That familiar odd freedom

Well, as previously mentioned (to a tedious extent really), I have now finished exams for the semester, leaving much of my free time blissfully unencumbered by the demands of the law degree (needy little bastard that it is). So it really does make perfect sense that I'm now suffering from the same problem that always afflicts me when I make my biannual descent into the void between semesters. It's not boredom. One thing that I've always liked about myself is that I do not get bored, or at least not when I'm left to my own devices. I don't understand how anyone can ever be bored - there is a lot of stuff out there to do! Not boredom, no, but rather a kind of restlessness. There is so much I want to do that I subsequently find myself unable to focus on anything for long.

As usual, I've attempted to remedy this with endless 'to-do' lists (oh, how I love writing those things). But still, despite having more knitting time now, I have actually done very little by way of knitting. I got some work done on my pullover at pub night on Monday (beer and knitting actually mix rather nicely when it's just round after round of stocking stitch and nothing I actually have to devote conscious thought to), but other than that, it's been a whole lot of bugger all really.

I haven't been idle. I've been tending to my poor languishing social life. I made truly delicious lemon and almond cake. I tried my hand at natural dyeing with some eucalyptus and turmeric (pictures to follow). I made valiant, moderately successful attempts to get back into some of my current writing projects. But not much, yet, by way of knitting. With one exception:


I made this hat for the Bendigo Woollen Mills Ravelry Group 100g swap - it's the Sunflower Tam from Norah Gaughan's Knitting Nature (one of my favourites), made from Rustic 12ply in the "Green Tweed" colourway. I'd be wanting to make this pattern for ages, because it's pretty cute and construction is ingenious, but I can't really pull off tams or berets. But thankfully my recipient could, so away we went. Hope she liked it! This one was really fun to knit, and I may have to make another one, said inability to wear it be damned!

And this was what I received for the swap:


Look it! Look it! Tasty fudge, tasty soap, cute notebook and some awesome knitted stuff! All the way from Tassie (okay, it's not actually that far, but that's not the point). I'm totally spoiled rotten. The knits are from the Cairn pattern by Ysolda Teague, made from Bendigo Woollen Mills (of course) Luxury 8ply. I like them very, very much, and they fit perfectly. Here is proof (not to mention Anna doing that weird invisible-beard stroking thing that she always does when she's trying to model gloves)!


Other than this swap though, not much has been going on on the knitting front. Oh, except for me pretending that I'm famous on Ravelry, through the lovely article that the lovely Rebecca wrote, detailing our evil plot to take Tasmania by storm come August. We are concocting wicked plans, yes we are!

And that's all I've got! More posts soon, I swear. If you're lucky, I'll tell the tale of my eucalyptus dyeing exploits...