of tulips and roses

(Apologies for the blurry photos - I'm having a bit of a hard time with my lens at the moment!!)

The other day, I tried to hint to my other half that I hadn't received flowers for more than a year... and that it was coming up to tulip season (my favourite) , and that perhaps it would be nice to get a little surprise. Of course, I didn't get much joy out of that conversation but i'm secretly hoping that he didn't respond on purpose so that he could "psych" me out to think I wasn't getting any flowers when really I was..

Yes I know how that sounds. But I shall ignore it :)

So anyways, thinking about flowers and the like got me to cast on for the Rose Shouldered Shrug, from Knit1 Magazine Fall 08. I had originally bought some Classic Elite Cotton Bam Boo for it but decided that the lack of variegation in the yarn would make for a somewhat "flat" looking shrug. I wanted this one to *pop* - to have depth.

To my rescue came that strange sparkley yarn I bought the other week , that appeared to do the trick..

So I cast on for the main shoulder shrug part...


Then I got bored of stockinette, and separately cast on for the first section of the rose..

I like the sparkley contrast, but I think the contrast might be a bit much so I'm thinking of dyeing the whole thing when I'm finished. Maybe an wine coloured red, or a blue of some sort..
But we'll see :)

(until then.. i'm hoping there's some flowers waiting for me when I head home this weekend..)

Swimming in fruit punch

Apologies for the lack of posts lately! I've been a bit unsettled with the move and not having half my stuff with me, as well as having to head back out to site for a relief stint.

But in all honesty, there hasn't been much knitting. I've cast on for the Rose Shoulder Shrug but haven't made much progress. I also tried to do some sewing the other day but haven't made much progress there either because I forgot everything I learnt in class..

So, the only project photos I can show is some spinning..

The 22 micron merino was dyed in yellows, greens and pinks, in something that I like to call "Swimming in fruit punch".



It was then spun up as singles on my Majacraft Pioneer.


And to keep the colour runs intact, I navajo-plied it (first time). I'm quite pleased with the final outcome, though it is very yellow heavy. The navajo ply was fairly easy to understand, but I had a lot of yarn breakage as I had underspun it in several places.


In the end, I ended up with approximately 300 metres of between fingering and sportweight yarn. Think i'll make some colourful socks out of this one.. (i mean, what else would you make in something this cheerful?!)

Unsettling

Since coming back to Perth, I haven't had much motivation to do any spinning or knitting. There's something just not very inviting about not having all your wool, needles, yarn, magazines, patterns and books with you , and having everything packed in boxes because there is no room to put anything.

Moving back has been rather disruptive. I'm still trying to find my feet again , but I'm also about to head to site again tomorrow for 11 days to relieve someone on annual leave, so the whole process has become a bit of a headache.

I have however *tried* to get motivation. I picked up 10 balls of Jo Sharp DK Wool , 4 balls of something really interesting looking at Spotlight (hey, it cost me $7 after the 40% off so it can't be a total loss even if it does knit up terribly. It's one thread of wool twined with one thread of silvery stuff) and some DK weight charcoal merino wool which i'm thinking might be cute as a little vest for work.

I also bought a new Drum Carder and have done some tinkering with it, but no spinning. Maybe it's because I don't have all the comforts I'm used to having (ie. the big chaise lounge, the open space, the home theatre set up for me to spend hours in front of..) but I do hope to get the motivation back soon!

PS. I finished CPH, and sent it off to my pal and she's got it! Yay. Unfortunately I don't have any pics to show of the worn FO but i'll try and post an FO post shortly.

PPS . Sorry about the mess of a blog at the moment. I accidentally deleted my layout, and hastily grabbed another one but the alignment and links are all wrong. I will fix it up when I get back from site.