tow everything is ok

If I had a device that would update my blog as I wrote the posts in my head this blog would be updated rather more frequently.
Alas no such device exists, that I know of, so I have to do things manually.
As the title suggests life is going along just fine Elhamdulillah. ACA got acceptance to his Masters program while I got a rejection. It is ok though, I found a program I am more interested in that I will be applying next year. One of the schools I work at hired me to work next year full time. This is good news because soon we will be paying a mortgage. That was my mystery news a few posts back. We hadn’t told our landlord when I wrote the post so we were keeping it quiet. Now that the proverbial cat is out of bag, I can share it here. Since a lot of people are wondering, no I am not pregnant. But one of my dear co-workers is and we are so excited! We found out today that it is going to be a boy. And he will be born in fall, which means plenty of things for me to knit and crochet for the little dude!
I bought new shoes, which makes me very happy

And I crocheted a Mr. Tickles for a friend, which makes me really happy!

The arms have elastic in them for maximum tickling power.

Finished knitting Helena for my favourite cupcake, V.

Knitted a “Dolly” for another friend’s daughter.

The doll’s name is “Yildiz” meaning “Star.”
I dyed a three yarns inspired by my favourite summer fruits.
This one is mixed berry

This one is “Karpuz” (watermelon)

And this one was for my friend Amanda’s birthday called “Kremali Cilek” (strawberries and cream).

And just for fun a picture of me knitting when I was around eight.

That piece was supposed to be a headband but it never got finished. I stopped knitting after that effort and didn’t pick up yarn or sticks till I was twenty-two or so.

tow my birthday

The combined forces of an aching arm/wrist and working 5 days a week is preventing me from sharing all that’s going on in my little corner of the world.
My right arm started hurting last week when I was at work. The pain shoots from my elbow all the way down to my palm. I went to the doctor and she said it’s either carpal tunnel or “golfer’s elbow.” I have been ordered to rest my arm and stop knitting/crocheting/spinning/typing for a while to see if the pain goes away. Well I did so reluctantly but the pain is still there. On top of it I am having very stressful time at work and not having my knitting or spinning or crocheting to help me wind down I am very agitated. Poor ACA he’s trying to do whatever he can to help me not snap.
It was my birthday the middle of this month and I turned 25. A quarter of a century old! And I like it. I was swamped with so many birthday presents and surprises that my birthday felt like a birth-month. First up were the four packages I’ve received as part of the Birthday swap from Ravelry. There are five of us in the group and each time it’s someone’s birthday we all send birthday presents to the birthday girl. After sending three parcels it was my turn to receive!
I’ve received an incredibly full package from my friend Maree who later messaged me to tell me she forgot to include one other thing!

And this came in the second package. It’s “K” for kelebek!

Double does of Mmmmmalabrigo and dark chocolate was sent by librarylass

Cute stationary things and an amazing handmade card from MsJuzzieGreen

And handdyed yarn and cookies baked by her son and egg holder thingees from happymuppet!

And Amanda from http://paradisefoundkerrie.blogspot.com/ sent me chocolate which led ACA to claim any chocolate entering the house is half his! She also sent me a sock yarn I’ve petted and didn’t buy just a day before!

My family back in states sent me eeyore and butterfly goodness. And a generous package of Reeses Peanut Butter cups which I forgot to photograph because I was too busy eating them!

And last but not least of course, a gift from ACA.

Who knew he had such good taste in bags right? Well not really, I pointed to the bag on the website and told him I would love this to be my birthday present. And he happily obliged! It’s a Namaste Newport bag and the colour is Peacock. Hurray, no more carrying a purse and a knitting bag. I can pop all I need into my new bag!

There are lots more to write but my arm is screaming in pain so this will have to do for today!

tow spinning

Look what I’ve got 2 weeks ago,

Yup I gots me a spinning wheel!! ACA the hubby named it “cranky” and since I didn’t have any better ideas it stuck! Here is my first effort,

That’s 125 grams of Polwarth goodness butchered by my efforts to spin it. I decided it was artsy!

Here are the bobbins waiting to be plied

And after plying

This is the third one. I dyed some fibre because I was tired of spinning the plain white corriedale I bought to learn on. I named it “mint chocolate” because that’s what it looked like!

I realised that I like dyeing fibre as well. So I dyed this one next,

I named it “gun batimi” meaning sunset. I spun that one as well and plied it with itself.

ACA didn’t like the colours of gun batimi so I offered to dye some in colours he liked, black and red.

This one is called “Go Bombers” named after ACA’s fave AFL team Essendon. I spun this one into singles

It might become the first handspun of mine that I am planning on knitting with.
The itching to dye stroke again when I was listening to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows audio book. I heard the Luna’s dress being described as “an eye watering shade of yellow.” Here’s my interpretation of eye watering yellow

It turned out a bit orangey but I think it will be ok because it is still “sun colours” which is appropriate to wear to a wizard wedding! I haven’t spun this one yet.

Other than spinning my time has been occupied with sock swap I am organising over at Ravelry. I have received my package from my lovely swap partner Celeste.

Goodness that hot chocolate was yummy. There was more than one but umm something happened to the other packets. Hermoine ate it. Yeh, that sounds good. All Hermoine’s fault! Now the next step in the sock swap is for me to knit a pair of socks for my partner with one of the yarns she sent me. I won’t tell her which one I am knitting into socks, or which pattern the socks will be.

And finally some bad news. I spilled a cup of coffee on my beloved laptop Swirly. It drowned and it refuses to turn on. I am calling around to see if I can get it repaired but doesn’t look likely. It sucks and I don’t like it. ACA lets me use his laptop but it feels all strange and not mine. I hope I can get swirly fixed…

tow procrastination

Oh the things I find to do when I am putting of important things! I am not sure how but I ended up on the Bushells Tea site and took the test to determine if I drink my tea Aussie style or British style. Since I like dunking “bickies” in my tea and I don’t fuss about things like saucers or stirring my tea with a teaspoon I drink the tea Aussie style. Oh and a “bicky” is a biscuit, which is what they call cookies on this side of the world. Of course “biscuit” is too long of a word, so it gets shortened to a “bicky.” Gotta love the Aussie English! Lately I picked up the habit of adding *gasp* milk to my tea. I don’t know if I can be considered a Turk if I add such nonsense to my tea!
Another way to procastinate is to bake. I got a banana bread recipe from the Amateur Gourmet website. The bread is in the oven now and it just started smelling awfully good. I love the smell of cinnamon-y things being baked.
Back in uni most of my procrastination was achieved through writing random blog entries. Have a look at my old blog, particularly entries as the deadline of my senior thesis approached (Spring 2006) and you’ll see what I mean!
Speaking of random blog entries, here a yarn I’ve dyed, and my inspiration behind it.

I thought about dyeing a yarn in these colours while I was listening a song they play at “kina gecesi.” In Turkish tradition the girl and her friends get together for kina gecesi (henna night) the day before the bride gets married. The colours that came to my mind was red, brown, and orange. The highlight of the henna night is the application of henna to the bride. Now I went unconventional and got a couple of my friends to apply henna Indian style. This is how my henna turned out.

The photo is from my wedding day. You don’t wear your wedding dress to the henna night. There is a special outfit that you wear but I went without it so I can get a more useful item –my dishwasher! The outfit is called a bindalli and you find tons of examples from google.

That’s me seated in the middle at my henna night. The girls walk around you holding candles and singing a song about a girl who got married off to a far away land (heh, fits my story doesn’t it!). You are supposed to cry, but I couldn’t stop giggling honestly! One of the girls carries the tray with the henna on it. When they are done singing mother of the bride applies the henna. Then the mother-in-law places a piece of gold on your hand with the henna on it. At least that’s how we did it. I am sure there are tons of variations from place to place. After they took the red scarf off me I saw my mum crying, then I busted out crying as well! I looked around to find the version of the song we used at my henna but I couldn’t find it. This one is sung by my favourite Turkish singer, Candan Ercetin. It is not the traditional version, but it is still pretty.

The moral of the story is I was trying to capture the colours I have remembered from my henna party. Mostly reds and golds with a bit of brown for henna. I am still new at the yarn dying business, so when I get better I will take another crack at it later. I am happy with how this one turned out as well!
The banana bread is done and I am sorry to report my oven burned the outside while leaving the inside mushy. I really, really dislike my electric oven. When I get my own house ins I am getting a gas one!

tow stuck

I amaze myself with my own brilliance sometimes. Today for example I achieved this with the car,

I went to the hospital to pick up my test results (nothing to worry about, just run of the mill yearly testing). I haven’t been to this hospital by myself before and I had trouble finding the public parking area. I drove in to a parking lot and the boom gate met me there. Clearly I wasn’t welcome. I felt stupid and started backing out. Stupidity was just begining.
I realised I hit the curb while backing out in haste and felt the car “plunk.” I switched to drive and tried to go forward and felt the traction control kick in and the car making a God awful noise. I immediately stopped the car and got out to investigate. As you can see from the photo the back right wheel went over the curb thing and into the soil. I wish for a moment I was Hulk so I can lift up the car, or a witch so I can Wingardium Leviosa the car. I looked around helplessly for someone to tell me what to do. Believe me if I was in Turkey there would have been five people around with five thousand solutions to my predicament. I wouldn’t put it past some of the more ambitious Turks to come together to lift up the car. Alas I wasn’t in Turkey and other than curious glances at the car nobody stopped to help. I asked a friendly looking guy if he could help me, he said I should call RACV. Thanks buddy! I called hubby and he asked me to SMS a photo of the situation. Gotta love technology. I took the photo you see above. He called me back and said “It’s like I thought.” “Fantastic dear, how do I fix it?!” He said the power of the other wheel should get the other wheel out and told me to give it another go. Reluctantly I got back in the car. I was half hoping he would say, I’ll come save you! Except of course he was working in the city 45 minute train ride away, and I had the car! I snapped out of my damsel in distress mode and put the car in reverse for a second then back on drive and gave it another go. After a few seconds the car moved and the stuck wheel came out. Elhamdulillah (thanks to Allah) I was able to drive away.
Unfortunately I managed to drive myself into another staff parking lot and this time I wasn’t able to back out because three cars lined up behind me to get in. The boom gate stood resolute waiting for me to wave some sort of key in front of the key reader. Desperately I pressed the green intercom button, clearly in place for instances like this. “Umm, I accidentally got in line to get into the staff parking long, I am not staff, I can’t get out because there are cars behind me.” “I am not having a good day,” I hastily added. The voice on the other end asked for my name. “I am not staff, just a umm member of public,” I repeated. The voice said that he needed my name for the record. Right, I spelled out my name while glancing at the rear view mirror to check if anybody was getting ready to gesture unkindly my way. I heard the voice pressing some buttons and the gate opened. With relief I drove in, made a U turn so I could get back out. And met the boom gate! Sheepishly I pressed the intercom button again and told the voice it was me again, could he please let me out?
After getting out I drove to the shopping centre across the street and parked at their parking lot. It is PUBLIC parking after all. The rest of the day consisted of waiting in the waiting room for an hour and half, a cup of latte with espresso made from burnt coffee beans and scalded milk, and a three second visit with the doctor who said everything is normal.
Normal is good. We like normal.

tow fires

I am afraid to check the news anymore because everytime I look the death toll seems to jump. Elhamdulillah (thank God) we are far away enough from the Victorian bushfires. When I was complaining about the Air Con not working properly because it was too hot, people’s houses and people were burning. I experienced the hottest day that I and the state of Victoria ever seen. Around here the official temperature hit 47.2 (117 F). The air con just blew hot air all around the house. Our fridge has an auto icemaker and I assure you that I’ve never been more thankful for that feature before. ACA and I went through cups and cups of ice water while awaiting for the promised cool change to arrive. The temperatures have dropped significantly after Saturday. Right now it’s 20 (68F), a bit cool for mid February (that would be mid August for the Northern hemisphere).
My friends on Ravelry have been checking in and it looks like everyone is ok. There is a chance one member has lost her husband because they haven’t heard from in days. There are a lot of people whose close friends have died or lost their homes. And to think some of the fires were deliberately lit makes me want to punch something very hard.
May Allah help the ones that are left behind after this disaster.

tow mail

I love getting mail. When we first arrived at US I was fascinated by the mailbox and how there was almost always something delivered in it. I loved getting the mail when I came home from school, and I threw a fit if anyone got the mail before I did. Before e-mail became common place in Turkey I used to write letters to my friends. When we talked over the phone and they told me that they mailed a letter I would start checking the mailbox obsessively. I was pretty lonely the first year we were in the US so getting a piece of mail from a friend made my day, even week! Overtime we just started e-mailing each other instead of mailing letters. ACA (the hubby) has sent me a few cards when he learned how much I love getting mail. We actually put in those cards with in our visa application for me to come here. As much as I love personal mail, I am also self declared lover of junk mail. I don’t know what it is about the glossy shop ads, envelopes declaring I might have already won, and my personal favorite catalogues!
But nothing beats the packages my mom sends! You see she has an amazing fashion sense. She is also an amazing bargain hunter. You might think it’s crazy to get a box of clothes sent from her instead of buying it here. You would be surprised that it works out much, much cheaper (even with the horrendus postage rates) to have her buy the good stuff and send it to us. And did I mention she has amazing fashion sense? She just knows what would look good on someone. The recent box we received was for ACA. Per our request she went shopping to buy dress pants and shirts for him. We just couldn’t stop wowing about how great the things she picked out was! God I love her!
And with the package comes my yarn. I buy yarn from the folks at Ravelry and many of them prefer to ship it with in US rather than deal with international shipping. Good thing my parents don’t mind sending things my way. Also the books here are so incredibly expensive ($43 AU for a $12 book!!) even if I buy them online. Australian dollar got really strong against American dollar so it really doesn’t make sense to shell out so much money for a book I can get so much cheaper from Amazon. Add free shipping to that, and you got yourself a bargain! Here are the yarn and book goodies I received this time.

I am so excited about my books. I can’t stop flipping through them to decide what I want to knit first! And I got a great shipment of Reeses Peanut Butter Cups. You know how they say you don’t miss a good thing till it’s gone!
On to some finished objects.

The butterfly wing shawl is completed. It looks so good on my mother-in-law. She wore it when she came over to our house. I am so happy that she loves it!

My very first pair of socks are completed. I named them Fire Engine because of the colour! I wore them at home for a week straight. I washed them and now they are back on my feet. I gotta knit more socks for myself so I won’t be without hand knit socks while one is being washed!

And a baby cardigan and hat for ACA’s manager. I love making baby stuff. It looks sooo cute and it gets finished so quickly. The cardigan is knit and I crocheted the buttons. The hat is crocheted. It’s the hat from the Sejia Set. This is the third hat I made from this pattern and they always turn out adorable. Must be the earflaps!
Right now I am working on the blue waves scarf. I would say it is 80% done. I am also working on a swap project for the Australian Knitters group at Ravelry. I am making fingerless mittens for my lucky recipient and few other smaller goodies that needs to stay a surprise. Not that she knows I am her partner, it’s the “secret” part of the swap.

Here is a partial photo of it, a sneak peek if you will! I have till the end of this month so for once in my life I am ahead of the deadline!

And finally a big CONGRATS goes to my little brother who is graduating from middle school today! I feel weird calling him my “little” brother considering he is taller than me now! I will post some photos of his graduation when my mom sends them my way. Sucks that I don’t get to be there. Insaallah I will be able to go to his high school graduation.

kelebek

tow move

I felt I needed a fresh start in the blogging world so here it is!
I work in the public library now, as “casual.” It means that I have no set hours, I go in as they need me. A bit like being on call. I applied for a permanent position which I didn’t get, but I was offered the casual position.
It is nice to be working again, even if I have unpredictable hours. It gets me out of the house and gets me interacting with people. I really enjoy working in the library. It is pretty similar to my previous job in the used book store. I don’t have to do as much shelving and most of my time working is spent at the circulation desk, checking returned items in, signing people up for computers and checking items out for people. The library has collections in languages other than English. There is a nice selection of Turkish materials as well. You can check out DVD’s, magazines, books and children’s books in Turkish. I do act the translator as needed, it does feel good to help! I think once I get my name tag (with my obviously Turkish name) people would know for sure I am Turkish.

I have been getting a lot of comments on my accent. A little old Irish lady asked me if it was Irish! I get Canadian sometimes (not too far off) but most people figure it is American. “Where are you from?” I got my reply down to a pat “I was born in Turkey, raised in America and I’ve been in Australia for seven months” It is strange to get comments on my accent. I more or less blended in when I lived in the US.

On the crafting front I’ve been very productive! I just finished knitting ACA a new hat. He picked out the yarn and the pattern. The pattern I used is called “A hat fit for a boyfriend” It turned out very nice. I cast on 60 stitches instead of the 100 pattern recommended because I used 12 ply yarn. I will get him to model the hat when he comes home.

I am working on the second sock for my first ever sock knitting adventure. It is coming along so nicely! This is what it looked like when I first started working on it
I am following the pattern from Silver’s Sock Class called “Toe up sock on two circular needles” Well I am using the magic loop for most of it, so it’s not on two circular needles most of the time. I did transfer the stitches back to two circulars when I turned the heel.
And here I am knitting the second pair while ACA ate his lunch. You can see the magic loop in action!
I have finished my mother-in-law’s shawl, I just have to add fringe to it. Hermoine the cat got into my knitting bag and decided that the yarn must be strewn all over the house floor instead of sitting as a nicely wrapped yarn cake. I wounded it up all the ends together (she attacked it from the center pull and the regular pull end!!) but I need to wind it properly so I can cut it to make fringes.

The other project I am working on is the wave scarf. I recently bought this beautiful blue-white cotton yarn that was waiting to be knit. I decided that I needed a scarf and found the wavy pattern from knitty.

I have promised to knit a sock for my father-in-law. He is due for something since I crochet a shawl and a stole for my mother-in-law already! I bought the yarn when ACA and I went to the city last week. I am thinking of doing a 3-1 rib for the top of the sock and then after turning the hell continue in the rib for the rest of the sock. I have lots of baby clothes lined up as well. I will get to those, eventually!

Hermoine says “hi”

kelebek