Second time round

Suffering under the obviously flawed impression that the heel on the second sock would be easier to turn than the first one (or at least equally easy), I foolishly tried to watch TV in the break room at work today at the same time as turning the heel. A trick for young players... I stuffed up in trying to continue the pattern on top of the foot... so am now going to attempt to fix it with a crochet hook without tinking back (which would involve dropping all my 'picked-up' stitches from the side of the heel, which I don't want to do!!). Wish me luck :)
See you all at Floriade on Sunday... can't wait!!! :)

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!)

Visuals

Lovely evening of knitting tonight at the Front! Nice to see all you ladies and meet some new people too. A big thanks to Paul the lovely owner for letting us hang out there!

Here are a couple of photos of yarny goodness...

On our dyeing night at H's, we had a really nice bottle of wine, which we really wanted to drink...but couldn't open due to a lack of a corkscrew! So, we gave it a go with H's pocket knife... the cork broke... we scratched our heads for a while, then I randomly turned up on the doorstep of some mates of mine who live down the street from H asking to borrow their corkscrew!! The long and short of it was that we ended up needing to filter bits of cork out of the wine... so here is H pouring our wine out of the coffee plunger!! :) I love it! (Note the wool dyeing in the background!)

Our finished product hanging up to dry. We followed Ms Spideys instructions for dyeing with food colouring. Great results for a first try we thought! (but Ms Spidey, how do you get the vinegar smell out of the wool?)

And here is my stash all systemised!! The nice purple and blue wool right in the middle of the shot is some gorgeous hand dyed mohair Mr Purl's mum bought me when I was going through my quarter life crisis. Isn't she sweet?? That's the kind of future MIL a girl wants!! Now all that remains is to figure out what to make with it!!?

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!!!

Simple Joy

I'm amazed how little time I've had this past week!! I've barely had time to turn the computer on, let alone blog or read/comment on everyone else's blogs. Where does all the time go? Partially to being sick I spose. And partially to catching up on a serious backlog of housework. And a big part to starting an exhausting new job!! (and very little to knitting unfortunately!) Anyway... here I am now. Procrastinating about cleaning the bathroom... feeling like I really should be in bed. But here are some long awaited (well for me anyway) pics of my finished objects.
Mum looking lovely in her shrug... which she LOVES!! (thanx for loving it mum!)

And Dad's beanie and with the last minute card I made for him. In the end I think the beanie was a bit too short. There's probably something to be said for following a pattern...

Thanks to everyone for all your kind words! This week is going really well. The kids are really fun (except when they're being little monsters)! And some moments are just magic... like when a helicopter flies over the yard, and the sheer joy they derive from that... I can't help wondering if the pilot realises quite how much joy she is causing??
And today while we enjoyed the gorgeous sunshine, we went blossom-spotting in the yard, and talked about spring and sang a spring song. Not a bad way to spend your afternoon really...

I sneeze when I look into the sun today

Well... I'm still alive (just!). In case some of you were wondering!!
What a week!! My first week of childcare has been thoroughly exhausting!! I think I caught every single virus that every kiddy in the centre has... all at once! Aargh! Then a fairly traumatic day at work on Friday left me absolutely floored! Hey... it can only get easier from here on in! On the up side, every one is nice, the kids are cute, and I'm settling in well.
Also last week I finished Mum's shrug. She loved it!! I have pics of it and Dad's beanie to post. Super soon, I promise!! Now... I'm due in bed!
Hugs to all for their well wishes the past couple of weeks!
Oh and hooray for the 18 degree day (though maybe it was warmer than that?) And to 5 loads of washing all drying today!!

Two more days

Thanks everyone for your kind words about my life changes... they make it all a bit easier!! Thanx in particular to Mez, my beautiful colleague from SA... I'll miss you the most... but will still be in contact of course!

Slogging my way through the last week at work has been tough... but it's been cheered by a couple of lovely nights of knitting!! The first Inner North SnB happened at the Front cafe and gallery on Monday night. It was great to meet Mick finally, and all the other lovely knitters who I hadn't met before!! We had a great old chatty time, and discovered a few more instances of what a small city/country it is!!

Then last night was a lovely Knit and Talk Sh!t at R's house... with her two big husky dogs very intrigued by all the knitting folk!!! :) Thanks to K for the delicious roo stew!!

AND... 2 hours before his birthday (today) I finished Dad's beanie!!! Got up early this morning to block it... I was a bit disappointed that I couldn't hear the air fizzing out of the wool like George did... because I was quite excited about the prospect of that!! :) So it's sitting obediantly at home now drying out... and will be all ready to give to Dad when I see him tomorrow night! I'm pretty happy with how it turned out... maybe a bit too short, but ah well, I spose that's what I get for not following a pattern! I'll post a pic of the finished object soon!

I'm excited to do some work on the lovely turtle walk socks this weekend!! (I'm going to be hanging out with Mum and Dad, so I can't work on the last little bit of mum's shrug - which I need to finish off sometime between now and next Wednesday...)