BeatleWear

knitting and the life I almost have around it

Friday, October 28, 2005

A happy spider indeed...


Well, two essays have been penned by the Spider this week, and my great big sigh of relief can be heard world-wide I'm sure. One is not to be handed in til Monday, and I am definitely going to take advantage of the extra editing time, but it is in essence complete.

To celebrate, i turned my floriade cashmere skein into a centre pulling ball (as you do).
Here she is reclining by the flowering thyme. It's amazing that something so small could contain 500 metres! Isn't she just gorgeous!? (please tell me how jealous you are of me, i love to feel big :p)
It's beautiful yarn, whilst wrapping it i realised it has this lovely sheeny shiney thing going on. I have definately decided it is to be a shawly scarf type creation for my mother. She doesnt often wear scarves but this is partly because she's very sensitive to itchy fibres.
This cashmere is... bliss to touch. And i think it will be so beautiful she can wear it during the colder months when my folks go to their evening classical music concerts every month - warmth and style. I want to give it to her for christmas if I can manage it, but her birthday might be more likely (which is March, and cooling off a little more than December) Particularly as i have yet to find a pattern. I need a pattern for a large rectangular scarf with a decorative edging on each short end (you know, a spiky sort of one) and minimal yarn overs in the main body. It will be a lace stitch, but not a super fussy one. Just something to show off the consistency of the cashmere, without being too busy due to the colour changes. And not dead boring to knit for years on tiny needles. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. I'm not even sure what size needles to go with, being that its 2ply yarn...
I'll have to hunt hard for this imaginary pattern- I don't know if I'm game to make it up as I go with a $25 skein!
My yarn package has still yet to arrive and it is distinctly longer than 3-5 days local mail now. It is SO frustrating, because I have my first Stitch n Bitch meeting EVER next thursday and I wanted to be knitting the vintage style top by then. In case i didnt already post it, the yarn is Cheope in shade 69 (soft antique blue), and conveniently at the bottom of the page is the back edition of the magazine I ordered as well. I think this means I'm the first one to buy the cheope.. hope it's good!

Also, just because it's spring... I am SO in love. Ain't life grand?

Hand in my realism essay, one exam on the 8th and then its holidays for three months! HA!

Ciao

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Rhapsody in blue

ever feel (in a friendship)...

like you're making all the effort?

like they don't respect you and never will?

that your opinion is irrelevant to choices you make together?

like they kick you when you're down?

as though they assume superiority in all things? assume that you will be wrong?

as though listening to you talk about your interests is an ordeal for them?

do you ever think that maybe its not just that they hurt you accidentally, but if they really cared they'd think before they do or say something that is so obviously hurtfull? Jokes arent jokes if only one person laughs.


Kind of bad week all up (Gee, Spider, never would have guessed). This is not aimed at ToD, queen of wonderment, Gypsy etc. Or probably anyone who reads this blog. This is a vent in regards to a frustrating conversation with a close friend this week. I'm sorry. I just feel like I'm at the breaking point in this particular relationship. Where I've given as much as I can and nothing will ever change. I'm exhausted from Uni and life and need a friend and don't feel like I'm getting one from this quarter. And I honestly think I am a good friend to this person. Probably the best friend they've ever had. I think I deserve better than i have been getting lately.

NB- All sorted, worry not, a special friendship is saved. hopefully forever :) And one essay is finito and the other cant be a handed in til monday but will be finished by the time Strictly Dancing comes on on Friday night. I have spoken and so it shall be...

I'm sure I will feel much better when my essays are signed, sealed and delivered. And if my darn yarn ever arrives it will be muchly appreciated. They're both looking healthy (essays that is, not yarn), so I'm not too worried. It's a lot to have on your plate though. Doesn't help stress levels.

No more entries til essays are over. And I'm fine really. This is not a plea for attention, promise. Just tired. Perhaps keeping a private diary was more tactful, but this is just as good therapy-wise. maybe I'm waiting for it to be brought to a head. Who knows the inner workings of a knit-mind? scary!

Night all.


Monday, October 24, 2005

I'm all branched out

It's done. C'est finis.
i did not use up the entire ball of CP Kid Merino, mostly because i got over the darn thing and it kept bunching up and ruining the smoothness of the yarn. I did 25 repeats of the pattern, and pressed with a damp cloth and iron rather than washing and blocking because im terrified of accidentally felting the poor darling.


I am pretty happy with it. I thought it looked lovely amongst the leaves, though of course the lace pattern isnt crystal clear being a fluffy yarn. I do love the colour, but i think this might get wrapped in tissue paper and put aside for one of the many 21st that are happening in the next 6 months. (NB if you have already had a 21st, you know who you two are, and love this to death let me know.)

It is very light yet warm and pretty and the colour is so beautiful. But i'm just not much of a scarf girl. we'll see, it might get an airing if i go to see ToD this week (very sweet person who displays very convincing enthusiasm and interest in lace stitches such as yarn overs and the like. He said my pattern read like a rap "knit one, YO!". very funny.)

Anywho, i have two really hideous essays to write.

And my yarn package has yet to arrive (snif). I suppose it can't be helped. have also ordered the new yarn harlot bookbookbook, as well as her older one, and Stitch n Bitch Nation. These won't arrive til after i finish uni for the semester so i have a leetle motivation laying in wait for me :)

Have started a nubby cotton rib tank, which will probably make me look like a heffalump. But at least it's something to do, and i hate rib so it might slow me down a bit. Will post a pic tomorrow or some such. Would post again today but BFG says that's insanity indicator number 1.

Peace out, dawgs.

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Does this look like a face that would lie to you?

As promised, my hair cut! Yes, i do realise that as i have not really included any head shots for a fair while, that this means absolutely zero to everbody. But i am quite happy with it. Its about 2 inches shorter than it was, but is thinned out alot too, with quite heavy layering around my face. But my hairdresser knows me really well, so i's fairly low maintenance. It'll only grow out anyway, so i don't think it would matter too much if i didnt like it.

This is my attempt to look 'sweet' and unfortunately was the only one that turned out clear enough to indicate hair length in any way. It is rather "come hither" or perhaps "i'm so helpless and female, come dissect my frog for me" (i perfected that one in yr 8). So, my apologies, i promise i am not trying to seduce anyone.

But i d
igress.


Here is the mini-sweater, puffed, button-holed and seamed. She is far too big (the guage was right so either i have no bosoms or the designer had m
any) and the little bow clip is a standby until i get some appropriate ribbon (hands up who likes my vintage paste clip?). I'm going to have the button hole on the inside (with button) to keep it in place, and a ribbon attached to the other front piece and the side so i'll have a little bow under one bosom. It's also quite loose at the back, i might see if i can stitch a bit of elastic in the middle of the back garter stitch border. Or not, it sounds complicated.

I'm pretty happy with it otherwise. Normally i'd be champing at the bit to wear it to Uni tomorrow, but luckily it's supposed to be cold and rainy so i couldn't have worn it anyway.

I must apologise for the darkness of the photos, nobody came home until after it was dark outside and lights never quite do it. We tried with the flash on but that was quite blindingly hideous. I like my blemishes to remain ambigious, thankyou so very much.

I'm off to practice looking sweet in the mirror, i obviously don't watch enough chick flicks. You know the high school movies where the pretty girl aims a smile at one of the geeks and they walk into the wall? I want to learn that one.

Also, magazine arrived. And have ordered some cotton for the strappy blueish top a few entries ago. Hooray, maybe start next week. Back to branching out goes Spider.

Ciao.

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

as needs be

fun with Google via femknit mafia.
You just type 'your name needs' into google and pick the funniest ones.

Spider needs:

  • to be more discriminating when dealing with hobos
  • to shed its skin to grow
  • to breathe
  • to be shown where its food is
  • to find prey
  • to do things a little differently
  • to jump
  • a victim
  • to be mounted
  • a little emergency surgery

and my personal favourite

  • to be completely submerged in alcohol.

Yes! Please!

Here also is my mini-sweater (apologies for the dodgy photo, i'm all on my lonesome today). have joined the body under the sleeves and i smell victory in the air! Oh puffy sleeves, how i love thee!

I love love love this yarn so much! it's a total dream and in precisely the best spider-colour possible. I'm now starting to fret that i wont find a button to go with it. I am always at a complete loss with buttons - to clash or not to clash? to blend? Is plastic tacky?

i'm open to suggestions here....

Haircut tomorrow, tres excitement! if it's not a total disaster, i will post a pic.

til we knit again.

Sunday, October 16, 2005

Floriading

Howdy-doody-doo!
You may remember a few posts ago i 'saved' a miraculous amount of money by buying sale yarn? well, i spent it today :P (yes i realise that if i had bought no yarn i would have saved 100% shutup ToD)

Went to Floriade ( you may notice there are no pictures of tulips? it was windy and the last day and nearly everything was dead so i decided against it). However, there were markets, and i spent $25 at the Belissa Cashmere stall on this skein. Isn't it just divine? It is 1 1/2 ply(ish) and 500 yards. And this really does not do justice to the depth of colour, it really is divine. If very small. I have justified this purchase by a) saving money via sale last week and b) it could make a lovely light and beautiful scarf for my mothers birthday next year. Yes i know, bad excuse shhhh.

BFG is completely restored in my mind as "the right man for the gig" due to him not saying once how expensive this purchase was (keep in mind that $25 is a lot more than he'd spend on what is essentially a ball of string).


i need to also add that he didnt know i wanted to go out on Friday, not that it would have done any good if he had. He went to see Cog, whom i wouldnt have enjoyed. And i work Saturday morning so i couldnt have gone anyway. My winge of Friday night was more of a misery loves company moment. He's not a jerk Yuvee, i promise!

He took me to Floriade today (his mother too, but let's not go into that, my fault for taking pity and inviting her) and was the picture of patience and sweetness and stuff of this nature. We didnt so much tip-toe through the tulips as kind of stand next to them and roll our eyes (mother, remember?). We did see a 3 year old driving his pram into the tulips repeatedly while his parents laughed. I was very restrained. I just sort of hissed at them and gave them the knitters evil eye (if you don't know what this looks like, you don't want to). You think passive smoking is bad for your health? Passive parenting is a much more painful way to go.

Til next time.

Friday, October 14, 2005

If you drink then shop, you're a berloody idiot

Ok. Work today. Very weird.

This woman came into the store (what we would call a bogan). She demanded a refund for a purchase made earlier in the week. She brandished the receipt ('No warranty, item sold as is, no refunds on second hand items').
Now i am a very polite person when dealing with customers, no matter how psychotic they may become. And as i was alone in the shop today, i couldn't ok a refund on a sale i hadnt even made in the first place.
Then she says her husband bought it and doesnt want it anymore.
I say "Well then this is your husbands issue, he should take this up with us."
She says "He was drunk when he bought it and now he doesn't want it."
I look at her. I bite the insides of my cheeks. My eyes water.
She says "We was both drunk. We didn't know what we was doin'."

Eventually my boss arrived to deal with the situation, but it is quite possible i asked her if a credit card company would void purchases she had made because she was drunk. I may also have mentioned how frequently people get let off charges of driving drunk and killing someone ("oh officer, it wasnt my fault i hit that guy, i was drunk"). I mean, seriously! who are these people?? What kind of excuse is this? I'm definately using this one next time BFG tells me off for outrageous yarn purchases.


So i needed some knit-therapy when i got home, and here are the results. There lies the so-far-ness of the mini-sweater. Its not quite as green as the close-up or quite so blue as the far-out (ha!). Somewhere in between. It is quite intensly coloured yarn. Actually, the close-up is more approximate, but the bits that look yellow are more bright green. Anyway, it's gorgeous yarn, just the right thickness, and really interesting sort of woven make-up. Get thee to lincraft and wonder at Aria.


By the way, if anyone sees my boyfriend, tell him he's a big stupid ass who should tell me when he's going off to have fun without me. Do you know when i last went out of a night time? No, i don't either, but i'm guessing at somewhere in the middle of the last ice age. It really grates to be told by she who spawned BFG that he's gone out to a concert, when i would KILL KITTENS to go out!! AARGHHH.

Sorry, i need to buy a punching bag.

Or find a new boyfriend.

Remember: Friends don't let friends drink then shop.

Thursday, October 13, 2005

retail therapy

Hi there folks. Thought i would out myself for random yarn purchases. Non-premeditative that is. But it was sooooo beautiful all soft and cottony (it's actually 75% synthetic, 25% new wool but it looks and feels like cotton) and greeny-blue that i could not resist the sale.
but when i finally got to the front of the queue i discovered it was not $2.99 a ball as it said on the shelf but $1.43 per ball!!! AARGHH.
couldnt buy more because i was cutting it fine for my bus but this stuff is seriously cheap!
It is intended to become the glampyre mini sweater, though i dont know what colour i'll edge it in. I'd go white, except it discolours so quickly. hmmm well i suppose i have a little time to think about it. It's a really gorgeous yarn so i might let it speak for itself, and ignore the edging.


Additional: it's official - i am a moron. i started knitting the mini-sweater this evening and could not work out how the 50st at 13st to 10cm guage was supposed to fit around my chest. yes, thats right folks, it's knit from top down. hands up who feels silly... but in lighter news, it is FABULOUS yarn when knit up. definately more to buy :)

Branching out is ok... i am up to 20 repeats and have hit the wall. I do like it alot, but it's a little too fiddley for the bus and i'm needing to do some Stocking stitch. for sanitys sake.

Am also crocheting a string bag. its seriously not worth a picture, so boring is it. im just trying to work through my stash to justify more purchases, but the Lincraft lady said the sale would last til the yarn sold out. (much as a i hate the assumption that noone knits through summer, i love the cheapness!)

Found out my Creative Knitting wont arrive til 26th of October due to a publishers delay, so consoled myself by buying Knitting from the UK (of course, my 'brand new' copy is actually the September edition, and we know how mags back date themselves. it's all about late summer fashions. but i console myself with the knowledge that autumn/winter patterns would be downright useless to me heading in to summer in Australia). I think this tank is very cute, but not sure what yarn would be approximate and available. And i hate to say it, but this hat is perfect for Gypsy. Damn it all, i think i have a muse. sigh. at least it might begin to dent my stash.

Over and out.

Monday, October 10, 2005

..and the winner is, Tortoise!


Or so i hope.
I remember a few years ago the slow meals society (or something to that affect) made the news for insisting that they eat over a 2 or 3 hour period, and enjoy every mouthful in the company of friends.
Well i hereby state that i am a member of the slow knitting society (members: 1). Or at least with lace knitting anyway. For something called branching out, it sure grows slow.
I can also hold ToD responsible, as i keep haunting his house to watch daria and red dwarf, and i get maybe one repeat done and then distract myself...
So had a really good day, anyhow. Got to cluck around ToD like a broody chook. Take it from me, when i have kiddliwinks i'm going to be the worlds most annoyingly smothering mother. It must be my Hungarian heritage, i'm just not happy unless i can feed people. Is there anything better? other than eating yourself that is.

So here i have a study in branching out with towel and spider foot. I could have cropped it but... i'm quite spectacularly lazy. How depressing, it's really quite short isnt it?
Oh well, having dinner and watching vids with the Queen of Wonderment tomorrow afternoon, so there will be bus knitting AND trashy 80's film knitting. So wait patiently for Spider to recover her speed.
Still no magazine. sigh. i think it's been swiped from my letterbox.

Auf weidersan

Friday, October 07, 2005

olive branches



And here, as promised, is branching out.
She is knit in Crystal Palace Kid Merino and is very very very fiddley. VERY. I had to knit 3 repeats in cotton DK before i was confident that i could do it, and even now im sure there are a few boo-boos. I probably wont notice them all until i block it... and at that point i dont think i will care. I am enjoying it, but i do not use row counters with lace and it's a hard one to knit at erratically (or while watchin
g tv) which is me all over. However, i salute knitty for this one.












I also managed to find Vogue Knitting in Canberra! Am sooooo excited, but they are of course all Autumn patterns. This is bad because today was a little cool and i was tempted to start this awesome purple sweater... but i'd get halfway through the backpiece and it would be 30 degrees here and it would lie in the land of forgotten knitwear until i decided i hated the yarn/colour/style and got rid of it. Yes, i am a prophet. I also love this little vest, and am wondering if i could do it in cotton and wear with a pencil skirt or jeans this summer. Hmmmm.
I subscribed to Creative Knitting a month ago and am currently awaiting the October issue. Impatiently, desperately with bated breath type waiting. I hit the floor running when i hear the mail-man! Remember that Beatles song?

Stop! Hey yeah wait a minute Mr postman
Wai-ai-ai-ait Mr Postman
Mr postman can't you see
If theres a knitting magazine for me
I've been waiting for such a long time
To see the news about summer yarn lines!
And so on and so forth.
I really am getting desperate, the October issue promises many many summer tops! i need to find a new pattern quickly, i'm getting stressed without a jumper on the pins.
Anyway, am feeling somewhat better. According to the Dr i have bronchitis, and i still went to work today and did the BAS. If there is a hell its a big white room with whiney air conditioning and fluorescent lighting where you do accounting all day and can't taste your lunch. And a seven year old boy who is told to sit still and be quiet for 7 hours, who is not officially your responsibility but if anything happens to him on your head be it.
Good luck crazy manga dancers!
A Bientot!

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

The days that were


Hi y'all (i've always wanted to say that, and now that i have i see how implausible it looks.)
I have been a little slack on the posting front (not as slack as some) but this is due to having contracted the most evil flu-type virus i
n the known universe. It's a shocker, i can tell you. If any of you Aussies out there are wondering why all the cough lollies are sold out - it was me. I cannot tell a lie.
Am moderately better right this minute, except that everything tastes exactly the same as everything else. And i'm dying. but apart from that, can't complain. Oh yeah, except righ then. Good point.
Anyway, if blogger will be agreeable, i have a few more wrap shots for you. If a picture says a thousand words then this is a 2000w explanation as to why no-one should ever buy pre-wrinkled jeans (not that i had any choice at the time). For those who doubt - my hips are 85cm, not the 160cm they appear to be. Also, if there seems to be an emphasis on my bum, I blame BFG who took the photos and didnt seem to understand my being in the photo was secondary to the wrap being in the photo. I realise boys naturally focus on the bum anyway, so forgive him his foibles.
I am also not that short. this is an optical illusion caused by my slouch, not wearing shoes, sinky grass... and linear perspective. I am actually 210cm tall (cough).
I may have a problem with denial.

Here we have an example of why BFG should listen to the farmer (and the instincts of the BFG) and not give in to peer pressure from hairy hippy types. Especially not on the day after a big rain, on a grass only paddock and 1 1/4 hours out of Canberra. Being a farm girl, i can both understand how this happened as well as get a big belly laugh out of it. For those of you who are still bewildered - he got bogged. (bogged: to get a vehicle stuck in soft ground or mud). It was quite an adventure for him, involving two other vehicle coming to the rescue (including a tractor) and those getting bogged as well. And it was starting to get dark so they didnt see the slight change in ground cover in this spot. (When i looked i saw reeds. Yup. REEDS.) Sadly these are not visible in the picture. But yes, it is AT LEAST 30cm deep water in the wheel holes. I will get in trouble for telling for sure, but it was worth it.

And here we have my little lobster friend attacking a girl. Or dancing with her... at her. I'm still undecided on this point. It was an altogether very odd couple of hours that i do not have enough vocabularly to describe adequately. Lets just say it involved several people, some wearing Final Fantasy costumes, doing a weird kind of regency dance in pairs to plonky music that reminded me of ballet stretches. And i had the flu and a camera. HA HA HA! (at least there is no face action ToD...)

And blogger appears to be accepting my photos again. This was another reason for my leave of absence - i'd write a nice long entry and then wouldnt be able to illustrate. so i gave up for a while.


Anyway, for those of you who do not have razor sharp observation skills, i am currently knitting branching out in CP Kid Merino and it is so gorgeous (mine is in Berry 4672). Sadly my flu has eaten my brain so i have been making many errors. Pic tomorrow if you're good.

Night y'all.
(still completely implausible, wasnt it?)