Breaking the Silence...

I am here to blog this important news: I'm still here!

Yes, I've been fairly busy - a few late afternoons/evenings, no early-morning blogging time. Thus the lack of blogging. But there has been some baking, reading and knitting. And snb today which was lovely - about 15 of us (excluding the toddler, infant and newborn!), lots of interesting projects around the table, and seriously tempting offers of a cheap spinning wheel!

Baking: Beer Cake, and also eggless banana muffins. Both excellent.

Reading: Contest, by Matthew Reilly. Rip-roaring read, so long as you are happy to add aliens to Indiana Jones, and suspend critical analysis for the duration (which was about 3 or 4 hours - like I said, rip-roaring read). Also, Awakening, by Bevan McGuiness; classic fantasy - several main characters coming into ancient powers/ trying to stop ancient powers, good vs evil, semi-feudal societies, etc etc. So far it is pretty good.

The segue between reading and knitting? The Rowan Book of Little Knits (or some such title) has some cute little children's knits in it....

Knitting: A few rows here and there on the everlasting Clapotis.
Onto the foot of a monkey sock.
Finishing off a pair of baby/toddler socks for I-know-not-whom because I want those needles.
Frogging of the Rattlesnake Creek sock #1 because a) I cannot stand cables in sockyarn on 2.25mm wooden needles a moment longer, and b) it won't go over my heel. Note the order of the reasons. It is an entirely accurate reflection of my thought processes.

Coming up: more sporadic Clapotis-ing.
Ripping and reknitting the toe of Berlin sock #1. Starting #2. (But not tonight unless I go all non-drinking-ish. Half-a-glass of chardy so far and my typing accuracy is about 36 wpm, 62% accuracy. Not even bronze-medal standard.)
Starting again on the Rattlesnake Creek socks with the newly released KP dpns.
Vesting for me.
Maybe even vesting for Miss 5 (she's been waiting long enough!)
Oh, and that hat that only needs two more inches.
And Miss 2 wants a Calorimetry. (Try typing that while tipsy!)

Where's my Tardis???
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Saturday was my Funday

Further to the effort to catch up on all belated news, I give you Saturday!

Saturday was our monthly snb at a cafe near the wharves. Penni came to pick me up, a little later than anticipated, but still she had to sit and watch me finish some sewing for one of our knitty friends, because even having about 3 weeks notice is not enough time for me to complete a one-hour sewing job. Just call me Last-Minute Lucy (my Mum does)...

So we wander in a little late, and find that the charming Kim from Alaska had arrived before us, and had had to introduce herself to the more punctual knitters - who had not known she was coming!!! Kim comes to Hobart every October for work, and this year decided to use the Power of Ravelry to seek out Hobart knitters, namely Penni and then your humble blogservant here. So we three have been e-chatting for a few weeks and very much looking forward to this snb date! Kim promised to wear her Kauni Forest Canopy Shawl (go and look at it!!! REALLY, LOOK AT IT NOW!!!!), and I said I'd be in my TechniColour Dream Cardi, so there was no need for rosebuds or secret handsignals :P

While we are standing there doing intros and gasps of admiration etc, in walks another new knitter, Housefrau, who we hope to see more than once a year, since she's a local! Housefrau is another Ravelry connection, and we had fun discussing knitting preferences and stash obsessions and weird kindergarten hours that leave no time for important things like trips to the LYS :>

Saturday was always going to be fun, but wait! There's more!! Blackie brought her brand new Phoebe to visit, and had we not all peeped inside the babysling, we would never have known she was there! Blackie departed the snb with various prezzies peeking out the top of her bag, including the reason I made Penni so late!

We sat and knitted and touched Penni's Koigu (I didn't even try to steal it!! Honest!) and ogled Kim's rainbow shawl (want Kauni. want Kauni now) and ate nice things and drank nice hot things (pretty cool here still - I was glad though, coz I would've cooked in my cardi if it was warm, and no way would I have worn anything else for the visitor day!!!) I got this far with my Stormy Rainbows sock:

And one of the best bits? Kim surprised me with an AWESOME early bday gift!!!
the cutest card:

This fantastic book:

I finished it that night (had to skim a few bits to reach the last page before bed, because I was worn out from all the excitement - my life is just so like a 24 hour amusement park, hey?) and then rescued it from kids on Sunday and had time on Monday morning to sit in the sun and read the sweater patterns properly, and immediately started evolving plans for some JS DK in my stash... but I have to finish some socks and gifts and whatnot first.. alas and alack!
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HP7!!! (No spoilers)

I should have been doing other things (not least of which is the washing up!) but instead I finished Harry Potter 7!!!
To me, this book was much like the Hogwarts Express - a slow start, lots of steam and huffing and puffing, gradually increasing in speed until finally it thunders to its arrival at the ultimate exciting destination! It took me a while to get into it, but the second half of the book only took me a couple of days (had I not had those kids/housework/prior appointments, it would only have been one day!!!)
Glad to have finished it, had a few ideas confirmed, other things took me totally by surprise - even more so because it is 2 years since I read #6, and I had forgotten so many of the small details that later become inportant (as is always the case in any quest fantasy).

Now I just have to keep denying my 7 yr old too many spoilers until he is old enough to read the series/see all the movies!!
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After the Fair

Thanks to Penni, I realised that the Hobart Quilt and Craft Fair was on today, and immediately planned how and when I might get there, preferably without children :P
I turned up for J's school's Bunnings BBQ (fundraiser at entry to large hardware store), to discover hubby already there and happy to keep going, so I went to the Fair! Sadly, this meant taking 3 small people with me, a move that nearly proved fatal to two of them - thankfully, I was able to restrain myself from providing sensational Sunday paper headlines

Crazed Craft Fair Mum Strangles Offspring with Alpaca Silk; Stall Owners Demand Payment for Soiled Goods

Back to Bunnings, buy sausages and drinks for 2 kids, sit watching for half an hour until hubby is ready to hand the till over to the next parent volunteer, explain slowly and clearly that I AM going to the Fair, hand over baby and car keys, and off I whizzed to surround my self in explosions of riotous colour!
As I walked around, I noticed many many people carrying these:

so I went for a look and bought one! Inside was a motley collection of "women's interest" items:

The kids ate the Gummi Bears, we don't have a budgie, I don't watch BH&G, but the bag had pretty pink stripes, so a must for miss S. Oops! Forgot the cutlery!

The same stall had this for $20 (HALF the RRP!!), so I couldn't leave it there, could I?

Trawling around the place I found Jules on the Web, whose stall was just a complete rainbow; then there was Prudence Mapstone, who had some of her amazing freeform crochet creations up on display - I am overawed by the artistry and colour-sense, but can't see myself diving into scrumbling - I think you would really have to be a crochet person to do it properly, and it would work better if you already had a fairly large repertoire of stitches and patterns to go nuts with. A lovely lady though, and she kindly sold me one of these:

Elsewhere I found *gasp* SOCK YARN - specifically, Online Supersocke 100, wool 4ply and cotton 4ply:

(sadly I bought one at $17 from one stall and found it elsewhere on special for $13.50, and couldn't bring myself to go back and swap #1, because the lady there had let me fondle everything before only buying two skeins. They even had Addi Turbos. I played a little)
Guess which family members these are intended for?:

Also on special were these:

so now I have enough to go with the 100gms I had begun as a drop-st scarf but decided it just wouldn't work - now there is enough for a wrap or vest, and I thought maybe I'd knit it together with a strand of navy something or other - add a little softness and depth ...
So that was my 2 hours at the Fair - I have yarn on either side of me, plans whirling through my brain, a blog post to share my joy with everyone, and no time to start anything because it's 11pm and I really need some sleep!
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Had I but worlds enough/ And time...

This poet was such a lech, don't you think?? But what a fabulous way to be propositioned! I also love some of the sonnets of Donne. Lovers' Infiniteness is beautiful, and expresses the tangles of emotion of loving someone so well...

BUT YOU ARE HERE FOR THE KNITTING, AREN'T YOU???

So I'll share a little:
The MOMD [formerly known as my DH, but that wasn't adoring enough, in his humble opinion!!] paid attention when I showed him this in the bookshop - I guess he's earned the MOMD title :) I was finished by bedtime on Boxing Day - I kind of inhaled it, but how could I not?? The Word of The Knitting Goddess aka Yarn Harlot aka Author Whose Other Books I Must Collect Right Now Or As Soon As I Find Money In The Gutter Or Some Other Unlikely Place Like Paid Employment (Ha!)
And also:
Glass-and-a-half Tychus, version2.0. This time I know I have enough wool - 2 balls of each colour, one ball does about 3 segments. (Yarn gods, please do not smite me any further on this project - I've learnt my lesson, really I have *grovel grovel*)
Furthermore, there is a toddlersock waiting for toe-grafting (I figure 2nd sock syndrome might not notice me if I haven't quite finished the 1st sock *fingers crossed*), and some ideas for an iPod cosy, but PhotoBooth is having a sulk after I decided that the computer-screen flash wasn't enough, so pics some other time.

Posting will be sporadic for the next 2 weeks, my timetable looks a little like this:
Monday
8.30am dogs to vet - grooming, weird lump on tail, probable cataract on left eye (she's 9 ie 67 dog years)
drop off dry cleaning
make appt to get hair done (getting scary enough to need a hairband full-time)
go to gym
book carpet cleaners
get removalist quotes
new watchband
pick up dogs
calendar
sort out phone connection issues
packing, cleaning, cleaning, packing

Tues
dentist
leftovers from Monday
packing, cleaning, cleaning, packing

Wed
10-12 playgroup across the waters in West Hobart - unless it's raining, in which case NO WAY am I taking 3 kids to a park
packing, cleaning, cleaning, packing

Thurs
gym
packing, cleaning, cleaning, packing
5pm pre-Settlement inspection

Fri
9.30 gym
Settlement and Getting Of The Keys at some point
Happy Dance in Various Rooms Of Our First Ever Own Home (Which We Share With Which-Bank)
packing, cleaning, cleaning, packing

Sat
measuring, planning, cleaning, moving boxes boxes boxes, cleaning kitchen and bathrooms of Our New House (if nec) (always nec, right?) and unpacking essentials

Sun
more of same

Mon
gym
more of same

Tues (or Wed )
Moving Day

Thurs
physio appt

Fri
gym

Aside from all of that, envision me running a house with 3 kids, lots of rain to make drying the washing interesting, and darling baby V is TEETHING - first 2 teeth have broken through the lower gum, and although she is chewing on everything in sight, and waking up three times per night, so far we have been spared the horrendous nappies of the firstborn, and the sore face and excessive sadness of the secondborn.
Knitting is replaced by fondling of stray items and reading 3 blog posts with stolen cups of tea....

Regular scheduling will resume in 2 weeks

Wish me luck!!


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