Ramblings... and a squee!

First all, I've just returned from my Monday night stitch n bitch. I have the coolest knitting group in the world!! Not for anything in particularly, but these ladies rock. It make my week to hang out with them. :)

Second, as Lime & Violet would say, I had a 'sqeeeee' today, when I listened to the lovely Heather Ordover on the CraftLit podcast, and she read my email (with my permission naturally) !!
(Episode 39 if you feel like looking it up) I'm feeling very flattered and clever, so that's my brush with celebrity for the decade ;)

Kudos to Heather for a fabulous, intelligent podcast (and that's all her obviously, not because she included me!)

And Kudos to the craftyaction girls. You rock!

Raspy web-links

Yes, I'm so keen on starting Raspy, I'm reading about it all over.

So, as a self-reference and collation of Raspy's online..

• Brooklyn Tweed's fabulous version (sans dropped stitches) that totally caught my eye..
• A knit-along's hints and tips.
• Denim yarn comparisons by the Knitting Wench
• Denim People knit-a-long
• Raspy photos: passionfruit
• Raspy photos: blumunchie
• Piece of Beauty: good hints for keeping edges neat for the dropped stitches
• Streets and YOs: more good modification hints

Of the various changes people have made those that I intend to follow include:

• work in the round
• do one of the alternate (tbl etc) ways of neatening the dropped stitch edges

The one I am seriously considering that I haven't seen is a v-neck rather than the boat neck. Jared at Brooklyn Tweed went for a crew (round) neck, that I will definitely do if not the v-neck. The one thing I don't like about the sweater is the front neckline, which seems to roll a lot and not be as suited for larger busty ladies..

oohhh I hope the book gets here soon!

oh and the diamond stitch top progresses... slowly... about another 4 cm until I split for the arm scythes.

I finally got around to updating the links...

Those of you who use a feed service such as bloglines will actually need to look at the site to see, but I've updated some of my links etc and added a new feature, thanks to a funky little web service called LibraryThing.

Enjoy!

Whooo-hoo! Fastest postage ever!

The yarn arrived. From the UK. Quicker than the book from Australia!?

Can't wait now. Need the book to find out needles etc., so I can't even prepare to knit it...

I think I will be definitely buying from her again.

Okay, it's done! Yarn and pattern ordered

In the process of ordering I found a couple of good online suppliers, and thought I'd share. I can't of course garuntee anything until they arrive, but they seem good value.

For books I went to Fishpond (an Australian bulk book dealer with discounts on some books - including the required-but-elusive Denim People) and postage of $5.95 (that's Australian dollars too!)

For the yarn, I found an ebay seller in the UK who sells a lot of discounted Rowan, (and Debbie Blis and Noro etc etc). Even including postage and exchange rates, it was substantially cheaper than anywhere else online I looked at. Janette's Rare Yarns.

So I'm hoping that it all arrives in time for the March Labour Day Long weekend ! Wheeee!

I shall be knitting Raspy:

I like the wabi-sabi (new but imperfect) thing it has going on and was completely sold by the way people talked about how it wears, how comfortable it is, how it naturally fades over time... and how you can machine wash it with your jeans!

At any rate, despite my deep desire to knit any number of complicated things in wool... I know I won't get as much wear out of them. Maybe I'll do another fair aisle cotton or wool cardigan (in 4ply) later.... as it is relatively cheap on yarn.

When the pink diamond stitch top gets finished. Or should that be if??

Jaywalker Bandwagon? Never heard of it!

I really love how it is turning out. Extra kudos and thanks to Nadine for fab-u-lous yarn!

The cure. (no, not the band)

Sometimes, we all have bad days.

My easiest way to perk me up?

These.

My own hand-dyed, hand-knit socks.

Pathetic, and yet satifying.

My yarn's having an identity crisis....

Remember that hand-dyed blue 3ply yarn from the Royal Show that didn't want to be that entrelac?

Well....

While it seems to be working in a technical sense, it's just too thin (as in thickness, not width) to be a suitable clapotis and I doubt I have enough to make a wrap at any rate. On the plus side, I do like the Clapotis pattern. God knows what it will end up being, I have no idea.

I am, it seems, very much in the mood to start a new project.

I must be. I did a stocktake of my stash.

Man, I have a lot of trash.

I mean that in the literal (a lot of acrylics and novelty odd balls for gift knitting) and more tangential sense (a lot of odd balls in miss-matched yarns and weights of minimal use).

I have one large and one small plastic tubs full of yarn.

Other than enough yarn for 6 pairs of socks (though sadly, none like Clementine's fabulous Cherry Tree Hill). Nice, but ....

Of the yarn in which I have more than one ball of a type I have :

• 3 and a bit balls of purplish-grey Zara (the colour doesn't suit me, and the rest of it became a fabulous felted bag for my mum)
• 10 balls of bright red scarlet Zara (in progress into being knitted into a ribbed jumper for Jasi. Stalled due to it being summer and me waiting a little longer to see just how tall she gets)
• About 12 balls in various ice-cream colours (pink, lime, pale blue, teal, taupe etc) Katia Mississippi. (great yarn but single balls of most colours means its firmly in the baby-gift realm).
• That Anny Blatt scarlet silk. Am considering (still) knitting the top Lupinbunny knitted, but then had a dream a few nights ago where I dreamt the perfect thing to knit with it. Can I remember anything about the dream-top now? Of course not.
  

That's it! Everything else is single balls of yarn. That don't work together.



I think I want to knit Scarlet as my Christmas-gift-money-knit (Adam's other gift to me) but I need to work out what is the cheapest way to get the yarn - online or local ordering.

...

Still deciding. I got all excited by Rogue, and by that Fairaisle jumper from the Winter Vogue Knitting just gone... and many others.

Unfortunately, I can't do that thing I see people doing (and discussing) online where they love a pattern so they run out and but the yarn for it. Money being a little too tight for that, my knitting generally is on a one-project-buy-at-a-time thing.

Not that I always finish quickly. On the needles I have:

• a second sock in a yarn colourway I don't like. I tell myself I should finish and then over-dye them in purple or something.
• Jasmine's red jumper for next winter
• a scarf in a pretty variegated blue .... acrylic... that was the first actual object I ever knitted (but obviously not the first finished).
• the diamond stitch top

[stops and considers] I'm rambling. Will stop now.

Post-Christmas ramblings and photos...

Okay, I promised some photos, right?

My camera is a Canon PowerShot A530. It looks like this:


Well, it does when photographed in a mirror without a flash (sorry bout the blur).
Cool, huh?








I've also been testing out some entrelac (thanks to lupinbunny), but have decided that despite the nice colours of my own hand dyed yarn, the colour repeats are not long enough. See?













Oh, yeah and then there's the new bag :)

(warning: Gratitutous photographing of bag to come)

It looks like this.

It's HUGE inside. (Very tardis like). I'm pretty sure you could get a whole jumper and notions required in there. The little purple bag on the side there is attached with press studs so you can put the smaller stuff in there. It also has a side zippered pocket. Only thing I wish it had was a mobile phone/ipod pocket. But the zippered one does okay for that for me.

The nifty side pocket holds all your smaller stuff - small needles, pens, scissors, calculator etc.

And, I'm back on that diamond stitch top from the Sarah Dallas Vintage Knits book. And again, part of me says...

"4ply cotton on 3mm needles. In the round so it goes extra slow. What were you thinking?!"

There is photos of this, but I think I've hit the cache limit for Blogger. So, another time.

I'm also considering trying to participate in "Project 365". I now have a small, digital camera. I also want to work on something I've long been terrible at. I look terrible in photos. I seem to sabotage myself constantly, probably subconsciously. I don't mean to look awful, after all.

I don't think they'll end up here - I'm a bit hesistant of putting personal photos up. But we'll see how it goes. Maybe you'll get the non-people photos.

Phat Lewt!

[trans. Geek] I got good stuff for Christmas!

I am SO lucky...

My Christmas haul this year is truly worth grinning about.

• That Jordana Paige knitting bag in grape. (photos later)
• A new digital camera for blogging.. (still no photos, not on broadband at the new place yet)
• a beautiful pearl, white gold and rubber bracelet and earrings. Very nice. (etc)
• the Jasper Fforde, The Fourth Bear
• the Neil Gaiman, Fragile Things.

I've started reading the last one, which just shows me just how truly brilliant Neil Gaiman is.

It's a book of short stories, and the first one alone left me shaking my head in awe at his writing. It's a H.P. Lovecraftian tale in the style of Sherlock Holmes. Just wonderful.

Anyway, the sporadic photo-less posts will probably continue for another fortnight, the whole holiday season is a mess as far as getting net access put on, sadly. So much for geeking my way through my holidays :(

oh, and ..

Merry Christmas all.

Busyness and so lack of posting.

Okay, no photos because near finishing a Christmas present and she reads the blog :P

Also, not much posting for a few weeks probably because we're moving house!

Moving to interim accomodation with our own space while our new house gets built. :)

It's just a tiny two bed apartment, which my man says is about the same size as the living area in our new-being-built-house [grin] but it will suit us. He also says ity's ugly and I'll hate it, but I'm treating it like an interim return to uni-studentness and the location wins out.

We're not sure what will be happening with net access for a bit, so I might be on borrowed PCs etc for blogging. All will sort itself out one way or another, the universe kind being of that type.

Oh, and there's a local holiday coming up that will take some of my time. ;-)

Shhh!

Can't post secret gift knitting.

shhhhhhh.....

Ho-ho-ho

He's all done!

Headless errr... rather Faceless Santa/Father Christmas

Here he is. Rather turning out well, with interesting construction - he's done toe up !

His beard is underway then he just needs a hat and embroidered face. Then off to small person's room as huggable decoration.

He's quite big really, and murder on my bamboo dpns - several of the four are now splintered and unsuable. Onto the Christmas wish list we now have new sock needles...

I love online quizzes :) - Which Classic Female Literatary Character Are You?

I did this, saw the result, and HAD to post it (insert ridiculously big grin here)

I am....

Which Classic Female Literary Character Are you?

You're Elizabeth Bennett of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen!
Take this quiz!






Quizilla |
Join

| Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

And I was even honest on the answers and everything. :)

A one-word meme.

I love this kind of thing.

You.
Can.
Only.
Type.
One.
Word.

No.
Explanations.

1. Yourself: geek
2. Your boyfriend/girlfriend (spouse): soulful
3. Your hair: spiky
4. Your mother: spiritual
5. Your Father: certain
6. Your Favorite Item: smile
7. Your dream last night: work
8. Your Favorite drink: coffee
9. Your Dream Car: silver
10. The room you are in: study
11. Your Ex: nice
12. Your fear: inadequate
13. What you want to be in 10 years? happy
14. Who you hung out with last night? knitters!
15. What You're Not? bimbo
16. Muffins: benedict
17. One of Your Wish List Items: cure
18. Time: harried
19. The Last Thing You Did: story-reading
20. What You Are Wearing: jeans
21. Your Favorite Weather: cool
22. Your Favorite Book: Thursday
23. The Last Thing You Ate: custard
24. Your Life: busy
25. Your Mood: quiet
26. Your best friend: poet
27. What are you thinking about right now? Christmas
28. Your car: serviceable
29. What are you doing at the moment? waiting
30. Your summer: hot
31. Your relationship status: satisfying
32. What is on your TV? xbox
33. What is the weather like? gusty
34. When is the last time you laughed? tonight


Borrowed from Moth Heaven
who borrowed it from somewhere else...

Shhhhh! Santa's coming to town.

I'm posting this quickly while the recipent eats her morning toast.

Santa is coming along nicely, hopefully done this week!


I'm not sure I mentioned this before but its one of Interweave Press' freebie Christmas patterns, from there Piecework magazine.

Anyway must run! Morning rush!

Consumer Friendly Yarns: A community announcement to spread the word

I'm guessing most of you are aware of this, as the information was pedalled through the knitting world a little while ago as a significant news item through the pod/blog world.

Precis:
Some yarn companies specify how much the suppliers can charge for their yarns. So even if you buy from a discount outlet type operation (online etc) they can't charge less than full price. No discounting here.

This is, in America (I don't know about here) illegal. It also sucks for us - because we can't buy the stuff discounted online :)

A website has been set up to list the companies as either good, bad or unknown. (I'm paraphrashing). You can find it at www.consumerfriendlyyarns.blogspot.com

Knit on. :)

(Oh and the Santa's coming along nicely. Will bring it Monday, Mt Lawley girls.)

Look, isn't it pretty?

Okay after struggling many, many times before...

I now installed have the new look blog template. Hurrah.

What'd ya think?

Yeah, I know I haven't filled it all in yet. I'll get there.

Presents and goodies from afar!!

Yay! A story in pictures, courtsey of the terribly nice Nadine via Germany via the Lime and Violet message boards. Hurrah!

Chapter one. A package arrives.


Chapter two. A mystery?


Chapter Three. It builds...


Chapter four. The final crescendo!


Chapter five. The denoument.

You know a actually feel vaguely guilty. I sent Cherry Ripes and Tim Tams and Jo Sharp Silkroad.

She sent me Lindt, Toblerone, Milka, german gingerbread and such and German Sock yarn!!

I hope she's half as happy with her stash as I am with my goodies...

(I think the coconut and milk filled lindt eggs are my favourite. SO yummy!)

...... runs off to eat another one......