Knotty Knickers

Matchy Matchy

We went away to Kaikoura last weekend.  This weekend we're just staying home - both of us worked Saturday - but we'll get done the coast again this coming holiday weekend too.  I can't say this next trip will be as productive as the last.  While Alex and Tom were out fishing with their Nana and Granddad I was knitting, knitting, knitting on a test hat for Hunter.  It's very cute.  And I'm glad to have had the cuffs as my swatch because my knitting and my small head do not always combine well.  But in this case I'm 100% happy.  It's a light hat, very warm, a bit quirky (look at the top!), and has lace!  Pattern's not out yet but I'll let you know when it is!

Also, if I hadn't decided I wanted it taller I'd have been done in one day. 

Two of Three

This is a local NZ spun yarn, 50% merino and 50% silk, hand dyed up on the North Island and on offer in the shop I work in.  It was a birthday gift from Sophie last year and I'm loving knitting it up.  Just going slower than I'd like.  (The Citron shawl I showed you last time is almost finished, I'm on the final section, and I knit a hat over the weekend - not slacking, promise!)

I simply thought I should show you that I'm alive and the needles are clicking.  So there.  Done.  I'll go tick that off my 'to do' list!

One of Three

I have three shawls on the needles presently. 

Shawl One: The Percy Shawl you've seen already, and hopefully will see again when I have time to work on the every row has lace instructions Chart B.  I've sussed the SSPs, finally, so that should make it go more smoothly, but the time that the thing needs and the focus is not really happening weekday nights.

Shawl Two: If I manage to get a stitch in during the Stitch 'n' Bitch session at work, it's on the Heartland Shawl with a merino/silk lace that we sell in the shop.  Pretty, green, but designated 'work knitting'.

Shawl Three: Seen in this very post!  My Citron is going along mostly fine weekday nights though, which is good and a large part of why I started it.  Stocking stitch - check! 

I did have a minor gaff on row 9 of the fourth section where I didn't increase.  Got halfway to the next increase row, row 19, before I caught on.  Tink, tink, tink I went.

Back on track now, up to row 19 of section 4, and happy with it all.

The colours are lovely ('I Gave Her My Heart and She Gave Me a Pen') and the yarn is delicious to work with (Indigodragonfly MCN Lace).  The pattern is simple and the miles of stocking stitch is good for my brain (it turns off) and easy on my hands.

I'll get back to the Rotorua holiday photos again soon.  Promise.

Why I Love Being a Yarn Store Shop Girl

We got in a largish order of Knitsch 100% Merino Sock in the shop the other day.  Almost 60 skeins of bright goodness.  Only two were self-striping variegated colour ways.  I'm not sure how that happened because I thought I ordered more, but it's most likely due to the fact that Tash, the dyer, is running low on her yarn base.

Anyhoo, I lady came in and gave good homes to not a small number of the pretty skeins.  There is still plenty on the shelf and when I need a pick me up I go take a peek at the rainbow pile and try not to giggle stupidly.  Apparently, I'm still 12 years old in the presence of bright clours. 

The blues were terribly hard to photograph, together and separately, but they are soothing and uplifting at once.  The yellos and oranges, stunning on their own, really sparked with the addition of Silver Lining, possibly the best soft grey ever.  I usually veer away from greys, finding them too flat or too murky, especially the paler ones, but Silver Lining is superb and I wear my Mitt Envy fingerless glove in it so much I think I will really have to make up a shawl to go with them and complete my outfits.

Now, one last image of the knittable jumble colour therapy and I'm off to have a cuppa with Alex.

Golden Things

It's been a full on week here in Nelson.  Autumn has been edging into winter with a sharp, crisp turn in the air.  The leaves have all begun to turn and fall and they delight me as much as ever.  I am sad there are no huckleberry bushes to see change, and no huckleberries for me to eat, or for bears to eat.

On the 27th of April we received a letter saying my residence visa has been granted 'on principle' and was awaiting a payment of the migrant levy and my passport.  I shipped those on Alex's birthday, the 30th, and by the end of the week Immigration NZ had taken the payment and emailed to say my application status was updated.  I haven't tried to check it online because of an earlier muck up when they received it and put stuff under Alex's passport number.  So now we wait.

And knit since the nights fall early and the days are cold.

Here is one of the recent quick winter warmers I've stitched up, Narcissus Cuffs from Hunter Hammersen's second book (for which I knit the samples of these) The Knitter's Curiosity Cabinet.  I love the colour, I love the weightless warmth on my body, I love the squish of the yarn (Three Irish Girls Beckon Merino).