Yarnivorous

G'day all! Bendigo woollen mills now has a website! HOO-BLASTED-RAY! Today I have a few more links. I still have not got photos of the stuff I've been working on - after dragging DH to his chiro appt this mronign, then I had to take him to Jaycar to get electronics bits and bobs, then I went shopping (groceries and fruit and veg, nothing exciting and yarny except for one lonely ball) and then spent most of the afternoon in the garden since DH had friends around to be garden slaves. At this point, I must say I am STUFFED! Deadus meatus. Even knitting is tuckering me out so much I don't want to knit! I sawed the tops off two agapanthus, mattocked out a couple of stumps (one of this was very much still alive and not wanting to let go of the ground), cut down half a cotoneaster (very weedy here and MUST go), then started doing some ground prep to plant roses tomorrow. So I will leave you with some links and some thoughts. There are not too many 107 year old bloggers onlin...

G'day all! (Any other Melburnians remember "Compradez de Franco Cotzo? In Norda Melabun and Foodiscray.") Today's post is brought to you by desperate and dollar-less. Things are rumbling along here today. DH is playing in the bathroom with a friend and managing to get up and down reasonably well. It seems his back is easing up some more now. Being in a good temper helps a LOT too! Interesting how the mind-body connection works). I'm getting over the cold quite nicely now. It has rained some and has gone cooler (annoyingly now that I can wash more fleece but hey we need rain. Even the 10mm we've had so far makes a big difference!). Everything looks lush and damp outside, which means I'll have to cut the nature strip soon (is that what other people call the strip of grass between the footpath and the road outside your house?). I have heaps of plants to plant and stuff to do but for the nonce? Gran' sale time! I'm putting up some of my hand...

G'day all! The snot-fest here is quietening down, thank heavens! As I can breathe more easily now, I am finding my ability to think returning, well as much as it ever does. It seems that not only have I been suffering from a cold but also from hayfever caused by back burning in the bush leaving a haze of smoke over the city. Me and smoke don't get along so well y'see. DH is all over the shop. I hauled him off to my chiro yesterday. She did all sorts of interesting evaluations, then did a range of adjustments (some of which made him squawk - he's been there when I've been back-cracked but for whatever reason he just thought I was being poked at and prodded, not actually having anything done!!!) and sent him on his way for the time being. He has to go back next week. She says he has a damaged disc, not ruptured, just annoyed and a little torn and that he is guarding it by annoying his right SI joint instead. I know about SI joints - I strained one years ago wh...

G'day all! Thanks to those who have offered suggestions for the fleece washing. I shall follow them up tomorrow, when the shops are open again. Anzac Day 2007. I thought this year I would go to the march or the dawn service (though I am not exactly a godly type). After all, it is likely to be my only chance for the next couple of years or more. So I was starting to get a plan together. That is before Nathan got the snots, literally, and the hacking cough and then threw his back out (poor thing can hardly move), and merrily shared his disease with me. At least his cough is dying down now that he is on antibiotics (or it may have anyway) and he didn't keep *me* awake half the night..... So Anzac Day this year involves many tissues and much grumping at the people who are starting to develop a derelict block across the road. It is a public holiday, it is ANZAC DAY ferchrissakes and they are out with their chainsaws chopping down Even More Trees. Oh yes, we are very very und...

G'day all! DH has kindly passed his cold to me, though I am still fighting it off. No dripping faucet for me quite yet. Still I am not exactly bright and perky. In the meantime, I need to scour my fleeces. I have about six left to do. Unfortunately the new scour at the guild is extremely alkaline and it tends to burn the tips of the fleece (which are usually damaged anyway). I'm a bit grumpy cos I bought two bottles of it and it is crappy. The old scour was about ph6. It didn't burn the fleeces (or make my hands go all dry and chapped). I need a neutralish detergent that is nice to my hands and therefore nice to my fleeces. Some people use Amway's LOC but I don't know any Amway distributors and am not exactly willing to get on an Amway distributor's list. I suspect it is not cheap either. I could use shampoo but the old scour was quite concentrated and only cost me $4.60 for a litre. I don't know where I can get a good, plain, unscented shampoo that...

It is ordered. I shouldn't buy anything at present but hey, it only adds about $30 to our already negative $1500 a month drain on the mortgage... anon!

G'day all! My new obsession: My old obsession is complete, for the moment. I need to spin some more yarn and make it just that little bit bigger. Or lose some weight. Since I am quite happy with my weight, I will blend up some yarn (in absence of the original hand painted stuff, though I do have more of the plying yarn) and knit some more onto the edge. No pics yet - the weather has been, ahem, interesting since I finished it. Sunny at first yesterday then a nice big fat cloud came in and gave us a bit of rain. Only 8mm (1/3 inch) but beggars can't be choosers and it has made the garden perk up some - we had only had about 5mm for the entire month until yesterday. Now we've had 13mm. Only 45mm to go until we reach the average, or 37mm for the median. I showed off my obsession at the spinners' guild meeting yesterday on their show and tell table. It got a clap! Applause means it is good. :-) You need to see a random picture of our eggplants being eaten by slugs...

Come up to the lab and see what's on the slab. I see you shiver with antici...........pation. I've been making a man, with blond hair and a tan... G'day all! I give you pictures of my current obsession. Lots of pictures. They are not really of a man with blond hair and a tan (and a little pair of gold shorts - gosh I wish I had the money to be able to pull a comment out of the hat and send a prize to the person who identifies who sia dthe quote and in what). No longer up to date pictures, since these were shot when I had 125g of yarn left and now I have mm, maybe 25g. I still have no idea if it will work or not - the circumference of it is now about 3 metres I'd guess (actually if I remember my algebra, it apparently is about 4.5m around - no wonder each row takes a while now!). In the mean time I must really update my website with new dyed yarns and also some handspun! Lots of handspun! Here's a little hint of what will be going online hopefully in the nex...

G'day all! i am still alive and still kicking. The easter egg on my head has subsided to a very small sore spot now (and I am sure that DH will gleefully tell me my poor noggin is all pretty shades of purple and green - it was just bright angry red). Gosh, imagine I could've been the first person to fracture their skull on a hand-drier. Or maybe not. Anyway, I have been extremely busy! We are starting to clear out all the stuff we will never use. I should say *I* will never use. I've brought six large boxes of Stuff down to two small and one medioum box. I am taking a whole heap of material and clothes to the op shop today. The material is mostly stuff that I got from a place that did offcuts of sheeting and upholstery fabric. I realised that if I have not made anything with it in the last 8 years, I am unlikely to do anything with it now. The clothes and shoes are not ones I will take with me to the USA so why keep them? For someone who does not like high heels,...

G'day all! So much happening here yet so little. You don't need to know how many more fleeces I've washed since we got back (only three or four). I'm not totally happy with the new wool scour - the guild's supplier of wool scour says they are not making it any more but here use this rancid smelling yellow stuff that is much thinner. I worked out one possible reason why I am not happy with the new scour: See those spots? Each of those is a pH test. From bottom right we have our normal laundry powder, one brand of wool wash, two spots of the old wool scour, another brand of wool wash and the new wool scour. The old wool scour has spots of bright purple in it (which is contamination from the powder I am fairly certain - I had some on my hands) but is mostly green. The other detergents are a lovely royal purple - about as alkaline as it gets. The green spots mean about pH6. I suspect the old scour was hair shampoo - it smelt ok and had a certain shampooey-gloop...

G'day all! We are going back into the past - it is after all nearly two weeks since I took the pics I'll show today. Fort Collins, day three. Oh dear. This day did not start well. We had gone out for dinner with Nathan's new team the night before. I had a lovely gluten free noodle dish. Something kept me awake until 4am. Argh! I just could not sleep. I had to flush something out of my system (and cistern) literally before I could get to sleep. If I had had anti-histamines with me it would've been easier but I didn't have any. Over the previous couple of nights Nathan and I had both woken up about 3:30 or so. He did again that night. I never got the chance to wake up then. LOL. At last I fall asleep. Blessed blessed sleep! 6am the clock radio alarm goes off in the next room. Full bore (just like the shower in our room - the water came out so fast even on the softest setting it hurt). It sounded like someone was having a party in our room. So I go bang...