Why are people so cruel...?

Well thank you all for prompting some memories!!

How could I have forgotten Blake’s 7 or Red Dwarf? Or Space 1999, or Lost in Space or any one of the others you've reminded me of? One of my earliest memories is watching Doctor Who (the very first Doctor) while recovering from a mump and measles in 1964! (That memory and the one of waiting for the blue balloon I had swallowed to *ahem* reappear are my very earliest).

On the knitting front, stuff has been happening – friends of ours had a baby 2 weeks early and I’ve knitted a top down seamless baby Kimono for him and a certain Canberra Blogger had her bump early on Saturday morning and I have something on the needles for her – will post photos after blocking!

I am always convinced that I have heaps of time (especially for baby knitting) and that it will actually take me no time at all to knit baby stuff (knitting fairies, anyone?).

This is, of course, always wrong. This attitude of mine will explain why the recipients of these baby gifts will get them in the next week or so. Mind you, having a baby 2 weeks early is just inconsiderate, because I really thought I had heaps of time, and I’m sure baby stuff takes no time to knit…..

I must learn to spin. I must learn to spin because I won Mandie’s ‘What’s Ewe Name?’ competition and she sent me gorgeous fibre as the prize. She also sent me some fabulous sock yarn which she had custom milled and has not yet dyed all of. Immediately harass her, because the stuff she sent me was absolutely gorgeous and was indescribably beautiful colours. Here is my loot!

In addition, I had a brain explosion and bought some Wollmeise from a lady who was de-stashing Until I received this skein I thought it was completely mythical- like dragons and people who can knit lace without looking at it. It is real and lovely!

I also suffered some sort of breakdown and bought more Malabrigo – just in case sheep go bald – or it takes them months to build up stock after their fire.


And then my LYS had a 40% off everything sale!

I have no defences against this type of cruelty. How can I resist!

Remember – keep those comments coming- you’ve got three days until my blogiversary deadline. There will be prizes!

Oh – and I think Firefly and Serenity were wonderful, and Angel and Buffy kick ass!

The Alien Weirdness of Kniters (Yay!)

Almost from the very beginning of reading knitblogs I have been amazed at the number of knitters fascinated with science fiction and fantasy. During my childhood, adolescence and rather loooooong maturation, I found it almost impossible to find fellow SFF fans and readers.

I was indoctrinated by my mother into SF at a very early age – in fact, I spent 3 years absolutely terrified of the dark after reading Andre Norton’s Starman’s Son (also published as ‘Daybreak-2250AD) when I was 7. (Don’t judge me until you have read it yourself – the scene where the man is tortured with a rat – and then.. – Brrrr!)

Throughout my teenage years there were no real sci-fi people about. I was considered deeply weird at the rural schools I attended – not only did I read (strange!) but I READ SCIENCE FICTION (geek city!)

Mum and I watched ‘The Champions’, ‘Star Trek’ (the original series), ‘The Guardians (about a dystopian Britain with an exiled royal family, run by its security forces), ‘Out of the Unknown (a very scary British answer to the Twilight Zone – which we also watched), and any other sci fi, alternative history, slightly off beat television series we could find.

We went to any Sci Fi movies which came (briefly) to our local cinema. I still remember going to see ‘Star Wars’ with her when it first came out (not long before her death).

I have never given up my addiction to SFF. I was a regular mail order customer for Galaxy Books for many years, spending chunks of my salary (well, the bits not earmarked for wine and cigarettes) on feeding my vice. But rarely did I meet another person who revelled in my personal favourite genres. I had to make a massive effort to force my husband into reading my library – which he now happily does.

Fast forward to 2 years ago, when I discovered knitblogs. The weird paradox of people engaged in an ancient craft revelling in alternate futures, fantasy worlds, paranormal adventures and weird aliens confronted me. It also made me very, very happy.

Not only did you knit, but you knitted and read and watched the same things I did! (Many of you are also Jane Austen Fans – and that makes me even happier!! In fact, someone mentioned Georgette Heyer recently in their blog – and that REALLY made my day.)

I still primarily read SF – though more slowly now my reading time is curtailed by mothering and domestic duties. I love to watch SF – though I am disappointed the Sci-Fi channels seems to only screen Star Trek and Stargate and their spinoffs.

So as my first Blogiversary approaches, leave a comment to tell me your favourite science fiction or fanatasy (all paranormal subjects included) book, film, and/or TV series (now or in the past). Please, Lurkers, come forward and drop me a line. All commenters between now and midnight on 3 July –Australian Eastern Standard Time (the day after my blogiversary) will get an entry into a random draw. There will be prizes. And I will finally get to meet yet more people who share my addictions!

A Room with a View

Very quick update.

There’s been knitting happening. But the Gathered Pullover’s body is almost finished and a bit’s been added to Juliet. Some knitting has also happened for the Ravelry Swap – but no teasers in case the recipient reads this blog!

Some sewing has also been happening. I’ve finished some curtains which were started last winter and made some baby things (no spoilers for that either as I know 1 recipient to be is a reader). But it’s the first time the sewing machine has been out for a while.

This is the view from my window. Very wintry.

But here are the first of the (rather early) spring flowers.

And here is my camellia bush – or rather – my camellia tree – I have 2 of these and this is the larger. It has bright pink blooms (which you can’t see. And yes, that is our first floor verandah in the photo – and just remember, we have 14 foot ceilings! It is a VERY big camellia.

This is the other reason I haven’t been blogging or knitting much – these two rather fill up my days!



I will try to be more informative over the next few weeks once the immediate knitting and sewing pressure is off!

Honey, I'm Ho-ome!

Well, the washing is done, the kidlets are back at school and childcare, some of the catching up with your blogs is done, and life is returning to normal after the holiday.

It was a lovely holiday. I nearly finished the Dublin Bay Socks while we were away (did the toe decreases on sock 2 last night) and did half of 1 Francie.

I have discovered some important truths about holiday knitting.

You CAN knit when:
1. You are in a hammock;
2. Drinking cocktails (but don’t attempt lace after the second one);
3. Riding in a high speed ferry in rough weather;
4. Sitting by the pool;
5. Sitting on the verandah;
6. Waiting on the beach for the family to wake up in the morning.

You CANNOT knit when:
1. You are snorkelling;
2. You are eating dinner with your husband by candlelight under the stars (well, maybe I could have, but it just didn’t seem the right time somehow);
3. You are waiting at the bottom of the waterslide to catch children;
4. You are in the pool with children;
5. You are learning to dive;
6. You are clutching the sides of a speed boat;
7. You are cleaning up vomit;
8. You are vomiting;
9. You are making sand castles;
10. You are kayaking in choppy seas;
11. You are trying to climb onto a slippery pontoon because you have just discovered you are snorkelling alone with a largish shark and your powers of levitation have failed;
12. You are sitting on a pontoon a LOOOOONG way from shore trying to work out how to get into a kayak without falling into the water you have just got out of because you discovered you were sharing it with a 2 metre shark. (Granted, the shark didn’t seem that interested, but we’d like to keep it that way, wouldn’t we?)

We had fun. No-one got sunburnt, the children are totally waterlogged – every day meant time in the water until wrinkled and prune-like. Fiji is a great place to go with children – it’s pretty close so the flight is short, kids love it, the locals love kids, it’s really relaxed and the food is good.

Additionally, when we arrived home there were some parcels waiting for me.

The incomparable Donyale had returned some yarn which I had sent her for dyeing, but included a Berocco pattern booklet I was lusting after and some Knitpicks cables. You are a wonderful woman - and will be rewarded! She dyed the yak and wool sock yarn with her 'Wicked Witch' colourway.

My second order from The Loopy Ewe had arrived

My rash order from WEBS sale arrived in a big box (2 jumpers worth of Cascade 220 – a dark grey and an aqua and a jumpers worth of Gedifra cotton merino in bright red) .

And Yarn 10 – with my article in it.

A lovely holiday – but it’s very nice to be home!

We're all goin' on a Winter Holiday, No more working for a week or two!

Well, we are off on holiday tomorrow. This means I am
A) wearing my most disreputable bra
B) the dreadful pants
C) the top I don’t like
D) jeans which are almost (but not quite) ready for the recycling bag

This is standard pre-holiday clothing in my house. What about yours?

For the next or so weeks I will be reclining on a tropical island, sipping banana daiquiris and …What? Oh yes, the children will be there too…

OK – I will be on a tropical island, hot and flustered, hoping the children are moderately good and don’t drown themselves. Happy now?

Of course it’s a holiday. This means I won’t be cooking or washing up for 2 whole weeks – that’s my kind of holiday.

Just to hold you, here are some pretty piccies. First up, the Tidal Wave Sock in Vesper. Aren’t they purty? They look like Raspberry, Mango and Pistachio Gelato – good enough to eat.

Here is a package from the Loopy Ewe. My first ever. Service great – crack er, umm, YARN wonderful. This package has Hand Maiden Seasilk in Renaissance, Numma Numma Baby Boo in Spinach and Brown Rice, Spritely Goods in Mallow and Shibui in Autumn. The bright amongst you (all of you) will have noticed there is only one skein of the Shibui. This is because I become so overcome that I forgot you needed two for a pair of socks. Duh!

This has meant I had to do another order. Bad Knitter! Bad Bad Knitter!!

And finally, a present from the wonderful Madmad – a SIGNED COPY OF THE YARN HARLOT’S NEW BOOK – for me! Thank you!

Oh – and my Rockin’ Sock Club parcel arrived too – Shrinking Violet, for Cleopatra’s Stockings. Mmmm!

So for the next 2 weeks, I’m not dead, just on holiday. I’ll spend 3 weeks after I get back catching up with you all!

Hugs.
xo

Those Were the Days My Friend,

I pinched this from Catsmum, who pinched it from Elspeth.

Below are the top 106 books tagged “unread” in Librarything.

The rules:Bold what you have read, italicize books you’ve started but couldn’t finish, underline those ones you read for school.
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi : a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
The Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
The Canturbury Tales
The Historian : a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible : a novel
1984
Angels & Demons
The Inferno
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver’s Travels
Les Misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela’s Ashes : a memoir
The God of Small Things
A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake : a novel
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame -
Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity’s Rainbow
The Hobbit
In Cold Blood
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers


Before I had children and knitted incessantly, I read. And read and read and read. I was never to be found without a book in my bag (and often a spare in case I finished and had nothing to read). I had almost permanent scabs on my knees and bumps on my head from falling over and running into things because I was reading while walking. I would stay awake until books were finished – and if that meant an hours sleep, then that’s what I would do.

I still read quite a bit – but not as much as BC. (You can read while breast feeding in the middle of the night – you just need to juggle a bit!)

Blasting into the 3rd Dimension!

I turned a heel the other day. This is something I have done around 50 times now (yes - about 25 pairs of socks) and every single time I am overcome by my own cleverness. This is not an arrogant thing. It’s not hubris. It’s wonder and amazement. I stare at the heel I’ve turned and I am captivated by how lovely it is. I am entranced that I have actually knitted into the third dimension! I can hardly believe that I have done something as wonderful as this.

I can’t imagine this feeling wearing off. I can’t imagine one day going ‘Oh yeah, another heel. Big deal.’ I can’t imagine one day being so blasé about this amazing trick that I won’t care anymore.

Thank you for all your nice comments on the last post. I know that there are lots of us Knitters out there. I know I am not Robinson Crusoe on this one. But it is nice to be reminded that there’s a crowd of us, excited about knitting and crocheting (yes, I am talking about you QuiltingMick – I don’t want to be on the CLF’s hitlist!)

Here are some pretty photos for you.

The Tahoe in all her glory. I adored knitting this, loved the pattern, loved the Zara – and the bands are from the Patomonster from Wang. I have the horrid feeling I need to move one button though. Damn!

And here is a stash addition. Somehow, these cones of golden cashmere silk (70/30) fell into a bag addressed to me – how could that have happened? Now I need to find the perfect pattern for such gorgeousness.

And just because all you Canberrans got to have a serious fibre orgy, I gave in and made a little order from the Loopy Ewe. I’ll show you pictures later. After I’ve finished fondling. At least long enough to take a photo.

And my weekend holds two social events. A Tupperware party on Friday night. And a Stitch and Bitch at the Anvers Chocolate Factory on Sunday. By the fire. Because down here in Tasmania it was really cold today.