Four years down and lots to go!
Note: The picture was taken by my sister when we visited the States last June. Just in case you’re wondering when the Snook’s facial hair spontaneously reappeared… It hasn’t.
Category: Photo Post
Images and videos that I’ve taken on-the-go
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New knitting project
I’ve got yet another knitting project in the works! This one is the “Janetta Dexter Sampler Sweater” from the back of Jacqueline Fee’s The Sweater Workshop. The wool is a really soft chunky cotton/acrylic that my Mom sent me for my birthday. It’s knitting up really fast and I’m enjoying the fairisle practice. So far I’ve done the zig-zag pattern and now I’m working on the houndstooth. It’s gonna be big, bulky, and fun…
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Happy birthday to me…
Why yes, those are Wonder Woman Underoos. I was a cool three-year-old.
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Introducing Dr. Amy Jones!
Introducing Dr. Amy Jones!
And just like that, we’re a family.
The cat’s name was originally going to be Dr. Alowicious Jones, but that’s really more of a boy’s name and she’s a girl. So then we came up with the idea of naming her after my sister, for the pure comedy of saying, “Amy shat all over the floor!” and “Amy’s coughing up a hairball.” Think of it as a compliment, Sis. 🙂
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My cousin visits!
After two long years in Australia, a member of my family has finally come to visit. My cousin Tony is here for the semester studying in Wollongong (just south of Sydney) and came up to see us this weekend. Here I am with him and his girlfriend Molly. We took them out for a traditional Newtown evening of cocktails, beers, and Japanese food. I managed to goad them into eating sushi and octopus! It was pretty darn fun.
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The Sign of the Beast
I haven’t given you a knitting update in ages, have I? Yes, that’s me in a custom knit devil-horned hat. The pattern’s from Debbie Stoller’s book Stitch ‘N’ Bitch and I whipped it up in about six hours. (Pattern note for those playing at home: I used two balls of Heirloom 12-ply on 6mm needles.) I discovered some black wool in my stash so I might try the kitty-cat hat next. Now I just have to wait for it to get cold enough to wear!
Catching up on other projects… I also made a jumper/sweater for my iPod! My old case was getting grubby and I rarely use the belt clip anyway. There’s a pattern in Stitch ‘N’ Bitch but it requires sewing, so I just made up my own. (I started by knitting a flat rectangle about the size of the bottom of the iPod, and then picked up around the edges and knit in the round to the top. Then I cast off the front and continued knitting flat to make the flap. I even put a yarn-over in the right spot to leave a hole for the headphone jack!) I haven’t sewn any velcro on it yet, which is why I have to hold the flap closed here. Also note: I finally got my iPod in-ear headphones! As Ron suggested, they are a bit tinny. I only really notice it on the badly-ripped songs though. I’ve fiddled with the equalizer settings to boost the bass and that helps. But I’m back in the Cult of the White Wires!
Another recent finished object is the red scarf I’m sporting below. The wool is some handspun and hand-dyed stuff I bought at Camp Creative in January. The thickness varies from thread-thin to finger-thick. I just cast on eight stitches on my 10mm needles and knit til I ran out of wool. It went about six feet. I’m loving it. Oh, and my sister tells me that “skinny scarves are in” in the US, so unbeknownst to me I’m already in style for the winter!
Oh, and there’s a work in progress in that last picture too: my muscles. I’m on Week 3 of my weight training regimen and I’m feeling pretty darn buff!
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The Sheer Stubbornness of the Home Brewer
It’s pissing down, and the Snook is brewing. Outside. It’s a wonder he (or that big steel pot) hasn’t been struck by lightning yet. I told him last night that the weather man was predicting a storm, but he said he reckoned it would blow over quickly. By the time it started he was too far gone in the process to stop. It’s pretty funny. 🙂
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Congrats to Tarkin
Ever wonder what would happen if Salacious Crumb, Admiral Ackbar, Aurra Sing, Jek Porkins, and Grand Moff Tarkin were locked in a glass box together for a year? Wonder no more… Tarkin would emerge victorious and the rest would all be dead. As proof I offer our fish tank, which suffered yet another death last night. We’ve lost one snail and three goldfish so far. See, this is why we don’t reproduce. -
Greek Key Jumper
Curse be damned; I knitted the Snook a sweater. This is my first seamless and patternless sweater and the first of my own design. The stripe pattern is from a woven scarf his mother gave him a few years back. (I just graphed it and worked it twice, once in reverse.) The sweater itself is green and the pattern’s in grey. It’s made of a thick Aran wool and it really absorbs the light, which makes it pretty hard to see here. It’s got a regular crew neck and raglan sleeves, which means the seamlines run up diagonally from the armpit to the neck (like a sweatshirt). My biggest problem was getting the cast-off collar loose enough to fit over his head! Here some more pictures of him in his favorite modeling poses:
The first is called “The Beach is That Way!”…
…and the second is “What Time is It?”. I make him do them whenever he tries something on, because it cracks my shit up.
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Storm at Sea Quilt
It’s done! Today is the wedding of my friends Kenya and Sal, and this is the quilt I made for them. It’s a traditional American pattern called “Storm at Sea”. I started it just over a year ago (but I took a bit of break in the middle of the summer). The top was machine-pieced but I quilted the whole darn thing by hand. I also used a bias binding for the edge, which was a first for me. All in all I’m really proud of how it turned out. And isn’t the basket cute? I saw it in a shop yesterday and realized it was the perfect way to package the quilt.
Here’s a shot of the quilt pattern itself. As you can see, it’s all made up of triangles and squares but somehow they kinda fool the eye into seeing curves and waves.
The Snook is actually standing on a chair and holding the quilt up here (and hiding behind it) so you can get an idea of how big it is. It’s probably about queen-sized, I’d say.
I suck at embroidery, but it’s sorta tradition that you personalize the quilt for the receiver. Here’s my, uh, “rustic” attempt at adding their initials.
Like I said, I’m proud of it. And hey, that’s one more thing I can cross off my crafty backlog!