Back on Baby Shawl

I am still trying to get through my stash, so I have picked up the baby shawl again to finish, it was the closest item to me when I went looking for something to knit after I finished some fingerless gloves for my grand-daughter (no photos of gloves as she has them and wears them alot.)


I remembered or rather found the yarn label of the Colorado yarn I was knitting my mobius wrap with. It is the Australian "Heirloom" yarn.

It is a nice winters saturday, raining slightly outside, pretty cold, just the thing for rugging up and spending a day knitting, only thing is I have to go out in the cold to Knitters Guild, but it is well worth it, I love knitting with the people in the knitting groups I am in. And it is also my turn to take afternoon tea, so no excuses I have to go.

Here are two beanies I have recently finished, probably will send them for the homeless, but I am feeling pretty slack as I usually knit heaps of beanies for the homeless each year and this year only two....

Half the year has gone....and so has my mind by the looks of things.

I have been so busy with family life that I haven't had time to blog lately. I have been knitting, no photos have been taken. I wondered whether or not to keep blogging as it has been so long. I decide to keep blogging and see if I can blog regularly again.

I have been knitting socks for a sock knitalong, and have gotten 2 pairs behind, so I may not keep that up, or will try to catch up some other time.

I have knitted a small pair of fingerless gloves for my grand-daughter as it is getting a bit cold now it is well into winter. I have knitted only 2 beanies for the homeless (I have been very slack all round), and another is on the needles now. I knitted a very nice mobius scarf, shoulder wrap which I love, it is in (mind has gone blank)....damn what yarn was it....it is Australian....I bought it at CR&K Daisy Design (my favourite yarn store), oh yeah it is Colorado by......it will come to me soon.....well on the other hand maybe not. The same company does Bendigo yarn....I know that someone will let me know now what it is.

I am still trying to knit through my stash....probably won't be finished this year and the only yarn I have bought is the colorado for the mobius wrap thing for me.

Where is my mind/brain....When I published this post I had done it on Wollongong Stitch N Bitch blog.....

so long between posts....

I have been very busy, some knitting being done, I have had family visiting for a little over 3 weeks and when my grand-daughter is around then I make the most of my time with her and don't do much else....well besides work, I still had to go to work 5 days a week, but home time was family time. A bit of knitting, a bit of gardening, a bit of bike riding, but mostly family time.... I love it.

The house is so very quiet now they have gone home....I am missing them, but I loved every minute they were staying with us.

I am getting ready for a week in the Old Fire Station Community Arts Centre in Kiama, some of the girls I knit with at my every other Tuesday night knitting group and some from SNB Wollongong are having an exhibition/sale of our knitting. I have been getting all my knitting for sale ready with tags, prices etc. It will be great to sell it all and clear some room in my craft/computer room. It may even be nice to see a bit of the floor in that room....now that would be good!

I had my eldest son's wedding at the end of March (he was the family with grand-daughter who has been visiting), we had a wonderful time at the wedding held on the Gold Coast QLD (Queensland), the weather was fantastic.


Top Left: Scott, Kristen, Aahliyah (Scott is eldest son, Kristen my daughter-inlaw, Aahliyah is my grand-daughter)
Top Right: Aahliyah
Bottom Left: Scott & Kristen
Bottom Right: Me, Tim & Abby (Tim is youngest son and Abby is his finance)

Carol's Clever Little Shawl

What a wonderful easy knit. I love it. I love the yarn I knit it in, I love the colour, I love, love, love it. The yarn and colour really suit the era for which the pattern was taken from. And as it is raining today I am going to wear it to Knitters Guild. Yah for great little knits.

Pattern: Carol's Clever Little Shawl
Materials: Cleckheaton Country Naturals 8ply
Colour: 1825
Needles: Addi clicks 6mm
Amount: 6 balls

The pattern is by Carols Sanders, who created this pattern from studying an historic 1800's shawl, asks that you not sell this pattern or knit it to sell...just freely share it with others (and please give credit where it is due). This pattern is presented in Carol's original format. Enjoy!

I worked out the sock heel, it was just me being too tired, I have started to turn the heel and I have also started to knit some beanies which will be going to the homeless youth in Sydney through Youth Off The Streets food van.

SS6S.....is slowly sinking

my sock for the SS6S knitalong is slowly sinking. I am stuck on the turning the heel of the Nutkin sock, don't know if it is me, obviously it is, I must have read it wrong the other night, maybe I was too tired to understand or maybe I just don't get it, but this is the first time I have ever had a problem understanding instructions while knitting a sock. So I have put it down and have been knitting a nice small shawl for myself. I will get back to the socks when I finish the shawl.

I did manage to finish another cotton bag and 3 blue baby beanies before starting the sock though.

It's in the bag

I have been whizzing through the knitting of the cotton shopping bags. They don't look all that big, but they do have a good stretch to them. And they are great for the height impaired of this world (like me) as they don't touch the ground when you have things in them which is great.


I am on the fifth bag now and the cotton stash is shrinking. One bag takes less than a day to knit, well less than a day while I am on holidays, next week when I return to work will be a bit different as there are about 12 hours in the day that I wouldn't be able to knit at all.....where is a great job where I could knit while working????? I guess you call that retired or owning your own yarn store, of which the latter sounds just perfect. Well that is a dream of mine, I would only do that if I had alot of money to own my own building and stock the store without having to borrow, as great as a yarn store or any own business for that matter, I wouldn't want the stress of having to worry about making enough money to cover all those costs associated with having my own business....a BIG lotto win would be fantastic right about now!

Well I am going back to knitting another bag, this one is all black and is looking pretty good.

Most of this knitting for the next few months will be for sale when a few of us have an exhibition at the Old Fire Station in Kiama from 18 - 22 May.

Alpaca is so soft...

I love the feel of Alpaca yarn, it is so soft against the skin. I bought a Scarf Kit from The Ardent Alpaca in Beechworth from Christmas money. I thought as I am knitting from stash I may as well do this one as it is fairly new to the stash.

The kit is Eki Riva Scarf with Button. It is knit with Eki Riva Sport 14ply Alpaca from Peru on 5mm needles. It is a light brown colour very natural looking. It knits beautifully, it looks and feels wonderful against my skin.

Other knitting has been more of the same scarf using Shadow Tweed and a cotton bag, so now I will get back to more cotton bags. I also knit a pair of felted boots, which when felted were a bit hard to get over grand-daughters heel, so I made another pair which turned out fitting me. I may put both in for sale at the Old Fire Station in May.


Family left this morning very early on their way back north home. We had a great time with them, it always goes way to quick, but it is only 5 weeks until we head north for their wedding.

Never to young...

to knit...at 2 1/2 years old my grand-daughter has been sitting on my lap and helping me knit some dishcloths and a scarf, every now and then she hops up and hold the yarn, then with a bit of my help winds the yarn around the needles and pulls the stitch through....I love it. She has always been around me knitting and on occassion has helped herself to my glasses and knitting. I am hoping she will have a real love for knitting as she grows.
While they are visiting I have been able to do a bit of knitting, in between playing with the grand-daughter, cooking some hot pink playdough and playing with it, and a weekend away to Mudgee....I did try many wines at the 5 wineries we visited, but only really liked two....Burnbrae "Moscato" and that bottle is already gone and I also bought a really nice White Port from Pieter Van Gent, it is delicious chilled over ice. I will be cracking that one open this weekend when our family is all together for a lunchtime BBQ. I also bought my parents a bottle of the White Port. Travelling on bikes can be great in some ways as we couldn't really bring too many bottles home, but having already finished the Moscato I am a bit disappointed that I didn't have more room.

I have finished 8 dishcloths, knit in different colours of Anchor Magicline in a honeycomb pattern. I have kept one and will be putting the others to my stash of things to knit to sell at the Old Fire Station in Kiama in May.

The blue baby set is the set that one first place at Albion Park Show and first place at Kiama Show, both held in January 2011. The Kiama Show winning came with the Isabel Rutledge Ribbon for "Best 3 Piece Baby Set" at the show. I have been trying to win that for many years, and now I have.

I started to knit last night a plain but nice, keyhole scarf, the pattern is from The Ardent Alpaca at Beechworth Victoria, I have saved the Alpaca yarn for me, but did use a ball of Patons Shadow Tweed knit on 5mm needles. What a very quick knit, which is helping me with my stash knitting....gotta love that.


I found a list I made of things to knit from my stash this year, which apparently on more closer observation is different to the list I am making on the side of this blog, not to worry I will mix them both together to get through the list.

Fairy Dress

I am on a roll.....I got the cotton/bamboo yarn out and the net fabric in purple, hot pink, and pink for a Fairy Dress in Zoe Mellor book 'adorable knits for tots'.
I used Patons Serenity DK Bamboo & Cotton, knitted on 3.25mm needles. I knit the top in the round to save on seams. The skirt pattern was just a drawing with no measurements, so I just had a guess as I know what size my grand-daughter is and the length for long pants and worked it out from there. I drew a pattern on newspaper and cut it out.
I am really enjoying this sewing/knitting time of late. It didn't take long to sew the 3 layers together hem over a band and thread through elastic - that done and it was back to the knitting I started on Saturday. Today Monday - all done.

The only change I made to the pattern was I did eye cord for the straps instead of using ribbon.


Now to find something else to knit.

Super Special Six Pattern Sock Club 2011

I have finished the first pair of the S62011, a stash sock yarn knitting group in Ravelry.

The pattern is Shur'tgal, and are knit in Hot Socks Four Season colour 731.
I like the pattern, but it doesn't show up well in this type of yarn. A plain yarn would have worked alot better.

They found it...

I am so happy, I missed a call last night from chief steward of the show saying they had found my shawl. I rang straight back but the person who had rang had left the office and was somewhere in the show area so I didn't get to ask what had happened to it or where did you find it????

A friend has been to the show this morning and it is displayed with a 2nd place certificate, she sent me a photo of it, and it definitely was not there yesterday everytime I looked, (some looks were very frantic) and I really did look at everything trying to see if I had only "not noticed" it. Don't know what happened but just so glad it is found.

Kiama Show

At first I was so excited.....excitement turned to sorrow....when I realised that my lovely lace shawl knitting in the beautiful Knitabulous yarn especially dyed by Knitabulous for her first knit club.....was NOT there. This shawl won 1st Prize at Albion Park Show 2 weeks ago...maybe someone didn't like their odds in the competition and took it out.

I dropped all my knitting off at Kiama Show on Thursday morning, you never think that it may go missing......it could have gone with someone else dropping off their show items.....it may have never made it to judging. I don't know how I feel, a bit lost I think.

Anyway I have spoken with show officials, I gave them a picture of the shawl, so they will contact me if they know of its whereabouts.....I am not holding my breath.

It really makes me cranky that I have never worn it, I thought it was so nice that I saved it to go in the shows this January.....and now I may never get to wear it.

The excitement I felt was because for many years I have been trying to win the "3 piece baby set" class and finally I have done it....1st and 2nd...First comes with the Isabel Rutledge Memorial Ribbon....YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!


And some are in for a huge shock, so if you are weak hearted, TURN AWAY NOW....don't read on. My FEATHERS Vest WON 1st PRIZE in the knitted vest section...and no it wasn't the only thing entered in the Vest section. Well have you picked yourself up off the floor.

One of my coathanger covers won 2nd prize.

All photos above are from Albion Park Show with the winning certificates attached to them.

I am hoping that when I collect all my knitting and winnings on Sunday morning that my shawl will have miraculously appeared.

Knitting for show....

did very well.

I entered 17 items in Albion Park Show and I am really happy with my results. 4 first place and 7 second place items and 2 highly commended. I will try and load photos of all the entries. I am going to enter the same items in the Kiama Show. I did say I wasn't going to enter Kiama Show this year, but seeing as I have these items already knit I may as well show them again. The Blue cards are the 1st Place Winners and the Pink cards are the 2nd Place Winners, the Highly Commended don't have a card as they didn't have any at the show - a bit slack on their part I would say. The Highly Commended were the rust colour lace scarf (my sister's christmas present) and the pair of pink bootees (without the pink card).

I have started on my stash knitting, I am nearly finished the 1st sock of the sock from stash knitalong and I have made 12 child size coathanger covers for my grand-daughter.

Well here is 2011..

and January is half over already. Where does the time go.

I have just checked my list of things to knit in 2010 and am very happy with my effort of all the things listed that a I did complete. I didn't complete 2 items, a knee rug and an item in feathers yarn both of which were for Albion Park Show that is being held this weekend 14 & 15 January. I did manage to knit one knee rug and one feathers item for the show though.

I have made a list of things to knit in 2011, I haven't put it on my blog yet, maybe I will, maybe I won't. It mainly consists of knitting for the knitting sock stash and knitting from stash only groups I have joined on Ravelry, they are apart of Morris & Sons forum on Ravelry.

So far this year I have knitted 5 coathanger covers for my grand-daughter, and I am currently knitting the first pair of socks for the sock stash knitting. All of which are a part of the knitting from stash only too.

While on holidays we had a day trip to Glenrowan Vic to visit Ned Kelly country. So while in the area we went to Beechworth and some know what is in Beechworth....besides the lolly shop...Yes....the Ardent Alpaca store, a beautiful store, full of beautiful alpaca things, bed quilts, pillows, clothing and best of all yarn....I did buy some yarn, and before you say 'hang on a minute, you are not buying yarn in 2011'.....I did buy it from christmas gift money....so technically it was from 2010 and it was a gift so I really didn't buy yarn at all...are you convinced cause I am. So I am still on track for not buying any yarn in 2011.

I did visit Albury again to go to the Knit2Go yarn store, which I did visit last October, but got there 20 minutes after they closed, well we set off to visit the store, got very excited when we pulled up out front, only to read a sign on the door. Closed to 18 January 2011. Bugger, bugger, bugger. I was a bit disappointed, but hey I am hoping 3rd time lucky....not sure when I will be down that way again, but hopefully sometime maybe in winter....busy, busy year this year from me and DH.

Yesterday I dropped off my knitting for Albion Park Show, I entered 17 items. I can't wait till Saturday morning when the show starts to be able to go and check out how I did. Last year was the first year I entered in this show after moving there in 2009, it is a lovely small show, but has heaps of things, I really enjoyed looking at all the cooking, photography, flowers, vegetables, knitting, sewing etc. So pretty excited about tomorrow and seeing everything in the show. I will put photos up of my entries over the weekend if I get time.

2011 - Year of Stash Busting

I made a decision the other night that I would NOT buy anymore yarn or books throughout 2011. I need to get my CC debit way down and by going public with my intentions will hopefully keep my on track.

I have joined the Morris and Sons Super Special Six Pattern Sock Club on Ravelry. This way it will get me knitting through some sock stash. I might try to get all my stash out and put it in categories and maybe even match it with patterns for the stash busting project which is an ongoing thing with me and now in its 3rd year, I need to get tuff with myself.

I haven't taken photos of knitting for a long while now, so I may not get time this year to post photos, but in 2011 I will try to be a good blogger.

I have been busy finishing off some christmas knitting, I still need to sew buttons on a cardigan for my MIL which I need done by Saturday to give to her. I need to cut out and sew some PJ's for my grand-daughter before Wednesday week when we fly up there to spend Christmas with them. So much to do and so little time, and I have made so many lists over the past few weeks and don't really seem to be crossing much off the lists. So this week is serious list making week, with things I really have to do before next week.

To everyone have a great Christmas, and an even better New year.....hears to 2011 being a great year.