Yarnivorous

G'day all! Today I spoke to noone. Not a single human being. Not with my voice anyway. I talked to the cats, I sang a little (hooray, I am getting some ability to control my voice back after taxotere butchered me), I talked to myself, I talked to the chickens (egads they are STUPID birds - I've been feeding them for three months and only Boldie will come when I shake the bag and scatter grain... and even she won't get within a metre of me).... I trawled the net. I replied to a couple of emails and visited some new to me blogs... I sewed a whole bunch of blocks and cut some more for the new quilt. It is going to be grand I tell you! Bright and happy :-) But it is too late to get pics now, it being half an hour before midnight and all. That took all morning. Chain piecing them made me ever so happy - the brightly coloured bunting looked great. But I can't leave them as bunting - I want blocks! Before I can start putting them together I have to trim them to a co...

G'day all! Today is the second of June. (Second looks wrong but it is correct. I think. *blush* I'll blame chemo brain.) All going well, that means in 30 days I will be having my last chemo infusion. Oh please hurry oh days! I am over this! So I'd best pull my finger out and finish my chemo queen bedjacket, shouldn't I? Otherwise it won't be a chemo queen bedjacket. At the moment it looks like this: The sleeves are done, but the body has quite a number of rows to go. I've managed about another 8 rows in the last few days but I've been horribly distracted by a baby outfit for a friend who is about to pop. Only silly me is making the outfit in 4ply (fingering weight) cotton and it is taking FOREVER to do. Rather like the chemo queen bedjacket. Plus I have startitis and want to get the next shawl on the needles, but I really need to finish either the baby outfit or the bedjacket first. Only they are not for entry into a show. And then there is the ...

G'day all! Oh what a day it has been. I ate something I shouldn't have. I think. Or maybe it is the chemo. Let's just say it is gross but I am still showing a family trait of not throwing up. Plus the last couple of nights it seems that I won't sleep for more than two hours at a time and have to get up to pee a lot, and by 3:30am I may as well get up for an hour or two to deal with the spinning monkey brain and legs that want to wriggle. Now we have an extra complication. And DH is down. He has a couple of little jobs at the moment but they are not Real Jobs. I didn't realise his identity is so tightly tied to his job. Is that a boy thing? I am actually pretty good apart from the little purging issue and the lack of sleep. I went for a little bike ride to some local shops and the library yesterday, today I walked most of a kilometre. Days 6-7 of the last cycle I could hardly walk before I saw my chiro - lots of spasms and knee pain and back pain etc etc. ...

G'day again all! Having a slow day today. Yesterday was a Big Day Out (and I did most of the driving), and last night, well it seems that I shouldn't eat food that is spicy, nor should I eat chocolate later in the day! So I am now allowed to cast on for the Winter Olympics. Indeed I could've cast on nearly four hours ago (if I have my timelines correct) but nah. We've got a little time yet and I am busy knitting up squares for an afghan for the family of a friend who is no longer. What are my plans? Well I want to make a Citron out of this handspun (only I will run out of yarn before it is finished). I will call it blood orange though Dh thinks it should be called pink grapefruit. I hate grapefruit though. And a small Aeolian out of this handspun (again, probably don't have enough yarn but I may just replace the nepps with beads just to get me to the end ok) and make a personal footprint sock for DH out of this yarn (and maybe a pair of socks) and make a per...

G'day all! What a stinky rotten day it has been today! The weather is humid currently and has been for the last three or four days. We don't do humidity here, at least not warm/hot humidity. We know about cloying damp cold humidity (ie drizzle). So it is horrid and yucky and people in the south of the US or north of Oz would laugh at us for being such wusses (remember that only two weeks ago I was freezing!). I spent a lot of the day weeding our house whilst DH fixed the fence so's it won't fall over for another few years. My computer woes continue. I went to rebook our visa appointment from 9:15am on Friday to 8:15am on Thursday and their web security certificate had expired. Yep. US govt mustn't've paid its bills on time or something. Or someone forgot to renew the certificate. Anyway, no rebooking. Then I remembered that the lovely postie (mail carrier for you Americans reading this) was due to bring all our mail, including my birthday parcel of yarn,...

G'day all! I've got a bad case of startitis. This week I've cast on a new pair of socks, a scarf and a shawlette. Then I realised that I don't have a nice top to wear tomorrow night to Nathan's graduation. I've spent a day over the last couple of days galloping around looking for clothes for the graduation and also for my grandma's-on-law 90th birthday party. I've found a nice skirt and a pair of shoes and a top but the top is short sleeved and Melbourne hasn't discovered Summer yet, thank heavens, cos it is still Spring. So I bought Even More Yarn and cast on a shruggy sort of bolero-ey thing tonight. No pics cos it is in black bamboo and cotton, and it is night time. Wish me luck! I have less than 24 hours to knit a whole shrug. anon!

G'day all! I've been doing a little stash enhancement recently. Mmm, Wondoflex.... They carry Touch Yarns (NZ, luscious stuff!). I closely eyeballed the possum wool but decided I would be "good" and only buy some of the 4 ply wool in a lovely greeny pastelly lotsa colours, like I am wont to pick up. Mmmm, this is soft as soft can be. Lovely merino softly spun. Colour 208. I've already wound this into a ball and cast on a faroese shawlette (btw if anyone can tell me how to say faroese, I'd be grateful. Apparently the a is said like a German long o, which doesn't help ME much at all, what with my mad German skilz). So far I've gotten past the shoulder shaping and am putting some pattern into the body of it. I have Ideas that I will have it finished in time for Nathan's Grandma's party at the end of the week. Then there is some Grignasco "Ice Cream," though the labels look rather like these were samples rather than production ya...

G'day all! This admonishment/curse greeted me on the tram the other day: I shall continue to buy tickets for the bus/tram/train. I do not want moths devouring my woollens - moths in my stash would be disastrous! I'm a goody goody suck suck that way anyway - the idea of being hooked off the train for not buying a ticket and then getting a $200 or so fine for not buying a ticket is horrifying to me. Of course I have the wrong attitude - I should be pushing my luck and avoiding paying fares. Instead I believe that my fare helps a little and is The Right Thing To Do. Just like I think taxes are inevitable and should be paid so that everyone gets access to things like healthcare and the dole when they need them. But I'm Australian. What would I know? I have completed the heel turn on the socks 2.25 times. Yep, didn't like one of them so I ripped it out and it is working nicely this time. I really should follow the directions and not make it up out of my head. Soon...

G'day all! I have a new shop WIP. Except after three days, there is very little to show for it. Here you go. See? (After I took that photo, I ripped it back to before the first green row) Now part of the problem is I am an idjit and keep not following the pattern. More annoyingly, I've knitted a very similar pattern to this bit before - I think I keep reverting to that one... Not as if I can't knit it, I'm just not knitting it! The other part is that the designer did not think about how to make this thing knittable and instead just went PRETTY! This is SO COOL! You start off by knitting a sideways band. The sideways band has a fourteen row repeat in it (described as 4 row repeat in the pattern but there's 14 rows listed). Every few rows, there is ONE row of contrast colour. Just one. So you end up with this dangling yarn and also the main colour has to be carried somehow down the back of the contrast rows. Except every second row of contrast colour is a kn...

G'day all! Gosh we had a couple of correct guesses in last week's wotisit! Hooray! Well done chaps :-) Last week was algae, growing in Callistoga's Old Faithful geyser's pond. In this shot you can see a whole lotta little fish if you click through to Flicker and choose a bigger version: The water in the pond was nicely tepid, at least at the edges. I figured it could not be too hot (despite the boiling hot geyser erupting in the centre) cos the fish and the algae would be cooked, not doing their thang. Here's the geyser: We hope to see the "real" Old Faithful soon - DH has a week off and we are driving to Montana, and Montana is home to Yellowstone! For this week's wotisit, we have: Email your guess to natiel three one one at gmaildotcom. If you can tell me exactly what it is, not what it is generically, then you get five points not just one! I have lots of things to yap about. I seem to be working on a gazillion things at present and I've ju...

G'day all! Yesterday we did our taxes. At least we went to see the nice man who does all the tax stuff for us. Today I get a call from a rather snobbish sounding chap in head office. He was not quite rude but was not exactly courteous. Just enough to leave a bad taste in my memory of the call. There's a problem with my SSN or my surname. OK, call them, make sure they have the right details, see what happens. We rode up and back. It was only about 8 miles but oh boy! I am still knackered a day later! It *is* allergy season here - the plane trees/sycamores are all bursting into flower and leaf - and I get knocked around some by allergies but really this is ridiculous! I hav eto go and do Lots of Stuff and all I want to do is vegetate with the computer. I can veg out on the bus instead. Yesterday I also did the draw for my PSC for April. Here's the "barrel" (aka my nifty red trolley lolly lo). My arm delving into the barrel (gosh, love the way my arm looks ...

G'day all! Oh how I wish I was the truly creative sort. I've been crawling the web and the amazing things some ladies are doing.... And yes, each and every one of the crafty type blogs I read is written by a woman. The men write different sorts of blogs. I would link them all but there are sooooo many! Instead, anonymous ladies of the crafty blogs, take a bow!* You are amazing. Inspiring. Even jealousy inducing. Amazing stuff. I am incoherent with delight and jealousy! Oh how I wish I could draw *and* paint. I can copy quite well - give me a photo and a pencil/paper and I can make a reasonable, not great, facsimile of the pic but creating something new? DH says I just need to practise but what I need is the eye with which to separate dross from good. And practising would help. I'm just happily buried in knitting and spinning. (And a little bit of sewing.) I have a rather springy/eastery sock on the needles with another pattern of my design on it. Dunno if it...

G'day all! Help! My needles are on fire! I am not going to show you all the things I am working on at the moment - some are so embryonic that there is no point (eg how exciting is stocking stitch?). You'll have to trust me that I am enamoured particularly of one but the others are pretty darned fantastic too :-) I've finished most of the knitting for the Mystery Item in purple/blue. I now have to find suitable buttons for it - I think I need ones that match it precisely or are clear. I don't want buttons that stand out on it cos I think the item should be the star of the show not the buttons. Doesn't the (back of the) blocked lace look pretty held up against the light? So after I get buttons and seam the shoulders, I can knit the button bands, put the arms on and voila! A new spring cardi! (Does that tell anyone what it is yet?) This scrumptious little ball of handspun merino bamboo yarn is on its way to becoming something absolutely fantastic . Or at least ...

G'day all! I thought I should share with you the finished result of the rainbow Mini Mochi socks. Mini Mochi by Crystal Palace, colourway 101, dyelot 1 (though the two socks from two different balls are not the same) My own pattern. I will dig out the hand drawn pattern I figured out (on the back of something I picked up at Stitches, must find the paperwork!) and produce a nice chart I might even write up a pattern. I have discovered I hate writing up patterns cos I have to be very clear and I describe every step and then it ends up being pages long and possibly too complex to work out! I also have discovered I don't like my socks to be too complicated (despite what I have in my ravelry queue - you oughta see the fantastic things people have thought up!) cos socks are for knitting on buses and trains and are things to take to social knit gatherings. I don't want to have to think too hard about them. I can sit at home and be quiet and think hard - I don't want to go...

G'day all! After my swatching fest the other day, I decided to do some more swatches in a larger size to givew me more idea about how the yarn works up in the different patterns. Normally I use a sleeve or the front of a cardi as my swatch but in this case I do not have a pattern . This makes things considerably more exciting and swatches are absolutely necessary. I grabbed the four favourites from my last post and eliminated one pretty quickly in the larger swatch. The leafy type pattern - she gone! I have to say the ribby cables look absolutely fantastic. The problem with such a fitted cardi is that I don't have many fitted tshirts/etc to wear underneath it and I absolutely must have something between me and the wool on my body and any part of my neck that it touches. My arms are made of tougher stuff though if the cuffs grabbed around my wrists or rubs the crease of my elbow, they will complain too. I still like the daisy pattern, no idea why, it just appeals to me. This...