it's been a while

my goodness, I was distracted a moment and totally lost track of time.

what happened to those two months? lots and not a lot particularly blogworthy.

there was some knitting for the Majura Primary School spring fair...

don't you love cheezezombie's slugs? I sold all three to 9/1o year old boys!

In amongst that was stealth knitting for my love's birthday....


fittingly 'van dyke' socks from the book 'socks from the toe up' and knitted in our own talented local dyer fibreweb's yarn - it was very beautiful.

They are very appreciated - and isn't that important for hand knitted sock recipients!

I've started a summer cardigan - I think I have managed an inch and that was on our recent holiday with about 2o hours in the car! Three kids on an 800km each way drive doesn't actually allow much knitting time I found. We had few lovely days in Armidale being proud at my love's doctorate graduation and visiting her family and some of the spectacular local spots.


We went horseriding. I really dislike horseriding. Horses scare me. A lot. In fact I think I would be more comfortable skydiving than being on a horse. Maybe. But the pirate was keen and I had to be brave.

the next little while is going to be so so busy too. You see we have plans....

They involve turning my 96m2 60's house into a 120m2 thing of beauty and fit for a family of five. It's fun and I am getting to totally indulge my frustrated inner architect. We are working very hard to keep it as sustainable as possible ( I plan to blog about that soon!). And cheap. The plans are off being tweaked and drawn up right now, all going well we will be able to afford it and find a builder who will start sometime in the new year.

Oh and I almost forgot to mention - my sister has started her stem cell treatment. She is amazing. And hairless. I think she is only the 2nd MS sufferer in Australia to be accepted for the treatment. So far it is going very well and we are all hopeful. The next step is the most difficult. Fingers crossed it will go well and she won't feel totally totally awful through the next lot of chemo.

phew

well that was christmas 09. I took a little while to get over it. I won't bore you with all the details - it was busy. it was fun. it was productive.

it was too short.

here is a snippet which includes presents, renovations, a broken arm, the first visit of the tooth fairy, knitting, walking in the mountains, lounging in the mist, a new bike for the pirate, a letter from santa, a letter to santa, heatwaves, vegies, job applications, visitors, friends, parties, naps, sewing, cleaning, freecycle, plans, crushes, wine, champagne, grandparents, air conditioning, travel, new friends, new resolutions, new plans, and a whole lot of love and friendship

Honestly I think I am the luckiest person alive with the friends I have and the support I get. I hope you are as lucky.

And what did I learn these holidays?
that my aircon does work, that freecycling can get rid of mountains of stuff and it feels very very good, that the tooth fairy can remember to come, that a waterproof cast does exist, that it does not come in green, that it costs quite a bit, that you can knit a scarf and not go insane, that stones and a mountain stream can keep 4 boys under 8 occupied for hours, that march flies like blue, that it does get hot in Guthega, that you can get good coffee in Cooma, that knitting socks from the toe up is fun, that you can find a pattern for pants that isn't too bad, that having an oven again is magic, that the pirate can cope with a broken arm without too much problem, that a child can have a broken arm for days and a mother not be sure it really is hurt, that new birkenstocks feel fabulous, that shopping for clothes and fabric after a fabric and clothes diet feels fantastic, that leaving salmon in the car in 5 days of over 35deg isn't at all good, that eggplants produce very very well and peas only grow with mulch and much much more.

I hope your 2010 is a lovely one.

umm....

I don't know about you but a blog break makes me all anxious about where to start. I was computerless for a couple of weeks and now I have things to share that seem so old news.

I have been doing a mindfulness meditation course these past few weeks. Last week we were discussing depression. How simple things can become when they are broken down, as my teacher did explaining depression as a conglomeration of emotions - including, particularly for some, loneliness. I had never thought about it this way before, but loneliness was put simply as a need to share.

Simple.

Essential.


It struck me how blogging is important for me as a place to share a part of myself and to be encouraged, as we all need, and for me to take a step out of the way of depression.


And a gorgeous handmade wool covered one at that.

Thank you for sharing.


The photos are of recently FOs - Hedera Socks, French Press Knits slippers finished, and seeing as they are so very good, a second pair, which were sent on their birthday way without a completed photograph. Sometimes giving is just too exciting to remember the photographs.

creative space poolside

One of the many charms of knitting is that you can take it anywhere.


Poolside at Thursday swimming lessons, for instance, finishing off the Hedera Socks.

for more creative spaces pop over here

creative space

My creative space this week is mobile. I am in Darwin at a conference and when I have free time I am doing a crawl of cafes with good airconditioning so I can knit. It is too stuffy in most of the rooms at the conference venue, good but dull in the hotel room, impossible outdoors and just right in this cafe.

The thing I love about knitting at a conference is it is such an icebreaker, particularly with women. I love that you find all kinds of closet knitters in these conversations and make friends you never would talking work.

These are my Hedera socks. one down one to go. If only I could knit on the almost 6 hours of flying time I will be doing later today.

For more creative spaces head over here.

Amelia

Amelia is lovely.



Amelia is nearly finished



Amelia is too big to leave the house.

(and for those clever people who noticed - yes the twisted rib is all wrong. Next time I must read the instructions)

Time to start something portable. Something to take to the city snb tomorrow
(oh please let me be well enough)



And it shall be ....



Hedera in Araucania rancho.

one is never enough

I have a wee problem.

I have been knitting socks for a friend for her birthday. I have one finished and am about to start the second. It has gone rather slowly.

The problem is that her birthday is today and the dinner is tonight.

Any suggestions for a really cute way to present one sock only with a promise of the other on its way?

copy cat

I have long enjoyed Rose Red's posts on shoes. I love a pair of shoes - and especially a quirky pair of shoes. I have considered posting on my shoes too - but that was being too much of a copy cat. I can hold back no longer because she just speaks to me, you know?

so like rose red I recently went on holidays. There are few holidays I return from without shoes. Shoes bought on holidays are momentos of the trip - and much better than a photo. Enter the latest - bought at Schmutters in Eumundi, Queensland.

The colour in the second pic is closer to the real thing. I think the camera was thrown by the over abundance of red in my lounge room.

Now I have been thinking of a sock to go with these also - something not too chunky, not too garish, not too pretty - something just right.

Something like this? or this? or this?

photos from Rav - KarenK, Sockenanja and Manisha

and I am thinking Green - a very close green to the middle one. A semi solid.

Now as people were so helpful in the choice of wrap (which I ended up not having enough yarn for sadly and am putting it off till I do) what are the suggestions on the perfect sock and the perfect yarn??

Evidence

I did say yesterday these were about to be finished - and here is the evidence.

The details are: pattern Monkey by Cookie

made with local Happy Spider hand died sock yarn in colourway clematis

knitted with 2.25 dpns - they were meant to be 2.5s but I didn't have anyway and the yarn was more like a 5 ply so I thought it would be OK. It is fine - a little snug for me but will be fine for my friend.

Happy Birthday Sophie.

socks

Tonight, in moment, I will finish the first pair of socks I have made to give to someone. This was them recently. I need better light to take them now.

It is the birthday of one of my favourite women this week.

She is the person who jumped on a plane, flew 1500kms and turned up in my hospital room on day 2, of what turned out to be my 60+ day stay, with the most stunning orange mohair, a pair of needles, and words from her mum - 'mum said I should teach you to knit'. Mum is a wise retired nurse - she knows about hospitals, and thankfully knitting.

My friend had to be taught to be able to teach me. I kept going - she hopes to get back to it one day. And the best part is this is someone who really appreciates a handmade/knitted gift. You will understand how wonderful it is to make something for someone who loves it and gets the thought and time that goes into such a thing. I can't wait to give them to her.

I have finished them while watching the delightful Irish film, Once. On impulse I bought the dvd the other day - hoping it would be worth the money and space on the bookshelf. It has turned out to be the loveliest film I have seen in a long time and I am glad to have the promise that is there to see it over and over if just to listen to the wonderful music and watch those Dublin scenes.

And it stars a redhead, how cool is that. Both the pirate and myself are redheads so I say bring it on!

and now I am off to watch another bit of film- a Youtube tutorial on how to graft a toe. I haven't yet figured out how to do this magic trick of finishing off a sock without substantial support. Thank goodness for Youtube. It has got me through many a knitting challenge.

endings and beginnings

t'was a day of celebrating life and ending it.

My pirate turned 5 yesterday. He is trying very hard to grasp that a birthday goes for the whole day and is not the party, which confusingly is on Sunday. It is one of the many brain teasers that will come his way.

The pirate was born before he was meant to and had a difficult start to life. This is the first thing I ever knitted him. On an apple.

This is the 5 year old.

how amazing is that!

and the life that ended - it isn't too dramatic. I am frogging two projects today. My Charade socks and my upstairs shawl. The socks are just because I don't really like the pattern with this yarn. I am going to try the Knitty pattern Monkey. They look lovely. And the shawl, I have made so many mistakes on the shawl I am beyond fudging the repairs. It is time to start again. This knitting in lace weight yarn is more challenging than I expected.

bye shawl.

and now I have grandparents and aunts about to arrive and really need to vacuum and take my weekly pilgrimage to the markets.

put that down

Bring together brazen possums, clumsy kangaroos, stealthy kookaburras, mysterious goannas, persistent mosquitos, 7 children and 7 adults and what do you have? why, a camping weekend at Pretty Beach.

The pirate and I love, love, love a camping weekend, especially one with some of our favourite people in the world. We love setting up the tent, we love the cooking, the running around in the dirt, the camp chairs, the wildlife, and the time with friends.

The pirate always is the first to wake - so to avoid waking up everyone we were out of the camp and exploring rock pools on the end of the beach in our pyjamas at 6.30am It was a magic time exploring the rocks with my boy.

I even managed to cast on and finish the band on my next pair of socks, but didn't get as much time to spend on them as I had hoped. It always seems to get busy when we go camping. And the wildlife -the possums woke us many times in the night knocking things over in the campsite and even managed to eat part way through my plastic container trying to get at some food. The kangaroo was surprised checking the place out and managed to knock over and smash my gas lantern. And a very clever kookaburra waited and watched till the snags were finished and off the camp stove before swooping in and steeling one off the plate. Cheeky.

it was all worth it.

and then lucky me -on Monday I got to go down through the alps to Khancoban for a meeting with amazing national parks people from the ACT, NSW and Victoria and stay in a place with the most amazing view, and unfortunately the most outrageous access to hayfever I have experienced in years.

Life can be fine.

a little knitting

I know I haven't posted much about what I have made of late - but I have been trying to get some knitting done with all the other competing things in life, honestly.

I can say I finally finished my first pair of socks.

I did knit a sock once before - years ago up in Pomona Queensland an interesting woman, who was an artist and a knitter and had used knitting to protest logging in Tasmania, set up a sock knitting group at a local cafe once a week - this was our view.

photo from here

nice hey?

all kinds of interesting arty women joined it and I managed to make one sock before I went back to to work and lost the pattern and so never got to complete the other one. It was a very very different kind of sock knitting too. We used 8 ply and made big rugby like socks, and we made them as silly and arty as we could with our limited knitting skills. Here is my one sock

... it is huge and makes a great christmas stocking.

But now I have a grown-up pair of socks

These are my first, though unofficial, socks for the Southern Summer of Socks - I did start them a few weeks ago so they don't quite make it as official. There is a nice bit of red here - which should please someone.

so the specs are: Bex's Luminaire socks (pattern free from The Knittery) using the Knittery's merino sock slim in Bloody Mary. I only used about 2/3 of the 100g skein.

I can't wait to start the next pair now.

a great weekend

This long weekend the pirate, a friend and I went to Sea Dog City (aka Albury).

lots of people I mentioned the trip to, in fact everyone, were puzzled at the choice, but this area is wonderful. The weekend was full of fun exploration and great coffee everywhere we went - so what's not to like. It was also a great time for relaxing and getting in lots of knitting. I even made it to the heal of my first socks, and got to take laptop bag version 2 for its first outing (this one worked).

the laptop stayed in the bag.

We went to Yackandandah and browsed the vintage clothes and objects shops - and amongst other things saw a wonderful collection of tablecloths. I love a vintage tablecloth and have a few myself so these were a delight. yum.

We spent some time in gorgeous Beechworth. I couldn't not go to the Ardent Alpaca and shop up just a little, really, could I? - I have just ordered a bit of yarn online in the past week so tried to keep it modest. The woman who served me was just wonderful, and very obviously a knitter, with tips for online knitting sources that will keep me happy for quite some time.

Then today we spent hours at the new gallery and museum in Albury. If you are near Albury go there - the museum is one of the best I have seen with fantasic interactive displays and the library had a great nook full of cushions which kept the pirate very happy while I got to read about knitting and poultry from the many books available. In fact it had the best library knitting collection I have seen so far.

The only bit of the weekend which could be improved on would be a great place to stay. We stayed somewhere very smart - which my parents would adore. What we wanted we could not find - a funky retro shack with comfy lounges, indirect lighting, facilities to indulge in some cooking, a verandah to drink wine on, and cheap, rather than nice pretend victorian in the suburbs. Any suggestions for next time or am I being far too fussy? - there will definitely be a next time and I can't wait.