Taking the plunge...

Oh feck, that's a lot of sweaters, no wonder I can't close my drawers!

Yup, I put all the sweaters I've knitted this year in a pile and took a photo.  The pile was too high and wouldn't say up so I made two piles instead.  Two colour co-ordinated piles.

Ah yes, my life is full of stimulating activities. 

I really did knit 12, but you'll only count 10 here because I frogged one and gave one away. Also the top left gold one isn't technically finished, but hey, it's half done.

Notice the limited colour palatte this year, no red or orange, and what's with everything I've knitted lately being green to gold?

I've also knit:

5 hats

2 pairs of mittens

2 Matariki kid sweaters (must get that pattern out...)

1 other boy sweater

2 boy's vests

1 girl's dress

2 Olearia cardigans (one lost)

1 cowl

1 baby cardy and booties

1 cushion

1 sockmonkey

1 Velveteen Rabbit

2 or 3 dishcloths

For 2011 I'm not knitting 12 sweaters!  I have a list though:

Ten for Eleven

1. Knit fom stash!

2. 1 knit for DP

3. 1 knit for DD

4. 1 knit for DS 

5. Socks!
6. 1 Challenge knit - Fresco wrap
7. Knit the darn cotton blanket
8. Publish cricket sweater pattern
9. Publish Matariki
10. ?

So now I'm in that marvelous limbo of what to knit next?

Good stuff to come home to....

An overgrown garden, and a yarn club package.  Damn iPhone and Facebook posting enablers!  Thanks to Christine I had a wee looksee at Knitsch and somehow signed up and paid my fee all on my phone from the beach.  I love modern life!  Here's my first instalment - the colourway is "Pretty Please", and those are lavender sachets.

The parcel also contained some exciting news - Tash is opening a physical store, Holland Road Yarn Company will open on Wednesday 23 February at 281 Jackson St, Petone - exciting!  I'll be there with my face pressed to the glass on Wednesday morning, no doubt I'll see C there. They have a website, go on, click! 

Oh, and the garden - you can't tell from the pic how huge those courgettes had got because the strawberries are enormous too.  They were big watery marrows really, so I cut them in half and scraped out the seedy bits, browned them in olive oil and let them drain off, then stuffed them with a mixture of lamb mince, onions, tomatoes, red wine, chilli, harissa, allspice, cinnamon and a hand full of rice, topped with pinenuts and fresh mint and baked in the oven.  Delicious!

The children ate the strawberries.

Class 37 - Vegatable or Fruit Novelty

I'm a city girl, I've lived most of my life within walking distance CBD (of a pretty little city granted).  My current suburban existance is as far from the big smoke as I've ever lived - but I'm still within 5 minutes of a trim flat white, and a 3D movie.  Not very deep inisde me, however, lurks a wannabe homesteader, and as you may have noticed I'm very fond of the trappings and traces of a way of life that's hard to find in this homogonous mass-produced, franchised, urban world.

There is nothing like a small town A&P Show to reassure an urban retro hippy chic that the old time spirit is alive and kicking in the country.

Ryan boogied to the ryhthm of the antique steam machinery.

 Please, Mum?

Second Prize.

First prize!

That'll be a dragon made out of a sausage, not sure what this class was - Sausage Novelty?

The most beautiful lamingtons I've ever seen.  Shame the the baking must all have spoilt in the heat.

Old school embroideries, and a felted koala in the tea cosie section.

Yeah, wool.

Sand gardens!  With tanks and army men.  

All the fun of the fair.

Girly stuff.

Wood chopping. We were just in time for the grannies division - they breed some tough chicks out here.

Too cute.

Protective mother.

Ryan fell in love with a guinea pig he named Hazelnut.  I can't stand the things myself, all they do is squeak and run away...

Bacon and Eggs.

I'm back, with a holiday slide show - oh yes!

Blogger doesn't play nicely with my iPhone so I've not been reading or writing blogs while I've been away, and then I was somehow out of the groove when I got home, so now I have pages and pages of lovely people and their lives and crafts and children to catch up on - it may have to wait until the kiddos go back to school though.

I had a finishing off frenzy over the Christmas and New Year period, and then knitted all of 3 dishcloths during our ten days at the beach.  I think no TV = no knitting for me! 

So, pretty scenery cruising the Marlborough Sounds:

And the view from our section:

Hipstamaticness:

Sleeping out in the caravan (which is an old railway box car).

Reading it old school.

Beach structures.

Zoe got to go horse trekking, she's so brave!

Rocking the tyre swing at the Mussel Inn.

Flood damage on the Aorere River. 

This is what the bridge used to look like, ever since it was built in the 1880s - I can't imagine that placid water flowing so high and powerful, the river is way down there for heaven's sake!  Mother nature is damn scary.

 
 
Another river in near flood (the Pelorous).  A van load of young guys pulled up and asked us if the river was good for swimming - hmm, not so much!

So that was part 1 of my slide show - next time the Golden Bay A&P Show!

Cricket

The wet weather we're having cleared long enough for Ryan's cricket game on Saturday, and he christened the Perfect Cricket Sweater, i.e., got it covered in mud. So I washed it. Note to self and other knitters: always check the colour fastness of contrast yarn!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Cleckheaton Country I used for the red and the bottom black stripe was fine. the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino I used for the black at the neck bleed horribly. I'm not impressed. It's ok, still wearable, just a bit smudgy.

I'm aiming to get the pattern up very soon. I was thinking a 6, 8 and 10 (this is the 6, designed to fit loose). Do I need a 4 as well? Seeing as it's the season for giving I want to make this a charity knit (Pakistan flood relief feels appropriate), but haven't quite sorted the logistics of it. Do I make it a free pattern with a suggestion people make a donation themselves (put a link on the pattern), or do I make it a pay pattern and donate from the proceeds myself (and do I donate all or some?), and hope people trust me to do so? How many people actually follow through with suggestions to donate to charity instead of payment? Must stop thinking so much!

First week of the school holidays...

Well, at least the farmers will be happy.  During a break in the rain the kids and I had celebratory end-of-year ice chocolates at our favourite out door cafe, the Greasy Spoon in Newtown.  You'll never guess why it's a favourite with the children, could it possibly be the actual real car you can play in? 

Ryan bought a Harry Potter wand from the Coin Save, the packet had pictures showing "Function" glowing lights and sound! Turns out the one Ryan bought was the model "without Function", but he's still pretty happy with his functionless plastic stick.
 

Christmas is coming as they say, so we've got a tree.  A real one of course, in spite of the sneezing.  I'm not entirely convinced about Ryan's addition of red tinsel, and look, it wasn't raining that evening.

And went to see Santa.  Santa was having some trouble with his padding, and had to keep a tight hold on it.  He must be miserable in all that Santa gear in this humidity, at least Kirk's has air conditioning.  The kids loved their windows this year :-)

Zoe's been reading Phillip Pullman lately, and it seems to have made a bit of an impression.  She wears that bag constantly, inside it she carries her alethiometer that came in a cereal packet.  She's been whispering to her daemon a fair bit as well.  How cool to be 9 and 3/4s and totally immersed in your imagination!