Finished objects

Two finished objects left the Crave house this week. One was the scarf I was knitting whilst recovering from the accident. That went to a friend for her birthday, with a Crave-made card:

The other was a miniature Swannies football scarf for a colleague's small grand-daughter. Strange how AFL fans seem keen to claim new members of the human race to their own club before they even have the strength to cheer:

Day spa for crafters!

It seems that someone has caught onto the wave of crafting excitement and started up a modern day "School of the Arts...and Crafts". On my way through Wynyard station to work this morning I was handed a pamphlet for a new place called Sabaai in Neutral Bay. Rather than being a place of solely teaching arts and crafts (and yes, there are knitting courses), it seems to focus more on making learning a craft a relaxing and enjoyable occasion as their courses are referred to as "creative experiences" and you are promised a cup of tea and aromatherapeutic environs! I notice that their knitting courses are on the same day (Monday) as Stitch n Bitch at Harts in the Rocks - which is FREE I might add! Plus they call their course Stitch n Bitch - I suppose they'll cop some heat for that one either from that nutso mob in the States who are trying to get full rights for the name, or from Debbie Stoller who wrote the book - haha.
Here's the website for anyone into it:
http://www.sabaai.com.au/
They should have cupcake decorating.

Zzzzzzzzz.........

Sydney was too sleepy after the big soccer game this morning to get out from under the covers. Here she is still snuggled under a doona of fog.

Oops, shy little thing's popped her head under the covers.

Late again

I'm a wee bit late to be posting for Winter Solstice, but not by much. My defence is that I was out drinking seasonally appropriate cocktails so didn't really have time to post. Alcohol always comes first in winter.

But I think I should fess up that it was a year ago that I started the Rogue that went rogue. I have discovered though, that it is at least now in a wearable state...if you don't mind needles hanging off your clothes. Here 'tis:

Delicious AND cute

I had a spack attack the other day when I had my encounter with the stupid cafe from hell. Today however I had CAFE LUCK! D-Squared Cafe in Australia Square has started selling some really delicious and gorgeous looking cupcakes. I couldn't resist this little cutie:



And it isn't just delicious to look at. It was the most scrumptious moist cupcake I have ever eaten! Not even a micro-hint of dryness. Perfection. And those sprinkles on the top aren't just sugar sprinkles. They are chocolate filled - like M&M pieces. I'm sure there is someone out there with lolly-obsessed kids who know exactly what they are.

I got one, I got one!

I've already had some luck in my quest to help Meg out with her Novelty Yarn Scarf Survey 2006.

Specimen 0002
Date: 16 June 2006
Time: 5:30 pm
Approx Location: Hunter Arcade, Wynyard
Description: Very difficult specimen - this variety appears to be particularly flighty. Approach with caution and make no sudden movements. Fun fur, olive green in colour though collector has personally observed several pink variants of this, garter stitch (this seems to be the common characteristic across the novelty yarn species).
Photograph:

Novelty Yarn Scarf Survey 2006

Here's the link you need to report your sightings of the various species of novelty yarn scarves in Sydney. I think Meg would also be happy to accept survey pictures from other cities/countries, in the interest of a wide research base.

http://daysfull.blogspot.com/2006/06/novelty-yarn-scarf-survey-2006.html

Just today I spotted two of the Patons Feathers species on wearers and the other day I noticed one young lost fun fur cub tied around a lamp-post. Clearly even its owner found it too ugly to bear.

I'll be keeping an eye out for further sightings and report back soon.

Knit me - you know you want to

http://www.cuteoverload.com/

Name n Shame

People who have told me they're starting up a blog but months later still haven't put up the first post:

http://dododooda.blogspot.com/

http://ags-onthespot.blogspot.com/

Wot is blogging?

This is what the owner/barista of one of my local cafes asked this morning when I walked in with my "I'm blogging this" t-shirt on. Well, "dude", let me tell you now in a little more detail than I bothered providing you with when I was there. Blogging is when I come down and ask for a toasted cheese sandwich and when I get back to my desk 16 floors up I discover that your idea of a toasted cheese sandwich is two bits of toast with a barely-there slopping of some kind of cream cheese or ricotta or something with nasty dregs of jam dribbled in it and I have to go the 16 floors back down and across the road and wait another 10 minutes for you to get this right and then go back upstairs again to bitch to everyone one earth via the internets about how if they ever want to actually get food not to waste their time going to City Grind. PS your decaf sucks.

Tales of Mungo Brush

Mungo Brush - that's where we camped on the long weekend. We took Thursday and Friday off work (and Monday was a holiday anyway). It's the most amazing place - a strip of bush between the lake and the ocean within Myall Lakes National Park. Nothing to do but admire the gorgeous views (see gorgeous view above - this one taken from our campsite) and marvel at the abundant birdlife - black swans on the lake, black cockatoos in the trees, kookaburras all over the place, and more fairy wrens than you could poke a stick at Below is a kookaburra we watched hunting for what looked like witchetty grubs - here you can see him lining up for a swoop.


Of course there was the beach fishing. Hubby caught something big enough to keep this time. He nearly threw it back though because I wouldn't stop fussing over whether it was suffering or not. It was pretty comical at the time. Him carrying it up to the sand, me looking all sad-faced, him feeling guilty and running back to the surf with it, me calling that no it was OK he could keep it, that I just wouldn't watch it die and I'd be fine, him coming back with it, me not being able to take my eyes off the poor thing, and him running back to the water again. This went on for 5 minutes, by which time the poor fish had well and truly had it and the decision was made for us. We still felt guilty, but we didn't waste him. He was very nice fried in olive oil with a parmesan coating, and served with honey roasted carrots and parsnip (from the Autumn Donna Hay mag), homemade potato chips, and green beans with caramelised onions (also from Autumn DH).

There were also numerous walks through the rainforest and wetlands that joined the campsite up to the beach.

And naturally one must take the opportunity to knit in such tranquil surrounds. I started off my very first piece of lace. It's the Thorn and Thistle pattern in the latest Interweave Knits and I'm doing it in the red Grignasco Bambi 4 ply I got recently, on 5mm needles. I originally started on 6mm needles but made a couple of errors I didn't know how to fix. So I took the opportunity to rip that up and start again on the smaller needles. The pic below is of the original attempt. I think it'll be too huge once it's blocked. A good friend of mine has told me that lace needs to be blocked "within an inch of its life" so I figure that would entail some pretty full-on stretching.

On the subject of stitching, I'll leave you with this parting glance at some of the fancy stitchwork Hubby does to keep his bait on the line. First he uses the hook to thread the line through a few times, and then he keeps it on by wrapping it tightly with elastic thread. The result is a tasty little fish parcel.

Call off the search

Two hours later and I'm relieved to say I found the Rogue.

But also a little embarrassed. OK, a lot embarrassed. The Rogue turned up in a huge chest in the corner of the living room that I thought was full of linen. It was a reasonable thing to think. After all I have two huge Dell boxes, a big leather suitcase, and two big baskets all overflowing with yarn. It was only natural for me to think that I couldn't possibly be hiding any more yarn in this tiny flat. But I would be wrong. Here's the shameful evidence:

Rogue has left the building

I went into the stash-with-its-own-postcode tonight to dig out the Rogue from amongst the unfinished objects and it wasn't there.

I dug through the mess in the living room and still no luck.

I ransacked the entire house from top to bottom and still....no Rogue.

I have LOST the Rogue.

Busy, busy...

I may not be posting much lately but I am still doing stuff. Believe it or not I have a finished product to show for myself. Here I am modelling it in my PJs this morning. Is it rude to blog in your pyjamas?

The scarf has now been tucked away awaiting its presentation to one very lucky recipient. I have a bit of the yarn left over that I might make a tea cosy out of at some point, if I can find the pattern I've got somewhere in the rubble pile I call home.

Next, however, I have two main projects calling to me. One is the Rogue jumper I have had sitting around since last winter. For most of the year since I dumped it in frustration I have felt guilty about it, but just recently I've been thinking about my old flame cabling and I reckon it might be the time to pick it up again. It's definitely the kind of thing you want to knit in winter, all cosy by the fire.

The second project in my head at the moment is something in lace. Not sure exactly what in lace at this juncture, but I have just been feeling like it's "my time" to give it a go. I picked up some 4ply the other day - Grignasco Bambi in red and burgundy. I think the red will be a good scarf for my mum, and the burgundy maybe a stole for me. I'm also keen to pick up some green 4 ply as I have an obsession with leaf lace patterns but also this really strong feeling that leaf patterns should be in green. Or at least in some autumn leaf shade.

So I guess tonight I'd better dig out a pattern to start on since Sydney SnB is on tomorrow night and I have nothing to go on with. That's not entirely true - I should go on with the dolls I started early this year. I'm not a finisher...

In the meantime I have actually been doing something more useful than procrastinating. Hubby and I are going on a little trip this Queen's birthday weekend in the new van, so we had to fit it out as a camper. This meant getting a camping bed together for the back. We went down to the local foam place and got them to cut two mattresses, so they can go next to each other to make a bed, or be stacked on top of each other as a seat and to make way for luggage and camping gear. We picked up some sheeting fabric from Spotlight (I love that place) and sewed up some groovy covers.

So we're all ready to go now. Just the packing to go, and that will be made easier by the mega-bag I stitched out of the scraps: