Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a great 2007. 2008 is going to be a huge year for us and I think we are a little nervous. Our little girl is due in April but just to make things more interesting we have decided to knock down our house and rebuild. We really need the extra space and thought that it would be easier to do it while we only have a toddler and a newborn instead of 2 toddlers. This may not be a wise decision but we'll have to find out the hard way.

Anyway, I have some knitting shots but I haven't uploaded them yet so that can come later. I really just wanted to include this little message from Euan that he made for my Dad who is spending the festive season in Canada.

Happy New Year All!

3 days 'til Christmas

Well it's nearly the big day and I think I'm less organised than I was 2 weeks ago! The little Christmas knitting I had going all had to stop because low and behold, I got sick again. I went from gastro to a nasty cold and then back to gastro. After spending too many hours in emergency I decided that the knitting had to go and I just had to get some energy back. I don't want to be sick on Christmas Day. So I haven't got anything else exciting to show you for either my Branching Out or Flirty Skirty. They have both come a bit further than my last pics but nothing too exciting.

When I got a bit of energy back I took myself off to the local library (which I have never joined) to look through their collection of knitting books. I was shocked to discover that they have a fabulous collection of books (it is a very small and slightly crappy library) but I limited myself to 4. 3 kids books and Knitting Nature. I thought I could start something for a little baby girl as baby clothes are so quick and easy to knit but Euan got to the books before me. We flicked through the books together and he instantly fell in love with one of the patterns. He stopped and looked at the page and proclaimed "I'll have one of those when I'm older", which is his way of saying I love it (he knows that there are some exciting things you have to wait for). So I asked him if he wanted me to knit it and his eyes lit up. We then headed straight for the car and drove to our brand spanking new Spotlight (which has the worst yarn section ever - I think I will write and complain). Euan chose his colours and we headed home so I could start.

Now I would like to say that he has chosen something quick or simple or even elegant. But the reality is that he has chosen this:

But he chose it all by himself so how can I resist!

The scary thing is that the pattern isn't even on Ravelry (well it is now) so I can't look at other example. Even a google search brought up almost nothing. The one thing I did quickly realise is that I am not knitting the whole thing as intarsia. It's hard enough for me to do the squares let alone the letters, so they will go on in duplicate stitch later. This way I can make sure I have the entire alphabet (which tha pattern doesn't) as I know Euan will check thoroughly!

This is my progress so far:

Dan's first suggestion was that I could knit all the little squares and then sew them all together. After the disparaging look I gave him he soon realised that, although I appreciated him taking an interest, he was better off leaving the knitting to a knitter.

Right, back to the sofa. I'm feeling tired again.

Big huge thank you

Firstly I'd like to say a big, huge THANK YOU to my lovely Secret Swap Pal, Denise. She has been so wonderful at keeping in touch and sending little cards and presents over the last three months. It was especially great when I was pretty crook and felt very sorry for myself. She has fabulous taste in all things so make sure you pop over and check out her blog. She has really great taste in knits and seems to get so much done. I'm hanging out for my kids to be teenagers just so I can get some solid knitting time (I will pretend that all the difficult stuff won't happen and that the teenage years will be a breeze!). Her are all the pictures from her wonderful parcel that arrived this week:

Let's start with the yarn and knitting stuff. Some gorgeous Lantern Moon dpn in that always hard to get in Oz size US2, or 2.25mm. Perfect for almost every sock pattern ever written! Some gorgeous lace weight merino that I have no idea what to do with yet. I really want to knit lace but I am so scared of it. A great hand massager that is sorely needed (excuse the pun!). I tend to knit until my hands ache so this will be a great relief. And lastly so beautiful merino yarn that perfectly matches the silk yarn that arrived a few weeks ago.

See!
Just the perfect colours for me so I might have to hunt through Ravelry and find the perfect project.

Some yummy cookbooks that should encourage me (or Dan) to face up to the kicthen. It has been getting ignored lately so this might perk it up :-) Some great books on Canberra too. That would be Australia's capital city for anyone that doesn't know (no, it's not Sydney).

Some more lollies for me. This time I have been good and haven't eaten them all yet although if Euan is still asleep by the time I've posted this then that might change.

Now, look closely at these. They are the most amazing cards that you will ever see for a knitter. They are fabulous watercolour painting of knitting scenes, all done by Denise herself! See, I told you she was talented. She was even featured in the latest copy of Yarn magazine. If you have some knitting friends that just have to be spoilt with these you can buy them here. I think I'll have to keep mine. I might even frame them up for my craft room (when it is finally built).

And last but not least, she is so clever that she included a present for Euan. This is him doing his totally overexcited face, it isn't actually a grimace. He was so excited to get his own present that he has been showing everyone. He even has some cars etc that these fit into so he even more thrilled.

Once again, a really big thank you to Denise for all her kindness. It has been really appreciated over the other side of the continent.

And now for something completely different...

After my last post I decided to pick up my Something Red again. I gave it a few more hours but, to be honest, something is just not working for me. I think it's the yarn. It is very knobbly cotton and it is horrible to purl. It doesn't pull tight enough without a heap of effort so my ribbing looks holey and crap. Anyway here's a progress shot:

Not sure what to do. I might try and do a bit more and see if the ribbing works out. I don't want to frog it but it is creeping towards the pond.

Here is a project that is working out:

I just can't tell you what it is :-) It is supposed to be finished by this afternoon but it'll be touch and go. I guess If I hadn't spent the past 1.5 hours stuffing around on Blogger, Flickr and Ravelry I would've finished. If anyone can tell me how to get Flickr photos on here I'd really appreciate it. The help is crap on both sites and it's bugging me!

Oh, and we had our scan last Monday. The baby is all healthy and gorgeous. We found out what we are having and have told a few people but not sure if we're going to make it public knowledge. I'll sort out some pictures for my next post. This is long enough already!

Back again!

Peace! Dan is out for the evening, Euan has gone to bed early and without a fight, so I am writing a quick update while running the bath. I really need a nice relaxing time so I'm going to enjoy myself!

Last weekend we went to Sydney as Dan has never been further east than Kalgoorlie (which is only 600kms east of Perth) and I thought it was about time that he saw the nations commercial capital (our political capital will have to wait). Oh, and it was also our 5th wedding anniversary so that was a bonus excuse. We headed off on Thursday afternoon, running very late for our flight but making it with minutes to spare, and arrived late Thursday night. The flight was fine. We flew Qantas on my frequent flyer points and it was just ok. The staff, food, entertainment etc was rubbish compared to our Emirates flights to Europe. The staff were not very helpful and not that good with kids. Luckily Euan adores flying and just likes playing with the headphones, eating the alleged food and looking out the window. Sydney airport was hell! I have never seen a queue so long to get a taxi. There were literally hundred of people waiting and almost no cabs coming or going. Everyone was saying that it was extraordinary. Luckily another family with a kids told us that if we asked for a child seat they would sort it out quickly and it worked wonders. They could see Euan was really tired so they got us a cab straight away. Dan was amazed. He is always impressed by the level of customer service in Oz, especially after living in the UK where they take equality very seriously, so if you have a baby you wait like everyone else.

Our apartment was in Darling Harbour, which is pretty central Sydney, and we could walk to most places. We spent one day at the aquarium which was absolutely fantastic. Much better than the one in Perth and the one in London. Euan just love all the fish and especially the crocodile.



We then spent a day at the zoo. It was transport heaven day for Euan. We started on the monorail, then took the ferry to the zoo, a bus from the ferry to the main gate, then ended the day taking the cable car back down to the ferry for the trip home. Taronga is a fabulous zoo and one of the best in the world. Every time I've been I've been amazed by it. Both the boys had a great time and we saw as much as we could with a toddler.



We spent the next day visiting friends down the coast a bit and that was great. The last day we had to check out by 10 ish and tried to spend the day around Darling Harbour before heading to the airport. Unfortunately it was a 34 degree day and just too hot to be out and about. Euan was really tired so we found a quiet cafe with sofas, bought a cold drink and he passed out on my lap. When he woke up we headed to the aiport for some airconditioned plane spotting. The flight home was fine again, but not great. We were delayed taking off and delayed getting to our gate in Perth so it was tiresome. It was also well passed midnight when we arrived home so everyone was tired and a little crabby. Still I'm glad we went.


The silly thing was that I completely forgot to visit Australia's biggest yarn store when I was in Sydney. Tapestry Craft was just down the road from where we were staying. I had fully intended to go but ran out of time (and money) and actually forgot about it until I got home. Damn! I was hoping just to play with some beautiful yarn. I'm a bit of a lousy knitter aren't I?

Anyway, I didn't get a single stitch done the whole time we were away and haven't managed anything since I got back. I've been extremely tired, actually fatigued, and just don't have the energy to do anything. I'm off to a naturopath nest week to see if she can help because I think this is more extreme than normal pregnancy tiredness. I want to be able to stay away past 9pm so I can see my husband and get some knitting done.

On a positive note I finally got my acceptance letter from the Community Midwifery Programme which means I can have my government funded homebirth. I am now just waiting to hear from my midwife, who sounds like she is pretty good from all reports. Of course I have no idea where this birth will occur because we are hoping to do something drastic with this place so we may be in a rental property. Luckily I really don't care where I give birth as long as it is peaceful and private.

Ok, bath is all ready now. I will try and get some knitting type stuff done really soon so you don't all get bored!

Oh my god!! I'm in stash heaven

After feeling a little down this week due to family illness and other more personal issues, that needn't fill the pages of a knitting blog, I decided that have a little retail therapy. There is a beautiful "yarn shop" (I'll explain the "" in a sec) near me whose website makes very pleasant reading. They are one of the few places here that stock the proper yarns like Rowan, Debbie Bliss, Artyarns etc the only problem being that their prices are usually a fair bit higher than other places online. Now, if I could actually walk in, handle the yarn, get advice from the staff etc I wouldn't mind paying a little premium, but no. They operate not far from me but they won't even let you go and pick up your order. It's online only, which I find very disappointing. So I generally boycott them. (On a side note, there is one other shop that sells really nice yarn, but who is going to pay $20USD for a single ball of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino?? Honestly). Somehow, on Wednesday, I was wandering around the web and I happened to drop into this website and had a browse through their Sale section. $350 later I came out with some lovely, lovely, did I say lovely, yarn. The therapy worked for me!

Would you like a peek? I thought so.

Here is Euan showing just how big the bag was that it all came in. He's a pretty tall 2yo, btw.

And here is Koshka, just dying to climb in a sleep on all that lovely yarn. If you've never seen a Maine Coon then you may not appreciate how big the stash is. She's a bloody big cat!

And here is the all important close up:


Now how do I justify the expense (oh, the green stuff was from a different store, but happened to arrive at the same time. I won't add it's cost into the total for now. I think Dan would cry). The Cashmerino I had to have because I am in love with it. I have 15 balls in a deep burgundy that I bought in the UK but I have been too scared to use it in case I make the wrong thing out of it and waster the yarn. I thought it I had 30 balls of Cashmerino then I wouldn't feel so afraid and could use it for multiple projects, so I bought 15 balls of blue (no idea what the name is).

The Blue Sky Organic Cotton was going to be used for the Ribs and Lace Tank from Interweave Knits Spring 07, but I'm a bit concerned that the top looks a little like a bulls eye and I'm not sure I want that effect. Either way, I will knit something similar-ish to this for summer. The yarn is so incredibly soft I can't wait to wear it.

The Rowan Cashsoft is for Dan. I've been wanting to make him something for ages and he finally decided that he liked the look of this, but as I refuse to knit him anything that big in a silk blend we had to look for other wool. It couldn't be itchy, it had to be fairly hard wearing and it had to be good quailty so we went with Rowan. Luckily this was on sale too at Angel Yarns, who are great and buy heaps from them. Though don't order if you're in a rush. I think this took about 6-8 weeks to be posted as they had run out of stock. They aren't very good at keeping you up to date but luckily I didn't care. I'm just hoping that the Boyfriend Sweater Curse doesn't apply to husbands too!

And last but definitely not least the silk. Debbie Bliss 100% Pure Silk. I have no idea what I'll use it for but it was so so so cheap and I've always wanted to try silk so I bought heaps of it. 15 skeins to be precise (or 750g). It is D-lux stuff and will take dye beautifully so I have a few projects in mind but will take my time with this one. God knows what a mum with a toddler does with silk yarn. I wonder if it gets badly stained by vegemite?

Oh, I am actually working on something right now. After putting the Tree Jacket on the backburner I started the little surprise and have got this far:

I'm sure loads of you (you know, all my readers Hahahaha!!) will know what this is as it is so popular right now, but I'm not going to tell the rest of you until it's done. The colour pooling is a bit annoying but I can't wait to see the finished item. Still don't know who it's for either. Any suggestions?

And one last look at the silk. Couldn't you just swim in it!

One down, one to go

Well it would be nice if it was only one more WIP to go but, like most knitters and general craftsters, it is impossible to have nothing on the go. If I'm not knitting I'm planning a new knit, or sewing, or cooking or something. But I have at least knocked another project on the head and given myself a bit more time for the next one.

May I present the first sweater/jumper that I have knitted for Euan:

Pattern: My own. I just made it up as I went along. That did mean that I finished the body (knitted in the round then split) grafted the shoulders and realised that it was too short for Euan. So it got ripped out and redone.

Needles: Addi 4mm 40cm circs (do I own any other needles?)

Yarn: Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece in Kelp Green with Olive green stripe.

Duration: about 5 days due to the ripping and the babysitting

Comments: I just loved working with this yarn. It is so soft and looks great knitted up. I bought a heap of it from The Sheep Studio who are really, really cheap and really, really lovely. I've got a few balls to make Green Gable and possible Rusted Root. I think I could probably squeeze another jumper or cardigan out for Euan too.

Here's the boy showing his pleasure:


As soon as the end were woven in and it was laid out to block I started my next project. I was trying to decide between the Ribby Cardi or Rogue until I saw this. Those nasty Zephyr girls have done it again and I happened to have the perfect wool lying around that I was trying to turn into a Central Park Hoodie with minimal success. I used the bits of CPH that I had already knitted as a swatch and got going immediately. After 2 days I had:

The colour isn't perfect but it's a quick knit and will be really wearable. I've almost finished the body now so hopefully I can get the sleeves wrapped up quickly and get it blocking tomorrow. Yay!

Little progress

I'm sorry to say that things have been moving rather slowly this week. One of my close friends was in the final stages of pregnancy and needed help with her kids and so I discovered that looking after 3 kids (ages 2, 3 and 4) is not that conducive to productive knitting. The baby arrived at 11.59pm Sunday and after a few days of readjusting their lives have settled back to normal (well, as normal as it can be with a newborn) so I've taken the opportunity to get a few projects finished....almost finished.

Ok, one project. And here is Euan modelling the little bit that I have managed to get done on his jumper/sweater thing.



It's all made up as I go along but it seems to be fitting ok so far. I made the body far too short on the first go so it all had to be ripped and started again. In all honesty I wish I'd still made it a bit longer but I'm not adjusting it again. Hoping to finish it today as we have a rare patch of sunshine and I want to block it before I start the next exciting step (that's a secret).

I decided that I needed a bit of a treat and finally gave in and bought 2 things that I have wanted for a long, long time.


The book is Barbara Walker's First Treasury of Knitting Patterns which is the most fabulous book for all sorts of stitch patterns; laces, cables et al. It's one of those basic books that everyone should have in their collection. It arrived from the US yesterday and I've flicked through it about 3 times already and picked out a load of patterns that I want to incorporate into garments. If only I could design! I bought it from Schoolhouse Press (the publishers) as they have recently reprinted it. I'm sure most people in the US have it in their local library but my local libraries are severely lacking in knitting books and, anyway, I didn't want to have to give it back!

The second thing is the Elizabeth Zimmerman Surprise Baby Sweater Pattern. This is the most fabulous little garment and with all the new babies arriving this week (there have been 3!!!) I thought it was a good time to try this. Yarn Harlot has a great description of this jacket. This came from Schoolhouse Press too. Can't wait to make a start on it.

I promise I will get some better photos of my argosy really soon. I think it would look better modelled than lying flat but I'm in no shape to have photos taken this week. Blergh!

Missing in Action

I am so so sorry that I have been ignoring my blog. Life has been so hectic over the last 6 months that I haven't found any time to keep this up to date. Of course the longer you leave it the harder it is to get back to. But I love reading other blogs so much that I just can't leave mine out in the cold any longer. I promise I will be a more dedicated blogger from now on.

Anyway, a quick summary of the last 6 months:

• Angel Blossom went to hell and Bec pulled out. Not sure what will happen to it now. I am really enjoying the break and the mental space to do creative things for myself but I miss the thrill of selling stuff. Watch this space...
• Had a lovely 6 week long holiday with my boy in UK and France. Euan finally got to meet the other side of his family (well except his useless grandfather) and we all had a ball. Didn't go to as many yarn shops as I would've liked but did see a lot of playgrounds. Quite different travelling with a 2 year old than as a couple.
• Euan turned 2 which was very exciting. He has a huge vocabulary now and can even count to ten in french!
• Dan has got a new job starting at the end of this month which gives him more autonomy and more money. We're so excited, especially as his current boss in a twonk.
• Still no baby no.2 happening yet. Still trying. Watch this space...

And here are a few relevant photos:

Father and son on there first flight together

The carousel in the Tuileries, Paris

A playground in Saumur, Loire Valley, France


Euan and me enjoying a lunch break at Galleries Lafayette in Paris. They have a lousy wool section. I was so disappointed. Bute they have the most wonderful toy department so that made up for it.


And the lovely, lovely wool shop that I found in Bristol, Get Knitted. They have a great selection and I treated myself to a heap of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino that I have been lusting after for ages. Hopefully I will get around to making Rouge with it one day. I have to say that I was a little disappointed with their customer service, but you get used to that in the UK.

Holiday snaps

Just a few pictures of Euan over the festive season. He had such a great time on Christmas Day and got more presents than we could ever have imagined. Anyway, I think he's cute so I like everyone to see what he looks like :)

Christmas breakfast with Nona

Boxing day in front of the cricket

Enjoying having Dad home for the holidays