Peachy

That's what life is today. My last essay is done, I am on the bus to uni to hand it in. It's Friday and I have many craft adventures planned for the weekend. The weather is sunny and at my temperature threshold. Pretty sure that if I could sink my teeth into today and taste it would be sweet and juicy.

One down, one to go

For the next twenty minutes I am going to revel in the fact that I have churned out my 2500 word essay within word limit, choc full of lovely references and with a nice bibliography.

For the next twenty minutes I am going to ignore the fact that I have another 2500 essay to write, research and reference ready to hand in by 12pm tomorrow.

In the next twenty minutes or so I am going to saddle up the palominos, grab my packed lunch and head to uni to hand in the first essay.

Then for the remaining 26 hours I am going to chain myself to my laptop and write like a demon. I am about to go hide my spindle and all knitting projects and I will be passing along instruction to my nearest and dearest to kindly clip me over the ear if they catch me on non-educational websites.

Blog, if there isn't a post here tomorrow afternoon assume I am either dead, passed out celebrating or, and lord we hope it aint so, still writing.

Procrastiknitting

Never have I been so diligent in my knitting practice. I have knit and ripped back and re-knit the top cuff of my arm warmers.... (counting in head) four times. I think. I'm pretty happy with what I've got going on now. No pictures because there is only tungsten or super-flash so any photo I took tonight would be terrible. Hopefully I will finish mitt the first tomorrow and photograph it. I am super happy with the pattern. It is the Lovisa Armwarmer pattern (rav link). The pattern is wicked cute and supremely free. I am knitting it in what is quite possibly my all time favourite everyday yarn: Jo Sharp Silk Road Tweed. Using the DK weight this time which I like better than the aran.

I will post my mods when I finish at least one mitt and have a snappy snap to go with it.

That is all.
What a good little blog keeper I am... My my! There must be assignments due, I'm not usually so productive!

Photos aka what Mr Handsom does all day

So when the boy isn't gaming or talking to people in far off places he takes photos or edits photos or writes about photos on the blog he and his friend/mentor run. And when he isn't doing that he is pouring over the Google Analyitics of the blog trying to figure out how to get more readers. It's so much more technical than I can bothered to be about the whole blogging thing.

In an attempt to assist him in his quest for more readers I got him a great little ebook from Craftypod, Diane Gilleland's craft blog/shop/self contained universe. The ebook is Creating a Blog Audience. It's full of advice, handy tips and such that even non-audience-interested people such as myself will find useful. It's also really well written, so when I was just having a glance through before I passed it over, I actually got sucked into reading half of it and felt sad when I had to hand the computer over.

But the blog in question here is not my little (and somewhat insignificant) corner of the intertubes, but Metaphor Online, Mr Handsome's main project. They have little run downs on some great photographers in Australia and overseas. It's still in its infancy but the boys are off to a good start. I think so anyway.

Today's craving is brought to you by Rowan

Absolutely dying to knit some crack silk haze. Have two balls bought at Purl SoHo. Startitis is hitting me hard at the moment. Got me a lace craving. Silly old brain, I know that I am way too virus riddled to handle the tricky stuff and it is just the Codral talking. Still feel like casting on a shawl though.

Well I'm no good now, am I

Ho hum...
So the gap is ever-widening.
In my defence, I am a very boring individual and have little to report.
+ New semester of Uni is half done. Am taking a politics unit which feels distinctly un-me. Interesting though.
+ Have an assignment for said pols unit, but finding it more tricky than I should. Will blame virus-brain.
+ Virused for the third time this season. Most displeased. Think maybe a better diet and more exercise is required.
+ have been working on my mad spinning skillz. Actually pretty happy with them. Was lent an Ashford spindle by one of the girls at a spinning afternoon. Much better than my sadly crap ebay spindle.
+ Decided that a spinning wheel is absolutely necessary to my on-going existence. Mister says not til we move out. I am still looking for nooks and crannies around the home in which to hide one.
+ have been doing battle with the bohemoth that is Centrelink. Application was finally approved today. After two and a half months. Now just need to rustle up payslips from the intervening weeks.
+ Am notorious for loosing/ chucking out my pay slips. I have found 4/10. Not happy.
+ After watching Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Mister decided that Centrelink is run by Vogons. Agree entirely. "bring me the request to pursue fugitive form"

That's all. I am off for a nap.

whoops (of a different ilk)

A different sort of whoops... the kind you could report to mum back in the day because clause b of [(a)Someone's getting hurt or (b) something's getting broken] was actualised.
I trod on my spindle. In my books that makes it a spundle.
I blame the treding directly on exams, because if I didn't have exams I wouldn't a) need to spin to relieve stress/ procrastinate and b) have a shockingly messy room.

The whoops has been remedied though, thanks to our good friend eBay. I would have done the responsible thing and etsyed a new spindle except that US dollars suck and it's too tricky to find Australian producers for specific things... I want to be able to refine a product search by location but either I am too stupid to find this function or it doesn't exist.

Am also waiting to hear back from some spindle making dude on Rav but was getting impatient and might get one from him after exams anyway.

A scarf for a boy, worn by a girl

Done done diddly. I'd like to thank Yarns on Collie, American Express, The Freo knitters, ABC TV and iView and most of all the lovely Mister for whom all this labour was for. Quite frankly I am so relived it is over and I don't have to do endless rows of seed/single moss any more. What peeves me slightly is that he hasn't worn it yet and thus I am yet to get a photo of the finished product on its intended recipient. So here I am.

Behind me you will see the other fruit of my procrastinating labour, the new upstairs bookshelf. Built by my very clever father, assisted by Mister. For years we have had teetering stacks of books scattered around the house, next to peoples' beds, on the stairs, on the tables and side tables, on top of other books on bookshelves etc. Thanks to the new bookshelf, we have real estate for approximately 600 novel sized books. Four and a half of the ten shelves have been filled by me in an attempt to justify not studying for my looming exams. This shelf filling means our bigger books have places to go on various other bigger bookshelves. Yay! I could spend my whole exam period happily re-arranging our family library. But I shan't. I shall be good and get back to studies now. After I have a spot of lunch.

IWONIWONIWON!!!!

WEEEEEEEEE!!! I finally won something! I enter blog giveaways a little half heartedly, seeing as nothing has ever come of my entries but at last, VICTORY! The giveaway was hosted by Julie of Little Cotton Rabbits, a very cute little site with some great free patterns. (Digression: I knitted her cupcake as the decoration on my sister's birthday card a couple of years ago. You'd have though I'd hand selected a star from the night sky and tied it on the card, so well was it received.) The prize in question was one of her new Hedgehog patterns.... extreme cuteness. Makes me wish I had some brown tweed stashed to get it underway... alas, I think a trip to the yarn store is in order (Damn!). Julie is selling said hedgehogs and donating money to the hedgehog protection peeps... get on board.

Itchy Fingers

Dying to cast on something new... thinking the ubiquitous February Lady Sweater. I still have a butt-load of Berocco Ultra Alpaca from when I thought a knee length stockingette cardigan was a good idea. Also getting marginally bored with the plain moss stitch scarf. I could, of course, work on one of my many other projects already cast on: the drop stitch vest, the lumina singlet, the hedera socks, the grown up booties... all these projects and more need knitting. I just have a serious case of startitis.

A hat for a girl, a scarf for a boy

The hat for my mean little sister. Finished a while ago, not photographed until today. The sister in question is at an exam and thus not around to be a model for me. There was no way I was going to take a photo of myself- I look exactly as I feel at the moment, like my head is about to explode and spray mucus in a 10 metre radius. Charming I know. Also my nose is all red. Not particularly photogenic. If my picture is going to enter cyberspace for time immemorial, I want it to look nice at least.




A Scarf that was promised months ago for Mister. It was started a couple of times, then frogged. Here it is progressing in (hopefully) its last incarnation. I made him pick the yarn. I made him pick the stitch pattern. If he doesn't like it, it's his own damn fault. I am actually pretty pleased with it. The yarns are delightful. Both, for different reasons. The harmony is surprising. I've never knit with felted yarn before, but I like it! springy, soft, the perfect shade of grey. The Jo Sharp looks a bit unassuming and marginally scratchy in the ball but the subtle variation in colour knits up gloriously.
The needles that I am using are a pure joy to knit with. They are Swallow 3.75mm Timbregrain needles. I am 99% sure they are celluloid. I accidentally stuck one in my mouth when I was bending down to pick up an errant ball of yarn and it tasted disgusting. I believe that is the test for celluloid. Correct me if I am wrong. Anyway, they rock my world. They are flexi, warmish, perfectly pointed and magnificent. Moss stitch makes my sickie brain happy. Mister seems to be pleased with my progress.
That is all that matters.

(Good little blog keeper!)

Bad blog keeper!

I know, I know, a bit of self-flagellation is in order. I have been naughtily slack. We all knew I was never going to be the best of blog keepers, but a month is a little inexcusable. Exciting things that happened in said month:

* The boy is back! Thank you K Ruddy and your stimulation package. In a nod to the Aussie economy, I made sure that I purchased a Qantas flight for him, even though it was far from the cheapest. I figured if someone else was footing the bill, I might as well do the right thing by my country. (How uncharacteristically patriotic of me.)

* I finished first semester of Uni. I am yet to sit exams (see point 3), but I feel pretty good about it all.

* I have had a mystery viral disease, which I was marginally worried was H1N1. My worries were unfounded, it wasn't even regular old influenza A. It definitely hit me for six though. As a result, my exams have been deferred for a month.

* My knitting funk is all gone. I am excited to knit again. I went to the World Wide Knit in Public Day last Saturday and got to meet a whole bunch of other Perth knitters who were all super cool. I also woke up at 4 am this morning and was unable to get back to sleep. I spent the majority of the time thinking about knitting. Projects I am working on, projects I'd like to start, techniques I'd like to use.... all those good things. I am pretty excited I must say.

and zat is zat. No pictures or anything cool, we are just working with baby steps here. I am sick after all!

Catchya

Hand Plying

Remember that spinning I was doing a while ago? It is in the process of becoming a hat for my mean little sister. Sometimes she isn't mean though and that is why she is getting a hat. Actually, now that I think about it she is getting the hat because she is mean: she keeps stealing mine.

So the hat. It is pink Surprise surprise. That is what colour the roving was.
It is progressing rather nicely... it is a Ysolda Urchin beret from the Fall 2007 of Knitty.

So the really cool thing that happened tonight and prompted me to be a good little blog keeper and actually write a post was that I plied the last of my singles. I had given it a bit of a rest, I was more excited about actually knitting with the stuff I had already finished, but as I was flicking through my ravelry groups, I saw the Beginning Spinners group. In the forums was a little thread on what to do when you fill a spindle. Here I came across Andean Plying, a term I have heard but never really grasped what it meant.

A quick google search revealed that lots of people think that Andean Plying is tricky. It also revealed a great KnittySpin article on hand plying, which is pretty much the same thing.

Basically you wind the single in a not very tricky way (unlike Andean plying as far as I can tell) around your hand. Then you slide it down onto your wrist and grab the two ends of the single. Attach them to your spindle and away you go!

Here is the results:





Sorry for the craptastic photo, it just isn't in me to do any editing tonight.
Now I need to get knitting. Well maybe tomorrow. Bed time for me now.

Whoops

Dear Blog
I am very very sorry for ignoring you for the last sixteen days. I am horrible, I know.

Things that have happened in the intervening weeks:

[] The arrival of my totally rad Beards are Sexy tee shirt from etsy seller The Bold Banana

Here is a gross picture taken on my iPhone. The shirt is wrinkly because I took it off to take the photo. Blog, don't worry, because I put my shirt back on. I am not sitting in my kitchen typing into the twilight in my bra.

I also got an equally rad apron from The bold banana, but no photo because the apron is in the wash. Have a squiz round their etsy shop and see if you can find it. It says "Mixin Mamma" on it.

[] The arrival of my lean mean ballwinding machine and its partner the "flies like an eagal" swift. Blog, the pair of them in action is a sight to behold. No photos could do them justice or capture the magic that is evident in their "held together with string" nature or "sounds like a machine gun" dulcet tones. Seriously though, I love them.

[] The financial crisis of my own making following all this rash spending. NEW TOUGH RESTRICTIONS IN PLACE.

[] Above mentioned restrictions and photo managed by/ created on my swanky new iPhone. It is totally unecessary and kinda flies in the face of the finacial restrictions, but the way i see it, I have (and use!) apps to help me manage my money, so it is really helping the situation. Also Mister is very unimpressed. He thinks I have fallen into the cult of iPod's clutches. Little does he know, I've been there since my first gen shuffle and sat longing to be inculcated since the original iPod was released in Australia.

That is all I can think of for the moment. I will be back soon with more nutritious updates

lots of love
Matilda

SnB virgin no more

Just went to my first knitting group. It was wonderful! It is a very small group so far.. just me and two other girls. Susan and Caroline at the Merchant in Freo. We think we might have enticed one of the waitresses to join us next time too. I cast on AGAIN for the twisted drop stitch vest. This time it is turning into a not-cardigan. A proper vest, as opposed to a split one as Jo Sharp had it. It got a bit confusing there for a while and some errors were made. The joining the round where no join is required kind. We will see how it progresses. I switched over half way through to my Ysolda Grown Up Booties. MUCH less thought required. More time for chatting. It was a grand morning/afternoon.

On a completely different note, must get Mister to teach me how to take well lit photos. My colour accuracy is something I really need to work on.

Rip It

A frog pond kind of day... two projects down, just have to see what else in my work basket can be ripped out. First to go was a little neck warmer thing I was doing in an undyed, unscoured yarn found at the op shop. Deliciously greasy. Didn't like the stitch pattern though.

Next was the start of my drop stitch vest. the stitch count wasn't adding up. Still re-winding the yarn from that.

I have a feeling there is a funny white sculptural thing down there somewhere, which was always pond bound.

Very refreshing work this. Particularly when I am in an anti-knitting funk.

Hmmm

A funny thing is happening to me at the moment: I don't really feel like knitting. The weirdest thing is, it is perfect knitting weather: cool but not so cold that my fingers freeze. I have too many projects underway and occasionally feel slightly guilty about it. Also Mother's Day is just around the craft corner which means I should pull my thumb out and cast something on and stop being such a bloody whinger. Also have a buttload of things to post about but my notoriously awful journal keeping skills are kicking in. Nil Desparandum! There is a Phat Fiber post coming your way!

A very excellent day part 1: Spinning

I was trying to think of a clever title for this post, but kept coming up with cliches. So plain and simple it is. This package arrived on my doorstep on what has been my best day of the year so far.

One of my recent etsy purchases was a spinning kit from yarnspider. I have wanted to learn how to spin for a while now and I did a bit of research into the drop spindle kits available. I picked yarn spider's because it had a lot of fiber in the pack and was cheaper then most. When she says generous bump of blue faced leicester, she means generous!

While pink isn't my personal favorite colour, I know my sister is a bit of a fan and earlier this year I promised her a hat. My original attempt was my first real stab at crochet. It was a failure which will be elaborated on later. HatForASister Version 2.0 is what this yarn will become.

Of course my first effort has all the tension variety of a good murder mystery... some super tight bits where you practically rip the pages trying to turn them fast enough and some fat stodgy bits that bolster the whole thing out.

By the time I was at my second spindle's worth, my tension was markedly improved, although I still have a long way to go. The second spindle also has a lot more yardage then the first. I guess because I was spinning at a much finer gague. I think this may cause a few issues with plying. We will see when we get there. I have only just begun the plying process: I am finding it a lot less enjoyable then I was expecting. I liked spinning more. I will persevere though.

I'd now like to be shown how to spin by someone who actually knows what they are doing. Yarn Spider's instructions are all well and good, but I have a sneaky suspicion that I am not drafting correctly. I achieve a result I am pleased with, but my hands are doing completely different things to the ones in the pictures. We will see.

Likes

The way tulips turn themselves inside out as they die.

The page 18 kind of fame

I am a little bit famous today. I was on page 18 of The West. A frighteningly atrocious publication. It embarrasses me that my state's journalistic standing is represented by this dreck, but such is (West Australian) life. For those of you mercifully uninitiated in the ways of the west, it is an entirely parochial, exceptionally self centered newspaper. That said, it is the only fame I can currently aspire to.

It is now achieved.

Today

Today is a "WishIWasStillInMyPyjamas" day.
Today I got up early, so the day feels long already.
Today is hotter then will be comfortable for my pyjama replacement clothes, but I don't want to change.
Today I used up all the milk when cooking dinner for tonight; then made a cup of tea.... what a waste! No milk.
Today, sitting at home quietly has a lot more appeal then going to university.
Perhaps I should stop procrastinating.

Casting on (I mean it this time)

Since finishing my Mrs Darcy Cardigan my knitting has mostly been pfaffing around with little bits of not very much. I re-knitted the toes of some socks, I started a hat, I had a stab at a lace shawl, I gave crochet a go with another hat.... more on all of these later (except the socks because they were kinda boring). All in all, not much got done. Until now... New Leaf Time.

I purchased issue 7 of Jo Sharp's Knit after some good sales(wo)manship on the part of Pauline at Yarns on Collie.
A couple of weeks later, I bought a ball each of alpaca kid luster in Brew and Soho summer cotton in ... mystery colour. Oh wait here is a ball band: DK summer cotton in Eclipse.

I did a swatch, all well and good after going down a couple of needle sizes. Forgot to write down what needle size I got gague with. Ripped out the swatch and set it all aside until I had some spare cash to drop on yarn.

Skip forward a month or two.... Go and by lots of yarn from the lovely Pauline. None of my dye lot left, oh well,wasn't really expecting there to be after so long. Got the yarn at 20% off which made me so happy I went and bought a whole lot more yarn to bump up my stash.

Then I had to swatch again, after not writing down the results of the first one. I have just finished getting gague on my 7mm addi Clicks, which sounds vaguely like what I got the first time around. This is three needle sizes smaller then the pattern recommends. I am not that pattern experienced yet, I don't really know how my gaugue matches with other peoples, but that seems like a BIG jump to me. Whatever.

So now to the cast on...

Well it's a start...

A blog. How very modern. I feel frighteningly self-conscious and yet strangely like I am suddenly "with it". Playing with the big kids now. We shall see. Why did I start it? I wanted to tell someone that I managed to order a Phat Fiber box and that I am now very excited. Mister isn't online, so I though I'd tell cyberspace instead. More to follow.