2006 - the end

Well, 2006 is fini.

And just before I sign off until next year, I'll show you something else that's finished.

OK, so there's a button missing, but they're not the right buttons anyway. This cardigan is so comfortable, fits me perfectly and I'm so proud of myself. To top it off, it's been cold enough to wear it!

Project Specifications:

Pattern: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds by cosmicpluto knits (pdf file)
Yarn: Cleckheaton Country Silk, the crimson colour, about 10 balls
Needle Size: 4mm - gauge pretty spot on
Comments: all in one piece, bottom up, raglan shaping - 12 stitch relief
diamond pattern.




Next year is going to be a year of challenge and change. I'll tell you about it tomorrow (well, maybe not tomorrow as I plan on being hungover - but soon I promise).

My C grade blog

Blogger beta still hasn't invited me to the party. What's so bad about this blog that it can't go? I feel sorry for it.

Our Christmas festivities were wonderful ... here let me show you ...

Christmas goodies:




Carol singing in the tiny village on the coffee table:


The whole village in quiet anticipation on Christmas Eve:


Now, that's the way to watch the Boxing Day test.


And that's the way kids should play.



It's been picnics and beach walks and backyard cricket galore round these here parts the past couple of days. Just like it was when I was a child.


Australia, I love you so much.

Brought a tear to my eye

This email reproduced with kind permission from it's recipient, the beautiful Nikita, lawyer extraordinaire at my workplace. It is from her dad. Jesse is his grandson.

I am still trying to believe that this really happened!...
I'll tell you all about it. But first a little history.
When Jesse started violin I spent a bit of time recording many violin pieces, solos and so on for him to listen to. Among them was Haydn's Op 3. No. 5 'Serenade'. As this is one of my all time favorite pieces of music I developed the fanciful idea that it would be great, -Magnificent even. If Jesse were to one day play this for me. I sent away and obtained the sheet music on which I drew a cartoon and gave it to Jesse. Well that was in '99 and the thought still lingered , more or less as a nice dream.
Today I attended an end of the year concert conducted by Jess' teacher,and,You guessed it... A total surprise!
" Backed by the other members of the quartet. Jesse Morley will now play a piece which he dedicates to his grandfather. Haydn's Serenade"!

I was not the only one who shed tears during this, Very very beautiful!
Love to all. Dad.

Merry Christmas everyone ....

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas ...

The rabbit chewed through 7 vital connections in the home network/tv business at home this week. Husband was not pleased. Am blogging on a wing and prayer connection. There are no batteries for the camera - every time I go out I keep meaning to get some but forgot...

There have been knitting tragedies I cannot speak of. Luckily, some projects are doing okay. The easy ones.

Luckily I was tagged, so I'll do the meme and then I'll sign off till after Christmas and New Year when I'll be undergoing a re-brand of the blog. 2007 is going to spell CHANGE for pick-up-sticks ....

Egg nog or hot chocolate? Ugh to both. Mulled wine please.

Does Father Christmas wrap presents or just set them under the tree? Father Christmas wraps with care, co-ordinated ribbons and bows and boxes and matchy matchy. But he always runs out of paper on the big box at the end and leaves a little peep window.

Coloured lights on tree/house or white? White.

Do you hang mistletoe? No - I'm not climbing up a gum tree that high this time of year, I might catch fire.

When do you put up your decorations? December 1 is the target, but it varies in reality.

What's your favourite Christmas dish? Bread sauce, hands down.

Favourite Christmas memory as a child? We slept out in a tent in the backyard when I was about six or so. I remember the excitement, of not being able to sleep, of being half afraid of the dark and half dying with anticipation in seeing Santa. We woke up at about 3am and went inside to open our presents. Dad got up and yelled at us. Still, it was good while it lasted.

When and how did you learn the truth about Father Christmas? There were some older boys we used to walk to school with, and they told me 'santa's not real, it's your mum and dad'. I was kinda bemused, I don't think I ever did ACTUALLY believe in santa. It probably didn't help that one Christmas Eve I was awoken by the sound of mum and dad playing with our toys under the tree!

Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Nope. But I might start that tradition when the kids grow out of santa.

How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Different every year, this year it's gelato coloured (mainly pistachio green and pink) and it's my favourite ever.

Snow! Love it or dread it? WTF this has to do with Christmas has got me beat. We usually go to the beach for a swim and lie in front of the air-conditioning vent after christmas dinner, watching raging bushfires on tv news.

Can you ice skate? I have no idea. Is it hard?

Do you remember your favourite gift? My favourite gift was a magnetic poetry kit when I was in London, probably around 1995-1996. There were three of us Aussie girls 'orphaned' over there and we stayed together on Christmas Eve and had champagne and stilton on croissants for breakfast. We sat in our jammies on the kitchen tiles and wrote rude poems on the fridge - it was a kind of liberated not to have any family commitments and to be necking champagne at that hour.

What's the most important thing about Christmas for you? Keeping the peace. - ie: making sure no-one in my family gets drunk and has an argument.

What's your favourite Christmas dessert? There is only one Christmas dessert for me, trifle.

What's your favourite Christmas tradition? Leaving out the cake, carrots, water and beer or soft drink for santa and the reindeer.

What tops your tree? A slightly loony cone shaped multicoloured snipped tin santa. Last year it was a very serious angel, usually it is a silver star.

Which do you prefer: giving or receiving? It's a 50/50 split.

What's your favourite Christmas song? Hate Bing. Hate jazzy carols. Love choir boys and gregorian chanters. Favourite non-religious: little drummer boy. Favourite religious carol: gloria

Candy canes? Never bought one, never eaten one. Probably never will.

An old wive's tale

Well, I guess I'm not that old.

Last weekend the Mog and I went to say farewell to Jussi, who is about to leave Sydney to return to her beloved New Zealand. Our loss is New Zealand's gain, it's a bittersweet farewell.

I arrived around 1:30 - having eaten nothing at all that day (not even coffee). I was ravenous. Luckily for me, the hostess is one of those crafty types. You know the ones, they like to knit and sew and bake. Maybe you've met people like this before. Apparently it's a dying art, the knit/sew/bake combination. However, I sarcastically digress.

There were coconut scrolls (like cinammon scrolls but fairer, heavy with coconut syrup) gently baked till squishy and soft - perfect with the organic pressed coffee. I delicately enjoyed (or wolfed down perhaps) several of these. Caramel cake. Cookies. Home made baked cheese cake.

Moving on to the second course, there was a plethora of cheese. Fetta, bocconcini, dippy stuff. I ate a lot of cheese. I went back for about three lots of seconds of the cheese plate. I'm all about the cheese. Forget the chocolate, give me the cheese. It was the perfect accompaniment to the champagne profferred by the scary-lookng but perfectly-mannered Flash.

That night (which thankfully for all of us was in my own bed, having almost decided to get hammered and sleep on J's floor - uninvited I might add) I had wild swirly complex dreams involving people and water and swimming. A huge epic dream/nightmare that shifted from time and place - one minute I was a child (and mother at the same time), I was happily married to my husband but living with someone else, people I haven't seen for thirty years flew in and out of the multicoloured jumbled mess of events that flashed and flickered on the movie screen behind my eyes.

It was a glorious shambles of a dream, from which I awoke both refreshed and exhausted - like you do when you read long, sad but beautiful novels. The moment I awoke the details were fresh, now I can't remember anything about it except it was very intense and strongly emotive.

Now we all know it was the cheese.

And here's a picture of the goat-fleece she served up for us to eat. Yum.



That's a witty-knitter's hand holding the pashmak. Mary-Helen and Anne Marie are such wonderful company - they make me want to go back to postgraduate study, to learn to snowboard, to do all those things that are on the list that I ignore each day. I like people who give you energy, rather than take it away. Mary Helen had a close call on the fortunate side when she bound off a sleeve cap with only about 3cm of yarn left over, and no more as back up. Phew.

Speaking of energy, A disco knitter was there as well. Now she's a real racontueur that one. Her assertion that we were all cunning linguists was pretty hilarious. And, she was the epitomy of grace under fire as she had just sufferred a bit of a blow at home the previous day, but didn't mention it at all and breezed through the afternoon giving us all a breath of fresh air. And she helps me understand my rabbit!

Donna and Donni were there too. I see them much more often, so I'm closer to them. It would be kinda wierd to talk about how great they are. They don't suck. How's that for gushy?

Here's a view from Jussi's rooftop. It's the non-tourist Sydney Icon, the Anzac Bridge. Not the bridge you're used to seeing.


Also, it has been noted on the internets that I looked like complete shit that day. The camera, she doesn't lie. Please accept my apologies - it's hard to make a silk purse from a sow's ear.

It's all about knitting

The candle flame wrap is coming along nicely, albeit slowly.




Lucy in the sky isn't doing too bad either.




See these bags? I can get them for about $6 a pop in a local gift shop. I buy them all the time, they make great knitting pouches.

Toodle pip.

PANIC IN THE OFFICE

Guess What??

The Independant Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) stormed one of the floors of our offices today, in an unannounced RAID!!

Let's see who's had their hand in the cookie jar shall we?

Stay tuned to the news. Either here or, if you prefer a version related to facts, in the newspapers.

Now that's decent water cooler conversation.

Even better though, DICKO is coming back to idol next year! Told you so.

The myth of stash

When it comes to my knitting, I am pattern driven. I'm a knitting pattern omnivore, I consume the magazines, the blogs, the freebies and the books with pretty much equal relish.

If I see a pattern I really like, a feel like I must knit it that very instant. There is a little adrenalin rush, a little excitement about choosing the yarn and the colour, and almost always involves a yarn purchase. My yarn choice is pattern driven, and since I can't predict my pattern tastes in advance, it is unlikely that any stash yarn (except the laceweight) will be suitable for the crucial knitting project that must be started IMMEDIATELY.


Over the past few years there have been a few patterns I have yearned for but have never knitted because the price of the yarn has been too steep. Kidsilk haze, for example, for that butterfly tank. Never owned a ball of it - always wanted to knit with it. But I'm over the butterfly tank now.



Muench Touch Me, always wanted to knit the vintage velvet scarf from scarf style, never could afford it.




I should just buy the yarn I want for the project I want to knit, ONE PROJECT AT A TIME, and then knit it. Choose another project, buy the yarn, knit it, and so on. Since I'm pretty strict on only having three or so projects on the go at once, this would lead to pretty sporadic yarn buying, and no false investment in stash.

But I'm a slow learner.

I've spent hundreds and hundreds on co-opped zephyr, some microscopically fine boucle mohair that I liked the name of, even though I had never seen it, random numbers of balls of cashmere/merino yarns, dishcloth cottons, feltable wools, ebay impulse buys etc etc etc. I could have just dropped the one hundred on the Muench and been done with it.

Those hundreds of dollars worth of yarn in the cupboard will never be used.

My 2007 knitting wishlist, how much of it can I use stash yarn for?

Let us see:

The Nantucket jacket in the Winter Interweave knits - need to purchase yarn
Frost Flowers and Leaves shawl from a Gathering of Lace - may need to purchase yarn
Reid Cardigan from knitty for Blair - probably have stash for it, depends on gauge.
A second pair of beuaudelaire socks - can use stash.
A Victorian Lace book project. Or two. - will more than likely purchase yarn
Vaanalin gloves from a gatherin of lace - will probably need to buy yarn
A pullover for husband - definitely need to buy yarn
Eunny Jang's fair isle vest from her site - definitely need to buy yarn.
A modular wrap from a back issue of vogue knitting I saw a few days ago - definitely need to buy yarn.
The vintage velvet scarf from scarf style - got the yarn as a gift!!!!
The chanel bag from Magknits - can knit from stash.


Items I'm knitting now, did I use stash for them?

Lucy in the Sky Cardigan - had planned on using stash, bought ten balls of cashmino only to find gauge was too fine, ended up having to buy more yarn.

Rose Of England Shawl - had to buy crochet cotton for this knit.

Green Cardigan of own design - had to buy yarn for this.

Candle Flame Shawl - had to buy yarn for this too.


So then, what's in the stash?

A pack of heirloom cotton for knitty's reid - no idea if guage will be correct, I suspect it will be too thin a yarn for the job.

A pack of heirloom cashmerino in blood red - this was for the diamonds cardigan, but I swatched too fine a guage for it, so I had to buy a different yarn. Now I don't know what to do with this yarn.

A full cone of zephyr in 'steel' colour - for FFL. Maybe. Still, I'm sure I'll do something with it. It is silver after all, next winter's hot colour. If it doesn't get knitted by next June it will be so yesterday.

Eight balls of cashmerino in dusty rose - this was also for the Reid but I prefer the cotton. Perhaps I'll use it for the beaudelaire's. There'll be five balls left over then, not enough to do anything with really.

Four balls of cashmerino in green - for the sleeves of an unfinished cardigan - I will do them.

A skein of noro kureyon - no idea what to do with this.

Four balls of extra fine boucle mohair from Be Sweet - no idea what to do with this or why I bought it.

Four balls of mohair blend yarn in black - for a scarf for mum that isn't even on the wish list.

Two balls of Aurora 8 - no idea what to do with this. Not enough for anything really. Pretty colour. Maybe I'll make some gloves with it, if it isn't too thick. One day.

Three hanks of meino that I hand-painted - I'll knit a dog coat for my sister's dog, not on the wish list either.

Two balls of kitchen cotton - for face cloths not on the list.

Two hanks of Lorna's Laces sock yarn - unknown project.

Three hanks of knitpicks alpaca cloud - for the beauty of it. As yet unchosen shawl. It is a beautiful colour. I will definitely knit this.

1/2 lb zephyr in ladyslippet - As yet unchosen shawl. The colour isn't quite what I was expecting.

1/2 lb zephyr in blueberry - As yet unchosen shawl. I do like the colour though.

100g handpainted zephyr in dark moody colours - As yet unchosen shawl.

Three balls of silk/cotton crochet yarn - failed ebay purchase for what I don't know. I've had this so long I should just chuck it out.

Four balls of berocco suede - I was so insistent on making that knitting bag they had on their site about a year ago, I bought the yarn on ebay immediately. The idea doesn't seem so appealing now - maybe I'll do the smaller chanel bag from magknits in this instead.

Four balls of alpaca silk in a winey colour - internet buy, colour not as nice as I'd thought. Have started a blanket with the other six balls. So, if the UFO is ever picked up again, this is the yarn for the job.

Two balls of grey zhivago - I dont' know what I'll do with this.

A hank of merino/silk sock yarn - probably not enough for two socks. Unrepeatable colourway from the US.

Several balls of varegated yarns in different weights and colours I'm not in love with, mostly hand dyed by self - will never knit these.

Loads of single balls and leftover lace weight yarn of dubious quantities and usefulness.

Basically, my stash is not helping me with the wish list. So, in order to knit anything I really want I'll have to buy more yarn. Which kind of makes the stash redundant.

See? That's a fair amount of money dropped on yarn (and I've just sold 150 bucks of stash) and for what? I may never use this yarn. Stashing yarn is a myth.

I can stop any time I want.