In and Out and In-Between

Well, the de-cluttering fairy has certainly been giving MY place a miss this week!



IN
(Just been to the op-shop)

Lovely lined straw tote with bamboo handles
Stone coloured linen skirt
Overnight bag for Princess
Gorgeous fine wool purple Country Road jumper (going straight out again – gift for stepmother)
2 balls of gorgeous sock yarn – not from op – shop – from ebay
Turkish drop spindle
Addi turbo needle
6 bamboo buttons for Juno



OUT


2 balls sock yarn – sold on ebay
10 items children’s clothing - sold on eBay
The appalling cone winder of doom – sold on ebay
1 box assorted stuff – school fete white elephant stall
1 bag clothes etc – Lifeline (I buy so much from them, it’s only fair I replace it sometimes!)
Gorgeous purple jumper see above (gift)


In – 9 items (counting buttons as 1)
Out -16 items
Just made the 7 things this week – will have to do better for next week!

Now, speaking of obsession – I forgot to mention some incredibly telling signs of obsessions (yes, yes, they do all apply to me, and, I’m extremely glad to say, to most of you too. In fact, it’s very telling that most of you didn’t turn a hair when reading the list, which only goes to show that we may have a teeny, weeny problem here, Houston).

You may have an obsession if:

- you visit the Jansz winery, which specialises in champagne style saparkling wines (take THAT, appellation controllee). You try the yummy wines. You buy some yummy wines. You buy a bottle of the expensive vintage sparkling champagne-y wine (hah!! Appellation Controlleee). Your very first thought is’ Look at the great packaging for that bottle – my knitting needles will fit in that lidded tube beautifully!’


- you are still trying to work out a method of knitting while asleep


- you are evangelical in your pursuit of non-knitters


- many of your non-knitting friends have begun to get a glazed, yet hunted, look in their eyes when you speak to them of knitting. Nevertheless, you are sure that if you could only explain the excitement to them properly they would take up your standing offer of lessons and learn to knit.


- you drink the vintage champagne-y sparkling wine and, guess what – the needles fit in the tube brilliantly.

One of our Canadian friends didn’t understand the Catweazle reference in my post from a few days ago. Catweazle (for the un-initiated, and those below a certain age (pah)), was a BBC children’s series from the 1970s, starring Geoffrey Bayldon, about an inept Medieval magician and alchemist who is transported to the 20th century, and his adventures in the 1970s. He tended to fizz and pop when confronted with modern technology, become addicted to bananas and adored ‘Electrickery!’ People of a certain age (yes, yes, alright, ME!) still giggle and use that term.

Mind you, I STILL think faxes are magic – you put a drawing in one end, and out it comes in Hong Kong or Murmansk (or both if you have my fax!). Remarkable invention, and much spiffier than teletypes.

Technology and I are old foes despite my nerd rating– my computer keyboard, for example, has swapped the AT and the “. I have to think every time I type in my email address and go for the quotation mark key, and not the ‘at’ key. In time, this will become habitual, and whenever I use a properly working keyboard, I will get them mixed up and have problems with everyone’s email address.

On a more selfish note, ignore everything Donyale said about sales at a certain yarn shop. I’m sure they’re not really having one. Stay away. You won’t like the yarn. Truly. Bound to be awful. Itchy. Splitty. Really. Please don’t buy all the things I want before I can get there!

You Might Be An Obssessed Knitter If.......

Yup. You might be obsessed when:

- you decide on your projects and pack them first for a trip

- you take 4 knitting projects, despite the fact you’re only going away for 2 nights (after all, there’s quite a lot of driving involved)

- you visit a new town. You visit the thrift shops – and ask if they have yarn. Or patterns. You look for yarn shops. You visit the only craft shop in town. It has one small stand of Patons wool in a very large space. They stock Country, Baby, Jet and Patonyle sock yarn. You actually stand there thinking about buying some – despite the fact that your stash is greater than the GDP of Outer Mongolia and you don’t use much Patons. Your stash is WAAAAAYYYYY bigger than this entire yarn stock.

- you go out to dinner, drink lots of red wine and attempt to design and knit a lace pattern in kid mohair. After spending the night knitting, you have to frog the lot, but YOU FEEL OK ABOUT THIS!

- you finish a sock, but have forgotten darning needles for grafting. You work out a method of grafting which takes another, finer double pointed needles and three times as long. It works. You are happy about this.

- you get five minutes of quiet time all to yourself. You use this time to tink back 4 rounds on a sock to where the count went funny, instead of relaxing or drinking wine.

- you wake in the middle of the night, in a strange room, and can’t get back to sleep. You spend the rest of the night working out 2 sock patterns, a reversible scarf pattern and a blog entry for when you get home.

- you miss your pattern books

- you worry about what blogpals have been doing while you haven’t been watching

- your queue of ‘want to knit this’ is so long that you are unlikely to make much of a dent in it before your 70th birthday. You feel OK about this.

- your stash has become so large that it now lives in 3 places. You seriously consider moving out all the sheets and towels in the walk in linen press, just so all your stash can be together

- you see a new sock yarn. You become rather anxious because you realise all the sock yarn in the world can’t be yours.

- you see a gorgeous DPN kit. You begin to scheme about ways to obtain one.

- your blog pals and fellow knitters occupy the first places on your Christmas list.

- you look forward to fellow knitter’s birthdays and Christmas, because you get the joy of buying yarn without actually adding it to your stash

- there are very few waking moments when knitting doesn’t occupy your thoughts. It is occasionally supplanted by thoughts of children and food. And wine. And books. But not as often as would be healthy.

- you wonder how this obsession crept up on you – but you aren’t all that bothered.


We had a road trip at the weekend, up to the North East of our beautiful state. We visited the town of the Accountant’s childhood and looked at the house where he lived. We drove about. We went to Mt William National Park and saw wombats and Bennett’s wallabies with joeys in their pouches. We went to the place I camped on a trip with the girls many years ago (it’s still a very nice spot and right on the beach).

We went out to a very nice dinner. Our waitress was a knitter. She liked my socks. It was a lovely break, except for the fact the weather was very windy and wet and quite cold. The place we stayed was great and the swimming pool was inside and heated (the Princess thought it was wonderful).

I had lots of time to knit in the car and finished one Feather and Fan sock and got halfway down the cuff on the other. I forgot a darning needle and missed my patterns.

I enjoyed not cooking for 2 nights. It’s not that I don’t like cooking, because I do. I just don’t enjoy the pressure of coming up with something that everyone in the family will think is wonderful every single night. Last night was 2 minute noodles for the kids and bruschetta and antipasto for the adults. This involved virtually no cooking. It’s a break that feels like a holiday.

I think I may be just a little knitting obsessed. I came back to Juno like an old friend and got 2 repeats done, so it is very likely (all knitting goddesses permitting) that I will finish the collar this week. If all goes particularly well, I may also block, sew and complete Juno this week. Then I can concentrate on socks. And Christmas presents. And Tea Cosies (for the swap) and the Swing Jumper. And Bella. And more socks.