Yarnivorous

G'day all! You would think I had gone hog wild spending waaay too much or something over the last few days. I am having an attack of the guilts. I bought too many calendars (two for home, one for work, one as a gift and two wee baby ones that called to me, Lynne, Lynne, take us home! My goodness I am a sucker for a calendar at 40 or 50% off! I mostly do landscape calendars but quirky ones take my eye too. I bought two dresses and one skirt (cost me less than $100). I insured the car for third party property, fire and theft (umm $350 or $450? More than what the car is probably worth but if I run into a ferarri or a light pole, well we have to pay for it if we don't have car insurance). (In Victoria, every car has to have third party personal insurance - it is part of the registration fee. Our rego fee is over $500pa but for that we get no fault insurance for damage we do to other people or they do to us. We do not have to have property/car insurance - that is up to us t...

G'day all! I am sitting at the emergency vet with Nutmeg, who has a bad eye. She was fine half an hour before tea, then after I talked to my sister for half an hour, she was hunched up on the bed and obviously in pain. So here I am with my knitting and the cat carrier (and a busting bladder...) Waiting waiting waiting... Ah, that is better - I couldn't figure out how to put the picture in the right spot using the phone but now it is fixed. Nutmeg has a grungy eye of unknown origin, likely trauma. I have to put ointment on it for a couple of days then take her to our vet to get it checked again to see if it is ulcerating. She has a plastic collar on and is walking around in a very very funny way, trying to scrape it off with every step. anon!

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! Isn't this a sad thing the poor cat, waiting to come in - she's found the (let me) In Tray! I've still been busy recently, buzzing around, not really getting that much done quite frankly! I'm making good progress on my Echo Flower shawl - only got 1.5 repeats to go before I start the edging charts I think. HOORAY! There's over 300 stitches per row now and it takes a while to get each row done (20 minutes or so). Given how much time I can spend knitting, it seems surprising that it isn't yet finished. Pics today are of Nutmeg, in various moods. I've joined two quilting swaps, one just a little charm swap. Egads, cutting charms (5" squares) is hard work, especially when you have to iron twenty-five different lots fabric first. Also I don't have a cutting table, I have a cutting mat on the floor. That adds to the difficulty somewhat. The second swap needs me to get a couple of metres of material, one white, one "fresh moder...

G'day all! A quick one before tomorrow's chemo, the last FEC, hooray! I'm sitting on the bed, with a cat beside me. I'm reading a Ravelry post when I feel something on the back of my neck. ACK! It is HARD and has more legs than I'd like it to . I shriek and pull it off me. It's a weevil, a sort of beetle. In this case it is about 8mm/third of an inch long. "Oooh, what is that?," says Nutmeg, as I try to flick it off the bed. "Oooh!" I flick it (accidentally) right at her. "Oooh! YUM!" Nom nom nom. But the weevil is stuck firmly to the bed. They have claws you know. Nom nom nom. Nom nom nom! Eventually she detaches the weevil and drops it on the floor and eats it there. (One can only eat off the floor, preferably without any sort of bowl in the way.) Now she is looking at me and waiting for me to find her another little snack.... Nutmeg, scourge of small creatures everywhere. (Note, DH stayed asleep for the whole perfor...

G'day all! I am still here! Still alive! I feel better immediately after this chemo than I did after the last one but my knees are sore! Like tired sore. No, don't walk on us, we're tired! I don't think I'd be running a marathon with ooh tired erupting from my knees regularly but I wouldn't be even if I was "normal." Still we went out to Urban Burger for tea and I had a yummy burger and some chips. Now we see how I go this time around. I've got the burpy feeling again but nothing really bad so far (and have one more pill in reserve if it gets bad, and have heatburn (anti proton pump) medication if I need that). I don't want to start on the heartburn stuff unless I really need it cos I will have to keep taking it once I start. It isn't like gaviscon or anything that just puts a soothing layer on top, it turns off the acid secretion in your stomach. I sorta wonder how you can digest food and reduce bacterial infection if you don...

G'day all! I have Aeolian beaten into submission. I hope I do not speak too soon 8-) But 30 minutes or so ago I finished the Monster Row from Hell. Yes, row 43 of the edging involves beading roughly every third stitch, including a lot of decrease stitches. For every k2tog, you have to slip the first stitch, bead the second, slip the first stitch back again (carefully to make sure it sits correctly on the needle) then k2tog. There's a few k2tog. And just as many SSKs but they are easier to bead cos the stitch to be beaded is right there. Now I have three rows to go, with the bind off. And um the blocking. That will be a challenge! Hooray for me! Today the cats had to go to the vet for their annual service. That was amusing - poor things got shoved into their carriers (after I knocked a redback off the side of one of the carriers and then got paranoid that I'd somehow been bitten), put on the wheely thing (like removalists or delivery people use to carry stuff) and whe...

G'day all! I'm still plugging away at Aeolian and Blood Orange. OMG, they are starting to get tough, simply due to the number of stitches. Citron/Blood Orange is basically stocking stitch (stockinette). Every few rows, it doubles in stitch count then a few rows later halves the number of stitches on the needles. Lots of good plain knitting for when my brain is fried! Aeolian. Oh lordie, this one is getting to me now! It is taking an hour to do a row and back. Two rows and I've had enough. I only have 3 major pattern rows to go, but when I took this pic yesterday, I wasn't far into the edging. I thought the nupps (said noops, I hope nupp is a transliteration of the Estonian, otherwise I'll go sick at Americans who say doo for due (dew) - no wonder we can't say noop cos we see nup, as in nup, wasn't me!) would drive me insane but they are much more fun than beads! You can see one of my ginormous nupps in the top left of the pic above. I've tried th...

G'day all! It has been a day packed with action here at the Modest Manor. This is your 8pm update published at 10pm. Yep, we are up to date here! DH has been hammering himself, pretty much literally, trying to get the measurements for the built in cupboards with stairs on them correct. We know what they should be and how big everything should be but our house is not square and working out the corrections is hard! There's been some melt downs along the way too. Last night, I finished the sock. Yesirree, it doesn't have much of a leg but that is because I didn't want to sacrifice any more yarn to it. The sock is a good fit, very good, as one would expect from a sock custom fitted to my foot, and the shortness isn't a problem either. But the colours? This one may be frogged and the yarn reclaimed for other projects.... On the knitting front, I cast on Citron not just once but twice! I needed a fairly brainless pattern to help offset the brains required for the...

G'day all! Still trucking along here. So far so good. Currently the chemo side effect is a bit of indigestion, though that could just be me gutsing my food. It is humid (not by tropical standards, I admit) and not very hot but plenty warm enough for me at the moment. It is making it very unpleasant to do stuff around the house. Move a box, sit down and sweat for half an hour. I would say rinse, repeat, but I seem to lose interest in moving stuff or even investigating box contents pretty darned fast! (Cheshire making himself at home on the bed. Normally this is Nutmeg's place. Note the cats are on a diet...) We had some friends over on Sunday. They helped out around the place. They fixed up the walls in the study and washed them and started on the painting. They did more cleaning up around the kitchen. One of the walls in the loungeroom is now washed and awaiting ideas for colour. Two chaps got into the mess under the lemon tree and sorted it out somewhat, and wen...

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! Good news! (Old pic) Apparently Cheshire came home none the worse for wear. Lord knows where she has been or what she's been up to, but it was Easter and maybe she got locked in someplace she wasn't meant to be. In more good news for those of you more interesting in knitting than rambles, I have finished one Not Lenore sock. (excuse the hair in the pic - it was the best shot of the sock despite the hair.) It is Not a Lenore because I knitted it in the wrong direction (toe up). I might knit the next one top down and do the lace pattern properly. (Ever photographed something thinking it looks fine, only to realise when you are editing pics that there is a lump of really obvious fluff on the item being photographed?) I had Big Plans today for doing a heap of knitting and sewing, but I just remembered that I have a dental appointment this arvo. That will take a fair chunk out of my day. Of course on the bright side, that means I will be sitting in air condition...

G'day all! I had quite a pleasant day today, making stuff, finishing a couple of things (no pics cos it has been miserable and drizzly today, just after I had decided we would have no more rain this season), writing the patterns down before I forget them, going out to take Nathan a white shirt as he is singing with the church choir now (I got home so late that to get there I'd have to not cook dinner and also drive to the church), dropping into a LYS (well not *very* local but busable), waiting for THIRTY-FIVE minutes for a bus when they run every 15 minutes (I rang the transit agency and they said there isn't a problem which is nice but what happened to the bus that didn't run???) - if I had known that it would be that long between buses, I would've gone into the sewing machine shop to see if they have a darning foot suitable for my machine. I also would've walked the mile and a bit to Savers to do a bit of op shopping. Anyway, I finally got home and checked m...

G'day all! I just have to share these two links. One is the funniest vid I've seen for a while - the end just makes the vid (thanks, E, for sending it to me): And the other is better than Cute Overload. The Itty Bitty Kitty Committee . I am waiting for the gloom to lift - we often have fog here, even in summer - so's I can get pics of FOs for your enjoyment. And I shall report on the craft faire. And I shall tell you how to make your own lamingtons! anon!

G'day all! I thought I should abuse your eyeballs with some birthday presents. Presents-wot-I-didn't-organise-myself. Surprise presents! The lovely mrspao sent me some goodies all the way from England: yummy choc-rice things and some Hipknits sock yarn in a colourway that is very me. Nathan says "too pale" but those pale colours look good on me. And my blogless friends M and M in Oz got a bunch o' people to contribute to rectifying a Great Problem - can you tell what it is from this pic? Oh and it was not just one block of chocolate - the big pic shows that I have a 14 week supply! However, under stress it will probably last about 10 weeks. My *Very favourite* chocolate cos I have never poisoned myself with it, though with that many blocks I probably could if I tried to eat it all at once 8-) Lovely prezzies! I really appreciate the thought you guys put into the things you sent me :-) Now for a pic taken last night at a friend's house. He has two lovel...

G'day all! Waaaay back in the mists of time, I did picture knitting as we called it back then. I were a young un then. I was enthusiastic and desperate to avoid doing cables again (I did them on my first jumper). Picture knitting was all the rage and I wanted to be trendy. Ta-dum! Fabulous, no? I was going out with a dark-haired guy at the time, though he was shorter than me, and I thought it was a great jumper! I believe I actually knitted it in the colours specified (let's, ahem, face it, I only had a couple of colours I could reasonably use for the faces) and have the feeling I got bored with the black things on the sleeves and left them off one of the sleeves altogether. Some of it was done with a gazillion little bobbins of wool, some was done by duplicate stitch. Anything that was only one row or column thick was done duplicate wise. You can see the ends woven through the knitting. Crufty, eh? I like the way the grey waves on the back look vaguely like the Sydney Op...

G'day all! Well stress has hit the big time around the Modest Manor. Oh boy.... People keep asking me, "How do you feel? Are you stressed or worried about the move?" Well what do you think? Do you think I am cool as a cucumber or am I screeching, "I'm a teapot! I'm a teapot!" I'd show you a pic of my spout but that would be a little much for this sort of blog, eh? So much to do, so little time. We don't have an exact date, we have not been told anything about the move, what we should be bringing with us.... We know that there is no point bringing electrical goods with us since we run on 240V and the US is on 110V, plus our plugs are different *and* we have switches to turn the power on and off at the wall! A miracle of forethought! I finished the baby stuff. haven't got pics of the finished stuff - the weather has been so up and down (mostly down) recently (though no rain for a couple of days now) that every time I get armed with the ...