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...

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...