At least this one looks like it's meant to...

...even if he is a little squidgy around the edges. Introducing Mr Green-O-Bot, from Jess Hutchinson's fabulous Unusual Toys for you to Knit and Enjoy. He was such a fun knit, and Grumbles has been wonderful this morning by having a two hour sleep, thus allowing me to sew him up in time for Christmas. I hope the Galumph isn't reading, because the bot is a gift for him and Grumbles to share.



So now it's off to finish up wrapping of gifts, and packing of bags. We're heading down to the coast for the merry season, so I'll catch you all in the new year. Mwah!

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a... knitted alien?!?

Well, a knitted babe to be correct, although at the moment it does represent some sort of alien entity who suffered severe charring when their spaceship crashed upon planet earth. But nonetheless, they are still smiling!

I'm hoping she looks better with hair. Which may or may not be a blue afro. Just to make her look even more freaky. Merry Christmas, Grumbles!

PS Better pics to come when she is clothed and trichomed. And maybe blessed with better eyes.

Carolling away

Saturday evening was spent down at our local Carols by Candelight. I think I was the only one in the audience singing away, but no one was sitting close enough to us to complain. And we made it home before the storm hit - woo hoo!

What's been going down?

Indeed - what has been happening? Well...

- I got some snazzy wool from Marta's Yarns, which have, incidentally, opened a new shop in the city. The colours and textures are fabulous, but I have absolutely no idea as to what I shall make with them. My guess, sadly, is scarves. Again.

- Grumbles is now the proud owner of another two pairs of shorts, this time red and yellow, with elasticised pockets at the front. These pockets may have been a slight design mistake on my part as, instead of looking tres funky, merely looks like her parents keep putting her shorts on backwards. We live and we learn.

- The Kidsilk Haze ruffly scarf is coming along nicely, if not slowly. It's funny - I love how it's looking, but am finding it completely hard to get motivated. Which brings me too...

- I am officially out of Christmas cheer. I don't know why, and I don't know what happened - usually Christmas is my favourite time of year, and I drive everybody else around me barmy by blabbing on about it - but this year it just feels like one big headache. It also feels like the meaning has completely gone out of it. Thank goodness for Oxfam Unwrapped.

- I am somewhat in the grumps. For this I am blaming (1) my phantom period; (2) the fact that I still have a gazillion things left to do on my Christmas list, and am no nearer to finishing any of them; and (3) the dot point above.

- My front garden has roses. Well, had roses. Now a pint glass in the dining area has roses. And wool as companions.

Weekend wrap-up

The weekend was crazy, and I'm still recovering, so instead I'll just take a big breath and blurt it all out: in-laws for dinner, lots of driving, wool shopping, fruitless book searching, sun burn, Christmas breakfast at Brighton Yacht club (oh la la!), swimming in the ocean, lazing on an outside swing, picnics outside, fabric purchasing and a rather sleepless night due to an upset tummy and possums racketing around in the roof.

Tonight it's Santa doing stories at the library. Then home for a hot chocolate (Galumph and I), bottle (for Grumbles) then the cot (for all of us!).

The fambly at Brighton Pier

A quick lesson in botany

It would appear that, for certain monocotyledons, if you remove the top part of a stem containing the coleoptile then the plant will no longer have the ability to grow towards the light, or in other words, onwards and upwards.

I wish the Galumph had been thinking of that before he took the garden shears to our Christmas tree (just for point of reference, that was four years ago now. The tree should, technically, be at least 1.2 metres tall. It barely scrapes in at 30 centimetres).

Anniversary

Today the Galumph and I have been married for three years. That's 1096 days! And in that time together we have moved house three times, done a bushwalking holiday and a biking holiday, had a birth (hi Grumbles!), had a too-darn-close-for-comfort near death (don't go just yet, Jorth!), had a few nice dinners out, had many lovely dinners in, thrown a dinner party for 22 people (my oven got a work out that day!) and given each other far too many goopey smiles.

Actually, you can never have too many of the last.

Happy anniversary, my love.

Why you should always do a swatch

Because if you don't, the jumper you lovingly handcrafted for your wee little one may not be so much soft and snuggly as skin tight and scary. It doesn't even fit her cute little arms! The poor tyke couldn't even lift them!

Just as well it fitted a 3 month old I knew (as opposed to the 11 month old it was supposed to fit).

Exhibition building and Grumbles

It's a sad but true fact that if you take your child to the museum, pay lots of money to get in and have lunch, tote them around to all the exhibitions in an attempt to expand their fertile young minds, they will still appear to garner more enjoyment playing on the bike stands positioned outside. Oh, and from the picking up of gravel - also to be found outside the museum.

Still, it was worth the bike trip there.

2 down, 20 to go. Eeeek!

Yesterday I was able to scratch one more item off my ginormous list of things to be done before Christmas day. Introducing... Grumble's new shorts! Kindly pardon the crummy photos - there's not much light around here today as it's been raining since, oh, 9:30 this morning (Oi! Weather gods! You call this summer?).

The fabric is cotton, with the pattern made by yours truly. They are a little boring, I admit, which is why I added the butterfly buttons, but I didn't want to get too fancy shmancy on my first go, least not until I knew if they would fit her or not. And fit they do, so a few more are in the works.

I'll post a gratituous shot of her wearing them when it actually becomes warm enough for her to do so. In the meantime, make do with the fuzzy shots below.

Christmas countdown

Seven weeks ago I compiled a list of projects that needed to be done before Christmas arrived. There were 22 items on the list, and at the top of the piece of paper I gaily wrote: Currently 11 weeks until Christmas, which means two projects need to be completed each week. Yikes!

Yikes indeed. So far I have completed one. One! And now I am beginning to feel a bit stressed. Usually when this happens I make myself a cup of tea, sit down at the table and write a list. However, it's the darn list that already make that's causing my head to spin. Add to this a billion and one social engagements before the big day... it's a recipe for a headache!

Speaking of headaches, check out my craft table. I think the disorganised mess says it all.

The call of the sea

Happy snaps from our weekend away:

What a mug!

Check out what the Mothership brought back from the UK for me! Score! And the best bit is, both Nance and Ev are in my list of top 10 all time favourite authors. So now, whilst sipping on my morning coffee, I'll be enjoying imaginings of Parisian and London life with cocktails and hounds, rather than thinking about the reality of dirty nappies and laundry.

Thank goodness for daydreams!

Deadlines make them invisible no more

I've always found that it's best to have a finishing deadline when dealing with handknits. Otherwise, the little buggers have a habit of hiding themselves under swatches for more promising projects whose aura of excitement renders the aforementioned knit invisible. This, I have noticed, happens more often when there are many ends to be woven in. Therefore, a deadline of sorts - particularly an event where multitudes of people will swoon over your handknit spewing forth declarations along the lines of beauty, talent etc - comes in mighty handy for not only finding the handknit from it's hiding place but also weaving in the ends, blocking and then sewing the darn thing together.

My deadline: The arrival back of the Motherinlawship from her yearly UK sojourn.
Left to do: Sew Stripy together.
The event: Brunch with inlaw family after picking her up from the airport this weekend.
My cue: To convincingly blush and murmer protestations when declarations head my way.

North Pole family portrait

Every year the Hubby and I make our own Christmas cards. Why? Because we are big dags who are too disorganised to actually go and buy any. This year, however, we are merely organised dags with a penchant for plasticine. Don't worry - there is much Photoshopping to be done before the final send out.

A nose so red that even Rudolph is jealous

Greetings from Runnynoseville! Grumbles is still sick (but only 5 dirty nappies yesterday) and I'm still hacking up chunks of lung on a regular basis, so precious little crafting has gone on around here. I'm slogging away on the neck of Stripy (only 66 rows to go... sigh), but I'm pretty sure a progress picture won't melt anybody's ice cream. So, instead, introducing my ruffly scarf. The pattern I came up with myself, and it's knit with Kidsilk Haze on 5.5mm and 3mm needles. I'm not 100% sure of what I think of it, but it's busting my stash, which is never a bad thing.

Now it's off to hack, snort, wheeze and moan. Bring on the weekend (complete with a husband who will tuck me into a doona on the couch and bring endless cups of tea).

She's a crafty witch, this one

I am hoping that very shortly this tangled mess:

...becomes this:
I've been rereading some of the Harry Potter books, and whilst I was wrestling with picking up the 150 odd stitches, I kept glancing over at the vase in which my needles were kept, wishing that they were wands so that I could just wave one and tada! it would be done. I can almost hear Mr Ollivander now: "Remarkable! 35cm long pale bamboo, tip sharpened slightly more than usual, thickness 4mm with a core of Kidsilk Haze. Not many sold like that, young lady!"

Now you'll have to excuse me - I must dash. I have 20cm of 2x2 rib to do on 2.75mm needles. ARRRGGGHHHH!

House of the Living Dead

Did I say in the previous post that there would be living going on around here? Foolish optimism! It may almost be summertime, but the living sure hasn't been easy. Not with the Grumbles having a rather nasty case of gastro - so nasty we had to postpone our housewarming party, boohoo - but with me also contracting the dreaded lurgy. So it's been nothing but dirty nappies, coughing, headaches and snuffling chez Jorth. However, it hasn't been all bad. We've consumed with much relish the first mangoes of the season, watched The Remains of the Day on DVD and introduced ourselves to the delights of Hydralyte (orange is the best flavour). Thankfully, however, today signalled what I am hoping is the end of the gastro - only two marks in the dirty nappy count. So we're moving on up from the horrid beginnings that took place on Melbourne Cup day. And since this post is now turning into a sad, sordid tally of dirty nappies, I'll leave you with an eerie pic from the famous race day.

The grand blog opening!

Am I late? I sure hope not. I couldn't find any shoes to wear. Actually, I do have quite a few shoes, but none that matched this skirt. I did have a pair once, but The Hubby stood on them, and they are, alas, no longer. Oh well. Ahem - welcome to the opening of the Jorth blog! Please, make yourselves comfortable and drop by as often as you can. There's plenty of knitting, sewing, nattering and general, well, living going on here. The main speaker will be myself, Jorth, with guest appearances sporadically done by The Hubby, our beloved daughter Grumbles and strangers whose photo I may snap just because they look to be of interest.

Speaking of the Grumbles, here she is!