A pause for ANZAC Day
G'day all!
Well one of the most sacred days in Australia (and NZ) is almost done for another year. Today is the 90th anniversary of a battle that is very close to Oz hearts. BTW, ANZAC - Australia and New Zealand Army Corps.
I watched a bit of a documentary on the landings on the Gallipoli Peninsula, and the events leading up to it, on the telly last night. After 45 minutes, I was done. Nathan watched a later bit for 10 minutes and couldn't bear it. Mistake after mistake was made. Totally horrendous. Good men on both sides died because Churchill commandeered the British built Turkish battleships and didn't even give the Turks their money back. Which side would you go with - the ones that GIVE you two battleships or the ones that steal your money and the ships built for you?
And out of the actions at one small cove, a legend that birthed a nation was born. Maybe two nations - I don't know how the Kiwis feel about Anzac Day except that they do commemorate it. They lost men there too.
My Pop was there. He went to the Somme too. So I may be a bit flippant about it, but I have closer links than most people of my age. As far as I know he went for the adventure - how else could a young man of limited means get to travel to Cairo and various parts of Europe and visit England?
He certainly found adventure and somehow managed to survive it. He was a machine gunner and eagerly enthuses in a letter about the number of rounds per minute the gattling guns could fire. He was severely wounded more than once in the war. I have no idea what he was like before the war but I'd describe him as a bit eccentric. Then again my family tends to be a bit whack... yours truly included....
The handweavers and spinners' guild had a recent coloured sheep fleece sale. A few coloured sheep fleece dealers hawked their wares, in a very quiet and genteel sort of way.
There was a gorgeous merino multicoloured (white to dark grey) fleece that I adored but it was about 2.5kg and I have absolutely no hope of processing that much fleece. Heck, I haven't even carded all the white alpaca fleece (bought in September), let alone the one I bought in January. I am starting to think I may send my alpaca fleece off to a processor and get them to card it all for me so I just have to spin it.
Yeah, that sounds good :-)
Instead, I bought some scoured and commercially prepped fleece. I think the scouring may have been quite harsh cos the carded fleece isn't very soft. Still it is a good way for me to play with different sorts of fleece for a not very big investment.
What did I get?
Some brown corriedale. This is the weirdest fleece I've yet handled. Except maybe border leicester, if that is the curly mohair like fleece. Some bits of this feel soft and others like wire:
Plus a bit of a greyish Polwarth (I can't wait to get my cotton picking, well wool pickin, hands on some of Wendy Dennis's stuff):
And some Romney:
Finally a bit of moorit merino/alpaca blend, cos I am silly - it is not as if I don't have merino tops or alpaca fleece lobbing around here....
These were all from Andyle, who do a lovely mulberry silk and merino mix yarn, like truly lush. Sooo soft I had to buy some last year, still haven't done anything with it but one day my pretties...
Then there were the blended tops in colours that I bought so I could play with blending from one colour to another. Some red blend to mix in with the red/blue (and white but we Demons supporters ignore the white bits):
And some pink to run into the blue. This is likely to be very very girly if it spins up like I hope:
Haven't done a quiz for a while. No great surprises here:
Which flock do you follow?
this quiz was made by alanna
Golly, I am a geek sheep. Quelle surprise!
You may or may not be pleased to know that I have reached the stocking stitch part of the front (or back) of the pink top. No pics today cos I forgot to take them in daylight. It is looking good, I think.
Plus I have tried three different patterns/designs for the MiL mother's day scarf. Feather and fan, one out of the page a day knitty calendar but they just looked WRONG. Finally I am just going to do cable strips and join them will little pom poms or something. It is going to be something you will see me do a bit cos I am in lerv with cables at present. I am planning a scarf in greens to turquoise in this cable idea.
Enough for tonight! Thanks for dropping by and,
anon!
Well one of the most sacred days in Australia (and NZ) is almost done for another year. Today is the 90th anniversary of a battle that is very close to Oz hearts. BTW, ANZAC - Australia and New Zealand Army Corps.
I watched a bit of a documentary on the landings on the Gallipoli Peninsula, and the events leading up to it, on the telly last night. After 45 minutes, I was done. Nathan watched a later bit for 10 minutes and couldn't bear it. Mistake after mistake was made. Totally horrendous. Good men on both sides died because Churchill commandeered the British built Turkish battleships and didn't even give the Turks their money back. Which side would you go with - the ones that GIVE you two battleships or the ones that steal your money and the ships built for you?
And out of the actions at one small cove, a legend that birthed a nation was born. Maybe two nations - I don't know how the Kiwis feel about Anzac Day except that they do commemorate it. They lost men there too.
My Pop was there. He went to the Somme too. So I may be a bit flippant about it, but I have closer links than most people of my age. As far as I know he went for the adventure - how else could a young man of limited means get to travel to Cairo and various parts of Europe and visit England?
He certainly found adventure and somehow managed to survive it. He was a machine gunner and eagerly enthuses in a letter about the number of rounds per minute the gattling guns could fire. He was severely wounded more than once in the war. I have no idea what he was like before the war but I'd describe him as a bit eccentric. Then again my family tends to be a bit whack... yours truly included....
Recent acquisitions
The handweavers and spinners' guild had a recent coloured sheep fleece sale. A few coloured sheep fleece dealers hawked their wares, in a very quiet and genteel sort of way.
There was a gorgeous merino multicoloured (white to dark grey) fleece that I adored but it was about 2.5kg and I have absolutely no hope of processing that much fleece. Heck, I haven't even carded all the white alpaca fleece (bought in September), let alone the one I bought in January. I am starting to think I may send my alpaca fleece off to a processor and get them to card it all for me so I just have to spin it.
Yeah, that sounds good :-)
Instead, I bought some scoured and commercially prepped fleece. I think the scouring may have been quite harsh cos the carded fleece isn't very soft. Still it is a good way for me to play with different sorts of fleece for a not very big investment.
What did I get?
Some brown corriedale. This is the weirdest fleece I've yet handled. Except maybe border leicester, if that is the curly mohair like fleece. Some bits of this feel soft and others like wire:
Plus a bit of a greyish Polwarth (I can't wait to get my cotton picking, well wool pickin, hands on some of Wendy Dennis's stuff):
And some Romney:
Finally a bit of moorit merino/alpaca blend, cos I am silly - it is not as if I don't have merino tops or alpaca fleece lobbing around here....
These were all from Andyle, who do a lovely mulberry silk and merino mix yarn, like truly lush. Sooo soft I had to buy some last year, still haven't done anything with it but one day my pretties...
Then there were the blended tops in colours that I bought so I could play with blending from one colour to another. Some red blend to mix in with the red/blue (and white but we Demons supporters ignore the white bits):
And some pink to run into the blue. This is likely to be very very girly if it spins up like I hope:
Haven't done a quiz for a while. No great surprises here:
Which flock do you follow?
this quiz was made by alanna
Golly, I am a geek sheep. Quelle surprise!
You may or may not be pleased to know that I have reached the stocking stitch part of the front (or back) of the pink top. No pics today cos I forgot to take them in daylight. It is looking good, I think.
Plus I have tried three different patterns/designs for the MiL mother's day scarf. Feather and fan, one out of the page a day knitty calendar but they just looked WRONG. Finally I am just going to do cable strips and join them will little pom poms or something. It is going to be something you will see me do a bit cos I am in lerv with cables at present. I am planning a scarf in greens to turquoise in this cable idea.
Enough for tonight! Thanks for dropping by and,
anon!
i dont know if any of my rellos went to either of the world wars. I do know that my father went to vietnam though.
ReplyDeleteI watched the dawn ceremony at the Gallipoli Peninsula that was on yesterday.
Katt