My eyelet skirt from knitty.com. I finished this 6 months ago, but haven't had the chance to get pics taken before now. I love this skirt - it's my favourite knitted item. It was knitted in Katia Idea Jeans yarn in the red colourway.

Pictures from A's birthday

I knitted this for A for his birthday. It's based on the Mr Dangly pattern by on craftster. The link to the pattern is here: http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=40974.0




















Peter Manson is supposed to look like a white-cheeked gibbon (see pic above). I sponsored a gibbon from the zoo for A for his birthday, and made him a knitted one so he could have one at home with him.

Peter Manson is named after a character with lamb-chop sideburns in a film called "The Edge of the World." (no picture to be easily found online...)

It's been a busy week. A and I saw a beautiful dance performance in the Festival on Sunday evening, Shelley Lasica's "Play in a Room". It's been wonderful to see all these fantastic artists in such a short space of time - quite inspiring. We also saw Joanna Newsom and SMOG perform last Friday. Joanna Newsom was quite amazing. It's rare to be in the presence of such an original musical talent, and she's still so young. I look forward to seeing where she takes her music.

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It was A's birthday on Monday and we had a lovely day with lovely weather to share together. I took the day off work, which was divine. We had breakfast out with A's cousin, opened presents, had a picnic in the park by the Yarra and got to hear the Federation Bells. We've been wanting to hear the bells since we first met, but they haven't been working. So we were treated unexpectedly for an hour long performance. It was beautiful. The bells are electronically operated, and quite sculptural in appearance. The compositions played are by local composers and the bells are tuned to just intonation. The overall sound is rather like a gamelan orchestra. The spatial effect of the bells is interesting too as you can walk around them and sit under them and so on, leading to a different listening experience depending on your location.

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We had a marvellous dinner out at a tapas restaurant. Incredibly intensely flavoured food - but quite wonderful. We had mojitos to drink. Also, there was a lunar eclipse, which we got to see at its peak as we left the restaurant.

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It was a beautiful day.

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Tuesday night we went out with A's mother and step-father for a lovely dinner in an Italian bistro. We've been eating like royalty!

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Since then I've been at work, which is beginning to drag me down again. I'm looking forward to the weekend. I'll work on my music and we'll see A's dad and stepmother and his sister for a late birthday lunch.

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The pedant in me has added in all those lines as the damn blog formatting won't seem to allow for paragraph breaks today...

Marcie!

The yarn from handpaintedyarn.com arrived Friday morning. It's incredibly beautiful. The colours were almost exactly as I'd expected them to be, and the softness and lustre of the yarn is outstanding. I got the most excellent service from the company and would highly recommend ordering from them. Mariana made sure to tell me which colours were accurately photographed, and which weren't, and sent alternative photos through to me. So much assistance for an order of only 8 skeins. I've washed the 4 skeins of dusty rose merino worsted, and it's now hanging up drying in my shower. Hopefully that will get rid of the vinegar smell... then I can start my clapotis!

Diamanda was amazing in concert, but the audience was incredibly rowdy and rude. A girl two seats down from me opened a packet of chips as the concert started and rustled the foil bag for the first half-hour until I asked her to stop doing so. It baffles me how inconsiderate people can be, and why they bother coming along if that's their attitude.

Anyway, Diamanda's professionalism shone through; her performance was incredibly focused. I admire her artistic integrity and depth and her ability to confront and express political ideas through music so well. Her voice literally sounds like a sonic embodiment of the pain and suffering that she sings and speaks of. Her vocal work is incredibly skillful and varied. The range is huge, the kinds of voices she uses are varied, and underneath it all I can hear her Classical training quite clearly. I identify so much with her process of making music - it's similar to what I'm attempting to do. However, my attempts seem much less gutsy. Perhaps I'll get there one day?

Carolyn Connors was very humorous; she also displayed a range of vocal skills. Less polished, but experimental and interesting nonetheless. The intimate space of the La Mama theatre suited the piece too. It was the first time I've been there.

I forgot to mention that tomorrow night A and I are going to see Diamanda Galas perform in the Festival, and on Saturday night Carolyn Connors in the Fringe. Two great vocalists - my first time seeing either of them perform. I'm sure they'll be inspiring.

I am still feeling jittery from a cup of coffee I had at 10 am. Strong stuff, and I'm not a coffee drinker at the moment. I'll stay away from it from now on, I think. My mind has been scatty all day and I feel like I've been on speed!

No work yet this week on my nushu piece, but tomorrow and Sunday are study days, so I'll try to make the most of it then. Spoke to my boss today about possibly cutting back my work shifts to 3 days a week. He doesn't seem to have a problem with this idea, which is a big relief to me. I'm just trying to work out now whether or not I can survive on fewer hours. But what point is the extra money if I am just miserable and not balanced for it? If I don't have time to do what's important to me?

I may knit for a bit now - coffee rush still needs working off somehow...

Oh! My yarn has arrived in Melbourne - I've been tracking it avidly on DHL. I should receive it tomorrow, I hope!

A took this photo of me knitting a few months ago. He thinks I look like Emily the Strange. I don't mind - I think Emily should knit!

I've just gone through and deleted a whole lot of old posts. They made me cringe. How do I manage to utterly misrepresent myself?

A lot has happened since I last wrote here. My beloved cat Pia died, rather suddenly, after succumbing to advanced kidney disease. I miss her every day.

Marcie, her mother, seems to be coping well. She enjoys the extra attention, but she does seem to get lonelier when I'm out and away.

I also have a new job, four days a week. My scholarship ran out. I dislike the job and what it's doing to me so much that I won't mention any more about it. It already takes up way too much of my energy and time.

Here is a photo of me taken by my (newish) boyfriend:

I'd post a pic of him, but I don't have any uploaded to photobucket yet. He likes to take photos, rather than be in them, even though he's a lovely looking creature! (A, I know you're going to read this!)

Composition update: Pope Joan is long finished, my second piece, based on advertising samples, called 15 Seconds, is also done. I'm just working on my third and final piece, then I have to complete the critical commentary, complete all the presentation aspects, and submit the bloody work!

It's only taken a full year longer than I expected. It's been an interesting, eventful time.

Knitwise (haha) I've progressed a long way with my skills. I've finally finished that damned purple cardigan, and it's way too big. It's no problem, as I've finished another cardigan that is wearable and countless other things. I'm excitedly waiting on a yarn delivery from handpaintedyarns.com... to knit a clapotis, of all things.

I may even be able to post some pics of these knitted things online, if I can cajole A into taking pics of them for me.