Murphy's Law

Yes, it was inevitable.... today my dear hubby bought (with some guidance) a set of replacement tools for my lost knitting kit. I'd called Starbucks - nothing in the lost property bin - I'd scoured the bedroom, car, office, living room. Nothing.
But purchase replacement tools? An instant solution - the kit turned up within 2 hours. It had been squished down the back of our couch. Sigh.

But I'm really glad I've got it back, as I had some nifty cool things from an American friend, which would be difficult and expensive to replace!

Bugger it

My lovely little Olympus mju:300 digital camera has died :(
So no photos until I can get a new camera (it's an allowable business expense for me, so hopefully won't take too long).
Timing, hey?

Still no sign of my knitting kit - and this time I've actually cleaned up (don't faint, it's rude) my bedroom and office.

Well - have a lovely Christmas everyone! At least it shouldn't be too hot :)

Oh where, oh where...

Bugger it, I can't find my knitting tool kit! It's getting really annoying now - I've looked in all the usual places (side of my bed, living room, knitting stash box, office) AND all the unusual places (fridge, on hubby's side of the bedroom, bathroom cabinet, washing machine, car) to no avail :( So if anyone's seen my little black make-up bag full of lovely (and some expensive) knitting tools, please let me know. I haven't seen it for over 2 weeks... Hopefully in the end-of-the-year house cleaning it will come to light. I'm starting to suspect Lulu of hiding it away somewhere stupid.

Have been flat out with work, which is NICE in that it's great to have work, and ANNOYING in that I'd wanted to close the business a week ago... so now my holidays are 2 weeks instead of 3. But come what may, I'm on holidays as of this afternoon!

And for those Lulu watchers amongst you (you know who you are), here are her antics from the Thursday night SnB this month. I don't know, stealing roving, and cuddling with B-B. Tsk tsk!

Ben's thank you

Remember the cute cabled scarf for my nephew Ben? Well, it arrived in London, and my sister wrote :

THANK YOU for the nifty scarf for Benny! He was very delighted with it when we helped him to rip open the paper - grinned at it, and held it up and had a bit of a munch. He looked pleased as punch when we put it on and he said 'arh!' in a clearly appreciative way. It kept him toasty on the walk we took him on that afternoon, with our friend who was visiting from Devon for Ben's birthday. We had made a cake so it was nice to also have a present for him to open that day. Have pics, will send in due course, when I get a chance to sit down at a computer at home (our new one, that is!) some time.

But then Ben (being Very Advanced For His Age) has just emailled me this very special thank you note :

Dear Aunty,

Ben here - I know mum said she'd email you, but I don't know if she conveyed my appreciation adequately. That scarf you knitted is bree bab bab dowh, thanks. I love the colour and the way the ridgey plaited pattern feels and the fluffy taste it has. The other kids around the posh new area we are moving to thought I looked the business wearing it, I could tell. It is just as well mum put it on as the wind out there was as bitey cold as that compartment of the big white applicance in our kitchen where the olds keep the ice-cube portions of my dinners. I can open that compartment by myself now so I could do with having the scarf on at home too.

Love,

Your smallest nephew

******************************************************

Life's looking a little better today, although the news is still the same (my teenage daughter has diabetes) - we're just getting used to it. Seeing the diabetes educator and dietician at the hospital tomorrow, where we'll have to learn a whole new way of cooking, and about blood tests, and heaps more besides. Sigh.

Something nice

Life is REALLY shit at the moment... so here's something pretty to distract us all from real life.

Off to paint a bowl of cherries (even though I feel like I'm in the pits at the moment)...

(I gave this painting to Taph for her birthday :)

Sublime and delicious

Dotter and I just had a little fibre-fondling jaunt at Stitch'n Time in Mawson... the Sirdar rep was there, showing off his wares, so we eavesdropped shamelessly. Eventually Dale let us fondle the new yarn samples, too :)

Basically, she will be stocking 2 new bamboo yarns from Sirdar, and the Sublime range - amongst this range is a delightfully soft cashmere / merino / silk blend, aran weight. This web site (amongst others) shows more. The Sirdar web site doesn't actually give any details about its yarns, you have to look further afield.

Ow!

On Saturday we got a phone call from my mother-in-law - our 6 year old niece Jacquie had broken her arm very badly, and been tranferred to Canberra Hospital by ambulance overnight. She had surgery on the compound fracture, and needed to be in hospital for a few days. She'd lost feeling in several fingers (nerve damage). Her mum (my hubby's sister) was with her, but had no transport, phone etc... so we went over to visit in the morning (poor little Jacquie was doped and asleep the whole time), and I took my SIL some recent knitting magazines, a ball of purple wool, and some needles. SIL had studied textiles at the School of Art many years ago, and was a very good spinner and knitter, so she really appreciated the mags etc.

Later on in the day I sat with Jacquie (who was awake, and gradually warmed to having me there - we watched silly things on TV together), while her mum went back to our place and had a shower and some dinner. While I was sitting with Jacquie, I started on a purple blanket for her unicorn 'Snowy' - a simple small blanket with a moss stitch border. I did about 1/4 of it, and handed it on to my SIl when she got back.

So once again knitting was a restful and lovely thing to have on hand in times of stress... who'd have thought?!

Jacquie is back home now and making good progress - I've just spoken with her mum, and her fingers are getting some sensation back now, thankfully, but it could take up to 6 months to get back to normal.

Sheepy shenanigans

The day started well - a tea party, with roses from Bells!


Oh dear, pink champagne with strawberries... Lulu isn't used to this kind of stuff!



Who is this mysterious tall dark stranger? Lulu was caught out whispering lamby nothings in B-B's ear.


Uh oh... nicking bottles from the kitchen, and the veil's off - what next?!



Oh my! The first kiss! Where will this end? With such a naughty drunk lamb as Lulu, anything's possible!


Beeee beeeeeeeeeeee! Hic!

Landscape with new eyes

Well, what a weekend! Courtesy of an old friend who couldn't attend, I got a last-minute place in the Rex Backhaus-Smith mixed-media landscape course, run by the Artists Society of Canberra. In sweltering heat, we gathered at the Sea Scout's hall in Yarraluma last weekend.

Rex was an excellent instructor, and showed us his techniques openly and clearly - he wasn't 'precious' about sharing his methods with us. The basics lie in developing a rich underpainting, in staining paints, and using such resist techniques as oil pastel, masking fluid, or wax, which is then painted over in pigmented (non-staining) paints. This top layer can then be wiped back with a sponge to reveal rich colours and patterns underneath, adding incredible depth to the top-level painting.

Rex was really encouraging us to do more than simply paint a landscape, painting what was before our eyes - but to add our own interpretaion to the scene, add layers of meaning, add abstraction in colour or shape, and so on.

This is the first major exercise I did - we had to develop a rhythmic pattern / design with rich colour washes and resist - I designed an off-centre square, with other rough squares tumbling along, and wavy lines. None of us had an end destination in mind, the initial paintings were very abstract. I've never used so much watercolour paint - huge gobs of the stuff! Eeek! I used half-sheets of paper (300 gsm Fabriano) to help conserve my resources...



After much work, this is the end result - my initial painting ended up suggesting an ocean pool to me (you know, the built-up pools at the edge of the ocean)... so this view is a bird's eye view from above, with a path and bushes surrounding the pool. Rex said that this was a daring composition, with such strong angled elements, but that it worked well.

Ocean Pool


Our second exercise was to paint a more literal landscape, with 'new eyes' - I chose a view of the Deua National Park through to the Great Dividing Range, which I'd photographed from a lookout site near Bateman's Bay. This is my initial (bit too loose/uncontrolled) rough wash, over my pencil drawing.



Mid-way, drying in the sun outside...



And after much work, this is how it ended up! I might make the panel at the left a bit darker, not sure - but Rex felt that it was finished. He said that my work had a "refreshing naivity", which was hard to capture in watercolour, and I mustn't lose, as it was what made my artwork uniquely mine.

Deua Ranges


Here's Rex in full spate, discussing our work - we had regular 'viewings' during both days, when we'd all prop our work up outside, and he'd comment on each piece, suggesting changes, and so on - this was done really well, so that no-one felt upset, and we all learnt from what he was saying about all the works as a whole... It was pretty full-on - concentrating soldily for 7 hours each day, working, trying to understand exactly what Rex was trying to get through to us, thinking about how we could change our own work to incorporate more interpretive elements. It's was VERY valuable, and really great to spend a whole weekend being arty - I also met some old friends and made some new ones :)



For those of you who are able, Rex and his wife Judith Laws are having a special art show at the Solander Gallery, 10 Schlick St, Yarraluma, opening TONIGHT at 6pm, then open from 10am-5pm Tuesday 28th and Wednesday 29th this week only, before they return to Queensland. Worth seeing!!

Happy Birthday to ME

It's my Blog's first birthday - how'd have thunk it? It's been fun, on the whole, more fun than I was expecting - and I've made new friends, so that's a Good Thing TM. Well, that's all I really wanted to say.

More lemons

At last I can show you this - it was a gift for K, so I couldn't put it online until I'd given it to her, which I did yesterday. I'm really happy with this composition, much stronger and more interesting than my first lemon painting.

And this weekend I'm doing a 2-day workshop with Rex Backhaus-Smith (via the Artists Society of Canberra), which is proving to be fascinating, a very different way of approaching landscape painting - more impressionistic / abstract - and really exciting. Will post pics when the class is done!

Toddling off

Last night I finished the Toddle scarf for my nephew Ben in London (so nice to have a winter baby to knit for!)... it's his first birthday next week, can you believe it? The scarf is in a nice interwoven cable pattern, and has a hole in it so you can pull one end through, and it won't fall off. I used 1-and-a-bit balls of Paton's Jet, and made it only 18 stitches wide, rather than the 26 specified in the recipe.

I had bought the purple Jet to make myself a cabled beanie, but I needed to use what I had, so figured I can buy new wool for myself next year. Yeah, I know, awful, but true.

Lulu has been most contrite this week, after the mohair-nibbling incident last week, so I've allowed her to model the scarf, and she has more-or-less behaved herself. Trying to put her best hoof forward, although I'm not convinced.



Also picked this up yesterday - who can resist those beautiful knitted pears?! Some other nice patterns in this one, including some lovely shawls, and a lovely bag by Nicky Epstein.

Tomatoes sitting still

These three tomatoes were gracious enough to sit still for me this evening, while I tried out my new easel and brushes... finally I can eat them (I've been meaning to paint the one with the stems attached for a week now, after an abortive first attempt).

Bought the patterned scarf at Salvos this afternoon... along with a few others which will feature in future paintings :)

Stormy painting

This is a painting exercise I did last week, out of the No Experience Required - Watercolour book by Carol Cooper. Spattering the white paint at the end was good fun :) Still having trouble getting the skies to look the way I want them to - need more practise!

The Cat Empire ROCKS

Just back from an utterly mind-blowingly fantastic Cat Empire show - open air show at Commonwealth Park... haven't been to a live 'loud music' concert for far too many years. Even spent an hour at the front (officially on the edge of the mosh pit, according to my teens), jumping and yelling and dancing away. SO MUCH FUN. Just great.

Overkill

I just LOVE this Sam and Fuzzy t-shirt, which my cool teenage son sent me the link to. This is the Non-Disclosure Agreement enforcing Robot, from this comic strip. Must. Get. One.

Dad's Hat

Here's the beanie for my dad's birthday next week... I used Jet, and did a 2 x1 rib. Just basic, but nice. I wasn't sure about the colourway (there's that word, Bells!), but everyone else seems to like it, so I just have to hope that Dad agrees...


Well, you were expecting some ridiculously attention-seeking antic from Lulu, weren't you? She nabbed the beanie, rolled up the brim, and insisted that it fit her. I don't know, that lamb has wool for brains. Literally.

Rearranging the furniture...

Don't worry, it'll all settle down soon! I've moved over to Blogger beta, and it's easier to change the look of your Blog (eventually)... and here's a tiny hint for you, if you're considering making the change too : make sure you copy ALL the HTML code for your sidebar additions (eg graphic buttons, percentage bars, javascripts etc) BEFORE you click the 'New Template' button!!

Seemly seams

Finally the Jet Jumper Extensions are done! As time consuming and messy as a house extension - really!



Here's what you get when you are bloody impatient aren't careful with your seams! The lumpy seam at the top, where I skipped up 2 stitches at a time, and my 'ladders' across the seam went sort of diagonally, are from when I first put the jumper together, some months back.

And what you get when you read your nice new Finishing Techniques book, work on a table, and sew really slowly and carefully, only stepping up by 1 stitch at a time, and with 'ladders' that are horizontal, is this amazingly invisible seam (which stitches the 'extension' part of the jumper together).

Now I feel like I should undo the side seams on hubby's Jet Jumper and resew them - but he assures me he doesn't mind. It fits REALLY WELL now, too, with an extra 15 cm length - and he wore it all day, staying cozy on this unseasonably cold day.

More painty things

These are the not utter crap okay little watercolour paintings I did this weekend... the Jasmine one uses negative painting (where you paint around the shapes of things). The impressionistic Field of Flowers is an exercise from a watercolur book that actually went right. And we won't talk about the Still Life with Tomato... drawing was good, initial painting worked well, final painting was shit. Oh well. It's all learning!

The Cabled Wrist Warmers are all done, as of this afternoon - not much else happening on the knitting front, apart from vowing I would sew up the side seams on hubby's Jet Jumper (the only step remaining in the Great Lengthening Drama), and not doing it yet... it's going to be bloody cold on Wednesday, apparently, so it's worth getting done so he can wear it once more before summer hits us.

Cabled Wrist Warmers - NOT a sheep jumper

Well, this is the first of the cabled version of Voodoo Wrist Wamers, that I'm making for a woman who's been wonderfully helpful with my son at College.. and - OI - LULU!





Maaaaaaaaaaaaah, miiiiineeee!



I don't know, she sees something vaguely the right size, and - yoink - on it goes! And what makes her think it's a sheep sweater anyway? There's only 1 arm hole!

Humph. Anyway. The cable I've added is a C4B, with an alternating 6 & 8 row repeat, to make the nice long-twist-short-twist pattern. Patons Totem, deep aqua blue. Second one has been cast on this morning, and will have a C4F cable, twisting in the other direction to the right handed warmer. Now, please excuse me while I go and do battle with a naughty lamb...

And now for something completely different...

I've been teaching myself watercolour painting... I've dabbled over the years, but have recently decided to work at it more regularly. Hubby's Uncle Paul is a fantastic professional watercolourist (a member of the Australian Watercolour Institute no less) and he is a great source of inspiration to me.

This is what I painted last weekend.


A bright and cheery and above-all FAST painting, an exercise from a 'How to' book, with Windsor & Newton pan paints on 300 gsm rough laid paper.


This is a still life I set up, drew, and painted all by myself, with lemons from my mother's tree. Took about 4 hours in all, I guess (when I'm drawing and painting I lose track of time). Fairly happy with it, although the contrast and composition could be better. This was painted with Venezia tube paints on 300 gsm rough paper. I'm currently working on a second version of this still life.

Lulu meets the ladies

Well, last night Lulu insisted on coming along to SnB, planning to use her lamby wiles on the unsuspecting Canberra knitters, to win them over, but plotting chaos at the same time!

First of all she snuck into Kylie's basket, and rummaged around in the yarny goodness there...



Then, after cozying up to Monnsqueak, she tried to sneak off with this divine skein of her hand-dyed yarn...




She insisted that this delicate lace shawl-ette by the incredible Miss Spidey was hers - it was clearly the right size... it took some very tricky distraction techniques to get it off her and back to its rightful owner!



Margie's new Victorian Cabled Wristlets (courtesy of Taph!) became a delightful tutu for Lulu, so she played the "oh so innocent" ballerina for a while.



And finally, Taph put Lulu's seemingly boundless energy and potential for mischief to hopefully good use, and gave her some knitting lessons. But maybe this will only teach her enough about knitting that she then knows how to unravel my work more effectively?! Only time will tell...

Tree ahoy!

Yesterday was a rather dramatic day... Canberra was hit by a massive storm, and our suburb took a fair battering. We had no power for about 7 hours (which gave me a nice excuse to not work, and do some knitting!), and a third of the huge gum tree out front came crashing down - luckily it didn't hit anyone or anything - but we still can't get our station wagon out. Hopefully the nice and overworked tree clearing bods will be around to take it all away today.



And on to more challenging things... this lamb. What am I going to do? She gets into everything! This is a beanie I'm making for my dad's birthday (yeah, yeah, I know we're coming into summer - he can save it for next year)... Lulu somehow managed to get into the WHOLE ball of Jet, drape herself in it, and then try to knit for herself. I'm lucky that I caught her before she pulled a needle out... sigh. The worrying thing is that she isn't trying to be helpful, she's just doing her best to be naughty!

Lulu accompanied dotter and myself to SnB last night, and much fun was had by all, despite her trying to steal HappySpider's lovely little lace shawl... lots of photos pending!

Whaat?

This is my new blue Patonyle sock! I'm making the Crusoe pattern off Knitty for the top (ie rolled rim, and stranded pattern, adapted to smaller needles/thinner yarn) and then a standard sock for the rest.

And this is my mango peach sock wool dyed by Dear Dotter... OI! Lulu, PUT IT DOWN!


Pressies in the mail, pressies in the mail (happy dance)...! Mindful Knitting has finally arrived from the US - it's a fairly small compact book, with simple patterns, and lots of good mindful ideas.


LULU! Put that pencil down IMMEDIATELY!

Whaaaaaaat?

And she shall be called ... Lulu!

Introducing (drum roll please....) LULU!

After much brainstorming, friend K came up with this wonderful name for my stash sheep. Pilve was her name in the magazine, but she is a new puppet, and a naughty one at that, who needed a new name. I'm sure the original Pilve wouldn't want to be associated with this cheeky Aussie lamb in any case.



Mere minutes after leaping fully-formed from the embroidery needle, she is already casting a mischievous eye over my dotter's freshly-dyed sock yarn! I predict trouble ahead...

The creature from the wool lagoon

This is the back view... The creature emerges...Pilve now has a head and one ear. The last ear is being cast on tonight, and given how enormous (not) it is, probably finished tonight as well.

The next step is embroidering on the face (probably the most important part of all), and then stuffing the head. But at least once I've finished the ear tonight I can have my 2.25mm flexible DPNs back, and I FINALLY cast on the next pair of socks for ME. I've got some lovely blue Patonyle sitting in my knitting basket, whimpering at night, and waking the mice, wanting to be knit.



And this is the front view - I'm not sure if I did the head decreases correctly, but, meh, who cares :)