Procrastinating, procrastinating.
I should be sewing. I should be doing housework. That's a familiar song, isn't it?
Spring Blossoms has me under her spell. I can't put her down.

I'm off the DPNS and onto a 40cm (16") circular. I don't know which one I dislike more.
I love DPNS for socks, but I hate them for fine lace work with fine yarn. And I feel like I'm choking on a 40cm circ. But I shall persevere until it big enough for an 80cm circ, because I don't have a 60cm.
Lace makes boring blogging for pictures doesn't it? For the next few weeks you can expect to see pictures of a purple blob.
Bear with me, it'll be worth it, I promise.

So what's next?
Lace, of course!!

It's the yarn and pattern my lace pal Chloe sent me. Well, one of them. It took some deciding to figure out what to start. I went with this, because I'm thinking I might use the Graceful yarn she sent to knit the spiral shawl from "A Gathering of Lace". The yarn seems to have long variegations in it, and I think a spiral shawl will show off the variegation the best.

So this is the Fiber Trends "Spring Blossoms" shawl. The pattern calls for Zephyr on 3.5mm needles. I'm finding this yarn is lighter than Zephyr, and on 3.5mm needles, it was knitting up to airily to show the pattern well.
So I've dropped down to 2.75mm needles.
I cast on on Friday night, and for the first 24 hours I was uncertain if I was feeling the love. There may be a few problems with it.
When knit with Zephyr on 3.5mm needles, the finished size is 44" square.
Obviously, mine will be smaller, as I'm using finer yarn and smaller needles. But I'll also use less yarn, so hopefully I'll get in an extra repeat or two.
I detest circular beginnings. Every time I do one, I feel like I'm all thumbs for the first few rows.
Now I've done a full repeat, I'm liking it a whole lot better!

And I got mail. Carol organised a Knit Picks order months ago, so I got some dye your own fingering weight and some Shadow in Grape Jelly. I'd actually forgotten all about it when she let me know it had arrived.

I think I'm having a purple fetish lately!

Saturday Sky.

So, are you guys sick of random blue squares of sky yet?
Somehow, we seem to have skipped Spring this year and jumped straight from late winter to Summer. 30C (86f) today!

Thank you for all the good wishes for my mum, I'll keep you all posted.

I finished something! Hooray, at last!

My dishcloth. I'm still having a hard time believing that people go to all the trouble to knit these pretty squares and then use them on their drty dishes.
I finished another dishcloth too, and got my parcel off for the Dishcloth Shuffle. It's winging it's way to the other side of the world as I type.
Am I the only person who has a hard time knitting for another knitter? Suddenly I have the hardest time deciding. On the yarm. the stitch pattern, everything.
I even blocked the silly dishcloth for the swap.
And speaking of swaps, I got an email this morning that the final parcel for my half of the Lace Swap arrived. How cool is that? Every single swapper played nice. Way to go, ladies!
And thank you to Ailsa, there is no way I could have run the swap alone and not gone completely insane.

The sewing? Well, I have been going to extraordinary lengths to avoid it. Procrastination is my secret middle name, I tell you.
I even baked muffins to avoid sewing. In the kitchen! With the oven!

Okay, it was a packet mix, but even that is adventurous for me. Honey and banana muffins. Lord, I miss bananas.

Let's play spot-the-bunny.

This is where she has spent the past few days. It's been pretty hot all week, so she's been laying in the hard packed dirt in the shade, where it's cool.

Oh, did I mention I'd finished something else?

Aren't I mean, making you read through all that other crap before mentioning Cece?
She's done! All done! Well, apart from the blocking. I'm much happier with the size now. I used this much less than 3 skeins of the Cascade Sierra.

Cutting it close. And this of course, means I started something new. Stay tuned!

I've been crazy busy again. I've done no sewing all week, so I was a little in front last week, but now I'm behind again!
Monday I had canteen duty at school. Enough said, moving right along. Terrible headache Monday afternoon and evening, and still off colour yesterday.
Yesterday, I took my mum to the doctor to get her test results for diabetes. She doesn't have diabetes. That's good! As an afterthought, she mentioned to the doctor that she had a little lesion on her shoulder that has been bothering her.
It's skin cancer. That's bad.
It has to come off within the next two weeks.
Hopefully it's been caught in time.
Today I went shopping. That's good! And bad. (For the bank account, anyway.) I have a love/hate relationship with clothes shopping, but I got a few things.
A few months back I bought myself a new necklace that would go beautifully with a top I bought today, and I have spent the past hour ripping the house apart looking for it. I have no idea what I've done with it.

And I've been knitting some.
Cece is growing.

I'm getting a little bit tired of it now, and I'm at that "I've had enough, what can I start now?" stage, but I'm trying to battle through. The size looks more realistic now, but it's not quite at the stage where I can try her on again.
To beat the itchy fingers, I started a washcloth.

A washcloth is good for a change, and it knits up quick. I still haven't used one though!

To be honest, I want to do lace. I keep going through all my lace patterns and patting my lace stash. Soon, my pretties!

And now my keyboard keeps stopping. I think new batteries are in order.

Just another perfect day in paradise.

Or Saturday Sky in Sydney, take your pick.

Lost Season 2 is wonderful for knitting progress. Cece is growing fast, I'm almost back up to the front shaping.

Of course, the kitchen needs mopping, the bathroom needs cleaning, and the carpet is way overdue for a vacuum, but you need to get your priorities right, don't you?? I've got two weeks of knitting to catch up on.
While Cece is kind of lacy, I'm finding the pattern is easy enough to follow while I'm watching TV. It's an 8 row, 9 stitch repeat, and at this stage, the only shaping is once every 10 rows at the sides. Of course that helps. If I had started a shawl instead, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have got this much done.

I did start something new, though.

Socks! It's been a while, hasn't it? I think my sock stash gets in the way of actually knitting socks. I open the box, look in and I'm immediately wracked by indecision. Which yarn? Which socks?
Who would ever have thought that there was such a thing as too much sock yarn?
But I finally made a decision. I needed something small, easy and portable for fill-in knitting. In the car, waiting for Em. To work on while Em has a singing lesson. Waiting at the doctors or whatever.
So I got out this gorgeous Fleece Artist sock yarn that a lovely lady named Alexis from Canada sent me in a swap ages ago. I have no idea what the colourway is called, but there is a "736" handwritten on the label. I love the colours. There's pink, purple, and various shades of green.
I'm just doing a plain sock, with a "Little Shell Insertion" on each side that I got from the "365 Knitting Stitches a Year" calendar.
Easy to remember, but enough to keep me amused.

The sewing is ongoing, but the end is in sight. Last night I was getting some more done, and David took a picture of Twinkie's preferred position to keep me company while I'm sewing.

Well, in the interest of full disclosure, this is my preferred position for her. She prefers to sit on my feet, which makes treadling kinda hard.

You all probably don't know yourselves with all the posting going on around here lately.
To balance out the crappiness of discovering that Cece needed to be ripped, I had a most excellent day today.
First thing, I headed out for errands, and there was a parcel for me from the USA. More on that later. Gloria Jeans has just opened at the local shopping centre, so I started the day with a Caramelatte and warm Banana Bread. Best way to start the day. Probably not so good for my hips, but you deserve to splash out every now and then, don't you?

I got home, hung the laundry with Twinkie sitting on my feet (no easy task) and did a bit of sewing, then headed out for some grocery shopping. I wore my Zhivago lacy cardi for the first time ever. (It's been too cold up until now). I was at the bakery, and the lady asked me if my cardi was hand knitted. I answered "Yes", and she asked "Did you knit it yourself? It's beautiful!" (Nora, are you paying attention??)

I was feeling pretty good about then, so I came home and did a little knitting on Cece.

I'm just going to pretend all the knitting in the last couple of weeks never happened, and this is the first time I've cast on. Leave me with my delusions. Please. At least I know I'm smaller than I thought I was.
First though, I knit a dishcloth. Just to make myself feel good. It knit up quick and it doesn't matter whether it fits or not.

The colour in this picture couldn't be more wrong. The cloth is actually this colour.

Then, this afternoon, it was out with the old,

And in with the new.

How new?

It's going to take some getting used to, but I love it. On the way home, there was a gorgeous sunset.

As I said, an excellent day.
Oh, and the package?

Know what I'm doing tonight?

So I got Cece up to a point where can try her on. And I'm not happy.

I've spent the night trying to convince myself that it's fine, but looking at the photos, I can't deny it anymore.
It's too big.
I need to rip it out and start again.
I'll be in the corner, blubbering.

It's Monday, it's still grey, cold and raining, but I've had the most wonderful start to the week!
The good thing about rain?

Rainbows! I was out yesterday, and on the way home, I spotted this rainbow. As soon as got off the Freeway, I took a picture. But the closer I got to home, the brighter it got, and I had to keep pulling over to take more pictures.

The last one was taken from my back door, maybe 5 minutes after the first one.
I love rainbows!

And it just got better after that.
This morning, there was a package for me. My lace swap arrived!
Look at the pretty package.

I got really excited, but I waited long enough to take pictures.

And inside?

All gorgeous! My swap pal was the fantastic Chloe! This parcel was perfect. Two lots of yarn, one is laceweight wool in my favourite dark purple. It is unbelievably soft. The oyher is also heavenly soft wool, and is Graceful by Yarn Place. It is very subtly variegated in shades of purple.

Doesn't it look pretty in the ball? I love it!
I also received to patterns, "Field of Flowers" and "Spring Blossoms" from Fiber Trends, Crystal Palace Double Points, and the cutest little box of chocolates.
Thanks Chloe, it's all fantastic!
And then the car yard called. I can pick up my new car on Thursday.
This is like having a birthday all over again.

Saturday sky.

Grey and gloomy. Wet and cold. Spring peeked it's head around the corner last week, then decided it wasn't quite ready, and let Winter carry on. Bastard.
However, it's good weather to sit inside and knit.
Cece is growing.

I'm up to the sleeves now, having got the body up to the armholes. Then you knit the sleeves, join the whole lot up and knit it in one piece to the top. Minimal finishing, love it!

So what happens on a quiet, wet weekend?
Twinkie plays garden statue.

She sits really, really still, and thinks you can't see her.
Em went to a slumber party last night. Why are these things called slumber parties? No-one ever gets any sleep. Well, until they get home at any rate. So Em is spending the day like this,

And so we took the chance to go to the movies while we were Em-less for the evening.
Don't go see "Lady In The Water". It's atrociously bad. I have never walked out on a movie part way through. (Well, except for Arachnophobia, but that's a totally different kettle of fish), but I seriously considered walking out on this one. The only thing that kept me there was the idea that it surely had to ge better.
It didn't.
So now I'm going to plant my butt on my sofa and knit. Enjoy your weekend!

Ene is done, and blocked.

I'm really pleased with it, and I think this is the nicest variegated lace weight I've used.

Specs
Pattern: Ene's Scarf from Shawl Style.
Yarn: "Fibreworks" Possum/Merino Laceweight
Needles: 3.5mm Inox grey.

Cece is goming along nicely. Well, she was, then I somehow added in an errant yarn over. And cotton is not forgiving.

Sorry for the bad pic, black knitting doesn't photograph well at night.
I tried to just drop the extra stitch down, but because the yarn isn't very elastic, it wouldn't go back into shape. So I frogged back eight rows, and put her aside, and there she sits, in time out.

I thought I'd take a video of one of Twinkie's little rituals.
Every time I sweep the floor, she chases the broom. Then, once I've made a nice little pile, she sits on it until I brush her.

With the hand broom. I'm not allowed to sweep up the little pile until she has her brush.
Mind you, she won't let me brush her at all with the slicker brush!

I've been seriously neglecting the blog, haven't I? I'm sorry, really, but I'm having difficulty with having only 24 hours in each day!

It's Saturday, so let's start with sky.

I love those little wispy clouds. Spring has sprung, right on time. 25C yesterday, and 27C today, so I heard. I love Spring!
What else do I love?
Zephyr.
And lookee what I got my hands on this week.

Ailsa and I split a nice big Zephyr order. I'm in lace heaven. Thats a half pound each of Ladyslipper, Plum and Blueberry, and a pound of White.
Roughly 15,000 yards of laceweight. I'd better start knitting.

Well, I would, but I started Cece instead.

It's a great knit. The lace pattern is an 8 row repeat, and isn't too hard to follow. Im using Cascade Sierra in black, from Yarns Online. It's a nice yarn, 80% cotton, but with 20% merino wool, which lessens the crunchiness of the cotton, and gives it a little bounciness.
I got stitch gauge on the recommended needles, but the row gauge is off, and may need some recalculation. However, I will do my best to knit blindly and follow the pattern, rather than resort to the dreaded maths!

Twinkie has lived with my yarn for nearly 3 years now, and has never shown any interest in it whatsoever. Until now.
I went out yesterday morning, and made her come inside the house before left. She didn't want to come inside, she was quite happy, playing in the yard in the Spring sunshine.
So she got me back.

She dragged the plastic bag with the Sierra in it out of the knitting basket, ripped it open and did her best to kill a skein. Fortunately, it's fine, it just has a little added bunny hair now.
Must start hiding the yarn from the bunny when she's cranky.

And in other b-i-g news, we signed the papers on this today.

Our long overdue new car. A 5 speed manual Holden Viva in Impact Blue.