Can I Stop and Breathe Yet?

The Year 10 Social went off well and the end of Year Dance Concert. DD very pleased with all. She helped teach some Baby Boppers this year and worked very hard on a solo routine which brought me to tears.

So just getting through the work stuff and 2 Christmas parties next Saturday to go.

Shopping well have been avoiding it, finances are tight and really don't want to buy on credit so trying of thinking of low cost but nice presents. That's where knitting comes in and cooking I think. Did buy some Billie G Cookie dough and Christmas cake mix which should arrive by Friday. One of my team at work's little 4 year old girl recently got diagnosed with leukaemia so we did a fund Raiser for Red Kite as she said they most supportive with day to day things. So if you get the chance to donate to this cause please consider it. As for the cookie dough, it's GOOD.

Thinking of them daily as cannot image how hard it would be, sad news last week, even though little Jayde has improved heaps and had gone into remission early, the final news on the risk level came through as the highest level which is only one percent of cases caused by if I remember rightly a mutated chromosome. This news when she was getting back to her happy little self. The only sign had been a hard tummy. So if your the praying kind, if you could add a word in for little Jayde and her family.

OOH and thanks to Jan for the SS6SC2011 link on your blog(see badge to right), what fantastic idea for a sock club

2 Snow Caps Done

Off to England they go. Working on Namaste Socks now , very quick project.

20 FO so far this year and took a couple of months to get started, must be getting faster or more obsessed (think it's the latter)

Get Some of my Life Back Today

DH got his licence back today YAY. Hopefully this will mean I won't be running back and forth so much between everyone and trying to make it all fit, I am so over it. He can get stuck into helping DD get her hours up for her licence.




Embossed Leaves Socks completed Monday night. Heel is quite different to what I'm used to with heel flap edging being garter stitch. It was easy to pick up stitches though along this edge. Pattern called for cutting the yarn once the heel was turned. Didn't like the idea of this at all so just knitted across the foot and continued across in pattern and made the required extra stitch at the end of patterned section with no issues at all. Toe was different as well ending up with only eight stitches which thread yarn through and pulled tight, nice not to have graft toe. I also learnt rib cast on, I was all fingers and thumbs and I reckon it took me two hours to cast on each sock but it's also a nice finish with the 1x1 twisted rib cuff.

Next socks will be for my brother. In the meantime have started Louet Snow Cap and hope to make 2 for my young 3rd cousins who are moving back to the UK from France. Given the weather we've seen in the news should come in handy. Have to get cracking though to get them there by Xmas.

Then I was going to do stirrup socks for my niece, but like the look of Namaste Socks a bit more fancy. Another Christmas present

Here But Not

Been on leave all of last week and been meaning to blog but didn't get there. Above more bird life passing through this spring. Think they are nesting in the vacant lot next door. Mum says they nest in trees unlike other ducks. That would be one big nest.

Finally finished my Noir Woodland socks , think getting to the heel on the first took a month or more. They were my work project and I think I was lucky to manage a row a day sometimes. Finally a few weeks ago got a chance to get stuck into them when I was off sick with an ear infection which gave me vertigo, concentrating on knitting seemed to ease the dizziness.




Have started Embossed Leaves Socks in Online Supersocke Cotton. This yarn is awesome for socks just throw in the wash, no felting, extremely hard wearing and comfy. Learnt 1x1 rib cast on from this pattern, took about 2 hours to get the knack of it. Very stretchy though and then twisted rib cuff, very neat finish.

My brother had major surgery early last week. After years of back pain and experiencing numbness in limbs he was found to have a tumour on his spine just below the brain. Fortunately it was very low grade, but they couldn't get it all without making him a parapelgic. The end results are sort of unknown, he may not see an improvement in his current symptoms, but should not get worse. If left he would have ended up with facial deformities and not being able to swallow. Pays to be persistent with these matters and listen to you body.

Happy 1st Birthday Dugald

Red-browed Firetail Finch

About 20 or 30 of these grazing in the back yard this morning. The bird life has increased here quite a lot over the past few years. To the naked eye (and my short sight)these tiny birds looked just brown with odd flash of red. Thanks to 20x zoom I was able to capture how pretty they are.

Speaking of birds, went to see the Legend of the Guardians the animated owl movie. Beautifully animated and the 3D was fairly impressive, but something was lacking in the characters & story, was a bit disappointed. The little ones would probably like it.

Speaking of owls, really seriously thinking of frogging it, not completely, but just not happy and really want to be able to wear it. The buttons I bought off Ebay are perfect.

Working very slowly on some Noir socks and have picked up the baby blanket again, was thinking a cushion, now back to a blanket that I'll keep.

Borrowed Cookie A's Sock Innovation from the library and loved it, fortunately Angus & Robertson decided to have a 20% off sale and free postage, so the deal was done, just waiting for it to arrive.

Have since borrowed Knit So Fine can't decide if to buy it, like a few things in it. Also borrowed Knitted Jackets.I know they're jackets but they all seem so big, sure I would drown in most of them, so not so keen on this one.

Was very excited when I found my new phone reads pdf and html, can download all my knitting patterns onto it. It's a Garmin Asus, it also a full on SatNav.It's Android so have downloaded Mahjong, Pinball & bubbleburst and lost a fair bit of knitting time :-/ The 5 meg camera is also quite good

Owls

Finished accept for buttons, only just wearable as really tight.
I'm a size 8 and though small to medium would allow for yard substitution, could have definitely gone up to medium , oh well might inspire me to lose the 4-5 kgs I've put on