Sanity is a ball of yarn....

Road Trip and Uke

2010-05-04T20:15:00.003+10:00

First, a piccy. This cute little Ukulele was given to me today by my completely awesome parents. I have started singing a fair bit, and wanted to learn an easy instrument to accompany me. A couple of people suggested that I learn the ukulele, so when Dad saw this purple one up at The Planting Festival (was held this last weekend at Woodfordia - the Woodford Folk Festival site), he just knew he had to buy it for me. I am so excited. I have already been online and learnt a few easy chords and am picking up a learners manual in town tomorrow. I had thought to teach myself guitar, but was finding it too difficult for some reason, but this is great.

Mum and Dad giving me this uke has topped off an amazing weekend. On Friday, my friend Naomi and I took off on a 4 day, 3 night road trip. We had one plan: To go to Mullimbimby to go to "the Crystal Castle" and to Ballina so we could go to Thursday Plantation. After that, we just went wherever we felt led.

So Friday started off with us leaving at about 9:00am. We got to Mullimbimby at about 10:30 or 11:00am. We had a good look around, had a lovely lunch then had more of a look around and shopping. Naomi bought quite a few crystals as well a beautiful Sugerlite stone and silver bracelet that she gave to ME!! (it is sooo pretty). We also had photos of our Auras taken which was a very interesting and amazing experience. They seemed to be so spot on, it was uncanny. One of my spirit guides or angels even showed up on mine, so that was awesome.

From Mullumbimby we headed down to Ballina where we got a room at The Slipway Hotel (I keep on wanting to call it the "Slipway Inn" - think about it) for the night. Once we had settled in and I'd had a bit of a nap (Naomi went for a wander in the main st while I rested) we went to find something to eat. The food and atmosphere at the Slipway didn't really entice us, so we decided to wander down the street to see what else was available. We ended up going into one of the other pubs (The Australian Hotel) where we had another awesome meal and listened to live music by Birdie, the lead singer of a band called The Quiet Excitement. During the evening we got talking to some of the locals, including the owners of the pub and (during his breaks) Birdie himself. Much fun, laughter and singing was had. Once we were finished there, we headed back to our room to plan our next days movements and go to bed.

On Saturday morning we had a couple of hours to spend looking around town before the Thursday Plantation was due to open, so we had a leisurely breakfast in a local cafe, then went to East Ballina to see the coast line and beach. At East Ballina we found this old cemetery on the headland, so we quickly pulled over and went for walk through, looking at some of the graves. The view from the cemetery was amazing. Once we finished there, we drove further along the headland to the lookout, where we spent quite a while just looking up and down the coast and gazing out at the sea.

When it got to about 9:45am, we headed back to north/west Ballina to the Thursday Plantation. We had a wonderful time walking through the maze, the rainforest walk and the shop. All around the plantation grounds are sculptures and artwork. Some really good, some really obscure but kind of cool (like the door in the middle of the rainforest path, the skeleton made of metal found in the maze, and the pillars of breasts at the start of the maze), and the completely eyebrow raising "artwork" that almost anyone could do, even a ten yr old, but cost a mint.

The plan after the plantation visit was to drive across through Lismore and then up to Nimbin for a leisurely saturday lunch, wander and shop. Unfortunately, as we arrived into Nimbin, we saw a big sign saying "Nimbin MardiGrass - This weekend!". Oh, shit.... There were people (and police) everywhere. Naomi doesn't do crowds well, and I wasn't keen on being involved at the mardigrass, so we decided to just drive through the main street. We pulled into the carpark at the Nimbin Candle Factory on the other side of the town, and had a nice quiet time looking at the candles, getting a tour and taking the chance for a loo break. We were thinking we might have lunch there, but as it was obvious they were only selling Vegan food, we decided to keep moving and see what we could find further along the road.

So, we got back in the car and headed further north, then west heading towards Kyogle. About 1/2 way between Nimbin and Kyogle, we stopped at a tiny locality that I can't remember the name of and had another lovely meal of meat pies and salad at the shop/ postoffice/ cafe/gallery. Then we kept on driving all afternoon - first to Kyogle, then down south to Casino. At Casino, we stopped into a motel that I'd been to before with Lachlan and asked for a twin room. Unfortunately there were none available, so we decided to head due west to Tenterfield as it was only about an hour away and we were planning to go there the next day anyway and it was still reasonably early in the evening (about 4:30pm or so). The trip to Tenterfield, although lots of glare because of the sun setting in the west, was one of the most beautiful legs of the whole weekend. Just glorious!

It's about 9pm now when I'm writing this, and I need to go to bed now, so I'll stop for the moment and write of the Tenterfield "Experience" (because an experience it was!) and the following two days tomorrow. Sorry to leave you hanging, but come back tomorrow evening for the next installment! LOL.

Christmas presents.

2009-12-28T20:17:00.005+10:00

This year for all the kids (my nieces and nephews), I made them washcloths. I also made Sophie and Arun their own bath bags. The washcloth patterns I sourced from Ravelry - except for the loveheart one that I made for Lucy, which I designed myself. I was going to make the the other two boys a bath bag each (different design using pure acrylic) but ran out of time, so they got some small store bought toys instead.

The Bags I made from my own pattern in my head. For the main body of the Bags, I dyed some natural coloured pure wool (that was given to me by my Mother In Law) with food colouring. I then crocheted it up and chucked it into the washing machine to full it and shrink it. that way, the mums can wash the bags without any worry. The patterns formed by the dyeing and crocheting process turned out great! The yellow bags top was crocheted with Acrylic and the Green bags top was crocheted with a cotton/acrylic blend that I picked up from Kmart for $1 per ball. Bargain!

Bne SnB Secret Santa Swap.

2009-12-28T19:54:00.005+10:00

This year, on the 5th December, the Brisbane SnB (Stitch & Bitch) Group held a Xmas Secret Santa Swap party at the home of the lovely Tash.

Below is the gift I got from BubbleBee (aka Lauren). Isn't it wonderful? the knitted item is a little cap, and the yarn is Baby Alpaca. :-)

##Oops!! just found out that I got it wrong. I actually got this gift from TwistedKitten (aka Christine). Sorry Christine!! *blushes and runs to hide.....*## 29/12/09

Below is a piccy of the present I gave to my Swap partner Slipsthrufingers (aka Kathy). She is a keen "Ducky things" collector, so I made an Amigarumi duck (my first amigarumi toy) and a duck washcloth. Both patterns I got from Ravelry. The little things on the washcloth are stitch markers that my friend Naomi made. She made me a whole heap to give away and sell, so I thought Kathy would like a couple of sets. The yarn is hand spun cotton plied with an acrylic thread, that I picked up from the QSW&FA Christmas Fair. So pretty!

We had a wonderful day and much fun and merriment was had by all. I think more photos can be found on my flickr page (I am Sanity Is Yarn on flickr as well as Ravelry)

Spinning Pretty

2009-12-03T15:23:00.004+10:00

Goodness, December already!! So much for trying to post more often, but November sucked pretty badly, so you don't want to hear about that. But things are a bit better this week - Good friends, my Dad coming home from England tonight, christmas is in the air, school is just about over (thank god - I'm ready for Rory to be on holidays!) and I've been very productive.

Last night a dear friend gave me an early Christmas present - Look what I got!

(sorry for the blurry photo!) I believe it is First Editions Sliver. Don't know what the name of the colourway is, but it's very pretty and extremely bright.

I was very keen to see what it looked like spun up, so this morning I got on my wheel and started spinning - so far I've done one bobbin of singles:

PRETTY!!!!

The colours do get a little muddied by the spinning process, but they are still really good. It actually tones it down a bit so it might be a little more wearable anyway. I am thinking about making a "jane hat" (one of those beanies with ear flaps) out of it and a neckwarmer if I have enough too. That will be really cool!

Over the last couple of weeks I have been madly knitting and crocheting ready for Christmas. I decided to give all my nieces and nephews something knitted this year - photos will be posted after the various christmas gatherings so that the receivers don't see it beforehand. ;) More needs to be made anyway.

I have also been working on a couple of small gifts for my secret santa swappee in the Brisbane Stitch N Bitch Christmas Swap. The party is on Saturday afternoon, so again, I'll post pics of what I made and who it was for etc, after that.

If I have time, I am also thinking of crocheting some some small christmas tree decorations for not only our tree but for my families trees. If I don't get them done by this Christmas though, it is no matter, I'll just do a few during the year ready for next christmas.

so many projects... so little time..... *sigh*

Finished yarn

2009-10-21T11:13:00.004+10:00

Last night after posting the blog update, I finished spinning the blue night owl batt and then plied the blue singles and yellow singles together. Here they are separately as a reminder:

I wasn't sure how they would look plied together and although I knew it would be an interesting and textured yarn, I didn't think I would like the colour / effect it would produce. Thankfully, I was wrong - I wasn't a big fan of the yellow/green/ orange singles, but added with the blue, it turned out fantastic!

I've called the yarn "Orange Flecks"

Busy Spinning

2009-10-20T19:09:00.009+10:00

Today has been a productive day. First up this morning I had a meeting with Rory's class teacher and Special needs teacher. It went well and was very positive. yay! Then I came home and started on about 4 loads of washing - mainly bedding stuff. In between each load, I got heaps of spinning done. The first thing I had to do was finish plying some purple wool I started a while ago, then put it on the Niddy Noddy (skein maker) (piccy above). The skein is about 190g and will go with the other 196g of the same yarn I spun up at Mapleton Camp back in July. I am hoping to make a nice shawl thing out of it.

After getting the purple yarn off the wheel, I started spinning two of my batts from the Fibre Fun Day. Here is the White one I decided to spin first (turns out that it had a lot of blue in it though, more blue than white):

I then spun this pink/green one:

And this is the result of them plied together - Pretty. I reckon it looks a bit like a "mixed lollie bag".

After I had put the "mixed lollie bag" yarn on the Niddy Noddy, I started to spin the yellow/orange/green batt I made on Wednesday night at night owls. Here it is 1/2 spun up so you can see the batt as well:

Once that was spun into a single thread I put on a new bobbin and started to spin the blue/green batt I also made on Wednesday night. I haven't finished spinning this yet, but here is a pic of it about 1/3 done:

Once the blue is spun, I am thinking of plying it with the yellow to create a very different and textured yarn. It will be interesting to see what it turns out like!

Some knitting photos....

2009-10-16T12:12:00.006+10:00

I have completed a couple of items in the last few days.

A cotton washer for someone special (shh... it's a secret!)

Finally finished this beanie for Deb at bowling - Have been working on it for weeks as I got distracted by reading Jane Austen novels :)

Some pretty batts that I made up on Wednesday, made up from some of the leftovers from the fun day. Will make more next week with the rest of the left-overs. The Electric Drum Carder is so much easier and quicker to use than the hand drum carders. Such Fun!!

Fun Day Photos

2009-10-16T12:03:00.004+10:00

Colin, Chantelle, & Julie... Along with the mess of fibre on the ground.

Lindel's new hair do!

table of 23 batts. I wish I could have felted them all down into a pretty table-cloth!

Kylie, Lindel, Betsy and Vicki

The three batts I got. Purdy!

I unfortunately did not get any pics of Jacquline, Jen or Annie. Hopefully someone else did and I can copy them later.

Fibre Fun Day 10th October

2009-10-11T10:14:00.007+10:00

Yesterday, I had a great day. I invited over some knitting and spinning friends to have a Fibre Fun day - making batts of wool on a couple of small drum carders for spinning, spinning and eating LOTS of yummy food that people had brought. 10 people came!!!! We had an absolutely wonderful time, pooling our stashes of fibre and creating colourful batts.

One of the group was also dyeing skeins of wool in a pot, using mulberries as the dye source. It was going really well until for some reason my portable gas stove that she was using decided to burst into flames! That was a bit of excitement to say the least. Thankfully I had a fire blanket handy in the kitchen that smothered the fire pretty quickly - but it ended her dyeing session and completely ruined the little stove and melted & warped the plastic table it was sitting on. Oh well, what's a decent party without a little fire? LOL

The reason (other than to get together to have fun) I decided to have this fun day, is because yesterday was my "heart day" - the anniversary of my first open heart surgery when I was one. It is like a second little birthday to me, as until then I really didn't live or develop like normal babies. Most years, in celebration of this, Mum makes me a love heart shaped cake. It was so nice, because one of the ladies, on hearing this prior to the day, cooked a love heart shaped cake especially for me. :D I nearly cried in happiness, because my mum is staying with my grandmother at the moment and so wasn't going to be making one for me this year. And better than that, when I cut it, every one sang "happy heart day" (like happy birthday) to me!

So I had a great day, am feeling extremely blessed to have so many wonderful and like minded friends, even if I am completely exhausted today and will probably have to rest a lot for the next few days. It was so worth it.

Checking in....

2009-09-30T15:36:00.003+10:00

I haven't written for a long time - I'm not going to apologise, I have been busy. But I've just found out I have one follower, so for their sake (whoever they are), I'm going to write. For my sake too - I really don't care if anyone reads this, it's a good way for me to remember things that have been happening in my life, but if other people enjoy it too, then great!

In the earlier parts of this year, I did LOTS of knitting and crocheting. Heaps. If you are on Ravelry, you can see (or at least read about) all of my projects. I've been careful to remember to list every one as I made it. My Ravelry name is Sanityisyarn. The main thing I've knitted though are fingerless gloves on commission. Woot - I got paid for knitting!

In the last couple of months though, the crafting has given way to reading. I hadn't read much in ages, and then a few of my Brisbane Stitch 'n' Bitch friends started a Jane Austen Book Club. Although I haven't been involved in the book club, I decided to start reading some of Jane Austens novels, as I never had had the inclination or time before and thought at the age of thirty two, it was about time I experienced some "classic" literature. Well, once I read one, i thought "I just might see what this other one is like". This has continued and I now have read all but one of her novels (Mansfield Park). I plan to purchase or borrow this book shortly .

I can't really say that I love Jane Austens works, but once I got used to the language and spelling and old fashioned ways, I have certainly enjoyed most of them.

I must admit though, that both Emma and Northanger Abbey had me wanting to slap the main characters! Insufferable silly wenches they were. I know that that is part of the story, that they are silly in the beginning and then realised it and mended their ways, but still, it was maddening. The rest of the story of both was entertaining enough though that I still enjoyed reading them.

The other problem I have with Jane Austen is that she will go into great detail about something not very interesting (like the size and shape of a ball room and the discussions into whether it will fit the number of guests invited comfortably), but then gloss over the marriage proposal near the end of the story. That is the part I want to read about! I am one of these people who like to know all the details. I don't want to read "And in the course of the walk.... Catherine was assured of his affection; and that heart in return was solicited..... " (there was more in that sentence but it was long and not much in it). I want to read exactly his words, exactly her words, their thoughts and the detail. I like the romance and the bumbling wording of the man (because, lets face it, men usually bumble a bit while proposing). Most of these stories are all leading up to this point where the heroine/s are proposed to and then it is maddeningly glossed over in the matter of a paragraph or two. AGGHH!

But apart from those two issues, I can see why they have been successful these almost two hundred years and I have enjoyed reading them. I have enjoyed learning about society in the 1800's, as well as what was expected of ladies of consequence, attitudes to money and the manners and ettiquette towards others. The stories are mostly put together well and are quite entertaining. My favorite out of all of Jane Austens works so far would have to be Sense And Sensibility. Because, on the main part, it is very sensible and a good fun story.

Amongst Jane Austen, I also read Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte. Now that is a good story! I enjoyed it immensely.

Apart from reading and knitting, not too much has happened. Lachlan got another job, doing what he has been doing for the last two years, but thankfully this time much closer to home at Samford. It is a much better working environment (less dodgy and more relaxed) and he is home at a reasonable time of day and isn't always so awfully tired as he was. He is more relaxed and happier than he has been in a while and this has helped things to be better at home.

Rory is doing ok at school and is on holidays at the moment. He starts term four of year 5 on monday. I can't believe it's almost the end of another year! He turned 10 in August! Time is marching on so fast, it's hard to keep up.

A couple of weekends ago, we went to the Neurum Creek Music Festival and had an absolutely awesome time with other folky friends. Mum, Dad, my Brother Dave, his wife Emily and their daughter Sophie were there as well and so it was great to have a real family time as well.

This week Dad unfortunately had to race over to England as my Grandfather is not well due to an infection and other health issues. Dad has gone to help with his care and will be over there for up to 3 months. But, we are all trying to look at things positively and it's great that Dad will get to spend this time with Grandad.

Well, I've written quite a bit here today, and it is now time to start getting dinner organised etc. I have got Spinners (QSW&FA) on tonight, so had better get moving.

Until next time,

Love Peace and Joy.

Hervey bay trip photos

2009-04-22T14:39:00.002+10:00

Lachlan fishing at sunset on the rocks at Gattagers Bay

Lachlan & Rory on the "MaryAnne" train in Queens Park, Maryborough.

Rory posing with his fishing rod at sunset on the rocks.

Rory proudly showing off his bream (too small to eat, but a great catch!)

Sunset from Hervey Bay beach at Torquay - 15 april 2009

I'M BACK!!!

2009-03-22T14:38:00.002+10:00

Thank you everyone so much for all your blessings, best wishes, prayers, positive thoughts, comments, candle lighting and anything else you have done for me over the past week. This week has really shown me how many wonderful friends I have all around the world and how many people have been thinking of me. It has really blown me away. You all are wonderful and I am so blessed to have you all in my life.

So, as you may have guessed, all went really well. The doctor was able to remove both the body of the pacemaker and the broken lead and replace both with newer versions. Both the pacemaker and all the leads are working really well and I'm feeling so much better already (although, of course I am still very sore and stiff from the surgery and from being able to sleep in only one or two relatively comfy positions.) Hopefully this pacemaker will last another 7 years at least and hopefully the leads all will remain working for a lifetime.

Due to the nature of the procedure (and all the digging through scar tissue they had to do), the op went for a little longer than expected and more anesthetic was used than expected. Hence on Wednesday night I was sooo sick. YUCK. It also took a good two or so days to get the anesthetic and other drugs out of my system and become stable on my feet again. I was released from hospital on Friday morning still a bit wobbly and nauseous, but otherwise fine.

So, I am just taking things really easy for the next week or so. I will be able to drive again from about Friday and should be able to bowl with my right arm the Friday after that if I'm gentle. I should be back to doing heavier, more full on things (like lifting washing baskets and nephews and nieces) in about 6 weeks.

Once again, thank you for your fantastic support

Blessings to you all

Jenny xxooxx

Todays the day

2009-03-18T08:46:00.002+10:00

3 hours to go before I am admitted. I am feeling so much better mentally today. Although I'm still pretty nervous and very tired 'cause I hardly slept at all last night.

Thank you everyone for your love, hugs and best wishes. I really couldn't get through this without you all. I am so blessed to have so many wonderful friends all around the world who are praying for and thinking of me. In particular though, I would like to thank all of my family, my friends online and in real life including; Tina, Betsy, Anushka, Karen, Leah, Stormy, Lindsay, Naomi, Jacqui and Fran. You guys are the BEST!! (i sound like I'm winning an oscar LOL)

Anyways, gotta go get organised (haven't packed for the hospital or anything yet) and I will see you all when I get out. Better and Brighter (and probably a little pinker) than before. :)

Love peace and Joy

Jenny xxooxxoo

Apologies.....

2009-03-17T09:17:00.002+10:00

I would like to apologise to those whom I may have offended in my last post, due to my blaspheming and cursing God. I do not usually do this, but was in a bit of a bad state last night (if you couldn't guess! ;-) ) I won't apologise for my other swearing, as hey, i do swear and I really don't give two hoots about it. But as I know there are a few people who read my blog who may be offended by the blaspheming, I am sorry to those people.

I am feeling a little better mentally this morning (if not really physically) and am determined to make this a better day.

40 hours and counting.

2009-03-16T20:27:00.002+10:00

warning: Big rant ahead. read at own discretion.

Ok, so I'm starting to freak out a bit now. It is now about 8:30pm Monday night (Brissy time). I am to be admitted to the hospital at midday Wednesday. That's just under 40 hours to go. In some ways it still seems too far away. In other ways it is so close it is scary. Most of me just wants to get this over and done with. I'm sick of having a broken pacemaker and the crappiness that goes along with it. I want it to happen tomorrow, not the next day. but of course, then there's the part of me that wants to just run away and not have to deal with it at all.

I have actually been doing really well considering. I have been resting a lot and looking after myself, so when I do go out and about or whatever, I have looked and felt pretty good.

This morning was like that too. Was really pretty good. Went for a cuppa with a couple of friends down at a local coffee and cake shop then went over to my parents place where I chatted to my parents, my sisters and family friend Sean, played with the baby, fed the baby (my sister's baby Arun) etc. I was good, it was great, but it might have been too much. Halfway through lunch, it hit. the blood that had been in my brain was obviously needed at the stomach to help process the food. Not much blood to the brain is not good. I broke out in a sweat, my head felt like it was about to implode. I had to get horizontal fast. so in the middle of lunch i suddenly said "excuse me" then got off my chair and lay on the floor directly next to it, with feet up on the chair. Once I recovered a little I went for a lie down on a spare bed. Mum got me a cold face washer and I went to sleep. Thankfully, I was somewhere where I could do that. I slept solidly for over an hour. Mum came to check on me a couple of times and at one stage checked that I was still breathing, I was so still. Dad went and picked up Rory from school for me (God bless my Parents) and thankfully by the time they got home, I was awake and in a better state.

I've probably made all that sound worse than it was, but I will admit it was a bit scary. It is those episodes that make me want to get this done with.

I hate this. I know I should feel blessed that it is not worse. I have a friend on Ravelry who is currently in hospital waiting for a new heart. She has been in the same hospital bed for the last two months. She gets to see her little boy only once a week. And after that hour or so with him is so exhausted that she sleeps for hours afterwards. I know that in a number of years, that could well be me. I know that this might get worse eventually. I should be happy that I am still up and about. That I still am well enough to spend lots of time with my family and friends, even if I am a bit slow and tired.

But it still sucks god damn it.

I keep reading these things about sick kids or people and they say "oh, she was so brave. She never asked 'why me?', or cried about it. " Bullshit. I bet she did cry about it and wonder why her, she just might not have said it to you. And even if she did cry etc, would it really make her less brave? Is someone who does say 'why me' and cry, less of a person because of it? I'm sorry, I'm human. Most of the time I do cope with this well. Most of the time I just take it in my stride - It's just something I've gotta do, and I'll do it. But there are times when I do ask "why me?" and cry about it. Because I get sick of feeling so crappy. I want to do what a lot of other people do. My heart (both physically and figuratively) is tired. It just wants to stop. It just wants a rest.

But, I will keep fighting on. 'Cause I've got a wonderful family to support and to support me. I have heaps of things in this life worth living for. I will get through this and get through this well. I just needed to have a "blahh" as my hubby says. Have it all out, have a rant and then, as my darling boy (the little old man) says: "mum, just build a bridge, and get over it!" I will build and cross this bridge. I will get over it.

Thanks for listening.

Surgery in under 3 weeks - EEK!

2009-02-26T09:46:00.004+10:00

So, I've been having some issues with my pacemaker. I thought it was the battery starting to go a bit low. Thought I might need to get it replaced in oh, about 4 or 5 months time. Thought it would be a simple "out with the old machine, in with the new and attach it to the existing leads", no drama, no complications, all good.

Well... almost. I do need it replaced. But not because the battery is playing up (It's still got more than 6 months life left in it), but because one of the *&^%Y^$ leads has broken. BROKEN!

I have 4 leads - one going to the top half of the heart (the Atriums), one going back from the atriums to the pacemaker, one going to the bottom half of the heart (the ventricles) and one going back from the ventricles to the pacemaker.

The lead that is broken is the one sending the current from the pacemaker to the ventricles, which means the electrical current is not getting to the lower half of my heart and then not going back up the last lead to the pacemaker. This means that the bottom half of my heart is not pumping as it should (as it is relying on my own natural pace maker - the sinus node- to send electric currents through, which it doesn't do very well, hence the need for the pacemaker.) and causing all sorts of weird palpitations and things to be happening. Not to mention not getting the blood around my body really well, causing me to go blue occasionally and feeling faint every now and then.

So, I'm going in for surgery on the 18th March. That is three weeks from yesterday. They will replace the pacemaker and try to pull out the old lead and replace it with a new lead. Only problem is, the old lead could have grown attached to the vein it is in (due to scar tissue etc) and if they pull it out, it could cause a rupture of the vein. That would not be good! So, if it doesn't look like it is going to come out easily, they will have to leave it in there and just put the new one in over the top - which also comes with a few risks.

I will admit I am feeling rather apprehensive about the whole thing. I know it will most likely all go fine and I will be out of hospital the next day and all will be good again. But there is still that risk, and the fact that it has all happened so suddenly and I have to go in so soon. I wasn't even expecting to see my Electro-Cardiologist until NEXT monday, and wasn't expecting an op for another few months - so to be suddenly told that everything is a little more complicated than expected and that the doctor will fit me in for surgery in three weeks time (If you don't have to have emergency surgery right then and there, that's good, but if the doctor fits you in in three weeks - well that means it's still pretty urgent) - it's all a little unnerving to tell you the truth.

Anyhoo, I'm sure I'll be fine. I just need to take deep breaths and try to take it as easy as possible over the next few weeks.

walks away saying "it'll be cool, it'll be cool"

I WON!!!

2009-02-16T09:36:00.002+10:00

This morning at about 3am QLD time (about 1pm EST American time), the lovely moderators of the Knutty Knitters Group on Ravelry chose the winner of the Love2LoveU contest. And the winner is ME!! I am so excited. This means that I will receive a box of various yarns from America. Whoo Hoo! It will be a few weeks before I will receive it, because the moderators live a fair distance apart and so one of them will have to send the other some of the yarn that is going into the parcel, then the other moderator has to pack it all up and send it to Australia from America. But that's ok - the waiting is part of the fun. I'm just so happy I've won something. I've never won a knitting competition before. (mind you, I don't think I've actually been in one before - lol)

I'm so pleased that I joined in with this contest, even if I hadn't won. It was so nice knitting something so fun for GrandMary, and then giving it to her was the best. She smiled and laughed so much - she loved them. GrandMary has been a bit depressed lately, so this really cheered her up, and that really cheered me up too. Mind you, it was even better this morning, being able to call her to tell her that I had won the contest - she had picked up the phone with a very morose sounding "hello", but ended the call with her laughing and smiling (I could tell she was smiling from her voice). That was a good feeling.

I just wanted to also mention the other talented knitters in the group, especially BettyKnitter from England - I really thought her Scented Love Heart decorations would win the day as she really put some effort into them and they were very beautiful. Well done everyone, it was a great comp, and it was so lovely to see your entries too. I had lots of fun and we'll have to something again sometime.

YAY happy dance!

Love peace and Joy

Knitting....

2009-02-15T18:21:00.004+10:00

I feel good about this year, knitting wise. I am trying to remain monogamous with my projects and really work on each project methodically - It seems to be working. I have already knitted two reasonable sized projects since Dec 19th last year, and am half way through a third. I also have at least two lined up with the right needles, pattern and yarn at the ready. Last year I only completed one major project and just did a few small ones - also started a few and didn't finish them. I really want to do a lot more this year.

So, the first project that I did, (starting on the 19th Dec, finishing on the 19th Jan - one month, I am so proud!) was a very low cut cardigan with leaf ties that I found on Knitty.com. I had finally found the perfect pattern for my own handspun, purple 14 micron superfine merino. Here is a piccy of the finished product:

The next project I did was for the Love2LoveU contest we held on our Ravelry.com Group, Knutty Knitters Unraveled. The idea

was that we had to create something that was love heart themed and then give it to someone we love. I made 3 love heart shaped cushions of different sizes and gave them to my Grandmother, GrandMary. GrandMary was thrilled to bits with them.

At the moment I am knitting a present for someone, so I can't say too much about it yet. I am about 1/2 way through, so hopefully I will be able to post about it (and add piccys) of it in a couple of weeks at the most.

Yesterday, my Mother & Father In Law got back from a two week cruise to New Zealand. My Mum-in-law is so fantastic, she brought me back 200g of lace weight (2ply) pure New Zealand Merino yarn, Hand - Dyed. YUM!! It is sooo soft, squishy & pretty. I am planning to make a lace shawl out of it. I'll probably be able to make 2..... Will try to get a pic taken of the two 100g skeins tomorrow. I'll have to take them up to my parents place and use their camera as mine is stuffed and I won't be able to afford a new one for some time yet.

Anyways, that's it on the knitting front for me for the moment.

love peace and Joy!

Update on earlier post

2009-02-10T19:31:00.002+10:00

Todays death toll in Victoria now stands at 181 and rising - the authorities are now saying up to 300 lives could be lost in total.... up from the 200 predicted yesterday.

I have just watched the news and also found that I made a mistake in my earlier post today. I said that no-one had died in the floods up in NQ. Unfortunately, this is not the case. 7 people have reportedly been lost due to the floods. I have also realised that many houses have been so damaged in the floods, they are ruined, as is pretty much everything in them. The floods have been that severe. The loss of property and life up there is still nowhere near as high as down in VIC, but still unimaginable and devastating to those affected. I send my love, my prayers and my condolences to all those affected by the floods and fires.

As one Member of Parliament said today, those of us between Victoria and North QLD are literally standing between Hell and High Water.

Sad Times

2009-02-10T10:36:00.005+10:00

This week is one where Australia is in Mourning. As of 8am today, 173 people have died in bushfires in Victoria, Australia. More bodies are expected to be found and at least 10 of the many injured are expected to die. It is likely that the count will rise to above 200. 200 people dead. That's just mind numbing. At least 2 towns have been completely decimated. The people who lived there have absolutely nothing to go back to. No schools, no jobs, no home.

What we had in November with the storms, was considered to be a disaster. But compared to this, it was no disaster, merely a shock and inconvenience. No one in The Gap died. most people have homes to live in and although many are still damaged, they can be repaired. Those who's homes need to be rebuilt have family and friends in the area that they can live with. People here still have jobs to go to and their kids can still attend school. We can still keep a sense of normality. The people down in Victoria can't do this, and won't be able to do this for a long time.

On top of the bushfires in Victoria, there is another disaster zone in Australia. That is in North and Far North Queensland. From fire down south, we go to Floods and rain up north. Whole towns have been cut off, roads are damaged, property and livestock are lost. But as yet, even this disaster is not anywhere near as bad as the conditions in Victoria. Often, things can be salvaged after a flood. Clothes and some other things can be washed and dried to be worn again. Metal and glass objects can be cleaned and re-used. Houses can often be moved back into and fairly easily be repaired. As yet, no-one has died as a direct consequence of the floods.

I guess what has really got to me with all of this, is that it was predicted. It was predicted years ago, that within the decade we would get this type of thing happening because of Climate Change. Climate change would cause extra hot and long summers, dry in drier areas and super wet in the tropics. We were warned that there would be floods, fire and higher king tides. But people poo poo'd this notion. Governments refused to act enough to prevent this from happening, because "we have to protect the economy" and they feared the public would backlash in the elections and "there is no proof that that will happen, it is only a theory".

Well guess what people? The economy has gone to shit anyway and now we don't have the money to cope with these disasters. It wasn't just a theory - it is all happening. In the last few months we have had the higher than average king tides, the floods, fires and destructive storms. Climate Change is here, it is affecting us now. If the governments and big businesses actually had done all the right things back then, maybe we wouldn't be in this situation. And even if these disasters still occured, maybe we might have better resources and ideas on how to deal with it.

But let's not focus too much on the past. Let's look to the future. Let's us gather around and support those in need. Let us look at what we can do to prevent these events from having such horrific impacts on us and campaign for a change in attitude.

There is one good thing that has come out of all this - and that is the community spirit. It is so wonderful to hear the stories of heroics, kindness and love for others, even strangers. People are rallying to support the people affected. Donations are flooding in. Housing is being offered. People are getting to know each other again. We are learning once again that neighbours, family and friends are so important. Being involved in the community is rewarding and more important than just focusing on our jobs and our own lives. People are starting to move away from the material and remembering the spirit. Let's keep that going, even long after the fires have burnt out, floods have receded, grass grown back and houses have been built. Let us remember that LOVE is the greatest healer and teacher of all.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T14:20:00.004+10:00

Wow, it's 2009 already. I can't believe how fast the years have gone. In some ways it only feels like last year was the beginning of 2000 and everyone was worried about the end of the world as we knew it due to the Y2K bug - wasn't that the scam of the decade - computer companies made millions and then nothing happened. But that was 9 years ago!

I was thinking last night how this year (2008) seemed to be the year I really started to feel like an adult. Up until now, i've still felt a little like I have been almost pretending to be an adult - or at least felt like a really young person doing adult things. But now, I have become comfortable in the fact that I am in my 30's and well and truly an adult. I don't even understand teenagers these days - what the hell is wrong with them, especially those emo ones?

Then I started thinking about how I have been married 13 years (ok, so officially I have only been married 12 years & about 4 months, but Lach and I moved in together on 1st Jan 1996 and agreed on that date that we were married even if we didn't have the paperwork yet) and have a child who this year will be 10 years old. That means I have been a mother for a decade and a wife for even longer! Ahgh, scary. I was a bit freaked out about that, but then I told myself to get over it, enjoy it, be glad I am still married and not a divorcee at 31 like a lot of other people and went to sleep.

No, I didn't have a big one last night. I just went over to the in-laws for dinner, watched a bit of TV for a while then went to bed in the air-conditioned room about 10pm. Bliss. I'm telling you now, I wish I could have stayed in that room all day. It is a scorcher here today and so humid I reckon by the end of the day I'll have produced my own weight in sweat. YUK.

So, Christmas! We had a good one. Very quiet and relaxing really. The best presents I got were: A rice cooker (Thanks Dave and Em), 2 nice and cool cotton tank tops that are very stylish (thanks Carol) and the best one of the lot I bought for myself: A Knitpicks Harmony Wooden Circular Knitting Needle Set - Absolutely awesome. I have already knitted half a cardigan on them out of the 14micron Superfine Merino I spun up over a year ago. It has been waiting in my stash until I had both a pattern and some needles to do it justice. And these needles are just the ticket. I love, love, love them! What the picture in the link doesn't show, is they also come with a fantastic needle sizer/gauge measure tool and little label rings to hang on the cables to tell you what size needles you are using on that section. Fantastic! They are so wonderful to knit with, I swear my knitting has become a bit faster with them.

Whoo, I think I'm a bit too hot to type anymore. I hope everyone had a good Christmas & New years and that your 2009 will be filled with happiness and peace. Mwahh!

Photo of Lachlan & I at the wedding

2008-11-05T07:50:00.004+10:00

A couple of weeks back, Lachlan & I went to a family wedding. For the event I borrowed a friend's fantastic pink dress. (Thank you MissVicki!!)

Here is one photo. I'm afraid it doesn't show the dress fully, but hopefully I'll get more photos from my parents soon.

The Age of Consumerism.

2008-11-02T18:27:00.002+10:00

I was just chatting on Ravelry, and one of my friends, Lindsay (aka damephoebe) told us all about a great website that has a fantastic little talk about consumerism and the environment and how our societies and earth are in crisis because of this consumerism. The site to go to is The Story Of Stuff. It is really well done, talks plain english and would be great to show kids from about ages 9 and up. It's good for adults too. I fully recommend everyone going and having a look at the site. I know that I can't talk - I am such a consumerist, it's not funny. But I will try, and recently I have been trying. I have been buying more things I need from Op shops rather than buying new, & not buying things I don't really need. I guess the idea is to at least try to remember where this stuff comes from, where it goes and what the real cost of the product is. That's the least anyone can do.

Yay, pressies!

2008-10-30T14:41:00.005+10:00

Last week the Craft and Quilt Show was on at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Center, so I worked there for about 7 hours stretching over Thursday and Saturday for my friend Jane from The Fibre Hut. For this time of doing what I love (selling fibre, demonstrating and talking about my passion to everyone) I got a free entry into the show as well as a little payment for my time. Whoo hoo! So see the photo above of the drop spindle set? That's what I treated myself to with the money (and a little extra out of my pocket). Sorry the photo isn't very clear as my digital camera is busted so I have to use my mobile phone at the moment. but aren't they beautiful?? They're so nice to use - weighted really well and not too big - even the biggest one. Sigh..... :)

The other photo is the contents of a present sent to me by my lovely "Secret Pal" Charmaine in Singapore. (yes, it was supposed to be a secret, but as I only know one person in Singapore, I know who sent it). You see, I am part of a group of lovely ladies on Ravelry called the Knutty Knitters Unraveled Group, and we started doing a Secret pal swap, where we were all given a name and address of another person in the group and we had to send them a present anonamously (?spelling?), but as there was so few of us participating and we have all gotten to know each other so well, it was pretty easy to guess who our Pals are. But aren't the little gifties fantastic? if you can't tell what they are from the crappy photo - there is some matching writing paper/book marks/and envelopes (which have writing on them that I can't read! lol), some cover-with-fabric buttons and a gorgeous little hand-made bag with my name stitched on the front. I feel special! Thank you Charmaine!!! :)

First Socks!!

2008-10-22T08:08:00.004+10:00

I have finally knitted a pair of socks!

And yes, all of you that told me they were easy, you were right. I am so proud of them. They are a bit loose around the ankle and cuff (The pattern was for a male's foot, & I guess males have larger calfs and ankles), but are great all the same. A bit warm for the current weather, but I wore them for a while yesterday.

Bring on the next pair! ;p

Some sad news: Colleen of SpiffyKnits died over the weekend. It is sad, but in a way a blessing as she did not suffer for long. Rest In Peace Colleen.

Some good news: I had a meeting with Rory's teacher and one of the Rainbow Room staff members about our Goals for Rory this term and how he is doing on the whole. And I am very proud to report that he's doing great!! Academically he is still not to a grade 4 level, but he is attempting to do everything by himself now, without referring to support aids unless he has to. He is also behaving better in general, his meltdowns are far smaller and fewer in number and he is participating in the classroom as much as any other child. All in all, he is growing to be a very gentle, happy and mature boy. I'm so proud!

Sad news.

2008-10-12T22:23:00.006+10:00

I can't write much, I need to go to bed as it is very late, but I needed to say that I am a sad tonight. I am on a few different groups on Ravelry - a site for knitters and crocheters. One of the groups I belong to is a discussion and support group for people who have had , need or will need in the future, an organ transplant, or have someone they love in that situation. Tonight I found out that one of our regular members, Colleen of Spiffyknits, is dying of cancer. She was diagnosed back in August and we have been communicating with her since her diagnosis. She went into surgery back in August to have 60% of her liver removed (the cancer was thought to only be in her liver) and it was thought that all had gone well. Although a pretty full-on course of chemo was recommended, it was thought she would recover well. However, I have just read on the groups message board an update (from one of the other members) that aggressive cancer cells have been found all throughout Colleens' lymph nodes and now chemotherapy is no longer an option as they are so aggressive that the chemo would not work and could possibly accelerate the spread. Unfortunately, there is nothing left to do but try to make her more comfortable and for her to spend whatever time she has left with her young children, husband and close family. Her story and donation information can be found Here. I know that being on such a group as this one, that I will probably have some of my new friends die, but this is the first and so is very hard. Please, if you can, pray for Colleen and her family or at least send them supportive and loving vibes. They need all the support they can get. Will write again later. Is very late and must try to sleep.

Love and peace - remember that everyone is special!

Look at my pretty blog

2008-09-30T16:49:00.003+10:00

Do you like it? I do! I noticed that blogger had changed some things and made it easier to update/restructure my page. So I took the opportunity and wallah! New, prettier blog that is easier to read and finally has links to my favourite blogs too! See girls, there's your blog right there on the side. :-)

Today I am grateful for: the fact that Rory has so much loving family members and friends around him. On Saturday his Pappa (maternal grandfather) took him out all day to the Railway Workshops Museum to see the circus train. On Sunday afternoon, he went over to his friend Jayden's house for a long play. Today he spent all day out at the Science Centre and the Queensland Museum with his Granny (paternal Grandmother). I am grateful that he is so loved and that he is so well behaved that they really enjoy spending the time with him. I am grateful that most of the family live so close, so they can be such a huge part of his life, and so he will always have memories of spending time with his grandparents and aunts & uncles. I am grateful that they are around to be able to take him out and give me a nice break regularly. Especially during the school holidays!

Knitting update: Guess What! I finally knitted a sock!! I have been knitting for about 4 years now, and have been too intimidated to knit socks. I tried toe up ones a couple of times, but lost the plot before I had even finished the toe. So this time, I finally got myself a pattern for Top down socks that seemed reasonably easy to understand and Yay! A sock was born. It actually looks like a pretty decent sock too. a few little mistakes (design features) but it fits quite well and isn't mutant, so that is great. I feel like I have finally taken the plunge and feel proud that I got over "the edge" of sock knitting. After just one sock, I can understand how people get addicted to knitting them. Am working on the second sock and already planning the next pair. I think my family can expect socks for Christmas!

Love peace & Joy!

Where did winter go?

2008-09-22T11:39:00.003+10:00

We had winter, and now it is summer. I know that technically it is only early spring, but it feels like summer. Hot and Humid. I know it is only going to get hotter. I am grateful for the few cooler days we have. I am grateful for the spring storms that are bringing some nice rain in the evenings. But I HATE HOT WEATHER. can I say that any louder? If only I had money to be able to move north for the summer. I mean WAY north. England type north. Or maybe south to Tassie. I know it can get a bit hot there too, but not for as many days in a row.

I haven't been very good on this Grateful series, regular posting thing have I? Well, I've decided that that is just me. Take it or leave it. If I write a post, great. If I don't write one for quite a while, I either have nothing to say or have been too busy and having a good time. I am not going to apologise or comment on my "slackness" anymore. I'm not slack. I am busy. I am a good person even if I don't post on my blog regularly. God, I am sounding crabby today, aren't I? Its the heat. But here. I will say something nice. an addition to the grateful series.

This Week I Am Grateful For: The knitting community. I never knew there could be such a community in the world that I could be part of. And it is all around the world. Through Ravelry I have made friends in America, Germany, Scotland, and England and talked to people from everywhere in between. Through QSW&FA I have made friends from all around Brisbane and even other parts of QLD and northern NSW. I have found novels written about a knitting community in New York (The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs.) and about murder and Crochet. I have met so many wonderful people who accept me as I am and do not judge.

I have found a hobby where I can get support and inspiration, both for my knitting and for my general life. I LOVE IT! So all you friendly knitters out there. THANK YOU. You have made my life so less stressfull. I know that if I'm feeling down, or having trouble with a pattern or just need someone to laugh with, all I need to do is get on the internet, or go to a local knitters group and there will be someone to cheer me up.

Ahh, that's better. end the post on a happy note. I'm cooler now. there is a lovely breeze flowing into the study where I am. I am going now to make some lunch for me and my boy and make some phone calls my hubby needs me to make.

Love peace and joy.

My Folks

2008-09-03T08:28:00.003+10:00

Today I am grateful for my parents. My mum and dad are just the best. They do so much for me and my siblings and support us in almost all our decisions.

Growing up, they were never really "strict" but still kept us in line by letting us know what they expected of us and letting us know what the consequences of our actions could be, and made us think about that. eg: If we did "A", how would we deal with "B", "C" or "D" consequence? Did we really want to deal with any of those consequences? Would it be best just not do "A" in the first place? If we went ahead and did "A", they supported us (most of the time) in our decision and usually helped us deal with the consequence.

I think this is a brilliant form of parenting and I now try to do that with my son.

My Goodness.... Another month has gone!

2008-08-30T16:18:00.002+10:00

And once again I have been really slack about posting. You know what it is? I spend ALOT of time on ravelry. some would say too much. but too much Rav is NEVER enough!!!!!

So how am I going to fix this problem of being slack? I have a plan. From today, I will start posting about the things in my life that I am grateful for and I will do this at least once a week, but will try to do it nearly every day. The Grateful Series. That's what I'll call it.

Ok, so lets start. Today I am Grateful for my Twin Sister Libby. For a lot of our life, Libby and I have had a bit of difficulty getting along very well (at times that could have been construed as quite the understatement). But now, things are wonderful and I am so grateful for the friendship as well as sisterhood that we are now sharing together. It is so good to be able to go over there for a cuppa and just be with her. I am also so grateful to her for being so open to me wanting to be a really involved aunty to little Arun. I feel really honoured that when she is feeling a little stressed or over tired, she feels she can call me for help. So thank you Lib, for being a wonderful sister.

Whoo hoo - New baby!

2008-07-29T08:11:00.002+10:00

My sister Libby had her baby last night at about 10:25pm! It is a little boy they have named Arun. The spelling is different from the usual Aaron, as he is actually named after the place in England where Ron (her husband) proposed - Arundle. (Although, I don't think his full name is Arundle, just Arun.) I like that it is spelt differently as this will make it easier for Rory to remember how to spell his cousins name. It is spelt pretty much the way it sounds.

Apparently Arun came out sucking his thumb and weighs 7.5 pounds or 3.4kg in the metric system.

I am so happy for Lib and Ron, they got to have their home birth the way they wanted it, without any need to go into the hospital. I'm really proud of Lib for sticking to her principles and doing it her way. Mind you, she always has been a bit stubborn and done things the way she wants to and not the way convention or our culture usually states it the "right way". But it usually works out well for her and proves that the "normal" way of doing things is not always the best way.

So congratulations Libby & Ron! I can't wait to come and chat and see the new bundle of joy in the family. Oh, I am soooo excited!!!!

Love peace and joy.

The Baby is coming!!!!

2008-07-28T08:13:00.002+10:00

I am so excited this morning. My twin sister is pregnant, and her waters broke about 6:30 this morning - so she won't be preggers for too much longer! I can't wait until I see the little one, even though that will probably still be a couple of days away yet.

I have been knitting a fair bit for this baby over the last couple of weeks - been so busy knitting, I haven't had time to blog. I have so far given Libby 2 cardigans for the baby, have knitted a little beret that hasn't gone to her yet and I am working on an orange jumper and some little knitted socks to match the beret & one of the cardies.

Last weekend (not the one that has just passed) was the annual QSW&FA camp at Mapleton in the Sunshine Coast hinterland. Oh, I had a wonderful time!! So relaxing, just spinning, knitting, chatting, eating and sleeping for nearly 3 days. utter bliss. At the camp I finally started spinning up some of my blended Alpaca, angora rabbit and cashmere fibre. It is so soft , but sooo dirty from the alpaca! I got my first skein finished about wednesday and knitted up a small tension/ sample swatch - It is so soft and drapey. It will be really nice I think.

Anyway, gotta push my child off to school. With all the phone calls this morning about Libby, Rory has taken his time getting ready because I haven't had my whip out to him like usual! (whip of words..... not a literal whip..... just in case anyone reading this thinks I abuse my son!)

Love peace and joy

Cool stuff

2008-06-17T07:54:00.002+10:00

Yesterday I went into Craft Ideas at Indooroopilly Shopping Centre, just to have a look. And Wow! they have really increased their yarn items. They have heaps more yarn than they did a few months ago and a really good range. It's still pretty much what you would find in one of the chain stores, but hey, I'll always try to support an LYS rather than a chain store for my commercial yarn needs. They also had a heap of lovely NZ mohair hanks that you can't buy in the chain stores. Yum!

While there I saw some items that were on display, already knitted up. One of the hats I really liked and I asked if they had the pattern for it for sale. The lady led me to a pattern book from Cleckheaton called "Handknits to Wrap and Adorn". OMG, I had to buy it. It has some really great little patterns in it.

I have already started on another hat I found in it using leftover woolbale found in my stash (the hat I liked in the shop will have to wait until I can buy some more yarn - I only had enough to buy the book). The hat I am working on will naturally be felted after knitting (I am using Woolbale after all). I am doing it in Black and red. I think it will look great.

In this book, there are also some great patterns that I could use for the Knitting Olympics. The problem will be deciding which one to use! I will bring it tomorrow night to spinners so those of you who come to that can have a little look.

Talking of spinners, Last Wednesday night, I picked up a bag of alpaca fleece quite cheap. It even had a photo of the alpaca the fleece came from. It is from a cute little guy called Kenny. Awww. Tomorrow night I am hoping to pick up some cashmere too, then I plan to blend the alpaca, my leftover angora rabbit and the cashmere. It should make a beautiful yarn once spun up. There should be enough alpaca to make a Jumper, so I'm really excited.

Love peace and joy.

Alpacas and bunnys

2008-06-11T15:37:00.002+10:00

Today I have been blending some alpaca and angora rabbit hair together and spinning it. It looks quite nice. I've used some hand carders I borrowed from QSW&FA to blend the two shades of alpaca (caramel and brown) and the white bunny. Tonight I plan to spin up some of the white silk I have in my stash, which I will ply with the alpaca and bunny mix. It should be a lovely yarn. God knows what I will make out of it, it won't be much. I am trying to make some of my fibre stash into some yarn stash. Show the Hubby that I am trying to use my stash, not buy more. The problem is though, that the fibres in my stash aren't in large amounts, so whatever I spin has to either be blended together or just make small hanks to use in something later on.

It's been nice to get back to some spinning after all the knitting...... which reminds me.....

I'VE FINISHED THE COTTON TOP!!!!!

And it looks lovely. now I just need to block it. I finished knitting and sewing up on Monday night and sewed in the ends while I was waiting at the dentists yesterday. My seaming skills leave a little to be desired, so the joins / seams aren't very well done, but they'll do. The more items I knit, the more sewing I'll probably have to do and so hopefully my sewing and seaming skills will improve. Mind you, my next large project I want to do is a seamless jumper - so maybe I won't be seaming for a while!

I would have written about the top last night, because it is really exciting, but I was in no mood to be excited last night. That wait at the dentists? was an emergency trip because I have a bloody big hole in my tooth and although I was booked in later this month for a root canal treatment, it got too sore...... or so I thought.

I went to the dentist, and she decided to do the first stage of the root canal job then and there. OOOOWWWW! So last night I was nursing a sore mouth. It doesn't help that my jaw is mildly dislocated as well, and having it open for over an hour was not a good thing.

While the dentist was doing the treatment, she said "boy, this is a really bad tooth. The canals are really tiny. I think you'll have to go to a specialist for the rest of the treatment, and even then, i'm not sure this is going to work." So after she had finished and the side of my mouth was still heading south, we had a little discussion. I am not going to continue with the treatment. The next appointment I have that was going to be the second stage of the root canal job, will now be a tooth extraction. Yes, the little blighter is coming out. It just seemed the most sensible option - not to mention the least expensive. Not really looking forward to that, but the tooth really isn't worth saving. Poor hubby. the day I get the tooth removed is his birthday. More sore and sorry Jenny then. Today it hasn't been too bad though. The actual tooth is pretty ok today, but my jaw is objecting. Just sticking to soft foods.

Anyway, enough about my oral defects. I finished the top and am spinning some lovely fibre. Ahhh, the healing properties of fibre are so often underestimated in our society. Looking forward to going to spinners tonight. Yeay! I hope most of the crowd is there, but tonight is State of Origin football, being held at the stadium only a few blocks or so away from where we meet. This might deter many from venturing out this evening. But not me!

Go Queensland!

Domestic Goddess..... Well maybe not quite

2008-06-04T09:17:00.002+10:00

Today I am feeling rather "domestic goddess" like. Yesterday I made my second batch of jam ever (the first being a tiny amount monday week ago). I made apple and lillypilly jam - the lillypillies coming from my own garden - whoo hoo! It was again a small batch - about half a jar worth or so, but it worked out beautifully - not too hard and not too runny. Very proud of myself.

On Monday I made some more Chocolate Slice - and this time I remembered the sugar. Again, it worked out great!

Today I am finally getting some washing done (it has been pouring with rain the last couple of days - which has been great but not good for getting clothes dried), I'm tidying up the house and I think I will attempt to make some Apricot Balls with Sweetened condensed Skim milk. I wonder if the skim will be too thin to hold them together? I hope not as I can't eat the full fat stuff.

So why all the sudden domestics? I don't know. Just feel like it. Am I becoming an old fart? Have I officially crossed that line? Well, I can either think of myself as an old ditty in the kitchen or I can think of myself as a Nigella Lawson type - domestic goddess, queen of making house work, cooking and craft sensual. Even though I don't like that woman and don't think of her as that sexy or sensual, its a nice idea. I think I'll take the Nigella over the old fart anyday.

Rory is home from school today too, so I am being mum as well. He was looking very tired and burst into tears at the slightest thing this morning, so I decided to listen to my instinct and keep him home. Last time I didn't there was hell to pay at school and I was rung up to bring him home. I didn't want that to happen today. I'm glad I did as within half an hour of deciding to keep him home, his eyes got red and itchy, glazed and he started sniffing a lot. So, lots of resting today for Rory.

Oh, I have finished one wrist warmer - quite a crappy job done of it too. But as I said in my last post, it is just more for technique sake and using up the yarn. The Purla seems to be fine on my wrist so I am working on the second warmer now. Hopefully it will look a bit better. I'm going to blame the yarn for the mess - I know I have a lot of trouble keeping my tension right, especially on DPN's, but really, I can't be THAT bad can I?....... don't answer that.

Right, now to those apricot balls and anything else I decide to whip up.

Love peace and joy

Problems with Purla

2008-05-26T08:30:00.002+10:00

So I've started to knit my first pair of wrist warmers out of a Panda brand yarn called "purla". I bought this yarn from Kmart for really cheap - it's Acrylic, alpaca and polyester or something. It was so soft and lovely looking I just had to buy it - even if it is mainly synthetic, I figured the fact that it had some alpaca in it made up for the fake stuff. I thought maybe I would make both wrist warmers and a matching scarf.

Problem is, I didn't do the "neck test." This is where you gently hold the yarn against your neck under your chin to see how soft it really is. It wasn't until yesterday when Joey saw me working on it that she told me that was the nasty stuff she had tried to make a scarf out of. I held it to my neck and .... AAAGGHHH!!! it is so deceptive. lovely and soft to touch with your hands but when you hold it to your neck it's like rubbing a prickly pear fruit there. Ouch!

So I guess I won't be making a matching scarf with it. It seems to be ok on the soft inside of my wrists though, so I will persevere with it and once the first wrist warmer is a certain size, I will put it on and wear it for a while and see how we go.

The other small problem is that this yarn is not spun tightly - which helps it to be soft- however when working with DPN's this means that it has a tendency to split a lot while I am trying to knit it. But again, I shall persevere as it really is pretty and as I am just trying something new, so it is best to use something in my stash that I probably won't be using for anything else.

So, if using purla - great - just don't knit anything you might want to put around or near your neck!

Love peace and joy

Busy weekend

2008-05-24T11:08:00.003+10:00

This weekend's very busy. and I've already had quite a busy week, so i am pretty tired now, but no matter.

On Wednesday I went to bunnings, kmart and crazy clarkes with my friend fran to pick up some stuff for her daughters birthday and some things for Rory's demonstration at school. He did a talk on Friday about how to make a terracotta pot snail. Apparently, he did really well, so that is good. On Wednesday at crazy clarkes, I also picked up a very small mini sewing machine for $25. It only sews straight, doesn't do anything fancy (not even zigzags etc), but it is all I need at the moment - just to mend clothes and make small bags and things. Very handy. it is even portable because it is so small that if you don't have a power point you can run it on 4 AA batteries! It's great 'cause all this time i've not had a sewing machine and i've really been thinking lately that I just needed a simple one. This is perfect.

On Thursday I went and visited my Grandmother. I love going and visiting her and spending a number of hours with her, but she lives over the other side of town and so I don't visit very often. But we had a lovely time with a lot of laughs and so that was a good day.

On Friday I went to bowling as usual and then on the way home dropped into crazy clarkes again - this time I managed to pick up a toasted sandwich maker (like the old Jaffle ones) for only $10!!! Fantastic! I also popped into a st vinnies and got some steak knives for only $0.30 each. Bargain week this week!

Last night we started to help my sister and her husband move into a house close by to here so that was very exciting. We weren't going to start until this morning, but they popped around last night so we decided to help out then too. We will continue with that this afternoon as we are all pretty tired this morning. Libby is due to give birth in a couple of months so it is great that she will be living close by so I can watch the baby for her a lot. The baby was actually moving around in her a lot last night so I got to feel it kick and stuff. it was so cool. Yeay, babies!

Tomorrow we have the QSW&FA Open Day, so I will be busy there from about 8am. Looking forward to it though, it's always fun and there is so much fibre and lovely things to look at. I will be looking after the Jam & Cake stall (located near the entrance to the hall) so if you want to come and say hi and buy something yummy, please do so!

Love peace and joy

Sorting Stash & dying

2008-05-19T13:45:00.004+10:00

When I told hubby I had gotten onto Ravelry - he just rolled his eyes, but now I think he will be pleased. You see, for the past 6 months or more (ok, it might be 12), the area in our house allocated for my stuff and stash has been a VERY big mess. we're talking you couldn't see the floor AT ALL. But now that I am on Ravelry, I want to list at least most of my stash and my projects. But for me to do that, I need to sort out my stash, and to sort out my stash I need to tidy up my area. Today I started doing that - and have actually managed to put a fairly large dint in the mess as well as take notes and photos of a fair amount of my stuff. So this afternoon when Lach comes home and goes to collapse in front of the TV, he will look at the other end of the room and actually see some floor! Maybe I might even get a smile from him about it, but I doubt it. I'll probably just get an "It's about time!!" I hope to start listing my stash items onto Ravelry tomorrow morning.

I found during my sorting that I have an awful lot of Crap, but I also found some stuff I didn't realise I had - like, can you believe it - 2 and a half balls of Biggen Design Yarn!!!! Whoo hoo!! That saves me over 19 bucks right there. I was planning to get at least 4 or 5 more balls, but now I should only have to get 2 or maybe 3.

I was hoping to finish knitting the sleeves for my top by Wednesday night but that is not going to happen now as I have not even picked up my needles since last Wednesday night. You see, the next major project I have planned is a jumper made out of the superfine merino I spun last year. It was white though, so this past week I have been dying it.

I first dyed it purple (violet), but as my dye pot sprung a leak and all kinds of other things went wrong with the dying process, it didn't quite turn out the dark purple I wanted it to. it just turned a lightish purple - kind of mottled. That was not what I was wanting. But then I saw that I still had a couple of pots of pink dye in amongst my stash, so I thought "Why not?" I found another pot I could use, fired up the portable gas stove and overdyed the purple wool with the pink dye. It has come out a great colour! Still more purple than pink, but quite close to fushia. My favorite colour.

With all this dying and heating and washing though, the strands in the skeins had started to felt together. So for the rest of the past week I have been patiently pulling the strands apart and re-skeining. This has taken ages and I'm not finished yet. Thanks Pam for the loan of the better niddy-noddy and swift! It has made things a little easier - certainly better than trying to use the backs of chairs like I was doing!

Right - the boys will be home in the next hour, so I better get back to the washing, tidying and sorting.

Love peace and joy

I'M ON RAVELRY!!!

2008-05-17T21:17:00.003+10:00

I'm finally on Ravelry! Most of you who read this have been encouraging me for ages, so you can stop hassling now! For those who don't know about Ravelry, it is an online networking site / community for knitters and crocheters or even general fibre artists of all kinds really. It's really cool. I have been hesitant in the past about joining due to a couple of reasons:

1) It will cause me to spend too much more time on the internet talking and reading about knitting.

2) I'm not sure whether my broadband plan will cope with the photos, downloads etc if I'm visiting Ravelry, Facebook, this blog, other friends blogs, youtube etc. (but those same lovely friends who have been encouraging me tell me it should be fine - otherwise i should spend more time at the library on their computers, which brings me back once again to my first reason.)

3) It could increase my stash - due to all the things I see that I want to do, or buy etc.

4) It could increase the time I spend on knitting - which is too much already!

But...... the -aholic in me, and all my addicted friends finally won the day and I got myself onto the Ravelry invite list. It's funny, most people go to groups like AA to give up on their addictions. The group I go to, we all help each other become more addicted! But, at least unlike many other addictions, this one is life giving rather than life taking. So thank you everyone for finally convincing me! it really is a fantastic site. So I think I will go back to it now.......

Oh, BTW, if you are on Ravelry and want to look me up, my handle is: Sanityisyarn (i missed out on knitaholic because I waited so long. but this handle at least relates to this blog too. )

Love peace and joy, and I might see you in the knitting world!

The ties that bind

2008-05-08T08:10:00.006+10:00

In light of mothers day coming up on Sunday, Here are some of my thoughts on one aspect of mothering I call:

The Cutting of the Invisible Umbilical Cords.

I have this theory: Every mother and her child have many umbilical cords connecting them. (I know it might not be a very original idea, but hey, this one is mine.)

Only one umbilical cord is visible and of course that is cut just after the moment of birth and signifies the first separation between the mother and her child. From then on, the child must breath and live independently. But at this stage, there are still lots and lots of other invisible cords and the child cannot survive without the help of its mother. (ok, so some children do have to, but often the adult who becomes responsible for that child, suddenly also attains these invisible cords of love.) The child in question still has to be fed, clothed, carried, cleaned etc. This connects the mother to her child in a very special way.

As the child grows more independent, these cords are cut. Sometimes the cords are cut only one at a time, other times there seems to be times when quite a few are cut all at once. At each moment a cord is cut, the mother feels the loss. Sometimes only on a vague level, but often quite profoundly. Usually, the cutting of the cord corresponds with times of joy and achievement and so is often overlooked and the mother can't quite understand why she is feeling a bit sad and lost when she is supposed to be happy. The times of the cutting often happen at a "first" time or a beginning, but often beginnings signal the end of something too.

Let me give you some examplesof recognised moments:

1) The first walking steps - signifies the beginning of the child being able to move about on their own, without being carried by an adult. But it is also beginning of the end of the "baby" stage.

2) The first day of school (primary or high school)

These times are well known as both happy and sad times for the mother and understood as such. But what about all the other cords? When are they cut?

These are the "little" moments. The times when the child does something for the first time, but it almost goes unrecognised - not unrecognised by the mother always, but often by others.

We had one of these smaller events happen just yesterday (hence all the navel gazing today.)

Yesterday, Rory asked if he could go to the park nearby with one of his friends - Without an adult. And for the first time - I said yes. For many people this might not seem like such a big deal - especially since the park is really only yelling distance away he is nearly 9 years old. Many of us were younger than that even when we started hanging out with our mates, going for bike rides, exploring the bush or whatever. He needs to start doing this, it is a part of him growing up independent and adjusted, but for me, it was a big thing. I felt it profoundly.

At first, I couldn't understand why it felt like such a big deal. He was only going for a short time, it was only a short walk away and it was a safe area. Rory's a pretty smart boy, he'll work out what to do if he needs help - he'll come straight home. And I'll certainly hear him if he starts yelling and even if he starts crying - mothers can recognise their childs cry from miles away (well nearly).

Then I realised - a cord had been cut. It was a first, but it was also the beginning of an end. The end of a time that he has supervised "playdates" and the beginning of "hanging out with his mates". The end of his early childhood years. The end of his reliance on me to organise him his fun. All these things I am excited about. I am happy for him and for me. I've got him independent enough to feel comfortable doing this. He is growing and is relatively normal. I can be free again to be me and not so much Mummy. Hang on........ Not so much Mummy?!? am I ready for that yet? I thought I was. But.... I want to be mummy. This means he's growing up. He'll be a teenager before we know it. I know he'll always need me, and love me - but he won't need me in the same way. A cord has been cut. He is becoming his own person. I know this is a very good thing. But it is a little painful at the same time.

The cords are cut as the child grows. Cords continue to be cut even in the childs adult years - When the child starts and finishes uni, the first job, the first car, the first serious partner, gets married and has children of their own. Finally, not many cords are left. The child is fully independent from the mother. But there will always be at least one very strong umbilical cord left - the cord of a mother's love for her child and the child's love for their mother. This cord will continue to be connected even after the death of the mother or child. It can never be broken. When the other cords are cut, acknowledge the pain, celebrate the achievement but always remember the one cord that lasts forever.

So, here's to all the Mums out there - those whose first umbilical cord has been cut, right through to those who only have one left. Let us celebrate our children's independence, but also acknowledge each others grief and loss of that connection to our children. Let us support each other and let each other know that it is ok to feel a little sad at these very happy times.

Yours in Love, peace and joy

Jenny

Lazy Day.....

2008-05-04T11:29:00.002+10:00

Today I am having a very lazy day. It is already 11:30am and I am still in my pj's. No, I don't plan to get out of them soon either..... I have over done things this week, so I don't think my hubby is very pleased with me. But I've had a GREAT time, even if I am suffering for it now. On Wednesday I went to the Stiches & Craft Show to help out my friend Jane on her stall. Worked for 6 hours silly me!! But it was a lot of fun and so cool to just spend 6 hours talking about my passion to people. I surprised myself even with my knowledge of wool and many (I won't say all) things fibre.

On Thursday I spent the day with one of my oldest and dearest friends, Naomi. Naomi and I have known each other since our days together at Payne Road State School in Grade 4. We decided to go look around Chermside Shopping Centre, especially since I had a discount voucher for Borders Bookstore. We ended up spending more than 1 1/2 hours in Borders alone. God I love that place. We could have spent even longer if I hadn't gotten so hungry.

After lunch we looked around at some other stores, including a fruit shop that had a large range of exotic and rare fruits. That was interesting.... and painful. Let's just say that I learnt my lesson about never picking up a prickly pear fruit with bare hands. ALWAYS USE TONGS is what I learnt. I was picking fine hair like prickles out of my hand for the next two hours. And for that whole two hours Naomi couldn't look at me without laughing and calling me an idiot. But she did help me get them out of my skin, so she wasn't being a total bitch. and lets face it - I deserved to be laughed at ...... how silly am i?!?!

On Friday I once again helped out my friend Jane at the Stitches and Craft Show, but not for as many hours and I took A LOT more breaks this time. I was definitely starting to feel the effects of being up so much by then. In fact, I really shouldn't have gone, but not only do I enjoy it so much, Betsy and Joey were there too, working on the QSW&FA stall, so I spent a fair bit of time with them too. When I got home, as soon as I dumped my stuff, I started running a bath. Soaked in that for about an hour and then was in bed by 7:00pm.

On Saturday morning, I went to QSW&FA (spinners) and there Betsy did a talk about her time in Canada and overseas. it was really good. I know I shouldn't have gone to that either, but i really wanted to see Betsy's talk and I knew I could sit down the whole time. I rested yesterday afternoon, but I still felt sick last night.

This morning I was supposed to take Rory to Bowling but got Lachlan to instead. We are going over to my friend Matts' this evening so I really need to rest. I'm really looking forward to tonight, it should be really fun. Also, he's going to be cooking up a Roast Pork and veges, so YUM!! (and no cooking dinner for me!!! )

Ok, time to go back to bed........

Love, peaches and Roast Pork

Jen

Some photos Finally!! ...... Worlds Greatest Shave

2008-04-30T20:38:00.007+10:00

Ok, so this is before I had "The big shave"

And After. (March 14 2008)

S & C show and new top

2008-04-29T20:44:00.002+10:00

I'm pretty excited this evening. Tomorrow is the first day of the Stiches & Craft Show in Brissy at the convention centre and I am going! I didn't think I would be able to go as I don't have enough money at the moment to get into the joint (it's like $15 or something ridiculous just to go in and have a look, let alone any money you might want to spend while there - and there is a lot to spend it on, trust me. ) and I also didn't get around to putting my name down for volunteering on the spinners stall. But then yesterday evening, an acquaintance of mine who owns a fibre business out at Gatton called me and asked if I would like to work on her stall with her tomorrow, getting me a free ticket in and a little tiny bit of cash on the side, as the woman who usually works with her is unable to make it into the show. HELL YEAH!! (As you might have surmised, I said yes.) I don't know if I'll make it to spinners tomorrow night though, as because of this I will probably be very tired...... We'll see.

I would like to go to spinners tomorrow night though, because I want to show off the first part of the top I am working on. I have finished the back today and it is looking so good. This top is made out of some lovely Heirloom Cotton 8ply in a gorgeous pinky purple colour that my friend Tina gave me for my birthday back in September. She gave me 10 balls and since then I have purchased at least another 8 from her, so I should be right to have enough to finish the top and maybe a hat or something besides.

I'm very proud of this top as it is one I am designing myself as I go, and it is so far working out really well. I have taken ideas and measurements from about 3 different patterns and along with other variations have adapted it to a create a top I really like. Well, in my mind I definitely like it, we'll see what it looks like in actuality. But I think it will work well and I am excited to be designing something myself and most likely I'll even finish it!! I often finish small things or large things like chunky crochet shawls, but I hardly ever finish a adult size top or jumper. I have at least 2 sitting in my stash at the moment, along with at least 2 kids jumpers and 1 jumpsuit. But I have done quite a few baby things lately that I have been proud of and been able to give away. And it was one of the baby items that gave me the starting ideas on the top I am now working on.

Anyway, tomorrow is a busy day so I'd better go to bed.

Love peace and joy

Babies, babies & Shave for a cure.

2008-04-01T10:44:00.004+10:00

Hey all! Guess what?! I am an aunty again. WHOO HOO! On Thursday of last week (the 27th March) my new little niece Sophie was born. SHE IS SO CUTE (of course.) Congratulations Dave and Em!! So I have been knitting away, making baby clothes. Before she was even born, she was given 2 jumpers and a beret, and on the day after she was born, she was given a pair of booties (not ones that I knitted,... haven't worked out how to do that yet - so thanks Belinda for the booties). This will be one spoiled little girl. At the moment I am working on my first proper lace project that might actually get finished - a cardigan for the little cherub. I have done the back and Left front so far.. Just the Right front and sleeves to go. Hopefully she won't grow too much before I'm finished it!

The good thing about all these little clothes is that pretty much as soon as Sophie is finished with them, they can be used as a present for my sister Libby's baby, due at the end of July. Yeahy, more bubba's.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Shave for a cure - otherwise known as the Luekaemia Foundations Worlds Greatest Shave was on in March. And I joined in - ahhh! That's right, for those who don't know (which come to think of it, as I hassled EVERYONE for money, there wouldn't be many people who don't) on March 14th I got my hair shaved back to a #1 blade (very short - almost nothing). I did this is in support of my friend Jacqui who was also shaving her head that night. Jacqui's son Dominique died from Luekaemia 5 years ago when he was just 14. So in his memory Jacqui and her daughter Michaela organised an event at The Gap Tavern to raise money and awareness while people could watch the three of us, along with two guys, one boy and two 9 yr old girls, shave our hair off. It was a great night and in total - with the individual monies we raised along with the money made on the night from door entry etc - we raised about $3000!! I personally raised (excluding the nights monies) $760. I am very proud of myself.

My hair is growing back quite quickly actually - thank goodness. I don't much like it short - although a lot of people say it looks good - and I'll be glad to get it back to shoulder length. At the moment it is still short enough not to be messy, but thank god the colder weather has started as I can see myself needing to cover my head from public view very soon.

Love Peace and Joy

Welcome to 2008

2008-01-05T18:40:00.001+10:00

Can you believe it?? Happy New Year everyone!

I'm having some problems downloading my photos at the moment so unfortunately you'll have to wait a little while longer to actually see what I've been doing. But I can tell you.....

Christmas was great. I got Carol's (my mother in law) bag done and everything else. We went over to the In-Laws on christmas eve and had a lovely time. Then on the day itself, we went over to my brother and sister-in-laws house to celebrate both christmas and my Dad's 60th birthday, which is on christmas day. It was just a fantastic day and we all had a lot of fun and laughs. It was great because my family doesn't usually spend Christmas Day together as Mum & Dad are usually up helping with the organising of Woodford Folk Festival - but as it was also Dads 60th and he is trying to ease off on how much he does up there, we all agreed to get together then, rather than a week or two before hand like usual.

Now that the new year is here it is time to start working on baby clothes for the babies that will be born in the family this year. Both my Sister-in-Law Emily and my twin Sister Libby are expecting. HOW EXCITING!!! Emily is due around about the 4th of April and Libby is due at the end of July. April and July especially seems a long way away, but at the rate I knit, I need to start on clothes now if I want to get them done in time. I have just knitted up a cute sleeveless jumpsuit thing and it is being blocked at the moment. It is by far NOT the best knitting I have ever done, and god knows if it is going to fit, but we can only hope that all will be ok and Libby will be happy with it anyway. Now I have to start on a jumper or something for Emily's baby.

Between christmas and the new year I have also crocheted a lovely shawl that I made up as I went along - I call it "Butterfly" as the front looks like a butterfly shape. Back in September 2006 when we went to South Australia, I bought 3 x 50g balls of some lovely dark green 100% pure superfine Alpaca from an Alpaca shop in a little town called Harndorf (but I don't think that's how you spell it.) I couldn't afford any more than 3 balls and when I got home it went into my stash awaiting inspiration. Finally I got some (inspiration that is) and used the whole lot in this shawl. I really like what I've done with it, but although it looks ok on me, really it would sit better on someone who is a fair bit skinnier than myself. Oh well, I plan to lose some weight anyway or I'll end up either giving or selling it to someone else. It was nice just to make something like that by myself and have it turn out so lovely. The yarn was just such a pleasure to work with.

Will post photos soon (I hope!!)

6 sleeps 'till christmas

2007-12-20T08:05:00.000+10:00

It's six sleeps until christmas and I've been soooo busy. I have been working on gifts for the family mainly - I'll post photos and details after christmas so my family doesn't know what they are getting.

Rory finished school for the year on Wednesday last week, and so on Thursday we went away down to Burleigh on the Gold Coast for a little holiday. It was good. We went for swims at the beach and in the lovely pool, looked around Pacific Fair a couple of times, went to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary on Saturday, and went to Christmas carols in the park on Sunday night which Rory thoroughly enjoyed. Ricky-Lee was the "guest" performer - even though she only sung about 4 songs right at the end before the fireworks. The performer that sung before her was a surprise. it was a guy called Christopher Thomas and it wasn't until he actually got up on stage that I realised it was the same Chris Thomas that was a really good friend of my brothers in High School and whose own brother Adam was in my class as well. I didn't even know that Chris was a singer! So now I must try to find him on the net and send him a message.

The trip home on Monday was an adventure. We left Burleigh at 10:20 am and I did not get home until 6:30 pm. (for those of you who may not know - Burleigh is really only about one and a half hours drive from my area of Brissy) To cut a long story short, the water pump and a radiator hose basically stuffed up and Rory & I spent at least 4 and a half hours by the side of the road on a highway exit in the middle of bloody nowhere with a steaming engine. We were finally towed to the nearest RACQ mechanics shop where they just put in new radiator hoses and sent me home with the instructions to get a new water pump in within the next couple of days. NOT the kind of expenses we needed just before christmas, but hey - what can you do? I need a car. The water pump was put in yesterday and so now hopefully all is good.

Last night was the Night Owls Christmas party on Helen's new deck. OMG did I need that! and no, this time i am not being sarcastic. I really did need to just get away from the family and chill with my crafty friends - It was so good. Pam from next door drove herself and me to the party, so I was able to have a few drinks (no not too many!). We had chinese takeaway for dinner (very good stuff!) and lovely things people brought for desert. The people were wonderful company (as always!) and the setting was lovely too. I had a nice relaxing time and so Thank You Helen & Karen!!

Anyway - got lots to do before christmas. I'm still working on a present for my mother in law and I really need to finish it before Monday night.

Love peace and joy!

some of what i've been doing.

2007-11-26T16:51:00.000+10:00

Ok, so here are a couple of other things I have been doing. I had a pile of acrylic yarn that i needed to either get rid of or use up. I sold some of it, gave away most of it and saved a few balls for hats.

Kylie from spinners was crocheting some great hats and taught me how to do it. So I grabbed some acrylic and went at it hell for leather. This one is actually a lovely pink. I also did a black one, 2 maroon ones, a purple one and a green and beige one.

The bag is another simple market bag. I had knitted up a very simple small rectangle bag with these colours (plus a couple extra colours) and really liked the effect. So I decided a market bag in these colours would be great. I was right. I'm pretty happy with this one. I am now also knitting up another market bag in red and black. I think it will look really good!

Another thing that I have been doing lately is processing mohair for a friend who sells fibre. the mohair is for dolls hair and so needs to be cleaned fully of all vegetative matter before it can be bagged up for sale. The staples of the mohair also need to be separated, sized and packaged up by size into 20g bags. My friend washes the mohair (about 5 times) to get rid of dirt and grease, then dyes it the different colours. she then passes the fleece as it is onto me. I then go through and pull out the staples, place them in piles of similar length, clean the vegetative matter out of it (keeping the curl as much as possible - no easy task) and finally bag it up ready for sale. It's fairly repetative work as well as being fiddily and not a job that would suit most people. But I like it as I can do it whenever I want at home, it is not too taxing and I get to play with lots of lovely mohair. I am also helping a friend and that counts for a lot too.

Another thing I have been doing the last few weeks is babysitting my nephew two afternoons a week. That keeps me busy! Of course, then there is all the normal mummy, wife, friend etc things that one needs to do as well as being addicted to facebook. I haven't had much time to write on here. Hope you are all well and will add something on here again once I have something to add onto here!

Love peace and joy.

photos of fleece.

2007-11-26T14:38:00.001+10:00

Hey all. said I'd put up some photos..... eventually. here are a few. The first one is of the dirty fleece given to me by Pam, my next door neighbour.

The second photo is of a small amount of it washed and carded. the third photo is approx 110g of it spun up.

There is probably about another 2kg or so to go, but I'm busy doing other things at the moment. The fleece will have to wait.

Can't find the camera & addicted to facebook.

2007-10-08T08:47:00.000+10:00

I know I've promised you all photos of what I have been doing lately, but I just can't find the darn camera at the moment. It's a pity really, because I have finished spinning and plying a skein of the fleece that Pam gave me, and it has worked out quite well, although still a bit greasy. I wanted to show it off. Ah well, I'm sure once I finally start to tidy the house I'll find it, so you'll just have to wait. Sorry.

The other thing that has been taking up my time lately (other than it being school holidays) is FaceBook. Yes, I think I can safely say that I am officially addicted. For those of you who may read this blog but don't know too much more about the internet, Facebook is a site (kind of like MySpace but better) that you can have your own webpage. On your webpage you can have photos; your profile listing, well, almost anything; virtual growing plants, virtual aquariums and gardens and heaps more. If some of your friends are on facebook too, you can have their photos pictured under your Friends space with links to their pages, and you can send them all kinds of virtual things as well as chat to them. You can have a virtual pet that you feed and pat, as well as being able to feed and pat your friends pets if they have them. It is so cool! I have found friends that are on facebook that I haven't seen for years. It has been great to catch up with them.

Anyway, for those of you who are already on facebook and who read this blog (which is most of you), I'll stop rambling about it now, because you already know.

What have i been doing craft-wise?? Well, I have knitted and felted a small rectangular bag for my niece's birthday, I have started on another French market bag - a smaller one this time, and I have been spinning both the fleece that Pam gave me, as well as some lovely brown stuff I am going to knit into something for my mother for christmas. Last week I showed my mum around Fibrecraft House (where our group meets) and the emporium. The only fiber she saw that she said "ooh, that's nice" was the brown stuff. So, I thought "ok, that's what you are getting." Makes it easy for me.

Well, that's really it from me today. Got things to do with the boys back at work and school. Yeay, some time to myself!

Love peace and joy

Happy dance time again!

2007-09-18T10:05:00.000+10:00

I know I still haven't posted those photos from the last post yet - I've been away all weekend - but I just had to write with the latest news. I promise they are coming.

Now, Good news time..... Lachlan has got a proper job!!!! he will start on Oct 2nd. Whoo hoo!! Lachlan put in for a very lower level job with a land management type company on Monday afternoon last week. It was for just walking along roadsides etc spraying weeds and things, and I personally felt that it was a bit of a waste of his talents, but it would at least get him into a company where he could get his foot into the door of the industry, so to speak. Anyway, he got a phone call from the company on Tuesday afternoon, asking him to come in for an interview on Thursday morning.

When Lachlan got there, he saw the person who was doing the interviews for the weeding job. The first thing the guy said was that he had looked over Lachs' resume, and Lach was way over qualified for that particular job. He was so impressed with Lachs' application though, that he had arranged for Lach to have an interview while he was there with the head of one of the other departments in the company. The job he would be going for would be actually going out to sites and working out a pest management plan for the area. Exactly the type of thing Lachlan has been trained in and really wants to do!! So Lachlan had the interview for that on Thursday morning and on Friday morning as we were packing to go camping for the weekend, he got a call saying he had got the job! It is an entry level position still, but there looks like there will be opportunities for promotion, so that is fantastic.

The only downsides of the job is that for the first few months at least he will have to commute down to the Gold Coast (the head office is down there), and that he will be working 10hr days (4 days/week though), starting at 6am. Which means he will have to leave home before 5am each working day. Hopefully in a few months though he will be moved to the Brendale office, which is still a fair way from our home, but nowhere near as far as the Gold Coast office.

This past weekend we have been at the Neurum Creek Acoustic Music Festival, at Neurum Creek Bush Retreat (NCBR) camping park, between Woodford and Kilcoy in South East QLD. Man, what a great weekend. It is a very small music festival (one stage only) and only in its 2nd year, but it will be happening next year, and I fully plan to return. Because the festival is held at the NCBR it is very nicely contained and they can only really have a certain number of people. Although the festival can certainly be bigger next year, it cannot get really big.

The NCBR is also a perfect spot for children - especially of Rorys age. It is the kind of place that he can just hop on his bike and ride off for a while. they have a dirt bike path as well as childrens activities, and a great creek runs along the length of the park for them to play in. He was able to just go off and he knew that he'd be able to find us easily as we would only either be at the camp site or the stage. So relaxing for Lachlan & I! We plan to holiday there often, even when the music festival isn't on.

The festival was on from Friday arvo, until Sunday arvo, so we picked Rory up from school at Lunchtime on Friday and decided to stay until this morning, so he got a day off school today too. Rory is one very happy boy! He was so good all weekend too. We are so proud of him. We really have managed to get his stress and anxiety levels down so much - They are almost non existent now. well, only as much as is normal for an 8 year old anyway. Things are going so great for Rory these days, our life is so much easier and we are all so much happier. Whoo Hoo!

Slack, aren't I??

2007-09-14T02:32:00.000+10:00

I really do leave it too long between blogs......

Since I last wrote I haven't done all that much on the craft front, well, nothing of decent size that I've finished anyway. I have finished one baby jacket and started on another. I have spun up some brownish, reddish orangeish fibre but not yet finished spinning it all up - it got into a bit of a mess, but last night I hired a drum carder from the group, so that should help neaten it all up and make it easier to spin.

For the last two weeks I've been crocheting a number of hats. They are supposed to be beanies, but most of them have turned out more like berets. Oh well, they look pretty good anyway, so I'm happy enough. I don't usually like to work with acrylic, especially when knitting, but when working on small crochet projects, I don't mind it too much, so I dived into my stash to make them. I've made a few of different colours, so they can go with different outfits. My favourite is the black one made from Patons Shivago yarn. Really soft and shiny.

Having worked with acrylic for a couple of weeks, I was itching to get back to touching real wool. I have gone a little extreme though. Usually I like to spin (and touch) only pre washed, Pre carded fleece, but my next door neighbour donated me a bag of fleece straight from the sheep. (well, it had been sitting in her cupboard for a year or so, so it is not exactly fresh, but it hasn't been touched since it came off the sheep and put into the bag.) It's very filthy and greasy so I had been putting off doing anything with it until a couple of days ago. I wasn't sure how good a quality it would be as it is a bit old, but once I washed and flick carded a bit of it I was pleasantly surprised at how soft and fine the fibre is, how long the staples are (fantastic!) and how crinkley they are. I am now very keen to wash and card the lot and spin it up. once I have spun it up I plan to dye it all. not sure what I'll do with it then, but I look forward to the process, so thanks heaps Pam!

I'll post photos later.....

On other news..... I turned 30 last week. OMG!!! On my birthday day, a friend came over to give me a facial and a makeover as she is a Mary Kay consultant. It was very nice and I looked and felt quite beautiful. That evening was Spinners, so I took along some cake and bubbly and had a wonderful time. Got a bit pissed though. Very interesting considering Karen (our pres) then reminded me that she was going to teach me how to balance up the a cash box etc. Whoops. I did it, but I think I may have to be taught again. The actual counting of money wasn't so bad - did that alright. The spelling on the receipts on the other hand...... Can you believe i actually asked whether the word "nine" had a "gh"? oh dear. Oh well, with Karens' guiding hand, we did it well and all was good. I promise I won't be drunk when I do it again Karen!!

On Saturday night, Libby (my twin sister - for those of you who didn't know I have one) and I held our first joint birthday party since we were 16. We even got our younger sister Beccy (who is a folk singer - see http://www.rebeccawright.com.au ) to be our live entertainment. I even got up and sang a song with her. and no one booed me off!! (kidding. I'm not as good a singer as Bec, but I can hold a tune occasionally. ) The party was great!! there were fairy lights, and food and friends and photos and fun. Lots of the good F's.

Love Peace and Joy

It's me again!

2007-06-16T10:20:00.000+10:00

I'm back, and a little confused. In the time since I last wrote, blogger has changed. I think it's going to be for the better, but it might take a bit to get used to. Anyway.......

I got that smallish blanket done as you can see. well, almost anyway. I need to put another round of edging on it and still have to block it, but it is at a stage where it is useful.

It is actually a largish knee rug, but as it can fit around me while I watch tv on Sunday nights, it is an ok size for me. I didn't end up buying any more pink to spin as I found a pile of commercial wool in pink and a couple of balls of purple in my stash. I decided I would use those instead. It work out well I think.

The blanket came together quite quickly actually - once I started, I couldn't stop! The fact that I was able to do it in bits (one square at a time) helped. I would sit and knit or crochet a square while watching Rory ride the dirt bike track near our home. As he usually likes to do that for an hour at a time about 3 times a week, that gave me a lot of time to work on it. Then when it came time for me to join it all together, Rory got sick with a cold and had to stay home. So I put on DVD's on the TV in my bedroom and Rory & I watched them together while I sewed up the blanket. We did that for two days and by the end I was done, except for the edging. I have been doing that here and there since.

I am now spinning up some green and black sliver for a present to my mother in law. It is her birthday on Tuesday and I had hoped I would get it not only spun, but knitted up as well by then. Unfortunately, that isn't going to happen. Last weekend we spent the whole long weekend up at Noosa with the in-laws so although that was brilliant, I couldn't do anything while I was up there. Then since we got back I have been in bed with a really bad cold, so haven't done anything more. I plan to now just get it spun, put it into balls with my ball winder and give her the yarn. She can then decide whether she wants me to knit it up for her or if she will knit it herself, but at least I'll be able to give her something for her birthday.

Lachlan pretty much finished his Diploma this week. YEAY!!!! I say pretty much because one of his assignments was sent back to him for a bit of adjusting and that is due in on Tuesday. But as that is really nothing (the teacher said that it is of a really high quality, just needs some formatting work and a couple of things added) we can say he is finished.

Now Lachlan has to work on job applications, which lets face it, can be just as hard work as assignments! The latest job we are really interested in is a Ranger position up at Brisbane Forest Park at the Gap and at Daisy Hill. This would be fantastic as we wouldn't have to move and Rory can stay at the same school.

Will try to write more later, but got to go and have something to eat - I forgot to have breakky this morning. Whoops.

Yes, I am slack

2007-05-05T03:55:00.000+10:00

Ok, so I know it has been ages since I last posted. I envy Katy (ihatetoast) as she is a fantastic writer and has no shame - therefore her posts are regular, long and usually the funniest things I have read in a very long time (the latest I loved was the "A day of beauty" post - bikini wax goes horribly wrong!) Unfortunately, I can't write that well and even if I could, nothing quite that funny (not so funny for her at the time, but funny later) or unfortunate happens to me. Although.... that might be a good thing! Katy - I love you. Keep up the laughs, you make the "Cliterati" meetings just that extra bit enjoyable and you keep us all healthy by giving us lots to laugh about.

So, anyway - things have been pretty quiet on this home front. Rory is still doing well at school and Lachlan is in his last month or so of his diploma - YEAY! He is up to his ears in assignments at the moment but seems to be still reasonably calm and coping well. I can't wait for him to finish and get a job again though - We need money!

I have been reasonably busy - volunteering (although I'm giving that up for a bit), taking Rory to his psych appointments, bowling (ten pin) on fridays, taking Rory to bowling on Sundays, looking after other peoples children, going to birthday parties and other social outings...... the list never ends. I am supposed to be at bowling this morning, but Rory decided he wasn't going to sleep last night and woke me up (after supposedly having bad and sad dreams) pretty much every hour from about 1:00am till about 5:00am when I just pulled him into bed with me. needless to say, he was too tired to go to school, and I was too tired to go bowling. bugger, I was looking forward to it too.

Craft wise I have been doing more knitted beaded bracelets (as above). I love these. they are so easy to make and I have already sold at least 3. Two are going to be sold as well, but not till a little later when my friends kids have birthdays. The rest I will try to sell at the Spinners Open day later this month.

Also, I am using up stash and crocheting squares that might one day become a smallish blanket (also above). I love spinning fuschia(?) pink, but keep getting slightly different dye lots of fuschia, so I can't knit it all into a jumper or anything - so a crochet blanket is just the ticket. The idea was to just use up the stash I have, but as usual, now that I've got a plan for it, I am going to need to buy more pink wool and silk to spin to make enough squares. That will have to wait though - so once I've completed what I've got, I'll put these squares away, use up my other stash on other projects and when I get a little bit of money again, I'll buy more pink wool.

Ok, so not very interesting stuff, but I am extremely tired (i cleaned the house yesterday too - MY GOD!). I will try to write again soon.

Love peace and joy!

Photos finally

2007-04-07T10:00:00.000+10:00

Ok, here I am again - with photos. So, the first photo is of wool and silk I spun at and after Warwick camp. At camp I also spun up some lovely green wool, but buggered if I can find it now....

The second photo is of some wonderful multi-coloured wool I spun just before Warwick camp and a not quite finished scarf I knitted up out of it. Rory has his eye on this one.

The third photo is of my acheivement this week. I have taught myself (no pattern, nothing) to knit beaded bracelets using perle 8 cotton and 4mm seed beads. Aren't they pretty? I am planning to make a few of them and sell them at open day and to my friends for $10 each. Maybe $12. What do you think they would be worth?

I have already got an order from a 12 year old girl at the school for a pink one - but I have to make it a little smaller than the one pictured as of course she has little wrists. Her mother has agreed to the $10 price tag. Whoo hoo.

Not much else has been happening around here lately. Term 1 just finished yesterday and Rory & Lachlan are now on holidays. This term has really been fantastic for Rory. He is really happy most of the time and is even starting to say that he likes school. The cognative behaviour therapy and having such a wonderfull teacher and motivating rewards in place is really working. His anxiety levels have decreased dramatically. YEAY!!!!

Lachlan is now roughly half way through his diploma and is still enjoying it. He also got a job in the last few weeks as a cleaner at the local shopping centre. this has been really good for him. Combined with quitting smoking (FINALLY) he is actually losing weight and is doing great.

I was really sick last week. I obviously picked up another virus and they just knock me around like you wouldn't believe. I thought I was going to have to go to hospital it got that bad a couple of times. But I just worked through it, and rested a lot and thankfully this week I have been much better.

Well, not much else to say really - except:

HAPPY EASTER!!!! (being good friday today)

I'm here!!! - FINALLY

2007-03-13T16:45:00.000+10:00

Well, it certainly has been ages since I last wrote. My excuse is that I still hadnt't done much in the way of craft stuff and as this is mainly supposed to be a craft blog, there wasn't that much to write.

For those of you who are following the Rory saga, the only thing to report is that it seems no longer to be a saga. Rory is settling down well and the Cognative Behaviour Therapy seems to be working and school is good.

So - onto craft stuff! I have finally done a fair amount. I would have photos, but we seem to have misplaced the digital camera, so hopefully I will be able to put them up in the next few days.

This past weekend was the Warwick Spinners & Weavers Group camp, held at Leslie Dam outside the town of Warwick in QLD. I went, and unlike last time, i had a very safe and happy time and did not come back with any cracked bones. (for those of you who might not remember; at this camp last year I fell over and cracked 2 ribs - ouch!) What a fantastic weekend I had. All I did was spin, eat, chat and sleep. for about two and a half days. Now that's a good weekend. The other thing was I was out of range on my mobile most of the time, so the only time my family could talk to me was when I called them once a day. Yeay, I escaped!!!

While we were at Warwick camp (there were quite a few of us from the brisbane group and I got a lift with Paula - thanks Paula!) I did heaps of spinning. I spun about 100gms of green wool, 50gms of pink silk, 100gms of pinky purple wool and about 40 grams of Pink & slightly green wool. more spinning in one weekend than in the last about 5 months!

The thing I love about these camps is how they really inspire me and keep me motivated to get more done. I have really been a little unmotivated in the last few months - and being summer in Brisbane doesn't help either! So hopefully, I will get more done and be able to show you all my lovely creations.

Anyway, I promised Rory that I would take him to Hungry Jacks for dinner and he is starting to get restless. As I said, I will try to upload some photos in the next few days.

See ya!

Let's all do a happy dance!

2007-01-25T13:46:00.000+10:00

I haven't written for ages again, and once again I haven't done much in the way of craft stuff..... but I am writing today because I am very happy.

Those of you that have been following the Rory saga will be pleased to know that at this stage things are looking up for this year. School starts again on Monday, so today we went up to the school to look at the class lists (Who the teacher is, which children are in the class and where the classroom is). We are very pleased with the result. Rory has the same teacher he had in Grade 1 - who is an absolute brilliant teacher and someone who really understands children with issues like rory's (her own adult child has severe ASD).

Also, a couple of the children who were really bullying and upsetting Rory last year have been moved into the other class - a composite class with older boys who will hopefully pull these children into line fairly quickly. This means that Rory no longer has these particular distractions while in the classroom. YEAY!!!

We also learnt (and here is the biggie) that during the holidays, the WHOLE school (well, all the classrooms) have been airconditioned!!!! so Rory can no longer use the excuse that he is hot and "prickly" to get out of doing work. I saw the principle, and since not many people were around, I said a big thank you to him and then gave him a kiss on the cheek. That man is a fantastic principle. He really looked at what did and didn't work last year and has really worked to sort it out. I think that he has done the best job he could and I am really pleased that he did.

We have all had a wonderfull holiday. Last week we went to Hervey Bay for 6 nights and had a brilliant time. We went snorkelling, fishing, yabbie pumping & swimming, We saw dolphins, turtles, an osprey, coral and fish. We dug pippis for lunch while on a glass bottom boat tour. We went to the Hervey Bay historical museum. We went to Maryborough and went for a ride on a train while there. Really great holiday!

This week Lachlan & I got 2 days to ourselves. Mum & Dad offered to have Rory at their place for a couple of days and one night before he went back to school. Not necessarily to give us a break (although that was a bonus) but because they wanted to spend a decent bit of time with him.

Dad picked Rory up at about 7:30am Tuesday morning. Buy 11:00am, after discussion about what to do with ourselves for two days, decided to go for a long drive - just to see the countryside - staying overnight somewhere. By 11:30am we were on our way. We ended up going down to Casino ( a town in Northern NSW) via Beaudesert, Rathdowney, around Mt Lindsay and Kyogle. Really pretty though at times precarious drive. We had a major stop in kyogle to take photos of a house that a relative of Lachlan's used to live in and check out a town that Lachlan's Parents often talked about. . Then we went on to Casino where we stayed the night and had a massive meal each at the local pub. You 'ought to have seen the size of Lachlans' rump steak!

In the morning we travelled to Lismore (where Lachlans' parents' lived for a couple of years after they were married) and found there a fantasic tourist information centre and childrens playground that Rory would absolutely love. We decided that we will go there for a holiday sometime. We then travelled onto Nimbin (the "pot" capital of australia - but no, we do not do that ourselves) A very pretty little town with very interesting people, but not somewhere we would like to stay. The Nimbin candle factory was great to have a look at though. The people there were very friendly and showed us how they made the candles, including ironing the pyramid ones to smooth them! We then went to Murwillimbah(?) for lunch and then another hour or so drive and we were home. It was a really great trip, gorgeous area and it was good to do it by ourselves. Rory would have been bored silly and we were able to have really good discussions that we would not have been able to have while Rory is around. I'm glad we took the opportunity.

Anyway, I am hearing thunder, so I had better finish up. Will write again when i have something else to write about! Till then, Love peace and Joy as always.

Happy New Year.

2006-12-31T19:26:00.000+10:00

Good God, it's over a month since I last posted, and tonight is New Years Eve already! Can somebody please tell me where this year has gone?!?
I haven't posted anything for so long, because I really haven't been doing all that much crafty stuff lately. The last couple of weeks at Rory's school were busy and during the second last or last week (can't really remember) we went away to Mooloolaba for a few days. Stayed at the Outrigger Resort - ooh la la. It was fantastic. By far the best resort I have been to (not that I have been to that many.) Thanks Mother In Law for getting me the cheap (well, more less expensive than cheap) deal!

Then the school holidays started and as Lachlan has been up at Woodford volunteering at the festival site most of this month, I have had Rory on my hands pretty much all the time. I have also finally really started to sort out the disaster that is my house. And I mean serious cleaning going on - cleaning the pantry & Fridge and sorting out almost all the cupboards & drawers in the kitchen, scrubbing the bathroom tiles like never before, and generally getting the main living areas in a decent condition (trust me, they certainly weren't before!). Joey came into the house recently and said "who are you and what have you done to Jenny?" It really is a change and I seem to have become this cleaning nut .... probably because I seem to be feeling a lot healthier at the moment and the summer hasn't been anywhere near as hot as usual. It remains to be seen if I can keep it going once Lachlan is back (and not picking up after himself) and school starts again - but I have made my new years resolution that 2007 is going to be the year of the tidy house. Wish me luck!

So.... craft stuff.... well, as I said, I haven't done much, however in the last week I have started to crochet some motifs that I plan to eventually join together and then attach to a white t-shirt in an over-shirt kind of way. I got the idea from the latest Yarn Magazine, but am using different motifs and colours to that used in the article. I am going to use different shades of pink and purple. Here is a few of the 7 or so that I have done already:

So there you have it. that's it on the craft front. I'll post a piccy of the finished product when I finish it - but god knows how long away that is going to be.

Have a very happy new years eve (get drunk for me - I'm being the boring old lady who goes to bed instead) and I hope your 2007 is full of love, laughter, dreams coming true and fantastic new adventures. May the angels walk with you wherever you go.
Love, peace and Joy
Jenny

My how time does fly...

2006-11-13T16:45:00.000+10:00

Goodness. I think it is almost 2 weeks since I last wrote. Last week was pretty awful.... Rory got himself suspended again and this time had to be kept home for 3 days. I was exhausted by the end of it! But, he seems to have pretty much learned his lesson, and he is now seeing a child psychologist once per week and so hopefully we will make it to the end of the year without any more serious incidents - 4 weeks and 4 days to go.... I can't wait for the holidays!

Ok, on to happer stuff! the scarf shown is another done on my new loom. I spent an evening watching Flashdance and Footloose while making this. The warp is a Biggen designs 8ply yarn and the weft is a funky yarn that my fantastic mother-in-law (gosh I love all my parents!) bought for me when she was down in Tassie recently. I still have 2 balls of this left, so I next plan to do one with the warp the funky yarn too.

Yesterday, Paula, Karen, Gillian, Joey and I had a dyeing morning, and Joey and I decided to use Jelly crystals dissolved in hot water as our dyes. The colours from the jelly are quite pretty - but it has put me off eating the stuff!! The end products of my work is shown in the 2nd photo. The wool I used was some lovely fine merino that my brother had got for me from New Zealand. The morning was great and I would have loved to have carried on but other things beckoned....

Yesterday afternoon, I went to my old high school for the farewell service for two of the staff members who were there when I was. They are both finally retiring and as I really appreciated most of my teachers and the staff at the school, I thought it would be great to go along. It was. The service was held in the new chapel and it was really lovely. These days I'm not so into church type stuff and the thought of being in a chapel on a hot day like yesterday would usually be very off putting. However, this chapel is so well designed that most of 3 sides of it open up and as it sits on a hill amongst the trees, a fantastic breeze flows through and it was really rejuvinating. The service also was very good and not too "preachy" or "churchy" at all, buty really showed the love and care that is so prominent within the school. I was very impressed. It was also good, because my dad was one of the people who gave a short farewell speech, so that was good to go and support him. I am really hoping that Rory will be accepted into the school later on, as I think it will really suit him.

Well, I guess I had better go and get started on dinner. The life of a mother is never boring!

New Toy

2006-10-28T15:30:00.000+10:00

On Wednesday night I got my new toy.... An Ashford Knitting Loom!!! Yeay!! And well.... not much housework has been done the last 3 days! So, here are the photos of the stuff I've done:

The three Scarves in closer detail....

Rory and the three scarves (he wanted to be in the photo!)

Photos...

2006-10-23T16:09:00.000+10:00

Back of baby aran jumper, still under construction...

Finished pink / burgundy bag!

Finished pink/burgundy bag.

2006-10-21T19:44:00.000+10:00

Hey all.
Well, another week has gone by... Wasn't sick this week.. Yeay!

However, it wasn't that great again either. Rory (our son) managed to get himself 2 days of internal suspension (where are technically suspended, but still have to go to school - does work in the office all day) He had a major "meltdown" (school term for Hissy Fit / temper tanty) while at the school swimming lessons and assaulted 3 teachers. He's only in grade 2! I'm not sure what we are going to do with him - most of the time he is a very loving, compassionate and compliant boy, but every now and then, BOOM! something sets him off and he goes ballistic. We are taking him to the peadiatrician on Tuesday avo, and boy, do I hope we can get some decent help. I don't really want to medicate him, but he certainly needs help.

Anyway.... enough with the crappy stuff.... The good news is that I finished the pink/burgandy bag! Again, it has turned out way bigger than I expected. I really should start knitting these things a bit smaller I think. I was going to include a photo, but my digital camera need the batteries recharged before I download the photos, so I will add them tomorrow. I will also try to take a photo of the baby jumper I am working on - but I don't know how well I will be able to photograph the cable detail. We'll see.....

not much else to natter on about tonight. Don't want to be one of those really negative blogs, where the only time the author can write is when they've got a gripe. I like mine to be happy and positive most of the time with only the occasional bitch.... so as I am unfortunatly not in the chirpiest of moods, I'll say see ya.

Crap week, but done some knitting.

2006-10-14T19:07:00.000+10:00

It's been a week since I last wrote. That is because I have been really sick (again!) with a upper chest and throat and nose thing - absolutely horrible. I guess while my immune system is down, other bugs go "Yeay, lets get her!". I'm slowly getting better though. I need to be well by Tuesday, as I am hoping to see my friend Naomi, and then on Wednesday I am supposed to be working at the Craft Show at the Convention Centre. Once again, please all send me white healing light!

Anyway... I have been doing a bit of knitting. I am still working on my pink/burgundy bag and I have done a little more on the cute Aran baby jumper. The bag has now got a different motif on it to the one I was going to do. Only because I still couldn't find the pattern (have found it since - typical) and I just felt like being creative and making up my own as I went along. Seems to be working out and at this stage is looking quite good. Don't know how well the new pattern will go during the felting process, but couldn't be bothered doing a swatch, so here's crossing fingers!! Will download some photos of both when I have done a little more.

Market Day

2006-10-07T18:20:00.000+10:00

Today I skipped spinners (naughty me) and went to the Northey Street City Farm Markets with Joey and Yolanda. Unfortunatley we got there a little late for the markets and most good stuff had been sold and most of the stall holders were packing up. We did, however, go into the City Farm nursery and I bought some plants: Eggplant, Calendula, Dandelion and a grape vine. Hopefully they will do alright, I just need to remember to water them - a bit of a bugger when we are on water restrictions. I planted the Calendula, Dandelion and Grape vine this afternoon. The Eggplants are still seedlings and will need to be put into a pot before put in the ground.

My Dad has been encouraging me to go to the city farm for ages, so Dad, I finally went! And yes it is really good and I plan to go back. For those of you who live in the brisbane area and have never heard of this very cool place, check out their website:

www.northeystreetcityfarm.org.au/

(I tried doing it as a link like in previous posts, but it doesn't want to work - don't know why)

Not much has been happening on the craft front. I did go to some cool craft places in SA (All Seasons Comfort and The Alpaca shop, - both at Hahndorf - are the best!) and although I bought a lot of stuff, I didn't actually do much while I was on holiday. Too busy seeing the sights! I was planning to finish my pink/burgundy bag, but silly me forgot to take my motif pattern down, so I didn't touch the bag. I did start (and frog, and start and frog and finally started again) on a very cute jumper that I found a pattern for, for a child. It's a great Aran kind of knit and to be honest I just couldn't go past the baby on the front cover!! One of those absolutley gorgeous kids that look great in anything and makes you very clucky. The jumper is great too, and if it even looks half as good on my nephew Angus as it does on the kid on the front, I'll be happy.

Back in Brizzy

2006-10-05T11:15:00.000+10:00

Well, we're home again. We flew in at about 10:45 last night, so I'm pretty beat today.
We had a fantastic holiday, and I promise I will download some photos once I have them put onto a cd. (we didn't take the digital camera - so have to get film processed.) Some of the things we did on our holiday to South Aust:
# Adelaide Zoo
# The Museum
# The Buffallo Ship Restaraunt (the original HMS Buffallo that brought Capt Hindmarsh & Settlers to SA - now converted into a restauraunt and museum.)
# The Barossa Valley - Penfolds, Yulumba, Grant Burge Wineries
# Angus Park Dried fruit factory
# Puzzle Park
# The Big Rocking Horse
# Hahndorf
# The Trams
# Central Markets
# Walk all round town (Rundell Mall, etc)
# Glenelg (great lolly shops!!)
# Port Adelaide (the markets, the maritime museum, a dolphin cruise)
And more!

Great Trip - THANKS BARNEY!!! YOU ARE WONDERFULL!!!!!!!!!

Good Morning Adelaide!!!

2006-09-28T07:59:00.000+10:00

Well, here we are in Adelaide. We arrived here on Tuesday morning nice and safe. It was a good plane ride, with no incident. Rory was great the whole time. Here are some things I have noticed about South Australia so far:

1. It is so dry down here. Apparently SA is the driest state, yet they don't have the water restrictions that we do.

2. The architecture is SOO different to Brisbane and QLD. I understand it is because of the different climate, although so far we have had very similar weather to Brisbane in late Winter. I don't think I could live in a house without a verandah!! The houses are so quaint though. so cute.

3. The transport system is so relaxed! We went on a tram yesterday and when the ticket guy finally decided to come through the tram, he didn't actually CHECK the tickets. He asked if anyone needed tickets and when people said "no" he didn't ask to see the one's they had. Then, when he got to us, we asked for the tickets and he charged us a cheaper price than what the last guy did, even though we were going the same distance. It was like he couldn'tt be bothered working out the correct fare. And no-one else checks your ticket any where else on the journey. Nothing like Brisbane!

Last night Barney took us to a ship that has been converted into a restaraunt. It is the HMS Buffalo, which is the ship that brought free settlers to Aust, with Captain Hindmarsh, who became Governer. So not only was it a restaraunt, but it is also a museum. It was facinating! they really have done it up well. Adelaide is just so full of great history. Most of the buildings in town are the original buildings built when the city was settled.

We are going to the markets this morning and maybe the zoo. Then over the next few days Barney is taking us around some of the wine districts and to port adelaide etc.

Anyway, better finish up there. Using Barneys computer.
Love peace & Joy!

Nearly time!!......

2006-09-25T18:03:00.000+10:00

At this moment it is 13 hours and 15 minutes until we are scheduled to fly out of Brisbane! And counting.....
You can tell I am excited can't you? I will try and update while I am on my trip, however I don't know whether Barney has a computer at his place or if I will be able to get to an internet cafe. If not, I'll put a few photos up and tell you all about it when I get back. I'm sure the best bits will be the yarn stores and the winery's! The zoo should be pretty good too, if we get there. Lachlan and I have already got onto the internet and worked out where certain yarn stores are in relation to Barney's place! You know it'll be one of the first things I'll want to do!!! Whether Lachlan and Rory let me though is another matter....
Anyway, mostly packed, but still have a few things to do, so mustn't sit nattering on..

I'M GOING ON A PLANE TOMORROW!!!! I'M GOING TO SOUTH AUSTRALIA!!! YEAY!!!!

Flu blues....

2006-09-21T10:42:00.000+10:00

This morning I have woken up with a bad cold, which I think is going to turn into the full blown flu. I am trying to avoid this by drinking lemon, honey and ginger teas, as well as taking Echinacea, Garlic, Horsradish and vitamin C tablets. I do not want this cold when I go on the plane or while I am on holidays!! I've got 4 more days to get rid of it. Please all send white healing light to me!!

I bought a little more 14 micron wool last night at spinners. I figured that since I already have 440grams spun up, I may as well get it up to 500grams. That way I can certainly make a light cardy without having to worry that I might run out.

Right, back to bed with me for a little while, and then onto the doctors......

14 Micron is all spun!

2006-09-20T15:30:00.000+10:00

Here are the finished skeins of the 14 micron wool I have been spinning. In total there is just under 440 grams. Don't ask me how many meters! I am hoping to do a nice shawl or light cardigan or vest with it.
So here is the questions I am asking you all: Should I dye it? Should I leave it plain? Should I do a shawl, or cardigan, or vest? Do you have a pattern that would really suit it?
If I choose your pattern or use your ideas, I will give you a little gift! I won't be starting to knit it for at least a couple of weeks (not 'til after we get back from Adelaide), so you have time to put your thinking caps on.

Today we finally told Rory (our son) that we are going on a plane ride for our holidays. Lach and I have known for a month, but decided we wouldn't tell him until closer to the leaving date as otherwise, we would have a constant nagging asking how many days till we leave. This way, we only have a few days of nagging but he also has a bit of time to get used to the idea and tell all his friends before he finishes school for the term. The specialist staff at the school who look after Rory have said they would do a social story with him tomorrow to explain what a plane ride entails and how he needs to behave on an airplane and what to expect. At this time he is very excited.

Have got Spinners on tonight. Joey has reminded me to bring in my sock wool and a very cool pattern about knitting 2 socks in 1 that I found on Knitty.com. this is a great article, but would be a huge challenge for someone like me who has never even knitted a sock! However, for some of those of you out there who are addicted to socks, and not scared of about 20 pages of instructions, this is the ultimate pattern for you! Click on the link below to check it out. (I just liked the intro!)

Love peace and JOY JOY JOY

Tired today...But got YARN

2006-09-14T15:56:00.000+10:00

I am very tired today. I had to look after my little friend Monty today (he's three), but thankfully he was happy to play quietly (he is SUCH a good kid), and I was able to just sit in front of the t.v. most of the time. I guess i am just getting a little sick of being sick - with something unknown.... Oh, well. will go to bed early tonight I think.

The good news today: I got the latest edition of Yarn Magazine in the mail this afternoon! Gosh I love this mag. It always has really interesting articles as well as some good patterns. The thing i like most about it is that it is not just a knitting mag, but also always has articles about dyeing and often spinning as well. If you have never seen this mag, click on the link below and you'll be taken to their website.

Second good news: Yesterday I showed off my bag to a non-knitter and she said that if it was in a different colour, she would pay up to $100 for it - She thought it was that good! I am thinking I might be knitting one for her soon! Anything to save up for that Ashford Knitting Loom I want!

The not so good news: I don't think I will be able to go to the Lake Perserverence Camp with the Toowoomba Spinners group in October afterall. I would like to, but
(1) I'm going to Adelaide the week before for a holiday (and might want to buy yarn down there!) which will cost us a fair bit of money and
(2) we have been invited to lunch with my Grandfather that weekend and as he is in the country for only a couple of months (usually lives in England - when not travelling - at age 80 something!) it will be nice to catch up.

Both these reasons are not bad, in fact I am looking forward to both going to Adelaide and seeing my Grandfather and his partner Heather, but it just means that I just won't be able to get to the camp.

now.....where did I put that mag again.....I need to be inspired!.....

"The Bag" is done!

2006-09-11T16:49:00.000+10:00

Yeay!!! The bag is finished. I am quite pleased with how it turned out.... I could have probably run the handles through the wash again, but I'm too impatient and also didn't want to waste the water. I think it looks fine the way it is. I am now working on a maroon coloured bag now, made from commercial wool (Panda WoolBale). I am looking around for a fair isle patten or a motif to put on the new bag as well in a pink colour. We'll see how it goes.

Peace and joy

Rocky Horror night

2006-09-09T15:33:00.000+10:00

Last night we went to a party to welcome home our dear friend Glenys who has come back after 4 years in the UK. The party was a Rocky Horror Picture show party and was absolutely fantastic! This is me as one of the "unconventional conventionalists" or whatever they are called. Our friend MIV finally realised his dream of dressing up as "Dr Frank n Furtur" (i really don't know how to spell that) in proper corset, fishnets etc. Including make - up. He looked absolutely great! Unfortunatly his wife (our lovely friend Julia) has forbidden any photos of MIV going online, even such a blog as mine. Oh, well.... understandable really..... I don't think I'd want photos of my husband dressed in ladies underware and make up going online either.

I got the outfit from Craft Ideas at Indooroopilly. Not just a craft store! click on the link below to go to their website!

Ps... 14 micron skein

2006-09-07T16:26:00.000+10:00

Just remembered that I have also finished my first skein of the 14 micron merino wool I am spinning! Here it is.....
I am reasonably proud of it, although I made a few mistakes while plying....hopefully it won't be too noticable once it is knitted up.... still don't know what it's going to be yet....

Bag update

2006-09-07T16:01:00.000+10:00

Here is THE BAG, felted at least. I have not yet done the handles, but hopefully will have them done by next week. Joey will teach me to icord this evening. The bag is still a lot bigger than I expected and that is after 5 washes. Oh well, It will be a good knitting bag as it should hold heaps - it really was a very big bag before I chucked it into the machine!

Thanks Julie, Karen, Betsy, Ben & Barney for all commenting so nicely on my blog! It's really nice to know that people are reading it and making contact.

Ben - Yes, of course it is! Hopefully we will get down to see you sometime as well, but unfortunatly it won't be very soon.

Menopause Is GREAT!.... the musical that is.

2006-09-06T16:56:00.000+10:00

Well, went and saw "Menopause The Musical" last night. I don't think I have laughed so hard in ages. I just lost it on a few occasions. FANTASTIC! What was even better was that my mother-in-law Carol had gotten really good seats - third row from the front, almost in the middle. We could see EVERYTHING including all the facial expressions (often the funniest part) and everyone's moves. I don't think I've ever had such good seats at any type of performance. It was really good to see it with both my mums too. And on my birthday to boot. Such a good night!

I am trying to felt my bag as i write. "Trying" is the appropriate word! It's on it's third wash now, and although I haven't checked it this wash, after the last wash, it had only felted a little bit. I don't know how many washes it's going to take. I think I am going to have a larger bag than I expected. We'll see......

Got Night Owls tonight. My friend Julie from the Mountain Spinnery is going to bring some silk for me to buy. I have already bought some in the colour I want, but now I want more. Julie says she has 200grams more of that colour. At $20 per 100grams though, I think I can only really afford to by 100gms. I would love to get the lot, but I have to be careful. I am heading down to Adelaide to visit a friend soon, and want a little bit of money for the holiday!

Ps. Click on below for the link to the musical's website.

Happy birthday to me.....

2006-09-05T13:43:00.000+10:00

It's my birthday, It's my birthday (singing).

Today has been a quiet day so far - nice and relaxing. I went to the local coffee club with my friends Jacqui and Fran after dropping the kids off to school, just to have a bit of socialising to celebrate. It is Fran's birthday too, so that was good. After that, I was walking past the local Millers Clothing store and saw two racks of clothing, all items $5! So I bought two tops and two skirts, all for $20. Then when I went inside I saw another top for $19.95 - absolutley gorgeous, so I bought that too. Lachlan hadn't given me a birthday present yet, so I figure these clothes can be my present!

Tonight I am going with my mother and mother-in-law to a play called: Menopause The Musical. I have heard it is really funny, so I am looking forward to it immensly. Will tell you what I thought of it tomorrow.

Love and peaches.

Very Excited.

2006-09-03T21:12:00.000+10:00

Yeay.. Just thought I'd update on "THE BAG". Joey reckons I only need to do a couple more stripes and add a couple of holes for the Icord handles while I'm at it and then it will be ready to felt!! This is very cool, so hopefully, by the end of the week I will be able to upload a photo of the Felted Bag. It may or may not have handles at that stage,(It looks like I'll add the icords after felting) but at least the main part of the bag should be finished! Whoo, hoo!

Busy weekend.

2006-09-03T16:27:00.000+10:00

This is a bag I am working on at the moment. It is a french market bag - the pattern is from knitty.com. the idea is to knit a bag really big, then throw it into the washing machine and felt it. All the rage at spinners at the moment. Mine is a very simple bag, made from my own handspun wool. Many others are using WoolBale commercial wool (that felts fantastically- don't use if you want machine washable!) as well as novelty yarn that doesn't felt. The results are fantastic. I will be doing that later. maybe my next project..... The photo on my last post is of some 14micron wool I am spinning. How beautiful!!!

This weekend has been really busy... Spinners group AGM on sat morning - I agreed to be on the board again. It's great though, because many of us all go to night owls, get on really well and all have big plans for the group. Hopefully, with all the great skills we bring together, we will be able to get the group functioning reasonably smoothly and bring it into the 21st century. Yesterday avo we had to go to a family get together with my side of the family, and this morning we had to go to a babtism for our nephew Angus. Last night Joey, Tina & I went to the Bronco's Leagues Club for Seafood buffet to celebrate my birthday on Tuesday. That was really nice.

Love peace and Joy

Testing, testing.

2006-09-01T16:45:00.000+10:00

Ok, so I am trying a new blog page. So far I've got my pic uploaded. Lets hope this writing is done right too... Will write more once I have worked this out.