the good with the bad

Yesterday was good, good drive, good people, good conversation,

Today is bad...this is all I have accomplished in the past 2 hours, a waste of time and yarn.
Sometimes a knitting machine is good, sometimes it is evil. Here follows a little lesson in the care and feeding of the knitting machine:

- if it is in a small room with your hot water cylinder, the oil will dry out rapidly, so it needs
regular oiling and cleaning.

- if you have a bright desk lamp shining down into the card feed slot, (mylars) the card will
read incorrectly.
- silk and the knitting machine are incompatible, heading these words will save you much
grief, hair-pulling and money, it will also prevent the neighbours from thinking that you
have an anger management problem when you swear loudly at the wretched machine.
- if you disagree with the above comment, that is fine, you probably have well lubricated
silk ( yes I do find that last sentence disturbing, but I'm a grown up and as such,immune
to juvenile humour) and an angel of a machine.
- correct weighting of the fabric is vital, this is acheived through trial and error...lots and
lots of trial and error.
- stash chocolate in the knitting room, this will prevent you from declaring "it's margarita
time" at 11 am.

So I am in need of a bit of comic relief, and here is just the book, I found it in King St last night after dinner with Flash, it is called "Wild Knitting" published in the '80s and full of cool stuff, an armadillo wrap -complete with head and feet, cactus tie, giant fruit shaped floor cushions, Juju has a pic of the "Pastoral sweater" on her blog, don't think I will be taking her up on the idea of knitting it for the husband for Christmas!

and this...which did make the husband take notice! Knitted camisole/corset, tap pants, suspenders and stockings...definitely not for the faint hearted, but actually not too risque either. The top could definitely be altered to make it suitable as a summer top.



Final purchase at the book shop, Paragon baby leaflet, not so cute as the Patons one, but has a couple of interesting cardis and bunny slippers!

We are off for a sunday drive,I am going to take my nice, happy silk garden yarn, and keep knitting on my little project for Blaise, fingers crossed that I won't have a repeat of this morning's dramas.

Wollongong Stitch n Bitch

A pleasant drive to Wollongong, nice to go for a road trip by myself, knitting was in full swing by the time I arrived, the first person I recognized was Emily, and then her Mum Donna, the creator of the Australia and New Zealand webring, then everyone else came into focus, Ailsa, Donni and Sharon, then Annie, ( the shifty eyed one in pink is me)they were so sweet, everyone just as I expected, but even better in real life! Weird in a way meeting people you don’t know…but you do through their blogs, so I felt very much at home. The venue was big, even though there were heaps of us, we still only filled a quarter of the bar, and next time I am entering the cocktail competition, will use the Qantas points on a room so I don't have to drive!
I 'll be back, hopefully I have some machine knitting knowledge to impart to Donni, and maybe we’ll get an exchange visit to SSK.

Thanks for the hospitality ladies, you rock.
below:
Donna and Emily from front:Ailsa, Sharon, Donni

theres more

I told you I would end up with 20 or more idiosyncracies!

this is the kicker:

I stick post-it notes on my Blackberry

lets let that sink in for a second...
the thing I am supposed to keep my life in, all my appointments, reminders, lists etc, I even get my email on it, but have been known to write email addresses down and stick them to it...I am sad.

meme mania

I'm getting tagged more than my building at present!

id·i·o·syn·cra·sy
Pronunciation Keyn. pl. id· i·o·syn·cra·sies -Astructural or behavioral characteristic peculiar to an individual or group.
Write down five of your own personal idiosyncracies.
Then, if you wish, tag five people from your live gerbil or friends list to do the same.

Thanks to Btchwstx you will soon know far too mch about me...
This is HARD
Analyzing myself, and then reporting on my behaviour…
And I know I will think of 20 better things once I have posted this.

- when I return from holiday, even just a weekend away, I have to put everything away, and get the house tidy, before I do anything else…which is weird because I don’t clean that much the rest of the time.

- I can’t read just one book at a time, I usually have at least 1 novel, 1 semi-non fiction novel type book, and 1 reference book on the go at any one time. My husband has got to the point where he just has to ignore this behaviour or he would go insane.

- I hardly ever answer my cellphone, many of my friends see this as a character flaw, and voice their dissatisfaction on my voicemail, I don’t do it on purpose…

- I find it hard to call people by their nicknames, everyone called my ex “Rich” I called him Richard ( actually I called him a lot more than that, but here is not the place) I still call my childhood friend’s Mum’s “Mrs blah blah” and then catch myself…”Mrs Bla..uh…Maureen” or with my married friends, I catch myself saying “ That Katie Smith” when she is now Kate Johnson.

- I have changed my last one, the original wasn't quite an idiosyncracy
I can't wear socks to bed, even if it is freezing, I feel like I am suffocating, if it is not freezing I have to have my feet outside the blankets.

so I choose knitabulous, cos she did it to me, was going to tag Donna...but someone got there first, so because I am going to meet them this weekend Donni and the Tiger

Sneak peek...

I am writing the pattern before I show the photo of the finished item, I know how useless I am at posting patterns, especially handknit ones, it is because of the gauge factor...and because I change the pattern while I am knitting, this time I have been very careful to write everything down. The pattern is almost finished, just one little adjustment I want to test first... but here is a taster.
See how the silk glistens in the sun, the sun that rebounds off the white walls of our apartment and causes snowblindness at 8 am.

Today I am working until 9 or 10 pm, I am not looking forward to it, changes are needed in parts of my life (not the family part!) there are some things that are making me quite stressed, I can't talk about them here...(the word "dooce" comes to mind) so I am slowly making plans, I am realising as I hurtle towards the big four-oh, that I am in control of my happiness, and I have to change the things that aren't working, Flash is convinced that my illness was caused by stress...he may be right. Once upon a time I worked from home, designed, made and sold women's knitwear (too cheaply I realise now) but we had enough money for the mortgage and necessities, and the few luxuries we needed for life to be comfortable, friends dropped in often, and I was deeply happy, even when bad things happened, I still had an inner core of happiness, now I am not so sure I have that...so I am writing it down, making a plan.

And I am so excited that I am off to Wollongong this saturday! I hope Donni brings yarn to sell (hint hint) I have my driving instructions downloaded from whereis, have advised Flash that he is sans car for the day ( he is lucky I don't stay the night at the Novotel and go out raving with those snb girls!...maybe next time)

cuties

books from the weekend, an utterly cute Patons toddlerwear booklet from Berkelouws Book Barn outside Berrima, and a crochet book from Kinokuniya.

guess?

those of you with photographic memories may know what these are for...otherwise...time will tell.

The colours are not true, the dark pink is actually a beautiful cerise, but you all know that.

First of all, thank you to those who commented and emailed about my sister, she has some kind of pain relief patch, and is taking the methadone, and staying in bed, and it seems to be working, so the baby can stay in longer, which is great. The reason that they said no elective ceasar is mainly philosophical/political...if at the time her specialist thinks that labour will cause more damage, she should be able to get one, but it just adds to her stress.

My Mama arrived on friday night, for another of her flying visits, yesterday we drove down to Berrima a quaint small town full of little shops, Flash went mad in the jam shop, we have 4 types of honey and all sorts of jam and sauces, the sweet shop proved irresistible to all, but I was disappointed with the Alpaca yarn, I can buy Noro for that price. We had brought a picnic lunch, so we ate at a table in the park and watched the galahs squabbling.

We drove on the Kiama via the back road, I had wanted to stop at one of the nature reserves on the way, but Flash had his heart set on the blowhole (we took the blowhard to the blowhole) so we pressed on, the blowhole wasn't in action, but it was mesmerising to look into the hole, and see the water going in and out, it sounded like the ground was breathing.

By this time it was dusk, so no point in stopping by Wollongong, but I do want to visit the Wollongong SNB soon. Good food from Newtown Thai, (their green curry is mmmm) and so to bed. Not sure what is planned for today...maybe a trip to the Botanical Gardens

all quiet

on the home front tonight, I am completely knackered after my first week back at work ( yes I know I have nother day to go) so I am about to crawl into bed, just a few rows on the latest Opal sock first. Flash is cleaning like a mad Irish cleaning woman, his favourite Mother-in-Law arrives tommorow and he wants the place spotless...the bets are on to see how long it takes me to start wheezing from all the chemicals ( or from laughing at the swearing!)

Spare a thought for my younger sister, she is 37 weeks pregnant with my neice-to-be Maisie, Vickii is a tiny wee thing, and baby is so heavy that my sister's rib cartilage has torn, and the top 3 ribs have "popped out" I was relieved to hear not out of her body, but it is disturbing enough, she is in massive pain, and has been given Methadone for the pain, our Mama works in the medical proffessions, and is organising everything,getting it sorted, the system in NZ is strange these days, and there are no private maternity hospitals ( well, not for at-risk pregnancies) at present they are saying they will not do a cesarean, can you imagine being in labour...and then having to bear down, with this sort of injury, she can't sleep, it is stupid. Hopefully commonsense will prevail and they will organise a nice seemly elective cesarean, so Mum and Maisie don't suffer too much more.Jeepers they do it everyday for women with nothing wrong with them!

I have 2 baby cardis finished, better get those socks finished soon!

"These are the days of our lives"Meme

Knitabulous tagged me…so here goes

10 years ago: I was living in my wee house on Waiheke Island,a sole parent to my three girls, studying a fulltime course in machine knitting design and technology, commuting by boat, working part-time, and putting the finishing touches on a fashion parade, I moved in a number of circles, my coffeeklatsch friends, boat friends, all-inclusive, generous, loving, quasi-hippies, esoteric intelligentsia, tech kids (the 21 year old who pined for me) I was enjoying every moment, immersed in fashion, music, interesting conversation, making wonderful memories of cicada filled summer afternoons on our red dirt road, taking the kids to the beach almost every evening, huge communal dinners, a short but tempestuous love affair, we didn’t have much money, but the kids were always dressed well, fed well, had plenty of books and a home of our own, and to paraphrase knitabulous…I was skinny. Blaise had just been diagnosed with congenital scoliosis, but her Drs were positive about her future. My best friend Leonie and I relaxed in the knowledge that Mr Right was out there, he was just busy doing other stuff, as were we. I was happy.

5 years ago: The girls and I were living in our restored villa in Waihi, having moved from Waiheke 4 years earlier, I was selling my knitwear, Flash’s eldest daughter Melanie was living with us, Flash and Maria were in Auckland and we were searching for a house in Auckland that met all of our criteria: size, style, suburb, and our time and price limit, we didn’t find it, and settled for big enough, and close enough. Flash and I had been seeing each other for almost a year (300 km round trip every weekend) and had decided to take the plunge and take the 5 kids with us. I was learning what it was like to be loved and I was deeply happy.

1 year ago: Flash came home with the news that he had been offered a job in Sydney, we were excited and nervous, we had wanted this. I was working in a highly stressful but fulfilling job as a case manager, living close to the extended family for the first time in years, the kids were (as always) doing well at school, I wondered if we were doing the right thing. I was anxious, and had psoriasis.

Yesterday: Bled like a stuck pig at the hospital, worked a half day, knitted on the sock, and wore my Leona Edmiston tights with the red flowers up the back.

Today: Tuesday I phone my big girls in NZ, and catch up with their news, I want to make dinner for the first time in weeks, Flash has a work thing, so I am planning spaghetti cabonara ala chloresterol with cream, the way we like it, and can’t have it when Flash is around. Sock knitting will probably feature. Oh and it is Thai Tuesday at work…mmmm.

Tomorrow: pretty much what I did today…without the Thai, but “House” is on TV

5 snacks I enjoy: rice cracker with hummus and tomato, yoghurt and fruit, french bread dipped in oil and garlic, homemade chocolate chip cookies, homemade onion bhajias with tamarind dipping sauce.

5 bands/singers that I know the lyrics of MOST of their songs:
Finns in all their incarnations…but you knew that
Sarah McLachlan
David Bowie
The Exponents ( knew them as the Dance Exponents – long-lived kiwi band)
U2

Things I would do with $100,000,000:
Build a holiday camp for families under pressure of all kinds, financial, emotional, whatever, a safe place where they can learn the skills they need to be successful as a family, staffed by amazing, talented and dedicated professionals. Society will get better when families do.

Ensure that my family are looked after, give the kids a good start, the ultimate of whatever they want in education, a house, and a basic income so that they can follow their passion, but not enough money to turn out like Paris Hilton ( I would love to buy a vineyard for my eldest, she could make wine, Charlotte would run the restaurant, my Mama would run the cellar door, my Dad would get involved in the infrastructure of the local town and my Grandparents would potter)

Give away most of it.

5 locations I'd like to run away to:
Phinda in Africa
New York
Tierra del Fuego (where the sparrows hop sideways)
Ha Long Bay Vietnam
Wales

5 bad habits I have:
Shedding hair
Ignoring housework
Forgetting to buy bread or milk…but I remembered the pancetta!
Shopping…especially internet shopping…and not being completely honest about it with my life-partner…
fidgeting

5 things I like doing:
Shopping
Walking with my family, especially if there is bush, rocks and animals involved
Dinner parties
Drinking nice wine
Holidays with my husband

5 things I would never wear:
Mini skirts
Vinyl
Boob tubes
Stilettos
A bikini

5 TV shows I like:
House
CSI (the original)
Pingu (particularly Pingu and the knitting machine)
Seinfeld
The Young ones




5 movies I like:
French Kiss is an old family favourite…it just take a “twisted steel, naked baby crying for it’s mother” , “all you bastards know each other” or “fester, fester, fester, rot,rot,rot” to have the kids in fits.

The Princess Bride
Love Actually
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
His girl friday

Theres a lot of mushy movies there…

5 famous people I'd like to meet:
Cynthia Heimel – a big bundle of nerve endings
Clive James – but I’m not his type
Paris Hilton – so I could give her a slap from the collective us
P J O’Rourke – to see if he does have a sensitive bone in his body
The Dalai Lama- but I would probably fidget too much

5 biggest joys at the moment
Feeling healthier than I have in weeks
Lace knitting
Long deep and meaningful talks with my beloved on the deck, him with wine, me with ginger refresher.
Knowing that my Mama is visiting for the weekend.
this knitting community


5 favorite toys:
Laptop
Blackberry
Sweatproof cd/radio/mp3
Breadmaker (I only make dough in it, and finish things off in the oven, but it takes all the hard work out of it, and people think you are so clever)
Knitting machine, ok so it is not a toy, but I like playing with it.

now that is over, I am tagging:
Anita
Lucia I am loving the cute cat contest!
Sonja
The skirt

a mixed bag

lots of variety today, but not much depth!

First off, a new bunch of lace patterns, and the first of the stitch patterns for some of the old lady's lace. This week we have "the snowdrop" ( well thats what I think it looks like) please let me know of any problems, if you are punching a card, this is a 12 st by 20 row repeat.

machine knit lace, using some old acrylic whihc was lying around the place, acrylic is good for lace samples, as it is very forgiving, but as you can see, pressing kills it dead.

I particularly like the middle one, it is from John Allen's "Treasury of Machine knitting stitches"

I attempted to knit the Paua yarn into a scarf for my Granny, but have frogged it, I will try again when I am not feeling so crappy...I also had to frogg 1/4 of a sock for the same reason, sometimes you just have to "PUT THE KNITTING DOWN!"

The reason for the crappiness, a whole load of happiness, Flash and I had Indian for dinner in King St on saturday night, then off to the Opera House to see those fabulous Finn brothers, it was incredible, they played songs from my whole life, Split Enz, Crowded House, Tim's songs, Neil's songs...songs with accents of home, and words from home...it was great, the whole place full of middle-aged, middle-class mostly Aussies and Kiwis, up and dancing despite an appalling lack of rhythm, even the uptight baby boomer seated next to me knew all the words and ended up jiggling with the rest of us (I didn't mean Flash...I meant the guy on the other side of me!) Flash has a Split Enz story of his own, when he was 21 he was right against the stage during a performance in their "Six months in a leaky boat" tour ( the first cassette I ever bought...I was 13) Tim stopped singing, bent down and handed him a poem to read out loud...ahhh I wish I had been there...Flash reading a poem!

Then came sunday, which I spent fasting for the procedure I had today, the fast was followed by the ingestion last night of the "Bowel prep kit" enough said. I was at the hospital at 8.30 am, took three hours to get all the pictures they wanted, and then a Dr knocked my canulla...was there blood! was there what...paper towel soaked in an instant, it was like a tap on full...boy I wish I had known about that vein a few weeks ago, then I could have knitted earlier in the hospital. In addition they injected some contrast into my arm, not sure if it was radio-active, like last time, not too concerned, but the way it made my mouth taste strange did make me remember the utterings of David Lange, humanist and one time Prime Minister of NZ, and his wonderful speech (scroll down a bit) at the Oxford Union debate many years ago "Nuclear Weapons are Morally Indefensible" the phrase "hold your breath I can smell the uranium on it" made us all feel clever by association, and proud of our nuclear-free stance. If you enjoy words, then please read his speech.

All is quiet, Blaise is reading the latest Kate Forsyth, Maria - the latest Harry Potter, I have Jodi Picoult's "My sister's keeper" ( and a box of tissues) no knitting tonight.

Here's a tip!

I have managed to amass a wide,varied and weird collection of knitting tips, and it is time that I shared these with you all.

so,
a good one:

Homemade Woolwash ( for when you are feeling virtuously budget minded)

500g lux flakes, or grated washing soap (sunlight, castile etc)
15 mls glycerine (from the chemist or supermarket)
15 mls eucalyptus or lavender oil
75 mls white meths

mix together, place in a jar.
To use:
1T to a basin of warm water ( or 1/4 c to washing machine)
Do not rinse.

What is this?

A. the cat’s revenge on a lace sampler scarf
B. proof that the knitting gods are toying with me
C. trouble
D. all of the above

now, all you machine knitters sit on your hands, I can hear you going "pick me, pick me!"I know you are dying to answer!

The answer is in fact D, and a whole lot more…I bought my current machine from a dear old lady, the whole kit and caboodle for $200, a bargain for an electronic, even if it is an old one. Included in the “caboodle” were a stack of hand marked Mylar pattern sheets, I have used some, but decided yesterday to do some lace sampling ( I keep feeling like I am going over and over old ground, I hate moving and giving stuff away…I keep losing stuff I need! Next time we move, my whole workroom moves with us) and dug the sheets out, I then numbered and listed the patterns prior to knitting them to keep an accurate record, and then set to and knitted a long scarf of different lace patterns, unfortunately a number of them were “no go’s” so I ended up with patches of ladders, (some needle crunching…)and a few had obvious mistakes, which I may be able to fix, but a few were lovely, which made the whole exercise worthwhile.



I printed the number of the pattern (which is also written on the Mylar sheet) the number of rows in the sample, tension, weight required and just a general note about ease of knitting etc. on a slip of paper and stapled this to the sample, at present the scarves are just folded in a box in my workroom, but when I have finished sampling I will over lock each successful sample to minimize storage ( see my whinge from before re: travelling…I have a box load of samples in the storage room of our Waihi house!) I may take photos of these samples and load them into my laptop, simplify things even further.

Standard machine knit lace ( for those of us who don’t own garter carriages) is quite different to handknit lace, for a start there is a stocking stitch side and a reverse stocking stitch side, you cannot have plain and purl stitches on the same side, unless you handtool them, use a garter bar, or the aforementioned garter carriage. There are some very pretty lace patterns that are easy to knit by machine, but would torment a handknitter, I am not going to go into the details of how machines knit lace, there are experts who can do that
Here for starters. And a more complex, how to turn a handknit lace design into a machine knit pattern

The main advantage for me is the speed, which allows me to experiment with lace, in ways that I couldn’t do and still have a job and family. I can knit an “emergency gift” scarf in 20 minutes (and weave in the ends in the car on the way!)
I keep reading about the “Birch Blackhole effect” Birch would take me an hour to knit on the machine…but I won’t, it would be cruel!
I love the relaxing effects of handknitting, and will continue to hand knit lace patterns like Old shale, which relies on garter st for patterning, I see machine knitting as a separate and complimentary craft, for the sake of sanity some things are better suited to the machine, and others to hand knitting.

Gotta love him....

With me being sick for the past 3 weeks, Flash has had a lot to deal with...health professionals, shopping, housework, the kids, the family, work commitments, and me throwing my toys out of the cot on more than one occasion...and you know what he goes and does...

heres a clue, take this:

and add these guys:

thats right! The Finn Brothers at the Sydney Opera House, this saturday night.

I tell you, my dear husband has put up with so much lately, and he goes out and pays money to see me swoon at the feet of my country's greatest crooners...thats love.

Thank you Darling.

Loopy

You can tell I am dangerously bored can't you...the picture to the right should be a clue, I thought I would post to show that I have actually finished the little Maisie cardi ( buttons and all), but when the photo had been taken...well it's so boring without a baby in it, so I dug out the ancient Photodeluxe software and had a play.

I expect I will post the pattern at some stage, you know how bad I am at that sort of thing, the yarn was Esprit from Elann, good for babies I think, as it is cotton, with good stretchy lycra, so it stretches in all directions, and it is is cheap!

Went to the GP yesterday, he has signed me off until next Monday, I am still stupidly tired, which I just can't handle, so even though I am home, I am not able to do the things I want to do, which is so frustrating. Which reminds me...

these came from Virginia Farms, they are handpainted laceweight merino from Margaret Stove at Artisan Lace in NZ. The colour on the left is "Pansy" and the right is "Paua" The Artisan Lace website has some good tips, especially this one (scroll to the bottom) for getting handpainted colours where you want them on a scarf.
I don't know what I am going to do with them yet, but I thought maybe scarves for my Granny and the girl's Nana ( who is looking after Charlotte) probably knit on the machine. I love the little touch of creamy yellow on the Pansy colourway, being a kiwi I had to buy the Paua out of patriotic duty! but it is pretty.

So I am back to bed, to continue reading my book "No Angel" by Felicity Price, it is once again, a nice book, an easy read, but a little more interesting being set in Nelson, with a backdrop of the Wearable Art Awards which I saw live for the first time last year, with my Mama, prior to moving to Oz, an amazing event, which has sadly had to move from it's bithplace of Nelson, to NZ's capital Wellington.

Fun fur and eyelash sales soar....sheep suicidal

save the sheep, buy wool~!

pitter patter of tiny feet...

I went to SSK today, and someone came home with me...shhh she's nervous...she is having a look around...this is Aiko
she likes the view of Rangitoto.

a walk on a bush road in Rocky Bay

and her new Zulu friends Felala and Fisseha

Oh goody, she wants to stay, thanks Alison for letting us adopt her!

is it the weekend again already?

I have lost a few weeks, last week I went to work twice, for 2 hours each time,of course its not just 2 hours is it, theres the getting ready time, and the travel time, on the afternoon of the second day my temperature started rising, "this is stupid" thought I, and put myself on complete bedrest again, my GP agreed, and has told me to take all of next week off work as well. I haven't been this sick...ever, anyway, I am going to SSK this afternoon, even if only for an hour or so, need to get dressed in real clothes and spend some time with real and interesting people.

Auntie Janet, and the OE friends are all well, which is a relief, the girl's Dad, well, we haven't heard, and unfortunately that is not a rare thing, we never hear from him anyway, this isn't meant to sound bad, it is just the way it is but, we are more likely to have heard if something had happened to him, so the kids are not worried or fretting at all, the silence is what they are used to.

Holly has asked me to make her some gloves with ribbed, button up gauntlets, I think I will use the lovely Lucia's Glove generator ( she is so clever that woman!) and add the gauntlets. I was thinking I should make her some thrummed mittens, with her going to live in such a cold place as Lincoln.

A lot of love...

I am not going to give vent to my anger,
my family and I are huddled around the TV, leaving the phone open as we worry about friends and family who live and work in London, one by one we think of them, and rationalise where they are. Blaise tells me her Dad is okay, because he has never got out of bed before 10 am...but she is worried about Auntie Janet. I am sure she would have been at work well before 8.30.
We send all our love and thoughts to those who are suffering in this tradgedy.

Posed sock with flowers

Posed sock with flowers
Originally uploaded by castadrift.