Dreadful photos

These two were taken just before we flew back up to work - and I am even more and more in love with my dreads as each day and week goes by!



Although... I desperately need to do some crochet hook maintenance as you can see in the picture below! All those flyaways! Fuzzy wuzzy wassa knitter!

Fuzzy And Functional

I recently had a spate of knitting... well frustration is the only word I can think of!

I had nothing much on the needles and was ready to cast on for something new, but being such a momentous occasion the pressure seemed too much!!

You see, generally I finish something up just in time to quickly cast on for the next project - a project which is probably due in two weeks just in time for the recipient's birthday/childbirth/wedding etc.. So it was so very refreshing to have no such gift knitting waiting in the wings and full freedom to cast on something wild and wonderous of my choice!!

And yet... I wasn't able to decide on what to knit!!

I hemmed and hawed and spent some very pitiful and fruitless times with NOTHING to knit during drives around town and such - so decided I would leap in with a project for the meantime!

Enter... Fuzzy Feet!



These lovely felted slippery puppies have been on the cards for AGES way back when I purchased a whole bunch of Vintage Hues to make up some Fuzzy Feet for my shweetie and I.

They're coming along very nicely indeed and I am very excited about the felting stage since I've never felted before!

ticked off

That's just how I feel at the moment - Well, perhaps that's a rather diplomatic and mild manner of putting it. But I feel cranky, and rotten and rather upset!

One of those days when the politics, and small-mindedness and petty people make an impact and get through, causing needless trouble.

I really do think they should look after their own business and stop minding mine. They're doing a poor job of minding my business and I'd much rather they leave THAT to me, and go back to minding their OWN!

Hmmmmph!!

Non-crafty post, and also quite emotionally charged - so I apologise for that! I feel better having vented, though - and now will hop in to bed with my current knit, and that will improve my mood even further I'm sure! :)

Here's a lovely photo of our adorable Chilli to seal the deal...

Deadly Dreadlocks

Yes, you better believe it! I am now a dread-headed dreadlocked lassie!

It's something I've wanted to do for a VERY long time, and in fact I had 'non-permanent' dreads put in for the high school ball, and then proceeded to ignore the hairdressers' warnings about taking them out straight away - I left them in for 3 weeks or so since I loved them so much! Many hours of combing got them out, but I always wanted proper ones and have pined and thought of them often since then.

My hair is very long, straight and thin/fine - and for almost all of my life I've had the same long, straight hairstyle (or lack of style?). Being a bit of a tom-boy I've never put much effort or thought in to my hair, but loved the long silky shininess and twirling the strands around my fingers :)



But I've been thinking of the deadly dreadlies more and more and at last.. I've taken that final step and had wonderful lovely locks put in!

Inspired by dreadly ladies such as Emily and Jas it was only a weeny little nudge to get me off the edge and plunging into dreadlocked magnificence!



The ladies I got dreaded with are AMAZING - an absolutely wonderous bunch of open minded, delightful, inquisitive and warm hearted women. How blissful to spend a day with them, they weaving my hair into dreads while I knit and we talked together of families, experiences and the world around us.

I am SO thrilled with my dreads! I know they will only get better and better too as they plump out and bulk up a little over the coming months.

I've given a bit of space to the wild and creative side of myself and I LUFF it! :D

It feels like (and I know this sounds silly because "it's only hair"...) I'm more myself now, and that is WONDERFUL!

Breaking news!

This just in!

I have been... PROMOTED!!

WOOOO!!!

Champagne and Cashmere all round!!

This is BIG news - it means job satisfaction, it means DOUBLE my current income, it means learning new things, it means paying off our Vendor Finance in time - it means AWESOME!!!

iPig to be

I've been knitting up a shock of pink!
This little tube is destined to be an ipod cosy for my amazing manager's little daughter who is OBSESSED with everything coloured PINK!



Here modelled by my weeny wee sketching man (it also seems functional as a minature sleeping bag?) I'm not very far through for reasons similar to the gift knitting problem - of knitting mostly in the dark and at meetings. Once I've fixed up a minor issue with the ribbing in this one it'll be back to zooming along without looking.



I plan to add widdle ears and a curliry tail and a BIG pink button nose once I've knit up the body of the cosy - perfect for a 5-and-a-half year old!

Gift Knitting

I have a bit of gift knitting on the needles at the moment - problem is... it's a lace pattern.



I love lace, so no problem there, but even though it's a repetitive 2 row lace pattern, I still need a little bit of light while I'm knitting away at it - suffice to say it's taking a little longer to knit up than I had expected, since most of my knitting is done in the dark or in meetings when I need to keep eye contact! Ah well., we'll get there in the end :)

Cute Suprise!

Did you seeeee?

Ravelry had a super cute little prank for everyone on April Fools day - all our ravelry avatars had funny hats!



I found myself to be a lady copper for the day, maintaining control and dishing out JUSTICE where required! heheee!

Did you wear a funny hat, on ravelry or otherwise? Did you prank, or get pranked?!

Flaming up

I'm still oh-so in love with poi :)



And now that I've finally decided to work less overtime (regular 14 hour days are NOT a healthy option) I actually find myself with free time and energy to put in to it! Woot woot!!

Drat!

This little beastie has caused some serious knitting delays this past week!

Yes, my little red drawstring knitting bag went AWOL and after two days wherein I thought I'd simply left it at home and forgotten to bring it in to work, I then realised I hadn't brought it in because it coudn't be FOUND! Of course fretting ensued, combined with frantic vehicle and room searching - but who knows where it could have gotten to?! As far as I'm aware I'm the only knitter on the construction site, but you never know! Someone could have found the abandonned wee bag and decided to try their hand at it!

A particularly stressful loss as the bag contained two WIPs - one a half finished gift due in mere DAYS (sorry Bon!) and the other a weeny little iPod cosy for a friend's daughter (with no immediate timeline apart from that the parent failed to comprehend the effects of TELLING the 5-and-a-half year old that a hot pink hnd knit iPod cosy was on its way *sigh*).

So alas, I thought all was lost...
But today my scrumptious shweetie found my wee baggie!! :D

So now I can once again sleep at night! Well.. once the gifts are finished I can ;)

Singed and Sooty

It seems I'm more likely to fling myself into poi when I'm working away than when I'm home - who knows why??

I'm thrilled to be back in to it with gusto

Even if I did cop one right in the kisser!

As good as a holiday

Well, maybe not QUITE that good, but I see where the saying comes from, for sure!

But even better to have a little change while ON holiday - a holiday from work anyway. These are some of the tasty treats I tried whilst on my last R&R;



I popped in to a British Lolly Shop that also stocked other assorted goodies from around the globe - things seemingly from another world, since none of those tasties are found in our regular stores.

The Vanilla drink was delicious but after half a can was TOO syrupy sweet, which is something coming from me - I'd practically drink maple syrup! My favourite of the bunch was the Skor - nothing like some delicious toffee!

What new things have you tried, lately?

Sneak Peek 'n' Updatin

I am EXHAUSTED!

Have just flown back up north and only now unloaded ALL of my stuff (2x giant kit bag, large back pack and a huuuuuuge hard packing chest) into this new camp - yes, I have moved camps! This room's looking great though, loads of space and... a kitchen! No more camp food!!

But suffice to say I'm rather knackered. So for now, here's a sneaky peeky at a hand knit gift given out to the lovely recipient yesterday and as yet to be posted about! You'll also notice my fantastic new shirt! Hurrah for wearing our knitterness and geekery with pride!



p.s. The mega great news is the internet at this camp actually WORKS! :D No more intermittent blog posting!

40 Watt

Not so very secret - I'm a bit of a geek, and am rather a comic book fan, and am particularly partial to Tank Girl, in all her rebellious, pack-rat collecting, tank whispering goodness.



So I thought a printed shirt was in order!


My Shveetie skoota was (is?) a dinki-di, legitimate, system-bucking, mohawk-donning actual punk, so he thinks it's all a teensy bit giggle-worthy and refers to it as "candy punk" or "popcorn punk". But that's ok :) I don't reckon I'm quite tough enough to be a proper punk anyway ;)



Sometimes I like to think that mah shweetie and I are a little like Boogah and TG...



Except of course, I don't smoke.

Snappy!

Ohmigoodness... I have discovered a wonderous website!!

SNAPPY WORDS!

Wordsmiths and geeks in general will adore this site, I certainly do!

You enter in the word of choice, eg. 'knit', and the visual dictionary goes nuts!



All the definitions, synonyms and such are shown in this funky visual manner:



So pick your favourite word and have a GO :D

Winning!

I have two 'wins' to report!

The first is a GOLD in the 2010 Ravelympics for completing the Raspberry Shimmer Socks! This was an entry in the WIP Dancing event, as they had been languishing on my needles a little and this helped them get on over that finish line!



I'll post photos of the finished socks soon, and post the actual SOCKS off to my lovely Mama even sooner!

The other 'win' is that I'm finally reclaiming my trim form (not that I've ever been all that trim, let's be honest!) of yesteryears and am feeling (and weighing) the best I have in over 6 years! WOOOOT!



I still have a way to go, but you certainly notice the 10kg difference! It's been a lot of hard hard work and self deprivation so it's absolutely wonderful to see results that motivate me to keep on going!

I hope you've been winning this week too, consider me there with you in spirit, popping the bubbly and shouting HURRAH! ;D

Hat for Harri

A ha!!


I have knit a hat for a far-off friend Harriet from some handspun and... it's in time for her birthday! What a rare accomplishment! :)



This has been knit out of the yarn I spun a few months ago from the Treetops Colour Harmony merino in Madras colourway - truly delicious in texture and vibrancy! I almost gave the yarn away to a fellow knitter as a gift, but have knit what feels like so little from my own handspun that I couldn't go through with it! And now I am giving away the finished knit! Ah well, I'm slowly getting closer to keeping some of my handspun and handknits, step by step! And this one is heading out to a very fabulous recipient.



Harriet is a friend I haven't seen for a very long time - years in fact! - so for her birthday a little bit of crazy fun happy happy love joy needs to be sent her way :) The colour scheme of Australian-Sunset-On-Acid is an added bonus ;D

I had envisaged something a bit larger, perhaps a Capucine, but realised I wouldn't have enough yarn. A quick change of plans and knitting from the top down allowed me to eke out juuuust enough yarn to add the ear warming flaps and bind off - phew!



We've had some fabulous fun and silly times together and she's such a treasured friend, I hope this keeps her nogging nice and toasty in the London winters!

Couchon Coserie

Not proper french, I know, but when I was gifted a snazzy flash new ipod touch by my workplace as part of a company incentive scheme, the lovely new shiny needed a name, and Couchon seems to spring out of nowhere!

Of course I had not had Couchon long before the following things began to happen;

1. I started to realise how fun the touch is
2. I started to fall madly into besottment with the Couchon
3. I became incredibley protective of la Couchon (which of course led to)
4. I cast on for a handknit Couchon Coserie!

Using some of the gloriuos delicious and fabulous Koigu (a miniscule amount from the two skeins I purchased some time ago and STILL have not decided what to do with!) I used Rose Red's fabulous iSock as a model and knit away!



I cast on 40 (too big) then 32 (still too big) and eventually settled on 28 as the perfect stitch circumference to keep the cosy nice and snug around the iTouch.

A three needle bind off at the end to give some structural seamage, and a wee garter stitch strap to fold over with a neat little button! Super handy to keep the earphone cables wrangled too to save the tangle-tastic terror of the knitting bag! Yay!



p.s. Did I mention just HOW in love with Koigu I am..?

Namesake Socks

Some months ago, the generous Jolene of The One About Inori was expanding her hand-dyed yarns and not only created this fabulous lime and turquoise number.... but named it after me too!



I was very touched and knew I had to turn this skein into a selfish knit, a knit for me :)

It didn't take very long to decide that, yes, I would like my very own pair of handknit socks to wear - and so the knitting began. I knit away on them as I started my new job on the new construction site up North, knit them in the bus on the way to and from work, in medical clinics waiting for employees and at every other chance.

But when I had the brainwave of knitting up some socks for my lovley Mama for Christmas, sadly the Tale of Only One Sock Circular ended with the predictable ending of the Sasha Socks being thieved of their needles!



But they are back on the needles again now, or should I say, OFF the needles as they're complete!

I customised the toes such that there is a left foot and a right foot due to the bias of the pointed toe leaning either left or right, and they fit wonderfully!!



Thank you SO very much Jojo, for your lovely gift and the honour of having a yarn named after me!! I highly recommend Jolene's online store - Yarn & Kisses - for both fibre and non-fibre enthusiasts. Plus I believe there will be some exciting new developments over there soon!

R & Ahhhhhh...

How's this for a lovely view while I'm enjoying my morning refreshment?



Certainly beats the view of my computer screen at work... ;D