Socks are done.

Thank goodness.

Oh and I'm knitting

I thought I should mention, in hindsight of the last post, that I am actually continuing to knit.

I am currently turning the heel of the second Anastasia, which has progressed reasonably well despite my these-are-taking-forever prejudice against them.

They now look like this:And I have resisted casting anything on. I intend to still try to knit small gifts etc as I go with other bigger projects, so the yarn purchase is more of a stumble, rather than a complete leaving of the wagon. But damn.

Arrrrgh - thump. Defn: the sound someone makes falling off the yarn wagon.

Pride cometh before a fall.

I post here the message of downfall I sent to Bibnbub...

I made the fatal error. I planned for the next thing I really, really want to knit.

I created a checklist (wishlist) of all the colours I need for the Smoulder cardigan.

It takes a total of 15 balls of yarn in 8 (!!) colours. 5 of these are discontinued colours.

Janette’s Rare yarns had two of them with a note to email her if you were after something not listed.

I emailed her the wishlist. She mailed back in under 5 min (again !!) to say she was only missing 3 colours, and had 10 balls of the 5 I am seeking! And it’s under $80!)

And then, I looked at who on Ravelry to see who might have the ones I am missing for trade/sell. One person in perth has lots of one of those left. I sent her an email.

I have shades of the Evil Willow episode of Buffy. With Anya and Xander talking. And Anya explaining that when good people go bad they go like, really bad. And I just used a Buffy reference - and tried to Wiki it to get it right - to make a point about my yarn. Oh god. I need to sleep. Or something.

See? Yarn evil. Take over brain.

Anyone have either Night Sky or Fandango in Rowan 4 ply cotton? It hopefully will be all I'm missing...

I love quick projects

I forget sometimes that knitting doesn't have to be about long term but beautiful things.

Sometimes small can be pretty too. I finished the beret for my daughter's teacher. It's to be a Christmas gift - I have a list of these to do over the coming 6 months as part of the using of the stash.

This is what it looks like on me. Only one photo, because in every other photo, for reasons I cannot ascertain, I look very stoned. And the one photo that would have been great was completely washed out in the upper range - meaning the light beret couldn't be seen properly.
It's pretty, using the Gretel pattern I mentioned earlier and some Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran Tweed. I'm fond of this yarn, having used it before, but in this instance I think it was a bit thicker than the called for yarns, meaning a more slouchy and larger beret than originally intended. Not ridiculously so or anything, so it was stay as is.

I picked Gretel .. and the finished Daisy Cardigan

Because if you are going to be distracted, you may as well pick something you need to do anyway.

It looks like this...the yarn (Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran Tweed) is a pretty, pretty colour. I think of it as cornflower purple...

And I finished the cardigan, but it has no buttons because my man went out all Saturday afternoon and thus there was no button shopping. It looks like this...

and from the back with the arms held out...
It's a little big, but not as much as you'd think because its based on an older pattern for kids which is more boxy with lots of ease. Plus you know sprogs grow...

oh and that's our new lawn in the background. Yay for lawn and less sandpit..