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 happiness in the mail

When I was a little girl I always introduced a new doll to my old dolls. Sort of like an initiation ceremony to the toy chest if you will. I would gather all my old dolls together and set them up to prepare for the new arrival. I would bring the new doll in and show them to each doll and tell them what her name is. When two skeins of my favourite yarn in the whole wide world arrived yesterday I did just that.

Blue Suzanne, Gewitterhimmel, Am Kalter Polar, Barista, Pfefferminz Prinz, Digitessa, and Vergissmeinnicht meet your new friends

Sultan and Spice Market.

The photos were a re-enactment of what I did last night much to the amusement of ACA. He also got treated to my views on having soooper spechiaaaal sock yarn that never gets used, only collected. I think a yarn is sad when it doesn’t get used. It’s sad because it didn’t get to fulfill it’s potential. I am buying these yarns because they are beautiful and I love turning them into beautiful things for me to wear. I absolutely adore the knee socks I made and I get compliments everytime I wear them (even when I don’t pull up my pant’s leg to show the socks I made). Once I get good at knitting with two colours Sultan is going to become a sock with a white skein. Unlike every other Wollmeise skein I have this colourway loves showing up true to its colours on my camera.

I couldn’t capture all the colours with photographing one side, so here’s the other side.

Wheee!

The other skein I got was Spice Market. I am having a hard time photographing this one because it is a cloudy and overcast day. I took some photos of it yesterday and they are pretty close to what it looks like.

Looks like Wollmeise changed her label style again.

I do like it. But it is difficult to take off to photograph the yarn, but slips right back on once you take it off.
I bought this because it reminded me so much of the Misir Carsisi (Spice Bazaar) in Istanbul. I’ve been there many times in my childhood and last summer when I was in Turkey. This pair will become Nutkin socks. Ravelry link here And looks like for once in my life I’ll be using the exact yarn in the exact same colourway as the pattern suggests. Why mess with perfection?
Another treat that came in the mail was the Loopy Ewe’s “Don’t be blue” sock kit. This was for people who didn’t get a spot in the Loopy Ewe sock club.

The yarn that came is 115 gr of lusciousness known as Handmaiden Casbah sock. The colourway is called “W(h)ine with Roses.” It came with a pattern, a pen that says “Loopy for socks” and the extra awesome bag you see in the photo. The bag is nice and sturdy. Also has nice side pockets to hold notions and needles or hooks. I am not blue anymore!
And the final addition to my stash this week was 20 balls of Jo-Sharp Desert Aran Cotton in midnight sky (how many fancy words for black are there?!). I found the project I want to knit it into right away.

It’s the Dovetail pullover from Interweave Knits Spring 2008 issue.

On the needles I have this pair of socks.

It’s a do over of a pair that I have already finished back in January. See this entry for details. I had a lot of trouble finding the perfect pattern for this yarn and I have frogged it more times than I can count. I finally called them done and started wearing them. Everytime I wore them I had a nagging feeling that I really could have done better with these socks. So couple of days ago I ripped the sock back down to the heel turn, put it back on my needles and started over. I am planning on making these socks longer. I only made them ankle high last time because I was sick of the yarn after trying three different projects with the yarn and I just wanted to move on to a different project. Now that I am done being mad at it, I can make the socks longer and nicer.
I have also been working on a sweater. I didn’t put photos of it because a sweater in progress really doesn’t look very interesting. It’s the Phyllo Yoked Pullover from Knitting Nature by Norah Gaughan. Here’s the ravelry link The front and the back and the sleeves were to be knit and seamed later. I don’t like seaming when I don’t have to so I knit the body and the sleeves in the round. I also added waist shaping and short row bust darts. I joined the arms and the body together and now ready to knit the yoke. I already ripped it out once. I am hoping to get it right this time.

See what I mean about boring photo? I also knitted the hem in seed stitch because I don’t like how stockinette curls up. I am calling this the GTA sweater because while I was working on the sweater ACA was playing GTA IV. It strenghtens my argument that his hobby (video games) is a waste of time. In the time it took him to clock the game I knitted up almost a sweater. I am smug that I have the more productive and fun (well I think anyway) hobby.
We are going to a wedding this evening ins and I am planning on wearing my butterfly wing shawl. I will try to remember to take some action shots but don’t hold me to that!

There was a question about how I dye yarn. I use food coloring, Kool Aid and Wilton’s Icing dyes. I have a lot of sock yarn that I either claimed for free or was gifted that I don’t like the colour of. That’s why I started dying. I have also dyed a skein of yarn that wasn’t dyed before. I like dying the yarn in a pot on my stove because it’s less messy and I like how the colours get shaded. Hmm, maybe I should take some photos next time I am dyeing. I don’t have a developed method yet. I just satisfy my inner mad scientist by adding colours and mixing and seeing what happens! This is an action shot of “Kina Gecesi” getting dyed.

tow butterfly wing

The butterfly wing shawl for me is finally complete! I started crocheting this back in November when my friend Mel gifted me a skein of laceweight yarn she dyed herself for me. After playing around with couple of different stitches I’ve decided to go with the butterfly wing shawl pattern. I mostly worked on this shawl when I attended lectures in the mosque on Wednesdays. It’s the perfect pattern to keep my hands busy while I am listening to the teacher. I started out with 4.0 mm (G) hook and gradually increased hook size all the way to 6.5 mm (K) hook. This gave the shawl a beautiful drape as it got more airy and open towards the end.

I am planning on wearing it like this.

This is the back.

This shows the stitches better.

And here’s the shawl taking flight!

I have been winding yarn cakes back into skeins so I can dye them. I decided that the yarns look so much prettier when they are in skeins. I spent an afternoon doing just that. There were a couple of yarns I’ve purchased from destashes that came in yarn cakes and I turned them into skeins
This is the yarn cake I’ve received.

An action shot of the cake becoming to a skein

And voila! Look how pretty! If I named this yarn I would have called it “Fawkes” named after Dumbledore’s pet Phoenix.

It’s easy to make skeins with the swift my father-in-law made for me. I put my finger into the very middle of the swift and just spin it until I ran out of yarn. I’ve became very, very good at tying figure 8’s around the skeins so that they won’t get tangled.
Here are the skeins I’ve made sitting pretty!

The yarns from top the bottom are:
Electric Fiber Arts Hanspun in Sandstone colourway.
Fleece Artist Merino 2/6 I got this from a destash at Ravelry. This colourway was for a yarn club
Honey and Mint. Handspun just for me by a Ravelry swap partner.
Bizyhands Handspun Straightaway colourway

I am continuing my adventures in yarn dyeing. I enjoy the process of dyeing immensely. This one was another overdye. I’ve received 2 balls of Moda Vera sock yarn as a part of the Magic Yarn Ball swap. I turned the ball in to a skein so I can dye it.

After a session on the stove with lots of dye and vinegar this is what I came up with

And this is how it knits up

I named it “morcivert” This needs a bit of explaining, I’ll do my best. “Mor” means purple in Turkish. And “lacivert” means navy blue. Put the two words together you get “morcivert.” It’s not a real colour. Whenever I asked my dad what colour I should colour something he would say “morcivert” to tease me. If morcivert was a colour I think it would look like the yarn I’ve dyed. Bits of blue and bits of purple existing together.
And here’s a yarn from Sundara. The dyer lady has amazing colour sense and does magical things to the yarns she dyes. This one is called “Night Blossom”

It’s very dark purpley-brown with highlights of light purple and creams through out. I haven’t decided what to make them into yet, but I know they’ll be pretty!
I bought yarn from the stitches and craft show I went to last month. I just got around to photographing it,

It’s 4 skeins of Super Soft Merino in 4 ply goodness known as Pear Tree Yarn. The colourway is called “Damson” (that’s Mürdüm Eriği for the Turkish speakers. Hi mum & Alex!) I have paid an arm and a leg for them in anticipation of my stimulus payment! The seller gave me a discount for flashing my Ravelry badge!

I am happy to report the leaking tap has been fixed! ACA the husband extraordinaire hard at work

Love my handyman! It is hard to believe in June we are going to be married for two years. Two happiest years of my life, I can assure you that!
ACA and I met on the internet when I was living in the US, and him in Australia. Because of that we spent a lot of our time away from each other. From the time we met in August ‘06 to the time I’ve moved to Australia October ‘07 we had spent a total of 6 weeks together. Two weeks when we got engaged in February ‘07, and four weeks after we got married and had our honeymoon in June ‘07. I missed him like crazy especially while I was waiting in Turkey waiting for my spouse visa to arrive so I can move to Australia. This was the song I’ve listened to many, many, many times on the occasions I’ve felt the saddest. The band is Snow Patrol. I’ve been a fan ever since I’ve heard the song “Run” on the radio. The song is called “Set Fire to the Third Bar”

I’m miles from where you are,
I lay down on the cold ground
I, I pray that something picks me up
And sets me down in your warm arms
– Snow Patrol

Hermoine says hi!

tow heatwave

It’s strange to be writing about a heatwave in the middle of February but do keep in mind I live in Australia now. I am hearing about minus 30, 40 temperatures back in Wisconsin and I am thinking I wouldn’t mind a blast of freezing wind now. We had four days in a row of 40+ (that’s 100+ in F). Then we had a “cool change” which brought the temperatures down to 35, that’s 95 degrees F. Tomorrow we are expecting 43C (110 F) and for some crazy reason Sunday’s forecast is a pleasant 26C (78F). I am praying that the AC will survive long enough to help us survive the Saturday.
This is how Hermoine spent the heatwave

She would lay down like this in the spot the AC blows at and not move for hours. I know there is a LOL cat joke here somewhere but I can’t think of one!
I have been obsessively knitting a pair of knee high socks. Almost all my handknit or otherwise socks are ankle high. But I had this lovely blue skein of Wollmeise that comes in 150 g hanks and I knew it had to be something special.
Look how pretty blue it is

The colourway is called vergissmeinnicht which is the Forget-me-not flower.

Just starting out on January 16 th.

After turning the heel

Work in progress
And this is what it looks like now

Yup that’s a mailing tube that’s “wearing” the sock. It is hard enough to photograph my own feet without breaking my leg! I started increasing for the calf. There is a pretty design that goes on the calf, which is another reason why I keep on knitting because it is interesting.

I am just starting the calf pattern so there isn’t much to see. I love the heel turn, I am becoming quiete the pro at that!
I only have one FO to show.

These are butterfly button slippers. They are made out of cotton yarn so they keep my feet nice and cool.

Love the butterfly button!
I bought a book called “Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn” I love sock knitting so most books I buy are on socks. Though I did buy Knitting Nature by Norah Gaughan after borrowing it from the library and realising that I would wear half the patterns there!
The sock book divides handpainted yarns to three categories, “Nearly Solids” “Wild Multi” and “Muted Multi” I love playing with my sock yarn stash so I took out the sock yarn bin and separated my sock yarn into those categories.

I love my sock yarns! Top left are the nearly solids, top right are the wild multi’s and the middle are the muted multis.
Back in November 2007 I had declared our house an official Turk’s house because of the permanent placement of the tea kettle on our stove like this

I had my friend Jess point out that we can’t become an official Turkish household without having doilys around. I remedied that situation last weekend by putting this on top of our coffee table

Neither ACA nor I mind it because it is actually functional and very pretty. I promised him that the rest of the house will stay doily free.

I put a plastic table cloth on top to protect to lace. Look how pretty it is,

That’s some impressive crocheting (not by me though)!
UPDATE: My mum confirmed that this was the table cloth my lovely grandmother crocheted for me. May Allah rest her soul.
Now I am used to seeing Christmas items start coming out late October around here. But this is just too much,

I snapped this at the grocery store last weekend. Easter is on April 12th! Can we at least wait till there are 2 months to go till Easter?!
We bought this in the same shopping trip

Yup that’s 825 grams (that’s 1.8 pounds!) of Corn Flake goodness. Neither ACA nor I eat cereal. So why did we end up with a kilo of cereal in our already cramped kitchen? It was on sale! I wanted to buy some corn flakes to use as coating to fry chicken. I sensibly grabbed a small box that was 2.99. On the way to the registers ACA spotted this monster pack for 3.29. Yes it is very, very cheap but I don’t need to feed an army with cornflakes. I just need a few grams to coat chicken! We also won a reading timer from the package. ACA was also happy about that.
I am impressed with my new phone’s camera abilities. It has a 5 megapixel camera that takes really good pictures. Here’s my new phone Taco,

It’s actually Samsung Tocco (F480) but I like calling it Taco. It is an awesome phone. It’s fully touch optimized and it has haptic feedback that gives you a little vibration when you press the virtual buttons. The camera is amazing and the call quality is fantastic. I’ve been having fun playing with the widgets!
Lastly a shout out to my (not so little anymore) brother. He will be taking Honors English, Honors Biology, Honors Advanced Algebra and Trig, Honors German, and AP Politics! And I thought I was the nerd of the family! Good job bro, keep it up!!

tow more swaps, a picnic and egames expo

I had a busy weekend! On Saturday ACA, me and the bro in law went to the egames expo. I thought I would have some fun, but it turned out to be great fun! I had to stop ACA from spending our savings on various gaming equipment! They had a false fire alarm in the middle of the expo so we had to evacuate, good thing I had my knitting handy!

You can see in the photo the “Bizy Pattern” socks. I have finished the socks on Sunday.

I am very pleased with how they turned out. I love handspun yarn!
On Sunday there was a picnic organised through Ravelry. I took the train all by myself for the first time! There was a service distruption where we had to get off the train, go on busses, get of the busses and go back on the train, but I didn’t panic at all! I had such a good time at the picnic. It was so much fun meeting people that I only knew online.

I do like how I am the only one posing!

And here I am looking through the 101 Designer One Skein Wonders. I have purchased a copy of the book for myself. Do notice my awesome YARRRN shirt! ACA bought it for me at the egames expo. It’s hard to tell in the photo but there is a knitting needle and a crochet hook forming the symbol! You can see a better picture here
We were asked to bring a handmade toy (if we can) to the picnic so I made this little guy.

His name is Oswald the Oddball!
I also received a pressie at the picnic. A knitting machine tool came with my wool winder and I mailed that out to Gusseting and she went and handyed this beautiful patonyle yarn for me!

My long awaited parcel from the 100 gr challenge swap arrived on Tuesday! It was so worth the wait. Look at what I got,

To quote what I wrote on Ravelry
“The popup butterfly card is all sorts of awesome, it’s going straight on the fridge as soon as I figure out how to keep it open with magnets. Look at my project bag, blue butterflies –can you get any more perfect for me?! And the wrist strap goes in and locks so I can keep it on my wrist and knit while travelling! I already popped in the sock I am working in it. Yummy chocolates, I made sure they survived the photo shoot, now half of them are safe in my tummy. Who says you can’t have chocies for breakfast?! The stitch markers are so yummy. They look like jelly candies!!
And of course Pièce de résistance, the Anastasia Socks!

I can’t believe somebody made socks for me, insane!
That wasn’t the only package that arrived on Tuesday. I was once again RAOK’ed!!! A total random act of kindness arrived at my doorstep from an awesome raveler.

The book is called Contemporary Knitting by Jo Sharp. I haven’t looked through all of it yet but I love what I see. If I am ever going to cure my fear of cables I gotta do something I love! She sent me shiny butterfly buttons in a pretty turquoise box and butterfly stitch markers! A Harry Potter notepad which shall be housed next to my first edition book of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s stone. A chocolate that I never tried before, yay for new things! And six little cakes of different socks from different dyers. I am so tempted to sit and make gauge swatches all day with them. And, and and a whole skein of the softest yummiest handspun BFL yarn. It’s so nice to squish, it’ll be a while before I make something with it because I love squishing it!
– Again quoting myself from my ravelry post
I have finally cast off on the Tahoe shawl I was working on. I actually cut it short because I just did not want to work on it anymore! It’s blocking now I will take photos of it later.
Right now I am working on another butterfly wing shawl for myself using the yarn my friend dyed for me.

I am enjoying watching how the colours pool into each other as I crochet.
I also started on a new pair of socks as well, gotta take a photo of that later as well. It’s sleepy time!

tow swan wing scarf

I found out through Lifehacker that today is “International Caps Lock Day.” This made me remember a memory from my childhood. My dad became a computer programmer back when most people didn’t know what a computer was. One time when I went to his office he let me type on his computer. I just pushed the keys to write things in small letters. Than my dad showed me the awesome key that let me write in BIG LETTERS! A fond memory indeed. Here’s a photo of me when I was much younger with my dad.

Based on that awful haircut I must be around 6 years old, so this photo is from 1989 or 1990.

I finished the scarf I was working on for the Australian Knitters group swap on Ravelry. I have posted photos on it while I was working on it. I gave it a nice bath last night…

And blocked it using my awesome new wire kit.

The wires made the whole process about a billion times easier!

Today I took of the wires and marvelled at how beautiful it turned out!

Here’s a close up of the stitch work

I hope my swap partner likes it! I am so very excited to receive my swap item!!

I received another swap item today, yay! Through a very long story I ended up with a spare Ravelry tote bag and I offered up to swap it for sock yarn. One awesomest user offered to give me a skein of Sundara for it aaand it arrived today. Look how pretty!

The colour way is called Caribbean. It is destined to become a lace scarf of sorts once I get through the other lace project I am working on.

We went to a wedding today. It was a lot of fun catching up with people I met at the henna party (for the same wedding). I feel good that I am getting out more and socialising with people. Yay for making friends! Here’s ACA and me at the wedding,

It was a tiring day. I can barely keep my eyes open so I will go sleep.
One more thing before I go, I would like to offer my congratulations to my dear friend Jess for the little bundle of joy that will be arriving in May. Double, no wait triple double YAY for Jess!! When I told ACA that my friend Jess was having a baby he said “So, you’ll start knitting things soon?” To quote Mrs Palin, you betcha!
kelebek

tow triple happiness

Three things that made me happy today,
Arrival of new sock yarn

Arrival of my new blocking wire set. You can see it was put to use right away!

And the lillies hubby brought home for me.

He knows I love watching them blossom one by one so he picked out a bouqet with mostly closed ones.
I feel truly blessed, Elhamdulillah.
kelebek

tow photos

I watched the Olympics opening ceremony with ACA. When they were showing the kids colouring the paper on the floor I said,
“Look at them colouring in the lines. I would write my name!”
ACA said,
“No, you would draw a butterfly”
What can I say the man knows me. Of course I would draw a butterfly!

My father recently complained that all I take pictures of are my knitting and crocheting. It is true actually. I’ve been in Australia for nine months now and I haven’t taken many photos. So when ACA and I ventured to the city to see Batman in IMAX I took the camera with me. The photos are mostly around the area we got off the train and IMAX. I didn’t have time to take photos of different places because we wanted decent seats in the movie theatre.

Waiting for the train

Inside the train. This is one of the shiny new ones!

Obligatory shot of me

Parliament Train Station. Avoid the bathrooms!

Yup the traffic is on the left side!

City Tram

Pathway to the museum

How can I miss posing in front of such a camera friendly spot?

As a birthday present to me ACA took me to the Bendigo Sheep and Wool Festival. I can’t even begin to write how much fun I had there. It was especially awesome meeting people from Ravelry that I’ve been virtual friends with for a long time!

Look it’s Mel!

Alpacas. ACA fell in love with them! Sooo cute and soft! I want one!

Us at the show. Do notice the hat I made for ACA!

ACA, the brother in law and I took a trip to the city to visit the Melbourne Aquarium a long while back. But the photos of the event got lost in the shuffle while I was switching laptops and I never got around to posting them. Here is one taken from my facebook page, showing the little village known as Melbourne! (Love you dad!)

kelebek