Cracking Chrissie Korkies!

Well the festivities came and went with the blinking of an eye, and the cracking of a Korknisse!!

I wanted to knit many more of these little korkies than I had time for, but next year I plan to be very prepared!

These little fellows were knit up and packaged in pretty shiny colours in preparation for the gifting :)

Very well received!

It's a fabulous little pattern, originally sourced here, but Elliphantom's troops of 'nisse are VERY inspiring too! :) I altered the pattern somewhat - no ribbing and basically knit intuitively seeing as the design is rather simply (yet ingenious!!) and stopped/decreased when it seemed right!

I loved these little people so much it was very difficult to part with them! I think I'll have to knit up a few to keep our mantelpiece company *grin*

I hope everyone enjoyed the festivities with much laughter and love and remains safe and happy as we encounter the New Year!

Christmas times

A Christmas Meme for Christmas times :)

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper! But generally some sort of unusual wrappings, this year was newspaper with hand made gift tags and colour co-ordinating ribbons - hurrah!!
2. Real or artificial tree? Artificial - I LUFF the tree situation - decorating, having one inside etc.. lovely :)
3. When do you put up the tree? As soon as possible! This year I was behind the gun though and put it up late in the first week of December.
4. When do you take it down? Take it down?
5. Do you like eggnog? The only eggnog I've had comes in a carton - pre-made flavoured milk! I've never tried to REAL stuff!
6. Favorite gift received as a child? My incredibly blessed childhood and family, and the magical sparkle-fest of love and wonder instilled in me
7. Do you have a nativity scene? Nope
8. Hardest person to buy for? No one :)
9. Easiest person to buy for? Well I'm not really digging the "buy for" part here.. And everyone I know is fabulously fun to gift things too! Some require a little more thought and scheming, but that's all part of the fun
10. Worst Christmas present you ever got? Gah! It's not a about the presents people!!
11. Mail or email Christmas cards? Well, in theory mail them... but I don't think I've managed to successfully send out a batch of Festivuss cards yet!! This year I plan to send belated ones - they're GOING dammnit!! Late or not!
12. Favorite Christmas movie? Ooohh.. I don't really have one actually!
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? All through the year - see something perfect, snaffle it up. Have a great crafterly idea, get straight onto it!
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Not in the sens of re-gifting one. But I've certainly gone through a few edible items and recycled the packages.. and such..
15. Favorite thing to eat on Christmas? Oooh cherries! ADORE cherries and they come out around Christmas time here and I get stuck in!
16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Clear lights, but generally none on the tree
17. Favorite Christmas song? Hmmm... tricky as I have so many.. Chestnuts roasting on an open fire (The Christmas Song?), practically anything sung by Frank and Bing!
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home?
Always travel of some description, but all our family are within the same state and city area so that helps.
19. Can you name all of Santa’s Reindeer? I certainly can! And as a child it was my intention to have EIGHT German Shephards when I grew up, each named after one of the reindeer *grin*
20. Angel or star on top of tree? A star :)
21. Open presents Christmas Eve or morning? Sometime on Christmas day
22. Most annoying thing this time of year? The commercial nature of Christmas and how much people subscribe to that and get caught up in the pressure, stress, and performance anxiety of it all. It DOESN'T have to be about that, people!!!
23. Do you decorate your tree in any theme or color? No, the tree is home to a fabulous mix of ornaments and styles, each with its own memory and story :)
24. What do you leave for Santa? This year he went without, poor love,though gauging by his waistline the odd house or two with no goodies isn't a bad thing for his health.. but normally a carrot or so for the reindeer and a glass of milk for the old fellow - yes, he gets MILK, we can't have him careening all around in this sleigh, can we?

(Sorry to have put you through this Sagish Rabbit!)

Festivuss Love

My little friends here and I hope you've all enjoyed a safe and snuggly time over the festive period - whatever celebrations you get into.

May your days be filled with love and laughter, tasty treats and good company - and may your needles be ever-clicking!

xoxo

Gift Knitting

Oh, yes!! There has been much festive knitting!

But I cannot say more..

Oh, yes! I have pictures!!

But I cannot show more...

Such is the way with the sleuthing of Gift Knitting...

It must remain censored, until all knitted gifts have been gifted knittingly...

...

Happenings and not happenings?

I've been quite anxious lately, not about the fast-approaching festivities, but simply in life and from the happenings and not happenings of life! Cryptic I know, but basically I've been realising I this anxiety is something about myself that will not just go away on its own, that I need to work at it and constantly challenge myself.

Last night I was feeling extremely wound up and ended up, in very un-Sasha style, completely gutting, cleaning and sorting the entire freezer! Look at that puppy sparkle!!

I've set up a fabulous schedule of tasks I want to complete and items I want to do within a time frame so I can feel secure that everything will get done and all will be well - because the schedule has sorted that out :)

Part of that scheduling involved looking at how much of the Swallowtail Shawl I need to complete each day in order to have it ready by the 25th.... well... about 6.75% per day. Which equals about 4 or 5 rows - which is doable, even around my hectic scheduling of events!!

Unfortunately last night as I was determined to get a few rows in as a head start, I found that not only am I one stitch over my stitch count for the row I'm on (the second nupp row of the first Lily Valley section) but I've also managed to get the stitches sort of out of alignment too!!

?!??!?!?!

I know!! How did this happen!? So I stalled last night and put it down for the time being. I need quickness of mind and longevity of patience to have a look at it again - today after work hopefully. I'm wondering if I can just add one stitch on the part that is one stitch too few, then do a double decreased later in the row where the extra stitches are... See, what's happened is on top of the extra stitch that's in there, the mis-alignment is caused by one area having one less stitch that needed, and further on down the row another section having TWO extra stitches - the extra stitch plus the one that should have been earlier! And if I simply ignore the misalignment and knit away those lovely nupp and yarn over fans will start off not so fan-nish, they'll be right on top of each other for that first pair.. hmmm.. don't know.. requires more thought..

Any suggestions please do fire away!! :)

Lovely weekend has been spent with friends and loved ones :) I saw a lovely friend's new house and gifted her some housewarming goodies wrapped up in an appropriately coloured knit face-cloth

Dad and I spent the afternoon putting together his new outdoor setting, after which we of course had to test them out with cool drinks and whilst eating our dinner looking out at the view from his porch!

Chilli decided, to our hilarity, that she wanted a chair too (this was even before the pizza was produced) and first up put her paws and chest on the little table, resting there and eye us off - part of the team. Then she went the whole hog and popped her little back feet up there and clung to the mini-table determined that she'd stay up there as part of our crew, not just the dog sitting on the floor!! Look at how gorgeous she is!!

The Chrissie deckies are gradually making their migration from boxes in the cupboard and hallway to their rightful place on the tree, mantel piece and household surrounds

But I'm not rushing into it this year - I want it to be a family affair and enjoyed by all :)

Rightio, must dash, I'm behind on my schedule now seeing as the whimsy to post and not COMPLETELY neglect my blog seemed to grab me spontaneously so I ignored the " take bike out to the shed " schedule task in favour of sitting here to blog a little!

NUPPS!!

I figured out the NUPPS!!!

*crazy dancing*

If I do the nupp row stitches reaaally loosely then the purl 5 togethers are a piece of cake!! CAKE I TELL YOU!!!

*more crazy dancing and hysterical giggling*

Maybe I will have this shawl finished by Christimuss!!!

Can't tell more, am too tired, but will post pictures and more excited gabblings tomorrow *grin*

Raccooning Austen

icanhascheezburger always comes through with the goods, and last night was no exception. I was scrolling through their posts and found this one -

Which for a Jane Austen fan is doubley hilarious! hehehee!

p.s. no post for a while - I know. My wrist is playing havoc at the moment, though I'm not sure why, too much PDA backgammon? Too much writing/typing? Heaven forbid... Too much Knitting?!?! So I'm trying to go easy on it :)

Fruit Punch!!

Last week whilst meeting up with some knitterly buddies I was able to return Ann's yarn to her - now slightly more colourful than before!!

Behold!! I have named it - Fruit Punch! For obvious reasons..

So now I can share the details and photos I took whilst dyeing but had to keep aside lest I spoil the surprise!

I've finally got the knack down for preparing the bench in a safe and stain-resistant manner, so I was able to go at it!! Spreading out the skein and painting away..

This photo shows the yarn before I added the black, which was intended to be stark strong black and contrast brilliantly with the popping fruity colours. But alas, you saw the outcome of that - murky and not at all what I had in mind! And so I redyed later, the results of which I used as that green sneak peek a few posts ago :)

So after besmirching it with black, then it travelled into the big pot, with a cup of water to ensure the yarn didn't dry out , and into the oven for a toasty moasty time!

After rinsing and drying the skein out I pondered on my dilemma with the yellow/black section and decided, as you know, that re-dyeing was the best, only even, solution! And here is the final result, being re-skeined.

The dye skein was to wide for my swift! Ack! So I improvised a handy box of books on the couch to help me re-wind!

So there you have it, or Ann has it to be precise! And I hope she loves the colours and enjoys knitting them up into something tangy and FRUITY!

NaKniJuMo!

Well, I didn't complete my Hoodii within November, so I didn't do a very good job at NaKniJuMo!! Started late and didn't even finish - ha! Nevermind, maybe next year I'll be in a better place to get my teeth really sunk in to this fun knit along.

So how did I go? I finished the torso and after much measuring and re-measuring I completed the armhole shaping too!! Hurrah!

So by the end of November I had a nice complete body section all done and dusted =D

I also started on the first sleeve, but I don't think that was technically in November! It's looking good though and I'm still completely smitten with Magic Loop:)

I plan to make the ribbing at the cuff a bit longer than the pattern, to match the longer ribbing at the hips. Plus this'll make the cuffs ultra-juicy in winter when it's super cold and I want to have the ribbing down over my knuckles too - and when it's not so freezey I can fold them up into a double cuff - yay!

Yesterday I sat with some of my lovely knitting sisterhood and learned yet another skill! The 3-needle bind off!

Ann is such an excellent tutor and had me binding off with the three needles in no time! It really is a very handy, quick and easy technique - I don't know why it's not more well known or commonly used?

So now my Hoodii torso is actually WEARABLE as a sort of incomplete vest! haha!

I'm really pleased with how it's coming along and have to FORCE myself to leave it alone while I do my frantic Christimuss Festivuss knitting!

Learning New Things

Festivuss is drawing ever closer, which means I MUST prise myself away from my Hoodii and get stuck into the Christmas knitting I have planned! I'll give an update on the Hoodii and how far I got in NaKniSweMo next time, but today I'm learning new things!

First up is the infamous NUPP. Oh yes, I'm into the border of the Swallowtail Shawl but have stalled there. I'm finding the nupps quite tricky. I tried the suggestion of [sl2, p3tog, psso] and managed one, but then I found even the purl three together was too difficult to get my needles under! So after a bit of reading today I've discovered a secret! On the preparatory row with the [k1, yo, k1, yo, k1] all into the same stitch I've been doing them with a normal tension - oh no my friend! The recommendation is to do those stitches VERY loosely, that way you're able to slip your needle underneath for a p5tog easy peasey! Plus the resultant nupp is nice, juicy and plump! hehe so that will be the order of the day! I shall unknit the prep row and redo it with very loose stitches and see how I go from there =D It's very exciting! I'm hit with the lace fever again!

The other form of learning came in a natty website called Free Rice.

A non-profit site that challenges you to work on your vocabulary by answering multiple choice word definition questions - the prize being twenty grains of rice donated per correct answer! The rice is donated through the U.N. and the site is funded by advertisers whose ads appear at the bottom of the screen in a pleasantly unobtrusive way. So far I've donated 740 grains of rice (about one bowl?) and am at vocab level 41. So go play! Improve your vocabulary and be involved in creating food for the hungry folks out there! But be warned, it's VERY addictive!!

This post was brought to you by our sponsor, the ChilliFund : an imaginary organisation raising bowls of dog-biscuits for food-obsessed insatiable hounds all over the world.

Add a splash of colour

It's like Mary Poppins said : "A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.." but in this case, it's a pageful of colour helps the study time go fast!

I needed post-it notes, and lo, behold what I found!!

Aren't they fabulous?

And just the ticket to brighten an otherwise dull and un-engaging desk full of black and white (and read all over?!) research!

Fantastic new runners

I have them!

And I'm EXCITED!!
*big grin*

Dye job - c'est fini!

Very exciting, and I'm thrilled with the outcome! But I'm afraid the only visionary delight I can share of the completed dyeing of Anne's yarn is this little sneak peek..

Once I've returned the skein to Anne and she's seen the final colours then I'll share it - but til then, I must be ninja-like and stealthy!!

p.s. You'll notice the above photo is the same section I photoed earlier - it was the troublesome area I had to re-dye, but now it is fabulous, hurrah! =D

Quick NakniJuMo update!

Well we're 86% or so through November, the month of NaKniSweMo and my NaKniJuMo, and yet I am only a third of the way through my Hoodii! Oh noes! So with 4 days left of November I going to kick it into top speed and see how much I can get done!!

This photo is from last week but I didn't have time to take and upload a current shot just at the minute. I've now completed both front of the armhole shaping, and I'm halfway through the back. So tonight I hope to finish off the back then do the shoulder/neck preparation rows - Anne's going to kindly show me how to do the 3 needle bind off on the shoulders, hurrah!!

So I think I'll get started on the sleeves until I see Anne next, that way I don't waste any time! Realistically I don't think Hoodii will be done by the end of NaKniJuMo, but given my high priority shawl and other gifties on the go that's not so surprising - and we'll SEE! MAYBE I will finish it!! *grin* Let's see how fast I can get my handies going - already my right wrist is sore - oh dear!

BUSY weekend!

Ohmigoodness! You know that feeling when you stop for a moment and ask "is it THAT time already?!" followed by "where did the last two days go?!" and finally "how did all of THAT fit into those hours?!?!" by which you answer the former two questions!

Such was my weekend!! And barrels of fun along with it of course :)

Starting on Friday I received a very exciting and so long anticipated I had even forgotten it was due to arrive! My Ravelry goodies!

Ordered who knows how long ago, my shirt and buttons arrived in a mushy package and brought much delight particularly as although ordered online, the shirt is a perfect fit! =D

Saturday was a whirlwind of fabulous events! The spin guild closes up over the Festivuss break, so we all band together for an annual stock-take sort of thing. One of the perks of volunteering is, not only the tasty cakes and goodies brought along and the entertaining natters we have while catalouging and such, but the privileges of 'Free Reign' over the guild library for the break period! NO LIMIT on loans!! Suffice to say we all poured over the shelves - knitting, crochet, weaving, dyeing, macrame, embroidery, books, magazines, videos - you name it! I very happily came away with 5 titles to keep me occupied;

*Knitter's Almanac - Elizabeth Zimmerman
*Knitting Workshop - Elizabeth Zimmerman
*Knitting Around - Elizabeth Zimmerman
*Knitting From the Top - Barbara Walker
*Unexpected Knitting - Debbie New

I'm very much looking forward to snuggling into bed (well.. "snuggling" in the sense of only a bed sheet lightly tossed over me with the fan going full speed - it's been so HOT lately!) with these titles and absorbing all the wisdom and inspiration from their pages!

From the Guild I dashed past my lovely Mum's and on to Helen's fabulous Knitting Party - Hurrah!! =D

As always, such a fun time spending a few hours with fellow knitters! We all saw Helen's lovely new home and wished her well with a housewarming giftie of cute cupcake crockery (cake dish, server and mugs) and and matching 3-tier cupcake stand, complete with cupcakes of course! I completely forgot to get a shot of the complete gift set, but you can spy the 3-tier stand in this shot of all the yummy treats we devoured!

Ann was so generous with her time and helped Yin and I get our heads, and hands, around the Magic Cast on! Unfortunately I forgot to knit a plain row every other row and went full steam ahead increasing every single round - gah! Consequently, here's my little tiny toe seed needle-less and about to be frogged!

Will have to cast on again soon - these will be a Festivuss giftie *wink* so I can't wait too long to try it again!

["HUH??!!" Michelle and Yin]

[Ann finally managed to grab a chance to knit!]

I couldn't stay too long at the Party though, as we had an EVENING engagement too! A firey evening engagement.. Bonfire Night! A delectable meal, excellent company, stimulating conversation - top it all off with the most gigantic earth-consuming bonfire you have ever seen! Here's a picture pre-igniting to give some perspective...

Now that's a man, a fully grown rather large adult man on the right there, or his silhouette anyway. Notice to his left the FREAKING MASSIVE HEAP OF FLAMMABLE MATERIAL?!?! Well.. that's the bonfire.

Now before you get all up-in-arms about safety and "isn't this Australia, home of the rapid bush fire?" yes, it is indeed, but the area was very well prepared with all vegetable matter removed and flying embers kept in control :)

There was one down side to the evening.. a somewhat unsettling wine label I happened across. When parusing the drinks selection I saw a rather engaging wine bottle...

And lo, a dear little story on the back about the inspiration behind the name "Three Little Pigs".. or so I thought...

*cue horror music*

What kind of PSYCHOPATHIC CREATURE rears an animal, bond with it, is delighted by it's personality and character... THEN DEVOURS IT?!
Just think on that for a moment. Yes. Mmmhmmm. You're revolted now too, aren't you?

Moving briskly on to knitting content!!

About a month ago I was delighted to discovered Moda Vera had brought out a new yarn consisting of Bamboo and Cotton - hurrah!! =D I was very restrained and didn't snaffle several balls on a mere impulse and whimsy at first sight, but calmly and in a lady-like refined manner returned a week or so later to partake of the smooth, glossy, colourful treat that is Bamboo/Cotton (a name somewhat lacking in imagination, don't you think?).

The yarn itself however is not lacking, I find :) I've knit up a little moss stitch, cable swatch to test it out and apart from being rather splitty (you can see that at the yarn end in the photo) it is great and I love it!

I'm even fantasising about a potential summer cardigan knit up out of it.. Véronik Avery's Dollar and a Half cardigan perhaps...? Or do my frosty-girl bones really require something warmer to ensure I'll get enough wear out of it.. An exciting prospect in any case! So this little swatch will be going towards my Festivuss creations, but SHH! I can't say anymore!! *wink and grin*

And finally today we went out for a delicious and picturesque lunch by the beach. Tasty gnocchi and spending time witht he family really wrapped up this super busy weekend just nicely :) I'm speeding ahead with my studies too, posting in my finished assignment tomorrow and getting started on the next assessment, phew! So now I think I'll hop into bed for some reading, knitting and relaxation!

Skoota's Fibonacci Thinking Cap

I promised F.O* details, and here they are!!

I decided spur of the moment and with little time to spare, as I often do, that I wanted to knit a little something for the shweetum! To give you a little context, the Shweetum Skoot is something of a Thinking Man, an Inventor, one of those they call an Ideas Man. He's also a science buff and lives with a constant insatiable thirst (can a thirst be insatiable or must it be unquenchable? am I mixing my metaphors here?) for learning new things and discovering quizzical facts and knowledgable treats. In that way he's very like Pa, which was why they got along so well and an extra added little facet of my love for him - he constantly reminds me of other treasured loved ones all the while maintaining a stark and striking individuality, such a unique person I haven't met yet!

In anycase, I'm getting off topic here.. too much smitten Shweetum talk, not enough knitting!! *ahem!*

SO, given the fabulousness of Skoota's mind, I decided he needed something to keep it nice and warm, to encourage and hug those thoughts as they are born into his brains! But I also wanted his head cosy to be equally thoughtful and scientific.

Aha!! Enter the Fibonacci Sequence! I had seen or heard use of the Fibo Sequence elsewhere in the Knit-O-Sphere at some point - perhaps stripes on a jumper? Or the spiral of a tea-cosy?? I can't remember, in any case I decided it was just the ticket for Skoot's thinking cap!

On the delicious Ravelry I found the pattern for the Ballee Button Hat, and from there decided to add the Fibo pattern by way of colour stripes. In essence The Fibonacci Sequence is a pattern that appears naturally in numerous living things - plants, animals, the spiral of pine cones, branches of trees - all over! It comprises of a series of number wherein with abcde... a + b = c then b + c = d and c + d = e etc.. So starting at 1 it follows : 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21 etc.. and so do the stripes!!

[Pointy up!]

I carried the yarn up the inside of the hat, knitting with my newly adored Magic Loop method on the Options needles, size... uhhmm.. size 3.5mm? I need to read up on carrying the yarn, I'm sure there's a neater and more professional sparkley method than mine!

[fibo stripes! but hat too long, decreases to gradual - frogging time!]

I had to mess with the pattern, completely changing it really, due to my differing gauge, hat size and such - but made it essentially to match the design - little crochet loop on top and a button! Skoot actually came with me to select the button, I had such a hard time trying to find just the right one on my own! It's absolutely delectable, Skoot and I are so happy with the outcome - Pointy antennae up for the thinking, Pointy buttoned down for casual! hehee!

[Pointy buttoned!]

Now I must dash- I can smell cupcakes ready to come out of the oven!! *grin*
[If you look closely you can even see some cupcake batter I got on the beanie while taking the final belated shots tonight! hehe!!]

*Non-Knitters (muggles) glossary: F.O = Finished Object

Bilbying

It makes me think of that term "bunburying" or being a "bunbury-ist" from The Importance of Being Earnest. Which of course, in itself has a whole other meaning here in Western Australia too, seeing as we have a whole CITY named Bunbury, not just a vague and distant relative of ill-health!

In anycase, today I went BILBYING! That does not mean exploring for Bilbies (Bilby = cute rabbit-sized Australian marsupial) although that too would have been fun. No indeed, today I finally made my first expedition to Bilby Yarns! Hurrah!!

I had such a fabulous time at the store, had a HUGE chat to the owner, June, and generally hunted about amongst all the aisles of goodies experiencing various levels of tormenting temptation! I had sought out the store today for some 4mm DPNs so I can start tackling some of my Holiday Festivuss (Christimuss Festivuss For the Restuvuss) knitting but also wanted to nab a copy of the Interweave Holiday Knits 2007 if June still had a copy.

She did! SO I happily snaffled up both the mag and a lovely set of grreeeeeeeen cassein 4mm double points - luffly!

I also picked up some brilliant and deliciously scented protective ingots to put in amongst my stash. I intend to have a large studio (and general house tidy up) in the next few weeks and want my stashed fibrey goodies well and truly out of harms way and OFF the menu of any marauding beetles and bugs who might come out from the cracks while I'm moving things about.

This year's Holiday Knits holds a couple of patterns I intend to include in my Festivuss Knitting, so I can't discuss them here of course - but there are some other designs of note that I'm in adoration of at the moment that I can rave about here quite safely :)

One of which is the Classic Teddy Bear, whom I plan to knit for ALL the little people I come across in my life - starting with the two little boys, Rhys and Bosko, who are new additions to my friends and family circle!

I'm a big fan of soft toys but they have to have character. Not just mass produced, soul-less stuffies with vacant eyes totally bereft of charisma. This little chap has such an adorable face, and a real teddy bear body that a little person could hold, and snuggle and drag about with them - he has such a good feel about him I think :)

The Felted Messenger bag is GORGEOUS! I love the colours, the patterns, the style - the whole kit and kaboodle!!

I wonder who I could make this one for? Not in time for Christmas of course, but it's such a lovely knit I must create it for someone at some time!!

And lastly the Huckleberry Ascot - such a cute little snifter of a scarf - barely there but would keep the wearer so warm I think!

A good sized knit for part of the Festivuss.. maybe I should consider it? I'll have a look through my stash and see what colours and textures I can come up with for it!