Mildly disobedient

Whoops. I might have cast on for my Corona jumper after all. Despite not having finished either the raglan or the hat. Bad Anna. Oh well, I did do some work on the raglan - just a sleeve and a half to go - and the hat only needs a good solid half hour or so sunk into it before it's finished.

Behold, my illicit jumper startings...

Yum.

Anyway, I figure since this pattern commences by asking you to do five inches of 1x1 ribbing right off the bat, it made sense to start it while the motivation was there. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Anyway, the Dream in Colour yarn is just as beautiful knitted up as it is in the skein. Once again: yum.

I got my Sundara yarn too. Turns out that it was actually sitting in my PO box while I was writing the last entry, but I didn't get it until the next day because I'd assumed that it wouldn't be there yet, so hadn't bothered checking for it. Silly me. Anyway, it is indeed absolutely beautiful. I have wicked plans for it too... I'm thinking I want to make another Woodland Shawl, except a longer, thinner scarf version. Now my only decision is whether or not to save it for Europe knitting... Just not sure if I have the restraint to wait over a month before getting stuck in.

Still beavering away on the raglan - it's getting there slowly. I've finished the body, and I'm very happy with the fit - especially considering that I employed my usual happy-go-lucky method of waist shaping.



Doesn't look like much now, but I'm happy with how it's coming along (but happy enough to bother taking a halfway decent photo? Apparently not!).

I took a photo of my Belle Beret too, but it still looks frustratingly like a showercap. Perhaps I'll go and finish it so I can have closure on the matter... Oh, and I may possibly have raided WoolBaa this morning. I might possibly have bought more Noro Iro, because I'm so in love with this yarn in this particular colourway that it is apparently insufficient to possess merely a hat made from it - the universe is telling me that I need a scarf also... Stupid universe...

Off to tackle me a sleeve...

Self indulgent yarn love...

Well, I'm still hanging on to my well meaning intentions to not start any new projects before I finish the hat and jumper that I'm currently working on. But man, it just got a whole lot harder this morning when my package got here (well, by "when my package got here" I mean "when I strolled down to the postal warehouse to pick it up because they, for some reason, had issues with just sending it to my PO box like they normally do" - oh well).

I did an online yarn store raid a couple of weeks ago - thankfully just before the Aussie dollar dropped like a stone (don't get me started on that - I'm still irked about what it means for my growing internet retail therapy habit). One of the things that I ordered was some Dream in Colour Classy yarn from the Yarn and Fibre Company (who do free international shipping and can therefore be assured of patronage by my tight-arse self forevermore)...

I bought it because I'd heard so much about this yarn and was getting increasingly curious. Being the green freak that I am, what I really wanted was to get my mitts on some in the Happy Forest colourway, but because everyone in the universe seems to be making those February Lady cardigans in that colour, it was unfortunately not to be. So, I bought some in 'Cloud Jungle' instead - I wasn't entirely sure about my choice, but I figured that given the yarn had such a good rep and it at least sounded interesting if nothing else, I'd give it a shot.

Well, it got here today, and I can't stop looking at the stuff.




*quivers in delight*

It's... just... so... beautiful! It took forever and ever to get a photo that even slightly shows the variation in colour - and even this one leaves a lot to be desired. In a nutshell, it's a sort of grey with lots of other colours mixed in for good measure. A better way of describing it might be to get you to imagine what it would look like if someone decided to do a more subdued, more tasteful version of rainbow coloured. I love it. And now I have four skeins of it - mwa ha ha! I'm thinking I'm going to make a Corona pullover (why yes, I do refuse to say sweater, because I am an overly stubborn Australian dammit!). Now I just need to put off starting while I dutifully finish my other things. Or something. *grumble* Swatching doesn't count as knitting, does it?

Only problem is that next to the glory that is this yarn, my other jumper seems thoroughly unexciting (as much as I still have an unquenchable love for top down raglans), and my hat is currently looking irritatingly like a shower cap (I shall continue with it because I have a lot of faith in Ysolda Teague's pattern writing, and because even a shower cap would be gorgeous when knitted in the yarn I'm using - but I'm a little daunted).

Oh, and I also snaffled me some Elsebeth Lavold Hempathy yarn - mainly because I'd never knitted with a yarn with hemp content before, and it's about time I got stuck into some summer knitting (you know, before it's actually winter again).

Here it is, nestled happily atop my Butterworths Concise Australian Legal Dictionary... I like it, though it's a lighter green than I was expecting. Oh well, it'll make it more summery I suppose. It feels interesting - sort of soft and rough at the same time, though I've heard that it softens more after washing. I suppose I'm pleased with it - it's just that because I'm so much more enchanted with the Dream in Colour, I fear it might be languishing for a while. Oh well...

So yes, not a lot of knitting. I've been working like a crazy person over the last two weeks, and when I've gotten home I've actually been too tired to knit - I know, such a thing *does* exist. But lots of tasty yarn!

And more to come too - a couple of months ago I signed up to the Sundara Seasons yarn collection, figuring that since I'm at home again and have a little bit of extra spending money, now is the time to be indulging myself and buying stuff that in the past (and probably the future too, once I move out again) I would have dismissed as out of my price range. The first mailing went out late last week, so hopefully I won't be waiting too much longer.

People on Ravelry Just Won't Stop Talking about how great this yarn is, so I'm very curious to see if it lives up to expectation. I'm optimistic - I'm yet to hear a negative review of this stuff, and heaven knows the internet is normally choc-full of people willing to vent their spleens when things don't live up to their every expectation. Hey, I'm more than optimistic. I'm excited...

*looks back over entry*

Wow, I can't believe I wrote that much about yarn. I think I'm turning into a crazy person...

Oh no, she's attempting to wrangle technology!

Yeah, so I got bored of the blog looking the way it was looking. But the problem here is that changing the blog's appearance means attempting to wrestle with the computer - not something I'm particularly adept at. Yes, I know I could just use the plain old template, like the rest of my technologically impaired ilk. But the problem is that I'm one of those tiresome people who always has to be different. In short, my computer skills fall far short of my aesthetics preferences. So, I attempted to compromise. I'm more or less happy with the change in scenery...

Decided it was a good opportunity to change the name while I was at it... randomness is so last year! Anyway, as I've mentioned previously, I'm living back with my family again at the moment (while attempting to get head back on straight again post separation, get back on the studying horse, and replenish my poor battered bank account). When I moved out a few years ago, my younger brother took over my old bedroom. Not wanting to evict him simply because the universe decided to thwart my attempts at independent domesticity, I'm now living in what was the study. This basically meant taking out the desk, putting in a bed, and adding several more bookshelves. To the five already in residence. So in summary, I now reside in a cosy little room filled with yarn and probably well over a thousand books. Hence, the new title of the blog - I started squealing gleefully to friends about how I had my own little stronghold of books in which to hide from the real world. Stronghold is only a slight exaggeration - bookshelves cover three out of four walls, floor to ceiling. Bibliophiles paradise to say the least.

Hmmm, I should probably say something about knitting, shouldn't I? Well, too bad! I did do some knitting today (working on a new top-down raglan - purple and black stripes this time), but I was too tired to tackle anything elaborate (a long day of aquarium maintenance and customer wrangling already under the belt), and stockingette in the round does not make for interesting reading. So there ;)

But, because it feels odd to do a post without a picture, I hereby present Mr Blog with a photo of the cranky old man who frequently joins me in my aforementioned fortress.

Here internets: have a totally gratuitous (and more than a little cross-eyed) cat!