The Anticipation...

I am SO geared up - my Rugby League team, the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles have made the Grand Final this year, and we've bought tickets!! We're so excited; I've been to a preliminary final before, for Pete's team, but this'll be my first Grand Final.

Go you good thing - Come on Manly!

Five Senses Sunday...

Has it been a week already?

The smell of flowers in my garden. Most of them at the moment don't actually have a scent, except for this one - Diosma. It won't be long till the lovely roses I planted will be blooming, though - I am starting to see little buds growing!










The feel of sunshine on my back on a clear spring day. It was so nice outside; I ended up chatting with my best mate (holidaying in the US) for nearly an hour and a half, sitting on the front step...









The taste of beautiful, clean water - how lucky are we? I reckon that even for its faults, I live in the best country in the word, bar none. But we all feel that way, don't we?!

The sound of Rosellas fighting over seed in the backyard. I put wild bird seed mix in the bird feeder and sat myself down, camera in hand, waiting for the onslaught - I could hear them carrying on in the bug gumtrees - but nothing. Every time I went inside? At least three at a time, dangling upside down from the branches and the bird feeder! They frighten easily, and although I did my best David Attenborough sneak, but they're too good, scarpering well before I got within cooee of them and their afternoon tea.



The sight of Wonderboy, chowing down on his afternoon tea - an oatmeal and sultana biscuit ("Bikkah! Bikkah!" as he says). He's such a cute little dude!

And back to work tomorrow!

God, I love this hobby

Could I even begin to call this thing called knitting a hobby??

I reached one of those 'Knitting Nirvana' moments yesterday when I started my Rowan linen top. I haven't done much in the way of lace patterns in my knitting career (which, grant you, hasn't been terribly long either!), and so I find that I hold my breath for the first ten rows or so, praying to the Knitting Goddess that I've got it right - I'm not yet proficient enough to be able to 'read' all stitches as I go - and so, when that moment arrives when I end that row, spread the knitting flat across the needle and look back on my work...

It is... just... MAGIC when it all looks the way it should.

I can exhale, and as I do so, a smile creeps across my face and I take a few seconds just to pat myself on the back and say quietly "Hey, I can do this!"

And then I centre myself again, and remind myself that I need to keep focusing (one thing I am really learning with lace knitting is to bloody well focus on each step, each stitch of the pattern - carefully!) and I get back to what I'm doing.

This is just another of those moments that keep the enthusiasm up, that remind you just how worthwhile all the ripping back, dropped stitches and muttered swearwords are, in the end.

Avast, Me Hearties!

Today be International Talk Like A Pirate Day!

It was a great one. I didn't actually remember it was today till we started the morning at work, and to help settle a little boy who didn't want his dad to leave, and I suggested we make pirate hats...

And on we went. My goodness - it was fantastic. I growled and "Yaaarrghh"-ed in response to questions, made pirate hats and patches for everyone, and demanded that children follow instructions or they'd "walk the plank". We played 'heads, shoulders, knees and toes' with hooks instead of hands, saying "Ow!" each time we touched a body part... We read pirate stories, built a pirate ship from outdoor construction blocks and painted a big pirate mural. The children were stoked, and quickly started referring to each other as Cap'n, growled at each other and responded to requests with "Aye, aye!".

I've added a link to the official Talk Like A Pirate Day site in my list so you can check it out. There are also links, under 'Get Your Pirate Booty' so you can even Knit Like A Pirate! I'm personally quite taken with the pattern for "The Pirate Queen's Booty Bag"... I'll have to add it to the growing list of things to knit... ordinarily, when you see a growing list of things you should do, you start to feel overwhelmed and then a bit depressed, but with knitting, it's different. Every new project you see, every new yarn you fondle in the shops gets you more excited and enthused; it makes you want to crack on with your current projects so you can start another. What a great way to occupy time.

Ahoy there!

The not-quite-started and the not-quite-finished

Firstly, allow me some time for self-congratulation and a little back-patting. What you see in this first picture is a tension square (also known as gauge). Somewhat unremarkable, I know. But this is my very first tension square!!! I'll pause here for applause. Occasionally, I do knit by the rules, and I am determined to have my lovely Rowan 'Linen Print' knit up properly.

I loved the colours when I bought it (on sale, might I add!!); Very desert-like, stone and ochre colours. And then I wasn't sure as it was knitting up. I was wondering if it was too speckledy but then realised I must have been looking too carefully (you know how when you look at a word for too long, you could swear blind you spelled it incorrectly? A bit like that) and that I should move on.

And so, while I was waiting for my very special 'first tension square' to dry after I so carefully washed it (just like the Yarn Harlot told me to!), I went searching for something else to knit. I dug up this blanket that I started back when Pete and I started planning Wonderboy's grand entrance into the world...

My mother-in-law gave me several balls of thick cream handspun that she'd done ages and ages ago, and I had decided to use it as my first foray into circular needles, knitting something quite huge. Needless to say, I was bored stupid after the first two balls were knitted up. I did persevere, until I was down to the last ball and could stand no more. I cold-water dyed the last ball a cool greeny-yellow and thought I'd do a border. Then maths got the better of me; trying to work out how much I could use on each side, and I balled it up, shoved the lot into a calico bag and ignored it until now...

I'm nearly done, actually - but now that the linen print tension square is dry, I'm sort of "ooh.. this one? This one? Which one now?" Acck!

Spoilt for choice!

It's Five Senses Sunday!

Some things we're experiencing around our place on this Sunday...

The smell of sheets fresh on the bed after a day in the sunshine on the clothesline...









The taste of Club dark chocolate with peppermint filling... yum!













The feel of pedicured feet on freshly mown grass (many thanks to Mum, for the pedicure birthday present, and to Pete for mowing the lawn!)












The sight of exciting, brand-new balls of Rowan Linen Print, just waiting for me to get started on my summer top!











The sound of Wonderboy, laughing and saying "Mumma, Mumma!" while we rumble on the grass following watermelon for afternoon tea. What a legend!





Life is good.

And So It Begins...

Another distraction. Just when I've discovered the massive potential that Facebook has for pulling me away from my current knitting projects, along comes Blogger. Not that I'm unaware of blogging, per se - I participated in a blog that a friend of mine had in Uni, suppose I've just been avoiding it, knowing just how much other crap I've got to do!!! It seems that ever since I had WonderBoy last year, I just keep adding more and more things to my list of 'things I must do'. Weird, cause then I complain how little time I have to myself...

My next job in getting this blog up and running is to add lists of completed and current knitting projects. I may leave that till later, as I can't be arsed right now.

Some more about me. I'm having trouble getting used to the idea that I will type stuff about me and other people will read it. Wait a minute. That's stretching the friendship already - I'm assuming people are going to read this!!

I titled this blog 'shoeboxes' for two reasons. One, "Shoebox" being the title of a great song by one of my favourite bands, Barenaked Ladies; and two, 'shoeboxes' are just me. As a kid I loved holding on to boxes with lids; the smaller the better. Couldn't get enough of them and could never bring myself to throw them out. I think I always thought I'd store stuff in them. And I did, mostly. Art supplies, letters from friends, special treasures, and a ill-destined rock collection that weighed too much to be moved. I was an enthusiastic child, if nothing else.

And now, 'shoeboxes' is how I see my life (here she goes, deep and metaphorical. I promise, I'll talk about knitting very soon. I promise.) - there's me the wife, me the mother, me the teacher, me the knitter, etc. And, as being a mother has taught me over the last 18 months, often some contents don't mix with others.
Sometimes Wonderboy will walk past as I try to knock over a few rows, and he'll pick up the knitted piece (he prefers mohair or cashmere blends. He's a man of discriminatin' tastes) and rub it against his cheek, say "Awww" and walk on. Most times, however, he'll pull at the needles, row counter (cause it goes round and round, don'tcha know),or do something totally inconvenient, like tangle the yarn around his feet and yell at me like it's my fault...

So the shoeboxes are handy. Please enjoy the compartmentalised chaos that is my life.