May 28, 2012

one hat wonder

By DrK

im not usually a big wearer, or knitter, of hats, but considering my sock knitting mojo has gone the way of the dinosaurs, and i can not STAND those small triangle shawls on me, i need other things to make out of single skeins of yarn. its not usually cold enough here for mittens or hats, but i’m doing some travelling this winter to colder climes, so when i made the half-cranford mitts, i decided they would need a matching hat out of the remaining yarn (the gorgeously smooshy ‘sanguine gryphon bugga’). i had first thought of the ishbel beret because i knew it incorporated a similar pattern, but then fee showed me this, and i was away

i cast on on friday night i think and soon had the first repeat done. i knew i was onto a winner, easy to follow pattern, looking great in that awesome yarn.

by saturday night, it was off the needles and a bunched up pile of grey.

sunday morning it had a little bath and then put on a plate in the sun

the yarn had gone quite floppy in the bath, so i couldnt really stretch the pattern right out without making it too big but it fits

and has excellent crown shaping (which ishbel lacks i think) that makes this gorgeous star on the top of your head:

and it matches the mitts perfectly!

i would definitely make this pattern again  but i would go down a needle size, i didnt have a 2.25mm circular for the ribbed brim so i used 2.5 and then 3.25 for the body, its probably a little loose. i did everything exactly as written (including the 152 stitch long tail cast on) and i love it. now i just need to get my  hands on some of the actual quince and co yarn.

i am like, queen of accessories, at the moment. lets just not talk about the cardigan. or a particular piece of deadline knitting.

k xx

11 comments   |  tags: | posted in FO, knitting

May 24, 2012

seeing blue

By DrK

apparently, there are quite a lot of red objects in my ravelry projects. anyone would think it was my favourite colour or something. but im a bit over it. it looks good on me, but to be honest, blue looks better. once upon a time in the 90s i had my colour analysis done, and apparently im a ‘winter’. lucky for me, this means i can get away with wearing all black, but i really should add some blue. so im adding some blue. almost all of my current WIPs are blue, or related. for example:

1. lace. stonecrop by jared flood in madeline tosh prarie, colourway ‘thunderstorm’

(and yes fee it looks like i did do the garter rows at the beginning!)

2. garter. colour affection shawl by veera valimaki in holst garn coast, colourways ‘lead, charcoal and tweed’

i am using the tweed (blue) as the main colour and then contrasting it with the light grey first then the charcoal, so it gets darker towards the bottom.

3. cardigan. flaming june by cheryl niamath in madeline tosh merino light colourway ‘ink’

of course, this wont be ready to wear until its too bloody hot again, but i love how its looking so far. im tempted to just work on this alone right now.

4. hat. not quite blue but in the same family.

i have cast on the remains of the sanguine gryphon bugga from the half-cranfords (colourway ‘grey scalloped bar butterfly’!) meaning for this to be an ishbel beret, but a little pixie enabler showed me this pattern this morning and im thinking of switching. this means ripping and starting over, but i should do it right?

the other items on the needles are deadline/gift knitting, neither blue nor grey so they dont count. but you see what i mean right? its like i get obsessed with one thing and thats all i can see or think about for about 6months. i think about branching out into other colours but then i wouldnt wear them anyway so whats the point?

in other news, the ‘feeling a little poorly’ turned into a full blown case of manflu (much worse than ordinary flu) and i’ve been off work for three days. i go back tomorrow then im home all weekend with all the kids.

that whole living alone thing is working out really well. i love it. oh how i love it. the peace and quiet, complete freedom to do what i want when i want. there are some drawbacks. i have to do my own washing up. and put the bins out. and no one brings me tea when i am on the couch groaning with manflu. (i should train the dogs better). and i do miss having jem here all the time, but he comes around every day to hang out with possum and ricco in the backyard, and i see trent almost every day too, and this weekend he is away doing new family things so i get to look after their cats too. (i like cats. i’d gladly have a ginger here to give ricco a bit of what for, but im allergic so i wont).

so you know, its all ok, in the scheme of things. im off to the couch now to knit something thats not blue and maybe start a buffy rewatch. its been a year. it must be time.

k xx

16 comments   |  tags: | posted in knitting, WIP

May 20, 2012

FO: celes

By DrK

yes thats a finished object. and a big one too, not just some little mitts or socks. according to ravelry, i started this in june last year. oops. so nearly 12 months on the needles, although it did hibernate for a while. the only way i got it finished in the end was to put everything else aside and just do it. the longest part was the edging. it seemed endless.

but it finally came off the needles on thursday night,

and i was home sick on friday, so it had a quick bath and then i blocked it outside in the gorgeous autumn sun.

i think you’re not meant to do that but i wanted to wear it on the weekend and it wasnt going to dry inside. as far as blocking goes, i knew it had grown in the water, just length wise really, which is what you’d expect from a heavy weight lace project. it opened up beautifully and i just laid it flat and pinned out the points. every single last one of them. it didnt take long to dry and when i picked it up i nearly cried it was so lovely and smooth.

i am pretty confident that there are no mistakes in the pattern, i was pretty ruthless about ripping back something i wasnt happy with, including the graft (which now lies beautifully flat and seamless). i wore it on sunday to the  annual old  bus depot markets pilgrimmage. it wasnt a particularly cold day, and thats a lot of scarf to have about your neck

but its not the least bit scratchy (it is alpaca/silk after all) and it was really easy to wear.

i love this yarn, i have one and a half skeins left to maybe make a hat with. the pattern worked really well in it and the pattern itself was fantastic. jared writes a beautiful pattern, and this had all the right shetland techniques, two halves grafted so that the pattern flowed in the same direction, a tree and diamond motif, and a gorgeous knitted on border, including really easy to follow instructions for getting around the corners.

i would definitely make this again, but in a lace weight yarn this time. i got  lots of nice comments on it, and margarita took these photos at the markets, where i was remarkably restrained,

buying only one of michelle’s excellent project bags, some sock yarn for a friend who’s having a rough time and needs some cheering, and some bc garn baby alpaca from suzyhausfra, who had her first stall at the markets. and boy was she popular! it was great to meet her in person and see the stall doing so well. i also had an excellent time visiting with my favourite canberra family. we played lots of games, ate cake for mama’s birthday and went to see james’ drawing in a local art show. in his skinny jeans and black tshirt he was very much an artist in the making!

its lovely to have little people who are excited to see me and sad to see me go, and then its lovely to come home to a quiet house again. im feeling a little poorly today, sore throat, head ache but i have a big deadline at work this week so i am in the office soldiering on. i would rather be home knitting though. so many more projects to get off the needles! what will it be next?!

k xx

9 comments   |  tags: | posted in FO, friends, knitting, lace

May 14, 2012

super moon

By DrK

i have been under the influence of strong forces this past couple of weeks. as a scorpio sun sign with a gemini rising and a moon in scorpio (if you believe that kind of thing), last weeks supermoon (passing through scorpio) seemed to have an almost tangible effect on me and my life! of course, it might not have been the moon at all, just a weird convergence of things happening at the same time, but boy did it happen.

firstly, quicker than expected, my ‘housemate’ moved out. it hasnt been too bad, expected sadness and weirdness at the end of an era. today has been hard, working out some finances. its a bit like getting ‘redivorced’. just weird. i made it a bit less weird by rearranging some things and tiyding up the sunroom to make some craft space

but its still weird. i still have the three dogs for the time being, i think one of the boys will be also moving out this week but they are just around the corner and there will be lots of play dates etc as we thought it might be good if the boys came back to spend days with possum while trent and i were at work/uni. still. its just weird. i know a lot of people dont understand why my ex and i would want to try and stay so close, and it hasnt always been easy, but if you go through life with no real family, and be through some things that we’ve been through, you dont let that just drift away. and also, im a very loyal friend. if i decide you’re worth it, i’ll pretty much do anything for you.

of course, some people arent worth it. this week has seen me think and feel pretty strongly about this issue in general, who i do and dont want in my life, what kind of person i want to be, to have around me. its made me think long and hard about the nature of friendship and how my idea of it means relationships based on sincere care and compassion. i still need to be better at accepting people’s limitations. and i need to care less about what other people think. i’ve always been fairly outspoken, but at 43, my time for suffering fools is over. i really just dont care if people dont like me anymore. there are plenty of people who do. i think this is a very powerful realisation, thank you scorpio moon.

speaking of, i had a great day on saturday with some great friends. i spent the whole day in sydney, first at knitters guild (i only took socks as i went up on the train and celes, still not quite finished, is too heavy for travel)

then after guild my two best enablers took me shopping. i really wanted to buy some new earrings, i tend to wear the same ones all the time and then i lost one of those same ones, and was wearing a not quite matching pair. there’s only so much of that a girl can endure. so i picked up these cute little things at dinosaur designs.

they werent exactly cheap but i love them. they look great on. oh, whats that underneath the earrings i hear you say? why yes it is a ticket to prince, who just happens to be in australia at the moment. these tickets went like hotcakes but a few of us crazy knitters also turned out to be closet prince fans (seriously, can you be a teenager in the 80s and not love prince?) and so we set off out to olympic park on saturday night

to see his royal purpleness sing and dance and yell and squeal and shriek and play wild guitar and crazy medleys that included about one bar of ‘darling nikki’ (tease) and 20 minute versions of purple rain with purple glitter in the air and three encores over three whole hours. it was great. best concert ive been to in ages. did you know he’s 53? he was wearing silk pyjamas and stilettos. hes like a god. too many hits.

anyway, saturday also included a touch of Literature when i managed to grab the just released sequel to ‘wolf hall’ (one of my favourite books ever).

i cant wait to read this, its gone to the top of the bedside pile

the adventures of harry hole are going to have to go on hold for a bit i think (ive read all the ones on the bottom shelf. given im reading stuff like ‘developing emotionally intelligent leadership in higher education’ for work, you will have to excuse me the bubble gum bed time reading).

and speaking of work, a huge week there too. a while ago i hinted about some possible career shifts that would decide whether i stayed here or looked further afield. well, some concrete steps have been made in that direction, with me being offered a .4 research intensive academic appointment in a school which will eventually take me away from policy work and more fully into a research pathway. the job i do now is research based and has research outcomes, but its a project not of my own devising. the paperwork is still to be finished, but i have a start date of june 1. i cant wait.  in the new job, (among other things) i will be going back to historical work, and looking at ways to integrate historical research into health courses (while also staying on my other project for the rest of the time). its also a promotion, so there will be more money as well (not a lot at first, given the fractional appointment to start with). but its the foot in the door i’ve been waiting for, and the fact that it was alluded to a year ago and is starting to happen gives me some faith that my loyalty to my current boss wont go unrewarded.

so i dont know whether you can put all those things happening in the same week down to a big silver disc in the sky but something’s going on. i’ll just take it while i can i think!

k xx

12 comments   |  tags: | posted in books, friends, knitting, personal

May 7, 2012

celesathon

By DrK

i had one of those glorious weekends just past where i had nothing planned, nowhere to be, no one to see. ok, there was some clothes washing to catch up on and dogs to walk

and vacuuming to do, but otherwise it was mine, all mine. i wont have another one like it for a while, so i decided to make the most of it, and set myself the task of trying to finish the ‘celes’ scarf. finishing those mitts so quickly has given me the urge to finish more things, and i wanted to start a hat to match the mitts but, in an odd bout of self-discipline, told myself i couldnt do that until i had finished at least one other unfinished object. celes is the closest other thing to being finished, plus i want to wear it now that it is actually getting cold. so celesathon was born.

i had already finished one half and was about half way through the second, so it didnt take long to get two seperate halves ready for grafting.

i followed his instructions which said ‘make sure both right sides are facing the same way’. he didnt say which way though, and i’ve only ever grafted socks before, and i stupidly started grafting with the right sides facing IN (against each other). i got about 20 stitches in and realised the ridge was being formed along the right (or, in this case, wrong!) side. i had about 10 seconds of wondering whether i could just leave it and switch from there but thought better of it, and started to undo the graft. that really didnt go well.

is there some trick to doing that that doesnt involve watching at least 3 rows unravel that then have to be ripped back, picked up and reknit? sigh.

it took a couple of hours and i nearly cried, but i did it and am glad i did. the regraft looks pretty perfect – you wont see that when its blocked at all.

then i went all the way around picking up all the stitches for the knitted on edging (there are 580something stitches around, apparently), marked the corners then started with the edging. i was pretty chuffed to get around my first corner, it seems to have worked (the little puckering should block out).

and now i am about 3/4 up one side, with one end and another side to go. i added an extra repeat on each side i think, thinking this would be a long scarf, and you know the rule about scarves needing to be as long as you are tall. do you have ANY idea how long it takes to knit on a 5foot (on one side) edging?? right now im kind of glad im as short as i am.

this is a really beautiful project, the yarn is bluesky alpaca silk which really is the most beautiful soft yarn, but of course its written for a fingering weight yarn. the BSA is an 8ply. so what i had thought would be a scarf is now, with the edging and blocking, going to be a somewhat more substantial wrap type thing.

still, one cant complain about being draped in ruby coloured alpaca silk, can one? i hope to have this finished by the end of the week. wish me luck.

k xx

11 comments   |  tags: | posted in knitting, lace, WIP

May 1, 2012

finishing things

By DrK

i feel like i have just emerged from a very long tunnel into the light. this last couple of weeks in particular have been supercrazy. at the time you just get in there and do things, but when its all over you realise how crazy it was and how many other things got neglected. like housework. and washing. and even, at times, the dogs. i wasnt home much last week with long days at work and then long nights of singing practice and choir rehearsal.

on that note (haha) we finally made it to the performance on sunday afternoon. i was in the front row of the choir on stage and got to look at javier, the guest baritone soloist, a lot.

he was cute, a total diva, but boy can he sing. this was the stage set up just before i had to go backstage and warm up.

the choir started the show (an afternoon of mozart pieces) with ‘ave verum‘, which we had learnt by heart, then there was an hour or so of arias, duets and trios and orchestral pieces from a number of mozart works, performed by the soloists and a small chamber orchestra. the soloists were superb, especially the mezzosoprana anna yun. also, beautiful! (she walked past us on the way out and we muttered about mugging her for her dress). then we had an interval, then we all came back on to do the entire Requiem mass. it was great  – a few glitches with some of the instruments and the timing but really, the choir sounded great and we had a great time. which is the most important thing really. a few of my favourite people came to watch and we had coffee and cake after and it was really great to have people come and see us. we start rehearsal next week for a ‘wollongong at the proms’ kind of thing. a bit of a change of scene. i will miss the mozart though. it was really hard to learn but it was amazing to sing and is still buzzing around in my head. i was pretty anxious about performing though, i slept like a baby sunday night when it was all over!

the whole rehearsal and concert anxiety thing came hot on the heels of the guild display organising. everything seems to have finished up ok, i have some items i need to post back to people tomorrow. i just havent been able to face them before, if you know what i mean. i had a moment of weakness at the end of the display where i thought of taking on a more formal role within the guild, eg, exhibition co-ordinator or webmaster. but i’ve decided not to, at least not for now. im in a bit of transition at home (there has been a hitch to the housemates moving out plans but hes on his way, its just a matter of when now), and i have a HUGE few months at work coming up, including the conference in baltimore, a conference in brisbane and a govt talk fest in melbourne, all within 6 weeks of each other. plus there are major structural changes happening across the institution and whole heap of scrambling to do about project deadlines and future career trajectories.

and really, while i enjoyed being busy, i think i just want some time to BE for a while. to not have a million things zooming around my head and not knowing what i’ve forgotten today. to not have to rush here or there or worry about fitting everything in. to not have cloths endlessly piling up on my bedroom floor! and most importantly, time to knit.

it turned sharply cold here last week (its eased off again now) and my hands were cold and i decided i needed mittens. i’ve never made any before, and i knew i wanted to use this yarn,

some sanguine gryphon ‘bugga’, a lovely gift from rosered. so i looked around and decided on cranford. i’ve always liked them, even more so having met their truly lovely designer when she visited sydney a couple of years ago. the only thing was i didnt want lace all the way around. i want to wear them when im out and about, even out in the paddock with sheep (i have at least two more trips for that planned this winter) so i decided just to do the lace on the front of the hand. i whipped up one really quick, in a single day at home watching season five of ‘friday night lights‘ (i miss that show. i miss tim riggins in particular).

then it took me a few more days, including this last saturday spent at knit camp

(i didnt stay over because i had rehearsal and then the concert)

and finished them up yesterday.

because of the modification involving the plain on one side

i had to swap the pattern needle around to make sure the thumb was on the opposite side. so for the left hand i knit two repeats of the pattern (over 20 stitches) on needle one, the thumb stitches on needle two and the plain on needle three. then for the right hand i swapped that around,

so i started with the plain, then the thumb, then the pattern. i think they turned out alright!

actually, i love them. such an easy quick pattern, beautiful yarn, a perfect fit. im going to make an ishbel beret with the rest because it kind of matches, then im going to make another pair of cranfords slightly longer, with pattern all the way around, in that gorgeous sundara ‘red roses’ petite sock.

after i finish the ‘celes’ scarf of course. and the ‘flaming june’ cardigan. and the ‘line break’ shawl……

k xx

11 comments   |  tags: , | posted in friends, knitting

April 22, 2012

half measures

By DrK

its a bit of ‘in-between’ days here right now. the weather seems to be attempting to resuscitate the summer we really didnt have, but i think it should just give up, it was cloudy and grey on saturday (perfect beach walking weather)

and is again today. i deliberately just took miss possum to the beach on saturday. i need to get used to it just being me and her for a while (i have a new puppy ordered – a working border collie (as opposed to a show one) – but it wont be available until late in the year). next saturday the human male moves out, and a week after that the two canine males go to join him. its not like i wont see any of them ever again, we have regular meet ups planned and sometimes the dogs will come back here for weekends. and i can go see them whenever i want, they’re not going far. but it will be funny with just me and my girl here. i think people are right, i am kind of nesting, and it helps that winter is coming (thank you george r r martin for changing the significance of that phrase for me for the rest of my life). i am a bit sad about the impending changes but i know it will be ok. i have lots of other good stuff happening i need to focus on, like choir rehearsal tonight, which will be the first time we sing with the orchestra before sundays performance. i may have picked up some tickets to see his purpleness in concert (turns out a whole heap of knitters are also fans, so its going to be quite a night!)

and theres lots of interesting things at work happening (kicked a few big goals last week in terms of recognition for the current project/s and discussions about future career direction). also, now that the guild exhibition is over i have time to knit again! i am desperate to finish something that i can wear soon, once the wind turns southerly here and comes in over the ocean, well you need to be well wrapped. i remembered that i was nearly halfway through the celes scarf, in the most beautiful bluesky alpaca silk, so i pulled it out and got back to work

i finished the first half and am well on my way with the second

these two halves get grafted together then you knit on the border. if i just stick with this for a while it will be finished soon, and then i can move on to other things. i am trying to work from my list and stick to projects and yarn already assigned but i may have been distracted over the weekend by some shiny things:

the sundara on the left is ‘petite sock’ in the special ‘red roses’ colourway. there is over 800  yards there, so thats looking like something other than socks! or socks plus other things. it feels almost too good for socks. the mad tosh eyre light in the middle is in ‘raspberry’ and ‘tart’ (my favourite colour of hers) and im thinking scarves, but they might go in the stash for a bit, and the two lovely dark skeins on the right are some knitabulous supertwist merino. im thinking that will be a windward.

what am i doing buying more yarn, i hear you ask? well the sundara has been on order for a while and just arrived this week, and the other beauties came to me via a destash party held on the weekend.

i managed to sell about as much as i bought, so it doesnt really count does it? i also made cupcakes for said party. red velvet ones to be precise.

i wanted to make them from scratch, i havent done any baking in a long time given the house is mostly a flour and sugar free zone these days. but i figure if you’re going to splurge you might as well do it properly.

they were fantastic.

i used the recipe from the magnolia bakery in NYC. why is this significant? one, its the worlds best cupcake shop. two, i was going to be there in june but now am not. yes its very sad, but ive had to cancel the NYC part of my american june trip. it was just going to be too expensive and i have other things i want to do this year (staying debt free being one of them) and there didnt seem to be much point in being in NYC if none of my friends could come and i would be scrimping on money the whole time. so i am still going to baltimore for a week but it will be mostly conference time now. see how sensible and grown up im being?

but really, in keeping with the title of todays post, im mostly only interested in doing things properly these days. i didnt buy any yarn on the weekend just for the sake of it, i stuck with things i knew i really liked and would wear. im not buying any yarn for garments over a 6 ply for me anymore, i know they just dont look right. and if i make a mistake in my knitting now, i rip it out. near enough used to be good enough for me, but its not anymore. im finding this attitude drifting through to my work as well. the more responsibility i get given, the more confident i get, and the more i want to do things right.

i feel like i owe that to myself, these days.

kxx

9 comments | posted in friends, knitting, personal, yarn

April 15, 2012

tidying up

By DrK

if i ever did take the plunge and move on from here, there is one thing i would miss very badly, and its my cute little house. even though its not in a great location (busy road), it still makes me happy everytime i walk in the door. i’ve been doing little bits and pieces to it lately, partly i think because my house mate looks like moving out soon. see how i dropped that in real casual? its not really casual. it has the potential to be traumatic, given that, as some of you know, my housemate is actually my ex partner, who i’ve lived in a house (of some kind or other) with for the last 18 years, give or take a few months before we actually moved in together, and the three months when we split up and i moved down here on my own nearly 3 years ago. he moved back in with me, as friends, to go back to uni, and now he has a new partner and they’re looking at houses. i dont really want to think about how that makes me feel – sometimes really sad, and other times, most times, like im happy for him and happy for him to go. especially when he comes home and critiques the way i did the washing up. and we’re not even together anymore. sheesh.

but anyway, i am looking forward to having my own space, and you know i think thats what part of the last post, and the feeling in the country, has been about, just really wanting my own space. maybe my desire to move away wont be so strong when i have my whole house back. at any rate, i am enjoying pottering around and making the house feel a bit more like me.

like, for example, doing something about my yellow-walled bedroom. i posted about this a while ago too, after a trip to ikea.so  after guild yesterday, my ikea-enabling-pixie and i dropped into the big swedish warehouse

and i picked up a few things i had my eye on last time for my bedroom. remember what it looked like before?

now it looks like this.

just a subtle shift, but the extra colour from the new cushion and quilt cover really lifts it, as does putting the two cards i have been hoarding from my visit to the victoria and albert museum a few years ago, in boxes on the wall.

see, i put a bird on it!! i think the cushion in particular does exactly what i want, tie the bits of red, blue and yellow together without looking like a circus tent.

and hello ikea bargain corner, i picked up the little bed side table for only $69. i had originally wanted the red one but they were all out, then we saw the black one in the bargain section, and it was all mine. and assembled! i think the black actually works really well under that rothko print.

and this morning, i picked up a pot plant for a corner of the lounge room.

that corner was empty before, and one little thing like a plant has made a big difference. and yes, that is new  yarn on the table.

its actually this:

holst garn wool cotton from suzy hausfrau in shades of blue and grey. i think it will be a ‘colour affection’ shawl, but first i need to finish that celes scarf in the gorgeous red bluesky aplaca silk before it gets any colder.

and further on the moving/job front, after an initial stress head meltdown, i had a good week at work with a few things happening that reaffirmed how important i am to my boss. over coffee with missfee yesterday morning before guild, with the help of the sugar bowl and salt shaker, i worked out a strategy for how to position myself in the coming changes. if it doesnt work out in either of my two preferred options, then i know it will be time to move on.

in the meantime, im slowcooking my first bourbignon of the season.

oh i love autumn.

kxx

9 comments   |  tags: | posted in personal, yarn

April 11, 2012

can you frog your life?

By DrK

its been a big week. the guild display was all set up in time with everything just right.

i went up and ‘personned’ the stall on opening day and since then i’ve left it to others to have a turn. im happy with how it turned out, would have done a few things differently, and wont be volunteering for anything like it again for a while! i think sometimes the quickest way to kill your love of your hobby is to get involved with the ‘back end’ or organising of it. i wouldnt want that to happen to my love of knitting!

on good friday i got in the car with my dog and drove a long way north. i stayed in a cute caravan park that had chickens

and a shady spot for knitting

and then i spent the rest of the easter weekend under this shed

herding sheep with my dog

and knitting some more

possum and i had a great time. we improved a lot over the weekend. i’m working up to trialling again in september, although just thinking about it makes me nervous. there will be more trips away between now and then to get it right.

while i was there i thought a lot about how peaceful it was surrounded by the big open spaces with the autumn trees

the cool crisp sunrise

and the spectacular sunset.

i thought about how this showground was entirely different to the one i’d just left behind

and how i really really didnt want to come back to the city. an old phd mate who is working now at the uni near where we were came to say hi. i spent a while talking to him and his lovely wife about city vs country, academia vs life, stress vs contentment. we talked about some possible job openings in the next year or so. things are changing where i work now. i dont know how they will play out for me, i dont know whether i want to be a part of it. and i really dont want to live here anymore. being in wollongong, working where i am, it was a mixture of chance and forced circumstance. i dont feel like i had a lot of choice. but now i realise i can choose any path i want, its up to me.

people probably think im crazy but i spent my last 5 years of high school living up north. i miss it, even if its a long way from anywhere

i miss the wide open space and the really cold winters

i mostly just miss the peace and quiet. so im seriously thinking about frogging my life, as rosered put it.

not right now though. right now i just need to go and knit for a while!

k xx

15 comments   |  tags: , | posted in dogs, personal, travel

April 2, 2012

show time!

By DrK

despite the fact that i am organising and running a massive all day workshop at work on wednesday with a visiting american academic, almost all of my time and head space for the last couple of days have been consumed by the organising for the sydney royal easter show ‘fabulous fibres’ feature display. the knitters guild are one of three guilds to be featured, and we really only have one quarter of the large display area to cover, but it turns out organising 84 volunteers over 2 weeks,

as well as the display items and related infrastructure, new signage and brochures, and the actual display itself, takes quite a lot of work! but we’ve  had a great team of helpers, especially ailsa with the roster and ticketing and jane with gathering items from the archives and helping with set up on saturday, as did alison and then zena on sunday and a wonderful graphic designer beth who’s come up with fantastic new signage and brochures. and then of course there’s the actual putting it all together, which happened over the weekend, thanks largely to missfee.

this involved getting up to sydney very early saturday, picking up fee, stopping for coffee, picking up a quilting frame, strapping it to the roof of the car, getting inside the showground and tipping everything out on the display area and trying a few different combinations then making a list of all the things we still needed. fee went off to work while i did some shopping, then i headed back to roseredville where i tried to knit but ended up playing with matchbox cars instead.

then it was back out there sunday morning in a futile search for coffee (this wasnt it)

and time for a bit of knitting

then back to work with fee and zena climbing all over things and moving things around and a whole heap of bunting.

i cant show you more than this right now

but as zena said ‘everything is better with bunting’. so true.

i was exhausted yesterday when i got home, i only managed a few rows on the cardigan i am desperate to finish before it gets any cooler (but probably wont)

and then this morning i woke up at 430am worrying about all the things we used in the display and all the things i should have asked people for and how are people going to react when they see what we didnt use!

so now i think i just need a cup of tea and some knitting time and then choir rehearsal tonight to try and unwind a bit. opening day is thursday and i will be out there for the day before i disappear up to uralla to play with sheep for easter.

i’ll let you know how the display was received when i get back.

or maybe we’ll just never speak of it again!

k xx

 

7 comments   |  tags: , | posted in knitting

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