Guest appearance

Sorry about the unexplained absence - it feel like i'm making guest appearances in huge parts of my life at the moment.

But i'm great! The new job is fantastic. It just takes up a huge chunk of my word quota for the day. By the time I've given another chunk to JD ('where's the beer?', 'thanks for cooking/vacuuming/washing the clothes...') there's not much left for this here blog...

But there has been craft - see:

Another one from Subversive Crossstitch

The knitting's been a bit patchy though - there's a shawl, some socks and some baby bits and pieces I finished quite a while ago now, but failed to photograph before they went to live at their new homes. After that there was nothing for a while: I was floating in the black whole of knitting nothingness.

And then the idea for perfect knitting escapism struck:


Return to what you know.


And get some Christmas knitting done at the same time.

And the blog love just keeps rolling in

Craft bloggers are really looking out for me at the moment! If totally surprising yarn generosity wasn't enough, witness the glories that graced my mailbox today from the wonderful applehead:


Check it out dudes! What loot! The first time I saw marianne make one of these scarves I just adored it, and now I have my own! Huzzah! But her cleverness doesn't end anywhere near there, that music sheet is a hand-made notebook - very soon to become my 'knitting notes book' in an attempt to ameliorate my constant forgetfulness about where I was up to. There's also a wonderful postcard and magnet from marianne's 'small people' series. You should all go and check them out, they're so full of character, it's quite amazing. Some gorgeous gift tags round things out. Jealous very much?


I particularly love the colours of the scarf, chocolate browns and bright blues just work so wonderfully together, it's my second favourite colour combination (the first being blood red and lime green). I'm developing a bit of a button fetish at the moment and the one on this scarf is doing funny things to me. It's just gorgeous (don't trust the crappily lit photography). Awesome job Marianne! I love it all!

There's some knitting to report too. More specifically i'm back on the lace bandwagon. This is my first 'lace' lace and I must say I'm loving it. It's coming out pretty quickly and the yarn is D.I.V.I.N.E (seasilk).


Double points if you can guess the pattern.

Top Score if you can find the extra random stitch I picked up on the last row...

Bits and pieces

Wow people, thanks so much for all the pomatomus love! It was definitely worth it in the end.

I've felt like a bit of a break from knitting since I finished them so i've been doing some needlework. It's so fast and satisfying in comparason. JD kinda likes it too, we've been making up little crossstitch patterns based on movie lines and song lyrics. I'm going to make myself a 'where is my mind?' plaque to put up at work (the pixies have been touring). It seems appropriate at the moment.

The options are pretty endless though, I made this crossstitch for a wonderful friend for her birthday. She's a bit of a Grates fan.


On a side note, I don't believe you've met Zeus? Our third (and final) cat. She's opens doors and can almost turn a key. I kid you not.

Anyway, I was enjoying the cross stitch so much I decided to give embroidery a go (dum-da-dum-dum).


It's not going too badly. It looks a bit amateurish, but it's a first-born so hopefully you can excuse me. I splashed out on some $10 vests and the plan is to spiff them up a bit with some embroidery once my skills improve a bit. We'll see how that goes...

And because it seems that I am a masochist when it comes to knitting deadlines, I've been making a pair of gloves for a visiting friend


They're a belated birthday present so I said I'd have them done before she leaves. Which is tomorrow.

Looks like it's back to the knitting after all.

Worms

Worms. I have the craft equivalent of worms. I just can't sit still on anything.

It's not such a bad thing though I guess. It means I've been fiddling with a new craft: a bit of subversive cross stitch (an inspired birthday present from JD).


I'm enjoying this an unreasonable amount, it feels hilariously risque to be cross-stitching naughty words. Juvenile, but hilarious.

I've been sewing together strips of left over fabric to turn into little gifts for some swaps i'm doing at the moment. This is of course a distraction from what i'm actually supposed to be making. Procrastinating? Me?


I've been cleaning out my fabric box too. I'm a terrible hoarder when it comes to fabric. There's something about not being able to look at it in it's little folded piles that makes me reluctant to actually use it. Well, that and the fact that my sewing ability is actually so craptastic it seems like a waste. But there is a resolution to this little problem. One that involves no sewing. One that means I can still ogle the pretty fabric.


I'm well in to the foot on the pomatomus too, but I don't think you need another photo of that. Hopefully if everyone crosses their fingers I'll have them finished this week.

That is if I can sit still for long enough...

Badcaul socks

I'm very jealous of people that seem to be able to match a sock yarn with it's perfect pattern.

Cases In Point.
And some more.

So when the badcaul socks started to look like this it was a bit, um. No. I don't think so...


The pretty little cables were obscured by the darkness (ha, that sounds quite profound doesn't it?). To be honest this yarn wasn't at all what I was expecting (colinette jitterbug in jewel). There's much more dark blue and maroon than I thought there would be. A bit too school uniform for my liking. I guess that's what happens when you buy yarn off the internet though.

Things were soon rectified, however.


Ahh...that's much better (do you see that? Toe up! Magic loop! Two at once!)

Speaking of yarn off the internet, I've been doing some serious salivating over this stuff.

Anyone got any recommendations for the rejected badcaul yarn? I'm up to the heel on the poms, so it looks like i'll need to cast on another pair of socks to maintain the trifecta.

ED: Holy Crap! Cookies shop's open! I adore these sock patterns. Huzzah! This makes me seriously happy. Is that sad?

Swimming in a sea of socks

If socks were food I'd be eating pretty well at the moment.

For entree we'd have some freshly frogged pomatomus. Whilst one may prefer them in a more advanced phase, sometimes they are much sweeter after a trip to the frog pond*. There's always the chance that they'll spontaneously multiply, which is a real treat. The subtle tonal striping forms the signature mark of this dish.


For mains we'd have some charming Baudelaire. The sophisticated colour compliments the difficulty with which the dish is prepared. The standout feature the utilisation of the Turkish cast on, a brilliant device that isn't half as complicated as one may first think.



For desert one could not go past the jitterbug jewel, which has now become the embryonic stages of badcaul. Oh come on! All the cool kids are doing it.


I need some knitting viagra so I can actually finish the job on some of this stuff.

Something strange happened the other day

Ugh! I've been tagged.

I put up a brave fight but in the end the numbers defeated me! Once and I could meander on my skippy way, twice and I was knocked to a crawl, thrice and I could fight as much as I do when offered a beer on a friday night.

Now i'm not so sure about this 'wierd thing' thing (I'm even more unsure about 'weird thing' things) wierdness being all about perception and all that. I don't find anything about myself inherently wierd, which means i'd have to pretend to be someone else perceiving me to try and figure out how I was wierd. And even then that would be an assumption (based on my perception of their perception of me, see).

Obligatory craft content. Crochet flower brooches made from leftovers.

The best I could come up with was that the day after I eat chewing gum my jaw hurts. Doesn't make for interesting reading really does it.

So instead I just asked other people what about me was wierd/quirky/unconventional (noting that unconventional is subject to the same conceptual flaws as 'wierd', but you knew that already didn't you).

And we have:

I can skull beer faster than MrBrownPants. Yep. I've bailed him out a couple of times too. His last birthday it hit midnight and his rugby mates were all singing 'happy birthday' (or at least I think that's what it was), someone brought over a beer, he looked at me and said 'If I have another beer I think I'll die'. What's a girl to do? There are serious changeroom reprisals if beer doesn't get skulled. It turned out to be a secret super power. Shhhh.

Someone once ate my goldfish. This was six years ago and I'm still furious about it. It genuinely upset me so much I was vegetarian for 5 years. (I eat fish now, but no other meat)

Progress shot. Is that a heel flap that needs knitting?

I say Methodology a lot. This scurrilous rumour has been around for a while. I don't care though, I think it's a good word. And more people should use it. And sticks and stones and all that...

I am not averse to a bit of dancing and singing in the office on a Friday afternoon. Apparently these are knows as my 'episodes'. I do have a Friday afternoon iTunes list, Franz Ferdinand's Take me out and all that. Highly recommend it as a workplace strategy. There's nothing you'll ever do in a meeting that will look embarrassing once people have seen you moonwalk. I'd avoid the Macarena though, they may not take you seriously after that.

My new favourite top. Just to distract you from all the text.

And just to prove that this is indeed an exercise in perception, I have some crazy ideas. "Like that everyone deserves a decent standard of living. And women should be treated equally and stuff." Hmmmmmmm.

I have a morning fart schedule.
Alarm. Snooze.
Alarm. Snooze. Fart.
Alarm. Swear about being late. Get up.
You wouldn't think i'd admit to this, but I know i'm not alone. I'm sure there's more of us. Out yourselves, O' farty ones! Together we can take over the world!

I'm breaking the rules and not tagging anyone. I'm a rebel like that.

Distraction

Monkey sock one is done

I really enjoyed making this, it's a fantastic pattern.

Although there have been some colour pooling issues (these are two sides of the same sock)

No second sock yet. I keep getting distracted.


It's calling me.

Can you hear it?

edited to add: Purlyarns now has seasilk in stock. This wouldn't necessarily be significant, but if you've ever tried to get this in Australia you'll understand (yes you could order it from the US but it's even difficult to find there. And postage costs a bomb. And it's nice to support local business). I'm not really into randomly plugging things, but I emailed Taryn months ago and she said she'd let me know. And she kept me updated. And I think that's fantastic customer service. So go check it out if you want to treat yourself :) Sqwee!

Done

Hang on a minute! That's three boxes. I thought there were only two shawls?

Everything was finished (it's amazing where you can find knitting time when you really need it!) and the wedding was gorgeous.

I'll have photos as soon as I get back from holidays.

Thanks for all the blog-love people, every time I needed a bit of moral support I would just read the comments!

Knitting on the road

Shawl number one's getting there. Ten repeats are done. It all comes down to how much knitting I can get done in the car. Oh, and silk dries really quickly doesn't it?

Cursed

The Good.

Shawl number 2 is off the needles and blocking.

The Fetchings are off the needles, ends sewn in, wrapped and ready to be gifted (Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran #611. I ran out of yarn with one thumb left to do, but I had an extra).

And eight repeats are done on shawl number 1.

Must be beer o'clock.

The Bad.

Most of this was done in the Emergency department of the hospital. My mum hasn't been well and she crashed pretty badly on Saturday morning. They admitted her and kept her over night and she's much better now (and at home). Given that Dad and MrBP are very squeamish around blood and needles I sent them home and stayed with her. There's not much to do in hospitals if you're not working or sick, so while she slept I knit. We nearly ended up back there on Sunday when I took a stack trying to photograph the shawl for this blog! You can laugh, it's hilarious really.

I have decided these shawls are cursed.

Bugger.

Everything seems to be going along OK now, but things did not start so well. It would take too long to explain in full-detail, and I don't think you'd believe me anyway, but by way of a brief summary: it took forever for the yarn to arrive. When the yarn arrived the pattern went missing. When the pattern went missing I couldn't download another copy as my access had timed out. When I eventually got a copy of the pattern (thanks so much for that Susan) the printer died while I was running out the door late for a plane. When I got to the airport, having satisfied myself that since the one page that had printed was the graph pattern I would just teach myself how to read that, I wasn't allowed to take my knitting on the plane. I tried to explain that knitters were philosophically opposed to terrorism, but I still had to check it.

(Shawl 2: 6 repeats done)

By this stage I was totally expecting the bag to be lost in transit somewhere. My boss thought this was all very amusing ("This would only happen to you" isn't a statement that helps in such times of crisis). However, having been on the receiving end of some knitted gifts, she was very sympathetic. She called the office and had them fax the pattern to us and then let me slip out of the last (very boring) session to knit. Take note knitters, get your boss on side!

(Shawl 1: 6 repeats done)

I thought I would start with my shawl, because I'd already cast that on with half a skein I had left from another project. But it just didn't look right. Check it out:

They're almost completely different! Who would have thought dye lot would make that much difference. What's Gold/Purple/Green on one is Yellow/Brown/Blue on the other. The second one looks like a totally washed-out version of the first. I was really unhappy about this to start with, but as I knitted up the new yarn I realised that I still liked it, it was only really a problem when I compared it to the other. I haven't quite figured out what I'm going to do with the little bit of the darker colour I have, I suspect i'm going to need it to finish off the project. Does anyone have any advice for how I can work it in, other than alternating between the balls towards the end?

I've got the weekend set aside for knitting, so hopefully will have some progress by Monday. I think it was the good vibes ya'll sent that battled off the forces of evil so keep'em coming!

Oh, and I just remembered I have a pair of fetchings to knit by Monday for a work mate that's moving back to Italy. I'm shaking my head at me too.

Oh dear.

A friend of mine is getting married towards the end of the month. No, not a friend. A person I have shared a significant part of my life with. The type of friend that over a lifetime you can usually count on one hand and that you are thankful for every day. The type of friend you would do anything for, even if there was only a slim chance you'd pull it off. Especially if you're the designated assistant for her wedding and head of the A-List (otherwise known as a bridesmaid) and the said task involved knitting.

My challenge is this: There are now 11 days (including what is left of today) until the wedding (is that a gasp I hear, V?) In the next 11 days I need to knit and block two lace shawls. Yes, two. One for me and one for the extremely talented (and now bald) friend who is making our dresses.

Now we could get in to an endless quagmire of discussion about why exactly I have 11 days to make 2 shawls (left it to the last minute), there may even be a sob story in there (yarn took twice as long to arrive as it should have) but I suspect it was self-sabotage. Thing is I like a bit of deadline pressure. I realise that this is possibly slightly masochistic in this instance, but i'm secretly a little excited by the challenge.


But i'm also realistic. Being ridiculously stubborn may not be enough in this case. So please, if you have any to spare, send your good knitting vibes my way. I suspect i'm going to need them.

Can you guess?

I've been on a Finished Object high since the shawl. Nothing done yet, but I've got lots on the go. Wanna sneak peak?

There's been some sewing:

Some knitting (ok so this one may be a bit obvious ;):

And some crochet. Some very beginner crochet:

Thanks so much to everyone that left a comment on the shawl. Double digit comments, I'm feelin' the blogger love! I'm especially chuffed cause I like to read all your blogs!

Lifelines

To whoever thought of lifelines in knitting - Thank You. You have saved the small piece that's left of my lace-knitting sanity. Without too much exaggeration I think the amount of this shawl that I have unknit would roughly compare to the amount that I have knit. But I love it.

I need some advice though. The pattern is for a 'shoulder shawl', but I've decided that often these shawls are made for 'narrow' people. I like to be able to wrap up a bit more in a shawl (therefore everyone must prefer that, right?) So I've decided that since I had to start a second skein anyway, I'm just going to keep going...(and here's where you come in)...But when will it end? Sweet Lord when will the lace-pain end! How will I know? Should I just keep going until I'm going to run out? The rows are getting soooooooo loooooooooong now, what will they be like after a couple more repeats? How will I account for blocking growth? Arrrrrrrrrhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Please advise.

I don't have much to offer, but I'll dedicate this first-born lace shawl to you. And you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you have rescued me from the clutches of a potential existential crisis...

Um, so I haven't posted in a while. I did suspect I would have commitment issues. I like to read blogs more that I like to write my own, I think. I don't think I'm really a 'work in progress' blogger, either. I can't think of enough to say about things to sustain multiple posts on them, so this may be more of an infrequent finished object type blog. Yes, that makes me feel better.

Having said all that, here's a WIP (oh dear). I've been looking at some of the lovely lace shawl patterns that seem to float around in blogland and have wanted to have a crack at them. Then I saw that a very clever blogger had designed one just for me! Ok, maybe not me specifically, but for wannabe beginner lace knitters like me. Check it out:


Wanna close up?

It looks much better when you pull it out a bit and all the stitches open up. This one will have
to be blocked, methinks. It's been knitting up pretty quickly, actually. Except for the un-knitting. Oh my, the rows, and rows, and rows of unknitting. One little missed YO and back we go. Take a note people, Drink. Knit. Bloody Idiot.