WIP WIP Away!

It's been a while since I've done a WIP Wednesday, so I figured it was about time to get my act together and admit that every single project I am working on at the moment involves only the knit stitch...

I'm working on these ridiculously ugly socks in Opal Rainforest Hummel for my brother-in-law for Christmas. These colours scream 1970s kitchen appliance in a way that's completely not retro chic. I'm actually questioning whether I can even give them to him - they ares so very very ugly.

They're going slowly but surely; they'll get done soon.

I also knit a hat: a Rikke, to be specific. I love the knitted fabric and I know the hat is designed to be  slouchy but I think it might a bit too big. I have enough wool left over to make another one, so I am. I'm using eight fewer stitches in the second one (96 rather than 104). 

Why, you ask, would I be knitting a hat where the seasons are changing and the weather is becoming warmer? Well, firstly, I live in Melbourne so there is no guarantee that the changing seasons will result in warmer weather. I regularly have to put the heater on in the summer! It's mental. But the real reason I am knitting a hat right now is because...

..I'm going away! My university have given me a travel grant to do some archival research in the UK and I am jetsetting off very shortly. It's all been a bit of a whirlwind - I got the grant only six weeks before the conference date, so it has been a mad rush to renew my passport, book flights and find someone to housesit my place and look after Lucy. I leave in just under four weeks and I am SO EXCITED. It feels a bit weird that someone is going to be living in my house and playing with my stuff but I think I'll get over that really quickly when I have my first glass of wine on the flight. 

I haven't told Lucy yet, though. I don't think she'll take it well...

WIP Wednesday: The World Cup's Almost Over Edition

Happy Wednesday, everyone! I am in a fantastic mood today because I just had another chapter of my thesis okayed by my supervisor, which means I am halfway done with the writing up of my loooooooooong ongoing research project. THIS IS FANTASTIC NEWS!! The thing with long-term research projects is that you work and work and work and work and work and work but often don't see any result from your work except for pages of notes and increased knowledge. Both of these are vital for writing the thesis yet (unfortunately) neither are submittable in their original form. To have not only words on the page but words on the page that are of a good and convincing quality feels fantastic and like one day I might actually get this thesis done.

Of course, in order to get the chapter done I spent a lot of time sitting at my desk. A lot of time, like ten hours a day. When I put on my jeans to go to the footy on Saturday, I noticed a definite difficulty in getting the zip up. I have worked too hard on maintaining my fitness since breaking my leg to lose muscle tone just to get a mere postgraduate qualification, so yesterday I started working at a standing desk.

The kitchen bench is the perfect height for me to work at standing. This is how I work, with Word open on my laptop and my notes and reference materials on my iPad. As I have said here before, I held off on getting an iPad because it felt so unnecessary and decadent. An iPad is unnecessary and decadent but it makes nearly every part of my life easier. I imagine I feel the same way as my grandmother did when she got a washing machine and no longer had to run clothes through a mangle - pure unadulterated joy. My iPad is now my my fourth most loved item, behind Lucy, Sam and my football team. If St Kilda lose again this weekend, it's moving into third place.

My World Cup socks are slowly progressing, much (it feels) like the World Cup itself. Surely it has to finish soon. I swear it has been going on forever and is possibly never going to stop. That said, I am knitting awfully slowly at the moment! Hopefully by the time I finish the foot and find my darning needle, the soccer will have finally stopped. Fingers crossed :)

Viva Australia! And a non-starter on the sourdough starter...so far

Happy Monday, y'all.

I was super excited to get to my sourdough starter this morning because Peter Reinhart said there could be some bubble action happening...

..but no - it looks just the same as last time. I also found out yesterday that most people do their starters in jars rather than containers. This is about the point where I'd normally give up, but this time I'm sticking with it. I "fed" the starter some more flour and water (does anyone else find it oddly cannibalistic that the starter is fed on what it is - like it just keeps eating itself. No, just me? Okay then.) and I've sourced an appropriate jar, which I will sterilise tonight and have ready to use by tomorrow. I am determined to end up with some sourdough after all of this work!!

It has unavoidably come to my attention that there is currently a soccer World Cup happening. For some reason, people who I had previously considered sane and normal have turned into the type of people who get up at 4am to watch a game which doesn't even have their team in it! I do love footy and I watch footy all the time but only the Aussie version. I'm a bit of a bogan liket that. I'm used to lots of scoring and amazing feats of physical prowess and watching games at reasonable hours (although the AFL is doing its very best to change the reasonable hour thing). European football contradictorily makes me incredibly tense (Will they score! Maybe this time! Maybe this time! Maybe THIS time?) and puts me to sleep (Nil-all draw, anyone?). So, to deal with the fact I'm going to lose hours of my life that I will never get back to this contest, I thought I'd celebrate the event instead of complaining about it. It may be too early to start drinking at 6am but it's never too early to knit socks.

I thought it the colours would be appropriate because of green in the Aussie's green and gold...plus I just bought the yarn and I really wanted to use it.

Viva Australia! And (fingers crossed) viva my sourdough starter...