The Knitting Revolutionary

Budget? What budget?

I got my new toy the other day.

It's SO PRETTY! And it's quite fun to spin on - because it's so slooooow. Its lowest ratio is 3:1, and so it's fantastic for ze bulky goodness, which I'm hoping to do a little bit more of soon - make me some nifty hats - I have a great pattern for a top hat which I'm thinking this chunky stuff will be poifect for. If I can remember which Knit1 it was in. Hm. The guy I bought it from said that he thought the painting had been done by his mother-in-law, and it came with the most adorable "recipes for fancy yarns" which I'll photograph during the day - the macro won't pick it up at night time. Very very cute.

I've been knitting fairly quickly (by my standards where I complete one jumper per year) on the cotton jumper, it's looking luscious(this is me knitting on the greyhound to Sydvegas), and I'm trying to pretend that The Other Green Jumper doesn't exist. Other than that... tomorrow's my last day at my current work position, and I move sideways and slightly upward through the organisation to my two new part-time job and 2 day a week traineeship in school counselling on Wednesday. Eeeee! :):):)

Update!

It's been a while. I've been doing a lot of stuff, including changing jobs (*gasp*) and batting off the black dog with a stick. I've also been spinning lots, and have made a gorgeous new dye colourway called Salamander (which are mythical fire elementals, ooooh)

So here's what I've been spinning: The first is a teal green mix of silk and merino, all wound on to my Andean plyer and ready to 2-ply, and the other is a bunch of purple merino that Rachel bought for me (yey Rache, you're awesome) and I'm thinking I might Navajo ply that, but I'm still thinkin.

Knitting: The Green Jumper is stalled with too-short sleeves, and lies around the house looking gorgeous but fragmented. Bit like me on a Sunday afternoon. (bwahaha)

Meanwhile I've started a new sage green cotton jumper called Twisted - you can see it on Ravelry (username monnsqueak) if you're a Raveler, but here's the first shot of the back. Look at that shaping! Mmmm! Slight problem with this one already - I measured and started this one about a month ago and have since gone on (another) diet. So 2 1/2 kilos later, I'm hoping it won't look like a sack on me when I'm done. *sigh*

Anyway, I'm off to feed my WoW addiction while living in jealousy of M-H running around Wales and hanging out with other knitting legends. *sigh* Have a wonderful long weekend!

Falling in love again

Years and years ago, before I knew how bad it is for your spinning wheel to spin in the grease (ie unwashed fleece), and I flick carded all my fleece as its only preparation... this was a long long time ago, in a squeaky galaxy far far away... it was even before the internet... I got myself a drum carder.

The drum carder and the squeak did not see eye to eye. You see, I expected that the drum carder was the spinning prep equivalent of a magic wand. You know - throw a filthy old ram's fleece at it, crank the handle, and extract sweet white sparkling soft roving out the other end. Well my expectations weren't *quite* that high. But almost.

Inevitably, I was bitterly disappointed. The carder has been sitting in my wardrobe - actually various wardrobes over the 15 years or so that I've owned it - unused, unloved, and giving me a pang of regret and disappointment every time I looked at it.

Until now.

I got myself a copy of Pluckyfluff's "Intertwined" a few weeks ago. It's a hugely fun book full of great ideas for unconventional spinning. Balanced? Even? Nah, bugger that. Just think outside the box, and go for it. So I've been making crazy batts, and they're gorgeous. You get all your stuff together:
and then you pull bits of fleece and shiny things and sequins, ribbons, silk, whatever!

And you pull out your poor, neglected drum carder, and you play.

I haven't taken a photo of the resulting yarn, but it's gorgeous!I've also made up some lush green and blue stuff, with silk and sequins and all things delishimo.

When I actually make it into something... more photos! :)

The weekend of heppy!

I have had a WONDERFUL weekend!

It started Friday night when Liz and Chelle came to stay with us for a night, and I went out to have nyummy asian food in Dickson with them... mmm. Laksa. How can you go wrong!

We got up reasonably early, and despite the fact that Canberra isn't very big, Chelle got lost going for a walk. It might not be big, but it's hell confusing - all the streets are curly and curvy, and because Canberra has no billboards (yeah, it's a bit Pleasantville) and the burbs aren't that old, it's actually quite difficult to find your direction because of the distinct lack of landmarks. It's all curvy roads and dry roadsides and rather conservative looking homes, and poor dehydrated drought ravaged gardens. (Well except for the parliamentary circle and anywhere near the lakes, which are divinely green and rather lovely). Anyway. I go rescue Chelle, who was half way back to Sydney, and we all took off to Belconnen fresh food markets and had brekky at the organic cafe there. Pretty nice. The eggs are amazing, though the quality of their roasted veg has gone down - no zucchinis or other greens, just sweet potato, pumpkin and carrot. Other than that it's a gorgeous little cafe with really good organic coffee and incredibly indulgent chocolates, and lots of hippy-chick sorta things like ear candles and organic sushi ingredients and stuff. We were having so much fun that we forgot to take photos. Always a good sign :D

Then I took off to work for a few hours, and after that the foody joy continued.

I was wailing away a week or so ago about how it's a bit sucky that Lebanese food is so luscious, but takes so long to prepare, so a few girlies put their hands up for the experience of coming over and making stuffed vine leaves. If you do this alone, you need about 3 or 4 hours. If you have girlfriends and a bottle of wine, you can knock it over in 2. And the 2nd hour is when they're cooking on the stove top, so it's an hour of rolling spliff-type munchies, and an hour of hanging out, drinking wine and gossiping enthusiastically about all sorts of silly stuff.

Divine, wonderful, beautiful way to spend a Saturday arvo! There will definitely be repeats of the experience, next time I'm doing stuffed zucchinis. *droool* The recipe for the stuffed vine leaves is very accessible, you can find it in this little Woman's Weekly book. A lighter, more traditional lemon-flavoured style can be found elsewhere, but I love this one because it's so sweet and rich with the tomato sauce.

And finally, the roast of doom later that night. Need I say more? Despite a no-show (silly boy doesn't know what he's missing, nor how sought-after a seat at the Doom Roast is), it was a raging success, especially with Maddi's home made margarita ice cream. Mmm.

Could it have been any better? Not in a million years. Bring on the 4 day week, I feel like a million dollars :D Now I'm just hanging out with a glass of rose and reading Jane Austen by candlelight. *heppy heppy heppy*

Getting all productive

I go many months without spinning at all, and then suddenly *bam* I can't get enough.

The green and blue stuff is the Jenny-coloured sliver I spun a few days ago, and the beige is a natural coloured fleece which I got a sample of (this 70g or so is all I have) done in a 2 ply. I know it's messy, but I like having the big fat messy bits in there, so that when it's knitted up you can see that it's handspun.

The other thing I'm playing round with is the chunky cream stuff that I spun the other night... it's not going to be cream for much loooooonger! :-)

Getting off my bum

I've been getting of my bum and Doing Shtuff. It's quite a good feeling.

I'd spun this stuff months ago, and finally got round to navajo plying it:

Then I plied this too (with my tres coo andean plying tool):

Now with a few more bobbins freed up, I thought I'd use up some of the plain cream stuff that I had lying around the place and spun a nice fluffy lofty chunky wool. I'm going to dye it and make a chunky scarf/dickie type thing:

THEN! because I was on SUCH a roll, I thought I'd spin up the floofy ball of sliver which had been dyed in my Jenny Greenteeth colourway. Yum. Sooooo delicious. I'm still trying to decide how I'm going to ply this but I'm tending toward navajo so I get the nice boldness of colour accentuated. Self striping handspun. Oh yeah.

And I didn't stop there. Oh no! One of my favourite winter dishes is pot pie, and I'd just bought 6 little ramekins for making PAH. So I made a rich thick gooey stoo, and stuck it in little pots, and put pastry over the top, brushed it with milk and baked it good. Mmm, pah. Spinning and eating. It doesn't get much better than this for a lush, laid back weeknight. Add a few glasses of rose and a couple of Gray's Anatomy episodes in there and I'm in heaven. *puurrrrrr*

Roving swap!

Against my better judgement (past shoddy experience), because my life is boring and study-soaked and I'm in desperate need of some light diversion, I've joined a random roving-swap. Yay! These are the questions I have to answer for my secret roving person.

1) How long have you been spinning?

About 15 years. My highschool art teacher taught me :D

2) Are you a beginner, novice, or experienced spinner?

Experienced! *waggles eyebrows lasciviously*

3) Do you spin on a drop spindle or wheel, or both?

Both - but I prefer wheels.

4) What types and weights of drop spindles (or what type of spinning wheel(s) ) do you currently own?

A Kundert spindle, a Bosworth spindle, and a noncommerical handmade spindle. Unsure of their weights. I have 2 Ashford wheels - a traveller and a trad.

5) What type of fibers have you spun with before?

Wool, silk, alpaca, synthetic, goaty mohair, and cotton.

6) What fibers do you prefer to spin with?

Merino's my favorite sheep fleece, but with Australian merino being such fantastic stuff, I'd prefer a non-sheep fibre for the swap. Alpaca, or anything equally silky and lush would be nice, but if you're financially challenged at the moment, something unusual like weird shiny or sparkly synthetic or nylon for adding to novelty yarns would be cooooool.

7) What fibers do you dislike?

Mohair, scratchy wools (I like merino, polwarth etc - the fine stuff).

8) Do you prefer natural colored fibers, or handpainted/dyed fiber?

All of it! I love aaaaall of it!

9) Would you prefer all one type of roving or smaller amounts of different types to sample?

Either or.

10) What are you favorite colors?

Anything except yellow or red.

11) What colors do you dislike?

See above!

12) What would you like to do with your handspun yarn, or what do you plan to do with it? (pattern clarification here)

I don't really decide what to make my handspun in until I've finished it. I very occasionally spin something with an end product in mind, but I rarely stick to it. If it's a small sample, it's most likely to end up wristwarmers, a headscarf or hat, a purse, or a baggie. :D

13) What spinning projects are you currently working on?

Some laceweight spindled merino for a lace scarfling. Some green tweeded 3 or 4 ply wool with 2 or 3 plies of dark green and a single ply of bright lime. Some handpainted merino which I'm practising navajo plying on.

14) Do you have a wishlist?

I'm really curious about exotic fibres, but am waiting until I'm not a student any more. So, not really. I just... get stuff... and spin it. Sometimes. When I feel like it. Um...

15) What are your other favorite hobbies?

Knitting, reading, gym, WorldofWarcraft, my pet birdy Phoenix!

16) Do you have any allergies (pet, smoke, food, fiber,etc...)?

Nyeh. Tough as old nails.

17) What is your preferred shipping method (USPS, UPS, FedEx)?

Airmail if you're overseas, regular mail if you're Aussie. :D

mmm, cables!

It's been ages since I did any cabled stuff. Yum! Once the faeces er thesis is handed in, I'll be making an aran jumper or cardy of some description, it's been waaaaay too long. But until then, I need a change purse. And I have 50g of handspun wool to do something with. And I have an urge to knit cables. Lots and lots of them. Hm!

... words: 1143

...days to go: 78

Mrs Beeton, here we come!

I started spinning this yarn when I still lived at Leichhardt with the wonderful Lizzie and Niv, and M-H, Sandra and Emma all within squeaking distance to me. It was one of the most gorgeous times of my life, with my dearest and most beloved friends surrounding me and just *being* there. It's occurred to me that the transition from Sydney to Canberra is being slowly dealt with in my mind, as I slowly finish off the projects begun in one place and finished in another, and this was no doubt planted in my mind by the inestimable Brenda Dayne. When she talked about her travelling sweater, the wool bought by her partner in Wales, taken to the US, begun in the US, and completed in Wales, I came very close to crying. Funny how certain stories touch your heart, sometimes completely by surprise.

As I tie off the loose ends of half finished projects and begin new ones, I also tie off loose ends of my life in Sydney and begin my new one here. And this little skein of yarn is one of them. I began spinning it one night sitting with Lizzie and Niv while watching Grey's Anatomy (which I still watch religiously! Ooh, this week's gonna be a good one!), the ultimate girly-bonding tv show *grin*. And I finished plying it yesterday, that momentous day when I actually BEGAN THE WRITE-UP OF MY THESIS! Ok, so I only have 266 words so far. But I'm aiming at working just one paragraph (minimum) in per day, and if I do that 120 words per day until the 26th October, I'll get it done on time.

I took two pictures with the intention of using only one, but this first one shows the yarn to scale - that's a five cent piece - and the other shows a really nice detail *and* the colours are much more accurate in the second photo. So there you go... I'm going to string some sweet little purple and blue beadlings onto and make myself the long-promised pair of Mrs Beeton wrist warmers. Ooh, so sweet, oldfashioned and classy!!! I have a feeling that the yarn's too fine for the required gauge. But if I don't use the actual pattern, I'm just going to add in a couple of repeats to make it go all the way round the wrist. And I have pretty small wrists anyway, so it should all work out. I'm hoping that the colour changes in the wool, which I've navajo-plied, will facilitate the colour contrast between the two ruffle layers. Yummeh.

...word count: 383

...days to go: 82

Presents

Yesterday, I received a present from a complete stranger, for absolutely no reason.

I was walking past a costume jewelry stall with a friend, and the woman at the stall noticed my knitting in my hand, and the colours (Rachel Meek! Oh!) are divine, and she and I started chatting about colour and beautiful things. Rachel (my friend Rachel, not Rachel Meek LOL) bought me the fleece as a present as well, and I'm knitting it into a purse. Photo next time!

Rachel and I poked around a bit on the stall, saying "ooh, pretty" and all the sorts of things that girls say when they're shopping. I fondled a little brass cuff.

"It's nice isn't it?" said the woman. I replied yes, and continued my torrent of chatter with her and Rachel, and she took the opportunity as I drew breath to begin again, and said "I have a present for you".

This stopped me. A present? The small acquisition-obsessed sleeps-til-birthday-counting child inside me perked up at full attention. Hehe! A present, for *me*? She pulled out another brass cuff, just like the one I'd been looking at. I was delighted! We introduced each other, and were no longer strangers. The cuff has a tiny dent on one edge, "and you might have done that the first time you wore it", she pointed out. I didn't care. How lovely! I clapped in delight, just like a kid, and it represents so much more to me than just a pretty thing to wear.

I've also been playing with another present, from Mary-Helen and Sandra, who brought me back a little bagling of gorgeous blue fleecy stuff from their trip to NZ recently. It looks lovely! Now, what to make it into???