Monthly Archives: October 2010

my douglas adams year

27 Wednesday Oct 2010

Posted by in personal

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its my birthday today. i have had a rough couple of days, and even though i had to work today, and am ‘too old’ to make a fuss about birthdays anymore, i really didnt want to have a bad one. its going very nicely, thanks for asking!

it started with a lovely walk along the beach with my family

mornings like this are everything thats good about living here.

then off to work,

where i was bought coffee

and balloons (it was also pink breakfast day, the balloons werent especially for me!)

at morning tea the nice people in my office bought me a cake

i got to put in the request and have it custom made. it was of course, tiramisu. everyone approved. i wandered outside at lunch time to check out the ducks

there is a family of about 10 ducklings here, one of them tried to attack me last week. little bastard. then back inside

to another probably pointless grant application (me, bitter and twisted?)

finally, the drive home,

to see the family again.

is there a nicer present?

i dont think so. we are working on ricco’s flyball training, he runs to get his tug rope now:

and we play for a while, learning to bring a ball over a jump, swapping the ball for the rope:

for dinner we will have pizza and then i will knit and watch glee, and probably go to bed early, because ive been awake since 4am (stupid head). a quiet day, signalling what i hope will be a quiet douglas adams year.

thanks for all the lovely birthday wishes and presents received, and im looking forward to lunches and knitting this weekend to round out the festivities. i do wish the years would stop rushing by so quickly, however!

k xx

for the love of lace

26 Tuesday Oct 2010

Posted by in knitting, lace, WIP

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sorry, no, not a post about a pron star. rather, i may have mentioned yesterday that i am loving knitting lace again. oh yes indeed. i am really feeling the love. its so nice to have my sock, and now my lace, mojo return.

of course, it helps if you pick the right project and the right yarn. without too much thought, i put these two together:

jared flood and wollmeise (hmm, now thats an idea for a movie…sorry, distracted). after my intial circular cast on angst, i am really wondering what all the fuss was about. look how its grown!

you cant quite see the pattern yet, but after the first chart i switched from the DPNs to an addi circular (which is nice and smooth but not as sharp as a knitpicks), and now its flying along:

although not quite right, this picture is closest to the true colour. i cant believe how simple this is really. lovely big charts

with easy to remember stitch pattern repeats. my only problem is wondering which chart to do more times so i can use up more wollmeise. or should i just stick to the pattern and have enough left to make something else? (first world problem or what!)

k xx

FO: Lily of the Valley Scarf

25 Monday Oct 2010

Posted by in FO, knitting, lace

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for my birthday last year, DrG gave me a very special book, nancy bush’s knitted lace of estonia. its a truly beautiful book, and there is not much in it i dont want to knit. i ummed and ahhed about the right wool and eventually decided that it needed to be cashmere, as per the pattern, and i reclaimed a lovely skein of jade sapphire mongolian cashmere that was one of my amazing 40th birthday presents, and i started the Lily of the Valley Scarf. i had never done nupps before so i wanted to start with something small and manageable. its taken me a while (and it went into hibernation for a while) but finally, on friday night, it was done:

it had a bath and then a little stretch over friday and saturday nights:

and i unpinned it when i got home from flyball training last night. i cant explain how beautifully it has blocked.

it is so incredibly soft and light and warm, i cant wait to wear it! it is as tall as me (which is only about 5ft2):

and the nupps (some of which were a bit dodgy) have come together just so:

details are: lily of the valley scarf by nancy bush, knitted with jade sapphire mongolian cashmere in bluebood red (none of these pictures do justice to the colour, which does not have the slightest bit of pink in it!), on 3.5mm knitpicks options (short cable). i made one modification only, because i wanted it longer and thinner than the version depicted, so i did some maths (shock horror gasp) and cast on 20 stitches less (43 instead of 63) which meant i didnt need to do any of the lace pattern repeats, i just knitted across as it was charted.

this really wasnt very hard at all, and once i got the hang of the nupps it flew along. the yarn is the most wonderful stuff i have ever knitted with, and im pretty sure this is the most beautiful thing ive made so far. i cant wait to wear it in a new york winter! but more than that, its completely rekindled my love of lace knitting. more about that tomorrow!

k xx

going round in circles

23 Saturday Oct 2010

Posted by in knitting, lace, WIP

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i ran into a slight hitch with the whole ‘casting on a new lace shawl in wollmeise’ thing: the dreaded circular cast on (insert threatening music here). ive never done one, and didnt really realise what was involved. the first thing i did was sit down with Victorian Lace Today to try and work out their version,

and i could get the first part, but that was about it, so i switched to emily ocker’s from knitters almanac,

and i could do the first part there too but then i couldnt get the second and third loops to actually appear on the hook. obviously, i was missing something. so i scoured the trusty internet and found a youtube video for emily ocker’s cast on, and i could see most of what she was doing, but she skipped over a couple of really crucial points and i just couldnt swing it. by then i was in tears of frustration. 2 hours of precious knitting time, gone. trent tried to help me even (there was a crochet hook in his hand, i swear) and i think he would have got it actually, but then the whole transferring to DPNs opened a whole other can of worms.

finally, i appealed to the social networking universe and thanks to shelley and tia, was directed to this link at theresa in norway, who thankfully had explained how to do it step by micro step, with some little tricks, and still photos rather than a video which is just so hard to deal with when you have needles and yarn in hand.

finally, a circular cast on was born:

thats as far as ive gotten, i was too scared to touch it again.  so i spent last night finishing the lily of the valley scarf:

i have just finished grafting it together, and will try and block it this afternoon:

on a side note, todays pictures are courtesy of my second early birthday present, a new camera:

(yoghurt container included for scale!). its from trent. its soooo great, i just love it. our old nikon coolpix must be about 8 years old and is falling apart, and i cant take his big nikon digital SLR to the US, and this one fits right in my pocket. it takes great pictures too (though i am still learning about all the settings). i tried to capture the storm that just rolled in:

not quite, but you get the idea. you can expect to see plenty more picture heavy posts in the future!

but after i have a little lie down for a while. who knew knitting could be so stressful?!

k xx

the sad story of the missing wollmeise

21 Thursday Oct 2010

Posted by in friends, yarn

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once upon a time, an unassuming aussie girl married a german prince. they settled happily in australia, but every couple of years she travelled back to germany to visit with the prince’s family in their quaint little village. everytime she returned, the girl bought with her strange bundles of balls of wool, mostly from a company called regia, and because of this she soon became known lovingly as the german fibre whore.

on a recent trip, our heroine decided to stray further afield from the green pastures of regia sock yarn, and travelled to a little village in lower germany called pfaffenhoffen to visit the legendary queen claudia in her castle of iron and wool. our heroine had a list of things to buy from the german fibre queen, including 6 skeins of various colours for her friend drk. there was much to and froing, much angst about colour choices, and finally the following items were acquired on my behalf:

2 skeins of lace, merlot and maus ault

and 4 skeins of sock and merino. our heroine, under instruction from me, posted these items, partly so theyd get here quick, and partly because i didnt want to weigh down her own baggage. the sad story is, they are yet to arrive. its been well over 6 weeks since they were posted. this little postcard was mailed on the same day (10 Sept) and from the same place,

and it sits on my mantlepiece, mocking me. a monty-pythonesque conversation with australia post (me: ‘a friend posted me a parcel and it hasnt arrived’. them: ‘we cant track stuff but if you give us the article number we can track it’. me: ’1)make up your mind and 2)how can i give you the article number of something that i didnt post???’) ended with the assumption that given freight constraints on aircraft these days, its likely to have gone seamail. hello? 21st century anyone?

anyway, its not here, and i was sad. until yesterday that is. not because it arrived, because it hasnt, but because my dear beloved germanfibrewhore friend sent me a package:

it contained one of her own skeins of merlot lace that she bought at the same time (plus some yummy german choccies).

she knew i was pining, and was itching to start something lacy and wollmeisy, so she has forfeited her own on my behalf (i will give her my merlot when it finally arrives). thank you george, youre the best! the colours in this merlot are amazing, though for the life of me i cant get it to photograph properly.

but you who have seen it know of what i speak. and even though i havent finished the lily on the valley scarf (i have only the 16 row border to do now) i couldnt help but spend a good hour winding it up into a ball last night:

very careful and very slow i was, but i neednt have worried, not a single knot, not a single tangle. (let me just say that again. 1700 yards of lace weight and no knots. 50g of jo sharp DK, two knots. screw you jo sharp). it made the hugest yarn cake:

in the most mouth watering colour.

its going to be a girasole. i shall cast on tonight. but lest you think i am a fickle fibrewhore as well, im still thinking of those six skeins, out there somewhere, maybe sitting on a tarmac, or lost in a warehouse, or bobbing up and down on the vast pacific ocean.

my poor lost little wollmeise.

k xx

SHOESday: two for one

19 Tuesday Oct 2010

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whats this, two posts in two days? and after id just finished complaining about how much i was working! this one is not my fault though, i have been pressured to do a Tuesday Shoesday post by someone who has a thing for shoes. i dont buy shoes often enough for this to be regular feature, but i struck a bonanza this weekend, so here goes.

on the way to and from the flyball comp this weekend, we kept passing a rivers superstore in ulladulla.

they used to have one here in wollongong but it closed down, unfortunately. so after a leisurely training at milton dog club on sunday morning

we headed back to ulladulla to do a little bit of shoe shopping. i really need sandals. its warming up and i have dodgy feet and i need to wear shoes that are supportive and functional to walk in (its a big campus)  but that dont look like i just stepped out of a nursing home. australian womens summer shoes are usually hopeless in this regard. i have had some success with rivers shoes before, and i was very happy to find these:

they have a slight heel each. i dont usually like slip ons but the red ones have good thick straps that keep the feet in place

and the black ones have a lovely little strap at the back.

i like the fact that these are not too daggy. they are extremely comfortable and fit really well. but best of all, they cost me $54. not each,  but for BOTH! thats right, two pairs for less than the price of one. nice huh? of course, its not warm today. in fact its raining and feels like winter again, so im actually wearing these:

one of these shoes cost twice as much as those two pairs combined. i do love them though, ive worn them heaps this year and they are wearing really well.  sometimes its worth paying extra for the long term quality. speaking of which. when i got back from my walk around campus this morning, this was sitting on my desk.

its my birthday next wednesday, and it looks like the celebrations have started early. it was from my sister:

squeeeee! it is perfect!

a lovely new black leather handbag! exactly what i wanted! i am very fussy in the bag department, and my lovely sister has schlepped all over sydney with me on numerous occassion looking for just the right thing (i am still using the crumpler we got last time we went shopping). she has obviously taken notes, because its pretty much what i would have chosen for myself! its got pockets and an outside zip for easy wallet access, but its big and roomy enough for knitting projects. its lovely soft thick leather, with big silver hoops, and its going to look perfect strolling the streets of new york. i had resigned myself to taking a backpack because i dont have a nice functional handbag. but now i do! weeee! thank you lovely.

it came with a beautiful card:

(which reminds me of anesthesia the rat-speaker girl in the book im reading at the moment (neil gaiman’s neverwhere), which is very cool, and it has an even cooler specially written birthday poem inside. this is my favourite line from sisters poem: “blessed in sisterhood i be”

me too!

k xx

ode to possum

18 Monday Oct 2010

Posted by in dogs

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so you know how i have dogs right (shared with trent), three of them at the moment, to be precise, and how we run around the countryside doing all these dog sport things, and how one time, earlier this year, we went to do a flyball competition down near ulladulla and i fell over and fractured my elbow? well, we went back there this weekend just gone, to the same place, and i ran possum all day and i didnt fall over, and i had a great time.

but this post isnt about me, its about my amazing dog. i know some people out there arent into dogs, and some people dont understand how much they are worth, how much pleasure they bring, but when you dont have kids, wont ever have kids, dogs are sometimes the only things that make life meaninful. and this one, my little possum, is something else.

you can read about her breed, and her background, here, but i just am so full of love for her today, i thought she deserved her own post. she worked so hard this weekend, and she hardly ever gets recognised for the work that she does, how fast she flies up to the box to grab the ball

how high she jumps on the way back

how she never tires, how she races at 100% all day, how she knows exactly what’s happening, how she listens to the starting lights, how she plants her feet in the ground for grip when its her turn to run, how she pays no attention to anyone except me and the ball and the tug rope. how she never ever makes a mistake. she is a testament to the soundness of breeding dogs for their working ability not their looks, and she is a testament to trents training. she is patient and good natured

she is loving and affectionate

she is my princess. my possumpants.

thanks for a great weekend poss

k xx

how long is a piece of string

15 Friday Oct 2010

Posted by in knitting, personal, WIP

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i am blogging from work today, i have a deadline of this afternoon but i am tracking pretty well, so i thought i would take the time to write a quick post (hopefully i will also get some time today to read other peoples posts! google reader is getting a bit backed up!). and we are headed down the coast again tonight for another flyball comp and i wont be back till sunday night, so i’d best get on with it.

firstly, i have had my hair cut. so what, you say? well, its been a year. thats right, a whole 12 months since i stepped inside a salon. my hairdresser natalie even squealed ‘where have you been and what have you done to your  hair’ when i walked in. this is what it was looking like:

just stupid long really. it mightnt look it here but its very thick and theres lots of it. its been fun to grow and see it getting longer, but you know its too long when you put it in a ponytail and get a headache. so today it looks like this:

a bit darker, a bit shorter. i love natalie, she is not afraid to chop into curly hair and she puts lots of layers in and strips a lot out, but manages to keep it still kind of long.

im pretty happy with the colour too. and she sells that magic moroccan oil stuff. if you havent tried it, and have hair that tends to frizz, get thee to a hairdresser now.

its taken me a while to realise that there is a point at which hair is too long, and i am still having trouble figuring out when is a scarf too long. this is the lily of the valley scarf that i am working on, in the amazing jade sapphire mongolian cashmere,

and my intention is to have this as something nice to wear at the conference in washington, with my otherwise standard black conference outfit. i made it one repeat thinner, because according to the specs in the book, i had about the same yardage, and the book said that the wider version used every last inch of yarn, and i like my scarves a bit thinner and longer. but this is the ball that just keeps giving, and i need to know when to stop. so i dug out the crack scales (this is the single most precious knitting gift ive ever been given, its made me into such a better knitter!) and weighed it so far

and then i weighed what i had left

and then i tried (stop laughing down the back) to weigh the border

because i want to use up all this yarn but still ensure i have enough for the edging. i think i can get another couple of chart repeats, and then the edging, and then surely it will be long enough. you cant have a scarf thats too long right? not a cashmere one anyway.

k xx

garden detective

11 Monday Oct 2010

Posted by in dogs

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yesterday i managed to run possum at another flyball comp without falling over and breaking my arm. its now nearly 6 months since i took that horrible fall, and i am almost 100%. my physio would not be happy at my non-compliance with the exercises, and im sure i would have recovered better, and sooner, if i had been more religious about them, but the joint itself is fully healed and can weight bear and bend as good as ever. the problem is the muscles in the inside of my elbow joint which shortened very quickly from being in the sling, and are notoriously hard to get straight again. but i ran possum using that arm for her to grab the tug rope and it only sent sharp jabs of pain down my entire nervous system a couple of times! i dont mind when it hurts, because everytime it hurts i know i have stretched the muscle out a little bit more, and i try and use the arm as much as i can. the first time i had to pass possum onto Wizz again (the dog i tripped over) i felt a bit nervous, but it was all good after that. ricco went into the ring to do some recalls over the jump, and after i initially stuffed it up, trent took over and he went really well. hes coming along slowly, which is the best way to train a flyball dog. otherwise, that’s all im going to say about that comp, we ran a put-together team of dogs who hadnt run together before and it was pretty disastrous, although we all learnt heaps.

we left jem at home with a big bone and when we got home, i discovered this:

sigh. i didnt really expect the pots to get away scot free, a few of them have been snuffled in and this one has been turned out twice.

it didnt take me long to figure out what, and who, the culprit was:

i have been blaming ricco, but perhaps not. it rained overnight so ricco and i went exploring the garden this morning for the other half buried bone.

he found some bromeliads trying to flower,

and i found the first of the new hydrangeas:

this bush received a very violent trimming from Someone recently, who likes to take to the garden with a chainsaw, but it has come back beautifully. i wish he would take a chainsaw to the wysteria, which is now threatening everything else along the side fence, including this cherry blossom which i dont remember from last year

and the bottlebrush (callistemon):

the magnolia remains unthreatened however, and now flowerless, has taken over most of the front garden:

meanwhile, ricco found no more bones, but he did come running for a cuddle:

k xx

vortices

09 Saturday Oct 2010

Posted by in blogging, knitting

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my life is being sucked into the vortex of work. on friday i was at work from 8am until 6pm. i was the last person to leave, and a certain Deanly person may have tapped me on the shoulder like a good girl on the way out! this kind of work commitment is unheard of for me (oh i know lots of you will scoff but i only finished my phd 2 years ago and this is my first real job and when you lose 6 months of your life to the vortex of phd finishing, its nice to just tread water, to breath, for a while). i did have a deadline on friday, but even so, i didnt mind. it was nice, it is nice, to be working so hard, and to be working on things im really enjoying. in february next year we start the process of trying to get my job made permanent and i really want to be in a good position for that. i am not a corporate climber, and i have deliberately avoided a traditional academic path, because i thought this job might be able to take me somewhere, and im starting to see where that somewhere might be. (like washington in december, for example!). so im happy to put in the work now, knowing its going to pay off.

while its nice to be happy at work, it does come at a price. because i have been so busy this week i wasnt able to do my usual overnighter at roseredville, which was disappointing. i only saw rosered herself for what seemed like 5 minutes today at guild meeting, and i didnt even get a proper connor cuddle! i dont get time during the day to skive off for long lunches, or to play endlessly on chat or ravelry, i am way behind on blog reading, and i am getting to the point where i am going to only be able to blog once a week myself. eeeep!

and the knitting is suffering. i have been so tired this week (probably exacerbated by the stomach bug and the start of daylight saving), that i manage only a few rows of the ‘lily of the valley’ scarf every night, before crawling into bed to read a chapter, and crash. speaking of books, i am being sucked back into that vortex as well, which i am actually really pleased about. there is nothing like a phd to kill your love of reading, and because my phd was heavy on the theory, my forays into reading have been of the lighter nature. but i am really enjoying books again, and this is a sample of what i have read this year:

( i have read all the larssons, all the ‘thursday nexts’, and all the southern vampires, three wallanders, and the Book of the Year for me Wolf Hall, not pictured here.). before i started my phd, i read only things with these kinds of covers:

now, im all about the page turning story. well written ones are preferred, (i confess to reading the ‘twilights’ but they made me feel sick, like krispy kreme donuts). currently im enjoying the new jonathon franzen

(although i just read a story in todays paper about this being the uncorrected proof. doh! i was wondering about all those typos!! apparently i can swap it for the edited version as of monday), and i have more gaiman and mankell lined up. i also have to read these two weighty tomes for work,

but im even kind of looking forward to that! weird.  and today, i got a total bargain in the book department. missfee picked me up these treasures at her bookshop of doom:

normally retailing at close to $40 each, look what we got them for!

a very handy addition to the kitchen bookshelf, if i ever have time again to cook properly, that is. and thats not even mentioning all the flyball comps coming up, including a local one tomorrow, down the south coast next weekend, and the nationals in melbourne in a month.

no wonder i feel like time’s flying. less than three weeks and i clock over another year, and in some ways i feel like my life has just begun!

k xx

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