Zephyrama

toppers or top down

2009-01-23T18:57:00.004+11:00

Hats.

Yes this is all about hats. I knit a lot of hats, a great way to use up scraps and they are quick, particularly the newborn sizes.

I've been asked to share the patterns and so I shall. Already the Umbilical Cord hat pattern is up, and the Snail beanie has a rough pattern guide for you as some people couldn't wait. Full patterns featuring different weights and sizes will be up soon. There will also be brimmed sun hats and a Mr Squiggle Hat.
The snail hats are based on hats my grandmother did. If you are familiar with the pin-wheel patterns floating around, well all it is is this pattern turned into a beanie or sun hat.

And yes, knit these, sell these, knit them for charity.

The Snail Beanie hat pattern also features photos on how to do a looped cast on for beginning with a circle and not getting those HUGE holes.

what i've been doing

2009-01-02T18:45:00.006+11:00

I've been lusting after these and wishing I could draw between the lines.

And I'm thinking I should just stop whining about too many things on the needles and start knitting with

these by signing up to this.

And I adopted one of these

and have already been doing this.

chasing tails

2008-12-30T12:49:00.005+11:00

That's what it seems i've been doing for the past few months.
The lead-up to crimbo is always mad in this house. There are birthdays as well, deadline sewing and knitting and getting stuff done in advance for the paid job.

So a quick look see at one of the latest projects and I'll be back soon with lots of goodies, from things that have been found in the PO Box to goodies scattered around the web.

This is the Fish Hat (dead or alive) from knitty. It is chasing and trying to eat a newborn sized hat. I've sat down with a calculator and worked out the maths for a newborn, 6mto 12m and a toddler size as well.
Here is the pattern for the newborn one. enjoy.

new eyes

2008-10-19T21:22:00.005+11:00

Finally I caved and after five years updated the camera. The old one, clunky and large, was good, but not brilliant and finally stopped downloading properly.
So off I went and visited officeworks where I discovered to my delight that they price match and if they have to price match they take off an extra 5% and that also includes the cheapest on-line Australian-based price you can find.
So I got a nice little Cannon and I've had a little play. Only a little one mind you, as I'm yet to read the instructions and really discover what this little beauty can do.
So I've been rephotographing my Melbourne haul and the photo is some Jitterbug from Sunspun in blues that scream water and blue icypoles.

On the knitting front, Tomato is almost done, or potato as I've dubbed it as I suddenly realised why every thing I've knitted for myself as been oversized, despite getting the right tension. It seems that I've gone down a bit, deflated, but thankfully not at the front. There I was thinking that my bras were stretching out quicker than normal leading me to have to do them up on the tightest hooks.
A check with a tape measure revealed that I don't have a stretch issue, I have a disappearing back, cause I'm still filling the front if you know what I mean.
Which is great, that means a lot more pattern are available as I'm in that twilight zone of sizes, not much gets done over 44 and there I was thinking I was a 47.
Yes I did feel foolish, but not for long.

warning, system going down in

2008-10-11T09:36:00.003+11:00

10 seconds. warning system is down.

This is what we used to hear at work when our old Harris computer system was on the nod. Often the warning would bellow out of the walls after we'd started standing up and yelling at our blank screens. In those days you had to manually save, no automatic save functions on these little babies. No save by you and all was gone.

Now this warning is going off all around me, well not really but it should be.

For starters I can take photographs but for some reason I can't transport them into the computer. It just won't do it. Yes the photos are in the camera and I'd love you to see the latest Liesl, the wool from Melbourne that followed me home. The fellow is looking into replacing batteries and checking leads.

The next computer issues is more of a down and now up. We've gone wireless finally, although it did take him a week to get it installed properly.

The next thing going down is my work hours. My doctor has reduced my working hours to five hours a day, still Monday to Friday, in an attempt to find a nice happy medium that allows me to work and not be swallowing pain killers like lollies. A visit to a pain management specialist is scheduled. Which means work may react nicely and be supportive (that would be my immediate boss) or lash out like the spoilt toddler it normally behaves like (that would be the ed) and try to push me out the door.

I'm really looking forward to the reduced hours. Unfortunately it means hanging around town for an hour or so after work to wait for the children to finish school, but there is a wonderful library down the road from the school, in walking distance for the kids so they can come and meet me there. Imagine having time to read for pleasure!

And now for Bells seven random things about me:

I once lived in a place where the back yard was full of coffins and inter-continental body transporters (those are the big sardine tins). It was a goth household above a funeral parlour on Parramatta Road.

I get strange food cravings. At the moment it is all about mint and chocolate. It's not just a pregnancy thing for me, these cravings last for months or, in the case of mint, years and then suddenly it's somthing else. Tins of ready made caramel during my second pregnancy was probably the worst.

I love films. I love everything from the old B Grade monster, zombie and alien movies and have everything made by Ed Wood not to mention movies with titles that include Attack, Zombies, Vampires, I think you get the picture. Then I love films by Hayao Miyazaki which I first discovered after watching Porco Rosso (yep the pig one) late one night while breast feeding the eldest. The kids have grown up with these tales, yes both the zombies and the anime.

Both my thumbs are double jointed, I share this trait with my brother, but not my children.

I've sung all my children to sleep when they were little. Songs ranged from Drunken Sailor to the theme of Red Dwarf.

I am the Stig.

I stopped using shampoo and discovered I have really curly hair. Ringlets in fact under the canopy around my neck, I doubt I'll ever get the rest to ringlet because of all the dye I throw in there to cover the silver.

a black hole

2008-09-25T17:43:00.004+10:00

That's what it feels like my life has become, a black hole where time is just funnelling through.
There has been no time to just stop and smell the roses, but piles and piles of manure to wade through.
The kids have been sick; gastro and chest infections. I've been sick, work sucks the big one and people are getting shafted left right and centre and I can only see it getting worse as the rampant egos take over the place. I managed to take a chunk of flesh out of my arm when playing with Mecanno and didn't realise until the kids pointed out I was bleeding every where. That's because of the nerve damage to my arm which according to the specialist is mine for life. So long term adjustments have to be made, but as I've already found a spinning wheel I can use fairly easily, the major panic is over, now it is just a case of the big things like modifying the house and the car and looking at long term pain management strategies. Oh and I've been advised to where protective clothing when playing Mecanno.

But really that's not to bad considering what manure has been thrown at the people around me.
There's been a baby, and therefore a life of dreams, lost and another woman, my age, has been diagnosed with second stage breast cancer which had spread to her lymph glands but thank the flying spaghetti monster no further.
In both these circumstances it is hard to know what to say to the person. Really nothing you can say can convey you're sorry and having miscarried several times while some of the words of sympathy can be like a warm hug, not all are even if they are intended as such.
So to cope with this shit I've cried for the first and for the second I knitted a boob. A completely selfish act, an act that let me think that maybe I have done something to help. But I know there was a giggle mixed with the tears when my offer of giving her a perky set was passed on to her.

In other knitting there has been a Liesl done in Lion Brand Cotton (no, not cotton ease I used the dish cloth stuff) from spotties. It used less than 2 and a half balls of the stuff and I love it and can see several others in my future, particularly as it was a nine day knit and all knitting done after work and after the kids were in bed.
The mods were I ditched the original purl or garter ridges in the pattern after the first repeat for the neckline and knitted smooth all the way down to the end of the body where I did 1.5 of the normal repeats. The sleeves were to above the elbow and I did one repeat of the normal pattern on the ends.
Under the arms where you cast on stitches for the body and then pick these stitches up for the sleeve I cast on the same number of stitches on waste yarn and knitted off these for the body and then pulled the waste yarn out and picked up live stitches for the sleeves.

Next post there will be more knitting and I'll do the seven random things meme that I was tagged to do.
And maybe some pics of Melbourne because I'm heading down south and there has been a promise about visiting yarn shops, and pubs, and mills!

WTF

2008-08-29T10:30:00.001+10:00

Fair Go Fairfax

go here to find out more.

bossed around the lady

2008-08-17T14:47:00.005+10:00

Ages ago I finished the February Lady Sweater, a grown up version of the Zimmerman February Baby Sweater.
She was done with some Bendigo Cameo (an angora mix) in purple and was so soft and cuddly.
While this design looks better with negative ease, I did the size up from me as this is an over everything sweater for work. I have one of those offices which always seems to be frosty, even in the height of summer, so I wanted something to swing on over the top of everything else.

But after a quick steam block when she was finished she grew and grew and grew.
So much in fact that the 3/4 sleeves ended up around my fingers, the body grew and grew and the neck line was slipping off the shoulders.

And the Cameo pilled, well more than pilled, she DREADLOCKED.

So I picked her clean, washed her, rolled her up in a towel and literally stomped on her to get as much water out as possible and spread her out to dry. Then when she was almost dry popped her into the dryer on a gentle setting to boss her around again.
And the end result is even better than when I first steam blocked her.

Yes the fabric is a bit thicker, but still as soft. The lace pattern isn't as open (definitely not as open as it was after a week or so wear when everything stretched) but it is still there and looks lovely and lacy and as you can see from the photo above, she ain't that bad at all.

And the best bit, the fabric itself doesn't seem to look like it wants to pill up any more.

Now her sleeves are back at the height I wanted, the length is shorter on the body and the neckline looks like it will stay put.

Sometimes it is worth bossy around a finished garment.

Because I loved the thrill of making something for me so much I've already cast on for Growing Roots (rav link) in some Cascade 220 heathers and Loppem in some Tapestry Craft 12 ply.

Both have stalled again as the boys are heading to Canberra and Jar needs a vest or two so I'm whipping up a heap in some cheapo Moda Vera Trifle (12 stitches for 10cm quick).

a tale of two old ladies

2008-07-27T15:03:00.007+10:00

Tinkingbell sent out the challenge to write about our homes.

She lives in a stunning old home complete with a tower or widow's walk that I'd love to have. While jealous I'm still delighted with my houses, both haunted by lovely old ladies.

You see, I'm a lucky gal who has two; my first was my bachelor pad that did us well until there was one child when we decided to move about 500m as the crow flies to our present home.

We bought our present home the day it came on the market. It was everything we wanted. Big rooms, plenty of yard and character.
Our 'old' house had character but lacked room. It was a cottage, stand alone yes, but with two bedrooms, a lounge, an eat-in kitchen and a tiny bathroom and laundry it was getting cramped. It is a solid place with cedar skirting boards, dada boards, picture rails, the works. A beautiful fire place and a wood stove in the kitchen that made the best scones and kept the house warm in winter. But it was too small.

So off I went hunting and I found it. A large block, still in a spit of the town, in walking distance of the city's best cafes, on transport links and with almost a third of an acre block.
Best part of it was the huge hedge out the front that shielded the house from drive byes.
I'd had a stalker for several years. Nothing violent, but disconcerting all the same so the hedge sold me before I even went inside.
The place was built in the early 1990s and was cavity brick, with patterned ceilings in every room bar the back built-in veranda that became the kitchen, bathroom and dining area.

The back yard was once a formal garden but had fallen into such a state that we couldn't see the back fence. We didn't know about the two mulberry trees at the back of the yard or the fruiting mango tree less than two metres from the lounge room window either. We had lived here three years before we found that tree.
The house has patterned and coloured glass, the floorboards are wide and the place although in need of paint and in some places, paint stripper, was perfect.
The plan was to build an extension on the back with a new bathroom, kitchen and family room to go with the three bedrooms and lounge room, but of course every time I manage to undertake something big like a new mortgage, I get pregnant so while we got the plans for the extension the week Zegal was born, they are still sitting in the filing cabinet.

But unlike my old house, this place has huge rooms, massive rooms, and two of the bedrooms have working fireplaces, as does the lounge room which has been treated to a deep red paint job. We've been able to cope, but are now working towards revised plans that include more space, because while the plans we had drawn up were great for a family of four, we are now a family of five.
For me the best thing about the house is the old shed built in the 50s that I've lined and turned into my workspace.

Another funny thing about my homes is that both are never called mine by the neighbours.
My old house is old Maisies house after the woman who was born there and lived there until she was taken off to a nursing home. In that street and all through the suburb, most of the homes are still owned by the same families for the past 100 years, so Maisies house it will always be.
The same thing has happened at our new place. The block of land was bought in the late 1800s by a family who built the house. They had a daughter who was born in the house and when she married and became Mrs Roberts, she ended up back in the house raising her children and was said to have had the most incredible gardens. She died about 18 months before we bought the house, but again in our street most of the residents remember her, going to play in her gardens and being given fruit from her trees.
Even delivery blokes and taxi drivers refer to our house as Mrs Robert's and the couple who bought the place after her death swear that she used to sit on the end of their bed and tut tut at them. They used to say she didn't like gay men in her house, personally I think it was the state that they let her gardens fall into, because even when she wasn't able to garden herself she had teams of gardeners come in and do it for her. Even the front hedge was trimmed once a month, so I dread to think what she would say about the tuffs on top of it at the moment.
I think I've only seen her once, but that was when Jar was three months old and due to his tiny size when born I hadn't slept more than two hours in a stretch and was starting to dream while awake. One day I was sitting and feeding Jar when I swear an old lady sat down in the lounge and talked to me. I realised later on that it was probably not a good idea to tell the fellow about my visitor and that until I managed to get some sleep I should turn in my car keys as well.

At the old house I've had painters refuse to go back in after being shaken off ladders. I think they were trying to do a quick lick rather than a decent job and Maisie didn't like it. It often sounded like people were walking up and down the hall way in that house but the house was so nice and warm and friendly and I was never shaken off a ladder when painting myself. The only time it got really scary was when an answering machine which wasn't plugged into anything, telephone lines or power, started recording things. No I wasn't drinking at the time but Tash and I certainly raced for a bottle of something after that event, coming as it did days after our best friend died. I've still got the tape, but have no idea what was on it as it is just a mess of noise.

So this is the tale of my house and my old house, Maisie's house and Mrs Robert's house.

The photos are all from Mrs Robert's house, and this bottom one is what people see above the front door when they walk in the gate: Two old goats skulls, the perfect remedy to scare religious nutters away.

happy sad week

2008-07-17T15:33:00.005+10:00

As the last post pointed out, this is the season for anniversaries.
I had a birthday, a blog birthday, a wedding anniversary and this week marked the 10th anniversary of the death of my best mate whose was Foatboy's godfather, though the jury is out on whether he did renounced the devil or not.
So it has been a strange week all round.
I wrote a long post about what he was, what he meant to me, how he drove me fucking insane at times. But in the end he is-was more than mere words on a page floating around the internet so I hit delete.
Instead I'll show you the clock that moved into the house this week, a circa 1850s American oak long case clock.
If Murray had managed to avoid his black dog this clock would be one of the things I'd be catching him trying to drag out of the house during one of his ever revolving moving in and moving outs.
We worked out one drunken night that the two of us were real family, how else could you account for the fact that we moved in and out of each other's houses, nursed each other during romantic disasters and illnesses and still loved each other madly.

Next post there will be some stitching action, including Squidy, the crochet cat toy.

versary

2008-07-08T15:05:00.004+10:00

Yes, it is almost my blogversary, or is it bloganniversary. Doesn't matter, but it is almost here. And so is another anniversary in my life, whoops, two special ones in fact.

But back to the reason for the blog.
Creating. Yes there has been plenty, but for the moment, none that can be shown. Yes I'm still-a-secret knitting. But a week off and plenty of knitting and sewing time has meant more time for other things as I don't have to deal with that pesky day job as well.

Biscuits have been made, shows have been caught up on. I've managed to watch series three of the Mighty Boosh. Oh Vince, how I love thee. How I love your hair, your clothing.

So off I go back to secret-knitting. But I'll leave you with a photograph of my second ever sock.

secret knitting

2008-07-02T22:29:00.004+10:00

At the moment I'm doing some secret knitting.
The secret is all to do with the Got You Covered swap over on Ravelry where each swap participant offers up two wishes: Something to cover the body, something to cover an object.
Most offered up the need for scarves or cuffs, a hat or three and arm-wrist warmers, while the objects range from hot water bottles to mp3 player covers, coffee and mug warmers and the like. It was supposed to be a smallish knit and a few goodies, to a maximum of around $30 plus postage.
A few scallywags have listed the desire for socks (!!!!) but fortunately my assigned swap parter was playing within the rules and asked for a _____. So I'm knitting away, trying to get it done by the weekend so I can get back to my Lady February Sweater which was stalled by the need to whip up a jumper for the snow.

So instead of a pic of knitting today I give you . . .

A strand of ivy. This was knitted from a jumper I recycled. It was handwash wool which was first knitted up, dyed with food colouring and then felted down.
The main part of the vine was knitted double with, from memory, eight stitches for the I-cord. The secondary tendrils were picked up from the main vine and knitted with a single yarn into a four stitch I-cord. The leaves were then knitted from the main strand.
Then I dyed it up using food colouring, using the tutorial I wrote for Yarn magazine so many years ago. What I'm going to do with I have no idea. It just hangs from the top of a book shelf.

a quick costume change

2008-06-29T18:51:00.006+10:00

It is done.
A jumper to wear to the snow.
Cast on after snb on Monday night. (yes I took the needles and the pattern, but forgot the wool)
Knitted like mad, finished the following Tuesday night. Seamed on the Thursday night.
Made a hat to match on the Saturday, then cast on for a deeper version of the Brangelina cap.
He's happy and now I can get back to my knitting.

Merino Spun, six balls. 6mm needles. Suggested tension was 16 stitches with 6mm. I got 14 stitches but the fabric was still dense.
About 34 inches.
Knit in the round to armholes, divided and then short row shoulders and a three needle bind off. Sleeves in the round until sleeve cap. Minimal seaming.

And in the photograph you can see evidence that Foat boy is no longer a child. We went and bought him his first pair of eight hole Docs the other week. For the past few years he has been destroying a pair of shoes in three months or less, even Blunnies and Redback boots so we took the plunge. Pretty cool for Year 6.
The worst bit is that they are the same size as I wear and he has already been caught coveting my cherry eight holes. I think however, he will be turning down the opportunity to wear my purple boots, not to mention my patent black ones.

new clothes and less mud

2008-06-12T19:09:00.006+10:00

(added moments after posting: Hello all who have found me via Whip Up. Hope you enjoy, and remember you can email me any time with questions)

With pants flapping at half mast I've had to spend time in the shed sewing for the youngest, and I've had to hurry up and finish a few jumpers for him too.
The pants are made from a range of cords, from thin to thick, all old material I've picked up around the place. Naturally one needs pockets to carry treasures around and each pair has several patch pockets, square and round, and all the pockets are made from contrasting vintage materials. Last year he had round patches on his knees with extra padding for those oh-no fall over moments, but this year I've turned them all into treasure carriers, but placed slightly above the knee.

The jumper is the Totem discontinued piece I've been working on. I found a bunch of Totem reduced to $1 a ball and grabbed a few colours and the result is a striped jumper. There were three balls of the tealy colour and two of the navy and the rest were one ball each. So the welts are in the navy and the stripe pattern is a doubled edged one. Every second stripe is in the teal, but the row sequence is the classic 1,3, 5, 8. Better know as the fibonacci sequence.

It's knit in the round, bottom up with set in sleeves. The sleeves have been knitted from the cap down two at once, in case I ran out of yarn, with a 3/4 cuff, perfect for youngsters who go to day care and love playing in water.
I've only to sew the sleeves in now and finish weaving in the ends.

I wrote the pattern myself, it is a rough 25 inch chest so there will be plenty of room for the boy to grow. I'll write it up properly later and stick it on the pattern page along with the stripe sequence.

In other news we are finally getting some success with the market placements. As the work slowly continues around the market areas (yes gutters are being laid), we have been able to invite potential stall holders who have been waiting patiently since late last year.

Ideally all this work would have been done months ago, particularly the clearing out of the last shed, and we could have had the 20-odd potential stalls on the reserve list from last year in. Since other markets have closed and more people have heard about the non-food side and the bent we are taking with diversity, (we have caps on the number of hand crafted stalls that produce the same product) we are getting more and more requests for permanent stalls, although if I hear one more person say "but my stuff is better-nicer-more professional-cheaper than theirs" I will scream.

Thankfully one of the other gals is a whiz with filing systems and has kept up to date all the incoming requests so people are being invited in the order of correct application, keeping in mind the diversity clause.
I've tried to sneak one or two in through early due to their financial need and had my hand spanked. Ouch. You could say I'm the softy of the trio, but luckily Jules has the ability to sniff out those who may stir up trouble. With 20 years of various markets she is a wonder to see operating she knows exactly what makes a market work.

Now I'd better go and weave in ends and finish the jumper for Jar to wear at WWKIP on Saturday, (see Ravelry for details) and then I get to pick up my February Ladies Sweater again. Yes finally I've been sucked in, it's the new clapotis.

buttons and more buttons

2008-06-06T19:54:00.007+10:00

I am a horder, I am the granddaughter of a horder.
I've posted glimpses of her chenille, but my Nanna also had buttons, lots of buttons and I have some of them. I also have some of mine, which means a healthy load of buttons.

But the other day after playing with them I headed off to do a google to see what I could do with them.

There were lots of necklaces but nothing exactly like I wanted, so I've mixed up those tutorials to get what I wanted. Try it, it is easy.

You need:
Buttons - vintage, those with holes and those that are shanked.
24 gauge jewelry wire
Clasps and those squishy jewelry making thingos.
Pliers and wire cutters

Cut about 60cm of wire.

Arrange a row of buttons on the table in front of you, starting with the middle button and working one each side outwards.
You can pick a huge button for this middle button (the pale blue button with the red and yellow little buttons on top in the photo above) or do a beautiful layer, with smaller buttons on top of larger ones. Build out the necklace in front of you, playing with sizes and colours. It works well to make the end buttons, those that will be around the back of your neck smaller than those at the front which are placed in the middle of your design.

Take the wire and thread through the middle button from the back to the front, pulling the button down to the middle of the wire. Holding the wire tight against the back of the button, grab the threaded wire and bend it so that it is at a 90 degree angle to the wire. If you are going to have a layered button, slip on the other buttons.

Then take the wire back into the button, threading it through the other hole to the back of the button. Using pliers, pull the wire as tightly as possible so that the wire sits flush on the front of the button. (see the botton photograph to see what it should look like at the back of the button)

Now repeat this until all the buttons are placed. I usually do one from one side of the middle button, then do the button for the other side, working back and forth until all are strung.

You don't have to have buttons all the way around, you can stop when you like.

Finish off with a loop and clasp at the back.

If you are using shanked buttons thread the wire through, then bend back and go through again, pulling the wire tight. Then bend back again, pulling the wire tight but made sure it lays on the other side of the shank. It's like a wire figure of eight and it holds the button firmly in place, it won't swing around on the wire and will also sit properly on the necklace.

Bracelets are the same, but I don't bother with working from the middle, I just pop the first button on, leaving a 5cm tail for the clasp.

You will always want to add quite a few extra centimetres to the wire compared to the finished necklace or bracelet length as all that going up through buttons and around and around shanks uses up wire.

Now enjoy. If you click here you will find another Nanna inspired tutorial.

AND OPPS: As we lost internets for a while here at home, Zgal has decided to stretch out the bangle competition (work out a great selling name for her knitting needle bangles and you could win one of three bangles, posted anywhere). So leave a comment or send me an email with some funky names for the bangles. So far there have been some rippers but it is my duty as a mother to present her with an eye popping list that will keep her quiet for a few hours while she works through it.

mum i need a costume for tomorrow

2008-05-29T16:59:00.004+10:00

Well it wasn't that bad, I had a few days notice that I had to make a lizard costume for a play. Not just any lizard, a blue tongue lizard.

So I headed into the shed and last night pulled out some olive chenille and made pants, a shirt (forget buttons I needed quick velcro action), a head piece and webbed mittens. Add a few eyes and a blue tongue to the head piece and Zgal become a blue tongue lizard.

Just in case the audience can't see the blue chenille, she is sucking on a blueberry lollipop to turn her own tongue blue for tonight's performance.

too busy

2008-05-21T22:42:00.005+10:00

Too many things, not enough hours. Extra training, negotiations are about to start again, MRIs are booked in, material has been cut out by patient partner, wool has been hidden, one-handed spinning has been achieved.
Sleep is desperately needed.

How do I know I need sleep. Just look at the sentences above. Disjointed, stupid and over the top. I hate reading writing like that, but unfortunately that seems to be the way my brain is firing.

To make it clearer I've been spending hours doing more occupational health and safety training as per the workcover act of, forgotten whoops. I've been looking at our upcoming wage negotiations, which means constant trips around the place, phone hook ups, google groups, complaining staff and miffed off misers.

The fella has been patiently cutting out material for the winter range and for the youngest who has had one of those growth spurts that leaves all his long pants hovering between knees and ankles. I'm also late in getting the winter stock ready for the stall. Summer it is all chenille, winter means cords and barkcloth and heavy linens, screen prints and vintage patch pockets. Regular customers have been asking and while there is already a pile sewn, the fellow needs to cut out more for me.

The one-handed spinning is due to a new addition to the house, a Wee Peggy made by John Rappard not Ashford. It's a sweet creature of the nicest disposition. I can spin that wheel with my left arm and I've master drawing out roving and fleece, the latter with less consistency, with one hand, using my right to only steady things. So my gimpy arm has been overcome again, it has once again been defeated by determination and another outgoing of funds. The MRI is to assess the full damage of said gimpy arm but after another specialist's opinion I'm up the creek so to speak and expect to be reduced in stature before the year is out by the removal of a disc.

Pic above is deep deep purple roving waiting to be plyed.

banglerama

2008-05-08T17:37:00.004+10:00

We are drowning in vintage knitting needle bangles here thanks to the constant requests from a certain young lady to make more.

We have so many. Even if we were a house of centipedes we would still have some sitting on the bench unworn.

So it's time to share the bounty.

Miss Zgal has decided that we must have a competition to give some away and she is going to start selling them too.

Her idea was a limbo competition, but after explaining the issue of getting everyone to the same location at the same time would be a nightmare and would cut into her pocket money account, she decided on a different theme.

She wants you to think of a name for her new store. Yes the enterprising dear is going to sell her bangles at a craft market but she realises she needs a name. As I've already appropriated Zephyrama for the clothing business we run, she needs one for her own 'stuff'.

So you friends and lurkers you have a month to leave a comment with your ideas for Miss Zgal's new business venture. She will sit down and read all the names and pick three finalists and a winner. I'll then contact you for a postal addie and she will handpick a bangle and send it your way.

b'day gal

2008-05-07T18:26:00.004+10:00

There is a birthday in the house. And she's excited cause she is seven on the seventh.
And as usual the princess in the middle has been spoilt. Wrapped up ready to be opened after cake tonight is some Meccano. She already has her new DS Lite on charge and will no doubt be opening more presents from T (uncle) and grandparents tonight.

And then there is the bowling party on Saturday. Spoilt, yes, is there anything I can do to tame her Dad, no.

You may notice a lone top front tooth in this pic, well she managed to wiggle it so much that she lost it the day before.

"Guess what Mummy, I'm a song, it's All I Want For Christmas Is My"

you can sing the rest.

As for knitting, almost finished the daycare jumper for the fella and the Jet cardi I have been knitting in secret for the Zgal will be finished for the party. Hopefully.

study in brown

2008-05-04T18:39:00.004+10:00

As I spent most of the past few days in trains and at conferences I decided some mindless knitting was in order.
I'd already cast on and had done the 3k2p rib for this jumper for Jar, so I took this with me.
It almost disappears into the unpolished floor boards, it's a mix of earthy browns, with the occasional flash of yellow or red.
This is my standard, oversized pattern for Jar, done in the round, divide for front and back, short row shoulders and a three needle bind off. The sleeves are knit from the top down, firstly because I'm worried about running out of yarn, and secondly I want to finish these just after the elbow.
You see the Jar has a habit of getting sleeves wet, then off comes his jumper at daycare.
The yarn is an old Sirdar candytwist which is 57% wool, 38% courtelle and 5% nylon and fingers crossed no one will be felting this one.
I picked up five 50gm balls from an opshop and it's knitted into a nice fabric on 4mm needles, tight enough not to catch on anything but loose enough to be soft, well as soft as the courtelle can be.
I'm doing both sleeves at the same time with two balls, one the last full ball, the other a half ball and the way it is knitting I'll cuff it at the end of the partial ball and use the rest of the other ball for the crew neck.
Fingers, or needles crossed, I'll finish the sleeves tonight and knock over the neck and seam in the sleeves tomorrow night at knitting.

My trip to the big smoke wasn't just knitting or work, I did manage to head to the Town Hall pub in Newtown. Once again I've discovered another part of my history has been gentrified. No longer can you hose out the pub, there is carpet and it looks and smells clean.

red shoe day

2008-05-01T17:29:00.006+10:00

I've always had a shoe problem.
Not as bad as Rose Red, but a problem still.

For years it was suede pointy shoes, ohhh big silver buckles like the flat points I was married in. And there is my 20 year, whoops, make that almost 30, fascination with Docs. Purple, cherry, black, patent, boots, shoes, I have them all.
And then there were the heels.

But now with a gimpy neck and arm, if I wear bad shoes I end up with a massive head ache.
So about two years ago the search was on. I tried them all. I spent a fortune on different 'sensible' shoes to no avail.

Until I went here and discovered clown shoes.
I have brown suede, black suede, oil coloured and red parchment ones. The kids even have sandals. I love them, I wear them everywhere. In kitchens, in the garden, at home, at work. With or without handknitted socks. I've plunged into thigh high flood waters to get a child home safely and my shoes have survived.

And last week I got some new ones.
Pretty lolly red ones and deep red with a black floral swirl pattern. Oh oh, I love my new red shoes.

Next, purple and berry coloured ones.

Sorry about the photo, totally crap, new camera for my birthday?
And now the time for decisions has come, which colour will I wear tomorrow as I'm heading down to the BIG SMOKE.
Which means a meet up with some lovely Rav girls, including Bex who tipped me off about the gothic snb, the wonderful Spiraling, Webgoddess, Tango-lovin Miss Fee and I'm not sure how many others.

And Spiraling has hinted at Thai for dinner.

Oh I love how my baby-eating work that takes me to Sydney.

more nostagia - the nanna-list

2008-04-19T16:01:00.003+10:00

After the wonderful time spent bending knitting needles into bangles, an activity that has been done quiet a few times in the past few days, my Zgal wants to know what else I used to do with my nanna.

It wasn't just my nanna that I did things with, there was also time spent with Grandma and other elderly women who taught me a huge range of things, from french seaming for babies clothing to how to get pastry just right to how best to peg out clothing.

It was all fun back then, but lessons were learnt so I've decided to try and work out a nanna-list of activities to do with my daughter.

I'm not going to do water colours with her and I don't have a massive art studio complete with a wheel and kiln, but I do have a french knitting 'thingo'. For years I've been looking through op shops trying to find old wooden spools with a hole in the centre big enough for french knitting. Of course I couldn't find one with a big enough hole, but then I realised that my french knitting was probably done with the left overs from the dresses she used to knit for herself and her daughters which was of course, 4ply, fingering or finer.

When the craft show swung into town and the wood turners had a bit of a show there too and I found a hand carved french knitting spool (could that be what it is called) so next on the nanna-list is to learn to french knit properly. She has already done french knitting at school over paddlepop sticks stuck to toilet rolls.

Also on the nanna-list similar to the knitting needles, is melting a record to make bowls.
I remember doing this as well with nanna who then turned them into pots for plants, cacti if I remember correctly.

So I'm going to go through my huge vinyl collection to work out what can be donated to the nanna-list. The Dead Kennedys, Kraft Work and my rare Nina and Frederick records will not be given the oven treatment, but I do have some first rate shockers (Tiffany anyone) that were bought to be spun at drunken parties.

So what did you used to do as a child with older people, what else can I include on the nanna-list.

what my nanna did

2008-04-16T16:27:00.005+10:00

Often during school holidays I'd go and spent time with my Nanna, the one that taught me first to hook then knit.
She also showed me how to paint with water colours properly and to throw a pot, glaze it and how it was 'baked'. Along the way she also taught me to embroider and read music and some where during one of those school holidays we made knitting needle bangles.

How long ago I have no idea, just like how she made them. So I scratched that empty head of mine and gathered together some old plastic knitting needles, my oblong (now is n't that a word from my childhood) fish steamer which I use for dying wool and some tweezers and Zgal and I set to work.

So here is how you do it. Boil the water, throw in the needles, give them about five minutes at a rolling boil, grab a needle out with a pair of tweezers and then quickly wrap around a tin or a bottle, plunge into cold water and you have a bangle. If it doesn't work properly, just throw it back into the water again to soften and then have another go.

Yes the needles are hot, but wear gloves to do this, and no, you don't put marks on the needles when handling them, they are soft, but not that soft.

So we made 17 using needles that were in a tin in the kitchen. Yes there are needles all through the house, and I can see some more school holiday bangles being made.

ADDED: We have a competition, do you want a bangle, just go here to read the details and post a comment or send me an email!!

when i go out

2008-04-06T15:13:00.003+10:00

This post was going to be all about the knitting I've been doing, the sewing. But there really hasn't been much of that lately. I've been under the gun to squeeze several week's worth of work into my days as I'm off on holidays for a fortnight, which of course means covering as much of my work for that time off. It isn't written down anywhere that I have to do it, let's just say it is expected.

Often it is best to do it, rather than leaving it for relief people, because when I have I end up spending the first week back ringing and saying sorry for the messes that they have created.

But something has been happening when I've been out of the house, the boys decided to cook.
You see the fellow is a marvelous cook. He'll look at a recipe and without physically doing it, he knows what he can change, how he can improve it, and he is usually right.
Yesterday he set about making his famous chocolate mousse cake, which involves fresh eggs from our girls, sugar, cream and plenty of dark, dark chocolate.
It is a favourite in the house and goes down a treat. But the best part of cooking with Dad is the licking of the big bowl and the saucepan in which he melts the chocolate.

Yes Jar Jar loves cooking with his dad. He doesn't really like the showering afterwards to get it out of his hair and from his ears and nostrils.

westozcaat is super

2008-03-31T17:53:00.004+11:00

Here is a quick few pics from the bag swap parcel which turned up today.
My stalker was westozcaat from Western Australia and I was very lucky as the gal had been overseas jaunting around.
So I ended up with a camel and wool woven bag from Egypt and a range of goodies from the US, and the most INSANE knitted Vegemite label along with some felt and a strap and notions so that I can sew it into my own bag.
Now I'd like to quote Kate:

So the front is done and blocked, felt, strap webbing bought but only one problem remains - I cannot sew. At all. So I am passing on the pasts as a 'bag making' kit - so you can tailor it to your size and fancy

Whoot! How exciting. So I've renamed tomorrow Vegemite Day as I'm taking the day off to play.
Also in the package were food dye, buttons and badges, an itty hot water bottle with a skull cover which is MINE MINE MINE, not to be stolen by my daughter. And stitch markers and a tape measure and vintage patterns.
I'll detail everything with pics tomorrow (oh there was beautiful chocolate but it didn't make it home)as I'm racing out the door to stitch and bitch to show off the vegemite.

It is so cool!!!!!

Thanks Kate! (and I'll post links and all that stuff as well tomorrow)

little visitors

2008-03-25T14:21:00.005+11:00

There have been plenty of visitors lately, some welcome and some not so.
Before someone left little white paw prints all through the house from the back door to the front, there were a few other callers.

Yes our friends Gastro and Flu decided to come and stay and bug us, which is why there hasn't been much action here lately.

But at least having those extra visitors in the house made us realise that we have to do something quickly about the one bathroom issue with this house. So plans are being sent back to the drawing board and hopefully by the end of the year we will have more space.

You see our house is big, well the rooms are HUGE, but there are just three bedrooms and a massive lounge room, a central hall and a closed in back veranda that serves as a kitchen and dining room with the other end turned into a bathroom.

Fine for when we moved in as a family with one child, and the plans we had drawn up were perfect for two children and were finished off the week I had the second child but were left rolled up in a desk somewhere.
So now with three children, we have to look at the plans again and work out just what we need.
We need a bedroom for each child. Simple. We need a two story 'shed' with downstairs for the normal function of a shed, in other words to store the car and the power tools with upstairs for my sewing and hiding from the family. The bottom of the shed will also contain a separate laundry and a shower and toilet as I have a huge hate of laundries in the house. Once you have the luxury of an separate laundry even if it is falling down you realise the benefits of having that drier and noisy machine outside.

The house will have a rejigged bathroom with a separate shower and bath, and a massive hallway in the new part with cupboards on BOTH sides and a large family dining area and a covered, deep and wide veranda and a study. Not to mention a kitchen that contains an oven that works, tiles that stay on the wall and maybe some room to swing a cat.

So the next few months are plotting and planning. Plotting the new house, planning how I can make the transition from full-time to part-time work in an effort to slow down the nerve damage to my arm, because if a girl is getting a new shed, she wants to be able to enjoy it.

The other pic is a quick quilt top made from chenille. Simple and only small squares so I could cut out the material without help and anyway, chenille hides wonky seams perfectly.

craft fair

2008-03-02T16:57:00.005+11:00

For the first time ever the craft fair rolled into our town and it was a case of craft that my mother calls menopausal craft. The stuff that you do when you temporarily loose your mind. While not necessarily confined or an absolute of menopause, menopausal craft summed up what was on offer at the craft fair.

For sure I was looking at it all through the eyes of a knitter or sewer, not the eyes of a quilter, embellisher, scrap booker, button freak, fabric cloth fairy-witch doll maker, but a lot was just YUCK. And the life-like baby dolls that women were carrying and patting all the while while wearing branded nappy bags. Oh the horror. The Horror.

But there there were some lovely finds. Some Jolly Jumbuck sock yarn in Black Rainbow, which should really be called licorice all sorts, and some bright silks and we got to see Prudence Mapstone at her stall as well.

I also got to meet some Sydney bloggers, Spiraling (including the hairy part of the team) and Vintagegrrl.

And little Zgal scored big time from Spiraling, a beautiful pink and black woven scarf, the first woven piece made by Spiraling on her rigid loom, so it is doubly special! Of course it went on straight away and then was used to wave a big goodbye when the Spiraling Landy rolled out of town. Now the scarf will probably be worn to bed tonight.

Yes it is a HUGE hit. Above is a pic of the Zgal with her scarf and below a close-up of the scarf with her beautiful lizard brooch which I finally bought for her from the antique centre cafe, down the road from home where she got to meet Spiraling and her Gentleman. Zgal has been looking at the lizard brooch for years and I almost bought it for her last year for her birthday. But with this year's birthday fast approaching and she has been an absolute treasure lately, I agreed to buy it for her. Sometimes motherhood is fun.

when bags get dirty

2008-02-28T17:29:00.006+11:00

You just make some more. I had to spend a few days in Sydney which mean lugging around reports and paperwork so I had to sew another bag. It's a simple bag, with a zip pocket on the outside that fits A4 folders, while inside is huge and roomy with plenty of room to stash a handbag and socks, not to mention all the other stuff I lugg around.
I gave it handles and an adjustable shoulder strap as well. It's nice and solid and stands up by itself.
The outside is bright printed cord from spotties, the inside is a thick thick 70s vintage swirly brown curtain material. I'm kicking myself that I didn't put in a reversible zip as the way I put it together means it is reversible.
Oh well, next time.

The other bags is a matching shoulder handbag and wrist clutch, once again made from vintage curtain material. Like the work bag, these can be thrown in the washing machine and they are fantastic. The shoulder bag is reversible, but this one has the same lining as the outside, the next one I make will feature different linings. I saw on Etsy a bag using jute that was the handle and so I headed to the shed, drew a few shapes and this is what I came up with. On the sides there are pleats to 'tighten' the top of the bag and give it more room inside. The bottom is also shaped so it is a roomy bag as well. I love these wrist clutches, easy to make and the zip is a heavy duty 70s number, it ain't going to break.

roller derby

2008-02-20T19:14:00.003+11:00

It seems that I have been going around and around in circles, having to put my elbows out to defend my patch, similar to roller derby, (go Jacinta) but definitely without the fun.
So things have slipped a bit, but I have managed to do a few things.
Like tax, well at least the 04-05 one, with the rest to be done on Friday, with the fella, so he will finally find out exactly how much I earn and it also means that the 04 05 return will be the last one I can just spend.
Well I used to use some of it wisely and splurge the rest, but now most will have to be spent wisely. Oh I hate this grown up thing.

But in other news, knitting is going well, almost finished a cardigan for myself although I'm no where near finishing any socks that were part of my Southern Summer of Socks mission.

The patonyle red and black socks are going along well and as I have several looong train trips ahead of me in the next week, not to mention day-long training sessions (yawn) I'm hoping to complete the pair by the end of the week.

Now I better head off and deal with the other taxes, then I have an order for some pants and I then have to start packing up the rest of the Teaspoon Awards that have to be sent out. Warning: Never give kids sticky tape. It creates a mess and much screeching when stuck in hair.

red black

2008-02-10T18:46:00.000+11:00

Here is some red black and a touch of purple patonyle that I dyed awhile ago.
It's come out nice and dark and is knitting beautifully into Groovy Socks, that favourite pattern from Sock Pixie.
It's a simple one row lace pattern, followed by a knit row. Simple and quick to grow.
Instead of dragging the last remaining sleeve to the markets to finish off, I took the balled up patonyle and cast on. But the day was so busy I only managed two inches of sock.

The plan is to drag it around with me this week to finish off at least one sock.
Rav details of the pattern here.

raining again

2008-02-09T16:26:00.000+11:00

Rain. Again. More. Lots more.
Which means I'm in the house, cause it is too wet to head outdoors to the laundry, plug in the power to the shed and then bolt to the other side of the yard to get to the shed.
Well that's my excuse.
So I'm planning an afternoon of knitting to finish a work cardigan, just one sleeve to finish and then the dreaded sewing together.

So rather than sit down and be disciplined I thought I'd better show what some of the shed work has been lately.

While most of the work has been orders lately, for fun I've done a few things for some special little people and as two of the pieces are in the house I thought I'd better post them.
The first is a little skirt made from 1960s cotton bedsheets. The sheets were bought years apart but match perfectly and neither looks like they have had much wear. Throw on a bit of red ric rak and viola, a swishy skirt. There is another swishy skirt that is hiding in the shed made from dainty flowered material, again matching but in different colours which will be sent with the orange and black skirt.

Then that yellow and black check stuff is an old chenille blanket sewn into a pair of longish shorts, complete with a drawstring for several year's wear. It will be sent to the same place as the swishy skirts, along with another 'boy' thing.

Then there was the tea cosy, which was finished a fortnight ago, but with all the rain it took days, and no joshing here, for the gum nuts and leaves to dry out.
It is so wet all the books are curling up, the windows are slimey and wet and my hair, well best not talk about my hair in this weather.

noice

2008-01-28T15:43:00.000+11:00

As I mentioned last post, a parcel has disappeared and an angel tea cosy swap parcel has to be put together.
Now I already had a few warrssshhhh (there is always a voice in my head that says this word in a funny way) cloths at the ready and a basic, shamrock stitch cosy ready to embellish.

Well, unfortunately KatieV's kitchen is green and yellow, so the lovely bright red cloths are out, but thankfully I have some nice thick and bright yellow cotton ready to whip into shape tonight.

Now when it came to topping the cosy I immediately thought of some thing Red Dwarfish as KatieV is a fan, she is also a fan of Dr Who and Torchwood, which means her television viewing habits are of the highest quality.
Then I remembered she was trying to find the pattern of the babies beanie from Kath and Kim with wattle on the top.

Bonza (hey it's the Oz day public holiday give me a break) thought I as I started digging for appropriate greens. I didn't have anything suitable for the leaves or the wattle, but I still had some cream left over from the teapot which is hand wash only so I set about knocking over plenty of leaves and bobble-like things of my own invention to be dyed and felted.

Then when trying to see if there is any 'nice' yarn that I could include as a treat as there isn't time to get anything sent I went to her stash and project pages to look at the colours and types of fibres and weights she used.

Damn and blast and all that. There on the bottom of the projects was a pompom topped green tea cosy. Yep, she had already done a 'wattle' tea cosy.

But never fear, she has one style of wattle, there are many, many more and a quick dive into the fellas locked reference bookcase and I started looking at the various flora of Australia.

So she will be getting some of my special bobble wattle, leaves and if I can pull it off gum nuts as well.
Luckily in my wandering I found a stash of Lopi in a range of single ball colours that the fella brought back from Canberra during one of his guilty i've-left-her-once-again-with-the-kids-on-her-own wool buying trips so I have brown at the ready.

So tonight I'll be playing around and what was going to be a Noice tea cosy is heading down the May Gibbs street.

And I finally got around to taking a few pics, the little one is the other colours left for the travelling Tofutsies sock that Viv from ecoyarns has passed onto the Knit and Yarners to have fun with. A travelling sock comprises of little balls and each knitter grabs a colour, does two at a time and their own stitch pattern. When the ball ends, the sock is passed onto the next knitter who starts the new colour and their own preferred pattern until the toe is grafted.

And the pic at the beginning of the post is one of, um, several, coughsplutter, skeins that ended up in the post box this week.

snailalia post

2008-01-27T15:51:00.000+11:00

The post office has been the major focus of the week. Lots of little red and white cards in the post office box.

There was a swag of five ply discontinued wool from Tapestry and Craft. Kris from T&C rang me and it was a strange conversation. Firstly I was in the iron lift of doom at work and the voice on the line was dropping in and out but I distinctly heard the word Zephyrama. Now the number she had rung thru on was the craft mafia mobile so at first I thought it was a store or order call from a customer, but no, the lift doors opened, I managed to get into some air and it all became clear. It was Kris spookin' Ravelry people by using their avatar names and she was calling to make a change in the colours. So I ended up with a pretty purple.

Another postie parcel was a new lot of clothing labels, I can't believe how many we have gone through, and then there was six skeins of beauty, a couple of books, Porco Rosso and Japanese Godzilla movies.

Then there was a special parcel post marked December 20 from SA with a few fantastic children's sewing patterns from the 1960s. I knew these had been sent and despite the time lapse wasn't too worried until I realised it had been more than a month since the lovely and blogless Gigi popped them in the post box.

There have been a few late postal problems this week, so I'm hoping that my Dec 20 arrival will help send Miss Ks latest round of uni text books her way (also posted in late December and needed as she is doing it online and forgoing the traditional summer uni break) and that the Tea Cosy Swap for KatieV also manages to get to her.

The special tea cosy, made to match her green and yellow accented kitchen was posted three weeks ago from Tassie, but considering the five weeks for my parcel to make it, there is still hope.

Or maybe I'm just a little bit more laid back than others? Anyway I have gone into overdrive to finish the angel tea cosy package and I'm not giving away any spoilers.

In other news, well there isn't much, other than the fella's car getting stuck in reverse, well it was until Uncle T gave it a clout, and now it's stuck in forward. Thankfully he is in Brisvegas most of this week, then Perth the following so we won't feel the pinch of being down a car while it is getting fixed.

We will be borrowing a car for the time he is in town but would my father hand over an exotic look-at-me car, no, so I'll end up with one of the cars I learnt to drive on all those years ago, a long wheel base Landrover 110, the first one sold in Australia to be precise. And cause the fella has Landy issues, I get to drive it.

The first time the fella jumped into the Landy he stalled it and you just don't want to ask about the time he tried to reverse a trailer at the dump. Well okay, imagine a bloke stuffing up reversing a trailer at the dump with all the dump guys watching. Then having to get his heavily pregnant missus to climb out, waddle around and climb up into the drivers seat and shift that Landy quick smart. No, we don't talk about the Fella and the Landy.

Oh and for those in the big smoke, I need some ideas of decent places to eat around here. I'll be down for a two day and night gabfest because boss hunting season is about to start. The agenda looks insane with no chance of escaping around the corner to York street and the yarn delights of T&C, but I'm hoping that if I get up early enough I may be able to indulge in a decent breakfast. So what's good around there for pre-9am feasts?

rik rac a go go

2008-01-22T22:00:00.000+11:00

There are layers of pink, red, purple and more pink and red floating around the shed, and yards and yards of rik rac.

But I can't post photos until I do a blue and green combo, then I can artistically fold them up and arrange them on a pristine white background and take artsy fartsy photographs of them. Giving a hint, but not really revealing them.

But an uncluttered space in my house and a clean, white background is as rare as rockhorse shit. So that won't be happening, rather it will be a jumble of colour with lego, pencils and crayons and dragons in the background.

The other thing I've been doing is the bag swap, but once again I can't show pics in case my partner comes a stalking.
Let's say at the moment it is big, but will be smaller. Oh all right, it's going to be felted and I can't wait to knock it over as I'm going to tweak the pattern and knock one over for myself up an upcoming flying two-day visit to the big smoke. I have to be in meetings all the time, so I want a bag that can sneak in my sock knitting.

new bags

2008-01-19T17:40:00.000+11:00

The weather has been miserable lately, cold and wet, then steamy hot and wet, which has meant boring times inside.
I can't show any knitting at the moment because all I've been working on is a bag for the Ravelry bag swap and just in case the person I'm going to spoil wanders this way, I'm not going to be posting any pics.
Once it is done and gone I'll post with pics and a brief recipe. It is a pattern I've been thinking about for a while, not the super bag, but a simple version and so far so good.

In other crafting news I've been working on the kids' library bags for this year, doing a range of different kiddy style motifs. They are washable, calico and strong and we have about 40-odd bags waiting for designs to sell at the craft market.

So if anyone can think of cute motifs that are simple to draw comment away. The idea is that the drawings look like the kids themselves have done them and we can easily add the child's name to the bag.

i am

2008-01-15T19:09:00.000+11:00

Take the Quiz here!

link from Miss Bennett.

Noropup two

2008-01-14T21:56:00.001+11:00

Well the noropup is progressing slowly as I've started on a bag for the Australian Bag Swap. This is going to be felted and I'm incorporating one of the design components that I'm going to use in my new bag. I haven't seen anyone doing this type of 'thingo' yet, but I have to admit I haven't checked out many felted bags lately.

But because it is a secret pal thingo, no pics, nor any hints, other than the size it is going to be, it's going to take a long time.

In other news, no news. Well no news from Wales. I expect Mum landed safely but my Father has failed to pass this information along. But as yet, he hasn't turned up on the doorstep which is a good thing as neither has my brother so I'm taking it that the two of them are still getting on.

I've managed to catch up on some blog reading and yes, I finally organised a reader so I can see straight away which of my favourites has updated.

Now it seems that people are doing either New Year's lists or past year's lists. What they want to do, and what they did do.

I can't stick to resolutions, already broken the non buying one, so I think I'd best stick to past year's and I'll mix it up with a few facts about me after reading so many plastered on blogs in the lead up to swaps so:

Last year I had another book published.
Last year my children grew so much I spent a lot of time lengthening pants (made originally by me).
Last year I won a professional award which came with a stack of loot that cleared a few bills, like the credit card that I don't have, similar to that non stash.
I want a fast car.
Last year I was elected to my profession's national board comprising of 24 people which involves guiding the profession into the new age of the internet. (pity they are only just catching up)
Last year I started and then stopped belly dancing.
When my best friend died I ended up doing the eulogy at his funeral on my birthday. I still haven't forgiven him.
Last year I told a school principal he was unprofessional but in rude language and in front of other parents.
I have pulled-caused an illegal strike.
Last year my 12 year old car clocked 100,000, yes the first time around.
Last year my house got rather wet but my shed didn't.
I'm the first woman where I work to return to work fulltime. I was the first to do so and still the only one, despite having had three children. In the 150 years the firm has operated I'm still the first. I find that appalling.
Last year I was nominated for this year's Who's Who Australian Edition and Women's Edition and NSW State Edition.
Last year I spent about 10 hours a week doing physio in the shed, holding my head to the right and back, to try and relieve pain from a huge c5c6 injury. The best way to keep this position for any length of time is to turn on the sewing machine and sew long seams.
I once got drunk with Jeff Buckley, he just got drunker.
Both my thumbs are doubled jointed, I've passed on this wonderful attribute to my youngest child.

noropup

2008-01-11T19:14:00.000+11:00

Despite having a single waving lace sock and a retro rib sock both crying out for partners, I've ended up casting on what many have dubbed the noropup.

Well this time it is toe up, two on two, with one Addi lace and one Knit Picks needle and I have to say, the Knit Picks is pointier than the Addi. But never mind, the different coloured needles make it easier.

Now the thing about this Noro is that it is extremely fine, so fine in fact that when I tugged tight to avoid ladders the bastard snapped on me, leaving a tiny tail. But ha, I wasn't defeated, no Noro is going to knock me over. Instead a quick weave and decent thump down on the table as punishment and noropup started behaving again.

Other than that, not much has happened, I'm back in the office and it's a drag behaving like a grown up.

And my grandmother seems fine. Mum flew over with the news that she would need a stiff tailwind if she wanted to see her mother alive, but half way through her flight we got the call her that her heart rate was normal again (it was around 40) and she had stopped rambling and was drinking and eating properly. Seems like she had an infection that knocked her around enough to go to hospital and then made her sound like a senile old duck.

But it doesn't look like she'll be going back home, rather she will be transferred back to the local infirmary and my mum and my uncle will be looking at care options.

a three hour drive to get to a real yarn store

2008-01-04T16:11:00.001+11:00

I finally managed to gather together most of the sock yarn purchases from the past couple of weeks.
A lot of the yarns bought were ones I've read about and seen on blogs but had never touched in person.
While some are happy to buy without touching, squishing and yes, sniffing, I'm not, particularly considering the cost of the yarn and then the postage on top.

I can't just go to a yarn store and buy sock yarn. Patonyle yes, but it's an hour round trip at least. I've had people tell me to stop being upset about Patonyle being discontinued as there are so many lovely hand dyed sock yarns available in yarn stores.
There might be where they live, but it is a three plus hour drive to get to the closest store that stocks anything coming close to a hand dyed yarn. In fact that same store would also be the closest store that is a yarn store, not a quilt, beading, fabric, clothing store, that has put up a stand of ACS in the corner.

But my lust for sock yarn and my need to try other yarns without wasting money on unfortunate purchases has been solved. A lot of this yarn (barring the Ranco and knittery) was bought via Ravelry in the trades and swaps, which means heavily discounted and decent postage costs from overseas. Yes I can have some Jitterbug socks for less than a pair of Patonyle, ditto for the KPPM, Cherry Tree Hill, Wildfoote and that's all delivered to my door I don't have a huge drive on my hands either.

So now I'll begin the process of finding out if I like these particular yarns, if they stand up to the various reviews around the place.
So in this little pile of merino goodness are two hanks of Jitterbug (bottom aqua and left side pinks and red). The KPPM is in the tuxedo colourway on the bottom left, then there is some Brown Sheep lime green, some purple variegated Knit Picks and some Skacel stretch. Hidden somewhere else is a heap of Regia and I also bought more Knittery and three Rancos in a brick red, variegated purple and solid grey. The top is already caked and ready to be cast on Cherry Tree Hill which I don't mind at all, having already scored some a few years ago.

Now if I like any of these previously exotic I won't have any qualms in handing over cash at online stores, but I have to try them first and this is an easy and cheap way to do it. So far none of the deals have gone sour, I've trusted the seller and all has been good.

And then there is the Noro sock yarn. Yes it is scratchy and feels tough and seems incredibly thin, despite this extreme closeup making the yarn look plump.

But before I start knitting there are a few other pairs that have to be finished.

In other sock news, I no longer have to the 20th to finish my grandmother's socks. Yesterday my mother had 'the call' and had to scramble to get the first available flight to Manchester. The earliest is this Monday, so I doubt I can finish anything by then and I do hope grandma manages to hang on, the mind is sharp as a tack even thou she is in her 90s, but the body is old.

swap

2008-01-03T13:00:00.000+11:00

As one swap draws to a close over on Ravelry with the Australian Knitters Group, another is preparing to open.

But because of issues about the overt chattiness of some members on the board (and I'm waving my hand up in the air, I don't mind a bit of chat, I really like the idea of community) there have been a few last minute issues.

The whole chattiness thing was starting to get an us versus them style aggression happening. In the red corner was those that meet together in person against the blue corner, those who don't have the ability to join a regular in-person knitting group, who don't get that opportunity to chat or chit or drink with other knitters.

Many blows completely missed their intended point, leaving many observers bewildered particularly when one or two members were asserting that forums or boards should not be used as a social platform. Really there are points good and bad on both sides, it just seems that compassion or an ability to interpret or communicate effectively are lacking.

In my workplace there is always a bit of a stoush going on, not strange considering the number of alpha style personalities my industry attracts. You know the type of incident, they want, expect or believe something should be done a certain way because that is the way they want it, regardless of the ideas, ability or needs of others. In a lot of cases the initial argument or direction is the best one, it's just the approach or attack style they employ to get their message across that puts the majority offside.

Water off a ducks back usually for me, but when faced with more than 40 personal mails this morning regarding swaps it really cut into my knitting time.

Some wanted to withdraw their nomination for the teaspoon awards as they didn't want to be seen supporting anyone of a certain location-based group. Interestingly these requests have come from people who are the occasional poster, those with a quiet presence on the board, the one's one lot of posters were saying that the other vocal group would scare away.

And then for the next swap there have been a slew of requests not to be partnered at all with certain posters. However, from a quick glance the names put forwards as no-goers for partners (ones to be avoided) didn't seem to stick their hands up at all.

End result, for the first swap, I'm not pulling back on any nominations, they will stand as is. Acknowledgment is due to some people because of the effort that they put in. For the next swap it's not an issue due to the type of people who have signed up.

In other words it's all good, but I wonder how many times the same boxing match will be held. I have a feeling that there are some seasoned boxers in the ring.

a lesson

2007-12-28T16:37:00.000+11:00

For the past few days I've been busily knitting away with what was left over from Zegal's toasty toes.
The idea was to learn toe up construction with a reverse heel, two at once on two circular needles.
And as I want to do a pair of socks for Mum to take OS to my Grandma at the end of Jan I thought that this would be the perfect pair.
While my Grandma has tiny feet length wise, I think at 91 you can safely assume a bit of old lady foot spread has occurred so a rib pattern with the DK weight on 3mm circs with a stitch count of 64 it was. I'd normally do a 48 on 3.25m for myself with a rib, but I wanted them to be soft, a little bit denser and warmer but with plenty of room for her and easy to get on.

So on I cast using the magic cast on and I was off and racing, literally, working on them once everybody else in the house had crawled off to bed.
They took absolutely no time at all to get to the heels and the heels were a breeze and it was so easy that I was able to enjoy the SBS Godzilla movie the other night and last night's Japanese cult movie. But at about 2am when the weird French movie ended I was about seven rows into the cuff with maybe five meters left!

What to do?
For starters I propped my feet up on the table this morning and took pics of the socks. Tonight Zegal and I will enjoy ripping them back and rewinding the yarn so that later on I can cast on 48 stitches and make some warm winter socks for myself.
It also means digging out some silk alpaca for Grandma and putting aside all other socks until they are done.

While the lack of yardage was a bummer, this partial pair has been a great experience. I now know that while I do prefer DPNs I could use circs if I had to for socks. Although I will be getting some Addis to have that colour difference with the Knit Picks.
While I prefer cuff down, where yardage may be an issue I can easily reverse the process which bodes well for the Jitterbug.
And knitting toe up because of a yardage issue is no guarantee of avoiding these issues.

Now for more sock news, but beautiful sock news.
In the past week I've received a few packages, no not more than usual, but the contents have been decidedly special.
Firstly was some Hercules by Jolly Jumbuck in a beautiful athabasca colourway. I tried to photograph it's deep, oil slick colours but just couldn't do it justice.

The second was a package of goodies, some of which were shown in the last post. Along with the biscuits there were rum balls (I ate them all 'cause I love me rum balls and promptly fell asleep on the lounge), and a chocolate log and a little notepad which was quickly appropriated by Zegal who declares that Spiraling is her special friend there was also some sock wool.

The sock yarn is beautiful and it looks like this.

Now to find a pattern worthy of the yarn. Any ideas?

merry crimbo

2007-12-25T20:21:00.000+11:00

So much to eat, so much sweet stuff, so many pressies, so much yarn, so many books and patterns.

It's hard to know where to start, that I won't tonight, but here is a pic of the Jar trying his best to pose for a photo when his mouth is full of yummy biscuit from spiraling.

just what my mother wanted to know

2007-12-18T16:50:00.000+11:00

85%DRUNKARD

Looking for payday loans?

A reading age of 12

2007-12-16T20:09:00.000+11:00

12. That is the reading age that a tabloid reporter is expected to write for.
That is so people with a reading age of 12 can understand every word, can follow the story and can go from the intro to the end without scratching their heads. How's that for the literacy levels of Australia!

Imagine you are a poor man sending a telegram to an idiot was how one aged journalist once told me.

You will notice that I said that this guideline applies to tabloids. For broadsheets, at least when I worked on one, I was told it was 14, but for specialised publications or for feature pieces you can write to reflect a higher literacy level.

But today I made the mistake of not sticking to the 12 rule and was called rude for what I wrote.

I wrote a straight forward sentence, in fact two sentences. Both of which I considered agreed with the original poster.

I don't want to dumb down my language, as this particular community as a whole is full of articulate people, oh except for when they start drinking and then it's just a hoot and full of spellos, and mine are some of the worst examples.

I've seen exchanges on various boards where the words get nasty and it is a shame that a minority will try to attempt to shame and unsettle or employ passive aggressive language when they just don't have the comprehension to understand a simple exchange of words.

My little tangle today was easily cleared up, but this episode and a few others I have witnessed lately has certainly made me think about the use of the 12 rule in my life.

I have always thought that the 12 rule was over the top, but understood that a lot of children did read the paper and using language appropriate to their reading level was important, not just for informing them, but also encouraging them to continue reading.
But now I'm thinking of the usage of the 12 rule for situations other than that of metro dailies; the need for it in a wider sphere.

Some people seem to have a lot of trouble being able to gauge the intent behind what is written. When there is not audible tone it can be hard for those who don't frequent boards or write or read a lot to discern exactly what has been written.

Now I need to pour a drink and start spelling badly

it's beginning to look a lot like xmas

2007-12-15T17:45:00.000+11:00

I've bought some presents, the tree is up, the tinsel and the cookie cutters are hung and a few presents for Uncle T are under the tree.
The Jar and I sat and wrapped up T's presents. That way he knows what in these presents and understands they aren't for him. In a few days, I'll start slinking more under the tree but by then I hope he truly understands they aren't for him to open whenever he feels like it.

Still going on the toasty toes, on my third attempt but seem to have it right now. Doing 48 stitches with 2.75s (3.25s and above seem to be the norm) and I'm doing a k2, p2 rib all the way down the leg and foot.

She likes them so far.

Now officially on hols, will have to go in first thing monday to clear the desk a bit and book in photos and finish off one feature, but that's only an hour or so. I must have been tired, today I ended up snoozing on the lounge for five hours after an early lunch. And last night I managed to stick a knife into the palm of my hand, right at the base of the thumb. I was juggling too many things and trying to get the lock open on the shed and the crackers fell, the (wrapped) cheese hit the deck and my attempt to stop them sliding off the plate resulted in a sharp knife getting stuck in my hand, stopping only cause it hit bone.

At least it is a clean cut, and I packed it, disinfected it and wrapped it, but it's just in that place on the right hand where the scissors rest so I can't really do any cutting out for sewing. Well I did, but it bled like the buggery, so I'll wait a few days and just machine sew what I have for now.

The cut doesn't effect the knitting.

too busy

2007-12-12T21:21:00.000+11:00

I'm trying to do four weeks worth of work in one week.
Yep it's holiday season again so I have to do as much as possible before I leave my desk on Friday.
So no time to really post, or take pictures of the goodness that has been turning up.
Like cascade 220 superwash, like more Ranco in grey, like Knitpics Options Set and extra cables, like the 12ply Tapestry and Craft bright red wool.

But one wonderful piece of news, FOAT has asked me to knit him a jumper! Seems it's now cool at school to wear hand knits, apparently it was in winter but in true Foat boy style he's only gotten around to asking me now.

Not black, no skulls (sniff) and not holey, which I've interpreted to mean, dark dark navy blue, boring, and at a decent dense gauge.
This will be my holiday knitting when I get sick of the socks and the skaters top.

look what i got

2007-12-05T17:51:00.001+11:00

Today when I went to the post office I found a little box waiting for me.
And what was in the box but 5 ounces of an 8 ounce hank of toasty toes dk sport weight.
Oh it's ugly, oh sooo pink and orange and the red and purple.

It was a hard one to photograph and I really didn't capture the true colours. It's deep pink rather than a light pink and Zegal gasped when she saw it.

She wants a pair of socks from it. This is the gal who refused to wear pink and I mean REFUSED until just recently.

So I'm going to try it out.

And the first of the Teaspoon awards for the Australian Knitters' tea cosy swap were announced a moment ago.
There will be more to come.

sss

2007-12-04T19:41:00.000+11:00

Two more pairs down in the SSS. First is the black dk weight baby alpaca and silk plain socks (plain with a 5k, 1p repeat on the leg all the way down the toe) for mum for Christmas and the second pair is the sock pixie free zig zag in Knitpicks Landscape yarn that I bought off Ravelry.

I really like the sock pixie pattern with it's two row repeat pattern. Not complicated enough that I can't watch television, read or deal with children while doing it, but not boring enough like straight stocking stitch that I end up dumping it behind the lounge and forgetting about it.

The pattern is also stretchy, but after a while the colours just came across as not me, but more mum, so this year the woman gets two pairs. There is quite a bit leftover from the KPs as I don't like overly long socks so the Jar or Zegal may get a mini pair as well.

I've already cast on for some more Jar Jar socks, 54 stitches, 2.25m with opal for a nice dense hard-to-kill sock and I have some Ranco that needs to be balled and used.

Hmmm ranco.

And as I am now officially old as my eldest boy turned 11 today, I'm going to cheer myself up with a set of Knitpicks options.

Yes, it will be my birthing day present, as in this house each time the children have a birthday, I celebrate birthing day as it was I that did the hard work, that gave them life and then coped untold pain during the whole process, not to mention what I have to do to get and remain pregnant, so I deserve a present.

phone call from the top of the world

2007-12-02T17:36:00.000+11:00

Well, not the top of the world, but the top of Australia.
This morning the mobile went off and the fella was calling. I thought this meant he was off the mountain and down in Canberra as mobile reception is stuffed up there, he's only managed to call twice and the phone lines are down in the lodge as well.
But he wasn't in Canberra, in fact he and Zegal were still up there and Zegal just had to call me to tell me she was standing on the highest part of Australia.
Yep, there is mobile reception at Kosciuszko, on the top of the mountain.

Because of their big walk up there, they won't be back this afternoon as planned, although fella did talk about skipping dinner and a sleep at his parental units' place and driving back here tonight.

So still no camera. But when it comes back I'll be able to show off my first handspun done on my roberta electric spinning wheel.
I set it up last night, cleaned and oiled the little beauty. It was fantastic, and didn't cause any pressure or pain to my shoulder like using my trad Ashford did. However I was already in pain from lugging the Jar around and having to hang out the washing.
But I managed two hours of spinning and then plying while watching the Mighty Boosh!
The end result is a huge hank of overly spun, twisty stuff, which is shocking in some parts but in others so uniform.
It's given me a taste, a taste of what could be and I loved doing it. Roberta is so quiet and as I had her set up at chest level this little machine will not cause neck blowouts, nor will I have to learn to coordinate my leg and hand movements.

skaters top

2007-11-30T18:40:00.000+11:00

There seems to be a lot of traffic ending up here because of the Skaters Top.
I've started and have managed to knit to the end of one ball. Which means I've cast on, done the hem facing, the purl turn row and started up the body of the top.
I'm using Rowan Glace as suggested as the other possible substitute for us here in Australia is a Jo Sharp, but her cottons are shocking to work with.
Talk about splitaroonies. Shocking stuff, although if you can struggle through with the knitting, the end result looks good and more plush than with the Rowan.
But due to my hatred of spliten' I've chosen the Rowan, mainly because the only time I get to knit my own stuff is after the chickens, kids and fella have gone to bed. Usually by then my eyelids are almost shut and I just plonk myself on the lounge put on the lamp and knit away in the dark house, so I want a yarn that I don't have to constantly watch every stitch being formed to avoid splitting.

I'm loving the way the Rowan is working up, although having chosen the largest size to accommodate the boobs it will take a long time to get this one done.
But I will and it will be fantastic.
The camera still isn't home so no pics of the progress so far, but I will post regularly seeing as there seems to be so many hits coming this way from searches for the Skaters under top.

big smoke

2007-11-29T21:00:00.000+11:00

A quick trip to sydney and back for work meant a stop at Tapestry and Craft. Which of course meant falling down the stairs straight into the Ranco display.
So I ended up with a skein in the brick red colourway. It looks so much better in the flesh than it does on the screen so I'm glad I didn't order online as I would have ended up with the cherry red which just didn't move me the way the brick red colour did. I also really like the grey, but I did leave it there.
Then I stumbled up the few steps and crashed into the Rowan books and ended up having to get Rowan 40. Beautiful but I'll have to keep this one away from my mum, otherwise she'll borrow it and I'll have to fight to get it back.

The work side was good, although we kept stopping to watch skynews' live broadcasts from Canberra. When they finally got to Rudd making his cabinet announcements there were hoots all around, but not as loud or as rude as those when Costello came out to announce the Liberal leadership decision. So how many times will there be a change in the libs before the next election?

Trip home was a nightmare of sorts but still fun. The train was full when it left Central and then the slow all-stations train in front broke down and they all climbed aboard at Strathfield. There were people sitting and standing in the aisle and the stairs and I spent the trip until Fassifern squished in a corner. But the oldies who penned me in were a delightful bunch. One old dear, who had recently lost her husband after more than 50 years of marriage, was telling tales about Keating. She used to work for him in Bankstown. She was a wealth of knowledge and had some pretty broad views and told me she was delighted to meet a youngster who not only had a grasp of politics but could turn a fine heel as well. My completed landscapes sock was passed around the group who obviously knew their hand knitted socks well and knew what I was doing when turning the heel on the second sock.
One old dear asked me what I was going to do with the sock I was knitting. I turned to her deadpan and said "wear it" and that got them started about the benefits of socks and how no one knits them and how good they were and all the complaints they can cure.
That's right if I always wear hand knit socks, my golf game will improve, as will my aches and pains, not to mention my circulation. Yes despite the heat in the carriage and no space, it was an entertaining ride home.

Still no camera, but it and the fellow and Zegal should be home on Sunday. Zegal probably will want to stay there forever as there is SNOW and she has had a ball in the snow.

the most important day of your life

2007-11-24T11:27:00.000+11:00

Well sort of, maybe only for the next few years, and only if you are in Australia and registered to vote.
Get to it, don't do a 'donkey' or invalid quote.
Remember that when it comes to employment figures, if you work ONE HOUR A WEEK that means you are fully employed as far as the employments figures are concerned. Perhaps the employment figures should be renamed the under-employed figures.

And yes darling, I have voted, the animals have been feed, only one frog tried to escape but we foiled his mission for freedom.
Foat boy was a scream on stage, the Jar was good watching and all is well.

Hope the possums don't bite and if you manage to get to a working phone give me a call.

two crickets for each frog

2007-11-22T17:00:00.000+11:00

Two meetings, another one over lunch, 3500 words, postponement of staff review, interviews lined up for next week, organised trip for upcoming negotiations for industry awards or salary and conditions package (or not award depending on Saturday night's election results) and then brought right back into the mundane with a note on the table that each frog has to be fed two crickets every night.
Oh and a postscript about turning off the lights.

he's taking the camera away

2007-11-21T22:11:00.000+11:00

That's right, the camera will be gone for more than a week, cause he thinks it's important to document his and Zegal's holiday.
Hmmp. What about my knitting I say.
Anyway, I'll be too busy really with the boys. There's a series of performances, a sleepover for a heap of 10 and 11 year olds (oh why did I say yes to this one), a trip to Sydney for award negotiations tentatively scheduled next week and so much work.

So I'll probably not get a chance to post to Southern Summer of Socks, but I'll try, although I expect all my spare time will be spent knitting the under top with that lush Rowan Cotton Glace I managed to get my hands on.

And big snaps to P' for sending so many people here. She obviously liked what she saw, maybe I should join her in the Etsy group on Ravelry too!

'Cause it's obvious that the bricks and mortar market I mentioned when talking about the fuglies (designs that I think just don't work or are plain ugly) selling first on a thread at Ravelry, was thousands of miles and several time zones away so it was nice for her to go off-site and find out I was on Etsy and then post the info for everyone to see.
Personally I try and keep the fabric away from Ravelry, there's enough to deal with over there with just the yarn, but thanks for the push!

done, next please

2007-11-20T17:51:00.000+11:00

Finally the Zegal's shawl jumper is done.
It looks great, there is enough room for growth or heavy jumpers underneath and she is pretty damn impressed with it.
The shiny buttons clinched it for her.
The buttons are two hand-made mother of pearl or shell buttons that I had in my vintage button collection. What I hear you ask, a button collection, well a gal who has vintage dresses, fabric, wool and patterns both sewing and knitting must have an old rusty tin full of old, old buttons.
So it's finished, although that shawl seemed to take forever, and there are one or two wraps that I didn't managed to pick up properly to disguise but they are under the fold and her hair, so stuff it.
Do you know how hard it is to knit at 1am in the morning when your eyes are twitching from lack of sleep and you keep being sucked into watching that Carry On movie.
Take out the Carry On movie and it's a fair bet most of you know what I'm talking about, that deadline is approaching, stuff sleep style of knitting.
So what next: Mum's xmas socks in silk alpaca (she doesn't know about the blog haha), then a few second socks to complete pairs for me and I have more than a dozen balls of Rowan Cotton Glace sitting in the bookshelf to be turned into the Skaters Undertop for me.
Oh and they bloody want another two pairs of convict pants for the play!

the convicts are coming

2007-11-16T19:44:00.000+11:00

A theatre troupes worth of convict pants have been sewn which means I'll be in bed before midnight tonight. Finally.
I won't be packing away the machines, I've got five shorts and a women's dress as a custom order to do, and the Jar has managed to grow out of all his shorts.
So I'll be pointing the magic wand and creating a few pairs for him. I managed to get a spectacular cornflower blue chenille blanket and a super lime green one so I can see some bright pants not just for him but for the next market and for the etsy store.
But the big work of the weekend will be doing the shawl collar on Zegal's jumper. She's off to the snowy mountains on Thursday and while she has grown a lot in the past year, most of her mountain gear still fits so it will be a case of doing the collar, sewing in the sleeves and then hunting down all her warm socks.

the ceiling is falling down

2007-11-15T18:36:00.000+11:00

The June long weekend storms just didn't flood houses, there were plenty of downed trees, flying roofs and basic mayhem.
While my brother's house and workshop went under water in a dramatic way, my parent's house had trees crash thru the second level and we had fences squashed and branches played that old fashioned game of elastics with the wires holding the antenna in place.
You could say that the branches lost and had to go to the back of the line as they crashed into the wires, causing the other wires to pull up and then go back down. Which was fine until the winds blew and the rain came down and those roofing sheets loosened in the game of elastics let rain in.
End result: Holes in really thick plaster, moulded plaster ceilings cracking and threatening to fall down and huge growing stains on my once white walls.
But finally it looks like my insurance company has come to the party.
Not only did they try and get out of paying for the new roof (which thankfully is already on) they were trying to say the ceilings and walls were already damaged, until I casually dropped into the mix the fact we had taken photos of said ceilings and walls and you can see when they were entered into the computer.
So five months down the track work will start! Soon the Zegal will have her bedroom back (the collapsing area is right over where her bed was)and I won't have to look at brown stained walls.
Next is the fence and then we change insurance companies so bloody quickly and name and shame them loudly.

But that story is just a diversion so that you don't notice the photograph of the wool above, on the bottom is J. Knits hand dyed, with looks soft and spongy and possibly pill-y while the top is some AYE AYE me hearties Yarn Pirate in the Dahlia colourway which looks like a stunning yarn, a finer version of CTH. Both were bought from ravelry so therefore don't count as buying wool.

SSOS and whose a naughty girl

2007-11-13T18:04:00.000+11:00

Well I can't manage to keep sticking to the compacting rules. Those are the rules where you just buy the basics, basic toiletries, no new clothing, no gadgets, no dvds, no (sob) yarn.
Well I make clothing from retro, reclaimed fabrics so I've had plenty of new clothes which fit into the compacting rules.
Underwear of course is allowed, I have an unlimited source of product so I never have to buy it so I can cope with that, I also get a heap of preview movies, again no buying, but the yarn has got me.
This week some hand-dyed J. Knits sock yarn has turned up, some undyed sock wool from the UK, both of which could be loosely termed recycled so not really against the compacting bargain, but the four Knitscenes are bad, along with all my other previous book purchases.
At least I haven't bought any gadgets thou I'm so keen to buy another laptop so I don't have to fight with the fellow. The other old laptop is shite, my big lunky desktop computer is a dinosaur so I reckon a new laptop and a wireless modem so I can work out in the shed and life would be grand.
All the presents this year have been handmade and with my three kids we are definitely on the birthday party roster.
So I think I've done fairly well so far since the beginning of the year, just that ruddy yarn and knitting books have broken the compacting rules.
So I'm going to try and stick to another pact, my Southern Summer of Socks mantra is finish what you've got before you cast on for more.
I wonder how long that will take to break?

winning a double

2007-11-06T17:00:00.000+11:00

Not on the cup, but I did manage to buy two different lots of yarn today. Firstly I did a bit of a search on the trade or sell at Ravelry and some mighty fine Yarn Pirate sock wool is coming my way.
Secondly 15 balls of Rowan Cotton Glace is winging my way from the UK. Including shipping it's about $100US, which these days will be a scratch over $100 Australia.
All I can say is I'm glad 'he' don't read the blog.
Well I better get off and finish that half sleeve and start cutting out those pants.
And from next week I'll be haunting the post office.

150m of material

2007-11-05T17:28:00.000+11:00

That's what sitting in a roll in my car, along with three patterns and a box of thread. Luckily the 'designer' saw fit to follow my idea for the pants, just two pieces, overlock top and bottom, sew the leg seam together, pop one inside the other and whiz around the crotch and do a waistband leaving a hole for the cord. But still there are 30 pairs to make. At least I got out of having to thread cords through the waistband, the kids can do that.

And back to knitting which is chugging along. The pic above is one sleeve done and I'm casting on tonight for the second, then it's the shawl collar.
My Zegal is 6 and a fairly trim six year old if you know what I mean. She ain't chunky or 'solid' is another euphemism parents often trot out when their kids are plain fat.
In the aim of getting some wear out of the jumper I did a size 8 and really I think I should have done the largest for size 10. Yes it fits, yes there is room to grow, but I was hoping for a bit more room.
The pattern comes from a Panda 8plys, 11 handknits for kids, size 2-10. This is probably the nicest pattern from the book. The other decent one is a vest with optional hood, which I've done a few of, mainly for the Jar and this is the one I rewrote to suit a range of different weights. It is a two movie knit for me, I love those vests and really I should photograph them all (about six were done over winter) and upload them to ravelry.
So off to the pub tonight for knitting to get that sleeve done so I can, hopefully, get right into the Southern Summer of Socks.

progress

2007-11-02T15:29:00.000+11:00

Last night I stayed up late to get something done.
So the Zegal's red jumper for the snow needs just the left front done and then the sleeves.
The pattern I've based the jumper on is knitted flat but I sat down and did the maths to turn into into a circular knit and I'll do the same for the sleeves. That way it won't seem so long and the knit stitch is always quicker than purling. I've also got to do the deep shawl collar, but I've decided not to think about that. At all, no way, too much work there.
So I'm hoping by Sunday night to sew in the sleeves and give it a block, then I have to start on all the socks that are sitting on the needles.
And then I've got orders for the next market, oh have I got orders!
Aliens, skulls, shorts, dresses, monsters. But these are fun and not so labour intensive, not when you consider I have trained monkeys that cut out for me and a magic overlocker.

what have i done?

2007-11-01T17:58:00.000+11:00

The oldest, Foat, does drama at the same drama company I went to as a child and will soon be performing in his first play.
Talking to the director at knitting on Monday night I mentioned that if they needed help with costumes, I could rev up the machine. She laughed and said she'd already dobbed me in to do it.
So last night I had the call. 58 pairs of calico pants and a dozen or so aprons. Fine I don't have to do them all, another mum will be doing some as well.
But the catch is the art director has yet to get the material. So by the time this happens I'll have less than a fortnight to do about 30 pants, and considering I have the same deadline for Zegal's jumper for the snow and several big craft markets to sew for I'm thinking of getting drunk!
So it's going to be a busy time ahead. I don't mind the doing the costumes, but only a fortnight to get so much done is really pushing it and I have a feeling the other mum (who has worked in the fashion industry) would probably have the same feelings as I do towards the art director. It's not as if he hasn't had a year's notice of when the play would be and the gist of the script.
And of course I signed up for Southern Summer of Socks.

finally

2007-10-28T21:17:00.000+11:00

Yes finally, after registering last year I finally have a store up and running in Etsy.
I'd left it so long that I had to get them to unblock my registration. Oh my, just add that to the list of things I haven't done that I should.
So head to the zephyrama shop and see what you can find. At the moment there are only a few things, but as I work out how to use the camera (like who reads or even keeps the manual handy?) the pictures should get better and I will take advantage of daylight savings to head over to the store and take some decent pictures. There are plenty more to come for kids and women and then the monsters.... oh the monsters.

And notification of a deadline. In three weeks (and she's counting) Zgal and Daddy head off to the snow to do some possum trapping (all in the name of research, they are released don't fear, but they won't shave them for me to spin the fur) and she told me she needs new jumpers.
While it may be November-December this fool hardy duo will be on the mountains, on the boulder fields and other than last year it always snows where they go.
Last year I spent the days before they went making longjohns and bank robber disguises for Zgal, I just hope she hasn't grown too much.
But it means that all socks are stalled as I try and get the red jumper finished in time. Just the front and back to go as I've divided already for the arms, but those sleeves, I hate sleeves, but maybe in the round they will be easier to cope with.

sliding in some stash

2007-10-25T17:55:00.000+10:00

I made the decision a while ago not to go buying yarn. Well not new yarn, stuff found at the opshops was fine, but no bulk purchases until I'd cleared some stash.
Well I managed to get some Knit Picks Landscapes Socks, but I could slide it into the stash without too much stress.
You see I bought it second hand in a round about way.
I did a search on Ravelry for this particular yarn and up popped a few that were for sale or trade, so trade I did.
So really it was second hand and not a bust out.

i can't help myself

2007-10-24T15:06:00.000+10:00

Last night in my dreams people were breaking into the house and I was standing at the door trying to push it shut and the bang of the door in the dream kept waking me up. I had the dream over and over, but with slight variations, sometimes the front door, sometimes a window, but the end result was little sleep and a head that didn't make much sense this morning.
So I rang in sick. I can't work with a brain like spaghetti, but nor can I sew, so I sat on the lounge and watched Dr Phil and Oprah. This has just reinforced my conviction that I'm not missing anything when it comes to daytime television.

Anyway I ended up reaching down for the socks for Jar which are normally in a basket next to the lounge. There weren't there, they were in the car, but rather than walk out to the driveway and retrieve them I cast on with the Tofutsies instead. I'm doing the tidal wave (I'd do links to ravelry and the pattern and yarn, but as it isn't open to the public yet. . . ) pattern. I've done four pattern repeats on the leg and I'm half way down the heel and it's knitting up extremely quickly. I had cast on previously for the same pattern, but the needles fell out so I ripped back when I go my new knitpicks.
I fooled around trying to take shots and this is the best I could get to show the stitch pattern. Note the lego on the arm of the chair, I rarely spend days off doing housework, that's why I had children, they can do it.

Tidal Wave uses the old s1 k1, psso, but I've used a SSK instead and rather than a plain stocking stitch foot, I'm going to do the pattern down the top of the foot instead.
So much for finishing what I've got in progress so I can get stuck into Knitting Classics.

too busy to knit

2007-10-23T17:53:00.000+10:00

Why, because I have new books.
Firstly Madame Avery's Knitting Classics, then Fitted Knits by Mrs Japel and Linda Kopp's Plush-O-Rama.
I've been lusting after Knitting Classics for a while and was dicked around by two different book sellers until I hit on Fishpond and now the book is mine.
I really like it.
Usually a book of patterns has a few I'd like to do, and less that could be done without any maths thanks to my over abundant boobs underpinned by a fairly normal (although soft thanks to children) middle.
But every adult pattern bar one would fit and most I would consider doing with a few I want to start right now.
But I have mountains of socks to finish first.
Seriously Knitting Classics is a must have, for my style at any rate.
Fitted Knits is okay. Heavy weight, quick knits, most not really my taste but a few are, although there will be maths involved for every knit. But as most are top down and in the round, that's an easy thing to do.
The third book is one I've had for ages, but a few months ago I was given Softies (hiding in the studio at the moment) to review for the paper.
Loved Softies, love looking at the patterns and then letting the imagination tweak here, lengthen there, fiddle other there, so I dragged out Plush to take to the studio.
And speaking of the studio I've been out there a lot lately photographing stock as I've finally decided to steam ahead with etsy.
Although I registered last year I didn't do anything so armed with the camera I started taking shots.
But my photo skills are bad, photoshop is worse, so I'm going to have to tweak a lot to get decent pics.
From doing twice monthly markets for the past three years I know that the look and placement of clothing, monsters and bags is the thing that gets people in and gets stock sold, so I'm pulling my hair out trying to get pics that really represent the clothing in particular.
Other than stealing a few kids and getting them to model I'm sort of stuck on how to do it all.

And the spoons, they are for a tea party!

still s(h)ocking and the maternity mezzanine

2007-10-19T16:35:00.000+10:00

Pink Lorna's for myself, but only one foot done so far and look at the leftover from the skein. Then there is retro rib, also one foot so far, along with a sock for Jar from that scratchy Opal. I always seem to do one foot then start a completely different pair, then back to finish off. Stops me getting bored I suppose.
Except for the kids socks, I always manage to do a pair one after the other.
I've already done one pair for the Jar from this ball, but they were 48 stitches on 2.25mm and while he can wear them comfortably now, there won't be much time left before his foot gets too big.
So this pair, on 2.25mm, is being done on 54 stitches, the heel over 26 with the top of the foot wider than the bottom.
The pile of red is a DK jumper for the Zegal which I fooled around with pattern to knit circular. It will have a nice shawl collar and I've lengthened it a bit as well. Can't find the pattern at the moment, so thankfully I rewrote it in my notebook.

And now the shocking. A woman who works in the building, or should I say, did work in the building, was frog marched out of the place on Wednesday. Seems her crime is to stick up for herself when her boss started being nasty when she announced she was pregnant and when she returned from maternity leave.

She kept a journal, she made a complaint and thankfully she was in a union so for the past several months the HR department has been dealing with her union lawyer. But it didn't stop the general manager and our in-house HR person kicking her out on Wednesday. She was asked last week by the GM to stop diarsing any problems and she refused.
Not only has she been smart enough to keep a diary, she is also a bloody good worker.

Edited to add: This woman had five job offers by the end of the week. We'll miss her, she was damn good at her job.

how i chose my cosy swap partner. . and love is an atomic

2007-10-16T16:44:00.000+10:00

So how did I choose my Australian Knitters Group on Ravelry tea cosy swap partner. Well I didn't because I decided for a few reasons it wouldn't be fair.
One is I'm heading into the busy season with my side business. I'm sewing like mad and don't have time.
I've also got startitis. One example is my daughter's school cardigan that I started the year before she went to school.
She's now in Year 1, in the last term of year one. I even changed to knitting in the round with steeks for the front and arms, but can I get that last sleeve done. No.
And I'm having the strangest email confabs with spinning mills in china trying to get them to spin me huge amounts of yarn for a new business. I've been on a crash coarse in Chinglish, tex and nm spinning terminology as well as working out where to store hmm, cough, cough, kilos of wool, not to mention telling the fellow what's happening.
Also it wouldn't be fair, would it.
There I was in charge of the trained monkeys who were making the matches. I could have decided to pair myself up with (my idea) of the best and grooviest knitter. What power dangled at my fingertips!
No not fair, damn those code of ethics I live by.
And lastly, what about that style of kitchen.
That pic is the kitchen. On the other side is a bank of shelves and a cupboard. Not big enough to swing a cat. No real colour theme, no bench space. When preggers I can't do the washing up 'cause I don't fit in front of the sink.
Hell the spew green wall has cracks and cobwebs, the plaster has fallen off the walls, the only reason the doors are that blue is cause they were spew green originally and so dirty it was easier to paint them than clean them at 3am one morning when the bro in-law was set to visit. They don't even hang right.
Naturally when we moved in seven years ago we quickly had plans drawn up for extra bedrooms, a massive living area with a stainless steel bench (with an underbench fridge) on wheels, the biggest commercial sink you have ever seen and a commercial stove (yep I spend way too much time in restaurant kitchens). Naturally a few extra pregnancies got in the way and with the cost of childcare these days, no renos.
There is only one thing in my kitchen I like, the Atomic coffee maker that has a permanent place on the stove. I's love me Atomic so much, we have two, so that when he's away for work he takes his and I've still got mine.

a room of one's own

2007-10-15T17:47:00.000+10:00

More like a shed.
I've seen beautiful photographs and flickr pages full of beautiful studios. Bookcases full of colour matched fabrics, ribbons on rolls, clean as a whistle.
Well live isn't really like that, is it.
So welcome to my shed.
And I mean shed.
It's a 1940s vintage shed. When I ripped out the workbench we discovered that the garage and bench was in place well before the concrete was laid down. The walls don't meet the ceiling and it's cold in winter and hot in summer.
But it's mine.
I've lined a fair bit of it, but keep everything in plastic bags and boxes. Well, again, some of it.
Out there is also a huge table, plenty of sewing machines and overlockers, enough wool to stock a shop, half a dozen knitting machines that work, several that don't and patterns and patterns galore.
And the best thing, it's mine. And I can lock myself inside and no-one can get in.
It's surrounded by bushes, trees and a palm, with a side window overgrown, and a window at the back that I can open up for air.

re hooking

2007-10-13T12:21:00.000+10:00

Look at what Lady* is wearing. Yes, that's a cotton hand crocheted cardigan and guessing by the colour I'm thinking late 60s, early 70s.
Well it fits the boobs so I nabbed it from the op shop, but it does need some work.
While I don't mind the collar and button bands look at those cuffs.
The sleeve are huge, but the cuffs, ugly, they are just too wide.
I was going to cut them off, thinking that I had found the seaming from cuff to sleeve, but before I hacked on in I checked with a workmate who is an experience hooker.
Seems the cuffs were done, joined up and then used as the foundation chain for the sleeves.
So a steeking I will go.
I'm aiming to have cuffs a little narrower than the button band.
Then the old gal needs a good clean and I have an out there cardi for summer. Considering I wear almost all black, this little number will go with everything!
* Lady has been part of the family for a decade or so. Normally she stands in the hall way wearing black with a velvet opera cloak on, ready to go out and haunt. She is a girly one, about the size of a 12 year old.

how about answering my emails. . . .

2007-10-09T11:51:00.000+10:00

Well it continues, I send an email to BD in the UK about their dodgy listing practises and guess what they ignored my email, well they did and didn't.
What I wrote:
Shaymaa,
Then why when I paid using my mastercard and I received an email stating that the order had gone thru, was it cancelled and my funds repaided into my account only to still have the book listed but at a higher price.
I received the email stating that it was no longer listed and immediately did a search on the site and found that it was listed at the higher price. While you did refund the cost, I have now incurred fees on that account to do with that initial transaction.
Considering you had accessed my account and the money was transferred I was under the impression that a transaction had taken place, particularly in regards to the confirmation email. This is not showing good faith and in my country at least is considered fraud and is illegal.
Please respond regarding your policies.
Jen

And their response:

Dear Jen,

I can confirm that your title was unavailable at the time of purchase. However, we could get hold of a few copies from a different supplier right after the refund was processed. You are welcome to place your new order.

Thank you,

May

Customer Service Advisor

The Book Depository Ltd

GRRR, right after the refund, like less than 30 minutes. Bite me. And what about the response about their policies.
So I've resent the email.

do not buy from these shops - fucking language warning

2007-10-08T17:40:00.000+10:00

Not long ago I dived into Ebay and organised to buy Knitting Classic Style (i really lust after this one) and another sock book from seller Sysqs and paid by Paypal.
As most Paypalers would know, when you pay the store or individual gets the address from Paypal.
Now I've never had a problem and my Paypal account gets quite a beating. Not once has anything gone astray. I get stuff delivered to a post office box and despite the fact I may live in Australia, it's not the boonies down here.
All has been good until I dealt with Sysqs which has since sent me an email saying that the books had been sent back to them so they were refunding my money.
But they only refunded the purchase price of ONE book, that's right ONE book and of course weren't refunding postage. So I gave them negative feedback, I think DON'T BUY FROM THIS STORE may tell you what I think. I'm still trying to get refunded for the other purchase which was returned with the Knitting Classic, but they won't respond to emails.
Now that was last week, so on Friday I jumped onto the Book Depositary, the UK site with free postage. The exchange to pounds ain't great, but no postage, I'm there.
So I bought by MC the Knitted Classics for 10 pounds something.

Order ID: BDG-0891012-1091632

Product Name Quantity Item Price Line Charges Delivery due date
Knitting Classic Style: 35 Modern Designs Inspired by Fashion's Archives
(U158479576X ISBN: 9781584795766) 1 £10.07 £10.07 3 - 7 working days from 05-10-2007
Total Charges: £10.07

Not a problem, I whipped out the Master Card, paid and the money was taken from my account.

But a day later I got an email saying that they were refunding the money as:

I am terribly sorry to inform you that on this occasion we have been unable to fulfill part of your order as it is no longer available.
This line has been cancelled and a refund made to your card.

Notice the phrase This line has been cancelled.

Well now, lets have a look and see. . . ITS THE SAME RUDDY BOOK

So I can buy the book, at 4 pounds more and have to wear the fees and charges on the master card from the first payment. On top of having been defrauded by the other mob I've got the complete and utter fucking shits.

the sock vortex

2007-10-05T16:33:00.000+10:00

Behind the washing machine, behind the lounge, behind the bed, behind every piece of furniture is a sock vortex.
How do I know? Every time I knit Jar a pair of socks one goes missing.
Never the bought socks with the holes in them, these seem to magically rise from the ashes of the garbage bin and end up in the sock drawer.
Tripy (my house trained gnome) is holding the surviving blue patonyle sock. 48 st, rib all the way down. Tripy's hat is one of the pair (relax I still have the other sock, it hasn't been sucked into a vortex yet) that I whipped up in the past few nights. It is a mix of left-over Heritage jigsaw with heels and toes in the blue patonyle.
The new onces are at least 2cm too long, but Jar still loves them. He had one on his foot walking around in the house waiting for me to finish the other one.
I've now got some Opal (forgotten how harsh that stuff is to knit) on the needles for him. I picked up two balls, both blues but different, for $20 total including postage from the bead and opal lady.
One croc sock for Zegal done, one started. My jaywalkers have stalled and I've cast on for Hedgerow socks for when I get bored of my everyday tweed.
I really shouldn't spend so much time on Ravelry, I should be knitting.

knitting as protest

2007-10-01T16:14:00.001+10:00

Last night I headed into town with Rayna Fahey, left, founder of Radical Cross Stitch, and a fellow Kiwi Zoe Thompson-Moore.
Rayna now lives in Melbourne (with an adorable baby and a now competent finger knitting fellow) and she and Zoe organised a workshop about craft as protest and craft as a cohesive social structure for women.
The workshop was in the morning, but there was mention of another Melbourne-based artist that was doing huge cross stitch graffiti on hurricane fences as a means of protest and there was a brief mention of there being plenty of blank canvasses in the town.
Well Sally and I were interested and at the end of the session asked if they were going to do some.
The end results was at 10pm we met up in town, quickly mastered the skill of finger knitting and sat around knitting long, thickish threads that Rayna and Zoe used to stitch a message on the fence around what was the Palais, one of the towns oldest dance halls and a structure that is being demolished, leaving just the facade for heritage reasons. A few of the squatters who live in the area watched and spoke to us.
As soon as I can I'll get a picture of the completed saying, which was I want to Live Here with a big heart at the end.

coffee is bad

2007-09-25T17:43:00.000+10:00

On Sunday I started and ripped back I don't know how many socks. Firstly I didn't like the pattern with the, admittedly yucky pukey, patonyle that I bought for $2 at a spottie sale.
Then after an inch of the cuff decided they should be for a child, not me, so they were too big. Then I grabbed some leftover black and grey stripped jigsaw and cast on for the Jar. Then I ripped it back and started again.
Yep, too much coffee.
That's what happens when you organise a coffee cart to be opposite your own stall at the craft market. And that's what happens when you have your first coffee of the morning at 4am, followed by another one before you leave and then get the first coffee from the machine at 7am.
And it just kept flowing.
Oh the shakes, the shakes.
But the market was good, although the knitting was bad.
So instead of knitting here is a pic of one of the dresses I whipped up for the market. That is an original 60s chennille bedspread. What a find, in perfect condition.
I can see a Zegal demanding a similar dress.

a day off

2007-09-21T15:14:00.000+10:00

Today is one of those rare creatures - a day off.
No kids, no work and the whole day to get 'stuff' done.
But I didn't, and I did.

I managed to drop off the car to get serviced, did a bit of clothes sewing in the shed for the kids. Read the paper, had a decent home-brewed coffee and then raced around getting the car and the shopping done.

Visited the post office but the bundle of books I'm sweating on hasn't arrived, but the latest Ottobre for women had.

Then I had to deal with stall holders wanting to book into the farmers market then off to day care to pick up Jar who everyone thought was off colour, but the truth was that Grandma came around last night and instead of dinner he had cake and stayed up late playing with his new presents the naughty lad.

And I logged into ravelry which meant that all that knitting I wanted to do while throwing insults at Oprah wasn't done, maybe tonight.

killer cosies

2007-09-20T17:36:00.000+10:00

It's been brought up on the Australian knitters' group on ravelry that there may be a swap for knitters going on.
Kris threw out the idea for comments and I couldn't resist throwing back a koala her way.
So it looks like a tea-coffee-mug-kitchen cosy swap may be on the boards.
Some like the idea of trashy, some would like stylish but I think a small project which can be a simple or as difficult as the knitter wants is a great idea. And think of the small associated goodies (beautiful tea bags and biscuits) that can be sent along. With no customs problems.
So straight away I started hunting.
While I have Killer Tea Cosies somewhere I also have a stash of old patterns and here are just some of them.

birthday boy

2007-09-16T10:45:00.000+10:00

It was Jar's birthday on Friday but the celebrations started on Wednesday when he took cup cakes in to child care so he could share the party with his friend Zhong.
The post fairy also delivered new Birk sandals for him (and mumma) and there was a new Monster sitting at the table in the morning, but the winning present was the Spiderman bowl.

tangles

2007-09-11T17:21:00.000+10:00

A skein from the Knittery.
Fine for the first 3/4 of the skein and then it was all(*(&^%@#! tangled up.
Not impressed.
But then again every thing gets tangled up these days.

needed one new camera

2007-09-06T16:04:00.000+10:00

Or should that be a photographer with decent eyes.
I'm fighting with the camera at the moment, I just can't seem to get things right.
What you should be looking at is a log cabin and then a hexagon, worked in the round that will be magically joined by other 'gons for a blanket.
Nice and quick and NO SEAMING.......

The log cabin I've been doing for what seems ages. It's too big now to take to stitch and bitch, so it is now mindless television knitting.
No such thing as picking the colours for this one, my hand dives in the bag and whatever colour I pull out I knit.
These are all leftovers from the various Jar jumpers I've done in the past three years or so. Machine washable Paton's Country 8ply, although I'm going to do the border in a tighter crepe.

work socks

2007-09-04T18:04:00.000+10:00

Finally I've done with these.
With the dense Bendigo Mills sock yarn (discontinued for many years) and on 2.5m needles and my extremely tight way of knitting these were done on 72 stitches with the pattern down the heel flap.
The first in the pair also caused a bit of an injury.
Yep those dreaded knitpicks didn't just slice the flesh, they tore the soft pad on my index finger apart. My own fault for not doing socks continental.
But the end result is beautiful.
Nice thick socks perfect to wear in boots and although they look fairly short on the leg they are fairly long, I just have a problem photographing my own feet properly.
How do people do it so artistically?
Oh so comfy.

redecorating

2007-08-28T18:16:00.000+10:00

Finally got around to playing with the layout, colours and fonts. Prefer this one.
To the side is a link to my patterns.
Slowly I'm going to write up all the patterns that are in my battered notebook.
These are the scribbles that mean a pattern to me that no one else can read.
I'll try and set them out in a readable form, however, I'm assuming prior knitting knowledge and an understanding about various garment constructions, particularly socks. First off the rank is the Bliss socks.

cashmere

2007-08-27T16:55:00.000+10:00

Here are a pair of socks that have finally been given the handwash treatment.
They are made from DB baby cashmerino and have been thru the machine to be washed and dried several times.
But I wrestled them from the laundry lovin' man and hand washed them.
A bit of work had to be done to depill them, but they have managed to survive.
These are socks I wear with my Birks all the time, so I think the pilling is more to do with the socks than the washing.
Will post the pattern (including modified or longer stockingette toes, forgot about these toes until it was too late, but I wanted to wear as soon as possible so there are short, sharp toe decreases.
One sock a night, a quick knit.

EDITED to say: look to the sidebar on the right and click on the link to the 'pattern'.

a party means work

2007-08-25T11:20:00.000+10:00

I've been busy working out exactly what wool I have stashed in the shed, on the piano, hidden behind the lounge and crammed into my bookcases.
You see I've finally found the best way to keep track of what I have.
No more scraps of paper and good intentions of keeping track of wool purchases, let alone cataloguing the needles, you see, an invite to Ravelry turned up earlier this week and I've been working away on my profile, logging in wool as I remember it.
So far I haven't taken pics and have only put in a smidgen of my stash, let alone collated the needles, but already the possibilities that are Ravelry are clear.
I'll finally know what I have, down to the yardage thanks to Ravelry magic, so I won't be going out and buying wool for a project only to stumble across suitable yarn in the stash months down the track.
And the patterns, oh the patterns, and the work of other knitters.
Mindblowing.

new feet

2007-08-20T14:06:00.000+10:00

Well the baby's socks are done and he loves wearing them, but I have to do some improvements with the next pair. He certainly needs more than 2 inches for the leg, and possibly the first two inches rib, the second down to the heel in straight stocking stitch to tighten it all up a bit.
But with 14gms used on each sock, I have enough from the original 50g ball to do another set, as long as I do contrast heels and toes.
Before I do new ones for him the Gal wants a pair of 'crocodile' scale socks. So I'm knocking these out in some wool I bought from Spotlight a while ago in muted greens, browns and a touch of yellow.
Now this yarn is a 75- 25 split and according to the ball band it is 8ply with 22 or 20 stitches with 4.5mm needles.
Considering I've managed to get 20 wpi with this yarn you have to wonder about the quality control at Spotties.
Anyway the yarn is working out well as a 'cheap' sock yarn option.
Out in the shed there has been a look of dust flying around as I cleaned it out and up.
End result, more room, I can use the table fully extended and work is so much easier.
So I whipped up a blanket for Susan the soon to be cloning member of our stitch and bitch.
As she has no idea about the gender of the impending arrival I've had to go for non gender specific colour combinations. And this is the best I could come up with.

under the roof

2007-08-15T10:51:00.000+10:00

Well the roof went on and then one-by-one the kids got sick. Seems I drove too close to the near by hospital that had to close wards off to visitors thanks to the dreaded gastro.
So no posting and little knitting. It's hard to knit away with a mumbling, feverish two-year-old on your lap for days.
But I have managed a bit.
Firstly a pair of Lavender Lace (Vogue Socks on the Go) in Lornas Laces shepherd sock in mineshaft colour way. Knit up on the new Knitpics needles, size 2.25mm. Only a bit of pooling, over the instep. These have been washed many times (including in the machine by accident) and are looking like firm favourites.
A quick and easy lace pattern, and with plenty of other muted LL colourways in the stash there may be a few more pairs soon.
The sock on the right of the picture is in Heritage Jigsaw, on 2.75mm based on one of the sock pixie free patterns.
I've always steered away from the Jigsaw's of the sock world because I don't like the self patterning yarn, but the simple stripes don't hurt my eyes too much and I'm loving the machine-dryer ability of the yarn.
Also going, some dark grey socks (again for me) knitted on 2.25mm (knitpicks) based on the Charade pattern which is floating around.
These are being done with some Bendigo Mills sock yarn that I bought many years ago at a Sydney craft fair at Darling Harbour for the ridiculous price of $3 for a 50g ball.
Already one sock has been grafted and with my changes to the stitch count and using smaller needles (this yarn would be perfect on 2.75 or 3's) I've managed to come up with a nice dense sock, perfect for wearing with the Redbacks.
Although I don't like the patterning yarn, I found one lone 50g ball of Patonyle in pale blues in the 'shed' the other night. Then the next day Jar Jar (the youngest) discovered a hole in his Bob the Builder socks.
"Broken sock, oh no," he said as he ripped it off and gave it to me with my sock needle case, obviously wanting me to knit it back together.
So with 14gm a sock for him he will get 1 pair complete and another pair with some contrast heels and toes. I'm doing 48 stitches on 2.75, but a 2x2 rib all down the leg and foot so he will get some wear out of them.

collecting

2007-07-24T22:07:00.000+10:00

I've been having a bit of fun over the past few days.
While the house shakes from builders repairing storm damage I've been dodging plaster and cruising away. There has also been a bit of knitting, some pattern drafting and cutting of fabric.
Firstly there is the free chevron pattern socks from sockpixie. I had some Heritage Jigsaw black and gray striped sock yarn that is hard wearing, but not too soft on the fingers. Already I've knocked over one and ready for the heel flap of the second.
Secondly I've been looking at shapes.
Shapes of clothing, shapes of bags, shapes of toys.
For a long time it was always the colours that attracted me, but now with the eye of a pattern drafter I've put blinkers on and looked beyond the pattern of the fabric and looked closely at the design side.
And I like what I see.
There are some stunning pieces in gray and black, some delightful shapes in muted vintage fabrics.
So I've dragged out the interfacing and started just drawing on it, cutting it out and then using old sheets to try out different shapes.
From one pattern I pleated and then gathered for the next attempt. Both worked, both are simple shapes, both let the fabric speak, or shout, depending on the colour and print.
I've never been one for patterns, I'd rather just wing it, which is probably why it's been years since I made clothing for myself.

clean slate

2007-07-19T09:19:00.000+10:00

Once again I've deleted the posts.
Gone, scrubbed, ripped out so to speak.
It's time to start anew.
With a new machine, new ideas and a few dreams ready to be enacted, it's time to start all over again.
In the past few months I've been wandering around blog land, mainly in the realms of Australian and New Zealand knitting and sewing blogs.
I've seen some wonderful things, noted the copying and rip offs going on and read with interest as various bloggers wade into the controversy of what is unique, what has been copied and who is right and wrong.
I've realised that in many cases some of it just synchronicity, other times just blatant copying, and sometimes it is a case of being influenced by the stunning work of another blogger.
That being said I can see how easy it would be to copy work without realising it, having read the same people over and over it, beauty does sink into the brain.
So as I restart the adventure if I do use a seed of inspiration I'll link to it. If I find some synchronicity I'll point to it.
Often it is just a small world out there.