Needles & Bobbins: 4 September

I want to apologise to you all for missing last weeks post, you see, I have been having some personal issues and have need the time for self care. I am very lucky that I have some very close friends who have been able to help me though. You see, I have had depression & anxiety issues in the past and my anxiety has flared up in a large and unexpected way. I won't bore you all with all of the details (and some of them are very personal), but I do just want to say, that if you feel that things aren't quite right in your life, if you are making yourself sick from worrying, if you cannot stop crying or have dark thoughts, please seek help. In Australia we have a wonderful site, Beyond Blue, where you can start getting help.

Anyway... now that I have done my little PSA, let's talk about knitting, spinning, and all of that jazz!

Needles I have been working on a new design that I am not quite ready to share any pics of yet. But, it will be a new women's top, for the summer. Made from cotton it will be another layering piece. Nessa has already put in a request for her own, so it will probably come in children's sizes too. I have also been working on my stripey OMG socks. I have just finished turning the heel. I have tried them on, and I love the length of them, and how they sit on my heel, but I am making the largerst size (to accommodate my heel) so they are a little too large around the toes and a little loose on the foot. I had decided to try and do these socks to keep the stripes in order (I like neat stripes), but it looks like that didn't work so well. But it's all a learning curve.

Since starting these socks, Stockinette Zombie Designs has created the Spacious OMG Heel Socks which I have purchased to make in the future so that hopefully I can get the socks to fit a little better. I have also been playing around with the knitting machine and made an On the Bias blanket, but it has turned out to be quite small, so I have started working on a more basic striped one. I used Bendigo Woollen Mills Luxury 4ply in Leaf, Delphinium and Aquarium.

I also made a very popular shawl/wrap on the Machine Knitting facebook group called Christines Shawl. I made it in Bendigo Woollen Mills 2ply Classic in Holly. I don't have a pic for this yet as it needs to be blocked first. Last week we also had Book Week, and Nessa wanted to go as Hermione from Harry Potter (the geek in me was so proud!). Last minute I decided she needed a scarf to complete the costume, so I picked up some cheap acrylic from Spotlight and whipped up this scarf!

Bobbins I pulled out my top whorl spindle the other day and got a little more done. It's so small, but it seems to fill up very quickly, even though the fibre has been spun quite fine. I still have quite a lot of the braid to go though. This is my Magic Bunny from Ixchel.

Stash Enhancement Last week I had my birthday and I was very lucky to receive some hand dyed yarn from a friend. The first is a sport weight in a colourway called "cab sav" and the second is a fingering weight gold sparkle called "Beyond the Rainbow". I can't decide what I want to make with them, but I will keep them safe in my stash until the right pattern comes along.

In addition to this, I purchased some Madeline Tosh Light from an online store I came across called "The Indie Yarn Store" and I must say that it arrived so fast!! Shipping was reasonable too! I am hoping to use this yarn for a design submission, but the deadline is fast approaching and I really need to get a move on!

So, it's been a busy couple of weeks. I will be trying to stay on top of the blog posts, but I hope you can understand that there will be days that I will really struggle, and I ask you to be patient with me.