Oh dear.....

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.......

WIP it, WIP it good!

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...

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!

Attacking the Killer Tomatoes

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!