A creation for Grandad!

I've started work on my Grandad's birthday pressie - but I can't say much more because he and my Gran sometimes pop in to see the blog and I don't want any surprises spoiled!

This is the yarn I'm using, and I've been knitting it quite quickly, particularly now I'm past the time consuming initial stage of short row shaping *winks at Michelle and Yin*

I had some hesitation over the colourway to start with, but after talking with my lovely Mum about it, we've decided it's PERFECT! Yay!

Surprisingly (it's certainly not my normal tune) I've been quite low the last couple of days, so I'm trying to take this weekend as a recovery and rejuvenation period, a time to nurture myself and get back to 100%. I'm finding knitting to be a constant companion and a calming quiet time to sit, breathe, create and be still.

I knit for ME!!

I finally decided that it's high time I knit something for myself!
My finished sockie is the only thing I've actually ever knit for ME!! Now, I don't actually ahve a problem with philanthropic knitting, not at all. I LOVE making things for people, and giving exciting and unexpected gifts - expecially whenknit or hand made :) But I wanted some of the fibery lovin' too hehe And the 'My So Called Scarf' I was doing in Colinette has to be frogged, my socks simply aren't a priority with all the gift nitting I'm doing for ever approaching May Birthdays, so that was that.

Then... well, then the fabulous weekend of fibre occurred just past.. MMmmmmm yes indeed it was lovely.. My yummy Mum and I hit Calico & Ivy and the gorgeous little toy-store next door on Saturday morning, and browsed all through the delicious tactile goodies, quilting fabrics, yarns and other delights. And amongst my finds, I came away with this ball of 50% wool, 50%nylon, I almost thought it was Noro before I saw the ball band - the colours are so reminiscent!

(That's how eager I was - I didn't even get a chance to take a photo before I ripped it open and cast on!)

I decided to use only the one ball (about $10) on 6mm needles and do up a looong skinny scarf! More for decoration and to add colour than to keep warm. It was such a quick knit!! I almost had it done in time to wear out to a family lunch on Sunday, but there was housework and other bits and bobs to be done. Here it is in all it's completed glory! look at those COLOURS!!

They pop and snap and are so unexpected! Aqua, then red, then a merge through blue to lime!! Oohh I love love it!

So here it is in action, I'm wearing it to work today and have already had many comments on it! Yay!! I'm wearing my own hand knits!! !Wheeeeee!! =D

Now.. just ignore that spray bottle in the background there.. We all know knitters don't have time for housework!! I can't imagine WHAT that's doing there... hehehe

On the airwaves

I am, as many of you out there are too I expect, a huge fan of podcasts. They make my long drives to and from work almost bearable, and are fun to listen to while knitting away, exercising (when does THAT happen?!), doing chores etc.. When I had first started knitting and discovered Brenda's fabulous knitting/life podcast Cast-On I was inspired to start my own podcast, but I was deterred by several factors. First of all I didn't have the necessary equipment for a podcasting set up - namely a mic, as most others things can eb found online for free. But the other missing elemtn was time, I barely felt I had enough time to actually KNIT in itself! Let alone produce a podcast about it! But I had thought a podcast by a beginner knitter was an interesting idea, and I still toy with it even now.

Now through Brenda's Cast-On I discovered a non-knitting podcast which has become one of my all time favourites - Quirky Nomads. Sage observes the world around her and uses her incredible imagination to create audio skits and thought provoking commentaries on this world we live in - and I adore it.

And to my great excitement and honour, Sage has allowed me to become a regular contributor to Quirky nomads! Yay!! I am having SUCH a blast and want to hearitly encourage ANYONE who has even toyed with the idea of submitting their voice, experiences or general feedback to a podcast such as this, and I want to almost DEMAND that you all start listening to her podcast!! hehehe (if you aren't already that is *wink*) I've found that this is an exciting middle ground, between having a podcast of my own, and not doing anything at all. I'm able to be creatively involved to an extent, play around with editting equipment and so on, but without sapping an entire day's time!

So the other week lovely Skoot went out and purchased me a mic, in aid of my new found delight in recording. A REAL mic. *contented sigh* I had been using our little portable PDA which has a recording device included, sort of like a dictaphone. I would record what I needed, then transfer the file to computer and send it off to Sage, or Kelli at Unwound, or where-ever. But the sound quality was less than average, and we knew we needed some snazzy new piece of technology to step it up!

Ta da!!

Here modelled by my charming candle pot - hehe! It's AWESOME (I meant the mic, but yes, the pot is nice too) and now I can't fathom how I got on without it! Isn't that always the way? You buy a new bag, and you wondr how on earth you managed to carry everything around in that piddley little one for so long, or a warm coat and you're stunned you haven't frozen to death before it's purchase. Well, that's how it is with my loovely new mic :)

I shall now bask in it's glory for a little more.. *bask* *bask* ...

Delicious..

Feast your eyes on all this relaxing..

Skoot on cushy lounge suite with tasty beverage and warm socks


Scrumptious chocolate mousse

Addictive marathon sessions of X-Files - starting from the pilot episode then allll the way through!

We've borrowed the full series 2 from the gracious and generous Dan, and are about ready to swap over for the other series! So much fuuun!! And oh-so-dreamy relaxing :)

First Finished Sock!

Yaaayy!! My first ever finished sock! A toe up, Wendy's Generic Sock pattern with a few little changes! Ta Da!!

Eagerly awaiting his friend, who I shall knit up as soon as I've finished Gran's shawl.. and who knows.. But these little sockies are my oldest UFO and I shan't let them sit around for too much longer!!

On the foot...

The flexed foot of triumph!

Off the foot..

A landscape of sock

Hehe, you can see I did some ribbing & YOs at the cuff which gave a scallopy edge - I'm not a very girly-girl, but the yarn always makes me think of spring time fresias and flowers in the grass, so a bit of frilliness seemed fitting *grin*

p.s. It's so much FUN! Wheeee!!!

Self Sufficient Travelling Kitty!!

You MUST check out this link!!

A little white kitty, one blue eye, one green eye, regularly catches the bus from the same spot each time to another spot several blocks away!! He hops on all on his own, sits quietly and calmly on the bus and knows when to get off! He does this two or three times a week!

It is TOO cute - my brain has almost imploded with the cuteness of it! What a clever little kitty!!

Thanks for the uber-cute link Binkett!! =)

Enjoyment Central at the Relaxation Station!

There has been much knitting and excitement over the weekend and start of this week. Probably the most divine of all being this amazing beauty mentioned in a previous post and picked up Sunday arvo...

Here she is all set up in our (far too tiny) lounge room. Lush Laze-alicious Lounge ends up being a lot bigger and juicier than we expected - so much bigger in perspective when in an actual house rather than a showroom!!! We've found that the endless possibilities of how we can set up our magical LeggoLounge are rather limited by the size of our current rental's lounge area! Definitely a reason to start scouring for a new place!! hehe! So at the moment we have it set up in the L shape with the ottoman done up as a separate armchair - most delicious!!

In the pictures, you can see my current sock WIP for a size perspective *grin* It is absolutely GIANT! We can get over how luxurious and relaxing it is - it looks a million dollars and feels so special and juicy to relax on it *contented sigh* I was keen to blog about it last night after we'd gotten it home (in the pouring rain no less! But luckily well wrapped up by Skoot so didn't get wet in transit!) but after sitting on it for a short while I found it impossible to extricate myself from the loungey bludgey yummy cuddle-tastic set up!! haha! Many have asked where we foudn it and expressed delight over it - I can understand!! *grin* We bought it from Condor Furniture for what I think is a very reasonable price for how fabulous it is! But they've discontinued this style of lounge - so if you want one get in quick!!

I've kept on with my lace, getting further and further along, now up to the 6th (out of 14) repeat of the Budding Lace Chart 2. I'm getting to the point where I'm not so studious about it - I can knit in a more relaxed way, in front of the tv or in more of a social set up. But I'm still being careful! I had a horrible moment as mentioned previously where I lost two stitches! Where had they gone? Well they were never actually 'born' onto the needles!! I was on Row 5 of the 5th Repeat and was zooming along with such gusto I forgot two YOs!!! Nevermind, I managed to tink back and pop them in without too much trouble, felt very proud of myself afterwards for figuring it out and fixing it! Yay!

But just at the mo I'm chuffing along to finish a vibrant and delish dish cloth to put in with my first package to my Secret Pal! I thought it'd be lovely to include something hand-knitted and dishcloths are of course super quick to knit up and everyone (except for those dastedly people allergic to water or who enjoy being smelly) can use them - perfect! I really want to send something off to her this week so I'm trying to get the cloth finished up ASAP!

I'm LOVING how the colours are working together - vibrant, punchy and bright! And look at those two waffley yarn cakes *smacks lips together* mmmm yummy!!

LUSH LUSH LOUNGE-a-LICIOUS!

Yes, I'm using capital letter because of the level of EXCIIITEMENT!!!!
And you shall soon see why!! Allow me to introduce a new and most adventageous addition to the Skoot'n'Sash household...

The Viper Modular Lounge!

Isn't it FABULOUS!??!

The photo on the left doesn't really do it justice, the long parts of the couch are very long and stretch-tastic, about 5 feet or so. The best part about it though, and the reason we hunted it down and are drooling at the mouth, stamping of the foot and generally barely controllable about picking it up tomorrow... IT WORKS COMPLETELY LIKE AWESOME COUCH LEGGO!! You can arrange it into a myriad of different set-up and relax-tastic, lounge-alicious designs!!

Both our current lounges have had the biscuit, and are actually pretty uncomfortable and challenging to sit on! So it was defiantely time for a newie! This one is exactly what we've been looking for and we ADORE it!! Yay!

More pictures and delirious rantings to follow on installment in our lounge-room!! *wink*

Secret Spoilings!

My Secret Pal gifting and fun has BEGUN!!! *maniacal cackle*

I badly wanted to find some knitting related stationary or cards to send to my SP spoilee, but couldn't find any anywhere, not even the vintage style cards sold by trnedy gift stores!! So instead I opted for highlighting the element of every knitter's life that is perhaps the most frightening.. addiction. hehehe, I give you.... THE YARN JUNKIE POSTCARD!!

It very much resembles a drug junkie postcard, appearing to have the word 'drug' replaced with 'YARN' and some balls of fiber and knitting needles inserted where the heroin items were previously! hehehe! I found it in the ever-entertaining and obscure Planet stores - they hire almost every dvd under the sun, even the crazy unusual ones, and sell both books and music goodies.

I sent off the book-cover-style postacrd earlier this week and I'm planning a package that I'll hopefully send off tomorrow once I've added all the goodies and wrappings and so on to it =D So much fun!! I've heard from my most adoreable-ment Secert Pal Spoiler who is SUCH a gem and so much fun to email with - she said she'll be putting a package in the post maybe today!!! EEEeeeee!!! Spoilings for ME too?! Awesome awesome awesome!! =D

Weird Science

Perhaps the word "weird" should be changed to "disturbing" - because that's what some of things going on behind lab-tech doors is becoming! Granted I don't have a Biology or Chemistry degree, and I don't know much about gene-splicing and DNA 'technology'.. but check out these article below, or do a web-search on the topics, and see for yourself!!

A Spider-Goat: cloned and bred to produce goats' milk with the super strong quality of spider silk fibre. Military perhaps to use this milk/silk protein to create bullet proof vests etc.. and even strengthen construction work. The world of knitting has been experiencing exciting new fibres amidst our stash lately, milk fibre amongst them.. but I dunno about this Spider-Goat business.. They don't have eight little legs and multiple eyes, but it's still a freaky and unsettling development.

and a Sheep-Human: Cloning of sheep has been successfully carried out with the sheep containing 15% HUMAN CELLS. The goal is to combat the ever critical state of organ availabilty for organ transplants etc.. by breeding sheep with human organs.
*pause*
Just take a moment to let that sink in.
Scientists have been talking about a glorious and amazing future time when we may all be able to have our own little flock of organs.. I mean, sheep, trotting about in our back yards keeping our supply of spare organs fresh for when we may need them. I find it both ethically and fundamentally wrong and disturbing. It revolts me to the core to think of these 'factories' being used in the manner they've suggested.

I'm not one to stand in the way of progress and new discoveries.. but cross-specis gene and DNA work gives me the heebie-jeebies - AIDS was brought about by messing with Humans/monkeys, so it's obviously difficult to predict what the outcome will be when genes from different sepcies start being combined... Plus there's the added concern of cellular memory impact. There are numerous accounts of people receiving an organ transplant and adopting memories and knowledge of the donor without ever having met them or even knowing their identity, such as this arcticle describes. If people begin to take organs from a sheep host the consequences of any cellular memory involved therein are really too complicated to even fathom.

Franken-food is worrying enough - the fact that some plant foods now contain HUMAN SALIVA cells and so on, in order to help them grow, enhance various elements or protect from pests or disease is more than a little unsettling. Particularly as so often the labelling that alerts consumers to these properties is often insufficient or absent. But to take it so far as to be breeding animals to store your own organs.. *shakes head* It's concerning, that's for sure.

*sigh*

My lace was going along so well! I was ready to take a photo of my progress, upload it and even join one of the Swallowtail Shawl KnitAlong blogs!!

But then.. The Tale of 2 Missing Stitches began...

I was at the completion of row 5 of the 5th Budding Lace 2 Chart repeat as I went into Library knittin' last night. I thought, 'Now I won't do any actual LACE while I'm knattering away with the others, ultra-distracted - far too dangerous for lace work. I'll just do Row 6, the purl row and that will be that.'

Well, that was not that.. When I counted my stitches at the end of the row I found I had 85 rather than the required 87 *chest constricts* I told myself "It's fine... it's FINE! I'm sure I've just miscounted!!" But after five recounts and still the 85 final count, I had to resign myself to the fact that these two errant stitches were either never stitches, or ran off somewhere between row 4 and row 6.

Thus begins the search and rescue!

This morning I got to work a little early, so I tinked back to Row 5, so all the yarn overs, excited knit 2 togethers etc.. are all on the needles, in all their twisty goodness. I'll recount to see if there are 87 in THIS row, which there hopefully will be, as that will mean I haven't missed them somewhere along the lace of row 5. If there are only 85 I'll have to attempt tinking back another row - and that is scary!! I've never tried to un-knit some of these crazy lace stitches before! Like the "sl1, k2tog, psso" combo - yikes! Fun to do, but maybe not so fun to UNdo!

We'll see.. It's all a fabulous learning adventure, and I have to say that I'm now able to truly identify each stitch and how it has been formed - which is awesome!! =D

Long weekends are my friend!

How deluxe, how dreamy to not only have a normal long weekend of THREE luxurious days off work.. but, yes count them, four over Easter time. I don't follow any Easter-related religions, so instead look at it as more of a fertility/new-life celebration as per the Pagan and Egyptian times of old - and basically take the time out to enjoy times with family, friends and the Scrumptious Bum. This year the enjoyment came in many and varied forms :)

BBQ with other friends (one of whom it had been way too long between bbqs!) including baking and eating of 100s and 1000s bedecked chockie birthday cake! (cooked in most unorthodox method due to lack of cake tin - but successful!!)

Binkett about to attack the unsuspecting sprinkley UFO cake!

Gorgeous Tessabee doggalog

Fun times and sing-alongs with Buzz quizzings

Lovely afternoon tea with Mum and family indulging in many tasty treats and Aussie style Easter givings.. not Easter Bunnies... But Easter Bilby and Easter Wombat!

Yum!

Sunday we headed out to our favourite riding spot and spent a funtacular time traversing the tracks and generally zooming about in my favourite type of exercise! I've gotten so SO much better which brings it to a different level of enjoyment - much more comfortable on my bike and willing to take on greater challenges - hoorah! Skoot and I SO thoroughly enjoy going out together, and this time went out with some mates who hadn't ridden, or hadn't ridden in a while, and introduced them to our Purring Pretties! Muchos fun was had by all :)

Including little Champ who loved his ute ride with his new brace on, and lapped up any cuddles offered at any time - what a sook!!

That evening we enjoyed a relaxing dinner and chill out with Dad and the fluffy-muffin Chilli!

Here she is in all cuddly glory, squinting against my inconsiderate camera flash!

So fabulous to have been able to catch up with almost all our rellies in one weekend - I so value time with Dad, Mum, my grandparents and Skoot's folks - but this crazy ratio of 5:2 work to leisure days is pretty mental and makes it tricky to see all the people I love in each week!! Lucky I have access to such gorgeous liddle dainty paws like these to keep me calm and placated!

Today we managed to stay pretty bludgey with only a bit of the necessary housework and such getting in the way of a truly relaxing day off! I finally managed to wash my swatches too!

I measured them carefully before washing, and once they've totally dried off I'll see what their post-wash measurement and gauge is so I'm ready for their projects! Whee!

Not that I'll be casting anything on for a little bit.. I'm tonking along with the lovely lace and having a BALL - I'm thrilled with how it's turning out and I'm determined to finish it before casting on any of my other projects in queue.. even if they are extremely tempting and delightful!

Secret Agent Sash

Hehehe it's all so fun *grin* I've been mentally putting together a little inventory of lovely kntiterly things I'd like to send off to my secret pal, and think I've waited long enough in the planning stages and will soon send the first package!

I've found some little postcards and other goodies too to send off to her, I think it'll be fun for her to receive something almost every week! Little somethings of course, and then the three or so larger packages of goodies :) Must phone the post office to see how many stamps to put on a postcard to Alaska!! What a fabulous idea this Secret Pal exchange is :)

Kniterature

I arrived home yesterday to two glossy packages awaiting my avid attention! Both my knit-mag subscriptions arrived on the same day - How's that?!

I've only had time for a quick browse through eac over my dinner, and they look great - as always! I think I'll pick up a second copy of Yarn too, to put in my package for my Secret Pal, seeing as it's an Aussie mag and she mightn't have access to it in Alaska, or even know it exists!!

My lace has reached an unfortunate halt :( I can't figure out part of the pattern. It wants me to knit rows 1-6 of the Budding Lace Chart 2 fourteen times.... but how does that work?! I start with about 31 stitches on the needle at row 1, and by the end of row 6 the increases leave me with 39 stitches or so on the needle. So how do I then return to row 1 which requires 31 stitches - what happens to the left over 8?! I'm so confuuuuuuused! I've tried to bend my mind around it and figure out what I'vedone wrong - have I started it wrong altogether from the start of the Budding chart 2. Maybe it's 14 times row 1, then 14 times row 2... but that wouldn't work either!! Gah!

So in the mean time I'm working on the measurements for those secret socks for skoot *wink* Trying to figure out what I should cast on for his foot size etc.. using the toe up version of the Jaywalker pattern.

But seeing as I can't knit THAT either when I'm with him watching tellie int he evenings etc.. and lace is stalled now too... I've had to pick up ANOTHER project to do mindlessly as I wind down in the evenings. Skoot suggested some stash-busting and taht is a FABULOUS idea! If I work through some of the yarn I've had for ages, and knit up a whole bunch of brilliant things, I won't feel so restricted in my acquisition of new yarns *grin* So there are 15 or 20 balls or so of wool/acrylic sitting stashed deep in my seagrass stash and I think it's time for those little suckers to make their debut! I bought them when I first took up knitting with the plan of knitting a large afghan with rainbow coloured squares. Skoot suggested doing blankie squares while I watched tellie as I can just "crank them out" and he's exactly right -it's perfect! So I've started with some semi-flussy wool/polymide/acrylic in a purpley shade to make cushion covers - or maybe incorporate into the rainbow blankie - we'll see :)

So at least I'm knitting SOMETHING of all the stalled projects! hehe

If you have any hot tips for clarifying that part of the Swallowtail shawl pattern please PLEASE let me know - I don't know how much longer I can survive without a hit for my addiction *wink*

The weekend that was

And was it ever!?
hehehe
Such a super fun weekend! On Saturday Citiknits was on which was SO. MUCH. FUN!! Not only are all the knitters there FABULOUS people, generous, so friendly, good fun, inspiring and helpful... but Yin brought along the knittery yarns we'd bought all in one go with her 10% off discount (wheee!) hoorah!

Delicious 2ply Merino for a future lace projects, and to gift to my Secret Pal who is new to the lace scene.

Speaking of lace... We all started!! That is the other fantasteric reason Saturday was so fabulously fun! Anne is already a good way ahead, but Yin, Helen, Michelle and I all have our yarn and needles at the ready and have started our Swallowtail Shawl Lace project!! Wooohoo!! It is SO much fun! I can't emphasize that enough! It's addictive!! We're doing our own little knit-along but I want to join the online KAL for Swallowtail too, but then I discovered there's TWO!! I wonder which one I should join... or BOTH?! We'll see =)

The weekend was filled with so many OTHER non-lace fun things that I couldn't get past the first section of lace, the first chart, so I'm absolutely ITCHING to get back to it!! I've brought it with me to work to close myself off away somewhere and do some then! One of the super fun things was a family lunch at my Huggable Dad's house on Sunday to celebrate my Pa's birthday! It was great to catch up with my grandparents, brother and his girlfriend, and my lovely Dad =) Skoot was able to come along too which was brill, and we had many many fluffy cuddles (and kisses!!) with the gorgeous Chilli bill! Every time I see her I miss her so much, but know she's happy where she is, and that Dad loves her so very much - it's so much fun have rompy cuddles with her - even if I do end up a bit soggy afterwards!

Our first go on a shooting range was a bit of an excitement too! And I managed to put 5 out of ten bullets through the center red star on my first go!! Most surprising! And a lot of fun too :)

A nice wind-down on Sunday evening at a friend's spontaneous bbq was a lovely way to draw the weekend to a close. One of the chaps they share house with has two stunning and super-friendly gorgeous doggers;
Chloe (a mega-cuddler, sat on the bench with me all night getting scratches behind the ears and soaking up the luuuurve)

and Chrissy (a blur of energy, dashing about playing and destroying the bucket in play - could hardly get a cuddle in, let alone a still photo!)

The sad thing is that their owner doesn't really take such good care of them. They're both healthy, get fed (when he remembers) and have shelter, but our mates take them for walks, not their dad, and he popped in while we were there, asked our mates if the dogs had been fed, they said no, he left without feeding them?!?! Whaaaaa??! I don't understand people like that, I truly don't. A dog, cat or any other pet is a COMMITTMENT. You are their caregiver and companion. *scowls* Need to change subject or I'll be a black storm cloud all day thinking about it. Such beautiful and friendly doggers :) At least I got to spend a good cuddle-a-thon with them :)

The other critters our mates have there are less easy to cuddle - eels!! Check them out!

Aren't they incredible?!

The long stripey black one is called Capone because he's pinstriped and the leader of the tank hehehe

Now I'm off to fit in some lace knitting before work starts!!