aurora australis

Startitis

2006-09-18T17:22:00.000+10:00

I got a package from my Crochetville SP today! Yarn, coffee, patterns and stickers! The microfibre yarn is very soft. It's trying to escape from its ball band!

Some very cool spooky stuff in there, including some neat Hallowe'en stickers, and these dolls. I've never seen anything like them before! They are SO brilliant! They're on my mantelpiece, but when I finish the dining room makeover, they'll go in there, because they will match the decor (scary, I know, but I have this great fabric that is very reminiscent of Day of the Dead/Folk Catholic prints, and it will become a table runner. Eventually.) Fabulous package!! Thanks so much, my C'ville friend!

In other news, I have Startitis. The Yarn Harlot identifies it in her book Yarn Harlot: Secret Life of a Knitter as the urge to start stuff come springtime.

I'm making a blanket.

It's not Lizard Ridge.

Oh no. That would be logical. No, instead, I am making the Babette Blanket, from Interweave Crochet (Spring 06). See, what happened was, I went to K-Mart, and their squeaky acrylic yarn was 25% off. Normally, this is no great thing. But I had determined to make the blanket in squeaky acrylic, so it could go on my lounge, and be merrily washed and tumble dried as needed. It will be bigger than the original, which isn't a problem, as it will then cover me + dog. The colours I have chosen would give a parrot nightmares. But it's addictive. I did half a 10-round square before school this morning. At this rate, I'll be done by the end of term! The thing about it is that as long as you keep track of your colour changes, this is mindless. It's just relaxing, no stress, no yarn-overs, no nothing.

That's it. I'll keep justifying it to myself...right up until it's time to sew the blasted thing together....

Oh, tomorrow is Talk like a Pirate day. Yaaaaaargh!

Soapy was my Knitty SP!

2006-09-14T18:10:00.000+10:00

I got home today to find not one, but TWO packages on the doorstep! Both from my Knittyboard SP7. I'm so excited that I'm gonna take the yarn down to the radio station tonight to show the boys.

Firstly, the lovely yarn:

Two colours of Knitpicks lace weight

A ball of Alpaca lace weight:

Two skeins of Cottontwist

A skein of turquoise, what looks like handspun

Two balls of Wool-Ease in Cranberry, which in all the excitement I forgot to photograph.

Plus some candles, kermit mints, spices, and some little lovely Brittany DPNs. Oooh, and a puzzle that I had to assemble to guess who!

Then there was another package! Eeee! This one was sent via Zonda, and contained a needle roll! A handmade needle roll! I now have a place to keep my needles that ISN'T an old pencil-case! Look!

Thanks, Soapy! You've been such a patient and brilliant SP :-) Now I need to find a lovely lace pattern for that lovely lace weight! Very excited! And the spaces between marking and radio will be reserved for filling that needle roll!

Crochetville SP package and Interweave woes

2006-09-12T18:32:00.000+10:00

Well, let's start with the rather belated picture of a very lovely package from my Crochetville SP. I got this a little while ago (and posted on the thread in C'ville!) but I haven't had my camera until now.

Yarn! Cotton yarn, in a lovely colour! And notepaper and cards! And patterns! And peanut butter M&Ms, which helped a number of people very much with their marking this week. I don't know what I will use the yarn for. Possibly the scarf from "The Happy Hooker" that is this month's project on the CAL.

Other than that....new Knitty! Quite a lovely issue. I want the Lizard Ridge afghan. I WANT it. I have a plan for the 'ghan. Make it over some time, and ask people who have no idea what to give me as a gift to give me a skein of Noro, in any colours they want. Only spanner in the works is that Noro isn't too readily available here. I think Yarns Online will get a couple of orders as I slowly make it (that way I can fool myself that it's not actually costing that much!) If you don't usually check the articles, do. There are some brilliant ones this time, particularly the one on doubleknitting socks. Two socks at once! Done with a great tone, and helpful photos. Very non-threatening article for a threatening technique.

And no new Interweave! I am seriously very disappointed with their customer service. It has now been a week since I emailed them to ask where my magazine was, and I have recieved no reply. And no magazine. It was allegedly sent more than a month ago. Even sea-mail, it should be here. (And their site specifies that they use air!) Very poor service, which is what I have heard about them in the past, but somehow believed it wouldn't be true for me. Certainly means I won't bother ordering special issues of magazines from their website! I'm going to email them again tomorrow, and ask what the go is. In the meantime, what's a bet I get impatient and buy a copy anyway (on the grounds that if I get two, I can mail one to my SP...) ?

And, to leave you with, a picture of my stepsister's wedding cake. Look at it! Caaaaaaake! It was a beautiful wedding. She was a truly stunning bride, and I wish she, her DH and DD all the best in the world for their future together. They're a gorgeous family.

busy.

2006-08-28T17:36:00.000+10:00

I've been a busy little owl. My sweet senior class have their big performance for the examiners coming up, and we've been so busy with that. Knitting wise, I have also finished a modified version of Peonyknit's "Anthropologie inspired" capelet (it's more of a top!) but I haven't photographed it yet, and I've made these cabled footies. They're very pointy, but they're for someone who likes fairies, so I think they're very fairy like.

Yarn: Patons Jet
Pattern: Cabled footies by Leigh Radford
Notes: VERY easy and quick. Jet is not a good sock yarn, though, which is unsurprising as it isn't actually a sock yarn. Very pointy toes. Surprisingly pointy, in fact. I hope the recipient likes them!

We have also had Book Week, which includes the annual staff dress-up day. I went as the Queen of Narnia. There were some awesome costumes this year - even a merman! I made the skirt and the collar. It was all brown and furry and Aslan-y.

Bought two magazines this week - "Simply Knitting" - the July edition (which only just hit the newsstands on Friday) and the Australian "Creative Knitting" (not to be confused with its American counterpart). "Simply Knitting" is a strange beast. It straddles kitsch and interesting uncomfortably, like Cosmopolitan does in the way that it is no longer interesting to twentysomethings, but too old for teens. The thing I like about "Simply Knitting" is that they have a good relationship with Rowan (oh, and can someone talk me out of spending $120 + P&H on a Rowan Membership??) and publish select Rowan patterns. This issue acually has a Rowan pattern that they highlighted in February and I fell in lust with but had no way of getting, Rowan being rarer than good men out here in the boondocks. I plan to make it for summer. Yay summer!

"Creative Knitting" is also a strange beast. They recently got a new editor, who has made some changes for the better - more ARTICLES! YAY! - but they still seem very wobbly about who their target audience is. Their adult patterns this issue were rubbish - allegedly "figure flattering" designs that outside of a studio look like sacking. At least they've stopped with the bikinis. Their article structure is starting to become like Interweave, but their patterns are "You Knit What" for the major part, with the occasional gem (like the crochet plastic bag) - except for their always gorgeous childrens wear. I'm not into small children. Nothing personal. Just not gonna make any kidswear.

And warm fuzzy of the week comes from two places. Firstly my Crochetville SP, who sent me this cute bear:

And in his natural habitat, a.k.a my office wall:

And secondly from S__, who is president of the radio station where I spend Thursday nights. S___ is very funny, very lewd, and wouldn't know sensitivity if it hit him with a stick. He also wants me to run for secretary. I mentioned that I'd knit in committee meetings. He expressed surprise. I was wearing my Tubey (for the first time, because I am still not certain it suits me).

Me: I knitted this!
Him: Did you? It doesn't look like it.

Ah. S__ is now my new favourite person!

doggie bag

2006-08-16T17:48:00.000+10:00

I am so pleased with this. It's for my Knittyboard SP, who said in her questionaire that she liked dogs. What do you all think?

Pattern: "In Bloom" from Stitch and Bitch: The Happy Hooker ed. Debbie Stoller
Yarn: JJ's handpainted 8-ply (I don't think this is an 8-ply. I think it's at least a 9 in weight, not construction).
Modifications: I made the body of the clutch a little longer, and then I felted it. Lined with puppy-dog fabric from the local quilt shop (I suck at sewing!). Small felt dog instead of flower - I drew the dog, and then traced it onto the felt.

Here's the little puppy dawg...

And here's the lining....

What do you think? Am I am overly proud bag-lady, or should my SP get a kick out of it? I think I'm becoming a better upstream SP as I go, mostly by virtue of having had some great people as my upstream pals, and from snuffling around the swap boards on Craftster (heck, they are INSPIRING!). I'm not so stumped as to what to put into packages. Which can only be a good thing, right??

just a little...

2006-08-14T18:51:00.000+10:00

It's Cpurl's Blogaversary. Go and take her quiz!

I've been feeling a bit ick, so I made a bright pink hat to cheer myself up. Yep, that's the yarn my SP sent me. It's so quick! And very pink. I like my pink hat. I have a lot of other projects in the works, but this one was just quick and cheery. The fulled bag isn't dry yet! Argh! I wanted to take a photo - and maybe even send it off this week!

Other than that, I have been accused of enabling by fellow knittyboarders, because I posted the link to the most wonderful tank EVER. Look! Look! DNA cable!

Moi? An enabler? Never!

And my kitsch kitchen has got a new denizen. He matches the curtains, and was $10 from the antique-shop-that-sells-stuff-that-isn't-really-antique. He is very cute, in a very scary sort of way. I figure that if I am ever serving tea to anyone, then they'll get a kick out of it!

Yes, I have cat curtains. And I didn't put them in! They were here when I moved in!

I swear!

SP package!

2006-08-11T17:43:00.000+10:00

Hurrah! I got home this afternoon and found a lovely pink SP package. It has the BIGGEST yarn and needles that I have ever seen in it! Look!

That's Big yarn in pink, and two different fun furs. And chocolate. Which someone ate once the package was opened (doo-doo-de-doo). And big needles, which are cute in a weird sort of way. Thanks SP! And it's PINK! I love pink. Even when I was a moderator on a goth website, my avatar had pink in it.

Another score this week, and a CPurl inspired photo...

I went to the thrift shop, and found this little package - yep, 10 balls (150m+/ball) of mohair in a pretty grey. That's Stabby checking it out. SCORE! It's sitting in my freezer at the moment, to freeze away any nasties, and giving me the heebie-jeebies when I open the freezer and forget it's there, and think something furry and grey has taken over.

Otherwise, I have been making something for my own SP. It is not pink - it's bluey coloured. It's also my first attempt at fulling - and it worked. A bag. I will post pics when it's dry (I have almost 100% certainty that she doesn't come here!). And I have also been party to the making of ice cream with liquid nitrogen.

No, the picture is unrelated to the ice cream, but it's a cold pic! I took the picture in my laundry on Tuesday, when I went in there and kicked the dog water bowl by mistake, only to discover it frozen solid. In the laundry. I put the platypus on it to make it obvious that it was frozen.

But liquid nitrogen ice-cream! I went and visited a physics class (basically to avoid doing my marking!) Ice-cream made from liquid nitrogen + ice cream ingredients. So sugar, milk, cream, vanilla, and we crushed up some cookies. After all the crappy jokes about Iron Chef...

Today's Theme Ingredient: Liquid Nitrogen! Ah, liquid nitrogen. I remember it well. I encountered it first in junior school science classes as a way to shatter fruit quickly and easily...

...we got down to it. You tip the liquid nitrogen into the bowl, and stir. Lots of smokey-looking ook comes off the bowl, and cascades over the counter. You feel that you need Igor there just for the ambience. Keep repeating until the ice cream resembles ice cream. Put into cones. Eat.

It was actually very nice (it should be, it cost quite a bit because of the cost of the nitrogen) and I could pretend that I'd run off to warmer climes, instead of warmer classrooms. I could give you the scientific explanation, but whaddoIlooklike? A science teacher?

tutus, dogs, and a leaky roof

2006-08-05T16:42:00.000+10:00

9am. Saturday. I took a school excursion last night to see the wonderful Bell Shakespeare company (basically Australia's answer to the RSC) do "Romeo and Juliet", so I wasn't too lucid. It's a nice interpretation, by the way.

knock-knock-knock

There was a man at my door. The real estate, apparently unable to raise me (haven't they heard of work numbers??) had sent him across to fix the roof. My roof is now drying like this:

I hope to the gods that it doesn't rain. It's rained all week here. With some snow flurries. I've got no knitting done, mostly because I have been running around the place gibbering with stress. There was a major official stuff-up this week, which caused panic attacks in teachers of my subject all over the state. When I FINALLY got hold of someone to say "Um, you guys made a mistake. You have to have made a mistake. I checked everything a googleplex of times" the woman on the other end of the line said: "Oh, yes. We've had some very distraught people ringing in." Lady, we were all distraught because if it HADN'T been your mistake, then we're looking at resigning-under-a-cloud territory. Grrr.

Two cute things to sign off on this week's entry:

1. Overheard in the playground

Boy: You know, it's true. Money CAN'T buy love.
The person he was talking to mumbled something.
Boy: No, no. That's buying MAKING love.

No, I don't know why that conversation happened either. I was just standing behind them.

2. Last night I came home to see the dog asleep on a tutu. She looked very guilty when sprung, especially as said tutu had been in the mending basket (it's a costume from work) and she'd dragged it out to snooze on. It's just cute.

Snoozing away so peacefully that she didn't notice the camera

Until the flash woke her up and she was sprung!

Oh, and my SP contacted me. Thanks - I'll email you back soon :-) I'm sorry I've been such a crap SP. My poor SP is trying very hard, and deserves chocolate and applause for doing so.

the beauty of small things

2006-07-29T13:19:00.000+10:00

Small things are rocking my world. I think it's because I've had a rough week. I can't go into it. But, instead of self-medicating with alcohol and other ways I bought yarn. And books. And beads. And fabric. Look at the pretty fabric.

I don't know what it wants to be yet. Possibly the lining for the bag that's next up in The Happy Hooker Crochet-along. (It's only a fat quarter. I searched for more, but to no avail.) I'm finding that crochet-along very interesting - it's sort of liberating being told "make this" and me saying "okay" and then finding out how much I like it. I think I have invented a new acronym, though. CABLE - Crafts Amassed Beyond Life Expectancy.

This is the latest small project. It's M.K Carroll's Cell Phone Piggy, found in Debbie Stoller's Stitch and Bitch Nation, posing on my piano. I made it in Patons "Powder Puff", which is a pig in itself to work with. It took me maybe 2 hours to make, if that, start to finish. The gratification of small things is a little triumph in itself.

Book review time:

One Skein, by Leigh Radford (Interweave Press, 2006)
I weakened, and bought this and another book (Knitting Rules) from yarnsonline.com.au this week. Shoutout to Meaghan from Yarns Online - superb service, super quick (3 days from ordered to received!!), well packaged. And stocks some of the materials I'd need for this book. Go there. Buy things.

It's a book that I can say now "Gee, I wish I'd had this when I picked knitting back up a few years ago", but I don't think I would have got it. I started with mega-projects. Even my first scarf was metres and metres of Dr Who inspired stripes (yes, from the pattern floating about the net. It's twice my height!). This is the opposite end of the spectrum.

The beautiful thing about small projects is that they are deceptive in their simplicity. To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, often the things that we retreat to when things become too complex are the things that are simple. I started a scarf from this book - it's a cable pattern, able to do it without looking, stash yarn, but there's something about the smallness of it all that makes me happy. There are a few bigger things (like the rug) that use stash, but most of this is weekend, or week-long projects.

There's a good range of small projects (not all hats, scarves and baby wear), and the design is what one would expect from Interweave - stunning. It's a well thought-out book - the yarns have CYCA designations on them (much easier for subbing!) and meterage as well as physical weight in grammes. Even the edges of the cover are designed to fold in and mark your place. I think I'll make a lot from it, just because a small project is good for the skills, good for the interest, and good for the morale when you finish it quickly. I've certainly bought yarn for several projects - the beaded gloves, the legwarmers (shutup, it's cold here) and the tank top. You need to see the tank top yarn, but that's another entry.

The most common criticism of the book is one that initially made me a little wary of it. Many people have said in reviews that there is no way these projects will take one skein. Then I realised that I don't mind projects taking several skeins, and as I looked at the yarns and the meterage, something occurred to me. Some of the projects have outrageous meterage when you read it in a book, but not in a yarn shop. I expect that lovely ball of Opal sock yarn to do two socks. That's a LOT of yarn in terms of metres. In a 100g ball of yarn, one expects somewhere between 160 - 200m if it's a DK - now envisage the same ball in lace weight. Once you take into account the weights of the yarn, one skein may well cover your project, if you pick the right skein.

Overall, interesting and worth the money. If only for the joy of getting new knitting books. (SP - I know I put this book on my questionaire. I honestly didn't expect you to get me a book. If you have, I'm very sorry. Send it anyway (it would be worth a whole month at least on its own!) - I can find a good home for it, and I'll feel totally justified in spending the money it's worth on yarn!)

Oh, and I bit the bullet and subscribed to Interweave. Apparently I get the Fall magazine sometime in the middle of next month. Yippeee! Just in time for Spring!

bean there...

2006-07-24T17:43:00.000+10:00

Okay, I have finished the beanie. It's huge. It covers my head most amply. I'm thinking of giving it to the director of the show, because he has a huge head. In the literal sense, I mean (in the metaphorical sense, he is one of THE most lovely men I have ever met, and not at all conceited, which is so unusual for we theatrical types).

I'm struggling, however, with the butterfly shawl. I might have to dip out of the CAL for that one. Seriously. The butterflies look...ick. I am thinking that I am trying to run before I can walk. We'll see. The red cardigan goes well. I've been making it whilst watching "Smallville", which I bought Season One of last week. It's an entertaining show.

Our musical is over, and I don't want to return to normal life. I'm so tired. All I want to do is sit on the lounge and watch tv and craft.

I've also decided to go on a health kick. I made a sterling start today - I've had 2 chocolate bars, a packet of chips, a bowl of home-made guacamole, and a bread roll. I don't know that ANY of that constitutes health food. Well, maybe the guacamole, because that was just avocado and seasoning. Hopefully, tomorrow will be healthier....

Spin-out!

2006-07-19T07:44:00.000+10:00

I'm tired. It's musical production week, and all of the things that normally go wrong with a show are going wrong, and I'm slowly-but-surely fixing them. I think it was Terry Pratchett who defined musical theatre as a whole trainwreck of disasters that somehow magically all fail to go wrong at the same time...

But, there have been some funnies. Like the dog. Or the DOG. He is playing Bullseye. He is about the size of a small pony; he'd be an acceptable riding dog, if one were short enough, and so inclined. But this 100kg drool factory is loveable. He's cuddly. He's charismatic. He's also ruining the dramatic tension when Bill slaps Nancy, because Bullseye starts licking Nancy's face the minute she falls to the floor.

So I sulked last night. It was 2-for-1 pizza night, and there were no knitting magazines in the shops, so I bought Interweave's "Spin Off - Summer 2006". First time I've ever seen it in the shops here. Now, this is testament to my knitting magazine obsession - I DON'T SPIN. I have no intentions of learning to spin. I think I'd be horrible at it. But I saw the patterns, and bought it anyway.

I like Interweave publications. They're well-set-out, have photos that are nice, but not so arty I can't work out what the garment is, the patterns are with the project, rather than squished in the back, and they have articles. It's not all about the pictures. This particular one had some really fascinating patterns that have gone on the spreadsheet (sheep puppets! a modular cardigan!) and articles applicable to knitters as well as spinners - I was especially interested in one about dyeing your own sock yarn WITHOUT stretching the stuff across the back yard!

There's also another magazine coming out of Australia, which can be found in an online preview issue. I clearly have issues with felted boots, because I found another pair in there that I want-want-want.

And the identity of K9 has come out.

MIAOMIAO! You ROCK!

I don't know when to stop...

2006-07-15T12:21:00.000+10:00

I haven't updated for a few days, because this is my busiest time of the year. Musical time. I'm juggling all sorts of things, although I think I'll try and get a photo of the fake flowers and fruit and meat and whatnot that I've made into trays for "Who will buy". The Rose Seller's is particularly impressive. It can also be held upside down with nary a rose out of place. And the fake meat tray is just....wrong.

Okay, my week of exciting mail didn't finish with K9. *I STILL DON'T KNOW WHO K9 IS! YOU PEOPLE WHO KNOW, YOU'RE BIG BLUE MEANIES*

Look!

Pirate socks and a Jack Skellington case. Which now holds my crochet hooks, being exactly the right size to do so! Thanks a million, Veritas! The case is perfect, and the socks not only fit, they passed the test of approval by Fagin's gang!

I'll be needing those hooks. I've managed to join not one, but two CALs, having decided not to go timidly into crochet. One is the and the other is the . I have made several butterflies (okay, they're a bit wobbly), and a failed attempt at a hat. I'm also up to the sleeves on the world cup cardigan. My, don't I feel accomplished!

I am also loving the new Knitty. I have got inspired, and organised, and now I have:
- a folder on my computer called "yarn"
- two RL folders on my desk, one with printed out knitting patterns, and one with printed out crochet patterns (otherwise I bookmark them and forget about them)
- a spreadsheet (yeah, I know, I've moved into the dark side) with my planned projects on it.

Ah. Now. For Monkeemaven, in the hope that I can barter it for information about the identity of K9, the grossest food I will eat. This is seitan. It's basically wheat gluten. Mid-preparation. MmmmmMMmmm.

Yeah, I know it looks nasty. But you can't buy it here. Hence, I make it. Though recently, I've been making quesidillas. I'd actually forgotten that they existed. Silly, silly me.

Oh. My. Gosh!

2006-07-10T15:05:00.000+10:00

I just got home from rehearsals to find THE most enormous box on my front doorstep. And now I need your help. My package from my wonderful SP6, K9, has arrived.

I knew K9 was great. Just picking up on my love of Dr Who and being K9, sending messages from the Tardis, and everything else, was SO much fun! But when I opened this box, I was totally blown away...

Lots of little wrapped parcels. In each, loads of treats. There was chocolate, and magaziney goodness, and a panda, and some beaded stitch markers that deserve their own photo (along with a pin from Harrods), and some clues (a New York pencil and some New York chocolate), and my very own Dalek easter egg (which is now sitting well out of pet-reach, on the top shelf of my desk with K9's other cards). I can't believe how wonderful all of the things that K9 has sent me are!

But that wasn't all! In addition, there was YARN!

Yes, that's a HUGE quantity of Knit Picks in the most gorgeous mapley brown, along with a cute little bag, some lovely soaps, and another ball of coffee-purple cotton. The brown is such a beautiful colour! Thanks so much K9!

And that's where I need help. There are clues that need to be deciphered. I'm also gonna place a plea on the Knittyboard (tm) for help. I only know a little about K9...

- I know that K9 moved near the start of the round
- I know that K9 has something to do with New York
- K9 is a.k.a a cat
- K9 subscribes to knitting magazines

Because I need to get K9's identity...so that I can send that tail warmer!

Fat bottomed bags you make the World Cup go round!

2006-07-08T15:49:00.000+10:00

Auroraville, Saturday: In a shock decision that has divided supporters, Team Aurora has gone ahead with a proposed substitution in her Knitting World Cup project. Scarlett Cardigan has been dumped for the younger (and some say more attractive), Fat Bottomed Bag.

"The crochet was better for the sore shoulder of unknown origin that plagued the team in our leadup to finishing the first half of the cardigan," was the official statement, but the players in question tend to differ.

"I think that I was really just the right bag for the job," commented Fat Bottom, in a recent press conference. "Scarlett just isn't a team player, and let's face it, the only challenge that she poses is in her miles and miles of stocking stitch. I posed a challenge - not only did Aurora have to learn to crochet, she had to line me and sew in handles. She even put in a magnetic bag snap."

Sources from within say that this lining process was not without its own troubles for the unwary, with the lining first being pinned in the wrong way, and then the sewing machine needle breaking when asked to sew into a pin. Apparently, sewing is not a particular forte for the team, however sources say that Aurora is inordinately proud of her new bag.

Only the incomplete second half of Cardigan was talking today, and her frustration is clear. "I don't think it's all down to an injury. I think that the allure of a younger project inflamed the situation. And listen, people, this is the KNITTING world cup. The bag is CROCHET! Crochet, I tell you! It's simply not fair!"

Perhaps the last word belongs to Aurora herself, who released this as part of the official statement: "In light of the refereeing in the Football World Cup, I'm not sure that substituting knitting and crochet is such a bad option. Or at least, it's more fair than some of those calls in the matches. And I had fun making both, so where's the issue?" AAP

Reviews and news

2006-07-04T15:58:00.000+10:00

I'm almost finished a short visit to Canberra. I leave quite soon. The nice thing about Canberra is that it gives me access to a. my mother, and b. yarn shops that are not the ones at home, and have more yarn, and c. book shops. So I got to pick up my standing order at the comic shop, (yay for the latest issue of Fables, and who gets married in it!) and generally pick up some books. I thought I'd do a bit of a review of the two books that I've read in the last few days; Compassionate Knitting, by Tara Jon Manning, and At Knit's End: Meditations for Women who Knit too much, by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee.

Both hinge on a similar theme; metaknitting, or the consideration of knitting not just as something done with pointy sticks and string, but as something more esoteric, or at the very least meditative in nature. Let's start with Manning's Compassionate Knitting.

Compassionate Knitting is the companion to/sequel to an earlier book called Mindful Knitting. I think that my appreciation of the techniques discussed in Compassionate Knitting would be more rounded if I had this earlier volume; basically, Manning advocates that we are mindful of our craft when we knit. This encompasses why we choose to do it, when we do it, the materials involved, mixed together with spirituality that is not unfamiliar to those of us who have done some study into Buddhism, or Neopaganism. This is not to say that Manning's approach is incompatible with Christianity by any means - part of the world view of anyone with a sense of spirituality is necessarily contemplating the wonder that is to be found in this amazing place that we inhabit.

That said, the focus of Compassionate Knitting is geared more towards projects than techniques. As far as I can gather (I only have Compassionate Knitting), Mindful Knitting sets out the techniques, Compassionate Knitting expands upon them. The projects are organised into sections corresponding to different elements; heaven, earth and knitter (spirit), and boy are there some wonderful projects in there. There's a number of things that I want to make already; from "Heaven", the cloud pillow, wisp of mist wrist warmers, angels and fairies, and if I ever have kids, they'll be wearing the heaven and stars baby set. From "Earth", there's a lovely Sea Aran cardigan (complete with descriptions of the meanings of the stitches), a stunning jacket called Sky Lake jacket, and walking meditation socks. From "Knitter", a padma jacket, and a feng shui charm that will be just dandy to send to a friend who is moving house. A word of warning, though - if you are a very small person, then it is unlikely that all of the projects will fit you. The Padma jacket has a finished chest measurement of 44 inches, or 112 cm. Makes a change from knitting magazines, and garments that only make it to a medium (I recently had my hopes for a lovely lacey cardigan-thing shot down by a magazine that shall remain nameless).

This is a lovely book, but if you're into the spiritual side of things, it might be worth trying to find Manning's first book, Mindful Knitting. I'd still get Compassionate Knitting - the depth of projects in there, and the hints at where one can find inspiration shouldn't be sold short. Or if you'd prefer a philosophical basis served with a generous serving of (occasionally self-deprecating) humour, pick up Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's At Knit's End.

To be honest, I avoided buying this book. I saw it once, ages ago, on a trip to Sydney, and thought "Who needs a book about meditations for women who knit too much? I knit, but I don't need to think about it." So I put it back. Maybe some things aren't meant to find you until the right time. I just spent a wonderful afternoon reading it in the sun, with the dog on my feet, laughing unabashedly at the often-accurate statements and thoughts, after picking it up at the yarn shop in Jameison, ACT.

You won't find a pattern in this book. Or instructions about how to knit (well, maybe some cautionary tales). It is instead a collection of stories, quotes, anecdotes and knitterly philosophy that invites you to examine yourself as a knitter, and encourages you to love all who knit (including yourself), with their quirks, stash-obsession, and ability to sniff out yarn at 60 paces. It's the sort of book that is - although I hesitate to use the word, because it's one I never use - heartwarming. It makes you feel good about your craft, about being a knitter, about knitters through the ages, about your stash, and even about knitting disasters. It's the papery equivalent of the friend who, when you do something totally, hideously embarrassing in public, says "Oh god, I do that too" and helps you away from the feeling that you want to crawl under a rock and die. Or else gets in under the rock with you and makes jokes until you're ready to come out. Highly recommended, and not just for afternoons in the sun.

And in breaking news, Team Aurora has announced a late substitution in her Knitting World Cup team. Apparently the red cardigan has strained its shoulder, from being knitted too much, and its place is quickly being usurped by another younger player. Early reports say that this new younger project is much closer to completion, although still poses a challenge to be finished by the 9th. More news next entry.

Baby got back!

2006-06-29T10:35:00.000+10:00

This is the back of my World Cup cardigan. I'm not sure I'm gonna finish it in time. It's a good thing school holidays are finally here, because it means more knitting time, and I haven't even cast on for the other bits! It looks a bit deformed in that pic. I assure you that it doesn't seem to be in real life.

Both of the teams I was going for have been knocked out - Australia (duh) and Equador (I drew Equador in a friend's sweep). So I will have to persist in the hopes of making it to the finals ;-) The only thing/s that can stop me now are socialising and D&D (I'm not allowed to knit the red over at Peren's place because it sheds distressingly onto her cream carpet. I completely understand. It sheds distressingly at my place too. I think I'll have to wear it with all red, and claim to be Miss Scarlet.)

And then...oooh the plans...I have my Samus yarn, and I have a massive stash which I didn't quite realise was so massive until I did a winter-clean over the weekend...and I have plans...

you know it's cold when...

2006-06-17T19:02:00.000+10:00

Thanks to all of the lovely people who commented on my Tubey. You really made my day!

Now, to make everyone go AWWWWW....my living room, five minutes ago...

Yeah, these are my fur-children. The dog is Binky, the tortoiseshell is Dory, and the tabby is Stabby. They all cuddled up on the lounge tonight, and I couldn't resist getting an inaction shot. Yes, I have a doona on my lounge. At the moment, it is so cold that I'm moving from doona-point to doona-point.

The crochet is starting to get addictive. I'm making scarf #2 now - it's one of those really long ones with the huge horizontal stripes. Then I realised that crochet was damaging my world cup chances, and I have put it aside for now to concentrate on my project for the cup. It's not going too well. Let's hope it comes up against the other teams with aplomb!

Tubey!

2006-06-10T10:08:00.000+10:00

I finally finished Tubey!

Eeeeesh, didn't that take a long time!

Although, as with everything I make, I'm not entirely happy with it. The stripes did what I thought they'd do, and widened my torso, and there's a lumpy poochy bit at the back where I did a LAME job of picking up stitches.

Ah, give it a few days, I'll like it then.

Pattern: Tubey, from Knitty (tm), by Cassie Rovitti

Yarn: Patons Jet (80% wool, 20% alpaca), approximately worsted weight, in the colours I thought best approximated those in the original pattern. It knits quite nicely, although sheds a teeny bit.

Notes: I hate circular needles. I used 10 balls of the grey to make the large size, and needed an extra ball of brown because the ball meterage is quite short - 74/m per ball. This is a lovely pattern if you aren't crappy at picking up stitches like I am.

I'm going to go buy my world cup yarn! Eeeee! Aussie Aussie Aussie! Oi Oi Oi!

World cup and Garden Scarf

2006-06-07T17:57:00.000+10:00

Okay, I promised something about the Knitting World Cup, but I just had to show this off first. It's my first crochet project since granny squares as a kid.

Pattern: "Garden Scarf", by Michelle Amerson, contained in the book Stitch and Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker by Debbie Stoller

Modifications: Made with stash DK yarn and a 4mm hook, rather than the specified materials

Comment: Easy as easy, and everyone has noticed it! I think I could like crochet.

See that pendant around my neck? It's the Clover Yarn Cutter. I finally got one. I am in love with it. I have designated it an amulet of yarn cutting +2, and it gives + 2 to all sense motive, diplomacy and charisma-related checks with yarny people, because they recognise it and it mesmerises them.

As you can also see, I am a hopeless model, with the look of the rabbit in the headlights. So I got some inspiration from the prove-you're-geeky thread on the KnittyBoard (tm), and got a less selfconcious model - my telescope.

It still asked if its bum looked big in the photo. (BTW, my favourite flower is the very last one, the one in the dark down there. It's also the least lumpy and misshapen).

And in other news - the knitting world cup. I have decided on a lacy mohair cardigan in bright red. BUT I have a suspension period until I've finished Tubey. It's sooooo close. Otherwise, I won't just be accelerating towards SABLE (Stash Amassed Beyond Life Expectancy), I'll be hurtling. Otherwise, it will be a challenge for me, because it is lacy. I'll have to concentrate. I won't be able to do the collar and cuffs at D&D games. Therefore...challenge...

Oh boy

2006-06-06T19:19:00.000+10:00

It's been an expensive few days.

My heater broke. As in it is now a rather effective fan, but not particularly good at being an instrument of warmth. Normally I wouldn't worry too much - yes, my breath fogs inside the house, but I have warm clothes - but the dog is ill. I didn't tell my little sister that I bought a heater for the dog. Especially not a space-age-mica-panel heater. It seemed to work quite well last night in my room. Well, at least my breath didn't fog when I hopped out of bed at 6am.

Yeah, 6am. What the heck was I doing up at 6am?

The Local Craft Shop had a sale. A sale which was, if you got there between 6 and 7am, 40% off all floorstock. Unfortunately, they didn't have the yarn for my World Cup Project, but I did buy yarn. I worked out by the meterage that I would need...wait for it...18 Balls of Jet to complete "Samus". The meterage on it is so laaaaame. But...but...at 40% off...do-able. So I have the Jet. I don't have the World Cup Yarn. More on that when I buy it...

...I'm thinking of going for RED.

Yay!

2006-06-01T18:15:00.000+10:00

Hurrah! I got my first SP package from the new round today!

Look ======>

Candles, and buttons, candy and a lovely letter, and an owl puzzle! I love owls. I have a little posse of them on my bookcase, sitting with my statue of Athena. I'm gonna sit down and play with it tonight. I am also happy to have more candles - winter has arrived with a bang, and the house is getting a bit...um...close....

Although, the strictness of quarantine laws in this country - they opened the package, took out some of the tea sent to me, and left a different bag of the tea. Apparently peel is not okay. So, SP, if you get a scary quarantine letter, don't worry. All but the orange tea is intact :-) Thanks SP! You brightened my day considerably!

I went shopping this evening. I feel a bit weird buying knitwear, but I justified it on this count: Yes, yes I could make it. But I probably can't be bothered to. And there's too much in the WIP pile anyway. And if I really like it, I can work out how to make my own version....

...oh, and I have nothing to wear if I don't buy it.

tubey progress

2006-05-31T07:08:00.000+10:00

I thought, as it was quickly starting to seem that I don't complete anything, I jut gripe about it, I'd show a picture of my lovely WIP Tubey. I don't know how anyone who's waist is bigger than an 8 would try it on whilst in progress, though.

I'm very happy with the colours. How they'll look on me, I don't know. I don't actually care. I like them too much to be cranky with them, even if they make me look like a hippo. I used the closest substitutes that Patons had in Jet, so my eggplant is pretty pink, and they don't make a black (how WEIRD is that?) but the grey gives it a nice soft look. My only gripe with the Jet is that they're really short balls - I had to buy another one of the brown, and I'm hoping that the distance of the brown stripe from the one on the sleeve (I'm still to do the brown stripe, don't adjust your monitor!) will make up for them being in different dye lots.

I want to finish it NOW! But the circular needles are ticking me off. I know that makes me super-uncool. But they do.

Been catching up on the copyright issues that have been happening between some brilliant designers and a moron on ebay. I'm really glad that the knitting community has someone like the Girl From Auntie, who is articulate and intelligent, and is dealing with it in a more productive way than most could ever hope for. I still want to make Rogue, too. No, no, bad Aurora, finish what you've got in the "I want..." pile....

obsession

2006-05-28T08:17:00.000+10:00

I have realised that I am obsessed with yarn, and knitting, and patterns, and all that sort of stuff.

Well, I probably should have realised this a while ago, huh?

In the past few days, I have been spending inordinate amounts of time at Yarns Online, which I only discovered the other day. It's an Aussie source for yarns like Noro, and Brown Sheep (who have the nicest sock colours!)

I also bought this Cleckheaton pattern book, which has some lovely designs in it, that are far nicer than what has been in the shops this season. Seriously. I go to Myer, or even to those horrifically expensive little boutique shops (I know I live in a small town with limited shopping, but even so!), and the jumpers are UGLY. They have v's to the knees. Or turtle necks (ick). Or badly-placed bobbles that put me in mind of YKW. Or, if I manage to find one that I like....it's see through.

So I'm thinking that one from the Cleckheaton book might become my project for the Knitting World Cup. Hey, Australia qualified, I can legitimately do it! I regretted not doing the Olympics, in hindsight, that would be fun. Otherwise, I am thinking of doing a simple little bolero (completely unsuitable for the weather here right now - brr!) or a plain cardie or v-neck with the stash I bought last weekend.

I also made seitan yesterday. It looks like a roiling pot of brains when simmering, and frankly, the texture when kneading is terrifying. BUT it tastes just like the one I've had in resturants (I only used soy sauce for the broth), if a little heavy, and I think I know how to make it lighter. It's basically wheat gluten. I quite like seitan. It's good for things that you can't use tofu for - like fajitas, or stroganoff - but you remember with fondness from meat-eating days. It's also nigh-on impossible to buy here, even in Canberra, except in a resturant. I hadn't even thought of making my own until a throwaway comment in a vegie magazine article made me look for it online! Yay!

D & D today. And musical rehearsals. And I can knit through both....

Greek pullwhatnow?

2006-05-24T17:23:00.000+10:00

It's gorram cold.

No, really.

My little fingers are frozen as I type this.

So it finally gave me the impetus to sew up the Greek Pullover. Disaster. I crocheted the stupid edging, and it looks like it was done by the dog. Then, because I'd been idly wondering about it, I pulled on the seamed up body piece.

The neck is somewhere around my knees. Well, not quite, but it's wobbly and it hangs out. I'm hoping that ironing (oh, sorry steam blocking) the neckline will kill the wobble...but the neck is so huge! So huge! I got all cross and bundled up the half-seamed jumper and put it on the coffee table, where it is glaring malevolent purple at me every time I go into the lounge room. It's not even like I'm flat. I am, in the parlance of the KnittyBoard, a busty sea wench. Gah.

Tubey progresses well, if somewhat loose in the sleeves. I'm glad I went with my gut feeling about arms, otherwise I would have lost my hands in acres of sleeve. I have yet to cast off on the second sleeve...I'm back to the solid part. Is it my imagination, or do stripes feel faster?

I'm going to kareoke tonight. We have to dress up as a singer. I'm going as the guy from the monster band who won Eurovision...

'snow business

2006-05-13T07:53:00.000+10:00

Okay, I learned a REALLY valuable lesson this week. DON'T knit something with a chart on a bus. I barely got any of "Argyle" done, because I kept feeling slightly queasy (although that could have been the steady diet of PG-rated romantic comedies....) and putting it down. But the bit I *have* got done is lovely. Photos when I am halfway through a row and can spread it out to show you lot how lovely the textured pattern is.

In the meantime....we started with caves, and a very cool entrance to such. If I live in the bush, I want this as my front gate. <====

And then we got into the cave. I used to do a lot of caving as a kid, right up until my mother:
a. saw photos of me in a squeeze
b. heard about the infamous foul air incident (we got trapped and couldn't find our way out...nothing to do with farting!)
I would love to live in a cave. Actually, I'd settle for this cave, with this as the master bedroom...

Can you see the shawl attached to the column? I didn't have my tripod, so I had to use the flash. Grrr.

Next day, we went up the chairlift, which is always fun. It's so quiet, and peaceful, and you can look over the side for critter tracks, and little rivers, and all sorts of things. I submit these pictures for people who think we Aussies don't get snow. And it's not even winter yet!

All in all, a very good excursion :-) Look at that sky! And the footprints on the snow ARE mine, yes.

Be nice to your mother this weekend. Have a good one!

Update time!

2006-05-07T13:42:00.000+10:00

Since you all probably think I knit nothing at all, given the lack of photos, here's an almost completed Tubey sleeve:

I am not sure how much longer to make it. It fits now, but I don't know if the contsruction will take inches out of it and make it NOT fit. I'm really happy with the colours. I'm making it in Jet, in colours approximating those in the original pattern. Original, I know, but I like them.

I also bought some yarn today to make Argyle, from Magknits. Look, pretty dusty pink! It was 20% off, and I have convinced myself that Tubey would not be a good project to take on the 15-or-so-hour bus trip I have coming up at the end of the week. What a shame! I'll just *have* to start another one...

It is blowing a gale here. Literally, according to the Bureau of Meterology. And there's SNOW forecast for tomorrow! It feels about to snow anyway, but this is the first official snow.

Just to make people smile, here is a photo from Easter, taken in my Grandparents' yard. They're rosellas. Pretty, huh?

evening off

2006-05-03T21:33:00.000+10:00

Ha ha, I was right, they were for pom-poms. Thanks, K9! My pom-poms always look a bit wonky, so this should help greatly. And I can take them to Mum's to make the Interweave pom-pom christmas tree - no, I don't know why she likes it either - but it should give the professional touch.

I needed the chocolate. Electronic pats aplenty.

I misjudged some marking, and have spent evenings and evenings on it, and I'm still not finished. I think that the damn papers are breeding at night. I've been going to work, then getting home, eating, and marking. Getting up, marking, and going to work. And it's parent/teacher interview season, which makes me jumpy. I hate p/t interviews. It's one of the few things that I can't control my anxiety about.

I've decided to take tonight off. I'm tired. I bought a nice bottle of red wine, and I'm having a few glasses in front of the computer and the tv, wrapped in my lovely furry blanket. It's cold here. It feels almost like snow. The mountains are wreathed in mist, and the sky is cloudy. It's nice. I want to finish Tubey, and start on Argyle from the new Magknits. I haven't had time to knit this week, and it's getting me edgy, because I use knitting as a way to deal with stress.

Veritas - I got the new Dresden Dolls album! And I actually saw some of that edition of Rage :-) I'm glad you liked your stuff - you were a great SP to have. I'm also glad I got the chance to share that dukka with someone! If you want some more, lemme know. I can only get it once a month, because that's when the market is. I thought that the Noddy eggcup would make you think of Enid Blyton, and go....ooooooooh noooooooo....

home

2006-04-29T09:28:00.000+10:00

So I'm home! This will be a teeny entry, because I have a full day of nerding it up playing D&D over at DM's place. We played last night, and I forgot knitting - I plan to bring Tubey today. Sim was actually disappointed - he wanted to see what my latest project was. I'm training these nerds up good.

But mystery hose mystery deepening further aside - HUZZAH - K9's package from the TARDIS was safe and sound on the doorstep when I got home! Lookit at the goodies!

There's a lovely Vegetarian cookbook which I rather stupidly covered the cover of (with some great-looking recipies! Mmmm, cheese pots), some chopsticks, some chocolate, and some craft tools that I have a pretty good idea about...but I'm not entirely sure in my ignorance. And some little sachets of girlie stuff! And stickers! Thanks, K9! You're wonderful!

(Oh, and check out the card. Hehehe!)

procrastinating

2006-04-26T08:42:00.000+10:00

I have a huge pile of marking.

160 papers. All on the same thing. All short answer questions.

It's keeping me up at night. Because I know I'm only here for another few days, then I have 2 days of gaming, and then ittt's work again. And that's when the marking is due!

So what am I doing?

Knitting Tubey.

Tubey will, I think, be quite nice. I've only done the flat shoulder bit, as Mum didn't have the right dpns, and yesterday was Anzac Day. Anzac Day is a public holiday commemorating those people in Australia and New Zealand who went to war for our countries. It's one of the few "sacred" public holidays left - almost no shops are open, unlike on other so-called public holidays - and it should remain one that we hold as a "sacred" public holiday. 'Nuff said.

I'm gonna buy the right dpns today. And ring Peren and ask her to check for mystery hoses as well as packages. Yes, you heard me correctly. Mystery hoses. When I went back home briefly last week...there was a hose on in the back yard. Only...it wasn't my hose. It was someone elses' hose. All uncoiled and dripping onto the rhodedendron. I was, to put it mildly, surprised, because when I found it, it had been on for more than 24 hours, WASTING WATER!

I reckon it was the landlady. But, to paraphrase Austin Powers...Seriously?! Who throws a hose, anyway?

oh so happy...

2006-04-23T13:49:00.000+10:00

I bought books! And yarn! Gosh I love visiting the city. I finally got the yarn for Tubey - I bought the re-released "Jet", which is alpaca/wool. Yeah, it'll be warrrrm, but as Mum just read from the paper that the temperatures at home are -1 to 14 degrees, I'm not worried. As it's autumn, and all. It's almost in the same colours as the pattern, though I think a plain one would be nice too.

I've also bought "Knitorama" and I'm thinking about "Alterknits", though I'm not sure. "Knitorama is cute and quirky, though I don't know how much I'll make from it. I'll probably make the hand grenade, and the duck. Flying knitted ducks. How embarassingly cute! And I found "The Happy Hooker", and now I'm determined to try crochet. I'm not very good at following instructions, but I am gosh-darn-determined to make some rabbit slippers!

One disappointing thing was that they had "Handknit Holidays" at the bookshop - and I really liked it - but it was $60. And "Sensational Knitted Socks" was $50. Even with the shipping costs from overseas, I can't see those prices being justified. I've just had a quick flick through Amazon, and BOY can I not see $60 being justified.

But other than that, I've had fun. But I think I'll be crocheting as much as knitting before long...if I can follow instructions...

too much driving...

2006-04-18T07:39:00.000+10:00

Yeah. Driving. Yeah. I've done more than 1000kms in a car over Easter - luckily for me I didn't drive them all. I did get a square done in the car on the way up to see my grandparents, though. And I've pulled out the coat now that I'm down here with Mum, and she is fascinated. I've learned so much from the Internet. Mum is not just a Knitter. She's a Knitter. But she had never thought of things like lifelines, and marking each pattern repeat with stitch markers. (She was also in love with my Aurora stitch markers too!) All this stuff I've learned online, and boy does it make it easier.

So yes. I am in a city. Which means that I am in a place where there are not only LYSes , but big yarn shops, and all these sorts of things. And bookshops, and the ilk. Expect to hear of purchases in the next few days!

We had a lovely Easter weekend - visiting the family, including my grandparents, and having my sis up from Melbourne. I hope you guys all had a lovely time too!

back from camp!

2006-04-13T09:02:00.000+10:00

I'm back from camp. And so it's school holidays! Yipeee!

We went to Lake Burrendong, which is an "adventure" camp in the bush about an hour from here. By the end of the first night, we'd realised that:

a. our kids seemed to be failing Living in tents 101. When the tents hadn't keeled over, they were left open and subsequently prey to nocturnal visitors.
b. the teachers were more immature than the kids (we rolled down the hill when they weren't looking!)
c. the food was going to be a struggle. Especially because there were MICE in the teachers' cabin, which got into our emergency-decent-food supplies.

Yet, in the manner of all camps, it was fun. We went grass skiing. We did archery (and all pinged our arms with the string and compared bruises). We went canoeing and kayaking, which I love - the teachers all get kayaks, so we can float about on the lake in peace. Woe betide any student who tried to splash a teacher, though. We hunted in a pack once splashed, and made the splasher rather soggy. We did a night hike to a campground where we made damper, which the kids adored (note for overseas people - damper is a kind of bread cooked on a campfire. There's a number of ways to do it - we stuck it on sticks like marshmallows and roasted it). And we played games, and ran about like gibbering idiots, and generally had a ball.

I also finished a whole school of fish. I'll post a pic on the weekend, once I'm at Mum's. I've emailed to join the Nautie KAL too, as I think they're neat. I'm contemplating making some super-big nauties as cushions (someone on the Knittyboard suggested Nautie cushions, and I think it's a BRILLIANT idea!) to go with the fish blanket once it is in the lounge room.

Gah. Cleanup today, then driving tomorrow. At least DM is visiting tonight...

shiny!

2006-04-04T17:22:00.000+10:00

Shiny!

Well, it would be if my scanner worked. It's much more of a metallic bronze in real life. I tried the seafoam stitch, but the yarn is too...too...something to hold the stitch properly. It looked awful. This is a simple drop-stitch necklet that I made last night. It will be fastened with a big bronzey button. When, of course, I find an appropriate button. Think I've seen one down at the craft shop.

The garter stitch rows between the dropped stitches are in fibonnanci numbers, and the drop rows look like 3s, so it all works out. Mathematically, that is.

I also have News. With a capital News. I have been, once again, asked to pick up a Y12 (senior year/final year) class. So I'll be taking two Y12 classes. The trade off is that I lose the Y11 class who have been putting me through h-e-double-hockey-sticks this term. In return, they get a man - whom I am sure, because of his gender, they'll respect more than me. (Another charming feature of country schools!) So my little nerdy heart is all a-flutter, because I get to teach Blade Runner and Brave New World again! Huzzah! And....THERE'S ONE DAY LEFT OF TERM BEFORE CAMPS! Joy! Rapture! Joy!

project spectrum...and the weather

2006-04-03T07:16:00.000+10:00

Awesome. We're forecast to get SLEET on Thursday. This has me almost gibbering with excitement. I know that by midwinter, I won't be, but it's been a long, hot summer, and now I FINALLY get to show off my knitted goodies.

On PrettyByDesign's blog, I read about her Seafoam scarf, and having also seen Cpurl's in the last few days, I want to make one. I also read about (then joined) Project Spectrum. So I think that my April project will be a seafoam stitch scarf made out of the golden metallic ribbon yarn I bought on the weekend. I've downloaded the stitch instructions, and away I go!

Here's the button. It's nice...there's millions of them to pick from!

I finished another square in the D & D Game of Death yesterday. Six party members got to -9HP, several more than once. Four of them are dead dead. I was the lone cleric. It was pretty bloody hilarious, really, and will lead to some interesting game play over the next few weeks. I'm still alive. Thankfully - my character has already died once and been reincarnated!

the tempest is over!

2006-04-02T09:00:00.000+10:00

Well, The Tempest, bane and joy of my life for the last 3-and-a-bit months, and the parent of the quote contained above (Ferdinand says it) is finally over. The kids did a magnificent job, really. They honestly did. If the theatre award judges don't give Ariel and Prospero nominations, I will know then, know for certain that it is a rort.

Well, on to other things. I have been swatching today with cheap'n'nasty yarn, possibly for Samus. It is very pretty and glittery, and it looks like (halfway through a tension square) I will make gauge. I am not certain about it, as there are teeeeeny little slubs in there, which might throw off the cables. I'm thinking about it for Y7 camp - once I've done the bands, I won't have to think about what I'm doing, and with cheap yarn, if I lose a ball somewhere in the Bush, I won't have to worry as much.

I've been watching a lot of Ren and Stimpy recently. A LOT. I bought the Season 1 & 2 box set at K-Mart for $30. Something has really struck me about it - as an adult, I understand Ren a lot more, and I've also noticed something about Stimpy. He is HAPPY. No matter what. Even when he is starving to death, or hwarfing, or being hit by Ren, he is happy. And life is good for Stimpy. I think I may begin living the Path of Stimpy.

Barely touched Carnivale coat. Too tired. More fish of the week though. Meet Poor John. His name comes from Shakespeare, and I have a whole ball (and two finished fish) in his colourway.

Trinculo: He [Caliban] smells like a fish. A very ancient and fishlike smell - a kind of not-of-the-newest Poor John.

There was frost last night! And, and, and, daylight saving is over. Winter approaches, and with it, yarny goodness!

yaaaarn

2006-03-28T07:34:00.000+11:00

Finally I am able to post some more pictures! This is the last of the brilliant yarn my SP sent me (K9 also sent some issues of "Cast On", which I enjoyed immensely).

I am thinking that this will become one of those beautiful airy lace scarves. When I am staying with the mother, naturally, as she will appreciate the gorgeousness, and the specialness, and there is nothing quite like getting a good gloat in now and then.

The Carnivale coat continues well, however my updates to the progress bar can only be small as it's a bloody coat (we're allowed to say bloody, they use it in tourism ads)...so even huge amounts of progress are teeny.

This second one is Noro. It actually goes with some of my stashed yarn, so I am thinking that I will make one of those scarves with the slit so that it won't fall off, possibly a hat, and some armwarmers (I don't use gloves. You can't write on a whiteboard in gloves, and my home room is freezing in the winter. There's frost on the inside of the windows, because Australians have no idea how to construct a room to keep the heat in!)

Look at the colours! Be hypnotised by the cooooolours...

phew!

2006-03-26T19:47:00.000+11:00

I have got the idea in my head that my furniture needs shifting. During my busiest week of the term, naturally. Reports are due, and the production is on, so naturally I shift furniture. Without cleaning up first, naturally. So the mess has multiplied, like the blob. Everything it touches, it absorbs, until it will eventually swallow the whole town.

So. As I am procrastinating, I am putting up pictures. It's not really working, which is a pest. I have another fish of the week to add to the shoal (for the record, shoal is a collective noun for fish as well as a bit of ocean). His name is Passionfruit, which is his colourway. I've bought more fish yarn.

Then we come to my recent package. We have...stitch markers! Very lovely stitch markers, which are now in the coat, marking where the lace repeats so that when I muck up, I notice it within 12 stitches. I am somewhat lace impaired. And mohair blends don't help. All that goaty stubbornness comes out in the yarn when you have to tink back a few stitches.

But it DOES look and feel lovely. So I'll forgive goaty stubbornness. I don't much feel like forgiving Blogger's goaty stubbornness, though. It's just taken me half an hour to upload the pics I have...so I'm afraid that I'm giving up for the evening. Tune in tomorrow for pics...

...hopefully.

SP Goodness!

2006-03-22T07:33:00.000+11:00

I was running late to work yesterday, and it's a darn good thing that I was! As I walked out the door at 8.25, swearing under my breath, the postie pulled up, with not one, but 2 packages! One was the magazine swap with CPurl...and the other was wonderful goodness from K9!! I can't upload pictures at the moment because Blogger is being nasty, but I will, because the stuff is so cool!

CPurl sent me the Pirate Edition of Knit1, and she got an extra KnitSimple, so she sent that to me too :-) I only just bought the winter edition of KnitSimple. Yep, that's right, the WINTER edition was only just released here in the boondocks. So I am excited, because I am a Magazine Ho (tm).

Then, the package from K9 also yielded more magaziney goodness - some Cast On Magazines (with some nice tech stuff)...and some extreme yarny goodness, with pretty blues and pinks in lace weight, some lovely purpley Noro. I have some purple Malabrigo from the last SP round, so I am thinking that Noro and Malabrigo might have babies and make something cool, like a little scarf and matching armwarmers. There was chocolate, and PostIts, and a lovely card...

...but the bestest thing were Stitch Markers! K9 made stitch markers that spell AURORA! They're so pretty and wonderful! They're in the Carnivale Coat, and they're wonderful to use. They look spiffy against the black mohair. (I am wondering if I need to rip out the first lace repeat and start again, as there are about 4 or 5 mistakes in it. It's for the lower edge, though, so it will be near the back of my knees, so I am thinking that this will just be my Persian Flaw.)

Thanks K9! And thanks CPurl! I've scanned stuff and will post pictures when Blogger lets me!

wool winder

2006-03-20T21:45:00.000+11:00

I got a postcard! The TARDIS, it seems, is in Boston, and K9 very nicely sent me this very gorgeous postcard from there! The kitty sort of reminds me of Dory. Except that Dory would be sitting in the basket, munching on the wool as it was wound. It's joined the first card on the mantelpiece.

Finished another square and another heart tonight (I did most of the square in rehearsal for "The Tempest", as it is mindless stuff). Laid them out with the first two, and by gum it's gonna be a pretty blankie if my stamina lasts! It's a lovely pattern. It's from Creative Knitting, which as far as I can tell has no affilation with, or similarity to, the overseas mag of the same name. Ours is MUCH lamer, but usually has one or two great patterns in the dross. Well it has recently.

Drink du jour (well, drink of the month, really...) Torn up mint leaves, lime cordial (not diet lime, I mean, really, what's 150kj here or there?) and soda water. Really nice. Really.

fish of the week

2006-03-18T16:21:00.000+11:00

Meet Ponky and Pinky, the first Fish of the Week!

I have learned that one 50g ball of unnamed pink 8-ply yields one square, one heart, and one and 9/10ths fish. I think I could make it yield a full two fish if I were more careful in my usage.

Ponky was the first fish off the rank, and he had a few developmental delays. Sorry, Ponky. Ponky may not end up swimming into the blanket because of said delays. I don't think he'll tesselate with the other fish.

I'm a bit worried about Pinky's duo-coloured tail, but I figure that no-one will notice in a shoal of fifty or so fish! They're quick to make, too - I made two across two episodes of Carnivale - complete with ripping back several times.

Hmmm, fish-blanket KAL sounds like fuuuun! I will be the slowest fisher, though...

Magaziney badness

2006-03-18T09:02:00.000+11:00

I sent off a magazine to swap with the lovely Cpurl the other day. She's sending me piratey goodness. I'm sending her Yarn Magazine - remember, it was online for one issue? Now it's in print. It's quite a nice mag, too - usually has some interesting technical articles. Not usually got much I want to knit in it (but hey, people, I buy VK. I'll buy any knitting mag), but this time I'm thinking I'll make the easter bunnies.

It is cooling down a little, so the critters are being clingy. They all slept on the bed last night, after the territorial disputes. It's a queen bed. They're all the size of a large cat. They don't even have to touch. Nonetheless, there are territory disputes. Bark! Miau! Bark-bark! I'm going to a pet show today, and taking Binky....if there are pomeraneans there, I will be lucky not to come home with another pet...

I have done a square, and a heart for afghan #1. Thanks to the glorious Rain, I now have a fish pattern for the fish afghan. I've decided to try and make one of each piece per week. That will take a year or two to finish the blankets, but it won't make me into a gibbering madwoman.

Non sequiteur of the week - a student was talking with her peers about dogs - "Hey, y'know, I could handle owning a dog...if it didn't have legs..."

And I got contact from K9! Huzzah! Little cute critters dancing a frenetic jig.

marvel at my...oops...

2006-03-14T17:58:00.000+11:00

Okay, yesterday I bragged about saving power.

Today, I swear to you, my LYS lady can read minds. I went in, thinking vaguely about the cardigan coat, seduced by pictures of a pretty brunette lounging about in a country club in an elegant cardigan coat. LYS lady showed me, without me even saying anything about what I was browsing, the perfect sub yarn for said coat.

At least it was only $5.50 a ball. And I didn't need many, cos it's mohair.

It's black, because I am slowly learning that although variegated brights and pastel pretties are lovely, if I make a whole garment in them, I seldom wear it. Accessories no worries, but a whole cardigan? Nah.

Whereas I wear my black cardie all the time. So I did the logical thing. I've decided to call it the Carnivale coat, in keeping with my decision to call everything something other than what it should be called, if I feel it merits to be so. It's named for a truly brilliant TV series about the conflict between good and evil, set in the US Dustbowl in a travelling circus.

I have also decided to make a couple of afghans. One is a variation on a pram rug - it's squares with appliqued hearts. I have worked out that to fit my bed, I will need...wait for it....100 squares. Queen bed, baby. I feel slightly insane. So I anticipate finishing sometime next year. Which is fine - I'll keep buying the odd balls I'll need to make it. I have this vision of my bedroom looking like something from a homemaker magazine, with a white bedspread and a rug in pale colours draped tastefully over the end of it. I am ignoring the fact that the dog will mess it up as soon as it hits the bed...and that there'll be muddy kitty prints on it within a week...

The other is the tesselating fish. Unfortunately, the pattern for this has vanished from ye olde interwebs, so I think I'll have to jig up something myself. Shouldn't be hard to do in Excel. But that might wait until the school holidays. Mmmmm. Holidays.

Evidence of Inca Jacket

2006-03-13T21:50:00.000+11:00

Photographic evidence of the Inca Jacket, for Stefaneener. If you're wondering what I am pointing at, it is my silver dragon brooch that I got for my last birthday from Mum. She has this great sensibility for presents - she gets me neat stuff.

Colour is weird because I only just did the last of the sewing, and thus had to take the photos in the bathroom. The rest of the house is so dark that the craptacular camera wouldn't register and take pictures. Only a few more weeks until I can afford a decent camera. Quail before my mighty saving power!

The colour is about the colour in the shots, though, and the yarn is soft and squuffy. It will be handy in winter - it's still too warm here. Only got down to 14 degrees last night.

Pattern: Jacket Wrap, from Patons Book 1231 (Inca)
Yarn: Patons Inca (Alpaca/Wool/Acrylic) in a reddish shade
Modifications: Sleeves knitted 2cm shorter to fit my gnome-arms. Otherwise none.
Would I make it again: Yeah, I think I would. But it's a boring knit. Lots of stocking stitch. Probably why it sat in the WIP pile for so long. Quite chunky, so knits quickly when it is in play. I am thinking of modifying the Samus pattern and using the purples in the same yarn that Patons have just brought out.

I am also thinking of frogging something truly horrid to make the long cardigan coat that I want, but know in my heart will simply look vile. Then I haven't lost money, and the vile other won't lay on my conscience. It's a fluffy, too big, mohair cardigan that makes me look like a puppy dog who was dressed by an over-enthusiastic owner. It won't be missed. But I should really sew up the Greek Pullover first...

Oh, and for those of you playing at home, I bought the dinosaur bath mat. Dinosaurs!

FO-o-rama!

2006-03-12T20:57:00.000+11:00

I got busy on the WIPs and turned then into FOPs. Finished-Object-Projects. Well, nearly. I also watched an entire season of Futurama whilst I did so (Season Four, for those playing at home).

So:

- The Interweave Greek Pullover is pinned to my bed in pieces, blocking its little merry heart out. I am not sure if the yarn will stretch to the i-cord ropes around the middle. I'm not too worried, either. I think that wrapping i-cord under my bust will serve to point out that my bust is not of the size of sexy. It is the size of mumsy.

- The Inca pullover needs one more shoulder seam, and the ends at the bottom woven in, then it is wearable. Had a horrible moment when I was trying it on. Then I realised that I'd tried it on upside down. Oops.

- Tempting II is frogged. I know, I know. But it was knitting up HORRIBLY. I got tension, but the yarn was far too thin. It was going to be one of those dodgy knitted tops where you can see the bra through the top. And that is never a good look. Not even on Eva Longoria.

- I've got half a sock. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

All in all, I feel quite proud and ready for some winter knitting. From the stash at this stage, if I want that digital camera. I have recently realised that the stash is bigger than I thought - as I have been slowly taking the house from squalid to liveable. That frog pond is big enough to breed new life...

...and it will, precious. Oooh yes, it will.

WIP Weekend

2006-03-11T17:30:00.000+11:00

I've decided that this weekend will be my finish-at-least-one-long-term-wip-weekend (now YOU try saying that five times fast!). I'm on track. I just cast off on the second sleeve for the Interweave Greek Pullover. Don't remember when I cast on, but it's a good six months or more. Now I need to do the i-cord, the blocking, the sewing, and the crochet neck edge.

In the meantime, I've started the anklet socks from Yarn magazine. They had an error, which I am pleased to say I spotted and knew what to do to cirvumvent it. Huzzah! And the yarn - which came from K9, my SP, is lovely and soft, and the most STUNNING colours. Pinks and yellows. The pic is a scan of the half-sock I've done. See the yellow?

See the dodgy increase that I am gonna have to do something about when I make the second sock? Yuh-huh?

Still, they will look cute in my little sneakers that can't have long socks peering over the top.

I have had a good buying day today. Got some great fresh food (zucchini! zucchini!) from the markets this morning, and then went to the craft shop next to the not-quite-antiques-but-not-Vinnies style shop downtown. So naturally I had to look in there too. I came out with salt and pepper shakers in the shape of deer, and with a pyrex oven-to-table dish with its own stand, in blue with a 60s stylised heart and leaves design on the lid. It is officially HOT.

Then I went to the fabric shop to try and get the organza for the Greek Pullover, and realised that the fabric I wanted was 50% off. Well, not wanted. Lusted after. Desired immensely. Wasn't willing to spend $25/metre on, but still desired. I weakened and bought it. It is small panels of south american style marys of the sea. Very folk-catholic. Very gorgeous.

Went home, and sat on the lawn and knitted. Oh happy day. Hope your weekend is just as good!

finished bobblicious

2006-03-07T18:05:00.000+11:00

I finished Bobblicious last night. Well, modified Bobblicious. Bobble-lessious.

It is very warm, and looks better than I thought it would. It also stays out of the gosh-darn WAY when I am trying to do things. I also like the way that, because I knitted it mostly in right-side-out stocking stitch, the edges have curled in around the neck and body, creating quite a nice little collary fold-in with no effort involved. I don't, however, like the way that the bulky yarn bunches at the elbows when I bend my arms in. The cruddy quality of the yarn means it's not gonna last forever, but as it cost me about $25 and was knitted in a week, I'm not that worried.

Pattern: Bobblicious by Estee Moscow from Knitty
Yarn: Sean Sheep "Big River" - approx 7 balls (juuuuust over)
Modifications: Instead of doing bobbles, I did 8 rows of reverse stocking stitch at each cuff. The rest is in normal stocking stitch (right side out). I don't actually like the look of reverse st stitch en masse, which is why I didn't follow the pattern.

I am making over my bathroom. I want to put all sorts of odd things in there. So far I have a shark that will look down upon those in the bathtub, and a strange little posse of fossils and plastic dinosaurs on the edge of the tub. The plants that used to beforest the room all carked it last time I went on holidays. Poor plants.

So my question is...

Should I go for a bath mat with:

a. a dinosaur?
b. a dragonfly?
c. in the shape of a flower?
d. with spots on it?

I mean, the rest of the house is gross - but the bathroom can be cool - right?

tagged

2006-03-03T22:32:00.000+11:00

Tagged from Rain's blog:

4 jobs or places of work:

1. World's worst waitress at Chilli's. Seriously. I dropped things. Including beer, on myself. I forgot orders. I was banned from carrying margaritas because I would end up wearing them. I quit in embarassment before they fired me.

2. Paint shop employee. Selling paint to tradies in Punchbowl. I used to be able to lift paint that weighed half of my body weight, match colours by eye, and deal with customers who thought that the c word belonged in normal conversation. I'm glad that I did it. It taught me a lot that is hard to learn in any other forum.

3. Boarding-school House Mistress. Nearly had a nervous breakdown the week that I worked for almost 100 hours without a break. Let us never speak of this again.

4. Classroom teacher/MIC Drama. What I do now. I love doing it. What other job pays me to read cool books, put on a major musical, and interact with people, helping them to achieve things they thought that they never could?

4 movies I'd watch over and over again:

1. Spirited Away. This film is brilliant. It refuses to give up on anyone. It's even better if you turn off the dub and watch the subtitles.

2. Anything by Tim Burton...(save for Charlie and the Chocolate factory, as I haven't seen it yet). The visual sense and styling that he shows in all of his films is just neat-o.

3. The Day the Earth Caught Fire. I have a real love of bad sci-fi, and disaster films where the weather goes whacko. This combines both in a remarkably intelligent manner - it is about a reporter and a sassy girl, and their experiences as the earth heats up. Turns out it was knocked off its course by the government. Naughty government! It's black and white, made probably in the early 60s. I have only ever seen it at my video shop.

4. The LOTR trilogy. I don't think that they can be separated into one or another. I love them all.

4 places where I've lived:

1. Hornsby. This is part of Sydney. I remember little of it, except that the hospital there has stone lions, and I'd sit on them and go GRRRRRR.

2. Temora. Go west...life is peaceful there. A town of 200 residents (before the goldmine reopened), and some seven hours from Sydney. I remember watching the dust storms boil over the plains and advance on the town like the charge of celestial horses. And the dust devils in the dry patch near the chicken shed. And the way that it was too dry to have a frost, but the dogs' water froze all the way through in the winter, and didn't thaw all day.

3. Struer. This little town in Jylland, Denmark, was my home for a year. I walked on the fjord there, learned to love windmills (the modern sort), and lost major amounts of weight because I biked everywhere. I also learned what real seasons were, as opposed to Sydney seasons.

4. My current home town. It snows here sometimes in the winter, and I like that. It's rare in Australia because it does. I also like the food here. Fooooood.

TV shows I like:

1. Futurama. This is a great show. It makes me happy when I am sad.

2. Dr Who. I really like the new series as well as the old ones. I got into Dr Who from the books - the new adventures featuring the Doctor, Ace, and then Benny. To me, the new series is closer to that, which I like. That, and the last series with the seventh Doctor. And dear Tom Baker, and K9!! Can't wait to see whether David Tennant is more than just a pretty face. We didn't even see the Christmas Invasion!

3. The Young Ones. This is classic comedy, and postmodern without pretentiousness. Brilliant.

4. It's a toss-up between Buffy, and Firefly. Both by the same director, with similar quirks, both no longer on tv, both equally fun.

4 Websites I visit every day:

1. Knitty coffeeshop

2. Benrik (a.k.a This Website Will Change Your Life)

3. Yahoo for my email

4. A whole host of miscellaneous blogs

4 Places I've been to for holidays:

1. My parents took me to NZ, and Lord Howe Island, and Tassie, before I was old enough to enjoy them. Vague memories abound. My favourite is when my sis and I were convinced that the roaring sound coming from a glacier was the roaring of the trapped sabre-tooth tigers and wooly mammoths.

2. Cairns and the Great Barrier reef. The fish! The fish! The fiiiiiiiish!

3. All the places that my sis has lived, like Albury, and Melbourne. I like Melbourne. If I went to live in a proper city, it would be Melbourne.

4. Sweden - Helsingborg. I don't count Denmark as a holiday, because I lived there for a year. I also got stuck in Rome for a night - does that count?

4 favourite dishes:

1. Garlic pizza base from Alfio's Pizzeria. Truly this is the food of the gods.

2. Crispy honey-soy mushrooms.

3. Fake roast duck. I know you're thinking eeeeew, but it tastes nothing like duck, and everything like good. And no ducks are hurt in the making of this dish.

4. Pasta with black olives and cheese. I've been living on this for some time. Not for want of the ability to acquire different food - this dish has simply been all that I wanted for dinner most nights the past month. No, I can't explain it either.

4 places I'd like to be right now:

1. New York, to visit my friend Gene, and a bunch of yarn shops.

2. In the Tardis, so that I could go anywhere in space and time. We could go back to the 80s and play mullet-bingo.

3. On my planned trip to Hawai'i with my sis. 'Nuff said.

4. Curled up in bed between clean warm sheets and clean self too, reading a book on a night that is cold and stormy outside, with all of the pets cuddled close.

4 bloggers to answer the questions next:

I don't know who has or hasn't done this! How about Veritas, and ACCL? Or if you read this and haven't done it, TAG!

______________________________________________________________
Bobblibious continues well. It's bloody fast! Zoooom! Watched a play tonight that included knitting, and the actress couldn't knit. I wanted to wrest the needles from her hands and show her how.

Ah well. That's showbusiness...

Doktor can you give me something...

2006-03-01T18:29:00.000+11:00

The Doktorfish socks are done. Well, duh. Not like there'd be a photo of them here if they weren't! I need a camera that cost more than $20. This is getting pathetic.

I only got the stripes out by about 2 rows. Pretty good, I thought :-) I like the colours in them - they work together surprisingly well, and they're weird enough to go with most things.

I weakened and bought bobbilicious yarn. I am planning to make it completely differently to the pattern, with the smooth side of the st stitch on the outside, no bobbles, and some sort of intarasia motif around the cuffs. Oh, and shorter, too. Because I plan for it to be my new around the house wear, and looooong cuffs won't be fun at all in that case.

Cheap yarn. Nasty cheap yarn. But it's all good, because some things aren't meant to last for ever, and if I haven't organised it by camp week, I am getting the nice Jo Sharp Dk for a pattern that I haven't mentioned on here :-) So it all balances out in the end...

cheap'n'nasty

2006-02-28T21:33:00.001+11:00

Interesting discovery!

I think I have found an Australian equivalent of Lion Brand. I was in Big W today (chain store, sells clothes and cds and house stuff and all that jazz), and I decided to have a look at the yarn. I am going to design a fuzzy hot water-bottle monster using one of those novelty yarns like the powder puff. Because it is all squishy and cuddly.

They've introduced a new line called something like Shaun Sheep, and it seems to be weighted towards the worsted, towards what seems the US standard. Cheap as, but I don't actually have an issue with that. If I am going to knit something that is silly, that won't last, I don't actually WANT to spend serious money on it. I enjoy the knitting, I might get a season out of it, but I don't need to spend $100 on Bobblilcious. (I have actually decided that I might not make Bobbilicious. I have another shrug with the same body shape, and it makes my frontage look decidedly more than ample.) There seem to be some that will felt okay, and not be a pricing disaster if I screw it up.

Plus, also on the good side, it isn't my imagination. It IS getting cooler. It was 8 degrees (celcius) last night according to the BOM. Still 24 during the day, but knitwear weather approaches! I love living where it gets cold enough to wear my winter woolies...

Patterny goodness

2006-02-26T09:57:00.000+11:00

I got my friend Robyne to save me the pattern books that people handed in at the school fair for the jumble sale. $2 for a bag of miscellaneous books.

Amongst the 1980s horror shows, there were some cute ones from the 60s-70s in which the styling of the pictures can't disguise some really fab designs. I'll scan some in over the next week and show y'all.

This, although it is tapestry, is one of my favourites. It says instructions inside. Unfortunately, inside is a coupon for sending away for the chart.

I reckon that if I scanned it in at a high enough resolution, and then overlaid it with knitting graph paper, I could make a kick-ass chart with it. Either HUGE to make a throw (or wallhanging), or smaller to make a bag, or the back of a jumper. (Sort of like the stunning Kafe Fasset Foolish Virgins cardigan). I think it appeals to me because my mother made a tapestry when I was a kid that was of one of the series of "The Lady and the Unicorn". That tapestry was always in her room when I was a kid. My sis and I have fights over who will eventually get it. Recently, we found more in the series. 20 years on. Mum's making them, and looking for the rest of the seven.

The other stuff I am interested in is some serious Scandinavian stuff in the same book. I have loved Scandinavian and Icelandic design since living in Denmark, but it's hard to get here. And often, it's never cold enough to wear it!

I gotta package!

2006-02-23T17:42:00.000+11:00

Oh K9! I just opened my package! And for the rest of you, this stuff was in it!

That is...
- two balls of cranberry coloured sock yarn
- one ball of lighter Knitpicks sock yarn (now I get to see what the fuss is about!)
- clover bamboo DPNs to knit the socks with
- CHOCOLATE. And DAIM!!! Okay, I don't think that I EVER mentioned this, but I love Daim. I met Daim 10 years ago in Denmark, and have been in love since. But it is nigh-impossible to get in Aussie-land. They launched it, it failed, so they stopped importing it. I love Daim. I'm about to go down to the studio, and I'll take some for the boys to eat whilst we're on air (on Thursday nights, DM and I host a radio show. Well, he hosts, I sit and knit, and generally be a pest in the studio)
- a goooorgeous handmade card with a pic of the Doctor and K9 playing chess :-)

I am so excited! After posting yesterday about wanting to knit socks!

Another photo with my lousy camera that shows the yarn colours better. And I also found the winter Vogue Knitting in the newsagency (no sign of Interweave - and there probably won't be for MONTHS...). So I am happy-happy-happy.

K9, you had me fooled. I thought that you must be a Brit, because all of my US friends haven't heard of the Doctor. But now there's a package from America. Unless you piloted the Tardis there just to trick me...I hugged my own K9, Binky, in absence of another K9 :-) She doesn't look impressed. I assure you that she was. Electronic pats and hugs for K9 and my SP!

catch my disease

2006-02-22T18:00:00.000+11:00

I think I've caught sock disease.

Not a disease from socks. A disease in which one wants to make socks. They're so quick! And so satisfying! And so bright and shiny and colourful.

Hey, has anyone got the winter Interweave? Whaddaya reckon the swing jacket would look like in grey? Can get nice grey DK quite cheaply. And it's nice wool. I know the people who spin it! Otherwise I was going to go a wine or dark teal in the Jo Sharp. I think I still might. Use the grey for something else.

I have almost finished the second sock. I got frustrated today. Stupid tax.

I want to get the yarn for some of the bigger projects that I have planned. I am clearly a moron, as I somehow seem to have managed to not buy, or lose, the last one or two balls of yarn that I need to finish the Inca jumper. Seriously. I am almost finished the sleeves, but they're gonna be short. Don't overly want to grab new balls and mix them in, as the dye lots in the Inca seem HOPELESS. I don't know how I managed that. I feel so...

...stupid.

Let's go knit some socks. Or the Greek Pullover, for which I DO have enough yarn. And which I REALLY want to see finished, because I am hoping it looks lovely.

Awesome!

2006-02-20T18:20:00.000+11:00

Awesome has been my word of the day. I felt really totally foul this morning when I hauled my sorry carcass out of bed (I stayed up late reading the last of Stroud's Bartimeaus Trilogy - yes, I do go with my nerdy self), but the day got better. The utter highlight?

I decided to study Super Size Me with Year 11, on the premise that they're all boys, so they won't get grossed out, and there's no guns or boobs, so they won't get distracted. For those who don't remember, it was the one Morgan Spurlock made the other year, when he ate nothing but McDonalds (or Maccas, in Aussie) for a month. We got up to the point where Spurlock pukes his McDonalds meal all over the place, and the bell was gonna go, so I stopped the video.

Student One: Oh man. I'm hungry now. I could really go some Maccas.
Student Two: Yeah, like, we should all go there after school.

As I drove past McDonalds on the way home, I saw them all entering its capacious jaws. Somehow, I think that the message they got wasn't the one Spurlock intended.

I'm a totally awesome teacher. And I found my sock! It had rolled under my desk, and made a break for freedom somewhere within the computer cabling!

Lost: Half a Sock

2006-02-19T10:27:00.000+11:00

We had the swimming carnival on Friday. Hundreds of squealing children in House colours, running about the pool and eating sausage sangers. I was on marshalling duty, and I took my second sock with me to knit whilst we waited between races. It worked quite well. I got all the ribbing done, then had to stop because I didn't have a pattern with me to turn the heel.

But I have somehow lost this piece of sock. Yeah, I know. I took it back to my office, checked my email, then went home to watch "Serenity" and try and finish one of my WIPs. So it is socking its way somewhere around the school, looking for its mother and its older sibling. Weird. I have rehearsals today, I'll look for it then.

I have pulled out the Inca cardigan. All it needs are sleeves. I got about a third of both sleeves done on Friday night, and I noticed something. My knitting has improved upon when I started this cardigan last year. The gauge is slightly tighter. The stitches are much, much more even and regular. It won't be a majorly noticeable difference, but I still felt warm and fuzzy.

I must get fit. I am once again going on the Koziuzko excursion (we climb Australia's highest mountain). On the plus side, that means plenty of bus travel time. I reckon I could almost finish an entire project on that excursion! (It's all of about four months away...)

hail and fuzz

2006-02-15T20:52:00.000+11:00

My poor car. My poor pumpkin. My poor garden.

Yep. It hailed again. This place, as I have said before, is the only place that I've ever lived where hail is frequent. People are relatively unconcerned by hail. It happens at least once a month. But today, it was the size of golf balls, with the occasional cricket ball thrown in for good measure.

We stood in the staffroom, glued to the window as if watching some horrid trainwreck, and watched the balls of ice bounce on the oval, and on our cars. I got home to find bits of garden everywhere. The noble pumpkin is bruised and battered. As is my car.

But tomorrow everything will look clean and fresh, and the rain will wash all the bits away. One or two dents won't make my car explode. And when I got home, there was a magazine waiting for me - I had a subscription to a mag that was discontinued, and instead of refunding remaining issues, I got to pick another from the company lists, and I also got a free issue. As I am a magazine addict, I was good with this. I picked one I hadn't got before - "Notebook". Seems quite fun. Some of the articles aren't relevant, but there was a vegie feast, and all these things that inspired me to clean the house. Rare. Good, even.

The above is for K9 and my SP. It's the fuzzy yarn of which I spoke. Hello to all in the Tardis! Hope everything is going well :-)

I choo-choo-choose...

2006-02-14T18:02:00.001+11:00

This is just a quick entry...

One of my students today gave her boyfriend a card that said "I choo-choo-choose you".

Imagine a whole class full of cute little Ralph Wiggums.

Teeheehee.

Happy Valium-times!

pumpkins and socks

2006-02-11T13:53:00.000+11:00

I am the pumpkin queen! Okay. I knew I wasn't particularly observant when under pressure.

But how on earth did I miss a six-foot-long pumpkin vine growing in my backyard?

Yep. Six feet of squash, growing against the fence, and I missed it until today. I was hanging out the washing, and I looked at the back fence. Funny, I thought. I know a tree fell down and was carted off last time I was away for a while, but that plant that's taken its place has lumpy knobs on it. Pumpkin-shaped knobs.

I approached for a better look. The knobs were indeed pumpkins. The pride and joy of the collection is pictured above. I have no idea when they arrived, or how, but I now have a nice supply of vegies ready for the winter.... as long as the vine doesn't kark it. I'm a little worried. It's looking a bit wilty today...

In other non-pumpkin related news, I have finished my first sock. It is in Opal "Doktorfish", and I actually managed to find a real live Doctor Fish to look at, and the colour scheme really does seem to match the living animal, which I think is pretty neat. The nice lady at my LYS said that there is no plan to bring in the tigery or the zebra Opal, which is a bit blah, but there's so many other colours to try!

AND my SP got their first package! Hooray! I am having a great time looking at what other people have sent/received on their blogs, because it is giving me ideas, and it shows just how truly creative the knitting community is. I feel totally shamed by some of the packages, though! Woah baby!

Isn' it...

2006-02-03T21:16:00.000+11:00

I am going flying on a plane tomorrow. For serious. It's sort of interesting - last time I visited the airport here, no metal detectors, or checks. Several current affairs shows have done exposes about the lax security. Always with an edgy soundtrack, and a deep voiceover. Will be interesting to see if it has changed, but as the aiport itself has a cattle grid, to prevent wandering cows, and one runway that the plane has to turn around on near the berry farm in order to get enough space for takeoff/landing, I doubt it. The plane itself has propellers. Take-off is a whole new experience in terror.

I got an impromptu sauna today. Gods it was horrible. School photo day, in the gym. 35 outside. 45 inside. Gonna be one flushed photo. Then when I went down to grab a magazine and some strongbow, after work (der), the guy in the shop looked at my choice of mag (the January edition of "Simply Knitting" - it arrived on the newsstand YESTERDAY), and said "Isn't it a little hot for knitting?"

I wish I'd replied "Isn't it a little FRIDAY for stupid?"

triple threat

2006-01-31T19:18:00.000+11:00

I went and bought yarn for my SP today, and I ended up having a huge conversation with the lady at one of my LYSes. She is just lovely - not at all condescending - and she spun the yarn I picked herself! We were talking about whether the tiger-stripey Opal sock yarn will make it to Australia (she's checking with the importer!), and she pulled out all these Lion Brand colour cards. Apparently there is someone who is gonna start importing Lion Brand on a large scale - for huge prices per ball! She won't get it in, which I'm not sad about. BUT she's thinking of getting in the soysilk, which would be so very, very cool.

It's nice to talk about yarn with someone who really knows their stuff!

I wrote the editor of a knitting mag yesterday. I won't name it, but there was an article inside that rather explicitly stated:

There is no copyright on the name [Stitch and Bitch], and Stitch and Bitch chapters and the like have sprung up everywhere.

Thought that was interesting. Might be true for Australia. Either way, I wanted to know. Haven't got a reply yet, but that may be due to the other comments I made. But hey, I personally wouldn't have put a link to You Knit What in there, and then printed a pattern which had the triple-threat horror of a novelty yarn, knitted skirt that was sure to seat, and fishnet holes where on most women it is rather vital to have fabric, all in the one garment, but it's their funeral. Sort of seems to be asking for it somewhat.

Fed up with men who can't communicate what they want when they think it isn't what I want to hear. Well, man. And fed up with the makers of strapless bras, and their cups that squish in one size, then gape in the next. If there's an uglier bit of underwear, I don't wanna know about it. Or pay $50 for the privellige of wearing it. But I do want to wear that lovely dress to the wedding on the weekend, so I can stop with the whining!

K9!

2006-01-30T07:51:00.000+11:00

This is just a quick blog to express excitement. We got our SP matches yesterday (I reckon mine will know who I am quite, quite quickly, through no fault of the mods), and I'm really happy with mine. I am gonna start the proper shopping sooner rather than later :-)

I got all excited this morning, though, because K9 is my secret pal! My pal read my questionairre very carefully, methinks, then sent it on to K9. So thankies for making me grin like a loon and get all excited on a monday morning before work starts back proper for the first time this year!

Gak. I'd better go get ready for work. The new Y7 kids, and the new big 'uns start back today. It's always a pretty relaxed day, but you're guaranteed at one point to have a kid approach you in tears asking where the library is. Luckily, I know where the Library is....

snb?

2006-01-29T16:41:00.000+11:00

I had intended not to weigh into the whole debacle, and I am keeping my trap shut on the Knitty Boards, but I'll express a couple of thoughts here. It seems very similar to the Ugg Boots/Ugg Australia case.

You see, if you live overseas, you may not realise that Ugg Boots (or Uggs, as our American friends refer to them) are a generic name in Australia that describes a certain kind of sheepskin slipper. The other year, a company in the US trademarked the name, and sent out scary letters to Aussie companies. The companies in Australia took on the US company and won the right to use Ugg, Ugh, etc. as a generic term once more. The court ruled that it shouldn't have been permitted to be trademarked.

That doesn't mean that we don't describe some products using a trademarked name. Bandaid is not a generic term - it refers to a specific product. If I want to sell my own bandaids, then I have to refer to them as something else, like sticking plasters. Remember the fuss the other year about whether champagne is generic or specific? Sort of similar to that. I think in this case, it is what came first; the trademark or the generic term. And that seems to be the sticking point.

A number of people claim that Stitch and Bitch is a generic term, from their grandmother's days. I had never conciously heard it before the Debbie Stoller book of that name was published - but I live in Australia. My one little experience is no more or less valid than those who heard it in the 1920s, it is just different. (BTW, I would be interested to know if the term was trademarked internationally).

It's a pretty logical name to make up. It's got a nice little internal rhyme, and it's funny. It's a logical book title or group title in that order (rather than Bitch and Stitch) because the emphasis is placed on the craft, rather than the bitching. Living in a postmodern world, and one where millions of people speak a common language, these things will show up logically all over the place. That's why cryptic crosswords work. And remember that old Whitlams song lyric:

She was one in a million - that means there's five more just in New South Wales!

So what's my point? My point is that because I haven't, and don't intend to, do a lot of research on this topic, I don't intend to demonise either party. Personally, I see SnB as a generic term, but that may be because I have heard about it all over the Internet as a generic term. I will follow this with interest, especially if it can be proven that SnB is a generic term with long standing, but I will attempt to follow without judgement. Except for the crappy, crappy spelling in press releases, and the weird logic in rants.

Besides, we weren't allowed to call our workplace knitting group Stitch and Bitch, because bitch is offensive. Damn silly workmates.

evidence of shrug

2006-01-28T13:59:00.000+11:00

I finished the pink Jo Sharp shrug when I was on holidays, but I haven't had my little webcam-thing until now. The picture of my very excited arm is about all you'll get. I'm still not sure about it. I think I will rip out the huge neckband and replace it with something smaller, because I liked it much better before.

I'm considering doing the Knitting Olympics. And I've made half a sock! And work has gone back. I have a new head of department this year, which will be interesting. Most interesting indeed.

Still, I like the stitch pattern...

Cables and pleats and patterns...

2006-01-09T16:00:00.000+11:00

So I bought the Winter edition of Interweave. For $18, air-freight, in Sydney. It's fully double the price it would be in Canadian dollars, although I'm sure Canadian dollars are worth more than Aussie ones. I bought it at that outrageous price instead of a comfy $12 because I haven't. seen. it. anywhere. for. about. eight. months.

And Interweave is one of the magazines in which I consistently find interesting things to knit that broaden my skills horizon. There's several patterns in this edition that I'll make (fully making the price tag justified), and the season-lapse will mean I can make them for winter. And finish the Greek Pullover, which is languishing some 400kms away at home, abandoned because it is just too hot for summer knitting.

The pink shrug is almost finished! Hurrah! The main body of it is being very gently washed by the space-age washing machine that my mother bought! (Seriously, this thing does everything. I won't be surprised if it kills us all while we sleep and tries a robot rebellion. Oh, right, Asimov's robotics laws prevent it from doing that). It has to be blocked and sewn before you add the neck-band; I was thinking about how people have commented that Bobbilicious gapes a little, and it occurred to me that most of the commercial shrugs I have, and this Jo Sharp pattern, have a very wide neckband that forms a shawl collar at the top, and at the bottom pulls the edges of the shrug in so that it sits against the body. I wonder if Bobbilicious would benefit from a chunka-chunky collar? (It isn't being made until I find Gusto 10 on sale. Whilst it is a lovely big thing, I draw the line at a $75 shrug....)

I am thinking that I will start naming my projects different names to those that the designers gave them. Some of the names that designers give things are brilliant, but others don't speak to me. But I'll do it in my head, so then I won't look like a crazy woman...

It'a been a while

2006-01-07T17:35:00.000+11:00

It's been a while. I have had a very busy few weeks!

I will update properly later, but I felt the need to share this:

"...mastering a craft brings with it inspiration and challenge as well as satisfaction."
(Pam Allen, Interweave Knits, Winter 2005, Interweave Press)

I think it's quite a present consideration in wondering why we knit, what we want to achieve by it, and what we're actually doing. Allen muses in the same editorial that the desire that seems to motivate the vast majority of knitters is the desire to improve. Which is a neat point - even if I am a Stoller-inspired "She's gotta have it" knitter, I am trying to find ways to improve the chunky jumper that I finished in a weekend (and I may one day realise that chunky yarn on my frame is the real reason that it looks a bit...lumpy).

Is knitting time reclaimed for the self? Is it a repetitive, almost meditative thing? Why, in essence, do we enjoy knitting?

I enjoy knitting because of the thrill of creating something, particularly if it's a challenge. The realisation that I am not stuck on the consumer side of the producer/consumer equation, and the little feeling of achievement that comes with finishing something. In a society where we celebrate the self, but denegrate those who achieve (a precarious combination), it is a half-queasy feeling, acknowleding that I can do good things. And it's the same impulse that means a heap of what I make I never wear in public.

Or is this all just persuading myself that I really do want to knit the swing jacket in the Winter Interweave, even though the pleat knitted into the back scares me?

tempted

2005-12-27T20:33:00.000+11:00

I bought some lovely bright blue yarn today for Tempting II. Not being swept up in the original "Tempting" craze (and not being a fan of tops that show my bra straps), I fell in love with its little sister on Knitty, which I believe won't show bra-bits.

Spotlight had one of those massive sales, and I was so good. I could have bought 12 balls of Gusto10 to make Bobbilicious, but I didn't. Nor did I buy the yarn for Alice. And I need sub help with poor old Tubey. I decided that if I want to fly to my step-brothers' wedding, then I need to save. And I do want to fly. I love flying. Sure, the airport where I live only takes weeny planes, has no security to speak of, and a cattle grid to stop cows wandering in there, but there is something very jet-settery about flying. Well DER. And I am really looking forward to when the Sis and I finally get sorted and go to Hawaii either next year or the one after. Ten hours in a plane. Together. We took bets today on whether we'd be speaking to one another when we got off at the other end. Especially as I'll be sans knitting (Australia has very strict rules about knitting needles).

I need to go watch Dr Who and start Tempting II...if I remembered to bring my circs on holidays...

hot

2005-12-23T15:11:00.000+11:00

I'm staying with the Mother at the moment. My sis is here too. As are three dogs, two cats, and the outsider-cat that has decided to join the menagerie. Three dogs need walking. Lots of walking. I am not having kids just yet. The fur-kids are plenty enough.

So we walk and look for Christmas lights. Remember it doesn't get dark here until after 8pm, and it's a balmy 37C today :-) So Christmas lights look a bit off, twinkling against the dusk of a warm day, and you can't count on snow covering up where you messed up the wiring a bit.

Australians, I might add, just don't get Christmas lights. Really, they don't. They understand hanging strings of lanterns (as we've all had them for backyard barbies), and some of them whom have been affected by too much US tv understand overblown and tacky, but most Aussies miss the fundamentals of Christmas lights. Which is why the over-the-road neighbours have dressed up what look suspiciously like blow-up-dolls in white and made them into carols singers. And which must be why there is a life-size, life-like statue of a pirate up on the street corner, bathed in fairy lights.

I was considering this, and I thought that having a pirate supplant Santa would be brilliant. We could drink rum, and eat chocolate coins, and still wear stupid hats. And any humbuggery could be dispersed by the words "Yaar! I'll make ye walk the plank!"

Yesterday, driving to Bateman's Bay (speaking of piratey places), the bitumen on the road had melted in the 40 degree heat, and driving sounded like swishing through puddles, and left lovely trails of tar up the side of the car. The oppressive heat in Nellingen was like stepping out into the blast of an open oven door. Which was fun, for 20 minutes. After that, it was a bit sticky. Christmas may be similar. The shrug may have lost the ultimate battle - with the weather.

Best. Day. Ever.

2005-12-16T11:15:00.000+11:00

Cpurl is fabulous. All bow before her.

I went up to work this morning to grab the HSC results. That's the final test in High School - and my students achieved fabulous marks. I am so proud of them and their phenomenal efforts. So score one for happiness.

And then I got home, and there was a BOX on my doorstep all the way from America! I know it's a lousy photo, but there's a card, and chocolate, and postcards, and yarn! Thanks so much! You rule, totally, Cpurl! I love the blues - I now have to work out what I want to make with it....mwah ha ha! Such holiday fun!

(PS. Anyone who reads this, go wish Cpurl a happy birthday for Saturday!)

Just more proof that the knitting community is made up of super-sweet, lovely people!

productive...

2005-12-14T09:03:00.000+11:00

I finished the second ju-ju doll yesterday in a mad flap, and forgot to photograph him! He was a gift for Robyne - I went up to her place yesterday for lunch - because she kept trying to nick off with my one (who sits above my "Danger! Postmodernism doesn't give a flying duck!" sign at work.) I wasn't as happy with this one, (deformed head) but I did like the heart - I did it in a variegated yarn, so it changed colours throughout. Neat.

I was also very cooky yesterday. I made a batch of chocolate truffles - dark chocolate, glace cherries, coconut, coconut milk, and roasted macadamias. I'd never roasted macadamias before. It was a lucky thing that some of them made it into the truffles. I want to spend tonight making Mollychicken's Bird pattern for gift tags for presents for family and Holesville-family.

Peren and I are going shopping today for our small town pseudo-family Christmas. Yep, you read me correctly. We're having Christmas early because we'll all be out of town - it will be a picnic in the back yard sort of dealie, tomorrow night. Just in time for me to be drunk so I don't lie awake all night on Thursday, knowing that my dear children will have their HSC results next day, and fretting about whether they got what they wanted. Then I go to Canberra on Friday to spend biological family time. And I think my Holesville-family will be joining me for new years. Lovely.

Christmas past

2005-12-12T09:44:00.000+11:00

Inspired by a thread on the Coffeeshop...

This is a photo of the Aurora clan here in smalltown for Christmas in 2003. I was a dutiful daughter, and hosted Christmas under the big trees in my backyard. Luckily, there was a light breeze, and it was just right here. In Sydney that Christmas, it was 40degrees!

Note the beer, salad, and absence of snow. I like a summer Christmas. It's much more amenable to family and gatherings and suchlike. My friends and I are doing Christmas on Wednesday. Maybe we'll visit the lake.

Thinking of my gosh-darned friends... at D&D last night they turned me into an elf. I was a gnome. Then I took 60HP damage in one hit, and died, and was reincarnated as an elf. Stupid elves. I took out my frustration on the mutant shrug, and ripped out the rows that were mutated, and re-knitted that section. Hah! Shrug = 0. Aurora = 1.

firefly

2005-12-11T09:57:00.000+11:00

I finally got Firefly on DVD. I hadn't seen it, but I quite enjoyed Serenity, and Peren convinced me that I needed to see the original series. And it was only $30AU, which is pretty cheap, really. I'm really loving it. I'm sitting indoors with all the curtains drawn so that it looks like I'm underwater, watching this show and knitting the pink shrug thing, the dog leaning lovingly against me and wafting an odour of baking dog across the room.

Thinking of the pink shrug - I am clearly a deficient lace knitter. Clearly. I made a lump on the side. It is now a mutant lace shrug. I am going to have to frog back. I decided this over at Peren's house last night. So I might do that today, as I am liking this whole little knitted jacket style. It's okay for summer when you don't want to show off floofy arms, but you need a light top like a tank...

I haven't put up my tree yet. I'm taking it down to Mum's when I go and stay, because she has no tree, and we're all spending Christmas there anyway. Much better to have a tree that everyone sees, rather than decorate an empty house.

Gratuitous Online Quiz-Thingie

You scored as Kaylee (Kaywinnet Lee) Frye. The Mechanic. You are a natural mechanic, and you are far too sweet and cheerful to live out here. How you can see the good in everyone around you boggles the mind occasionally. Still you don't seem to be any crazier than that, and it is a nice kinda crazy.

Kaylee (Kaywinnet Lee) Frye

100%

Shepherd Derrial Book

88%

The Operative

81%

Simon Tam

75%

Capt. Mal Reynolds

69%

Hoban 'Wash' Washburne

63%

Zoe Alleyne Washburne

56%

River Tam

56%

Inara Serra

56%

Jayne Cobb

Which Serenity character are you?
created with QuizFarm.com

trekkin'

2005-12-08T14:52:00.000+11:00

This is the most legendary fabric ever. Well, maybe not EVER, but I went to Material World this morning to try and find a nice ivory open-weave to felt a scarf for Mum, and found this instead. I got 3 metres of the stuff for $6. Clearly no-one here is a Trekkie. I'm not, either, but I like the ships and Mum will like a bag made from it. I'll make a pocket for her Dalek survival guide.

Plus there's enough to do some really daggy things with after that. I'm thinking maybe covering a corkboard for my office - cementing the loopy Drama teacher image...

At least I was constructive today. I researched green slips, called the Seymour Centre back because the bastards said that they'd lost our booking (major hyperventilation moment - I'd booked accomodation, and busses, and everything) but it was okay. I've even done some washing. And bought some books. And been constructive.

Yesterday, I, um, wasn't. In my defense, it was damn hot, and I was hung over. That still doesn't excuse what I did to the dog. It was sitting on me, panting, wheezing, and generally smelling like old carpet laid over gorgonzola cheese. I realised that its winter coat was pretty heavy, despite being a short-haired dog. So I gave the dog a haircut.

Um, yeah.

I know you're only meant to think giving pets hairstyles is a good idea if you're under the age of eight, but the dog didn't complain. She must have been really hot. It took about an hour with the scissors and a comb, and she now has a rather unfortunate layer-cut with one bald patch. It is testament to the grossness of her winter coat that she actually looks better with this choppy haircut.

But then it got better. I decided to vaccum up the doghair. It matted into a huge foul clog in the cleaner. So now I have a dog that looks like the victim of an eight year old with scissors, a vaccum in pieces, and hair still on the carpet. Oh yeah, and some Star Trek fabric...

Pattern Days

2005-12-07T08:12:00.000+11:00

Two excitements:

(1) Work is over for the year, and (2) I got loads of knitting mags. They were all hiding somewhere that magazines slither off to, and some intrepid huntress found them and rounded them up and price-tagged them so that I could buy them. I think I'm obsessed.

I'm quite impressed with the non-price-tagged "Knitty". There's a bunch of patterns in there that I'd like to knit, and I think I'll start with "Kate" as a gift for my little sis (she quite firmly told me that there were no gifts this year, but I figure that a toy doesn't count as a gift. Not to a grown woman). I also liked a few of the others, and to me, "Tempting II" is much nicer than the original version. "Bobbleicious" (sp?) is nice too.

Is it just me, or are shrugs and boleros the new poncho? I'm seeing less ponchos and more shrugs shrugging around the place as summer (and the winter knitting season in the US) approaches. I quite like shrugs. I don't like ponchos. Maybe the pattern police worked out that people are more into things that don't look like a furry sack with a drawstring.

If I do "A Month of Softies", I've decided to make a bandicoot. This is a bandicoot. They look sort of like Japanese soft toys without even trying. I've never seen one in the wild, but I think they're cute. Apparently, there is a growing trend of bandicoots and possums foraging in the cities of Australia, because they're being forced out of the wild places where they would naturally live. Poor little bandicoots. They're a good reason to make sure that your kitties are inside tonight. Oooh, and did anyone hear that apparently a new cat-like carnivore has been found in Borneo?

softies and carols

2005-12-04T22:26:00.000+11:00

I've been busy this weekend. From playing D & D for more than 20 hours of it, to the Y10 formal (school formal dance) to carols, to now sitting here at the computer trying to proof-read the reports from my roll-call group.

Things that annoyed me this weekend:

stupid elven druid who lets everyone get hurt in fights then expects to be saved when *she* gets hurt.
report-checking. Seriously. Pages and pages of: Blah-blah is a pleasant and polite student. They achieved a good/pleasing/disappointing examination result. Well done!
a friend of mine who is seemingly physically incapable of eating without slobbering like a St Bernard. I don't know what his parents taught him, but chewing with his mouth closed (and proper care and feeding of his beard, while we're at it) was not part of the equation.
getting indigestion at the formal just before desset. That mudcake was begging to be eaten. Begging, I tells ye!
people getting cross about toddlers making a noise at the carols service. Get over it, crankybutts. They're KIDS. Noise is what they do!

Things that made me happy:

watching the students at the formal have a really fabulous time, acting like young men and women, rather than kids. They are bogans, though. After 20 minutes of dancing, all shirts were out, and the girls were in thongs (note for Americans - thongs here are things worn on feet. You call them flip-flops. Underwear that is buttfloss is called a g-string in Australia.)
getting a really nice veggie meal at a catered event. Very rare.
finding new cheese at the fruit/veg/cheese shop. I think I need cheese intervention.
watching the kids run around at the carols service, disrupting the normal order of things.

Obsession of the day:
Softies

I'd never seen these before. I am so inspired. I am so in love with them! Oooh boy. I am so glad that school finishes on Tuesday arvo, so that I can do something about creating some!

Lace! Grr!

2005-12-01T08:06:00.000+11:00

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Look, can you see it? I made a mistake.

And it's almost 60 ROWS BACK!

Okay, here's what we'll do. We're not gonna tell anyone, see? It'll be all nice and no-one has to know, see? They're not knitters. They won't know.

The only flaw with my plan is the moment that I have a Poe-inspired fit and scream out "It's the misalignment of that hideous row!" in a crowded room.

But until then, it's all nice, and good. And you don't tell anyone, okay?

___________________________________________________________________
My lovely Holiday SP turned out to be...

Lydiasmomma!

Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou, thankyou!

*big hugs*

I will use your yarn and dye wisely.

Honey-soy mushrooms

2005-11-29T17:36:00.000+11:00

Honey-Soy Mushrooms

1x packet of dried shiitake mushrooms
1x jar of honey
1x pack of tempura batter
sesame oil
peanut or similar oil for shallow-frying
1/4 cup soy sauce
oyster mushroom (not oyster-oyster!) sauce (from Asian supermarket)
sweet chilli sauce
star anise (from Asian supermarkets)
1-2cm cubed fresh ginger, finely chopped
1-2 cloves of fresh garlic, finely chopped
sesame seeds
rice to serve

Soak the mushrooms in hot water for 30 minutes or until soft. Drain, and set aside. Put the rice on to cook. Make up the tempura batter according to the pack directions, except the consistency should be slightly stiffer than normal. Coat the mushrooms (the batter will soak up some of their sog). Heat up oil in a heavy-bottomed pan for shallow frying. Whilst oil is heating, in a small saucepan combine on a very low heat:
-ginger
-garlic
-several star anise
-1/4 cup of soy sauce
-1/4 cup of honey
-several tablespoons each of mushroom sauce, and sweet chilli sauce
-several tablespoons sesame oil
Stir whilst you fry the mushrooms in batches. Keep tasting the sauce - if it is too sweet, add more soy, if it is too salty, add more honey.

When the mushrooms are all fried, turn off the heat on the sauce and the frying pan. Tip out the excess oil from the pan, and put all the mushrooms in there. Coat liberally with the sauce. Add 2-3 tablespoons of sesame seeds. DON'T burn the sesame seeds! They smell foul!

Serve on top of freshly cooked rice.

___________________________________________________________________
Life has been, well, interesting.

I have been promoted, so I'll be here another year. I'm working like mad on the punk shrug so I can wear it on Speech Day. And Blogger keeps logging me out, so I can't update. SP, if you're checking, I have had great fun smelling my soap and petting my yarn! Thanks ever so much!

secret pal goodness

2005-11-22T21:28:00.000+11:00

I got the gift of sending and receiving today...

What a day for my camera to break down! I got yarn! And kool aid! And soap! And pens! And a card!

I am SO impressed with the yarn! Noro, in a rainbow colourway. And purpleish malabrigo (sp?). It's all lovely and soft and I am totally in love with it. Oh, I am totally in love with it. I had to duck home from school today to grab something for the exams, and I spotted the box, and took it back with me, then spent the rest of the day showing people my lovely yarn. My students think I'm nuts.

Thinking of students, we're doing street theatre tomorrow at lunch - which should be a hoot. My favourite group is the monks, who plan to traverse the school Monty Python style, blessing all that they encounter with a stick of celery.

Plus, my SP package made it to its destination today. I'm so glad that my person likes it! It was a bit of a risk, I guess, picking stuff, and I am SO happy that she likes it. All warm and fuzzy. Aaaaaaaawwwwwww.

New Project

2005-11-22T07:47:00.000+11:00

I tried to frog back a bit on the green lace jumper.

I got frustrated.

I ripped all of it out.

Ah well. I'll either re-knit it later, or else I'll make the yarn into something else. Not a disaster. But I've taken it off the percentage bar graph! And replaced it with what I started last night - a lacy shrug made in cotton. It's a Jo sharp pattern. I hope it looks okay - Jo Sharp patterns are often scored for coathangers with blonde hair. Not sure how I'll go with 245 rows of lace pattern though. I forsee future frogging.

My poor downstream SP. I kept meaning and meaning to post a new letter in the forums to her, and only remembered to the other day. She must feel all neglected! Still, the package should hopefully get there this friday or so. I don't think that I could commit to a 3-month round - I don't think that I could afford to! I like the shorter, holiday rounds, though. And I like *my* SP! Still going on the candy, though the Hershey bar is loooong goooone.

green

2005-11-20T08:18:00.000+11:00

I braved the green lacey jumper last night. I've made a problem in the lace pattern, and I need to frog back a bit. And in frogging back, what will stop me from frogging all the way and making something else?

Which is exactly why it's been sitting in its knitting bag for a few months now.

But...I gotta fishy!

I came into work on Friday, and my laptop had been displaced, and in its stead, a large fishbowl with a siamese fighting fish in it. (I think in the US these are called betas). My praccie had decided to gift me with a fish to say thanks for being her supervisor. People are WEIRD. By office consenus, we called him Elvis. The reasoning being:

The fish is siamese.

Siam has a king.

Elvis is/was *the* King.

My, my, we really don't do much at my work, do we? But M helped me get it home yesterday, balancing it on his lanky knees as I drove. Let me tell you, a good way to test the smoothness of your driving is to have an open fish bowl in the car. Not a smart way, but a good way.

Plus, I've finally seen Corpse Bride. Just gorgeous! Gorgeous! And it makes up for HP not coming out here for a week and a half...

Which flock do you follow?

this quiz was made by alanna

Spider!

2005-11-17T21:52:00.000+11:00

I haven't been knitting. I've been freaking out about a rental inspection coupled with certificate time at school.

Okay, arachnophobes, I'll see you later. You don't want to go reading this.

I kept a large huntsman spider. Not as a pet, but as a free range spider in the house. It dealt with the millipedes, and all the smaller spiders, and I let it live on my ceiling. I have no biggie with spiders. I used to have a regular called seven-legged-sid, because, yeah, he had seven legs from a botched broom-squashing. I learned to let the spider run alive, as the adage goes.

I was cleaning up the place, getting rid of the cobwebs that spring up whenever I tturn my back, panicking about the rental inspection. Rental inspections panic me, in a serious way. I hyperventilated in the car on the way home from picking up the dog (Binky doesn't do rental inspections. She tends to be somewhat offputting, as she smells so awful).

Put on my rubber gloves. Hmm, that's funny, right index finger has something squishy in it. Pokey-poke. Hmmm, better tip the glove upside down.

I tipped the glove. Out rolled a spider onto the counter, rather dead. Ooookay.

It's a white tail. It's little spindly legs are curled against its body. It must have crawled in there to hide from the huntsman, and then died.

Panic. Did it bite me? Does my finger hurt because it bit me, or from hypochondria? Is my hand swollen? How will I know? Run about the house frothing a bit in terror, then have to head to the theatre to see the Bell Shakespeare do "Measure for Measure". Brilliant play. Decide that if I make it through three and a half hours of Shakespeare, my finger isn't going to necrotise and drop off as one huge finger-ulcer.

So I get home, ready to find and berate the huntsman for not doing its job. Dory is happily bouncing her merry kitty way across the kitchen floor, skittering something between her paws. She tosses it into the air, and I recognise it. The huntsman must have made his way down to cat height. When he stops moving, she leaves him alone in the middle of the floor, his legs curled in on himself.

I was going to measure him, but I forgot. I think he was ten centimeteres or so leg-tip to leg-tip. When I finally remembered, Dory had returned and was chewing on something which looked suspiciously leggy, and the spider corpse had gone.

Bless her.

SP goodness!

2005-11-14T19:29:00.000+11:00

Oh I am happy.

I got home today from one of those days. My whole office had one of those days. From Lizzie Bennet, who's grandmother-in-law died last night, to T, who realised too late that exams were due. I was running around with a headache like a snake in my brain, trying to write up the several hundred certificates that are due to be signed by the relevant people, and handed out next week.

One of those days.

I went to the newsagent's, certain that at least ONE knitting mag must be out by now. I like knitting mags. They looked at me sort of funny, and I slunk home with my tail between my legs. And no magazine. The one thing I needed to make my bad day vanish.

Yup, one of those days.

But then I got home, and THIS was on my doorstep! Hurrah! A knitting mag, and chocolate to eat with it! I curled up on the lounge with the cats and read it, and tried some of the chocolate. Not bad. Not bad at all. I haven't tried the cinnamon candy yet. And customs opened it! What hide! There was a sticker on it saying "opened and checked by Australian customs".

Yeah, I'm onto you. You just want my magazine!

Rated

2005-11-13T17:47:00.000+11:00

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	7.3
Mind:	6.6
Body:	6.1
Spirit:	8.3
Friends/Family:	4.7
Love:	4.3
Finance:	5.5
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

I'm not surprised at the relatively high spirit score.

Spiritually speaking, I get a lot of exposure to faith. I work at a Christian school, but I am a practising pagan. I see the effects of faith a lot. So I am quite happy with that, thanks. I dread to think how low my score would be without it. See the below! Juju #1 is finished, and being inflicted upon Stabby, who isn't too impressed....

Yarn is not food!

2005-11-13T12:53:00.000+11:00

[rant!]
Let's be clear. Let's be really, really clear. Food-related adjectives, should not be used to describe yarn. And fabric related adjectives should not be used to describe food. It's wrong. My coffee is not *silky*...if it were, I would throw it out. Gross. And let's be really, really clear on this, except for colour descriptions, yarn is NEVER buttery. It is not slimy, nor is it slightly rank. Buttery is not a good measure of softness. It is a gross measure. Gross.
[/rant]

I hadn't visited Magknits and looked at their patterns before. Now I have a whole heap of patterns I want to knit, without the wherewithall to do so. Dammit. But I am making good progress on the ju-ju, I have found the greek pullover (under the passenger seat in my car), and I am creating a character for a game of Vampire. Sort of a freaky as all get out Nosferatu who lurks on the wrong side of the tracks and protects homeless people and feeds cats. Um, yeah. I might be quiet now. But the place that she lives is in the back of an abandoned shop that is in town, and is on the wrong side of the tracks, and is so redneck you could expect to see Cletus there. It's called "Dave's Shop and Hock". Aiiieee. So that'll be pretty funny.

Good juju!

2005-11-07T22:53:00.000+11:00

Work. Lunchtime. I have lost the Interweave Greek Pullover. Yup. I have put it in my travel knitting bag, and left it somewhere. GNARGH!

So, to deal, I did more of the juju doll. I got an order from my gay online boyfriend ( don't even ask ) and then I got another one today, so I'll be well sick of juju dolls soon. Get it out, I'm doing the legs, the arm stitches held on circs cos I hate stitch holders.

"Oh, what's that?" asks E, who is daintily picking at her lunch.

"Voodoo doll," I reply. The others sigh, well aware that something like this is not really an uncommon occurrence. The phrase "well you did ask" is employed by a workmate.

"Um," said E, after a little while watching me with this little black thing with two circs, one straight (lazy stitch holder), and four dpns hanging from it. "You do know that you're meant to stick the pins in when you're finished, don't you?"

Boom-boom. Actually, R asked me to make her one to put in her office to scare the boarders. Mwah ha ha. I've finished the body of juju number one, and stuffed him - now I have to work out the cross stitching. Tomorrow, I think. There's a storm tonight, and I've got to catch that!

Bad juju!

2005-11-05T16:05:00.000+11:00

A new KAL for me! I just love this button. It's simply beautiful.

Actually, juju dolls don't have to be all bad. The traditional doll, or poppet, can be used to send positive or negative energy. All you need is a thing, (often called a poppet by european witches) to represent the person which you are sending the energy to. One of the most powerful vodoun love spells I know of is the one where you fasten two garlic bulbs with a nail (one for you, one for them) and leave them to fester in a cupboard. Nice.

You consecrate the doll, and name it. Of course, it is more powerful if you add to the doll part of the person upon whom you wish the magic to act (hair, nail clippings, skin flakes, blood if you're brave). When you stick the pins into it, you focus the type of energy that you wish to send into the pin. Takes a bit of practise to get yourself into the right state of mind (practise without the doll, please!) but it does have results. If it's good energy, then I suggest giving the doll to the person.

I am actually attracted to this doll for aesthetic reasons, though I think I will make a whole army of them for my slightly gothy friends. But with good ju-ju. Life's too short to spend time dwelling on punishment.

Holiday SP

2005-11-01T22:03:00.000+11:00

Holiday Secret Pal. Ah. Button by Domestic Overlord

I've got mine, and I've started making stuff up, and getting ready to send stuff. I'm going for some really AUSSIE stuff, because they live overseas (me being the only Aussie in the game!) They like soft yarn. I have some ideas! I haven't been contacted by my upstream pal yet, but I figure that they just haven't checked their email...this coming from the person who's Yahoo! account sorted their SP info into the spam folder automatically *rolls eyes*.

Knitting-wise, I've done the front and back of the Interweave Greek Pullover. But I've lost my camera (I know! I know!) so no photos as of yet. I'm thinking of buying a decent camera. We had another round of D & D so I did some knitting whilst ranting out of game at a player who isn't playing a fighter, but clearly, clearly wants to. He likes to hit stuff. Stupid hitting stuff.

Had an ick day today, then got a postcard from an aquaintance in the UK which made it all better. Isn't it weird the way that something tiny can make all the difference?

Nuno felting

2005-10-24T19:29:00.000+10:00

I went to a felting worshop on Sunday for Nuno felting, which is felting onto fabric. Was sort of easy to grasp, but tiring to execute - you lay out the fleece either in lumps (above) or to cover (below) a piece of light fabric, then felt with all your might - roll and squish and so on. I made a scarf, a wallhanging, an ungodly mess on the table, and I bought the fleece to do a scarf for the mother for Christmas.

This one was done by laying the fleece onto a piece of fabric. The fabric crinkles with the felting process - it's really quite beautiful. I scanned the felt rather than using my crappy camera to take piccies. I was apprehensive about going, but I'm glad I went.

Blog Games

2005-10-21T22:58:00.000+10:00

Okay, some blog games:

Aurora needs:
Aurora Needs You!
Aurora needs developers to come in and make bold changes to its core.
Aurora needs leaders who are willing to speak their mind.
Aurora needs to improve in many ways.
Aurora needs some TLC, but has lots of potential.
Aurora needs to be somewhere permanently in the marvel universe!!!

Oooh, yes please to the last one!

And the images one:
The name of the town where you were born
Hmm, odd. And kinda cool.

The name of the town where you live now
Simply terrifying.

Your name
Rather obvious.

Your grandmother's name (just pick one)
I have no idea how Jean got me this...

Your favorite food
No, not dog. Vienetta!

Your favorite drink
SHARK! SHARK!

Your favorite song
I am the real (the real) thing (thing)!

Your favorite smell
Rain all the way, baby

Knitting update - I kept leaving my bizarre blue rolly-bag at work, and since it contains the Greek Pullover, I raided the WIP pile at home for something to knit whilst I watched Robin Hood Documentary. I'm sleeving the poor old Inca jacket that I lost interest in. Just in time for summer. Yeah, good.

Going to a felting class on Sunday. Felting felting felting!

Greek Pullover update

2005-10-17T17:19:00.000+10:00

This is the work I've done so far on the Interweave Greek pullover. Amazingly, the slipped increases weren't any trouble. Unfortunately you can't see it, but the yarn has a lovely sheen to it when it's knitted up.

I bought a 10 pack of Sherlock Holmes DVDs yesterday. I was watching whilst I knitted. But tonight is cartoons, so I'll get even more done! Wooo-hooo! I'm starting to find that I am much calmer if I get some knitting in during the day (This is a good thing!).

The HSC English Paper One was easy. Thank the gods. My dear children all came out happy, which will really help their performance in Geography etc. for the rest of this week.

Finished Object!

2005-10-15T15:07:00.000+10:00

I think that the note on that picture is reasonably self-explanatory. I woke up this morning with a blinding headache, and I needed something repetitive to do whilst I waited patiently for the Nurofen-plus to kick in. I turned on Rage (a.k.a music video show) and watched the top 20 and sewed. I don't know what was more depressing, the glut of 80s remixes, or the fact that the goddamn crazy frog has TWO, count them, TWO songs in the top 20. There is no justice in this world.

I accidentally took this shot setting the camera up, and I think it's actually kinda okay. Obviously, my camera isn't really "all that" - but you can see here I closed the bolero with a pin. I tried sewing ribbon on, like in the original in the mag (Simply Knitting, for those of you playing at home!) but it looked horrid. Really, really horrid. I'm happy with the colour, though, and the weight - I hadn't knitted in cotton before, and I must say, I wasn't too fussed with how "hard" it felt as I did so. It's come out okay, and I have another lot of balls of it left, so I'll knit the rest of them into a Jo Sharp shrug...aaaah, summer!

Binky wasn't too impressed with me out taking photos. She's saying:
Dammit, stop buying me cutesy things and making me stay still for photos. I want to go roll in something, then I'll sneak into your room and sleep on your pillow. Stupid new heart-shaped-tag.

Malcolm...you're a dead man.

2005-10-13T20:55:00.000+10:00

Because our radio show is on Thursday and not Friday, I took my copy of my weird diary that has a daily task in, and did tomorrow's task. Which is to do a random shout-out on radio to someone called Malcolm. I explained to DM that he needed to do a shout out to Malcolm on air. As we have been getting phone calls from an irate drunkard who is determined that DM is gay, and therefore shouldn't be allowed on radio, he rather judiciously picked:

"And this next song comes with a special message; Malcolm, you're a dead man. Let's hear the song - "A Great Day without You".

He turned off the mike. We were all allowed to breathe, cough and fart without fear of being heard by all 3 of our listeners. We breathed.

The phone rang.

"Um...you don't suppose that the irate drunkard's name is Malcolm?" ventured Peren, as we stared at it in horror.

"Or that he thinks you've broken up with Malcolm?" I chimed in, rather helpfully, I thought. DM gave me the finger, and picked up the phone.

"FM107.5....oh, hello, Mrs X," he said, rolling his eyes, as were we. Mrs X calls every week, and requests The Corrs. In the middle of an alternative/dance/etc show. So The Corrs get squished in between Goldfrapp, Rammstein, and The Bedroom Philosopher. After a conversation that on DM's part mostly consisted of "Yes, No, Uh-huh, Oh really? That's a shame!", he hung up.

"She wants "I never really loved you anyway," he said. We sighed with relief as he continued:

"She told me that it's a good song to play, if I really want to get back at Malcolm. "

__________________

Sigh.

I haven't done much knitting recently, but I have finished all the bits of the bolero. Now I need to sew it all together. The icky part of knitting, I always feel. I want to sit down and knit, but my marking pile is through the roof, cos the HSC starts on Monday, with English as first cab off the rank. My subject. Eeesh. And some of my kids' work....eeeeeeeeeeesh.

But some are so sophisticated I could jump up and down in nerdy joy. Huzzah!

Oh boy

2005-10-07T09:01:00.000+10:00

Oh boy.

Well, I've almost finished the bolero jacket. Think I'll frog the green thing. Not too enamoured of it now I have a new book for the chosen yarn. It is called "Summer patterns". Not entirely sure about summer knitting...I mean, when it is 40 degrees outside, do you REALLY need a jumper? I mean, traditionally summer is the time to make bags, and stuff for next winter...

Nootz came to stay with me in Canberra. We did the floriade trip, and the road trip, and the trip to the vege resturant for fake duck, where she, and I quote "Chucked ana off the boat" for the evening. She has managed to get herself into a really odd predicament; engaged to her bizzaro-world boyfriend, but seeing a man twice her age on the side. We went through the seven deadly sins. Yup, she's doing them all. And almost all of the 10 commandments, excepting murder and the one we couldn't remember.

But that's probably a commandment-breaker in itself...

2005-10-01T16:23:00.000+10:00

I knitted all through the game. Much to the disgust of one of the blokeys, until I hit him on the head with a (okay, it was a bendy one) knitting needle and told him to quit his whining, if I hadn't've been there, he would have been a little pile of zombie food.

Yes, ladies and gents, the GM, who is used to our party screwing up royally, let us finish our big people's adventure, then indulged in munchkin central. We're only level 6 characters, and we played this godawful adventure in a castle of the undead *ooh, scary fingers!* It was written for level 6 characters, ostensibly. Maybe if you're a 14 year old boy. And we got some neat stuff by basically wandering through the logical sequence of rooms (the big bad evil is ALWAYS on the top floor) and picking it up. But the most fun was the hurt snerk on the face of the GM as we dispatched of everything he'd thrown at us in record time and without falling over - the mummy, the spectre, the hordes of moronic undead...

I'm becoming more fond of my character. I'm a cleric, and with a party of morons who shouldn't be allowed out of a city without the SAS accompanying them, I find that I am always busy, either doing something moronic myself, or saving other morons. GM has given me a nifty little dealie holy symbol from one of the new weapons books - I really need to read up on it.

As for Mr-no-mammal-protein, I bought the food, and he insisted on cooking for me. What a shame, thought I, a cute man in my kitchen cooking me stirfry. What a daaaaarn shame. He even washed up. Delight.

2005-09-28T22:57:00.000+10:00

Above photo is of Floriade, the flower festival in Canberra that is on for the next few weeks. Yup, those bands of colour are all tulips!

Well, I am home and the kitties and houndus are not. Reason being, I have returned only briefly, for Dungeons and Dragons. I play a gnomish cleric (a cleric that is a gnome, not a particularly gnomish one by demeanour) and I keep getting told off for doing girly things, like buying icecream for the seven-foot-tall warforged. I was only introduced to D&D this year, and I love it. We're playing Eberron.

It's probably a good thing that my critters are staying with my mother. I am hosting us this time, and I asked Sim what he can/can't eat. He replied:

"I can't eat gluten, or mammal protein."

Mammal protein? Okay. I am used to food fiddling (with a diabetic sister, and a gluten/dairy intolerant mother, you have to be), but how exactly do they test mammal protein? Is is all mammals? What about monotremes? Could one, per se, have platypus milk? Eeesh. I know what food I'll organise, though, and it will be dairy, mammal and animal-in-general free. So if he's not being snuggled up to by my extremely mammalian critters, then hopefully all will be good.

See, wonderdog loves men. I think it's partly why I have a regular fling, not a regular b/f. Whenever men come over, as soon as they sit down, a ball of chihuahua-cross that looks like Ren, smells like wet dog even when she is dry, and sheds like a demon, plonks itself lovingly on their lap and licks them. Maybe they're worried that's what the children would look like. I've only met one who liked her, and he had already got himself a girlfriend. Dammit.

Knitting update - I bought more yarn! Bright green tencel! Yay me! And I bought some pretty dyed ribbons to tie the almost finished bolero shut when I have finished it! Will post pictures when it is light enough for my shitty camera to pick them up.

2005-09-25T13:52:00.000+10:00

I am at home tonight.

I am supposed to be in Canberra.

Okay, the reason why is the fur-children, as my US friends refer to them. The kitties, specifically. I cleaned my crap-hole of a house today, scrubbed and washed and then ended up giving up and shoving things into cupboards in a blind rush because I wanted to be on the road before dusk as there are a heap of roos out on the road to Canberra.

The scrubbing and the cleaning took longer than expected. I'm now sitting in my clean house, too afraid to do anything lest I undo the cleaning. I made it, eventually, at about 5pm, to a clean house. Well within dusk, but as I had also packed the car, I decided stuff it, I'll drive anyways. I've done the drive at night, and the fur-kids behave better when I do - they go to sleep, rather than yowling and whining all the way down (about 4 hours with pit stops). I just have to be extra-alert so as not to total my car and kill a kangaroo.

I got out the cat-carriers. These are baskets of industrial plastic, with cat-proof fastenings. I put them on the back seat of my car, with my chihuahua cross sandwiched between them. This is a relatively frequent occurrence, and the dog at least travels well, although the one time I was RBT-ed, the policeman nearly died laughing at my crazy-spinster-cat-lady family, who all started making vast amounts of noise as soon as the car stopped.

Stabby nearly gave me the slip, but she's old, and fat, and let's face it, can't run for peanuts. She scratched the hell out of my arm, because she knows she's going to have to stay with psycho-dog. But I got her into her cat carrier. I do this by turning whichever cat it is upside down, then inserting it into the carrier - they're so confused that they can't stick out their paws and block the entry.

Then I realise that Dory is nowhere to be seen. I call her. The dog gets excited, and starts running in circles barking. Stabby growls from the depths of her cat-carrier, then leans against the side of it and tips it over. More growling. I go into the back yard.

No Dory.

I go into the front yard, and check on the top of the water tank (Dory's favourite ambush spot). No stupid-frickin-cat. So I get out a tin of food, and do that pathetic walk up and down through the house and out onto the road in my bare feet, all the time calling the stupid cat like a mantra. By this stage the dog has nearly peed itself with the sheer excitement, and Stabby has taken to yowling like a banshee.

Half an hour later, I realise that Dory ain't coming back. And it's the best part of dark. Yes, dear readers, it took me more than an hour to catch one cat, and lose the other, and get the dog so excited that it had a wheezing fit. And people trust me with their children.

I gave up, let the spitting ball of fury that Stabby had turned into out, called my sister to say I wasn't coming tonight, and then went and got takeout because I was too scared to even think about touching my spotless kitchen. Dory has just showed up, pleased as punch, chewing on a bug. It's almost nine pm.

I wonder what she'll do when I lock all the windows tonight, then bundle her into a cat-carrier before dawn tomorrow?

2005-09-21T07:23:00.000+10:00

I finally broke out the knitting at best (male) friend's house. He didn't even look askance as I knitted through futurama and the simpsons (hey, it's stocking stitch, how hard is it??) So I have finished another side, and I'm trying out the theory of doing both sleeves at once, to ensure length, rather than tediously counting rows. Yay me!

2005-09-20T12:35:00.000+10:00

Okay, is there a problem here?

The UK issue of "Simply Knitting" from AUGUST arrived in my local newsagent's today.

Aiiiieee. August. C'mon, I know I'm in the boondocks, but REALLY. Not much in there I wanted - well, the kitchy birdie mobile maybe. And I'd learn to crochet for the picture (no pattern...blech!) of the vest that looks like a giant mobile doily. So long as people didn't try and serve afternoon tea on me.

I wonder when we'll get the Interweave crochet special. No, wait, that should be IF.

Project update - I finished one front of the bolero. Off to watch Mythbusters and go the other side!

2005-09-17T20:13:00.000+10:00

This is the cotton for the bolero. That's the finished back, and part of a front. Yay me!

2005-09-14T14:50:00.000+10:00

Leek and Corn Pasties
This is my own recipie. I'm making it for the other staff members for lunch tomorrow! It is vegan unless your pastry or margarine contains critters.

2 x leeks
1-2 little snack-size tins of corn kernels
pastry (about 3 sheets or make your own with 2 cups flour, coupla tablespoons margarine, and some cold water)
soy milk (don't ew at me, it works in this recipie better than moo milk)
flour
Margarine (I use nuttlex)

Preheat oven to 200C. Chop leeks making sure to wash any grime out. Even the slightest bit of grime is nasty. Warm in nice big pot with several tablespoons margarine until soft and squishy (about 3-5 minutes). Then add about three-four tablespoons of flour, and mix until flour is all mixed in but not browning. Add soy milk to make a thick white sauce-like consistency with leeky lumps. Add drained corn and mix.

If I am making this for a lot of people, I make weeny little circles with my scone cutter. If I am making it for me, I make big-ass pasties with a saucer, or else just a square. The principle is the same. Cut them out of pastry, spoon in mixture, fold and close. Put on baking tray. Little weeny ones take about 15 minutes, big ones take about 30-40 minutes depending on the pastry. I always have some filling mix left - it tastes nice with things like notdogs, or bread.

So that is what the English faculty are having for lunch tomorrow. Hehehe.

2005-09-13T12:54:00.000+10:00

I have no camera!

I thought since I was posting a few comments on KAL blogs, I should post something here so that people don't think I'm a random weirdo. I'm an Aussie, and I'm a knitter.

My UFOs are:
- A cotton shrug
- A jacket in Inca
- A jumper in firefly that I've lost the pattern for
- A cardigan in heathers which I think I will frog and use the wool for the trees design in the latest Knitty

I want to make:
- the Greek Pullover, floral bag and jacket from Interweave
- the lace jumper and the little jacket-thingy and the lace shrug from Creative Knitting
- the trees jumper and the little orange thing (Samu? is it?) from Knitty

But I am on a yarn diet, as our US friends would have it. Caused by a shocking electricity bill. So yes. Post one. Will update if and when I get a camera.