sporadic-ness

Hi y'all. Been a strange week so far.

Monday i finished (and wore to work) my drop-stitch tank. HOT! Love it. It actually doesnt look as weird/blurry as in this pic but i havent blocked it and i was home alone. love it love it love it. This yarn is awesome. and it on;y used 5.2 50g balls ^_^

Monday night i freaked cos i didnt feel like knitting lace and had no appropriate project for my mood... SO i spun some of the EGMTK fibre and cast on a beret. You can see here how manic i am.. i'm about to run out of yarn and there is tons of fibre left... silly Spidey. Short attention span, really?

Yesterday morning i experienced that joyful right of passage as a teacher - having a kid spew in class. Of course i had to clean it up and then attempt to go on with the work. They were pretty well behaved considering.. but it did make for a unsettling start to the day.
And then last night we hosted the Starbucks christmas party... so a lot of grog and a lot of singstar was partaken of. I got to bed at a reasonable hour but no-one else did so i was a little short-tempered today. Doesn't hurt the kids i teach to get a good dressing down every now and then though.

In between all that excitement, however, i received a package from my ravelry Australian Knitters tea-cosy swap person; KnitsMcgee. Very exciting indeed (that's my own tea-pot - i just had to show how well it fitted!). I'm so spoilt, and it arrived on a day i had to clean up puke with an audience so karma clearly likes me.

So that inspired me to get off my butt and finish my own cosy. So i did. (great story Spidey, really!). Well.. actually i cast on this evening... but i can be quite diligent when i have to be. Too cute, right? That would be Happy Spider 12ply in Watermelon (the black bits i embroidered on with black seed beads). I'm going to have to post it soon or i'll be too attached to let it out of my sight.

Anyway, I'm pretty bogged down with marking. So i ought to go do some (yeah, my plan to do school work only at school is falling down a little... at least i held out a good long while!).

Peace out,
Ms Spider xo

coming up roses

Before i start going on and on (and on) about knitting, i thought i would show you all what's been happening in my garden (what with the rain and all).

What with the miraculous properties rain has (above and beyond tap water or grey water) my roses have exploded.
Napoli (i think. It's something Napoli... supposedly a minature but it got huge this year)
Just Joey, just expanding.Double Delight with white snapdragon snuggling it.
Black Beauty (not as dark as i was expecting but very pretty nonetheless.
There are more flowers but i'll save them for later in the week.

In knitting news.. i have been focused on that tank. oh yeah. in fact, if i am irresponsible with my english marking over the weekend i may very well be able to wear it tomorrow (w00t!).

I have also had quite a bit come in this week...
my EGMTK fibre club package for November... excitement!
Some more Fibreworks 2ply silk because i lub the purple one so much.and a certain enabler we all know may have made some miraculous purchases, one of which i shall show you.Naturally Merino et Soie 8ply... 10 balls. *drool*
you hate me now, right?
ah well, bound to happen.

Peace out,
Ms Spider xo

PS Happy end of the regime!

PPS Pomegranates are yummy.

breaking weather

Nothing like a good rainfall the lift the spirits.
Of course, the kids are nuts because the weather changed and they have to stay out of the rain at recess and lunch. That is precisely as much fun as it sounds like it is.

At work the other day a woman said something totally bitchy to me and it through me into a tail-spin. I mean, i can be rational and see that it was her being unprofessional and that the thing she was calling me on (playing solitaire on the computer during my line off) was totally ridiculous because i came in 2 1/2 hours before i started being paid so i could make it to a welfare meeting for one of my students, i was playing solitaire BEFORE i started being paid for the day, i'm on top of my planning, reports and marking. But I guess I'm still used to the job security issues you have as an under-paid casual retail assistant, where one bitchy comment from a manager can stuff you up permanently. So that's been stressing me out a bit. This is one of the things i don't get about other people.. and it seems to be women more than men. The need to play social power games, to bully, to be so downright poisonous. I try SO hard not to pass on my bad mood to anyone else and then there are these people who just sail through life saying every stupid, bitchy, meaningless thing that comes into their heads!
Other than that incident and the understandable hangover of worthlessness and fury that followed, work has been ok this week. The heat and now the rain has made for some quite manic kids.. but i'm still standing and am eye-to-eye with a Friday so i think i'll be ok.

In knitting news i"ve been mostly focused on the drop-stitch tank. The yarn is glorious! I'm onto the back piece and now i have to knit in 2x2 ribbing for... oh forever. But then it's done, as soon as i find some buttons. Speaking of buttons, i must have moved here and left my button box behind because i can't find it for the life of me! I have never in my life before been unable to locate three matching 1cm buttons!

And of course the election is on saturday. People. Seriously. Enough already with John Howard. The man is a small-minded, bigoted weiner with the wit and verve of a porridge sandwich (who believes tampons to be a 'luxury item'). Move on, for everyone's sake.

Peace out,
Ms Spider

pendant le weekend

Another weekend dead and buried. How does it happen?
We've been dogsitting Harry, who has spent most of the weekend fretting. Now don't get me wrong, he's not really distressed. He just likes to stand in front of you looking sad. It's kind of irritating after a while. And I'm refusing to walk him right now so he's lying on the floor with his eyes open, sighing and whimpering.

I've had a funny old weekend really. Have a had a killer headache for about a week and by about 9.30 sunday morning it was full-blown migraine city. Hence my no-show at SnB. However, up until this point i did a lot of knitting (and some in the evening after it had backed of a bit).

On my thistle shawl i am up to the third chart. This means i no longer have nifty thistles to knit so it may become less interesting to me rapidly. This yarn is a dream. OMG. And i've only used 30g so far. i love laceweight. And i'm pretty much up to knitting on my Addis without having to magic loop... which always makes me feel a bit special. Knitting really is amazing.

Also, as a result of a disgustingly hot week and a weird body shift that has taken me from scrawny to curvy.. i need some more summer clothes. Well, ones that don't make me look like i'm trying to escape, if you know what i'm sayin'. So Taph's donation of some Patons Fresco was latched upon and i cast on for the drop-stitch lace tank from Fitted Knits. the yarn is a dream, you'd never know it was 50% ack. And i love the colour (see pic above - the one below is what happens to the colour above when struck by morning light on an orange couch). And the promise of getting to drop some stitches makes the ribbing go quicker. (hooray for Addis!)

I really havent been knitting any socks.. took the shine of that apple, plus i find it hard to knit stuff i'm not likely to wear as soon as i cast off. I might catch up later, but now i have no more Uni work i'm way more keen to play with tops and lace and... mmmmmm. Don't get me wrong - i LOVE the socks. Spidey heart socks. be back soon no doubt.

Hope you all are coping with the heat.. Kuka i still have that sock yarn aside for you if you still want it; we keep missing each other. Sorry :(

Wish me luck with the whole migraine/12yo pyschos issue today..
Peace out,
Ms Spider xo