FO: "You're the Best" Cardigan

Pattern: Summer Days Cardigan (Rav link)
Yarn: Fyberspates Sterling Silver Sparkle Sock

This yarn was bought because of my inability to resist anything that sparkles. It called out to me from the stand at Knit Nation in 2010... and then stayed, unknit in my stash. I couldn't bring myself to knit socks from such a fabulously sparkly yarn, and nothing else suggested itself. So, there it sat in my stash until my Little Whirlwind, who has a similar inability to resist sparkles, spotted it.
"Can you make me something from that, Mummy?".
How could I resist?

But it still remained unknit. I couldn't find the right pattern, or the patterns I did find required more yarn than I had available. Until I found the Summer Days pattern.

I think it was a good match, don't you?













The pattern was tricky to follow in spots, quite a bit of "repeat rows 4, 5 and 3 six times". Easy enough in reality, but when combined with sleep deprivation, I had to resort to a pen and paper every now and then. But it was worth it. It's the perfect cardigan for our weather here at the moment, chilly in the morning and warming up later on.

And the name of my project? Well, when Little Whirlwind saw me knitting with the yarn, she asked if it was for her. When I said yes, her response was: "You're the best, Mum!". Talk about seriously knitworthy...

The Crafty Girl's Road Trip

In one of my many trips to the local library (I shall wax lyrical about Auckland libraries at a later date - but for the moment we shall just say I adore my local library and visit at least once a week), I discovered this book:

It's brilliant. It gives details of craft shops all around New Zealand - knitting, quilting, scrapbooking. It even includes suggestions for sightseeing and places to eat. 

We do a lot of driving with G's hobby, so it's a great addition to my usual method of spending a couple of hours on google finding out about where we're going and hoping to stumble on a craft shop. 

There's only one problem. It was last updated in 2004. Things have to have changed since then. 

Then the very clever D suggested on twitter that I update it myself. So here is the introduction. As I visit all the places, I'll report back on whether they are still there, or if things have changed. Gives me something to focus on when we're travelling around, and lets you all see the wonderful craft shops around here. 

First up, Hamilton & Cambridge (Part 1)... soon.

And then, I'll have to find my own copy of it. There's only so long I can keep this copy out of the library! 

Blogging on the move...

In an attempt to, you know, actually write blog posts rather than just compose them in my head, I've decided to get a blog app for my phone.

We shall see how it works!

In the meantime, coming up soon (I promise, I promise!), posts on The Crafty Girls Guide to NZ, some FOs, a few fun discoveries, and the long awaited opening of my spinning wheel.

Accountability

There's a lot that needs to be blogged. And a lot that happened so long ago that blogging about it seems a little silly now... a baby, packing up a house, shipping two lots of furniture in different directions, Christmas at home, and another move. Some of it I may get back to. But first.... accountability.

Tomorrow we will be hopefully heading to a woollen mills in Rotorua. There will be yarn purchased. So, before I loose the run of myself completely, I'm reminding myself of my stashdown rules and putting them here so that I can be reminded of them if I stray too far from the path. Being finally in the land of merino sheep and what seems like alpacas at every turn, I couldn't commit to a "pure" stashdown of buying no yarn. So... the rules:

Rule 1: One in Two Out: For every ball/skein of yarn purchased, two must leave my stash in some form.
Rule 2: Antipodean Yarn Only: The only yarn I can buy must come from the southern hemisphere. So, in reality, NZ or Australia. Although, on a technicality, I'm leaving myself a little wiggle room here... in case of urgent need for Malabrigo!
Rule 3: Souvenir Yarn Must Be Local: And by that I mean, very local. Farm shops, local mills etc.

Exception 1: Souvenir yarn doesn't have to follow the "One in Two Out" rule, but should at least be bought with a project in mind.

So, there we are. The Rules of Stashdown 2012. Let's see how far I get!