The Knitting Revolutionary

Work woes

I've got the unemployment blues.

Well, sort of. I'm a bit despondent about it all, having only had one interview since I started applying for work at the beginning of this year. I'm putting in applications for all sorts of stuff, but I'm not getting a whole lot in return. I'm thinking outside the box - I don't NEED that internship right now... but what I do need is maybe a foot in the door, so positions such as research assistant in mental health, yep, I'm there.

But I hear nothing back, and the interview that I attended well over a week ago bore no fruit. I can't help but lament the higher number of jobs being advertised in Sydney - 25 versus 8 on Psychxchange, a whopping 122 versus 12 on seek.com.au. *sigh* And of course they all want experience, or to have completed masters. I'm wondering if choosing the internship option has been a mistake. I'm only going through what most new graduates go through, I suppose. I'm not as despondent as this sounds, but some days it's just... difficult.

So... it's chin up and I'm thinking that in lieu of looking for temp work, which I hate, I'm just going to have to step up my little cottage industry wool-dyeing projects. I've dyed 3kg of wool in the past 2 days, and I've listed the first little batch on my sales site, http://monnsqueak.typepad.com/colour_revolution/ - so you can go over and have a squizzy. Keep your eye on it, I'll have a whole lot more up tomorrow. Keepin' busy!

about those finishing touches...

This is getting harder and harder to contemplate giving away...

First I started by sketching a basic eye shape out on a piece of white felt, and after several frankensteinish attempts, this is what I came up with. Revolting-looking still, but it's early days.

Then I get out my embroidery thread (long neglected) and start to over-stitch. And... voila! One extremely cute dragonling eye! I was starting to worry that the dragon was looking extremely 'naive-art' looking, but it's finally shaping up to satisfactory.

*smile*

Here's lookin' at you, kid!

and now for the finishing touches...

She's finished! Well, almost.

I actually finished the sewing up on Monday, just before the lovely Lizzie hailed back to Sydney after a gorgeously relaxed weekend. I think so many people already knew what I was knitting, but in the same way that parents pretend they don't know what the obviously-shaped lump is in their gift, they bestow the boon of studied ignorance, for the sake of fun. Hehe! You can link to the Norberta pattern here.

I still have to the eyes and teeth, but I have some white felt and a needle ready to go, so that'll be the finishing touches later today or tonight...

I'm really pleased with how it's turned out, and I've put a little tinkly bell inside, so she rattles when you shake her. I think this is going to be a hard project to part with when the time comes to put her into a box to mail off. *sob*

In knitting news of the world, I'm enormously pleased to see that Brenda Dayne is feeling a lot better and has started podcasting again. I've been flirting around with other podcasts, but what I've found is that the amount of work and time she puts into her podcasts are what makes them superior to any other that I've listened to - content, sound quality, the ability to make me laugh out loud, and in the case of this episode, cry as well. (hoo boy, teary just remembering it, better than a chick flick!)

In particular I enjoyed her discussion of stash-busting, and it's made me realise how glad I was that I had a stash, since I've been knitting mostly from it for the past two years. It's been great for a student on a very strict budget, and yay for Chrissie presents on the cheap *wink*

Now, I'm off to give a little whelpling the gift of sight. And... teef. :D

the last bits

:D

Lookin' cute!

I had to buy the finishing touches thingy for it today, a total of 80 cents towards the project, as this was a stashbusting piece, and I just grabbed a couple of colours which suited one another out of the box and cast on.

Final shots tomorrow! Or... the day after. :D

In real life, I'm rediscovering the huge satisfaction I get when I have the time to practice a little bit of yoga every day or two. My favourite yoga instructor is Shiva Rea, whose dvds and cds you can buy from www.soundstrue.com (enter Shiva Rea into the search field). I like it because it's sneaky exercise - you can do it for half an hour, or even an hour if you get carried away, and you feel all relaxed and blissed out... and the next day you feel where you've worked (ouch!). Gorgeous way to get fit.

Happy today

If I believed in God, I'd say I was blessed. But for now I'll just have to say that I'm happy.

Today was my last Saturday working. On the one hand this is fantastic! Because I'll be able to get to SSK occasionally, and not have to work weekends for a while. Maybe not ever again.

On the other hand, it's a bummer, because I'll only be working 9 hours a week now, and my credit card is carrying about $6k more than someone working 9 hours a week should really be carrying as debt. Hm. But... I'm lucky enough that I don't have a mortgage, and I have a partner who earns enough to look after us both after my rather meagre financial contribution to the pot.

And I have my Saturdays back! *bliss*

Life is good.

mystery project... another piece of the puzzle

Kirsten's guess of an octopus (based on the last pic which now only exists on my LJ) was getting slightly closer - it is a toy.

This next bit is probably a dead give-away, and as a hint, the patten for this toy is available for free online.

Oh, and it's cute enough that it will even entice me to knit whole bits of garter stitch - amazing but true - which I dislike almost as much as bobbles (hehe)