So much to tell you!

WARNING: Very long and overdue post follows...

Well... I'm still alive, and have been up to lots of stuff... but just a bit behind in posting about it!

Since I last wrote, I've had a birthday. My first birthday present was D & E having their bub on my birthday!! (thanx guys, that was sweet). She is a beautiful, perfect little bundle of joy! And I think she likes her new bunny 'Herm', who I can now finally post photos of. Yay!!
He was crocheted from a pattern in the US magazine Knit Simple.

In other finished items news, I made Mr Purl a stubby holder! My first colour work... (It says 'Nancy' which is his Rat Patrol name...)

And, speaking of Mr Purl, the wonderful man got me a spindle for my birthday!!!! (and he hasn't seen me much since!!) He got it made by Pete Filmer at the OBD Markets... not sure at this stage what type of wood it's made of, as Mr Purl didn't retain that information... but I will find out. It's absolutely gorgeous!!

And that purple roving I got from Helen now looks like this:

Two little balls of plied yarn, and one ball of singles yet-to-be-plied. You can certainly tell what order I spun them in... I'm getting less uneven (although some people say that unevenness is a desirable feature). I'm a little over half way through the 50g of roving... and thoroughly enjoying the process! (so much so that I've done very little knitting since I got the spindle!!) I also really like how the slightly different hues of purple are all showing up when it's spun :)

And in other birthday goodness, my beautiful friends were very generous... including a gift voucher for Stitch 'n Time in Mawson, and some homemade goodies! Pol made me this gorgeous bag... which happens to be just the right size for my spindle and roving!

H. made me this stunning knitting needle roll. She's a talented lady!! (and sweet too).

I got great enjoyment out of deciding where to slot in each pair of needles!!

I've also been playing with some alpaca fleece which some of mum and dad's mates generously gave me (thanks also goes to the alpacas Monty and Ruben!). On my way down to mum and dad's last time I stopped in at Ashford and dropped a substantial amount of money on some stuff... including carders (which, incidentally were way more expensive than I expected).
Carding takes a long time. And is dirty. But still kind of fun. I did quite a bit of it in the evenings at mum and dad's, sitting in front of the telly.

And I spun up one little ball of Monty's fleece just to see what it looked like:

Other things I've been up to include my first picot edge - performed on the sock I'm making out of my first ball of home dyed wool :) (oh, and in other dyeing news... the mulberries are out... soon to be made into a dye bath!)

And this... (no, not me, but a dear friend who got hitched on the weekend).

Right... that's all. As you were.

What's that wet stuff falling from the sky?

Nice to see some rain that is actually convincing enough to be called rain! You can almost see the gardens smiling!! I just hope that it makes all the grass seed grow that we've lovingly raked in for Corinbank!!

Not much happening here... plugging away on my gift for E's bub... which could arrive any day now. Can't wait to show some pics of the finished creation! (the pressie, not the bub!)

Lots to look forward to, with a SnB roadtrip to Bundanoon this weekend (woohoo for learning to spin!!), and a sculpture course that mum and I are doing next weekend! Plus... I've just had a five day weekend approved for next weekend, so I get to have a proper visit at Mum and Dad's! Ah... life is good! (except for the fact that I'm coming down with yet another cold, thanx to the petri dish that is a childcare centre!!)

Hooray garden!

Everyone else's garden pics have inspired me to share some... The most exciting thing in our garden is asparagus that after two years is finally big enough to eat... but asparagus is very difficult for the camera to focus on.... so there is no photographic evidence!


I'm so proud of my thyme bush that I nurtured from a seed and managed to keep alive!!

Wisteria... along with jasmine, daphne and jonquils is my favourite smelling flower!

All of our lovely seedlings... not supposed to plant the tomatoes in the ground til after Melbourne cup right? The big lanky thing is Mr Purl's hops plant for his homebrew!

And in non garden-related news... here is an early stage of my pressie for E's new baby... due in a couple of weeks!! (I'm slightly further along now...) Can't say what it is incase E is reading... but it's probably obvious anyway! The crochet is fun... but not as therapeutic as knitting I think. I'm really enjoying the Bendigo cotton though!
Hugs to you all... I'm thinking of you... even if I've been a bit absent!

The green green grass of home

I seem to have fallen off/been run over and crushed by the blogging wagon in the last few weeks. I blame my new job for my complete lack of time. But who really knows where time goes?? I haven't been home on a weekend for at least a month... so am looking forward to this weekend!! Maybe part of the problem is also that I feel un-inclined to post if I don't have much to show, or don't have any photos? Also... whenever I go near the net, I spend so much time reading everyone else's blogs (not much commenting recently either... sorry guys!) that I run out of time to write anything on mine!!

Anyway... now I do have a photo!! Mr Purl and I spent a lovely weekend down at Mum and Dad's place. It was the first time Mr Purl's been down there since we got engaged (which, considering that was back in May is kind of crazy!), so there was lots to talk about (we're getting married at Mum and Dad's property). It made the whole wedding thing seem a bit more real... I think it's kind of been pushed to the back burner while we get ready for Corinbank... so it was nice to remember that it is really happening and it's going to be tonnes of fun!!

Anyway... in knitting news... I've finished my first ever sock!!!! :) What a great feeling! And I didn't even mind that I had one still to go, because I'm so enjoying knitting the turtle walk socks! I love the wool, I love the pattern, and I'm just loving the process! I wont post a photo of the finished sock until I'm finished both... it only seems right. But here is a photo of the second sock on it's way over the Monaro Plains...

And going down the Brown Mountain (which is really much more green than brown!)

Ooh and note my thumb ring in the photos: it's made from the handle of an antique spoon! Soo gorgeous. I got it on a recent visit to Tilba, where I also bought some gorgeous brown alpaca fleece from an aplaca named Denver!! Can someone teach me to spin??? I'm keen to learn soon, because one of my workmates has aplacas!! Fluffy alpacas that will need to be shorn soon! Alpacas of all different colours! I'm not supposed to drool on them apparently.

I've settled into work at the childcare centre. I'm really enjoying the change of pace, and the relative lack of stress! (and now that my health seems to be holding up, it's definitely easier to enjoy!) The kids are gorgeous, I'm potentially becoming a bit attached to some of them (oh no!). They say the funniest things... like when I was changing the stinky nappy of a two year old and I said "what have you been eating??"... he looked at me very solemnly and said....."sand". Well... I had to take a short break from nappy changing to piss myself laughing!! I think it was mostly the seriousness with which he said it that cracked me up!! They do funny stuff like that all the time. And I'm sure there are times when it's probably best not to laugh (i.e. if they're doing something you should be discouraging) but it's so hard!!! Today one of the cutest little girls looked up at me from where she was sitting in the garden, and her face was just covered in dirt... It really was too cute! (ok, you probably had to be there!). Today one of the kids got a wave from the postman. Small excitements!

Other than all that, there's not too much news. I think the possum has moved back in to the garage... even after the handyman fixing up all the possible holes where he could be getting in. Damn it!! Possums really do stink out a garage pretty effectively! So... time to call the mysterious 'Possum Man'.

Watched "Y Tu Mama Tambien" last night - a really fun film. I've been meaning to see it for years, and finally got around to it last night when we realised wandering through the new releases section that there really is a lot of cr@p cinema out there, and made a bee-line for the foreign section (which, for some inexplicable reason, the video shop has merged with the kung fu section, meaning you have to trawl through a plethora of "that's good sake" to find the scattered non-kung fu foreign films. I suppose technically kung fu movies are foreign... but they really do warrant their own special section (which up until a couple of weeks ago they had). I hope there are some video store employees reading this (highly unlikely!!).)

Hi Mum! (I've finally shown mum how to find my blog!)

Ramblings sans photos

My lack of blogging time continues! Again, I've probably only been on the computer twice in as many weeks!! But hey... I'm going to embrace blogging without obligation!! And, I have had some good knitting time, which has been lovely! I've turned the heel of the first turtle walk sock!!! What a thrill!! I've even done some extreme knitting... (photos to come soon!!)

This weekend I'm in Melbourne, celebrating the 40th birthdays of three very close friends. It's been a stunning sunny weekend! Wonderful... except whilst packing in Canberra's chilly weather, it didn't occur to me to pack any t-shirts or anything!! Ah well! We've had a great time... slightly sore heads this morning! Heading into St Kilda for some breakfast :)

Things are going well at work... it's becoming less tiring, and is good fun. On the other hand, it's also nice to know that it's only for 4 months! AND I just found out that one of my workmates owns alpacas!! Ooohhh...

Ooh... and in Stash news... (who would've thought that I could have already accumulated a stash at this early stage in my knitting career?!), I've employed Rose Red's Standard of Stash Systemisation!! Photos to follow of that too, and of my dyeing exploits with H. Fun fun!!!

Inspiration

I had a lovely time going to the craft and quilt fair on the weekend! I wandered the stalls for at least a couple of hours, in a bit of a daze. So much pretty stuff! There were disappointingly few yarn-related stalls…but the ones they did have pretty good! I was blown away by the free-form crochet and knitting stall.

This photo doesn't do it justice... check out the website. Although they may not be everyone’s cup of tea, I was so impressed by the creativity that has gone into these pieces. Some of the coats etc were hard to take in, there was so much going on. Definitely wearable art!

I made a couple of small purchases. Some lovely soft Bolivian alpaca yarn…

And some very pretty beads which I have no idea what to do with! But I also bought some beading wire, so we’ll see what happens!

But for me the best bit was the quilt show. I’ve never really been that into quilting… although I like looking at the pretty fabrics for sale at quilting stalls, and admire the patience that quilters must have…it just never really took me as something I would be that keen to try. But OH MY GOODNESS I’m inspired now!! All of the quilts in the show were absolute works of art! And they also looked so fun! And I really like the idea of the free hand ‘drawing’ with a sewing machine on top of all the quilted together bits. Wow. Congratulations to everyone who made all the gorgeous quilts! Mick’s Cobargo Squares quilt looked absolutely vibrant in real-life. My favourite of all the quilts had to be the 50cm square tree of life quilt, with a gorgeous swirly-branched tree and over 1600 (!) tiny leaves all sewn by hand!!! This tiny quilt had won so many ribbons that they took up more room on the wall than it did!
I was only sad that after I’d finished drooling over all the quilts (not literally mind you), the fair was closed so I couldn’t pop back in and buy my first bits of quilting fabric!!!! Which is probably a good thing. One obsessive hobby is definitely enough at the moment!

Dad’s beanie is coming along quite well despite a couple of setbacks on the weekend. Setback 1: Whilst knitting at S’s house on Friday night as the boys set up the band equipment for S’s Global Warming Party on Saturday, there was a burning-of-the-special-butter incident. Not a pretty smell. Which then permeated everything that had been within a 3 block radius of the house. Including the beanie in the lounge room!! But a good airing on the clothes-line the next day worked wonders. And provided the opportunity to take a pretty photo of the sun shining through the beanie. Did I mention spring is almost here??

Setback 2: In calculating the decreases at the top of the beanie, I thought I would decrease in multiples of 7 – i.e. have 7 decreases running up to the top. So… 112 divided by 7 = 16, therefore I should decrease every 16 stitches right? But instead, I decreased every 7 stitches, and continued thus every second row before realising that I had way too many decreases, and the beanie was going to be incredibly short. (I claim distraction as I was also watching the subtitled ‘Ten Canoes’ at the time!) So… I got to frog for the first time ever! And I found it kind of sadistically exciting. I took advice that I had read somewhere, and picked up the row I was frogging back to on smaller needles, so there were no live stitches to try and catch up when I got back to there. It’s amazing how easily all those time-consuming stitches come undone!! Anyway… I’m back on track now, was able to enjoy the rest of Ten Canoes… and will hopefully get close to finishing the beanie at SnB tonight with plenty of time to spare before Dad’s birthday on Thursday!!

As promised.

Here's the shrug in its' almost-finished glory. Looks like some kind of strange sea creature to me. The sepia photo is because I can't bear what the camera does to the colour!! (need to figure out how to get around that...)

Fluoro

Here's an ugly-looking photo of the shrug-in-progress. It's not as fluoro as it looks in the photo... damn flash! I'll try and get a better one if I'm actually home while the sun's out one of these days! Thanx for the kind words about the bike incident! It's not so much the missing bike that's upsetting us... more just the fact that it happened.

I'm really looking forward to Ms Spider's sock workshop on Sunday! Can't wait! I knit a little swatch out of the green wool I got from the markets and it looks so lovely! Yay!

Shruggy

Here's a progress pic of the shrug I'm making for Mum. I'm making it with Lincraft 'Winter Warmth' wool. I can't get over how delicate and soft it feels! Definitely pleased so far! :) It's basically just a big rectangle, then you sew the arms up and do lots of crochet around the edges. (quite suitable for my skill level!!)

I've been giddily exploring the multitude of Canberran knitting blogs out there! You guys are super impressive!! I feel a bit intimidated... seeing as I'm a very new (and slow) knitter. But I figure writing a blog will keep me motivated to keep up the pace!! (plus, there are just so many things I want to make, and not enough time at all!!) But I look forward to getting along to SnB soon and meeting you all!

We had a great turnout at our Knit 'n Talk Sh!t night on Tuesday. 9 of us!! That's gotta be a record!! A big thanx to E for the yummy dinner :)

Just got in from one of the best movies I've seen in a long while. "As it is in Heaven" - I think it was Danish. It's showing at Dendy... a real 'heart toucher'!! Some incredible characters... I'm not really doing it justice... just go and see it!!

Well... the fire's died down, and my toes are going to fall off if I sit here much longer! Night!