Cracking the Whip

UFOs, ten-SHUN!

From the right!

Sahara

Yarn: A gorgeous baby alpaca/silk blend I picked up during our trip to Adelaide last year. Black and soft, soft, soft.

Pattern: Sahara, by Wendy Bernard from Knit and Tonic.

Beautiful design, fantastic sleeves. I can't rave enough about those sleeves; that sleeve cap (pictured, poorly, right) is genius. Body completed; one and a half sleeves and the lace neckline remain. My Sahara isn't going to be as deliciously slinky as the ones pictured on Stitch Diva, but it's going to be soft and floaty.

Fell to the back of the queue when a jaunt to wintry Europe demanded scarves, gloves and hats galore. Then got shoved in a bag and into the stash cupboard when I needed to tidy the knitting shelf. Here's a close-up of the hem:

It was a grand day when I discovered the macro function on my little camera.

Purple Olive

Yarn: Paton's Merino Supreme, in Eggplant

Pattern: The Olive Branch Yoga Hoodie. (It's the green one at the top).

Not sure where the Yoga comes into it, unless it's the cabled symbol on the back. If that's the case, where does the Olive Branch come into it? Doesn't matter. Gorgeous pattern, and an easy knit; easy to fit to size, too, since it's knit from the hood down.

Hood and most of the sleeves completed (sleeves haven't been cast off, because I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them -- also I may narrow them if I get desperately low on yarn again.

I've been pretty good with this one; lost momentum when I got sick and again when I ran low on yarn and got too scared to keep knitting it in case I ran out and had to face frogging the hood (which I've said I'd do all along, if I ran out of wool...I really don't want to). Now that I've received a yarn infusion, and I'm not really sick anymore, there's nothing stopping me charging ahead.

Desert Monkeys

Yarn: Jojoland Quartette, from eBay

Pattern: Cookie A's Monkeys

Oh, how I love these socks. We won't go over all that again, you can go back and read the post if you want. But I love love love them. One sock completed, the second sock simply requiring three more pattern repeats, ribbing and a kitchener cast off. I hope to have them finished by this weekend, which will require an evening of sitting and working diligently. I'm sure I can carve that out somewhere. I'm not even going to post more photos of them, because I know you can look at the previous posts on the matter.

Company AT EASE!

I feel pretty good getting this list down, since it makes me realise I'm a bit more on top of things than I feel. I really want to finish both Sahara and the Purple Olive, because they're awesome patterns and I want the finished products. (Oops, I just remembered there's one more project in the UFO brigade, but I'm not going to blag about because it's a gift for someone -- but there's a looong way to go on that one. That one mayn't even survive to adulthood. Ergo, it doesn't count.) So it's time to push on and finish these puppies; get them off the needles and into the world, and make room for some new projects that I'm trying not to get distracted by.

Time to crack the whip.

Outclassed by my yarn.

A present? For me? How delightful! My yarn arrived from o'er the seas -- traveling first class, no less!

The first class bag of yarn that arrived for me was a result of my panic regarding running out of yarn for Purple Olive. I did a search on Ravelry's Yarns database, and found another Raveler who had a single ball, in my colour, available for sale or trade. A few messages and a PayPal purchase later, and a lone ball of Purple-Olive-to-be was winging its way towards me by the end of the following day.

Good ol' Ravelry. I know I'm hardly the first person to mention that site, but seriously; I mean seriously. That's an awesome site. Jess and Casey, the couple who kicked the whole thing off, have clearly got brains and business sense, and they've created a magnificent tool for knitters and crocheters all over the Interweb. Every time I discover something new about it, it blows my mind all over again. Those guys deserve bags and bags of success.

I can never work out if the best bit is cataloguing all my stuff, or the groups, or the patterns database, or the yarns database...there's just so much to it that it's incredible.

Dis. Aster.

Crumbs.

Spent the day working on Purple Olive, which is going beautifully thank you very much. I'm a bit worried the sleeves are going to be a little baggy after the elbow, so I haven't cast them off. But I was tidying the stash today, and happened to pull out the bag containing all my Purple-Olive-To-Be yarn, and...
...bugger. That's a ball and a half, and I've still got the entire lower body -- that is, everything after the armpits -- to do.

Luckily, I found some skerricks of yarn in some old swatches; I've unravelled them and washed them. They'll be ready to work up tomorrow. And I've found someone on Ravelry who has a single ball for sale, so hopefully I can get my hands on one last ball. If the worst comes to it, I'll unravel the hood and turn it into a collared, zip-up jacket rather than a hoodie.

Random Wednesday!

{Random 1}

I had a flu shot on Monday, and it's knocked me about a bit. One of the things you're supposed to learn with Addison's is to support your immune system consciously. Normally, after a vaccination, your immune system starts chugging away, making the required antibodies to make you immune to whatever your shot was against -- in order to this, it needs a little extra cortisol. The adrenals normally step up to the plate on this one and provide, but mine are stuffed and I have to take extra tablets. I didn't yesterday, and consequently drifted through the day like an irritable noodle.

Today I managed to pull it together and took some extra, and I feel much more alert and useful, but generally cranky. As if it's an insult for people to dream of asking my help (or, you know, expect me to do my job or make my own lunch) when I should really be getting on with...well, I don't know. Staring at the keyboard, there's a job that needs doing.

So! A random post! I wasn't sure how long I'd hold out in the blog department before I resorted to one of these, so that's that question answered (churning through 'em!).

{Random 2}


My Bendigo Wool Mills order arrived, huzzah! This was awesome: following the shocking realisation that I didn't have that much yarn (shut up) available for whim and impulse, I made a few sizable purchases. My Cascade 220 order we've already admired, and now it's the turn of my Bendigo Babies. Look at those balls! Massive! I love those big balls! (That should scare up a few more Google search results.) There's between 800 and 1000 metres of each colour, so that's enough for some little, snug-fitting sweaters for yours truly, which is nice.

I love it when Internet shopping arrives. I love it even more if it arrives one afternoon, after a tiring day at work, the house is just starting to warm up and the Autumn wind is blowing...

{Random 3}

Now that Wintergreen has made her triumphant debut, I'm realising that a scarf does not a winter wardrobe make. I needs me some woolly tops! And that means it's time to turn my attention back to the Purple Olive, who has been resting while I waited for the appropriate DPNs for the sleeves to arrive. And now they're here, and Purple Olive sleeves are zooming ahead.

I'd forgotten how buttery soft this yarn was, how deliciously smooth plain stockinette is, and how springy and light this hoodie will be when I'm done. Feeling the love.

{Random 4}

Turning my thoughts to socks: there's a lot of sexy sock patterns out there, and I'm not knitting enough of them. I suspect this is part of my recent "I don't own any handknit garmets! Holy CRAP how did that happen?!" moment, because the fact is I am wearing through my cheap socks at a rate of knots, and I would like some woolly goodies for cold toesies.

{Random 5}

I am craving sushi like there is no manana. Unfortunately, in order to obtain said sushi, I have to either (a) go into Woden plaza, which is a personal purgatory; or (b) walk to the shops in my lunchbreak. That's been out of the question this week (see Random 1) and so my life is still, tragically, sushi-less. Sometimes life is so, so hard.

{Random 6}

Today is the first day since I got sick that I'll be doing this:

And I'm a bit nervous. I haven't touched her for nearly 9 weeks, and I'm feeling her reproachful glances.

Bad Dreams, Tight Jeans

I don't get bad dreams all that often. I get lurid and bizarre ones from time to time, as well as ones so beautiful and melodic that I don't want to wake up. I sometimes have lovely happy dreams that leave me floating on Cloud Nine for the rest of the day. But I had two bad dreams the other night.

The first was that I was all bloated and sick, and that M had invited coworkers and friends around to give me injections. I was sad, scared and embarrassed. That was horrible. I woke up shortly after with very bad indigestion, which I think may have been related. The second bad dream I had was that I was in hospital again, and my hands had swollen up hugely, but I couldn't get any of the nurses to help me. They kept leading me off into dangerous places (like the drying-out room for junkies, who all tried to get me) and leaving me there. It was very scary.

Of course, they're ludicrous. I knew that as soon as I woke up. We don't need to get our nation's top pyschologists on them. Simple anxiety dreams brought on by a combination of indigestion and memories of my stay in hospital. Man, did they suck.

And the tight jeans? Well, hospital food is terrible, so I was basically mainlining M&Ms the whole time I was there. When I got home, I was feeling a little bored and tired, and so chowing down even more M&Ms seemed logical. And we've had huge servings of curry two nights in a row now, so I feel like I've eaten an awful lot of food lately.

I promise you that this blog will soon get back to its two favourite topics: knitting and cooking. My laptop power cable is brokened, so there are no pictures to upload yet. Have no fear, I'm still knitting and cooking. I'm still working on the Olive Branch Hoodie, in dark purple. The Purple Olive! The sizing is a bit screwy: it goes 34", 38", 42", etc. etc. Apparently bust sizes come in units of four inches. I'm in between 34" and 38", such that neither is much good. Luckily, it's a top-down raglan, so I'm just bunging a few more increase rounds in and making it a bit more accurate. I'm at that comfortable point in proceedings where I think I'll have enough wool, but I'm not really certain. It's lovely wool, though; a springy, buttery merino. Luvly.