OK.  I know most of you will have better pics.  But these will have to do until they go up.  PM me on Rav if you need the password to post.

Well.  I did tell you they were dodgy!  LOL.  This is AFTER I cleaned them up, a lot.  Sorry about that.  But I’ll consider making them go away if someone will put up a full set of good ones

http://pan-dan.blogspot.com/2009/06/paper.html

OK, I am back from my trip up the Sunshine Coast to spinning camp.  On the way, I finally went to Jenny King Designs.  I had lunch with the lady herself and met the regulars, how nice is that?  Now, I know I meant it before when I said it, but now I really mean it.  We really NEED to take that road trip.  Lookee what I got, my first ever skein of Araucania (and i don’t want it to be my last).  Ranco multy sock yarn.  NOM

Mmmmm... Ranco

The best bit was that this stuff was a lot cheaper than I would expect to pay for it.  Whoo!

I came back with lots of goodies.  But not as many as I could have.  That is to motivate me for the return trip.  As it turns out the store is only about 10 minutes from The Big Pineapple *cough* and quite easy to find, so *sunshine sundae* we don’t really have much of an excuse now.

Oh, remember that beautiful cashmere and silk laceweight we were shown?  Well there is very little of it left and all of it black (suits me).  I am gonna go write up my shopping list now, while you all think about when you’d like to go.  ‘Cos we are sooo going.  Hmmm, I’ll be needing some Eki Riva alpaca, some, of that Lana Gatto linen, some Doris Chan books, more circular crochet hooks, a tartan weaver needle, more Ranco sock, silk garden lite, that scrummy cashmere silk stuff… oh and I have to try the zuchinni soup from the cafe…

It is with great joy that I can blog- the seahunt shrug is actually finished!! This puppy warmer has been the looooong process of about 6 painstaking, painfull and expressive months.

It’s knitted from the pattern Summer Sky, once available on the now defunct Magknits website. It’s a boody cute shrug, but the pattern was an overcharted, underdeveloped struggle.
Coupled with this was my determination to follow the pattern to the letter, and make no adjustments or ammendments. Being usually a non pattern knitter it’s very hard for me to stick to someone else’s instructions, and so I chose to get all bloodyminded about the one pattern that really needed to occasionally be ignored.
To all those who told me to give up and frog it (you know who you are) all I can say is- ha ha! How cute is this??

The Seahunt

Linen stitch detail

Now that it’s done though I’m excessively happy with it’s cuteness, and would even consider trying it again.
One day.
Not right now.

OK guys, here is the deal.  World Wide Knit In Public Day ‘08 activities for Brisbane have been organised by Karen from QSWAFA.  Official proceedings begin with lunch at Poppy’s on Little Stanley Street at 12:30.  After that, folks will be heading down to the city cat for a trip up and down the river.

So far most of the (Brisbane) info is on Ravelry.  http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/qswfa/159862/26-50#29   http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/australian-knitters/140159/1-25  http://www.ravelry.com/groups/wwkip-day  But be sure to check out the international WWKIP Day website too.  http://www.qldspinners.org.au/

I may be able to make it to Southbank early.  So if you find yourself there in the AM, drop me a line, I may be around.

I bought the hilarious and cool book Knitted Icons on the weekend, and couldn’t stop until I’d made my very own Godzilla!

 An excellent way also to finally use the one random ball of verigated acrylic I picked up in a Malaysian habby store for about AU45c.

The pattern had a couple of booboos, but nothing to make you angry, in a Melinda C Hunt kind of way anyway (post still to come about that)
He’s my new favourite monster. I think I will call him Ernie-zilla-kun

We like field trips right?  Well, I have two for you all in the works. 

 It was mentioned before Christmas, that a jaunt to the Andy Warhol exhibition at GOMA may be in order.   Nothing has come of it, so I’d like to bring it up again.  Well, December is always a bit heavily booked anyhow.  Has everyone recovered yet?  I cannot say that I have, honestly, but I am ready to head on out.  Now, this won’t be as cheap as our last outing to the Lifeline BookFest, but I don’t think anything could be really   Entry to the exhibition will set you back $20 and high tea in the cafe comes in at $35 (should you feel the need).  I have heard there are plenty of other goodies on offer in the cafe.  The iced-coffee was described to me as sensational and the best ever.  A big call, I know.  Anyhow, I say it is a must do.  If you are with me, drop a note with preferred times and such.  Hmmm, perhaps this will finally be the inspiration I need to finally try some colour-work.  Could be scary

 Now, my other suggestion is one you may not have heard put forward yet.  This one really is a road trip, and so will need a little more planning.  We have been invited by new Ravelry member Mudjimbagirl to a special sale at her yarn store Jenny King Designs.  It is up near Maroochydore and is usually only open 2 1/2 days a week.  She has offered to open the store especially for us if we can arrange a car load.  I think we can do that.  The sale is 25% off everything (and up to 75% off some things) and the idea is to get the word out that the store is there and to lure folks in to take a look.  Seems to me, that should do the trick   She stocks Lano Gatto, Debbie Bliss, Filatura DiCrosa, Mondial, Naturally, Sirdar, Te Awa and some hand painted mohair too.  What do you say gang?  Obviously I will need to gather more details and I’ll post ‘em when I get ‘em.  A little research will need to be done too, on account of the trip being a little longer than I am used to.  Anyone know a nice place to lunch on the Sunshine Coast?  I’m a Gold Coast gal myself.  I get lost north of the CBD.  I can find Morayfield, but that is about the extent of it.

I am posting on behalf of Joey today.  She is a tad naughty for not having set herself up to post here yet, but I won’t mention that   She has called an impromptu knitting session on the river this coming Friday evening.  Now when  say on the river, I really mean ON.  This is a CityCat ride folks.  How cool will that be, eh? 

So far the plan is to meet at 5:30pm at the Shingle Inn (Brisbane Square), dawdle half an hour and then jump on the cat.  It is likely that we’ll jump off somewhere for coffee and snacks.  Does anyone know anywhere good for that?  I do not know yet if we will be headed upstream or down, but it obviously doesn’t matter too much.  From memory, the cat does not go further out than zone 2, so a daily ticket covering at least zones 1-2 will allow you to ride on as long as you like.  I already have my usual zone 1-3 weekly on hand, so I am treating this as a free ride.  So remember, if you are catching the train or buss in to town, get a daily not a single.  ‘Cos then you are covered for the ferry too.

I will post up more details as they emerge.  For those on Ravelry, details will also be here… http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/knittee-committee-qld/80847/1-25#9 posted by Jo herself (aka. Anushka).

Lastly, here is a pic of a cute kid in a hat I made.  Not for any good reason, other than that it is cute, I wanted to show off the dye-job on the hat again and I don’t much like posts without pics.  

I picked up this yarn at the spinners and weavers open day last year- it’s a cotton synthetic blend.

After 2 nights and some sore hands (and feet. Your wind on your own your way, and I’ll wind mine) we have the cake- it’s soooo pretty and fine. I’ve started knitting it into a basketweave scarf. Frankly when something’s this nice you don’t need to get fandangled

And here it’s modelled by the lovely Jane, who patiently held the hank at snb for a good 2 hours while I wound her up (har har)

Here’s something from my bookfest stash to get you all worked up about Australia Day- I love this one. I’d wear it, for sure. Nothing I love more than billy tea, a naff scarf and a roaring fire in the dry dry bracken