It's Sunday, tomorrow then is Manic Monday...

After a lot of work that got accomplished at the market, I was able when I came home in the afternoon to finish knitting the second mitten before tea!

I am very pleased with how they came out, and even more so with how much yarn they used. I have at least half a ball of Patonyle left maybe a little less.

How many of you read the Sunday Tasmanian today? I didn't but my mother pointed out an article of interest to me and you can follow the link here.

Two words, dear readers. ROAD TRIP!!!!!!!
It's getting closer, one day I will open that pole dancing circus in Vegas or maybe I'll just take to the high seas as the all dancing all world ruling pirarte. Do you think it will matter I can't sing? Or act? Sailing on the seven seas I think will at least involve some singing and maybe the need to act brave?

Late last night I cast on my second Jaywalker. Yes, at long last I am managing to do seconds. First eh mitten, and now a sock. Only another two socks to go.

Until next time,
Suzi.
A bona fide red head and knitter who is completing pairs!

Decisions, decisions!

I'd like to offer up a thnakyou to Cathy for providing me with the corrections fro the Aran Earwarmer, it is now back underway and looking like th picture!

I have a hankering (hank! get it?) to make a project of the decade. ie something lacey and Oh My! So I have compiled a short list of possible candidates. The three catergories are Socks, Shawls/Wraps and finally Scarves.

Falling Leaves
Pomatomus
Straight Laced Socks
Happy Socks
Broadripple

Cobweb
Bloom
Ella
Leaves and Waves
Frilling
Shawl Trifecta - The Frozen Lake is my personal pick.
New Vintage Capelet

Ziggy
Branching Out

This is perhaps only the tip of the iceberg as far as potential patterns go, but I have to start compiling a list somewhere. As much as I'd like to do a wrap or shawl it would probably become a project of the centery and perhaps socks or a scarf would be better suited to a decade.
My dear readers, I'm willing to hear anybody's opinions/experiences with the above patterns or perhaps any other suggestions you can make. I do have a decade so there is plenty of time to choose!

Until next time,
Suzi
A bona fide red head who is making more UFO's as opposed to less and not to proud about it.

I haven't really progressed any furthur on the knit front since yesterday, so far today I have been to a Big Morning Tea and then to lunch with a friend and have only just got home to start rummaging through e-mail and checking in with my SNB KC contempories to see if we are onboard for this weekend for the market.

We are. And I am very excited, I like going to the market, knitting, talking, taling, talkng and of course knitting.

My new bamboo double points, actually have the sizes printed on in tiny print, in the case of the 2mm even tinier print!
Also added to my needle collection are two lovely wooden pairs of 10mm straights and a set of 4 metal double points, size so far unknown. To the needle gauge! Da da da duh da da...I picked them up in an op shop this afternoon, not much else on the knitting front in it apart form some odd metal straights and a number of plastic double point sets in varying colours.

The new Knitty surprises are up, and well, nothing excited me. The baby halter is cute but suited really for another climate altogether different to my own.

You may notice some changes to my blog sidebar, I will be doing a bit of blog maintenance ove rthe next week to make things a little more concise and elimnate a few dead links.

Until next time,
Suzi
A bona fide red head and damn proud of it.

Share and Tell

I am in a very generous mood today so I will share some of my likes and dislikes!

To start with, my long awaited bamboo double point sin sizes 2mm - 10mm arrived today, very thrilling! Then when I logged onto ebay tonight which I have been staying away from to leave feedback I discover that the seller of these nedles has slapped me with an item unpaid. I am far from impressed as I paird for this with Pay Pal and the Item paid column in the My Ebay description had a little symbol which meant my payment was being processed the lat time I was there. It is now showing up as paid and cleared through pay pal on ebay, pay pal indicates that this transaction has been paid and cleared, so I am not impressed.
And to top it off this very wonderful seller is now no longer registered!

I discovered my local Black Spot stocks circulars up to 10mm now, however their double points only go as far as 6mm. I wanted 10mm DP and circs, so I could finally start my knitting with fabric bag kit. Strangely at the time Black Spot were selling these they didn't have the needles suitable for knitting this project in the round as it was designed, namely 10mm.

My Aran earwarmer form the last, not the latest, Creative Knitting has annoyed me to no end. I have a twisty cable, where as the picture shows the design as being like inverted triangles. A twisted cable is not even close. I did see the latest Creative Knitting today, I probably should have picked it up and looked for corrections or an explination.
I also saw the new edition of Simply Knitting, I only picked up the last one yesterday. I am a little late with my knit mag purchasing, as I am as Arthur would say, a little short of the readys....I have become Terry.

Now that I have the Loopa edition of Simply Knitting, I won't be making a Loopa scarf anytime soon even though Cindy made a very nice one. As I need to fit learn to crochet into my schedule somewhere.

I collected my lay-by of two seasons of Charmed yesterday, my mother who was running my errends the day it got put away told me she had been unable to get Season2 and 3 as I had asked so had got me Seson's 3 and 4. When I collected it yesterday I discovered she had in fact got me Seasons 2 and 4.
I am quite pleased as I had wanted Season 2 as I got Season 1 fro Christmas last year. And Season 4 is the first season when Rose McGowan joined the series.

I do like Rose McGowan. There is something very elegant about her, and for a while there on Charmed she got very curvy by American tv show standerd. Where Alyssa Milano seems to have got thinner and thineer every season.....

While browsing Nocturnal Knit Witch I disocvered this Classic Pin-Up quiz and I had to try it.

What Classic Pin-Up Are You?

You're Bettie Page!
Take this quiz!








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| Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

Bettie Page? How cool! I love Bettie Page! I am thrilled that I got her.

The last two nights I have had Mushrooms on Toast from Nigella's Feast, very yummy! I have to buy more mushrooms and sour cream so I can go again on that stuff. I'm planning on trying the Bacon and Toamto Hash next, but first i have to whip up some soup. Both to eat now and to put in my freezer for later.

I'm off to to some more Charmed and hopefully some more work on my fingerless mitt, I have finished hte thumb so it is onwards and upwards with the hand section now. As it's knitted in the round I don't have to worry about sewing up, so it's partner may get started very soon after I finish it. Although if I could get he second Jaywalker underway I would also be well pleased.

Unitl next time,
Suzi
A bona fide red head and damn proud of it.

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again!

Here is my first Jaywalker finished! And thanks to my time and money spent on being a Voguette, I discovered I could use a three needle bind off in place of a graft for the toe. This makes me a very, very happy woman indeed!
I abhorr sewing up and grafting is boogelly, but never again, all my socks (well top down) from now on will be finished with a three needle bind off!

Of course the second one has yet to be started, the only trouble with socks is once I've finished the first one, rather than knit the second matching one, I want to start a new different one.

I was very pleased with the result of how the Hot Sock's knitted up and as you can see my foot model and photographer's (budget restirctions you understand) pet also thought they were lovely and apparently tasty!

The next project on the needles is a pair of fingerless mittens from the now defunct Aussie online knit magazine Southern Cross Knitting.

I am knitting them up out of some Patonyle and if the pattern is to be believed, it will take only one ball to make one pair!

It remains to be seen if this is in fact true or not.

Also just started is the Aran Earwarmer from Creative Knitting Issue 15. The pattern so far has annoyed me, why they must write a note at the start to tell you to slip one and then write pattern instructions that do not include the slip one is beyond me.

i.e Cast on 14 stitches.

Note: The first stitch of every row must be slipped either knit or purwise.

Row 1 (RS): P3, K8, P3

Which if I am not mistaken equals 14. Now I may just be nit picking but a purl is not the same as a slip one purlwise.
How I think they should have written the pattern should have been to omit the Note and simply put the slip stitch in.
i.e Cast on 14
If they must have a note, something sensible like - Note: First stitch should be slipped purl wise or knitwise on appropiate side of work e.g purlwise on right and knit wise on wrong.
Row 1 (RS): Slip 1, P2, K8, P3

My personal opinion anyway.
Also in my personal opinion, this shrug is gorgeous! And it is going on my To Knit List.

I must get back to be a cranky old bag and knitting my mitten and seeing if one ball really does make a pair, unfortunatly on metal needles. Although I hope to get some more bamboo needles soon, I had a bit of a spend up the other week while I was still solvent part of which arrived the other day.

Until next time,
Suzi.
A bona fide red head and damn cold.

Ah me hearties, I am not hearty!

We had our SnB Knitting Coven yesterday, which was a little too exciting as I had to come home and go to bed I was so tired. And I didn't actually do anything, I was just sitting in my seat, my boogelly cold has given me a sore throat which makes have conversations longer then monosyllables difficult so I didin't even talk as much as I normally do.

I've got a boogelly bug that has made me sad and pathetic. As opposed to being just sad as a fan of Mrs Mac.

But part of the excitment came about with the arrival of some goodies from the Wool Shack that Cindy, Sharon and I went in jointly to order to combat the exorbant postage costs that charge.
I finally have my new K1 magazine with the pirate knitting and an interesting article on useful knitting phrases in foreign languages. I kept trying to recite Italian to my sister, unfortunatly my pronounciation leaves a lot to be desired and she had trouble identifying what I was on about at all. After looking at the article she was able to pronounce them for me and also the Japanese. It is very handy having a tri-lingual fmaily member.

After I had a bit of a lie down and rested my eyes, my mother rests her eyes alot, she is NOT, NOT I repeat asleep, just resting her eyes, I was able to finally have a knit with my new bamboo needles, I have started a Jaywalker sock for me out of some Hot Sock yarn, Four Seasons Print in a black, white and two shades of grey colourway and it is knitting up well. At least I think it looks good, I know looking at pictures socks others have picked don't do anything for me, but then they probably wouldn't like what I pick. It all works out in the end.

We had a new member at our meeting yesterday, Caroline, a very friendly lady. But we got to discussing knitting magazines, Caroline hasn't bought any of the recent offerings and wanted to know what we all bought and what was best.
Cindy and Sharon we're saying how they get Interweave and Vogue regulary, Cathy and Katt who sit at the other end of the table don't get Interweave or Vogue, I get them semi-regular depending on what's in them and how the budget looks however I am a devoted fan of Vogue's Knit 1 magazine which I don't think any one else gets.
Simply Knitting is another popular one, Cindy, Katt and I all get this one. Then there is Creative Knitting, which I nearly always get depending on what's in it but Cathy and Katt get this one regulary, Cindy and Sharon do also get this but I don't think all the time???
Sandra simply looks at mine and finds things for Margaret and I to knit for Christmas presents, Margaret however simply reads mine and frequently asks me to look for patterns in them for something she's planning to knit.

How much help we all were I am not certain, because I think our choices are based upon what we all most like to knit or do knit. Vogue and Interweave don't offer up as much choice for little people things as say Creative Knitting or even Simply Knitting, but they do offer more choice and sometimes a nicer variety of stuff for adults.
I think Vogue is the dividing line in our SNB, all the Vogue knitters sit at one end of the room and the non-Vogue knitters sit at the other.....Not that we're clique or ignore each other, far from it. But then it could be also the eccentrics sit together at one end and the not so eccentric sit at the other away from us?

Well, dear readers that's how I interperet it, but I would love to hear other people's ideas on what the best knitting magazines are.

Until next time,
Suzi
A bona fide red head who's sick and not happy at all.

Early Morning News Break

Cue music!

di di di di dint di di di dint!

Good morning. And welcome to this special early morning edition of the Darkside News. Today we bring you two stories of incredible knitters and their efforts to further the image of knitters.

First to the Sexy Knitters Club - their motto is to prove once and for all that knitting is not just for old ladies in rocking chairs. Quite right to! This is something Sharon is a firm believer in promoting as well.
(Alright so technically that makes three.)

Second we have the International League of Midnight Knitters, created by Two Pointy Sticks. This one comes quite close to home for me as I have been a sleepless in Launceston for far too long and often need something else to occupy myself with during the night hours. So much so I created a project and named it in honour of these hours I worked on it, the Insomniac Scarf. Which I probbaly should have been working on last week while I was up watching Buffy in the middle of the night.
Perfect to knit to is Buffy, with all those pointy sticks!

That's all we have for you today in this morning break. Join us for our next news break, whenever some news happens.

Thankyou and good morning.
Suzi

The quiz is hard? How can this be? I thought I was like an open book, that everybody knew everything at a glance.
Is it possible I have not shared enough?

Anyway, I am going to share some more now. Things I am loving at the moment.

Collecting good looking men - Now this is an ingenious concept. I like it. I like it a lot! Thanks to Ms Fortuknit for this inspiration.

Imaginary husbands - I am toying with the indecision of being Mrs Grissom or perhaps Mrs Angel, but this last one presents two problems as good Angel he's rather house broken but is inclined to slouch, as bad Angel he seems to find good posture and some very nice leather pants. Decisions, decisions! Thankyou Mrs Macgyver!

Drinking wine with friends - Mrs Macgyver is my saving grace, my mother always says to me "You shouldn't drink alone", well apart from the Daft White Cat most nights I only have the people on the tv or my collection of daddy long legs (this fluctuates as the DWC seems to think that they are something to eat).
Now I have a new plan, I shall ring a friend. Preferably also a wine drinking one....Katt will have to become a Merlot swigger with me.

Who is the wonderful Mrs Macgyver and where has she been all this time? She is a friend (possibly) of Cindy's. And the only conclusion I can draw from this is that Cindy seems to keep some strange company, I will have to discuss this with her when I see her at Knitting Coven tomorrow.

Anyway darlings, Patsy and Edie are calling, I do believe it's champers time!
Suzi.

I'm baaaaaaccccckkkkk!!!!!!!!!

Yes, I have returned. It is unsurprisingly, rather dark here on the Darkside.

I have been cxaught by a number of bugs one of which is the quiz, the other is somehting boogelly that has me laid low waiting for Death or Godo, whatever comes first.


There is more to blog about, the conclusion to the yoghurt experiment, what I have been doing that has left me no time to myself. And all manner of other odd things that go on around me weaving the tapestry that is my life.

Suzi.

Documenting an Experiment

For posterity's sake, and as a possibly handy not what to do for anybody else remotely intrested in yogurt making I write these step-by-step instructions.

1. Buy EasiYo maker from op shop - DO NOT be deterred by lack of jar.
2. Assure mother you are not mad and that supermarkets as well as stocking the maker kits, sachets of mixes also carry extra jars you can purchase seperatly.
3. Search two supermarkets and find nothing but kit and sachets.
4. Search a K-Mart and find no EasiYo at all.
5. Get highly annoyed as shops are now making you look like a liar and mother is giving you doubting looks.
6. Assure mother that in your jar collection at home you have just the right size jar, and also point out that before yoghurt makers were invented people had to make yoghurt in jars wrapped up in blankets, so of course it will work.
7. Come home and find just the right sized jar, put it in yogurt maker, reenact a scene from Frankenstein only instead of "It's alive! It's alive!" you shout "It fits! It fits!" before holding the jar triumphantly aloft.
8. The only audience for your stunning reenactment is the Daft White Cat who has not noticed any of this great artistic performance and is now staring at you with the "You stupid woman!" look.
9. Wash jar throughly and zap in microwave so you can honestly tell mother you sterilsed jar. All the while debating why nobody appreciates your true genius.
10. Before CSI, boil kettle, while kettle is boiling make up the powdered milk recipe for yoghurt. Add just boiled water to yogurt maker, place jar with shoogled ingredints into maker, put lid on and go away to watch CSI.
11. After CSI log onto blog and write specific case notes on your experiment so far and google yogurt making for more advice and ideas.
12. Start debating about if you want to make Kurma's panir.....

Until next time,
Suzi
A bona fide red head and dman proud of it.

*****Note: A big thankyou to Cindy for her advice on yogurt making!

Via Con Dios Casa

Welcome! Welcome dear readers to my casa!

There is a lot of domesticity going on today in my humble casa. I am going to be whipping up some muesli later this afternoon (from Nigella's Feast). It's actually very low effort, unlike her recipe for Granola which had almost twice as many ingredients and required a tad more effort.

Nigella writes making her own muesli makes her feel like she is living in the 1960's, throwing pottery and writing political diatribes. Mostly it makes me feel like a long haired leaping hippie and that I might on some level be making something remotly good for me.

I can not stop marveling at the world wide web and all the information you can find, useful and sometimes not so useful. But while poking about one of my new fave haunts trying to locate the post about Granola, which I did find and you can check it out here. It seems a little less effort than Nigella's, so after I have mastered muesli - i.e become a Muesli Master I shall have to move on to become a Granola General.

Anyway what I found on the way to the Granola was Ghetto Cocktails, now I can not pass up anything that offers cocktails. The offering that most captivated my attention was the White Trash Marguerita made with Corona. I am a huge fan of Marguerita's, the tequila aside I just enjoy sucking the salt off the rim of the glass. Yum!

Back to the plans at hand, aside from the muesli, also this afternoon I am going to attempt a batch of crumpets. Yeast cookery dosen't frighten me, I not only enjoy it but find it incredibly easy. Pastry making scares me however, so I always rely on prebought.

Around all this, I have been charged with the job of knitting a cosy for my mother's new mobile phone. Her old one some how died, my father who had the same model may also be in need of a new phone as his hasn't died yet but it's on the way out. I don't think he'll want a cosy some how though. Which suits me fine as I can devote my time to knitting something for me or possibly for the Mongolians.

And guess who's joined the land of Bloggers? Are you brave enough to enter the Stash Alone?????

Until next time,
Suzi.
A bona fide red head who loves cooking and is damn proud of it.

What a wicked web we crawl when we plan to seek!

It's always exciting I think when someone new leaves you a comment, because then that's someone else's blog to have a look at. And of course the potential of even more new blogs and other exciting sites that they like to visit...

Well I'm very pleased Ms Fortuknit left a comment, because I got to check out her cool blog. Loved it! And thanks to her discovered such gems as Knit It Black - another excellent blog that shall go on my regular read list.
The second find was the most incredible treasure of all, Punk Rock Domestics. I can't believe it's only now I discover this!
It's coolness aside, I include the link for PRD here mainly for if I am MIA for a number of days you'll know why and where to find me.

While cruising PRD, I was poking about he links section to see what else I could find. And I have two words for you! SKULL NEEDLES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh and the book looks pretty cool as well.

On the homefront I started to organise the ironing baskets, I've actually managed to elimante a few things form them. Namely towels, so rather than ironing baskets they were more like baskets of washing that didn't get sorted straight away. I've got it all neatly stacked in two baskets waiting for me to get to work on it. I think Friday afternoon will become Ironing day.
Of course the flat stuff like table cloths, tea towels and pillow cases will get done first. Purely because they are so easy, and you can accumalate a pile of nicely ironed items very quickly which makes it look like you have been sooooo domestic.

That's my winning tip, take it, leave it or use it.

Until next time,
Suzi
A bona fide red head who does actually like ironing. Usually.

Lookie! Lookie! Again!

We had SNB today, and after much talking and knitting. Cindy was telling me the new Anti-Craft was up. Yeah!

What particulary interested me was this hat. Also being a bit of a freak about asparagus, I couldn't resist the recipes for it!

Cindy was also telling us about a motorcycle cosy. Motorcycle alone would captivate my attention! Cindy has very helpfully left me a comment with a link to it. I highly reccomend once you've looked and admired, you follow the link to the embroided tattoos.Very cool!

I have given myself a goal and reward. If I can finish something, anything, although preferably one of my UFO's, I will buy myself the yarn needed to make the yoga mat bag from Stitch N' Bitch Nation.

And what is the yoga mat bag for? Well to put a yoga mat in! Yes, I'm hoping to get back into yoga. Still the mind and quiet the soul. I never previously took classes, just practised at home with a video tape (does anybody else remember those days?). With a bit of practice at home, maybe a class, I will have to see what they offer at the gym.

In closing, apparently one of my felow bloggers feared for her mother's safety, what I meant and clearly I didn't make this clear enough wasn't that I was going to beat her mother, but rather I was offering her the tag if she was interested and her mother didn't beat me to offering it to her.
I swear on my buried treasure, I would never have threatened anyone's mother.

Until next time,
Suzi
A bona fide red head who's been put in her place.

Lookie! Lookie!

It's a new magknits, and i am very enamoured with the lace wrap.