January 2012 – Page 2 – polka-dots & sparkles

I took her to see India! At the Oval!

Posted on January 16, 2012January 16, 2012 by bekswhoknits

Some would say my man and I are a strange couple. We don’t celebrate Valentine’s day (or most other Greeting Card holidays), I’ve never celebrated my birthday, and he’s a Christmas grinch. We both believe that all the little gestures during the year are better than one grand gesture.

But one thing we do celebrate every year is the WACA test. The WACA (Western Australian Cricket Association) test is the one international test match in Perth every year.

Allow me to backtrack for a bit.
My Man and I share a love of cricket.
We met at a pub’s beach party (because Australia doesn’t have enough beaches, we recreate them in pubs aswell), when we both broke away from our friends to check the score to the cricket.
We started talking about cricket and we must have hit it off because he called me the next day and we had dinner later that week.
In particular we’re both fans of Test Match Cricket. That’s 5 days of sport. And so the first year we were going out, I got us both tickets to the Test match as his Christmas present. And we’ve gone every year since.

This week we were arguing over how many years we had been going out and it was resolved by counting how many test matches we’d seen together (4).
With yesterday’s win, we’ve now seen 2 wins (India, England) and 2 losses (South Africa, Sri Lanka).

But the best part about this year is that my Man can now say he’s taken me to see India, at the WACA.
It’s one of my favourite quotes from Fawlty Towers. I love the Major. He’s such a well written character, and when he’s saying this quote he does it with such sincerity and comedic timing.

It’s always an enjoyable experience. This series against India generated quite a lot of interested so there were more people there than usual (Ashes excluded), but we still had some space either side to spread out. And the best thing is, Australia won!

Triple J Hottest 100

Posted on January 16, 2012January 26, 2012 by bekswhoknits

My Number 1 Song this year

Last years list
My Shortlist
Active Child – Hanging On
And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead – Weight Of The Sun (Or The Post-Modern Prometheus)
Arts Martial – Runaway
An Horse – Not Mine
Big Scary – Mix Tape
Black Keys, The – Lonely Boy
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – Maniac
Cold War Kids – Mine Is Yours
Cut Off Your Hands – Fooling No One
Death Cab For Cutie – Codes And Keys
Decemberists, The – This Is Why We Fight
Drums, The – Money
Feist – Graveyard
Foster The People – I Would Do Anything For You
Girls – Honey Bunny
The Grates – Turn Me On
Grouplove – Tongue Tied
Goodnight Tiger – Jump Down
Jebediah – Apartment {Like A Version}
Kills, The – Future Starts Slow
M83 – Reunion
National, The – Exile Vilify
San Cisco – Awkward
TV On The Radio – Second Song
Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Ffunny Ffriends
Voltaire Twins – Animalia
Wild Flag – Romance

And the final 10
Big Scary – Mix Tape
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – Maniac
Death Cab For Cutie – Codes And Keys
Decemberists, The – This Is Why We Fight
Drums, The – Money
Feist – Graveyard
Kills, The – Future Starts Slow
M83 – midnight city
San Cisco – Awkward
Wild Flag – Romance

Southbound in pictures

Posted on January 14, 2012January 12, 2012 by bekswhoknits

Sockhead Hat – wip

Posted on January 13, 2012January 13, 2012 by bekswhoknits

This is my in progress item.
It’s the sock head hat. It was chosen for its mindless quality, given that it’s 5 inches of 2×2 rib and then 9 inches of sockinette, knitted in the round, it’s perfect for stop start knitting.
It’s called sockhead because it’s made from sock yarn on 2mm needles (well the pattern says 3 but I only have 2 so they’ll have to do; I have a feeling it’s a very forgiving pattern). I’m using Moda Vera Noir in Purple.
It was started on the Thursday before Southbound, and is still going now.
Here’s a couple of in progress shots.

It’s very pretty so far.

Getting organised

Posted on January 12, 2012 by bekswhoknits

Well even if I haven’t kept to my blogging schedule (a weekend camping festival kinda ranks on the priority scale) I have been busy organising things at home.

I went through my stash with a box of glad bags and a permanent marker.
Now I don’t have the hugest stash (it fits quite neatly in a hamper in the living room), but it was getting out of control.
I could never find what I was looking for, my circular needles were getting all tangled, and it was starting to overflow.

So now all my circular needles have their own bag (clearly labelled by size and length), and all my yarn is all in bags labelled and ready to go.
I also put my yarn and needles on Ravelry.
I aim is to use Ravelry more this year so I don’t have the same Christmas panic as I did this year. And also so others can learn from my mistakes and successes.

The other thing I’ve done is made a cleaning schedule.
I’m not a clean person. I don’t get any satisfaction from cleaning when I could be doing more important things like sitting on the couch.
But the mess is starting to get to me more and more. So I wrote down everything in the apartment that needs cleaning. I divided that into frequency and then put that onto a calendar as recurring tasks with that frequency.
That was the fun part.
Now I have to stick with it.

There are four things I want to do everyday.
– make my bed
– clear up all the dishes (from the bedroom, lounge etc
– wash all the dishes
– no clothes on the floor

Last night I got off to a good start, I swept the floor (as it was Wednesday), did all the dishes, and did a few loads of washing in an attempt to get all our clothes organised (post-camping festival).
I now remember I forgot to make my bed this morning, so day 2 isn’t going quite so well, but it will go better once the Mister is back at work and I’m not getting ready in the dark trying not o wake him.

Hopefully the schedule will keep me motivated about the small stuff, and get me to remember the big stuff that only happens now and again.

Stuck in my head – The Drums

Posted on January 11, 2012February 1, 2012 by bekswhoknits

I had a wonderful time at southbound. I will tell you all about it soon, but one of the best things was chilling out on the Sunday morning listening to The Drums on the stereo because I was singing this song all weekend

FO- Toe up socks.

Posted on January 6, 2012January 6, 2012 by bekswhoknits

So, toe up socks are awesome.

These waterfall socks were recommended to me by knitting on circular needles when I was having a twitter conversation regarding socks. Now I don’t think I’ll go back. I learnt the turkish cast on for a trio of baby socks for my nephew (I’ll have to show you those, they are adorable), and then went chasing patterns for grown-up toe up socks.

And I love these socks. Albeit they don’t quite match as it took me a while to read the pattern properly. But it won’t take me long to knit up another one. Maybe in a different colour, just for something different (I love odd socks).
And the beauty of toe-up socks is they eliminate one of (what I find) the most annoying parts of a cuff-down sock and that’s picking up all the stiches after you finish turning the heel.
All the information I’ve read about cuff-down socks is that turning the heel is the tricky part, and the rest is straightforward. Well it’s a lie I tell you… Picking up those pesky stiches is very annoying, and it’s always looks like the most unfinished section of my socks.

So toe-up socks is the answer.

The yarn is Moda Vera Noir, in blue. And they’re going to remind me of Christmas, Wuthering Hights, and holidays.

Stuck in my head – Grouplove

Posted on January 4, 2012February 1, 2012 by bekswhoknits

One of my blogging resolutions this year, and one of my strategies to maintaining this little blog’o’mine is a schedule.
I’m still working out the detail but one thing I didn’t like about last year was how music got left behind (which is funny as it used to be Musicfoodlife – music being high on the agenda).
So every Wednesday or hump day, to get me through the week, I’ll share a song.
Something to keep me going, or that’s been stuck in my head.

Music is such a massive part of my day, and even more so on a Wednesday.

So song number one for the year is by Grouplove.
A band I’ll be seeing at Southbound this weekend!!!
It’s catchy and poppy and all kinds of fun with a creepy creepy video clip. Enjoy!

Happy New Year

Posted on January 3, 2012 by bekswhoknits

Happy Christmas and New Year to you all.
I’ve enjoyed my little break. I finished most of my Christmas knitting and baking with some time to spare and even made a few pressies for myself.
I’ve had a bit of time off work to relax and unwind, but after being a month old at the new job I only took the Public Holidays off – but still two long weekends in a row was quite nice.
I spent a lot of time catching up with friends and family, my liver took a bit of a beating but I’m glad to be back talking to you all.

Last year was a fantastic year. I saw so many great bands and have so many good memories. I learnt how to knit (and can’t imagine a time when I haven’t knitted), I bought a sewing machine (and vaguely know how to use it), and I tried my hand at embroidery.
My boyfriend moved in. We had a few notable events together. I looked after him when he got his wisdom teeth out, we endured the great flood (two bedrooms of sewerage is not fun), gave police statements (whilst our apartment was unliveable due to the great flood), and eventually got life back to normal. We both changed jobs (for the better), celebrated new couch day, new mattress day, and new ipad day.

My best friend moved in down the road. Together we’ve laughed until we cried, cried until we had to laugh, seen cricket matches, football matches, and spent a lot of time at The Belvoir (The Getaway Plan, Portishead, Cold Chisel, & Gotye – in the space of two months).

We ended the football season where we started it, at The Inglewood. How much of our time and money has been spent there this year? I don’t know, but it’s been a faithful friend.

And soo much good music. Southbound started the year with a bang, Soundwave, On The Bright Side, Future of The Left, And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead, The National .
And new albums too!

The Hairpin and Ravelry have become two very close friends. Between them and all my blog friends, there is all of my internet time.

So here’s to 2011 – and here’s to 2012 being just as good.
Cheers