Got Yarn, Will Travel

For such a long time I have admired the very talented knitters who churn out shawl after beautiful shawl.  I have wanted to join in, but have always been a little scared.  All that lace.  Then it dawned on me that I have been knitting lace for ages now, just in a different form - socks.  This realisation led me to trawl through Ravelry and my yarn stash, and I came up with this:

 

My first shawl!!

Pattern:  Traveling Woman by Liz Abinante

Yarn:  Merino Sock by Knitabulous in Ruby Slippers

Needles: 4.5mm 

I really love it.  It is just the right size to wear as a scarf and the colour is just gorgeous.  I can see me getting around with this a lot this winter.

I really have no idea about blocking, but I just soaked it in some woolwash and stretched it out onto some of those foam blocks for kids and pinned it out.  Seems to work!!  

I did run into some trouble when blocking the bind off edge.  I think it is bound off too tightly - it doesn't seem to want to stretch all the way out.  I need to investigate some different techniques.  Just not for this one, I cannot be bothered to undo it and try again.

Oh and the foam blocks, got them for a steal at the crappy craft store that starts with L.

Me? A gardener?

I will be honest.  I do not have a green thumb, and I know nothing about gardening, but when we moved into our new house I was very excited to find that the previous tenants did.

They had planted cherry tomatoes, strawberries and capsicums, as well as some rosemary and flat leaf parsley.  

Jack the Lab got all of the strawberries before they were ripe and we are having a hard time keeping him out of the tomatoes.  We did manage to rescue a few and we had them in our tacos for dinner tonight.  They were really good.

The tomato plant was going crazy and it wasn't staked, so we ventured out intending to get some stakes to keep them off the ground and ended up getting much more.

We bought a little fence that will hopefully keep Jack out,

a chilli plant,

some basil, corriander and some spring onions.

I really have no idea about growing vegies, but I think if I water them regularly and try and keep the creepy crawlies off them we might be successful.

Baby Socks

Just after we found out that Three was on his or her way I cast on for these teeny little socks.  I used some leftover yarn from my Green Goddess Socks.

I am really worried that they are going to be too small.  Newborn babies have enourmous feet in my experience.  Guess I will just have to wait until the end of June to find out.

Sorry about the crappy photo, I still can't find the battery charger for the camera and had to use my phone.

An Update

1. We had a wonderful Christmas.  We spent it in North Queensland with my parents and siblings.  A lovely low key day, with spoiled children, wonderful food, lots of air conditioning and even an afternoon nap.  New Years was a laid back day too.  
2. Soldier is home, and back at work already. 
   
3. I cannot find the battery charger for the camera, so I have been using my iPhone with limited success.
4. I have finished three items for Three and I have another that is almost ready to be off the needles.  Then I am going to knit something for myself.  
5. Noo will start kindy in a couple of weeks, if we can find her a place.  Every kindy in our council area has been full since June last year!  That is before we even knew where we were being posted to.  I will be enrolling The Boy in March for the 2012 year, he won't even be two.  Crazy isn't it, having to enroll him in four year old kindy before he is even two.
6. I am still in denial that I have a child who is old enough for four-year old kindy.
7. I am also in denial about my expanding waist-line.  I still think it is from eating too many doughnuts and not from the little person who currently resides in there.  
8. I am waiting for the groceries to be delivered so I can make banana muffins with Noo.
9. I have started taking a photo a day and uploading it flickr.  The flickr app on my iPhone makes it a breeze.  
10. I am going to find the battery charger so I can post some photos next time.  Posts without photos are so boring (to me anyway).
    

There is something I have been mum about

I mentioned a couple of posts back that I hadn't knit a stitch since moving down from Sydney.  That has been rectified - I have cast on for Ailsa's socks.

There has been a good reason for my lack of knitting:

Yep, that's right!  Three (is it wrong to call your unborn child a number?) will be joining us in June, all things going well.

I have been very, very sick and unable to do anything except the very basics of child rearing and laying about on the couch.  It hasn't been easy with Soldier deployed, but I am happy to say that I am on the other side of the morning sickness hill and I am feeling great now.

Indian Summer

My first instalment of the Indian Summer Yarn Club by the wonderful Knitabulous arrived in my mailbox this morning.

I have been eagerly awaiting it's arrival!

The yarn is gorgeous, and the colour couldn't be more perfect for me.  Blue-greens being my favourite colours.

I think I was very restrained in not eating the chocolate or immediately brewing up that wonderful Chai teabag that was in the box.  Having said that the chocolate is in my mouth as I type.  Mmmmmm.

I think I will go and spend what is left of the rest of the night on the couch with some needles.

I'm Baaack!!

Things that have happened since we last spoke:

1. We have moved states, just to the next one down,
   
2. We love our new house, it has tiles instead of 30 year old vinyl on the floors and - get this - a window in the bathroom,
3. We have unpacked a huge number of boxes, and complained that we have too much stuff,
4. Soldier discovered the extent of my sock yarn stash, I guess telling him not to open that box was like waving a red flag at a bull,
   
5. Soldier has been deployed, to somewhere he hasn't been before,
   
6. The Boy has learned eleventy billion new words, his current fav is 'juice'
   
7. I haven't knit one single stitch since I left Sydney,
   
8. I turned 30 and found my first grey hair on the same day, but had a fabulous day otherwise,
   
9. I have become excited about the upcoming changes around here,
10. I found an excuse to buy a new front loading washing machine (the laundry is too small for our very large old washing maching),
11. I have yet to discover just what other Melbournites (is that even what you call people who live here?) do with their rubbish, the wheelie bin is so tiny, like it should be in a dolls house,

And lots of other stuff that is just too mundane to list.