This week in absurdity

I knit a bunch of strawberries, green caps and all, and attached them to a teacosy in the shape of a pavlova. Why? Because this year the Royal Melbourne Show is holding a 'Great Tea Cosy Swap', and some Yarn Corner crafters are getting involved. I figured the sillier the better!

My strawberries (which took a surprisingly long time)

The finished cosy!

For the body of the teacosy, I used a pattern for a beehive teacosy, which I've used before. My beehive one has a little bee on top, naturally. 

I am sorely tempted to keep this one for myself, so I may end up making another for the swap... ;)

In other news, we're moving again! Just across town this time, to a suburb called Brunswick. It'll be a change from the CBD, and we're looking forward to having cheap fruit and veg shops and bakeries nearby. I'm also excited about being able to grow a few herbs and flowers again - our current apartment doesn't have so much as a sunny windowsill, but our new place has a deck and a balcony that should be great for potplants. We'll also have air-conditioning this summer, which will be a huge deal for me (heat is not my friend).

The big move is in mid-August, but we're running around madly organising it now because... we're both going overseas for a few weeks first! Willie will be off on a dream trip to New York City, and I'll be heading back to New Zealand to visit my family in Whakatane.

We bought some very necessary suitcases yesterday, a medium-sized one for Willie and a little carry-on case for me. I yarn-bombed them forthwith.

Phlegmatic

I've been sick with a disgusting chesty cold for the past week and a half. Ewww. I don't recall ever having a chest infection before (usually my colds are all sore throat and runny nose), and I lost my voice almost completely, which was also a new one for me. At least I got some novelty with my misery. :p

I finally started feeling more normal this morning, and even got to leave the house (woohoo) for a gentle stroll over the river and back. 

I did get lots of knitting done, in between cups of tea and coughing fits. I took a break from the cardigan, and had a go at knitting my first pair of toe-up socks. I used Morag's Basic Adult Toe-Up Sock Pattern, and her Vintage Purls Max DK-weight sock yarn (to speed up the process, and because I wanted extra-thick wintery socks). Four sick-days later, I have a pair of socks! They fit pretty well, but are a little roomy in the heel. I've made notes for which tweaks I want to make in the next pair. I have two more skeins of Max to play with.

The colour is called 'Teal Death Do Us Part' :)

Apart from knitting, I've been watching a lot of documentaries in an attempt to stay somewhat sane. David Attenborough's Africa series is full of stunning visuals, and a bit easier on a foggy brain than Wonders of Life (which I'm going to save for later). We also discovered an amazing series called Great Artists in their Own Words.

Honeycomb

I've started a new cardie! A toasty warm one, in thick fuzzy wool. The pattern is Iðunn by Ragga Eiríksdóttir, and for once I'm actually using the yarn specified in a pattern: Ístex Létt-Lopi. It's a little prickly, but I generally don't mind that unless it touches my forehead - only super soft hats for me! Icelandic wool is supposed to be very warm and not prone to pilling, so I'm giving it a try.

Knitting with thicker yarn like this is so much speedier, especially compared to my last cardie in 4ply. I've already finished the whole 'yoke', put the sleeve stitches on hold, and have made decent progress on the 'body'. In one week.

I was partly drawn to this design by the honeycomb pattern around the yoke. I'm not quite sure whether it's embarrassing or awesome that I have two other honeycomb-patterned jerseys in my to-make list: Stasis Pullover and Honeymaker. I think Honeymaker would be great in a warmish pale grey, if I can find suitable yarn... maybe Little Wool Co 12ply would work?

Stasis Pullover by Leila Raabe

Honeymaker by Leah B. Thibault

The draw of the honeycomb doesn't stop there either - I have my eye on these:

Apis Dorsata Mitts by Anna Sudo

Raxtur by Stephen West

As for bee-inspired projects I've already succumbed to, the big one is of course the beekeeper's quilt. I've completed 150 of the hexapuffs in total, but they have yet to be joined together. When I visit Whakatane soon I'll get them out of storage and see what I want to do with them. I think a wall hanging of some sort would be neat.

A batch of my hexapuffs, in rainbow shades (video courtesy of Dad):

Bees, beer, and blooms

On Sunday Willie and I went to some drop-in classes/talks at the 'Sunday Spectacular' run by Laneway Learning. You could join in with the casual classes for only $2, so it was a good chance to dip our toes into some new things. There were longer book-able classes too, but they had mostly sold out. It was all held in one little lane in the CBD, in galleries and coffee shops.

Outside in the lane (it was a bit of a drizzly day)

When we arrived we went straight to the beekeeping talk (I'm still pretty bee-obsessed). It was great! I found out some cool new things I hadn't read about, and got an idea of how much it would cost to get set up with a hive one day. The beekeeper had brought a frame from a hive in a double-sided glass case, so we could see the honey cells and brood cells, and all the bees doing their thing. The queen had been left at home, as it would be too disruptive to take her out of the hive for the day.

After that we went and talked to a lady who was making jam, and found out about a really handy tool: specially-shaped tongs for handling the hot jars when you're sterilising and filling them. Will keep my eyes peeled for some.

I spotted a few Yarn Corner people (who I recognised by their pink hair!), and had a brief hello before staking out a good spot for the beer brewing demo. I am totally keen to try brewing soon - it sounded fairly easy to make something drinkable, with lots of scope for getting fancy later. I have a list of websites and books to investigate. I might have to twist Dad's arm to have a go with me when I'm in Whakatane soon! Or else get set up over here.

Having a very nice coffee while waiting for the brewing talk to start

The folks in the background are checking out the bees

In crafting news, I finished a small batch of knitted flowers and I'm really pleased with how they came out. I used this Petunia pattern, and while it was a bit fiddly, I now have a much better handle on exactly how short-rows work in knitting. The lovely folks at Holland Road Yarn Co need more flowers and leaves to spruce up their 'tree' outside the shop, so I posted these off to prettify a Wellington street...

Bicycles and pickles

Yesterday we had a very nice Saturday, in a wholesome sort of way. After a decent sleep-in, we biked to the library along the riverbank.

I rode Chloe's bike, and had a bit of trouble since it was my first time on a bike in years. Yes, you don't forget how, the riding part was fine - but swinging my leg over the basket was trickier than anticipated! I actually fell off once while dismounting, which was a bit embarrassing in a busy public place...

Riding is lovely though, especially when you get a decent stretch of people-free ground ahead of you and can speed up a bit. I'll need to get my own bike when the time comes to give this one back.

After we got home and had a tea-and-a-sit break, we went food shopping and picked up some ingredients for making pickles, which I've been wanting to do for ages. We ended up making 'bread and butter' pickles, which are amazing with cheese on toast:

It's a very easy and fairly economical recipe - mostly sliced cucumbers and onions, with vinegar, sugar, and spices. Willie did the chopping (sparing me from the dreaded onion-eyes) and I did the cooking part. I got the recipe from my Ladies a Plate book, and it's on the website too: Bread and Butter Pickles. The great thing about it is that you don't need to stand over a simmering pot for ages, you just bring it to the boil and you're done. :)

For some reason, preserving jars are hard to find in Australia - we had to buy a set online in the end. Next I'd quite like to try these Herb Jellies (when I'm up to a bit more of a challenge). I've successfully managed marmalade in the past, so why not?