Project thought long dead.

I thought that, seeing as I'm on a roll, I may as well finish a few other things as well.
This is a pair of socks that I actually knitted about 5 years ago. All I needed to do was sew them up. And I finally did it. Then it took me another week before I put them on!

Notice the little oversight in the stripes?

I don't think I'll wear them in public....

Not another scarf!

I finished the Purp Scarf! Yes!

I used the same technique I used for the scarf I made for my friend James, i.e. just basic garter stitch with an added strand of the contrast colour on every third row. I thought it would look good in light colours, with a creamy colour and a pastel. At first I was thinking shades of blue to look like the ocean, but you have to work with what you can get, right? Plus it was on sale, so you can't complain.

I wanted to do something a bit different and knit it 'sideways', but I knew I'd have to use circular needles for that. I was pretty daunted because I've tried to use them once before, and they were hellish! But I used the trick of steaming the plastic parts of the needles to straighten them, because they're all bent from being folded up and squashed into the packet they came in. It didn't take long to get used to them after that. Once I actually got on with it, it was really quite quick to make.

The only thing is: the scarf doesn't wear very well. It's too bulky to fit around my neck properly without feeling like I'm drowning in a sea of wool!

Foodie

Tonight I made Bara Brith:

It's a traditional Welsh bread made without yeast - although I don't think it's supposed to be that flat! It has sultanas soaked in tea, brown sugar and flour. Oh yeah, I just realised I was supposed to use self-raising flour, not plain flour. D'oh!

It tastes quite good though! The recipe says to leave it in a tin to mature for 2 days, but I couldn't wait.

Cute, fluffy animals

Lately I've been working on my toy penguin more than anything else. I have an odd and not entirely unjustified feeling that I might actually finish it quite soon - and successfully too!

Here's a pic of it's guts:

Yes, that could be a flipper.

I'm eyeing off the Wombat to do next. Updates as they happen...

I have room to spare!

Lately I've been seriously considering the idea of having a set limit to the number of projects I've been working on at any one time. 12 seemed like a good number. 12 also just happens to be the number of projects that I'm working on right now, so it seems to make sense. That just means I'll have to finish one before I make a new one, which really would be the sensible thing to do.

But then, guess what? I just thought I'd count the number of projects I have listed on my Works In Progress page [link defunct], and I'd miscounted! It's not 12, it's 11! So I can start a new one if I want! I'm so excited!!!

I got the knitting blues.

Hello, all.

What have I been doing lately? Not much!
I've mostly been working on Sparky's hoodie, at work. I haven't had many shifts, so I haven't done much unfortunately. And I can't knit and type at the same time, dammit! I bet you Debbie Stoller can!

I wish I had whizzy icons which showed how much I've done of each project, in the shape of a scarf or a hat or whatever, with the bottom part coloured in like a glass that's had coloured water poured into it, showing how much is completed. That would be really cool. But I never said my blog wasn't substandard, did I?

I still don't have any new pictures of my knitting, so here's a pic of the things I bought on my last trip to the Op Shop:

You see here:
* cheesy old 60's and 70's knitting books
* wierd orange top
* hand towel
* Body Shop products
* ridiculously large teapot
* glass jar
* original 60's inflatable coathangers that I don't think have ever been taken out of the packet
* etc.
I love op-shopping!