Lace Swap Package

I posted about this earlier today, Donni commented on it, and now the whole post has disappeared?!!

My lace pal sent me a KNITPICKS OPTIONS NEEDLE! Nah nah na-na nah! I'm the king of the castle.

I can't put them down. I IMMEDIATELY cast on for peacock feathers and have done the first chart. (If you look in the picture you can already see the needles are in use on the purple zephyr - less than an hour after the postman come a knocking..)

They are so glorious to knit with. The join is genius, the weight is ducky and they make you feel like a dainty like knitter lady. Considering I have hands like hams this is a pretty good feeling.

And the yarn:

Three hanks of merino lace in lost lake. What beautiful heathering, no photo could do this justice.

Alpaca Cloud in autumn - I love alpaca cloud. If only I wasn't married already.

Shimmer in grape hyacinth. Gorgeous.

STR in a beautiful colourway, watermelon tourmaline, this is perfect. Is going to be pomatomus (just to see what all the fuss is about).

And did I mention - A KNITPICKS OPTION NEEDLE!!??

Dunno what blogger's been up to, but I think it's working now

Catherine thank you so much this was a beautiful gift.

VOILA

What a week

What a week.

Monday: had a work meeting where aforementioned holiday conversation took place.

Tuesday: drove with mum to Sydney (*1) to see my sister who had just returned from overseas. Had to get back by 4:30 to get Louis to an appointment.

Wednesday: Frantically shopping for two appropriate costumes (*2) for book week parade the next day. Swimming lessons at 4pm.

Thursday: Work all day, quick lunchtime sidetrip to the school to watch the character book parade, eat sandwich at desk because I have to leave early.

Drove back to Sydney at 4:30pm to see Cirque De Soleil Varekai (*3), scored corporate hospitality tix thru hubs work. Get to bed 1:30am.

Friday: Blair's Birthday, work all day. Huge urgent mail merge to go out in the post (not usually my thing) before 3pm.

Get costumes back to hire shop, buy party birthday cake ingredients, groceries after work, have little family birthday celebration at home after dinner.

Saturday: Bake the cupcakes for the cupcake tower for next day's kinder girls birthday party. Supervised by six year old with stringent specifications.

Get to doctors for prescription update.

Exchange two pairs of trousers at Department store as don't fit kid 1.

Find and purchase pink three tiered cake stand.

Go to stitch and bitch for a rest between 3 and 5 (the best part so far). Finished second Beaudelaire!!

Frost cupcakes (supervised by six year old with strict specifications)(*4)

Wind off 15 thousand feet of yarn for Donna. (Thanks for the jumbo winder Donni - where would I be without you?)

Sunday: On the home stretch! Get to birthday party with cupcake tower. Have family dinner at mum and dad's with sister and her baby for Blair's birthday.

Put about seven hundred loads of washing away whilst watching Australian Idol.

*1. Sydney is about 160km round trip.
*2. Snow White and Long John Silver were chosen.
*3. If you can, go to this show. If you can get into the Tapas Rouge marquee, you're in for a real treat. Amazing.
*4. Pink frosting, marshmallows round the outside and butterflies in the middle.

Sounded like a good idea at the time.....

I jobshare with a great girl. We get along well, have common interests (she's got three little boys similar in age to my two children) and all in all it's a successful partnership. She works Mon-Wed, I do Thur-Fri - we hardly ever see each other, it's all phone and email and the occassional work lunch event.

So, last week she sends me an email, 'blah blah I'm having annual leave from 14-21st October, been given a great opportunity to go to Phuket for a holiday with some friends, but my husband's not interested so I'm going to go by myself.'.

I reply, 'I hate you. No cooking things you don't want to eat, no schedule monitoring, no lunch packing, no being the homework gestapo, a bit of sarong shopping, reading a book by the pool, eating thai street food, a beer or two in the evenings, relaxing in the outdoor restaurants. A beach stroll before bed. Uninterrupted sleep-in, or early morning swim, whatever takes your fancy. I hate you. Enjoy yourself'.

She replies, 'I couldn't get on the same flight as my friends, or in the same hotel, but I won't let that ruin the opportunity of such a great deal. So, I'm flying alone and staying across the road in a hotel by myself. I can't beleive I'm going to leave the boys at home!'

I reply 'I still don't feel sorry for you. Nice try sunshine.'

When I went in on Monday for a quick meeting, we had a face to face chat. She says 'I'm going with two couples, one with children. The childless couple have said they don't want to be crowded. The family have said the same. I am feeling a bit like a third wheel, but still it's such a good deal.'

We joked about going together, she said 'why don't you?'

I say 'I couldn't leave my family.... No, not possible... absolutely out of the question... umm, I'd have to get mum to do the school thing, um,... I'll talk to Alan tonight'

CONSULTATION

Alan said 'go, you'll love it'

Sister said 'you won't know yourself. Thailand's like an exotic cookery program, you'll love it, especially the food' (can you tell she's just returned from six weeks in gastronomic hell (aka Ireland)?)

Mum said 'do you have to go to tsunami and terrorist riddled Asia? Why can't you go to Noosa instead?'
To this I replied 'so you agree in principle?'

Anyway, it's booked. Paid for. No backing out now.

I am going to Phuket, with a girlfriend, in seven weeks.

Which gives me a whole seven weeks to lose two stone.


And it doesn't sound like such a good idea now, I'm nervous.

Now you see it...

Un est fini the Mystery Stole 2, beautifully designed by Melanie from Pink Lemon Twist. Take a good look now.


A good look.


For the next time you see it, it will be

a) red
b) finished
c) dry
d) beautiful

You know, I've half a mind to felt it. On purpose. I think with a few embellishments like some belly dance costume coins and perhaps some hand painting in gold and purple it would make a lovely wall hanging.

But would I dare? Donni would, she's so brave. I don't know if I'd be able to stomach the fear.

In the meantime, onwards and upwards. Time to cast on for:

a) Beaudelaire the second (already done the toe bit)
b) Frost Flowers and leaves (To be henceforth known as the wombat - eats roots shoots and leaves - bogan Australian humour. For those of you in the dark about this joke it's probably better left unsaid.)
c) Peacock Feathers

I've been looking in the shops at the lovely spring clothes. Methinks me needs a crocheted or lacy bolero with elbow length sleeves. Anyone seen a good pattern for one of these?

Paint your toenails girls - it's spring!

And I feel alive again! Oh how I love the sun.

Look at my sock. See that little cable down the inside? I loved that part so much I would have liked to see it snake right up to my knee, but I was afraid I wouldn't have enough yarn for the second beaudelaire. For there will most certainly be a second beaudelaire. Figure 8 cast on, toe up, quick to knit.

I now realise why I didn't like knitted socks. I'd only ever knitted rib or stocking stitch socks. Lace and cable socks, much better.

Beaudelaire - goes good with red wine

This is what Beaudelaire looked like when I started drinking last night.

And here is what Beaudelaire looked like a few (who's counting?) glasses of cab sav later.



See? It's true, everything goes better with wine.

Enough ranting, what about the knitting?

The lace swap is taking up a bit of my time. I'm loving it actually, although it is a bit stressful. I can't wait to see what everyone is giving their partners.

Here's a sample I made in Debbie Bliss babu cashmerino for our friends new shop. It's so cute on the little mannequin I don't want to give it away.

I ressurected an ancient WIP (my very first blog post!) from the cupboard and refashioned it into the skipping stones afghan from my wish list. An albatross lifted from my neck. Which if you're in explorer you can't see, but its down there on the right.



I also made a big clap.


And a crocheted necklace.

The mystery stole, though beautiful, cannot be photographed because I am knitting it from both ends on one circular so I can't pull it out to show you. Still, only two clues to go and it will be finished. You can wait till then.

Have I missed something?

Ok, so I'm not up there with many things. Someone had to tell me what a dust bunny was, and I'm still not quite sure what it is.

But I've been hearing about something else lately, and I have to ask you.

WTF is a sock monkey?

Humble pie

To anyone who's ever hosted anything I've ever participated in that's gone off smoothly.

I salute you.

This lace swap has only 100 people in it (give or take a few) and I'm not joking when I say it takes MUCH LONGER than I thought to get the matches sorted out.

Be kind to me. I've had a hard day.

Day of Indulgence

My husband gave me, some time ago, an 'indulgence day' gift certificate at a local day spa. It involved the following:

Exfoliating body scrub
Full massage
Manicure
Pedicure
Specially designed facial treatment

God knows how much it cost him. He was positively glowing when he presented it to me.

I acted appropriately delighted. The truth was, I was hoping I could get a refund and buy yarn.

Not wanting to offend, I went, of course.

Relaxation my arse.

Firstly a girl of about 12 said she was going to 'evaluate' my skin. She pushed my cheek up with her finger and pronounced my face was 'dehydrated, lacking elasticity, sun damaged, showing ageing around the eyes and the mouth and in need of exfoliating and a moisture plumping facial treatment'. I ask you, what's so frigging relaxing about having a pre-pubescent twig tell you that??

I wanted to say to her 'wait till you see my bum'. But I couldn't talk - I was too afraid of possibly having bad breath - her face was millimetres away from my own.


Then came the exfoliating scrub. She gave me a surgical g string and a robe. She whispered some inscrutable instruction and left the room.

Oh my good lord. I put it on as quickly as I could - the whole time petrified she might come back and see me naked. The G string was the same at the front and the back, and I hadn't had a bikini wax (which I do myself at home) for months.

I laid face down on the massage table. There was a hole for my face. What I really needed was a big horizontal slot for my breasts as well. Except then they might hang to the ground and graze the carpet. Ugh.

She comes back in and turns the lights down low. I'm certain this is for her own convenience, as I could almost hear her wince in disgust as she floated over, a huge pot of warm moist blue salt in one hand. There was this god-awful music in the background. It was supposed to be foreign and exotic and relaxing. It was just stupid.

Meanwhile, I am trying to clench the fat on my back, in the vain hope that when she starts rubbing that salt on my body, any wave effect might be nullified. Alas, it is not good. Do I have pimples on my bum? I fret. How bad is that cellulite? She rubs and rubs - I feel every excruciating wobble. To add insult to injury (or rub salt into the wound ha ha) she soon runs out of salt, and goes to get another pot. I wonder if I'll be charged extra for having a body so large it needs two pots of salt?

I have to then roll over (in the presence of the waif, in a paper g string and no top on, on a board about 30 cm wide - oh so very elegant) She bites the inside of her cheeks to stop herself laughing. The front is worse than the back - but at least it's over quickly.

You may shower now, she says. And leaves the room. I throw the robe on and shuffle to the shower only to find the water pressure is about as strong as hospital teabags and there is only one temperature - tepid. It takes me about 20 minutes to wash the salt off me. I am pink.

The rest was just a blur. And at the end of it, she fleeced me out of $145 in skin products professionally chosen for my ageworn haggard face.


A day of indulgence. What a crock. Never never never again.


So, darling if your reading this. It was a lovely gesture, but next year, just buy me a webs voucher? That really would be relaxing.


And because I've probably lost you all by now, here is a picture of me at work today trying to sort out all my lace swappers.