Increasing my Stash

I think I've become a bit of a Bendigo Woollen Mills fangirl. I get so excited every time they release a new yarn. When the new season's shade card arrives in the mail, I linger over it and stroke it. It's a bit sad. More than a bit sad, some might say. So when they sent me an email saying that their new release wool Bloom could be obtained at a discount price, there was no other option for me. I bought some! Along with some Classic brown and Dusky Blue from the limited edition Colonial 1984 range. I'm planning on using them in a new project that I'll tell you about soon. I think the variegated shades in the Bloom range will also look fab in my Granny Square Galore blanket. Enough with the babble now. Here they are:

Let's look at that one more time, shall we?:

Yes...... I made it mine...... *rubs hands with glee*

More New Things!

Suddenly, inspiration has struck!

I was walking around the city the other night after work, killing time while waiting to meet with someone, and I saw a lady with the most glorious scarf! I gasped; my heart started beating faster; my head span. I had to recreate this scarf! Without any input from my rational mind, my brain automatically calculated how far it was to the nearest wool store and how much time I had. Lincraft ... 650 metres ... 70 minutes. Yes!

Here is my haul:

The Halo is for the scarf. It was sort of a grid pattern with cream on one side and purple on the other, but intertwined. Tough, but I think I can visualise it. But of course I didn't stop there! The PomPom is to make a fairy-style scarf or capelet. The brown chenille is to make a forest-girl style flower brooch (and probably many other things too!). And the mint-green Fairy Floss, I bought because of this:

Yes, I bought the Spotlight pompom loom a while back, and tried it out for the first time the other day. The pink pompom is in the small size, and the blue one in the large size. I wrapped the yarn around them as many times as I humanly could, and still they came out looking, well ... limp and floppy. The pompoms I see in pictures are firm and abundant.
a la:

Mine are more like how sea anemones would look if you took them out of the water. Not happy!
I thought that using a fuzzy yarn might help to make them look plumper. That's why I bought the Fairy Floss (and I could try it with the Chenille as well.) In fact, chenille is going on my list of favourite words. =)

More updates as they happen...

New Things!

There's been a sudden flurry of crafting activity over here at Casa de la Apartmentcat.
I've finished a big project and started 2 new ones! I won't tell you about the finished project just yet, as it's still a surprise, but I'm excited about the new ones.

Firstly though, I want to share the mini-haul I got on my trip to the country on Sunday. A relaxing train trip with some lovely friends to a pretty country town, and to my delight there was a Sunday market on! (Sure, there were only 3 stalls, but I was still excited!)
I hit up the little old lady in the middle, and got these:

Here we see a knitting bag (so retro!), 3 balls of wool (one came free with the knitting bag, the others are so retro!), 2 coathangers with knitted covers (so retro!), and a knitted jumper that the lady convinced me to buy even though I'd already told her that I was going to make my own projects for my friend's baby. It was so insanely cheap that I felt really guilty. But something like that would have taken me absolutely ages to make myself. And of course I'll divulge its not-made-by-me status.

The knitting bag promptly became the project bag for the Man-Hat:

Yes, I'm making another Jayne Cobb hat! This time it's for Man. I offered to make him one for this year's Serenity screening. I believe they're normally in August, so no pressure to finish it too soon. I want to make one for myself as well, but I might play around with the colour combination.

The second new project is a baby scarf in a nice pastel yellow. I thought I'd ease myself into my baby-themed project adventures with something nice and easy:

This picture is particularly bad, sorry, but you get the idea. I'm already pondering trimming it with some pompoms perhaps? Or I might stick with the traditional tassels. I'm completely obsessed with pompoms at the moment, and looking for any excuse to make some.

Spring Cleaning

I'm in the mood to get rid of stuff, to purge, to make lists and cross things off them. Starting with my stash!

I mentioned last week that I have a list of all my yarn stash on Ravelry. I printed that out and went through it, trying to make some decisions about what to keep and what to toss before even looking at the wool. It was 9 pages. Nine pages!! A bit of a daunting task. But I was really in the mood to get it done yesterday. My ideal goal is to have all of the stash fit into our upright cupboard. This will free up a lot of the storage tubs and drawers that I have it all stuffed in. I did have some definite ideas going in: after my experience with making the Fuzzy Lavender Scarf recently, I know that one or even two balls is not enough to make anything useful. So I wanted to be ruthless with those.
Any eyelash yarn - gone! I hate that stuff.

Anything black - gone! I don't have a lot of black yarn anyway, but I can't see myself making something in black for myself or anyone I know. Plus it's hard to work with because of the dark colour.
Anything that I can't think of a specific project to make with it within the space of about 10 seconds - gone!

So it was a tough brief I set myself. Soon after I got started, I realised it was going to take even longer than I thought. About 20 minutes in, my head started spinning and I needed a short break. I had the typical hoarder's voice in my head: 'But I could use it for something' and 'but it's so pretty!'. I had to keep reminding myself that I'm ruthless, that I won't regret this.

I got about two-thirds of the way through my entire stash before I could take no more and gave up for the day. I was quite proud of myself though, and I'm looking forward to finishing so I can count the number of balls in the toss-box and see how well I did.

All this motivational de-cluttering has spurred me on to more, and I've decided to embark on a Spring-Cleaning-A-Thon. I've already done a bit with my books. I used the LibraryThing to check what series I have. If I had any unread series where I didn't have book 1, I tossed the rest. I got rid of 6 that way. Some other things I've thought of are:

* Toss 10 old make-up products.
* Toss 5 jewellery items I never wear anymore.
* Toss 5 pieces of clothing I never wear anymore/I really can't be bothered repairing.
* Go through the 3 boxes of random stuff I still have from moving house, and toss, toss, toss!

I'll let you know how it goes.

What I Did Last Weekend

I meant to write a post about all the exciting, crafty things I did during the week, but I didn't do any. D'oh! So I will just have to talk about what I did last weekend.

Firstly, I bought these:

This purchase was completely justifiable as I needed pink yarn to finish the Pinks and Purples scarf, plus everything in the basket was on sale. Every single thing. So I'm sticking to my guns! Nyer!

Then I did this:

Before; After
I baked a cake for Boy. It was chocolate with rum and orange flavoured cream cheese icing. It disappeared mysteriously during the week. (It was quite yummy, if I do say so myself!)

Then I worked on this for a bit:

Actually, the Pinks and Purples scarf was the only thing I've been working on this week, on and off. On Sunday I was tidying off the desk in the hobby room, had a sudden hit of inspiration and made this:

double mini zine
I stole appropriated the idea from a zine I recieved in a swap, of making 2 mini zines and stapling them together so they have twice the number of pages of a normal mini zine. I wanted to make up a quick, little zine that would be fun and relaxing to make. I was inspired by another zine I had recently recieved which was in the form of a list, with a page dedicated to each item on the list. Going with the 'fun and relaxing theme', I decided to do 7 Things that Bring Me Joy. I've been going through a pretty stressful and annoying time at work lately, and I needed to give myself a 'relax and just chill out, dammit!!' kick in the butt. I could wang on about how I wasn't just making a zine, I was actively meditating, blah blah blah. But I really had a lovely afternoon designing it, drawing it, colouring it with watercolours, and drinking pots of green tea. Then I scanned it and printed it and stapled it, and it came out perfectly! I chucked it on my shop straightaway. I'm so pleased with it that I made some bookmarks a few days later to give away free:

I printed pithy sayings using different fonts onto a piece of cardstock. Then I cut it up and collaged them using some papers and stickers I found lying around. Then I laminated them. I don't know if they have any artistic merit, but they were a huge amount of fun to make. It was one of those rare situations where I had an idea and I was able to just get to and do it straight away. It gave me a great sense of satisfaction to be able to make them. I am giving them away in my shop with every purchase of 2 or more zines. (I know I have been selling far more zines than anything else lately but I figure, why try to buck the trend?)

Last but not least, I finished the amigurumi beer that I was making last week as a pattern tester. This is all I have to show for it:

Artists' (i.e. my) impression
You see, whenever I make something as a gift for a certain deadline, my camera dies for one reason or another, and I don't get to take a picture of it. It happened with Sparky's blue jacket, and her penguin, and her Babe Sweater, and now it's happened with the Ami Brewski too! I had decided to give it to a colleague at work whose last day was on Wednesday. Of course, on Wednesday morning, the batteries in my camera had gone flat and I couldn't take a photo of it! It keeps happening to me. I think it must be my Thing.
P.S. When I drew this it was the first time I used Boy's hinga-ma-jingy what's-it-called Graphics Pad, so the picture is a bit wobbly. It was fun though and I might experiment with it a bit more if I ever get time.

I'm a bit posted-out now, so I won't go into my June wrap-up and July goals this time. I'm gonna go play some computer games now! :)

Mosaic Monday Amigurumi Style!

Just a quick update on what little I've been doing over the last few days. I started the newest scarf which is to be in pinks with purple accents. I like those colours, so I have no problem with that, though I'm starting to run out of yarns of the appropriate colour and thickness. Oh no! Don't tell me I have to have S.E.X. again!*

I spent a little time on Sunday organising the hobby room. I re-stacked the boxes of cans from the factory outlet trip so that I could sit at the big desk, and amalgamated two piles of random stuff that were on the desk into one so that I had some room to do stuff on it. When it comes to tidying, one pile is better than two, right? Baby steps!

I managed to clear enough space to get out my pencils and some scrap paper and draw out the cutting pattern for the monster softie that's been floating around in my head. The one that popped into my lop-sided brain when I was having a quite painful but very remedial massage a few weeks ago. He's been fighting to get out ever since. Unfortunately though, when faced with the prospect of digging the fabric out of the place where I'd previously stashed it, my will gave out. It seems I stashed it a little too securely.

So I moved on to crochet. (Hence the amigurumi featured in this week's Mosaic.) I got out my second kokeshi doll that I'd so heartlessly abandoned a while back. I decided I didn't like her shape - her neck was too narrow and tapered. So I ripped back to face level and re-did it. I'm much happier with her now and hopefully I'll finish her soon.

Then I remembered that I'd promised to test a pattern for kittenbite, a fellow Etsyer. It's an amigurumi bottle of beer. I managed to get nearly half-way through it last night while I was watching a documentary about the search for extra-terrestrial life. I'm having fun with it. Results as they come in.

P.S. Can someone find a way for the creative yet time-poor to do two things at once? Has anyone tried knitting while on a treadmill? Doing weights with one hand and drawing with the other? No? Never mind.

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* S.E.X. stands for Stash Enhancement eXpedition. Sorry if I frightened you-all there for a second.

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Photo Credits:
1. Amigurumi Mushroom Friends, 2. amigurumi splish splash baby whale 02, 3. Amigurumi Bear Water Sprite, 4. Flock of Amigurumi Birds, 5. Amigurumi Sheep, 6. Amigurumi Costume Party, 7. Amigurumi (Crochet) Ghostiecake, 8. Creature Feature: Alien - amigurumi, 9. amigurumi momma bird and baby

Speed Blogging

Here is a random ball of bizarrely coloured wool for your delectation (or revulsion, up to you). I bought it a few years ago and it's currently lurking in the further reaches of my stash. Why? I don't have any actual picturage but I feel the need to share. So here we are.

I haven't done much crafting this week, sorry to say. My life has mostly involved stressing during the day, and then in the evenings jogging and lifting large, round pieces of metal repeatedly.

I did finish the Purples and Pinks scarf that my friend asked me to make, and over a lovely catch-up at Nandos, I sold it to her, swapped it for money, initiated a currency-based barter .. Sheesh, no matter how I say it, it seems wrong! I'm still getting the hang of this craftin' for a livin' thing.

Meanwhile, a colleague of hers has asked me to make another scarf for her in pink colours, which I'm very excited about. At least that's something I know I can make! The test skinny scarves I've made have been a bit disappointing. The ends tend to curl. Hopefully a little blocking will sort that out, but I've never done blocking before and I'm worried that it won't work. I'll give it a go tomorrow though.

Also this week, I just have to mention that I received my Etsy order from lupin. Wow! I ordered a couple of zines and a brooch during her birthday sale, and she sent me about twice as much stuff as I'd ordered! Apparently it was to celebrate her 900th sale as well. (yay for her!) I've been watching her shop for a long time and more recently her blog and I really admire her stuff. Sad to say it took the promise of free stuff to get me to buy something, but I am the little crass, consumerist tight-arse. Contradictory, moi? Anyway, she's wonderful! I'm thinking of sending a little thank you gift back. Shhh, don't tell!

I've found heaven

The other day I was cruising on Ravelry and found a reference in another Melbourne knitter's profile to the Yarn Barn. It's in Coburg. It's amazing. I went on a special trip there this morning and I came away with these:

Gurgly goodness.
Just like the website says, "you won't leave the store empty-handed". It is So. True.
I got about 4 balls of pure wool, the same of wool blends, and 3 cones of special blends (3 for $10!). They had a tub full of vintage buttons in sets of 4, 6 or 8, so I got 3 lots of those. I also got a mercerised cotton and wool blend for some doilies I want to try designing in a lovely lemon yellow. They really do cater for everyone. Knitting is in the front, crocheting is in the back, felting is down the side, and machine knitting is down the end. I understood after a being there a little while why the first question that the guy asked me was, "what do you do?"

When I thought about it, the place wasn't really cheaper than what you could get at Lincraft or Spotlight on sale (though same as or cheaper than them not on sale). But they ply their own yarns themselves with a machine out the back (which you can see in motion if you peer through the last set of shelves) and are always changing their blends depending on what they have on hand. The man who helped us looked a little intimidating at first but he was so friendly and helpful. You can choose any combination of cones of yarn in the place and they'll ply it together for you on the spot. It's a tiny little shop next door to a milkbar smack-bang in middle suburbia. It was the complete and total anathema of the big chain stores. It was perfect.

I know I'm rambling on about this a lot, but I was just so excited to find a place like this. I spent a lot more than I was planning to, but I'm going to use that wool. I've been asked by a friend to make a scarf in shades of purple, and I've used up most of my purple already because it's my favourite colour. So I had a really good excuse to go there. And I'm sticking with that.

Soldier on with Codral

I'm a bit concerned that my rate of production has been a bit slow. I'm not putting new items up onto my shop as often as I'd like. So I've decided I'd like to make things in batches for a while. It's all about the batch. So on Monday night, in between the snorking and the whorfing of the phlegm, I made these:

ACEO swirliesI went back to a style of drawing that I find easy and relaxing for these. I just wasn't up for a challenge. It was quite fun. They just need to be covered in sealant (probably followed by a stint in the flower press as I imagine they'll curl) and they'll be done. I've had a lot of issues with paper warping or curling when I try to fix pencil drawings or do painting with watercolour. I'm not deeply enough into doing art at a professional standard to be bothered doing any research on it at the moment.

I've also been looking at all the unfinished knitting and crochet projects I have on my list. 13 at the moment. Oops. But whenever I try to work on one, I just can't be bothered. I thought it was a bit of a shame that I got so excited about some projects, like the kokeshi dolls and then they never got finished because I got bogged down in the details. I had a think about it, and I realised that the reason I got stuck on the second one was that I needed to cut out some felt flowers, and I was too scared to. I didn't want to ruin some perfectly good felt by cutting out dodgy, wonky flowers. So I went on Ebay and bought some felt flowers. As you do. They arrived today! Yippee!

Stash EnhancementThey also came with some wierd felt rope stuff that I'm not sure what to do with, and 5 balls of Moda Vera yarn that accidentally fell into the shopping trolley. Oops. But the more you order, the more cost-effective the postage is, right??

Also, as a result of being an impulsive shopper, I now have to make cat blankets. Long story. I'm subscribed to the blog Etsy Secrets. Etsy shop owners can advertise when they have special deals by posting to the blog. I just read it to keep up with what's happening in the online craft marketing world. (*shifty, sideways look*) Ahem. Anyway, a few days ago, a seller that I know and love - PopArtCafe - was having a deal on her prints. In addition to a buy one, get one free deal, she was also offering all her cat paintings for half price if you promise to donate to your local cat shelter. If you message her the name of the shelter, she will also add it to the list on her website. I thought this was massively cool, and I couldn't resist. I bought *mphphmphph* prints. More than one, let's just say. And I promised to donate to the Lost Dog's Home in Carlton. I checked out their website and they'd like blankets (home-made is most appreciated) and food as well. I thought making a couple of blankets and donating them would be a lot more personal and heart-felt than just sending money. Also the fact that these places often tend to spend more money on trying to get more money from you than they got from you in the first place (did that make sense?) tends to put me off simply just giving money as well. So, in that spirit, I started making a cat blanket the other night:

It's a giant granny square!I did all of that in one night, plus about 15 minutes at work yesterday. So I reckon it won't take me too long. Plus, it'll help me whittle down my giant, bulging, self-reproducing (I'm sure!) pile of acrylic yarn. That isn't the main reason though. Really.

A couple of extra things:

- Ravelry, despite having 127,000 users, is still in Beta mode so non-members can't link to their brand new shop with logo merchandise and wittily-quipped t-shirts. Where's my credit card???

- There's a new blog called Sweet Figments, run by one of my favourite Etsy sellers, The Tiny Fig. It's logo is over on my sidebar there. I bought two pairs of earrings from her a few weeks ago, and I just adore them immensely. (They came in adorable gift boxes with free stickers.) Sweet Figments is all about highlighting smaller Etsy sellers, with interviews, news and tips. I wanted to spread the word because her personal/shop blog is so helpful and fun to read, and she was a real pleasure to deal with as a buyer.

Yes, I have been buying a lot lately, it's true. I've still spent far more on Etsy than I've made! But I have a few semi-goals (yeah, the G-word again!) for the next month. Say, till the end of June:
* get my Works In Progress list down from 15 (yeah it went up since I started this post!) to 12
* get the number of items for sale in my shop up from 32 to 40.
* Tidy up the hobby room. I can't really put a number on that.

Moving right along

In the past few days I finished the Baby Tunic:

I'm quite proud of this one! Because - A) I designed it myself. B) It helped me get over my fear of Moss Stitch (I'm still scared of doing it on impossibly small needles though a la the Bootee nightmare. C) The sleeves are attached so it seemed like less of a massive undertaking to make it (only two pieces instead of four, or even a spine-chilling six!). D) I kind of fuggered-up and made the back longer than the front, but when I sewed it up I managed to do a bit of bunching and stretching and covered it up quite well. E) I just started it one day as if it wasn't a big deal, and then I just finished it in much the same frame of mind. As if it wasn't going to be a huge effort and take 6 months. Bear in mind we're talking about a GARMENT here, people!!


Then today I finished one that'd been hanging around cause I couldn't find the other ball of wool for it - the Skinny Nature Scarf:

It goes (or not) with the hat I made a few weeks ago. Gosh-durnit, I love working with this wool! It's so luffly and eksotic, dahling. I'll be sad when it's all used up. (Just four-fifths of a ball to go, but I'm thinking of another scarf already.)

I found the wool when I was transferring all my wool from the wardrobe (and the shelf and the floor in front of the wardrobe!) to my new cupboards in the hobby room. Well, some of it, anyway. Ahem. (And yes, that was cupboards).

No more wool-buying for me. Really. Seriously, now. I don't care how cheap it is. You've gotta draw the line somewhere. I haven't even started pulling my fabric out of the wardrobe yet. Now there's another kettle of fish entirely....

What else? My copy of Drunk, Divorced and Covered in Cat Hair arrived the other day. Yessss!!!! I just finished it earlier this afternoon. (Hence no posts in the last few days ;) ) It's the story of Crazy Aunt Purl, who's had a knitting (and everything else!) blog for a few years now, which I've enjoyed reading immensely. The book isn't as spontaneous as the blog, but why would you expect it to be? It still made me laugh out loud many a time, causing my boyfriend to give me paranoid looks every five minutes. Basically, the subtitle of the book sums it all up: "the True Misadventures of a 30-Something who learned to Knit after he Split". It's not all about knitting, though. It's also about moping, eating, dating, having lots of cats, drinking copious amounts of wine and how fantastic friends are. I loved it!
There are also some knitting patterns at the back, some designed by Crazy Aunt Purl, and some by her friends (most of whom are famous in the knitting world). They're more of an additional bonus to the story, not the focus of the book. Most of them are accompanied by a suggested drink. I like her style! This is one book I'll definitely pick up again in a year or two.

[Impromptu book review over]

SHOP STUFF
I added the Skinny Nature Scarf to my shop today. Since the first heady rash of selling fever, I've been checking my email every half an hour (literally, actually) to see if I've sold anything else. Not to be. (Yet??)
However, today I was listed in a Treasury! The Treasury is a slightly strange concept where users of Etsy make up lists of items that they like on themes (or completely randomly if they wish). The catch is that there can be only 222 lists at a time, and they last on the site for a random amount of time between 1 and 3 days. Then they expire to make way for more lists. The only way to make a list is to wait patiently until the number of lists drops below 222 and the "make a list" button appears, and then click on it as fast as your hot little fingers possibly can! So not only is it a hard-worked-for privilege to make a list, but just as much to have one of your items listed on one! And one of mine was!! Eeeeeeeeeeee!

Here is the link, even though it'll only last until sometime on Tuesday 11th December.

I'm sure I've done other stuff, but I can't remember right now. Oh well, I'm sure it'll come back to me while I'm knitting away compulsively....

*wanders off*

Baby (Not mine!!! :P )

I seem to knit more when I'm stressed. This week, I finished both the Boo-tay and the Mi-uh up to sewing up stage:

Need a needle taken to 'em.

Before I even finished knitting the Boo-tay, I started Happy Baby Grassy Feet:

Stripey!

I was thinking of naming them something that referred to marijuana, but then I took a step back (mentally, of course) and thought, 'hang on a minute, it is going to be a baby wearing these!' So cuteness prevailed over edginess. Happy Baby Grassy Hands will follow, of course.

I was still feeling a bit stressed on Sunday, so I decided to start something bigger. I had been thinking about Elizabeth Zimmermann's Tomten Jacket (named after a mythical Swedish elf-like creature) since I finished reading Knitting Without Tears earlier in the week. It's basically a jacket knitted all in garter stitch, with the back and front in one, and the sleeves knitted up from the armholes. The only section that needs to be sewn is the underarm. The back and front join together into a hood at the shoulders. It's an intriguing design. I'm a bit daunted by the grinding, hair-pulling, cask-drinking 80 rows of plain garter stitch over 112 stitches in the beginning, but hopefully the pull of the interesting stuff at the end will keep me going. On 4mm needles, it should make a good 3-6 month old baby jacket. I decided to make it in primary colours, as I'm still 7 months away from knowing whether it's a boy or a girl. I'm thinking I might knit up a white border all around to unify and and add a button closure. I've already knitted 16 rows - 2 stripes worth! And that was just on the way to Car City to visit my new car! Woohoo! Seven months seems like nothing to worry about at the moment.

active knitting meditation - can you do that with this shade of red??


Oh yeah, remember that Yarn Diet I went on a few months ago? Completely busted! As is the real diet "healthy lifestyle changes" that I've been on for the last couple of years. At least you can't really eat while you're knitting. Wine is a completely different matter, of course....

Stashy goodness

Most of this stuff is for baby clothes and for stuff to sell (eventually, admittedly), so I feel fine about it. I don't feel quite so good about finishing entering my stash into the Ravelry Stash Database. I have 194 balls of wool. That's not a typo. One-hundred and ninety-four. My boyfriend says that when he moves in, I could keep the stash in the foyer cupboard instead of the wardrobe so that there'll be room for his clothes in the wardrobe. I don't mind. The cupboard is bigger. That's just fine with me.

I love my boyfriend's parents!

I know you don't hear that very often, but I really do! Boy's Mum gave me this fabric she won in a raffle last weekend:

Isn't it cute?

It's enough to make a top and a skirt!

Roll on sewing weather!

Drug-Induced Purchasing

Oops. I went to Lincraft and I bought some stuff. Quite a lot of wool. I'm a bit ashamed. Here I am hiding behind it.

Yeah, quite a bit. BUT! (There was always gonna be one of those!) All of it was on sale. Some of it was even half price! And some of it I needed to make specific projects. Well, about a third of it, actually. And the rest I chose with an idea in mind of the kinds of things I can make in the future. i.e. scarves. Besides, I just really wanted to buy some pretty yarn for once!

It's so purrtty!
It took me all evening to list them on Ravelry! But I got there in the end. I'm still working on entering the stuff in my fancy bag. It takes a while when you have such a large stash...
I want to use the orange in the middle there to make an amigurumi cat. I got the lovely red 100% wool in the top left-hand corner to make the Jayne Hats with. (None of your crappy acrylic here!)

Speaking of the Jayne Hats, I got a bit excited and cast right on for the first one as soon as I had finished with Ravelry, and spent most of Saturday night and Sunday morning working on it (yes, I totally have a life!) I got about half-way into the yellow section when I realised I wouldn't have enough yellow to make both.
Yes, it happened again.
I didn't buy enough yarn.
What kind of stupid idiot am I?? If I had only thought about it for 2 seconds, I would have realised that the yellow section is much bigger than the orange section, and so therefore I would need more yarn! This is why you shouldn't go wool-shopping when you have the flu! D'oh!! Double triple quadruple D'oh!!

Thankfully though, this time I chose a yarn that's easily available from at least two different sources that I know of. I just won't be able to get there until next weekend. But at least I can finish the first hat and start the second one in the meantime. It won't be too long!

Bloggin While Drunk

How extravagent. I started TWO projects today. I don't even know if that's allowed under my personal rules of project limitation. Yesterday, I was soooo cold at work, that I decided to knit myself a pair of hand warmers. Seriously. No matter what kind of annoying, crappy-arse needles or how long it took, I was gonna get it DONE! Well, preferably sooner than later or I'll get arthritis or something. I decided to use the "Easy Mittens" pattern, which I had already used once before for a gift, and they had worked out amazingly fine. So I dug that out this morning. Luckily, I already had the yarn for it as well. I am using Paton's Caressa, which I bought a few weeks ago totally randomly from Lincraft. See! I knew I'd find a use for it within my own lifetime! Hah! *waves fists to detractors*

Here is a picture of that:

Yeah, it kinda looks like a Rubik's cube in heiroplyphic, I know.

I was also determined to start Boy's scarf as well, cos I'd kept talking about it and I want him to be nice and warm and cozy. So we went to The Wool Shop (that's actually what it's called, okay??) and I rubbed some wools up against him to see if he broke out in hives or whatever he does. Finally we decided on Wendy X-treme, which does have 24% wool, but he reassured me that it was ok, and I said, ok, but if it makes you all itchy, you have to promise to tell me and not suffer in silence, ok? This wool is gorgeous! Here's a picture of it:

It's all blue and wrapped and chunky and rubb-able. Mmmm. It's been a while since I've worked with really gorgeous wool, and I'm really enjoying it. I am using a kind of wavy cable/rib that I made up, to try and get a cable happening, while keeping both sides presentable to the general public. The original pattern I chose is totally inapproprite for this wool, but who cares. I love this wool. And I think Boy likes it too. So I do my own thing again.

Wgat was I saying? Oh, I'm actually quite drunk right now. No, back away from the needles, and no-one will get hurt. Back away from the keybord too, I think! Ok, I go now.

Busy busy busy

Guess what people? I finished my socks a week ago!:

How up-to-date am I!?

I haven't knitted much lately because I have been

... working from 8.30am to 5.00pm every single day of the week for the first time ever and going to work every day and learning lots of words I don't understand and filling in lots of spreadsheets that I have no idea what they're for and printing out hundreds of useless pieces of paper and filing them in a big cupboard and trying to look like I'm listening attentively while being totally bewildered inside and cringing every time the phone rings and ...

Oops, sorry about that. I tuned out for a second.

I haven't been doing very much knitting, but I've found this really great website that I've been working on a lot: Ravelry. See my Ravelry here. It's a site where you can list all your projects, stash yarns, needles, etc in one place. It's really exciting. For example, if you are thinking, "how many coathanger covers have I actually made?" you can use the tags to find that out. Or if you are thinking, "I'd like to make a ___ but I need 3 balls of pink cotton to make it" you can look that up in the stash section without having to dig through cupboards of stuff.

There are a few niggling things with it - it uses Flickr as its host, and I had all my photos on Photobucket. I created a Flickr account and I'm transferring them over, but it's taking time. So whenever I upload a photo, I have to do one copy for my blog, and another for my ravelry.

The other thing is that it's still in beta stage. I'm pretty excited to have received an invitation (I guess they thought my blog was good enough - Squeee! as Violet from Lime n Violet would say.) Today a few new fields have appeared on it, which means if I want to make sure everything is consistent, I have to go through and change all the entries I've already made so those fields are filled in. Meh! Who has time for that? ...

When there are so many podcasts to listen to! =)

New ones I am loving are:
* Sticks and String. Firstly, he's Australian. Secondly, he's a man! A really interesting and different perspective on knitting, in a lot of ways. He's technical, philosophical, and has a couple of great cats.
* Craftypod. I love, love, love this podcast! Each episode is on a different craft. It's only about 15 minutes long, so it doesn't tax my short attention span. The musical interludes are really retro and fun.

It has been 29 days since I last bought yarn.
You may be surprised to see that, but it hasn't been that hard. You see, since I've been working full-time, I haven't been able to get to a yarn shop. I don't have a car, so I carpool with my flatmate to work. The office is in a place so far out of the way of any yarn shops, that they would all be closed by the time I got there. I spend all weekend with my boyfriend, and either don't have time to go, or he talks me out of it. So, I guess that's a good thing really. *sighs* Really. *Resists the urge to log on to Ebay. Gives in*

Here's another doiley I made years ago and have been using all this time, and not realised it wasn't in my list of projects:

It's made from the left-over cotton from the Flower Facewashers. I did plan on making a series of different-sized ones, but that microbe-sized attention span got in the way again. D'oh!

Bloggy Stuff

I have been thinking a bit about my blog lately. I've been reading a lot of other blogs in the last couple of months, and I've been getting Blog Envy again. All the other blogs are so pretty and professional-looking, and mine is ugly and has crappy, un-artistic pictures and no touching and insightful revelations from my private life at all! It just sucks!
So I was tweaking with the colours, etc the other day, and I realised that my blog is set so that it won't come up in searches. I didn't realise or had forgotten that. I can't decide whether to leave it like that or allow searches. It would be great if other knitters read my blog and posted comments and gave me blog love, but then I would have to reciprocate and love them back and I'm just not into that sort of thing. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure there are lots of wonderful, warm and caring people out there in the knitting-blogosphere, but I'm really bad at replying to my friends' emails, let alone someone I've never even met! So I think I'll leave it as-is for now.

Speaking of the blogosphere, there's this thing called Frappr now. You can set up a map, and people log on to the website and put 'pins' in the map. All the cool kids who have podcasts or blogs are doing it. I think it's a really good idea. The maker of the map knows how many people are listening to/reading their stuff and where in the world they are, and the pin-pushers can add their little 'yay, I like you' message while still remaining relatively anonymous. (And anyone who knows me knows that anonymity is my bag, baby.)

Sorry, I'm digressing pretty seriously here. Back to MY blog. I think I might change the format. I can't get rid of the grey background no matter what I do.
Also, yesterday I was thinking of reducing the size of all of the photos I post from now on. It's not fair on any readers to have to download huge photos when they're so crappy! But then, this morning Boy was playing with my camera, and he said, "you know, this has a close-up function?" And I said, "WHAT??" "Yeah, all you have to do is press this button." I mean, DUH!!!!, I've only had it for about 5 years!
But then again, I got it for free second-hand, and there was no manual, and I'm not the type of girl that needs to know what every button does now, am I? *twirls hair around finger and bats eyelashes*

I got so excited, that I ran around taking close-up photos of everything!:

Speaking of Boy, after much trawling earlier in the week, I found a pattern for a reversible cable scarf [Warning: PFD file] that he approves of (well, he approved of the picture pretty heartily anyway). It looks like one I would enjoy doing as well. Though, looking at the pattern, I don't know how the back will come out looking the same as the front. *shrugs* I'll do a swatch on the weekend.
Now that the pattern is decided, I have to find the yarn! Boy is allergic to wool. This is a bit of a problem. He also expressed a preference for a blue colourway and variegated yarn. (He didn't actually use either of those terms, I have to point out! He's more the computers-and-woodworking type). I've heard rumblings before that cable patterns don't look very good when done with variegated yarns, but there are some really great tweeds and flecked yarns out there as well, so perhaps I can compromise.
My first mini knitting shop foray didn't go so well. At Clegg's they had a gorgeous blue yarn flecked with reds and greens, but it was 100% wool. Everything else I looked at was too. At Lincraft, they didn't really have any flecked tweeds, but they did have a gorgeous soft alpaca blend. I SMSed boy to ask if he was allergic to alpaca. Strangely enough, he wasn't sure. It only came in solid colours, though, so I'm leaning away from that. I looked at the Zhivago as well, as that has some variegated colours as well, but the choices ran more to the orange and pink end of the spectrum rather than blue.
I haven't able to get to any more shops since then, but it's given me something to think about.

It has been 11 days since I last bought yarn.

Bad, bad girl!

I had a pretty crappy day today, so as a treat I bought myself this:

It had some moderately amazing patterns in it. I was particularly attracted to the lacy tops. But reality didn't kick in until I got home - can I really wear a white top full of holes to work? I don't think so! Yeah, I could wear another top under it, but that would involve spending money on it and making sure it's clean, etc. I have a few tops like that, and they're a bit of a pain in the arse. I am looking for the perfect top pattern:

* no lace
* short sleeve or tank
* not too hot
* fairly large gauge so it doesn't take forever
* not too low-cut or high-cut
* no halternecks
* made for a pear-shaped body (there seem to be a proliferation of tops designed for booby women right now!)
* not totally fugly (I'm really liking that word right now)

The quest continues.

More worryingly, I bought more wool yesterday! D'oh! And to make it worse, it was gross, cheap acrylic and all! I'm so ashamed of myself, I couldn't even be bothered getting it out of the bag:

Stash of shame
One of the balls was for a pair of socks (fairly optimistic, considering I haven't even started my first pair yet!), the rest... meh, I'll think of something. Maybe.

This obsessive act has moved me to establish my own 'yarn diet' pact in desperation. Not only am I trying to save up to travel, but I'm seriously running out of room. So here are the rules I have written up. Wish me luck!

KATIE'S KNITTING DIET, WINTER 2007

CLAUSE 1 - YARN

1. The 'knitting diet' will last from 20th May 2007 to 20th August 2007 (3 months).

2. I will not buy any yarn during that period, with the following exceptions:
A. I may buy yarn for a specific gift for a specific occasion, only if I truly do no have enough suitable yarn already.
B. If I am already knitting a project and run out of yarn, I can buy just enough yarn to finish that project.
C. I may purchase yarn if the price is unbelievably good - i.e. 50% off or more, AND if I can think of a specific and realistic project for it.

3. NO acrylic under any circumstances!

4. I am allowed to accept gifts of yarn.

5. I may NOT look at the knitting yarn section of Ebay under any circumstances.


CLAUSE 2 - PATTERNS

1. See point 1 above.

2. I will not buy any pattern books, leaflets or magazines, except for once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. However, they MUST be patterns that I may realistically knit projects from.

3. I may borrow books from the library and photocopy them.

4. I must make every effort to fully catalogue my pattern collection during the stated time.

5. See point 5 above.

ADDENDUM: I may make a wishlist of 5 books and 5 projects, and I may purchase ONE (1) of each after the diet period is over.