On the weekend...

...we did the following:
- Stayed inside and moaned about the heat
- Baked a pavlova, topped with cream and passionfruit. Delicious!
- Overlocked lots and lots of tops to sell
- Tried to knit and then promptly gave up after two rows. Hot weather and knitting don't mix.
- Went for a swim with the lovely K, which was even more enjoyable when the heavens broke. There's something amazing about swimming as the rain pours down.
- Decided to seek refuge from the heat at the art gallery, and enjoyed a Doris Day/Rock Hudson flick free of charge!

All in all, a very nice weekend.

I call it 'Grumbles and the ramps - 2006'. Hehe!

Australians, all let us rejoice...

Happy Australia Day, everybody!

(Too hot to write anything else. It's 38.7 C already!)

The tragic life I lead

Tragedy #1 - I've run out of yarn for my Ruski! The horror! One measly ball short. That'll teach me to not calculate the amount I need correctly when substituting. Thankfully the wonderful world of internet wool ordering came to rescue, and I should have another ball arriving tomorrow.

(The worst of it is that we'd already made an emergency dash to the wool shop, and silly me didn't stock up enough. Nitwit.)

Tragedy #2 - Our camera and computer are no longer friends. The computer completely failed to recognised the 'device' (device? I don't think that would be the computer's pet name, now do you?) and even Master Computer Nerd Fixer Upper Galumph couldn't figure it out. I don't know how this blog will survive without it's pixel fixes. I'm going to have to dive into our stash of approximately 6,857 images (gulp!) to bring you this...

...which leads us to:

Tragedy # 3 - It's going to be 40C again on Australia Day. Note the use of the word again. I'm not really a heat loving bunny (or should that be lizard?) at the best of times, but 40 is just beyond a joke. Oh, to be hanging down at the lovely wind-swept coast, instead of melting in the stuffy city with no chance of a breeze at all.

My Olympic event

Announcing my project for the first ever 2006 Winter Knitting Olympics. Drum roll please....

Hello bobbley cardigan! I have wanted to make this for the longest time, but had difficulty finding a decent yarn substitute (trust me, I tried). But then my eyes lit upon the Rowan Big Wool, and I knew the time had come. So really, I've already been in training for about three years now!

Project specs: Bobbley cardigan from Phildar Tendances Hiver 02/03 using Rowan Big Wool and 11mm (!) needles. It will be like knitting with a couple of tree trunks. If that isn't enough of a challenge, then I don't know what is!

The other challenge components of this knit are:

1 - Using the chart. En francais!

2 - Bobbles. I feel some trepidation in relation to this. However, this is the Olympics. I shall come home with gold, I swear.

3 - Bobbles AND a chart? Take deep, deep breaths. Just focus on the track in front. Forget the roaring crowds. It can be done.

4 - Knitting with all that Big Wool in an Australian summer. Forecast for the next few days (in Celcius): 35, 35, 33, 41. Yikes. I think this anecdote best illustrates how blipping mad I am: when I bought the wool the other week, the lovely lady in the wool shop laughed at my choice. Says it all, really.

Bring on the Games, people!

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi!

I have just signed up for the Knitting Olympics. Heh!

This little piggy went to market...

Actually, it was the wool shop. Or rather two wool shops. Ahem. And look what she came out with!

The bounty? Eight balls of Rowan Big Wool in black, ten balls of Heirloom Easy Care 100% wool (8 ply), one pair of size 12 (!) needles and a pair of 4.5mm bamboo circs. Quite enough to keep me busy, I should say.

Actually, it's interesting to note that these projects will be the third and fourth numbers in a row that I've knitted which will be black. Normally it's a colour (ok, a tone for you purists out there) that doesn't feature much in my wardrobe at all, besides the standard pair of black pants, and here I am knitting in noir like crazy. I'm sure, that if I really wanted, I could extrapolate something very deep in all that, but bleugh! I can't be bothered!

The streets where I live

One of the nicest things about the area I live is the little details. A lot of the original houses around here are over 100 years old. People took much more care back then, adding little touches of beauty where they could. Much better than the lego townhouses that seem to be all the rage now.

I particularly like curling window bars, if you feel the need to have them. To me it says (in poshest British accent): We really don't want you to break into our house, darlink.

Terrible things that can happen on Sleeve Island

It's cold and rainy outside, and I'm stuck on sleeve island. As we all know, this is never a good place to be as it leads to Random Thoughts that should never cojoin together, but in this case have. Case in point: thoughts
(a) What will I blog about today?
(b) Hey look! I'm wearing the same top I'm knitting!
and
(c) I really should get a photo of that!
have resulted in the following terrible picture:

The only redeeming feature is that at least I look to be in a rident sort of mood.

Bowing down before the Kiddy Silky Hazey goodness

It would appear that this blog has become nothing short of a temple of worship to Kidsilk Haze, as it's all I seem to knit with of late. The latest? This hot little Ruski inspired number:

Confession: I have already made one of these (in the original Phildar Aurore, shade purple), but I really wanted a black one. Since Aurore has been discontinued, what's a girl to do but turn to the trusty ol' KSH?

I am loving this project. It's from the Phildar Tendances Hiver 02/03 magazine (so I'm a little behind the times, give me a break!) and it's zooming away on 4.5mm bamboos. I've got about 10 more rows left on the front, the back is already sitting pretty in my knitting bag and I have a date with sleeve number one right now. Soon I'll be swarthed in Ruski goodness, which is really a tops thing to do in the 35C heat we're having now.

(Behind the times AND incapable of doing any weather appropriate knitting)

2006, here I come!

Hello! I'm back! Our time away was amazing - it was so relaxing and invigorating to be down at the coast. Apart from a daily walk along the beach, with a few swims thrown in on the warmer days, we did nothing but blob. And when I say blob, I mean blob! In fact, I became a blob - I put on a kilo in a week (for this skinnyminny, that's rather impressive). Note to self: wine and a box of Shapes every evening do not do wonders for the figure.

Normally I'm not one for making new years resolutions, but apparently Saturn is finally leaving my chart, and there are big things ahead for me in 2006, but only if I make decisions and stick to them (or some such bumf), so here goes:

1 - Knit 10 rows every day. No matter what the project. Just sit down and do it. That way I hopefully won't have any projects lurking around, and will be able to meet my target of...

2 - Finishing a knitted garment for every month of the year. If I can manage that, I'll be sweaterlicious!

3 - Do yoga. I've been saying for years that I want to learn, so it's about time I did.

4 - Push myself out of my comfort zone, and have a big adventure. I don't quite know what the adventure will be, but I want to be challenged.

5 - Be more self-sufficient and evironmentally aware. We're pretty green down here at chez Jorth, but there's always room for improvement.

Rightyoh. I think five is quite enough. I hope all in blogland had a wonderful festive season, and that much joy comes to you all in the new year. In fact, as much joy as a local fire brigade and Santa combo delivering lollies on Christmas Eve can bring! Ho, ho, ho!

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.