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...

Tired and sore...

Blah. Have started work at 6am, 7:30am and 6:30am the last three days. As a result, have not had a great deal of sleep... And silly Howard decided to call the silly election on the day of the wedding, which means that there's a very good chance that we may get booted from our venue. I am definitely not voting for him now (though let's be honest, I was never going to anyway).

On the upside, I made the trek out to Canterbury to visit Sunspun, a lovely yarn store on Canterbury Road. It was a fantastic shop filled with shiny beautiful things, most of which I couldn't afford (damn student budget), and I definitely plan to head back there again. On this occasion I exercised remarkable financial restraint and bought two balls of Noro Silk Garden to make an Argosy scarf with.

I'd been curious about Noro yarns because everyone goes on about them so much, but they're kind of hard to track down here in Melbourne, and when you do track them down they don't come particularly cheap. Still, after knitting a bit with them, I deem them to definitely be worth the travel and the money: my scarf is so beautiful that I can't stop showing it to people...

I'm leaving my crappy retail job in a couple of weeks so that I can work at Chris' business when we get back from the honeymoon, and I gave my two weeks notice on the same day that I bought this yarn/started knitting this scarf. So, this will henceforth be known as the 'Scarf of Freedom from Bread-Vending'!

Oh, and yesterday when I was heading home, a busker in the city stopped in mid-song just to tell me that my hat (pictured a few posts ago) was awesome. Yes, feel the power of the hat!

Nothing much happening

Sleepy. Which is on one hand embarrassing because it's not even 11pm yet. On the other hand, since I need to be at work at 6am, it's probably a useful thing. My boss seems to have developed a fetish for putting me on the open shift. Yipee... Oh well, it beats braving the Upfield trainline at 9:30pm every shift working the close..

Not much happening on the knitting front. My leisure time is always torn between knitting and computer gaming, and the last week my poor brain has been sucked back into World of Warcraft... Oh well, knitting will probably take back over next week.

I bought lots of very cheap yarn from Big W last week when I was meant to be buying useful things. Went mainly for wool/acrylic blends in pretty shades... 50c a ball, you can't really go wrong (why do I suspect this statement will come back to haunt me later...). Have some in a lovely teal colour that I'm going to make some kind of raglan jumper out of.

Have a short knitting attention span at the moment; don't want to finish what I'm doing, just want to start new things and then in turn proceed to not finish them. I think it's all stemming from not wanting to be arsed to finish the hems on my Leaf ties cardigan... sewing hems is even more boring than sewing seams... This procrastination is fuelled by the fact that it doesn't quite fit me properly. I may have to have a fiddle.

But yes, getting back on the university horse (I was a naughty Anna and missed a lot of class for a while there, so I've got a bit to catch up on), helping fiancee buy a business, working, trying to plan a rapidly approaching wedding, and still managing to fit in an unhealthy amount of violent computer games, does not leave much time for sanity, let alone knitting. Oh well, it will pass. I want to finish my halter top before I go on honeymoon, so there's some incentive for me...