Yarnivorous

G'day all! Hope that that love it are having fun on Halloween. Me? Very quiet. A night of wrangling websites - we actually wrangled the US govt websites into submission. We have a visa appt for the end of the week. Alas the Qantas site has wrangled me into submission - obviously the gremlins have gotten into it and I have HAD ENOUGH! Six times I've submitted my change request and six times it has rejected it. Egads I am peeved! I've had to call Qantas three times - once they said it will work, once the mobile played up, now hopefully I have someone competent. ARGH! Also, my laptop is dying and I have to use Nathan's laptop to do stuff, only it doesn't have me set up properly, none of my bookmarks/files/etc are on it and O.M.G. I am so over the trackpad! I keep brushing it and it keeps moving to a different part of the screen or a different screen completely. That is sooo annoying! Or I leave the pointer on a link and off we go! yay! Sometimes I'm not...

G'day all! Had a lovely weekend in Adelaide (some might ask how this is possible but it is very possible indeed!). We did lots of family stuff - Nathan has lots of rellos there. I have none! We muck;, followed by a couple of days of tooling around Adelaide and a train trip home. I finished the black shrug in time for Grandma J's birthday party. I finished a sock. I would've finished two socks except I had to do an extravagant cuff and cast off. Do I have pics of them? :-D Hello, this is me! That is to say, no. Not yet. I was too busy with Other Stuff. And most of the pics from the weekend are on Nathan's laptop and it was being disagreeable and telling me "You can't do that" quite a bit. But I have a couple of pics to share, just cos they are pretty (even if they do belong on my travel blog). Sunset on Saturday night. A cold front had blown through and the sun peeked through just before it went to bed. Morialta Creek. How Australian is that vie...

G'day all! Just a quickie - we are off to Adelaide for a few days. May not have internet (but surely there will be a cafe or two?). I'll update youse all when I get back, if not sooner :-) anon!

G'day all! What a lovely night we had last night. The shrug is not yet done. Whatever. Life got in the way of finishing it. Nathan got to wear the silly bonnet (the style of which dates back to Tudor times) and his great grandfather's Cambridge gown. Some of us celebrated with champagne or wine (proud parents. John read out the names of the graduates, and bear hugged Nathan after reading out his name and the description of his PhD. Even the crabby old staff bearer cracked a grin.) but Nathan celebrated with a beer. There are four generations of Dr H now, though only three are living. I was rather pleased :-) (And yes, I can wear the silly bonnet too cos I also have a PhD.) We have ordered the DVD of the ceremony. All that work for this moment. Golly. At the end of the ceremony, the graduates were asked to stand and thank their families. The Bachelor Degree and Masters graduates all stood and turned and applauded (and more than half of them were international students ...

G'day all! Welcome to Shrugwatch 2009. Can I knit a whole shrug in just over 24 hours? I started at about 6pm yesterday. I knitted as much as I could, though I also had to cook dinner and clean the dining table (you would not believe how messy it gets when cakes like THIS and THIS are on offer!). I knitted in bed, just a bit. Don't like knitting in bed - bed is for lying in not sitting up and knitting is annoying when you lay down. I got up and knitted. At 9am, here is what I have so far: Roughly 32cm long. 180 stitches cast on, two rows knitted (started with a purl to see what happened), on the 3rd row I p1, p3tog all the way across except for the last three stitches where I p2tog, p1. I knitted another two rows, then p1, p3tog all the way to the last stitch, p1. 42 stitches or so. Then I did one row of garter and started a simple lace pattern (?horseshoe arch?). I've increased every 6-8 rows once I had most of the lace pattern done. Whoops, taking much to long to...

G'day all! I've got a bad case of startitis. This week I've cast on a new pair of socks, a scarf and a shawlette. Then I realised that I don't have a nice top to wear tomorrow night to Nathan's graduation. I've spent a day over the last couple of days galloping around looking for clothes for the graduation and also for my grandma's-on-law 90th birthday party. I've found a nice skirt and a pair of shoes and a top but the top is short sleeved and Melbourne hasn't discovered Summer yet, thank heavens, cos it is still Spring. So I bought Even More Yarn and cast on a shruggy sort of bolero-ey thing tonight. No pics cos it is in black bamboo and cotton, and it is night time. Wish me luck! I have less than 24 hours to knit a whole shrug. anon!

G'day all! Today I went and did more weeding. I'm still picking rose thorns out of my arms and scalp! Ouch! Anyway, the magic cat came and said hello without running from me (That's Cheshire, the tranny cat.) and Nutmeg seems to remember me (!!!) cos she does the things she used to do with me, like hopping on her back legs and headbutting my hand. She was out yesterday but today she was locked in, so she made appearances on the loungeroom couch and mewled at me. And here's a shot of a tree scaevola and a rose (Scentimental) from our slightly less weedy garden On the way home (I drove Rufus - first time I've driven a manual in years and gosh it was fun once I worked out that the clutch goes ALL the way out before taking!), I had to go back to pick up the stuff that I had taken the car for - my drum carder. It is a cm too high for my wheely bag. So I went back and grabbed that, and then drove off again, only to find Nathan walking along the street, so I had to tu...

G'day all! I've been doing a little stash enhancement recently. Mmm, Wondoflex.... They carry Touch Yarns (NZ, luscious stuff!). I closely eyeballed the possum wool but decided I would be "good" and only buy some of the 4 ply wool in a lovely greeny pastelly lotsa colours, like I am wont to pick up. Mmmm, this is soft as soft can be. Lovely merino softly spun. Colour 208. I've already wound this into a ball and cast on a faroese shawlette (btw if anyone can tell me how to say faroese, I'd be grateful. Apparently the a is said like a German long o, which doesn't help ME much at all, what with my mad German skilz). So far I've gotten past the shoulder shaping and am putting some pattern into the body of it. I have Ideas that I will have it finished in time for Nathan's Grandma's party at the end of the week. Then there is some Grignasco "Ice Cream," though the labels look rather like these were samples rather than production ya...

G'day all! I have at last finished the PSC socks for the month. They seem to have taken forever, possibly because I did them two at a time and they are a really dense knit. The ribbing was pretty intense and the cables! Argh, oh the pain of it all! But they are done and they get on my feet (just - the cables really pull the ribbing in), so I have a nice warm pair of socks to wear just as the weather is warming up for a few days. LOL (I was brave today and put my washing out on the line - oh the joy of drying clothes outside on a line! Bliss!) Details on Ravelry. Inside Out by Kaci of Blue Moon Fiber Arts in one of my fave yarns, Socks that Rock, mediumweight. They are designed to be worn either way - which is in the inside or the outside (ok, I can't follow directions and made a stocking stitch toe). All in all, a fine pair of socks but not a pattern I am likely to knit again! I've been up to lots of stuff recently but haven't blogged - I've been a busy bee!...

G'day all! This admonishment/curse greeted me on the tram the other day: I shall continue to buy tickets for the bus/tram/train. I do not want moths devouring my woollens - moths in my stash would be disastrous! I'm a goody goody suck suck that way anyway - the idea of being hooked off the train for not buying a ticket and then getting a $200 or so fine for not buying a ticket is horrifying to me. Of course I have the wrong attitude - I should be pushing my luck and avoiding paying fares. Instead I believe that my fare helps a little and is The Right Thing To Do. Just like I think taxes are inevitable and should be paid so that everyone gets access to things like healthcare and the dole when they need them. But I'm Australian. What would I know? I have completed the heel turn on the socks 2.25 times. Yep, didn't like one of them so I ripped it out and it is working nicely this time. I really should follow the directions and not make it up out of my head. Soon...

OMG! What is that thing?

G'day all! The forecast is no better today but this is Melbourne, it is spring and heck we need all the rain we can get. It hasn't really rained since we got here... and the forecast is just nasty not rainy. So here are the Inside Out socks (ooh, they are biassing! Look at them twisting. I guess that is the result of the overspun yarn.) and the Beaumont tam, as they were last night. I am very pleased with the way the two handspuns are coming up on the tam, particularly given one is a sportweight/5 ply and the other no more than fingering/3-4ply and often drops to laceweight. I've been into town twice now ($3.10 Sunday Saver tickets - what a bargain! $3.10 to go anywhere on the Melbourne train, tram and bus system). I went to the Arts centre market yesterday and then popped in to the SnB in South Yarra (normally held at the Wool Baa) and caught up with some peoples. And yesterday I discovered the sepia/my colours function on our camera. Yes the camera is now almost a ...

G'day all! I didn't wear a jacket for part of today. Didn't last long but four hours of being decently warm was fantastic! Alas, pretty much all of this next week will be freezing. 15C! Dangit, it isn't even going to bucket rain on us, just a few "isolated showers" which in my past experience (that is what experience is, eh? Past!) means one pathetic dribble from the sky and a bit of posing as rain clouds from useless fluffy things, all talk no action/rain. Just as I've almost gotten to the short row heels on my Inside Out socks (hooray! Another pair of socks coming my way - I'll need them!) and I've picked up the Beaumont (Jared Flood) tam I started making in France or someplace like that. Yes, I dragged my brand new copy of "made in Brooklyn" all around Europe. And across to Oz. It is my fave knitting book at present. It is showing signs of wear too, unlike most of my books which tend to stay in pristine condition if I can hel...

G'day all! My goodness, it is fab to be back Home! I just had a lovely day wandering around the Melbourne CBD (and a little beyond). My city. A city where I know the rules, I understand them instinctively. I was brought up here. I said hello to the Yarra (River) and then headed through town to Cleg's, Lincraft, Morris and Sons... I went to my guild (typed that guilt ... ahem!) and headed straight to the fleece room. Umm the fleece room was a little infested (!!!!! I nearly had a heart attack on the spot - I've never seen moths before, not these sort of moths, and in the Holy Blessed Wool Room ! At least now I know what to look for), so I spent an hour tying bags of fleece up and now they have to be either treated or watched closely. But I still bought a bee-yoo-tee-ful Andyle fleece that showed no signs of infestation and will stick it in the sun tomorrow and thence in a freezer and back into the sun. I went to a craft fair (not worth $15 to be allowed to see 100 ...

G'day all! I am rather delayed in saying We Are Home! We are staying at Nathan's parents' place. It is very nice to be back in Oz, with familiar stuff. We went and saw our house this morning. The garden is impressively green (alas with plenty of weeds as well). Nutmeg came and talked to us immediately, though I am not totally sure she recognised us but I did get some headbutts on my hand. Cheshire ran away, scaredy cat! *He* later on came and looked at me a LOT and then said "Oh, I think I know you. You may pat me now." I have to be careful not to get run over. We drive on the left, not the right and I've obviously adjusted rather well to the American way. Still if I drive here (which I will) I am sure I will readjust. I am delighted by Australian money. When I look in my wallet, I know exactly how much I have in there - the money is colour coded, like in pretty much any country in the world. Except the one I've been living in, where you can thi...

G'day all! In all the frenetic quilting I am doing at the moment, I thought I should pull a Personal Sock Club parcel. I haven't done a PSC since July and the big bag is sitting waiting patiently, with only four PSC packages to go! Well now it is three to go and this has to be cast on. I have to make sure I take bamboo needles for the flight cos they get really snippy in Oz about knitting on the plane. Bamboo should be less of a problem, though I will not risk it when I go through security in Oz! My needles! My knitting! I'll pack some extra needles in the checked luggage. I should also find some stuff for hand knitting or finger knitting - I remember getting a lovely parcel of some Colinette Point5 whilst we were in Oz. It is still awaiting me so maybe it will be perfect! It is quite chunky and would be good for knitting on my fingers. Hmm, must check things out. We have long flights - they didn't say until the tickets were paid for that we have a stopover ...