One Word To Rule Them All

I've read a few blogs around the place about choosing one word to inspire them throughout the year. Apparently many bloggers have done this before. I did idly trace through some links to a website where this idea may have originated, even downloaded the 'worksheet' that was meant to help you define your special word. I then read the four page worksheet and realised that I would be wasting an hour or so to whittle down choices of a word that I would then completely fail to live up to, just like I do with all but the vaguest resolutions.

Damn it all, I thought in disgust, what I need to do is stop dithering around and FOCUS.

Oh, look, there's a word that might be quite useful in organising myself this year. Oops, it seems like I accidentally picked out an appropriate word while railing against the idiocy of trying to pick a word.

So, completely against the grain, I am declaring that my word for the year will be FOCUS.

Focus, to me, includes concentrating on what I actually WANT to do. Obviously there will be things that I NEED to do. But where possible I only want to embark on projects that fulfil a desire including both making and the result.

Despite the post in December about sewing, I realised that I had been dithering about all over the place NOT sewing. I cut out those two patterns, spent some time tissue fitting and writing down alteration stuff, washing and ironing appropriate fabric. Then every time I considered cutting out the fabric and making those alterations, my mind turned into a butterful and my attention was caught by something shiny. Once I started focussing on what it was that was preventing me from sewing these dresses, in fabric that I like and that I actually want to wear, I realised that I did not actually want to sew them. I would have bought those dresses but the process was putting me off.

Consequently I have packed those patterns away and picked some others from the stash, and will have another go at sewing. I feel quite OK about that - I wasted about six weeks of not sewing, but actually applying FOCUS helped me to work out why I had wasted that time. Now I suppose I may have to provide future proof that sewing has happened, so here's hoping!

I have done some baking for the first time in ages - Peasant Bread - which was quite delicious and very easy. It's a no-knead bread that was quite literally easy to mix by hand (in this lovely rustic mixing bowl) even with my weak wrists. You bake it in a Pyrex bowl, which I did, though I might try it in a bread tin next time to see if it gets crustier.

I also started knitting a new little shawl once I finished the Nuvem last year, It is another iteration of  this shawl but this time in a semi solid Woolmeise sock yarn, of which I have 150g so it will be a bit bigger. It's my first time knitting with Woolmeise and it is a bit odd.lovely colour but although being the usual sock mixture of wool and synthetic it feels and knits rather like a cotton yarn. Which does not matter at all as there is no need for gauge in a shawl but I did start off trying to knit socks with it and my gauge was all over the place. It is not really pink like this picture, but a lovely red, I just couldn't get the light right at the time.

2014 and Stuff

Looking back over the last year I realise that I haven't done a lot of things that resulted in Finished Objects. Slow and happy crafting beat rapid gratification.

Oddly this seems to be the only pair of socks I have knitted this year. Could that be true? It's the only photo I can find, anyway. I think it was with a New Zealand sock wool. I call them Clown socks but I can't remember if that was the actual name of the colourway or not. I didn't even get round to putting them on Ravelry. For George, who wears them regularly.

Now this is on Ravelry. It took a VERY LONG TIME. Hence the reference to slow knitting! It finally got finished on holiday in the middle of the year. It is so fine that it fits through my wedding ring - which wasn't intentional but is a good party trick.

This is also on Rav. I haven't worn it yet, as I finished it just before Christmas and it hasn't been cold enough since then, but I look forward to getting the chance. It is greener/bluer than in the photo, which accentuates the purple which is in there but is less dominant in real life - it was very hard to photograph.

As well as slow knitting, I have been embracing slow cooking. Some of the slow cooking is actually quite fast cooking, but I'm using the term to mean more emphasis on fresh ingredients and home cooking and a lot less on processed food and lazy shortcuts. (Using a barbeque is the sort of the shortcut that I consider to be smart not lazy!) Most nights dinner is barbequed protein with salad and nuts. No, we have not gone paleo, and bread or potatoes feature with some of these meals. Risottos, simple Asian dishes with rice, the occasional couscous salad all get a look in from time to time too. The winter saw many hearty casseroles/pot roasts.

There were also holidays.

To Adelaide, where we saw in the New Year at the Hilton, and visited the Hans Heysen museum among other places, where I photographed this plant.

To the Gold Coast over Easter.

During the winter, a trip to Central and South Australia taking in Coober Pedy, Alice Springs and ending up back in Adelaide again.

And then a week in Merimbula to wind down in December.

Most of the year was spent studying for my first year of a Bachelor of Letters at Monash University. I studied Medieval and Renaissance History, and two literature subjects. This year I am doing all literature, a total of six subjects, and I cannot wait! And this year I will try to blog a bit about my studies instead of leaving the blog lonely for months at a time.

I Finished Something

I finally finished my Nuvem that I started as soon as I finished the Citron shawl in July. A very long knit but an easy one when you've got it established, good for TV or car knitting. The technical bits are here. It's knitted in a lovely blend of wool and silk that was a pleasure to handle and will be gorgeous to wear. It's slightly longer than I am high and weighs very little.

It was very hard to get the colours right in a photo. This one is more or less right. I think it looks like a lovely wooly silky seaweedy thing.

Citron Blue

This shawl pattern is actually called Citron Grand, but to me 'citron' sounds as though it should be yellow or orange or green, and obviously it's blue!

I knitted this on and off for months. It's an easy pattern but slow work, especially in very fine yarn. I enjoyed knitting it, and would make it again in a thicker yarn, perhaps sock weight. I knitted this one in Morris & Sons Laceweight, which is actually more of a cobweb weight, which is REALLY REALLY fine.

Despite the size (the picture of it on a bed is after blocking, on a queen sized bed) it only took 62 grams to knit!  Which is about a squillion metres.

I finished it off on the trip to Alice Springs and Adelaide in July. It possibly the only time I have ever used an iron in a hotel room - to block it!

And although I did not intend to produce a wedding ring shawl, when I wore it at Fibre Forum last month someone commented that it was so fine that it probably counted as one, So I gave it a go. And it does go through my wedding ring! This picture of it (photographic proof) was taken at Gloria Jeans in Box Hill at a knitting group meeting - they call it my party trick :)

It's as light as a feather and squashes into a tiny ball that can be carried about in a bag if required. Love it!!  But I am never knitting with cobweb again. I;m knitting something else in real* laceweight now, which is still very fine, but preferable. Goodness knows when that project will be finished but I willl photograph it when it is.

Trip to Northwest and Central Australia

It's the first time I tried to do this, but click here and see if it gives you a slide show of my recent holiday. It takes you to my Google+ page and then you will see a thing with the post title - click on that. I think.

Edited to add - click on the picture with lots of blue sky in it, on the left hand side of the page. NOT the blog post bit.

Wingspan No 2

I enjoyed knitting Wingspan so much a couple of months ago that I decided to knit another one.  I gave the first one to Baby Bear as I thought the pink and purple suited her more.

This one is using the same cheapie sock wool from Spotlight that is splitty and would not feel good on the feet, but makes a sptriking scarf, obviously in a green and purple colourway this time.

Slight variations from last time, where I followed the pattern completely - I made this one a bit longer.  The pattern calls for eight wings; I decided to try for ten but ran out of yarn just into the tenth one, but decided to just cast it off straight away as I quite liked the effect of the little odd flap.  This does mean that I didn't do the four rows of straight knitting before casting off before the end of the pattern, and that does show as it makes the cast-off edge a bit wonky.  But I intend to wear it pinned together or scrunched up or something, so I figure it won't show.

I will probably make another one at some point, as they are so addictive, and then I will probably stick to nine wings and finish it properly.

Wingspan

I've been wanting to knit Wingspan for a while, and eventually got round to it.  Here is the result:

I used about 3/4 ball of Wisdom Yarns Poems Socks, 75% Superwash Wool and 25% Nylon, in (obviously) a pink/purple/grey colourway.  It's a Turkish yarn that appeared in Spotlight at some point, quite cheaply, and I bought four balls of it in different colours.  The colours are all gorgeous, with long, Noro-like colour changes, but the quality of the yarn itself is pretty ho-hum, being rough and splitty.  I wouldn't want to wear actual socks made from it.  But it made a pretty scarf/shawlette.  I've given this one to my daughter because they are her colours, and I enjoyed knitting it so much that I have decided to make another one for me, out of another colourway of the same yarn.  I might make mine a bit longer though, nine or ten 'wings' instead of eight.

Stuff

I had a little epiphany while we were on holiday.  I decided that I would resume an 'artistic practice' of some sort when we returned home.  One with no pressure, no deadlines, no concerns about saleability.  Just for my own pleasure and mental health. George was delighted with the idea. (There is also a project coming up which I anticipate will take one or two days a week for about a year, not artistic in the same sense but sort of literary/historic, but more of that in another post).

Well, I've only done only thing from scratch in the three weeks since we returned, as I have had catching up to do with a variety of things. (Including taking Wombat to the movies twice a week, for three weeks, to catch up with the lost time while we were away.  I usually take him once a week, and it is a ritual we both have come to value greatly).

I had so much fun with my dot painting workshop in Uluru that I wanted to do more dot painting, but not in a traditional way.  I wanted to put my own stamp on the technique, and besides, it would be inappropriate in any way for a white British person to use the symbols sacred to another race.

This is my first pass through of the various ideas I have had.  I took a dark turquoise paint and gradually mixed it with white to do the various shapes on the small canvas, and then just used gold paint to do dots on the borders of the shapes.  It was sort of inspired by quilting in the ditch in patchwork, I suppose, if you imagine it done with beads.

It's far from brilliant, but it was fun, and it made me get my paints out and actually DO something without caring whether anyone else liked it or not.  I have other ideas which will be experimented with in due course.

This next piece is something I actually made during the summer and finished well before we went away, but left it in a crumpled heap until a couple of days ago.  When I decided to block it, I was annoyed to discover a nibbled hole in the exact centre.  I don't know what ate it - we don't seem to have mice and we pest bomb the house every few months because we have a slight cockroach problem (most people in our area with lush gardens seem to have one, so I don't think we are unusually grotty) - but I had to brush up my long-neglected darning skills to cure the problem.  It's far from invisible, sadly, but I will still wear it.

The pattern is Bigger on the Inside, modified to get rid of the lace body because I couldn't be bothered knitting lace and I really only wanted it for the Tardises.  I also added an iridescent blue bead for the light on top of the Tardis instead of the stitch pattern.  I did have a go at the lace pattern but it was irritating me, and I wanted it to be a fun knit.  I am not very fond of knitting lace.  I knitted it with Shepherd Baby Wool Merino, 4ply, which is quite soft and nice.  It's a short shawl, which I like, more like a deep scarf.

Films I have seen since coming back from holiday - 

Word War Z - better than I expected. It inspired me to buy the book after several people told me the book is far better than the film.

Despicable Me 2 - bottom!!!!

Man of Steel - disappointing.  OK but not great.

Monsters University - really funny and enjoyable, and I loved the huge, colourful diversity of monsters.  And it had one of the BEST librarian jokes ever.  (Mostly visual, so not really worth describing).

The Lone Ranger - a bit too long but entertaining.  Johhny Depp is to be admired for keeping such a straight face for the whole film.

Tomorrow is The Wolverine, not sure about that...

Edited to add : Roxie left me a lovely comment this morning but I wasn't wearing my glasses at the time and I managed to delete it.  So here it is, copied and pasted from the trash folder in my emails!

Love the painting. And yes, by all means, wear the scarf. It's beautiful and real! If you want something made with machine-like precision, get something machine made. I prefer things showing the touch of the maker's hand.