Poppy, all done!

So finally, I'm going to show you Poppy, all finished up. She's been finished for a week or so now, but I'm a slack blogger of late.
It doesn't help that our internet is throttled again, and blogging is just painful! I crashed Ailsa's house late Saturday night in an attempt to use her internet, then yesterday we landed at the local McDonalds, where the free wifi didn't work, so we finally ended up at the library, just so I could finish my TAFE homework.
Onwards!

Poppy is done, and is deemed a great success by Emily.

She immediately grabbed her up, and took her outside for a photo shoot.

Specs:
Pattern: Poppy by Ysolda Teague, from Whimsical Little Knits
Yarn: The body was done in a neutral shade of Cleckheaton Country 8ply. The dress and hair were done in a new yarn, Heirloom Color Works 8ply.
Needles: 2.75mm.
Mods: None.

Knit precisely to the pattern. It was a great knit, but if I was knitting it for a very small child, I'd find a different method for the hair. It's only stitched on with a backstitch, and it would be pulled out very easily!

I really, really like the Color Works yarn, it's lovely and soft, I think it would be great for kid's garments, and the label says it's machine washable, too! I got it at CR&K Daisy Designs at Fairy Meadow, and they had a great range of colours in stock.

I've yet to meet a Ysolda toy pattern I didn't like! She's got a new one out, a very sweet hedgehog.

It's been a while since I knit a sock, although I was ahead in my 12-pairs-a-year plan. But it has been a few weeks since I had a sock on the needles, so I cast on a new sock this weekend.

I've gone back to the entrelac socks, but this time I'm using the Noro Kureyon sock yarn and I'm much happier with the result.
And there may have been a certain Fair Isle knit that jumped on to the needles when no-one was looking!

Craft Show

Thanks to David Reidy over at the Sticks and String podcast, I scored a pair of complimentary tickets to the Stitches and Craft show. Ailsa and I went along on Friday, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

I am very proud to say that I didn't purchase any yarn. None, not an iota.

The same cannot be said for fabric.

There are many, many knitting pouches in my future. Watch this space!

Venezia

Now that Poppy is more or less finished (close enough!) it's time to start something new. Something that has been waiting, calling to me.

I've swatched for my Venezia, by Eunny Jang from Interweave Knits , Winter 2006. The swatch isn't photographing very well - the pink in the patterning looks much better in person!

I'm completely changing the colour palette, and as this is the first time I've tried to pick my own colours for a Fair Isle project, I'm hoping it'll work out well.

But just to make my knitting life difficult, this arrived today.

The temptation may drive me insane!

Poppy!

The mystery knitting in the last post?

It's Poppy!

Another of Ysolda's clever little toys, she's occupied a great deal of my knitting time this week. She's sadly undressed as yet, so Em is protecting her modesty.

I've had another background project going, which has put me in violation of my 3 project rule. But in the July school holidays I had some medical appointments and a bunch of things that required san easy-to-pick-up-and-put-down project, and at the time I didn't have one on the needles.
So I started a Swirl Scarf. In the interests of full disclosure, LynS had some Shibui Silk Cloud at Knit Camp, back in April, and I fell in deep yarn lust immediately. I'd tried to fight it, but eventually I gave in and ordered just one skein from The Loopy Ewe, which is all you need for the scarf.

The problem is that it isn't quite the quick knit I was expecting! I now have a ridiculous number of stitches on the needles, and each row is taking forever. The upside is that I only have 3 more rows to go, and I'll have a scrummy soft pink cloud of Fairy Floss to wear around my neck.

And another project I haven't mentioned in a while is the Sock Yarn Blankie.

It's seen some knit action, but there's more to come, boosted by this little piece of yumminess that arrived this week.

It's a sock yarn sampler from Ailsa at Knitabulous!
10 balls of sock yarn, each 10g, dyed in 5 yummy colours. And looking like a box of delicious little fat free cupcakes.

Nope, that stash ain't goin' nowhere.

Yarn comes in.. Not much comes out!

I have all good intentions. To do with lots of things, but lately, mostly to do with yarn.

I tell myself "I'll knit two projects before I can buy yarn for one" and "No more sock yarn!". Stuff like "If I knit a pair of socks a month, I'll be through the stash in around 5 years!" And that would be true. If I stopped buying yarn.

You know where this is going, don't you?

I got a new sock club shipment from Needlefood! (That makes five sock skeins in a week. How many is too many?)

This sock club has been fabulous! I haven't got a single complaint about it, wonderful value for money, packages mailed promptly, and always great contents!
This time around we got a skein of sock yarn in the colourway "Purple Coneflower", some fruit tea, chocolate, stitch markers and a gorgeous little pair of capped scissors with our initial bead on it. Each shipment has also had a handwritten note. I'll definitely be signing up again for the next round. (That sock stash isn't going anywhere!)

Sometimes I actually knit with the yarn, not just collect it, I swear! I finished my Firestarters, spurred on by the growing stash, I think.

I really love this pattern, I knit them last year in Dream In Color Smooshy, but gave them to Ailsa for her birthday. They were huge, and she said "I'll have them!" So she did.
These ones are all mine!

Specs:
Pattern: Firestarters by Yarnissima
Yarn: Wollmeise sock yarn in Granatapfal
Needles: My awesome 2.25mm Kollage Square DPNS
Mods: None! These came out huge in the Smooshy, but they're perfect in the Wollmeise. I think I'll treat Smooshy as a sportweight from now on, and see how I go.

I also finished both Sophie and Elijah, but keep forgetting to take pictures. I started something new.

Any guesses?

And I've been sewing. Costumes, but some fun stuff, too. I'm trying to use up my (non-insubstantial!) fabric stash, so I tried my hand at some box pouches.

I'm pretty pleased with these! I have plans, great plans. My house may end up taken over by box pouches. A new kind of stash!
They're a nice size, just right for a sock project. I just sort of guessed as I went, so it was all a lucky turn of events.

And there you see my next Personal Sock Club project poking out. Noro Kureyon Sock, destined to be the entrelac socks that I started and gave up on a little while back!

Hello!

Hello internet! We have a problem. We, here at Casa Del Random.

We need to do something about our Broadband account. Every month we use up all our bandwidth, and every month it happens earlier and earlier. We are in the process of doing something about it, but apparently none of the various telecommunications/broadband companies want our money.

But that's why I fell off the internet. I have not been eaten by TAFE, but that's another hardship I'm trying hard to endure.

You're all here for the knitting though, not for my whining, so where was I?

The cap shawl is progressing nicely. Have I mentioned how much I'm loving these gradual colour changes? Seriously, they're awesome.
I've now finished the boring bit in the middle, and there's a little bit of action happening where the "Print of the Wave" pattern is beginning. You can't really see it yet, but it's there!

The Firestarter socks are half done. I really, really enjoy knitting this pattern, and the Wollmeise is just perfect for it.

Because I was a little absorbed in my shawl and sock knitting, Sophie got to work on finishing Elijah's ear for me.

I'm hoping she'll pick up some colourwork next!

And I've been trying really hard to be good, but I got a tipoff last week that there was a rare Monday Wollmeise update.

Turkis, 2 x Hortensie, and Ballerina, all in 80/20 Superwash/Nylon. And it was a miracle that I stopped there. Although it appears that I'm currently going through a blue/purple phase.