KnittingNatty

Aran for Mr T

 
Today I finally finished sewing together the Aran jumper/ sweater for my dear Hubbie. It was ready for him when he returned from work this afternoon:

 

 

Sunny the dog had to get in on the action!

 

I think they both look pretty pleased with themselves, wouldn't you say?

I am now gunning for the next WIP, Orleans (with some side tracks into the Comfort of 2 Hearts) ...

Could not be more random

Well, I got the job, and we are moving to Brisbane for APRIL (and the start of second term) people!

My thoughts are all over the place, not least of all because our children do not own a scrap of warm clothing between them! Ah - the stash!

We have the house here to sell and a house down there to find. Real estate agents and mortgages and loans and money - oh my! Schools, public transport and choices to consider!

I have been remiss in not posting any photos of Sunny of late:

What a gentle and noble dog he is! No knitting sadly to really report, but with a brand new inverter air con installed into the living area last weekend, at least now I can cool the place down enough to knit comfortably!

The new

 job promises to be a slower pace, and that will be a welcome change. Ihope to move to a location on the train line to allow me knitting time to and from work. That would be a real bonus.

Stay tuned for more developments ...

Skip 'n' Slide - indoors ed

We have a lot of lino inside the house, and whilst playing "Cinderella" (ie getting on hands and knees to scrub the floor), a game developed which had the kids entertained no end for hours.

And when they had finished with the inside of the house, I moved the game to the outside tiled area :o) The dog thought that we had completely lost the plot, needless to say. I am "this close" to finishing the back of the Orleans but I was too tired and went to bed last night instead. even wit hbeing home through the day I still get most of my knitting done at night, in front of the tennis

When the day is done

Tonight there is a sense of contentment in the house. There was the usual dramatic entrance indoors at 6 pm, the sun vanishing outdoors. I put on some soft music, and tried (as always) to get the kids to eat, have a bath, do homework and get into bed. Caitlyn seems out of sorts - this has been going on  all week. I didn't seem to have to strain and argue as much overall, even with the tantrums considered, and now I am rewarded with the purring of 2 little folk.

We have been adopted several months ago by a male cat, who we have named "Ginger" and call a boy or a girl interchangeably. The cat is not allowed indoors, even though he thinks he should be. Tonight he was yowling outside Caitlyn's window as I read her some stories. He really just wants to be with us. He demands I feed him as loudly as any child. Tony gives him short shrift when he climbs the flysceens with his claws. (Tony in fact complains to me that the cat is contemptuous towards him, to which I always give the same reply: Well, at least its mutual between you 2).

I got a long long procrastinated task done at work today, having arrived at 9:15 after dropping both kids at their locations, and the car at the air con repair shop. The bill is expected to be about half of what I originally feared. I dont like expensive car repairs close to Christmas. I dont like getting to work so late and causing so much attention to myself but there was no avoiding it; and although it is completely understandable as to why I was running late, and I had rung in, I still feel badly about it. Its hard to keep that tension out of my voice initially when arriving at work. But a couple of minutes and I settle down.

Last night I could not settle down to sleep although I was so tired. I was probably overtired. When this insomnia gets really bad, I go cold turkey on the caffiene nad try to exercise. The results are not as good as you'd think. I am struggling to understand what it is that triggers poor sleep - its mostly emotional and I am at a loss often to pinpoint the issue for hours.

Tonight I feel more centered and peaceful - I think it was the money thing that was worrying me about the car. Thoughts of booking our holiday flights and Tony's recent discovery of Ebay were running through my head. I've lit a candle, and will knit the second sleeve of Caitlyn's precious little leaf green peasant shirt tonight. If I dont finish it, I will not pressure myself. There is always tomorrow.

It never rains ...

A couple of dear readers emailed me to check if I was alright after the flash floods. Thank you - we are alright!

I did have to wake Tony up at 7:00 am last Monday morning (he is on holidays at the moment) saying that we had a problems developing that he needed to come and help out with.

The problem was that our back deck was flooding. See?

Now, this deck is some 3 x 3 meters, some 29.5 feet square, and the mat, which would weigh some 2 - 3 kilos started *floating away*. I know! The water had risen a good inch and although there was another 2 inches to the top of the back step, I was not waiting to see how much further it was going to rise before waking the man of the house to come and perform his manly duties. No, not that, trenching with man sized garden implements!
 

He sprang out of bed, got the maddock, and proceeded to dig a trench down the side of the house, to the driveway.

DD Caitlyn helped out - so cute! See the shovel???

I wish I'd taken more photos now!

Thanks to you all for your good wishes - you make my life great!

Mango madness

Ice cream madness

Happy Christmas ...

... from our family to yours. Thanks for your support and continuing to read this blog through the lean times this year. Every single comment has encouraged me to keep blogging. Finding the time to blog is not always easy but finding room in my heart for each of my loyal readers is not.

Take care, and I wish for you only the very best that life has to offer in 2009 and beyond.

Friday, washday

I was hanging out the washing recently and fell to contemplating the collection of handmade socks that were all lined up in a row:

It struck me that they were a lovely assortment of gifts for the Hubster, surprise socks, some made in response to requests from the kids with them hand selecting the colours they were after; patterns written by friends and knitted up by me; yarns bought by me for special occasions; even the plainest of socks reminds me of a dear girl (and now mother of 3) who taught me to knit in Germany many years ago... It was good to take the time to admire what is the achievement of one of my knitting goals - to clothe my family in woolly goodness and warm them from the inside out with love as well as  wool.

Hanging  out the washing and knitting of socks are similarly humble activities - both serve a necessary but ultimately non-lasting function. Washing gets worn and requires re-washing in such a short space of time. The washing is never all done. Socks are made to get dirty and worn out and ultimately thrown out.

Now, to the other side of the sock equation, a picture of some of my sock wool stash for your viewing pleasure:

Holiday retreat - a snapshot (or two)

We're back from our family holiday, which was really well appreciated by everyone and lets just say a little overdue for some of us.  We went to the usual place in the bush which is secluded, no phone, no tv, no radio, no mobile reception, no internets; just perfect! We cooked porridge for breakfast, warming soups for lunch and good hearty food for dinner each night, accompanied by a little red wine, to ward off the cold, of course ;) We did some bushwalking, snoozing, played board games, that kind of thing.

It was not exactly freezing, but at least we all got to wear our winter woolies!
 I took knitting, and lots of it. Of course, I took more than I could possibly knit and still be responsible for the supervision of small children, and some of my estimates of what was possible were  based on sitting up late into the night just to get extra knitting done, but this did not eventuate, as catching up on sleep proved to be more important on the day.  And not just for me, it seems.

I got to read my new book, Buddism for Mothers (recommended reading), using the bookseat. This next picture is pretty typical of what the first 2 or so days looked like:







And, what about the knitting, you say? Well, I got roped into making some socks for the kids. I always tell myself that "socks don't take much time". Note to self - socks do so take time! Last week, DS Ian was allowed to wear "odd or unusual socks" to school, and well that brought out the first request. Except to make an odd pair, requires the eventual knitting of 2 whole pairs. And what is good for one child is also good for his or her sibling. They chose the colours themselves. Sigh.

The Fo' s for the family knitting retreat are:

• Noro st st socks

 
These socks are purposely non matching, and the wool was a lovely and unexpected present from Donna. I cut out the yellow colour on the first sock and put in an afterthought heel. By using an afterthought heel, and by leaving the yellow in, the socks (would have) had a reasonable chance of matching. These socks are cast on over 60 stitches and the foot is not overly long.

The yarn does catch on itself, which can lead to lots of unnecessary tangling. I countered this by not pulling very much out of the skein at one time (makes sense, right?), and by pulling on any tangles from the skein end of the yarn. This helped a lot. I have a reasonable amount of yarn left.

• TOFUtsies socks

These are the socks for Ian's odd sock day at school. They have been on a few bushwalking adventures, and somehow missed the washing machine this morning, and are presented for your viewing pleasure in all their red mud glory.

These socks are cast on over 50 sts.






 

• Caitlyns purple socks

These are the "what about me?" sibling socks. Purple Opal sock wool from stash. Cast on over 50 stitches as well. Call it insurance for next year's odd sock day. (Can I just whine for a moment? My socks are only cast on over 60 stitches! Whinge over!)

• Caitlyns yellow socks

Same as for the purple sock, above. Except mercifully without partner for the moment. I could take no more of the stocking stitch fest that was our family knitting retreat. I am so over  stocking stitch!

• Noro coffee pot cozy

This is a bit of a cheat - all the knitting, and felting has been done for some time, it just needed some sewing up.The yarn is the left over Silk Garden from my Clapotis. I added blanket stitch in Dream no Colour Smooshy "Strange Harvest". I cut the size piece I needed without fear or favour - the pot has no real need of further insulation, having a double wall already. But this coffee pot is something I use absolutely everyday (yes, it comes on holidays with us), and I liked the idea, having been inspired by 2007's tea cozy swap (but being too busy to play at that time).




I am still on holidays today and tomorrow, and looking forward to some more knitting time. Yay for holidays!

Oh, one last thing - family portrait time!