Yarnivorous

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...

G'day all! I've been reading some of the threads in Remnants on Ravelry. (Go on, admit you like to hang out there too, even if you only ever lurk!) I am sooooo glad I have the mother-in-law that I do. She's never gotten along with her MiL - her family was "not good enough" - but it made her determined that she would get along with her daughters-in-law when they came along (assuming her two sons were straight enough to prefer girls!). Barb has been wonderful this year. She is busy with her job but she's taken time to look after me this year - cooked me dinner once a week (or more), checked up to see if I'm ok, etc. So this is a little post to say I In other news, preparations are well under way for tomorrow's BBQ. I still have to buy beer and make two cakes and tidy up more outside (and inside) but I am feeling ok about it currently. I've visited the mortgage broker and it is very likely that we can refinance our place, and get this, the repaym...

G'day all! Thank you for the birthday wishes - I much appreciate them. I hope to get back to everyone that I can in person but you know me, so you might have to wait a little while. Last night I had a very nice birthday tea at the parents'-in law place (homecooked Indian food with chocolate birthday cake). I even had a very small amount of Riesling, an 11 year old Riesling that was verra nice! (Even to this non-drinker.) Today work went out to lunch for my birthday and I got another chorus of happy birthday. DH basically forgot, though he knew it is my birthday cos when I asked him, he said "It's your birthday!" He thinks that because he knows, I know he knows - does that make sense? Like everything he knows and experiences, I experience. Doesn't quite work that way.... I didn't do much for my birthday. One of my sisters took me out for lunch on Tuesday then we wandered around the Australian Garden at the Cranbourne Bot Gardens. I started arrangi...

G'day all! I am so glad to say goodbye to being 43. I hope the door hits you in the butt on the way out, 43! 42 was fantastic - we travelled a lot in the US, DH's job paid off a nice bit of mortgage, he took me to Europe for my first ever trip to there (fabulous! Would go again in a heartbeat if I had the option and would stay for as long as possible). Then I turned 43. I thought it would be good. We were home, getting our visas for DH's job. The visas turned up 5 days after my birthday. Six days after my birthday, we got a phone call saying DH had been laid off. Hooray and oh noes! It was both good and bad. I was stressed out of my nut for the rest of the month - we had to fly back to the US, break our lease (costing us over $4K), organise to send stuff home (almost $3K), DH gave me a horrid cold that settled in my chest, giving me a swollen lymph node (or so I thought), then we said goodbye to the people and places we had become fond of and flew home. I was so exc...

G'day all! Hooray for me I finished something! I thought I would have a second something finished by now but not quite. It is close. DOOD! Turn that stereo down - it is vibrating my house as you drive by! Anyway, here's my new mittens. Are they not lurid? Mandie from EGMTK sent me the yarn - she said it needed to live with me. I started making socks with it but no, this yarn could not hide away demurely inside shoes! It screamed to be loud and proud and out! So I made mittens instead. Tip up, not cuff down. I love the way the thumbs striped. I knitted them during radiotherapy, so I'll remember them and the comments from staff and fellow radio-ers - people either love them or look away. I made them up as I went along so the first one (left hand) is a bit wonky. My sister-in-sin said they were made for someone with very long fingers. Yup, that would be me 8-) I admit that I am struggling a bit at the moment. DH is having such a hard time in Sydney, between the job a...