tow Tahoe Shawl

It’s done!
What a saga this shawl became. I wanted to knit lace for ages and when I saw someone destashing this beauty I knew I had to buy it.

The yarn is from Lorna’s Laces. It’s called “Helen’s Lace” and the colourway is Tahoe. It is a sumptuous blend of 50% silk and 50% merino. I got the yarn back in April. I have never wound a yarn from a hank into a ball before! And I did not know how long it would take to wind over 1200 yards of laceweight yarn. ACA gave up on me not too long after I asked him to hold out the yarn. I tried putting it on a chair, I even tipped the chair over trying to get it to cooperate

That didn’t work! I found that I could drape it over one of my yarn bins flipped upside down and wind the yarn while I was standing up.

That did work! I wind my yarns this way now. Father in law did promise to make me a swift but this method works fine for now.
After I got the ball all wound up it was a matter of finding the right project for it. After two false starts I settled on the Queen Anne’s Lace Shawl. It was difficult getting started but once I got over the few rounds things started moving smoothly.

This was taken back in July.
After this I started knitting socks so the project stalled. I picked it up every once in a while knitted a few rounds and put it down. I had stitches come of the needles on three occasions (all three my fault) so there were quite a few dropped stitches. At the begining of this month I decided to finished the shawl! I did not do all the rounds the pattern dictated because I was getting tired of knitting it. Also I noticed the shawl was getting huge –unblocked. I can not believe how long it took me to cast off all those stitches, 512 to be exact. I don’t think I will be making another circular shawl anytime soon. It starts out nice and small and morphs into a monster halfway through!
Here’s the back of the shawl

And here’s the front

I took a photo of the shawl fresh of the needles. I am just amazed at what a difference blocking makes. From this

To this

Now what to cast on next?

tow more swaps, a picnic and egames expo

I had a busy weekend! On Saturday ACA, me and the bro in law went to the egames expo. I thought I would have some fun, but it turned out to be great fun! I had to stop ACA from spending our savings on various gaming equipment! They had a false fire alarm in the middle of the expo so we had to evacuate, good thing I had my knitting handy!

You can see in the photo the “Bizy Pattern” socks. I have finished the socks on Sunday.

I am very pleased with how they turned out. I love handspun yarn!
On Sunday there was a picnic organised through Ravelry. I took the train all by myself for the first time! There was a service distruption where we had to get off the train, go on busses, get of the busses and go back on the train, but I didn’t panic at all! I had such a good time at the picnic. It was so much fun meeting people that I only knew online.

I do like how I am the only one posing!

And here I am looking through the 101 Designer One Skein Wonders. I have purchased a copy of the book for myself. Do notice my awesome YARRRN shirt! ACA bought it for me at the egames expo. It’s hard to tell in the photo but there is a knitting needle and a crochet hook forming the symbol! You can see a better picture here
We were asked to bring a handmade toy (if we can) to the picnic so I made this little guy.

His name is Oswald the Oddball!
I also received a pressie at the picnic. A knitting machine tool came with my wool winder and I mailed that out to Gusseting and she went and handyed this beautiful patonyle yarn for me!

My long awaited parcel from the 100 gr challenge swap arrived on Tuesday! It was so worth the wait. Look at what I got,

To quote what I wrote on Ravelry
“The popup butterfly card is all sorts of awesome, it’s going straight on the fridge as soon as I figure out how to keep it open with magnets. Look at my project bag, blue butterflies –can you get any more perfect for me?! And the wrist strap goes in and locks so I can keep it on my wrist and knit while travelling! I already popped in the sock I am working in it. Yummy chocolates, I made sure they survived the photo shoot, now half of them are safe in my tummy. Who says you can’t have chocies for breakfast?! The stitch markers are so yummy. They look like jelly candies!!
And of course Pièce de résistance, the Anastasia Socks!

I can’t believe somebody made socks for me, insane!
That wasn’t the only package that arrived on Tuesday. I was once again RAOK’ed!!! A total random act of kindness arrived at my doorstep from an awesome raveler.

The book is called Contemporary Knitting by Jo Sharp. I haven’t looked through all of it yet but I love what I see. If I am ever going to cure my fear of cables I gotta do something I love! She sent me shiny butterfly buttons in a pretty turquoise box and butterfly stitch markers! A Harry Potter notepad which shall be housed next to my first edition book of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s stone. A chocolate that I never tried before, yay for new things! And six little cakes of different socks from different dyers. I am so tempted to sit and make gauge swatches all day with them. And, and and a whole skein of the softest yummiest handspun BFL yarn. It’s so nice to squish, it’ll be a while before I make something with it because I love squishing it!
– Again quoting myself from my ravelry post
I have finally cast off on the Tahoe shawl I was working on. I actually cut it short because I just did not want to work on it anymore! It’s blocking now I will take photos of it later.
Right now I am working on another butterfly wing shawl for myself using the yarn my friend dyed for me.

I am enjoying watching how the colours pool into each other as I crochet.
I also started on a new pair of socks as well, gotta take a photo of that later as well. It’s sleepy time!

tow general grumblings about the postal service

I am desperately waiting for my final swap package to arrive. The mod said it was mailed out last week Saturday. It’s not that I am worried my partner didn’t mail out the package. I am worried that the Australia post will lose the package. I was thinking if this was any other company or service people would not put up with the way the post office works. Think about it. You pay this company for a service. There is no guarantee that they will provide you with this service once you paid them and trusted them with your package. If they lose your package, though luck. If you need them to tell you how they screwed up you need to pay extra ahead of time so they can tell you what happened to your package. Even then there is no guarantee that they will find your package. Tell me if this is madness or not?! Maybe if it was just money I was losing I would suck it up and deal with it. But these are packages, important items, hand made things –irreplaceable if lost. Can you tell how irritated I am with the postal service?!
I don’t have pretty pictures of my swap to show, so here’s a photo of the sock I am working on.

I am using one of the handspun yarns I recently bought. It’s from “Bizy Hands” on etsy. The pattern is from my favourite sock book of all time, “New pathways for sock knitters.” You can’t really see the pattern all that clearly but I really dislike knitting plain socks –it gets too boring too quick.
I have finished the Soy Scarf I was working on.

It’s the same pattern I used for the “I wear high heels in winter scarf” My winter jacket is gray so I will be able to wear it in the winter. Hard to imagine winter right now with the air conditioner on, but it’ll come eventually.
I also got around to photographing a scarf I made ages ago. It was the first thing I’ve ever crocheted. It’s the One Skein Scarf. I recently frogged the scarf and re-crocheted it. It was just so poorly done that I would never wear it. I kept it for two years for sentimental reasons but then I thought better of it.

I went to Gisborne this past Sunday for the knitters meeting. My dear friend Mel once again had me over at her house then drove us to the meeting. It is all sorts of awesome to talk about knitting and crocheting with people other than my hubby. Poor guy he only listens to me because he loves me!
Mel had a surprise gift for me! Look,

She dyed this yarn for me! It is a very nice merino laceweight yarn from the knitter. Isn’t it lovely?

tow RAOK

“RAOK” stands for “Random Act of Kindness.” And I have been hit twice by the RAOK faery! In Ravelry I am part of the Australian RAOK group where I posted what I would love to have sent to me. All the members do the same. The group gives you a chance to commit a random act of kindness by sending a person or persons little gifts. We also decided to do a RAOK swap where we each got assigned a partner to send things to. I haven’t mailed out a random RAOK yet but I have prepared my swap package for my partner.
Yesterday the postie brought me a package. I thought it was my RAOK swap package but turns out it was sent by a kind soul my way!This is what I got,

The infamous Baby Surprise Jacket pattern that I’ve been wanting for ages. Some fun sock yarn (Lion Brand made me nostalgic for Jo-Ann Fabrics!) and the most amazing glass buttons.

Can you believe she makes them herself? Incredible! I am so happy and grateful for receiving this package. Once the other swaps I am in completes I will do some RAOKing of my own.

And today I received my RAOK swap package. It was sent express, how awesome is that?

I am going to copy what I wrote to the forum about my package because well I still feel the same way about it!

The postie had good timing, he delivered the package just when I was pouring myself a cup of coffee . I am munching on the chocolate as we speak. The highlighters are fruit scented, and no need to mention that my nose is blue, green and purple from sticking it too close to my nose to smell them. They come in an awesome case –I think I will store my stitch markers in them. And heavenly smelling chai tea (yes I did stick my nose in that one too) in a brand I never seen before. I just sent in a job application, I will drink the “calming” tea for my nerves before the interview if they give me one. The notebook is soo cute (what is that on the cover?) I think I will write my ideas down in the notebook instead of scribbling them down to the backs of used posts its which I then recycle thinking they are used post its. But the BEST part of the package is this beauty,

It’s handspun by FiestyWench herself!!! And just when I was trying add a bit more green and yellows to my stash! It is all sorts of awesome. I have to find the perfect project for it.

I am one happy person today even if the weather is so gloomy! I am happy that it’s raining though, it’s been so dry here lately.
I watched the US election results live on TV and I am so pleased with the result. I was hoping and wishing and praying for Obama to win. I can feel there are great things ahead for the country I called home for ten years. Here’s a shot of the TV as I was watching Obama’s acceptance speech

The object in the photo is the Tahoe Lace Shawl I started back at the end of July. Many, many projects interrupted my progress on the shawl. I didn’t work on it at all last month when I was working on the swap lace project. Now that it’s done (I mailed it out yesterday yay!) I can focus on finishing it.

It doesn’t’ look like much at the moment. To quote Ron Weasley it looks more like a “woolly bladder” I know it will blossom once I block it! The pattern is the Queen Anne’s Lace by MMario.
Other than the lace I am only working on a pair of socks. I will only work on small projects until I finish this shawl ins.
I sent in a job application today. I am very hopeful about it. Insallah I will get a good result from it. I am going to go and pet my new handspun yarn some more!
kelebek

tow dervish

My yarn winder is here, my yarn winder is here! I’ve been chasing a reasonably priced ball winder on ebay for ages. And this time I wasn’t outbid! When it arrived a couple of days ago I spend an entire afternoon winding left over balls of wool into purdy little cakes. Like these

I named the ball winder “dervish” because the motion of it reminds me of the whirling dervishes in Turkey. It even has a long white cap!

My father-in-law has promised to make a swift so I can use it to make the skeins into cakes as well. Though I like storing my yarn in their original skeins so I’ll only ball it when I am going to use it immediately.
Speaking of pretty yarn in skeins, my Wollmeise order arrived the same day! Look how pretty!

I was so happy to finally catch an update, an update with lace weight to boot! These skeins are huge, 300 gr each! I have projects in mind for the two of them, but I think I will end up trading the green one. It’s just too green for my taste.
I am also the proud owner of four handspun yarns! I bought them from a Ravelry destash. I never used handspun yarn before so I am very excited to make things out of them. I forgot to take a group photo of the yarns and I am too lazy to go dig them out of my stash so I did a quick (albeit bad!) collage on photoshop.

Lovely aren’t they? And if anybody is laying awake wondering what my stash looks like, well here it is!

The top bin holds my sock yarn, the middle one lace weight yarn and all else goes to the bottom bin. I also moved the yarn I bought to make sweaters to one of the back rooms. They were just taking up space because it’s too hot to make sweaters right now. I will move them to the front bins when I am going to make a sweater. So here’s the “hidden stash”

Don’t look at home next to the computer parts of ACA?
I took out the bins to organise them and to get the odd and left over balls wound on Dervish. Hermoine loved the new hiding opportunities this provided.

Can you find her?
I have one finished object to share. I made a scarf for a friend. It needed to be done quickly because I need to mail it out next week along with the other swap stuff. I am always amazed what a difference blocking makes.
Unblocked (also in progress)

And after blocking (using my awesome blocking wires!)

Nice huh? I named it the cherry scarf.
Yesterday ACA finally got around to fixing our bed. The bottom wood planks were not screwed on so the long woods kept sliding off and falling to the ground. After he finished fixing it we left the mattress off because we needed to flip the mattress later. We took a break to eat dinner. Hermoine came in from her daily night stroll of the neighbourhood. From the corner of my eye I saw her go into the bedroom. When she didn’t come out for a long time I went to check up on her.

She managed to squeeze herself underneath the wooden planks, but she couldn’t come back out. Laughing I called ACA to help to get her out. We needed her to move to the other end of the bed to where there was a larger gap.

She was mildly interested in ACA’s hand but not enough to get her crawling to the other end of the bed. She didn’t have enough room to stand up so she had dig her claws into the carpet and slide her body forward –commando style! I went and got her favourite toy to lure her to slide.

It worked! Once she came to the end I gently held on to her neck and guided her out. Crazy kitty!

Still love her to bits!

kelebek