Horrid, and the shame of it all

G'day all!

Or maybe not. Horrid weather we have at the moment - hot, stinking hot, and smoky. Hate smoke. Makes it hard to breathe. Many large bushfires are burning to the northeast of Melbourne - none threaten the city but they are threatening small towns. No lives lost at this stage that I know of but that could change in the blink of an eye. Plenty of small lives will have been lost - poor critters of all sizes.

I am fussed. Usually, these sorts of fires do not hit the southern part of Australia until late January/start Feb, mainly cos the hot weather has dried the bush out to a crisp by then. This year? It is already crispy dry and ready to burn.

So what do I do when I am fussed? (and have a housewarming in a week?)

I start tidying the fibre room. I organise my fleeces and record details of them. I move a bookcase from the study to the fibre room and use it to store fleece. I realise I have an AWFUL lot of fleece.

(That is not all of it cos there are another three large bags in the bottom of the bookcase and the boxes on the steel shelves to to the ceiling, so there are at least two boxes that are out of sight. Plus there are two large plastic boxes of tops and stuff)

I look at the rest of the fibre room and wonder how on earth I will ever tidy it up....



See the shame that is the room where stuff just gets shoved when people are coming around?

Next I have to fix the loungeroom up cos the fibre has been spreading out of there into it.

I did have an interesting insight into the reasons why I am messy. Believe it or not, I like to categorise things and have a place for them. I can spend hours sorting through a bag of multicoloured beads, sorting them into different colours and types. It pleases the pedant in me immensely. However, some things are not easily categorised, or fit into two or more categories, or there is only one of them. Hence I end up with boxes and bags that contain Stuff that I just don't know what to do with. I want to keep it but it doesn't fall into any particular category. Plus I like to have future projects hanging around, and past projects (often incomplete) lurk as well, reminding me that they need to be finished.

(Nathan has just been playing a recording of someone dealing with their internet provider. This bloke has an unlimited plan in the USA and went to Canada on a trip. He was quoted 0.002 cents per kilobyte download for anything he slurped down whilst in Canada. He downloaded 35,700-odd kb. 35,700 X 0.002c = 71.4 cents. He got a bill for $71. Why? Cos the internet provider can't tell the difference between 0.002 CENTS and 0.002 DOLLARS. None of the customer service people he talked to could understand the difference. The supervisor said they are the same when they are written on paper. Well yes, except for the fact one cent is worth 0.01 dollars. I hope you, my dear readers, understand it - you are knitters after all and it would be the difference between knitting a sweater for yourself or one for a whale.)

Here the most recently completed sock.

I haven't put the buttons on yet. It is another STR club sock called Rock and Weave in the Fairgrounds colourway. I did mine toe up and attached the cuff by knitting it on. The pattern knits the cuff then picks up stitches from the cuff. It was a quick sock again - STR is a really nice yarn that just calls you to knit it.

Plus I knitted my nephew a hat.

I have umm 5 nephews but only one is getting a Christmas present cos it is his parents' marriage that has gone down the gurgler. He swam in the Australian championships this last week and came fourth in his pet event. He is roughly two seconds off qualifying for the event for the world championships. I am totally gobsmacked that any relative of mine is that close to being world class in anything. The hat is knitted top down - I cast on four stitches in my favourite way to cast on a sock toe, then I increased into every stitch for one round, knitted a round, increased into every stitch again, then set up the ribbing. The hat is finished now except for the tying in of the ends. I think I will redo the cast off edge though cos it looks too loose.

I have started twice on my sister's wrap and twice on my niece's Fetching. The yarn I spun is a bit too heavy weight for the fetching so I will see what the new yarn, which is about the right weight, does.

Thanks for the condolences about Edna. I don't feel much grief at all. I have to say I am sad that I never got to know her but she was extremely prickly when I was a child and she scared the living daylights out of me. She had a temper on her and I was a wussy thing. My sister, who is 11 years older than me, was also scared of her. As a small example of how I could annoy Edna, apparently she used to water down the jelly (so much so it wouldn't set) and not thicken the custard enough. I can guarantee I would not eat it so that would've annoyed her. Wasting "good" food! LOL

OK, time to go see what is happening in the dyepot. I don't like the look of the yarn I chose for the wrap so I am dyeing up some sock wool in (hopefully) more harmonious colours.

anon!