Constructiveness

Well, I'm knitting away furiously. Been staying at my Dad's place, and since he has a heated floor (best winter time type thing ever!), I've been attempting to make the most of having the best blocking surface ever...

I'm still working away on the Bevin tank (nearly done now), and it's coming along okay. I've picked up stitches around one of the armholes, and it does fix the problems I had with it, albeit while not looking like the neatest piece of knitwear in the world. Still, I think I'm happier with it this way. Just one more armhole to go... I even bit the bullet and crocheted the other edgings.

I also indulged and made myself a Silk Garden Askew:

It's nearly finished now; I just need to sew the straps onto the back - haven't done this yet because there's a little voice in my head telling me that this one wants to be a halter top rather than a tank, and I'm not sure whether to listen to it or not... My decision may end up being made for me though, because this is not a flattering top when worn with my strapless bra...

Two things really defined this project for me: it was quick (insanely so), and it came out SMALL. While I'm not a petite build, I'm pretty skinny up top, and I could still barely struggle into it, even after a good solid blocking. My gauge was ever so slightly off, so I cast on a few more stitches to compensate, and it still came out small. It fits (just), but wow it was a close run thing, and I think I can abandon any hope of ever wearing it over a shirt like I was planning on doing. Still, I like this pattern, and I definitely want to make it again. I'll just make sure that I make a size that'll have a lot less negative ease for me. And I love Silk Garden... at least the size of this one meant that it was (sort of) in my price range; only took 2 1/2 balls to make.

I made some ugly socks with some cheap and nasty yarn:

They're not the most attractive socks in the world, but if they're ugly, than they're endearingly ugly. They're also warm and comfy; I'm wearing them as I type this. Dad assures me that they're quite 70s coloured... I guess I'll take his word for it since I wasn't born then to appreciate it all...

I've also finished the Ugly Mohair Shawl, but I haven't taken any pictures of it yet (it's a gloomy day here in Melbourne, so there's been bugger all natural light to take a decent photo in). It didn't end up all that large because of my short attention span (yeah yeah, I got bored, it happens to the best of us), and I'm still not entirely sure that I'd ever wear it in public, but for chucking over my shoulders when it gets too cold in front of the computer, you can't really go wrong... It's cute in an obnoxiously fuzzy rainbow way, and I'm very pleased to have that yarn finally used for something (it was itching at my brain).

Oh, and Dad and I made the nicest looking salad ever. I can't normally get excited about salad (I am a bad vegetarian who generally needs to have vegetables shoe-horned into my mouth), but I wanted to eat all of this. It was so pretty that I had to take a (blurry) photo...

Nom nom nom...

A random cat... and some shawl...

Well, the last few days have been a little, um, interesting... I may or may or may not provide an elaboration in the near future. It remains to be seen.

There has been knitting done though, and I'm currently looking for stuff to distract myself with, so here is knitting, with a bonus cat!

It's the ugly mohair shawl, which is still kind of ugly, being modelled by my senile old man cat, Alex. He's 18, which means that he gets cranky a bit, but it also means that he doesn't have the energy to protest too vigorously when I drape him in partially completed knitwear...

I've also been knitting a Bevin tank top in some shiny nice dark red Katia Firenze yarn that I got half price. I think it's pretty shiny and nice, with one exception; the armholes are far too big.

You can't see the problem that much in this photo (though you can see the part where I was too lazy to weave in my ends before trying it on). Basically, the armholes are large enough to make the fit just a little funny, and also show parts of the side of one's bra off to the general public. Still, I'm going to try and fix it by picking up some stitches around the bottom of the armhole and knitting a little more. I'd like to be able to fix this; I think it's pretty cool, and it fits me quite well (if being not exactly the kind of top you'd want to wear to visit the in-laws...).

I like this photo too... it doesn't show the giant shoulder pimple I had on the day it was taken - because it was on my back, mwa ha ha...

(sorry, that was kind of an overshare... but oh well - it's my blog and I can be as gross as I want!)

A constructive day...

I'm having one of those glorious days when I feel constructive. Only problem is that now it's evening and I've just eaten, which means I'm feeling too full and sluggish to actually do things. So what do we do? We make lists, and plan things, and feel constructive that way, that's what!

There's lots of knitting things I've got lined up at the moment. I don't have a lot of money right now, so I'm trying to burn through the not-insubstantial stash instead of gallivanting around the yarn shops and making merry with my meagre funds. All of the things I've got lined up in my brain are things I can make with yarn I already have. Especially after Friday (Clegs sale + Anna being owed a belated birthday present by certain parties = yarn acquisition).

Behold the ill gotten gains:




I got a whole bunch of 100% wool (12 balls odd?), some lurvely green merino/silk yarn (6 balls), and a single merry ball of grey Patonyle. Very nice indeed. And I know what I'm going to do with it all!

(eeew, but now I'm dissatisfied, because the above picture gives the heinously false impression that I might have bought pink yarn... the very idea... It's actually more of a pinky purple. I definitely do not do the colour pink)

Oh, and on the note of yarn sales, I'm finally using some poor languishing yarn that I've had kicking around since the Cleg's Boxing Day sale... It's been hanging around for so long because it's... mohair. And I don't do mohair. I honestly have no idea why I keep buying it. It just really isn't my thing. I don't like fluffy (or not in my yarn, anyway... it's forgivable in small animals). It's not something that features in my wardrobe with any great frequency. But, for some reason I bought it, so now I'm using it, and it's actually pleasing me for some inexplicable reason. I'm making a Simple Yet Effective shawl using it and some black fake mohair that somehow found its way into my possession as well. And, well, it's pleasing me! It's fun to pat, it's rainbow and black, and very relaxing to knit.

That said, I don't know if it will ever make it out of my front door. Fuzzy (and stripey rainbow fuzzy at that) isn't something I think I can pull off. Maybe it might work if I was small and cute and had pigtails. But the fact remains that I am nearly six feet tall, frown a lot, and generally can't pull off cute to save my life. I don't think that fuzzy is something that's going to happen. But you never know, do you?

Wow, that was a tangent. Anyway, the knitting list is as follows:

• Finish my poor languishing alpaca cardigan, while it's still winter and alpaca remains a valid wardrobe choice - all it needs is it's zip put in, and a little crochet (whimpers in fear) to fix up the neckline
• Finish my Woodland shawl (over 2/3 of the way through now)
• Finish the garter mitts I've been making for Richard's birthday (which, Anna you lazy bum, was on May 13th... get off your arse and knit, dammit! It will take you all of two measly hours to finish)
• Make the lining for that poor bag that's been kicking around my study for the last six months - it'll take all of five minutes once I finally get out the sewing machine and get down to it
• Either rip or finish that crazy, abnormally coloured cable jumper that's hiding half-finished in my bedroom... before it evolves into something living and tries to gnaw my leg off while I sleep

And once I've done these things (or at least enough of them to justify starting new stuff), there's other stuff on the agenda (because I am now organised enough to have plans for my stash yarn!):

• Make a Tempting with the awesome cables mod I saw on Ravelry out of my beautiful, shiny, lovely, verging on edible Naturally Me yarn
• Some Endpaper Mitts in my grey/black Patonyle
• A Luna Moth shawl in my Naturally Merino et Soie yarn
• A top down raglan with some self-designed colourwork with all of that 8ply wool
• Socks! I don't care what kind, but I want warm feet and have the yarn with which to attain this goal!
• A vest (something with a cable, I dunno, I'll make something up) out of that maroon acrylic/wool blend that lives near my bookshelf

There are other plans too, though most of them are either things that I need to buy more yarn for (I want a Noro shrug, but that will unfortunately need to wait until I have more money, as right now I have all of one skein of the yarn that I want to make it from), or uses for yarn that I have that haven't quite coagulated (hehe, yeah, that's definitely the correct word) into projects in my head yet.

Hmmm, I should probably conclude this post now. But at least it's here to motivate me. Now that the "Internet" has heard my plans, I need to follow through and do them.

(I have this weird mental thing where I think of the "Internet" as being like another person who will judge me if I procrastinate... well, whatever works, I suppose, though I think that all this really does is reflect just how technologically backwards I am)

And now I must go and write stuff. I've decided (in non-knitting related constructive thought) that I'm going to submit an entry to the Melbourne Uni creative writing anthology publication this year, and since it's full of people who can actually write, I'll need to lift my game and put in some effort if I even want the slightest piddling chance of making the cut... and even then I'm not getting my hopes up - I suspect that these things only publish people who have a much better command of the English language then me.

(Back to my original paragraph... at least I did constructive things earlier... I went into uni, studied diligently for a few hours, returned library books, made a hairdressers appointment, etc. And at least lunch was lovely and a half... my favourite spicy hommus from Queen Victoria market, turkish bread, some lovely fresh dates... man I love dates, washed down with a glass of rather nice Cabernet Merlot. If all lunches could be so good, I would be a happy Anna indeed).

Oh my, I am very brackety indeed today, am I not?