Pom poms

At St John's Op Shop,  one of the many wonderful op shops in Ballarat, I found some yarn for about 20 to 50 cents a ball.

Since it was acrylic yarn, not real wool which is too good to waste, I felt free to potter around making a life-long love.
Pom poms.

The basket is still filling up as I make one or two whenever I take a break from staring at the computer screen.

Knitting indulgences

Here are my feet in glorious handknits, but not in socks of my knitting, these are a generous present from a friend.
I took this photo, emulating Jane Brockett, standing on my new white blanket.

And here are the socks again, actually looking better off my feet, on the white blankie, .

And here are the socks looking better than ever (I'm on a roll here) on my autumn-coloured, knitted blanket (it is a proper single-bed sized blanket, not a mere rug).

When a beloved rug of stripey patches that my grandma knitted me fifty years ago finally fell apart, I spent a year learning to plain and purl and perilously cast-off, and made this first blanket.

I loved the colour, texture of the wool and  the click of needles but not, after I made 14 beanies for charity, counting, concentrating and following patterns.

I really enjoyed making the second white wool blanket, triumphantly sewn up two weeks ago.

Now I'm collecting blues and greens from op shops and bargain bins to knit a blanket for next year. I have a beautiful print of mythical waterbirds by Lisa Kennedy in haunting blues and greens in my room and  I want to play with water-cool colours for a while.
(The link is just to a recent exhibition, not to an image of my print)

 I may just keep on knitting patches of colour and sewing them up into thick, soft, warm and pliable blankets. Socks will have to wait awhile longer.

I'm prepared to work on a piece of sewing, to wrestle with it, to try and perfect it. I want knitting to be pure pleasure for a while.

Good timing

I want to try knitting cotton this summer, and luckily my neighbour wanted to clear out some stuff including a few balls of cotton yarn. 
I have three baskets of knitting yarn now - but I'm not hoarding. I am finishing off the blanket! One basket will be empty very soon.

White wool blankie

Lovely white wool, soft springy garter stitch, a luxurious pile of pure white woollen pieces. I've been knitting these off and on for a couple of years. You can always find white wool (and navy blue wool) in any Op shop.

This evening I began to sew together all the knitted squares. I'm going to have the light, white, wool blankie I've always wanted for coolish summer nights.

Then this niggling thought - what if I edged it all round with that long strip of red and white cotton gingham I found recently?

It wouldn't be pure white any longer.

Mmmm.

Knitting

This cold winter weather seems just right for silk and wool work.

Now that it's deliciously cold and wet and grey I've covered the couch with cosy rugs and got out the knitting. Last year I learned to knit beanies and made 18 of them. This year I started on a a shawl of fine pink mohair wool found in the Op shop and a  rug of soft, white, wool squares. These are being knitted to my own designs (plain & purl and no decreasing).

Then madness struck. I found some last year's knitting mags for 20 cents apiece and saw patterns for SOCKS. And I had leftover wool in a mandarin orange colour - just right for the season.

But the sock patterns in the magazines were written in a foreign language (sl., k, incr, patt) so I got a very simple sock book with a picture for every stitch (just about). And I will knit socks. At least two.

I may never get up from the couch.