In a holding pattern

I applied for my student loan yesterday - it only took 15 minutes online - so now we wait... It doesn't seem like there is alot to do between now and February - other than packing of course, for both my christmas holiday and moving cities, but right now I feel like i'm in a bit of a holding pattern until things can really start moving again. I suppose I should be grateful and just appreciate the calm before the storm!

Store update
I've made a little soap sack to go up in my Etsy store!

I still have some cute cotton colours left over, so I'll be whipping more of these out over the next couple of weeks. Great stocking stuffers! Any ideas of other easy embroidery designs I could do?

Knitting update
I have finally started on the Central Park Hoodie! [Rav link] I chose to start with the sleeve, just to get the cable pattern sorted, and i'm not far off the sleeve cap now. I'm using Needful Yarns London Tweed (again, I hope I have enough, its another discontinued yarn!). Here's what it looked like on the weekend:

Of course, I was aided by my ever-faithful (and ever-hungry!) puppy dog, who against all odds is still with us...

I had a brief thought that I could get this done in time to wear in the -15 degree weather in New York in January, but I am now resigned to the fact that that isn't going to happen! I don't want to push myself during what will be my busiest time of the year. Oh well, there's always next winter :)

How to...
I tried my hand at something else a little crafty this weekend. With all my stitch markers in use on my clapotis scarf, I had nothing to use for the cable pattern, so I grabbed some old paper clips and beads and got to work with some SUPER basic DIY stitch markers.

They aren't the greatest things ever made, and they are a little big, but they are good enough for me - real stitch markers are REALLY hard to come by in New Zealand! You can see them in use in the sleeve picture above. If you're interested in making some basic ones for yourself, i've done a little 'How to' photo series on Flickr. You can find it here.

Chat for the comments
What WIPs have you got at the moment? Or is everything on hold while you work on Christmas presents?!?

~Happy crafting!~

On a new path

I handed in my resignation at work yesterday, after working in this office for the past four years. I'm starting again in a new direction...

I have decided to move out of Wellington, to go and study full time in Hamilton*. The course I will be doing is a Bachelor of Contemporary Christian Music at Vision College, majoring in bass guitar and minoring in vocals. You may remember that back in January I did a week-long music course - this is following on from that! It had been niggling at the back of my head that it was something that I really enjoyed, and that I would be silly not to pursue it. So after much thought and organisation, I applied for the course, did the interview and got accepted all in about a week! The full bachelor program is for three years, but i'm just going to take it a year at a time**.

This is a huge deal for me - i've never studied full time at university level before, and i've never lived in a new city on my own away from my family, so i'm both nervous and excited. Luckily I've visited Hamilton quite a bit over the last year and really love it there.

The timing of things should work out quite well - I finish work at the end of December before going on my holiday to the states, then when I get back I have about two weeks of relaxing/packing before the course starts, with two days of orientation before classes start.

So there you go! I've decided too, that with my new start will come a new blog, but more details on that closer to the time.

Knitting update
I've been pretty slack with knitting recently! I finished off a little something new for my Etsy store***, but that's about it. I have cast on for the Central Park Hoodie [Rav link], starting with the sleeve, but I need to find some more stitch markers for the cable section before I can go much further.

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* for those not in the area - Wellington is at the bottom of the North Island, Hamilton is about a 7 hour drive north, closer to the top of the North Island. Here's a map if you're interested!
** they all say that - and they all do the full three years! It just sounds good...
*** I want to make a couple more, then they will be listed :)

FOs: Baby Suprise Jacket and Baby Beanie

Would you believe that, apparently, it's spring here in NZ? You wouldn't be able to tell, from the abundance of rain and clouds over the last few weeks - it does not put one into a spring-type mood at all!
At least it is a long weekend, the weather is supposed to cheer up, and i'm going to Auckland to see Andre Rieu live in concert!
Here is his website if you don't know anything about him. He is a brilliant violinist and leads the Johann Strauss orchestra - if your a fan of orchestras and opera I think you will really enjoy him. He tends to do something local to wherever he tours - in New York he accompanied the Harlem Gospel Choir (his concert at Radio City Music Hall is my all-time fave!), in Australia he lead 'Waltzing Matilda' - so it will be interesting to see what he picks up from New Zealand... i'm guessing Pokarekare Ana? Whatever he chooses, I bags dancing the Blue Danube in the aisle with my Dad (my mum and I are in competition for that one!).
Anyway, enough about my plans, I have some finished knitting to show you! On with the show...

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Baby Suprise Jacket

Yay its finished! It went suprisingly quick in the end, although I found myself referring to those helpful YouTube tutorials quite a bit. I chose to do the applied iCord edging, although only down the front and along the bottom, not around the neckline. I think the starry buttons finish it off quite nicely :)

Once I got started and figured out how the stitch marking worked, this pattern was really easy - loads of garter stitch, which I loved. It was fun to give it to various people, knitters and non-knitters, to try and fold it together before sewing it up! I'll be definately making another one of these, probably in proper wool rather than cheap acrylic. This one is going to no-one in particular, just for 'my bottom drawer' as they say. Here's the [Rav link] if you want to buy the pattern and give it a go yourself.

Baby Beanie

This was borne out of a need to use up one very small purple ball of pure merino that i'd picked up on sale from somewhere. I love the feature on Ravelry where you can just put in what yarn you have and it comes out with all the patterns you can make from it! This is one that came out, and it was good to test me with using double pointed needles for the whole project for the first time - it took a while to get used to pulling the stitches tight at each end, and as a result I have a little laddering at different points, but its not overly obvious.

Here's the [Rav link] - its a free pattern, and easily adjustable for different sizes by using different weight yarns and different stitch counts. This one came out smaller than I was expecting, more preemie-size, and i'd like to give it a go in a heavier yarn. Again, this one has no home at this stage, I may end up giving to the preemie unit at the hospital, but my baby doll is enjoying it for the moment (she's tiny so I had to fold up the ribbing!)

In other news, I have also (finally!) finished my Buttony sweater! The ends are sewn in and the buttons are sewn on, it just needs a good blocking - i'd like to see if I can shrink it down a little, as its about one size too big... watch this space for photos when its done. I'm now working on a clapotis, and I swatched for the Central Park Hoodie last night! These are kind of obligatory patterns on Ravelry - most people have made either one or both - so i'm joining the band wagon.

~Happy knitting!~

Sad 'n sweet September

I didn't do alot of blogging in September, but alot happened!

Firstly, we found out that my puppy is very very sick. I say puppy, but he's really 13, and has had a very good life. We are happy that he continues to be with us, two weeks longer than expected, but its still sad news. We are making the most of lots of cuddles...

There was also some good news - not much I can talk about right now though, but I had a nice weekend away with my mum - lots of shopping, gave the credit card a good workout! There are a few photos here on Flickr if you're interested (the ones marked September) - mainly of the botanical gardens we went to, they have different theme gardens like Indian and English, and the flowers everywhere were amazing.

I have also got lots of knitting done. It was my boss's birthday, and I whipped up a quick soap sack for her, with a little starfish embroidery. Its made from cotton, with soap inside, so you can lather it and use it that way. I want to make one for me now!

I also made another couple of cherry-comb hats - one in pink and one in brown, to match scarves I have.

As I still have a couple of balls of this pink and original red yarn, a friend suggested to me that I make up kits with the pattern and a ball of the yarn to sell in my store. What do you think?

Speaking of my store, its still there - I now have stock up at Etsy as well as ArtFire, and a couple of things on TradeMe if you're in NZ. I'll be putting the rainbow shawl and knitted bag I made a couple of months ago, up on my web site as soon as the weather cheers up and I can take some decent photos!

~Happy knitting!~

Sun in Winter

Its rare to have a beautiful sunny day in the middle of winter here, so we made the most of it on the weekend and went up the coast to our beach house for the day on Saturday.

As you can see it was a perfect day - not a cloud in the sky, a little cold but not windy. There were plenty of people on the beach - only a couple swimming - and it was nice to go for a walk in the sand. I can't wait for the real summer!

Knitting progress
It takes about an hour to get to there, so I got a good dose of knitting done in the car on the way. This is my progress on the Baby Surprise Jacket as of Sunday night:

I've definately got the hang of the pattern now. I've cast off the stitches for the neck, and i'm about to put the sides on a holder needle while I add to the length. Here's what it looks like folded up so far:

For all my worrying at the start, it turns out its a really easy project! I'm definately going to try it again with some nicer wool, this acrylic is getting a little hard on my hands, but its good to try it out.

Comments
Thanks for the comments on my last couple of posts! Sadly I can't respond to each of your comments, I'm not set up for that, but I do read them all and they make me smile :) Leeshie - thanks for the comment about the puppy jumper - they go to the SPCA, and i'm working to get a photo of their puppies wearing the jumpers, which should be really cute! I haven't made one for my dog because I don't think he'd like it that much, but I may make one just to see...

~Happy knitting!~

Belated FO #10 and a photo gallery!

I took a photo at a work meeting the other day of our members (its to be put up on our website) and when I was uploading the photo today I realised that there were heaps of other photos I haven't uploaded!

So, I give you a belated FO post - my mothers day present (yes, its been that long!):

I haven't seen it used so far, but i'm sure its somewhere being treasured :) I think if I was to do another one of these I would (get the right cotton to start with, so it wasn't so stiff! and...) do the image in a different colour, so it stands out more. Maybe its just the cotton I used, but its hard to see the design. Oh well, it was a good learning curve and as always, a great pattern from KrisKnits! My only change was to make it mUm rather than mOm.

Here's a gallery of the other photos on my camera - just some goings-on in my life over the past month:

Row 1: Bec baking (they were yummy melting-moment cookies that she stuck together with melted chocolate, they were amazing!); Mum catching some z's at the airport while waiting for the shuttle (they had just come back from my great-uncle's funeral in Melbourne); enjoying a Krispie Kreme glazed donut!! (you can't get them here, so I have a special standing order whenever someone comes back from Oz!)

Row 2: Cobber pretending he's a bunny rabbit; taking a break from packing and sorting out clothes; Dad and I after the Noise conference (a worship led by Henry Seely of Planetshakers Church in Melbourne, aimed at worship leaders - it was really good)

Row 3: The sunrise from my office window (catching the train to work gets me there really early!); Dad showing off his jelly-slurping technique at the chinese restaurant (mine needs a little work...); hoodies and pj bottoms seemed the order of the day!

Row 4: Enjoying my newly set-up bedroom; my baking skills (they were little lemon tea cakes - very tasty, and only took about half an hour in total!); Dad and I discussing the option of getting a Wii from the EB sale to replace our PS2 while waiting to meet Bec for lunch (well, I was trying to convince Dad anyway, I don't think it worked...)

So there you go - a little catch-up from me.

As for knitting, i'm still working on a bag to go with my other projects for my friend's craft roadshow next month, which will also end up on my website, so once that's done I can get back to Buttony.

~Happy knitting!~

PS - I'd really love to do a book review again sometime soon, but I haven't read anything since finishing the Twilight series (i'm catching up on podcasts again) and all my books are still boxed up in the garage! But watch this space for something soon.

Sunburnt

Have a tomato near you? That's the colour of my face. Totally self inflicted - I didn't put on nearly enough sunblock yesterday morning before watching our church's U30s v. O30s soccer match yesterday afternoon! Thank goodness for aloe cream! It was worth it though, the U30s won the game :)

Mingus Big Band was fantastic on Friday night! We shifted seats at intermission to get a view of something other than the pianist's back... And, I've never seem a baritone sax that big - it was a big guy that was playing it, and it came down to his knee! Promptly went home and downloaded a Charles Mingus album from iTunes to listen to. I also managed to pop into the free open concert in the square on Saturday to watch the Vaughan Roberts Big Band, they were great too, with a mixture of swing and salsa and remakes of some old tunes. It was a good weekend.

Knitting update

I finally got up the energy late yesterday afternoon to work some more on Buttony - sadly its not turning out to be the 'quick because its bulky' project I thought it would be, but i'll stick with it, and ignore the urge to cast on the sleeve for Thermal...

(the safety pins mark where the button holes are)

Looking at some of my other raglan projects, I'm estimating that the increases need to be 8 inches long before seperating the sleeves. Here's where I'm up to:

Not long to go!

As you can see from the progress bars, i'm also making ascots for quick presents. I ran out of the yarn I needed, so a quick trip out at lunchtime means that they should be finished and ready to send off tonight, while Desperate Housewives, Brothers and Sisters, and Nip/Tuck is on. (I love Mondays!)

Quote of the week

From the Yarn Harlot's page-a-day calendar:

"All knitterly creation stems from one simple element: yarn. It is the baker's flour, the jeweler's gold, the gardener's soil. Yarn is creation, consolation, and chaos all spun together into one perfect ball."
- Clara Parkes

This quote makes me feel better about my stash :)

~Happy knitting!~

Hit the JACKPOT!

I never get mail... well, according to my flatmates I get more than they do, but its usually just boring circulars that I end up throwing out, so that doesn't count. Anyway, I hit the mail jackpot last night - I was the first home last night, and got super excited to see that all the mail was for me - nothing for anyone else, and the excitment grew when I opened up all my mail and found this:

JACKPOT!

Enclosed....

1. Mingus Big Band tickets! I only booked these two or three days ago, I can't believe they arrived so fast! They are performing as part of the Wellington Jazz Festival, first weekend of March. I've never been to the festival before, so i'm really looking forward to going - my jazz-guru-friend Al is coming with me :)

2. FastTrack bass guitar book! More on this in the future as my plans for next year are slowly revealed, but lets just say i'm hoping to get more serious about my bass guitar adventures, and I figured this was a good place to start - it starts out quite basic, which I guess is what I need.

3. Interweave Knits magazine, Spring 2009! I've subscribed to this from USA, and i've been reading about it on other people's blogs for a while now, expecting it to turn up any day... and it finally has! I'm keen to add the Soap Bubble Wrap and the Zickzack tunic to my ever-growing queue.

Knitting update

I'm still working on the puppy jumpers, although sorry to say I haven't had a chance to do much more work on them since I last blogged about it. That's my plan for tomorrow - I hope to get the first girl one finished, and the boy one started.

Also, if you're in Wellington, the Cuba St Carnival starts tomorrow. This was going on just down the road from my office the other day:

Setting up the street with flags

If you're a knitter, there's stuff for us too - come along to the Bristol on Cuba Street and knit tree cozies! There is more information on this blog or in this Ravelry thread. They also have a Facebook group with some cool photos. Hope to see you there!

~Happy Knitting!~

Valentines weekend

A belated happy valentine's day to those who you who had someone special to celebrate with :)

As for me, my yarn and I had some lovely quality time on Saturday, on my first much-awaited weekend at home in about a month! Friday night was spent working on the garter baby beanie until the wee hours of the morning, so I even had a sleep in. I decided it was going to be a blocking day on Saturday - I blocked the matching (and finally finished) garter yoke cardi, and also finally blocked my Sassy cardi, which turned out beautifully! Unfortunately the washing machine was in use after that so I didn't get a chance to block the hooded scarf, but that's on my to-do list tonight (while watching the first episode of the new season of Desperate Housewives!).

As for new projects - on Thursday I decided on a whim that I would start a new beret for winter - after looking at the new Knitty that just came out, I chose the Fern Glade pattern using the same yarn as the (disasterous) big green vest (to show you the color). So far its very pretty, although the yarn is taking a bit to get used to after using the soft stuff for the baby cardi!

For Saturday though I decided to do a little more charity work - this time for the SPCA who are calling out for little puppy jumpers. I couldn't resist when I saw the gorgeous pictures:

Here's the pattern if you'd like to help out. I've made the back half of one already, with plans to make the front and finish it off tonight. Its all ribbing, so it takes a little time, but aren't they sweet!!!

My sister was hosting an anti-valentines day cupcake party on Saturday night, for those who didn't have anything special on, and it was so much fun!

There were 5 of us there, so that made decorating all the cakes very creative. Our finished products were displayed on my lovely cupcake tower, although they didn't all fit...
Here's another picture of the aftermath...

Mmm they were good!

Sunday was lots of fun too, B and I were entered in the Wellington Round the Bays competition, along with 9,000 other people! We walked 7km in 1hr 14mins. I'm so proud!

~Happy knitting!~

Loving long weekends

I'm sorry to say i'm getting used to these short weeks! Its Waitangi Day here on Friday, which means another 4-day week! We will be going up to our bach to do some more painting and gardening, with hopefully some time for a swim as well.

Last weekend I went up north for a youth leaders retreat weekend - I had a good time, the training we did was really good, but never again will I spend a whole weekend away along with 4 other guys - talk about testosterone overload!! Everything was a competition, from who could jump from the highest rock into the river, to who could hold their breath underwater the longest at the pool! As you can see it was gorgeous weather though, so I couldn't really complain about having another mini-holiday :)

Progress is coming along well with the garter stitch baby cardi - I did some more work on it at lunchtime today, to discover that i'm pretty much finished on the bulk of the stockinette section, then a garter band around the bottom and the sleeves to go, along with picking up stitches for the button band. I'm suprised at how quickly its going! Its looking a little small at the moment - a little narrow across the back, but i'm hoping that the button band will make it look better.

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I also finished my audiobook this morning, so here's my review:

The Time Travellers' Wife

Author: Audrey Niffenegger

Started: 1 Dec 08

Finished: 3 Feb 09

It looks like it took me ages to get through this, but its an audiobook so I only listened to it on the bus and other travelling - AND its two 9-hour books! Brilliant story though (18+ in some parts); I read in a review that people were sobbing in parts and I could see how that could be so. I would put it in the genre of romance/drama, but its not as 'flaky' other romance novels i've read. Sometimes its a little hard to keep track of the dates and how old the characters are, as it darts around a bit. Its nice to have both male and female voices reading out different parts of the dialogue. HIGHLY recommended! But make sure you're not doing anything else while you're listening, or you'll lose track of what's going on!

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Happy knitting!

Back in the swing of things

The roadtrip was long but good, the course I did was fantastic, and Parachute was awesome! AND I had my birthday in the middle of it all :) Here's the short-winded version...

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My puppy was sad that we were packing everything up except for him :(

The trip was long, well it felt alot longer than the 7 hours I predicted. I can't remember what time we arrived, but it was in time to grab a quick bite to eat, and then fall into bed. I managed to do nearly everything I mentioned I would do on the trip, so I was happy!

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The music course that we did was so worth the trip. It was called InTune, run by Vision College, and it focussed on worship leading from a musical p.o.v.

Music to practise at the end of Day One - two of the eight songs we had to learn...

We started with a guest speaker each morning, then a theory session, followed by instrument tuition (I took my bass guitar) and then gathering into an 'ensemble' to work on our songs, with a final 'performance' to the group on Friday morning. It was great to get loads of practical skills to bring back :)

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My new toy!

After school one day I couldn't resist dragging mum to the nearest Spotlight so I could make the most of a short VIP members sale - and I bought myself an early birthday present! I'm so excited to start using it! I'm sure for the most part it will be used for hemming pants and that kind of thing, but I have dabbled in a little patchwork before, so i'm hoping to get back into that.

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Special birthday cupcakes that my sister made for me before we left - complete with stunning cupcake holder!

Then it was my birthday! I was treated to embarrassment a suprise when my dad stood up and got the whole class to sing me happy birthday... ok I admit, it was lovely! I even had a gorgeous rose delivered to me while I was in my bass tuition class!

And I was taken to dine-in Pizza Hutt for dinner - there are none left in Wellington now, so that was an awesome treat!

My AWESOME birthday present!

As for my birthday present, I was lucky enough to get a Knit Picks interchangable needle set, which i've wanted since I first heard about them! Thanks to Morag from Vintage Purls for sending them up to my mum so quickly :)

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This already full-on week was then followed by a long weekend at Parachute 09 - a Christian music festival with loads of bands and speakers.

Rapture Ruckus!!! And Dr Bob :)

These were two of my favourite acts over the weekend - Brad from Rapture Ruckus is from Wellington (the only hip hop artist i'm a fan of!) and Dr Bob plays 12 bar blues, which stood out from the rest of the pop/rock line up.

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So, that's the story of my week! As you can imagine now, i'm absolutely shattered, but still managing to get through work. I'm off again for another long weekend on Friday afternoon, so i'm loving the quiet nights until then! I'll leave you with this - my stash enhancement from the week away - just cheap acrylic, but i'm going to start making toys!

Acrylic joy :)

PS - New project!

I forgot to tell you more about my new project for 2009! Its called Project 365, and the aim is to take at least one photo every day for a year. The result is to document and help remind you of what you did during the year, as well as make you a better photographer.

So far so good, although yes, its only the fourth day of the year!

Here's the link so you can go check it out: Ballatrina - Project 365

My disclaimer is that I WILL take a photo every day, even if its something 'boring'. But I can't guarantee that I'll be able to post them every day, so there may be a couple of days where there are more than one, if i've missed a day. Feel free to leave me comments with what you think.

Here is more information about the original Project 365 from Photojojo.

Post-Christmas calm

I'm at home today, relaxing before work starts again first thing tomorrow morning... i'm heading to mum and dads for dinner later, and to try out their new ABBA Singstar! Awesome!

So, Christmas and New Year! Stories will have to wait until I have more time to time, but here are a few photos from our trip - we were there for 11 days, so we covered alot of ground.

First, here are the YUM cupcakes I made for people at work before I left - they went down really well!
Christmas day was busy, jumping from Church to lunch with Mum's side (which was SO good, thanks Aunty Glen! Mwah!) followed by afternoon tea with Aunty Lorna, then dinner with Dad's cousins! So busy that I didn't really get my camera out to get any decent photos. But here is a photo of my Dad's side of the family on Boxing day, when we had our Christmas:
After more family visits, we went into town for a bit of shopping and New Years Eve - it was totally packed, it took about 45 minutes to walk across the bridge back into town to catch the tram back to the hotel, but it was lots of fun! This is my favourite photo of the fireworks:Now for the knitting! These are the WIP pics I promised before I left. 1 - Talia vest, 2 - Ribbon x-back top, 3 - Garter yoke baby cardi (Ravelry link)

And finally, last but definately not least - the Christmas presents for the babies! They have finally been handed over, and so now I can show you. Unfortunately it was too warm on Boxing day to get a photo of them wearing them, but i'm planning to get pictures when the weather turns a little cooler (hint hint, Aunty Ali!)

Ok! I think i'm all paid up in the photo department! Now to get some sleep before dinner...

Happy knitting!