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!

Stash busting

At the end of my last post I promised I would let you know about those last few pictures. Well it has taken me a few days (funny that) but I have finally found 5 secs to hop on here and let you know what I'm on about. I know a lot of people have been stash busting this year. I kept seeing little icons on blogs talking about busting (although many have since disappeared..I wonder why?) but never one to jump on band wagons I have waited until the dying weeks of the year to think about a little busting myself. After finally sorting through all my yarn a few weeks ago I realised I had more than I would ever use, in fact I had more than I wanted, so it was time to get rid of some. Luckily this coincided with my morning sickness disappearing so I can knit without vomiting, oh and I'm always broke in the run up to Christmas so I thought I could make a bob or two. So I have resorted back to the quickest, simplest thing to knit - soakers. Everyone I know has or is having babies and we all use cloth nappies so obviously they all need new soakers. And I'm not being stingy here, I do knit them as presents too but I always forget to take pictures so they never end up on my blog. I started the busting process by knitting one for a friend's son's 1st birthday (but didn't take a pic), then made one for Euan as he needs a few more for night times (that's the brown one in my last post), and now I'm on to serious busting.

These are the soakers that I've knitted since last Friday (so 5.5 days)

I think that's a pretty good effort considering my lousy output for this year. I have another ball all wound and ready to go, and I also have a present I need to knit up. Part of me wants to get back to my Something Red too as it is sitting there looking very sad at me. I think I will have a little knitting break and then work out what to do next.

Anyway, I hope I can whip up a heap more of these and then find someone who might actually want them, otherwise they'll join the finished-but-what-to-do-with-it pile.

Oh, and this hasn't made even the smallest dent in my stash. I think I'll have to do some more dying and get rid of a load of white and cream yarn. Maybe one day I'll even start the sweater that I promised to do for Dan and the heap of tops I want to make for myself. That might help :-)

I'm such a lucky girl!

Well, woman really, but there is something about getting presents that makes you feel like a kid. Firstly huge apologies to my Secret Pal again. I have been trying to blog about your wonderful parcel all week but every time I get near the pc something happens (as I write this I hear Euan waking up so there another delay). Ok, I'm back an hour later :-) Anyway, I wanted to say a huge big thank you for my fantastic gifts. Here a terrible pic, I'll take some better ones when I'm not so rushed.

The skein is the most amazing hand spun silk in my favourite colours. I'm not sure exactly what I'll make but I think it'll be perfect for some lace work. The stitch marker are gorgeous and badly needed (I keep losing mine) and I'll pretend that is a full packet of Mentos. There is no way anyone could demolish the whole packet the second it came out of the parcel wrapping, no even a pregnant woman!

Thank you so so so much Secret Pal. This was such an exciting parcel and everything was just perfect. I will try and find or make up a garment worthy of the beautiful yarn.

As it's now really late (I told you I keep getting delayed. It's about 6 hours after I started) I'll just give you a few shots of my latest projects. I add more tomorrow.



At least knitting doesn't make me vomit any more :-)

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!