Hearts all around

I have knitted grand-daughter a beanie and mittens which I didn't take photos of as #1 son has taken over the camera, thank goodness for digital cameras. We will have thousands of photos of the baby.

This beanie I did manage to get the camera back for a moment to get a photo. It is in the same colour as the other beanie and mittens, it has hearts in two levels all around the beanie. It is knitting in Shepherd 4ply pure wool.

Introducing.....

Aahliyah Louise, born 29 July 2008 at 10.56pm and weighing in at 4180g (9lb 4 oz). Our first grandchild.

#1 son and dil are over the moon, she is a beautiful baby girl. We spent the day with both of them in the birthing unit along with DIL parents. We talked, we laughed and we cried throughout the day. There were calm times and there were times of shear agony.

Aahliyah was born by caesarean after a long and hard labour of going nowhere. It was something to watch my son walk up the corridor of the birthing unit wheeling his baby girl towards us. We stayed and watched her be weighed, had her hair washed, needles given and wrapped up and put in her crib.

We then stayed with her in her room waiting for her mum to join her new daughter. Just beautiful. Then is was time for us 4 new and first time grandparents to leave the new mummy, daddy and baby girl together. It was nearly 1am this morning.

One more sleep....

Grandchild #1 is nearly here, her mum was induced around 3pm today, #1 son has been with her, nothing happening yet, and as she is in the maternity part of the hospital, he can't stay passed visiting at 8pm. When she is taken to the birthing ward then he can stay with her, so a sleepless night here in our home waiting for the call back to the hospital. The nurse doesn't think anything will happen tonight.

I am knitting a hat for her in the same colour as this jumper I finished yesterday. It had been knitted for a couple of weeks, but needed to be stitched together and the buttons put on it.

I am still knitting on the shawl, it probably has about 50 hours more knitting to go. My fingers have been giving me hell and I wake at around 4am with terrible pain as if they are going to break off, so I can't knit at much each night as I would like. The knitting doesn't seem to hurt while doing it, but oh boy through the night is pure hell.

Paint Brush Dyeing - Knitters Retreat

Thanks to Metal and Knit I have photos of my paint brush dyeing, which was knitted in 4ply pure wool, dyed, unravelled and knitted into the hat in the previous post.

I had a flexi day from work yesterday and caught up on knitting the shawl, while knitting I thought I was one stitch out, I looked back, counted stitches, no seems to be right, but still thought it looked like one stitch out. Well.....6 rows later (1 hour 40minutes knitting time for every 2 rows), it was out, I did think about keep on knitting, DH said you can't notice it.....but I could.....so you know what that means.........ripped it back. DH asked if I could take it off the needles and pull it back would save time......not with 3ply lace knitting you can't. So 4 hours last night and I have 1 and a half rows to still unpull before starting to knit it back.

And to top it off, the baby is going to be 2 or 3 weeks early, that is right, she will be here in the next week and a half. Her mum has pre-eclampsia and has been hospitalised. After a week in hospital she is ready to come home, but she is going to be there until baby is born and they come home. #1 son has quit his job and moved them back with us so he can be close by.

So the shawl has over 80 rows to go and at the moment as 1080 stitches which is taking 1 hour on pattern row and 40 minutes on plain row. I guess the good thing is that it is in the round, so no sewing up at the end, now that has got to save a bit of time.

Here are some of the dyeing, and then sitting outside knitting (I am not in these photo)

Hand Painted Original Baby Hat

Here it is....the very special baby hat, the one and only original hand painted/dyed by me.

A square was knitted with white Shepherd 4ply pure wool. Then I hand painted the dye onto the square in bright pink large dots, then with a brigh blue painted large dots between the pink dots, it looked great when out drying in the sun. When all dry I unravelled the yarn (yes you read all this in the previous post), and knitted it with a 'feather and fan' pattern. And isn't it just gorgeous.


Today I went with the kids and the mother in-law for the 34 week ultrasound. Everything is going great with the baby, she is a biggen, at 34 1/2 weeks she is 6lbs 9oz, hopefully she won't get too large in the next few weeks. She wouldn't play well though (must get that from me) when it was time to get a 3d picture, she had turned away, so we only got an ear. It is so nice to see her tumbling around in there, and to see that everything is as it should be. On the other hand the mum is bordering on pre-eclampsia and needs to take it easy. Back to the knitting, I still have heaps to do on the shawl, which I haven't touched in nearly 3 weeks, and the baby jumper in the bright apricot colour I started on the weekend.

See the nice baby shawl as the backdrop......that was mine when I was a baby, it is nearly 49 years old. It needs a good wash and some mending, which I will get done before grand daughter is born.

A knitter's Retreat

I have spent the weekend at "Knitters Camp" at Mt Keira Scout Camp. What a full on weekend of knitting, eating, drinking and catching up with some wonderful people and friends, some I already knew and some I only knew from reading their blogs, it is really great to meet and talk to these people in person. There were workshops on painting on dye, picot and worm edges and felting. There were yarns, yarns, and more yarns, knitting patterns, needles, kits etc for sale aswell.

After a freezing night on friday night, and I did have plenty of warn clothes and bedding, but maybe just not enough we woke to a lovely saturday morning, the one thing about mt keira is that even on a nice sunny winters day, once you get in the shade or the sun goes down over the tall mountain behind the camp the it is bloody cold.

On saturday after a breakfast of firstly porridge with heaps of brown sugar and milk then bacon, eggs and toast we headed up to the Lodge to knit some more and to try our hand a painted dyeing.

We had knitting up squares before the camp in 4ply white pure wool, I knitted enough for a baby beanie. I painted the dye on in bright pink and blue large spots that ran into each other making a nice purple colour. Then when dried I unravelled the knitting into a ball and then knitted a beanie. I got within 3 rows of finishing and ran out of wool. So I had to frog it back to the beginning of the last pattern repeat rows and make it a bit shorter then proceed to finish the beanie. It came out beautifully. I will have photos when Metal and Knit emails them to me. I got my camera out to take a picture before I unravelled the square and guess what....you guessed it....flat batteries. So annoying, I get about 9 photos and then the batteries go flat.

I bought some dark apricot colour 4ply shepherd pure wool to knit my unborn grand daughter a jumper, I got started on that this morning after finishing off the beanie and I am up to the armholes on it.

I won't be getting much knitting done tonight, I will be watching the inside of my eyelids very soon, I am so tired, but a good tired, after so much fun. Thank you to CR&K Daisy Designs at Fairy Meadow for putting on such a wonderful "Knitters Retreat" again this year.

I will leave you with a photo of me (on the right in blue top) and another woman knitting outside with a beautiful view backdrop.

Dish Cloth knitting

The kitchen sponge died a tragic, holey, greasy death. I didn't have any others to use, so what is a girl to do....knit cotton dish cloths of course. This is the first one, which is now being used in the kitchen. The are great things, look good, and great for the environment as you just throw them in the wash and you have a nice clean cloth to use over and over.

I was gifted a few balls from USA. I had knitted some dish cloths a long while ago, which now get used in the laundry. For these cloths I found a nice pattern on Ravelry called the spinning wheel pattern. It is so easy to knit and in no time at all I had made 4. The first one is being used in the kitchen the other 3 are pictured here.

I haven't knitted anymore on the shawl the last few days, but tonight I did 2 rows and that took nearly 1 1/2 hours, it is slow going from now on, and I like to finish a row before putting it down.

200th Post

This is my 200th post, it took awhile, like just over 3 years, but I made it.

The last weekend of May we spent in QLD, dh had HOG P.O.T (Harley Owners Group - Primary Officer Training) and I went along for a nice relaxing 5 days. It rained and blue a gale the whole time. Not good weather for much outdoors, but the knitting I got done was so relaxing and made me happy to get so much done on the baby shawl.

As with most conferences the food was there all the time, I am glad I wasn't doing the training as I got to each fruit for my morning/afternoon snack, the breakfast, lunch and dinners were huge, I feel as if I ate most of the days away. I didn't drink any alcohol, which I think I am very over now, especially since having such high liver readings and not drinking any alcohol since mid March, and I don't seem to miss it either.

We arrived home around 7.30pm on Monday night, unpacked, ate (again) sat down for about 1 hour, then went to bed, we were both so tired this morning, but we had to get back to work. I am so tired now and will be heading off to bed as soon as I finish this post and read a couple of favorite blogs.

I only did a row and a bit tonight on the shawl, with about 63 rows to go, which doesn't seem much but at the moment it takes about 40 minutes a row and the last row I increased 4 stitches on every pattern which is a damn lot of stitches I just increased, so it will probably take a bit longer now, so I worked out the other night that I would have to do 6 rows a night to finish by the time of the 'baby shower' on 26 June. That is my goal to finish, but if that doesn't happen then I need to have it done before she is born in August. So really I don't have to rush, but I would like to have it down for June 26. The pressure is on now. The photo was taking on Sunday afternoon, so a bit more is done now. It is still hard to get a good photo on circular needles, I was changing to a longer circular needle at this time so while I had it on 2 circular needles I stretched it out a bit to get the photo.

The week of knitting

I have knitted each night on the baby shawl. I have 640 stitches on the needles and have just gone up a length on the circular needle and am nearly through the 2nd ball of wool. The picture shows from the centre to one side. It is so hard to get a good photo of something when knitting on circular needles as you can't stretch it out flat.

I also have on the needles a bandage in 4ply cotton which will go to Niger for Leprosy patients, it is great for just picking up and knitting of a morning before work or while dinner is cooking etc, an easy non thinking knit between knitting on the shawl.

The other things I have knitted this last week are 4 kitchen towel tops. A person I knit with asked me to make her some, I was going to sell the other 2 at the Knitter's Guild sale in July in Kiama, but I may not be available at that time and I don't really have much to sell anyway.

WInter is here....

Boy is it cold today, it started yesterday afternoon with wind, rain and cold. It is sunny today but still windy and cold. I dipped out of a ride today, but will meet up with DH and others for BBQ lunch for the HOG Anniversary today.

Last week I knitted a Mohair Scarf in a Feathers and Fan pattern, it took 3 balls of Crucci Babysoft Mohair.

I also got the baby shawl out and did a couple of rows, at this early stage it has 260 stitches on the needles.

Yesterday I started doing a couple of handtowels for a friend while at Knitters Guild. I bought two handtowels which will give me four when the tops are knitted, so a couple for the friend and a couple for the knitting sale.

Baby Socks....so cute

The baby socks are so cute, they look a bit long and pointy toed, but they are probably for about a 6 month old not newborn. I may try another pair but make them shorter in the foot and a bit wider across the toe. Instead of going down to 4 stitches then graft toe, I might try 6 stitches across the toe.

I started a mohair scarf last night after finishing the second baby sock. I have to do some knitting for the Kiama Knitters Guild exhibition and sale on 18 -20 July in the Old Fire Station Gallery in Kiama.

Happy Mothers Day to all the mothers around the world, I hope you had a great day.....I did. I got some new bright pink tweetie bird pyjama's and some bright pink Betty Boo slippers. Just the thing for the Knitters Retreat "Nearly Christmas in July" at Mt Keira the end of July. This is being organised by CR&K Daisy Designs at Fairy Meadow. Just $120 for the Friday night through to Sunday afternoon, all meals included. We do some workshops, eat, knit, some drink, chat the whole time, eat, knit, eat, drink, knit.....well you get the idea. It is a great weekend, and being winter it is great to sit by the fire place while doing all of the knitting, chatting etc etc.

See I have been knitting.....

I am off work with a tooth infection, the side of my face looks like I swallowed a football. I am on strong antibiotics for the next week and a half and then off to the dentist....YUK.

Anyway yesterday I was feeling a bit better and decided to sew up the two "Heather" pattern baby matinee jackets I have been knitting. The first one is size 6months and is going to Ireland with friends for their new baby grand-daughter. The second one is for my grand-daughter so I did her a size Newborn as it will be pretty cold when she is due in August. They both need buttons which I will try to remember to buy on the weekend.

See the two together for size difference.

Pattern: Heather (Patons Pattern)
Yarn: Patons Big Baby 4ply
Colour: 3909
Needles: Sizes 3.25mm & 2.75mm
They both took 2 balls and a bit of a 3rd ball.

I am going to try out Rae's baby sock pattern (from CR&K Daisy Design in Daisy Street, Fairy Meadow - Phone: 02 4285 4531) with the left over yarn. I may cast on for them this afternoon as I want to get back to the baby shawl I am knitting. So a baby sock and shawl will be good knitting for anytime, socks for when I can't concentrate so much and the shawl for when all my brain matter is working (well I hope that kicks in for a while to come).

4 more days then the auction for our house. I hope it goes well, so I hope everyone will cross everything and pray for a buyer and good price for our home. Boy this is so stressful, you would think it would get easier the more you do this, but going to auction is new for us and as it gets closer, more stressful. All the hope, anxiety and whatever other feelings we can muster, good or bad seem to be coming out in leaps and bounds. I will be glad to have it sell either before or at the auction - for a good price that we both can be happy with. We have been looking at other homes that will be less stressful (mortgage will be less), and another new start in a another home. Looks good to me right now.

Autumn Colours......love them

I am up to the last sleeve on the "Heather" baby jacket, and then the collar. I am a bit behind with it as I didn't pick my knitting up all week. Today I had an accrued leave day from work and did manage to finish the first sleeve.

We went for a ride for breakfast yesterday with friends to the southern highlands and had breakfast at Berrima. It was a bit on the cold side up there, I rugged up so I was warm, but back down the mountain and it was a bit warm. Couldn't wait to ge off the bike and out of the clothes.

I seem to have so much I need to knit but can't seem to get 'my groove' with it. A bit tired I think from trying to keep the house so damn clean and perfect for the open houses on Saturdays, that it wears me out. Need to just relax about it and knit instead I think.

This is what has been keeping me occupied lately!

http://www.domain.com.au/Public/PropertyDetails.aspx?adid=2007076939#

This is my home and we are selling at auction.....sad...happy.....depends on which day it is.

Favourite baby pattern

I have been knitting my favourite baby pattern, "Heather" for a friends granddaughter due to be born any time now in Ireland. The grandparents are going over in May to visit their daughter, son-inlaw, grandson and new granddaughter. It is in Patons "Big Baby" in a beautiful pink variegated colour, pinks, mauves, white. I am hoping to have enough to make my granddaughter a small one also as August when she is due will be winter and cold.

I haven't done anymore on the baby shawl, after I get this baby jacket done, then maybe a pair of socks with just the cuff started done, then I might get onto the second heather pattern jacket.

Seal hunt in Canada

The other day when I went back to the 'homepage' on my computer which is http://www.ninemsn.com.au/ it has a picture of a beautiful baby seal. But the story didn't seem so beautiful, apparently it is baby seal clubbing time in Canada. Doesn't that make you sick to think about it. But what kind of people or men go out and club these little things to death, then go home, kiss the wife as nothing has happened. Are they really 'killers' in disguise???

When you think about some of the awful things we do to animials, some justify it as 'we have to eat', and I know how some in the world think about how the aussies 'mulesing the sheep' to keep the blowflys away from them, how awful that seems, but sometimes we have to do unhumane things to be humane. The same could be said about the clubbing of baby seals. Do you really want to wear that seal fur coat or those Prada shoes?

Could these people go out and club their own babies, then skin them, sometimes alive. Well you would have to wonder.

If you feel strongly about this issue of killing baby seals you can go to the websites below and see what they do with the skins.

Do we ever think that the cow, pig or sheep that is sent off to be killed just so we can eat meat is a nice way for them to die, and you know I really think they know what is going to happen to them. You just have to look at them in the trucks or even if lucky enough look into there eyes, and you will see that they do know their outcome. (no I am not vegetarian - I like to eat all types of meat/seafood etc). How would we feel if that was us - we would shit ourselves.

But hey, the kill must be fun, as these people just keep on returning each year to club these baby seals. Maybe we should campaign them to knit instead, that might not work as do we really think these men would feel like men if they were knitting instead of clubbing seals.

Which ever way we look at it, we justify it by saying we do it do survive, and we are carnivores after all.

I shall get off my soap box now and I am going to check out the websites below and see what they say.

'Please visit Canadian Seal Hunt to learn about how companies like Costco sell seal oil capsules. Also learn about these companies who manufacture products from dead baby seals: Prada, Pajar, Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, Birger Christensen, Versace, and Vogue Furriers. Also learn about why you should boycott these sea food restaurants Red Lobster, & Long John's Silvers.'

Is there a reason why these baby seals have to be killed, are they a pest in the ice area????

I will have to look into this more and decide then, but at the moment I am feeling pretty disgusted about what is happening.

What are little girls made of? that is all I know of this......

A short post to say how excited I am, I was so excited last December when my first born told me he was going to be a dad. I have something else to be excited about now, and I can now knit the appropriate colour. This baby Girl is due on 8 August, yes it's a girl!

They are so happy about it, they both didn't care if it was a girl or a boy, and things seem to be going along nicely. They have her name picked out already, it seems a bit weird knowing this early, but in a way it is good as now we can buy, knit, sew for a girl instead of having to use the basic lemon, white or mint green so it will be useful for a boy or girl we can go mad on all the girly colours.

Do you think buying her a tonka truck will be a bit over the top? I am use to boys, can't you tell.

I watched the dvd of the ultrasound this afternoon after they got back from having it done, it is a bit clearer than when I went with them at 13 weeks, this is now 19.5 weeks. They sat there showing me what was what as I couldn't always see what was what, if you know what I mean. Sometimes the picture looked clear then it goes all a bit fuzzy.

De-stashing along is making slow progress

I am still knitting through my stash. I did however buy some yarn this week. 2ply pure baby wool to knit a baby shawl. It is coming along nicely after so many attempts to try and get 10 stitches on 3 needles without twisting. Finally success, it is really a nice knit and so much fun seeing as who it is for.

Easter we are off to The Rock to visit with friends, I love going there, too hot in summer and very cold in winter, but I just love the place. I bought some kitchen towels a long while back to make my friend some hand towels with knitted tops for her kitchen, I finally got around to making them as we will be seeing them in a couple of weeks. It only took a sunday afternoon and night of knitting to start and finish off the 4 hand towels, they look so nice. I have also done one for my kitchen with black tops, which look great in my kitchen. (no photos yet)

I finished off two WIP's, a baby jumper and baby cardigan both in thick yarn, very nice. One for a boy and one for a girl. I am cleaning up my yarn off the floor and found 6 large balls of baby yarn, 2 lemon, 2 blue variegated and 2 pink variegated, I had been looking at home for yarn to knit for babies and couldn't find any, it is amazing what you find when cleaning up things.

Lost WIP and found again

I decided to take the bag Donni made me a long while ago to SNB on Saturday, as I was only going for a while and meeting up with DH and going to Sydney on the bike. (Leaving mine at home and going on his), I didn't want to be carrying too much. I had the other bike seat and sissy bar in my car boot, (the seat used most of the time is not that good for a pillion). I had my leather jacket, helmet and boots along with a bag with an extra long sleeve t-shirt, bandana etc. Off I go to SNB and then he rings and says the other guys wife isn't going did I still want to go. He and another guy were working out the run for our Midnight to Dawn ride on 8 March, we start the ride at midnight, ride all night with a couple of stops for drinks etc, then we will watch sunrise from Stanwell tops then ride down to Wollongong for breakfast opposite the harbour, then home for some much needed sleep, it is always a great, fun night. (I have been know to be seen sleeping beside my bike in a carpark at some of the stops). NO, NO, NO, I will stay at SNB, much more fun as I had been riding on friday night, and was going to have a LOH ride today, too much riding in one weekend, especially when SNB is on.

So back to the bag. I got it off the doorhandle and I found a blue colour baby jumper I obviously had been knitting in Shepherd Pipkin. Just needs the sleeves done then stitch together. When the hell was I knitting this, I just can't remember, but it is almost done none, just need to stitch the sides up and get a couple of buttons and put on.

The other thing I started on Saturday is a top down baby cardigan, very nice, doing that in Panda Crinkles, pink and mauve in colour. Love these quick knits.

Got up early this morning, and went for a ride (LOH - Ladies of Harley), we had a great ride to Mulgoa in western sydney, near the base of the blue mountains, had morning tea there, yummy, I had a creaming soda spider (soft drink with ice cream) and raisin toast. Then we road to Berrima in the southern highlands and had lunch at the pub, they had a pretty good country music two man band out the front playing. Then road home along the tourist road from Bowral to the top of Macquarie Pass then down the mountain and soon home.

When we got home we got stuck into mowing the lawn then DH help #1 son with his car, by this time it was nearly 8pm. Pizza for dinner, I get a bit lazy after a pretty full on weekend. Nearly ready for bed.

Photos of hopefully finished baby jumper and cardigan next post.

Stash busting

I started another pair of Tofutsie socks with another limited edition colourway, blue, black and white. Not happy Jan.....I pulled the yarn out from the centre of the ball to get started and guess what I had a knot, yep a bloody knot a few metres into the ball, not happy at all. You pay $25 for a ball of yarn, and I don't expect to have a knot, not in the whole ball. I expect to get a full ball of yarn and NO joins. But back the real world or slackness of things in the world, and you get KNOTS.

Anyway got the shits with that and put it down, got it out the next day or so and started the sock, messed up the pattern, it is a naughts and crosses cable pattern, I crossed instead of naughting, so ripped back to beginning.

I then checked out the lovely green cane basket of yarn I won last year at CR&K Daisy Design's knitting camp at Mt Keira Scout Camp, which has one ball of alot of lovely different types of yarn, knitters heaven, and got out a few balls, got onto Ravelry and checked out what people had made with the yarns, then found a headband pattern for one ball, and it happens to be on knitty.com this time it is the "Quant" headband. It is an entralac pattern, bonus for me as I have always wanted to try that type of pattern, and it really suits the Noro Silk Garden yarn. I myself have always thought that Noro was a bit rough to feel, but it was really nice to knit. It only took 2 nights and a quick finish off on the I-cord the next morning to finish it.

Another yarn in the basket was Shepherd Pipkin, I had two balls of the same colour, and knitted it into a child's hat, it will probably be for the Guardian charity knitting that goes to Mongolia and similar countries.

So now I am back on the tofutsie socks, just on the band at the moment.

4th time lucky or commonsense kicked in

I had tried the pattern on the Nikau jumper 3 times and it just wasn't working, I pulled it back and thought about it and did it again, and still was the same as before. I thought I would do the sleeves and wait until my 'every other tuesday knitting group night' and see if they could help me, which I am sure they all would have been able to. But because of the rain we had all monday night and most of tuesday, most roads were flooded or not very safe to drive on, so I took DH & #1 son's advice and didn't venture out that night.

I was pretty disappointed that I couldn't get to knitting, so I cast on for the sleeves, I finished the sleeves last night and was going to start on the pants, but as it was late I went to bed instead. Today is an accrued leave day off for me, so what do I do when I first get up, I eat breakfast, then sit on the lounge and rip back the front pattern again. I was going to do a big heart pattern, then I had another look at the picture, looked at the pattern and 'lights on' I figured it out. So 2 hours later I am still on the lounge in my p.j's and have finished the 44 rows of pattern, yahoo.... and it looks very pretty.

My plan for today was to get into DH's wardrobe and have a big, big, big cleanout while he is at work. So I will post here then try and figure out how to add this knit to Ravelry and then go put some dye in my hair and start on that wardrobe. Later today I will try and get the front of the jumper done, then I can start on the hood.

On Tuesday because we had water coming under the front door from the rain hitting it all night, then it was soaking through the floor boards onto the ceiling below which I might add is fairly new gyprock and freshly painted, bugger, it is now water stained. But I don't think many people escaped some kind of water drama over the last few days around here, I had to take the day off work to keep mopping up water. As the rained eased off a bit in the afternoon #1 son and daughter in-law convinced me to come along with them to the ultrasound. It is only the 13 week ultrasound, but I was so excited to see the baby, the next one is in March at 19 weeks, they are hoping to be able to find out if it is a boy or girl then, I can't wait, I will be at 'CR&K Daisy Design' at Fairy Meadow (Daisy Street) getting the appropriate colour.

New things

I am going to pick up my new sewing machine today, Spotlight have 50% off all patterns, so I will get some nice baby patterns while I am there and maybe some material for some blankets and bibs. My first sewing machine also a Janome I bought when I was pregnant (over 28 years ago) with son #1, it has done alot of work. With a new baby on the way I thought it was time for a new machine.

I finished the back of the baby hooded jumper last night, I started it wednesday night, didn't pick it up on thursday night, but made up for lost time last night, I have casted on the front and knitted 8 rows this morning. Not much knitting will get done today as we have DH's aunties 60th birthday tonight and have to travel to western Sydney, it only takes about one and a half hours, it will be a late night though getting home (and I will be driving home).

Here are my entries in the Kiama Show last weekend with their winning cards and notes. 1st prize Christening Gown with a small note attached saying "use flat buttons", I have half round white pearl buttons which I might add look lovely, I guess they are thinking of when the baby lays down on the buttons. Well after all it is a christening gown, how long do baby's actually lay on their backs at their christening, not long as too many people are wanting to hold them. And the black Irish Hiking Scarf (I love cables) it won 2nd place in its category, it also had a small note attached with "beautiful" written on it.

Socks done and now it's time for........

Tonight I finished the 3rd pair of tofutsie limited sock yarn. I love the colours, purples, pink and white. The pattern was nice to do, although I am thinking that the bobbles might be a bit uncomfortable under my boots, they might be more for when wearing my crocs. Next lot of yarn and pattern is due out in February..wow ahead of schedule with the knitting, well with this sock stuff anyway. Not so much with the reducing the stash.

So that means I have cast on for...........my first lot of knitting for the grandchild due in August.

I am doing it in a lovely 3ply mint green pure wool (australian) by Heirloom yarn. The pattern is the (hang on while I go and get it from the loungeroom) "Nikeau Sweater amd Pants" by Just Jussi who is designing some pretty nice baby wear. This pattern is the native palm of New Zealand (I had better check that is correct, it is a few days since I read about it and bought the pattern).

I love the mint green colour, I knitted a lot of it for my boys, I have done the back band and I am on the straight knitting, how quick is this knit going to be. While knitting though I was wondering how it will look if it is a girl, I guess time will tell.

It is 10.18pm Wednesday night, I am sitting here (obviously) updating my blog, the window is wide open, damn it is hot. A slight breeze comes through every now and then, I can hear the sprinklers on the 10th green of the golf course (behind us), if it wasn't for the train track and long grass and fence to the course I would be out there running around under the sprinklers. Because of the drought we are on water restrictions and cannot water down hard surfaces at all, eg. house, windows, car or any vehicle for that matter, we are able to water our gardens and grass on Wednesdays and Sundays before 9am and after 4pm, but I wouldn't waste water on either unless it was a vegetable garden. The golf club has a dam full of recycled water from the sewerage system in an housing estate a few kilometres away, so the golf course looks great at all times, it is a great idea..... Come on autumn!

We took Ruby for a swim in the river yesterday after work, she loved it, as long as we kept throwing sticks in for her to swim out and get. She wasn't a happy girl when we decided we would stop and go home.

Other news is that on Saturday afternoon on my way to Stitch N Bitch at the Novotel Lobby Bar in Wollogong, I stopped by Spotlight (no not for yarn), I went to the Janome Sewing Machine shop which is located inside Spotlight at Wollongong, and lay-by'd a new sewing machine. I have been thinking all day how I can afford to get it out this saturday instead of paying it off and the plan is.....to empty my 50cent saving tin (huge tin) which at last count which was only last week had $239.50 in it, I have been adding a few more fifty cents since then, less the $50 I bought down on it, and the $100 son #2 owes me and promises he is posting to me tomorrow and the money allocated to the lay-by for this week I would be around $50 short, which I think I can scrape up....see how I go, must remember to empty and bag the 50cents tomorrow night and put into my account. I plan to make a few things or more for the baby.

Winners are Grinners

I entered two knitted items in the Kiama Show, the 2ply Christening Gown and the Irish Hiking Scarf in Heirloom Cashmino.

The Christening Gown won 1st place in it's category of "Baby Dress" and the scarf won 2nd place in the category of "Knitted Garment or Article not previously mentioned (not toy)".

Pretty pleased with myself. I will post photos when I get the items back with their certificates.

Walking up the street to the show yesterday in my lunchtime, and I caught the first smell of cow shit, how wonderful, I love that smell. It reminds me of going to the Royal Easter Show in Sydney when I was a little girl. Luckily I live in what is still (at the moment) classed as a rural area, so I only have to drive about 3 minutes towards Jamberoo to get that smell. Where I live is on the coast but the moutains are only a short drive away, it is referred to as living "between the mountains and the sea", beautiful. From my back verandah I can see some farms, the hills and most of the mountains from where they start further north up near Stanwell Tops and south (in my area) at Kiama. It is good views living on a bit of a hill.

Maybe I should have been a farm girl. I still even at my age have dreams to own a few acres or 10, and have some alpacas or/and sheep, just a couple of each, chooks and a nice vege garden, but I would have to be able to not have to work in a paid job to do that. I would have to move in west more to be able to afford this as it is extremely expenses to buy in this area. I would need in excess of a million dollars to have it here. Donations gratefully excepted.

Busy Australia Day long weekend for me. Went out drinking last night, just a tad too much. Our neighbours are combining their 40th birthdays and having a party at the golf club tonight (3 minute walk) just not looking forward to the noise level after closing time, it will be a bit hard to sleep when we get home as they are huge drinkers and very loud. Then we are having a party at my sisters in Jamberoo tomorrow for her 70th birthday, Monday will have to be rest & recover day. I also have to remember to pick up my knitting from the show tomorrow morning and pick up Mum's birthday cake.

3rd tofutsies

I have finished the first sock of the 3rd tofutsies limited edition sock club. I will cast on for the other sock sometime today. Need to do some housework (did I swear then) first.

DH & I celebrated our wedding anniversay on Monday 14 January - 24 years (officially). That means we lived together for years before and had the boys before we got married. 30 years is what we have been co-habitating together.

I have to decide today if and what I am going to put into the Kiama Show which is next weekend. The rules state that knitted baby clothes have to have flat seams, I am not sure if the christening gown does or not, I wasn't going to put it in, but I think I will anyway and see what happens. I have the Irish Hiking scarf too, so that may go in.

January knitting

I have completed a scarf in Eki Riva Carioca Flame, it is lovely and soft. I just did the easy pattern of 4 rows knit, next row yarn around twice and knit then the next row knit and drop off the extra yarn around.

Yarn: Eki Riva Carioca Flame

Colour: 1183

Amount: 50 grams - 100metres

Needles: 10mm

I haven't done much on the 3rd limited edition tofutsie socks, here is the progress so far. It has a scalloped edge.

Last night was 'every other tuesday knitting night', we had a great night, catching up after christmas and new year, stories to tell and a few laughs, made the night what is

always is - so good.

Happy New Year

New Year's Eve DH and I went to Wollongong with friends for dinner and then walked down to Wollongong harbour to watch the fireworks at 9.30pm. I use to play there as a small girl with my sister and our aunty, (she was a teenager when we were small children). Our aunty would walk as to the harbour to play on the sand and the swings there when we visited our grandparents. We then drove home and watched the Sydney fireworks at midnight on tv.

Can you believe that another year is over and 2008 has began. What a lovely day it was today, the first day of 2008.

We went for a long ride 455 ks, I am pretty tired tonight. It was very hot here today, and over the mountain was extremely hot, not a breeze anywhere. I have to get 1600 ks on the bike to have the first service and get the nice loud pipes on it, I now have 498 ks to go, thank goodness for that. Another 2 weeks then it will sound like a harley should....loud and recognisable.

I have thought a bit tonight about the year ahead and what goals I would like to reach. After I think or make some I will soon forget some of them and will probably forget to keep looking here to check on how I am going.

I will knit every last bit of yarn in this room by the end of 2008 (sound familiar... same goal as last year but I did get through a lot of it, just so much more to go).

I will try to get to Curves 3 times a week and try to lose some fat of the old body and try to be a lot more fitter than I am sitting here tonight.

I will try not to drink so much alcohol or maybe just not until a special occasion. And no after dinner sitting knitting and watching tv on any day is not a special occasion....bugger.

I will try to be a lot more tolerant of people around me (even strangers).

And a big one...will be to go through all my recipe books and get rid of a lot of them. I am such a sucker for recipe books and knitting books.

That will be about it for now, I may revise this list after a few months. See how I go first.

Well I am going to sit, knit and what some tv while drinking a zero coke (with NO added bourbon) before going to bed.

Happy New Year again to you all.

Oc-Toe-ber Socks done

I have nearly caught up with the Tofutsies Limited Edition Sock club. I have finished the ones I received in October, and have the December yarn and pattern ready to go. I may start something else first, just to get away from the small needles for a while.

Yarn: Tofutsies Limited Edition Collection

50% Superwash Wool, 25% Soysilk Fibers, 22.5% Cotton, 2.5% Chitin

Sock Name: Fiddlesticks

Colour: Doens't say. They are green black and white

Made for: South West Trading Company

Bought from: Ecoyarns in Australia (ecoyarns.com.au)

Needles: 2.50cm circular x 2 pairs

I made the socks longer than the pattern and still have yarn over. I like them longer to wear under my bike boots.

It's here....Fatbob

It arrived on 18 December to the bike shop and I picked it up on Saturday 22 December and rode it home in the rain, it actually poured down with rain. The bike was absolutely filthy when I arrived home. DH and #2 son in the car nice and dry. Although DH did say to #2 son that mum will pull over any moment now and make me ride it home. But no.... I didn't, I rode it home through he rain. It wasn't raining when we left the bike shop, isn't that the way. I haven't taken one photo of it since picking it up. We have ridden a couple of times and it has 510klms on the clock. I need another 10,090 ks till the first service and I can get some loud pipes on it and make it sound like a harley. It has the looks but is definitely doesn't have the sound. It can walk the walk but it can't talk the talk yet. It is amazing to ride, so quick. Have to be a bit careful as it is double demerits until midnight on 1 January '08... bugger.

We had a great christmas, family all over at our place since mid morning till the evening. I hope you all had a great christmas too.

I have some wonderful news that I have been busting to tell. I am going to be a grandma or nana (haven't decide which yet - but am leaning towards gran). Our first grandchild is due early August 2008. And yes I have been picking out some baby things to knit, I have to finish some socks first, then I am going to start a nice circular shawl when the wool arrives in February at CRK Daisy Design in Fairy Meadow. I have plenty of knitting to keep me more than busy in the meantime.

That goal of knitting all the yarn I had in 2007, well I did manage to knit a lot of it, but I did get some more throughout the year, but not much, only about 30 balls of yarn in different colours (10 balls of each) for some knitting for me. So I will be continuing that goal through 2008 to knit everyone bit of yarn I have before buying more, well except for baby yarn.

Batteries are flat

I took some photos of the Hemlock blanket and the socks I am knitting, then I went to download the photos and guess what....the batteries went flat. So they are on charge now and I will add photos to this post tomorrow night.

I am doing the second pair of socks for the Tofutsies sock of the month (every second month) sock knit. It is a nice bright green with black and white through it. The pattern is sort of a mock cable, they are looking pretty nice at the moment, I am on the third pattern repeat.

When I went to cast-on on Saturday morning, I found I had lost one of my addi turbo 2.25mm circular needles. Bugger. I looked everywhere, I did have it in my bag with the pattern, sock yarn and other circular, but somewhere along the line it must have fallen out.

As I was going to the bike shop in Fairy Meadow I decided to go to my LYS, CR&K Daisy Designs in Daisy Street, Fairy Meadow (NSW Australia). I bought another addi 2.25mm circular but it is only a 40cm, I like to work my socks on 2 x 60cm needles. This is the LYS that a few of us get together every other tuesday night and knit etc.

The date for my bikes arrival in Australia (at Melbourne) is 21 December, I am hoping it may arrive a bit earlier that week so it can get to Sydney, be compliance plated and send to Fraser's at Fairy Meadow (near Wollongong), and they do all the modifications (as in lowering it and putting mid mount pegs instead of the forward controls) before Christmas. I already have my cars registration and insurance due on 23 December, and with the bike, next christmas is going to be expensive for all the registration renewals and insurance. But what the heck.

Only 13 more days of work and then I am on holidays for 3 1/2 weeks. Come on 21 December (my last day of work and the day I go to Sydney airport and pick up #2 son and his fiance for the 2weeks holiday they are having back home here. It will be great to have all the kids in the house at once. (well I am hoping it will be great).