Getting yarn into (half) a tangle

Okay bad joke.

But here's half a tangle of a Tangled Yoke. 'Cos apparently I can do cables when sick. *sniff*

Lots of lying down and watching DVDs at the same time helps of course.

Here is what half a tangle looks like..

And I have to add 'Herb' colourway? Bitch to photograph.

Because Knitters can be truly wonderful people

JulieB over on Ravelry (knitcrack (tm)) was amazingly kind enough to send me some Jameison's Spindthrift to try out a swatch for a Venezia or Ivy League Vest.

Look!

How pretty!
She sent me a knitting-themed card people! Is this woman awesome or what?!

Now, unfortunately I need to go crumple in a flu-ish pile of blah. (home sick)

Welcome to use-what-you-have

Well, some of you Ravelers may have already noticed the mass exodus onto Ravelry of my stash. .. That would be an influx (thanks my darling writing-major man).

This is part of an ongoing avoid-spending money strategy. As well as not being quite as much the conspicuous consumer and.. well, you lot know the reasoning behind this kind of thing, right?

So. I have a lot of yarn. But some of it just leaves me cold. So I need to be looking to use what I like, and trade what I don't.

We'll see how we go, hey?

Some days, I just want to give in to my inner knit geek.

Days like today. When someone at work just seems totally intent on making your day harder while being really unpleasant about it at the same time.

So. I want to come home, photograph my progress and show off, dammit! Oh and add in a bunch of Australian knit stuff into Ravelry.

So.

The bragging. I have finally finished the first parts of the two sleeves and added them to the body and have started the yoke of my Tangled Yoke cardigan.
It's really getting kind of bulky to haul out on the bus. Not that it actually stops me from doing so, but still. I have about another 2 inches of stockingette uber-long rounds before I get to the interesting bit and start the named-for cables...

Look! A sleeve join!

Oh and on the Print o the Wave stole front. The yarn is ordered, and about to head from California to Australia. Not the correct dye lot, sadly. Ah well. Let's hope its a close match.

Look, knitting!

Sorry about the image-empty posts of late. I've been a tad busy - last weekend was massively busy with 5year old parties, family breakfast and friends over for dinner. I didn't even go onto my PC once over the weekend - scary, huh?

But, I have been knitting.

Mostly, Tangled Yoke cardigan sleeves. The not-quite-on-gauge problem (for rows, but not stitches *sigh*) has run into the not-liking-the-sleeve-design problem. So, I found the original sleeves gaped too much at the wrist and I wanted a more fitted sleeve. Thus I ripped it all out, casting on 41 stitches instead of the original 59 (yes, there was math involved to calculated just how fitted I wanted it to be).

Which all worked swimmingly, I knitted along, trying it on as I went etc. (got to love knitting in the round for that).. 31cm into the project a thought struck me. I was following the original distance apart for increases up the sleeve. I needed to do an additional 8 paired increases to get to the right size for the yoke.. Um.. Would I have enough length to get them all in? More math/measuring. Oh look, no, no I won't. Bugger.

More math… Okay changing the frequency of increases means… yes I think I have it…work another 10 cm…. And then only a little speeding up a second time for the last 3-4cm. I have about 3 rows before it goes onto spare yarn and I cast on sleeve two. I'm glad I made notes on the changes, huh ? ;)

On the plus side I keep being surprised by just how fast a sleeve can go! I haven't even knit all that much and the sleeve's practically done! (Lace is great for perspective - *everything* feels amazingly quick to knit).

Where to from here? Musing on one's knitting queue..

As I sit here, eating with delicious slowness my Leonidis Vanilla Crème Chocolate (my absolute favourite chocolates in the world, as Bibnbub will attest), I consider my knitting state of play.

Thanks to the offers of several kind souls, here and abroad, known personally and virtually, I will shortly have some of the requisite Knitpicks Shimmer. Not in the required dye lot, sadly, but we shall push on regardless and hope the karma of the world is kind to me as I finish this lace gift knit and that the difference in colour is not perceptible to the careful eye of either the knitter (me) or the once-knitting giftee! On the plus side, our local Stitch and Bitch has gained a new Knitpicks Dealer ™ much to the delight of the assembled knitters from a country-so-far-away-Americans-won't-mail-to-us.

I have approximately 27 repeats of the final lace side (maybe 26 when I finish the last little bit of the yarn I DO have). It shall wait patiently for the arrival of new supplies.

In the mean time, I have picked up a long discarded item - my Tangled Yoke cardigan. It had stalled, partly due to a re-take up of the lace stole and partly due to my dissatisfaction with the sleeves. You see they were quite loose on me. I'd knit about a third of the first one and I kept looking at it, willing it to fit better through sheer force of mental effort. To no avail. It wasn't bad knitting - another examination of the pattern showed they are in fact fairly wide at the wrist. Which, on reflection would be good if you lived in a climate which required the wearing of many layers (i.e. a long sleeved shirt under it). I don't however. The delay meant instead something positive happened. I took a fresh look at it.

I ripped out the entire sleeve, did some math and cast on a much smaller sleeve edge. I shall do more increases to get up to the correct arm scythe size, but it is now only a little loose and I think a much more wearable fit. I knit it on the bus this morning, and discovered something. After an hour, I could see visible progress! Wonders! It's obviously been so long since I knit anything other than lace, I'd forgotten that knitting could HAVE visible progress.

This has made me rethink my extended queue of projects. This queue has several lace pieces on it. I am now thinking that maybe, just maybe, I should take a different tack. I think, after I have finished the lace I should reconsider new projects for something.. Smaller. Maybe socks? My little one was admiring the Blue Moon Fibre Arts colourway Fire on the Mountain, and asked if I could knit her some socks in that.. 5 year old socks… now that sounds like a plan, doesn't it?

(note to those who know me: Yes, I know I have Anastasias started already on the needles, and I still have the Tangled Yoke, but still. The Socks that Rock colours are so pretty..)

This is what crying over not enough yarn looks like.

This is my Print O' the Wave stole.
This is, you will remember, a gift for my man's grandmother who can no longer knit herself and who's last knitted item was a perfect lace Christening shawl for my daughter.

As you can see from the above, I am less than a single side away from finishing the edging. I had done the math, you will recall, to work out how long I would need to knit to finish it (I think my sampling error was a bit high, and I should have taken more than a single timing measurement, but that's another post). The end was in sight.

Then karma takes me, and... slaps me stupid for my hubris.

This is how much yarn I have left.
I have posted on Ravelry seeking a swap/trade/buy/beg pathetically...

I can't however, buy the yarn myself directly from the company, because they refuse to post outside the US or Canada. (sulk) And our previous acquirer is no longer availible (sigh).

I should be able to get some in the same colourway, but not the same dye lot. There are a couple of people over on Ravelry having them for trade, but none with the right dye lot as far as I can tell.

This is how I feel, after all that work.

(photo kindly borrowed from D-Hub on flickr).

'Nuff said.
(and before people *cough* Fitzwilliam *cough* start to panic, I'm fine. Just kicking my own ass for not buying an extra skein when originally buying it. It had about 100m more than the pattern called for. That seemed.. plenty.)

Lace Stole Math

This is what I just figured out. I have (both literally and figuratively) just turned a corner on the Print O the Wave stole.

248 edge stitches on a long side. 88 stitches on a short side. One of each remaining.

One repeat takes me approximately 17 minutes. A repeat consumes 8 edge stitches into the knitted on border.

This means...
248 = 31 repeats of edging.
88 = 11 repeats of edging.
(31+11)*17 = 714 minutes of edge knitting left.
714/60 =11 hours and 54 mins of knitting time until I can block, sew in a couple of loose ends and it will be done.

Somehow, 12 hours of knitting time suddenly doesn't seem so bad. I see end of the project! Can I get a huzzah?

Knitting badly interrupted... by reading...

Yes, well. I was loaned this on Friday night.

Thought I'd take a look Saturday and bang! It ate all my knitting time.

I finished it this afternoon, walking home from the bus stop. Yes, I can read and walk home at the same time, can't you?

It was wonderful. A story of the fae, with lots of rock music. Wonderful read.

So, I've only done a little more - continuing the ongoing yawn that the Print of the Wave stole edging has been. This hasn't, of course stopped me drooling all over various lace stoles on Ravelry while I plan my next project...

Also, I am in the market for some of those embroidered Arabian style slippers. Couldn't find any at Freo markets, so keep an eye out for me, won't you?

Was I the only person who didn't know about the free Rowan patterns online?

OMG.

Found here. There are heaps. Going back to 2001.

Que Sera, sera..

Remember that bit..

"I asked my mother, what will I be? Will I be pretty, will I be rich? Here's what she said to me..."

So my anticipated Belisa silk lace weight arrived, bought on sale from Ozeyarns. At first, to be honest I was a little disappointed - the yarn is a lot more yellow than I had expected.

This isn't the end of the world of course, it just means I probably won't be using it for the initial bought intention - wedding garment. Looks like someone I like (a lot) might get it at some distant point in the future as lace shawl-type garment.

On the definitely plus side, I am quite taken by the Centolavaggia deep red laceweight the terribly nice secret Santa brought me... and also by the suggested Celtic Knot Stole pattern.

I'm making progress on the Print O' the Wave too - I've completed one short side and maybe a quarter of one long side of the edging. It has suddenly started to drag, feeling like I'm not making progress. Which I clearly am, but it just feels like it is taking oh so long to get anywhere. I hope every lace edging isn't like this!! The Vogue cardigan wasn't :(

New Year's Resolutions...

Michelle, over on craftyaction blogged about her crafty New Year's Resolutions. So I got thinking... I am quite one for resolutions but rarely get into sharing them overly from a fear I won't get far.
(Witness the failed photographic Project 365 project).

However, one one of the blogs I read they were exposing the importance of telling people about your new resolutions in order to facilitate change. This does mean a few things. It means there is risk of the failure being known. But, since you'll see for me that this represents something I intend working on this year, all to the good. I may be blathering about now, so I will get on with it.

There are a few things I want to work on this year.

1. I want to be the good role model for the kind of person I want my daughter to be. This has a couple of sub-resolutions -
1. don't yell through the house, go find the person and talk to them.
   
2. be brave.
   
3. be nice to other people, even when I feel like crap.
4. eat better.
2. Lose 4kgs (so I fit back into some of my favourite clothes) by end of June. (1.4 should help)
   
3. Reduce discretionary spending. For this, I plan on using two previously effective techniques - "If I had this much money to spend on yarn, would I buy this thing, or would I buy yarn?" and secondly - delay. The "Oh... I'll just buy that tomorrow/next week/when I get paid" etc.

That's all really. I mean, I intend to finish the projects I have on the needles, but I won't get worried about it if I don't. I intend to knit another lace shawl/object (maybe two) but again, it doesn't have the status of resolution. I may use knitting related items to reward myself for sticking to the others - buying yarn instead of junk food always works, but really knitting isn't a chore for me. It happens all by itself :)

Happy New Year folks. I hope it rocks your world (in a good way) and you get what you need. Peace & good karma to all.

Crafted Satisfaction at gifts well recieved.

Ahhhh... I like Boxing Day.

The quiet... the chance for my little one to actually play with her toys..oh, hang on I need to go help build a Lego service station... Okay done :)

Well, Christmas is done, just the generalised merriment left.

I was actually really gratified with one set of gifts in particular. Being a novice at sewing, I actually breathed deep and made three sewn gifts for my nephews (in law to be.. if you follow me). Two of them came from the Softies book - a Japanese style bunny for the baby (10months or so) and a blue astronaut for the 4 year old who's into rockets and space. Finally I made a real sized rugby ball for the eldest (5 going on 6) who is about to start at his new school. His uncle went there too, and so my mother in law (to be) was kind enough to give me one of his old school blazers and an old rugby jumper. (Don't worry there are others, they aren't the final year sentimental ones). Anyway these got refashioned into the panels and emblem of the school on the ball.

I was really pleased. An oddly the one I thought the best (astronaut) was the least adored! The baby was so pleased with his bunny, and played with it, sucked on it, giggled at it and waved it around all afternoon :)

The ball was immediately received with a "My school ball! Whoo-hoo!" and then kicked and thrown around (thankfully its all squooshy and hence safe for indoor play ;-)

The astronaut got a "cool!" and then its new owner promptly ran back for the pool. (Hey, it was 40 degrees out (that's 104 American readers) so I could hardly blame him..)

Considering I spoke with my man about my misgivings about giving kids who are happily in the electronic generation such old fashioned toys was quickly quashed. All loved far better than I had expected, so I was really happy. Incidentally, so was their mum to talked to me about the difficulty in finding nice, not nasty looking, non-plastic toys for them!

On my front, I got several of my list items (yay!) including that coveted Interweave Knits subscription!! And of course, the aforementioned mixer :) :) So the loot was good. I also got some Egyptian cotton white towels. Amazingly lovely. As my man said, "I think my mum knows you well now.."

Oh the photo? well, the post looked kind of boring without any colour. They are some of the baking I did. Yum.

Have a great break all - I trust the festive season is treating you well and that you all have air con. We sort of do, but its kind struggling right now.. And SnB ladies, I'll see you Friday. Oh and any requests for favourite sorbet or ice cream?

However, let's hope there are no zombies in my future

25%

It's official. I have been rated on a geek scale.

I am...


70% Geek
70%

Become an Ultrasound technician

It must be Christmas-time.

Why? Because our house is baking central :)

Every year (for many years now) our little family (originally of two, now three) bakes biscuits and fruit mince pies for giving away. Admittedly the third member of the house was originally not much assistance at first, mostly focused on the bright coloured things and how good the icing tasted if she could manage to get the hand into the white bowl and then into her mouth.
...
Actually, three years on, not that much has changed.

Anyway. I have been baking a storm. So far we have -

• ginger snap biscuits (double batch)
• fruit mince (approx 2kg from scratch)
• chocolate peppermint biscuits (double batch)
  
• Pastry for fruit mince pies is resting in the fridge before rolling out
• and so is the vanilla biscuit dough.

This is, quite literally, the first time since 9am this morning I have sat down. (It's 4.30pm now.) I even ate lunch standing up watching over the simmering fruit mince. So a break is good.

After this, I'm onto making fruit mince pies and then biscuits with my daughter.

At some point (tonight or maybe tomorrow) I will go into the city to pick up the remaining Christmas gift (a book I had to order in) and hopefully my Christmas dress (our family tradition states that no matter how broke you are, you get a new outfit for Christmas).

Unfortunately my most beloved of Christmas presents - which is sitting in my bedroom as we speak - can't be used. (Yes, obviously I asked for one, and it isn't a surprise).

I love it so much, I honestly have thought about going in there just so I could hug it. More than once. This is, undoubtedly deeply geeky behaviour ... but I love it.)

It looks pretty much just like this...
You see, in addition to being a knit-geek and a computer game geek, and previously a role-playing geek and LARPing geek, and maths geek and book-geek...

I am also a foodie. (food-geek just doesn't sound right, somehow).

The way to a man's heart might be through his stomach. The way to mine is clearly through semi-professional kitchen appliances. Love you honey!

Anyway, those of you coming to the SnB Secret Santa will get to taste some of my fruit mince pies - and at least I should be able to use it by then to make pastry :) :)


Merry Christmas/festive season to all. I wish you good cheer, calm and really excellent food.

Peace to all.

I is a lace-knittin' fiend!

Well, I think the lace bug has bitten me again. And hard.

Helped enormously by a return to my 45 min bus-commute.

I have completed I think maybe 10 repeats or so of my Print O' the Wave stole in the last week?

I am now heading into repeat 14 of the 17 for the second half.

I didn't bother to photograph it, because well.. it look pretty much exactly like this..
but on circulars. (that's the first half if you're wondering).

I now have three repeats to go and then the very scary grafting. And then the possibly less-scary but more time consuming edgings. Yes, that is correct. They are a plural. There's two of them. Let's not think about that right now, 'k?

All this sudden burst of lace caught me unaware. I was so psyched out Tangled Yoke but it's got nary a look in of late. Which is unfortunate, since I sit under a vent at work, making my working conditions subarctic and therefore could do with a nice cardi.

I also caught myself looking at cobweb lace patterns on Ravelry. For several hours. And then I caught myself and now feel faint at the idea. I'm sure I'll recover soon. Christmas is coming. And I had Interweave Knits subscription and yarn on my list. *crosses fingers*

Cos I have been such a ever so good girl this year.. {looks innocent...ish}

Oh and if I saw this when I made my list, that'd just about be all that'd be on it. Well, maybe some of this too. Oh, and definitely this. My inner goth child passed out a while ago from squeeing so hard she couldn't breathe. (Shhh, let's not wake her I need to go to bed..)

This didn't help.

Ahhh...

Now everyone, stand up a moment.. stretch.... breathe in deeply and exhale.... take a moment to wriggle your fingers and breathe and wake up a bit. Okay. You can all sit down now.

(I may or may not have been training too much lately..)

Well, I have been the embodiment of busyness the last while.

On the other hand...here's a brief summary of some of the things I have done...

• Supervised or did the installation of a variety of objects in my house (carpet, wardrobes, chest of drawers, bed etc. )
• Cleaned new house. Sometimes multiple times since tradesmen don't believe in doormats apparently.
  
• Moved house
• Cleaned and emptied previous cupboard (aka the apartment) of residence. (this took WAAAY too long).
  
• Unpacked all but one room (study, which does not have its shelves etc. yet) and 3 miscellaneous boxes. (This sounds trivial when I write it. It really, really isn't).
  
• Run a number of courses at work without my usual co-trainer. (Nearly lost my voice three times on last day...)
• Made a mohair beret for my mother's trip to UK/Birthday present (no photos sorry, forgot to ask before she packed it - it was a speed knit).
  
• Went to my daughter's Christmas concert to see her play Rattle, Rattle Dump Truck on the violin, and then spend the rest of the concert on the stage giggling and whispering and playing with her friend next to her. (sigh)
• Had several groups of friends & family over for meals
• Bought all but three of my Christmas presents.
• Finished and gifted the Cornflower lace scarf. For those of your following along I was reliably informed that it was gratefully received, the colour (her favourite) was perfect and she received many compliments on it. After much angsting over the fringe/no-fringe thing.. it worked really well. I liked the fringe a lot.
  

• And last night, I made a bunny! He's for the baby (1 year old?) in the family.. I sewed him. All by myself. I even embroidered! And I didn't stuff anything up! Miracles!
  

And on that note... Christmas is coming and I have a stack of thinking left to do. Not presents, (they're largely sorted) but.. what baking and kid-friendly stuff I want to do :) And I get a whole two weeks off!!

At this stage my holidays consist of : Baking Christmas biscuits with daughter (her pick), Taking daughter to movies & taking the ferry to the city (her pick) and playing Zelda on the Wii (my pick!). Oh and trying not to put on 5 kilos over Christmas. I ahve the internal fortitude of a wet tissue at the moment, so it's not boding well.

I'll be incommunicado for a bit..

I found out today it will be over a fortnight until our new place has a phone. Telstra. Sigh.

So, as we'll be moving our stuff over tomorrow, I probably won't be online for a bit.

(House is awesome, there's lots to do. Cheers all :)

Have a great fortnight all...

Ain't easy being green....

Or rather, I think it is easy being green.

I seem to be on a green kick, so the blog follows..

Oh and updated stuff. Ravelry link, updated podcasts and blogs, so on.

'Nuff said.