Had another attempt at shrinky plastic rings. Last time I only did two designs but this time I did quite a few. See planetjune's wonderful tutorial to if you're interested in making some yourself.

A couple of big projects on the needles at the moment. Has anyone else made an Amelia or Harumi? Would love to see them if you have.

Harumi shawl (rav link) by Emily Ross

A yarn dyeing adventure with Slightly Squiffled equals the teal/black I had been wanting to make for ages!
It turned out more speckled than I'd hoped, but i hope to have another play one day and make a darker more blended version with thinner yarn.
And I also made some blue-y black
And she gave me this yarn, as she was less fond of the colour, but I think it's awesome, what do you think?

This was a lovely free pattern, but involved a (rather hard on the eyes) full chart instead of a number of repeats. I didn't have enough yarn so had to rip back many rows before the edging to have enough. Even then I had to re-write the edging quite a lot of have enough yarn. It lost what I originally loved about the edging, but it's still very nice to wear.
The sunset light makes it tricky to see the colour of the yarn but it's black and teal and I love it to bits. In fact I love all yarn from Dyeforwool. Their yarn names are the best! Slightly squiffled has also been experimenting with teal dyes for yarn so I'm keen to go over for a visit and we can have a play to make some.

Pattern: Owlings by Kerrie James (rav link)
Finding this pattern so handy for gift giving this year. I made another two sets of Owlings over the Christmas period, one in hand dyed organic merino in 'damson' from EdenCottageYarns, and the other in some of my early handspun (which turned out pretty colourful but the recipient enjoys lots of pretty bright colours).
It's great to hear too that 'Owlings is currently being worked for re-publication'. The new pattern will apparently include 'three sizes in several gauges as well as a thumb gusset. While the original file will remain available free of charge, the new file will be for sale'.

I started writing about Ravelry and the describing of knitterly information for a blog post, but decided to expand and submit it to the library magazine inCite. It was published with a few changes I didn't expect, and perhaps therefore has a different message from what I intended, but if you're interested in Ravelry/libraries you can read it here.

Can't wait play with shrinky plastic again!

I used planetjune's wonderful tutorial to make these first attempts (a castle and a sort of garden thing) but I've got lots of other ideas!



The tricky bit is shaping the plastic after its baked. I failed a little on this one, but hopefully will get better with practice!

These little lollies may look innocent, but they have made my last week of holidays very painful
Ever since our 2005 trip, I remembered Tasmania as a land of tasty green sour lollies. This time, lured into a wonderful house of sweets, my eyes fell upon these super sour green apple delights.

I put the first in my mouth and it literally burned. After eating it for less than 10 seconds I had to stop, and five days later I could barely eat anything - my dinners uneaten, my nougat pudding abandoned :(

I suspect something was wrong with the sweets (perhaps out of date and very potent for it). I guess I have learnt my lesson and will steer clear of anything labelled 'super super sour' in future :/

We did manage, however to buy something a bit more yummy in Tas - some Ella Rae Lace Merino from Tasmanian Woollen Co in Salamanca Place - yum!