and then there were three...

Posh Yarn skeins ... these two arrived today, to join the Charlotte 2-ply Splendid:

they're actually almost black, with small amounts of magenta and mulberry, and I think there's enough for another triangular shawl ... they have an odd smell, sort of like lapsang souchong

the parcel fairy cometh ...

bringing Sally Melville's Mother Daughter Knits (packaged much more carefully than Custom Knits, hence pristine!) and Woolen Rabbit's Whisper -- 1200 yds in each of pussywillow

and chocolate chambord

pussywillow looks darker than in its online store photos, but this is not necessarily a bad thing :-)

Sally and Caddy's book is more than patterns: I need to read the section on fit and style carefully before continuing with FGK garments, esp Viola, which is at the point where I planned to bind off the body, but might decide to lengthen, depending on what Sally says ...

ah, but there was no pink package of posh outside the door today ... hopefully tomorrow?

lightning strikes

we got some decent rain during the past hour ... it got too dark to knit so I took a shower ... it was the darkening before the main part of the thunderstorm, so I was standing under the shower, wondering whether I should dash downstairs to unplug the computers, decided it wasn't worth spraining/breaking an ankle to save them from a lightning strike ... then realised that I was standing under a shower, wet, with water on the floor, listening to a thunderstorm and watching the lightning flashes ... in a 2-storey metal structure that protrudes from the main house structure!

I rinsed quickly and dried myself *outside* the bathroom -- gazing out the window, I saw several lightning bolts hit [something near the] ground, within a couple of kilometres ... no smoke however

pink package!

my very first pink package from posh arrived yesterday!!!

but I didn't find it until this morning ... poor thing spent the night out on the verandah, probably feeling unwanted and unloved

I was at work all day and met jh for dinner so got home after dark; I'd asked jh whether this package had arrived and he said I'd received a flattish package from the UK ... but it wasn't pink (it was Ysolda's booklet, which is quite lovely and very welcome!)

I should have gone out to check the usual place where the parcel fairy leaves parcels but I just thought it would arrive the next day and went upstairs to knit ... so there it was when I left the house this morning! and here it is, finally photographed:

tosca

toscafull, originally uploaded by poshdee.

look what the posh yarn fairy got for me this morning! only 2 of these are mine:

Yarn Details:
Helena 4ply (sock weight) yarn, pure organic merino. Each skein is 360 yards per 100g.

Name:
Tosca

Colour Description:
Black, magenta, mulberry

Price per Skein:
£11.00

not enough knitting time!

I'm falling a bit behind in my schedule for palimpsest -- reached the halfway mark this morning instead of last night and am currently barely 1/3 through today's repeat ... and I need to go out soon to buy some protein for tonight's dinner -- probably snags from the supermarket, unless the butcher is really not busy

the chart keeper that jh made for me is helping (although not as effectively as Agnes' -- she's just speeding along with her projects!) but I need to figure out how to modify it so that I can use it while travelling on train/tram

meanwhile my queue just keeps getting longer, with my stash not far behind, and I think I will renege on my offer to knit Kim Hargreaves' Elizabeth for Clare -- maybe she'd like a nice lace scarf instead? or a Niobe in that Moda Vera Harmony that has too much brown in it for me?

and which of the exciting new yarns and patterns will I pick up when palimpsest is done (or even sooner)?

• irtfa'a, with Mel's alpaca-silk
• ishbel, with posh charlotte
• maplewing, with one of Kim's whispers
• boxleaf, with one of the Fleece Artist Cambyx
• tiger eye, with posh helena (if Agnes manages to get me a skein)

and there are so many other projects I could start, not to mention the wips I've been neglecting -- my excuse is that most are at or near the stage where I need to do some major structural adjustment, including both socks wips ... except Veronique, but I don't like the circ I'm using for the sleeve, and need to find/buy another, preferably sooner than when Morris and Sons opens in Collins St

and yesterday I ordered Cookie A's book as well as the Estonian Lace book with Miralda, and downloaded the Aeolian shawl pattern that has so many posh people so excited ...

knitting aids

Custom Knits arrived yesterday: most designs are a bit "young" but there are a few top-down set-in sleeve patterns I like -- Cameo, Slinky Ribs, Lettuce Coat ... Essential Tank is also a possibility, as well as Karma (top and/or skirt). But the most useful parts of the book are the sections on fit and modifying patterns.

Agnes mentioned in a forum post that she had received a knitting chart keeper, which would help her to knit faster (as fast as Nancy?) -- I had a look but Knitpicks doesn't ship outside the US, so I asked jh to make me one. Here is the first prototype:

It's an A4-sized metal sheet (from a would-be industrial shelf) glued to a piece of cardboard and slotted into a folded piece of cardboard. The magnets are cut from a council-recycling fridge magnet. Not (yet) portable but it does the job :-)

Then I found a forum thread about knitting faster, with a post from Aaron Lewis about knitting sheaths; a google search led to his blog, where he has videos of him using a knitting sheath. I'd read about these before, during my own gansey-knitting period, but I don't think they can be adapted to circs, which is mostly what I knit with now.