2014 and Stuff

Looking back over the last year I realise that I haven't done a lot of things that resulted in Finished Objects. Slow and happy crafting beat rapid gratification.

Oddly this seems to be the only pair of socks I have knitted this year. Could that be true? It's the only photo I can find, anyway. I think it was with a New Zealand sock wool. I call them Clown socks but I can't remember if that was the actual name of the colourway or not. I didn't even get round to putting them on Ravelry. For George, who wears them regularly.

Now this is on Ravelry. It took a VERY LONG TIME. Hence the reference to slow knitting! It finally got finished on holiday in the middle of the year. It is so fine that it fits through my wedding ring - which wasn't intentional but is a good party trick.

This is also on Rav. I haven't worn it yet, as I finished it just before Christmas and it hasn't been cold enough since then, but I look forward to getting the chance. It is greener/bluer than in the photo, which accentuates the purple which is in there but is less dominant in real life - it was very hard to photograph.

As well as slow knitting, I have been embracing slow cooking. Some of the slow cooking is actually quite fast cooking, but I'm using the term to mean more emphasis on fresh ingredients and home cooking and a lot less on processed food and lazy shortcuts. (Using a barbeque is the sort of the shortcut that I consider to be smart not lazy!) Most nights dinner is barbequed protein with salad and nuts. No, we have not gone paleo, and bread or potatoes feature with some of these meals. Risottos, simple Asian dishes with rice, the occasional couscous salad all get a look in from time to time too. The winter saw many hearty casseroles/pot roasts.

There were also holidays.

To Adelaide, where we saw in the New Year at the Hilton, and visited the Hans Heysen museum among other places, where I photographed this plant.

To the Gold Coast over Easter.

During the winter, a trip to Central and South Australia taking in Coober Pedy, Alice Springs and ending up back in Adelaide again.

And then a week in Merimbula to wind down in December.

Most of the year was spent studying for my first year of a Bachelor of Letters at Monash University. I studied Medieval and Renaissance History, and two literature subjects. This year I am doing all literature, a total of six subjects, and I cannot wait! And this year I will try to blog a bit about my studies instead of leaving the blog lonely for months at a time.

Trip to Northwest and Central Australia

It's the first time I tried to do this, but click here and see if it gives you a slide show of my recent holiday. It takes you to my Google+ page and then you will see a thing with the post title - click on that. I think.

Edited to add - click on the picture with lots of blue sky in it, on the left hand side of the page. NOT the blog post bit.

New Year's Eve in Adelaide

I'm useless at photographing fireworks so I didn't try. We went to the 9 o'clock fireworks on Glenelg Beach and it was a delightful family atmosphere and we really enjoyed it.

Then we went back to our hotel and decided to have a couple of drinks in the very pleasant lobby.  Well, they started handing out glow stick bracelets and stuff and getting quite festive so we ended up staying there till midnight, sipping expensive but delightful hotel drinks, and counted down the New Year. Totally uncharacteristic of us, the whole thing, but surprisingly fun!!

Yes, I know it's almost halfway through the year, but I do have several months to catch up on and this was pretty much the most interesting thing we have done in that time :)

To State the Bleeding Obvious...

Clearly I have not been blogging for months.  In large part this is to do with starting a Bachelor of Letters at Monash University - a sort of second Bachelor of Arts for people who already have one.  Though only doing two subjects (a full-time load is four) it has been rather time consuming and energy sapping.  But goodness is it fun! I have now (almost) completed the first semester, doing Medieval History and a Literature subject. There is still a Lit exam to come in about ten days time.

We went to Adelaide for a week straight after Christmas, spending New Years Eve on the beach at Glenelg to catch the early fireworks, and then at the midnight festivities in the Hilton where we were staying. It was a very pleasant trip. We went to a fab Argentinian restaurant where I had some amazing food :


Anchovies straight from the tin, with lemon and parmesan chips.



Oysters with a light Asian sauce, very fresh and delish.



Moreton Bay Bugs with citrus butter - honestly one of the best meals I have EVER had!!!!

There were other nice meals throughout the trip but this was the only one I photographed!

I am resolving to blog more regularly again. And read other people's blogs - that has also fallen by the wayside. I hope to catch up with you all soon!!

Pigs

Cute pig sculptures in Rundle Mall in Adelaide, taken in January this year when we were on holiday.

I've got quite a lot of pictures to post, of that holiday and another one to Broken Hill more recently, but I am going to string them out while I ease back into blogging!

Family stuff has settled down a LOT and things are much easier and more satisfactory.  As for work stuff ... well, let's just say that is in the hands of (very expensive) lawyers and I won't say anything more about it for the moment.

I've been quite unwell for about four months now though things are improving.

On the crafting front, I have started a Kaffe Fasset jumper that I bought as a kit before 1999, can't remember exactly when. It's so old I can't find an image online!  I will post a photo of the picture on the front of the pattern when I get a chance.  Or there's this link from Ravelry 

Adelaide

So much for thinking that my blogging mojo had returned!

I've been doing some rethinking since I went back to work in January.  My promotion means that I am (mostly) enjoying my job more than I did last year, but it is also sapping my energy and my brain rather dramatically.  I have already pulled out of a swap I had signed up for and probably won't be engaging in any challenges, classes, swaps or anything else like that this year.  I am also seriously considering closing down my Etsy and MadeIt shops, which hardly sold anything anyway, as I don't have the time to promote them and do all that sort of stuff.

But I am not going to stop being creative!  I have pretty much decided to spend this year having FUN with creativity.  I am no longer going to try to make things with a view to selling them (not that I would knock back offers, you understand...)  I am not even necessarily just going to do my own designs - there are a few things I want to knit using - gasp - other people's patterns!  And I want the time to read some of the vast multitude of craft books and magazines that I have, and to play with materials, and to try some techniques here and there, and not have to worry about whether or not they are saleable and whether I have time to try to flog them.

Blogging will happen when I have time.

I have mentioned that we went to Adelaide in January.  Here are some pictures I took:

A hotel in Mt Gambier had some very fine cast iron lace work on the outside, and some delightful Art Nouveau embossed wallpaper on the stairs.

And, among various lovely places where local caves and sinkholes have been turned into damp, pretty sunken gardens, was Umpherston Cave , a completely barmy folly of a garden.  Lush ... verdant ... bonkers ...  And we found it hilarious that tourists (and locals) pay money to attend possum feeding sessions there.  In Melbourne we have to wade through possums eating everything in our gardens every night!  (Maybe we should open our gardens to the paying public from South Australia!)

And as we just happened to spend an afternoon in the Coonawarra, after which one or two ... crates ... of wine followed us home, we paid a quick visit to Penola and the new Mary MacKillop museum and the restored schoolhouse. 

There are more pictures, which can wait till next time I get round to blogging.

Oh, and crafting is happening.  But a Dr Who scarf takes a VERY LONG TIME to knit and isn't very interesting to photograph more than a couple of times during the process, and that's basically what I am doing right now.  For Wombat who decided he 'needed' a proper Dr Who Scarf.