Tea Cozies

Good grief its been a busy 2 months. I've been on prac for 4 weeks, and I did 2 weeks in ICU (Awesome and fun and I loved it!) and then I did 2 weeks at a psychiatric hospital in a locked ward (Stressful and different and I felt out of my depth) But, I liked both of them. I learnt a lot and I feel like I've settled back into real life with bad grace. I miss the fun and busyness of prac!

My crafternoon and I are very excited, because we've just launched out Etsy shop! We're the Cyborg Goats Crafternoon Society,  and while we're currently very new, hopefully people will flock to our page as soon as some other people put up items :)

This is my first scrapbooking project, we'll see how it goes

Apparently I can't rotate images?

Obviously, a 21st is coming up

In crafting news, I've been knitting away on a few projects, as well as scrapbooking for the first time ever.

This hideous beast is Grannie's traditional tea cozy, in what is possibly the worst colour scheme I've seen in awhile. The lighting and shittiness of my camera don't do justice to the brightness of the green. Unfortunately, its a commission piece. My boyfriend's mother asked me to make it for a friend of hers, and I can't discuss the colour with her, because she jetted off to the UK the day after giving me the project. I'm watching the fabric grow, and its not getting better. I knew as soon as I started that it wasn't going to work, and I would normally have abandoned it there and struck out for more tasteful choices, but I must power through.

And this little jumper here is Diplodocus, a dear little jumper for the lovely Oscar, who's 1st birthday is just around the corner!

I'm working in Loyal, 100% Wool superwash, which I must say is making it EVEN HARDER to work on the ghastly monstrosity above.
While it is still very bright and a little hard on the eyes, it is vastly better than the tea cozy, which is strange considering that they're essentially the same colour scheme.

Who knows. Its coming along quickly, thought I may have to use a back-up present on the actual day.

His Mummy is coming back to work next week, which is very exciting for those of us who've missed her around the shop. It should also help with a bit of the grumpy thats been happening at work recently.

In other birthday news, I turn 21 on June the 8th, which is exciting and stressful all at once! The idea of having to be a responsible adult is not a happy one, but hopefully nobody will make me stop skipping and watching cartoons.

I'm having a party, which is themed NANNAGGEDDON. Can't wait! I'm sure there will be a lot of crochet, and I will definately post some photos of the final decor :)

Baby Jumpers and Easter Stuffs

A wee little babby sweater is off the needles and in a package to Sweden.

Can you see just in there, those little ends poking out?

It actually did have buttons and blocking, but a photo was missed...

ALL of those ends? Everywhere? This is what I get for doing stripes. WHY did I do stripes!?

It was actually a bit of a blessing, because as it turns out with my dodgy dodgy wrists, I started developing carpal tunnel syndrome. So, I couldn't knit for a couple of days. OH MY GOD I COULDN'T KNIT FOR DAYS. DAYS!!! Luckily, I can knit again, otherwise there may have been a stabbing...

But, the weaving in ends wasn't painful and meant I had something to keep me occupied. But, it got very tiring towards the end there.

In other news, Easter is coming!! While Easter isn't usually at all exciting in my mind, and the religious significance means nothing to me, it marks my 3rd anniversary at Oxfam. I started Oxfam when I was 17, not long out of high school, as a Volunteer. I started getting paid that Christmas.

I love it there, everyone there is lovely and its a nice job that I actually enjoy doing. But, recently there have been a lot of changes. And its getting harder and harder to deal with these changes. And more and more, the fact that I'm still only 20 makes it worse. In a workplace where the next youngest is more than twice your age, age discrimination is a very real thing. Usually age discrimination is about the elderly, and making assumptions of deafness, lack of tech knowledge or senility.

But, this is my first time being on the receiving end of discrimination. As a middle class white girl, its not something that happens frequently. I've lived a privelaged life, and while being female isn't always the best chance for opportunity, never before has something so out of my control caused so much of a barrier to me. And I have the benefit of knowing that with time it will go away. That it is temporary. I can only imagine what it must be like for those who suffer this sort of discrimination all their lives. And who know that its not going to go away, that it will continue to affect every aspect of their work and personal life.

And, close to international women's day, I just want to say think about how you'd feel in their shoes before you discriminate. For anything. Nothing about a person is skin deep. And nothing can be judged from what you see on the outside.

Infographics

This here is a little post to mention the joy of the 4 millionth person joining Ravelry. I joined because I was new and didn't know what I wanted to knit and needed patterns. Some join because they want to meet people, and some need a place to keep track of what it is that they're knitting.

I realised today that the best thing about Ravelry is the Inforgraphics. Who doesn't love some nice graphs and pictures with statistics on the side? Personally, stats are pretty awesome.

On another note, I really dislike weaving in ends. Its ok if you've just got the one or two, but goodness do I regret doing stripes right now...

Multiplication

I think every crafter I know has that one pattern. That one pattern that they never seem to make, but always have. Or that one project that you always seem to be working on and there just seems to be one around the house. Well, mine are baby bear hats.
And I've gone CRAZY with these. Not to mention how many people have been requesting them...

On the left is a large size for a very large baby, made for my Dad to give to a friend of his.

And on the right, the normal newborn size that I make.

I must admit that I started with a patter from Fibre Flux, which I wasn't happy with. So, I got creative.

I cast on 48sts, worked 4 rows of single rib and started knitting in garter stitch for as long as looked about right. I decreased in the way that seemed about right, and pulled the remaining stitches into a crown.

For the ears, I cast on 6, worked 2 rows and decreased at the sides until they were about the right height and roughly 4 sts across.

In the larger size, I cast on 56, and did the same thing until it looked right. And for the ears, I cast on 10 and decreased to 6.

All in all, super simple. Super cute. And very easy!

Christmas Trauma

I love Christmas. I absolutely adore Christmas. But every year, I make Christmas happen. I do gifts for my cousins and their kids and my uncles and all the family friends. I do the decorating. I do most of the cooking. And I know a lot of my family don't care about Christmas, my sister in particular thinks its a waste of money. But, to teenagers and the young kids, Christmas matters. It matters to me, and it matters to my Mother.

Its not an excuse, but I've been very busy in the lead up to it all. Add to that my unfortunate sojourn to hospital for suspected appendicitis, the end of uni, and the very very busy lead up to Christmas at work, and the blog has somewhat fallen by the wayside. But, let me entertain you with images of everything I've been doing these past few months :)

The good news is that Trellis is done, dusted, gifted and soon to be worn! It was a gift for the lovely Oscar, which will likely be his outfit for the Swiss alps, where he travels with his parents next week. After finishing Trellis, I still had a lot of yarn left. So, I designed and made a matching hat for him. When I STILL had excess yarn, there was nothing for it but a pair of booties.

I failed miserably at finishing my Dad's socks, they were never going to be dome in time. However, My mother got a CBBK, or as I believe its called Kudzu. I made it in black Cascade 220, heathers. A lovely souvenir from the UK. And my sister got the pair of Hot Gams legwarmers, in a grey acrylic I had in my stash. And the boyfriend got a pair of space invader mitts.

Hospital Visits

I've been a bit quiet recently. Because I've been in hospital. WOO!!

I didn't pack my camera unfortunately, so some super dodgy webcam photos are all I can provide today :( I wasn't quite sure how to demonstrate being in a hospital, so an IV pump is the way to go I think.
I've been knitting away on the little Trellis jumper, and I've only got a collar, a sleeve and half a front to go. I'm just plodding away, but I must admit that sleep has been considered a priority for me in this case.

Awhile ago I knitted this cowl, done in panda rustica that I bought about 7 balls for $5 from my local good sammy's. I cast on about 20 on some quite large needles and then just knit until it looked about right. I lent it to a friend one night about 6 months ago, and never got it back... So now I'm going to knit her one and ask kindly to get my original back... Its the same yarn that I've been using to make Baby Bear Hat. I shuffled the pattern a bit to my liking. However, I'm now running quite short on this yarn. I've done 4 little hats and the infinity scarf, so do I have enough for another infinity scarf? If not, it may be a serious struggle to find some more to match...

The importance of long hair.

Despite the fact that I often knit my hair into jumpers and the like, I usually have no problem with having long hair scudding around. Today I found another use for it. When up in a bun, it makes a very useful cable needle storing area. I constantly lose CNs, and knitting on the train or couch makes it difficult to keep track. Solution, stick them in my hair!

Another awful phone picture of trellis, my camera is having a grump at me :( But, I've got a back and most of the left front. Moving quickly, its a really fun knit :) I do love cables :D

We've also got another lovely pic of oscar, wearing a devil's cap, from teewee wonders. His mummy thinks he looks like he's got an eggplant on his head.

Rainy Days

Its been pouring down with rain for a little while now, which has been doing my garden a great deal of good! Everything is in pots, because unfortunately we only have a very small area thats flat enough to put anything on.

 But, I have a plan for raised planters, which will be full of delicious vegies :) For a start, I've learned that carrots don't go well in pots. There's not enough depth for them to really grow sadly :(





 

And we've got some snowpeas coming up, but they're not likely to do super well, because they're really a winter vegetable and we'll likely get some very hot weather coming on soon. There's also a little marigold in the pot, because apparently that helps to keep slugs and snails away from my plants, because its a daily struggle to get rid of them all.

some broccoli on the left and jo choi on the right, both are doing wonderfully.

And my CBBK (Kudzu) shawl blocking away. It can't be modeled yet, because the recipient doesn't yet know they're going to get it, but as soon as Christmas happens we'll be photo galore!

And finally the second of the Hot Gams Legwarmers. They're coming along nicely, but they are taking awhile due to being a VERY repetitive pattern. I'm not made for sock knitting, I don't like doing the same thing twice. And these are so long, it just feels like a never ending battle of cables..

Trellis

This is a quick message from my phone, to show 3 days of trellis (pattern available on knitty.com) knitting. Its in the 18month size, but with slightly small needles that suited the yarn better. Its a gift for Oscar, who is still only 5 months, so not likely to need it soon as we come upon an Australian summer. I did have to rip back twice because it was unlikely even to fit a newborn. I'm not a big cabler, having really only done the legwarmers before, but so far we're going well!

Sewing Machine

Today I'd like to show you my sewing my machine. This is the one I've grown up on, I've always used it and its what I learnt to sew on. Recently I wondered how old it was, so I went on a google.

 After a long look, I found a number of people talking about their "vintage" singer sewing machines, and I discovered that the 328P dates from somewhere between 1957 and 67,  and was made in the Penrith factory in New South Wales, Australia.

Its a lovely little thing, we've only had it serviced once in 20 years, and that was for the tension knob. Its pottered along like a lovely little solid dear, and has always been lovely to sew on.

I recently started playing with all of the cams that it came with, which were misplaced when we recently moved house. These are them, all 5 with a different stitch on them. I'm more of a knitter than a sewer, but I am getting into quilting of late. And cams made that very exciting!














So, all of my cams with various stitch lengths or widths, and it shows a lot more stitches than I knew existed! My favourite is possibly the straight st with occasional zig-zags, making sewing quilt bindings on much much easier! There are a lot of fun sts that I can use for things, especially some nice decorative patterns :)

All in all, I've had a lot of fun with my sewing machine over the years, and I intend to keep using it for a long time to come! However, it was very fun while house sitting to have a play with what I think of as a fancy and excitingly new sewing machine, the Pfaff tipmatic 1035, which we think is from about 1985 :)






In knitting news, I've put CBBK out to block, cast on a Trellis cardigan for Oscar, and started the second of my sister's leg warmers. So much christmas knitting to do! I still need to start a pair of socks and a pair of gloves that I'm not sure how to do yet... Possibly just embroidered is the way to go?

Running a little late...

I've been running  around like a lunatic trying to do all of my uni work and such, so haven't had a super amount of knitting or sewing time, but I also haven't shared any of what I've been doing!

A little Puerperium Cardigan, not quite sure who for, but I felt like making the pattern :)

My skein of Cascade 220 in Jet

And wound into a nice little ball

I started the Kudzu Shawlette, or CBBK as I call it, as a christmas present for my Mum.

Which progressed very nicely and quickly, and I'd finished the first repeat of the leaves section. And then, I thought, this isn't long enough. So, I did another row of leaves. And another. And another.

         

 Eventually, I had 5 rows of leaves, and I thought it was enough. So, I started the cast off, skipping the lattice chart entirely.                     

I started with a sl1 k2tog psso, cast off single st. I then knitted the next leaf as per the pattern, turning at the purl sts. I then cast off the very last st. I'm repeating for the rest of the row, giving little points to the shawl. Its working well, but I JUST Needed a 3rd skein, so I'm regretting the decision to do that extra row of leaves.

Thoughts mid week

As I'm sure I've mentioned, I'm currently training to be a nurse. And it is not an easy course, with 2 to 3 week practical placements every semester. I still work part time, and am of course still supposed to be studying. And maybe that sleep deprivation is causing my loss of faith in the system and humanity. But right now, I want to share a story about aged care.

About 4 years ago, my granddad's bowel cancer metastasized (Had secondary cancer sites) In many many places in his body.With chronic pain and severely diminished quality of life, he spent the last week in the hospital. We visited daily, gave him plenty of support, and because we're all from a medical background got things really done. The nurses were fantastic, though chronically understaffed and overworked, and the experience really inspired me to become a nurse.

We were lucky, nobody in my immediate family has had to go into an aged care home. I've worked in some, and I've seen patients who come from aged care into the hospital. And I am horrified by a lot of it. There seems to be a feeling among many that the elderly are already dying. That those with dementia will moan regardless of their pain levels.

Many people come in to hospital with broken hips after having falls, or with cellulitis or severe pressure ulcers. Many never go back to the nursing home. In many cases, elderly women will break a hip and not be taken for a xray for 2-3 days, sometimes up to a week. In one case, a woman came into the hospital after her carers dropped her from a hoist, something physically impossible unless it is used incorrectly. She suffered dementia, and was in pain though unable to express it. It took 5 days for the home to take her into the hospital, and only at the request of her family.

Australia's aged care is in crisis, and a lot needs to be done to make it acceptable, let alone good. But the most important thing I can say to relatives, is be there for your loved one. Visit long and often, and always ask. If you have a question, or there's anything that you don't understand, ask. And keep asking until you understand.

On a happier note, I'd like you to meet Oscar. He's the sweetest thing in the world, and I love him to pieces. He's squishy and smiley and just the best remedy for a bad day. There's photos of him all over the shop, and just looking at them makes my day better :)

On the right is an Amish Puzzle Ball, by Dedri Uys. I'm sure it will cause a lot of fun and adventure, especially as my mother spent 20mins and couldn't quite work out how to put it together...

And here he is again! TWICE! I love the way his mummy sends almost weekly snaps of him wearing more knitted clothes :)

Having a good shake of his miittens gloves, pattern by Michelle Hotchin. I popped some mini rattles in the hands, so he can simply shake away :) Isn't he so happy?