Long time coming

Well, this blog post has been a long time coming. All sorts of reasons, but chief amongst them has been wips having repeated dunkings in the frog pond, having a sudden desire to make big (for me anyway) projects and most surprisingly of all, managing morning sickness.

Yes, Mr Wriggly will be joined by a sibling sometime in early March. Its been such an enormous surprise. It was a mighty victory for medical technology when Mr Wriggly arrived. So when I felt seedy, bloated and tired I just assumed that middle age was setting in. When the blood test for pregnancy came back positive, I secretly thought I was having some kind of powerful bout of wishful thinking. However ultrasounds and the passage of time have revealed to me that B2 really is floating around soaking up all the extra icecream I've needed to eat.

My Wriggly seems blissfully unaware. Phew. Here is a snap of the bathing beauty, personal styling courtesy of the Knit Widower.


On the knitting front, I seem to have been struck my a longing for cardigans. I forged ahead on Little Birds, but its been resting since I realised its going to be a looooong time before I can fit it around my waist. Still, its looking pretty and is at an interesting stage. Especially now that bloody never ending beaded ribbing is done!



I've also cast on a Coraline, which will be useful for next winter. Its great swathe of stocking stitch is also proving soothing television knitting. I'm quite looking forward to the construction of this cardigan. I'm loving the built in the icord edging and the knitted hem, but am hoping that that roll and pucker will block out.



I've never done a knitted yoke before. Anyone got any tips?

The reason why things have been quiet

Theres a reason why things have been quiet on the Joy front. I have a stack of ufos that only need a short burst of energy to finish - but can I summon it up? Not even with a stack of chocolate and some time to myself! Here they are:


Cancan gloves in Madtosh Crow - looking rather promising at this stage, so I'll probably concentrate my efforts here.


My Jumping on the Bandwagon Ishbel in Colinette Jitterbug Velvet Plum. Only needs another two lace repeats - which I think is the grand total of eight rows.


Entomology, which is coming along rather nicely. Its in Wired for Fiber Hero.

There is an FO in the midst of this embarrassment of UFOs. Here is a Naughtie for Hugo Moller.



But the real reason for the inactivity has been because Mr Wriggly has been doing some knitting all of his own. Can you see where?



NB: I didnt make his jumper, a friend of my Mum's did. Its a lovely one isnt it?

It was a one eyed one horned flying purple people eater

It was my Mum's birthday recently, so I made her some Tadpole socks in Colinette Jittterbug Purple Passion. They were such a victorious, unrepentant shade of purple they reminded me irresistibly of the old song about the purple people eater. Here they are in action with Mr Wriggly, who was pretty keen on them too.

Speed knitting

I do like my hairdresser, but recently she sheared me. When I went to get a trim last week, the word 'short' must have been mentioned at some stage (eg "my, what a short skirt", or "yes please, a short black would be great"). Regardless of the context though, I came away with very, very short hair. The shaver was even used!

I walked in the front door, thanked the Knit Widower for his supportive gasp because clearly it could only be a gasp of admiration, not, for example, shock, and immediately cast on a Thermis.


Once the Thermis was off the needles, it was clear it needed some mates, so I whipped up yet another pair of Evangelines with the left over yarn (Sundara, Royal Footguards worsted weight).


Now I am much toastier, but still quite shorn.

The amada fights back!

Not only is the UFO amada fighting back, with me casting on the lovely Marlene despite two looming birthday deadlines, but its ally, the stash, is also growing! Eeeeee!


Yes, I had some stash enhancement at the Craft Fair at Darling Harbour this week. It was pretty amazing, I hadnt been before and I hadnt realised just how huuuuge paper crafting is. Luckily I was able to find what I wanted pretty quickly and leave before the crowds starting heaving. More on the stash reinforcements later.

Treats! And and FO (take that amada!)

When I was little, I loved lucky dips with an unbridled devotion. At any school fete, local show or gymkhana I could locate the lucky dip and blow all my money in one hard core session. Its probably just as well I never figured out to work the pokies*.

This seems to have translated into a passion yarn clubs. After all, there is a large element of luck dip about a yarn club. Sometimes the yarns are sensational, sometimes they end up on a Ravelry destash thread quicker than you can say "Jeezus!" when you get your credit card bill (which is always a strong possibility with our exchange rate).

This week brought two lucky dips into my home. The first (which actually arrived more than a week ago, and been carried from room to room to look at in different lights) is from Knitting Inspirations's Lace Club. Its a beautiful skein of Cashlana in Ocean. I guess it doesnt strictly fit the lucky dip analogy, you get to choose your colourway in this club, but as I'd never seen the yarn before, it felt like a lucky dip winner to me! The yarn package also included some gorgeous stitch markers and a tape measure with which Mr Wriggly has fallen in love.


Today's arrival was from the Needle Food Sock Club. Out of New Zealand comes this beautiful, hand dyed sock yarn and treats! Stitch markers, Freddos, an exotic woolwash and some bamboo dpns hiding up the back of the photo. Cant wait for next month's shipment!



And finally an FO, from the aforeblogged UFO amada. The Hot Flush Rock and Weave socks. Made for Liza, modeled by Liza. I suspect she is wearing them this very moment, while snacking on ruburb crumble and watching Friday night crime.




*slot machines

Its a space armada!

How many UFOs does it take to make an invasion force? I reckon I'm getting pretty close to a battalion here.


Here are my three socks in progress. Waterfall Socks in Hero, Rozas Socks in Serenity and Rock and Weave Socks in Hot Flash (which I keep calling Hot Flush). There is a rather special project on the end, Heathers Mitts.

Heres a little close up of them. They are killers, 2mm needles. At this rate, I reckon they might be ready by next winter.

Hanami, finally

Finally, almost a year to the day of casting on, I have finished the Hanami Stole. I started it a few days before Mr Wriggly was born, thinking that I'd have a shot at finishing it because he was never ever going to come out. Ha. Boy, did he show me.

It was only two weeks ago that I felt mentally able to cope with the basket weave pattern again, which was a complete grind. The cherry blossom pattern just flew by though. I'm so pleased with how it turned out. The Sea Silk Handmaiden yarn is wonderful to knit with and the stitch definition is superb.


Here are the specs: two skeins of Sea Silk Handmaiden in Ebony. The idea for a Hanami in this yarn in this colour is totally ripped off from Splityarn. The skein used for the basket weave end was darker than the cherry blossom end. The cherry blossom skein had more copper highlights, and dare I say it, the odd undyed fleck. I beaded the ends with tiny, pinkish, glass beads, that are almost impossible to photograph. If I knew then what I know now, I'd have used larger beads as they have been mostly swallowed by the yarn. Of course, in searching for the link to Splityarn's Hanami, I just found her tutorial about how to do a beaded cast off. Hey ho.


Its destined to be the divine Ms N's birthday present. I'll try and get a shot of her modeling it.

I'm starting back at work on Monday, four days a week. The Knit Widower is going to be Mr Wriggly's primary parent. Its all a bit daunting really. I ran into Six and a Half Stitches in the newsagents this morning and she gave me some comforting words about managing the work-family-knitting-life balance. Thank you SaaHS! I'm sure once its all happening, it will all be ok.

As requested

Its hard to tell where most of the food went - on his top, around his mouth or into his mouth. Unusually, he doesnt seem to have wiped any through his hair.

We're back!

Hurrah for informed camera advice from you all (both blog comments and other advice), hurrah for ebay and a lovely man who actually delivered the camera to my home, hurrah for photogenic children, hurrah for knitting and an even bigger hurrah for a fab camera.

It can do this:


And this:



And it even shows that scientists are wrong. Dinosaurs did not evolve, they were knitted....

Its a Cannon G10 Powershot, and despite having a name like a drink an underage girl would overindulge in, it is fantastic.

(Photos top to bottom: Hanami, Rockin' Hot Flush, Prehistoric Pals Braciosaurus and Triceratops)

Normal transmission will resume shortly

Normal transmission will resume shortly, once I've sorted out my camera issues. Any suggestions for a new one?

In the meantime, Mr Wriggly has agreed to be my test pattern.

(Copyright Pia Solberg)

What madness is this?

For some reason, my rapidly approaching return to work has caused me to undertake some crazy stash enhancement. Below are the most recent acquisitions.

Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn in Fall Foliage bought from Bec (Becboo on Ravelry)


Bruised Bloodwood 100% Baby Alpaca by Yarn Cakes


Merino Chubby Sock Yarn in Smoke from The Knittery's closing down sale - alas.


And a group shot including two yarns from Wired for Fibre in Hero and Baroque. My crappy camera cant capture the beauty of the dark purple of Hero and the plummy shade of Baroque.



Now the fun begins - what to make with all these lovelies?

Best foot forward

There has been some knitting progress in Casa Joy and Widower. I've managed a whole Escher sock from the amazing Knitting Socks With Handpainted Yarn. Its a cornucopia of fabulousness and I havent been able to get the Escher off my needles quick enough. There are so many wonderful socks to make!

The amazing case of the vanishing Bijou

Here is my Bijou, coming along very nicely thank you very much.



Here is my Bijou with the three needle bind off completed for the shoulder seams.


Decency laws prevented me from putting up a snap of me trying it on. (OK and my vanity too).

Current state of my Bijou, ready for round two in the next size up.



(Just so you know, the top photo has the truest colour.)

Disaster!

Just when I have some promising shots of the progress of my Bijou, for some reason the computer keeps rejecting the usb cord for my camera! Ok, so it was the bottom of the market when I bought it a number of years ago, but that's no reason for the brand spanking new ferrari computer, as the Knit Widower refers to it, to keep calling it a reject. I'm now going to try threats, imprecations and thumping on the top of the hard drive. If these fail, I'll switch the damn thing off and give it some time to have a good, hard think about playing nicely with other electronic devices.

Holidays!

Back from the annual beach holiday at Byron Bay. It was idyllic, as usual. Mr Wriggly and I spent a lot of time getting sand in our pants. He also spent quite a bit of time squidging sand between his fingers and toes, and when I took my eye off him, eating it too.


I finally finished Nikki's Selbu, and an rather chuffed at the way it turned out. Heres the mandatory inside out shot:


And here it is being modelled by the birthday girl herself!

Blackrose

Ta dah! Another pair of socks. I am on fire!


These are Blackrose Socks from the winter edition of Knitty in Midnight Meadows Sundara sock yarn. I love this yarn, but it nearly had me beat. The varegiation in the dye is quite subtle and I wanted a pattern that would show it to its best advantage. I cast on a number of socks in this yarn which were frogged - Leyburns, Paul Attwell Socks and Charade, twice. Then I chanced on the Blackrose pattern. It is lovely! Just enough lace to be interesting, yet an ideal television viewing sock. However I did get slightly more than I bargained for when whipping up the left sock. I thought my stitch marker had disappeared, and then I found it knitted into the ankle of the sock. Alas, the marker had to be snipped.


And here is Mr Wriggly showing his latest wip - two bottom incisors!

I was going to wait

I was going to wait until Middle Sister emailed me the photos, but I just cant. My Mum lives down the far south coast of NSW, and has been hoarding some of my knits to enter into the Pambula Show. She was holding off especially (and in the case of the Jay Walkers and Embossed Leaves socks three years) until the 100th Pambula Show. That was meant to be last year, but the equine flu epidemic lead to it being postponed.

So Mum entered four items of mine in the show: the first ever pair of socks I made, Jay Walkers natch,; a pair of Embossed Leaves socks in lucious cashmere sock yarn from The Knittery; Evie the Kim Hargreaves cardigan and Aunty Norma's Elm Row in Sundara Silky Fingering Merino.

And I cleaned up! Two firsts, a second and a highly commended. In my suprise I had to check with Mum that other people had entered. They had.

The prize winners were the Embossed Leaves Socks (no photo alas)for a wool item and Aunty Norma's Elm Row for a wool mix item.


Evie took a second for best knitted piece of apparel.


And the Jay Walkers took a highly commended, which I thought was rather generous given they were made during my pre-Kitchener, sew it all up anyhow phase.

Casting on fever

Taking my cue from Knit Devil's Feel Like a Floozy KAL for January, I have the following projects on my needles:

The (possibly previously) mentioned Paul Attwell Socks:


A Selbu for Nikki:


Another pair of Rock and Weave Socks in Hot Flash (but I so want to call the colourway Hot Flush) for Liza:


Blackrose Socks in the much cast on and frogged Midnight Meadows Sundara sock yarn:


In in a fit of complete indulgence, I am awaiting the arrival of some red Classic Elite yarn to cast on my big project for the year - Bijou. It features lots of terrifying things, like short row bust darts. But I've decided as part of my New Year's Resolutions that I will read the pattern before I cast on so I dont repeat the chain of events that lead me to make my son into a hunch back.

My pretties

This is what I was longing for while in Perth. Yes, here are some progress shots of my pretties.


Rock and Weave socks in STR Jewel of the Nile. I like the linen stitch, I like the pooling, and I love the star buttons!


Paul Atwell, looking rather sophisticated in some sock yarn I bought from The Knittery an age ago and cant remember what its called.


And some general eye candy from the Blue Moon Fiber Arts sale last year.