Not a stitch

Hi folks,

A rediculously long period of time has passed since I wrote here, I doubt anyone still reads my blog (it wasn't like there were thousands of readers anyway). With the wedding and my licence exams and a bout of pneumonia, there has been exactly NO time for crafts. I am not even doing wedding knits as they became redundant. The only crafting has been our wedding invites (to be posted at a later date)

So, to make it official, the blog will be active again in November. A long time you say? Well, exams september, wedding and honeymoon october and ....well... then it's november.

I miss my knitting, and my sewing. It's been ages now and I miss blogging too but I just havn't got the time at the moment.

See you in November

moving madness

OK, so it's been a week of silence... and then some before that too. Well, last week we found out that the landlord wants to sell the flat, so we have decided to make what was going to be our 'summer move' an 'in-a-months-time move' instead.

As you can imagine there is a lot to do when you have to pack up your house in a short space of time, the major of which, is de-junking.... wow the stuff piles up. We are also trying to think up meals to make out of whats left in the pantry and freezer.... which is fun and very organised... this weeks menu...

monday - black pudding and potatoe scones
tuesday - meat and potato curry (we have so many peas)
wednesday - chili con carne (we have tonnes of kidney beans)
thursday - chick pea curry (we have 2 portions from the last time stored in the freezer)
friday - lentil, pinto bean and cashew burgers (cause we froze the mix when we made it)

Other than that, the fact that we are moving into my folks place for a couple of months means that we have to decide, what do we need essentially and what can we put away till we move into out house.

In the meantime, we are having work done on our cottage. We were able to buy it outright last year and it has an acre of land with it too so we are really looking forward to moving in... which we will... after the honeymoon in october.

So, there are many knitting and sewing projects lagging (of course my knitting will count as essential item and not be packed) and my blog has become a sparse and infrequently updated mess.... I feel so boring!

There are many good points to the move, this flat is driving us nuts right now anyway, plus it is a lot less expensive to live in a house.

So, for boring-ness and silence I apologise, bear with me.

7 random things...

I think it's probably the first time someone tagged me to do anything like this, but Arja tagged me with the '7 random things' meme, so here they are...

1. I'm pretty much willing to try anything and usually once I have started something I am determined to finish.... eg. it meant I abseiled down the side of a hospital for a lung cancer foundation

2. It's said I am a 'strongwilled' person.... a nice way for those who love me to call me a stubborn ass.

3. I lived in India and then Pakistan when I was small.

4. I have a real Marmite addiction.

5. Sitting in the grass at sunset on a warm day is heaven to me.

6. I love being in the operating theater and all that it entails, it's where I feel most at home. I am not faint or weak at the site of blood or bits, and while I started medicine with a leaning towards pediatrics, I am finishing with a most definate desire to be a surgeon.

7. I absolutely adore australian wildlife, especially wombats.

Not fabulously interesting, but certainly random. I would add that I am a complete and utter tea addict and that I cant function without it, but, that's not really a random fact.

I am supposed to tag 7 people... I wouldnt want to force you, but please, if you read this and you feel you are up to it...consider yourself tagged (you know who you are!!!).

Stitched up...

Look what arrived yesterday....


Lots and lots of yummy stitch charts. ... 332 yummy stitch charts to be more precise



At the moment I am so overwhelmed I cant make my mind focus long enough to even begin thinking of applying them. The ideas flick around in my head as much as the pages.



It's really great and really comprehensive with lovely big glossy pics. I love it!



Also, yarn from a swap on ravelry arrived. I promised Man I would make him socks with it, so I cast on last night. I am waiting on some needles for my own spring socks.


There is a pattern in there but you cant see it yet. I dont mind really in the end whether or not the pattern is very clear, the sock yarn is interesting enough (of course, that's why the stitch pattern isnt very clear though)



I am much better, thanks for the get well thoughts, still have a cough, but most of the rest of it is gone. Back to the old life on Monday.

I am in my final semester. That's a scary thought. I have been in the degree for 6 years, I am in the final semester of it. It was a relatively safe place to be, but soon I'll be thrown into the big world where I have to take real responsability for my actions, where my learning finally makes the difference between good and bad, where I have to figure out on my own what to do with people. I wonder what it's going to be like.

Sick day

Another non-day has slipped by in which I have eaten a breakfast, lunch and dinner of Pill Cocktails and vitamins.

I felt a little better this morning so I flopped around the house trying to pick up a little and make the place look a bit better only to discover that I had overdone it and spent the rest of the afternoon feeling and looking like something that crawled off the screen of 'Night of the living dead', eventually succumbing to a long nap in bed in an attempt to kill the headache.

Back to the doc tomoro to tell her that indeed antibiotics did help and that I'll be needing a 'sick note'. Maybe next week I might actually be productive. If I am not still coughing up pieces of my lungs.

Best go, I'm sure to be due a dose of something

Hot water.... at last

Well, that hot water pipe that burst over a week ago now was fixed last night when my fabulous father (jack of all trades) turned up last night and said.... "oh, you still dont have that fixed... hang on, my tools are in the car"

Fantastic.... now there is hot water coming from the tap in the kitchen!

I paid him back with cream cheese and parma ham toasties.

As the gals of the sock year know, I have not finished my feb socks.... though, I am here


My progress on all things is slightly hindered by this delightful bout of flu I have. I gave in and went to the doc today, so it must be bad.

Astrum Beret : : A knitting pattern

I bought this fabulous wool boucle from Yarntopia Treasures and I knew it was destined to be a beret. It’s knitted top down to use lovely neat yarn over increases as a feature of the pattern, resulting in an asterix of sorts.

So here’s how to do it…

Materials:

Aprox. 230 yards of sport weight wool

The beret is knit in a round, so, you need whatever needles you use to knit on the round in a size 4mm (US size 6) (i.e. a set of 4mm dpns, 2 circular size 4 needles, 1 long circular size 4mm needle whichever you feel comfortable with. )

Gauge:

aprox 5 stitches per inch. I used a looser gauge as the boucle is more effective when not so closely knit. However, if you aren’t using boucle, use a thicker yarn and aim for the same gauge.

Abbreviations

CO Cast on

K Knit

P Purl

M1 Increse one stitch in last knitted stitch

YO yarn over

SKP Slip the next stitch knit-wise onto right hand needle, knit the next stitch, pass the slipped stitch over the knitted stitch.

2x2 Rib knit 2 stitches, purl 2 stitches

St Stitches

Rnd round

I knit this with one long circular and cast on with figure 8 magic loop for a neater start. If you haven’t done this before you can find instructions here, or you can just cast on and join the round in your usual way.

Begin! …

CO 4 stitches

Knit one round even.

Next round: increase one stitch in every stitch (8 st). Repeat this step on the next round (16 st)

Place a marker at the start of the round

K1 M1 K7 M1 K1 M1 K7 M1

*K2 M1 rep from * to end of round (30 st)

• K one Rnd even

*K3 M1 rep from * to end of round (40 st)

• K one Rnd even

*K4 YO rep from * to end of round (50 st)

• K 2 Rnds even

*K5 YO rep from * to end of round (60 st)

• K2 Rnds even

*K6 YO rep from * to end of round (70 st)

• K2 Rnds even

Repeat this pattern, increasing 1 stitch before the YO each time and knitting 2 even rounds after each increase round.

Stop repeats after you complete *K14 YO rep from * to end of round (150 st)

-End of the increase pattern

K 5 Rnds even (you should still have 150 st)

-The decreases begin here

K13 SKP

K12 SKP (130 st)

• K 1 Rnd even

K11 SKP

K10 SKP (110 st)

• K 1 Rnd even

K9 SKP

K8 SKP (90 st)

• K 1 Rnd even

K1 K2tog, K45, K2tog K to the end of the round (88 St)

Work 2x2 rib for 1 inch (or desired band width)

Loosely cast off (try the stretchy Russian Cast off) and sew in the tails of yarn.

Now all that’s left is to block it.

This pattern is far from perfect, so, if you have any questions, corrections or suggestions please feel free to leave me a comment.