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!

tow two jobs

I started working at another school library two weeks ago and I am tired! I work Mondays and Wednesdays at a public primary school’s library and Thursdays and Fridays at a private Prep-Year 12 school’s library. I love, love both of my jobs. I think I have finally found what makes my heart sing in happiness (other than ACA the hubby of course!) I am seriously considering getting a degree in Library Studies, maybe a masters? I love the kids books. I love recommending books to the kids. And just the thought that I might be contributing to their love of reading makes me happy. The downside is working with small children is exhausting and working with the older students is maddening. But the positives over ride my annoyances and I look forward to going to the library each day.
I haven’t been knitting as much as I would like sadly. In the evenings by the time ACA and I get the dinner ready, pray the evening prayer (namaz) I am ready to crash. I finished a pair of gift mitts for one of the library assistants I work with. The pattern is the ever famous fetching.

I think I need to make myself a pair!
I started a new pair of socks from one of my favourite sock books, Knitting socks with hand painted yarn. The pattern is called “Copper Penny.” I am using Sundara sock yarn in the “Deadly Nightshade” colourway. I am starting the gusset increases now, yay heel turn here I come!

I really like my new project bag. I got it from an op-shop this week.
Speaking of Sundara, my final shipment of the Seasons Club arrived. Look how beautiful,

The colourway is called “Black Cherry.” It’s aran weight and blend of 50% silk and 50% wool. I am sad because there isn’t enough yarn there for me to make myself something nice to wear. I am either going to try to trade it for something else or put up a request on Ravelry to see if anybody wants to sell me a skein or two (an unlikely story as Snape would say).
I have been dyeing yarn. It requires less brain power than knitting!

This is 8 ply yarn. I am calling it “Korkunc Karpuz” meaning “Scary Watermelon”

I dyed 6 balls of Patons Soft Haze. I don’t have a snappy name for them.

This is Cleckheaton Country 8 Ply yarn. I am thinking of making a February Baby Sweater with it.

I called this one “Bak Yesil Yesil” named after a song in an old Turkish movie. I dyed this yarn so it goes gradually from light green to dark green. I thought it would make a neat Baby Surprise Jacket, but we’ll see.

I dyed two other yarns for the Sock Swap I have organised for the ravelry group. I am keeping it under wraps until I mail it out to my partner.

It’s sleepy time!

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 procrastinator

A wise person once quipped that procrastinators are the leaders of tomorrow. I agree, but I want to break out of the cycle of putting things off and let things add up and fixing everything at once. I thought about this when I noticed my blog entries were few but very long. I put of writing the blog entry for so long I end up with massive posts trying to cover everything. It might stem from my annoying desire for everything to be perfect so I leave things off until I know that I can get it done properly. I want to get better at getting tasks done as they arise instead of putting it off until all the tasks mountain up and I have to do them all at once. Here’s to hoping writing smaller entries more frequently!
Look who arrived last week,

No, she’s not mine but I wish she was. Say Masallah with me and look how cute and perfect she is! She is the daughter of a friend. I’ve been waiting for her to arrive for the last three months or so!
I made this doll for her,

The doll’s name is Aliye! I also made a blanket for her, but I didn’t get a good photo of it before I gave it to her. Ins I’ll try to get one with the baby on it!

I finished the arrowneights. I almost ran out of Wollmeise yarn and I was worried because Wollmeise is very hard to get a hold of. But a friend from Ravelry came to rescue and I was able to complete them.

Insert the usual complaint about camera not capturing the colours properly. It’s actually a brilliant shade of blue with some teal mixed in.

The pattern has you ending with 5 rows of stockinette followed by a YO, K2tog row and another 5 rows of stockinette. The rows with the yarn overs gives you a nice place to fold the edge down. The instructions said not to bind of but sew it down, but I bound of anyway. Then I threaded elastic through the gap left by folding the seam down (just like the hem of a waist band of a skirt).

This worked great. I have worn the socks a couple of times and they don’t slide down one bit.

The next sock project was for a swap at the Australian Knitters group. The theme of the swap was Favourite Colour and my partner liked red. I decided to knit her a pair of socks. The pattern is Vinnland socks from the anti craft website.
I chose Dream in Color -Smooshy yarn for the socks.

The colour way is called “In Vino Veritas.” That’s latin for “in wine there’s truth” I wouldn’t know I don’t drink, ever! I decided the call the socks “veritaserum” after the truth potion in Harry Potter

Nice huh? I am hoping the swap partner will provide some photos of the sock on her feet so I can update the photos.
I loved working with this yarn. It’s true to its name. It IS smooshy! The pattern turned out beautiful as well. I did get a bit tired of the repeat of the pattern, 16 row repeat and each row was patterned and I couldn’t memorize it!
Here’s the work in progress shot,

I colour the charts which makes it easier for me to see what kind of decrease or increase I am doing. SSK gets coloured blue, K2tog gets coloured pink etc. I kind of went overboard and coloured the entire chart this time! I found the clipboard the pattern is on at K-mart. It is very handy because of the sliding ruler thing. I just slide the ruler up as I finish each row, no need for post it notes (my old method of keeping track of rows) or highlighters. I also find it helpful to place the clipboard on the bookstand so I can knit without having to look down constantly.

The other swap I was in it was the magic yarn ball swap. This is where you get small goodies and wrap them all into a magical yarn ball. As the person knits or crochets from it they get the presents! This was the one I’ve sent out

I can’t reveal the contents yet because my swap partner hasn’t started crocheting it yet.

And this was the one I’ve received,

That’s handspun merino, silk and alpaca blend you are looking at! My swap partner spun it for me. It’s 16 WPI which makes it 4 ply! She suggested I turn it into socks but it is too gorgeous to be worn on my feet. I am making it into a Juno shawl. Here’s what it looks like so far,

I had to unwrap my ball because it was huge and it was tangled in some places and I am impatient! Look at all the goodies I got,

Awesome! See the little sheepy? That was for ACA! Here’s Shaun the sheep with the rest of his friends Irfan and Mojo,

A couple of weeks ago I went to the Melbourne stitches and craft show. I got to meet up with a bunch of ladies that I met online through ravelry. Get this, one of the ladies I’ve met and had lunch with was my magic yarn ball swap partner! I have to admire her self control for not blurting out that she was my super secret swap partner. Overall I was disapointed with the yarn content of the show, but I sure enjoyed the company of friends!

Those were some serious needles!

I wanted to take this one home! It was $150, and I left it where it was.

I made three squares to send to the Friendship Blankets Bushfire relief. They are 30 cm by 30 cm’s. This picture was taken before they were blocked. I can assure you they blocked into squares! Blocking is magical!

Plain double crochet, worked back and forth.

Stared with a circle and worked in to a circle, worked in the round

And a knit one worked diagonally.

I started a butterfly wing shawl for me worked from 2 ply lace weight yarn dyed for me by my friend Mel months ago. (whoa over run sentences much?!) I usually work on it when I go to the lecture at the Mosque on wednesdays. I am happy with the way it’s coming along. I stared with a 4 mm crochet hook and kept increasing the hook size. I am using a 6.5 mm hook now.

A couple more rows and it’s done!
I wanted to share a tip regarding crochet. when I put my project into the project bag I usually leave the hook on the loop and wrap the yarn around the hook a few times. The yarn does find a way of getting unwound and then frogging itself. What I do now is this

I slip a stitch marker through the loop and that’s it! It’s a bit like putting the stitches on a holder when I am knitting, but the beauty of crochet is there is only one loop to worry about!

Now on to a completely different subject,
I don’t remember if I’ve mentioned this before but I hold an Bachelors (Honours) degree in Journalism. I graduated from University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2006. For one reason or another I have not persuaded my major but chose to work on the library field instead. I am still not thinking about becoming a journalist but I got an offer to write a freelance article for an Islamic magazine. I thought about it and decided this was something I can do. What I am looking at is the help of the Muslim community to the bushfire victims. The media coverage of this is sorely lacking and I wanted to change that. One of the places I’ve visited was Balha’s sweets. this company donated 10% of their profits from March 14th to March 20th to IISNA which donated them to Redcross. I stopped by to interview the owners and didn’t leave without sampling the offerings,

YUM!

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 3 socks, 2 hats, 1 cardi, 1 toy, and a cat

I often write on my blog in my mind, the catch is of course that I have to type it here for others to read!
I was hoping to start this post by talking about the new job I was hired for, unfortunately I got the news that I didn’t make the cut. I made it to the second round with the 10 finalists of which they were going to hire 5-7 people. I thought I had a pretty good chance, but no. I have prayed and have others pray for me to ask Allah to grant this job to me if it is the khayr meaning “good” for me, and to take it away if it is not. Since I got so close to getting the job, yet didn’t make it I will accept this coming from God. I am just not looking forward to starting the whole cycle of job hunting again. It would be a lot easier if I knew what the heck I wanted do!
I started exercising! This was not intented as a new years resolution, it just happened to fall to this date. We bought our first Elliptical machine (cross trainer) about a month back. Unfortunately both ACA and I were too close to the maximum weight limit so the machine drove us both crazy. It was just too flimsy. So we returned that one and bought a much more sturdier machine with nearly twice the weight limit. We had some problems with that as well but it was fixed once they replaced some of the joints (turns out some of the units were faulty!). I joined the “exerstashers” group on Ravelry. I actually decided to pay myself a set amount for each workout before I got the invite to the group. That felt a bit strange! I “pay” myself a dollar for each workout. I will be using this money to buy sock yarn. This way I can curb my sock yarn buying habit and build a habit of exercising!
The Digitessa socks ain’t happening, yet. I am just too loose of a knitter to get the right gauge. I use 2.25 mm needles, and I think I will have to cave in and buy 2.00 mm needles so I can knit a bit tighter. While the digitessa awaits I finished a couple of socks.

These are the Sea Shore Socks. The yarn was dyed just for me by a friend! Yes I made two of them, I just don’t have a good photo of the pair together. I make all my socks two at a time anyway!

This was the third pattern I used for this yarn. The first one I hated the pattern so I ripped it back. The second one I got as far as half way through the gusset increases when I realised it is not supposed to pucker up like this…

So, rip rip rip and I started over with a tried and true pattern of coriolis socks with a thick band. I am pleased with how they turned out. Though I was hoping for something more whoa from this yarn as I bought it so lovingly. It’s not the yarn, it’s me!

And this is the newest pair I finished.

I called it “Salty Waves” because the colour way of the sock was Salty Dog. I knew Jitterbug was notorious for its lack of yardage, I just didn’t believe it until I made a pair. I almost always have 30-40 gr left from the socks I make. Mostly because I don’t like them too long and I am a loose knitter. I barely had anything left after finishing these socks and they are not very tall. I learned cabling without a cable needle for these socks and I love it!
I was also busy knitting baby things for Jess’ upcoming baby and for another friend. I made this shrug for Jess baby and the hat to go with it.

I love it but I won’t be making another one of these unless it’s for my own far away future baby. I really dislike seaming, it’s so much effort (and yes this comes from the woman who knits socks on 2.25 mm needles). But look how cute it turned out!
And this is the hat,

I can only imagine how it would look around the baby’s head!

And this is the other hat I made from the same pattern. The hat is posing on our cross trainer!

It needs to be blocked because the brim insists on curling upwards!

I also made a toy for another friends baby. Apparently I can’t count so the points came out all different lengths!

I don’t think the baby will mind!

I started working on a new shawl. I looked around for a long time to find a pattern good enough for my precious Wollmeise lace weight and I know this is it! It’s from the Victorian Lace today. It has a knitted on border, which scares me a bit but I am all for learning new skills!

Well the photo is to give you an idea. It’s much prettier in person!

I made this yesterday while watching TV.

We keep the salt and pepper grinder shaker things on the living room table because thats where we eat. And the black pepper insists on spilling on the table cloth. ACA put a plate under it to fix the problem but I think my solution is prettier. The bottom is a crocheted hexagonish circle and the rest is knit. I like it!

Hermoine decided that the spot I take photos of finished objects is the perfect place for her to nap. I snapped her photo then moved her away from the spot. Everything I own is covered in cat hair anyway, there is no need to pre-hair my knit/crochet items before they are even worn for the first time!

tow orange you blue

I finished the Ocean Toes socks! This is my favourite pair of socks I’ve ever made. I will be wearing them to Eid (Bayram, a Muslim Holiday) when we go to visit people.

I will be participating in a KAL to knit these beauties. I bought the kit a while back but only got this far

I am hoping by participating in a knit along I will finally be able to knit them.
I got other wollmeise goodies to show. I was able to catch the last update and bought two of my desired colourways, vergissmeinnicht and Blue Suzanne (dark).

Such pretty yarn. I don’t know which one to knit first.
I tried my hand at dying my own yarn. I was sent some blank yarn and blue food colouring in one of the swaps I was in. I only had blue so I made blue yarn

I think it turned out pretty good for first try.

I went to the Handweavers & Spinners Guild of Victoria’s sale on Saturday. It was difficult tearing myself away from all the pretty handspun yarn. I wanted to take it all home with me! Here’s a blurry photo of what I ended up with,

I got the newest issue of the Yarn magazine, an issue of the Mon Tricot, some bargain yarn on a cone, two skeins of hand spun alpaca, and a skein of orange-blue handspun. The orange and blue yarn was so squishy I had to cast on right away.

I get cold in the morning so I wanted a hat for myself. I present to you “orange you blue” hat

I had yarn left over so I made a smaller hat in the same pattern.

As I mentioned earlier my friend Jess is having a baby, yay! We don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl yet so I made a teddy bear hat that will fit a boy or a girl. I don’t have a baby that can model for me, so I put the Tickle me Elmo on modeling duty

I think it will look approximately bazillion times cuter on a baby!
I made another job application on the weekend, I do want this job rather badly. Lets hope for the best!