Still finishing away...

Well, still on my mad finishing spree, and I think that it's long overdue really...
The frustrating thing is that even though I'm finishing all of these things that have been kicking around for ages, I don't have a digital camera with which to take pretty photos of them so that I can stick them here/on Ravelry. On the up side, my old work finally transferred the accrued holiday leave pay that they owed me into my account, so I'm not quite as desperately broke as I was last entry. I'm seriously thinking about picking up a cheapie digital camera from somewhere... something under $100 (good technology being pretty much wasted on me because I'm such a wally that I can hardly tell what I'm using anyway...).

Anyway, on the knitting front, finished my Cleo halter top, and the crazy furry scarf I'd been knitting while Chris was playing endless hours of Wii. I'm getting close to finishing my crazy blue bag too.

The blue bag is a bit of a mystery; I have no idea what the yarn is, other than that it was Lang brand (I lost the labels long ago). I bought it for $1 per ball at a Lincraft sale just after I started knitting, because I liked the colour, though I had no earthly idea what to do with it. I still don't know what it's made off... you could never make a garment out of it, it's too ropey and scratchy. A friend of mine commented that it feels/looks like it's made out of the same material as they used to make those green enviro shopping bags. Anyway, so, a bag it is becoming. Now all I really have to do is bite the bullet and sew all the seams up... I hate sewing...

My Argosy scarf is nearly finished too... but I'm thinking I may need another ball of Silk Garden; I'm not so big on short scarves, and unless this one grows half a mile during blocking, then it's going to fall into this category. Must go and scrutinise it before I make the call. The annoying part is getting said ball of Silk Garden. To my knowledge, there are two shops in Melbourne that sell this yarn (though I suspect there's more, there's only two that I know definitely sell it). One is closed until 14/1 (but isn't too far away), and the other one is about an hour's commute away. There are no quick/easy options for lazy me. Boo. Oh well.

Anyway, since I've had a fair bit of time, I've been sorting through the old stash, trying to organise it a bit, since it's beginning to take over our not particularly big unit. I'm trying to organise things by potential project, and it's fun; I have so many potential things I can do, as well as some yarn that I have no bloody idea what to do with, because I can't see it working as anything, as pretty as it is in ball form. Oh well.

Finally, I'm also making a brave first attempt at Fair Isle knitting. Colour work is kind of the final frontier for me; I've done the lace, the cables, the short rows, etc, etc, and now I figure it's about time to try my hand at this. The only problem is that I'm pretty sure it's going to be doomed to failure, because I have this very stubborn tendency to try and work things out myself the first time around. It's only after I've failed dismally that I go and actually do things the intelligent way. So, my first Fair Isle attempt is designed entirely by me, with only the general advice in my various knitting books to guide me. This should be amusing...

2008, and such

Happy New Year, great big internet!

Well, we're still waiting on the shop, and getting pretty broke in the process. Broke enough that even I can't justify buying more yarn. So I'm making an effort to finish everything that's been kicking around nearly done, just waiting for seaming, weaving in of ends, etc.

On the recently completed list are my Leaf Cardigan, the teal raglan jumper I made with the yarn I got cheap, and my self striping socks. This is all in the last week, which I think is a pretty good effort (it's amazing how much you can do while the cricket is on)... Soon to follow will be the Cleo halter top; it's SO close to finished, all I need to do is finish sewing in the elastic, and that's it. I figured I should probably finish it while it's still warm enough to wear it (no fear of that... it's been 37 degrees the last few days...:P).

So, I've been changing all this stuff to 'finished' on Ravelry, and feeling very smug and constructive about it too. Oh, and on a Ravelry note, I got embarrassingly excited because someone favourite-ed my silly rainbow hat. And when I got on this morning, someone had done the same to my nearly done Cleo, which has just given me more motivation to finally finish it... This is probably a lame thing to be excited about, but nobody in real life ever gets very interested in the stuff I knit, so it's kind of gratifying...

Grrrr... want shop, so can acquire money, so can acquire digital camera.
Patience Anna, patience...

It's been a while...

Well, it's been a while since I posted here. For anyone who's keeping score, wedding went off without a hitch, as did honeymoon. Only problem is that since we got back we've been delayed in taking over our business, but there's an upside of that too, being that we didn't have to work over the Christmas period.

True to my word, I did not knit at any stage of the honeymoon. Scribbled down a few designs, yes, but there was no knitting whatsoever. So basically I've been making up for it since I got back, by starting far too many new things and no finishing any of the old ones... Oh well, have to make the most of not working, don't I?

Started a log cabin blanket to use up the balls of Cosy Wool that I had kicking around the place. Picked this pattern because I've been wanting to make a big blankety type thing for when it gets cold again, and since I have a dislike of/inability to pick up stitches, I figured I'd exorcise it by using a pattern that requires me to do it all of the time. So far, so good. It's working nicely and my stitch picking up is getting worlds better.

Also bought some more yarn from Bendigo Woollen Mills; some 100% alpaca this time. I'm making a zip-up cardigan of my own design with it. Fingers crossed it turns out well, I've put a lot more time than usual into gauging/calculating things accurately.

Also started a bunch of scarves and tea towels out of pure restlessness. That happens when it's too hot to go outside...

Probably won't be posting too much in the near future, as I had to give Dad back his digital camera (I don't actually own one myself). This is much more fun with pictures, so I'll probably scale back until I can get my mitts on my own camera (and who knows when that will be, because as I'm not working at the moment, I can't really justify the expense... maybe when we get the shop up and running).

Nearly there now...

Well, I get married tomorrow. And I'm sleepy. It's hard to sleep for very long at the moment.

Finished knitting my Lelah top, though it came out far too big around the top (not sure if the yarn stretched on me a little or if my gauge was just slightly off... could be a combination of both actually). I've got a few plans to salvage it though, so hopefully it won't be a write off. The lace came out really nicely, so it would be a shame to have to frog it...

I am being very good and not starting any new projects. Nor will I be starting anything new until after I get back from honeymoon... Chris is always complaining that I knit too much, so for some reason that I've now forgotten, I bet him that I could go the whole honeymoon without knitting anything. Can't remember why I did that... oh well, hardly a hardship, I'll have lots of other stuff to do.

I definitely have wicked plans for when I get home though...

Anyway, in summary:

• Sleepy
• Nearly married
• Not currently knitting (feels odd)

Ta ta all, I'm off to do constructive things.

Insomnia and knitting

Well, still here, and still mostly sane, even though wedding is now 10 days away (it's a little scary to think of it in terms of days instead of weeks/months/>year. It's all going more or less to plan, though I'm wishing that everyone would stop trying to plan things to within an inch of their lives. I'm not so big on that kind of formal rigidity at social gatherings; I like people to be able to wander around and do what they like. Oh well, I'm sure people will do that anyway, whether they've been told otherwise or not (or all the people I know will anyway).

Anyway Anna, put a sock in it. Wedding gas-bagging is for other blog, not this one.

Decided to make a Lelah top (http://knittingforboozehags.com/freebirds/lelah-top) with my Bendigo Woollen Mills cotton yarn; it seems a pretty straightforward pattern, and some of the versions on Ravelry look so awesome. The light purple is a little bit girly by my standards, but maybe that's not a bad thing for a change (one can't live in jeans and baggy t-shirt all the time... or at least not without being mistaken for a guy from a distance when you're as tall as I am...).

Anyway, top is coming along swimmingly, albeit a little slowly since I'm knitting in a much smaller gauge. Still, I've had a bit of insomnia (probably due to wedding) the last few nights, so that's helping it along a bit. No photos yet, because my digital camera is out of batteries and I can't find new ones. So there...

Now, off to be a good girl and write my essay, even though I'm so screwed with it that it really is quite hilarious...

I survived!

Hurray, the big nasty pieces of assessment are over and done with.


Now it's just one more smaller essay to do, and I'm free...


Except I have a sneaking suspicion that freedom will involve remembering the fact that I'm getting married in two weeks from today... Yet another thing that requires me being organised. And in some ways this requires a worse kind of organised, because everyone is always asking me questions about stuff. Nobody asks me law questions, because they know I'll just bore them to death if they do...

Anyway, when I was literally running out the door to make the train and hand my essay in on time (late submission penalties and harsh and generally bitey), I nearly tripped over a parcel on my doorstep:

Yay! My Bendigo Woollen Mills yarn got here (which surprised me because I'm pretty sure I asked them to send it to my family's PO box, but that doesn't mean I wasn't happy to see it... It's an 8-ply 100% cotton yarn that I'm going to make something summery with, have yet to decide on what. They sent me a colour card as well, which is pretty and highly touchable. I'm liking the look of their alpaca yarn for when winter rolls around again...

More procrastination

Anna proves once again that she is really quite appalling at finishing things, and very good indeed at getting distracted and starting new things...

Though I have exam period as an excuse (for a change): during exams my brains are so fried that erratic behaviour and a short attention span are pretty much expected, so I don't beat myself up too much about it.

I've very nearly finished the teal raglan jumper I've been working on (as in, just have to knit about an inch more on the sleeves, and then do the finishing). It's worked out quite well, although I couldn't make it quite as long as I wanted, because I didn't buy quite enough yarn.

Still, can't really complain on the yarn front. This jumper is a marvellous example of the few times when it actually works out cheaper to knit your own jumper, as opposed to buying one in the shops. The yarn for this cost about $6.50 (50c a ball, and I think I used 13 balls). Fibre content is 75% wool, 25% acrylic, so it's toasty warm. It was Big W brand yarn, and I happened in there just when they were trying to get rid of it all (from memory, I had been trying to buy wedding makeup, but all of the shiny counter and lots of little-bottles-of-things-in-exactly-the same-colour-but-with-different-cheesy-names had me spooked, so I went to hide in the knitting section and was happily surprised). So I can't really complain about not buying enough when it was all such a good bargain (and this explains why I can't go back and just buy more).

I have discovered the Bendigo Woollen Mills website (http://www.bendigowoollenmills.com.au/), courtesy of my future mother in law. She was knitting with one of their cotton yarns, and it felt pretty shiny and nice so I figured I'd check it out. I've ordered some of their yarn, so I suppose I'll soon find out if they're any good or not. Reveiws on Ravelry seem pretty positive, and they are damn cheap, so fingers crossed.

Oh, and I disgracefully haven't finished either my halter top or my leaf cardi. All I need to do is sew a couple of seams, but no, they're languishing underneath the coffee table, abandoned and lonely... I blame the wedding. And exams. That is a combination pretty much guaranteed to eat your brain...

Speaking of exam period, better be a good girl and go and write my essay...