Blogging

Why am I sitting here at the computer when there are a million other things I could/should be doing? Probably because those things aren't very appealing LOL Although I have been quite productive today. My mission for this week is not to turn the computer on while L is at home. I am also aiming to stay off the computer in the evenings. I guess if I can manage that, then a couple of hours (or less depending on how M sleeps) in the afternoon while L is at kindy won't hurt, right? my lunch hour, so to speak :)

Anyway, managed to get 3 loads of washing done AND HUNG OUT!! before lunch. made the bed, cleaned the loos and sorted out a few orders for customers. I've even got a real excuse for sitting at the computer, as I have some *real* work to do. I've done part of it, the rest of it will involve actually moving and using my brain, so for now I'm putting it off LOL might try and get on it tonight.

The knitting ban isn't going too well, but I have really cut down in the last week. I couldn't do nothing, so I've really been taking it easy and only doing bits at a time. I've figured out that it's a muscular problem (most likely anyway) as the muscles in my arm feel quite sore, so I think it's coming from holding my arm up to knit. Have really been concentrating on keeping my arms down, and yesterday I even propped my arm up on a couple of pillows, to take the *weight* off in a way. Seemed to work ok.

No progress pics of anything atm, although I am up to splitting off for the front and back of the child's hoodie for L. I now have no more dyed wool left, so need to dye the two balls I have sitting here, and order some more to complete it. The weather hasn't really been conducive to dyeing wool though, so I've been putting that off.

I can't believe that it rained almost non-stop here from Thursday morning (early) until yesterday (Sunday!). The sun is actually shining today, and no rain so far. Hopefully all my washing will get dry LOL

Had a small windfall on Saturday too. Found $40 in the pocket of a skirt that I hadn't worn for a while! yeeeha! Have spent it already, so the rush is gone, but it was exciting while it lasted :)

Zhivago Shrug

Here's some pics of the shrug that I'm knitting up for myself, and my progress so far. I found this pattern when I was looking for a pattern for something else, and the woman in the store handed me this book. It's lovely, and I've seen one knitted up and it's really lovely :) It's a Paton's pattern book, and I'm using the yarn specific to that. It's Zhivago and I'm using a very dark blue, but I wouldn't call it navy, or royal. Not sure really. Midnight Blue? Anyway, it's not wool, it's an acrylic/tencel blend, but thought it best not to try to use something else for my first project for self :) It's lovely and silky feeling though, and I'm really enjoying knitting with it. I'm knitting as the pattern specifies, but I'm sure a much cleverer knitter than I could have knit it in the round maybe? I thought about it for a bit, and I just couldn't work out how I'd get to flat from round after I finished all 51cms of ribbing for the arms!!!! Anyway, flat will do for now.

Unfortunately I'm going to have to put it away for a while though :( My wrists and hands and arms have become very sore. From a combination of too much knitting and too much computer :( I have RSI in both wrists and have to be careful, but it's hard to be careful when you just want to finish what you are knitting! So I've decided that I'm going to take a short break, just to give my arms a rest. I need to dye up some more wool to finish off the hoodie anyway, and I have a bunch of paperwork that I have been neglecting in favour of knitting, so this will be a good opportunity to get on top of that.

What I got up to last night

Had my beading class last night! It was great, lots of fun. It was only a small group, so nice and *cosy* LOL I'd love to go back today and buy some stuff, but I just don't think the boys will appreciate it, and it takes me forever to decide, so I'll leave it until the weekend.

Here's some pics of our creations.

Hoodie progress.....

I've become a bit obsessed with this hoodie LOL Unfortunately I'm onto the boring bit of knitting stocking stitch for 15.5 inches! ugh. I might have to take a break from it (and knitting in general) for the next couple of days though, since my hands have been hurting quite a bit. This is due to the "can't find a good place to stop and just want to get this next little section done" syndrome LOL I really must learn to pace myself :) I banned myself from knitting today, but couldn't help myself when M was napping and L was amusing himself quietly this afternoon. I'm out tonight though, so that's a good way to avoid it, and we are out tomorrow morning too, so certainly wont' have time for knitting with all that housework I'll have to do when I get home from a morning at playgroup....... will I?!

Another work of art by my little man :)

This is a picture done by L yesterday. It is of birds flying in the sky, and each of the birds is losing a feather. He loves finding feathers on the ground when we go for walks :)

Child's Hoodie

Here's the progress so far. In the end I started with the merino supreme I dyed up to use for longies for M. I don't think I have enough of the merino supreme in the colour I had originally bought (which L chose) and unfortunately they have no more left and I can't find it anywhere either :( Doesn't help that the merino supreme has been discontinued either. I can get more of the cream though, so I asked L which wool he preferred - the dyed or the blue that he picked earlier. He said the dyed wool :) I'm actually not sure if I like the way it is knitting up in this pattern, but I'll press on and see how it goes. I don't want the jumper to overshadow L too much, IYKWIM. He is insistent that I keep using the dyed wool though LOL

I bought some bamboo circs to use for this project too. Not sure if I like those too much either. They aren't addis, and I don't know if bamboo addis would feel much different. I think the join would probably be smoother, but the knitting doesn't seem to *glide* as much as it does with the metal addis. They are ok though, and I do like that my stitches don't fall of my needles as much as usual LOL They're nice and light too, which is good.

Happy Easter!

Yes, I know Easter is now officially over for this year, but wanted to post a pic of my Easter baking. This is Platzek. It's some kind of Polish Easter bread that is a tradition in DH's family. I believe his great-grandmother was of Polish origin and her and DHs grandmother used to bake this for Easter, and then MIL took on the tradition of doing so also. At least I think that's the story. Anyway, the handed-down-through-the-family recipe talks about great-grandma and grandma's techniques for the bread, so it's an old recipe :) And I've had confirmation from a Polish ex-coworker that this is indeed a Polish traditional Easter bread. One thing I've managed to do, which apparently great-grandma, grandma and even MIL could never quite achieve, is get the topping to stick. I'm not exactly sure what I do, as I just followed the recipe, but it sticks :) and tasty it is too ;p

I've only made this once before myself, in the whole 8 years we've been married. In fact the last time we had it was probably 2002. As DH's family are in the US the last Easter we spent with them was 2001 so I'm hoping to carry on this tradition with our family too. Pretty easy to really, since this is so delicious! Unfortunately our oven temp is not quite right - about 50 degrees not right :( - so I did end up baking it a bit too long and the bottom of one of the loaves was a little darker and tougher than it should have been LOL This obviously hasn't made a bit of difference, as I baked this lot on Saturday night and it's now all gone!

Platzek is best served smeared with butter (yes, butter NOT margerine!) and is tasty on it's own like that, or you can also nuke it for 10 seconds (after applying the butter) and it is extra-tasty that way LOL

And yes, I am aware that the two loaves look a little unsavoury as they are LOL but I can assure you they taste great ;)

I've gone bead mad!

Well, that's what DH is probably saying. Oh, and the woman in the bead shop too LOL Took the boys up to the shop again yesterday to pick out some more beads. L wanted me to get "all colours of the rainbow" so after spending nearly 1/2 an hour trying to find a bead that I liked that I could get in each of the colours of the rainbow - all the while L is literally doing somersaults down the aisle, and continually bugging the shop owner (luckily she's lovely and didn't mind) and with M pulling my hair because he was in the Ergo and this is his new favourite game :( - I came out with these blue and yellow cats eyes. They are more lovely IRL. The other bead is one that L found and liked so I bought it just because :)



Now just waiting for my haul from Beads Needs so I can go completely nuts LOL I figure if 10 projects (as suggested by Rach from Stitch Sista) is acceptable, then of course I need more stitch markers, right?!

I have also paid my deposit for the next beginner beading class, so I do intend to learn how to do more than just make stitch markers :)

What a difference a ball makes

I should really remember that skeins of dyed wool never look that impressive to me, because I find it hard to visualise what it will look like balled up and knitted when still in the skein. I thought I was disappointed with the way my latest dye job turned out and said in the last post I might over-dye the purple. Well, I decided I would just leave it (mostly because I couldn't be bothered going through all that again! ) so I just balled it up last night and.... I'm in love!! I really like the way it's turned out and I think it will knit up really nicely now. I love, love, love this merino supreme! Such a shame that they have decided to discontinue it :( It is so soft and squishy. I really must get some more of the cream - I only have two balls left now - for potential future projects :) Seems to have taken the dye really well. I got hardly any runoff when I rinsed the dye out after *cooking* it in the microwave. With the last wool I dyed (in the same colours) - it was from Bendigo Woollen Mills - I got heaps of runoff (although the dye seemed to take really well. Maybe I just used too much dye last time?).


I really want to get cracking on this wool, but DH rolled his eyes at me when I said I might start it next LOL So I probably should at least get L's jumper on the needles and make some more progress with the throw rug. But M really does need a nice soft pair of night longies with the cooler nights now, and this is what the merino supreme was for. Hmm.... decisions, decisions :) How many projects can I realistically have on the go at once and actually complete?!?

Drying dyeing

This is merino supreme that I dyed up with the gaywool dyes I used for my yarnswap wool. I want to knit these into a pair of night time longies for M. I tried to leave a bit more white this time. I used too much black with the yarnswap and that kind of took over and didn't quite turn out how I would have liked unfortunately. I'm thinking that I might over-dye the purple as it's quite light blue in some spots and the purple looks a bit patchy. On the last skein (closest in the pic) I left the purple sit a bit longer before doing the other colours and putting it in the microwave, and the colour is much more intense. I think I'll just do that on the other two skeins as I wanted more purple than blue. I dyed up only 6 balls of this, but I really think I might need more to finish a pair of longies. There's only 57m per ball of the merino supreme. At least I have plenty of the mixed dye left so it won't be a problem to dye up some more if I need it. Oh, and I guess that means I *might* just have to buy more of this wool too, since I only have 2 balls left LOL

Love, love, love these longies

Update - Finished!!! Finished these off over the Easter Weekend. Even did some knitting in the car to speed the process up on the last leg LOL DH thinks I'm a nut :) I really love the way they've turned out and they look fantastic. Has the curly purly waistband, but the rest of it I made up as I went along. M seems pretty happy with them. When I put them on to try he took off running and kept stopping to look down and giggle LOL

Oops, forgot to mention that the lovely wool came from Ali at Bumnround :)







Some updated pics of the BFL longies. My new needles arrived on Friday so I was finally able to carry on with the legs! what a dufus for starting them in one size without checking that I had the same size in the smaller circumference *rolls eyes* Anyway, I have been powering along and I can't believe how far I've gone in just one night and a bit of the afternoon. And knitting with people around me bugging me LOL



The waistband is the Curly Purly, which I really love, but is a bit of a PITB because ribbing is not my favourite thing and seems to take me forever! (although I am getting much faster at it now). The rest of it has just been made up as I've gone along based on the number of stitches I needed for M's measurements (I had to adjust the required number for the curly purly pattern). This has worked out great because I did the gusset differently to the one other pattenr I've got (which I don't really like all that much anymore LOL) and it also gave me the extra stitches in the legs that I wanted to try and avoid that *girly* look that the other pattern seems to end up with for me. Can't wait to get these finished so I can try them on M! DH keeps asking what I'm doing though, and I think he's a bit miffed I'm not working on his throw rug LOL I just get more instant gratification with these because they are finished so quickly! I feel like I've been knitting that throw forever and I'm still not finished the second lot of squares LOL