Yarnivorous

G'day all1 Well what a sad day it is in my household. The last show of Burke's Backyard screened tonight. It has been part of my life for over 17 years. OK, so Don Burke is probably at least partly to blame for the 1990s proliferation of front yards that consisted of a weeping silver birch as a specimen "tree", a pathway lined by miniature English box hedges and standard Iceberg roses, then feature paving or white pebbling. Ick. I forgive him. After all his own garden is very relaxed and very Australian. And he has written a book about it that I am itching to buy but it seems to be Nathan's turn to spend our money at present. However, on a good note, the baby bottoms are nearly sewn up. They are rather amusing, being mint and creamy white stripes. Pics when it cools down - the mercury reached 36 today and I am still trying to cool this end of the house down. I can't be stuffed making the effort of finding a clean bit of floor. Then I have to ...

G'day all! I am in baby clothes hell. No matter how hard I knit on this baby outfit, I don't seem to make much progress. Others moan about sleeve island and then break out the margueritas, I moan about baby clothes knit in 4 ply! :-D Of course I am making progress. I have done most of the top - it needs to be seamed and have the neckband and crocheted tie done. (One day I'll learn how to crochet well enought that the chains are even and noice.) It may just be that my new fibre is calling to me and I really want to spin rather than make baby clothes. Or maybe I want to start the next summer top, now that I know I need the shapely tank to be a bit longer bodied. Then again, I might knit something out of 1,000 Sweaters because unlike many knitters I know, I am small enough to fit into the medium or large sizes! The largest size are 38"/97cm bust - that's not big by any means! Except for the three sack shaped things... Still it is an interesting boo...

G'day all! What a full on weekend! Shopping (nearly $100 of fruit and vegies! Eek! But the organic shop took a far whack of that!), front end alignment of my baby (car), a trip through the Yarra Ranges , which was pretty fab I must say, even though I was attacked by two BLOOD SUCKING LEECHES! Silly beggars, they just looped up my leg looking for a good spot instead of hunkering down for a feed. I would've (note the correct grammar there - would have not would of!) not even noticed them if I had not felt somethings sorta cold and squidgy squirming up my leg. Almost best of all, well certainly bbest of all for ongoing entertainment value was my trip to the Handweavers and Spinners' Guild of Victoria. Most excellent! Too many pretty spinning supplies. I went there cos I needed a pair of carders for my alpaca fleece. The dog brushes I bought were just toooo small - they only have brushes about the size of my palm (large woman's hand) and the wires were extra...

G'day all! Today's mental notes: Knit socks on 2.5mm needles - they seem to work out better. Certainly neater fitting. Knitting socks on 2.5mm needles seemingly takes forever. Knitting socks for largeish husband's feet definately takes forever. Frogging socks knitted on 3mm needles makes surprisingly small balls of yarn. Do not set up a BBQ on top of a wooden desk on some cardboard. Especially on the wooden verandah of a wooden house.* Change the kitty litter that sops up the drips from the BBQ before they catch on fire. Don't put the burning BBQ down in the driveway where your housemate can drive in and hit it. Car 1, BBQ 0. Don't expect said housemate to decide she wants the desk after a great big char mark has been put on the desktop. *yes, my husband and his mechanical engineer mate DID this. Don't ask me why. They thought it was great. Don't mind me, I'm just a girl, what would I know about the likely outcome of flammable materials and BBQs? ...

G'day all! Another Remembrance Day is pretty much done. I am ashamed to say that I was in a course and we forgot to observe a minute's silence. Why do I observe Remembrance day? Why do I buy a fabric poppy from the crustiest old bloke I can find? My Pop was an ANZAC. He fought at Gallipoli. If you have seen the movie Gallipoli , he almost undoubtedly was one of the blokes having a ball in Cairo, pissing off the British and blowing off the officers. He fought at the Somme. He went AWOL for 23 days after his leave ended in England, yet managed to avoid being shot or hung for desertion when he went back (his commander must've fought so hard for him in the court martial). He had part of his face blown away, and his injuries were so bad that he was thrown off the truck during a retreat. They thought he would not survive. But he did - he fell in a puddle which FROZE overnight, and he was found by the Germans, who patched him up some and swapped him (so goes my ...

G'day all! Over the last few days much of my knitting effort has been aimed at sock knitting, especially my lovely new sock in progress - teal, green and navy marl. It is taking longer than the last ones - i don't know if that is a factor of the cotton/wool/polyamide mix or the 0.5mm difference in needles or what. One thing fascinates me about knitting with double pointed needles. They offer so many opportunities to poke oneself in various parts of the body, particularly the eye. (Reminds me muchly of Flanders and Swann's "Design for Living" - "I'm delirious about our new cooker fitment with the eye-level grill. This means that without my having to bend down the hot fat can squirt straight into my eye!") The possibilities are ENDLESS! I wear glasses for most of the day - blind as a bat without them - but if I decide to indulge in a little sock knitting in bed... oh dear! No glasses, so I bring the knitting closer to my face, which provi...

There once was a blogger called Lynne. Lynne liked doing knitting and playing with yarn and spinning stuff. But Lynne was a very bad blogger who didn't get the shots she wanted of her creations, so she talked about them instead. Not so long ago, in a not very distant at all land, Lynne started making herself a new hat to replace the hat she had made that was a little small. She thought it was a very funky hat, rather similar to the one on Marnie's website (check out her free patterns) but it was too small and hurt her head when she wore her glasses (necessary for Lynnes to see beyond their own noses, which may be on the larger side but are not that big). Then Lynne could not find the second ball of yarn she had bought especially to make the new hat. Nowhere could it be seen at all. So Lynne had to make the long haul from the edge of the city to the centre of town in one of her lunchbreaks to buy some more yarn from the only place in town that stocks it. Lynne...

come again another day! Well since Tuesday last we've had close on 100mm (4 inches for you old timers) of rain. Lots of honest to god stormy rain, but even more miserably drizzly rain. Nathan and I got cabin fever and had to go out for a while today. Lord help us if we lived somewhere where you get blizzards and can't get out of the house for days - we can go out in this weather but it isn't as pleasant as it could be. It had been dully grey but mostly dry all morning. So I start driving and it starts PersISting down! Typical! And topping it off nicely, I discovered some sod had driven into my car and dinted the front quarter panel between the door and the wheel. Gadzooks I hate hate HATE drivers who damage other people's cars but think it's only a scratch, they won't mind.... Interesting isn't it that a cars guide I read said look out for little dings in the panels of the model car I drive because their OWNERS don't care about them! Hello...

Well it is not such a good day today. Looks like the American people have voted for blasted Bush. Like how STUPID are these people? Can't they see the damage his administration has done to the USA? And the rest of the world? Sigh. So the birthday girl is grumpy cos it is bad enough having an Australia full of idjits - we are nothing on the world scale. International bully boy America has voted Dubya back in. And if I go to the US, I will be treated like a common criminal upon entry - I have to be finger printed! Why? Cos I want to enter the USA and I might commit some crime or become a terrorist. As if! Do they think I want to be stuck in the USA on a permanent basis in some blasted jail or worse when I have my lovely Australia to live in? Hellooooo! I did get some nice presents. Nathan carefully wrapped up the gifts I bought myself yesterday (guess who forgot his wallet?), well if you count carefully as being he couldn't find the sticky tape (of which ther...

G'day all! It is over a week since I blogged. How bad of me! But it was a very busy week, what with being out two nights (including an SnB) and then having to deal with Nathan who seems to have pulled out of his flat spot, then a parental BBQ. I've got some finished objects to show peoples. Yes indeedy! OK, one isn't really finished but I only have about thirty ends to weave in properly - and thought I had woven in at least half as I went along! Ack! So here is the evil top of many loose ends: It is made out of Merino Supreme . I dyed the magenta and purple myself and am very pleased with the variegated (or as a shop spelt it varragated!) effect. It is very flattering and makes my bust look enormous, or maybe that is just the camera and lighting. It isn't anywhere near that impressive, honest. My front porch, that is. Annoyingly, my skin gets slightly irritated by the neck and arm bands. Then there is the cotton top that I ended up having to ...