In a knitting rut...

It is currently raining here in Melbourne - the heat wave of the last few days has finally broken, which is very good because now I can go into the city and get things done without running the risk of roasting to death in public transport hell. Doing things will be good, if I can make it happen, because once again, I have fallen into the void between semesters: that glorious place where I have free time, but have so much that I want/have to do with it that I end up not getting much done at all. Such is life I suppose. I have been doing things - I've been working a fair bit, getting some writing done, sewing, cooking, and organising university things - but doing a little bit of many things never makes you feel quite so satisfied as doing a lot of one thing. I suppose I shouldn't feel too bad - my brother has just been playing computer games for about 12 hours per day. So, stuff I've been up to:




As I mentioned, I've done a lot of cooking. I've been making huge vats of tabbouleh, or my version of it (a slightly higher ratio of grains to herbs so that it's filling enough to take to work and have as a complete meal). Yesterday I also made a version of these, and yes, they are as terrifying in real life as they look/sound on that site. I made a half batch, and made a basic butter cake base instead of the brownie base they suggested (because I was quite convinced that a brownie base would probably catapult this slice into the realm of too-rich-to-actually-be-enjoyable), and they're still deadly. Nice, but deadly.



I went to a wedding on the weekend (very enjoyable!) and managed to make the bride and groom a card that involved love hearts but didn't make me want to vomit. I was proud of that... It's a little abstract, but I was happy with it.




And I've been knitting. Though not as much as I usually like to. I've sort of snagged on the two projects I've been working on - one of them (the summer top I mentioned in the last entry) is having issues with drape, and it's knit at such a small gauge that it takes a long time to make any progress, so the idea of proceeding only to have to rip back is not appealing. And the other is knit in bulky weight wool that is not particularly suited to summer knitting. The fact that they are both my own designs doesn't really help things either - when proceeding with a project means having to sit down and make calculations, or thread things on and off of waste yarn so that you can try them on, it just makes it a little harder to motivate yourself to keep going. I know that this is a problem that most people face, so I really have no right to whinge, but yeah, there you go.

At any rate, I was still wanting to knit, even though I wasn't too keen on my works-in-progress, so I started the above piece. A basic, top down, triangular shawl - a nice and easy project that I didn't have to think about, and can knit while chilling out and chatting, or listening to music. I am using my long-hoarded Sundara Sock yarn (in 'Brambleberry'), and to make it go further I'm striping it with some basic black fingering weight yarn (I really liked the Sundara, but didn't think I had enough of it to make a decent size shawl using it alone). So hopefully this will be the nice gentle project I need to get my knitting momentum back. I'm sure the lull won't last for long...