mondays

A scarf in the middle of summer

Posted on December 24, 2012December 24, 2012 by bekswhoknits

I cast on this scarf over the weekend.
Now it’s forecast to be 40 degrees on Christmas Day, and I’m casting on a thick winter scarf??

Madness.

I put it down to the cold which I’ve somehow managed to catch.
Having a cold in winter seems normal, you get to rug up, drink lots of tea, and you always know if you have a temperature.
At the moment I’m not sure if I have a temperature or am reacting to the temperature outside!

So I curled up with the aircon on, made some stewed nectarines, and cast on a scarf.

Although its very slow going, so maybe at the rate it will be done by next winter!

~~~
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Always the best of intentions

Posted on December 5, 2012December 5, 2012 by bekswhoknits

Every time I go on a holiday or mini-break I have every intention of keeping to my posting schedule and every single time my blog goes right out of the window.

I’ve just spent 4 days (and 1 day at home recuperating) in the sunshine at the WACA, watching South Africa defeat Australia and become the number one test side in the world.
But while the result didn’t quite go our way, it was still a fantastic time.

I learnt that I can knit whilst standing up, and walking. I didn’t quite finish the socks as planned, but I only have the cuff to do.

It was 4 days of not-cooking, sitting outside in some beautiful weather (except the showers on day 1), sharing a few cold beverages with friends (plus meeting some new ones!) and not-working.

~~~
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Stuck in my head – southbound edition (Django Django)

Posted on November 28, 2012November 28, 2012 by bekswhoknits

Southbound, the camping festival in January, is now 5 weeks away! That is awesomesauce.
So for the next 5 weeks as I’ll be listening to a lot of southbound bands I’ll be sharing them too.

I have a habit of going to a festival and then 2 weeks later really digging a band which I could have seen live. So I now research. Which is fun anyway.

So this week I’ve been listening to Django Django.
This is an awesome album. I’m always impressed when an artist puts in the effort with their album art. It makes old folks like me, who buys CDs very happy. Django Django have provided a list of every band that have influenced them. And it’s quite a list.

Look at all that tiny writing.

Listen to loves dart

There aren’t enough coconut halves in modern music (hint – the percussion in this video is awesome)

For bonus points check out another Southbound band who’s video is going viral at the moment.
Hot Chip – Don’t Deny Your Heart

~~~
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I heart bunting

Posted on November 25, 2012November 26, 2012 by bekswhoknits

Well after being in a funk last week I made it my mission this weekend to snap myself out of it.

I ignored all the cleaning I ‘should’ have done, kicked the Bloke out of the house (well he had other things to do anyway), and took myself to the Internet.

That inspired me enough to try some new things (paper embroidery), put some things on the ‘things to make when I have a shed’ list (metal stamping), and finished some projects that were hanging around unfinished.

I made these little heart shapes a while ago, and then didn’t quite know what to do with them.
So I made them into bunting!

It’s such a simple project which really brightened my day!

I also dyed my hair which always puts me in a good mood. Except that it hasn’t worked out exactly. But I’m still grateful that is light teal, and that I can have it this colour all the time.
And it reinforces that I look terrible as a blonde. And that I only have one facial expression when taking photos of myself.

~~~
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Garden creatures.

Posted on November 12, 2012November 12, 2012 by bekswhoknits

What a delightful weekend.
Test match cricket is back! This makes me a very happy Bek!
Also the weather was fantastic. We spent a bit of time in the garden. I did some knitting. And there was some cricket watching.
That’s my kind of weekend.

~~~
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Embroidering things

Posted on November 9, 2012November 9, 2012 by bekswhoknits

I’ve been embroidering. I asked a question on A Sheepish Girl‘s (oh so lovely) blog about what stitch she uses for her text, I’ve been itching to try back stitch ever since.
It’s just like knitting but in lines. (In a kind of not really sort of way.) but a lot easier then stem stitch.

So I opened up phonto on my iPad and typed in a couple of quotes. (If you then set that image as the home screen it makes it easier to trace.)
So once it’s traced onto the fabric, I used back stitch to make the letters.
And things just clicked. More so than they did with stem stitch.

It is really relaxing. Not as much as knitting. It doesn’t have the same TV watching options (I don’t think you could ever embroider with your eyes closed, or during a really important scene), but it’s great for listening to music.

But quotes!!! And music lyrics! I have so many things to embroider on cushions and to put on walls and I can see a lot of decorating until my Bloke gets fed up with embroidery and I have to start decorating my BFF’s house (who reads this and can now request embroidered items. I promise I want embroider a doily for you!).

I digress! Here’s my embroidery attempts.
The quotes are from Silversun Pickups, Wolf Parades, and Parks And Recreation.

~~~
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Stuck in my head – sugar army

Posted on November 7, 2012 by bekswhoknits

These guys are my favourite Perth band.
I’ve been listening to their new album and it’s pretty good. Their first album is really quite awesome too.

They always put on a cracking live show, and I’ve had many a Sugar Army induced neck injury or lost voice.

This is one band who should be bigger than they currently are.

~~~
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The weekend I tried to teach myself to stitch

Posted on November 5, 2012 by bekswhoknits

I really only want to know embroidery so I can write/stitch really cool quotes and phrases. And then I can hang them on the wall or put them on cushions.
But I have a lot of practicing to do first.

Also on the weekend, we cleaned out the spare room. We now have room to swing a cat, or do a full 360 revolution when I’m at my sewing machine.

I started a whole stack of really cool blogging related projects.
I caved and my blog now has a Facebook page. Go look on your right – there’s a fancy Facebook thingamajig. Currently it’s linked to this blog (obviously), my Instagram, and there’s a spotify playlist for all my passion pop Wednesday (song of the week) picks.
If you’re a Facebook person, go and check it out.
(If you’re a twitter person you can find me at beks_sparkles

I also knitted a whole lot for a blog tutorial. And I’m planning a giveaway!
It’s exciting times.

There’s also exciting news on the family front. There’s going to be a wedding!
Not mine, but my Bloke’s sister (who is one of the coolest people I know).
So I did the dutiful thing and introduced her to pintrest! (YOU’RE WELCOME!)

So it was a pretty awesome weekend. I’m really excited about the future.

(What’s a weekend post without a photo of Max.)
~~~
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It’s an outfit post!

Posted on November 3, 2012November 7, 2012 by bekswhoknits

Wow. It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these.
But I reckon this is a good enough reason.

This is my cardigan! I am still super chuffed that I finished a big knitted project.

And this is my bookcase. The biggest reason that I haven’t done many outfit posts is that our apartment is so tiny, it gets no natural light, and there is no neutral place to use as a back drop.

So in lieu of a neutral place, I thought I’d show a part of my apartment that I’m proud of.
The first place that springs to mind is my cd collection. But that’s right next to the only window in the place and is really awkward to stand in front of.

So the next place is my bookshelf. I love to read. And I love to watch tv. To the left you can see my tea cup collection. And on the top shelf you can see my Dalek (and other assorted Doctor Who merchandise).
It’s forever changing, and being shuffled around, but I’m thinking of doing more outfit posts here. I’d love to know what people think of the location. Too cluttered? Too distracting? Or is it me? Will you all judge me on what you see in my bookcase?
Actually, if you haven’t already figured out who I am, my bookcase will certainly confuse or enlighten you.

So enough chat, here is me, pretending to model, wearing my own knitted creation.
(My jeans are cotton on, my shoes are from rubi, and my tank is from temt)

~~~
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Frogging Friday.

Posted on November 2, 2012November 2, 2012 by bekswhoknits

I was always taught pride comes before a fall. Mostly through Enid Blyton novels, and Sunday School.

After feeling so chuffed with myself, for thinking I may have been able to make a pair of socks in a week, I failed.
Not just made a tiny correctable mistake, I failed.

I didn’t follow the pattern correctly and had too few stitches in the toe.
To compensate I increased randomly in the foot of the sock. In hindsight this is where I should have started the gusset.
So I started the gusset massively late.
When I tried it on to start the heel I started early (again to compensate). Stuffed up my maths with turning the heel which meant I had one really lopsided heel.

And when I tried it on it was about an inch too big.

So the project got flung across the room and a few expletives hurled at it.

I frogged it back to the toe and started again from there.
6 rounds in I realised that it still looked wrong and I gave up.

The next day I started again from scratch.

Just when I thought I was getting the hang of this and getting cocky I realise the value of slowing down and reading instructions.

When I was in primary school (and occasionally in high school) there was a test. It consisted of a page or 2 of instructions. The first instruction was to read through all the instructions and then follow the instructions.
Usually the instructions were things like ‘stand on your chair’, ‘say or sing something out loud’, ‘turn around 3 times’, but the last instruction always read ‘now that you’ve read all the instructions, sit down quietly and don’t so anything’.

It was meant to be an exercise in following instructions. It inevitably turned into people sitting smugly, watching other people making fools of themselves.

By the 2nd time a well meaning teacher instituted this test, my first action was to skip to the end and read the last instruction.

Obviously I was a smart arse and should have paid attention to the actual lesson.
It may have resulted in a finished sock instead of a frogged* sock.

*for those non-knitters who are utterly confused, ‘to frog’ is to unravel a piece of knitting, or rip-it (ribbit) back.