My Ramblings

Secret Pal's scarf.

I have just finished a small scarf for my secret pal.  It's a design of my own, but I'm sure there have been others who have knitted similar as I'm not the most imaginative or ingenious person around.  I'm happy with it though, and I hope my secret pal likes it.                                                                           
The scarf still on the needles.  I reinforced each end of the slit opening by stitching them closed for a couple of mm at each end.                                                                                                                            This is the finished product.  One end of the scarf slips through the slits to hold it in place,  no need for a knot.                                                                                                                                                

Creating Memories.

Today I held a Creative Memories getting started class.  Only myself, my daughter and my daughter-in-law attended.  Several others who had said they were coming didn't turn up, so that was a bit sad...............I'll be eating left overs for a week. lol  Nice though, so I won't really mind.

My daughter has done lots of CM workshops, so instead of doing the class, she worked on some borders.  She left before I took photo's, so I can't include them here.  However, my D.I.L left her page behind, so I've taken a photo of hers and my own.  I think we both did very well.  I have attended a couple of CM workshops, but had never done a class before, Juanita had done neither, so this was definately her first foray into doing something different with her photo's.

This is Juanita's, she has used photo's of her daughter, Jayda taken at Easter last year.  The other one is mine.  I used photo's of my grandson Ethyn who will be 10 next week.  He was about 18  months when the photo's were taken, and I had forgotten I had them.  I found them while searching through my photo's yesterday to find something suitable for the class today.  In these photo's he's playing on the slide, and I also have sets of him on the gondola swing and see-saw swing, all taken on the same day, so I'll be able to carry on with the whole theme.

All in all, I think the afternoon was very enjoyable, although I don't think the boys were too impressed.  I'm sure they'll love the albums though when they are done.      

Finally finished

I have finally finished the jumper for my son.  It's taken me a while as it is so heavy and that put strain on the old shoulders, but I'm happy with the result.  I now have orders from several others for jumpers.  Not a good idea to be knitting THIS yarn in summer.

The yarn is actually a lot darker than it shows here, almost a charcoal grey.  Wool, Alpaca and Acrylic, but feels lovely.  It's a bit hard to see the cabling too, but hopefully you get the idea.

I have started on a pair of socks, the first I've knitted from the top down, so it's a real learning curve, and using 5 needles too.  I'll let you know how I go.

How Embarraassment!!

Saturday, we went to Warragul, about 60 kilometres from here, to attend a Lions function.  We had a very enjoyable night, meeting new people, eating and drinking etc.  As it's a long way from home, we decided to stay overnight and had booked into a motel, as had another couple from our club.  All was great. the rooms and beds were comfortable, and the shower had good pressure.  We got to bed about 0100, and around 0630 I heard loud voices.  I thought they must have been coming from outside my bathroom window, which had been left open; but no.  On looking outside, I couldn't see anyone, and couldn't really hear the voices from there either.  When I went back to the bedroom though, the voices were clear as anything again.  Obviously the walls are extremely thin, and ANY noise is loudly audible next door...................ooops, I probably woke THEM with MY snoring. hehe.  I just rolled over onto my hearing side, with my deaf side up and went back to sleep.  Ron was ok, he had his hearing aide out so didn't hear anything at all.  When I got up again at 0830, all was quiet and the vehicle from next door was gone.  I'd probably been snoring again. lol
After a shower and breakfast, it was time to depart.  We said cheerio to our friends in the other room and made our way into town as I wanted to check out the $2:00 shops (cheap goods stores) for some yarn that one of the women we had met the night before had bought there.  She had knitted a scarf and handbag which were simply stunning.  I took a photo, but it really didn't do the scarf justice.  In life it looked almost like Christmas tree lights, but in the photo it just looks multi coloured but dull.  Anyway, I digress.  There are several cheap stores in town and i had just had a look in one, and was on my way across the road to look at another.  Of course, I was busy talking to my hubby, and not looking where I was going.  I stepped forward and my heel caught on the kerb, and of course there was nothing under the ball of my foot.  It's a wonder I didn't put a dent in the road I hit it so hard.  Landed heavily on both knees, then fell forwardl  Luckily I managed to get my hand out quickly enough that I didn't chew the road.  It was embarrasing enough that hubby saw it all, but so did a young passer-by, who was concerned enough that an "old" lady had fallen for him to enquire if I was ok.  Of course, my friends also chose that moment to drive up too, so also saw what happened.  The worst injury I got was to my pride and ego, lol    I skinned and bruised both my knees, the right taking most of the brunt, and jarred my back and neck slightly, but really I was ok physically.  And of course, the biggest indignity was everyone watching me as I tried to get up again.  Being 55, overweight and very unfit, I'm not the least bit agile, and should have had a crane to lift me up.  Instead my poor hubby tried to heave me up....................forget it.  We don't need him getting a hernia.  I did eventually get up obviously, as I'm here now writing this, but I'm sure the sight of me making the attempt will have scarred the young passer-by for life. hehehee.
BTW, I never did find the yarn.  I'll have to keep looking for it locally, and let's hope I look where I'm going next time.

New Yarn

It seems that everyone's blog I've read lately has pics of yarn and/or projects, finished or not, so I thought I'd follow suit.  I recently bought some new yarn from the wool shack in Western Australia.  I have idea's in mind for using this yarn, so will post pics of them when I finish them.....or perhaps while still on the needle, depending on how long it takes. lol.

Rowan Summer Twead........lovely.

Rowan Wool Cotton........make fine socks.

Artyarns Regal Silk.  100% silk........beautiful, photo does not do justice. 

Artyarns Handpaint Stripes.  100% Merino Wool.  Love this.

I am so looking forward to working with these yarns.  I am also looking forward to the projects I have in mind for the yarn I have ordered from Knitpick.  Will post pics when it arrives.

Enjoyable weekend.

I am still recovering from my most enjoyabal but very hectic weekend.  As previously mentioned, I am a member of Lions and this weekend was the convention for our district.  To help you understand, every lions club belongs to a district, and in Victoria there are currently 6 districts, South Australia has 2 districts, Western Australia has 2, Queensland 4, Tasmania 1 and New South Wales has 5.  Each of these districts has a convention held from Friday evening to Sunday lunchtime, usually in October or November.  Each year in May, all these districts meet at the Multiple District (or National) convention which is a 4 day affair.
All conventions open with an opening ceremony, welcoming of official and VIP guests etc, and the flag ceremony.  The flag ceremony introduces flags from countries where lions clubs operate and preferably the home countries of lions currently living in Australia.  We always recognise the USA flag as that is where Lions originated, plus we generally recognise the flags of UK (because of our close links with them) NZ because they are our neighbours and Papua New Guinea (who are a part of one of the Qld districts).  As my dad is Welsh, I opted to carry the Welsh flag in the ceremony, and dressed in the Welsh costume to do so.  Following the opening and flag ceremonies we had a social evening with food provided by the hosts of the convention, which in this case is a club made up mostly of Sri Lankan's.  Let me tell you, the food was the most plentiful I've seen at a convention in a very long time.  So often at the informal gatherings you pay up to $15.00 for finger food, and little of that too.  Of course, if you are to the back of the room, by the time the waiters etc get around to you, there is little or nothing left on the platter.  This time the food was put out on tables and we helped ourselves.  As the trays were emptied, more were brought out.  This occurred at my very first (National) convention in 1985, but hasn't been the case since, so I was suitable impressed from the start this weekend.  I actually came away with my hunger sated.
Saturday commenced at 0900 with the business part of the convention, and this time there was very little business to attend to, so it was over quite speedily and we could relax and listen to interesting and varied speakers.  We also met a young lass of 3 who was recently fitted with a Hart walker.  Even many of the men were wiping their eyes afterwards.  This little girl was the 1000th person in Australia to receive the Hart walker, and had been on the national news a few nights earlier.  For once we, the lions, received publicity about the work we do. (Of course, donating Hart walkers isn't the ONLY thing we do)  Lunch was another feast, followed by more business....or in my case, I sneaked out to attend the ladies afternoon, where we were shown how to cook a good curry (yum) and drape a sari.  I like sari's, I feel that even fat women like me can look good in them.  The afternoon was finalised at around 1630 (or 4:30 pm) and we went home to get ready for the evening ball which started at 1900.  What a night.  Again, the Sri Lankan's are famous for their dinner dances, and this was no exception.  The only complain that I and many others had was that the amplifiers were up too high.  I had my fingers firmly planted in my ears at one point, and could still hear perfectly and loudly. lol  The dance finished officially at 0100, I limped away at 0030 hehe.
Bright and early Sunday morning we had to be back at the centre for the remembrance ceremony to mark the passing of Lions, Lionesses, Leos or partners in the past year.  Quite moving really.  The final business session followed and then the closing ceremony and lunch.  Ron and I had to leave early as it was his Aunts 88th birthday party that day, so we missed out when our club (of which I am the president this year) won the award for the highest %age of members attending the convention.  I hear that our longest serving member (some 47 years) went up to accept the award on behalf of the club.  It's nice to know that our efforts to get members to attend didn't go unrecognised.  Of those who attended, 3 have been members less that 3 months.  I think that our club is now quite a dynamic one, and one that will continue to help our local and wider communities in the years to come.

What is it with me and sewing machines??

I borrowed my mums sewing machine to make a skirt, pinny (apron) and shawl for a Welsh national costume that I will wear on Friday nights international flag ceremony at the Lions convention.  All was going swimmingly.  I cut out the fabric, then realising I had no dressmaking pins, tacked the pieces together, and proceeded to machine sew.  No problems.  Got the hemming done on the pinny, added the lace, then went to sew on the waist band.  No go.  All of a sudden the machine stopped sewing.  For some reason it wasn't picking up the lower thread.  A check of the spool showed that it was low on thread, so I refilled it, reloaded it, and tried again.   Still no luck.  Tried re-loading the spool the other way and testing on a spare piece of fabric showed it seemed to be working.  When I went back to my pinny it again stopped sewing.  Now the top thread keeps breaking.  I tried everything I know to get the blessed thing working properly again, but have eventually given up and am going round to a friends today to get her to finish the things off on her machine.  Such a darned nuisance.
Now, if this was the only problem I had with sewing machines, it wouldn't be so bad, but I once owned a machine.  I had it for years, and could never get it to work properly.  I followed all the instructions re loading spools, threading the machine, tension etc. but it never sewed correctly.  The thread underneath would just keep knotting so that the needle couldn't move along the fabric.  I put it in to be serviced/fixed and got it back after they told me it was fine, and worked fine for them.  It still wouldn't work for me.  I eventually got rid of it, put it out for the hard rubbish collection as I couldn't see the point of it gathering dust at my place.
I also seem to remember having a similar problem with my mums machine previously.  Back in the dim, dark recesses of my mind I seem to remember borrowing her machine for another sewing project, and having to abandon it because the machine wouldn't work.  I'm pretty sure I told my mum then that the machine was faulty, and got back a message later that it had been serviced and was functioning ok again.................till muggins here borrowed it again.
OK, so take warning people, DO NOT loan your sewing machine to me.  It seems I really know how to kill them.  If I ever ask you, offer instead to make the items for me.  It will save my sanity, and probably your precious machine.
BTW, years ago I had no trouble at all with sewing machines and often made clothes for myself and others, so it's a fairly recent (last 15-20 years or so) thing.  Now, THAT dates me doesn't it. lol

Recovering....

On Sunday the 8th October, myself and several other members of my Lions club acted as street marshalls for a local marathon race.  Earlier in the week we had been told by our "very reliable" forecasters that it would be a hot and sunny day.  That would be ok, as the race was to begin at 0800 and we marshalls had to be at our designated spot by 0715 at the latest.  Saturday had been a beautiful day, but it had got cold at night, but Sunday morning was overcast, grey and cold.  I dressed in a long sleeve shirt with my marshalls shirt over the top (and pants too of course) and headed off with a hot coffee in a thermal cup beside me. 

When I arrived in the general area of my designated spot, I couldn't find the "definate' spot, and of course there was no one around to ask.  I parked my car where I thought I should be, but then had to walk to the sign in area, approx 250 metres down the hill, to find out if I was indeed in the right place.  Getting there was fine, but getting back took some doing.  I don't do hills willingly or easily.  The folk at the registration point didn't really know any more than I did, so back I went to my "designated" spot.  There was no sign indicating that it was "Coral Avenue", yet by everything else around, it had to be.  Coral Avenue was really just a sandy area covered in bushes, much like over the road on the sea side.  There were houses back off the road a bit, but it really couldn't be called a road, avenue, lane or whatever, and there didn't appear to be any way to get into other streets from Coral, though I later found out that you could get through.  Nowhere was there any signs for Coral though.
Anyway, I stayed at my spot to "marshall" any traffic.  Haha, there was no traffic coming out of Coral, and they couldn't go in as the roads had been blocked of both north and south of this none existent street.  The most exiting thing I had to do was direct several competitors to the registration point and/or loos. 
Just about 50 metres from me was the official start point for the half marathon.  The idea was that an inflatable arch would be put up for the runners to run through.  This arch had a sensor that would pick up signals from transmitters placed inside the runners number tags, and that this would record their start time.  Sensors along the route would then pick them up and record their times.  As the saying goes, the well laid plans etc. etc.  The day was not only cold and bleak, but very windy too and of course that is always worse on the sea shore.  The arch was inflated and attempts were made to secure it, but the wind had other ideas for this giant balloon and was whipping it all over the place.  If anyone had tried to run under it they would have very likely been knocked off their feet.  The only thing to do was to deflate the arch, which was duely done.  At around 0740, there were a few competitors moving up to the start point.  By 0750 the road was covered with some 4000 competitors plus family and friends.  At 0750, the visitors moved off to the side of the road, and the competitors started moving over to the left hand side of the road in preparation for the start.  The start came promptly at 0800 and the runners were off.  Within less than 5 minutes, the road was clear and the runners had disappeared over the hill towards the city.  I now had to stand around and wait for the next wave of runners, the full marathoners coming from Frankston.  Stand around I did, with nothing to do but wait, and wait, and wait, though I did decide to pick up all the rubbish left by the runners and their families.  The mound of discarded clothes was amazing.  Apparently this happens at all marathons as the runners need to keep warm prior to setting off, but they can't carry jackets and pants with them, so they are left.  Presumably they will be given to the salvo's or other charity.  Finally a small group of runners appeared around the corner heading my way.  4 men way out in front of any other runners and it was a good 10 minutes before the next wave arrived.  It was more than 30 minutes before the first woman runner appeared, and over 4 1/2 hours before the final runner was past and I was free to go.
I have to say that even though I didn't have much to do, it was a good day.  Though I did get cold and wet, and my back and hips ached abominably from just standing around, I would definately do it again, and probably will.

Money, money, money....

....or lack of!!   A couple of years ago I was in a bit of bother and my cousin offered to loan me some money to help me out.  The idea was that I would pay her back when I got my tax return last year.  That was fine, and when I got my tax back I asked for her bank details so that I could deposit the money in her account.  She replied that it was OK and to wait till Christmas.  I said I'd rather do it now, but she said not to bother.  Of course the inevitable happened, my account was whittled away by bills etc and come Christmas I didn't have the money to give to her.  She was very understanding about it.  This year, the taxation office are taking their sweet time about giving me my refund, the end of another week, and still nothing in the mail.  That has been hard for my cousin as her eldest child has just turned 21, plus her mum is over from England for a holiday and the money would have come in very useful, plus both my cousins children have recently passed their driving tests and want her help in getting a car each. 
To say that I am feeling bad is rather an understatement, and I'm amazed that my cousin is still talking to me, let alone still so happy and friendly toward me.  She is an amazing person, and I am so lucky to be able to call her my friend as well as my cousin.  If you read this Norma, please know how grateful I am to you.

SP9 Questionaire.

I'm not sure if I will get into this circle as my daughter may have left it too late to tell me, but here goes anyway.

1. What is/are your favourite yarns to knit with?  I've been doing a lot with Alpaca recently, but I also like cotton and other natural yarns.

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?  At the moment a drawer, along with my patterns and other parephenalia.

3. How long have you been knitting, and how did you learn?  Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?  I have been knitting since I was a child.  I think either my aunt or my mother tought me, but it's so long ago I really can't remember.  I would say I'm an advanced intermediate, if that makes sense.

4.  Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?  No, not at this stage.

5.  What is your favourite scent? Vanilla, Honeysuckle.

6.  Do you have a sweet tooth?  Favourite candy?  Yes, too much so.  Don't really have a favourite, depends on my mood.

7.  What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do?  Do you spin?  I do scrapbooking, occasionally cross-stitch, dressmaking (when I have a sewing machine that works) and am just getting into stamping.  I only spin when I'm dancing.

8.   What kind of music do you like?  Can  your computer/stereo play MP3's?  I have a wide taste in music.  I don't like punk and heavy metal.  Yes, my computer can play MP3's.

9.  What is/are y our favourite colours?  Any colours you just can't stand?  I love rich purple and green, I also like burgundy.  I do NOT like pink and am not fond of insipid colours in general.

10.  What is your family situation?  Do you have any pets?  I am married with 5 natural children, 3 foster children that are still a part of my family, and 3 stepdaughters that I don't really have much to do with these days.  There are 9 grandchildren from my natural kids, and 4 from one of my stepdaughters.  I have one dog, a chihuahua/toy fox terrier cross named Latte.

11.  Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?  I wear scarves and hats in winter if it's really cold.  Don't wear mittens, prefer gloves.  Don't possess a poncho.

12.  What is/are your favourite items to knit?  I don't have a favourite.  I've mainly knitted cardigans, sweaters etc, though I have knitted a baby shawl and years ago I knitted some socks.

13.  What are you knitting right now?  A cable roll neck sweater for my youngest son.

14.  Do you like to receive hand made gifts?  Definately, just as much as I like to give them.

15.  Do you prefer straight or circular needles?  Bamboo, aluminium, plastic?  Don't really have a preference, whatever is needed for the item I'm knitting.  Have never tried bamboo.

16.  Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?  No.

17.  How old is your oldest UFO?  Oh, gosh.  Probably older than most of the people in this circle.  It would probably have been a little fluffy hat.  My cousins knitted one and I had to be like them.  I never finished mine.  I would have been about 7 at the time and it was a bit ambitious.

18.  What is your favourite holiday?  Somewhere that I can just relax and unwind, but if there are any theme parks close by that would be a bonus. (Growing up is optional).

19.  Is there anything that you collect?  Bells, china trios/duos.

20.  Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on?  What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?  Not that I can think of at the moment.  I don't have any subscriptions.

21.  Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?  I've usually managed to do anything I've attempted, reading the instructions usually suffices.  Although, I'm not good at crochet.

22.  Are you a sock knitter?  What are your foot measurements?  Haven't knitted socks in a long while.  I'm a British size 6-7

23. When is your birthday?  April 24th.  Taurus, born in the year of the rabbit (which is probably why I have so many kids).