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I persevered..
And this is what has become of it thus far:  I must admit that it is growing on me. The colours are coming out nicely, though I am still disappointed that the green tones appear to have been devoured by the blues. At the moment I have completed 17 1/2 repeats and it measures a little over 37 inches unblocked. As it is quite a skinny scarf, I am hoping to get it to about 70 inches so that my scarfee can wind it around her neck twice if she wishes. That is 70 inches blocked, which will probably be about 60-65 inches unblocked. I'll probably get to 30 repeats and measure again. B1 came over yesterday for a knitting lesson. She has been making a garter stitch scarf and it's coming along nicely. She started it with a couple of balls of yarn from her mother's stash. It was unlabeled and I'm not quite sure what it was. When she went to try find some yarn with which to add to her scarf at a certain Sydney city yarn store, she was told, "that's acrylic. We don't have that here". I'm not sure it's 100% acrylic - may have been a blend. I didn't test it either - what's the point? It did sound rather snobbish and dismissive of them, though. However, I did warn her that they can be rather snooty at that store. Credit where credit is due - they did help her to find some yarn to use on her scarf and she ended up buying a couple of balls of Cleckheaton Country Silk. It's a pretty yarn from 85%wool and 15% silk. It's soft and has a really nice hand. Guess who ended up with a ball of that? Yup, B1 gave me a ball as a thank you for teaching her to purl.  Gosh! That girl is a fast learner. It took her minutes to learn the purl stitch and after that she was practicing it without a problem. Look at that piece that she knitted in a couple of hours here ... pretty good, huh? Her stitches are mostly nice and even too.. I am almost envious! I am quite sure I could not knit like that when I first started. Alex was a gem for the most of the time that B1 and B2 were here. He got tired at around dinner time (as usual.. he seems to ALWAYS know when I am done cooking!) and started to grizzle a little. He was easy enough to put to bed, though, as he was probably so exhausted from all that talk talk talk with B2.  This is his latest trick. He's still too young to be told it's rude to poke his tongue out at people. Well, that and he thinks it is amusing and it does amuse me. Yes, I am easily amused by my boy. :) Labels: Alex, ISE4, knitting, life
Spinning is done, now onto the knitting
I finished spinning the yarn for my ISE4 scarf today. It's now washed and hanging to dry. It turned out prettier than I thought it would. However, the greens and purples seem to have been swallowed by the blues. You'll see what I mean when I get around to posting some photos. I hope that the greens and purples will reappear once the scarf is knitted. Isn't it strange how the colours in unspun roving always look different from yarn, which again is quite a different animal from the final knitted piece? I'd post a pictured, but I am not likely to capture the subtle varigation of colour in the yarn at this time of the night (9pm), so I'll just have to wait till tomorrow. So, what have I been up? Not much, really. Yesterday I was as sick as a dog... I think the last time I was so sick from a bout of food poisoning, I was still a student! That was probably a good ten years ago(okay.. I'm showing my age now..) Chris picked Alex up from daycare yesterday (thank goodness for husbands!). After some sleep and lots of fluids, i think I am better now. My stomach is still not quite the same as it was before, but at least the food I am eating is staying down. In fact, I am well enough to have spent most of the day house-hunting. Yes, we are looking for a house to buy or rent. Our little flat is getting just a little too little, and I want to move BEFORE Alex learns to crawl. Our quest for a house to buy is rather disappointing. Today we viewed 4 houses: 1. Nice-ish. I like it, but I don't love it. Chris is nonchalant about it. It is too expensive, but it's going to be auctioned so we have half a chance that it may go for lower than what the real-estate agents told us they are expecting. 2. Not nice and just as expensive as House 1. 3. Nice. I like it, Chris likes it BUT it is on a large road and has a front deck and no back yard. They are asking more for it than I think it is worth. 4. Chris likes it, I don't. I guess we'll start again next weekend. Labels: ISE4, life
More coming soon..
Oh, That's a sample of what's in the store right now. I hope to get around to more dyeing soon - maybe next week? In the mean time, I have to get started on my business project for my degree. It's the last part of my degree, and if I pass this subject, I will graduate in 6 months' time. I'm offering a discount on my sock yarns to all participants of Sockapalooza 4. I am so pleased that I managed to sign up before the deadline this time - especially since I missed the last 3! I hope to be swamped with orders.. so I guess I'd better start dyeing again soon. Oh, and a very special thanks to Minh as this is what appeared in my mail. Well, okay, it was that and a book - the latest Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. The socks fit Alex and there is some room for growth. What a superb present. I'll have to take some action shots modeled by none other than Alex soon - when he's awake and in a good mood. Thank you, Minh! Labels: Alex, etsy, Sockapalooza 4
Etsy Shop being updated
Over the past couple of weeks I have managed to do some dyeing, but it has taken me forever to get my act together to list them in my Etsy store. I have finally gotten round to listing the handpainted roving. I still have some sock yarn to list. My parents left today. It was really sad to see them leave, knowing it will be another half a year or so before I get to see them again. I wish they didn't live quite so far away. I am sure Alex wishes the same. He's been complaining and crying since this morning. Maybe he is sad that they have left too. We finally managed to get him to sleep in his rocker and he's still asleep. What a long day it's been! On a happier note, it's our first wedding anniversary next week. Who would have thought that we'd be celebrating our first wedding anniversary with our firstborn?! I couldn't be happier!* *or more exhausted ;) Labels: etsy, life
Spinning only, no knitting
 No knitting done in this house - just some spinning. That's merino wool that you see there. It is for my ISE4 pal. The colours are not as bright as I had hoped but I hope she'll like them. I have spun 50g, and have another 50g to go. Right now I am thinking of either using the yarn as a single or plying it with some mohair - Kidsilk Haze or something similar. So.. why has there been no knitting? My parents are here. They arrived the day after my brother-in-law and his wife left. Chris and I have been busy spending time with them when we are not at work. It's great to have them around. Alex loves his Kungkung and Ahmah* and has spent a lot of time talking to them. A result of spending time with Chris family while his brother was here and then with my parents this past week is a total lack of routine in Alex's life. I have spent the last 2-3 weeks waking up more in the middle of the night than before. This week, we are trying something new. We want to try to make Alex sleep longer at night while we are asleep**. We allow him to nap from about 6 or 7 in the evening and then wake him for a feed sometime between 10 and 11 at night. We feed him and play with him and I am hoping that the activity will reset his internal clock such that he will have a long sleep starting from then. One night he had a 5 hour sleep. That's the best we've had so far. I am hoping that if we persevere, he will eventually sleep 6-8 hours from that night feed onwards and Chris and I will get some decent rest. Wish us luck! We were shocked this morning when we woke up to see Alex's face and body covered in spots. Okay, maybe not "covered" but he had little red spots and I can't work out whether they are bites or something else. They don't seem to bother him and he is not running a temperature. I stripped his bed down and washed all his bed covers, just in case it is a bug of some sort biting him. Over the day, the spots seem to have faded somewhat but they are still there. Poor little tyke. I hope we won't wake up tomorrow to more spots! * Chinese for Grandpa and Grandma ** He normally has a long sleep from about 6pm for a good 5-7 hours, which is not much good to us as we are awake for most of that time. Labels: Alex, ISE4, life, spinning
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