Products of a road trip

No, your eyes are not deceiving you. That is a finished PAIR of lovely Lorna's Laces socks. Very nice for when you are sitting on the couch crafting and your tootsies get a little cold - which is what happened to me in Dubbo while I was knitting these cuties...


If only I had a mini me!

Who are you, who who who who?

I was reading Pea Soup today and she's been back into the Meme thing lately. Meme's were flying all over the blogisphere about 6 months ago, but they seem to no longer be the flavour of the month. But they're fun and I thought we should all do one, so each of the Dear Kel'ers can consider themselves tagged - make a new post to answer, k. Non Dear Kel-ers feel free to participate on your own blog, post a comment and let us know you're playing.

(I'm taking a bit from here and a bit from there...are Meme's copyrighted? ;))

Target or Kmart?
Target

Beef burger, chicken burger of veggie burger?
Veggie burger

Coles or Woolies (Woolworths/Safeway)?
Coles, always. Although once upon a time it was Franklins always - remember Franklins?!

Pasta or Pizza?
Pasta

Thongs or sandals?
Thongs, Sandals make me think of being in primary school.

Backyard pool or beach?
Either actually both please.

Chocolate or Vanilla?
Vanilla any day of the week.

Hair product or no hair product?
These days hair product, but I'm not precious about it.

Cats or dogs?
Focaccia. She's a cat that thinks she's a dog - actually she thinks she's people.

Coffee or tea?
Coffee please

Would you rather be a Teacher or a Nurse?
Teacher

Camping on the beach or camping in the mountains?
Camping on the foot of the mountains near the beach! I've done that before and it was ace. If I had to choose I think I'd choose beach.

You've got 10 minutes before you leave for a party and you don't have a gift to give the bday girl or boy. What crafty goodness do you whip up?
That's so typical of me! A handmade card with a piece of fabric sewn on the front - to be attached to a bottle of wine I'll buy on the way to the partay.

Tell us something about yourself that most people don't know.
I lived in a NSW country town for 6 months when I was 8 years old. And I loved it, but am really grateful we moved back to the city.
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Yum! Roast dinner for 25 people - from Papa's 80th bday family weekend away.

Fetch!

Fetching? Yes, they are rather.

Look Ma, no double points!

Sorry for my long absence, but it took me a little while to get my mojo back after my holiday. Actually, it only took one lunch session with Shazmina Bendi, a little encouragement from Brown Pants to overcome my ebay fear, and I made a rather significant purchase from Yarnbow.

But thank you ladies for introducing me to Lorna's Laces - Yum! I love knitting with this yarn.

With new yarn, new needles and rejuvenated mojo, I decided to tackle a new challenge - socks (dum de de da...)

They really aren't that bad! The double circular trick is much better than double points (well for me anyway, I didn't really enjoy the double point experience). The heels are a little fiddly, but far from impossible.

Thanks to a cold Saturday at Shazmina's house indulging our obsessions for crafting, trash dip and chocolate paddle pops, I managed to finish my first born. Here are some progress shots...

And finished! Well, one anyway.... The next challenge - a pair

The Benjamina Post

(posted on Ben's behalf)
'The disbelievers thought it could never been done, BUT I DID IT!!!. After a period of about ten months (off and on), I have completed what has been affectionately known as the 'Navy-blue' blanket. The 'Navy-blue', given my colour blindness, is a mix of different hues of navy blue crocheted in single and double-crochet. Will I do it again...maybe. Will I do it in Navy...definitely. '
- Ben -

All the Ladees

Hey, I haven't been here for ages - well no posting for ages, I've been checking every day to see what the hell you guys are up to, but other than Kristie I guess you're up to about as much craft as I am - thanks for holding the fort dear Brown Pants.

Well it's not strictly true I have done some craft...a couple of small badges here and there, the start of some special soft toys, knitting of some pairs of slippers, and lots and lots of day dreaming of ideas for future projects...mostly I've been doing my craft day dreaming in the shower, it's a good place I recommend it!

So, I live up to my place in the Association of Attention Deficient Crafters, but that's OK I kinda like it that way. I've been taking on some tiny porjects to give me the occassional sense of achivement and I've forced myself not to cast on my brown Martha's mohair cardi until I finish at least one of those 2 baby cardys I have on my needles at the moment. This has been very good for me, I'm excited about being nearly finished one of them and so I think my excitement is maintained for the new cardy project - but of course Spring is here and Summer in the crap shack is fast approaching....and I was sposed to be finished my cardy in ahhh well winter of course.

Anyway I won't dispair who cares if I live in the crap shack that cooks you up like a boiling prawn on hot days? I don't - well actually I do - iut';s usually 10 deg hotter inside our house on a scorching hot summers day but oh well here's my desired knitting list anyway...

- Clap
- some form of basic lace - even if I knit a dolls shawl just to try it out!
- My cardy
- Finish those 2 bebe cardys off
- Buy Happy Hookers and get going on some crochet projects (another reward for getting at least one baby cardy off the needles - see how I have to incent myself!)

Um..that'll do for now OK.

I can't blog without a photo it's against my blogligion or something. Here's a random for you...in case you forget what I look like? (it's as close to a sefl portrait as I'm gonna get on the net)

I finished my Shawl! Yay for me (on that note I was giving a speech today and was thanking someone from Govt. and said "And yay for scott* . He's been excellent throgh the whole thing" then everyone turned to him and said 'yay for Scott' now i'm paranoid 'yay for' hasn't made it into vernacular...but how could it have not? And as I was leaving he was being teased about it. But maybe that's just an NGO/Govt thing. Maybe we're not supposed to be nice to each other.)

But I digress. I would like to talk about blocking. I blocked the shawl I just finished (check it out ladies, I rock the block!). This was the shawl off the needles (i only did close ups, sorry)


This was the shawl while it was blocking (sorry, no light.)


And this is the shawl draped over something. This is it's new natural 'sit' (i'm sure that's not what you call it but i'm going with that).

Pretty ha? I would very recommend the pattern if any of you wanted to try lace. I am thinking of using the Artyarns we both got Al to make one for my own. I'm giving this one to someone that's doing something very special and generous for me at the moment.

My main problem with this pattern was knowing when to stop the pattern repeats. Looks like I got it right without that last repeat Shaz (or after I stuffed it and had to frog it). This was all I had left after casting off. Not enough for 8 200+ rows...

Garden Craft (although I suspect I've used that title before)

Finally got around to the first nursery trip of the garden craft season on Sunday. Given that it hadn't received much attention lately the garden was in good shape. Surprisingly good shape, actually. JD found this little lovely hiding behind a jasmine bush that had gone feral. This little pot of orchids came from my 'Nan' (of the extended family friend variety) and I put it up there to get it away from a little bug that seemed to be eating it. Then I forgot about it, but it was worth it for this sweet surprise.

There are also three buds on it that I'm keeping a close eye on now! The tomatoes (black russian and roma) went in with the Basil. This is the only part of ground-earth in the backyard that gets full-sun (everything else is in pots or shade) and basil just loves it here. One year little plants like this were over 1 metre tall. Honest! Can't wait to watch these little ones grow.

The Ice Skating Post

As some of you know, I went Ice Skating a few days ago. I have recovered enough to laugh at myself, so now I am sharing the lurve!

Last time I went Ice skating was over 10 years ago, so enough time had passed for me to forget how uncoordinated I am on the ice. Action man had mentioned several times that it would be "fun" to go ice skating, I decided (finally) that I was up for it, after all how hard could it be?? As long as I didnt break any bones I would be happy.

The morning of D-Day, I was a little stressed (control freak issues). Enough to iron a tshirt. Who irons tshirts???? By the time we got to the rink I was freaking out. You will all be happy to know that I kept it all very well hidden from Action man, that is until I strapped on the skates and hit the ice, and I mean that literally!

I was very thankful that Action man was very patient and calm teacher. That and the fact he is 6'3" and hopefully could keep me on my feet with little effort, made me relax. Yeah relaxed (not!), until he gave me a wedgie, trying to stop me from falling over. Note to self, when ice skating, dont wear a g-string! So after 2 hours on the ice, I only fell over 3 times and got 1 wedgie, pretty successful session!

So picture me, or rather picture the cartoons where someone's legs are all over the place and arms are flailing widely in the air (my shoulders are really sore still!) and that was me. I made quite an impression, particularly my last, less than graceful fall. I actually managed to graze my elbow. Who knew you could get a graze off ice?? Well if I did I would have worn long sleeves!

So, I as I retired to the bench to stem the blood from my elbow (ok, there was only a little blood), this little girl came and sat next to me and started talking. She saw my last fall, thought it was pretty funny (ok, even I admit it was funny!). And then proceeded to tell me that she hadnt even fallen over that day, in that self righteous "I am 10 years old and I am WAAAY cool" way that little kids have. And then she just kept on going, with telling me how she just picked ice skating up really easily. I kept wondering if it would be wrong to push her off the bench while screaming " There you go, didnt fall over ice skating, but you cant even sit on a bench!! At least I can sit still on a bench, mole!!!!"

So as we left the rink, when Action man mentioned we should do that again, I smiled sweetly and said "that would be great, I had alot of fun!" while inside thinking " AAAAAGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!".

Put this in ya biscuit barrel and eat it!

Wow, that sounds kinda rude, doesn't it? Anyway, there is clearly no end to my talents (ha!): I baked!

These were so yummy. Thank you Betty Crocker Packet mix biscuits. Your warm jam stickyness made me very happy (wow, that sounds kinda wrong too...)