Hello, my name is Sandy. I'm an artist in Perth, WA.

I made a vest! Lovingly known as the Turdigan for its browny hue and flecks. There’s just under a kilometre of yarn in this ‘Belinda Vest’, which took about 30 hours over 10 days to complete.

The lady at the yarn shop offered some great advice when I told her what I planned to do with all my woollen balls – she said to take each part of the pattern separately, one at a time, because it’s overwhelming to consider a whole pattern at once. So I took it one at a time, one half-double crochet stitch after another, repeat ad pain in shouldereum.

The last thing I need to do before I can put it on is ‘block’ it. This is where you pin the garment to a board according to its measurements in the pattern, then spray it with water. As it dries, it takes on the shape defined by the pins. I was hoping to wear this to work tomorrow, but looks like I’ll be hitting the yarn shop instead for half a million pins. Time to crochet a pin cushion.

Permalink. Posted 20 May, 2013. Tagged: crochet, hobbies, making stuff.

It’s fashionable to complain about acrylic yarn, but Dora and I don’t care much for fashion. I’ve got two huge balls of egg yolk yellow acrylic from when I just started crochet. Such a shame to waste yarn, no matter what people say. The internet reckons it’s just fine if you can find suitable uses for it – pet blankets are one such use, because acrylic is easy to wash and care for.

Now that the weather is cooler, and I’ve had a bit more experience, I don’t mind this fibre as much. When I was little, my dad would tell me only noobs complain about tools and materials, because a skilled craftsman will find a way to make it work. Surely that can’t be right in all situations, but sometimes I find it’s right and nice to aspire to.

So I’m working this Tulip Stitch Cat Cage Blanket I found on Ravelry. I have a personal goal this year to burn through as many of my art supplies as possible. Every time I pick up a new hobby, I acquire and hoard. Supplies somehow find their way into my possession through paranoid over-buying, generous hand-me-down-ing from hobby buddies who decided not to continue, or impulse shopping while hungry. I have a wooden crate full of yarn balls now, some left over from a million years ago when I was obsessed with knitting scarves.

I still wouldn’t recommend learning with acrylic, though. Or even good wool. The more friction-y the fibre, the more easily it snags – better to spend extra on just one exquisite ball of smooth, smooth cashmere, so you can learn technique without the annoying parts. Crochet is great cos if you mess up, you can pull apart and start over, so there’s little risk in using nice things.

The weather in Perth has been super blustery. Perfect weather for crochet. And eating. And gaming. Anything indoors. It’s nice. I’m hanging out for a change, and random stormy weather brings on a different mood. We have a rent inspection next week – not the change in routine I hoped for, but meh, what you gonna do.

Permalink. Posted 8 May, 2013. Tagged: crochet, hobbies, making stuff.

What a lovely surprise this morning. My window box sugar snap peas are now 6 weeks old, and one has started to flower. Certainly not as quick as the ones in my garden bed outside, but considering these guys don’t have much room, sunlight or fertiliser (they subsist on old tea leaves), they seem to be doing okay.

I’m tempted to raid the coffee puck bin in the kitchen, so we can get some nitrogen-rich stuff into the soil, but I’m kind of grossed out by that machine. I’ve been burying strawberry tops and other tiny fruit scraps, hoping the centipedes will break them down. Maybe that’s enough for now. I hope we get a good number of peas. That would be swell.

Permalink. Posted 2 May, 2013. Tagged: fun at work, indoor peas, office garden, trying to be organic, window box.