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!

Hooray socks!

Well... I've been realising that I may not actually have time in my life to upkeep a blog. But ah well... I'll do what I can!!
Anyway... excitingly... here are some pics of the turtle walk socks!! YAY for my first pair of socks ever!!! A big thanks to Spidey for the expert guidance in her sock workshop, which definitely gave me the confidence to try making a pair of socks at all!! These are for my sister, who I'm pretty confident doesn't read my blog, so I should be safe to post the photos here!

This photo is taken on Lady Musgrave Island... where Mr Purl proposed... of the fresh bebe turtle tracks in the morning... my very own 'turtle walk'!! :)

Oh...

Oh my goodness! Apparently I had signed up for Ravelry... and then promptly forgotten! So I'd never been checking where I was up to on the waiting list etc, because I didn't realise I was on it!! Then this evening, trawling through my junk mail folder I found an invite!!!! Craziness!! I spose I'd better say goodbye to that last sliver of time I had!!

In other news... I've signed up for the Southern Summer of Socks. Here are my personal goals for the KAL as posted on the SSS blog:

1)To knit my second pair of socks ever... from wool I've dyed myself (my first foray into dyeing - yay!)
2)Potentially knit my third pair of socks ever... from the very special 'purple trainwreck' colourway, hopefully coming my way from the lovely Julie, care of the lovely Bells!! These socks will definitely be for ME! (also a first...)

And... excitingly, I've finally finished the turtle walk socks!! What an incredibly satisfying feeling to have made my first pair of socks and have them turn out roughly the same size etc!! Sorry for the lack of photo... one coming soon!

Monogamy is boring!

As much as I'm loving knitting the turtle walk socks... I keep finding myself dreaming about all the projects I want to start! It would be nice to have a couple of other things on the go to be able to mix it up a bit! I've ordered some cotton from Bendigo to start on a present for E's baby... which is due in a month! I'd better get moving :)

It was a lovely weekend (hooray for the long variety!). Saturday saw me up early at a yoga class... I was dubious about having to get up at 7 on a weekend, but it turned out to be a lovely way to start the day... and even lovelier when Mr Purl met me for brekkie at Cornucopia afterwards. We got the last two chicken, almond and mushroom croissants! Woohoo! (they're seriously yummy if you haven't tried one before!). Then we explored Floriade with our favourite 2 3/4 year old (Mr Purl's goddaughter)... taking in the ferris wheel and the petting paddock in particular. Then hanging out with our favourite 8 month old, and a delicious bbq lunch... then dinner at E's house (perhaps the last dinner party before the bub?). It was a lovely, bonding day!
Sunday, I was very excited to go and hang out at Floriade and knit with Aunty Daisy and Margaret -the Indigenous ladies from the Alice Springs Beanie Festival. It was really fun... it was a shame not to see more SnBers there! (there were only the two of us, aswell as one newbie and a couple of ladies from the spinning guild). None the less it was lovely... just sitting around knitting together, without having to say much at all. Some local people came and gave 'Aunty' a traditional 'welcome to country'... and the respect they showed her, and the way they treated her as part of their family was incredibly touching and brought a tear to a few eyes. So we sat and knitted for a fair while... the only weird bit was the huge crowd that kept gathering around to watch... presumably they were watching the indigenous ladies and not us as such... but it did feel a bit like being an animal in a zoo.
Then I popped past the Old Bus Depot Markets to say hi to our mates who have just taken over the Portuguese food place. I was drooling over the gorgeous bits of fabric... sorry, 'fat quarters' (I have no idea what that means!) at the Japanese stall... and thought "stuff it, it's expensive, but I'm going to buy some because they're pretty and I might find something incredibly inspired to do with them down the track!"

Aren't they prerty??

Yay! I kind of made this decision that I don't have to have any particular project in mind to buy the odd little bits of fabric or yarn... I'll find things I can use them on :). Probably not the ideal attitude seeing as my stash is outgrowing the bottom of my wardrobe, and Mr Purl has learnt the expression SABLE (don't think I'm quite at that point yet though). But hey....

Oh, and I'm getting really excited about the prospect of learning to spin! Now all I need is a drop spindle (anyone know where I can buy one in Canberra?) and someone to teach me (anyone want to teach me?)!!

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!)