Me-Made-June Whenever It Was...

I have been a bad blogger.  I did finish Me-Made-June without any duplications, though I only made one item instead of two.  But I haven't felt like blogging recently.  Now ... I'M BAAACCKKKK...

Because it was a while ago, I can't remember which day I wore these things, but I did have them marked down as the last week of MMJ so here goes.



Good old Entre Chien et Loup!

This brooch was part of my Graduate Exhibition for my Diploma.  This is a shocking picture!  I take terrible pictures of my work :(  It was part of a set called Full Fathom Five and is meant to look like coral and seaweed and pearls (those are seed pearls that were his eyes!)

This cowl is the one I blogged about earlier and, because it took me an unneccessarily long time to finish it, counts as the one thing I made in June, to wear in June.  It is the Tilting Tardis cowl from Revelry (too lazy to look up) made from a Wendy sock yarn that is mostly bamboo and is silky and soft.  It is meant to be buttoned up.  When I was sewing in the ends I used them to sew up the seam without thinking, and then, as I could get it on over my head, just left it be!

A ubiquitous Clapotis of much Knitty and bloggy fame.  I made mine longer and narrower to wear it as a scarf.  It is one of the few things I have ever knitted in the recommended yarn, splashing out of Lorna's Laces Lion and Lamb, if that;s what it's called?  Anyway it is utterly luscious and I wear it a lot.

A pair of Jaywalker socks knitted in , I think, a Regia wool-cotton blend.  Again too lazy to find a link.  Hey, it's taken me over two weeks to write this post at all!

And that, I think, finished Me-Made-June.  It was fun but towards the end I got a bit distracted, at least in terms of recording it, as must be pretty obvious.  Sometimes life you actually have just gets in the way of the life you want to have.  That's happening a lot at the moment.

On a lighter note - I have just formed a hopefully fruitful relationship with the gorgeous textile art shop Open Drawer  (to which I obviously can be bothered linking!).  Whether they actually sell any of my work remains to be seen but at least they were willing to give it a go.  And that has given me a bit of a kick in the pants to do some other stuff.  I have had a couple of Etsy shops at various times, and set up the framework of a MadeIt shop earlier in the year, but have never really achieved anything with them.  I am inspired to start all over again with a new name, new goods, and, well, watch this space!!!

My Creative Space

I haven't done a Knit Along (KAL) for yonks, and in fact I don't think I have ever finished one really!  This one attracted me because of its freeform, oddball nature.  See Jane Thornley's site here to see what it is about, and while you are there, have a browse - even if you don't knit, or don't like stuff like hers, the site is a riot of colour and texture and FUN!!!

From top to bottom - the collection of yarns that I grabbed to make the freeform vest - mostly purples with touches of greens and other colours.  And a variety of textures, too.  I may not use them all, but I like to pick a palette and work from it, picking them out from the pile as I go.

The first couple of inches - a chenille yarn (from Lincraft I think - most of these yarns have been maturing in the stash for quite a while, and not many are complete balls) and moss stitch.  Jane recommends moss stitch (only she calls in seed stitch) as good foundation stitch because it adds strength to the overall construction, and I have to say that I like that idea.

And then more progress.  As you can see I moved on from the chenille yarn to a bit of leftover Lincraft Prism, to some stuff I picked up in the Bendigo Woollen Mills backroom years ago with a boucle thread in black and brightly coloured slubby stuff wound in with it.  And in that picture you can barely see it, as I had only knitted about two rows, but now I am using remnants of a yarn I spun and dyed myself several years ago, which will make up the rest of the back.  I am almost up to the neckline now and will post more progress pictures next week.

To see more creative spaces, please pop over here for a riot of colour and amusement.

Me-Made-June Week 3

Another chilly week.  But not quite as bad as last week!  It did however start with a scarf.

This is knitted from Lincraft Prism and is 70% wool and 30% soysilk.  The pattern is from Knitted Shawls, Stoles and Scarves by Nancie Wiseman and it can be knitted either as a shawl (my MIL has a lovely pink and purple one) or a scarf.

I had to get my favorite glass brooch in somewhere this month!

Then it was a wet day and I had to catch the tram to work, which means walking through a park (which is pretty at sunrise, but gives you wet feet), and so I wore waterproof shoes and carried office shoes in the felted bag I made for Me-Made-May. 

This brooch, made some years ago, sits on the lapel of a designer denim blazer that I bought in an op shop about the same time that I made the brooch. 

A cold Sunday meant hand knitted socks.  These are Jaywalkers knitted in a mixture of wool and cotton.

I've worn very little of my own jewellery this month, mostly because I have had the perfect opportunity to wear the handknits!!  But I did wear these green and blue coralled earrings.

And finally, as Arctic blasts assailed Melbourne, I wore my Fetchings, knitted from the same Prism yarn as the scarf at the start of this post.

I haven't been doing My Creative Spaces for the last couple of weeks, because of the planning and photographing, etc, of Me-Made-June.  but I am going to this week, because I am participating in a KAL (Knit-along, for those who are wondering) and I want to show some progress pictures, and it's pretty much what I have been working on all week.

Me-Made-June Week 2

It has been a cold and mostly wet week in Melbourne, so it's been all about the handknits.  First off the rank, beautiful underwater colours in Noro Kureyon in a vest.  This was knitted to a Patons pattern for Zhivago but is obviously a bit different - less drapey but much more beautiful.  I use a fake kilt pin to pin it together - fake because it came with a cheapy cardigan years ago and has fake diamantes on it, I think any self-respecting kilt would give it a Glasgow Kiss!

I got over the whole noveltry yarn phase a LONG time ago but I do seem to have hung onto this bluish fluffy thing, and it was quite nice on a bitterly cold morning. 



I made this scarf as a project when I was studying for my Diploma of Textile Art.  The brief was to do something with grapes.  I made this scarf!  The grapes are large, faceted acrylic beads, and there are knitted leaves needlefelted onto the crocheted scarf with twining vines, and dangly bits. 

Then it was Casual Friday, and a long weekend, and it wasn't a warm one at that.  So socks and an old jumper were very comfortable.  These are an Opal with a silver thread running through them, giving them a subtle glitz.

These two pairs are scrappy socks, made from leftovers from all the other socks I make.  I like scrappy socks!

And last but not least, an old favorite.  This is an old Rowan kit inspired by the Bayeux Tapestry, and I love it.  It is thick and heavy and warm and, by now, going slightly felted.  I started it a year before Baby Bear came along, and she is about to be 18.  (I finished it about six months after she arrived - there were periods in the middle when the brain couldn't cope!)

Bead Journal Project May

I actually finished this just after the end of May but it was inevitable that I would fall at least slightly behind at some stage!

This was a lot more planned than April's and I actually think I prefer the more spontaneous look.  Though I am pleased with this, certainly.

The face is such a pretty, delicate one (from my collection bought from various vendors, sorry I can't acknowledge your beautiful work) that I wanted to use a similarly delicate found object with it.  And not to biuld up beads around the face like I usually do, but just to do one round.  the found object is a piece of fine wire that I found lying around that I twisted randomly.  When I had finished I decided that it looked vaguely like dragonfly wings and I thought of the creature from Pan's Labyrinth and that sort of informed what I was making.

It is finished with the usual encrusted edge. 

Me-Made-June Week 1

So starteth Me-Made-June.  I upped the ante a little from Me-Made-March by vowing to try not to repeat any hand-made-by-me accessories or clothes during the month, and by making two new things to wear.  No repeats so far in the first week!  There may be some in the next few days as it is really cold now and the vest I am wearing today is very cosy, but I will only count it once and wear another things with it on the days I repeat it.

This scarf was made during MMM, I think, as was the one I wore later on in the week.  They are just lengths of chiffon zig-zagged around the edges to provide a quick and easy wardrobe boost.  I wore this with a green top slightly lighter than the olivey green leaves, and black trousers.

Day 2 saw these earrings, made from seed beads with a chip of Venetian glass at the top of each one.  The colours aren't great in this photo but they are all autumnal reds and greens and browns and oranges.  I can't remember what colour top I wore them with but I know I wore black trousers (well, I often do!)

Friday is Casual Day at work and I wore this Samurai Shirt that I made years ago.  So long ago that it was a lot of kilos ago, too.  Consequently it is rather too big.  I don't often get to say that!  I am going to try and insert a few discreet darts to make it slightly more shapely.  If I do manage to do that appropriately and soon, I will count it again for wearing this month because it will be, sort of, new/refashioned.  It's made in a blinding batik print that I picked up in Spotlight years ago.  It got me lots of compliments, which was nice!  Worn with black jeans for contrast.

The weekend was quite cold, so I wore handknitted socks both days.  These ones are a pretty stripy Opal I bought in Wangaratta one year, in a pattern of my own design - a very easy one admittedly, toe-up socks with the leg bit in feather-and-fan.  Because they are knitted from the toe-up, the feather-and-fan is upside down, which makes it a bit different.  (To say nothing of noice, and unusual...)

Sunday's socks were made from a wool and cotton mix, maybe Opal, maybe something else, I can't remember, but in pretty pastels.  Actually, you'd never guess they were clean, looking at them, I must have worn them in wet boots at some point and because they are so pale the bottoms stained!

And yesterday the idea was to wear this scarf with a white top, charcoal grey skirt and a new cardigan.  But it clashed with the cardigan (which looked great with the skirt - a printed lace-like pattern in dark beige on a cream background, and trimmed with lace and diamante buttons, which sounds awful but looked very pretty - this is the cardigan, not the skirt, which is also very pretty in a flirty French sort of way) so I ended up tying it onto my bag instead.  I used to wear silks scarves tied to my bag in London in the mid 1980s.  Maybe I could reintroduce the fashion!!

As for the making two things to wear this month - well, the cowl I showed in my Creative Space a couple of weeks ago did not get finished until this month, so that is going to count as one.  (I started it in late March - can you tell I moved house during the making of it!)  And I am trying to repurpose two tops into one, but whether I wear it or not depends on if it looks better than it does at the moment!  It is only at an early stage but I frankly have my doubts.  Maybe darting the Samurai Shirt will do instead.  We shall see!

Me-Made-June

After the fun of Me-Made-March I have signed up again!

'I, (Judy, also known as Sheeprustler, of http://www.sheeprustling.blogspot.com)), sign up as a participant of Me-Made-June '11. I endeavour to wear one hand-made-by-me item each day for the duration of June 2011, and attempt to make at least two new things during that month, and wear them. 'Item' includes clothing, accessories and/or jewellery and repeating items during the month is allowed but I will try to avoid it!'

Want to know what I am talking about?  Go over here and find out!!

Not a very exciting picture!

But that's because this is my May Bead Journal Project piece, and it is almost finished, and I don't want to show it off properly until it IS finished!!

So this is what I am working on tonight :)

For more creative spaces, pop over here.

My Creative Space

I have been wanting to do My Creative Space for ages but the whole going back to work thing stymied that.  By Thursday night when I get home I tend to be so tired that I might do a few minutes of something crafty after dinner and then resort to playing Tetris on my phone because my brain hurts so much.

But I decided that it would be better to make an effort sometimes at least.  So here is my first My Creative Space.  I have been working on this cowl for some time now.  It is is Tilting Tardis from Ravelry (sorry, no link to hand, and typing this while pasta is cooking so not much time to look it up!)  I am knitting it in a Wendy sock yarn.  It is mostly bamboo with some nylon and is soooo soft, just right for my poor neck which finds almost anything scratchy.  I bought it to knit socks but didn't really like it for sock knitting, it was slippery and splitty.  So of course I choose a lace project instead ... actually, on larger, wooden needles it was less slippery and splitty.

It's almost finished, I just have to knit a few more rows of garter stitch, cast off, sew the ends in and find some appropriate buttons.  That should be fun.

For more creative spaces, here you go

Bead Journal Project - April

I didn't quite ex[ect to finish my April piece by the end of the month, because of the house move, but I did manage to do so with a couple of days to spare.

I deliberately kept it very simple this month with no bead patterns or anything, just a bead soup embroidered around a striking image.  This time, while sticking to the Faces and Found Objects theme I had set myself, I mixed things around a bit.  The Found Object is the Face!  It is a button that I have had in the stash for a couple of years.  The 'body' is a piece of polymer clay left over from an experiment, so it is also a found object of sorts.

It is finished with the usual encrusted edge.

Seasons of Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness

When we bought this new house we inherited a productive vegetable garden.  Over time it will probably be expanded, at the moment we are working out what to do with what is in there.

There was a lot of basil on the verge of going to seed, so of course I turned it into pesto.  That was fun.  The jar (please ignore the label, it did once have commercial pesto in it, but be assured that that green stuff is all mine!) is approximately one-fifth of what I made up last weekend.  The rest is in the freezer.  This jar is now almost empty, having gone into soup all week.  (A favorite Italian-inspired cafe I visit frequently put me onto the idea of a decent dollop of pesto in many soups being a wondrous thing).

I had planned to cook a pressure-cooker lamb thing with roasted rhubard last weekend.  And George was delighted because he (a) likes rhubarb and (b) wanted me to use up what was growing in the garden.  So I went down and cut the rhubarb.  While cutting it I politely asked him if he was 100% sure that it was rhubarb and not ruby chard grown bigger than it should have been allowed it.  He was adamant (and he is the gardener among us, I am the cook).  So I dutifully threw away all the leaves, rhubarb leaves being poisonous of course, and roasted the stalks with butter and sugar.

Roasted ruby chard stems with butter and sugar does not taste bad, as such, it just doesn't taste of anything except, well, butter ... and sugar.

And a large bunch of squeaky fresh ruby chard languishes in the bottom of our green waste bin :(

The house is coming together, slowly.  There is still all the stuff in storage.  When that comes out, I will be able to organise my craft stuff to some extent, and we will have thousands of books to reshelve.  I think we may need some new bookcases, too, but I'm not sure about that.  We have decided that the books of my dead father are going to the nearest book sale - I feel that I have been cursed ever since they entered my life and that it is no longer worth trying to value and sell them.  Some we are deliberately keeping, happily, but the bulk of them will not even be entering the new house.  We all need to move on.

It needs a lot more tidying and organising and finding places for things but it feels like home and we love it.  Yes, it was worth all the angst!

And work is even feeling a bit better.  I had a three-month review yesterday - I am on a 12 month contract (we all are, it gets renewed so long as both sides still want it at the end of every 12 months) but with a 3 month probationary period). I wanted to discuss some things I was not happy with, and obviously my boss needed the opportunity to say anything he needed to say.  Everyone who matters is happy with me, so I do still have a job!  And I was able to air a couple of grievances and establish myself on a bit more of a professional footing.  And I am possibly the only person in living memory to ask for more work to do!  What I actually said was that my allotted duties did not fill in the time I worked, and I was unhappy with the perception that I should spend the extra time doing the work of people below me in the organisational structure.  This was agreed upon, I have more interesting things to do now, and I am going to embark on a training course in designing and delivering information literacy programes, paid for by the college, which will help bump up my CV no end.  So I am still tired all the time, and I would still rather be at home crafting, but at least I feel a little more appreciated now.

Resolutions - May Update

So here we go again. And again, and again, and again...

1. Accomplish all the necessary stuff involved in selling this house and moving into the one we are buying. This is the sort of resolution that, although not easy in itself, HAS to be followed through on.

Report - House sale was finalised on April 15, as was house buying.  For a scarey 45 minutes we had no place to live in but were comparatively wealthy.  Now we have gone back to having no money but owning 3/5 of a rather nice house.  The bank owns the other 2/5, of course.

The move went as well as expected.  Tempers got frayed, things got lost, one or two things got broken (mostly by us!).  The bloomin' removalists packed THE KETTLE.  They obviously had not studied Removalism 101.  So I ducked out and bought a cheap and nasty kettle that was on special in Target.  THEY PACKED THAT TOO.  We have not fully unpacked, of course, it will take months before everything is sorted out completely, but the house feels like home and we are very happy with the move.  Some furniture still needs to be acquired to make sense of it being larger and with more rooms/functions for the rooms, but that will be done gradually (a mixture of IKEA and Ebay, probably), together with the other things we want to get done.
2. This was 'get a job'.  I've decided that after nearly three months whingeing about it I will be deleting this one from the monthly report.  Periodic whingeing may still occur but it will be same old, same old.
3. Complete a project a month. Even if it is just a plain sock (pair of socks!) Preferably try out some new techniques or whatever, but at least one project a month.

Report - I had low expectations for April, what with the house move, but I am glad to announce that I finished the April Bead Journal Piece a few days before the end of the month.  When we can find the cable that connects my camera to the computer, I will blog about it!  It's the one important cable that is still missing, of course.
4. Stop spending money like water. With this in mind, this resolution is split into sections :

4.1 I will not buy any clothes or shoes unless ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY.
Report - I bought another couple of work things, but I have pretty much reached the stage now where I have plenty of work things and really don't have any space for any more clothes.  Though I want to get back into dressmaking again.  And there are some killer boots I am waiting on to come into a shop in the city!.
4.2 I buy far too many DVDs. I will restrict myself to the equivalent of one full-price film (i.e. one new release or something like those 3 for $30 specials you see around) and one TV series. I need to be VERY STRICT about this.

Report - I'm really quite a good girl.  I slightly exceeded the above, but now I am spending my own money on them I feel less guilty.  For my film, I bought Harry Potter 7 Part 1 (still haven't watched it yet).  And for the series I bought the complete (2 series) box set of Campion, because I have read a couple of the books in recent months and fancy it.  And also, the slightly naughty bit, an extra series - Children of the Stones which is a 1977 kids program that looks wonderful!
4.3 Likewise with books. One full-price book or the equivalent per month.

Report - to my complete surprise I stuck to this, buying a new AWW Pressure Cooker cookbook.  I've cooked a couple of things out of it, too!
4.4 Craft materials - only to be purchased if necessary to make a specific project immediately after purchase. Otherwise all craft material shopping is to be done from the stash.

Report - One roll of strong double-sided tape bought to replace the one I lost in the move.  Used for sticking face cabs to beading foundations, and that sort of thing.  And then another roll to replace the one I managed to lose between the shop and the car. 
4.5 Exceptions to the rules will include craft shows, where I will take a fixed amount of cash and leave my credit cards at home. Nothing purchased under these circumstances will count towards the total!


Report - I passed this one - I went to AQC with a fixed sum of money and bought Nicole Maillieu's new book, which I had planned to buy, and as I was exhausted from moving and at the end of the show when everyone's defences were down, was conned into buying a showbag of Japanese goodies that had originally been $60 but were being sold off at $30.  It supposedly contained over $100 worth of stuff.  Well, it contained some things I didn't like, but the fabric selections alone were worth well over $30 and I love Japanese fabric, so though an unplanned purchase I was happy with it!
4.6 Items for any room in the new house, but especially the kitchen, will only be purchased if necessary, not just because they catch my eye. There will be some purchases, planned in advance.

Report - No impulse buys have been made, but some very expensive planned ones for the new house.  We have bought a new fridge, dishwasher and microwave, all to replace the old and decrepit ones that were wearing out.  Also two new beds, ditto.  And new carpet.  And there will be other things to follow.  In particular a new digital TV and recording device for me, to replace my tiny and old CRT telly and decrepti VCR.

So I am happy with how things are tracking.  We are exhausted and broke but we love our new house.  I might even take some pictures of it, if we ever find (or replace) that cable thingy that connects my camera to the computer!

Wordless Wednesday

Floofy Scarf Redux

I don't know why the last pic didn't load. Probably something to do with the computer being out of action for several days. But anyway, here it is.

The move happened. There are still things we can't find or do, but we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. By the end of Easter it should be a lot better. We still loved the house the moment we walked in, despite the chaos. And the chaos, though diminished, still exists. All will be well and all will be well and all manner of thing shall be well!!

I got a new bed :) It is superbly comfortable. And there will be other new things soon too. All replacing ancient things.

By May we should feel like we actually live here! The neighbours are generally delightful, the street is gorgeous and leafy and so quiet. The previous owner said there was no native wildlife around, which was disappointing because we had got used to living with parrots and possums and bats and things. Well, in a week, we have heard more native wildlife than he ever mentioned, and he lived here for 30 years!

There was much weird plumbing and electrics and we have spent a lot of money getting them fixed, but those fixes should last a long time. It helps that we know a plumber, and a carpet person (we got new carpet downstairs), so service was prompt and excellent and reasonably priced, and the electrician loves us now because we paid him well up front!!

I have not got the kitchen quite sorted out yet, but with a bit of resorting, it will be fantastic and I can go for true gormet!!! And the owner left a little vegie garden with some very usable chillies, tomatoes, a few other things and enough basil at the right stage to be turned into yummy pesto over Easter,

Flooffy Scarf

I have lost the yarn label for this. I bought it in Lincraft. There is a vague possibility that it may be called CanCan, or maybe it is a cheapo imitation of a yarn called CanCan. Anyway, it is infuriating to knit (though it is possible to do it while under the influence, which is a plus in my case) and there is no way on earth that youy can finish off the ends in any way normally done with yarn of any sort. It does, however, knit up into a riot of flooffy(TM) colour and feels OK against my neck, which complains about proper yarns made from actual fibres. So it is a GOOD THING (TM by many people - so sue me). Yes, by the time you read this I may have moved. I may still belong to a family of four people and one dog. On the other hand, people may be buried in the dungeons. I kid you not, this new house comes with dungeons. I am in negotiations with a friend about obtaining adjustable shackles - his children have thinner wrists than Wombat. I wrote this a few days ago but have organised for it to be published in advance. And if I was sober enough to mangle any more tenses, I would :)

SF Mistressworks - a reading meme

Yes, I am indeed in the middle of moving house.  This post was one I prepared earlier.  Normal blogging may resume at some stage in the near future!

I got this meme from here where there are links to the posts by Ian Sales and Tansy Rayner Roberts mentioned:

SF Mistressworks - a reading meme

This list was created by reviewer and author Ian Sales, in response to the Gollancz SF Masterworks series.

Ian explains:

"[These are all by women,] science fiction only, no fantasy; and no YA or children’s works. One work per author... Arbitrary end date of 2000.

For trilogies or series, I’ve listed the first book but put the trilogy/series name in square brackets afterwards. Asterisked titles are in Gollancz’s SF Masterworks series. And if the Masterworks series is allowed an anthology, so am I: hence the inclusion of Despatches from the Frontiers of the Female Mind. I’ve also sneakily included one or two collections, for those writers best known for their short fiction.

The list is in order of year of publication.

You know how it works: bold those you’ve read, italicise those you own but have not read. (If you’ve read the entire named series, you can even emboldenize that as well.)"

The titles bolded below are ones that I (Judy) have read - some many times, some only once. This is Deborah's list so I am not sure if it is identical to the original one.
1 * Frankenstein, Mary Shelley (1818)

2 * Herland, Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1915)

3 Orlando, Virginia Woolf (1928)

4 Lest Ye Die, Cicely Hamilton (1928)

5 Swastika Night, Katherine Burdekin (1937)

6 was deleted cos Francis Leslie Ashton is male (1951)

7 The Sword of Rhiannon, Leigh Brackett (1953)

8 Pilgrimage: The Book of the People, Zenna Henderson (1961)

9 Memoirs of a Spacewoman, Naomi Mitchison (1962)

10 Witch World, Andre Norton (1963)

11 Sunburst, Phyllis Gotlieb (1964)

12 Jirel of Joiry, CL Moore (1969)

13 Heroes and Villains, Angela Carter (1969)

14 Ten Thousand Light Years From Home, James Tiptree Jr (1973)

15 * The Dispossessed, Ursula K Le Guin (1974)

16 Walk to the End of the World, Suzy McKee Charnas (1974)

17 * The Female Man, Joana Russ (1975)

18 Missing Man, Katherine MacLean (1975)

19 * Arslan, MJ Engh (1976)

20 * Floating Worlds, Cecelia Holland (1976)

21 * Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang, Kate Wilhelm (1976)

22 Islands, Marta Randall (1976)

23 Dreamsnake, Vonda N McIntyre (1978)

24 False Dawn, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro (1978)

25 Shikasta [Canopus in Argos: Archives], Doris Lessing (1979)

26 Kindred, Octavia Butler (1979)

27 Benefits, Zoe Fairbairns (1979)

28 The Snow Queen, Joan D Vinge (1980)

29 The Silent City, Élisabeth Vonarburg (1981)

30 The Silver Metal Lover, Tanith Lee (1981)

31 The Many-Coloured Land [Saga of the Exiles], Julian May (1981)

32 Darkchild [Daughters of the Sunstone], Sydney J van Scyoc (1982)

33 The Crystal Singer, Anne McCaffrey (1982)

34 Native Tongue, Suzette Haden Elgin (1984)

35 The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood (1985)

36 Jerusalem Fire, RM Meluch (1985)

37 Children of Anthi, Jay D Blakeney (1985)

38 The Dream Years, Lisa Goldstein (1985)

39 Despatches from the Frontiers of the Female Mind, Sarah Lefanu & Jen Green (1985)

40 Queen of the States, Josephine Saxton (1986)

41 The Wave and the Flame [Lear's Daughters], Marjorie Bradley Kellogg (1986)

42 The Journal of Nicholas the American, Leigh Kennedy (1986)

43 A Door into Ocean, Joan Slonczewski (1986)

44 Angel at Apogee, SN Lewitt (1987)

45 In Conquest Born, CS Friedman (1987)

46 Pennterra, Judith Moffett (1987)

47 Kairos, Gwyneth Jones (1988)

48 Cyteen , CJ Cherryh (1988)

49 Unquenchable Fire, Rachel Pollack (1988)

50 The City, Not Long After, Pat Murphy (1988)

51 The Steerswoman [Steerswoman series], Rosemary Kirstein (1989)

52 The Third Eagle, RA MacAvoy (1989)

53 * Grass, Sheri S Tepper (1989)

54 Heritage of Flight, Susan Shwartz (1989)

55 Falcon, Emma Bull (1989)

56 The Archivist, Gill Alderman (1989)

57 Winterlong [Winterlong trilogy], Elizabeth Hand (1990)

58 A Gift Upon the Shore, MK Wren (1990)

59 Red Spider, White Web, Misha (1990)

60 Polar City Blues, Katharine Kerr (1990)

61 Body of Glass (AKA He, She and It), Marge Piercy (1991)

62 Sarah Canary, Karen Joy Fowler (1991)

63 Beggars in Spain [Sleepless trilogy], Nancy Kress (1991)

64 A Woman of the Iron People, Eleanor Arnason (1991)

65 Hermetech, Storm Constantine (1991)

66 China Mountain Zhang, Maureen F McHugh (1992)

67 Fools, Pat Cadigan (1992)

68 Correspondence, Sue Thomas (1992)

69 Lost Futures, Lisa Tuttle (1992)

70 Doomsday Book, Connie Willis (1992)

71 Ammonite, Nicola Griffith (1993)

72 The Holder of the World, Bharati Mukherjee (1993)

73 Queen City Jazz, Kathleen Ann Goonan (1994)

74 Happy Policeman, Patricia Anthony (1994)

75 Shadow Man, Melissa Scott (1995)

76 Legacies, Alison Sinclair (1995)

77 Primary Inversion [Skolian Saga], Catherine Asaro (1995)

78 Alien Influences, Kristine Kathryn Rusch (1995)

79 The Sparrow, Mary Doria Russell (1996)

80 Memory [Vorkosigan series], Lois McMaster Bujold (1996)

81 Remnant Population, Elizabeth Moon (1996)

82 Looking for the Mahdi, N Lee Wood (1996)

83 An Exchange of Hostages [Jurisdiction series], Susan R Matthews (1997)

84 Fool’s War, Sarah Zettel (1997)

85 Black Wine, Candas Jane Dorsey (1997)

86 Halfway Human, Carolyn Ives Gilman (1998)

87 Vast, Linda Nagata (1998)

88 Hand of Prophecy, Severna Park (1998)

89 Brown Girl in the Ring, Nalo Hopkinson (1998)

90 Dreaming in Smoke, Tricia Sullivan (1999)

91 Ash: A Secret History, Mary Gentle (2000)

you can read more about this list on Ian Sales' blog

Deborah read about it first on Tansy Rayner Roberts' blog, I read about it on hers.

Embarassingly, and most unusually for me, I have read almost none of these books!  It looks like a good reading list to follow up on.

Resolutions - April Update

So here we go again. 

1. Accomplish all the necessary stuff involved in selling this house and moving into the one we are buying. This is the sort of resolution that, although not easy in itself, HAS to be followed through on.

Report - Well, we move on April 15th.  I just want it to be over and done with.  It will be four months since buying the house and moving in (a ridiculous length of time but stipulated by us because we needed time to sell the old one and get the money for it!)  There will be upheaval and what-not.  Tempers are very frayed all round.  I am grimly trying to hang on to the shred of sanity that comes with remembering why I fell in love with the house in the first place.  Plus the people buying our place have been a bit irritating.  But all will be well and all will be well and all manner of things will be well.
2. Get a job. It really is time after 18 years to go back to earning some sort of income. This is a scary one. I have no idea how I and the rest of the family will cope - they have all got used to me being available whenever required. I did not have children or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome last time I worked. A very large part of me does not want to go back to work. But a small part of me craves the idea of doing something else.
Report - well, I've been working for five or six weeks now, I have learned a lot of what I need to know ... and I don't much like it.  Not the job itself, which is fine, and the people are lovely, and it is even nice to earn a bit of money.  But I hate not being around for the children, even if they are teenagers, and all my health problems are rearing their ugly heads again.  I am permanently tired and miserable and hurt all over.  Again I am gritting my teeth and trying to hold on to that notion that I need to earn this money to pay for the new house, and I really want the new house.  And I am trying to pull myself out of the Slough of Despond and make some small changes to my lifestyle which might help my health a little - like starting to take a proper multivitamin again, for instance.  And knowing that the damp and mould in the old house is probably a cause of many of my (and the other family members') health issues in the first place, and that the new house will not have them.

The small bit of me that craved doing something else - it is now begging to return to its cave and be left alone!
3. Complete a project a month. Even if it is just a plain sock (pair of socks!) Preferably try out some new techniques or whatever, but at least one project a month.

Report - easy!  I have finished the March Bead Journal Project piece, run up three quick scarves for Me-Made-March 2011, and repurposed an old cardigan and a pair of shorts into another scarf.  All blogged about previously. 
4. Stop spending money like water. With this in mind, this resolution is split into sections :



4.1 I will not buy any clothes or shoes unless ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY. 'Necessary' means underwear if my current collection falls apart; if I end up in a job where I can't wear jeans, some other covering for my bottom half may be necessary beyond the one pair of black trousers and one black skirt I own; and I am going to a family wedding in March that MAY necessitate a new outfit. I can make myself anything I like out of my vast stash of fabrics and patterns, however, and if this is the case, purchase of required notions will be permitted. I would make an outfit for the wedding but that is likely to be around the time we move, and I am packing up my stash as we speak.

Report - Ha Ha! Quite a few work clothes purchased, the new job requiring reasonably corporate clothing. But nothing frivolous or not usable for work. (Oh, and there were some shoes too, but ditto). I bought a dress for the wedding, despite really wanting to make something, but realising that I just wouldn't get round to it, and the dress is suitable for work as well. All in all, more money spent than I really should have done, but for a good reason. 

That paragraph is what I wrote last month, and it can stand again for this month.  I bought three 'pashminas' in a 3 for the price of 2 deal, and wore one of them to the wedding.  All three will get used.  The wedding one was black and grey (as was my dress - how Melbourne am I, I wore a black dress and a pashmina to a wedding!), the others are bright pink/black and turquoise/gold.  They are all lovely against my sad old neck and between them will go with lots of things.  Yes, there were a couple more items of clothes for work, and maybe some more shoes.

4.2 I buy far too many DVDs. I will restrict myself to the equivalent of one full-price film (i.e. one new release or something like those 3 for $30 specials you see around) and one TV series. I need to be VERY STRICT about this.

Report - pretty successful.  I bought the old BBC series of Survivors as my TV series, and a reissuing of Neil Jordan's The Company of Wolves as my film (it's a huge favorite of mine).  I only cheated a tiny, tiny bit - at the same time I found a copy of the old TV series of My Brother Jack (not the one made a few years ago) which I have never seen, on special for $10, and I bought that because it is a favorite book.

4.3 Likewise with books. One full-price book or the equivalent per month.

Report - please all fall about with derisive laughter now.  Even with rolling over February's book into March, I overdid it by a factor of ... something or other.  I think I bought about six books in March.  My bad.  All with my OWN MONEY though, so boo sucks.

4.4 Craft materials - only to be purchased if necessary to make a specific project immediately after purchase. Otherwise all craft material shopping is to be done from the stash.

Report - One ball of novelty yarn from Lincraft with which to make an annoying ruffled scarf.  I mean the knitting of it is annoying, the scarf is kind of cute.  In shades of bright red.  And hugely ruffly.  I started knitting it the day I bought it.  And it didn't cost much, though I cannot actually remember how much.

4.5 Exceptions to the rules will include craft shows, where I will take a fixed amount of cash and leave my credit cards at home. Nothing purchased under these circumstances will count towards the total!

Report - no craft shows, so I passed this one!

4.6 Items for any room in the new house, but especially the kitchen, will only be purchased if necessary, not just because they catch my eye. There will be some purchases, planned in advance.

Report - Nada.  But April will be a biggie on this one, as we need a new fridge and dishwasher (and when I say 'need' I mean 'replace the 25 year old fridge that keeps freezing vegetables and the 15 year old dishwasher that leaks and isn't going anywhere near the lovely floorboards in my new kitchen'!)  And I may buy a couple of new pans given that I wil have more than two burners on my cooktook for the first time since January 2000!!!

And apropos of nothing, today is our 22nd wedding anniversary.  We'd better get this move over and done with or there won't be a 23rd, we will have killed each other before then!!!  On the other hand, the fact that I will be spending the evening alone with a bowl of soup sounds sad and pathetic but isn't really.  George is working very late so that he can take the next 2 1/2 weeks off to oversee 90% of the moving without me having to do more than the other 10%, and he will be taking me out to dinner over the weekend or something when I have the energy to get up and go out.  I have promised to take Wombat to Supernova tomorrow, which means my energy levels will be in heavy minus figures.  There will be a 23rd anniversary!

Edited to add that the anniversary dinner happened anyway, unexpectedly, and the chances of a 23rd one are increasing!  However if he keeps reading over my shoulder and asking if I am editing this to change the rules of the resolutions, I;m not so sure!!!!! 

Bead Journal Project - March

For a start, this is a close-up of the face cab I used in my February post.  I 've only just got round to taking a halfway decent picture of it.  I'm not very good at close-ups.

Now for the March piece.  It really is this blue.  The polymer clay face cab came from a lot I bought on Ebay, I think, but as with all of them, too long ago to be able to acknowledge the artist properly.    The found object this month is, quite literally, something I found on the floor.  I have no idea how it came to be in my house, I'd never seen it before!  It is a millefiore-style glass button, cut on an angle, and it matched the face so beautifully that I just had to use it.  I love blue so I had lots of blue beads in the stash, in fact many more than I could sensibly use in an ATC sized piece.

It is finished with my usual encrusted edge.

Next month is going to be slightly different - still a face and a found object, but slightly different!

Me-Made-March 2011 Week 5

I truly did try to be original for the last four days of Me-Made-March 2011, but as you can see, two of the four things I wore have featured before.

This brooch went so perfectly with the outfit I was wearing - a white top, black leggings and a wrap skirt in bright red with a white floral pattern like a stencil - that I wore it anyway.  In this photo it is still on the grey top I wore it with a couple of weeks ago.

On Tuesday I wore this braclet that I  made some years ago and had forgotten about.  I made it when I was perfecting peyote stitch and it is a series of patches of peyote stitch sewn together in a sort of crazy patchwork way and embellished.  I love the effect but it is a lot slower to do than freeform peyote, so I haven't done it since.  But I must ressurect the technique, it really is effective.  I wore it with a floral chiffon wrap dress with a black background and big old-fashioned roses in pinks and blues and yellows, and a green cardigan, over a black crushed silky 'slip as outwear' dress.

I was having withdrawal symptoms from my favorite glass brooch so it came out again, teamed with a white top with some silver cutwork embroidery (not made by me), black trousers and a purple/grey/cream cardigan with diamante buttons.

And for the final day of the month - I made this shawlette thing years ago out of a hank of expensive ribbon yarn.  The dangles on the end are from the furnishing department!  It jazzed up a cream top and grey trousers no end.

Having started this challenge thinking it would be incredibly hard, I think I now realise just how many made-by-me accessories I actually have already.  It has certainly encouraged me to start sewing again.  Though that will have to be after we move and have unpacked.  And I fear that it could take a very long time indeed before I am allowed to have any free time to do anything like that - I can see months of doing nothing but going to work and coming home again to be yelled at if I sit down to do anything for myself.  The whole work and moving thing is really getting me down right now.  Although the job itself is OK I hate the way it makes me feel utterly exhausted and cranky all the time, so that even when I am home I don't have the energy to be the mum I want to be.  And I suspect that there will be ongoing problems when we move.  But I will stop complaining now and think instead about the fact that the new house will be worth the expense and the upheaval, and that I am going to consider paying for a cleaning lady so that it stays clean and so that I am compelled to keep it TIDY.  That might remove a couple of the reasons for being yelled at.

I have got so addicted to describing my outfits every day, because it makes me sound so much more interesting than I actually am, that it may be a hard habit to break!!!