My yarn swift and ball winder, recently purchased from ebay:

I seriously don't know how I did without these, they're able to convert hanks into flat bottom balls (*smerk*) of yarn in around 30 seconds! As long as your hank isn't tangled.... i had one that was which i couldn't wind and took me three hours to unravel.

After spending so long on the Cathay Shrug, I've taken up a couple of quick knits to satisfy my need-to-finishitis. I cast on for a Calorimetry on Wednesday and was finished on Friday, how awesome is that!
here is the finished product... even though its much to hot to wear this now in the middle of an Aussie summer, I used the patons SWS gifted to me by my swap Buddie, it did exactly what i wanted/expected it to do:





but it only used 1/3 of the ball, so I have no idea what I'm going to do with the rest of it, I might have to see if there's enough for a panta headband.

But speaking of the whole summer thing, I wanted a small headband for the summer that will help hide my icky hair when I'm having a bad hair day (almost every day really!!). While sifting through the patterns on ravelry I saw a cool photo of someones Shedir only 1/3rd of the way through and thought it looked really cool and would make a good headband pattern. So what I did was took the first 20 or so rows and will end with two rows of 1x1 ribbing. I've got a 2nd row of the ribbing to go then I can cast off:





The yarn is from spotlight, its a yarn bee yarn that I cant remember the specific name of, its annoying because it has that silky type strand that wraps around the yarn and gets twisted and I have to keep pushing it down as i draw more yarn from the ball, but thats what makes the yarn look so cool when its knit up... catch 22 really.

I'll finish this tonight and then I plan on starting the orangina (again) with my egyptian cotton from ebay. Thats going to be another really long knit, its going to take me even longer than the shrug because its made up of a semi-complicated lace stitch that when you stuff up you dont realise until about two or three rows after you actually did it. There's going to be a lot of liflining and frogging here I just know it!!

This is Crazy:


He's a stray thats been hanging around our neck of the woods for a long time. Until recently all we'd ever see of him was a brownish black streak heading in the opposite direction.

Then he'd sit on the other side of the neighbours fence and just look at us before I'd shoo him away.

Then he started to sit under our van and look at us through the gap between the wheel and arch... then he started meowing at us.

We caved and started to leave out food and water. I felt sorry for him. Then when I saw him eat I felt even sorrier. I named him crazy because he eats like a crazy person... seriously he eats like he hasnt eaten in days. He eats cat biscuits whole... doesnt bother with chewing them, and canned food he eats so fast he takes gasps in between mouthfulls like breathing isn't as important as eating!

At first I wasnt sure if feeding him was the right thing to do... we already have two cats, one male who is very similar to Crazy, feeding him would be like having three cats without the perks of having them act like a hot water bottle on cold nights (not that its cold around here right now!). About that time I was watching the Evan Almighty movie (about the guy who builds an arc), and the moral of the story was that the smallest act of kindess can change the world - as Morgan Freeman (who plays God) said that he filled a bowl of water for a stray dog and let him drink from it.

Now - I dont especially believe in God (my inner jury is out on that one). Fate & destiny make more sense to me, that part of the movie made me see what I had to do.

I had the means to help him and no good reason as to why I shouldnt, so I changed his world and gave him a chance.

Now he brushes against my legs and lets me pat him... mainly when he wants food. He knows when the others get fed and he meows at the back door, he comes inside and steals any food that they leave in thier bowls.

Kit (the younger one - she's not quite a year old yet) doesnt mind him at all they snif eachother and are content with eachother's company.

Leroy my 4yr old male isnt so smitten. He's cautious and sometimes makes those low toned meows that say come over here a bit closer... I dare you! I'm positive these two used to fight and wake us up at night. So I can understand why he's a bit weirded out by the situation, but I havent heard fighting for a while and Leroy hasnt had any little scratches for just as long so I hope that they've made some sort of peace with each other.

Crazy is a smidge bigger than Leroy so its possible that he came out on top in the territory stakes and thats why Leroy tolerates him... but he doesnt have to like it.

I must admit I am also worried that Crazy has bugs and stuff and will pass them onto mine. He doesnt have fleas, but i'm worried about worms and about feline Aids. Kit is vaccinated against it but Leroy isnt. Which in heinsight is kinda stupid cos Leroy's the fighter and more likely to contract it - Kit's a female scaredy cat and runs from confrontation.

I also have a feeling that Crazy was owned by someone, his fur around his neck looks like it once held a collar, but it could just be that his fur is a little thinner there. He seems pretty tame and not wild at all. He hisses sometmes but not with much conviction and usually only when he's cornered.

So i'm going to keep feeding him and i'm going to try and get him used to my company when it doesnt involve food and hope that with time all three of them can get along fine.

I don't really have much info to put into it cos I have a tendency to not work on more than three projects at a time... and I don't have the space in my unit for a huge yarn stash, but I am finding it fun to add flickr photo's and tally my progress. Its a great way to waste time at work... its like facebook for knitters!!

So last night hubby was at poker (he does the pub poker circuit in our area during the week) so I wasn't able to get him to take a photo of me in my shrug - which i wore to work yesterday and it survived the 30ish degree day! YAY! - so I tried somewhat successfully to take a picture of myself by holding the (HEAVY) camera out and praying that it got me. My face was so ludicrous that I HAD to crop it out:



The only thing that's wrong with it - there's always SOMETHING I do wrong - is that I've picked up more stitches around one front corner than I have the other. So the right side is a little snug around my boobage and has a tendency to slip off, while the left side is a lot looser and just sits there quite nicely.... :( its a bit of a bummer cos it makes the front look lopsided plus its really annoying to have to keep pulling at the right side all the time. Oh well I think I'll wear it anyway, it was pretty hot yesterday and I didn't feel any hotter than normal wearing it - so the bamboo & cotton combo is doing its job - yippee





Let me tell you all that stockinette was pretty boring!!

So now I'm working on a belt from the Noro Daria that my SP11 Buddie was kind enough to gift to me. The Daria is pretty odd to work with, its a nylon blend yarn that's kinda ropey. There aren't a lot of stitch patterns that would work well with this yarn. Oh and get this I was looking on Ebay for this stuff once and one person said that this yarn would be great for a summery top... ARE YOU KIDDING ME! you couldn't knit this stuff into a top it would be horrible to wear as a garment! This stuff is only good for belts, bags and maybe a scarf but only a decorative scarf... don't count on this stuff to keep you warm!!



I want to see if I can get a buckle or a D ring to put on it.



In a moment of weakness I got bored with more endless stockinette and cast on for Calorimetry using the Patons SWS that was also gifted by my SP11 Buddie. I've only done about 2cm and started it after my photo spree so no piccies as yet... oh and I'm also using the straight needles that my Buddie got me too - its just a Buddie frenzy goin on round 'ere :)

Wow, so i've FINALLY finished the cathay shrug... OMG!

but of course i dont have photo's cos i have to get hubby to take them will try and get some taken tonight.

wow I feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders!

and some other good news, my SP11 buddie (the one that i'm spoiling) has agreed to let me get the knitpicks options interchangeable kneedle set sent to her, which she's going to forward onto me. Knitpicks (the buggers) dont ship internationally.

woo hoo - so i'm off to place my orders

All of these are from http://icanhascheezburger.com/ - check it out its freakin halarious