Here Be Knitting

The Knitting. There's a Pair in There....

Finally.Some.Finished.Socks.

And.....

Both of them Sundara's Dahlia Sock pattern from her Petals Sock Club Collection.  The red/pink is Sundara's yarn (heavenly soft) and the blue/purple variagated is a Skacel yarn.  Both are Christmas presents, so nice to get them off the needles.

I will get The Girl to model them and put up a "full frontal" over the next few days.

Saturday night was election night and I watched the ABC's broadcast from 6.00 pm through to about midnight.  Surprisingly interesting - it is one of the few nights that politicians put aside most of the politics and analyse what is going on and what it means for their parties and for the wider community.  It is also great knitting TV - so I began:

This is Dahlia (again - I want a whole garden of them!) in Sundara's yarn "Lenten Rose".  I love the Hellebores and their bright spots of colour in the winter garden so this yarn is just beautiful.  I'm not so sure about the colour pooling - I can't decide if I like it or hate it - it is unusual for sure.  Perhaps knitting kharma strikes when you try to knit Dahlia Socks with Lenten yarn - the back begins to look like camoflauge socks:

I just can't get enough of Dahlia. I can often be seen just sitting and staring at the pattern created.  Pitiful, I know.  I am hoping that three pairs will get her out of my system.  It is something I am working towards.

Saturday elections also brought forth:

The Yarn Harlot's Earl Grey Socks.  I am knitting these in Wildfoote from Brown Sheep in Brilliant Bouquet (from Stash - yes!!).  Her Dad chose the colours and I must confess that I was surprised.  He was given this and a blue/grey very subdued colourway from XXL and, well, he obviously chose the brighter of the two - wonders sometimes never cease :)

And just so you know why Stephanie's design for her Joe's size 12 foot is so very relevant here:

Size 12's dwell in this house as well....

I am knitting both socks on my new KnitPicks metal circulars.  They are fantastic - can't recommend them enough.  They make the knitting so much easier.  My first Addi Lace Turbo arrived today - specially ordered for the Hanami.  Shelagh and I are commencing our own little knit-a-long for the Hanami beginning on January 2.  I am stuck in Sydney with The Girl for 9 days of chess and Hanami will be just what I need to relieve some of the boredom....

It has been pretty stressful here for the last few weeks.  It has kept me away from the Blog.  I miss it already.  Work has been mad busy and some important issues at home haven't gone our way.  During this time, knitting saves me.  And.I.Love.That.It.Does.That.

Enough for now....

The Block. Do Not Stand Still....

Danger Will Robinson, Danger. (I just lurved Lost in Space - although no prizes for guessing that one).  On The Block on the weekend, we made a rather gruesome discovery:

The Meat Ants (I didn't know they are also called Gravel Ants - learn something new every day) are making short work of what we think is a bee.  You really need to click on the photo and enlarge this one for all the gory details :)  The green is the poor fellows innards being dispatched at a rapid pace.  Interesting, don't you think....

Right next door (and I mean so close to the ants that we had to be careful that we weren't the next meal) was this beautiful:

Purple Wildflower.  Just beautiful.  We found another a little away and by sheer coincidence caught it with a native bee (I think)about to alight:

I hope you can see the insect (definitely worth clicking to make large).  There are over 1500 native bees in Australia and only 10 of these are stingless.  That's another 2 new facts for me - how many types of native bees we have and that only 10 are stingless.  Dangerous business this searching the web...

We found 4 other native flowers on our visit and I'll just show them off here - they need nothing more from me:

Lake George is a famous local natural feature that is believed to be more than a million years old.  Its having actual water in it is very cyclical in nature.  In July of this year it had water in it for the first time in quite some time. Go here for further information about our Lake.

The Block is about a 5 minute drive away from glorious views of Lake George.  As we have recently had a nice drop of rain, we took the drive over that way at the end of our day.  The recent rains have added a trickle to its dry lake bed:

Even almost empty, it is very beautiful.  And the light just takes my breath away.

Enough for now...

The Knitting. And She Laughed...

I am not smart and I'm dumb enough to keep forgetting it.  I got down to the heel on my red/pink Dahlia socks.  I looked at the pattern; it said 9 repeats before the heel.  I looked at my notes from sock 1; it looked like I had only 8 repeats.  I looked at said sock; I counted the repeats.  It looked like 9 repeats.  I must have just missed the last repeat in my notes (having only knit the sock a few weeks ago, you would think I could remember or at least count!).  I could not possibly have misread the pattern when I knit Sock 1.  That is just so not like me (hah!).  I completed 9 repeats on sock 2 and knitted the heel flap.  I compared sock 1 to sock 2.  Sock 1 seemed a little shorter, but I'm sure it must just be because of where I was in the knitting (where I was in the brain more like it..). I completed turning the heel, picking up the gusset and began the decreasing.  I checked again - nope all was good.  I continued decreasing.  I thought to check again.  And. then. again.  And then I finally acknowledged what I had really known all along.  I. had. only. done. 8 (count them 8). repeats. on. the. first. sock.  I sat and stared and ranted and raved - at the sock of course.  I threw it away and refused to look at it.  And T.K.G - oh  how she did laugh. I drew a deep breath and then began the task of ripping back.  So, here it is, having its second life....

And I've included sock 1 just to show, me more than you, that they do actually match. Sigh.....

Her Dad likes to pay homage to Minerva.  He regularly attempts to keep her assuaged (AKA bought off) by throwing away small coins and other little trinkets in beautiful places.  Heh... who am I to argue - it seems to work - Minerva has very little influence on our lives :)  It made me wonder what could be done to keep TKG happy, off my back, living at someone elses's house?

Shelagh's gift has arrived, so here it is unwrapped:

Mira and Rain who submitted guesses were pretty close with quite a few things :)  I have sent a little something to them both for their efforts.  My favourite above (other than the beaded scarf of course) is the Judy Horacek tea towel.  What's not to like - go check it out....

Enough for now....

 

The Knitting. Together a Pair

I've done it.

 

I've created a pair of the Dahlia Socks.  The blue, purple variagated I knit in just a few days - that is a record for me as I am not a fast knitter - very far from it in fact.  The pattern repeat of the Dahlia seems to help the sock knit faster somehow - you always want to finish at the end of the repeat and so you keep knitting a few extra rows, again and again...

The pattern is Sundara Yarn Dahlia Socks.  The Pink/red colourway is from Sundara's Petals Collections - heavenly soft.  The blue/purple variagated is Skacel Collection Trampoline.  It is nowhere near as soft as Sundara's yarn, but I am hoping a soak and a block will help soften it.  I have knitted the Skacel one as a boot sock and I think it will work quite well for that purpose.  I have decided that both will be gifts.

Here they are in their individual glories:

 

I have now gone back to the mate for my pink Dahlia (you did know I would finish them both, didn't you??) and I am already at the heel.  I only began it yesterday, so it really does go very quickly.  After that I will complete the blue one, unless onesockitis sets in.  Lets hope, for my Christmas gift list, that it doesn't.

Finally, on the knitting front today, my latest kit from Kim Hargreaves arrived today.  This is all Dawn's fault.  Although I love Kim's designs and have purchased kits in the past, I had never taken any notice of Eve as it really doesn't look very appealing in the photos - downright ugly in fact.  But Dawn's photos of her project really opened up the design and showed how pretty it is. 

I have purchased mine in Kidsilk Night, in a lilac and purple colour way.

The darker of the two purples is not "that" dark in the flesh although the lilac is pretty accurate.  Isn't the model severe??

Enough for now...

The Knitting. I'm Not Very Loyal...

As promised, here is a slightly better photo of the beautiful pattern on Sock One of the Dahlia:

  It is a lovely pattern and easy to memorise which helps the knitting to go faster.  I really struggled with keeping my gauge even on the foot portion of the sock - I don't know why that was, isn't normally one of my problems.  Obviously, The Knitting Goddess (TKG) was just making sure I knew she was around.

As I said yesterday, my fingers were itchin' and I've gone and begun another project:

No prizes for guessing which one has caught my imagination :(  I'm in real danger of having two dahlias, just with the slight technical problem of two different yarns.  Won't TKG be laughing then!!

I don't think anyone will notice. 

Enough for now....

Ramblings. The Cat in the Bag

Sapphire, our lovely 12 year old Siamese loves boxes and bags (she's not alone there).  We caught her the other night at the end of a loooooong love affair with a plastic shopping bag:

She looks very worried (NOT) to have been discovered and very unceremoniously carried around in her bag for a while doesn't she??

Her Dad's toe is still giving him jip and this has greatly curtailed activity.  I don't mind :)  Our weekend, then was pretty laid back and consisted of very little activity.

Rain and much cooler weather

forced us indoors for a little while where we enjoyed warming coffee and wedges (which they do with crispy bacon, tomato salsa and chilli and sour cream - yum, yum) at one of our favourite coffee shops.  It was all gone much too quickly for a photo. 

We took a walk along Telopea Park and down to Lake Burley Griffin.  We spied a wedding at the Greek Orthodox Church of St Nicholas, but the Bride and Groom had already escaped:

We really liked the elegant simplicity of the Church and thought perhaps it was built in the 50s? (I couldn't easily find any info on the www, so if anyone knows, leave a comment).

The fairies had been here before us. But very unwisely left their house on display:

The spider webs almost looked like little houses, all covered in seed puffs from the willow trees:

We discovered an errant fig tree - left by the birds or the fairies perhaps?  Figs are one of my favourite fruits and even the leaves smell heavenly:

 

And, birds and their young everywhere:

Both the goose and gander were ready to chase us away if we had gotten any closer - cute huh? And a final bird photo of a very cute white cockatoo:

On the knitting front, I have decided to give Rain and Mira a small knitterly something for their guesses for Shelagh's gift.  Both were surprisingly close on a number of the items.  All will be revealed when Shelagh receives the package :)

I have finished the first of the Dahlia Socks.  As with all love affairs, the edge has come off a little... Here is a photo, not very good, but I'm tired and its blocking:

Its mate and the red-brown cotton Makaha are what I am concentrating on at the moment - and I'm getting very itchy hands!  It won't be long now before I will have (have, have....) to start something new.  Socks, lace, top, cardigan, bag, hat, mittens......  Oh the choices!!!

Enough for now....