It has been an astounding 14 or so months since my last blog post. That’s a whole lotta life and knitting I have not been sharing on the internets. At least not on my blog. I have been awfully blah blah blah on facebook and at time on twitter too.
There has been knitting, although not as much as in the past perhaps. I will give you a dot point update of the last year or so:
- Purl went overseas and came back again, pretty much the same person but with lots more photos;
- Purl got very very sick and went to hospital;
- The Spunk began full time work last year and so time is precious around here without him doing all the bits and pieces that he used to. Well, he still does them, but time is precious!
- The Tiny Madam and Number One Son continue to grow and thrive and be wonderful, but are not so small any more. The NOS will be taller than me within a year I predict. And he’s only 10! Likewise TTM will be a taller person, like her father who is not cursed with a dozen or so convict ancestors that lived on potatoes and gruel and whose legacy I bear in my short stature!
- Work is insane. Full stop.
Anyway, in the spirit of getting things going again, I have decided to retire this blog for the time being, and have moved myself over to here:
http://havingayarn.wordpress.com
If there is anyone still out there, come on over!
braggings of a proud mother
Posted on: April 26, 2009
- In: kids | knitting
- 8 Comments
If you are interested, here is the ABC coverage of the Dawn Service (scroll down to video). There is a close up of Purl – she is the dark haired gorgeous girl in the Akubra hat. I could barely cope with the whole thing! I was so proud I thought I might actually explode! She is enjoying herself immensely and has fallen in love with Turkey and the Turkish people.
Our staycation is going well. Tiny Madam has slept in a room by herself two nights in a row – for the first time ever! She is growing up! Yesterday we went to Kids Paradise and let them run loose. The Spunk and I had a very civilised coffee and next time might go a bit earlier for breakfast in the cafe there. Not too many people and the kids had a ball. Today we have a cooking class – ANZAC biscuits of course!
I am making a blanket with the brown yarn, and I think it will be quite good. Just a simple ripple stitch, but it looks effective and is a good colour for my lounge room:
I haven’t been doing much work on the black jumper, except that I picked up around the neckline to make it into a cowl. I think I am not going to have enough yarn to make long sleeves, but that’s fine. The jumper will end up looking like a cross between Ingenue and something else entirely! It should be done soon I think. Perhaps I will work on it today. It is knitting weather, that’s for sure.
See my slanty stitches? It must be something to do with the yarn – I don’t usually have this issue!
Student free day tomorrow. I had the kids convinced on Friday that we turn the music up loud and play football in the corridors. Sometimes this is not far from the truth. School is great without kids!
keeping busy!
Posted on: April 22, 2009
- In: kids | knitting
- 7 Comments
Purl left on her epic journey last night and was upset to leave – she was very teary at the airport. However, I have since heard that she made it to Dubai without too much drama and will head out in about half an hour for Istanbul and then on to Canakkale on a bus. Then Friday a tour of the Gallipoli Peninsula, and of course Saturday is ANZAC Day. I had quite the minor breakdown last night! I am okay now – she is in good hands and will have the time of her life!
I am trying to keep very busy. At work this is not a problem – there is never a dull moment! I teach Historical Inquiry and met a new class today. I started the day with 18 students and had 27 by the end. I am sure they have all heard what a fantastic class it is (cough choke) and it’s not that they couldn’t be bothered going to football (choke splutter!). Anyway, we had a good start and they have some fantastic ideas about what they are going to Inquire about.
This weekend, we are having a STAYCATION inspired by this blog. We have showers and rain forecast, so it seems like a good idea to batten down the hatches somewhat and have fun at home. We may, or may not, go out. I am cutting out door signs and itineraries. Tiny Madam is going to sleep in Purl’s room for the weekend (shh don’t tell! While the cat’s on the other side of the world . . .) and they can have room service and some pampering. I might even go as far as getting them a little chocolate for their pillows! Sounds like fun, don’t you think?
This evening whilst watching the brilliant Wednesday night television line up I am going to unknit the Nut Brown Seamless Sweater I made the Spunk. I can’t stand to look at it a minute longer. He has ordered a round neck jumper in Graphite Bendigo 8 ply as a substitution, rather than having the same yarn knitted into a different jumper. Now I need to find a pattern for myself with the nut brown yarn. I think there needs to be some texture, as the yarn is not terribly inspiring really. Any suggestions? I could make another Central Park Hoodie, but leave off the hoodie bit. Rogue has been in my queue for just about forever. I even bought the pattern. Should I try that?
Sans pictures today. Sorry!
milestones
Posted on: April 19, 2009
- In: kids | knitting
- 6 Comments
Two sleeps . . .
Here is the prize that Purl won last year – how amazing!
We had a meeting yesterday and talked through her itinerary. She leaves on Tuesday and won’t be back until 8 May. It’s the longest she has been away from home, and obviously the furthest. She is going to the dawn service at Gallipoli, through Belgium and France, following the trail of Frank MacDonald, one of the last surviving ANZACs. Today just about everyone we know flowed through the house starting at 9am to say Bon Voyage. I am fluctuating between panic, pride and have a constant lump in my throat. She is packed and ready. WHAT AN ADVENTURE.
I, of course, knitted through the meeting and barely elicited a glance from the others. They must be very well adjusted people. I am making another placket jumper for my friend’s son. It is coming along very nicely.
Number One Son turned 9 last week. Another milestone! He is growing to be such a lovely boy. We took him and his friends to see Monsters VS Aliens and it was great!
Here is Tiny Madam in her Oriental. I modified the pattern as it is intended for little teeny girls. I think she looks very cute. She is a teapot, not so short and not so stout.
Tip me over . . .
I am knitting furiously, because I have to finish all of everything I have before I can order more yarn. This, in my mind, includes re-knitting a Spunk sized jumper because I can’t live with the ugly neckline of the Seamless that I knitted recently.
However, if Mr Rudd manages to stimulate me in the next week all bets are off! Like many people, I am very excited that Bendigo has released Luxury yarn and it comes in 10 ply! Woo hooo! I have so much stuff in my Ravelry queue I barely know what to do first!
We have just had a lovely week off school, with a kind of do-nothing philosophy. It has been great. However, I probably should get going and organise myself for tomorrow. I will be on deck in twelve hours and have barely given school a thought! Time to start counting down to our next holiday! Six weeks . . .
I mentioned our trip away for the decade of wedded bliss. Here I am at Pyengana where we had lunch. Look at the green paddock! Imagine the smell of cow poo! It was lovely!
I love the smell of cow poo in the morning!
Happy Autumn!
owl be around more i hope!
Posted on: March 28, 2009
I won’t go into how long it has been since I blogged. Boring. I have been very busy.
Anyway, there has been much knitting. I have finished a Seamless Hybrid Sweater for the Spunk, and also a Seamless Raglan Sweater for him. I finished the orange cardigan except I haven’t put the buttons on it yet. It hasn’t been cold enough for a cardigan yet. I also finished an Owl jumper, which I love. I am sporadically adding buttons as eyes. Here is a picture.
At the moment I am knitting a black jumper for Number One Son – it is turning out quite nicely! I am going to duplicate stitch a Decepticon logo on the front for him. I haven’t ever done that before, so that will be an adventure.
Next in the queue is a cardigan for Tiny Madam which shouldn’t take too long. Essentially this means that this year, I have made nearly four jumpers, three of them adult size! There have been no socks finished at all. All jumpers, all the time! All knit in one piece.
Since blogging last, we have been back to the coast twice – once with the two youngest children, and once with just the Spunk and I. We recently celebrated ten years of marriage! Where does time go?
We are both working full time this year, for the first time since before the Tiny Madam was born. We are managing quite well, but it is very tiring and VERY busy. Along with that comes some extra money (yay!) so the girls have started hip hop dancing, and the boy has started TaeKwonDo (I want to write RexKwonDo – thanks Napoleon Dynamite) which only serves to make us ever busier! It’s all good fun though!
Purl goes overseas in just over three weeks. She is very excited and so are we – if a little apprehensive.
another six things
Posted on: January 23, 2009
Knitter Sue tagged me to do a meme, and it always tickles me to be tagged (I feel like one of the cool kids!) so even though I have done this before I think, I will do it again!
Here are the rules:
Link to the person who tagged you.
Mention the rules.
Tell six quirky yet boring, unspectacular details about yourself.
Tag six other bloggers by linking to them.
Go to each person’s blog and leave a comment that let’s them know they’ve been tagged.
1. People at work sometimes think I am scary. This is because I manage to pretend I am confident and always on top of things. On the inside I am usually full of doubt and nerves, but apparently this doesn’t show. What this means is that people ask me lots of questions and I have to make lots of decisions. I don’t like making decisions.
2. My daughter works at the same McDonalds that I worked at when I was pregnant with her!
3. I got a new tattoo last week and it is visible to the world. Since then I have noticed people looking at me. I figure it is their problem. I like it. It is also an antidote to the feelings I describe in the first response! I have to be better at just being me!
4. At the moment, I am responding to a meme, knitting, playing Lexulous on Facebook with the Spunk who is sitting behind me on the laptop, listening to my kids laugh and giggle, paying slight attention to the tennis and having a glass of wine. Multitasking is my favourite pastime.
5. Fights make me almost pass out. This can be a problem working in a school with 400 odd teenage boys. I have broken up lots of fights with my ability to scream STOP STOP STOP at great volume.
6. I think that at least some of my success and ambition comes from wanting to prove people wrong. I was only 18 when Little Purl was born and should call in and thank the teachers who told me I was not fit to be a mother. That’s how far I will go to defy authority!!
Now, who to tag?
Katt, MrsDrWho, LargMarj, Cathie, jess,chocolate,knitting and anybody else who would like to participate!
- In: cardigan | kids | knitting
- 7 Comments
We have been back from our holidayette for a week now – we had a great time although the house we rented was rather grotty and the Spunk flipped out and went and bought a bucket and mop! We had some lovely weather. Here I am at the blowhole:
All the time we were there, the Spunk was doing the strangest thing. He and Tiny Madam have this thing going on with ‘The Wicked Fairy’ (TWF from now on!). I don’t know how it started or why she was deemed wicked, but she really is. Tiny Madam won’t have anything to do with her. She is about 2 inches tall (TWF not the Madam). Anyway, she appears all over the house at random moments and Madam loves to hide her from the Spunk so he can’t set up an ambush. Unbeknownst to us all TWF made the trip to Bicheno and made a grand entrance when we arrived! Then, she travelled far and wide around the town and had her photo taken in all sorts of locations. I had no idea it was happening for a while, and Tiny Madam still doesn’t know. I think the Spunk is planning on making a slide show for her! She will be furious!! Here is The Wicked Fairy at the beach:
And in the car:
He is seriously a fantastic Dad!
I did some knitting at the beach. I bought some Soft Haze on the morning we left and began a top down raglan cardigan on my Harmony Options needs that I still love very much.
When we got back, I had two parcels to pick up. Some Cascade 220 in grey for a Seamless Hybrid Sweater for the Spunk, and some Bendigo 12 ply in Agate for me. So, the Orange Fluffy has been sidelined whilst I knit for the Spunk. I was knitting too big and had to start again, but all seems good in the world of husband knitting at the moment. I am intrigued by the pattern and look forward to finding out if I can work the maths out since I had to cast on fewer stitches and so forth. Rest assured I will fill you in on my progress.
Cascade 220
Bendigo Rustic 12 ply
The last few days have been spent caught up in some kind of surreal bureaucratic nightmare. Let me tell you, it is not easy to get a kid out of this country. Passport nightmares no more however, Purl is cleared for travel. Not long now until she jets off for ANZAC Day. We are getting excited. Whilst waiting yet another hour for yet another piece of paper on Monday, we went shopping for jeans. I am still debating whether my sales assistant was a complete horror or a godsend. I tried on a pair of jeans that I had been eyeing off for a while and she informed me they were completely wrong on my body shape and thrust another style and size to try. I put them on and VOILA they looked great! And fit me! And I liked them. So much she convinced me to buy two pairs in different shades of denim!! The magic ingredient?
Great work if you can get it ;P
success
Posted on: January 10, 2009
Success
He has achieved success
who has lived well,
laughed often, and loved much;
who has enjoyed the trust of
pure women,
the respect of intelligent men and
the love of little children;
who has filled his niche and accomplished his task;
who has left the world better than he found it
whether by an improved poppy,
a perfect poem or a rescued soul;
who has never lacked appreciation of Earth’s beauty
or failed to express it;
who has always looked for the best in others and
given them the best he had;
whose life was an inspiration;
whose memory a benediction.
–1904 Bessie Anderson Stanley
So we said goodbye to Auntie on Wednesday, and it was very very sad, but I took some comfort in the words of the celebrant. He read a version of the poem above and I think it was a perfect choice. I doubt Auntie made it as far as Hobart in her life, but she lived a true and for the most part happy life. She enjoyed her family and took pride in being a mother, a wife, a grandmother and and Auntie. She enjoyed cooking for her family, and knitting for them and helping them learn to do these things for themselves.
We are off to the beach tomorrow, and I can’t wait. There are four weeks of holiday left and I have so much to think about before school starts. We have decided that the next week is for relaxation, then it’s action stations – educate the youth ’09 must begin in earnest.
I have been sewing and knitting. Here are Embossed Leaves:
Here is some detail of another apron:
I cast on another pair of Monkey socks for MIL1:
I cut out and used velcro to make nappies/diapers for Tiny Madam’s doll:
I made curtains for the bathroom:
I have also made another skirt but you will have to wait for that picture. I made a bag for the Tiny Madam and the Number One Son yesterday, but again slack with the pictures!
Today was knitting group and it was fun! I had problems concentrating and went backwards more than forwards, but that’s okay. I must remember to take something I don’t have to count next time!
I am taking three pairs of socks to the beach to knit and may just have to swing by Spotlight before departing. My yarn from Bendigo to make Rogue and Yarns Online to make a Hybrid for the Spunk did not arrive.
sew this is my knitting
Posted on: January 4, 2009
You might notice a couple of changes around here. I was beginning to feel my blog was looking a little dark, so I have changed themes. And, the name of my blog too – I still heart knitting a heck of a lot, but seem to have broadened my horizons lately. I think it looks good – I hope you agree.
There are some photos to show you today! I have been enjoying some quiet time at home and have been fairly productive over the past couple of days. I also bought myself a camera (finally!) and have taken some happy snaps of my work.
Sewing – a wrap skirt and an apron. The skirt is for me and the apron is part of a gift that Purl is putting together for her friend’s 16th – how cute! A baking kit!
mind the early onset bunions
Zigzag Lace
Spunk Socks
Embossed Leaves
Too cool for school!
Time for tea!
Despite all the exclamation marks I have put in today’s post, I am feeling quite sad because Auntie died this morning. It was expected, but part of me feels like it is a chapter closing on my childhood – all the important elders are gone now.
I think tomorrow we will go the beach and have a picnic and blow some sadness away in the sea breeze. Sounds lovely don’t you think?
1000 comments!
Posted on: January 1, 2009
My 100oth comment came in from the lovely Nat who has a little present winging its way to her! Keep an eye on the postman Nat!!
Happy New Year!
I forgot to tell you all about the books that I got for my birthday. Two are generic how to sew books (why I thought I needed two is anyone’s guess!) and one is the delicious and delightful Sew What! Skirts. I bought some fabric today to make a wrap skirt – I would like to get to this tomorrow, but we’ll see what the day brings. There are no patterns as such, just instructions.
We put curtains up yesterday – ripped out old disgusting venetians that have been here since well before our time, washed the windows and hung nets and curtains in two rooms. Tomorrow we will finish the job with another room. I am not a huge fan of net curtains, but considering I can’t afford to put new tinted windows in, I had to cave to the demands of the Spunk who likes his privacy!
We spent New Year’s Eve quietly at home, which is our very favourite thing to do. I think I dozed off over the actual midnight bit – perhaps I had one too many bubbly drinks?
Today we took the kids to see Bedtime Stories. It was really funny – and I am not usually an Adam Sandler fan. I actually lost it at one point – I got the giggles and had tears streaming down my face. You only need to watch about 10 seconds of this to see the point at which I lost control . . .
Good clean family fun!
Oh, and the socks continue. I think I will participate in the January Sockdown for Sock Knitters Anonymous on Ravelry. Since the specs are to knit something from an online magazine I think it should be easy to find something to make!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
amanda j 
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