It seemed extraneous at the time...

All done Deb...

And without further ado here are your completed socks (apologies for the crap photo);

Now you have to catch up with me to pick them up, hehehe!

And in things not to be doing when a friend comes round for a coffee #346; don't be knitting yourself a pair of scrummy new socks in totally gorgeous Trekking XXL 169 that your friend will covet and decide look much better with her new olive green Crocs than they will on your own feet. Sigh. Here is the start of what will now be Carol's socks;

And I have a new yarn love - Miss Babs from Woolgirl. This is my current fave of the, ahem, several that have made their way to my yarn basket. This is Terracotta Tile - totally gorgeous! It's all I can do not to cast on, but I must finish up a couple in progress first. I'm practising restraint ;o)

You win some, you lose some...

A couple of weeks ago we decided that it was the right time to sell our house. And we decided that we would rent for a while and not make any rash decisions about what we did next. Take time to decide if we wanted to buy again (hopefully when the property market slumps a bit, lol) or look for land and build (I married an architect, I may as well get free house plans out of him, lol). We were not going to go to any Open Homes and fall madly in love with unsuitable properties, hell no! So I won't mention the superbly renovated character bungalow we saw today that is quite possibly my Dream House. Nope, not gonna go there. Going to weep quietly into my pillow tonight instead about crap timing and stupid emotional responses to bits of wood and paint and wake up with no memory of said Dream House. Sigh.

On the win side however, we have finally booked the flights for our trip to Melbourne in September - woohoo! And we got a total bargain as Jet Star were having a 3rd birthday sale - buy one flight and get the second for $3. Yep, three bucks! I love me a bargain. I am already hunting down quilting and knitting stores so any recommendations gratefully received.

And now, in order to restore Nora's equilibrium after sending a small ripple through her monochromatic world with the Fleece Artist 'Paris' pic, here is my 3 skein haul of Sundara Yarn; these are so gorgeous I don't know which one to start with!

In praise of tools - Part 1:

I may have said this in another post but it bears repeating. For me, crafting is not just about the finished objects but about the process. Perhaps the process more than anything else. And because the process is so important so are the raw materials and tools that are used during the process. The exponential growth of my yarn stash since February of this year is testament to my lust  passion for gorgeous raw materials. But I have also been aquiring some pretty fabulous tools as well.

My favourite needles for general knitting are Addi Turbo Circulars and when I decided to try knitting socks with two circs I started the quest for small size Addi's immediately. And I have greatly enhanced my needle options for both socks and general knitting thanks to this awesome Ebayer. 6 pairs for US$36!

Once I had all those circs and my existing stash of dpns I needed some way to store them and my pink Elmer pencil tin just wasn't cutting the mustard. And then I found the fabulous Jen from Honeycake Designs and my search was over. I chose this fabulous Japanese print with brown piping and lining. I love it! Jen makes cases for regular needles, dpns, circs, crochet hooks, and combinations of all the above. Her sewing is exquisite, with perfect finishing. I expect to be usig this beautiful case for a very long time.

Conquering technology...

paris cake, originally uploaded by marmys.

or trying to anyway! just seeing if I can blog a photo straight from flickr to the blog.

Carol, this is the Fleece Artist 'Paris' for your socks - hope you likey!

raindrops on roses...

and whiskers on kittens...or somesuch. Well, the rain is pouring today and that is definitely one of my favourite things. Roll on winter I say, lol. Thank you all for the lovely comments and birthday wishes for the Little Guy - it warms a mama's heart when people are kind enough to agree with her that her baby is gorgeous, lol!

So I had some yarn pr0n to photograph but the rain put paid to that so I have indoor shots only I'm afraid. First up, here ya go blogless Deb, sock number 1 is finished and I will be casting on number 2 after this post. Yarn is Lisa Souza sock! in Wildthings in a 3x1 rib. You'll know I love ya Deb when I actually hand over these socks - they are squishy and warm and I adore the colours.

I did get something rather special in the mail today...

Yep, you are seeing correctly. That is 4 skeins of the now very rare Sweet Georgia yarn. Enough River for a pair of socks and 2 single skeins in berry shades that I will be teaming up with some Louet Gems to make Mad Cows.

In the meantime they are supposed to come and live in my varigated stash basket, but it's getting rather er, full! Every couple of days I change around which yarns are on top so I can enjoy them all.

My favourite wool wash is definitely Soak (especially flora) from The Loopy Ewe, but while I was waiting for my last order I had to use something else. So I tried a New Zealand made product that I really like now too - but I have to admit that the packaging is what drew me in the first instance (I am a marketers dream, lol!) - but c'mon, who could resist this;

Righto, back to the needles which currently hold 5 different socks *blush* - so much for monogamy!

Nothin' but cute...

Typepad hates me today. It was my turn to do Mojo Monday over at the ScrapArtist Hub (yes, I know it's not Monday anymore but we artistes aren't always that flash with mere technicalities like dates etc), and I could not get my images to inbed in the post - i got so frustrated i had to go outside to cool down lest i sully the innocent ears of the Little Guy. Fortunately I was rescued by the lovely Isabelle and my post finally uploaded. So if you fancy a little ramble about art inspiration and colour, head on over to the Hub (where you can also pick up a freebie of textured background papers by moi).

Speaking of the Little Guy, he had a lovely birthday weekend complete with  trips to Willowbank Wildlife Reserve, the Atlantis themed local indoor pool, and green & blue cupcakes. His favourite part seemed to be dancing in the picnic area at Willowbank (they were playing some very dodgy Benny Hill-esque music which he worringly loved!);

And if that's not enough cute for ya, how about this little fella (who was as soft as he looks when I scratched behind his little ears) -

Or how about this - we always know that Winter is coming when the kitty love fests start up;

I have 4 socks on the go at the moment and no pics til I upload some tomorrow. So I shall continue with the cute theme and leave you with a couple of favourite shots of the little guy at 2. Happy birthday Poppy, mummy loves you to the moon and back.

 

Happy days are here again…

Yes, the Bluebird of happiness appears to have alighted on my shoulder once again. Audible sighs of relief can be heard from those in close physical proximity to me. Celebrated my return to normality by scoring 1 2 3 skeins of Sundara Almost Solid – squeeeeee. Here is the progress on my first Sundara Monkey;

Yes, the observant among you may have noticed that my Rosey Charcoal Monkey is being knit on my brand new KnitPicks metal dpns (thanks SecretPal!). I cast on with circs and then swapped over after the first round of ribbing. So what do I think? I really like them. They are surprisingly heavy and feel substantial in the hands (these are the 2.5mm). I have not found them to be ouchingly pointy, but they are pointy enough to make ssk etc a snap – I love that I don’t have to worry about how much pressure I put on the needle. The 2mm dpns look pointier but I’m optimistic that won’t be a problem. I don’t recall poking myself much with my bamboo dpns and believe me, if I sat on a needle it’s coming out the loser! I also really like the feel of the metal in my hands and how it warms up after a couple of rounds of knitting. I have not experienced any slipping of yarn off the needles, but as I have only tried them with one type of yarn so far I will let you know if I have problems with more ‘slippery’ yarns. So far they knit smoothly and without incident. And I like the 6" length. So all in all I can definitely recommend that you try them if you have been thinking about it (and if you don’t like them you can send them on to me, lol). I also highly recommend those cool purple dpn holders you can also see in the photo - another temptation from my favourite pusher (ya know I'm joking Sheri!).

And on other needles (don’t panic Carol/Debbie yours are being cast on too!) I decided that my next Sanity Sock would be the Opal Rainforest in Toucan from The Loopy Ewe. It looks fairly ‘eh’ in the ball (which I rewound into a yarn cake just because I could and the Little Guy finds it amusing) but when you start knitting you get hooked on the whole ‘just one more row’ number, because you want to see what the next colour does, lol. I am so very easily amused.

Am finding myself feeling nostalgic at the moment, brought on by the fact that my baby turns 2 on Sunday! I can’t believe how far we have come.

Cut me down...

I've been bought and sold and I've been hung upside down. Can you hear me breathing? do you think it's easy? - Lloyd Cole

Yep, it's that kind of week. But there was some light in the murk today. When I got home there was a scrummy big box from my Secret Pal 10 - squeeeeee! She had already hinted in an email that it might contain some Easter treats and she did not disappoint! Behold my bounty of goodies;

Yes Carol, those are Reece's Peanut Butter Eggs (does it get any better than that??!). And I got KnitPicks dpns in my 2 most used sizes (0 & 1) - KnitPicks don't ship to New Zealand and I have been dying to try these - yippee!! She sent me a lovely card (handmade!) with a message that I really needed today;

And as if she hadn't already won me over she sent presents for the Little Guy (and unwittingly sent my favourite plaything too - hehehe);

Thank you SP - you rock!!

Flying Monkeys...

Today has kicked my metaphorical arse big time and I gots nothing people. Excpet finished Monkeys. Which I love. And when I publish this post I am casting on another pair in my Sundara Charcoal over Rose. And with that, I am off to my Happy Place...

Never count your stash – never!

I just added up what I had in stash and what I have in transit to the stash. Why did I do that? I must’ve had a complete brain fart to think any good could come of counting the stash. Especially a stash that has only been growing since February – of this year! I must temporarily reign myself in (apart from my valiant ongoing attempts to score some Yarn Pirate). No more sock yarn until I finish another 5 pairs. Is it possible to knit 5 pair in a week? I know I can knit a pair in 2 days…

5 Pair menu;

• It is starting to get decidedly chilly here in the evenings so next up will be Deb’s socks in the Lisa Souza Wildthings (in a 3x1 rib and stockinette combo).
• Another pair of Monkey’s in Sundara almost solid for me
• Carol’s socks in Fleece Artist ‘Paris’ (also 3x1 rib and stockinette)
• A pair of Jaywalkers (yes, I know I’m late to the party) in Twisted self-striping for me
• A pair of as yet undetermined pattern socks in green/violet for my little sister who is freezing her tootsies off in a student flat in the Deep South.

Plus I want to knit two pair of Fetchings (one for me and one for a ?lucky someone else, lol) and a pair of Eunny’s Endpaper Mitts a la The Knitting Philistine for me also. It is getting very cold in my office and I have to do a lot of typing and note taking…

I have almost finished the first pair of Monkey’s. One pattern repeat and the toe shaping to go. I love this pattern but as I do not love the yarn it is knit in these will be very cosy house socks. Probably just as well when I realised that I had completed a different number of pattern repeats on the legs (and yet strangely they appear to be the same length when I put them on??) and then with my mishaps in the car I ended up knitting an extra knit row or two on one pattern repeat and one less on another – eh, it’ll all come out in the wash! I am considering this my practice round before I start the next pair in my truly fabulous Sundara Almost Solid;

I have also nearly finished my current Sanity Socks in Trekking XXL 100. The shoes in the photo below I bought especially with handknit socks in mind - people do that right? These are handmade Last Footwear Company Mary Janes in dark charcoal sueded leather that retail for $180. I won them on Trademe.co.nz (the NZ equivalent of EBay) for $26 - in mint condition, I don't think the seller had even worn them!

On the multicrafting front I finally feel like my scrapping mojo might be making a return as I actually managed to create two layouts last night that I was actually happy with. And if I’m not allowed to buy any sock yarn then I might have to pick up a few digi bits and pieces…