Shimmer

Colinette Shimmer 5 in "Sea Breeze" arrived in the mail yesterday from Sunspun in Canterbury, Victoria

With yarn this beautiful I have no shortage of volunteers to help me wind the wool, hoping that there will be something in it for them. But, alas, this is intended to be made into a 40th birthday gift.

Exam Day

Ballet exams today.

I spent the day doing "ballet hair" for lots of nervous girls.

Walking to the exam.

All smiles when they came out. The examiner was lovely. No-one forgot their steps. KelpieBlossom is already fretting waiting for the results to come.

Scarf

Do not adjust your monitors, this is not a knitblog. My theory is, however, that if you read enough craft blogs you will eventually be compelled to knit a scarf.

On Friday I took delivery of 3 hanks of the Welsh hand-dyed yarn Colinette Point 5 in "Monet". On Friday night the kids and I wound the wool into balls. On Saturday I bought 15mm needles, cast on 11 stitches and used up 2 hanks making this scarf:

Quite proud of myself really. It's not perfect, but hey, nor am I, so we match. The colours are even more stunning in real life and it is a really warm, chunky scarf perfect for the cold winters we don't get here in Sydney.

I knitted this scarf for 9 yo KelpieBlossom. Next time I would make it slightly narrower -perhaps 8-9 stitches.

MyMum will be pleased to see that all this knitting has inspired both KelpieBlossom and Padawan Learner to give knitting a try. Here is KelpieBlossom using the needles given to her by MyMum last year. Padawan Learner is proving more complex to teach because he is left-handed, and I'm not, so it is more difficult to demonstrate the stitches. Any tips out there?

Seriously, am I having a mid-life crisis?

First it was the baking, and now three beautiful hanks of Colinette Point 5 (in Monet)

It's hard to know whether my family and friends will laugh themselves silly or call me and ask in a concerned voice "So, how ARE things?" As it is only five weeks until a BIG birthday they may just shrug it off like they did when I knitted a cardigan for KelpieBlossom just before she was born. Except that this time instead of thinking "Aaah, nesting" they will think "Aaah, aging".

But, my friends, I have been INSPIRED. Ever since I spied the beautiful scarf knitted by Jane on Yarnstorm in Colinette Point Five (Sea Breeze) I have been trying to find the same yarn here in Australia.

Hardly anyone seems to stock this beautiful hand-dyed Welsh product. I finally found some at Sunspun in Melbourne. I rang the lovely lady there yesterday and she popped some in the post. My package arrived TODAY at 11am.

Now all I need is some 12mm or 15mm needles for a loose knit and I'm off and running. Except that here on the North Shore those that are Too Posh to Push are also Too Knackered to Knit and there is a dearth of knitting suppliers close by. My choices seemed to be either Spotlight in Dee Why or Rubi & Lana in Gordon.

And here is the main difference between my shopping experiences in Melbourne and Sydney. My wool arrived overnight without me even leaving the house. Yet this afternoon I drove in peak Friday "off-to-my-hunter-valley-retreat" traffic for 45 minutes to Gordon to arrive at Rubi&Lana by 4.40pm to FIND IT CLOSED. I think I'll give up and order the needles from somewhere in Melbourne, they should be here before breakfast tomorrow.

So, what am I going to knit?

A scarf.

Don't want to get too ahead of myself. Hopefully it will be ready by next Winter.


Update Sat 20th: Finally got my needles at Spotlight. Don't hold your breath; could be a while before I post a result...

Happy Birthday MyDad

I wanted to mock up one of those "Inspiration" posters on Flickr. But I thought it wouldn't go down well. If I had it would've said:

OLD IS A JOURNEY

Congratulations on Reaching your Destination

On second thoughts maybe I will mock one up.

Happy Birthday Dad!

This is what else has happened on this day:

1888 - Thomas Edison files a patent for the Optical Phonograph (the first movie).
1931 - Al Capone convicted of income tax evasion.
1937 - Huey, Dewey and Louie, Donald Duck's three almost identical nephews, first appear in a newspaper comic strip.

These other people were born:

1918- Rita Hayworth
1938 - Evel Knievel
1972 - Eminem

and

it is the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty