vanessarama

You guys, you guys, today I had a Revelation! I baked something. I did it with yeast and the yeast turned into dough and it rose and I punched it and kneaded it and made something awesome. This was my first (successful) time baking with live yeast. OH MY WORD. It's amazing. The dough comes together into a lovely squishy ball! It feels so strangely smooth and pliant under my hands! It makes the kitchen smell heavenly!

For those who are interested, this is the recipe: Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bread. Highly recommended. I think when I next make it, I'll use less sugar than she suggests; it was so sticky and gooey and cinnamony, I nearly overdosed, which is a feat considering I only ate about a quarter of it.

Now I am planning to make a savoury version with cheese. OM NOM NOM. Baking! With yeast! I recommend it!

I also finished blocking a shawl. Again, YOU GUYS. It is black cashmere. It is massive - 7 feet in wingspan, easily, and the bottom panel hits my bum. It is done in the Faroese style, meaning it's shaped so it stays on my shoulders. Here's a quick sneak preview of it blocking:



Tomorrow is a day I am not looking forward to. I have a lot to do; I have to give two workshops this week, and my sidekick/second-in-command is also going to be in. She is only in one day a week and it's hard work; she's so gung-ho and she works really hard and has so many ideas, that I find myself a bit whirled around while she's in. Still, she is smart and funny and worth her weight in gold. Or in cinnamon sugar bread.

Also, I liked this week's (UK) Doctor Who. Phew!

On the one hand, I am excited because of all the utter Merlin cast gorgeousness coming out of the Kapow! con today.

On the other hand, I am a bit grumpy because I have to fly to Sydney tonight (on a Sunday! How stupid was I when I organised that?) to give a workshop tomorrow.

And on the third hand, I am accomplished because knitting progressed well. This weekend was all about HATS. ( I wish I had one of those glass head things so I didn't need to use myself as a model. )

Hello internets! *squish* I have returned from Alice Springs. My workshop went very well, and I really liked the woman who organised it. I did not like the hotel, which kept me waiting 90 minutes for my room to be ready (I would understand if it was in the morning, but it was 4 PM and rooms should be cleaned by that time of the day). The food was good, however; om nom nom barramundi and I treated myself to a Mojito.

And sadly, there is no water in the Todd. Apparently there was a lot about a week ago but it's all gone now. Alice is surprisingly green at the moment though. They've had a lot of rain. They also have a mouse plague - someone told me their cat is catching 3-4 mice a DAY. Cyclones, floods, locusts, mice - it really is the apocalypse.

Anyway, here's a pretty thing I finished lately:



Pattern: Dover Castle (Ravelry link)
Yarn: Starry by Dream in Color, colourway: Plum Paisley
Model: Lilies in the backyard

( and a few more photos, because I can )

The white hot rage of last night has ( TIM ) I mean, honestly. This is why I normally supress my anger - it's so all-encompassing that it Does Things To Me. It was seeing other people's difficulties in getting this "service" switched off, plus finding out that this company rips people off all over the western world, That Done It. (Google "airg unsolicited charges" - it's interesting)

So, in the interests of determining to be less negative, here's a list of Good Things.

1. Knitting. I began a sock on Sunday night and finished it yesterday on the train. I knitted half the foot of a second one last night under the influence of White Hot Rage. Turns out it's a good and productive channel for anger. It's just as well, because I may have gone slightly crazy with US yarn purchases when the dollar began dancing with parity. Especially with this, which is beautiful yarn and only $12.95 and free worldwide shipping. I mean, come on! I also have a couple of shawls on the go including a beautiful silk/wool one.

2. Speaking of parity, I also went to Fyrinnae, which I believe anneheart put me onto. I love love love sparkly and coloured eyeshadow but I don't wear them often (y'know, professional image and all that). The great thing about Fyrinnae is that you can buy tiny samplers of their colours, only 1/3 of a teaspoon but easily enough to last me forever. I've basically spent $30 and got a lifetime's worth of different shades. And free shipping worldwide over $20! And it's beautiful, beautiful stuff. Many of them are sparkly but some are neutral and subtle - today I'm wearing Atomic Afterglow which is a perfectly worksafe shade.

3. Sharing photos of Bradley James with Ben. Lots of fun. And speaking of cute boys, a_shot_of_colin continues to be my go-to happy place during the day when things are getting rough.

4. I continue to adore Merlin and have so many fic ideas that I can't decide which one to do first. Although I need to finish the giant KMM WIP first.

I'm going to the doctor today, to get my cough checked out. Poor Rohan is being very patient but being woken up half a dozen times a night is undoubtedly getting on his nerves. It's certainly getting on mine!

ETA: A very helpful Telstra guy who posts to Whirlpool.net offered to sort my problem. I called AirG on his suggestion and said that I did not agree to the subscription, had done nothing to be subscribed, would not pay the charges and want them reversed on my account. He assured me that would be done. The Telstra guy on Whirlpool said to let him know if the charges aren't credited and he'll sort it out.

The AirG guy (obviously US based) didn't even seem surprised and didn't try to argue. I reckon they get this a lot, and they probably just figure it's worth their while when A) there are a lot of people who don't check their bill, and B) they get to use those people's money for at least a month or so.

Rohan has my cold now, poor baby. He came down with it on Friday, which was his birthday! I'm still coughing away like mad too. There has been much chicken soup made and drunk in this house over the past few days. But thanks to Ben, Lou and Adam, we had a lovely quiet Saturday night birthday get-together for Rohan. Ben even made yummy cake with butter icing!

This weekend I finished something, which is now blocking. This is Icarus:



It's made from remaindered pure cashmere from Colourmart and the pattern is by Miriam Felton (mimknits on Ravelry).

This is huge. The wingspan is over 6 feet. I know the spine is being blocked a bit crooked, but let's ignore that shall we? Look at the pretty closeup instead.



The first picture is more accurate, colourwise. It's a beautiful vivid blue.

I started this way back in... oooh... January? It seemed as if it would never end, and the rows just got longer and longer, so I would keep abandoning it for other things. I'm so glad I finally have it finished.

Crispness in the air. Scent of wood smoke. Trees shading to the red end of the spectrum. Wearing delicious cashmere and wool and silk handknits. Coming home to a warm home, a purring cat and knitting.

I love autumn so, so much.

( Herein my latest creations. )

The other evening, my train driver announced "We have now reached our cruising altitude of approximately 1.2 metres." People laughed. It was good :)

The Boss overheard me saying I am having trouble sleeping, and recommended a day off. I think I will do it, next week or the week after. I've had some low-level not-quite-rightness for a couple of weeks now, and I slept most of last Saturday, thinking I was coming down with something.

My flu shot barely hurt at all. Yayes!

It's getting colder, so naturally my thoughts are of knitting. I'm currently working on... let me see...

* Ishbel shawl in purple Wollmeise
* Clothilde shawl in Mini Maiden wool/silk in what are very unusual colours for me
* Noro Kureyon 'paintbox' blanket for the lounge (well, for the cat, mainly)
* Green cashmere hoodie (to take to the UK)
* 'Blue raspberry' socks (the yarn is dark red and blue with touches of white, looks like ice cream with blue and red syrups on it)
* Sock yarn leftover blanket (I need to use up more sock yarn on socks/shawls so I can get more leftovers!)

I wonder if I've taken too many projects on? :D

Some quick knitspam to show off my new blocking board and its crazy skills! My blocking board is a set of four interlocking foam mats more usually used for exercise.

This is Matilda, unblocked, sitting on said blocking board:


You can see she is all crumply and you can't see the pattern properly.

This is Matilda being blocked:



Now she's all nice and smooth and you can see the pattern! You will also notice she has become considerably larger in size. As you can see, I really need another set of mats because she's just a wee bit too big for them, but they'll do.

Pattern: Matilda by Kate Blackburn. Yarn: Fleece Artist Blue Face Leicester 2/8 in 'Aurora'.

Hail, flisties!

1. Yesterday I went out and bought an interlocking foam mat, the kind usually used for fitness purposes, for myself to use as a blocking board for knitting. It is HUGE. I got a pack of four which turn into a massive mat about six feet square - I can't imagine ever knitting anything bigger than that. I also got a digital kitchen scale so I can weigh all the various yarn remnants I have.

2. I've found the perfect shawl pattern for 'busy' variegated yarns. It's Matilda (scroll down) by Kate Blackburn. The nice big blocks of stocking stitch show off the colours well and the pattern is very easy.

3. Our Buffy/Angel marathon has just passed the most difficult hump in the road (The Body). It's still entirely devastating even though I've seen it many times before.

4. I'm writing another long long epic WIP on the Merlin kinkmeme and some people like it and I am BURSTING with smugness. BURSTING.

5. It is now less than six months before we go to the UK.

6. Sometimes it makes me happy just to know that Colin Morgan exists.

You guys, you guys. I am so happy with my latest creation. This is Aestlight:



( More knitting spam )