Shock!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm posting - and in orange!



This is Damson, by Ysolda Teague, in Campari by Wollmeise (which the lovely Maria enabled me to buy). It's beautiful, just the right sort of thing for this time of year. I'm particularly loving the full sweeping curve of it, and the rings that edge it. I can throw it round my shoulders to keep me warm now it's spring here (finally).

Mmmmm.

Date shenanigans

I've just noticed that blogger has posted that as Friday 22nd May. Which it isn't yet, not here in UK! I think the world of google is struggling with the fact that we've moved - it keeps giving me google.com.au, not very useful here! I have changed everything in google and onmy computer to stop it - but no!

Anybody know what to do?

I've sorted it! At least for blogger!

And my mac has the right google coming up now, while the iphone (which has not left the UK since it arrived in packing at O2) is showing .com.au! Have contacted google....

About time I thought

to get back on here!

I've been knitting away, but don't seem to have any more pics of how all that is going.
I'm still knitting the Gytha from Twist which is Nanny Ogg on my Ravelry page - the body is done, one sleeve complete and the other pretty close, so only that and the hood to go. I think it'll be lovely and snug once done.
Then, I'm onto the second of the Emily the Car socks - the yarn is FABULOUS, striping in several reds and pinks and a greenish black which works beautifully however it sounds! It's the braided socks from the book Bex sent me - so altogether a very Bex project!
I haven't really done much at all on the Pi Are Squared shawl this month - busy, somehow.

Otherwise - well, we had guests and took them to Wollaton Park, a big (500 acres) park with deer etc and Wollaton Hall within it. Great for running around, ducks, geese, a camellia room, beautiful old buildings, an old-fashioned natural history museum, and an industrial museum. We just walked and ran (guess who did which?)
There were beautiful bluebells - can you see them?

For Clare's birthday we went to the seaside - lovely B&B, great food, and wonderful weather over the enormous beaches. The pictures form the last post were in Western Australia, these are England - but with iphone quality camera, I'm afraid. No kiting as it was still as anything (though not quite the millpond we experienced in Busselton!)

Clarey disappears into the distance

Thought I should prove there were a few clouds...

And just wanted to mention - now on Skype, if anyone wants to phone us!

Happy Birthday dear Clarey!!!!!!!

Have a wonderful day!


I'm looking forward to seeing you kite on the sparkling waters of Norfolk. I'll even help chuck the kite in the air for you!


I want to say thanks for you generously not minding me not working for that last year - and taking me to Sydney; what a wonderful experience!


New adventures now in our new city and new jobs; more time for you to enjoy all your other interests - starting today!

Much love xxxxxxxxxxxx

New podcast and a measuring

OK, so I've found a new podcast - 'Gives Good Knit'. I really enjoy this one; she's literate, interesting and DOESN'T HAVE AN IRRITATING VOICE! Hur-blooming-ray!

Tika's blog is Largely Unrepeatable, and I like that too. She's challenged herself to knit and spin 12 miles this year - and I thought I'd see what I've done to date (anything finished after 1/1/09 counts):

Mamluke socks - 380 yds
Hemp jacket - 1952yds
Jaali - 1200yds
Cable socks - 360 yds

total 3892 yds


divide by 1760 (that's how many yards in a mile, apparently - who knew? Us UK people of my age at least are confused - think in imperial, but learn metric. Hmmm).

gives 2.21 miles knit so far. Not including the yards in the Nanny Ogg sweater.

I'm not challenging myself here, just intrigued.

Nanny Ogg progress

Here's a view of where I was with the knitting yesterday - and today I tried it on; I'm almost at 15" (of 18" for this size, 17" for the next one down - not certain which to do, given that I am not v tall, but shall want to block a little wider, I think, and I don't want the shaping to be too low (would NOT flatter the middle of me at all!) Hmmm. 17.5" seems like a good compromise!

You can see the colours well in this pic - if the green had come out a little lighter I think that would have been better, but what the heck, not bad for a quick bodge dyeing job.



I was planning to get some pics of the area and the house up today, but we're both knackered, after C went out with colleagues last night. She expected to be back about 11 or not much later, but it was 1.30am and she wasn't answering her phone, so I felt I had to stay up in case. So I was pretty p'd off when she did get in (rather drunk) and we're both tired today. Just for the record, NO probs with her staying out as late as she likes, but if there's been a plan and she's hours later in the middle of the night... I reckon it's my job to have a moment of anxiety.

Anyway, she's hungover today, and I'm not. Ho hum.

The weekend is likely to be fun one - Saturday at Airbossworld for kiting, before C's ps arrive and we explore a new-tous restaurant that is proud of it's local ingredients (the Larder on Goosegate) - hope to get lots of tips for local foods!

But a part of me is wishing I was in Wollongong this weekend - or at the Courthouse!

Getting in the habit.

A few pics of the things I've finished and those I'm starting:

First lots of pics of the Dratted Hemp Jacket (TM) - which I'm counting as finished though in fact I have yet to sew in ends, graft underarms and sew in a zip. A mere bagatelle, i'm sure you'll agree!

Whole


Seamless Hybrid construction of back to add just a leetle interest to the project without deviating form the dullness requested by the recipient.


A detail of the front where the travelling stitch zig-zag is reflected rather than identical on each side.


Detail of collar.


Up close and personal with indigo dyed hemp.


To prove there are two (I thought I had completed the second a day or two ago, then realised I had in fact omitted the MMMM (or WWWW) pattern just before the toe, and had to rip out. Oh well, thank heavens for spit splicing.


So now I've started the Gytha hooded top from the Twist Collective winter edition. I'm using Treliske organic rich dark brown merino from NZ for my main colour, with the donkey Bio Natur dyed dark green and rust (and undyed) held with Colinette Parisienne in Velvet Leaf, Ginger and Moss for the contrast colours. Working well, I'm pleased. (I actually bought the Merino from Ecoyarns in Oz, BTW, v helpful).


Detail of Gytha - you can see the colours reasonably accurately here, but in fact the final garment will be mainly dark brown.


Lara - yes, I'll do some pics of the house and neighbourhood soon (but not over the weekend, I'm off to Bristol for a reminder course for GP...).

Finally

A quick blog post from blighty.

We've been 'home' (more of that!) since 21st February, and yet - I haven't posted here. Sorry! It's been a long 7 weeks or so, with lots of catching up with people (and sleeping on their floors) and house hassle. We're in a nice little two up two down terrace in an area of Nottingham called Sherwood, chosen for it's lovely traditional butcher's shop, and the greengrocers, and the Textile Workshop, all just round the corner. The house is unfurnished, so we have more of our own stuff than we did in Sydney, but it still feels only approximate to being a home.

Anyway - I'm knitting like a dervish (do they knit or only spin?) Have just completed a pair of Mamluke socks from the same Nancy Bush Folk Socks book as Lyn is enjoying back in Redfern. Mine a re long-promised 40th birthday presents for Kate, and have been a speedy knit due to the 5ply yarn and 2.75mm dpns (I usually use 2.25mm for socks), as well as the stranded pattern - I kept having to get to the end of a shape in the pattern.

An easy knit, but fun, and a good break after the dratted hemp jacket (also a 40th present, this time for my brother, and completed almost on time, though needs a zip and grafting the underarms. I'm yet to see if he ever wears it!) Here's a bit of a pic from early in the knit:



I had a fun trip to the Colinette millshop in Powys, Wales - Miss Fee, you'd have loved it!
Anyway, I shall stop now - I'd better keep things low and cool so I don't wear myself out, don't you think?
(Listening to Lou Reed Walk on the Wild Side in a pub on a Wednesday lunchtime before going home to do some dyeing).

Trying to keep up

Just a quick post - today I had another lovely meet-up with Cath, a pleasure caused by my leaving-behind of Clare's bag of dragon-boating clothes on Saturday (when I got home from the Central Coast after midnight), and a Waterloo Junction arrangement.
It was very hot (39*C in Hornsby, where we met, and apparently only 33 in Sydney, though it felt very much hotter in the un-airconditioned train from Hornsby south, and waiting on platforms). Fortunately, Cath knew of a tea shop inside the massive COOL shopping centre; I usually do not like such things, but today any chance of cool was welcome - though even this air-conditioned leviathon of a Westfield was pretty warm today as we sweated over our iced tea and knitted.
We've hatched a plan to encourage each other to be outward-looking and creative that I feel very positive about. Thanks, Cath.

I got back to Newtown eventually, to ok Han's bag desig at crumpler (Han, they've done the main sewing and it looks BRILLIANT! Very pleased, and hope you will be too) and to try to get braces for Clare. Retro Spec'd had a notice on the door saying 'back at 4.30'. They lied - I hung around sweating in an internet caff and returned at that time; waited 40 minutes and then gave up. Pretty irked!

Anyway - here I am writing again so soon. Don't hurt your neck from the whiplash when you fall, Sally!

Plans

Knitting I have planned.

1st and foremost - complete John's jacket in time for his 40th birthday, 21st March.
Complete Honey Bee stole (not started).
Mamluke socks - for Kate's 40th (was November 2007!)
Complete Pi Are Squared shawl in Lost Flock Fibers yarn About 1/3 or 1/4 complete).
Estes vest in black Cleckheaton Merino Supreme
Baby Cables and Big Ones Too in Bio Natur
Gytha in Treliske organic merino with Bio Natur for colour-work
Little Birds with the Rowan Yorkshire Tweed 4ply
Mermaid kit, Hanne Falkenberg
Winter wonderland coat - cream Cleckheaton Merino Supreme to be dyed in pieces
Falling water stole for Clare
Through the Keyhole
Intoxicating with the Knitwitches silk dk
Dainty pinstripes with the 4ply soft I bought on sale with JoVE!
Vivian (with the Rowan Yorkshire Tweed Aran)

That's most of the things I have in my head/in my queue on Ravelry, etc etc. We'll see. I'm not saying I'll knit them all this year!
I shall also do some plainish socks, as they're good to have on the go when around and about.

Life, meanwhile

So - the trip home in November resulted in a consultant job (that's Attending in US, and Staff Specialist in Oz) in Paediatric A+E for Clare, in Nottingham. Several happy, happy things about this
- it seems like a great department
- she and a friend, Lynda, have managed to wangle a job-share - so she'll have lots of time for kiting, cello, bread-making, doing up a crap house, cycling, dragon-boating etc etc.
- we've got EXCELLENT friends in Nottingham
- Nottingham is the best place in the UK (arguably, I'm sure!) for dragon-boating, with the National Watersports Centre in Holme Pierrepont
- it's also good for kite-buggying, as there's the Airbossworld kite field at an old air field nearby
- knitting - there are several interesting-looking groups, one of which I attended while we were there - very welcoming they were too! THis was in that rare bird - a lovely independent yarn shop!
- Nottingham is no further from John, Shell and the kids and not very far from Birmingha, so easy to stay in touch with people.

A few less good things:
- NOT a good time to be trying to sell a house in Birmingham!
- not as near the sea (which would be right next to it) as CLare would like. Closer than Brum, though!

In other news:
We've shipped all our stuff and are now living out of suitcases in Summer Hill, courtesy of Bex and Fin.

We're hoping to get a tourist visa for Feb, stay here till 29th Jan and then trip on over to Perth, rent a campervan and explore the kitesufing spots (and hopefully wineries etc too) of the south-west, while gettig to visit my lovely cousins and aunt in Albany and Perth.

Clare's worrying she won't be busy enough working part-time.

I'm worrying I won't get a job, and/or I won't remember how to be a GP.

We're both worrying about money and houses and so on! We'll need to rent a tiny place in Nottingham pro tem while we try to sell or house in Brum, then find somewhere to buy in Nottingham. All fun.

Still - I went to the theatre twice last week (Rabbit and Being Harold Pinter - both good, the latter hard work with surtitles on a pretty wordy play, but intriguing). And tonight we splash out and go to Tetsuya's for a degustation that promises to be amazing. Tomorrow is the STC War of the Roses marathon - that's made from Shakespear's Rich ll, Hen lV, Hen V, Hen Vl, and Rich lll. Two parts, each almost 4 hours long. Wow!

And in two weeks we have Camille, can't wait! (Interesting French singer).

Backlog of FOs

I'm going to do several posts today/this week, to make up for the MONTHS of absence. No good reason, I'm afraid, I just haven't posted, so there you go.

I've finished quite a few things since I last wrote, so I'll add pics and see how that goes.
First up, Secret of Chrysopolis:


This took 3 and a bit skeins of Malabrigo lace. Oh, and over a year of knitting (not quite true - I half finished it last year, and knocked out the second half in August, September and October, just in time to use it to snuggle on a November trip to the UK, of which more anon).

It's the Secret of Chrysopolis pattern, and these photos were taken AFTER the trip home, hence the crumpled nature. Oh well! (D'you like the traditional shawl-on-bike shots, first tried with Tuscany?)

While I was in the UK (less than a week) I quickly knocked out the Meret, a beret mystery knitalong by Woolly Wormhead. This is a lace beret pattern, and I used some of the remaining yarn (Rowanspun aran in Hardy, discontinued) from the Silver Chunks. Fun to do. Here it is, rather closely matching my hair colour!


The next thing I finished was just before New Year - and this was a project I started after my bro and family left in August, but I got bored part way through a sleeve, and put it down (I hadn't finished the body but had 3 balls left and wanted to judge it right). This is Liesl, by Ysolda. I did her free Cloud Bolero a couple of years ago, and this is a development of that same idea. Easy, worked well. I used 6.5 balls of RYC cashsoft aran, which worked really well, and I think it'll be very wearable cardigan (for work, maybe?) I plan to put 2 or 3 buttons, but there won't be one at the top as I forgot to do the buttonhole there!
Clare took the pics - it was 30*C and I wanted her to GET ON WITH IT but she likes to do things properly.

And from the side....


I finally finished Clare's water-lover socks (well, I do have to darn in the ends, but that counts, doesn't it?) No pics of them completed, but:

Next up, is Jaali - this is a pattern by Alison Green Will, published in Twist Collective (a great new resource!) I love this. And I couldn't imagine it in any colour other than orange (one of my favourites, but uncommon for me not to change from the pattern colour).
The yarn was a bit of a saga - I ended up getting 17 skeins (of which I used less than 15) of Bella Baby Layette bamboo80%/merino20% (vom-y name, I know) from Spotlight for under $100AU. I bought it in various dyelots of cream, and then dyed it in the laundry sink using Dylon Multi-purpose, 1 pot of scarlet and lots of tangerine. Success!
The instructions were excellent, I thought - though JoVE found a few errors, they were pretty obvious things easy to correct (and corrected by TC very quickly). JoVE's Jaali, of course, was purple, and looks great.


I should be able to wear it over something (as here) or without - that's why I chose the bamboo mix so as not to be too hot.


(Talking of JoVE, I could do with a bit of posture work, no?)

So, Jaali was the first completed object of 2009. And I am now working on John's 40th birthday jacket (fingers crossed I have enough yarn!) - done a lot of designing, and I've started the first arm. Going to use EZ's seamless hybrid idea, but my own workings, I think.
I'm also knitting Fine cabled socks - using stitch counts and cable from Knitfreak, here, but knitting them toe-up a la Widdershins. The Trekking XXL yarn is a delight. I've got the yarn and pattern for the Honeybee Stole by Anne Hanson using Fyberspates old laceweight silk. I started this back in Feb, but fell done on the whole 'read the instructions' part - I didn't do a provisional cast on. I think I'll rip it out and start again.


OK, enough for now!

Fifififi is done - and I'm posting!

I'm vaguely intending to post more often this month. Not the real NaBloPoMo job - but more than once (poor old October got nothing at all!)

Just a few pics today of my Fifififi by French Girl Knits. KNit with 5 skeins of Calmer by Rowan (cotton and 'microfibre' - ie some stretch) dyed last year from nasty pale tangerine to this brick.

Quite quickly knit, and a good, wearable spring/UK summer tee shirt. Love the colour!

Normal day

JoVE linked me to a new blog I'll be following longterm, I think. It's called Handmade Homeschool, but has knitting and other creative stuff, and I like her writing and pics. 

Anyway, she did a half-marathon in Budapest, with her husband who does triathlons, earlier this year. She did it - trained, ran and enjoyed it - because she couldn't resist the idea of running there through that beautiful city. That's what made me do the Bridge run, so it resonated with me +++.

She writes about the whole thing here.

I thought I'd done with writing about my amazing feat (for me!) but then I read her (not sure what her name is!) post about normal days, and wanted to add the quote with which she started here. Wonderful.

“Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so. One day I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in the pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky and want, more than all the world, your return.” 

Mary Jean Iron

This made me think, too, of the Book Show I heard this morning, where Christina Thompson was interviewed. She's a US academic and editor of the Harvard Review, who is married to a Maori man, and who has used their relationship as a hook to bring people to the history of the Maori/European relations in NZ in her book "Come on Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All: An Unlikely Love Story". She spoke about her husband (named Seven)'s inability and lack of interest in thinking about the future at all, to the extent that he once said to her 'I think about food all the time', but then suggested that he might feel that way because he was hungry right now. (CT doesn't claim that all the differences between her and her husband are to do with him being Maori, BTW). I found it interesting and challenging!

Running

I ran the bridge! OK, it's old news - see Fee and Kris for more up-to-date details...

I did the 9k version (Clare did the half marathon, mad fool), and ran with Fee in a 5mins run, 3 mins walk pattern, that gave us a time of 1 hour 5 mins and 27 seconds. I'm so v pleased!

Have been out once since, and starting to do 8minute batches (much harder!)

Orange is a theme

So, Fifififi is now about half done - I did a few inches of the 33" size (it's meant to have negative ease, I haven't shrunk nor gone mad), and was getting a much smaller gauge than the pattern suggested. So I went up to the 37" size, and that's going beautifully. I'm onto my third skein only, of 7, so I should be able to make it nice and long, which I much prefer!

And now I'm starting to think about what's next... I've had Jaali on my mind for quite a while. It's another Twist Collective pattern, this time by Alison Green Will. I love the shape - and the colour! BUT I've been thinking that a merino/cashmere blend isn't very friendly for lots of wearing (particularly a jumper that can be worn without anything under it, potentially) Also a bit hot. So I thought a cotton/wool blend would be good (and I'd been hearing Kris' ecstatic response to her cotton Fleece). 

I then had a (lovely) day with Lara and her spawn (tip o' the nib to your, I!) on Tuesday, and we went to Spotlight (big box craft and homewares shop). Before we even went Lara was setting me up to check out something called Bella Baby Layette (I know. Terrible name!) It's 20% wool, 80% bamboo, sheeny and, she said, a delight to knit with. Hmmm.

Got there and they had just the right amount of white-ish stuff, had the same manufacturer's-suggested-gauge as the original yarn (though Alison has knit a little tighter for Jaali). I bought dye (Dylon multi-purpose) in Mandarin and scarlet. 

And when I got home - I knit a swatch. And another. And then another... At 4mm my gauge seemed unlikely to be right after a wash and block. 3.75mm - maybe. Washed both - both too large a gauge, but I also hung the dry 3.75mm swatch with a light weight on the bottom (a teaspoon) to see if it would a) stretch, and b) spring back. It did!

And now I've done another swatch on 3.5mm needles. The yarn is lovely, I like the hand on 3.75mm, and shall decide between the two later. But it dyed beautifully!

Here are my skeins drying in the garden. The colour is wrong - they're much more of an orange and less of a scarlet than this suggests, but lovely. And the sheen remains! (BTW, I did the dyeing in a stainless steel sink, not on the stove, just with v hot water. I think it'll hold). 

So that's been my knitting fun!

Buonissima complete!

Hope you noticed the Catalogue Man pose in the middle of the mosaic? Very C....

And I'm thrilled! It fits Clare to a T, and is just her sort of thing - asymmetry, cables, blue.... A great pattern. I'm surprised more people haven't rushed to make it!

When I blocked each piece it was easy to match the schematics for the size (36" bust) I made.

 

I used Bendigo aran in dusty blue, and bought 4 of their humungous 200g balls (300m each). A good match! (I have very little yarn left, and that's fair enough - the quoted 16 balls of 78m each comes to 1248m, and I had only 1200m). 

This yarn was nice to use and I think it'll wear and wash well - this is to be an every-day kind of jumper, rather than a keep-for-special.

Start of Fifififi

I'm starting the lovely cotton-mix Calmer (lovely cos it's now hot and sweaty here) to make the French Girl Knits Fifi. I'm using slightly smaller needles (4mm rather than 4.5mm) and making the 2nd size - 33", I'm 37" ish, but negative ease is an essential part of this mix. We'll see! I haven't done masses of re-swatching (I swatched a year or two ago), but shall launch and potentially re-knit as needed. 

Love the colour I got from double over-dyeing the manky pale tangerine yarn that was so cheap (discontinued) at Cucumberpatch!

Finally Finished this Round...

So, today (that's Wednesday 10th September) I finally finished casting off and weaving in the few ends on my Twisted Float Shrug - it was in the Fall 2005 Vogue Knitting, and I think I started it fairly immediately - according to my Ravelry documentation, in December 2005. So nearly 3 years. I probably did about half - or more - in the last 3 weeks! (Thanks, Clare, for getting me going again on this).

I've used skeins and skeins of Debbie Bliss Maya, sadly discontinued, and bought in various lumps from Getknitted while I was in Birmingham. I do like this yarn, a very intensely kettle-dyed single thick/thin spun in Latin America (can't remember where, sorry). I used a blue/green as the contrast throughout (thanks so much, Maria, I used EVERY LAST INCH of those skeins you gave me... those last rounds just ate up the metreage), and changed the main colour every pattern repeat. I think it worked well, for me - I like colourful clothes!

I pinned it out on my lovely Cocoknits Knitter's Block, and steamed it (on low heat) through the wet cloths that come with the kit. It's now drapey and lovely. 

Not sure when I'll manage to upload pics of it - I've taken one of it blocking, and shall get C to take some of me wearing it over the next few days. Very pleased!

(Like the Seahorse brooch? A Perl Grey beauty from Robynn at Purlescence).

And on that colourful note, I'm off to module 2 of the C+G course. Wish me luck - or rather, wish me a dearth of procrastination!

A quick one

I've had guests, and then ISP probs (ie we have only a tiny download allowance, which I didn't realise as we are subletting that along with the house, and hence used up in only an Hour. I blame the podcasts!)

Anyway - I've finished a couple of things, and started some too. here we go:

Oriental Lily for Alice, which went down well! Used Barb's lost flock fibers in blue held with multicoloured from Fybrespates, both superwash sockyarns. Adjusted size upwards. Might do it again!

Heffalump, for Ben - form Ysolda's Elijah pattern

I've started Fiona Ellis' Bonnie, from Twist Collective -using Bendigo Aran wool, for Clare. love the asymmetry!

And I've swatched for Veronik Avery's  Linden, also Twist Collective, in Treliske Bio-Natur, organic sheepswool in Donkey. Loving it - shall use the yarn doubled on 6mm needles as in the topmost swatch.

A lovely August with family! I'll try to post again soon....