Odd, but true July 13, 2006
The photo of Helen I posted on my blog yesterday has had 58 views on Flickr!
There’s no accounting for what people will look at … not that it’s a bad photo … just it’s not one I’d have expected many people to look at.
When not buying yarn… July 7, 2006
I buy books about knitting! Books about knitting socks to be specific.
A couple of weeks ago I caved into temptation and ordered some books on Amazon.com because I really, really wanted them and I’m convinced that it’s cheaper to buy them from there and ship them here, rather than buying them locally. They arrived while we were away.
The first book is Nancy Bush’s Knitting Vintage Socks. I heard Nancy interviewed on a knitting podcast (can’t remember which one) and read some really good reviews of the book. I hadn’t seen it in Borders here, which is about the only place I’d expect to stock it. Essentially Nancy has taken a 100 year old book of sock patterns and reworked them using modern yarns and more realistic needle sizes (eg. one pattern for children’s socks was originally worked on 1mm needles in crochet cotton and she’s adjusted it to 2mm needles in sock yarn).
The other book is Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch. I originally saw this one in Borders and it cost about $55. At US$16.47 - about AU$23.00 by my guess - it was definitely cheaper to buy it from Amazon. This book is a kind of DIY guide to knitting socks. It gives the reader a breakdown of sock antomy, yarn weights and gauge (not that I ever swatch a damn thing, something I must get into the habit of) and a series of stitch patterns with instructions on how to use them.
Farking Funny … and well written too.
I have been vaguely aware of the Yarnharlot blog for some time, but it had never become one of my regular reads, so I was unaware of just how good it is. Until I happened upon it again this evening.
This woman writes well and is really witty. This blog entry about her Local Yarn Store (LYS) had me giggling at the computer and this one for Canada Day is also really good.
It’s not just knitting content either. Number 2 on the list of good things about Canada is
We have Homo Milk, (with picture of milk carton which you’ll see on the blog) and until I went to the grocery store with an American I had never seen anyone giggle when they bought it.
Canada is definitely on my list of places I must travel to when (if !) I ever leave these shores. I already like the people.
Home, home, home
Well we are home from the country and, much as we loved it, we are glad to be back. We were going to stay for most of today and come home tonight, but thought better of it. We are in need of central heating, our big bed, a boy’s own bed and the ability to stick the dogs in the backyard and ignore them.
Em had a barkfest last night and Mark ended up sleeping on the floor in the loungeroom with her & Indi so he could shut her up every half an hour. After such a crappy night we decided that it was the better part of valour to pack up and come home nice and early before we were any more tired than we needed to be.
100+ photos are currently loading off the camera and a selection of the not crappy ones will be one either or both Mark’s and my Flickr sites soon.
Thank you Ms Bean for the use of your little piece of paradise. It was lovely and we can’t wait to go back again.
Brrr July 5, 2006
It’s cold but lovely. Gazing out at the trees and the mist through Bean’s office window is gorgeous. The fog hangs low and long in these parts. It’s spectacular.
What is less spectacular is the PuppyDeluxe’ wuffing. She rountinely wakes me in the wee small hours to go out for a toilet break. This morning it was at 4.30am (which is pretty good, it’s usually 2 or 3). While we were outside there was a dog somewhere nearby barking, so Miss Emmylou decided to wuff back. She kept wuffing back after being reinstalled in her crate in our room. She kept right on wuffing and progressed to full on barking, with accompaniment from Miss Indiana, after we moved both of them and their crates to the loungeroom. She had woken Finn who then took another hour or so to go back to sleep. We are all a bit bleary as a result and Em is nobody’s favourite person.
I solved the shoe issue with some quasi-hiking boots from Rivers for only $40. They’re warm and dry and seem really big. My ankles are complaining a bit because I don’t usually wear that type of thing, but they’ll get used to it.
On the knitting side of things, I’ve finished the Mark’s first sock, the dishcloth and a pair of socks for Finn (the first one was about two thirds done before we got here). Mark’s second sock is next on the list, although I’m not looking forward to wrestling with the yarn (it’s a bit rough) on the little needles.
Other plans for today are fluid. Given our start to the day I think a quietish one spent looking at cows and plants is probably most likely.
Winter Wonderland July 3, 2006
Here we are at Bean’s little piece of paradise and it is still lovely without its leaves. But cold. Life with ducted heating has made me soft.
Finn has treated us to his 3rd ever bout of inexplicable throwing up. He was fine afterwards and ate happily enough, so we have no idea what that was about.
I have shoe issues. The shoes I’ve been wearing almost every day chose this morning to fall apart and the ones I’m wearing instead leak, so I have wet toes. Wet cold toes. I have runners with me, but they will let the water in too, so I think there might be a expedition to buy some footwear in my very near future.
There are cows all over the place so the dogs are inside with us almost all the time and on lead when they go out for wee breaks. This is not much of a hardship as they’d be inside in weather like this anyway.
I’ve finished the first sock in Mark’s Jaywalkers and it looks pretty good. I’m also most of the way through my first ever knitted dishcloth. They might be my new knitting obsession.
I don’t think I’m going to blog much over the next few days simply because I hate the keyboard on Mark’s laptop. It seems to be necessary to beat the crap out of some keys to make them work. L is particularly bad. And I seem to have a lot of ls in this entry.
By the by: Om mani padme hum - I used to chant that at the Melbourne Buddhist Centre. I still find it calming.
And if we’d brought the cats we have had to bring the buffet too so that Zelda could spend the next 4 days hiding under it.
Perched July 2, 2006
We are off for a week break tomorrow morning, leaving the chooks and the cats in the care of a pet sitting service, which is a little nerve wracking as we’ve never done that before. Fingers crossed, when we get back everyone will be in as fine a form as they are now.
My first mittens
I decided that Finn needed some mittens to keep his little paws warm, so I set out to knit them, in spite of finding perfectly serviceable $3 gloves at Best & Less.
Here they are. Much too long and a little too narrow, but quite cute all the same.
I blocked them properly (well, as properly as I know how) before seaming because they were so curled up that I doubted I would be able to sew them properly. It was a bit like pinning insects - not that I’ve ever done that…
Drying hand knitted socks July 1, 2006
This is how I dry the socks I’ve knitted.
Normally they would be on a towel, but one of Finn’s jumpers is below them and I’d like it to dry before we go away on Monday.
I machine wash them on a gentle cycle with a medium speed spin - fast enough to get the water out, but I hope without battering them too much. This has generally worked OK for everything I’ve knitted.
The 2 pairs of Jaywalkers I’ve finished so far are doing really well. The yarns I used (Patonyle & Four Seasons Bambino) handle the wash and wear beautifully.
The socks I’ve done for Mark are more of a mixed success. The Thujas are felting. I think this yarn is Bendigo Woollen Mills 8ply and it’s probably not intended for things like socks. Mark still likes them so I suppose it doesn’t matter.
The yellow yarn in the ‘twin’ socks is felting while the green is holding up well. This is funny because, although there weren’t any labels on the yarn, I was pretty certain that both colours were Panda Wool Crepe which is machine washable. One of the risks of using unmarked yarn, I suppose.
