At last the details of my secret pal have arrived. Obviously I can't say anything (not that anyone actually reads this blog anyway) but I can answer the questionnaire for myself:
1. Which yarn is most like your personality (you can be specific or general with your answer- brand, type, color, fiber, whatever)?
Handspun wool. Warm, smells nice, a bit lumpy. That's me alright.
2. What is your favorite color yarn to knit/crochet with?
Well I seem to knit with red a lot, but I really like blues and greens.
3. Have you ever used variegated, or magic, yarns?
Not that I'm aware of.
4. Do you tend to favor certain fibers when choosing yarns?
I always buy 100% wool (except for my most recent project). I come from a family with a background in sheep farming, so I guess it was bred into me. I also choose wool because I can't really afford anything fancier! Really I just prefer natural animal fibres, whatever the animal may be.
5. Do you prefer to work with center-pull or traditionally wound balls of yarn?
I really don't mind as long as the yarn is good!
6. Have you ever worked with organic yarns or are you interested in trying them?
Yeah why not?
7. How many and what projects have you made in the last year?
Trying to remember... a basket stitch scarf for Babe (my boyfriend, not the little pig), red socks, skull socks, insane socks I II and III, skull bag. That's all I can remember. I'm sure there's more.
8. Will you be knitting any gifts this year?
Would like to knit something for my grandmother who taught me to knit when I was eight and has knitted so much for me. Actually I also want to knit socks for mum and dad and maybe my brother and anyone else I like!
9. What is your favorite one skein project?
Not sure if I've ever knitted anything with just one skein. Maybe a beanie, but it has to be a cool one.
10. How much yarn do you have in your stash and how do you store it?
Oh Lordi me. Actually, I don't have nearly as much as some people (yet). I have all of my bought yarns in a plastic storage container next to my armchair. All of my own handspun stuff is stuffed into a cardboard box and my storage trunk, and I have a big plastic bag with some handspun of my grandmother's.
11. Do you have a yarn in your stash that you love so much you can never use it or part with it?
Well I have the above-mentioned handspun of my grandmother's. I'm actually trying to design the perfect hoodie/cardigan to knit it up into, but it has to be perfect!
12. Do you knit less or differently in the summer?
I probably knit more in Summer because I have more time. Maybe I'm more inclined to knit practical things in Winter.
13. Do you belong to any knitting groups (online or offline)?
Sadly no, not yet.
And that's that. In other news, I decided to go crazy and buy another set of dpns for the bag. I found some for three bucks, and they are this crappy plastic which is really frickin' hard to knit on, but it's better than my stitches falling off I guess. I actually finished the body of the bag (no piccie yet), and next is the little pockets, then the strap.
I'm a little distracted today, because it feels like someone is punching me in the womb.
Sigh. As I read over this blog, I wonder why I'm doing it. There are millions of blogs out there, and I just can't see any point to adding another one, especially since I'm not witty and sophisticated like some people. I don't have the time to do it properly and create funky graphics, so I have to make do with this pre-fabricated girly pink thing because it was the least ugly thing available. Anyway. Here is my not-terribly-interesting-to-anyone-but-me life on display for you to yawn at. Enjoy.
Thursday, May 11, 2006
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Spinning, Skulls and Procrastination
Well, as promised, here's a piccie of my latest spinning adventure: 
Of course the colours never come out right in these pictures. I took about 20 and just had to make do with this one. Both are Merino. The one on the left was spun from some prepared and dyed fleece that my aunt bought for me from the Canberra Spinners and Weavers shop. It turned into this almost navy blue with greenish and purple highlights. The one on the right was from some fleece that a girl called Monica gave me. She was a housemate of a friend who I was visiting. I saw her spinning wheel in the lounge room and asked her about it and we started yakking for a bit and she ended up giving me this lovely Merino which she had dyed herself. I forgot to give her my phone number so we could get together and have some knitting sessions, and now she's moved out of my friend's house. I'm trying to track her down, because it gets lonely knitting on my lonesome!
Anyway, I spun them both and then plied them with this lovely lime green silk I bought on eBay. You can't tell from the photo, but both of the skeins have a kind of irridescent quality. I'm thinking up plans for each of them. I have about two small skeins of the navy, and I'm planning to try out Branching Out, a lacy scarf from Knitty. I know it won't look quite how it was intended to look, since my handspun is a little bulky and lumpy, but I thought it couldn't hurt to try, and I think that this wool just has to be used for lace, it just has that kind of quality about it.
The greener skein I have only a tiny bit of, quite a small skein. I wasn't sure what exactly to do with it, and I showed it to someone and she said that the colours reminded her of the sea, and I immediately pictured the yarn in wave stitch. So, I'm going to see if I have enough to make myself a lacy wave stitch beanie/cap thingo. The weather's starting to get absolutely freezing here in Canberra (Australia), so any useful beanie should be nice and thick, but I was never one for being practical. So they're projects for the future.
Here's some progress on the bag:
I've finished my second repeat of the skull motif, and I just need to knit four more rows then start reducing for the bottom of the bag. That little bit of green in the middle there is some scrap yarn to be pulled out so a pocket can be knitted in next. Getting there. Actually, I really wish I had one more dpn for this project. To allow for the skulls I had to increase 10 stitches more than the pattern, and the stitches are constantly almost falling off the ends of the needles. It makes me nervous! I've never seen sets of 5 dpn's here in Australia, and I'm sure as Hell not going to go and buy another set. Eight bucks? I need to eat God damn it!
I seem to be very rare as a knitter in that I usually only have one project going at a time. You see I am a perpetual dropper of projects, and I just know that if I stop one to start another, it's more than likely that I'll never finish the first. I have to force myself to keep dreaming of the next projects while I soldier on with what I've started. If I do start a new project in the middle of another one, it's usually because I hate what I was doing anyway, so it usually ends up getting ripped out. I also don't really have time to knit. I do it, but I'm not supposed to be doing it. You see I'm actually in my honours year at uni, and I just can't afford the time to knit, even though I do it anyway. My mid-year review comes up soon, so I'm freaking out a bit, but I just keep on knitting. Lordy me I'm terrible.
Of course the colours never come out right in these pictures. I took about 20 and just had to make do with this one. Both are Merino. The one on the left was spun from some prepared and dyed fleece that my aunt bought for me from the Canberra Spinners and Weavers shop. It turned into this almost navy blue with greenish and purple highlights. The one on the right was from some fleece that a girl called Monica gave me. She was a housemate of a friend who I was visiting. I saw her spinning wheel in the lounge room and asked her about it and we started yakking for a bit and she ended up giving me this lovely Merino which she had dyed herself. I forgot to give her my phone number so we could get together and have some knitting sessions, and now she's moved out of my friend's house. I'm trying to track her down, because it gets lonely knitting on my lonesome!
Anyway, I spun them both and then plied them with this lovely lime green silk I bought on eBay. You can't tell from the photo, but both of the skeins have a kind of irridescent quality. I'm thinking up plans for each of them. I have about two small skeins of the navy, and I'm planning to try out Branching Out, a lacy scarf from Knitty. I know it won't look quite how it was intended to look, since my handspun is a little bulky and lumpy, but I thought it couldn't hurt to try, and I think that this wool just has to be used for lace, it just has that kind of quality about it.
The greener skein I have only a tiny bit of, quite a small skein. I wasn't sure what exactly to do with it, and I showed it to someone and she said that the colours reminded her of the sea, and I immediately pictured the yarn in wave stitch. So, I'm going to see if I have enough to make myself a lacy wave stitch beanie/cap thingo. The weather's starting to get absolutely freezing here in Canberra (Australia), so any useful beanie should be nice and thick, but I was never one for being practical. So they're projects for the future.
Here's some progress on the bag:
I've finished my second repeat of the skull motif, and I just need to knit four more rows then start reducing for the bottom of the bag. That little bit of green in the middle there is some scrap yarn to be pulled out so a pocket can be knitted in next. Getting there. Actually, I really wish I had one more dpn for this project. To allow for the skulls I had to increase 10 stitches more than the pattern, and the stitches are constantly almost falling off the ends of the needles. It makes me nervous! I've never seen sets of 5 dpn's here in Australia, and I'm sure as Hell not going to go and buy another set. Eight bucks? I need to eat God damn it!
I seem to be very rare as a knitter in that I usually only have one project going at a time. You see I am a perpetual dropper of projects, and I just know that if I stop one to start another, it's more than likely that I'll never finish the first. I have to force myself to keep dreaming of the next projects while I soldier on with what I've started. If I do start a new project in the middle of another one, it's usually because I hate what I was doing anyway, so it usually ends up getting ripped out. I also don't really have time to knit. I do it, but I'm not supposed to be doing it. You see I'm actually in my honours year at uni, and I just can't afford the time to knit, even though I do it anyway. My mid-year review comes up soon, so I'm freaking out a bit, but I just keep on knitting. Lordy me I'm terrible.
Sunday, May 07, 2006
A little bit extra...
After that last post I remembered some more stuff I wanted to say. I've joined up with the Interweave One Skein Secret Pal Exchange. It's my first ever secret pal exchange thingo, so I'm a bit nervous, a bit excited. Actually, the driving force behind starting this blog was joining up. I was thinking, how could I properly enjoy a secret pal exchange if I couldn't share my excitement with the knitting community out there? I love to read knitters' blogs and see the fun of receiving a present from a complete stranger who may be on the other side of the planet, as well as sending presents to strangers! I'm really excited about the whole thing, and I've been thinking about all the skeins I've seen and drooled over, and how much someone else might enjoy them. Deary me, I'm getting all excited now. Anyhow, here's the button, just because it's so damn pretty:
Ahhh. Getting my yarn fix just thinking about it. So, I've been practicing spinning again so I could possibly send my own skein. It's funny, I started spinning about 14 years ago, but because I do it so intermittently, I'm just crap at it. I'm trying my best, getting a bit better every time. I've just finished spinning some lovely Merino which I've plied with a fine silk thread, and I want to post a picture, but I'll have to wait until daylight to try to catch the colours with the camera.
Okay, enough excitement for one day.
Second beginning...
Oh me oh my I have so much to show. Today we might not get further than my beloved socks.
Ok, so here's the good stuff. Piccies! I'm still getting the hang of this blogging business, so let's see how this works:
Ha! So that's how that works! Anyway, these are the first of my series of "Insane Socks" (and before you ask, yes those are my lovely hairy legs...hairy and proud baby!). They aren't insane to knit, they just tend to alarm people. I love to knit these, just making up patterns as I go - I find it much more exciting than following a pattern. I guess I just have a short attention span. The problem is that if you want to have the second sock the same, it's not as fun to knit, but there you go. I knitted these for my good friend Sam, just for the hell of it.
Ok, so here's the good stuff. Piccies! I'm still getting the hang of this blogging business, so let's see how this works:
Ha! So that's how that works! Anyway, these are the first of my series of "Insane Socks" (and before you ask, yes those are my lovely hairy legs...hairy and proud baby!). They aren't insane to knit, they just tend to alarm people. I love to knit these, just making up patterns as I go - I find it much more exciting than following a pattern. I guess I just have a short attention span. The problem is that if you want to have the second sock the same, it's not as fun to knit, but there you go. I knitted these for my good friend Sam, just for the hell of it.
These socks I knitted for myself, because I always seem to be knitting socks for other people! I went a little more crazy with the colours and the patterns because I didn't have to worry about someone else getting beaten up for wearing freaky socks (I can look after myself).
And these ones I finished just the other day for Halie, another great friend of mine.
So now I've decided I have to stop knitting socks...for a little bit. I just keep going back to them because they're so much fun. But there's a universe of patterns and yarns out there! So the next project is my Andean Skull Bag:
This is a mish-mash of a few things. The basic structure of the bag (with a few minor alterations) comes from Andean Folk Knits by Marcia Lewandowski. Wow I love this book. The patterns are fun, heaps of funky bags, and information about the knitters of the Andes, who are amazing. However, I'm not really a girl for wearing items decorated with llamas and dancing figures, so I went for the Jolly Roger motif - a particular favourite of mine. I stole the above skull pattern from a wonderful skull scarf pattern I found here. I hope the designer doesn't mind too much. I'm no good at designing anything but geometric patterns. Here is another skull pattern I'll be using later on for the pockets and shoulder strap.
I'm knitting this bag in acrylic yarn. This is new for me. I don't like acrylic, I really tend to use natural fibres because they're just so much nicer, friendlier, warmer, softer. They have life. Acrylic has none. Anyway, after debating with myself for a couple of weeks, I decided to use acrylic because a) I'm very poor and b) it's only a bag, it doesn't have to keep me warm, and its not likely to pill like a wearable would. What's more, I thought perhaps it would be stronger. I always put all sorts of crap into my handbag, and I'm sick of bags which fall apart. So there, I've made my excuses.
The changes I've made to the structure itself are mostly minor. A few extra rows and increases here and there to accomodate the Jolly Roger, and the main change which is a shoulder strap. The pattern doesn't include one, but I have to have one, I absolutely HATE carrying a handbag in my hand! So there you go. I'm also considering lining the bag. I don't know yet. I'll try to scan the picture from the book some time to show what it's supposed to look like.
And that is the end of my first real blog entry.
Saturday, May 06, 2006
The Beginning...
Okay, so here's another knitting blog. I don't know exactly why I decided that the world needed yet another one, but here it is. What's more, I couldn't even think of a decent name, so I just put down the first thing that came to my head. Hopefully I won't rue the day...
Anyway, this isn't going to be worth looking at until I've taken a few piccies of my recent and current knits, so should anyone happen to somehow stumble across this blog within the next 24 hours and find it this bland, I urge you to return in (hopefully) another 24 hours by which time there will be something worth looking at!
Anyway, this isn't going to be worth looking at until I've taken a few piccies of my recent and current knits, so should anyone happen to somehow stumble across this blog within the next 24 hours and find it this bland, I urge you to return in (hopefully) another 24 hours by which time there will be something worth looking at!
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