Lovely Warm Slightly Fuzzy

This last week past I have been knitting with lovely warm, slightly fuzzy yarn, on a lovely warm slightly fuzzy project for my (you guessed it) lovely warm, slightly fuzzy Papa!

He's the coolest Dad around, and each year heads over East to the snow for a snowboarding adventure. I have knit him a beanie in the past (***) but it was a little short on his forehead, and though he wears it, it is an inside beanie, not a thrashing down the white slopes, keeping Dad's ears warm from the crisp frosty air kind of beanie.

So the race has been ON to finish the beanie before Dad flies out to the snow!

I'm basing the beanie on Jared Flood's excellent Turn A Square pattern, but with a couple of changes.

These shots are from last week and the good news is.. I've finished! FO project photos to come :)

Fuzzy Ferret Feet

I was so inspired and filled with the Frenzy-of-the-Felt following my shweetie's Fuzzy Feet that I cast on almost straight away for a pair of my own!

I'm using the same brand of yarn, but in a different colourway which I'm sure will felt just as wonderfully with those great colour changes.



Unfortunately this poor knit has been way-laid on numerous occasions, and is in fact still in hibernation! First I lost a needle, so couldn't very well knit with just one. Then I did the wrong thing once I picked the knitting back up again after so long so had to rip back a few rows. And alas! It turned out I HADN'T done the wrong thing, so had to reknit it exactly as I'd undone!

But now it's ship shape and ready to go - just as soon as I finish my current deadlined gift knit!

Sorry Fuzzy Feet, but your time will come eventually!

52 in 52 : Mid Year Check In

It's high time I did a damage report - I mean status report - on how I'm trucking along with the 52 in 52.

You may remember (for those who have been taking notes for the test later) that I'm doing a 52 CRAFTS in 52 weeks, and also the 52 BOOKS in 52 weeks - as I did last year.

Well, that is, I'm trying to do them - but as you can see from my whiz-bang spreadsheets below I'm a bit behind!

I can't really explain this lack of finished objects and books - the only thing I can think of is that my work hours are longer now than on previous jobs, although we do get an extra day off each week. So who knows?!



It's so good to touch base like this though and regroup for the second half of the year. The Onslaught, it shall be. It shall be an onslaught of projects and books - fibre and wool scraps will fly across the room in the frenzy of knitting, spinning and general crafting - books will be churned through like the great thumping unstoppable water wheel I always imagined at the BeanStalk Giant's home. Yes, yes it shall be so!

Let's see if I can keep that passion and make it happen! I also notice the difference between times when I'm away on site on my own (February this year) and when Sir Shweetie and I are together - obviously I spend a lot of my free time with Sir Shweetie - and we don't tend to spend much time helping each other finish hand knits or reading aloud! Below is a shot of some of the books on my 'list', a few of which I'm already part way through. (Could that be a reason? Non-monogamous reading?)


Since my job now doesn't involved tedious hours of data entry, plus we're not actually allowed to bring mp3 players on to the construction site - audio books consumption has been lower than last year. But there's still home time, there's still the bus ride to and from work, the flights home and now there's even CROCHET! I can still make it!

Re Dipping

Another post on my newly finished super cozy and soft handspun rainbow beanie. I had lost the camera so couldn't post any shots of the beanie BEING a beanie!



So there you have it - officially a beanie that fits on my head, covers my ears and gets LOTS of laughter and comments from work colleagues when i wear it into work *grin* (This morning was quite breezey and cool so I donned the beanie!)

I may still crochet the black around the ear flaps to match the bind off at front and back - but for now it's definitely fulfilling its purpose :)

Maiden Voyage on HMAS Crochet

On R&R I finally took the plunge, opened the Happy Hooker, picked up my hook and crocheted!



I am thoroughly enjoying it so far - it's so very different from knitting, and I don't think it will steal me away from knitting (my first fibre craft love) since it a wonderful craft in its own right, but different. The structure is so fun to put together and I'm learning a few new stitches as I go.

Dip My Head in Rainbow Juice!

Finished Object! Hurrah!!


Well dip my head in rainbow juice and call me a hippy! I am thrilled with this lovely, soft, warm beanie - knit up from a combination of rainbow handspun striped with Katia black.



I simply started at the pointy red elfin knob and worked down to the necessary circumference (isn't it the easiest thing, knitting garments for yourself - you can try them on as you go!). Then I cast off over the front and back leaving live stitches for the ear flaps. The back and forth knitting on the ear flaps was a little more fiddley as I had to carry the yarn along like in fair isle work. But that makes for very snuggley warm ear flaps!



The ear flaps are finished off with some icord and then a little tassle at each tip - I'm becoming quite fond of tassles!

Unfortunately, the weather up here has turned decided warm and muggy the last few days - it seems that our quota of one cold week for winter is up! But when the cool weather returns, my rainbow juice hat and I will be ready!

What I'm Reading

I have just finished speed reading the novella cousin to the Twilight series (groan if you must, I find the books so engaging, but yes a little vomitous - but when did vomit get in the way of good clean fun?!) which has reminded me how much I really do love to read the printed word - actual hold-in-your-hands books. LUFF!

So while we were waiting at the airport to head back up north I found myself lured to the bookshop. I felt like a kid in a lolly shop! I was almost in a frenzy glancing from book to book and settled on a few but didn't want to just buy for the sake of buying. So I was very good and went to sit back down with my shweetie to wait for our boarding call. I looked up the online price of one book that had particularly taken my fancy, and with a small amount of encouragement from the Shweetie I dashed back across the lounge (dodging the hawkers) and picked up this little number right there and then (I am enjoying it immensely);



Jackie French's A Year in the Valley fills my heart and mind with thoughts of what our life will be like once we're nestled in our own wee farm house living off the land :)

Fuzzy Delicous Coat Go Yum Yum

I have a new coat!

It is absolutely my new favourite thing and I want to wear it ALL of the time.
Down at home this was an option, but now we're back up North it's really not so practical!

F I

We've had a brief interlude of R&R but now it's back to the Fly In part of our FIFO lifestyle. There's a prize at the end of the tunnel though. It's important to remember that the sacrifices now set us up for wonderful rewards in the future together :)

Lace Knitting Makes Me Feel Nice

This lace knitting does anyway :)

I think it's the combination of big, smooth, rhythmically clicking needles in my hands, the yarn so organic and real, and the pattern seems to flow through my fingers wonderfully.



I'm very much enjoying the process - chilled out and relaxed, as-I-get-to-it sort of project. Very nourishing, very forgiving and very nice.

p.s. Had some reassuring news from a lovely nurse and Dr today about a bump in my bosom that had me a little concerned yesterday - phew :) I have celebrated the relief with choc-milk :D

Thick fluffy stripes

I have been knitting up a lacey blanket (more on that later) but found I wasn't getting enough knitting love mainly as the lace was difficult to knit in the bus on the way in to work since it's completely dark here at 5am and these roads have few street lights to knit by.

Clearly a nice simple, stockinette in the round project was required...

I had brought back the black yarn from R&R to use with the rainbow handspun for the super-fun-pointy-topped-ear-flap-with-tassles-beanie, and it didn't take long to get stuck in!



I'm now up to the stage of binding off the beanie edging and knitting the ear flaps down. The yarn looks like it will make the distance and still have some left for the tassles - hurrah!! :)

These yarns are working so well together - the textured vibrant handspun and the soft fluffy ultra thick Katia yarn I picked up when we were holidaying in Canberra - don't you love knitting with souvenir yarn?!