Mandie's remote blogging, and a knitted container

I've moved to a gorgeous new apartment and I'm delighted with everything, but I don't have internet access there yet. So this is me blogging from a distance - I've sent this post with my boyfriend to work, to upload when he gets the chance. And if he's reading this, thanks Andrew!

First things first: I have not started knitting my belly warmer, but I will definitely start it this week.

When we moved in, I told Andrew he could choose the colour scheme for the (completely white) bathroom, and he chose green. We purchased two green glass candle holders, two green washcloths and bath products with green labels.






It looks nice, but I had some pretty green yarn (don't ask where I got it from, I will deny owning anything more than the mini-stash I previously owned up to - all my other yarn is invisible until I need it (ok, I saw it in a shop and I just had to have it, so I bought four skeins, don't tell anyone)) and I thought that a container would be even nicer. So I knitted one. It is finished, but I need to wash and starch it, to stiffen the fabric more. I am not using it yet, but will buy some starch this week and tell it to stand up straight.






The basket is knit entirely in moss stitch (k1, p1)and measures 17cm x 17cm by 10cm. I added a stripe to the bottom panel, even though it won't be visible with items in it. Just to be flashy. I think it came out quite nicely and will post a picture of it in future, fulfilling its destiny in my brand new bathroom.

This was my first item knitted in moss stitch, ever. Obviously, since I only started knitting recently (check the first post date) and have been faithfully reporting about my knitting on here! The cushion, by the way, is still coming along, and I knit a new row every now and then. I find that I used to get slightly annoyed when I had to purl. I knitted so many garter stitch panels for that cushion, that I was completely comfortable with the knit stitch, but purling felt a bit odd. After knitting in moss stitch, however, I am now equally confident with both knitting and purling. In fact, when I knitted another row on my cushion (ribbed stitch), I knit 1, purled 1 and had to undo the purl stitch. I had forgotten how to just knit!

I've already decided on my next next next project - bedside rugs for my bedroom. The bed linen I use most frequently is cream with coloured stripes, so I want to knit some rugs to complement the bed linen. But that must wait, I need to finish these other projects first.

I find that being without internet really helps with my impatience when it comes to Ravelry.I asked Andrew to check it for me and there were 6000 odd people ahead of me. When I still had internet and checked, it was double that amount. Time just flies by when I'm not checking my Ravelry status every ten minutes.

Also, I knitted in public for the first time this past week! That was so cool, I am a confident enough knitter now to knit in front of other people. Andrew and I took a walk from our very centrally located new apartment (have I mentioned how incredibly awesome our new apartment is yet?) to one of our favourite Chinese restaurants for some take-away - a huge perk of moving is getting take-away while you settle in, right? I cleverly took my knitting with me to knit the green container while we waited. I also took my knitting with me once to knit while driving. I was surprised at how quickly I knitted - I only took the dark green with me, because I thought it would be a quick drive and I reached the light green stripe long before we were headed home. I wasn't driving, obviously. I'll definitely do that again, although I did suffer from a little bit of motion sickness in the beginning.

I'm working on the internet thing, but I don't even see a place for a telephone line in this aparment? They'll just have to come install one, because a girl could go crazy without her blog. In the meantime, I'm going to be knitting in my blogging time too. I have to get a new "waxy layer" on my 6 month old car, and the process will take about 2 to 3 hours. Can you believe that I am actually looking forward to that? They have a cute little waiting room with a tv and a snack shop at the place, so I can sit there and wait, watch some tv maybe, and knit for 2 to 3 hours without feeling guilty about having to do other things. I love how portable knitting is. What a great hobby.