Fun Time

I've joined two new fun knitting games - Sock Wars and Lace Swap.

Sock Wars is a sock swap with a difference. It reminds me of some similar game we played in school camps. The process of elimination continues until one is left standing as the winner. Plus it really fits my mood for socks lately.

Lace Swap is just a great way to send away some of my extensive lace yarn stash and get some more in exchange. Wonder if that still counts as stashbusting??

I'm gonna be quite quiet in the next two weeks cos my sister is here and she's pushing me to finish the various WIPS I promised her, namely the Plaza cardigan and the Heels and Toes socks I'm working on. And I managed to get the DVDs of SHARPE!!



Yes that is Sean Bean!!

I'm out of here.

PS The secret something that I have been clearing out my room for is here and is waiting for a good day for me to take a photo. I will be back to post some photoes once I get some decent light. Bloody rain this morning caused a jam and made me 1 hour late for work.

Dishcloth Dillema

I've always wondered why anyone wanted to knit dishcloths.

I mean all that work and then they use it to do the dirty dishes.

Don't you feel the knitting crying out to be saved?

But what if you're not washing the dishes with them. What if your faithful net scrunchie gave up the ghost and refused to go back into it's natural scrunchy state? what if it's been so hot the past few days you've been having two showers a day and your face need a nice scrub??

Imagine an absorbent cushy textured soft cotton cloth is washing your face. It has bright and happy colours. The pattern has just the right amount of texture for the most gentle abrasions. It costs half the cost of a good net bath scrunchie from Body Shop ( not the type that gets untied within a month).





Oh Help! I can't stop knitting them now!!

Sugar n creme yarn came from a swap with Carrie (no blog) and the pattern is from here. I was inspired by the loads of Mason Dixon dishcloths to be found here.

Now that the personal hygiene crisis is over, I got to go back to my heels and toes socks.

Heels and Toes

Well the heels and toes won!!





I just started of with the deep hunter green and then gradually increased the number of rows of the contrasting Koigu after the toe was done. I plan to do this before the heel and before the cuffs, finishing off the cuffs with the deep green.





Tried out the jogless round and I think that I have been pretty succesful although not neat enough.

Erin - with toe up socks, you can adjust the curve (think that is the right term) of the toe by varying the amount of stitches you wrap. I wrap around 9 stitches on each end but you can wrap more if you want it to be pointier or less if you want it to be flatter.

This pair is going to my sister as she's complaining about the cold winter in Auckland this year.

BTW I got the cute sock bag in a swap with Trek casts on. Have you seen the Gumball Footies sock she made from my Papaya Rose colourway??

Regia India

Quick post to show off my newly finished Regia India socks








They're fraternal twins, basic toe up pattern using 2.0 mm circulars and 64 stitches.

They could be a bit tighter and I could have been 1 cm more patient before going to the heel.

Will probably cast on either Baudelaire or Pomatamus tonight. Although I have a hankering to do a bi-coloured sock with solid toes and heels similar to Toni's . Well we'll see which desire wins over tonight.

Yeap the sock bug is still biting although I have been doing a little lace on the side. And I'm still hankering over a log cabin. I just saw a gorgeous one in progress done with Rowan Felted Tweed. How luxurious is that!!

Log cabin

There's been a spate of log cabin knits all over blogworld, due to the Mason Dixon's book and I must say they look absolutely fabulous.

Here's a whole list of worthy Log cabins

A Chance to Knit - in Felted Tweed no less.. that must feel real cushy.

january One - the pallette is gorgeous and it’s all STR!!

Monkey knits- it’s gorgeous as a baby blanket

Erica Lee - uses Plymouth Encore DK for a multicoloured version

Joan Knits -uses a different arrangement more akin to the traditional quilted log cabin – you can play around with the lights and darks.

My close encounter with the log cabin is a traditional one - here's my scrappy one that I was doing some years back (pre-baby).



Gregory is graduating to a big boy's bed this weekend and I was thinking that he needed a big boy's blanket instead of that swaddling flannel he's been carrying around.

I think I need about 6 more squares ( 2 rows of 3) to make it a decent size blankie for him. I have 3 hanging around and need to do 3 more. I used the traditional red square for the center - to signify the hearth as the heart of the home and the lights and darks. The fabrics are all scraps as you would have probably guessed y now - I am very much a scrappy type of gal.

The benefits of clearing out boxes is that you get to find your old treasures -



Paper pieced coasters




Hawaiian Applique - Breadfruit

The quilting is done but I have no idea what to finish it as. This thing is at least 20 inches square.



Details of hand quilting


Take a look at the detail. I quilted it hawaiian style shadow quilting ie following the motif inside and outside the patch.

More treasures of the past will be making its way soon to this blog. The stash busting must continue!!

Stripping bare

I'm feeling a little exposed here.

The process of cleaning up the store room and putting the stash into the new cabinets has just made me realise what a terrible stasher I am.
Remember this?





The cabinets finally came on Saturday afternoon.





Doesn't it look so neat and clean?? You haven't seen the rest of the kitchen and living room. That's where all of the stuff that was previously in the room is.

I had to do a little shifting around of PC table since the cabinets were bigger than I thought they were.

Lyn gave me a good tip of putting all the yarn in plastic baggies and in the cabinets, instead of the WIPs. So now all my WIPS except the current sock obsession is in the plastic bins.





This is far as I got before I had to leave for my parents-in-law's place in Melaka. Bearing in mind that I have yet to put in all my odd balls and my old quilting stash (trying to sell them all).

I prattled about the cabinets for at least one hour before I finally thought to ask DH, "Do you have anything to put in the cabinets?" I think his tongue was almost bleeding from biting, I know his eyes nearly rolled off his head. But he's a good sort so I'll make some space for him. That's what marriage is all about I guess!

BUT ... the whole lesson learnt is that I must do some serious stashbusting. I mean I think I have every kind of yarn I have ever wanted to try for all the patterns I want to try. What more could a girl want??

Oh I forgot .. the whole point of making some space here was because the ... other thing that's arriving at the end of the month.... Sigh! I can just see another stashing cycle looming in the horizon.

Plugging in.

Sally was pointing me to some knitty patterns when I stoppped for moment wondering why I haven't seen these patterns before. Then I realised that the new knitty was out and it's full of socks, gloves, hats and other accessories.


My favourites are RPM and Widdershins. Looks like my sock craze is going to last longer than I thought. Aren't I lucky I have this stash to see me through??

I need to plug my little bags



Want it? BID Here



I'm setting up the wi-fi internet access at home tonight so I hope to have more blogging during the weekend now. Sometimes I have so much to say but forget it by the time I get to sit down in from of the PC. Age is really catching up with me.

Fragments of my past

I haven't been doing much knitting lately - so caught up with the exciting developments of the World Cup - both Argentina and Brazil out of the running leaving four European nations (Portugal, Italy, France and Germany) fighting for the most prestigious cup in football.

The husband and I stayed late last Saturday to watch both the England - Portugal match. I was so upset after that match that I couldn't sleep so I stayed to watch the next match ( France-Brazil) with him. The second match was by far more exciting and less frustrating. We both have a fondness for the underdogs so we were glad to see the favourites Brazil leave and in such sporting manner too. I caught sight of Thierry Henri (France) hugging Ronaldo (Brazil) and that is a far cry from the ugly Germany-Argentina post-match free-for-all the night before.

Needless to say we spent all of Sunday recovering. Never thought I would take such a long time to recover from an allnighter. Age is catching up with me.

Instead of knitting my World Cup project ( shame on me, I know), I picked up the threads of an old hobby after attending a refresher class on Saturday afternoon with the Malaysian stitchers group.



Yes as you can see I am far out of practice - the picots are of varying lengths ad the joins are a bit twisted. I will have to practice a lot more before I can progress to the next step I think.

Meanwhile I forgot to update what I received from the Dye-o-rama swap.

Look at that gorgeous hank of yarn !!



I also received from Lynn some lovely tea , baseball cards for Gregory and tatoos for Megan and castille soap for me :). Thanks Lynn.



I had a week's reprieve on the cabinets. They are arriving this weekend instead - and I have half the room sorted out but need to take some trips to the rubbish tip today to get rid of the bigger stuff.

I have to make room cos I have a new toy coming at the end of the month. Heheh! see of you can guess what it is. All I can say is that I think I have gone completely bonkers but as Lyn says "Hey if it makes you happy, why not??"