MIA: one camera cable

It's so annoying.  I finally got off my backside to photograph my finished items, along with some newly acquired skeins of yarn (Hand Maiden silk...) only to discover that the camera cable has gone MIA.  No cable, no uploading of photos.  Grr.  Particularly as I've promised to upload pics of the silk on Ravelry.

So it will be another blog post dependent on the 1000 words instead of a pretty picture.

Finished: The Israeli soldier hat
Started: Foliage

Foliage incorporates two things I dislike - knitting a hat from the top down (as I find the first few rounds very fidgety and annoying) and lace (because no matter how much I concentrate, I always make mistakes, ending the row or round with too few or too many stitches, requiring extensive tinkering).  But I had a reasonable amount of the inappropriately named Dream in Color Blue Lagoon (believe me, it's green in real life) that might stretch enough for a small hat and the colour was just begging to be used in a leafy pattern.  Top-down hats are actually the best when you're not sure if you will have enough yarn and I have the option of doing the brim in a different colour if necessary.

I also think it is good for me to stretch myself and actually try knitting a few different hat patterns.  I am no longer a beginner, even if I do hate skinny needles and skinny thread.  I've queued a heap of hats on Ravelry and may actually knit some of them.  So far Foliage hasn't been too bad; in fact I'm fairly sure I may have used this lace pattern in a cardigan I made for a friend's daughter.

The Stashbuster hat ended up going in an 'Angel' parcel to a fellow Raveller, whose partner flaked during the recent birthday swap.  I figured I might as well build up my karma points while I could; I know what it's like to miss out in one of these swaps and have others angel me.

I'm organising the next 'Magic Yarn Ball' swap for the Australian knitters - so far 21 have signed up.  I figured this was a good swap to organise because it should be relatively easy for everyone to do what they've committed to (famous last words).  What you do is wrap Iittle treasures (such as buttons, stitchmarkers, ribbons, little bottle of scent, etc) up in a ball of yarn, with a few beautiful gifties peeking out at the edges, and give it as a gift along with a pattern they can use the yarn for. As the recipient crafts with the yarn the treasures fall out one by one, and they discover the fun as they knit or crochet.  I believe it started out as a kids' thing but we are all young at heart.