It won't happen over night

Inside out - which I thought was right side out for a while because I get confused by how circulars work and when I was knitting my first hat someone said I was knitting it inside out which wasn't normal, but either she was wrong or I've somehow done it again

Right side out

But it will happen. Especially because I'm about to have a wee vodka and cranberry to celebrate some good news (finally! I've had many a drama the last few weeks, I definitely need some good life changes. I will share my news once it's a done deal...) and knit the night away!

Weekend in pictures

And some words. Because I can't help it.

My little brother Hunter's hockey (he's the one in the foreground)

My cousin Hamish's 5th birthday cake

There's still some orange in the Wairarapa

And a beautiful moon

Some belated birthday presents: Cath Kidston's Make!, Hadley Fierlinger's Vintage Knits for Modern Babies (which was on my birthday list from back in April, I'm so glad I got it, it's so pretty and the patterns are so cute!) and some lavender bags

Joined the girls from Outdoor Knit

It was out with the old

And in with the new...

More biscuits on another present, my very own cake stand in pale green glass (so now I can stop borrowing my Nana's one!)

Amazing cake with caramel sauce at my friend Ed's 'Baking, Board Games and Beer Birthday'

A strange game called 'Imaginiff' (why two 'f's?!)

Overall a pretty good weekend!

Spectacular textiles and small beginnings

Last weekend I called into Thistle Hall to see an exhibition. I love Thistle Hall. Not only did it provide us with a cheap rehearsal space for Tea for Toot, every week there is a new exhibition in the street-level hall part. Last week the exhibition was of hand printed fabrics by Massey University textile design students. There were lots of strong linear designs (which makes me sound like I know what I'm talking about and I don't) and fun patterns and colours. Unfortunately there wasn't a cushion made out of my favourite fabric so I left empty handed, probably a good thing for my savings though!


On Tuesday night I started my socks. I only had to rip the beginnings out once, one row in, before I got it right. It's going to be slow going though so I will try not to post photos of them every 5 minutes because no doubt that will be very boring!

I'm taking tomorrow off work and going to the Wairarapa to see my family and my friend Hayley and go to my cousin's 5th birthday party on Saturday. Then I'm coming back early Sunday for something very exciting - I finally get to meet Nikki in person! It's slightly weird feeling like you know someone via the blogging world without actually having met them in person. But I can show her the start of my socks and I'm sure it will be fine!

Mad skills and Shakespeare thrills

Last night at Monday night Knitting Circle I successfully mastered a new and amazing technique: knitting in the round on two circular needles. The pattern I'm going to use for my first ever socks calls for this technique and while many people told me to just knit them on DPNs, I wanted to at least try learning this method first because I like to follow the instructions as much as possible in the hope that doing so will help eliminate possible errors. Incidentally, these socks are called 'The Happiness Socks' and to me may also become known as 'The Break Up Socks', because by the time I finish these babies I hope to feel much much better than I do at the moment!

So, because Anita used this method for her first hand warmer I emailed her all the way over in the land of Eng, asking if she learned how to do it on the internet. Of course she did! She sent me the link to this video tutorial. Because I was going to start these at Monday night Knitting Circle and wouldn't be able to sit in front of a computer at the time, I also found two written tutorials and printed them out, these can be found here and here. But, naturally, what did I do? Forgot to take my pattern and the written tutorials with me to Monday night Knitting Circle. So I had to rely on my memory and, in part, it didn't let me down!

Sorry, the photos are terrible, I was sitting in bad lighting

I managed to remember what I'd seen and read in the tutorials and only had to rip it out once before I got it right! It's actually very very simple. What wasn't so simple was remembering how many stitches to cast on. I thought it was 30. It soon became apparent that that would be the number of stitches you'd need to cast on if knitting socks for a tiny child. But I carried on anyway to keep practicing and then when I got home I checked the pattern and it's 60. I must have been thinking of the number of stitches you divide between each circular needle once you've cast the 60 on. Anyway, it was good practice and while knitting I continued to amuse myself with the thought that it could look to an outsider like I was knitting a condom. I don't know why I thought that but I did.

So tonight, I'm going to rip my tiny child socks/condom out (bad word combo right there) and start my REAL socks. Even though double what I was knitting last night still doesn't seem like it would be big enough to fit me, the pattern says the socks are 'ladies medium' so I will have faith that 'medium' in the country this pattern was written doesn't actually mean 'midget'. And I need to knit the first one and a half inches in rib so that will surely make them bigger as well?

Also, as I left my house to go to knitting I checked the mailbox and found this:


A postcard from Anita that she got at Shakespeare's Globe. Apparently she went to 'the most bloody production of Macbeth ever!' on my birthday in which 'Macbeth was a babe'. Alex, Anita, and I all went to Shakespeare's Globe together back in the good old days of 2005 as part of the Shakespeare Globe Centre New Zealand's Young Shakespeare Company. It was pretty cool to say the least, I can't wait to go back there one day - and not just because the actors in the Shakespeare's Globe productions tend to be of the good looking as well as talented variety.

And now, I have a date with some socks!

Wellington WWKiPD wrap-up

So about 30 people braved the rain and took part in the Wellington World Wide Knit in Public Day event at Victoria St Cafe today. It was hard to get a decent photo as everyone was spread out, but here are some of the knitters:

Petra won the quiz prize draw

I made a new best friend (I think because she very quickly clicked to the fact that I was the one in charge of the giveaways...)

A doll she knitted herself. She's only 8 and she can knit faster than me. She told me it's because I need to practice more; I'll give her that. She's currently knitting scarves for everyone in her family and then she's going to start knitting them to sell for $5 each. Excellent plan.

Thanks to all our sponsors, there were lots of giveaways so over half the knitters left with some new yarn, needles, a pattern, or something equally as exciting.

Then at 3pm the treasure hunt organised by The 8th Canoe began. Teams had to walk from the Victoria St Cafe to the Southern Cross, spotting as many knitted 'pieces of 8' in the shop windows as they could. Here are a couple:

My team mate and I didn't win anything from our treasure hunt efforts, but Ellen did give me this as a consolation prize:

This can be my dream date until I find a better one!

One more sleep to go!

I got a phone call this morning from Newstalk ZB who interviewed me about the Wellington World Wide Knit in Public Day event tomorrow and there's a little paragraph about it on the Capital Day page in this weekend's edition of The Dominion Post. All signs point to it being a great afternoon!

Full details about the event in this post (and a picture of some of the yarn and other giveaways to be won).

See you there!

It's nearly time!

There are only two more sleeps to go until the Wellington World Wide Knit in Public Day event at Victoria St Cafe and this is some of the great stuff I have to give away. There's silk yarn, merino yarn, cotton yarn, mohair yarn, laceweight yarn, DK yarn, and sock yarn. There are patterns, knitting needles, DPNs, and crochet hooks. There's all natural yarn and some purely synthetic yarn. There are solid colours and multi-coloureds. The list goes on. Phew!

I really hope some people come along, have a drink, do some knitting and take some of these goodies off me... Yesterday the event was linked from 'Moata's blog idle' post on Stuff.co.nz which was fun, I don't normally read her blog but someone at work said, 'Hey Moata's blog on Stuff today talks about knitting, you might like it' and through the magic of the internet it was connected to Wellington WWKiP Day. Maybe that will encourage a couple more knitters along who might not normally know about it. The event is listed on Wotzon (I hate it when people spell things like that!), Eventfinder, Ravelry, and Facebook, but the basic details are:

When: Sunday 20th June, 1pm - 3pm
Where: Victoria St Cafe, corner Victoria and Bond Streets, Wellington
What: Bring your knitting and join us for a drink and the chance to win some fantastic yarn!

Also, a knitting treasure hunt being run by guerilla knitting collective, The 8th Canoe, will begin at 3pm from the Victoria St Cafe. It's raising money for the Wellington Women's Refuge (there's an info page here).

Ellen of the The 8th Canoe says, "The idea is you enter in teams of up to 3 (knitters, crocheters, or none of the above), with a gold coin donation per team member. This gives you the chance to compete for fabulous prizes from Minerva, Tiger Eye Beads and others to be confirmed, plus fun spot prizes."

If you're in Wellington you should definitely come along to one or both parts of the afternoon!