the good with the bad

Yesterday was good, good drive, good people, good conversation,

Today is bad...this is all I have accomplished in the past 2 hours, a waste of time and yarn.
Sometimes a knitting machine is good, sometimes it is evil. Here follows a little lesson in the care and feeding of the knitting machine:

- if it is in a small room with your hot water cylinder, the oil will dry out rapidly, so it needs
regular oiling and cleaning.

- if you have a bright desk lamp shining down into the card feed slot, (mylars) the card will
read incorrectly.
- silk and the knitting machine are incompatible, heading these words will save you much
grief, hair-pulling and money, it will also prevent the neighbours from thinking that you
have an anger management problem when you swear loudly at the wretched machine.
- if you disagree with the above comment, that is fine, you probably have well lubricated
silk ( yes I do find that last sentence disturbing, but I'm a grown up and as such,immune
to juvenile humour) and an angel of a machine.
- correct weighting of the fabric is vital, this is acheived through trial and error...lots and
lots of trial and error.
- stash chocolate in the knitting room, this will prevent you from declaring "it's margarita
time" at 11 am.

So I am in need of a bit of comic relief, and here is just the book, I found it in King St last night after dinner with Flash, it is called "Wild Knitting" published in the '80s and full of cool stuff, an armadillo wrap -complete with head and feet, cactus tie, giant fruit shaped floor cushions, Juju has a pic of the "Pastoral sweater" on her blog, don't think I will be taking her up on the idea of knitting it for the husband for Christmas!

and this...which did make the husband take notice! Knitted camisole/corset, tap pants, suspenders and stockings...definitely not for the faint hearted, but actually not too risque either. The top could definitely be altered to make it suitable as a summer top.



Final purchase at the book shop, Paragon baby leaflet, not so cute as the Patons one, but has a couple of interesting cardis and bunny slippers!

We are off for a sunday drive,I am going to take my nice, happy silk garden yarn, and keep knitting on my little project for Blaise, fingers crossed that I won't have a repeat of this morning's dramas.