Pretty bloody happy

This is how I looked when I arrived at the Royal Canberra Show yesterday afternoon, standing in front of the cabinet where my Shetland Triangle Shawl was hanging with a nice blue ribbon attached to it.



Jejune was there ahead of RoseRed and I and she was excited to show me what she'd known for an hour or so already.



My entries were awarded not one but three first prizes in the knitting section of the show! I wrote to tell Julie last night that the piece she designed did so well. I was excited to do that for her.

Having never entered a show like this before, I really am quite surprised. I had no idea how my pieces would rate against others and so this was just a delightful little thrill.

Here's one taken in front of two of the winning pieces, my steeked jacket and my Hemlock Memory Blanket.



To add even more thrill to the afternoon, as we moved around we saw that our friends had also won. Both George and Quilting Mick scored incredibly well, winning prizes in their chosen sections of crochet, sewing or knitting. What a great body of work we'd presented, and seeing it all there on show amongst other beautiful and impressive works was fabulous.

I reckon I'll start thinking about next year's show.....in a while.

The rest of the hot, dusty afternoon was spent wandering around the show. We stumbled across a German food stall and indulged in some amazing sausages.



We checked out the animals such as these goats - in sheep's clothing. No idea what this was about!



I felt sorry for this dude. He was literally panting in the heat. Can't imagine wearing a coat like that.



Before heading home we sought out Kylie and her other half in their dog sport activities. I always wondered what the game of flyball was about, when Kylie and Trent would talk about it. Now, having sat in the sun and marvelled at just how fast dogs can run, I know.



That was a nice weekend. Really nice. Couldn't ask for more.

Bells

Blue to red to sage

Thanks to everyone who pointed out yesterday that another blue cardigan would in fact be my fourth in a row, not my third. How quickly we (read: I) forget. The steeked jacket. Of course. Was it not blue as well?



I wear it often and yet it seems to have slipped my mind as a project. How odd.

Nevertheless, despite some people urging me to give the red alpaca and the Gathered Pullover a go as a couple, that relationship just didn't sit right with me. No spark. No fizz. The red alpaca is going to play the field a little before it settles down. OK, enough with that particular metaphor, stunning though it is.

Sometimes, impulse is best. Right after I posted last night, I went stash diving and came out with some yarn I bought eons ago. From ebay. Haven't done that for a while. Is everyone tired of ebay now? I know I am. Such a painful way to get your fix.

Then the magic occurred. The stars aligned. And my Gathered Pullover was born. In Bendigo Woollen Mills Colonial 5ply. The colour is, I believe sage, not that they make it anymore and not that I ever kept the ball bands way back when. By the light of my kitchen, I think you can kinda make out the pale greeny sageness of it.

I'm happy now. And not only for this, but also for this.

And this.

These were worth coming home a bit early from work for. Not that I knew they'd be there. They just surprised me. Spring is coming and they look so sunny in the dying light of the day. Doesn't that daffodil look like it's yawning, the way it's not quite open yet?

Bells

The jacket does lunch

Today was a special day. The steeked jacket got to go on its first official outing.

I put it on this morning, without fanfare, just, you know, easing into it and stood in the kitchen drinking my early morning tea. Sean spotted me in it and gave me a big hug.

I put on some lovely blue earrings RoseRed gave me in the Box of HappyTM and went out into the chilly world. With a coat on.

This ain't Scandanavia, people. No one in their right mind needs a coat AND a fair isle jacket in May in Canberra. It's cold in the mornings, but not glacial.

And I felt very bulky on the bus. Never mind.

I got to work before most people so took off the coat, hung it up, and waited. No one said, 'wow did you make that?' because no one was there but by the time my supervisor, who is a sometimes knitter, arrived at work I knew she'd say something. And she did.

She stroked and purred and admired. She baulked at the idea of cutting your knitting. And I only pointed out a modicum of errors.

At lunch time, Quilting Mick and Georgie insisted on seeing me for proof that the jacket was indeed being worn. Just quietly, I think they believed me, they just wanted an excuse (as if we needed one) for lunch.

And here I am.


Photo courtesy of Quilting Mick's phone.

What happened today was that the jacket stopped being primarily a piece of knitting and it became a piece of clothing.

It also gave me something to stare at during a team meeting. I found mistakes in the pattern I didn't know were there before today but thought little of them. They are a part of the fabric and I made them.

Is it a stretch to see the jacket, and indeed anything we knit, as a metaphor for life?

Bells

Mistakes, a blanky and some sock yarn

Thanks for so many lovely comments about the modelled jacket! Nettie amused me by commenting with the following:

You do know that every lurking knitter in Canberra is going to walk up to you in the street when you wear it to tell you how fabulous you look. (Oh, did that sound a bit spooky? I didn't mean it to.)

I laughed out loud. Not spooky. Just funny. It's kind of distinctive looking, isn't it?

As far as mentioning the mistakes goes, I really only did so because that project was such a steep learning curve, and took up so many months, that I hope not to forget the mistakes because they'll stand me in good stead down the track when I use any of those techniques again. To say it's perfect means denying that I messed some things up through lack of knowledge or just plain frustration and confusion. They're all things I want to get right next time!

And I still have so much to learn. I looked at other such projects on Ravelry on the weekend, all projects tagged with the word 'steek' and wow, it's among some excellent company. There's an amazing array out there of incredible work and I got a little kick out of seeing my jacket listed there. Not only that, but I felt little tug of longing to make some of the items I saw. I mustn't be too scarred by the process if I could feel that!

In the meantime, I started Sean's pi blanky.

It's much bigger than this now - but this is how it looked when it was born on Saturday morning.

Elizabeth Zimmerman has you do what she called Emily Ocker's Beginning. No idea who Emily Ocker is but it's a pretty cool little cast on she does.

I couldn't get my head around it from the line drawings in The Knitting Workshop. I could see it used a crochet hook, some single crochets and that you moved onto needles after that but it felt clumsy. So that link above is a good one, if you're keen to see it.

And how this thing grows! For maths dummy like me, it seems like pure magic that in the space of a couple of hours, increasing at specified rounds, you could go from 9 stitches to 144 and then 288 and so on.

It's quite plain so far but I'm adding in some simple lacey bits to open it up a bit and really, it's the best TV knitting I've ever seen. It's gonna be one warm lap blanky when it's done.

Finally, here's what RoseRed's Cherry Tree Hill yarn has been up to. She took the comments on board and hung out in the veggie patch on Sunday afternoon.

Here she is with the Thai Bird Chillies

She chose this spot. She thought the red and purple suited her nicely. Not that she'd eat them. She's RoseRed's sock yarn, after all.

And here she is with the now quite enormous Chinese Cabbages. Don't worry RoseRed, I didn't let any of the cabbage moths near her. And there were a few.


And yes, she did go to the pub last week but it was a work do, with only four people there, so she kept herself hidden and there were no photo ops. We decided my team weren't quite ready to deal with the notion of a misbehaving skein of sock yarn!
Bells

C'est finis!

Here is the steeked jacket. I've written loads about it so I don't feel the need to go over all that again (thank goodness, you all say to the screen).

Sean and I headed out for a late afternoon photo shoot. I instructed him to do his best BrooklynTweed impersonation but in the end, I think he did a pretty good job of being himself. I hope you all agree. Note the compost in the background. We've gone for an earthy feel. ;-)

The full length shot.


Now the different angles. The front right panel. With buttons, of course.



The back right shoulder. Not sure why we've gone for so many right sided shots!


The back.

And a dorky shot in which Sean urged me to point at something in distance, but it shows the sleeve seam at any rate, which is I think what he was trying to do.

So that's it. It is absolutely, officially, completely done. It's full of mistakes. Absolutely riddled with them. And I had to steam block the shoulders into submission.

I remember all the angst and I look now and think, you know what? I'm gonna wear it, even though it's full of mistakes. I don't see the ones in the fair isle pattern part anymore (and they're most definitely there). I see them if I look for them but looking at it, they don't really show up. I'm more concerned with some issues around the fit and the way it sits but I suspect that just more of me being angsty. I'm good at that.

Now if the weather would just cool down some more. Not long to go.

Bells

Jacket Sneak Peek

I've just now finished sewing on all sixteen buttons on the jacket. Yes, I made sixteen button holes. When I was in Sydney, this was universally deemed a dumb move but there was no way I was redoing the band.

Instead, we chose small buttons and here they are.


I'm more thrilled with them than I can say. They are the perfect size (now that I've tightened up my floppy button holes!) and they are just the right look. I showed Sean and he said, 'RoseRed has a great eye!' and it's true. She does. We chose them together but she gently pushed me in the direction of these when I was unsure about these or another button.

They're perfect. Thank you for buying them for me, RoseRed. I love them.

I will model the jacket when I am not sitting around in tracksuit pants with unwashed hair! It needs a final press.

Bells

buttons and balls

We are home, Sunday evening, after a brief but stupendously fun weekend in Sydney.

Saturday was spent with RoseRed in the main, but with appearances from the gang, Donni, Shazmina, BrownPants and Black-Dog Knits Nora. It was fantastic to finally meet Nora after being virtual friends for so long and it was poignant to say goodbye to Shaz, who flies out to the UK, possibly for good, next week. Thank goodness for blogs and emails and all those ways we can help keep the world small.

So we met in Newtown and I was introduced to All Buttons. Oh my. A whole shop devoted to buttons. Only in the big smoke. A town like Canberra, sadly, doesn't have the population to sustain such niche shops.


It's a tiny shop and it's CRAMMED with the most glorious array of buttons. There were moments when a button spoke to me and I thought, I need to knit something around that button!

We found a bunch of finalists for the steeked jacket and I had to show one that we tried, but rejected, even though it was so very tempting.


With the steeked jacket being based on Scandinavian techniques, don't you think a reindeer button is fitting?

In the end, we found the right buttons (which RoseRed so generously bought for me as a gift) and when they are attached, I will do a proper photographic record of the jacket.

Sean and I stayed with RoseRed and Mr RoseRed at their lovely home (where I slept again in the same room as the extensive stash and was very well behaved).

We ate at a wonderful French restaurant near their house. The meal was sublime. Sean and I were still talking about the slow cooked wagyu beef in the car on the way back to Canberra today. Excellent company, wonderful wine, fabulous food.

RoseRed and I exchanged 'anniversary' gifts, which deserve a blog post of their own during the week.

Sunday was, after a leisurely morning spent lounging around chez RoseRed, a family day. We headed off to my sister's house for Willem's birthday party.

Here he is, pre-party, wearing the socks I made for him.


See Adele's lovely shiny wooden floors? They are perfect for slip-sliding around on in knitted socks, so we learned.

Later, we went to a place called Hot Tott Cafe where Will was the star of his own fun centre birthday party. A room full of four year olds eating fairy bread and dancing to Hi-5 or some other kiddie music was overwhelming and fun.


The party boy got his face painted as a pirate. Then he got to blow out candles on his racing car cake (beautifully made by Adele).


After cake, Aunty Bells got to have some fun, too.


There was a time when Will called me Aunty Balls.

Who knew it could be so much fun to be surrounded by marauding four year olds and a tonne of colourful plastic balls? I was drowning and it was a riot.

A great weekend. Now I think I just need to sleep.

Bells

Fun things

Thanks everyone for joining me in the sheer joy of having finished the jacket. It's really lovely to feel that sense of wonder and relief. My first few days in a post-steek world have been blissfully filled with very plain knitting. Sean thinks it won't be long before I launch into another major project that will consume my life. I daresay he is wrong.

No photos of the jacket being modelled yet. It was finally dry by Monday, at which point I did try it on and thankfully, it fits. I was a little worried, I have to say, given the crumpled state it was in pre-washing. But it's all good and modelled shots are forthcoming. Possibly tonight.

In the next couple of weeks, I've got to pump out my first pair of itty bitty socks. My lovely nephew, Will, turns 4 at the end of the month and he's after some socks by Aunty Bells. Well, Willem, socks you shall have. After a bit of fiddling and playing around, I came up with what I hope is the right number of stitches for tiny little boy legs. It's more Sullivans Sock Yarn. Adele tells me blue will be a winner.

Also in the fun photos category are these.

Mad, Mad Rachel sent a few of her blogger friends some Valentines Day gifts. Mine arrived rather late, taped up with customs stickers. Presumably they saw 'candy' written on the package and thought they'd explore. Thankfully they thought candy corn wasn't to their liking.

Rachel sent me this because I'd pestered her last Halloween about what on earth candy corn is. Now I know. It's solid sugar, made to look like corn kernels. I kept having to grab them away from Sean saying, 'not until I take a photo!' What you see here is what remained of them. They were yummy, Rach. Thank you!

She also sent me a great book, 2 At a Time Socks. It's got lots of yummy patterns and an intriguing style of knitting two socks at once. I'm going to try. Again, thank you Rachel. You rock!

One last thing, lists. RoseRed has started compiling a list of goals at the start of the month and because I like to do what she does, I'm going to do the same. Just a little one.

1. Knit Will's birthday socks

2. Finish Fetchings

3. Finish Dublin Bay and Donyale socks which were started before the mad rush towards finishing the jacket.

4. Get most of the cotton cardigan I'm working on done (post on that later).

That's all quite manageable I think. Now that aumtum is upon us, I feel it's the right time to tidy up loose ends and get set up for all that cold weather knitting. Hooray!

Bells

FO 2008: The Steeked Jacket

What's it like when a project takes up more than a year of your relatively young knitting life? What happens when you reach the end and you look back?

You think about who you were and what you were doing when it all began. You think about the things that happened in your life over the course of that long period. A lot happens in 14 months. Small and not so small life events occur. New friends are made who change your life. There are good days and bad but most of all, there is change and I enjoy change. I am someone who has always found a sense of wonder in being able to track the course of events and see progress.

When I look at my jacket, I see, not to put too fine a point on it, over a year of my life represented in every single stitch. It's quite powerful for me.

Here's the story.

***

The Steeked Jacket wasn't ever going to be made. Julie, aka The Samurai Knitter, put a call out in late 2006 to say she was going to run a Steek Along (like a Knit Along, except we'd all cut our project, or 'steek' it) and would we like to sign up?

I said no. It was the brink of summer and the thought of working on something heavy and stranded in 35 degree heat didn't appeal to me.

But Julie kept talking about it and one night in December, I dreamed that I walked into a pub somewhere in America and found Julie. I dreamed that I declared I would make the jacket.

That, it seemed, was a sign.

In January, I knit I swatch. Isn't it cute?

And then I was off.



Making the steeked jacket required me to learn many things, including knitting continental style (I worked with both my left and right hand, having only ever knit with my right hand). In the early days, I was brimming with enthusiasm.

I even knit my signature into the hem.

It says HCG 07, in case it's not clear.

I remember in March last year when the next photo was taken, I really believed I was making great progress and would have it done in a few months. A year later, I finished it.

All through the long winter, I soldiered on, regaling blogland and anyone who would listen with the trials and tribulations of what by then was becoming something of an albatross. When would it end? Would it ever end? Sometimes, I even asked myself if I could actually finish it.

I kept putting it down to make socks. In 2007, I made 18 pairs of socks. Clearly I needed the distraction.

In July, the body of the jacket went into an art show as a work in progress. I enjoyed being free of it for a while.


Eventually I made the sleeves and my God weren't they a a saga? I think I ripped out both sleeves at least twice. Julie, meanwhile, was a tremendous support. My fellow steekers in the US and UK, Cindy and Louiz, were steaming ahead and I was feeling more and more frustrated with my lack of ability to get it right.

In October, I put it down to concentrate on Southern Summer of Socks and my Christmas knitting. The break did us both good.

The anniversary of starting the jacket loomed. As 1 January 08 came and went, and people were prodding me gently saying, 'what about the steek?' I took it out of hibernation and thought, well, might as give it one more shot. There were other exciting things I wanted to do and I was never going to be able to leave it languishing in the Unfinished Objects Cupboard of Shame.

I mustered all the strength I could find (I kid you not, I really hated it by this point) and I Perservered. The jacket would be finished.

Eventually, I got to cut it. Wasn't that really the entire point? I knew I'd made it when I reached this point.



On 1 March 2008, I stitched the last hem (hemming is a bitch. I hated that part) and, as Georgie so delicately put it in an email yesterday, I drowned it.


The water, after about 40 minutes, was filthy. This has been dragged up and down the country, to endless Stitch and Bitch gatherings, outside, inside, to pubs, houses and numerous car trips. It was disgusting.

Then I blocked it.


And here it lies, even now. It's not dry yet so there won't be any modelling shots for a few days. But it's done. All it needs now is buttons. I'll find the right ones in time.

I think it's only right to make a few heartfelt thank yous. (Hey, I'll never get to give an Oscars speech, so humour me). There has been lots of amazing encouragement and support via the blog so to all the commenters, with your cheering and prodding, thank you.

To Sean. He is very proud of me. I don't think he had a clue what I was taking on when I said, 'there's this blogger in South Carolina who's hosting this thing called a steek along. I think I'm going to join in.' But the day we spent figuring out the maths on graph paper, I think he began to see. I really didn't want him to be disappointed in me, which is a big part of why I kept going. He'd invested so much time and energy in the project. I couldn't let that be wasted.

To Julie, obviously. Thanks for the opportunity to learn more in a single project than I may ever learn again.

To all the Canberra knitters and bloggers, many of whom I hardly even knew or hadn't yet met when I started it, thanks so much for being there. Even though once in a while when someone said, 'how's the steek?' and I wanted to slap the asker, the interest is in many ways what kept me going.

To RoseRed, who showed up relatively early on in the project. All those emails where we dreamed of what life in a post-steek world might look like really, really kept me going when I was ready to give up.

To Janette, who figured out half way through that I was really struggling. She offered support and kindness and incentives, being a fair isle knitter from way back. See, I made it!

And now, the stats:

Time: 1 January 2007 - 1 March 2008.
Yarn: Bendigo Classic, 5 ply. Ink and silver. 400 grams of each. I have exactly 200g of each colour left over.
Sticks: Addi Turbos, 3.75mm, all the way. From a 120cm circular down to a 30cm circular. I think there were three different lengths used.
Skills learned: Fair isle, two handed stranded knitting, hemming, steeking, lots of maths, provisional casting on, how to make saddle shoulders. I'm sure there's more but they are the main things. I may not use any of those skills again in the next little while, but I've got them now and know that I can do them. Sean says I should make a smaller steeked item so I can make the most of my new skills. I laughed.

So there you have it. It's finished. Now, I get to contemplate life without the jacket. I was still pretty damn productive last year, even when most of my energy was going into this. What I'm most excited about, is seeing how productive I will be this year when nothing I'll be making will take anywhere near as long as this did.

It's a whole new beginning!

Bells

I worked my fingers to the bone

At just a little before 3pm today, all knitting of the Steeked Jacket was complete. As I reached the final bound off stitch, I made Sean pause the DVD and watch me as I snipped the yarn, drew it through the very last stitch, and tossed the 120cm circular needle across the room.

I cheered.

Sean requested that I model it, even though it's nowhere near wearable yet. But wear it I did and we both, I believe, sighed with relief and thought how lovely it's going to look when it's finally done.

During the week, I need to sew the hems and tidy up loose ends. It'll be washed and blocked and next weekend, I'll present it as complete. Until then, just take my word for it.

The Steeked Jacket is done and I have the sore fingers and shoulders as testament to the huge effort I put in this weekend.

We shall not mention the mishap. Oh, ok, we will. What the hell. Look at this.



At the top of the steek, things went awry. I almost threw it across the room (wouldn't be the first time). I've secured it down and while it's all inside the jacket, and I'm hopeful it's ok, I wish it hadn't happened. The near perfect steek moved a little further away from that state and I wish I knew what I'd done wrong. Still, Julie assures me it'll felt in time.

So, that's it. I'll do the proper write up with photos next weekend. Hope you can all contain your excitement. ;-)

I'm off to have roast lamb and a celebratory shiraz. I'll be contemplating my life in a post-steek world.

Bells

Ode to a Steeked Jacket*

(Thanks to the Yarn Harlot for the idea of a letter to a piece of knitting.)

Dear Steeked Jacket

The time has come for our relationship to take a new direction and this is the weekend that heralds the close of one chapter and the beginning of another.

For a long time (14 months, actually, but who's counting) you've lived on my lap, in one of many knitting bags, or at times, shoved ruthlessly in the darkest corner of the lounge room.


But very soon, you're going to have a new abode. You'll live in a wardrobe alongside all my other knitwear. You'll be stored and cared for and yes, you may feel superior next to the less sophisticated pieces, but you mustn't sneer at them. They are not less worthy than you just because they are made from inferior yarn or lack the complexity that makes up your form.

Those earlier pieces were made when I was a new knitter, or when I was less inclined to be adventurous, but they were made with as much love and enthusiasm as was poured into you at times. So just be nice. Be friendly. It shouldn't be hard for you. You've got a great heart and besides, if they didn't exist, neither would you.

But you won't ONLY live in my wardrobe. Soon, you'll have days out.

You'll choose a cute pair shoes, a well fitting pair of jeans and you'll head out into those chilly Canberra days. I can see you on those foggy mornings. You'll be drawn in close, buttoned up and matched with an equally alluring scarf. You'll have a coffee at the markets on a Saturday or a glass of red in a pub. You'll be all silver and blue charm against a dull, grey landscape.

And on those days when anyone with eyes to see can appreciate the beauty of a sunny, Canberra winter's day, you'll shine. You'll be worn with pride and you'll be an example of why being a
knitter in Canberra is such a good thing. We have the winters to warrant wearing projects that took more than a year to make. You'll never be worn with a sense of complacence. It won't be possible. Every time you are worn, the sheer weight of you will call to mind the months and months of work that went into you. All those stitches. All those floats. All the angst and frustration and wonder.

This weekend, dear Steeked Jacket, you will be finished. It's my solemn vow. You've waited too long to be seen and as the days grow shorter and the sun sinks lower, the time is coming for you to finally be what you were always meant to be.

So please, be patient. We're almost there.

Bells


*Title changed from Dear Steeked Jacket at the suggestion of Tinkingbell!

Monday. Sigh.

Thanks for all the fabulous zucchini suggestions in the last post. I'm very keen to try them and with the bounty showing no signs of stopping any time soon, I most likely will get to try many of them!

I started out with a Chocolate and Zucchini cake recommended by Tinkingbell. I made it in my lovely bundt tin which I just adore.


Doesn't it look impressive? Sadly, I think I overcooked it as it turned quite dry. I possibly think that when I was sticking the cake tester in, I should have taken into account that it's most likely meant to be quite moist and shouldn't have kept putting it back in. I ended up overcooking it by about 15 minutes. Too long. The flavour is heavenly. The texture is less so. I shall try again. With all that chocolate, a hefty dose of cinnamon and heaps of zucchini and walnuts, it's a winner.

I started some new socks on the weekend when I was feeling most frustrated with the Steeked Jacket (see below). These are Pomatomus and I've been wanting to do them for ever so long. God Bless Cookie. She's a genius. I chose to use some of Donyale's Burnt Butter, which I think was just made for a pattern like this! Donni is a genius, too.


I had to do something positive, knitting wise. The Steeked Jacket was seriously pissing me off on the weekend. I really don't have far to go at all, but what's left is Not Fun. I'm only working on about 40 stitches, across the back of the neck, but I have to purl and when I purl, I have to do the pattern backwards. Needless to say I get confuzzled sometimes and that doesn't make for great knitting. So I'm taking it slowly. No rush, right? No point in screwing it up at this late stage.

Oh and I have a new avatar. Sean showed me how to take a photo of myself with his new computer and then jazz it up with effects so I look like somebody else. I think I might have found a new way to lose an hour of my life whenever the mood strikes.

Bells

FO 2008: Gentleman's Fancy Socks

Well, by the end of the weekend, I can safely say I'm just hours away from completing the jacket. Both shoulder straps are done. The second one took a fraction of time of the first one and I was so involved in it this morning, that when Mr Darcy emerged from the lake, I didn't even look up! How's that for focused?

Sean has returned from Iron Maiden full of happy descriptions along the lines of 'awesome' and 'pure theatre.' That's apparently what many detractors of metal don't get (so I'm told). It's theatre. All that anger and violence is just theatre.

He said it occurred to him on the train full of metal fans all making their way home last night that he was on the safest train you could ever be on. Metal fans, of which Sean is a fairly typical example, are peaceful, thoughtful, gentle people. I guess it seems to me like they get to exorcise their rage through the music and then get on with their peaceful, regular lives. It kinda makes sense. I still think the music sucks.

Anyway, onto some socks. I haven't actually finished a pair since I picked up the jacket again.

Pattern : Gentleman's Fancy Socks from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks
Yarn: The Knittery in 'Earth' (love it! My first encounter with The Knittery yarn and I adore it! I already have more in the wings, waiting to go.)
Sticks: 2mm/size 0.

Result: They look beautiful but they are way too small for me. How this pattern, which I knit on the specified needles, just as an experiment, is supposed to fit a 'gentleman' I don't know. They're way too small for me and I'm a medium. There's no way they'd fit a regular sized man.

But it's a great pattern and I'll use it again. Probably for Sean.

Since they won't fit either of us, I'm donating them to Can Assist, a cancer treatment facility which has put the call out for knitted socks.

If you're interested in helping out, check out our Southern Summer of Socks blog and you'll find a few posts there outlining the project and how you can participate.

And finally, I got a new job! I forgot to mention it earlier. The day after I didn't get the job I wanted, a director in another area did a deal with my director and I start in a new area on Wednesday. Different floor, different work. It's only a short term measure but it has come at just the right time. Yay!

Bells

Saturday bliss

Sean and two of his younger brothers left this morning to drive to Sydney for this:


(I had no idea Iron Maiden had so many images of death on their album covers. I tried to find one that was less, well, deathly, and couldn't).

Meanwhile, I sat down to view this:


It's the movie Once. I saw it last year and have obsessively listened to the soundtrack ever since (it's about as far from Iron Maiden as you could get, by the way).

Boy meets girl and things don't go the way of usual boy meets girl movies. They sing some fabulous music in the meantime. I've listened to the soundtrack so much since I got it that I pretty much sang along with all the harmonies while working on this:


See that? It's the completed right shoulder. Five hours of, give or take a bit of time taken off to:

a) rip out mistakes
b) check emails
c) boil the kettle
d) put on another load of washing; and
e) cover my grey roots.

But it's done and I get how it's all gonna come together now. I really get it. One more shoulder strap and a funny bit in between and that's it.

Oh, except for the button band.

I really don't believe it.

Now I'm off to the Multicultural Festival in town with Olivia and Kuka and we're gonna eat all sorts of ethnic food and undoubtedly have a few drinks.

I think I deserve it.

I'm sure Sean's going to have a ball at Iron Maiden, but frankly, I think I'm in for the better night. But no doubt he would say the same. As he should.

Bells

somewhere someone must know the ending

Thanks everyone for the huge applause on the jacket. I loved all the claps and cheering. It meant a lot!

I'm happy to report that I'm starting to overcome the shock of actually cutting the jacket. Even the next morning, I woke up feeling anxious and kind of avoided it. But Sean made me look at it and see that yes, it was really all fine, apart from a few of those little loose bits which I don't think will prove to be too troublesome if I'm careful with them and fix them well.

This doesn't mean I've touched it. It's still sitting on the dining table (clearly our dining table is more often used for stuff, rather than eating at!) and I plan to have a go at it on the weekend when I've got a decent length of time to do so.

I will actually be spending the vast majority of the weekend alone because Sean is off to relive his youth at the Iron Maiden show in Sydney.

Isn't he multi-faceted? Fabulous knitting supporter, cook, sock blocker maker AND metal fan. Me, I'm not so into the metal but hey, I used to go out with a guy who loved Mariah Carey. Spot the music lover with more integrity! We're both big music lovers and have respect for each other's divergent tastes (as long as no one tries to play Mariah Carey. That could be grounds for divorce).

It's gonna be a nice weekend. Just me, the jacket, some fun with stash and more than likely a bottle of something very enjoyable.

In the interests of giving myself some short term joy, however, I've cast on my first pair of Fetching.

What a fun pattern! I always assumed they would be. The yarn is Farmhouse "Bessie" which was a gift last year from Amy in Rhode Island. It's been marinating in the stash since then. I always suspected it would be either mittens or something like it and I think Fetching is the perfect pattern for it. It's a good, solid yarn knitting up in a tight fabric and I couldn't be happier with it.

And it's good to find reasons to feel happy after a shitty day in which you found out you didn't get the job you felt you had a very good chance of getting. I found out today and can't speak or write about it because I'm too angry. So I won't.

There have been just a few too many disappointments around here lately and I'd like to know when it's going to stop. Something's gotta give. Thank God it's the weekend - almost.

Bells

I survived the steeking

It's done.

I've cut.

And I've gotta say, I felt fine until I started cutting. I was excited and nervous but felt good. Then the enormity of cutting my knitting started to sink in as I heard that chillingly real snipping sound.

And I'm sitting here, still wondering if it's all ok. I think it is. Have a look. Sean took all the photos and video footage. He was his usual calm and supportive self.



I was using small, sharp scissors, trying really hard not to cut the crocheted stitches. I snipped a few of them a little but I don't think it's irreparable.

We took some footage of me cutting but it seems unwilling to upload. If you could see it, you'd probably hear the sound of my heart beating. I'm surprised I managed to speak throughout it at all.

Here, we're half way through. So far so good.



And here we are at the end, where the neck decreases have opened up and shown at last the shape of the neck. Pretty cool, huh?



And here I am, glass of red in hand, surveying the work. I think you can tell from the look on my face, I'm struggling to figure out what I make of it all.


I think it's still too soon to be on a real high about it. I think my prediction that it would be an anti-climax is close to the truth. OK, not quite an anti-climax, but I feel like I haven't quite let go of my breath yet.

You see, I think I did something wrong. I did the crochet part in cotton and it doesn't felt or cling to the stitches I cut. They're kind of slippery and slipping out. See?

Why didn't I think of that when I was so happily crocheting up the steek panel last night?


Maybe once I tuck them in under the the edge, they'll hold ok. There's a few of them running up the length of the edge. If they don't hold, I'm sure there's a way to secure them a little better. Damn, I should think more.

Right now, the jacket is sitting where I left it on the table and I dare not touch it. The next step is knitting up the rest of the neck (including purling in fair isle, another new skill). Sean is cooking dinner and I think I need to knit a dishcloth and finish my glass of red. I've probably added enough new skills to my repertoire for one night!

Thanks for all the excitement and support and encouragement. It was lovely.

Bells