keeping mum

I can't say much at the moment - I am making swap and present thingys and I really really want to show them off. But I can't.

There are other things afoot in the house of sprout. The pirate is having his big 6 birthday party tomorrow. It is way too exciting. Think of me after school with 8 little kindy boys being sugared up and destroying the house.

I will leave you with a photo my almost 6 boy took of us today. I have given him an old camera and suddenly he is no longer camera shy. Why didn't I try that 3 years ago when he stopped consenting to be photographed? He does need some tips on composition, focus, closeups and using a flash...... then we may even get a shot in focus. And I do need to get him to take photos of something other than cartoons on tv.

Isn't he lovely?

a little greener

photo

Lately I have been thinking more about how I am impacting on the planet. Every so often my energy and commitment to this surges - maybe it is a spring thing.

I have already ticked all the usual boxes - energy saving light globes, shower head, composting, recycling etc, but I know I could do much better. I have signed up for the million women campaign to support a great cause and also to remind me to do the right thing.

I am loving reading a blog about just one ordinary woman's efforts and the big and little things she can do and I am inspired. I have been trying to not buy, to consume less. It isn't easy at all, in fact I am finding it really tough. Buying things feels good, lets face it.

I have bought some great yarn and fabric lately, and received some fantastic swap gifts. For the remainder of 2009, I vow to not buy any new materials - no yarn, no fabric, no buttons, no clothes, nothing.

It is going to hurt, but I hope to finish a whole heap of projects I bought gear for but haven't got around to starting, and get into some more upcycling. Will you join me?

I also want to thank you so much for your encouragement when I was panicing about presenting at the conference. It really did help. I did it. It went well. I could do it again now. And it is going to look great on a CV!

stocktake

It is that time of year when we are surrounded by stocktake sales. It must be time for a little stash stocktake of my own.

In:
5 skeins of undyed knittery yarn
1 ball jo sharp tweed
4 bags fibre for spinning
2 skeins of handspun from the Canberra Spinners and weavers show
1 skein of orange yarn from a swap and some small embellishment balls
1 set of knitpick harmony interchangeables
1 ball of bendigo rustic
1 skein of jitterbug
I skein noro
2 balls of bamboo



Out
1 ball of handpun - gifted knit
2 balls of noro - gifted knits
1 ball jo sharp tweed - gifted knit
3 balls of bendigo - knitted, felted and gifted
7 skeins of malabrigo - knitted up into flair
1 skein of jitterbug - knitted and gifted
2 skeins of mama lush - knitted and gifted
1 ball of bendy rustic - knitted and gifted
2 skeins handdyed orange - swap and gift
1 skein handdyed green - knitted up for swap
1 skein noro - swap
1 skein handdyed green - swap
2 skeins handdyed - swap
2 balls bamboo - swap





More heading out than coming in is good - feeling smug, me?

I do think it is about time I slowed up on the swaps and made a couple of things fit for a sprout.

autumn

Autumn is here - rejoice, rejoice. The Cockatoos are making a racket and doing a wonderful job of pruning the elm in the backyard.

photo from here

I has been another long hot summer - I really am not made for an Australian summer - I am made for Scotland. Now it's finally cooler in the morning, the air is crisp, the light is softer and I have more energy. I will be a very happy sprout when I know the last 30 deg day for the season is past and this coolness is with us for many months. As you know the past few weeks have been very, very busy here. But the end is in sight and Autumn will be the perfect time to give my garden some long needed attention - it will be good, good, good for my soul.

Autumn will be the season I finish my Flair. I am finally up to the band and only have the sleeves to go. It is looking quite nice, the malabrigo is magnificient - but it has taken so long if it doesn't look perfect when I put it on I will be quite miserable.

Autumn will be the season I will finish my cable rib socks, only started to prevent me going insane with plain knitting. These ones travel in my bag and I was lucky enough yesterday to have two meetings in the wonderful Australian National Botanic Gardens with a half hour gap between. The stress falls away in a place like this.



Being in the gardens I recalled the expression 'feel blue, touch green' -and so I touched all the green I needed to get me through the day.

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.

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.

Miniature

You saw the laptop bag in progress. It was big - really big.

I have felted before and it has always needed a couple of goes in the front loader - but this one went through once....

Bugger.

not fair

This is a post to whinge. Please stay with me, it won't take a moment and I need to debrief.

This weekend I have organised for 4 friend families to go to jenolan caves to walk, explore eat, drink and have fun with our combined 8 kids.

It took almost 6 months to coordinate around shift work, other engagements and work commitments.

I have now booked the rooms, given everyone instructions on meals to prepare, what to bring, costs, directions, dietry considerations, etc etc etc

But, more than 3 months ago I sprained my ankle and it is not better. I was under instructions to carry on as normal so I have - but today - 3 days before the trip - I went to my doctor with my MRI results and he stuck a needle in my ankle and then told me I had to take it very easy - definitely no bushwalking and no cave stairs for one week. No caves!

But, there will be lots and lots of knitting - as compensation, and champagne, and red wine, and really good food. I might even teach my sister to knit cause she won't be doing the caves either - which is a whole other story. So I get to hang out with my sister and knit - it is not so bad. But I really really wanted to go on walks and in caves with the pirate and now I won't be there when he sees his first cave or finds his pirate treasure.

but again there is the knitting... of the
luminaire socks

and a funky felted bag for my laptop

from Not Your Mama's knitting

and maybe even this if the cowgirl yarn turns up in time

and if I am very very lucky I can drive up there in this....well not quite this, but I bought one almost the same, only older, diesel and red and will take posession either Friday or Monday. eeek.

It is raining

lovely rain. everything looks fresh in the garden, except the chooks, washing and dogs. It hasn't rained in a while so I am very glad to see a wet deck this morning.







Of course the pirate is feeling better today and we have another party to go to. I wonder how the parents will cope with lots of 4-5 yr old boys inside the house being star wars characters? I can only say I am glad it is not here!

check out the costume - the ski gloves top it off I think.







And for the first time in my life I blocked something. I don't actually know anyone who has done this before so spent a bit of time doing my net research. I have opted for the pin and spray with water method as it is mostly mohair with a little acrylic (wish I had read the label properly before I started knitting the thing - I hate using acrylic). The cardigan is too short afterall and so I am hoping this will solve that issue. Am I being too hopeful?

Beret & Star Wars

We were to be going to a Star Wars birthday party this afternoon but the pirate is sick. We have been snuggling up on the lounge watching Star Wars instead - and I had a chance to finish Carmel's beret. It looks kinda cute don't you think? Though not very beret like - the pattern said beret and I followed the pattern quite carefully - I think it is more fez than beret. A cute fez, but a fez.

And instead of wearing his costume to the party the pirate set it out on the floor - I particularly love the arms!

the working week

Is over - and isnt it so nice to be at this end of the week? It has been a difficult week at work - trying to get things accomplished is not always successful. But...I rode my bike to work today for the first time in months - which was heaven. I even managed to squeeze a few rows of my new beanie/beret in at lunch time and a couple more at our Friday afternoon beer tasting - one of my work mates is a fabulous maker of traditional beers. I love the opportunity to kick back and try all kinds of beers.

Work may be frustrating at times -but with knitting you always see some progress. It gladdens the heart.

beanies and cucumbers

I finished the beanie. Now I have started on other beanie for a friend but this time I am getting to play with the great collection of yarns I got from the Craft and Quilt show. It should be gorgeous.

And today the pirate quietly told me he wanted to see a dead person. A dead person ? says I trying not to worry I was raising a serial killer. yes he wants to see inside their body to see how it all works. that's not so bad. So we got talking about a friend who is a doctor and sometimes gets to perform caesarians. I was careful to talk about anesthetic, just in case he wanted to take his curiosity to the next level. Ah, says he, that is when they use the cucumbers. Cucumbers? yes they put them over the people's eyes when they are asleep and Iain (our friend and soon to be proud owner of the finished beanie) has lots of cucumbers so he can put them on eyeballs.

I must keep an look out for all those cucumbers next time I go to a hospital.

Eggs

My lovely 2nd -hand chooks have become productive. I take back all the talk of stews and marvel at their cleverness.

isn't it wonderful?

I, myself, am not nearly so clever. I am knitting a beanie for a friend and last night frogged it for the second time. I was trying to knit in the round and change colours often and it was just becoming a mess. I haven't knitted in the round in a long time and was planning to make some socks soon - so I hope it comes together.

Now the beanie is going to be on straight needles and seamed so I can get onto the next project.

fluffy cardigan

being home sick is a wonderful excuse to sit around and knit and set up a blog. I have been trying to finish off my first adult sized cardigan. Of course I have mostly ignored the pattern I found because it wasn't quite what I wanted, and the closer it is to finishing the more nervous I get.




I think it looks way too short each time I take it out - but then I am way too short too and I hold it up to myself and it is just fine - am I really that short?





Then there are the mistakes... I have to pull one of the front panels back because I knitted that bit while on holidays chatting and drinking too much red wine and it is about 4cm longer than the others! 4 whole cm. And there is the mistake in the sleeve cuff. I had been quite proud of my cuffs but see the photos below and spot the difference.

There is no way on earth I am pulling it apart.

just the collar and some sort of edging to go - The collar is a huge affair - about 24cm wide and I can't make up my mind what do do both the trim and collar in. I am almost out of the lovely rust brown so my first preference is out of the question. I might need to experiment a little. it is a lovely day for it, all sunny and whispy with cool breezes.