As promised...

Once again, the might of the Internet coerces me into actually doing the stuff I've been meaning to.

Exhibit A:

Finished the Luna Moth shawl (used total of 5.5 balls of Naturally Merino et Soie yarn). I was pretty chuffed with how this one came out, and it was pleasantly straightforward as well - not a single bit of weirdness in the pattern. Nice and easy to knit too, and the only markers I ended up using were to mark the centre stitch. I think that I'm now definitely quite firmly ensconced in the lace-with-thicker-yarn camp - I love the look of it. I've gushed about this a little on the Ravelry page for this project, but the thicker yarn gives this project a more substantial, more organic look that I think works really well. So in summary, still love the yarn, and highly recommend the pattern, especially if you're like me and haven't had very much experience with larger lace projects.

Exhibit B:

Please excuse the armpit weirdness - for all that it did end up fitting, and I'm happy enough with the way I look in it, it was disproportionately difficult to get a flattering photo of myself in this top. I think it might just be one of those garments that looks better in motion..

Anyway, this is the finished Askew tank (used about 2.7 balls of Noro Silk Garden - yes, you heard that quantity correctly). And yeah, it fits, but it was a bloody close run thing. I'm just glad I didn't end up making my usual size for this one - there's no way it would have fitted me. As it was, I eyed the ease recommended for the pattern, eyed the number of cast on stitches, and promptly made it bigger than I would have normally. I'm not sure why the fit issues were there - and Ravelry informs me that I'm not the only one to have them. If my gauge was off, it definitely wasn't that off... Might just come down to body shape, as well as size... Oh well, I'll take it on board for next time.

I ended up making it a halter style top instead of a tank - mainly for practicality reasons, and yes, for a few superficial ones as well. For a start, I think it might have been a struggle to sew the straps to the back and actually have them stay on. For some reason this batch of Silk Garden was breaking more than I'd experienced with any other batch (I really was at my wits end with this - and I don't even want to remember how many ends I had to weave in because of this), and I didn't want to put as much strain on the yarn as it would have taken for those straps to work as a tank. So, I'm didn't sew them at all (Anna = lazy bum). Instead I'm just tying them behind my neck.

Normally this wouldn't work of course, or at least not if you like your clothing to actually stay on, but the tightness of the top actually works in my favour for this. It's so tight that there is no danger whatsoever of this falling down by itself - I need to peel the thing off like a banana skin. So I think halter was definitely the way to go. And on superficial grounds, well... frankly the tightness of this top does my comparatively limited, erm, endowments no favours at all. It's simply not flattering. So the halter's emphasis on the shoulders takes the attention away from the fact that it squashes my chest into Silk Gardened oblivion...

All in all, I was happy enough with the way this one turned out - not ecstatic, but happy enough. I think next time (and there definitely will be a next time because my fit issues aside, this pattern has heaps going for it - insanely quick, easy, and a really interesting shape/design) I'll make a size with a lot more ease.

And, while this isn't part of the WIP purge, I love it anyway, so here's a picture...

That's my new hat! I made it to kill time while I waited for nice men to deliver my new bed. They didn't end up coming, which makes it all the better that I had a hat to console me! The pattern is Foliage (chunky version), which every man and his dog seems to have made, and I used a little over half of a skein of Noro Iro (yes, I'm very much feeling the Noro love lately now that I can afford to do so). This is a great pattern - though I had a bastard of a time knitting it, due mainly to needle woes. I had to start over three times because I just couldn't wrangle eight stitches over five needles. In the end I resorted to numbering the needles (embarrassing...). This was a bit dopey really - as was pointed out to me at SnB last night, I could have just started with fewer needles and then added them in. But you see, I have no common sense, and sensible things like that just don't occur to me (Anna = all kinds of dill).

I deliberately knitted the brim very loose. As you can see in the above picture, I have a lot of somewhat exuberant hair, and when I wear tight hats it, well... becomes very clear why I had the nickname of "lampshade" in the first few years of high school (kids can be so hilariously cruel). I was concerned that this would come out too tight, but thankfully there were no issues on that front. I love how this turned out. The pattern is a little lost in the thick yarn and colour changes, but who cares - look at those colours! I've been wearing it every chance I get.

I also frogged a bunch of stuff as part of aforementioned WIP purge. Among the casualties were a bamboo tank I'd abandoned a while ago, and the Honeymoon cardigan - both self designed things. I was a little bummed about the cardigan - it was actually finished bar sewing the zip in, but gauge issues and weight loss conspired against me, and the thing just ended up too big, and not in a good way. Also, I had to tackle the ridiculous irony of the fact that even though the Honeymoon cardigan didn't last, it lasted longer than the marriage that the honeymoon in question was following did...

Yep. The reason for the sudden total change in FO photo locations becomes clear. In a nutshell - stuff kind of went to hell in a handbasket: I wasn't being treated well at all, and as a result of this I stopped being able to handle even basic things like work and uni, and generally crashed and burned a lot. Attempts to rectify these things were not met constructively. So, I left. The last few months have NOT been fun to say the least - there were some very, very bad patches. But I believe I made the right choice (as do my friends, family, and the counsellor I've been seeing to try and get my head on straight again), and even though it's still incredibly difficult and ugly at times, I don't regret leaving.

Oh - this possibly helps to explain why I've suddenly turned into a one-woman knitwear factory (escapism anyone?). Anyway, that's all there'll be on that particular topic on this blog - I have other places to rant. But yeah, I'm just trying to get it all clear in all areas of my life, and since I had made reference to my marriage/husband here, I thought it was worth a mention. And here's the part where I am inappropriately flippant to dispel the melancholy of the last paragraph or so: Now I can knit more - he never liked the knitting, got annoyed when I tried to talk to him about it, and usually complained whenever I knitted when he was around. So, there shall be no more of that...

Anyway, I've blathered on for long enough. In conclusion, my Yarn and Fibre Company package came, so now I have more Noro than you can poke a stick at. This pleases me greatly. But I have to finish my bag before I can start knitting with it. Those are the rules...

Life, as I know it...

Well, this photo pretty much sums up what my life has consisted of the last few days:


(well, to be truly accurate you might need to throw in several hundred cups of tea, and most of my body-weight in Turkish Delight bars, but I didn't have them to hand...)

When I was talking about requiring the diverting power of lace (in my last post), I was referrring in no small part to the Evidence and Proof exam. It's got a reputation as being the hardest exam in the whole law degree, and while I beg to differ on that point, 5000 words over three days is nothing to be sneezed at. Posing with my dear old textbook is the second sleeve of my long suffering alpaca cardigan; it's nearly finished now, so I'm bribing myself with it to get myself to crank out the words on my assignment.


Oh, and just to prove that I have been using the diverting power of lace, and not just the power of long-languishing sleeve, here's how my Woodland shawl is coming along:




Close up of the lacey leaves (with visible varigation!!!):



My feelings can't stay constant on the shade of green. I love green, always have done. But this is very, very green. More obtrusively green than I susually go in for. When I dyed it I was going for the a 'new spring leaves' kind of colour, which I think I got fairly accurately, but I'd forgotten, well, just how green that colour was... So perhaps this will be a 'wear-it-when-I'm-in-the-mood' only kind of knit, but oh well. It is helping to keep me sane, not to mention attracting many curious questions from fellow Upfield train line commuters... A few days ago two young Indian men had a chat to me about it; they were interested to see that I was knitting, as they said that in India they'd only ever seen pregnant women knitting. At least they didn't think that I was pregnant. I've heard other knitters complaining about this a lot, but I can't say it's ever happened to me. My body shape is a lot of things, but easily mistaken for pregnant is not one of them (unless women start gestating children in their thighs...) - I'm all gangly arms, a waist small enough to thwart most clothes purchasing sessions, and tree trunk legs.

Oh dear, I've gotten on to musing about body shape. I think it's time to go back to the murder case now... I have to write 3000 words today :P

Birthday, and other happenings...

Well, I've been really getting on with knitting things the last week or so, which is good (and probably due in no small part to the fact that assessment is creeping up on me, and I have a chronic need to procrastinate):

I finished the Hedera socks:

Behold, my whacking great manly feet posing on my freezer (yeah, there's not much natural light in most rooms of my place) in socks that actually fit. Yeah! Go Hedera! After I posted the FO on Ravelry with the comment that I got it to fit my hulking feet with no mods to the pattern, people started messaging me about it, wanting to know my gauge, etc, so I guess there's a fair few other big-footed people out there curious. For anyone who still wants to know, I give this pattern a hearty tick of approval on the giant footed front. Also, now I understand why people like Patonyle so much. Lovely soft, stretchy yarn, that probably also helped with the fit.

I started a Woodland Shawl:

Here's the blurry photographic proof. I figured that now my assignments are looming, I needed the diverting power of lace (ie. something I can concentrate on and use to not think about essays for a few precious minutes) without tackling anything scary. I tried this pattern a while back with some sock yarn, but the varigation totally masked the pattern, so I used it for something else. So, this time around, I decided that I wanted to try something with very subtle vargiation. Now, a normal person would just buy some yarn, but because I'm me and I'm overambitious/impractical/a bit of a mad scientist at heart, I had to try and dye myself some. So the above shawl is being knitted in Naturally Haven 4ply Merino, dyed green by yours truly. I was actually quite pleased with how it turned out; there are noticeable differences in the colours, but they're not too glaring.

Unfortunately, it turns out my camera is a man, or more specifically, my camera has what my husband refers to as the 'man's' way of seeing colour (and by 'man's', he means his): it simply can't pick up subtleties in colour. So, you can't really see the proper effect in the photo. Oh well, I can see it. The yarn is lovely by the way, very soft and smooshy. And I love green; especially since we're heading rapidly into winter. The shawl doesn't look like much yet, but I'm only one repeat in, and lace always takes a while to get going...

Also, I had a birthday (my 24th, if we're getting technical):

My mother in law procured for me (amoung other things) a pattern book, some new bamboo needles, and some of the above yarn (the chunky blue stuff to be specific). It's acrylic, but I actually quite like the colours (sort of blue and teal shot through with metallic streaks), so I'm thinking I'll do as she suggested and make a scarf out of it.

Incidentely, the other yarn in the picture is stuff that I've dyed myself (yeah, I'm hooked, for better or worse). The green is the stuff I was talking about earlier, and the other ball was an experiment that didn't quite turn out how I planned, but it has a certain festy charm that I can't quite resist. Blue/orange/grey brown is not a colour scheme I would have picked, but meh. Actually, when I was winding back into a ball, I was thinking (nerd that I am) that if chaos could be embodied in sock yarn, it would be this colour. So watch out for some Chaos socks in the future.

And then there's cake :D Since we took over the shop, I haven't been baking nearly as much as I used to do (I used to bake a lot). So it was very nice to get back into it, and make myself a birthday cake of sorts (chocolate of course). The recipe is from Nigella Lawson's Feast - it's the 'Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake' and it's mighty tasty. Very rich though; the recipe made a fair bit more icing than the cake really needed (though I'm not entirely sure that's a bad thing).

So now I have the wherewithal to have tea and cake, two of the finest things in the universe. Yay!

In other news, I also celebrated my birthday by diving headfirst back into my writing project (it's been languishing a little lately... not being neglected, just progressing slowly) and cracking 50k words on the second part. This pleases me.

In other knitting news, I also started a pair of garter mitts for my brother as part of his birthday present (just in boring black though, since I doubt he'd wear a pair that were in colour's like mine) and started and promptly frogged a plain sock (they were too short, and the heel flap wasn't big enough). Also, I finished the first sleeve on my Honeymoon Cardigan. It's nearly there!

Now, off to enjoy tea and cake...

Possibly still alive - haven't checked in a while...

Yes, I'm still knitting away. Unfortunately, haven't had as much time for it lately. Much like I haven't had much time for anything... like sleeping, writing, studying, and even eating... At least the desire is still there - I want to knit! - and I'm managing to get little snatches done here and there. It would be easier if I was willing to knit at the shop, but that's not something I want to do. It's probably a bit of a silly double standard to have; I'm happy to let my knitting kick around in my grotty unit (it doesn't do to think about how long it has been since I've vacuumed), but I won't take it to the shop just in case it gets dirty. I just figure that while it might be dusty here, at least there aren't as many greasy things around....

Anyway, I resolved this issue by starting a shop specific project: more tea-towel/bench wipey cloths, with that Cleckheaton Fiddle di Dee yarn that's been hanging around... They don't exactly blow my mind with excitement, but it's a lifesaver to have at work - when customers have gotten stroppy for no good reason, when the phone finally stops ringing for the first time in ages, when all the other staff are out on delivery, I can pick it up, hammer out a few rows and feel a lot better. Knitting = sanity remains in place. I suspect that this is a good thing.

This is what hangs around our living room: knitting and Warhammer 40k manuals. Unit of supreme nerdiness stikes again! Also, kindly note the amusingly pink needles - they're some of the batch inherited from one of my grandmothers (not sure which one), at least 20 years old, probably more. Amusing. Heaven knows pink objects are somewhat thin on the ground in this household.

Anyway, in other knitting news, the Basalt tank is probably about fifteen minutes off being finished, but I'm procrastinating because I know it's not going to fit, and this is discouraging. In happier news, the alpaca cardigan I've been making is coming along nicely, and should be finished within a week if I can keep up the rate I've been working on it. Pleasing.

Also, since Melbourne has been in the throes of its usual weird weather the last week and a bit, I've rediscovered the joy that is bed socks. The night have been bloody cold, and I've had a couple of pairs of hand knitted socks kicking around that came out a little on the large side because I was still getting the hang of socks and dpns when they were made. So, I put two and two together, and now I have the toastiest feet that ever toasted and have slept like a log every night since. I especially love my stripey ones. Just the sight of them makes me happy:

Something that may or may not have come up in this blog is that not only do I like to knit and write (both not all that proficiently at times), but I'm also, well, a little bit (okay, a lot) odd. Kind of eccentric, would be the nice way of saying it. Anyway, the other day I'd just washed the socks in question and was trying to finish the drying process off in the small smattering of midday sunshine that the fickle gods of Melbourne weather were kind enough to bestow on us. It was only until a person walked by on the footpath and looked at me oddly that I realised that I was singing a song to the socks (a song all about socks and how great they were). Hmmm... Probably not healthy.

Anyway, maybe next time there'll be finished objects. We can only hope. At least I'll try very hard not to be dead next time I post. Make no promises though...

So on and so forth...

Well, been taking a little bit of a writing break for the last few days. It was all going well, but the problem is that I'm quite good at writing words down (or typing them anyway), but not so good at thinking, so it was about time for me to have a good old think about Plot before I finished the first draft. Shall probably resume actual writing again either tonight, or possibly tomorrow. In the mean time, I've had more time for knitting, which has been lovely...

Finished my Argosy scarf finally. As I've already said, it ended up shorter than I would have liked, but what are you going to do? I still love it anyway, and that's the main thing.

Here is scarfy boy reclining happily on the armchair that lives in my study. Purdy. Well, even if it did end up too small, this project definitely gave me the Noro bug. It was the first time that I'd ever lashed out and actually bought some intead of just perving on it and surreptitiously feeling it up in the yarn shop (and even that hadn't been going on for very long - it's seems kind of thin on the ground here in Melbourne), and it definitely won't be the last... Shiny, shiny yarn...

Today (glorious, wonderful Monday, the day on which I do not have to vend pizza) I went shopping to try and find some clothes that aren't falling apart to wear to uni. I didn't end up buying very much - I'd forgotten that fashion at the moment is even more hideous than usual, so decent basics were suprisingly hard to find. It seems that the rule currently is that you must hide your waist - no curves here. And this is kind of the opposite of what I go for (the small waist is what makes up for having the disproportionate thighs of doom, dammit)... I digress. Anyway, while it was mostly quiet on the clothes front, I did buy two nice things: Farscape: Peacekeeper War on DVD and Norah Gaughan's Knitting Nature.

I'd had my eye on this book for ages after stumbling across a Basalt tank that someone on Ravelry had made - so many interesting construction methods. A lot of the things look more complicated than I'm used to (for a start, I've never been one for charts, odd as that might sound to some), but then again, I also have a tendency to assume that patterns are hard, then actually read the instructions through and realise that they aren't. Anyway, looks like a book I'll get a fair bit of use out of...

And then I went home, watched Farscape and knitted row after row of merry stocking stitch on my Honeymoon Cardigan - figured it was about time I got off my arse on that one, but now it's coming along nicely...

Camera vs Anna: I win today...

Well, this photo may be a little blurry, but it proves that the Wavy pattern is indeed present. Which is what we were unsuccessfully going for last time. I'm happy with how it's coming. If nothing else, it's definitely going to make the Upfield trainline a little brighter on the winter days that I'm commuting on it.

I'm trying to get the alpaca cardigan I've been working on happening a little faster. I want to find out whether or not I need to buy more yarn for it. The problem is that I'm not getting work done on this quite as fast, because it's my own design, kind of being calculated as it goes. It's that much harder to motivate yourself to finish a half completed project when it actually requires you to think, plan, be sensible, and work calculator mojo. Still, I'm trying to do it a bit on it every day, just to get over the hump. Here is one completed left front, and one mostly completed right.

Photo doesn't really do justice to the yarn; the colours are absolutely beautiful, shifting blends of colour. The main colour that looks light blue is actually a pale bluish green with flecks of deeper blue, and the frilly edge bits (which seem thoroughly determined to look crap in every photo I take) are a greyish brown mixed with small streaks of blue. Shiny.

And, here is what happens when Anna has to return a knitting book to the local library and is too tight arsed/too lacking in small change to make a photocopy of a pattern in it that she wants to make:It's good for me I suppose; have to get back in the note taking swing of things before lectures start again on March 3rd. I always leave the first week of classes feeling like my hands are about to drop off at the wrists, but maybe if I just keep on like this, that won't happen this time around... Or, maybe I should just be a normal person and save up for a laptop like all the other law students seem to have done...

Anyway, off to go write. Just cracked 40k this morning... it's getting there, slowly but surely.