I got something new!

I can't help myself. I'm a gadget whore, an accessories whore. And a yarn whore, but you all knew that.

I got a new knitting bag.

A Jordana Paige Bella bag, from Yarns Online. Do I like it? I love it.

I already have a Jordana Paige satchel, but as soon as I saw the Bella, I wanted it. I love my satchel, too, but I like this one even better. It's nice and soft and lightweight. And I find that sometimes the satchel is bigger than I'd like. Here's how the two compare size-wise.

Side by side.

The Bella in front of the satchel. They actually don't look too different in this picture, do they? This one shows the difference better.

It's definitely smaller than the satchel.

Smaller, but not small. As soon as it arrived I tossed Fifi in there.

As you can see, Fifi fits nicely, and there's some room to spare. I doubt that you'd get in a whole sweater, sleeves and all, but you might. But if I'm working on a sweater, I'm not usually carrying the whole thing around anyway. Generally I only carry the pieces I'm working on.

Here's how it looks without Fifi in it.

The centre pocket/divider is soft, and gives easily when you stuff your project in.

A better picture of the divider. You can also see the little zip pocket and credit card slots. On the other side, little gadget pockets.

(Apologies for the bad flash pics, I forgot to take pictures of this bit in daylight.)

Cute, but not altogether useful for me. The scissors and needles are about the only things I'd carry in there. I guess you could add a crochet hook and DPNS. Just a note, if you use straights, you couldn't store those in there. The bag isn't tall enough.

As you can see. Doesn't worry me, I rarely use straights.

Overall, I give it a 10 out of 10.

Fifi? This close to done. Here's a sneak peek.

Update on Em's leg, as requested. It's doing better, but she's still on restricted dance moves. She's got a comp this weekend, but there's no way she'll be able to do all her dances. If she's doing better, maybe she'll do some. She of course, keeps insisting she's fine, and would dance anyway, no matter how many times she's told she'll only make it worse!

Lets finish on a high note.

Always makes me smile! (Well, except when she's playing destructo bunny!).

Angora Supreme!

The Angora Supreme sweater is done, blocked and being worn right this minute!

I like it, but I don't love it.
The main problem is that I really need to stop being so lazy, and wash my swatches. It grew when I blocked it. Both in length and width. Before blocking, it was much more fitted, which s what I was going for. However, I am glad of the extra length in the sleeves, because they were a tiny bit short. The body is a little too long for my liking now.
But I do like it, and I will wear it, which is an improvement over many of my previous knits!

Specs -
Yarn: Cleckheaton Angora Supreme, seven and a half balls.
Needles: 4mm Knit Picks Options. (Recommended needle is 4.5mm, going down a size is pretty standard for me)
Pattern: Good old Sweater Wizard, customised to make what I wanted.

Overall 7.5 out of 10.
The yarn is sadly discontinued. I wish I had stashed more of it away. It's lovely and lightweight to wear, but still feels warm. It has a nice halo, too.

The halo was hard to photograph! It also has the added benefit of excess bunny hair not mattering! Usually I'm constantly picking bunny hair off my clothes.

Saturday sky!

All week it's been unable to decide whether we should have sun or not, and today was no different. It was nice and sunny one minute, cold and grey the next.

Fifi is powering along.

I would have her finished tonight, but we're off to my nephew/godson's 18th Birthday party. Where we shall zealously keep Em under guard from the 18 year old boys!!

All Fifi, all the time.

Nothing going on here, but Fifi.

If only all my projects moved along this quickly! However, it's starting to hurt my hands a little, so I may have to put it down.
I don't usually get a lot of hand pain when I'm knitting, but this is hurting. I'm assuming that's because of the amount of time I'm spending on Fifi, not because of the yarn. The Calmer is really elastic, and any hand pain I've had before has come about with inelastic yarns like 100% cotton.

Some one else who lives here has started a new project.

Looks like some one was planning a big escape. The hole has now been covered. Of course, Twinkie put on her most innocent looking facade, and denied all knowledge of the alleged hole.

Lucky Em spotted the hole before it got quite big enough for Twink to squeeze through.
Em's leg is doing much better, it must have been all those healing vibes. She's supposed to dance at a comp on Sunday, so we'll see how that goes. She coerced me into letting her go to dance class to sit and watch last night. She kept trying to sneak in a step or two, but the teacher made her sit back down again. At least she listens t someone, even if it's not me!!

The Angora Supreme sweater is finished and dry! I tried it on this afternoon, and it has grown a little with blocking, but I'm still pleased with it - photos on the weekend.

I love Fifi!

Really, I love Fifi. Love it.

It's addictive, I can't put it down.

All of my other projects have been totally ignored in favour of Fifi. I haven't knit a single stitch on any of them. All I want to do is work on Fifi.
Never mind that the weather is still cold and crappy, and totally not sunny or summery or suitable to the garment.

Speaking of crappy weather, the Angora Supreme is almost dry. I haven't tried it on yet, it's too cold to struggle into a damp sweater.

I got a great parcel from my friend Jill this morning. In amongst the knitting magazines she keeps me up to date with, and lots of other little goodies, there were these fantastic Polar Bears bits and pieces from San Diego Zoo.

I am so going to San Diego Zoo while we're in California!!

A little more detail on the dating drama. Em's just testing the boundaries, I think. The boy in question is 16, but he may not even be aware that Em has a crush on him, because she's too scared and giggly to even ask for his phone number, let alone actually carry on a conversation with him. That just confirms for me that she's not mature enough to be dating!

Speaking of Em, poor kid has damaged a ligament in her knee, and is moping around feeling miserable. She had to sit out dancing last night and is suffering through icings and rest. Healing vibes would be welcomed!!

Saturday sky this morning.

Saturday sky this afternoon.

Well, it was nice while it lasted!

Guess what?

Know what that is?

It's Fifi!

And you all know what that means, don't you?

The Angora Supreme sweater is finally finished!! I tried it on before I tossed it into the bath, and I'm extremely happy with it. It's blocking right now, but due to the cloudage I showed before, it's taking it's own sweet time to dry.

Lets do some Twinkie pics, it's been a while. When she's happy and content, and she's getting some nose rubs, she pulls her paws in and gets all comfy and balled up.

She's like a big fat ball of cotton wool, all warm and fluffy and squishy.

Today I decided to mop the floor, so I cleared the room of furniture.

Twinkie, of course, took this as a sign that she should try to refill the room.

On a totally unrelated note, am I being totally unreasonable when I won't let my 14 year old date? (Not that she's been asked on a date, it's a hypothetical question!)

Don't tempt fate!

I got a parcel in the mail from a very good friend today.

Calmer, in "Chiffon" for Fifi.

I was excited! I fired off a thank you email immediately and in it I said "I'm on the neckband of the Angora Supreme jumper, so hopefully I'll finish that tonight, and can start Fifi!! (I just jinxed myself, I'll bet) "

Here's the Angora Supreme yesterday.

Lookin' good! I nearly wrenched my arm out of the socket patting myself on the back. So I finished the raglan shaping last night, and today I started the neckband.

Then, this afternoon I decided to try it on again and see if the ribbing was deep enough, and if I could cast off yet.

F#$*&^!!!!!

The raglan seams are too damn long. It's all because I said I was going to finish it tonight and start Fifi. I knew I should have shut my mouth. I brought down the wrath of the Knitting Gods.

Here's how it looks right now.

Stupid sweater.

Sunday sky, amongst other stuff

Sunday sky, because I was out yesterday and didn't have my camera. (Again!)

The weather was positively glorious this weekend. It's like Spring has already sprung. The sun is warm, the breeze is slight, it's been perfect.

Let's hope it lasts.

The Twisted Flower sock has progressed nicely.

The picture is deceptive, but I wanted you all to see my blue toenails, courtesy of Tammy. She sent me a fantastic package this week, full of goodies, including the nail polish.

Anyway, the sock actually looks like this now.

And from the back

I love this sock! I have rather wide ankles, (actually, I hardly have ankles, my legs turn straight into my feet with no shaping) and broad feet, but I like my socks to be tight in the feet. I also usually go down a needle size from the recommended size, because my gauge is usually loose. So I did the leg on 2.5mm needles instead of 2.75mm as for the size Large, and I did the foot on 2.25mm needles, and worked the instructions for the size Small.

If I knit them again, I'll go down another needle size. They fit well, but I'd like them to be just a little bit tighter. I thought about going down a needle size for the next sock, but it would drive me crazy to have two different socks, so I'll do the second one the same as the first.

And the Angora Supreme sweater has seen some action. I knit some, I frogged some, I knit some again.

I started the raglan decreases, but I didn't like them.

I wasn't happy with the wide "seam" I was getting, so I ripped back all the raglan shaping and restarted it. I tried to convince myself that I could live with it, but I knew I couldn't.

I much prefer it now!

Mind you, if this weather keeps up, I won't get to wear the sweater until New York!

Sweater growth

The Angora Supreme sweater has been quietly growing in the background.

The sleeves are done, and have been joined to the body at last.

Now it feels like I'm heading towards finished!
I debated putting another mini cable in between the raglan decreases, but in the end I decided against it. Now it's all been joined together, I'm doing the raglan decreases and neck shaping, so the rows are shrinking at a nice rate.

Am I the only one who loses track when a pattern says "Decrease at neck edge every x row, at the same time, decrease at raglan every y row"? I'm far too easily distracted to keep track of every 2nd or fourth row, and keep track of every sixth row or whatever at the same time.
I've been reduced to this.

I have to manually list the rows, and what decreases happen on each row, just to keep track.

Yes, I'm that easily distracted.

Roxie

So I'm coming to that time of year when the knitting is supposed to take a backseat so that I can spend inordinate amounts of time hunched over the sewing machine, churning out sparkly dance costumes for little girls.

I shouldn't complain too much, it does a nice job of supporting my yarn habit. Before I start the costumes though, I had to do something about poor naked Roxie.

May I present Em's new sidekick?

I can't wait to see what the teacher comes up with next.
Actually, yes I can.

Not all knitting, all the time!

So the past few days have been consumed with researching and booking various aspects of our trip, so knitting time has been a little neglected.
But of course I managed to squeeze in a little.

Taking photos of your own heel is not an easy task. But isn't it a pretty heel?
This is the first time I've done a heel that isn't plain, slipped or eye of partridge. I'm not sure how it will wear, but I love the way it looks.
Twinkie of course, demands equal air time.

Saturday sky.

A perfect blue. Unfortunately it's still a bit cool, but it looks gorgeous, doesn't it?

I had a visitor, but every time I tried to take a picture, he turned away.

Only a magpie, but I'm easily amused.

Guess what?

We've just booked airfares to the USA.
We'll arrive in New York on December 21. We'll be in Washington on December 29. We'll be in Las Vegas on December 30. We'll then go to Los Angeles on January 1. Then Honolulu on January 9, before we come home on January 18.

The amount of money I just spent makes me feel a little sick. In a good way.