First off, where does the time go? How can it be December this week? Em gleefully announced on Sunday that it was only four weeks until Christmas. Did I lose 6 months?
Barely any knitting going on, due to all the running around I've been doing.
Em had a dancing event on Saturday. Her dance studio was selected to perform some of their dances for a movie currently being made. We got up at an ungodly hour, drove through pouring rain into the city, spent the whole morning being "audience", then at arpund 4 o'clock, the kids were suddenly thrown into a back room to dance. I think that if they make it into the movie at all, it'll be a miracle.
We didn't get home until later than I'd hoped, by which time I was way too tired to drive down to Wollongong for the Stitch n Bitch Christmas do. Not happy!
Sunday morning, seeing as very little in the way of Christmas shopping had been done, we headed out to the local shopping centre. It has recently been expanded, and it was packed. Spent several hours on christmas shopping, then wasted too many hours looking for a dress. Em's dance concert is coming up, and we're going to the Ballet, so I needed a nice dress. I couldn't find anything that was both nice and in my price range. Finally found something in a shop much closer to home. Isn't it always that way?
It's such a hectic time of year.
Anyway, I have managed a little bit of knitting, despite a screaming headache for the past two days.
The scarf is growing!

I've done 8 repeats now, so the end is in sight. I'm not in a rush to finish it though, because I've really enjoyed it.

I don't think Twinkie liked what we were watching on TV.

She seemed to think that a video would be a better choice! Maybe I should do some dusting :)

Four posts in four days. I'm amazing even myself!
The scarf is progressing.

It's a great knit! I've done four of the centre eleven repeats. I'm loving the Kid Seta, and I always like to knit with beads, so this is great fun! Except, as I said the other day, it gets sticky and grabby if you need to tink it.
Here's another pic of a lorikeet, just to give you an idea of how close you can get to them.

If you sneak up while they're feeding, this is about as close as you can get. There's a great place up on the Gold Coast in Queensland, called the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary.
They feed the local wild lorikeets twice a day, and the lorikeets are so used to people now that they'll land on you, looking for food!
Probably no post tomorrow, Em has a dancing event all day. It's supposed to finish at 4.30, and I'm sincerely hoping it will, so that I can at least make it to the dinner after Wollongong Stitch n Bitch!

A little while back, Ailsa, Jussi and I ordered a cone of Zephyr to split three ways. It came to my house last week, and I sent it on to Ailsa, who used Donni's jumbo ball winder to wind it for us.
And yesterday it came back to me.

Thank you, Ailsa and Donni!
I think it is destined to become this.

The Seascape Shawl from Fiber Trends. I buy my Fiber trends patterns from an Australian ebay seller, Wool Cottage. Great prices, and actually w-a-y cheaper to buy in Australia than to import from overseas. (For a change!)
Not sure when I'll get to the shawl, I seem to be buying projects faster than I can knit them.
I joined a new knitalong too! Sock It To Me Summer hosted by Taryn and Alison. I really need to finish Em's never ending knee highs so I can start new socks. I want to teach myself 2 socks on 2 circs.
I took some pictures of the lorikeets in the front yard. Here is Australia, we have some really pretty native birds. These are Rainbow Lorikeets. Extremely pretty, but noisy as all hell. I'm telling you, the prettier the bird around here, the more horrible it sounds. These guys are not often seen alone. There are generally 2 or more together, and they feed in the native trees. Our villa complex has Grevillea bushes all up and down the driveway, with one only a yard or so from our bedroom window, and another one 2 yards from the loungeroom window. One day last week, there were several in each bush, squawking, arguing and chattering to each other at 5.30am. Loudly. Seriously, they never bloody shut up.

That last guy looks a bit menacing, doesn't he? You can get up pretty close to them, but as soon as they realise how close you're getting, they start telling you off. Loudly. They don't do anything quietly! The galahs and cockatoos are noisy too, but we don't get many in our yard. We occasionally see Kookaburra's. When we stayed at the in-laws last christmas, there was a Kookaburra right outside the window that started carrying on every morning before the sun was up.
It's amazing how unamusing their laughter is then!

Well, Wool Winder was almost right!

It's Sivia Harding's "Mary Ann's Cashmere and Pearls Lace scarf"
I'm using Madil Kid Seta on my 3.5mm Addi Bamboo circular. (Which is honestly my favourite ever needle!) The beads are "A Touch of Glass" 6/0 glass seed beads in Teal Transparent. Although, to me, they don't look either Teal or transparent.
Anyhoo, heres my progress.

Not much, but I have been working on some top secret christmas things as well. I really like the Madil Kid Seta, although I had to tink a few stitches, and I think if I had to frog, it would be a bit of a pain. It's ticky and grabby, so I had better not make any mistakes!

I really need to get back to blogging on a semi regular basis! I find lately that my time is not well organised, so I'm being overwhelmed with things to do. Especially at this time of year. End of year for school and dancing, dance concerts and photos and dress rehearsals and presentation days. The dreaded Christmas.
I lay awake until after 2.30am on Sunday, after I suddenly realised that Christmas was only five weeks away. I then got up yesterday morning and wrote a long list of things I need to do before Christmas. I've managed two things from the list, but I think this Sunday is going to be a big, long, shopping day.
I had a visitor this morning.

(Ignore the state of the linoleum, it's being replaced on December 6. And don't let your kids tap dance on your lino!)
A Common Myna Bird. They are clever little pests, but pests they are. Twinkie's dinner bowl is just inside the back door, and the birds come in to try to get her dinner. Twinkie tends to just lay back and watch them. I have to keep a constant ear out if the door is open, and I spend half the day chasing them out, or convincing Twinkie to come inside.

Knitting news.
I finished the Vanalinn Gloves!

I'm extremely pleased with them. The pattern is straight forward and easy to follow, and they are so pretty! I used Elann's Baby Cashmere in Rose Heather. I needed just a bit over 2 balls, and they are lovely and soft. Now I need some cold weather to wear them. Why do I knit winter woolies in Summer? Huh?

The gloves would have been finished earlier, but I got sidetracked. By these.

This is "Bertie and Bruce" from The Knitted Teddy Bear. One of them is knited in Rowan Kid Classic, and I thought to myself, "I have some Kid Classic left over from Em's monkey, Darwin!" So off I went, and began to knit a bear.

Then I realised something that I should have noticed long before. I didn't have enough yarn. I got the body, head and ears done, then had to admit that I was wasting my time. So much for using up leftovers!
However, something new has been started. Can you guess what? Tune in tomorrow! Or maybe the next day. Definitely by Friday!

My hubby is away tonight, on a business trip. Anyone who knows David is laughing at this point, but it's true. He flew out this morning, and will be back tomorrow evening.
Someone told the arachnid population. Because he was no sooner out the door, and one came in. Having no choice but to deal with it, I had a panic attack, then I sprayed it with half a can of insect spray, it fell onto the lounge, and I very bravely sucked it up the vacuum cleaner. Now I'm scared to use the vacuum, because even though I know it's dead, I can't use it, knowing it's in there.
Unreasonable, but true. Yes, I know I'm pathetic.
That was the big deal of the day :)
I've been busy with the Vanalinn gloves. I finished one.

And I'm past the thumb hole for the second.

I really love this Baby Cashmere. We went into the city last weekend, and whilst at Kinokuniya, I picked up "The Knitted Teddy Bear" by Sandra Polley. Qute a few of the little bears in here call for fingering weight, and the cashmere would just be divine. Elann has some at the moment, but I'm trying to resist. Goddess knows I don't need any more yarn. But cashmere teddies. Yum.

Behold, The Sphinx

Mystery Shawl 2 done.

I'm pretty pleased with it, but I have a few issues with the construction. First you knit a triangle from the point up (The centre triangle), then you cast off and pick up stitches along the two sides of the triangle. The cast off edge becomes part of the top of the shawl. I found that even though I cast off quite loosely, it was still too tight for me to block as aggressively as I would've liked.
My other personal beef with this shawl is that we were originally told we'd need 1200 yards of laceweight. We only used around 600. I already had the yarn, so it wasn't so much of an issue, but if I'd bought yarn especially for the project, i'd be pretty pissed.
It's the Mystery Shawl 2, from the yahoo group. I knit it in Knitpicks "Shimmer" in the Morning Mist colourway, which I overdyed with some landscapes dye in the colour "Opal". I really like the Shimmer, but I'm not so keen on the colourways, I think there is too much contrast for lace.
I used 3.5mm needles, and I'm pretty happy with the tension.
So, it's back to the Vanalinn Gloves. The first one is nearly done, so it's not a huge amount of work until I have another finished item.
Twinkie gets a little impatient for her dinner sometimes.

You think she'd know by now that her dinner lands there!

The mailman has been good to me over the past few days. Somehow, whenever I feel like crap, a nice pick me up arrives in the mailbox :)
Donni sent me this lovely little notepad. That went straight into the knitting bag. it sure beats the little scraps of paper I usually depend upon. (And lose).

And Nat sent me this polar bear candle holder.

Isn't he adorable? I may manage a Polar Bear christmas after all! Thank you Donni and Nat!!
I finally finished the edging on the Mystery Shawl 2. But I forgot to take a picture. Just imagine a pile of blue yarn, because that's pretty much what it looked like. It is now pinned out on beach towels on the bedroom floor, blocking like a good shawl should. I managed to block it out bigger than I thought it would. Finished pics tomorrow, I hope!
Then a bad thing happened.

That's one of my new Rosewood DPNS. This is why you shouldn't just shove your knitting into your (overfull) handbag. I was not happy. But then I pulled out an emery board and got to work. The needles were a little long for my preference anyway. The emery board worked so well that I shortened them all. The broken one is now a bit shorter than the others, but the others are 15cm long, as opposed to the 20cm they started out as. I've lost the nice lacquered finish off the ends that I filed, but they're still nice and smooth.
So i now have the Vanalinn gloves, Em's neverending kneehighs and my FCEK cardi on the needles. The Vanalinn gloves are about to get my almost undivided attention, I think. I find that when I have too many things on the needles, I feel like I'm accomplishing nothing, so I need to work on finishing these things.
And because Simone reminded me that we hadn't seen much of Twink lately, here she is.
She washed her face first.

Then she ran over to say hello to everyone.

Hi Twinkie!

So I jumped on the bandwagon, but it doesn't seem very accurate to me....

Your Birthdate: May 31

You're a pretty traditional person. If it's lasted, it's probably good. You seek stability - both in your career and your romantic relationship. In return, you're very loyal and predictable. Which is usually a good thing. Without a partner, you feel lost. Being with someone is very important to you. Your strength: Your dependability Your weakness: You hate being alone Your power color: Midnight blue Your power symbol: Shell Your power month: April

Quick update!
Thank you everybody for your get well wishes and birthday wishes for DH.
Not a stitch has been knit this week. It turned out that I have pulled or strained a muscle in my back, and I have spent the week flat on my back doing not very much at all. Many painkillers have been taken.
But I am feeling better today, so hopefully I can get back into the swing of things, hooray!

It is my beloved DH's birthday today. And I've done my back in somehow. I kept him up half the night with my back pain. And then he went to work late so he could walk Em to the bus stop and I could stay in bed. On his birthday.
I told you he's a keeper!
He's getting the iPod mini he wanted, and I wanted to get him something else, but I couldn't do squat today, apart from whine about the pain :(
Anyway, Happy Birthday, my love!!

So, I went to the Post Office this morning, and I discovered that the Trekking XXL sock yarn that I ordered from Lisa had arrived. I came home and took a picture of it.

The pastel is for me, the orange is for DH. Then I tried to put it away. And I came to a realisation. I couldn't fit it into the sock yarn box.
Then I realised that I have a problem. Look away now, hubby!
Behold. The Stash.

It's not as bad as I thought it might be. Although there might be more, hidden about the house somewhere.
I do not have too much yarn. I have too little time!

Tagged by Michelle!

What is your all time favourite yarn to knit with?

The Alpaca Cloud for the Feather and Fan was mighty nice. The Kid Seta that I have here, but haven't actaully knit with yet feels heavenly too. And I love sock yarn of any type. Ooh, ooh, Mountain Colors Bearfoot. I think. I'm obviously fickle about yarn.

Your favourite needles?

I love, love, love my Addi Turbos. And I'm mighty fond of my Addi Bamboo. I guess it depends on the project, because I love those Rosewood DPNS. But if I were stranded on an island, I would take my Addi's.

The worse thing you've ever knit?

What, just one? In the 80's, I knit some pretty hideous things that just never sat right. In fact, there are not many garments I've knit for myself that I've been 100% happy with.

Your most favourite knit pattern? (maybe you don't like wearing it but it was the most fun to knit)

Right now, I'd say the Feather and Fan shawl from A Gathering of Lace.

Most valuable knitting technique?

Kitchener, and I wish I could master it. I still need to get out the book or mini movie and do it along with the directions. I just can't get the hang of it for some reason.

Best knitting book or magazine?

Any magazine apart from the Australian Creative Knitting. Maybe not entirely fair, but the magazine drives me insane. The magazine that has the most things I'd wear is Family Circle Easy Knits. Interweave has the things I like, but probably would never wear.
Books. I have a few ;)
I love A Gathering of Lace. I like The Knitters Book of Finishing Techniques. And Ann Budd's books.

Your favourite knit-along?

I tend to be a bit of a silent partner in Knitalongs. I've enjoyed the Mystery Shawls. It's fun watching what unfolds.

Favourite knitblogs?

I have 183 in my bloglines. Many, many knitblogs, and I like them all, or I would unsubscribe :)

Favourite knitwear designer?

Hmm, I haven't knit a Kim Hargreaves yet, but I love the stuff on her site. I haven't knit the Sivia Harding patterns I just got either, but they're so pretty!

The knit item that you wear the most. (how 'bout a picture of it?)

Socks. Lots of socks. I'm just not ecstatic about the way my other knit items for myself have turned out.

Pink Beads socks from the sixsiox knitalong, and my very first socks, in Opal.

My Bearfoot socks, which have been worn to death, and some Regia socks.

My Dublin Bay socks and my Fluted bannisters from the sixsox knitalong.
I have others, but these were on top in my drawer, and I think it's most of my favourites.

Tagging?
Let's ask the Stitch n Bitch girls. Jussi, Annie, Stripey, Ailsa and Donni.

We were out and about today, and on our way home, we saw these galahs on the side of the road.

Aren't they cute?
Knitting is happening, but it's still the Mystery Shawl edging, which seems to have no end. Pics tomorrow.

After having no mail for a little while, (I'm sure the post office ladies thought I'd moved), I've had yummy little bits this week.
I ordered some stuff from Sivia Harding, and it came yesterday. Quick mail! I ordered on October 27 (last Thursday) and it was here yesterday (Nov 2).

This is "Mary Ann's Cashmere and Pearls Lace Scarf". DH had a meeting in the city yesterday, and being the wonderful man that he is, he went to Tapestry Craft for me, then rang me on his mobile so that I could direct him to the Madil Kid Seta, then he told me all the colours they had, so I could check the colours online, and he bought it for me. He's a keeper :)
Mind you, I have more than enough to keep me busy for a while, but I wanted to get the Kid Seta while Tapestry Craft still had their sale on. The colour is 467.
Then I went out today, and our local Spotlight (Craft store), has had an big improvement on their bead section. Mind you, anything would have been a big improvement. But they now have the 6/0 seed beads that I needed for the scarf. I picked the colour without the yarn, but I think it'll do. I'll think about it for a while, I may go back and get the clear beads instead. These might be just a little too green.

Then I got this lovely little card in the mail today from Shannon.

Thank you, Shannon! I love little things like this, they never fail to put a smile on my face. :)

Aargh!
I took some knitting pics at 9am this morning. It's now 11pm, and I'm only just getting around to blogging. That's what life seems to be like lately. I used to blog every day, lately I don't get the time to blog, and I don't seem to get time to do anything worth blogging about anyway!
But now to catch up.
Stitch 'n Bitch was on Saturday, but I didn't get to go. Once again, Em had me tied up at a dance comp on the wrong side of Sydney. So, once again I took along the FCEK cardi. I need nice easy knitting that can be put down and picked up without any trouble. I was very glad I took the knitting along, as by the end of the day, the comp was running two hours late. We were back there again on Sunday.
Em did well again, and I finished the first cardi front.

My first pocket! It's a really nice easy knit, but I'm a little concerned about the yardage. The pattern calls for 9 balls of Cotton-Ease. I thought that sounded like a lot, but I had 4 balls from Lynette, so I tracked down 5 more balls. They're a different dyelot, but I've just been alternating balls, and it seems fine.
After knitting the back and one front, I have only used 2 balls. Somehow I don't think I'll need 7 more balls for another front, two sleeves and a collar! I have no idea how they came up with these yardage requirements.
I have also been working on the Mystery Shawl 2 final clue. It's a knitted on edging, and it's wide. As Ailsa noted in the comments, this is not going to be a quick clue. I've been working on it whenever I get a chance, and this is as far as I've gotten. Mind you, I haven't had many chances to work on it!

I like the edging a lot, but it takes forever. It will make the shawl much wider, and I was beginning to wonder about the yardage for this project, too. Originally we were told we'd need around 1200 yards, but I haven't finished the first 440 yard skein yet. I doubt I'll use 1200 yards, but this edging seems to be using qute a bit of yarn.

I love Daylight Savings. Absolutely love it. But it knocks me flat for at least 2 weeks. And it takes me forever to get the hang of what time it is elsewhere in the world, and I still get confused with earlier/later, clocks forward or back, and gaining an hour or losing an hour. But I love that extra hour of daylight.
Hopefull ythings will slow down a little now, and I'll have time to knit and stuff and have things to blog about.
And time to blog!