six and a half stitches

Skanks

Skank - A large hank which needs to be twisted to keep it from falling apart.
It does not smell.

Something my mouth made up when my brain forgot to think properly while talking about hanks and skeins.

If You Go Down To The Woods Today

Be sure to stop in and pay due respect to the Goddess of wool and colour - Marta. Marta is in Melbourne, and having drooled copiously over my very, very dear friends purchases there, she took me there on Saturday for my first trip. Our little trip had been planned for a while, and as the day came closer, I did start to get a bit worried I wouldn't find anything I liked, or that her stock would have magically dissapeared overnight.....but no!!! And the photos proof it!! Wool upon wool upon wool, no two balls the same, and the colours - my god its enough to make a girl swoon. I have come away with enough wool for many projects, and a desire for more (but later, once my credit card cools down). I've put a full run down in the photo album Waiting Patiently.

And I couldn't resist, I cast on for the sheer poncho in Magknits - a very fine mohair in deliciously dark colours. I'd take a photo, but a) the wool is so subtle you'd not understand what the hell I was rambling on about, and b) It's only about 2cm in length so far, so not very interesting. But, the colour - wow, what a delight to knit with! It's really dark black/brown, with little shots of murky light green, a hint of wine, and a splash of something slightly metallic every now and then. Up close there's not too much colour variegation, but as I knit, each stitch brings with it some new colour joy. When it gets a bit longer, then I think I'll take a photo.

I can't wait to get started on some of the others and see what they unfold!

And finally I'm getting around to making a needle roll. I've drawn a pattern up, and on the weekend we also went fabric shopping (in amongst wool, eating, wool and more eating) and I've found the most beautiful colour selection and fabric patterns to make it from.

But wait! There's more! I have to love my MIL for her ability to own 5 of every gadget imagineable, including 2 (!!) ball winders. Ok, so one's broken, but I have a magic ball winder for all that Danette Taylor yarn.

Ahhhhh. Better get knitting then hadn't I! From afar I can hear Marshall calling, knit me! knit me! knit me. Nearly done my sweet, then I can play......

Secret Pals

Thankyou Secret Pal for letting me know you exist!! I had a crap start to the day because the dear lovely lady (not) next to me on the bus decided not to tell me the seat was sopping wet..........I'm still drying off.....so your little message was really just what I needed.

I also know who my secret pal is now, and am busy figuring out what she likes and things to send, and in what order ;p I'm trying to come up with a list of sleuthing questions.......

Today Master M and I ventured into The Shopping Centre world. It's not something we do all that often, but sometimes it's just easier with a youngun' in tow. We went in to get socks for hubby, who had announced this morning that all his socks had packed up and gone away somewhere he couldn't find them. And he looked quite distraught at this, so I offered to get socks for him.

We came away with:
4 pairs of socks
1 pair of summer sandals for Master M
1 magazine
1 plastic picnic set for Master M
1 baby doll for Master M
1 shopping basket with plastic food for Master M

I had wanted to get a tea set for Master M as he's rather taken with his new little table and chair set and quite gets into playing with his little friends' set. And given I've searched high and low for a little plastic tea set (try it - they're actually quite hard to come by and dear hubby was not particularly enamoured with my suggestion I knit Master M a set even though I really need a reason to do the Fiesta Tea Party pattern) when I finally came across not one but 2 versions today, I politically incorrectly chose the more boyish one and avoided the very pink sparkly set, and went for the picnic set instead. I'm figuring an 18month old wont be able to tell the difference....This leads on from a conversation I had recently with a social worker about toys and 'play'. I had told her of Master M's love of tea parties and that I was searching for a tea set. And then she hit me with 'do I have a doll for him'. Now, we're not ones for enforcing gender stereotypes on our child, but even I was a little taken back by the thought of buying a doll for my little boy. He's VERY into cars......what on earth would he do with a doll???????? So I've been priming myself for the last few weeks to buy a doll. A friend dropped a catalogue by this morning, and in that I can get a disabled doll, with wheelchair or guide dog and stick (yes really), or I could get an aboriginal boy doll. Suddenly the Love Me Tender dolls looked kind of ok. But how freaky are toy dolls these days????!!! I can get one which looks like its possessed by the devil, one which looks like a chipmunk, and one which looks like its about to have a major tantrum (and I already have a real life one of them). We went for the 'incredibly lifelike pure plastic' kind of smirking doll.

And you know what, Master M loves it! He lay her out and fed her the plastic corn from the shopping basket (I knew there was a real reason we needed to buy that lot) and let her drink water from a cup through her ear. There's the making of a sensitive guy yet. Bless.

And given this is a knitting site, yes, I have been doing some knitting amongst the great mother stuff and internet shopping. Marshall's front is done, and I get to start the sleeves now.....which means knitting the rib part with my deliciously lovely ebony needles - sigh-

A Very Big Thankyou...

...To the very kind Nicole who has helped me get the buttons right.........you are a star!

Meatheads

Due to the fact I can't for the life of me figure out how to get the image buttons on the left to link direct to a web page (if there is anyone out there who can tell me how I would be forever gratefull), I'm just going to have to write a nice link to this fabulous find yesterday.

To which I say there should be more of it and I only hope there's a hat left for me......please?

It Never Ends - Stash Pt361

Ok I swear this is the last of the Danette Taylor stash.

Honest.

First up, 3 skeins of Honey Alpaca lace weight, and secondly a skein of Tahiti sock weight. No idea what I'm going to do with them, but watch this space.....Guess this means more ball winding and sore fingers (or I could use the toilet roll as someone kindly suggested....).

Gotta Love That Koigu - Stash Pt206

Ok, I jumped on the Koigu bandwagon. I didn't mean to, it just happened. They just kind of drew me in. I'm still waiting for the Charlottes Web pattern, then I can start. I don't think my lighting conditions are doing the wool any favours, but they're really deep reds/rusts/purples and yellows, which should work well in the Web. And the wool feels so lovely - can't wait to use it. I've been eyeing up other peoples colour choices and purchases for other projects, and I can see more Koigu appearing in my stash in the future because the colour selection is just fab.

Just noone tell hubby....

Sweet

How cute are these little bundles of joy! These are balls of Bramble colourway from Danette Taylor in sock and lace weight. Danette has been such a pleasure to buy wool from, and the colours are just beautiful.

Sore Fingers

I started winding my little balls of wool from all my big skeins last night, and my little fingers ache. Holding incy wincy balls until they become bigger balls is hard work. Especially when you don't have a wool winder.....But oh how cute they look!!! And the colours change quite a lot once they've been wound. I almost wipped the needles out and knitted test swatches up in my excitement. The fact it was 1am prevented me. And I still haven't wound it all, so there's more to do tonight.

Thanks M-H for the clasp suggestion: I have The Button Shop firmly in my sights. I LOVE that shop just as much as you. Oh the excuses I make to go there...ahhhhhhhhh!!

I've finally found somewhere with the Charlottes Web pattern in stock, so I hope that will be flying itself across to me soon even though I've paid more than everyone else for it. Having now wound all this wool, I really want to start on something with it as I can feel the colours pulling me in and then I wont feel like I'm in the Charlottes Web knit way way way behind.

I've also been eyeing up some of the Monkeysuit patterns
for Max and friends that I can use wool from my stash with. Very cute little patterns!