I think the pink and brown merino actually looks pretty good in this pattern, its making stripes which I could never get it to do with other patterns. I'd even consider getting some Noro just to do this again to see how each square takes up the colour.

hmmm let me see what else has been happening........ Oh I also cast on Something Red, which will actually be blue. This has been in my ravelry qeue for the longest so I thought I better do something about it. Trouble is its pretty boring, miles and miles of stockinette until you get to the ribbing towards the bottom... but even that will be pretty boring. Knowing my luck I'll finish it just before summer!


Back onto being a bridesmaid for my SIL I've just ordered some Silky merino in the Purple Mystery colourway for the shrug instead of the lace weight. The colour is perfect a nice deep purple. Which I discovered a couple of weekends ago is the actual colour of our dresses, deep purple. I don't know where I got the idea that they were purpley blue colour! So now i guess i have two skeins of Louet Gems for my stash - oh poor me! :D


The lace weight Malabrigo is gorgeous but so thin!! knitting anything with it is going to take ages! I now have either the Swallowtail Shawl (rav link) in mind for it (which seems a bit complicated!) or the Luscious Lace Scarf (rav link) which seems a bit easier.

my only major WIP right now is my pink and brown Clappy

I've come along a bit further since these pics:



I'm almost ready to start the decrease section now. This thing is freaking huge! I wanted to use up all 6 hanks of this pink & brown stuff so I dont have anything left over. thats just over 1300 yards of worsted merino.



I think i'd like to do this again some time but just as a scarf.

I've also been trying to find just the right yarn to make into a small shrug to wear at my sister in laws wedding. I am her maid of honour so i'm trying to find a yarn that matches her very unusual choice of dress colour. Its smack bang in the middle of a blue/purple hue. I'm having trouble determining online wether yarns are more blueish or more purplish.

There just doesnt seem to be that perfect shade out there. I ended up getting some Louet Gems sport weight yarn, one in hummingbird and one in bluebird cos I THOUGHT they were the closest i'd come across so far:

Turns out that neither are very purple and both are more blue. Dang. I dont know how its going to go. The wedding isnt until November so i've got a bit of time... too bad i dont really have the money!

Speaking of money the SIL is talking about going to melbourne in September for a girly weekend with two other friends. I'd really like to go but i'm just not sure either of us can afford it. If we do this i'm going to have to tell her that her hens night is going to suffer. I'm not going to be able to afford a trip to Melbourne and shacking up in a hotel room for her hens night. Anyway have to see how things go, its not a definate yet. I seriously dont see her being able to spare the money she's the one who's got a wedding to pay for in september!!

Why is it so hard to find good people to work with these days? One of the really good Admin people we have here at my work is leaving us to study masters in London.

I'm really bummed about it, she was/is so easy to get along with and i could actually trust her to go away and do the work properly and without trouble. We're coworkers, I'm not her boss or anything but given my experience I'm usually the first person people come to for help or when there are issues.

E could be trusted with instructions and tasks, unlike a LOT of other people i work with who think that if they do a crappy job at a task they'll never be asked to do it again and always scream blue murder that they're SOOOOOO busy and they couldn't possibly take on any more cos they're so stressed.

Bullshit

E is leaving next week, we're having morning tea one day with the academics and another day the admin people are having lunch. She wears scarves a lot so I made her this from my stash:

It is One Row Lace Scarf by Turvid

I originally bought it to make a wedding shawl back in 06. The shawl never eventuated because I wasn't a very proficient knitter back then, all I could do was garter stitch. I didn't even know how to purl yet!!
As it turned out I didn't need a shawl anyway it was a nice day so it got ripped back and has been sitting in my stash ever since. I've no recollection of what the yarn is, I'm pretty sure its all acrylic i think it was called twinkle because its got little bits of shiny cellophane type stuff in it that really catches the light and makes it sparkle :)

Its my own personal thankyou to her for being so reliable, she's really made my job a lot easier and i'm dreading not having her around.

While i'm bitching about work I might as well bitch about the fact that they havent got a replacement for her yet. They've had 8 months notice but of course left it relativley late and the person we had lined up to replace her fell through. Its so typical now we're probably going to get some half assed replacement who's as useful as tits on a bull.... or even worse no one at all.

I hate where I work.

I should be more happy for E, she's getting out of here and travelling a bit before heading down to London to study. Both things that she loves to do... travel and study. I guess i'm a bit jealous that she can just uproot her whole life and do something different. I'm much to cautious for that sort of stuff. I've found my comfort zone and i'm reluctant to leave it.

My cushy government job doesnt pay extremley well but its not minimum wage either... where else could I get away with doing sweet FA for the majority of the year??