BeatleWear

knitting and the life I almost have around it

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

And life goes on (and on)

Well, the best laid plans, eh?
Life has this way of kicking you when you're down, have you noticed?

I continue to faint for no apparent reason.
The job continues to be hard, thankless work.

And then, miraculously and without warning, the clouds part and the sun shines through.

Being a week away from the school holidays is probably partly responsible for my sudden cheer. The husband and I are taking a little trip next weekend - his idea. The theory was that if I get out of Canberra as soon as the term ends, I'll adjust to being on holiday faster.
I do have a tendency to develop what I refer to as a 'stress hangover'. Basically I spend a week swinging between anxiety that I've missed non-existent deadlines and depression. It's really annoying, because most breaks are two weeks, and at best I manage three days of feeling relaxed before I start worrying about the term to come.

Anyway, we're going to a B&B in the Hunter Valley and I'm really looking forward to it. I think I'm closer to burn-out than I ever have been before.

My couch-surfer returned home and things seem to have stabilised. It was amazingly stressful and I didn't fully catch up on work until about three weeks into this term. And the term itself was shitful, for want of a better word. One of my colleagues resigned, someone else went on long service leave and we were all left to pick up the pieces. For the last two weeks I have been taking an extra class to keep everything ticking over and I tell you what - overtime needs to be introduced for teachers. In the last ten weeks I had flu and a baaaaad migraine. So, basically, I need a holiday!

Despite it all, I have been knitting away. I finished my fifth cardigan for the year - Cecilia by Elin Berglund. Ravelry entry here.I used Patons Dreamtime 4ply in cream. It was a brand-new bag of ten and had many, many dye-lot inconsistencies! I've very unhappy about the yarn - I'm a bit of a freak with colour, so it's really obvious to me, but no-one I've shown it to notices it unless I hold it under very bright light and point to the streak. But still! What's the point of a dye-lot if it isn't consistent?
Anyway, I do adore the pattern, and as soon as it warms up a little I think I'll be wearing it a lot.

Since this I've had some ennui, and really want to knit another garment of some type but can't make a decision. Instead I've been knitting a large number of accessories.

This is a Drops scarf, using short-row shaping to create the ruffles. It was a birthday present for a close friend. I used 4ply baby alpaca - it was cherry red but I overdyed it so it was more of a dappled brick colour. She loves it!
This week I knitted up some handspun. I spun it over the last set of holidays. It was a 50g bag of fibre dyversity space-dyed merino. I split it in half along the roving, and spun two bobbins of very fine singles, keeping the colours in order. I then plied then together, creating a sort of DIY two-ply noro! I really love the colours, and the fibre is so soft :) not at all like noro.

And this week, I finished a pair of socks that have been sitting around for a couple of months. My usual cabled and ribbed sock pattern - I've knit many, many different sock patterns, but this is the pattern I always return to. I used Moda Vera Adore in the green colourway. Quite pretty :)

An upcoming project is a reworking of this cardigan for my mother-in-law. It's her favourite cardigan, and she wants another. The original is an acrylic/mohair blend, and I'm making the new one in Zhivago. It's a bit of a chore, honestly. I don't particularly like it, and she's not a knitter so doesn't really understand the work involved. Liable to nag about progress etc. But, ever the matyr I agreed to do it. :p I think, honestly, I think it will make her like me more, which is so pathetic I can't believe myself. Oh well! Ever human, eh?

Anyway, it's my first Sunday for months that I don't have to work through, and I have a lovely friend coming over in half an hour!

Peace out,
Ms Spider xo

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