After 6 weeks in plaster (netball injury) I have two hands again! I managed a fair bit of spinning and plain knitting while broken (Asunder with some handspun) but had to hold my right hand completely still and just use the left :(
Looking forward to getting back into my favourite project (Honeybee Cardigan), but have very little mobility in my right wrist so purling is still fairly tricky and painful.

Going back to study has somewhat dampened my blogging schedule, but have been meaning to report back on our adventures at the Bendigo sheep and wool show.
The website gave us no indication how exciting the show would be. I had thought perhaps we might get to browse a few stalls of woolly goodness. Turned out there were five large sheds of beautiful yarn and fleece!
It was wonderful to discover some Australian based indie shops, and finally be able to experience the excitement I am always hearing about on podcasts!
Our favourite shops were Moseley Park, Raxor, Spun out, Ixchel Angora Bunny, and Wool n wire

I am terrible at actually buying things, and can talk myself out of anything, but I came away with a nice little collection.We also visited the Bendigo Woollen Mills while there, and I picked up some staple colours.

What else could be my Knitty Spring+Summer 2012 highlight but Bigger on the inside by Kate Atherley? ^_^ I'll be sure to make this one day - although I think I'd choose to replace the ribbed edge with perhaps garter st.
My other favourite from this issue was Carousel, if I knit more socks one day, it will be these :)

I thought I'd post up my wips today :)
Harumi shawl (rav link) by Emily Ross is up the back, and just needs to be properly photographed.

Amelia by Laura Chau is down the front right. It is taking a while to knit up but I've almost finished the body, then just need to do the sleeves.

Clearly I'm still obsessed with teal. I'm not super happy with the variegation in our handdyed teal yarn when knit up, but I'll still enjoy the colours while wearing the gloves and cowl that are in progress :)

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!

This was long in the making (2 months) but totally worth it ^_^

Very inspiring pattern with great results. I would like to try this again one day with thinner yarn, as the Socks that Rock lightweight was perhaps a little heavy for this shawl and makes it quite bulky if wearing as a scarf (as I generally do).

I first became obsessed by Blue Moon's Raven Clan colourways when I saw Chrissy's amazing versions (Ravelry) of the Multnomah Shawl and knew I had to get some for myself.

I noted on my Ravlery that this was a ‘keeping me sane’ shawl. Now, a few months later, I can't quite remember what it was keeping me sane from, but I imagine part of it was having to move house yet again.

On nupps
Found the new technique of nupps pretty fun. Because of the thicker yarn, I used 5 stitch nups instead of 7 or 9. They're not super noticeable, but because I was running out of yarn I am glad I chose to do smaller ones.

Enjoyed reading through all the patterns in the new Knitty Fall 2011 issue last weekend - such a wonderful publication.

For me this time the highlight wasn't a garment but a trail of interesting and inspiring links that started with the awesome Double heelix by Jeny Staiman
I progressed to her blog: Curious Knitter (which has many fascinating ideas), and ended up returning to my desire to make my crochet mobius mitts into a proper knitted version (instead of the less-awesome knit flat and then twist version.

Other patterns I liked the look of from the new Knitty were Dragon Wing and Dunes

Feel free to use chart for your own tubey but would appreciate a linky - and make sure you note the troubles I had -> I solved the puffyness issue by hand-stitching in some lines of back stitch to pull ribbing together in that section and now seems ok. If I did it again I might decrease just under the bust to account for this before starting the stranded section.

Firefly fan?

Jump over and support Nerd Wars' Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief effort by bidding on m3clarity's awesome Captain Mal remake of my Cpt. Jack pattern. I can tell you that many many hours go into making one of these dolls - I hope that it goes for a good price

"Once you meet him in person you will be saying “I love my Captain” too :D"

Ebay listing | post on Nerd Wars forum | m3clarity's Rav page

Lots of Autumn colours - which reminded me of two beautiful patterns by my favourite podcaster Alana Dakos (Never Not Knitting)
Oak Grove
Seedling

So after moving house twice and all our mold problems of last year, which followed us to our lovely new (dry) apartment and ruined half our stuff... 

we got up yesterday morning to start our much needed easter holiday with a few bites of hotcross bun, and looked overto see water spreading across a third of the living room :( After 4 hours of mopping up water and wringing out towels, calling plumbers and a much needed cream egg and pringles delivery (thanks Robyn!), we got it somewhat dry.

Now we start the quest to see if the carpet can be ripped up to be dried properly so that the mold issues of last year don't set in :(

A pretty pic to finish:
Ocean: Hand Spun Lace by SpinSpunSpins on Etsy

Hi lovely readers
Just wanted to say sorry to those who are waiting on replies to emails - I hope to be able to reply soon

Haven't slept much this week and have a sore throat :( Think I might be coming down with something :/ Staring at pretty fiber will help I'm sure :)

  Childhood Dreams - Handpainted Extra Fine Merino Top 4 oz by GentleHugSupplies on Etsy

Stand out pattern for me from Knitty Spring+Summer 2011 is Verdant by Susan Newhall.

Pattern comes with instructions for what seems like an interesting stitch technique that I will have a closer look at later

Rivercat socks look pretty nice too but the shoes they're pictured in really put me off. I like the other photos further down though :)