October 27, 2006 at 3:16 pm (WIPs)
It has been slow going for my Hurry Up Spring Armwarmers.
I have frogged 3 times:
- I read the pattern wrong.
- I knit them wrong.
- I wanted to the opposite colour: instead of going dark to light I decided (after 30 rows) I wanted light to dark.
But I have almost finished the first one, thank fucking lord.
Although I love love love the colour of my Noro Kureyon, I am not too impressed the extreme thick/thin properties of the yarn. Plus, my yarn snapped and broke! I expect a bit more from $12 a skein.
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October 27, 2006 at 2:11 pm (Animals)
From now on Fridays will include a post highlighting an animal (I won’t always stick to fur n feathers – Australia has too many reptiles, insects, fish and amphibians for us to ignore) of one kind or another.
Today’s furry friend is the Koala.
- Koalas are marsupials, meaning their young are born tiny and live in their mother’s pouch drinking her milk until they are big enough to come out.
- There are three different subspecies of koalas.
- Their habitat ranges from northern Queensland to South Australia.
- Southern koalas are bigger than their northern relatives.
- The koalas’ closest relative is the wombat.
- Different species of eucalyptus grow in different parts of Australia, so a koala in Victoria would have a very different diet from one in Queensland.
- Koalas sleep for 18 hours a day due to the low nutritional value of their diet (primarily eucalyptus leaves) and their very slow metabolic rate.
- Koalas are very cute.
- Koalas are harmless to humans (unless you try to pick a wild one up).
- Koala babies are known as “joeys”, just like the kangaroo.
- Koalas are born pink, virtually hairless and the size of a jellybean.
- Koalas are quite particular about what trees they will use for shelter, socialising and most importantly feeding.
- Koalas have opposable digits on their front paws, just like humans.
Koala in my parents’ backyard on 6th October 2006.
Cute koala, evil eyes.
Koala Myth Busting:
- Koalas are NOT bears. They never have been bears. They never will be bears. The term koala bear is rarely used by Australians.
- Koalas do occasionally drink water, particularly during times of drought, despite their name which means “no drink” in several indigenous dialects.
- Gum leaves do not make koalas drunk. They are as sober as popes (assuming the pope hasn’t been hooking into the blood of christ).
Save The Koala
- Koalas are listed as vulnerable.
- Dogs, cars and most importantly, loss of habitat through tree lopping and deforestation are the koalas’ biggest threats. All of these factors are directly linked to humans.
- The above kill an estimated 4000 koalas a year.
- Since European settlement in Australia an estimated 80% of all eucalypt forest has been destroyed.
- For more info go to www.savethekoala.com
Next Friday: The Terrifically Temperamental Tasmanian Devil
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October 24, 2006 at 2:42 am (Animals)
Rupert is 10 years old and I have been lucky enough to have him since he was a tiny baby. I bought him at a horrible petshop for $2 where he was suffering from malnutrition, full of worms, anemic from being covered with fleas and just a little bub, far too young to be taken from his mother. This baby photo was taken the day I bought him; he is all wet and gremlin-like because the first thing I did was give him a flea bath (the water ran red with blood from his flea bites). I had to teach him how to use a kitty litter and how to eat from a bowl. Now he is a great sooky cat who loves having his belly rubbed and climbing under the covers with me and warming his freezing cold paws on me. He has the best unimpressed expression I have ever known in an animal, feline or otherwise and dribbles when he purrs. I am undoubtedly his human which is high praise indeed considering how sparingly he gives out his love.
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October 23, 2006 at 3:15 pm (Knitting)
I went to Threads And More on Saturday (I always have to click “refresh” on my browser before it will open up the Threads And More homepage).
I went without the intention of buying anything (yeah, sure) but ended up getting two skeins of Noro Kureyon in #124 – teal/indigo/purple/cerise/red. Just gorgeous. I have stayed away from Noro Kureyon in the past because it felt so rough to touch but I decided to get some because of reports that it gets softer upon washing and handling. Besides, it really is so beautiful to look at. So now I have the Hurry Up Spring Armwarmers from Stitch n Bitch Nation to add to my WIP list.
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October 23, 2006 at 1:58 pm (Stuff)
Hydrotherapy that is. Since getting out of hospital I have only had one hydro session and although I really enjoy being in the water especially swimming pools (when my family finally settled in Queensland my dad invested in a beautiful inground swimming pool for us all and my brother and I practically lived in it) I don’t like over-chlorinated, luke warm (34 degrees C, just 3 degrees cooler than blood) pools. I was the only out-patient at my first session, with the other 11 patients all being still in-patients at the hospital, but they all played volleyball and pass-the-ball and went into the huge spa at the of the lesson but I wasn’t allowed to do any of that. I had walk frontwards, sideways and, just to shake things up a bit, backwards in the water, twist gently with a pool noodle, lift my arm up and down using a paddle, do some embarrassing humping exercises and float in the deep end with a gimpy little floaty ring. No fun-time or spa for me. But I did feel quite good afterwards and went for a walk around the block when I got home.
I went to my session last Monday but we got kicked out of the pool about 10 minutes into the lesson due to an large amount of unsavoury algae that started to come out of the jets. Eew. So the pool has been closed for a week and two of my hydro session have been cancelled. The pool is now reopened and I was meant to go today but I found a stitch protruding out of my back on the weekend and it seems to be a bit infected (my back is very red and angry around the stitch). What’s the big deal, you say, it is just a stitch. Well, I was only stitched up in the inside with those dissolving stitches. On the outside I got stapled (not much fun getting staples taken out, let me tell you) so this stitch has worked its way out from inside my back and has not dissolved. I am going to the doctor tomorrow to get it all sorted out and I have just put a band-aid over it for now. It might not be a big issue but I don’t want to risk getting an infection in my back. I hope you are not eating while you are reading this, or if you are, I hope you have a strong stomach.
I rang up the hospital to let them know about this recent development. The physio said I could make up for the sessions I had missed in November which is fantastic news. Yay for the Australian public health system!
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October 16, 2006 at 7:49 pm (Sewing)
I desperately needed a new bag but as I am just a babe when it comes to sewing (or knitting for that matter) I was feeling rather overwhelmed by most of the bag sewing patterns I could find. That is until I found across this pattern for the “Easy Peasy Tote” on Craftster. I altered the pattern to make it a messenger bag rather than a tote and found a tricertops picture which I tweaked a little as well before printing it on to an ink-jet transfer. The bag is made from light-weight black denim and some red patterned cotton and it also looks much better IRL than in this photo. Trust me.
Important things I learnt during the making of this bag:
- Always iron the material flat before using the iron-on interfacing
- Sew on button, zips or snaps before finishing the bag
- Don’t sew after 2.30am – you will make mistakes and lots of them
I would do lots different if I had to do it again, but as I am learning this whole crafting thing solo with naught but the internet to guide me, I am bound to make a few stuff-ups.
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October 14, 2006 at 9:34 am (Sewing)
This little guy is probably my favouritest thing I have ever made ever. I used this pattern which I found after a long and exhaustive Googling session. He came into existance during The Hobbit swap on Craftster.
I started out by hand-sewing which was unfun because it took, like, foreveh. But halfway through the pattern I bought an el cheapo sewing machine and consequently he progressed a lot faster. Thank god, because I was about to scrap the whole idea. But I am very glad I didn’t because I would never have met this little fella:
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October 13, 2006 at 8:41 pm (WIPs)
As a compulsive starter and slackarse finisher of knitting projects, I am never short of a WIP or two. I keep trying to ban myslef from starting another project until I finish one of my WIPs but it doestn’t work. I just ignore myself. Plus, I really, really,really hate hand sewing. Here are some of my current WIPs.
This is the beginning of my Under the hoodie from Stitch n Bitch. This pattern is one the reasons why I decided to learn how to knit. I started this a couple of days ago even though I promised myself I would not knit another plain st stitch garment for 6 months (see the top paragraph about me ignoring myself). Plus, I just love Cleackheaton “Country Silk” although it does have a very limited range of colours at the moment.
The Big Sack Sweater from Stitch n Bitch using Cleakheaton “Country 12 ply”. Why am I knitting two jumpers six weeks away from a nice, humid, steamy and tropical Brisbane summer??? At least I will be looking forward to winter next year instead of my usual dread. In fact, winter may well become my favourite season at this rate. I really need to get over my fear of knitting lace and start making myself some nice, breezy summer knits.
The Go Everywhere, Go With Everything Cardigan from Stitch n Bitch in Cleckheaton “Country 8 ply” is by far and away the WIP that causes me the most gulit. It has been “in progress” for nearly a year and I have finished the knitting – all I have to do sew it (I have already done 85% of the sewing but I have made a HUGE mistake and now have to start all over again), dye and crochet around the edge. Easy, huh? Well, you’d think so but as I have huge issues with hand-sewing and procratination, here it is still a WIP.
We all know and love the Kittyville Beanie from Kitty62ville, including me. But as it turns out, I am not that fussed about fiddly bits, like picking up stitches and so on. So without further ado I give you my unfinished Kittyville Beanies all done in Cleckheaton “Country 8 ply”.
One day this will be Meema’s Felted Marsupial Tote from Stitch n Bitch when I can next con my hott bf into driving me down to Spotlight so I can buy some more yarn. I am not a big fan of the colour combintaion but as I am planning to palm this off to one of my 55+ female ‘lations for xmas, whether I like it or not isn’t really the issue. I am hoping that Patons “Jet” felts up nicely or else my hard work will have been for naught. While we are on the subject bags…
Here you are witnessing the birth of Stitch n Bitch Nation Letter Have It in Patons “Jet”. And like all births that include knitting intarsia for the very first time I cried, I screamed, I regretted, I swore and I frogged. Then I put it down and picked up some regular ‘ol st stitch knitting. I will attempt intarsia again tomorrow. Or the day after. Maybe next week.
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October 13, 2006 at 12:59 am (Stuff)
It seems to me that knitting and blogging go hand in hand and therefore my knitting experience was incomplete without a blog of my own. So here I am unleashing yet another f*&%@# knitting blog into the world. As I am currently unemployed due to a back injury sustained in January ‘06 which resulted in emergency back surgery three weeks ago, I expect that I shall have more than enough time to blog about my adventures – knitting orientated or otherwise – so I will have no excuses for not maintaining my blog. I can’t drive, I can’t walk for more than 10 minutes, I can’t sit for more than 20 minutes and I am flat broke. This means that my cats, Star Trek: Voyager, Buffy, PS2, knitting and an over-active imagination are all that I usually have for company.
I think it best to start my blog by showing off my few FOs. I only started knitting in June of ‘05 and I am a compulsive starter of new projects, hence my distinct lack of completed projects.
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October 13, 2006 at 12:57 am (FOs)
Yarn: Patons “Jet” 70% wool 30% alpaca
Pattern: One Hour Baby Booties – Stitch n Bitch Nation
Yardage: 73M
Needles: 5mm
These wee cuties are One Hour Baby Booties that took me a lot longer than one hour to knit. I used Patons Jet, a wool/alpaca blend that is very soft and comes in a wonderful and unusual colour range.
Yarn: Cleckheaton “Country 8 ply” 100% wool
Patern: Cricket’s Technicolor Techno-Cosy – Stitch n Bitch.
Yardage: 95M
Needles: 4mm
This Ipod Cosy was my first real forray into colour work and I am really happy with how it turned out. I chose the colours without having the pattern with me and without noticing what colours the pattern used and they turned out to be the same coloursas the pattern. The photo is somewhat crappy because it was taken on the recipient’s mobile phone.
Yarn: Sean Sheep “Brumby” 50% wool 50% acrylic
Pattern: my own
Yardage: 45M
Needles: 10mm
This scarf of my own design (if you can call a retangle in garter stitch a “design”) was made for a friend of mine who is a singer/songwriter/guitar player in a band, The John Steel Singers, who wanted something to wear on stage. Please note my wonderful “Welcome to My Nightmare” jammies and the Tabby cat prowling along.
Yarn: Cleckheatom “Country Silk” 85% wool 15% silk
Pattern: Basic Cable Beanie – Stitch n Bitch Nation
Yardage: 95M
Needles: 5mm circular
I started knitting this quite by accident but I am very glad that I did. It is very cute and soooo easy. I will never be scared to cable again after cutting my teeth on this baby.
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