possibly TMI

Thanks all for the good wishes, both here and on FB

As it transpired, six days of heaving up my toes after the massive surgeries of '09 [ because no-one had made the connection that I was having what is euphemistically referred to as an 'adverse reaction' to morphine / oxycontin, as a result of which, they kept me well topped up with more of the same ] didn't do my then newly eviscerated insides any favours

quelle suprise !!

anyway, the net result was last weeks reprise repair of some of the same portions of my battered carcass ...

Apparently I am something of an anaesthetist's nightmare now [ three of the fetching, red alert bracelets, each with multiple entries ] ... there were no general anaesthetics that he was willing to risk so I had a spinal.

As promised, I don't remember anything between having the ice cold pink stuff washed over my back and waking up with everything below the bellybutton not answering directions.
It was a very strange experience as bits and pieces came back on line.
At one point I could make my legs respond, but not the blocks of heavy ice that were subbing for my feet/toes and tush.

There were no private rooms available initially, so I had the 'pleasure' of sharing with a locally notorious, extraordinarily demanding, little old lady who was both physically and verbally incontinent and deaf [ loudloudloud tv] , and a fragile young lady going through some health and lifestyle issues that were totally none of my or any one else's business, but which, because of the flimsy illusion of privacy offered by a drawn curtain, we were all fully aware of.

After three days of feeling like a voyeur [ and 2 hours sleep a night due to little old lady's nocturnal wanderings ] I was less than sparkling, so one particular staff member iniatiated the opening of a closed 4-bed ward just for me.

It would have inconvenienced the cleaning staff who suddenly had one more bathroom to cope with, but, to tell you the truth, I was past caring.

A couple of days of peace and quiet ensued and I came home on Monday.

I'm trying to behave: bedrest with periods of moving around, trying not to 'just pick up this' or 'move that' and to find the balance between adequate pain medication [ I am invincible, I can do anything ... ] and somewhat less than adequate [ owowowowowow ]
It's a delicate dance known, I now realise, to all who have ever had to recover from major surgery.

I am:
reading [ Cassandra Clare: City of Glass, and during the last week, Deja Dead by Kathy Reichs, Keep The Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell and Side Jobs by Jim Butcher ]

knitting [ currently a scarf for Nadie - hospital knitting was a shawl from last week's alpaca/samoyed, now temporarily on hold until I am up to spinning some more ]

and catching up on 3 seasons of NCIS

and you should all make yourselves a pair of these [ fabulous freebie pattern from Mindie ].


Pattern: 19 row slippers from Knitting If Not Eccentric
Yarn: vintage Thorobred Celtic 12 ply /bulky pure wool from New Zealand
Needles: KP Options 8mm
Mods: I used a slip1, k2tog, psso as the left leaning double decrease instead of the SSSK, and added a few rows of garter at the cuff before casting off.

and the colour is actually not as grey blue as this nightime picture would imply. It's both clearer and brighter.

I made Nadie's first and then a 'taking to hospital' pair.

So that's m'week!

Doing well

Hi all, Nadie here.

As some of you may know, mum went in for surgery yesterday (re-doing part of what was done 18 months ago). She has come out of it very well, and will most likely be home on Sunday. In the meantime, anyone local who wishes to visit her at Castlemaine hospital is welcome to do so.

Only in Castlemaine [again]

the full vid of our flash sing during the State Festival

I'm at 2:42 and Nadie at 3:47

A Hair of the Dog

Just quickly
[ because Blogger has been temperamental, and also it's past time for me to jump in the shower and do all those things associated with getting on with my day ]


this is 220 metres of pale blue-grey alpaca from the back room at BWM with some of last week's wonderful white [obviously] Samoyed. This was seasoned with a hint of Wendy Dennis' dark brown raw Polwarth fleece.
Not the easiest mix to work with, but my fondness for working with alpaca stood me in good stead with the puppy dawg wool which has a similar feel and 'handleability' to the alpaca.

The whole lot was lightly drum carded, before spinning on my Sheridan Celtic

... initially the Celtic and I were having some 'issues' but a clean-and-oil in all the right places worked wonders for her 'tude. Shouldn't be surprised I guess. A good oiling does me the world of good :)
Anyway, the resultant yarn varies quite a bit in weight, mainly dependant on whether it was the stuff I spun on Saturday night, before I figured out the problems with the wheel, or yesterday's lot.
Some of it is almost an aran/worsted, most is about what we Aussies would call 8ply [ DK or Sport ] and some of it is about sock/4ply.

Yarn with character !!

and now I'm late ... buggerit

EDITED TO ADD:

Okay so here are the thoughts that occurred after I pushed 'publish':

The yarn is a 2ply construction. Only one of those plies is the alpaca/samoyed/polwarth mix and the other is the carded alpaca. You can hardly see the dark brown wool but it has added a certain little extra something.
The magnificent animals whose wool it is are the Aussie Champion 'Taj' and his mum 'Grace'. If you'd like to find out more about them, you'll find the Snowbrook Samoyeds here

And a cast of ... several

So do you all remember me mentioning the flash sing at the IGA during the State Festival ?
Here 't'is [ most of it anyway - filmed on someone's phone, so all things considered the quality's not too bad ]
The sharp of eye may be able to find me in the midst of the pack but poor Nadie, being somewhat vertically challenged, is invisible.



Some of the more "innovative" harmonies were supplied by shoppers who just had to join in.
I can't decide whether my favourite bit is Judy & Janey dancing or the bemused 'checkout chick'

Guess Who's Three Today ?

This is Bear when his adopted [Cats]mum came back from town without the obligatory birthday bag of big meaty bonesnot impressed Mum !

a liberal ingestion of leftover roast pork has since returned Bear to his customary happy self

this is what a box of dog looks like

When Nadie and I were at the Goat Show over Easter, we had an intriguing conversation with a lovely lady who breeds Australian Champion Samoyeds about the possibility of spinning her dogs wool. She went on to order some Tupperware from Nadie, the delivery of which sort of clinched the need for a visit.

I mean really
talk about your no brainer

Offer me free fibre and the chance to get up close and personal with a couple of the most stunning canines you are ever likely to see [ although you're NOT likely to see them because I failed signally to garner photographic evidence of their magnificence ... bad Catsmum ... BAD ]

and the day got even better as we managed to combine it with a return bout of baby boer goat snuzzling over at Emu Creekthis is actually a pic I took last week but they were just as cute today :)

a prettty good day all round then:
Nadie and I got sniffed/slobbered on and muddied by assorted cats, dogs and goats
Bear visited his Mummy and sister - but I forgot to buy them some special bones to celebrate Bear & Molly's third birthday on Wednesday [ again BAD BAD Catsmum! ]
and
this is what a boxful of freshly shampooed-and-groomed dawg looks like

I think I have a date with my carder!

another finished object [ which needs a name ]

Nadie wanted a slouchy hat
I felt like playing with a particular lace
This was the result
and I like it so much I'm about to cast on one for myself in blue

pattern - improvised
needles - 3.75mm & 4.5mm KP Harmony
yarn - Bendigo Woollen Mills Luxury 8ply in Ruby

This isn't by any means the first time I've used Luxury, which is a nice, soft, machine washable little workhorse of a yarn with only one drawback. It grows like nobody's business the first time it hits water. Now if one happens to know that, one can [to a certain extent ] allow for it, but it does still make 'improvising' in this yarn a bit of a gamble size wise. This time, with the help of some swatching and some maths, I pretty much got the desired result ... even if The Girl does still think it's a little loose.

anyone want the pattern ?

More Fibre goodness

I don't know that I ever actually explained to you how I ended up spending a large portion of Easter at the Bendigo Showgrounds, but in a nutshell the story goes like this:

The denizens of Emu Creek, otherwise known as Pete-and-Brenda, are keen Chrysanthemum growers as well as their more usual guise of gurus of all things goaty.
Anyway, a year, or so, ago they decided that Bendigo really needed a Goat Show. I mean really, really, reallly [ no arguments from me ] and the easiest way to do it without headaches over venues and public liability insurance and the rest, was to create a goat sub-group in the local Chrysanthemum Club and ride along as part of the long-standing Easter Chryssie show at the Prince Of Wales Showgrounds - better known to readers of any knitting blog based in Oz as the home of the Australian Wool & Sheep Show. [ prize for most run-on and parenthetical sentence of the month ]
As is often the case, someone who fully intended to be there, selling her spinning wheels, fibre and yarns, had to bow out fairly late in the piece, and all the advertising mentioned spinning, so a spinner there had to be, even if she was only there to demo... and guess who is the only spinner that Pete-and-Brenda could call to mind ???
Yes
got it in one

And actually, now that I've written that, ONE advertisement came out touting the presence of " sinners" as I found out on the Saturday when one smartypants enquired " Are you one of them sinners I was reading about?"

Anyway
this is the alpaca/ kid angora singles that I managed to get spun over the two days of constant interruptions - like having to go pet sweet, snuggly caprines and camelids
this is how it looked on Sunday night when I plied it with a Corriedale-cross singles that was hanging around begging to be used


and the plied, wetted-and-whacked end product

Those lumpy bumpy bits all seemed to happen when I was trying to answer questions

as did any and all yarn breakages

any perfect spinning occurred when I was not being scrutinised

of course

and we will not even begin to discuss the subject of how one copes with the discovery [ beginning of day 2 ] that one has left the [ absolutely vital ] orifice hook sitting in yesterday's bag on the coffee table 50 kilometres away !!!!

Goat Showy Goodness Now With Added Alpaca

All roads lead to Bendigo

Last October I was able to cross yet another life ambition off The List when I achieved near immortality by having a goat named after me

"Self" I thought at the time, " It doesn't get any better than this" [ which my family and friends would probably tell you says volumes about my life ]
Self agreed with me, but it turns out that both of us were completely incorrect.

It turns out that leading your namesake into the judging ring at the inaugural Bendigo Goat Show is pretty nifty too


and even better is when she wins Best Anglo-Nubian Doe in her age group [ narrowly beating out another of PND's doelings, Ms Hannah ]

and, cheesy grin notwithstanding, if you click for big, you can read what it says on my shirt

Almost lost for words

chris found this on line

I can't decide whether it's so twee that it's cute [ maybe with a white 'beard' as an elf ]

or whether it's just ...

oh, heck, you decide :)

finished object

Castlemaine State Festival 2011 ; the final washup

So here's the thing

Pretty much every day for the last week and a half, I've composed mental blog posts... mostly in the car ... or under the shower.

They were witty and polished.
Moving even.
They would have really made you want to jump on a bus/train/plane and get yourself up/down/over here ... if I had, in point of fact, actually got as far as the keyboard,
but alack
and alas even
there was just sooooo much going on, that just didn't happen.
as you may have noticed

there was:
mass dancing in the streets at the Opening Ceremony
marvelous pieces of theatre to be seen/heard/enjoyed in venues both traditional and decidedly not.*
wonderful exhibitions by just about every practising artist in the area
fabulous concerts [ the standout for Nadie and I had to be Toronto-based Klezmer band ' Beyond The Pale' and their Beyond Mozart concert

... the divine Wolfgang Amadeus played on electric mandolin, violin, clarinet, piano accordion and bass ... some of it in Balkan 7/8 time !!!! ]

singing ... in the street outside the Castlemaine Fruit & Veg with the Peace Choir
singing ... at the railway station [ at 6 am ] with the Chat Warblers
singing ... with a cast of what seemed like thousands in the IGA Supermarket [ and apparently we were on ABC Radio too but I missed it ]
some seriously frocked-up** singing ... with soloists from Victorian opera conducted by Richard Gill in a sing-your-own Mozart to Mayhem concert.

Surprisingly, I have almost no voice left, and and seriously need to buy shares in whichever pharmaceutical company makes Strepsils.

Oh, and I mustn't forget that David got involved too

and then there was the all-day closing party yesterday
but I'm all tuckered out so I'm going to leave that for tomorrow


* down a Goldmine

**frocked up: the condition of being very, very dressed up for an occasion such as The Opera or The Ballet.
In the case of my friend Janey, it meant swapping her habitual checked-work-shirt-and -jeans for a pristine white-shirt-and-jeans.

Some of us who did frock up as directed, scored double pass tickets to a Victorian Opera production in Melbourne later in the year.

spot the Catsmum

Forget Where's Wally? ... can you find moi in this group of pajama-clad ladies warbling at the Castlemaine Train Station at 6-flipping-AM on Monday ?

OCD queen

I swear I had today's post all planned out.

It was all about the evolution of an idea

I was going to explain to you all how a really simple freebie headband pattern lead to a beret
[ that I haven't shown you yet, despite the fact that it was finished halfway through last year ] which lead to some wristwarmers
[ that I also haven't shown you because they're not sewn up ]
which lead to the leggies that I kinda slipped into the last post
and then to the current project ... which I was confident would be entirely finished, ends sewn in and photographable by tonight

except

in the long established tradition of best laid plans 'o mice, men and Catsmums going aft aglay

just as I was casting off, I noticed a row count error

90 rows back

and yes
I nearly said something less than ladylike
and yes
I did pull it all out
and yes
I have started again

but that will be a post for another day

this week

Nadie and I spent some quality time with Bear at the Castlemaine Botanical Gardens

I made a new bit of garden ... which has been subsequently rearranged several times by the cats

so I've temporarily given up my landscaping attempts until the irresistible attraction of newly turned earth wears off

I also designed and knitted some legwarmers for The Girl


Nadie made sushi for the WIP [works in progress] day that we had yesterday

and we marked Earth Hour 2011 appropriately [ Nadie and The Boy playing cards by candlelight ]

gorgeous little visitor

MissC is sulking because Nadie 'stole' her Bearded Dragon

do or do not ... there is no try

Why is it that as soon as I say ... well, okay,write ... that I'm going to tell you something in particular in the next post, other stuff intervenes ?

In this case, like a whole bunch of other bloggers, I have found myself just overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the continuing disasters in Japan.

It seems insensitive to blithely witter on about my latest knitting / gardening / singing, etc in the face of yet another horrendous natural occurrence

again

First it was floods in Queensland, and then in New South Wales and Victoria.

Then the horrors of Christchurch

and now Japan

so do I blog about my inconsequential stuff or don't I ?

Today as I trawled through my favourite blogs, and read about Bell's newest gorgeous shawl, and Sheepish Annie's ongoing battles with her students, I realised that reading ... and writing ... about the normal stuff is one way of dealing with the overwhelmingly big stuff.

So
as promised

the backstory to my Zen Shawl:

back in October of 2008, I was working on a pair of Broadripple socks for Nadie.
I'd already made a couple of pairs for myself and just loved - and still love - the pattern.
I had decided to dye some cream sock yarn with a totally random [ and the key word here would be 'unmeasured' ] mix of blues, purples and hot pink.
It turned out just as I wanted. So far so good
... until ... I ran out of yarn with just the toe of the second sock left to do.

Cut to frenzied gnashing of teeth

Granted I could have just unpicked the toe of the first sock and given both of them a contrasting toe. That trick has gotten many a savvy knitter out of a tight spot before this ... but did I consider that ?
Nope
Never even crossed my mind for a second.
Instead I attempted to duplicate the 'random' dye job.

First attempt: came out as a pretty but very pastel version.
Second attempt: surprisingly close.

If you look at the photo in the link above, you can see that one toe is ever so slightly paler than the rest, but as the person for whom they were made was happy, I decided not to listen to the OCD side of my brain, and to quit while I was ahead. Said socks were duly finished four days after I started them.

The full ball of attempt 1 and the almost full one of attempt 2 were relegated to the sock wool tub where they lived in complete harmony with all the other sock wool candidates for a couple of years.

until
October 23rd 2010

I was about to catch a train down to Melbourne to spend the evening-before-her-wedding with my darling girl.
As I headed for the door, bag in hand, 'She who must be obeyed' [ aka my BFF Beryl ] yelled "Take your knitting. You'll need something to keep you calm tomorrow morning!!"

far be it from me to argue with SWMBO

but what to take ?
the then current - and still unfinished - project was far too complicated.
I needed to start something new...
I needed to find yarn, pattern and needles ... like right NOW

Snap decision: lace, but something I could do with my brain in neutral. It pretty much had to be another a Forest Canopy Shawl
but what yarn ?

okay, that stuff leftover from Nadie's socks is pretty and I can dye a couple more balls darker for the border later

needles? these 4mm KPs will have to do. They're already screwed together. I don't have time to fiddle around changing the ends.

I cast on going down in the train and got a couple of repeats done

and of course this brings us to the next morning. Nadie's wedding day.
Amidst the chaos of hair and makeup people, I sat in my oh-so-elegant white, fluffy dressing gown, knitting fine lace

I only had to pull out a little bit when I lost the plot for a few stitches [ but I didn't tell you that ]

and that whole 'keep you calm ' premise ?
It actually worked.


Specs:

pattern - Forest Canopy Shawl by Susan Lawrence [ ravlink]
yarn - Arlaan Arwetta [ ebay purchase ] originally cream
needles - KP Options 4mm
yardage - 760m or 830 yds [ 4 balls ]
mods - 7 extra repeats of the diamond pattern and 8 extra eyelet rows in the border

and in case you missed it the photo is here

dum dum dum dum

... another one* bites the dust**



* unfinished object finished
**with apologies to Queen

edit:
I started this one back in October and just finished it this week. There's a story attached. I'll try to get back to you with that tomorrow.