Yarnivorous

G'day all! This may turn into a very insensible blog today. I'm writing this at 12:15pm and in an hour I will have happy drugs in me and be in what I can only presume will be a rather inelegant position.... I may not make a lot of sense after the sedatives. Drugs, man! Dang! Drugs have not had a lot of effect on me! Gut is still a bit sad though! OK, here is some of the stuff I've been working on recently. About 100g (say 4oz) of 80/20 moorit merino/alpaca with bits of browny and bluey/green silks: This is a really nice soft yarn, even though I overspun the singles here and there. A lurid scarf in hand-dyed mohair (by moi!) and el cheapo black fuzzy yarns, most likely to go to the scarf festival: The back of the pink top! Yes it really does exist! And finally, the star of the show, the Sassy Stripe Lorna's laces, now becoming a sock! Yaay! The big purge, day two Woke up once last night, mainly because I had drunk so much fluid. I drank over a litre of fluid afte...

G'day all! Life in the freezer continues here at Weedhaven. Yep, I am huddled under Nathan's lurid purple acrylic fur blanket to warm up. To occupy myself, I have started a toe up sock using these instructions by Denise Powell. Man, it is really hard to start these socks, very fiddly, and I now find I have twisted the stitches on one side or the other of the start. Oh well, live and learn. Who will be able to see? Are you going to visit me and make me show off my socks? At least my feet don't smell as bad as Nathan's often do! LOL! I think it has taken me no longer to do the cast on and twist the stitches badly than it would to do a provisional cast on and short row toe. I am using some Lorna's Laces in sassy stripe. It is very pink and yellow/orange. BTW, whoever said that the Fonz is looking good still after seeing the 30th reunion of Happy Days is a LIAR! LI-AAAAR! (Pants on fire! or I'm not a vitch, I'm your vife!) I saw Henry Winkler on ...

G'day all1 It's a bit of a sad day here at Weedhaven. 14 years ago today just before 7:30 at night, my Mum died after a long and bitter fight with cancer. I was doing the washing up cos all bar Father and my brother had just had tea - no point all of us being in the hopstial room with her was the reasoning. I heard Mum call me from the loungeroom, but it was Mum before the cancer got into her lungs. I put the washing up sponge down and started taking off the gloves, then realized she could not have called me. A minute or two later we got the phone call. Mum always did fuss over me. Mum was only 60 when she died, and I was a fairly immature 20-something. Her death came during the middle of my Honours years (yep I got two years to do Honours cos of Mum). It's been sorta weird without her around to pick me up and send me on my way, or to kick me in the pants and tell me I am being an idiot. Anyway, I dedicate this day to Mum. I don't even have a pic for her, or of ...

G'day all! Well here at Weedhaven, the seasons they have a turned like really fast. Last weekend I spent some time in the garden, tidying up weeds, whilst C pulled the weeds in his memorial avenue. I was wearing a tshirt. Today I've been inside, whimpering about how cold it is and wearing two polar fleece tops with the hood up and finishing one of the mittens. (Can't find the little ball of yarn to finish the other mitten. If you see a rather small ball of merino et soie - upitty kiwi yarn with fancy frog language in it - in eggplant, please tell it to hightail it home. I need it.) OK, you northerners (and I am NOT talking you banana-benders in Queensland) will laugh when I say it is 10 degrees here and it is FREEZING, but last week it was 19. All the way to Tuesday the weather has been bee-yoo-ti-ful. But now we pay. Pretend that we are Californians. On second thoughts, don't. Hi, Californians! Love you! Prefer here! Topping it off nicely, Nathan has decided...

G'day all! I am a very angry blogger tonight. I shall get it off my chest first then maybe I can calm down and play like a nice blogger. So yesterday I posted about Gra-Gra dying. (Sorry you overseas folks but imagine your best beloved talk show host or comedian dying. Same sort of deal.) Today I visited my LYS on the way home. She had a talk show on. The "host" (nothing gracious or gentlemanly about this bloke in this interview) was being extremely aggressive towards his interviewee, a man who had a long relationship with Gra-Gra. He forced the man to reveal his sexuality, which is NONE of ANYONE's beeswax, and then started going at him about being HIV positive! THe kept asking "Are you HIV positive?" Like HOW RUDE! What business is it of anyone's apart from the man and his close contacts? WHO CARES? It was totally rude and invasive of privacy. It isn't as if HIV/AIDS can be caught like the flu or a cold. OK, it has a pretty poor outcome...

G'day all! Well what a fun week it has been so far! Today went ok - training happened, people didn't fall asleep, which is a good thing when you are introducing them to a new product. I nearly fell asleep this afternoon though. I keep getting *really* cold at night when I am asleep and then wake up feeling lousy sometime after midnight. We have a heater in our bedroom but I am cold when I go to bed and never really warm up unless I wear a fleecy top, a hat and trakky dax to bed, which really does seem a leetle wee tad overdressed for bed to me. Of course once I get warm, I stay warm like some bizarre radiator and end up throwing half the bedclothes off (with the clothes) cos I am too warm. So being too cold has woken me up for significant amounts of two out of the last three nights. I don't know how you working mums can cope.... To show how my mental processes are (dys)functioning after three days of panic stress mode at work on top of the local virus going around on to...

G'day all! Ah another sad day. Graham Kennedy , the King of Australian tv, has died. Never mind that he had not been on air for 15 years. he was The King. Noone has been able to do what he did. I can remember hearing the In Melbourne Tonight music start up at around 9:30 or 10:30 at night. I would creep out of bed and watch the show from the hallway, peeking in through the loungeroom doors. I was only a toddler then. From 1971-1975, Mum could not keep me in bed when Gra-Gra was on the tv. I can remember infamous scenes, grown men dressed as babies having tantrums in baby carriages (like those half circle old fashioned prams), the set that collapsed around him when Graham pulled his microphone cord (hey, this was in the days of colour tv but before radiomikes), the catch cry "It's a koke, Joyce", the Chum song (that is on the first link page at wikipedia), his dog peeing on the camera, the innuendo and smut and the live commercials ("Pussy in a can"...

G'day all! ah, the joys of my job. Today I discovered that the training for next week is not just on Monday, but Tuesday and Thursday as well. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK! Panic! Panic! Panic all over the place! Panic! Panic! Wipe that smile off your face. (who sang that?) My lead had not looked at every sheet on the spreadsheet. She only saw the first sheet. I could go through all the things that should've alerted me earlier (eg training day s ) but I should not have been in that position. To say that I was a) panicked, and b) rather ticked off is an understatement. It would be OK if I wasn't booked in for a colonoscopy next week on the Wednesday - I won't be able to run arvo sessions on the Tuesday nor the Thursday sessions at all. My lead assessor is in NZ training over there for most of this week - next week, who knows? And I have had ENOUGH! Tanty time, only I am too knackered. Nathan has given me the virus he had on the weekend. Everything is sore. It is so swee...

G'day all! Heh. I taught that rotten young bloke in the train I did! The train was either very late or was cancelled this morning. By the time it got to my stop (which is only 5 stops from the terminus) it was very definately standing room only. So this young bloke in his nice dry-cleaned and pressed, lint free grey suit was leaning against the pole. In my book, very bad form cos about 5 people can hang onto the pole unless one person is hogging it. So I snuck a hand through the gap between the hog and the bloke next to him. My purple fleecy top (SOOOOO not "corporate casual" but warm!) is totally covered in alpaca fluff. Didn't realise it at first. That is what happens when you get dressed in semi darkness. You don't notice the fleecey goodness (or the horrible stains) all over your clothes. As the trip proceeded, I noticed that more and more and more long white hairs were detaching themselves from me and attaching themselves to him. By the time I hopped o...

G'day all! Yesterday a funeral and today a goodbye. I am hoping today's goodbye is the last one for a while. OK, so funerals are the final ever goodbye, but when your husband's best friend is moving his family back to the USA and today is the last time you are likely to see him, you get a bit snivelly. After C left, I came inside and snivelled at the computer for a while, hoping I had email. It was yucky snivelling too - that sort that is basically tears drained straight into your nose so you can't even grab a tissue in time. I so hope they will be happy living near L's family, but I know that Nathan will miss C so. Not that blokes are about to talk about that sorta stuff. Nathan has been dreading it for months. No more lunches, no more building greenhouses together, no more morning or afternoon teas together, no c to do our dishes .... LOL! (BTW, that pic really is of some of the dishes Charles did after morning tea this morning. That water is still in the...

G'day all! Got sent this in an email and decided to share. I've edited a couple of bits cos I don't want the whole world to know everything about me.... 1. What is your full name: Well i guess it is really C(add a word) A(add a word) Shandley, but that is pretty boring really. How about Dr Snot? 2. What colour pants are you wearing now: Blue not denim blue but a dull blue. Not dark, not at all light, just a dull blue. And black knickers in case you meant that sort of pants. LOL. 3. What are you listening to right now: Nathan's computer whirring away. My computer hardly ever whirs. And the sound of my typing. 4. When is your birthday: Nov 3 5. What was the last thing you ate: Some original corn thins. Imagine pop corn in a rice cake shape. 6. If you were a crayon what colour would you be? ALL OF THEM! I'd be one of those swirly multicoloured crayons that come out all mucky. D'oh! 7. How is the weather right now? Hmm, clouds are coming over, but it is ...

G'day all! hehehehe. My knitbuds are both starting to think they might like to learn how to spin.... bwhahahahahahahaha! A year ago I started thinking I would like ot learn how to spin after seeing the Yarnharlot's lovely colour changing socks but I persuaded myself out of it for a whole what 6 weeks? Then I got a cheap spindle at the Bendi sheep show "just to ply some fine wool up to a hand knitting weight"and the rest is history. Amazing what a day not at work can do for morale. Though it took forever to kick in. I only got one load of dishes done and sent off two parcels that have needed to go for a while, spun up the pinky merino and spun up a really weird mix. One sock is much closer to being finished - only one more colour repat before bindoff! And after I graft the top of the second mitten, I only have to do the two thumbs on the mittens of mystery. Pics later when I am awake! anon!

G'day all! NEWSFLASH! Read the link! Join in the fun on 11th June and KIP! I am over these self-piteous whinings. Let's face it, I don't get much sympathy! (Having said that, let me say thank you to all those who have commented recently! I am surprised you didn't give me a kick in the pants!) No sympathy from the Husband who is whining cos he has to get a paper tidied up by Friday and finish the first chapter and outstanding bit in the first draft of his thesis by Monday and whose un-aunt died on Sunday so we have to do the funeral on Saturday. If you managed to translate what I said in the first paragraph, Nathan only has to finish the introduction before his first draft is complete. If he does that, he can move to full time work in the group, which means FULL TIME MONEY! Huzzah! Unless the rest of the group kicks him out. Boo hiss! I have to work on my CV but it is hard without input from elsewhere cos I might think it looks great but others can drive a (?24 ho...

Before things get even worse. Stop the pain. Today started off reasonably well. A nice foggy morning, a bit stressful to drive in cos unless the cars had their headlights on (like HELLO?? why haven't you got your headlights on you ****brain in that silver Golf? Oh and look another ****brain in a silver Golf without their headlights on. What, is it necessary to be brainless if you drive a silver Golf? After all silver cars are sooooo safe - local tests show they are involved in fewer accidents than any other car. Just cos silver cars in silver fog blend beautifully) you couldn't see them 20m away. My sarcasm meter is waaaaaay high at present. It got steadily worse. My train was not heated. Considering it was about 12 degrees this morning, it made it considerably cold. Work was heated, which was nice. Heated for a little while until the turbine above my desk kicked in and cooled everything down. Now normally I would throw things like this off. Nyeh. Whatever. But all...

G'day all! Well I want to know which particular god I've totally snotted off with my blasphemy. Suggestions welcome. Looks like I am off to another funeral this week. Nathan's Mum's best friend died yesterday. Annette had been very ill with spinal cancer and it was only a matter of time before she went to her maker, but like I've had enough of the death and dying thing, ok? At least Barb's mammogram was clear again today, so she has her next check up in six months, and mammogram in a year. It is what, 3 or 4 years since she was diagnosed with breast cancer. If something had shown up on her scans, it would've been bad, ok? Bad timing. Waaay bad timing. On a good note, I had a quite good weekend. I started to clean up the front yard on Sunday. It has gotten very weedy over summer, even though we basically only had one lot of rain for all of summer. I dunno how the weeds can grow in such dust dry soil. Topping off the look nicely are the two boxes o...

G'day all! At 11pm on Thursday, Nathan told me that the 4 year old daughter of his best mate just so happens to particularly like a certain ball of yarn I have. It is a yarn with puffs of wool sticking out in bobbles. It is blue, red, pink. green, yellow, mauve, and all shades in between. The child has excellent taste. Why was it a problem that I got told at 11pm? Well, this little girl and her baby sister and her mum and dad are packing up to go back home to Virginia. Today was the housecooling. I had roughly 40 hours, including two nights' sleep (I insist on getting sleep cos otherwise I become some freakazoid monster) and a day of work, to make something out of the yarn and give it to her. So out of the way half-made afterthought thumb mittens-to-keep-my-hands-warm: And handspun scarf-wot-is-to-go-to-the-scarf-festival: It is time for Riverly's bag! Please be warned that you may wish to put on your sunglasses. Friday morning I started with this: By Saturday morning...

G'day all! Well not such a perfect day but really nothing that a good whinge can't fix. LOL With today's title, I now have Gary Moore's fab guitar riff wailing through my head. Man I liked that song! Can't find a good link to it. No Nathan again tonight. He was home last night - Wednesdays are one of his three nights in a row out normally. Thursday night is craft night but X had to go and get a bit of paper saying she is competent after doing a workplacement for her fitness certificate III. She wanted someone to go for a drive with her to get it, but she didn't want me to go. "I'll go," I said, and she ignored me cos she wanted I or J to go with her instead. Sorta makes you feel a bit flat and a bit unwanted. Feeling unwanted is one of the best buttons to push to make me sad. OK, I admit it. Really rather sad. Like as if I don't have feelings. I know that I am expected to have been a lot sadder about my father dying but like he was ...

G'day all! I'm feeling a little lonesome today. Nathan is out. Normally I enjoy my night off but I'm getting two to three nights off, plus Sunday arvo, from Nathan a week at present due to his commitment to an amateur show. Nathan plays piano like a pro. He also is fascinated by organs. Not that sort of organ! The sort you find in churches and concert halls! But he does like BIG organs! So I am sitting at home on my lonesome, thinking I should ring my sister for her 25th wedding anniversary - I didn't realise it was her silver anniversary until 10 minutes ago otherwise I would've done some thing about it. She is unlikely to be home though cos she studies a lot. She's got a much longer string of quals than me but my shortest qual (PhD) trumps all of hers. My other sister sometimes whinges that she never went to uni but that was her choice. She's done all right without it. So today I cast on for a pair of mittens. Yep, you heard that right. Stuff...

G'day all! Here's a wierd coincidence for you. It is 10 degrees C at Melbourne Airport, and at Blackpool, England, and at Coventry, England, and blasted Toronto has to be different at 11 degrees (you Canadians!). I monitor overseas places just cos I either have friends there or know lots of knitbloggers live there. I only have room for one more weather monitor on my toolbar - get your requests in quick! LOL. I am cold. We can't turn the heating on cos it is full of what smells like dead rat and dust. When we turn the heating on we feel sick instead of being cold. Time to get someone to vacuum it out. We have ducted gas heating - none of this boiler stuff for us. Aussies don't understand boilers. We understand sucking in air and heating it over a gas flame and then pushing it out through tubes and ducts in the floor. We love our ducted heating, except when it stinks. Like now. Two weeks ago it was probably about 20 degrees at this time of night. Suddenly we h...

G'day all! I've been too busy knitting and spinning to post! Shock and horror! Today I knitted up a hat for my MiL - silver faux fur trim on some hand spun mauve and plum thick and thin yarn. (Why yes, I did spin the yarn!) It will go nicely with the scarf I made in the same thick and thin yarn. This week, I have spun up 125g of wombat brown corriedale and plied it up with a few nubby bits of olivey green and various shades of brown hand dyed silk tops. Not my usual colours but someone is bound to like it. No photos - only finished it less than and hour ago and it is dark dark dark here. The yarn needs to have the twist set. After having problems with the first 20cm of the tops, the rest has been pretty much fine - I must've had the end of the tops and they were a bit hard to tease out and draft. After that first bit, the rest was soooo easy to spin. I now have a bit over 200m of corriedale with little silky nubs in it. For neutral coloured wool, it is quite pret...