And now for something different

KNITTING

hello dear readers - apologies for the silence over here I have been busy with off schedule knitting .

Here is Nigel the dino - for the new show on ABC2 Giggle and Hoot - it is Giggle's very own dino and the actor apparently loves it - I wired it from head to tail and if you wiggle the tail the head moves.  This has amused the actor to no end.

Then there is the sock puppet which has been a bit of a saga - it is for a CBB's show and I had help with knitting up the second sock but then they wanted another so I am currently knitting a third one.

He is pretty cute though.

I am way way behind with my secret project and forget about my sock club for this year or anything for myself.  But I have been extremely naughty on the yarn front and scored heaps of Wollemise on destashes.  I got some gorgeous laceweight from Donna in the most delicous red.  S.V. now has a skein of his own which once I get back from him I will knit into socks for him.

It is quite mad this time of the year and we are about to have guests stay for the next 3 weeks from Saturday.  So I did a huge clean up yesterday and sorted out my stash in to summer and winter - putting the winter away in the roof, along with all of our winter clothes too.  So for the time being I have a smaller summer stash on display.  The only problem with this is that it is going to get lonely and no doubt more will appear.  S.V. was trying to suggest one ball in one ball out - how on earth is that possible?

Dino takes shape

done and dusted

As I have learnt over that past few weeks crochet is not at all evil - but actually quite fun

here prior to blocking is my rug and here it is with cat deterrent devices on top

shhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeettt

I am a huge fan of the wire - and this is just amazing

of houses and such

 

I want a house like this - it is so amazing - it is from a series of tiny houses designed in the states - this is the most modern looking of all the houses - I really like the ingenious use of space in all of the houses.  It really makes you think about how much space you really need as is discussed over here where I found the houses yesterday

Since yesterday

• I am resisting the urge to get up in the middle of the night to placate the noisy cat - the mews are getting louder and the thumps at the door more urgent - I will break this habit of Tom's
• My computer is backing up automatically - S.V. found a great system where everything gets backed up - Backblaze - on a two week trial I will let you know
• I am meditation regularly  - well this is now 5 weeks but I didn't want to get too excited until it had started to become a habit
• I am only about 5 blocks of finishing my crochet blanket - then there is the sewing up
• I started knitting without a pattern - a dino for a show - and I will write up the pattern and inflict it let you have a copy too

hanging around

Yesterday as I hung upside down in my yoga class I was thinking of Alison and all of these guys doing a large number of salutes to the sun.  What a perfect day for it.

coffee cats & crochet

This is my new keep cup for coffee - I have about 1 coffee a day sometimes 2 and I saw these in a magazine a little while back and sourced this one on friday from this neat shop on Cleveland St next to Bird Textiles another favourite.
It is a small - I can't stand a big coffee I end up flying with too much caffeine in my system.

The cats are up to their usual tricks - Po gave us a surprise this morning way up on high.  Then when I took the photo I noticed Tom lying around on the porch underneath.

The rug is now 1/2 way done and I am on the home stretch.  I thought I would crochet them all and then sort out how I would arrange the colours.

Hair

Inspired by needled and hair-braiding youtube post I have twice this week found my hair in this do.
Firstly on Thursday when it was so dirty that even just plaits wouldn't cover the mess.  Then today when I got the plait round the right way - plaiting it up instead of down.  It is now just long enough to meet at the top.  I am finding the bobby pins not up to standard so went off this afternoon in search of better ones.

Off Schedule Knitting

I am currently back on my secret sock project - but last week I took a detour to help out a friend on a new Kid's show by knitting a sock for a sock puppet.  The wonderful Helen(Aunty Toots) machine knitted the vest in record time and did a beautiful job.

This sock is loosely based on a sock from Vintage Socks with a very short foot, an afterthought heel, and the heel and toe as a french toe.

Then yesterday another kid's show asked me to knit an owl, teddy no wait a dinosaur - I am getting the yarn today and will ask them on Monday what they want.....

I now need to also knit a second sock and even a third for the first show- with 6 weeks to Xmas and 3.5 pairs on my list to go will I make it?

I have to say that the urge for shawls has been repressed somewhat lately due to the lack of opportunity.

All I want

is my own ISBN and I think today I am one step closer to my dream

I negotiated my name on the cover and my very own number.  This is still pending some approvals of course and a lot can happen in a year.

During the meeting the talk turned jacket flaps and to photos in the back cover, and after I was telling S.V. and he want me to have one with the cats. As earlier today he had read this.

Anyway now you will just have to wait until November 2010 to see what was conceived of and approved today

Funny Cats

I was having a serious discussion about where to get my news from - and youtube was the suggestion - why listen to sad new, depressing news
Get some fun in your life I say what a silly thing

Flowers so it must be spring

weekend adventures

this is the little kitchen where the magic happened on the weekend - at the red dog retreat it is so good and I am a bit reluctant to share as well I want to keep this to myself.  But my better nature got the better of me - and you can take your dogs or kittens with you - ours are not at all well behaved and stayed at home

the kitchen did produce some very delicious meals

we didn't win the meat tray phew - but thanks to Kylie for the tip to the Jambaroo pub

there were wombat - 5 of them - to avoid, then a view down a gorge near bundanoon

kittens hiding in grass at Bundanoon - the mist on the top of the mountain

an of course some crochet

p.s. this new editing thing has me quite confused - apologies for the messy post

the crochet bug

has hit hard - currently thinking of doing this
What do you think?

The view from the famous cambewarra lookout

The sock yarn is craft shop tax

Knit graffiti on car

we have a winner

Bells come on down - Just to be quite random I pm'd S.V.  - you will see my lack of spelling skills in all it's glory

and I also randomly generated the number too - first go, as I was waiting for an answer.

So Bells - this will be on its way to you in the next week.  Congratulations and  thank you for playing everyone

Knitting and drinking

Mad for the Men

I am currently obsessed with Mad Men

It is amazing - the frugal nature of the scripts, scenes and style make it so rich and delicous.  S.V. and I figure they must write heaps to get the amazing scripts.

I am reading this blog and just found some great photos of the costumes - I wince at the relationship between these two - the photo does not do the drama of their lives justice at all

There was a recent build up in the script that I completely missed as I don't know the dates for significant events in the US.  I am sure many viewers were on the edge of their seats as one couple had scheduled their wedding for the weekend after Kennedy was assassinated.  Not until the episode did the full weight and significance hit us.  It was brutal.

What to say

Here I am mid afernoon waiting for a meeting in a few little while wondering what to say.

Not at the meeting but to you my dear reader.  Over the past month I have dazzled you with knitting, shawls and socks.  Photos of toys and such.

But what do I say today - hello.

How are you going?  Are you having a good day.  Here is is raining a bit.  I don't normally know what the weather is doing as I am in a basement most of the day.  But today lunch was ate on the Dot Strong terrace - this is dedicated to the last tea lady at the ABC.
Adrian Thirsk writes "The “Dot Strong Terrace”
celebrates the last and longest-serving
full-time tea lady. Over the course of almost
21 years, Dorothy Mabel Strong served
more than two million cups (on an unaudited
count, I hasten to add.)"

Another ABC employee writes here about the quiet moments you can snatch there

now I am off for a cup of tea and a meeting

before miss fee

There was a time before I existed and here is some proof - I am a bit cheeky for posting this but I could not resist.

This is my mum and dad - posing - and Aunty Rhonda, check out those legs!!!!, taking a photo.  for those in Canberra there this is Kamba pool circa 1962-65. Uncle Brian would have taken this photo. 
My mum just sent through a whole lot of pictures as Brian has just uploaded all of his slides and he sent her the ones with us in them.
Here my parents are in their early 20's they were part of the huge recruitment for the public service in Canberra in the 1960s.  Mum came from Perth and Dad from Sydney.  They met, as alot of people did, at Reid house - apparently there were progressive dinners each night and you move around meeting everyone.  The parents of the guy I went to my year 12 formal with  also met at this time. 
It is weird to think of your parents younger than you - and I am here today amazed at how fresh faced and relaxed they look.

Today there is knitting of socks

Fever

First there was shawl flu and now there is a fever of crochet going on over here.
I  spent snippets of yesterday working out how to read the pattern and what the various terms mean.
I found I could go so far and then have to do it and then absorb the new terms and ways.  I would look to the next set of instructions and then get confused.  
Then a little while on I would look again at the instructions and it would magically make sense.  

Here is the pattern and yarn purchased at the sale at Morris and Sons the other day on the way to knitting.  I bought some thicker crochet hooks as the thin ones hurt my hands and I don't want a repeat of last years hand injury.
Rosered laughed at my crochet technique  - there is a marathon of room for improvement there I think.  Slowly slowly I move forward.

this was the first finished motif from yesterday 

I really like the way the yarn changes colour with the pattern

Fear not the knitting is not suffering I have cast on another pair of socks and I am currently pondering another