Winter!

I have certain reservations about autumn. The best one happened in 2010, it was sunny and warm and nice until around the half of November and then it started freezing and snowing and it was generally sunny, cold and snowy until around New year. The fogs and rotting leaves were entirely skipped. 2012 is doing its best, hopefully, as it was nice and sunny until around a week, then it was nasty and foggy but today, we had snow. Yes, some people elicited screams of Holy shit, it's October, no snow should be allowed. The coolest thing? I'm still on my summer dose of anti-depressants and I'm doing excellently well. Anyhow. The other day I went to the botanical garden and noticed a medlar tree. it took quite a bit of search for what to do with them and apparently, medlars have a bad rap. It's said that they're edible only when they're rotten but it's not true, they need to freeze first and then the meat turns brown and can be made into jelly of sorts. Well, the afternoon plan is to go and steal a few kilos of medlars (I hear that the quinces in the university botanical garden are plentiful but I have an insider friend so I'll ask him to bring some.) to see what comes from them. I've recently become more obsessed with food than ever. Since October 1, I'm a restaurant manager. It's cool and scary at the same time and fun stories will follow.

Uh-oh.

The old Blogspot interface existed for a while so I used that but it appears to be destroyed for ever. I'm repeating myself but the asshole who invented this new piece of crap should be tarred and feathered. To start with. (I know I'm repetitive and I'd link to my previous post but the new, exciting interface can't easily take me to a list of post. Find it thyself, sorry.) I'm calling my IT friend to do something. I don't mind blogger as such but if I'm writing this post and can't open the list of published posts in one click, I need to find things which are placed without any logic I would be able to discover and yeah, I hate icons. I can read, for Goodness (or is it Goodness'? In the current flood of grocers' apostrophes, one can't be sure anymore) sake, while I'm unfortunately not very well versed in Google's Picturese. I hear smart people work there, so why they expect that an user is an illiterate asshole who can't read things like New Post? Anyway, I'll stop this, I wanted to write something with actual content. The blog will be moved elsewhere, that's it.

Holiday

Which means that:

1. I can get up unreasonably early, drink coffee in bed and do nothing without anyone interfering and hinting not so subtly that instead of coffee and Terry Pratchett novel, I could do some cleaning.

2. I wear sari all the time. Office culture is jeans and hoodie which is fine but it gets boring. Hey, I get frowned upon when I wear a sensible skirt. Alright, sensible in my universe means heel length, pleats upon pleats and sturdy fabric because one should be able to run, jump over a railing and climb trees in their everyday clothes. I'm able to do this in a sari as well, for that matter.

3. I knit eight hours a day.

4. I bought a McDonalds menu for dinner because I was lazy to cook and too cheap to actually eat out.

5. I can do all the things. Today, I asked a gardener in public gardens for a hibiscus twig as I wanted a clone of that plant and played with a kitten, silly sounds included, in public.

6. Anyway.

Whatevs

After my 3 months course of Teach yourself eat healthy and lose some weight, my beer gut shrank and I gained around 4 kilos. I was working out and stuff and I generally grow muscle fast.

I got pissed, though. If normal shit doesn't work, one has to search for other options and I decided to wake my inner anorexic.

This week is dedicated to eating up leftovers, then, we will see.

Nowhere to ask...

On Sunday, I was doing a rough draft of a long-term budget.

There's the breast reduction surgery I want to get done at the end of December/beginning of January - some 1200 euros plus possibly a little bit more, gotta make detailed inquiry what the listed price includes so that I don't get the band-aids charged extra, especially since I'm somewhat allergic to latex and latex-free shit is more expensive than normal shit.

New camera is needed before the new botanizing season - at the end of February or so. 800 - 1000 euros. Well, not a camera, only the SLR body. I'm not using a soap bar for macrophotography regardless of people saying that the 20x whateverthefuck macro is better than my big honking macro lens, that I'm no fucking pro who would need a SLR, that the SLR is too heavy and impractical to drag around (O hai, dad). I have a small fortune in lenses (they are excellent lenses) and I'm definitly not using the prime examples of applied optics as paperweights. Hey, a few months ago, I got a 77mm polarising filter for better architecture and landscape pics (140-ish euros, FIY).

I will need some money for furniture, as sometime next year, I'll have a craft room and I totally want a hardwood floor there; the parquet under the carpet is reputedly awful.

And small things. One needs shoe polish or paper clips.

I worked hard and long on it, including a discovery that I have two bags of each cashmere and cashmere blend in my stash, plus a bag of black cashmere for that black cashmere sweater I desperately need, so I don't need to search internets for black cashmere blend yarn.

I included a serious weight loss into the savings because I never throw anything away and I have a shitload of undersize clothes.

I failed to decide to block my access to fleabay, mainly because there's a yarn I need for the other half of a sweater... and on Monday, I just browsed stuff. I collect old Lancôme' perfumes and I have always some money set aside for an offer that cannot be resisted.
Well, I was digging in the muddy depths of fleabay and discovered a thing I would love to own but have given all hopes long ago:



Image snatched from Fragrantica

The white doves in black! How excellent that would be among my small collection of objets d'art!

Now... Technically I can afford the thing. I have the money at hand. However, there's a financial crisis, it's a totally useless thing, I have umpteen hundreds of perfumes and I'm generally using only Iris Ukiyoé, a bookshelf would be much more practical, the savings for new boobage will be stalled by two or three months.

I can't decide. Being a magpie of epic proportions, I'll likely go for it but I'll feel awfully guilty.

Week in pictures

First, week in two pictures.
Second, week in yarn pictures.



I had several works in progress which were stalled due to lack of yarn or which would likely need more so I knitted the works in progress to become works in more progress. The plan was to make consolidated orders. And, well, I didn't resist getting a ball of this or two bags of that, totalling 50 skeins and 2700 g of yarn, of which I'm urgently needing, lemme count, 14-ish. Damn the ooh, shiny effect.

- Elaborate, puh-leeze.
- You asked for it.


Around a month ago, I was done with progressing and sat down to the internets.

I'm somewhat cheap to get the rather expensive Grassland Silk yarn (being somewhat anally retentive about my knitting, I'm 99% sure I'll get there after some trying, ripping, cussing and finally succumbing but hope springs eternal) so after some pondering, I got some Silk Garden Lite in colours that could work. I have the same colourway in Silk Garden and it could work. We'll see.
Aaaaand, while searching for the cheapest Silk Garden Lite in 272, I found some discounted Shiraito in one store. That's the two hanks, one in greens, one orange, purple and turquoise, on the top of the pile. One postage, you know, and now some more yarn of which I will run out sometime in the future.


The bluish sweater in the bottom left corner... well. The yarn was ripped, along with some other one, from a sweater that went under the name of Research Library Revisited. The yarns didn't work together and the laceweight is waiting for its five minutes of fame until I get some sturdier fine yarn to go with it. Or some such. I was left with what I thought were two butchered skeins of Taiyo Sock so I ordered three more in blues plus one more in pinks and greens because I liked the colours.
When checking my pattern notes, I found out that it was actually three skeins of Taiyo Sock so there's a chance that I run out of it again but that will be solved later. However, I did some staring, then checked meterage (that's yardage for metric people, folks) and found out that one skein of 100 g of Taiyo Sock is 420 m while one 150 g ball of Schoppel's Zauberball is 422 m - and it looks thicker. The pink and green colourway is called Durch die Blume and I just fell in love with it. It looks somewhat weird when knitted. Too striped or some such. So I put my four balls aside to ponder the options and the next step is sampling these two together. Durch die Blume doubled... or total mess. I'll keep you informed. However, in near future, I'll be running out of the pink and green Taiyo Sock.
When getting the Taiyo Sock, I threw in a ball of Ayatori, that's the pale green thing on the right bottom of the central pic and I immediately fell in love. I'll be getting bagfuls when the sales hit, I'm telling you.


Then there was the green sweater. I needed preferably some Noro Silk Garden Sock in colourway 322 which was meantime discontinued, which lead to a hunt for yarn in suitable colours and I snatched some Kureyon Sock which should work after debrownification. And while getting it from Janette's Rare Yarns, I threw in some Rowan wool just to see how it looks like (the orange and pink ball. I could've lived without, goes to the gift knitting box).
In fact, the second yarn was Flower Bed at the beginning but the colourway 1208 was discontinued but while writing this post, I spent a few hours with uncle Google and discovered a shop that still stocks it for quite a reasonable price. I'll try the Kureyon first because I already got it.


The Birthday Sweater was meant for my birthday... in winter and I actually did run out of yarn as predicted. I obviously sat to the internetz only to find that Steppe is likely discontinued, on sale in most places and my colourway is available in only one shop that ships worldwide. I made my order, threw in some other colours which were half price... and in a few days, I got an apologetic email that my colour is out of stock. I didn't cancel the whole order, just changed it to stuff they had. The other online store shipped only to France but hey, I have buddies everywhere so I arranged a layover for the yarn in Paris... and the yarn store had Perenne, a wonderful wool and linen mix for half-price so I got a sweater and half worth, just in case.

Due to my slowly healing tendonitis or wtf, I put my tiny knitting aside as bulkier yarns and thicker needles are easier on my hand and within a few days, the birthday sweater should be finished. And I have some samples and design ideas. Expect more woolwashing.

For those who are not exactly knitting aficionados or don't know me from Ravelry: unless specified, all the yarns are by Eisaku Noro.
Shit about plants and perfumes will appear as well. When I get in the mood.

Productive

I did some major decluttering.
The details are not actually important but I went through my tiny closet and various nooks and crannies which were stuffed with things.

Things were pulled out - admittedly, good part of it was yarn - and packed in storage boxes which will go to the attic just after I clean up the attic, which requires me to get a protective mask because it's dusty there and I'm allergic to dust, badly so.

Two of the boxes were labelled STBDW, or Shit to be dealt with (the more genteel persons may substitute shit with stuff, should they wish so). Including clothes and shoes to be altered or repaired, fabrics to wash and iron and an unreasonable amount of knitting

When I was in a cleaning rage, some of the shit was dealt with immediately.


My early knitting history is rife with mistakes and just crappy technique. I found one spit splice in this sweater but there were knots. Big honking knots, one is visible in the middle of the picture.
The yarns are... well, the orange thing is silk, mohair, copper wire and metallized polyester. It was not exactly cheap and it's not exactly awful but it's OMG heavy and totaly not my colours. I was studip back then, I admit it freely. The taupe stuff is a wool blend by Gedifra, printed with some golden stuff that sheds terribly. It's been ripped and re-ripped and golden dust was everywhere. It's pretty, though, and I sort of regret of not getting more of it, preferably in a more definable colour than brown-gray, when it was still available. The red fuzzy ball is Diadrey by Diakeito and I have no complaints, I actually love it.
So, well, 700 g of beautiful but sort of useless yarn. Will exchange for something else, thankyouverymuch.



The fourth yarn is Noro's Transitions, I ripped the remains of a sweater I worked on some two years ago. I never brought it to an agreeable end due to a few design flaws and general suckitude.

...

I did some serious stash diving. The STBDW boxes contain matching skeins of yarns to sample. I actually made one sample already.

Noro Nobori, colourway 20, I think, and my handspun. I don't know what to make of it yet but I'm certain about one thing. Nobori knits like heaven.