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?

You won!

Thanks so much for all the birthday wishes ya'll, you know how to make a gal feel spesh!

If you wanted a brooch, you got it. Send me your address and it's on its way mybrownpants(at)gmail(dot)com.


Happy International Women's day too everyone. It's a good excuse to think about how much things have changed for some and how much is left to be done.

Link to card template - Thanks Applehead!

Birthday giveaway!

So it's my birthday today (yay!)

Since I can't celebrate in real life with most of you, how about a blog giveaway?

The patterns for the brooches are from Mollychicken, tutorials here and here.

This is a special shout-out to any lurkers out there. I'd love to 'meet' you :)

1. Greens and reds


2. Or maybe Blue for you?


3. Pink and green


4. Pinks and brown


5. A bit of everything (I have two of these)


Please speak up if you want one of these, I'll post international no worries :) I'll be so embarrassed and depressed if no one wants a brooch, and we can't have that on my birthday!

I'm off to eat birthday dinner and open presents.

EDITED: Yay, all the brooches have been rehomed! Thanks so much for sharing the birthday love!
p.s. did I get spoilt!

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.

Me and my monkey

I don't like mokeys. I had a nasty experience with a bunch of them in Thailand once and had no interest in a repeat performance. Really I'd rather stick a fork in my eye.

Turns out I'm surrounded by them at the moment though.


JD doesn't share my dislike of monkeys. He quite adores them. Particularly these Balinese ones. And especially when they take me by surprise, sabotaging my careful plans to not get within 2m of them, resulting in an involuntary scream of horror. I'm still trying to figure out how my holiday vision of dips in the pool, good books and the odd gin and tonic transgressed repeatedly into fork-in-the-eye monkey visits.

Um, dudes, check out those nipples! OUCH!

They're much nicer in photo form than real life. Unlike these monkeys:


I'll keep these ones in real life. On my feet. The yarn is colinette jitterbug in 'popsicle' (from here). It's pretty good: soft, great colours, good price. It's a bit short on yardage though, I'm glad I've got small feet or there could have been tears.


I don't mind the pooling either. Although I might buy some more and do a basic rib sock to see how it goes. And this is a fantastic pattern, highly recommend it. It's complex enough to keep you interested, but not so difficult you get distracted. It lends itself well to magic loop on (2.5mm) addi's (my first magic loop socks!). I could get used to doing socks on magic loop, it's so much easier than double points.


Maybe not all monkeys are so bad.

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.

One Less Project

It's here:
And it's lovely. Unlike this:

The cape i've mentioned before, that one over there in the sidebar. We've been on non-speaking terms for a while. Ever since the increase sections started to look like this:

I've tried to ignore it (maybe i'm not reading the pattern* properly? Maybe it will look better if I block it? Maybe if I drop the stitches I can weave them back together in a cleaner way?) Nope. The increases are just messy. Too messy. Frog-it messy.

Anyone know what I can do with 9 balls of Jo Sharp Wool?

*The pattern's fluted ribs from Wrap Style