Monthly Archives: July 2011

one perfect day

29 Friday Jul 2011

Posted by in dogs, knitting, personal

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i have been really putting in some hard yards at work lately. the main project im working on has passed the data collection phase and now i have the hard work of trying to sift through what i found and rephrase it so it makes sense to other people. this is harder than it sounds, because my target audience this time is the uni executive, and im asking them to think very differently about something. so im doing a lot of thinking, and my head hurts. im lucky to be able to work from  home when i need to, and i really need it at the moment, lots of reading, lots of drawing mind maps.

but all work and no play makes kylie a very unhealthy girl. its one of the constant struggles in my life, balancing my mental and physical needs with work and the needs of others. to be quite honest, my mental and physical health are really the most important, and i copped a hiding from a bad virus earlier this year, and i need to get myself strong before summer kicks in. so ive started taking my walking gear to work and doing a circuit of the campus during my lunch hour, rather than sitting and knitting. i dont like it, but it has to be done. today, the sun is shining, its a balmy 17 degrees, and i made arrangements to meet knitabulous down at north kiosk for lunch.

to get there, possum and i drove down to the beach (about 3 minutes from here), and set off through puckys nature reserve

and down fairy meadow beach towards north gong.

possum loves the ocean, she is crazy for all things water, so she had a great time running, swimming and barking at surfers:

when we were done with all that, we sat in the shade and waited for knitabulous to finish her run

before we ordered lunch,

ate, gossiped, coffeed, then headed back up the coast.

there is no perfect place in the world to live, im sure, but whenever i think i want to be somewhere else, i look at this view and cant remember why. to have so much gorgeous coastline, right on  my doorstep, where my dogs can run free and people are happy to say hi as you pass them on the beach, and the food is fresh and the water clean, well, it doesnt get much better really. with everything bad thats going on in the world, it helps to get out of my head and into the fresh air and remind myselfow lucky we are down here in the antipodes.

of course, i am back among the papers now, and STILL not knitting (im actually quite disciplined when i have a deadline), but i will be working on either of these things later – unst socks, on which ive turned the first heel finally

or adrift, which is about ready to divide for the arms.

and then i will cook dinner, watch the latest episode of true blood (i think its time eric got his gear off) and maybe some football, and i will have had a perfect day.

lucky me.

k xx

weekend at georgies

25 Monday Jul 2011

Posted by in friends, knitting

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once upon a time i lived in the nations capital, canberra. actually, ive lived there twice, once when i left home and went to uni (the first time) and then again when trent and i moved there for his work. i have a soft spot for The Can, there is a lot to like about the lifestyle there, although the people can be a little standoffish. mostly thats because they all work together (public service) or have families, and have already formed groups. it can be hard to get to know people. i started making friends there by going to stitch and bitch groups, but i was very glad when one of my existing friends, dr george, (who i had met through another friend in wollongong!) got a job there and came to stay with us for a while during the week until the job was made permanent and she could move her family down. it was good to have a friend in town who wasnt from canberra and that i could talk honestly with. (canberrans can be a bit defensive about the foibles of living in canberra). now i have left The Can, but george and bertie and james and grace are well and truly settled there. i dont get to see them often enough, so i made the trip down this weekend just gone, and had a lovely time.

firstly there was the weather. it has been raining here for a couple of weeks off and on, so it was great to see some sunshine and to sit in the lovely yard and feel the vitamin D on my skin.

but i really do love canberra in winter. it has proper winters, with snow on the mountains surrounding, and thick fogs in the morning, like this:

it stayed cold all day sunday, i dont think it got above 3 degrees. bertie very graciously let george and i loose sans kidlets, and we went to the old bus depot markets, where it appeared to be vintage day. i grabbed some hot caramel macadamias, and a couple of punnets of my new favourite vegetable kale to put in the garden (i got the purple russian and the cavalero nero type. yum). and, as i am wont to do at the OBDM recently, i got some jewellery, a lovely hand made sterling silver brooch from a designer from Finland.

im going to use it as a shawl pin and a cardigan closer. it almost exactly matches the silver bangle i wear all the time. george picked up the score of the day though, a fully adjustable dress makers dummy for only $75. she has been christened Giselle by bertie’s niece sabrina, who had arrived from germany early saturday morning. i didnt get to see much of her as she was buried under two very excited and loving cousins most of the time!

it was lovely to see james and grace again too. i love having some friends who have kids. it means i get all the fun without all the hassle, i get to find out about the latest lego, and i get cute pictures drawn for me and kisses and cuddles from two little people who call me ‘our kylie’. so sweet.

george and i also managed to finally secure a table at the very groovy and very in-demand a bite to eat, where we crafted

and ate chorizo and baked eggs for brunch.

truly divine. i also knitted some of celes on saturday night while chatting and watching rugby:

on sunday i pretty well had to rip back what id done though. apparently watching the wallabies smack the springboks while knitting lace doesnt go so well. and speaking of sport, i may have shed a tear or two watching cadel wear the yellow in france. allez cadel!

a great weekend, on so many fronts: friends, food, knitting, shopping, sport. hope yours was as good.

k xx

doing and not doing

22 Friday Jul 2011

Posted by in knitting, research

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this is what i am doing

those are four separate project piles. i have a deliverable on each of them within the next month, three of which are peer reviewed journal articles.

this is what i would rather be doing

i bring it to work with me everyday in the hope i will have a proper lunch break and be able to knit a round or four (four being a pattern repeat). everyday i go home with it untouched. at night time its too dark, too cold and im too tired to do anything other than knit on adrift, which is looking really good. then i fall into bed and watch some of Le Tour (allez cadel!) while i read a couple of chapters of songs of fire and ice book four and think about how much i hate the greyjoys.

then i get up and do it all over again. im not complaining, im kicking major goals at work and some really exciting opportunities are opening up. but the knitting, oh the poor neglected knitting.

also, its raining.

you?

k xx

the perfect fit

16 Saturday Jul 2011

Posted by in cardigan, knitting

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i have been thinking a lot about a lovely comment that probablyjane left on the post about my greenfield cardigan. she said that she admired my ability to get a perfect fit in my cardigan, and its got me thinking about how true that is or not, and what i still need to do in that area.

as a big girl, the issue of fit is a serious one. it takes a lot of yarn and knitting to make me a cardigan. i dont want to put all that money and effort in for something i dont like at the end. yet i have done that too many times, and its especially the case when the item doesnt include any shaping! the featherweights,  february lady sweater and liesl are good examples of thinking that boxy shapes made for little people look good on big curves. they dont. they really dont. there is only one FLS i have seen on a bigger girl that looks any good, and shes not that big anyway. so i have sworn off boxy things with no shaping, that are just small girl things with extra stitches. in my recent experience, shaping pretty much always looks better. but the issue for me is what kind of shaping. i dont want to get around in tents anymore and hide away, but i dont like things to be tight and clingy. i need enough coverage to be comfortable and not have to tug at hems and closures all day. this poses something of an issue.

i have two cardigan projects on the needles at the moment that pretty much sum up my issues. one i started almost as soon as i finished greenfield, and its another top down raglan. this one is adrift, knit in slightly larger gauge and yarn than recommended to get a very drapey open fabric:

i know this is going to work because its a top down raglan and i can try it on as i go. i love knitting these types of garments, firstly because theres no seaming! but i do think this is really the best way to get a perfect fit. i always add extra shaping, whether its increases across the bust or back, just to make sure, but i probably wont need to with this one, which is already designed to have extra folds and swing. i like this look too because its quite fashionable at the moment and is really versatile. it feels modern and relaxed and wearing it wont stress me out.

but the other cardigan, well im not so sure.

its ‘leaving’ by anne hanson, and i spent a lot of time in knitty city in new york gathering together as much madeline tosh pahsmina in the now discontinued ‘vintage frame’ colourway as i could to make this. i had this pattern in mind, because its an aline, which is a good shape for me, but wasnt a complete tent either. also, it had some detail in the form of the twisted stitch ‘leaves’ that wouldnt add bulk like cables would. and, its in knit in pieces, which has its own set of advantages in that its easier to knit (ie less like a rug sitting in your lap) and the seaming actually gives shape and stability on a bigger garment. but im worried. im worried that its going to be too fitted and not drapey. im worried that i cant try it on before i finish it. im worried that the leaf pattern is a bit old fashioned for me (i know that sounds weird, but plain and simple means i can wear it with everything. a pattern starts making it occassion-specific). i have measured myself and am measuring as i go, but still, im nervous. i really really dont want to waste this beautiful yarn. im seriously thinking of frogging and trying for something more like this (with shorter sleeves!).

what do you think? im open to suggestions. but i do have a tendency to follow my gut instinct in this kind of thing, and ive been thinking about frogging leaving for a long time now. is it just inevitable then? and have i just wasted your and my time by blogging about it? instead of thinking music, i will leave you with some pictures of the garden i took this morning. its really cold and wet outside and im feeling a bit sad and lonely, like curling up under the doona for the weekend might be a good idea.

instead ive made plans to see the last potter movie tonight, and to knit with people tomorrow.

and really, deciding what to do with your madtosh pashmina is a pretty good class of problem to have. i’m looking forward to hearing how youre going to solve it for me!

k xx

the high life

13 Wednesday Jul 2011

Posted by in friends, knitting, research

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i have been away from home since saturday, but only in sydney, partly for pleasure and partly for business. i’ve been booked to present at a conference for a while, and decided to work it in with some socialising. first there was knitters guild on saturday, where fee, alison and i compared our Unsts.

three very lovely socks! we all stayed back to help with the free ‘learn to knit’ classes the guild offers, we had 18 new people wanting to learn to knit. i can stand up and give lectures and presentations and run classes at uni ok, but teach people to knit? sheesh. i really am not very good at it, its so hard to articulate what we do when so much of it is just habit and muscle memory. it was fun to try though. then i headed back to roseredville for a fantastic spanish dinner, watching of the new torchwood (oh captain jack. swoon) and lots of cycling, watching jane work out the maths so i could cast on a new project, and playing with a lovely happy little boy

sunday i headed off into the city where i checked in to the conference hotel, which just happened to be the sheraton on the park. it was kind of swanky:

i had time for a bath then i walked down elizabeth and phillip streets on a cold and windy but glorious evening,

to the harbour

and opera house

where i met up with kris, fee, snook and kunaal to see bell shakespeare’s production of christopher marlowe’s ‘dr faustus’. this was a fantastic production, the program notes said they used only parts of the play they knew were authentic marlowe, and then they added a whole storyline from goethe’s faust, and threw it all together with a good mix of modern design, costume and theatrics  including a rather sexy faustus in skinny jeans, and a rather sleazy car salesman-like john bell as mephistopheles. it was a kind of donnie darko meets supernatural, thoroughly enjoyable. we got all classy and had burgers for dinner after:

as you do. i headed back to the hotel for chocolate, knitting, more cycling, and finishing the third volume in the rather less than high-brow ‘game of thrones’ books (those lannisters are just downright evil!).

the conference started monday morning, it was a bit of a different conference for me, instead of being about my discipline specific research, it was about a ‘way’ of doing research and teaching called ‘engagement’, where the aim is to get universities out of the ivory tower and more connected with local communities and social agendas. i do community based research, so i was interested in it from that perspective, but im also working on a policy project trying to embed this way of working into university systems, so i was hoping to get some insight into that. and despite trying to hide up the back of the room

i did learn a lot. i gave a presentation to the whole conference body, about 200 people in the room at once, and it went fine but i still thought i was going to throw up before hand. i dont think i’ll ever get used to that. anyway, it was a great conference, i met some really good people, and i have a lot of good information to put in place now. totally worth the hotel bill (footed by my Dean of course!)

but gosh i was glad to leave this morning. yes my room was lovely, but hanging out in the big end of town feels incredibly unnatural to me. i have a very low tolerance for the ‘wank factor’ and a breakfast room full of self important inflated business men, and rude cashed up tourists wore a little bit thin this morning. i am glad to be home in my trackies and slippers, with a dog on the lounge, knitting my new project.

this is what jane worked out the maths for me for, its ‘adrift’ in elsbeth lavold silky wool. i was going to do a hyrbid of this pattern with ‘summer solstice’, because i really like the yoke and sleeves on summer solstice, but ended up just going straight into adrift. im on 4.5mm needles, working towards a drapey, open fabric, for a flowy short sleeved layering garment.  so far i love it, its got lovely short row shaping in the collar and excellent instructions for wrap and turning, so ive even learnt something new there too!

overall, a very productive few days, full of high culture and socialising. and now im looking forward to a quiet rest of the week at home!

kxx

another FO: greenfield cardigan

07 Thursday Jul 2011

Posted by in cardigan, FO, knitting

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obviously im on a bit of a roll with the whole ‘finished object’ thing. it feels particularly good to have this one finished, firstly because its an actual garment and i didnt think i would get one done this year, the rate i was going, and also because winter has hit with a vengeance here, 100kmh winds roaring up off the snow and icy pacific, and i really needed something warm and woolly to wear. and boy, did i get what i asked for. i am wearing it for the second day in a row, and managed to get some pictures this morning:

so here it is, the greenfield cardigan from new england knits , in the berocco ultra alpaca light i originally picked up at looped yarn works in washington DC. they had a whole wall of it, and i fell in love. it was a beautiful yarn to knit with, and its come up really well in the garter stitch after blocking. it did grow where i wanted it to, length wise, so im glad i stopped knitting when i did, and it does get a bit of fluff pill on it, it is alpaca after all, but its really easy to just lift off as i see it. however, i made quite a few modifications to this pattern. i didnt do the neck cast on as directed, i could see from the picture it was already very scoopy, and i might be wide in some places but across the shoulders isnt one of them. so i followed someone elese modifications on ravelry to cast on less stitches and then start the raglan earlier. its worked out quite well, and sits pretty much where i like it.

i didnt do the leaf pattern on the front panels, i actually had an idea to make little pockets and sew them on, and i might still do that because i have two whole skeins of yarn left. i also added slightly different shaping in the body. the pattern says to do some decreases then increases, but i skipped the decreases entirely. i increased under the arms every 8 rows the entire length, and then about half way down i added some back increases to add some swing (every 4th row i think). i didnt want it to be a tent, but i did want flare. i think it sits pretty nicely.

(god i need a hair cut and that is so not my actual colour!). also, i added button bands. i started knitting the buttonholes in to the bodice as directed, but i could see i would need a bit of extra width across the bust, and some stability as well to stop the garter stitch from stretching. so i picked up and knitted 3 stitches in every 4 along both front edges and added three button holes. when i sewed on the buttons tho, the third one sat too low so i cut it off and am sticking with two.

a note about the buttons. they are a present from knitabulous who picked them up in liberty in london when she was there earlier this year. they make a lovely contrast against the black, and go with my winter colour scheme of red, black and grey. they make me smile everytime i look at them!

im really happy with how this has turned out. its not particularly fancy, just a basic black that will go with everything. i wasnt sure about the garter stitch, a bit wary of the possible bulk, but the yarn is not quite a DK so it sits pretty flat, especially after blocking. and the garter stitch with the slightly flared sleeves and the top buttoning actually gives it a kind of classic 50s look. i might not knit this pattern again but i would definitely use the yarn. its lovely and soft and not at all scratchy or heavy, and most importantly, really really warm! im just a little bit happy that its freezing cold and i can wear it lots!

kxx

a surplus of socks

03 Sunday Jul 2011

Posted by in knitting, socks

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its funny how the sock mojo comes and goes, isnt it? at the moment, i am surrounded by fantastic sock projects, and bringing my yarn out into the lounge room where i can see it everyday is making me plan ahead for more. i need some advice about one particular plan, but lets start with a recap. first, some decent shots of the conwy socks on the recipient.

much better in natural light.

he seems to think he is some kind of foot model, and see that little hole on that gusset join? thats the only one, on either pair. of course, it has to show up in the photo, doesnt it?

i am nearly finished sock one of his other socks, the stripey regia kaffe fasset,

so i will try and be good and finish these first, before i start him yet another pair, which i intend to be these:

yarn and pattern made for each other i think.

as for my own feet, well they’re confused. earlier this week, missfee and knitdra and i started our own little nancy bush knit-along, and all cast on the Unst socks.

the pattern says 56 stitches on 2.25mm needles which i just knew would be too small for me. on 2.25 i would never do less than 68, sometimes 72. the pattern repeat is 14 stitches, so i thought it would be safe to go straight to 70 stitches. however, because im a bit of a blonde sometimes (i have a phd you know), i also went up to 2.5mm sticks. stupid. too loose and floppy, no stitch definition, wont stretch to see the pattern. so i frogged that, and cast on 70 stitches on 2.25mm sticks.

perfect. these are going to be really lovely. the yarn is the spud & chloe fine in ‘shitake’ that i reclaimed from the too-small, too-short ‘evening stockings’. i also happened to have um, cough, started those again in wollmeise.

‘ruby thursday’ is the colour, and its glorious. but i do actually want these to be proper long socks. there should be enough in the wollmeise, but im seriously thinking of frogging this as well and starting them in some more spud & chloe, in this glorious red:

and then the wollmeise would become these socks from the latest knitty. however, i also have a gorgeous skein of wollmeise in ‘vamp’ that donna gave me, so i could easily use that for the inlay socks. and the’ ruby thursday’ looks lovely in the evening stocking. but then what would i use the spud & chloe for? can one person sustain two pairs of long socks, and what different pattern would i use?

you see my dilemma yes? guidance appreciated.

k xx

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