A souvenir of Singapore from TSS, given the stitchmarker treatment.
It's OK, she gave it to me with this in mind.
Mum's rib and lace socks from the Patonyle sock book. The anklets take 67g to make.
The Stanbridge socks for me from Ornaghi Filati Luna Park a prize won from Yarn magazine.
Getting rid of old research papers led to the non-fiction book shelves. If I don't do the research anymore, do I need the reference library to back it up? I live 7 kilometres from one of the world's great libraries so if you're interested in labour, women's or Australian local history, the next Lifeline Book Fair is 7-9 March.
So the domino effect and the consumer overload that happens at this time of the year, led to a swing into the purge part of the binge/purge cycle. It is positive and I'm going with it and trying not to overthink it and therefore think myself out of it.
There was a mini op-shop tour on Friday, but we quit after half a day, while we were ahead and at my suggestion. More personal growth - astounding!
IN (40)
OUT (402)
I know I'm wimping out a bit by op-shop dumping this week, but I am concerned about burdening my friends and family with all this stuff. As op-shops are the source of quite a bit of the stuff in my house, they can deal with the consequences. I could probably sell a bit of it, but I just want it gone.
SHAKE IT ALL ABOUT (6)
2 pairs socks
IN 40
OUT 402
NET OUT 362
SIAA 6
(Rosie's last litter)
(Peggy feeds her last litter, Lochie on far right)
TOTALS
In 37
Out 69
Net Out 32
SIIA 41
Beanie 2007.127
OUT (69)
IN 28
OUT 69
NET OUT 41
SIAA 1
TOTALS:
IN 15
OUT 35
NET OUT 20
SIAA 2
He did a great job in the speech choir pieces and in the two-hander with his mate Adam. There's video footage, I won't bother posting it to You-tube - you can thank me later. ;p
Due to a communication error, Mum and I got to spend 3.5 hours at the school - that's 3" of a 4ply baby hat on 2.75mm needles. Some of the time I was taping performances, but most of it was knitting.
The whole primary school attended and the children were beautifully behaved - more so than the mother behind me who took several calls on her mobile during the hour and a half concert and chatted and drivelled while the children performed.
While we were over that way, popped into the Crafty Frog for leather thonging to finish the Christiane Collar - ta da!
Ditte Larsen's Christiane Collar from Yarn issue 7, Winter 2007. The yarn is a wool/ack blend reclaimed from an op-shop jumper. The colour is gorgeous and it has these little felty bits through it.
Finished off with leather thonging and boodle wooden beads.
I'm particularly pleased with the beads. The photo's not so hot, but I had wooden beads in exactly the right shades of orange and pink. No purchases were made to conceive or complete this project. Whacko!
but I need some advice on cr***et.Ideas?
While you're thinking, here's some novelty yarn, stash-busting, side-to-side scarves.
*edited to explain that I include photos of novelty yarn scarves to show that I, too, can participate in maligned crafts activity - make as much fun as you like.
I'm using Lang Moana, a Spidey leftover. It’s 50/50 cotton and acrylic. It’s making a dense fabric to protect my mug and washes well.I would have been finished but I cast on the second piece on the wrong size needle and was 1/3 the way through before I discovered the error.
So, anyone else up for the Yarn KAL? It''ll be fun. There's plenty of free online patterns or you can go over the the mag website and order back issues. Drop Kate a line kathrynthorne at hotmail dot com and she'll send you an invitation to the KAL blog.
I've been reading a lot of green blogs and books lately (see the sidebar under Zero is the New Black) and I am, as my dead grandmother would say, Taking Steps.
Oh the shame. I have a large novelty yarn stash. It's a the result of success with the All Sorts berets, which appropriately use novelty yarn, and my inability to turn down bargain yarn.
This is the first delivery of fibre from the Ewe Give Me the Knits fibre club. The big bag on the right is Polwarth. The little bag on the (other) right is nylon. Yup - I got me a sock spinning kit in the colourway "Birds of A Feather".
I opened it on Friday. Present at the opening were my mother and one of my nieces. Mum was not particularly excited, spinning doesn't do it for her, but Emily had an immediate and intense colour reaction.
She must have listened as I exclaimed over the fibre and the sock possibility and when I told her about the Polwarth and how the breed comes from the same district as her Poppy. I know she listened because I have now proof-positive that my mother's sock-stealing DNA is very strong - Emily told her father that Aunty Taph is spinning her socks from Poppy's wool!
2 balls Patonyle in a really dark khaki/grey colour. Perfect for boy socks.
6 balls of a heathery purple Patonyle - 2 balls for Mum socks, 2 balls for me socks, 2 balls because it was half price Patonyle and they were the last two in the shop.
5 balls of Twilley Freedom Wool in my favourite purple/green colourway. I have been known to ask strangers (well a knitter I'd only just met) for her scraps of this wool - Hi Katt!.
8 balls of Naturally Sensation 70% merino, 30% angora
Yes it was all purple and green and yes, I did leave wool in the shop because that is what restrained shoppers who are able to identify between wants, needs and out-and-out wool lust do. See, personal growth. *sob*
SHAKE-IT-ALL-ABOUT (1)
1 beanie
IN 40
OUT 255
NETT OUT 215
SIAA 1
It will not be a surprise that after 3 months of this, and with a whopping nett 872 items leaving the house, that I have a little way to go yet. TSS and I will be continuing this personal challenge for the Summer (and I suspect longer).
On the surface we are probably not the best challenge buddies. We unload stuff on each other all the time, but it is welcome stuff that we couldn't leave behind when it suited the other so well. We were doing this before the challenge and will continue to do so. We also act as the Voice of Frugal Reason for each other. We understand the emotional investment in our things, particularly in our collections, and the collections of others over which we have dominion. We encourage and support each other in the evaluation of items and collections, the place they have in our history, hearts and lives. We understand that it takes time and space to let go and that sometimes letting go isn't at all necessary.
To describe this challenge as decluttering is to only understand part of what we've been trying to achieve. A major aim of the challenge was to learn to assess wants versus needs and to be aware of what, how and why we consume.
For me the primary aim is to attempt to overcome the mindset that if I just have enough things, I'll be happy and fulfilled. I want to value and care for the things I have, consume less and be creative with more.
Truths learnt/reinforced so far:
TTWC 2007.126
When is a Tam not a Tam?
When it's a toque.
I used Wendy Bernard's Last Minute "Purled" Beret as the base for shaping. Everything went well until it came of the needles.
I prefer the decreases on the starfish one but like the ribbed band better on this. The little stalk at the top makes me smile. But it toqued when it should have tammed - odd.
This is the colourway I called "Blue Gum" - teals, olives and browns. 
This colourway I call Gum Blossom. Those crimson pinks, bluey grey greens and olives are divine!
The toffee apple colourway I'm saving for something else but the remains of Roosters and Gum Blossom will probably become YO! scarves. My recipe for the scarf is here.
1 stitch.
TTWC Jr 2007.125. Recycled jumper yarn on a 5.5mm needle.
There's a LOT of this yarn and it's so bright and gorgeous for kids. Another few of these on the way.
I don't know what the bush is called but like the yarn it is pretty and plentiful. It must have been easy to propagate because there are many in the back yard.
It's been a while since there was any beanie action on this blog. I spent most of the last week knitting gift scarves (photos and pattern tomorrow), but managed to fit in a couple of beanies and a wee bit of sockage as well.
I was also the eldest grand-daughter on my mother's side of the family.
Just before my first birthday, Dad was posted to active service in Vietnam and mum returned with me from Malaysia where they had married and I was born. We went to live with my grandparents, who by then had a property near Jerilderie in NSW.
Nanna had only ever been given one doll in her brief childhood. She had the doll only a few days when her mother made her give it to cousin Betty who didn't have a doll. Nanna's mother, Eileen, was confined to a mental institution following the birth of Uncle Jack and remained there until she died in forty years later. I suspect it was post-natal depression, but the family story is that Eileen got better but refused to come home to her husband Reuben and the children because Reuben was such a brute. Nanna was 9 yrs and 2 months old when Jack was born. By the age of 10 she was, effectively, mother to her 3 younger siblings.
Nanna made sure I had LOTS of dolls. Somewhere there is a photo of the 2 year old me toddling down the garden path at "Sunnyglee" with the white metal pram with navy trim that Nanna bought me. The pram is absolutely stuffed full with dolls. Mum says I was running away from home and had turned to glare at the camera, hands on hips, in what was to become a familiar pose to my family.
By the mid 1970s Grandad sold the farm at Jerilderie and they moved to Canberra. I spent a lot of time with them and in a clear-out fit, familiar to people who read this blog's Sunday posts, I gave Nanna all my dolls. She loved them.
There was also a very cute vintage knitting loom but Mum confiscated it on sight.
OUT (77)
SHAKE IT ALL ABOUT (4)
IN 34
OUT 77
NET OUT 43
SIAA 4
*Inasmuch as anything knitting related is original when using two established techniques and some spectacular yarn.
As much as I love the international knitting community, I thought it useful to record some Australian knitting vocabulary and language useage for posterity. It might also help interpret some of my posts.
This is NOT criticism, it is documenting our changing use of language with, perhaps, a touch of affection for some quaint and disappearing terms.
The queue facility is fun, but I am already starting to feel a bit anxious about it, mainly because it puts a date on when I queued it adds a time pressure dimension. Queue may disappear and be replaced by a series of bookmarks again.
But what I'm loving MOST about Ravelry is the stash facility. I decided not to upload the whole boodle - there are bandwidth considerations - but I did put up newly acquired materials and my small, but growing (!) stash of good yarn to encourage myself to Knit the Pretties (a little gift because sometimes I forget to play with the pretty things, too).
One of the young blokes at work has a flesh tunnel like this one.It's kind of cute and very decorative. His tunnel keeper (no idea if that is the right word) is a gorgeous turquoise colour.
It got me thinking, though. Could I have a series of these in appropriate sizes and have a permanent needle guage? I'd need both ears, and maybe have to skip a couple of the less common sizes, but I reckon it could be done.
OUT (120)
SHAKE IT ALL ABOUT (3)
IN 76
OUT 120
NETT OUT 44
SIAA 3
TTWC 2007.124
Nundle Retro 4ply wool. Beautifully soft. I just want to cuddle it.
Little bits of Nundle Luxury Loopy Mohair in a bag for "because it seemed too good to leave behind for $5". She was right. No idea what they will be yet, but something gorgeous.
A ball of Jigsaw sock yarn. Not actually for me. Mum bought this for herself but is delegating the actual knitting to me. She did note that the purple in this yarn matches the purple in the 4ply she bought for me. What an amazing coincidence!
And finally, the fibre. This is a harsh single. Odd and the same texture and physical compostion as the Chinook stuff I brought home from the Smith Family last year and have been knitting the bulky rib beanies from. Just thinner and dead white. I am without words or ideas and would have left it there if I'd seen it.
Oh, and no OPTIM/camel fibre blend. They tried to convince me that the hideous white cow pat of fibre above was it. Apparently the metamorphisis of my parents was as temporary as it was inexplicable. *sigh*
