i'm eating the last of those cherries while i type this

about three months ago i was lying on the floor of badly coloured boy's kitchen (actually, half in the kitchen and half in the loungeroom, as his kitchen was the size of a cupboard) having a tantrum. a fists and feet beating on the ground kind of tantrum. i was finding my uni course a wee bit difficult, and was quite certain that i wanted to drop out, a month short of my exams and four fifths of the way through the degree. it had been a truly grotesque semester, punctuated by periodic bordeom, bare passes and parental breakup. i had hoped to do honours next year, and it didn't look like i was going to be offered them the way things were headed. badly coloured boy made me a deal. if i sat my exams (as he knew i invariably would, once i calmed down) he would buy me yarn based on my final marks.

my marks came out on monday, and i gots me my yarn. i picked noro. silk garden. i have never knit with noro before, and was/ am so excited by it. i think this colourway (211) is just divine. a nice mix of dirty colours (ink, mud, muce (mud/ puce), buffalo grey) and pretty colours (pink, purple, clear green, mid blue).


i wanted to make a scarf for me that makes people say 'wow! what an awesome scarf!' when i wear it. i tend to wear scarfs more than any other knitted item, and unsurprisingly my garter stitch acryclic get little attention. leaning heavily on this and the good ol' lady eleanor stole i taught myself entrelac.
despite my issues with short rows i haven't had a single problem with the entrelac. in fact, i even picked up what i am fairly certain is an error in the instructions i learnt from. because the squares are smaller and the scarf is narrower than lady e the colour is more obviously graduated. but i still think it's pretty. although it really is straight out entrelac if anyone would like me to actually type up the pattern i will.

oh, and i got a letter in the mail yesterday. i got offered honours after all. what with the noro, and the cherries and the future dissertation things are definitely looking up.

i think it's summer.

that would be some four and a half metres of mid-blue seersucker drying on the line (with towels in background). what is it for? oh, surprise. seersucker is so summery, so retro, so wrinkle-proof and so utterly soft and squishy that i can't understand why it isn't more popular. not to mention the fabulous name. Seersucker.


i bought cherries at the markets today. yup. that many cherries. for those of you that live in lands of cherry pie, and, um, cherry tarts and cherry turnovers and homemade cherry jam understand you this: in australia cherries are expensive. so expensive that i personally have never eaten a baked good with fresh cherries in it. i got these at the markets for $17 a kilo. In a regular supermarket you might pay $20 -25 a kilo. premium cherries from a fancy grocer can be $40 a kilo. by comparison, plums and pumpkin at the market were $2 a kilo; parsnips and beetroot $4 -6; mangos were three for $4. cherries truly are a luxury. i'm hoping i can make this little bag last a few days.

interwoven.

heavens! while the lady over the yarn magazine blog has issues with interweave, i have to say that overall i am - indifferent. i have had problems getting my winter issue of interweave knits, and ended up sending a pointed, grumpy e-mail (it pained me to write it. really. i was cross, but i had to pretend to be crosser in order to write the nasty letter). they are (finally) sending my issue, but have extended my subscription 'for the inconvenience'.

pity it means i'll get an extra summer issue. the winter ones are always so much nicer.

i apologise for the absence of pictures recently. when i work on something more exciting than anatolia, you shall all be the first to know.

short rows.

i would have liked a clever, punning title on short rows, but i couldn't think of one. sorry. imagine your own. i have started on the short row ribbed scarf, using up some bulky, variegated yarn that is pretty, but rather hard to find a suitable pattern for.
from the bits i have knit and frogged so far, the concept of (ribbed) short rows is good. looks damn fine, even with a distracting yarn. problem being i don't like the current width of the scarf (my yarn being bulkier = my scarf being so very much wider than my neck is long). so i should alter the pattern, right? but i just don't *get* the theory behind short rows. my stitch'n'bitch will attest to that. i can follow a pattern with short row shaping no problem (the triumphant 'I have boobage!' i yelled a little too loud in the cafe when i finished the bust shaping in this attests to that), but i just cannot go beyond that.

i can't alter this damn pattern! i tried, and things (namely the short rows) went awry. i will try once more, but any recommendations for where i can find a nice spot of theory on short rows wouldn't go astray. i looked at an article on knitty and the pictures alone did my head in.

bits and pieces chapter 2

it appears there is now an invisible stripe scarf knitalong. how flattering. how fun!

last night i made my first etsy purchase. i have a sinking feeling that it's all downhill (savings-wise) from here.

to market, to market

no fat pigs bought. i went to sell off old clothes (i buy too many) and books (i somehow acquire too many) and jewellery (the earrings i made out of bread tags and guitar picks went to a thrilled twelve year old) at a car boot sale. to raise money for the 'i want new curtains for the kitchen but cannot justify them' fund. i managed to park myself across from a really lovely guy i go to uni with (given my course, i don't really get on with many people i see regularly) who was helping his girlfriend raise money to do charity work in costa rica.

i bought a chair. it was not my fault. the chair called me. he was $10. i wandered off to think about it. i went back to buy, and the guy selling it told me someone had offered $20. i was mournful. but that person never came back! so just before the market closed, i got my chair. here he is, with part of anatolia's second sleeve:


just stunning, no? never mind that i will inevitably end up with an ikea dining table-ette (did i mention that i got the place i applied for? and that it is in fact a shoebox?), a matching ikea chair, and my odd chair. it is really firm, not at all wobbly. remnants of red paint that has since been stripped all over. i think i will varnish it with something low gloss, though, because it is rather raw right now.

i was really strong and didn't buy the 1950s/60s aqua sewing machine in working order with a travel case. and i didn't even look through the professional bookersellers' stalls for zimmerman.

on dishcloths

i do not understand knitted dishcloths. i used to also not understand hand-knitted socks, but i have come to an uneasy acceptance. i fear that when it comes to dishcloths that un-crafty mantra comes into my head: why make it when you can buy one for so much less time and effort? it is not like a jumper (or a sock) where your time, effort and expenditure can result in a unique garment that fits you perfectly. it is a dishcloth. it used in a most utilitarian manner that degrades your handiwork, and before long it will be thrown out. it will probably smell bad.
i do not even understand exactly what the dishcloth does. i use a sponge or a green scrubby thing to clean the dishes, and a tea towel to dry. which of these does the dishcloth replace?
i do not understand fancy dishcloths, heart-shaped or entrelac for 'when guests come to visit'. i really do not think guests will consider you a lacking host for using a regular sponge or tea towel. and if the concept of using a grotty everyday sponge/ tea towel bothers you, you don't strike me as the kind of person who would be so rude as to do the washing up while your guests were still there.

let me not get started on the concept of hand-knitted washcloths, either.

lucky rabbit (and tips for finishing stuffed toys)

here is a jess hutch bunny, in terrifying polar fleece. he seems to be a little shorter and fatter than the original. i guess fluffy stuff does funny things to your gauge. his head is on a little wonky, and without something to lean against his default pose is the glamourous Lying on his Back with his Feet and One Hand in the Air. but i think he is a little bit suave nonetheless. his face is stitched with a scrap of debbie bliss cathay, leftover from the vogue high neck top, and two terribly cheap toy eyes, onto which i jammed two washers each because the stupid plastic washers were rather easy to yank off.

a little trick for finishing off toys (if this is widely known and accepted, tell me and i'll blush): once you are done stitching on a limb/ ear/ tail, stab the needle into the body right next to your stitching, and go straight through the body and bring it out any old place. tug the yarn very, very hard so the body buckles up a bit. snip the yarn, let go and the body goes back to its normal shape and swallows that yarn end up into its good polyfilled belly. beats weaving in ends on the right side, for sure.

i am a bit wishing i didn't sew all Rabbit's limbs on yet, so i could take a foot with me to the viewings i have lined up today, for luck. right now i am torn between worrying about getting a place at all, and worrying about getting a place and having somewhere better come up next week. god i'm good at stressing.

in my tracks

the knitting has slowed a little while i work on super duper top secret Things, and while i look for a new place to live. which these days seems to involve calling real estate agents at 3am to catch them off guard, and clawing out the eyeballs of unsuspecting fellow applicants, so they cannot see the delicious bargain abode just listed. apparently people have begun offering to pay above the listed rental price. suffice to say that if this practice is common, i will have to knit a tent and live in a park.

more birdies!

the polka-dot one is the same as in the previous entry, only with his pale green unpicked and silly yellow french knots added.

i like the polka dot one, though the printed felt is a bi-atch to work with, both physically and design-wise. the one on the right seems kind of tropical to me. the 'star' reminds me of a hibiscus. i still haven't decided who these are going to yet... i guess i'll just use them as gift tags for everyone.
in other exciting news, calico&ivy actually let me return some yarn(!) and they didn't even demand a receipt (!!) so i swapped for two garlands of red and white felt stars, strung on white leather with little white wooden beads. i would have preferred all-red, but unexpected- returners- of- purchased- goods can't be choosers.