Now that's better

In unrelated news, I put two items in the Royal Easter Show this year.

The Shetland Sampler Stole and Peacock Feathers Shawl.

Both of them recieved highly commended awards. I really am dumbstruck.

Speaking of not pretty

I'm going to the hairdresser today.

Do you think I need to?

Mulesing

I don't believe in docking dogs.

However, I'm not so sure about mulesing.

What I do know about mulesing is that it ain't pretty, but if it isn't practiced, millions of sheep a year would be eaten alive from the inside out by maggots. I can't imagine a worse suffering for an animal, can you?

I beleive that a lot of the pressure being put on the Australian Wool Industry bodies from the international community is from people who really don't know that to ban mulesing without a viable alternative would lead to 85% of sheep in Australia dying from flystrike.

And what I do know about farmers is that in my experience, they do care about the welfare of their animals, even if it is motivated by monetary gain.

What I think I do know (I can only go by what I've read and heard in the media - and that's all manipulated to sell a point of view) is that there are no viable alternatives at the present time, although there is a lot of research being carried out to try and develop a practical alternative.

One of the alternatives is a protein which stops the growth of wool around the area affected by flystrike.

When an alternative is available, Australian farmers will use it.

Am I being naiive? If you know more about mulesing (I bet you do Lara) then tell me, please, because I'd like to be able to see a balanced view.

Have you seen this project?

MISSING - UNFINISHED KNITTING PROJECT

Photograph of candle flame wrap just days before it's disappearance.

Name: Candle Flame Wrap
Last Seen: January 2007
Description: Candle Flame wrap, Debbie Bliss Pure silk in magenta
still on needles.
Disttinctive smell.
Last seen in cupboard, but details unclear.
Mother distraught.

You know when you have the urge to work on a particular project, and even if you have ten projects otn, nothing else will do it for you until you get your paws on the thing you wanted in the first place?

Well, yesterday I found this post from Pamela Lee, and then later in the day I heard mention of the same shawl on Sticks and String podcast, and that made me want to get out my own candle flame and finish it off. It's really close now, only one and a half hanks away from the end. (By the way PL, your shawl is incredibly beautiful - want one exactly the same now)

So I went to get it out, and discovered the awful truth - someone (a knitcat burglar?) has stolen my candle flame wrap.

I hope I didn't leave it at stitch and bitch. Maybe I'll give them a ring.

I didn't leave it at your house did I?

My hundred metre a day habit

I have a hundred metre a day habit. Yesterday though, I took too much and did three hundred metres. I will cut down, I promise.

Because all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, in addition to knitting whimsy for the exhibition, I've also not neglected myself.

Progress report on 'flair' by knit and tonic.

Version 1
(Note to self: use 'fill-flash' on the camera)

Made in Rare Yarns Rare Fire Jewels yarn in about it's fifth incarnation.

Modifications made to the pattern: I made the moss stitch collar bigger so it would stand up and be more funnel like.

Comments: Let me tell something to you. These mannequins make everything look good. It isn't really proportionately correct and doesn't look so good (on me at least) - I miscalculated the gauge calculations. It may never get sleeves, and may never see the light of day again, which explains why it's pensively looking out of the window in a sulk.

(Well I'm not talking to you either Ms cardigan)


Version 2.



Ahh, now this one is more like it.

Even though the bottom is a bit scrunched up in the pic (it's still on the needle). It's made from Patons Jet, the alpaca not the vintage one, in the charcoal tweedy colour. I'm going to make it a bit longer than the first one to make it more Jean Shrimpton and less Sherlock Holmes.

Really pleased with how this is going.

Now I need to get out and find another 6.5mm circ to finish the sleeves.

Knitting Pretty

(Bridal Purse from a Gathering of Lace)


I've taken this new job. Even though it's 'beneath me' - as my kind sister so bluntly put and thus made me disappointed with myself, I get time to knit*. Which makes it the perfect job for me. If only the pay was better.

In case you think it's all bitch bitch bitch I'll let you in on a secret. I supressed a strong desire to write a post about a blog genre which was so nasty even I thought it might be below the belt. It was gold though.

To be fair, there have been some nice things happening:


I've been baking:


(crochet cupcakes here, knitted cherry pie here)




Gardening:




(crochet rosetters here)

Done the dishes:


(fleur de lys shadow knit dishcloth here)

Thank God It's Friday.


Would you like a cup of tea?



(tea cosy from Crochetroo - isn't it FAB!?)

Or join me in a glass of wine.



(One skein kureyon wine cozy - here - I modified mine a bit)

All of the above for the Wollongong Stitch n Bitch Exhibition.

You coming or what?



*I also get to ogle hot surfie guys, chat up lifeguards and ride on a quad bike - so it's not all bad! Oh, and someone brings me breakfast ON A TRAY!!!

I'm on a bitch-roll this week!

I'm a real bitch this week - and I'm not holding back. If you're reading this, you're getting the full force of my unsavoury opinions.

I've just downloaded a knitting podcast to listen to while I finish these cupcakes. Got a few hours up my sleeve so was planning on a luxurious sit, work, listen moment.

This is the podcast. what a brave linker I am. But I am small and insignificant and she is big and popular so I'm sure she can take it.

I had to close it down after five minutes. Firstly, it started with a really dumb (but title-appropriate) song which went on for too long and thus flogged the dead horse instead of making a humourous point. A few birthday wishes. So far, not so bad.

Then she enters into an unbelievably LONG and BORING story about her health. Firstly, she was exposed to Hep A by a waiter/ress at a restaurant two months ago and is getting a blood test. Not because she's worried about her health, but because she got sick soon after (aka a croaky voice kind of sick) - and then it goes on and on about her 'crowd deafness', her 'allergy' to feather pillows, the details of her cold symptoms and so on. And on. Just when I was ranting at her to shut the fuck up about her health, she THEN proceeds to tell me about her sore shoulder, and how she's had to adjust her bed to alleviate the agony. At this point I shut it down.

I have no idea if the knitting content was worth listening to, I didn't hang around long enough to find out, although the show notes sounded promising.

Podcasting is a relatively new media, and sometimes I think you can tell. It reminds me of what listening to the radio must have been like when the radio was first invented, and the announcers felt compelled to over-explain and announce everything they were doing.

There's probably no need to say 'Now we are going to have a song by a band' - and then after the song say 'that was a song by a band'. Also, opening the show with an apology about the technological failure or whatever is pointless, and smacks of inexperience.

I like podcasts about knitting. I've liked Knitcast the most (on a break at the mo), and recently I've enjoyed BritKnitCast , Sticks and String is great because of the local content, and I've liked Cast On.

I'm about to give Lime and Violet a listen (I've heard good reports) so I'm not totally put off.

My advice to podcasters (for what it's worth)

I think it comes down to the format. I'd like to hear the format go like this: Open the show, talk about the knitting or do your interview, leave the credits and thankyou's and airkissing to the end (not the beginning) and then say goodbye. Don't rave on about where you got the music from, I assume if you've put it up there you've done your copyright homework, just acknowledge and be done with it.

Don't tell me anything about your personal life (god forbid not your boring health) unless it's BRIEF, relevant, out of the ordinary or funny or is intrinsically part of the nature of the show. Oh, and if you talk about more than one ailment in an episode, you sound like a valetudinarian.

I'm going back to podcast alley for another look.

this is cool

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

from glacia and radmilla - i heart them chicks (even if i'm too lazy to link them properly)

am holding half-crocheted cupcake in left hand, so this post is being typed one-handed. hence the absence of proper punctuation and capitals.

Mad at Target

So, remember on Monday when I said that the local Target still had Stella McCartney at 1 o'clock. And, the comment about struggletown?

Well I spoke too soon. Because the range didn't sell out by the first day, at 4 o'clock Target at Stocklands Shellharbour packed the ENTIRE range up and sent it to Westfield Miranda.

Take that you of limited means. If you don't buy it fast enough for the executives, they'll take it away from you. Not that you deserve it, I mean, you're poor. And too stupid to know a fashionista opportunity when you see one. You didn't deserve Stella in the first place. Get thee back to supre where thou belongs.

I'm mad at Target.

Thank you for letting me get that off my chest.

The buying diet hasn't started yet..

So I went to the local Target today and tried on the entire range of Stella McCartney clothes.

However, when designing her range, it appears that there is a physical characteristic that I have that seems to preclude me from being able to wear the clothes and look any good in them. That physical characteristic is breasts.

Silly me, I thought the range was designed for women, not boys.

(BTW - in the demographic where I live there was plenty still there at noon, and I'd say if I wanted to go back and get that top that looked not too bad I could still do so in the morning. Struggletown has it's advantages sometimes, if you're not struggling that is)

I'll let you know.

In which she goes on about Al Gore being a hypocrite - and Martha Stewart gets a slap too.

Today's opinion brought to you by the local rag I read yesterday.

I'm going to conduct an economic/ecological experiment in my house, and NOT because it's tres tres fashionable darling. Because I care, I really do, about the state of the environment.

I care at least as much as Toni Collette, who drives a hybrid car when she's at the Sydney one of her several energy sucking homes, and whose lifestyle otherwise contributes untold amounts of carbon emissions by virtue of how much international travel she does. Which, of course, is not her fault, it's her job. If it wasn't for the stupid job she does, she'd be FAR SUPERIOR than you in her energy emissions. She drives a hybrid car. She sings a serious song about carbon emissions. See, MUCH better than you.

I care at least as much as Al Gore, who by working tirelessly to raise the awareness of Al Gore, is raising the awareness of global emissions as a bonus by-product of his own emissions. If it wasn't for the international travel and his energy-astro lifestyle, you wouldn't be able to call him a hypocrite. He too, if it weren't for the fact that he's not, is MUCH better than you at saving the environment.

I hear those new Martha Stewart project homes have been designed deliberately without outdoor clothes drying apparatus. Apparently they're aesthetically on the nose. Well Martha we all know that more electricity used in a house hold equals more class, don't we? After all, it's only the poor/stupid/common who would allow something so horrid as a clothesline in the backyard - I mean just out there for anyone to see. Can you believe some people don't even have the common decency to build a fence around it, what ignorant scum.

Those with any idea about design or aesthetics would know that something so grossly visually unappealing as wet clean clothes or the apparatus for airing such unmentionables must be kept from sight (or better still, not exist at all) lest you be percieved as one of those tawdry laundry-doing ignorant prollies. Whom of course, are the antithesis of style - the completely unruffled, simple, beautiful, effortless and magically clean style of the magazines (and, now that I think about it, some of the blogs I read).

Now, whilst I'm slagging off the huge environmental footprints of the rich and famous, my own emissions have been the source of some personal consternation of late. My house has two air-conditioning systems, one ducted, one reverse cycle. I don't hose the lawn but I do have a leaky swimming pool. I have a massive washing machine, and in spite of what I say above, I do use a clothes dryer fairly often. I only recycle when I can be bothered. I don't compost. I overconsume.

And, I'm completely sick of the 'you're unacceptable' feeling I get from the renovation tv shows, fashion magazines, mailbox catalogues etc., etc., etc. I'm such a sucker - the house will be finished when I get a new deck, new paint, new carpet, new window coverings, new furniture. I don't have anything to wear for the such and such, buy something new. I need a new pair of shoes. The kids need new games for the playstation and wii. New new new new new. I'm so SICK of new.

I've got enough of my shit together. I think it's time I stopped planning my life and started living it.

So, come April 1 - I am going to go three months without buying anything new.

Here are my rules:

Yarn is not included in the deal (well, duh)
If it can be bought from the supermarket I can have it (normal supermarkets, not the central aisle of ALDI)
Ditto the bottle shop
Basic children's clothing is ok.
A single service-type purchase (eg: haircut) is allowed.
If I lose 10 kilos I can buy one outfit.
Second hand from opshops is ok but no ebay.


So, in the lead up to this big non-event, there's two things I realy NEED.

One is Stella McCartney for Target - released tomorrow.

The other is a trug for recycling.

And, in the interests of true disclosure, I fully intend to get these if I save any money in my three month no buy experiment.



Hands up who thinks I can't do it? Hands up who wants to do it with me?

Here here

I read a post the other day that really resonated with me. Loved it. It's about opinions, and how the absence of one does not equal the presence of another.

You should read it, you'll probably like it too. And if you don't, then you love Kim-Jong II and want to have his babies as well.

Wouldn't you love one of these?

I won't be reading this book

Because, bejeezus, I should have frigging WRITTEN this book! (kicking self for not doing so when idea came to self two years ago)

Has that ever happened to you? Had a great idea, didn't do anything about it and then someone else has the same idea and brings it to fruition better than you could have?

(The yarn astute amongst you will note that the illustrated cover shot is probably rowan's kidsilk haze, although the colours are inscrutable.)

Electrical Storm

Any old punk/indie fans remember that Ed Kueupper song? Man I used to love that song.

I swear it's rained more here in the last two weeks than it has in the last two years. I hope it's getting on those feed crops, I beleive there's some hungry sheep out there in the drought stricken farms.

The past weeks have been heavy and humid, with air like soup. Weather which makes for wonderful electrical storms in the evenings. And I love my electrical storms, always have, all my life. I could sit out on my back porch and watch the lightning crack over the sea all night.

Like fireworks, but better because it's from nature, and she rarely gets it wrong when she wants to turn on the spectacular, doncha think?

There's this local guy, a friend of Tianne's I figure, who takes photos of storms. (Apparently he's not alone). Anyway, check this picture he took of a storm on the lake in our area.


How good is this?

What a weekend

I've had the busiest weekend, which is unusual for me.

Saturday morning I started my new job - I did a four hour training shift (where did that other one go? I can't find it anywhere ...) at 8:00am, shot a short film in the afternoon at the local art gallery (my friend Nikki was the director/writer/everything else) and there were REAL ACTORS as extras. I had a two line part. It was a fun but exhausting process.

Sunday morning I did another training shift at the new job (can't be that bad, I went back a second time) and then played lawn bowls with the old work social club, it was WAAAY to hot for anything more strenuous, but at least you can drink beer whilst playing lawn bowls.

Have you ever played lawn bowls? It's such fun, not too strenuous, not too difficult, nice and competitive and the boys and girls can do it together, but best of all you can do it barefoot. Those oldies are really onto something there, it's a great afternoon's activity.

As for the knitting, I've abandoned all personal projects and am now concentrating full time on the April snb exhibition knitting. I've earmarked six little projects to get done in the sixish weeks left, am on project 2 so maybe there might be time to get another shawl done I hope. My two favourite ones (shetland tea and peacock feathers) will be unable to be displayed on the day because they're going to the easter show as entries (v apprehensive about this, am I making a fool of myself?) on the 23rd March.

Right now I've got to clear the dinner dishes, get the kids off to bed, sort out the uniforms and my work clothes for tomorrow as I start at 8:00am again, pack the lunches for school, check homework, tidy up the living room from the after-school apocolypse. Where is that husband of mine? I think he works late just to avoid this.


Please excuse the brevity.

All class I ain't

Today, after going to a group with my friend Donna, which is top-secret but may involve the counting of points and writing down what you eat, I went to the mega mall and sat in a huge massage chair and had a pedicure in one of those big nail bar chains.

While those mechanical fingers circled themselves up and down my spine, they somehow channelled the taste of a bingo playing pensioner from Vegas into my nerve endings.

Because, after choosing my nail colour (mistake 1) I went to a jeweller to buy a watch to replace mine which I haven't been able to find since we went camping the other weekend (mistake 2).

On the way home I looked at my blue-black metallic toenails and the 4cm wide gold bracelet watch encrusted with baguette shaped zwaroski crystals and I said to myself "where did this disgusting watch come from? What kind of almost forty year old has blue-black metallic toenails? Who the hell am I?"

The moral of the story? Don't go shopping the day after you lose your job. Oh, and don't try to take a self portrait of your left hand and right foot on the bonnet of a car.