Yarnivorous

G'day all! We are back from Colorado. We had fun. Co seems like a nice place to live. Just as well too, cos Nathan has been offered the job and has accepted it. Yee-har! Now we have to do all the visa stuff. I am expecting Nathan's will be easy - they can show he is the only person for the job after interviewing 24 others. Me? Well I don't want to just be a stay at home spouse. I don't want a full time job either cos I want to have fun and see stuff and hang out in yarn stores cos the FC yarn stores are hang-out-able in. This is going to be one helluva move. I won't be seeing eucalypts and my lovely plants for a while (unless we go to California, where Nathan saw them everywhere). I will be seeing BIG mountains. We went the highest we ever have "yesterday" (it feels like yesterday but we crossed the dateline and gained a day so it is two days ago on the calendar but only one night has passed for us. Confused yet?) when we went to Estes Park. I ...

I'd be halfway to the US by now! (argh, our host is down, so no pics today! Dang, cos I have THE BEST shot linked below.) G'day all! Tomorrow morning we get up at an ungodly hour and head off to the airport. We have to be there by 8:30am, which means slap bang in the middle of peak hour. Plus after our recent tunnel fire traffic will be chaotic. I had thought we had to be there by 10:30 but because we've just lost daylight saving and you guys have just gained it, it changes the flight time by 2 hours. So I am faffing around flapping instead of getting anything done. I have bagged up some fleece that is finally dry and tossed it back into the fibre room (yep, literally tossed). I have located the tops someone in the US is buying from me - they are coming on the plane. I have not yet done my washing but Nathan's clothes are all clean. I need to get my only two decent pairs of pants washed. I am hoping that I'll get a chance to go shopping in Fort Collins - I need ano...

G'day all! You know how I was whinging about the short days coming up on us here in the southern hemisphere? Well I take it all back. Give me short days. Give me numb fingers and a purple nose (reminiscent of an alcoholic's but alas without the alcohol). Give me COOLTH! I want to feel COOL! It is 28 degrees at the moment and nearly 10pm. That is hmm, let me go consult the thermometer for you in the imperial age... 82F. It is frigging hot. It got to nearly 35 today and this is supposed to be autumn! (BTW, autumn began here on the 1st of March, not on the equinox.) It was humid too. What is with the humidity? Melbourne does DRY heat not this lousy humid stuff that means I drip sweat, oops I drip *glow* And I can't have a shower still. (Good news about the bathroom here ) Cats are sorted. Our cat sitter is available next week. Hooray! Thank you to those who have offered assistance and meet ups next week. It is great to hear from you! (And if anyone knows Krist...

G'day all! All things being equal, as day and night are today, I'd prefer to be in the northern hemisphere. You guys will now have the day longer than the night. We are heading the other way. I am a long days girl and hate this time of year. OK, so I get more crafting done in the evenings when there is no sunny evening. Still, I like being able to potter outside or have a lazy barbecue without having to turn lights on (Nathan has set up a string of party lights through a tree so we can eat outdoors still!). There is one thing I do like about winter - that is that I get to see sunrise and sunset. That is really nifty. And if it is cold enough, we can go cross country skiing in the mountains. And the footy is on. And I can wear the woolly things I've spent summer crafting. Cycling is somewhat less pleasant - my hands get very very cold, as does my nose, if the temperature is below about 15C. Most of the things I like doing are less pleasant and involve rugging up....

G'day all! A couple of days ago I went along to the Stitches and Craft show. It is a big show that has all sorts of crafty things as long as they are (I have to call them) "lady crafts." It doesn't do things like woodworking or metal working - those are "man crafts." Yes yes beat me up now - I have done woodworking. I have made a table out of Australian hardwoods and done mortise and tenon joints, etc. Women can do and do do woodworking and metal working (though I find that the tools are all designed for stronger and larger grips than mine). But that is not the aim of this show. It is for the "gentle" arts of patchwork, scrap booking (I can't pick on scrap bookers much as I want to - after all people say why knit and spin?), embroidery, beading, etc, etc, and of course knitting. There was even a cake decorating display. So I go along to the show. I talked to everyone on the wool stands except for one place cos they were busy. Even int...

Enormous cat attacks innocent yarn! (Cheshire loves to appear just when I start a photo shoot with some yarn, and then likes to stand between it and the camera and ask me why I am not patting her? She doesn't appear if I just sit on the back door step. BTW, no yarn was harmed in these pictures.) G'day all! Oh yes there has been knitting and spinning and dyeing here! Nutmeg's cat cushion is finished. Well the front half of it anyway. I decided to try knitting some of my weirder handspun into some not-Fetchings. They have a different thumb and are longer in the hand cos I like them like that. I knitted a hat out of the yarn my spin off pal sent me. I call it my Rocky Mountain hat - it is a bit pointy (maybe that is just my brains trying to escape!) and is quite white. I had a punt at the right gauge and yay me! Then I did three cables up the sides and another for the brim. Interestingly enough, I had only 30cm (12") of yarn left over - did I "judge" that ...

G'day all! Some interesting comments on my ramblings post. Never fear, unless you cuss and swear your way through every post, I am likely to read your blog if you have one. I may not though cos I may not know your blog. Dropping the odd word is ok, just not talking the way some people do. Why is today's blog post titled constriction? I seem to have been pondering things a lot recently. We have no money cos I don't have a job and have only worked for 2 months since last July. (Yep, I've been dysfunctional all that time ;-). I have been applying for temping roles left right and centre but so far no dice. It means my budget is very restricted. OK, I don't really need to buy much stuff but a new pair of casual pants would be good cos my old ones are nearly worn through (like see through bits) leaving me with only one pair unless I wear tracksuit pants (v unstylish). More noice GF/DF food would be nice (but fattening). I don't really need yarn or fleece o...

G'day all! Why is it that when I am out driving, if there is ONE derro on the road, they will be in front of me? (I should not say derro - it means a homeless person who enjoys a bit more plonk than they should. Yes they drink to self-medicate. Yes it is very sad. Yes I have occasionally given them money - heck, if booze is all they have, they may as well enjoy it.) Why do I seem to attract the people who have to slow to a crawl at every street corner to see if this is where they should turn, or the person who thinks that if wiping off five (kmh) means the road will be safer, wiping off 20 will be even safer? Or the person who thinks that since I drive a small car, I am slow? I realised the other day that I drive like my mother. I learned a lot from my mum's driving. Like always try to be polite. You can't always be polite but don't do that lovely thing of sitting at the right hand turn arrow (US equivalent - left hand turn) until it turns yellow and *then* take...

G'day all! I am faffing around a lot at the moment. Touching on this, then that, then skipping off to do something else. Mentally at least. Physically - well let's just say this gut thing hasn't gone away yet.... I've been working on the fingering weight version of the lovely sock I designed early this year. No pics yet cos my first try was in a cashmere blend that I got last year, and it turns out to be rather inconsistent in weight = gauge is WAAAAY off and also it tends to be hard to work with the slubby bits in a lace pattern on needles that are smaller than the yarn usually would need. So I started again with some normal sock yarn. So far so good but I have to knit it in front of the computer cos that is where the pattern is as I cannot print it out. Mr Printer and I are having words and have been for two weeks now. He just doesn't want to know my computer exists. I've been washing fleece. (White finn X, white suffolk X, brown/black corriedale. ...

G'day all! I have many pics to catch up on and tales to tell, but today I have to get my rather late entry for La 's contest in! You are getting a pawful! First we have Cheshire. She has lovely white paws, except for when she has just been under the house or digging a hole. You can see what she has been up to... Cheshire is hard to get pics of cos as soon as you try to take a pic of her and you move away from her front end, she follows you. Keep patting me! Why are you grabbing my back paw? Now for Nut. Nutmeg is not camera shy. All you need to do is get her to lie down and then you rub her belly and she blisses out. Again, it is hard to get back paws but front paws? I love the way she flops her paws down. Gosh we have awfully cute cats. Nutmeg is one of the most unique cats I've had - she is not a normal cat. Cheshire's a normal cat - she does cat things and is fairly independent. Nut is more like a dog, only without the loving brown eyes and constant hope...

G'day all! My goodness, what a week it has been here in the Modest Manor. Panics due to finances, panics running around trying to find work, panics in general. So why am I glad I am not a huntsman (spider, that is - the lovely big ones we have that run around the walls and eat boogelly insects)? Well I am especially glad that I am not the huntsman that took up residence on the toilet wall last night. Y'see, both DH and I have eaten something that disagreed with us and gosh, didn't we fumigate the place! It is quite obvious that spiders have different olfactory systems to humans cos if they didn't, the poor thing would be shrivelled up in a corner somewhere or would've run away waving its palps and trying to cover its nose equivalent. I spent the morning in bed after being up until 5am! (Me! Not able to sleep!) I still feel like something is stuck in my craw. I read two books and snoozed. Two whole books. OK, they were only simple things but I needed somethin...