Crafternoon Tea Party

Well isn’t this a surprise! I actually made something! It was a friend’s birthday on Sunday so I thought I would make her something for a gift. She makes chunky beaded bracelets and she likes to draw skulls, hearts and stars on every available surface, including people if you stand still long enough. So combining these two hobbies, we have skull and heart beads!

Inspired by all the etsy sculpey and fimo users and their fab creations.

I spent a relaxing afternoon watching The Office (British version) on dvd and getting brown lint and fingerprints embedded permanently into their little baked bony heads. I like to think of it as character, spotty, graying, slightly hairy, character. It is the little things, like lint and fingerprints that give an item that hand-made feel. Some might call that unfinished, or unprofessional, or poor quality. But I prefer to call it ‘the personal touch.’

These are simply brimming with ‘the personal touch,’ which thankfully can’t really be noticed from a distance. I think she liked them…

On Monday I went to Wondoflex to get needles for my Tangled Yoke Cardigan, and what’s a girl supposed to do but browse? This is my end of semester present to myself, one ball of Noro Kureyon sock yarn. I found a variety of these hidden up the back with all the self-striping sock yarns, but as far as I’m concerned this is in a whole different class. The colours are so beautiful and they make me think of ponds and waterlilies, sort of in a Monet kind of way, but brighter.

I purchased this one ball, some circular needles, hopped on a tram to a friend’s place, and immediately cast on 30 stitches and swatched my little heart out. Even though I know I’m going to unravel it and start again, I can’t stop knitting my little (but increasingly larger) garter stitch swatch. The colours! I just want to see the next colour!

I did a lot of reading about this yarn and it does feel quite stiff on the ball, but it softens as its worked and I can only imagine that it gets better with wash and wear. I even love the way the yarn goes from thick to thin, which gives simple garter stitch texture and interest. (I am a little bit obsessed with the flexibility of garter stitch, it works with everything! Plus the mindlessness = yay! Or nay, depending on your mood I guess.)

All I know is that I want this to be a scarf. As I see it I have a few options…

(1) Plain garter stitc

(2) 1×1 rib

(3) A selection of large garter mitered (mitred?) squares sewn together

(4) Garter stitch log cabin squares same as above

(5) Bias garter stitch

Oh why can’t I decide!

I will have wide, extremly colourful (but thinnish) scarf, gosh darnit. I will!

…because it’s almost the end of semester and as things continue to get more and more frantic the state of my mind, my house, my laundry basket, and, I suspect, this page, will all get seriously out of control. In fact I’m afraid it’s already too late for the laundry basket. So, really, it’s just a matter of time before all the others fall by the wayside and I’m shuffling around Uni in grimy track pants and baggy undies, eating too much take away and muttering to myself.

So I’m really looking forward to some time off in June because I’m itching to finally get around to casting on for the Tangled Yoke Cardigan, and looking forward to finally tidying up and organising this little internets spot ‘o mine. So yeah, basically it’s a mess, and I plan on tidying it all up, and in that way I guess it’s a pretty accurate reflection of my life as a whole!

I can’t wait for the holidays…

Laminaria is finished. And I don’t quite know how I feel about it. Well, it’s more that I do know how I feel, it’s just that I feel about a freakin’ bahjillion different things at once. I’m happy to have such a beautiful F.O., but I loved the process so much that I’m sad, almost mourning the fact that it’s over. Happy, sad, frustrated, exhilarated, no wonder people love to knit lace, it’s an emotional roller-coaster. Yes, it was frustrating at times, but after all that frustration came excitement! fun! and now that the journey is over, I really miss all the drama!

On top of all of that I know that this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship between lace knitting and I. My time with Laminaria is at an end, but there will be others, oh yes, there will be others…

I’ve been wearing it as a scarf everyday, to work, to Uni. Every now and again I take it off, look at it, sigh, and then try wearing it a different way. I find this endlessly satisfying.

I’m easily amused.

.–Yo! It’s tha Specs!–

Pattern: Laminaria from knitty.com

Yarn: 1 ball of Jaggerspun Zephyr wool/silk in Mahogany.

Needles: 3mm bamboo circulars (LIFESAVERS- if I had to continue to deal with slippery lace weight and metal needles…It…Not…End…Pretty!)

Size: The little one. Shoulderette.

Time: One month and ten days.

It had never occurred to me to knit a lace shawl/stole for myself before but this was love at first sight. It’s the curving, botanical forms, the large teardrops in the border, the blossoms, the sweeping bat’s wing shape, OH, stop me now! *sigh* I never tire of looking at it.

Mods ‘n stuff: I added an extra repeat of the blossom chart and had about 80m of yarn left over. It wasn’t a difficult pattern to follow. Yes, I did come unstuck a couple of times, but I blame myself entirely, not the pattern. Pattern not hard, knitter stoopid.

Final words on the subject? Love, love love! Love the pattern, love the yarn, love the result!

(it was really windy today)

Proper pics and the whole sordid story when she’s dry and I have the time.

So… I’d say about 2010.

*sigh*

Hello there little fella!

This is Hearty McHearts-alot of the McHearts-alot clan of south-eastern Melbourne. We met him briefly last post. He came to stay with me a few days ago because I need someone to help me study. So far, not so good. All he’s done is sit there staring at me with his judging little eyes. He can’t even answer basic grammar and spelling questions! But, despite this and his two-packs-a-day smoking habit he is pretty good company.

*sigh* back to my essay.

PS- How cool are the colours in that pic? They’re the sort of colours I want in my new apartment when I move out of this place in……. November. Is it jumping the gun a bit to start looking at decorative items and furnishings in April/May? I’m just excited!

yes, yes, the rumors are true, we are back together. Trust is still an issue, as you can see from the amount of life-lines I’ve kept in, but over time all wounds will heal.

I’m nearly up to the border. It’s been pretty uneventful but rewarding to knit since the ‘incident’ (see post below). Learning to relax and not take it too seriously has been a part of that. Now I’m giddy with love love love love love!

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love!

I thought I had it figured out, I thought I was the one in control, but no, no I was not.

I’ve been working on the Laminaria shawl for over two weeks. That’s two weeks of at least an hour a day on the train knitting, re-knitting, changing yarn and starting again, and still I haven’t even gotten through the transition chart.

It was after midnight on Friday night, I was knitting while waiting for the train home after work. I had, the day before, ripped back to my last life-line (placed halfway through the transition chart) because I didn’t like the way I’d fudged a row earlier due to random extra stitches. But at this point it was all under control, I finally understood what was keeping me from completing that section, I was making progress people! The shawl was moving forward and it was exhilarating! I was two rows away from the blossom chart and new territory when it happened. There I was, charging along on a purl row, ready for the new challenges ahead, when I came across this…….

(the horror, the horror! what a bitch)

Yes, it is a lace shawl where holes are de rigueur, but no, that hole is not supposed to be there.

Feeling more than a little put out by this, Laminaria has been banished from my presence until I can muster up the fortitude to face her again. Shameless little hussy.

(wow, there are a lot of ‘I’s up in there!)

I bet I’d have heaps pf progress to show, perhaps even actual Finished Objects (capitalised to indicate their status as “highly sought after but unobtainable”) if only I didn’t have to study, or work, or feed myself or wear clean clothes. I do get knitting time at home sometimes, but then I have to deal with The Guilt. The Guilt is the voice that says, “you know you have tutorial reading to do, what happens if you show up and have nothing to say?” or “What about that talk you have to give on Monday? That PowerPoint presentation wont make itself.” Repeat in various forms. For example, right now, I’m supposed to be making that stupid presentation. But I’m not. Guilt!

So instead a random assortment of knitting related photos…

What a freakin’ try-hard.

Because everyone’s pictures of FOs and yarn have inspired me so much I’m trying hard (!) to catch up so, two new projects on the needles!

Anna’s Fingerless-Gloves-Based-On-Endpaper-Mitts-Pattern-But-Different gloves.

Trying to work in a snowflake pattern instead of the diamonds from the original. I was really worried about the floats being too tights so I consciously tried to relax as I worked…predictable result? My tension changed and it’s all loose and kind of uneven and yuck up the top. Also alternating colour slip stitch up either side of the purled ’seam’ stitch? Bad idea, just looks messy. At least I feel like I’m learning from my previous mistakes in that I’m not charging on blind and hopeful even though I have misgivings about how it’s going to turn out. Like most of my other projects.

next up: Laminaria Shawl

If I ever go to hell (doubtful, as I’m freakin’ awesome….. oh… hey, isn’t pride some sort of sin?), it will be some sort of knitting and frogging and knitting and frogging purgatory. The mitts above have already been started twice, and are about to be started again. Red Gretel has begun her third incarnation, and the Laminaria Shawl, well let’s just say it used to be pink, and I’ve been knitting and re-knitting it for over a week. It’s like, two steps forward and then crippled by a blow to the kneecaps. I’d love to show some sort of finished projects, but that involves finishing the damn things, at least getting past the first few rounds.

As well as all of this frustration, I have all this uni work due that keeps getting bumped aside by all this non-essential knitting biz-niz. I am truly my own worst enemy.

They say keep your friends close and your enemies closer… so I’m buying my co-operation with presents.

It’s working.