There has been knitting, but mostly there has been dyeing.

This lot is 3kg, there’s another kilo and a bit awaiting Pants’ reskeining magic.

He reskeins for me and I pay him 20c a skein! He’s looking for  a pay rise, but I don’t think it’s going to happen!

So far, there’s been merino sock, bamboo merino sock, worsted weight merino (LOVE this) and a bit of the old nylon merino sock. 40+ skeins, we’re getting ready for market season. If you look closely, you can see one of each of the club yarns for January. They’re in the yummy bamboo merino sock blend.

In the meantime, though, we’ve opened up a wee etsy store. The site was SUPER slow tonight, so we’ll be adding bits and peices over the coming days.

And here’s a sneak peak at some promos we’ve been working on. There are more to come:

Still plodding along on the sleeves.

Realistically, I know that wearing super chunky yarn will make me look super chunky, it was never going to be the most flattering garment, but I do think it will be warm. It’s a loose, comforting huggle of a jumper to wear in the Spiraling bunker which gets really cold.

In more exciting news, we have a BIG action day planned for tomorrow. I’m going to dye a ton of yarn and pants is going to make a bunch of fun stitch markers for our sock and lace club friends.

We’re still working on the online shop, but in the meantime we have plans to list a few things on etsy.

See what I did there? I knit more than four inches of sleeves before I bothered to try them on and discover that THEY WERE TOO BIG!?!

Very frustrating.

We watched a few episodes of Leyland Brothers yesterday, and I knit until I ran out of yarn.

Five balls of gianna down and I’m up to the sleeve decreases. I’m going to have to try it on again, but I think I want one more repeat before I join the sleeves, I hate short jumpers.

I admitted this on Over the Fence the other day, it felt good so I’m going to admit it here, too.

Until this week, there were 150 balls of South West Trading Company’s Gianna in the Spiraling Bunker. I’ve since used up 8 balls, starting with three for this (if I do say so myself) freaking adorable baby cardigan / jacket.

Pants has these friends who have access to a farm down the coast where we often go dirt biking. It’s pretty primitive, more or less a massive tin shed with beds. It’s so cold down there in winter (it’s just North of Goulburn) that we pitch our wee tent outside near the fire because it’s warmer than in the shed.

Clearly, it’s no place for a newborn. These friends are due to have a wee girl in eight weeks, so naturally I had to make them the bulkiest baby garment I could think of, to give to them along with a card saying it’s for the wee one to wear down the farm.

Knit in three balls of Gianna, on 7mm /10.75US needles, to a pattern I just made up as I went along. It probably took three hours of tv knitting, and I just have to weave in the underarms. I predict that I will be doing that as we drive to the hospital to visit the bub in 8 weeks.

That was going to be my upper body garment for the month, but it had worked out pretty well, so I cast on Simply Marilyn for me out of the same yarn.

I was getting about 11 stitches  per four inches (gauge is supposed to be 12), so I cast on the medium size, expecting to get  about 2 1/2 inches of positive ease.  I knit merrily away for a few hours, and was about to join the fourth ball when the niggling feeling that it was going to be too big became a screaming voice, so I tried it on.

Eight inches of positive ease is probably too much, right? Even for a jumper that’s destined to be worn in the bunker while I work.

So I ripped it out and reballed the yarn, then cast on the smallest size.

Two episodes of Long Way Down later (I find that knitting helps me to ignore how douchey Charley is and concentrate on how dreamy Ewan is) I’d knit two balls (about 4 inches) in the new size and was trying really hard to not think about how I’d have six balls knit if I’d just chosen the right size to begin with.

In the end, I got jack of the horrid yarn and cast off the shawl with 12 repeats (up from the prescribed 8). I came home from our neighbourfriend’s NYE party, ostensibly to have a wee nap, but really to work on my shawl. I wanted it off the needles for the new year.

As of right now, it’s sitting in a heap beside the computer, awaiting blocking, which should magically turn it into the wondershawloflove. That’s the plan, anyway.

The new year was rung in, we walked back across the street and up the stairs with corona buckets on our heads, so I’m calling 2008 a resounding success.

I’ve never really been one for making New Years resolutions, but I figure it’s time to start. So, this year, I intend to make 12 pairs of socks, 12 lacy things (shawls, scarves, cowls, etc) and 12 upper body garments (cardigans, jumpers, shrugs, capelets, vests, etc). In theory, one of each per month, but we’ll see how it goes. I’d love to end the year with 36 finished items.

To be quite frank, I don’t wear my hand knit socks all that often, I like wearing them, but my handwashing tends to languish in the bottom of the laundry pile, so I’m hoping to get some gift socks knit this year.