Tinkingbell

I don't just break resolutions....

2011-01-31T18:32:00.000-08:00

...I jump on them with both feet!

I posted on the 19th, said I was going to post once a week, and then immediately left it almost 2 weeks until I posted again! Hopeless.

I am blaming the holidays (and the fact that I barely know what day of the week it is), for the fact that I suddenly realised it was 1 February, and the beginning of school was just around the corner. So, in 2 sleeps the children are back to school and very shortly we are all off to NZ for a short time.

So, you ask, what have they been doing?

Well, there has been knitting and the nearly eternal Hay cardigan is finally finished. It is currently blocking and awaiting buttons. There have been 2 versions of the Hurricane Hat - one where I thought I knew much better than the designer (and it didn't look even vaguely like a hurricane) and one with the remaining posmerino which actually abided by the designers instructions and looks great - but meant that I had to frog the not-quite-a-hurricane in order to finish it off. The hat will go with the posmerino Boneyard shawl and will be worn in a cold place.

That's right - a very cold place. I am off to Antarctica for a day trip! On the 30th annuversary of the Mt Erebus Aircrash, Air New Zealand sent 12 relatives of the victims to Antarctica to the crash site to place a memorial marker. The passengers were drawn by ballot - and I had no idea at the time that this was happening. Because it was so successful, Air New Zealand decided to put on a larger second flight. This time I actually knew about the ballot and entered my name - and I have a seat. The plan is to fly from NZ, land at Scott Base, place another memorial, and after a short time on the ground, to fly back to NZ.

What this has meant from a practical point of view, is that we are all going to NZ (because there are several alternative flight dates, depending on the Antarctic weather) and I need to pack thermals, a scarf and hat and warm socks.

Gosh - I wonder where the scarf, hat and socks should come from? I know - I'll knit some!

So the kids go back to school for two days, and then vanish for a fortnight for some real world experience of vulcanology, zoology, studies of flora and fauna and some vicarious Antarctic experiences. I'll try to blog before we leave - but I must go - I have a hat to finish and block......

Welcome to 2011! (and a resolution!)

2011-01-19T16:54:00.000-08:00

Well, it has been just a while since my last post and we are starting a new year. The resolution is to try and blog once a week, so we'll see how tht goes!

I have been knitting - although I didn't quite get 1 garments done in 2010, (the Lia still needs sleeves and I'm plugging away on the Hay Cardigan), I did manage 11. I also knited 3 pairs of socks, 6 shawls, some mitts and hats and presents and such. I went to Bendi and partied with some wonderful peeps, who also held my hand when I ended up in the emergency department at the local hospital with a fever brought on by a throat infection.

We went to Queensland with husby in September (actually, he had to go on busines, but we were so over the winter that we insisted on tagging along too). I finished the first year of my Masters course with quite satisfactory marks, thank you.

We had Christmas, the Knightly Knitter and her family came to visit and see int he New Year. it rained a lot. We had a flood in November. We had another flood last week. This onew as much worse - although not nearly as bad as The Mainland, where it is dire (donations for people who have lost everything can be sent here - up to 2.5 million people can't sleep in their own homes).

Friends were flooded, and I helped with the clean up which was beyond yucky. Mopping the same patch of floor 6 to 8 times will eventually get it clean and stop it smelling - just saying. The local boutique brewery got flooded (and their house next door - no beer lost, but the kegs had to be rounded up and there was more cleaning there - and lots of throwing things away.

Here is our paddock - underwater

here is out road - underwater

here is a platypus swimming in the paddock next door - which was underwater, too.

The best thing about the flood was the platypus. And the limbo day. The roads near us were all blocked, so the kids got tpo ride their bikes on the road for the very first (and probably last) time. Generally this is an unsafe thing to do, because we have no shoulder or pavement out here, and lots of hoons and trucks. The day after the floods was glorious - in contrast to the torrential rain for days before.

Shortly, we head off to New Zealand, and I will be going to the Antarctic for a day trip. I'll fill you in on all tht later - but I have a posmerino hat to finish, to go with the scarf I made to keep me warm down there!

Happy New Year - and all the best for 2011!

Oh dear.....

2010-06-20T17:16:00.000-07:00

Well, here I am, a little late and with almost too much news for a single post.
News of my demise has been greatly exaggerated - I have just been suffering from computer fatigue, due to assignments, required tutorial postings and general fighting and scrapping with administrators and bureaucrats. And then there were exams. Sigh.

I have however, been knitting ('I knit so I don't kill people' has become a mantra).
There has been knitting. Here is A Little Something (Sundara Silky Merino Aran - from a Ravelry de-stash):

A second Tempest (longer - in Somoko)

A Transverse Cardigan, in Classic Elite Renaissance (also from a Ravelry de-stash)

A Tea Leaves cardigan in Sanguine Gryphon Traveller. This may be my favourite cardigan yet. The pattern is lovely and the wool is gorgeous.

There is a bit of a selfish knitting theme going on here, partly because most of my cardigans and jumpers are too large on me this year (happy dance!) but also because it is comforting to be making oneself something pretty when wading through a pile of assignments. I have also been trying to shop heavily from my non-stash (as it is well known that I have NO STASH).

Partly this is motivated by the rather large quantity of - ahem - insulation which appears to live in our spare room (amongst other places), and partly because, while organising it, I discovered how much beautiful - ahem - insulation - I appear to possess. So I am using it, rather than merely patting it and admiring it.

I seem to have actually knitted more than I have acquired over the last few months. This is A Good Thing, especially with the Bendigo Wool and Sheep Show on the horizon, and the near certainty that I may acquire at least something knittable while I am there.

But it hasn't all been slaving over a hot computer and forcing the family to eat what ever I can throw together in 20 minutes.

No, no.

Just after Easter we escaped to Coles Bay for a wedding. The Accountant's God-daughter married her beau, in a most beautiful ceremony held practically on top of a mountain, overlooking Moulting Lagoon, the Swan River and across toward Swansea. Beautiful day, stunning bride and amazing location. Because of this, we had a lovely weekend away and the weather was perfect, as was the wedding. (I love a good wedding.)

My lovely Step-mother came with us, and looked after these two monsters while we attended the wedding, and the reception later.

After the stress of the assignments, and my practicuum (which was wonderful and exciting and took place in a 'challenging' school, with a very experienced teacher, and a fun and very lively class), we took a holiday. In fact, I actually truanted from my course for the final week. I made sure all assignments and tutorial work was done, packed the lightest text book for exam study and we headed off for two weeks in Fiji. I studied and knitted in a hammock, snorkelled every day, taught the Princes to snorkel, saw sharks and rays and lots of lovely fish and coral, kayaked and found 2 lost Fijian Crested Iguanas while knitting in my hammock.

The finding of the escaped iguanas then gave me an excuse for spending as much time in the hammock as possible. When people asked what I was doing, I could reply that I was looking for iguanas, with a perfectly straight face. I basically finished some Vesper socks (still have to put in afterthought heels), started some Duckies socks, and almost finished a Citron shawlette (hate that word).
The Citron would actually have been finished - had the Knitpicks cable not broken - grrrrrrrr!

So that's it really. You are up to date. Now I am on holiday (as much as a mother ever is!), the kids are back at school. The Princess still has her 4 Fijian beaded braids in and is resisting all attempts to remove them. Destructoboy is missing his splashes in the pool and unlimited access to pineapple and paw paw. The Accountant is missing the warmth and relaxation, and I am missing my hammock.It is the shortest day today, and utterly freezing. We had a hard frost this morning. Fiji seems very far away.

Excuse me, I need to go and knit something.......

Bad, Bad, Naughty Blogger!

2010-03-05T20:01:00.000-08:00

I can't believe we are suddenly in March and I blinked and missed February entirely (at least blog-wise). My abject apologies. I think it is that time thief again. I truly can't believe it is March, and therefore, Autumn.

There has been a frenzy of what the Princess calls 'hibernation cooking'. It has only been chilly once, but when school starts, you know the countdown is on.

I have so far turned 20kg of tomatoes (not mine, unfortunately, this year) into roasted tomato sauce, which now resides n the freezer. I have turned the early plums into plum sauce. I have the second last plums (the D'Agen plums) in the dehydrator, becoming prunes. And I have acquired a slow cooker. A really big 6 litre slow cooker. Yesterday I turned 2.5kg of beef shin into an enormous amount of Osso Bucco, half of which has joined the roasted tomato sauce in the freezer.

I joined the Ravelympics in an effort to get some WIPs sorted. I finished a Stash,

a self designed Cowl

and the Ishbel

and I managed to finish the Rocking Sock Club socks from the November package, a lovely CookieA sock called 'Raven Swirl'.

I'm currently not too far off finishing a Damson for my lovely Step Mother. Unfortunately, her birthday is tomorrow, and I don't think I am going to get there.

Yarnadan was not a success. Despite some de-stashing and frantic knitting I managed to finish or dispose of around 1 kg or yarn. A bit more than that came in, but I am not admitting how much. There were some sock club parcels, a few moments of madness on the internet, and about 8 socks and 8 jumpers worth may have come through the door. Drat.

I am feeling quite good that there have been no yarn purchases this month. Some yarn has come in, due to sock club memberships, but I have not actually gone searching and slapped down boodle for balls (or skeins), so that's a win.

One of the main reasons for the blogging silence has been that my kids returned to school, and they are both at school five days a week this year. This has meant I had time on my hands. "Aha", I can hear you saying. "If she has all this time on her hands, why hasn't she been updating us with her no doubt riveting life and all the exciting things she is doing?"

Now, a normal, sane, adult type person would say, "Hmm. Time on my hands? Great, I'll clean the house. Or knit more, or catch up on reading or do some gardening." That is what a sane person would say.

I thought, " Great. Time on my hands? Why don't I go back to university and get another degree. I know, I'll do a Master of Teaching and I'll specialise in primary school.''

Not only am I doing this, I decided that it would be a really, really good idea to do it online.

And to do it full time.

So I am currently a student, a full-time student, part time mother and casual cleaner and house person (very, very casual!). I may be the owner of the messiest house in Northern Tasmania.

So, instead of posting exciting things on the computer, on an irregular basiis, I've been...

Well, I've been posting slightly less exciting things on the computer on a regular basis. So far, I've been a student for two weeks and I'm not behind yet. That's got to be good, right?

The really interesting thing will be how I manage to juggle the full time practical in-class requirement, when I am sent forth to practice my skills on unsuspecting children.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Strange and Odd....

2010-01-19T19:57:00.000-08:00

I'm glad I didn't make any rash New Years Resolutions about yarn diets or such, because if I had done, I would have to be out the back giving myself a stern talking to.

I was hoping to get through the whole month of January without buying any yarn. I didn't.

Why aren't you at least pretending to be surprised?

So, for February, I am going to declare 'Yarnadan', a month devoted to contemplation, planning and higher pursuits (like knitting and cleaning), and not low and carnal pursuits (like cruising the internet and shoving people out of the way - in a virtual, cybershphere manner - to grab yarn at a Wollmeise or Sanguine Gryphon update).

Besides, February is a short month and I might make it.

As well as some beautiful yarn which may be making its way towards me, there is also the matter of a New Zealand Sampler Box which will hopefully hit the Tasmanian shores in a day or so. This, of course, is not buying yarn. This is more in the manner of a 'research exercise'. Sampler boxes are fun show-bags of lovely bits and bobs, including fibre and notions which allow you to touch and try before you buy. I have been lucky enough to buy a couple of the new Australian ones, and now managed the first New Zealand one.

The grand plan for some unspecified future date is to knit up some of the samples into swatch squares and make a sort of patchwork blanket from them. Sometime between now - and when I turn ninety!

The time thief has been here again - the summer holidays are almost over - in less than three weeks, the kidlets are back at school. And we have only a week of January left! I'm glad I'm not the only one affected by timethiefitis. Check this:

(There was an unsuccessful attempt to embed the youtube video in here which, as you can see, failed completely. Never mind. Just follow the linky!)

Seems as if Kate Miller-Heidke has the same trouble!

Of course, part of the trouble has involved connecting my Christmas Wii and playing lots of silly games which we are mostly bad at, but are lots of fun. I think I damaged my hamstring, possibly 100pin bowling, or maybe trying not to wet myself laughing as I attempted to beat the Accountant in a canoe race. We are enjoying it immensely, and it is bringing out amazingly competitive streaks in my children!

This weekend we are off to Cradle Mountain. Hope to get in lots of walking and see lots of animals and have a lovely time. I am even hoping to actually finish something in the knitting line, but as I haven't managed to do that in weeks, I see no reason why it is likely to happen in the next few days!

Twenty10 - It's a Year, not a Game (or maybe it is a game.....)

2010-01-07T16:41:00.000-08:00

Happy 2010 everyone (insert sounds of fireworks, party poppers, sirens etc here).

I went to bed before midnight, but got up again because the noisy neighbours around where we were staying in South Australia started letting off very loud fireworks at midnight - and I LOVE fireworks. I got up and stood outside in my PJs watching rockets and sparkly things head skyward and laughed and made faces and left my mouth open.

Did you all have a marvellous Christmas and a very Happy New Year?

I'm not sure about 2010 so far, I was really just hitting my stride with the old one, just getting used to writing 2009 on things and then they change it. Seeemed to fly past, but I think it is just the time thief again. Maybe 2010 should be the year I find out who is stealing all my days and weeks.

In deference to the season, a little summing up is in order.

2009 was the year that:
-My children were both at school for the first time
-We worried about husbeast
-I knitted 13 pairs of socks, 9 jumpers/cardis, and assorted blankets, scarves, shawls etc
- I created too many WIPs and think I should do something about them
-I joined 5 sock clubs (a few too many, I think)
-I seemed to add rather a lot of 'insulation' to the house
-I sorta learned to spin
-I worked off 18kg (round of applause please), although I still have 12 to go
-I started (gasp) running - sort of
-I went to Bendigo and met lots of my wonderful no-longer-imaginary friends
-Australia seemed to go to the pack as far as climate and environment are concerned
-The 30th anniversary of the Mt Erebus aircrash
-Started the year as a journo, ended it as a redundant journo

In short. lots of good stuff happened, some not-so-good stuff happened, and some downright bad stuff happened (bushfires, floods, GFC, Copenhagen failures, Japanese whaling).

In other words it was a pretty normal year all round. Welcome to life in general!

So here are the last finished projects from 2009.

Felted wine socks, knitted from stash yarn, pattern from Yarn Magazine issue 1, gifty knitting.

Gumdrops socks, knitted in BMFA STR lightweight from the sock club, july, 2008 (did I mention about too many sock clubs?)

Arch-shaped socks knitted in BMFA STR Mediumweight in Iolite.

What does Twenty10 hold? Hard to predict, but probably some good, some not so good and some bad (see above).

Bendigo again, I hope. School for both the kids, more activity, more knitting, some spinning. I might be going back to Uni and I can almost definitely say there will be ups and downs.

The rest? Well I can give you a definite maybe on that!

Happy 2010, everyone!

We Wish You a Ripper Christmas and a Snappy New Year

2009-12-23T19:26:00.000-08:00

Taken from my son's kindie class song. It rather tickled me, because it's just so Aussie - it goes:

''We wish you a ripper Christmas
A dead set ripper Christmas
A full-on ripper Christmas
and a snappy New Year''

Great song and they had such fun singing it!

Thanks so much to everyone who commented on my last post, I really appreciated your help. And I love 'Six White Boomers - and, now, so do my kids!

Have a wonderful Christmas, all of you. Take care of yourselves and each other, drive carefully and safely. Take time to have fun, knit, crochet and do silly things.

And have a wonderful 2010 - and all the best for a very happy and healthy New Year.

I'll see you all in January.

Bad tempered

2009-12-12T15:31:00.000-08:00

I heard the most remarkable and amazing Christmas carol this morning. I was in the shower and listening to Macca on Australia all over and I heard 'Carol for the Wheat Country' by Zita Denholm sung by Andria (or Andra) Muhoberac. It was incredible and Australian and described the wonderful Australian Cristmas of walking down hot dusty roads, and the harvest going on and I can't find a link to it anywhere.

Nearly all our carols are about snow and winter and frost and such, and really, Christmas in Australia is not like that. Christmas in Australia is about summer and beaches and prawns and long sunny evenings and chilled champers and flowers and worry about bushfires.

It apparently appears on 'Macca by Request' and I really don't want to buy a Macca album for just one song. But I do want my kids to hear uniquely Australian Christmas Carols. We've done Carol of the Birds and the Australian Jingle Bells which is this one:

Aussie Jingle Bells

Dashing through the bush
In a rusty Holden Ute
Kicking up the dust
Esky in the boot
Kelpie by my side
Singing Christmas songs
It's summer time and I am in
My singlet, shorts & thongs
CHORUS:
OH, JINGLE BELLS, JINGLE BELLS
JINGLE ALL THE WAY
CHRISTMAS IN AUSTRALIA
ON A SCORCHING SUMMER'S DAY
JINGLE BELLS, JINGLE BELLS
CHRISTMAS TIME IS BEAUT
OH WHAT FUN IT IS TO RIDE
IN A RUSTY HOLDEN UTE
Engine's getting hot
Dodge the kangaroos
Swaggy climbs aboard
He is welcome too
All the family is there
Sitting by the pool
Christmas day, the Aussie way
By the barbecue!
CHORUS
Come the afternoon
Grandpa has a doze
The kids and uncle Bruce
Are swimming in their clothes
The time comes round to go
We take a family snap
Then pack the car and all shoot through
Before the washing up

Anyone know of links to Carol forthe Wheat Country? Hard I know, but just in case.....

Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat

2009-12-10T19:14:00.000-08:00

Yes, the Christmas knitting is complete (no, there are no pictures, some readers of this blog are to be recipients!). Mind you, I had pared it down to the minimum, but apart from knitting, it also needing felting, which has also been done. So I am currently feeling an enormous sense of accomplishment.

And, it is not often that I beat the Yarn Harlot onto a bandwagon, but this time I have done it. My French Press Slippers have just been waiting until the Christmas knitting was put of the way (seeing that I am currently feeling the felting love). Zephyrama initiated me into the slipper fold, and I am so ready. I seem to have the perfect buttons, too.

I currently feel so swamped with WIPs, with books (I request books from the library, and then all the books I have requested for the last 6 months all arrive at the same time. There is never a possibility of renewing them, so I have to try and finish 10 books in three weeks. Makes me feel under pressure.), with Christmas preparation, that any little thing I finish fills me with a great feeling of achievement. Anything.

Done the washing up? Warm glow.

Finished one sock? Yay!

Posted all overseas and interstate Christmas presents? By crikey, you're a good 'un.

Done Christmas knitting? Bursting with virtue.

Finish a book? The best, baby, the best.

Now all I have to do is finish some more WIPs, the pile of books by my bed, cleaning the house, the Christmas cards, wrapping presents, de-cluttering, losing 10 or so more kilos, the laundry, the vacuuming, the bathrooms, the dinner, commenting on blogs, the stuff needed for the end of the school year, organising the holidays and keeping the children gainfully occupied, and I'll be right. Everything will be under control.

How about you?

Having a bit of a WIP 'round...

2009-12-01T16:15:00.000-08:00

It has been a month of WIP frenzy. Each night I put my hand into the Big Bucket o' WIPs (tm), and play Knittlotto (tm), knitting on whatever gets hauled out. A little concentrated effort on a couple of projects which may have been hanging around for a while has resulted in this:

Clapotis 2, started in May 2009 finished in November 2009 (Touch Yarn Merino and utterly gorgeous)

This:

Radiate from Knitty.com, in Blue Moon Fiber Arts Luscious Single Silk in Citrine

and some secret Christmas Knitting (which isn't all finished yet)

There are also a couple of single socks and a bit more done on several other projects which have been lurking in the undergrowth for a while.

So the whole stash honesty thing doesn't look nearly so bad at present:

Knitted: 1300 grams

Inward enhancements: 1700 grams

Slightly better stats this month!

The aniversary of Mum's death passed with a family trip to beaustiful (but slightly rainy) Strahan on the West Coast of Tasmania.

There was some of this:

And some of this:

And almost a whole day of this:
The trip on the West Coast Wilderness Railway was a wonderful day despite the rain. The original was contructed over a century ago, and has been revived as a tourist route, with a 50 year old diesel locomotive for the first section, from Strahan to the base of the mountain, and then a 111 year old stem engine - named Percy because he is green - takes over and the line becomes a rack and pinion (sort of like cogs) to go over a mountain and down the other side to Queenstown.

The train stops at all the old stations along the way, includes a lovely lunch of Tasmanian gourmet bits and pieces and the kids had a wonderful time. A long day, but really interesting.

Strahan itself is lovely - and I'm ashamed to say that I haven't been down there for 17 years. We had crayfish and the local hotel had a wonderful restaurant. The old railway link between the town wharf and Regatta Point is now a walk along the side of the harbour. Macquarie Harbour is, in fact, the second largest in Australia after Port Philip Bay (Sorry, Sydneysiders!)

I intend to visit again, long before another 17 year hiatus!

There have been lots of things happeneing - mainly at the school, with the year winding up - I have atteneded sports carnivals, inter-school sports, swimming lessons, the fete, the garden opening, and have the disco (lots of kids from 5 to 12 in 'crazy' dress hitting the town until the heady hour of 8pm) and the school picnic coming up.

The time thief has struck again, because I cannot believe we are currently in December - woe is me!

Back to the scheduled Christmas Knitting!

The story so far...

2009-11-13T17:02:00.000-08:00

The story so far, dear readers, is not for the faint-hearted.

Our heroine, who has been battling a spring cough and lurgy, decided to take action last night and informed all and sundry of her intention to sleep in on Saturday morning. Nothing would get her out of bed, she declared, but the last trump.

Enter the morning, in a burst of sunlight - and the knowledge that one of the heroes of the epic, Destructoboy, has not only thrown up in his bed, but has then made a conscious decision to sleep in it.

Strangely, this had the effect of galvanising a very sick mother into motion and imploring the Accountant to (and I quote) "Will you stop wandering around with that damn pillow, you are spilling vomit everywhere!"

Strange how every time I consider actually getting something approaching 8 hours of sleep, something like this happens.

So I have the traditional spring/summer lurgy, which up until this morning consisted of feeling a bit yuk, and a dry polite cough. This morning, however, I sound like someone who has been smoking five packs a day and sleeping rough for the last 10 years. Not nice.

In happier news, I am a gnats whisker from finishing Radiate, and am devoting the next seven days to finishing WIPs - so hopefully, the Clapotis and a pair of socks will be off the needles.

Then I will throw myself into Christmas knitting (already organised), and Christmas presents, and into trying very hard to keep all the balls I am juggling in the air - instead of dropping the lot.

There are no pictures in this post.

Aren't you glad?

Quick update for honesty!

2009-11-05T14:28:00.000-08:00

Just a very quick update, because we are getting ready for the school fair and I have a whole lamb or so to get into the oven for roasting (I am not joking about this!)

Although it is after the end of the month, I think I should very quickly do an honesty update.

This month was good until the closing stages, when I somehow ended with the acquisition of the equivalent of 110 x 50gr balls of yarn

I have no idea how this happened - partly it was Ms 2paw escorting me to The Doomlight of Spot(tm) where they had $1 a ball reasonable yarn and Anchor Magicline for less than that and I may have acquired around ooooooh 40 balls.

Partly it was Rav destash, partly the thrill of actually being present at 2 Wollmeise updates. I have no idea how the rest happened - it just sort of stuck to me as I moved about, I think.

I managed to finish items using less than 400gr or yarn.

I have got lots of nearly finished things - so Next month will not doubt look much better.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll go and wrestle some lamb, and have a cup of tea, a Bex, and a nice lie down.......

Off balance!

2009-10-29T16:54:00.000-07:00

I had a lovely, lovely day yesterday.

I took the Accountant's car to the car doctor in the Northern Capital (as he was hesitant about losing a day of work, and I had one of my child-free days). This meant a meet up with the delightful Ms 2paw, lots of talking and a little shopping.

We visited the Doomlight of Spot tm, amongst other lovely places, including a wonderful shop called Cocoon, which was full of wildly desireable, and completely unaffordable, hand crafted things.

Ms 2Paw also gave me presents! She said they were a late Christmas present from last year, but I feel they were simply a very early and organised one for this year!

There was a gorgeous skein of Ixchel Dr Who themed BFL and Angora 4ply, some Dr Who magnets, a lovely 'generic blue police box' zippy case (this may look exactly like a TARDIS, but we don't want Ms 2Paw hunted down by the BBC), and the most exquisite, handmade and embroidered buttons. Now I must make something worthy of their beauty!

I also forgot to mention the lovely Sock Club delivery from Needlfood, which had a pink Breast Cancer Awareness theme. I am so glad I signed up to this club - I think she may need to shoot me to be rid of me, if this is a fair example of the gorgeousness she supplies!

I will do the rather blush making stash honesty update next week, because there is something else I need to mention.

Thrity years ago next week, I waved goodbye to my parents as they went off for a holiday in New Zealand. Mum didn't know it at the time, but Dad and I had organised for her to have an adventure while she was away. She never returned,

November 28 marks the thirtieth anniversary of the Mt Erebus aircrash, in which 257 people were killed, Mum amongst them (and the only Australian on board).

I was 17 years old, and this event has been central to my life. along with the associated investigations, Royal Commissions, court cases and periodic re-visiting of the events surrounding the crash of TE 901.

At the end of November, Air New Zealand are holding memorial services and various commemorations of Flight 901 and of the aircrash near Perpignan which happened a year ago. They have finally apologised for the way they treated fanilies of the victims 30 years ago, and the lessons they learned from this allowed them to be much kinder to the families of victims of the Perpignan crash.

They offered to fly me to New Zealand for the services and events. I was going to fly over there. But all this happened last Saturday and I have sent the last week feeling overwhelmed and off balance. I would have been flying over there alone. I would have had no support. I would have been gone from home 2 nights and I'm not sure how I would have coped.

So I have decided not to go. I will spend the anniversary of Mum's death with my family. We will go away for a weekend. I will have cuddles and kisses if I cry. I will have them where and when I need them.

Sometime in the next year, we will all go to New Zealand. And then I will visit the memorials. Air New Zealand are going to take messages to the Antarctic for a time capsule and we will all send something down.

But we will be together here, not there. When all is said and done, this family is also Mum's legacy.

Oops, I did it again (with apologies for even knowing the name of this song!)

2009-10-23T20:32:00.000-07:00

Well, yes. It is the weekend again. And yes, I did not blog this week. And I read everyone else's blogs and try to keep up with comments, but really, if you all go out and have such a good time and then you go and sign up to Blogtoberfest, and then you blog every single day and you are not only doing stuff but blogging, well, it makes me feel just a bit inadequate.

My life sort of rolls along.

I'm knitting the same thing I was last weekend (because I had to frog more than half and re-do it).

Then I was exhausted after running, and visiting Kaydale Lodge, and the Leven Canyon. Kaydale is one of the few places in Australia to grow fritillarias and trilliums, and they are currently in bloom. They also do wonderful lunches (mainly with their own produce) and are very close to the Canyon (Different link).

We walked to the lookout up a sloping path, and it was windy and beautiful and catch-your-breath spectacular. And then we decided to walk the loop back to the car. This entailed walking down (thank all the little gods and goddesses - DOWN and not UP!) 697 steps, to the bridge and creek at the bottom.

697! Can you imagine how you'd feel walking up the dratted things? Down was bad enough - my hamstrings and lower back hurt for a couple of days, and I am fairly comfortably fit at present!. How do I know how many stairs there were, you may ask? (I did hear you asking!)

Because there are benches on the way and each bench contains information on how many stairs to the bottom from that bench, how many to the top and how many to the next bench, both up and down. I'm quite proud that I only had to read them, and not sit on them.

And then once you reach the bridge at the bottom, you have to get back up to the car park, and that means a long and very steep path. We all did it, and despite the slightly sore legs, even the kids had no problems. In fact, this may be a record, because neither of them whinged at all!

The only other news is that swimming lessons for small people have started. This has meant a total frenzy of excitement (and me having to purchase a smaller swimsuit). Destructoboy was really excited up until he had to actually get into the pool, but the kids are told that swimming classes are non-negotiable. They must be able to swim.

They don't need to be competitive swimmers, (because who wants to be getting up at 5am in the cold and dark to take them to the pool for squad training - not me!), but they must be competent and safe.

Too many children drown every year in Australia, in pools, dams, rivers and the sea. My children will not join them if I have anything to say about it (and I do). So swimming it is. The Princess loves it - as far as she is concerned, any moment not spent in the water in summer is a moment wasted. She is competent, confident and has absolutely no style! A bit like me really.

Destructoboy can't swim yet, but in a few weeks he will. Not that my vigilance around children and water will relax, but at least I can feel calmer when I see them in a pool.

Unventing (or did I invent this?)

2009-10-15T15:20:00.000-07:00

Life has been rolling on, but the blahs returned because of yet another period of sustained rainfall. I have a feeling you can probably chart Tasmania's weather by the state of my blogging.

It has been nearly 2 weeks since my last post. I have finished socks.

Here are the Blackrose socks I made for Beth, currently winging their way across the Pacific.

Bendigo Luxury 8ply in Purple Storm, made on 3.25mm sticks. These were really big socks and took a lot of knitting. These took up most of my knitting time for a couple of weeks.

Here are the Fawkes socks I started when we were on holiday. These are my first magic loop socks - for some reason, although I have been using magic loop for all sorts of things (sleeves, hats, mitts) I had never gotten around to making socks with it. I am now a complete convert, because during the time I knitted these, I never once lost a DPN under the car seat! Not once.

Fawkes socks, 2.5mm harmony circular, Fleece Artist Somoko in Sun - yum!

Ms Madmad and I were having a conversation about how much nicer knitted garments are now than they were in days of yore. Beautiful yarn and fibres, lovely patterns, nice buttons. Having finished the Vine Yoke Cardigan and Tempest recently, both buttons heavy projects, I mentioned to Ms Madmad that since I had converted to the using of safety pins, I had no problems with button placement.

I am not sure if I invented this. After all, for years I thought I had invented the cable cast on, because everyone I knew taught me that you cast on by sticking the needle through the stitch, and when I stumbled on the idea of sticking it between the stitches and discovered it made a much cleaner, firmer edge I had no idea that it had a name. From the moment I discovered it, I never went back, and it was only much, much later when I got my hands on a stitch dictionary that I found out that not only had I not invented it, that it actually had a name.

So, the safety pin method for dealing with buttons.

First, block your item. Depending on construction, sometimes I just steam press the finished item. Sometimes I give it a soak with a tiny bit of woolwash. I spin it in the washing machine and then lay it out on the wonderful rubber alphabet tiles I bought for less than 10 dollars. I pin shawls etc, but generally not cardigans. Them I smooth out by hand and match up bands.

Matching up the bands is utterly crucial.

Given that usually you have already knitted in the buttonholes, making sure that the bands are perfectly matched is the heart of this method.

Wander off and leave the item to dry.

Occasionally, I will give it a steam press when it is dry too. Depends. Lay it on a nice flat surface, and you are good to go.

Now, grab a pile of safety pins and pin them where the buttons would go, on the underneath band. Start with the top and bottom button positions.

I generally have them horizontal, and as I go I push the closed safety pins through the buttonholes as if they were buttons. This is the crucial bit.

When they are all in position I check that the bands are still perfectly matched, and adjust the position of any safety pins.

Once you are completely happy, sew on the buttons, matching the button to the safety pin. Voila! You are done.

This all arose because of a series of button disasters, exacerbated by the problem that when I sew a button on, it stays sewn. My buttons, when I have sewn them on, never fall off, so changing the postion of a button is a nightmare. I used to use glass headed pins, but still had button disasters, and then I thought of using safety pins. They come in different sizes, so you can cover most sizes of buttonholes, they are easy to move around, but stay still when closed and they can pretend to be buttons for the purpose of this exercise.

Since I started doing this (and as far as I know I invented it, but you are all probably doing this anyway and I just didn't know), I have not had a button diaster. Not one.

So I am pretty pleased with myself (but having said that, I will now no doubt have 16 disasters in a row. Hubris works like that. I'll have to be extra careful!).

Have a good weekend, and I'll try to do exciting stuff to report back. Pray for sunshine!

Just a Thought..

2009-10-01T19:10:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking, which is generally considered by those who know me to be a dangerous occupation.

What I've been thinking, is that I've decided to completely embargo the term 'I've lost weight'. That's it. I've sent it into coventry and I am not letting it out.

Those of you who have met Tinkingbell 1.0, may know that Tinkingbell 2.0 is a somewhat less cozy, fluffy and generally smaller version. In fact, having almost made it halfway, Tinkingbell 3.0 is likely (at some point in 2010) to be a much reduced version - slimline and sleek and 30% smaller.

But you know what? I haven't lost weight.

Losing weight implies that you have put it down somewhere and momentarily forgotten it. That perhaps you've had a senior moment and stuck it in the fridge while you were thinking of something else. That perhaps it's slipped down behind the sofa cushions, and next time you tidy up it will be there again. Or you left it on top of the car when you were getting the kids into their seats and it flew off on the road somewhere.

Since the end of April, I have been serious about working my weight off. It has taken me a fair amount of effort to eat better (and somewhat less), to cook better food for myself and my family, to make lifestyle changes so I don't follow most of my relatives and die early of major heart disease. I gave up smoking many years ago, but the weight was a risk factor in and of itself.

When I finally admitted that I was fat, I started going to the gym and strangely, I enjoyed it, but after eight months I had lost 300gr. I had, however, gone down a clothes size.

So I began attending a certain well known group. I also started sorta running (which we now know has a real name - Fartlek interval training), where I would run to a telegraph pole, then walk to the next one then stagger to the next one and so on.

But now, with the best part of 15kg (about 33 pounds) gone - and roughly the same to go, I have decided that that weight has not been lost.

Not one gram.

No. I've worked the stuff off. And it's been hard labour all the way.

So, from now on, I'm going to talk about either slimness gain, or fitness gain or working it off. Any other good suggestions?

Do you remember?

2009-09-29T20:09:00.001-07:00

Do you remember how I said I would blog more regularly and I promised there'd be photos and deathless prose?

Do you remember me saying that?

Damn. I was hoping you'd forgotten that incident.

Okay.

I have been a bad blogger, and haven't blogged as much as I should, and I'm not really sure why, except that life got slightly more complicated and I got distracted and, well, whoops, here it is, however long since I blogged.

And there's Bells, looking forward to blogging every day for a month. And me. Lucky to blog once a week - but truly - I am trying for more. I don't think I'm really a candidate for Blogtoberfest though - although you might be.

In truth, the return to yucky weather brought on a severe case of the blahs, so much so that I have hardly looked at Ravelry, and I've been reading and not always commenting on your blogs. I am sorry. I can't help bad weather blahs. To put it in context, since July 1 there have been 5 days without rain in Tasmania. Five.

No wonder I've been damp. Heavens - I can tell where North is because that is the side of me without moss on it.

But it all stops here. I solemnly promise that I..

look!

What's that?

Oh - it's some pretty knitting.

The Vine Yoke Cardigan, (anyone mention bandwagons?). As yet buttonless, but blocked. In the Naturally Sensation (10ply merino/angora 70/30, soft as a baby bunny) that I bought while in South Australia in a heat wave last summer. For some reason there were 12 skeins, at $2.50 a skein. This cardigan used - wait for it - 6 and a half skeins. Can you believe it? So, including the cost of the pattern and buttons it cost about $25 dollars! An angora cardi for 25 bucks? Happy dance for sure!

I have been trying to finish WIPs and wearing blinkers so I don't get distracted. Having finished the Vine Yoke I finally cast on some gifty socks (Blackrose, but in 8ply) and will be trying to almost monogamously work on them.

With maybe a teeny tiny side order of finishing the half a sock I have to go on a pair, a bit of garter stitch jacket and perhaps a little Radiate - just to take the edge off.

In honour of Rosered then, here are the incomings and outgoings for September.

800gr from Bendigo Woollen Mills (gifty socks and enough luxury 4 ply for a thermal)
1 skein of sock yarn

That's it.

and I have finished 2 garments but they used very little yarn
Tempest - 250gr
Vine Yoke - 325gr
Cottys - 100gr
and Fawkes may get finished tonight, so I'll throw them in too - 100gr

775gr out and 900 in

Doesn't seem fair really.

Next month may be a little worse (unless I knit MUCH faster) - I know there may be something coming in and there are some sock club parcels arriving. I am still striving for stash diminuition. Maybe I should just knit socks and stuff with sock yarn for all of 2010.

What do you think?

What I did on my holidays.....

2009-09-17T20:41:00.001-07:00

We're back. The washing is done, the sheets are flapping in the breeze out on the clothesline and spring has finally happened properly. In fact, although it rained all day yesterday, it is beautiful today and was every day we were away too. Well done to the weather gods.

We started out by having 2 days in Hobart, where I managed to catch up with the amazingly talented Ms Frog Ponds Rock. Pop over and visit her blog - she is a great potter and an amazing photographer. It was just lovely to finally meet her (and swap recipes and hit the spice shop!)

We also caught up with the Knightly Knitter and her family, where she prepared an incredible meal while also demonstrating superwoman capabilities by simultaneously cooking, wrangling children, talking about knitting, knitting and refereeing several disagreements amongst the junior set - and keeping the dogs outside.

Off to Port Arthur for 2 days and, truth to tell, I was a little worried, having not been back there since the events of 1996, but it retains the same sense of peace and tranquility I always remember. I was afraid it may have become something else.

Despite its dark history, I have always loved Port Arthur. I think it is beautiful. It is hard to believe it was a brutal prison for so long, housing convicts who had committed crimes after their transportation to Van Dieman's Land.

Probably the nicest thing about our stay down there was the fact that the place where we stayed was right across the road from the back gate to the site. Once we had paid the entry fee, we were given a key and could come and go as we pleased.

It was our domain. This meant that I could sorta run in the world heritage nominated area in the morning and be the only person in there, with all this beauty all to myself.

Then we headed up the East Coast and stayed at Coles Bay. We did some of the short walks and generally hung about.

The kids did some kids stuff (including mugging for the camera) and we all generally recharged our batteries.

We built sandcastles here.
And despite the Accountant suffering a major gout attack on the first day (which meant I had no time to knit in the car because I had to drive, and this threw my plans out dreadfully!), I finally finished the Cotty socks I started at Bendigo. Here they are, in Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock, mediumweight in Koi Koi. Love them.
Now, I have to start looking forward to the next road trip!

Spring is Sprung! The Grass is Riz!

2009-09-08T18:20:00.000-07:00

It's Spring, it's Spring! Or at least, it is spring today. The weather forecast is suggesting rain for the next week and for most of the rest of the month, but today it is spring. The bees are delirious with the beauty of the day - and so am I.

For the first time in weeks the washing is flapping on the line, the breeze is soft, warm and gentle, the sun is shining, the sky is blue and the only clouds are the little fluffy sort. Life is good.

Life is so good, I couldn't resist sneaking on to the kids' trampoline for a bounce - which made me feel all dizzy when I got off!

In fact, life is made even better by the fact I have finally finished Tempest. The ends were a complete sod to sew in (and next time I will use Dr Bones suggestion and carry them up the sides as neatly as possible!), but she is finished and I love her. This is really the first time I have made such a form fitting knit - she is snug (and will become less so as I lose more weight - fingers crossed etc), and I'm not entirely sure about the buttons - I needed 16 - 15 plus one for luck or accidents) and they were probably larger than would be thought best because the buttonholes grew with blocking. The colours are vibrant, so I went with transparent buttons - because I couldn't find the mother of pearl ones I really wanted!

Children are on holidays and showing tendencies of becoming loud and excited, so they and the guinea pig will be outside for a fair proportion of this glorious day.

The Princess has expressed a wish to undertake some sewing, so we will be doing that shortly, and then packing will happen for our short trip. I finally have the wonderful Meet Me at Mike's book (a beautiful book and a must have for those who want to support Australian mde and especially Australian hand-made!), but todays small sewing will come from the 1970s books that have been hanging about since I was just a bit older than the Princess.

Yesterday was another rainy day, so we went to the Imaginarium, where the kids went wild, raced the (virtual) dinosaur and learned about bugs, space and puzzles. I knitted.

Have a lovely weekend. Enjoy the spring. At least until it starts raining again!

Random Friday

2009-09-03T18:14:00.001-07:00

Thanks everyone for your good wishes - currently the lurgies are in retreat (fingers crossed, knocks on wood, does lucky dance etc). We have had a single day of sunshine in the past many, many days. Maybe that helped.

Random stuff:

1. Apparently, if it rains on St Swithin's Day (July 15), it will rain for 40 days. It rained on St Swithin's Day and we are now approaching a lot more than 40 days. I'm hoping I have time to go to a woodwork class, because I don't think my skills are up to building an ark, but it certainly looks as if I need to be able to. We may have had enough rain - just for a little while. In ultra-random stuff, St Swithin is also the patron saint of apples and apple trees. Who knew?

2. There is very little sign of it being spring. The bulbs are out and so are the early fruit trees, blossoming their hearts out. But it doesn't feel like spring. It's still cold. And wet (please see point 1).

3. Tempest knitting has finished, but there is still the matter of umpty zillion ends. I hate sewing in ends. I am sure there are people who can make their sewn in ends look great. Mine look crappy and I find that sewing in more than 7 in a session fills me with a level of unholy rage. I loved the knitting. If I make it again I will either make it in one colour, or I will work out a way to carry the yarn up the sides for 14 rows. I won't sew the sleeves in until the ends are dealt with. This may take some more time.

4. The Vine Yoke Cardigan is growing apace. Not only is Ysolda a genius, but I shopped from stash (or possibly from insulation, given that I have no stash, as laid out in the rules of stash), and am knitting it in the Naturally Sensation I picked up in Gawler, SA for $2.50 a skein. The yarn is gorgeous, the pattern fun, and I have a warm inner glow which only comes from feeling that you have a bargain. I even managed to get the perfect buttons for about 80 cents each.

5. The concentration on knitting large garments have meant that the enormous pile of WIPs is still sitting there, staring at me sullenly. I will get to them.

6. Stash honesty forces me to admit that some yarn may have entered the house during August, but I can't remember all of it. I know there was a little sock yarn. There was some Fleece Artist (around 3 garments worth) but I have absolutely no idea what else. I may have repressed the memory.

7. The children have been tending to act up. Part of this is from cabin fever because the weather has been so awful that they have been cooped up - although I drove them outside last weekend with a pitchfork - well, not really a pitchfork, but certainly with a high level of coercion. Partly it is tiredness. The circus school's major show is on now and over the weekend, and there have been long (and sometimes, late,) rehearsals. The concentration on one child, has meant the other child asserting rights to attention by being a right little snot. On various occasions I have comforted myself with thoughts of infanticide, child slavery or sale or return. Then they are nice, and totally disarm me!

8. On one of the nice occasions, the Princess (who spent some of her birthday money on a cookbook) decided to make breakfast, lunch and dinner. She did a wonderful job. She made pancakes, turkish bread pizzas and Tagliatelle Carbonara. Grownups did the stirring things on the gas stove, and the putting into and getting out of the oven, she did the rest. She also made little pink biscuits. I did the washing up. This behaviour is being highly encouraged. I have fantasies of never have to cook through her teenage years.

10. School holidays start today. Next week we will have a few days away, visiting Hobart (and seeing the Knightly Knitter), Port Arthur and Coles Bay. This may help with the cabin fever.

Will try a more organised post (possibly with illustrations!) soon.

Back to the Plague House

2009-08-19T22:42:00.000-07:00

Yes. It is still winter, and around here that means lurgy time.

I have been ill. I have been aching all over, unable to swallow, running a fever of 39 degrees (that's 102.2 for Fahrenheit users) ill. I have been exhausted, dropping asleep in chairs ill. And let's not mention almost nodding off while driving the car yesterday, shall we?

It's been two weeks since I posted. I have been alive (just) and have organised 2 further birthday parties since we last spoke. On the weekend between the children's birthday, we have the grandparents to a party for both of them, so they don't have to travel twice in two weeks.

Then we had the seven kids from kindergarten for a PJ party after school on Monday. We had fairy bread, sausage rolls and little red sausages. We had pass the parcel and musical cushions. We had a supervised trip to the top of the tower and a birthday cake with bright blue icing and sparklers. It was lots of fun, and I was totally knackered afterwards.

You really can't have a party without fairy bread. In case there are people reading who don't know the glories of fairy bread, I'll explain.

You take really good quality, really really fresh white bread, spread it with butter or margarine.

Then you tip 100s and 1000s (a type of multicoloured, tiny, round sprinkle) into a plate and press the spread side of the bread into it. Then you cut it into 4 triangles and stack onto plates. Every self respecting Aussie kid loves fairy bread. I've been at a 40th birthday party where the crowd demolished 4 loaves worth of fairy bread at 1.30 in the morning - and asked for more.

I've even had a couple of days when I was too sick to knit - despite being home alone. Now that's sick. I have also been a very bad parent, and stuck on a 150 minute Spongebob DVD and instructed Destructoboy to watch it while I dozed in the chair. A very poor mother indeed.

I've also been avoiding buying yarn. I counted my indie sock yarn stash and what I discovered made me put my head between my knees and breathe very deeply for several minutes. In fact, the next project ready for my needles is the Vine Yoke Cardigan from the latest Twist Collective, and the yarn was shopped from stash (it's green Naturally Sensation - a merino/angora mix I bought while on holiday for $2.50 a skein).

That's the next project though. Before that I need to finish the second sleeve on my Tempest, do the bands and sew in a million ends.

Other than the plague (or 'tonsilitis' as the medical profession call it), the most exciting thing to enter the house has been this:
The first fibre and yarn sampler pack from Ewe Beaut. Lots of pretties in there for a convalescent to play with.

I'll get back to more regular posting soon.

Status Report

2009-08-03T23:16:00.000-07:00

Sorry - haven't been blogging - there have been one or two other things on my plate (metaphorically speaking).

Some of you probably already know that with the support and encouragment of several bloggers (including Ms KissMyFrog, The Knitting Revolutionary and the KnightlyKnitter) I have been attending Weightwatchers since the end of April. This follows the fact that I have now been attending a gym for over a year, and at that point had managed to lose a measly 300gr - although I had gone down a clothing size.

Although I was fitter, stronger faster and all that, I really did want to shed several tens of kilos which had somehow managed to stick to me over the last decade or so. So with some encuragement and trepidation off to WW I trotted.

I have now lost the first 10kg (pauses for applause, wolf whistles and wild ovation), and truth to tell, I'm feeling a bit full of myself. I still go to the gym at least 3 times a week, but I have added in some walking and sorta running. This makes me feel virtuous - and very puffed and sweaty.

I have also become somewhat boring in the food and cooking department. But not this weekend - this weekend I have been...

Taadaaaaaa!

SUPERMUM!

Fighting against junkfood, commercialism and Barbie and Bratz dolls, ignoring housework and contributing badly to climate disruption as I zoom round doing errands.

In other words, it was the Princess's birthday. She turned 7 on Sunday and we had an almost grown-up out to dinner at a restaurant for her a some friends - heavens to Betsy! They didn't get home till nearly 8 pm on Saturday night.

So while you were enjoying your weekends I had somehow managed to do this:

And this:

But best of all, I managed this:

I have been missing animals around the house. I think it is good for children to have an animal - they learn so many things from pets. This is Harriet Cuddles (no, I have no idea where the name came from either), a longish haired and very cute young guinea pig. She is much cuddled and loved. She is fed and played with.

She has been the reason for certain children waking up early on schooldays, racing downstairs, getting dressed and eating breakfast and being entirely ready for school at least 45 minutes early. Just so they can cuddle a small black guinea pig.

This is obviously the best present ever.

There has been some knitting too, but let's leave that till next time.

Happy Birthday, Princess. And welcome Harriet, long may you stay cuddly!

Bendi - the hangover.

2009-07-25T19:41:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm home, the washing is done, the case is unpacked and most of the patting and fondling of yarn has ceased (mostly).

It's that awful feeling a week after you get home from a great holiday. That feeling that it almost never happened. You know you went. You had a great time. You finally got to meet some of your bestest-ever blogbuddies. You were child- and husby-free for 2 nights and most of 3 glorious days.
You were one of the Kewl Kids in the Hustler Street Posse.

And now you're home. And the washing-up didn't get done while you were away and neither did the washing. The floor crunches underfoot - in the patches were it doesn't stick to the soles of your shoes. Your family ate fish and chips from the local takeaway one night, and pikelets the other night.

My week has been normal. Went to the gym, did my monthly stint in the school canteen (it's only open one day a week, and the school only has 150 students, so it's not terribly onerous), sorted out a birthday party and present. Then the kids got sick. Both of them. Same symptoms. Sore stomach, headache, fever (Princess was 38.1 and Destructoboy was running at over 39). This meant Friday was all about high level mothering - which is something between pedeatric nursing and being a general dogsbody - one who prays under their breath ' please don't vomit - please don't vomit'.

Saturday was convalescence day and they are still not 100%. I know this because they have not fought, screamed at one another, hit, wrestled or had tantrums for 3 days. So today we made dried berry and orange brownies.

The goreousness in my suitcase -there have been one or two questions?

The butter yellow big balls?(How obscene does that sound?) That is 4 x 200gr balls of Bendigo Woollen Mills Cameo (angora/wool mix) 10 ply. From the fabled Back Room of the woollen mill is also some denim coloured Rustic in 12 ply, some marled Rustic in 8 ply, a ball of red luxury, and courtesy of the Divine Mandie at Ewe Give me the Knits, some Bendigo Woollen Mills fibre to practice spinning. There is also 700gr of red merino top for spinning and somehow I ended up with one of SpinningWoodie's drop spindles, made of maple and sassafras.

Also from EGMTK there is some dyed fibre and 3 skeins of sock yarn, from Charlie at Ixchel some cashmere merino laceweight, some camel/bunny, some angora bunny fibre and a bunny bling batt (this is wrapped up as the bling kept escaping and attching itself to everything and everyone in sight.

A couple of skeins of Pear Tree red 4 ply snuck in there too, and some of the gorgeous silk/optim from Shiloh wool. There's also some silk/Polworth from Wendy Dennis and the gorgeous Tom, some Lara Downs pure cashmere and some of their luxury cashmere/angora bunny/merino. There's some of Donyale's utterly gorgeous baby alpaca in Sir Walter, 2 skeins of Jitterbug and I'm almost sure there are other yummies I've not named.

In addition, I had presents. Donyale gave me Norah Gaughan Volume 5, Knightly Knitter passed on a birthday present of Mason Dixon Knitting, Zephyrama gave me Feminie Knits and I have no idea how Knitting Ganseys ended up there. After a while it became a euphoric haze.....

And yes, I did manage to get clothes in there too. In fact, I bought 2 tops and a knitted cotton dress. i thought the tops were cotton rayon stuff until after I had put one through the washing machine (on cold luckily) and discovered that this shiny silkiness was in fact - wool.

So thank you to the amazing blogpals, the awesome organisers, the remarkable Ravellers and ecstatic enablers. I have already booked the husbeast for childminding for next year. I am so ready.

I don't even mind the post-Bendi hangover, as long as it means I can do it all again next year!

Ooops!

2009-07-19T17:20:00.001-07:00

It followed me home, Mum. Can I keep it?

Two Sleeps To Go!

2009-07-14T19:52:00.000-07:00

It's Wednesday. It's winter. We had floods at the weekend. This meant I was the meanest mother on record, because I had promised to take my children to a lantern festival and fireworks disply.

The past weekend was our town's annual Chocolate Winterfest. We have a Belgian chocolate maker and his factory and restaurant nearby, and their chocolate festival merged to become our Chocolate Winterfest. One of the highlights is a lantern walk and fireworks display. But it rained, and rained, and rained.

And the river rose and rose.

The river burst its banks on Saturday afternoon and kept rising. This is a fairly regular event; local paddocks flood, creeks run through every slight gully and everything gets a tiny bit worse when there's a high tide (we live near an estuary).

The fireworks were postponed till Sunday night, but by then, the entire park and surrounding area where all this was going to happen was under about a metre of water. Fireworks and associated fun stuff all cancelled.

Luckily, I had left myself a caveat. "We can go to the lanterns and fireworks if it's not raining," I had said. Smart mother. Didn't stop the kids saying I was mean.

It's only 2 sleeps until I fly over to the Bendigo Wool and Sheep show, sans husband and children. This will be the first night I have ever spent apart from both my children - and I am really excited. I am even more excited to be meeting up with some internet friends, blog buddies and fellow Ravellers! It will be the first time I've met most of them in real life.

Next time I blog I will be tired, broke and home again.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone. I am certainly going to!

The Votes are IN!

2009-07-06T20:50:00.000-07:00

Today is like glass.

It is like crystal - ready to shatter if you shout. The air is so clear and crisp it acts like a telescope - you can look at distant hills and feel almost that you could put your hand out and touch the trees and rocks. The sky is a pale winter blue, without a cloud. The grass is so green it almost makes your eyes hurt, and breathing the air makes you feel alive and full of energy.

This of course means that last night was so cold and the frost so hard, the pipes froze and it took ages to get water to run at all, let alone heat up for a shower. I really don't mind the frost, because it means that the days are so beautiful.

Thank you for all the lovely comments on the new look. I'm not sure that it makes me look 23 (but thank you anyway, Madmad), but it is cleaner and fresher. After blogging for however long (I really can't remember - although I have a feeling it may be two years), the place needed a spruce up.

In addition, knitting is going well. Kim (the jumper) is finished in the divine Fleece Artist River (an alpaca/silk/wool mix). I swear, I was tempted to knit myself sheets from this, as it felt so soft and gorgeous. Instead, I chose to knit Kim, a knitted-in-one-piece-but-folded-like-origami number. It is not quite a cardigan and not quite a jumper, joined at the crossover, but nowhere else. It is warm and gorgeous and I like it very much.

I am hoping to have the red Flair finished before Bendigo (which is only next week! Squee!) as I suddenly feel that I have no warm clothes at all. Stop sniggering, you down the back.

The wonderful Taphophile sent me a parcel of fleecy comfort, because I was practicing my spinning and ran out of prepared fleece to keep practicing. There were also other goodies in the box - some lovely fibre for when I get better, some books for the children and some cards - but they seem to have scattered quickly to the four winds before I could take a photo. Thank you, Taph.

In other happy postal news, on Monday I received these fun things. Finally, two pattern books I have been craving for ages - Heartfelt and Thrown Together, and some Fleece Artist Somoko from the lovely Ladies at Knitting inspirations. This colour is called Forest Fairy, and is utterly delectable.

There was also a case of Sangiovese. I am very happy. I am off to enjoy some more of the day, before we return to our regularly scheduled winter weather programming, which involves grey skies, wind, fog and drizzle.

Ciao!

New Look (What do you think?)

2009-06-29T19:12:00.000-07:00

You may have noticed that the blog has had a bit of a makeover.

I decided that I needed a new look - well, yes, I need a new look, take that as read - maybe six feet tall, slim, pale and masses of flaming red curls - no, sorry, that's Nicole Kidman. Sigh.

No, I decided the blog needed a new look. So when I tidied it up, I did a bit of a paint job.

I may play with it some more. We'll see. I like the colours though.

Breaking news.

Our wild social life has included a birthday party for a one year old, and having the in-laws and the lovely but blogless Jill over for lunch. Other than that, life has proceeded as usual, with the added excitement of winter and the on-going lure of hibernation.

The most exciting thing which has happened is my discovery of The Dresden Dolls - check out this film clip of one of their performances. They describe themselves as Brechtian Punk Cabaret and I have been loving their stuff. I am further investigating Amanda Palmer's solo catalogue. I love finding new and interesting music. This dark burlesque genre has passed me by until now.

Finished the Kim jumper last night, still needs to block, and the day is grey and rainy, so photos later. Today is the end of the financial year, so it seems I will need to update stash honesty. As months go, it hasn't been too bad.

In:
Four sock club packages (Four! Count 'em! What was I thinking?) All came in June. That's 5 skeins of sock yarn, or 600gr.
A slight lapse at a wool shop sale - 10 x 50gr Grinasco Tango, 2 x 50gr Kaffe Fassett Regia. I blame Rose Red for these. If she hadn't put me on to the Grinasco, and made the Kaffe socks....
Total from there 600 gr

Total in: 1.2kg

Knitted:
As I don't count things unless they are actually finished I can't include half a clappy or half a pair of socks. Drat.
Kim - 5 x 125 gr - 625 gr.

Destashed:
1.6kg re-homed to Ravellers

One large bag of not-terribly-good yarns sent off to school for finger/French knitting - say 750gr

AT LAST!

In - 1.2kg
Out: 2.975kg

I'm afraid next month may not look quite so good, but I hope to have more finished objects, so I can count more....or some tidying up may lead to further re-homing. We'll see.

Happy New Financial Year to you all - may your assets ever exceed your liabilities!

Happy Again!

2009-06-17T20:31:00.000-07:00

Thanks so much for your lovely comments - I'm back to my usual happy self now!

I will admit, though, that despite it looking terrible and chipped, I still have not been able to bring myself to remove my holiday nail varnish - because that would mean I was back to real life, where there is no point in wearing nail varnish because after a couple hours of normal wear and tear it looks awful.

A while ago, Bells posted a lovely, laughing wedding photo. So I thought (always being original) that I would do the same. The Accountant and I have been together for more than twenty years, and in a few weeks will have been living together for 20 years, but we only married in 2001.

We sort of eloped, in that we told noone, except the Accountant's sister, that we were getting married, just invited out parents (and step parents) for lunch, and after the main course, sprang on them the fact that the celebrant was due in 10 minutes, and we needed to get changed. We married in May, in the garden, under the oak tree. Our dog was there. A horse looked over the fence. It was informal and fun and cheap. Then we drank sparkling shiraz and ate cheesecake.

It also got us out of all the to-ing and fro-ing about who should be involved in the wedding and flower girls and bridesmaids and so on. I did buy a new outfit, since worn to other weddings. It was a lovely day, and one of the last photos of my Dad (He's the one laughing next to me.) The Accountant's sister was best person - she held the rings and bouquets and so on, and took some photos.

Knitting has been happening. The new jumper is up to the armholes, and I am loving the yarn and pattern and looking forward to wearing it. Children are back at school, life is happening in spite of me, and on Tuesday I finally got to see the third episode of Cranford and knitted while they were at school.

Life is full of small joys!

Post-Holiday Blahs

2009-06-13T20:00:00.000-07:00

We're back, and I have a severe case of the post holiday blahs.

We arrived back late on Wednesday night, and the house-sitter had done her usual wonderful job. The first day back was a beautiful sunny winter day, just right for all the post holiday washing.

But since then it has been cold and grey and drizzly. The kids are in quarantine because we passed through the swine flu capital of the universe (Melbourne Airport) and after running around on a sub-tropical island, have a severe case of cabin fever.

The holiday itself was grand. We spent a week on the Gold Coast, where the children sampled the delights of the theme parks and the Princess adored Rollercoasters and the Giant drop. She made the 120cm height restriction by 2cms - and then insisted on repeating the experience. Destructoboy preferred merry-go-rounds, although he did like river rides and flume rides and the associated wetness.

Club Med Lindemen Island was lovely - although the swimming pools were freezing, even for a Tasmanian! The kids club was next to the circus school, so they had high trapeze (yes, both the 4 and 6 year old loved this), bungy bounce, their own swimming pools, and enormous climbing fort, tennis, archery, putt-putt golf, beach stuff and lots of other activities, including starring spots in the nightly shows.

I put the cocktail list to the test, was hugely active in order to be able to eat a reasonable sampling of the food which someone else had cooked - and which other people were going to wash up after. Other people cooking, washing up, cleaning and tidying up is a mothers' dream holiday!

But since we've been home I've had a severe case of blahness. There is no real reason for this, except perhaps the winter weather and its greyness. So I have been catching up on blog reading (but not commenting much, my apologies). I have cast on another jumper (of course) and pecked at the holiday socks (one done and most of one to go). I haven't done much more on the half done holiday Clapotis.

But currently it's all about the colours of a tropical sea. All my current knitting is blues, greens and turquoise. The socks are in Fleece Artist Trail Socks in Angel Fish, the Clapotis in Touch Yarn in gorgeous turquoise washed with greens and blues and the Jumper is Fleece Artist River in Nova Scotia. So maybe it's about the Fleece Artist, too.

I had all four sock club packages get into my hands either the day we left or the day we arrived back, and they are all lovely, but now I have to wait at least 2 more months for the next packages. Sigh.

It's a good thing that I have the thought of Bendi to sustain me - and the thought of my lovely kids being able to see their friends at school on Tuesday when their quarantine ends. No Hamthrax so far!

It's all about the knitting, folks!

2009-05-24T19:21:00.000-07:00

Despite my best resolution, life (and knitting) intervened.

I did think about popping in a post last week which said `Can't blog - knitting.', but decided I needed to knit more than I needed to blog. Here is the result of my labour:

Taadaa!

The Placed Cable Aran, from Interweave knits, in 10 ply Luxury from Bendigo Woollen Mills, in the Leaf colourway. This should also qualify me for Lynne's Textured KAL.

This absolutely flew off the needles, and set a new record by being finished in 11 days. I can't believe I actually knitted a jumper in 11 days, but here's the proof. Cast on May 13, cast off May 24. The only mods I made were too make it slightly longer (could have been even longer) and to convert the sleeves, so I picked up stitches and knitted them from the top down to eliminate seaming - Oh and I knitted the body in the round to the armholes, so the only seams are at the shoulders. Took 3.25 balls of Bendi, so a bit over 1000m.

I am thrilled with it, love the pattern, the yarn, the colour and the finished product.

I also thought, although it isn't the end of the month, I'd get stash honesty out of the way. We're off on holiday on Wednesday and I don't anticipate any arrivals of squooshy parcels between now and then, so we might as well do it now.

In:
8 balls of Tango and 5 balls of Superior (both of which I blame Rosered for): 525gr
5 balls of Bendi Luxury (see above FO): 1 kg
6 skeins of River: 600gr
2 skeins of BFL 2/8: 500gr

Total In: 2.625kg

Knitted:
650gr Luxury (placed cable)
600gr Allegro (gathered sweater)
100gr socks
150gr Jet (Princess's jacket from Zeph)

Total knitted:
1.5 kg

In other words, almost twice as much has come in as was knitted - despite a knitting frenzy. Sigh.

June should be better, mainly because I won't be in a position to buy any yarn, so although some sock club yarn (ahem) may arrive in my post office box, I should also be able to be about square, knitting wise.

In other news, the birdie appears to have settled in with the resident population of Little Wattle Birds, the schools holidays are much too long (this is the first day - they are tooooooo long!) and life rolls along.

We are still warm and although somewhat damp here, have been spared the utter downpours of Queensland and Northern NSW. However, with our usual perfect timing, we are about to holiday in the epicentre of this weeks floods. What fun!

If I don't get back here before we leave, have a love fortnight or so, and I'll see you in mid June!

Birds, Beasts and Relatives (with apologies to Gerald Durrell)

2009-05-17T16:37:00.000-07:00

The strangest thing happened yesterday.

I was in the garden, picking off the last of the apples on the tree, and a bird came up and sat on the branches quite close to me. I chatted to it, as you do, told him he was brave and so on, when he flew on to my shoulder.

Now this didn't quite freak me out - I am an animal person, I can deal with most things, but a wild bird? Landing on my shoulder? Last I knew, I was not Snow White or Cinderella or one of the Disney cartoon princesses who regularly go into forests and have assorted livestock land on their heads.

This guy was a juvenile Little Wattle Bird (about 12 inches or 30cm long), and has a long beak. I would say he was a teenager - a young adult with some of his juvenile plumage still. He landed on my window sill a few days ago and just sat there when I tapped on the window. Now he is landing on my head or shoulder and is more than happy to perch on my finger.

My children are rather amazed. Obviously Mummy has supernatural powers over animals. Here he is, letting me get very close to take his picture. When I rang a friend in the local animal rescue service, her theory was that these birds are quite easy to hand rear, but in the very high winds we have had recently, he may have been blown away from home. He's probably a bit dependant on humans, and wants to be fed.

I wouldn't mind, but now he has taken to stalking me - following me from window to window and trying to sit on me when we are outside. Weird.

If you have lost a Little Wattle Bird, please feel free to contact me.

There has been knitting happening.

Here it the finished Gathered Pullover 2, in Bendi Allegro in Scarlet. I really like the feel of the fabric this makes. It was just a bit splitty to knit with, which I had expected, but is lovely. Great stitch definition. I made the neck higher and the shoulders wider. It took a while because it was the carry along mindless stoicking stitch for ages. Strangely, when I fnally paid some attention to it, it was finished very quickly.

I also finished the 2 parts Zephyrama, 1 part Tink jacket for the Princess. Zeph had sent me the mostly finished child's One Piece Ribby Jacket, in Jet, along with the extra to finish it off, due to the fact she had started it for her daughter and said daughter had grown out of it before it was finished. I think it will fit the Princess for a while. She likes it. The buttons are clear, with pink and black butterflies. She chose them.

Just because you need some proof of knitting, here is Ms Rosered, ensconced in our very messy family room, helping the Princess with her knitting. You might recognise the Pearl Buck Jacket.

Of course, much of this weekend has been taken up with the festival of bad taste and excreable music which is Eurovision. While Norway was both cute and a reasonable song, my favourites were Moldova (great boots and costume, funked up folk song and folk dancing), Portugal (once again, the folk song and costume), the Ukraine (those boots, those Trojans!), Turkey (yay, Dum Tek Tek), Estonia (gorgeous singer and song, Arwen with a fringe), Bosnia Herzegovina (who doesn't love some nice performance art?) and Armenia (great costumes).

Greece was rather up himself, the Azerbaijan entry was tediously ordinary, Iceland sounded like Celine Dion and most of the others were forgettable. The hosts were hysterical. While Barbie was cute, her co-host was a sleaze who kept peering down her dress and squeezing her. I kept thinking of the Fast Forward comedy duo, doing the Russian TV presenters "Viktor, you are very unattractive man''. If you missed out, you can watch it here.

I will try to be a better blogger, at least until we go on holiday. The stretch of glorious late autumn weather continues, with cold nights and lovely days - but winter is breathing down our necks, rather like the Russian Eurovision host.

Is it May yet?

2009-05-09T22:52:00.000-07:00

Oh dear.

Over a week since I blogged, and such a lot has happened.

First (and most importantly) a visit from the lovely Rosered! She escorted her mother to Tasmania, but slipped the leash for a couple of days and came to visit. So lovely to finally have a face to put with the shoes!

We knitted and drank coffee and champagne and ate some nice things - and she brought me a lovely darning mushroom! It was a lovely visit. I dragged her along to circus school, and pointed her towards the LYS and the nice shoe shop - and strangely, she came back with yarn and shoes, having found a hitherto unmined source of Grinasco Tango. And a pair of orange shoes. How unlike her!

This of course, meant I also had to do a quick dash to the LYS too, and grab some of the Tango, and somehow 5 balls of Superior (70 cashmere, 30 silk laceweight) slipped into the bag with the Tango. It probably wanted company.

It was a wonderful visit, and so lovely to meet her. I hope she comes back to visit again soon!

Friday was Agfest day. In keeping with tradition (well we did it last year and twice in a row must make it a tradition) a girlfriend and I consigned our respective children to the tender care of their fathers and did a dash to the delights of Agfest.

An utterly wonderful day, so sunny and hot we were out and about in t-shirts (the last gasp of the Indian Summer). There was a lot more fleecy and fibre-y stuff than last year - mainly alpaca, but a wool shop from Moonah (who also sell Ashford gear and knitpicks needles) had a stall. Overall I was very good and only bought 1 ball of alpaca - hand dyed, 2 little bags of tops and one ball of silk garden sock. Some plants, bulbs, soap and lovely hand cream etc came home with me though.

Which brings me to stash honesty. These purchases, having been made in May, do not count in April's total (heaves sigh of relief).

April:
In: 800 grams

Knitted: (wait for it!) 100 gr - Black Rose socks
700gr - raglan cardi
100 gr - fish hat
100gr - Lighthouse gansey socks

Total - 1kg knitted - so I finally managed to knit more than came in! At last!

On a much sadder note, thank you so much for all your lovely thoughts on my poor little Hobson. And thank you for sharing your cat stories, too. It is awful to lose a fur friend, and I miss him dreadfully. Thank you.

And a big Happy Mother's Day, and to those who aren't yet, but will be - Happy Day to us all!

Vale, Hobson.

2009-05-01T18:04:00.000-07:00

This is just a very short post.

For the first time in more years than I care to remember, I have no animals.

Last night, my cat, Hobson, didn't come home. As the weather cools down, Hobson is always keen to be inside.

I acquired Hobson as a semi-feral teenage cat from our local RSPCA. Our cat, George, had been hit by a car, and our other cat and dog missed him. Hobson came into our lives. He loved the other cat, adored the elderly Labrador and loved me.

For many years, he'd have nothing to do with the Accountant, and generally gave the kids a wide berth. One of my friends, when seeing Hobson streak past her said, ``That's not a cat. It's a wabbit!''

Hobson seemed to be scared of most people, but was a mighty hunter of rabbits, rats and mice - and I'm ashamed to say, occasionally, birds.

He kept his white bits very white, and I loved him and he was hit by a car last night. I found him when I returned from the gym this morning out the front of our house.

We have buried him, and in keeping with our traditions, will plant a fruit tree over his grave (actually 2 - because I think he will look after the kiwi fruit vines for us, and you need a male and a female).

Goodbye Hobson. You have been my cat for over nine years. You were always as light as a feather. We joked that you had bird bones. But this morning you felt very very heavy.

Goodbye.

Just for Amy - and the end of poetry month

2009-04-29T20:39:00.001-07:00

I wanted to include so many poems in this blog: Omar Kayyam

Awake! For morning in the bowl of night,
Has flung the stone that puts the stars to flight
And Lo! The hunter of the East has caught
The sultan's turret in a noose of light

and Dylan Thomas:

Do not go gentle into that good night
Old age should burn and rage at close of day
Rage, Rage against the dying of the light

and D H Lawrence:
Not every man has gentians in his house
In soft September at slow sad Michaelmas

Bavarian Gentians, big and dark
Only dark
Darkening the daytime torchlike
With the smoking blueness of Pluto's gloom

All poems I love (along with a million others) and all typed from memory. I have so many fully, half and partly remembered poems sloshing around. I love Walt Whitman and Robert Frost, Yeats and Dylan Thomas, Wordsworth, Keats and Shelley, Marvell, Shakespeare, Donne, the war poets, Ogden Nash, Edward Lear, RL Stevenson, Yevgeny Yevtushenko and .... and

Love them. Love them all.

But in the spirit of feminism, and because some readers may not be familiar with A D Hope's extraordinarily sensuous poetry, I thought I'd pop this one in.

Advice to young ladies

AUC 334: about this date
For a sexual misdemeanour, which she denied,
The vestal virgin Postumia was tried.
Livy records it among affairs of state.

They let her off: It seems she was perfectly pure;
The charge arose because some thought her talk
Too witty for a young girl, her eyes, her walk
Too lively, her clothes too smart to be demure.

The Pontifex Maximus, summing up the case,
Warned her in future to abstain from jokes,
To wear less modish and more pious frocks
She left the court reprieved, but in disgrace.

What then? With her, the annalist is less
Concerned than what the men achieved that year:
Plots, quarrels, crimes, with oratory to spare!
I see Postumia in her dowdy dress,

Stiff mouth and listless step; I see her strive
To give dull answers. She had to knuckle down,
A vestal virgin who scandalised that town
Had fair trial, then they buried her alive.

Alive, bricked up in sufficating dark,
A ration of bread, a pitcher if she was dry,
Preserved the body they did not wish to die
Until her mind was quenched to the last spark.

How many the black maw has swallowed in its time!
Spirited girls who would not know their place;
Talented girls who found that the disgrace
Of being a woman made genius a crime;

How many others who would not kiss the rod
Domestic bullying broke, or public shame?
Pagan or Christian, it was much the same:
Husbands, St Paul declared, rank next to God.

Livy and Paul, it may be, never knew
That Rome was doomed; each spoke of her with pride.
Tacitus, writing after both had died,
Showed that whole fabric rotten, through and through.

Historians spend their lives and lavish ink
Explaining how great commonwealths collapse
From great defects of policy - perhaps
The cause is sometimes simpler than they think.

It may not seem so grave an act to break
Postumia's spirit as Galileo's, to gag
Hypatia as crush Socrates, or drag
Joan as Giordano Bruno to the stake.

Can we be sure? Have more states perished, then,
For having shackled the enquiring mind,
Than those who, in their folly, not less blind,
Trusted the servile womb to breed free men?

So there you are, Amy.

One of my favourite poems, sneaking in before the end of the month. Thank you for making me re-visit so many of the words that have given me so much pleasure - and introducing me to new words and more pleasure!

Winter sneaks in on cat feet...

2009-04-28T18:24:00.000-07:00

OK.

I have to admit that winter has arrived (either that or it's suddenly late autumn and winter is around the corner). We have had 2 frosts in a row, and it poured with rain all weekend. Drought breaking rain - we had 76mm of rain in 3 days. Farmers were dancing.

I have turned over the clothes, the children are in their winter uniforms for school and I have rediscovered my spencers and skivvies. I may have to do some knitting.

This is my first proper week of unemployment, and yesterday I went to the Sheffield spinners and weavers with my wheel and started to learn to spin. They were lovely and welcoming ladies, but strangely, most of them didn't knit (or crochet). I didn't actually ask them what they did with their handspun, but I will next time. I now have 3/4 of a bobbin of rather overspun alpaca and merino (90/10). Apparently the overspinning was only partly me. The tension on the wheel wouldn't stay set, so running repairs were carried out by a little old lady with fishing wire and a red Post Office rubber band. I also found I am a much better spinner if I don't look at what I am doing.

I spent the wet weekend teaching the Princess to sew, and we made this:

Here is the proud creator.

So, that is the wet Saturday. On Sunday, Princess made a chocolate cake, mainly by herself (under supervision), so she is inordinately pleased with herself (and I am very proud of her).

I have been cooking more exciting wintry type food too. Last night I attempted to recreate a lovely dish I had at Brown Brothers Epicure restaurant, chorizo, potato and tomato. I used the roasted tomato sauce (will it see out the winter, or should I try and make just one more batch?).

I fried off the sliced chorizo, and drained it. Cooked some dutch cream potatoes then fried them in a little olive oil with sweet paprika, smoked paprika and hot paprika. Returned the sliced chorizo to the pan, added the roasted tomato sauce, tasted it, added a little more seasoning - nom nom! Not a bad recreation - maybe a little more hot paprika next time!

It's nice to have a bit more time for cooking and meal planning.

I have almost finished the body of the gathered pullover, and hope to start the sleeves in a day or two. Still need to finish Cherie (just not feeling the lurve), and the plain toe-up socks. then I can get on to some more things. Winter is coming - we need to keep warm!

Indian Summer

2009-04-21T19:37:00.000-07:00

The lovely Kate at Kiss My Frog gave me this award a little while ago (and it's not that I forgot, I just kept getting distrac....look - a bunny!) Sorry - and I was very happy to get such a nice award. Now I have to pass it on. Kate has already mentioned some of the people I would have named, so in order to spread the love a bit I thought I'd try and link you up with some new names.

Miss Cindy2paw and her gorgeous labby friends is an obvious one - crafty, friendly and always something wonderful in her blog
QuiltingMick - Crochet liberationist, crafter and enabler - always one to watch
Zephyrama - not posting as much these days, but always interesting when she does
Yarning to Write - with Amy you always get something unexpected - bits of a new book, children, cuteness and cussing - all in one great package
A Little Bit Crafty - can you believe someone can knit THAT small!
MadmadHousewife - the glories of yarn, wine and children (not necessarily in that order)
Last but definitely not least, Julie the Samurai Knitter - I never come away from reading her blog without having learned something surprising!

I even have an FO to blog

Here is the Raglan Jacket
Adapted from the topdown raglan cardigan recipe (but turned into a swing jacket)
7 skeins of Manos del Uruguay wool I scored in a Ravelry de-stash
The 5 buttons were 5 cents each in one of those button bargain tins in haberdashery shops where you trawl through to try and find some that match

Love it - lovely and warm and gorgeous selection og colours.

Obviously, monogamous knitting on Wips, instead of Knitlottotm means you actually get things finished.
Next stop - Cherie Amour and the last sleeve and a half

In other news, by the end of tomorrow I will be unemployed and I'm quite looking forward to it. I'm excited and already thinking of all the things I will be able to do.

This weekend quinces will be becoming both jelly and paste (a great recipe which boils the quinces and then turns the liquid into jelly and the pulp into paste - and the paste takes ages and needs welders gloves because it spits sugar and quince which sticks to your skin and burns the way toffee does.) Paste takes around 3 hours.

I will also pick walnuts - we usually end up with between 35 and 50kgs of walnuts - we have 21 mature trees - and pick over the apples and think about making another batch of roasted tomato sauce. I'm not sure if I have squirrel (hoard hoard hoard for winter) or bear (eat store eat) tendencies at this time of the year. Probably squirrel - I'm too much of an insomniac to be a bear. I use the harvest to feed us and try and capture autumn and summer in the depths of winter.

So far, we are having an indian summer. It is balmy and gently breezy and the breeze is warm. I know that there is only 1 month till winter officially begins. I must think about knitting......

Golden Apples of the Sun

2009-04-14T16:51:00.000-07:00

In honour of Amy and her wonderful blogging of a poem a day, I thought I would share one of my favourites, by W B Yeats.

I love Yeats' work and visited his grave when we were in Ireland - forcing the Accountant to drive miles out of our way so I could go there.

The Song of Wandering Aengus

I WENT out to the hazel wood,
Because a fire was in my head,
And cut and peeled a hazel wand,
And hooked a berry to a thread;
And when white moths were on the wing,
And moth-like stars were flickering out,
I dropped the berry in a stream
And caught a little silver trout.

When I had laid it on the floor
I went to blow the fire a-flame,
But something rustled on the floor,
And someone called me by my name:
It had become a glimmering girl
With apple blossom in her hair
Who called me by my name and ran
And faded through the brightening air.

Though I am old with wandering
Through hollow lands and hilly lands,
I will find out where she has gone,
And kiss her lips and take her hands;
And walk among long dappled grass,
And pluck till time and times are done,
The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun.

Of course, the `golden apples' of mythology were thought to be quinces, which came from possibly Persia, and perhaps even further afield. The picture above is of our quinces, just now ready for picking. In fact, just after I took this, I picked them and baked them with port, white wine, a cinnamon stick and some honey (and a little water) and we ate them with clotted cream. Yum!

I decided to give the Knitlotto tm a miss for a few days after I finished the Lighthouse Gansey socks (and told Anne Hanson of Knitspot how much I liked them - she says she may be coming up with some more gansey type sock patterns) and monogamously knitted on these.

These took 6 days - can you believe it! They are BlackRose socks from Knitty.com, and inspired by how gorgeous Bells' were, I cast on some Blue Moon Fiber Arts STR in Thraven. The bottom pic shows the colour better, I think. These were such fun to knit and grew so fast because I would be waiting for something or standing still for a few minutes and think`Oh, I could do a quick pattern repeat'' and I would. It was also Easter and not much was going on, so I could actually knit a bit during the day!

They were a lovely knit, perfectly matched to the yarn and I may make some more because I loved them so much!

In other news, I have organised my flights and accommodation to the Bendigo Wool and Sheep Show, so I now, with Zephyrama, the Knightly Knitter and Donyale, form part of the Hustler Street Posse (Hustler St is the address of our house in Bendi). So exciting!

This morning there was a mammoth storm, with wind gusts of up to 114kmh (that's 70mph in the old money) and much lightning and thunder. And rain. Lot and lots of rain. This is the first decent rain for a long time and the first thunderstorm. There are likely to be one or two more before winter.

We have had Easter and I did eat some chocloate, but was reasonably restrained. We took the kids to the nearby National Park, Narawntapu, and visited the bird hide which is usually on a lagoon, but there is no lagoon. Hopefully, some reasonable winter rain will bring back the lagoon and swamps. Currently, kangaroos are grazing where the lagoon usually is.

We were lucky enough to be there for a snake demonstration and talk. Tasmania has only three types of snake, all venomous and occasionally difficult to tell from each other. In fact, if you are close enough to undertake accurate identification of species (from a single scale between the eyes) you are almost cetainly too close.

The Tiger snake is the 4th most venomous snake in the world and the Copperhead the 10th, but the White lipped snake is small (and just as venomous). Tasmanian snakes should be treated with great respect. They are also protected, but killed nontheless.

It is only 10 days now until I finish work. I have lots of plans, and am quite looking forward to my approaching unemployment. I have decided to try and have spinning and sewing days once a week, and to do some small moves towards further decluttering, and making the house look less like a bomb site and more like a place where people can actually live, and find their possessions!

Off to play snap with Destructoboy, and attempt to wrangle him into some clothes....

Hoppy Easter!

2009-04-07T17:41:00.000-07:00

Another FO! There has been knitting happening - instead of the lucky dip system, I actually became monogamous, and these gorgeous socks were finished.

Specs:
Pattern: Lighthouse Gansey Socks by Anne Hanson (on Knitty.com)
Yarn: Yoyo String and Fluff in Crankyberry
Sticks - 2.75mm dpns
Time - from March 3 until April 6 - in a non-monogamous fashion.

Lots of fun and an easy and satisfying knit. I may make these for the Accountant's somewhat larger feet!

In other news, as soon as daylight saving ended it got cold - I understand there was snow in the mountains, and it was necessary to wear a cardigan. Winter is not far away, and for knitters and spinners and fibre fiends in general that can mean only one thing - Bendigo wool and sheep show.

And this year, I will be going.

I have bitten the bullet and booked accommodation and one or two blogpals may be there as well.

I have put the Accountant on notice that he will be the responsible adult in the house on July 17, 18 and most of 19.

I cannot describe how much I am looking forward to this. Wool, fibre, blogpals, Ravellers and knitting - all in one place. Squeeeeeeee!

Other stuff.

I have been trying very hard to be good. And apart from a small slip off the wagon involving the very tail end of a Wollmeise update, I have been pretty good.

I have decluttered another 3 bags for Lifeline and got rid of some more - stuff - like boxes and bags and so on that have been sitting around forever. I have been doing lots of work, because my inner quality controller and work ethic will let me do no less than my best, job or no job after April 23.

I am still knitting on the ongoing projects, but when I finished the gansey socks, I cast on Blackrose (another knitty.com pattern in BMFA Raven clan, Thraven) I did the ribbing and first pattern repeat last night and it looks gorgeous. Can't wait to do some more on it.

Easter is coming, and I am fairly sure the Easter Bunny will be visiting us. I hope he visits you all too! Happy Easter! (and for pun-lovers - Hoppy Easter!)

A pinch and a punch for the first of the month!

2009-03-31T18:44:00.000-07:00

April Fool's Day!

And that sneaky person who steals my time has been active again! I swear (frequently and loudly) that someone has stolen at least part of February and March, because we are a quarter of the way through the year, and I'm sure I haven't taken full advantage of it.

I have been spending lots of time in the kitchen. The tomatoes have kicked in and I forgot one or three zucchinis, which immediately expanded to fill the space available.

I have relished, chutneyfied, roasted, jammed and preserved - currently, if you stand too still in my kitchen you are immediately turned into relish. This has meant somewhat less time for knitting, but maybe I will have more time for leisurely pursuits after the 23rd.

I have continued with at least some of the de-cluttering - 7 shopping bags of clothes (mine and the children) trotted off to Lifeline last week, and 2 boxes and an outgrown activity table went to the child care centre. I think I have mentioned before that our local childcare centre is a not-for-profit organisation, and they do a great job, so good quality outgrown toys go off there to be played with.

I have so many WIPs around that in the evenings when I finally sit down and knit, I just reach down and snag a bag and knit on whatever is in it. This so-called system may explain my lack of finished objects for the past several weeks!

In the March stash honesty situation, I was doing very well, and I hasten to say that I didn't buy very much. I did, however, receive both presents and prizes, which rather put me behind the eight-ball, but I am not complaining!

So, In:
13 books (11 were for review)
2 cds (for review)
1 DVD (review)
8 balls of jo sharp silkroad aran (prize from Serendipity's blog)
1 jo sharp book (ditto)
2 knitting mags, 2 skeins of sock yarn (prize/gift from Zephyrama)
4 balls sock yarn and 600gr Plymouth Outback and 1 book (gift from Amy)
3 skeins of sock yarn (I weakened)
2 sock club parcels
5 skeins of undyed from the Knittery

Total yarn in: 2.5kgs of yarn (oh my! That is scary!)

Out:
as above

Knitted: 6oogr (raglan cardi and socks)

I really, really, really, really need to knit faster.

Or with heavier wool.

And I need to read faster too.

Autumn Sneakiness

2009-03-24T17:44:00.000-07:00

Autumn is sneaking up on us....Ssshhh!

It's dark when I get up in the mornings, and daylight savings doesn't finish for another 2 weeks. We have had some cool nights, there has been a little rain, mushrooms are springing up and occasionally I smell fires in the evening (the good kind!).

Knitting has been happening, but not much has been finished. This Fish Hat is one of my few FOs for ages. Here it is being modelled by its recipient, Destructoboy. He chose the colours, and loves it. We are waiting for cooler weather. Princess would like one too. Along with a number of other knitted items she has requested

Thank you for all your wonderful and positive thoughts. Now I have got over the hurt feelings and wounded pride (`They don't love me enough', `I should be indispensable'), I am actually feeling very good about not having a paid job. Of course, I shall miss the `paid' bit, but I am seizing the opportunity and learning to spin, and helping out more at the school. I shall be quite happy when April 23 rolls around.

However, I have been having a serious attack of the blahs. Zephyrama suggests it is because I am the twilight zone, and I think she is right. At the moment, it doesn't really matter how good a job I do, I still have no job in 4 or 5 weeks. Of course, it matters to me, and to my boss, but it has no effect on the outcome.

This has made me unsettled (along woth general magpie-ness) and flat feeling. I was definitely feeling like that yesterday. Hard to get motivated, blahness and general not quite happiness. And this arrived.

A parcel from the wonderful Amy Lane. You may remember that I edited the second book in her Bitter Moon duology (and the first one, but that's ages ago). So just when I was feeling flat and blah, here is a box from the USA containg a copy of the book (Yay!), sock yarn, more sock yarn, 3 enormous hanks of Plymouth Outback Wool in a happy, sunny coolourway (enough for a jumper), a little wooly, sheepy tape measure and a knitters pin. Thank you Amy!

Perfect timing and a wonderful gift!

Just for Rosered, here are some orange shoes. They are pretty and comfortable and ORANGE.

When I have a little more free time, I will tidy up my blog. I seem to have not touched the sidebars and so on for ages, so there's another little uncluttering job to be done.

I have continued the de-cluttering. A further 6 bags of clothes are off to lifeline, and two boxes of books and toys are off to the child care centre.

Amy's parcel has ruined my in/out stash figures for this month. I had knitted much more than came in until then - but I'm certainly not complaining! If I knit faster, maybe I can still match the amount!

My Brilliant Career Goes Bung

2009-03-14T21:31:00.001-07:00

First, pictures.

Here are the gorgeous, very like 1930s/40s black and white shoes.

See the heel? It's octagonal.

The beige and tan ones are by the same people. I adore thirties type shoes and these are utterly beautiful. Both pairs have the same heels and both make me think of Kate Hepburn in `Woman of the Year' and other pictures with Spencer Tracey when she played a feisty journalist.

Sigh.

I bought these as my cub-reporter shoes.

Last Thursday, I was made redundant. Just over 7 months ago I was handed this job on a plate. I was very excited and because it was a dream job, even though I really didn't want to go back to work quite then, I took the job. Being a journalist, 3 days a week was wonderful.

But then came the GFC. Community newspapers which don't make money are not the most loved things by media companies. The fact that the Editor and I had made it into a good paper, which people enjoyed reading doesn't really count for much in these times. When she was promoted, but there was no sign of a replacement we began to smell a rat.

Unfortunately, there was no position for me. The only available job was doing shifts, full time, 5o kms away. Not really an option when you have a 4 year old and a 6 year old. Doing 3 days was enough of a stretch (and I'm not even going to get into the amazing women who hold down fulltimes jobs with young kids.)

So there it is. Maybe in the future more opportunities will come up, but at present, come April 23, I am unemployed.

However, this will give me the chance to learn to spin, and maybe to do some dying. I will have time to knit and cook more and to collect kids from school and play with them and do stuff. It's not all bad.

In the meantime, there is a fun little meme doing the rounds (I've seen it on Kuka and Penny's blogs). You google 'Unfortunately, (insert your name here)' and see what you get.

Here are mine:

Unfortunately, Ceri's new start seemed to involve disrupting lives, within days she's reunited a happily uncoupled couple....

Unfortunately, Ceri, the vast majority of the British public own mortgages and have to work (yes, even on weekends sometimes)

Unfortunately, Ceri passed away on January 14, however she wanted her message heard so others will learn and lives will be saved (urk!)

Unfortunately, Ceri Davis as Laurie was not strong enough to match Dominic's performance in any area, which was disappointing

Unfortunately, Ceridwen's hopes of getting Paul Simon's song 'Graceland' out of her head upon arrival in Memphis were dashed today

On an entirely different note, I was surprised how many of you are magpies too - look - sparkly stuff - and thought we could all get together someday in either a big department store or at Salamanca market and watch what happens. It would be sidesplitting! Lots of shiny and sparkles and distractions!

What fun!

Off to bottle the zucchini and corn relish!

The Magpie Gene

2009-03-10T16:15:00.000-07:00

Just for Rosered! I kept promising pictures of the red Dorothy shoes. (I keep wanting to click my heels together and chant `There's no place like home! There's no place like home!' whenever I wear them). And the others are lovely black dressing up to be a grown up shoes. See the heels? Highish, yet solid.

Now back to the scheduled programming.

I think I have a magpie - ooooh look! Something shiny!

Where was I?

Of course, yes, I have the ability to become easily distract.. (shiny! pretty! Ohh!)

Sorry.

Right. I have donned my blinkers and now I should be OK.

I tend to become distracted by pretty shiny stuff - which can be just shiny in the metaphorical sense. New! Exciting!

It happens every so often with yarn or knitting related products - ooh new patterns! NEW YARN!!!!! New projects!

And I currently have a very bad case of magpie-itis! I have been very good this year (look - nearly a whole quarter of the way through!)

I have bought very little yarn. Just the sale yarn in Gawler, South Australia, and the sock club yarn. There may be some yarn on order which has not yet appeared on my doorstep, so that does not count.

I have received some knitting magazines, and have finally got 2 books which were ordered from the Book Depository a while ago, but overall, I have been strong, I have not succumbed to my inner magpie (or my inner packrat).

All good.

But I have been... nervous, unsettled and not quite contented. I have been looking for my next project, given I am on the sleeves of this project and have finished a fish hat for Destructoboy. There are 3 pairs of socks on the needles and the interminable stocking stitch pullover, but I wanted more. I wanted the perfect project. A cardigan jacket. Longish, loosish, fashionable, warm, to be knitted with yarn from the not-stash.

I searched Ravelry. I scoured the queue and project lists. I looked and looked and looked. Back through magazines, through books and patterns. Then last night, I remembered where I had seen it. In the first Debbie Bliss Magazine. Apparently, the instructions are a bugger to follow, and it isn't charted. But I've found the pattern. And I own the yarn (thanks to a de-stash last year).

I feel better now. More settled, happier. All systems go. Oooh! look! something sparkly.......

And another thing....

2009-03-01T16:19:00.000-08:00

First, an apology. After reading Alwen's blog for, well, forever, I still managed to spell her name incorrectly in the last post. Sorry, Alwen.

And for some reason, no kid's books (juvenile fiction) went onto the list - so here's a quick rundown - authors only:
Phillip Pullman (His Dark Materials series),
Tamora Pierce - anything at all,
John Flanagan - The Ranger's Apprentice series - particularly good for boys;
JP Martin - the Uncle Books;
everything by Nicholas Stuart Grey (sadly currently out of print, despite a barrage of emails to Penguin);
some Enid Blyton;
Susan Cooper - the Dark is Rising sequence;
anything by Diana Wynne Jones,
Rudyard Kipling, the Just-So stories and Jungle Book - and Kim and lots of others;
Cornelia Funke
CS Lewis, the Narnia Books
JK Rowling Harry Potter
all the Graeme Base books

Oh - lots more! So I'll stop now before I get carried away!

Destashing:

In:
5 books
3 mags
4 pairs of shoes

Out:
4 pairs of shoes (2 binned and 2 to Lifeline)
Pile of Mags - lifeline
1 bag clothes - lifeline

In: Stash
3 sleins of sock yarn (1 replacement for sub-quality; 1 club; 1 prize) = 300 gr

Out: Stash
300 gr ( Cherie Amour - not yet finished)
100gr (socks) = 400gr!!!

For the first time my knitted stash outweighs in incoming. I feel very virtuous.

I spent the weekend doing the job of a 19th century skivvy. I swept, mopped and scrubbed, then swept again, our verandah prior to painting. Our verandah is 3m wide and 12m long, plus a return of 6 metres. It took a long time. The outlaws were here on Sunday and I made the gorgeous choolate and dried pear brownie desert from this month's Delicious magazine (except I used cherries instead of pears) - utterly gorgeous and swooiningly rich.

In fact, this months delicious only arrived last week and has already been used for 4 recipes and I intend to cook some more out of it this week. Obviously a particularly useful isse!

Off to play snap with the 4 year old and think about what to cook for dinner.......

30 (or so) books

2009-02-27T23:51:00.000-08:00

Over at Alwyn's blog she had a meme for thirty books (or series of books) that you would crawl across glass(or similar) to get your paws onto.

So here are mine. I should add that this list should be in no way considered exhaustive, but is merely a snapshot which I though of at about 3am

1. Elizabeth Zimmermann - anything really, tart, dry and very amusing. One of the knitteing authors which changed from being a knitter to being a KNITTER.

2. Anything by Sheri Tepper - a great author for women and a great storyteller

3. The Bittermoon duology from Amy Lane - great story telling; do yourself a favour and get your hands on them - fabulous

4. Anything by Jane Austen - smart, witty, keenly observant, amusing - the best books ever.

5. But because Jane only wrote half a dozen books, how about some of Georgette Heyer's Regency romances - tongue firmly in cheek, meticulously researched and lots of fun.

6. Any Phaedon art book. Pick your three favourite artists and grab a Phaedon - beautiful erudite books.

7. Nigella Lawson cookbooks - starting with `How to Eat' and continuing through all the others' Food as prose and recipes for the time challenged and greedy.

8. The Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich. Laugh out loud funny and I adore Grandma Mazur

9. Anything by Terry Pratchett - funny, incisive, great characters and parodies. A tragedy of the highest order that he has early onset Alzheimers

10. The Song of Ice and Fire Series by George RR Martin. Politics, sex, intrigue and power - brilliant and ongoing.

11. Anything by Charles de Lint. Master of urban fantasy and incredibly poetic and musical prose.

12. Anything by Guy Gavriel Kay - The 3 books in the Fionnavarr Tapestry have been read and reread and rereread. Beautiful, moving and still brings me to tears.

13 The Earthsea Quartet by Ursula K Le Guin - hell - anything by Ursula - brilliant, fabulous wonderful - read them

14. Gerald Durrell's biographical books - especially `My Family and Other Animals'. Hilarious and one of the few families which made mine look nearly normal

15. PJ O'Rourke - one of the few Republican's I'd invite to dinner - hysterical, drunken and keen observer, but often seriously politically unsound

16. Steven Donaldson - everything

18. Bill Mollison's permaculture books. How to be sustainable and have fun.

19. Stephanie Alexander - the Cook's Companion. A book I really couldn't live without.

20. PG Wodehouse - all of them - seriously, an England which perhaps only existed in peoples minds. Stereotypical, class laden and funny.

21. Yates Garden Guide. There's an answer for most things in here.

22 Terence Conran's The House Book. Full of ideas and great visuals. Unlikely to happen while there are children around, but I can dream.

23. Winston Churchill - History of the British Empire. Brilliant

24. Seamus Heaney's poetry -especially the audio books of his wonderful Irish voice reading his poems.

25. Ray Bradbury - any collection of short stories

26. Potter's book of Glazes - and entire chemistry course in one small volume

27. H Rider Haggard - Adventure stories from a time when men were men and women were scary. The source of the expression `She Who Must Be Obeyed'

28. Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden series. These get better and better as they go on, in direct contrast to Lauren Hamilton who started off great and turned into badly written soft porn

29. The King James Version of the Bible. Rolling thunder of archaic, badly translated text, but so poetic and wonderful

30. John Gardener, `Grendal.' and of course the book from the other point of view `Beowulf'. Try reading it aloud in the original Anglo-Saxon. And the read Grendal to see what the monster thought about it all.

31 And one for luck. A long out of print sci book called `From the Legend of Biel' - and anything by Patricia McKillip or Robyn McKinley. Or a stack of others.

That's the list for tonight. Tomorrow it may be entirely different. Thanks for this one, Alwyn.

2009-02-24T18:51:00.000-08:00

First. The knitting news'

The show off stranded socks are finished - a fun knit and I adore the Blue Monn yarn - Socks that Rock mediumweight - makes great boot socks ready for winter.

Next, a WIP

Cherie Amour from Knitty.com, in Shadow tweed from Wangaratta and what should be a bulky and quick knit. Folks, this took 5 tries - either I didn't leave enough tail in the cast on, or I couldn't count to 12 - 5 tries - Finally fixed the problem by using stitch markers. I like the pattern and I think it will be a nice autumn jumper.

This gorgeousness is the Shetland triangle (finally, you all sigh, better pictures!)

Isn't it gorgeous?

13 pattern repeats, Wollmeise 80/20 in Indisch Rot ran out of yarn halfway through the cast off! Had to raid the Christmas sock club yarn which was similar (though darker reds) - a very lucky save! I was not looking forward to frogging the edging.

Currently on the needles are 2 pairs of socks - the self designed toe ups in Lorna's laces (more details to follow at some point) the first of which is almost finished.

Have just cast on the Lighthouse Gansey Socks. I went to Princess's Milo cricket on Saturday WITHOUT MY KNITTING! Luckily I had both the emergency knitting and the car knitting, o I was safe, but it has made me a little paranoid.

I am about to cast on another pair of socks, the Blackrose socks, because I saw Bells version and fell hopelessly in love. I just happen to have some Thraven sock yarn wound into a yarn cake. Fancy that!

I also have a Gathered Pullover, for mindless stocking stitch knitting, a scarf and a stash. I think I need to knock over some WIPs. I want another Clapotis and the Long Lacey Summer is almost over. Most of my lace ahs been socks (apart fromt he Shetland Triangle and Cherie. There's always time for shawls over winter.

Other news.

I finally get to see my dentist tomorrow after 5 weeks of intermittent agony due to biting down on something on the second day of our holiday and doing something nasty to a tooth. It would convice me it was OK until a weekend, or at night. i was glad to get home and call my dentist, but an emergency appointment was for 2 weeks in the future. I am tired of pain and painkillers and will be pleased to have it fixed.

Thanks to the positive vibes and good wishes of you all, the Accountant is OK. He needs to have regular 3 monthly check ups for a while, but I am considering him OK, for all intents and purposes.

The munchkins are back at school and enjoying it. Destructoboy loves kindi and the Princess is happy with the new male (gasp) grade 1 teacher.

We spent Sunday de-cluttering 1 room! So we are well and truly into the decluttering stakes. I have bought no yarn since my last post (although I have got 3 books incoming) and am continuing to find things to love in my stash. Alwen is right, all those yummy yarns inspire me no end and I remember all the plans I had for them. But like all addictions, I'm taking it day by day!

Most people I know, think that I'm crazy!

2009-02-17T17:27:00.000-08:00

Let's just start by reminding people to give blood and plasma, and that you can donate to bushfire victims by clicking this link.

Some random things about the last month:

1. All the time we were in South Australia I had cold showers. The cold water was about the same temperature as our hot showers at home.
2. I don't like hot weather - but I managed to knit on regardless - socks don't make you as hot as knitting jumpers
3. I still remember the 1967 bushfires here in Tasmania. All my extra clothes, our extra sheets and towels went to help the victims. My dad had to drive to Hobart just after and said he could never get rid of the sight and smell of all the dead farm animals.
4. The country's response to the Victorian bushfires re-affirms my belief in the basic goodness of humanity. At least most of it. There are some people around I refuse to classify as human.
5. Arsonists usually have bed wetting problems until their late teens. Many also torture animals and are sexually dysfunctional. I often wonder if this were more widely publicised whether some people would be as keen to light fires.
6. A while ago there was a great kid's book about lies. My favourite was `Wine makes mummy clever'

I am not a big dreamer. I don't remember dreams often, and tend only to remember large technicolor numbers when I am hot. Except for when I was pregnant, dreams are an occasional thing. Last night I dreamed I was engaging in a new sport called `Extreme de-stashing'. You had to hunt down the yarn which had been de-stashed in inhospitable and difficult locations, like volcano craters, on the top of mountains, deep in the rainforests and so on. I was extremely good at this and was vying with Zephyrama and Bells for the championship title.

Do you think this was a premonition?

I have decided that this year, given the state of the world economy, the general suckiness of the Australian dollar and the state of my stash, I will be attempting to use my stash more, as a source of inspiration. I am going to stash down in 09. This is not a yarn diet (we all know how diets always bring on binges) but I will try and be increasingly mindful of purchases. There is also the fact that I am a member of several sock clubs to consider.

I know there will be 2 purchases from overseas this year, but I think I would like to limit my spending to those. As far as possible, I would like to be surprised by the non-stash - and most of this years planned projects are already mated with the yarn I have. Let's see how well I do!

I just thought I'd try an update on the `Seven things' thing - given that I've fallen woefully behind. Taph is being so good, but I rather fell by the wayside. This time I'm going to combine it with Rosered's stash honesty policy.

For January:

In
2 prs trousers
1 pr bathers
4 tops
1 skirt - Yes Jejune, you were right. I had a small falling down at the TS14 sale

12 skeins of Naturally 10 ply merino angora 70/30 (but it was on a sale table for $2.50 a skein and therefore could not be denied!)
Yarn as mentioned previously from the LYS closing down sale (lots)
1 sock club kit
1 Valentines present from MadMad with a skein of DB pure cashmere (and some other gorgeous goodies like notecards and a little bag and cuticle cream and soak) Thank you so much!

Out
8 bags of clothes to Lifeline
2 boxes of toys to local childcare centre
about 300 old magazines and newspapers - recycling

Shake it all about
3 pairs of socks and 2 single socks

Total yarn in: 3.2kg
Total used: 400gr

Drat! I'll try to do better next month!

Honeeeeey!!! We're Home!

2009-02-14T22:04:00.001-08:00

We're back.

Tasmania is back to it's normal sort of summer weather. South Australia was sweltering with 6 days in a row of over 40 and one of those days registered 49 where we were staying. That sort of weather would kill a brown dog.

I did however get time to both knit and drink wine - two of my favourite hobbies! Bleow we have (top to bottom) Waving Lace in Socks That Rock Seastone, Mojos in Yarn Pirate BFL and Circle Socks in Cerry Tree Hill Supersock Champlain Sunset. This was a chance to bring out my inner colour tart - not a difficult proposition.

I have 2 other socks also, but will post them when they have friends!

I have fallen behind on blogpost reading and am frantically trying to catch up. I'm also waaaay behind on Ravelry but am trying to catch up there too.

The Princess starts grade 1 tomorrow, a week behind the rest of the class, and Destructoboy starts kindergarten on Tuesday. My big grown up children.

The SILs pool was a very popular place while we were staying there - she and her partner are both incredibly patient and prepared to be assaulted by small people on a regular basis.

I go back to work on Tuesday, with new clothes from a certain incident involving a sale and will post more later. The cake is cooked and I am just about to do the next layer of a cassata!

Ciao!

Bon Voyage, Bon Vivant!

2009-01-20T14:58:00.000-08:00

We're off!

Or rather, we're about to be off. I can never keep track of imperfect tenses. Tonight we catch the big red ship known as the Spirit of Tasmanian (either SoT I or II - not sure which) and head off to the wide open spaces of mainland Australia.

The kidlets are in a frenzy of excitement - the prospect of sleeping in bunks on board ship, seeing dolphins again (maybe) and the fun of packing. I'm more trying to make sure we remember all the bits we have to remember, leave nothing vital behind, and remember to tell the housesitter that there are mice in the pantry.

I spent yesterday (for about 15 hours) trying to cram 2 work days into one so I'd be relatively free today to clean and tidy and pack and put away and wash and so on.

I'm looking forward to a holiday too. Although I had time off over Christmas, it didn't really feel like a holiday - what with the cooking for family and Kim's treatment (now finished and all looking fine - Yay!). So this will feel like a real holiday.

Of course, I have had my holiday knitting picked out and packed for weeks. I cast on a pair of socks last night (so I don't have to do any casting on in the car when I finish the Mojo socks which I am almost at the heel of). That sentence didn't make sense at all. I am almost at the heel of the second Mojo sock, and feel I will fly through it, so I have a second pair of socks all ready to go. That's better.

Because I have promised to be honest about certain yarny stuff entering the house, I feel I should let you know about January purchases. I mentioned a de-stash I had re-homed - 4 skeins of 100percentwool worsted in a purply colour and 4 skeins in an orangey brown have been tucked into the non-stash. The Princess immediately claimed the purple.

On a very sad note, the lovely local LYS is closing. This is the one run by Brethren ladies which just had its 30th birthday. The closure means there are no yarn sellers, between Burnie Doomlight of Spot and Launceston (with the exception of a tiny one at Ulverstone and a haberdashers which sells some Patons). The ladies were a wonderful resource, helpful and kind and will be sadly missed.

On a brighter note, everything in the shop is currently 50% off. I managed to get in there and headed straight for the good stuff at the back. The place was packed and many of the cutomers (which were more than 10 deep around the counters) were buying up big on needlecraft and embroidery silk. Some were hitting the dead muppet and baby wool and others seeemed to have no real idea why they were there.

I grabbed Sublime (10 balls of Pistachio, 14 of Denim blue), 10 balls of Jo sharp silk road aran in a green, 8 balls of apple green Jo Sharp Alpaca Silk Georgette and 4 balls of the Sublime kid mohair in Teal. It was obviously a mainly grreen day. Then I queued for 20 minutes in the really hot shop.

So, Rosered, I have increased my ummmm yarn storage by 54 balls/skeins.

I have finished the shetland triangle (big). I did 13 repeats and had 32gr left for the edging. I ran out halfway through casting off and pinched a bit from the Christmas sock club parcel - same yarn, similar colours - you really can't tell. It's beautiful.

I have almost finished the Mojos. So I have knitted 250gr of yarn and bought in about 3kg. Drat.

I also managed to drop off 3 bags of clothes etc at St Vinnies, and have 4 bags and 2 boxes ready to go. On the in, out, shake it all about scales for the year so far, I am ahead - more has gone out than came in.

Enjoy the rest of the school holidays, I may get to blog from South Australia over the next couple of weeks. Otherwise, enjoy the summer. See you when school goes back!

Wha' happened?

2009-01-13T16:17:00.001-08:00

Forgive me blogpals, it’s been far too long since my last confession – sorry – posting.

I have sinned (a little) and my stash on Rav has needed some serious updating. I’m only going to show the most absolutely recent acquisitions here. I stopped admitting my non-stash because it all got a little overwhelming. So, I have not been either as brutally honest about what’s come in as Taph, nor as organised as Rosered. That is going to change.

I was feeling rather good about not having bought yarn this year – but then succumbed to the lure of a Ravelry destash. I have bought yarn, but by Zephyrama’s rules of stash, as it’s a de-stash, it is not stash, but re-housing. Some yarn has drifted in over the Christmas period.

I received some re-housed Cascade from Zephyrama in a wonderful Crimbo cheer parcel which involved presents for the children and a fabulous anti-cancer cookbook for the Accountant. The Accountant, by the way, has finished being Radioactive Man (but I still make him wear the costume), and all looks fine, His neck looks sunburnt and peely, but he is well, and hopefully will be staying that way. I put it all down to the power of knitting. He also managed to be the only mortal who has actually put ON weight during radiation, because he figured he had carte blanche to eat ice cream until it came out his ears.

There was an order from the Blue Moon sale at the beginning of December, but that only arrived a week or so ago. I ordered some more Twisted and some sock yarn (sock yarn – really? How odd!).

That arrived this year, but is really a purchase from last year. So this is going to be the year of mindful purchases. It’s no good saying there will be a yarn diet, because we all know they do not work. I’m just going to be more careful. And I’m going to knit – a lot.

The Shetland triangle is having its edging done, after 13 repeats (thank you Bells), I’m hoping to block tonight or tomorrow and will have piccies then. Donyale’s wonderful Mojo pattern is turning into wonderful socks (my first ever toe-ups).

Everyone is in a fever of excitement because we go on holidays next week. I have already packed the knitting bag (of course) and have been working furiously, trying to clean the house, get at least one week ahead at work and wrangle children. I am very over school holidays at present.

See - it doesn't look nearly as much if you spread it all out.......

Now you’re up to date. I will blog again before we go. Enjoy the summer which has finally arrived in NW Tasmania.

So, this is Christmas!

2008-12-29T16:38:00.000-08:00

Look at us - running down the slippery end of the year and into a new year in 2 days time.

All that anticipation and excitement for Christmas over and done with, and the strange, disconnected week between the big day and the year's end almost over. We had a very busy Christmas. We cleaned all Christmas eve, because of the gathering on Christmas day, including doing some preparation for Christmas dinner, were woken at 5.50am by a very excited Princess, who had found the stocking Santa left her (Santa does the stockings and mum and dad do the big presents under the tree in our house. Everyone who stays under our roof on Christmas eve gets a Santa stocking. They follow the rule of 'something to eat, something to read and something to play with' as an absolute minimum.)

Then it was stuff the turkey and get it roasting, get the pudding organised, open presents, get back to the kitchen, wash up, tidy, move furniture, get organised. I think, apart from wolfing lunch, I didn't sit down until after 4pm. Rosered - I was also wearing gold espadrilles with 4 inch wedge heels and ankle straps - and I admit I was glad to take them off when everyone finally left.

It was busy and fun and we had batteries and the Princess adored Dougal and he is her new favourite toy. She didn't even seem to notice that she hadn't received the Baby Born which was on the top of her Christmas list.

Santa managed to find the blue necklace and golf bat requested by Destructoboy (whew!) and he adored a remote controlled robot chosen by his sister (and paid for by his parents). All good.

It's been pleasant having everyone home and not really having anywhere we have to be (apart from the Accountant's radiation appointments). We have finally finished the last of the leftover turkey (in fritters last night) and now have to get to work on the ham (pasta and peas and ham tonight I think). We had cherries (lucky I ordered early, because they sold out - and I gave half my order up to a distressed lady who had promised some to her daughter). I had champagne and the Accountant and I both enjoy the Mighty Boosh DVDs - we've been laughing ourselves sick!

Christmas is over for another year. I am more thankful than I can say for all my blog and knitting friends. 2009 is on the horizon, and I'm back to work on Monday. Sigh.

I've managed a sewing day - project bags and skirts for the Princess and me; finished 2 pairs of socks from the WIP pile, done 6 repeats on the shetland triangle and had a play in the stash.

New Years Resolutions? Knit more. Learn to spin. Spend more time doing fun stuff with my family. Knit more. Buy less. Have fun. Knit more. Eat less, exercise more. More of the same, really. What about you?

Happy New Year, everyone!

Sssh! Nobody mention the `C' Word....

2008-12-22T18:17:00.001-08:00

Yes - it's 2 sleeps until the fat man arrives - no, not the Accountant - he wouldn't be caught in a red suit - the other one - the one who comes on C.. C... Ccc... - in 2 sleeps - December 25 - that one.

I have finished the stealth knitting. Please meet Dougal, from the Magic Roundabout (for those old enough to remember). He is for the Princess, and is the first knitted toy I have ever made. It's an Alan Dart pattern and was not too much of a stretch. I'm quite proud of him. I even made the pompoms - luckily I remembered a little gizmo in the Princess's french knitting set....

I have also finished one Holidazed sock, the December kit from the Rockin' Sock Club '08. I am still havering about whether to rejoin next year. Maybe if the dollar improves....

I have managed 2 body repeats on the Shetland Triangle - my very small Contribution to the Long Lacey Summer. I love this, but haven't had much time recently....

And in the spirit of Christmas, a beautiful package from Bells - some Kaalund lace yarn - sooooooo gorgeous - and a lovely knitted handtowel - thank you so much Bells - beautifully chosen - and Princess has already attempted to steal it!

So, just in case I don't get back to do another post before Cccccc - ccc - Christmas! Have a merry and safe Christmas, and a happy, and healthy 2009. My the fat guy - no NOT the Accountant - the other one! bring you all the things you desire, but don't forget those who are doing it tough over Christmas - and make sure you help out the groups who help them!

Merry Christmas, one and all!

Christmas is coming....

2008-12-15T17:55:00.000-08:00

I receive two parcels yesterday.

Guess who this one was from? There is a clue - look at the card!

The lovely Rosered sent me some beautiful Malabrigo sock yarn - in the truly gorgeous Velvet grapes colour way, and the lovely card and the photo of their new house - they look so happy!

The second was from KateJ - my secret Santa person from the Tasmanian knitters group on Ravelry. Coffee, chocolate (Stuff the turkey, eat chocolate), gorgeous stitch markers, a mini sock (for my christmas tree) and the most gorgeous yellow button necklace! Thank you so much Kate!! It's is beautiful, very well stalked and much appreciated!

In other news, the Knightly Knitter and her family were a true joy, as always - bless the kniternet for my great bloggy friends!
Knitting continues, but not enough of it. The Accountant is OK but a bit tired and grumpy with the treatment and travelling, We had the gorgeousness of the prep class Christmas concert and Nativity Play last night - they looked beautiful, I forgot the camera (d'oh) and all these loud children were as quiet as mice. Lovely.

Will blog again soon - and just in case I still haven't thanked you enough for the hug - thank you! (it's still a bit on the cool side down here - and the hug is coming in very handy!)

Thank you!

2008-12-13T23:57:00.001-08:00

You are all utterly wonderful!

I really can't thank you enough for this amazing stealth project. I was totally blown away (as Kate can attest) and couldn't really believe she had organised and coordinated this and you had all participated.

Thank you for our knitted hug. A hug which will be much used by both of us in coming years.

I still can't really believe you all did this - so thank you all a thousand times over.

You gave me the greatest gift, even without this - your time, your skill, your thoughts and....

your friendship.

If karma rules (as I'm sure it does) you will all receive wondrous rewards for making me so happy!

To whom it may concern....

2008-12-13T01:10:00.000-08:00

Dear Knitters,

I am currently in receipt of one (1) large knitted hug. It is my understanding that this article of sneakiness was actually coordinated by my friend, the Knightly Knitter. I would like to say, here and now, that I am completely blown away by your remarkable gift!

Not only am I just amazed at its beauty and the wonderful thoughts and cards I received - which I am going to actually be up front about, and admit that I had a jolly good cry (and a good thing we had new tissues - because we ran out 2 days ago and I only bought some more today).

But I am also just totally amazed at the sneakiness of Kate and at the remarkable kindness of a whole passel of knitters (or should that be a stitch of knitters, or a row of knitters, or a rib of knitters?)

Thank you all - thank you thank you. I will post pictures tomorrow when I have light to show the wonderfulness of this gift), and will thank all of you by email, but in the meantime thank you a thousand times

Thank you all for my hug!

You may be experiencing some breaks in transmission....

2008-12-10T19:08:00.000-08:00

I can’t believe how slack I am (or perhaps it is how busy I’ve been). So here is a pretty FO – Mr Greenjeans in Blue Moon Fiber Arts Twisted (colour – Space Dust)

Utterly love it. The button isn’t quite perfect, but will do until a better one comes along.

It has been worn quite a lot, because it is still cold around here. I don’t think we’ve made it to 20 degrees C yet. Cherries aren’t ripening (there is a rumour there may not be cherries for Christmas – criminal), and neither are raspberries. I’m still wearing socks and haven’t put sandals on yet. We’ve barely seen the sun, and did our entire average November rainfall in about 3 days at the end of the month. Ptui!

However, this has meant that knitting is still a joy. Knitting WIPs – first, a second gathered pullover (acres of stocking stitch – wonderful for drag-along-with-us mindless knitting) in scarlet Allegro from Bendigo. Nice, if a little splitty.

I am making the Princess a Dougal toy (from `The Magic Roundabout). This is a stealth project for the hours after kidlets are in bed. It is also in acrylic, (Magnum 8ply) so it gets a few rows every night – I am almost finished the body.

The December socks from the Rockin’ Sock Club – the final shipment. It is utterly gorgeous yarn (Socks that Rock Mediumweight) and the Holidazed pattern is easy and fun – this means I have knitted the first shipment (Serendipity – now finished at last) and the last – I must have a go at a couple from the middle!

I seem to have slaked my cardi lust, just for the moment. Nothing has happened on the Shetland triangle for ages, because I have rediscovered the unutterable joy of socks, and plan to knit lots of lacey ones – and even a pair for the accountant (Hallo, Opal 6ply).

The Accountant continues with the daily 200km round trips. This is getting old really fast, but apart from a doozey of a cold, he seems tired, but OK. Again, thanks for the good wishes.

In much more exciting news, we received a wonderful parcel yesterday from the remarkable Elizabeth of the Postcard Project. I saw a link to this on Jejune’s blog, followed it and read about this incredible person and her wonderful postcards. Apparently we have postcards coming too, but the parcel beat them!

Please, visit her blog and read about this amazing project.

Some of you seem rather surprised by the downstairs sock stash. Rosered, it is downstairs, because that is where I mainly knit – and spend most of my time – this allows me to play with, fondle and generally appreciate the sock yarn. I think of it more as a retirement fund (one which has not lost its value in the current economic upset). It probably won’t get large amounts added anytime soon (except possibly from Bendi) due to the fact that the AUD is so awful at present (Why? Why is this? Why is the US worse off than we are and yet our money is worth less? I don’t understand – and that is probably why I am not an economist.).

A little bit of Malabrigo snuck into the house, as did a teeny bit of Cascade. This is only because I know prices will have to go up soon because of the exchange rate. This is financial prudence and has nothing to do with the fact that I am a yarn pig. So there.

I am feeling vaguely virtuous, because I posted my interstate and overseas parcels. The feeling wears off when I remember that I have not yet done the Christmas cards at all.

I have callously importuned the wonderful 2Paw and her recipes will be appearing in our paper next week. In between, small amounts of cooking and even smaller amounts of house work are being done.

I will try very hard to Blog again soon. The Lovely Knightly Knitter and her family are coming to visit for the weekend, so hopefully I will have pictures and fun stuff! Thanks again for your good wishes, enjoy the weekend!

One or two skeins or sock yarn.....

2008-11-26T18:58:00.001-08:00

Ahem.

In the interests of nearly full disclosure here is……

Most of my downstairs sock yarn.

I say most, because it doesn’t include the 30ish packs I’ve made up, of paired pattern and yarn to make my very own sock club (sort of).

It doesn’t include downstairs WIPs, or some of the sock yarn which has been whisked away to become something other than socks (there’s a couple of scarves, a shawls and so on in this category).

It certainly doesn’t include the UPSTAIRS sock yarn, which is predominantly ‘commercial’ – that is – Patonyle, Miami, Regia, Arwetta, etc etc etc. There is some hand dyed/hand painted up there, but after collecting the downstairs stash together, I had to put my head between my knees and breathe deeply for a while.

So there it is.

Yet another guilty secret exposed.

More random stuff:

I should have mentioned that an Australian size 14 is around an American 10-12. Just in case our trans-Pacific friends didn’t appreciate the magnitude of my feat! (LOL)

Georgie’s system is still working – it’s just a pity I didn’t get organised this week to use it properly!

I went to the Princess’s last swimming lesson through the school today and was mightily impressed by all of them actually swimming the full length of the 17ish metre pool – 3 times!

I have finally (around 6 years after the rest of the world) finished watching the first series of 24. In case you’re wondering – it was great! I must try to catch the second series sometime before another 6 years goes past. Next on the list? The Sopranoes, Desparate Housewives, Dexter, and Lost. No, I haven’t seen any of those. I only saw my first episode ever of House about 2 weeks ago. I have missed all these because I loathe commercial television. I wish SBS still had the 5 minutes of commercials at the end of their programs. It was a decent length of time to make a cuppa, go to the loo or feed the cat.

I am itching to knit socks again. I have been stealth knitting on the Serendipity socks – the first kit from the Blue Moon Rockin’ Sock Club this year. I am nearly at the heel of the second sock. I think I may have enough sock yarn, just for a while.

Thanks you all for asking and for your good thoughts. The Accountant started treatment this week. He’s tired, but seems fine. He’s rather put out that he’s not allowed to lose any weight. I think he was rather hopeful of dropping a few kilos of cuddliness, but the dietitian has told him that’s a big nono!

I’ve been an insomniac for 37 years. I think it’s starting to catch up with me. Maybe I need more coffee.

That’s it for the moment – I hope to bring you some knitting next post.

Ciao!

Random Stuff

2008-11-18T17:41:00.001-08:00

Random Stuff

We’re still waiting for news after another round of tests and so on – especially wondering when the radiation therapy will start. I can’t thank you enough for your wonderful comments and good thoughts. I want you to know how much we appreciate them – and you!

So I thought I’d follow Bells lead and blog some random stuff.

1. Suddenly, for the last couple of weeks, all the security letters when I leave comments are ALMOST words – today’s examples: ‘siting’, ‘yvolene’, ‘begest’. Very strange.

2. I’ve been loving knitting with Blue Moon’s Twisted. There’s 500m to a skein – I will finish Mr Green Jeans with less than 2 skeins. It doesn’t split at all, and the dark thread, so obvious when you look at the yarn, magically disappears when you knit. The knitted fabric shows no dark thread at all – weird.

3. My children are part of a conspiracy to drive me insane by ensuring a constant noise level of around a million decibels which never lets up unless they are asleep. I’m wise to them. When I can find the industrial ear-muffs I’m wearing them all day.

4. Watching little kids play cricket is hysterical. They had such fun and I laughed so much my stomach hurt.

5. I’m feeling smug because I am fitting into size 14 trousers. This is a good thing.

6. If you have enough caffeine, you don’t really need to sleep.

7. People are wonderful and kind. The Accountant’s step-brother and his girlfriend decided to ‘pay’ for the accounting work which the Accountant does for them by spending several hours mowing and whipper-snippering for us. There is a place reserved in heaven for them.

8. I’ve been to two sports carnivals in the last fortnights. The commentator said ‘ we take kindergarteners who are just developing coordination skills and tie them to other kids who are only just developing coordination and call it a 3 legged race, and then we watch them fall over and they laugh’. He was right. All the kids fell over and they all laughed. And so did we. And at least 2 pairs never made it to the finish line because they were laughing so hard they couldn’t get off the ground.

9. I have a lot of sock yarn. So I just bought 2 skeins of Malabrigo sock because I thought they needed some company.

10. I love the colours of Malabrigo. I love them so much I even like colours I don’t like.

11. Georgie is a genius. I’ve been using her meal planning and shopping method. I get out a cookbook, try to pick 5 recipes which I believe will use up some of the enormous pantry store I keep in case zombies attack and we have no food for a month or so, use only that cookbook for the week, make the shopping list and record the reactions. This stops me just buying vegetables I might as well throw straight into the compost and skip the intervening step where they go urgh in my crisper drawers.

12. I have startitis. Bells tempted me and I cast on the Shetland Triangle with the Indisch Rot Wollmeise. I have done the 20 necks rows. I will finish this cardigan before I do more.

13. I have managed 18 rows on the socks I started at Easter. I now have one and nearly a half socks. This is the first sock club kit from the Rockin’ Sock Club. It is also the only one I have cast on and the only sock knitting I have done since we returned from Fiji. In June.

Enough randomness. I’m off to feed lunch to Destructoboy, before heading out to the kindie information session. My the Lord have Mercy on their souls. He is looking forward to ‘big school’. So am I.

The Reasons

2008-11-08T19:37:00.000-08:00

Well, just to get you all in a good mood, here is some pretty knitting.

Meet Sprout - Growing Roots. She's made of the Gedifra merino/cotton I bought in the big WEBS sale way back at $2USD a ball. and took 2 weeks and 9 balls. She is currently blocking and just needs buttons added.

In other news, it's not all sunshine and roses. The Accountant has been diagnosed with cancer and will be starting radiation therapy in 2 weeks, He will have to travel 100km each way each weekday for 6 weeks - he will however get Christmas day off. All this has been a huge shock to us, but we feel very lucky that he was diagnosed early, the lump in his neck was removed, and as yet (fingers crossed, toes crossed, Om Mani Padme - positive thoughts) there don't seem to be any other lumps or bumps.

He has to have an MRI and PET scan (in Melbourne) and will be tired, sore, knackered and grumpy - but hopefully well and with us for a long time to come after the treatment.

The cancer is aggressive and he is very young for this type, but we are being very optimistic. Prayers, positive thoughts, good vibrations and all other good things gratefully accepted.

So life will be very topsy turvy for some time. We have cancelled the Christmas holiday, but are hoping for a family trip later in January.

Usually I don't discuss personal stuff in the blog, but I figure lots of positive thoughts can do no harm - and I will take all the help I can get at this point!

Take care - and look after the ones you love.

A Day in the Country

2008-11-01T21:38:00.000-07:00

We had a great day yesterday. We visited Tasmazia, a maze complex and pancake parlour.

There are 4 big persons mazes and 2 kids mazes and a scale model village reflecting the owners sense of humour. Think Cockington Green but much larger houses (1/5th scale) . The great maze is huge, there's a replica of Hampton Court maze, a hexagonal maze and the confusion maze. It's all good, clean, outdoorsy fun.

The children ran and ran and got lost and found things in the mazes (the cubby villagem, the 3 little pigs houses, the 3 bears house and so on), ate pancakes for lunch and again for afternoon tea, crawled over the village, followed the yellow brick road and generally had a wonderful outdoor time. We last went there when the Princess was a baby, and the maze hedges are around 5 feet taller than they were then - and they were about 6 feet tall then!

I can't think why we've left it so long. It's only a bit over half an hour's drive away, it's no more expensive than going to the movies (not that we do that either), you can take a picnic if you don't want to buy pancakes, and it's such great fun for the kids.

Sprout is growing and I am all ready for the Selfish summer Kal and for the summer of lace and the summer of socks. I have tidied and catalogued the several forests worth of downloaded patterns and increased the favourite knitpicks harmony tips.

I am ready. Bring on summer!

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

2008-10-27T20:19:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-18T16:06:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-10-14T19:58:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-14T19:01:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-10-01T21:02:00.000-07:00

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!

In Praise of Spring!

2008-09-17T20:43:00.000-07:00

I know, I know. It’s been a week. The weather’s been cold and mainly rainy and I haven’t taken photos. It’s been school holidays. I’m still not human (I sound as if I’ve been smoking 5 packs a day and 20 cigars – and I haven’t smoked for 7 years). Mind you, it’s a pack a day if we’re talking tissues. I’m feeling mainly better and haven’t taken nightime cold and flu tablets for nearly a week, so I’m basically drug free.

I bought some de-stash. I tried to buy yarn from 3 different places today and COULD NOT actually buy from any of them, despite my attempts. So today is obviously not the day to buy yarn. One place didn’t have the quantities I wanted, and then told me I didn’t qualify for the free shipping, at the next the shipping was as much as the yarn and the third kept throwing me into another site and not letting me log on. It’s a sign – and I’m am paying attention.

No yarn for me today. On the up side I did get my Rowan (finally), my Interweave (twice – finally), a new book (Custom Knits), my Wollmeise sock club parcel (mmm – pretty!), and Flair is likely to be finished tonight – and I will have a full skein of sunshine yellow Malabrigo left over!

I frogged both Wicked and Juliet, so will cast on (long after the KAL and general frenzy have finished) the February Lady Sweater. In green Malabrigo from the Wicked.

I am still loving work, and have lured my boss to the dark side, by showing her the forbidden delights of Ravelry, Knitty.com, and waving the Rowan 44 under her nose until she caved. She is in charge of costumes for a local production of Dad’s Army, so Pikey’s garter stitch scarf lives at work and we knit on it while waiting for things to upload/down load or people to call back.

The children are generally childish. The Princess is on an excursion to the northern Captial today (God help them) and Destructoboy has been trying to spell ‘rice’ using Scrabble tiles. For most of the morning.

We all had an excursion to the same northern Capital on Tuesday, mainly for the purposes of shopping. The Princess has suddenly decided that she either a) hates everything in her drawer; or b) that none of it fits her. So she was equipped with 4 long sleeve and 2 short sleeved tops and 3 pairs of legging things, and 2 pairs of shoes. The Accountant has needed new shoes for nearly a year, so he got kitted out. I bought 2 $50 tops reduced to $9.95 on a whim, and trotted into the Doomlight of Spot in the hopes of picking up cheap Jet. Instead, they actually had nice buttons and I bought 3 sets of 6, and 10 balls of Yarn Bee aran bamboo/cotton in a dark olive-y green. This is for ‘Hey Teach’ and as a project has been nominated it does not count as stash.

I’m about to tidy up, wash up, finish the second load of laundry and put on the dishwasher. I hate the fact the Aussie dollar has gone from parity with the US dollar a few months ago to less than 80 US cents today. It means I have to think a lot more before buying things from over there. Probably good for my carbon footprint and my wallet – but it does take a lot of fun out of it.

I’m slowly catching up with all the blog posts. I’ll get there eventually – probably by the end of the weekend. Or maybe not, as my weekend job is currently editing Amy Lane’s new book, Bitter Moon 2 – which is an absolute cracker and a great read. I managed (amongst the ironing, cooking, washing, washing up, children, gym and shopping for food) to get nearly 300 pages done last weekend. I will try for some more in a minute, before going to the library and collecting Princess.

Enjoy life. But don’t write too many blog posts about it – I’m having a hard enough time catching up as it is!

Unclean! Unclean!

2008-09-10T20:44:00.000-07:00

Well, it’s a return to plague house conditions here, that’s for sure. I referred to the condition of Destructoboy and myself as Mucusfest – and really, that’s very apt.

We are not nice to be around at present, what with the coughing and the trails of tissues and the assorted leaks and swearing (from me) and complaints (from Destructoboy). I have the attractive pink-eyed and -nosed look of a rabbit with myxomatosis and the IQ to match. I can’t get through a whole senten…. Sorry? What were we saying? Oh, that’s right, how I can’t get through a whole sentence without being…something. Or other. Sorry, my train of thought just de-railed. Again.

So we’re a plague house and not taking it very well either. Princess swanned off to a Party Day at Vacation care in the Accountant’s car while those of us left behind snuffled and coughed. I really think she’s getting the best of it. Being sick tends to make me cranky. And grumpy. And more untidy than usual.

Luckily, I had a visit last night to cheer me up. The lovely, but blogless, Jill dropped in and we discussed nice adult things like knitting, and patterns and the Divine Norah (Gaughan). She was also there when my Rowan 44 finally appeared, nearly a month after everyone else’s. I am not sure whether it is the original or the replacement sent by Rowan – but it is certainly lovely.

Apart from a small amount of yarn acquired from a fellow Raveller’s de-stash, I haven’t bought any yarn for a whole 2 weeks. I think this may be some kind of record. Or it may be prompted by the dire state of my yarn budget. Or the fact that I’m saving up to do a big order in a few weeks. After all, I’m hardly deprived. I have the odd skein to keep me busy.

In knitting news, the end of Flair is in sight, and I have decided to frog Wicked. I adore the green Malabrigo, but the shape is unflattering for me. So it will become something else – hurrah for seamless top-down construction, which should make it easy to unravel.

Work is going well and I am thoroughly enjoying it (especially seeing my first proper story in print). There’s another week of school holidays to go. My survival is possible – though not assured!

Life goes on....and on....and on

2008-09-03T21:17:00.000-07:00

It’s been an odd week. The first week of spring is always like this. The four seasons in one day weather (if you don’t like the weather now, come back in 15 minutes). The struck down by sickness feeling which regularly affects people – including me. I’ve been deep in a lurgy, which combines all the drama of coughing like an asthmatic seal with synchronised nose-blowing and general grottiness.

I’m still loving the new job and have been let loose on the unsuspecting general public to interview them and then write stories.

I’ve just received the e-manuscript of Amy Lane’s new book, Bitter Moon II and am dying to get stuck into editing it (and finding out what happens to everyone from BMI).

School holidays are looming and I will be lucky to see the Princess. She apparently wants to attend most days of the vacation care program, and the days she is not doing that she wants to visit friends and play.

Destructoboy has the same lurgy as I do and is much happier. As long as there is something to dismantle or a mess to be made, he’s a happy boy.

I have been knitting. I am so enjoying Flair, and knitting with sunshine yellow Malabrigo is guaranteed to lift the heart, even when the weather outside is cold, windy and wet.

I have managed extra knitting time due to the fact that the Princess has been having rehearsals for the major show for the Circus school. I get to sit in cold halls and theatres and knit while I wait for the three minutes my daughter is on stage along with 10 other 5-7 year olds, none of whom are entirely sure what they should be doing. Doesn’t matter, they all still look cute, charming and funny. This will not be the case when they are 10.

I received some not-stash this week from Wollmeise and from BMFA courtesy of the wonderful Rosered. I have not taken photos. Forgive me.

That’s it really. In between required duties, I have let the house run to wrack and ruin and the dishes pile up. I’ll do it when I feel better – or over the weekend. Whichever comes first.

And now, back to our scheduled programming....

2008-08-27T20:34:00.000-07:00

I apologise for the break in transmission. Life has been topsy-turvey and I am trying to be super organised. I have always admired those women who had children, held down jobs, blogged and crafted (you know who you are), but now my admiration knows no bounds!

I would also like to point out that I work only 2 days per week in the actual office (which requires clothes which do not shriek ‘Mum at home with kids!’; and make up to hide time’s worst ravages, and because I really like lipstick!), and one day equivalent from home. This requires me to make 4 lunches and get three other people organised and dressed and out the door and dropped off at school and childcare and read to and kissed and goodbyed and ensuring I actually have the stuff I need and stories and notebooks and so on – is it any wonder I didn’t make it to the gym on Friday and Monday?

And that is just for TWO days a week. Imagine doing it five days a week? As I said, my admiration knows no bounds. I also said ‘women’ because, although I know some men do this – or share perfectly equally in this morning madness, the burden seems to fall much more on women.

In addition, there have been circus rehearsals (for the big show on the 5, 6 and 7 September), birthdays and various others bits and pieces to keep me occupied.

There has been knitting.

I finished a cowl and Le Slouch beret from the American Beauty Malabrigo I received in a de-stash.

The Gorgeous Francis is finished – in Crystal Palace Crème (a lovely wool silk blend).

I have increased my sock stash (because I have SOOOOOO much time on my hands – LOL!

I have worked. I love the work so far. I love planning stories and organising to interview people and then thinking about the best questions to ask them and sniffing around for things which might be interesting and trying to come up with more ideas to start the whole process again.

My boss is great – and also a knitter!

In addition to the madness that life has become (and which will soon, I am sure, fall into a routine), I spend most of any time at home fighting with Destructoboy over the computer. We gave him some really good educational games for his birthday, and he adores the Noggin site, and I can hardly get at the keyboard.

I also rather rashly, and in a spirit of optimism but expectation of disappointment, threw my hat into the ring of insanity which was the Wollmeise Sock Club lottery. And I got in!!!!

This means that unannounced parcels of Wollmeise will appear for me at regularish intervals. It also means that my credit card went into cardiac arrest - but hey!, that's how it is sometimes!

This is not stash because:

1. Wollmeise is too beautiful to be stash;
2. Sock yarn does not count as stash;
3. International yarn never counts as stash;
4. By the time the second one arrives, you've forgotten how much it cost, so it transmutes into a gift - and gifts are never stash

Have I forgotten any rationalisations, Zeph?

So hopefully, normal transmission will resume as soon as possible. Until then, blogging may be a once a week activity!

The Exciting News

2008-08-14T21:16:00.000-07:00

Hurrah for knitters and crocheters (although the Political party is called Fibertarians and headed by Dolores the Sheep, I believe!)!

And a special thank you to Alwen - who remembered that it was Riga in Latvia (not Iceland) who did the mitten thing - and I should have known that, having read Folk Mittens!

Just a short post today (I know - and it's been such a long time since I did any photos - but I've been really slack about taking pictures of new stash - whoops - and FOs - of which I have a few - forgive me and I will rectify this soon). There has been a little accumulation of stash, from a number of enablers, and some books and some clothes - I've been too ashamed to blog it all, especially when Taph is doing such a great job with her de-cluttering. I'm also about to deal the the second birthday in just over 2 weeks! Aaargh!

So, just to let you in on the news......

I'm about to go back to work - a little earlier than I had planned, but when a fabulous opportunity opens up, it seems rather churlish to ask it to come back in 12 months. I'm a going to be (drum roll, please Maestro) a journalist!!

In training at first, of course, because I have lots to learn. I will be working for our local weekly paper and occasionally for the local daily and I am beside myself with excitement - and also as happy as a clam! Being paid to write and talk to people and think of ideas! How wonderful!

And strangely (or possibly not so strangely), this blog has played its part. The people who matter (PWM) read the blog and liked its style.

So next Friday I scurry out the door with a packed lunch and tidy clothes for my first day at work. I will update you with the trials of Tinkingbell the cub reporter (in general terms only, of course), but first I need to deal with Destructoboy's fourth birthday.

See you in a bit!

If we ran the world......

2008-08-04T18:06:00.000-07:00

If knitters ran the world it would be an entirely different place.

I’ve been thinking about this recently. As I am a current affairs junkie, I seem to be up to pussy’s bow with doom and destruction. Bombings, stampedes, dictatorships, the four horsemen of the apocalypse – it’s all go here on Planet Earth.

And then I thought, ‘What if knitters (and crocheters) ran the world? What would it be like?’

Well, let’s see. No-one would be cold. That’s a given. Children, babies and adults – warm and woolly. Have you seen the amount of knitted articles given to charities? – hats for the homeless, for prem babies, jumpers for Mongolia, for Afghanistan, for everywhere you can think of. Multiply this into a national goal and put some funding behind it!

Children would learn to knit in school. This happens in Steiner schools, so why not every other school. It is considered to develop manual dexterity, creativity, colour sense, mathematical skills and it makes a nice line in potholders for Mothers’ Day.

The national sheep flock would not be dwindling – and there would never have been a wool stockpile.

We would have wonderful foreign relations with fibre producing countries. Mongolia (cashmere), Alaska and Canada (quiviut – arctic musk ox fibre), Tibet (pashmina – but only sustainably), Egypt and the Middle East (camel), the continental USA (buffalo – and let’s face it, the whole of North America has fabulous spinners and dyers), India and Nepal (silk), Thailand (banana fibre), New Zealand (possum), the United Kingdom (rare sheep breeds), Germany (Wollmeise), Russia and the states of the former Soviet Union (Orenburg lace), Scandinavia (colourwork) and so on.

The meetings of ASEAN and the G8 would look a lot less silly if world leaders were clad in knitting and crocheting – in fact, do you remember the major conference in which every leader received a traditional pair of mittens (I’m thinking Reykjavik – but am more than willing to be corrected). What a fabulous gesture that was.

As well, a side effect would be a lifting of both the profile of, and respect for, ‘womanly’ arts. Instead of being categorised as ‘weird hobby’, the skills and challenges may be more widely appreciated!

On the domestic trench war – sorry – home news front, Saturday was the Princess’s sixth birthday. 20 children were here, luckily the weather was good and I, very sensibly, hired a magician who also did balloon sculptures. He kept the kids (and some parents) brilliantly entertained until food time, and then it was home time. The Princess was beside herself with excitement, amplified when her Aunt (my SIL) and partner appeared – a lovely surprise, flown in from the National Capital. I didn’t drink nearly as much wine as such an occasion normally warrants, so it was considered a success all round!

My circumstances may also be changing soon, in a very exciting way – watch this space! Off to do domestic things – like check when the P & F meeting is and try to remember to order more gas! Ciao!

Baby, it's cold outside!

2008-07-27T19:36:00.000-07:00

Thanks for all the nice comments on the house. We do love it, but it is really hard to heat (which is why I have the shivers and frozen fingers) and multicoloured carpet is just wonderful for hiding crumbs and general dust.

I am not the greatest of housekeepers, and would prefer to knit, blog or do almost anything than actually vacuum, so this is good!

Although it is an utterly beautiful day, it is freezing - frost still hasn't melted in the shaded areas, there is a LOT of snow on the mountains, and the estuary is as still as a mirror - brrrr!

Yesterday afternoon was spent in the 'green gym', as Taph calls it - we mowed the lawns for the first time in ages, so there was lots of raking and barrowing around cut grass and fallen leaves, This was all 'helped' by the children!

I'm still waiting to see everyone's homes or at least the places they love! - Zephyrama posted hers and told the wonderful story of her house - including its ghost!!

We don't have a ghost - we thought we did when we first moved in - we'd hear sort of chirpy noises in the quiet of the night and couldn't track down the cause - it sounded a bit like someone walking on a squeaky floorboard. Had us baffled for months.

We kept hearing it, and finally, when we were having a second phoneline installed the Telstra guy heard it too.

"There's our ghost", I said.

"That's not a ghost", he replied. 'The batteries in your smoke detector need replacing - that's the noise it makes to remind you!"

How prosaic! I much preferred the ghost!

I'll Tell You Why I Live Where I Live

2008-07-21T22:14:00.000-07:00

I love memes. So because I love them, I thought, for once, I’d actually start one!

I’m going to tell you why I live where I live. I’m going to show you a photo. And I’m going to tag seven people to explain why they live where THEY live and post a photo of their house (and garden) – or flat, or yurt, or caravan or whatever!

I’m interested in what takes us to certain places – what makes us want to live there – what makes our hearts sing about them and what they would miss if they were somewhere else.

I know, sometimes you don’t love where you live. Sometimes you’re there when you don’t want to be. But something keeps you there. What is it?

If you really hate your living place – how about posting about a place that does make your heart sing and your eyes light up and the photo album come out.

This is my house.

I love it! Having moved from Tasmania to Sydney when I was 4, I grew up on the North West coast – out in the country. Everyone knew everyone else and everyone knew each other’s business. Being Tasmania, many people were related. As a child, I adored it – I wandered far and wide, through the bush accompanied by our family Lab and, later, riding my horse.

As I became a teenager, I couldn’t wait to leave. The city was exotic and romantic, there was so much more happening – music, art theatre, bands, clubs – everything! At 18, I left and went to university in Hobart.

Then followed a succession of student houses shared with others and all the usual detritus of city living. I bought a house and lived in an inner city suburb – then got a dream job in another city – so I moved to Launceston – and back into shared houses! Launceston was fun – more fun than Hobart in some ways and I still lived in the inner city. I met the Accountant and off we went to Hong Kong.

There we lived on the 12th floor of an apartment block in mid-levels, in a 600 square foot flat. Hong Kong was lots of fun and we made some great friends and lived the expat life. Then we travelled and ended up in Queensland. Eight years of heat and humidity, no proper seasons (just hot and wet, cooler, jacaranda and mango). I pined for Tasmania, for four proper seasons and for proper spuds (sold by name!) and apples and berries and winter and port and fires and dry summers. My father had a stroke and that decided it.

We would move back to Tasmania, and get to spend some time with our families. In Queensland we had been burgled and I no longer felt safe there. We decided we would try and find a lovely old house. Every trip down we’d look at houses. There was no real estate boom then. That came later. People would move to the west coast of Tassie and have to return part of the Federal Government’s $7,000 grant – because the house they bought cost less than that!

We looked and looked and found this house. It was equidistant between both our families. It was near the ferry and the airport. It was just outside a beautiful little town. It had 7 acres and beautiful gardens (they are no longer quite so beautiful). We could afford it. I had seen it and the Accountant had not – photos only! We bought it and I had nightmares for weeks (what it he hated it? We’d be stuck in a house he hated!). Luckily he loved it.

We all love it. It’s cold in winter and hard to heat. But it’s a lovely happy house and it’s ours!

OK. Now for tags. Zephyrama, Bells, Taphophile, Madmad, 2Paw, Rosered, Knightly Knitter, Tell me why you live where you live – flash a photo and tell me what you love about it!

To Stash, or not to Stash, That is the Question!

2008-07-17T20:24:00.000-07:00

Thanks so much for your supportive comments re my auxiliary ‘Yarn collection’, Based on that experience, I had to lie down with a Bex and a nice cup of tea (or as someone suggested, breathing deeply with my head between my knees)!

I was then inspired to investigate the two other – umm – ‘yarn marshalling areas’ - to see what was happening there, and the results have made me hesitant to post for some time – but here we go!

Linen Cupboard (Primary yarn area)

I have 24 jumpers worth,
plus a lace stash,
4 duvet bags (those clear square plastic bags which zip open that you get when you buy doonas or blankets) – 1 is manufactured sock yarn (Patonyle, Arwetta, Opal, Heirloom, etc etc, some handpaints and baby wool- generally a four ply collection). Some of this has overflowed to fill a 25 litre tub in the auxiliary stash. 1 is Bulky yarn; 1 is assorted 8 ply and one is luxe yarn – silks, alpaca, yumminess for special projects.
There are also 2 large plastic tubs – 1 x 55litres and 1x35 litres holding the jumper stuff,
several bags of cotton,
2 large bags of worsted weight skeins for felting projects,
3 shopping bags of novelty yarn and some other bits and pieces.
All this covers around 2 cubic metres!

Downstairs (Ancilliary yarn area, primarily devoted to sock yarn)

Here’s where I really had to put my head between my knees.
8 jumpers worth ready to go. – In project bags with patterns – all set to cast on!
98 pairs of socks worth of artisanal yarn. There’s a lot more than 98 skeins – because much of the yarn comes as 2 skeins for a pair of socks. Of course, some is effectively 2 pairs of socks per skein (Wollmeise etc) around 30 pairs worth is forming it’s own sock club – bagged up with an appropriate pattern – one which ‘spoke’ to me and I have matched up – some is real sock club – from either Red Bird or the Rockin’ Sock Club.
Some felting stuff, some cotton, some bits and piece.
My extensive downloaded pattern collection, books, magazines, pattern books and journals.

If I knit 10 jumpers a year, 10 pairs of socks a year and assorted single skein projects I have enough yarn for 9 years of jumpers, and around 15 years of socks.

Given that I am 46, is this going to be enough? Will this see me through to retirement?

I don’t think so. So now, I’m worried. I need to get some more plastic bins and get serious about acquiring a stash. I need to really start acquiring some yarn – because there are a lot of knitting years ahead of me and I’m not sure I have a large enough yarn collection to last me till I’m 80 or so.

So over the next 10 years, I’ll be talking to stash advisers, investing in yarn, sheep and alpacas. I’ll reclaim my mother’s spinning wheel and talk to Mandie about fibre. This stuff is my superannuation – and I need to get busy!

Ooooooh, It's Magic!

2008-07-09T19:13:00.000-07:00

Aha – I have discovered magic loop – but by complete accident!! I’ve always been a bit scared of magic loop – I knew how it worked (in theory at least) but I’ve never tried it. To tell the truth it always seemed a bit – well – messy, really. As I understood it, there was a fair amount of pushing and sliding and fiddling about – give me DPNs any day!

But the other day I was attempting to knit a small tube on 2 circs (also something I’ve never tried before) and suddenly I realised that one of the circs was flapping helplessly, only held in place by a single wrap of yarn twisted around it while I – I was knitting round and around on one needle with a bit of it held either side of the working stitches and half the working stitches on each side of the loop – and you know what? It was easy! It wasn’t scary at all!!

And yes, there is some fiddling. And yes, there is some pulling and settling of stitches. And yes, I may not be doing it by the book (which I own but have never *blush* read), But it looked close as dammit to my understanding of magic loop – on an old style 80cm circ with the fairly inflexible cord but a smooth join! So I’m sailing on with my swap knitting, on magic loop. It’s much easier than knitting with 2 circs!

On a different note, some people have suggested that perhaps I have a, ahem, “little problem” with yarn. Well, you have to rely on your friends to tell you the truth! I just decided to organise the ancillary stash. This is the stash which lives in 6 plastic 55litre tubs in the junk room. This is not the stash which has taken over the walk in linen cupboard (making it un-walk-in-able). Nor is it the stash which lives in project bags, ready to go, in the back porch area. It is not even the stash which dwells in the downstairs cupboard (which is mainly – but not exclusively – sock yarn. To my certain knowledge there are - umm - around 4 jumpers worth of other yarns down there).

No, the ancillary stash is the more recently acquired, out-of-Accountant’s-sight stash. This is the stash which won’t fit where the other stashes live. This is also the stash which I hope the Accountant won’t necessarily notice as he virtually never goes into the junk room. (Mind you, I hoped that about the linen cupboard – it is not an area he is wont to frequent – unfortunately he had to make an emergency visit during the great gastric upset last winter – so he finally noticed what had been hiding in there. There’s much more these days).

So, I thought I could organise the tubs by yarn weight. That way, if I was suddenly struck by a bout of startitis, I could just grab the next favourite pattern and head for the appropriate tub.

I emptied out all the tubs, gasped at the amount of yarn, sorted it into piles (4ply, 8 ply/DK, Aran/Worsted, bulky, bits) and decided to count jumpers worth as I packed it up. This is adult jumpers, so we’re dealing with between 600 and 1600 grammes – or between around 1100 – 2000 (or in one case 2400) metres per lot.

I have enough yarn in the overflow stash for 47 adult jumpers.

I’ll just repeat that – 47 jumpers.

Now, I know that I also own around 8 or 9 jumpers worth (or jackets or cardigans – large items of clothing) which lives downstairs and is ready for me to cast on.

I also know that at least 25 jumper’s worth lives upatairs.

In addition, I have well over 100 skeins of sock yarn, patiently waiting for my attention.

In and around this, there are odd balls and skeins, in varying weights and sizes, bits and pieces, and a sizeable stash of lace weight.

So over the next few weeks, I am going to make a real effort to organise the stash. As I organise it, I am likely to find a proportion of yarn I have fallen out of love with. I am hoping to de-stash this yarn. Some will go to charity. Some will be presents. Some will be set aside for consideration. Some will be seeking new homes.

I don’t necessarily want less. I just want yarn I love.

NB – Quick note to Zephyrama. I entirely understand that by the Rules of Stash, I actually have only a little Bendigo wool, which was not purchased on sale, residing in my stash. I have referred to my – yarn collection – as stash, only for the purposes of illustration, not to suggest in any way, shape or form, that it is possible not only to have ‘stash’ – but ever to have ‘too much stash’. Thank you.

Deja Vu Strikes Again!

2008-07-06T19:54:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Plague Central!

We have been badly affected by various lurgies and winter germ fests here – so my apologies for not posting the competition results for my blogiversary sooner. But you’ll still have to wait just a bit for the results!

I notice that my very first blogpost dealt with the joys of parenting, specifically the joys of dealing with – umm – gastric upsets - through the long cold watches of the night. To date, we have been spared this (except while on holiday in Fiji), and instead have varied our viruses this year by adding strep throat (me), colds (the Accountant), cold and grumpiness (the Princess) and our very first ear infection (Destructoboy). After 2 sleepless nights engendered by a throat apparently filled with shards of glass, I almost had some sleep, only to be woken by screams from the boy's room at 2am. This meant being up and moving from then on and getting him in to the doctors surgery as a sobbing, tired and crumpled mess (and that was just me) at 9am.

Luckily, our local health centre has a system on Saturday of ‘first come, first served’. Which meant we were second cab off the rank. Both the boy and I are much better now thank you, we are being very good about taking our antibiotics, especially as we both get jelly beans afterwards.

In the knitting stakes 2 baby parcels have been posted and the knitting in them was actually finished.

The first went to our friends who had their first child nearly 3 weeks ago – a little boy.

The second is for Georgie’s liitle girl, Grace, who was obviously drawn out by the yarn fumes generated by stash enhancement at Wollmeise while her mother was in labour. You have to be a really dedicated yarnie to be trying to buy hard-to-get yarn while in labour – my hat’s off to you, Georgie – I understand that QuiltingMick also helped a bit.

Now I’m just knitting WIPs and for the Cover Youself swap.

OK. Back to the competition.

And the winners are (from a random draw involving small bits of paper with everyone’s name on and a bucket – because I am far too technically inept to manage a random number generator – and besides – that way the spammer might have won!):

Drumroll please:

Bells and Geek Knitter.

Bells, I have your address; Geek Knitter – I will email you for yours – prizes will be sent when I get organised! (Soonish)

Thank you all for leaving a comment - see - all these sci fi and fantasy fans out there who knit and crochet and cook and read my blog - it makes me happy that I have met you in the last year and enjoyed your company - long may it continue!

Hurrah – all done until I next feel the urge for a competition! Hope to give you knitting updates soon – the Gathered Sweater is having its sleeves knitted, and when I can manage to count to 14 again, I’ll do some more on Juliet!

Why are people so cruel...?

2008-06-29T20:00:00.000-07:00

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!)

2008-06-25T21:30:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-22T21:38:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-06-15T19:49:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-05-27T20:41:00.000-07:00

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,

2008-05-21T18:04:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-05-20T22:56:00.000-07:00

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.

WIP it, WIP it good!

2008-05-15T21:01:00.000-07:00

Yes, it’s time to get amongst the WIPs! The knitting on the Tahoe has finished (all except the bands), and it took nine and a half balls of Zara. Have I mentioned how much I love knitting with the Zara? I have also decided that ‘Lime green’ is not a good description of its colour, so I have decided it is ‘Wasabi’. The bands are knitted in a variegated Patonyle I bought from ACS at Wanagaratta (the Patomonster comes into its own) and the colour of that is medium and pale blue, spring green and white. I have to find some nice buttons, and do an enormous amount of sewing up (sides, inserting sleeves, shoulders, hems on bottom and sleeves and bands) and it will be mine!

Then, I am going to whip the WIPs into shape. I have 3 part pairs of socks which have been lurking, trying to attract my attention since the end of March, so the idea is that they will be finished before the end of the month. I am also around a third of the way up the body of the Gathered Pullover, so it would be good to make some progress on that. There are so many things I want to knit and to wear, that getting some finished would be good!

Somewhere in the last two years I have slipped from being a product knitter to being a process knitter. I have also become a capital ‘K’ Knitter in that time. Knitting has become a central plank of my identity. I see myself as a Knitter, Blogger, mother, cook and so on – but knitting is definitely one of the first things to come to mind if I think about myself. I still love the products of my hands (and just threw out another 2 manufactured jumpers to prove it), but the process of knitting – the learning, extending my knowledge, honing my craft – has become immeasurably important to me.

I’m enjoying the stash-busting cardigans. And to prove it I cast on a Juliet this morning! I have had some rather gorgeous bulky weight Jade marinating in my not-stash for a couple of years – and now was the time to use it – a short sleeved over-cardi, knit in the round from the top down, in bulky wool with a garter stitch yoke and a lace body – what could be nicer?

But I’m also enjoying socks, and felting, and knitted toys, and scarves, and shawls. I am enjoying the planning, the perusing of patterns, the stash-diving and finding the perfect yarn to match with the pattern. I have slipped from product to process knitting incrementally. I’m still not a complete process knitter, but I can see such a thing in my future. Maybe not all the time, or for every project, but it’s there – beckoning.

That was the week (or so) that was...

2008-05-07T21:16:00.000-07:00

Yet another week or so has zipped past! I’m sure someone is stealing my days and weeks – I can’t believe the year is nearly half over – and I’m sure I have no memory of February whatsoever – other than the Princess starting big school – but that was only one day – so someone has, yet again, made off with the rest of the month (and bits of April, and May as well)!

So the last week as a quick whip through, in the order in which I remember it!!

I have no idea what happened from Monday to Thursday. Use your imagination, make it as exciting as you like and then let me know – I’ll take it. I have the feeling that really I did Mum stuff – washing, tidying, cooking etc. Your ideas are bound to be better – I’d like to have jetted to the Bahamas for a secret meeting with Alan Rickman and Johnny Depp, whilst eating Beluga Caviar and drinking Tattinger, but realise this is unlikely to have happened. I think it was more probably the laundry.

On Friday we went to the opening of a friends microbrewery, Seven Sheds. He makes ale with his own hops, local malt and water, and sparkling mead (MMMMM!) with local honey. That was fun, even if I missed afternoon tea because I had to collect the Princess from school. As you can imagine, the event was groaning with local, state and federal politicians – if they’ll come to the opening of an envelope, how much more likely are they to attend an event with free beer?

The brewery is wonderful, the mead and ale fabulous and if you’re near Railton, Tasmania, you must drop in (beware though – both are extremely strong!).

Saturday was a girls day out to Agfest. A friend of mine and I callously abandoned our children to spend the day drifting about Tasmania’s premier agricultural showcase. We had great fun – we stopped and talked to people, only visited the stalls we wanted to see, had our hands done at demonstrations, our boots polished collected free stuff to make enormous show bags for our kids and husbands, ate exotic tempura mushrooms and drank homemade ginger beer, bought yarn, fibre, chocolate, soap and girl stuff. We patted alpacas, calves and goats, grabbed free fibre samples and bought fibre, rovings and tops (and yarn) from the alpaca tent, talked to llamas and men with fencing stuff and generally had a wonderful day. We got there at 8am and left at 4pm – we had about 10 free calico and coloured shopping bags, lots of handouts, heaps of stuff for the kids and sore feet – best day I’ve had in ages!

Sunday brought the in-laws over for lunch, which the kids loved and Monday was our 7th wedding anniversary. The Accountant and I went out to lunch at Anvers. This a the local chocolate factory and cafe - the food is fabulous, nearly all local and lots of it contains chocolate (including the home made beef, mushroom and stout pie - with chocolate and chili!).

The rest of this week has been mum stuff – especially today, which was the special Mothers’ Day assembly and morning tea at the Princess’s school – lovely singing and poems by the kids and the most beautiful picture of me by my daughter (I apparently have blue and green hair, triangular dresses and a big smile). – All in all and bit happy tearful at the loveliness of it all.

So now you’re up to date – knitting continues. Here, especially for Ms Madmad is the Slouch Rib Cardi

Admire the damn buttons please – they cost nearly as much as the yarn!

Tahoe is growing – second front is cast on tonight – I am deeply in love with the gorgeousness of Zara and want to wear it all the time – except when I am wearing Malabrigo, of which some snuck into my stash in the last few days. Mmmm Malabrigo!

Ciao! Promise to be a better blogger in future!

The De-Clutter Continues

2008-05-06T18:44:00.000-07:00

Well, I haven't been posting as regularly as I would like, but I thought I'd better do a bit of an update for the 'In, Out, Shake it all about' stakes before everyone (including me) forgot what was happening!

IN
4 skeins of yarn from Elin's stash
10 balls of Thorobred Flame from Sue's de-stash
13 balls of Dark Blue Zara, 2 balls Grinasco strong print sock and 2 balls of Madil Kid Seta (a moment of madness at the LYS)
1 skein wool and silk (other LYS)
7 skeins of Malabrigo in Tuareg, 1 skein in Amoroso (paypal spend up at Yarnandkisses)
Norah Gaughan Volume 2
Knitted Babes (enabled by Rosered tempting me and the great exchange rate!)
1 bag of alpaca happy (Fibre, roving and tops and 1 skein hand dyed) (Agfest)
6 bars soap, 1 jar herbal cleanser, 1 jar scrub, 1 jar moisturiser (Agfest)
6 bottles assorted chili sauces, pickles and chutney - spicy heaven (Agfest)

OUT

4 bags of assorted stuff (op - shop)
1 bag of manchester including doona covers (op-shop)
1 bag of tights etc (gift)
1 bag shoes (gift)
14 bags childrens clothes (ebay)
2 balls Madil Kid Seta (gift)

SHAKE IT ALL ABOUT

Slouch Rib Cardi finished (11 balls of Jet out of the notStash)

Will do a proper post tomorrow or Friday.

Taph is still an inspiration on this thing - and the junk room upstairs is becoming more visible!

What Did You Do On The Long Weekend?

2008-04-27T20:26:00.000-07:00

Another quick one (by which I mean no photos!).

We’ve had a very full and happy house this weekend – an old friend of mine (the one who I’ve been friends with since kindy – or should that be ‘with whom I’ve been friends’? Not sure) stayed for Thursday and Friday night – he had come up to visit a great aunt for her 100th birthday. It’s always fun while he’s here – we drink wine, tell silly stories and he does jobs around the place – this visit he decided his job was to collect walnuts, so he’s filled the vast basket with his endeavours.

And we also had the Knightly Knitter and her wonderful family to stay! It was a bit squooshy, and the weather didn’t cooperate – Kate and I managed very pleasant early morning walks, but later in the days it got cold and rainy.

It was lots of fun – the children enjoyed each other’s company, the menfolk chatted and looked after kids and played about, Kate and I knitted and talked about knitting and blogging and her new job. She gave me a crash course in downloading podcasts (No, I hadn’t been able to work it out on my own – I could listen to the current one but couldn’t find the back issues, so now I can listen to Lime’n’Violet, Stash and Burn, Cast On and Sticks and String - in my copious and child free time – ROFLMAO!!!).

I did a tiny bit of enabling when I took her into our little town and showed her Picture Patchwork (yes – it has Amy Butler fabric and patterns), a new shop which sells nice clothes and yarn called Simply Us and we both succumbed to the lure of wool silk, and our local clothing/craft/haberdashery/hardware/camping/menswear/shoe shop and supermarket. Each of the bits has a separate shop inside a shop and they are all interlinked – the Hardware shop and supermarket bits actually have doors between them, and they sell great clothes. And Shoes. And have just expanded their range of yarn.

Kate liked it so much she bought stuff and I put some shiny red shoes on lay-by.

We had fun. We cooked and talked and played with kids and knitting books and yarn. We drank wine and played in the garden when the weather permitted. We picked mushrooms in the paddock and made pizzas. All in all it was a fun long weekend. I don’t know about Kate’s children – but mine were exhausted by last night! You and your family are welcome any time!

In knitting news, I have finished most of the knitting on the Slouch Rib Cardi – I should have the bands done tonight, leaving only the remaining sewing (most of it) and the buttons to do. Then it’s onto Tahoe and the other 16 things I want to knit in the next week! So much knitting, so little time!

Thank you all for your kind thoughts and funny stories about things up noses. The Lego Man’s hand was undamaged in the incident, and so far Destructoboy has managed to restrain impulses to shove extraneous objects up any orifices. I hope this restraint continues well into puberty!

You Put The Hand In, You Take The Hand Out...

2008-04-21T20:49:00.000-07:00

Just a short update today:

Knitting:

The scarf is finished and I will post photos later (given the fact I am posting the parcel today!)
The Slouch rib cardi needs one and a half sleeves and the bands – other than that it is all done (LOL)

I have been matching yarn and patterns and coming up are: Montparnasse, Tahoe, Cherie Amour and Pearl Buck – in no particular order. There are also unfinished socks, the Gathered Pullover and some requested mittens in there. And some baby knitting.

I have been spending too much time on Ravelry and lusting after other people’s knitting. And stash. So I’m going to make a huge effort to get more of my own knitting done, from my existing yarn-that-is-not-stash.

Other stuff:

In other news, the Knightly Knitter and her family are coming for the weekend. This is exciting, but also means I must tidy up some of the general high level of clutter around the place. I also need to terrorise the dust antelopes (some people have dust bunnies, but not this chicken, no siree!), and make sure there are some surfaces for cooking. Due to enablement by Ms Cindy2paw I acquired the AWW Winter cookbook and think some things from that may appear – last night we had chicken with olives and preserved lemon. Tonight it’s home made sausage rolls (full of cunningly hidden veggies!). Delicious magazine also arrived.

Fun in the Afternoon:

Now, I have discovered that having a good relationship with the reception staff of your local medical centre is crucial. Ask me how I know!!

For some reason, known only to himself, Destructoboy decided to put the teeny tiny little hand of a Lego man up his right nostril! Now, when a teeny tiny Lego hand gets put up the nose of a 3 ½ year old, it stays put – especially because his attempts to fish it out before letting Mum know drive it further up. Remaining calm (he wasn’t – he was deeply upset that he wouldn’t get the *&^*&*%%% hand back!) I whisked him into the car and off to the local doctors’ surgery.

Knowing all the staff really helps – when I explained the situation we were raced into an examination room, the first passing GP was frogmarched in, an examination assisted by magnifying glasses took place and anaesthetic was sprayed up Destructoboy’s nostril. It was really lucky the doctor could actually see the hand, because otherwise it meant a trip to hospital and a visit with the ENT specialist– but there is no ENT outside the northern capital – 100km away, and I don’t think they are there all the time – only some days! And an operation under general anaethetic – and wouldn’t THAT be fun!

A quick prod and grab with the tweezers and Destructoboy’s Lego man got his hand back. He perked up immediately (he had been very quiet and worried until then – said his nose hurt and was crying about the loss of the hand!), and promised never to put anything anywhere it wasn’t supposed to go. He got a lollipop to take away the taste of the anaesthetic. I really hope I don’t have to go through that again any time soon.

Just a quick update on the de-cluttering:

In

1 knitting magazine
1 Delicious Magazine
1 cookbook (enabled by Cindy2paw)
2 balls Moda Vera Sock yarn, 2 balls green variegated Jet, 3 balls of blue Jet to finish cardi, 8 buttons (Doomlight of Spot visit)
7 Buttons for Slouch cardi (thus converting a 20 dollar cardi into a 44 dollar cardi via 14 bucks for buttons and 2 extra balls of wool!)
7 Balls Bendigo - 3 wisteria and 4 sprite because it is discontinued and I love it!

Out

3 wooden jigsaws – to child care centre
6 shopping bags of stuff (clothes, boots, shoes etc) Lifeline
1 large bag boys shoes – gift
1 bag girls stuff – gift

Shake it all about

Vintage hues scarf – gift

Hope to have some pictures later in the week. There are some items on the way which have fallen out of other people’s stashes and into mine! Off to have lunch and recover from the flat out fun of being a mother!

Attacking the Killer Tomatoes

2008-04-15T19:41:00.000-07:00

Well, I’ve been a naughty blogger – but in my defence, I’ve been knitting, nursing 4 colds (mine, Destructoboy’s, the Princess’s and The Accountant’s), adding to the yarn-which-is-not-stash, and rolling up my sleeves to deal with Autumn’s Bounty!

I have dried tomatoes, turned them into a quadruple lot of relish – with chilli and lime – mmmm!, and made enormous amounts of roasted tomato sauce. I have dried pears, poached pears and made caramel pear upside-down cake; I have poached and baked and stewed quinces (we still have paste and jelly from last year); dried nashis; eaten apples – and I’m preparing to dry lots more; made zucchini relish – around 3 double lots, did the plum sauce earlier; dried d’Agen plums and greengages. I’m preparing for the last of the apples, pears and quinces and then the walnuts need to be picked.

Out in the back paddock we have 21 very mature walnut trees. The walnuts need to be picked up off the ground, and then they get plonked in a HUGE basket, which holds around 45kg. When that is full we put them in 15 litre buckets, and boxes. Lots get given away and our friends all turn up with buckets too! Once the walnuts are done I can officially collapse, because it is basically winter and the bounty has finished.

I find it impossible to just leave any of this to rot. My parents remembered the after effects of the Great Depression and I’m sure all this preservation is part of that – I can’t bear the thought that my family could starve over winter! I didn’t make any wine, though! That’s my step-mother’s purview, and she has elderberries doing their thing in a bucket at present. My elderberries and olives aren’t mature yet, so at least I don’t have to worry about them.

Despite the recent visit to Bendigo, I have just received an order from them. I didn’t realise, when I was there, that they had made the rash and unjustified decision to discontinue the Harmony yarn. This wool/cotton/lycra mix is a bit of a fave, so I had to buy some before it all went away. We are writing a protest letter, because in addition to discontinuing the Harmony, there are now only 4 aran colours and less Colonial colours – and the range of colours is getting smaller and much less exciting!

I finished the adapted edge to edge cardigan – here it is in Jet (from the Doomlight of Spot sale)

And I realised I had never posted a picture of Bella in all her glory – so here she is, too:

I’m currently working on the Slouch Rib Cardi from Knitting Daily and thoroughly enjoying it. Yes, that’s in Jet too, why do you ask?

In addition to the Bendi parcel, my yarn that is not stash increased further this week because Kmart had 25% off yarn. I bought up some Vintage hues - enough for a cardi (just scraped together enough of the same colur/dyelot), and some other colours for presents of scarves and hats. Here is one of the scarves under way – it’s the Yarn Harlot’s one row scarf pattern.

That’s it really – my week has been unexciting (unless you’re heavily into tomatoes!). Back to nursing the nose from hell!