bekswhoknits

FO #20 – not my finest pair of socks

Posted on August 6, 2013August 5, 2013 by bekswhoknits

But they’re finished.

Originally planned for my dad, I got my maths wrong and they ended up too big.

But they fit my boyfriends feet which is something.

He’s usually quite obliging about being a foot model. But on Sunday my football team beat his football team. So he wasn’t quite as obliging.

My feet are quite a lot smaller than his.

So I’ve finished them. I resented them by the end. I didn’t like the heel I used and I started the ribbing way too early. But they’re finished and that’s the main thing.
Now I can cast on a pair for my dad. And I might follow a proper pattern this time.

A weekend with Austen

Posted on August 5, 2013August 5, 2013 by bekswhoknits

Apart from hanging out with football players or singing loudly to Cold War Kids the highlight of the weekend was book shopping.

I’ve already read Mr Darcy’s guide to Courtship and giggled so loudly HeWhoFishes retreated into his ‘shed’.

“If a female appears to show interest in you, examine her carefully. Beneath the angelic exterior may lurk a charlatan, a prostitute or – worst of all – an advocate of liberal politics”

I pretty much snorted my tea at that line.

I also found my copy of the Jane Austen handbook.
It details the proper life skills of regency England and gives a lot of background which would have been assumed at the time.

I then re-read Persuasion. Because I love it so much my first copy is looking a little worn. So I bought another copy.

So there’s two more books added to the read list for this year.

I also bought a Pride and Prejudice picture book for my niece. Because you’re never too young to start reading Austen. Even if she can’t read yet. She not yet 1. But she will read Austen if mad aunt Bek gets her way.

Procrastination

Posted on August 2, 2013August 2, 2013 by bekswhoknits

My knitting monogomy is making me multicraftural.

Because I’ve been working on the same knitting projects I want to branch out in other crafts.

The eagle eyed amongst you may have noticed that when I made all those pretty stitch markers, there were also some earrings in the photo.

I didn’t draw attention to them because I had intended a pair to be a surprise for my best friend who was overseas at the time but is an avid reader of my blog (despite not being a knitter).
But she’s back now and I’m seeing her tonight (we’re seeing Cold War Kids!!) so I’m going to spoil the surprise.

So MidnightMoose I have a pair of earrings waiting for you. As always you’re allowed to hate them and you’re really more of a product tester because I’m really not sure of my jewelry making skills just yet.

But I can’t just give her a pair of earrings. Not when there’s jumper instructions to decipher and understand.

So I grabbed some photo paper, my new scallop edged scissors (typo bargain!), a silver paint pen, some washi tape, and a needle.

Put them all together and you get a wonky earrings set.

Maybe next time I’ll use a ruler too.

So oh moose who plays at midnight, when I see you tonight remind me that I have some earrings to give you???

Whatever Wednesday – food glorious food

Posted on August 1, 2013January 9, 2014 by bekswhoknits

Every Wednesday/Thursday I’ll be blogging about the topic that comes through my email courtesy of Shay & Alissa.

favourite recipe

Hmmm. Food. Long time readers of my blog may have noticed that I haven’t posted a recipe for a while. This is mostly because I haven’t cooked in a while.

HeWhoFishes has been in charge of dinner and he’s been doing a bang up job.

So I’m going to show you back through my archives and my favourite things I have cooked. All the photos link to the recipe.

Zucchini slice.
This is my mum’a recipe and it’s the number on thing I search for on my own blog.
It’s comforting, easy to make, and good hot or cold.

Beef stew
Oh how I love stew. It’s so easy. The oven makes the house warm and it smells fantastic. Bonus because it’s cheap.

Rissoles
Apart from the obvious reference to The Castle (classic and very quotable Australian movie), Rissoles are a favourite in this house. Once again very easy, and can be made as cheaply or as fancy as you like. Another one of mum’s recipes.

And something sweet – Lavender Pancakes
It probably sounds strange, but these were really scrummy.

And if I didn’t know that dinner for tonight had already been taken care of, I think I would be picking up the ingredients for stew on my way home from work.

Stuck in my head – wolf parade

Posted on July 31, 2013August 2, 2013 by bekswhoknits

I don’t get a lot of phone calls. And the people who do call all have their own special ringtones so I know who’s calling.
HeWhoFishes has Trail of Dead, although for the longest time he had Eartha Kitt – Girl from Ipanema
Midnitemoose has Cold War Kids – We Used To Vacation.
Hedgehog-onalog (my even though im not actually married to her brother i still call her my sis-in-law) has Hot Hot Heat – Bandages
My littlest brother has Mumford & Sons – Roll Away Your Stone
My middle brother has The Temper Trap – Fader
My Dad has Glen Miller – In the Mood
My Mum has Grandmaster Flash – The Message.

Mostly I choose ringtones because I saw that band with that person. That’s the case for the first 4 people on that list.
The last three are a bit more random. Mostly because to choose a song that reminds me of them would require me to put The Beegees (mum) or country music (my middle brother) as ringtones. Fortunately I’m quite partial to Glen Miller.

But my ringtone for everyone else is currently Wolf Parade – Shine A Light.
This week I’ve had more phone calls than all of last month combined. Real estate agents, valuers, and our mortgage broker all want to speak to me.

So every few hours I hear the opening bars of Shine A Light. Even while I was writing this post (because I do the majority of blogging on my iPhone) I heard the opening bars.

And it’s only now on reflection I think I should change it.
I’m not sure “waiting for something that will never arrive” is the vibes I want to be sending into the universe.

a little progress

Posted on July 30, 2013August 2, 2013 by bekswhoknits

Apart from the blip that was embroidery, I’ve only knitted on the items which I disclosed last Tuesday.
I had every intention of setting them up next to a ruler to show the progress and taking nice photos of them all.
But we got home later than usual last night, and I found myself at 7:30 unable to keep my eyes open let alone deal with the terrible light in our apartment.

I have found out that a cabled jumper is not the best thing to be knitting during a close game of football, but it was quite good to knit during Little Dorrit. My mum leant me the DVDs so long ago that when I returned them on Sunday she had forgotten she had given them to me. If you haven’t watched it I thoroughly recommend it. It’s a mini-series based on the Charles Dickens novel of the same name (which honestly I had never heard of before I watched it, now I’m reading it – its free on ibooks.) It has a huge cast and at one point I was playing a game of ‘ooh they’re from doctor who’, ‘she’s from hotel babylon’, or ‘he’s from vicar of dibley’.
Parcel is now at the point where I need to figure out how many stitches I have. Because I didn’t follow the pattern (because I didn’t read the instructions properly) I now need to decrease sharply, or do some maths.
I haven’t decided yet.

I’ve turned the heel on my vanilla latte socks. I have a few more rows of the pattern and then I’ll start the ribbing. I really hate the heel on them. I’ll chalk it up to experience and delete the sockcalc app from my ipad.

I’ve been aiming for 2 – 3 rows on mini-mania every night and except for last night I achieved that.
So here’s how long that looks now, using my hand as a guide.
Pretty soon I will have to compare it to a few existing scarfs so I now exactly where I’m aiming for. Otherwise I will get impatient and cast off and then always regret it.

It’s a hard life, but someone’s got to do it

Posted on July 29, 2013August 2, 2013 by bekswhoknits

So the big news is, we’re buying a house!
Well, hopefully.

We’ve found one that we both really like, is in our price range and has ample room for fishing rods and yarn!

We’re putting in the offer today and if everyone crosses their fingers it will be accepted and we’ll both live happily ever after.

I’m not naive enough to think that this will just happen. There’s still mortgages to organise, equity to leverage and a lot of things to work out even before we can consider it a done deal. My previous house buying experience was horrible, complete with smarmy real estate agent, lost paperwork, and months of house hunting. So it can’t be any worse than that.

I don’t want to provide a link to the property in case we do buy it and then the whole Internet has my address, but here’s a little teaser.

I think I could get quite used to this view. It is a very happily situated house.

I’ve also set to work on a cushion for my youngest brother.
He’s moved into a place with some mates, and it’s definitely lacking some homely touches.

So I’ve done one side, and am still to decide what should be on the other.

I don’t know what I’m more excited about, a pantry, not hearing children (or pigs) running above us, or that I will have natural light!
I think the natural light wins.

Pockets!!!

Posted on July 26, 2013August 2, 2013 by bekswhoknits

Unlike Donna Noble I always try to have pockets.
I don’t like not having my phone on me at all times (I was in a fire drill once for an hour without my phone. Never. Again.)
So I sewed some pockets in my work skirt.

I measured out the fabric, folded it in half and then sewed it together.
I then sewed it to my skirt.
I used embroidery thread to reinforce it.
It’s not elegant but it works.

While I was at it, I did the same thing in my new bag.
I’ve become a bag lady. I fell in lust at first sight with a green beauty but my keys and phone kept getting lost.

So I did exactly the same thing except I sewed the one piece of material in half.

Now I can always find my keys and I never have to be without my phone.

Pockets!!!

Whatever Wednesday – bobby pins

Posted on July 25, 2013August 2, 2013 by bekswhoknits

Every Wednesday/Thursday I’ll be blogging about the topic that comes through my email courtesy of Shay & Alissa.

Confession: What do you spend too much time doing

Searching my house for bobby pins.

My Aussie readers would probably remember the ad where a genie pops out of a bottle and after sending her deadbeat boyfriend to the other side of the world, the lady wishes for a never ending packet of timtams?

Well I am convinced that my life would be easier if I had a never ending packet of bobby pins.

I put my hair up exactly the same way for work every day, and it requires bobby pins. I keep them in a tea cup.
I’m a practical person, even my display of pretty tea cups is functional. Some contain stitch markers, earrings, bobby pins, or scrap yarn.

So every month I will purchase a pack of 50 bobby pins. Then somehow over the course of a month or so they disappear. I have no idea where they go. But eventually I get down to the state where I am now, where I can’t find any of the bloody things.

If I was a clean person I’d probably be able to keep track of them. Take them out of my hair, and then put them back in the tea cup straight away and use the same 4 bobby pins for the rest of my life. But I’m not and I don’t. So I am destined for a life of pulling up couch cushions with one hand holding my hair in place, searching for a damn bobby pin.

It’s also pretty tricky taking a photo of the back of your head but I tried.

Stuck in my head – the duke spirit

Posted on July 24, 2013August 2, 2013 by bekswhoknits

Every time I read a review about an album, or hear an interesting band name, or Shazam a song, I will find an album and make it a playlist.
Then I forget to listen to them.

So this week I started making an effort to listen to all of them.

It didn’t go to well.
I got two albums in before listening to The Duke Spirit on repeat.

I have also had the latest Editors album on repeat. It comes with a commentary which is pretty cool. I’m still undecided about the album though. I’m trying to give it a chance but it’s not the Tom Smith I know.