Flaming Pants

I'm a liar, thus my pants must be on fire. I didn't update the next day, nor the day after, or even after that. Sorry.
Anyway. This is going to be a long post, but I have to be quick because I have to cook a lamb roast tonight for my grandmother's 88th birthday. That's insane, 88. May we all be blessed to live so long. FO's, there are a couple. The chevron scarf as promised:

And a close-up:

It's quite long but I love it. I wanted to have a photo of me wearing it to give an idea of scale, but I feel funny asking people to take photo's of me, and the best I could get myself was this:

That's me looking shitty because I couldn't get a decent photo. Lovely, isn't it?

Then there are my purple pots - my felting (fulling) experiment:

I felted some handspun and threaded it through for a little coin pouch. I think they're cute. Everyone laughs at them. People are stupid. I guess I'm just a misunderstood genius. Sigh.

I don't have enough time left to say everything else damn it. Well I'll try. I've been dyeing again, this time with food colouring. It works really well. I don't know how fast it is, but according to my source, it's no worse than other dyes:

A bit blotchy, but a bit more attention will sort that out. I was so excited by them that I went out and bought every colour I could find (except black). Then I bought some spun silk from the Spinners and Weavers shop so I can have some more dyeing fun with it:

I also borrwed this:

People are always going on about this book, so when I saw it I thought I'd better have a look. It's a nice book to read, chatty and laid back. I've decided that I'll be starting a sweater soon for next winter. Speaking of Winter, it's crazy, look at this:

Violets! And Winter hasn't finished yet! Well if the violets think it's Spring, then I will too. They smell fantastic. Pussal helped me photograph them:

Pussal likes me to take photo's of his bum.

Anyway, in the meantime I've started some socks for father's day for my Daddio:

More insane socks. I'll tell him that's they're just bed socks so he doesn't feel obligated to wear them to work and get picked on by the macho wankers he works with. My dad is such a legend.

And of course, last but definitely not least, the moment you've all been waiting for - well the moment I've been waiting for - the second package from my one skein secret pal!:

Thank you once again, secret pal for a lovely present. The yarn is sock yarn by Fyberspates in Wales. I already know what to do with it. After I started the socks above for my Daddio, which were inspired by some Tibetan entrelac socks from a special sock edition of Spin Off, I decided that I'm going to make entrelac socks with the yarn, because I think the effect of the striping on the entrelac will be really interesting. Another project to start! Oh well, I'll finish the socks for Dad first. I really must start that jumper too. Anyway, the magazine is fun. There's a nice ribbed camisole I'll try out some time. I love looking at ads in magazines from other countries. Maybe I'm a bit weird. No, it's that misunderstood genius coming out again. I just find it fascinating to see what people can buy overseas. We're so deprived of quality here in Australia, especially Canberra. All of the independent small manufacturers and shops are pushed out of business by huge chain stores who sell the cheapest nastiest crap they can find. I'm so jealous of the variety overseas. Back to the point. The pencil case is great, especially now with my new-found interest in felting. I'll fill it with knitting crap soo enough! At the moment I use this really annoying box for my stitch markers and wotnot, so now I have something groovy to use instead! Lots of fun. It's from Paris! I find that very exciting, since I've never been out of Australia. I find the whole concept of just being able to pop overseas for the weekend fascinating! We're so isolated here that it costs thousands of dollars to get anywhere, even to the other side of the country. I think it's quite cheap to go to New Zealand. I will one day! Actually, I just discovered a 22 day textiles tour to Peru. You get to learn Andean textile crafts from the locals, and it includes trips to Lima, Cusco and Macchu Picchu. I am so going there! The tour itself costs $3,900 US, the flight there is separate, so I'll be saving for a while I guess. It's called Puchka Peru.

I just noticed that I've been moaning a bit about my country. Well the goverment is fucked, but the land itself is absolutely beautiful. Some of the people are okay too!

In other news, I've been collecting for my favourite colour pal. I hope he/she/it likes what I've collected. I think I would explode with ecstasy if I receieved it, but I guess that's because it's all to my personal taste! Besides, a surprise is always much more exciting than something you choose yourself.
Ah, all finished. Better get going.