Monday, July 21, 2008

Kindness

Just before flying away to work I received a very lovely parcel in the mail

An international parcel...

An unexpected parcel....

Kindness stash

Funky lovely fabulous nuttnbunny had sent me a kindness parcel of wonderful goodies!!

She asked e for my address a little while ago, but I had sort of put that thought to the back of my mind, but when the parcel arrived I opened it with exultant glee to find some beautiful goodies inside!

Some scrummy looking Wild Rice which I shall cook up a storm with soon, and... Warmy Neckerson! A super soft n snuggley neckwarmer spun, designed and knit by nuttnbunny is now not only a lovely personified Sir Neckerson I can admire from afar - but now he can help to keep me snug and warm!

Warmy Neckerson

The yarn is SO soft and So luxurious - a cashmere silk blend if I remember rightly. Beautifully finished with the stunning button that has a wood-type grain but is glass smooth like frozen caramel. From the sounds of the weather back home I'll need this little puppy in 3 days!

Thank you ever so much nuttnbunny lovely :) I feel so lucky and very appreciative of Sir Neckerson and I promise I shall pass on the good will and kindness vibes at every opportunity!

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Walking Home

A few days ago we walked home from site to camp - a very good form of exercise because once the bus drops you off at the mine site security gate to walk the rest of the way- too bad! You're walking!! Not like at the gym where 1001 excuses arise to hop off the treadmill early ;)

The kilometres flew by with the fantastic scenery a constant distraction

walk home,

Some touristy sight seeing which was bizarre as we see these sights every day at work!! But never get quite this close up of course ;)

dump truck 2

I don't think I'll ever get negligent in admiration for the surroundings out here.

vivid

Pilbara Moon

There's something about the night sky up in the Pilbara.

Even in the day, before the sun is even near setting, the moon is so clear in the depthless sky

evening

I find it entirely enchanting

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Central Park Hoodie - Finished!

It is officially time to get up and BOOGIE - I have at last completed my hoodie!!

cph complete!
o
Better photos properly modeled will follow in time, I promise ;) But I was so excited I simply HAD to capture it's warm and completed-ness on film right away!!

I so very much enjoyed knitting up this jumper - my first hand knit jumper! The knitting process stretched out across almost a year, as I continued to self-sacrifice, putting aside the knitting I was doing for myself in order to finish other knitted items for friends and family (isn't it always the way with knitters, but we wouldn't change it for the world - it shows how much love we have in our lives and so lucky to have such lovely and loveable people around us, so deserving of hand knits!)

I still want to add buttons, but will wait 'til I get to Perth and find just the right ones. I still consider the jumper finished though - I've worn it out to dinner at the mess hall for it's first public airing and everything!!

The yarn is quite rough, but will soften with a wash, if my swatch proves a good example. Even if it doesn't soften up much I think it'll still be fine - when I wore it to the mess the other night all I had underneath was a singlet, and I didn't feel itchy or irritated. I think if I ever feel uncomfortable or itchy it will be from the pure heat of such wool! SO toasty moasty - unbelievable!! Perfect for the weather here at the moment - super frosty in the mornings and evenings, just right for a thick tweed hoodie!!

As I was knitting the button band I wasn't knitting from a ball, or even dangerously from an unwound skein - what I knit from was... the frogging of a sleeve!

cph button banding

When I started knitting the first sleeve I mixed up the calculations for increasing and ended up with the sleeve too tight for comfort. Instead of frogging right away, though, I decided to keep it around.. you never know.. I could have felted it into a tiny cushion cover or maybe sewn it up as a mini heat bag? Anyway, what I ended up using it for was to frog after all, knitting straight onto the button band! This leaves me with two complete skeins left over.. hmmm... MORE possibilities!

I'll give complete details of the modifications I made and so on when I post most pictures :) But there are a few more details on my project page on Ravelry for those who are interested and can't hold out! The colour in the top picture is very washed out - the yarn is actually the exact yarn used in the pattern knit and modeled in the Knit Scene that features this pattern! A lovely green with flecks of orange and purple - so poppy, so punchy! So... finished!! *beams and boogies some more*

p.s. That first line wasn't actually intended to rhyme, but now that I've noticed it does.. I'm digging the rhyming hoodie boogie groove!

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Dusty Donga Days

I've managed to revive my camera so have a few shots to give an idea of what my life is looking like at the moment! When I'm not at "work" that is.. no site shots yet - just camp!

My little front door!
Donga front door
We have every second Saturday off, so 13 days work-one day off is the way it goes. On my day off I picked up some little necessities for my room including my liddle pot plants!! Not sure how they'll cope in the hotter months, but for now they seem quite happy :) I have two pots inside too, climbing jasmine - lovely!

My donga from afar!My room is the one with the door open (pre pot plant photo). The camp is set out with masses of these little 4-donga-demountables but is set out in such a way the 1200 rooms don't have a militant lay out feeling, more like a little village.
Donga front
Look at that sky!! The blue is SO vivid and seldom are there any clouds to break the magnificent expanse of sky. We've put up our own clotheslines as you can see. Mine was the first to go up, and two of my neighbours who are riggers by trade were very complimentary on the knots, tension and overall design - high praise form those in the know!!

Inside I have a single bed, wardrobe, bar fridge, tv, kettle, ensuite and this little desk!
Donga desk area 2
As you can see I've tried to make the interior are homely as possible too - complete with plushie toast!

And of course.. how much knitting did I take with me to last a mere 3 weeks? Well... THIS much..
yarn stash on camp!
Heheee! Well, better to be safe than stranded without fibre - right?

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Starry Plans

Not much more of an update yet, I'm afraid - although I did pick up some fresh batteries at the camp store as a last ditch attempt to see if my camera will revive!

In the meantime, I thought I'd do a little mini-promo for some of the fabulous etsy vendors I've bought fabulous goodies from in the past. Sort of like an irregular and less expansive version of Cosmicpluto's Etsy Fridays :)

So for today... Starry Designs!
Cindy creates beautiful, unique jewellery in silver, beads and pearls - truly enchanting.
starry3
I was gifted earrings similar to those above as a farewell gift when I left my last workplace - One of my good friends there had remembered me mentioning how much I admired the creations at Starry Designs and hunted down my favourite set from my description and had them sent over for my farewell! They are now amongst my most treasured "pretties", not only for sentimental value, but for simple love of the design, materials and style too :)

I have just ordered another little something from Cindy's lovely collection. Now that I'm earning a little more, working away Fly-In Fly-Out, I decided to treat myself!

starry 1

These lovely little silver globes remind me of gorgeous shiny balls of yarn - delightful!! I think they'll be perfect to wear as a nice casual accent for work and play, not too flashy but a little bit different and special too :)

starry4

I highly recommend cruising over to Starry Designs and parusing all the wonderful pretties!

Hope you are all enjoying the week and whatever magical adventures you might be up to :)

Saturday, July 05, 2008

Red Dust

Long time no blog because, much to my great excitement, I am blogging from the great North West of Australia!

No photos as yet as my camera's having a little bit of a wet lately, but hopefully soon I'll sort it out and be able to post some. The colours are incredible up here - the sky is SO huge and SO vividly blue, and the terrain so burnished red - just gorgeous. I've encountered some "wildlife" so far, a little bubby huntsman (I think he was a huntsman..) spider in my room when I first moved on to camp! But also a wedge tail eagle cruising around the big blue in magnificent fashion.

See, I'm working away in the construction industry, hence being situated in the fabulous, if exrtemely isolated, Pilbarra. I'm absolutely loving it so far, apart from missing the Scrumptious bum, of course. Hopefully given a little bit of time we can both be up here together! Our plans are in motion.. oh yes... in motion I say...

So the work hours are long each day, and the work days are long each fortnight - just the one day off each fortnight. But the people are incredible, the environment stunning, and the knitting of course continues!

More details later, and some photos too!

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Mushing the Mosaic

pron: mooooooshing
I've seen this meme around the blog-o-spehere in a few places and thought it SUCH fun! Leah of Between Stupid and Clever gave me an IN :)

The fun begins with the list of questions below. one types their anwers into the search box of flickr and picks an image from the front page only. This image represents your answer. You then compile the images into a mosaic using the Mosaic Maker - a tool I plan to use more in the future having now discovered it :)

I've altered my meme very slightly - No pictures at all came up for my flickr ID 'knitnutt' so I left that one off and instead gave two pictures for the highschool question, seeing as I went to two :)

So here are my answer, mushed into their own little mosaic.

mosaic

From left to right, top to bottom:
What is your first name?
What is your favorite food?
What high school did you go to? (two images for this Q!)
What is your favorite color?
Who is your celebrity crush?
Favorite drink?
Dream vacation?
Favorite dessert?
What do you want to be when you grow up?
What do you love most in life?
One word to describe you
What is your flickr name (not on mine)
There's a lot of love and a lot of dogs present in those pictures! Clearly I cannot hide my inner partialities... ;)

I prefer the versions of this meme where the reader is left to wonder at the answers - so I'm not telling what my word-searches were ;) You'll just have to use your imaginations!
As for tagging other people... I'd like to tag all those who think this would be a fun adventure in imagery - which it totally is, so get stuck in!!
But I also specifically want to tag.... Jolene, Lisa, Bekk, Ysolda, Wendy, Lolly, Brandy & Jen! Is that overkill? Too many taggings? Naaah... why not share the love, hey? :)