I Have A New Blog

It's still under constructions, but all new posts will go up at Creative Fidget. The new site has a different purpose - I want to write about more than just fibre craft. It's all explained in my 'first' post.

All posts from this blog have been imported to the new one. I'll leave this blog active for a while before deleting it, to give readers time to change their links. And, of course, I've changed the link in Ravelry.

See you over there!

Socks For Others #3

I'm now halfway through my Socks For Others Club packages.



Pattern: A Pair of Hearts Socks
Yarn: Opal Uni Solid
Comments: I've knit this sock pattern before - actually, I test knit them. This time I knit them toe-up, reversing the lace pattern. They were just as much fun as the first time around.

Once they were done, I reached into my felt bin of sock club goodness and grabbed another parcel.



There are to be socks for Tori, a friend's daughter. Which, believe it or not, will be the first time I've knit children's clothing. I don't have measurements for Tori's foot, but I figure these will be so quick that I can easily make a second pair if they're too small.

And it's also a good thing that they're small, or I might not make my six pairs by Christmas goal!

Royal Knits

As I mentioned in a previous post, Royal Knits was among my wonderful birthday presents.



The patterns range from the decorative...



... to the practical.



There are small, quick projects...



... and larger, more challenging ones (with bad puns in the title).



And there are some that are downright bizzare...



There are corgi slippers, egg cosies, a royal breakfast including blood pudding, and a beanie with giant sticky-out ears. The book was published in 1987, when Royal Fever must have been getting a little tiresome and a book like this would have appealed to the enthusiast as well as the cynic. I love it for the sheer silliness of the patterns. (But no, I'm not going to be knitting any of them. Though that beanie is tempting...)

Hmmm

You know, when you arrange a holiday or trip you do so with certain benefits in mind. A rest. A break from the normal routine. A reward. To broaden horizons. To experience something. I remember deciding to go to Canada because, darn it, I was working too bloody hard to not spend the income from all this hard work on something. So I guess it was a reward I was after. (It certainly wasn't a rest!)

Sometimes you come back from a trip with a benefit you didn't expect or plan for. Sometimes it's because of something that happened (I once ended up in hospital after being stung by a jellyfish, and being forced to contemplate - even for a few minutes - that my life might end earlier than I'd planned definitely changed me). Sometimes it's because you stepped out of your routine for a while, and were able to examine it from a distance.

The Canada trip? Well, it's been more the latter scenario. I decided when I was away that the camera club wasn't fulfilling my needs - in fact it was stifling and close to being detrimental to my creative development. But in the weeks since I returned I've been constantly surprised to discover more.

I want to paint and draw and do some of the art projects I've procrastinated over for too long. I want to rejoin the contemporary art group I was a part of a few years back. Craft is wonderful, but I miss art.

Knitting is still my favourite craft to do while watching tv or in waiting rooms. Machine knitting has some exciting possibilities, and weaving still is new and interesting. But overall I think I may end up doing less fibre craft so I can do more of other things - like art, reading, and exploring non-yarny crafts like bookbinding and printing.

Since I got back I've been spending less time in Ravelry and I have only visited Weavolution once. So far as social crafting goes... the s'n'b meetings are now all over the place in both time and location, while The Handweaving and Spinning Guild meetings are in one spot at a regular time and day per month. So it's actually much easier to plan to get to the Guild meets than the s'n'b meets, which is a bit sad because I like the s'n'b girls a lot. I'll try to get to the s'n'b meets, but I'll plan to get to the Guild ones.

Then there's blogging. I love reading blogs, but I've noticed in the last few years that people aren't blogging as much any more. And that lack of enthusiasm is finally rubbing off on me. For ages I've been telling myself the main reason to do it is not for comments or some fairy-tale that you make heaps of like-minded friends through blogging, but to record what I've made and learned in the process. But when that becomes a chore, it's probably time to stop.

Or perhaps to start a new blog to reflect the shift in my interests. I've been wanting to do that for some time now. I just need the time to set it up...

The Hostes Swift Da Mostest

The 80s party went really well. Most of my guests put together fabulous costumes, and we partied until 3am.

Among the gifts were a few crafty related ones:



The swift was from Mum & Dad, who always get me to choose something for my birthday. I have a vintage metal swift, but it's often too small for the skeins I buy, so this Ashford swift is going to save me from the creative and often very slow alternatives I've been using.

The yarn is from a couple who went to an elderly relative and asked for yarn from the 80s. She gave them three balls of commercial mystery wool, and two of her own handspun. All in coordinating greys. I think this is an adorable idea and very thoughtful gift. (The bowl is also another present that had me marvelling at how well the gifter had picked up on my taste.)



I was very excited at the prospect of a gift from my very talented friend Margaret, the creator behind Konstant Kaos. This sketching compendium is beautiful and innovative - just like the rest of her work. Gorgeous fabric, nifty details like the matching button, and so professionally designed and made.



It contains water-soluble pencils and a pad of watercolour paper, and some good quality paint brushes. I keep patting it every time I walk past, promising that I will make time to use it soon. Thanks Margaret!



And from another of my brilliant and creative friends, Beky of Pivotal Xpressions gave me a bookbinding book, which has some awesome example books as well as instructions for the different binding methods, and the most hilarious knitting book I've seen - which deserves to be featured in a post of its own. Thanks Beky!

Trying to Stay Karma

Back in those first few months after the Black Saturday bushfires, I had all the best intentions of knitting blanket squares for Bushfire Blankets of Friendship. But after making possum pouches, SES hats and charity scarves I kind of ran out of steam. So when my local s'n'b group recently took a whole lot of the squares to sew up into blankets, I thought I'd get involved.

Last Saturday I grabbed a bag. Here's most of the contents, laid out in what I hope is a reasonably balanced arrangement:



There were some nice stripey ones. But then something occurred to me about those stripey ones.



Look at all those bl**dy ends.

A handful of the squares had unfinished ends, but only about two to four of them. It's reasonable to think that ends might even be used to sew the squares together. But that many ends? I figured the most efficient way to deal with them was to crochet around the edge, working the ends in. These squares were a bit smaller than the rest, so they could do with being enlarged.

So I made a start on the first square. It took over an hour, and the crochet border is more like overstuffed piping. And I can tell you, some VERY uncharitable thoughts were going through my head. Especially when I found there was a join in the middle of the square, and the two ends left hanging were less than an inch long.



Thank goodness there are only three squares like this. But now that I've got plans to crochet around some squares, I feel like I ought to crochet around a few more to, you know, make the whole thing look consistent and balanced. Just the ones that are a bit on the small side.

I think this blanket may take a bit longer than I originally thought.

Desperately Seeking Jacket

I'm turning 40 soon. Or rather, my 40th year is ending. The beau and I had an interesting discussion about milestone birthdays the other day. He reckons 50 is more important than 40. I disagree. 40 is halfway through a decent life span. It's also the boundary to middle age.

To mark the occasion, and for the heck of it, I'm having a party. An 80s costume party. I had some pretty grand ideas involving hiring a hall, but decided to keep it at home, with family and just the closer circles of friends (or else we'll run out of room).

For my costume, I decided on Susan from the film Desperately Seeking Susan. Not only was Madonna a big 80s celeb, but an icon of the fashion and music of the time. And I desperately wanted to dress like her, but if I had I'd have been grounded. Of course, nobody would twitch an eyelid these days.

So I gathered together lots of jewellery, lace gloves and camisole, and scored big time at the op shop findin a very, very 80s pair of pleated front, high waisted, tapered-to-the-ankle black pants. The jacket, however was the hard part.



I could not find anything resembling it in op shops, so eventually I dug up an old bolero jacket (with obligatory 80s shoulder pads) from the back of the wardrobe, some material, felt, gold crochet yarn and paint, and a black permanent marker and started embellishing.



The front is okay, so long as my hair covers the top of the collar.



But I'm pretty chuffed at how the back came out. The black marker worked okay on the felt but not the gold material. But for a costume, it'll do fine.

Finally, I had my hair dyed streaky blonde. First time I've had my hair coloured since I was sixteen. And you know what? I kinda like it!