Knitting Goodies

Good morning everyone. Isabelle has recovered from her sore throat and went to kindergarten this morning, so I have time to post. On the left is a picture of the Mother's Day present that all the children gave to their mum's. It was just a seed two weeks ago, and has grown quite a lot. It is called a Nastursham, not quite sure of the spelling. I will have to ask my sister about that. She is a qualified gardener so she should know. It has little orange, red and yellow flowers on it when its ready to flower. I do not think that will be for a while. It has been so cold here lately, especially at night. Isabelle woke up 3 times last night, so in the end I put her in our bed and went to sleep in her bed. My goodness it was cold. I think I am used to Paul's heating in our bed. He is always very warm. Anyway I lay awake for hours last night trying desperately to go to sleep, and then woke up feeling more tired than I did last night. I think I should have stayed awake and did my knitting.


And finally a picture of Meg. Not a very good one, but one at least. She is a very snobby cat. She does not really like our two other cats, I think she actually prefers the dogs. When she was a kitten we lived at Paul's parents whilst we built our house, and Meg grew very friendly with their dog Benson, who sadly passed away a few months later. I think Meg preferred his company to anyone else, so now she just basically keeps to herself. She decides when she wants a pat, and if she doesn't she will let you know. She will turn 8 years old in October, and I adore her even with her quirky little ways.


Now some knitting content, since that is why your here isnt it. I bought 3 knitting books 2 weeks ago from Emporium Books which is an online bookstore in New South Wales. Very good service. I received these within 2 weeks of ordering. I have also ordered Debbie Stoller's Happy Hooker and the And So To Bed by Lucinda Guy. I like buying kid's patterns as I always knit my nephews a jumper for their birthdays and I like to have new ideas. I need to go to the post office and pay for the next order today. I am hoping that the parcel man comes before I go or after 3:00 with my parcel from the Wool Shack. I do not want to have make an extra trip. Its annoying when that happens. You rush to the letterbox and there is the little red and white card waiting for you to go and collect the parcel. Well back to the books, I have seen the Knitted Gifts book on a lot of other blogs, and I love the mini sweater and stocking and of course the Hourglass Sweater. I can see these in my future. I also bought the Little Badger book which has very adorable jumpers for both boys and girls and scarfs and hats and little backpacks too.

I also purchased the Debbie Bliss Baby Knits for Beginners. I am not a beginner knitter, although I did like some of the patterns in this book and it only cost $29.00. I have seen this in knitting shops for about $45.00 so this is a bargain. I started the seed stitch cardigan for my cousin whose baby is due next month, after ripping out the disasterous pink jumper. I will eventually make that jumper, just use a different yarn for it. So here is the progress of the cardigan. I finished the back and the left front. The left front I did yesterday in between housework and child entertaining. I am going to try and start the right front today if I do not fall asleep. I hope not, I have a few things to do today and our financial consultant is coming by at 7:00 tonight. I have to get our papers organised, and hopefully our budget will be back on track and we can organise things a bit better. No more splurging on yarn. I am on a serious yarn diet, apart from the Zhivago I have to pick up for a cardigan I am making. I will post about it when I have made some progress. I only have 10 balls to pick up so its not too bad.
I will only order knitting books when I have some money put away, and I have written myself a list so I will not get sidetracked. So if any of you wish to know what books I like here's the list, and if any of you already have them, please advise of what your thoughts are of them.

1. Handknit Holidays
2. Vintage Knits
3. Morehouse Farm Merino Knits
4. Loop-d-loop
5. Alterknits
6. Mason-Dixon Knitting - I am hoping to get a good look at this when Gillian returns from overseas.
7. Inspired Cable Knits - I love cable knitting, my absolute favourite.
8. Knitting Nature - not too sure about this one yet. I have read a few blogs where they informed me that the patterns have not really been test knitted.

So that is it for now. If any of you have some books that you think are a must have for good knitting patterns, please let me know. I would be very interested to know what you think, and maybe I will post a list of reader's favourites. So that is it for now, have a good weekend everyone.