We've had some progress. I blocked the Pink Pullover.

Even though it's mostly acrylic, I'm glad I blocked it. Most of the curl is gone, and it's sitting much more nicely.
I also blocked the baby vest.

It's so tiny, I can hardly remember Em being that small. And it's quick to knit.
Oh, and I finished Satin. Yay!

Mirror in the bathroom shot. Mind you, I don't think I'll be wearing it anytime soon. Winter is certainly not in a hurry to get here. All week it's been over 25C (75F).
I'm pleased with Satin. It's comfy, and roomy, and I like it alot more than I thought I would - I think I just got sick of looking at it!

I need to get a serious dose of finish-itis.

Satin. Blocked. Unseamed.

Pink Pullover. Unblocked. Unseamed.

Baby vest. Started. Abour halfway through. It's from Simple Knits for Cherished Babies, and I've knit both front and back together. Up to neck shaping.

Mountain Colours sock. Stalled.
I've finished my Pink winter coat though!

Ta Da!! And the black dress. But the hem is only pinned in on the dress. I've got until Sunday ;)
However, today is the first day back at dancing after the holidays. This is when concert costume sewing starts and I am totally not in the mood.
I think I need to start knitting something new ;)

Busy, busy, busy. Satin is pretty much dry, ready to seam. The Pink Pullover is done, ready to be blocked, but I'm wavering. I mean, it's 80% acrylic, does it really need to be blocked? The bottom edge is curling though, so maybe I will block it.
I knit a little baby hat from Simple Knits for Cherished Babies.

The pattern called for Rowan All Seasons Cotton, but I subbed some Manos Cotton Stria that Jill sent me a while back. It needs a little steam blocking, but otherwise I like it!
Em finished her spinning, and I plied her singles for her. She used some pencil roving that Celia kindly sent me to practice spinning with.
It's a little (!) underspun, but not bad for a first attempt by a 12 year old :)

It then took a grape Kool Aid bath in the microwave, and now it looks like this.

I've also been busy with this.

It is destined to be a pink wool blend coat. Hopefully it will be finished (and look alright) to wear to the Tap Dogs on Sunday.
I think I will knit some baby clothes next. A few little things that make me feel like I'm knitting a lot ;)

In Australia and New Zealand today, we commemorated ANZAC Day. We have ANZAC Day on April 25 every year. This commemorates the date that the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula in 1915 in World War 1. We take this day each year to remember those who have fallen, and to honour the returned Servicemen and women. We have parades of the returned service personnel, not just from WW1, but from all our wars, and we have Dawn Services to honour them all.

Well, at least someone is getting some use out of it!

I had to have a blood test yesterday (bad cholestrol), and the evil nurse injured me.

It doesn't look so bad in this picture, but there's some bruising and a big ugly sore blood blister. I hate needles.
Anyway, it hasn't stopped my knitting. :)
I'm liking this pink pullover - it's knitting up really quickly!

Those are the sleeves, which are almost done. I thuink I have about 15 rows to go on them, then it's onto the front. Yay! If everything knitted up this quickly, I'd have no stash. :)

Satin is done!
Well, the knitting is. Unfortunately, the weather has been too crappy to block her yet. I prefer a full wet block, but if the weather doesn't improve, I'll just do a steam block. Unfortunately our house is too small to lay anything out for any length of time. Usually I leave things to block on our bed, or on the floor, but if it takes too long to dry, it ain't pleasant sleeping with the smell of wet wool.
So I had to decide what comes next. Em chose the "Pink Pullover" from Vogue Teen Knits around a year ago, and I have the yarn, so I decided on that.

It's made in Lion Brand "Imagine", which is 20% mohair and 80% acrylic, but Em loves it. It's a bit sheddy, but apart from that, it ain't all bad to knit with. Especially seeing as I only started it yesterday, and this morning I had this.

It's also not as scratchy as I thought it'd be. I am finding that I'm dropping stitches though. I was expecting crappy yarn something like the true crap we get here in Australia! It ain't Lorna's, but it's pink and fuzzy, and that's all Em cares about :)
It is the recommended yarn, and I surprised myself by getting gauge. We are making a slight adjustment to the pattern - I'm not keen on the idea of putting metal studs in my knits, so I'm going to do a white intarsia star on the front instead.
Twinkie has this thing about following me around when I'm sweeping up her dinner spills. (She's a somewhat enthusiastic eater - she likes to try to get into the bowl in her excitement) Took a while to figure out what she was doing, until we found that she likes the broom.

Please ignore the thick ankles and unwaxed legs! I told you I had tree trunk ankles ;)
Em also got new bunny slippers. Twinkie likes those, too.

And speaking of the Empress, she lost a tooth.

She has a friend coming to sleep over tonight, so I don't think any of us will get much sleep!

Not an awful lot of knitting going on. We're going to see the Tap Dogs in two weeks, and I have nothing to wear, so I've been sewing myself a new black linen dress, and a coat. The coat is in the pink wool fabric I showed here a few months back. I tried to make up the black and pink fabric in the vintage pattern I also showed, but the pattern was screwy. Weird pattern pieces, and different seam allowances in different parts of the pattern. Most of the pattern only had a 7mm seam allowance, which didn't even cover the fraying of the wool! So I got the poops, threw it and bought a new, longer line pattern.
The dress is done, bar the hem, and I'm having difficulty finding the right colour lining for the coat.
So that's my excuse for lack of knitting content.
Lex left a comment the other day, asking if I knew of a sock pattern to wear with these shoes.

She reminded me that I had recently bought a pair of similar shoes for Em.

Don't mind the band-aid marks, that's why she needed new shoes! I love these shoes, I think they're so cute :)
Unfortunately, I have a large foot, and all the ones I've found locally for myself look too broad. I do intend to get some for myself though.
So, help! Does anyone know of a suitable pattern? I can see me knitting these a lot :)

My local-est yarn store is The Wool Inn at Penrith. Anita is a really lovely lady, and I love the store. It's small, but there's so much yarn stuffed into the nooks and crannies that I could sit in there for hours. Even Em spends ages oohing and aahing over everything.
But it takes an hour to drive there, so I don't go over often. There are some eisteddfods that Em dances at that are just a few minutes away, so we usually pop in then. I was in there on Tuesday, but I've been feeling a little guilty about the stash lately, so I didn't buy much, but I wanted a lot! When I got home, I thought about it for a while, then decided that I really should have bought some of the Baby Alpaca 4 ply that I'd played with.
I called Anita, and she had it to me overnight :)

Mmmm... I can't fins it on the 'net anywhere, it's from an Australian alpaca breeder, and it's yummy. Just one lonely ball, for this.

I really hope that DH's cousin has a girl ;)
I've just jinxed them you know! They'll have a boy for sure now.
And Satin will never be done, LOL!

Here's a sight to warm a knitting mother's heart.

She's knitting a sock for her beloved cell phone. The one with no credit. I wonder how long it will take her to finish. ;)

Mail Day!! I felt like my birthday came early and no one told me :)
I have received so much mail this week, that I'm expecting customs to come around to check what I'm importing, LOL!
Jill came through with lots of magazines :)

And Lorna's Lace's sock yarn in Purple Club! Mmmm.. sock yarn.
And Evelyn of the comments who doesn't yet have a blog, sent me goodies too!

More sock yarn! Lang Jawoll in Hot Pink. And chocolatey goodness! My silly camera has not picked up this colour well at all. It's not so watermelon-y, it's much more of a true Hot Pink.
I think Em actually started foaming at the mouth. She now thinks that while she is at school I do nothing but pick up parcels stuffed with gorgeous sock yarn, knitting magazines and chocolate, then come home and eat it all before she gets here, then hide the evidence, LOL!
So I had to share the chocolate. And she wants the sock yarn knitted up into socks for herself.
Good luck, kid ;)
I have been knitting, although when I laid out these pieces to take pics, Em asked "Haven't you finished that yet?" This from a kid who knits an average of 2 stitches a week.
I did point out that she has kept me just a little busy lately.

No, Bliss, it's not a bikini top ;)
Satin's sleeves are done.
No problem here, except that I ran out of yarn one row before the cast off edge. I hate that - but not enough to rip back a few rows ;)

The front is coming along, but once again, I'm tired of stocking stitch. I'm up to the 12th ball of yarn. The first eleven were great, not a single knot among them. This one has had 2 knots so far. Isn't it always a way? There'll be plenty of ends to weave in. Yay! Not.
I'm enoying to Jo Sharp DK, and a hint for anyone else who likes to knit with it, WEBS is having an Anniversary sale. There is some seriously good stuff here, including Cascade 220 for $4.70 a hank, and Jo Sharp DK for $28 a bag. $2.80 a ball. I thought I got mine cheap!
Now I think I'll try to convince my family that my Birthday did come early and I need a chocolate cake ;)

**Phew**
Why do I detest school holidays so much?
Does the fact that I am sitting down (briefly) for the first time since Friday have anything to do with it??

Em danced at a presentation on Saturday, and competed in groups on Sunday. Monday and Tuesday (yesterday) she competed her solos. She did well, and I chauffered and dressed her. The competition was an hour's drive away, and she danced Monday evening from 3.30 to 8.30 and yesterday from 8.30am to 11am, and was supposed to dance at 9.45pm last night (!), but they were running late, and she didn't dance until 11pm. She came third in that last section, which just astounded me, considering that she was so tired, I was waiting for her to trip over her feet and start snoring onstage ;)
That equals six hours driving in the last two days. We did get to visit the no-so-local-yarn-store, which was a happy bonus, and Krispy Kreme, but they weren't baking. (Boo!)
I did get a little knitting done, but not a whole lot.

The bearfoot sock. First pattern was too small, then I chose different pattern, on 2.5mm needles. Too Big. Now we're on 2.25mm needles, and all is well. The pattern is the Purl Lace socks from Socks, socks, socks. The yarn is Mountain Colours Bearfoot in Crazy Woman.

My Amazon order came! At some point, I am even going to sit down and read some of these books, LOL!
Em arranged a movie date for 8.45am this morning. Considering that we got home at 12.20am, I was unimpressed. The mum of her little friend was coming to pick her up. I had not been home and done any cleaning, so I got up this morning and did some surface cleaning before they arrived. After they left, I did laundry, I vacuumed, I did dishes, I cleaned up after the rabbit. Now it's 12.57pm, and I'm supposed to pick up my mother to take her to the doctors at 1pm.
Am I stressed? Yes!!
When I get home this afternoon, I'm taking my knitting books, and going to my bedroom to sleep. Tonight's meal is in the slow cooker, and the phone is coming off the hook.
Then I will lay down, cuddle my books, breathe for a while, then nap, LOL!

What a weekend. Haven't stopped, have barely knit, and there's no end in sight yet.
Friday night we watched Pope John Paul's funeral. Very sad, a few tears. We were eating dinner while we watched. (Em has dancing lessons Fridays until 6pm, so we do the grocery shopping after, and then come home with takeout for dinner).
It felt wrong. I felt like I was eating in Church. I liked the funeral though, I felt it was appropriate, including the very simple coffin just placed in the middle, with gospels on top, closing through the mass.
Saturday we raced around doing odd jobs. Off to the bank, Twinkie to the vet, Em had a dance presentation in the afternoon. Yesterday, she had a group dance competition in the afternoon/evening.
Obviously we've worn her out, it's 10am and she's still sleeping. I wouldn't normally complain, but she's dancing again this afternoon and evening and again tomorrow and I have things to get done! I don't want to wake her though, or she'll be a sourpuss all day :)
So I'll sit here and knit until the Princess awakes from her 100 year sleep.
Who am I to complain? ;)

Evelyn asked yesterday about the colour of Satin's sleeves. Rest assured that they are the same colour as the rest of the sweater, I have a problem with getting accurate colours with my digital camera. The colour I'm using has been discontinued, so I couldn't find an online representation of the colour. Those sleeves came out much lighter than they are, however.
New Knitty is up!
I like quite a few of the designs this time around, particularly Soleil and Spring Fling. The problem is that I am in the wrong hemispere. We're heading into winter here, so I really should be winter knitting. But when did I ever use common sense? ;)
Parent & Teacher interviews at school this morning. Apparently Emily is attentive, polite, sweet, eager to please and takes pride in tidy, completed and accurate work. She is a joy to have in the classroom, and is helpful and well mannered.
What?
DH told me to search her room carefully to find her pod. Surely she is is a shapeshifter. I didn't recognise my demonic, possessed, messy and smart mouthed child in the child they described.
But I am proud that she can behave in public, and apply herself when necessary. And I felt extremely proud to be the mother of the child they described. I just wish she'd come home that way occasionally ;)

Satin has sleeves. Well, partly.

Because Satin is an oversized style sweater, the sleeves aren't really very long, so I only have 30 rows to go. Then it's just the front, seaming and neckband. Just. ;)

I also restarted the Mountain Colors sock, but now it was coming out too big. I'm using the "Purl Lace Socks" pattern from Socks, socks, socks.
I didn't want too fussy a pattern, because of the lovely variegated colours in the yarn, but I didn't want plain stocking stitch, because I get bored, and I'm already doing Stocking Stitch on Satin.
I was using 2.5mm needles, but I have frogged it, and I'll restart on 2.25mm needles.
Last day of school today, I just have to take Em to school tomorrow for an hour for Parent Teacher interviews, then it's school holidays. Yay. At least I get to sleep in for two weeks :)

Are these not the cutest things?

And they're quick :) I knitted and seamed them up yesterday afternoon. I think I'll get some pretty pink braid to trim the top. Now I just need a girl baby to give them to! They're a little small, only 8cm long, because as per usual, my gauge was off. But cute anyway :)
I also got as far as I could with the garter stitch baby cardi.

That's as much as I can do until I know if the baby I'm knitting it for is a boy or a girl, because I want to do the front bands and sleeve bands in pink or blue.
I am loving "Simple Knits for Cherished Babies" :)

Mmm.. sock yarn. Just what I needed ;)

Updates, updates!
I finished the back of Satin! Hoo-bloody-ray.

It's not that I'm not enjoying knitting it, or that I don't like it, it's just that it seems to be taking so long.
In addition, I started something new :)
I've ordered Simple Knits for Cherished Babies. It was quite expensive locally, so I hunted about and ordered it from an Amazon dealer, saving around 25% on the local price. Did I check the local library? No. Because their knitting selection is crappy, and I just know that they won't have it. Guess what?
Of course they had it. So, being the impatient soul that I am, I went and borrowed it :)
I started the "garter stitch cardigan" which is knit in a 8ply (DK weight). Nothing suitable in the stash (!), so I headed off to Spotlight (bleurgh) to seek out something suitable. All the pure wools they carry are too scratchy for a baby, and they carry no "luxury" yarns, so I was about to give up when Em said "Hey Mum, what about this?" "This" was Patons Zest, an 8ply acrylic courtelle. I looked at the label and turned up my nose immediately. However, my little yarn snob in the making insisted I feel it. And damn if she wasn't right! It doesn't feel acrylic-y! It feels like a soft well worn cotton. So I bought it, and am pleased with it so far, but it is making my hands ache :( I'm nearly finished though, so it's all good.

The knit is super quick and easy, but cute anyway. I've never knitted a garter stitch all in one cardi before, but I am impressed by it. I like to see babies all dressed up and sweet, but sometimes simple is lovely too. The cardi is meant to have garter stich front bands and sleeve bands, but I think I'll leave it until the baby is born, then do the bands in pink or blue. It's making a nice change from Satin, at any rate.

Emily has been learning a duo dance with a friend. They competed for the first time last night, and they won :)

I can hardly sign off today without mentioning Pope John Paul II.
I am a Catholic, however until just a few years ago, I was most definitely lapsed. When Emily was 8 or 9, I started to take her to Mass, as I wanted her to make her First Holy Communion. I was surprised to find that I was enjoying Mass, and that Emily was too. Since then, we've been regular Church goer's. In fact, Emily is a regular Altar Server, and is attending the Catholic High School. I would never shove my beliefs down someone else's throat, I believe wholeheartedly in to each his own. DH's religious beliefs are vastly different to mine, and we respect each other's beliefs.
I was only a child when John Paul began his Papacy, and he is really the only Pope that I've ever known. His passing is not unexpected, but it is extremely saddening anyway. While he was very conservative, he always struck me as a kindly, loving man. He will be a hard act to follow, and sadly missed.
The prayer "In Paradisum deducant te angeli" from the Funeral Liturgy seems appropriate today.

I like to think that he was met at the gates of Heaven by Our Lady.

So apparently today is Flash Your Stash Day. I'm not quite ready for that yet ;)
So I decided that baby steps are in order. I'm flashing my Sick Sock Stash.

I didn't start knitting socks until January of last year, when I found a ball of Opal that I really liked. All of this has been accumulated since then. Sock knitting hasn't taken off here in Australia yet, and there is very little sock yarn readily available. From whats in the stash, only the 2 balls of Opal, the hand dyed yarn (by Celia) and the Ozyarn sock yarn was obtained locally.
I have enough yarn on hand for 28 pairs of socks. That is my whole sick sock stash, apart from the Mountain Colors I'm currently working with.
In addition to the yarn shown, there is enough for 5 more pairs on it's way from Elann, and I've ordered enough Lorna's for 3 more pairs from Lisa.
I have Regia, Lorna's Laces, lots of Elann Sock It to Me, Opal and Lion Brand. Of all of those, only the Opal is available locally. This yarn has come from lots of sources, Threadbear, The Knitting Zone, Elann and Knit Happens. Some has been gifted to me by Jill, Katy, Lisa and Janine.
I love sock yarn :)
I love that you can buy enough for a whole project, and it doesn't cost an arm and a leg. I like that it doesn't take up much room, then sit there glaring balefully at you until you knit it. I love hand knit socks. I like knitting them. I've pointed out more to DH that I would like to receive for Mothers Day. I've asked for Sock Knitting Books for Mothers Day.
My name is Donna and I am a Sock Yarn addict ;)
The other yarn will remain hidden until further notice.
In keeping with the sock theme, I have frogged the Friday Harbor sock. The pattern is for people with nice slim little ankles. I don't even have ankles. My legs look like legs that little kids draw - straight down to the foot, no tapering, just tree trunks. ;) A new pattern will be found for the yarn.