SP12 Question of the Week #5

Where is your favorite place to go for vacation/holiday?
I don’t have a recurring vacation/holiday spot, but I hope to one day find a nice summer beach house or cottage (or something similar) that I can retreat to once or twice a year, especially because I want to start some family traditions like this. I guess if I had to pick a favorite, it would any time I went back to Australia to see family and friends. This hasn’t happened for a very long time (since 2003, actually) so I’m way overdue for another trip home.

Where is one place you’d like to go?
Okay, picking just one place is too difficult. I want to go to the Galapagos, Finland, and so many more places. Anywhere I haven’t been is almost always going to be someplace I want to go.

And just to add a little bit extra on here:

Travel recap for the year so far (an unusually busy year for me): Colorado Springs, the U.K. (England & Wales), Las Vegas, and Colorado Springs again a couple of weeks.

Places I’ve been (countries/cities): Japan, Canada, U.K. (England & Wales), Paris, Berlin, Denmark, Stockholm, Australia (obviously since I was born there!)

SP12 Question of the Week #4

What yarn (that you don’t have/haven’t used) would make your stash “complete”?
Hmm, this is a tough one. I’m not sure I can really say there is one yarn that would make my stash complete. There are yarns I haven’t tried that I’m sure would make my knitting experience more well-rounded, but I can’t think of any off the top of my head.

What yarn do you never want to be without? Easy! I never want to be without my BMFA Socks that Rock or Malabrigo, and just another basic 100% wool yarn is always good to have.

Secret Pal Package!

My secret pal has spoilt me all ready. I got some gorgeous yarn, stitch markers, a Cookie A. pattern and a magazine from Europe which has lots of patterns in it I’m hoping to knit up at some point, and a book on the Galapagos. Thanks pal!

Starbucks & Yarn Swap Questionnaire

*No, I’m not crazy and think counting starts with #5. I just cut the first 4 questions off because it is identifying information that I wouldn’t want on my blog for all to see, not to mention my swap partner should have those details in the email sent by our hostess.

5. Handmade item you desire in the swap (bag, cup cozy, etc.): A bag if the choice is just between a cup cozy and a bag, but if you want to knit me something different (a dishcloth, scarf, or something else then that’s fine).
6. Starbucks item you desire (gift card, mug, beans, etc.): Mug or gift card (either is fine).
7. Favorite Starbucks beverage/bean: I always order the same thing, grande vanilla latte (hot)
8. Favorite snack food: peanut M&Ms, Laffy Taffy (banana, strawberry), animal crackers (but I’m picky about the brand and I only know the name of it when I see it).
9. Favorite color(s): blue, orange, brown, pink, green - I like a lot of different colors, but I’m not a big fan of pastels and neon bright colors.
10. Favorite fragrance: white musk, fruity stuff like mango, sweet pea. Nothing spicy, no cherry, no cinnamon please.
11. What types of things do you like to knit? Socks, sweaters, scarves, lots of stuff.
12. Do you spin?: No.
13. Do you dye your own yarn?: Yes, but I haven’t had time lately.
14. Favorite yarns: BMFA Socks that Rock, Koigu KPPPM, anything soft and squooshy, Malabrigo. I’m not a big fan of boucle yarn, fun fur or anything like that. I can handle acrylic if it’s nice and soft, and cotton if it’s blended with something.
15. Favorite needles: I can only use metal or sturdy (i.e. not Bryflex) needles. I am looking to start Magic Loop so I need longer circs in small sizes such as 0, 1, 2, 3, 30-40” long.
16. Do you have any allergies?: Seafood.
17. Would you be willing to prepare an angel kit if necessary?: Sure.
18. Do you have any special requests?: I don’t think there’s anything not included in this questionnaire.
19. Do you have any pets?: No
20. Is your home smoking or nonsmoking?: Nonsmoking.

If only…

Combining my love of knitting and travelling, this sounds wonderful. Too bad I don’t have $4000!

Fawkes Socks

Since the month of June wasn’t quite over, I thought I’d be ambitious and attempt another pair of socks to play “catch up” in my own sock club. I cast on for Fawkes from Socktopia using STR in Firebird that I got in last year’s BMFA sock club.

On a separate (and unrelated note) you can see my blog post about Vegas here. This is a link to my travel blog and I’ve been a bad girl there too because I never finished the entries for my trip to the UK back in Feb/Mar!

June Sock: Embossed Leaves

Pattern: Embossed Leaves from Interweave Knits (my pattern is in the Interweave Knits Favorite Socks book).
Date Started: May 24, 2008.
Date Finished: June 14, 2008.
Yarn: Colinette Jitterbug in Velvet Damson, 1 skein.
Notes: This pattern was relatively simple to follow and went quickly. I followed the chart, pretty much a first for me, and I think it converted me to chart knitting, for the most part. I lengthened the toe because when I tried on the first finished sock it fit, but just barely. So I decided that with the second sock I would lengthen the toe and then go back and fix sock #1. Unfortunately I did just that and sock #1 was still a tight squeeze (lengthwise, it fit nicely everywhere else). It turns out I’m a complete idiot and did one less pattern repeat on the first sock and didn’t realize. Originally I though I only forgot to knit rounds 1-8 that is called for before starting the toe, but after looking carefully at each sock I see that this is not the case. I have one more leaf on sock #2 than on sock #1. Not a problem, I’ll just rip back again and keep my fingers crossed that I have enough yarn because honestly I don’t have much left and might be left short.

Do you queue?

I love Ravelry! I like being able to see what I have in my stash and how much I
have (or am supposed to have, if some gets separated from the rest). I do like
the groups, although that isn’t my favorite part. My absolute favorite part of
Ravelry (other than Bob) has to be the queue feature. I have a lot of things in mine and I decided to share it’s contents with you - maybe, just maybe, if I own up to such high expectations, I will actually cast on for some of these projects!

Scarves! I have no less than 8 scarves in my queue. A couple of them are intended to be Christmas gifts for people, if I cast on that is. There is Gossamer Stars (I’m not using the Ravelry link if I can, just in case some of you aren’t on Ravelry yet), Liesel and Dayflower, just to name a few.

Socks! I have 17 pairs in my queue!! This year, in an effort to actually use some of my sock yarn stash I decided to do my own personal sock club (picking yarn from the stash and pattern a month). I got a little behind earlier in the year and only managed to knit my socks for February! I’ve managed to finish June’s socks so I’m going to cast on another pair and try and have them done by the end of this month as well. I have a bit more free time now that I’m done with school. Anyway, there’s Firebird inspired by Harry Potter; Nutkin which looks, I don’t know, different from the other sock patterns I’ve seen - there’s just something about it; and a new edition to the queue is Knitt’y Spring Forward socks.

The “problem” with Ravelry is that you find so much inspiration in what other’s have knit you start eyeing projects you wouldn’t otherwise make. For me, it’s shawls! Now if I do make a shawl I probably won’t wear it like one. I’ll probably wear it more like a scarf and I won’t be making on out of lace-weight yarn any time soon, but I might give these patterns a go: Terttu Shawl and Parthenope (inspired to make this after seeing Random Ranter’s in person at the Ravelry party at MS&W).

In addition to all those scarves, socks and shawls I have numerous sweaters/tops in my queue as well. The oldest one on there was the Hourglass Sweater from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. I’ve just cast on for that - finally! I also have some felted clogs, a couple of hats, and bags to make in the future.

SP12 Question of the Week #2

As a kid, what did you look forward to most about summer vacation/break/holiday?

Well, since our summer holidays fell over Christmas I always had that to look forward to - not to mention my birthday and New Years. I also had plenty of friends with birthdays in December so there were lots of sleepovers and going to the movies. I have to say the thing I always looked forward to was spending so much more time with my best friend. Most of the time we stayed over each other’s houses, sometimes for days at a time, without having to worry about getting home the next morning. And when we did have big slumber parties which included my small group of friends (about 5 of us) we would order pizza, gossip and talk about boys, and we would ring the radio station up and request a song and dedicate it to our crushes at the time! It was hilarious. Even now the smell of fresh cut grass on a hot summers day takes me right back to those times.

A couple of photos of “Home”. I didn’t shrink them down like I usually do because I thought they’d be too hard to see properly otherwise.

A view of the Swan River from King’s Park in Perth, Western Australia.

The city center of Perth. I’m sure a lot has changed since this photo was taken

His and Her Afghan

My friend A. recently got married (my trip to Vegas was in honor of this happy event). Instead of doing the traditional household gift of a toaster or appliance, especially since I wasn’t sure what to get them and she is the type of friend who tells you not to worry about a gift when you ask what they need/want, I decided to be creative. And since it’s a wedding gift it has to be for both the bride and the groom - so what’s a person to do?

THIS!

Project: His and Her Afghan (totally made up name)
Materials: 6 x 6 inch Amy Butler Lotus fabric on one side couple with some strips of cream fabric to break it up a bit; and Washington Redskins fabric on the other side broken up by 6 x 6 inch squares of burgundy and gold. Inside the batting is 100% bamboo.
Started: June 4, 2008.
Finished: June 12, 2008.

Now I’m not the best quilter and by no means a perfectionist. I knew A. would love the handmade gift and her hubby G. would love it simply because of the Redskins fabric! I didn’t bother with actual “quilting” the top. Instead I did a technique called “bagging” where you sew three sides together and then turn it out so the right sides are facing and sew the last side shut with some topstitch. Because I didn’t bother to line up both sides - I used the same basic lay-out - I didn’t want to do any stitching along the seams because it would end up looking silly on the other side. And the fabric chosen (especially the Redskins fabric) would have looked funny with free-form squiggly lines running through it all.