Oh, I am SO knitblogging this

I have lived in hope, waiting for there to be some sort of fibre-related event to be held within cooee of my location.

I feel so gypped when I read of the Yarn Harlot's exploits at various festivals, like Rhinebeck or the Sock Camp organised by Blue Moon Fibre Arts (you have got to check out this entry on her blog, about Sock Camp - oh, I want to be there!), cause there just isn't that equivalent held near me... well, not that I know about. Maybe I'm not looking in the right places. Maybe I'm being silly, wishing for these things to happen near me rather than travelling. Dunno... I'm just in a stage of life right now where I can't just can't drop everything and chase fibre across the state. I know, I know, I'm just not putting in the effort!

But then today, I checked Ravelry (instead of knitting the Stars and Hearts Blanket) and my friend Dianne (check out her blog here!) mentioned the Robertson Woolcraft Festival. Did I know it was on this weekend? Hell, no I didn't!

I'm so excited. There's going to be speed knitting competitions, spinning, and fleeces for sale. And although I know that the majority of people there will be considerably older than me - actually, I don't know this for certain. Maybe it's a stereotype in my mind built on things I know about our area that will be well and truly shattered on Saturday - maybe there will be younger people I can connect with? I love thinking of all the potentials for the day. I'm hoping to get a stitch 'n' bitch group going in my local area, so this could be a good starting point...

Watch this space for photos of the day!

Muggles are spreading the word!

Whilst catching up on some discussion threads I haven't seen in awhile on Ravelry this afternoon, I came across a fabulous article posted in the Australian Knitter's Group by ozknitter. It is curtesy of yesterday's Wall Street Journal, and it's about what sounds like it would have been a fun competition, called Sock Wars. I would have loved to have been a part of this, and I hope that if another is arranged, maybe I'll be proficient enough in sock knitting to be able to have a real crack at it!

Here's the page; The Wall Street Journal's article on Sock Wars

Complaints and Startitis

It's Thursday again, and that means that my work week is over. Bear in mind, when I say 'work week', I mean Paid Employment. Once I finish my three days of Paid Employment, I embark upon my four days of hangin' with WonderBoy and trying to catch up on housework.

I do enjoy my days at home with WonderBoy; we play all sorts of games, argue over how many packets of sultanas we're going to open (today the score is 0 in the supermarket itself - WonderBoy not impressed - 1 in the pushchair walking up the street to visit Auntie Lulu at work, and 1 at home when WonderBoy 'helped' me to unpack the shopping - he was helping just to find the sultanas), and just generally enjoy each other's company. And now the Complaints and Startitis. Don't say I didn't warn you all last night.

Complaints: I am sick of baby yarn! The wee bub's hat that I'm knitting ant the moment is a little rectangle really, so the pattern is so basic a monkey could knit it ("so what's your complaint?" I hear everyone ask. Very funny.) but the major problem here is that this is the fourth one I've knit, so when I pick it up, I feel like my brain is starting to trickle out my ears. It's disturbing me, cause I know I should not be feeling like I have to force myself to knit. It just doesn't feel natural, you know? I'll just pause here to allow a shudder down all our spines...

It's one of those knittery paradoxes, isn't it - when you've knit a large garment on 7 and 8mm needles, you feel itchy for something little and simple. In this case, little and simple is driving me nuts cause I know I've got something more interesting in the stash cupboard. Another baby gift, but knit up on lovely 100% 12-ply Cleckheaton wool. Can't say much about this project cause the pregnant recipient may find it!

Hence the startitis - apart from the 12-ply baby gift, there's a mohair blend jumper for me I want to get started, another big baby gift, a lace shawl, a toy cat, AND I want/need to learn how to knit socks by Christmas. Am I expecting too much of myself? Possibly. Expecting too much from my family to put up with all this? Never! Perhaps now wasn't the best time to join a Monthly Dishcloth KAL on Ravelry?

Ah, well. Here's some Spring Garden pictures to soothe the soul. I'll crank up my 'Get This' podcast and add some more rows to the baby hat...


Azaleas, and...














... Very lovely Lobelias. I wish I could find sock yarn exactly this colour.

Wow, that was unexpected...

How funky.

Last post I told y'all how I was merely a gnat's wing (my husband would use the term 'a bee's d*ck' for that one) away from receiving my Ravelry invite, right?

The next day, I checked my placement again, thinking 'ooh, I'll update my progress along the list', and the message "You are 0 places away from receiving your Ravelry invite. We sent you an email invitation TODAY". How terribly exciting!

Hence my not posting for a few days - I've been crawling around Ravelry, exploring all the wee nooks and crannies and setting up my profile. It's taking some time, cause I want everything to look bee-yew-ti-ful. Of course I don't have enough to do on the internet yet, do I, between Facebook, Shoeboxes, Lifestory and now Ravelry. I love it!

Some pictures of a newly-finished throw rug, I think, to top this post off. I put pictures (ages ago) under "The not-quite-started and the not-quite-finished" of this throw being completed. I'm really happy with the way it blocked, cause it just wasn't lying flat. It's actually the first major lot of blocking I've done, and since I'm so happy with the result, I may make it a regular occurrence...

And, in other knitting news, my linen print top has a back part, completed last night! I am just so enjoying knitting this one. The linen blend is so lovely and soft, and I can't wait to wear it this summer, it looks like it's going to drape so nicely... Or maybe I've got a bit of wishful thinking going on here that somehow this top will hide any unsightly muffin-top. How is this going to work? The top is composed primarily of HOLES. Hmmm. Something for me to think about here. Ah, who cares. I still love this project.

To finish: a vase of lilacs that have started flowering in my backyard. We moved here at the end of last summer, and it's wonderful to watch how all the plants are waking up, and I can see all the different colours they've turned out to be...

Lovely stuff.