the dirt

In the last week I’ve managed a measly four rows of knitting, and even allowing for the fact that it's the 2ply lace scarf I'm knitting for mum (which I haven't done any work on for months) it was really really hard work to move my fingers and maintain my mental focus, recalling my ssk's from my k2tog's, and get that much done.

The main reason?

We’ve been gardening.
Alot.

Actually, to date it’s been more landscaping than gardening. We’ve yanked, shovelled, raked, dug and bagged a s**t load of old paving, weeds and dirt, and now the backyard has been transformed
from this mess (in March)
to this (on Saturday)
to this (by Sunday evening)

It's like a fresh canvas, just waiting for the grass, deck, new trees and plants to appear (Aha! Not much eh?). So you could say that the real gardening- the playing with plants and green things- is yet to come. The aim is to basically make the most of the space the property has, lift it a notch above the other 2 bedroom townhouses in the area, with a minimum of cost.

The time taken to achieve the transformation so far has been surprisingly quick and the process of working together with Scott has been really rewarding (not without the odd tense moment along the way), but it’s been hard work physically - making up for the fact that we’ve stopped going to the gym. It actually feels good to be using my muscles, and schlepping 3 cubic metres of new dirt (that’s about 4 cubic yards if you’re in USA, or 82.48 UK bushels if that means anything to you..) from the heap in the driveway to the backyard (ably assisted by my new mate Mr Wheelbarrow) was surprisingly meditative.

Of course, now that we’ve started doing something- turning an overgrown unappealing outdoor area into a open, attractive space to relax in- we’re starting to ask ourselves if we should stay here for another year or not... Kath's sad reminder about fulfilling dreams and plans stuck a chord with me here. Again and again I'm realising that it's so important to set clear goals, maintain our enthusiasm and to cherish the journey to get there.

So while we’re letting the dust settle and waiting for the grass to roll up, here’s a few craft related goodies to entertain you:

My final package from my wonderful Better Pal Shobhana
Some scrummy Habu silk (sadly the amazing texture and subtle colouring from teal to rich rust brown don't really come through on screen), even more scrummy organic dark chocolate with chilli (which was devoured within a few minutes of the mail being opened... it smelt soooo good!), and some lovely teas.

Thankyou Shobhana! It's been lovely receiving these treats from you!

I had my suspicions it was her from the start, but she really gave me nothing to go on- I had to ask her to reveal herself in the end because I wasn’t sure. She and Rock Chick did a fantastic job organising this swap- a small group of knitters, some who I knew, and some who I didn't, and (as far as I've seen) everyone entered into the true spirit of the swap. (although I must confess I'm still pulling together the final packlage for my pal... sorry pal! I hope you'll think it's worth the wait!)

The postman also delivered some patchwork set postcards this week from Hillary- go and get yourself some too- they’re divine!

And lastly just for Julia, here’s a view of the side of the French market bag (sort of anyway- it’s a bit hard to photograph) showing the colour changes.

more baggage

Recently my beau and I decided that we want to sell up and buy ourselves a new home (or more precisely, allow a bank to let us live somewhere else while we spend 30 years paying them for the privilege). As a result, it looks like my crafting time will be slightly curtailed for the next couple of months, replaced by more pressing needs such as selecting and planting greenery, deck building, finding attractive but cost effective new tapware and negotiating which colour, if any, we're going to paint the treated pine fence with. All in the name of ensuring someone else wants to pay a good price for the privilege of their bank letting them live here. We're planning to make sure that our new plans won't affect our participation in the shoe making course... only 8 sleeps away to the first session! (feels like I've been waiting forever)

I suspect that when we get to the moving house stage some time in the future, hobbies will be more severely curtailed by packing and storing. But last week, between digging and musing over paint swatches, the French market bag I'm making for my friend K (in return for some of her fabulous hand made pottery) was finished.


The vital statistics:
Yarn: Some 12 ply cherry red knitted together with 2 strands of 4ply pure wool (in 3 different colourways) from Marta's Yarns.
Needles: Some sparkly 8mm addi dpns (kindly lent to me by Catherine) and a 100cm long 10mm silver addi circ.
Pattern and modifications: based on the same method as Knitty's French Market Bag, but I didn't follow the pattern.

I started by knitting a small garter stitch square and then picked up stitches around the edge and started knitting rounds, increasing two stitches at each corner on every other round, until I got bored of increasing. The idea of starting with a square was from Catherine (local s'n'b knitting guru) who'd knitted some socks the same way. We don't call her a guru for no reason. In my opinion it's a fabulously clever trick for the FMB- so much easier than wrestling with 8 stitches on fat dpn's.

I knitted using one strand of 12 ply together with two of the four ply yarns (see the original yarns here). To get some graduation between the colours I used two strands of one 4ply for about.... um... a bit; and then knitted with one strand each of two of them until the first one ran out, and so on.

The whole process was exceptionally unscientific. I have no idea how many increases or rounds I did, but I found I had about 135 sts when I decided to start the handles, and it seemed exceptionally large. To do the handles, I divided the stitches into approximate eighth's, casting of half of them and then knitting up some tapered bands. The handles were knitted a few times- I kept on running out of yarn, so they ended up being mostly one strand of 12 ply with one strand of 4ply.

After some kitchenering (using one of the angled bamboo sewing needles I recently acquired - perfect for the job!) and securing all the dangling ends, I chucked it in the front loader washing machine with some jeans, sheets and clothing on 80degC and went out for a few hours. I came back and it looked pretty damn felted (and the laundry was finished too- bonus!) and ready for blocking over my trusty French market bag blocking tub (I used it for a previous FMB too) and leaving out in the sun to dry.


All in all, I'm pretty pleased with the process -especially my lack of procrastinating and deliberating over the size and colours- and results, although I do have one frustration with it (or rather, with myself): I didn't match the placement of handles to align with the square base.

Now, this isn't a problem (being as I blocked it to a round shape) for anyone except an anal retentive architect who knows that with a bit more thought, and no more effort, it could have been done differently; so that when you look into it when it's empty it wouldn't look skewiff. But I'm trying to just relax and tell myself it's ok, that imperfection is part of life, and that now I've made that mistake once, I won't (fingers crossed) make it again. Time will tell...

Things I liked doing this weekend

It was a full weekend. I knew I was being overly ambitious in what I wanted to do, but I've been pleasantly amazed (yet again) by what I can get done if I have a plan in mind and a sense of direction about what I want to do (As opposed to my usual modus operandi, which involves many thoughts and an inability to focus on one thing at a time, so I dawdle and think to much and don't make much progress). Here's the lowdown:

I went to market. We bought lots of fresh fruit and veggies, deli staples, and enjoyed coffee and a gossip with friends in a cafe there.

I spent a glorious saturday afternoon gardening with another friend. We used to have adjacent plots in a community garden -our lives and living locations have moved on since, and she'd been itching to get her fingers into some real dirt. She worked like a trooper, helping me transplant a heap of plants to improve our front garden and make way for a paved utility area.

Same friend enjoyed show and tell, where I showed her all my recent crafting finds and gifts, she offered lots of suggestions and full of inspiration we're planning a felting afternoon together some time soon. It was great fun showing her all the backtack goodies Stephanie sent me- here's a pic for your enjoyment (minus the chocolate (YUM!) and Martha Stewart wedding mag, which is on the bedside table and was perfectly timed as the very day before a work buddy told me I simply MUST buy one):

The package simply blew me away. The colours are divine, so beautifully coordinated, so well made, so perfect. I really scored with Backtack this time 'round!!

The bag has become my current knitting projects bag- perfect for a couple of small projects- and I've pretty much read the book (and mag) from cover to cover. The book (Simply Felt ISBN1-931499-70-5) is fantastic- a wide range of different techniques, with inspiring pictures and clear instructions. Hot contenders for the felting arvo include a felted pincushion like this one, the organic bowls (shown on the book cover), slippers, or maybe some notebooks.

I finished knitting K's french market bag and fulled (technical felting term you know... I read all about it in the aforementioned book!) it in the washing machine. It's still drying- pics to follow soon before I give it to her next weekend.

I also knitted about 12 rows on my Elfine sock. I also ripped out about 12 rows. I had some brain fart issues associated with the placement of YO's, and I learnt that I know I shouldn't to try knitting socks whilst watching action movies on TV, and how difficult it is to pick up a whole round of stitches when working with 4ply on 2mm needles. So it still looks like this:

Pictures of the two sides of the heel are here and here- after much experimentation and observation (in Noosa), I concluded the trick to getting the pick-up of wrapped stitches (on short row heels) to look the same on both sides (or at least, pretty similar) is how you pick up the wraps. Having said that, I can't remember exactly how I did them off the top of my head, but when I do the second sock I'll post some how to pics.

I didn't bake, but we enjoyed good food, including homemade bircher museli with fresh strawberries (yum! must be summertime) and I tried out a new recipe for dinner one night (a simple lemon butter sauce with panfried fish, from The Cooks Companion).

I slept in on Sunday and went for a walk on Sunday afternoon (I decided the gardening extravaganza was exercise enough).

I visited my friend, a new mum, in hospital, and held her 3 day old beautiful baby boy. An incredible feeling.

AND I finished two more box bags so I can put a few up for sale later today: I'm running late for work already!

Phew!

snap happy

Here's some of the goodies I collected on my travels- more pics at flickr

Bamboo knitting tools (don't you love the sewing needles? will be interesting to try them out- probably for chunky yarn) and some super soft Eki Riva 4ply alpaca yarn (socks or baby jacket?) in soft teal blue, that coordinates perfectly with the current edition of Inside Out (great inspiration on almost every page, so perfect for reading and re-reading on the plane) and my new amigurumi book (ISBN4391130122).

After flicking through the amigurumi book I sent to Carly for Backtack, I'm contemplating trying some crochet myself- this book totally sucked me in with it's gorgeous little picture stories. I think I may be in danger of getting swallowed by my laptop sometimes too.

I also found, in the 15 minutes I spent sitting on the floor, quickly rummaging my way through the bookshelf in Kinokuniya in Sydney, a lovely leatherwork book (ISBN4579107950)- given I'm about to start exploring leathercraft on my shoe making course, I thought a book of beautifully simple and detailed bags wouldn't go astray. It's given me some new inspiration for fabric bags too. (more pics of both books at Flickr)


On the fabric front, I scored these beautiful pieces from a new friend's stash (well, she probably didn't want to keep them after I'd drooled allover them!). They're destined for some bag making I believe.


I picked out fabric for a new skirt and a floral top (this matches a skirt I made last Autumn, which may actually get worn if I finish off the waistband..) at Tessuti. The print is gorgeous- I was tempted to get it in a green colourway too but decided one piece is probably enough for the moment. Ribbon on the other hand, seemed to need to be bought in as many colours as possible...