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.

The end line up - all in all - a good effort. See the red one? It sold straight away. But I knew it would. I’m not saying that to blow my own trumpet, but when it came off the loom I just knew it would. It looked right.

I think all in all I sold 3 or 4, not sure. The exhibition was SO busy in the morning, and at the end of the day record takings by all accounts. Some of the work was just breath takingly wonderful.

Got to spend some quality time with Sharon and her lovely girls, and my Mum came in to have lunch with me. KMS popped in too, so that was just wonderful.

My sister had fallen in love with Little Brown in insisted on buying it a couple of weeks ago. I asked her if I could borrow it back to exhibit , but through a hiccup of mine (didn’t read the ‘procedures manual’) it wasn’t able to be displayed. So I wore it instead. I had so many lovely compliments through the day and Mum wore it home. She just called me to say that she went into Woolworth’s for groceries and a Young Mum hunted her down and stopped to tell her that the scarf was “simply breathtaking” and that she loved it so much. She got my name so she could contact me when she decides to so I can make one for her.

It’s actions like that that put a spring in your step after a long long day.

I also managed to pick up 4 books for $2.00 and although they don’t mean much to me at the moment I am hoping to get hold of a 4 shaft table loom from one of the lovely ladies from the Group.

(Hard week - I do love this Song **Silverchair’s straight lines). Go ahead. Watch it and come back. I’ll wait.

“Straight Lines” is generally a positive and upbeat song. The song is about feeling alone in the world, but making it through tough times and overcoming them. This is illustrated in the lyrics such as “Lately I’m a desperate believer, but I’m walking in a straight line” and “There’s no changing yesterday…everything will be fine”. The song’s meaning appears to be a biographical comment from lead singer Daniel Johns who fought anorexia, clinical depression and reactive arthritis in the late nineties and early millennium, and was able to beat them. It also appears to be about being content with your place in life, thus walking in a straight line. (ref Wikipedia)

I finished my final piece for the exhibition last night. I exhaled mightily as I made a straight line to the self imposed quota of things I wanted to exhibit/sell. But am so pleased with the results. If anything, weaving quite a few pieces has really helped me to experiment and find what I enjoy. I just LOVE weaving. It’s everything in my power not to go and purchase a huge floor loom - but then again the immediacy of the Knitting Loom and the ability to start and finish projects at a nice pace really helps. Photos to follow.

I spent some of the money of possible future sales (ahem), today, at the wonderful South Seas Knitting Site. Made a bee line to the Habu stuff. SOMEBODY STOP ME! I know I should be saving up for Bendy - but couldn’t resist.

Whilst weaving, I had such a good conversation with Steve. He’s always been one of those people that has the TV on even if he is out mowing the lawn. Last night, after a very hectic week for him, he came home, and sat and had dinner (again - another plus point for the loom - it’s small and compact) - with no TV. We talked about his work, my work, about friends, about blogs, the internet, friends on the internet, words on blogs…it was really really interesting.

Whilst he knows the enjoyment I derive from blogging, he doesn’t get it. To him, if he gets a phonecall from someone asking why he didn’t reply to their urgent email, he simply asks why didn’t they call him if it was urgent in the first place. And points out that he doesn’t get to read all his emails immediately. It’s a good point. For business transactions.
For me, blogging is about me expressing what is going on in my head at the time.

As convoluted and twisted as my brain is, such is my blog. With one exception. I try and keep it nice. If I’m thinking something bad, I don’t blog it. That’s my choice though right? My grandmother always said “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all”. It’s a reasonable maxim to live/blog by I think. But to Steve, he doesn’t see my blogging friends as ‘real’ friends. Because I don’t see them face to face.

When I challenged him on this, and believe me my blogging friends, I challenged him, stating that I valued my blogging friendships just as much in context and asked him what the difference was. He said that real friends pick up the phone to talk - and I just laughed at him. Don’t you think that’s funny? I would have thought that he would say that you meet your real friends in person….but given the ‘urgent email’ conversation, I understand. It’s just different for him. And that’s what makes the world go around, non?

I always had a dream to write a book, and when I mentioned this to Steve last night, stating that it’s one of the reasons I blog at all, he laughed.

‘But Don”, he said, “you are such a BAD project finisher”.

And in some ways he is right. But that’s why the blog works for me. It’s like the loom. It’s an immediate thing. A quick fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants blog post. If someone took me up on the offer to write a book I think it would take on the same weight as when someone asks you to knit something for them. You say yes and then do everything in your power to not knit it. (Or is that just me?).

is officially over.

This scarf is officially ‘my favourite Hand Spun Hand Knitted Project to date.

It’s Soft (sssssssssssssssooooooooooooooo soft).

The Colours are just right.

The Pattern really fits the yarn.

AND.

It doesn’t itch me!

Slowly I am making my way through my WIP’s so I can concentrate on my Tour de France KAL project.

I have……

The Wollongong Spinners and Weavers have their Annual Exhibition and Sale of Works on Saturday 21st June (this coming Saturday) from 9.30am to 4pm.

It’s held in the Fairy Meadow Community Centre and apart from all the lovely work for sale we will have Morning, Lunch and Afternoon Tea for sale. It’s a $2.00 entry fee….so if you are in the area we would love you to come along and have a look. Some of the stuff I spied this morning looked so lovely.

These are my efforts, and I am really pleased with them even though I am a beginner spinner and weaver. I especially love the hand-spun Eggplant/Chartreuse/Flash of Red scarf that I knit up….and another close favourite is the pale green and lillac one you see near the Pinky/Red Crocheted scarf. I love the way the Vintage Hues variegated throughout the scarf and I purposely pushed a few holes in it here and there to give it a bit more depth.

Today I said something to Steve that I never thought I would say. *

It was prompted by the finding of yet another pool of mould, this time on a shoe in my wardrobe. The day before I found mould on a lounge chair. And some on the outside of the wardrobe in another room where I keep my stash. (And yes! I checked the stash! Phew. All ok). Two days before that I had to put on my gumboots to go out the the garbage bin. And Tim the beagle gave up on his kennel and lodged himself in a cardboard box that I had brought home for the kids - seemingly out of the never ending and continuous rain fall we are having of late.

I did read somewhere, around the 5th of June, that Wollongong’s average rainfall for the month of June is 107mm, (I think on the 5th we had 36mm!). They forcast ‘the wettest June on record’.I KNOW we are not meant to complain about the rain, given our current climate and propensity for rainfall NOT to fall in our catchment areas, but really. Enough is enough.

Give me cool/cold days of winter. NO RAIN. I want to rug up in my winter woollies. I want to wear all the things I labour to make with my knitting needles. I love to turn on the heater, pull on yet another pair of yummy socks I have created, curl up on the lounge with the kids and read another chapter of Narnia (they are entranced).

I don’t want to wipe mould of surfaces hitherto unknown to me.

I have sought consolation in the purchase of a new Skif pattern (dont’ think I have ever paid that much for a pattern - let alone a simple pattern) - Martha.

I have taken delivery of a lovely surprise parcel from Jae (will flash it tomorrow), and even ventured into the wonderful world of Knit Purl (love that shop) (they are having a Habu trunk show!)(wahhhhh)and, gasp, used the credit card.

I even trolled through the latest knitty with little or no interest.

Bad huh?

But I did book my flights to get my butt to Bendigo and play with Mandie and Kate….YAY!

I didn’t really mean it when I said

* I wish it was Summer