Knitting has been happening, and I'd love to show you, really, but there are complications. Such as an intercontinental visit from my mother — rendering me even busier than usual, and the flat rather crowded, and even if I had time to photograph stuff I'd be rather pushed to find somewhere to display it. (Outside? Natural light? Nice idea. Bit damp though.*)

So instead, I give you some absolutely prime stash enhancement rationalisations, which I'm *ahem* borrowing from my lovely customer Mary. Mary clearly knows a thing or two about stash.

1. The great yarn drought may strike at any time, stashing is a sensible precaution to take.

6. Most importantly, a good stash is a work of the crafter's art in its own right.

Say it out loud: I stash and I'm proud!

_____
* We spent the weekend Up North, visiting my aunt in Beverley. A lovely time was had by all, but we nearly didn't make it back, on account of a little rain...

Posted by Robynn at 11:02 PM | Permalink | 2 cups of tea on the table

Things I am loving:

This weather! Dark, thundery, big fat raindrops, even hail... I can imagine myself back on the highveld.* I am especially loving it because it's been so very humid lately — I'm hoping this downpour will clear the atmosphere a bit. Also, the cats are really cuddly and sweet. Awww.

My new book: Knitting Nature. I've been pawing G's copy and dithering for long enough; now it is mine, all mine! Now that I have the chance to go through it at leisure, I see even more designs that I can really imagine knitting; even better, there's a few things just begging to be made from stash. Stash that I didn't have firm plans for. Stash that was simply *born* for gorgeous hexagonal wossnames. How great is that?

Our new products — the shawl pins,** buttons etc that I've mentioned here before. They are all uploaded at last for your ogling pleasure. That Zecca stuff... the colours! The playfulness! The humour! Not to mention Perl Grey's exquisite brooches; I might have snaffled one or two for myself already. They all make me deeply happy.

Things I am slightly less sure about:

Tomorrow's weather. My dad is coming round for a braai (that's like a barbecue, but better!). If we get rained out, we'll just have to toddle off to the nearest Strada, I reckon.

My total lack of self-control. I'm not sure exactly how it happened, but I seem to have had a little accident in a yarn shop yesterday. Apparently I can't be trusted when I see the words "teal" and "silk" in close proximity. (Um, there's a reason you won't see the teal colour there... any more.)

Well. Time I got off the internet and down to work. No matter how much the cats want me to go curl up with them and Norah Gaughan.

_____
* Geographical note: the highveld is Joburg (the northern South African interior); the climate is dramatically different to Cape Town. I've lived in and loved both places, but though I'm more of a Capetonian at heart, I absolutely adored the highveld thunderstorms.
** By tomorrow we should have added photos that show how the pins sit on an actual shawl... which was so kindly provided by Debbie, saving me from my chenille wrap hell. Yay!

Posted by Robynn at 02:25 PM | Permalink

I just got my invitation to Ravelry! I'm terribly excited. At last, I too can play with the cool kids.

Admittedly don't have time to do anything much with it for a while yet*... but still, yay!

_____
* On Thursday, my mother arrives from Cape Town to visit for a few weeks. Next weekend, we go to Beverley to see my aunt (I haven't seen her or my cousins for 10 years). The following weekend, we join some friends for a weekend in Dorset. (Mother gets to stay and cat-sit. Yay Mother!) The following weekend, Mother goes back home; I have about five minutes to catch up with myself; then the following week, Armin's father and stepmother are coming for the weekend. As recently mentioned, I actually do have a day job — part-time, at least — so weekends are my productive time. It's a little twisted, but there it is. I'm looking forward to all of the above, but I'm really looking forward to late July.

Posted by Robynn at 04:31 PM | Permalink | 4 cups of tea on the table

I'm winding this up now, I promise.

4 things I do every time I'm on the net:
Well, I'm pretty much always on the net, what with broadband and running an online business and all. So there's really only one thing I do *every* time I'm online: strive, with painfully little success, to prevent myself getting distracted from work by blogs and yarn shops and all the delightful trivialities of cyberspace.

4 things I would not eat for anything in the world:
Mopani worms. I'm sorry. No.
Also, none of the sort of things they bring out as challenges on I'm a Celebrity... or that ilk.
Regular food, I'm not that fussy, though I avoid baked beans, mushy sweetcorn and gem squash like the plague.

4 places I would rather be right now:
Ooh...
In a home of my own (not a rented one).
In Cape Town... lying under a tree in Kirstenbosch, eating konfyt** and camembert with green peppercorns, letting the peace of the mountain soak into me.
On a yacht somewhere exotic, with a well-stocked liquor cabinet.*
Anywhere with a large supply of yarn and nothing to distract me from it.

_____
* This is firmly in the realm of fantasy; I've never been sailing and might very well hate it. Who knows? Nice idea, though.
** You only get this in Cape Town — not even elsewhere in SA. I miss it terribly. Not that I ate it so very often, but still. I've considered trying to make my own, but slaked lime? I don't even know what that is, never mind where to get it, and the whole thing seems a bit higher grade to me. I ain't much of a chef.

Posted by Robynn at 06:32 PM | Permalink

[I have done very little proper "holidaying" in my life. Most of my travel involves visiting family. Luckily I have family in some pretty good places.]

1. Switzerland. The in-laws live near Zurich, and besides visiting them, we've travelled around a little bit to see the countryside. I've stayed a few days in Zermatt, and been to Davos twice (the family has a holiday flat there). I've also spent two days trying not to cry (i.e, learning to ski) in Flums. I do count myself incredibly lucky, yes. I love the landscape, the chocolate, the snow... so glad I get to go so often!

2. Paris, just for a weekend. It was just at the start of the crazy 2003 heat wave. It was absolutely gorgeous, and stupid hot, and thanks to the generosity of a friend (we were seriously broke at the time), I was able to fulfil one of Armin's lifelong desires: to go to the Crazy Horse. In return, Armin dragged me up the Eiffel Tower. The short-queue, low-budget, strenuous way: i.e., the stairs. About as soon as I got up there, I was begging to be allowed to go down again, to those lovely cool fountains I could see...

(See how I'm melting?)

3. Lesheba Wilderness Lodge, just south of the Limpopo river (which divides SA from Zimbabwe). We visited midweek, and had the whole park to ourselves — well, and the giraffe (with babies), the impala, the rhino... One evening, when I was alas in bed with a killer headache, Armin walked to the lodge next to ours, from where we'd been told there was a great view of the rhino feeding in the evenings. Well, yes. He almost walked straight into one: they were grazing right there, wandering among the rondawels.

4. Lyme Regis. We have tried to make a point of taking short breaks in the UK, so that we can get to know this country we are living in. Lyme Regis was probably our favourite spot so far (with Scotland also a very hot contender). As it happens, we're joining friends for a long weekend in Dorset soon, so get to head back. Maybe we can find some fossils this time!

Posted by Robynn at 06:40 PM | Permalink

This is toe-up, destined for my own dear Armin. (I consider this a mighty victory, since when I first announced I was considering knitting socks, he was exceptionally quick to say "not for me, thanks". Now he's looking quite pleased with the notion.) I'm using the toe-up recipe from the latest Interweave, and I recommend it highly. (I'm actually using it for another pair at the same time - and I use the word "pair" advisedly, as it's two at once on the good old magic loop. More on that another time. With pictures, yes dears.) At first I was planning to do a little ribby cabling or similar, but the yarn wanted to be plain old stocking stitch. It was most definite about that. I thought I'd just stick a little braidy thing on one side, to prevent it being utterly boring, but you know, I'm not convinced.

What do you think? I don't think it looks great, actually. I might rip back and go boring after all.

And that's a bit of a revelation to me: turns out that in socks at least, I've developed quite a liking for Boring Knitting. There's something terribly soothing about just going round and round and round. Probably I had to hone my boredom on the miles of fine-gauge stocking stitch I put into mother-in-law's 60th birthday present (rather bad pictures below), but even so. It might have something to do with my present state of busyness: mindless works. Mindless helps. Remember the Yarn Harlot's amazing Bohus a couple of months ago, and how she said she was really looking forward to all that tiny stocking stitch as a respite? It's like that.

(Dolly's rather larger than mother-in-law. Also, blocking would have helped. I see that now.)

Anyway. You wanna see some knitters?
So did I. I rocked up to Jubilee Gardens feeling ever so confident. What ho, knitters! I thought. I'll just turn the corner and there they'll -

Oh.
Hm.
But I walked, scanning the horizon with my super-honed knitterly radar, and waddya know? Wool!

And very nice the knittas were too. Sadly I couldn't stay too long... I had book shopping to do, and stuff. Mostly stuff. But it was fun. And we weren't broken up by the police* (more's the pity). How was your KIP day?

[4 things will continue after the break. No, I'm not done! That's crazy talk! I got *lots* more waffle right here! ]
_____
* Thanks for the link, Anne! What fun.

Posted by Robynn at 09:19 PM | Permalink | 3 cups of tea on the table

4 places I have lived:
[I've lived in an awful lot of places. In fact, I've moved more than 25 times; nearly once for every year of my life. Which four to pick...]

1. Sasolburg; a brown, flat, industrial town in the middle of nowhere. Like Milton Keynes, it's exquisitely well planned (for cars) and rather a pleasant place to live, in a very suburban way, although it has atrocious pollution problems, it
literally stinks, and if you stay there for more than a few years you will suffer nasty lung damage. We didn't stay long. (I was around 7 years old.) The funny thing about Sasolburg is that although its pretty small, the high turnover of staff at the plants there means you meet an awful lot of people who've actually lived there at some time. Armin was there when he was around 4.

2. Cape Town, city of my heart. I grew up in various parts of the southern suburbs: the forested, suburban, windy side. Armin grew up in the city bowl (nestled under Table Mountain and just above the city — the part you see on postcards), and maintains that I didn't live in "Cape Town" at all. But he's wrong. Also, Lion's Head looks more like a camel. So there.

3. Melville, Johannesburg: a city that Capetonians ritually despise, but that turned out to be rather marvellous to live in. It's the opposite of the cliche — a great place to live, but you wouldn't want to visit. I miss the thunderstorms terribly. And the restaurants.

4. London. The best place we've lived since arriving five years ago was a very glamorous (though dated, and shared) riverside flat, with all the luxuries (leisure complex with jacuzzi, sauna, pool etc; balcony; spectacular view...). It was wonderful, and on top of all that we had the nicest landlord in the city. But these things don't last forever, and our present digs are, alas, nowhere near as delightful. On the plus side, though, we now have cats.

Posted by Robynn at 09:03 PM | Permalink

4 films I can watch again and again:
1. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. The dialogue just crackles, and Gary Oldman's performance is silent genius at times. I find it infinitely thoughtprovoking and unfailingly funny.

2. The Princess Bride. This was always a great favourite, but it now has added meaning for me as I met my beloved Armin at a screening. (As it happens, we didn't meet again for a year,* but none the less, that was the start of it all.)

3. Powaqqatsi and/or Koyaanisqatsi. You've probably never heard of these. They're two of a planned trilogy, though the last one was never (yet) made. They're... visual meditations? Wordless essays? set to scores by Philip Glass. They make profound and passionate statements about ecological and social destruction, exquisitely filmed and edited, and did I mention, completely wordless. Amazing films, and I wish you could see them on the big screen.

4. Bring It On. What?! I love it! Cheerleaders! Crazy cheer slang! Eliza Dushku getting her perk on! A demonic choreographer! Adorable Jesse Bradford! ...Look, I know I probably shouldn't love it this much, but I really do. (Actually, this was one of the films I saw as a reviewer, and we all snuck out of the screening with slightly guilty looks, going: "Er... Yeah... I *blush* liked that. I feel dirty.")

Why yes, I do have rather eclectic tastes. Life's more interesting if you keep your options open.

_____
* Fate works in funny ways. When we first met, for certain reasons I wasn't ready to fall in love. So I liked him, but I immediately forgot him. A year later, the instant I saw him I felt: I don't know why, but I have to talk to this man. And within a few hours I felt: this is the man I will spend the rest of my life with. I fell in love at first sight, except that technically, it was second sight. What about you? What stories do you have about meeting your true love?

Posted by Robynn at 09:02 PM | Permalink | 1 cups of tea on the table

4 TV shows I watch:

1. Heroes. Love it, although I hear it goes the way of Lost in preferring tenterhooks over resolution, and that really irks me. Also, I'm not sure why it's hailed as so original when it's basically X-Men with added serial killer. But, hey. It's slick, glossy and on the whole, not badly scripted.

2. Medium. We're watching reruns on the SciFi channel. The quality seems to vary wildly from episode to episode; Patricia Arquette and her husband are fundamentally great, but the script and directing are sometimes appallingly clunky. And I hate the kids. Really, really annoying kids.

3. Ugly Betty. Much to my surprise, this is one of Armin's favourite shows ever. The dialogue is brilliant, but it gets a bit Desperate Housewives in the attempt to mix Intrigue with flat-out situation comedy.

4. Grey's Anatomy. I'm completely addicted. Part of what I love about this show is the presence of gorgeous, curvaceous, non-gym-hardened women in sexy roles. That more than makes up for the astonishingly skinny lead.

The thing is, though, there are an awful lot of "buts" in that list, aren't there? Apparently there isn't a single show on right now that I unabashedly love. What a shame. So I'm randomly introducing a subcategory: Shows that I ritually mourn.

1. Buffy. Okay, okay, it couldn't last forever. Okay, okay, it was losing the spark a *tiny* bit towards the end. (Though if anybody tries to criticise the finale, they will feel the pointy end of my needles.)

2. Weeds. What happened? It was perfect! Sharp, funny, challenging, brilliant. There must be a second series, surely. Surely?!

3. FIREFLY! Again, only one series? You HAVE to be kidding.

4. Gilmore Girls. Of course they're still screening this in the US, aren't they, but I can't get it. Hence the ritual mourning. It's wonderful, and I was absolutely foaming at the mouth at the end of series 5 or whatever it was that I last saw — Rory dropping out?! Rory with this Logan idiot?! What? Noooo! I have to know what happens next! I have to! ...what, that's ALL YOU'RE GIVING ME? I hate you, Hallmark. I hate you.

(And finally, two guilty pleasures: America's Next Top Model; and another for the ritual mourning files, Days of our Lives. WHY won't Five's new US channel give me Days? Why? It is the only soap in the world worth watching! It is Mad Genius! I miss it terribly.)

Posted by Robynn at 09:09 PM | Permalink | 1 cups of tea on the table

Actually that's a lie, I think the structure of this meme makes it rather more interesting. I like actual answers to actual questions — both reading and writing them. Yay tagging! Yay memes! Have I mentioned that I'm a complete narcissist? Or did the mere keeping of a blog give that away?

I suspect this meme things are supposed to be answered rather succinctly, but I'm a little longwinded; or to put it more politely, I like telling stories. This is getting rather longwinded, though; so I'm cheating. I'm breaking it up. More tomorrow.

4 jobs I have held:
[In strict chronological order, though obviously with lots of other jobs in between]
1. Hostel assistant at a school for handicapped children. This involved a large amount of nappy changing and general skivvy duties. Much to my own surprise, I absolutely loved it; and I got very, very attached to "my" kids. I still dream about them, 15 years later.

2. Temp secretary for a political campaign. The campaign office consisted of two rooms in the provincial government building (in Cape Town); the campaign staff consisted of one man (who happened to be brother to the agriculture minister), and for a few days, me. My boss was quite the character. He conducted all his meetings in the local coffee shop, which was covered in graffiti from the local politicians — including his brother, who signed himself off as "Kallie's brother". He possessed one suit, and one tie. He hired me because he was looking for someone a bit "unconventional" to stir things up in this stuffy ministerial environment; as a socially inept, eccentrically dressed and frequently barefoot 20-year-old arts student, I think he got rather more than he bargained for. But we got on fabulously, and I got him to hire my flatmate on a more permanent basis, which worked out very well for both of them.

3. Film editor. Alas, that was never actually in my job title — I was a lowly subeditor, on one of the South African Sunday papers — but it was none the less true. Oh, I should clarify, I mean "editor of the film page", not actual cutting of film. That would be Beloved's job. Well, video editor, though he has worked on celluloid too. Anyway, I got to go to previews and Be a Critic, and I loved it desperately. I have no patience with people who say being a reviewer is hard. Being a reviewer is brilliant, and they're only pretending it's not in the interests of still getting paid, which is fair enough. There's a very odd idea that people shouldn't get paid for work that happens to be fun. Ridiculous.

4. Supplements production editor, on one of the UK Sunday broadsheets. This one, a part-time gig, happens to be my present job. The secret is out! I don't devote all my time to Purlescence... more's the pity.

Posted by Robynn at 08:17 PM | Permalink | 1 cups of tea on the table

Too much to do, too little time, but I just had to draw your attention to two things.

1. As of course you know, Saturday is Knit in Public Day. Now, that's a bit like Chocolate Day in my mind (what, you mean it's allowed just once a year? Ludicrous!), but let's turn it around and say that on this day it is compulsory to KIP, rather than just greatly to be encouraged, as per usual. (Suddenly I'm liking the idea of a Chocolate Day. Oh wait, that's called Easter!)

I'm going to be joining this trouble-making group here; I've long wanted to go to one of their meetings and never quite made it. If I can't get to Jubilee Gardens on KIP Day, really, there's no hope for me! So if you can get to Waterloo, please come and join me* — *cough* I mean, them — and if you can't, I'll expect to hear all about your KIP exploits afterwards.

2. My new blogfriend Chelsey has had a marvellous idea: a knitter's book swap. Note, this is not a knitting book swap, but a book swap for knitters. Novels, not know-how. I love it. I'm signing up right this second. If you want a chance of enjoying the benefit of my most excellent literary taste, then join us! Join us! And please, spread the word.

That's it. I'll be back with pictures (of socks, and presumably, knitters! In public! Quite shameless!) very shortly.

_____
* Their itinerary is demanding. It starts on the steps of St Paul's, at noon. Then moving onto the Tate Modern (1.30-2.30), the London Eye (3.30-4.30) and Trafalgar Square (5-6pm). While I think the full tour sounds like a bundle of fun, I must restrict myself to just one choice venue, and for transport reasons** I pick the London Eye.
** I.e. I'm a lazy git who won't stray too far from the station.

Posted by Robynn at 09:51 PM | Permalink | 4 cups of tea on the table