Wednesday List: New Year's resolutions

New Year's Eve At Gary Indiana Pubs. Photographer: Francis Miller. Google Life photo archive.

The matter at hand: with 2015 approaching, it seems a good time to put some thought into resolutions. I like making resolutions. In fact, I think the best thing about resolutions is making them. My 2015 resolutions are:

• Stay committed to my budget: bring my lunches to work, even if it means preparing lunches en masse; craft from my stash; op shop and check Trade Me before buying brand new. And - plan for any splurgy away-periods.
• Spend less time on social media: especially when I’m at work. Something about Twitter while I’m working makes me feel filled with ennui and a kind of mild horror, and I get so angry. It’s not good
• Make time for writing: it’s amazing how time doesn’t just magically fall into my lap and make itself available to me.
• Keep using all the techniques I learnt in 2014 to manage my worry and anxiety: especially “worry once, worry well” - that is, make a plan and refer back to it when worries intrude. That approach has served me pretty well so far and I’m quite proud of the things I’ve achieved while using it.
• Be kind to myself.

Over the next 12 months I’d also like to:

• Make a decision about my spinning wheel (which is looking at me reproachfully as I write this): to spin or not to spin? If I’m going to spin, I should probably work at getting better (classes?) and get myself something to card with; if not I should just sell the wheel and get it over and done with. Correspondence on this matter is invited.
• Finish Middlemarch.
• Have a good declutter. I haven’t moved house for over three years now and you can tell from the amount of crap I have acquired. I feel the urge to purge.

Do you have any suggestions or help for the spinning wheel situation? How do you feel about resolutions?

Wednesday List: five things I've knitted recently

I have an assignment due on Monday next week, so I've been undertaking some serious productive procrastination. That is: I've been knitting, a lot.

It's so fab when my friends have babies because I can knit furiously with no fear of the recipient disliking the woolly in question - babies have no choice but to wear what they're put in and to enjoy it. I imagine that any children of my own will have stories about being wrapped in wool for their entire childhood. I anticipate scarring the hypothetical children with woollens.

Five things that I've knitted recently:

♥ A handspun blanket in Nepalese yak and NZ wool (I spun all the yarn in this too)

Half finished

Fully finished and being blocked on the kitchen table (worst photograph ever)

♥ Merino possum baby booties

♥ A new hat for Nat (her last one was stolen from the university library - a curse on the dodgy mo fo who did that)

♥ Tiny little sweater!

♥ Baby scarf (inspired by the scarf that Jessica's son Ralph was wearing when we had coffee the other day)

At the moment I'm knitting a hat for Shannon to replace the one he left in the rental car at Auckland airport, and for the first time in the entire time that I've been knitting I'm hanging out to make something for myself! Amazing. It's much more fun to make something for yourself when you're not the only person to knit for.

A week of Making for Ms Ginger Jane

I am acquiring my middle name for my blogging name. It feels grrrreat.

Since leaving the derby, I have had infinitely more time to be domesticated and otherwise get my craft on. This week was particularly awesome as I managed to make so many things.

T-Shirt Knickers
Making my own underwear from upcycled t-shirts is one of those things that I've intended to do for ages and have never had the time to do. I've been collecting information about it for ages - and these undies are the product of all that research. I've also been learning through doing - I'm a bit of a slap-dash sewer, but I've gone to the trouble of drafting a pattern and have been trying to be terribly patient while sewing. This is also the first time that I've sewed elastic without using the standard casing method.

There is no way that anyone is going to mistake these for fabulously made items of beautiful lingerie any time soon, but I am proud of the work that I've put in and I'm really looking forward to developing my pattern and trying out some new ideas. As soon as I recover from the experience of sewing elastic on my crotchety old sewing machine.

Pound Cake

via The Pioneer Woman

This is the second time I've tried this Pioneer Woman recipe; it has 12oz of butter in it, which is about 340 grams. This is most of a block of butter. However, the recipe also calls for butter flavouring, which is one of those bizarre American ingredients that bewilders and confuses me. What ARE you butter flavouring? And what is your purpose?

I didn't use butter flavouring and replaced the lemon flavouring with a little grated lemon peel. It was crazy delicious.

Aslan Socks

These are possibly the slowest knitted pair of socks in existence. Also, I'm scared they won't fit me properly now. Also, I have a few holes in the second sock where I didn't pick up enough stitches along the gusset. I knew that they easy solution would have been to pick up some extra stitches and knit them in while I was reducing the stitches anyhow, but I decided to flake out instead. The wool is beyond beautiful though, and is so soft. Lovely to knit with.

Crocheted produce bags
I made these after a trip to the vege markets when I became annoyed that none of my little pink mesh netting produce bags were the right size or shape for potatoes or kumara. They're crocheted out of some yarn that Shannon brought back from Nepal, a blend of cotton, nettle and hemp,* and are crocheted in the round using double treble stitch and a 12mm hook.** I grazed my knuckles crocheting with this. If you're at all inspired by my commitment to sustainability and my awesome knuckle grazing story, I think you can pick up yarn similar to this at Trade Aid.

So far, the bags haven't seen any potato action, but Shannon has discovered that they're the perfect size for holding a rigger of beer.

Tiffany neckwarmer

This is the second time I've used this pattern; the first time I used a mohair sample I received in my Knitty Sampler box (the one above)***. I gave it to Bex. My new one is knitted from a scrap of possum merino that I bought with a voucher. This is the most beautiful soft yarn that I've ever been lucky enough to use. The scarf took me something like and hour and a half to knit, and I've worn it all this week. Cute and warm? Sign me up.

Patchwork winter scarf
What is the best thing about having an obsessively craftish girlfriend? Eventually she will dress you entirely in knitwear! This is the second scarf I have knitted for Shannon. I frogged the other one when he revealed that he actually hated the colour grey.

This one is emphatically not grey. It may be every other colour but.

Spinning
This week I have finally done the little bit of maintenance I needed to do on my wheel, and have picked up a spare bobbin to make my life easier. Shannon is a Spinning Enabler, and has polyurethaned the bobbin and supplied me with all the fibre that I'm spinning with at the moment - four different colours of Nepalese yak and some beautifully soft grey/brown fleece (NZ) that is carded and scoured but is still in the grease. This means: it smells of sheep and there is lanolin on the fleece that makes my hands soft while I spin.

Since oiling et al, my spinning has improved heaps, which leads me to believe that proper maintenance of your tools is important after all (who would have guessed?). The thread is a lot more consistent which I was finding especially hard to achieve with the yak roving as it is made up of very short fibres. What I'm looking forward to doing now is spinning some kind of novelty yarn, or deliberately introducing "slubs". Or even learning how to ply properly on a spinning wheel would be good, actually.

AND THIS WEEKEND... I am planning to bake some biscuits, and work on S's scarf some more, and finally finish those GODDAMN SOCKS. And then start finishing the second sock for another pair that have been languishing for the last six months. Oh, oh, and maybe I could knit some booties for my new baby cousin?

*Yes these were declared at customs
** I had one lying around. I am as surprised as you are.
*** After having all the best intentions in the world of taking some photographs for this post I flaked out, and just used what ever I had at hand. Must try harder.

The inside of my head this Monday

Photo via Vintage Photos.

I'm feeling grumpy like this grumpy man. Grump grump grump, eating worms etc.

The Boy was here in the weekend on a break from his epic around the country trip looking at radio transmitters. It was awfully nice to see him because I am rather fond of him. We drank and gossiped and had a bit of a dance off on Friday night, and then went to the vege markets on Sunday morning. It was all terribly domesticated and rather cosy and lovely. These are the things that living together is good for!

I now have a little less than a fortnight to wait until he is back for good, and I’m so stoked. The flat dynamics are all wrong without him around too, and it makes it kind of horrible to live there. Flat dynamics are a subtle balance indeed, especially given my apparent intolerance for almost everyone in the world. The dynamics need to be perfect or else I find myself raging about and re-organising what has recently be re-organised by someone else. ("I CAN'T BELIEVE HE MOVED MY TOASTED SANDWICH MAKER" *basilisk glare*).

I scrimmaged in the weekend for the first time in weeks and weeks and weeks. I forgot how much I love hitting people. I’m still a bit overly cautious and appear to have become afraid of falling over, but still - it’s just a matter of working through these head things. It’s been a drag trying to convince myself that I still have the abilities that I had last year, and to keep motivated to train when I know that I won’t be skating in the first bout. Also, admin stuff is making me hell grumpy at present, and so despite my little bit of joy in skating again, I am piking this evening to be quiet and far away.

My flat has been pretty much abandoned - Shannon and Dave are away, and my third flatmate, James, is pretty much always busy and is never there. It's fair to assume that I'm going to have the place to myself until next Thursday - quelle excitement! I'm planning my perfect evening for tonight in an effort to make myself feel better in my grumpiness. Thus, I am planning to make Italian Meatball Soup, hula hoop in the lounge to Beyonce, MIA and Missy Elliot for the hour or so it should take to cook this, then oil my spinning wheel and spin for an hour while watching an episode of Rome. Does that sound some kind of awesome or what? Wish me luck!

Arohanui

A rip-off TILT! On a Friday! Like Originality! But without the part where I come up with an original concept!

And now with no further ado - A Bunch of Stuff that I Love.

♥ Having the Boy around. Absence made my heart super fond y’all, and although I miss him horribly when he’s gone, I like him coming back so much (with presents and kisses) that I’m willing to put up with it. Also I get to eat pizza in bed and watch crappy TV on my laptop while he’s away. He would never put up with such a display of slobbishness.

♥ Finishing the epic cardigan of DOOM. You may have heard of this. I’ve been knitting it since March and finally, FINALLY, it’s finished. I’m wearing it right now and it’s super super warm and wonderful. In fact, I am also wearing a scarf and a hat and a pair of handwarmers that I knitted and I look a little bit like I’ve had a horrible accident in a yarn store - albeit, a very stylish yarn store.

♥ Google Chrome. I’ve changed my browser to Chrome at work, and I’m loving it. Call me Ms Geek Von Geekness Who is Late on the Bandwagon (please?). It’s definitely faster and I like the way the tabs disappear so prettily and animatedly (plink! It’s gone!). I’m planning to change my browser at home now - I’d put off doing it for ages because I hated the idea of having to copy all my bookmarks over, but having discovered that Chrome will do it for me I can think of no reason to hold off. FAB.

♥ Spinning wheel. It’s changed my spinning habits for the better/faster/more efficient. I wish I was spinning now.

♥ Having an open fire at work. Hello Heaven! And keeping warm!

♥ Stupid awesome television quotes; and especially these quotes from The New Adventures of Black Beauty and It Is I, Count Homogenized respectively. Man, there are some great lines out there, but I'd rather read them in isolation than watch TV, so call me a philistine and rub my belly. Mmm, philistine belly rub.

♥ Book club and lovely book club girls. For our last book, we read Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins and there is no way I would have otherwise - I'd never heard of it and the blurb is very vague. Also, apparently there is no costumes (!) I LOVED IT. And I strongly recommend. The Wikipedia run down makes it sound like shit, otherwise I'd link through to that. Please take my recommendation and run with it!

♥ My knee recovering enough to allow me to ride my bike around and start skating again. Injuries that affect walking, and exercise, and skating, and heel-wearing are absolutely horrible, and the feeling of recovering is absolute bliss.

♥ Talking and Scheming with Bex. 

And I think that will about do for this week! Love love, lovelies. Have a fab weekend.

Wednesday List: Ten things updated

Last year I wrote this list, and I've been squirreling away at it throughout January. This is my first progress report for the year, so please be proud of me!

1. Pay back credit card debt.
This is absolutely the hardest thing on this list, but I’m making an effort, I really am. I’ve removed the credit card from my Paypal account so that’s removed the temptation to buy heaps of stuff online that I don’t need (like – heaps and heaps and heaps of yarn. Eek). Also, I ordered one of those Visa debit cards from Kiwibank and I’m hoping that will help out. FINALLY: I am about to cut my credit card in two. On the count of three –
One
Two
Three.

Credit card is cut in two. I’ll load up a photo here later.

2. Learn to hula hoop.
Still waiting for the classes to come up – I’ve signed up to the Wellington Circus School newsletter but I’m yet to see any dates for the classes. I may make some phone calls to see when the next class is, or maybe if I’m misreading/misunderstanding what is going on with the classes? I have the hoop at home tho - In the meantime, I could be hooping it up at home.

3. Learn to spin.
I can spin on a drop spindle! It’s fun – I haven’t knit anything with the yarn that I span but you can see it here. I think I can officially count that as a COMPLETE.

4. Make a decision about returning to study and prepare myself to start in 2011.

5. Learn how to wear contact lenses.

6. Go to Camp a Low Hum and have a really super fab time.
YES YES YES YES YES I am SOOOO completed with this one. It was awesome – have I mentioned that? Because it was. It was the most awesome good time fun ever. As soon as I get photos and text sorted I will post up my CALH run down. This is going on my list again for next year, by the way.

7. Go to Blood and Thunder Camp and learn heaps and use my awesome and newly found skating skills to score twenty points for my team in the next bout.
It doesn’t seem as though this is likely to happen – the Camp part, that is. I am massively impoverished. And sad about it.

8. Make a budget and stick to it.
Oh wow, I put this on the list? Wow.

o_O

I’m off to sorted.co.nz to do the budget. The sticking to it will be an ongoing project. The fact I haven't sorted this out yet is probably the reason I'm massively impoverished.

9. Get the tattoo I’ve been talking about getting for five years.

10. Unclutter my life and maintain a clutterless environment.
I had made such leaps and bounds before I left for camp and things at home have fallen apart since then. My work space is a lot less cluttered and I’m keeping a list of things to do beside me at all times – which means that working has been less clutterful. However, I have a massive pile of books and clothes in the hallway that are waiting to be taken away and that’s far more cluttery than keeping them on the shelves. But, it’s an ongoing project. I shall refocus.

My first yarn

Last night I span my very first yarn with my very first drop spindle. I AM AWESOME. I AM PROUD OF ME.

The fibre is a hand-dyed merino from Vintage Purls. I had 20gm of it in my Blendy sampler box, and I received my first spindle on Monday (I ordered it through Trade Me). It's an Ashford drop spindle and it's pretty basic really - a student one. But it's my Baby and I'm going to call it Molly. Hello Molly Spindle! J'adore.

This is what the fibre looked like:

And this is what my little bit of yarn looked like (you can see Molly too. Hi Molly!):

I think I'm addicted. Right now I wish I was spinning something else! It's so gratifying watching the loose fibres spin elegantly into yarn - and it's really very easy too. I taught myself through two or three Youtube clips and I picked it up within an hour! The technology itself is so old (the same sort of tool has been in use since the Iron Age at least) and the technology it's so effective that it's never really stopped being relevant. Ancient, yes; irrelevant, no. And that's a strange nice oddity too - that I taught myself an ancient craft through the internet, and ordered all my supplies through the internet. Basically, the only thing the internet doesn't do for me is physically suckle me.

I can't wait until the kinks are straightened out of the yarn and it's completely dry. I don't know what to knit with it but I think it will be most satisfyingly tiny and meaningful. A tiny bit of meaningful knitting.

Arohanui!

VIA

I'm so tired at the moment that writing is almost agony. Bear with me x

• Curry Cook Off at Shannon's house last night! There was so much amazing food and the whole evening was a huge amount of fun.
• My Blendy yarn sampler box. Lots of little skeins of loveliness, and I can hardly wait to get home and go crazy with the knitting. Also, there is a little bit of merino fleece and some silk scraps that I can use for my first spinning project - my drop spindle arrived earlier this week and I haven't had anything to spin with yet. I can't wait to start!
• Organising my bookmarks, my favourites and my reader, and finding images and articles that have I loved and lost under the massive amount of things that are generated everyday by the internet.
• Being back at Derby training! My body is killing me but it was awesome skating and pushing myself and realising that everyone had become as unfit as me during the off season.

Honourable mentions: making my bed everyday this week and coming home to a tidy room; sleeping; having my orange drink bottle again (thanks Bryna!); getting ready for bed an hour before I intend to sleep; mucking around with my blog layout; making a beautiful database.