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You say you want a revolution well, you know... ...we all want to change the world |
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Sponsor my private revolution:
What am I selling on Ebay today? Let the Revolution begin... *You can be any age to join the knitting revolution. It's not just grannies any more. *To join, just grab the nearest pointy things, and tie them to the nearest string-like substance. Wave them enthusiastically in the air, yelling passionate cries such as "och aye the noo!" *The revolution requires that you supply your own weapons. Er, needles. *Knitting can be sexy. Sure, it can. Go to knitty and be inspired! *Knit in public, and if anyone looks at you funny, you've always got a sharp metal thing handy with which to poke their soft bits. *Get all knitting-zen on people. Then when you really let your hair down, you can get away with it, because you're "that nice person, who knits". *insert evil laugh here* *Oh, yeah, almost forgot. The revolution will not be televised. Or... something like that. I moved to Canberra last November, and am now involved in the best Canberra knitting group! ... so any locals or visitors interested, go on over to Canberra Stich N Bitch yahoo group and join us in our dark endeavours! I mean, creative meeting of minds... er, yeah. Something like that. We meet at Starbucks in Civic on the first Thursday evening of every month, and the third Sunday of the month at 2pm. Come along! If you feel shy, feel free to post online first, or email someone to ask a few questions. :):):) If you want, use the contact button and I'll give you my details so we can get in touch. Always happy to get the interesting people of Canberra out of the woodwork... I know you're there, ya just hard to find sometimes *chuckle* Sydney Knitting Adventures continue at "my" previous knitting group in Newtown: Meet up for coffee, cake, and knitting adventures galore at Barmuda Cafe, Australia Street Newtown. It's opposite the police station, and across the intersection from Newtown Train Station. See the SSK Website for details :D You, and this many other people with a cramp in their forefinger: Interesting in knitting, and what other knitters are doing? Or are you just bored, or farting off at work while the boss ain't watching? Well then, I have just the thing to keep you busy for hours on end... go exploring the wonderful world of knitting blogs. Can you believe there's so many of us? I have my favourite blog-days, and these are some of them: A hairy tale Horn-y knitter Musical tongs God on the brain Blogging from behind a mask Creativity and productivity I am SUCH a nerd Deliver me from Swedish furniture Feminist backlash Modern beauty is a myth Instant karma’s gonna getcha Go feminism Harris the Well Clad Fish The love is in the food Embarrassment, Humiliation and Joy Booty The birth of a grammar avenger Beetles Traffic Lights, part 1 Spawn of Satan Traffic Lights, part 2 A long time ago, in a knitting bag far, far away... And my other blog, complete with a few little patterns: http://miscsqueak.blogdrive.com  
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Ah for god's sake... In the absence of any real knitting going on in my life, I'm just gonna have a good bitch. The fill-in choir conductor dressed me down royally in front of the entire choir tonight for knitting. I object strongly to that. It was sniggering, giggling and ignoring his cues that he should have dressed me down for, the knitting was completely irrelevant. So there. Blaaaat! Have a look at this horrible article. People are so hideous. Blech. It was posted to a knitgroup I'm on, sparking the general opinion that the woman was just poking a stick in a hornet's nest and doesn't deserve a response. Considering how bloody tired I am, I'm inclined to agree! I'm sure I'll get all crappy about it when I've got the energy, really. LOL... She must be a really really REALLY bad knitter, as Peter so gently pointed out. *snort* God love ya Nanna. And I swear, if I don't get through my stash by the end of the year.... ACK!!!!!!!!! I wanna buy new stuff and I've got nowhere to put it! So my only logical choice is to knit as fast as I can and get rid of my stash. So far, I've knitted a green shirt which needs the sleeves re-done, a stripey bunyip jumper which needs the sleeves redone, and about 5 pairs of socks, which are boring me STUPID!!!!!!!!!! Waaah! Next life, I'm gonna be a man, so I can have a wife to do all the stuff I do. I'm also gonna have a really low IQ so I don't have the burning desire to get educated to avoid wasting my brain. Yeah, that sounds good. I'm looking forward with sweeeet anticipation to the Christmas holidays. Ooooh yeah baby. Drew the High Priestess today.
The big battle for Sunday prime time... There was a huge face-off in my home today... so many things to do! Homework versus knitting is always an easy fight to predict but this was getting complicated! Would I: a) do all the final paperwork for the Bald Man's Brasserie (blech. work.) b) study for the criminology test I had looming on Wednesday (blech. more work) c) knit stuff (ooh, now we're talking) d) pretend that the housework I'd been putting off for about 2 years really needed to be done (hey, better than homework) e) have a hot bath (mmm... slack off in denial, I like this one) f) realise I got my period unexpectedly and spend the rest of the day in misery and pain (oops) And the answer is... You got it. Nothing like trying a new painkilling drug and realising it DOESN'T BLOODY WORK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Grrrrr! And for all of you guys saying "ew, too much information" well sweet pea, you got the TIP of the iceberg so just don't push it. Hormones. Scary stuff, huh?
Rippit Rippit! Is that the sweet sound of frogging I hear??? 
Yeh, that's a green tree frog cross stitch I did aaages ago. Innit a cutey! Airbrushed the mat board myself too (don't you hate it when mat board doesn't come in the right colour???) So. The green shirt. The sleeves are just too baggy around the wrist detail, which has some (deliberate) big gapey holes which work well as a design idea but not in practice. So... undone it comes! Promise it'll be finished and ready for photographing soon. Since it's all sewn up and I just want the ends of the sleeves to be plainer and short, I'm going to pull them undone at the cuffs and pull them back, and reknit a snugger, plainer cuff. The matching detail around the waist is just going to have to be content with being a detail detail. Unique detail? Random? Ah whatever, I'm just gonna go do it *snicker* On the business front, we officially leave Sunday night. *sniff* I can't believe the Bald Man's Brasserie doesn't have a premises to operate from! Blech! Anyway, we twisted the landlord's arm for a payout, and are on the hunt for a new spot. Anyone know of any Sydney bistros requiring a non-hostile takeover??? And today we have... Page of Wands.
Whee! Sockies!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm at Jude's place (muminlaw) using her scanner! Whee!!! So, here's a piccy of her sockies. I've just started the heel.  Yum, huh? I loooove that magical sockenwolle. So. I haven't worked out if it's just my monitor here, but the dark green looks like grey. Trust me, except for the spotty bits, it's all shades of lush dark green plus a bright green stripe. Yurrrrrrm. Anyway, I'm actually here to scan in stuff for uni, so I'd better get onto that. Today's card - well, I drew 2 - one for "us" - ie me and the Bald Man - Ace of Pentacles, which was very encouraging, considering our business is on the line. And for me: King of Swords. Which again was great, since I had a presentation to do today which I was a bit nervous about. Keep your fingers crossed for our business everyone!
Gotta knit gotta knit gotta knit (oscillates wildly) Yee! Gotta knit!!! Thank all the gods for chemical free mood enhancer... out come the needles and yarn. Grr. I just spent the morning at the solicitor's with my Bald Man, and feel the need to do something... like knit ten jumpers, scrub the home from top to bottom and hex our landlord into next year. Not necessarily in that order. What I'll actually do is finish the week's paperwork, study a bit, knit a bit (well it is my day off) and then maybe think about the dishes. Heh. Just might finish the mum-in-law's first sock today. Yay! Wanna start knitting one in that blue and pink handspun (but I promised her a pair and she's just not the hot pink and bright blue type. *snicker* unless its LV or Versace of course!) Actually, I was going to give an SSK report, right? SSK is Sydney Sity Klickers, and we meet at Newtown 230pm every second Saturday. Should put up a calender, shouldn't I? Something for later. Peter does the best SSK reports, but here goes. Tania was finishing off a polo neck jumper in the most luscious grey... is it grey? Is it purple? Gorgeous colour, warm and just a tiny hint of sheen. Peter had undone MORE of the aran jumper he's been doing. Perfectionist, this man, just incredible. Told us lots of funny stories about how he gets stared at on the bus when knitting, and the whispered comments that "yes, he's really good, too!" Very amusing. Lyndell has finished her awesome green boucle skirt and is now doing the matching top, it's green with a hint of olive in Bendigo boucle wool. Yumbles. So, after a 12 person party last fortnight, it was just the 4 of us. You never know what you're gonna get, but it's ALWAYS fun. Me? The green shirt. Surprise surprise. Hey! Maybe I'll finish that today. Hmm. And today's card? The bloody Tower again. Just in case I missed it the first time. This daily card thing is really starting to get creepy.
Totally crap news Feeling pretty crap today... had some horrible news, our landlord for the business wants us out by the end of the week. Grr! Needless to say, our solicitor is top of the list of people to talk to! Don't worry guys, the Bald Man's Brasserie is going to give this asshole a run for his money. So. Didn't get much study done today, so contented myself with dying most of my stock of white merino. I wish I had a digital camera to show it! I dyed a heap of roving in multicoloured (magenta, blue and purple) and a full skein of navajo-plied merino which is a tiny bit thicker than sockyarn weight. I 've dyed the skein in sections of blue and pink, so hopefully I'll get nifty stripes when I make it into a pair of sockies!!! Whee! Now I just have to swatch it. Yummmmm. Today's card: Yeh, more conflict. 5 of wands. Sheesh.
Too much fun and never enough time to have it in! GENERAL PROGRESS REPORT: The socks. They're taking forever! But they're sloooowly getting there. I wish I could scan em in, they're the most gorgeous green stripes in Opal sockyarn. It's the green one on Sortiment 31 (3rd lot down on THIS LINK* after you've clicked "OpalSockenwolle 1".) I've just gotten to the heel flap. I'm a bit worried that they are now too big, but I'm not sure I'm gonna frog 'em again... The green shirt. Almost done the second sleeve! Unfortunately the shoulders sag terribly, I think I'm going to have to reinforce it across the top/back to stop it flopping everywhere. These are pretty much the only 2 knitting projects on the go. I think I have a couple of abandoned bits and pieces in the drawer but I'm trying to un-remember them. Oh. Yeh. That's right... The gloves. Got to the thumb and decided to wash the dishes or some pressing thing. An adventure for another day. The Eternal Sock (so-called cos it's taking forever. One stitch per month I think the average may be. *snort*)... Same as it was last month I believe. Heh. The Sausage Dog (for stopping drafts under the door type). About 20cm along. It's weeeeeird looking, but quite cool. The scanner... well not a knitting project but certainly knitting related, since I could scan in bits of what I'm doing... it's officially a TOAD! (Can't remember exactly what the acronym is, something about abandoned in disgust). Can't get a power cord for it. Gonna have to lug some photos over to the mum in law's and borrow her "you-beaut mega-fast super-resolution thang". That's about it... off to SSK and a few parties. Yay! Today's card: 5 of Pentacles. Ew. * for anyone in Australia interested in buying sockwool, this is where I get mine from. Email me if you want further info. No affiliation, I just know how hard it is for Aussies to get good affordable sockyarn.
A wheel! The Evil Queen has her spinning wheel! Heh. That's what they call me. The Evil Queen. Yeh, I'm pretty sure that was me in another life tricked Sleeping Beauty into doing that 100 year thing on the spindle. Because of the spindle. Something like that. Who are "they"? Mostly the other guys in the choir, actually, ever since the committee did Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhyme about Snow White as a (very bad) revue act at the last camp and I was cast as (what else) the Evil Queen. I received many compliments on my very convincing portrayal of the role *snicker* and if I EVER get my old shonky 2nd hand scanner working, I'll show ya how scary I looked. Anyway. Now I have my wheel!!! Eeeeeheeheehee! *insert mad cackle here* Well, almost. Leigh (you legend!) has it at her place in Canberra, it's communing with her wheels (hopefully when it comes home it will have a tip or two for me from Leigh's very experienced wheels. Heh.) So. Might be spinning some nice new wool soon. Then we'll think about knitting again. Meanwhile, the socks got completely frogged and started again on bigger needles, as they were a tad too small. Even got a few sly rows done at choir rehearsal last night, whoo hoo! Speaking of which, the songbook was finally released last night amidst much happiness and (slightly drunken) pubsinging. Whee! Oh yes, good one Jewel (who pointed out, in relation to the photo of my darling baby bird, that keeping live cat food next to tinned cat food is very handy) ... yeh that's my mum's cupboard, I thought it was pretty funny too, and BirdTalk mag published it. Awww! Phoebs is famous! I got the Tower card today. I really don't want all these bloody major arcana cards, I'm happy with my life the way it is at the moment dammit. I'm a happy nerd! Sod change and growth!!! LOL
Knitting can be a criminal activity That's right my friends. Your knitting could cost you a fine, or even a gaol sentence! Well maybe not the gaol sentence. I was happily knitting away (my muminlaw's sock, which I then undid and restarted on bigger needles anyway) in the very stationary traffic at a set of traffic lights a few days ago when a siren goes off right next to me and I look over to see a bemused looking police officer indicating that I should wind down my window. Cop: You know that's illegal? What I wanted to say: Not bloody likely mate, now push off and leave me alone! What I actually said (quite meekly): Really? (yeh, I'm a really verbal gymnast at times) Cop: Yes it is. What I wanted to say next: Well tell me which law forbids knitting at the traffic lights, smartarse! What I actually said (again, quite meekly): Oh. What, sitting still at the lights, knitting??? (I know. I think he was blown away by my formidable use of the English language in all its beauty and complexity) Cop: Yeh, so put it away, all right? What I wanted to say next: Oh just fuck off and book a real criminal wontcha? Where the hell were you when I got bailed up in a servo by some psycho for half an hour last year? HUH??????? SHITHEAD!!!!!!!!!!!! What I actually said (face now burning with embarrassment): Okay, I'll put it away then. Grr. As the absolutely wonderful (and probaby verbally superior) Lyndell said (when I posted it to the legendary justdoitknits yahoo group): Huh ! what about all the people who drive with the Mobile glued to the ear? what about people driving along in mid domestic argument, what about people who put make-up on at the lights, squeeze zits at the lights ... I mean you see people doing all sorts of unspeakable things while they are waiting at traffic lights. What about the idiot in a silver sports car (obvious mid-life crisis in full-bloom) who tried to flatten me this morning when I was walking on the footpath and he wanted to turn into the drive way - sorry but pedestrian has right of way when driveway crosses footpath. Sorry, but why can't you knit at the lights? I don't get it. If you're going to skewer anyone with the needles it'll be yourself - and no-one is going to let you sit at the lights once they've gone green. That's the definition of a spit second isn't it? being the time between the lights going green and someone behind you honking their horn. Someone tried to hassle me about knitting in the train a while ago and I told them I'd been doing it for years and hadn't managed to skewer anyone ... yet. Said the last bit with an evil smirk which seemed to work - well it was pre-1st-coffee-of-the-day. Yeah, what she said. Thanks Lyndell!
Josh, my nephew, who is a distant relation of Satan I know that makes me a distant relation too, but I'm pretty sure he's closer. Trust me. He is sooo cute but he's really really smart and knows where everyone's buttons are, and ain't afraid to press em. No wonder I love him so much *snicker* So. This is my nephew, Josh. Awww! In honour of (finally) working out how to post photos directly on to the page, I've put his picture up. Knitting-related too, which is always ideal on a knitting blog. Heh.  Now how cute is that. The kid, too. Hehehehe... I was knitting something else when he came up to me and got all curious, like kids and other similar bizarre life forms are wont to do... Adorable Demon Child: Hey Mon, what's that? *points* Me: This is knitting Josh. I'm making a jumper. Adorable Demon Child (after a very very short pause): Hey Mon Me: Yes Josh? Adorable Demon Child: Can you knit me a jumper? Me: Yeh, sure. Adorable Demon Child: A black one? Me (with slightly raised eyebrow): Yeeeh... Adorable Demon Child (warming to his new designing capabilities): With a white skull on it??? Me (now thoroughly approving): Yeh, no problem little man. Adorable Demon Child: Now? Me: Kiddo, you gotta lot to learn about life. Gimmee a coupla weeks. Adorable Demon Child notices something sparkly on other side of room and bounces off, distracted. This does not stop him from expressing his ire when he realises a few hours later that I haven't started his jumper yet. It doesn't matter to him that I'm currently knitting in pink, yellow, green, blue and purple, and suggests a yellow skull on a purple background when I explain to him that I have no black or white with me. He also reminds me of my obligations the next time I see him. Heard a comedian once comment that 3 year olds are so single minded that they could probably rule the world but for their tendency to get distracted. I'm inclined to agree, and stretch the age window a few years. So there you go. It was a bit big for him when I finished it, but he's growing like mad. Bet it fits him now. And he was so excited when I gave it to him (see photo... heh) that I practically had to scrape him off the ceiling to pose for the photo. Now all I have to do is post something a little bit more recent than last winter's knitting! :-) Patience and all that. I'm tired. Viruses (particularly cold and flu ones) suck. (today's card also sucked. 8 of swords. But hey, that's life. It ain't all socknitting.
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