Kiwi Fi's World

Eek - 2m later....

2011-06-13T10:54:00.000+12:00

Haven't been very regular with my blog. In fact I haven't been reading many blogs at all lately, so maybe thats why the motivation got up and left.

Life is OK. Kids are fine, I am fine, Shane is fine, Baby is fine.

I've been doing lots of knitting and sewing. Many finished projects on Ravelry.

More posts to come. And I need to get back into the Block of the Month Quilt-a-long for TNN. I've been a bit slack there. We'll have to do 3 blocks to catch up!!

How to achieve balance

2011-04-05T16:51:00.000+12:00

It never ceases to amaze me how hard it is to make the right decision. From lifestyle choices to what we eat and drink, it seems that its almost impossible to be perfect.
What matters for one family doesn't seem so important for others, so as parents we all walk this tight rope of trying to do the best for our children.

A great example is organic food. Its expensive, but its supposedly good for you. Perhaps stops cancer forming. Better for the environment. If you are buying meat or poultry, perhaps a better life for the animals.
Yet the price is restrictive for some, and lets face it - sometimes its nice to have a big perfect apple with no scars or animal marks.
On the other hand you could feed your children a wonderfully balanced diet - not too much red meat, plenty of fish and their 5 plus a day of fruit and veges. Dairy - where to get the calcium from. Cheese, processed or standard? High fat or low?Buy milk from the farm gate - unpasteurised perhaps? Or maybe you want to go vegan and look at soy or rice milk. But then again, are lots of soy products good for your kids?
When you give your children their veges, do you count potato as one of them? Are you ensuring they get leafy greens as well as those veges high in starch? Do you try to give your children a "rainbow" of food each day?

Do you give your kids juice - organic or not, or do you simply give them water? Are you filtering the water? Are you drinking from a fluorinated supply?

Enough of food, how about immunisations? Are you a conscientious objector believing that MMR causes austism? Or perhaps you think that the mercury will harm, or perhaps the monkey brains is not much trot? Do you accept that the HPV vaccine (gardisil) will actually prevent your daughter getting cervical cancer?

What about birth control. Rhythm or condoms? OCP or IUD? Vasectomy for him or tying tubes for her?

Schooling - private or public? Home school? Extend or hold back? Gifted and talented - encourage or mainstream?

Co sleeping? Controlled crying? Baby wearing?? Attachment parenting? Pram? Front facing, rear facing? Booster after 5 or in the front seat?

Sports, Music, Ballet, Speech and Drama.

Vege gardening at home?

Free range eggs?

Make your own clothes or buy them?

Electric car or walk? 4WD or motorbike?

I don't know about you, but all the choices we have in life, and all the inherent judgement associated with life choices bamboozles me. Of course I want to do the best for my family, but I get overwhelmed with the number of right decisions. I haven't got the energy to get it all right, so I look for balanced based on my perception of acceptable risk.

We vaccinate - Against pretty much everything (except that stoopid HPV one). We even pay for the flu jabs for adults and opted for Chicken Pox for the kids. I understand there is a bit of discomfort for the kids, but I do believe for the general population that vaccination is for the community.

My decision is right for me, but wrong for so many others. Sometimes though - I just don't have the energy to fight.
Can't we all just get along? Accept others differences and leave it at that.

Now I'm off to feed my kids dinner. Its white rice cause they like that, and its cooked in the microwave cause thats how I get the best result. They are having devilled sausages from homekill sausies cause they are yummier and have less crap in them, and I made the sauce from scratch because I never quite know whats in those packets.
I'll give them some veges, maybe some frozen beans and raw carrots - none of them organic or from the garden at the mo.
And I'll probably give them water or low fat milk to wash it down. A piece of fruit for pudding.

Wow - all that decision making means I need a large glass of wine to recover.......

March Block 1 - Turnstile Piecing

2011-03-27T16:47:00.001+13:00

Sorry on a couple of fronts.
Sorry for taking so long to get these instructions out....
And double sorry for actually suggesting an incredibly tricky block this month!!

I've sewn my 3 blocks together, and they proved to be very tricky to get right - not quite what I was after this month. The biggest problem with this block is that the final seam results in a very precarious situation of trying to match multiple points. Not at all ideal for beginners!

My suggestion is that you pop this one aside until after you have done the Ohio Star. But - if you are still keen for a challenge (or maybe just a glutton for punishment!) read on....

Step 1

Lay your blocks out somewhere flat. You will keep coming back to this layout, so it needs to be on your sewing area.

Step 2
Fold the smaller triangles on top of each other and pin the seams that you need to sew. When you pin, make sure that every part of the triangle is matched. The pieces are the same size, and there shouldn't be any overlap.

Step 3
Sew the pieces together using your 1/4" seam allowance. As you sew, try to avoid stretching the fabric as it is on the bias and it will affect your final result.

The next image shows a good result when getting to the end of a triangle seam. Corners still matching!

Take a great deal of care when sewing the end of any triangles. This is where your pointy bits will open up, and if they do, it will affect the size of the square you are making (2 isosceles triangles make a bigger triangle, and then two more make a square.....)
This image shows how the corners spread and its going to need some gentle manipulation to line them back up again.

This is also an ideal block to practise your chain piecing - where you sew a number of pieces together in a chain, and then cut them apart at the end.

I find with triangles its usually easiest to sew from the square side - not the pointy side.

Step 4
Cut the pieces apart, and iron out flat. Usually press to the dark side. You can see that at the top of the triangle there is a piece sticking out. This isn't needed and you can cut it off.

If you are interested in buying templates that avoid this step, I thoroughly recommend Marti Michell's system of templates. They are fabulous!!! I have a couple of sets, and they make piecing patchwork far more accurate than you can ever get using paper pieces.

Step 5
Return to your flat layout and look at the next pieces to sew. Here you will be sewing the larger triangle to the pieced triangle.

These pieces SHOULD be the same size. If they aren't, you have a problem.

Overlap them carefully. Ensure every side matches - they are all important when you are making a square. Pin in at least 3 places and sew.

Take a great deal of care when sewing these pieces. Not only are they possibly on the bias (so they are stretchy), they are also teeny tiny, and you need to keep them perfectly aligned.

Step 6
Open your four pieces up and iron flat. You will see this time you have 2 little pieces that can be cut off.

Check for their squareness. Look for any wobbly sewing. You could even measure the pieces here on a ruler and check for squareness if you are really worried.
Return to your flat layout and assemble.

Step 7
This is the tough bit. If you have made any mistakes before now, it will be blaringly obvious when you try to do this next seam!
Now you will sew 2x2 squares. Its tricky because in the corner of one seam you have points to match. If you have ironed all your seams to the same side, you should be able to butt the seams against each other and ensure that your point will match.

Pin the corner, and then check the rest of the square.
Remember - these squares should be identically sized, so its important that you align all the edges of the pieces.

From here you will end up with 2 rectangles, again they should be the same side, but mirror imaged.

Before you put the right sides together, have a close look at the centre of the block. There will be a point in the middle, and from there to the edge should be a perfect 1/4". When you seam these pieces together, your seam allowance will ensure that all the triangles meet in the middle.

Often I find that one of my seams is slightly larger than the other. So I usually pull the seam open and double check what sort of overlap I might need to design into the sewing to ensure a nice match.

When you are happy that your final point is going to match, pin along the seam, ensuring that all sides of the pieces are aligned. If they aren't, you will need to ease the seam when you are sewing to get the best result.

When you are sewing the final seam, stop just before the middle. This is where the most impact comes from the design, so its important to get it right.
In this picture, and on your block, you will see where the last 2 seams overlap. Its actually where you will see the point on the right side. So you need to stitch right on that cross (x marks the spot.....).
Depending on the bulk of the fabric, sometimes you can sew a bit to the right of the cross, but never sew inside the cross otherwise you truncate your points.

Open out your block and see what the result is like! This was my first effort - I wasn't happy so I unpicked either side of the central line and resewed it.

Step 8
Press flat and admire!
If you get this right, big ups to ya! Its a tricky block, and I'm not sure why there are a number of seams where you sew on the bias and the grain.

Out of my 3 blocks, I was actually only really happy with one. The pink one was the worst by far. Its WAAAAAAY out! I'm even too scared to measure the final dimensions in case its completely stuffed.

This last one I took alot of care sewing the seams and matching pieces very carefully before pinning. I'm pretty happy with it.

So - sorry's all around. I'll get onto my Ohio Star this week in case some of you want a more gentle introduction to triangles.....
Happy sewing, and please remember to ask any questions or leave any comments. I'm feeling a little lonely on this project, so I would love your feedback.

On being crazy.....

2011-03-25T10:32:00.000+13:00

So it's been a rough 6m, and understandably I'm still a bit fragile.

I think because it all happened so quickly (the brain tumour that is) I've probably got PTSD. Thinking that I really need to talk to someone, I decided to ask my GP for a referral to Maternal Mental Health at Campbell's 6 week check up.

She went through the questionnaire and because there were a couple of key questions I gave sensible answers for, it seems that I'm not quite crazy enough to qualify for the service. They rang yesterday, and went through the questionnaire again with me (but tried to be all subtle about it), but again because I don't lie awake at night, and because I don't think of self harm, I'm not crazy! And then she went on to say that she thinks the way I'm feeling is because of life, not having a baby. I love that they can distinguish between the different sorts of crazy.

I guess I'm a little frustrated with a system that makes it difficult to get help once you have asked for it. I don't have a history of depression, and I'm not into self harm, and all I really want is to have a good cry and get the crazies out of my system.

I'd like to be able to think about brain surgery without crying! I'd like to be able to talk to health professionals (Neurosurgeon's, midwives, GP's, Occupational Therapists, ENT people etc etc etc) without crying as soon as someone mentions what life was like about 6m ago.

Anyway, I'll just keep treading water, coping very well, but knowing that at any moment it could all come crashing down. Its hard when people look at you externally thinking that you are doing pretty well (which I am, I know) but inside its all a little fragile. There is nothing I would like more than to spend the whole day in bed, and not have to get up and take the kids to school.

I'm well over driving. We are planning a Sth Island 3 week holiday later in the year, and I'm a bit pissy that I have to do all the driving of the motorhome. The Marlborough Vineyards are going to be no fun at all when I have to drive. Although - I guess I could just park up the van for the night and really enjoy myself.

Roll on November when Shane can drive again!

Our new girls....

2011-03-14T18:50:00.001+13:00

Here they are having their first taste of freedom.

That big hole in the vege garden has resulted from the scallopini that got ripped out a few days ago. My goodness did that produce this year! We must have had 30-40 pieces from it. We were giving them away everywhere.

We would like to let them out more often, but we have to ensure the cat and the dog are locked up inside before opening the cage. Jenna starting feeding them from her hand tonight, so hopefully they will become very tame in time.

They are only 15w old, so they start producing eggs in a week or two. Can't wait!!!

Log Cabin Finished

2011-03-08T16:41:00.000+13:00

I know I haven't put in the binding shots yet, and I haven't showed you how to do the batting sandwich, but its pretty unlikely that anyone needs to bind a quilt, and this baby is finished so I'm going to show it off!

Very, very, very happy with it!!!

I love the boldness of the red hearth in the centre of each block, and the blue border sets it off.

I didn't enjoy machine quilting it at all (I never do....) but its a simple job that looks OK.

I'm slowly getting used to my digital SLR. Some settings are still a mystery to me, I really need to do a course or something, but I am starting to play around a bit more to get different effects.

And just to finish off, a gratuitous shot of the (not so) wee fella.

March Block 1 - Turnstile

2011-03-08T16:23:00.000+13:00

We are back! And ready to do the blocks for March.
This month we are going to look at 2 blocks, and each one involves triangles.

The first one is called Turnstile and the template can be found here

When you print off the 12" block template, set your printer to US letter, and ensure that its not shrinking to fit. When the page comes out, there is a scale thing on the side that you need to check measures 1". REALLY important to check this!!!

So print the page out, cut out the templates and you are ready to select your fabric. If you were doing a whole quilt of this exact block, you would use something firmer than paper for your template. A good idea is to use the hard plastic stuff you can get from Spotlight (I can't remember the name of this stuff.... spot the one with baby brain!!!!) and then you use that to cut out everything.

Here are my fabric selections. You need 3 fabrics, one feature, one dark and one contrast.

I'm going to do 3 blocks of each this month as I am hoping others will be keen to do a quilt for a charity - plenty of well-deserving recipients at the moment!

Iron your fabric, and put the template on the fabric, paying careful attention to the arrow. This arrow must be aligned with the grain. It can either be the cross grain or the selvedge grain, either one is fine. It only really matters which way you go if you have a directional pattern as opposed to an overall pattern.

Use your ruler carefully and cut around the template. You can see the seam allowance is allowed for, so you cut right on the edge of the paper. Be very accurate, and use pins to hold the template on.

I'm a bit of a scrooge when it comes to fabric. I have to use my fabric very carefully, and I try to maximise the fabric, and I try to leave big useable chunks of fabric, rather than little pieces.

When you have cut all the fabric, you can lay it out and see what arrangement looks best. IN the sample, they use the dark fabric on the outside to frame the block, and I have to say I like it best like this. But there is nothing to say you can't arrange it whichever way you want to.

I'll do a post in a day or so on how to sew the triangles together. In time you will be able to look at these blocks and figure out how to do it. Normally you go from little pieces to big! So you will join the two smaller triangles, then attach them to the bigger triangle, and then you have a four patch to put together.

I've also finished my log cabin, and that's ready to give away to my midwife. Photos to follow!

Finishing off a Quilt - 1. Borders

2011-02-12T08:11:00.001+13:00

This is my log cabin all sewed up from January. I'm quite happy with it!

So the next job is finishing the quilt by applying the borders. Borders really bring a quilt to life! Plus they give it alot more size. I didn't have the time to choose my own borders with the new baby, so I sent Shane into the local patchwork shop to a salesperson I really trust (who has impeccable taste) with a list, and this is what she sent out!

I love it!
I'm going for finished 2" borders of the blue (so cut 2.5") and 5.5" outer borders. If you take your finished quilt top into any patchwork shop they will be able to calculate your required meterage for borders. I also have enough of the floral to do the binding as well.

The first job is cutting the borders. I didn't iron first - very naughty!!

Depending on how much fabric you have, you can cut with the length, or across the length. In the case of the inner borders, I only have about 0.5m, so I need to cut my strips across the length. This means I'll need to join strips to get enough length across the quilt top. So I'm cutting 6 strips.

Once you have sewn length on the strips, you iron them, and lay them across your quilt top - in the middle of the quilt. This is a really important step as it allows you to square up your quilt top.
A log cabin is fairly easy to square up as there is a lovely line that runs through the middle of the quilt.

Trim the blue border on each side accurately. I usually do this with a cutting board under the quilt and use a ruler and a rotary cutter. This time I used scissors.... Not that good really.

Pin on opposite sides of the quilt and sew.

Iron out flat, and follow the same process with the other side.

This really makes a big difference. The idea is that when you cut the strips at the length of the centre of the quilt, both ends will be the same. So you can just sew it and cut off the extra - you need this to be square.
Trim, pin and sew.

Once you have completed the inner border, its time to do the outer border, and its just following the same process.
Lay the strips out in the middle of the quilt.
Trim, pin, sew and iron.

Repeat on the other side.
One thing to be very cautious about is whether your print has a direction on it. If it does (like mine does) try to ensure that you get the print facing all the same way.

Once you have sewn the outer border on the quilt, you are done! Now its time to make the batting sandwich and quilt it.

What do you think of my finished product (or at least finished quilt top) ? Its amazing how the borders will really finish a quilt off. And once the padding is beneath it, there is a whole new effect to it.
I really like it - its scrappy, but very pretty. I think Stephanie from Grandmother's Garden did a lovely job in her fabric selection! The blue is great.
This quilt is going to my midwife to say thanks for giving me a healthy little baby boy. I'm hoping to have it done by Tuesday when she comes over, but machine quilting is not my forte! We shall see.

Next post - making the batting sandwich.

February 9 Patch 12" - 3. Coordinated Double 9 Patch

2011-02-04T10:35:00.000+13:00

I whipped this up in a very short time on Wednesday, and here it is for you.

I'm really happy with how its turned out - The double 9 patch was lots more fun to sew than the single one. Maybe give both a go this month?

On another front, I have pieced my scrap log cabin together, and I will be listing a tute for the application of borders, the batting sandwich, and machine quilting. I hope to have it done over the next week so I can give the final product to my midwife to say thanks :)

February 9 Patch 12" - 2. Basic Scrap Block

2011-02-01T18:53:00.000+13:00

This is a great block as it can use up any 5" charm squares you might have lying around.
I just happened to have these 4x 4.5" blocks in my stash from another project, and I decided that I would just use them.
I needed a background to tie them all in, and thought I'd be ambitious with a stripe!

So - here are my fabrics:

Now the trick with stripes is to cut along the stripe, rather than with the grain. Because this is a woven stripe (meaning the stripe is part of the fabric body - its not just printed on) its easy to cut once you line your ruler up with the stripe.

Cut your 9 squares, and lay them out:

This way you can tell if the block is going to look OK or not. This is a verrrrrrry basic block - I'm hoping it will look OK once its in a quilt with sashings and the like.

Next job is pin. Now you can do multiple pieces at once - it saves getting up and down. So I pin them as soon as I put the right sides together, that way I know exactly where I need to sew my seams.

Sew up using a 1/4" seam allowance. Don't sew over your pins like me.... I take my machine's life in my hands every time I do.

When you get to the end of the first piece, put your needle in the down position. Lift up your foot slightly and put the next piece under - then sew. This is called chain piecing. Its used when you are sewing lots of pieces, and saves loads of time!

I had a lovely image of the pieces all together once sewn, but it didn't download for some reason - but its kinda like a flag bunting. Snip between each of the pieces, iron to the dark side and return to your layout.

You can see how all the pieces are coming together now. This is an easy block to finish off in terms of the order of sewing. I'm going to sew the left 3 pieces together, and then the right single strip, and then attach the two together.

From here we need to match our points. Remember how I said to iron to the dark side? Well if you did, you will have a situation a bit like this.

You can see that the seams are ironed off to each side, and actually the middle part - or the line where you want to match up will sit snugly up against the other piece. Kinda like they lock together.

You want this, and when you have them firmly locked, pin. Then pin each end of what you are going to sew, and sew it. When you get to the seams, make sure that the one on the bottom stays folded in the right way - if you have any movement of this at the needle your points wont match.

The next stage of your block will look like this, and this is the toughest part to get the points matching.

Fold the right sides together, and get the seams locking together. Work on one at a time. Pin each of the points, and then work on the sides. Its most important to get the points matched, and then if the sizes are different, you need to ease the remainder of the seam. So you stretch the short pieces and pin in lots of places to ensure that they all match up.

The more accurate your sewing and 1/4", the easier it is to line everything up! Obviously when you have loads of small pieces all together, the challenge is to make multiple seams correct so the final product is right.

Here's my final block - it really is incredibly simple, and not too challenging for an experienced patchworker, so I've decided to do something a little more tricky.....

This will be the one I seam up and show you tomorrow. Already cut out, ready to go!

Happy sewing, and remember to leave a comment if you have anything you would like to pass on to me.

February 9 Patch 12" - 1. Details

2011-02-01T16:57:00.000+13:00

So here we go for February!
This is another basic block, but its important to get the skills right here. The purpose of this month is to learn how to match points so that when we move onto triangles and the like, you have a basic understanding of where to go.

I'm using these websites for info:

http://quilting.about.com/od/quiltblock ... lock_2.htm

http://www.quiltingassistant.com/doubleninepatch.html

The fabric requirements are very small, and its easy to cut out. You just need 4.5" square pieces - 4 of colour A and 5 of colour B, and they go together like a checkerboard.

I'm going to be doing a scrap block and a coordinated block. The scrap block is a simple 9 patch, whereas the coordinated block will be a double 9 patch.

Because this is so quick to sew, all the instructions will be in the next post, and the only tricks you will learn are chain piecing and matching points (my way...)

As always - there are loads of patchwork experts out there, I'm not one of them, but I am happy to help where I can. If you have any suggestions for how to make life easier, please leave a comment so that we can all improve our skills!

So - on with the sewing.......

Introducing.....

2011-01-27T07:54:00.000+13:00

Campbell Blair D-W.

He was born at about 1am on the 25th January at home - just as planned. He was 8lb4oz, and while the labour wasn't super quick, it wasn't slow either. Just very painful! Definitely the last one from me.

So far he's doing everything perfectly.

Family

2011-01-24T13:20:00.000+13:00

Having another baby makes you think about your own upbringing in so many ways. With this child being so late (11 days and counting......) it makes me think about my other two - one was induced 11 days late, and the other was on his due date.
Their personalities are very different, the one who was late is very stubborn and determined!! Rushes headfirst into every situation, makes up stories, manipulates everyone around her.... She's hard work. But I admire her spirit and her fight. If we can keep ourselves from killing her, I think she will be a fine young woman who is very successful.
The one who was on time is my little man. He's a squishy wee thing, and ever so clever. He's quicker to give up than J, she can be tricked into doing jobs whereas if H isn't interested, he walks away. He surprises us with his deep thinking, his understanding of how things work, and his patience.

I originally thought this one might be a boy, but now thats its late, I'm thinking its a girl! And I'm petrified that its going to be another stubborn minx like #1.

So I grew up in a family of 4 kids - and we are all very different!! This is our most recent photo together from April 2010 - its been a few years since we had one since we have at different times all lived in different countries! But we were all together at my younger brother's wedding. My brothers are wearing the Robertson tartan - one is a family kilt from my late uncle Adam, and the other was custom made in Edinburgh.

When I think about personalities of my siblings I can summarise, but really we are all too complicated to make wide statements about.
My older brother is sensible. He's intelligent, and he loves a good laugh. And a good bottle of wine. He's a family man and a career man, and I think his biggest challenge is to work the two together. He feels responsibility heavily, but he is a good friend since he has had the same close group of mates since high school - despite them living around the world. He misses NZ, which is good since he married a kiwi so I think they will be back to NZ eventually.
My older sister is very talented in a creative way. She is extremely musical and a deep thinker - she probably over thinks most things truth be told. She is very protective of her family and her way of life, and I admire her tireless pursuit of contentedness. She's the sort of person who will be there for you if you ask her to.
My little brother was the unsettled one, but that's changed some over the last few years. He likes his mates, his concerts and his travelling. He is an excellent provider, and will work almost anywhere doing almost anything to make sure that the required funds are raised. Like my older brother, he enjoys a good laugh, and a good drink, and a bloody good time. When he is on form, he is a blast to be around. He's married an Aussie girl, so I suspect he is there for good.
I'm the practical one. I did the boring things (like savings, school, education, work, buying houses etc.....) when I was supposed to, and I guess I'm middle aged before my time. Getting divorced and having illegitimate kids to a much older divorcee with tatts and a harley threw a bit of a spanner in the works in terms of my reputation, but when they all realised how incredibly sensible Shane is, I think my boring nature was just cemented in stone!

I do wonder what my kids will be like in 30 years time. I'm pleased I'm having my third child because how nice to have siblings.
(I just wish this baby would come soon!!!!!!!!!)

January Log Cabin - 6. Layout

2011-01-22T17:07:00.000+13:00

OK - so if you are like me, you too have sewn 18 of these blocks in January. Crazy I know, but when I see a dead horse I like to flog it!

Here are some photos of my scrap 16 blocks. I have to decide how to put these together now, and what sort of arrangement or effect I'm going for. These 4 are not your only options - there are many ways you can put them together.
Let me know what you think I should go for.

RAOK that was not so random, and was more like a swap....

2011-01-14T12:31:00.000+13:00

Two lovely ladies did something nice for me recently. Hannah dyed up some lovely grey wool, and Julia knitted it into a gorgeous baby blanket.

Lovely isn't it? They are both very clever women.

I'm shocking at not returning kindness - its in my nature to repay in some way. Whether its a box of choccies, or something I can make - I aim to do something in return.

Julia has been doing some sewing lately, so I thought I'd whip her up a little cute pincushion, and a WIP bag. She likes brown - so this knit was dug out from the stash and matched with a cute japanese print.

Hannah apparently likes brown, but it doesn't really matter cause she was getting this anyway - LOL.
I was totally lazy - managed to change to a ball tipped needle for the knit, but didn't even bother to coordinate the thread, so its a dark navy. Slack huh?

All four knocked up in a couple of hours, and hopefully they show my appreciation to two lovely ladies. The link to make the mousies can be found here.

Our new life 3 months on.....

2011-01-14T04:02:00.000+13:00

Hard to believe, but its been just over 3 months leave since Shane had a huge chunk cut out of his brain. I don't think I posted images, so here we go.
This was the toomah from the side. When they injected the contrast in, it really made the whole thing pretty obvious huh?

I think they cut a big chunk out, and then dissected around the light/dark boundary to ensure they only removed a very minimal amount of normal tissue.
This image still scares the crap out of me (unfortunately it doesn't have the ability to scare the baby out of me....) and I am shocked at how well he is doing.
The boy wonder (otherwise known as the neuro registrar) showed me this before I counter-signed the consent forms for surgery, as at the time Shane was only giggling, couldn't form a sentence, and couldn't really hold a pen.

Now - you would barely recognise him from that pre-surgery guy. His hair has grown back, and the scar isn't that obvious. So people look really weirdly at him when we are doing the shopping, and I get everything out of the trolley. I'm sure they think he is a horrible man making his 40w pregnant partner do all that bending and lifting, but it really hurts his head so I have to.

He looks pretty normal, but gets grumpy so quickly. This is softened in that he also gets rid of his grumpiness just as quickly, so thats a bonus.

He is sleeping better at night, he pretty much goes from 10pm til 6-7am most nights, and doesn't need pain relief anymore through the night, although he is up first thing to dose up. And he still has to nap for 3-4 hrs a day, in between taking it really easy.

His executive decision making is probably most affected. He doesn't think through situations as well, and can't really make good decisions on the fly. So unless we are well organised with a list, or a sequence of events, he flounders, gets frustrated, and then fatigued, and then grumpy. So I have to step in and be the grown up which is a total PITA.

Tiredness makes everything worse - it magnifies all the little things by 1000%, but thankfully he hasn't had any seizures (that I know about.......) since his episodes about 8w ago. I'm hoping our impending arrival doesn't put too much pressure on his sleep.

So - really, in a diabolical situation, we have really come out OK. I have someone I can live with until we are grumpy old people in a nursing home. He is able to look after himself really well, and in time, when the fatigue subsides, I'm sure I'll be able to leave him at home again with the kids. Hopefully in a year or so, but that will depend on when he is permitted to be behind the wheel.

Life has changed. I'm a real live grown up. The buck totally stops with me, and thats scary. I never realised what it would be like to the only grownup in a relationship - and its exhausting. He does help, and thank goodness for that, but I know the grey hairs I know have are well-earned.
#3 is due today, and I'm not getting any good niggles - I think its because I just really don't get a chance to relax, and the fight or flight reflex is strong in this one master.....
So everytime Baby thinks it might be time, Hamish wee's on his sister, or Jenna throws something in a tantrum, or the cat brings in a dead animal, and reality kicks back in and I know that I just can't afford the downtime - so baby doesn't make an appearance!

I don't know her, but Lori, from http://www.rrsahm.com/ has just been through a terrible ordeal involving the loss of her husband, and it makes me realise how bloody lucky I am. I got through what she has gone through, and came out relatively unscathed (in that life is functional, and I can get used to the new normal). My heart breaks for her, and it still sends me into a panic about how close I came to being a "widow" with 3 young kids, or worse still a mother to three with a severely brain damaged other parent.
I am lucky. And I do believe in miracles, but I don't think Shane's health is a miracle. I believe the strength I have been able to find through all this was really God's gift to me, and its more amazing than anything else. Because of all the prayers for our family, I have been able to hold it together and the little men in white jackets haven't had to come and get me, and put my kids into foster care.

So 3 months on. Life continues with just as many emotional and spiritual challenges and this is the new normal.
Now we just have to find a way for my body to let go, relax and let this new bubby come into our insane family.

Roll on baby

2011-01-10T17:43:00.000+13:00

So it worked.
I have no idea what it was that worked, but something did, and the sweet little baby has swung around again!
PHEW :)

So roll on baby. Spicy curry for dinner tonight, taking dog for a walk when it cools down, and pineapple for pudding.
Here we go.

Never a dull moment....

2011-01-07T04:04:00.001+13:00

Medically speaking, this pregnancy has been non-eventful for me and baby.
Of course there has been loads going on all around me, but bubs has been pretty well behaved and my body has been quite reliable.

Well that went and changed over the last week.

I had my 39w midwife appointment today, and she commented that the bum was feeling very bony. I went straight away for a scan (thankfully a new radiology clinic has just opened in town with ultrasound facilities!!!) and sure enough, its not a bum.
This pesky child has turned head up.

At the moment, baby is looking something like this (but no idea on genitalia of course....):

Which is not at all ideal. Particularly when you have a planned home birth. So I'm now heading in for an "urgent" hospital appointment on Monday. Not sure what they think urgent means, but evidently at 39w you can wait 4 days for these things.

So from here the options are:

Deliver said breech baby at hospital (apparently very possibly given its my #3 and its legs are up)
Get baby to turn through myself between now and Monday's appointment and continue with the home birth.
Go to Monday's appointment, baby still breech and have a ECV which looks unpleasant, but will allow me to have the home birth.
C/section (least favourable option)

Shane's reaction is hilarious. He's very serious and worried and actually wants me to have the c/s I think so its a known solution. The risk here for me is minimal, and actually in the current position bubs is in, its risk is fairly low too - its just the inconvenience of having to make the hospital delivery happen with me as the only driver and him somewhat incapable of running the household in my absence.
But I think he is actually getting a taste of what he put me through over the last wee while! (And on that note I'm really enjoying my new diamond earrings too......)

Why did baby turn? Well I have my own suspicions on that, and I actually think that while I have been sitting in a good position, I'm been sitting alot doing all this sewing. I wonder if bubs got sick of being head down in a little cramped pelvis while I sewed at my machine. Its the only thing that has changed over the last week, and I'm thinking its the most likely cause, so the sewing machine is switched off from here until delivery! Lucky all my log cabin stuff was done for Jan :)

My Plan of attack.

Lots of time with bum in air. We will do pillows, crawling around on all fours, handstands at the pool, lying on a plank. You name it, I'm going to try it!
Acupuncture booked in for tomorrow, he may do some dry needling, but its mainly going to be moxi and heat treatment.
NO MORE NATURAL INDUCEMENT!! We don't want this baby to come between now and Monday's appointment otherwise I am straight into hospital.
Lots of talking to bubs, and I'm trying to visualise a head locked into a pelvis.
Reduced sitting time, with no more sewing.
ECV I think on Monday if all fails. There is lots of fluid there, I'm nice and spongey with saggy uterine muscles, so I think it will work.

On the positive side of things, bubs is confirmed to have an expected delivery weight of between 7-8lb, and I'm measuring bang on my dates.

As I said - never a dull moment in this household!

January Log Cabin - 6. Lets sew!!!!

2011-01-04T20:51:00.001+13:00

OK, I'm assuming that you are ready to rock and roll!!
Get your strips out, here we go.

Step 1: Take your hearth and your smallest piece - both measure 2.5".
Right sides together, pin the small piece on at each end, making sure the edges line up.

Step 2: Sew all the way along - remember no backstitching and a 1/4" seam allowance. If you leave your threads longish here, your seam is less likely to unzip.

Step 3: Remove pins, open seam and press open. You should always press to the darkest side, but with this block I usually find it easier to press outwards.

Step 4: Turn your block 90 deg clockwise (or anticlockwise, which ever way you like, just make sure you always to the same thing...) Pin the next sized piece on, right sides facing, ensuring edges line up.

Step 5: Sew from one end to the other. You will notice here that my seam goes a little wonky here. Not ideal, but it doesn't seem to make too much difference in the middle of such a short piece, and its not at the ends, so I'm leaving it.

Step 6: Press open. You can see the seam looks straight, so again - I wont unpick it.

Step 7: Change stacks, and move to the other fabric/colour. Turn the block 90 degrees again (in the same direction you have done already). Right sides together, match edges, pin and sew.

Step 8: Press open.

Here you can see what the back is looking like - lots of nice 1/4" seams and pressing. I started off pressing to the dark side, but its just naturally easier to press outwards, so I went with it.

Step 9: 2nd Dark piece, follow the system above. Right sides together, match edges, pin, sew and press open.

Step 10: Continue on with 2 pieces from each stack until you get to the end! I always look at my block to double check what the next step is. If you look below, you can see the creamy piece on the right hand side is bound on both sides. That means its next to get a top up!

Its really important to keep an eye on your pieces and the length. If you are working inaccurately (or your strips were cut poorly) your block will get more and more out of proportion. Your next piece wont line up on the edges, and you'll introduce a skew. You can't fix this by chopping off the uneven end. You have to go back and fix your mistake to ensure your block stays square.

IF YOU MAKE A MISTAKE..............................

So you have made a booboo - want to see one of mine?

In this case I pinned too far away from the edge. At some point you need to use 3 pins with this block, and I was being lazy. The fabric shifted as I got to the end, and the blue piece moved inwards. Worst place for it to happen - specially when you start doing small triangles in your blocks!

So to fix this , I used my unpick and picked back as far as I needed to in order to realign the pieces.

I put the block back on to my sewing machine, and started back an inch or two from where I had unpicked to.

Sewing more carefully this time (with my tongue sticking out of course) I resewed the partial seam, overlapping the good sewing and merging into the new seam. I am totally confident this will hold, it won't look odd ironing because I did a clean overlap, and it saved me a couple of minutes.

So if you have done everything right, you can measure your completed block, and it should measure 12.5" by 12.5". If its a bit more, your seam allowance is too small, if its smaller than 12.5", your seam allowance is too large.

Voila!! You have finished the first block of your sampler. Now the tough decision.... Do you make more of these? Or do you sit back and wait for next month. It is such a quick easy block, and a brilliant stash buster, I reckon you might want to crack on with a few more this month. And if you make any you don't want to use, lets put them all together and make a charity quilt - as long as they measure 12.5".......

Enjoy! And please remember to leave a comment if you have any queries or you want to point me to your finished product.

A sneak peak ahead...

2011-01-04T06:14:00.001+13:00

I'm so relieved!
This morning I found a really good free online source of templates that we should all be able to refer to - without infringing any copyrights, and saving me the trouble of teaching pattern drafting, or copying and mailing out templates!

Jinny Beyer Design Studio

(If this doesn't work - look at the free patterns and find the design studio)

Fabulous stuff! Go and have a play. I've downloaded about 10 blocks in pdf. files - fairly simple ones, although in Jinny's fabric, nothing really looks simple.... The nice thing about this, is she allows you to chose what size block you want the templates for. I've selected all 12" blocks because thats what we will work with on this project.
But if you decide to go ahead or make life more challenging for yourself away from the herd, there is nothing stopping you from doing it.

The teacher can't stop coming out.... This is me allowing for extension of the more able students, or those that want to do more homework than I can be bothered setting!

I think our next block will be a simple 9 patch, but I am thinking of a sawtooth/ohio star, or churn dash for the following month. Fun times!

January Log Cabin - 5. Sewing Tricks

2011-01-02T16:28:00.000+13:00

So hopefully by now you have figured out how you are going to manage the 1/4" seam allowance. Its time to practise and get that right.
If you haven't managed to get a foot, you can try out some different techniques. A few websites talk about putting a piece of masking tape on your plate and using that as a guide. Here are some links to try it out:

How to sew
About sewing

Thats going to work OK for now, but it will need to be replaced on a regular basis, and lets face it - if this patchwork craze kicks off, you will probably want to buy a foot down the track.

Set up
Despite the atrocious state of my sewing space (read junk room), clothing, 39w pregnant belly and triple chin, I have decided to show you a picture of my sewing room.
Its very cramped.....

But in a way it works because I don't have to leave my chair to iron! Given this block is ironed every single seam, it would kill me to keep getting up and down. So - I sew, swivle around, and iron.

Having a nice set up means that patchwork is more fun. Even if you clear off your dining table 1 night a week when the kids are in bed, you need to set up a station that works for you. My overlocker and sewing machine sit side by side. Behind my machines is my junk that doesn't have a home, and my thread drawers which also have notions like elastic and embroidery thread in them. It works for me - its not ideal!!! But it works ------ just.

Conventions with thread and patchwork:

Thread
Normally a good quality cotton or polyester thread. I'm a bit of a snob and I only use molnlycke or guttermann or mettler threads. I tend to use 100% polyester, unless I am really making an heirloom in which case I use cotton.
The colour used depends on the nature of the blocks. You can't go wrong with a nice off white colour. My thread of choice is col 111 or 1 in large rolls of Guttermann. I think I get this from spotlight for about $10 or so for a 500m (??) spool, it lasts forever. I use it on the bobbin and on the top thread.
If you have darker fabrics, go with a matching thread. If you have a mix of dark and light, always go light. When you are doing patchwork you press the seams right open, and anything other than off white thread looks terrible.

Stitching
NO BACKSTITCHING!!!!!
You never backstitch in patchwork. You are only working with a 1/4" seam, and any backstitching stuffs up the tension at the start of the piecing, as well as adding bulk. It also makes it harder to undo in a mistake, and you will damage the fabric.
Everytime you iron a seam open there is a chance that the piecing will start to unravel, so be gentle with your pieces, and sew them back together quick smart.
Your stitching will be overlapped the next time you do a seam, so there is never a need to backstitch. Save that for dressmaking.

Always pin each end. Even on little pieces like this you can get movement which will affect your accuracy. I fought pinning for such a long time, but got sick of crappy results. So now I pin.

Start right at the beginning of the pieces, and finish off the end of the pieces.

Cut and iron.

1/4" Seam Allowance
My allowance works with the edge of the foot just inside the fabric. As shown.

You need to experiment with your machine until you get it right. The suggestion is that you cut 3 x 1.5" strips, sew them to each other and press open. The middle piece should be exactly 1".

How far is too far out from 1/4"?
You need to work to exactly 1/4" seams. Obviously we aren't perfect. We will make mistakes. When do you need to worry about it?

Well it depends on the size of the pieces you are using. Large pieces - much more forgiving. Anything smaller than an inch finished size, and the eye can easily pick up mistakes.

I am comfortable working within a margin of error of a small fingernail, as shown above with the slight overlap. If you imaging clipping your nails back so there is no white, and then looking at them a few days later you can just start seeing the white - thats about my tolerance. Say 1mm?

Pressing
In patchwork, we press the seam to one side. Generally speaking, press to the dark side so that the dark pieces don't show behind any light fabric.

In this block however, I prefer to iron everything from the centre out. Use a hot iron, press firmly and open the seam out as far as you can (without pulling the stitches apart)

So I think thats about enough for today. The sewing takes no time. I have knocked out 8 log cabin blocks in about 2 hrs sewing over the last day, so I'm working at about 15mins per block.
Once you get all this sorted - the actual sewing is no time!

And remember - this is supposed to be fun! I usually have a smile on my face when I get to shut the door to my sewing room and ignore the kids for an hour or two.

Next post: Actually sewing!!!!!!!

January Log Cabin - 4. Scrap Quilt

2011-01-01T12:30:00.000+13:00

I know I said the next post was going to be about the actual sewing, but it seems that plenty of people are still going with their fabric selection and cutting, so this might be more help.

Crazy old me (blame the preggie hormones) decided to cut out a scrap quilt to sew this month too, just to show how the blocks can be arranged.
It was actually very cleansing in a way, I sorted through all the scraps I had, the stuff I didn't like etc. I tried to keep mainly to florals - keeping away from medium tones and serious brights, and this was the pile I ended up with.

In here there are some lovely fabrics, expensive etc, but there are also some real cheapies! Some of these are also 25y old - from when I first started patchwork when I was about 10. I'll save that story for another month.....

So:

Step 1 - iron everything.

Step 2 - cut into 1.5" strips, and put into piles of lights and darks. That whole pile turned into this lovely little ensemble.

Step 3: Cut into the lengths. I'm doing 16 blocks (4 x 4) so I need to do everything on the cutting list 16 times. Arrange in pretty piles.

Step 4: Arrange into piles so each block is already organised. I then hold them together with a pin at the top. With a scrap quilt you want as much randomness as possible, so you will try to ensure each block has no repeats of any one fabric, or at the very least the repeats are far apart from each other.

Step 5: Sit back and admire. All that selecting, cutting and organising only took me about 4-5 hrs, and that will make a 48" quilt top which once you add borders to, will be a nice size quilt. It would sit on top of a queen bed, perfect for naps!

I don't have to cut anything else for this whole quilt now. Its completely precut! It might take me 4-6 hrs to sew it, I haven't bought anything for it, and it cleaned up my stash at the same time! What could be easier :)

You can see that overall there is a strong contrast between the left hand side and the right hand side. If you squint your eyes, it gives you a very good idea of what the overall effect will be.

Once I have pieced these together, I will be able to show you the different effects you can make with 16 blocks, so if you decide you quite like the log cabin block, you might decide to make a whole quilt from it, rather than using it as one of your sampler blocks. Its really up to you.

So tomorrow will be sewing shots, and I will help you out with chain piecing, 1/4" and ironing. Really - once you are at this point, the hard work is done.
Happy New Year!!

Giveaway Results :)

2011-01-01T12:14:00.000+13:00

Drawn by 3 very impartial people (DP, Miss 5.5 and Master 4), the winners are:

White Rose
Donna (HuntD)
and
Darny

Well done you guys, please send me your addresses via PM on TNN and I will get these straight out to you! They are in envelopes ready to go now, so there wont be much waiting for them at all.

January Log Cabin - 3. Cutting and Giveaway!

2010-12-29T16:58:00.002+13:00

The next job is cutting the 1.5" strips. The key here is to cut accurately. Ironing is a must!! Use a hot iron with steam and your life will be much easier.
A ruler and rotary cutter makes a big difference with strips, but you can definitely do it with scissors and a pencil.
There are very few straight edges on scraps, but if you have a selvedge, or its been cut well at the shop, you can be on a winner.

Use your straight edge as a guide, and cut from there.
Try to cut with the grain. Being slightly off grain is not a big deal as with patchwork its all locked into place. But you must never cut on the bias unless you are told to!!! This will completely stuff your whole block up.

If you have a geometric print (like stripes)you need to cut with the pattern rather than the grain of the fabric.

So now cut strips. You need 1.5" strips. Not too many of them, only about 2m in total length of each colour.

Here is my scrappy block all laid out with the strips. Doesn't it already look nicer?

And here is my coordinating block laid out the same way.

Pretty right? The different length of strips is due to the way I cut it off the piece of fabric. Some came from scraps, some from fat quarters, some leftovers, and some from 20cm full pieces.

Ok - now you need to follow the cutting instructions on the tutorial found here
Essentially you need one 2.5" square for the hearth, then Fabric A has 2.5" up to 11"5" strips, and Fabric B has 3.5" up to 12.5" strips.

When its all cut out it will look like this.

And then you can rearrange to make it look all organised like this....

And if you are feeling game, you can now lay your blocks out - overlapping each piece slightly so you see what the finished product will look like!
Scrap block:

Coordinated block:

And because I had too much time on my hands today, I decided to do an extra 3 blocks with the leftovers. These will be giveaways! If you would like me to send you an already cut out set, please leave a comment below, maybe telling me why you are keen to give this a whirl, and I will draw on New Years Day. You will save the time of cutting for now, and can concentrate on sewing perfectly..... Or maybe you can work on finding a 1/4" quilters foot for your machine?

Next post:
Sewing, and the magic 1/4" seam allowance.

January Log Cabin - 2. Fabric choice (Coordinating)

2010-12-29T16:41:00.000+13:00

So you can't handle the idea of a scrap quilt. Thats really OK. Honest it is!!
What you need to do is pick out a central theme. Walk into a fabric shop and find something you like. Find something cheap that you like. Find an old cotton dress you want to use and base it all around that!

Whatever you do - find a theme fabric and get at least 1m of it.

A couple of years ago (actually more like 4-5 years now....) I found this fabric at Spotters on sale. It was only $8/m and I really liked it, so I bought about 5m of it. I bought that much so I could use it for borders for a quilt. Borders chew up the fabric, so when you find something you like for a good price, allow 3-4m for borders.

From the central fabric you want to look through your stash first, and find what you have that works with it. Then go to a shop and buy 20cm pieces or some fat quarters that also match. This photo shows you some of what I have in my stash I could use with this fabric.

Sometimes with fabrics there are the matching prints that go in the series. Its a good idea to buy these, but if you make your whole quilt from them, someone else out there is likely going to have the same quilt as you! So its good to be brave and splash out a little.

When you have decided on your central fabric, and the block you wish to make, its time to select the fabrics for that block. Edit essentially. You need to think about what sort of balance you are going for, and how you will fit it in with the rest of your quilt. I decided for this block to go green and background prints, with a yellow hearth.
So I whittled down to get this selection.

The red is not going to feature in this block at all. I could have used it for the hearth I suppose, but I'm still leaving it while selecting my fabric to ensure that it all works. I need 5 darks and 5 lights for the arrangement I'm using.
I like it, but I know already that it is going to be hard to get into the quilt as it will be quite contrasty, quite light, with no red. Ah well........

January Log Cabin - 1. Fabric choice (Scrap)

2010-12-29T13:32:00.000+13:00

For January we are going to work on a Log Cabin 12" block. The strips will all be precut which means you are going to know straight away if your 1/4" seam allowance is off.
Rather than posting the whole instructions, we are going to work off this tutorial:
http://www.quilt.com/Blocks/LogCabin/LogCabin.html

Its well layed out with all the instructions, so those that are able to can zoom ahead.

First job - select your fabrics. I've raided my fabric stash and decided to do a scrap block in blues and light backgrounds. So I've picked everything out in the palette, ironed them, and cast a discerning eye over them.

You can see there are a range of blues here. Not all the same colour, but the only one that stands out to me as being "wrong" is the light blue, 3rd from the left. I'm concerned that if I put that one in the mix, it will detract from the blue side of the cabin. The other ones are OK, but I will have to be careful cutting the pieces as with large prints you can interrupt the effect by putting in a huge chunk of green island!

After rejigging, this is my fabric line up - ironed and ready to cut. There is a strong contrast between both sides without anything standing out too much.

Now if I was going to do this quilt as a properly coordinated print, I would choose a central theme or fabric. If you look at my Northern Stars Quilt you can see that there is a theme through the blocks. Its hard to tell until you put the border on in this case, but the central fabric is a large blue/green/cream rose floral. Everything in the quilt is chosen around that.

So if you wanted to coordinate this, find a fabric that you like, and choose maybe 10-12 coordinating fabrics.
Next post: Fabric Choice (coordinated)

Patchwork Essentials

2010-12-29T13:06:00.000+13:00

Over on TNN (The Nappy Network) we are doing a monthly craft focus.
There was a small but reasonable amount of interest in a Patchwork project, and given I have a bit of exposure to the said craft, I have decided to help things along.

Patchwork has been a part of my whole life. My mother is a prominent quilter and has impeccable taste in the said craft. I don't have much contact with her anymore, but I figure I have picked up a few tips along the way.

Firstly - lets talk about patchwork essentials. Your hardware. Keep in mind these are tools that make life easier and more accurate, but you can do patchwork with a needle and thread and a pair of scissors! Think Amish - they don't have electricity right?

But I like to have things a little more comfortable, and so these are my must haves.

1. Pins. You must pin the pieces together. Accuracy is critical, and if you don't pin your pieces together, you will never get points to match! I have a pincushion that site beside my machine. I admit to leaving pins in while I'm sewing, and hoping that my machine won't hit them. Its only happened once, and that broke the needle and stuffed up my timing. Expensive!! If you don't want to chance it, leave the pin in until your needle reaches it, then pull it out before sewing. That way the pressure from the foot holds the piece in place.
2. Quick Unpick. You will make mistakes. Its totally normal. The good patchworker undoes their mistakes and resews, rather than regretting the inaccuracy down the track. I have this one - the one that came with my Bernina - handy beside my machine.
3. A patchwork foot. This foot allows you to get an accurate 1/4" seam allowance. Most, if not all patchwork patterns come from USA which works on the imperial system (not metric) So all the designs and templates are specified with a quarter inch seam allowance. If you don't work within this limit, your final product will be so far out, it can be unusable.
4. A cutting mat, rotary cutter and ruler. Rotary cutting is so much more accurate and time saving than scissors and tracing around templates. You can start with small everything, and as you get more confident scale up on ruler, mat and cutter. I do find that a larger blade is nicer for cutting strips, but the smaller blade is nicer for around tricky templates.
5. Sharp needles. Little pieces of fabric, blunt needles, jamming threads. Nuff said.

Thats about it - the essentials of patchwork.

Final sum up of 12 Days....

2010-12-25T12:36:00.000+13:00

OK - so the best laid plans and all that.......

I meant to post daily with the swap I sent and the swap I received. But my camera is on the fritz, and life has gotten in the way, and well, here we are at Day 12, and I have a couple of photos to share.

Odette sent me all these goodies. Just a gorgeous swap - thanks ever so much. (Stitch markers are missing as they are already in my SM pouch and I can't find them at the moment...) I've loved the deccies, the gardening stuff is lovely, and the book is really good! I've not seen the series or read any of the books, and I'm really enjoying it! I actually would love to be reading now rather than cooking the Christmas lunch, but the big guy is in bed sleeping, so thems the breaks.

This is the final swap that Hannah should have amassed. Its so strange when you participate in swaps to look at the final product. I put alot of time into Hannah's swap at a pretty tricky old time. To me it looks bitzy, but I know each thing in there was thought about and considered. There are 6 handmade things, a few bought things, and a few things that were jokey.

So another Christmas Day is over as far as the kids are concerned. I am more excited about about the roast chicken in the oven, and the pav and brandy snaps awaiting us! I did get a pretty special present (apart from the much needed Clarins products and some new knit picks and addi's needles). I told Shane he owed me diamond earrings after the grief he has put me through.

I helped out by using an old 1/4 carat diamond pendant of mine as one of the earrings, and traded in all my unwanted or broken 9ct gold jewellery, so I now have a lovely pair of sparklies at a much cheaper price than buying new. The camera is really on the fritz (hopefully a second hand Nikon SLR D200 coming to me in the new year!!!) so here is a fritzy shot to show the size. Perfect I would say :)

I hope all your Christmasses are lovely too. I just have to go and deal with the nearly 6yo who has her first digital camera, and the 4yo who has a noisy digger truck that is driving us all mad!!!

12 Days of Christmas - Day 3 and 4

2010-12-17T16:50:00.000+13:00

Oops - its a double post today. Yesterday was just one of those days. I forgot appointments and just ran around like a chook all day.

The mugginess has lifted slightly, but now we have that damp feeling that comes with the rain on a warm day. Still - the gardens are watered by nature, which is great since sprinkler bans kicked in Waipa last night. Hand held watering still find, but no more sprinklers. Still - if its hot, not much is going to stop me putting the sprinkler on for the kids to play in!

So - Day 3 received from Odette was a wonderful partner for Mr Claus. She's pretty happy on the tree near her mate, but I have noticed all the decorations keep changing spots. At least the decs aren't falling on the ground - not like all the needles. Hmmmm.

Day 4 from Odette were these great little stitch markers.

I never have enough stitch markers. With all the seamless knits I do, I find that lots and lots of these things is an absolute must.

Day 3 sent was this tin.

It was filled with Days 4,5,6 and luckily Hannah has already said what she opened for Day 4, because I had forgotten to write them down before sealing them into Day 3!
Day 4 was a small, densely knitted cloth. 2 ends, and really thick. Will probably be a great little kitchen scrubber.

Jenna is really beginning to get into this swap. This morning she quietly came to ask me if she could open day 4. I allowed her to, since she showed such restraint!

12 Days of Christmas - Day 2

2010-12-15T19:19:00.000+13:00

Today is Wednesday. It was a hard day.... Schools are finishing up. I had to go to my workplace to empty out my desk for my maternity leave replacement, and there was a concert, a Pippins party and of course nibbles to prepare.

So - hard day for me, I'm tired, its hot, I'm over it.

It's nice therefore to have a wee pick-me-up!

Today I received this lovely little santa decoration from Odette in my Day 2 parcel. I'm not sure if she made it, but its incredibly well finished, so if she did she's a smartie!!!

Hannah would have opened her day 2 parcel to find this: Something for the kiddlies :)

In addition to the swap festivities, I got the teacher's gifts together this evening too (x 6 - 4 kindy teachers and 2 school teachers) 6 nice teatowels each filled with about 1kg of freshly dug new potatoes from our vege garden.

Seems a weird present to give, but with all the wonderful things teachers receive at this time of year - especially new entrants teachers - I like giving a practical easy present that people don't feel bad about receiving or cooking and using!!

On with tomorrow - phew! This heat is killing me so with the promise of rain tomorrow, I'm already loving the idea of a good night's sleep.

12 Days of Christmas - Day 1

2010-12-14T09:56:00.000+13:00

Odette sent me my lovely parcels, wrapped carefully and they look quite exciting!

Today is day one of the swap.

I'm pleased to reveal what I sent over to Hannah

Christmas toilet paper. A must have!

And the lovely gift received, chocolate fig and ginger fruit mince. Yum!!!! Not sure what I'm going to use this for, but I do have some shortcrust pastry in the freezer, so maybe I'll get that out and make some tarts! Yum.

Mental as anything

2010-12-03T15:34:00.000+13:00

I have this weird habit.
I hand knit blanks and then dye them into gradients.

This is 2 ends of yarnundyed dk merino knitted, and dyed into a rainbow gradient.

The red is a bit pink, but other than that I am reasonably happy with it.
We will see what this next baby is, and if its not a girl, I will sell this gradient on as I think its a bit feminine for a wee boy.

I have another gradient all ready to dye up - I'll probably attack that tomorrow if the inclination takes me that way.

See - I can do a happy post!

Trying not to do a depressing post....

2010-12-02T22:29:00.000+13:00

Due to the last 6-7 weeks, much of what I have written here has been tainted with misfortune. And I don't mean it to be, truly! BUt I guess when the focus of your world becomes someone else's health, well you can't really help it.
The day after Shane was diagnosed with the Tumour, I had to make phone calls to ask for help. As we were in the middle of reno's and the lino had been laid on the Friday, I was really stuck as I had no oven, washing machine, shower, bath, vanity, fridge, laundry tub in place. Luckily we had the toilet, the kitchen sink and the dishwasher.
And the next problem I faced is that Shane is exactly the sort of person I needed to call! Handy, capable and able to tackle most jobs. Luckily we have a friend who is a plumber, and he came over on the Sunday to do all sorts of things for us, while his wife watched the kids. Another friend came over on the Saturday and put back the fridge and washing machine. But the oven was still tricky. Shane had unwired it, and I really couldn't trust his wiring, so I knew I had to get a sparky in.

The person I called was Paul McLeod - the head of technology at Cambridge High School. I did a practicum at CHS when I did my teacher training 2 years ago, and really enjoyed being in the tech department. Such a lovely group of men, and had I not got the job where I did, I would have worked as a relief teacher at CHS until I was able to be squeezed in somewhere. Such a lovely team. After my prac finished, I saw an advertisement for a workshop technician for 2 hrs per week, and Shane approached them for the job. He's been there since, and has really enjoyed his 2 hours in the man cave each week - fixing lathes and sharpening chisels, and he is able to use the facilities whenever he needs to out of hours for small welding jobs etc. They love him too as it frees up the teachers time as they can leave the repair jobs for him in the weekend.

Paul was a great help when I called. He gave me numbers to call, and over the next few weeks called a few times to check on progress. He was understanding when Shane couldn't get in there, and even more understanding when Shane and I started doing his 2 hrs a week together over the last few weeks as I can't trust him to be in a workshop alone with his seizures and the like.

Sadly Paul took his own life on Sunday after what sounds like a long battle with depression. He is survived by his wife of 42 years and his 3 daughters. Today was the funeral, and I was holding it together pretty well until the daughters took the stage and the grief poured through them.

I'll miss him. He was a bloody good colleague, a mentor, and an all round funny nice bloke. I don't understand why it happened, why he all of a sudden didn't feel like he could reach out and ask for help. I mean - I asked him for help 6-7 weeks ago, and he delivered. Didn't he realise there were people who would do the same for him?

So - trying not to be a depressing post, but there it is.

On the lighter side of things, I have done some dyeing today, and I am getting my giveaway together! Hopefully it will be ready in a week or so in time for Christmas!

Bolero testing

2010-11-29T22:12:00.000+13:00

Lately I have been doing a lot of testing. Not sure why. I think I like to knit under pressure - makes something get done.
Could be the excitement of knitting a pattern that is limited edition so to speak.
Might be the fact that for some of the patterns people can't wait to see the projects coming out so they get lots of "love".

Whatever it is that attracts me to them, I do too many. Usually I am pretty good and get them out on time. Lately there have been a couple of exceptions to this rule (mostly as a result of life throwing weird stuff at me, and having to reorganise my life on a daily basis!!)

When Kath produced images of her little blossum bolero, I fell in love! Could be the fact that everyone has a soft spot for matching flower girls, but I just knew that this was a knitted item that my crazy daughter might wear! I put my name down for testing it, and a couple of weeks ago the pattern came up for testing.

I've knitted it in purewool, a uruguayan 3 ply wool that is lovely and soft, not badly priced, but pills like a MF and stretches terribly out of shape if you don't knit it tight!

I'm very happy with the result. It wouldn't be the combination I would choose, but there is something nice about pandering to your child's wishes, and actually making something they want to wear, not what you would like them to wear. She wanted the ruffle, she got the ruffle. I wanted to do the lovely picot edging or perhaps the lace ruffle, but J won.

So there are several combos of sleeve and edging in this pattern, its a lovely fit and a reasonably easy and quick knit. Well worth it I'd say!
To be released on December 1st I believe. Go for it :)

Nitrogen Purge

2010-11-25T10:26:00.000+13:00

I had restless dreams last night. Mostly about the poor miners and their families.

All night I kept yelling out "purge the mine with nitrogen!!". I was thinking about this a couple of days ago when it was still a rescue operation, but later I realised if they purged the mine with nitrogen, it would take away the breathable air too, and if anyone was alive, they would suffocate.

For those that are unaware, the air around us is approx 79% nitrogen gas, and 21% oxygen (with a few other bits in there as well). The nitrogen is inert - meaning it doesn't react with our bodies or easily take part in chemical reactions. So we breathe it in and out, and it doesn't take part in respiration.

If the rescuers flooded the mine with nitrogen gas (instead of normal air which has oxygen in it), it could displace all the toxic gases, possibly put out any remaining fires and push out all the wastes through a vent. Meaning that for a short amount of time the explosive combos inside would be eliminated and the recovery of the bodies could go ahead.

I see from several articles this morning they are already considering purging the mines with carbon dioxide or nitrogen, so I think its just a matter of getting the generator in, and starting the process.

My gut feel is that the poor men in there probably suffocated very quickly after the first explosion. While there was a compressed air line going into the mine, chances are the first explosion knocked many of them out, and then the carbon monoxide gases generated from the incomplete combustion of the coal and methane just kept them unconscious until their bodies shut down. Probably a very peaceful way to go. Hopefully the search and recovery reveals this was the case.

My heart goes out to the whole community. We watched all the faces and realised that they could have all been men we have both worked with in various industrial environments. So, so sad.

12 days of Christmas swap

2010-11-23T20:12:00.000+13:00

Over on Ravelry (my haunt for knitting related guff), the NZ and Aussie knitters organised a small swap for the 12 days of Christmas.
The idea was - 12 gifts, one to be opened each day, max $30-40 spend, and the last day is to be something substantial.

My swap partner is the lovely Hannah aka Rainbowchild, and I have had alot of fun getting it all together, but its done and ready to be posted!

Its all a bit out there, and I think on some days she will think I'm a bit odd, but on other days I think I've hit it on the head.

I've photographed everything individually, so I plan to do a daily reveal of the gift I have received, and the gift I sent. I'm really looking forward to this! Except that gifts 4,5,6 are inside gift 3, which is wrapped, and I can't remember the order..... And gift 3 is actually quite nicely wrapped, so I dont want to pull it apart just to check my numbers. So 4,5,6 will be on the day 6 all together.

To whet Hannah's appetite, here is the total package ready to be sent out. Wrapped of course!

Fun fun fun!!

Wow - wierd.....

2010-11-21T20:22:00.000+13:00

So I checked this blog today to see if there were any comments (and thanks for your lovely comments from the other day, they mean alot to me) and I see there are a stack of hits from somewhere called

mumscom.niceboard.net

So I went to the site to see what it was, and its a forum you can't access..... So what were they looking at on my little old blog?

The last couple of days have been scary in little old NZ. The miners in the South Island dominate the news, and its really terrible. I have never worked in mining, but I have been in industrial environments for much of my professional career as an engineer, and an operator in petrochemical.

I don't think people realise how hard it is to mount a rescue campaign. Having trained in rescue, hot fire training, first aid, ammonia suits and BA gear, I know what its like to wear the gear and have to carry people out... I know what its like to be blinded by smoke and have to crawl through a hot-house with all the gear on.

It sucks, and the thought of the poor rescuers having to tramp through a dark mine, in an explosive, toxic environment and not know if they will have enough O2 to make it out again - belies belief.

I really feel for all the community down there. Greymouth is such a small community, everyone will be affected by it.

Puts a brain tumour in perspective really.

Strength

2010-11-19T21:16:00.000+13:00

At the moment lots of people are telling me how strong I am.

I guess for many people, what I am dealing with right now is a total nightmare. I mean who really imagines their life partner is going to have brain surgery when you are due to have a baby in 3months.

I didn't expect it. Nothing like this has happened in my family. Bad things have happened in Shane's family, and they have a bit more practise with it all, but for me this is all new.

So I guess I am just muddling through it. I put on the brave front when dealing with the doctor's and the kids, and when noone is listening I let out a big sob and kick something. Driving by myself is when I really get the tears flowing, but the problem with that is I get a bright red rudolph nose when I cry that takes about 30mins to settle down.

Life isn't fair. And good people put up with fucking horrible shit. This is hard, and its the uncertainty that is the hardest. Just when we think we have got over another hurdle, we got 2 steps back.

Today Shane started having seizures. They were like skipping CD's, but they lasted about 2-5mins each. His head sort of flicks, and he can't get the words out - like a tic or a bad stutter. I sent him by ambulance to hospital, and he was discharged 3 hrs later with a new script.
Now I can't look at him in case he has another.

I really want to just curl up in a little ball most days and close my eyes, and rock quietly, but unfortunately there is just noone else around to do all the jobs. So I keep doing it all, hoping that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

I know that bad things happened, and while our situation is bad, it could be a lot worse. So while it looks like I'm strong, I'm not sure I am. Maybe I'm a bit of a Prince William and Kate - ducks calm on the surface while their little legs are scrambling under the surface.

Some respite would be good. Just a few days of how life used to be, and then I can do another month of this. But I guess thats what strength is. Knowing that unfortunately when you get up in the morning, its going to be the same as it was today. And still getting up anyway.

Pterodactyl Poo

2010-11-18T12:27:00.002+13:00

This was on my car when I came out of Jenna's ballet exam this morning.
Hamish and I examined it closely.

Given we were not parked under a tree, I decided it must have been a very large bird to fly and launch it because there is a large amount of matter in this baby. (pictured with a AA battery for size comparison....)

The only thing we could come up with is, it had to have been a Pterodactyl. Granted they haven't been sighted in a few million years, but what other flying creature could have done this. It wasn't a sparrow, we don't live anywhere near the coast, ducks aren't flying around at the mo, and it wasn't in the country.

Hamish likes the idea of it being a pterodactyl too.....

Reading

2010-11-16T17:01:00.001+13:00

I've always been a massive reader. It started in childhood with books about Ramona, magical trees, fairies and witches, princesses, detectives called Nancy and many, many more.
There have been classics I haven't read - like Tolkien, just cause I never really got into them. I didn't love CS Lewis either, but I made up for it through my early teens reading Fiona Kidman, Tessa Duder, Janet Frame, Maurice Gee, Alex Haley and even attempting Tolstoy when I was about 14.....

So give me a book and I will read it. I'm not fussy about genre. I do romance to horror, mystery to fantasy, tear jerkers to war stories, but generally prefer fiction (or escapism as I like to call it....)

Recently a family friend had a pile of books to give away from her neighbour who was moving. Beauty I thought, and I went through the pile able to take what I wanted! There were loads of books in my reading list, and I took a chance on a couple.

The Russian Concubine by Kate Furnivall was a pleasant surprise, and I plan to hunt out more of her books next time I am at the library. There is a sequel, called the Concubine's Secret, and I think that will be top of the holiday reading.

I also adore Jeffrey Archer, but I find the books follow a similar recipe, so the three I got will have to be spaced out over the next few months otherwise they are just too predictable. The latest I read was Son's of Fortune, a good bit of escapism, but very, very predictable.

There was Four fires by Bryce Courtenay, who I have struggled with since April Fools Day depressed me terribly. Although he does have a few brownie points from The Power of One, so I'll give him another crack.

Several years ago a friend put me onto the Jean M Auel books, and I read the first 3. I was told mistakenly that the author had died, so I put the end to reading the series cos thats just frustrating... (Think Stephen King and the Dark Tower series - give me a break, over 20 years before the first and last books????)

But surprisingly this stash had the first 5 books of the series! I snapped them up, and I am looking forward to the days when I can sit down and read them all, one after the other (And I have just read there is another one being released in 2011).

I do like a good series. I loved the twilight books, trashy as they were. I can re-read books a number of times, and the second time I read the whole series, it was within 48hrs. I'm not sure how many pages that is, but its alot....... I didn't sleep much that weekend!

So here is my stash of books.

Many are packed away, and some are in other homes. My childhood books (until I went to uni) are all still with my parents, and one day all the grandkids will hopefully get as much pleasure from them as I did. The books are double in each of the shelves, and even then they don't fit in, and many of these travelled around NZ, over to Oz, from Brisbane to Melbourne to Geelong, and back over to NZ again. I have trouble getting rid of them...... There are probably only one or two I haven't read (not for lack of trying) and most I have read more than once.

I just love books. Reading is good for the soul, and I hope I pass on my love of books to my kids. So far it seems to be working as both are often found asleep in their beds with books around them.

No new crafty stuff....

2010-11-14T07:06:00.000+13:00

Nope. Nothing. Shane went back into hospital again this week, and so the week went a bit topsy turvy. I suspect life is going to be like that alot over the next year or so.
He has found out that he is profoundly deaf in his RH side at higher frequencies, and moderately deaf at the lower frequencies. This is OK. Its not ideal, but its OK.
The interesting thing is the ear works fine, but the nerves seem to be damaged from the surgery removing the tumour. It might work again one day, but likely not.

I have a birthday party this morning with Miss 5. Fun times. Such lovely kids and parents, but I just don't love parties. And everyone will ask how he is. And I'll have to explain things 10 times over.

Sigh - at least this baby inside seems to be doing all the right things - especially growing. Hard to believe I still have 9 or so weeks to go!

A bit of a redesign.

2010-11-01T20:05:00.000+13:00

Lets see how long it lasts.
I like red, but I'm not sure its calming.

Lots of sewing this afternoon, I was getting somewhere quickly until the bobbin ran out in a particularly tricky seam, and I flagged it all.
Hoping to get my giveaway photographed tomorrow so that I can start collecting names.

Pretty easy to give something away when only a couple of people read the blog - hahahaha!

I'm also working on a fabulous swap that I am really enjoyingto be sent to the lovely Hannah (Rainbowchild) in about 3 weeks time. Only 6 items to finish!

Its the little things...

2010-10-31T13:24:00.000+13:00

So with the huge upheaval that happened in our life over the last couple of weeks, and being faced with the uncertainty that comes after these events, I'm finding time to enjoy the little things.

Today these are the things I am thankful for:

1) Having kickass taste in sewing equipment.
This is my stunning sewing machine.

Its a special edition Bernina I bought around 2002, and it was terribly expensive for someone who wasn't sewing at the time.

I've been brought up around sewing - my mother owns a very large patchwork and quilting shop, and we have lived around fabric crafts for our whole lives (cross-stitch, knitting, sewing, etc etc etc)
So when I decided to buy, I bought the best. It was $2200AUD 8y ago, and came with extras like a free walking foot (val. $125), a stainless, full sized arm, knee lift, programmable stitches, a two way pedal so that you use your heel and the needle goes up or down. All of these things are no longer available on the comparable model.
Its an amazing piece of equipment, and has only missed a beat once - when I hit a pin and whacked out the timing. I expect it will last me another 20y at least.

2) Shane being able to sleep wherever, whenever!

This is my DP 3 weeks after finding out he had a large brain tumour that has since been removed and diagnosed as Grade I benign. It will be a long road to recovery, and he sleeps more than a newborn baby! I have had to give up work to look after the household, and I'm very thankful for his naps because it means he will get better. Slowly. With infinite patience from me and the kids.

3) My vege garden coming up to summer.

These are all seeds I planted in the last 2-4 weeks. We have beans, corn, beetroot, radish, peas, spinach, cabbage etc. We have 3 other vege patches too, and the 20kg of seed potatoes we planted in the community garden, so our vege garden is pretty important to us. I tend it like its a child, weeding, watering and de-bugging in an organic manner.

So - what are you thankful for?

Pressies

2010-10-27T14:26:00.001+13:00

So I have many nieces and no nephews!
In fact, H is the only Grandson on both sides of the family (excluding the ex-communicated ones......)

Nieces are fun to make gifts for. They like dresses that I can knit, and shawls, and I can sew them things too. All good outlets for my creative flair.

S is 11 (I think???) this weekend, so I decided to try out a new design for her gift, a lined bag and a lined zippered purse in some super pretty colours.

I think these will make excellent project bags for knitters (with the matching purse for all your odds and sods) and I am planning on making them to sell when life gets a little more gentle (and I have done all the pricing).

One of these sets will be in my giveaway bonanza next week.

The resurrection......

2010-10-26T13:21:00.000+13:00

So I'm back.

And this time I promise to be good.
Unexpectedly I have become a SAHM again about 2 months earlier than I planned. Shane recently faced some horrific health issues we have had to battle through, and as a consequence, I have given up work early, with my maternity leave actually due to start in January 2011.

Over the next few months I plan to blog far more frequently, and I will be offering a few goodies on the side. I plan on keeping myself busy next year by offering both custom knits, and one-off specials with an extra special dye job! Also plan on selling some other bits and pieces to keep my craft budget funded.

Come along for the ride! Expect a few things over the next week:

Maybe a redesign and rename (not sure here)
A giveaway (still working out exactly what to give away.....)
A sneak peak of whats to come
More news about family and our lifestyle
And perhaps more......

Thanks for popping back! Lets see if I can get this blog back up and running with a nice clean start.

Keeping the vampires away

2010-01-15T15:43:00.004+13:00

I am so damned proud of our little garden. While we are getting a few problems at the moment in terms of white fly (possibly has something to do with the fact we are still growing brassica's in summer......) our garlic has gone so well this year.

Can I recommend you plant your garlic this year in a raised bed? This stuff is kick ass.

Other points of interest.

Corn - doing very well, but I think it might be a bit small.

Basil looking pretty good as well. We are getting a nice feed of beans every couple of days which is nice too. Courgettes OK (but a few brown leaves which is worrying....), lettuce performing well, beetroot growing, cucumbers starting to come along.

Tomatoes aren't going brilliantly, and I think this comes from our reluctance to use sprays in the garden. I am feeding them a little more now, so hopefully it will give them they boost they need.

So - we now have our best raised bed space free again - we just have to decide what to put in the garlic's place for a few months......

Sock Yarn Swapsies - TNN

2010-01-14T10:48:00.004+13:00

It swap time again in the TNN halls of residence!

I received this today - its just lovely! I am going to cast on with it immediately:

Not sure who it is from, I am OK with these things staying a secret usually. I'm not sure why, I guess I just used to get so excited about finding out what things were, I sort of wore myself out.

So there is 100g of sock wool (we specified a good quality mix this time around), a lovely little felted ball which I can't decide what to do with - definitely not for the kids.... and a pattern for socks - Peacock Tail Socks.

My swapper has done a lovely job, the colours are rich and vibrant, and with it being her first semi solid, I think she has done a cracker job.

So - to my Sock fairy in Christchurch (if your return address is genuine....) - THANKS!!!

Kindy Present for 2009

2009-12-17T16:41:00.007+13:00

These are the presents we are giving the kindy teachers this year.

Inspired by other's blogs, specifically Bakerella..... They are a cookie in a jar - just need some butter, egg and vanilla added and they are good to go!

I think they are really nice, and a bit fun. Our teachers are very special - they are Montessori trained, and now have both kids! Jenna is there full days on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and Hamish does half days Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

Yesterday I went to the kindy and did a science lesson for the afternoon kids. It was fun - we looked a x-rays and some skeleton bones, played with a microscope, did some household acid and base chemistry and played with the power packs and lightbulbs.

Apparently they are going to write a book about me.... Kaiako Fiona......

Hamish also had his birthday today at kindy, so following in the family tradition we had muffins and candles. All good fun. There was another lovely little girl celebrating from yesterday, so 2 muffins for all the kiddies.

Another 3 months passes by

2009-11-30T18:38:00.006+13:00

So are the days of our lives..

Actually - some days it feels like my life is a bit of a soap opera!

Jenna and Hamish doing some building

Work has been frantically busy, but great. Teaching is definitely my thing, which is terribly comforting. The school I work at is amazing, and everyone is fabulous.

The kids are growing furiously - in both mind and body, and Hamish has started kindy.

First Day of Kindy

I have been plenty busy in the craft world too - lots of dyeing, knitting and sewing. Really enjoying myself.

Painting rocks for Mothers Day

So why no posts? Well I guess I update alot more often on Facebook these days, which is great. I am catching up with friends from many years past - and its kinda cool to see what all my school mates from the early 90's are now doing. Some wonderful things - thats for sure! There are editors, muso's, producers, designers, models, tv stars, but most importantly - lots of nice people, doing good things that usually involve family.

Snow on the Napier-Taupo road in October!!!

So here are some shots of the last few months. Enjoy.

Kindy trip to the zoo last week

Ouch

2009-08-31T19:07:00.001+12:00

Its really been 4 months since my last post?

Wow - thats a loooooong time.

Heaps to update on, will do over the next few nights. Obviously I have found a new busy career that keeps me off the puter in my kids-at-home time.

More to follow in subsequent days........

Before and after - first haircut!

2009-04-21T11:01:00.005+12:00

Crawford is about 6m old now, and has just had her first haircut. So cute - I could almost eat her up!

Before - and this is after brushing!

Scruffy thing, but loads of personality.

After - soooooo cute!! She actually looks like a proper westie now!

This took 2 hours. Nails filed, ears plucked then cut, face cleaned up, back clipped, bum and tail clipped. A girl has got to have all the treatments daahling!

Amazing! She looks fabulous, and apparently went very well, so the only thing we have to practise before the next trip is plucking her ears as she didn't enjoy that so much.

Calling all customs!

2009-04-05T18:03:00.004+12:00

I had a query about customs - whether I am up for them at the moment.

Yes I am!

In a week I will be on school holidays, so that's 2 weeks of being at home - bliss!

I am interested in doing a dye up or two, so if you want to contact me for a custom - fjwolff at ihug dot co dot nz

At the moment I have the following in stock:
4 ply machine wash 100%
4 ply machine wash sock wool (70/30)
8 ply machine wash 100%
and 200g each of 2 and 3 ply lace wool.

I am interested in jumper lots - so if you were thinking of a larger dye job, let me know.

Roll on last week of term ;)

Earth hour

2009-03-28T21:35:00.004+13:00

So of course we did this tonight.

A little pointless given all we ever have on at this time of night is 2 60W bulbs, but ya know - we did what we should have.

While all these things are great - ultimately its what you do in your day to day life that makes a big difference.

I am a massive one for the old "reuse, reduce, recycle". It ties in with the classic engineers phrase eliminate, isolate, minimise - but dont tell the greenies that.....

My Precious....

2009-03-24T18:58:00.004+13:00

Its a sad state of affairs when you have a thing for wool. I have a thing for wool. Therefore I am sad. Or pathetic. Or whatever.

Anyway - Wollmeise. Hard as anything to get your hands on, and after almost a year, this is my stash. I sold one to Sam who made a beautiful shawl, and knitted up some of my Saami, and this is what is left!

I love the stuff, and it smells great, and since I dye wool (often to sell....) I feel qualified to say her colours are intense, tasteful and insanely beautiful!

From left to right
Fratello (Yarnissima Kits)
Rhabarber
Buxkranzl (Sock Club)
Okzident (Sock Club)
Spina de Pesce (Yarnissima)
Hollerstaud'n (Sock Club)
Petit Poison No 5
Digitessa (Yarnissima)
Jultomte (Sock Club)
Rosenrot
Orient (Sock Club)
Campari Orange
Red Hot Chilli
and 2 naturals along the back.

There are 2 more sock clubs to come, and then I think I am done with buying Wollmeise. Its horribly stressful, there is lots of hoarders of the stuff, and the price is horribly inflated on places like Ebay USA. For example the latest installment of the sock club sold on Ebay for $300 USD. Now I love the stuff, but at $50NZD per skein, thats about my limit!! I cannot justify keeping more than this, nor can I justify the constant trading and selling that goes on. I wish people would just buy what THEY want, and leave the rest for other people who want to buy. I never buy more than 3 skeins at a time becuase postage goes stupid after that, and really, dropping $150 NZD on wool in an evening every few months is obscene as it is.

Recently I purchased all four kits from Yarnissima - she sells Wollmeise with a pattern in a stunning kit. They arrived today from Netherlands, and wow!! The wrapping, and the extra goodies all just show what an amazing buying experience this all is.

So watch for future projects. I think I am going to do a shawl with Rhabarber and Jultomte, and I can see a few other projects of mixing the natural and Saami. I also want to do a petit poison and Hollerstaud'd project I think as mine go beautifully.

I think the wool is worth it - its 150g skeins which in itself makes it worth minimum $30NZD (as most nice sock wools are around $20/100g, and with the colours, the quality and the gorgeous smell (Perwoll wool wash) its an enjoyable thing to collect.

Fossils.....

2009-03-22T20:32:00.004+13:00

I have a new lust.

Fossil hunting.

We stayed here during the weekend, and it was lovely. These are some shots from their farm.

The white parts in the rock are oyster beds, and they are only 20mil years old...

What!!!!!! When is 20mil only young???? This is me who freaks out when I walk through castles that are 1000y old!!!!!

WE went fossil hunting at Kiritehere Beach in West Waikato. At first I couldn't find any (despite the fact people said to me " fossils are lying everywhere under the bridge there..." and I still couldn't find them).

So luckily Shane is infinitely more patient than me, and had the first find. After I saw what they looked like, I jumped all over them, throwing rocks to crack them open, and then asking him to put a large rock in the boot. To be honest - they didn't look that cool. Really - they were just clam shells baked in rock.

Well when I get home I find out that my special rocks (that anyone has access to) are actually dated from the TRIASSIC period, which is really ffffffing old!! 210million years. My little buggers are Monotis, and they are very common for the area, which was covered in sediment 210 million years ago, and then NZ did the freaky land moving thing, and up went these sea beds!

So now I love my fossils, and they are pretty and stunning and clever and gorgeous! We have donated a couple of lovely specimens to Jenna's kindergarten, and I have some cool ones to take to school and donate to the rock collection there.

Some I guess I will keep myself, but I admit that I only understand this better since I started "teaching" geology 2 weeks ago - which I know nothing about!!!!!

Mini break

2009-03-22T20:20:00.005+13:00

So we did the whole mini break this weekend. Reality was kicking in, and I wanted an easy night away. Not easy with a dog...

But we found this gorgeous place, that looked nice, and was free the morning we wanted to leave, and was OK with dogs. Actually - thats not quite true. Shane went off on Sat morning to run some errands, and I serached the web, called around, packed up the truck, and when he got home I told him to have a shower, and we were off. He knew nothing about it!

Te tiro cottages was a dream. Gorgeous setting, nice price ($130 a night for all of us), 40 mins drive, and just plain relaxing. It was a wonderful chance choice.

Yes - this is view from the kitchen window!!!!

We spent the afternoon wandering around the farm with Crawford and their foxy Puck, and then had a wonderful evening just chilling and drinking a nice red.

After night fell, we walked about 2mins to their very own glowworm grotto - OMFG. This was the coolest!!!!!! So cool we ran back to the cottage, woke Jenna up to come down and see the sparkle fairies in the fairy forest (as it had been dubbed)

The hosts were amazing - Angus and Rachel rocked, and the kids were lovely too. They were very accommodating and friendly, and I think have a wonderful place to raise their kids.

Book Tetiro the next time you want a break away with the kids! 2 Cottages, sleep about 4-5 each and a wonderful private setting. 2 families with young kids I think is perfect!

(This is where the kids slept - and didn't they love that!!!! Our bed was right underneath them.)

Update on Crawford

2009-03-22T20:17:00.004+13:00

So here is the latest shot of Crawford for those who have been asking.

She is a pretty good dog - the allergies are doing our heads in, and she is due to go to the groomer, but she is a GREAT mate for the kids, and generally pretty easy. Keep in mind that in the above shot she has been running around like a loony after a foxy, she is buggered, and dirty and needs a brush and a wash! Still - Crawford at about 5m.

We just need to keep her out of the garden.....

Clothes recycling

2009-03-15T15:03:00.006+13:00

Jenna is terribly short of winter clothes. It makes it difficult when your child refuses to wear trousers, so its skirts/dresses and stockings for us most of the winter. We stocked up on stockings at the end of winter, so we should be good.

But skirts - well I decided to have a look in my wardrobe and see if there were any dresses I could recycle, and then I looked in Jenna's. I found these two dresses - both of them expensive, and both too small. The velvet Run Scotty Run was purchased second hand, and is made from beautiful velvet. It used to have a ribbon bow on it, but that has been pulled off.

That dress was turned into this skirt, and Jenna wore it all yesterday, and it was successfully played in at the park.

This pumpkin patch dress was a hand me down, I think from my sister's kids. It is beautiful - patterned cord, and to be honest it's been Hamish's dress up dress for a while as it was too small for Jenna when we inherited it.

I cut off the top, and sewed up the back (It was a pinny style) and made this fuller skirt. Again, gets the seal of approval from Jenna.

Now both are a little rough, I would have liked to do a nice waist, but well - its for kinder, and Jenna is pretty good with simple elasticated waists, and the other thing is my weekend time is definitely at a premium these days!

A 4th birthday is around the corner...

2009-03-15T14:55:00.003+13:00

So here I am trying to get the invites done.

We couldn't decide on a specific theme, so we decided on princess fairies.....

Actually I decided after I found a whole pile of paper barbie princess plates and cups for about 75% off - that was enough, theme set.

I am going to try and keep most of the party disposable free, but I am happy for paper plates and cups.

So here are the invites - printed myself, covered in glitter and rolled with a ribbon. I think they will look quite nice in the kindergarten pigeon holes tomorrow. I really dont know what the etiquette is for invites, there are boys and the older kids and the younger kids all invited. We just let Jenna tell us who she wanted. About 13 kids!! Also their siblings, so we may be up for around 25 kids - which would be interesting if it rained!!! Mind you, its at the start of school holidays, in the middle of easter, so I suspect that will be prohibitive for some.

I am doing flower garlands for the girls, crowns for the boys. I'm hoping to make something nice for the garden, and each child invited (not siblings) will get a fabric bag for their goodies. I'm hoping to knit a little korknisse for each of them, and maybe have a few nice prizes for games. I dunno - I'm now over it ;) and its 4 weeks away!

Selfish Dishcloth swap

2009-03-15T14:45:00.003+13:00

This was sent to Alison from TNN for a selfish dishcloth swap. Knitted from Bendigo cotton - very soft, probably better for a face cloth.

I liked it - it was loads easier to knit than it looked, just lots of wrapping and shot rows.

Pay it forward

2009-02-27T23:17:00.003+13:00

So a year or so ago I promised to do a PIF that would turn up in 365 days - and I only got 2 responses, and one of them was a little dodgy (not you margaret...)

I am OK with not receiving my PIF - cause really - in these things do you ever "expect" to receive them?

But I want to put it out again since I am just over my year, and I am one for commitments!!! So if you are Oz or NZ please be one of 2 to comment, and I can fulfill my blogworld duty :D

Really - who cares, and who knows, and its all about karma, which I am all into.....

So post first two, and get something nice that suits you in the next month or two - I promise to lurk and stalk to get it almost right :)

Should say that if you want to receive you have to post this on your blog and post to 3 in return within 365 days.........

Swap - How cool is murder.....

2009-02-21T22:54:00.005+13:00

OK - I have finally read through the file and I can state that my swapper was Christine. Thanks so much. It was the flash of light I needed :)

My swap theme was I guess murder? Hard to say since I got sent a case file which I hope I dont actually have to solve. VJ did an awesome job of this swap, only 100g of wool which is awesome as I love quality, not quantity, and her colours are perfect for me. Has she been stalking???

SO the box arrives - big case file, and I was already smiling ;)

Open in up, red splatters everywhere and I see the evidence bags. Wool. Sock stitch markers on a noose. Chocolate - dark. A novel. And a case file.

Admittedly I went straight for the goodies and looked (yay - wool and chocolate and reading....) , and glances over the rest, but it was clear to see a lot of work went into this swap.

From the getgo I thought it was Christine because she does insanely themed and overcommitted swaps that makes everyone say (gee I wish she was my swapper...) and I am stoked to be on the receiving end :)

So those that know me. I am a massive murder novel freak. I love them all - name a murder author, I have probably read ;) My fave over the last few years is Karin Slaughter. (keep in mind I have small kids, so if you have a new author you think I should read, please leave a comment.)

Red is my colour. Specially the deep red that Christine got.

I love sock wool - enough said. Patonyle is awwwwwwwwwesome.

100g is perfect.

Books are good.

Choc is OK, it sweetens up him, and goes nicely with red wine ;)

Sock patterns - yes I collect patterns and wool, yet rarely knit.

Recipe - I am a closet wannabe chef so all cooking goes down well here.

Tattoo shot - yes I have a tatt, and while its not the extreme that VJ pictured, I am still "drawn upon..."

I am always losing my bloody stitchmarkers, so everytime I cast on yet another project (I currently have 3 pairs of socks, 2 dishcloths, 2 shawls, 2 tops, 2 dresses, 1 soaker, 1 blanket....) my stitchmarkers (and KP's tips) have to be stolen off one project, and on to another...

Thanks VJ - lovely swap.
PS - yes I have read the book, and I already have a new swap in mind. Yes I have read the case file, and I found the VJ hidden amongst all the comments, so gut no longer matters, I have evidence!!!!!!

How ya doin....

2009-02-21T22:43:00.002+13:00

So the baby teacher gets tired 3w in. Yes - thats right I am rooted. Granted it has something to do with the fact that Wed night I drank too much, and Thurs night I had a tech teachers meeting in Matamata that went very late (and surprisingly much earlier than I wanted it to - I wanted to chat, but my ride wanted to leave....)

So Friday is my hardest day at school - I have 4 classes in the day which is fairly normal for a secondary teacher in NZ. Man it sucked.... I thought my final class - my Y12 Chem would be good, specially since I was micing chems, and making pretty colours, but they were scallywags too. Boo hoo. So Sat night I am tied.

Now two interesting reflections this week.
No 1 - My old school - Fairfield College has been in the news. There are management "issues" and it makes me sad. You can take the girl out of FairColl, but you can't do the reverse. I love the school, it made me who I am, and many of my teachers are still there - nearly 15y later. So I have been hot on the news articles for that place, especially since I was offered a teaching position there in November 2008.......

And tech teaching. I get very sick of people asking me why I am teaching tech, in addition to the pure sciences. Yes I love chem and physics (and I really like Calculus too....) but I love tech. I love everythign this subject stands for and I cannot wait to be a tech teacher in 10y, cause NZ will rock the world.

Mostly my reflections tell me that tech teaching is where the boys get into the workshop and have fun, and this week has been a week of discovery, disappointment. and realisation - as well as good smack of awakening.

I'm not there to control their learning. And I had an awesome class with 70% of my class on Friday. The ideas, and the release of them into their project all came about from the meeting on Thursday night. How wonderful to have that awakening!!! And then the stolen pencil case, and the aftermath - that might continue.......

School rocks - its hard being back into the work mind set, but still easier than doing a 60hr week engineering.........

Awkward.....

2009-02-14T18:33:00.002+13:00

OK - so spot the chick trying to keep a low profile in the full school catholic mass.

Then spot the chick who practically crawled under the seat when the father said - all the new teacher stand up, now come forward to the front of the cathedral!!!!!!

OMG - I wished the ground would open up and swallow me!! Especially when the whole staff stood up and blessed us.

It was quite sweet though, and as a fairly religious friend said to me, to be blessed by the whole staff (about 60 people) is a very special thing, and would be very rare throughout secondary schools in NZ. So I'm all OK with it, and it will be a good story in 20y time.

School is going well still - I have to write a unit plan this weekend for Y8 Tech, I have most of it written in my head - just have to get it on paper. Socially I am starting to do the teacher thing - go to the pub on Friday night and spend 2hrs over 2 beers talking about difficult students. LOL.

On a braver note I actually plucked up the courage to check out Rate my Teacher. This (horrible) website allows misguided students to get on and bitch about their teachers. Every school in several countries is listed, as are all the teachers, and so are comments about the "coolness" of these teachers. I expected the worst when I went to visit today. Thankfully I guess the school has not yet got a teacher called Ms W! Phew!!! I guess noone hates me (or loves me....) enough yet to get on and moan.

Must keep low profile......... First year teacher......... Bluff and manage as best you can.....

Happy valentines day to all - I got him a 32" LCD for our bedroom. Might seem a little extreme in size (we have a small house, and thats the same size as the lounge TV) but I am told when I get my ankle done in a few weeks, I will love having a TV in bed. Hmm - we shall see. I did enjoy watching the TVone Biofuels episode of Country Practise this morning in bed with my cup of tea. While the kids were watching the wiggles or something equally inane in the lounge.

Next photos will have a picture - I am hoping to finish a selfish knit this weekend :)

So I guess I am a teacher....

2009-02-11T19:41:00.003+13:00

Well I have been going for a week or so now, still lots of disruptions with the start of the year. IN a way, thats the nice thing about the school I teach at. The special character (marist/catholic school) means that the whole school stops quite often for mass or assemblies.

Tomorrow is the full school mass, so we meet on the field after form class, and then we all walk about 30mins until we get to the Hamilton catholic chapel, where there will be the opening mass for the school.

I'm a bit nervous, I have only been inside a catholic church once, for a funeral about 20y ago, and I had NO idea about what to do then, so even less likely now.

2-3hrs tomorrow of teaching time will be taken up with this, and I lose 2 classes, and half of another. Kinda hard, but I believe it does make the school very special, and a nice place to be.

My classes are good - I have a HUGE year 11 class of 34 students for science, which is diabolical considering I only have 31 seats... My Y12 Chem is really nice, so is my Y12 Physics - many of the same boys in each class.

My department is great, my HOD is mad as a hatter, which is fabulous. Nothing worse than someone who doesn't keep you on your toes. I had my first observation visit today (on my path to being a fully registered teacher) and it went well! My HOD said he enjoyed the class, which is a huge compliment. He loved that I was authoritative and had no problems smiling with the boys.

Could there be a better boost up for a baby teacher? :)

SO yeah - I guess I keep ticking along, doing what I can, accepting my limitations and asking for help whenever I need it. Oh - and laughing - I have to keep laughing!

YSV3

2009-01-26T21:46:00.003+13:00

Yarn Swap Version 3.

This was sent to Sheryl in Taranaki. She has let me know she received it, and she knew it was from me, so here is a shot.

Its Bendigo Rustic 8ply, and the theme is honey.

I originally dyed this up to make another rainbow dress, but I ended up liking it so much, and it fit with a theme so nicely, so I decided to send it to Sheryl instead. She is on a campaign to knit a sweater a month at the mo, so I doubt socks will make on her needle until she gets through her February and March jumpers ;)

Lunch Bag

2009-01-21T08:28:00.004+13:00

TNN are doing a series of yarn swaps at the moment, I have just sent off #3, so I shall put that up next week when my swapper receives it.

But this project was started right back from V1. Its been sitting there because I had run out of white 10ply hand wash wool. BUt I found some last week in my stash, and decided to put it to good use.

So here is the before shot:

And the after shot:

I need to find a fun button (oh damn - a trip to spotlight, or knit world.....) but I'm pretty happy with the result. A new lunch bag!

Pattern was from Knitty, and is called Brown Bag. I never found out who this swapper was, but I hope they like what I did with the wool.

(I'll be honest and say I pushed this project ahead cause I needed my 6mm, 40cm addis for another project ;) )

Going live soon at Craft Fetish

2009-01-20T18:21:00.004+13:00

This is my latest idea to sell through my online store Yarn-A-Du at Craft Fetish.

The Rainbow Dress by the lovely Tikki is a very popular item to knit in NZ. After the great comments on my last dresses on both Ravelry and TNN, I decided to dye up kits for people who want a similar sort of effect. Tikki thinks its a great idea too ;) - Thanks Georgie!

Rainbow kits, using a superwash NZ made DK/8 ply wool, come with two colours. The main colour is a variegated wool dyed with different repeats that will pool in unique ways on the skirt. Included in the kit is matching semi-solid, kettle dyed wool designed to be used for the bodice.

The approximate breakdowns are 50g and 150g, but there are small, medium and large kits.

I anticipate that there will plenty of wool to make one rainbow dress, and possibly a matching dolls dress, or maybe a beanie for your little girl.

Of course - there is nothing to say you have to use them for rainbow dresses - maybe for a special boys item of your choosing.

Going live Wednesday 21st Jan at 7pm. 7 kits available at this stage - more to follow!

Rainbow Dress Take 2

2009-01-19T19:50:00.004+13:00

So someone else asked me to knit them a rainbow dress, but this time I did something a little different.

I started with this

Which I then dyed into this

And added this

To make this.

Unfortunately my vision wasn't the same as the orderer's vision, so I have 1 rainbow dress that needs a new home. Anyone interested? Sized about 18m-3y. Its overall length is about 41cm.

Its verrrrrry pretty and I am sure I can sell it to someone :)

The dreams begin...

2009-01-19T15:29:00.002+13:00

So the new career starts in 2 weeks. And I am ashamed to admit I am having "those" dreams.

You know - the ones that show you have no control over your class (and you are screaming at them.....), you have no knowledge of pedagogy or content, you upset all the others in the department at the staff meeting.

The list goes on. Everytime I think of the dreams I start packing myself about the fact that the dream will be a reality in a very short time.

But then I remind myself that I am OK with this teaching thing, I do know my content, and I am totally into power sharing - so I dont actually have to yell at the kids, I am all for negotiating the best situation and environment to suit us all.

Still - I dont remember having these nightmares about engineering? Maybe its cause I cared less back then, and I am far more interested in making a jolly good go of this teaching gig.

Hmmmm

Meet Crawford

2009-01-18T15:33:00.004+13:00

This is the latest addition to our family.

A West Highland White Terrier who we have chosen to call Crawford (Yes one member of the family is obsessed by the Hawthorn Hawks - an AFL team......)

Crawford arrived here this morning, much to everyone else's surprise. We had been looking at them all week after a recommendation from our Vet, and their temperament all week had been lovely. This little girl is the quietest of the little, with I think the nicest face - not that I know anything about the breed! While she is from purebred stock, she comes without papers, which is just fine. We may look at having puppies down the track, or maybe not - keep options open.

The kids are besotted, Dermot the Burmese is doing OK, and so far no accidents.

These dogs are supposed to be fantastic companion dogs, great with kids and older people. Hardy, cheeky and intelligent, Crawford will be a welcome addition and with any lucky a great little dog.

The wierd questions you get asked....

2009-01-16T14:36:00.003+13:00

So I am booked in for an MRI on Monday for my ankle. Turns out that the ortho surgeon I went to today identified a loose piece of bone in my ankle, which is likely to be the reason I have been in such pain for the last 8m. It seems the "bit" is well rounded, so it possibly is old, and comes from the initial sprains in my ankle from when I was 13-14.

Anyhoo - I am looking at surgery, 6w in a cast, a couple of weeks off work (possibly....) and an ankle reconstruction to tighten up sloppy soft tissue.

But the interesting thing was when being asked medical questions for the MRI, I was asked about claustrophobia (I can understand that one), metal inserts or plates (again, I get that one) and then out of the blue - have you had metal removed from your eye......

Well actually I have! In the BC (Before Children) days, when Shane and I used to be able to have some fun, we went go-carting, which resulted in a metal splinter in my eye. Roll on the hospital, a sharp implement to remove said splinter, eye drops, pain and a scar left on my eyeball that gets commented on everytime I visit an optomatrist.

So evidentally it will all be OK since the whole thing was removed (under the watchful eye of about 6 baby doctors and the specialist who narrated the whole thing) but imagine that - in the MRI, and BOOOM - your eye gets punctured from the piece of metal in your eye flying out towards the strong magnetic field.

Cool :)

Just thought that was amusing - I've never been asked that before, and it just sort of surprised me.

The downside of the surgery - No netball this year. 6-12m recovery. Unhappy school with teacher on first year of service taking sick leave. Cast and Moonboot for 6w. Pain. Possible weight gain - thus diet.

The upside - more knitting time!! Excuse for said beginner teacher to sit in the corner of the class and issue instructions. No whiteboard writing for 6w. Development of lots of OHT and Computer based resources for kids. Next year - Painfree netball, running, swimming etc.

Wonder what my HOD will say next week when I fill him in. Hopefully I can schedule said surgery for end of term 1 or 2 holidays. Fingers crossed.

Wollmeise - first project

2009-01-14T19:03:00.004+13:00

Well I have finished my first project for the year.

I turned this

into this

And I love it.

Used around 70g of fingering weight wool, and had a few gauge issues as you can see in the colour repeat. I thought about frogging it, but decided it would be a constant reminder than gauge is important!

Plus it doesn't affect the size at all, just the colour pooling.

Onto the next project.......

Rainbow Dress

2009-01-09T08:43:00.004+13:00

I got to make a rainbow dress!!! YAYAY! I have always wanted to make one, but dont really know anyone to make one for, as it seems a bit strange to force knitted items on people with girls ;)

A few days ago someone on TNN asked if there was anyone who would make a rainbow dress for them, as they are a non-knitter. I jumped at the chance!

I scoured my stash trying to decide what I was going to use, as there was nor real colour specification. Finally I cracked into my shop stash (Yarnadu at Craft Fetish) and decided to use this 10ply rainbow and another ball that was sitting in a very tangled skein that I had put months ago in the too hard basket.

What a result! I used every single scrap of the yarn - so all up about 180g of 10ply, and knitted the pattern as a 12m size with 4mm needles - hoping that it would come out the right size for a 2-3yo.

I absolutely love this dress, I love the colour repeats, and the combination. I am so proud that I dyed both the yarns, and they make me feel very "competant" as a dyer. Not quite enough to throw my job out the window and dye wool, but all the same enough to get the creative juices going to do some dyeing in the next week. I haven't done any dyeing for a few months now - been busy and all that, but you know, I should do some more as I am pretty good at it!

So now that one rainbow dress is done, I am trying to decide if I want to do anymore. I think that if I do, I will need to ensure that I have a cool colour change to look forward to, as it was this factor that made me charge ahead and knit it in silly heat for a whole day!

Well done Tikki - a great design, and I think a lovely result.

My jungle

2009-01-04T12:44:00.007+13:00

I am a homebod - a typical cancerian. Love to have all my things around me in the nest that is my home.
I have always had trouble being away from home for more than about 2 weeks at a time, so our holidays tend to be 10-14d things. Any longer out of the country and I get antsy.

On this holiday my worries were a little more grounded - I was petrified about the garden - specifically the tomatoes and my sunflowers.

I had been growing the sunflowers from seed, and before leaving they were nice and tall, and looked like they were ready to pop. I was so afraid I was going to miss the blooms while away in Oz.

Thankfully they behaved, and only one went into bloom while we were away - the others have decided to come out one at a time. Which is nice of them.

I was also worried about the tomatoes. Having never grown tomatoes successfully, this was all a bit of trial and error. While we had staked them before leaving, the amount of growth they went through in 2 weeks was nuts - and it was like a jungle! I have been pruning them for the last hour, and there were alot of clippings, and some lost green tomatoes. But I had to try and get them a little more happy.

I'm not sure if they are now good or not - I guess time will tell whether they get attacked by bugs, or blight, but hopefully the green ones will continue to ripen and we will have lots (or at least a few) nice fresh tomatoes.

We are also having lots of luck at the moment with the carrots (although most of the seeds didn't germinate), courgette/zucchini, beans, beetroot, spinach, and we just picked our last 2 cabbage.

This little beastie is something that has self sown beside the tomatoes and the compost bin.

Not sure what it is. I *think* its a pumpkin. If there are any other suggestions, please leave a comment so we know how big to let it get.

Our plums, pears and apples are all going along nicely. The kids picked most of the first years crop already, so the trees only have to try and ripen up about 3 pieces of fruit each. Now that the cherry plums are in season, and there are plenty of strawberries to hunt for, hopefully their little minds will be distracted enough to let the rest of the fruit on the trees ripen.

How are your garden's growing this summer? Enough rain around for them?

Bag Swap

2009-01-03T14:49:00.004+13:00

Gee - I just love swaps! Well actually thats not entirely true....

I dont like the stress of getting the swap out, but I love receiving swaps and I also love getting my swap wrapped up and out the door!

My latest was a bag swap with TNN - The Nappy Network - which is an NZ cloth nappy website.

The criteria was a $10 max spend and the bag had to be made yourself. I decided to knit a bag since most of the others were sewing, and well, knitting is so much more portable! Actually the real answer is my sewing table is covered in uni stuff, and I can't be bothered sorting it until I have my new office at school.

So unfortunately I didn't get the swap finished by the deadline, which was about the 20th Dec, and as we flew out to Oz on the 16th, I was kinda stuffed. Luckily I got an extension, which was very nice, and here I am showing my swap before its sent.... I think the post office is closed now isn't it? No point in not showing it :)

It is the Elissa Nest Tote from the Purl Bee (I love this website!!!!!) and I'm pretty happy with it. The applied I-cord border took me a couple of goes, but I got there in the end.

As it was late I decided to add a couple of extras - some hot pink tea-towels, a ball-band dishcloth in contrasting colours, some choccy and I have regifted some seeds from the lovely Shae, as we already had these in our stash ( and I thought the idea of brown packet, rainbow silverbeet worked well with the whole theme ). Its now wrapped up in monster fabric and ready to be sent on Monday!

I received a lovely package in return from my swapper in Hamilton.

Not sure who - I am hopeless at trying to figure these things out! 3 bags, I think they will be good for the library. Red and black pirates for Hamish, purple butterflies for Jenna, and a nice black and green bag for me (I guess?).

Thanks so much swappers (for your patience and your great work) and here's to the next swap. Hand Dyed yarn swap in Feb 09.

Wollmeise - spolier shots!

2009-01-03T12:42:00.007+13:00

About 4-5 months ago I signed up for the Wollmeise sock club on a bit of a lark. It was 180Euro, and realistically a poor student can't afford that luxury, but I thought if I got a place, I would pass it on.

Well I got a place, and on the day I got it, Shane and I had a jolly big row so I decided - its mine!!! Bang on the credit card, and it was kept secret for a few weeks. Actually - its the only time I have ever been completely secretive about a wool purchase!

So I have had 2 deliveries now, and they are totally gorgeous. I was going to split the sock club with a couple of others from Woolaholics - a forum I frequent - but as I do love them all, and I have been completely unsuccessful at any of the Wollmeise updates to date (and I have sat through 3!!!!!) I have decided to keep them all. Sorry girls.....

So here are some droolworthy shots now that the spoilers are all done with - I think?

From the first shipment we have Buxkranzl (Box Wreath) and Hollerstaud'n (Elderberry). Lovely!!!!!!

Not sure what I will use these for - probably not socks.....

Then last shipment (December) was Jultomte and Saami.

Now if you have never been lucky enough to get a bit of Wollmeise, I shall show you how each skein is wrapped...

So far, Saami is my least favourite, but that really doesn't say much as they are all stunning, so it was the first to be removed from the skein form.

I have decided to try the Saami on two projects - hopefully enough as each skein is 150g. I am going to try the Chickidee Cowl (rav link), and then some forget-me-not socks, and see how I go for yardage. I have actually bitten the bullet and skeined this up, and of course taken some shots ;).

I cannot wait to cast on. Its killing me!!!!! But at least having the wool balled up makes me feel a little closer to using it. The colourway is very very strong, so I am hoping the linen stitch on the cowl will break up the colour repeat, and the socks because they have a small yardage. But we shall see - I have no problem frogging if its not 100% great :)

How I have neglected thee.....

2009-01-03T12:28:00.003+13:00

Oh Blog - poor thing - I have neglected you for a couple of months now.
But here I am - back with lots of news! This is a family post - crafty ones to follow.....

We have just returned from Oz where we went for a 2 weeks holiday over Chrissie. Great fun! Kids had a ball seeing their grandfather and aunts and uncle, and of course a cousin.
Hamish had his second birthday while we were there, and I admit I couldn't be bothered cooking a cake, so we bought this one from Baskin and Robbins, and it went down a treat! Best thing I could have done.

Grumps has the greenest garden in Geelong, thanks to several water tanks that catch rainwater from every surface he can manage, and the kids loved picking all the green apricots, roses, green apples, green cherry tomatoes, beans and whatever else they could get their hands on.

Poor grumps will be happy to see the back of us! As will the cats.

I got to catch up with a few friends which was really nice, and may have nursed a few hangovers. My mothers group from when Jenna was born is still meeting every 2 weeks, and we got to catch up. This isn't all the kids - there are 3 missing, but a happy healthy, rambunctious mob if ever you saw them! Great kids though.

And as with all good trips to Oz, ended up a couple of kg's heavier, lots of credit debt, and of course suitcases full!

Finished Uni! (again....)

2008-11-20T13:03:00.005+13:00

Well thats it - I'm a teacher!

I finished my course last week, and there was much celebration amongst the different factions. Some of us "Techie" teachers include 3 ex-chefs, so on Wednesday night we chose to celebrate the end of the week at the Mystery Creek Woodbox in Hamilton. OMG - what a nice way to spend the afternoon!! Food was magnificent, company great, and the setting ideal.

It was a busy week, we did a course on Education outside the Classroom (school camps, field trips etc) and by Friday we were well and truly pooped! Here are some of the photos of the Friday afternoon celebration.....

As you can tell - the setting a little different, but still just as enjoyable! This kicked on from about 1pm til 5pm, and then another party started at 6pm which went until the we small hours of the morning. Alas - both nights I was driving, so there was no great drinking for me, but it was nice to spend time with people's whose company I enjoy.

Tough year, but a good one. I have a Science job all lined up, which will be great. Its a catholic boys school, where I was on practicum. Apparently I did alright there! It means that we will be staying in this house for at least a couple of years as its a nice 15-20min drive for me to school each day, and where we are is great.

So now I am a free woman!!! I have swaps to organise, Christmas to get together, knitting to do, house to clean, and somewhere in there I have to earn some money to keep this family ticking over summer as my first pay check is apparently mid Feb.....

Shots from Prac

2008-10-26T21:11:00.007+13:00

Photos updated...

So I finished my second prac a couple of weeks ago, and I decided to knit a couple of things for my associates - plus of course the mandatory box of roses choccies :)

Steve was my coordinator and my associate for Hard Materials Tech, so he had to put up with me for about 10-15hrs a week. The poor bastard! Occasionally he was heard to say - stop your moaning woman, or, man, am I at home? You get the drift. Needless to say we got along well, there was a healthy amount of mutual respect (which was of course favoured in his direction) and at the end of the day, we were happy to go back to our normal lives.

I decided to make him a hat - Turn a Square Sorry non-ravers.

It was made out of Noro Cash Iroha and Silk Garden lite, and I have to admit - it a little funky! This wool was actually knitted 3 times before it made it into this hat. First it started as a Fake Fair Isle - unfortunately floats carried too tight (I was optimistic so I knitted the whole thing before blocking and failing) and it was frogged. Then it started as another fair isle, but I got sick of that, and then I began this one. I was actually pretty concerned about the colouring, but it looks awesome on. Really funky, great shape and lovely and soft. Yay!

SO I only had 2 other assocaites this prac - one for Physics and one for junior Science. I was so lucky with all of my associates in all of my pracs this year, but John and Sandy, and the classes were awesome. I decided to knit a dishcloth for them, with the choccies. I *guess* they were happy?

For John - here

And for Sandy this one ( a rav link again - I'm sorry.....)

Some little mushies....

2008-10-26T21:00:00.004+13:00

These form part of my next swap for TNN. Its a hand dyed wool swap, with some extras. I dyed the wool up ages ago, and I have been having trouble deciding exactly what do theme it around.

Its nice having a theme :) Sort of ties everything together.

So this is one part of my swap - and I hand felted them this morning in the kitchen, and they are rocking cool!!! Like really - I wont show an after pic as I want the whole swap all captured together, but these are just so nice.

Pattern is here and can I just say its rare that my finished items look like they do in the pattern, and this time they do :) Happy little knitting fi!

Hopefully I will have the swap off in about a week. I am working on the big part at the moment, and I think that I will have to hand felt it, which IS NOT COOL.

Fifth post in one day!!

2008-10-12T15:31:00.003+13:00

Wow - the big five!

I have had heaps to post over the last month, but unfortunately my iMac went kaput. Turns out that the same problem has no happened 3 times and been repaired under warranty, but when the computer died within 3hrs of having it home from the last repair, that was it.

Apple Asia have been fantastic!! There were massive receipt problems as it was an ex demo, that had been put in the wrong box - so my receipt matched my box s/n, not my actual computer!

They informed me yesterday they are collecting my old puter, and replacing it with a brand spanking new iMac, whcih is just fab. While my old unit was only 18mo, and was working wonderfully (except for one small issue....) a new one is even better :)

So I have been surviving on my 12" laptop for the last 4w, which has been a killer as its very small, and veeeeeery slow - thus no downloading of photos, and no working on Rav for my projects or stash.

I have heaps to update when I get my new unit, so here's hoping the data transfers from the old unit to the new one go smoothly, and I dont lose any important things - like photos and files.

Woodlands Shawl - WIP

2008-10-12T15:25:00.005+13:00

This is one of my many WIP's at the moment. Woodland Shawl

I actually helped someone with their's last week - the same lovely person that gave me my strawberry plants, so its definitely a deal that I got the best out of :)

Anyway - I am knitting this in flydesigns - Flying Sheep BFL. Its supposed to be DK weight, but it feels more sportweight to me. I have added an extra 2 repeats on the side, and its going really well. I am about 1/3 into my wool, so I expect it will be short and wide, which is fine since I have lots of long shawls.

Dont you love it when you get into a lace pattern, and you dont have to look at the chart anymore. Even better, when you can knit lace and have a conversation. Even better still, knit it around your small children.

I am really looking forward to finishing this one. I think it will be stunning once it is blocked.

Noro Scarf

2008-10-12T15:20:00.004+13:00

Sunday Market Shawl

I made this a couple of weeks ago. Totally, totally love it!!

It would have been no good as a shawl, the pattern I think needs to have a twisted stitch either side of the dropped stitch, like the Clapotis, because only a week of wearing it has made the dropped stitch merge grossly into the next stitch. So there isn't a great thickness to the shawl, and its more long and thin.

However - what a scarf!!! I love this baby!! 3 balls of Noro Silk Garden, and it is a blissful joy to wear. It looks like a nice chunky ribbed scarf, without the weight. It was going to be a gift, but its too nice to give away :)

A rainbow magic cape

2008-10-12T15:08:00.004+13:00

I have no idea why - but I decided to make the kids capes. I had some old lining fabric there that I always planned to make something out of, but never got around to it. Turns out it was a perfect amount for 2 rainbow capes.

So roughly - this is how I did it.

Cut out a massive half circle of paper, then halved it, and divided it into 3 segments. Voila - templates.

Then I lay the template on the lining, and cut the segments in order, then overlocked them together.

Following this I decided to line the cape, and I had some pink T-shirt material around. Cut this out using the quarter circle left over from before (on the fold) and sewed around the two together. Turned inside out, top-stitched and quilted in the ditch, then cut a circle out from the top.

I overlocked that, put some grosgrain ribbon on to bind it, and thread through some elastic for the next piece.

Madam is quite happy with her rainbow cape, although it is a bit rough!!! I know a little girl in Oz who would love one, but I fear that my sewing wouldn't be up to her mummy's standard on this project ;) Still - its fully machine washable, and should be able to be played with as much (or as little) as she likes.

Bragging about the garden.....

2008-10-12T14:41:00.006+13:00

We have a kick ass garden going at the moment - like really, its going great guns! On a daily basis we are picking peas (well the kids are munching on about 5 pods a day each) spinach, lettuce, and yesterday we picked our first cabbage which was awesome. SOOOO crunchy!

So I thought I would post some bragging shots as heaps has happened since we have nearly been in this house for a year.

So the first one is of my "fernery" - pretty small so far, but give it time! This little corner beside the garage was originally a spot filled with convulvulas, and white tailed spiders. Yuck. Shane ripped out the fence, and cleaned up the spot by removing about 6" of soil. Then we saw how bad the garage wall was next door! Anyway, we want to hedge it up, so we have planted a couple of camellias, and at the back were there is the most shade, we are doing a fernery. SO far I have 4 ferns in - they will all grow in different directions, and I still want to put in a couple of cabbage trees. In 5 years the corner will look amazing!

Next up is my favourite bed:
This is as you come into our car area from the long drive. I have put in a couple of lavender, some rosemary and other herbs, 3 silver birches and a weeping cherry. All around the front are miniature flaxes, and there are the last of the spring bulbs dying off. The edging was done by Shane's dad - the bricky on his first trip to visit us, and its using all the original rocks that were in the garden - over weedmat. Inspiring.......

Shane put this bed in about 2w ago - its another vege patch, looks great right? It has tomatoes up the other end, and potatoes in the rest of it. Just up from it is my new compost bin that we made for a university project. Can't wait until the new fence goes up and we can finish it using all the old palings.

These are some of the fruit trees we have put in, and in behind we turned over a chunk of soil for a potato patch. There are about 6kg of spuds in this year, hopefully we will have plenty to share with friends and family, plus feeding ourselves for a couple of months.

So on to the current harvest! Spinach has been doing fantastically! This is the last of our perpetual spinach, which has been amazing. Great flavour, constant cropping. I've been eating it 2-3 times a week, and its doing well. Unfortunately its about to go to seed, so we might not have much time left with it. Lettuce have just come out of the patch on the right, so I planted that up today with carrots and radishes.

This patch shows our current lettuce crop with a bit more. Up on the top is radishes and carrots (just starting to come through!) On the bottom is some more strawb plants, and my sunflowers. There are 6 there, and they are the giant variety and apparently you can eat their seeds. Yum!

Close up of the straws - they were all free thanks to a friend Shae, and they are thriving! They desperately need pea straw as the fruit is beginning to form and I dont want them to get rotten.

In this shot you can see our cabbages, the end of the celery and the broad beans - whose pods are just starting to form. Not a great lover of broad beans....... Hopefully we find a home for them, and I can't wait to free up my patch again!

These are our peas, which are cropping well, and the cauli's that shane put in. He actually had about 30 caulis in, cause he thought they were broccoli, but we pulled them out as we really, really dont need 30 caulis! 15 or so will be fine. in the bare patch is beetroot and onions, just starting to come through - I expect I will have to thin them in the next few days.

Brag over - there is lots more I could take photos off, but I will leave it there for now as its a bit of overload. I love this garden - everything is thriving with the aid of our worm juice, NZ weather and good compost. The kids are growing up being able to pick food straight from the yard and its fabulous :)

I have more seeds in trays today. Cherry tomatoes, capsicum, watermelon and cucumbers. Some will have to be grown in pots unless we can finish cropping the broad beans and peas in the next few weeks.

Its a tough life...

2008-09-08T15:22:00.004+12:00

Being a 20mo.

From this one day at 9am (Fathers Day choccies)

To this the next. Falling asleep at 9am!!! Man I wish this kid would learn how to sleep at night!

We had hoped the grommets would make a difference to his sleep patterns, but it seems we were too late. This kid is well and truly in his bad habits now (which involve being in with mum and dad every single night.....)

Maybe one day soon he will surprise us and sleep though til at least 2am?

Please???

Spring is Sprung!

2008-08-31T09:57:00.005+12:00

The grass has rise.....

Wow - Spring is hitting our garden in a big way! Waikato has had a heap of rain in the last month or two, and the vege garden is loving it.

When we moved into this house it had almost nothing planted in the gardens. 1 Lemon tree, a feijoa, a small mandarin tree, a cherry plum tree, and a couple of bitsy things. In fact - it seemed to us that the people who had the house before us hated all things green!

Its immensely satisfying when spring rolls around, and you can take photos like these of things in your yard that are thriving, that weren't there 12months ago - and wouldn't be if you hadn't bought the house.

We have lots more plans, but they are waiting on our boundary fence being corrected.....

I've just sowed 2 egg trays of seeds to be planted in a few weeks, so it will be a matter of clearing some space. And of course we have the seed potatoes there ready to go in, once the garden goes in.

Tough week...

2008-08-27T21:03:00.005+12:00

Wow - been a tough week in this house.

Hamish (20mo) got his grommets on MOnday. What a crappy day - man I hate hospitals.

I couldn't go with him when he went under, so that was Shanes job.... I am bad. But I couldn't do the vax either, so I am OK with not having my kids do pain. Gee - I dont do pain!!

I was called through when he woke up, and I praise everything above that I am still feeding. How to shut up a screaming toddler in a recovery ward! Phew.

He seems to be hearing more. You can see him quietly pontificating new noises, like the small plane that went over the house at dinner. I guess he is starting to hear things a little differently? He is talking non stop, and needs some translation, but is starting to get his message across.

I have been knitting. I am nearly finished on Rainy Day Sock, this was my Ravelympics project that got brushed aside, but I will finish them as I think they are pretty cool.
And I made this dishcloth out of some Cara cotton/microfibre I got from Spotlight a couple of years ago. It was meant to be something else, but I have decided to use it in the kitchen, and maybe share the love for cloths for Chrissie. Cool pattern tho - Chinese Waves, and its really easy, and very chunky for the kitchen.

So far its done one machine wash, and lots of scrubbing up, so people with this in your stash - washers might be the goer.

I am on practium at the moment, and its tough going. I am in the hard stuff, starting to teach about 2-3 times a day with all the planning, and of course both science topics I didn't do in my last prac. Electricity and Chemical Reactions. Oh well. The kids are all fantastic, hardly any behaviour stuff, which is awesome. A few smart alecs, but generally a really satisfying experience.

And finally - a note about my new big purchase. I was lucky (unlucky??) enough to get a place in the Wollmeise Sock Club. This was pricey.... It comes from Germany and i is seriously coveted worldwide! There was a lottery - I entered for a lark, and Uh-oh!! Luckily I have managed to find some fellow woolaholics to share the burden of the price tag, and I dont feel anywhere near as guilty anymore. Yes of course - 8 skeins of hand-dyed beautiful sock wool would be awesome, but you know - 4 is just as good.

Yarn Swap - sent and received!

2008-08-21T19:44:00.003+12:00

I recently joined in a yarn swap on TNN - the NZ Nappy network for hand dyed wool. There was more than just that criteria though, The swap had to be themed - and had to also include a recipe, a pattern for the wool, a knitting gift and a small gift.

So this is the lovely surprise I received in the mail on Tuesday :) An Apple for the teacher. Isn't that cool??

I'm not sure what I will use the wool for - its great colours, limes, green, pink yellow - all very cool as these are colours I have trouble getting when I dye with the acid dyes I have. It looks like a handspun, or a very loose 5-8ply wool. Loverly ;)

And of course my lovely swapper went above and beyond - there are all sorts of gifts in there. Tea bags, a knitted cloth, a cool bag, some apple cinnamon dessery stuff, a bath bomb, an apple decal - I'm sure I am forgetting something....

Anyway - thanks to my swapper in Ham, which I dont think is where she is from - maybe?? All gratefully received.

I sent this off to someone in Australia - its a fire themed swap since Aussie is so hot ;)

Sock wool, the firestarter sock pattern (love this sock!!!), some KP DPN's, a recipe for an above ground hangi, and a flames dishcloth. I feel a bit ordinary since my swapper put so much into their package, but I know that everything I sent was still OK. And the receiver seems to be happy. I see she has put the pattern in her ravelry queue.....

Love swaps :)

On a farm visit

2008-08-07T22:59:00.003+12:00

I meant to post these shots last month - but I never got around to it!

So when Shane's older daughter visited from Aus last month we decided to do the touristy thing and pop off to the agrodome. This is a kiwi icon tourist spot in Rotorua - all about sheep and farming. Its actually an organic farm as well, so it was lovely to go around.

We started off with the sheep show!

The presenter talks in a very excitable way about the different breeds of sheep, and one by one they bring the well trained beasts in to line up with their sign! Then they get the dogs in, and the dogs show their amazing trainability by jumping over the sheep's backs to get in line with the whistle.

During the show he sheared a sheep, adn then called for people to milk the cow. I did it - and milked my first cow! Very easily I might add - all the breastfeeding over the last 3y might have helped ;)

We got to get up and talk to all the dogs and sheep afterwards - spot which is Jenna, and which is the sheep - hard to tell with those curls...

Then we popped off on the farm tour where we saw the organic kiwifruit and feijoa farm, and sampled some wine and honey. Yum. WE got to stop off along the way and feed the farm animals. Jenna LOVED IT!!!! She got right in amongst the action - must have dished out about 5-8 handfulls of feed, right in the thick of it.

Hamish preferred the stragglers, and was pretty happy to run off after the 1 or 2 sheep that were by themselves.

The farm tour was topped off with expensive shopping and terrible cafe food, but all in all, a great day out for the whole family!

Shane almost never takes good photos of me with the kids - but I have to say I love this one, and I am very happy to have a great shot of me with Hamish :)

A couple of other hats...

2008-08-03T13:10:00.004+12:00

These are some of the other hats I recently knitted.

My hat is the Feather in Her Hat, made with nearly 2 balls of Jet. I love this hat, and I wear it nearly every day at uni. Very warm!!!

(Modelled by Shane....)

I also made Shane a hat - Jacques Cousteau, which is a fun hat doing the rounds on Ravelry. Shane's hat is made with Bendigo Woolen Mills 8 ply rustic.

I made the large size, and did the full length, but it is too long. I think the length would have been fine if I had made the smaller size, but I reckon you would have to have an enormous head to need the full sized, full length hat!

Death by Hat!!

2008-08-03T13:04:00.006+12:00

This weekend the Death by Hat comp started through Woolaholics, a knitting community I belong to.
The "targets" were released on Saturday morning, and the pattern released at 2pm NZ time Saturday afternoon.

My target isn't a NZer, so it will take about 5-7 days to get to her in WA, so I thought I had better get cracking! I have no doubts that I will be killed quickly - I expect I will only knit one hat, so here is my finished product. Actually - not quite, its blocking at the moment :)

The pattern is the slouchy copy cat hat, and it was really easy to knit - using about 2 balls of Kureyon, colour 150.

I am sure my victim will be happy to die with this hat ;)

Its been awhile.....again!

2008-08-01T00:14:00.002+12:00

Man - uni studies get away from you.

While I have been knitting, and buying wool, I admit that I am almost overdone when it comes to computers. While I love checking my forums (which are woolaholics, TNN, Nappycino and Ravelry) I admit that the last month has been dedicated to Edlinked.....

A particularly depressing site that is all things education, assessment and assignments. I am nearly over essays. In the last 4 months I have gone from overproducing essays to underproducing, which is a big shift for my mind.

Anyway - I am on practicum from next weekend, which means busy times for super-study-mumma.

Regardless of all the uni crap, I have been knitting!!! I have made an awesome hoody for Hamish which I will photograph this weekend. I am very proud of this one ;)
I have also been doing the baby thing - but in the spirit of babydom, we knit and knit for 2 days in our spare time, and in the desperation to provide newborn knits to the babe, we dont take photos...... And I have to say that I was REALLY proud of one of my knits. A gorgeous hat in cotton, that was so choccy-raspberry and delicious, and it takes all of my power to ask the very non-emotional 22 yo father "Does the hat fit!!!!!" I will err on the side of maturity and experience, and leave that one alone. Suffice to say I made an effort, and the reaction in the young chaps face was priceless and will entertain me on long dark nights to follow....

Speaking of which - how about the weather, and what about those all blacks!! Who cares!!! I am personally gutted that the Waikato Magic lost the final of the ANZ netball champ, and I hope they get there next year. After living in Oz for the last 8y, its lovely to feel a sense of pride in a team that I know I belong to.

Enough of the chatter - I'm hardly poignant when you consider the amazing bloggers out there.

Next post will have pix!

Frog a friend

2008-07-09T16:51:00.003+12:00

Tagged by Kelly , this is my frogged friend.

Sadly my rainbow vomit argosy was not panning out the way I hoped it would. In fact its usually a good sign that the project is better off frogged when it actually looks nicer in the ball than knitted up......

And now I tag Sam :)

Pickles

2008-06-24T11:10:00.005+12:00

I truly am the queen of procrastination.

Ask me when my essay is due.
Ask me how much I have done....

Its so not pretty!

So yesterday I decide to make piccallili. I hunted the web, as you do, and found this recipe which looked pretty good, genuine, and I am sure I remember watching this guy cook on some show.... Rick Stein's Piccalilli recipe

If you dont know what Piccalilli is, its a kinda cauliflower pickle chutney, seems to be an english foody thing and its served with things like ham off the bone.

Good recipe - I enjoyed making it. I only made a few changes to the recipe - fresh ginger and pickling mix with solid nutmeg and allspice etc. After 24hrs of soaking, simmering, bottling etc, here is the product.

Very yummy, I have soaked up the sauce with a garlic pita for lunch, and now the pickle gets to age for the next month or so, then we can crack it open :)

I shouldnt imagine we will eat all 8 jars, so I think we will have to gift some.

Pay attention!!!

2008-06-22T17:30:00.005+12:00

Do you want the best meat lasagne recipe around?

I am finally Ok with sharing my personal recipe....... So pay attention - I have been told its the best, and its by far my favourite!

So start with an onion and garlic. According to taste, but I do about 1 onion/500g of mince, and about 3 cloves of crushed garlic.

Put some oil (I use olive) in a pan, heat, and add the diced onion and crushed garlic. Also add 2 anchovy fillets or the equivalent amount of paste. Heat until the onions start going clear, and the anchovy is well mixed through the mix. Believe me, the anchovy is worth it!!

Add the mince. I usually try to add half pork, half beef, but it works OK with half beef.

Brown mince and ensure its all broken up well. Large chunks are not pretty.....

Add tomato. I usually add peeled whole tomatoes. For 500g of mince you probably need about 700g of tinned tomatoes and the juice. I like whole tomatoes as they are easier to pick the skin and core out. If you wish add a tub of tomato paste (50g or so) and some water, but if you haven't got paste, add another tin of tomatoes.

Add the following:

1-1.5 cup wine (white or red, but I think white is nicer)
About 1-2t of white sugar (helps with the acidity, especially with tinned pure tomatoes)
Concentrated Vege stock 1T or so. I love Vegeta if you can get it.
Dried herbs, try italian or mixed herbs
pepper and salt to taste (depends on what stock you use)

Cook for about an hour. If it starts looking dry, add more water, about 1/2 cup at a time. Stir whenever you walk past.

Ideally this sauce should cook for about 3 hours. Its worth it, I swear :) Add water to stop it drying out, and just keep the cycle going.

Thats my spag bol sauce but I mix it with a few other things to get this.....

So you have to do homemade pasta. Anything you buy is rubbish in comparison. I find my breadmaker does a great job of the dough. About 4 eggs, some salt and about 300g of flour is enough for a large lasagne.

Cheese/Bechamel sauce

Hmm - I am a bucket chef when it comes to this, but I generally do about this:

Heat 75g of butter, and about 2T of cornflour in a pot, stir until its a paste. Add about 100ml of milk, mix and then add about 5-600ml of milk.
On a steady heat (not too hot, not too cold) heat sauce until it thickens. It should be heavy, if that makes any sense at all...... If after about 15mins, its not thickening, try adding another t or so of cornflour in T of cold milk. Eventually you will get a lovely sauce.

Add cheese - lots of it. I usually doa mix of something easy like colby or tasty and then some fresh parmesan. For 500ml of milk you need about 3c of grated cheese.

Time to assemble!

Put a thin layer of meat sauce on the bottom of a ovenproof dish. Then the cheese sauce, just enough to cover it. Sometimes I add veges in now, like tonight I put a couple of layers of wilted spinach in. Then a layer of pasta sheets.

Meat, cheese sauce, pasta until you are at the top of your dish. Leave some space because the dish will rise in the oven.

After the last layer of pasta, put a small amount of cheese sauce, and a little grated cheese. Before the kids, I then used to sprinkle paprika, grated pepper and salt over
the top, but that has got the kybosh.....

Bake in an oven (180deg or so) until the sauce is bubbling and the top is a nice golden brown.

Leave for 10 minutes or so to settle, and then cut and serve. Everyone will enjoy!!!!

And the result is.....

Notes:

I really mix this up, its one of those fluid things that changes texture and taste everytime I make it, but generally its awesome!

Sometimes when I am doign the onion stage I might add some grated carrot and celery which is apparently the true italian spag bol sauce. Its not bad, but tastes nicer when you have an equal pork/beef mince mix.

If I have them, I also use fresh basil, oregano and thyme towards the end of the dish. Lovely, jubbly :)

I don't know anyone else who sweats anchovy with their garlic and onion, so if you copy this, give me credit!

Everyone thinks their spag bol sauce is the best, but really, this one is pretty darned awesome!

Feathers in her hat

2008-06-22T17:21:00.005+12:00

I am seriously happy I knitted this hat :)

I had coveted it for a very long time, and finally I got up the urge (or the procrastination) to cast it on.
Couldn't put it down, my kids and partner felt starved of attention all afternoon, but after about 6hrs, it was done.

I love it!!!!!!!!

I wore it all day, and then I said to DP "Hey, you try it on" and he wouldn't take it off!!! So now I have to knit him a new hat - he has chosen the pattern, and I just have to get it done if I want my hat back :)

Link is here

Poor me :(

2008-06-15T18:18:00.003+12:00

I am such a tragic old thing.

Today I am the excited recipient of a MOON BOOT!!! See picture for further clarification.

I have a veyr bad ankle, sprained numerous times over the years - usually attributed to alcohol or netball.

This time it was netball, and bugger it all within 4 goals in the game. We went on to lose, and I felt awful on the sideline :(

So me an my new moon boot will be firm friends for at least a week. I have a fracture clinic visit in a week which should clarify if the darkish area on my film is a fracture or nothing, but hopefully it is just a sprain, and I can take this monstrosity off in a week or so.

Still - makes it hard for uni for the next week!! I will be getting a lift with a friend that thankfully lives about 200m from me. But still, I feel pretty bad getting dropped off at the gates while she has to hunt for a car park :(

RAOK

2008-06-14T13:20:00.003+12:00

This is a swap I put together for a woman in Aus for the Woolaholics Random Act of Kindness swap. Its a great idea, because when you sign up for the swap, all you know is sometime in the next 6m a parcel will arrive on your doorstep.

Courtney is a knitter, and budding crocheter, and is expecting a little girl very soon. I hope that the little girl gets alot of use out of this dress - its the little sister dress pattern which was great to knit.