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.

BLOGTOBERFEST: Done!!

Last night I did my tax (grr!), rewarded myself with Mexican and a margarita, came home, painted my nails and went to bed early.

Tonight I came home, made bangers and mash (mmm, yum!) and am about to go out to watch a movie.

Just so the suspense doesn't hang on too long, I will not be reaching by Blogtober goals (except for blogging every day. Yay me!). Oh well.

Tomorrow: a finished object.

BLOGTOBERFEST UPDATE: 30 down, ONE TO GO!!!!!!!!!!

I did my tax return tonight.

This is exactly what it was like:


see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Damn you, tax office, and your annoying but free etax software. Damn you!!

But thanks for the $384 refund. Cheers for that.

xx

BLOGTOBERFEST UPDATE: TWO DAYS TO GO!!

Three days left of Blogtoberfest. Three projects remain to complete before the end of the month to reach the blog's monthly goals. Can it be done?



Watch this space.

BLOGTOBERFEST UPDATE: 28 days down, three to go.

When Sam saw Lucy, it was love at first sight. She climbed up his shoulder and nuzzled into his neck, all the time purring so hard I thought her throat was going explode. It was seriously the cutest thing ever. Since we got her from an animal shelter, Sam and I had to apply to get Lucy. We did this on the Saturday before a public holiday Monday, so didn't hear back until the Tuesday whether or not we had got her. Sam was on tenterhooks the whole time! So when the shelter called me to let me know that Sam and I had been approved, the very first thing I did was shoot him an email to let him know.

His response: "Yay! So, do you want to get the wool or shall I?"
My response: "Umm, I'm pretty sure our new kitten is not a knitter. What do we need the wool for?"
His response: "You have to knit the new kitty a blanket! Then she'll know how much we love her right from the start."

Awww. Since our new cat was clearly a St Kilda supporter, I decided to right thing to do would be to knit her a blankie out of the leftover wool from Sam's Saints Socks.

I give you Lucy's special blanket:



It was easy to pick the pattern - I've always wanted to make a circular blanket, but I really think square/rectangular shapes are much more practical for everyday purposes. But kitties - they have round bed! And they sleep all curled up! a round blankie is completely perfect!



The pattern is Elizabeth Zimmerman's Pi Shawl from The Knitter's Almanac. It is a brilliant pattern that uses the mathematical theories of Pi to create a flat circular shawl (The ghost of my mathematical training just tapped me on the should and told me that that sentence is mathematically incorrect. I just pointed at my completed Arts degree and told the ghost to get lost. I'm far too lazy to look up the correct wording to use for a blog post about a cat blanket. And, the fact that my shawl is not a flat circle is my fault, not the patterns. I didn't block it as it is a cat blanket and so I didn't want it to be lazy and holey.).

I loved making this blanket so much I was actually sad for the circular knitting part of the blanket to be over.



However, the same cannot be said for the border. That 10-stitch garter stitch border went on forever and every and ever...or it felt like it, at least! But there are two ways I can tell that it's perfect and appreciated.

No.1...



..it's completely covered in cat hair.

No.2...



..as soon as I put the blanket outside, she immediately walked over and sat on it. She didn't ask how it magically happened to move from the bed to outside, but she knew it was hers.

Project Blankie: Success!

Pattern:Elizabeth Zimmermann's Pi Shawl (Ravelry link)
Yarn: Bendigo Woollen Mills Classic 5-ply
Notes/Modifications: I loved making this shawl. It was simple but incredibly effective. I hate working with this yarn - it's creped and feels like it's coated in some sort of plastic. But hopefully it'll wear really well, and Lucy will still have this when she's a fat, old kitty too lazy to chase bugs anymore.

BLOGTOBERFEST UPDATE: 27 days down, four days to go. Four days!!