Yarnivorous

G'day all! It's been a busy week. Lots of things going on. No good pics to share at this point - I used them all up earlier in the week! Silly me 8-) I was reading the paper online this afternoon and was totally dismayed to discover that one of my favourite ever footballers died of lung cancer today. He never smoked. He was only three years older than me. Many years ago, when he was a young man who had come from Ireland (though he was Scottish) to play Aussie Rules, he wrecked one of his knees. I used to go to training (ie the players ran around training for games) and watch. It is long enough ago that my team still trained at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and the ground still had a picket fence around it. The pickets were metal, though, not wood. Two sorts of pickets alternated, one had more a flattened button top, the other was a bit pointier. I remember sitting on the picket fence and he hobbled up on crutches and hoisted himself up and sat next to me. I don't th...

G'day all! Have you seen the patterns in the current Knitty? OMG. So. Many. Things. To. Knit. I think I added 8 or so items to my waaay long Ravelry queue . (That link goes directly to the queue so you have to have a ravelry log in and I am too lazy to go open up all the links to Knitty.) Double Heelix (socks). Date Night (top). Lingerie (socks). Rhodion Lace Shawl. Dragon Wing Shawl. Undercurrent (cardie/hoodie). Leaflet (short sleeved cardie). Then I followed a link to Nikol Lohr's blog and read through and added Sally Cardigan to the list. Heck, it can play with the other 317 items I've got in my queue. The most annoying part? If I knit for very long, like more than about 20 minutes at a time, my stupid lympho arm starts playing up. Grr! It is my right arm and I'm a thrower, I might try picking but I've never done lace whilst picking. Could be interesting! Might not make a difference anyway but I should give it a bash if I make something more simple - I...

G'day all! Thanks for the enthusiasms over the dress. I like it! I just wish there was a Sew Serendipity Flickr group. (Maybe I should ask permission to make one?) I went back to the craft show today. I wanted in particular to do a certain class that I hadn't realised was happening on Wednesday. Too late! All booked out. Sniffle. But I still went to a number of excellent talks (applique, still dead skeered of applique!), using precuts and nifty templates (bought said templates, only $20, have to try them out now!), talks on colour by Reece Scannell and umm Kathy Doughty from Material Obsession (who I found out are in Drummoyne now and I've been walking within a hundred metres, or driving TWO DOORS AWAY, of the shop and never known! If you follow the link, I walk past the little ferry symbol at the bottom of the map or if I have a car, I go around the roundabout by their shop on my way to (ahem) Spotlight...). (Alas, we got a bit distracted during Kathy's talk...

G'day all! I whipped this little number up for the craft fair I went to yesterday (and will go to again tomorrow 8-) OK, it took me a fair whack of Sunday and Monday evening too (and I did a simple version without ruffles and as little contrast as possible), and a bit of Tuesday evening when I realised I had not edge stitched the sleeves... But anyway, it was done in time and washed and ironed and all. It is totally different from the clothes I see being worn around here and y'know what? I don't mind at all. :-D (I'd show you the secret inside the hem but I forgot to get DH to take a pic of it. Fabric is "Flora and Fauna.") Yesterday I was sighing over how good other people's attempts at screen printing were compared to mine. Today? Mine looks pretty darned good :-) I was puzzling over the low quality of my phone's pictures today. See how little that picture is (if you click through to the full size)? That was a full size pic on the phone and it s...

Gday all! Had a lovely day today :) Met up with Mandy and Rachael at the Sydney craft and quilt show. Wandered around, chatted, saw lots of really groovy stuff, did a screen printing workshop (boy did I get ink everywhere!), bought stuff... I'm going back on friday to do a couple more workshops and look at the stuff I didn't have time to see. Pics of us, Mandy's tea towel she printed (so clever!) and another tea towel with pink elephants (more so clever!) with Rachael's blue flowers (made with a masking tape resist, cleverness!). My tea towel doesn't have a pic yet... Anon!

G'day all! Thank you for the reminders about looking after me and there's only so much I can do. I am aware of that but well life keeps on dealing out blows and after a while you start getting a little punch drunk. Yesterday my eldest niece had an emergency caesar. I didn't know until this morning when I got a panicked email from my sister, her mother, which worried me greatly. My new great nephew came a month early, just like my first great niece did, and he is a bit of a tiddler at 4lb 4oz (we went metric in the early 70s. Babies are weighed in kilos but everyone says the weight in pounds, lol). My niece has had rhesus compatibility issues with both of them. BUt it is ok, he is doing well for a kid in a hurry. He'll be in hospital for a while whilst his lungs mature some more. Then there has been the possibility of a trip to the US with Nathan's job. We would've gone to two old stamping grounds and NYC. (Note the we.) It also would've happened at...

G'day all! I'm a total stress bunny currently. Can't really talk about it. I am good but one person in particular is not so good, like really not so good. They are up and down like a yo-yo and I am really struggling to help them. Now I could just walk away and say "Deal with it yourself" but that would create a whole lot more problems than it would solve. So I really don't know what to do. I am pretty isolated here in Sydney. Yes I can ring people back home but I sorta feel that it is pretty manky to ring people only when I need help. (I'm pretty bad at staying in touch, if you haven't already figured that out!) I've been writing stuff, making stuff, walking, working, doing things to look after me but the load is getting too much for me to deal with. I need some of my energy for ME. They are seeking help, btw, and are in active care. They seem to have gotten worse, not better so far, but AFAIK that often happens. But the appointment happ...

G'day all! One of the things that amazes me most about living in the inner suburbs of a large city (and Sydney is large, over 4 million people and rather sprawly) is the persistence of nature. I found a little skink in the laundry today.  I caught him and took him outside. The pics are on the big camera, not the phone. Then walking through Ultimo, this fern caught my eye. I often see ferns growing out of buildings, even buildings in the centre of town. (ok, I'm blogging on my phone again so the pic is at the end) It's things like this that keep me sane. I'm not used to living in a place where I'm so divorced from nature. I do get to see sunrise quite often, now that it is winter, but sunset often goes unnoticed as our place has no westerly outlook. Things just get duller and duller instead.  And the plants around building are not inspiring, and we don't have an outdoors space. The tree that greets sunrise outside our window is lovely but our view is mostly ...

G'day all! Today we climbed Pigeon House Mountain. It is about a three hour drive to the south of Sydney. It involved climbing some really steep rocky bits (and a whole lot more less steep and rocky bits but hardly any less strenous!) Feats of athleticism Many muddy puddles, and lots and lots of ladders (The second set of stairs in this pic is really a ladder, like a monkey bar ladder with round treads and all. I am *terrified* of ladders like that) to get to a view that looked like this: (pity it was cloudy, eh? Apparently you can see about 100km of coastline on a good day and the amazing plateaus and cliffs of the Shoalhaven.) anon!

G'day all! I hauled out the sewing machine over the last few days and sewed up a little quilt top and backing, ostensibly to practise my free motion quilting. Cute, eh? I had a few difficulties getting the pic as the quilt top and back kept doing this: First though I have to make up quilt sandwiches of scrap material and batting (I don't have much scrap! I use it all and my favoured batting is hard to get here) to practise the quilting. Quilty Pleasures is hosting a free motion quilting tute, or twenty. But colour is the thing and these have plenty of colour. The front is made of some white homespun cut to 5" blocks (aka charms) and a charm pack of Robert Kaufmann Kona square in umm? Classic? (Can't find the label, must be tidying up too much for my own good!). The backing is from my stash of plain homespun, a stash that is still growing as I find more colours that I like. Note there is no yellow or orange. The yellow in my stash got tie dyed accidentally when...

Gday all! Last Sunday I attended my first ever political rally. I say yes to reducing carbon emissions. Ok, I am a hypocrite because I still drive my (little) car and much much worse, I have been in a plane (and flown places) about once a month since August last year. And I am addicted to Stuff, like most other members of western society. I buy and consume merrily. It is a conundrum that I am still wrangling with. I sometimes wonder why I care about all this stuff. After all, I don't have kids. (I do have nieces and nephews though.) But for me, it isn't about humans in particular, it is about the whole world. Everything is tied to everything else. We are much more reliant on our environment than we care to admit.  Without a biosphere that can support us, we are stuffed, and we'll take a whole lot of the biota with us cos it needs the same conditions as we do.  And that peeves and grieves me. All that diversity, all that life in all its infinitely varied forms... But if ...

G'day all! Will I ever take more pictures of the things I am making? Will I ever catch up with all the things I want to show and talk about, let alone the stuff I want to do? I've been bad. Yep, I got me more material online. More airmail. Riley Blake "Happier." I am a sucker for little twee designs with bugs and birds and wiggles and stuff. I also have a half metre of the fabric that is on top of the charms and layer cake. Plus I bought some patterns, but I forgot to take pics of two of them. I really should tell you where I bought the fabric too but umm... yeah... found the packaging. Above All Fabric . I spun some lovely BFL/bunny fluff from Ixchelbunny . Go give her some love, she's had a total disaster as her angora rabbit farm has been devastated by calicivirus. Seven years of breeding down the gurgler, her livelihood and many of her little fluffy loves lost. I have no idea what I'll make with the yarn - I am a bit shy of 300m, which is not eno...

G'day all! Why yes, I *do* have an awful sense of humour... But this number plate does amuse me. Started a new little quilt today. My so bad! But the colours are fantastic and once it is far enough along, I shall share it. It will be very pretty. Much nicer than the number plate... Anon!

G'day all! This might just go to show that I am nuts. Yesterday's picture was of our rubbish bins.  Our brand spanking new wheely bins. They are very exciting because: The lids are not falling off, They are new and shiny, and last but most exciting of all... There are THREE recycle bins *and* they are for mixed recycling. No more sorting my recycle stuff and even better I might have a chance of recycling it weekly rather than about once every six weeks when someones else have not already filled the two up. Hooray! Woke up to sun this morning - blue sky is so nice to see. Anon!