Isn't it awesome when stuff works for a change?

Have corn chips, guacamole and beer = good. Just the thing to dispel the tedious remnants of this morning's Remedies class (unless unjust enrichment cases really float your boat, for some perverse reason).

I've been knitting away like a mad thing the past few days - somewhat obsessively, I'll admit ("mustn't...sleep...until... knitting... blocked")- and I have shiny nice things to show for it as well!

First thing's first - after I knit the thing in under a week, nearly a month went by while the Bevin tank lay neglected on one of my many to-do piles. Poor Bevin. But it's all good now, because Bevin is finished, complete with armhole alterations (which ended up doing the trick quite nicely). I had to weave in a highly implausible amount of ends to get there (though I'm under the weather at the moment, and was slightly feverish at the time, so maybe it only felt like 800,000 ends), but get there I did. Here is me, in said tank (which for some reason makes me look a lot blonder than I am, and like I have really buff arms - valkyrie channelling tanks ftw!):




I really like the way that this turned out; it was a little on the skimpy side at first (not that that's a problem, but there are times/places for skimpy and in those times and places, I'm usually less likely to opt for knitwear), but a good blocking worked wonders. I really like the colour; a dark and slightly shiny red. I'd definitely make another one of these too; perhaps in a lighter colour - could look nice in a medium grey (I don't/can't really do white). I like the lace pattern, and it was a ridiculously easy one. I especially like the subtle shaping it gives to the bottom and neckline. It's just a shame I'm a little on the boyish side up top - I think this top would look amazing on someone a little further north of a B-cup.


I love this - more photos on Ravelry if anyone is masochistically curious. One thing though - there are a few errors in the pattern. Aside from the armholes being too big (someone else on Ravelry said they had the same problem with that, so I don't think it's just me), there lace pattern is incorrect - I think there's errata on the designer's blog. It's common sense to fix though - you just need to make sure your yarn overs match your decreases.

Anyway, and yesterday I also finished the raglan jumper I've been working on. This went so quickly - a week and a day to be precise, and I would have finished it earlier if my weekend hadn't been so busy. And I love it. Absolutely love it. I didn't use a pattern, just cast on 40 sts and went from there. Did yarn over increases because they look fun, a little bit of waist shaping (decreased 6 sts, from memory, and then increased the same amount), and added a moss stitch neckband and similar edging. Just used cheapo yarn that I had obsessively stashed in my excitement to find Lion Brand yarn in Spotlight (turns out it isn't that exciting at all... meh) - managed to get an entire jumper out of three skeins, which I was pretty proud of (knitted at a pretty loose gauge).




(hehe, I'm in the exact same pose, in the exact same place... weird... It's just that there's a convinient bookshelf there on which to place a camera with a timer set).

I was so irrationally pleased with how this worked out - it's so satisfying when you totally wing it and everything works out as perfectly as if you'd planned it meticulously (especially when you're like me, and half the time when you do plan meticulously it still gets all arsed up). It's surprisingly warm too, given the comparatively low proportion of wool.

Anyway, I was so happy that it went straight from blocking onto my body, and got worn to uni for my first Constitutional Law class (hmmm, that sounds like I'm punishing the poor thing, doesn't it). I wore it with my Argosy scarf, so I was very bright and very happy. Seriously, I was so pleased with this outfit, in all its handknit glory, that even stepping in cat vomit when I was in a hurry to leave didn't get me down...


Okay, I know I don't look happy in the photo, but I hate having photos taken, even when I'm the one taking them...

Sigh. The guacamole is nearly all gone... Shall distract self with more knitting. I have to weave in the ends on my Askew tank... it would have been done by now if the BLOODY YARN WOULD STOP BREAKING FOR FIVE MINUTES!!!! Um, sorry. I love Silk Garden dearly, but this batch is frustrating the hell out of me. I've never had this problem with it before - maybe these balls are a bit dippy...

So on and so forth...

Well, been taking a little bit of a writing break for the last few days. It was all going well, but the problem is that I'm quite good at writing words down (or typing them anyway), but not so good at thinking, so it was about time for me to have a good old think about Plot before I finished the first draft. Shall probably resume actual writing again either tonight, or possibly tomorrow. In the mean time, I've had more time for knitting, which has been lovely...

Finished my Argosy scarf finally. As I've already said, it ended up shorter than I would have liked, but what are you going to do? I still love it anyway, and that's the main thing.

Here is scarfy boy reclining happily on the armchair that lives in my study. Purdy. Well, even if it did end up too small, this project definitely gave me the Noro bug. It was the first time that I'd ever lashed out and actually bought some intead of just perving on it and surreptitiously feeling it up in the yarn shop (and even that hadn't been going on for very long - it's seems kind of thin on the ground here in Melbourne), and it definitely won't be the last... Shiny, shiny yarn...

Today (glorious, wonderful Monday, the day on which I do not have to vend pizza) I went shopping to try and find some clothes that aren't falling apart to wear to uni. I didn't end up buying very much - I'd forgotten that fashion at the moment is even more hideous than usual, so decent basics were suprisingly hard to find. It seems that the rule currently is that you must hide your waist - no curves here. And this is kind of the opposite of what I go for (the small waist is what makes up for having the disproportionate thighs of doom, dammit)... I digress. Anyway, while it was mostly quiet on the clothes front, I did buy two nice things: Farscape: Peacekeeper War on DVD and Norah Gaughan's Knitting Nature.

I'd had my eye on this book for ages after stumbling across a Basalt tank that someone on Ravelry had made - so many interesting construction methods. A lot of the things look more complicated than I'm used to (for a start, I've never been one for charts, odd as that might sound to some), but then again, I also have a tendency to assume that patterns are hard, then actually read the instructions through and realise that they aren't. Anyway, looks like a book I'll get a fair bit of use out of...

And then I went home, watched Farscape and knitted row after row of merry stocking stitch on my Honeymoon Cardigan - figured it was about time I got off my arse on that one, but now it's coming along nicely...

New stuff

Well, celebrated yesterday's day off from pizza servitude by making a pilgrimage to Sunspun in search of some more Noro to finish my poor languishing Argosy scarf. Unfortunately, they didn't have any more of the colourway I needed, so unless Woolbaa has it (which I doubt), it may need to be a shorter scarf than I intended. Never mind, it's still pretty, and I'm sure it'll grow a bit when I block it. I just don't like stingy scarves.

The lesson to be learned from this is that when I'm looking at scarf patterns, I should bear my above inclination in mind and buy an extra ball of yarn that what the pattern states. Problem solved. Anyway, it seemed a waste to spend an hour on public transport and not buy something while I was over there (and heaven knows they have no shortage of beautiful, beautiful yarns), so I indulged:

Hehe, what a weird photo. I was trying to get some good light, so the yarn is sitting on my knee in the kitchen (you can see the blue handle of the dustpan and brush underneath the table in the background)... Still, yarn is beautiful! I haven't decided yet what I'm going to do with it. At $16 a ball, making anything large out of just this yarn is totally out of the question budget wise, so I'm tossing up between just making a Dream Swatch head scarf out of the ball that I do have (http://www.knitandtonic.typepad.com/dreamswatchwrap.pdf ), or making Excuses (hehe), which I've had my eyes on for a while ( http://www.magknits.com/Dec07/patterns/excuses.htm). Currently, I'm leaning towards the latter, because I'm not really a head scarf kind of person. I can't even wear shawls without them falling off...

Anyway, Richard's hat is coming along well. The colourwork is coming out nicely; I half wasn't expecting it to work, but it is. Unfortunately, I couldn't take a decent photo of it because it's gloomy and overcast today, and it's hard enough to take a photo of a hat in progress even when there's good light. There'll be a pic of this one soon enough.

Anyway, the day is getting on, so I should go and prise the boy out of bed. Thankfully, I probably don't have an entire night of pizza servitude to sit through tonight (the plan is for me to get everything prepared, and then high tail it when the other staff get in - and I am very much hoping that we stick to this plan), so more work will be done on hat this evening. Also, have written nearly 90k on my story. This pleases me greatly; first draft is nearly done now!

At last...

What's that? It's a blurry, badly taken photo! This can only mean one thing: Anna has a digital camera, and she's not afraid to use it!

This is the first attempt at fair isle that I've been blathering on about so much. I'm taking it easy by only using two colours, and it's turning out okay so far (haven't run into any major difficulties, and that's a very good thing). As of the moment, I am yet to start pounding my head against a brick wall screaming "Why, oh why, did I ever decide to attempt fair isle for the first time using my own crappy improvised pattern instead of looking to someone who actually knows what they're doing". This can only be a positive thing. Still, there's plenty of time for despair later. Plenty of time; heaven knows this thing is moving slowly.

The slowness, I suspect, is because I'm just doing the thing that all the knitting books imply is amateurish; i.e. picking up one colour at a time, then dropping it when I need the other one. Don't care, I am not dextrous, and as of right now I can't be bothered to learn to knit with the yarn in my left hand so I can hold both at once. Maybe one day, but for this first attempt, I'm happy to take it slowly.

Hurray! A slightly less blurry photo! This fellow is my Argosy scarf, in the beautiful Silk Garden yarn that I lashed out and bought to celebrate quitting my hateful bread vending job ($15 per ball of yarn normally being more than a little out of my price range). It is shiny, and pretty, and lovely, and I am in danger of developing a very expensive Noro habit if it doesn't stop being so beautiful quick smart!

And last, but not least, this is the blue bag I've been making with the mysterious unidentified yarn (photo taken with a much better quality camera than my new one, as is painfully obvious). It's nearly finished now; I just have to sew the strap ends together, and then put in the lining and zip. I really like this one so far; it's so unusual. The texture and colour of this yarn really us something else; the photos here don't really do it justice.

Anyway, I'm off to take more photos and generally be a nuisance. Oh, and to try my hand at felting.

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...