Yarnivorous

G'day all! These are not the ugly socks. These are the unJaywalkers I made, toe up, short row heel. I hope the yarn softens up after I wash the socks cos at the moment they are prickly. I am the sort of person whom the YarnHarlot would despair over, as I can't wear wool against my skin. Soft sock yarns are ok on my feet but not coarse wool. There are some prickly bits in the Hot Socks wool. Now here are the uglee-est socks in the world! I dare you to find anything more horrid. This photo was taken at 7pm or so and this one an hour and a half later. I have to say the yarn is very easy to knit, but the progression of colours in the toe is just awful. Waaay too much yellow. After I put in the line for the afterthought toe, I did a little slip stitch to see what happened then, also cos that is the spot where I wear out my socks most. That looks much nicer, though the rows are very compressed. I am now trying again, with a SockBug pattern (lacy scallops) just to see if it...

G'day all! This stuff kept falling from the sky today. It rained and rained and rained. We ended up with 20mL of rain. Of course we had pulled the cladding off the garage... Not much knitting time today. Much sadness. Instead I drove Nathan around places and managed to avoid buying Even More Yarn That I Don't Need at Spotlight - they have some good prices on their novelty yarns, and am I a sucker or what? Plus we had an adventure at a different rubbish dump. Never going back to that one. They charged us double for the privilege of getting bogged. You oughta try pushing an 1800 kilo (4000 lb) car out of a boggy patch. You can read all about it at our new house blog. (hope I got the url right!) Anyway, I've promised pics of the secret project. Those of you allergic to novelty yarns, look away now. Ta-dum! It's a cocoon? No, it's a curly whirly scarf! The "latest" thing in England. With beads in the cast on and cast off edge, just to give it a ...

G'day all! It was really odd today. It had been hot and steamy all day. Then a big thing came over the sun and obscured it: And then this STUFF fell from the SKY and it was really yucky and like my car was being sprayed with a firehose or something. We were trapped in the car as our neighbour M laughed at us from the shelter of his verandah. It was really like someone was throwing buckets of water on the car. We couldn't even open the window cos the stuff came straight in. There was stuff in the thing I seem to recall is called a, ummm, a rain gauge? And these pools of stuff formed on the footpath and the drain clagged up and it was all WRONG! But I knitted more sock and it was all ok again. (Pic not clickable) This is the second sock - I couldn't find the other sock but I did finish all but the weaving in of the ends last night. Ah, something finished! Random bits: Cheshire hates the airconditioner. It scares her. The smoke just added to the effect. If we turn t...

G'day all! Well it's been another stinker of a day but I am finally on the cuff of one of the socks. Hooray! One of the cats has been howling almost non-stop and she keeps trying to get us to go out of the house. She leads us to the back door if we stand up and if we don't move, she wails non-stop at us. Me-OW! PRMWOW! PRRRMWOW! Meeeowwwww! Meow! PRMWOW! MWOW! Mwow? We finally worked out the problem - it is smokey. She is saying DUDES, get OUT OF THE HOUSE before we all BURN AND DIE HORRIBLY! Stupid hand that feeds, get out of the house! Why won't you listen to me? LISTEN TO ME! GET OUT OF HERE BEFORE WE ALL DIE! Our house is not on fire but the smoke from the fires in Kinglake north of the city (about 50km away) is really upsetting the cat. The other cat is like whatever - it's hot. I wanna find a cool place to lie down. Still no pics. Bad me. Hmm.... What do I have ready to go. A month ago, before we moved out of the old house, I found I had a lo...

and more importantly my lungs and makes me feel wheezy. Not Weasley (just as well cos Ron is underage yet). G'day all! I would say Happy Australia Day but we aren't into celebrating this day, not as much as the government would like us to. Most of us are happy to get a day off, but the retailers int he big shopping centres have to work. The rest of us get to slack. One of my (non-Australian born) friends didn't even know we had this day off but any Aussie worker will be able to tell you the next day off they have (and I don't mean the weekends). Well the tribunal is over and done. Thanks for yur concern and good wishes - it is nice ot see a bigger world than this one. We both lost - they didn't get the money they wanted, we didn't get to run off scott free either. Still it is done and after I pony up some money tomorrow, it is over. Forgotten, but the lesson has been learned. And the landlord, even though the house hasn't sold in four months, still e...

G'day all! This is going to be a loooooong post. At last the much feared day is almost upon me. Hooray! I am sick of waiting for this day and Nathan's insomnia is not helping much. We have both been pondering the $1600 mattress that we lay upon last Sunday and wondering if it would be better to sleep on than a $200 futon that Nathan has squashed flat.... Like hello! I can see we will be going back to get that mattress, or a new unlaid upon version of it. It was sooo comfy. Oops, diverted by thoughts of deep sleep upon a comfortable bed. A bed with double pocketed springs individually wrapped and a bed that when Nathan moves, I don't feel seasick from the ripples. Ahhhhhhh. Anyway, I've been accumulating a few bits and bobs over the last while. I am having a bit of a bead gathering time, as you can tell from the pics that follow. Now not all of those beads are to my taste but the necklaces cos $5 each and have some nice beads in them, more than $5 worth, and the...

G'day all! I have so much to tell you and so little time to say anything! I might be moving to a new server shortly cos we finally have our own server! Yay! I might even be able to install a moveable type sorta blog writer thingie whatsit. Only problem is Nathan does not have a computer so we are sharing this blast-ended skrewt. Nathan is catlike - he is not interested in something until I want to use it and then.... So I am getting an hour a night to play rather than unlimited time. So because I am busy, I am going to point you at other websites and let you rip there instead :-) Carole is running a stashalong called Buy More Yarn - none of these yarn diets for these bloggers! An amusing article about knitting taggers - it's better than grafitti! Spinning reaches the New York Times . Don't want to go in the Knitting Olympics? Margene has an alternative . Anyone got any suggestions for a challenging sock knit? Fair isle or lace, in normal sock weight so I can get ...

G'day to my Aussie mates! Here's some little pics you can download onto your own server if you are part of the Yarn Harlot's Knit Olympics. No hotlinking! This means save them to your own machine and/or server to put them on your page! Remember to right click on them and select save as or save image if you run Windoze. mac users - you know what to do and any people running Linux should know how to save images by now! anon!

G'day all! Jessie tagged me! I haven't been tagged in ages, which is good. Being tagged is good once in a while, but being tagged four times in a week is not so much fun. That hasn't happened for ages. Four Jobs You Have Had In Your Life: 1) training and research consultant (present) 2) claims assessor 3) random dogsbody at social security (ASO-1 - I love what you can do to that designation) 4) ummmm - no other real jobs, just casual stuff. Four Movies You Could Watch Over and Over 1) Star Wars (A New Hope, any of the first trilogy) 2) The Princess Bride 3) Galaxy Quest 4) Blade Runner. (Geeky? Moi? :-D) Four Places You Have Lived 1) Melbourne (Ringwood) 2) Melbourne (Clayton, south side of the highway) 3) Melbourne (Clayton, north side of the highway) 4) Melbourne (Noble Park) Why move around when it is all here, baby! Four TV Shows You Love to Watch Umm, erp, well I haven't been watching lots of TV recently. 1) Babylon 5 (on DVD) 2) Gardening Australia 3) Dr Wh...

G'day all! Look at this forecast and weep. After nearly three weeks when it only twice hit 30, it looks like summer is back! Socks are looking real good as things to knit this weekend, and on Sunday I think I'll go hang out in some air-conditioned shops, assuming it hasn't broken down again.... Alas I can think of no air-conditioned yarn shops, and certainly they won't be open on Sunday. (Oh those temperature are in celcius, so think 90s to low 100s, and somewhere in the 70s overnight) anon! -- Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology Victoria P.O. Box 1636 Melbourne Vic 3001 http://www.bom.gov.au Forecast for Melbourne Issued at 0505 on Friday the 20th of January 2006 Friday Partly cloudy. Showers and thunderstorms, locally severe, developing in the morning and persisting during the afternoon. Fresh northerly winds then seabreezes developing later in the afternoon. Max 35 Suburban Temperatures Laverton Max 35 Yarra Glen Max 35 Tullamarine M...

G'day all! Is anyone else dithering over the Yarn Harlot's Olympic challenge? I am soooo in, but like what am I going to make? I am all of a dither! I would like to do something I haven't done before but until next week I won't know how much time I'll have. You see this time next week, we'll know the outcome of the rental dispute we are embroiled in. Maybe we'll have to do lots of work at the old place, maybe we won't. One of my friends is going to do an amazing laceweight shawl. I won't be, simply because I do other things than knit in my spare time. However, I would like to make a pair of these butterfly wings socks - I have not made real lace socks before. Then I thought I should do fair isle socks, or aran socks. Socks socks and socks cos whilst they would be a challenge, I have knitted a pair of plainish socks in 8 days before, so fancy socks in 16 days should be doable? I have done both fair isle and intarsia before (one day I'll...

G'day all! The other day I asked you to spot the odd man out. It is a lonely little purple petunia in the middle of the zinneas (and some white flower - stock?): There are some sharp eyes amongst you! Here's a little something that I've been working on recently. Only thing is I prefer it inside out to right way in. I like the way the colours blob up - lots of people hate pooling but I love it. Plus it is a bit tight around the old ankle, inside out or right way out. The pattern makes a firm fabric, and the yarn is already not exactly stretchy. (Mental note to self - take pics from the toe angle, not the ankle cos my ankles really are not HUGE GINORMOUS thick piano things - I have quite a well turned ankle if I do say so myself. And I do.) Anyone guess what pattern it is, modified to be toe up with short row heel? I might make the next one a few stitches wider across the sole - my left foot says the sock is fine, but my right says it is a bit tight. A couple of you like...

G'day all! Well I am sorta lacking inspiration for blogging today - something to do with two late nights in a row (we saw Narnia last night and got home after midnight). So I was happy to see a link on Dreamcatcher's site that took me off to the garnstudio. Then I followed a link that shows their designs for summer 2006 (a summer which we are already experiencing here in Oz). I am knitting Yet Another Sock. You'll see a pic eventually. Plus I bought some Opal that will stripe up in orange with white spotty stripes for nathan. He likes orange, he likes it a LOT. I've joined two count your socks groups recently but I haven't put the buttons on my sidebar yet - I've been a bit busy cleaning up the house and yard (ie finding new and inventive places to put stuff) in preparation for a visit by most of Nathan's closest rellies. The rellies came and went and now we are left with half a dozen cups to wash and then we have to choof on up to Nathan's pare...

G'day all! Yesterday evening I opened a lovely parcel from Wendy . It was fabulous timing cos you may know a bit of you-know-what is hitting the circular air circulation device around here at present. Here's a pic of Cheshire celebrating the arrival of some most excellent handpaintedyarn.com merino tops in forest green and gold! Almost the national colours of Australia :-) And a gratuitous shot of the fleecey goodness: and one of Cheshire too: Thank you, Wendy! It is lovely! Did I promised anyone some photos of some almost finished objects yesterday? Well here is a pair of socks made out of some german cotton. I lost the label ages ago. I love the colours - I am a bit of an aqua/teal/seagreen/turquoise freak. Those colours of tropical waters or even just clear water on white sands make me drool (almost literally). I knitted the first sock in about November last year then didn't knit the second one for another 14 or 15 months. Now all I have to do is find the yarn n...

G'day all! Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to the tribunal we go.... We've been served with notice, so on 25 January at 2pm we are there. Scared witless and something else-less too but we won't hold back (it's hard to hold back on the something-else-less - it tends to makes its presence known....). Plus we have a couple of exhousemates who will provide statements or may even be there in person. It will be interesting. Now to make up for the fact I've been very distracted by these events and have forgotten to take pics of any knitting for days, how about I give you long promised pics from Wendy Dennis' place instead? Plus I'll slip in a couple of photos from my brother's place too. He is 14 years older than me and has lived in his house for nearly 10 years now, so his garden is a bit ahead of mine. You'll probably notice some similarities though. Tarndwarncoort was founded by Alexander Dennis in the 1840s out on the plains west of Melbourne between W...