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Sunday, January 01, 2006

Happy New Year!!

OK, that's not an original title for a post on New Years Day, but who cares!! I always like New Years Day, it makes me feel that I can wipe the slate clean and start all over again.

It's been far, far too hot here. Yesterday did reach 42C as forecast and at one point (too late in the day for it to be like that) I felt as though I was inhaling a desert wind. The day before I visited a friend who lives two short blocks away. I had a drink of water before I left the house, and by the time I reached hers I could feel myself dehydrating again. It was so bad she actually offered to drive me home afterwards! But I refused as that would have seemed too, too silly, but goodness it was hot. And yesterday was worse. I did spend a few hours of it in a shopping mall where the air condition was making things bearable, if not cool. (I actually LIKE supermarkets in heat waves, they actually are cool. It was tempting to spend too long in the freezer section!)

Then when I came home various relatives were in the pool cooling off, having spent the day cleaning out the flat our nephew (and their eldest son) is about to move into. They stayed for an early barbeque before returning to the Latrobe Valley. We usually have people round on NYE but this year hadn't got round to organising anything, so it was a nice, early, impromptu celebration instead. And for once on NYE I only drank one light beer and a glass of wine, so no hangover today!!

And then during the late evening, almost everywhere in Melbourne cooled down - except us. It was still 30C when I went to bed and I don't think it cooled down much below that until 5am, and now it's horrible again, though it is supposed to cool down later in the day. Ho ho.

So not much knitting has happened, except for a few rows of George's sock in front on the fan from time to time. I have been dyeing wool, though, and when I get hold of the camer might take some piccies. I have, in the last week, dyed enough sock wool for four pairs of socks (having got my hands on some cream sock wool), and dyed five balls of the mystery stuff I got for Christmas. It was all an interesting experiment. The sock wool being 20% nylon, didn't take up the dyes as well as the 100% wool I have been using up till now. I expected that, of course, but it was still interesting to see the results. Not one of them turned out exactly how I had expected, but that is most of the fun of the dyeing method I use, and I was pleased with all of them. The mohair with the polyester thread running through it was interesting, too. As expected, the polyester didn't dye and keeps a faint white line through the yarn, which I think is quite nice. The mohair dyed up much darker than I had expected. Interesting and subtle, where I was expecting vibrant. It might make a really interesting, subtle scarf, I think.

George is at church, which must be very hot as it isn't air conditioned and the ceiling fans won't be enough after such a hot night. Baby Bear is reading - she spent the night on a mattress in the lounge room in front of an open door. Wombat is watching one of his Christmas DVDs, Stuart Little 3 I think. (Which is a badly animated travesty of the originals, but he likes it, which is what counts). I need to find the camer and take photos of dyed wool and the bag my SIL made me for Christmas which is just too cute to be believed. She makes lots of patchwork bags. This one wasn't actually made specifically for me, it was one she made herself but when I saw it and raved over it she decided I was a more deserving owner of it! In the last couple of years she has made me a darling little pouch with my initial on it and a little caretaker gnome button to look after the contents, and bought me a multi-coloured leathered pounch in a Provence market - she and I both love bags and I love every gift from her!!

We are one-third of the way through the summer holidays (yes, I do count!) and we haven't done a cinema trip yet. I think a trip to see the Narnia movie must be ver close, as I am certainly dying to see it and I think the kids are too. George doesn't really do movies (though I dragged him to The Incredibles and The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy last year, and he enjoyed both of them) so we might leave him at home.

I am going to get out the Diamond Patch jumper this week and start on it again. I did a bit last summer and then it got put aside, and now I have decided to get on with it. It is in a nice stonewash cotton in a paleish blue. As it doesn't get that cold here, I find a cotton jumper is quite good enough for most of the winter, and i want to wear it this year.

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