more little things, and I have 'stash'

One more little thing flies off the needle, odd really as we were away for 3 days and I forgot to take any knitting. That was not planned - I was 30 minutes up the motorway en route to my dads, at around 10am friday, when I realised the knitting bag did not get in the car with us. I dithered, and then thought, "there is a yarn shop in Waimate, its open saturday, will buy more cotton - maybe in black and white and new bamboo needles and start second wash-cloth". Seemed an ok plan, but no, no cotton yarn to be had. Well expensive fine cotton, and none at all in black or white, and my cash budget was tight, we are after all only bare weeks after christmas splurges. I plan to work in cash this year and save seriously for this new toy this year. Time to get back to a SLR and the lenses have been getting rave reviews. My last pentax was a medium format so huge and very serious. It had a certain ka-thunk when the shutter came down, and was usually the most serious camera in use at any event. I got lots of male attention and camera envy. I really did enjoy using it until 120 film became to difficult to process locally, then it went off to a new owner and job as a wedding camera. And there is at least one other knitters review knitter/spinner in Waimate as I discovered from Kathyr's comment, thanks.

When I came back, after not knitting for 3 whole days and 2 evenings, I finished the washcloth in striped garter stitch. I am not totally happy with the way the ends are woven in, but it was late, last night and I was keen to finish. Next time I will think about splitting the yarn into finer sections and weaving these in separately. I am stoked about the way the kitchener stitch went, invisable and looking like it was just knit as a whole, no begining, no end - apart from the weaving in tell-tale signs. I unravelled the long tail cast on edge, to free ups loops, it went rather easily and gave just the right amount to kitchener the ends closed. I know i should have done a provisional, but it worked strangely well and easily. I do love the way the stripes work, they don't quite meet at the diagonals but close enough. I do love the way the yarn forms a rope effect at the edge when the new colour is always picked up under the old one, and the way the stripes differ on the front and back.

I got a parcel in the mail Saturday, my new needle cases, which was nice, less than a week from the order being processed. They came from Nancy, who was really nice about postage options given that it cost extra to ship to New Zealand. I may have been a tad over optimistic, as I have only filled the two wee ones and half a tall one. I don't want to put my 'el cheapie dpns' in these, as they don't have sizes printed on, I really need to make slip in lables first or I will never know what is where. Still now I prefer to work in wood they just might fill up fast, I feel more Brittany's and Addi bamboos are calling me.

Been working on Toby's hat, to match the Kangaroo sweater (see earlier posts), have completed the ribbing, and about to start the decreases. I have a nice wide and thick turn up brim, to make sure his wee ears are warm in winter winds.
A warm, thick, double layer of knit ribbing. I am still working to the verbal pattern on the ready set knit podcast, so for the crown will try the decreasing every 2nd row, in 8 equal sections. Planning to decrease SSK, so it will be a clockwise spiral.

I got so inspired by the stripes in the wash cloth, in turn inspired by the vertically striped hat mentioned last week. I kept imagining it in black and white, so went searching for cotton yarn in Waimate. No luck, but found some Tuesday when back in Dunedin. Monday was a no go day, first day back at work, new temporary 'office'. 9-3 due to limited school holiday care for my 4.5 year old. I am camping in an unused ex-classroom on a 3rd floor while they renovate an entire building for our school. Tricky bit is that the room I have been temporarily housed in is being renovated as I work there. Very nice workmen keep asking if I am going to be there all day, and if I mind some noise. So far it has been ok, as I have a new toy, a brand new laptop all of my own - supplied by work. So day one was about collecting and signing for it, getting all the cables, extra mice, and docking stations and connecting wirelessly. Day two was problems solving printing and connecting to shared servers. Day three I had a meeting and cell mate, so a more social day - two cafe coffees. This toy is only temporary - there is a more wizzy one in the pipeline - more info when it arrives. Should be really - really cool.

I have stash, or st ... the beginings of stash.
Any way I found black and white cotton, dk weight at my LYS, and started wash cloth II, don't you just love the way the short rows and the stripes make the curve when all the stitches are on one needle? I am also very pleased with my needle shortening handywork, as you can see in the image - just like a bought one! Of couse now the needles/pins are to short to knit anything but a mitred wash cloth or dolls house blanket - but I didn't think of that before. And this is my new favourite wash cloth pattern so that may not be an issue. I plan to play with the stripes a little more, wider, wide and narrow, more colours - could be fund. The black and white yarn is John Q Designer 8 ply cotton crepe. Cheap and cheerful.

I also sucumbed to a lighter weight cotton in white and mid blue. A finer weight yarn, from Panda 4 ply intended for 3.25 needles - which is what I am knitting the dk weight on. Will have to swatch and see what needle size works best for this. I do like a 'firm guage' but it can make for a heavy wash cloth that holds a lot of water. Wonder if I should try the recomended guage some time ....