How cool are these!

Textile inspired ceramics from Madieke Fleuren via Bloesem

I cast on a new project.

I loved this pattern immediately, and it took only the slightest encouragement from a trusted judge of cute to make the purchase. I am using a butter soft alpaca in cream that was one of my favouritist yarns in all Japan, and I am not sure that I have quite enough. I do have a big long scarf in this yarn and one mitten, so if I do run out, it’s curtains for them. I love a good cream, but it is so hard to find one that is not too white, or yellowy or cheap looking.

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Well I got the mark back for the horrific essay I wrote last week, and it wasn’t bad at all. I worked myself into quite a state about it, I think I half expected to get a Z and be told to leave the university grounds immediately.  I also started my new job which is unexpectedly lovely, I have a holiday next week, and I got a big box of vintage New Zealand yarn in the mail today. Yay! All good news! I celebrated by weaving in the ends on these

A nice quick project, and a necessarily practical one. The mornings in our house are decidedly frosty, and I need to keep my wrists warm so I can keep those fingers typing! I am reading loads of Victorian pirate novels at the moment, I wanted to name them something piratical, so Mrs Silver it is.

I knitted them up in garter stitch rib, this is meant to be the “right” side, but I really prefer the other side.

They are a cosy mix of Noro something or other, and the Kaiapoi Glen Mist I scooped up a couple of weeks back.

I think it is Autumn. This is last of the blue hydrangeas, the rest have all rusted into tired purples.

Summer has seemed pretty darn endless thus far, and what with all the walking up steep hills and complete absence of air-con that Wellington affords, I am starting to tire of it. I am sure my chilblain stricken August self will look back at this and exclaim at my spoiled ignorance, but I do kinda like bad weather, and Autumn means the beginning of the Knitting Season! Ooh, my little Firefox weather add-on just changed it’s forecast to drizzle! I love a good drizzle.

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A finished item, thank the good lord.

So lovely to knit something quick and satisfying, a wise friend once told me that it is the yarn that makes a project fly, and I think that was the case here.

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We had a great time over Easter, eating hangi, swimming in clear blue seas and op shopping.  Here is but a small peek at the goodies I picked up over the break.

Very soon to be handwarmers, perhaps in Esther Bozak’s Mock Kilting Stitch 

I think legwarmers, but I don’t really know, I just love these colours together.

And a set of four of these plates.

We also got two candlewick bedspreads, a set of lampshades, a three piece suit, and cups full of buttons and lace and lovely bits. Thanks Sallies.

Another post this week and it is only Tuesday? Could it be that I have much more pressing things to do that I am trying desperately to avoid?

This is a jumper I finished around hanami 2006 (retro!).

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It has been a long time since I have had a good thorough procrastination, but now, being back at school and with deadlines pursuing me from every side, I finally have a chance, and knitting just makes the procrastination soooo easy. There is a FO in the house, which I have been wearing constantly and which shall be debuted once I can get some photos of it in action, in beautiful Avril Tweed, and the minute it was off the sticks I cast on for another Avril Tweed and cables combo.

This yarn is so special, I really wanted to make something that deserved to be knit out of it, but I also wanted to design something myself, so this will no doubt end up being ill fitting and mismatched, but that is the beauty of knitting I suppose, if you make something crappy you can rip it all out and start again.

*Also, I have updated my About page with a photo that better illustrates my geographical location.

I was unpacking (yes still!) a box the other day when this popped out at me.

The very first thing I knit after picking up knitting 6 long years ago.

(edited to remove gratuitous sentimentality)

Well, we are back.

Tokyo has already shrunk in my memory, kind of like an odd dream you have that you can only remember glimpses of. It is really nice to be home sometimes, but at other times, It is really hard. I don’t think I fully imagined how hard the reverse culture shock would be, it is all very confusing. There are the cuter parts of it that I anticipated, like listening in to other people’s conversations, and walking into a shop and knowing they will stock pants that I can pull up further than my knees, but other parts of it certainly are not cute or anticipated. The price hikes, the unsettling blend of familiarity and change, even the easiness of everything is oddly frustrating. Luckily, I love the house, and I love the town and I love my country.

The summer has been hot hot hot, and my sweaty fingers are drawn more to beer than knitting, but I do have a simple hoodie vest in luscious Avril Tweed on the go, the knitting for Agnes is done (though the news is not great, i think the fit is odd, whaddya know, it looks better on the flat chested model than the bountifully chested moi), and am knitting up a super cute, all-pink, hyper-femme Cisco for a gorgeous girl. Here is a scarf finished in Tokyo, it is far too long, but I love the colour, and I love the lacy crochet.

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