Yarnivorous

G'day all! Blogger is being totally whacko at the moment. Half the blogs I look at have been flagged for objectionable content (including my own coloradoan dreaming/victorian on the move, though I did link to a piece about keeping the bush natural) but like Bea's blog? Come on! Anyway, I just wanted to pop in and wave as I run around trying to finish things and tidy things and get everything ready for our trip. Last week I had an FO to show you but never got round tuit... DH's new socks. These are knitted in Crazy Zauberball ( details on Ravelry). The yarn is fairly typical of German sock yarns in its feel but has been spun in such a way that one ply is "rainbow" coloured and the other ply goes through orange, red, green, blue and brown (in the yarn I used). (Pretty much every pic of thse was fuzzy - no idea why!) I used a 5 X 1 broken rib - 5 X 1 cos at the top you can used a 2 X 1 rib. I did mention I knitted these toe up? And used a slip stitch heel. I us...

G'day again all! Gotta share these links with you. I randomly came across two articles in the media that discuss the same thing in different contexts - how our poor brains, when faced with disaster, decide to go "la la la, I'm not listening/seeing/thinking about that!" which then means that we do pretty much exactly the wrong thing for the situation. It also explains why we won't do much about climate change. Sci Am has contributed a few fantastic articles: Coeliac disease as a model for auto-immune disease. How do autoimmune diseases (eg rheumatoid arthritis, crohn's disease, type 1 diabetes, coeliac disease, MS) arise? Are chemicals in our environment changing the expression of our genes? Why is that important? (Epigenetics is totally fascinating!) Is perfectionism good or bad ? Nature News has an article suggesting that there are neurons specific for itch but not pain. Gosh I'll be happy if that is true and if there is a drug that can silence ...

Ooh, whilst I think of it, the Maker Faire is nearly here. Anyone (localish) going? 505 off tickets for groups of 10 or more! That sounds good but I don't know if everyone has to enter at the same time (which might not be so good cos if we are coming from near and far...). I have to get rid of some links too. I might make one of these rag bath mats after I finish the current rag rug. I will use tshirts not sheets. Sheets are useful material! This person knits almost exactly as I do. I wonder if her purling is the same too? Mmm, gluten-free yummies! A little bit of fun with old advertisements by the creator of My First Dictionary (did I already link musty moments?). BTW the 13th of May's First Dictionary is brilliant. ROFL. Hallmarks of Felinity . Need I say more? Someone else's sweet potato and dog story, linked here . This should be big news. Diabetes type II cured by gastric bypass surgery. Maybe there is a hormone involved? Not that I'll be lining up...

G'day all! Last Sunday, I took my first ever knitting class. Yes you heard aright - my first ever knitting class. Why don't I take classes usually? Well many of them cover things I already know how to do and they cost money too. I am cheap (but not easy!) and have learned to do things by figuring them out from written instructions, pictures or even the odd you tube. But this class was going to teach me some stuff about sleeves that I could not easily figure out myself. It was going to show me how to do sleeves from the top down. And I figured that was well worth paying for. I only enrolled on Friday - I figured that since there was one spot left, it was fated that I should do that class. And I did. And it was good and I learned how to do sleeves from the top down. Lorna Miser has spent a fair whack of time working out how to do the sleeve cap from the top down and should benefit from it, so I am not going to say how we did it! The weird blue thing shows the sleeve caps an...

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! Recently I've been doing something a little different. Ta-dum! Do you love how wrinkly they are? At least you can tell they are 100% cotton. Why iron them if you are about to crumple them up in a bag? (The first one that I made plenty of mistakes on though it is one of my favourites and first in use!) If I make some to sell then I'll iron them. But not before. I've had fun with the fancy stitches on the sewing machine - some fish skeletons for the blue cat bag: and some pretties for the pretty bag. I *really* like the print on that bag - I want to get more of the fabric to make a summer top for me! They are a bit wonky yet but I am not fussed. They are for me! Oh and they are not all finished - I need to do a little hand finishing and couldn't find any of the needles I have, not a single one! Hasn't stopped me from using them. I've also made a few flannelette pillowcases cos I had some material and I do love soft warm fuzzy pillowcases. I do...

G'day all! After not being able to count to two yesterday, today I started taking pics of the commissioned cardigan. I thought they could be some eye candy. Nice pictures showing the never ending stretches of stocking stitch before steam blocking: And after steam blocking: (I now have an iron, bought mainly cos I can't do good sewing without one to press seams and stuff - fingers just were not cutting it!.) Pics that showed the fashion shaping of the sleeve head. Umm, hang on a tick, let's look at that a little more closely. Do you see what I see? Crap, poo and bottom. Someone decided to k2tog rather than ssk. Not just once, either. Nope she did it a few times. I then discovered that yarn really unwrinkles well when held over a steaming kettle. In other news, I've been doing a heap of dyeing recently. Lots of Kroy, which means I an do self-striping sock yarn and not have to charge $28 for it on Etsy. You guys will get to see it first, then it goes to Etsy. Not th...

G'day again all! I've gotta get rid of some links. None of them are fibre links, so totally OT If this doesn't worry you, nothing will. Just hold still whilst we get some x-rays of your hands as you rip the tape off the roll.... Wonder if sales of sticky tape will drop now? Two stories on photo - voltaics . Remember how plastic is non-conductive? Well that second story makes one think again. The most bizarre (and teensy) walking house . Could helmet hair drive climate change? Would helmet hair stop you from cycling? I've washed a whole bunch o fleece now and is it luscious! I would roll around in it if it was dry. I feel like I've Made Progress on it, except I have a whole bunch more to go, like at least another 10 lb.. Now only if the UPS man would show up with my box... Speak of the devil, he just did! Is it sexist to say UPS man given that I've never seen a female UPS delivery person?) Now I can find out what is in the box! LOL anon!

G'day all! Shop Hop, Day Three The day dawned grey and icky looking. No rain - it shouldn't rain here for another while yet, or so I am told. It's been six months since it rained properly. Anyway, my ride showed up and we went to do a tour of the southern yarn shops. Can I just say after two days of shop hopping, the spirit and the body were definitely flagging? The Continental Stitch in not Gilroy, umm, Morgan Hill was an interesting place. They have definitely set themselves up as a boutique shop. They had some cute stuff there - a mix of high end and Berocco synthetic yarns. I once again managed to get away without doing any damage to the visa card.... Then we whizzed down to Carmel by the Sea. I wish I had taken more pics of the place. It was full of cars all over the quaint little streets, galleries, exclusive shops, the sort of place I think my other aunt in law would love. There were people *everywhere*. The yarn shop there, Knitting by the Sea, was cute b...

G'day all! No pics of FOs today. I have to find one of the socks that was completed before we moved. I also have to find its unmate that was made after we moved. Ahem. Instead I will divert you with pictures of sock yarn pr0n. This would be a spoiler for the current STR club selection except if you haven't got the yarn and patterns by now, you really should give them/the post a prod. I know that not everyone loves pastels, including Tina at Blue moon Fiber Arts. But I love them. Light blue, pink, mauve and light green all look lovely on me - being pale and blonde I am best suited to blue and pink-based colours. Yellows and peaches look atrocious on me, as do any of the yellow-based and tinted colours. But this yarn, droollllll... Mmm, yummy! It reminds me of Fruit Tingles, my lolly (candy) of choice Back 'Ome. Just you wait until you see the pattern! It is a perfect marriage of lolly with lolly. Of course I cast on after the madness of moving finished. Then I real...

G'day all! It has been another big day here at the Minute Mansion (all 750 sq feet of it!). We are *still* unpacking. Today I rode a whole 3.5 miles (or 5.5 kays) to a localish Target, into a headwind (the sea breeze) with the bike trailer bouncing merrily along behind me. First though I went to the material shop (fabric) to see if I could find some lightweight cotton voile for making curtains out of - our place isn't exactly private, though it is dark. Nope! unless I want navy or red. Ack. Those might be my footy team's colours but they won't help keep the space light and open.... So I bought some pretty cotton crochet yarn instead (at another shop). I'll prolly knit it on largeish needles to make some quick and cheap and overall LIGHTweight curtains so we don't have to have the blinds pulled all the time. Then I did the credit card some damage at Target. I bought chrome shelving and a pine shoe shelf. We so need places to put stuff. I bought "s...

G'day all! Mmmmm, spinning Blue Moon Fiber Arts Sheep to Shoe, though not yet socked/shoed. It is darker but to show the colours off I had to photograph it in the sun. This is one of the Raven series but I threw the label out without thinking... A story about William Shatner in my old local newspaper. The link will die sooner or later... An esoteric story (for most of you) about the top 50 Australian albums of the last 50 years. I'm an Aussie and there are bands I've never heard of in there.... An interview with jms (don't read if you don't know who he is). A freaky life mask of Andreas Katsulas/G'Kar . Freaky cos as always with life masks, you expect the eyes to open and the mouth to start talking... even though it is a copy of a person who is now dead. A pretty sunset from about two weeks ago, before the smoke set in. NorCal has been having terrible bushfires . Lots of places have been burning and it isn't really fire season yet. (We come from a...

G'day all! I have LOTS of projects happening at the moment. There are two secret projects (one of which is not knitting!), I'm working on our "garden" such as it isn't (ivy and petty spurge infested), I have a jacket to finish knitting from last year - I nearly had it finished and then I realised that it was somewhat shorter than I wanted it to be (ie scraping my hip when I wanted it to be butt length) - still tidying up the place and finding places for everything, I bought some old tshirts at the Salvos yesterday to cut up into strips to make into rag rugs (prolly crocheted and can I just say that the local Salvos op/thrift shop is a flashback to the bad old days of op shops).... So due to overwhelming projectitis, I give you LINKMANIA! Not only do echidnas hibernate but they use latrines ! Never thought of this one - smoking a joint is much more dangerous than smoking a cigarette! And it rots your gums (and I ain't talking trees or chewy here either). M...

G'day all! I got my latest Socks That Rock club installment yesterday. Can I just say this is the only one this year that I've gone OMG, I MUST knit these socks! Others are nice but these? Already on the needles... Can I also say that they are evil evil b@stards too? In the bag with the yarn, I saw a spider. A plastic spider. Yeah yeah, whatever. After all Halloween is coming up and spiders (fake and real) and booglies are everywhere here. (They are trying to find warm places for winter. As long as the spider is not a black widow/katipo/red back, I mostly let them live, or shove them outside.) So I put my hand into the bag to grab the most droolsome yarn, a different spider wriggled in a most life-like way. I nearly hit the roof! LOL I would show you a picture but I most foolishly upgraded my computer last weekend. I didn't realise that the new version had only been released that day. What a STUPID idea! Whose dumb idea was that? I had hoped it would fix some...