Yarnivorous

G'day all! Oh yes, I am pumping out the posts today after days of quietness. I've been a busy bee since Christmas. You saw the hole in our wall, well it got worse and now it is better. Not watertight yet but better. What did Santa bring me for Christmas? Purple hair and a sniffle! (hence the tissue) (I bought myself the necklace) I finished my 22leaves shawlette some time ago, but it was only this week that I managed to block it and weave in the ends. This is a lovely shawl and quite easy to knit. I love the mesh. I love the leaves. I love the whole shebang! I recommend you go and knit one too, if you are a knitter. Or get a knitter to make you one if you are not a knitter. Lankakomero has some lovely patterns (this one now costs USD5 but worth it!). Here's a few Christmas presents I made for family: (For my sister in sin - she wanted a jellyfish) (Sister in sin's parents' bunting) (PiL's bunting) (Bunting for aunt-in-law) (Bunting hanging up - excuse th...

G'day all! On this, the last day of December in the year two thousand and ten, we finally have a winner of the Christmas stars. Here's seven stars. Winner gets five of these seven. The other two stars go to family. I think the winner will get three red and white and two green, red and white ones. Yes. That sounds good! Getting pics was the very devil today. It is 40C now. A little hot! The northerly is blowing like a furnace from hell. I managed to get a pic that looks like this: but most looked like this: Enough dithering and procrastinating. Do you want to know who the winner was? Well all the entries were written on a piece of paper and stuck in one of my knitting project bags. See? Then I drew out one piece of paper. LYNZ ! Come on down! You have won this lovely set of stars. I have a little more to say before then end of the day but I'll blog it separately. anon!

G'day all! When Nathan asked me what I wanted my kitchen to look like, I said "Open and airy." I didn't expect it to be so true! This is really bringing the outdoors indoors. Just as well we have a few fine days ahead of us, eh? 8-) BTW, for the winner of the Christmas stars? I shall announce it tomorrow! (and I'll have to make more cos most of the ones I've made I've given to family so far! My bad) I'll show a little of an Oz Christmas too, but maybe on the travel blog. Mebbe not either... anon!

G'day all! Terribly busy (aren't we all?) at present but must share this with you. Now with added squee! (Doh, uploaded the sideways version... will try to get an upright one online instead!) (I suggest turning your monitor sideways as I cannot figure out how to rotate the video using Avidemux. As a typical open source project created by enthusiasts, the help is pretty much non-existant and they just expect you to know what they are talking about and how to do stuff with very little direction. Like why won't it encode the video to its preferred state when I've run it through the encoder and saved it, which means it should let me use the filters but IT WON'T. Avidemux is a piece of crap if you want to do anything more advanced than cut a video to bits. Nyer nyer nyer.) (Work had its Christmas party yesterday. We went to a GF mexican restaurant and then to the aquarium. PENGUINS! SQUEE! Tortoises, SQUEE! Cuttlefish, SQUEE! Stonking great big stingrays - WHOA!)...

G'day all! My what an interesting day. I spent the morning hammering away at Christmas presents. I finished one batch at my niece's 21st - she is the third niece to turn 21 and the second last. I still have another niece and two nephews to make it to 21. I stuffed myself full to the brim on four different roasted meats and salad (I missed out on the crackling though, *sniffle*), and then followed up with some gf/df chocolate cake with berries. Mmmm. So here's three of the Christmas stars I've been making: (I finished another three but forgot to take pics of them before they were gifted and taken to Rosedale. Excuse the quality of the pics, I took them with the phone under poor light.) They are about a handspan wide (my hands are 10cm/4" across) and are made in various Christmassy materials. I bodged the pattern from Maggie Makes (scroll down for the star garland). Instructions on how to put the pieces together are at Linaloo . Oh boy, whilst I am at it, go lo...

G'day all! I got nada to show you - nothing at all! I've been so busy over the last week I've hardly had time to stop. I've gone to Sydney, had a Christmas party and a pool party and another invite to swim over the last weekend, then wandered around Sydney CBD and Pyrmont so much that I got a blood blister on my toe (!!!), then I flew home and got back late enough that I just wanted a meal and bed (but of course if I eat late, I can't go to sleep for another couple of hours at least....), then I had work for three days, and today I've been wandering around like a lost soul trying to catch up with all the things I haven't gotten done so far and feeling out of sorts. I am very aware that it is a year almost since I was diagnosed with cancer and whilst I am very happy to be here, I am also a bit grumpy because recovery is slow and painful now. The rapid strides to health have become leetle teensy steps with a fair whack of joint and muscle pain. Work was inte...

G'day all! Got back last night from a cracking weekend! More to talk about later. Had a bit of fun with Nathan's buddies up there - he's found a very nice group, some of whom just so happen to like making their hair go wild colours. :-) anon! PS I think I'll run a contest for Christmas, stay tuned. Alas you won't get the goodies by Christmas but it is always nice to get something after Christmas yes?

G'day all! In mysterious happenings recently, I seem to have adopted a chicken. Yes, Boldie now comes running to me when I walk outside (if she is out of the chicken slammer). If she is locked in and sees me, she makes a dreadful noise, the same noise that she makes when she is lost (which is to say when her unsisters are not with her - she doesn't like being alone, unlike Isolde). It took pretty much six months for her to decide that I am the Provider of Goodness (aka food) and that if she follows me around for long enough I'll go and get her some grain. Where she goes, Goldie goes too, about a metre or so behind. Hmm, just remembered I took a video a little while back that I wanted to share with you. Chickens dust bathe and mine are no exception. I just didn't expect them to all squish up together and writhe around. Goldie is obvious, I hope, Boldie is in the middle with the wattles and big comb and Isolde is the suspicious one on the right. She has a very diffe...

G'day all! (Oooh, bottom, sorry 2paw, I've forgotten to send your yarn again! Argh! Tomorrow fer sher) So DH was down for the weekend again. Whilst he was here, we applied to refinance our mortgage with of all things a Queensland building society. They are a long way away if we need to visit a branch (1000 miles almost) but they have a good deal, good phone service and good internet, if I can believe the online reviews. ( A tea rose, precursor to hybrid teas, whose name I cannot remember - I thought it was General Gallieni but it never flowers red, only ivory pink ) He left this morning to go back to work. I've been waiting for something all day. Nearly 12 hours after DH left for Sydney again, I realised that I am waiting for him to come home. ( English Garden, with black spot. Awful spring for black spot this year, so wet and humid! ) I'll be waiting a while - he isn't coming down until closer to Christmas. Then he has nearly two weeks here before flying out ...

G'day all! It was my birthday a month ago today. So of course now I am going to share pics of my loot. My good buddy Knittyinpink sent me two lovely books: (neither of which I've started making a project from but I will! They are lovely books and very inspirational, I've just been running after different things recently... But many thanks!) I also ordered some fabric from Hawthorne Threads : Some Castle Peep FQs in blue, and some Wild Thyme FQs and a little extra yardage. Goodness there is a lot of fabric in that lot of FQs. It isn't my usual colour style but I really like about 90% of the range so I got the whole lot. And some extra bits and bobs that took my eye. I especially love the swirly aqua fabric, like LOTS! I want more of it. It is a Michael Miller fabric. I have quite a bit of that manufacturer's stuff. It is odd how I collect more of certain manufacturer's lines than others. I do have a bit of Moda for instance but because a lot of their ...

G'day all! Umm, where did the year go? Actually on second thoughts, this is one year I'd prefer not to have back... We are in the countdown to Christmas in earnest now. I am busy at work and at home. I've been weeding madly in the garden. I'm sewing madly (no pics, it isn't far enough along yet to share but it is going to be waaay cute when it, or rather they, are done. Well I think so anyway!). I'm knitting a shawl madly. I think I've gotten everything together for the mortgage broker tomorrow. Yesterday I had my first three monthly check up. The checkup was on my arm in particular, the right one, to check for lymphodema. Its measurements were one millimetre in most of the places measured different to last time, so that is good as it indicates it isn't puffing up badly. I talked to Vinod, the medical oncologist leading the study I am in. He said that I am not going on tamoxifen or any other hormone blocker cos the biopsies did not show enough...

G'day all! After all the fun times this year and gaining two new scars and loosing sensation in an armpit/tricep, I decided that I would no longer wear singlets and short sleeved tops and anything with narrow straps. After all, who would want to see my hairy armpits? Or the scar(s). Well, the first hot days came along this week, closely followed by warm muggy days. Guess who was straight into singlets (tank tops) and spaghetti strapped tops? That would never be me, would it? Well I can't see the scars or the hair, so I'm not fussed 8-) In celebration of the same, I bought me two pretty new sundresses. Can you believe they were only $18 each? I am delighted with them. Yes they are different - one is a larger size and they have different coloured dots on them. I guess I am a bit of mutton dressed up as lamb but I really like them. They are pretty and I feel girlish in them, not like a Cancer Victim at all. Also, look at those curls! I've never had curls before. I ...

G'day all! It is horridly warm here again today. Am starting to envy the -6C temps in Fort Collins at present - that almost sounds pleasant! Work was quite dreadful as the air con has passed on with a seized compressor and is being replaced. Home ended up being no better. I put the little portable fan on and at first basked in front of the moving air put out by it. After a while, it didn't seem to be making much breeze any more. The louvred front was still whirling around so I thought I must just be not in the right spot to catch the breeze as it moved around. I had noticed an odd smell but it wasn't very strong. Ahem. Fan not working but louvres still pushing around! Guess I'd better go buy a new fan. We have the big black monster fan but even on low it blows all the papers off the desk. And it is in the attic behind other stuff that I cannot be bothered moving at present. I have a little computer fan blowing air on my hands and the laptop. It is very pleasant...

G'day all! What a topsy turvy week last week was. It was soooo nice to have DH home. And odd - I am getting used to not having him around! But now he is back in Siddeny. It was stinking hot here today. OK, stinking hot for November. 31C, or did it hit 32C? It is still quite warm inside - 27C - and the poor little old fan is rattling away (the louvre on the front rattles). I'd use the giant monster fan that some friends gave us but umm, DH put it in the attic space and it is waaaay too hot up there for me to go find it and lug it downstairs. This means my crafting time today has been zero. Not a bit of crafting done. I did borrow some interesting looking books from the library. I did go and look at cheap double glazed windows from Bunnings, but given the online quote for nasty aluminium windows was $700 less than the one for nice wood windows (much better thermally and look prettier, though with more maintenance) that also have the hardware (latches, winders, locks, et...

G'day all! Over the last few days, I've been busy. Busy and slack. I've had five meals out (or takeaway). Tonight I've had my comeuppance. Actually I am still having it. I hope that the apparently endless stream will end and I'll be able to go to bed. I am so tired I'm likely to fall asleep on the bog.... It is a pity it doesn't have a proper door yet, though I am glad I put the curtain back up! We have a door for it now but it has to be installed. So in more pleasant matters, a while ago I finished these socks. They are in the Ewe Give Me the Knits sock yarn that I bought at Bendi. I like them. They are squooshy and soft and lurid. As usual I couldn't make a pair. I haven't worn them yet because the weather hasn't been that cold. I've worn some of my lightweight handknitted socks but it is coming into the season for light cotton socks or no socks at all. Hooray! (Much as I love knitting and wearing my woolly socks, I am a spring...

G'day all! My laptop has a shiny new hard drive and a shiny new version of Ubuntu. Hooray! Of course all such upgrades come at a price, and that price is I've lost my bookmarks until we find them in the back up.... Also about 50% of my preferences had to be deleted to make things work again. And we forgot that the machine overheats unless the fan is told to run, and when installing software, the instruction to run the fan doesn't work! DH was getting mighty frustrated with it "crashing" (actually shutting down) until I reminded him. When he set up an external computer fan on the laptop, it ran like a charm. (I'm mighty impressed by these tiny little computer fans - it was moving a good bit of air around and I think on the next hot day, I'd like a few hanging around me! Alas that would mean having a power supply to lug around too...) I've got new pics to edit to show you things I've knitted that I've forgotten to get pics of! I knitted a...

Gday all! My laptop is having surgery. It is getting a new hard disk. I'm writing this from my phone. Wish us luck! Soon I should be able keep all my photos on my machine, hooray! Anon!

G'day all! A couple of weeks ago, I got inspired to start a new quilt, based on a Fat Quarterly quiltalong . I showed you some pics along the way. The longest part for the whole quilt was hand sewing the binding down. It took me nearly a week - in part because some nong managed to not catch both sides of the binding when she machine sewed it onto the front. She managed that not just once, or even twice, but THRICE! I was getting really peeved with myself over that.... Anyway, it is all done now. I am very pleased with it. If you are into perfection, this is not it - there are puckers all over the place, the backing isn't quite straight (ahem!) but I care not. It is done, it looks good, it isn't heading for a quilt show or anything, it is likely just to be used as a throw on DH's lounge suite. I particularly like the use of the black and white polka dots on the binding and to make the backing long enough. Oh yes, I did not intend to have black and white dotty strip...

G'day all! Thanks to those who have bought yarn - I am either packing it up for you or it is on its way. I'll let you know either way... So today, Gibbering and I went for a drive down to Grantville. There is very little of any consequence at Grantville, really. It is a very small town. (But of consequence to my husband's family is that his brother's fiancee's parents have moved down there.) Of more interest to us is the bushland around there, and the report that my BiL brought back of orchids and other interesting stuff in flower. He was right. There was all sorts of flora on display down there, dirty stuff that it is, flaunting its sexual parts at all and sundry... Why, then, am I putting a very unflattering shot of Cheshire on my blog? Because cats are generally more interesting than plants to many people. And because I think it is a very funny pic. He took over the cat bed last night. Nutmeg slept with me instead. At about 1:30, Nutmeg got lonely and ...

G'day all! I have finally got pics of my sock yarn that I want to destash. Are you ready? Hold onto your socks, we've got a bit of yarn here :-) I've done my best to keep my yarn away from the cats and cat hair, but if you have a severe allergy to cats, I advise that you not buy any of this yarn. Colours may vary on your monitor. If the yarn has been partially knitted up and then frogged, I give warning. Umm, anything else you need to know? Oh, prices do not include shipping and are in Aussie dollars. Socks That Rock SOLD Muddy Autumn Rainbow , medium weight, 380y/347m. Muddier tones of salmon, yellow, brown, blue, purple, green. AUD20 SOLD. Tide Pooling , light weight, 360y/329m. Yellow, brown, blue, green, maroon. AUD20 . SOLD Bella Coola/Nuxalx , medium weight, 380y/347m. Blues and green. AUD20. SOLD Amethyst , lightweight. Purple and mauvey-pink. Approx 10m missing from hank. Slightly frogged. AUD12 . Bamboo blends Regia Bamboo Color . 45% bamboo viscose...