A Peaceful Interlude

Well, as you all might have guessed from the lack of new blog posts, the last week and a bit has been absolutely insane in my neck of the woods. I worked quite a lot, had the first major assignment due in my editing subject, and last but not least, one of my dearest friends got married. I am proud to say that during the ceremony, I got through my reading with only a few small, virtually imperceptible mistakes, and that's really no mean feat, considering the fact that I was reading from Dr Zeuss! Erm, bride's choice, not mine!

Anyway, the wedding went off wonderfully, the bride and groom had a lovely time, and now that they've departed on their honeymoon, I am house-sitting for them and tending to their two lovely cats.




The above kitty is Loki, and there's also a sweet ginger and white boy called Puck roaming around, trying to eat my yarn whenever I attempt knitting. Thankfully I worked yesterday and used the mighty power of my staff discount to purchase a dangly toy to distract them.




With cats distracted, I've been free to keep working on this hat! It's a Druidess Beret, and I'm a bit over halfway through it. I was a little hesitant to start work on a beret, because they tend to look absolutely terrible on me, but then I decided to throw caution to the wind. If it looks awful, I'll just give it away, but I'm hoping it won't come to that - this pattern looks like it can be worn as a beanie too if you just pull it down a little, and I have a better track record wearing beanies. At first I didn't think that the yarn had enough stitch definition to really make the cables pop properly, but it's looking a bit more promising as it grows. The problem was particularly pronounced in the bobbles, so I ditched the method specified in the pattern and adapted a tried and true technique instead, and they're looking much better now.




I also did a bit of yarn dyeing over the last week (I fitted it in somehow, though it did involve frantically rinsing the yellow hank out when I should have been prettying myself up for the wedding ceremony... oh well). As usual, I just used supermarket gathered food dyes, and my lazy take on these instructions for cold-pour technique dyeing. The blue had a few irksome white patches after its first encounter with the dye, so I tossed it back into my trusty dyeing saucepan and heated it in a weak dye solution for a while.

I'm really, really happy with how they came out. Every time I dye my own semi-solid yarn, I always wonder why I don't do it more often. And why everyone doesn't do it - it's so easy!

The above yarn is destined for a pair of warm, stripey socks to get me through winter. I deliberately dyed it as brightly as possible, as I think that come June I'll need the extra colour. Until June 14th that is, because that's the day I will be getting on a plane... On that note, I'm off to drink more tea, eat another English muffin, and do some travel plotting!

Erm, whoops.

It occurs to me that I probably forgot to mention the fact that I was going on holiday in January. Holiday to a place with very little by way of internet access. Hence, please excuse my conspicuous lack of posting/commenting for the next while. Rest assured that I have indeed been getting some knitting done, not to mention all of the other things that you conventionally do when you're having a beach holiday (swimming, eating too much, chasing octopus around rockpools, going through far too much sunscreen, etc).

Come late January, I shall return, with finished objects in tow, and all going to plan, my first pattern. In the meantime, I hope 2010 is treating everyone kindly thus far!

Sweet sweltering Melbourney home

Well, I have officially returned from my blissful soujourn into New South Wales. Thankfully I returned just after the weather was vile and hot - pulling into Melbourne just as the cool change set in properly. I win.

Mmmm... beach. Crescent Head, to be precise. Holiday was blissful, as it always is when we go to this particular spot. It's one that I'm very fond of, to say the least. Only thing is that it's so nice up there that I always get very little by way of knitting done while I'm holidaying. This time I developed a very naughty habit of parking myself under a frangipane tree during the heat of the day, lugging all of my books and yarn down there (plus all the tea I could drink, and a Nutella sandwich for good measure), and then reclining in my delectable spot for hours, not knitting or reading. Constructive? No. Blissful? Yes.

However, there was some knitting done. I finally finished the summery type top thing (why yes, I am very articulate this evening, thank you for asking) that I started before going away. I basically made it up as I went along - it ended up being a halter top worked in an eyelet rib to the bust, with some waist shaping to avoid the dreaded empire waist shape that I dislike so much. I was quite pleased with it (not to mention my younger brother's friends who were along for part of the trip seemed genuinely impressed by the fact that I'd made it, after previously regarding my hours of knitting with a mixture of amusement and disdain).

I still need to do some crochet around the edges to neaten it up (I tried this morning, and can only say that I failed dismally - at first I was too tired and couldn't focus, and then the cat came and plonked himself down on top of the book that was reminding me how to do it), but other then that, it's pretty much done. And there's still plenty of summer weather in which to wear it - finally, Anna manages to successfully knit something seasonal!

Actual knitting aside, I did a lot of plotting while I was away. The place I went away to is the place that I nearly always make my way to around the new year, and it occurred to me on my last night there that while I don't tend to make New Year's resolutions, I do tend to decide to do things when I get home after visiting this place. Crescent Head sort of marks the point of demarcation between one year and the next for me. Anyway, so while I don't have anything by way of New Year's knitting resolutions, I do have lots of post-holiday resolutions... More about that when I'm not so tired though... My social life was... interesting... today and methinks I need sleep to recover from the rigours of it all...