SnarCraft

Happy Friday Fiber Fiendes! Do you know what that means? Time for the first ever Friday Fiber Watch! See, I had this *ahem* cunning plan. I’m a pretty big geek, my partner is too (lucky for him because his ability to talk nerdy to me definitely was one of the reasons he gets the title of My Mate), and Youngling hasn’t decided it’s uncool yet. Our home pretty much runs on coffee, love, and geekery. I don’t complain about this. My cunning plan is to kick my weekend off right by geeking out with you about what fibery-tastic things I saw in the fandom flavoured yarniverse this week. For those extra geeky and nerdy of my readers, or those of you who love a detailed, on point cosplay, I hope this makes you happy in your soul parts. For the rest of you, I’m sure we’ll have you converted before long. ;-) I promise this isn’t going to just be star wars amigurumi pinterest finds. Those really obvious fan makes are great, and I will include a couple here and there. But my tastes...

Hello lovelies, It took me a while to decide what I wanted to write about today. My morning started off with yet another suckerpunch to the gut by the Trump Regime. Anyone else think they are playing the 'hold my beer!' game with the rest of the worst of the worst world leaders? Anyhow, I was feeling particularly unimpressed after reading the news, plus I burnt my coffee (yeah I know, first world problems that one) and then had a grumble with Liebling. (Nothing intense, it's been a long week and we are both a bit overworked with everything. We basically grumbled at each other about all the things that were pissing us off, but then both ended up a wee bit sore that we were each causing the other a bit of grief. We're still on speaking terms, lol.) However, this did mean that I started off my day in a rather persistent funk. I inwardly grumbled my way through the first part of my day, doing my chores and my real job. But then I got to have a crafternoon catch up wit...

Hello lovelies, how are you today? I'm sorry for not checking in yesterday, but I have a good reason - I was prepping to see a doctor. Nothing to be worried about! Dr Jodes is not that kind of doctor. Some of you might have heard of her already, if you are fans of The Bachelor (Australia) or were following the #PaceysCreek earlier this year. Ever heard of the book Valentine ? Yeah, that Dr Jodes . I'm not gonna lie, I feel pretty cool by association. (Don't roll your eyes. I don't name drop often, gimme a break.) If you haven't heard her speak or read anything she's ever written STOP right now, go google her, and treat yourself. You won't be sorry. Back to my reason for ignoring you all in favour of prepping for a visit with Dr Jodes. Well, this is a little embarrassing, but when Dr Jodes moved away from Sydney to Tassie I insisted on knitting her some cold weather items because Tassie gets actual weather. She agreed to let me custom make her a hat and...

Happy Monday everyone! I hope those of you starting your week with the rest of us had a lovely weekend and those of you still on weekend time - well... I suppose that's ok and you should just keep on enjoying that. (I'm not bitter at all!) Honestly this weekend wasn't bad at all as far as weekends go. It didn't start off so great - Youngling was being twelve from the moment she got home from school until we sent her to bed. Saturday fared much better than Friday night, though. We just queued up a bunch of tv episodes, staked out a place on the lounge room floor for each of us to break out a hobby, and had a family chill-out bonding day. I spent most of my time loving on my Rockefeller Wrap . I am rapidly developing a love-hate relationship with this project. The design is stunning, it's art-deco and steampunk and gives me daydreams of clockwork and robots and spaceships all at once. The finished piece is so right up my alley that I knew I had to knit it as soo...

READY STEADY GOOOOOOOOOOOO! Apparently there is this thing called Stash Dash. It happens every year. In fact, it's been happening for the last SIX and I didn't know about it... I'm surprised too given (apparently) most of the knitting podcasts I follow have been participating for most of this time. What is it, you say? Stash Dash is an annual virtual do-along challenge to use up one's stash and clear out your WiPs. It was dreamed up by the KnitGirllls  Official dates for this year are 25 May (12:01am EST) to 27 August (11:59pm EST). See here for the full explanation and FAQs. Also, check out the KnitGirlls Podcast on Youtube, they are a hoot. I'm signed up for the 15k+ challenge. Yes I realise that is 15 000 meters of yarn. I wish I could say I thought this was a lot, but I'm having a hard time getting my brain to agree. I am aware that 15 kilometres is about as far as my home to the city centre. Or between the Fremont Troll in Seattle to Bothell (a...

Since you were lovely enough not to hold it against me that I piked on you all last Monday, what with the toxic sludge recovery and all, here's some more fibre talk for you! The daughter of a lovely family friend has a birthday coming up next month. I decided to knit her something; partially because I think she'll love it and partially because she's Australian, which means when it cools off to living temperatures here winter comes she is freezing. Enter, the Muluk . Mukluks, in North America, are a fur-lined winter-weather version of a moccasin. I realise each region of North America has it's own experience with these toe-toasters but as far as I can tell native peoples living in any sort of cold/wet/icey/snowy weather have a version of these shoes. I think they look pretty awesome just in their traditional form, but I understand some of us (points at self) like our Docs just fine, and the shipping and customs process for obtaining a pair of those is hard eno...

Hey everyone. Sorry for not posting yet this week. I have been battling a sinus thing since the winds came up at the end of last week, and it finally got the better of me. On the bright side, I've have a fair bit of time to knit since I'm not allowed to do anything else, lest I contaminate my family members with the toxic sludge. I can't share everything that I've completed since last Friday because my mother does in fact read this blog (at this point she's also the only one brave enough to openly follow the blog, thanks Mama!), and some of the things I worked on (and finished!) are for her. I have a hard enough time keeping secrets I'm excited about I don't need the blog outing my cunning plans. However I can share these things: There are at least two other things that I finished that I can't show you just yet. I promise they will be revealed in good time though! You'll just have to keep coming back. ;o) Also, I made progress on Laurie...

This past weekend I had Liebling drop me off at Skein Sisters for the afternoon while he and Youngling went off to look for some parts for his radio project. I staked out my spot on the knitting couches, picked out my yarn purchase for the next project(s) (more Mukluks , yes I realise 4 pair looks excessive, I don't think the recipients would agree with you, though.), got up to the counter to pay... I'd forgotten my wallet. This is unheard of. I might have joked about doing such a thing before, you know, like when one says 'Library book sale, better leave the wallet at home!' but I've never actually  forgotten my wallet when I've intended on going to the yarn shop before, not accidentally, not on purpose. Never. After a couple semi-panicked moments in which I mentally ticked off every possible way I could manage to still walk away with this yarn (it's perfect, you'll see in a moment) legally and without having burned my budding relationship ...

The other night I decided to cast on the State of Mind cardigan by Veera Vaelimaeki for my lovely friend Laurie. Laurie gets something knitted every winter, but I have yet to make her anything bigger than a small shawlette. (Ok that's a lie, I just remembered I've knit her one top, but it was from the same pattern book as this cardi so I'm allowed to forget...) After a lovely romp at the LYS about a year ago she bought the Inspirations Vol 2 on the grounds that "these two women just get me!" Since said book purchasing, however, Laurie's baby has turned into a full-fledged running (and climbing!) toddler and she hasn't had a spare moment to get me updated measurements for the cardigan. No kidding, I bought the yarn months ago but only just got the updated bust measurement this week. However, in celebration of the new data I excitedly cast on for the cardi. Now I know some other knitter has probably made this same collection of mistakes, but could you d...

Congratulations! You've managed to find my little corner of the blogosphere, despite the size of the internet and the weirdness of algorithms. You may have your cookie now that you've found the dark side. ;-) I have been toying with the idea of blogging or vlogging/podcasting about my crafting for a while now. But we should all thank my good friend Lisa for being so enthusiastic about my idea when I shared it with her recently that I found the confidence to give it the ole' college try. (If it turns out it was a bad idea don't tell Lisa. She's too beautiful a person to disappoint.) Reasons why this is still likely a good idea: I craft, A LOT. It is mostly fiber related at the moment, because that's what works for our living situation and my work/travel schedule. Therefore, most of what you'll likely be hearing from me is fiber related. However, I do sew/needle point/design/macrame/ceramics/pottery/paint/woodwork/you get the picture.  I write...