Fyrewitch's Knitting Adventures

Twilight

Well, I'm feeling very proud of myself this morning as I managed to get to pairs of ladies socks from one 100 g ball of acrylic.  I'm basking in the glow of that a little before returning to work on more Mother's Day Stall socks. They give me much more pleasure than the scarves to knit!

Finally, after much assurance from friends that it was worth the time, I read Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. Apparently the book came to her in a dream and she sat down and wrote it in a matter of hours. It was a very interesting read, especially for a self-confessed literary snob.

I'm not generally a big fan of Vampire books. In fact, the only other one I've read is the classic, Bram Stoker's Dracula. Meyer puts a bit of a different slant on the traditional vampire tale, with Edward, the love interest/vampire not wanting to hurt the protagonist Bella. There is also a big emphasis on teenage sexuality and the inherent danger of giving yourself to someone completely.

I can see why this series is such a big hit - it really plays on that romantic idea that love is (and should be) forever, with death being more tolerable than separation. There's also lots of unfulfilled sexual tension, which I personally think it more interesting than any sex scene will ever be. At the end of the book, Bella becomes aware that the only way she and Edward can be together forever is if he transforms her into a vampire herself, a torment which she is willing to undergo for him. Which led me to thinking about immortality.

Firstly, most relationships are flat out making it past the 15 year mark. How would you deal with being stuck with someone forever? Surely it would get to the point where just the way they spoke irritated you ... or perhaps I've just never really been in love.

The other thing is what would you do if you had the rest of time to entertain yourself? In the movie Tuck Everlasting, the immortal characters achieve very little as they fall into a routine and do nothing to really improve themselves. The vampire characters in Twilight, on the other hand have developed their own standard of ethics. And one has studied and become a doctor, working in the local hospital in order to help people.

Do we only try to learn and make ourselves the best people we can be because we have a limited timespan? Would we really just fall into never ending routines if we didn't have impending death hanging over us? What would you do with eternity?

Socky Triumph!

Aura Sock number 1 is finished and looks absolutely gorgeous (even if I do say so myself)

The witchlet is incredibly excited as I've promised her a pair from the left over yarn when mine are done. Then she'll have TWO pairs of mummy-made socks to wear to school and shock her straight laced school mates with.

And there's also this.

 

I think it's some sort of illness. But it's just so pretty!!!

New additions

There has been a new addition to the witch's stead this week.

Her name is Bast, for the Egyptian Goddess of joy, playfulness and music.

She is gorgeous and is bringing much joy to the household. My other cats are even looking less like they want to eat her, and are talking to me again.

There has also been some stashing:       

 

All from Crystal Palace Yarns. The red is Maizy and will probably be used for socks for the witchlet's stepmother for mother's day. The others are both Bamboo Soy colours Fudge Brownie (for socks for my father) and Cocoa Mint (for a friend's fiance. I think. I could change my mind, it has been known to happen.)

In other news from witch head quarters, I quit my job this week after deciding that the associated stress was doing my head in. So I'm on the lookout for another position, but in the meantime I'll be knitting, spending more time with the witchlet, and maybe even reading some fiction. I did join the book club on Ravelry but haven't really gotten involved yet. Pretty crappy for an ex-lit student!

Knitting!

Contrary to any evidence I've given, knitting has been done over the last month, I've just been a tad crap about showing it off. Here we go.

Scarves for the mothers day stall. Mostly I'm using a combo of feathers and complimenting eyelash yarn in alternating rows. They look pretty cool. Haven't done my least favourite job of sewing the ends in yet. I'll be sitting down to do them all at once before I hand them over.

Socks for my nephew PJ. He's got teeny skinny legs and really long feet. I'm discovering I can get a pair of kids socks out of the skeins of sock wool that I'm buying - which is great value but then does bad things in my head about justifying the amount of sock yarn I'm purchasing. "Let them all have socks! Sod the cake!"

Socks I've made for the witchlet. She loves loves loves them, to the point that I actually has to hide them from her to get this photo. She took some convincing that they actually required washing and that she couldn't wear them every day. Everyone at school now knows she has a pair of socks her mum made for her.

Sock number one from Cherry Blossom yarn from Cherry Hill. Mmmm, so purty.

And WIP sock number one from the Flat Feet flat. How gorgeous are those colours. I actually started it in pattern and then ripped it out and went back to stocking stitch as the pattern really took away from the yarn. Also, I spoilt myself and bought a set of pretty knitpicks DPNs. They are lovely to work with, but I'm scared of taking them out anywhere in case I snap them!

I've sewed together some squares for the throw and knitted a heap more squares, but got over it very quickly.

There has also been some stashing:

I love flat feet yarn!!! I've found a wonderful brisbane based web site that has a huge selection. I was especially jazzed to have found blue spotty yarn that kinda matched the pink spotty yarn, so in my head I will have matching socks although they look nothing alike.

And the Winner Is ...

Well done to Anna Bligh for winning the State Election, making her the first female elected Premier in Queensland. The witchlet is extremely excited (politics and the stock exchange are her foibles. I've been begging her to draw on the walls like a normal kid for years) and will no doubt be terribly disappointed when she tries to talk about it to her friends at school tomorrow and they look at her like she's speaking a different language.

I haven't bothered turning on to any free to air stations to see what the actual split was, I might risk watching the news tomorrow. But I dare say The Borg made himself "denecessary" by his simple inability to grasp the English language. Pauline Hanson also lost out, probably for similar reasons. The highlight of the 10 minutes of election coverage I did bother to watch, though, was the Labor MP telling Banarby Joyce that he was an imbecile in very polite terms. Dear LNP, please for the love of all things sacred, find some representatives who actually have a clue.

Save the words!

I've found the best website with thanks to Melissa and her wonderful blog. Save the words lists fabulous words that are in danger of slipping out of common usage and asks you to adopt words to bring them back into the common vernacular.

Today I have adopted:

Vacivity (meaning emptiness). Without my knitting, my world would be a big open pit of vacivity.

Blateration (mindless talk). My daughter's blateration drives me to distraction.

Rogitate (to ask regularly). My daughter rogitates for toys and fast food.

Save a word today!

Answers from the Witchlet

This has been doing the rounds on Facebook, and I thought it was so cute I'd post it here.

The Witchlet, 6 and a half ish

1. What is something mum always says to you?
Be quiet

2. What makes mum happy?
When I'm very quiet and I'm not being a little rat

3. What makes mum sad?
When I'm a naughty girl

4. How does your mum make you laugh?
By making funny faces and saying funny jokes, and doing all that funny stuff

5. What was your mum like as a child?
she looked like me and I bet she was more crazy than me. And she made the craziest face ever to her sister.

6. How old is your mum?
She's 40. I was just making a joke, she's 35.

7. How tall is your mum?
30 centimetres

8. What is her favourite thing to do?
knit

9. What does your mum do when you're not around?
When she's sick she lies down, otherwise she watches Doctor Who or Gilmore Girls and knits.

10. If your mum becomes famous, what will it be for?
For making all the knitting stuff and selling it at a stall. And for making books.

11. What is your mum really good at?
Knitting, kicking her child's bottom

12. What is your mum not very good at?
She's not very good at (hmm let me think) running because she took some pills that made her a bit fat.

13. What does your mum do for her job?
She helps people and tells them if they've done robberies.

14. What is your mum's favourite food?
Chocolate

15. What makes you proud of your mum?
That she makes me laugh and she makes me smile, and she's very funny.

16. If your mum were a cartoon character, who would she be?
Gwen (from Ben 10)

17. What do you and your mum do together?
We have a lot of fun together and play fun games and silly games and we are the best friends in the world, and she is the craziest person in the whole world that I ever knew.

18. How are you and your mum the same?
Because she used to look the same as me when she was a child, and we have the same eyes and the same hair, but hers is a little shorter.

19. How are you and your mum different?
Because she's bigger than me, and she wears bras and I don't.

20. How do you know your mum loves you?
Because she acts like it and laughs like it.

22. Where is your mum's favourite place to go?
Crystal Castle.

Ta da!

From this:

To this

And I promise I'll have a knitting update for you soon. :)

Chopping Day

Tools:

Scissors - to perform the deed.

Camera - to record the deed.

Hat -  In case it goes horribly wrong.

Link as I appear to  have stuffed it up earlier.

Our holiday

Okay, I've been procrastinating with the holiday update. Holiday mode has been kicking around and I've not really sat at the computer terribly much until now.

We had an awesome time, went to the Crystal Castle, and did a day trip which included an alpaca stud farm and O'Reilly's. The beach was awesome, and we got to watch a pod of dolphins clowning around in the surf for about 20 minutes on our 2nd morning there. They came quite close to us and it was just beautiful.

The alpacas were gorgeous and we were lucky enough to see a baby that had been born that morning. He was such a little cutie! They wouldn't let me take one home though.

I also took advantage of the trip to engage in some extreme knitting. This is a strangler fig. Basically these babies grow as parasites around the outside of an existing tree, which they strangle and kill as they get bigger. The tree eventually dies and rots away, leaving the hollow shell. So, yes Alex, I did knit part of your sock in a place that had both dirt and bugs. Ha ha.

We also had the pleasure of encountering this little guy, who was more interested in my ice cream than anything else. Once he had licked the stick clean (and yes, I do mean licked) he left to maraud the couple at the next table

I shall upload more photos into the album, if I can figure out how that works. Otherwise there's always flickr .

I didn't end up doing a whole lot of knitting while we were away, so I'm madly trying to catch up now!