Hello Birthday Girl!
heaps and heaps and heaps!
enjoy your breakfast!
Filed under: chit-chat | Tags: lemon tree, streamer, weather, wednesday, wind
A green streamer caught in the branches of the lemon tree in my yard.
Huh, pardon? Why yes, I am obsessed with the weather. Why do you ask?
Grey Gretel is finished. Complete. Done. Blocking as I type. When I tried her on to take photos she was perfect. Let’s hope blocking only increases her perfection.
Pattern: Gretel by Ysolda
Yarn: Naturally Harmony- 2 skeins
Modifications: used 10 ply yarn so added another pattern repeat (16 stitches)
I love everything about this experience. While Red Gretel let me down, Grey Gretel was all about love. Love the yarn (sooo soft), love the pattern (sooo clever). G.G inspires me to frog R.G. and start again, this time with one strand and and extra pattern repeat. Three in a row! Gotta be a record.
Presents from me, to me!
(Although, it is cheaper for the ‘giftee’ if a second party plays the ‘gifter.’ Results may, however, be a wee bit unpredictable.)
I ditched class and a lecture to come home and find these on my doorstep. I love mail!
Filed under: chit-chat
I’m sitting on the couch in my pajamas watching ‘So You Think You Can Dance Australia’ thinking about what I’m going to do with the tips I got from work this weekend. I’ve been ordering a few knitting related things off the ‘net lately so obviously the idea buying more of this is waaaay appealing. But here’s the thing, I’ve just bought, in the last week 2 different ‘brands’ of pink lace-weight merino (still waiting for delivery, I love delivery). The colours aren’t the same, but they’re still both pink and both the same weight. I’ve never even used lace yarn before, but it’s the only type of yarn (apart from sock) that I can justify buying without having a project in mind. Annnnyway, back to the point I’m wondering if I should use this money (only about 50 bucks) to buy more yarn or if maybe I should save it for something else….
Wait, rewind, that was a stupid question. All I really need to ask is what yarn and how much…
I had a shitty day at work, but then I got to knock off an hour early. So I comforted myself with the thought that by the time I got home Red Gretel would be dry from blocking and ready to go into the world.
Firstly Red Gretel was not dry. After our week long heatwave it has been freezing! So R.G was not dry. I try to dry it with the hair-dryer, because I had my heart set on having this freaking project off my hands. I had promised myself that I couldn’t start my new project until the two projects I was making for my friend were done, so Gretel stiffed me first in this way.
Second she’s huge! Cop an eyeful of this…
I know Megan asked for a slouchy hat, but this is ridiculous. This realisation brought me no joy, and certainly didn’t lift my mood. So instead i turned to my recent delivery.
*sigh* isn’t she beautiful, and she came in a 4-pack. This is the yarn for my Tangled Yoke Cardigan. Bendigo Woollen Mills Colonial 8 ply in Cherry. Ah, look I’m just happy to get stuff in the mail. I ordered this on Wednesday and it arrived on my doorstep before I left for work at 10am on Friday. Now that’s service. But all this speedy service does me no damn good if I can’t cast-on yet because I haven’t finished the other damn projects! Argh!
I’m trying to felt Red Gretel in the washing machine as I type. At first I was worried that it would end up too small, but after the last 3 look-ins I’m beginning to worry that it wont felt at all.
Curse you Red Gretel, curse you.
So I’m sitting at my desk ’studying,’ it’s raining on my clean washing, the light from my lamp is warm, and it is a perfect kind of afternoon.
Making it even more perfect is the news that my copies of Vogue knitting that I ordered a couple of days ago from here have been shipped. I freakin’ love packages, letters, mail of all kinds.
And I took the plunge. I ordered the yarn for Tangled Yoke Cardigan. I think it was free shipping as well! I don’t know how that worked but $0.00 is what the invoice said. Ace! Bonus is that the company and I are in the same state! The same country! So hopefully delivery wont take too long. Now that all the wheels are in motion I’m kinda getting excited about it. Pity my credit card isn’t sharing my enthusiasm. Naughty naughty. At least I’m not spending the bank’s money on crack or hookers. They should be happy.
Filed under: knitting
I absolutely love cardigans. I wear them all the time. I have glasses so pulling jumpers over my head is a pain and they provide interest by layering. All in all a versatile item. However, along with my love comes fear (doesn’t it always). Like any relationship, I’m scared of getting hurt. I have never knitted an item of clothing. There, I said it. Accessories, yes, garments, no. I’m afraid of how the relationship will end so I never let them begin.
But, I think I’m ready. I have two potential suitors in mind. The Tangled Yoke Cardigan and Bridie.
I have already got the pattern for Tangy (pet name! oh see how the affection deepens, please let it be the one!) however, I think I’d have to buy a book to get Bridie now, rather than buying it off Anna’s Site. This may be a deciding factor, as will gauge because I’ve already picked (but not bought, that would be committing) the yarn.
This is Bendigo Woollen Mills Colonial 8ply in Cherry. The more I look at the colour the more I like it. Since I tend to only wear black, white, or their bastard child, grey, I think a cherry red (pink?) cardigan over a white top and under a grey jacket will be just the right splash.
It appears that I may have made up my mind a while ago, I’ve just been waiting to catch up emotionally.
I think I may be ready to give love a chance.
Today Grey Gretel and I went into the city to get some books from Uni for an essay. She seemed to really appreciate the little (not in size) surprises one finds around the grounds.
Entrance to the car park under the South Lawn. (ohhhhh!)
I had expected campus to be dead, being holidays and all, but as I walked up through one of the main entrances there seemed to be people everywhere. Walking up the steps onto the South Lawn I started to notice amongst the students, who looked like they belonged there, people with headsets, who didn’t. Further along were the cranes and reflectors, more headsets, a portable coffee department and big white trucks full of equipment. I have absolutely no idea what was going on, I guess someone was filming something. I was a wuss and didn’t want to ask someone. Stupid! Now I really want to know.
Mid-semester break began on Friday, only three weeks into semester. Stupid easter, why are you so early this year! The majority of this free time has so far been knitting dedicated, to the detriment of my Uni reading.
My crazy knitting fun times itinerary has up to now included…
- Massive amounts of time spent Ravelry-researching yarns, patterns, yarns for patterns, and modifications made to patterns, until my eyes crossed.
- Ordered Vogue Knitting Winter 2006/7 and Winter 2007/8. A plethora of pentagon pieced projects will soon be in my knitting basket. Including this, this and this. Is it me or is some weird geometry based trend being explored here?
- Picking yarn and colour for Eunny Jang’s “Tangled Yoke Cardigan”.
- More Ravelry- Photographing and cataloging my entire stash . Since it mostly consists of leftover sock yarn from various glove type projects, this took about, oh, a millisecond.
In more knitting related news: Feather and Fan scarf version two is finished! woo! I started it before a Christmas visit to Tassie. Only took almost three months, that’s bloody record time!
Red Gretel is basically finished. Ends to be sewn it, blocking etc. She’s really slouchy…like really. A hippy would lose their dreads in it. But my friend seems happy with it, so I continue on. A day after I finished Red Gretel I went out a bought gorgeous grey yarn (Naturally Harmony 10ply) for my very own version! Gauge was off so I’ve cast on an extra 16 stitches (one pattern repeat) to bring it up to size. Here’s hoping I’ve got a wee head!
Now if only I would apply this much effort to my studies…
