ravelry' where the Aussie Sock Knitters gather to chat - Irene from Jolly Jumbuck put this up in December to illustrate the beautiful shipment of Hand Maiden she'd just got in. And I think I can see my (MY!) precious skein, right there! Okay, now I sound really weird.
