Last night my mother had a birthday party at her house in the hills.  It was the first time my sister and I had been back there since the wake, and I must say I was a bit creeped out by the photoboard she made for that, with photos of my dad, still being up.  However, it went quite well, mostly, I suspect, because I hadn’t been thinking about it and therefore hadn’t had a chance to work myself up about how terrible it would be.

Lots has changed and nothing has.  It was so strange driving up there, along a road I travelled twice a day for so many years.  On the way there, ‘Dr Worm’ by They Might Be Giants came on and everyone was saying ‘oh, this makes me think of the summer I was…’  It reminds me of driving to school with my dad – it would be played once a morning when it was popular and he thought it was ridiculous.  I remember arguing with him trying to explain why it was, like, heaps cool and stuff.

But somehow none of that made me anything more than thoughtful.  Which was nice.

I also had a lovely chat with my year 2 teachers.  Wendy and David job shared, and they are possibly my favourite teachers ever.  They have a daughter approximiately my age (I think a year or two older?) who knows my cousin.  Ahhh, Adelaide.  My mother is and was quite good friends with them.  I went to their house a couple of times as a child and while I have a vague memory of the layout and the feel of their house, I have this extremely vivid memory of a spinning wheel sitting in front of the window.  I’ve had arguments with my mother about it who doesn’t remember that Wendy spun.  I remember looking at this fabulous contraption and not knowing what it was but knowing that it was somehow magical and I wanted in on the secret.

Wendy tells me she used to spin in the playpen, so that her kids couldn’t throw themselves  in front of the wheel.  We had a good hour or two of natter about knitting, with David joining in.  It was absolutely fantastic.  How lovely to connect with these people who were so instrumental in my life, of whom I have such fond memories – and now to be able to connect with them as people!

I also got my tatting stuff from my mother.  Because what I really need is more craft things lying around the house.

Some things I thought of while writing that last post:

TED talks have this fantastic little snippet especially for WordPress for you to put in your post when you want to embed video.  How lovely!  I find it not so easy to get things into WordPress.

In that vein, I have discovered that I can copy my photos from flick still, without going into ’show all sizes’.  I just copy it from the front page bit, instead of going into each individual photo.  This is actually easier, which is nice.

TED talks are wonderful – I subscribe to the audio podcast and I love them.  Not only are there many though provoking and educational talks, I enjoy the sense of the atmosphere of hope and productivity and positiveness that seeps through them.  Everyone there is excited and happy, it’s wonderful!

While I was finishing Sahara I listened to a lovely Podcastle episode called Daughter of Botu.  It was beautiful, although I guessed the twist of the step mother being a fox far too early.  When I was in China there were always these historic costume dramas on, with lovely magical realism and bizarre costumes.  Imagine if ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ had been edited by Barbara Cartland, basically.  And the women were always turning into foxes. I still don’t get it, but it’s clearly a meme of some sort.  Then again, I never really got many European folk tales and their memes, although some of that is because I always heard the bowdlereised version – he cuts him open and they’re still alive in there?  Please.  Any self-respecting three year old knows that’s bunk.  I wonder if that’s why I have this weird fear of being eaten alive and then digested – like, by a python.  Or like wasps do to catterpillars.  Shudder. Also, clearly the step sisters did not repent.  Much more satisfying to roll them down the hill in barrells of spikes.

That is all.

My holiday has trickled away nicely.  I spent the first four days of it in Melbourne and it was lovely.  I’d love to tell you more about it and maybe I will in a bit (except that we all know how those kinds of blogger promises turn out, don’t we?) but for now I have a more pressing concern to voice.

I picked up Sahara again because the temperatures were in the 30s – and will be again this weekend.  And while I love touching wool, sometimes it’s just not an option.  Looking at my Ravelry page I see that I didn’t say when I had started – but blog posts tell me about August some time.  Which seems right, hot weather and all that.  I also see I went down a needle size which is annoying as I have just started the ribbing in the bottom in the size called for in the pattern.  I wonder if I care enough to rip it?

I did some mods on this and although I didn’t note the basics, I kept very good notes on the changes.  Which is a blessing because it’s been picked up and put down lots.

I did an extra repeat on the neck lace and, as predicted, that makes it a bit tight there.  Not in a stretchy way, more in the way a halter neck pulls.  Which is slightly irritating but not more than that.  I don’t think I’d do that again, but I’m not fussed – certainly not enough to unpick it!  I suspect it will be a bit too big, actually, since it fits about right now and I am a bit plump from winter.  I also made it longer, partly because I always tug things down and I am FINALLY learning to make them longer to avoid this, and partly because I didn’t do short row shaping or darts at the boobs, and so expected the front to be a bit higher than the back.  Although I discovered today that there is lovely shirttail shaping at the bottom.  I really am enjoying this pattern.

However, none of these are the issues.  As intimated, I have reached the end of the body – almost.  And now the question of sleeves arises.  I have two full balls of the Elizabeth Lavold silky wool left (which is lovely, I would definitely consider working with it again, even if I did have to pay the ridiculous price) which surely is enough to do full sleeves.  That was my original intention, if I had enough yarn.

But now I am wondering if it wouldn’t be better with short sleeves, as a t-shirt type top.  The yarn is lovely and soft and cool.  And the extra repeat at the neck means it isn’t too booby at all – just exactly enough cleavage for a summer top, I feel.  But with long sleeves, I think I’d be inclined to wear it over things.  Which is all to the good, but maybe not as practical. 

I really enjoyed this pattern, maybe I should make another in a more wooly yarn, since I seem to enjoy knitting things twice anyway.  And that one can have long sleeves, and this one short.

However, since I have been mulling the question for a good hour now, I thought I’d ask the internet if it had an opinion – do you?  I really like the look of the long sleeve ones on ravelry, but not that much more than the short sleeved ones.  I have reached the point of ‘really?  This decision is this hard?’

Also, I listened to this today, which I think sheds some more light on it:

I’m off to rip the last three rows and redo them in a smaller needle.  Sigh.

That’s what I thought about my backyard last weekend. 

Everything’s at that point where it’s growing crazily (see: previous post), everything’s slightly overgrown, but there isn’t that much to do.  There’s a lovely sense of producitvity, activity, quiet working.  What a lovely place to lie around and do nothing!

Well, I suppose I could mow the lawn, but that’s the sister’s job.  And the both the compost bins and the green bin were full, so I couldn’t do the weeding.

I guess that’ll be this weekend…

So, flickr just rolled out this lovely feature where you can tag people in your photos which I intend never to use (are you crazy?!  No.)  It also means that I can no longer right click and ‘copy’ on my own photos.  I realise flickr isn’t intended as a photo storage place, and I do always link back to them.  I upload them to flickr and then copy to my blog because I LIKE the social and sharing aspects of flickr, but I might just be uploading them straight to my blog from now on.  It’s a pain, and I will probably have to buy more storage from wordpress, but they can get my flickr subscription since I won’t need it as much. 

Aaaaand now I sound like an angry blogger with a chinbeard ‘you can’t take my copy paste away from me!  retribution!!!’.  That is not what I meant.  It’s just not worth my time and effort to upload, tag, and name a photo, and THEN have to click on ’see all sizes’ in order to blog it.  Especially when we’re about to get capped at home and my internet at work is heinously slow – and not meant for blogging at any rate.  And then muck around resizing it because it’s huge.  This is not social media web 2.0.  This is old skool and I dislike it.

I was going to blog about a lovely day I had one the weekend, complete with photos, but now I’m cross again.  So only two photos for you.  The top one is a squash flower in my garden on Saturday.  And this is the same flower the next day:

Ridiculous!

Yesterday was not a great day.  I had to take my bunneh back to the vet for a X-ray and possibly more surgery.  The infection has gotten into her bone, which is very not good for bunnehs.  The vet was not what I’d call positive.  I also had to arrange getting there myself, which would be fine if I didn’t live with my sister who has a car (as I do not: no car or license) and hadn’t just done her a huge favour regarding our mother, which had stressed me out a whole lot.  I messaged my sister on Tuesday nigth to try and arrange her taking us to the vet and she was so vague about it all that I decided it was just easier to pretend that I live by myself.  And by ‘decided’ I mean, I cried for about 15 minutes because I am so sick of doing this by myself and for myself, or being the only apparent grownup in the room, and I really just wanted her to say ‘yes.  I will drive you to the vet.’ 

So I had slept horribly and I was a jangle of nerves. But Pie’s back and although the news is not great, it’s not horrible either.  her body is fighting back and she’s got weird boney growths, but it looks like her body is walling off the infected area.  So we’re keeping up the antibiotics (I’ve been putting them on sultanas, which are her favourite treat, because the process of squirting them into her mouth is just too traumatic for the both of us) and hoping.  Another checkup in a month.

 This morning I was so groggy and icky that I stayed in bed an extra hour.  Then I got up in a panic, thinking I was going to be late.  I got in to work at ten to nine.  When did ‘on time’ become ‘45 minutes before I start getting paid’ in my head?  Well, I will be catching a later bus from now on, because it’s amazing the difference it made to my day.  Even though I thought I would be late, it was far less of a scramble to get out the door.  And I found out that my preferred bus route has changed just enough that it’s sensible to catch it.  Which is great, because the route – both the walk to the bus stop and also the roads the bus goes along – are through old suburbs.  And the roses are in bloom.  It’s glorious!  Sun shining, birds singing, flowers bursting out in wonderful colours.  I’ll try and bring my camera tomorrow and take sly photos of a couple of particular gardens with glorious flowers in them.  A much nicer way to start the day than a traipse through the semi-industrial (although atmospheric) half of the suburb and a rush accross a main road to get to the bus stop.

So the consequence of that is that I am looking forward to going home – the commute, not just the destination – for the first time in a long while.  Usually I find it frustrating and convoluted, which I’m sure it will be.  But it will also include roses and sunshine, so I’m ok with that.

Oh, Nordic Ware.  Please stop tempting me.  I mean, I totally want you.  I want dinosaur muffins like you wouldn’t believe (also, why can I find a cheerleader cookie cutter but not one in the shape of a dino footprint?) but I’m trying not to overspend.  You understand, right?  I’ve put you on my christmas list, but… No, don’t look at me like that!  Yes, I lust after your pirate ship!   But how often will I bake a pirate ship cake?  Oh, yes, it would be worth it, but… fine.  I can’t reason with you when you are like this.

Ahem.  Here is the quilt book I was talking about.  It’s called Contemporary Quilts.  There do not appear to be any pictures of the interior on the internets, so I will take a couple happy snaps when I get a chance because they are goooood.  And I want to remember them.  I want to buy the book, but see above comments re: overspending.  I will write it down and if it’s still on the wish list in a couple months, I’ll think about it.

And while looking for photos of it I was reminded of the Purl bee’s tied quilt.  Even easier!  I could use thrifted sheets for that, too.  It’d be like Amanda Soule’s beach blanket, but for my bed.

Speaking of baking (yes, I was.  Sort of) I made these on the weekend:

Just cos.  Cos I felt like it.  I saw some on the internets somewhere, and I thought ‘hmmm.  Cookie monster cupcakes.  I can do that!’  He’s my equal second favorite muppet, you know.  Maybe I’ll make Oscar the Grouch cupcakes next.

Usually I do not enjoy the decorating, but I’ve cracked it.  I baked them one day, decorated the next.  Just like seaming – when I finish a knit project, it has to sit for a while before it becomes a seaming project not a knitting one and then I don’t mind.  The cookies were bought, the eyes are white choc melts with choc chips attached with sugar water (or icing, when I ran out) and the icing is just buttercream with scads of blue food colouring.  It was delicious, but I have to warn you, it will make your poop green.  Oh, yes, it will.  TMI anyone?

OM NOM NOM NOM NOOOOM!!!

More Apartment Therapy inspiration

I came across this today.

Ok so it’s a kid’s room.  Shhhh.  How awesome is that curtain around the bed!  And the leaves… I’ve had a slight obsession with those IKEA leaves, which I cannot find on their website.  Maybe I can use this as an excuse to buy some.  But you know how I posted about my bed?  This is the type of thing I want, somewhere cosy, a retreat but also welcoming and snuggly.  Like this OMG YOU GUYS it’s a fort competition.  Check it out!

Go look at all the other cool ones, and then look at the – GASP – Where the Wild Things Are blog.  Sorry, must go have  a lie down, I am so stupidly excited about this…

OK, go look at the blog, and look particularly at this post with the winners.  The winner is the coolest, but I love second place a whole lot:

The clouds are so sweet.  And she made the lamp out of bottle caps.  I love it, you guys.  I love it.

I also want a where the wild things are hat. 

From here.  There’s an instructables link, too.  Maybe I’ll make myself one.  (I wonder if I ever looked that young?  I feel oooold today.  Surely this is ridiculously early to feel this old?) But maybe floppier, like this.  After I make myself a panda hat (current dilemma: straight up knit, or lightly felted?  I like lightly felted, but takes more thinking.)

I realise all this is very silly, but like the second place winner of the fort contest said, I’ve been drowning in adulthood lately.  Luckily there’s only myself to worry about and I can avoid a lot of it, but an antidote is better than avoiding things.  Sometimes I forget to be silly, which is sad.

On the weekend, I put new bedclothes on my bed. 

Everything except the flat sheet is from the op shop.  I bought the yellow gingham cover because yellow!  Gingham!  I never intended to actually put it on my bed, thinking it would clash horribly.  This weekend I decided I didn’t care.  It’s actually supposed to go the other way but I love gingham a WHOLE lot more than I love stripes.  I also have gingham shoes.  The other day I had someone over and I kept stopping talking in the middle of sentences because I would be distracted by how much I love gingham, oooh look, gingham, on my feet!  Did I mention I love it?  They were bemused, to say the least.

Ahem.  Anyway, I put the cover on and then none of my pillow cases matched, so on went my thrifted stash of cases.  Originally intended for crafting, but they are so lovely I couldn’t cut into them.  And I think it looks lovely.  A whole lot brighter than I would have thought of even six months ago, but it’s so happy and I love it.  A cosy little fort.

Which it looks like I’ll be retreating to very soon as my sister has recently woken up from a nap and also gotten to the bit in her Hornblower bit where (SPOILER!!) Bush dies.  And she is v. grumpy and acting like a teenager and likely to reduce me to tears if I’m not careful.

Goodnight.

One of the websites I read pretty much every day is Apartment Therapy.  This is because I like to torture myself with nice things I can’t have taunt myself with neat places and soothing spaces gather ideas for my own home, and sometimes just look at the pretty pictures.  They’re doing a colour theme at the moment, and some days it’s like candy for your eyes.  Eye candy, to coin a phrase.

Lately there’ve been a bunch of quilts (and crochet blankets, here and here, to give two examples) popping up.  Like this one:

From this post.  (oooh, bonus crochet hexagons!)  I don’t think I would want the brown, if it were mine, but I like the combo, and I like the tones.  I like that it is traditional but that the colours lift it and make it something different.  Maybe replace the brown with another nuetral that isn’t white?  How about a natural linen?

Or blue?

From here.  Also, check out the last pic on that post, with the white frame against the deep blue.  LOVE!  Here, as well.  (Mirrors!!)  I love those deep, bright blues.  Soothing but not boring, restful and exciting as well.  I think I am going to end up with the reverse – bright saturated furniture and acessories against a white background. Which makes sense since I will be renting in the forseeable future, and the walls are always white.

What about this one?  Oooh, look.  More crochet.  Is that even quilted?  Maybe it’s just a throw.  But how easy would it be to do?  I could totally make one for myself, and I bet it wouldn’t even take that long, if I actually DID it, which seems to be the problem with most of my crafts.  The actual doing it phase.  Like in my last post, it’s just easier not to do anything, really.  Playing computer games or noodling around on the internet is a simple way to spend an evening, and relaxing every now and then.  But when it means I don’t excercise or craft anything that can’t be done in five minute chunks, or even read much anymore… then there’s a problem.  And the problem isn’t the internet, it’s my motivation.

ANYWAY, I could do it like this.  I won’t steal Posie’s photos, so go look.  I think I probably have enough thrifted bedsheets that I could do it using only them.  And I think a tied quilt is a good way to get my feet wet – no actual quilting involved, which I suspect my machine will not handle well.

I borrowed a Modern Quilts book from the library – will find a reference later, it’s an Aussie one.  The ones I loved the most were either lots of little strips put together, or ones not quilted at all, or much.  There was an abstract rose one where the quilting was lines intersecting scattered roses.  It was devine!  But the one that’s relevant here was one that one indigo linen on one side (mmmm) and French toille on the other, and it was tied with French knots.  Simple, and beautiful.  It had running stitch around the edges and I wanted to snuggle under it.

I don’t think I’m going to start on a quilt like this tomorrow.  But I wouldn’t mind at least getting it started cutting in the next few months.  Again, if I just DID it, it won’t be hard.  And I’d love to have a summer weight quilt before the next heat wave!

An on a final note: speaking of inspiration, have you seen Attic 24?  The colours!  THE COLOURS!!!!

Begin with a blanket.  Then just free associate.

I took these photos last weekend.  I have since added another round, which helped with the middle hex which I was a bit uncertain about, and am debating another – or should the next round be the white edging?

The yarn was getting in the way all laid out in colour order on the floor.  So I found this IKEA divider thingy that wasn’t currently being used, and whacked it in there.

It makes me smile every time I see it.  So colourful!

This one is my favourite.

Although this comes a close second.  MMMM that green!

I am coming up with all sorts of excuses about why I must buy more yarn, NOW, for the blanket.  So far I have resisted by telling myself that I must wait until after my holiday.  It’s been a close run thing, though.

So addictive, those little hexes.  Round and round and round, watching the colours.  But not portable at all and also I ahve to watch my hands, so I can only listen to things while I do it, not watch.  Which is waht podcasts are for, am I right?  I’m totally right.

They’ve been put away for a bit because I was trying to get some WIPs out the way (yes, ok, so I can use their leftovers in the blanket)  Also, I am flying out for my cousin’s wedding not this wednesday but the next, and I have one measly little repeat left on her stole and then I must block it.  I am starting to worry about where.  No carpets in my house, you see, and it’s pretty long.  Too long for my bed, even if I wanted to give it up for a night.  Maybe even too long for my foam puzzle pieces that I usually use, and anyway, they’ll surl up at the edges.  Might have to block it on a blanket on the lawn and hope the weather stays as nice as it is now so it will dry in a day.

Course, I have to finish it, first…

In other news, I WON SOMETHING!  This never happens.  I won a copy of ‘Handmade in Melbourne’ from Nikki at My Black Cardigan.

And I have read the introduction and then got distracted and haven’t had a moment to sit down with it and a cuppa… aaa, bliss!  I hope I get a chance to at least skim it before my holiday…

It came in lovely sewn-on wrapping paper, and with this bookmark:

In news of other things that make you feel good: exercise!

Last night, after a nice weekend of doing some things, and a fair amount of lying in the sun, I was sitting in front of the computer feeling pretty cranky.  I was full of cupcake, which is delicious, but late in the evening can kind of make you feel icky.  I was idly contemplating doing some yoga, since I have been shanghai’d into a group yoga session tonight, and it’s been forever and ever since I did any.  I thought some stretching might be in order before I embarrased myself in public.  But it all jsut seemed so hard – well, not exactly, but it seemed easier just to sit on my bum and wait until it was time to go to bed, rather than changing, finding my yoga mat, and doing something.  And I was thinking how lovely the weather was, and how I am not going to get to ride my bike in this week, AGAIN, because every time the weather is nice (like this week) I am doing things after work every night that make having a bike inconvenient.  And then I thought… maybe I’ll go for a ride.

So I did.  Before I had a chance to think about it and talk myself out of it, I went and got my bike from out the back where it has been parked, in everyone’s way, for weeks.  I tucked my pants into my sock, slipped on some shoes, and went out the door.  I was only gone 15 minutes, but it was the 15 minutes just before the sun really set properly, and it was glorious.  It was a warm day, and you could smell the promise of summer in the air.  Plus, it was just nice to be doign something.

And then I came home and ended up doing some yoga, too.  My hamstrings are ridiculously tight, as they always are when I haven’t made a point of stretching them.  Freaking downwards dog, I tells ya…

And I felt so good.  Why do I always forget that you exercise because the payoff is feeling good?  Am working on trying to remember that.