This week there has been a few battles and all of them I lost. My 'good citizen' involvement project turned sour with unreasonable demands from another person (messages sent at 6:22pm to my work email requesting things be sent that night), and at work I battled towards the summit of Mt Marking which included co-ordinating other staff and dealing with failed student(s), and there I felt like I lost as well. Now I'm not a difficult person, I'm pretty easy going, I communicate fairly clearly - but this week, there seemed a vast clouded valley of miscommunication between myself and some others - whats going on? I even offered to resign from one responsibility, but my offer was refused. I've got no idea what the others go home to but it can't be better than bear-hugs and knitting, so enough moaning about the world - on to the knitting.
So the knitting, I've twined some more, see? I'm probably half way up the thumb gusset and feeling quite proud of myself that the gusset is actually a reverse or mirror of the first mitten.
I was asked a few weeks ago via u-tube to provide a slower video of knitting crook or chain stitches continental style than the one I had posted. The requester said I knit beautifully and asked me to please not show off by knitting so fast, how could I refuse such a flattering request? With the broken Toby and other things it took a while, but finally here it is. I realise that I also need to post another video sometime soon showing how to twine with both yarns in the right hand whilst knitting crook stitches. To complete a twined surface pattern like the gusset line here - there is no way I'd switch the hand holding my yarns for only those three stitches.
And here is the BSJ bootie, from the Opinionated Knitter. The cast on edge is the top edge and the center back seam, and it has such a cute turned up pixie toe. The real effect of the clever miter shaping would be more clearly shown with stripes - and yes I'll do that once my BSJ is finished and I can use the left overs with no danger of running out of yarn. My BSJ is at the point I must put it aside and wait for the next class - 5 weeks away. There is a neckline modification and the hood to work as well, all of which are not in the original pattern.
and lastly - Feijoas! I spent my early childhood in Auckland, a far more sub-tropical place than Dunedin. In Auckland these (and all citrus) fruits grow everywhere, and I do mean every where. The bushes are used as hedges and drop fruit that is often left to rot on the ground - such is the abundance of supply. As a child we ate feijoa fresh, had stewed feijoa at breakfast, candied feijoa, fejoa cake, feijoa muffins, feijoa crumble, feijoa jelly and oh-my-gosh - the house and suburb would smell of Feijoa the whole season. Feijoa have a strong perfume, yes really - they do smell like perfume. In Dunedin - Feijoa are exotic imported fruits, with a price tag to match. When we moved here we were told Feijoa would not grow here, and we believed it, then I found a feijoa tree once years ago at a garden nursery. I bought it and found they do grow here. We have a single tree, we ignore it, we don't water or feed it, it lives in a corner of our back yard, hard up against a wooden fence, and it fruits every year. Not with the abandon of an Auckland tree, and the fruit may be a little more tart without the extra sun and warmth to sweeten it, but my tree fruits. This week we harvested the bulk of our Feijoa - and I'm loving it, they taste great and the house smells wonderfully fragrant.
Anyway - hope your week was more enjoyable than mine, and that there was something that made you smile the way feijoa's made me smile this week.
Stella
So the knitting, I've twined some more, see? I'm probably half way up the thumb gusset and feeling quite proud of myself that the gusset is actually a reverse or mirror of the first mitten.
I was asked a few weeks ago via u-tube to provide a slower video of knitting crook or chain stitches continental style than the one I had posted. The requester said I knit beautifully and asked me to please not show off by knitting so fast, how could I refuse such a flattering request? With the broken Toby and other things it took a while, but finally here it is. I realise that I also need to post another video sometime soon showing how to twine with both yarns in the right hand whilst knitting crook stitches. To complete a twined surface pattern like the gusset line here - there is no way I'd switch the hand holding my yarns for only those three stitches.
And here is the BSJ bootie, from the Opinionated Knitter. The cast on edge is the top edge and the center back seam, and it has such a cute turned up pixie toe. The real effect of the clever miter shaping would be more clearly shown with stripes - and yes I'll do that once my BSJ is finished and I can use the left overs with no danger of running out of yarn. My BSJ is at the point I must put it aside and wait for the next class - 5 weeks away. There is a neckline modification and the hood to work as well, all of which are not in the original pattern.
and lastly - Feijoas! I spent my early childhood in Auckland, a far more sub-tropical place than Dunedin. In Auckland these (and all citrus) fruits grow everywhere, and I do mean every where. The bushes are used as hedges and drop fruit that is often left to rot on the ground - such is the abundance of supply. As a child we ate feijoa fresh, had stewed feijoa at breakfast, candied feijoa, fejoa cake, feijoa muffins, feijoa crumble, feijoa jelly and oh-my-gosh - the house and suburb would smell of Feijoa the whole season. Feijoa have a strong perfume, yes really - they do smell like perfume. In Dunedin - Feijoa are exotic imported fruits, with a price tag to match. When we moved here we were told Feijoa would not grow here, and we believed it, then I found a feijoa tree once years ago at a garden nursery. I bought it and found they do grow here. We have a single tree, we ignore it, we don't water or feed it, it lives in a corner of our back yard, hard up against a wooden fence, and it fruits every year. Not with the abandon of an Auckland tree, and the fruit may be a little more tart without the extra sun and warmth to sweeten it, but my tree fruits. This week we harvested the bulk of our Feijoa - and I'm loving it, they taste great and the house smells wonderfully fragrant.
Anyway - hope your week was more enjoyable than mine, and that there was something that made you smile the way feijoa's made me smile this week.
Stella
3 comments:
I've never heard of those stitches, but then you can learn something new every day. Or maybe I just know them under a different name?
I'm sorry it's been one of those weeks! Sometimes it comes down like that, but it's no fun when it happens all at once. I hope that things start looking up on the work front soon.
On the knitting/home front, though, it all looks great! The mitts are gorgeous, and the feijoa look yummy. Are they related to guavas, do you know? They look like it, and the perfume part of things sounds very familiar...
The Journey up Mt Marking is truly arduous isn't it. You have my sympathies for that struggle and the other work issues. But you are right you have a wonderful environment to come home to AND tonight is knit night AND at Knit Night tonight you get your Sock Club package - yay for Thursday!
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