Test Knitters Needed

I've already posted about this on the Ravelry Testing Pool Group, and now it's time to read about it here....

If you are trustworthy, honest and know that you'll finish this blanket in 2 months, then feel free to leave a comment (no time wasters please!):

Information-
The lap blanket measures 38.5 x 45 inches.
This pattern would be a bit of a challenge for a beginner knitter, but an experienced knitter wouldn’t have many problems.
You’ll be using cables, seed stitch (or moss stitch) and easy - moderate lace stitches.

The pattern is in both written and chart form, so I’d like 2 or 3 people for the written pattern and 2 or 3 people for the charted pattern.

What you’ll need:
-Approx. 650g of any DK (8ply for you Aussie's) yarn and gauge should be 20 sts & 24 rows in st st.
-1 x 5.5mm (US9), 80cm circular needle.
-4 stitch markers.
-1 cable needle.

Important Note:
Make sure you actually do have the yarn weight that I'm asking for and the gauge really does need to be 20 sts & 24 rows in st st with 5.5mm.
I'm not interested in knitters that have thicker or thinner yarns - please.

What you’ll get for kindly helping me:
A nice lap blanket pattern. :)

If you do not leave your full name, blog url (or at lease your Ravelry page addy) and email addy, I won't be replying you for obvious reasons. Too many fools, scammers and spammers out there that have nothing better to do but waste peoples time. Please fools, don't even bother.

Boy, do I feel like a dummy.

All along I was thinking that nobody loves me and never reads my blog anymore!

Explanation:
I clicked on some button somewhere a couple of months back and thought I was going to get my comments emailed to me before they were posted. I did this because I was getting horrid spam.

Today I found out that there were about 50+ comments to be moderated and posted. Wow. About 40 comments were spam!! So I've approved all the comments from my lovely readers and I apologize - I was not ignoring you.

I won't say hot off the needles, but rather a few weeks off the needles. My lovely Lap Blankie, for those cool nights in front of the TV of course!









For those of you who are a little on the clueless side with a computer just like me these days, click on a photo to enlarge it so you can see the prettiness of the lace.

I used about 650g of a (discontinued) yarn from who knows where called 'Clan Stewart 8 ply Crepe', 100% pure new wool. I had found a whopping 1000g of it for a mere $10 at the op shop months ago and it was clearly a little too rough for a sweater, but it's perfect for the blanket. To my surprise it softened up somewhat after blocking.

I used 5mm needles but I have to say, working with big needles is not something I aspire too, but I think this was worth the cramps in my right hand. I'm well pleased with the results.

Maybe somebody out there can tell me where this yarn originated, just out of curiosity?

Are you trustworthy enough?

I've been away for so long, but it only shows I've been busy, not to mention a little fatigued and tired- mentally and physically. Well after all, they do go hand it hand don't they? I've never been an energetic person so it takes me twice as long to do certain things including knitting and housework. I envy people that can get up extra early and also be bubbly and happy! I'm clearly not a morning person... grumble, grumble.

I will come straight to the point - I've been having these horrid thoughts about closing my blog. Why you ask in shock? Maybe it's because it feels like nobody visits. Yes, I know people probably don't because I hardly blog these days - people want up-to-date news for sure. Or maybe it's the fact that I find it a chore to think up things to share with you. Yes, I know it's a blog and that's what it's for. The fact is that it's a little of both.

In the ways of knitting, I don't post about it much anymore because everything is a secret project for Australia's Yarn Magazine or for me to sell in the very near future. Yes, that's something I've been striving for - selling my own patterns! Isn't that thrilling? (I say that with a little sarcasm because everybody is doing it these days.)

Maybe now that you know this exciting news, you'll visit more? I guess it all depends if my designs are capable of being good enough to sell. Oh and that's a fear I have - my designs not being good enough and a bigger fear of the patterns being full of mistakes! Yes, there are testers out there, but I'm unable to pay anybody.

Yep, there are testers out there that are willing to do it for nothing which is great, but what about those people that receive the pattern then start it and don't finish it, or the ones that don't ever start it, or the ones that steal your ideas?? How do you know who's trustworthy and who is not? I do know a couple of people that are honest and have tested for me in the past, but I can't keep asking the same two people over and over again, that's hardly fair on them.

I know I'm being overly-cautions, sensitive and a great big chook but I can't help it. I've read of designers that have had to go through the above struggles so it makes me think twice, even though my own experience was 98% positive. Aahh that one person that did not finish, maybe did not even start the project at all - shame on you.

So this is where YOU lovely people come into this story. If you think you are a completely TRUST WORTHY pattern tester that doesn't mind not being paid and will follow through with the knitting.. then drop me a line, introduce yourself and maybe show me some things you've test knitted for others, but that's not completely necessary if you cannot. Also, tell me what you're interested in knitting so I can keep some kind of list handy of what your likes / dislikes are.
Got references? Even better, and I'd probably choose you over somebody that doesn't.

I await your messages, beautiful test knitters!

1 crochet hook, 1 ladder and some booze.

Slightly better photo of my much loved sweater. I dare not wear jewelry that catches - I've had to take out my trusty tiny crochet hook twice to fix a snag or two!



Craig has been placing insulation in the roof for the past few months. It's that stuff called Air-cell and it works by reflecting the heat away from the house, sort of thing.
To get up in the roof one needs a ladder, right? But what does one do when their husband leaves the ladder in the middle of a small corridor that leads to bedroom, toilet and bathroom? It's easier for him to leave the ladder there, rather than take it outside every weekend. It's driving me crazy. Thankfully (he says) he'll only have to go up there one more time just to finish up. I pray he's right.

My enemy - the ladder.



And one more thing...
Lemon Cello!
hehehehehe!



I guess you wouldn't understand it if you didn't know your booze.

Quick, before it's too late!

Heyall'...

My sister Rita is having a two for one pattern sale until the 6th of September.
Go take advantage of this great offer NOW!

Remember I told you about meeting up with my good friend Treacy last Thursday - the one that made 'Molly' the gorgeous bear for me? Or was it the Thursday before that?? Gosh - I'm loosing track.... If you've forgotten, see my previous post.

Well, this is Treacy and I'm sure she's going to hate me for posting the photo I took of her that day. Sorry Treacy! (I'm not really - hehe)



Op Shop Bargains 101
No, I didn't make the sweater below. I found it for $2 at the second hand store as they were having a 50% off day.

What you need to remember when op shopping is this:
1. Look at the garment THOROUGHLY. Does it look old and used? Then put it back on the rack.
2. Any snags? Pulled threads? Unsightly pilling? There is?? Then put it back on the rack.
3. Does it smell just awful? Do you think the smell will wash out? If not, then put it back on the rack.

If you find that all of the above don't apply to what you've found - then go for it because you are one of the lucky ones that found a true bargain!

I LOVE this thing...

Monday Blues

It's cold, it's gloomy and it's depressing. We long for Winter in the Summer and long for Summer in the Winter. When is it Spring already??

Photos from my birthday last weekend...

My niece Rebecca trying to knit her first scarf.


Craig, Rebecca's fiance Fred and my father.


Fred's shoes - I hate those things!!


Rebecca with my mother.


Me blowing out the candle. Yes one, because 40-something candles would have overloaded the poor little black forest cake.



Cake and champagne - always a delight!



Beautiful flowers from Rebecca and Fred.


I had the pleasure of catching up with my buddie Treacy on Thursday.
We met at Gloria Jeans Coffee at the Karrinyup Shops, chatted mostly about knitting over a lovely cappuccino and then went for a stroll and scored a free Sheseido mascara and a perfume sample of Hugo Boss for Women. Not only did we score these fun things, but she gifted me one of her famous knitted bears. It was touching when she handed it over to me - I was taken back by this lovely gesture!


Simple adorable, don't you think? The beautiful embroidery was done by her mother. I've named her Molly.

Speaking of....

I'm now 40-something and one day older. We had a lovely time at mum and dads house last night, the food was enjoyable, the cake was yummy and I couldn't get enough champagne. Rebecca and Fred gifted me a cute bunch of flowers, which was lovely of them. Photos of last night coming soon.

I taught Rebecca to knit a couple of weeks ago, all the basic stitches PLUS how to cable PLUS how to do a simple k2tog, yo lace and now she's attempting to make a lace scarf with what I taught her - how adorable. She's now hooked which doesn't surprise me at all.

Speaking of hooked, she also wants to learn crochet, but I'll only be able to show her the basic stitches. She'll just have to wait until my sister Rita returns to Australia (with her son Fabio) from Italy, as she is the 'Crochet Queen'!

Speaking of Rita and Fabio, many thanks to both of you for the birthday wishes!
Finding one from Fabio was just priceless - it was the hugest surprise!

Speaking of wishes, I wish I had more time to knit these days. I did start a beanie for Craig last night though. I need uncomplicated and quick things to knits these days because if I attempt anything that involves a little thinking, I'll probably just destroy it. So before I attempt anything larger than a beanie, I shall try to get into the right frame of mind.


This is our lovely new rabbit, Dextina. We thought she was a Dexter when we first got her, but then found out he was a she, hence the name change.

Introducing Dextina:




Her humble home.


Aja is not completely thrilled about the new addition, but she's slowly getting used to the idea. She is keeping an eye on Dextina from afar.


Now it's time to get back to everyday life.... a little cleaning, a little property hunting and oh yes, we're off to see our nice tax accountant in approximately 15 minutes.

Who's birthday is it today?

You guessed it. A lady never reveals her true age, so let's just say I'm 38 years of age shall we? Yes, that does sound nice but pity it's not true. Oh so what if I'm 40-something?? I'm not ashamed, I don't REALLY look my age and everyone tells me which is great. But do I feel 40-something? I do, oh yep I do. With old age it is required you also have physical aches and pains. But my physical pain does not come even close to the mental pain I feel these days. My father was told that he isn't a good candidate for chemotherapy for his bowel cancer. Heck, now what?

Tonight we will be at my parents place, and yum-yum, we'll be having Chinese food for dinner. My niece Rebecca and her fiance Fred will also be joining us for the occasion. This will be nice for dad. He LOVES sweet and sour pork and that will be the highlight of the night for him - and not my birthday cake!

Aja news: Aja's nose has completely healed and it's like it never happened. This is how we thought it would stay:



But weeks passed and it ended up nice, clean and clear:



As nasty as this may sound, I hope she also gave that other cat a good whooping that night, just to teach them BOTH a good lesson. Do animals learn from their mistakes? I like to think they do.



My sister Rita is still making gorgeous crochet shawl patterns.. go check out
her beautiful work. And of course you can still see her work on her blog.

Life, with it's ups and downs...

Life is somewhat depressing for me at the moment. My father has bowel cancer and lung disease and it's hard for me to cope with this. I may sound and appear strong on the outside, but inside it's ripping me apart. I feel useless, helpless and angry that it's happening. Not much anybody can do about the lung disease, but he is seeing an Oncologist on Monday to talk about getting chemotherapy.

Apart from that, today we found one of our budgies not looking so great. She was on the cage floor just lying and there doing not much at all. We took her out of the cage and put her into a smaller one and she's in my room so I can keep an eye on her. She's got a nice hot water bottle in the cage and she's sleeping. Adorable, but sad at the same time. Birds are so fragile. We've had many birds throughout the years so we know what to expect and sometimes even when to expect it.

The day is wet and cold, with gloominess all around. I feel like crawling back into bed and hibernating for a hundred years – but no, I must soldier on.

There is a little happiness though, and it comes in the form of a new pet. It has long ears, big eyes and it's grey in colour… oh and it's so darn cute! Can you guess what she is? I'll post photos of the new addition to the family very soon.

And of course I can't leave without showing you some knitting. I'm making 'Hope' again, but this one is for home use – that's why I'm making it out of acrylic.
Let me just say, I'm only half a yarn snob. I'm not awfully fond of using acrylic but if I have it, I will use it. Let me also mention that from now on, I will NOT be starting anymore sweaters with acrylic. Hope no. 2 has been sitting in my knitting basket for over 2 months, so don't hold your breath for its completion anytime soon.


Just to make you drool… a yummy croissant with jam and ricotta cheese. Mmmmm

Where does the time go?

Honestly I ask you, where DOES it go? It doesn't seem like July to me, and feels more like the beginning of the year. So half a year has well and truly passed and still, I don't have a lot to show for it.

I've completed a couple of sweaters, a few beanies, a couple of cami's, a pair of booties and a valentine's heart. Wait a minute, that's a good amount of knitting.
So why does it feel like I've done nothing at all??

Here is Craig's newest beanie. If he knows I intend on using the photos for Ravelry, he will pull a face because that's his defense mechanism. Well sorry honey, we can still make out what you look like!




On a sadder note, I'd like to tell you about my father, Giovanni. My dear father has been through a lot in his life. He's always provided well for the family, always had many friends, and not to mention the most generous man I know.

He's undergone many operations such as a bypass, both his knees reconstructed, eye surgery and a hip reconstruction. I'm sure there are a few more, but I can't think straight right now. A little over a year ago he was diagnosed with Interstitial Fibrosis, 'asbestos fibrosis' might sound a little more familiar to you. He's always been a cabinet maker, always worked with wood and has never worked with anything asbestos related. This means he was either exposed to it in other ways, or the actual wood dust is the cause.

Coping with this has been very hard for mum and I, and also my sister Rita all the way in Italy. She does wish she was here to help but it's not possible for her at this time because of commitments. I'm the only one that attends to their needs and I've done so for years - it's nothing new and I have accepted this as my life.

Things like shopping, taking them to medical appointments etc. - I do it all and they are totally dependent on me. I've had to take him to the ED (emergency dept.) at the hospital several times this year and each time is a stab in the heart for me.

The last time I rushed him to the ED was last Wednesday because he was complaining about chest pains and he is still there today. The chest pains only lasted an hour or so after arriving to the hospital, but in the meantime he had a blood transfusion because he was very anemic and also found out this was caused by a tumour in his bowel on the right hand side, to be exact.

The good news: It is an isolated tumour which was thankfully found early.
The bad news: It is cancer.
The good news: His surgery has been scheduled for its removal next week.
The bad news: Because of his lung disease and because of his old age, its high risk surgery.
The good news: The good Lord up above has it under control - I believe this with all my heart.

My papa.

Micheal Jackson

I've been a MJ fan off and on since he and I were youngsters and he will be sorely missed.

**RIP MJ**




One of my very favourite MJ songs which you'll have to listen to very loud to appreciate:

PYT

I just recently found out that he never made a video for this song. Shame.

Sick as a dog.

I've been very sick these past few weeks on and off with the flu and I don't recall ever having it so bad. From a very swollen and watery eyes, to a stinging sore throat, to a fever, to aching bones, to a cold - I experienced a bit of everything. The worst was on Friday night/morning - I didn't sleep a wink because of a fever. I literally thought I was going to die and asked Craig to call a doctor for me. Not only did I have fever, but a very severe headache which left me unable to move. I finally asked Craig to grab me a couple of pain killers and as they started working I fell asleep and slept for several hours. I woke up very groggy and aching all over, but the fever was gone. I never want to go through that again. Today I'm still feeling a bit ill, but I'm coping fine.

Because of this I've not knitted very much. I have a few UFO's but they can wait a while longer.. I'm not going to pick them up just for the sake of it and make a mess of them, because I've done that before and wished I had never started the projects in the first place.

I'll hopefully have something to show you knitting-wise soon. Cross your fingers and toes for me!

Funny pictures time:

I saved a bird.

I was driving my mother back from her optometrist appointment this morning and on the side of the road, there stood a lorikeet, very still. It was a busy road and I didn't want the poor little thing to get hurt. It's not normal to see that kind of bird just sitting on the side of the road doing nothing, so I did a u-turn and parked the car to investigate further. As I tried to grab it, it wobbled away and I could see it had an injured leg. So I went to the boot of the car to see what I could pick it up with - nothing. I had a few plastic bags and a small box so I scrunched up the bags, picked up the bird and with them and popped the fella in the box. Mum held on to it while I drove to the nearest vet. I hope the bird makes it - the poor darling.

I think it was young because when it bit me, it didn't hurt as much as I thought it would! It looked very much like this:



Yay for me, my good deed for the day.

Thursday

I was going to share with you all that had happened these past few weeks, but decided against it at the last minute because I knew you wouldn't be interested in my gripes, tribulations, laments and trials.

I don't even have photos of the Gathered Pullover which I started weeks and weeks AND weeks ago. I had taken a nice bunch of them, but seemed to have lost them. I'll have to do a good search for those...

No Teddy sweater patterns either. I'm just not that good with organizing my time these days.

I did start another 'Hope' sweater last night just because I love the pattern, but mostly because I had some pink acrylic I wanted to use up. No photos of that either.

What I can show you is what Aja's nose looked like before she ripped out one of her stitches last week.



Yes, she literally ripped it out with her paw. I was in shock for what seemed like minutes on end. To cut a long story short, the wound is healing nicely now but still a bit early to tell how bad the scar is going to be.






She no longer has to wear the elizabethan collar.

By the way, if you scroll down and look on the left hand side, you'll see the 'My Readers Knits' flickr page. If you find yours there, and I failed to ask for your permission to use your photo... I apologize and you can message me to say that you prefer I delete it off the page. I'm planning to link all of those photos to your blog (or Ravelry page), it's just that I haven't had time!