Knitting, Natter and Seven Weird Things

It was a highly crafty weekend (unusually for me!). Three of us got together on Saturday for an inaugural NW coast KnitNatter at the Groovy Penguin, which was quite groovy. Penguin is a really pretty seaside town which is currently at the centre of a development furor. A gay couple from Sydney came down and bought and vastly renovated and developed the local market. Then they bought up large swathes of the town (before the real estate boom) and now want to do some massive developments of up to 8 stories, on the waterfront and through the sleepy and gorgeous town.

Many of the locals are against the developments (including me), but the couple are trying to make the anti development group into homophobics. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it’s not about homophobia, it’s about inappropriate development. I have no problem with gays, I just think the developments are too big and too ugly.

On Sunday, I went to a chenille class and made a beautiful bad in red,white and black Japanese fabrics!! It was gorgeous and I love the bag but almost took as much time and effort as knitting!

Georgie tagged me for the seven things meme – so first I’ll show you some pictures of the gorgeous birthday present I received from Bells and Georgie:

Look! Look! – A shawl book (Wrapped in Comfort!), 2 skeins of merino laceweight in lovely green aqua-y colours and a skein of posmerino laceweight in those plum colours I was talking about! – coffee beans and gorgeous chocolate and a beautiful card! Thank you – thank you thank you!! My challenge is deciding which shawls gets a guernsey (knitting pun) first!

Now, 7 weird things about me.

1. Sleeping in is absolutely impossible for me. I have never been able to sleep in, even as a lazy teenager (Of course I was – aren’t all teenagers?) The only time I can stay in bed late is if I am reaaaallllly sick!

2. I absolutely loathe throwing up – and will do almost anything not to!

3. I am an appalling spendthrift. If I have money, I spend it – mainly on knitting stuff – you know, yarn, needles, books, patterns, stuff! I have no idea where all my cash goes!

4. I can still do the splits and mounts, even though I am in my 40s, overweight and not as fit as I could be – if I get warmed up 17 years of ballet still works my muscles.

5. I am allergic to oysters. This is a great pity, as I absolutely adore them – but it leads to a terrible paradox – see number 2 above!

6. I am an appalling housekeeper. I am full of admiration for those who can keep houses clean and tidy (especially with children) but I can’t – too many piles of stuff around!

7. I love being spun around, heights and being turned upside down. I think fun parks are heaven and have done the big 5 at Dreamworld a lot! The schoolboys next to me on the drop thought I was so cool they saved spaces for me on the Claw, the Rollercoaster and the Wipeout because I sat there a giggled the whole time!

There you are – 7 weird things about me! So I’m tagging the Knightly Knitter, 2Paw, Amanda J, Madmad, Jejune, Catherine and Raven. Cheers


Ins and Outs

In

13 balls Bendi Cameo (thank you Mamasue!)
3 Amy Lane books, 1 T-shirt, 1 skein Shaefer Annie (Thank you Amy!)
1 Shawl book, 2 skeins merino laceweight, 1 skein of posmerino laceweight, coffee, chocolate (Thank you Bells and Georgie)
4 skeins sock yarns from the Knittery (Thank you Daphne!)
1 Cleckheaton pattern book
1 and ½ metres fabric
1 mug
(I am so spoiled!! An extra special ‘thank you’ to everyone involved – especially Amy, Bells and Georgie – you are so kind!)
DVD of Pride and Prejudice (the TV series –with Colin Firth in the wet trews!)
1 knit mag (Simply Knitting)
Lace Style
Knitting on the Road
5 balls Jo Sharp DK (for making Fibre Trends animals)
45 packets of yellow, orange and green KoolAid

1MP3 player

1 pair of PJs

1 pair sweatpants


Out

2 shopping bags of stuff from the bathroom cupboard while I was looking for something else – elderly hairspray, conditioner, hairgel, coagulated moisturiser and suchlike!
3 Bags clothes (women’s refuge)
1 bag toys (women’s refuge)
2 infant/toddler sleeping bags (women’s refuge)
11 plastic softdrink bottles (I had been keeping these to make rhubarb champagne – but the rhubarb is struggling this year – so out they go!)
Yet more papers, B-grade children’s artwork (the good stuff has gone into scrapbooks), old accounts etc!

Shake it all about

2 metres of fabric turned into Chenille bag!

I can’t believe that with all this de-cluttering there is STILL a heap to go, but there you are. I will keep going.

Bearing Gifts We Traverse Afar......

I’ve been a little tied up recently (you can just stop thinking what you’re thinking, right now!). As you are probably already aware, the man in the (Coca-cola promoted) red suit (or if you’re into Victoriana, blue or green suit) is not far away. The Pre-Christmas frenzy of excitement is well and truly here.

I am basking in the virtuous glow of a woman who has done virtually all her Christmas shopping, posted all distant presents (one still needs to be posted – but it’s closer to home) and knows that goodwill and happiness will arrive in mail boxes soon.

I have not, as yet posted the overseas Christmas cards. Every year I swear I will do them in November and every year it doesn’t happen until I well and truly feel that Christmas is only just around the corner. How anyone manages to feel Christmassy enough in September to sea-mail cards, I have no idea.

Tasmania has been desperately dry – even here on the usually damp North West Coast, but the other night we had a belter of a thunderstorm and a most satisfying downpour and everything’s greened up again. My tomato plants are growing baby tomatoes, the herbs puffing away, local strawberries are on offer at the local fruit and veg shop, cherries should be ripe next week and raspberries can’t be far behind. I saw the first Australian grapes available at a price which didn’t involve selling my children to white slavers, and there’ll be mangoes for Christmas. Life (or at least, food) doesn’t get much better than this!

I have been working hard on editing Amy’s new book (which is just great and I am enjoying reading it as well as working on it – makes the job MUCH easier).

One or two things have slipped through on the yarn front – I did a swap with a fellow Raveller – some Rowan Yarn for a Rowan Studio book and was rather sucked into the vortex of gorgeousness generated by the Jolly Jumbuck. Some Fleece Artist Somoko sock yarn in Pinata, and some Hand Maiden Casbah in Rainforest seemed to have fallen into my hands.

I also have the most recent Red Bird Knits sock kit – which is in the loveliest yarn (I think I mentioned it last post – wool, silk, cashmere). I received a parcel from America containing a skein of Helen's Lace, for the purpose of knitting a Juno Regina Wrap (definitely the next Clapotis).

I also fell rather off the wagon because I put some Patonyle on layby at my local LYS and when I went to give them some money I slipped and fell onto some Zara being cleared and put that on layby too – in a dark forest green (10 balls) and a sort of eggplanty colour (10 balls). These have not actually entered the portals of my house yet, so they don’t count on my In/Out list!


I’m still waiting for my Bendi order (nearly 2 weeks ago), and I’m thinking I may be forced to do another order (before the sale finishes). I’ve been following a thread on Ravelry which insists that sale yarn, sock yarn, gift yarn and overseas yarn doesn’t count as stash. So by that logic, my stash has been reduced to about 2 kilos of Bendi in various forms. I feel much better now. It’s rather like the reasoning that broken biscuits and food eaten after midnight don’t count on diets (thanks for that tip, Ms 2Paw).

I had one dieting theory that food of the same colour had the same calorie count (but I’m not sure that was entirely true). Therefore, Top Deck chocolate had the same calories as mushrooms, green iced fairy cakes were the same as broccoli, white chocolate went with potatoes and red lollies worked the same as capsicum. As theories went, it wasn’t a bad one – unfortunately it bore about the same relationship to reality as the flat earth theory or ‘intelligent’ design.

I have almost finished the Silk Garden jumper – which looks lovely and I’m sure the Noro yarn must give obsessives who want to colour match their sleeves or the fronts and backs of their knitting conniptions. I enjoy the randomness – some of my balls had emerald and teal and some were only the fire/metal colours – one had several metres of the most glorious opalescent purple hiding. I tried to keep the balls with the emerald and teal for the front and sleeves and other than that made no attempt to match. I did check out a Noro group on Ravelry and one person spent ages turning her Noro into 36 perfectly colour matched balls, leaving aside some where no match was found.

I think I have too much going on in my life for that – I’m enjoying the fire colours living on the back of the jumper and the dashes of greens and purple on the front and sleeves – Gosh – I can’t control any aspect of my life right now – why on earth should knitting be any different?

Go with the flow, I say, go with the flow!