The end is in sight

As I finish my time in Melbourne, the weather once again turns. Yesterday it was stinking hot and raining all at the same time. Today it is just raining.



Here's a look back on what has been achieved.

Much progress has been made on Butterfly (yipee!)



And also on my second Go with the Flow sock (up to the heel, I think some quality time with the couch and the sock may be in order this afternoon).



Some yarn has been purchased (from Wondoflex, great store lots of goodies. Of course mostly the usuals but also some nice stuff from Te Awa and Touch in New Zealand. This is some alpaca from Heirloom that I'm going to do my Knitting Olympics gold medal winning knit in, which will be Backyard Leaves (hoping to conquer my fear of that heinously large chart with many abbreviations). It is actually blue but due to lack of natural light today (see top pic) I had to take it under a lamp.



Many bottles of this has been drunk (about 7 half drunk ones are littered around my apartment)



And of course, many, MANY hours of this has been watched.



So I am off home tomorrow back to my beloved boys and my comfy bed (ah, bliss). Sadly only for a week, as next Sunday I fly out to Torino for 3 weeks of more Winter Olympic watching than you can poke a hockey stick at. But it's not all work and no play, after I'm finished in Torino I'm off to London to meet up with DH and Little Man to buy lots of yarn spend time visiting yarn stores friends and family.

They've all gone down

A little history on Australia at the Winter Olympics for you.

In Salt Lake 2002, Australia won it's first gold medal. We went on to win another 3 days later, making it our most successful Winter games ever. To win a gold it requires skill, talent, quite often speed... And a whole lot of luck.

Our second gold was won by Alisa Camplin, an aerial skier at the top of her game. She was World Champion, had won the World Cup, basically a contender.

Our first was won by Steven Bradbury, a short track speed skater. This was his fourth Winter Olympics, a massive achievement in itself, and he had previously won a bronze in the same event. With skill and determination, he was through to the final alongside USA favourite Apollo Anton Ohno. The race starts, all skaters jockeying for position, and it pans out with Apollo at the front and Steven at the rear. It stays this way for almost the entire race, and it looks to be Apollo's race. Until one fateful slip of a Chinese skaters boot. In the last lap of the race the commentary went something like this (who am I kidding, I've heard it 2 billion times to know it went exactly like this):

"Oh and there's a lot of contact, oh! They've all gone down, Bradbury is going to come through and win gold!!"

Yes dear readers, Steven won the gold as all the other skaters lay in a heap on the ice. Steven was celebrated as a hero, as his way of winning was close to our proud Aussie hearts, the 'she'll be right mate' attitude that is bred into us was apparent on that fateful day. The look of surprise of Stevens face was echoed on the millions of faces watching. We had won a gold in true Aussie, laid back fashion.

So here is my button for the Knitting Olympics



Feel free to download and use on your blog.

Where's Jeff Probst when you need him?

Here is my survival guide to navigating your way through the deserted island that is the Interstate (or International) Business Trip:

KNITTING

Preferably something difficult - will keep your mind off loved ones at home.



SHOPPING

Especially easy when you are in the shopping capital of Australia, and you find goodies such as this.



$120 for a vintage calf length leather coat. Can we say BARGAIN?

WEBCAM

Very useful to see who you are missing at home and chat to them face to face. Helps to have broadband and box of tissues nearby when your son tries to hug you through the monitor.

MORE KNITTING

Well, one can never have enough. And can be combined with...

CHOCOLATE

Although both at the same time can be dangerous, if you prefer your yarn to not be sticky I advise to alternate between chocolate consumption and craft making.

Butterflies, beads and green furry balls

So here I am again in the city of tennis fever. My second home it feels sometimes, although the things that make it home (aka, my family) are still in Sydney. A couple of nights ago DH told me that Little Man said 'mama cuddle' when he was putting him to sleep, talk about breaking my heart. Otherwise I feel OK, alone during the day with not a lot to do (this feeling of not a lot to do is quite alien, even though 2 years ago Little Man wasn't here, it feels like he's always been here and I have always been running about doing stuff with or for him. Does anyone feel like that when away from their children?).

The one bonus of this trip is that I'm on a night shift (vote in the Kia Rio Hotshots if you're watching the coverage!) so I have lots of time off in the day to knit. I have already started for the uh... 4th time shhhhhh on Butterfly, this time on *coughcough* correct sized needles *cough*.



How pretty is it? This is the hem, only HEAPS MORE to go, joy. The fact that it is so pretty may be the only thing keeping me going on it, it really is hard slog. I think I might need to get some bamboos (in the right size this time) for this, it seemed to go a lot quicker on them. There's my mission for the day, find some bamboos. I have yet to venture into Marta's (apparently gorgeous but expensive yarns) in town, did someone say per diems? (what, I'm meant to spend that on food? ha!).

Also have started on the second Go with the Flow. I really love knitting this, it's such a satisfying knit.



So much to see there huh.

I have even finished my scarf, on the last night before I left (at about 11am when I had to get up at 5.30. Mmmm, nice having no sleep and then flying off to work the next day). So I haven't even had a chance to block it. There are a few little boo boos, but overall I think it turned out great. I'll post some pics of it when I get back.

And here's some stitch markers I forgot I had in my bag! I made them over xmas when I found the BEST bead store ever up at mums. Check out those bags of beady goodness.





Time to get off my expensive dial up connection from the hotel (dial up sucks can I just say).

A Vogue Idea

A couple of days ago I bought my first copy of Vogue Knitting.

Now for me, Vogue has always evoked images of glamour, couture, sophistication.

Imagine my horror when opening the pages to find more novelty yarn than you can shake a ball of Feathers at.

I truly cannot see myself knitting much from this, MAYBE one or 2 items (the beautiful cardy on page 91, a gorgeous kid silk haze looking thingy. Much like butterfly. Sucker for punishment any one?) also the funky coat on page 81. Not that I would ever knit it, but it's pretty darn cool. But the rest? And wait for it, they have a section called NOUVEAU NOVELTIES.

NOUVEAU NOVELTIES

I can't even get past the word 'Nouveau' without it screaming 80s at me. Turn the page and horror of horrors, A WHOLE VEST MADE OUT OF FEATHERS. Now, I'm not immune to using Feathers, what do you think Fuzzy Orange Bear is made out of? But that's a toy, for a child. Rather appropriate use of Feathers.

A vest? NOT APPROPRIATE FOR ANY GROWN ADULT.

Is it always like this? Has the last bastion of style become the upholder of all things squeaky?

Oh be still my throbbing head, they have made something in here with a yarn called 'Bling Bling'....

Clean closets?

Pah, who wants to be doing that when you can be making your blog look all purty (shush up out there about diversionary tactics).
If anyone is feeling html savvy right about now, can ya tell me how I go about getting that thar green box to go away? (scroll down a bit, you'll see the offending graphic).

eta: I think I have it!

1 job down, 2 billion to go

As you may have noticed by now, I procrastinate.

A lot.

Hell, I even procrastinate about what I might say to people on the phone when I make an appointment, or have to call someone I don't know. Should I say 'Hi, I'd like to make an appointment?' or "Hi, is there any appointments available at x time?' Mostly I muck up and get a skewed combination of the 2 'Hi, I'd like to make an x time appointment, is it available to have an appointment at that time, oh I might not be available, is the dr/hairdresser/salon chick available..' and on the madness goes. Then I will go beetroot red (I'm a shy kinda girl, really I am.) cause I'm making an arse of myself. A prime example of this is in the checkout line. When the checkout chick asks for the money, I like to get rid of coins. Now if the ferreting around for coins takes anymore than, say, 5 secs I start to feel the pressure. The pressure of the waiting chick, the pressure of the waiting people behind me in the line. I feel their eyes boring into me 'what the HECK is she doing? can't she just pass a note over already? who does this freaky kinda thing, this is not the time to make up $5 in coins!' Viola - red face. Sheer embarrassment. You would never guess I spent half of my life in dance shows on a stage with many people looking at me.

So the procrastination. I have been procrastinating about cleaning the library as we call it (just a room between the studio and the garage, happens to be the place where all the bookcases are, thus it is the library). It also happens to be where all my sewing and knitting stuff is, and where I wanted to put all my yarn for Purl Yarns, cause it was sitting in the studio cluttering up the place. So I set to work the other day getting it tidied up, cause it tended to be the room where everything got put that didn't have a place anywhere else. And here's the result, I'm pretty happy.



Yes I do have a tiny stash, I use this to my advantage tho. Like when DH says 'you already have heaps of wool (notice the reluctance to call it yarn? I have discussed the reasons for the yarn calling many times with him, but he continues to call it wool cause he know it winds me up (wind! haha). Ain't love grand?) Anyway, the advantage of the small stash - I happen to know that Celia has a HUGE stash. In a linen closet. MASSIVE. So big it falls out and hits you on the head when you open the door (although this only happened to her BF when he tried to put wine in there -SEE?? THE YARN WILL REBEL IF YOU MAKE IT SHARE IT'S SPACE). So when DH says to me about the 'wool' I say 'but Celia, she has a whole CLOSET' It's obviously not that successful, due to puny stash size, but makes me feel better.

So next on the list? I might procrastinate a little bit longer on going through the clothes closet.

Lovin' the Flow

Here's some pics of my loner sock, partner yet to be cast on (I know, I know, I will get on with it soon, I promise).



And here's a close up cause I love the pattern so much. I actually think I did it wrong but hey, who cares! Looks fabbo to me and thats all that matters.

Sale Time at Purl Yarns

Get 10% off all Lorna's Laces stock until Sunday 8th!

Also, our new line, Mollydale Knits, is in. Gorgeous hand dyed yarns in slub, mohair and 100% silk.

Out with the old

So here we are in 2006. Where does the time go? Ever since I left school time has flown, now I am with toddler it's moving at warp 9.9 (because we all know you can't do warp 10 unless you want to turn into an swamp thing) (shuddup you know you are a closet trekkie too). My Little Man will be 2 in February (with his mumma weeping on the other side of the planet missing his birthday) and it feels like yesterday I was holding him for the first time. A week from this coming Saturday starts my 5 out of 6 weeks away from him and DH. I have never even spent a night away from Little Man, let alone 5 weeks. I hope I cope.

So Xmas and New Year were great, we spent it with my Mum up on the lovely North Coast of New South Wales. After hearing about the searing temps we were having down here in Sydney, I was pleased to be feeling the sea breezes. I hope everyone stayed safe and away from fires.

I managed to even get some knitting done, halfway through my Scarf Exchange scarf (looking mighty fine with my own design if I do say so myself) and finished one of my Go With the Flow socks from IK Spring 2005 (I think it was spring?) I love it, and have to get going on it's partner soon else I get stricken with one-sock-itis. Butterfly is, ahem, uh, um... sitting in a bag somewhere like the naughty (evil) thing it is. I think I will have to take that with me on the first business trip when I have lots of uninterrupted knitting time. Only something that complex will keep my mind off not being home with my boys.

Lastly, I'd like to say a big thankyou to everyone out there in Blogland. I must say I never thought I would have a blog, let alone meet such wonderful, caring, giving people through having one. May you all continue to keep writing and inspiring, everyday I am blown away by the creativity that is out there.