I should take more photos…

I know, I should take more photos of my knitting and dyeing and everything. I’ve been keeping busy. Apart from dyeing lots of yarn  (see yarn gallery and Etsy store), I’ve finished a couple of scarves, including a rainbow crochet scarf. I was going to list it in the store, but the boy claimed ownership before I got around to it. :-) Plus I’ve tie-dyed a couple of t-shirts for myself and may just do some more – because it’s fun. :-)

I’m a bit disappointed with my latest lot of Gaywool dyes – I ordered Lavender, hoping it would be distinctly different from Hibiscus, which I already had and which is sort of a light purple, leaning towards pink. I wanted more of a lilac with a hint of light blue. But they’re almost exactly the same. Ditto with another new shade of Gaywool I ordered – turned out to be just a tad darker than one I’ve already got, despite looking very different on the colour chart. Oh well. Live and learn.

I’m in love with Cushings dyes though – not only is their range huge (which I’ve probably already mentioned), but they’re also very economical.  You only need a tiny sprinkle of dye powder to make up an intense shade of dye. And because they come in such small sachets, it doesn’t cost much to order them from the US, thus making it cheap to try out new shades. I’ve got 7 shades of brown waiting to be tested – now I’m just sweating on my latest lot of sock yarn to get here from Germany (story of my life, isn’t it – I always seem to waiting on some yarn!).

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Girl-dyed yarn!

These are some mini skeins of sock yarn (about 15g each) that the girl dyed. I think she did a great job.

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Blog recommendation

This is a blog I visit from time to time. I am in awe of what this lady does with her food! Check it out:

Anna The Reds Bento Factory

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In a spin

There’s a book about spinning waiting for me at the post office, to be picked up after 2pm. :D I got it on eBay the other day, it had a few minutes left and no bids, so I decided to go for it and won it.

I have some lovely roving (? I think that’s the correct word?) from the Ewe Beaut Fibre Sampler, and then I still need to get a spindle, but that shouldn’t be difficult. And once I get the hang of it (or is that IF?), I’ll have a new yarny hobby. :D

I guess thet title also applies to the rest of my life. There’s a LOT going on right now. I suppose you could call it a major crisis. But that’s about as much as I’m willing to say about it in a public space.

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Look who’s got a new favourite spot

He sat there for a very long time yesterday afternoon, his beak practically glued to the window, watching the world go by. He was there for an hour or more… a very long time to sit still for a normally very active budgie, either way.

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Dyesaster :-(

I can’t complain, I haven’t really had any major dyeing disasters so far… but tonight I managed to ruin a skein of sock yarn, due to sheer stupidity/carelessness on my part (note: when dyeing yarn, it is NOT necessary to set it on fire!). I could possibly salvage some of it, but can’t be bothered with the whole tangly mess, so it’s going to be my first complete write-off. *sobs*

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Chocolate…

There is a lot I *could* write about… I had a great weekend… but what I *am* going to write about is chocolate. Mmmmh, chocolate!

Amongst other things, Jess and I got to visit the Lindt Café in Darling Harbour yesterday. OMG, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven!!! As I was saying to Jess, if I tell them about this in Switzerland, they probably won’t believe me. Especially the bit about all the different Lindor balls… I had a few I’d never come across before… the peanut butter one was my favourite! But I’m pretty sure you can’t actually get those in the land of Lindt (which I will be visiting later this year, mmmwahahahaha!).

Oh, what a place… chocolate… chocolate everywhere… As for the cakes, even though they looked heavenly (and probably were), I couldn’t justify spending $12 on a slice of cake, which is why I got a few Lindor balls instead and had them with my tea, while Jess had a very yummy looking hot chocolate (with a little jug of actual melted chocolate and a jug of hot milk, so she could mix them together).

We shall not discuss the amount of chocolate I purchased. But they had a good offer – buy two blocks, get the third one free. So that made it seem reasonably priced. Mmmh, chocolate. Probably my biggest vice, next to yarn. At least I managed to turn the yarn thing into a little business, but I can’t see that happening with chocolate. ;-)

It’s funny, every now and then Jess’s and my conversations seem to consist of only one word – yum! :D

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Uni rant…

It’s raining, it’s pouring, and I have to go out to the post office (the orders keep trickling in! Yay!), and to buy some eggs so I can do some baking with the girl because I’m sick of her nagging and there’s just no way around it, some baking needs to happen! Now! Today! Soon! Or else! Calamity!

Anyway, I just need to write and express my frustration about uni. The thing is, I was supposed to sit an exam tomorrow. They were going to advise us of the exam date (that took long enough, but it came through eventually), and find someone to do the exam supervision for us. Then I got an email from student services saying they couldn’t find anyone for me and to please find an invigilator myself. But they would also continue looking, and if they found someone for me before the exam, I would have to cancel any arrangements I had made. That’s bad enough, I have two problems with that – a) either you do commit to find someone for EVERY student and not burden some with the task but not others, and b) if you can’t find an invigilator by a certain date, you do at least let the student stick with any arrangements they’ve made and not force them to cancel if you find someone at the last minute.

Exam supervision has always been a tricky subject (the joys of studying externally!)… our local library used to do it and that was ideal. But apparently there was an “incident” with a student who abused the library staff when they were given the wrong exam. So that one person ruined it for all of us and council advised the librarians that they couldn’t do it for anyone anymore. Grrrrrrrrrrrreat.

Now you can’t just get anyone to supervise an exam – it has to be a professional of “high standing” such as a police officer, librarian, solicitor, JP, teacher, religious clergy, etc. – you get the idea. And you can’t be friends or relatives with them. And this exam is even more difficult because there is an oral component and they want to you to use a tape recorder to record that. Ancient technology! Who has a tape recorder anymore these days? And I refuse to buy one for this purpose alone, because I’d never use it again (do they even sell them anymore? I had a quick look at Big W the other day and couldn’t see any unless they were part of a stereo set-up with a CD player and speakers etc.).

Being who I am, I find it very stressful approaching complete strangers to ask about this, and most people have never heard of exams being sat this way and are then not very helpful anyway… don’t want to be involved, it sounds like too much trouble.

OK, so the uni eventually found a place for me to sit the exam… the only problem being, while the place isn’t too far away, it would have taken me over 5 hours to get there by public transport! I don’t hold that against them, they’re in a different state, there’s no way for them to know how inadequate public transport can be in these parts… and once I told them how hard it would be to get there, they didn’t insist.

And I have to, HAVE to be in Sydney tomorrow afternoon by 4pm. That’s non-negotiable, I have plans that I cannot cancel and that were made long before I was advised of the exam date.

So eventually student services at the uni said, sorry, we can’t help you, there’s nothing else we can do… contact your course co-ordinator and try to work out something with them. I did that, and haven’t heard back. Nothing. Nada. Nix. It’s now Thursday afternoon and the exam was supposed to be sat tomorrow morning.

They’d better figure out an alternative because this was a double unit and I have no intention of seeing 6 months of study go to waste because they can’t think of a better way to do exams. I think in future I’ll have to choose my units based on whether there’s a final exam requiring an invigilator or not. It’s such a load of rot. Probably alright if you live in a city and there are lots of libraries and unis and other places to choose from, but not here.

Gah, I’m so frustrated.

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Random stuff and cheese deprivation

  • I was in the post office today, getting a couple of orders ready. I always put the yarns in plastic zip-loc baggies before they go in the mailing bags, and so they were “on public display”, so to speak, until I was ready to put them in the mailing bags. A lady commented on them and said how nice they were. Judging by the questions she asked, she was a knitter. When I told her they were hand-dyed, she couldn’t believe it, and asked me how it was done. It’s always hard to answer that question in a few short sentences because there are so many different ways of doing it, even I use about 4-5 different methods, depending on what takes my fancy. Anyway, I gave her my card, and she gave me hers, and it turns out I know of her business through their ads on the local radio station. It’s a small world, truly.
  • Speaking of dyeing, we all know I love bright, bold colours and will probably never be the president of the Pastel Appreciation Society, but lately I have been dreaming up some more subtle colourways with greens, blues and browns… must invest in some brown dyes.
  • Also speaking of dyeing, I have at least 6kg of undyed yarn in the house right now, probably more. But… you guessed it, I want to order more. Now. It’s an obsession.
  • I’m just about ready to kill for a nice, smelly, tasty Swiss alp cheese.
  • Woolies used to sell ready-made Swiss cheese fondue, now they don’t. The boy and I had the last one a couple of days ago. Very sad. :-(
  • Ditto other Swiss cheese.
  • Ditto Tiger cheese, those little foil wrapped wedges sold in the round flat little boxes. Highly processed of course, but tasty. All you seem to be able to get now is La Vache Qui Rit.
  • And whatever happened to that nice creamy German cheese with walnuts in it? Can’t seem to find that anymore either. :-(

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Boo

Lots going on. Lots on my mind. But I don’t feel like writing in here at the moment.

I’ve finally finished restocking my shop. All the new yarns are in the yarn gallery, and in the shop of course, if you want to have a look.

Later, gaters… until my writing mojo returns, which may happen tomorrow, or may take a bit longer…

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Wow, that was quick!

I ordered some yarn from the UK on the 20th and it arrived this morning! Wow – 4 1/2 days… I don’t think anything from o/s has ever gotten here so quickly before. On the other hand, I’m still waiting on an order from Bendigo Woollen Mills that I placed on the 17th…

They sent a couple of extra skeins too, which is nice. It’s always good to get freebies. I look forward to trying the new yarn – it’s a wool/silk/bamboo blend.

I’ve been listing new yarns every day… the yarn gallery is up to date, and they are in my Etsy shop of course, if you want to have a peek. Still have to update the YC shop. So much to do, so little time. The girl’s been complaining that I’m working too hard. :-( Ah, mother guilt, where would I be without it?

Ah well, better keep at it. Toodles!

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Now that I’ve…

… purchased another 2kg of yarn and 6 more dyes (Cushings this time… their range is amazing!!!), I should be able to go and finally do that darn assignment.

I’m sure you’re sick of hearing about it. I’m even more sick of having it hang over my head. My uni fatigue is pretty bad. I can’t wait to have time off…

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Whale of a time

Ohhh, I haven’t written in here for over a week. I haven’t spent much time online at all. I have no idea how people manage to maintain blogs, online shops, Facebook accounts, Twitter accounts, reply to their emails and post in forums all the time. I just can’t keep up (and I’m not even on Facebook and Twitter – such a Luddite I am!). Time just flies. My days are busy and that darn uni assignment still hasn’t written itself!

Last weekend was a big one, had a whale of a time (Jess and I really did go on a whale watching cruise, amongst other things!). We’ve had some lovely weather recently, which has seen the girl and me spend time in the backyard, soaking up the warmth. It’s nice to do skeining out there, I’ve worn quite a path in the grass from going round and round…

Speaking of which, all the yarn I’ve dyed recently still needs to be re-skeined and photographed before I can list it. I have new dyes to try… and I got my very own Ewe Beaut Fibre Sampler today. So much yummy, fibery goodness! I really need to learn how to spin…!

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Oh noooooo, shock horror

I thought I had an uni assignment due at the end of this month. Just dug out my uni stuff to have a closer look at it and to my horror noticed the due date is the 14th – i.e. this coming Friday!

Eeeeep. Luckily they happily give you a 7-day extension, no questions asked. Am just about to put in that request. Phew. I have so many things on my mind at the moment, and a big weekend coming up, etc. – uni just doesn’t feature in my thoughts right now.

Bad Froggy, bad work ethic, naughty naughty, blah blah blah. ;-)

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On a roll

There are 20 skeins of yarn hanging around my place right now… all freshly dyed! :D

I’m currently feeling a bit yucky due to a near sleepless night (of which I have many), but I can already feel the dyeing bug biting again. Although I will have to do some skeining first…

It’s good to be busy. Stops me from thinking too much…

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