Aunty Shabby

Why you shouldn't knit whilst watching tv... or, how to knit a ranch house

Knitting a ranch house...

I admit to being someone who doesn't always find it easy to relax. If I sit down to watch tv for any length of time, I feel guilty, like I am wasting my time or that I could be doing something else at the same time. Hence the knitting. Problem is, I normally watch tv or dvds at night and hate watching tv with all the lights on, as I hate bright lights, especially at night (no, I am not a vampire, it gives me eye strain and sometimes migraines). Whilst I am a highly evolved human being, I do need some light to see my knitting and negotiations with my husband to swap the lights or put on a lamp instead can end in tears.

If I do manage to get my way, or suffer the lights, I am usually then too engrossed in what I am watching to properly concentrate on my knitting and a 2 hr movie, which should be a fantastic knitting opportunity, yields a couple of rows at best! And forget trying to knit whilst watching foreign, sub-titled movies! I tried this again recently and literally did almost knit a ranch house (and if you don't know what this means, despite the pic, get thee to a video store, rent "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and then come back to my blog when you have a bit more culture.) I found myself trying to knit into the same stitch more than once (it was a garter stitch scarf) and stopping mid row or mid stitch to read the sub-titles far too often!

Funny thing is my sister, green olive, doesn't seem to share this fate! She is perhaps the most prolific knitter I know, and seems to be able to knit anywhere. I think she must knit in her sleep! I'm sure she dreams of wool! I must ask her secret - perhaps she just listens to the dialogue or maybe she can knit without looking, a bit like touch typing which I can't do either! I have a taped tv show to watch tonight, so am going to give it another go, as I have a scarf for my mother-in-law to finish. It has to be posted overseas for Christmas so no excuses! It is made from a lovely purple, hand-dyed wool, so will post photos and tell you all about it next time...

PS: Photo taken of one of a set of "Breakfast at Tiffany's" lobby cards I bought in 1992 for $200, which back then was a lot of money.

How to make a silk purse out of a man's tie...

A stash of silk fabrics, initially made to adorn men’s necks!

Purchased yesterday during a surprisingly short Aunty Shabby/Green Olive shopping expedition. I say surprisingly short, as we only visited ONE store. Well, one fabric store. We also briefly went into a pet store and a Subway (restaurant, not mode of transport) to use the toilet and buy a drink and cookies, but that doesn’t count.

No doubt my sister, greenolive, has already posted about this, with a better photo and a funny story about how she got there first to scope out the good stuff, how the lady serving us knew we were sisters by our witty repartee, and how we both exceeded our budgets. But were very happy with our purchases nonetheless!

Even though we bought a lot of the same fabrics, which is a given, she also went for the pinks and reds and more stripes and patterns; I was more drawn to the browns and darker and heavier weights. Her silks are destined to be scarves. What else? Mine face mixed fortunes: most will probably end up as handbag linings; others may be features on bags or clothing. Stay tuned for photos and tales of works in progress…

By the way, I have just set up my own flickr site and am uploading photos as we speak – check out http://www.flickr.com/photos/auntyshabby

How did Fred Flinstone manage?

Does technology rule your life? And when do you know if you've gone too far? (No, the irony of this being the subject of a blog post has not escaped me.) Is it when you start plotting your period in an excel spreadsheet? When you Google or Wikipedia everything and never use a hard copy (read REAL) encyclopedia or dictionary anymore? Or when you research and table the RRPs for merchandise you want to buy more cheaply online, just to be sure that you are indeed getting a bargain? I must admit the latter, though imminently practical, can take the joy out of online shopping or browsing.

Or when, as occurred to me this week, my mobile phone battery died (and yes, that is a photo of said phone), and for the whole day I felt oddly disconnected. Arranging to meet my husband after work at a book store in the city suddenly became a logistical nightmare and the pressure to catch the right tram to meet at the appointed time was almost too much! I even remarked to a friend later that it was crazy and wondered what we did without mobile phones. The scary thing is that I do remember - it really wasn't that long ago!!

So what does all this have to do with an allegedly crafty blog and if I am such a technophobe (I'm not really), then what am I doing here in blogland?! I'll admit I was rather skeptical about setting up a blog and until about 7 years ago, I was a lawyer who had others do my online research and used email mainly for professional purposes. What changed? Everything! I ditched law (well, not entirely, but that's another story), embraced my inner "artiste" and found I actually had a knack for this web stuff.

Whilst I still appreciate technology and what it allows us to do, I love the simplicity and authenticity of handwritten letters (who writes anymore?), reading from a printed newspaper, diagrams and scribbles on scrap paper and real photos printed from negatives. This may be part of the reason why I love making things. It's not just the process itself, which I really enjoy and find bizarrely therapeutic, but the end result - a genuinely unique, handmade article which reflects you and your style and in some way contains a little piece of you. Perhaps this is what I am trying to achieve through this blog - a shared appreciation for technology but at the same time a love of all things crafty and handmade, and an escape, albeit briefly, from the (un)real world!

I hope you enjoy reading my blog - I do endeavour to post regularly and look forward to reading all of your comments!