Not much knitting done today,

Not much knitting done today, but I did finish sewing 3 more costumes - Yay!!
I got the heel done on the second Waves sock, but my most exciting knitting news was that I managed to win a copy of "Sweaters From Camp" off eBay for $AU20.50. ($US14.35)
I've never knit Fair Isle, and the idea of steeking just plain scares me, but when I saw the book, I grabbed it. Perhaps there will be a Fair Isle in my future. I'll just add it to the list. Theres around 500 other things on the list, I think ;)
Wendy from Catknits sent me an email last week with a link to this sock pattern site. It's a free download, but it's a 3mb pdf file (be warned!). There are 99 pages of sock patterns!
Enjoy!

Look what I got today!

Look what I got today!

Just think of all that beautiful yarn money down the drain!! It's a very funky new machine, all push button and computerised - I must admit, the first thing I thought was "How do I make it repeat the cycle for felting?"
I ICQ'd my DH at work to tell him it had arrived, and he asked if I'd used it yet. Not even a brand new washing machine gets me enthusiastic about housework, I'm afraid. LOL! So I washed a towel, just to check it out. Tomorrow I get to catch up on all the laundry. How do 3 people make so much washing in four days?
Jill emailed me with some tips for the poncho which I think I'll try out. She suggested extra increases to shape the shoulders, and I think that's just the thing it needs. I've finished the leg on the second Waves sock, and am up to turning the heel.
I should have been sewing. Oops ;)

I got quite a bit

I got quite a bit of knitting done on the poncho today, but I'm not happy with it.

It seems to be too wide at the neck, and too narrow in the shoulders. If I just pop it on her, it sits high up the shoulders. To get it to sit down, it needs to be pulled down. But I don't want it any wider at the neck. So I had a look at the Poncho Generator. For the slim poncho I was aiming for, it says I need a shoulder dart for the poncho to sit properly. So I'm going to frog the ball and a half that I knit today, and instead of winging it, I'll use the generator.
It could be that I'm tired, but the pattern didn't seem all that clear to me. And it's knit in two pieces, so I think I'll sit down, dust off the old thinking cap and convert it to knitting in the round. If I'm thinking right, I just have to do the pattern twice in a row, and knit all the purl rows. Sounds right?
Let's hope so :)

Despite my rule about no

Despite my rule about no more than 3 projects at a time, I caved in and started something new - and it's not from the Handy Book of Patterns.

I finally started Em's pink poncho. Mind you, it's been quite warm around here of late, so it won't see much wear - but better late than never :)
I have only seven 50g balls of yarn, so I decided to do a narrow poncho, rather than a wide. After perusing the many, many poncho patterns out there, I'm winging it. I've cast on enough stitches to get it over her head, done a few rows of garter stitch, and now I'm going to do stockinette with increases only at the centre front and centre back, not four sets of increases as in a wide poncho. Then she can wear it with the straight side at the front, or the points at the front. I'm using yarn overs for increases, then I think I'll use my lovely "Knitting On The Edge" book and do a lace edging.
Lets hope it all works out the way I think it will!
Tomorrow is another Dance Day - 12 hours in a crowded school hall. It's that time of year *sigh*. So I shall take the poncho and hide in a corner with my knitting.
I'll bet it doesn't happen ;)

Well, the day started out

Well, the day started out well!
I got this in the mail finally :)

Inspiration is mine!!! I love this book, why didn't anyone tell me about it before? I'll have to get the sweater book now. I love the way it has all the sizes and all the gauges so you can use anything to knit with, more or less. As soon as I finish something, I'll start something from this book.
And yesterday I went to the local craft store for a sewing pattern, and I picked up a pattern leaflet. It was cheap enough ($2!) and I liked the cover cardi, nice and simple, and casual.

The recommended yarn is 50% wool and 50% acrylic, and really cheap, but for a casual around-the-house and toss-in-the-wash cardi, it'll do fine.
But after I got it home, I looked at the other pattern. And I looked at it again. And it's drawing me in, I must say.

I can feel my oath to not buy more yarn wavering. It's on special for 20% off until Sunday. It would be a crime not to buy it, wouldn't it? ;)

Then I got home, and put on a load of washing. After eleven years, and a month of tormenting me, my washing machine finally shit itself. I've been in denial for the past month, ignoring all the warning signs, hoping it would just carry on, but alas, she is dead. Being eleven years old, I doubt it's worth fixing, especially seeing as it appears to be both the water pump and the motor. So tomorrow I go forth to waste good money on a housework machine. But better that than hand washing!!
Then, as we were preparing to leave for Em's dancing lessons, I realised that I couldn't find two costumes I was taking to the studio for kids to try on. They were nowhere to be found. After spending 10 minutes of ripping the house apart, I called DH at work.
It was garbage night last night.
For some reason, he picked up the plastic bag containing the two completed costumes from the kitchen table, and took it out for the garbage men to collect this morning.
They're gone. So I now have to go and buy $60 worth of fabric to replace them and start them over.
The sewing will never end, I fear.

I finished a sock! I

I finished a sock!
I know, I said that yesterday, but today I have proof :)

I guess that it didn't take as long as I felt it did - by the time it was finished, I felt as thought I'd been knitting it for months, but according to my nifty knitting diary, I only started it on August 10, and I had a few sick days inbetween. So around a fortnight.
I feel like I haven't had a FO in ages. I partly blame the dance costumes, but I am now down to 35 to go, with around 9 more weeks to get them done.
It shouldn't be a problem - if I don't keep ignoring it to knit, that is ;)

My computer is doing odd

My computer is doing odd things of late. I have two CD drives - one is a burner, and one is an old fashioned CD-Rom drive. They are both suffering behavioural problems.
It can be quite amusing when the CD-Rom drive starts dancing. In and out and in and out, half in, all out, half out, all in. All by itself.
Anyway, computer troubles aside, I have a finished sock!! Hooray! I do not have a picture, as I will wait until tomorrow when I have natural daylight and do not have to try to use the night setting on my digital camera. I haven't learnt to use it properly yet, and all my pictures come out blurry :(
And speaking of bad quality pictures, here's another Emily-from-the-vault picture. Can you say Fat Baby? :)

Annie wrote on her blog

Annie wrote on her blog a few days ago about S.O.S (State of the Stash). I read through her list, and thought "Well, that's not so bad!" So tonight I got thinking about S.O.S and I decided to have a look at my stash and bare it to the world. I'm not actually going to show you each component of my stash - I'm not far enough along in my recovery to face that yet ;)
When I picked up the needles again a year or so ago, I decided that I was only going to buy yarn as I needed it. No stashing, just buy the yarn for each project as I started it.

Within 6 weeks of that misguided notion, I bought this as my stash box. It's designed for under bed storage. Nice and inconspicuous. I can still kid myself that I'm not stashing yarn. And seeing as I'm only buying it as I need it, I'll just pop the yarn in there until I get caught up in my knitting.
A while after that, I bought this box. It also lives under the bed. I needed it because the yarn that wouldn't fit in the flat box kept falling off the top.

I justified this box by saying I needed somewhere to keep the single balls and small amounts of yarn for little projects like socks and hats and the like. It was easier than finding the single balls among the big projects that I wasn't stashing in the big box.

I had to buy this box a few weeks ago, after my Pusher sent me the Big Box of Yarn. And I seem to have filled it up pretty quickly. It lives under the coffee table in the corner, out of sight, but close at hand.
Keep in mind that we live in a very small 2 bedroom villa. I don't have anywhere else to hide boxes. Which is a problem, as I also have this.

So I'm not going to buy any more yarn until the yarn I have can fit into the boxes. Yeah right. ;)
I can't keep cardboard boxes, because someone in the house eats them.

Note the evidence beside her.
And just because I found the picture on a CD tonight, and it's one that I love, here's Em at age 3 or so. This was the first time that she had enough hair to fit into pigtails. :) Unfortunately, you can't see the pigtails very well. She was almost completely bald until she was 2 or so :)

Was surfing around the blogs

Was surfing around the blogs today, avoiding housework and stuff ;) Bliss had a link to Knitti-Me's Yarny Olympics. I had a good giggle at that one :)
Becky has knit the cutest chicken!! May have to try and get that pattern book!
Not much else going on. I ordered "The Knitters Handy Book of Patterns" back on August 10. I wish it would hurry up and get here! I need inspiration, I'm becoming stalled on my current projects. I'm not enjoying the Making Waves socks as much as I enjoyed the Cloverleafs. They flew off the needles, because I really had fun knitting them, but the Waves are taking much longer.

I'm just not getting enough

I'm just not getting enough time to knit :(
And I really have to do something about getting stuck into sewing those silly dance costumes, too. As I was sick most of last week, and out all day yesterday, I really had to catch up on housework today. If I could have anything in the world, I think it'd be a housekeeper ;)
But I did get some knitting done.

I'm doing the heel decreases now, then I'm on the home straight! Except for sock number 2.
Later in the day, we headed out for Em's dancing again, as she had one more number to perform.

She won it :)

Another entire day spent

Another entire day spent at a dance competition - but what a successful day. Em competed in 12 sections, won 7 firsts, 3 seconds and a third, and only had one dance not place! We go back tomorrow evenng for one more dance.
And the new dance with the new costume? It was one of the ones that she won :)

I've had to start DH's

I've had to start DH's sweater again. Gauge issues, surprise, surprise.
Jo Sharp Silkroad DK knits up at 20sts and 30 rows over 4" on 4mm needles. Fine. The pattern calls for 22sts and 30 rows over 4" on 4mm needles with the same yarn. The pattern stitch is rib like, but isn't a true rib.
Row 1: Knit
Row 2: P9, K1tbl.
I cannot get gauge. So I swatched again, changing Row 1 to K9, P1, and I seem to be getting gauge on 3.75mm needles. I was down to 3.5mm needles on the original pattern, and it was still too big on stitch gauge, and way too small on row gauge. That 1 twisted knit stitch is not enough to draw the gauge in by 2 stitches in 4".
Or I have gauge issues :)

Okay, really feeling much better

Okay, really feeling much better now!
Not a lot of knitting done this week - not a lot of anything done, apart from sleeping and tv watching, but I thought I'd bring you all up to date on my current wip's.
Multidirectional scarf. I started this on Sunday, thinking that it would be nice easy knitting while recuperating. I wasn't aware that I wouldn't be doing anything at all! Anyway, it's really soft, squishy, cheap, acrylic yarn, but it felt nice. And it was being sold out at $1.60 a ball! There is no stitch definition, it's all floofy stuff, and the multidirectional stuff isn't really showing up well :(

I haven't touched DH's sweater, but here's what 'm up to.

I'm having heaps of trouble with the gauge. Can't get it right, no matter what. My DH is not a small man, and the sweater seems gigantic! It's not photographing well, presumably because of the colour. Here's a close up of the colour.

My Making Waves sock still looks exactly as it did last time.
So now we're all up to date on what I haven't been doing, LOL :)

Thankyou all for the messages

Thankyou all for the messages and good wishes! They are very much appreciated :)
I'm still feeling a bit dopey (as if that's unusual ;) from painkillers and such, but feeling much better than I did last night. I haven't even done any knitting, just laid in bed all day trying to watch the Olympics. Which was kinda funny, because I kept dozing off and wasn't sure what was going on! I went from swimming to diving to gymnastics to shooting and medal ceremonies and I don't really know who won what, LOL!! Well, except Ian Thorpe who is showing up every ten minutes on Aussie TV.
Hopefully back on track tomorrow :)

I finished Em's hat :)

I finished Em's hat :)

Sorry about the blurry pic, not quite sure what happened there! Things went much quicker with this hat after I went out yesterday and bought a new 3mm circular.
I made the hat 1/2" shorter than the pattern, because the pattern was an adult size, but I think I should have done it the full length. Em is happy with it though, so it probably doesn't matter :)
I'm having surgery tomorrow - nothing major, one of those in and out in one day things, so I may post tomorrow, depending on how tired the anasthetic makes me. Unfortunately, they've scheduled me for the afternoon, and I have to fast all day. I also seem to be almost coming down with a cold. I hope it holds off until Tuesday!!
Wish me luck! :)

Just a quickie tonight. I'm

Just a quickie tonight. I'm so tired I feel like I need to prop my eyes open!
Here's the progress so far on my Making Waves sock. I'm kinda glad I didn't redye it, I'm pleased with the colour so far.

Mind you, knitting socks on 5 dpns, and using another as a cable needle is enough to send you batty!
I'd like to say that I'm going to stay up and watch the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games, but it's on at 3.30am local time! So instead, my "Cool Socks, Warm Feet" book came from Threadbear, so I'm going to bed to read it and be inspired :)

Not a great deal of

Not a great deal of knitting today, I had to catch up on the dreaded housework that I pretended didn't exist while I sequinned ;)
However, I frogged some of Em's hat due to a glaring error and caught it back up. Well, it was glaring to me!
Here's how it looks now.

I'm enjoying this yarn :) It's a 4ply merino extrafine, "Bambi" by Grignasco that I got from STYK. Nice colour range too. :)
I've got the hat all squished up on sock needles. This is because someone with teeth decided to have a taste of my 3mm circ, and it no longer has a nice smooth cable. The main suspect is pictured below.

Now why would I suspect such an innocent little face? :)

I'm so relieved that the

I'm so relieved that the costume is done I feel like it's Christmas! I've been knitting all day just because I could :)
I did a bit of DH's sweater, I've used up one ball out of thirteen now, I did a little of the Making Waves socks and I also cast on for Emily's lace cap and knit around 2 inches of that.
Yay!! for knitting :)
In other happy news, my Magnolia flowered today! Please note that I have a black thumb, I am notorious for being unable to grow anything. The flower looks a little crummy, but at least I have one. Especially seeing as the lady next door has a gorgeous pink magnolia that is covered in flowers.

And there are more buds ready to bloom :)

Hooray, it's done!! Thank goodness

Hooray, it's done!!

Thank goodness that's over! That pic was taken before it was quite finished, it now has feather tufts in alternating pink and blue on the end of each of those rows of beads at the back.
Now please don't look at that costume and think I'm one of those freaky stage mothers who dresses her daughter up to look like a small adult who is ridiculously overdressed and has no childhood. Em knows that what is okay for stage is not okay for everyday. As soon as a performance is over, the makeup and sequins comes off and the little girl comes out to play with her Barbies. She is very much a normal (possibly even a little immature) eleven year old who just this week asked for a new Cabbage Patch doll for christmas. (already!) I can't stand many of the clothes that are available for preteens these days, and refuse to dress my daughter in a skirt that qualifies (in my opinion) as a belt.
The dance that costume is for will be performed for 3 or 4 years, so she'll still be wearing it when she's 15 - that's why it's a little sophisticated. Lets hope she doesn't grow faster than the lycra can stretch! ;)

In knitting news, I was so happy to have the costume done that I cast on my Making Waves sock for the six sox knitalong. I'm not much past the ribbing yet, but Yay! for knitting :)
The lovely Jill sent me another parcel, this time with the new Interweave Knits, a lovely new fat circular and a cute notepad shaped like an "E" for Em.
The circular is a US17. It is 12.75mm. Last week, Jill sent me a pair of US17 straights. They are 12mm.
Is it any wonder I can't get gauge??? How do I know that I'm using a 4mm needle? How do I know that the designer used a 4mm needle? Perhaps the needle was a 4.2mm needle and that's why I can never get gauge?
That sounds like a good excuse, doesn't it? ;)

Emily baked her first cake

Emily baked her first cake today :)

It tasted quite nice, too :) She was aiming for blue icing - she obviously gets her culinary skills from me.
Still very little knitting done :( I did a great deal of web surfing, and found a lace hat pattern in the correct gauge for my yarn to knit for Em. This hat pattern came from the old faithful, Knitty.com. Haven't even cast it on yet, though. Managed a couple of rows on DH's sweater, and the end is in sight for the sequins. Could be wishful thinking though :)

To save myself from the

To save myself from the monotony of sewing little blue discs to a lot of blue fabric, I decided to cast on a lace beanie for Em from a pattern I got off the internet. The pattern claimed to use Patons Beehive Baby yarn. I bought a lovely pale pink 4ply merino wool from STYK which is a similar gauge to Beehive Baby. I bought the yarn and found the pattern months ago.
So tonight I cast on (no swatch, yes I know, but I'm not in the mood to put up with my gauge inadequacies) The pattern called for 97 stitches. I cast on, and realised immediately that something was very wrong. This yarn knits at 30sts/10cm on 3.25mm needles. The pattern calls for 20sts/10cm on 3.25mm needles.
And of course, I can't find the site I originally got the pattern from. I googled Beehive Baby yarn, and it definitely calls for 32sts/4", so I'm not quite sure where the gauge of 20sts/4" comes from.
I think I'll go back to sequins!

Four rows of DH's sweater.

Four rows of DH's sweater. Sequins, sequins, sequins.
Save me. :)

I'm starting to worry about

I'm starting to worry about this stupid costume. I don't think I'm going to get it done. This is the costume.

I have to fill in the blue bit fully, front and back with sequins. One at a time, individually knotted. This is alot of work. I started the pink sequins in April. It took me 2 hours this evening to do half of the pink on one sleeve. The panic is rising.
Now, I have 17 days, and no doubt I will get it done, but it's my nature to panic.
I did restart DH's Jo Sharp sweater, and I did 4 rows, but thats the only knitting I got done. Sequins, sequins, sequins.
Why do I come up with these harebrained schemes???

Can you believe it? More

Can you believe it? More mail!!!
The ever wonderful Jill strikes again!! DH now refers to Jill as my pusher, ROTFL!!

Yarn, yarn, more yarn!!!! Lots of US stuff that I can't get here for me to try. I don't think I'll lack for a project anytime soon :) The only thing I seem to lack is places to hide it all!
I finished Em's cardigan. She's not a Show Pony, is she?

That's it, according to the pattern. I'm unhappy with the neckline though, so I'm going to pick up some stitches and do a garter stitch neckband.
If I have left an illegible comment on your blog, or written you an email that needed deciphering, I apologise! I let my nail lady talk me into letting my nails grow longer, and it's not working!!

It's only my typing it's affecting. Possibly because I try not to do anything else! ;)

Was it only yesterday that

Was it only yesterday that I mentioned that my stash is overwhelming me? Funny that, because today was a Mail Day!! And what a mail day - if I keep this up, the Post Office will make me hire my own mail carrier ;)

Look at that! It's like Christmas!
First off was the Bucket Hat contest prize from the lovely and generous Becky :)
Phil Ruban in Cassis(stunning!), French candy, postcards and a cute beading set for Em.

More Elann goodies! As you can see, I caved on Faina's scarf. :) The green Micro Big Shine is for Bonne Marie's new Mondo Cable top. I'm not quite sure which summer I'll make it for though ;)

And the Jo Sharp yarn is a discontinued shade (Satin) of her 8ply DK wool that I scored on eBay. For a sweater for me.

Last of all, I promised Em that I'd post this picture for Jill. It's an origami penguin that she made fromt he little origami kit that Jill sent her :)

Am I the only one

Am I the only one who gets a little overwhelmed when they look at their stash? I'm up to the sleeves on Em's cardi, and frankly I'm feeling more than a little overwhelmed.
All I want to do is knit. However, I still have 42 costumes for the dance concert unstarted. Emily has a competition starting in 2 weeks. For this she needs her new costume which is a pretty much fully sequinned leotard. I've done less than half, and I've been working on it since April. Admittedly, I haven't been working very hard on it. Now the deadline is looming and I still can't motivate myself to work on it.
I think I have too many things to choose from to do. And I want to do them all. Now. Except the things that need to be done, LOL!
Em has her annual ballet exam tomorrow. She's a bit jangly today. And she has jazz and tap exams later in the week. Much as I reassure her that she'll be fine, she always does fine, she's reaching an age where her results matter to her. When they are littler, they don't really care how they go. As they get older, the competitiveness kicks in. I have an hour and a half wait while she dances. I guess I'll take the sequins. But I'd rather take the knitting!