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Finally written the pattern for the blue cabled scarf
I made some progress on the Nouveau shawl tonight. 13 squares done, 19 to go. It is working out easier than I thought it would be. It's just starting to get a little boring. I think it's easy enough even for beginner corcheter.
Pattern for the blue cabled scarf I posted in one of my earlier posts is found here
I still haven't finished knitting it yet. I worked out the final length of the scarf by multiplying the length I got from 1 ball of wool by 4 (cos I only have 4 balls). I am stil aiming to have it done by next winter, which gives me, oh, about 8 months. I think that should be enough, don't you?
I also had to make some corrections to the ostrich plume capelet pattern. One of the ladies knitting it spotted the error. Just download a new copy if you have an old one.
Wedding was on Saturday. Today is Monday and I am still tired. Recovering from the wedding is taking longer than I expected. It wasn't even MY wedding. I can't imagine what I would be like after my own wedding - probaby sleeping for three days running after the event!
Did you want to see the wedding pictures? They are here. The pictures were published in the blog during the wedding, thanks to Hiren's 3-phone.
Well, it's over now, and life has gone back to normal.
I have been trying to work on the Nouveau shawl. I have made and joined 8 squares and I have 24 more to go. I can't wait to finish it. I think it will still be quite pretty even though it won't have the halo a mohair yarn would give it. This is just a practice one anyway. i will make the next one out of some prety moair yarn, a variegated ont if I can get some at a reasnable price. I'd use the JoSharp mohair that is recommended if not for the $15 price tag - $15 per ball, that is, and I'd need 10 balls.
No pictures yet. Maybe when I make the next entry.
Nails done, present wrapped, I'm all ready for the wedding!
Did I mention that I will be attending a wedding on Saturday? The B's are getting married and I will be a bridesmaid at the Catholic wedding. The present is really pretty. Here it is..
AND, if you click on the picture, you get to see it unwrapped, well, the bottom part anyway. The smaller part on top is just a set of DVDs - Star Wars, as requested by the bride and groom.
On Tuesday night I picked up the saree I will be wearing on Saturday. I am borrowing it fom the groom's mother (thanks, Mrs Joshi!). It's a peachy, apricot-y colour with gold and brown embroidery. Normally I would not wear that colour, but I don't think it will be too bad, especially since I am matching it with a brown blouse. I bought my jewellery when I was in Malaysia earlier this year. I even bought extras in case anyone else wanted to borrow some.
I have also finished the baby sweater I was knitting. Well, it is completely knitted and seamed, but it still needs a couple of ribbons. I could not find my white ribbons, so that will have to wait. I decided to name her - Emily. Emily looks grubby in the picture. She isn't, honest! She's snowy white on top, knit with 3ply Patons Feathersoft yarn and a sweet pink on the bottom, knit with 4ply Cleckheaton Babysoft yarn.
 
It only took me a few nights to knit. It is a really simple pattern. Interested? Leave a comment :)
I got a manicure and pedicure today. I got it done for the wedding. Bri was not fussy about what colour our nails were so I just picked a light colour. I chose a purplish pink, but it turned out more pink than it looked in the bottle. I did enjoy it, though. the last time I had a manicure done was over year ago. For $42 I got my cuticles done, nails clipped, filed, buffed and painted, feet bathed and scrubbed, and hands and feet massaged. I even got a back massage! Ok, so it wasn't a proper back massage, it was just a massage chair, but it still felt good.
So far I have had a few requests for a pattern for the cabled scarf I am knitting. Ok, I will write it out and post a link to it here.
So, those of you who are knitting the Ostrich Plume capelet, how's it going? If the pattern is not clear, I'd really like to know about it so I can explain it. It's the first pattern I have written and I'd like to know what I am not doing right.
I was talking to Anne-Maree today and I decided (she convinced me?) that I really want to make the Nouveau shawl from the Jo Sharp 'Village' book. Here's a picture
It's so pretty..
Ok enough blogging for now.. I am off to find some mohair yarn to make this shawl.
Capelet pattern is here!
I finally managed to finish writing the pattern for my capelet on friday night. I was suffering a bout of insomnia and stayed up working. Between cnversations with the Houston team and checking configuration rules and localisation, I worked on the pattern. It took longer than I thought it would, but here it is.. all done!
I am currently working on a baby wrap around jumper. It's gorgeous, thus far, but I think I am running out of yarn! I will not post pictures till I am done. I want it to be a surprise. Once that is done, I wil wait for requests o write out the pattern. If I get them, I'll write the pattern out. If not, then I guess I'll just put away the jumper till a suitable girl baby comes along who will wear it.
Chris and I spent the day in the city yesterday. It was nice to have the weekend to ourselves, well most of it anyway. We had yumcha at Marigold in Chinatown and then walked around Pitt Street, just window shopping. We did get some of that "to-die-for icecream" from the shop on Pitt Street. Oh my, oh my! Everytime I eat that icecream, I am reminded how wonderful good icecream can taste. Yesterday we have crunchy macadamia, run and raisin and mocha. The rum and raisin was excellent, and brought back sweet memories of Swensen's rum and raisin icecream from the time I was a child. Unfortunately Swensen's rum and raisin is nowhere as good as it used to be.
Imax 3D is amazing! We watched the Titanic documentary, and both Chris and I want to watch the Nascar one and the underwater one(which we both call 'seafood dinner'). I'll have to remember to try to get more of those cheap Imax tickets from the socialc lub at work.
We ordered the Bs' DVD last week. I hope to gets to me soon. I know it doesn't get released till the 22nd, but I do hope I get it before the wedding so they won't be disappointed. We went out and bought the other half of their present today. I won't say what it is in case one of them find this blog. I am glad Chris spotted it. It's a great buy, I think, and fit's well into the Bs' gift regstry though we did not buy it from their gift registry at Peter's.
I can't decide whether I want to wear a saree to the Hindu wedding. It just seems like such overkill. I have 5 days to think about it.
Have I mentioned how glad I am that Bri's mother offered to make our dresses? I looked at the catalog of bridesmaids' dresses today while I was at Chris' parents' house. I was reminded of how awful I looked and felt in those dresses when we tried them on. I guess poofy dress simply is NOT 'me'. I think Bri's mum has done a fab job and the dresses look far better than some of the stuff that' out in the shops.
The end of a weekend, and the start of a new week.. a busy week...
4 squares..
Ok, before we get to the squares, let me show you the wrap around top I made fo one of Jo Sharp's patterns. I substituted the recommended yarn with Bendigo's mohair/wool mix. I bought 600g (they come in 200g balls) and had most of one ball leftover. So for about $40, I guess I can't complain too much. At least it's warm!
 
Yes, the sparkley bits you see ARE sparkley bits. the yarn as a strand of shiny blue thread plied together with the mohair/wool. Its so soft and so pretty (the yarn I mean, not the finished wrap-around). The neckline is too high for my liking. I thought I would like it because it has a high neckline. i now find that it is not flattering for me at all. I could have pulled the waist in a lot more with thhe ties at the back, but it looks really awkward when I do that. Anyway, I wore it out on it's maiden trip out of this house last week. It was warm enugh, but definitely not pretty enough for what I had initially knitted it to be - a pretty top to wear over a calf length skirt on cold nights.
Over the past few days I have been busy knitting more squares. It's so addictive. I can finish a square in a night and It's nice to be able to knit something so quick. Here they are
 
Left: Ostrich plume stitch on rev stockinette st, Right: random holes on a stockinette st background
 
Left: Slip stitch lines on a garter st background, Right: Four couloured stripes in stockinette and rev stockinette st
My favourite is the blue ostrich plume stitch one, which I only just complete about an hour ago.
Right now I am working on a shell(tank??) top formyself out of the leftover yarn from the wraparound top. It's beautiful and soft, and I hope it will fit. Having to frog it will be hell because of the mohair content.
Thursday is nearly over, and I have not finished writing out the pattern for the capelet yet. my apologies to those of you who were asking for it. I WILL get it done I promise. It's mostly written out, but not in a way that is easly understood, so I will have to re-write itbefore publishing it here. Hold your horses, folks!
A kitchen tea and a hen's night
My friends, B1 and B2 are getting married in a few weeks. On Saturday night, they had their respective hen's and buck's nights. I attended the hen's night, which followed a kitchen tea.
The kitchen tea was a tupperware party. Oh my, what a lot of 'first's for me - my first tupperware party, my first kitchen tea and my first hen's night. It was a little overwhelming, and I was SO happy to get home and crash into my bed. I slept like a log.
Have you ever woken up in the morning and felt like you have not slept at all? That was me today. Spent most of Sunday in bed. I didn't even get any knitting done. I am achey breakey all over. I've had the same bad shoulder for two weeks now. Maybe I should get it seen to. Yeah.. maybe.. I'll thnk about it.
I made a tuna casserole for dinner tonight. It was delicious., even if I do say so myself, and even Chris said so, and so it must be true ;) there was enough left over for him to take home for his lunch tomorrow. I made sandwiches for me - ham, chutney, gherkin, semi-dried tomatoes, mayo.
I have been inundated with requests for a pattern for the capelet. thanks folks, for all your compliments. I'm sorry, I have not had time to work on the pattern yet. Maybe next week, ok?
I won't get anything done before Wednesday. I have a group presentation in class tomorrow night. I probably won't get home till quite late on Tuesday night as I have to be at the church for the Bs' wedding rehearsal. And then class as usual on Wednesday night. SO let's see how Thursday pans out. Maybe I'll get a chance to work on it (in front of Law and Order SVU?)
Capelet completed! Yay!
Finally finished the capelet. Here it is..
and again in detail on my ironing board..
I think it's really pretty. I tried to take a phooto of me wearing it by seting the timer on the camera, but all the pictures were fuzzy. This will have to do I guess.
I also completed these squares. They are 6x6 inches and meant for the BASIS exchange. I don't know whether I will send both to Laurie. I guess I'll wait and see if I make any more squares before I decide.
 
ostrich plume stitch with seed st border (left) and faggotted panel with garter st border(right)
Let's see, what else have I been doing? Knitting-wise, not much.
I plan on writing out the pattern for the capelet to share, but I don't know whether anyone wants it. If you want it leave me a message and I'll write it out. Otherwise, I won't bother.
I have a busy weekend coming up, and I doubt I will get much knitting done. On Saturday I will be meeting with my Buyer Behaviour project group to finalise our presenttion slides. After that I will be dropping off Nanna's faux tortoiseshell needles which I bought in Canberra a couple of months ago. Yes yes, I know.. I should have dropped them off by now. After that I have to rush over to Chipping Norton for Bri's tupperware party/kitchen tea followed by Bri's hen's night. I can't believe the wedding is only a few weeks away. It seems ike only a few months ago that she announced her engagement. Actually it was last year, but time flies.
Aaaanyway, back to knitting, I need a new project. I am considering a lace shawl in some of the mohair that Mos bought for me in Poland. Also need to reknit part of the sleeves for my Huntington Castle. I am SO dreading that task. Also on the list is a cow potholder. I plan on doing it in double knitting. The pattern is here: http://www.countrydoubles.com/cowpattern.html
Isn't it gorgeous!
Let's see, what else do I want to make? mm.. so many projects, indecision! Alright, I am off to find some of that yummy mohair in my stash. I think it will make a gorgeous shawl.
Piggy delivered..
I had lunch today at Chinatown with Chris and his family. We were celebrating his mother's birthday and father's day. We went to Golden Century and had a really yummy lunch! We had prawns, scallops, fish..mmm.. AND CAKE! Crooked nosed piggy was delivered. I hope she likes it.
It hailed today. During the drive home the roads and sidewalks were covered in ice, and it looked like it had snowed. Chris car was parked outside. I am so relieved that it's just soft and small pieces of ice. I was afraid his car would get dented like all the cars did the last time I saw it hail in Sydney. The Australian released a report about the hail a few hours ago. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,10677420^421,00.html
We had such a late lunch that we didn't really need dinner. Yay, no cooking. We just had leftover roast chicken, while watching Law and Order Criminal Intent.
I tried to finish my poncho/capelet tonight. Yeah, I got tired of knitting it so it is now a capelet! I am using a picot bind off. It's pretty, but I can see my mistakes. I hope they eventually become less noticeable to me. I just can't be bothered frogging back to where they occurred.
I have to remember to lodge a complaint about my printer tomorrow. It's now been named the 'stoopid dumdum printer'. The print outs are all smudged and streaked. Yuck! We gave up trying to fix it after a few hours. I think it's a dodgy cartridge, but I can't be sure. I hope it get's fixed soon, cos it really annoys me that a BRAND NEW printer won't work!
Photobucket is down
Photobucket, where I store my pictures, is down for maintenance, and according to the forums has been so for a few days now. I wonder when it will be up again. The blog just does not feel the same without pictures.
I have made lots of progress with my poncho. It now measures about 10 inches in length. I need it to be about 20 inches in length unfringed. I have not yet worked out whether I will put a fringe on it or knit a pretty edging all around the bottom. At the moment I am not 100% happy with the ostrich plume pattern. It's not showing up as well as I had hoped. I hope that it will look better when I have done a little more. I am also having trouble working the k4tog stitches. I am using a small crochet hook which has made it easier, but it's still not easy. I probably spend as much time doing the k4tog stitches as I do in knitting the rest of the round.
I've started thinking about tonight's dinner. What should I cook? Is it getting too warm for a roast dinner? Chris is bringing a bottle of red over.. maybe i should cook a lamb roast.
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