Should Do - Want to Do...

I'd drone on about how busy I am but all of you are probably too busy to read about it. Hey, it's that time of year and as always, it'll come on the 25th whether I'm ready or not. First off, I've been tagged by Anmiryam to reveal 6 weird things about me. My examples leave a bit to be desired but here goes:

1. I started reading Tarot cards when I was eight. It became quite lucrative when I was in University.


2. I have an aunt that had triplet boys and then ten years later twin girls. I have another aunt with two sets of twins. I had twins as well.


3. I can't eat eggs unless they're scrambled.


4. I'll often turn my car around half way down the road to come back to the house to check that I turned off the coffee machine. I never have left it on by mistake.


5. I hated, hated, detested the musical Cats.


6. When I moved to a new town at age 8, I started calling myself Shelley. Four years later, I moved again and went back to Michelle.

There you have it, my weird confessions. I wish I could tag six new people but the only folks whom I know who have blogs have already been tagged.

On to knitting content (clearing throat). Christmas party was great - shawl, not done. That means I can shift back to Poppy who is chugging away nicely. I'm about 60% of the way through the bottom.

I've also started a pair of Fetching fingerless mittens for my DH. He's into RC Flying and his hands get cold when I holds the control box. I hope to have these done for Christmas but if not, he'll get them soon after.

Lastly, I've really fallen for Bonne Marie's latest cardigan "Ariann". I'm searching for the perfect yarn and there are two contenders in the "swatching warm up heats" at the moment. First up is merino/angora worsted weight from Lisa Souza. This is just a small sample to play with to see if it works. My gauge is a tad smaller than prescribed. I'm getting 20 st. by 29 rows and the pattern calls for 19 stitches by 24 rows. It's a concern because this is a raglan pattern and the row count...well, counts. I love the variation of this yarn (I want to make Ariann out of this) and it's so very soft. I would love to make Ariann in the "Mother of Pearl" colourway (insprired by the lovely Vanessa). My only hesitation is that based on my swatch, there may not be enough "heft" and drape to show off the lace pattern. If anyone has used this yarn for a garment, I'd love to hear the feedback. It is truly amazing.

The second option is Berroco's new Ultra Alpaca. I've swatched in the pale pink colourway and the gauge is close to the bullseye (I should make Ariann out of this). Bonne Marie herself has just used this yarn to make a lovely lavender Ariann and for the money - it's a very nice yarn. I just may want to use this for another Bonne Marie pattern - the infamous Ribby Cardi.

I may not get much time to blog over the next few days. My father is coming to stay with us for Christmas and he sleeps in the computer room. We'll see how it goes, I can always steal one of the kids' lap tops ;) It's been a while since I've recommended a wine to go with my knitting. For swatching, I recommend Goundrey Offspring Chardonnay. It's smooth, lets you enjoy the process and experiment and best of all...there are sheep on the label! Seriously, I had this wine yesterday and it was wonderful.