pigs ears, colour coding and sock patterns

it is early morning on the east coast of australia and i just tried to take the dogs for a run on the beach only to find it is covered with bluebottles. i dont mean a few, i mean a carpet. as we came round the point i thought oh, lots of shells on the beach this morning. only to discover they were little blue jelly nasties. jem has a habit of rolling in things so i took them straight home again. unpleasant. i assume this is because of the nor-easters from the storms they are having up north.

so, i will have to take them to the park instead this arvo, and here they are at home with their compensatory dried pigs ears.


they are not happy because i am making them wait. good puppies.

the other day i mentioned colour coding the pensky file. here it is:


i am working on a chapter that is purely primary source driven, that is, a collation of all the material i could find in the archives etc about the group of people im writing about. i did this part of my research more than three years ago and because i did not have my theory worked out then, i was not sure what parts of it would be relevant. so when i sat down to write i realised i had no idea what i had to write about. so, now that i have my 'categories of analysis' sorted out, i have to go back and re-read it and tag everything with a colour post-it note depending on which category it refers to. this is time consuming and labourious but at least it is re-familiarising myself with my sources. the writing should be relatively simple now.

and who said i wasnt pensky material?!

meanwhile, i have made some decisions about what wool for what sock pattern. i am going to heed everyones advice about using solid yarns with lace, and have talked to the german fibre whore about supplying some, and i am waiting to see what the birthday (note: 27th) throws up before ordering any koigu/lornas laces for the waving lace and embossed leaves patterns. in the meantime i am going to go ahead with the anne budd toe ups in the desert 5 ply, and also make jaywalkers out of this opal (a possible gift if i get them done in time) and this bamboo. this cotton remains temporarily pattern-less, although i am thinking it could cope with the pattern it is sitting on top of in that picture.

and, just because i was skiting the other day about how easy stocking stitch socks are now, and how ive figured out how to do it without a pattern, the knitting fairy decided that i would not be able to correctly measure 16 cms. can you see what im talking about:

sigh.

they are going to be inside boots or under pants so it doesnt really matter but i do wonder where my head's at some days.

oh thats right, in the pensky file!

k xx