Yarnivorous

Hello to my readers! It is nice to be able to say readers - there are at least two of you I know! As I rode home on the train today, I started doubting my own sanity. It was a nice warm spring day today in Melbourne - about 27 degrees C. Apart from a couple of days in WA and when we were driving, it is the warmest day we've had since April. So why , WHY am I knitting the cuffs for thrummed mittens? Indeed, why am I knitting them now instead of sewing beads into the eyelets of my new summer top? I finished the front yesterday and now it has to have the shoulder seams sewn up and the neckline band done, so WHY AM I KNITTING THE THRUMMED MITTENS? I can only ascribe it to spring fever. Any other suggestions? First day back at work was OK - spent a lot of it with a new starter. I am at a loss about what to do about work - until Nathan has finished the fud and has a stable job, I have to stay where I am. Someone has to earn the money that pays the bills and keeps us ...

Hello to you all out there! Including the ones who don't know this blog exists. LOL. This has been my last weekend of freedom for a long time to come. Blah. Back to the four letter word in the morning. Ick. I've had just over a month away from it and I've enjoyed not having to drag into the city every weekday. But something has to pay the rent and the bills and buy food and most importantly YARN! So what have I been up to? Carding lots of alpaca fleece! And discovering that: 1) I am allergic to some component of the dirty fleece - today I've had a "heavy" chest and feel claggy inside. 2) It is better to card the dirty fleece to get some of the dirt out, then wash it, then card it again, if you want the cleanest whitest fluffiest fleece (of course chocolate coloured ones will always have brown fleece). I've tried carding it, spinning it and then washing it - comes out a grotty shade of brown/grey - obviously dirty. Good for ferals mayb...

Hello to my handful of readers! Someone must be checking up on me cos according to my site meter I've had about 20 hits per week - not bad for a beginner who has no links from any other pages! I picked up a book today at my LYS and it is full of patterns for Zhivago, Zest and the Yarn of Satan (as a trim only - its best use!). It has some nice little tops in it - book 1230, "Resort Knits." If you have been eyeing off Angelina (or have made it!! you know who you are!) then you should weep cos Patons have got a couple of jackets that I humbly believe are inspired by Angelina in this book. (I admit that was one reason why I bought it, please don't hit me!) See what I mean? Resort Knits I further admit that I went and bought a number of balls of Flutter (ie Lincraft's version of the Yarn of Satan) and Lincraft's copy of temptation and funky fur (aka Funky Fiber) today cos they are cheap and will knit up into fab scarves for friends and possibly other p...

We've been away almost exactly 3 weeks. We have driven nearly 10,000km. OK, I have driven over 9,000 and Nathan has been a passenger for all bar about 600km. The car is choc-a-block with stuff, mostly plants. It is still choc-a-block with stuff cos I can't be stuffed unpacking it yet, though I must soon cos the first lot of plants were WATERERD IN THE CAR by someone who will remain nameless and the run off spread into SOMEONE WHO WILL REMAIN NAMELESS' $180 books that he insisted on getting (very good books too) and undoubetedly cos they wer not right next to the plants, everything else as well. As for knitting, what is that? I've gotten the back of a tank done, redone the two mittens to the point where I need to do the thumbs, finished a hat.... umm not much else cos it is really hard to knit when you are driving. Very easy when you are a passenger. I didn't even bring home any yarn, though I do have a pile of alpaca fleece. i even stopped at the Yarn B...

G'day all! Well it has been an interesting couple of weeks - two weeks now we've been on the road. Let me tell you that Australia is enormous, and we've only driven from the south-east coast to the south-west coast (and about a quarter of the way up the coast). Of course I knew that it would be big but you only realise how big when you actually drive it. And I've done most of the driving so far, and only have one beanie and half a pair of mittens to show for my knitting so far (so much for getting a couple of sumer tops done! or a poncho for the last of winter)! I've driven nearly 4,000km so far. Ack. I haven't found any yarn shops in the regional towns around the place - ther eare some in Perth and one in Rockingham (which was closed and I couldn't see if it really had any yarn or was just telling fibs). We'll put up a webpage of our travels. Actually lots of webpages cos there is lots to tell! Hopefully I'll be able to update t...

Has anyone ever told you just how BIG Australia is? We have driven from Melbourne to a roadhouse called Caiguna in WA over the last four days. I personally have driven over 2300km, and all up we've done nearly 2600km. We only have about 1200km to go before we get to Perth, from whence all our adventures start. We are now wondering if we can catch the train back from Kalgoorlie to Adelaide and cut out four days of tedium, instead replacing it with three days of tedious train travel. More about that in a later post - I am almost out of time on this machine. Pictures will have to wait - I have no way of uploading them here. It is now a week since we got married - how time flies! anon!

Woo hoo! The deed is done! You can see a few pics here or a WHOLE lot of pics here , but be warned that the second page has many many pics from the whole weekend, including some of the railway station at Ararat.... You can't tell that Nathan's dad is a train nuffy at all, can you? You can see my knitting prowess for the weekend in some of the shots too - my little flurfy greenish scarf, made from el-cheapo Feather's knock off from Lincraft and their eyelash yarn. I saw them last week and thought you beaut, that will go nicely, even if it is not what one would expect to go with a wedding outfit. I have to say we chose the most AMAZING day for our wedding. Had I known 12 months ago when I chose that particular day that on my wedding day it would not only rain, but also: hail sleet and even snow I may well have had it on another day. Remember that it is spring here - the flowers are blooming beautifully, the birds are acting up like birds do in sprin...