splendidfull

splendidfull, originally uploaded by poshdee.

AgnesTville, darling enabler extraordinaire, snaffled 1 skein of this for me in this morning's feeding frenzy (aka weekly Posh Yarn sale) -- it's Charlotte 2-ply Splendid and I plan to make Ysolda's Ishbel.

lace patterns

I think in future I will practise every lace pattern, using pale DK yarn and medium needles, long enough to understand it and to stop making mistakes -- only then will I cast on with the actual lace or fingering yarn.

With Palimpsest, it took almost 3 repeats, working steadily after restarting the piece, before I felt confident that I could "read" my knitting to remind myself of the next sub-pattern. Now, near the end of the 5th repeat, I even understand the sequence of the edging stitches :-)

I'm a little worried about the amount of yarn -- this first ball should do at least 7 repeats plus another 8 rows ... 23-24 g to do another 59 rows, i.e., 117 rows used 32-33 g -- so it looks like I've got plenty!

ETA Tue 24 Mar 2009: it was looking unlikely, as the ball of yarn dwindled, but I weighed it after 7 repeats and still had 9g -- the arithmetic said the next 8 rows should use less than 3g and, sure enough, I still have 7g left after doing the 8 rows.

yet more yarn

my cambyx from knitty noddy arrived a few minutes ago -- one skein of burgundy and two of victoria -- the two colourways are very similar -- victoria isn't even a less saturated version of burgundy ... if anything, the bronze hues are slightly deeper in victoria ... but the victoria insists on photographing much more blue than it is, while the burgundy's photo looks reasonable ... stranger still, victoria alongside burgundy photographs ok!?

these are intended for Anne Hanson's boxleaf shawl -- autumn leaves, if you will :-)

knit fast

I didn't eat anything yesterday, bar a handful of M&Ms, and I wasn't hungry then, or this morning -- I've been knitting ... and jh left yesterday morning to ride to his mother's farm and won't be back until later today

I did have brunch when I went out to buy more knitting needles, and I'm feeling a bit peckish now

I know it doesn't take much energy to sit and knit but that doesn't usually stop me from getting hungry and/or eating for the sake of eating

temptation and the low A$

I commented on AgnesTville's Caricia on her ravelry page, which started a short PM exchange where she mentioned that she'd just downloaded the new Boxleaf pattern ... I went looking and had to search the knitspot site to find Anne's 6 March posting (why don't her postings appear on ravelry right away!? she did two on Friday and they're still not on my ravelry friends page!) then scanned back to "discover" that this is the pattern for the shawl she made for her friend kris, a month ago -- another triangular shawl, but with an interesting top edge, and a distinct side edging (slightly different from the original) -- I'd been reading her posts about it but didn't recognise it in the brighter, variegated colorway.

Well, Anne had knit this version in a new Fleece Artist 70-30 silk-camel yarn, which is US$26.50 for 115g at Knitty Noddy but not listed on colorsong -- the closest match is Handmaiden camel spin, with exactly the same fibre composition, slightly finer gauge, but US$37.95 for 100g! (Anne's blog shows a mini boxleaf done in camel spin) I figured shipping from Knitty Noddy wouldn't cost $11 per skein (and KN caps postage at $20 for international, i.e., they don't use that really expensive $26-minimum method) so ordered 3 skeins of their Cambyx: 1 burgundy (that's all they had left) and 2 Victoria (appears to be a slightly muted version of burgundy?), enough for a mini Boxleaf in burgundy and a petite or tall version in Victoria (possibly for Ruth, esp if the colorway is really not suitable for me).

I was impressed by KN's registration page, which actually knows about the states of Australia! but then the shipping page didn't list any international options ... so I put a note in the order and emailed the owner after paying for the yarn ... Evelyn just emailed, saying she'll send me a paypal invoice for this order, and set up an alternate ship-to (same as mailing) to get around the bug for future orders. ETA: US$10.30 for 1st Class International mail, which I paid via paypal -- paypal charges 2.5% above the exchange rate, and then Visa adds another 2.5% :-(

and of course, having spent $120+ on yarn, it was silly to continue waiting for a better exchange rate before buying Anne's patterns -- I got Irtfa'a (faved 28 days ago!) as well as Boxleaf.

socks or shawl?

400 yds of fingering can make either a pair of socks or a small triangular shawl

plans for June and July

Mid-July: jh and I have been to the Bendigo wool show every other year or so -- we take the train on Sat morning, mooch around for the rest of the day (last time, we had to spend some time finding another place to stay, because the hostel manager had lost our booking), then go to the show on Sunday and return to Melbourne on Sunday night. This year, jh has to work on Sunday, so I'm making plans to go on my own -- just a day trip on Saturday: take the 8.15 to Bendigo, arriving 10.18, then catch bus #5 to the showground (much farther out than the one that Google Maps identifies as the Prince of Wales showground), spend several hours and even more $$ buying yarn, socks and other goodies, then back to Melbourne on the 5 or 6 something train. There's no reason jh couldn't do the same but probably better that he doesn't -- I won't be able to buy more than I can carry :-)

June-July? Oy-lene and her husband will be living in Spain from mid-May to mid-August -- something about having the airfare for specific dates, therefore locked in -- and will be doing house-exchanges in Malaga and elsewhere ... but Malaga is the longest arrangement, and the house is big enough to me to visit. I've asked Atish about possible conferences we might attend, in order to write off some of the airfare. If this looks like a go-er, I'll have to find out about special yarns to buy in Spain. jh isn't interested in going but Clare might be ...