tow interweave crochet

Fall 2009 issue of Interweave Crochet magazine landed in my mailbox today. I looked at the front cover and squealed in delight!
This jacket is on the cover. (I took the photo from the IC website, here)

Love the frog closure, love the “chicken foot” stitch pattern, love the colour, and love the yarn. And what might the yarn be? Blue Sky Alpacas: Alpaca Silk. 50% silk 50% alpaca. In one word “YUM.” How much does it cost? $21 AUD a 50 gr skein. How many skeins do I need for my size? 14. 21*14 = $294 AUD. Add 8 dollars for shipping, I got myself a short sleeved cardigan that costs $300 AUD. And I don’t wear short sleeved cardigan, so figure a couple more balls for sleeves and I am broke. I would have a lovely cardigan though!

The other garment that I love from the magazine is this wrap sweater. (Again photo taken from the IC website)

I love wrap sweaters. They fit my figure beautifully and cover all the bits that needs covering. I like the scalopped edges of the sweater, and how the tie of the wrap is formed by the same scalopps. Made with the recomended yarn it would cost me about $175 AUD. It is still very expensive but compared to $300 it’s starting to look like a bargain. I wonder what I can substitute for Zitron Noblesse. I do want to knit this sweater. Any ideas?

tow two years

Two years ago today I arrived in Australia. It took a while for me to adjust to this new country but now I am perfectly home in Australia. I have a happy comfortable home with ACA and my cat Hermoine. I have two jobs in a field I love. I have a wonderful group of friends, in real life, and online. Allah has been very kind to me and for that I am grateful.

tow coolness

On the weekend we bought a stand alone freezer and an evaporative cooler. Since it is October in the land of down under it is time to prepare for the summer. The freezer wasn’t a planned purchase. I’ve been wanting a freezer for a while because the freezer of the fridge is not enough for us. ACA plugged it in tonight after waiting for 24 hours. The waiting for 24 hours if the item is transported sideways thing is important. When we were in the US we bought a second-hand fridge. We didn’t know we weren’t supposed to plug it in right away and the fridge died on us. Not fun. I am now waiting for it to reach freezing cold temperature so I can transfer the meat in the fridge freezer over. What an exciting life I lead!
There is something super duper exciting happening in our lives. But I can’ t talk about that yet. I will give you a hint though,

Am I giving too much away?
I ordered Spin Control by Amy King last week. Today it was waiting at my door step when I came home.

Now that I got the basics of spinning I want to do more. I want to be able to spin a specific type of yarn for a project. I only flipped through it so I don’t know how good it is. But I am looking forward to reading it.

tow owies

I am clumsy. Actually that doesn’t even begin to explain it. I am the type that manages to twist her ankle while standing still. When we first got married ACA was amazed at the number of times I would bump my leg to the table, walk into a wall or smack my toe on the edge of the couch. Now he just comes over to check I am okay and goes away without much astonishment. When I was in uni I did manage a spectacular fall off a sofa I was sitting on by tipping it backwards. My roomate could not stop laughing so I had to wait for her to calm down while laying (or is it lying, I never know) with my legs sticking straight out and the sofa on my back.
I am not only clumsy I tend to make very, very stupid decisions. Yesterday I was going to puree some cauliflower in my food processor. After putting the cauliflowers in I realised I forgot to place the blade in place. Instead of taking out the cauliflowers and placing the blade in, I decided to nudge the cauliflowers while trying to pop the blade into place. I got a rather nasty cut on my middle finger because of that.
And today while covering books at the library I realised my scissors were sticky because of the contact paper residue. I decided to clean the scissors blade with my finger. For that I was awarded with a cut inside my finger.
And that’s how I ended up with two owies. At least I didn’t glue my head to my shoulder!

It could have been worse.

And congratulations to the newest Nobel Laureate, Mr. Obama! Here’s to a world without nuclear weapons.

tow visitor

I had a visitor this morning.

I didn’t notice the little guy (or girl, how can you tell?!) until it started moving out of the junk mail. I was eating my breakfast and it took me by surprise. I watched its progress out of the junk mail and over to ACA’s chocolate sticks. I thought ACA would prefer his chocolate sticks snail-slime free and I doubt the snail would have cared for the chocolate sticks. After taking a picture I took it out and I let it go it’s way.
When I got back home from work it was gone. It was nice knowing you snail buddy!

tow gadgets

Look what I’ve bought at Salvos (that’s The Salvation Army for the non-Australians!).

ACA looked at them and said “I didn’t know Dexter donated to Salvos.”
Oh ha, ha! They are not torture devices, clearly. I didn’t have an idea what they were until some ladies helped me out at Salvos. I have a habit of randomly talking to strangers around me when I have something to share. There was a pie pan with a removable bottom, like this one. I never seen a pie plate like that before and I thought it was very neat. There were two ladies looking around the same area and I showed them the plate. They were amused at how amused I was at the pie plate. We chatted for a while and they really seem to know their kitchen stuff. So I showed the three items I was carrying with me and asked if they knew what they were. They did. The first one on the left is an apple corer, the one in the middle is for loose tea and the last one is a melon scoop. I bought them all, 50 cents each, why not? I didn’t buy the pie plate, I am on a budget you know.
I brought them home. I left them in boiling water for 15 minutes. I poured off the water, put some more water and added citric acid to the pan and boiled the gadgets for a second round. I think any germs on them would have died by 30 minutes of boiling.
Tea spoon is really neat. It opens up and you can put the loose tea inside and it shuts with a satisfying little click. I made tea with it yesterday and I enjoyed swishing the spoon around the cup watching tea diffuse into the water. I also ate an apple yesterday just because I wanted to play with the corer. I think I will also use it to cut out neat shapes out of fruits. Wouldn’t an arrangement of fruits in shapes of little tubes look interesting? Especially if I scooped up melons with my brand-new-to-me melon scooper? Will have to play with that idea on the weekend!

tow back to work

The holidays were nice while they lasted but I am glad to be going back to work. It does me good to get out of the house. If I was left to my own devices I wouldn’t leave the house at all. Oh, who am I kidding, I wouldn’t leave the bed. I do sleep a lot.
Here is the other pair of socks I have finished for the little Lady V.

I have a pair of socks made from this yarn, and now she can match me! I cast on for a purple pair tonight, let’s see how it’ll turn out.

tow hearts on her toes

One of my dear friends back in states had a baby girl V back in May. I of course mailed over a package filled with cardigans and wee hats. Now I am putting together a second package to send over. Her mother asked if I could knit V some socks because the normal socks make her feet clammy. Auntie Kelebek to the rescue!

It is another pattern from New Pathways for Sock knitters. The original pattern had three hearts on it but since this sock is only 4 inches long I only did one heart. The yarn is Rowan 4 ply soft and a wee bit of Jitterbug for the darker blue heart bit.

I find knitting baby socks immensely satisfying. They are so cute. I mean seriously think how tiny a foot must be to fit into a four inch sock! And they get done in a flash. I will also be making V a cardigan. I will use the Helena pattern because the last one I did turned out adorable!