Please Mr Paramedic, dont accidentally kill me.

My experience in May this year alerted me to a previously undiagnosed allergy called anaphylaxis that I now have.  My allergy is to one component of the general anaesthetic most hospitals use to induce the state of unconsciousness required for surgery and to the antiseptic solution they swab your skin with when they're about to shove a needle into you.  The allergy I have is  the most dangerous type of anaphylaxis (of course...aren't I lucky?); the type that takes your blood pressure drop somewhere beyond terrifyingly low and has all the hospital staff wetting their panties 'cos they don't want to do the paperwork that confirms that they've accidentally killed you...permanently.  

Finding out about this allergy was a complete surprise to both me and the hospital staff but, luckily, I survived the experience and went on my merry way with the instructions to get myself a medic alert bracelet so I wouldn't have the same reaction again.  

So after my recovery, I ordered a medic alert medallion as instructed and I have been intending to build it into some kind of bracelet ever since I ordered it.  The beads for it that I ordered a little while ago arrived this morning and so this afternoon I finally got it built.  Here 'tis...my potentially life saving piece of beady goodness.

You too can have one of these fake pandora style, el cheapo looking, life saving, bead bracelets for only $60 (which is what it cost me to make the darn thing) :oS

I thought I should add that this bracelet only cost me so much because the medic alert medallion was over $35 plus postage, add to that $20 worth of beads and charms, plus postage and then the leather cord and little silver clamps and you can now understand why it cost me so much

I'm looking into making some pandora style bracelets with the metal snake chain style bracelet, which I'm sure will cost less to make than this monstrosity did.  If anyone is interested let me know and I'll make my research a bit more serious.

When the packaging department doesnt really think things through

Apparently

Ok, maybe its NOT that funny but clearly I was in a juvenile sort of mood when I took this :oP

Evolution of the (blog's) soul

I have been thinking lately about how I blog and the effects that has had on my audience, or lack there of. Generally I've stuck to just updating on what crafty things I've been playing with. Also up till now I've kept things pretty impersonal, and that, to be honest is due to my love of my privacy with a teensy bit of internet paranoia thrown in for extra flavour and this has left my blog with no soul. Lets be honest, its been pretty lifeless lately. And I'm not happy about this.

So the time has come to pique my readers interest. I want my blog to have a bit more of a crunchy granola experience for my readers as opposed to the bland vanilla yoghurt you're getting now. Consequently, I've decided that I'm going to expand my blogging somewhat, extrapolate on the mundane quality of my life if you will.

I'm not 100% sure how this is going to happen, and of course I still intend to guard my privacy, but I think I can stand to show people a little more of who I am, and how my life is evolving...or devolving, depending on how you hold your head. I'm planning to just play it by ear for the most part and see how it develops naturally.

So what has been happening since my last post?

Just over a week ago I moved out of my large comfortable and mostly inexpensive apartment. I didn't actually WANT to move out of my apartment, where I'd been comfortable for over three years. I just couldn't stand living next door to the petulant, immature, insane cow living in the apartment next door any longer.

I know that sounds a bit harsh and judgemental but we're talking about the kind of person who, when told by their brother to turn their stereo down at midnight, during the week, cries and pouts and screams 'this is bullshit', then stomps around slamming doors loudly like a teenager (she's 32 by the way) having a tanty because they got grounded, then two weeks later when my friends two year old daughter has the audacity to squeal in my living room during the day (as two year old girl children are wont to do), turns their stereo up so loud (doesn't take a genius to figure out that it was some supposed to make some kind of point) that the air starts buzzing and my friends promptly leave (and never came back incidentally).

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm no killjoy, I like my music loud too when it's appropriate, and I never once asked her to turn it off, just down. I only asked twice and I stopped asking after the second stream of verbal abuse. Also, I'm not against the idea of having a quiet gathering with friends to just kick back and have some fun, but when its 4:30 in the morning and you and your friends are yelling at the top of your lungs and there is domestic violence afoot that can be clearly heard in the apartment next door I'd say that's a clear indication that things have gotten a wee bit out of hand. Anyone with half a brain knows that when you're living in a place that clearly has paper thin walls you behave like an adult and have some consideration for your neighbours. Am I right?

So anyhoo, now all my furniture is in storage and I'm 'doing it rough' as my partner likes to call it. We're sleeping on a mattress on the floor of his, admittedly very large, office for the short term with plans to turn it into a bedsit. This shouldn't be an issue as he has his own business and no one else uses the building. I have a roof over my head, a kitchenette, a toilet, somewhere to shower and somewhere to store my spinning wheel and fibre stash so I'm content for the time being. My partner and I are seeing it as a great opportunity to save money for a deposit on our own house. The best thing is, I'm no longer so stressed out from living at crazy bitch central that I cant sleep.

Merino/Soy - Nplied yarn
Pretty Bird - 340m

Speaking of my spinning wheel and fibre stash, I have actually had some time to do some spinning since I moved and I've managed to make some incredibly brightly coloured yarn. I'm not sure I love it as its just a wee bit too multi coloured for my liking, but who knows, the colours might pool nicely when its knitted up.

The navajo plying turned out
quite well if I do say so myself :oP

I have been working on my cap shawl a wee bit, and I think I have maybe two or three repeats left to go on the border before its actually finished.  I'm going to do some work on that this afternoon but its probably going to have to wait to be blocked because I want to get some blocking wires before I even attempt that part of the process.  Having said that, I cant wait to get it finished finally.  Its only been over a year since my first attempt at the darn thing (this being my third attempt) and I started this one in May 2010 so its still taken me a while to knit it.  I have no idea what I'm going to do with it once it is finished though, as I just don't go anywhere that would be appropriate for wearing it.  I guess I'll just put it in my wardrobe and let it sit there till I figure out what to do with it.

Well thats it for today's post.  I hope some of you at least will find my new posting style more entertaining, if nothing else.  Feedback is always welcome so please fee free to leave comments or suggestions for making the site more interesting (so long as its not pornographic :oP).

Catch you all on the flip side.

1000 metres and counting...

As some of you may already know, I began spinning in early November last year.  The 11th to be exact, so I will be celebrating my one year anniversary as a spinner in five short days.  

What most of you DONT know however, is that I originally learned to spin so I could spin my own lace weight yarn...you know, to furnish my then new addiction: knitted lace. 

It has since been my goal to spin 1000m of yarn from 100g of fibre.  Today I finished skeining my first genuine attempt at achieving my goal and guess what? Here she is;  1060.5m of 2ply lace weight (merino/tussah) yarn weighing 105g.  

Merino/Tussah Silk (80/20 blend) from EGMTK (Blue Haze)

Shiny! Smooshy! So much yarn...YAY!

An Aussie 5c coin for perspective (around the same size as a US penny)

What an AWESOME way to celebrate one year of spinning!

But I've been busy...honest!

Warning: image heavy post

Warning: some images may offend sensitive viewers.

Once again, I've been slack.   I have been very busy though so I have a legitimate excuse this time....watch, I'll show you...now, lets see...where to begin...

I signed up for a few swaps on Ravelry in the past month or so.  The first one was the 'I cant do that' swap.  The idea of the swap was that you got to ask your swap partner for something you don't have either the skill or time/space to do yourself.  I don't have a sewing machine and I don't quilt so my request was for a quilted item.  My swap partner sent me a gorgeous quilted bag including a needle holder, an abacus style row counter and a thimble pip (which currently houses my teensy tallywhacker stitch markers...more on them later).  My swap partner requested a braid of hand dyed fibre so in return for the bag I sent her a big (120g) braid of fibre (that I had  hand dyed) but I sneakily included a little (25g) baggie of white pure angora rabbit top, six hand made silk flowers and some hand made stitch markers.  This was my first swap so I was pretty happy with how it turned out.

I've been busily making a mass of fimo things, mostly stitch markers of one type or another. and for some reason I've had this thing with miniatures...miniature food, miniature penises...that kind of stuff.  I've already sold three sets of the teensy tallywhackers...who'd have thunk that there were other knitters out there with a naughty sense of humour? ;o)

Minature Hot dog stitch markers

Miniature cake slice stitch markers

Teensy Tallywhackers en masse

I've also recently been stash diving...into other peoples destashes that is.  I picked up a couple of gorgeous  skeins of Italian lace weight yarn (which I'm ITCHING to start knitting up) for a very reasonable price.  They're 100g per skein but have 1400m in each...that's a whole lotta lace I see in my future.  I also scored a 100g skein of pure silk yarn in the most gorgeous magenta shade which, when I first received it, I thought was only 1ply because it is so fine.  But its definitely 2ply and I'm sure is begging me to become a pretty shawl or something else delicate and wearable. I also got my mitts on a big 200g cone of Bendigo Woolen Mills 2ply wool in a dark blue to go with the three others of the same colour in my stash.  I have 4 cones in this colour now, that's 4720mtrs and I have NO idea what I'm going to do with it, but on the up side, my best friend has a knitting machine that should make short work of it.

Filatura Di Crosa extra fine merino yarn
x 2 @ 1400m each (phew!)

1084m of pure mulberry silk lace weight

1180mtrs of commercial 2ply wool

I decided to buy myself some knit picks (knit pro in AU) symphonie interchangeable needles to see what all the fuss was about and I  have to say I'm very glad that I did.

Yay! Knit Pro interchangeables.

I snaffled some yummy fibres from the lovely Mandie over at Ewe Give Me The Knits...she's such an evil fibrey temptress that Mandie, you really have to watch out for her ;o)

 

 

Since I was snaffling EGMTK fibre I thought it only fair to share the love with my favourite bunneh lady so I grabbed two 100g braids of my favourite blend; twinkle bunny which is Merino Angora & Tencel (70/10/20%).  If I can spin it fine enough, it'll definitely be enough to make something purdy.  This blend is SUPER soft and so lush, its almost a crime to spin it up.

Ixchelbunny twinklebunny fibre in 'dollhouse'

I managed to get involved in (read: over commit myself to) three more swaps on Ravelry.  One of which is a crochet lace bag for a lady who is making me a needle bag in exchange. One of the other two swaps was an ABC swap where I had to find 5 items, one for each of the letters V W X Y Z to send to a swap partner in secret.  I cant post a pic of that because, although I sent her parcel on Monday and its actually scheduled for delivery today, she hasn't actually received it yet. and it was supposed to be a surprise.  The other swap item is a lovely lace shrug I'm knitting, but I've only just cast on so there's no pic yet.  Here is the only pic I can show you so far...the crochet bag.

 

So far so good

I've been spinning rather madly to get finished on some spinning projects that I've had in various stages of completion for months now.  So far, I finished spinning up a massive batch of merino/silk/angelina that I'd specially blended up to make myself something sparkly for evening wear.  I have 2 huge 140g skeins of the stuff now.  Don't ask me the meterage because I haven't actually counted it out yet but because its 25WPI I think it should be somewhere around 1400mtrs.  Also, I'm still in the middle of a lace spin which might actually come close to reaching my ultimate goal (1000mtrs from 100g).  Its slow going though, but I've been assured this is normal for true lace weight hand spun yarn.  The last spin project I have going is 100g of pure merino which I hand dyed using food colouring.  It's looking to be about sock weight and I'm hoping to finish it tonight.

Purdy sparkly yarn...I'm calling it Nebula

Half my lace spin.

50g of pure merino, hand dyed by moi.

I joined an Ixchelbunny fibre club once again and have received my first installment.  A lovely braid of BFL/Bunny called Early Bird.  I also was lucky enough to win a competition that Charly was running in September and received the gorgeous skein of yarn below as my prize.  Its 100g of hand dyed yak/bunny/merino sock weight yarn, it is smooshily soft and, of course, in my favourite colours.  Charly knows me so well :oD  I was TOTALLY surprised to win her comp but also totally squeee'd for about half an hour after I found out.  Who me? Excitable? Hell yeh!

 

Early Bird Ixchelbunny fibre club #7.1

500m of hand dyed Yak/Bunny/Merino

And finally...last night I finished the shrug I've been building for my friend Misha.  Its made from 100% hand spun yarn (all by me) most of which is from Ixchelbunny club fibre with about 5% EGMTK fibre thrown in for good measure.  It's turned out really bright and super soft.  I think it will keep my friend very warm next winter.  The good news is, her birthday is coming up and even though she knows she is getting this, it will make a nice addition to her other birthday pressie ;o)

The hand spun rainbow shrug
for my good friend Misha

See? I have a great excuse for not keeping my blog posts as regular as I should...I've been SUPER busy.  At least, that's my story, and I'm stickin' to it. :oP