I think I may have overdone it!

I have been knitting furiously (mainly trying to beat my own times, finishing hats/mitts in a day) and have suddenly hit a wall. It took me about 4 days to finish the last mitts I knit. So this is my collection so far for charity.

But now I'm all agitated. I don't want to knit but I want to do something!

I tried tatting and ruined a couple of pendant bases playing with those and then I remembered I had another scissor fob half completed. Ah! Something to keep my hands and the details side of my brain occupied!

So I finished the brown fob and started another. Let's see if my knitting mojo returns if I pretend to ignore it for a while.

See you all later!
Dx

I've been busy!

I have! Well, Hubbie had holidays in the last weeks of August and we decided we'd visit home (in Albany!) and then go back to Kellerberrin, pick up our little caravan and head off to Kalbarri where Hubbie's parents were staying with their caravan. Being a bit Asperger's like youngest son the idea of leaving home where all my things are makes me fairly anxious and apprehensive but, ah well....off we go!

See? Don't I look eager to go??

Anyway, I enjoyed the first part, mainly because I got to spend as much time as I liked with my Mum and Dad and I like that since Dad is a bit like me and Jordan, fairly daubed with the Aspergers brush! and my Mum's the friendliest, most outgoing person I know of except my eldest son! Genetics is such a tricky bugger!

While I was there though I'd started knitting these simple beanies for a knit4charity group in W.A. asking for teenage boys beanies and mitts. They're just a reverse garter stitch brim and simple stocking stitch body with a basic 4-corner decrease.  Really easy, mindless knitting and a great way to use up small amounts of stash yarn. Gives a great edge to the beanie. Anyway, I started knitting a few of these. I could complete 1 a day and was pretty stoked with that.

Anyway, returned home, hitched up caravan, packed up a bag of stash and two dog's and headed off to Kalbarri. Considering we didn't head off till 12 in the afternoon, we knew there was next to no chance of us making it the Kalbarri that day. So we didn't try and stayed in Carnamah! Which was really nice. I never thought I'd miss the place when I first moved there but it was really nice to return, even for just one night!

Always loved the mural on the only supermarket in town!

Hubbie and Dogs play in Carnamah Sports Oval

So next morning, up and off to Kalbarri! It really is a pretty place and the caravan park we stayed at was really nice but being the social cripple I am, I stayed in the caravan mostly. Not of course when the dogs were all there but fortunately they stayed mostly with Hubbie's parents in their much larger van and annex!

Not much room in the van!

Kalbarri Sunset!

So we had a lovely holiday. Hubbie thoroughly enjoyed his time with his parents and I didn't make a complete tit of myself by being overly reluctant to be in company because I didn't know what the social situation was supposed to be or have a huge hypo (because being slightly aspergers isn't enough, throw in Insulin-dependent Diabetic since 14 too!)  so I was pretty happy and I had knit so many of these cute beanies! While I was in Albany I'd bought a heap of DMC tapestry wool skein's Spotlight seemed to be getting rid of cheap and they were so many great different colours so I'd been doing some of the brims in them...and they were really great! Once we got home I was looking forward to finding out how many I'd managed to knit and give them a wash and final tidying up.

I had 12 beanies! I'd meant to knit 10 but clearly got ahead of myself. A couple of them had unavoidable knots and one had heaps because I used all the off-cuts of the tapestry wool knotted together to knit up the final beanie. I wanted to cover these up but first I washed them all, just to prove that none of them were delicate little flowers since I figured they'd need to stand up to fairly indifferent handling if they were going to teenage boys! They all passed!

Okay, I have...8 beanies?

No! I have...11?

Well, 11 not including scrap beanie :)

So once they were all dried I decided to sew little scraps of felt over the knots. I have HEAPS of different coloured felt so it made it really easy. Just little 1cm squares were fine for the one or two knots on some of the beanies but I went to town with the Stash Scrap beanie!

Front Side...

Join Side

Isn't it cute?? Hubbie calls it my Hippy Dippy Hat!. I reckon it works really well. There were lots of knots so this really was the only solution. I couldn't sew them all in without it showing really badly. But this way it's a great design feature!

I'm so pleased with this beanies and their many different colours and shades. But I wont be happy till I've knitted the same amount of mitts! 

This is why I say I knit compulsively! 

See you all later :)

Dx

And the boxes come out again!

Yes! We are on the move again! I mean, hey! we've been in this town now for nearly 2 and a half years!! Crikey! Got to love the Police Service. But Hubbie and I are looking forward to a new place, a part of W.A. that we've never lived in (I've never even seen it!) and new experiences so we're fairly philosophical about things.
But!...That means I have to pack up my wool and sewing room!
Horrors!!
Actually I could just leave it to the removalist to do but the disbelieving looks on their faces when they're faced with three walls of shelving FILLED with yarn makes me uncomfortable so I do it for them.

...They should thank me!
There's a bit of wool still on the shelves in the top picture. I ran out of boxes. But that's okay. When I get another big box like all of the others I can pack up my variegated yarns, novelty yarns, feltable yarns and then probably open the basket box behind the packing boxes in the corning which are full of my cone yarns and pack them too. Do you think we're done?
Oh, how little you know me!
No, still in the cupboard is my small hoard of spinnable rovings and slivers as well as some unprocessed fleece, not to mention my embroidery frames, collection of small cross stitch patterns, boxes of small balls of yarn and just to top it all off, my huge box holding my wedding dress, hooped petticoat and veil.
There!
Now I'm done!
(Well, excluding the magazines and knitting needles but hey, you get the idea!)
So what is my point behind all this?
I don't like packing up my yarn...
...what if I need some of it?
Seriously! I get anxious packing up this vast plethora of yarns and fibres with the misguided thought that somehow a purpose will suddenly materialise for some miscellaneous ball of yarn the minute I tape down the top of the box despite the fact that the last time I looked at that yarn was when I unpacked last time!!
So to try and assuage this miasma of anxiety I have kept some projects out just so I have a couple of projects going that I can vacillate between and distract myself from the trauma of the packing process.
Unfortunately I have completed one already.
The Alpaca Warmers are a pattern I've had on my list to do for ages and since I thought they'd be complicated enough (they have a lace pattern on the back of the hand after all!) I thought I'd give them a go. I decided to use a lovely yarn I have by Moda Vera simply called Angora blend. And they aren't kidding! The angora content of this yarn caused me nothing but problems but not of a knitting nature. All the fine fibre filaments that come off the yarn as you knit make my nose feel itchy the whole time! But when you touch the gloves it makes it all worth while. They are SO SOFT!!!
I chose to knit these both at the same time. The only time this was a problem was the couple of times I had to unravel a couple of rows to fix a problem but it wasn't too difficult. I just decanted the mitt I needed onto DPN's and then knit them back onto the circular needle when I fixed them.

 These took longer than I thought they would but the lace wasn't actually that hard. I just kept losing my place on the pattern because I was trying to read but it really got complicated when I got to the lace pattern up near the fingers. You have to actually look at the mitts to realize where in the lace pattern to start each row. But well worth it!

All done, off the circular!...and now excuse me while I blow my nose again because I can feel the residual effect of tiny fibres!!!

Oh wait. Pointless vanity shots!

So there is one of my distraction projects done. Bother. I wonder what I'll do now....

...that's not going to be a problem, let me tell you! Later :)

Okay, and the list of completed works...

This is what happens when you don't keep up with this stuff. I've got a heap of projects I've completed since moving to Carnamah. But should I put them all on the one post? It's not like I don't have enough wip to keep me busy!

Ah well, let's see...

I finished the Shetland Shorty almost as soon as I'd finished unpacking my wool room...

Then I started to go through some of my stash, trying to use up those bits that were too much  not to use but not enough to make anything substantial.

So I made a waterfall scarf...

And a ripple scarf out of the same cotton-ribbon yarn.

 I used up a small ball of really pretty blue-teal flecked acrylic I'd been promising to make a pair of mitts with since there wasn't enough to do anything else with it. 

Turned out really nicely :)

I used some ice green yarn I had, from Bendigo Mills, beautifully soft and made up a very simple shawl.

Tess of the D'urbervilles Shawl

 Using some nice earthy coloured acrylic yarn I'd bought at Spotlight in Geraldton and marked another project off my Ravelry Queue with this simple scarflette with flower. Took only a couple of days to knock up!

Used an old penny turned into a button for the flower's centre!

Oh yes! My proudest project though was the Hex Mesh Socks that I finally finished after what seemed like forever! I used up all the yarn I'd reserved for them and was forced to use some white baby yarn that I had on hand to finish them. But it looks really good, almost like I meant to do it that way! So proud!

They look so PRETTY!!

So there we are. I've been in Carnamah, what, two maybe three months? I reckon that's a pretty good haul! And that doesn't even include the 4 or 5 projects I have on the go at the moment! I have all this stash and so many ideas!! I love it!!!!!

Okay, I'll calm down now. 

Happy Knitting :)

Here it comes...2012

Wow, I haven't posted in ages. I find it  hard to use this as a journal, especially when I can't think of anything to say. But!
I finally caved and took some of my pendants down to the only specialty gift store we have here and asked if she could sell them for me. She thought they were beautiful (which was nice) and said she's never seen anything like the tatting motifs in resin before (goody!). After fluffing around when she asked me how much I'd sell them for (what? you mean I should know that? Oh, er...) we settled on $9 each. She took 10 and before the day had finished she rang to say she'd already sold one! So that was very encouraging! Certainly more so than etsy where I haven't managed to shift a thing!

I got some different frames too. These are a lot easier to handle compared with the resin. Just glass slides in a frame with a piece of tatting trapped between. See how we go for the rest of the year. The lady suggested knitting some mitts and headbands and she'd have a look because they go quick during winter and she doesn't really like the cheapee chinese mass-produced ones.
This year could be an interesting one with lots of curly decisions popping up here and there. Youngest son is getting ready to embark on not one but two massive adventures. Moving to Perth and living almost independently as well as attending uni to further his education. For any other 17 almost 18 year old boy this would be daunting enough but with his Aspergers it throws one more variable into a mix already fraught with possible OMG moments! He's got the support of a lot of really good professionals and we're hoping to hear more back soon since the course he wants to enter begins Feb 21st.
Oh dear. Where's the brown paper bag. I think I'm starting to hyperventilate again!!!
Also Hubbie's two years is up here so he's starting to have to think about where we're likely to choose to be transfered to next. Not looking forward to that since anywhere we choose is bound to be a long way from here, from my parents and I'll probably have to find another job. I hate that!
But none of this has happened yet. 2012 is starting to look like another one of those pivitol years...
...I'm not sure I like that.
Ah well. There's always knitting :)

My Shop is Open and with Stuff to Sell!!

Yes indeedy! I finally got brave and started putting just a few of my things on there at a time. Still getting really pretty pics of my pendants but so far I've got about 5 knitted items and 1 tatted pendant up on my shop site.

These are the knits. I've only shown 1 set of mitts because I've got three of the same design but different colourways. Very cosy and easy fit!

 

I've got heaps more to put up! Since I'm such a compulsive knitter I have to get rid of some of it before me and my family get smothered under it all! So please come and have a look. You might find just the perfect gift for someone this christmas, be it a cosy knit of a piece of unique jewellery!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/danie17

Look forward to see you :)

New Wool to Love :)

I found this gorgeous wool at Spotlight called Isla. It's soft, lightly spun and slightly thick and thin. 50% virgin wool and 50% Polyacrylic. I'd hoped it would felt but obviously the wool has been treated because it didn't shrink a bit when I tested it! But I found the perfect pattern for it's wonderful colours, especially as the temperature begins it's seasonal plummet!
This is the pattern from Ravelry - Fast and Fearless Mitts
And these are my attempts :)

Aren't they pretty? I love them all!
Happy Knitting :)