You knit where?!

Stealth knitting?

So I'm flying out in 36 hours, and I have just been told knitting needles are definitely a no-go on the flight. Boo hiss. It may or may not stop me though... I can always feign ignorance, right? What's the worst that could happen?

People are always surprised to discover I'm really not one for breaking rules, so it probably won't happen. All my rebelliousness is expressed through hairstyles, not actions. I will just have to suffer.

I've also finished all but one sleeve of the new Apocalypse Hoodie-- desperately trying to get that finished before I leave!

 

Er.....

I interrupt this scheduled silence to bring you... a blog post? Surely not!

Well, nothing with anything remotely picture-y or implying progress has been made on any project, but an update of sorts nonetheless.

I am going to visit family in England in two weeks, and maybe I have my priorities out of line, but do you know how excited I am at the thought of 28 hours uninterrupted knitting time on the flight?! (um, least I hope so. I am too scared to check!). Not only that, but also... THE YARN!

Yup, that's much more important than my little brother's 21st... and also, it means I get to knit a sweater to wear while I am there, seeing as I live in Queensland and only own three items with sleeves.

Anyway... Snow White is finally going to make an appearance, just as soon as I can get gauge. Wish me luck!

Proof that knitters are the best people ever

We held a fundraiser for Lifeline at work today, so of course I harassed all my friends to donate so I could "earn" the most money (I am not competitive, at all. Why do you ask?).

Money came pouring in, and my donations were more than double what everyone else raised. I know it was not because I am more persuasive than anybody else, and although I am definitely more willing to annoy my friends, I know the real reason is simply that I am lucky to have the best kind of friends- knitters.

It's something a lot of people have talked about, how generous yarnies are, but today I saw it in action. Every single person who donated to my cause was a fan of the pointy sticks. And together, your donations brought us hundreds of dollars more than our initial target.

From the bottom of my stash, I thank you all.
(My stash where my heart is, duh.)

Breaking a silence of months to report...

Kelley Deal is writing a knitting book.

Kelley-fucking-Deal.

I think I just drooled a little bit. This is where I might sound a bit obsessive, but dear god, I love the Deal girls. A few years ago, MissK and I went to see The Breeders, and being dorky fans, we waited for them afterwards.

Because I am so adorable when I am drunk and overcome with girly squee-ness over one of  my favourite bands (trust me, I am), one of the sisters kissed me. What started as a peck on the cheek turned into something I will talk about forever (she smelled like egg salad... and I liked it). Sadly, there are no photos.

Anyway, MissK and I have always disagreed whether it was Kelley or Kim who couldn't resist my charms. I thought it was Kim, she thought it was Kelley (hey, it was dark! and, you know... drunk).

Now, I don't care who it was, I just wish I'd gone up to their hotel room to talk about gauge squares and the best kind of cast-on...

(In other news, I am slack. But I am still knitting so don't give up on me!)

Still stealthy

Our internet will be connected on 28 May, so I'll be back with a vengeance on that date.

(Disclaimer: this does not mean I have actually done much crafting recently, but I will have some mighty pretty pictures for you!).

Apologies for lack of contact until then, I know I owe a lot of emails...

Stealth post!

Just a quick note to say I love my new job and I have a new house- the Most Awesome House I've Ever Seen(tm). Yes, I'm serious. It's really fricking awesome. It makes me feel like Scarlett O'Hara with its huge verandahs and- I kid you not- 3-4 bedrooms and a dressing room that is bigger than my old bedroom. Unbelievably, the rent isn't even prohibitively expensive! It's about $20 a week more than it would cost to share a two bedroom unit. We move in on Friday, "we" being myself and a lovely lass I work with.

Igor is still with my old housemate who is being so lovely to him that he will probably sulk for weeks when he arrives, because I am cranky and mean. Just ask him! Anyway, he should be arriving this weekend if all goes to plan. I guess it's probably not normal to say I miss waking up with a mouthful of cat fur, but then, I've never thought 'normal' is something to aspire to.

I don't generally talk about work, but I will make an exception to say that I wrote a story about alpacas, and my editor described it as "a nice alpaca yarn"- I couldn't stop laughing.

In conclusion: life is just darn peachy. hooray!
There will be knitting or otherwise crafty content here soon- would you believe I've been so busy I haven't even made it to the Spotlight yet?

Re-beginning

So, the yarn's been put away, the clothes hamper is mysteriously empty, and packing boxes are out- yup, I'm moving again.

On Monday I start a new job in a Small-But-Still-25-Times-Bigger-Than-This-Place Town, where I know not a soul and will have to worry about my lack of parking ability. On the plus side, there are knitters, and there's a Spotlight! Huzzah.

The first thing I did when I discovered I got the job (after the Oh-Dear-God-Moving-Again! shakes had worn off) was to check Ravelry to see who else knits there. At last I won't be alone! I figured that even if I don't know anyone, getting to know the other knitters is a good place to start.

I've been pretty anxious about this new move, as it's going to be a whole new world of firsts for me. I'll have to deal with traffic, for one. I'm not as concerned about starting a new job as I ordinarily would be (ie, nervous wreck), but I think this is probably because all my nerves are focussed on worrying about where I will live, and whether Igor will be okay, and if my driving will pass muster in the NotVeryBig Smoke. To be honest, I'm just so sick of moving - four times in the past year, for crying out loud - that my brain just goes dead at the thought of it all.

On the plus side, I've been channelling all this nervous energy into something useful. Not as useful as say, packing, or cleaning, or finding somewhere to live, but useful nonetheless. I hereby present 'Mohair Yarn Reflux', so-called because it's not quite fugly enough to be yarnbarf, but it's only about one step away.

It's certainly very hair-bally. Igor decided to jump in front of the camera when I was photographing it, but as soon as he got close to the skein, he jumped about a metre backwards and ran off to hide under my bed. Since cats are supposed to play with yarn, and instead he was terrified by it, I'm reluctant to call this a successful yarn. On the other hand, it is at least identifiable as yarn, and the colours are pretty- in some bits!

It was 100% mohair -mysteriously-acquired-roving, definitely the hardest thing I have spun yet. It's navajo plyed, badly, because I am not sure whether I left my lazy kate in Perth or if it's in a box somewhere, and trying a new plying method seemed easier than finding out. I think the total length is something pathetic like 26 metres. It does have a purpose though- I'll use it to keep Iggy off my dressing table when I move.

Now, back to the packing...

This webpage is apparently the work of the devil.

Summary

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Spooky stats, huh? Also, I have a story about accidentally felting my mum's dog's hair... while it was still attached to the dog. Who knew wet dogs felted so easily? Isn't that what their natural oils are for? It was not pretty. Moral of the story: don't pet wet dogs too vigorously.

It's all about balance

If I were to receive the world's most accurate fortune cookie right now, it would say "Exciting changes are afoot. Also, you have too much yarn."

I'm not going into details until it's all finalised, but suffice it to say I am re-packing my stash. Somehow, in the five months I have been here, my stash has grown by at least a third. I really have no idea how this happened, because there's not a LYS in sight (remember when I got so excited to visit a Spotlight? Yeah...). However, I think this may have had something to do with it.

Recent acquisitions include:

L-R clockwise: Knitpicks natural sock yarn for dyeing adventures (thanks Michelle!), beautiful 'Stormy Weather' hand-dyed roving from Lapoli, Cleckheatons Angora Silk (from eBay), and 'Felicia' hand-dyed roving from Yummy Yarn (which I have not been wearing as a scarf. I would not do that. *ahem*).

I worked out the other day the balance of my possessions is sadly (?) skewed in favour of yarn. Bear in mind that I only brought absolutely essential items with me (which reminds me, why IS a dead camera and a remote control to God-knows-what essential?)... and this is what it works out to, by volume:

In case you can't read that text on the chart (I can't!), it's 25% clothing, 20% books, 15% incidentals (AKA 'crap'), and 40% yarn.

(My brother just pointed out this chart is wrong, because I forgot to include my CDs, DVDs and laptop... whoops. I think that'd be about 5% in terms of volume, cos I got rid of most of them when I moved from Perth).

As you can see, my life is totally balanced right now!

It's no good without pictures!

The thing about having a blog is that you're supposed to, you know, write in it. And put in pictures. And stuff. I'm a pretty average knitting blogger in that case- since I last posted, I used my new wheel to spin up some lovely bluey/grey-y mohairy merino roving which has been in my stash for about two years. I can't even remember where it came from, but I've been saving it for a special project.

The colours worked beautifully, and it was holding together really well despite being pretty uneven, but I didn't want to ply it because I'd have ended up with about three metres of usable yarn. So, I just skeined it and started knitting...

I knit it up into a beret (no pattern, I made it up as I went) which even I was impressed with. I'm my own worst critic, apparently- although SpiderKnit and LupinBunny come a close second when it comes to criticising my work... at least they're constructive about it!*

* I mean this in the really nice, appreciative way. Their criticism has helped me improve my knitting tenfold, and their advice has weathered me through many storms! ♥

I'd made the beret for the lady who gave me the spinning wheel, as it was her late mother's and she said she'd love to see what I create with it. She was delighted, so I was all happy too... until I got home and realised I hadn't taken photos of any of this.

Boo. So, you'll have to take my word for it- I spun. It was good! I knitted. It was also good! I gifted... and lo, it was good. I promise I'll take photos next time.