Thank you!

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....

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....

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.....

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

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

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

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!