Ta da!

And here it is [making flourishing gesture with hands a la game show hostess displaying prizes] - Flourish.



I think the hours of beading really paid off. Trust me, there are about 800 tiny shiny beads of the palest pink worked into the edging of the scarf.


To sum up - the Kidsilk Haze is lovely to work with despite being hairy; Flourish is light yet feels like it will be warm enough to fend off the early spring chill; and it is gorgeous enough to glam up the outfit that I can fit into, thus making it wedding-worthy. Thats a triple thumbs up from me!

Beading - argh!

Am doing the beading on the second of florish's edges. It looks great, subtle yet shiny. But it goes on and on and on.

On an unrelated note, here is Lloyd's message for the week. He says 'fight the power!'.

Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory

Equ, Australia's leading sock model who relocated to the International City of Love, Canberra, is getting married at the end of the month. I've been grappling with the problem of what to wear to a glamourous afternoon garden wedding. My outfit needs to combine warmth (the ceremony will be outside), glamour (natch), fit over and preferrably disguise the extra kilos I'm still carrying (possibly wishful thinking) and be breastfeeding capable. I think the key to this is basic black and a gorgeous accessory - other than Lloyd aka Mr Wriggly.

Remember flourish? This scarf combines warmth, glamour and kilo-hiding coverage! Its been languishing in the stash box, half finished because I ran out of enthusiasm for the endless edge beading. I exumed it, consulted the pattern book just to confirm the stitch when the very first sentence of the pattern struck me. There, in bold, was the instruction to use two strands of Kidsilk Haze. Two strands! Argh! And I'd been wondering why there seemed to be so much yarn included in the kit, and why my scarf seemed thin in comparison to the lush, voluptuous one in the photo.


So I've been carefully and slowly frogging, trying to ensure I dont strip the fluff from the yarn. Actually its not as bad as it could be as the crochet is very loose and lacy, and the scarf hasnt been handled much so with a bit of gentle persuation it comes undone.

Talk about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Shrunken heads

When I was child I saw a shrunken head at a museum. I cant remember which museum, but I suspect it was the Australian Museum in Sydney. The head was about the size of an orange, with stitched up eyes and mouth, and the hair seemed shockingly long. I remember being particularly impressed with the idea that the shrinking was induced by stuffing the skinned head with hot sand.

The memories of the shrunken head sprang to mind when I finished the Red Light Special. I thought something looked a bit wrong, and when I tried it on I realised that unless my friend had a shrunken head, he wasnt going to be able to wear it. Infact the only person in the house who could reasonably model it was Eric the Easter Island Statue. And even he doesnt look too happy.



So, what to give my friend for his birthday?? Woolly Wormhead to the rescue! Ferreting around in my stash produced some lovely Morehouse Merino that once upon a time had been intended for children's mittens. (This was before global warming.) Some quick knitting during Lloyd's sleeps produced a nice, basic beanie which fits a normal adult head. Phew.

An actual FO and an almost FO

An actual FO! I forgot it in the excitment of my previous post! Here are the finished socks for the Squeeze. If you look carefully in the background you'll see evidence of the enormous amount of little visitors that we've had recently.


And here is my holiday knitting and reading. Barry Maitland has written a number of books*, and they are all excellent. The Redlight Special is coming along ok. The pattern is a breeze, but I'm not entirely happy with my slacker's decision to use Noro sock yarn instead of using acutal different coloured yarn in order to avoid weaving in lots of ends. If I made it again using Noro, I'd choose specific colour sections instead of just letting it come what may. I'll post it again when its an actual FO.


*If you like crime fiction. My favourite is Silvermeadow, where he manages to evoke all the terror of the forest in medieval times in a modern day shopping mall.

West coast charm offensive

Little Lloyd has been sweeping all before him in his west coast charm offensive.We've been in Perth for the last two weeks meeting and greeting Lloyd's extended family. During this time he has learnt to smile, gurgle, wriggle even more, kick like a mule and generally be adored by all who behold him. (No, despite there being crossover time between us leaving for Perth and the Pope being in town, there wasnt a guiding star in the sky.) Here is Lloyd in one of his visiting outfits. I especially like that he's coordinating his hair style, the baby mullet, with his shirt.


We stayed a couple of days in Fremantle, which was ace. The old part of Fremantle is fabulous. Its filled with old buildings


enigmatic shops


and archane institutions.


Not to mention the shopping! Got these skirts from Hustle.


And these boots from Bob's. They made me think of Rose Red, Supergirl and Wonder Woman. I can do anything in these boots!

And the winner is.....

While I used a scientifically validated method to decide the winner (ie drew a name out of those who called it for Lloyd), I'd like to specially mention Charisse for her judge-inducing comments that Lloyd is adorable, and Lara for her words of wisdom that babies grow while screaming, while socks tend not to grow while babies scream

Anyhoo - heres the proof of who is longer, Lloyd or the sock:


And the winner is Lara! Email me Lara and let me know which skein you'd like. The runner up (drawn from everyone who commented) is Chris. Drop me an email Chris and I'll send you the remaining skein.

It was a close run thing there for a while - until Lloyd stretched out his long, long legs. Personally I would have bet on the sock, but now I know where all the energy gained from feeding every 2 - 3 hours is going. He reminds me a bit of Inspector Gadget with his 'go go Gadget legs'!

The socks are almost done - proving a number of things to me. Its still a joy to make socks, they should not be so entirely absent from my wips and theres time to squeeze knitting in around the edges of the round the clock feeding cycle. Now to find some knitting patterns for little boys. Anyone have any suggestions?