SnarCraft

I hate spiders Last night I woke up with a start. I thought at first it was because I had fallen asleep with an audiobook running and it had come to a, rather loud, theatrical skirmish. I blearily turned off the book and rolled over onto my back, only to stare straight up at a gigantic huntsman above my head. Let me take a moment to remind you lovely readers that I live in Australia, and in Australia spiders range from microscopic to the size of your face. I'm aware that generally the poison level is inversely proportional to the size of the spider, but that doesn't stop me finding a spider big enough to smother me in my sleep terrifying. Also, I did not grow up here, so I inherently have a -5 resistance to local spiders. Since moving to Australia, I've tried to sort things with the spiders myself. I have tried to reason with them; applying to their sympathies by pointing out that I, too, spin and therefore we should be able to live amicably in respectful cohabitation...

Dear Yarn Stash - I’m sorry. You were right. I should have listened. I should have not let the shiny new Stash acquisitions grab so much of my time and attention. I should have recognised it for what it was - a fling, a dalliance, a distraction. More pointedly, I should have anticipated that the new acquisitions would not feel as loyal to me as you would when embarking on a collaborative project; our relationship being so new and green and all... I guess I was asking too much of that lovely vampish purple gradient when I decided it should be a lacework shawl...and perhaps I was coming on too strong for the autumnal sock gradient, because I can’t find the remaining yarn to start the second sock... As a sign of my willingness to make amends, I went through my Ravelry Queue looking for my next cast-ons with only you in mind. Here’s what I’ve found. Do let me know your thoughts, won’t you? Pumpkin Spice Mittens by Skeindeer Knits Source: Skeindeer Knits on Ravelry I kno...

Dear Yarn Stash, Please don’t hate me. I promise I haven’t been intentionally neglecting you for the yarn I met while on holiday in Melbourne . I’m sure you can agree that new relationships come with a little bit of new relationship euphoria, but that doesn't mean you still don’t have a special place in my heart. I think the fact that I have not supplanted any of you guys from the Shelf of Showing Off, is testament that the new yarns have not replaced you in my eyes. Yes everything I have cast on since returning from my holiday has been from the yarn I brought home, but I have not frogged a single pre-existing project to poach needles or cables. These new projects are merely experiments with new techniques, that I’m perfecting before I try them on your beautiful skeins. The lattice work sock that I just completed? It means nothing! Like I explained when I got home, I cast-on that project while away because I needed something to work on during the Stitch Nights in Melbourne....

The road calls, my lovelies. I can practically smell the asphalt, that’s how strong the pull is. I have packed the car (including an entire box of yarn and related paraphernalia), loaded up my phone with audiobooks and podcasts, mapped out every yarn shop and opshop between here and my destination, put petrol in the car, and now I’m bragging updating you lot. I’ve also got two fully charged camera batteries and Liebling’s DSLR. Anything I’ve forgotten at this point I will just buy along the way. (I don’t typically advocate for this sort of approach, but I trust that whatever I’ve forgotten is going to be either non-essential or something so essential that having one more of it isn’t going to be excessive.) Tonight I officially am on a personal holiday. No kiddos, no partners, no real job obligations until next Monday. I am going to cafe/yarn shop/bookstore/opshop/woolen mill hop from here to my destination and back. From now until next Monday, if it isn’t yarn/coffee/book/hobb...

Hello darlings, how was your weekend? Ours was...different...We seemed to have crossed into some alterknit reality a couple of times throughout the weekend. Did anyone else find that suddenly weird things were happening around them, too? Maybe some nearby bovine refuge had an excess of heads emerge? More black kitties than usual cross in front of you? How about the just-bought milk in your fridge going sour? Saturday wasn’t too strange. Well, if you ignore the snarky tween who decided that hours before her sleepover was when she was going to refuse to clean her room or set up the lounge to her particular taste for her guest. She still wanted things to be ‘nice’ for her friend, of course. She just didn't want to be the one to do it. Oh, except for insisting that the wool be hidden. She was willing to chuck as much of it as possible onto my bed before sulking behind a book. When she was in primary school the spinning wheel and the fact that I was always knitting something ...

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 ...

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...

Wow you guys!  Thank you so much for checking out yesterday’s post - there were some great comments, both here and on facebook/twitter about plastics in crafting and biodegradability of certain fibres, etc. It was a blast to research and I really enjoyed engaging with everyone on that topic. This is why I decided to blog - well this and the fact that I apparently have a knack for making Fibre Fiends bust a stitch laughing sometimes and my yarny friends asked that I please direct my energies wider to help minimise the destruction. ;-) Also, hello to the reader(s) in the Phillipines, I’m so glad our mutual love of fibre (or perhaps mutual disdain for plastic?) brought us together yesterday! And a shoutout to my American readers, what are you knitting/spinning/crocheting for your July 4th holiday? A quickie regarding my Plastic Free July posts. The aim is to make sure people are aware of where the plastic is creeping in, not to shame anyone into a cave of embarrassment or...

Well that was embarrassing!  I woke up this morning and checked up on the blog. (Don’t judge me, everyone with a blog/podcast/publication of any sort does this, just ask Neil Gaiman.) Turns out at some point when I was uploading yesterday’s post I managed to tell Blogger to take EVERYTHING down from last month, save for my introduction...Doh! I’ve managed to fix it, and luckily without having to rewrite anything or muck up the blog stats. ( I confess stats aren’t as fun as writing the blog, but I do love seeing where people visiting are from - hey Peru!) If you were here for yesterday’s post go check out the archives, they are entertaining and right now there are only about 10 posts to catch up on! In other news, yesterday evening was a pretty nice time. Youngling managed to demonstrate much responsible-ness by phoning me at two different times, before I got to the point of panicking, that she was needing extra time to finish a school project with her group. The secon...