Knitting on the PS3

Besides my "homely crafting", I have always loved going out, having a coffee with friends, shopping, discovering new haunts and discovering new knick knacks. However, since my bf took up his job as a mine engineer, we have based ourselves in a fairly sleepy town (approx 30 000).

While my work whisks me away for 1/2 of the year, the other half is usually spent coming back and forth from my "home town" and my current town. While in my current town, my bf often worries that I will get easily bored, and often stocks up on things that he thinks will keep me entertained (little does he know how much knitting and sewing can keep me occupied)..

Late last year, he (like many other PS3 owners) discovered Little Big Planet. He fell in love with little Sack Boy so much he decided that *I* needed it too. Not being an adventure gamer myself, I played for about 1 hour and have never touched it since. That said though, the other half has certainly taken to the game.

So in secret, I've started knitting him a little Sack Boy. It's almost done, except for the finishing and then i'll leave it nicely by the tv with the PS3 game. I don't often knit for him - but I do hope he likes it :)

Craft room ideas

Previously, I had posted about the exciting things that I was doing to my new house and one of the big things that I wanted was a dedicated craft room.

At the moment, the said craft room is still being used as a guest room as we have intermittent guests coming in and out but eventually, i want to convert it into a fully fledged craft room (don't worry, we still will have a guest room, just not in the same place as my craft room!).

While I've bought a few bits and pieces that I want in my craft room, those pieces are still sitting in the boot of my car as I am still unsure of how I want the overall craft room layout. And so, I have been trawling the internet for ideas, and have come across some awesome craft rooms. For your viewing pleasure:

From She Organized Life (am i this neat?)

From madcropper.com
(i like this hanging thing. Can see me using it for patterns)
From Melissa's Flickr
I like the idea of a central table for my sewing machine and for patterns

From Cottage Magpie (Just so pretty):
From hgtv
I love the colours, and the wall shelving.

From Apartment Therapy:
For my knitting yarns!!

Did I hear a sale??

I went to my very local (read: country hicktown local) yarn store the other day and found out that they were having 30% off all yarn until the end of month! My heart skipped a beat, but I managed to contain my impulses and decided to head home first and find out what I needed and what I didnt need rather than stashing. 

Today I went back, and purchased 6 skeins of Merino Et Soie (a lovely merino/silk 10 ply) in a dark dusty pink/maroon colour :

and some Panda Pure Wool (240m per skein at $3 ??? who could resist) in a lovely olive colour. Both are earmarked for projects that I will start straight away so will go to good heed.

After my very drawn back spending of 9 skeins of yarn, new yarn needles, some bias binding and some buttons, the total came to $36!! I was shocked at how cheap it was, and suddenly realised that I *needed* to buy more. So I shall return to that little store very very shortly! heehee

On knitting news, I finally blocked and re-sewed the Hexacomb Cardigan, and am waiting to see how the reblocked version goes. Hopefully it'll fit better than that gigantic illfitting product I ended up with. 

Also, I'm 95% done with Rosemary's Swing Jacket. I'm determined to finish it within the next two hours (only a bit of the sleeves to go) as I want to wear it with my little black dress tonight. Fingers crossed. The moss stitch is going slowly, but I'm loving the fabric nonetheless. And it's certainly not as bright as this, but I just couldnt get the lighting right for this one. 

Girl on a mission!

I'm on a mission tomorrow (well, technically today as it's almost 1am here - this day light saving business is playing with my body clock. I can't adjust!!) to do the following things:

• Purchase a ball dress that doesn't require alteration and fits perfectly - I'm going to my SO's ball on Friday and need a dress by tomorrow. My sister looks at me insanely when I say that, because I have about four ball gowns in my wardrobe but of course, I don't want to wear them again. So.. I'm thinking I might wear my pretty silk Alannah Hill dress, but I need to then buy a slip to go with.


• Finish Leaf Sweater - Two sleeves (well, technically, 1.98), and finishing left to do. Here's where we're up to (There are lots of mods on this one):
  
• 


• Finish assignment on Health Promotion. When I was an undergrad, I dropped Health Science to take up a Psychology degree. Now i'm doing a postgrad, the health sciences have come back to haunt me.


• Play in a netball semi-final and win! We're playing against the incredibly violent team, who also happens to be the same team / match where I severely injured my ankle awhile back. It's still sore, and I'm still having trouble wearing my pretty stilletos, but it's for the love of the game!


• Pack for trip to Kalgoorlie. - Leaving Thursday bright and early at 7am.

All that in 12 hours. Possible? I hope so .. ! Wish me luck ;)

Stuck here with nothing to do...

So, I'm here in Kalgoorlie on my third day of doing absolutely nothing, and I am literally doing absolutely nothing. And I don't like it. My bf reckons I'm addicted to being busy, and to work, but really, I just like to keep busy and have the time go by.

Here in kalgoorlie, it is currently 38 degrees celcius (more than 100F by American standards though I'm not quite sure what the actual reading is), and I have no knitting left to do. I finished the knitting parts of both my socks, and the ribbed lace bolero, and only need to block/seam them up - which I haven't been able to do because my little drive to the LYS came up short given that they had relocated - to where, I do not know!

[ Just need to graft the last sock part ]

[ just need to block and seam this - the lace pattern makes the whole thing twist to one side.. hopefully blocking with make it straight again ]

Anyways, because Quan is so busy with his project at the moment, I have to keep myself occupied. I might go to the local Kmart or Target and see if they have any knitting supplies available. Wish me luck! (Otherwise it's going be to a very SLOW three days!)

New years resolution achieved!

At the start of the year, I resolved to learn to knit on those scary looking double pointed needles... Since then , I had attempted to knit with them a few times and failed miserably. I didnt realise that you always alternated your working needle - instead i was knitting with one needle, and then thought that I had to divide the number of stitched up every single round.

I can hear you going "what was she thinking?" but the truth is - i didnt know any better!! :D So, tasked with what I thought was impossible and much too time consuming, I decided to bin it.

But alas, my secret pal came to the rescue with a lovely little sock knitting kit!! I started off with the mini traditional socks and learnt that no, you do not keep one working needle! and no, you dont divide up every single round! Enthused by my progress on the mini traditional socks, I ventured into knitting a "real" sock and here's my progress!!


For those that want to knit basic socks and need some instruction, i highly recommend Silver's Sock Class which provides fantastic photos and step by step instructions (at EVERY step). I know the above has a few issues (ie. uneven ribbing) but i'm proud to say that i can knit on dpns now! :) Thank you Secret Pal for helping me to achieve my new years' resolution!

On another project, this is my progress on Stefanie Japel's Leaf Cardi. :


It's not much at the moment, but well.. I love to take photos to have a record of how i'm going, and I love blogs with lots photos.

Interesting thing to note - see that little white string I've used as a "stitchmarker?". Well, in kalgoorlie, I was left to my own devices and scrummaged a bit to find something suitable as I didnt have my ring markers with me. The solution? Dental Floss.

haha. I wouldn't recommend it. It's a terrible stitchmarker!! =D ... well, one of us had to try it right?

New Project

This weekend hasn't been too bad for my knitting - i had thought that the no knitting needle rule on the plane would enforce a no knitting ban on myself.. However, Quan and I discovered a little craft store here in Kalgoorlie and although the yarn is limited in selection to acrylics, cleckheaton and sirdar, I did manage to pick up some Cleckheaton Pure Wool 12ply in a heathered grey to knit this pretty thing up:

This is my first time knitting a top down raglan, and it started nicely at first with my 64 stitches. However, with the increases, it has now ballooned to 214 stitches per row, so now it's taking me so very long to complete one row *woe is me*. Unfortunately I dont have a camera with me, but I'll post progress pics when I get back to Perth!

Also picked up some grey and black yarn as I'm planning to knit a little houndstooth scarf for winter...

Now i'm off to catch the plane back to Perth! I'm flying Skywest instead of Qantas this time and I haven't yet come across any "no knitting needle" clause so hopefully I'll be right :)