Brrrr! A quick post

First day of Term Two.

Windy like you wouldn't believe.

Cold as buggery!

Here is the sky, taken at Preschool. Not very indicative of the day, as the clouds were skidding across the sky so quickly, and the mood of the sky changes so often that you just don't see the rainstorm coming until you're drenched...

In the spin

I'm feeling quite pleased with myself this week; although the ironing basket is growing so fast that it seems destined to receive a postcode of it's own, I've managed to crack out the spinning wheel.

The fleece I bought at the Robertson Woolcraft Festival is spinning up quite nicely (or what I think of as nicely - I'm not that experienced!), and the colours are variegating themselves prettily - creams, greys and dark browns all in one fleece. I'm sure there are better spinners than I out there who would be separating the colours so they spin it into separate colour lots, but I quite like the way the colours have plied together, with a mottled effect. And so, here is not a fabulous photo, but a photo nonetheless of my recent spinning efforts:
In other news, I took WonderBoy up to the native botanic gardens near our home for a little adventure. He's pretty obsessed with water features, God bless him, and getting him past these was pretty difficult...

Like the Wiggles sherpa hat? He does...

Short post, I know... Not very knitterly, I know... but I am back into term time on Monday, so I'd better get used to this! And hey, there are only so many photos I can take of the second of My First Socks! I'm getting good progress on them, so it won't be long before I'm casting on anew!

And, before I go... Today is ANZAC Day, when Australians and New Zealanders remember the diggers who landed and fought at Gallipoli.

Lest We Forget.

I'm wearing a new hat.

But first, I managed to get the 'Hearts and Stars' blanket finished and blocked in time to take it up for darling Baby Ava (as WonderBoy insists on calling her) on Friday afternoon. Never thought it would take as long as it did to cast off in moss stitch. Yuck. But it's looking pretty good, yeah? The pattern called for 8-ply cotton, but I've gone with Shepherd 'Colour 4 Me' 100% Australian wool. It's washed beautifully, and it's very soft to the touch. And then the first of my first pair of socks. After several frogging issues, I've finally finished it... Now the My First Sock is complete, it's time for me to experience My First Bout of Second Sock Syndrome!
Second Sock Syndrome arrived promptly yesterday evening, when I pulled the skein of Rainbow Wools 'Popcorn' yarn from its carrybag, bought yesterday at the Robertson Woolcraft Festival... I cast on their lovely simple roll-brimmed hat pattern, and off I went.I knit in the car, all the way to and from visiting Ali and her husband, and their beautiful baby in Sydney, and I am pretty proud to say I finished it this afternoon. I've been wearing it ever since around seven this evening. I'm so pleased about how the colours worked out. There's no colour pooling at all, and having them all blend this way has almost made a whole new, subtle colour. I'm loving it something stupid.

Now I shall sing, and dance, and eat chocolate.

It sure ain't Sock Camp...

... but it sure was fun!

Leaving my husband and son with my parents-in-law, I headed out to Robertson today to check out the Woolcraft Festival.

I can't say I saw expecting a huge huge blowout... After all, this is a country town, and knitting, spinning and the like is only enjoyed by a very small (and quite probably elderly) portion of the population, right?Well, the sheep were there...

Not quite. I am very pleased to be able to say I had such a great time there, and I wish I could have hung around longer. I met up with Dianne, a fellow Raveler whom I have only spoken to online so far, and her husband. Dianne and I were able to talk properly about the possibilities for meeting up regularly for knitting sessions, and she was able to introduce me to some of the women who get together for a spinning group once a month. I was so excited to think I'm going to be able to hang out with 'my peeps' on a regular basis to learn and exchange more. Dianne's husband is a very lovely and supportive bloke who was determined to leave the Festival that day with a spinning wheel for Dianne, whether she thought she needed one or not!

I managed to talk spinning with the ladies Dianne introduced me to, and Joan in particular, who helped me select my first fleece that would be best for a beginner like myself. It was like a Mission: Impossible, with Joan ferreting through bags and asking me about colours and textures while trying not to make it look like she was 'telling' me what to buy. I'm proud to say that this gorgeous four-and-a-half kilo bag of Merino X was suggested by me with a little bit of guesswork (hell, I didn't know what I was doing!), and it turned out to be an excellent choice, apparently!Here's my score, arranged quite artfully I think, with our fish helping out with decoration. Thanks, Jack White.

I was able to ask questions (I learned heaps, just by asking people questions!), and I networked quite a bit. I met up with Melanie of Rainbow Wools, who was very interested in Ravelry and in the possibility of a local Stitch and Bitch being started. From her I bought this delicious hand dyed number, which came with some free patterns for hats, scarves and the like. Good one-skein stuff. I was thinking scarves, but when Melanie's mum put the hat on to model for the fashion parade, I was sold. A hat it shall be!And then I'll buy more for a scarf, of course.

It's knitting up so soft and the colours are just yummy. I'm supposed to be working on the mate for my current pair of socks (hello, second sock syndrome!), but I just couldn't help but cast this on tonight. Nice stuff.

These slivers, from Freelance Fibres, caught my eye (ok, more like grabbed and held it hostage) just for their beautiful colours (baby alpaca and silk). But they are to be put away for now, until I feel I'm practiced enough to use them. I'm considering them something for me to be aiming for.
Ah, we all must have goals and dreams to aspire to!

Oh, I am SO knitblogging this

I have lived in hope, waiting for there to be some sort of fibre-related event to be held within cooee of my location.

I feel so gypped when I read of the Yarn Harlot's exploits at various festivals, like Rhinebeck or the Sock Camp organised by Blue Moon Fibre Arts (you have got to check out this entry on her blog, about Sock Camp - oh, I want to be there!), cause there just isn't that equivalent held near me... well, not that I know about. Maybe I'm not looking in the right places. Maybe I'm being silly, wishing for these things to happen near me rather than travelling. Dunno... I'm just in a stage of life right now where I can't just can't drop everything and chase fibre across the state. I know, I know, I'm just not putting in the effort!

But then today, I checked Ravelry (instead of knitting the Stars and Hearts Blanket) and my friend Dianne (check out her blog here!) mentioned the Robertson Woolcraft Festival. Did I know it was on this weekend? Hell, no I didn't!

I'm so excited. There's going to be speed knitting competitions, spinning, and fleeces for sale. And although I know that the majority of people there will be considerably older than me - actually, I don't know this for certain. Maybe it's a stereotype in my mind built on things I know about our area that will be well and truly shattered on Saturday - maybe there will be younger people I can connect with? I love thinking of all the potentials for the day. I'm hoping to get a stitch 'n' bitch group going in my local area, so this could be a good starting point...

Watch this space for photos of the day!

Serendipity

I love that word, don't you?

Yesterday, I listened to Brenda Dayne's most recent episode of 'Cast On', entitled "Heads Up", and spoke about working hard to make herself finish knitting the Modern Quilt Wrap, designed by Mags Kandis. She described it as a project that she was finding hard to get back into, until she took it with her to complete on train trips to and from Cardiff one day. Then, she says, she got her 'knitting mojo back', and found it just flying off the needles.

She went on from there to discuss planning a journey somewhere not too far away, but somewhere you'd always wanted to go but had never got around to. Take public transport (let someone else do the driving), pack a lunch, and bring a specific project for the journey. Luverly.

Back to today. Not that this journey was specifically planned for my knitting, but I happen to find the coincidence, the parallels between Brenda's story and my day to be quite serendipitous.

I spent today at one of the major hospitals in Sydney, (I'm fine, no need to worry!) keeping Pete company as he had to have a biopsy today (again, no need to panic - quite a routine procedure) and this is an all day event. First, we are up at 4.00AM in order to get to Sydney in time for Pete to have blood tests first thing in the morning, then a spot of breakfast before an ultrasound and biopsy.

Then comes the fun part. The poor bugger then has to lie flat on his back for four hours, with a heavy sandbag weight on the biopsy site to prevent any bleeding. It's not much fun for Pete, and I hope my being there was at most, helpful and at least, not too irritating.

I used this opportunity to make a real go on the Hearts and Stars baby blanket for my good friend Ali. I have to say, I was terribly proud of my progress - eighteen rows done in one day! That might not sound like much, but for me when there's a pattern of knit, purl and moss stitches to keep track of and the rows are reasonably long (for me, anyway!), that feels like a bit of an achievement.

Such was my project for the journey. It shook it up a bit for me, gave me some great progress and inspiration (read: kick up the bum) to really really push to the end. I can't wait to see it blocked.

Plus, it won't be long before I'll be giving it to Ali and a very special little girl.

Baby Ava Rose was born in the early hours of this morning. How's that for serendipity?

Who would have thought it?

Okay, so I've hit a major, major mental block.

I put it down to End of Term One. I'm packin' it, writing up children's dialogues, documenting project work and co-ordinating displays and generally sodding around. Plus, we're getting ready for the Department of Community Services Children's Services Regulations to come into effect at our Preschool, something which the school's never dealt with before and neither has our current director. So, my colleague and I are trying to help as much as we can, policy-writing and all that.

Meanwhile, my friend's baby was due yesterday and not only have I done merely three rows of stars and hearts out of the total five, I'm seriously thinking it'll look better with six rows total, leaving me halfway through.

Plus, the sock went to frogtown, express. Turns out the length of my feet cannot be measured accurately flat, and they are much longer than five inches. Aack!

Hello... paging Shortfeet? Mr Shortfeet? Hello?


Hello? No? Mr Shortfeet? No? Aw, damn...
Oh, man. Roll on school holidays. I'm itchin' to get the spinning wheel out.