Bits and pieces.
Em is learning sewing at school this year. I should have taught her long before now, but I'm a terrible teacher. I lack this tiny requirement called patience. She seems to be picking it up well, although I have a few doubts about the ability of the teacher.

They made boxer shorts. Em has a little frangipani obsession this year, so despite the fact that the school was willing to supply fabric, she somehow conned me into buying this fabric.
Pretty good for a first garment! (Please don't mention the uneven leg lengths. And the teacher gave them narrow elastic for the waist.)
She also got the test results for a maths test this week, and even though she regularly reminds anyone who will listen that she "Can't do maths", she topped the grade with her mark. Out of 180 kids.
Gee it's fun saying "I told you so"!

In other sewing news, the concert sewing has started. Yes, for the dance concert in December. And to replace some more of the solo costumes Em has outgrown. At least this year, I only need to make around 75 concert costumes!

But I've been getting some knitting done. I finished the cardi fronts.

Ahoy, Sleeve Island!
Twinkie has been a naughty bunny this week. Despite the fact that she stopped chewing everything up when we had her desexed, she has started it again. She has chewed a hole in the wire door. (That we already replaced due to her chewing). She gets under the beds at any opportunity and starts chewing anything she can get her teeth into.
Anyone want a bunny?

Busy, busy, busy weekend!
I went to the dentist, and found that the tooth needs to be surgically removed, but he took pity on me, and has agreed to leave it be for the time being. Let's hope it behaves!

Em had a wonderful birthday, and we went to the steak house as she wished, and she deemed the day to be the best day ever.
On Saturday we went to Stitch n Bitch. Somehow I seem to never get much stitching done at these events. I also forgot the camera, so no pics.
The cardi is progressing nicely, though. I'm up to the armhole shaping on the fronts.

It's actually going much quicker than I expected. See the cute little rounded corners on the fronts? Here's a close up.

These edges are supposed to be finished with crochet at the end. I haven't quite figured out how I'm going to manage that yet.
Yesterday we delivered the shawl to the Easter Show. My confidence took a hit! They're beautiful! When we got there, we queued, then after we registered the shawl, we got to walk down to the table for the section the shawl is in. I didn't get to hang around and have a good look, and everything was nicely folded, but there was a gorgeous cashmere shawl there. I'll take pictures when we go back, but there is some very stiff competition.

Twink spent the weekend looking for food.

Now, she's definitely not underfed, but she's never been known to say no to more!
And the pigeons are getting braver. They know where Twinkie's food usually is, and aren't afraid to come in looking for it now.

They even seem to get a little indignant if we're late serving breakfast!

See this?

It's the Feather and Fan shawl that I finished last year, reblocking. Why?
Because this weekend I have to deliver it to the Sydney Royal Easter Show for judging. It didn't look as nice as it did when it was freshly blocked, so I reblocked it. Of course, I left it until the last minute, and today was gloomy and rainy. Even though it needs to be delivered this weekend, the show doesn't open until April 7, so I have to wait at least 2 weeks to find out if I do any good with it. A bit nerve wracking, that!
It takes an hour and a half and every pin I own to block, by the way.

I finished the back of the pink cardi. Unfortunately, I can't pin it out and show it off, because all the pins are in the shawl. Bad timing!
When I went to the dentist last week, I discovered that the toothache was from an impacted wisdom tooth that I have been trying very hard to ignore for a few years now. It was infected, so I was prescribed antibiotics, x-rayed, parted from a healthy wad of money, and now I have to go back tomorrow.
Wish me luck, I'm scared!
In addition, tomorrow is Emily's 13th birthday. As the Birthday Girl, she gets to choose our dinner destination. She's chosen a steak house. Who wants to bet I won't be eating steak?

And finally, Twinkie.

It's not a very good picture, because she refused to sit still. However, she is eating gum leaves. Maybe she thinks she's a koala :)

First off, thank you to those of you who have inquired about Tropical Cyclone Larry and it's proximity to us, but it's miles away. 2700 km, or 1700 miles away, in fact. So it's had no effect on us whatsoever.
However, another Australian Knitblogger, Nat, is directly in the path of the storm and has evacuated with her family to a hotel. And to top it off, it was her birthday yesterday, so please go send lots and lots of good and happy thoughts to her!
The tutu made it's debut yesterday, and seems to have been a great success.

(click for big)
Oh, the kid did okay, too ;)
She came second in her section!
Knitting? Just a little.

The cardi back is growing, I'm up to shaping the armholes. It's not taking as long as I thought it would, but I don't know if I'll ever be a fan of using finer gauge yarn for garments.
The bottom isn't scallopy, it's just the way it's been pinned out, otherwise you would have just seen a big rolled up piece of knitting.

And here's Twinkie, who is still lost without her favourite sleeping spot. She used to sleep under Fuzzy's cage, and she hasn't found a new favourite spot yet. I love it when she sleeps like this - it looks like she has no front legs.

So I think I'm suffering Startitis. Despite the fact that I have the new cardi, the Trellis scarf and a pair of socks on the needles, I keep finding new things I want to start.
Like the Sivia Harding Diamond Fantasy Shawl knitalong.
Like new socks.
Now, I actually still have a pair of socks on the needles. Back in December, I started a pair of Trekking XXL socks for DH, using the 2 socks on 2 circs method. Love the yarn, but the 2 socks on 2 circs method isn't doing it for me, so they're languishing, untouched.
And I keep thinking about other socks.
Here's the sock stash.

Rabbit included for scale.
Here's a more detailed shot.

All those pretty colours, pretty yarns, they're whispering to me. I'm hearing voices. They say "Knit me." And still I keep being tempted to buy more.
I'm trying to be strong, because I know that if I cast on another pair, DH's socks will never get done.
Oh, the temptation!!
And I have a toothache. I'm off to the dentist in the morning, but I'm a baby and I'm scared. And I'm tired, because I've not been sleeping, due to the toothache.
Maybe I should buy some sock yarn to make myself feel better ;)

Randomness, mail, yarn, links. It's all to cover up the fact that I have no knitting to show!

Jill has moved her blog! She's gone and gotten her own domain here, and if you go visit her, you can enter her competition to win some yummy yarn. Off you go, I'll wait.

I bought some new pyjamas. I know, too much info ;) Now, I need new pj's about as much as I need new yarn, but I couldn't resist.

Polar bear pj's. I had to have 'em.
The mail brought goodies today. Best mail day I've had in a long time!
NadaJ and I had a little swap. I sent her some Cleckheaton yarn, and a few other little things that are only available locally, and she sent me sock yarn and stitch markers that aren't available here in Australia.

Socks that Rock in Sedona, and Mountain Colors Bearfoot in Mountain Tango. Yum! Mountain Colors is my favourite ever sock yarn, although I've only used it once, but the StR feels mighty purty ;)

I went a-shopping on the web. Danielle has opened an Etsy store here. I'm a sucker for sparklies, so I bought myself some new earrings in blue and black, and Danielle especially made me a pink pair, but shh! They're for Em's birthday later this month.

Aren't they pretty? I changed into a blue top when I got home from the Post Office so I could wear the blue earrings!
Carol has been on holiday, and she sent me a little souvenir.

A cute little notepad in the shape of a sheep!
Sparkly earrings, polar bear pyjamas, sock yarn and a cute notepad.
My life is complete ;)

Em had a dance comp all weekend. Wouldn't you think that 10 hours sitting in a school hall would give you good knittng time?
It doesn't.
You get all these long breaks with nothing to do, but there's people every where, and kids running around, and Emily needs help changing, and you're bored out of your brain, but you still don't get much knitting done.
I knew I wouldn't be able to concentrate on lace knitting, so instead of taking the Trellis Scarf, I started a new project. (Any excuse is a good one, right?)

It's a Cleckheaton Australia pattern, available in this pattern leaflet. I'm using Bendigo Wool Mill's 5ply Colonial in "Rosebud".
Now that I've started it, I'm wondering what I was thinking. A whole cardigan in 5ply (Sportweight)?
We'll see how long it takes! This is how much I got done yesterday.

30 Rows. Doesn't look like it, does it?
I have done some more on the Trellis Scarf.

I'm really enjoying this. It's a 16 row repeat, and apart from the 7 into 5 clusters, it's relatively painless. I'm finding the lace easy to read, and the pattern isn't overly difficult. Here's a closeup of the pattern, stretched out.

I'm loving the Cherry Tree Hill Possum Lace yarn, too.
Despite the fact that summer is apparently over, the heat is holding on here. It's currently 36C (97F), so I'm not knitting today!

The Zhivago lace cardi is finished. Here's a bad pic of it.

I'll try to get a better one. Once again, DH and I were arguing during the photo process. I'm always saying "Oh, just take the damn picture!" and that's usually right when he takes it. I think it fits better than it looks in the pic - and I think I might want to get a better pin to use as a closure - the pencil doesn't quite cut it!
The pattern called for 10 balls of Zhivago, but I only used 8. That's extremely rare for me, I usually use more than the pattern calls for.

What's next? Jill sent me some magazines, including the newest Interweave Knits. I love the Evelyn Clark scarf, "Trellis Scarf", so I whipped out the Cherry Tree Hill Possum Lace that I've been playing with, and I think this is exactly what the yarn wants to be.

The pattern isn't too bad, although the "Seven into Five" clusters can be fiddly. I find knitting lace so soothing. I love the counting, I love seeing the lace pattern emerge. I love the blocking at the end, and watching the heap of yarn become a beautiful lace item.

This is Twink letting us know she's ready for bed. If we haven't put her to bed when she's ready, she flops down right in front of the television, just to remind us that she's waiting. I love the two little paws just barely sticking out :)

Posted by Donna at 10:19 AM | Comments (15)

Thank you everyone for your comments and emails. If anyone received a thousand or so identical emails from me, I sincerely apologise - gmail has been a pain in the butt all day, and says some emails weren't sent at all, but apparently they were sent several times!

So, I slaved all weekend, and the tutu is finished. Then I found out today that she doesn't need it until the 19th. At least it's done. I'm not going to show you pictures, I'm going to make you all wait until the 19th, and you can see her all done up in it properly! :)
In sad news, Fuzzy, the budgie who thought he was human, is no more. We noticed last night that he had a very large swelling, and thought we were mistaken about his sexual identty, and that he (or she) was eggbound.
So we raced him off to the vet first thing this morning, who thought the same as us, but was mystified that for five years we'd thought Fuzzy was a he.
After many tests failed to expel the "egg", Fuzzy passed away. The vet did a little exploratory surgery, and the "egg" was in fact a large, fast growing tumour, and there was nothing we could have done to change things. (And we weren't mistaken, Fuzzy was a he).
He was only a budgie, but we'd had him for five years, and the house is suddenly far too quiet :(

Edging.

Tutu.

We found out this morning that Em doesn't need the tutu at the end of the month.
She needs it on the 12th or the 19th. Like, 9 or 16 days.
Everybody cross your fingers for the 19th, please!

The bits for the Zhivago cardi are blocking.

And I've started the edging.

The main body of the cardi is worked on 4mm needles, and the lace edging calls for 7mm needles. I tried the 7mm, but the work was just too loose for my liking. I've gone down to a 6mm, and it seems a little better, but it's going to feel like it's going on forever. I quite like knitting with the Zhivago, although I'm coming across a lot of these little tangles.

This one was easy to undo, but some of them are true knots. I have to tease out the loop, and thread the ball through it. Weird.