Too fast

It's all going too fast. No blogging, a bit of knitting. Some wonderful houseguests, a very sad funeral for a good friends' mother, and a rare and well-timed get-together of six or seven old schoolfriends. A karaoke housewarming. And school holidays coming up next week to boot.

When I come up for air, I'll be back in the saddle. Until then, happy whatever you do.

Jae, got the second part of my present, thank you so much! Love the tea (never had rooibus before), stitchmarkers are gorgeous and can't wait to play with the colour your own yarn. Koolaid is always welcome, it's so hard to get here. You have been unbelievably generous, how wonderful it is to make new friends don't you think?

On that note, I must go tuck some little heads into beds.

x

Nothing like midnight to get your creative juices flowing

Amazing Lace - Challenge 3 - the poem

MY GIFT TO YOU

I cast a little spell in the start up row

You can’t really see it, it's very small

Should you ever get confused and don’t know what to do

That spell will guide you

I wove a little magic into row fifty five

And even when you wash it, it wont’ come out

I found it in the street one day when it glinted in the sun

Use it wisely, I think it’s powerful

I hid a little giggle somewhere near the end

A childish one, a cheeky one, one you might hear in a playground

And some days when it seems a bit overwhelming

I hope you hear that little giggle and it makes you smile

I shed a little tear somewhere in there too

Because some days you might feel like no-one cares

And I want this tear to tell you

That I care, and that if you cry then so do I

So when you wear this thing

Or hold it in your hands and feel how soft it is

Remember it isn’t really delicate, it’s as strong as a river

And that I love you

On a totally different note

If I were to design my dream lace pattern, it would look something like this:


I wonder if this is possible?

National Refugee Day

Let me tell you an actual story.

Last week in Sydney there was a charity function held where the guest speaker was a woman who had spent some time in a refugee camp (not sure where, will check and get back to you). She stood on the podium dressed in a suit wearing makeup and looking just like you or me. But she wasn't just like you or me, because she had endured unbelievable hardship. After she had sought refuge in Australia and been lucky enough to be allowed to stay here, she went back to the refugee camps to help her countrymen as an aid worker.

Roughly paraphrased, here's what she said.

When I was in the refugee camp, we were given three cups of grain which was all they had for us to last one week. I looked at those three cups and I cried in advance of the hunger I knew I was going to endure.

When I went back to those camps as an aid worker ten years later, the weekly grain ration was no longer three cups. It was one cup.

I asked myself then, as I do still now.

Why is the world like this?

So Angelina Jolie was on the tv yesterday supporting National Refugee Day. Her donation, apparently, is that she doesn't charge a fee for her appearance. And she's one of the more active celebrities doing this sort of thing.

Bill Gates is scaling down his hands on work at Microsoft to channel more of his time to his children with aids charity. Apparently this organisation is the largest non-government aid organisation in the world. It is possible that Bill Gates could be instrumental in making a difference to this awful problem, he certainly seems to have the money and the will to do it.

I don't think international aid programs need celebrities. I think they need more stories said personally to you and me like the one said at the function last week. Three cups of grain. One week of food.

I wonder why the world is like this too, while I lament about all those things I don't need. I threw a full container of flour away today because I thought it had been in the cupboard too long.


Let's donate something to someone hungry today.

Social engagements and unleashing the inner dag

It never rains but it pours on this little black duck's dancecard.
On Friday night, the girls from work and I went to seen Bjorn Again.

It was a little lame to tell the truth (imagine that!) and I think most of it wasn't even live. However, that didn't stop me from spontaneously bawling when they sang 'Thank you for the music'. Unleashing my inner dag indeed.

On Saturday, to celebrate in advance my victory in challenge 1 of the amazing lace (can I get and agent now?), I took the laces to the races!



And we shall speak no more of this project, you have my word.

I love the races. It kind of encapsulates a good Catholic's perfect day out - full of alcohol fuelled betting! Anyway, we didn't come away with any extra money, but we kind-of broke even which means for a cheap and honest day out. Marvellous result.

Had a call recently from a friend from Brisbane, wanting to 'book' our spare rooms for her, her husband and her four beautiful daughters to stay with us for a few days at the end of the month. In typical form for this fabulous friend, it appears she's also organised a dinner party at my house for the Thursday night.

She's even extended invitations. Last night I got a call from another mutual friend confirming the arrangements, and indicating the size of the guest list. These are all high school mates, we've known each other for years and have been through what I like to call 'thick and thick' together. Our most binding agent is wine. I'm looking forward to it, but I think I'll have to call in sick on the Friday.

AMAZING LACE UPDATE

I'm sitting out the amazing lace challenge 2, in order to give the others a chance. I did try an Xtreme entry, but I thought it a bit crap, so I didn't enter it.

I've started a print-o-the wave stole for my second team-mate, a kind of mini version. It's looking good so far, although there's only two repeats done of the main pattern.

Challenge 3 involves writing a poem. I'll have to think that one over. I might be a poet, but as yet I don't know it.

To my knitters tea swap pal

Hello stranger!

I got your message, and I can only conclude that customs have the package.

Don't worry, it will come, and you'll be the first to know!

Thank you for checking.

Here comes the bride

It was obvious really. These two were made for each other.

It was a close call if the yarn would make it to the ceremony, here's how much there was left on the cone after finishing the last repeat.



It was almost lunchtime before the bride was able to be pressed and ready for the wedding.


She slid gracefully down the stairs



The groom waited patiently at the bottom



I presided over the union myself




It lasted for hours


They started their honeymoon in a hamaam


And spent their first night together on the spare room floor, stretching their bond.

(No pics - decency prevails)

The next morning they were one



Congratulations to the happy couple.




I'm free now to play the field!

Good sister

My sister wishes it to be known she is strongly against having her image on the internet. She thinks the internet is evil and should be shut down.

However, because she acknowledges that this image is important to me, she got this picture of herself wearing Annie Modisett's silk corset and holding the Amelie jacket (sans sleeves - just couldn't get them to work) from White Lies Designs.

She's a good sister.

The Amazing Lace - I'm a finalist!

I got into the finals of the AMAZING LACE's first challenge!

I have never been so excited in all of my knitting life. Not being sporty, there have been precious few instances where I can remember being a finalist in a competition. Come to think of it, this could be a first!

Unsure of the etiquette in such situations, I don't know if it would be proper to tout for votes blatantly, or let the mechanics of the clickety click readers of the amazing lace blog vote for themselves. But you know, some of these finalists have, like, how do I put this?, um, MASSIVE READERSHIP! Which I don't have at all.

So, throwing caution to the wind and abandoning all modesty -


PLEASE GO HERE AND VOTE FOR ME!!

Do it for Australia.

WARNING - This post has Xtreme content

If I have to endure this endless edging, then so must you gentle reader.

Last night, whilst watching Xtremely stupid tv program, my fingers flew through four repeats of the lace edging. Yipee! I was Xtremely happy, as it sometimes is all I can take to get through five repeats in a whole knitting session before I can't take it any more.

Just as I was beginning the fifth repeat, I noticed something. A little glitch. I looked back.

Xtreme language spurt forth, for I had made an Xtreme mistake!

Xtremely upset was I.

You know, I have always lived by a code. The code is ' to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.'

Behold the code in action.


Oh bugger.

Nike Knitting

Otherwise known as:

Just do it.

Have you ever knitted 84 repeats of a twenty row stitch pattern for an edging, either separately or incrementally attaching it to a shawl/stole?

F**k me it's boring.

When every nerve in your body is saying 'I hate doing this' and your mind is searching the stash cupboard and the bookshelf for another project, anything else that's new, anything but this STUPID BORING STOLE EDGING THAT'S NEVER NEVER NEVER GOING TO END.

So I complained to my husband. His response.

"just do it"

So that's what I'm going to do. For one thing is certain, it really will never end if I don't.

(However, the amigurumi of a very small kitten during the day doesn't count)

Whole lotta knitting going on ..

I finished the trans seasonal piece of shrug, pics at the weekend on the recipient.

In true knitting OCD fashion, I cast on for another one. Pink this time.


Here's the mountain laurel counterpane blanket, in alpaca/silk. It's a real softie.

Donni gave me some beautiful yarn for Christmas, and told me it would make a fine clapotis. Being an obedient friend, I've started it.

The lace stole. Both borders finished, and the edging on the needles. I'm not going to pick up as I go along - after starting to do so I wasnt' happy with the join. I think sewing it on will make the join more invisible, and quicker to knit too.

It's too long to take a photo of the whole thing, so here is just the second border.

Remember this? It's the bear claw blanket. Not much going on here from last time really. What can I say? It's a boring knit. And it has an infinite number of ends to weave in.



That's it for the knitting update.