FO - Waving Lace fingerless mitts

My roving from Mandie finally became something, albeit something small. I've been spinning since May-ish and this was my first Navajo ply. It wasn't a great job, since the singles broke quite a few times during plying, but it was consistent enough and felt soft to knit with.



These are my computer mitts for next year. I dragged my heels a little too long, and now it's too late to use them this year.

Pattern: I used my generic glove recipe with the Waving Lace stitch pattern from Favorite Socks. It was easy to memorise and really intuitive, so I think I might use it for socks eventually too.

Yarn: Spun from "Neptune's Nemesis" merino roving from Ewe Give Me the Knits. Navajo-plied to about 16 wpi.

Needles: 2.75 mm dpns

Komentar: I think it would have been better if I'd reversed the lace pattern, so that the mitts would be mirror images. Oh well, next time. It would have been awesome if the colour changes lined up too. I blame it on my n00b spinning.



The slit is there for no good reason; I was just playing around to see what it would look like.



In this pic the left is blocked, the right isn't. Although I thought I'd finished the yarn carefully, it still bloomed a little after washing. The mitts were a tiny bit tight pre-blocking, so now they fit great.

I still have a bunch of this roving left over, but I won't be spinning it for a while. I'm too distracted by all the other pretty colours and fibres. My wallet hurts :(

I've had an unhealthy obsession with Foggy Panda ever since Rowan 37 came out back in '05. At first I thought it looked like a weird cow, then I saw it was really a panda devouring a small child.



Why didn't I do it before, if I love it so much? I was held back by my cheapness. The cheapest Rowan 37 I could get was about $40 after postage. Then I got one in England for 10 pounds (with a good exchange rate too). Then I wasn't willing to pony up the dough for the yarn. Man, colour work is expensive.

Eventually I just thought "hell with it", and here we are now:



I thought I'd start with the back so I could guesstimate if I had enough yarn. I'm using Grignasco Tango, which has more yardage than Rowan Wool Cotton, so I bought one less ball of the purple. It should be okay, fingers crossed.

I started counting all the ends I have to weave in, but got bored at 30. So there are 30+ ends left. I like weaving in ends, but don't really feel like it right now. Maybe on the train or something.

I've finished the first sleeve on the Tangled Yoke Cardi, and I'm this far up the body.



It makes pretty good train knitting. I put some text instructions into my ipod because I didn't want my magazine to get battered in my bag. When I get to the yoke bit, it'll be too heavy to carry around and I think I'll leave it at home.

Knittyboard sock swap

My partner was Gill/Floss from Wales, and she did me this fabulous pair of Monkeys! It's really shiny in person, and the yarn feels very smooth and cool. Good thing too, with summer coming up. Sorry for the weird angles in the photo. I don't do yoga anymore.



I'm really impressed with the lack of pooling. I think I'll have to try a pair of Monkeys myself.



Haha, I really like that tape measure. That'll get a lot of use. I like to keep a tape measure in my handbag, but I often forget to take them out and put them in the bag I'm actually using that day.

There was also a block of Green and Blacks, but it didn't manage to survive until today ;)



Eva from Posh Yarns :) I know exactly what to do with this. It wants to be that lacy little Teardrop scarf from knitscene. This has an entirely different thickness, but I'll work it out.

Thank you Floss for such a luxurious parcel!

I'm starting to think I'm a bit spoilt. Where to begin?

I went to Chris' place on Tuesday because he was sick, and walked away with:


my belated birthday present. You all know what an iPod looks like, so there it is in the sock I whipped up last night. It's an 80 gig classic, and soooo cool. The screen seems much bigger than it really is, especially if you hold it close to your face.

My Zen goes to William, IF someone can fix it for me. I dropped it just before I went to England. It makes a ChChChChk noise when you turn it on, and then nothing happens. I had to go throughout the whole England trip listening to that Umbrella song on the radio FIVE OR SIX TIMES A DAY FOR A MONTH because of breaking my Zen :'(



digital scales! I've been lusting over something like this for ages. It has auto-tare :) I tried to spin up some lace weight on my 1.6 oz spindle, but only managed to get a 2 ply fingering. I spun for hours and hours and look, it's only 9 grams worth! That's merino roving from EGMTK in Belle's Story. There's also some white Angelina chucked in as an experiment. It is very princessy. (What would YOU do with pink sparkle yarn? Say, about 400 yards/metres fingering weight?)



yarn! 8 ply Rustic from Bendigo Woolen Mills in Natural Fleck. This was also at Chris' house. I got it delivered there so I wouldn't start knitting with it straight away. Ha. It's becoming the first sleeve for the Tangled Yoke Cardigan. It's not baby soft, and feels a bit "woolly". I'm not sensitive to woolly knits, so it'll suit me just fine. I like how the huge balls (*snicker*) mean less joining. Plus it was cheap.

Okay, that's it for Chris' house. This is what turned up at my place this week:



Optim from EGMTK in er... I've forgotten the name actually. Something about fruits, I think. If you can't tell, I like this store a lot. The service is fast, and really lovely.



my lace spindle! It's 30 grams-ish, and I can spin to TWICE the wpi than on my old one. It came from the Spindlemaker on etsy, and it is really very beautiful.

Whine

It's time to accept that the custom-dyed sock yarn I ordered is never coming. It was supposedly sent a month ago, and according to the post office it should have taken a day (max two) to arrive. I've been really cool about it up 'til now, but now I'm so pissed off.

I accept that things go missing in the post. The part that gets me is the lack of reply from the seller. I've asked them (nicely) for confirmation that the parcel was really sent and that the notice I received wasn't an error (I received the email on Sunday night, which was a bit weird, considering the PO is closed on weekends). No reply.

I emailed them AGAIN, giving alternative addresses to reply to, in case their replies were being eaten by spam filter. No reply.

I asked them to file a missing parcel complaint for me. I'd do it myself, but the sender has to do it. No reply.

I left a comment on their blog asking them (again, nicely) to get in touch with me. No reply.

There are no real-life contact details on their yarn website. I did find a link to the web design business they have, but no details there either. I don't think there's anything else I can do, so it looks like it's time to give up :/

I've ordered from them once before, when I needed the yarn for a deadline. At that time, I sent them an email asking if I could get the yarn before the date. I also asked if it was possible to make one of the colours slightly darker. She said the yarn would definitely be ready by the time I needed it, but ignored my question about the colours. The yarn arrived a week later than expected. She was nice about it though, and refunded me the postage cost.

Speaking of postage costs. Why the fuck does she charge $6.10 for regular shipping when she lives about FIFTEEEN minutes away from me? That's $5.10 for a prepaid post satchel, and $1 for what? Her time? When I order things from Victorian sellers, they charge the actual postage cost and it's $3.85 (I think) for up to 250g. Using the prepaid satchels is just dumb. (I thought it was uneconomical before I was pissed off at her, too)

Luckily, I didn't spend too much this time. It was only about $30+, I think. I'm VERY annoyed at this unreliable person. The lady at the post office said that if there were any problems, the parcel would have been returned to the sender. All I want is some acknowledgment. (And my yarn.)

I'm glad there are so many other places to shop.
(Btw, I just did my tax return online, and I'm getting everything back :D Have you done yours?)

So, all I got for my birthday was cash. Over the past week I converted it into actual goods in an orgy of materialism.


Merino cashmere sock yarn from The Knittery in Orange Blossoms.



The same yarn in Indigo on its way to being a spiral boot sock.



Hand dyed merino roving from Ewe Give Me The Knits in Neptune's Nemesis. I've already spun up a quarter of this. It's so easy to handle, and the colours have kept me entertained for hours. Literally hours.


And o-m-g, we have hand dyed Optim in Babycakes (also from EGMTK)! It's so shiny and soft. I'm afraid of messing it up. I think I'll wait until I get my new spindle, then aim for some laceweight.

Yeah, as part of my spree I ordered a spindle from the Spindlemaker. They're made to order, so it should take a while to arrive. John and Juleen helped me choose a spindle since I have nfi.

I also bought some Angels on Bare Skin from Lush. Slightly noticeable improvement so far. I'll see how it is in a few weeks.

At the end of last month, I ordered some dyed-to-order sock yarn with the intention that it'd arrive around my birthday. It was posted a couple of weeks ago, but no sign of it yet. I'm convinced it's gone missing, since it should NOT take 18+ days for something to travel 15 kms.

I think that's all, unless there's something I've bought but forgotten about.

Edit: Also got membership for the Zen String sock club, and some sock needles. I don't know how I forgot those.

FO: Capone

Pattern: Capone from Rowan 38
Yarn: Twilleys Freedom Spirit in #502 Fire, 1.5 balls.
Mods: Didn't sew ribbon around the brim.

This was really easy and fun. At first it seemed ridiculously huge (I could pull it all the way over my head), and I doubted it would felt enough.

The Twilleys felted like a dream. Much much better than Noro. I did it at 3 a.m. in the bathroom sink, with medium-hot water and a bit of soap. It took about half an hour until I was completely happy with the shrinking. It's a bit redder in real life, but the photos show the subtle striping fairly well.

I didn't join the edges evenly, but the felting obliterated the dodginess. Muahaha. I didn't weave any ends in either, and they turned into short hard nubs that got snipped off without any problems.

I'm not sure that the style of this hat suits me. In fact, I don't think I'm a hat person at all. I knew this before I started, but I really wanted a quick project to play with. I think I'll keep it on the dog until I decide what to do with it.

Boxed by Rowen/Maiziemama

Mum took the camera so I used my phone. Slightly blurry; it's NOT your eyes.

This arrived at Chris' house last month, and I got it from him last week but didn't put photos up =/


Made by Rowen from handspun (she spun it herself, I think). I love the colours.



Squee, pink yarn! Claudia's Handpaints in Pink Posey. I can't wait to use this. I've never tried Claudia's before.


Pu'er tea. Haven't tried this before either. This is the sort of thing I'd expect customs to take, but they didn't! Maybe because it was at the bottom...?

We were really impressed by the way Rowen managed to fit everything in the box! We couldn't manage to put it all back the right way. It had been opened by customs and they crammed some pamphlets inside, but it seems that they didn't take anything out.

Also in the box, but not pictured here, were:

Knit Klips (which are awesome, and a lot faster than basting)

Clover Chibi needles (I like how there are different eye sizes in the one tube)

Wasabi peas (Chris ate most of these. Some of them were really HOT. They made him tear up a little)

Various candy bars (which I ate without help from anyone).

Cookie A's Gothic Spire

Here's the non-blurry but slightly dark (it was night) photo that Chris sent me, when I was in England:



For anyone who wants to know what happened on the rest of my trip, we went to the country. It was cold and boring and I finished HP7 in 6 hours. We stopped over at Korea on the way back, and Mum had a massive row with people at the airport. We would have totally been on Border Security if it had happened here.

Late to the party again

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