Blogtober Day 31: Halloween

I'm not a fan of Halloween.  Never really have been, but it was made that much worse two years ago because it was on 31st Oct that Jess had her MACE procedure.  So now we have been doing washouts for two years.  Halloween just reminds me of this.

Blogtober Day 30: Almost there

OK, so I've missed a few days, but always made up for it, but I am proud as punch that I finished off Blogtober (nearly).  I'm not really into sticking to things, so this is pretty big for me.

Blogtober Day 29: Oh, and another Ivyanna

Oh yeah, I did finish off this summery yellow Ivyanna the other day, despite the funk.  Cute little bee buttons and all.

The pattern was pretty much done I thought - then last night I decided to grade it for baby sizes.  I had a look at it and couldn't remember why I couldn't be bothered adding in 3 extra sizes, especially now that there's an aline option and not as full across the bodice in the gathered option.

Blogtober Day 28: CBB

Can't Be Bothered.

Missed yesterday because I am in a funk right now.

I have two patterns in testing, and testing two other patterns for Tikki, and I can't be bothered replying to questions about any of them at the moment.

I dragged myself to playgroup yesterday only because it was Monica's birthday, and I had a pressie for her, and wanted to wish her happy birthday (because she's great).  But apart from that I don't want to leave the house.

I am going to gym today for an assessment - it's taking all my strength not to cancel.  Last thing I want is some taut gym junkie measuring me and setting a pathetic program for me.  I know I have to do it, just don't want to today.  Then I am heading to Irene's place for some yarn porn.  So I'm forcing myself to go out today hoping to leave the funk behind.

Don't like my chances.

So, if you happen to be one of these pattern testing type people, bear with me, I'm just in a funk and will get back to you soon.  Promise.

Blogtober Day 27: Facebook

I'm not a fan of that facebook place.  I've dipped my toe in over the past couple of days, and you know what, I'm pretty sure I still don't like it.  Even though it seems like a good place to keep up to date with people's lives - I just get the irrits by it.

But I'm all set up there.  I'll see how I go with it.  It will probably remain untouched for months now lol.

Blogtober Day 26: Out of the Dyepot

I dyed up some yarn yesterday for my friend Pip (yet another gorgeous soul!).  These are both on Woolganics yarn - the very best handwash yarn on the planet. Seriously, the absolute best!

This blue toned colourway is named 'Kyle' and this lot is on the 8ply Woolganics.

The pink one here is named 'Kyla' funnily enough!  This is on the 12ply Woolganics.  Just. So. Squishy!

Blogtober Day 25: Yet Another

And yet another FO of my new IvyAnna pattern off the needles.  This one has an a-line shaping to the skirt, which replaces the side gathers of the blue one from the other day, I just wasn't happy with that at all.

Size 4 IvyAnna A-line in Dashing Dachs Sugar Treat

This is in Dashing Dachs Stallion in Sugar Treat colourway.  Really hard to get yarn this one.  And quite a delight to knit with.  I have some other colourways coming from a co-op soon.  That will be exciting.

I also did my favourite hem option again.  Loving this so much!  Looks like crochet without having to stoop to that.

The cute little buttons are Tessa Ann buttons which were gifted to me from another very special lady I know Fi (Pandamum on Rav and other places).  She's another very gorgeous, generous soul I am fortunate enough to know.  I am yet to meet her in real life, even though I was supposed to a few times, and cannot wait until the day we finally meet.

Blogtober Day 24: Pool fun!

We went to some friend's place today for a BBQ and a swim.  Love the coming warm weather after a cold winter......

Blogtober Day 23: Beaching it

We took off to the best dog beach ever this morning. I was set up with knitting and a camp chair under an umbrella, not obliged to mingle with horrible things like sun and sand. I love swimming in a big surf like at the Gold Coast, but hate sand. So I prefer not to go to the beach.

I was born in the Gold Coast, and as a child travelled from Brisbane back down every Sunday for Junior Surf Life Savers (Nippers) - which I totally rocked at mind you! I was always first in the swim, board and iron man.......and always dead last in the run and flags! Water = good. Sand = very bad. I remember the days of old which have set me up with a fair certainty that I will suffer from skin cancer at some point in my life. These were the days we were told to put on sunscreen, so we put a line of zinc across our noses and thought we were right.

Anyway, I digress. Today we took the dogs to the beach and it was most eventful.

1. We learned that we can not take our dogs to the beach. This dog beach is awesome! It's Leighton Beach at Cottesloe/Fremantle, and there are dozens and dozens of doggies running around off lead, jumping, playing, swimming, chasing........and then our dogs not wanting to go near the water, and one of them being very vicious with every other dog.

2. For the first time ever after spending a large proportion of my life on beaches at the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Burrum Heads, I saw a woman strip nekkid, go for a swim and get dressed again on the beach. Thing is, she honestly did it in such a non-event way that it wasn't even a spectacle. Nothing rude about it at all. The only thrill was that you really don't see that very often, so more of the curiosity of 'wow look at what she did' rather than 'wow look at the nekkid lady'.

3. For the second time I've ever experienced, there was a shark alert. The life guards drove down the beach waving everyone out of the water, there were helicopters, rubber duckies, boats, the whole shebang. About a month ago a surfer was killed by a shark in the Perth waters, so it makes it quite real. Apparently today there was a 5 meter white pointer shark circling the waters just off shore from where we were. I'm pretty sure the urban myth (or could be urban fact for all I know) is that dogs attract sharks, so we could have had a bit of a target on our heads I suppose. It was weird, because I'm so used to the Queensland Coast having shark nets to keep sharks away from the swimming areas, I didn't even think about sharks being able to get close. The only other time I have experienced a shark alert was one year as a Nipper one got through the shark net and the rubber duckie came panic stricken trying to pluck all the Nippers out of the water. That was kinda fun as a 10 year old - would scare the crappers out of me now I think.

Anyway, that was our day at the beach. We all got a little sunburnt in places - funny to see where the sunscreen missed skin in small patches. And everyone is dog tired, but sleeping fitfully after all the sun exposure. It was a lovely family day.

Blogtober Day 22: And Another

whoops, missed a day.

Here is another finished project from my pattern in development, IvyAnna.

The little heart is from an embellishment chart by my very good friend Tanja from Watermellish. Tanja is yet another of those very special people I am fortunate enough to have gotten to know. Such an amazing nature and beauty of spirit. I first 'met' her on Nappycino a few years ago, but only really got more friendly with her over the past 18 months or so. I was so terribly nervous on the one occasion I have met her IRL thus far that I didn't really make the most of it, but I plan on spending more time with her at some point in the future and can be done with that nervousness next time.

And she is so very talented too. I love her art. I would get her sketches up on my walls if I could. Head over to her website and have a look at her charts, they add that little 'zing' to any knitwear I think.

Blogtober Day 21: The other yoke

From the picture of my WIP for the new pattern I'm working on IvyAnna - this is what I finished off from the too small yoke in the background.

I'm not sure if this option will make it in to the final pattern however.

This is also my current favourite hem option. I will be putting the instructions into the pattern.

Blogtober Day 20: No More Yarn

OK, I was talking to hubby about the weighty issues I am facing and he suggested (nicely) that perhaps one of the reasons things are getting way out of control is that I have chosen a hobby which pretty much renders me inactive for most of my time. Alrighty, I know that many people knit without being fat, or sloth-like, but I happen to be one of those over-obsessive types who does things to the limits of how they can possibly be done. I have a very addictive personality.

So we thought putting down the needles for a month - except when watching tele at night - might make a difference. But my immediate brain response to that was to think of all the pretty yarns I want to knit up because they are sitting there looking at me, expecting to be knit.

Which leads to the absolute yarn ban. I've said it before, I know. I really really have to do it this time. For my psychological wellbeing. And my health it turns out.

Of course I get to this point and wonder if perhaps I should sell the yarn babies off. But geez, that would be physically painful I think.

I wonder if I could free myself of the knitting obsession? I wonder if I should or not. I have said before that I don't think I have anything else to turn to. But maybe that's the point? Give knitting a rest so that I can cultivate other interests which don't make me so inner focused.

Maybe I could become a gym junkie. (yes I giggled out loud as I typed that)

I certainly could make a stack of money if I sold off the yarn babies. But what would I buy with it if I weren't buying yarn????

Blogtober Day 19: Fat

In the beginning of 2008, my very good friend, the gorgeously amazing Lucy started her weight loss journey. I had decided to start it with her. I was breastfeeding at the time, which was my excuse of the moment as to why it did not stick. Now, over 2.5 years later, I am wondering what good excuse I could use for the time since when I was no longer breastfeeding.

Don't get me wrong, I have an excellent excuse for each and every day. Either a medical or mental one. Physical or Psychological. I can use either, any day, to excuse myself from getting on with my life.

But last night I was brushing my teeth before bed when I saw myself in the mirror as another person. Do you do that? Occasionally I see myself in a different light to the millions of times I see just what I look like to me, and see what I *really* look like.

I did not like it.

I hated it.

I am a fatty.

And that is not my true self.

Thing is, I block myself from doing anything about it. I intellectually know the right thing to do, I know all the science of it. Hell, I even know intellectually the psychological process by which I stay fat - reasons why, methods of doing so, reasons to change, methods to change.

But I'm still fat.

And I hate it.

I am now the heaviest I have ever been. And this includes when I was full term pregnant after an obese pre-pregnancy weight.

So I need to change. I need to get moving and grooving and start to live the rest of my life. I can no longer lament the fact that I haven't done what I wanted with the years gone by, but I can ensure that Future Shannon does not lament the passage of the years I have yet to come. I thank Past Shannon for giving up smoking once upon a time, I really want to be able to thank Past Shannon for getting healthy in a few years.

Blogtober Day 18: Acacia

I have this week finished a couple of test knits for Tikki for her new pattern Acacia. I had last year had my hands on a very early version of the pattern and did a fully gathered top for Jessalyn.

So this week I finished a different version for Jessalyn.

And I did another for Kassidy. This one was supposed to be a size 5, but I got 3/4 of the way through before realising I was knitting the size 3, then when I started on the real size 5 I realised the yarn I knitted the size 3 in was actually 4ply. In my defence, I bought it in destash thinking it was 8ply, it was unlabelled and I've not knitted with Bendy cotton before so thought it was just really really thin. The final result is beautiful for summer anyway.

Gorgeous pattern. Easy knit. Everyone needs to knit this for the little girls in their lives!

Blogtober Day 17: Lunch by the Beach

Still loving exploring our new(ish) city......

Blogtober Day 16: Yoking Around

I cracked the circular yoke. I really like the top which I ended up with. A few tweaks needed with bodice shaping and fullness, but I'm pretty certain this one will go ahead into a full pattern.

The grumpy child was not co-operating for photos this morning, hopefully a trip to the park and library with Daddy will fix that one and I can get a better shot.

Blogtober Day 15: Sick Kids

I have two of my three school aged children home from school today. Jessalyn has a gunky ear and Ziana is all moochy with swollen glands again so I'm going to take her to make sure it's nothing overly serious - she had glandular fever at some stage a long while ago and every couple of weeks she gets all swollen glands and lethargic. I thought I'd better get it checked to make sure I'm right in assuming that's what it still is.

*Ugh* kids!

Blogtober Day 14: Knitting with Cotton

There's something quite lovely about knitting with cotton. Don't get me wrong, I am a wool-o-phile to the core, I love winter knits in wool and actually am looking to the day I can up and move my family to Canada just to get more winter. Or at least back to Melbourne.

But cotton has its own joys. It's soft and light and cool to the touch, although can be a bit rougher on hands, dries them out and can create rub marks. It has different properties to wool, doesn't have the same memory for ribbing, tends to stretch and stay stretched. However, it also is more tolerant to the rough treatment me and my family give to our knits.

I am a shocking homemaker and tend to machine wash and tumble dry almost everything. This has more than once or twice been the cause of tears when I find a teeny tiny felted item from some delicate wool. I have even managed to make many a superwash wool more than slightly felty.

Cotton is much hardier however, I find it actually benefits from a good tumble dry, it pulls the fibres back into shape much better than blocking can. I am NOT recommending anyone else treat their handknits this way - it's just playing with fire - but it makes my life easier.

I knitted this Eden's Eve (by tikki) dress for Kassidy last week:

But, being the first cotton knit of the season, I forgot Shannon's Laundry Rule #1 - always allow for shrinking in the dryer - so I now have to rip back the hem and knit on another couple of inches as it looks a little like a mid-thigh minidress now. At least cotton only really shrinks in length not width.

I don't mind, and it was a good reminder for the coming months.

Blogtober Day 13: Designing

I usually love designing. But of late I've had lots and lots of ideas which incorporate different or unusual techniques, either ones which I've never used much personally, or ones which are kinda new in general. As a result all my designs are in the naughty corner after many froggings.

So I've been in a bit of a funk.

Today I picked back up one of those naughty designs to have another go at it. The problem is that it's a circular yoke design which I am not fluent in - I've only knitted I think one or two patterns which featured a circular yoke, and I didn't actually pay attention to them, I was just knitting the pattern as written. Also, I left most of my knitting reference books back in Brisbane when we moved over so can't do much reading on the matter.

So this has been knitted and frogged so many times, even the cotton is getting frayed and yucky. Good thing it wasn't in organic merino or something lol.

But I think I've cracked it today. Not too sure if it's 'right' as far as knitting rules go, but it's working how I want it to, and rules don't generally bother me as long as the end result is right lol.

I have the shape correct, just gotta get my sizing right now. The one I did for Kassidy is too small (that's it in the background on waste yarn), so I had to rethink the sizing.

Blogtober Day 12: Cookering

I've been a stay at home Mummy for 12 years now, but never been one of those cooking with the kids types. But I will continue to try to improve myself until the day I die, so nothing is out of the question.

Today, spurred on by the sheer amount of snack foods my children go through, I cooked some Anzac Biscuits with Kassidy. Wasn't as frustrating as it is with more than one child helping, I might actually do it again.

Yes, she insists on sitting on the bench to cook. Yes, the best part is licking the utensils afterward.

p.s. I had to laugh yesterday when I noticed that my 11 posts for Blogtober was exactly half of my entire posts for the year! Funny stuff.

Blogtober Day 11: Ouchies

I put my back out yesterday.

It hurts.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Blogtober Day 10: tikki

You know in life you come across some amazing people, this post is dedicated to one such person in my life. Tikki.

I had been mopping the floor thinking about my day 10 post and decided on a post about her, then went and read her day 9 post in which she calls me crazy and has some consipiring thoughts about making me knit ugly things......the cheek! So we shall see if I am as nice as I was going to be as I watched the dirt clean off the tiles......

This lady is amazing. I am in awe of her nature and am very grateful to have been able to make her acquaintance. Tikki patterns are quite famous the world over, totally adored by us Aussies, the Kiwi girls and the Americans are coming to love her as much as we do by the feels of things lately too. Her Rainbow Dress pattern, I personally think, started a new wave of knitwear design for children's clothing. She seemed to me to be the frontrunner of simple yet elegant designs which flatter the child and are easy for Mum to knit.

I have been very fortunate to be on the testing team for most of her designs, and have knitted many more of them - there's a few I have yet to do, but I'll get there.

She also does the most amazing sewing I've ever seen too. We own just one pair of tikki denim pants, and I have this tendency to turn them inside out and show everyone I know the workmanship of them. They are simply stunning in form and workmanship.

The designs are one thing, but the person behind the designs is an even more amazing thing! This woman is just such a treasure. I have been blessed to be able to spend time in real life with her, and I hope to do so in the future again. She is kind and generous, and one of the most thoughtfully level headed people I have come across. And fair! Such a sense of natural justice comes from her. And she's hilariously funny too, in a very smart, clever way. Of course, you gotta love that she's a nerdling too, especially when it comes to grammar.

[warning: blatant idol worship ahead]

And she's cool too! She is sooooo trendy, she lives in the cutest house in the most gorgeous suburb with the nicest things around her, lives a close to organic lifestyle and she drinks Chai Tea lol. She has the most amazing fabric and yarn stash too. Her family is just gorgeous, her kids are adorable and she's such an attentive nurturing mother to them. As a result they are gorgeously behaved. I've not met the man of the house as yet, but I just bet he's hunky and smart and funny - I can just imagine!

Anyway, one very special woman there. I hope that she's one of those people who stick around in my life for a long long time. *mwa* love you Tik!

Blogtober Day 9: Adult Time

My husband and I went out together alone last night. We have some lovely friends who looked after all four girls and we went out to the casino for dinner and a flutter.

I cannot remember when or even if we've been out sans kids before this.

We were just about to bottom out the end of our flutter money - well we had $80 left of our $400 we started with - when I got lucky on my pokie machine and pulled out $380 out of it. So much fun!

So we would have come out $60 up after dinner and drinks and gambling but as I was cashing in my wins hubby decided to play a bit of poker with the remaining $80 he had.

Needless to say we walked away with my wins only. Still not bad $20 for a night out!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Blogtober Day 8: Dyeing up some pretties

All three of these sets of beauties are going to a friend of mine, Karla.

Technically I only custom dyed two sets for her (the top two) - but she saw the third one and wanted it too and made grabby hands at it so she's getting it. She's a wee bit of an addict. I love her to bits! Karla makes the most amazing stitch markers and dyes a mean skein of yarn herself, I'm pretty sure one day she'll be selling knitteds too as her work there is amazing also.

Isn't it fantastic when you find friendship with somebody who lifts your spirits? I have been very blessed to find many such people in my life, mainly through online friendships, and Karla is one of these people. She makes me laugh. A lot! I can generally expect to have a smile on my face after every exchange we have. But she also understands the more serious things aswell. She is kind and generous, giving and understanding. I would love to live close to her, and am jealous of the ladies who get to call her a real life friend. *mwa* Karla, you are a rocking chick and I am thankful to have you in my life.

Blogtober Day 7: My kids

I have 4 children. All girls. And it is amazing just how the same parents and homelife can create 4 individual personalities so different to each other.

Ziana: My firstborn, my big kid. She's almost 12 now, and starting highschool next year, makes me feel a wee bit old. This person is amazing. She has a brain unlike any other. She is brilliant academically with a flair for maths and science like you wouldn't believe. She is also disorganised, scatterbrained, obsessive and naive. She doesn't really get along with her peers, but can interact so well with adults, she doesn't understand the social stuff at all. She does try though, once she did a poll of her class about 'What makes someone cool and popular' - broke my heart to hear that I tell you. She writes songs, writes the most amazing stories and can draw manga like a professional artist (in Mummy's opinion).

She has gotten into this super amazing gifted program they run here in WA which hopefully will see her achieve the best of her. Unfortunately she's had a bit of a rough start to schooling. Skipping grades, dropping back to peer grade, changing schools (she's on her 5th change already), social awkwardness and a diagnosis of Aspergers all have given her a bit of a rough trot. So I am hoping this GATE program she is in will be the stabilising factor for her and she can achieve what she has the potential to do.

At the moment she has an obsession with Bunnies, and is slowly working me down to get one of her own. She's very hard to say no to.

Brielle: This gorgeous little girl just turned 10 this year. She takes an amazing photo and I am truly scared of the boys in a few years. She is athletic and does gymnastics. All of a sudden since we've moved over here to Perth, she's taken on a new strength with the gymnastics and can do walkovers, back bends, kick overs, roundoffs, and whole heap of stuff I don't know the name of. I think it's because she's not been to classes since May, she starts again next week, so she had that time off for her brain to click into a new level.

She is friendly and likeable, but does seem to have a few issues with bossiness and temper. She has a bit of a social roundabout as a result. But she is a girlie girl through and through. She isn't the most academic of people, but she tries hard now and I think she's going to do just fine because she has no problem working for what she wants.

Jessalyn: My miracle child. This little person has more strength than anyone I know. She has been through more medical treatments than most people see in their entire lives, but she always has a joyous light to her mood. Her list of conditions are as follows: Biliary Atresia, Anterior Meningocele (a form of spina bifida), Tethered Spinal Cord, Anorectal Malformation, Sacral Agenesis and Duanes' Syndrome. She had her first operation before she was 7 weeks old which was a Kasai Procedure for the Biliary Atresia to literally save her life, without it she would have died by about 1 year old or needed a liver transplant. She's been hospitalised for a week at a time over a dozen times since for liver infections and other operations, including a PSARP and a MACE procedure. Despite all these conditions working against her she is almost a perfectly normal 5 year old little girl. She does have bowel washouts through her MACE every second day, but her liver is healthy for a BA child and her spine seems to work just fine for mobility.

But she is bright and sunny which is something I never thought would happen back in the dark days of holding down my screaming infant while the doctors pierce their 40th hole in her skin for that day trying to get a vein, or seeing her cut up with tubes everywhere drugged out on morphine after her Kasai.

I love this child more than my own life. She is my light and my fire. I would do anything for her and would move the heavens if she needed it. She is brilliant and funny and I don't think I could exist without her.

Kassidy: The baby. OK, so the baby is over 3 years old now and starts kindy next year, but she will always be my baby (I assume). She is totally addicted to me, has to have her hand on me most of the time, and still sleeps in my bed most of the time. I have been putting her to bed in her own bed for the past 2 months, but she bounces into my arms by about 10:30 every night.

This child has such a strong personality she is going to be something very powerful when she grows up. I've never come across such a strong willed infant when she was a baby, and now she still manages to get her way all the time (of course her parents are pushovers....). She is very tactile, even as a wee bub she would stroke my eyebrows and eyelashes to do to sleep, and now she still rubs up and down my arm. If she can't reach she goes into a bit of a panic about it until she finds something tactile to rub.

She's started growing up now, and doing very big girl things. She has a bit of a lisp which is just about the cutest thing I've ever seen. I'll most likely regret saying that in a few years I'm sure.

So, that's my girls. I am so happy to have been blessed with each of them. Although that's not always the sentiment which comes across in times of stress ;-).

Blogtober Day 6: Term Time

This week I finished a TestKnit for Kelly Herdrich for her latest pattern Term Time which has now been released and is available on Ravelry. Very cute pattern and whips up super quickly due to the super bulky weight yarn it uses.

Blogtober Day 5: Sirens Eye

I have a very specific taste in music.  I 'like' quite a bit if it has nice tones and harmonies to the tune, but I rarely 'love' a lot.  The stuff that I have on my steady playlist has been there forever and not much comes in to it and sticks.

On my current playlist I have Muse - pretty much all of it, except most of Hullabaloo which gets a bit screachy in places.  I prefer the mid-earlier stuff - Showbiz and Absolution are about the best for me, followed very closely by Black Holes and Revelations.  Black Holes and Revelations was good, like awesomely good, but signalled a bit of a turn toward a bit more commercialism I feel.  And I cannot stand listening to Supermassive Black Hole anymore, so that drags it down a bit.  The Resistance is also awesomely good, feels like a new kind of Muse - which is still great.  It's kinda like watching the first 2 seasons of Red Dwarf and seasons 5&6 - they are both great in their own right, but have completely different feels to them.

We're likely to be going to their concert in December, that will be pretty awesome.

Also on my playlist is The Living End.  This is a superb Aussie band I took a liking to back in the early days of my adulthood.  Any alternarockpunk rocking Aussie band who can pull off having a double bass in the lineup is fine by me!  I stopped listening to music almost completely during the childrearing years (too much Wiggles and Hi-5 playing to get any airtime for my stuff), as a result had about 6 albums to catch up on with them when I rediscovered them last year.  But they are pretty much all fabulous.  White Noise is awesome.

So, I'm always trying to find that perfect sound to add to my core playlist.  It's not easy I tell you.  Just a slightly droning voice can put me off.

Then the other day I stumbled upon another band I really like.  Sirens Eye.  I can't even remember the exact route I took to find them, but it had something to do with the lead singer who is also an actor.  I think I played one of their songs on YouTube and was a little interested, so bought their EP and was hooked.

Unfortunately for me, they only have the one EP out - with only 5 songs.  Bugger.  I'm thinking they could be a little more considerate to me and release a full CD.

Because, as we all know, it's all about me.

Sucks to finally find someone else to add to the playlist and have such a limited amount of songs.  I feel like chucking a tanty.


Shan xx

Blogtober Day 4: Family Time

Yesterday we went for a gorgeous day trip down the coast to discover Bunbury.  We stopped at this little beach at Rockingham first, which was just divine and serene.

We had a delicious Tapas lunch selection at Bunbury which was just perfect - the marinated octopus was to die for!

Oh, and I super duper love my camera!  Thanks to Corey for getting it for my birthday last year!

Blogtober Day 3 (catchup): store ponderings

I have been back and forth with having a WAHMummy store.  I get very turned about with whether or not to keep on doing it.  Which is why I start it up, then stop, start again and stop again......the show goes on and on.

I have recently decided to go in with a friend, but now I have some things for sale, and of course they aren't selling so I get disheartened a wee bit.  I wonder why I keep mixing things up in my head all the time?  I do get mixed messages all the time as I get told outwardly to go for it, my stuff is great, but it never sells.  Like never.

So then I flip-flop on whether to continue.  I am an awfully unstable type - which has been to my detriment a number of times in friendships and ventures.  Probably will be again I suppose.

Don't know whether to keep going or stop again......

Anyway, ponderings ponderings.........

Blogtober Day 2 (catchup)

I haven't yet shared my latest two pattern releases on this blog I don't think.  A while back I released Versa [Rav link] - which is a 10ply and 12ply pattern which comes in vest, babydoll, dress and tunic versions.  I'm loving it so far, but it's now come into summer weather so I won't be knitting many more of them any time soon.

 

And just this past week I released breezy which is a lightweight singlet top.

Late Start to Blogtober! - Day 1 post

I need to catch up!  I missed the start of Blogtober.  I blame the children being on school holidays.  My brain kinda goes to mush when that happens.

So, here's post number 1 - Let's see if there's a photo I took on the 1st.....

Ah, yes, let's see......here's some yarn I dyed on the 1st.....

The top one is on BFL and the bottom on WOOLganics 10ply.