Fun FOs

Just playing a little catch-up here with some FOs that you haven't seen before, and some you have, but this is a different view... read on, you'll see!

Ok first, I need to introduce you to Fireman Sam. He's been finished for a while, but since he was snaffled away so quickly, I forgot about him meeting you before he left!

(Click to see it big) Playing 'oops'; Time for dinner; Movies and chocolate

I believe he enjoyed his recent trip to Australia, and is soon off to the States!

Another recent FO is my awesome cowl:

I brought one ball of yarn at Easter and knit this up in a few hours - sadly it wasn't long enough to make the scarf I wanted, but i've worn it nearly every day since! Its nice on its own in the office, and super snuggly under my winter coat.

And now, my favourite part. You'll remember a while ago I made a garter yoke cardi with little matching beanie for a friend's baby. Well - I present to you Noah wearing my gift!

Isn't he gorgeous!

~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!~

2009: FO #2 and #3

After much talking about it, I have finally completed the baby cardi!

Garter Yoke Baby Cardi
(Link is to Ravelry download page)

Mods: I used slightly smaller needles and yarn, and so added an inch or so to the length of the sleeves and body. The cuffs called for garter stitch, but (by mistake!) I did reverse stockinette stitch, so it curls under a little, but it looks ok.

I was going to make booties to go with it, but I couldn't find a pattern that worked (that could be because I was trying to do it late on Friday night!), so instead I made up a little garter baby beanie to match:

Both are blocked and ready to go. I'm working on another little gift addition, then I can happily hand it over!

Today's letter is the letter H

This is my first meme, thanks to the lovely Karen :) Comment and I'll give you a letter, and you get to write a list of ten things too.

Ten things I like that start with the letter H:

1. Honey - the best thing to have on toast when i'm hungry in the morning. I used to have it on bread with 100s & 1000s at my aunty's house every time I visited!
2. Heat - Summer is my favourite season!
3. Hot chocolates - I love these at night just before going to bed, although it has to be Cadburys, not Milo
4. Hoodies - my favourite comfort clothing, although I almost never wear the actual hood...
5. Herbs - I add herbs to every meal that I can, its not the same without it
6. Holidays - yay for holidays! Family time, and no work!
7. Home - there's no place like home :)
8. Hugs - hugs are great! I can never get enough!
9. Healthy eating - something that is usually seasonal for me, but I try...
10. Hershey's cookies & cream - only the best chocolate there is!

Knitting update

I'm still going on the cardi - i'll be finishing the first sleeve at lunch time today (i've just gone through that phase where you measure it, then knit, then measure it again, and it doesn't get any longer! Agonising!) so then I can start on the second sleeve. I bought some matching buttons yesterday so i'm very close to finishing! Ravelry tells me I started this in December - I know i've had lots of holiday-ing between then and now, but I still can't believe its taken this long! Photos will come once i've sorted out my camera issues...

And thanks to Karen and Susan for your nice comments about the Fearless Knitting badge :)

Shop name

My sister has a web shop where she's been selling all her art work, and she suggested that I should get one so I could eventually start selling some of my knitting. We've been trying to think up some names, and the one that's sticking so far is Monarch Knits. My initial thought was that, in the instance that I started sewing things to sell too, I couldn't do it under the same name, but i'm over that now - and B suggested that I make little knitted tags to go with it, which would cover that problem! So, I'm asking the blog: what do you think? Any other suggestions? Or do we like Monarch Knits?

~ Happy knitting! ~

Loving long weekends

I'm sorry to say i'm getting used to these short weeks! Its Waitangi Day here on Friday, which means another 4-day week! We will be going up to our bach to do some more painting and gardening, with hopefully some time for a swim as well.

Last weekend I went up north for a youth leaders retreat weekend - I had a good time, the training we did was really good, but never again will I spend a whole weekend away along with 4 other guys - talk about testosterone overload!! Everything was a competition, from who could jump from the highest rock into the river, to who could hold their breath underwater the longest at the pool! As you can see it was gorgeous weather though, so I couldn't really complain about having another mini-holiday :)

Progress is coming along well with the garter stitch baby cardi - I did some more work on it at lunchtime today, to discover that i'm pretty much finished on the bulk of the stockinette section, then a garter band around the bottom and the sleeves to go, along with picking up stitches for the button band. I'm suprised at how quickly its going! Its looking a little small at the moment - a little narrow across the back, but i'm hoping that the button band will make it look better.

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I also finished my audiobook this morning, so here's my review:

The Time Travellers' Wife

Author: Audrey Niffenegger

Started: 1 Dec 08

Finished: 3 Feb 09

It looks like it took me ages to get through this, but its an audiobook so I only listened to it on the bus and other travelling - AND its two 9-hour books! Brilliant story though (18+ in some parts); I read in a review that people were sobbing in parts and I could see how that could be so. I would put it in the genre of romance/drama, but its not as 'flaky' other romance novels i've read. Sometimes its a little hard to keep track of the dates and how old the characters are, as it darts around a bit. Its nice to have both male and female voices reading out different parts of the dialogue. HIGHLY recommended! But make sure you're not doing anything else while you're listening, or you'll lose track of what's going on!

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Happy knitting!

Post-Christmas calm

I'm at home today, relaxing before work starts again first thing tomorrow morning... i'm heading to mum and dads for dinner later, and to try out their new ABBA Singstar! Awesome!

So, Christmas and New Year! Stories will have to wait until I have more time to time, but here are a few photos from our trip - we were there for 11 days, so we covered alot of ground.

First, here are the YUM cupcakes I made for people at work before I left - they went down really well!
Christmas day was busy, jumping from Church to lunch with Mum's side (which was SO good, thanks Aunty Glen! Mwah!) followed by afternoon tea with Aunty Lorna, then dinner with Dad's cousins! So busy that I didn't really get my camera out to get any decent photos. But here is a photo of my Dad's side of the family on Boxing day, when we had our Christmas:
After more family visits, we went into town for a bit of shopping and New Years Eve - it was totally packed, it took about 45 minutes to walk across the bridge back into town to catch the tram back to the hotel, but it was lots of fun! This is my favourite photo of the fireworks:Now for the knitting! These are the WIP pics I promised before I left. 1 - Talia vest, 2 - Ribbon x-back top, 3 - Garter yoke baby cardi (Ravelry link)

And finally, last but definately not least - the Christmas presents for the babies! They have finally been handed over, and so now I can show you. Unfortunately it was too warm on Boxing day to get a photo of them wearing them, but i'm planning to get pictures when the weather turns a little cooler (hint hint, Aunty Ali!)

Ok! I think i'm all paid up in the photo department! Now to get some sleep before dinner...

Happy knitting!

Holiday projects

I got my new needles yesterday as promised ages ago, so I could get started on the coffee tunic and the ribbon x-back, in hopes that I could start to figure out which projects to take overseas with me. I've settled on a sweet little baby jacket (Ravelry link) for a friend, as that only takes one ball - i'm going to use Paton's Big Baby with 3mm needles - and I figured I would be able to take either the tunic OR the x-back, and I picked the x-back since that only needs 3 balls, where as the tunic needs around 9. I'm also going to take Chastity's hooded scarf, if I don't get that finished before I go. So there! I'm half packed already! Hehe :)

I'm hoping to post up some WIP pictures before I leave, but in the meantime, happy knitting!