Indulging my Inner Knitter

Fanks all! Twas much fun reading the comments and watching the poll change.

February Lady Sweater it is!  I was really interested in the poll results and thought that I would be spinning and knitting…..but the FLS won out at the end….so I’m checking stash possibilities….or shall I buy NEW stuff? Oh the choices. But I’m thinking it will be Karabella Aurora 8 in Mushroom - go the stash!

AND

Randomly drawn with the Random Number Generator - Shelley gets to give the Koigu a new home!

Gotta Go!  Gotta Swatch! (cough cough, or at least make some semblance of swatching)…

Are you ready for the Tour de France KAL? I’m not.

I can’t choose. I’m in the Polka Dot Jersey again because, really, I enjoy the challenge.

1. Finsh the Wips - Tallis and Kyoto
2. Start something new - February Lady Sweater
3. Spin it and knit it - Alhambra
4. Half finished tricky socks - Latvian Wedding Socks

If you want to help why not leave a comment. I have ‘bribage’ - 2 x skeins of yummy Koigu could be yours……

I will be drawing a winner from comments (should you choose to help), using a Random number generator….on July 4th - late - Eastern Standard time. I know - not much time - but still enough to cast a vote.

The poll is for added visual interest on my part - I love me a gadget.

So go on….help me make a choice.

Me Tired. Still.

Went to knitting camp. Met up with her, her, her, her, her, her, her, her, her, her, her …………could there have been any more blogger/Ravellers in one place??????

(Sadly she couldn’t make it - missed you much Nat).

Drank much bubbles and red.

Started 2 new projects as you do.

Martha and

Fluke.

LOVE THEM BOTH.

Went to sleep very very very late each evening.

Ate ourselves stupid on lovely food,partook of wonderful activities/classes and purchased more STASH.

Talked ourselves hoarse - about all sorts of things.

(snitched this photo from Tianne because I really looked very very very largish in all other photos…don’t they say the camera never lies? heh heh - nervous laugh)(me in white t-shirt, Ailsa, Jane, Donna and back of Kylie)

Laughed at all sorts of things, and egg nog.

Went to breakfast in PJ’s with 4 others looking just like me.

(I have given you the skinny version of a MOST disgusting photo - one that we all thought we were looking like Super Models, but really looked very very very NOT like Super Models).

Knitted for approx 26 hours…..plus an extra 3 on the trip to Canberra on Sunday to drop off Bells, and pick up exhausted children from Snow Trip.

Plus another 1/2 hour with Bells, watching Stevie walk to the service station 15 minutes out of Canberra, to fill up a jerry can, to put into the empty petrol tank….

Finally picked up the kids from Canberra at 7.45PM - and got home at 11.30pm. THAT was one tiring, but wonderful weekend.

I had daydreamed about it since gifting the first version some time ago.

The two remaining skeins talked to me every time I brushed past them.

I thought about what to contrast them with and in the end I found 2 soft skeins of sock yarn that I had dyed some years ago - in almost the same colours. OBVIOUSLY it’s a colour I like a lot.

I called it ‘All Mine’. I wove it like it was to be mine.  It was MUCH bigger and longer than the original - more like a pashmina size and I wore it all yesterday - I took it to breakfast at Diggies, and it looked out across the beach….enjoying the sunshine.

I came home, gave it a lovely soaking, let it dry and then I wrapped it up.

My wonderful Aunt has taken my kids down the “snow” (of which there is none. This is the farce of the Australian Ski Fields. They are still charging people $69.00 a day to ski on that. It is early in the season but don’t you think that should be FREE?) for 5 days.

I am kind of torn, as I just love skiing and really wanted to be with the kids for their first experiences of it all. But I have to work, and the Knitters Camp is on this weekend - of all weekends.

But I think that All Mine will enjoy it’s new home on my Aunt’s shoulders. A small gesture to show her how much I appreciate her taking the kids and giving them a special memory like that.

A few weeks ago I received a lovely parcel from Jae.  I had been hankering for this book for some time and she gifted me with it…along the with the Skacel Stitch Markers to match the book AND some yummy yarn to-boot.  (With such a lovely inscription it brought tears to my eyes) Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet.

I haven’t been able to do much other than glance at it in the lead up to the Exhibition, but now there’s no stopping me. Other than my COMPLETE inability to decipher the instructions.

The Author suggests that people work their way through the book by making little itty bitty socks first to get used to the completely different way of thinking about socks.

I, on the whole, go at things like a bull at a gate, but on this instance I made 2 of the 6 socks before jumping in to start one of the socks.

Here’s not such a good photo of a nice little sky sock. Interestingly fun - and quick (using DK yarn).

And this photo is one of the now finished Coriolis Sock that I LOVE and WANT TO START RIGHT NOW…..’cepting that my maths skills are being testing to the max.

I have started the adult sock, and have burnt a hole in the calculator trying to work out my “master numbers”….and this is where this book falls down in some ways (for me at least).

There isn’t a pattern in the book per se.  The whole book encourages you to think outside the square about ’sock architecture’ and the way socks are constructed.  You calculate “master numbers” on stitch gauge, heel and toe length, stitch counts after arch expansions, ex-cet-era ex-cet-era ex-cet-era…..in fact you spend the whole time flipping backwards and forcewards through the book to look up a number here, a toe start there, and on it goes.

I do love it, I love the socks inside the book, but I’m thinking I’m going to be loving Ravelry groups relevant to this even more to get some answers that I need.

In the meantime, my Coriolis sock sits and mocks me. I shall get to it and tackle it at some stage. When I can get me calculator to work again.  Love the challenge.