I am totally tooting my own horn here, but you can check out a pattern for a knitted capelet in the latest issue of Creative Knitting Magazine which came out on Monday, in Australia.
I wear my Poodle a lot, suprisingly,
There’s also a super interesting article in there about a group who have been creatively vandalising around Sydney lately, as well as a bit on Knitta, a group in the US who predominately decorate with knitted things.
You can get it from pretty much all newsagents in Australia, and you can also get it in NZ, but I’m not sure of it’s availibility. I will stop tootin now!

While waiting in the parking lot at the local Woolworths this afternoon, at around 3pm, a disapora of school kids swamed by, and I noticed, for the first time EVER, young men wearing exhibiting a wonderful style, which brought great joy to my heart.
After having been disapointed by: shorts so low that everyone can see at least 20cm of boxer shorts and then sometimes you can even see UNDERWEAR under the boxer shorts , and more recently: lads in very very tight black jeans. Hello. SO BAD. They look sort of good on gangly 20somethings, but not on pre-mid pubescent boys.
But I digress, groups of boys walking past were wearing shorts and KNEE SOCKS! That’s right, knee socks! I was close enough to some of them to notice that some of them were proper big w grandpa socks, the sort all the girls wore in the mid 90s because they wanted to be as cute as Kathi Wilcox!
This is great. I don’t know if it is a side effect of what they, today are calling “emo”, but I don’t care. Knee socks for all the boys, I say.

Caxton and Pretty girls like poetry badges

Originally uploaded by spycore.

Designed for my friend Alison Gerber, who is a poet, and Jono Gerber, who is in the band Caxton. They are married, and I am proud and must play up this fact because I feel bad that I missed their wedding due to being overwhelmed by anti church feelings by the person who I was involved with.
Anyway, it was rad to be able to design for them, and we’re all super happy with how they turned out! And it was great fun to design something for someone else, especially for projects that are very awesome such as these.

benny-and-miss-helen

Originally uploaded by spycore.

Canary pool on flickr. So much canary goodness, as I know at least three people who are quite close to catching the canary bug from listening to my tales of the joy of Benny!
I am updating lots because I am in love with my new design. Here is a picture that my friend Janet drew of Benben and I. It is so amazing, and I am so vain and I love her work so much, that I would like to see it as a) vinyl stickers, b) tshirts c) badges d) embroided patches.

my wheels

Originally uploaded by spycore.

In point form. In order to sound busy, important and unaffected:
* Kicked the weekend off with a girldate with Fiona to see some Illustrated Books exhibition at the Japan Foundation, a highly enjoyable Max Brenner experience, girly silliness around town hall, and rather grown up beverages at the Bowling Club.
* Walked home from the train station, singing along to the New Pornographers, and rather enjoying loftus.
* Having a man yell out of his car “YOUR SOCKS DON’T MATCH” which made me laugh, and it turned out that I knew him, so I stuck out my tongue. Love Loftus. You see, in Penrith, if someone yelled something like that at you, you’d be required to pretend you didn’t hear it and also that you don’t exist, to avoid being stabbed or worse.
* Spray painted bmx. My Aim was to make it simultaneously more and less sissy. I think it worked. It is only half done. I wish to add some red. I will ride it more now that the front isn’t white. Tiiiiiiiiim, can we have skateboarding lessons? Is there anywhere good near your house or anywhere, really? The front of VB’s house? This should have been an email.
* Baked Cherry Chocolate cupcakes in our new oven.
* Recovered from spray paint fumes.
* Had an overly bubbly bath, reading comics in froth that was so thick I had to fully extend my arms. Which really isn’t saying much given my tyranasaurus rex arms. But it was rather uncomfortable.
* Began knitting pink and red striped fingerless mittens.
I am wild, no?

Just announcing that the site is going to look a bit funny for the next bit, while I redecorate! It will be well worth it…

Ooooh I am looking forward to Easter! Such funness.
I know it’s probably disrespectful to those who celebrate the rebirth of Jesus, but heck, I celebrate PASTEL COLOURS, rampant consumerism, chocolate and Bunnies and little yellow birds! Even though it isn’t even spring here, it feels like it, when those pipe cleaner chickens start popping up in the shops. World like puri? Here we come.

This is more aimed at the commercial clothing world than the knitting world, but the knitting world would do well to listen up(Australian Country Spinners, I’m looking at you!).

Poncho: A garmet that warms the upper body and is in once peice with triangular shaping. Does not have a front opening(good for restraining children). May or may not have a hood and may be as short as to the elbows, or as long as to the toes(not reccomended).
Cape/capelet: Like a poncho but with a front opening. To the poncho as the cardigan is to the jumper(or sweater if you’re american). Capelets are generally from shoulder to elbow length, capes can be as long as you wish.
Wrap: something that is not as shaped as a cape/capelet but lacks the arm holes to make it a rectangle with arm holes.
Bolero: a cardgian, with sleeves of any length from cap to full length, a back section that extends below the arm length and front cardigan style bits that can button up and are generally rounded in shape.
Shrug: sleeves with a back section holding it together, and sometimes a front section, that isn’t any longer than the arm holes(often confused with bolero).
Cropped cardigan: Not a bolero or shrug. I think to me, it has to do with the shaping- cropped cardigans often have a rectangulary front panel and button up. The torso section is no longer than waist length.
Knitted rectangle with armholes: knitted rectangle with armholes(usually on the reduced rack because no one wanted to buy it).

hdawgpuri

Originally uploaded by spycore.

Here is my purikura with Heidi. I hadn’t puried in so long!
I could ramble on about puri, but I shant, as it is Sunday Afternoon and I have a herb garden to plant(and a little yellow bird’s heart to break when I move the collection of artifically greened nursery pots away from next to his cage. He has been staring at them longingly since I put them there… I will explain to him that they will grow better in the ground and that he will be able to eat them for so much longer than if I let him at them in the pots, mind, in order to repair his tiny heart. I think about canary too much <3).

John Weeks tagged me. Being that I feel as though I grew up on his comics, I thought I ought to do what he said.

I took notes all day in my Pin Bear note book, in point form. Today was no a typical day in the life of Miss Helen, however, I shall proceed.

I woke up feeling kind of confused. I knew I was going into town, but was worried that H-dawg was going to pike or be too busy for me, as I was feeling rather teenagerly paranoid. And it is weird to wake up and not know your plans. So I got up and showered and smsed H-dawg a few times, to work out our meeting point and time. Realised I had lots of time to kill, so thusly: checked and replied to emails(including an interview I did that is very exciting, top secret but not at all lucrative), then checked my livejournal friends list.

I then showered(in Bada Bing Bada Boom shwer jelly) and dusted with Candy Fluff(it is talcum powder that smells like LOLLIES. Pink, musk flavoured lollies). My heart to Lush. I dug through my clothes and picked out a red and pink striped themed outfit, screeching with jy when I found socks that matched my red and pink striped top. *ahem*. Realised that I didn’t kill enough time and sat down for some animal crossing.
Made a list of things to do in Sutherland(which is the next suburb over from mine- mine has maybe 4 shops and a service station- Sutherland is our local metropolis), which was:
* Check po box
* Do banking
* Pet shop for Canary Crumbles
* Lunch
So I did all of those things, buying Snuffy dog a rawhide taco in the pet shop and talking to the man about how it is her birthday(she’s 8 ). I had a Vietnamese pork roll for lunch, as they are the tastiest cheap eat in Sutherland. Mmmm processed meats with bizarre mayonnaise pastey stuff, coriander and salady stuff, with maggi seasoning(which is what Fiona is in love with- she claims msg is a naturally forming substance and it is ok to put on your food). They call it soy sauce, but I recognise the bottle.

I waited for half an hour for a train. I knitted for a while(I’m working on fingerless gloves, that are pink and have a cable), opened my mail(there was a late Valentines Day card from Heather Galaxy, which spewed glitter all over me,which totally took me back to my high school days of getting zine mail and being glitter bombed, I loved it). I conducted a short cultural survey, in order to dispell the myth that the Sutherland Shire is full of whiteys. Which sort of failed, because I estimate that 2/3 of the people n the platform were whiteys. The non Whiteys consisted predominantly of asian and Islander types. Conclusion: yes, the shire is mostly full of whitey. But there is more cultural diversity than most people give credit for.

Listened to my little pink mp3 player that was not made by Apple, and inked in a comic strip that I drew the other night. Waited at pre organised spot at Central and knitted, as H was running late.
We walked to Puriland, via Gizz Spot(unfortunate name, but I HAD to take H in there) and took SWEET PURI. It had been over a month, and the lady told me that they had a new machine that prints out Fluro. I am waiting for the day when the wind machine machine is obsolete in Japan and they ship it over here. Anyway, we puri-ed, and she told me that puripuripuri is mre of a sound effect than a word, but I loved it. I will scan them on the morrow. None the less, you will laugh.

We then wandered over to Market City and I drank passionfruit blended ice and H drank jasmine green tea something something something something blended ice. Then we went to various shops in the top part of market city supre was amazing(Oh god, did I just say that? I mean amazing as in “look at the horrors of the world, it’s spectacular”), theyhad $2 tshirts(go there if you want to print), and they were also selling those skirts that are a strip of fabric and a ruffle, that you don’t really see anyone wearing for $2 . I joked about buying two or three and making a proper skirt. A joke I am still not over. We went to other factory outlets and I brought a red and pink striped tshirt with a deer on the chest, and buttons up the side from a shop that was selling Purr stuff, reduced, and I brought some pom pom makers for $2(the super good japanese style ones, that clip together and are rather magical). We then strolled up Dixon St and oogled more merch at the street festival(I almost brought a cardigan that had mushrooms and birds on it), we went to the huge Morning Glory, which seemed rather shite, and then to the little one where I brought a multicoloured cartridge crayon, for portable colour(!!!). We went to a misc asian clothes shp where I brought a star print sleeveless dress for $5. Bargain, no? We had another frozen drink, and then H-dawg saw a japanese boy who she couldn’t stop staring at, and we had to leave because she was missing Japan too much! Cho kawaii! H taught me useful Japanese phrases such as WTF, Crap I’m so tired(the Japanese have handy one word words for phrases that I need at least 6 for).

I walked H up to the big bus interchange at Central station and got her safely on a bus to Newtown, and headed off to go home. I couldn’t resist popping into Artbox, where I brought a pink strawberry print headband, because it was exactly what I was wishing for that morning. I brought quite a lot of stuff. But it was all useful. It’s not as though I brought blythe puri albums or anything. Nope, not this time.
Had to wait another stinking half hour for my train but there were Punk Loli’s on my trainstation, with a Shibuya bag. I smiled at them, but they were 16 and no doubt thought me strange. But it was exciting to spot niche subculture buddies.

I caught the first train that came in, which was an all stations to Mortdale, which seemed to take forever, so I listened to my pink non apple mp3 player, knitted and napped. Got off at Mortdale and waited for the next train. It started raining at about Jannali and was pouring at Sutherland, but was clear at Loftus. I was excited by the prospect of bath and even picked out my bath bomb. My recent rampant consumer and cosmetic whorage is so embarrassing, but if I weren’t to mention it, you wouldn’t be getting the whole picture of my day.

I came home and ate bean burritos, tucked Canarypants in, as he was already asleep(world’s best Mum had fed him a mixture of Peas(frozen), carrot and corn(fresh). We love her so. I gave Snuffy her taco, and she loves it so much she couldn’t bear to eat it.

Now I’m sitting here, mindlessly browsing the internet, thinking about getting my act together enough to go to sleep.