SnarCraft

IT. IS. DONE. That's right, you heard it here first! (Ok, actually if you follow me on Twitter or Instagram you would have heard it there first, but let's not be too pedantic just now. I'm celebrating.) That beautiful steampunk/art deco inspired Stephen West shawl I have been slogging away at for over a month? I decided Sunday night that come hell or high water I was finishing those last 35 decreases and it was going to be off my needles. I sat down, I put on some DS9, and I gritted my teeth and whacked out the rest of that damn shawl. then I had a glass of wine in celebration. I also gleefully messaged everyone I could think of to say the fraking thing was DONE! (Sorry to my friends who are less excited about wool than me, but I'm sure you understand on some level.) Here's a photo of the project fresh off the needles. I will get a photo of me wearing it up for you soon. This is going to involve getting someone I trust to take my photo in decent lighting, s...

Quick note before getting into today’s post. I’ve had a few people asking about blog post alerts. Just to the right, near the top of the page, it says ‘Snark in your Inbox’ with a signup form. Just pop your email in there and you will be alerted every time there is a new post. Alternatively, you can follow me on Twitter , Instagram , or Pinterest , for blog updates. Or to just chat about things happening. :o) Last year one of my my favourite authors, Seanan McGuire was one of the Guests of Honor at Continuum , a speculative fiction convention. (What? You’re surprised I’m one of those Geeks?) As if that wasn't enough to get me searching for travel tickets, turned out my friend Dr Jodes (yes that Dr Jodes ) was also going to be there, taking the Australian book industry by storm and capturing  fantasy/romance lovers’ hearts forever more. I was going, no question about it. Cats, zombies, faeries, lots of smart nerdy talk for hours PLUS a well grounded excuse to sit on my duff a...

Hello darlings - I've MISSED you! Yes I'm aware it's Wednesday, I have a very very good reason for not posting yesterday. You see, school went back on Tuesday, which means I got the house to myself FOR THE FIRST TIME IN OVER TWO WEEKS! I did try to write to you, but I found my attention wandering every time I sat down at the computer. The computer is in the same room as my spinning wheel, you see. I don't have anywhere else in the house for it to go, which means that unless we move to a bigger place it is going to sit behind me and stare at me from across the room. Usually this is something I can ignore during working hours, but not yesterday. What made yesterday so special? Well, it's all because of Friday night. Last Friday night I decided I was going to spin. We'd decided on a movie to all enjoy together and I decided I'd try and catch up on all the not-spinning I'd done for Tour de Fleece this year. I had managed to spin up a bobbin of a very ...

Today is Friday, I should be writing up a Friday Fibre Watch post, but I'm not. (I promise those will be back; I'm expecting next week to see their return.) Instead, I'm going to tell you about all the things I'm currently not doing in the face of impending weekend and only having a few short hours to get my real job done before needing to pick Youngling up from a thing this afternoon.  1. I'm not writing this week's Friday Fibre Watch. Episode 5 has plenty of nifty yarny things in it, and I've been stumped by one of them. I've been stumped to the point I've called in the big guns and asked my mother (an avid crocheter) as well as several other friends how they would do a thing to make a particular thing. This will make sense next week when I have it all written up for you. Currently, though, we are not on speaking terms and I'm shunning that item in hopes inspiration will strike and one of us will crack the code. 2. I'm not cleaning th...

Thank you so much for your supportive words and warm responses to the short story I shared earlier this week. I was feeling a bit anxious about posting, but your responses have definitely bolstered my confidence! I will certainly be sharing more about The Knitter in the future. xx Today was exciting. I got to go on a surprise adventure out to the airport to help a friend out. I didn't particularly mind - I got to go for a drive (we don't own a car so getting to drive anywhere is kind of a treat) and I got to control the radio for a couple of hours. It's nearly the end of school holidays; those of you with kiddos know what I mean when I say that a couple of hours in a space to yourself and not having to share anything is AMAZING. I love my stepdaughter to bits, but a little *me* time sometimes is also nice. This impromptu adventure means that you get an update about what happened yesterday, though, instead of what happened today. I haven't done any knitting yet toda...

Sometime last year Liebling and I were jokingly tossing around ideas for what one would need to make an epic fantasy story with yarn and knitting as a central feature of that world. It was one hell of an awesome several of hours of world building, let me tell you. Out of that evening, along with an even stronger desire to knit my geekboy all the amazing geeky things I can get my hands on, I got some major inspiration to try writing some short stories about yarn and fibre in a more fictional setting. I mean, what if you could have something like The Dresden Files, but with YARN? I think that sounds pretty damn cool and I'd buy it. I dabbled and dabbled and knitted and dabbled and eventually came up with a collection of stories about The Knitter. Here is one of these short stories. This is my first try at fictional writing since...erm...high school, so please bear that in mind when you read it. Also, if you like it, let me know and I'll share more. ;-) The Knitter vs Mon...

I'm back! No, the tweens didn't gobble me up, though they managed to do just that to pretty much everything else in the house. (Go them!) The first ever Harry Potter Marathon at The Lookout was a success! Youngling was an excellent first time hostess (I didn't hear a single tween drama fest or fight breakout during the entire 10 hour event) and I set a new record for myself at how stealthily I could swap out savoury snacks every time a child tried to walk out of my kitchen carrying nothing but lollies and sweets. Oh there was  Butterbeer  and Firewhiskey (my own recipe) and a proper array of sugary confections that would make even Fred and George proud, but I did try to not send all the children back home at 8pm with nothing but sugar water for internal fluids.  To recuperate from Tuesday I spent yesterday at my LYS. My reward for missing out on Knit Night in favour of supervising five tweens with more sugar in them than sense? I ended up being in the right place ...

Phew, I am exhausted. How about you? Why am I exhausted you say? no it is not because Tour de Fleece kicked off this weekend and I have been spinning myself crooked. Rather, today was the first official day of school holidays. It was the first official day of school holidays AND my tween has a Harry Potter movie marathon on tomorrow. Don't get me wrong. I love stuff like this. It's heaps of fun to do themed parties and watch the kids bounce around impersonating their favourite characters.The prep work, however, can be murder. As an example, today we have been shopping for final missing ingredients (including cinnamon candies, which apparently is NOT a thing in Australia, and sprinkles made with plant-based food colouring), tidied the lounge, done the dishes probably a million times, and baked an array of goodies that would make the lunch trolley on the Hogwarts express envious. Oh, and we did laundry. So I am now sitting here, in the dark, letting the last bits of t...

Hey there my fellow cosplayers and geek chic lovers - it’s Friday Fibre Watch! Ok so episodes 4-8 of season 1 are CHOCKERS full of yarny-goodness. I have to split them up into more than one post to be able to include all the goodies. I didn’t think you’d mind since this means you’ll be getting more fibre and more geek out time with me in this universe. This week is just episode 4. Also, it’s Plastic Free July, so please consider plastic-free yarns when shopping for your materials (For more on plastic in yarn check out this week’s posts on Synthetic and Superwash yarns). And don’t forget your canvas bag ! S1E4 - Jonathan’s bone white plain jumper Key Features: Basic dk/worsted weight jumper in an off white/worn white colour. 2 inch (5cm) rolled 2x2 ribbed collar, 4 inch (10cm) 2x2 rib cuffs, Set in sleeves I tend to gravitate towards raglan sleeves for jumpers, but there is definitely something to be said about a nice set-in sleeve. Particularly if you are ...