Startitis

I got a package from my Crochetville SP today! Yarn, coffee, patterns and stickers! The microfibre yarn is very soft. It's trying to escape from its ball band!


Some very cool spooky stuff in there, including some neat Hallowe'en stickers, and these dolls. I've never seen anything like them before! They are SO brilliant! They're on my mantelpiece, but when I finish the dining room makeover, they'll go in there, because they will match the decor (scary, I know, but I have this great fabric that is very reminiscent of Day of the Dead/Folk Catholic prints, and it will become a table runner. Eventually.) Fabulous package!! Thanks so much, my C'ville friend!


In other news, I have Startitis. The Yarn Harlot identifies it in her book Yarn Harlot: Secret Life of a Knitter as the urge to start stuff come springtime.

I'm making a blanket.

It's not Lizard Ridge.

Oh no. That would be logical. No, instead, I am making the Babette Blanket, from Interweave Crochet (Spring 06). See, what happened was, I went to K-Mart, and their squeaky acrylic yarn was 25% off. Normally, this is no great thing. But I had determined to make the blanket in squeaky acrylic, so it could go on my lounge, and be merrily washed and tumble dried as needed. It will be bigger than the original, which isn't a problem, as it will then cover me + dog. The colours I have chosen would give a parrot nightmares. But it's addictive. I did half a 10-round square before school this morning. At this rate, I'll be done by the end of term! The thing about it is that as long as you keep track of your colour changes, this is mindless. It's just relaxing, no stress, no yarn-overs, no nothing.

That's it. I'll keep justifying it to myself...right up until it's time to sew the blasted thing together....

Oh, tomorrow is Talk like a Pirate day. Yaaaaaargh!

Soapy was my Knitty SP!

I got home today to find not one, but TWO packages on the doorstep! Both from my Knittyboard SP7. I'm so excited that I'm gonna take the yarn down to the radio station tonight to show the boys.

Firstly, the lovely yarn:



Two colours of Knitpicks lace weight


A ball of Alpaca lace weight:


Two skeins of Cottontwist


A skein of turquoise, what looks like handspun

Two balls of Wool-Ease in Cranberry, which in all the excitement I forgot to photograph.

Plus some candles, kermit mints, spices, and some little lovely Brittany DPNs. Oooh, and a puzzle that I had to assemble to guess who!

Then there was another package! Eeee! This one was sent via Zonda, and contained a needle roll! A handmade needle roll! I now have a place to keep my needles that ISN'T an old pencil-case! Look!


Thanks, Soapy! You've been such a patient and brilliant SP :-) Now I need to find a lovely lace pattern for that lovely lace weight! Very excited! And the spaces between marking and radio will be reserved for filling that needle roll!

Crochetville SP package and Interweave woes

Well, let's start with the rather belated picture of a very lovely package from my Crochetville SP. I got this a little while ago (and posted on the thread in C'ville!) but I haven't had my camera until now.



Yarn! Cotton yarn, in a lovely colour! And notepaper and cards! And patterns! And peanut butter M&Ms, which helped a number of people very much with their marking this week. I don't know what I will use the yarn for. Possibly the scarf from "The Happy Hooker" that is this month's project on the CAL.

Other than that....new Knitty! Quite a lovely issue. I want the Lizard Ridge afghan. I WANT it. I have a plan for the 'ghan. Make it over some time, and ask people who have no idea what to give me as a gift to give me a skein of Noro, in any colours they want. Only spanner in the works is that Noro isn't too readily available here. I think Yarns Online will get a couple of orders as I slowly make it (that way I can fool myself that it's not actually costing that much!) If you don't usually check the articles, do. There are some brilliant ones this time, particularly the one on doubleknitting socks. Two socks at once! Done with a great tone, and helpful photos. Very non-threatening article for a threatening technique.

And no new Interweave! I am seriously very disappointed with their customer service. It has now been a week since I emailed them to ask where my magazine was, and I have recieved no reply. And no magazine. It was allegedly sent more than a month ago. Even sea-mail, it should be here. (And their site specifies that they use air!) Very poor service, which is what I have heard about them in the past, but somehow believed it wouldn't be true for me. Certainly means I won't bother ordering special issues of magazines from their website! I'm going to email them again tomorrow, and ask what the go is. In the meantime, what's a bet I get impatient and buy a copy anyway (on the grounds that if I get two, I can mail one to my SP...) ?

And, to leave you with, a picture of my stepsister's wedding cake. Look at it! Caaaaaaake! It was a beautiful wedding. She was a truly stunning bride, and I wish she, her DH and DD all the best in the world for their future together. They're a gorgeous family.

busy.

I've been a busy little owl. My sweet senior class have their big performance for the examiners coming up, and we've been so busy with that. Knitting wise, I have also finished a modified version of Peonyknit's "Anthropologie inspired" capelet (it's more of a top!) but I haven't photographed it yet, and I've made these cabled footies. They're very pointy, but they're for someone who likes fairies, so I think they're very fairy like.


Yarn: Patons Jet
Pattern: Cabled footies by Leigh Radford
Notes: VERY easy and quick. Jet is not a good sock yarn, though, which is unsurprising as it isn't actually a sock yarn. Very pointy toes. Surprisingly pointy, in fact. I hope the recipient likes them!

We have also had Book Week, which includes the annual staff dress-up day. I went as the Queen of Narnia. There were some awesome costumes this year - even a merman! I made the skirt and the collar. It was all brown and furry and Aslan-y.


Bought two magazines this week - "Simply Knitting" - the July edition (which only just hit the newsstands on Friday) and the Australian "Creative Knitting" (not to be confused with its American counterpart). "Simply Knitting" is a strange beast. It straddles kitsch and interesting uncomfortably, like Cosmopolitan does in the way that it is no longer interesting to twentysomethings, but too old for teens. The thing I like about "Simply Knitting" is that they have a good relationship with Rowan (oh, and can someone talk me out of spending $120 + P&H on a Rowan Membership??) and publish select Rowan patterns. This issue acually has a Rowan pattern that they highlighted in February and I fell in lust with but had no way of getting, Rowan being rarer than good men out here in the boondocks. I plan to make it for summer. Yay summer!

"Creative Knitting" is also a strange beast. They recently got a new editor, who has made some changes for the better - more ARTICLES! YAY! - but they still seem very wobbly about who their target audience is. Their adult patterns this issue were rubbish - allegedly "figure flattering" designs that outside of a studio look like sacking. At least they've stopped with the bikinis. Their article structure is starting to become like Interweave, but their patterns are "You Knit What" for the major part, with the occasional gem (like the crochet plastic bag) - except for their always gorgeous childrens wear. I'm not into small children. Nothing personal. Just not gonna make any kidswear.


And warm fuzzy of the week comes from two places. Firstly my Crochetville SP, who sent me this cute bear:



And in his natural habitat, a.k.a my office wall:



And secondly from S__, who is president of the radio station where I spend Thursday nights. S___ is very funny, very lewd, and wouldn't know sensitivity if it hit him with a stick. He also wants me to run for secretary. I mentioned that I'd knit in committee meetings. He expressed surprise. I was wearing my Tubey (for the first time, because I am still not certain it suits me).

Me: I knitted this!
Him: Did you? It doesn't look like it.

Ah. S__ is now my new favourite person!

doggie bag

I am so pleased with this. It's for my Knittyboard SP, who said in her questionaire that she liked dogs. What do you all think?

Pattern: "In Bloom" from Stitch and Bitch: The Happy Hooker ed. Debbie Stoller
Yarn: JJ's handpainted 8-ply (I don't think this is an 8-ply. I think it's at least a 9 in weight, not construction).
Modifications: I made the body of the clutch a little longer, and then I felted it. Lined with puppy-dog fabric from the local quilt shop (I suck at sewing!). Small felt dog instead of flower - I drew the dog, and then traced it onto the felt.

Here's the little puppy dawg...

And here's the lining....

What do you think? Am I am overly proud bag-lady, or should my SP get a kick out of it? I think I'm becoming a better upstream SP as I go, mostly by virtue of having had some great people as my upstream pals, and from snuffling around the swap boards on Craftster (heck, they are INSPIRING!). I'm not so stumped as to what to put into packages. Which can only be a good thing, right??