Stash busting

At the end of my last post I promised I would let you know about those last few pictures. Well it has taken me a few days (funny that) but I have finally found 5 secs to hop on here and let you know what I'm on about. I know a lot of people have been stash busting this year. I kept seeing little icons on blogs talking about busting (although many have since disappeared..I wonder why?) but never one to jump on band wagons I have waited until the dying weeks of the year to think about a little busting myself. After finally sorting through all my yarn a few weeks ago I realised I had more than I would ever use, in fact I had more than I wanted, so it was time to get rid of some. Luckily this coincided with my morning sickness disappearing so I can knit without vomiting, oh and I'm always broke in the run up to Christmas so I thought I could make a bob or two. So I have resorted back to the quickest, simplest thing to knit - soakers. Everyone I know has or is having babies and we all use cloth nappies so obviously they all need new soakers. And I'm not being stingy here, I do knit them as presents too but I always forget to take pictures so they never end up on my blog. I started the busting process by knitting one for a friend's son's 1st birthday (but didn't take a pic), then made one for Euan as he needs a few more for night times (that's the brown one in my last post), and now I'm on to serious busting.

These are the soakers that I've knitted since last Friday (so 5.5 days)

I think that's a pretty good effort considering my lousy output for this year. I have another ball all wound and ready to go, and I also have a present I need to knit up. Part of me wants to get back to my Something Red too as it is sitting there looking very sad at me. I think I will have a little knitting break and then work out what to do next.

Anyway, I hope I can whip up a heap more of these and then find someone who might actually want them, otherwise they'll join the finished-but-what-to-do-with-it pile.

Oh, and this hasn't made even the smallest dent in my stash. I think I'll have to do some more dying and get rid of a load of white and cream yarn. Maybe one day I'll even start the sweater that I promised to do for Dan and the heap of tops I want to make for myself. That might help :-)

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 :-)

Ooooh. Two posts on consecutive days!

Lets see who can pick the afternoons where Euan is having a long sleep? It's great because, not only is the house quiet, but I can waste time doing things like taking photos of wool and blogging. Aren't you all so lucky :-)

Anyhoo, here are some pics of my recent sock yarn purchases. I actually have most of them lined up for projects and I'm just waiting for my stomach to settle down so I can get started.

These two skeins I got from Knitterly Things, which stocks the most gorgeous hand dyed sock yarns.


This one I'm planning to use for a pair of Jaywalkers (and here for all the other relevant stuff). I must be the only person on the planet not to have knitted these but I was waiting for the right yarn to come along. I saw them knitted in this exact yarn and they looked so great that I have to stalk the site until they released some more.


I haven't completely decided on a pattern for these but I'm thinking Monkeys. This site has oodles of Monkeys, in fact I think she is Monkey Mad. But they are great looking socks.

The other two skeins I got from Ecoyarns, which is an Aussie site that does...um...eco yarns :-) They have really nice organic cottons, wools etc.. and I gave in and joined their sock club. It's my first club and I was nervous that I wouldn't like it or it would be to expensive, but so far so good.


This is my special sock club yarn. It came with a pretty funky pattern so I might give that a whirl.


This is some other yarn I bought because I love purple. I was thinking of trying these socks as they look like great summer socks and it would be a novelty to not sub yarn for once.

Part of me is thinking I should make one pair of socks for my Secret Pal as I haven't got my shit together and sent her anything yet. I have lots of ideas but am struggling to sort stuff out. Luckily I have a bit of time but I did want to send her a few different parcels. Hmm..I guess I'd actually have to knit something first though, which may be the sticking point.

There you go. Another update. Aren't you lucky! I feel sick now so I'm going to lie down. Bye.

Going slowly

Sorry for the lack of activity over the last week or two. I still have a fairly bad case of knitters block. I keep myself awake at night trying to decide what to start next and how to do something without buying more yarn. I have a big enough stash right now to complete all my summer knitting if only I could decide on a pattern or two. Thanks for the suggestions last time. They are the sorts of things I'm looking for but each time I decide to knit one I get confused by which yarn to use and it all goes wrong. TBH, what I really, really, really want to knit is this:


But when I factor in the ridiculous postage costs and the horrible exchange rate it ends up being at least $100 which is a bit much really. But it is exactly what I want. ~sigh~

So to kill time while I think about what to knit for me I have start another top for Euan. A cardigan this time using the leftovers from his last jumper. I am using this as an excuse to try steeking. Something that seems like the most sensible yet terrifying technique, especially as I love knitting in the round and hate seaming. I thought it would make more sense to start with a child's jumper instead of a full adult one as if I totally screw it up then I haven't lost much. This is progress so far.


The funny ridge down the middle is where I'm going to cut it. As it's only Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece and therefore mainly cotton, it's not ideal for steeking but I'm hoping with a lot of sewing-type reinforcement that it should be ok. I'm going to put a zip in which should also help keep it together. Now if only I'd knitted it on 4mm instead of 3.5mm I'd be finished by now.

On a positive note my friend Laura recently got back from South Africa and, although she would never knit to save her life, she brought me back some gorgeous hand spun wool. Ahhhh what I great friend! She couldn't remember what type of sheep it was from but it was something African. It has such a gorgeous shine to it and the colours are just perfect for me. I really don't know what to knit with it, but I've calculated it's at least 130m so I could get something fairly decent.


Isn't it just beautiful!

Now a little family aside. I haven't put any pics of my boys up lately so here are a few of them. They both love cooking so last weekend they got together and made a great chocolate cake. Euan is so good in the kitchen now. Not only does he keep all the ingredients in the mixing bowl (better than his mum) but he also lets me lick the bowl! What a boy!

Some very serious stirring going on there.

And this is the finished creation:


It was as yummy as it looks.

Oh my god!! I'm in stash heaven

After feeling a little down this week due to family illness and other more personal issues, that needn't fill the pages of a knitting blog, I decided that have a little retail therapy. There is a beautiful "yarn shop" (I'll explain the "" in a sec) near me whose website makes very pleasant reading. They are one of the few places here that stock the proper yarns like Rowan, Debbie Bliss, Artyarns etc the only problem being that their prices are usually a fair bit higher than other places online. Now, if I could actually walk in, handle the yarn, get advice from the staff etc I wouldn't mind paying a little premium, but no. They operate not far from me but they won't even let you go and pick up your order. It's online only, which I find very disappointing. So I generally boycott them. (On a side note, there is one other shop that sells really nice yarn, but who is going to pay $20USD for a single ball of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino?? Honestly). Somehow, on Wednesday, I was wandering around the web and I happened to drop into this website and had a browse through their Sale section. $350 later I came out with some lovely, lovely, did I say lovely, yarn. The therapy worked for me!

Would you like a peek? I thought so.

Here is Euan showing just how big the bag was that it all came in. He's a pretty tall 2yo, btw.

And here is Koshka, just dying to climb in a sleep on all that lovely yarn. If you've never seen a Maine Coon then you may not appreciate how big the stash is. She's a bloody big cat!

And here is the all important close up:


Now how do I justify the expense (oh, the green stuff was from a different store, but happened to arrive at the same time. I won't add it's cost into the total for now. I think Dan would cry). The Cashmerino I had to have because I am in love with it. I have 15 balls in a deep burgundy that I bought in the UK but I have been too scared to use it in case I make the wrong thing out of it and waster the yarn. I thought it I had 30 balls of Cashmerino then I wouldn't feel so afraid and could use it for multiple projects, so I bought 15 balls of blue (no idea what the name is).

The Blue Sky Organic Cotton was going to be used for the Ribs and Lace Tank from Interweave Knits Spring 07, but I'm a bit concerned that the top looks a little like a bulls eye and I'm not sure I want that effect. Either way, I will knit something similar-ish to this for summer. The yarn is so incredibly soft I can't wait to wear it.

The Rowan Cashsoft is for Dan. I've been wanting to make him something for ages and he finally decided that he liked the look of this, but as I refuse to knit him anything that big in a silk blend we had to look for other wool. It couldn't be itchy, it had to be fairly hard wearing and it had to be good quailty so we went with Rowan. Luckily this was on sale too at Angel Yarns, who are great and buy heaps from them. Though don't order if you're in a rush. I think this took about 6-8 weeks to be posted as they had run out of stock. They aren't very good at keeping you up to date but luckily I didn't care. I'm just hoping that the Boyfriend Sweater Curse doesn't apply to husbands too!

And last but definitely not least the silk. Debbie Bliss 100% Pure Silk. I have no idea what I'll use it for but it was so so so cheap and I've always wanted to try silk so I bought heaps of it. 15 skeins to be precise (or 750g). It is D-lux stuff and will take dye beautifully so I have a few projects in mind but will take my time with this one. God knows what a mum with a toddler does with silk yarn. I wonder if it gets badly stained by vegemite?

Oh, I am actually working on something right now. After putting the Tree Jacket on the backburner I started the little surprise and have got this far:

I'm sure loads of you (you know, all my readers Hahahaha!!) will know what this is as it is so popular right now, but I'm not going to tell the rest of you until it's done. The colour pooling is a bit annoying but I can't wait to see the finished item. Still don't know who it's for either. Any suggestions?

And one last look at the silk. Couldn't you just swim in it!

FO - Candy Socks

I know I have a heap of other FOs to post about but they are old and these are new, so these can go first. These are the 3rd pair of socks that I have started but the first that I have actually finished. That may be because they are in DK yarn instead of sock yarn, but they are socks none the less. I did these after a bit of inspiration from this Craftster thread and also because it's the middle of winter here and it's nice to have something a little colourful in all the gloom.

Pattern: just a basic toe up sock using this great cast on tute, which I found on Grumperina's blog. Also a little help from Knitty and a reminder about short row heels.

Needles: Addi 3.5mm 60cm. My first go a the magic loop and I thought it was great although I wish I'd had 80cm needles.

Yarn: My own hand dyed 100% merino. It's superwash, takes dye beautifully and hardly pills at all. It was a large batch that I did for a few other things (see previous post) but had enough left over to make these. It only took about 60g for the pair.

Duration: A weekend. Basically one sock Saturday and one sock Sunday. I was pretty happy with that!

As you can see my short row heel needs work. I think I was just being too loose with my stitches so I will have to try a bit harder. I'm a bit disappointed actually but as I have firmly caught the sock knitting bug I will get a lot more chance to perfect this.

I'm really happy with the way this yarn turned out that I'm thinking I should get back to dyeing. I'm even thinking about opening my little shop back up. I've found a great source for merino and merino/cashmere yarn and I think it would look great in funk bold colours. What do you all think??

Present for me

Although I've been slack getting other peoples presents, I've managed to get a couple of little things for myself. I was starting to worry that this parecl would never arrive, but on the last postal day before Christmas my parcel man (well not my normal one, I think he's left as I haven't seen him for ages. He was so nice too) arrived with this little beauty:

Sorry, I'm having major problems with my camera. Everything looks crap :(

But anyway... I got four balls of Rowan Calmer. I refused to pay the prices asked in Oz so I bought direct from the UK and it was so much cheaper. It is just beautiful yarn. I plan to make a few pairs of knitty's finest. Hopefully some will be done in time for Christmas as I wanted them as presents. Fingers crossed.

While I was at it I thought I'd chuck in a ball of 100% alpaca sock yarn for myself. I want to have the finest dressed feet around. Artesano Alpaca is fair trade wool from Bolivia and OMG I have never felt anything so soft. I can't wait to start knitting with it, though I might try some cheaper stuff for my first pair of socks. Watch this space...