Steve Bracks? SEXy??

Who'd have thought it? Relax, I haven't suddenly parked my taste in men in my backside :D

Yesterday I received a cheque in the mail. A cheque for $150. Apparently this supposedly covers the cost of Goose starting school this year. Here's a newsflash, Bracksy: we outlaid our dosh at the start of the year, when Goose needed her uniform, shoes, and a backpack the size of most small European principalities.

Hang on ... you mean, there's a state election coming up? And that's why we get a cheque now, so we'll theoretically remember it on voting day, come November? No chance.

Tell you what, Bracksy. I'll spend mine on yarn (hence the SEX), thanks all the same. You can take your chances in November.....

PS: Didn't Goose look ready to start school?

Secret Knitting

OK, not quite the same as Secret Pal stuff :)

I'm working on something I can't talk about at present, so I can't show you - yet. Instead, here's a photo of Dash wearing his Elephant Vest:


This photo was taken last year on our trip to the UK. We're in a field near DH's childhood home in South Gloucestershire, where he and his brothers used to go and play. There's a gentle stream through it, it's very peaceful (apart from the constant traffic - not like the old days, apparently) and the kids loved learning to throw rocks into the water. It's like a talisman of DH's past.

Anyway, the vest is from Alice and Jade Starmore's Children's Collection and I knitted it in Jamieson's Shetland 4 ply. I'm really proud of this one, as it was my first foray into Fair Isle in the round and steeking. It was one of the scariest things I've ever done, taking scissors to my knitting. You'd better believe I knitted a sample square and cut that up, first!! I used the crochet steek method, which I found in Meg Swansen's book, "Handkintting". Crochet just seemed to to be a better fit than getting out my sewing machine, although I would have done that without hesitation if the sample steek hadn't held together.

In the interests of equality, I should also show you some knitting I did for Goose. These are her Mermaid socks in Opal yarn, from Lucy Neatby's "Cool Socks, Warm Feet" (altered at Goose's request to be knee-high). I love this book, and this is the second pair I made from it. The first pair was "Crenellated Toe-Up Socks", which were my holiday knitting last year - something actually for me. Maybe one day I'll get a photo up of those.

There's some spinning going on, too, but I can't really talk about that, yet, either. Quite the secretive type, aren't I?

Mouths of Babes

Sitting here on the couch with Dash. I'm too brain-dead to knit, after a succession of bad nights' sleep. You know how it is, the kids are unwell and DH is out-of-town, so you only sleep lightly so you'll hear them if they wake.

First off, Dash asks me if the last Teletubbie is called Ho or Po. Can you imagine a little red figure, lounging seductively against a lamp post down Grey Street, babbling to the kerb-crawlers? Too funny. I'm almost certain that they don't make fishnets for that figure type. No, I do not want to know the URL if there is such a website lol.

Next, we're watching kids gathering blackberries and Dash asks me whether, if you eat poison, you die. Yes, I answer, you'd at least get very sick.

"So why do they have poison berry yoghurt at the supermarket?"

It took me a few seconds to realise he meant boysenberry...

Anyone Remember Muttley?

Does anyone remember Muttley, the muttering, snickering dog from the Wacky Races cartoon?

I was doing a pretty fair imitation of his cursing and muttering last night, sitting on my couch. The plan had been, with DH in Perth this week, as follows:

5pm Take Dash and Goose to my parents, bath and settle them in
7pm Go to Nichola and Kevin's lounge and have something to eat
8pm Relax with a glass of something and listen to Pat Ashforth and Steve Plummer share their woolly thoughts
11pmish Return to parents and sleep over
Sat am Drop Goose to schoolfriend for the day to attend mutual pirate party
Sat am Drop Dash to brother's place for the day with his cousins and attend pirate storytime at Reading's
Sat am Go to Guild for the day (bliss)
Sat pm Pick up Dash and Goose, home, baths, dinner, bed (for them) and an evening of my choice on TV

I knew this wasn't going to go to plan when Goose woke early Friday morning with a high temperature. She has always spiked a temperature quickly as a baby and hasn't really outgrown it yet. So, no school for her. I hastily arranged an alternative babysitter (16yo nephew) who could come to my place to mind the kids (Hi, Moo!) and went out to buy fish and chips for all of them. So far, so good, until at 7:30 Dash turned to me with his eyes full of tears and uttered the fateful words: "I don't want you to go out tonight", followed by wrapping himself around me and hanging on like a koala in a cyclone.

Tell me, what choice did I have after that?

So, we drove Moo home, dropped in at the Nectar Lounge to at least meet Pat and Steve and get my books autographed and then home to pop the kids into bed, just in time to see Richmond get beaten by Melbourne. At least they're putting up a fight this year.

Good to see that all the usual suspects turned up for the workshop; just a shame we couldn't catch up over a glass of something pleasant.

Maybe I should be offering this up on behalf of Lee Ann.

The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions...

... and abandoned WIPs :D

I had every intention of posting on this blog on a regular, *frequent* basis. Suffice to say, life has gotten in my way again. Three hour committee meetings don't help, nor does Dash with his it-might-be-a-cold-but-you-don't-look-sick-enough-to-take-to-the-doctor syndrome.

On that topic, man-oh-man do I put myself through the hoops before lifting the phone to make a doctor's appointment for the kids. I hate sitting there being patronised for being a hypochondriac-mum-by-proxy, yet I've also had to sit there and be gently chided for not bringing them in soon enough. A rock and a hard place? The devil and the deep blue sea? You bet your arse ;-S

On top of all that, DH is away in Perth for 9 days; he's only been gone since yesterday morning but we all miss him like mad already - only seven sleeps to go :^C

Hmm, my keyboard seems to have run out of hyphens ... plenty of dots left though ... and cliches, reading back through ...

Maybe some knitting content will be inserted this weekend ... I can hear the suspense killing you from here (...)