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