The Pink and The Green

A few months ago I went to the Old Bus Depot Markets in Canberra (apparently there had been a sheep and wool show the previous week... my timing sucks). I found a stall which had skeins of yarn which each consisted of 3 mini-skeins. My four-year-old companion glommed onto a vivid pink and blue skein, and I chose a green and sparkly skein for her six-year-old sister. Unbelievably, I have actually finished the scarves (loop scarves, to help prevent untimely loss) while there is still cold weather ahead! I handed them over this weekend.

The colour sequence was determined by relative length of each yarn in the skein. The green scarf is knitted straight, the pink and blue scarf is a feather-and-fan variation which uses kfb rather than yo.

Staggering along

Well, it's been a shit of a year, which is partly why I haven't posted for well over a year. I started getting painful hands and feet in November 2008, and by early 2009 I had trouble walking, couldn't open a new milk bottle or water bottle and couldn't chop up vegetables. Eventually I was diagnosed with severe rheumatoid arthritis. I'm currently trying to get a combination of drugs to work, and it's not brilliant... but I can walk, open milk bottles and chop up vegetables without too much pain (these are my benchmarks), so it could be much, much worse. And I keep on reminding myself that of all the auto-immune diseases I could have developed, it's probably the least scary.

Work is also crap and not giving me much time for myself.

During this period I haven't been completely non-creative, although it's been close. I sent off my contribution to The Milkweed Project, pictures to follow when I get them off my other half's camera. The link is here, although my last name is misspellt.

I've made a pair of trousers for work which aren't a complete disaster, but the linen is a bit scratchy, which I'm not a fan of. I have enough fabric for another pair, but I'm not sure I want to use it.

I also dyed some yarn with my mother-in-law: we were given a large stash of yarn when a friend's grandmother died, most of it truly awful colours from the 80s. I invested in some Landscape dyes and spent some time transforming the yarn into more agreeable colours. My father-in-law, who is a man of useful hands, made me a lovely skein winder out of some scrap after I openly coveted the one he made my mother-in-law. I'm very lucky in my in-laws.

And finally, I've made myself a scarf. I've got several in the pipeline to knit, but because I never really need them, I never actually get around to finishing them (I only need scarves for the 1 or 2 weeks of winter I spend in Ballarat with my parents). The idea was that I would wear it in New York when I went for 4 days in November, but it was too warm most of the time. I did get to visit Habu, though. It took me a while to find it, and I think my colleague was a little nervous by the time we did so as it's a little off the beaten track. Never mind, it was worth it.
So, recipe for said scarf:

1. Buy a 2.5 m x 1.16 m length of greyish silk twill from ebay
2. Cut a sample off it to play with.
3. Hem the remaining fabric with silk thread leaving you with rectangle of 1.1 m x 2.18 m which weighs about 160 g.
4. Machine-embroider your tag on it.
5. Wash it, because the iron insisted on leaving residue on the silk at random intervals (I either need to clean my iron in some drastic way or buy a new one)
6. Fold it in half, matching the two short sides.
7. Accordion-pleat across the scarf as detailed in this tutorial on t-shirt dyeing, using a pleat width of 10 cm.
8. Roll up into a ball and secure with the rubber band you found after much running around the house with a perplexed look on your face.
9. Fill a vessel with 4 cm of water and add 4 g black dye.
10. Put the rolled-up silk into the dye, one spiral-side down. Microwave until done.
11. Repeat with Bloodwood dye on the other side of the spiral.
12. Take off the rubber band and unfurl.
13. Fill vessel with water and 16 g of Salmon Gum dye. Add silk, microwave until done, stirring frequently.
14. Wash, hang up to dry and wait nervously to see the real colours.

1.5 years to FO Clapotis

In January 2007 I started knitting Clapotis, and in June 2007 I finished her... now I have actually blocked her.

I laced pieces of string through her sides, laid her on an inflatable mattress and laced her up the back. It didn't work too badly, although I should have laced a little more frequently: she's a little scallopy. As a first attempt at blocking anything it went pretty well, I don't think my mother will mind a few scallops, and it drapes beautifully.

I've been more than usually ditzy this weekend, so trying to get the inflatable mattress and the string to do what I wanted was extremely challenging. Especially as I chose to wrestle with it in my oversized pyjamas, and at one crucial point I was trying to manouver the damn thing while my pyjama bottoms were falling off and tangling my feet. I carefully put the whole thing down, got out of the pyjamas and continued. I have no idea what in independent observer would have thought.

One of the advantages of blocking on a plastic surface and being able to put the entire thing out on the balcony in the Australian sun: it was bone dry within an hour. I did have a lovely day for it, and although we're technically in winter, the word has little meaning here.

Photos will be added later: maybe a lot later if I don't get around to taking any before it is wrapped in tissue paper, stuffed in a satchel and sent nearly 1000 km to Ballarat (still a lot closer than the 17,000 km it would have had to go if I'd finished it last year).

A little here, a little there

The scaly iPod case is my current commuting knitting and I'm about half-way through it. I really only get about 1/4 hour of knitting a week now, as the train part of my commute is only about 15 minutes and I rarely get to sit down. I get most of my knitting done standing on the station waiting for the train. I'm not complaining about the shorter commute, though. Not at all.

Scaly and protective of iPods

The case is turning out pretty well and I'm pleased. I'm toying with the idea of textured i-cord for the cord, but I suspect by the time I finish knitting the main body I will desperately want to finish it off with a twisted cord. Maybe in black for contrast. The main colour is darker red than the photo would indicate.

I played with much of the fabric I washed and dried a few weeks ago. I drafted the pattern of a shoulder bag I want to make and cut out some if it, but the plain blue cotton I bought was such terrible quality that I need to buy something to replace it. It doesn't make sense to put a lot of work into something and use materials which will give me no pleasure at all.

The hemp tea towels are cut and the edge seams ironed, I just need to sew them. The hemp-cotton pillowcases have been cut to size, but I need to edge and embellish them before taking an existing pillowcase and figuring out how to fold the fabric in order to sew it up. I have plans of using black linen thread for both the tea towel edges and the pillowcase embellishment. We will see.

I've been reading lots of blogs where people spin, so I bought a spindle (from

Caroline) which came with some corriedale and made my first handspun. It's pretty bad - I think the singles are overspun and I under-plied, but I look forward to doing better. I understand why people like spinning wheels, but I can't justify it right now. Maybe some year in the future...

Over-spun and under-plied.

Today I am unpacking some of the boxes of things from Britain which have been sitting unpacked in our living room since they arrived, since we have nowhere to put the contents. I get to unpack all my indian fabric! I haven't seen any of it since before Christmas, so I am planning to take my time enjoying it. That's why I have these things.

Why is it May so soon?

This year is going far too fast.

It's whistling by and I seem to be running to catch up on all fronts. So far I have managed precisely one creative thing: in January I knitted and fulled an i-Pod case for one of my partner's friends. I finally got around to sewing it up on the Easter weekend. This weekend I took a photo of it and hopefully I can send it winging on its way to Britain. If we get our collective act together and write its accompanying letter.

Next weekend I have a 'me' weekend booked, so this weekend was spent doing some prep: washing and drying fabric for a couple of sewing projects, and getting some knitting projects set up.

Firstly, I fulled a sample of Karaoke (two-row stripes in Copper and Intensity) in order to calculate the specifications for a replacement PSP case (the hastily-put-together polar fleece one is getting rather ratty).

Secondly, I knitted a swatch of 'tiny scales' from the Vogue Knitting Stitchionary volume one in Jo Sharp Classic DK, Scarlet. This will become an i-Pod cover for my other half, who chose the stitch pattern herself and requested it, so I need to measure it up and cast on.

Karaoke swatch specifications:

Stitch: Stocking

Needles: 4.5 mm addi turbo

Pre-fulling: 10 stitches: 5.5 cm, 10 rows: 3.8 cm

Post-fulling: 10 stitches: 5 cm , 10 rows: 3 cm

PSP in hard case is 24 cm in circumference widthways and 42cm in circumference lengthways. Finished fulled fabric should be 27 - 30 cm x 42 cm. I'm thinking vertical stripes could be the way to go, with maybe a two-color twisted cord.

JS Classic DK specifications

Stitch: tiny scales

Needles: 3.5 mm unbranded bamboo

10 stitches: 4 cm

10 rows: 3.2 cm

i-Pod is 16 cm in circumference widthways and 24 cm in circumference lengthways. I need a piece of fabric 18 - 20 cm x 24 cm, and then a twisted cord. I may do this like a simple toe-up sock: no finishing to speak of, then. Casting on 40 stitches sounds about right if knitting in the round.

And thirdly, I washed and dried (but did not necessarily get around to measuring).

Hemp Gallery Mid weight canvas - 705

Pre-washing: 0.96 x 1.01 m

Post-washing:

Hemp Gallery Hemp / organic cotton sheeting - 02

Pre-washing: 2.87 x 1.05 m
Post-washing:

White Muslin

Pre-washing: 1.51 x 2.74

Post-washing:

Cotton wadding:

Pre-washing: 1.54 x 1.33 m

Post-washing:

Plain blue cotton:

Pre-washing: 1.10 x 2.20 m
Post-washing:

Blue and white printed cotton:
Pre-washing: 1.13 x 1.08 m

Post-washing:

Orange indian cotton:

Pre-washing: 1.17 x 1.54 m

Post-washing:

Blue striped indian cotton:

Pre-washing: 1.24 x 2.70 m

Post-washing:

Mottled grey flannel:

Pre-washing: 1.20 x 3.46 m
Post-washing:

In household news, my partner and I have decided to commit to staying in the current abode and buying my parents out. We discovered that the only place we could afford a house was the Blue Mountains, and while we both love the idea, the practicalities of commuting to North Ryde and Redfern would mean that we would never see the house in question in daylight, except on the weekends, when we would spend most of our time sleeping, anyway. There would be severe and prolonged grumpiness, which is not exactly the idea.

And then I stand on the front balcony on a day like this Sunday and think we've got it pretty good:

We have both taken deep breaths and given each other major concessions: I have decided that the living room can become her gaming space and can be decorated with small comic-book-character figurines, dragons etc. She likes to game socially, so it make sense. She has conceded that the double bed can be stored in the garage and the small bedroom can become my workroom plus clothes storage (both of us would prefer less furniture in the main bedroom). It will take a while (over a year, I imagine), but I should eventually have a dedicated room for textile activities! I already have my eye on an expensive (but obtainable) sit-stand table which should help my back and make it possible to carry out a number of different activities in comfort.

Meanwhile, I need to go and see a solicitor to figure out how to get us both owning this property outright.

All quiet on the creative front

I've been doing very little knitting or crocheting, or indeed anything creative. Sometimes I nearly miss having a long commute... but not really.

I did crochet a face washer out of organic cotton, and I like it, although I crocheted on the bias and it is definitely diamond-shaped, not square. Never mind. It still washes a face perfectly well.

I'm still crocheting a bag in cheap squeaky acrylic, just to prove that I can. Hopefully I will eventually finish, but it is easy to get distracted.

Speaking of distractions, I did succumb and buy the Vogue Knitting Stitchionary vol 1, which I have wanted for a very long time. As a result, I've been knitting a face washer in linen stitch. While the stitch is a pain to do since you both slip and knit every stitch, the results are lovely. I really like this stitch. I think the resulting face washer will be pleasantly smooth on one side and nicely nubbly on the other.

Cooking has been fairly standard, except for this weekend. I made two flourless chocolate cakes (from Delicious: Wicked), soaked them in run and sandwiched them together with whipped cream. I had a slice for breakfast this morning. I only do this about once a year, but there's something about starting the day off with dessert which ticks the little box labeled 'total decadence' for me. I remember the last time vividly: it was champagne trifle made on chocolate cake when I could still eat wheat without getting a migraine. Actually that makes it about 3 years ago. Clearly I don't indulge in total decadence nearly often enough.

Peering out of the burrow

It's a bit startling to realise how long it has been since I posted. I've been running around like some kind of nervous rodent trying to resume our life here. Being back in Australia is odd, working for the same company but in an office 1/10 the size of the previous one is odd, being back in our flat is odd, the way the city has changed but not really changed is odd. It's all a bit odd.

So to complement the oddness I decided to learn to crochet, firmly believing that one should never avoid taking up more crafts* because knitting, sewing, weaving, dyeing, tatting, macrame and needlepoint just aren't enough. I'm working on a small shoulder bag in a some rather squeaky acrylic and buying organic cotton for my next project.

I'm also in the middle of making a couple of iPod covers for my other half and one of her friends. Unfortunately work and dealing with the general oddness of life means the first one has been sitting on the bookshelf, felted and waiting for me to sew it up for several weeks. It's Kureyon, a yarn I've been thinking about for a while but never used. It does felt beautifully, but I'm not sure I like it all that much. The colour ways annoy me a bit, too. They all seem to be slightly off.

While some of the yarns I have grown to love aren't readily available here, there are other attractions, including a growing number of online sellers stocking organic yarns. I'm looking forward to working with organic cotton, hemp and nettle. I feel like making containers.

*Except possibly the kind of craft which involves a glue gun and diamontes.