The first heatwave of the summer is here early. We have had about a week of 30+ degree days. And that is proper degrees Celsius, not those namby pamby Farenheight degrees. Everyone here is a bit edgy and shouty and whiny. I saw a little video clip of my daughter wearing a cardigan while riding her bike and I nearly got heatstroke just watching it. It could be much worse, in Adelaide there are fires and fires and more fires and 40+ degree days for a week to come.

It's going to be a long long summer.

The Wedding Shawl is growing. I am loving it more with every row.

I am supposed to be doing all sorts of things, and this shawl really doesn't need to be done until the wedding in March, but it is so fun to do.

Hi Blogosphere,

I forgot to blog yesterday. Oops. I really can't see this blogging-every-day thing happening, but I will do my best Darlings.

The Wedding Shawl is hooking along nicely. I found a mistake at the start of a row, only finding it after finishing that row and nearly finishing the row above it, briefly considered leaving it there, but this shawl is too special to have any mistakes in, so undid the two rows, and repeated them, only to find another, earlier mistake. So out the two rows came again, and I am now nearly back to where I started.

Let me say right here that knitting has its own rhythm and is glorious in many ways. But I am having such a nice time weaving the yarn around that hook and dipping into and around the stitches. It is a lovely project to be doing and I am glad to be doing it.

White projects are hard to keep clean. Just saying.

I am very proud to be making a gorgeous shawl for my sister to wear on the evening if her wedding. Not the Night if her wedding, you understand, what she wears then is her business entirely.

I started it with some delicious Jo Sharp Desert Garden Aran Cotton in white, sent by my sister, and a 5.5mm bamboo hook. The first row or two felt really blanketty, and I was worried that it wouldn't drape in a slinky way over the lovely slinky wedding dress.

Luckily I had a full packet of bamboo yarn in my stash, and have started in that using a 4mm bamboo hook, but I might get a metal one as the babmoo hook is grippy and it is driving me mad. So far it is going well, but somehow, despite counting very well I seem to be using one too many chains per shell. I am doing another experiment, will let you know how it turns out.

Pattern- Sweet Pea Shawl (The Happy Hooker, Debbie Stoller)

Hook - 4mm bamboo

Yarn - Cleckheaton 100% bamboo, colour 7 white, lot 71903, 50g, 125m.

It will look something like this


Except of course white, and with more shells per inch (skinnier yarn).

Wish me luck.

Apparently there is some kind of movement where bloggers are encouraged to blog every day in November. I missed the first third of the month, but can give it a shot for the rest of the month, right?

Help this slack arse blogger to keep motivation up. Please?

Dear Halloween Grinch,

good for you! When my kids whine about trick or treating, I asked them what they wanted from it, and they said dressing up and lollies. So next year they can dress up and I will get them lollies. They asked why they can't go bother the neighbours, I told them that it isn't something we do in our country, and we are very grateful that we don't live in the US with all the bullshit that goes with it.

Boo his cultural imperialism and mass consumption and fat kids.

If they really want something in thier little lolly bucket, I will give them a lamb chop. Oz as. You know it makes sense ;)

I have been knitting socks. My sister is awesome at knitting socks, and I thought that I would give them a bash.

I am nearly finished knitting a pair of socks for my husband. I have heard of the boyfriend sweater phenomenon, but I am pretty sure I am safe with socks.



This is a progress pic from ages ago, but it will have to do for now.

Yarn - Kaffe Fasset Regia sock yarn
Pattern - Kaffe Fasset Regia sock pattern that came free with the yarn. This is a cuff down pattern, with short row heels. There are some strange instructions for wrapping for the short rows, but it could just be that I am a n00b and do not yet have mad wrapping short row skillz. Apart from that, the pattern is nothing fancy, good old plain knitting around and around and around on double pointed needles.
Needles - Knit Picks Dpns, Harmony (if they are the pretty wooden ones), size 2.75 I think, using 5 at a time.

Especially thanks to my sister who helped me out with these socks, and not least for stocking me up with goodies like three sets of Knit Picks dpns, and storage tubes from Nancys Knit Nacs, and the most excellent dpn wip tubes from Nancy also. I would embed links to Nancy and her fine tube work but I don't know that it is possible while blogging from my iPhone :(

Progress - one sock all done but for the grafting and sewing up a strange hole that appeared at the start of the short heel row (strangely enough on BOTH socks, they are truly a pair). The other sock just needs the toe decreases done and grafting and sew up the hole.

If I could get them done for my wedding anniversary in a week that would be just perfect.

One thing that is very good about knitting plain ol' socks is that just about any household emergency can wait till the end of a 16 stitch needle. I want to try some prettier socks, I hope that pattern work won't confuse me too much if I am dipping into knitting (as my busy life permits). Also, I need to meet up with a continental knitter in real life to get a lesson on doing wrapping, k2tog, psso etc without having to go back to non-continental knitting mid row. Tis annoying...

Found an iPhone app that might help blah blah add photos in the post blah blah easier to use blah blah blah





Sheep baby blah blah






New overlocker hooray!

Mmmm babycino...

Testing mobile blogging

Since I seem to be doing so much on my iPhone and so little on the pc
lately, I have signed up for mobile blogging since my poor little blog
is all neglected. So this here is a test blog to see how I go.