Bolts Need Cosies Too!

Following in the tradition of the red and black bolt cosy I knit up for my Shweetie's birthday - I felt the other bolts would need cosies too or they'd start to feel left out!



This particular bolt cosy is for the bolt of our largest bore rifle - the Steyr .243 (Shweetie's favourite!).

I used a ball of Spotlight Basics Entwine in a nicely mottled natural sort of shade - a very thick yarn so it creates excellent padding for the bolt.



I whipped up a little lining from the black velveteen mah Shveetie chose, but I cut the piece a little too small and had to do a very thin seam allowance and.... it's come apart!! So I need to re-sew the lining, but apart from that, this little bolt is feeling very warm and fuzzy with it's new bolt cosy!

p.s. Inspired by Ann, I too am making some blog renovations - so please bear with me until I iron out all the creases!

More smitten with mittens than ever before!

So it turns out that I'm in deep smit... with MITTENS!!

Could it have been knitting the Smitten that has me so enamoured? In my recent (and somewhat frenzied) raid of the stash for abandoned and languishing UFOs (UnFinished Objects) I came across the wonderful Bella Mittens I had begun knitting MONTHS ago last year when we were headed for the snow! I decided I would like extremely snug and warm mittens, and having seen Sactosara's wonderful cashmere lined mitts I was inspired to line my own too!



I bought the most luxurious yarn I could think of and afford/find (= Malabrigo!) for the lining and after knitting up the main mitten pattern in a rather non-descript workhorse chain store yarn I looked to the lining.



By this time we were actually on the road driving up up up towards the snow and I was getting there, bit by bit! I picked up stitches around the base of the mitten and knit a replica of the mitten outer, but without the funky cables (which, incidentally, remind me so very much of reptile (especially dragon) anatomy!). Once I had lined the first mitten I was a little concerned with how bulky the mitts were. An already dense and very cosy pattern was made extremely thick with the layer of malabrigo inside. So thick in fact that I felt rather like a cross between the Michelin man and some sort of robotic, yet awfully cosy, humanoid.

So... I stopped working on them. *cringe*

It's an awful, disgraceful and neglectful thing to do, to just move on from a project like that and leave it for "a bit later" which is procratinese for "two chances I'll ever get back to that". But you see we were AT the snow by then. IN the snow. The very SNOW that we had been dreaming of! Snow, all white and crunchy underfoot! We were frolicking and stomping and making the snowbear, riding in over-snows, breathing deep lungfuls of icy-beyond-crisp air and marvelling at all the snowland wonders.



Add to all this excitement, the fact that I was SMASHING myself in to the ice and hard packed snow each day while learning to snowboard! So by the time we were riding the over-snow back to the lodge, or resting aching limbs after nice warm showers, I didn't want to be knitting something un-wonderful and un-marvellous.



I still had my mind set on the mittens being lined, but knew in that deep knitterly way that it just wasn't cricket. SO rather than have to deal with figuring that out, I let them be and continued to use my normal snow gloves (store bought and not even WOOLLEN! But admittedly very warm and handy for manipulating helmet straps). When we returned from the trip I stuffed the knitting bag away with my other goodies and we flew back away for work, and that was that. Only NOW have I ferretted them out and realised... I don't neeeed a lining!! For goodness sake they're fantastically warm and snug as it is and look fantastic, feel fantastic and are super cute!



The lining would be excellent in a yarn of appropriate thickness (ie sock weight, not worsted!!) but is certainly not a necessity. And I'm in LOVE with my mitts!! I'm in deep fabulous infatuated love with them! It's a ridiculous heat outside and I'm sitting in my donga wearing my mitts (obviously not while typing...) and thinking how wonderful it would be if I could wear them all the time! And so the voyage of the Sasha Bella Mitts is now complete! The only prologue to be added is when I actually DO get a chance to use them in the snow!

Smitten & love

I recently had a one-of-a-kind-event gift knitting occasion... my only sibling, my debonaire older brother, entered wedded bliss in January!

I was so very excited, and knew a wee knitted giftie must accompany any other gift we gave, so I ordered the yarn and got to planning their very own matrimonial Smitten!


The Bendigo Woollen Mill Classic arrived a few days before I was due to fly home from work for the wedding - phew! The colour is perfect - Cheery Red - a rich red for deep red, but also bright for prosperity.



So I got to knitting, beginning with the two individual mittens. It was a blessing that we can now knit on planes - I was able to bust out most of one mitten on the flight home!

The knitting then languished a little while we were doing all of the wedding events and excitement, but at the Tea Deremony following the wedding day I was almost finished. My sweet sister-in-law being the petite creature that she is, I had knit a very mini mitten for her, so my Shweetie suggested we secretly have her equally minute older sister try the mitten on for size, just in case. Well thank goodness we did! Turns out I had knit it a little toooo small! So some frantic knitting ensued to knit another one a little more human sized!



Photographed above are the initial mittens, with the teeny weeny one rather than the final well fitting set. I finished them off and the newlyweds were suitabley thrilled to bits, much to my delight :D

I'd love to take a photo some time of them both, back in their wedding finery, walking along hand in smittened hand, then reduce the photo to black and white with only the bright red smittens left in colour!



It was such a heart warming and wonderful experience to share in my lovely brother's nuptials, and once again knitting was there to add that little bit of extra warmth :)

Full Cold is Warming Up

It's getting toasty here - VERY humid too. A mere hour outside walking and one returns to the office looking exactly as if a bucket of water has been dunked over the their head! Shirt saturated through completely and looking very drained!

It's gotten to that time again up here in the Pilbara when turning the cold tap on full, with no hot tap, still gives a warm shower! And that's in the evening too with the sun going down!



I'm knitting with appropriate flamey hot coloured yarn at the moment too. This is the Madras Handspun I spun up a little while ago, I'm planning to knit up some sort of fabulously snug hat with flaps - but we'll see if I have enough yarn!!

The Comforts of Fibre

At the moment I'm working away from my shweetie, and he away from me - which is an awful, hideous, foul and hateful thing. But rather than sink into the doom and gloom of contemplating 4 weeks apart with only 1 week home before another 4 weeks apart (yecchhh) I decided I would use my 4 weeks to PLUNGE deeply in to my knitting and reading!

So to that effect, I managed to scramble together a bunch of my UFOs as I was packing and have been trying to update my Ravelry page so I have a good idea of which projects really ARE Works In Progress, and which are just faking and are in fact hibernating in the UFO world.

As I did all this, I stumbled across some photos of the handspun I made for my lovely Mum last year for her birthday!



I took these shots some time after gifting her the yarn, and then forgot to upload them! (Unless I actually DID, and what I've forgotten is the fact that I have already shown you!)

The yarn is spun from Treetops Colour Harmonies merino in the colourway 'Jamberry' which is perfectly wonderful for my Mama :)

This was spun up on the very cusp and eve of my learning to Navajo ply (the other yarn I spun for her birthday was Navajoed!) so this one was still a normal ply, but with a gold thread to add a little something different to the yarn.

It hasn't turned out too novelty, thank goodness, and I love the finished yarn! It makes me think of a gypsy caravan, and a wonderful wise gypsy woman (like my Mum!) with long chocolate dark hair (like my Mum!) the glint of her golden earrings peeking through her hair.



Mum and I are still brainstorming what she could and wants to knit it up in to, but we will keep you posted!!

p.s. Sorry for the whinge above - it's a tolerable sacrifice and it will get us to where we want to be in our lives and allow us to raise our children on our dream farm, so it's worth it in the end! Just have to hang in there and surround myself in the comforts of fibre!

Sasha Socks

Before my fellow knitter inoriz headed off with her family on their Great Adventure across the continent, she gave me a parting gift *sniffle*



This lovely skein has been hand-dyed by Jo, and even named after me!!

It's a lovely sock yarn, and I LUFF the colours - the bright electric lime and the fabulous turqouisey aqua - I knew I had to be selfish and knit something for ME from this wonderful skein of friendship.



And so I started knitting up a pair of socks!



Great for travel and carting around everywhere - here is the beginning of the first sock right after I landed at an airport and was waiting (and waiting... and waiting) for work to pick me up.

SIDE NOTE: How exciting that soon we Aussies will be able to knit ON planes again! Not have to stow our knitting away in the checked baggage then whisk it out to knit on as soon as the bags come out on the carousel!



A nice plain style sock with a gusset heel - stockinette so they're nice and easy to knit in the dark or while I'm in meetings etc..

(excuse poor quality phone photos)

The one oddity and interesting feature (that you can't actually see very well in this picture) is I have knit a left and a right sock! So the toe is biased to one side or the other for PERFECT fit on my tootsies!



They're not quite finished, but further along than this photo - both heels now complete and working up the cuff. I whisked the needles out to knit up my lovely Mum's Christmas socks, so as soon as I've finished those shimmery shoe liners (ahem, yes, not finished yet) I can put the needles back into my Sasha Socks!

Jolene, thank you SO very much for your friendship, generosity, yarn, and thoughtfulness. Though you're further away in distance now, you're not further away in friendship :)

Organic Icecream

YUM!



I knit this little number up in a jiffy, sometime back in October (thank you Ravelry!) and it only took me one evening since it's such a wee little thing! I've finally sewn in the ends and realised I hadn't taken an FO shot, so here we are :)

It reminds me of a scoop of wonderful creamy delicious ice cream - don't you think?!

Knit out of Bernat Organic Cotton, it's destined for one of the tiny people who seem to be popping up (out?) everywhere!

Uh oh...

There's been a wee hold put on my knitting progress over the last couple of days...

A New Year

Oooh what promise and potential it bears!

I have had such a wonderful and action-packed break over the festive period, with Christmases, time at home, time away, time with family and friends, and our wee Scamp come to stay with us! Thank you so very much, all, for your lovely birthday well wishes :) I had a marvellous day, was very spoilt and am now happily on my 28th lap of the sun!



Before I look ahead with glee at this fabulous and well-balanced-feeling year (2010 - don't you think it seems so solid and grounded?) I want to have a little acknowledgement of 2009 and achievements therein.



My main mission of the year was the 52 in 52 challenge - manifested both in book and craft form. In both categories I fell a little short, but had an absolute BLAST recording my progress and seeing my completions! I found that I was able to prioritise what I wanted to create and read, and was more aware of what I was doing and absorbing - it was a wonderful experience!

I highly recommend giving this a shot; if not with books or craft, perhaps with something else you like to do? (52 bush walks to try... bands to listen to... movies to watch... ??) In fact I enjoyed the 52 in 52 SO much that I'm doing it AGAIN in 2010! Hurrah!! :D



My other general plans include;

• To refocus on my stash, and using all of the glorious goodies hidden therein
• To craft MORE! Particularly while I'm working FIFO without my shweetie - what an opportunity to get my knit on!!
• To revisit my list of 101 in 1001 - so heinously neglected!

I'll blog about these (and who KNOWS what else?!) in more detail in posts to come - for now I'm off to bed with my current book! May your year past and your year ahead both teach and embrace you!

Birfday!

Well!

I'm snatching a moment amongst a busy birthday (27 today!) to send a quick HELLO! and tell you all that I am in fact still on this planet, happy, healthy, crafting along well and hope you all are too!

We've just seen Fantastic Mr Fox at the movies (one of my all time favourite books) and now we're going to have some lunch, a swim and then head off for a Hawaiian Luau style bbq at the water front!

xo

This is Tropical Cyclone Laurence...



TC Laurence, Laurie to his friends, is new in town. He's been traveling down North West coast here trying to make friends.

I for one am always eager to meet new people and make new friends, welcoming new folks to the community and trying to be warm and inclusive. Since TC Laurie is making his way closer to my camp, and thus possibly making friends with ME, I'd like to offer him some advice...



Laurie, I find the best way to make friends is not to come whirling in, aggressive and showy - but to be polite, well mannered and friendly. You don't need to be the toughest, gnarliest, most hard-core kid in the class to stand out and be admired. Uprooting towns and leaving people cowering inside with torches and radios does NOT ingratiate you to a community. Laurie, settle down a bit then you can come out to play.

Mystery knit!

I have a bit of mystery gift knitting going on!!



I just hope I can get it finished in time... Isn't that always the way?!

p.s. Crowd surfed for the first time last night - AWESOME!

I Only Like Pompoms as a Friend

I fell in love with the 'i HEART pompoms' pattern and after some extensive Ravelry stalking, finally cast on! Knitting with the Bendigo Alpaca yarn is a dream, it's perfect for this pattern and so lovely



I'm only moment from the finish line with this one - it is sitting on my shelf pompom-less and bereft, I really must get my act together, whip up a couple of pompoms and cord and then it will be DONE!

Lovely weekend with Lovely Mum!

Shortly before I flew up here to work away again, I spent a wonderous weekend with my lovely Mum. It was just the two of us and we spent three glorious days together crafting, talking and relaxing.



I feel so blessed for my parents, and count them amongst my closest and best friends in the world. It feels such a special treasure to have been able to spend the time together with Mum, nestled away in her gorgeous home delighting in each others' company.



Mum has recently re-taken up the knit, so we spent quite a bit of time knitting in various places; cafes (with delicious meals), the loungeroom (watching movies) and of course sitting on Mum's fabulous decking.



As is always the way with magical times, it seemed to be over all too soon - but I know there will be other wonderful times, and we can keep the magic with us for now in the memories and shared delights until next time :)

No Deja Vu here

There's so much I want to blog about - adventures, crafts, fabulous times - but at the moment I've barely had time to log on, let alone upload pictures and put together a post!



I'm back up North in the Pilbara working on the next construction site job and it has been INTENSE! Even though we did this last time - I flew up first, shweetie was brought on board a couple of months later - and I've already spent over a year and a half living in a Fly-In Fly-Out camp, deja vu doesn't seem to apply!

Since the day I flew in (5:10am no less...) it's been non stop action with a totally new project, new team, different site, with different and stringent regulations to remember and adhere to, new camp and room... the list goes on! How do I get to work in the morning? Where do we pack crib (lunch)? What's the postal address here? Who do I see to get hooked up to the work server? and so on! So much to absorb and get right!

Suffice to say I've been pretty exhausted each day when I finally get home to my little room.
But the last two days I've been feeling myself again and settling in a little, much to my relief! Last night we had our Christmas party which was great fun and today was officially a Rostered Day Off (RDO - this site has a 6 day week: every Sunday off, an improvement on the last site which had a 13 day fortnight with only every second Saturday off!) but my manager and I headed in to work anyway which was fine. So much can get done without the distractions! We cranked some tunes, smashed through the work and went out on site and climbed to the dizzying heights at the top of the steelwork. A small crew of dogmen, riggers a crane driver were in too extending the boom on the big 250 tonne crawler so we headed over to say g'day and were able to help them out pulling some of the collosal cables into place - like pirates on a huge rope!

So no exciting crafty posts just yet I'm afraid, but hopefully soon, as long as the rather dismal internet service out here can manage photo uploads and such!

ICANHASHILARITY!

Icanhascheezburger delivers again!

My Retro Skirt!

Allow me to finally display.. My first sewn skirt!



Terrible photo - at night with a mobile phone - bad combo!

But I didn't have time to take a better one at the time, and now I have washed the skirt and discovered it DEMANDS ironing after a wash! Ah well...

The gorgeous monochromatic retro flower print was actually nestled in amongst a scrap grab bag of fabric I snatched up when I first bought my sewing machine. My shweetie suggested a grab bag of fabric practice on, and lo! This fabulous fabric (I keep almost typing 'yarn' I'm so used to always utlising THAT craft material!) was in amongst the mish mash, in two long strips.

I took the pattern from my favourite skirt, but had to adjust it to suit to strips of fabric - hence the black panels!

Over all I'm very happy with it, the only downfall being the recently discovered high maintenance nature of the fabric! Ah well, a quick ironing and I'm off! Promise to take some better photos once the iron has been wielded ;D

NaKniMo 2009!

Can it truly be November already??

Yes it seems to be, and that means all the NaMos are out!

• NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month (30,000 word novel in November)

• NaKniSweMo - National Knitting of Sweater Month (30,000 stitch sweater (American, hence 'sweater' not 'jumper') in November)

and the NaMo I'm a part of...

• NaKniMo - National Knitting Month! (30,000 stitches knit in November)

I like the freedom NaKniMo gives me, which something like NaKniSweMo can't offer - I'd have to knit ONLY the jumper and that won't work with me, since I've several gift knits and things to work on, plus my own personal knits.

This is the second year I've signed up for NaKniMo and I am PUMPED!! Very excited to crank out the stitches and achieve the goal of 30,000, an average of 1000 per day.

I'm not off to a great start since I've had to rip back my cast on and first rows of the I Heart PomPoms hat I've just started, and also the beginnings of the Girasole blanket! DRAT!



I had finished chart A of Girasole and had pressed on for the next 6 rounds to then realise I had HALF the stitches I should have! Gah!

Nevermind.. I'll sort out these fiddly beginnings and then I'll be on my way. I find the start of projects, particular circular ones, the most time consuming. Once the knit is on the go it's much easier to zoom along and tally up those stitches!

If you'd like to join us in our NaKniMo adventures, head on over to the group on Ravelry HERE. You'll find guidelines, tally posts and so on plus MUCH enthusiasm, encouragement and good times :D We'd love to have you join us, and you can still jump in now! Of course if you're not a Raveler you can always tally your own stitches in a wee notebook or some other method. It really is a great way to bust out a project or two you've been having trouble committing to or getting done.

Not a knitter?

What over 30,000 tally will motivate you to meet a goal and achieve something big and satisfying?

Cross-stichers - A 30,000 stitch cross-stitch design?
Golfers - 30,000 golf swings?
Gamers - 30,000 point score, or 30,000 slain zombies?

Plied!!

Despite some tangle-tastic frustrations yesterday (which I wisely stepped away from to sit on the couch with my sweetie watching a ridiculous hollywood action flick instead).... the madras spritzer is Navajoed!! (can that be a verb?)

Hard Core Fibre Pr0n!

Madras fibre - Treetops Colour Harmonies


I loved Bon's comment on the last spinning post so much, I had to name a post after it and dish out some more!!


Separated/pre-drafted and balled up


Mmmm... the colours conjure thoughts of pina coladas, lolly water and tasty fruit spritzes....


Sunday spun singles