An elaboration

Last post I made mention of my new Noro socks. On Ravelry they're entitled the 'Well Travelled Socks' and for fun, I thought I'd show just how well travelled - this is which parts I knitted where. Behold: you can see the entire trip laid out in sock form!

Apologies for the tiny font - my computer skills are lacking and I thought I was making it bigger than it turned out, and it's 12:50 at night so I'm too lazy to do it over...

Now, I need to spend the next couple of days binge knitting the two Christmas presents I haven't finished yet (doesn't matter that they're a wee bit late, as recipients are interstate until New Years anyway). Both hats: one is mostly finished, but the other is hardly started and is made from fingering weight yarn... Hmmm... *takes deep breath*

Returned from my wanderings...

Yep, I'm officially back again. Got back to Melbourne this morning, after stopping off at Sydney, after stopping off at Seoul, after catching a plane in Paris, after getting on a train three hours earlier in Avignon. Yeah, it was a very long 28 hours... Haven't slept yet. But jetlag hasn't hit me like a brick to the head quite yet, so let's try for an update anyway...


So, Europe. Erm, where to start? I'm not actually sure. Here's a brief outline of the movements anyway: flew to Seoul (yeah yeah, I know that isn't in Europe) and spent a night there, then flew to Paris. Bummed around there for a few days, doing touristy things, and then high tailed it to Munich, staying a while in Brussels along the way. After Munich headed down through Austria (COLD!!! -8 degrees, people! To a poor little Aussie cold-wuss like yours truly, that's cruel and unusual torment) into Italy. Hung around in Venice (well, in Mestre, the town next to Venice - staying in Venice itself costs an arm and a leg, not to mention it was flooding at the time) and Florence, and then drove along the coast (passing through Monaco on the way) back into France. Then we stayed at a friend's place in a little town in Provence for a bit under a week, and then it was back to Paris/Seoul/Sydney/home! Whew - no wonder I'm tired.


I ate what felt like my bodyweight in cheese, gave my liver a right pounding with all of the lovely European wine and beer, tracked down all of the most morbid historical sights I could find, got hideously sick in Venice (we're talking virtually bedridden for two days - I haven't been so ill in over ten years), ran gleefully after flamingos in the swamps of the Camargue, used the most confusing toilets ever, went on some truly epic supermarket adventures, and generally had an awesome time.


If I tried to write all about what I did, I'd be here all bloody night, so I won't. And if I tried to post all of my pictures, everyone's computers would crash, so I won't do that either. So here are some of the better photos:

Because everyone loves a German beer hall... Here's the brother, showing off his manly, beer wrangling strength (hey, those things hold a litre apiece - they're heavy!)

Here's Venice, now with 10% extra flooding. I was so annoyed to get sick at this point of the trip, because Venice was basically the thing I was looking forward to the most - I've wanted to go for years, because I've studied a lot of the history and just generally dig the place.

Some of the Roman ruins in Arles. They had a fantastic amphitheatre in Orange as well, but I'm particularly enamoured with how blue the sky was on this particular day. To be frank, the weather was rotten for most of the trip, but while we were in Provence it treated us wonderfully (aside from the first few days of having our arses frozen off by the Mistral).

I took heaps more - that's just a few at random. Suffice to say, I had an awesome time.

And yes, there was knitting. I only got one pair of socks finished the entire month I was away (can we say pathetic?), but I'm quite enamoured with them. Noro goodness...

And they match! For some bizarre reason, it turns out that when you knit a women's size 11 sock with this yarn on this size needle, you end up magically back at the start of the colour repeat when you finish. Total fluke. Weird. Anyway, I love them quite a lot. It means I can reprise my look of head to toe black with brightly coloured socks from a few years back - it'll brighten up the law school at least, even if everyone does think that I'm a right idiot...

Taking leave for a while...

Okay, this'll be short and sweet (and free of blurry photos for a change), for I have a 6am plane to catch!

Am heading off to gallivant merrily (i.e. freeze my joyful behind off) around the northern hemisphere, so things will be a bit quiet on the blog front over the next month (though you never do know - there might be the odd people out of me - it remains to be seen). Though I'll definitely have the knitting and the writing with me (as well as a truly impractical amount of books, and a large handful of sudoku puzzles), so things will still be carrying on as normal...

Heaven knows it'll be nice to get away for a bit - for anyone who hasn't noticed, it's been kind of a crazy year for me to say the least, and without a doubt the hardest I've ever had to wrangle in my admittedly not particularly long life. What with wrangling a law degree while working 35+ hours a week, helping run a business, being too broke to buy food on a regular basis, trying (and subsequently succeeding) to work up the courage to leave a relationship that, well, wasn't treating me well to say the least, starting a new job, screwing my head back on after moving back home for some much needed recuperation, etc, etc. Even the last few weeks have been crazy - what with exams and planning the holiday, as well as the somewhat recent appearance on the scene of a poor impressionable young man who is attempting to win my easily distracted favour by reading Baudelaire to me in the park...

What a bloody year... What was I just saying about it being nice to get away for a bit?

Anyway, Happy Christmas all, and take care of yourselves!

Malevolent dinner!

Well, Ravelry is down for maintenance and I need something to do while I give my hands a rest from sock knitting, so I figured I'd do a somewhat uneventful update...

True to my word, I've started on some socks with my lovely Live 2 Knit yarn:

This is a sock of firsts for me in many ways, so how well it will work out is a little up in the air. First time not knitting socks on dpns, first time using Magic Loop, first time I've tried colour work in a sock, and first sock I've ever knitted from my own pattern. So I guess we'll see. I still love the colours, but it's occurred to me now that this sock could be interpreted as a little bit, erm, Olympics-style patriotic (green and gold, anyone?). Oh well, there are worse things.

*sigh* There's so much knitting I want to do before I go away, but not nearly enough time to do it all when I consider all of the other things I need to do before leaving. I've wrangled the law faculty re: my enrolment for next semester (they were being difficult), and I've already pencilled in all of the people I need to see before I leave, but there's still buckets to do. Meh. The knitting will be here when I get back.


The weather over the last while has been archetypal Melbourne weather. Last Thursday - I was wearing a woollen jumper, hat and scarf out and still shivering. The Thursday before that - it was in the mid thirties and I was in a mere singlet top and still sweating. I suppose I should look on the bright side - at least I'm getting wear out of the jumpers I knitted so late in the year...


Hopefully I'll finish something interesting before I leave.
In the meantime, I leave you all with a picture of the Evil Avocado of Doom!

Is it obvious from looking at this that my parents never told me not to play with my food?

Pretty good, eh?

Mildly disobedient

Whoops. I might have cast on for my Corona jumper after all. Despite not having finished either the raglan or the hat. Bad Anna. Oh well, I did do some work on the raglan - just a sleeve and a half to go - and the hat only needs a good solid half hour or so sunk into it before it's finished.

Behold, my illicit jumper startings...

Yum.

Anyway, I figure since this pattern commences by asking you to do five inches of 1x1 ribbing right off the bat, it made sense to start it while the motivation was there. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Anyway, the Dream in Colour yarn is just as beautiful knitted up as it is in the skein. Once again: yum.

I got my Sundara yarn too. Turns out that it was actually sitting in my PO box while I was writing the last entry, but I didn't get it until the next day because I'd assumed that it wouldn't be there yet, so hadn't bothered checking for it. Silly me. Anyway, it is indeed absolutely beautiful. I have wicked plans for it too... I'm thinking I want to make another Woodland Shawl, except a longer, thinner scarf version. Now my only decision is whether or not to save it for Europe knitting... Just not sure if I have the restraint to wait over a month before getting stuck in.

Still beavering away on the raglan - it's getting there slowly. I've finished the body, and I'm very happy with the fit - especially considering that I employed my usual happy-go-lucky method of waist shaping.



Doesn't look like much now, but I'm happy with how it's coming along (but happy enough to bother taking a halfway decent photo? Apparently not!).

I took a photo of my Belle Beret too, but it still looks frustratingly like a showercap. Perhaps I'll go and finish it so I can have closure on the matter... Oh, and I may possibly have raided WoolBaa this morning. I might possibly have bought more Noro Iro, because I'm so in love with this yarn in this particular colourway that it is apparently insufficient to possess merely a hat made from it - the universe is telling me that I need a scarf also... Stupid universe...

Off to tackle me a sleeve...

Seasonally inappropriate finished objects!

Well, winter finally seems to be over. Melbourne cranked out a toasty warm day today (forecast was for 25 degrees but I think it might even have been warmer). Happily I was out in it - and only about an hour of sunshine was sacrificed to law school servitude! I even raided the bookshop on the way home...

Anyway, to celebrate the warm weather, here are the two latest finished objects - both of them things that I won't be able to wear until it's cool again!

Firstly, yet another pair of Garter Mitts:

I love this pattern to an extent that is truly ridiculous. It's easy and quick, but clever enough that it's immensely satisfying too. This is my third pair, though the first pair that I've made for myself that have actually fit - the last ones were a little too big because I made the large size. Apparently my hands aren't as big as I think they are! This pair were made in the small size (actually, with slightly fewer rows worked than the pattern specified), and they fit perfectly (sitting neatly underneath my sleeves, which was what I was going for).

Reason #8,437 that I love this pattern - it's a really good use for varigated yarn. I have a little bit of a problem with varigated yarn. Nine times out of ten, I don't like the way that it looks when it's knitted up. But for some inexplicable reason, I can't seem to stop buying it... Anyway, this pattern more or less circumvents the whole unpleasant pooling issue, and that is a fine, fine thing. Soon after I bought this yarn (Moda Vera Fun - $2 for the ball, so I couldn't exactly complain), I had one of those "erm, why did I buy this?" moments. But I actually love the way that the colours look together here - kind of rustic. I love these, and I can't wait to wear them.

Anyway, moving right along... to the Mrs Darcy cardigan - finished at last!

I guess "at last" might be a little too strong a phrase, given that this was knitted in a little over two weeks... But it felt like it took forever to block (we've just turned off floor-heating-what-makes-things-block-at-super-speed), so for my attention span, "at last" is appropriate!

I'm very happy with how this turned out. The style isn't one that I normally wear, but it's more flattering than I was expecting it to be, and I Love This Shade of Green. Seriously. If all yarns came in this particular shade, I would be one happy camper. As it was, they don't all come in this shade, so I used Lincraft Merino Crepe 8 ply (about 8 balls of it). Not particularly excited about the yarn, but at least it was cheap (cardigan cost about $25 all up). And did I mention the colour? Mmmmm... bottle-y forest-y green...

Erm, moving right along from salivating over tasty viridian shades - this pattern was great. I made it nearly exactly as written - the only modification I made was to add a few rows to the back/sides, since my row gauge was ever so slightly off, and I'm tall so I wanted to be sure that it would be long enough. I didn't change the number of rows in the sleeves, because everyone on Ravelry seemed to be saying that the sleeves were too long, so I figured that mine would come out about right unaltered (I was actually right for a change!). Oh, and I didn't crochet around the bottom, because I wasn't having the curling issues that the designer had. I did however crochet around the back neckline, because it was curling a little there. Problem seems to be mostly remedied now.

I was very impressed with this pattern all in all - minimal shaping but it didn't end up boxy at all (hurrah for ribbing!). I would definitely recommend this pattern to anyone knitting a garment for the first time - it was ridiculuosly quick and straightforward. As whinged about on Ravelry, the only even slightly difficult part (in my opinion) was seaming the ribbed section - my seaming skills are not particularly impressive, and that combined with the comparatively loose gauge of my fabric meant that there were a few parts that looked a little dippy. I'm not too fussed though - it isn't all that noticeable, and I'm no perfectionist! Some people have had trouble with the sleeve cap, but none of that here - it fitted just fine for me.

And yes, I was roasting when these photos were taken. Double layers, one of them wool, on a warm spring day = an uncomfortably toasty Anna!

So yes, lots of warm clothing that is thoroughly inappropriate for current Melbourne weather. Thankfully, I'm not fussed by this for two reasons:

1. It's Melbourne we're talking about here. It'll probably be snowing by dinner time.
2. In a little over two months, I'm off to Europe! Bring on the woolly scarves!

Unfortunately, before I get to gallivant merrily around Germany, Austria, Italy and France there will be exams. Grumble. On that note, I'd best go and tackle the Constitutional Law textbooks. If anyone hears a banging noise, don't worry - that will just be me repeatedly bashing my head against the table in an attempt to euthanize myself in order to avoid the otherwise long, slow and painful death by boredom that awaits me... Or something.