A cranky Monday

I stuffed up something rather badly today, so I'm in an amazingly bad mood. I managed to spend 45 minutes working on 1 strip of my dad's Christmas quilt. And I had already done it, but not crossed that line off on the schematic. You want annoyed? Come on over.

On the knitting front I have been somewhat distracted since last Thursday. I went into Clegs and found the most squishy soft beautiful yarn from New Zealand called "Me", and it is so me! It's a scrummy deep purple that is almost edible, and it's 80% wool and 20% cashmere and very soft and yummy and scrummy and - oh wait, I already said that. Sorry.

Most importantly it's almost all gone. 1 ball equals one set of cabled fingerless gloves (yes, Chantal, this is why I planned to yell at you). On Cup Day I saw the "Fetching" fingerless gloves in progress and in hot pink, I might add. Despite this colour I was not put off and have now finished the set, sewing in the ends not included.

I did plan to work on my tank top, but I had to finish these gloves. Really. And I couldn't knit it at the movies on Saturday night because I need to keep untwisting the yarn and wrapping a hair tie around it (I recommend "Children of Men", by the way. Excellent movie. If you don't cry, you're heartless.).

So tomorrow morning, another early wake up - not as hard as I thought they would be - and back to work on my tank top.

A slacker than slack Tuesday

Ah, Melbourne Cup day... An excuse for locals to slack off and do naught but drink. Or sleep in. Some do both. I myself slept so long I missed the race. Ooops.

A weekend of voracious knitting has in fact just passed - true joy, verily. I spent Saturday doing new and exciting tasks that I've never tried before; washing dishes, mopping floors, vacuuming. Hey, did you know you can clean a bath tub? Weird, huh?

I managed to leave my started knitting at work on Friday. Luckily, I have another set of 5.5mm circulars so on Staurday afternoon, post cleaning, I began the front. Why waste a weekend alone when you can knit and watch "Bleak House"? All 7.5 hours of it... I cried at the wedding. Again. It reminded me that I need to rewatch "North and South" and "Vanity Fair" and buy "Wives and Daughters". I also cried at Charlie finding the 5th ticket while flicking channels on Saturday night. That's when I realised I needed to go out.

Hrm... Saturday night? Alone? Fairly poor? Borders!!! God bless the Jam Factory Borders store. They don't mind you spending four hours reading a book that you'll never purchase. In this case "Handknit Holidays" by Melanie Falick. Oh, drool. I've already planned to use my edible purple Colinette to make the twist scarf. This woman is a genius, a veritable goddess of knitting (until Divine J writes her book. Then look out Mel...). Anyone who describes this book as "nice knitting" must be killed immediately. There's a St Lucia wreath for mercy's sake! I sat in Borders whimpering for half an hour (mainly at the $59.95 price tag and lack of money on me) and I swear it shall be mine...

As a result of two days hard labour at my knitting I am pleased to announce some results. My cotton tank top (front) is currently measuring 21cm (just over 8 inches) which means I'm well over halfway to knitting 13 inches as the pattern requests (hey Americans! The rest of the world is metric. Your military is metric. Catch up!"). Unfortunately, spare time between now and Saturday? Practically non-existant. I'm going to try my old "get up early and knit" routine I used to do last summer when N. was away. It worked rather well, so hopefully I can do it again. Problem is that it requires a good sleep the night before and I'm not even tired right now. Ah well, one can only try.

A calmer Wednesday

Rumours of my death? Exaggerated. Rumours of my crippling? Sadly, terribly true.

I haven't been able to knit for pretty much the last month. I spent so much time knitting my sleeves to "Bleak House" that my hand cramped up. Normally, I would (very reluctantly) put my needles down for a day or two and rest my hand. However, I started my new job working on the census, and I had to type. A lot. Really a lot.

Say hello to my leetle frien'! (Always wanted to save that for a good reason.) This is my typing glove. It makes sure I don't scream in pain every time I sit down at a keyboard. The nails are now gone, decimated in the name of typing without crying.

So, I picked up my needles the last few days in the hope that I can ignore the pain shooting up my right arm. And I can.

Behold! The red jumper! All finished! It was so much fun to knit. It's the first time I've ever designed a jumper and this one is all raglan in the round. I still had to sew up the sleeves, but as I like sewing up sleeves, not a big problem. Carrying around the knitting was worse - it's very hard to walk and knit with a whole jumper on a circular.

However, there is a problem...

It's huge. I made a ribbed cowl neck and it's too wide. I look like a picture of Ann-Margaret from the 60's in it. The current plan is to thread elastic through the neck and hope it isn't too noticeable. *sigh* The best laid plans etc etc.

So, now I'm back, what's next to work on? Started an aran cotton tank top to wear over summer, and then I'll go back and check up on the list to see what's next. I really feel like sewing some more though - stupid warm weather makes me want to drop my needles and sew instead. Maybe the circular needle holder from the first S'n'B book...