Thursday, June 15, 2006

the front and the outback

long time no post, spent yesterday immersed in a washing machine. how is it possible to make so many dirty clothes on one short road trip? more about that later but first...drum roll...the front of the jumper has been completed. i present it here:



i am quite happy with it, it has knitted up nicely and is very soft and smooth. i am a bit worried about the sizing (did someone say somethinga bout a tension swatch???) - it fits across the chest but seems a bit short in the neck dept but it does have a knitted on neck so that will give it more length there i guess. i had trouble reading the pattern for the shaping of the raglan and the neck but thankfully we were staying with someone in brissie who is a mad knitter and she knows all the tricks of the trade. ie, write down what you need to do in each line. thankfully i had my knitting journal with me and this is what the neck shaping looked like:



adding up not being my strong point it took a while! now i have simultaneously started on the sleeves and the back so i can carry the sleeves around with me. for the sleeves i bought these lovely wooden needles from a little shop in bangalow (near byron) on the way home and they felt a bit bigger than the 4mm bamboo circs i was using so i put them in my little needle measuring thing and they are perfectly 4mm whereas i discover that the bamboos that have 4mm printed clearly on them are perhaps slightly smaller than that. im not going to undo the bloody thing now. the difference is so miniscule, perhaps it wont show up. pray for me. and stop talking about tension swatches ok?!

meanwhile the road trip. great fun.

left here early, hit heavy fog outside yass:




made quick time to coonabarabran, quaint little place. the warrambungles were pretty spectacular as they flew past!


odd little cabin for overnight. freezing cold of course. set off before dawn for the border:






stopping at gurley up on the wheat belt, funny how things are different to the way you remember them. im sure this pub used to be two stories.



used to swim in the tank, which i also seem to remember as being slightly taller as well!




anyway it was fun to see the place again. it rained in brisbane. a lot. we raced the dogs in the rain, they were a lot slower and our team had many stuff ups, but we met some nice people and had fun anyway. we came back ont he coast road and stayed at this gorgeous tourist park at nambucca heads but it was dark when we got there and dark when we left. home tuesday night safe and sound.

am off to wollongong tomorrow to give a seminar presentation then staying in sydney for the weekend and going to more herding workshops out at camden. at least herding is good knitting time, sitting in my camp chair waiting for my turn :) perhaps i will get the sleeves done. hopefully next week life returns to normal and i can get to an snb one day soon.

k

3 comments:

Taphophile said...

Sounds like you had a good trip despite the fog and the rain. The jumper is looking good. I write down tricky bits line at a time, too. Always have; it helps to have studied the pattern enough to translate it.

Tension squares are over-rated, a waste of time and wool, and occasionally necessary - don't sweat it.

I've been to the doctor and got medication. Am also self medicating with the new "Yarn" magazine in the hope of inspiration. ;)

DrK said...

i have been looking everywhere for the new 'yarn' but its not in my shops yet. i should subscribe i guess as it is so much better than that crappy creative knitting. creative if youre a hobbit maybe. i hear there is a section on socks in the new yarn and i am desperate to start my affair with socks. i went to cassidys today and held brittany dpns in my hands and a ball of patonyle and thought what are you doing, you dont even know how to cast on these things...put them back. so i did. at least some sanity has prevailed today. hope you feel better soon!

Taphophile said...

Sanity? That is sanity? Then let me be insane a bit longer.

Subbing to Yarn was one of my better ideas. Highly recommend it.

Hope we see you Sunday