A Week in Review

Well it's been about a week since I last blogged. In all honesty it feels like so much longer.

Let's see.....on the head cold front [clearing throat], I'm feeling much better, and most of the nose blowing and sniffing is DONE. I've been rewarded for my immune dysfunction with another delightful coldsore [reads... sh*t, bugger!!@@#].

As if my virus wasn't enough! Somehow a virus infected my computer. It was the mega-mother-fukton of all viruses. Can't remember the exact name of the evil trojan, but let's just call it The Evil Replicating Drive-killer (TERD).

Nick's a computer genius, but as fast as he was killing it, it was replicating itself and moving through my C drive faster. It was like a computer game!! Phenomenal. Nick went into DOS and thought he finally had it, but it was always a step ahead. Finally, it lodged itself firmly in the operating program turning off all permission to C drive and declaring with a smirk that C drive no longer existed!

Windows could not be reinstalled. Boots disks were useless. Restore and Backup......useless.

The bloody thing won. TERD = 1: Isa=0. Options??

FORMAT C drive.

And even that failed twice. I was seriously considering buying a new computer.

Finally the computer was restored. By the time I re-installed all my software, entered a gazillion passwords and ids, it was three days of being "off air".

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The only conducive thing to not having a computer, and not being able to work, was that I could KNIT! Yeah!

So I started a bunch of projects and continued with other WIPS.

First off, I'm knitting a pair of red socks for the Ruby Red Sock Competition being run by Shall We Knit. The sock contest is to celebrate the New Hamburg Community Players production of "The Wizard of Oz". I have until the end of April to finish them. The socks are a mish mash of things - the overall pattern is from Koi Fingerless Gloves, by Terry L. Ross, and the heel from More Sensational Knitted Socks, by Charlene Sturch. I'm using some beautiful Chinese Red Shubui sock yarn, and have called my socks "Shibui Reds".

This is where I'm at with them.

When I was at Shall We Knit last month for their annual sale, I picked up some Louet Corriedale Top Roving 1/2lb. In between WIPs I have been practising my drop spindling with my new Asage OrangeTurkish Drop Spindle from Jenkins Woodworking. I'm about two-thirs of the way through the roving now. I will ply the yarn, but before I do it, I want to dye it.

Here's what I have so far.

I dyed some Cascade 220 to start the second of my Ayla backpacks for my niece, Karlia. She loves blue, especially turquoise, so I dyed two skeins semi solid turquoise and two skeins in a bottle green/teal semi solid. The colours reminded me so much of the sea, so I called this project "Cerulean Blue Ayla".

This is the dyed yarn.

Since the colours of this backpack are so sea-like, I thought I should chart a new stranded motif for the bag [instead of the flower]. And so, after some hours, my beautiful seahorse graph was born.

Seahorse graph for Cerulean Blue Ayla.

When I was at the opening for the Little Red Mitten on 15th February, I bought a fantastic book entitled "The Sweater Workshop", by Jacqueline Fee. I've been avidly reading it, and knitting a sampler along the way! The sampler is designed to teach the techniques needed to knit a perfectly constructed well-fitting sweater in-the-round from the top down.

I'm going to blog when I finish the book....I've learned so much - it's awesome!

Here's my sampler so far.

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My brilliantly talented friend, Kata, made me an amazing stamp that I love, love, LOVE! It all began when I asked her if I could commission her to make me a frog stamp for work. Within hours [cross my heart!] she emailed me with a photo of it! And then she got me some awesome lime coloured ink for stamping! Go check out her Etsy Shop and her blog! You won't be disappointed!

Frog stamp from Kata.

And then there's work! We are open for business again......1st March until 24th December.....seven days a week! BIG SIGH! I've been working flat out on two powerpoint presentations I have to deliver this month. One is to the Forest City Pond Club, and the other is to the London/Fanshawe Horticultural Society.

Next week I will be writing a newsletter, updating the catalogue, hiring staff and all the other usual business stuff.

Righto...off to knit!

Aylaah........You Got Me on My Knees Ayla!

Sniff, sniff, aaah-choo! Oh what a surprise another bloody head cold! I hadn't even gotten over the last one yet! Probably has something to do with those four days last week without house heating!

I've dosed up on Sudafed Super Extra Mega Strength, so hopefully I've get through this post "drip free"! Ewww!

Earlier this month I began knitting a felted backpack, Ayla by Jordana Paige. I used Cascade 220 wool as the pattern suggested, but changed the colours to those that my adorable little niece, Jaycee Mae, would just lerv!

Jaycee Mae with the knitting needles she made

I know I said I'd never do intarsia again...but the flower on Ayla called for intarsia. The knitting itself was pretty boring.....stockinette all the way. I modified it a little - to break the boredome - by spelling Jaycee's name at the top with some stranded work. I also did the last three rows in a little red and white stripe just to add some of the flower colour somewhere else on the bag.

At the end of my knitting my unfelted bag was 20ins tall, 46ins around and 5.5ins deep. The straps were 30ins long.

Unfelted Canary Ayla

The pattern said to sew the base to the body of the backpack, then pick up stitches around the base, stockinette for a few rows, and cast off. The tube that results from this gets wrapped around the sewn edges, making what almost looks like an i-cord. I sped this process up a little by not sewing the base to the body first. I simply picked up the required stitches holding the base and body together.

I put the straps, i-cord tie, backpack and an old pair of jeans into the washing machine for about 10mins - hot wash, and a little detergent.

My resulting felted backpack measured 11ins tall, 39ins around and 4.5ins deep. The straps were 21ins long.

Felted Ayla

After the backpack was fully dry, I had to line it. The instructions for lining the bag could have been better (i.e. adding some sizes of pieces), but I'm a sewer, so it didn't take long to sew the pretty lining. The body piece was 40ins x 11ins, and the base was 11ins x 5ins. Finally, a bit of hand sewing to attach the straps and the lining to the backpack, and I was finished.

End Results

This was a fun project. The backpack turned out awesomely! I love it, and I know Jaycee will love it too.

Now, as they say "one down, two to go"! Next one is for Karlia. Like her Aunty, she loves turquoise!

Little Red Mitten

Family Day - what better day to go on a knitting road trip?

And that's how my lovely day began at 11:30am. Laura and her daughter Ally came to pick me up for a raod trip to the grand opening of Little Red Mitten.

Little Red Mitten is a lovely new yarn store on Talbot Street in St. Thomas (across the street from Jumbo the elephant). Joan and Matt, our lovely hosts, have set up a beautiful little store filled with wonderful knit and crochet goodies!

There are several rooms filled with: yarn, books and patterns, needles & accessories and wool washes.

Amongst the needles are such names as: Addi Turbo, Clover, Takumi and Bryspun. I bought a lovely Addi Turbo Lace Circular, 24" x 2.5mm. The nice thing about this circular is that the cable is pink! Helps enormously when I'm knitting two socks at a time and need to differentiate between the two circs.

There is a great selection of books and patterns in the front room. I had trouble deciding on just one, but in the end came home with The Sweater Workshop, by Jacqueline Fee.

Yarn - and lots of it - filled all the rooms. Brand names such as Diamond Yarn, Noro, Brown Sheep, Zitron Trekking, Fiddlesticks and Briggs & Little. There was more, but I don't remember them all now. Lots of crochet thread too.

I also bought this awesome circular needle storage system. It's called The Circular Solution, and is already half filled! No spot for 2.75mm or 2.00mm circs though....

Here's what mine looks like:

Following our petting at the zoo, we went for lunch at East Side Marios on Fanshawe Park Road.

What a lovely outting. Thanks Laura!

Oh I'm Gushing!

Oh my God....this was so unexpected! I feel faint...NO...wait honoured! Who to thank, who to thank [pant, pant]...

Laurie from Issues With Knitting gave me this absolutely fabulous Creative Blogger Award.

1. The winner must copy this Award to their own blog.

2. Link to the blog from whence you received the Award.

3. Nominate a minimum of 7 other bloggers.

4. Link to the nominated on your blog.

5. Leave comment about the award on the nominated blogs.

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Nominate seven bloogers bloggers?? See...I'm so excited I can't type properly anymore. Although I must ashamedly admit to living like I type - fast with a lot of mistakes!

I'm gonna skimp out on the seven - don't really have time for that - so here's a few of my favourite in no particular order:

Balkan Style - Tina & Nadine frolicking through life's precious moments!

Spinning Jenny - Give Jen a spinning wheel, some fibre and some dye, and she's bloody amazing!

Knitty Kat - Kathryn and Bogey on this merry-go-around called "life".

Kataish - nobody I know is as creative as Kata - together with Will's she's unstoppable!

UGH, sniff, snort.....my poor nose. I've got a rotten head cold. Won't somebody please just shoot me?

Astoria by the Seaside

The Astoria sweater is named after a little seaside town in Oregon, USA. This is a lovely top down, raglan sweater pattern designed by Marnie MacLean.

I used Cascade 220 wool as opposed to the superwash - but that's OK as long as I don't accidentally throw it in the washing machine and shrink it!

Notes:

This is a "fitted knit". That means it hugs the body. There are darts in the front and the back for bust/waist/hip shaping.

There were a few knitter defiined glitches - my own fault really for misunderstanding the pattern. Marnie was great though and steered me back on the right path several times. I hasten to add that this was my first top down sweater, and my second only attempt at stranded work.

The great thing about a top down sweater is that you can try it on as you go!

Marnie gives lots of extra instructions to custom fit this garment for a fuller bust, shorter/longer waist, larger/smaller hips.

Sleeves

I actually followed the pattern closely until the sleeves!

The first sleeve was a super-sized headache. Beware stranding on the sleeves! I used four dpns (4.5mm) for the stranded motif in the body of the sweater, and did the same for the sleeve. I'd almost finished the sleeve and decided to try it on. Bugger, the sleeve was a little tight. Not uncomfortably tight, but still more than I like.

So I frogged it and knit it again using 5mm needles. I knit down to the elbow again, and tried it on. It fit better, BUT I didn't like the looser stranding. It just looked wonky to me!

So I frogged the sleeve again. This time I photocopied the stranded motif for the sleeve and redrew the sizing lines to accommodate four extra stitches under the arm. I knit the stranded motif on an 80cm x 4.5mm circular needle using the magic loop method. Much better.

I also knitted one less set of repeats and decreases for the sleeve length.

Neckline

This was also a bit of a struggle. As predicted early on in my knitting, the neckline was way too big/loose.

I picked up the number of stitches suggested in the pattern and used the suggested needle size - although there was no way that 190 stitches were going to fit on one 12" circular!

I added extra rows, but it was still loose. So I frogged it back to the picked up stitches point and asked for advice through the Tips and Techniques Group on Ravelry. Together with some advice from Marianne and Diana, Marnie (the designer), and a tip from the Yarn Harlot, I ended up doing a crocheted cast off.

She turned out well, and I'm one happy little Ozzie!

Road Trip & Stashing

Despite the dreary, snowy weather yesterday, four brave souls (Kat, Laura, Kat's Mum and I) went on a road trip to the annual Shall We Knit SALE!

Kat did an awesome job safely chauffeuring us around yesterday (thank you, thank you!!) and Kat's Mum [we'll just call her Mum] gave us the wheels AND paid for the fuel (thank you, thank you!!).

The road trip itself was fairly uneventful except for the usual morons that have a license.

Shall We Knit was alive with people, and a bubbly Karen greeted us at the door. All four of us went in different directions - but it didn't matter in the end cos we all ended up with an armful of goodies (except for Mum)!

Here's a pic of my haul:

(front to back starting at the left: Lang JaWoll Silk sock yarn, Estelle Cadenza sock yarn, Louet top roving, row counter, and three back issues of Spin-Off in the background).

At the front right is a bag of roving. I'm going to use my new drop spindle to spin this lovely fibre into something glam [hehehe].

Yup, I got a lovely new drop spindle just before I went to Australia, and totally forgot to blog about the little darling.

I ordered my Turkish Drop Spindle from Jenkins Woodworking, Oregon, USA. It is an Asage Orange and weighs 1.8oz.

While I was in Australia, with my Dad's help, I sanded and varnished another Turkish Drop Spindle. I ordered this particular spindle from Ashford in New Zealand. The Ashford spindle came with a little sheet of sandpaper and required finishing.

Here are both my spindles. The Ashford is the assembled one.

And today I spent the better part of 3.5 hours doing stash inventory! I added 30 [$$#@!!!] more yarns to my Ravelry stash. There yarns were just last year's yarns that hadn't been added to the Rav database.

Righto, back to knitting - my Pacific Astoria waits for no woman!

New on the Needles

5:15pm - London, Ontario

It's still light outside, but only just. Gotta love that the days are getting longer now. After having just spent a month in Australia, I got used to it being light until 9pm!

So, I’ve spent the last ten days in the guise of “jetlag” doing absolutely nothing [whisper] except knitting and roving around on Ravelry. Sshhh….. The music is cranked thanks to a 3-cd Christmas gift from my brother and sister in law. How did they know?? Hmm... well, obviously, they didn’t, but nevertheless my foot is tapping and I am singing badly loudly to the “One Hit Wonders of the 80’s”.

Oh my God!! What a top song....."Spirit in the Sky". Ha!

Yes, I’m procrastinating. I honestly do have a megaf**kton of work to do to start the business season. But when I look at the amount of work versus the time left to do it, well you get the picture……hence the dawdling.

Yesterday there was a Clockwatchers Sale on at London Yarns. 25% off all Cascade yarns between 1-2pm. Armed with my knitting patterns, Astoria (Marnie MacLean) and Ayla (Jordana Paige) I purchased my ten skeins of the lovely stuff.

Oh man, another blast from the past "St. Elmo's Fire"!

I've done a bit of a Photoshop hash to change the colours - this is sort of what my Astoria will look like.

The yoke part is turquoise, the stranded work is turquoise and natural (undyed yarn) and the bottom of the sleeves and the body is in teal heathers.

I had to buy the pattern [gasp], but fell in love from first glance! The pattern is very well written with lots of graphs, detailed instructions and stitch and row checks at the end of each section!

Again with the help of Photoshop I hashed the original to change the colours - this is sort of what my Ayla will look like.

I'm making this backpack for Jaycee Mae for her 4th birthday in April. As you can see, she adores the colour yellow....

With these two fabulous projects enticing me, how could I possibly think about work...?? Oh yah, that's right...gotta work to pay for yarn. Bugger!

OK, come Monday, I'm going to put the knitting away and do some real work. Honestly. Truly. Would I lie about something like that??

Double bugger..........

Just Nine Time Zones and 20,000km That Way -->

As I crunch on the last of my Arnott's Tim Tam Balls, my brain is buzzing and my fingers itching to blog about my big trip to the other side of the world.

First of all, God did hear my prayer for window seats - I had window seats the whole way! One million thank yous!

My flights to Oz were as anticipated; very long! Total journey time - door to door - 39 hours ONE WAY. Does that sound long? HELL YES! I was glad to stumble into bed following that delightful journey!

My sister in law, Theresa, and my two nieces, Karlia and Jaycee [a lovely welcoming committee bearing small gifts] greeted me at Brisbane airport, and I knew I was home to the lucky land.

The above photo is of my brother, Ralph, together with Karlia on the left and Jaycee on the right.

My vacation with Ralph and his family, began the next day - 10 glorious days at Kirra Beach on the lovely Gold Coast (Queensland)Australia. We stayed at Worldmark Wyndham Vacation Resorts on the 14th floor!

This above photo was the view from our balcony. Waking up to this every morning was totally awesome!

My days were filled with swimming (both at the beach and in the resort pool), shopping at nearyby Tweed Heads, trips to theme parks (White Water World and Seaworld), a cinema visit (Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa), lots of great dining and entertainment, and of course fantastic summer weather!

This above photo was taken at Seaworld (left to right): me, Jaycee and Karlia.

What vacation would be complete without some late night knitting? I promised each of my nieces an Alligator Scarf. The scarves were a fun knit.

Pictured above is Karlia with her turquoise alligator scarf, and Jaycee with her stretchy banana alligator scarf!

We also enjoyed a wonderful visit from my Aunt and cousins from Brisbane (Queensland).

Pictured (left to right): Theresa, Karlia, Sue (cousin), Jaycee (front), Aunt Petra, Dianna (cousin), and me on the end.

Following the Gold Coast vacation, Sonia (sister), Tony (parnter) and Emily (niece) drove to Kirra Beach to pick me up and take me to Lismore (northern NSW) for Christmas.

Photo above: Emily had prepared my bed and my room for my "sleep over". Hmm...where will Aunty Isa sleep?

Christmas lunch was held on Christmas Eve. Sonia outdid herself again and prepared a wonderful feast consisting of ham, Asian noodle salad, rice salad, potatoe bake, carrots and peas, bread rolls and strawberry surprise for dessert!

Pictured above (left to right): me, Mum, Emily, Tony, Norm (Tony's Dad) and my Dad.

From Lismore, it was on to Grafton (northern NSW) to Mum and Dad's. The Weiss and Bale clans arrived on Boxing Day and stayed until 29th December.

Boxing Day is of special significance to our family because it is also Dad's birthday!

Pictured above (left to right): Emily, Karlia, me, Dad, Sonia and Jaycee.

I managed to complete another knitting project - the last alligator scarf for Emily. I gave this to her on 27th December; the day we reserved for Christmas gift giving from brothers, sisters, aunties and uncles.

Here is a photo of Emily with her Pumpkin Alligator Scarf.

Everyone loved their knitted items - the hoodies, the hats, and the scarves.

Whilst in Grafton, I saw my best school friend Ann and her hubby Don, went to The Nymboida Coaching Station Inn (tour around a historic museum and a lovely lunch), and did some shopping.

A highlight of my Grafton holiday was a trip to Landruk's Gunyah Alpaca and Olive Farm at Carrs Creek Peninsula, Grafton, northern NSW.

Don and Dorothy do an amazing job managing the farm, providing excellent quality produce for the local markets as well as opening their pride and joy to the public.

Pictured above: I'm reassuring Emily that the alpaca won't hurt her and just wants to say "hello".

I bought some nice bare silk and alpaca hand spun from their store.

Theresa celebrated her birthday on 29th December, so we had reason to eat even more cake!

New Year's Eve was spent quietly with my Mum. We watched the Military Tattoo on TV, followed by the fabulous movie The Full Monty, followed by one of the most awesome Sydney fireworks display ever! Mum and I brought 2009 in with a couple of Bailey's on ice and a couple of Tia Maria's on ice.

The last part of my vacation was spent back with my sister and her family in Lismore.

Sonia and I enjoyed a lovely brekkie at Shelley's on the Beach, Ballina (northern NSW) - bit of a brekkie tradition of ours for years.

We spent quite a bit of time at Evans Head (northern NSW) where Tony's family live. Evans Head offers fabulous beach and river swimming.

Pictured (left to right): Sonia, Tony and Emily under their new beach umbrella.


While at Evans we all went out to dinner at the Services Club, and then went on to the Bowling Club for a few drinks and a dance.

Emily is an awesome dancer!

Pictured (left to right): Sonia, Emily and me.

Back in Lismore we did lots of shopping, went to the pool, cooked a couple of BBQs on Sonia and Tony's new BBQ, and generally enjoyed our short time together.

During the evenings we watched TV, and this gave me lots of opportunity to knit of course!

Pictured: Gull Stitch Beanie.

All too soon, my vacation was over. Sonia drove me back to Brisbane where I spent my last couple of days with my brother's family.

I visited a great yarn store - Threads n More in Brisbane where I bought some beautiful 4 ply alpaca yarn by Eki Riva. Theresa, Karlia, Jaycee and I went to the cinema and saw The Tale of Despereaux. Then I went to Skinny's Sheepskin and Wool products to buy another pair of Ugg boots.

Lastly I stocked up on Cadbury's chocolate of course, and bought a packet of Tim Tams for Kata [as promised].