I'm not a great housekeeper. My house is not immaculate, and while my toilet is always clean (always!) the rest of it, frankly, is not. This gets worse towards the end of the week as the pressures of the working week build up. By Friday, my house is not fit for human or feline habitation. However, every Saturday morning I speed-clean my way through the kitchen and living room, and all is back to normal. This week, however, the mess is so bad I'm strongly fighting the urge to take my computer and go back to bed until tomorrow where, hopefully, the cleaning fairies have come and fixed up everything. Keep dreaming, sweetheart!

Anyway, the point of the story is that my camera is hiding somewhere under the clutter, and I can't find it anywhere! So please excuse my MacBook photos.

Let's see how I went for January:

January goals

1. Weave in the ends, block, photograph and blog each of the three Christmas gifts I didn’t finish properly before Christmas.

Well, I finished and gifted my sister's scarf, my mother's socks and Katy's Hederas. However, I stupidly didn't photograph any of them before gifting. Durr!

2. Finish the second fingerless mitt for my sister’s 2009 Christmas gift.

Nope. Didn't even pick them up.

3. Catch up on photographing and blogging all projects.

See note about camera and item 1.

4. Use up five balls of yarn, or equivalent weight (250g).

I only used up two balls, but it was a massive 400g worth! So I'll give myself a tick for this one.

5. Finish one more repeat of the railroad socks. I’ve got 12 repeats left, so if I do one every month then they’ll be ready by next Christmas.

I did heaps better this month, simply by virtue of moving the sock into my car:



Five repeats and about a third through the foot! Yay!

6. Finish six squares of the blanket I’m making from the wool my sis gave me for Christmas.

I've done better, and finished 12. They all look like this:



It is going to be such a warm and lovely blankie!

7. Fix my bathroom scales and lose 1.5kg. If I lose 1.5kg each month for the rest of the year I might fit into last summer’s clothes by the time next summer rolls around!

Since I didn't fix my bathroom scales until after the end of January, I don't know the answer to this. I'm pretty sure the tightness of my pants tells me that I went the other way. I know that of the first of February I was 0.4kg heavier than when I started Weight Watchers last year. Not great.

Probably about a B on my January goals. Let's hope I do better in February!

Here we go:

1. Finish the Ishbel I started on Wednesday for my friend Seona's birthday, which was on Thursday... Gift it and take photos of it before it's gifted!



2. Finish four squares for my blanket.

3. Finish four repeats of the railroad socks.

4. Knit 5 balls or 250g of yarn.

5. Lose 1.5kg from my weight as of 1 February.

I can do those. I tell you, looking at the state of my living room and the evidence it provides of my failure as a homemaker, I could do with a win.

Last week it was my birthday, and I celebrated it as befitted the occasion:



with champagne. My ertswhile companion and I headed off to Cafe Vue at Heide Museum of Modern art and started the day with a leisurely and delicious breakfast:



It was a beautiful day, and I really enjoyed going to Heide for the first time. It's in a gorgeous setting:



The exhibition was Australian Cubism - not really my thing. A lovely gallery, though.

I followed up this delightful day with a birthday afternoon tea for close friends and family. A delightful day was had by all, and much champagne was consumed:



I do love my birthday!

There was a little incident at Chez BelSam yesterday afternoon. Lucy brought in her first bird! Yay for her, but seriously, how totally eww. We thought it was dead, but the smart little thing was just playing dead, and as soon as Lucy put it on the ground it started flying around. Sam, in an incredibly manly fashion, ran outside and hid in the garden, while I ran into the bedroom and crawled under the doona, all the while screaming "Man up, Sam, man up! Get the bird!". Because of this, we have no idea where the bird went, and I am typing this in slight apprehension that a crazed hurt bird may swoop on me at any second from wherever it has been craftily hiding for the last 24 hours. Or it's dead, and there'll be a suspicious smell in the next few days. Ideally, it got away and is flying through the sky with the freedom of a wild animal. That's what I'm hoping, anyway.

Back to the point! Not to harp on and on and on, but I may have mentioned once or twice that December was a busy month for me. This is reflected in a) total lack of blogging and b) the goals below.

This is going to hurt.

December goals

1. Enter January with my sanity intact.
I estimate I'm about halfway sane. Not too bad.

2. Finish Katy's socks and Paula's garter stitch mitts.
Finished Katy's socks but have not blocked or gifted them. Did not touch Paula's garter stitch mitt, despite it being a Christmas present and Christmas being in December.

3. Take photos of the four FOs I've completed in the last month and blog about them.
Nope. But I finished two things, and blogged about one of them yesterday.

4. Do at least four rows of the Railroad Socks. Must finish old FOs!
Done! I even went one better...



..and turned the heel! Then put it down, and didn't touch it at all.

Not a great month. January will be better, I know it. Here are my goals:

January goals

1. Weave in the ends, block, photograph and blog each of the three Christmas gifts I didn’t finish properly before Christmas.

2. Finish the second fingerless mitt for my sister’s 2009 Christmas gift.

3. Catch up on photographing and blogging all projects.

4. Use up five balls of yarn, or equivalent weight (250g).

5. Finish one more repeat of the railroad socks. I’ve got 12 repeats left, so if I do one every month then they’ll be ready by next Christmas.

6. Finish six squares of the blanket I’m making from the wool my sis gave me for Christmas.

7. Fix my bathroom scales and lose 1.5kg. If I lose 1.5kg each month for the rest of the year I might fit into last summer’s clothes by the time next summer rolls around!

I've already started. My lovely sister gave four balls of Bendigo Rustic 12-ply for Christmas:



I want to make a blanket of 24 different coloured squares. Using my mad maths skillz and the other present she got me..



..I worked out that to get six squares out of each 200g balls, I'd have to make each square approximately 32g each, and now to find a pattern that lets me do this. I love this part of each project!

Hope the start of your year has been as nice as mine, but without the potentially dead bird.
x

See, this year will be different! I'm already posting stuff like I said I would! See!!

Let's see how long this new-year enthusiasm lasts...

I recently went on a lovely holiday, which I was very much looking forward to. The only problem was that I was flying to a tropical island, and due to unreasonable restrictions placed on cabin baggage by the Australian Government, I was unable to take knitting needles onto the flight. These restrictions have since been revoked, yay! Finally some clear and reasonable thinking has prevailed. Anyway, since I had carry-on luggage only tickets, I was facing a holiday without knitting, and really, that just won't do.

I don't want to break the law (I am strongly against lawlessness) but I could not go on a trip without knitting. It'd be like leaving the house without underwear, or going to Dairy Bell but not getting an icecream, or going to Etihad Stadium to watch soccer rather than football - just wrong. So, i figured that I needed to smuggle some needles into my bag that would go not be detected by the metal detector. I wasn't planning to knit on the flight (illegal!), just at my destination. I had 3.5mm bamboo needles and a 3.5mm KnitPicks interchangeable, so I needed a pattern where gauge wasn't important, since I would have no other options if my gauge was off, but the pattern also had to look nice.

Enter: Ishbel.

I spent a lot of time distributing the knitting paraphernalia throughout both of our suitcases so they would look less like knitting implements than random bits of straight wood with tapered ends. Who doesn't travel with this bits of straight wood in their luggage? Not suspicious at all. But it worked, and the needles arrived safely with us at our destination. This diversion, while effective, ironically, made it a bit hard to knit, since it took me about 45 minutes to sort through all our clothes picking out random bits of Interchangeables from underwear and socks and sarongs before I could even start knitting!

However, all was eventually assembled and the knitting commenced. See how happy I am:



The blue of the yarn compliments the blue of the sea perfectly :)

According to Ravelry, 4731 Ishbels have been knitted. It's simple and doesn't require much yarn - a perfect holiday knit. Also, I think everything that can be said has been said, but, since what's the point of an FO post without some sort of summary, here's what I think.

1. My cat thinks that any knitting thing is for her to sleep on.



But she's totally cute while she does it.



2. Although Ishbel can be worn as a shawl...



..it really comes into its own when you wear it as a scarf:



Pattern: Ishbel, by Ysolda Teague
Yarn:: 4ply merino yarn gifted to me in a Ravelry Australian Knitters swap
Notes/modifications: I knit the small size, but seemed to have heaps of yarn left over, so did an extra repeat of the A and B charts. I still had heaps of yarn left over from my 110 gram skein. Because it was a gift I'm not sure of the exact yardage, but I'm estimating that this shawl even with the extra repeats used less than 85g - great if you have only a small skein. It was a very quick and satisfying knit - perfect for any holiday.

Happy New Year!

I admit I always feel a bit strange on 1 January. Partly it's the hangover, but main the fact that every thing that you did in the previous year which felt like SO MUCH STUFF at the time actually doesn't look like a lot when you add it all up into a list. And, for some reason, my house always looks like a complete disaster area. I blame the hectic Christmas period...from one week ago...

Hmm. The other reason why New Years provokes an uneasy sensation is me is that it's not really the end of my party season. For most people, 1 January is where you draw the line on the party excesses of December and start afresh. With me, since my birthday is 7 January, my party season doesn't stop until 10 January, sometimes even later on a really big year. I don't feel like the has really ended until all of the partying is done. It just doesn't feel like 2009 is finished yet.

In this last year, I've done a lot. Through an internal transfer I've started a new job, which I totally love. But the job is very demanding, so has meant less knitting, posting and socialising. However, much more drinking, which is a different thing entirely! I started the year aiming to go back to my weight of two years ago, but ended the year 1.5kg heavier than I started (epic weight-loss fail). I got a cat, who I totally love and has enriched my life no end, as well as providing countless hours of conversation for Sam and I. I knit a beautiful scarf and kept it all for me! I finished 12 knitted things, but only blogged about six, but I will be blogging about all FOs in the next few weeks.

So, all in all, not bad year. But what kind of New Years post is this without listing some aims for next year? Here we go!

In 2010 I will:
1. Finish at least 20 knitted objects, and blog about every single one!
2. Knit six pairs of socks.
3. Knit 100 balls of wool.
4. Finish at least one of my blankets currently on the go.
5. Finish at least one of my jumpers currently on the go.
6. Knit at least three things for me, and only me.
7. Lose 8.5kg.

I can do it!

All the best for the next 12 months. Big hugs to everyone!
xx

Okay, so it's the 10th of December. Yup, missed the point where I sum up November and aim high for December. Work has been insane, with long hours and stressful days. Yesterday I worked for ten hours and came home so tired and stressed that I virtually twanged like a super-tight guitar string until I collapsed in exhaustion on the couch at 9pm. So it's been a bit hectic.

Better late than never! Here are my November goals:

1-4. Finish six of the 10 things I need to get finished for Christmas
I've done Mum's socks (2), scarf for Jennifer (1), sock for Sam (1) and garter stitch mitt for Paula (1). So that's five done...not too bad.

5. Reduce my list from eight to five active WIPs
I'm down to six. Not bad. But I started and finished two new things, so that makes it even more not so bad.

6. Turn the heel of the second Railway socks and get past the gusset
Completely ignored these socks. Will probably also ignore them in December.

7. Finish Katy's socks
I've finished one. It is officially embarrassing how long these have taken.

My December goals are a bit easier. My No.1 goal is getting through the month with my sanity intact. Seriously, the impact that the business of work is having on my everyday life is unbelievable. I have a high-stress job, and that's usually fine (what's life without a bit of risk and adrenalin?) but for the past week I arrive home in the evening unable to even function on a basic level (ie preparing food and cleaning. On Monday Sam wasn't here for dinner, so I ate a can of corn kernals. It's that bad). That, combined with the shift of the weather into winter (hello, I'm supposed to be in singlet tops and dresses, not huddled under a super-thick doona) accelerates my tendency to hibernate and retreat and just spend time at home. So here I am, at home.

My December goals:

1. Enter January with my sanity intact.

2. Finish Katy's socks and Paula's garter stitch mitts.

3. Take photos of the four FOs I've completed in the last month and blog about them.

4. Do at least four rows of the Railroad Socks. Must finish old FOs!

That's all. It's about all I think I can take. Hopefully, next time I blog I'll be a bit more interesting...

I recently went on a beautiful l, wonderful and ridiculously relaxing holiday in Hamilton Island. Here are 11 things I learnt in those too-brief blissful days.

1. The ability to take photos of one's suitcase with matching hats on it does not necessarily mean you are prepared for your holiday



They look organised, right? But for some reason known only to myself I packed fifteen pairs of underwear, ten singlets and T-shirts, three pairs of bathers, three pairs of pyjamas, three pairs of thongs, four knitting projects, two skirts and a sarong but not one single item of long-sleeved clothing. Was I planning on sewing pairs of underwear together to make a shrug if the weather got cold? I'm not entirely sure.

2. I think there may be a condition caused by the inability to stop taking photos of beautiful scenery



Hamilton Island is so freaking beautiful I just couldn't stop myself. Every time you turn around, there's another amazing vista.



Gorgeous!

3. Golf buggies are fun

In Hamilton Island, there's no cars. Everyone rents buggies and drives around like old-people maniacs at 20km/h.



Once I got over the fear of falling out (there was a huge sign on the dashboard saying "Falling Out May Cause Death". Eek!) I actually enjoyed myself. All the locals on the island had itty-bitty double-buggy garages (hehehehe!!). Also, because you could actually hear what everyone one else in their buggies was saying, every driver was super-polite. Buggies could be the solution to road rage! Provided people don't mind getting places really really slowly.

4. It is really worth it getting up to watch the sunrise



And very romantic! Perhaps No.4 should be Sunrise=much smooching.

5. It is impossible to take a bad photo of a beach on Hamilton Island



Trust me - I took a lot of photos. They were all spectacular.



6. When you are on a tropical island, you can drink at any time of the day

And it's all fine.



7. If you leave me alone, I will take a series of photos that amuse me to no end







A ha ha ha ha ha!! I'm so funny.

8. Bites & Burn = Ouchy>




9. Pick a Room with a Great View



At a hotel with a great poolside bar!



10. So much still to share!

Koalas are way cute (and soft. Why no koala wool?).



The tropical sunlight bathes everything in complete gorgeousness.



Knitting is awesome on a beach!



11. Always go on a holiday somewhere where there is an awesome view from your toes

Blogtoerfest goals:

1. Finish fronts of Central Park Hoodie and start the sleeves
Knit six rows and then retired the hoodie back onto the knitting bookshelf. Really, who needs a thick woollen sweater heading into a Victorian summer?

2. Untangle the September socks and finish the pair
Done!

3. Finish the Baby Bootkins
Frogged, which is done in a sense.

4. Start and finish one Garter Stitch Mitt
Done, except for grafting the stitches together. I would do that, but I have lost my darning needle. Oh, to have 10 of then in a perfect little box so I stopped losing them within a month of buying them! Remember, the last time I bought one it cost me over $100...

5. Get Katy's socks to the stage where she can try them on one last time
Close. Will be done by next week, I hope.

6. Cast on for all Christmas knitting
Done!

7. Turn the heel of the Railroad sock.
Close.

So, all in all not too bad.

The month ahead:

1-4. Finish six of the 10 things I need to get finished for Christmas
That is socks for my mum (2), hat, scarf and mittens for Jennifer (4), socks for Sam (2) and garter stitch mittens for Paula (2). I'm also going to start a shawl for my friend Cara, but I'm not counting it as it is going to be just a gift, not necessarily a Christmas gift, so no deadline pressure.

5. Reduce my list from eight to five active WIPs
I know I can, I know I can, I know I can.

6. Turn the heel of the second Railway socks and get past the gusset
Even though it feels like these socks will never end, they will...providing I spend some time knitting on them!

7. Finish Katy's socks
These are over six months late. Seriously, any later and it's going to start to get embarrassing!

Seven for this month. I know I'm aiming high, especially since I will be away for a week without knitting, unless I can figure out how to smuggle some knitting needles onto a flight with me (a side point: I respect the law. I think it's stupid, but it's illegal for me to knit on aeroplanes in Australia, so I won't. What I object to is that, since I have a cabin-baggage only ticket, I can't transport bamboo or plastic knitting needles or crochet hooks, but I can take metal pens, 15-cm steel stiletto heels and innumerable spike metal earrings and hair pins. Because they're not dangerous. Go figure.). This week one of my friends got knocked up and another one got engaged, so there's some pretty huge knitting that needs to be done in the first three months of next year, as well as a pair of socks for a 30th in February. Eek! Big goals need to be set to get it all done.

Firstly, Blogtoberfest was done without missing a day. Yay me! There was the day I went to bed, totally forgetting to post, the time I was too drunk to blog, the time I couldn't blog because my cat went to sleep on my arm, but despite all of those challenges I made it! And I think I learnt a lot:

Blogtoberfest is a marathon not a sprint Surprisingly, that suited me - I've always been more of a heads-down-bum-up hard worker rather than a razzle-dazzle sparkle kind of lass. That said, there were a few days where I would have sold most of the things I own not to have to turn on and write about my day. There is something to be said for a bit of razzle-dazzle inspiration

The trick to daily blogging is routine Most of the daily bloggers I read tend to blog at the same time every day. I now realise that it's because routine is necessary to getting the blog posts out there. For me, it was just after I got home from work before dinner. Because of that, Sam and I ate later than usual in October.

Blogging takes a long time but that is good, because it does mean that you start to think about things a bit more. I started asking myself "What did I achieve today? What will I achieve tomorrow?". Asking those type of questions actually inspired me to try to do fit a little bit more into every day, even if I didn't write about it.

Regular blogging needs routine and I'm not really a routine kind of person. But again, by bringing the structure of a weekly routine, I began to measure my achievements, and it pushed me to try to do more. I would like to try and keep that up, although I think I might have to start to knit a bit faster! And I will be hampered by the fact that

I have a crap camera. It's hopeless and it takes really bad photos. Fortunately I have a very photogenic family, but still. However, unless I win the lottery (hard to do unless I start buying a ticket) or get a massive promotion and payrise, I think the crappy camera will have to stay.

I have lost the knack to write long and well. And grammatically correct, apparently. I strongly believe that the ability to write well comes from practise, practise and more practise. Yes, to be a great writer requires inherent talent, but everyone can write well if they put their mind to it. I used to enjoy writing and developing my words, but after I left uni I have really neglected that part of my skills set. Blogtoberfest forced me to keep writing, even just a little bit, and that made me remember all of my strongly held opinions on writing!

Life sometimes gets in the way and daily blogging makes no allowances for that. Some days I get up, go to work, go out after work and get home really late. And, since I'm not a diarist-style blogger, life was not a help - it kept me away from my computer, and my knitting, which is what I like to blog about the most. But it's important to have a life, and I'm happy with my decision to put that ahead of computer time.

So, in conclusion, although at times it felt like it was never going to end, Blogtoberfest was a fun achievement which I am really proud of. It got me back into blogging again and yanked previously dormant thoughts out of my head and out into the interwebz. Plus it gave me a chance to start trolling through Lol cats again, which can never be a bad thing! I might not do it again, but I'm glad that I made it through the whole month.

Big hugs all round!

xx

Today, in honour of our first free Sunday in approximately 18 years (give or take 17.5 years...I'm exaggerating to make a point. Sue me.), Sam and I decided to take a day trip to somewhere. After a lively and animated discussion that involved whether or not the Living Legends Farm was the right place to go (for the uninitiated, the Living Legends Farm is the place where old racehorses retire to. So a trip to the Living Legends Farm would be a trip to a paddock filled with old horses. "What do they do?" I asked. "Stand there," replied Sam. "What would we do?" I asked. "Watch them stand there, and take photos of them standing," replied Sam. "They're not from the circus - what do you expect them to do, perform trips?" Right.) we democratically decided to go to Mornington.

1 hr and 12 minutes later, we were here (we get ready fast!):



Main Street, Mornington with a pile of brochures and a day to plan.

First on the menu, Dromana Estate Wines:



It was okay - the wine was nice and reasonably priced, the woman who went through the tasting with us was nice, but really, who wants really "nice"? I wasn't disappointed, but I probably wouldn't go there again.

The next place we went to was Stonier Winery:



It's a very modern looking winery from the outside. I loved the vines on the covered walkway as you enter from the carpark:



But not as much as I loved the wine. It was delicious! I could have sat there all afternoon working my way through a glass of each of the different vintages. Like Domain Chandon at the Yarra Valley, this place has been added onto my regular winery rotation. It was awesome.

I had a lovely day! However, I did spend a lot of the day looking like this:



Note to self: next time, map out journey in advance.