Transmission will be interrupted in 5,4,3,2,......

Here is my first Summer of Lace FO. It's a Liesl in Lamb's Pride Cotton Fleece in and unreleased peacock colour. It took 2.5 skeins (around 500 metres!) and 10 days. I love it

On another front, I apologise for not being a good blogger. There's been some very bad stuff happening at present in our lives. All my energy is going into trying to appear normal on a day to day basis, and not screaming, crying or being sick.

We are waiting for news, but in the interim, blogging will be spasmodic. Knitting is happening. I have also been reading blogs, but lurking, rather than commenting. Things are just a bit overwhelming and I can't seem to get it together to write more that the occasional comment.

In the meantime, I'm still here, I can still be emailed (I love to be emailed!), I am still reading all your doings and general excitement (it's all that is keeping me sane), but I may not be commenting and/or blogging much. Forgive me.

Normal transmission will resume as soon as possible.

Carton of Delights

On Friday (I should also add that was Kate the Knightly Knitter's birthday - waves!), I had 5 minutes up my sleeve on my way to work, so I thought I'd check the post box - as you do.

I left behind all the Accountant's work mail and grabbed the registered parcel card lying in there oh-so-innocently! This is what was waiting - nearly 7kg of yum from BMFA! I have dropped my shoe near it so you can get an idea of the scale. This carton of delight was notified as posted last Saturday - so it apparently reached here in 6 days from Oregon. Considering my mail often takes longer than that to get from Sydney, I was pretty impressed.

Inside the box was some serious yarny goodness. Sock yarn, twisted, peru and lace, all lying innocently inside, as if butter wouldn't melt!

I hasten to add, that despite all reports to the contrary, I am not a yarn pig. This gorgeousness was not all mine. Several friends (you know who you are! Don't act all 'Who me?' - you are just as guilty as me!) piggybacked on my order - given that I had to use a discount coupon before the end of October.

I managed to do this order while the Aussie dollar was sliding - but before it tanked completely. Of course, I wish I had done it while the exchange rate was over 90 cents, but there you go, you can't have everything! And it has slaked my need for a yarn fix for some considerable time.

Now, there was a certain level of slow hand clapping for me to display the yarn which might be called stash by people unfamiliar with the Rules of Stash as outlined by the High Priestess of Stash. By these rules, I have 2 jumpers worth of Bendigo, which fall outside the rules and therefore can be considered my only stash. Unfortunately, I also have a 'yarn collection'. We do not have bandwidth to show the inhabitants individually (and I know my Rav stash pages are woefully behind - I will get to updating them at some point, I promise), I though I would give you a bit of a glimpse of the inhabitants in their natural surroundings.

This is the main collection area. It is approximately 2 metres wide by 3 metres deep and runs to about 1.5 metres high.

This is the ancilliary collection area. It keeps growing and consists mainly of 50 litre tubs, but other sizes and boxes and such have also been pressed into service.

This is mainly sock yarn, although some malabrigo seems to have crept in. There is also a collection of patterns and downloads catalogued and stored on the right hand side of the area. This is down staiors for petting purposes.

This is the knitting library (and a big thank you to the Book Depository here, please - the benefit if paying no shipping is the ability to buy more books!).

Just to let you know, there are also 3 jumpers worth which are in bags with their patterns waiting to be cast on, and around 40 pairs of socks worth, also in project bags with their patterns, ready to go (my own private sock club.) They do not appear in these pictures, but would like to make their existence known.

So there it is. My guilty secrets exposed. No more handclaps (slow or otherwise, please). If you want to meet the inhabitants individually, you'll have to come and visit. I'll put the coffee on, and make a cake if you do!

And a big hallo to Toni, who popped in to visit the other day. It's always lovely to meet new knitters and fellow Ravellers. She brought Ravelry Badges with her (2 of which my offspring are proudly wearing ( just in case I forget their names!).

A Life......Interrupted.

Sorry about that.

I have just had my witty and incisive post wiped by Blooer so I am cross. We'll try again.


I have been enjoying work and as a community paper journalist I get to talk to people about the things they love, and about gardens and food and prizes. This si great because it means I can come home at the end of the day and tell the kids about gardens and food and books, not car accidents, blood and crime.

I ahve been letting the washing up pile up for the last couple of days and seves it right. SWick of it. People are fed but the stuff which won't fit into the dishwasher is still stacked beside the sink.

I have been enjoying the few days of spring we have had. The trees are in blossom and the tulips are flowering, happily naturalised in the middle of what is now lawn and used to be a flower bed. The apple, pear and quince trees have been wrapped in vaseline smeared greasefproof paper in order to ERADICATE THE SCOURGE OF CODLING MOTH FROM THE UNIVERSE FOREVER!!! EXTERMINATE EXTERMINATE!!

Ahem.

Sorry about that.

Kids are going spring crazy - and I have dug over what will be the tomato bed, so maybe I am a little crazy too.

I am still trying to catch up on all your blog posts - because you are all doing exciting fun stuff - and then you are writing about it! You are likely to only get a comment every few posts. Sorry, but otherwise everything else just falls apart!

I have done a big order to take advantage of a discount from a certain US enabler - I did this when the Aussie dollar had slipped, but before it tanked completely. Given the parlous state of world currency, it may be the last non-Aussie order for a while. However, Bendi is having a sale. So maybe it's not so bad.

As you may be aware, I do have a few skeins of sock and sweater yarn, so that should see me through until the economic situation improves. And the credit card is paid off.

Off to pick up the Princess and sweep her and Destructoboy off to circus school.

If my life were any more exciting, I'd burst!

I Have Been Knitting but Life has Intervened

Knitting and life have both been happening - usually simultaneously! Often with an extra serving of chaos and disorganisation. This has been ably assisted by children. Work has also been putting its oar in and so although life has happened, blogging hasn't.

Here are some FOs - the gorgeous yellow Flair which I adore

and the even more beautiful green February Lady Sweater

Sorry about the photo quality - but at least there ARE photos. I have started a Liesl in cotton fleece.

Work is busy - life goes on.

More later.

Whoops! I seem to have lost a fortnight!

I am a domestic Goddess! (Stop laughing down the back!)

I am making lamb foot-long pizza from this month's Delicious magazine. I don't like the confit idea too much, so I have made a double lot of onion marmalade from a recipe in the Women's Weekly Healthy Heart Cookbook (if you've got it kicking around it lives with a crusted lamb recipe!). This has meant I have been in floods of tears while onions were sliced because I am the world's worst onion slicer and cry for hours.

Many years ago, the Accountant used to wear contact lenses, and had no problem with onions. We used to eat a lot of French onion soup in those days, and this onion marmalade was a staple for things like barbeques and cold meat. Then he had laser surgery on his eyes, threw away the contact lenses and now is almost as bad as me in the onion department!

It's the first really lovely warm springlike day we've had today. The washing line is full and being breezed and sunned upon, things have been tidied up and stash has been enhanced. (Drat)

Rosered has been recording all her yarn ins and outs. I am too scared to do that. There has been some enhancement going on to what some people may refer to as my stash. After a recent large order, and the fact that I also did a Bendigo order while the Allegro was still on sale and then this morning found out the aran and cotton had been reduced (even though the colours are less than inspiring) I was forced to order some nut brown. Just in case.

I have not yet photographed my gorgeous sunshine yellow Flair, although I have worn her several tiimes. The Wicked I frogged has morphed into a February Lady Sweater, and I think I will like her much more that way. I have managed to knit 10 garments so far this year (when the FLS is finished) which I am quite proud of, although my sock knitting has suffered. So for Southern Summer of Socks I will be finishing WIPS and pushing over new boundaries (toe-up and 2 at a time). That's the plan.

I also intend to join Bells and knit a Shetland Triangle in Wollmeise (Indisch Rot, I think), and there is a KAL of the knit for yourself variety, so I may do 'Hey Teach' or Sprout for that.

Work is great, but time consuming, and I will be handing back Amy's manuscript, edited, over the weekend. (another reason why not a lot of blogging has happened - I have been deep in the world of Bitter Moon2 and thoroughly enjoying it!)

Have a lovely week - I'll try and get photos ready for next blog post!

Ciao!