A new book review

The Reptile Room
Author: Lemony Snicket
Started: 9-Mar-09
Finished: 17-Mar-09

From audible.com

Following on from the first book, A Series of Unfortunate Events (which I read a while ago, but it doesn't look like I did a review on it!), this reading was slightly different, with Tim Curry covering all the voices, instead of having different readers. I very much enjoyed this book - after seeing the movie which covered all the different stories, it was good to get a bit more information about the characters. It was alot shorter than I was expecting though, so the story was rather basic, and a little predictable. Still recommended though :)

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Knitting update

I'm still in a bit of a knitting funk. I'm at the depressing stage of Buttony where it doesn't seem to be getting any longer, but for fear that one day i'll measure it and it will be perfect to put onto scrap yarn, i'm only knitting it at home when I have scrap yarn around! I needed some road trip knitting though last week so I cast on for Fern Glade again, and so far so good - although its stretching quite a bit around the cable, so I'll need to get a shorter one before I go much further. So far i've done one full pattern repeat (while sitting at a homestead looking out over the country side - it was lovely!) so there are five more to go for my size. The green acrylic is interesting to knit with...

I have a friend coming over tomorrow night to have his first knitting lesson; i'm definately looking forward to that! I might get him started on some squares for the Casa Kiwi blankets, to speed that project along a little, while I continue to forge my way through Buttony some more, aided by a nice glass of white...

~Happy knitting!~

Where to from here?

Looking back on some of my last posts, I seem to have mentioned a few things i'm working on and what i'd like to do coming up. I thought i'd give you a proper update, as I think I have things cleared up a bit now - the wonders of a stash tidy up!
Earlier I mentioned i'd been working on this Fern Glade beret. I'd only done the first couple of rounds of ribbing, but as I needed the cable for my blue tam, I ripped out that project. I do plan on starting it again soon though.

I also mentioned that I seperated pre-determined yarn and matched it with their projects so they are ready to pick up and go. There are two in particular that i'm dying to start - the Buttony Sweater in red Gedifra (left), and the Wicked sweater by Zephyr in light blue Patons Soft Haze (below).

Also prepared in my Ravelry queue are the Coffee tunic in Taeri Plains 8ply, a Clapotis in Patons Smoothie DK, Thermal in Elle Pure Gold, as well as the obligitory Central Park Hoodie in London Tweed. Too many to choose from!

Also sitting in the back of my head is more charity work - the preemie baby stuff for the Wellington Hospital, more puppy jumpers, and squares for Casa Kiwi blankets. I also promised my sister that I would make her a little Fireman Sam toy (yes, she's 22, but it brings back good memories!) and she leaves for her big trip soon and i'd like to get that done before she goes.

In the meantime, the ribbon x-back top is staring at me from my WIP pile... I'm not sure that i'm so keen on it any more, but i'm determined to finish it anyway. That will be my next project out of the way! (Just in the interest of updating, i'm choosing to forget about Talia for the moment, but I know its still there!)

Common sense and practical thinking tell me that since the Thermal pattern has been in my queue the longest, that's the next big project I should start on. The other part of my head says that Buttony has been on there almost as long, and that's in chunky so it will go faster! So that's what i'll do - Buttony then Thermal.

Don't hold me to that though, the mind is a crazy thing that changes more than this weird Wellington weather...

~Happy knitting!~

Valentines weekend

A belated happy valentine's day to those who you who had someone special to celebrate with :)

As for me, my yarn and I had some lovely quality time on Saturday, on my first much-awaited weekend at home in about a month! Friday night was spent working on the garter baby beanie until the wee hours of the morning, so I even had a sleep in. I decided it was going to be a blocking day on Saturday - I blocked the matching (and finally finished) garter yoke cardi, and also finally blocked my Sassy cardi, which turned out beautifully! Unfortunately the washing machine was in use after that so I didn't get a chance to block the hooded scarf, but that's on my to-do list tonight (while watching the first episode of the new season of Desperate Housewives!).

As for new projects - on Thursday I decided on a whim that I would start a new beret for winter - after looking at the new Knitty that just came out, I chose the Fern Glade pattern using the same yarn as the (disasterous) big green vest (to show you the color). So far its very pretty, although the yarn is taking a bit to get used to after using the soft stuff for the baby cardi!

For Saturday though I decided to do a little more charity work - this time for the SPCA who are calling out for little puppy jumpers. I couldn't resist when I saw the gorgeous pictures:

Here's the pattern if you'd like to help out. I've made the back half of one already, with plans to make the front and finish it off tonight. Its all ribbing, so it takes a little time, but aren't they sweet!!!

My sister was hosting an anti-valentines day cupcake party on Saturday night, for those who didn't have anything special on, and it was so much fun!

There were 5 of us there, so that made decorating all the cakes very creative. Our finished products were displayed on my lovely cupcake tower, although they didn't all fit...
Here's another picture of the aftermath...

Mmm they were good!

Sunday was lots of fun too, B and I were entered in the Wellington Round the Bays competition, along with 9,000 other people! We walked 7km in 1hr 14mins. I'm so proud!

~Happy knitting!~