Okay Peeve. Just for you. Just this once:

1. I can move my eyebrows separately. This is very useful for entertaining small children. Or adults with the minds of small children. Or adults who are really drunk.

2. When I was a child one of my favourite activities was tangling up a ball of yarn then untangling it again. It made me very useful to my knitting and crocheting relatives. Kept me quiet for hours.

3. I cannot abide the taste and smell of celery. Or coffee.

4. Nothing makes my stomach turn more than crumbs and smudges of other condiments in the butter, jam, peanut butter, vegemite, etc. I will scrape out these alien substances if I find them.

5. No matter where I am or what precautions I take, if there’s a ball sport being played nearby the ball will inevitably find my head. At high speed. I’ve been concussed enough times that I get chills if anyone near me says “Hey! Let’s play cricket!”

6. I absolutely love those little plastic soy sauce fish you get with sushi. (If you get hold of any, save them for me won’t you?)

Wendy over at Wendy Knits, and her friend L-B, have decided to knit only from their own stash for the first nine months of 2007. They have posted rules, but suggest you come up with your own.

Call me crazy, but this is a bandwagon I’m going to jump on. Why? Let me count the reasons:

1) Some months back I decided I needed to buy a dedicated plastic storage container for my sock yarn stash. I could see the sock yarn stash was about to grow rapidly, and I figured when it was full it was time to put on the brakes. It is now full to bursting. And their are skeins and cakes of it hiding in baskets around the house, as well.

2) I’m running out of room in the Dungeon (my office), not helped by the aquisition of a weaving loom, spinning wheel, and the beginnings of a fleece stash.

3) I’m actually bursting to knit up some of the garments I’ve bought yarn for.

4) The hand pain and my current shoulder problem are making it very clear that less knitting is in order rather than more. And buying more yarn only makes me depressed at the thought I can’t knit it up.

So I’ve made myself a button (believe me, not easy when you’re using a tablet & mouse with the left hand) for my side bar:

And these are my rules:

1. The Knit-From-Your-Stash-a-Thon will start January 1, 2007 and run through September 30, 2007 — a period of nine months.

2. I will not buy any yarn during that period, with the following exceptions:

2.a. Cotton yarn for baby bath mitts does not count. (Unlike Wendy & L-B, I haven’t made an exception for sock yarn, but I did promise my new-mother friend I’d keep her in bath mitts.)

2.b. If someone asks for a specific knitted gift that I really and truly do not have the yarn for, I may buy yarn to knit that gift.

2.c. If I am knitting something and run out of yarn, I may purchase enough to complete the project.

2.d. I get one “Get Out of Jail Free” card — I’m allowed to fall off the wagon one time.

2.e. Yarn from which proceeds go to a good cause is exempt.

2.f. Yarn bought on international holidays is exempt.

3. I am allowed to receive gifts of yarn.

4. Spinning fiber of any sort is exempt. So is warp yarn for the loom. Gotta keep to the “varying types of movements might help avoid rsi” policy.

For the moment there’s no knitting, spinning, weaving or anything else happening. It’s just as well I have no holiday knitting commitments, as just typing this is making the back of my hand burn. And the chocolate socks… looks like I’m going to be wholly reliant on my testers to find any bugs in the pattern.

We got up extra early this morning, because the beau wanted to pick up an E-bay purchase in Bendigo, and he had persuaded me to come along by suggesting we drop into the Woollen Mills beforehand.

For some reason I woke up with much, much worse pain in my right shoulder, arm and hand. I can’t move my arm backwards, or twist in certain ways, and the back of my hand actually burns from time to time. I think it’s time for a visit to the osteo.

Anyway, I figured I could sit in a car for a few hours. It wouldn’t be painless, but if I stayed home I’d be tempted to do naughty things like knitting.

2 1/2 hours later we stop outside the closed gates of Bendy, staring in disbelief at the “closed on Saturday” sign.

“Crap!” I said. Then: “Crap!”

All I can say is, it’s just as well it was a ‘tag-along’ visit, or I would have been furious. THIS is why Bendy needs a website. They need a way to tell loyal customers when the shop won’t be open at times it’s normally open so they don’t make a freaking 5 hour waste of a trip.

In fact, they could have mentioned on their last ‘SALE SALE SALE’ brochure that the shop would be closed on the 16th. All it says is that the sale ends on the 15th.

Mutter. Mutter.

And my arm still hurts.

Post vigorous, sometimes agonising massage my back is stiff and sore, but my hands are fine. I knit for a couple of hours last night and felt no pain. Yay!

You know how I hate sewing? No? Well, I used to sew a lot. I was quite obsessive. I was known for dragging out the material stash the morning before a party, sitting at the machine all day, and doing the final hand sewing on the way to the party, where I would change into my new top or dress or skirt on arrival.

Sometime in my 20s I suddenly realised I loathed sewing. At some point I overdid it, and I couldn’t even mend a garment without ending up in a foul mood. But last weekend I came to the awful realisation that the only costume I could think of for this year’s New Year’s party, “Comedy and Comedians”, was a jester costume, which meant I’d have to make it. So I gritted my teeth, bought material and got the overlocker out of storage. On Monday night I had this:

A jester dress, hat and boot/stocking things.

It wasn’t quite the trial I expected it to be. I think that may have a lot to do with having inherited the overlocker. The ‘stretch’ stitches on my sewing machine have always been a source of much frustration.

Today we have the architect and builder coming over to discuss how much of the extension has been done, how much ought to be done by now, and the details of what still needs to be tackled.

I just want this gone:

So I can retire this:

And buy one of these:

Miniminiminiminiminiminimini!

It would be nice to have aircon that didn’t slow the car down to a crawl. And door seals, so the cold wind doesn’t whistle through during winter. And paint. Nice shiny paint instead of the “suede grey duco” the Camira has evolved.

(Can’t complain too loudly, though. Friends gave me the Camira in exchange for a painting back when I was so broke I couldn’t afford to buy a car. It’s surprisingly fun to drive, and a great car to have if you move house a lot.)

I’ve made a little progress on my many wips. I’m still getting a little hand pain – much less than before, though. This afternoon I’ll be seeing a massage therapist for my back, and I’m hoping she can work on my arms and hands a bit, too.

The white chocolate second sock is done, but I don’t want to wear it yet or it might go a bit fuzzy, and while I love it that handknits so soft and fuzzy after you wear them a bit, fuzzy won’t look good in the photo.

The vest is up to the armholes. The kimono top has one front and the beginnings of another. I’m up to the heel of the second rosebud sock.

But wait…

What’s this?

Hmm. I think Peri Peri believes that it’s the wips that need massaging, not me.

Thanks to Sara at Tangelled Angel Knits who gave me a much-needed giggle this morning with this video:

Baa Baa Imperial Sheep

Over on the Come On Knitpicks site a few days ago was a comment with a link to a Bendigo Mills – please get a website! petition. I went to the site, filled in the form, then ended up on a page asking for a donation.

Having had many, many computer nerd friends over the years, I’m always wary of handing over money to websites I don’t really know much about. I certainly didn’t know if this petition site was worth donating too. So I left the check boxes for the various donation amounts unchecked and clicked “continue”.

At which point the site decided I would be donating $10 and somehow hooked the information that I use the beau’s Paypal account out of my computer and put his name up.

Alarm bells were ringing at this point, so I just closed the window and warned the beau that if a request for approval of a Paypal charge of $10 came through, he should block it. I expected that my name wouldn’t appear on the petition, but it has, along with 47 other names. And the beau hasn’t reported any shonky Paypal transactions.

So I’m not sure if I should recommend people go there and sign it or not. Maybe go there, sign it, then just close the window after you submit your name. For all that the site’s setup screams ‘shonky!’ at me, I do like the idea of Bendy receiving hundreds of request for them to step into this century and get a website.

Here’s a picture of the valley our house looks over today:

(There’s a freeway tunnel being built down there, which is why there’s an enormous crane in the pic.)

It was much smokier this morning. And my parents, who live furher east, said they had three metre visibility in their back yard when they first looked outside.

On days like this, my throat burns. Which means I close all the windows and door, and the blinds to help keep out the heat, and hibernate inside all day. This would be a good time to get lots of knitting done, except that I pulled a muscle in my neck this week and have been stiff and in a lot of pain ever since. I’m doing a bit at a time. Making progress ever so slowly.

And between times I’m drooling over the latest issue of Knitty. I lurve Eiffel. Twinkletoes is so darn cute I might just have to knit a pair. I’m not into knitted bags, but Brown Bag is strangely appealing. And do you think people would look at me funny if I made myself an adult sized Piggle?

Since I know a few people who love knitting lace, I went searching for a non machine washable 2ply yarn during breaks today. I found laceweight yarns available through Aussie shops, but all were pretty expensive. To count, it had to be of a comparable price to Knitpicks.

Eventually I gave up on Aussie shops and went through my bookmarked New Zealand ones. I figured it was more important to find a laceweight of comparable price to KP than to just find one made or available in Australia.

And that’s when I rediscovered Anna Gratton Ltd. Her ’boutique mill and farm’ produce “a unique selection of quality craft fibres and knitting and weaving yarns”, including a 2ply at a price that beats KP, both in coloured (14 shades) and undyed versions.

I have no idea if the quality is comparable, but if anyone gives it a try let me know what you think.

There was nothing worth watching on tv last night, and for some strange reason when I went to turn off the computer I found myself creating a spreadsheet instead.

You see, a question in among the comments of the Come On Knitpicks petition site had been niggling at me. If we do have plenty of alternatives to Knitpicks yarns here in Australia, what are they?

To work that out, a knitter would have to actually see the yarns. So I went over to the Knitpicks site to see if they had a shade card. They do. They have one for every yarn except those you dye yourself (that’s 26 yarns) and you have to buy them . For US$1.99 each. It would cost you A$65.71 to get samples of KP’s entire range!

When you consider that Bendigo Woollen Mills sends out shade cards for free, Knitpicks are looking a bit ‘cheap’ rather than cheap. From what I recall, I got a free shade card from Nundle as well (but I can’t find any comfirmation of whether they are or not on their site, so don’t quote me on that).

Next I decided to look at prices. It’s easy to get excited by $1.99 yarn on the Knitpicks site, but they’re in US dollars, and for 50 gram balls mostly. So I typed in the specs for Knitpicks yarns into a spreadsheet, including name, composition, weight, number of colours available, machine washable or not, and price. Then I started matching up Bendigo yarns to similar Knitpicks ones (I started with Bendigo because they have the largest range I know of for an independant Aussie yarn manufacturer) and all sorts of interesting information came out.

I found Bendigo yarns are often cheaper than Knitpicks. And they usually come in more colours.

Of course, Bendigo don’t make as wide a range of yarns as Knitpicks. They make the essentials – 100% wool in a range of weights in both machine washable and not, some cotton, some alpaca, and a couple of blends. They also sell the yarn in 200gram balls or skeins, which is economical if you want one or a couple of colours, but not if you wanted to buy lots of small amounts to make a complicated intarsia. Then it’s going to cost you a lot and you’ll have lots of leftovers.

Comparisons by weight:

Laceweight: Knitpicks has five kinds, one plain, three in 8 colours and one in 12. Bendy Classic in 2 or 3ply could replace the plain and 100% merino versions, and is also machine washable, comes in 36 solid colours, and is cheaper.

Fingering/4ply: KP has 11 kinds, four plain for dyeing. Most have only a small range of colours, but the 100% peruvian wool comes in 30 colours (but isn’t machine washable so obviously isn’t meant for socks). The mashine washable yarn comes in 14 colours.

This is where Bendigo yarns fail. You could use their Baby Wool, but it comes in only 8 pathetic pastels. However, you could also use their Colonial 5ply, or better still, their Classic 5ply, which is machine washable. Both come in 36 colours. But if you’re after a bit of nylon for better wearing, forget it. Still, if it’s a choice between machine washable and nylon content, I’ll go for the former first. After all, my socks will never wear out if I don’t wear them because I can’t be bothered handwashing them.

For cotton socks, there’s a Cotton 4ply, which isn’t really elastic enough for socks (I’ve tried it). Unfortunately Bendigo Harmony, which is a wool/cotton/lycra blend, only comes in 8ply.

Bendigo really needs to put out a good basic sock wool.

Sportweight/5ply: KP has 5 kinds, none machine washable except the cotton and the hand painted sock yarn. Bendigo Colonial 5ply could replace the non mw KP, and they have an advantage over KP in having the machine washable version – Classic 5ply. Both are cheaper than KP sportweight wool.

DK/8ply: This category left me stunned. KP has only 5 kinds of DK, and the only one that is machine washable is the cotton! Bendigo Classic, Colonial, Rustic, Harmony, Cotton and Alpaca, plus Nundle 8ply (and Nundle have 30 great colours), make for a much larger range – with a bigger range of colours, than KPs does in this category. While the Bendigo cottons are a little dearer than the KP cotton, the Classic, Colonial, Rustic and Alpaca beat KP prices.

Worsted/10ply: More than half of KP yarns are aran weight to super bulky. I suspect either they’re catering to the kind of knitter who wants a quick, thick knit… or maybe their worsted is actually closer to our 8ply than their DK is. A number of these yarns are novelty yarns, which I won’t bother trying to find a match for. There are 9 KP yarns in the worsted category. For an alternative, Bendigo Colonial comes in a Aran weight, but only in 8 of their 36 colours, but is cheaper than similar KP arans. Also, Nundle’s 8ply is thicker than usual, and could probably do for aran weight knits.

Bulky/12ply: KP has 10 varieties, some novelty. For a good local 12ply 100% wool yarn, Bendigo has Classic and Rustic – and Nundle also does 12ply that’s cheaper than the Bendy!

Super Bulky: KP has three, but they’re a bit ‘novelty’. Nundle Woollen Mills does a chunky 20 ply in many fabulous colours.

Other observations: Knitpicks doesn’t have any mohair yarns. Since I don’t like mohair much, I’m hardly bothered by that. But I do wonder why not. Instead they have a lot of blends containing alpaca.

It is the blends that require more research to find comparable yarns at comparable prices. I expect I’d find lots of similar blends made by Naturally, the New Zealand yarn manufacturer. Price might be a let down there, however. Naturally might make beautiful yarns, but not at bargain prices.

Knitpicks “Bare” yarns, meant for you to dye yourself, come in 100 gram lots, so they’re exceptionally cheap, but in laceweight and DK the difference in price to similiar Bendy yarns is smaller, so compare before you buy.

Overall, I can see that Knitpicks is catering to quite a different market than Bendigo, shown by the variety of sock yarns and bulky yarns, and blends. Bendigo makes an economical and reliable alternative if you want something more standard, like a machine washable 5ply, 8ply, etc. They have been sending me (free!) shade cards for blends – an alpaca/wool and wool/mohair/alpaca/angora blend – but these weren’t on the latest price list so maybe they didn’t generate enough sales.

So, to sum up, if you’re after a good sturdy plain yarn look into Bendigo and Nundle Woollen Mill’s range and prices. Don’t be fooled by prices that seem cheap because they’re in US dollars and for smaller balls and skeins.

If you’re after something fancier – blends and fancy dye jobs – also do your sums. It may be that by the time you have your order posted to a friend in the US or Canada, then add to that cost the price of postage to Australia, it may be cheaper to buy higher priced yarn from shops that mail to Australia.

Shops that don’t treat Australia like a third world country.