A Finished Knitted Object That is not a Sock!!!

This is the cardigan I have just finished. (Actually, looking at mine next to the picture of the real thing, I realise that I have made a mistake in the sewing up which will require fifteen minutes rectification).
It's the cabled cardigan by Norah Gaughan (whose designs I love) from Vigue Knitting Fall 2006. Instead of knitting it in a wool/alpaca mix which I would never be cold enough to wear, I used the cotton/acrylic mix I have mentioned before, Stonewash by Elle. I'm not sure how many balls I used (me bad). It was a surprisingly quick knit, the scarf thing round the front took the longest.
The mistake is that the scarf was supposed to not be attached from where the ribbing starts, and I obviously got carried away and sewed it all the way. I will sort that out this afternoon as I think it will look better.
It fits me now, which I wasn't expecting, but will look even better as I lose more weight!

I'm an Idiot

And a moron, and complete dipstick... Guess what I did last night, I let Wombat's bath runneth over! And over, and over, and over... My weak excuse is that I was talking to George and he distracted me and made me forget, but that's a pathetic excuse really because i ought to have the brain cells to remember something like a running bath!

It flooded - the bathroom, the passageway outside the bathroom, half of Wombat's room, the family room and the first few feet of the loungeroom. The bathroom is tiled and just required a lot of mopping. The family room is slate and also required a lot of mopping, but unfortunately there was a lot of my sewing stuff on the floor waiting to be sorted out. Nothing lost, fortunately, but now it's all in the loungeroom waiting to be sorted out. We sucked up as much water from the carpets as possible with a Vax. Wombat's room had been needing a thorough going over for a LONG time, it was like a toxic waste dump, so it has at least given us the excuse to clear it totally, through half the rubbish out (it really is rubbish, broken bits of toys and things), and possibly even repaint it.

George called in some people to dry the carpets professionally, and then someone is going to replace the underlays in the affected areas. We aren't going to replace the carpets at this stage, they are ancient and horrible and the whole lot needs replacing, but not right now.

These lovely people, by the way, are the type who also clean up after dead bodies and things. Presumably some disgusting old wet carpet will not seem like much of a challenge to them!

All this at the end of a stinking hot day when I had spent hours running around on public transport to medical appointments, had my first fill into my lapband which involves a horse syringe being inserted into my abdominal wall and leaves you feeling like you have kicked by the horse just under the rubs, got dehydrated in the heat, and arrived home feeling exhausted and sore. Then I had to spend two hours mopping and Vaxing! (Everyone else helped too). Consequently the fill site still hurts today (I don't think that is supposed to happen, but neither are you expected to do two hours hard physical labour straight afterwards!) as does my back and joints.

And you have to go easy after a fill, so all I had to 'eat' last night was some chicken consomme (very yummy) and a low fat yoghurt this morning. In about an hour I am going to try some thicker vegie soup, and tonight I will try some pasta. If all that works it is back to 'normal' eating and hope that the weight loss continues! I saw someone today who I haven't seen for a month (who knows about the op) and she exclaimed 'You've lost so much weight since I last saw you!' I told her she was wonderful!

Saturday Sky

I thought I was going to be posting yet another perfect sunny sky, but by the time I got home from shopping it had clouded over a bit. It was still quite warm though - it was about 26C when I got home at 3 o'clock, funny to think that on Wednesday it barely reached 11C! Yes, we Melbournians are obsessed with the weather, it changes so much that we always have something to talk about!
There was another working bee at the school to get the environmental garden project as close to completion as possible. Most of the heavy labour has been done by George, our good friend R who is the project manager, and a couple of other dedicated dads. It was good to see quite a lot of other parents there yesterday. Much to my disgust George is over there AGAIN cleaning up with R and a couple of others. I am getting a little sick of the amount of time he is putting into it - added to the fact that he is President of the School Council, and Treasurer of our Church. It is good to be involved in the community (I am just on the Education Committee at school, I used to do a lot more but gradually pulled back on my committments when they got rather overwhelming) but some family time would be nice too, especially considering that he works a good 50 to 60 hours a week at his 'real' job and is committed to being a hands-on father and husband. I worry that he will just collapse with exhaustion at some point.
The kids had a swim afterwards - our two and R's two youngest - but it still isn't quite warm enough for me to go in. Maybe tomorrow - it is forecast to be 31C today and 33C tomorrow, so the solar heating should be doing its job and heating the water up nicely by now. I am a wimp about cold water and it has to be a minimum temperature for me to go in, unlike the kids who don't seem to care!

No pics today

I've run out of textile pics to show off and I haven't got any knitting pics because my current two projects are 'in progress'. On the upside, one of those projects is an actual garment that is not a sock, that is for me, and only has one and a bit sleeves and sewing up to go! I have been dipping in and out of making a Diamond Patch jumper for about eighteen months or longer, in a nice cotton/acrylic mixture that is very washed out denim blue and looks like linen. I enjoyed knitting it, but only in small quanitities at a time. I picked it up a few weeks ago and realised that, now I have had this operation, no matter if I don;t lose astronomical amounts of weight, it was going to be several sizes too big. I didn't have the patience to frog it and start again (especially as it is modular so I would have been left with a million small balls), so I checked how much I had left in full balls, which was quite a few, and at the same time the latest Vogue Knitting had arrived and I had fallen in love with a cardigan pattern. And I realised that for once I stood a chance of fitting into a Vogue knitting pattern, even if it was their idea of a Plus Size and I won't be able to wear it till the winter (at the rate I am losing weight, which I am quite happy with). I should point out that Vogue Knitting's idea of a Plus Size is not exactly huge. I thought I would have to fiddle around with the pattern, as I was going to knit it in a totally different yarn, but I got gauge first time!

There will be pics when it is finished.

The other project is the ubiquitous pair of socks. I don't think I have photographed the last few pairs I have made. Maybe there should be a photo shoot soon.

I have had a grumpy week, which is why the knitting has progressed on the cardigan has progressed so fast. It;s cold, which I don;t normally don't mind, but our central heating is on the blink and it is taking the lovely manufactureres who shall be nameless three weeks to get a serviceman out to us. We are making do with jumpers and two ancient fan heaters that use up so much electricity that I cringe every time I turn one of. The welling has gone down on my stomach - good news, you might think, but it means that Ia m eating too much again. I have my first fill next week and that should help, in them eantime my weight loss is slowing down to a snail's pace and I am feeling guilty about overeating. I am trying to exercise but the cold really got to me! Plus I have had a sick kid at home most of the week coughing as though she has TB.

At least it means I have spent a lot of time knitting!

Saturday Sky

Another perfect spring day in Melbourne. Sun shining, no clouds. It clouded over later on in the day and got humid and close, but this was taken mid-morning. Trouble is, what we really need is rain!

As Christmas presents within our class, we each had to decorate a paper bag with a portrait of the recipient (names drawn out of a hat),, and include little parcels of craft stuff that we had lying around at home - strict instructions NOT to spend money. Some people can draw brilliant portraits. Some people can draw reasonably recognizable portraits. Some people are bad at drawing and are smart alecs so they do a bad imitation of Picasso. I'm glad to say that the recipient of the fake Picasso was increibly thrilled with her picture! 

Our Mural

I think we are pretty clever, really! It's hard to photograph the whole thing and still leave it possible to see the details, but if you click on it you should be able to see a bigger picture (I hope!) 

My Contribution to our Mural

Well, we had our last day for the year at TAFE yesterday. We got to go and look at the Second Years' body of work for the year and it was so exciting! I wanted to start Second Year right away!

Our final project for the year was a collaborative mural. This is my panel of it. When I have downloaded yesterday's photos I will post a picture of the whole thing, though at the time it was just propped up on a table rather than properly hung! Some time next year it, and that done by the other First Year class, and the whole story about how we designed and made them, is going to appear in Textile Fibre Forum magazine, which is incredibly exciting. 

ISE Scarf

Just realised that I have forgotten to blog about my lovely ISE scarf.


It came from Julie, whose link I can't find offhand, and included a selection of the most gorgeous origami bookmarks and a cure pair of enamelled stitch markers that her son had made at school! The scarf itself is something soft and light and cuddly, possibly Kidsilk Haze or something like that, in pure white, and it has beads through it in shades of blues and greens that are just like the sea.

Healesville Sanctuary

We went to Healesville Sanctuary on Monday, to show off native Australian animals to an English friend who is visiting. It was a beautiful day. The Sanctuary is in a lovely bush setting and runs many important breeding and rescue programs, as well as having the animals on display in as natural a surrounding as is feasible for the breed. Highly recommended! 

Fragments of Me

Rather than explaining this picture all over again, this is the artist statement I wrote to go with it:

FRAGMENTS OF ME

The original collage for this work consists of childhood photos, photos of my own daughter and niece and nephews, street maps of two of the most significant places I have lived, and the (present day) board outside the hospital where I was born.

Although I was reasonably happy with this collage and played around with some stitching ideas to use with it, I then decided that the composition was too static. While playing around with photo-editing software I attempted distorting the picture several times, and chose these three distortions to place side-by-side in a triptych.

It shows how our perceptions of ourselves as children are distorted in the real world, and those perceptions distort further as we get older and become parents ourselves. Different aspects of our lives take precedence at different times.

For me, family is a constant theme that informs how I live my life. The stitched border represents the gardens of all the places I have lived in and the domesticity that forms the bedrock of my life and relationships with others.

My grandmother’s charm bracelet completes the picture. Two of the charms (the sheep which she hung the wrong way round, and the flat iron) were makeweights that she put on to balance it out. The other charms are a St Christopher medal that belonged to one of her sons whose plane was shot down during WW2; a silver threepenny piece; and the navy badge worn by the other of her sons who was killed during the war, in the Battle of Crete.

Folder Cover

This is my final folder cover for the year. The beaded pear is the same one that I have already posted a better picture of, so I concentrated on the machine emrboidery instead. I am qutie pleased with this is as I do not consider myself to be a machine embroiderer at all and this worked out fairly well, all things considered. 

Series of Three (T is for Three)

These were hard to photograph. They are fragments inspired by the watercolour paintings of several entries ago. Each one is painted on watercolour paper and then machine stitched. It was a technique that I had wantd to try out though I don't know that it will do it too frequently - I quite liked the effect but I don't think it is destined to become a favorite.

Edited much later to add that I am going to try some layering with organza and more stitching and embellishment to soften these pictures up - next year sometime!

S is for Sand

And what do you do with sand? You bury yourself up to your neck in it, of course!

As did three other children. I'm sure the mother of the other two was as pleased as I was with the quantity of sand that came out of those clothes! It amuses me that even thirteen year olds consider burying themselves in sand to be wonderfukl fun. 

R is for Rose

Not many of our roses are out yet but this one is putting up a nice show. I can't remember if it is a Tequila Sunrise or a Whiskey Mac, they are similar and I love them both.

It's two weeks now since my op and I am much recovered. I am losing weight (yeh!!), and feeling much more energetic. I have become friends with my CPAP machine and I'm sleeping really well. It was a bit hard to judge the energy levels for a while because of the results of the anaesthetic, but now I would definitely have to say that it has made a big difference. And I saw my sleep physician today and she checked the readings on the machine and said that losing the weight I have already lost has made a big difference to the pressures needed, and hopefully in a few months I won't need to use it at all!

It is just a bit early to state that my Chronic Fatigue Syndrome was actually caused by sleep apnoea, but certainly I am feeling better every day.

I survived two weeks of a liquid diet after the op, to help my stomach heal, and now I;m on two weeks of 'mushies' during which I have to 'transition' to solid food. I had some mashed up fish last night, mashed apple this morning and scrambled eggs for lunch. I am amazed that what to me looks like a minisicule quantity (about half a cup) of food actually makes me feel full and satisfied. I have my first fill in four weeks time. I really do think I have found a method of weight loss that will work, for the first time ever. I always ate healthy food, just far too much of it, and this so far seems to be helping me cut down on quantities very helpfully indeed. 

My first forays into watercolours

We had to do collages and then turn them into watercolours in class recently. I can't paint, and I had never used watercolours before. The collaging process was fun though. I ended up doing two.

Just for fun, I collaged them together on Picasa. I like the result. (It's the top picture).

There will be three small stitched pieces coming from this - we had to choose three postcard sized sections to turn into stitch. I haven't finished mine yet but had better get a move in as everything is due in on November 3rd!

Saturday Sky

It was chilly this morning (for Melbourne in October) and there were some tiny sprinkles of rain, but nothing like enough. (We are in sustained and serious drought). Lots of clouds during the day, some of them quite darkish, but nothing that even registered in the rain gauge. This is the view over the fence into next door, they are a lovely Sri Lankan couple with a little boy of about twelve months who is so cuddleable and cute that you just want to eat him up! 

Q is for Quite the Young Athenian

This is Wombat playing a young Athenian (i.e.) crowd member and chorus) is the school production of A Kidsummer Night's Dream. I've already blogged about how proud we were that he was able to take part in this production after he had solidly refused to be involved the previous two times (it happens every second year). This year he followed direction, was co-operative, and loved the whole thing. It's a big thing for an autistic kid to cope with, no matter how high-functioning, so I thought he deserved to be immortalised here. The toy dog, Pep, goes to school every day and most of the kids are good enough to accept that and not tease him for it, bless them. 

Saturday Sky

Baby Bear took these photos for me yesterday while I was still in hospital - isn't she a good girl! There was a working bee at the primary school which kept everyone busy.

I am home, feeling as weak as a kitten, but largely pain free (except for a persistent sore neck and headache which I think came from the hospital bed!).

I now have to live on liquids for the next three weeks. So far I have only managed water and fruit juice with a couple of mouthfuls of chicken broth, but intend moving up to more broth and possibly even a cup of tea today. I am still bloated from all the gas they pump inot you during the op - though that has improved a lot.

It hurts to sit at the computer for any length of time - I am fine lying down, walking for short periods, of sitting in an armchair. So not much blogging today. But thanks so much for all your kind words, I probably won't get back to all of you individually so I hope you are reading this and acccept my heartfelt thanks for your kind thoughts and words. 

Tomorrow is B Day

TOmorrow I go into hospital to have gastric lap banding. I am alternating between being excited and terrified. It's a bit like having a baby - you know it's going to hurt and be undignified, but you want to get it over and done with so you get on with your life again.

I haven't blogged recently because I have had my head down doing schoolwork. Only four weeks left till the end of the academic year, and I have to miss this week, so I am working hard to get myself into a position where I can comfortable manage to allow myself some 'sick leave'. That is what I am aiming for by the end of today and things are looking good at the moment.

I have had to spend the last two weeks on a strict diet using Optifast. I am cross with my surgeon for putting every patient on this beofre the op without any examination of individual circumstances - a strict diet makes sense, because most people who need this op have a fatty liver, and it's a good idea to shrink it a bit - but I am lactose intolerant and no mention was made of the fact that Optifast is, on the whoole, pure milk products with vitamins and minerals thrown in. There is a soup, but it tastes like dog vomit and I threw it away. I managed three of the shakes before I was sick. I have been managing with the chocolate mousses and chocolate bars three times a day (how does this teach you good eating habits, BTW? And I don't even have a sweet tooth) plus the allowance of fruit and veges (the easy bit) plus all the water (also the easy bit). But I have been having such bad stomach pains and other nasty intestinal symtpoms (won't go into details but let's just say that last night I only just got to the bathroom in time) that this morning (after puking up my Optifast breakfast) I have thrown it all out and I;m spending my last day before banding eating sensibly. Two weeks of this have turned me from someone who ate sensible foods, albeit in enormous quantities, to a buleimic eating 'chocolate' three times a day. At least after the op , although I have to live on liquids for a while and then purees, they can be actual food. I have written lactose intolerance on my hospital admission forms because if anyone offers me a nourishing milky drink in hospital I will get violent with my IV stand!!!

I will politely point out to my surgeon, when I see him, that it would be a good idea to check with his patients rather than just having a blanket policy of putting them all onto Optifast!