As Secret Pal 9 winds down...

... look what arrived in the mail, just for me.


I love the hand made stitch markers my pal made for me! :) There are five glass bead markers and five 'Family Guy' markers -- the 'Family Guy' ones are just the cutest little shrinky dinks. :) And to think I was originally worried about using the Stewie SP9 button in my sidebar... ;)

My Pal still hasn't revealed herself -- there has been a whisper that there may be one final package coming my way in the not too distant future, which is just amazing as I've already been totally spoiled by my Canadian pal. :) Apologies to my pal for the delay in posting this -- I've had a few problems and distractions.

And now it's time for me to reveal who I have been secretly sending packages to for the past few months.

The pal I've been sending to is Lois, who has a blog called appropriately enough Get It Knitted. And Lois certainly does Get It Knitted, as while the swap was in progress she completed, amongst other things, several beautiful lace shawls. As Lois lives in Singapore, I avoided heavy, chunky yarns and tried to choose lighter weight things which would suit the climate where she lives.

During Secret Pal 9, I sent Lois two packages.

This is the first...


... A hank of Handmaiden 'Sea Silk' in the 'Rose Garden' colourway, along with the 'Storm Water Scarf' pattern, a 4 mm Susanne's ebony circular knitting needle, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's 'Knitting Rules' book, Issue 2 of Jo Sharp's 'Knit' magazine, Issue 4 of 'Yarn' magazine, a block of Villar's Chocolat Noir, and a postcard featuring some of the cute native animals we regularly see around our house of a night.

Amazingly, Lois has already turned this...


... into the 'Shetland Triangle' from 'Wrap Style' -- check out how beautifully the 'Sea Silk' knit up in Lois' hands here and here.

And this is the final package I sent Lois...


... Four balls of Kaalund 'Enchanté' silk yarn in the 'Pacific' colourway, a 3.75 mm Colonial rosewood circular knitting needle, Issue 5 of 'Yarn' magazine, a cute echidna plush toy, a block of Australian organic dark chocolate, and a postcard with an evening view over Sydney Harbour.

I was really happy to read on Lois' blog that she has secretly been dreaming of Kaalund yarn...


... which was especially fitting as this was exactly how I felt about the hand painted Virginia van Santen yarn my pal sent me. :) I chose the 'Pacific' colourway for Lois as I thought it would compliment things she has knit in the past and would look fabulous in the Singapore sunlight.

While I'm not planning to sign up for Secret Pal 10, I'm sure I will take part in more of these swaps in the future. :)

Secret Pal 9 packages!

Look what arrived here in the post for me last week...


... all from my fabulous Secret Pal for Secret Pal 9! :)

Firstly, there is some hand-painted 100% merino yarn in a stunning colourway called 'Ionian Sea'...


This yarn is from Painted Yarns, which sadly has now had to close due to the health problems of the artist, Virginia van Santen -- I send her my best wishes and hope she recovers soon. Not only are Virginia's yarns stunning works of art which are painted on the very best quality yarns, but the way she uses them in her own projects is truly inspirational -- check out the entries in her blog if you haven't discovered them already. I swear my Secret Pal must be psychic as not only is it a colourway I really love, but I've been wanting some of Virginia's yarn for the longest time.

This yarn is amazingly soft and beautifully spun, and I have a 130g (260m) skein to play with, which according to the information that used to be on the website until yesterday is...

"A silky smooth 100% merino with a sheen. It is machine washable, and has an amazing flexibility. It will knit up on 2.5 mm needles as a sock yarn, and on 4.5 mm needles as a worsted weight yarn. Currently available in 130 gm-260 m (284 yds) skeins, and one is sufficient for a pair of socks."

Virginia also has some advice about working with painted yarns on her website, which I'm going to copy here for now -- I hope she won't mind me having done this -- as I'm afraid it might disappear like a lot of her site has today, and it's really great general advice for working with hand-painted yarns. There's a link back to the page on her website above for everyone to check out the original page.

"No two skeins of hand painted yarn turn out the same. Painted yarns can create a beautiful painterly effect on a garment that you can maximize if you do not follow the usual advice of alternating two skeins and working in imaginary stripes. I work with one skein, but I integrate the second skein before the first one is done, thus blurring the line between the two. When the first skein is down to a very small ball, and you can see that it is going to run out soon, start the second skein. Work several rows of each ball alternately until the old ball is finished. Then continue with the second ball. I have a sweater whose two sleeves are totally different, one of them concentrating the lighter colors, and the other concentrating the darker colors. I love it.

"When choosing a stitch pattern, choose anything but st st (stockinette stitch), which creates lines of colors, resulting in stripes not much different from standard variegated yarns. Do something that breaks up the lines. Even a simple seed stitch does magic with painted yarns. Try a chevron stitch or a slip stitch pattern. A lace stitch also works well, as the holes formed by the lace patten break up the straight lines of stocking stitch."

-- Virginia van Santen

As if this wasn't enough already, my Pal also sent me a huge hank of Grignasco 'MerinoSilk' in a fabulous dark purple/burgundy colour...


This yarn is going to make an amazingly soft shawl or wrap, and as it's a 100g (1400m) hank, I'm going to be able to knit something nice and big with it! :)

And then there's a little sheep finger puppet to play with...


Isn't he cute? :)

And finally, there's a beautiful card, handmade just for me by my Secret Pal...


Judging by all the fabulous little handmade things my Pal has sent me, I think she must be very skilled in a number of crafts. :)

And, believe it or not, that wasn't all. The following day, the other pack my Secret Pal had told me to expect arrived too! :)


This pack included a pattern for a super-cute Anime character bonnet...


... which actually has sizes that range from newborn to adult! :)

A bar of chocolate flavoured with chili...


Chocolate and chili? What is not to love about this combination? :) And 'Hot Chocolate' is just such a fun name for it too! If I hadn't been food poisoned at the restaurant we took my daughter to for her 21st, I'm sure this chocolate would already be long gone. ;)

And finally, there was another of my Pal's beautiful, handmade cards...


The little Japanese girls on these cards are just adorable. :)

One thing I've forgotten to mention until now about the packages that I've received from my Secret Pal was that each of them has had a really cute little drawing on the wrapping...


... so I can always tell straight away that a package is from my Secret Pal. :)

These two packages were so worth the wait! :)

I feel very spoiled! Thank you, Secret Pal! :)

And the really amazing thing is that my Pal has just let me know that there is another package on its way to me now. Oh, my! :)

(I think my smile muscles are all worn out. ;) )

Just in time for Christmas...

... a very well-travelled package has arrived here from my Secret Pal for Secret Pal 9. According to one of the notes enclosed in the package, this is the package which was originally mailed to me in early November, eventually returned to my Pal because apparently my postcode wasn't recognized at some point in its travels as a valid Australian postcode (Huh???), and then re-mailed to me in the hope that it would reach me before Christmas -- which it has! :)

So what did my Pal choose for me? I was dying to know, so I rushed to unwrap my package.

Well...

When I opened the wrapping around the package, I initially found this...


A box of Canadian breakfast cereal. Yummy!

I quickly opened the box -- I hadn't had breakfast yet, after all ;) -- and found something even better than cereal hiding inside...


By the time I had this all out on the table, there had been so much shrieking with joy, I can tell you!

Firstly, there is one of the most amazingly cute 'Totoro' plush toys I've ever seen...


... which is now sitting in pride of place in my room in a location where I can always see it, hopefully keeping it safe from possible abductions by other unnamed people who live here who are also very aware of its cuteness. ;)

Then there is my very own sock monkey, and some ice blue bamboo yarn...


As you can see from the accompanying note...


... the sock monkey was made especially for me by my talented Secret Pal. I especially love the way the cherries are all so perfectly centred on the monkey's limbs, and the way the white areas of the original socks work so well to give my monkey loads of character. Thank you for making this for me! :)

And not only is the bamboo yarn every bit as soft as my Pal says in her note, but the ice blue shade she chose for me is definitely one of my favourite colours. I can hardly wait to finish some of my current projects now so I can have a play with this yarn and find out what it wants to be.

And my next surprise was...


... some knitting note cards of my very own. My Pal has obviously been reading my blog very closely to know how I had been searching for these everywhere without success. :)

And finally, here is the message my Pal wrote to me on the back of the Christmas card...


Thank you, Secret Pal! You've really spoiled me with this package, and I can hardly wait to see the surprises that await me in the other two packages you have sent me. :)

Beanies, hats and caps for charity

Kerry, my hostess for Secret Pal 9 recently challenged us to knit hats for charity, and asked us to post photographs of both work-in-progress and completed projects on our blogs.

Firstly, here are the work-in-progress photographs of my projects.

The 'Lacy Hat' from Jo Sharp's 'Knit 2' book...


... knit with Jo Sharp's 'Soho Summer DK Cotton' in 'Rockpool'. As you can probably see from the photograph, my lace panel is the mirror image of the original, so whoever this hat finally ends up with will definitely have something one-of-a-kind. ;)

The 'Kashmir Hat' from Jo Sharp's 'Knitting Emporium' book...


... knit with Jo Sharp's 'DK 8 Ply Pure Wool' in 'Aubergine' and 'Pistachio'. I hadn't knit anything with duplicate stitch motifs before, and I have to say that those cross motifs took at least as long to do as it took me to knit the hat itself.

The 'Piper Hat' from Jo Sharp's 'Contemporary Knitting 1' book...


... knit with Jo Sharp's 'DK 8 Ply Pure Wool' in 'Scarlet', which is one of the heathered colourways -- Michael really loved the colour of this yarn, which I'll have to remember next time I'm knitting something for him.

I'm not sure how obvious it is in my work-in-progress photograph, but the photograph of the finished hat in the book is slightly different to the hat I knit -- the band around the lower edge of the hat has the stocking stitch side out on mine, whereas the hat in the photographs in the book have bands with the reverse stocking stitch side out. The instructions in the pattern actually tell you to work the band the way I have done it, and as I liked the look of this better I decided not to change the pattern to make the hat look like the ones in the photographs.

However, I did change the pattern so I could knit the hat on circular needles instead of the straight needles the pattern originally called for, and I used a provisional cast on so that I could pick up the stitches and work the band as a knitted hem, instead of sewing it into place later -- which I did in the hope that the resulting line would have a bit more stretch to it, as obviously I don't know the person who will eventually be wearing this hat and I wanted it to be as comfortable as possible to wear. I hope it worked, as getting it right and purling all those stitches together with the correct stitch orientation was a lot harder and more time consuming than I'd thought it would be.

One thing I hadn't thought about when I decided to knit the hat in the round was what to do with the i-cord piping, which originally had the ends sewn into the seam at the back of the hat. I ended up solving the problem by grafting the four live stitches straight from the needle to the cast on end of the i-cord after most of the i-cord was sewn in place on the hat, which actually worked quite well.

The 'Old Bean Hat' from All Tangled Up...


... knit with Jo Sharp's 'Silkroad Aran' yarn in 'Serg'.

I made changes to this pattern too -- I knit it on 5 mm needles instead of the original 4.5 mm needles, and worked 10 cm of K2 P2 rib instead of the original 5 cm so that the ribbing could be folded back over itself for the brim, and the hat would still be long enough to keep the ears warm. I also increased the number of stitches to 90 at the point where I started knitting the stocking stitch section, as a result of which I then had to change the way the crown shaping was worked because of the extra stitches.

Mark Thrailkill's 'London Beanie'...


... knit with Jo Sharp 'Silkroad Aran' yarn in 'Venetian', with stripes in 'Opal' and 'Quartz'.

I actually used the pattern alterations which can be found here to knit a larger beanie, as the original seemed a little on the small side to me -- I knit the medium sized beanie, but with 13 rounds of K2 P1 rib instead of the 15 rounds in the modified pattern.

"Mark's Butch, Macho Roll-Brim Seaman's Watch Cap"...


... knit in Jo Sharp's 'Silkroad Ultra' in 'Neptune'.

I ended up knitting 54 rounds of K2 P2 rib instead of the 38 rounds specified in the pattern, as I wanted a cap with a reasonably deep turned up brim, and which would be long enough to keep the ears of the wearer warm. I also altered the crown shaping to be more like the shaping I knit for the modified 'London Beanie', only in K2 P2 rib instead of stocking stitch.

And here are the finished hats, beanies, and caps. I'm not sure why, but none of the colours in the photographs of the finished items are quite right -- the colours in the works in progress photographs are all much closer to the way they appear in real life.

The 'Lacy Hat'...


The 'Kashmir Hat'...


The 'Piper Hat'...


The 'Old Bean Hat'...


The 'London Beanie'...


And finally, 'Mark's Butch, Macho Roll-Brim Seaman's Watch Cap'...


Many thanks to my 'Reject Shop' glass head for agreeing to model all of the hats.

All of these hats, beanies, and caps will be delivered to 'Just Enough Faith' later this week. I'm really pleased with the way they've all turned out, and I hope their eventual recipients enjoy wearing them. :)

Achille, I say Goodbye!

I wonder if anyone who reads this blog would recognize the ship featured in this rather idealized artist's rendition of it from an on board postcard as the 'Achille Lauro'.

My family and I travelled from Australia to England on board the 'Achille Lauro' in early 1972 -- a trip that was quite an experience. And not always for the right reasons.

The itinerary for this trip was actually quite interesting, with some unusual ports of call along the way...

Sydney, Australia
A New Zealand port -- I can't remember which one at the moment
Punta Arenas, Chile -- which is on the Straits of Magellan and lays claim to being the world's southernmost city
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Tenerife, Canary Islands
Three? Mediterranean ports -- from memory, a couple of Italian ports and Malta
Lisbon, Portugal
England (Southampton, I think)

Apologies for my less than precise recollection here, but it was nearly 35 years ago, and I was only 11 years old at the time.

Anyway, as it turned out we were informed as soon as we were on board that there had been some changes to this itinerary. The Mediterranean ports -- which I'm fairly certain had been altered and no longer included Malta -- would now be visited after most of the passengers left the ship in England, and Lisbon would be replaced with Vigo, Spain. The person I felt most sorry for was the owner of the luggage I spotted stored in an area out on one of the decks which had a sticker showing the Maltese port as the final destination -- I've always wondered where that passenger ended up.

These changes were bad enough -- most passengers had to cable ahead to their destinations to hurriedly re-organize accommodation due to the changed arrival dates at the various ports of destination -- but the last straw came as the ship approached Rio de Janeiro.

There had been some very rough weather several times during the trip, but not once had the ship's stabilizers been used to help steady the ship and make things even slightly more bearable for the passengers -- apparently the ship's owners weren't prepared to pay for the extra fuel this would have used. However, as we approached Rio de Janeiro on relatively calm seas, the stabilizers were suddenly and noticeably deployed. The passengers soon discovered that the reason for this was that it had been decided to slow the ship down to ensure it wouldn't arrive in Rio until after the Carnival was over -- apparently docking fees would be lower then. As if this wasn't enough, it had also been decided that the ship would only dock in Rio overnight, and that passengers would not be allowed off the ship for sightseeing during the brief time we were going to be in port. Well, the passengers mutinied! At the end of it all, the stay in Rio was extended, and the passengers got their day of sightseeing in one of the most famous cities in the world, even if the city was more than a little subdued and hungover. ;) One of the passengers even had Flotta Lauro (the ship's owners) agree to take him on to the ports which had been moved to the end of the itinerary and then to pay his air fare back to London.

Which leads me finally to the point -- such as it is -- of this somewhat random and rambling posting...

Kerry, my hostess for Secret Pal 9, asked us to post a random, wacky fact about ourselves in our blog, and this is mine...

I nearly drowned in one of the swimming pools on the 'Achille Lauro'.

Remember what I said about the stabilizers not being used? What the brochures fail to tell you is that it doesn't take a lot of side to side rolling of a ship to generate enormous waves in the swimming pools on the upper decks. While I was in the pool (the one closest to the rear of the ship in the photo above, for anyone who is interested), a sudden tsunami-like wave knocked me under the surface, and the waves which followed continued to drag me under as I fought to find a way out of the pool. I was literally going down for the third time when the hands of a stranger appeared from nowhere, grasped my flailing arms, and lifted me from the pool.

While I was searching for information on the 'Achille Lauro' -- I was actually curious to find out if anyone else had written about the 1972 mutiny by the passengers -- I came across the words to the ship's theme song, which most notably used to blast out over the P.A. system while we were waiting for food to arrive in the dining room. Is there anything you can't find on the Internet? ;)

And here they are!

La nave blu
gira per il mondo
scivola sull'onda
come un Delfino fila e va

E'un sogno viaggiare
E'un piacere ritornare
sull' Achille
Re del mar!

La nave blu
dall ' Europa all Australia
per i mari ovunque va
Achille, I say Goodbye


which hopefully translates into English as...


The blue ship
travels around the world
cutting through the waves
Like a dolphin ready to go

It's a dream to travel
It's a pleasure to return
aboard the Achille Lauro
King of the sea

The blue ship
From Europa to Australia
In whatever sea you go
Achille, I say Goodbye

I think I may even have the 'La nave blu' single record they sold on the ship around here somewhere...

And for some reason, the final line of this song was all I could think about the day the 'Achille Lauro' finally sank. A long delayed closure perhaps?

Surprise package!

Look what arrived here in the mail yesterday...


It's a surprise package from my Secret Pal for Secret Pal 9!

There's a 'Family Guy' DVD -- which I can't wait to watch, and my Secret Pal will be happy to hear that I don't already have -- along with a super-cute Totoro bookmark, and a lovely card. :) Suddenly, I'm really glad that I chose the button I did for my sidebar... ;) And where do people find all these knitting-related greeting cards, BTW? ;)

I also received a lovely animated e-card from my pal today, along with the news that there is something else heading my way in the mail from overseas already. I can hardly believe how fabulous and organized my pal is! :) -- after all, Secret Pal 9 only started a couple of days ago.

I'm off to a somewhat slower start with the pal I'm sending to, but I'm hoping that the things I have in mind for her will be worth the wait once I get everything all together for her here.

Secret Pal 9 questionnaire

1. What is/are your favourite yarn/s to knit with? What fibres do you absolutely *not* like?

I like natural fibres -- wool, silk, cashmere, alpaca, mohair, angora, cotton, linen, soy and bamboo, for example -- yarns which are soft and not scratchy, and preferably ones which don't shed too much as I often wear black, and my favourite place to knit is a velvet covered sofa. I knit with good quality (not necessarily expensive) yarns, as if I'm going to take the time to knit something I want it to look and feel its best. I avoid acrylics and other synthetics as much as possible as for the most part they don't breathe and make me overheat. I don't like boucle yarns, and I'm totally over the whole furry and feathery novelty yarn thing.

By way of explanation -- I chose this 'Secret Pal 9' button...


... for my sidebar because I think it's adorably cute and love the 'Family Guy' series, and not because I have Stewie with his ray gun and an anti-acrylic hit squad lurking in the wings. I'm going to assume that my Secret Pal will have a good sense of humour. :)

I haven't mentioned any specific brand names here as I really don't want to limit the choices of my pal, or rule out any fabulous, local yarns that might be available.


2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?

My knitting needles, along with the few crochet hooks I have, are stored in cardboard PostPak tubes or boxes (depending on length), sorted by type, length and size and still in their original packaging where possible so it's easy to find matching needles in the correct size for a project. Sets that came in cases are carefully stored in those cases when not in use. Accessories like stitch markers and row counters are stored in small plastic containers. It may not be as pretty as the fabric rolls, cases and pouches a lot of knitters have, or as attractive as a jar or vase of knitting needles on my desk, but it works for me and I wouldn't have it any other way. :)


3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?

I first learnt to knit when I was 9 years old, so I've been knitting off and on for around 37 years now. There have been substantial periods of time when I haven't knit at all, but I've been knitting fairly consistently since May 2003 this time, and have learnt a lot over the past three and a half years.

My Nana originally tried to teach me to knit, but knitting right-handed just didn't work for me. Of course I didn't know that was what the problem was at the time, but fortunately one of my left-handed aunties showed me how she knit and things got a whole lot better after that. As far as I can recall, my auntie only ever showed me how to do the knit stitch, so I've had to teach myself how to do pretty much everything else, mostly by mentally flipping the instructions in books written for right-handers as there's very little out there beyond the absolute basics for us left-handers.

I'm quite a slow knitter (which I'm mostly resigned to now), but I would consider myself to have intermediate skills for the most part.


4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?

I have an Amazon wish list here.


5. What's your favourite scent? (for candles, bath products, etc.)

As I'm allergic to pretty much all synthetic fragrances, this is probably an area best avoided. Tobacco smoke smells also make me feel ill.


6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favourite candy?

My weakness is dark chocolate, the darker the better. If it should happen to have chilli, spices, peppercorns, or espresso coffee blended with it too, all the better. :) I detest anything with mint though, in all of its various forms and guises.


7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?

I don't spin, and I don't crochet as I don't like the look, feel or drape of the fabric it produces. I have tried a lot of different crafts over the years, but knitting is the one that I keep coming back to.


8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)

I like late 60s / early 70s music, especially from the UK as that's where I spent a lot of my school years. Just as a guide, the CDs currently sitting out on my desk are albums recorded by Slade, Sarah McLachlan, Kate Bush, Jane Olivor, Wendy Matthews, Kate Ceberano, and Dar Williams, plus 'The Queen Symphony' CDs. I really can't stand rap, country, or religious music.

I can play MP3s on my PC.


9. What's your favourite colour(s)? Any colours you just can't stand?

I like rich, dark, saturated tones of blues, indigo, purples and greens, true reds without any trace of orange, ink navy, black, charcoal, silver, and pure white. I don't like yellow, orange, olive, brown, cream or beige -- anything which could be described as an autumnal or earth tone tends to make me look sallow. The only browns I like are dark, truffle browns -- the kind that could be worn with black accessories. I dislike neon and fluoro colours, and pastel shades of colours, but love icy tones. And I'm definitely not a pink girl.


10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?

I've been married to Michael for over 21 years now, and we have two daughters -- Amanda (20) and Katherine (18). Michael and Katherine are allergic to most furry pets, so our choice of pets is a little limited. At the moment, we have a rainbow lorikeet, and Katherine has a budgie.

Due to Michael's and Katherine's allergies, anything exposed to pet hair would be a problem.


11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?

I wear scarves, and the occasional simple hat. I don't wear mittens, but I do wear fingerless gloves from time to time as they keep my hands warm without restricting the use of my fingers. I will never understand the supposed popularity of ponchos -- I strongly suspect they are a joke inflicted upon us by fashion designers.


12. What is/are your favourite item/s to knit?

I prefer knitting things with texture (cables, lace, etc.) to colour work (fairisle, jacquard, intarsia), and like my projects to have clean, simple lines, without fussy details like frills or lots of buttons. Silly as it probably sounds, I also like for the yarn and design to feel like they were always meant to be together, and not that one was imposed on the other.


13. What are you knitting right now?

I have quite a few things on the needles at the moment, which are listed under 'Currrently in progress' in my sidebar.


14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?

Yes -- but nothing frilly or fragranced obviously. :)


15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminium, plastic?

I have a bias towards circular needles as the items I knit tend to be large and/or heavy, but if an individual project will work better on straight needles I use them instead. I have straight needles made from casein, bamboo, birch and faux tortoise shell. I have circular needles made from bamboo, and quite a few Addi Turbo circulars. I'd love to try ebony and rosewood needles, but they're a bit too expensive and hard to come by around here. I don't like knitting with plastic needles (except for the 15 cm metal-reinforced Pony Pearl double pointed needles I often use for socks) or the old style grey metal needles which were popular when I first started knitting -- my Nana always said these were bad for your hands, and that the tortoise shell ones were the best ones to use. I prefer double pointed needles over 'Magic Loop' or two circular needles for knitting socks. I do have a set of 'Denise' interchangeable needles, but I still haven't found the right project for them.


16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?

I own two yarn winders (a small one and a large one), and an umbrella swift.


17. How old is your oldest UFO?

Hmm...I'm guessing it's about 25 years old now. It's a jumper which would be way too small for me now, but ripping it out and starting something else with the yarn after all this time would be just too painful. I actually remember the trouble I had finding the yarn for that jumper, the number of buses and trains I had to ride to get to the drapery shop that had some in stock, and rummaging around with the shop assistant in the upstairs loft area of the shop to find the actual yarn when I got there. I actually bought the same yarn in a different colour (a dark, denimy blue colour which I really would have preferred for myself over the paler blue one I ended up with) for my sister at the same time, as she wanted to knit the same jumper. I wonder if she ever finished hers...


18. What is your favourite holiday?

One that doesn't involve heat, humidity, sand, or bushfires. I guess that's Christmas out... ;)


19. Is there anything that you collect?

Yarn, knitting books, DVDs, CDs, Japanese anime plushies -- I'm a bit of a hoarder, which is quite a challenge in a house as small as this one. ;)


20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?

I currently have subscriptions to 'Yarn', 'Rowan International', 'Interweave Knits', and 'Yarn Forward' -- I've got my fingers crossed that this last one will be as good as the hype as I've somewhat recklessly taken out a subscription prior to the arrival of the first issue. I also generally read 'Creative Knitting', 'Simply Knitting', 'Knitters', 'Vogue Knitting', 'Knit Simple', 'InKnitters', 'Knitscene', 'Knit 1', 'Rebecca' (for ideas for my daughters), and the US 'Creative Knitting' (which is ridiculously difficult to obtain here *sigh*). Maybe I should have listed knitting magazines under things I collect... ;)

If my Secret Pal turns out to be from a country KnitPicks will ship to, I'd love to get my hands on some KnitPicks 'Options' interchangeable circular needles, which I can't order for myself as unfortunately they refuse to ship to Australia. The other thing on my wish list from their website is Miriam Felton's 'Adamas Shawl' pattern, and the KnitPicks 'Shadow' yarn to make it (in either 'Vineyard' or 'Jewels' perhaps?). Thanks, Julie! :) And apologies to my Secret Pal for this last minute change to my response to this question. Eek!


21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?

Not really. I used to think I'd like to learn fairisle, but Katherine's 'Skull Vest' (which I haven't enjoyed knitting so far), plus a realization that, despite my admiration for the skill involved, I can't really see myself wearing most of the end results, have cured me of that. ;)


22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?

Yes, I do knit socks.

My foot measurements are:

Foot length - 25 cm
Ankle - 24 cm
Measurement around foot after instep and before toes - 22 cm


23. When is your birthday? (mm/dd)

June 27th


This is the first 'Secret Pal' swap I've taken part in, so I hope my answers to this questionnaire are OK. I've tried to make my answers reasonably detailed as I only started my knitting blog back in February this year, but I've also tried not to cross the line and look too picky. If I've failed in this, please let me know and I'll have another go at it.

The bits that didn't quite fit into the other four entries

Look what Amanda brought us all back from Japan! It's a little plushy Totoro family, and there was one for each of us -- mine is the one on the right, and it came from the actual Studio Ghibli Museum shop too. I can hardly believe how adorable they all are. :)

In spite of the way things are probably looking from all the entries I've written today -- Nothing for over two and a half weeks, and then five entries all at once? Go figure! ;) -- I've actually been making some progress with my knitting, even if it's not quite as much as I would've liked.

My 'Pacific Ocean Stole' has grown quite a lot, and the second skein is disappearing at quite a reasonable rate...


That's more than six pattern repeats finished. We'll just ignore the fact that there are probably another fourteen repeats to go to make it the length I'd like it to be... ;)

A few months back, I posted about the lovely semi-solid dark blue hand-dyed Mollydale Mohair yarn Michael bought me at the Sydney Royal Easter Show. The scarf I've been knitting from it has been in my side bar for quite a while, but I realized the other day that I'd never actually written about it.


Maybe I've been overlooking it due to the problems I had getting it started. ;) For what should have been a simple moss stitch scarf, this project is my current record holder for the most times an individual project has been restarted before the knitted fabric finally looked right. If you didn't know better, you really could be forgiven for thinking I must have only started knitting last week, as only a real novice could have made so many errors of judgement. Maybe I was just having a really off day.

It really shouldn't have been this way, though, as there were similar moss stitch scarves available for sale on the Mollydale stall, and the two lovely ladies there assured me that they had all been knit on 10 mm needles, and that I would be able to reproduce the slightly tighter tension of the scarf I particularly liked (which had been knit by a particularly tight knitter apparently) by knitting mine on 9 mm needles. Well, the needle sizes quoted seemed a bit large to me, but I was prepared to believe that the Mollydale ladies knew their yarn better than I did -- mohair yarns can be quite deceptive, after all. Well, the 9 mm needles produced a fabric which was ludicrously lacy, and going down to 8 mm needles didn't help much either. My initial guess, before the ladies had corrected me, had been that the moss stitch scarves on the Mollydale stall had been knit with 6 mm needles, and the consensus of opinion around me the day I started knitting with the yarn was that the ladies on the Mollydale stall must have been tired by the time I spoke to them (it was very late in the day, and the second last day of the show after all), and they were probably quoting me the needle size for their bulky yarn. So I went with my original gut feeling and cast on using 6 mm needles, which amazingly enough produced a fabric quite similar to the ones I had seen in the scarves on the stall. As I still wanted a scarf more like the one I'd seen which had been knit a bit tighter, I went down to 5.5 mm needles, and finally to the 5.0 mm needles I'm now using. This wasn't the end though, as I still had to tweak the number of stitches to get the width of scarf I wanted, eventually settling on 37 stitches to get a width of 24 cm.

But this wasn't the end either, as when I finally had the tension right and the width right, another problem revealed itself. It soon became apparent that my scarf was going to look like I had taken Tigger...


... and given her an indigo bath. No kidding, it was most strongly resembling an indigo tiger's pelt. Eek!

So it was back to the start once again, this time alternating between the two skeins to break up the colour pools. Success at last, but sadly this is never going to be the take along project I had hoped it would be -- knitting it in public is pretty much out of the question as the yarn stains my fingers too badly for that to be a serious proposition. I'm now filling this gap with my 'Lost In Translation' scarf.

Some new magazines have also found their way to me.


The 'Yarn' magazine is the first issue of my brand new subscription, which arrived on schedule exactly as promised. Well done, once again, Barbara! The magazine is stunning. :) The latest issues of the US 'Creative Knitting' and UK 'Simply Knitting' magazines were an absolute nightmare to find, as none of my local newsagents were deemed worthy enough to carry them by the evil magazine distributors it seems. Even the large newsagents in major shopping centres hadn't received any copies, so I had to travel much further afield to find them. The jury is still out as to whether or not the effort was worth it, but I may be a bit more generously disposed towards them once I get over my annoyance at the trouble I had getting them.

I've also gone ahead and done something potentially reckless. Yes... In a moment of weakness, I signed up for Secret Pal 9. ;) This is the first time I've been brave enough to sign up for one of these, and hopefully I will be up to the challenge of coming up with the perfect gifts to send to my Secret Pal. When there are a few more buttons posted on the Secret Pal 9 blog, I'll add one to my sidebar.

I was also lucky enough to meet Meg at the last get-together at Rubi & Lana. Meg took advantage of the cooler weather that day to wear her green 'Lace Panel Sweater', which I can tell you looks even better in real life than it already does on her blog. :)

Phew! That's going to have to be all for now, and I think I may finally be all caught up on my blog entries. :)