Yarnivorous

G'day all! It is August already! How did that happen? Happy Birthday to one of my sisters, and happy birthday to all the race horses in Australia and NZ. They all got a year older overnight. You may have guessed from the pic I showed yesterday that the croc sock is done! Once I started knitting it in earnest, it took not very long at all. The beads were not a problem - remembering to place them was the hardest bit along with shuffling 170-odd beads long the yarn. We had to go into the city for a birthday party on Saturday night and HOORAY! I didn't have to drive, so I sat in the back of a car and knitted 15 plain rounds in the dark as we flogged up the freeway! Then since I couldn't eat at the restaurant (pasta), I sat and knitted there too - I figure if they are going to eat in front of me, I am going to sit and knit in return. Then I knitted the toe at the chocolate bar that we went to cos I couldn't eat there either (everything was dairy and wheaten). I ripp...

G'day all! You may be wondering why a picture of a mostly nekked banana graces the top of this blog entry. Well there is a story to that banana. Last Wednesday, a bright and sunny day in Noble Park, Gibbering and I went to this place: Heronswood, home of the Digger's Club , down in Dromana on the Mornington Peninsula. We went there to buy seeds. Seeds! Seeds! Bucketloads of seeds: Can you tell I want a rather large vegie patch this year? There's a few ornamentals in there - the variegated corn, the Flander's poppies (which I grow for Pop, not that he liked them but they are symbolic of WWI), the sunflowers (but they also provide seeds). After visiting Heronswood and coming away with a rather expensive load of seeds, we stopped in Dromana to get some lunch and look at a couple of craft shops. It was a dull and gloomy day in Dromana and this was our view: This is where the bananas come in. About 5 or 6 months ago, a cyclone rampaged across a particular part of Quee...

G'day all! The last few days have been quite busy, not that I have much to show for it cos my darling husband has generously shared his bug, aka virus, with me and I've been quite sluggish. I was particularly sluggish after riding to Monash with him on Friday, a ride that is pretty much all uphill and which normally takes me half an hour. I think it took about 3/4 of an hour cos we were riding into a pretty annoying headwind. I almost needed granny gear to get up one particular hill. The way home was great though - top gear down that same hill, doing almost as fast as the cars (in a 50kmh zone). Wheeeee! I have many sock pics to show you but no time at present to show them. Instead, you get pics of our sky yesterday afternoon when some lovely storms blew up. Some sun crept through the clouds and lit up a bit of the rain falling - weird huh? For all of the drama of the clouds we only got 1/2 mm of rain. That means this month we've had about 20mm of rain, less than an ...

or OMG what am I going to do with all this fleece? or What madness gripped me? G'day all! At last I come to the end of the Bendi photos. *phew* A kilo of polwarth from Wendy Dennis . This is a really clean fleece and I might try spinning it in the grease. If you mouse click on the pic and look at the big pic you can see the crimp quite clearly in the bottom centre/right. From Andyle , more than a kilo of the most beautiful spotty silver and white merino fleece I've ever seen. This is truly a yummy yummy fleece. I've already washed some up (mainly cos some of the tips are a bit clagged otherwise I'd just spin it in the grease cos the white bits are quite white). Tonight I've started spinning the softest finest yarn I've ever made from this fleece. I am in lerv, baby! Cheryle said it was a lovely fleece, one of her favorites. 2.7 kilos of merino/corriedale cross from Bennett and Gregor . This is another extremely soft fleece. I loved the different colour...

G'day all! We are now into the business end of the deal. This is where I start revealing my luscious purchases. Looking for lush yarn? well, I realised that I only bought two lots of yarn. Pop over to Peeve for a gander at her lush and yummy yarn! And whilst I am linking, visit Purplexity and console her on her pussy costing $1400 and counting. That is her lovely CAT Purple. OK, where were we? Bendigo stash enhancement. When I go to Bendi, I tend to go a bit nuts. I buy little amounts of things to try and I buy great gobs of stuff that I know I will like. This is my first year buying fleeces, so excuse me if the yarn enhancement suffered - I can make my own yarn! Bendigo Woollen Mills purchases: 5 ply yarn to dye, 1 kg of sliver to dye and spin, two bags of "felting" laps to spin and felt. The wool/alpaca/mohair (white and blue with the odd dash of pink) is coming up a treat! From the Finn Sheep lady: Finn sheep tops and a bag of pure finn fleece. I have some ...

G'day all! The Bendi flashing continues! Woo hoo! A cashmere billy goat eyeballed me curiously, but I've been warned that billy goats have their own particular cologne, so to speak, and stayed a few feet away. The cashmere kids were very cute This little bloke/girl lipped my fingers and started nibbling... still very cute, and yes I do have all my fingers! An angora goat. I love the halo effect around this goat - it just sorta fuzzed in the light. What do angora goats supply? I bought some bits and bobs from Ixchel, run by Charly (no website! Charly, you need a website!) Isn't her stall pretty? All handspun stuff, except the stuff that is waiting to be spun. There's also some woven tabardy/wrappy things. No I'm not pregnant! I stood in a really really bad way and look enormous! I didn't buy anything from Sarah Durrant cos I was too busy buying fleece. Sarah stocks Colinette yarns. Mmmm.... She is displaying some point 5 in one of my favourite colo...