I am such a follower... :>

I joined the Clapotis KAL, where the excellent peeps are helpful, enthusiastic and/or sympathetic, as circumstances demand. The pictures alone are fabulous! Since we are springing here (see next post), I can allow myself plenty of time (ie till March 07) to work through my Clappy before it will get cold enough to justify lots of parading around in it! BTW, is that nickname just the teeniest bit suggestive of an unfortunate medical condition?? Or is that just my little grey cells being sludgier than usual 8-}

Anyway, I am playing catch-up in the worst way :-
exhibit a) learning to hand-wind LL Lion and Lamb









exhibit b) halfway













exhibit c) all wound up! note the skill progression left to right! :)





exhibit d) Clapotis swatch




exhibit e) every journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.


Isn't she the cutest little V? She's helping me blog with breakky today.


Before you say it, I know it's against the Unwritten Rules of Baby Display to show a girl in blue *gasp*, but hey, they're jammies, they were clean and they were handy - as all mums know, points 2 & 3 outweigh piffling little trifles like fashion aesthetics!!

Button Bonanza

I love the buttons that all you funky knitbloggers decorate your sidebars with! And since imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I am going to go hunting & collecting!
Today I found


And then I found some DIY button makers, on Adam's site and Luca Zappa's site. See what I made?? FunFunfun!

Now all I have to do is figure out how to insert them to the sidebar properly - more adventures in the land of html...

Knitting has happened!

Hubby brought home a couple of dvds last night, so we put on "The Brothers Grimm" with Heath Ledger and Matt Damon - both eminently watchable lads :) I was too tired to watch and knit, but looking through the extras later, I got out J's mitred squares beanie, hereinafter to be referred to as the Blues Crown:

The pattern is 'Diamond Head', by David Xenakis, pp24-27 of Hats - A Knitter's Dozen - I wanted to learn how to do mitred squares in a manageable way before trying something big like a throwrug - and I love this hat! It is so much fun, I may need one myself :) J is at school so S is doing the modelling honours!
And this is the progress on her knee highs - I have to redo the toe again - about 8 rows too long, which accounts for the pointy-snout look :)

I'm hoping they still fit next winter, because judging by the local weather - 20-ish deg C today and yesterday - she won't be wearing 8-ply wool socks more than about twice this year!! [Must get one of those Weather Pixies - they are so cute]

I've had my tea, bikkies and chocky, and feel much more human and less likely to devour my own offspring - time to get organised, go to the gym for a little workout before lunch and earn my Spotlight adventure... I wonder what knitting gear they have??? [evil chuckle]

Cranky cranky cranky...

People ask why we had a third baby, and this morning I wouldn't be able to answer...
Feed baby till she finishes - 2am,
give dummy to baby 2.35am, 2.40 am, 2.45am, 2.50 am, 2.55 am,
give up and feed baby again
and finally get more sleep 3am;
be woken by leaky baby 5.30am,
change baby and feed baby 5.45am,
hear whinging of 3yrold 6am,
tell 3yrold to turn light on herself 6.05am, 6.10am, 6.15am, 6.20am,
hubby gets up and solves problem;
dozing gratefully 6.25am,
hear 6yrold bouncing around 6.30am, 6.35am, 6.40am,
joined by 3yrold 6.45am, 6.50 am,
hear repeated shrieks, laughs, screams, whines and assorted thumpy noises 6.51am, 6.52am, 6.53am, 6.54 am etc etc etc, hubby gets up to solve, then showers;
noises begin again, get up at 7.15 to Sort Them Out,
but beaten to it by hubby leaning out of the shower to send children into their rooms.

Now, the baby I can handle, or indeed the other two - been there, done that before, BUT because of the baby, I was in sleep-deprived mode and did not get up at 6.05 or 6.30 to firmly put children back into bed, which of course led to fairly horrific start to the day.
All of which has led me to understand that I MUST go to Spotlight TODAY and purchase some blockout material to hang behind the vertical blinds in children's rooms. This far south the days are starting earlier and earlier as we head into spring, so "rise with the sun" behaviour will get yuckier and yuckier if I don't Put A Stop To It Right Now!!! I will ignore the aesthetics and tie fabric to the three brackets along each window, I will not hem, fuss or improve in any way, I will just Cover Those Windows >=[

Can't help myself - bad habits..

I've been developing bad habits - checking the blogs with breakky, which generally (incl interruptions) takes me through to nearly morning tea time! And look what I found by reading Yarnivorous!

Your Hair Should Be Red

Passionate, fiery, and sassy. You're a total smart aleck who's got the biggest personality around.

What's Your Funky Inner Hair Color?

This is perhaps overstating it a little bit - it takes more than one meeting to see the Loud Me, though the earrings and pink-splished (smaller than splashes) hair might give you a hint...

Go those socks!

2 nights and the first sock is growing nicely - well, lots of exploring in the car followed by 2 nights in front of the tv. I used the instructions from HJS studio for generic socks and knee-high socks to design them, plus some guesstimation for my skinny little S's legs. I swear I don't know where she gets the slenderness from - not me, I'm sad to say :)