The Knitting Naturalist

The Knitting Naturalist

( 8/03/2004 03:54:00 PM ) Peter
Well, folks I have moved the blog to a nicer venue. I invite you all to run to http://www.knitting-and.com/knittingnaturalist/ & watch the action. Regards Peter #

( 7/02/2004 08:02:00 PM ) Peter
Oh, what a disappoointment. I almost finished my brown vest. I'm in the final cm to the shoulders, then 3-needle cast off & the edgings. The exam paper run involved more of my time than orignally hinted at. This isn't an issue, because we were given a lovely compliment that we had been one of the best teams they had had in a long time. I also had the lovely accolades from the various room supervisors & schools (depts) secretaries. I'm also a little behind in completing my Chapter 2 of my thesis. It was due in on last Thurs & it will be sent off this Sun evening. I've been hitting the high brow literature of late & been making some lovely discovering. Having done a Science degree, I had only recreational opportunities to read classical novels. So, I have deliberately selected famous works at random. The end result, an introduction to authors I knew of, but hadn't had the chance to become familiar with - Henry James, the Brontes, Lawrence Durrell; & a reaquaintance to lost friends: D.H. Lawrence, Somerset Maughan, Iris Murdoch, Tolstoy, Dovstoyesky & Randolph Stow. The upshot?? My thesis writing is improving & this must be an excellent thing. Hopefully will have an FO in the next entry. #

( 6/06/2004 11:54:00 AM ) Peter
UFO Month June is going to be UFO month. There are just enough calico bags in my knitting hamper to make me realise there are just TOO many UFOs & not enough FOs in my life. So far, I have been good at finishing, rather than starting new projects, this year. I have made 3 animal blankets for one of the major animal shelters in Sydney - & seen some stash & odd balls disappear out of my stash boxes. I have also completed a shawl for Mother's Day & very close to completing my sister's scarf. Yep- I am actually working on a scarf & with some lovely Alpaca scraps from James' jumper, will make a Myra Stahlman design - one of the Matthew scarf designs. I admire Myra for creating very masculine designs in memory of a slain gay man. I'm pleased to see she recognises that most gay man are not effeminate, nor girly: just men who love having sexual relationships with men. This week sees me doing 12 hr shifts at UNSW doing the exam paper run - moving papers from exam rooms to examiners. Dead time as well as active moments. All being well, I should complete my thesis chapter for this month AND make obviously progress in some of those festering UFOs mentioned above. #

( 6/01/2004 10:37:00 AM ) Peter
Hmm- I like the new format in Blogger. Does this mean I might write a little more? - probably not!! So - why am I blogging & not marking those last 9 hideous 1st year prac reports?? Avoidance, of course. Anyway, after so much down time, I am happy to announce an FO - a test pattern shawl for Myrna Stahman, so please don't ask for pics. There aren't any. It must have fitted my mum, because she hasn't rung me to tell it doesn't fit or is a horrid shade. She has funny moods, as those who have met her, know. Progress on other things: a belated birthday scarf for my sister is VERY close to completion. I started this damn thing over 2 yrs ago; but I loathe scarves & so it has spent much of its life in the bottom of the knitting hamper. But I want to see some needles freed up before I start new ones, so out it came & 3 weeks later it's close to completion. I have been making a big effort on my sister-in-law's Bohus cardie. One sleeve has seen 2 incarnations; sadly it needs a 3rd - grrr. I started the other sleeve instead, to make me feel better. I have also been fiddling with James' black sweater of late. It's mindless knitting, so has grown to near the armhole. Beadwork?? It's past the armhole steek now, & not that far off the neck decreases. This will get a thorough working out in mid June, along with Jazz (Falkenberg) for Erica Raspberry (I feel a little guilty in not making much progress in this KAL gift). SO, why next month having more knitting time?? Well, I will be involved in delivering exam papers for the mid year exams at Uni of NSW. Boring job, but long hrs & excellent pay. There are also dead patches, so I thought I would divide my time between knitting up those UFOs that are growing patinas from old age, and writing my thesis. The thesis writing, btw- is improving nicely. I have returned to Chapter 1- the big Intro chapter & put my head down & bum up. It looks a lot better - & is closer to completion. Now that's a good thing, for a neurotic person like myself. Bye for now.... #

( 2/18/2004 10:58:00 AM ) Peter
Beadwork Update Altho yesterday I mentioned my continued workout on the chair cover, last night we had a strong cool wind billowing thru the house. I needed a slight mental challenge - particularly as Tues nights has nothing on the Box, so it's just the radio for me. I dug out "Beadwork" & did over 4 rows (0.5 cm). It felt soo good to get into a wool project & to be playing with a cable needle & intricate pattern. The time whizzed by so very quickly last night. I also received my copy of "Tudor Roses" yesterday- did that have something to do with me playing with Beadwork?? Very likely. I love this book & the designs inside. Now, all I need to do is become independently wealthy, move to a cold climate & knit faster to enjoy owning a number of these designs. Cycling Madness To encourage the weight loss I desperately need ( I have put on 8 kgs more than I like to be) I have taken up cycling to/from work 3 days a week. It's about 6 kms each way & rather hilly. I also get to cycle across the Harbour Bridge, which I regard as one of life's pleasures. I use a lot of back streets because I go thru 2 business centres - North Sydney & Sydney (Circular Quay end). The Harbour Bridge altho having a fine cycle path is a steady unrelenting climb to the centre of the bridge - the climb is close to a 1 km long; the other side of course is a lovely coast, watching the ships, ferries: wind blowing thru your helmet - that kind of thing. The other pleasure has been to cycle past the QEII - a truely majestic ship. Feb is cruise ship time in Sydney, which is entertaining considering Feb is also one of our wettest months & July/Aug our sunniest & driest. We are, after all catering for the overseas tourist. Some of them however, are truely God-awful!! Particularly those ships that have private balconies rather than traditional deck space. Mostly the passengers are mean-spirited, mean-minded, expecting all places to be just like Home - either mid-west USA or Midland England. Their whinging, whining voices make screeching cockatoos sound meliferous. They are fun to taunt, so I shouldn't complain. And yes, periodically I "play" with them. #

( 2/17/2004 03:59:00 PM ) Peter
The Chair Cover Can you believe that I've been working continuously on this item for over 1 1/2months now?? I know I'm stunned. I have to confess tho, that I played with some new yarn over the weekend. I dented my diet. Since July last year, I have bought 2 projects worth of yarn & received 2 Knitting projects from wonderful knitters overseas, who for some reason had given up on them & I so badly wanted to play with them. Hi Wendy & Erica. But back to that chair cover, over 300g of dk cotton has been swallowed up into this cover & it is a good 60-70 cm long. This means I'm roughly half-way thru it & there is still more for the next cover. Work update For those of you still mildly interested, the PhD is trundling along, altho the results I managed to pump out today didn't give me wonderful graphs. I have just finished scoring all the characters for the first of 2 subgenera, so I thought let's play with the results & see what the trends look like. Hmm! there is some patterns but let's just say I'm showing my supervisor tomorrow in the hope he can explain away some of the weird groupings. I have also started looking for a part time job. I found a position couriering animals - mainly from vets to the animal hospitals, or airport or whatever. Sounds like my kind of job - get to speak to beasties & get paid for it. The other crap job is valet parking: hmm, lots of red sports cars to zoom around in. Fun fantasy but not a reality sadly. Both will have okay pay, but will keep me out of the bankcruptcy court. Finally: Gratuitous Pet Mention I swear Joel cat is part dog! Whilst James is overseas I have been playing in the garden. I have a chaff bag full of horse manure & have been spreading this & the ground-up paperbark stump as mulch & planted 5 shrubs or trees around the garden. I added a Tahitian Lime, a creeping LillyPilly, a creeping grevillea, 2 native pea plants related to my study genus & a coffee tree (yes, the beans from this tree are coffee beans - Coffea arabica). I had to construct little wire cages around the plantings because not only does he like to dig up my plants, he also likes to roll in the manure. He's also big on dust baths & getting his tummy rubbed. When we first got him, he often flopped onto the floor for a lie-down with a thump - just like a labrador or golden retriever: complete with sigh! He was thrilled when he saw the tools coming out of the garden. If I had a flat-bed truck, I can imagine him jumping on it & meowing whenever a stranger came near it. It's a shame he hates wearing a collar, otherwise, a big black leather one with studs might just be up his alley - complete with a tag reading "Butch" #

( 1/19/2004 12:23:00 PM ) Peter
The Gods are being kind to me today. I have just won Debbie Bliss's Traditional Knitting & I didn't pay $150 -$250US for it. Hoorah!!! This is a wonderful book full of exquisite FairIsles & Arans. The models aren't all sticks - 3 of them are delightful elderly folk & the colour combos are well matched & the yarns are easily interchangable. I also found a Knitting design book in a remaindered store in the city. I have regularly hawked this store, to no avail. The norm is lots of quilting & scrapbooking type books & no knitting. Then the hideous LeisureArts booklets started to appear, like a whiff from a cracked sewer line. But now they have real knitting books, albeit those dumb broomsticks & rope patterns. Why does knitting have to be quick?? These self same folk will happily read one of those door stopper sized Airport novels & they never complain about attention deficit then. My excitement for the weekend was returning home on Fri evening to a power-less house. It took me forever, but water (Hoorah! we had heavy rains) has managed to get into the conduit between the garage & the house, shorting out the entire place. Laugh when you imagine me raiding the house for every extension lead & multipower box & running this multicoloured power source across the garden thru branches etc (to minimise length loss), so that I can open the electric roller doors to return the car. Only to discover that, with a flip of a lever, the damned thing becomes manual. The "multicoloured extention lead" will come in useful for operating the washing machine. Electric clocks in the house are a shambles. The clock in the oven makes wonderful clicking noises & returns to 00:00 every couple of hrs, but it doesn't tell the time anymore. (I have no idea what I did to it but the symbols are only decipherable to an Egyptologist.) Once good thing came out of it. The cats are even more smoochy than before & Madame Lash is even spending time thru the night lying on the bed. On Sat, she spent the entire day near me & followed me everywhere around the house & garden - like a dog helping Dad. Who could pass up that lovely experience?? Boofhead is happily spending time on the couch with me during News viewing. Normally, he would only do this if James is around. To remind you: their real names are Jezabel & Joel, but my nicknames are more expressive. Tomorrow: why I like getting my feet wet in Frog Ponds. #

( 1/13/2004 03:48:00 PM ) Peter
Although I reckon my totem animal is a wombat, I do have Frog in my cusp. I wasn't happy about the way the cotton chair covers were developing. The design had lots of twisted stitches from some of Barbara Walker's treasuries & altho very attractive, the cotton was too soft & they looked wrong. So frog, I did - COMPLETELY!! Basic knit-purl was what was needed. So, back to the stitch dictionaires & out it popped. Mary Thomas, in her pattern book, has the design that was worn by Charles I the day he was executed - pp50-53. The design is relatively simple, but wholy knit/purl & the pattern repeat is 65 rows. This was perfect for a dk cotton cover that needs to be at least 80 cm wide. I am enjoying it more & needless to say, it has grown a lot faster. #

( 1/09/2004 03:43:00 PM ) Peter
Goodness me!! 3 posts in one week. Yesterday, Mary-Helen, Sandra & I made an expedition to Penrith at the base of the Blue Mountains. The train trip is just under 1 hr from the city heart. Both journeys were quick because we laughed, commented & pointed out the window, thus making it a seamless trip. Our chief aims were Spotlight - a large Homewares chain & The Wool Inn - one of the best yarn stores in Sydney. The western suburbs of Sydney are vast areas of medium to low cost housing: wives tend to stay at home & to help cut costs, make lots of clothing & are heavily into handicrafts. This Spotlight store is one of the largest in the chain & has an excellent selection in all depts. Curtain accessories were first, then we wandered thru the material section, which is enormous. Mary-Helen is on the cusp of developing the sewing mania bug & so was very enuthsiastic on what was available. Next the Yarn section. Lots of cottons & summer weight yarns & patterns were bought. I was the most restrainted - I was also the poorest :-p 2 pattern books (pamphlets & some notions) Two hrs later we emerged from the store & found a lovely cafe for lunch. Then down the street to The Wool Inn. The staff are lovely, the selection of imported yarns huge & a collection of imported books. Grumpy here bought the "A Yorkshire Fable" - slightly damaged but worth every cent. Sadly, they had sold out of the Jamieson's books - cos I want to look at them before buying. They also had the seductive & elusive Addis available in odd sizes & larger lengths. Their supply dropped that day. Mary-Helen & Sandra bought some exquisite Italian yarns, which names have zapped away from my memory banks, but they were luscious & enticing. They were the sort of yarns that tend to get swatched up the next day & by 2 days later half a garment has been knitted & minimal sleep had. We then entered the hellhole officially known as Penrith Plaza. Arrggghhh!! it was noisy & stressful & frenetic & everything the street shopping area wasn't. The drink to wind down after a lovely day was anything but. Unless I needed to visit this mall, I won't be returning for a while - if ever. Fortunately, the return train was an express & heavily air conditioned, because although mildish, Penrith was hotter than the city normally is & we were a little tired - but happy & contented. Last night was spent lying on the couch and going over & over the knitting porn. At this rate, I'll become addicted to this stuff. Not a bad thing really. hehe My bank balance is the only thing that will suffer, of course. #

( 1/06/2004 10:03:00 AM ) Peter
Happy Happy Dance My copy of Alice Starmore's Celtic Collection & Fisherman's Sweaters arrived in the post yesterday. Thanks, Lolly!! I have been swimming in this knitting porn ever since. Love the designs, especially in FS, & now wanna go out & buy hundreds of dollars worth of yarn & an AirCon system so that I can start straight away. I understand why folks have knitted Inishmore - that would be one of my favs, so too is Cape Cod. In CC, I can see myself making Dalmore & some of the other FI designs. Intarsia is a killer, but I might soften one day & do Kells which is a magical design & colour combo. Today is much cooler, so I am feeling a little more vitalised than I have done in past weeks. I am even making some progress on the PhD - heaven forbid!!! Talk again soon #

( 1/05/2004 01:27:00 PM ) Peter
Sydney is often a hot & humid place in summer: this Christmas has been no acception. My wool WIPs are all happily packed away in my Hamper & my cotton ones dragged out from self-same box. So what am I working on. 1. a silk/cotton vest for me in a lovely green from Rowan Summer Tweed. The body is in the round & I will do a V-neck. Is there enough to complete it?? That's the excitement of this project. 2. a rusty-brown polo shirt, also for me using fingering (4 ply) cotton and in the round. It's progressing nicely - and so it should seeing it's been on the needles for almost 2 yrs. The back is close to completion & I only have to complete the front from the underarms & makes some short sleeves. This is likely to be a bit of a flop, but what I will have learnt will go towards future shirts. 3. I have started the cotton chair covers. I am using a variety of twisted stitch patterns from Barabara Walker & Gladys Thompson. Not much to see so far, but I do know it is 90 cm wide & it has a steek, so it is quicker to knit up. Of course, I wanna play with my AS books & yarn, but the weather is too ugly for such hobbies - sigh. One of my few resolutions is to be more vigilant towards this blog. So - help me achieve that aim but writting nasty comments in the tag board :-p #

( 11/24/2003 11:09:00 AM ) Peter
There is lots happening in my life at the moment - great & so-so - which means I haven't had much time for blogging. Firstly, the trip out to back of Bourke was a success & we found all of our little beasties. The new pennywort was found in cracks in a natural dam (a hole in the granite outcrop); the desert flannel flower was happily growing amongst the spinifex grass (ouch) on the red sand dunes; we mucked around in a billabong looking for blue devils & a dam out the back of someone's property to see the pennywort again (& lots of smelly feral goats). The weather was fine just on the hot side but cool at nights. When I create the webpage for pics, so I can link from here, there will be pics of some of the adventure. Sadly, my contract here at the Gardens will not be renewed at the end of Nov. I still keep my place here but will not get any pay (blah). Potential jobs include transcribing the journal of the explorer/botanist Alan Cunningham to be published as a book later on & a job at Kew Gardens near London. Let's hope one of these bears fruition. Knitting: I wanna write on either Wed or Thurs (making a big effort) so more then. #

( 10/09/2003 09:54:00 AM ) Peter
Well, obviously I didn't get to post before I ran away to the New England Tablelands for the long weekend. The weather was poor - intermittent rain & on the cold side (down to 7oC) & always overcast. I felt sorry for the motorbikers but hey! they chose to do it. The weed picking was average to good & I was successful in relocating a rare Grevillea species which is reproducing via suckers & not seeds. Crawling thru the hole in the fence also allowed me to be victim to ticks. The one trapped in my ear wax was the grossest example - yuckoo Played with lots of dogs - corgis & boxers & have almost converted James to getting a corgi pup. Now this is scarey stuff cos I've wanted a dog since the Cretaceous. Now I just have to convince Jez cat that it's a great idea too. Caught up with Jennywren in Armidale & met her truely lovely chap. I'm so thrilled she has found a guy that matches & compliments her special self (Jenny is a very unique person & I wouldn't change one iota of her :-]). He has a 70 acre farm just out of town & we did a tour, identifying the weeds, & watching bunnies & kangaroos ruin the pasture. It was very relaxing quality time. That night was the NSW Rugby League grand final & out came Beadwork. This cardie is growing nicely now & I'm happy with its progress. I have put Mary-Helen's vest to one side cos I haven't had the quiet quality time I need (desire) to repick up stitches for the armhole - tonight or more likely Sun morning is when it will happen. Blue Shimmer is also developing & I'm over 1/2way thru the colourway. This is full of clever colour combos & it's looking nothing short of stunning. #

( 9/30/2003 09:32:00 AM ) Peter
Hi everyone. Remember me?? I used to irratically post on this blog. Recently, I have wanted to post, but the virus which devastated the NSW public service computer network, stopped me from doing so. The die is cast; the steek was cut... Yes! my first steek worked & I'm happy with the results. For those thinking of trying the crochet steek method, (cos, like me, they are completely inept near a sewing machine) I recommend you look at the easy instructions in the techniques section of Schoolhouse Press site. If you are comfortable, or own a sewing machine, Wendy's instructions linked to her blog - Wendyknits.net are faultless. One armhole edging is completed, but there are too few stitches in the lower portion & I will need to rip out & do again. No dramas & not that much work to do. Wendy's Beadwork jumper is growing & I'm remembering enough now to make it a regular work & bus commute project. Helen's Blue Shimmer is my Saturday in the garden project & I'm over 1/2way thru the colourway. It's hard having purl stitches & strandwork, & the occasional 3 colour rows, but I'm loving the challenge & I'm really happy with the result. The other's are regularly worked on as well, so nothing completed but porgress is discernable on all of them (even if it's just a drop in size of the ball of yarn). This weekend, it's the Labor Day weekend & I'm runnig away to collect roadside weeds in the Tamworth - Armidale (New England Tablelands) region. I'm really looking forward to going out & botanising for a change. I also hope to catch up with a fellow knitwit Jenny. I'll try & do anther entry before I run away. #

( 9/10/2003 04:14:00 PM ) Peter
I'm at that Hurry up! stage on the Aran vest for Mary-Helen. I thought I was up to the shoulders but found I am something like 6 cm away. Not much, but just enough to make me go GRRR!!! I went to work to study my PhD on Sunday, & on the bus home, found an error in the cabling on my brown vest, so Mon night was spent fixing things up. Tues - we had Honourary Associate talks all day - student talks are in 2 sessions & my particular one will be mid Oct. This is good cos I'm still working on it - hehe. Yesterday, I spent 1/2 the day listening & knitting a black with bronze & white slubs jumper for James. I started this thing 18 months ago & because it's flat knitting, knew it would never get finished. This one is a really easily modifiable design - bands of 3 2x ribbing between panels of plain stocking st. So now the construction is in the round with drop shoulders. This thing won't be finished till almost Oct 2004, but I like to have stuff hanging around for when the occasion suits. The others require too much concentration with all that interesting science flowing around the room. On a local front, there has been a lot of burning off (fire control) around Sydney in the past week. This is a direct consequence of the past 2 summers of severe fires. We have soo much evidence to show the harmful effects it has on the bush, when it's over burnt. Either aggressive weeds move in & destroy the bush altogether or only fire happy species survive & they often promote hot, severe fires. It's all a political hot potato & it's being done to appease the general public & the insurers. Bugger the science & life style quality in the longer term. sigh #

( 9/10/2003 04:02:00 PM ) Peter
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A rambling commentary on my two favourite topics - knitting & being a botanist.