A Brief Interlude.

This afternoon I sat my second last exam. The final one, for my Environmental Law subject, is on Friday, so I'm tantalizingly close to being able to fall down and sleep for a week, but I'm not quite there yet. So I need to plod onwards, and give myself small rewards along the way to encourage my poor brain not to curl up and die quite yet. Rewards like a new cardigan...




What you're looking at: Easy Top Down Raglan, by Laura Chau. Knitted on a couple of 6mm circular needles (long one for the body, little one for the sleeves), out of six skeins of Noro Kureyon (100% wool), colour 213.

The endless prattle: Well, I had some Kureyon that I'd gotten my filth paws on the last time that the Aussie dollar was doing well, and I needed some stress-free exam knitting, so it's not particularly surprising that a cardigan happened. This is a great basic pattern, though I didn't follow it exactly, as my gauge was different. I used it to get a rough idea of how many stitches to cast on, and then went from there, adding a very small amount of waist shaping along the way (placed quite low on the body). I opted for 3/4 sleeves because I thought that I didn't have enough yarn for full length - though the body turned out being somewhat larger than I thought it would be, so I really could have just knitted it smaller, and then I likely would have had enough yarn for long sleeves. Oh well - I'm still happy with it.

As I mentioned before, everyone who has seen me knitting this in real life has admitted to finding it ugly. Yes, I'll admit, it's a little garish - Noro has a tendeny to be that way sometimes. But I like it anyway - it cheers me up to look at it. And I'm very enamoured with the blue buttons. I'm not normally one of those people who pays a lot of attention to such finer details, but these please me quite a lot.




See that smile? Totally forced - less than two hours before this was taken I was writing frantically in an exam, and really, what I dearly want to do is collapse (possibly after ingesting a glass of wine and something unhealthy). That said, I still quite like the cardigan.

Up next: Anna's adventures in needle-felting, a.k.a: Anna discovers a craft that basically involves stabbing something repeatedly with a barbed needle - and realises that this is actually quite a soothing hobby to pursue during exam period!

The last time...

Well, it's exam period again, which of course means that my life is now devoted to pouring over endless 30 cent notebooks filled with the usual scrawl - the above-pictured page, I believe, contains commentary on the Geneva Convention, though this time last week it was privacy law. It's rather hard to keep up - I know my brain always struggles. At least it'll all be over by this time next week. Not to mention, as alluded to by the post title, this will (notwithstanding me having some kind of epic freak-out and failing my remaining exams) be my final semester of law, my final batch of exams. So theoretically, I should be relishing it. So much for theory.

And of course with exam period comes the stress-relieving exam knitting. The above pictured cardigan is coming along quite nicely - I've only got a sleeve and a half to go now, so I'm very nearly there. Due to yarn limitations (some people would tell you that six skeins of Noro Kureyon is not enough to make a cardigan, but those people are quitters!) it's a little shorter than I might otherwise have made it, but I'm actually rather liking it this way. It's jaunty. I think I'll go with 3/4 sleeves and some bright blue buttons. Everyone I've shown it to so far thinks that it's ugly as sin, and I suppose they're probably right, but I don't care - it makes me happy, and stops me from feeling like all I've done with my day is write something bleedingly obvious about Additional Protocol II.

In other news, it's been far too hot to do anything particularly constructive, so I've resorted to my usual fallbacks for the small smattering of recreation time I do have - reading, playing woefully outdated computer games, and cooking. And buying things on the internet - have to make the most of the strong Aussie dollar. It would be simply irresponsible not to... On that note, I bought more yarn (curse you, Sanguine Gryphon, I just can't resist your charms), but that's perfectly all right, because in keeping with the Not-A-Yarn-Diet, I used up 300g of Berroco yarn and 200g of Noro before doing so. Hurray for me. And I bought less than that, so I'm still making progress. Of sorts.




Also, as I mentioned, I've been cooking, and I have pictures to back it up. This here is the makings of a very fine pumpkin, spinach and goat's cheese risotto, because I took it upon myself to buck the trend of living on breakfast cereal during exams. It never ceases to amaze me how spinach wilts down. I mean seriously, from the above, to this...




...in about thirty seconds. Crazy stuff. Crazy but delicious. I also made this cake, because I couldn't resist the pull any longer. For some reason, it's taken me a very long time to get into looking at recipes on line - up until now, I have been strictly old-school, preferring my cookbooks. But I think I'm finally beginning to get with the times. How astounding. Then again, cake tends to be very persuasive...

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...

Survival!

Just here to announce that as of 12:30pm, I have officially survived exam period. Whew! It was touch and go there for a while though - I had my last two exams (both worth 100% of my semester's mark - eeep!) one day after the other, so it has been a VERY long 48 hours. I honestly don't know if I've ever studied that hard before in my life: there were multiple days when I'd listen to well north of five hours worth of lecture recordings, and that didn't even include all of the other reading and note taking. The law degree - she is indeed a harsh mistress.

Yep, exam period is hard. It's been all right though - there are worse things than incessant studying, and since I'm one of those people who's always doodling and writing sarcastic commentary on their class notes, it's at least entertaining looking back over the work I've done during semester (even if sometimes I wish that I'd drawing critters less and taken notes more):


Look! It's an International Law notebook in its natural habitat (i.e. the desk!). Don't make any sudden movements or you'll scare it away!

At least listening to all of those recordings meant that my hands were free to knit at top speed. You would not believe how much knitting I did last night. It was about the only thing stopping me from falling asleep at my desk, actually - for reasons known only to it, my body is impervious to the effects of caffeine, so I've always needed something else to keep me awake and moving.



The above work-in-progress was single-handedly responsible for keeping me conscious during all of those hours of Restitution lectures yesterday. It's going to be a pullover, made from that lovely Sanguine Gryphon yarn that I posted about a few entries back. I'm sort of making it up as I go along, so the actual style will vary depending on my mood and how much yarn I have left, but I have vague plans for a very low front, maybe with a garter stitch neckline, and interesting sleeves of some kind. The yarn is lovely. Normally knitting a jumper with variegated yarn is something I'd pull a face over, but this is just so pretty that I'm having a go anyway (alternating skeins every couple of rows to try and minimise pooling). Granted it does have a little bit of an army camoflague vibe to it, but I'm going to staunchly ignore that and call it 'woodsy' or 'elven' instead in that pretentious way that I have!



Exam time also means exam soup. Seriously, I live off this in exams - I just make a huge vat of it and then eat it for the rest of the week, usually accompanied by toast, or cheese on toast and a glass of wine if my statute-tortured soul needs soothing. I figure I could do worse, right? Vegetables and barley and tomato and fresh herbs... Mmmm...

Potentially nonsensical...

Okay - there is a very real chance that this post will not make a great deal of sense, because approximately five minutes ago, I was asleep. Ahh, the wonder that is exam period. Mind you, why I'm bothering to nap at 11:42pm instead of just going to bed is anybody's guess...

At any rate, I'm still busy, but definitely alive and kicking. Without the kicking part though. And I am posting for a reason - it isn't procrastination alone that's fuelling me. Because behold, I finished my second Terra:

And this would be: Terra, by Jacqueline Landry. Size XS (32"), knitted with several inches of negative ease, on 6mm needles. Used 3 balls of Bendigo Woollen Mills Rustic 12ply (in colour "Red Currant"). No significant mods to speak of.

The part where I blather: I love this pattern, and I honestly don't know why more people haven't made it. It's easy, ridiculously fast, and the end product is awesome. The pattern suggests you pick a size with several inches of positive ease, and for my first Terra, that was what I did. The fit was good (and indeed I still love this jumper dearly and wear it several times a week), but because of the loose gauge, it stretched a little over time. It got me wondering about what the next size down would look like, so I figured that I'd find out.

It's always a little bit nerve racking knitting garments with negative ease, because they always look far too small before they're seamed and blocked. But this, as you can see, came out just fine in the end. It's rather close fitting at the moment, but I'm counting on it stretching a little like the last one did, so it should ease up a bit. I'm not complaining either way.


I'm very enamoured with the colour. Admittedly it does have a bit of a Little Red Riding Hood vibe to it, but red is really nice to wear in winter, and I can't quite bring myself to feel that the hood is anything less than awesome. It's lovely and warm too - I wore it out and about yesterday, and was perfectly toasty despite winter having well and truly set in. If we're being nit picky, some of seaming really could have been better - especially around the sleeves. And the armholes are a fraction too tight in this size. But I'm really having to scrape the bottom of the barrel, complaint wise. I'm really happy with how this turned out, and I plan to wear it quite thoroughly to death over the next while. Now I just need to convince myself not to order the yarn to make another. Given the fact that this is so quick to make, costs under $30AUS to make, and yields such a good result, I'm probably in severe danger on this front...

I have things to keep me occupied though. The yarn for my Sylvi finally arrived, so I'm swatching away busily on that:

That's rather a lot of yarn - I'll be busy indeed. And, you know, with exams. Those as well...

Feeling the procrastinatory pinch...

Well, more of the same around here. It's exam time again, so that of course means that I'm now feeling the wonderful burst of creative energy that I always get when I don't actually have time to capitalize on it... Figures. Not to mention the other things that have been leeching my time and mental/emotional energy. Just for the record - I really, really hate having to go to the police station. And paranoia and anxiety are really not conducive to study. But anyway, on to more pleasant topics...

Knitting front has been slow, since I haven't had as much time as I would have liked. I've started making another Terra - figured that it was a good investment since it's a fairly quick and mindless knit, and I wear the one that I have just as much as I possibly can. I'm using the same yarn (hurrah for Bendigo Woollen Mills), except this time I'm using red, and making a smaller size, as my existing Terra has actually grown quite a bit as I've worn it. So far I've knitted the front and part of the back, and it's all coming along swimmingly.


And, well, aside from my new Terra and a lot of baking, there isn't a great deal going on around here. Spending a lot of time with friends, trying to restrain myself from buying every single last piece of yarn on the Sanguine Gryphon website (and Aussie dollar, you are not helping my resolve by doing so well!), and pretty much just trying to get through exam period with my sanity intact - that about sums it up. I guess I could insert some pseudo-humorous remark about not having swine flu, but it's getting old already...

Survival!

Well, exams are over for another year. Thank heavens for that. So now I have nine sweet, sweet days to procrastinate before I skip the country. I'm seeing a lot of knitting in my future. Not to mention I need to pick a project or two to take with me on holiday - I guess it will have to be something fairly lightweight, and probably in a small gauge, as I need something that'll occupy me for as long as possible without being too bulky... *muses idly* Socks or lace, I guess.


There hasn't really been a great deal going on around here as far as knitting goes - exams sort of ate my brain, and when I was knitting, a lot of it was just random swatches of stuff - it was just pure knitting for stress relief. However, I have started a summery top - I was sort of in between projects and needed something to take to the Melbourne Ravelry meet up (which incidentally was about eighteen different kinds of fun, and I met buckets of awesome and talented people), so I figured I'd finally try out the design I'd concocted a while back.

(please ignore the immensely unflattering around-the-house pants - that's an order)

I started from the waist and am working upwards in an openwork rib stitch pattern. I wanted something airy and light, but also something that wouldn't be totally shapeless (I'm not a fan of the whole empire waist thing that everyone seems to be so enamoured with at the moment - the fact that I don't think that they do anyone any favours aside, I have a waist, and I'd like to make the most of it instead of hiding it, thank you very much), so a lace ribbing seemed like a good compromise. I'm also adding some shaping by decreasing in the purl sections. I quite like how it's coming along - it's quite loose, so should be good in the warmer weather. It's in a pretty cheap cotton acrylic blend, but if I end up liking how it comes out, I might end up trying another version in a nicer yarn.

Speaking of nice yarn: I got my post-exam reward in the mail this morning. It soothed my one-beer-too-many-the-night-before headache quite nicely too.

Yum. They're from Live 2 Knit and they are quite, quite lovely. And one of them is yellow! I never thought that I'd ever buy yellow yarn - normally, yellow is most definitely not a colour that I go in for. But I couldn't resist this, and it's so beautiful that I'm glad that I didn't - it's like summer time in skein form. They're going to be socks. I'm thinking I'll try my hand at toe-ups for a change. I just invested in a new sock knitting book, and I'm itching to try some of the techniques in it. I'm also idly considering some colourwork, because these two yarns do look beautiful together.

Oh, and again, speaking of yarn (but not quite as impressively gorgeous, to say the least):

My other post exam present to myself (hey, I need all of the bribery that I can muster) was a drop spindle. See this yarn? I made it! And I made it that colour as well! Yeah, yeah, I know it leaves a little to be desired - this was my second attempt at spinning (second to a five minute spree when I first got the spindle), and because I have a short attention span when it comes to following instructions, my technique still leaves a lot to be desired. Still, I'm very pleased with it. I do love doing things myself, even when the result is a little bit half arsed. The way that I see it is that when you make something yourself, you can either sit there and be dissatisfied with it because it isn't perfect, or you can make the choice to love it anyway because you made it and you enjoyed making it. I opt for the latter. I'm going to use it to make a pouch for my poor long-suffering laptop mouse...

Anyway, I'm off to have a quiet moment with a strawberry Freddo Frog, and then I'm off to bed.

Corona at last!

Well, I'm still alive. Just. I kid you not, I have been studying for, on average, around 12 hours a day for the last week (thank you, law degree!). But I lived through the two hardest exams (Constitutional Law - *shudder* - and Remedies), and I should get over the line fine. Whew. I've reached the hyperactive stage of tired - which usually means that I'm an hour or so away from crashing. Must administer more beer, I think...

Anyway, my post-exam reward was to try on my new Corona jumper (I'd finished and blocked it day before last, but decided I wasn't allowed to try it on until the two nastiest exams were over). So worth it:

Yay! I was very happy with how this turned out. I had high expectations for this pattern, and the yarn too for that matter, and neither of them disappointed. This photo doesn't show the colour variation at all - suffice to say that it's actually a mix of greyish, blueish, pinky, browny, greenish shades - I've called it "grey rainbow" on Ravelry, and I stick to that.

Only change I made to the totally awesome pattern was to lengthen the body and sleeves by about an inch - I'm tall, and a lot of my height comes from my stupidly long waist (which I can also attribute the back problems to - joy). I wasn't sure about the long waist ribbing when I was knitting it, I still have slightly mixed feelings - it's not normally my thing. Still, it does make for quite a flattering fit, I will admit:

I was worried the cables wouldn't be defined enough in the varigated yarn, but blocking seemed to fix them up sufficiently.

I do love it :) Quite a lot... Enough photos of it though - I've already spammed Ravelry and Flickr enough with them... Actually, in the process of taking photos of this one, I somehow (despite the dark circles and crazy-eyed look I get around exam times) managed to take a rather nice photo of myself. I am not normally a photogenic person (I'm always making a weird face), so this was rather nice (yay - self esteem!)

Anyway, in other news, I no longer have any big projects on the needles! This must be rectified! Of course I'll finish that bloody hat finally, and there are some other things I have in mind. My other exam reward was to finally invest in some Malabrigo from Yarn and Kisses (yay - Aussie shop - in your face, exchange rate!), and it's rather seductively wonderful...

Also I've started knitting another Woodland shawl, this time in my Sundara sock yarn (that stuff is far too beautiful to go on my big nasty feet - on the average day I probably walk between 5-10km just getting from A to B, and therefore I am VERY hard on socks). Problem is that I'm not sure if it's really the best pattern for it - as is often a problem, the varigation masks the lace design. I blocked it out a little bit to see how it looks, and I'm still on the fence on this one. Shall probably continue to muse over it for the next few days. Hmm...

Meh. Anyway, carry on internet! I'm off to go and do something frivolous with my time... because now I can...

Sweet procrastination

My my, twice in two days - how utterly prolific! It really must be exam time - you know, just in case I hadn't already realised, what with the eye strain and the boredom and the revision classes and all. Anyway, in the spirit of procrastination, I was good on my promise and finished weaving in the ends on my raglan. Behold - I'm quite chuffed with this one!

Not the most flattering shot of me, but a good one of the jumper! There's currently a piece of wood sitting by my front door (I think it was originally part of the desk I was using before I moved back home again) that makes a most excellent platform for my camera when it's on self-timer setting. I must remember this for future shots - it can be bloody difficult to take a halfway decent photo of something you're wearing when you own a camera as cheap and dodgy as mine!

Um, I was talking about the jumper, wasn't I? I'm rather pleased with how it turned out. I was a little underwhelmed by it when I was knitting it, since I pretty much failed at jogless stripes, and my neckband was very sloppily done (picking up stitches is not my strong point at the best of time, and it was late at night and I was impatient and irked over something or other), but blocking did wonders and I'm happy with it now.

The breakdown: It was pretty basic really - just cast on about 40 (I think? I didn't bother to note) stitches and worked from there. Didn't do a gauge swatch or anything, for I am reckless and slovenly! Cast on 3 extra stitches in the arm holes after dividing the arms from the body (and picked up the same amount when starting to work the sleeves). Wrangled a little bit of waist shaping - I think I ended up decreasing 12 stitches total for the waist, knitting even for a few inches, and then increasing the same amount.

Worked 6 rows of garter stitch for the hem/wristbands/neckband. Striping was totally random - only attention I paid to it was to deliberately make the sleeves different (better completely different than matching closely enough that it looked like I was just lazy in trying to match, if that makes sense). Unlike the previous green raglan, the armholes were quite big already, so I started decreasing right off the bat. Decreased 2 stitchs 5 times from memory.

Yarn used was Patons Soft Haze. Not the greatest yarn in the world (but it was cheap, and according to my Dad I am genetically predisposed to tight-arsery, given the Scottish ancestry and all), but I quite like it here. Yes, there's a high acrylic content, but it doesn't worry me too much. It's soft enough, has perfectly adequate drape, and more to the point, it's not too warm, and I want something that I can wear at times of year other than deepest darkest winter. So there! I was really just after something to wear around the house anyway...

In conclusion, man do I love top down raglans. I already loved my green one, and this little number clinches it. They might not be the most interesting things I've ever knitted, but as far as wearability goes (for garments anyway - it ain't rocket science to knit a wearable hat/scarf), they are quite totally made of awesome. Wearability is something I'm thinking more about these days - yes I want to knit interesting things, but in my mind knitting something that you love wearing, and wear all the time, is more to the point than making something that is technically innovative but stays hidden away in the wardrobe 364 days of the year. Perhaps this is my boring-arse pragmatist talking, I don't know. Fear not, most of me will always be silly!

And now, after that pleasant diversion, it's back to the Constitutional Law revision.

Can never resist the opportunity to strike a stupid pose. I'll be fine in the exam - look how thoughtful and intellectual I am! If I had a goatee, I would so be stroking it...

Scarfy diversions...

Well, it's exam time again. You know, that wonderful time of year when I suddenly feel the urge to clean my bedroom, and can't seem to stop playing Minesweeper. The time of year when I get all these wonderful ideas that I don't have the time to capitalise on... The time of year when I get jealous of everyone doing NaNoWriMo and all the non-writing variations on it and feel chronically left out... And so on... Stupid law degree... What do you mean you expect me to work?

Anyway, I had a whole lot of Constitutional Law reading to plow through (still do, unfortunately), and some Noro Iro squirrelled away that was earmarked for a scarf. You can probably guess what comes next...

Please ignore how disgustingly messy my room (through the door on the left) is - what was I just saying about exam period?

I remember when I used to think that knitting while reading was something that only scary prodigies were able to manage. I at least thought that it was definitely out of the reach of my dexterity/concentrationally challenged self. But I managed! Yes, it was just garter stitch for several hours, but I managed! This pleases me greatly.

I'm rather happy with how this scarf turned out. I needed a new, toasty warm scarf to wear on the upcoming holiday, and this should fit the bill nicely. There was just the right quantity of yarns in the two skeins I used - the scarf ended up just wide enough, and just the right length too (length and width are both very important to me... and that's all the bad innuendo we'll have for this post!). It probably ended up about seven feet long - just about right, as few things frustrate me more than a scarf that isn't long enough.

I believe I've already gone on about how much I love this yarn - chunky and rustic and lovely! And in this colour. Yes, I admit it, it is exactly the same yarn/colour that I used for my Foliage hat - I loved it too much to only make one thing out of it. Don't worry, I'm not quite lame enough to wear them both at the same time.

The other works-in-progress are getting there too. I've resolved to weave in the rest of the ends on my raglan tonight and then get it blocking - it's languished for far too long already. And all that's left to do on my Corona pullover is the hood - all the rest is done. I've made a couple of small errors on it, and the cabling doesn't stand out all that well in the varigated yarn, but I'm still pleased with how it's coming along.

Behold! It might still be a little while before it's finished - the revision timetable for the next week is truly gruelling. But, we'll get there. On that note, off to trawl through the Boilermakers decision... I'll just have to hope I can concentrate - a little earlier my family and I were partaking in some celebratory beer over the US election results. Yay Obama! *returns to usual determinedly apolitical knitblog status*

Officially returned!

Spotlight were selling candles that look like cacti. I had to have one - the cactus fetish demanded it! Here it is with the real live cactus (still clad happily in his cactus cozy!)


Well, my internet died on me, and stayed dead for a good week. Not that this is particularly evident in the lack of posting, because I've never really been a consistent poster, but you know, just saying...


Have been knitting away busily, since it's nearing exams, so of course I want to do everything except study. I've been merrily wasting hours watching Boston Legal dvds (hey, it sort of counts as studying - it is a law show after all!) and knitting jumpers. I've very nearly finished the black/purple raglan I was knitting - just have to weave in the ends and block it, and then I'm finished. I'm quite happy with it. It's not a perfect piece - some of the colour changes are messy, and the neckline is a little uneven - but I was only ever after a hanging around the house type thing, so this doesn't bother me.


And I've been working on my Corona jumper. I'd post a picture here, but I've come to the conclusion that WIP pictures are rarely good, or at least rarely good when taken by yours truly. So here's a photo of my lovely new Sundara yarn instead. Yum.

The Belle Beret is still languishing. I'm too scared to touch it. Maybe tomorrow...
And I just realised that it's 1am, so I should probably go and sleep now...

Shawl!

Well, I finished exams today!

And fittingly enough, I also finished my Woodland Shawl (aka the Sanity Retaining Exam Period Shawl):

I blocked it last night, got back from my Corporations Law exam (about as much fun as it sounds) this afternoon to find it all dry (talk about timing!) and took these photos straight away! I don't think I even took my shoes off first, I was that excited about the shawl! Wow, I don't think I've used that many (sincere) exclamation marks in a sentence before. I must be excited; I'm not an exclamation mark kind of girl normally...

Shiny nice shawl! I'm feeling extra triumphant about it since I dyed the yarn as well (some 4ply Naturally Haven - 100% wool). It was my first try at doing something that was closer to subtely different shades of the same colour, rather then 'here a colour, there a colour, everywhere a different colour' (though that's not without its charms, of course), and it came out okay. Really, I would have preferred a darker green - this shawl is bright, but I'm still happy with it.

The pattern was great too... very easy to memorise. I'd definitely make another one of these.

This was my commuting knit for the last month, and it was great for that (lightweight + comparatively short rows = train friendly). I got asked about it a fair bit as well - not to mention stared at. My favourite commuter incident was the most recent one; last week a little old Somali lady came and sat next to me and started stroking the knitting. She spoke virtually no English (if she actually knew the word 'knitting', she didn't use it), but somehow she got across that she knitted herself and she thought my shawl was pretty! I was smiling all day after that; I love the fact that something like knitting can make people go out of their comfort zones (i.e. approach a total stranger, of a totally different generation, who doesn't even speak the same language) like this. Really lovely...


Anyway, so now that I've finished the shawl, I feel justified in starting 60,000 new knitting projects. And sewing all that stuff I've been meaning to. And the writing! Ahhh, the post FO validation! I can feel it seeping into every pore...


Don't mind me... I think I'm suffering from post-exam flippancy. Bad Anna.

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...