Are we sensing a theme here at all?

One of the presents I received for Christmas this year was this...


I don't know how Amanda did it, but she managed to find me a Luke's coffee cup, which would have to be the perfect gift for a 'Gilmore Girls' fan like myself.

It's probably not obvious from the photo, but this cup is huge! It easily holds 500 ml of coffee, and you definitely need to hold it with two hands.

But that wasn't all.

When I opened my brother's Christmas present to me, this is what I found...


Yes, it's an equally large tea cup.

Are we sensing a theme here at all?

I do love these over-sized cups though, as they remind me of my Dad -- when we were little, my Mum got tired of constantly refilling his tea cup after dinner, and solved the problem by finding a huge 'Father' tea cup for him, which was capable of holding a whole pot's worth of tea in one go.

The other Christmas present I just have to share with everyone is this one...


My whole family loves seeing the photos of Twinkie on Donna's blog, and reading about her adventures, so Michael couldn't resist a calendar which promises us a year of her super-cute relatives...


And just in case anyone is wondering what happened with the 'Henry' scarf I was knitting for my brother for Christmas...

Well, life got in the way once again, and I missed the deadline...


As you can see, it's almost done now (Finally!), and fortunately my brother has been very understanding about the delay. I've actually worked a few more rows since I took this photo, so the end truly is in sight at last.

Much as I love the look of this scarf, it's been a really slow project to knit, due to both the fine yarn and the denseness of the woven transverse herringbone stitch pattern. The yarn I'm using also has an annoying tendency to split, which has slowed things down even more. Despite all this, I will knit this pattern again as I really do love the way it looks.

Christmas gift knitting distractions

Apologies for neglecting this blog lately, but I've been kept away by a series of migraines and some mishaps with my Christmas gift knitting that have basically meant I've had to spend just about every spare moment of late working on one special project in particular, which is Henry...


Henry is intended to be a Christmas present for my brother, David. As far as I can recall, I've never knit anything for my brother, but as soon as I saw this scarf pattern I knew I wanted to knit this for him. As I don't think his lifestyle allows a lot of time for handwashing knits, I'm knitting his scarf in Dalegarn 'Baby Ull', as it is a lovely, soft 100% wool yarn which is machine washable. I've chosen colour 0007 for him, which is a heathered grey shade, and, even though it is disturbingly similar to the colour pictured in the pattern, I'm really hoping that the colour will work well with his business attire as his work often takes him overseas to places like New York where the weather can be really cold.

Unfortunately, this is the scarf I've had the big setback with, as I recently had to unknit 19+ rows to correct a mistake I discovered late one night. 19 rows probably doesn't sound like a lot, but Henry is knit with a relatively fine yarn and is knit lengthwise, and as David is 6' 5" tall and 452 stitch rows just weren't long enough for me, I actually lengthened the rows further to 548 stitches, so this really was a major setback -- I'm guessing that some people might have been brave enough to drop the 10 or so stitches involved down the 19 rows to fix the problem, but the density of the 'Woven Transverse Herringbone' stitch pattern completely freaked me out and I just wasn't willing to take the risk that it would unravel all the way back down to the cast on edge in a flash. It took me around a week to fix the problem and get back to the point where I discovered the problem, so I'm guessing David won't be getting his scarf on Christmas Day now, but I've been giving it my best effort to get back on track.

The other project I have in progress which is intended to be a Christmas present is the 'Sideways Lace Scarf' designed by Knitabulous, which I've been knitting for my mother...


I'm using Handmaiden '2 Ply Silk Cashmere' in the 'Rose Garden' colourway, which I know my mother will just love. As the photograph shows, this is another scarf which is knit lengthwise, and I still need to knit the second half of the scarf and graft the two halves together in order to have it finished. Eek!

Anyway... Back to the knitting, and wish me luck with getting these two scarves finished in time as I'm really going to need it.

Christmas!

Just in case anyone was wondering...


... our Christmas tree was decorated in time for Christmas. :)

As it turns out though, we live in quite an interesting street where Christmas decorations are concerned. While our street was never in any danger of competing with the decoration level in Chauvel Street, which is not far from here and attracted bus loads of tourists after it featured in an article in a Sydney newspaper in the lead up to Christmas, there had been some Christmas lighting out there. But that all changed after Christmas Day. By the evening of Boxing Day, the only Christmas lighting in our street were the fairy lights in our trees -- Michael swears there were even suspicious patches of scorched earth out there where Santa may have been burnt in effigy. ;)

Anyway... The fairy lights in our trees will remain illuminated now until at least February -- January is a big month for celebrations here, as both our daughters have January birthdays, and there's Australia Day too at the end of the month.

On the day itself, I received some fabulous presents from my family. :) Among them were some really cute plush toys...


Amanda gave me some more Puffkins -- Quackster the duck, Spike the porcupine, Dinky the yellow dinosaur, Drake the red dinosaur, Pickles the green dinosaur, and Danny the purple dinosaur. Several of them even have the original darker coloured swing tag, so I dread to think what she had to pay for them. Amanda also gave me the giant Jiji cat, which is unbelievably soft and cuddly.

Katherine's present to me was the puppet replica of the Vampire Angel from the 'Smile Time' episode -- she knew she'd done good when I refused to put it down for the rest of the night. :)

I love the detailing which has gone into the Angel puppet replica. Especially the boots...


Aren't they just adorable? :)

And if anyone was worried, all photographs of the Angel puppet replica were taken in the shade and away from direct sunlight. ;)

... And a little more like Christmas

The Christmas wreath has made it on to the front door...


As you can see, Christmas decorations are never in any great rush to be put up at our house, and only appear when they are good and ready. :)

And the Christmas tree isn't far off being set up now. Honest...

It's beginning to look a little like Christmas...

Look what Michael risked life and limb over the weekend to put up for me.

Fairy lights! :)

Here is the view as you come down our street...


... and walking up our path...


... and, finally, from the front balcony...


This year's lights are way brighter than the ones we have had in previous years, but Michael assures me that this style of light should stand a much better chance of lasting the distance, and won't require the constant replacement of bulbs that last year's strings did.

I have my fingers crossed now that they survive until the New Year at least -- they're still all illuminated after three days which is already better than last year's lights managed, so I'm cautiously optimistic.

Still negotiating the learning curve

Firstly, thank you very much for the lovely comments my first entry received. :)

Since my last posting, I finally gave in and just went ahead and blocked the 'Flower Basket Shawl' I knit for my Mother for Christmas -- mostly because I was dying to see it in its non-crumpled form and discover how it had actually turned out.

Here it is, post-blocking, relaxing on my lounge...


I'm really pleased with the way it turned out. I hope my Mother likes it when I finally get to give it to her.

Just by the way... That furry blue and grey thing folded up on the arm of the lounge is the throw I knit from 49 skeins of Cleckheaton 'Silky Faux Fur' in a fit of insanity one summer.

Here is a close up of the shawl to show the pattern better...


Project Details:

'Flower Basket Shawl' - 'Fiber Trends' pattern S-2014
Almost 200g of Rubi & Lana 3 ply in a Barbie pink colour that nearly drove me crazy
Addi 3.5mm circular needles
Total number of times rows 25-34 repeated: 18

I've actually got a bit of a backlog of items I've knit for my Mother here. The Strawberry Pattern Scarf in Cleckheaton 'Studio Mohair' I knit for her birthday is still waiting to meet its intended recipient too...


The actual colour of the yarn is darker than it looks in the photo -- as you can see, I'm still working out how to use the digital camera too, and this was the closest I could get to the true colour.

I've made a bit more progress on the 'Lace Modular Shawl', and I'm now on the fourth skein of 'Regal Silk'...


I'm starting to think now about how best to finish the shawl. The designer apparently used a steamer like the one shown below to finish hers, but I'm a little concerned that the steam might over-heat the silk yarn and cause it to lose its beautiful lustre. Any advice?


When I do finish the shawl, the next project I'd like to start on is a bag based on 'Unbiased' from the Fall 2004 issue of 'Knitty', but knit -- hopefully in the round -- using the techniques I've learnt while working on the 'Lace Modular Shawl'. And here is the beautiful, silky soft Recycled Sari Silk yarn I'll be using for this project...


Once again, the colours are actually much deeper and more vibrant in real life than shown here.

Of course, what I'll ACTUALLY be knitting as my next project is the 'Skull Vest' I'm designing *cough* for Katherine, using Rubi & Lana 8 ply wool in black and white. Here is what I've knit of it so far...


Yes, it's a tension square. As you can see, it still needs to be washed and blocked before I can proceed on to the next step and test out fairisle skull pattern I've charted for it.

My take anywhere project used to be a scarf I've been knitting using the 'My So Called Scarf' pattern. At least it WAS my take anywhere project until I decided that I really wasn't all that keen on the way the colours were pooling...


That and the fact that it was becoming apparent that there was a fair bit of variation in the depth of colours between the three hanks of Debbie Bliss 'Maya' yarn I'm using -- as with most of the scarves I knit, I'm knitting mine wider and longer than the original version. So I unravelled it all and started again, this time working from all three hanks together, working one row from each and then changing to the next one in the cycle. The colours are now much better behaved, but unfortunately the need to keep the three large balls of yarn from tangling means it's nowhere near as portable as it once was.

So now it's the project which sits in the basket on the coffee table next to my PC, and gets worked on while I wait for things to happen.


And if you look closely at the basket, you may even spot the final ball of 'Regal Silk', patiently awaiting its turn to join its siblings in the 'Lace Modular Shawl'.

All this working with handpainted yarns has made me want to have a go at dyeing yarn myself.

So far, I've bought some 'Landscapes' and 'Gaywool' dyes, and have started winding some yarn into hanks on a niddy noddy in preparation for my first attempt at dyeing.


Now I just have to get up the nerve to finally give it a go... Eek! I'm thinking that I should perhaps rein in my ambitions just a bit at first, and for my first attempt at dyeing try over-dyeing the Barbie pink 3 ply wool I have left over from my Mother's 'Flower Basket Shawl' with Landscapes 'Bloodwood' dye and see how that goes.

I know this has been quite a marathon entry already, but before I finish up, I have to show off the extremely early Easter present Michael brought me home just after Valentine's Day.


He knows how much I love really dark chocolate, and was worried that by the time Easter actually came around he wouldn't be able to find it in the shops any more. He was even happier with his purchase after it scanned at the checkout as "Bunny & Balls". *grin*

If you're wondering about the plush legs standing on the table behind the box, wonder no more. They belong to the giant Lindt Reindeer Michael won in their Christmas competition.


Isn't it huge? Michael was actually quite disappointed that there doesn't appear to be a similar competition to win a giant plush Lindt bunny for Easter. ;)

OK... I think that's probably more than enough for tonight.

Now if only I knew how to get rid of the extra copies of photos I uploaded to Blogger earlier while I was trying to work out how to get them to display in this posting in the order I wanted... *sigh*

Did I mention I'm still on a learning curve here? ;)