Boxing Day

Instead of doing a clean out on the house, I went shopping at Spotlight (no crowds, woo!) and Bunnings today.

20% off everything at Spotlight... and I picked up lots and lots of stuff. Including a rolling pin, I realised on Christmas Eve while baking shortbread that I didn't have a rolling pin! Madness!

I have some more yarny goodness, some kitchen things, party decorations, more beading things and fabric!

Now I just have to clean the fabbo sewing machine Knittingand gave me so I can start stitching things up.

Today I made this:



It's swingy, which I like.

I've also tried making wine glass markers... not too sure on those yet. The memory wire is giving me issues... and the 24 gauge wire I have is no good... too malleable.

I also finished a spinning project! No pics yet, this one was a quickie.

Drama and new things

Christmas is nearly over (and what a dramatic one it turned out to be. Not in a good way, either.)

Here's Down the Garden Path, a neck warmer I made for my mother.



Here's something I tried doing this afternoon. Beaded stitch markers... This beading thing is pretty cool!



I'm off to rest. There's going to be a big day of house cleaning and re-organising tomorrow.

Merry Christmas

Yep... it's that time of the year where we eat too much, drink too much and spoil others rotten.

Merry Christmas everyone.

I'm traumatised (or, a comedy of errors)

This morning in the blissful summer light I have this:



(you can click to embiggen all photos)

Close up it looks like this:



~50g of white Polwarth spun into around 67m of yarny goodness... all by myself.

This morning I feel good about the yarn I have made, even though I have this:



Tangled, snarled and ruined single.

Let's just say the plying was less of a dream and more of a nightmare. About a war. It went something like this... (I am seriously not making this up. You think I could make stuff like this up?)

Once upon a time a beginning spinner spun up a heap of Polwarth onto her spindle. Once she had as much spun onto there as she could handle, she decided that it was time to ply. Andean plying had been so much easier in her short length experiments than Navajo, so she decided to take the easy way out. (Mistake #1)

The beginning spinner started winding the single around her hand to create the yarn bracelet used in andean plying. Shortly after starting, the single snapped. The beginning spinner decided this was ok (after swearing a bit), because toward the end of her project she was spinning a bit too fine for the weight of the spindle. She carefully removed the little yarn bracelet and set it aside, starting a new one.

After winding and winding and winding some more the beginning spinner realised that this yarn bracelet idea was not going so well. Her hand had come to resemble the good old "deformed rabbit" that so often makes an appearance during shadow pupptery, and her middle finger was starting to turn an attractive shade of purpley-red. Concerned for the welfare of her hand, the beginning spinner carefully, then desperately tried to remove the yarn bracelet. After some struggling the bracelet came free and the hand started to return to it's normal colouring.

After careful consideration the beginning spinner decided not to return to winding a yarn bracelet. She recalled hearing a method of winding the single into a centre-pull ball and plying from both the inside and the outside. She set off to find her ball winder.

And hunted.

And swore.

And hunted some more... eventually locating the ball winder hiding at the back of the Expedit, buried under balls of acrylic and some handspun lengths. (It was at this point that the beginning spinner should have realised that the handspun lengths were plotting against her.)

The beginning spinner then set up her ball winder on the table with one hand (the other was holding the single and spindle) and set off to wind. Wind she did, with the single flying off the spindle and happily settling (tangle free!) onto the ball winder. Once at the end the beginning spinner let out a sigh of relief, thinking that things might now start going smoothly. (Mistake #2)

Once all the single was wound up and ready, the beginning spinner removed the new-formed yarn cake from the ball winder. As she did so the end caught in the notches came free and lost itself in the middle of the ball. It was at this point that most sane spinners would either start navajo plying from the one free end or would re-spin the ball. Not this beginning spinner. She tried to find the missing end. (Mistake #3)

The ball of yarn coughed up what is commonly known as a yarn barf - a blob of yarn from the centre of the ball - caused by the beginning spinner poking around trying to find the end. Luckily the end was located in this yarn barf and the beginning spinner decided to start plying.

Given that the tricksy single was now all over the place, it wasn't long before the beginning spinner wound (ha!) up with single wound upon itself, it's neighbouring strand and all combinations in between. Plying came to a standstill as the single would not come free. The beginning spinner began to untangle.

The beginning spinner learnt the first frustration with trying to untangle single - as soon as it's not taut it winds itself up. In an attempt to keep the single taut during the untangling process the beginning spinner would hook it around handy body parts... her head, her fingers, her toes, her elbow and occasionally a combination of all of these. The thought crossed the beginning spinner's mind more than once of how apt the scene would be for a LOLme with a caption of something along the lines of "ur doin it rong" or "hoomin learns playing wif yarn not as easy liek cat makes it seem".

The beginning spinner bravely fought the tangle, getting some more single free and plying it up, then untangling again until disaster struck...

One strand of single broke.

Swearing and sighing the beginning spinner knotted the singles on the spindle, then continued untangling until enough single was released and the tangle seemed solved. (ha!) Taking a deep breath, she started plying again, knotting the new lengths of single to the old one.

Sonner rather than later she was greeted with a new tangle. She repeated the LOLscene untangling/desnarling only to break the single again. Tying another knot, she plyed some more...

And found the process repeating itself. Rather than re-iterating the same part of the story, I will tell you that the beginning spinner had to detangle/desnarl and deal with broken single several times. The lovely skein of yarn shown above has several knots through it from rescuing broken single. Sometimes a piece of single had to be cut out... causing the beginning spinner some sadness at losing what would be extra length.

Many hours after beginning the plying, the beginning spinner finally detangled the last part of yarn, plied it and sighed. Then she drank vodka to steady her nerves.

I'm already dreading the next lot of plying I have to do. Please send vodka. And plying lessons.

Not already...

So Christmas is next week.

NEXT. WEEK.

I am not ready. Once again, Christmas has snuck up on me and I haven't done anything yet. Well, that's a lie. I have done some partial Christmas shopping.... but still.

Excuse me while I run away and try to figure things out.

What will you be...? You haven't told me yet.

You're Polwarth, you're deliciously soft and a joy to spin... and there isn't a huge amount of you.

Please whisper what you want to be when you are finished!

Lookit what I did!

Yep. That's knittable yarn, that is.

Time to start spinning proper amounts now.

I also made this candy cane a while ago.. the blue merino needs to be re-carded. It's a bit too sticky.

I'm with the DJ

The other half is playing the Big Day Out next year.

I'll be in the Boiler Room going off. Hah.

Pictures of the yarn

This is what I was so crazily excited about earlier today



The yellow yarn on the bottom is commercial 8 ply yarn.

It's been a bad day. Tomorrow is looking no better so far.

Squee!

So I did a little spinning before bed last night (on the drop spindle, I'm not good enough to use a wheel yet... and she needs to be taken apart, cleaned and polished.)

It's clicking. I spun a yarn that's closer to a worsted weight rather than a big chunky yarn. There's still thick and thin spots but it's getting there. I'm so ridiculously excited that I managed to spin something that wasn't huge and chunky. (Hence the morning post.) I'm also parking and drafting with ease, even if i still seem to get a bit of a fibrey mess left rather than nice neat roving.

I'll post a pic some time tonight after I get to take one.

Spin Spin Sugar

Isn't she beautiful?



She still doesn't have a name.

She's an Ashford Elizabeth 2.. currently set up for Scotch tension.

Recent finished projects

I have gotten some knitting done recently and I've finished the chequerboard scarf!



I finished the other half's socks



and have made more progress on the socks of dooooooom.



I may have also bought a spinning wheel on Sunday. Oops. She has no name yet. Frontrunners are Penelope and Aurora.

Yarny Goodness

I've been a busy bee for the past couple of days...

Vintagegrrl has been an enabler and encouraged me to try hand dyeing... and spinning. I have started both and here are the results so far:



Hand dyed yarn - Cleckheaton Country 8 ply, dyed with Queen Rose Pink and Blue food colouring. The pink is really deep and looks almost red. Next time I think I'd tone down the pink to make it pinkier.

Now... *Drumroll* time for the handspun! I have an Ashford drop spindle (and maybe an Ashford spinning wheel as of tomorrow), and I have a few little pieces of handspun to show off.



First handspun... a short piece because I learnt on this one, then finished it off so I could put a notch in the spindle and beeswax it. It's a plain white Polwarth fibre.



My third piece of handspun. (The second piece went into a top secret project... more on that later!)



My first blue handspun - this one is a merino. The colour is absolutely stunning... a royal blue bordering on purple.

I am loving spinning. It's like I did this in a past life... it just seems like second nature to me.

Movember - last chance!

Movember ends tomorrow... donate while you can! I am sure you know someone out there who is a Mo Bro or a Mo Sister.

Movember raises money for prostate cancer research and also supports beyondblue - a charity dedicated to fighting depression.

Prostate cancer is as common in men as breast cancer is in women. Depression claims many lives each year, but destroys thousands more - it's just that others may not see it. Both causes are close to my heart.

If you have the means please give a little to help.

Catch up

What have I been doing?

A whole bunch of not-very-much, it seems.

Work has been crazy, and I am now getting to the end of a two week holiday where I achieved very little. It's been one of those periods where you just zonk out and do a whole lot of nothing.

I need to find some energy quickly.

It's been a while

Life has been nuts.

Here's some yarn.







(aren't those blues stunning??)

Sock it to me

Making more socks... this time for the other half.



They're being knit in Bendigo Woollen Mills Allegro. It's fun to knit with.

Mojo

I've found my mojo again! (Maybe it was the Olympics starting... hmmm.)

I have cast on some man-socks for the other half and gotten back to work on the Starry Night Wrap. Things are looking good. No photos at the moment as I forgot to bring my camera (oops).

As if I needed another reason.

I am never, ever joining Fitness First.

Link to original article

Fitness First wins legal stoush over 'sick' woman's contract
Fitness First ... a runaway success, except with people trying to leave.
Bellinda Kontominas
August 7, 2008 - 4:07PM
From the Sydney Morning Herald website.

Gym giant Fitness First has taken a former member, who could not work out due to medical problems, to court - all for the sake of $200.

The Supreme Court today ruled that Suh Yoke Chong, who suffers from lupus, thyroid problems and sleep apnoea should not be refunded a $200 cancellation fee after she was unable to continue her membership due to blurred vision and headaches.

Ms Chong, 54, who signed a contract with Fitness First on April 9, 2007, after she had put on weight due to steroid medication she was taking, took her case to the Consumer, Trader and Tenancy Tribunal.

She told the tribunal that, during her conversation with the Fitness First consultant, he gave her the terms and conditions and told her to "sign here, here and here".

"The reason I told him [about my medical condition] is that I hope that he will be honest with me, that whether my condition can do the gym and he told me that, 'Oh, you find the right place, this is the best place to lose weight.' "

Ms Chong signed the contract without reading the terms and conditions, which state that a cancellation fee of $200 applies if membership is terminated within the first two months and after a 15-day cooling-off period.

The tribunal ruled in September last year that Ms Chong be reimbursed that money.

It found that "a valid contract required the parties have [a] ... meeting of the minds, in that they each fully know and understand the terms and conditions of the agreement."

However, Associate Justice Joanne Harrison today found that the tribunal member erred in the law on that point and that Ms Chong was bound by the conditions of the contract. She made no order as to costs.

Comment is being sought from Fitness First.

Ms Chong said she told Fitness First about her condition before signing her contract but the gym only encouraged her to join.

After a month, as her dizziness worsened and her vision blurred, she reported the problem to staff. She said they were not interested.

"I told them but they said you should go for a massage to relax your body," she said.

"My intention when I joined the gym is to improve my health but it made me more stressed."

Ms Chong was shocked last July when she received a summons to the Supreme Court, with her as defendant, the gym as plaintiff.

She entered no defence, advised by legal aid that costs could be awarded against against her if she did so.

"I don't want to remember anything more about Fitness First. It's very, very stressful for the whole year," she said.

Since joining Fitness First in April last year, a membership that lasted about five weeks, Ms Chong has spent 15 months in and out of court and tribunal rooms.

She said she would pursue the case no further and had thought it was over after her tribunal hearing in September.

- with Erik Jensen


*********

Is it just me, or is that crazy talk?

Back

After spending a weekend in the wilderness (well, in Brisbane with nothing but an iPhone for internet access), I am back.

The Picasso and his Collection exhibition was fantastic. Renoirs and Cezannes... this girl was very happy.

Disaster

So I am going away for the weekend - on a plane.

It has now been decreed that due to the tight schedule we are on (nothing to do with me!) that we must travel with carry on luggage only... so that we don't have to waste time waiting for any checked baggage at our destination.

This means two things:

1. NO KNITTING OR CROCHET can be packed. Ouch. Australian airport security decrees that they are tools and are not allowed in carry on luggage because they are too sharp.

2. I have to pack for a weekend away (in the middle of winter) in a 22L bag. That is small. Tiny, even.

What am I meant to do? I mean, seriously?

Something finished, something new

Please bear with me, I have decided to use Flickr for photos now, so this post might look a bit funny.

I finished the lovely chunky yarn project... I give you the Entwine scarf:



Yarn: Basics Entwine (from Spotlight) 4 and a bit balls.
Pattern: None. It's a garter stitch scarf.
Needles: Tulip 7.0mm bamboo straights.

I also started the Starry Night wrap:



Sadly, I am not feeling that inspired at the moment. I have not knit a single stitch all weekend. Hopefully the new yarn i have coming will help that.

Therapy

The big chunky knit is such therapy. It's already more than half done... it's practically knitting itself.

I won't say much about the new shade card I received from the most evil-minded enablers in the world my favourite yarn mill. New merino yarn in gorgeous fun colours... it'll make awesome winter socks. that is all I'll say. No more details until I buy all the stock for myself... mwahahahaha.

Feeling so productive

It's amazing what some time off work does.


I finished the very green socks. They are as yet unblocked so they still look a little misshapen.

Yarn: Shepherd Colour 4 Me 8 ply. It's deliciously soft.
Pattern: Silver's Sock Class. This tutorial is for DPNs, but I used the magic loop method.
Knit Picks 3.25mm, 80cm circular needle.


I have finished one of the striped socks... but it's too big (wide) for me. It does fit the other half (kind of) but he did not look overjoyed when I suggested I complete the pair for him. If I can't find anyone to fit it then it might be remain an orphan. It might make a good Christmas stocking.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go cast on something using this new yarn. It's going to be garter stitch and chunky, for a break from the sock work.



(Isn't it pretty? I thought so too.)

Oops

I ended up with one extra dock to USB cable after a trip to the Apple store today. Apparently I'm too stupid to read the box of the USB power adapter, because it comes with a cable. I didn't need a separate one. Oh well, one for the laptop bag.

I also purchased a pink case for my iPhone - not sure if it will stay in use as I'm not a fan of cases, but I can see it coming in useful when travelling.

My iPhone really is good. The interface is very user friendly, the screen is very responsive and I love some of the things it does. I'm not a heavy Smartphone user and I wanted something a bit more than a phone, so the iPhone was perfect for my needs. It's pretty, too. I like pretty. (hah)

Right. Now I will go back to trying to stay away from the internet.

Note to self

Next time you want to learn a new knitting skill, do not make the first attempt in black yarn.

I decided to teach myself how to do a short row heel. I started some striped socks to do this - working the ribbing in black, with the idea that the heel and toe would also be black. Oh, what a folly that was.


After much time, frustration, tinking and frogging, I have done my first short row heel. There are a few gaps in it, but at this stage I don't care. I am just happy to have it done. The socks in question are being made from some cheapo acrylic yarn while I try to learn how to manage DPNs. It's slowly getting easier than trying to insert an angry sea urchin into a net bag, but only just.

In other news, I am more than halfway through the other pair of socks I am working on. These ones are a lovely wool, but I don't know if I still love the colour.


They are green. Very green.

It's time to go...

Big Brother.

I can't believe it. Network ten has provided two sensible decisions this year: the return of Good News Week, and the axing of Big Brother.

One can only hope it's replaced with quality programming.

First Socks

Part of the reason this blog needs a name change?

I've taken up needlecrafts again (well, knitting mostly and crochet as a runner up), and want to be able to post things I've done and things I'm working on. Hopefully that sort of peer pressure will help me complete things!

Without further ado - here are the first socks I have ever made:



Yarn: I have no idea. Some yarn that came to me from my late grandmother's stash. I know it's an 8 ply, and I think it's a wool/acrylic blend.
Pattern: Part Arachne Sock Calculator, part Kim Goddard's beginner sock pattern, part my own imagination.

I used the magic loop method, Knit Picks 3.25mm/80 cm circular needle. I'm still building the DPN patience and skills.

Next project? Already started... more socks, amongst other things.

(Oh yeah... I managed to procure an iPhone on launch day. After finally getting it working on the weekend, I promise I'll post about it soon. I am loving having a 3G phone. I had no idea what I was missing.)

It's been a... while.

It's certainly been a long time since I posted anything here.

I'm still alive, still going on. Life has been... hectic.

Note to self: must try to blog a leetle more regularly.

I am thinking of changing the blog name though. It's been grating on me for a while, and while I don't want the address to change I want to add content that's not necessarily related to the title. And no, I don't want more than one blog. I find it hard enough to update this one, let alone doing two.

So. watch this space.

A Letter to the RSPCA

In response to this article:

I am writing to convey my disappointment in the RSPCA's choose wisely campaign for eggs after reading an article in the Sun Herald today. The condition of the birds in Pace Farm's Buchanan facility is appalling and it concerns me that the RSPCA endorses this facility and the practice of de-beaking.

I certainly expected better from the RSPCA. I am now even doubting how humane the free range eggs are if these barn layers are in such poor condition.

I urge the RSPCA to reconsider their endorsement of Pace Farm's facilities and practices.

Is it possible?

It is possible!

"So You Think You Can Dance?" has sucked me in - well and truly.

Oh dear.

Squeeeeeee!

I just saw an ad for Good News Week... yes, ladies and gentlemen, it is BACK.

Channel 10 (unfortunately, I would love to see it on the ABC again), Monday Feb 11.

It also appears that they've started making it because of the Writers Guild of America strike. I guess I can only hope they keep it on.