OK, I haven't blogged for so long that I would be in mortal trouble if this was a confession box.
The last three months I have had my head down preparing the inaugural patterns for Sheepeasy Designs. Yes, I've decided to launch my own little pattern company (can it be a company when it's just me and nothing legal?) and have been knitting my fingers to the bone. everything got done in time to be launched at the Mt Waverley Knitfest a couple of weeks ago. During the Knitfest I taught two scrumbling workshops and was one of three 'designers' (well, that's what it said on the program, so we must be designers!) who took a wrap designing workshop. Plus there was a fashion parade for which I allowed myself to look stupid - see photos below!!!
Much knitting was done on the World's Longest Scarf. Personally I would rather commit hari kari than sit down and knit a metre of wide garter stitch. but it is a worthy cause. There were other workshops, including Non Traditional Knitting and Slipper Knitting, which I couldn't attend, and lots of people in and out. Much fun stuff for sale, though sales were slow this year - the weather only just turning cold as Knitfest started. We've had a weird winter, very mild for a long time, though colder now. (Although I hated the long grey months in England I didn't mind the cold - I feel the heat and it is rarely cold enough to wear the things I like knitting here!!)
After that all finished last Thursday I was left feeling severely anticlimactic. Of course Wombat was sick YET AGAIN so I got to feel anticlimactic in the company of someone small and cute who wanted to talk about the Simpsons 24/7. Good thing I like the Simpsons. When he talks about YugiHo I want to fling myself off a cliff.
So far I have designed a poncho pattern with suggestions for embellishments, and a shrug pattern that comes either as a properly written pattern in three sizes, or a measure yourself and take your gauge and make it fit whoever you are. Knitting them was only half the job, I discovered. (Though that took long enough - knitting ponchos takes longer than I thought!!) Transforming scribbled notes on the backs of envelopes into presentable patterns was fun.
Then the photos. First of all we took everything down to Moe to take photos in the gardens there. But George forgot the camera, and it poured with rain all weekend - which they needed badly. So I took some snaps in the back garden. Then George appointed himself as the David Bailey of the outfit, and spent all afternoon taking arty shots of Baby Bear in the bushes. I have to say that his photos are gorgeous and well worth it - even if I was still picking vegetable matter out of the pink poncho while it hung on display in the gallery!! (It went unnoticed on the Noro poncho - colours to die for but I wonder that it is allowed in the country, what with Australia's strict quarantine laws and the amount of plant matter in it!!!)
The patterns are now being sold on a rudimentry web site (the cheapest possible for the moment, until we see how things go) and on Ebay as well. We shall see. The next couple are also in the pipeline - a scrumbled hat that is already made but not written up, and a multicoloured drapey vest thingy that I haven't started, though I have had fun gathering purple yarns for it!!! I decided to treat myself to some Addi Turbos for it, which I had to mail order as I was stuck at home with Wombat.
Now it's the school holidays. Baby Bear has gone down to Moe to stay with Nana for a couple of days - something that both of them seem to enjoy. I sent her with several skeins of yummy yarn to wind for me - I decided not to buy a wool winder and swift as I could use the one down there whenever I wanted, but also decided not to bring them to Melbourne as I was offered because M, my sister-in-law, also uses it.
Wombat is 'camping' with his friend L over the back fence. That involves a sleeping bag, a bowl of popcorn, some peanut butter sandwiches and some chocolate. I hope they are not scaring the chickens too much!!
It is Baby Bear's birthday on Friday and I am going to take advantage of her being away to finish off this which I am knitting for her (the one on the cover). It is looking gorgeous! Plus a Vegan Fox is hopefully going to be rushed to life before Friday. (In pale pinks).
And no, Karen, I haven't so far knitted a viola case, but you never know ...
Monday, June 27, 2005
Friday, June 24, 2005
Saturday, April 16, 2005
Diva diva!!
We all went along to Baby Bear's play the other night and she was magnificent! I know every parent thinks their child is the most talented and wonderful, but she really did bring the house down with her Scene 1 performance of a spoilt, punk princess. Very funny and scarily convincing! In the second half she had a much smaller role which she did well but wasn't a standout. It's a little community youth theatre group that makes sure that all the talented kids get a part that showcases their abilities, so as a general rule half of them get a starring role in the first half and the others in the second half. Other kids who are enthusiastic but not so talented get nice little bits in both halves. Everyone was excellent and the audience thoroughly enjoyed it. There were two matinee performances on subsequent days and now it is all over and done with until next year. That might leave her some time to practice those four instruments she plays (clarinet, flute, piano and viola), spend some time with the Church orchestra and the school concert band, and maybe join the Church youth band (she has been invited to join but hasn;t had time so far this year!!)
She and George are over at the primary school spreading mulch right now. Wombat is at his friend's place. Even the dog is out (also spreading mulch). Later on we have to go to the shops to get some scripts filled, have icecreams, and for me to check out a skirt that George wants to buy Baby Bear at Urban Angel. Then home to make a pavlova for tonight - big cousin L is coming over for dinner, a refugee from uni where he is living in college and they don't feed them on Saturday nights.
I just sat down to skein four balls of wool I dyed the other day. The intention was to put them on Ebay. I decided to dye them in the ball to see what happened, and wanted to skein them to show off the full range of colours. (This is commercial yarn that I was never going to use - four 50g balls of cream 5ply that I've had hanging around for years). As I started skeining I decided that the colours were so gorgeous that I was going to keep them and turn them into something for myself! I used turquoise and hot pink Landscape dyes and the result is a scrummy purple in different shades with spots of turquoise and fuschia here and there. Maybe a lace scarf or something. Definitely too gorgeous to sell! I will try to photograph them this weekend.
I escaped for the day yesterday. George took the day off work and I ran away. Actually I went to Chadstone (large shopping mall) and spent the day mooching around there. It was a good place for people watching - as it's the school holidays it was quite illuminating to watch the teenage mall rats and decide that my daughter is never going to look as tarty as that! I wandered around, considered buying some clothes and eventually bought two very fine cardigans (one pale pink ballerina style, one black with pretty floral embellishment), spent hours in Borders and bought some books on special and Belle Armoire magazine, wandered around some more and finally caught the bus back to our neighbourhood mall, where I did the supermarket shopping and was finally collected by my loving family in time to go home and cook dinner for them. (Which was frozen pizza and an apology for a salad - hey, it was my day off!) I was then too tired to do more than a few rows of ribbing on George's sock.
Looking back through this blog I seem to write a lot more about my family than ab0ut knitting. I guess I am not the fastest knitter, plus is seems boring to say 'I did another X rows on such-and-such a project today'. The truth is that knitting is what occupies most of my waking thoughts. I;ve always knitted, but I'm sure I;ve only got this obsessed over the last couple of years.
She and George are over at the primary school spreading mulch right now. Wombat is at his friend's place. Even the dog is out (also spreading mulch). Later on we have to go to the shops to get some scripts filled, have icecreams, and for me to check out a skirt that George wants to buy Baby Bear at Urban Angel. Then home to make a pavlova for tonight - big cousin L is coming over for dinner, a refugee from uni where he is living in college and they don't feed them on Saturday nights.
I just sat down to skein four balls of wool I dyed the other day. The intention was to put them on Ebay. I decided to dye them in the ball to see what happened, and wanted to skein them to show off the full range of colours. (This is commercial yarn that I was never going to use - four 50g balls of cream 5ply that I've had hanging around for years). As I started skeining I decided that the colours were so gorgeous that I was going to keep them and turn them into something for myself! I used turquoise and hot pink Landscape dyes and the result is a scrummy purple in different shades with spots of turquoise and fuschia here and there. Maybe a lace scarf or something. Definitely too gorgeous to sell! I will try to photograph them this weekend.
I escaped for the day yesterday. George took the day off work and I ran away. Actually I went to Chadstone (large shopping mall) and spent the day mooching around there. It was a good place for people watching - as it's the school holidays it was quite illuminating to watch the teenage mall rats and decide that my daughter is never going to look as tarty as that! I wandered around, considered buying some clothes and eventually bought two very fine cardigans (one pale pink ballerina style, one black with pretty floral embellishment), spent hours in Borders and bought some books on special and Belle Armoire magazine, wandered around some more and finally caught the bus back to our neighbourhood mall, where I did the supermarket shopping and was finally collected by my loving family in time to go home and cook dinner for them. (Which was frozen pizza and an apology for a salad - hey, it was my day off!) I was then too tired to do more than a few rows of ribbing on George's sock.
Looking back through this blog I seem to write a lot more about my family than ab0ut knitting. I guess I am not the fastest knitter, plus is seems boring to say 'I did another X rows on such-and-such a project today'. The truth is that knitting is what occupies most of my waking thoughts. I;ve always knitted, but I'm sure I;ve only got this obsessed over the last couple of years.
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
Prima Donna
Baby Bear has spent all day Monday, all day yesterday and then three hours last night rehearsing for the play, which opens tonight. She spent yet another night with our friends making props, but slept at home last night - wonders will never cease! But this morning she woke up overhyped and overtired and did a really good prima donna imitation for a couple of hours, which wound up Wombat to an unbearable degree, and they were at each other hammer and tongs for some time. Fortunately I eventually managed to separate and calm them, and then after she had had some breakfast and done some vacuuming (not as punishment, it's a weekly chore that I often do for her but decided it was time she did something round the house!) I let her go round to her friend E's place for the day. They are both in the play (in important roles - E always gets the ingenue, Baby Bear gets the character role) and probably both as bad as each other right now. But E's mother doesn't have an autistic child in the middle of it, as I do, so I figure will be better able to cope with them both being prima donnas than I would.
We're all going to the play tonight. Wombat should be OK, with some meds and his Gameboy - and he'll like the second half which has lots of circus acts in it.
I took him to see The Son of the Mask yesterday, which we both thoroughly enjoyed. He pointed out that it was like a cartoon, and he was right - it had a very similar feel to the old Loonie Tunes cartoons, plotwise and everything, and was a good laugh. Then we did some shopping - he wanted the Spongebob the Movie PC game, which he spent his pocket money on, and I bought the original three Star Wars movies on DVD, which we are working our way through not. (We only bought the DVD player just after Christmas, so buying DVVDs is still a bit of a novelty!!)
I photographed some dyed wool yesterday that I am going to put on Ebay but forgot to download the pics, so they are at the office with George. I love dying my homespun but haven't done any spinning for ages, so I decided to dye some commercial yarn that I had. Will post pics when I remember to download them. I LOVE dyeing, it is so much fun!
Steaming ahead on the sock that has been taking so long. And now to sit down and knit something which cannot be revealed yet.
We're all going to the play tonight. Wombat should be OK, with some meds and his Gameboy - and he'll like the second half which has lots of circus acts in it.
I took him to see The Son of the Mask yesterday, which we both thoroughly enjoyed. He pointed out that it was like a cartoon, and he was right - it had a very similar feel to the old Loonie Tunes cartoons, plotwise and everything, and was a good laugh. Then we did some shopping - he wanted the Spongebob the Movie PC game, which he spent his pocket money on, and I bought the original three Star Wars movies on DVD, which we are working our way through not. (We only bought the DVD player just after Christmas, so buying DVVDs is still a bit of a novelty!!)
I photographed some dyed wool yesterday that I am going to put on Ebay but forgot to download the pics, so they are at the office with George. I love dying my homespun but haven't done any spinning for ages, so I decided to dye some commercial yarn that I had. Will post pics when I remember to download them. I LOVE dyeing, it is so much fun!
Steaming ahead on the sock that has been taking so long. And now to sit down and knit something which cannot be revealed yet.
Monday, April 11, 2005
Hot hot hot
At least in Melbourne we always have a topic of conversation if we are stuck ... the weather. Unseasonably hot this weekend, more like midsummer, and rather unpleasant. I spent Saturday flaked out in front of the fan, knitting (on the project that cannot be named right now). George was running around with the kids taking them all over the countryside, and was exhausted when he got home. They all seem to have enjoyed themselves, though, which is good.
Yesterday felt like trial by stifling heat. We don't normally go to church during the school holidays, as there is no Sunday School. (OK, I don't got very often regardless!). But the minister was leaving and it was his farewell service and informal thingie afterwards, with lunch, so we rolled up. Well, it ranked up there with the pope's funeral and Charlie's wedding in terms of overcrowded and long. We got there twenty minutes early and still had to sit at the back of the foyer, rather than in the church itself. I reckon I'd have seen and heard more if I;d stayed at home and watched it on the telly (so to speak). It was incredibly hot, we couldn't really follow the service, and Wombat was having a bad morning. Not that I blame him, under the circumstances - I would have liked an excuse to behave the same way! I took him across the road for a cold drink for half an hour at one point, which helped a little bit. The service went for 90 minutes, which is about par for the course. Then the farewell bit - which went for another 90 minutes and was FAR TOO LONG. By the time we got to the lunch I;m surprised we didn;t all get food poisoning because it had been sitting out in the hall for an hour in the heat. (Actually I don;t feel too well today but I think that is a general reaction to the heat of the weekend and being far too tired).
Baby Bear had been playing in the Church Orchestra so had spent all that time, plus an hour's rehearsal beforehand, dressed in long black pants and a long sleeved white shirt - and then after a hasty lunch the orchestra had to race off to another gig. She was very hot and bothered by the end of it all!
I then sloped off to the local mall to chill out (literally, it is well air-conditioned!) and do the grocery shopping, among other things. Mostly I sat down and had a very long cold drink and read a beading magazine, then went and worked my way through pattern books at Lincraft. Anything to sit down! At least it was fairly cool. And the cool change had come through by the time George came to pick me up afterwards.
It's a lot cooler today. Much nicer. Baby Bear is out doing final rehearsals for the play she is in - rehearsal and costume fitting today, rehearsal and then dress rehearsal tomorrow, performances Wednesday night, Thursday afternoon and Friday afternoon. She is a busy girl!! She spent the night with some friends last night and they apparently spent a lot of time recording each other on the computer and downloading songs. Sounds like fun. She assures me she has had enough sleep - I hope so!!! She's spent one night here this week, what with Moe and then last night's sleepover, but I got a chance to talk to her briefly this morning and she seems happy and relaxed.
I almost finished short-rowing the heel on George's sock - the second of the pair that it has taken me nearly four months to knit!
Yesterday felt like trial by stifling heat. We don't normally go to church during the school holidays, as there is no Sunday School. (OK, I don't got very often regardless!). But the minister was leaving and it was his farewell service and informal thingie afterwards, with lunch, so we rolled up. Well, it ranked up there with the pope's funeral and Charlie's wedding in terms of overcrowded and long. We got there twenty minutes early and still had to sit at the back of the foyer, rather than in the church itself. I reckon I'd have seen and heard more if I;d stayed at home and watched it on the telly (so to speak). It was incredibly hot, we couldn't really follow the service, and Wombat was having a bad morning. Not that I blame him, under the circumstances - I would have liked an excuse to behave the same way! I took him across the road for a cold drink for half an hour at one point, which helped a little bit. The service went for 90 minutes, which is about par for the course. Then the farewell bit - which went for another 90 minutes and was FAR TOO LONG. By the time we got to the lunch I;m surprised we didn;t all get food poisoning because it had been sitting out in the hall for an hour in the heat. (Actually I don;t feel too well today but I think that is a general reaction to the heat of the weekend and being far too tired).
Baby Bear had been playing in the Church Orchestra so had spent all that time, plus an hour's rehearsal beforehand, dressed in long black pants and a long sleeved white shirt - and then after a hasty lunch the orchestra had to race off to another gig. She was very hot and bothered by the end of it all!
I then sloped off to the local mall to chill out (literally, it is well air-conditioned!) and do the grocery shopping, among other things. Mostly I sat down and had a very long cold drink and read a beading magazine, then went and worked my way through pattern books at Lincraft. Anything to sit down! At least it was fairly cool. And the cool change had come through by the time George came to pick me up afterwards.
It's a lot cooler today. Much nicer. Baby Bear is out doing final rehearsals for the play she is in - rehearsal and costume fitting today, rehearsal and then dress rehearsal tomorrow, performances Wednesday night, Thursday afternoon and Friday afternoon. She is a busy girl!! She spent the night with some friends last night and they apparently spent a lot of time recording each other on the computer and downloading songs. Sounds like fun. She assures me she has had enough sleep - I hope so!!! She's spent one night here this week, what with Moe and then last night's sleepover, but I got a chance to talk to her briefly this morning and she seems happy and relaxed.
I almost finished short-rowing the heel on George's sock - the second of the pair that it has taken me nearly four months to knit!
Saturday, April 09, 2005
Peace, Perfect Peace
George has taken Wombat down to Moe to pick up Baby Bear, who has been spending some quality time with Nana for a few days. Leaving me ALONE!!!! Can you hear me cheering!!! I did one of those Myer Briggs tests once and it confirmed my suspicions that I actually NEED time alone to recharge, that being with other people drains me of energy (no matter how much I like them and enjoy their company) - and I definitely need some time out after a week of school holidays. Not that I don't like my children or being with them - actually it was only Wombat for most of the week - but Wombat can be very exhausting. In fact that's the main reason why Baby Bear went down to Moe, because he had a very bad day on Monday and things were getting quite fraught. He's been OK for the rest of the week but rarely quite relaxed. A doctor's visit confirmed our recent thoughts that he might have had a chronic sinus infection for some months - he's now on antibiotics and hopefully that will whack anything nasty out of his system. (No, I don't support the indiscriminate use of antibiotics, but he hardly ever takes them and I know from experience that sometimes chronic infections really need this to get rid of them).
I took him to see Robots the other day - quite good fun, lots of cute background details and enough movie references to warrant taking a notebook and pencil along with you! I then somehow ending up being persuaded to by him a new pair of pajamas (Simpsons), a Gameboy game (Banjo Kazooie) and two new DVDs (The Incredibles and the Spongebob Squarepants movie) - it sounds awful, but anything to keep him happy. Yesterday he had a friend come round to play - this went very well for the first three hours but when R's dad was delayed coming to pick him up (waiting for a washing machine repairman, poor chap!) they both got increasingly bored with each other over the next hour and a half. When R finally left, poor Wombat had a nasty meltdown, which wasn't a lot of fun for either of us. He did calm down and I only have a few extra bruises, but I'm afraid I was quite glad to see the back of him later on! Mind you he phoned me when they got down there - he'd obviously slept on the journey - and hearing his sleepy little voice saying 'I love you Mummy' made my heart melt all over again. He should enjoy today, he likes going to Moe and then they are going to cousin D's dairy farm afterwards, and Wombat LOVES going there!
I had a gloriously slobby evening after they left. I put on some videos of stuff I'd recorded and watched an eclectic mix of programmes, which when I think about it pretty much covers the range of stuff I like to watch - a Real Crime programme, a documentary about the development of the English language, Jerimiah and CSI. I made some progress on a new knitting project that I cannot go into in case the intended recipient reads this blog, but although slow going (enough K2P2 ribbing to stretch around a football field!) it was peaceful and harmonious to knit - I use that word specifically because I am using, for my first time, Bendigo Knitting Mills Harmony (also known as Heirloom Breeze, if you buy it in the shops rather than direct from the mills) - what a fabulous yarn! It is a mixture of wool and cotton with some lycra in it, and it feels like heaven to knit with. It is soft and relaxing and I just love it. It knits up beautifully evenly and the finished fabric is just gorgeous.
I need to wash the floors (yuk!) and hang out some washing, then it's back to the knitting and a day of peace.
I took him to see Robots the other day - quite good fun, lots of cute background details and enough movie references to warrant taking a notebook and pencil along with you! I then somehow ending up being persuaded to by him a new pair of pajamas (Simpsons), a Gameboy game (Banjo Kazooie) and two new DVDs (The Incredibles and the Spongebob Squarepants movie) - it sounds awful, but anything to keep him happy. Yesterday he had a friend come round to play - this went very well for the first three hours but when R's dad was delayed coming to pick him up (waiting for a washing machine repairman, poor chap!) they both got increasingly bored with each other over the next hour and a half. When R finally left, poor Wombat had a nasty meltdown, which wasn't a lot of fun for either of us. He did calm down and I only have a few extra bruises, but I'm afraid I was quite glad to see the back of him later on! Mind you he phoned me when they got down there - he'd obviously slept on the journey - and hearing his sleepy little voice saying 'I love you Mummy' made my heart melt all over again. He should enjoy today, he likes going to Moe and then they are going to cousin D's dairy farm afterwards, and Wombat LOVES going there!
I had a gloriously slobby evening after they left. I put on some videos of stuff I'd recorded and watched an eclectic mix of programmes, which when I think about it pretty much covers the range of stuff I like to watch - a Real Crime programme, a documentary about the development of the English language, Jerimiah and CSI. I made some progress on a new knitting project that I cannot go into in case the intended recipient reads this blog, but although slow going (enough K2P2 ribbing to stretch around a football field!) it was peaceful and harmonious to knit - I use that word specifically because I am using, for my first time, Bendigo Knitting Mills Harmony (also known as Heirloom Breeze, if you buy it in the shops rather than direct from the mills) - what a fabulous yarn! It is a mixture of wool and cotton with some lycra in it, and it feels like heaven to knit with. It is soft and relaxing and I just love it. It knits up beautifully evenly and the finished fabric is just gorgeous.
I need to wash the floors (yuk!) and hang out some washing, then it's back to the knitting and a day of peace.
Friday, April 08, 2005
i took this photo in January of the then half-done denim cotton shawl. I finished it last night (photos to follow at the weekend when George is at home with the digital camera). I knitted it in Elle denim cotton, hoping it would be a good substitute for Rowan denim cotton - it's half the price. I wasn't sure until I had washed it three times in hot water and tumble dried it, but now I love it - it had a terrific soft hand to it and has faded just nicely. I have to put a button on it and then it will be perfect for wearing with jeans. I particularly want to wear it with the new jeans I just bought - which have silver embroidery and sequins on them!
Friday, April 01, 2005
I Know I meant to Blog More Than Once a Month...
but things just got away with me recently. Easter was great, though it felt odd having it before the school holidays rather than in the middle of it. We went to George's mum's for a couple of days and hung out with the family and the family dogs. Sirius had a ball and wore herself out.
The Great Easter Bunny Hunt for the year went off brilliantly. It's a good place for it, as G's mum lives on a small bush property and there are lots of cunning hiding places. The kids were thrilled to find the trail finally finished with a proper rabbit scraping and pile of rabbit poo. I have visions of us still doing this when they are both grown up!
It's the last day of term today and Wombat is, true to form, sick. I really wondered if he was putting it on when he collapsed with a severe headache five minutes before we were due to leave, but I realised that he had a nasty sinus headache and it was genuine. Now it's after lunch and he is feeling much better after dosing with paracetamol and decongestants.
Unfortunately this meant I had to miss the Box Hill S'n'B meet that I wanted to go to, but hopefully at least two other people went along. I was going to teach Linda to knit socks but she is happy to wait till next term. It's an unpleasantly hot and windy day today so staying inside isn't such a bad thing, though. We might even swim later on in the hottest part of the day. I thought I'd had my last swim for the season about three weeks ago but today and tomorrow are both forecast to be 30C so the water might have warmed up enough for me to enter without dying of heart failure!!
On the needles - well, I finished knitting the pink cotton Summer Poncho over Easter though I haven't sewn the (very small) seam that is needed - I suspect it will be too small for me and will end up being worn by Baby Bear, who will look better in it than I ever would. Still working on the denim cotton shawl though not too much to go on it. Also still working on George's socks, which have taken forever this time because I have been doing too many other things.
Plus two other projects which will be revealed in good time!
The Great Easter Bunny Hunt for the year went off brilliantly. It's a good place for it, as G's mum lives on a small bush property and there are lots of cunning hiding places. The kids were thrilled to find the trail finally finished with a proper rabbit scraping and pile of rabbit poo. I have visions of us still doing this when they are both grown up!
It's the last day of term today and Wombat is, true to form, sick. I really wondered if he was putting it on when he collapsed with a severe headache five minutes before we were due to leave, but I realised that he had a nasty sinus headache and it was genuine. Now it's after lunch and he is feeling much better after dosing with paracetamol and decongestants.
Unfortunately this meant I had to miss the Box Hill S'n'B meet that I wanted to go to, but hopefully at least two other people went along. I was going to teach Linda to knit socks but she is happy to wait till next term. It's an unpleasantly hot and windy day today so staying inside isn't such a bad thing, though. We might even swim later on in the hottest part of the day. I thought I'd had my last swim for the season about three weeks ago but today and tomorrow are both forecast to be 30C so the water might have warmed up enough for me to enter without dying of heart failure!!
On the needles - well, I finished knitting the pink cotton Summer Poncho over Easter though I haven't sewn the (very small) seam that is needed - I suspect it will be too small for me and will end up being worn by Baby Bear, who will look better in it than I ever would. Still working on the denim cotton shawl though not too much to go on it. Also still working on George's socks, which have taken forever this time because I have been doing too many other things.
Plus two other projects which will be revealed in good time!
Thursday, March 03, 2005
Autumn
Technically it's autumn here now. That said, the first day that was technically autumn saw temperatures reach something like 34C, which was very uncomfortable. By lunchtime I needed to have a sleep - only I decided that it would be better for me to swim than sleep - exercise, which I badly need, and probably more refreshing. It was.
The weather is much nicer now, mild and sunny and pleasant. I'm sure there will be more hot spells in the next few weeks, though. I really hate the heat and by this time of year I am so looking forward to winter.
Wombat was sick all last week and spent the week at home. I caught it too - the worst cold I have had in three years. On Monday George said I should make Wombat do some schoolwork. I didn't because he had a temperature and was clearly quite unwell. On Tuesday I put some homeschool ideas into practice - to be precise, 'unschooling' - and it worked a treat. It was one of those perfect days that you get occasionally. We were both relaxed, and during the course of the day we discussed quantum mechanics, string theory, biology (how fish breathe through their gills and that humans have gills for the first few weeks of their existence in utero), Wombat read quite a lot to me, and for PE we practised interesting ways of getting to the bottom on the pool and swimming up again, and how far he could swim under water.
Then I got sick too and for the rest of the week he watched Simpsons DVDs!
Unfortunately he has been very resistant about going back to school this week. The last three mornings have been tricky dropping him off at school, though apparently he has had reasonably good days once he has settled. I'm glad to say that none of these occasions got me as stressed as they used to.
Baby Bear has a curriculum day tomorrow and we are heading into the city to catch some culture and Italian food (her choice). We are planning to take in some fashion exhibitions - Kylie Minogue; Akira Isogawa:Printemps – Été; and Flair: From salon to boutique, Australian fashion labels through the 60s. She also needs a new pair of jeans.
I am attempting to design something at the moment. I tried a couple of weeks ago to design a crocheted capelet using a Magic Ball I had created out of novelty yarns. After two tries I gave up in disgust. I gave it a break, got inspired by something a friend did, and started something different. I am now enjoying designing something else (which will be revealed in due course!) and hope to have an actual pattern written up out of it. It is going very well and restoring my faith in my abilities. Of course all the other projects on the go have been abandoned for the moment!
I have an Education Committee meeting at Wombat's school tonight. I find it hard to summon up enthusiasm right now but I had better go, it keeps me in touch with important elements of education there and in the past has given me opportunities to influence important sections of school policy.
I think I will knit on the train coming home from the city tomorrow.
The weather is much nicer now, mild and sunny and pleasant. I'm sure there will be more hot spells in the next few weeks, though. I really hate the heat and by this time of year I am so looking forward to winter.
Wombat was sick all last week and spent the week at home. I caught it too - the worst cold I have had in three years. On Monday George said I should make Wombat do some schoolwork. I didn't because he had a temperature and was clearly quite unwell. On Tuesday I put some homeschool ideas into practice - to be precise, 'unschooling' - and it worked a treat. It was one of those perfect days that you get occasionally. We were both relaxed, and during the course of the day we discussed quantum mechanics, string theory, biology (how fish breathe through their gills and that humans have gills for the first few weeks of their existence in utero), Wombat read quite a lot to me, and for PE we practised interesting ways of getting to the bottom on the pool and swimming up again, and how far he could swim under water.
Then I got sick too and for the rest of the week he watched Simpsons DVDs!
Unfortunately he has been very resistant about going back to school this week. The last three mornings have been tricky dropping him off at school, though apparently he has had reasonably good days once he has settled. I'm glad to say that none of these occasions got me as stressed as they used to.
Baby Bear has a curriculum day tomorrow and we are heading into the city to catch some culture and Italian food (her choice). We are planning to take in some fashion exhibitions - Kylie Minogue; Akira Isogawa:Printemps – Été; and Flair: From salon to boutique, Australian fashion labels through the 60s. She also needs a new pair of jeans.
I am attempting to design something at the moment. I tried a couple of weeks ago to design a crocheted capelet using a Magic Ball I had created out of novelty yarns. After two tries I gave up in disgust. I gave it a break, got inspired by something a friend did, and started something different. I am now enjoying designing something else (which will be revealed in due course!) and hope to have an actual pattern written up out of it. It is going very well and restoring my faith in my abilities. Of course all the other projects on the go have been abandoned for the moment!
I have an Education Committee meeting at Wombat's school tonight. I find it hard to summon up enthusiasm right now but I had better go, it keeps me in touch with important elements of education there and in the past has given me opportunities to influence important sections of school policy.
I think I will knit on the train coming home from the city tomorrow.
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
It's hard to take a photo of a poncho when it's on a long circular needle and it's only a long rectangle in the making. This is a lovely shiny pink cotton (Online Bingo) and I think it will drape nicely when it is done. This picture shows it about two fifths of the way through - i am now about halfway through. It was supposed to be a 'Summer Poncho'. Well, summer officially ends next Monday, but it will be a lovely autumn poncho too!
Thursday, February 17, 2005
Urrkk...
I've been feeling lousy all week - oh the joys of chronic fatigue syndrome. At first on Monday it could just have been a hangover (the result of a convivial Sunday evening with friends and five bottles of wine - among six adults, two of whom barely drank). But I am still feeling like the first stages of flu, only that doesn't go on for four days without developing further.
I went out to The Highway Gallery this morning for the monthly Friends' Morning Tea. It is their fiftheenth anniversary of being run by the committee of management (rather than being a council run gallery) and they are about to run an exhibition of paintings and ceramics by some of the regular exhibitors over the years. One of them, Barbara Better, gave a great talk about how she draws and paints, and passed around her sketchbooks. She does a lot of lovely Australian landscapes. I really envy people who can draw and paint, I can't do it at all!!!
Then we had a KnitFest meeting. KnitFest will be held in June and will be a celebration of all things knitty (and crochet!). I have volunteered to help hang everything, and also to borrow 30 chairs from church and have George drive them over there (in our brand new Toyota Kluger, which had lots of room and of which we are very proud!!).
I actually felt quite well and inspired while I was there - all those artistic vibes and all - but by the time I got home I was ready to collapse and now I feel so exhausted that all I can muster for dinner is McCains pizza and a couple of pieces of cucumber.
I made my first attempt at starting to design something from scratch at the weekend. It did not go well. I spent a couple of reasonably happy hours making a huge Magic Ball of various novelty yarns, then started to crochet a capelet. The idea being to design it on the hoof, so to speak, and to have all the ends hanging free and looking bohemian. Well, the first one got dumped when the shape was displeasing to the eye (read mutant furry thing) - and that's when I made the impirical discovery that you cannot frog a magic ball made from novelty yarns. Much swearing ensued. I started a second attempt with the seond half of the ball. Yesterday after dinner I got the kidlets off to bed, George out the door to a church meeting, then settled down in front of CSI Miami and Without a Trace to work on Mark 2. About halfway through CSI Miami I had thrown it across the room, used several rather unkind words about myself, and vowed never to design a capelet in multiple furry yarns again. I sulked for the rest of the evening, in between playing with Wombat's Gameboy Colour and reading the wonderful Jenny Dowde book Freeform Knitting and Crochet, which cheered me up slightly.
At the gallery meeting today I was cheered and inspired by a friend who showed us some great freeform knitting and crochet and embroidery and beading thingies. My mind worked overtime on the way home and I have now come up with a much better idea for a design which will use something lucsious that I have saved in my stash since last winter. Stay posted...
I went out to The Highway Gallery this morning for the monthly Friends' Morning Tea. It is their fiftheenth anniversary of being run by the committee of management (rather than being a council run gallery) and they are about to run an exhibition of paintings and ceramics by some of the regular exhibitors over the years. One of them, Barbara Better, gave a great talk about how she draws and paints, and passed around her sketchbooks. She does a lot of lovely Australian landscapes. I really envy people who can draw and paint, I can't do it at all!!!
Then we had a KnitFest meeting. KnitFest will be held in June and will be a celebration of all things knitty (and crochet!). I have volunteered to help hang everything, and also to borrow 30 chairs from church and have George drive them over there (in our brand new Toyota Kluger, which had lots of room and of which we are very proud!!).
I actually felt quite well and inspired while I was there - all those artistic vibes and all - but by the time I got home I was ready to collapse and now I feel so exhausted that all I can muster for dinner is McCains pizza and a couple of pieces of cucumber.
I made my first attempt at starting to design something from scratch at the weekend. It did not go well. I spent a couple of reasonably happy hours making a huge Magic Ball of various novelty yarns, then started to crochet a capelet. The idea being to design it on the hoof, so to speak, and to have all the ends hanging free and looking bohemian. Well, the first one got dumped when the shape was displeasing to the eye (read mutant furry thing) - and that's when I made the impirical discovery that you cannot frog a magic ball made from novelty yarns. Much swearing ensued. I started a second attempt with the seond half of the ball. Yesterday after dinner I got the kidlets off to bed, George out the door to a church meeting, then settled down in front of CSI Miami and Without a Trace to work on Mark 2. About halfway through CSI Miami I had thrown it across the room, used several rather unkind words about myself, and vowed never to design a capelet in multiple furry yarns again. I sulked for the rest of the evening, in between playing with Wombat's Gameboy Colour and reading the wonderful Jenny Dowde book Freeform Knitting and Crochet, which cheered me up slightly.
At the gallery meeting today I was cheered and inspired by a friend who showed us some great freeform knitting and crochet and embroidery and beading thingies. My mind worked overtime on the way home and I have now come up with a much better idea for a design which will use something lucsious that I have saved in my stash since last winter. Stay posted...
Tuesday, February 08, 2005
This is a shawl I knitted two winters ago. It's a version of Lyn Johnson's 'Once More From the middle' shawl from the book 'Yarn Arts'. Each stripe is a different yarn and stitch (though a number of the plainer stitches are repeated in various stripes). I ended up using three circular needles, one for each side of the shawl and one as a working needle. It's great but I have trouble keeping shawls on - I love it though and everyone admires it. It's rather warm! It looks better as a throw than a shawl, maybe I should take a hint from that...
Friday, February 04, 2005
The calm after the storm
We had a storm on Wednesday night. A low pressure system sat over Melbourne for 24 hours without budging, raining on us. This is great, as we need rain. But not quite that much all at once, perhaps, as it flooded everything. And the strong winds did horrible things to trees and power lines. We were without electricity from first thing yesterday morning until after lunch today. We still had hot water (gas) but nothing else - the central heating is gas but needs electricity to turn it on and off. (And yes, it is February, normally the hottest month of the year in Melbourne, but it was bitterly cold for a couple of days, the coldest February day on record I believe).
It made me realise just how much we rely on utilities. And how the utility companies have us over a barrel. The current (pun sort of intended!) arrangements are that we pay an electricity retailer for our power, and they in turn buy it from a distributor. In circumstances like these recent ones, it is the distributor who is responsible for fixing things up. As they are not directly in receipt of the customers' monies, they have no real fiscal interest in serving our needs. They certainly worked very hard to restore power supplies - at least the actual men on the ground did. The phone room employees obviously have no vested interest in any of this (they are probably paid peanuts) and by this morning they were not even pretending to help callers. We don't know when your power will be restored, we aren't allowed to give any information out, we don't really care, and we'll be as rude as we want to because it's none of our business and we have power at home, anyway. I have been simmering, no, boiling over with irritation about this.
But power was finally restored approximately 31 hours after it went out (we don't know exactly when it happened during the night, it could be several hours longer than that).
I fully realise that it was a difficult situation and that there were thousands of people with similar problems. Many of them had their power back 24 hours earlier than us, but maybe that's jusst bad luck on our part. But what really makes me mad is the lack of information that was supplied all the way through, and the treating of the customer with complete contempt.
Enough already. Yesterday was quite hard because Wombat was still unwell and, being a modern child, doesn't know how to spend a day sick without watching TV! And I wasn't feeling well either, so wasn't up to doing nice 'olden days' things with him (as he put it). He went back to school today and I spent the morning listening to the (battery powered) radio and knitting my pink and white poncho - completely mindless knitting that I found quite soothing.
We went out to dinner last night - I am getting a gas hob when we replace the kitchen but at the moment all my cooking facilities are electric. We went to the local Vietnamese restaurant, which is one of our favorites, and had a lovely night. They are very welcoming to children, and the children always behave immaculately there - hey, maybe there's a connnection!! After an ample meal of prawn crackers, spring rolls, satay chicken, sesame beef and a few other goodies, washed down by a bottle of Chardonnay and followed by indulgent pineapple fritters, we felt slightly happier with the world!!
It made me realise just how much we rely on utilities. And how the utility companies have us over a barrel. The current (pun sort of intended!) arrangements are that we pay an electricity retailer for our power, and they in turn buy it from a distributor. In circumstances like these recent ones, it is the distributor who is responsible for fixing things up. As they are not directly in receipt of the customers' monies, they have no real fiscal interest in serving our needs. They certainly worked very hard to restore power supplies - at least the actual men on the ground did. The phone room employees obviously have no vested interest in any of this (they are probably paid peanuts) and by this morning they were not even pretending to help callers. We don't know when your power will be restored, we aren't allowed to give any information out, we don't really care, and we'll be as rude as we want to because it's none of our business and we have power at home, anyway. I have been simmering, no, boiling over with irritation about this.
But power was finally restored approximately 31 hours after it went out (we don't know exactly when it happened during the night, it could be several hours longer than that).
I fully realise that it was a difficult situation and that there were thousands of people with similar problems. Many of them had their power back 24 hours earlier than us, but maybe that's jusst bad luck on our part. But what really makes me mad is the lack of information that was supplied all the way through, and the treating of the customer with complete contempt.
Enough already. Yesterday was quite hard because Wombat was still unwell and, being a modern child, doesn't know how to spend a day sick without watching TV! And I wasn't feeling well either, so wasn't up to doing nice 'olden days' things with him (as he put it). He went back to school today and I spent the morning listening to the (battery powered) radio and knitting my pink and white poncho - completely mindless knitting that I found quite soothing.
We went out to dinner last night - I am getting a gas hob when we replace the kitchen but at the moment all my cooking facilities are electric. We went to the local Vietnamese restaurant, which is one of our favorites, and had a lovely night. They are very welcoming to children, and the children always behave immaculately there - hey, maybe there's a connnection!! After an ample meal of prawn crackers, spring rolls, satay chicken, sesame beef and a few other goodies, washed down by a bottle of Chardonnay and followed by indulgent pineapple fritters, we felt slightly happier with the world!!
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
I LOVE Melbourne weather!!!
No, that's not said sarcastically. Many people moan about Melbourne weather, but I truly love it. Yesterday reached 34C, which is far too hot, and today it's about 15C and pouring with rain. I'd hate to live in a place where the weather stayed the same for weeks on end!!! I'm very relieved that it's cooler today, I have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and hot weather is a real killer for me.
The last few weeks have sped by, leaving me little time or energy for blogging, but now the school year has started and things are slowly returning to normal. (Having said that, Wombat is at home today after spectacularly puking all over the carpet last night - probably a combination of swallowing too much pool water and then eating a large bowl of popcorn, but better to be on the safe side as he still felt sick this morning). Fortunately the carpet is very old and horrible and will be replaced sometime in the next couple of years, probably with tiles!
The summer holidays turned into one of those Hallmark idylls that I never thought I would have with my children. George had three weeks off work and we spent the time being a (mostly) very happy family unit, visiting friends, and most of all having a constant stream of visitors in and out of our pool. The barbeque got a real work out and there were several occasions when altogether too much wine was consumed! The bathroom never got clear of constant piles of wet towels and muddy footprints. Sometimes I lost count of the number of kids in the house; sometimes I would go into another room and find an extra one that I didn't even know was there! And it was all relaxed and fun and a good omen for the year to come.
Sirius has been in the wars. Just after Christmas Baby Bear was bathing her and got shampoo in her eye, and didn't rinse it straight out. By the time she told us what had happened, Sirius had already scratched her eyeball and needed vet attention. Eyedrops and anti-inflammatories and a veterinary collar cured the problem in about a week, but she felt rather sorry for herself. And then after another couple of weeks she got an insect bite on her leg which she worried until it bled, so it's back in the collar for her again. She hates the collar, understandably, and gets quite depressed when wearing it.
I have been knitting! Still on the four projects mentioned earlier. Plus I have bought stuff to knit the Sally Melville poncho on the cover of ghe current Knitters. Mine will be in pinks and whites and in totally different yarns, as I am using easily available Australian yarns.
The last few weeks have sped by, leaving me little time or energy for blogging, but now the school year has started and things are slowly returning to normal. (Having said that, Wombat is at home today after spectacularly puking all over the carpet last night - probably a combination of swallowing too much pool water and then eating a large bowl of popcorn, but better to be on the safe side as he still felt sick this morning). Fortunately the carpet is very old and horrible and will be replaced sometime in the next couple of years, probably with tiles!
The summer holidays turned into one of those Hallmark idylls that I never thought I would have with my children. George had three weeks off work and we spent the time being a (mostly) very happy family unit, visiting friends, and most of all having a constant stream of visitors in and out of our pool. The barbeque got a real work out and there were several occasions when altogether too much wine was consumed! The bathroom never got clear of constant piles of wet towels and muddy footprints. Sometimes I lost count of the number of kids in the house; sometimes I would go into another room and find an extra one that I didn't even know was there! And it was all relaxed and fun and a good omen for the year to come.
Sirius has been in the wars. Just after Christmas Baby Bear was bathing her and got shampoo in her eye, and didn't rinse it straight out. By the time she told us what had happened, Sirius had already scratched her eyeball and needed vet attention. Eyedrops and anti-inflammatories and a veterinary collar cured the problem in about a week, but she felt rather sorry for herself. And then after another couple of weeks she got an insect bite on her leg which she worried until it bled, so it's back in the collar for her again. She hates the collar, understandably, and gets quite depressed when wearing it.
I have been knitting! Still on the four projects mentioned earlier. Plus I have bought stuff to knit the Sally Melville poncho on the cover of ghe current Knitters. Mine will be in pinks and whites and in totally different yarns, as I am using easily available Australian yarns.
Wednesday, January 05, 2005
The Year of the Appliance
I hereby declare 2005 to be the Year of the Appliance. Drum roll, please...
Immediately after Christmas we decided we were tired of being the only people in creation who didn't own a DVD player, and there were lots of good post-Xmas sales on. So we got a DVD player. Of course neither of our two ancient TVs could cope with anything as newfangled as that, so we had to get a new TV. Fortunately they were on sale too! There had to be quite a lot of rearranging to get the new TV, etc, into their designated places in the big corner cabinet-thingie that had been waiting for new equipment for five years (and in the meantime we had placed all sorts of junk in the relevant places!) Things were washed and dusted that had stayed put for five years. Some of them were put out for the op shop!
Then two days later the oven blew up. Well, the element blew, it turned out, but as it is about as old as the TVs we were not at all sure that it would be mendable. We are planning a kitchen renovation at some point, so it will be replaced then, but after blowing money on the TV and DVD we certainly couldn't afford a new oven on the spot! Fortunately I have now been able to get it mended and it should last until the renovations (hopefully within the next year or so).
Then George got the lawnmower out and it died on him. He may be able to mend it, but it turned out that the relevant part of the motor was held together with imperial screws, and all of his tools are in metric (and the mower comes from New Zealand, so we wonder why it has imperial screws! I pointed out to him that this is what caused the Ariadne to explode. He didn't know that). So he had to go out and buy tools in imperial measurements, much to his disgust.
Then I dropped the iron yesterday. Shouldn't have been a real disaster, except that I was about to iron in the family room, which has a slate floor. Vale iron. Fortunately that was the iron that replaced the one that George dropped, so he couldn't very well yell at me!
We figure the fridge will go next. It is 15 years old. We replaced the old washing machine six months ago so that's safe. The tumble drier is only four years old. The fridge is the only other major thing left. (We had to replace the computer three months ago. It will probably need a new monitor some time, though).
So it is formally the Year of the Appliance in this house.
On to knitting content. I finished the blue sparkly Opal socks but forgot to take a picture, and as the digital camera in George's work camera they will need to wait, unless I can squeeze them onto the scanner. They look cute. I am not totally comfortable with hand-knitted socks as I tend towards hot feet (unlike George who always has cold feet and loves hand-knitted socks!) but they feel nice and I won't wear them unless we have actual cold weather. (We are supposedly in the middle of summer here in Melbourne - which means the weather lurches dramatically from hot to cold over the course of the average week).
I started three new projects for the New Year. A pair of socks for George in a self-striping Regia yarn in shades of dark blue, denim blue, fawn and dark brown. A Diamond Patch jumper in a stonewashed pale denim yarn from Elle which is a 50/50% cotton/acylic mixture and looks like linen. And a simple summer poncho in candy pink cotton, Online Bingo, which is mercerised and has a lovely sheen to it.
I treated myself to a couple of Christmas pressies from Ebay - a set of Denise interchangeable needles and two packets of Susan Bates acylic crochet hooks. The crochet hooks come in lovely jewel colours and look extremely cute, though I think I will have to take to the bottom of the some of them with fine sandpaper to remove the moulding marks. The Denise needles were something I have been mulling over for at least twelve months. I am very happy with them so far. I am using them for the poncho - the cotton is very easy to split or snag and there has been absolutely no snagging whatsoever with the needle connections. My only real complaint (well, it would be fun if every pair of needle ends was a different, exciting colour!) is that they don't go down to a small enough size for me to able to knit a shawl with real, laceweight yarn, of which I have a couple of hanks in my stash - so if I ever get brave enough to do that, I will still need to buy really long circulars. But they seem versatile enough for most things I do.
Immediately after Christmas we decided we were tired of being the only people in creation who didn't own a DVD player, and there were lots of good post-Xmas sales on. So we got a DVD player. Of course neither of our two ancient TVs could cope with anything as newfangled as that, so we had to get a new TV. Fortunately they were on sale too! There had to be quite a lot of rearranging to get the new TV, etc, into their designated places in the big corner cabinet-thingie that had been waiting for new equipment for five years (and in the meantime we had placed all sorts of junk in the relevant places!) Things were washed and dusted that had stayed put for five years. Some of them were put out for the op shop!
Then two days later the oven blew up. Well, the element blew, it turned out, but as it is about as old as the TVs we were not at all sure that it would be mendable. We are planning a kitchen renovation at some point, so it will be replaced then, but after blowing money on the TV and DVD we certainly couldn't afford a new oven on the spot! Fortunately I have now been able to get it mended and it should last until the renovations (hopefully within the next year or so).
Then George got the lawnmower out and it died on him. He may be able to mend it, but it turned out that the relevant part of the motor was held together with imperial screws, and all of his tools are in metric (and the mower comes from New Zealand, so we wonder why it has imperial screws! I pointed out to him that this is what caused the Ariadne to explode. He didn't know that). So he had to go out and buy tools in imperial measurements, much to his disgust.
Then I dropped the iron yesterday. Shouldn't have been a real disaster, except that I was about to iron in the family room, which has a slate floor. Vale iron. Fortunately that was the iron that replaced the one that George dropped, so he couldn't very well yell at me!
We figure the fridge will go next. It is 15 years old. We replaced the old washing machine six months ago so that's safe. The tumble drier is only four years old. The fridge is the only other major thing left. (We had to replace the computer three months ago. It will probably need a new monitor some time, though).
So it is formally the Year of the Appliance in this house.
On to knitting content. I finished the blue sparkly Opal socks but forgot to take a picture, and as the digital camera in George's work camera they will need to wait, unless I can squeeze them onto the scanner. They look cute. I am not totally comfortable with hand-knitted socks as I tend towards hot feet (unlike George who always has cold feet and loves hand-knitted socks!) but they feel nice and I won't wear them unless we have actual cold weather. (We are supposedly in the middle of summer here in Melbourne - which means the weather lurches dramatically from hot to cold over the course of the average week).
I started three new projects for the New Year. A pair of socks for George in a self-striping Regia yarn in shades of dark blue, denim blue, fawn and dark brown. A Diamond Patch jumper in a stonewashed pale denim yarn from Elle which is a 50/50% cotton/acylic mixture and looks like linen. And a simple summer poncho in candy pink cotton, Online Bingo, which is mercerised and has a lovely sheen to it.
I treated myself to a couple of Christmas pressies from Ebay - a set of Denise interchangeable needles and two packets of Susan Bates acylic crochet hooks. The crochet hooks come in lovely jewel colours and look extremely cute, though I think I will have to take to the bottom of the some of them with fine sandpaper to remove the moulding marks. The Denise needles were something I have been mulling over for at least twelve months. I am very happy with them so far. I am using them for the poncho - the cotton is very easy to split or snag and there has been absolutely no snagging whatsoever with the needle connections. My only real complaint (well, it would be fun if every pair of needle ends was a different, exciting colour!) is that they don't go down to a small enough size for me to able to knit a shawl with real, laceweight yarn, of which I have a couple of hanks in my stash - so if I ever get brave enough to do that, I will still need to buy really long circulars. But they seem versatile enough for most things I do.
Friday, December 24, 2004
What is a blog without pictures
In the absence of any interesting knitting pictures at present, a picture of my dog. She is totally spoilt and beloved and wishes everyone a very merry festive canine season.
It stayed so hot last night that George and I had a midnight swim, something that we only do once or twice a year. Filtered moonlight, warm water, it was lovely and very special.
That was after I had spent the evening wrapping presents to the accompaniment of Kings College Cambridge on the TV. It made me feel quite festive.
It stayed so hot last night that George and I had a midnight swim, something that we only do once or twice a year. Filtered moonlight, warm water, it was lovely and very special.
That was after I had spent the evening wrapping presents to the accompaniment of Kings College Cambridge on the TV. It made me feel quite festive.
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