Big huge thank you

Firstly I'd like to say a big, huge THANK YOU to my lovely Secret Swap Pal, Denise. She has been so wonderful at keeping in touch and sending little cards and presents over the last three months. It was especially great when I was pretty crook and felt very sorry for myself. She has fabulous taste in all things so make sure you pop over and check out her blog. She has really great taste in knits and seems to get so much done. I'm hanging out for my kids to be teenagers just so I can get some solid knitting time (I will pretend that all the difficult stuff won't happen and that the teenage years will be a breeze!). Her are all the pictures from her wonderful parcel that arrived this week:

Let's start with the yarn and knitting stuff. Some gorgeous Lantern Moon dpn in that always hard to get in Oz size US2, or 2.25mm. Perfect for almost every sock pattern ever written! Some gorgeous lace weight merino that I have no idea what to do with yet. I really want to knit lace but I am so scared of it. A great hand massager that is sorely needed (excuse the pun!). I tend to knit until my hands ache so this will be a great relief. And lastly so beautiful merino yarn that perfectly matches the silk yarn that arrived a few weeks ago.

See!
Just the perfect colours for me so I might have to hunt through Ravelry and find the perfect project.

Some yummy cookbooks that should encourage me (or Dan) to face up to the kicthen. It has been getting ignored lately so this might perk it up :-) Some great books on Canberra too. That would be Australia's capital city for anyone that doesn't know (no, it's not Sydney).

Some more lollies for me. This time I have been good and haven't eaten them all yet although if Euan is still asleep by the time I've posted this then that might change.

Now, look closely at these. They are the most amazing cards that you will ever see for a knitter. They are fabulous watercolour painting of knitting scenes, all done by Denise herself! See, I told you she was talented. She was even featured in the latest copy of Yarn magazine. If you have some knitting friends that just have to be spoilt with these you can buy them here. I think I'll have to keep mine. I might even frame them up for my craft room (when it is finally built).

And last but not least, she is so clever that she included a present for Euan. This is him doing his totally overexcited face, it isn't actually a grimace. He was so excited to get his own present that he has been showing everyone. He even has some cars etc that these fit into so he even more thrilled.

Once again, a really big thank you to Denise for all her kindness. It has been really appreciated over the other side of the continent.

And now for something completely different...

After my last post I decided to pick up my Something Red again. I gave it a few more hours but, to be honest, something is just not working for me. I think it's the yarn. It is very knobbly cotton and it is horrible to purl. It doesn't pull tight enough without a heap of effort so my ribbing looks holey and crap. Anyway here's a progress shot:

Not sure what to do. I might try and do a bit more and see if the ribbing works out. I don't want to frog it but it is creeping towards the pond.

Here is a project that is working out:

I just can't tell you what it is :-) It is supposed to be finished by this afternoon but it'll be touch and go. I guess If I hadn't spent the past 1.5 hours stuffing around on Blogger, Flickr and Ravelry I would've finished. If anyone can tell me how to get Flickr photos on here I'd really appreciate it. The help is crap on both sites and it's bugging me!

Oh, and we had our scan last Monday. The baby is all healthy and gorgeous. We found out what we are having and have told a few people but not sure if we're going to make it public knowledge. I'll sort out some pictures for my next post. This is long enough already!

I'm such a lucky girl!

Well, woman really, but there is something about getting presents that makes you feel like a kid. Firstly huge apologies to my Secret Pal again. I have been trying to blog about your wonderful parcel all week but every time I get near the pc something happens (as I write this I hear Euan waking up so there another delay). Ok, I'm back an hour later :-) Anyway, I wanted to say a huge big thank you for my fantastic gifts. Here a terrible pic, I'll take some better ones when I'm not so rushed.

The skein is the most amazing hand spun silk in my favourite colours. I'm not sure exactly what I'll make but I think it'll be perfect for some lace work. The stitch marker are gorgeous and badly needed (I keep losing mine) and I'll pretend that is a full packet of Mentos. There is no way anyone could demolish the whole packet the second it came out of the parcel wrapping, no even a pregnant woman!

Thank you so so so much Secret Pal. This was such an exciting parcel and everything was just perfect. I will try and find or make up a garment worthy of the beautiful yarn.

As it's now really late (I told you I keep getting delayed. It's about 6 hours after I started) I'll just give you a few shots of my latest projects. I add more tomorrow.



At least knitting doesn't make me vomit any more :-)

I'm so so so sorry!

I feel like the world's worst blogger right now. It's been almost a month since my last post and that must be horrible boring for all of you. Unfortunately my morning sickness still hasn't abated and I find spending time on this thing a bit nauseating. Couple with that my camera was playing up so I couldn't take any pictures. Oh, and I still haven't actually knitted anything due to aforementioned sickness and lack of inspiration.

But the most important thing I have to do first is send a huge, big, virtual thank you to my Secret Pal. She sent me the most lovely parcel which I received 2 weeks ago and I feel so terrible for not coming on here and thanking her. As my punishment I wasn't allowed to eat the lollies that she sent until I'd blogged about it (well ok, maybe one or two). So here's the terrible photo. I didn't notice the smudgy 2yo fingerprints on the lens until well after I took this so apologies for that.

Since taking that I have polished off the entire packet on Sunbursts and feel great (I hope it lasts). The wool is just gorgeous and I'm thinking it will make a great felted bag either for me or for a Christmas pressie. There was also some gorgeous handmade soap and some lavender scented powder, which smells just divine.

I do feel a little bit sorry for my Secret Pal though. Here was me thinking I'd get someone from overseas so I'm asking for all these things that I can't get here in Oz. The poor woman is probably reading my list and nodding, as she also lives in Oz! So Sunflower, ignore most of what I asked for. The stuff is so hard to get here that I don't want to worry you. I'll just keep hoping that designers will start writing patterns for DK wool or that we will suddenly get great, affordable worsted wool in Oz.

Another big thank you goes out to all the people who emailed and chatted to me about my last post. I know it was a pathetic case of self pity but it was very real at the time. I know I have a great bunch of supportive friends out there, I guess it is just hard to ask for help. I think now that I have got into the swing of my daily puking I'm feeling a lot less stressed (does that sound weird). The big thing for me is the scan next week. I've had too many friends lose babies recently so I'm feeling a bit apprehensive about it all. I can't wait to see this little one and make sure everything is ok.

And to help me with my knitting block I finally got my Ravelry invite (I really wished I joined when I first heard about it!). I'm OzSusie for anyone else who's on there. I'm trying to look for patterns but my pc nausea makes it a slow process.

I will try and take pics of my new yarn to show off and get this blog back to interesting status.

Big hugs to everyone!