My Tangled Yoke complete!

Okay, I need to sew on some buttons. But all other finishing is complete, and it's blocking in my spare room right now.


I promise I will post some pics of me wearing it once it's dry.. but for now - look at the pretties! (sorry 'bout the blur flash makes the cables disappear!)

So .....

I just now need to finish that stole (11 edging repeats and counting down) and I can actually cast on something new! The novelty! (Yes, I know it's a self imposed rule, but work with me here..)

Progress... nearing completion of a major project

Well, I'm nearly there. I'm knitting the collar of the Tangled Yoke.

That looks like this... I'm doing a three needle bind off - it has a folded edge (for the knit geeks reading)

Which has its progress slowed down considerably, since it no longer fits in my knitting bag. Or rather it does, but not if I need to put anything else in there (lunch, purse etc). Which is impressive, since its my 'Epic' (that's a geek joke. It's epic 'cos its a purple.) First time for that to run out of room...

On the plus side, this has lead to another project waking from hibernation. This has helped no end, and I turned the first heel of my Anastasia socks. These are dyed in my mother's handdyed. Beautiful colours, no?
(there's a heel there, trust me.)

And on the weekend, I shall have a skein winder... and then there will be lace. (whew!)

Wildlife spotting..

Look! An emu!
Not the most fun knit, all in all.

Partly because the pattern assumed you could crochet, and I can't and partly just because I don't think it was very sensibly written. I would make a lot of changes were I to knit a second one. Which is, as you can imagine, not terribly likely ;)

More emu, more tangled yoke.

The emu continues thusly.
The leg isn't attached at this point, just there as reference. I am working out the legs as I go, since I don't crochet and can't figure out what the crochet instructions mean. Plus, the whole pattern is very strange on this point since it seems to have been designed as a kind of display rather than toy - the instructions include a whole bunch of stuff about using skewers and/or dowel to make it stand up. Odd.

I'm going more for the 'feel' of emu rather than a perfect representation.

Oh, and I'm knitting Tangled Yoke still but not enough to really be able to see progress, the rows are too long !

The other thing taking my time is progressing my stash-busting plans. I've joined the very useful and inspiring Stash Knit Down 2008 over on Ravelry, which I recommend for my fellow Ravellers who are doing likewise. Did you know if you go to a yarn you have stashed you can go to "Pattern Ideas" on the yarn page for what other people have knit with it? Brilliant! And fantastically useful, a few of my smaller stashes of stuff found project this way...

This is what an emu knits like.

Or rather, what a knitted emu looks like.

Or about half of one.
I need to finish it so I can gift it on. I've posted about that, right?

To be honest, I'm kind of over it. The fine gauge makes for a good tight fabric but it is murder on your finger joints to knit.

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.

A really busy weekend.

I had a really, really busy weekend. I'm wiped, actually.

Why? Here's a hint.

I spent all pretty much all weekend at the new house, cleaning and painting wardobes. (They would be the one part of the house not really able to be easily painted once the wardrobe fit outs go in. And I didn't want plaster dusted clothing :P ) The rest of the painting to be done by professionals in about 6 months time.

Very exhausting for such small areas really.

And just in case you think I haven't been knitting...
That would be half of the centre panel of Print O the Wave shawl. I cast on the second half on Friday night. I can do a repeat now in around an hour and a half. Assuming (knock on wood) no stuff ups.

And I decided to do a proper gauge swatch for the Tangled Yoke. I'm definitely getting a bigger row gauge, and will be adjusting arm shaping and length accordingly.

It must be spring-ish time

How do I know this? I get organisational-twitchy come springtime. Oh, and I'm moving house soon. Really soon.

There are days I can't believe I used to be the disorganised type. These days, it's all lists and plans. Of course, I do have rather a lot more on than I used to. ;-)

However, of late I have been feeling a little overwhelmed with everything I've got on. So.. I am working on a new plan.

Some research has lead me to the D.I.Y. planner system which appeals. In conjunction, more than likely with the Zen to Done rules over at zenhabits.net.

What I am really coveting now, is a filofax. Preferably in the Personal or Pocket size. Around the size of a wallet upto about two wallets side by side. Anyone who has such a thing, and doesn't want it, let me know and we can do a swap or something. I don't need a genuine filofax, but I do want one with ring binders, not just the type with push-in notebooks.

If all else fails, I work on the Hipster PDA version. Very cool, free downloads and all :)

What am I seeking? A way of getting all the minutiae of my daily stuff to do and to remember and so on, out of my head up to the time I needed it. My brain feels crowded .. We'll see how I go, hey?

I was tagged!

Heather, from Crafitlit podcast and Mama O Knits has tagged me. I think she knows I secretly love these things. They're the natural continuation of those lists we used to do at school where you had to write your answer to a standard list of questions.. you know the 'who's the cutest boy?'/'who has the best hair'/ 'what's your favourite band' kind of thing...

Da Rulz: Once tagged, you must link to the person who tagged you. Then post the rules before your list, and list 8 random things about yourself. At the end of the post, you must tag and link to 8 other people, visit their sites, and leave a comment letting them know they’ve been tagged.

I'll see what i can do about the last bit, the number of bloggers I know personally is kinda thin and I think they'll be sick of me by now :) We'll see I guess...

My Eight Things:

1. I have 'She walks in beauty like the night' engraved on my ipod. It's the first line (and title) of my all-time favourite poem, written by Lord Byron. It always affects me, every single time I read it and I can recite most of it from memory.

2. My best friend should have been born British. He has the whole impression of being British, without actually being British. (accent, appearance, manners, fondness for obscure British history and he's a good Anglican boy to boot). His fondness for Australian Rules football is really the only thing marring the impression.

3. I am able to now say, with reasonable confidence "I used to suffer from depression". I was only properly diagnosed a couple of years ago, and as a result, got my stuff sorted out finally. I spent pretty much ages 14 to 29 suffering from one of the forms of depression. Not fun so much. It's weird not having it hanging in the background anymore. For ages it felt like I wasn't wearing my watch. That kind of ..' did I forget something?' feeling.

4. I wonder if point number three in any way explains why I love vampire fiction. I will watch any movie, read any novel and... yes, I play in a vampire-themed game. Read the name of the blog, folks ;)

5. I am not, by nature a detail oriented person. However, working for the government has meant I now behave in many things as if I am. Which is occasionally helpful, like when proving to your builder that your specification was right, their person transcribed the order incorrectly.

6. If I could live in period novel for a holiday, I would. Room with a View's Italy or Pride & Prejudice's Pemberly would both be smashing.

7. I found out that the nearest religious orientation to my own religious belief is 'liberal Quaker'. I found this out by using the Belief-O-Matic over at Beliefnet. I have known for a long time I believed, but never was able to put my finger on any label for it. This hasn't actually meant anything for me, but I found it terribly interesting.

8. I paid my way through uni working weekends at a game store for five years. We sold computer games, role-playing games, miniature war games, models, you name it. As a result, more than 10 years later I still have strange weird men smiling and saying hi to me in the street (ex-customers).

Onto the tagging! Now I need to check my list... I tag the Crafyaction's Bibnbub and Michelle, Lupinbunny, knitconvict, pen & purl. That's enough, right?

Progress on Tangled Yoke and Conflower Scarf and .. a house!

I know, I am one of those "where are they now?" bloggers. Gone, not posting, makes you reconsider your subscription.

Well, I have been busy, and have photos to prove it. I had a quiet weekend (enforced due to my catching of daughter's cold) and work has been so busy last week leading to such exhaustion on my arrival home that we tended towards takeaway and no activity on my part to speak of, let alone photographing and blogging. Sorry folks.

But I promised photographic proof. Here we go....

Tangled Yoke cardigan.

I have been making real progress on this. I have finished the body up to the underarms. Um... I also managed to make it approximately 1.5 inches longer. Apparently while my stitch gauge is pretty much right, the row gauge is off. Oh well. I'll be paying more attention to the lengths given for the sleeve. Sleeve progress shown below...












Then, I have the Cornflower Scarf.

This is going along fine. It requires such little effort to work on, perfect for watching a movie (one I'm familiar with) to. I'd imagine a couple of serious movie sessions and this would be done. My sporadic attempts so far have lead it to be about half done I'd say. Unblocked it's about a meter long. I think I need to block it out, so it probably needs to be a bit longer than 2 m pre-blocking.

And there is the Print O the Wave stole.
This has been getting a bit of a run lately, as it has been unfairly abandoned. I've now finished seven and a half repeats of the 34 that make up the main body. Then there's the huge edging, but I won't count that, or it seems like to much ;)

Two things have helped my progress. I took the advice I read somewhere online and got a baking sheet and a oversized magnet to mark the row I was working on. This has helped a lot. As has a final miracle. I seem to FINALLY be able to read the lace and tell if I am making a mistake at the time I am making it. Those of you who have knit lace will understand just what a critical step this is.

Finally, there is my house. Okay, I haven't built it myself, but much of my spare time of later has been taken up with hunting down bits and pieces for the house. Deciding on a new bed, looking at pavers, etc etc. We had our practical completion meeting (where we gave them their list of things to fix) and now await those things been done. Fingers crossed that list won't take them long. Our flooring is booked to go in two weeks time, and we are tentatively booked to move a week following that.

Want proof? Remember the Kitchen v. ETTE discussion a while back? Here's a sample of the Kitchen.. okay awaiting a mixer tap, but very very close.

Isn't it beautiful??

Knitting, knitting...

I have two of the three baby-gifts done. One was successfully gifted at a recent Stitch n Bitch, as blogged by Lupinbunny. (I was strip one of seven for a baby blanket..)

Another is off the needles, sewn up and just needs buttons purchased and sewn on. Is that giving too much away? hmmmm..

I have also been doing some more on my cardigan.. as shown thusly...

Which I am still really enjoying, and the knitted fabric is very flat and even. Pretty.

And completed another repeat and a half on Print o the Wave stole. Which makes it 5.5 of 34, not counting the edging. I keep being surprised at how amazingly slow knitting this is. I think all the baby stuff and stockingette I have been doing has spoiled me.

And finished the first of four balls of yarn that make up the Daisy stitch scarf... which is the black to the white of the Print o the Wave stole for the spectrum of lace knitting. The needles are big, its ridiculously quick in comparison. And is a 4 stitch repeat, with no memorisation really required.

My project list looks big. Those of you watching Ravelry will be seeing my progress.. slowly. I have so many things in the 'to knit' list.. but still have several big items on the needles. Keep trying to stop myself from casting on another. Glutton for punishment, me.

OMG!!! Something I can blog about!

A gift I can safely blog about, imagine that.

This scarf has been driving me nuts. It has had literally about 6-8 different stitch patterns swatched. The pattern requirements were:

• cornflower blue (giftee request. Which decided the yarn since this was the only yarn in that colour I could find).
• a scarf (giftee request)
• would be straightforward to knit on public transport. This therefore ruled out:
• cabled (requires needle)
  
• non memorise-able lace
• any lace pattern likely to lead to periodic ripping out (otherwise it would be the print of the wave stole. *sigh* )

• something I would not grow to loathe knitting.

So. I finally ended up here. It got the tick of approval from both my and my man's mums so all is good. I finally decided on this. Those of you who've been here a long while may remember this pattern. It's the daisy lace which the whole of the Vogue Lace Cardigan is knit in. Only DK, not kidsilk haze and 12mm needles instead of 5mm. Let's just say one huge thing in its favour is it should be quick! And I know the pattern fairly well after knitting an entire cardigan in it.. I actually tried a range of needle sizes, but found the lace disappeared on my next size down (8mm).
I've also done a bit on my Twisted Yoke Cardigan. I'm enjoying the yarn very much. Feels very nice knitted up.

See, thusly..And I have finished another one of the baby-gift list. Yay. The end is in sight, and it isn't even month of madness yet. (they're all November babies. Valentines anyone?)

One left to sew up, and one I haven't settled on yet. Booties? Shoes? Hat? Thoughts anyone?

Did I say I wouldn't cast on?

Um. Oops. I did, didn't I?

Well... I realised all of my gifts-for-others aren't due until November & December. So I can do a little for-me knitting now, right?


.. the new Addi Turbos I bought were too much of a temptation I fear..

And I acquired some more yarn for yet another gift knit. They multiply when you're not looking, swear. ;) This one will be bloggable though..

Hey! Who put this yarn in my basket?

Subtitled: Falling off the yarn wagon.

Well.. I had a weak moment. I ordered my 'Herb' Felted Tweed.

It looks like this.

I am still working on the baby stuff. It's continuing, albeit a little slowly. And I picked up my Print O the Wave stole and did a few more rows. I'm now back to where I was before I had to rip that section out. Meh.

And we faced Ikea this weekend. God it's insane. Not to buy anything, but to see if we wanted to buy their wardrobe and curtains. (In case you're now wondering - yes probably and definitely no respectively.)

Anyway best get to bed. Work is ridiculous busy-like and well tiring to boot. I even missed my SnBs a few times over the last while - a first for me.

Ah.. I got distracted.

Because I am so very busy knitting away on the pile of baby knitting I have to do, and because work has been crazy-busy (which means not as much knitting is getting done).. I am sort of making deals with myself.

I had intended to knit Bayerische socks. That's them on the left in green. They were to be pale grey probably. They're very pretty. But..

I bought the new Interweave Knits. There is a few patterns within that appeal to me.

One of them, Tangled Yoke cardigan didn't draw my eye initially. Then Lupinbunny mentioned it. I took another look. I was interested. Now, having the pattern and actual photos in my hot little hands..



I think it's jumped the queue. Rude little muggins isn't it ;-)

The deal goes something like this.


Step one. I finish the various baby related gifts prior to their needing to be gifted.

Step two. I do not start anything else that isn't already on the needles.

Step three. I can buy the requisite yarn, as long as I don't pay full price for it (unless it is utterly unavailable otherwise.)

Note: I am tempted to try the listed yarn. They have a beautiful green called Herb. But it's an alpaca/wool/vicose blend. Which I am worried may be too hot for Perth.

That said, I do work in the coldest corner in the office. It's bloody freezing, so that may be ok.

And it looks pretty.

Now I just need to ..
Step four: find somewhere to put the guilt at not spending every possible spare cent on the soon-to-be- completed-but-not-soon- enough-cos-builders-are-meanies- who-cant-estimate-accurately house. It's rough I tells ya.

The rest of my spare waking moments when not teaching is spent thinking about the most inexpensive way to a) kit out a large number of bookshelves and cupboards for the study - all built in; b) cover all the bedroom windows affordably without undue ugliness; c) not go crazy with the waiting. (Okay, some who have been around in the last 2 years are yelling 'Ha! too late!' at the screen about now.)

Okay, gotta go. Baby knitting to do.

Not dead, just busy

[don't you think that should be a song title?]

Well, I am knitting, but its almost entirely baby gift stuff. And some of the giftees read the blog. So no posting before the gifting.

And, I am also terribly busy since I have it on good authority (from the very nice scotsman D, who is our building supervisor) that in approximately 2-3 weeks I shall have my very own house all completed! The joy! The delight! The relief!

Of course, we shan't be moving in immediately, since we want both floor coverings and window coverings in place before moving. But it is still rather delicious. I shall not be renting come October it seems! I shall have a KITCHEN and not a kitchenETTE. Those who know me in the flesh have all heard at length about my belief that my ETTE is my purgatory such that when having my kitchen I shall be truly grateful. In case you think I am kidding, I have just decided this second that a comparison is in order...

the ETTE:
dimensions. (I got weirdly silly about it and ran over and measured it)... 1.6m to 2.5m. That's room size - the floor size is smaller because of cupboards/fridge/sink etc is in that space.
photographic proof:
The KITCHEN:
dimensions. 3.55 x 3.98m
Photographic proof: (only the plan, don't have a good photo of the kitchen since the cabinetry is done).
What this means? As I suspected and have now confirmed. My current kitchen is smaller than the bench space in my new house. In fact, it is about 0.3sqm smaller than just the island bench!

See? Kitchen purgatory ;-)

Anyway, all this house-nearly-ready has meant we've been really busy pricing flooring and beds and so on. Oh, and work has been crazy busy too.

Good knitting mojo to you all....

Why I love Thursday Next novels

I am in the middle of the latest Thursday Next novel, First Among Sequels. For the uninitiated amongst us, Thursday is the heroine of a series of novels by Jasper Fforde.

They are kind of what would happen if Monty Python and the literature sections of your local book store had a series of love children. :)

I am loving this book, and have only torn myself away from it to prep for the work tomorrow (*sigh* work is stressful at the moment) and to make myself some more dhal for dinner.

Why do I love this book? So far it has time travel, travel within the world of literary fiction (the actually world that all novels exist within and all the things that the characters do when the story isn't happening to them), a ghost of an eccentric uncle, a reimagined husband, a mathematics genius teenager, cheese smuggling and knitting for naked dodos. And I'm only about a third of the way in.

See? My equal-favourite heroine knits. And I just know that the other (Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice) would too..

What does it say that some of my all-time favourite books are about books? (Another is The Club Dumas. Which is about as far away from this series as it is possible to get and still be fiction.)

Okay. Stalling over. Must go prep for tomorrow's training presentation :(

Clementine was right.

I should have known better. I mean, questioning the great Clementine?

She was quite correct, the lovely hand dyed my mum made for me is lost in the Baudelaires pattern.

But, I am what I am, and I needed to see it for myself. And now I know that when next picking a self-gift yarn I shall buy some yummy Zarina to knit a real pair. (In green. I'm on a green bent at the moment.) Both yarn and pattern are nice. But not together. Like friends you like separately, but could never date.

It's the same "thoroughness" in me (my man's description) that meant today, when selecting carpet for the new house I dragged the sample :

• under halogens
• under florescent lighting
• in natural daylight
• next to the wood for the hallway
• looked at it up close/underfoot
• looked at it from several meters away...

But now I know it will definitely work. (Or not, as in the case of the yarn). So the pattern will be ripped back and started over. It actually doesn't bother me. I have peace of mind.

I'm also fighting the desire to photograph every ball of yarn in my stash for Ravelry (I'm spiderknit. Naturally.) And hunting through it for potential baby knit-for-gift yarns. I know what I want to knit. But the called for yarn is pricey and not in the colour I originally had in mind. I ponder. But can't for too long - baby coming y'know.

I have finished the first pair of socks I ever started!

Not the first pair of socks I ever finished, mind you.

I bought this yarn a long time ago because it was good quality and on sale. Once I knit one and a half socks, I realised yes, I liked knitting socks. And that, as when I first laid eyes on the colourway... I disliked those colours together rather a lot. So I put them aside, and knit a new pair of socks in yarn I liked. For my daughter, if I remember correctly.

Anyway, here they are. I intend to over dyed them purple and if that doesn't work, black.

Let's here it for finishing extremely long WIPs! Now, if I can face the acrylic flecked scarf I have.... then reconsider the Jaywalkers.. I will have all my old WIPs done!
Oh and if anyone finds my remaining energy, let me know. I seem to keep losing it at work?!

Print o the Wave.. well, not saved but,.. significantly less impeded by the use of lifelines...

I finally got the courage, ripped out the repeat I needed to and started the repeat over again.

Thankfully, since I have been putting in a lifeline every successful repeat, I only had to rip back one repeat. It does, however, make me consider putting in multiple lifelines. Just in case I don't pick up that error in the repeat it happened.

Oh, and I expect my blogging will be a little quiet for a while. I am about *crosses fingers* eight weeks from moving house and I have several friends waiting to take on (increased) sprog-herding duties :)

So there'll be secret baby-knitting projects on the go. Which I can't blog cos some of them read this :P

Speaking of which *cough* anyone want to loan me a copy of Itty Bitty Hats?

This makes me sad. (Lace being mean to me)

See this? This looks innocent enough, right?
But look closer my friend.....


That is a mini-zig, when it should be zagging.

Which means I did probably rows 1-2 then started over again by accident. Which means it needs to be ripped out. :(

I noticed last night, my courage still isn't up to it. It goes away again until I try to face it again tomorrow :(

A mixed weekend

The bad

• The weather was terrible.. Driving rain, heavy wind etc.
• The bad weather meant my man was really not well enough to do the house-planning shopping we had planned to do. (When the barometric pressure drops, he's toast)
• I went to buy my daughter a new tracksuit from Target, went through all the dramas of a little person freaking out because she got wet when we got out of the car at the shops, her insisting on looking at every toy in the store... and then when I finally got to the checkout, having left my pursue at home :(
• My man still being sore and tired today, and so him sleeping all day and us again not doing any of the things I had planned (despite the weather having improved somewhat)

The good

• I made my first ever dahl for my dinner last night. And it rocked!!
• Despite the aforementioned poor weather, and us being inside all weekend pretty much, my daughter was actually very well behaved.
• Well enough, in fact, that I actually read all of the new Harry Potter book (bought in a fit of self-indulgent retail therapy when I went back a second time to Target .. with my purse this time).
  

The mixed

• I cleaned up the house a lot, so it looks less like a pigsty but.. I loathe cleaning.
  
• I can't decide on a new project. I'm looking sideways at the two pairs of half finished socks on my needles, but am half way swayed by my daughter's suggestion that her doll needs a beanie, as my doll (Lizzie in the top banner) has one.
  

This was my first ever sock. I bought the yarn (Opal self striping of some kind, ball band lost in the mists of time) because it was on sale and I didn't know yet whether I would like knitting socks. I hated the colourway. I am now considering if I should finish the last sock, and overdyed it purple.

This was my Jaywalker attempt. I like the colourway much more, but... the yarn is a little scratchy and I can't get into the Jaywalker mojo. It just seems to be not working for me.

Weirdly, now I keep looking at this yarn... which is soft, and I love the colours. And am now thinking as a result, of shifting one of the other two pairs onto scrap yarn and casting on socks pair #3
I don't know. I need an easy project, the lace stole takes too much concentration to knit while doing the public transport thing (and a single mistake requires rather more work to fix)