bekswhoknits

The first (probably of many) new house tours

Posted on December 10, 2013 by bekswhoknits

My new house!!!!

We’re almost completely moved in now, with only two wardrobe doors, a dining table, and some cleaning supplies left at the apartment.

Moving day wasn’t quite as easy as I had hoped. There was emergency dental surgery, settlement delays, rain clouds, friends who didn’t turn up, some moving day bruises (me and the house) , and a really sore back.

But we got there. Jen once again wins the best friend award as she carried boxes for most of Saturday, where as the Man’s best friend showed up precisely as the first beer was opened on Sunday.

I always buy new bedding whenever I move into a new place. Any excuse for new sheets and quilt covers.

This isn’t the grand tour just yet. Stuff is still being sorted out. And I can’t do anything much with my crafty room until the wardrobes have doors, so it looks more like a spare room but give me time.

But I have sorted out the kitchen!

And as soon as I figure out how to take a good photo of the book shelf I’ll give you a guided tour of that.

But for now I’ll have to love you and leave you with the view from our balcony. The first night we were greeted with fireworks and we’ve had a few spectacular sunsets as well.

Cheers!!!!!

Finally it’s tomorrow

Posted on November 28, 2013 by bekswhoknits

There has been radio silence for a while because my life is full of boxes, bubble wrap, and being an adult arranging things like insurance, electricity, and water.

But finally it’s tomorrow. Tomorrow is moving day where all of these sleepless nights spent virtually moving house will count for something.

Just one more day of waiting.

Anne of Green Gables Yarn Collection

Posted on November 21, 2013November 21, 2013 by bekswhoknits

Caity-Rosey made up a fun game yesterday and I wanted to join in.

Imagine being hired by a yarn company to come up with names for all their colorways. Total carte blanche to name them any way I want, using any wild inspiration that tickles my fancy. They pay me big bucks to do this, too.

Caity-Rosey’s collections were based on The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe & Island of the Blue Dolphins. I highly recommend checking them out.

I decided my first collection would be based on Anne of Green Gables. (All of these beautiful yarns are from etsy. Clicking on any of the pictures will take you to the place where you can spend your hard earned money)

Variegated

Tonal

Turn around bright eyes

Posted on November 20, 2013 by bekswhoknits

A very special moose has her growing older day tomorrow.

When I first met the moose way back in 2005, there was a lot of karaoke.

And from the very beginning there was Bonnie Tyler.

The first time was in Kalamunda on a Thursday night. We fumbled our way through a disco version which thankfully was never to be repeated.

But since then, audiences at various locations all around town, have been privileged enough to witness Beks & Jen singing Total Eclipse Of The Heart.

And so the idea for a cushion was born.

The original idea was to make a print out of the lyrics and have that all over the cushion. But making them centered looked better (and I’ll admit was slightly easier.)

I transferred the lyrics from my computer to the fabric using tshirt transfer paper.

The reverse side is Eiffel Towers just in case any one visits her that wouldn’t understand why she has a cushion with the lyrics to total eclipse of the heart on it. (But really it’s because a cushion needs two sides.)

And the number one reason Jen keeps getting awesome Beks Handmade Originals is the delighted squee and thanks I get every single time.

Best friends forever!

(Yes there are hand actions – yes there was much singing whilst making this – & yes this is why I made a Beks&Jen epic playlist about a month ago. I can keep a project secret if I have to)

my weekend in numbers – FO 25

Posted on November 18, 2013 by bekswhoknits

12 – the number of sleeps remaining in our apartment.

2 – the number of invisible zips I sewed
1 – pair of shorts I successfully shortened
1 – curtain I was meant to sew up but that is lost somewhere in the abyss that it the spare room.
4 – the amount of times I couldn’t find where I left the scissors
5 – how many pairs of scissors I put away after I had finished.

48 – the number of stitches to cast on with DK weight yarn on
3.25 – mm needles for a pair of socks
3 – days it took these socks from start to finish
8 – the number of times I oohed and ahhed at the way the hand dyed yarn was knitting up
20billion – the actual number of times I marveled at my hand dyed yarn.

5 – the number of fat quarters I bought at Spotlight
0 – how many balls of yarn I didn’t buy because none of it took my fancy

2 – the number of friends who have birthdays in the next 2 weeks
2 – the number of presents I have finished for said birthdays

16* – the number of Bobs Burger episodes I watched on the weekend
7* – the number of Leverage episodes I watched
6* – the number of Parks & Recreation episodes watched.

3 – the number of bands I saw on Friday night
1 – the number of songs that I knew well enough to sing along to.

4 – the number of tacos I ate last night
0 – the number of tacos I made for myself

3 – the number of mosquito bites that I can’t stop scratching.

*I don’t know exactly how many episodes I watched. These numbers are estimated guesses.

FO#24 – Elementary Watson socks

Posted on November 15, 2013November 15, 2013 by bekswhoknits

I have been killing it at being an adult this week. My giant to-do list is getting shorter, our new house is now insured, our apartment is one step closer to being rented out, and in a surprise twist almost all of my Christmas shopping is done.

Mums pressie has been done for ages, the family over east just needs wrapping, and a pair of socks for Dad came off the needles this week.

Although technically they are a birthday present. There are 3 December birthdays in my family which I tend to include as part of Christmas shopping.

The pattern is elementary Watson. It’s cables like this that make me wish I was attracted to solid sock yarn.
The pattern does get lost in the self striping, but it’s still there.

I particularly liked the fleegel heel. I think I’ll be using that again in the near future.
And as usual these are toe up, two at a time, magic looped on my trusty 2.5mm Addi Turbos.

This is sock number 7 this year! I have to get shuffle on if I’m going to make 12. Methinks slightly larger needles for the next pair.

a question for all my knitting followers

Posted on November 11, 2013 by bekswhoknits

This popped up on my twitter timeline this morning, and I just had to share it.

The Craft Of Living – Third Wave Feminism before and after Elizabeth Zimmerman

It doesn’t take long as a knitting blogger before you hear the name Elizabeth Zimmerman.
But until this article I’d never been compelled to buy one of her books or seek out more information about her.

So my question is this.

Who else should I research? Who do you list as your knitting influences?
Who are your favourite knitters/designers/spinners/fibre artists?

My week in a picture a day

Posted on November 8, 2013November 8, 2013 by bekswhoknits

Nothing to me says cozy like a couch with cushions and a blanket to snuggle under.

It’s that time of the year when it’s not blisteringly hot just yet, however the seasons have changed enough that you can sit outside in the sunshine and feel the sun’s warmth on bare legs.

My hand dyed yarn, chock full of many wonderful colours.

Tea. It gives me strength. (And also the word strength is on the box – inspiration came first and then the justification)

When you spend all day in an office, and then go home to a smallish apartment sometimes looking up at the sky is the only sense of space there is.

Not only is this more hand dyed (which I didn’t think I was able to do) but watching 4 needles come together and produce a circle still fascinates and impresses me.

Nothing quite says relax like sunshine, a good book, biscuits, dip, and a cold beer.

the spreadsheets have a calming influence

Posted on November 7, 2013 by bekswhoknits

Unless you’ve been living under a rock you’d know that hewhofishes and I are buying a house and are moving in 21 days (and counting).

This is all very exciting and wonderful and lovely to have a mortgage to call our own, but that comes with bills.
And the crippling fear of ‘have we made a terrible mistake, how can we possible afford a house and an investment property when I’m not even 30 and all gen Ys are terrible with money and can’t get into the housing market, which must be true because there’s a news article every week about how bad everything is for me, and we’re doomed and all it will take is for one of us to lose our job and we’ll start fighting, have to sell our kidneys and be alone out on the street begging, whilst sleeping in a pile of yarn that is all I have left because I couldn’t bear to part with the indigo dragonfly because it’s so pretty and it’s yarny punny goodness!!!”

Fortunately there are two steps to cure this particular brand of insanity.
Step 1 is burying your face in indigo dragonfly (or any pretty yarn will substitute). Let the yarn fumes calmly explain to you that you haven’t made a terrible mistake.
Step 2 is a spreadsheet.

Before we even went looking for houses I started making spreadsheets.
I have a whole collection of spreadsheets of ‘lets buy a house’ spreadsheets which made damn sure that we have most contingencies covered, including pay cuts / interest rate rises / illness etc so really this insanity was mostly unfounded.
So I reviseted those original spreadsheets and realised what caused this crippling fear was ALL OF THE BILLS!!

I am hopeless at remembering when bills are due and combined with a deep hatred of late fees I’ve been trying to find a solution for this for ages.

I’ve tried putting them on the fridge, putting reminders in my phone, writing down everything in a book, remembering that because I had my last car accident in August the insurance renewall will always be in August, but I still wake up in the middle of the night wondering whether or not my phone bill is coming out of the account on the 12th or the 15th.

I searched the web for an answer to my problems and couldn’t find what I was looking for so I made it myself.

If you also suffer from an inability to remember when your bills are due, then this spreadsheet may also help you.

I get paid fortnightly whereas Hewhofishes gets paid weekly.
Some bills are monthly, bi monthly, quarterly, or yearly.
Some always fall on the same day, others are always the same date.
There are direct debits, paper bills, and electronic bills.
And I need to know when they all happen or else I get hasty and put all my money into savings only to transfer it back again two days later.

The calendar part is for the monthly bills. Bold indicates that they’re on the same day each month, normal means that it’s the same every date.
Then each month I create a new tab and transfer any yearly bills into the calendar that month.

I can then see from paycheck to paycheck, how much is needed in the account so that I can pay all the bills.

Google drive also has the added benefit of being available on my iphone. So when I (hypothetically) know that I’m buying tickets to The National on Monday morning, I’ve put that into the ‘extras’ column for Monday and I know that I need that money available.

As long as we each stick to our weekly living allowance I know we will always have money in the bank to pay all of the bills.
(And yes there was also a spreadsheet to figure out what our weekly living allowance needed to be)

If a spreadsheet says its possible, I am calm (er).