tis the night before christmas eve

it is still hot and humid.....it is raining outside after an electrical storm and I am hoping that it cools things down for the rest of the night.

I have put the christmas gifts in the calico bags some of which are over 25 years old, I made them for my boys, nieces, friends boys and they are put to good use every year for gifts that fit, lollies etc.  and the newer ones are 4 years old and were made when my grandaughter was born and one for each of my two daughter inlaws.

I havent put Ruby's stocking out this year as sadly Ruby was put to rest on 1 December, she had a short but very dignified battle with brain tumors, then tumors in her liver and stomach. We miss her very much. She was only 9 years old. I have told DH and boys that we are not having any more animals, Ruby was the firsht dog I ever got attached too, it is like losing a very loving family member, well I guess that is exactly what she was....a very loving family member.

On the knitting front I am knitting a 3 piece baby set for the local shows in January 2013. With a list of things I would like to knit for the shows and only 3 weeks to knit them....Have a very Merry Christmas.... I am going back to knitting for a while before I go to bed.

Picture of Ruby and grandaughter Aahliyah

One week at a time

The time seems to be just flying by.....I do seem to get a few things done, but not as fast as I would like.....I guess there are no magic wands around to help out.

I am working on another crochet rug that my MIL was doing before she died. I have finished two of them and decided to finish another square she had started for my FIL as he said that my MIL was going to make him one to replace his old one which has just about fallen to pieces. I will get this done and give it to him for Christmas.

I did finish the cotton top I was doing it came up pretty nice, probably a bit big in the armhole area, but seeing as it is a summer top will let a lot of cool in.

I have all my Christmas shopping done....well all done in my head, I just need to make the time to go and physically do the shopping. I will have to look at some recipes and sought out what to have on Christmas Day and get that shopping done too....I would love to be all done except for the food items you can't get until the last minute before December arrives, so I can sit back and knit and relax....oh yeah....and work. I am just having the days off which work will be closed over the Christmas and New Year break, 11 days off will be great.

I have had a very nice day so far, I walked to the supermarket (Woolworths) with my grand-daughter and on the way back we stopped off at the park and played on the equipment. I even had a go on the swing, she reckons she swung higher than me....not sure that was correct, but she was going high for a 4 year old.

Below is the crochet rug my MIL started for my grand-daughter and I have finished. My FIL will give it to her for Christmas and the cotton top I made.

Now off to sit and crochet some more.

Getting things in order

I am still trying to organise my life so I can fit in all the things I love to do, I am getting so far behind in everything.

I have decided that I won't be madly knitting each month for the monthly handmade markets in Albion Park anymore, I have enjoyed attending the markets, but I have to knit so much (not a bad thing you maybe thinking) and nothing else seems to be getting done. The garden is getting to be a real mess, and I don't seem to be enjoying my knitting as much.

I love to knit, but I love to knit what I want to, not what I think others will buy. I have put photos up on my knitting facebook page - Annie Knits  http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.167469400061014.39474.100003938645170&type=1#!/annie.knits and will see how this goes with selling my knitting. That will take the pressue off me as far as having to keep up knitting each month for the markets.

I have made a list - yes I am big, HUGE on lists. Anyway I have made a list of knitting I would like to do over the next couple of months, mainly knitting for the Albion Park Show, which I may also enter some of the items in the Dapto and Kiama Shows. The three shows run over consecutive weekends.

I have been knitting a Cotton Swing Dress which I trialled in making it as a size 4 years, just about got it right, not that anyone would really know, just have to tweek the pattern a bit. The pattern I have is only in a size 2 years.

I am currently knitting a cotton top in size 4, it is in the Let's Get Knitting magazine using Panda Cotton 8ply, it is looking pretty good, photos to come after I finish it, I have planned to finish it today, but first I have to remove myself from this chair and computer and go vacuum and wash all the floors, hose out the pergola area and then maybe I will sit down and knit - gotta love the weekends.

At Crossroads

I haven't been blogging, but I have been knitting. I started knitting for a monthly market which has been going well. It does take up so much of my time, I am still working full time, so knitting is for evenings and weekends.

As it is getting into summer here, I am really noticing that the time I have been spending on knitting for the markets has me neglecting all other aspects of my life.

I know we knitters don't usally worry about the housework so much, but there comes a time when it really needs doing, and I am missing going out and doing some gardening and the poor garden really looks neglected with some really healthy looking weeds taking over.

So here I am contemplating how my life should be going. With the recent death of my mother-inlaw a couple of weeks ago, I am starting to think a bit about what I really want to be doing with my time away from work, unfortunately I still have to work full time.

I am thinking of not doing the markets and maybe trying other avenue's of selling my knitting eg. etsy or the Australian online markets "madeit".

I am going to make a list of things I really need or would like to do at home with my spare time and see if I can juggle things a bit better.

To start with I am now knitting a winter top for myself for next year, which I probably will put in Albion Park Show in January, and a beanie with Brooklyn Tweed yarn and pattern I picked up while in USA recently. I love the USA, I have a savings plan in place so we can get back there in 4 years time - Route 66 Santa Monica Pier to Chicago here we come along with some eastern states in Autumn. Big trip so alot of saving is going to be happening around my place.

Here's to life......just do it!

Coastal Crafts Handmade Markets (CCHM) - Albion Park

I have been very busy knitting for the next CCHM on 28 July at Centenary Hall, Albion Park. As I will be in America my Mum is going to do the stall for me. Good on ya Mum, you are the best.

My mum liked my fingerless gloves I had on the other day, so I have knit her a pair which I will give to her this week when I visit Mum and Dad before my holiday, and take the last of the knitted items for the markets to her.

I also this week did another beanie for my grand-daughter as she saw me knitting them last week and asked for one the same.

I am really looking forward to returing to America for a holiday and it will be summer there, added bonus to get away from cold weather this winter for a few weeks. I am not going to where I really wanted to go on this trip which was the east coast in autumn, but we are visiting some favourite places from last trip and will be going to Sturgis Bike Week while in South Dakota, the main reason for the trip. I have my Knit Picks wish list already to go so I can get it delivered to a motel while there, only 6 more sleeps.

Knitting below is what I have been doing the past few weeks for the CCHM stall and the last photo is a pair of Fetching fingerless gloves for my Mum in grey acrylic, wool, alpaca blend with an extra cable row (I like them a bit longer on the fingers).

A new Knitting Adventure

A new markets have started in my home town of Albion Park, NSW Australia, they are the Coastal Crafts Handmade Markets (CCHM). The first markets were held on 16 June and with 32 stalls was a great day.

They are held in Centennary Hall which is great as weather will not affect the markets at all, and the first was a very wet and cold day.

I will be in USA for the second markets on 28 July, and I am going to see if my Mum will look after my stall for me, otherwise I have talked with another knitting friend who is going to try and get a stall with her machine knitting husband and if they do, she will look after my stall if needed.

I did really well on the first stall, it was hard to know what to knit for it, so I had a good mix of baby, kids and adult items along with some cotton dish cloths. The dish cloths sold out which really amazed me.

I am knitting away madly again so I have some more nice items for the stall in July.

I went to Wangaratta on the long weekend while visiting friends at The Rock, NSW. We had a great time, well I had a great time at the Woollen Mills, walked out with such a large bag of wool. We then went to Beechworth and another visit to The Ardent Alpaca with another nice purchase of alpaca yarn for a scarf for me. It is knitting up so beautiful and soft.

I knitted a pair of fingerless gloves for a friends son who is at Uni at Bathurst, very cold winters there, and I have also finished a pair of Fetching for a woman at work, and a very nice purple cotton and bamboo swing dress in size 2 for a knitting friend and she also bought the pink bamboo and cotton swing dress for her friend with twin girls.

Mad knitting weekend

I have been knitting madly all weekend doing a beret with knitted flowers for Aahliyah, some stripe fingerless glovers for her and now a matching stripe scarf which is a bit past half way done. In the pictures of have the knitpicks socks yarn I dyed at the Knitters Retreat the weekend before, I have wound it in a ball and it is on the list to be knit, not sure what it will be knit as yet. I bought a bit of yarn at the Knitters Retreat, 20 balls of Patons Emotions 4ply which is Merino and Cashmere - very very soft 10 balls in light blue and 10 balls in a darker blue, 4 balls of a black cashmere yarn, about 10 balls of baby pure wool yarn in 4ply in different colours and I also won 10balls of beige pure 4ply baby wool during Trivia on the Saturday night. I am rushing this morning to get to work so will try to upload some knitting pictures before I go.

Sick people should stay home

It makes me so mad that people come to work when they are sick....and as usual I end up sick with a damn head cold from it. I had a great weekend in the Hunter Valley, despite getting a nasty head cold while away. And this weekend I spend with some wonderful people at the Annual C.R. & K Daisy Design Knitters Retreat held at the Mt. Keira Scout Camp. It was great catching up with people who have attended in the past and meeting new people who attended this year. I made a felt ball, dyed some yarn, and tried to drop spindle spin, which I wasn't all that good at, but will try again at home which might be a bit more comfortable for me. I know now why they are called a Drop Spindle, because if I dropped mine once, I dropped it a few dozens times. I bought up big on the yarn front, heaps of pure wool baby wool, and some really nice Emotions 4ply which I am knitting another baby cardigan with the boat pattern on the front. I planned most of my yarn buying this weekend, with patterns picked out and a list of yarns needed, so now I have more knitting to get done in the very near future, then continue on with my stash knitting for the remainder of the year. I finished the Horizontal Vertical Kimono for myself last week and wore it over the weekend.

What is with blogger these days,it doesn't leave spaces between paragraphs anymore or put the photos side by side....WTF.

Hunter Valley Girls Weekend......

Early tomorrow morning I am going to the Hunter Valley with some girls that I ride with, leaving some husbands at home to look after themselves. We have booked a horse and carriage wine tour, really looking forward to that, wish I liked wine better than I do. Here are the pictures of my knitting recently finished and mentioned in previous post.

not sure in this new setout how to get the photos side by side. And I forgot to upload the blue baby cardigan with the boats on the front. And after trying to find the cardigan on my camera, I don't have a photo, maybe it is on my phone...I will check that one out another day. I am now off to finish packing for my 4 days away.

Where is the time going

It seems like time is going by so fast, and lots of things are being done. The year is rushing by, we are April already and there is so much to be done. Well according to my head there is so much to be done, I could take a step back and relax a bit, but I am so keen to empty my stash and soon, sick of a big mess on the floor. All cupboard space is full and I refuse to take it outside the room where it lives. I finished the baby hoodie yesterday and will give it to the baby on Wednesday when he arrives from Melbourne. I showed his grandma this morning when I arrived at work and she suggested that I keep it and give to him on Wednesday. It will be nice to see him and the hoodie together, I am sure the Denim colour is going to suit him, but will be nice to see it does. I pattern shows the hoodie with flat buttons, I did see some very cute little toggle buttons, but being for a 6 month old, it may have been a bit uncomfortable for him when he is rolling over on his belly, I found some nice flat buttons that suit the colour really well. I started the other day on the cardigan for another person at work's baby, I am doing a pale blue cardigan with cute little boats on the front, the boats have a flag that sits out from the front too, very cute. I will finish the second front tonight and hopefully a sleeve tomorrow night, I usually do both sleeves together, but as this cardigan only takes 2 balls of yarn and I have finished one ball, I will need to do the sleeves separately. I am hoping for a Thursday finish on this cardigan. I sorted out some yarn to sell at the Old Fire Station Knitters sale in May in Kiama, I have a heap of acrylic yarn from my mother in law and some other yarns that realistically I am not going to use, and I need to clear room on my floor in my computer/craft room. Some of these yarns are very nice and expensive, but if I am not going to use them, I can't see any reason to keep them any longer. I am in a very harsh de-cluttering mood. Photos to come, they are in the camera, I need time to download them and put them on this page.

Busy, busy, busy

I have been very busy with knitting, family, parties, and life in general. I have to remind my self to take photos of my knitting and to blog about them.

I am knitting a 4ply cardigan for my grand-daughter at the moment in a size 4yrs, all bits are knitted, I will sew up on the weekend and try and get some buttons. I used Shepherd 4ply pure wool in a coral colour, will be lovely on her, but hard to get buttons to match.


I have started on a baby hoodie for a work friends grandson, I am knitting the 6 month size for him for this winter and as he lives in Melbourne I would like to have it finished by easter when he will be visiting up here and I would imagine Melbourne will be getting cold soon.

I have paid for my place at this year's C.R & K Daisy Designs Annual Knitting Camp to be held at Mt Keira Scout Camp from Friday afternoon 27 April - Sunday 29 April, I can't wait. Will have to make myself a strict budget so I can buy some nice yarn while there, I should get some patterns organised so I buy what I need and will use.

KITGO

Knitting In The Great Outdoors (KITGO) was today and after a few days of solid rain, it was a beautiful sunny day to sit outside and knit. We are holding KITGO at RedPoint Galleries in Port Kembla, a small arty group of shops in a u shape courtyard setting, a nice cafe on the end shop, so nice for knitting, chatting, having lunch and coffee/hot chocolate etc.

I finished the Dunes Jumper and it has been blocked and is ready to be packed away for winter. I will be having a short winter in Australia only by 3 weeks shorter, as I am going back to USA for a 3 week holiday, so excited.

I have started a teapot cosy for the show next January - thought I would get started on some things early this time. It is a very slow knit being in intarsia and having so many colours across each row, I nearly ripped it after 4 rows pattern, but thought I would do a few more rows and see how I felt about it, I am slowly getting happy about deciding to keep knitting on it, I have finished the first lot of the 12 row repeat, 3 more to go for this side then I have to do it all again.

I have a 'trekking' beanie on the needles for the homeless, it is looking pretty good, they had asked if I could do beanies that were longer and well this one is long, very long.

Dunes Jumper

I am making progress on the Dunes Jumper, the weather has been overcast but very steamy, but with air con. it makes knitting enjoyable anytime of the year. It is knitted from the neck down. I am using Tasman Yarns Alpaca 8ply natural colour in Camel. It is a nice knit, I think the pattern is a bit out though, it starts off with the same amount of stitches for all sizes with more repeats of pattern for each size, I am knitting the 2nd size, when I had done 2 of the 3 repeats I had the 2nd largest size number of stitches, so I stopped there and continued onto the body. I have 1 and a bit balls of yarn left I am hoping that is makes it to the length I need, it is the size in the photo at the moment. Photo on the right is pretty true to the colour, the other photo was taken with a flash.

For Kiama Show I put in nearly all the same items I put into Albion Park show, I took Rae's (CR&K Daisy Designs) baby shawl to the show for her, It is absolutely beautiful, it is knit in 2ply, It took out Best in Show for the knitting along with first prize in the class it was entered. My shawl came in 2nd in the same class. Very happy with that result. I rang Rae and she was so excited.

My nice 3 piece baby set with the best flat seams ever, didn't get a look in, 1st in that class was a very nice very lacy set, but 2nd prize went to a loosely knit acrylic set, don't know what these judges are thinking. There were a couple of others that in my opinion were alot better, but that is the way it goes. My alpaca bootees got a Highly Commended and so did the child's jumper with the yarn I dyed. So pretty good results again.

In a class of other items not mentioned but not wool, that is where my alpaca bootees got the highly commended, it was the where I put my swirly scarf too, there were 4 other swirly scarfs and guess what, one of them won 1st prize in that class, not mine. So it goes to show that some beautifully knitted items don't always win and sometimes silly knitting yarns with fun type items as the swirly scarf can win.

Albion Park Show - Success!

I went to Albion Park Show this morning to see how my knitting went, and I was so happy with the results. I am thinking already about what to knit for next year's show.

The spiral scarf and these bootees didn't get a look in at the show.

The child's jumper and stacked stone mittens won 1st Place.

The 3 piece baby set won 1st place and the alpaca bootees won 2nd place.

The baby shawl won 1st place and Albion Park Show Champion - wow I am happy with that.

So now back to reality....and what I am knitting now.

I started on the Salty Peanuts Cardigan which I started a few years back and it got pushed aside or down deep which I think was more the case, well most of my UFO's are on the study/craft room floor and as I really would like to see more floor it seemed the perfect thing to get out and finish. I did a few rows on Thursday night....not really loving it now and I realised I may not have enough yarn to finish it....so what does a girl do....Yeap....frogs it...more like a rip though.

So now on the needles with the same alpaca yarn is a top down jumper...feeling OK about this pattern so far....the pattern is Dunes Jumper. And being a knit in the round, there won't be any seams to sew up when I finish knitting...gotta love that.

The New Year has sprung

I had a very slack 2011 knitting wise....I plan to rectify that in 2012. I have also been very slack in my knitting for Albion Park Show which is on this weekend (14 & 15 January). I finished the baby shawl last week. I felt bad as I had spent the past two years building up the knitting section at the show, and more people are putting knitting in which is great,so I have been knitting like a demon the past two and a half weeks, I have photos on my iphone which I will put here when I upload them.

I started a 3 piece baby set last Friday night and finished it on Monday Night, sewed it up on Tuesday night, wet and blocked it so the border sat correctly. Monday night I did start a pair of bootees, but after finishing one and then half way done on the second one, was not liking them at all. I was using an acrylic baby yarn, of which the bootees are now in the bin and the yarn in my bag to go to the trading table at knitters guild....I know someone there will take it....and they are welcome to it. I started another pair of bootees on Tuesday night in a 4ply pure wool...ah so nice to knit, I finished them on Wednesday night, sewed them up and are already to go. The other items I am putting in are a pair of fingerless mittens knitted in the Stacked Stone pattern with each mitten reversing the colours in the pattern using an Australia Alpaca/Wool yarn from The Australian Alpaca Yarn range. I also had knitted a pair of bootees in The Ardent Alpaca yarn in colours of brown, beige and white, I really like them, a bit boot looking, but very nice, so even though it is a bootee section I am thinking that the traditional bootee looking pattern is what they want, well we shall see on Saturday morning when I go to the show to check out how my knitting went. Aother item is a ruffle type scarf out of that new yarn with all the holes in it so when knit it just swirls around and around, looks pretty though. And a nice child's jumper I knitted in yarn I dyed myself. So I only have 7 items in the show this year.

I was going to start knitting beanies but can't find the pattern I printed off last week. So I have pulled out a UFO, a cardigan pattern "Salty Peanuts" which I started a few years back, and it got put aside and pushed to the bottom of no where, only to be found while looking for something else. So I may get that finished, I have completed the back and 3/4 of one front.

I have lots of ideas of things I would like to knit this year.....and a heap of stash to knit....so maybe the two will come together and make some nice things.

Plan for 2012, finish the damn stash and only buy if knitting something specific I don't have yarn for if knitting for my grand-daughter.....thems the rules!