I'm going to say some heretical things about some people who have reached cult status in the online knitting community. I am speaking of Lime & Violet who are among The Most Linked To podcasters around (I used to have one of their buttons on my page). *WARNING* This is a personal opinion only and should not encourage anyone to flame me. I find their podcasts inane. I sometimes find myself far into their chatter and there is no knitting content at all. They seem to find whatever the other says as hilarious and dissolve into fits of giggles, and I'm sorry I don't see what's so funny. You had to be there? I really don't care about the husband's out of tune ukulele or the creepy sales person. It's supposed to be about knitting. I know one of them has breast cancer. You know, I know an awful lot of women who are much closer to me that have breast cancer (or worse) and I don't feel the need to go into gorey detail. My mother died of breast cancer so you cannot say I don't care. Brenda has so far the only knitting podcast that I find worth the effort. You can tell she's thought seriously about the content of her podcast and doesn't sit in front of a microphone gabbling and giggling. She's gone through her own health issues but has kept the background info out of the podcast and on her blog (which has lots in it as well). I have my health issues as well, but then I have a semi-unusual condition and I am not here to toot any horn, but to communicate with people I know. Any others who are interested are welcome but I try to keep the private information away from fibre talk which is supposed to be the main topic here.

Therefore, I will not go into details about where I will be going on Thursday through Sunday except it involves our potential tree-change to country Victoria. My main concern is getting the Bear to actually make a decision about anything. Two Libras are a bad combination for making big decisions! I am taking sock wool and my silk spindle. There has been so much going on here that I am really tired and need a re-group. Having waited till the last minute to decide to actually go hasn't helped. I made blackberry jam last night and even indulged in a bowl of berries and cream. Before we leave I have another batch of pickles and some spiced pear jam to create before the fruit goes soggy.

A note on what passes for a LYS. I went to it to buy buttons for J's cardigan. It is the local branch of one of the major chain of fabric and general sewing and craft items. They added knitting materials not too long ago but their range is limited, and aside from their own labelled yarns, they usually carry Katia. On this trip, as usual, half of their bins were empty, a lot of yarn was on sale and every single bit was acrylic. There is also some yarn at the back of a local (very small) department store which carries both the basics (Patons, Cleckheaton, etc.) and some fascinating Italian yarns at fantastic (i.e., yikes!) prices. I try to regularly trawl their sale bins to pick up bargains, but I am not buying yarn. Read the button.

It was neat to look at my weather pixie under an umbrella with lightning in the background and she's exactly right at this moment. It is actually raining, although not hard, and the thunder woke me from a nap. The Bear of course can sleep through anything. I have been so tired and, aside from laundry, house and garden work, I haven't really done much to speak about. I finished one of my cotton blend socks and cast on the second. I bought buttons for the cardigan. I have almost finish filling a bobbin with BFL but am worried that I didn't put enough twist in it because of its long fibre length and that when I ply it it will not be as firm as I want it.

My weaving class was great but it goes so quickly. I was totally surprised when it was 9PM as it didn't feel like it had been that long. There are 3 of us as beginners and two others doing ikat. We each have a loom and are warping a 6" wide warp in 3 colours (mine is predominantly red, surprise, surprise). The instructor, Monique, walked us through measuring the warp on each warping board, then showed us our to put it on the loom back to front. We all worked together and by the time we got to my loom, the three beginners did it all by ourselves. We were threading the heddles when time ran out. One of the ikat students who had already done the course said we were way ahead of where her class was. I think it's a case of repetition will make the process second nature and you won't have to think about where to put the warp, but right now there's a lot to take in. I've also looked at some of my weaving books and there is some variation in how you do some of it, and it's the principles I want to learn so I can take them back to my loom. I have already started thinking about what I want to do for my class project and have ideas for placements, scarves and other things running through my head. I have decided that the filthy fleece is no longer worth the effort and what I haven't carded and washed is going into mulch. I've got loads of beautiful spinnable wool, so why waste time on this?

We went blackberrying again this morning and got a much better haul, although I fell twice. Neither fall was a bad one altho I dropped berries on the first one and the ants beat me to them. However, it did make me feel increasingly unsteady. My vertigo has been bad lately and that doesn't help when you are foraging around on the side of a hill sourrounded by prickly bushes. If you step in a hole or on a branch that breaks, you have no resilience to correct your balance and you go down. But we got enough to make jam with some to spare so I won't complain. We may go back in a fortnight to do some more. I think The Bear is agreeing to go to Bendigo this Thursday but he still hasn't committed. It's our best chance yet to get some land that looks good at a price we can afford, but all I can do is nag.

I spoke too soon about the rain passing. We did have a downpour and I got very nervous about not hearing gurgling in the downspout behind my bed and The Bear nobly went out in the rain up a ladder (which he hates) to make sure the gutters were clear. The tree surgeon comes next Tues and I'll arrange a roofer to clean things up after that. I had horrible visions of our new ceiling disappearing from water damage again.

On the fibre front, I have only spun BFL and knit socks. I figure if I continue the cotton blend socks at my current rate I will get wearable socks before it turns cold. I was briefly tempted by an ad in one of the fibre lists for cut price llama fleeces (somebody with 150 llama and alpaca fleeces to offload!!) because I can't find a processor who will make the transaction possible. I have been unable to raise Wooly Knob for quite some time about the state of my fleeces that they are supposedly processing so I am hardly going to send them more. In spite of my vow not to buy more fibre I had to console myself with some llama roving instead. I think I will take some of the hanks of handspun in natural coloured wool and knit a jumper for the bear. It is chunkier than the usual 8-ply which means those oceans of stocking stitch will go faster. I think I am going to knit the red tweed into something for me but I haven't decided on a pattern. Is this the time to try a top down? Side to side?

There was an article in last week's Bulletin about the wool industry and (among the other things mentioned below) about the bounce back of the wool industry in some parts, the picture was painted that farmers are hedging their bets with sheep these days and breeding sheep that can be sold as reasonable meat sheep as well as producing wool. Dual purpose sheep have a better chance of turning a profit than wool only. Interesting sites I found were the Australian Wool Testing Authority and The Australian Stud Sheep Breeders Association which has some breed photos, a history of wool in Australia and other such stuff.

Speaking of the land, we are heating up on the search for our future farmlet/nature preserve/market garden. We may take off to Bendigo soon avoiding Weds nights! Because.....

Tonight (!!) is my first session in the learning to weave course at the ANU School of Art and I am simultaneously very excited and more than a little nervous. What if I'm hopeless? What if I can't see well enough to actually do anything? What if I'm just not up to a 3 hour class? I intend taking a nap this afternoon and have done nothing more taxing today than cleaning the bathroom, doing 2 loads of laundry and changing sheets.

I have gotten some encouraged emails about my blog and I thank all of you who read it. It was never really intended as being an authoritative source on anything but I'm glad some of you find it at least interesting.

Here we had all the signs of a good rain. Lots of thunder, dark clouds, a heavy rainfall cell on the radar a few clicks away and we got 5 minutes of rain and now the sun is out. There's still distant thunder so here's hoping it turns into more than a sprinkle.

I woke up this AM with a leg (the left of course, my "problem" leg that is an inch longer than my right) in agony. I thought it was all joint but as I lay there and tried relaxing and analyzing it, I felt muscle tightness as well. Too much standing yesterday when I cup up veggies for another batch of pickles? Whatever, I am not going to make pickles today. They can sit in brine another day without any problems.

I thought I'd take the opportunity to sit on the bed and get my spinning logbook up to date. I bought a lever arch binder, page protectors, and card stock at Officeworks and had put a few entries in. Today I dumped out the bag of locks of fibre and started trying to recognize them. Hmm. Went to the yarn stash to take samples of finished wool. Gosh, I have a lot of handspun and boy have I improved. There is plenty for another 2 jumpers for the Bear and I also am looking at yarn with different eyes regarding blending yarns. Turns out the 3 skeins of Noro match my 2 skeins of Dragon Hair and another I can't remember now. I cut samples of spun yarn and matched them to baggies of fibre. Some I have the spun yarn and the original fibre but I am totally lost about where and when I bought it. Probably the majority came from Bendigo or online but from whom I can't say. I must get better at documenting things because there really is a progression in my spinning and now that I'm spindle spinning and doing exotic fibers it's even more important. BTW, wound off another cop of camel down last night. Am busy knitting socks while deciding whether to try and squeeze in another summer thing for me or start the Bear's next jumper. The socks are a Regia cotton/wool mix in cream with stripes of yellow, green, and rust.

The cleanup yesterday involved getting more pamphlet boxes sorted out, and covered in holographic red book covering paper. They make kids here buy their own books at school and therefore they can put sticky Contac-paper like stuff on them. Most of what was available in Officeworks was Bratz and other kids' stuff so I was stuck with red and silver holographic. After years of doing pamphlets at the NLA, I have LOTS of pam boxes.

The sweet young lady across the street seems to have moved out and the guys are in cleaning it up. I will not miss her, her screaming at her kids, her kids crying all the time, her various men in their hoonish cars with loud stereos. The turnover is really fast over there. I don't think anybody has been there over 6 months.

I finally finished the door-stop sci-fi I was reading (Kevin Anderson', Saga of the Seven Suns) and have started Peter Corris's latest Cliff Hardy which will then be mailed off to a friend in the US. BBB is still His Majesty's Spanish Flock.

Finally, the fabled cardigan for J is finished (except for buttons). It was knit from a wool/acrylic blend called Volcano, and I had no idea what would happen when I knitted it because in the ball, you can't tell that these colour changes are going to happen. The changes are made by changing the colour of the second ply of the main colour, not variegating the whole yarn. It was knit from Very Easy Very Vogue and is called the seed stitch ribbed cardigan. The ribs do a few funky things along the way but otherwise it went pretty quickly and I have it done long before cold weather arrives. Unfortunately J's schedule is tied up in baby-sitting for grandchildren right now so I haven't seen her in a while. She specifically wanted pockets and these were a cinch. I may use the same technique sometime else. Nothing dramatic about it, just that you knit the first stitch of the back of the pocket and the first stitch of the pocket opening together so there are no gaps or sags.

After all the doom and gloom regarding the Australian wool industry some good news at last. There has been rain in some of the woolgrowing areas of Australia (not around here but somewhere!) and wool prices are up. The medium wool is selling better than the superfine. I was astonished to find that 75% of the superfine wool clip goes to Japan mostly for men's suits. The cold weather in the Northern hemisphere doesn't hurt either. Apparently the figure quoted by me and many others of a farmer committing suicide every 4 days is an old one and is no longer true, although there is still an issue with depression. We have had a few very high profile men admit to depression (the W.A. premiere (i.e., governor) resigned citing depression) so the message seems to be going out that it's OK to admit you are depressed and there is help available.
I Here is what I have been spinning on the Roberta: a pound of Blue Faced Leicester and I absolutely love it. It's amazing how what is technically a longwool Can be so soft. It also has that longwool luster to it. I can't anticipate how it will bloom when plied and washed but I am hoping for sock weight (as if I needed another sock yarn). My sock yarn box is overflowing and I can't even get the lid on. I neglected to mention that seamstress extra-ordinaire C made me a DPN storage roll that is long (tall?) enough to store my DPNs in their containers. I had bought one that looked snazzy and it was, but it also assumed you would remove all your needles from their packets and put them naked into the slots. I have like 4 pairs of no. 1, 2, 0, etc bamboo, wood, and casein DPNs and I'm not going to shove them all in one pocket and hope I don't lose one or mix them up. On on Bossie featherweight I am still spinning camel, the one at work is spinning coral coloured tussah silk, I am spinning green something wool on my Reeves spindle which I really wish had a shepherd's hook. I just bought a Viking Santa spindle on eBay after rave reviews in the spinning community. It looks cool because the shaft is a corkscrew. The Reeves spindle really has problems with the cop slipping down the shaft. Too slippery I think.

My dear Bear bought me the first 3 seasons of Gilmore Girls on DVD. I am watching season 2 on cable most nights but even tho I've seen them all I just love the series. Wish I had a mum like Lorelei. And I gave in and bought the 2 seasons of Dead like me which I only discovered on cable almost at the end of its viewing cycle and it was gone. When I was in the bookstore yesterday I saw a book on Seagrove pottery and jumped back 30 years to the days of trips from Chapel Hill to Seagrove to buy pottery. I still have and use some of it on a regular basis. I must be the only person in Canberra who would know what this stuff is. But I bought it on Amazon for half of what the store was selling it for. I don't have any of the salt glaze anymore; I don't even know which ex-husband has it. Apparently it's collectible now. Had I known that I would have treated it more kindly. But I had a lot of ash trays which I certainly didn't keep.

I do some of my best thinking while doing things like ironing, brushing my teeth, etc. I have been thinking about the whole issue that has popped up in my various groups under the guise of wool vs acrylic, allergies, organic wool, etc. There was a brief article in one of the papers this weekend about the illegal logging industry in Indonesia, a lot of which ends up in Australia. I had already wondered how that much teak could be produced to end up in outdoor furniture at "bargain prices" in Sydney. Chances are it was illegally harvested by a logging company who offered cold hard cash to subsistence farmers who didn't particularly care what the strangers did, at least not until their woodlands were gone.

I know we are supposed to "think globally, act locally" but there are so many issues at play here in so many different environments that acting at all seems counter-productive. How were the sheets on my bed dyed and what happened to the wastewater? Was my semi-antique Moroccan carpet made with child labour? Am I contributing to pollution by eating watermelon that was grown on irrigated and over-fertilized land? What happens to the drugs I take once they pass through my body (one of the one I pop like candy for pain is not metabolized at all) and go into the sewage system? Those Christmas ornaments I bought were made in China with labour that was not paid what we would call a living wage. Do we in the first world have the right to tell anybody else how they should live? So much of my life revolves around computers, the one I'm typing on, the one the Bear is using which also is the network hub, the one I use at work that produces data which is then available to people around the world. I live a digital life with digital friends and look for land to buy and books to read and music to load onto my iPod through this package of chips and discs and displays.

Consumerism drives our economy and in some cases makes it possible for those Chinese labourers to get a better quality of life than they originally might have been sentenced to. The Indonesian farmer may now buy a TV and either be lulled into stupidity by the dren we (first world) feed to the airwaves, or they might have their minds opened to the simple knowledge about a world other than their own and who know may spark an impressionable youth to act on what he/she perceives as injustice and the need to make us know the things he sees. If we are lucky he won't become a potential Islamic terrorist, but will "merely" take on the Indonesian loggers or the government (goodbye now!) in an effort to tell the world about what has happened to his corner of the world. Will people stop buying teak furniture in Sydney or even ask if the timber was obtained legally? Will we ask about child labour and fair trade and pollution when we make purchasing decisions? I didn't when I bought sheets recently but all of this puts an incredible load and responsibility on each consumer that I wager even Peter Garrett doesn't exercise every day. Those of us suffering chronic illness, or worse, a potentially fatal illness, know how hard it is to get through a single day without adding asking all these questions at every turn.

Even if I could produce all our food, our clothes, get off the grid for power and water, live without computers (not in this household), read books from the library instead of buying them online, would it make a difference? Even if my entire city (350,000) could do that (not possible in this landscape) would that have a impact on what we are all collectively doing to our planet? Now that the major powers have finally admitted that climate change is real, is it too late to make a significant difference? Some say yes; some say no.

There seem to be an awful lot of question marks in the preceding paragraphs. That's because I have no answers. I can comfort myself in knowing that I have skills in growing things and making things that truly twenty-first century folks do now. But that isn't going to matter at all if the system completely implodes. If I lose my pharmaceutical supply, I might as well be dead because, even if I make through withdrawal, I will be useless physically. The kind they used to leave out on the ice to die. Just some cheery thoughts for your Sunday sermon. But do think; it's the only advantage we primates have over the rest of life. We got us into this mess, maybe we can think our way out.

I have made a rather rash promise to the Bear that aside from the fleeces currently being processed (I hope) at Wooly Knob I will buy no more fiber this year. Oh. Does that mean I can't got the wool show in Bendigo? Hmm. Some negotiation will be called for. The declaration was prompted by the postie bringing me a package consisting of 8 oz of CVM (California Variegated Mutant). See photo at right. It feels middling in softness and is sort of milky tea coloured. He was fascinated with the idea of mutant sheep but they look pretty normal to me. I started spinning on the Roberta again last night after picking up the gazillion stitches needed for the button band on the cardigan (I am being naughty and doing it before sewing the sleeves in so it won't be so hot and/or heavy in my lap). I have no buttons yet but hope to remedy that tomorrow. What I started spinning was Blue Faced Leicester and I think I'm in love. I'm so glad I have 2 pounds of undyed roving, plus some hand-dyed, in the stash and a whole fleece being processed because this is seriously yummy fibre. Long staple with a slight sheen to it and so very soft. Not at all what I have come to expect from something with "Leicester" in its name. Given the length of the staple I am able to spin it finer than other things, or maybe all that practice on spindles has helped. I don't know and don't care because I am in love.

Since we are now in Feb., I started re-visited the real estate agents for the Bendigo region and I found a few potential blocks of land, but I stress few. Most of the vacant land was lots in new subdivisions with town water (which is not such a good thing in Bendigo as I think they are on level 7 water restrictions). We need to go over the atlas and find the names of towns in the areas we are interested in and not hope to fall on them through a Bendigo based real estate agent. I have been saying at least once a day to the immovable object that this year is not too early to buy land if we find some that fills the bill.

My wasp-stung finger is better (not very red or hot) but still somewhat swollen. There is thunder but we had thinder all day yesterday and no rain.

Knitter's review (link to the right) has a news article this week about a new show at New York's Museum of art and design (another thing to add to my list of places to visit) called "Radical lace & Subversive knitting" This show apparently includes the knitting done on telephone poles (by Dave Cole) with heavy machinery which was illustrated in one of the back issues of either Knitters or Knits. I would love to see the whole show and I hope somebody out there in blogland goes and reviews it further. I found the KR review interesting because of the interaction between knitters and non-knitters. Some of this stuff is very mind opening and some is just why? to me. The miniature mittens are a rare feat but why? This all goes back to me traditionalist, pragmatic side.

I am at a distinct disadvantage today and should get off this machine immediately because of the wasp sting. I got bit right on the knuckle of my right index finger and it is quite swollen and sore. Better than it was yesterday, but I react badly to insect bites in general. Not allergic-type reactions, but more swelling and pain than most people; insects who can bite find me instantly and bite me. Since I have been exhausted all week, I should take a nap anyway. I have a painted ceiling and a cleaned rug so now all I have to do is pack up my bits and pieces and get the carpet people in to measure for new.

I finished the Bear's grey striped socks (they are so boring I won't take a picture) and have cast on some Regia cotton for me that is cream with stripes of yellow, green and red. I hope I get them finished before winter sets in. If anyone cares, I have healed my iPod and submitted to the automatic update feature of the latest version of iTunes which I'm not sure I like (I am a control freak in disguise). Said automatic update feature gave me no option to update stuff that had been added via the main computer and therefore I lost all the old stuff. I have been gradually reloading it but be warned out there iPods can die or get seriously ill causing wiping of their memories. Be prepared.

I belong to three spinning "communities" online, and there are several other people who reside virtually in all three. One of whom I admire tremendously is Abby Franquemont. She carries a prodigious heritage with that name but she is a smart as a tack and has the ability to cut thru the crap and explain her viewpoint in superbly written prose. She and I have shared a few off-list comments and I have just discovered she has added my blog as a favoured link to her site. One of the groups (I can't keep them all straight) is having an ongoing discussion on "art yarns", i.e. what do you/I think is an "art yarn" and does it have any purpose or is it just there to look pretty. Distinguishing art yarn from novelty yarn can sometimes be difficult and some folks seem to find art yarns as super cool whereas I find the end of the spectrum as self indulgent at worst as whimsy at best. The end of the spectrum for me is something along the lines of 50 yards of something in multiple colours and materials so loosely spun (to allow it to be fluffy) that it is unusable for anything except to look at and fondle because it would probably fall apart if knitted, if not immediately soon thereafter. I could name names but I won't. I have been reading a big back run of Fiberarts and have seen a lot of "conceptual" craft work and while some of it really intrigues me and inspires me, some I find silly and/or self-indulgent. I am a crafts person who is 1) somewhat traditional in viewpoint, 2) practical in that I expect my products to be useful, 3) have been involved in textiles since I was old enough to hold a needle. I've done just about every craft except tatting and bobbin lace (my eyes aren't up to it) and weaving (soon to be addressed) and I just don't see the point of the fluffy colourful art yarns especially when somebody is trying to sell them fro $US50 for 50 yards. When I buy hand-dyed anything it's mostly because I'm too lazy to do it myself, not that I couldn't. I suppose the prices for such are aimed at those who can't, rather than at people like me who could but choose to spend my time doing something else. And there's so much something else to do!

I crashed and burned on Monday as the chutney production knocked me out. The prep work was very time consuming (peeling and chopping and so on) and I got 8 jars out of it. I still have plums but not the energy to do anything with them. The pears are about ready to fall off the tree but at least they are big enough to be edible. This morning my legs were simply on fire and still are not happy. I briefly thought about tackling the berry bushes and got stung by a wasp at the first cut and retreated after spraying the wasps' nest in the berry bushes. The painters are supposed to come today and then we can get carpet. We have backtracked to the original high-and-low berber wool carpet we saw earlier when we went back for a second look, having looked at a lot of carpet in between.

The cardigan is almost finished. The body has been blocked and shoulders joined but the instructions want me to sew the sleeves in before I do the button band which is knitted onto the garment in one piece. That's better than the add-on later kind but only just. Am on the toe of the second sock for the bear and can now knit something for ME!!

Long time, no post. Another hot week here but temperatures were in the low 30C's and not in the highs.
Tomorrow we are promised 27C which sounds like better weather for making chutney, definitely plum and maybe rhubarb. We went out to our normal blackberry spot with a friend but found that 99% were very green and plan to return in a fortnight (yes, Aussies really say fortnight for 2 weeks). I picked our first full sized home grown tomatoes and made another batch of zucchini pickle relish. The garden in general looks good as we have had some small bits of rain. At the right you will see this year's new baby possum with mum making short work of an over-ripe banana. The bub wasn't interested in the fruit and was not thrilled about being petted but tolerated it. They are both really soft and most of our neighbourhood gang will eat out of your hand and let you pet them. I know it is frowned upon by some to feed possums but I like them and they are cheap entertainment for The Imp. Every year we get another baby introduced to our bananas and watch them grow up and then leave mum. Sometimes there are growling matches on the front porch and frequently thundering feet across the roof at night. We really had no idea there were so many around and we can't tell them apart except "the big one" or "the skittish one". It is amusing to have a possum hang by its tail over your head reaching out little hands. We also have baby cockatoos in the trees making grinding noises and I spotted 4 new galahs sitting in (of all places) a plane tree in the middle of a local shopping centre

Another friend at work who does exquisite handmade books gave me some guidance on how to organize my spinning record keeping, something I have been horrible at. Sometimes I didn't keep any of the unspun fibre so I have no record. The others have many little plastic bags of fibre that I will have to try and remember where I bought and hopefully find a sample in the stash of what it became. The (almost) final stage of some of the fabled English Leicester is below. The first band cut off the inkle loom, about 3 yards worth. Selvages are all over the place and even the warping isn't totally right but it's a start and by lining them up as I did in the photo, I am trying to illustrate what they will become when laid side by side and sewn together to make "fabric" for a bag. I am slowly learning that it's better to do something with your output than have it mature in the stash not becoming any thing. The wool is still quite lustrous and the colours nice, even if they aren't what I was aiming at. I have been devouring stuff about weaving in prep for the course starting in (yikes) a little over a fortnight. I hope my poor legs will be up to it. Losing weight has helped my knees but not the muscles in my legs.

I test spun on John Reeves' lightest spindle and it works quite well, altho I do prefer the shepherd's creeok type hook and not the round cup-hook that many makers seem to use since they are cheap and easily available. I am spinning some wool roving bought in Bendigo last year that I said was intended for socks and still is, but I am having an easier time spinning finely on a spindle no matter how long the staple. It is dark green. I am on the home stretch of the cardigan, almost finished the entire body, minus button bands. I am currently anamoured with Lucy Neatby's patterns after listening to Brenda's last podcast and have just ordered 3 from her. The pattern for "Cables after whiskey" is something that looks like a lot of fun.

Sorry for the delay, folks, but we had a blistering week last week. Up until midday yesterday it had been 35C or over every day. Get up early to do the essentials and then lie in front of a fan and try not to wilt. The Imp went to the vet on Friday for her annual inoculations and either the heat, the whole experience being something she just didn't believe Mummy would do to her (that lady put things in places I didn't like) or the effects of the flu vaccine, made her extremely subdued. She sat on a pillow for most of Friday and Saturday and slept with me. She was more or less back to normal last night, i.e., beating up the senior cat and racing around.

No fibre news to report. I have been continuing to knit but haven't finished anything else. Yesterday I got up early (see above) and made chili plum sauce (15 bottles) and somehow managed to forget to take my morning meds so began to feel seriously unwell by mid-afternoon. I still have 2 huge bowls of plums so chutney and some other plum thing is on the agenda. I also found a couple of recipes for rhubarb chutney which sounds interesting as well. It's "only" supposed to be about 30-32C this week so I will not be so sapped of energy, or sleepy which heat always makes me. I have new glasses for computer work and I didn't even realize until I picked them up but the frames are purple! They are rimless so I didn't even take notice of the colour. I like purple so that's OK.

Hope to recover with lots of photos. It has been bloody hot since last week, over 30C every day and our weather station says it is now 37C and while that is in the backyard, it is still in the shade. Yesterday I finally got the Christmas tree down while the plasterers were here and now there is room for my rug to be cleaned. This AM I went to the mall and am hence exhausted. I now have a ceiling over my bed and the plasterers insist that they should paint it but I had told the assessor that, because of previous damage and my intent to paint the room anyway, I wouldn't expect the insurance to cover it. We'll see.

Up top is my new spindles stand made of Huon pine by John Reeves (whose web page isn't up yet and he seems to have left etsy). His spindles (which I haven't tried yet) are at the 10 o'clock and the 4 o'clock positions, my Kundert is right in front with sock wool on it and the 2 Bossies that are home are in the middle. The birds eye maple featherweight is at work for spinning with silk on breaks. John is the only spindle maker I have found in Australia and he uses great Aussie hardwoods. Huon pine is so beautiful. I have a turned bowl and a rolling pin (which I have never used because it's too pretty) made from it. Only grows in Tasmania.

To the top left is the first skein of dragon hair. I have never spun anything like this as it was a carded batt (I think there is a photo in the archives) of ll different sorts and colours of fibres with sparkly angelina in it. I generally am not a sparkly person but you have to try something different. There may be enough to knit Princess A a Christmas present.

To the right below you have what arrived yesterday from BFLB: 2 skeins of delicious Mountain colors sock wool and 2 sets of size 1 bamboo DPNs. Quarantine opened it no doubt because of those funny pointy sticks. Might be drugs.










To the left above are the 3 bags full of roving that arrived yesterday, in front is Blue Faced Leicester, to the left back is wensleydale and the other is Jacob, the latter two from Copper Moose and the BFL came from All the Pretty Fibers on etsy. The wool in the middle, still attached to a sheep is no longer attached and it is also BFL (lamb) from Beechtree Farms. The fleece has been sent to Wooly Knob for processing and I should get 5 pounds of roving out of it.

No joy yet with my iPod but there seems to be a market for fixing iPod problems that Windows corrupted.

A not very productive weekend. Saturday we went carpet shopping and now have a better idea of what it will cost and did not have sticker shock. Found a nice wool Berber in mottled light blue. If I buy for me, it's blue; if I buy for future owners it will be a more neutral colour. Te plasterer called and will come out on Tuesday!

I spent many hours both Sat & Sun trying to fix my sick iPod without success. I may have hard-drive problems but will call Apple support tomorrow and see if they can find a fix. Also used up all the plumcots we salvaged and added about the same amount of apricots and made jam. The Christmas tree is still up. Too hot to do much in the afternoon in that area of the house.

Once again the postie caught me in my nightie this morning, bringing three packages. To the right is my ebay wooden umbrella swift. It is definitely not brand new but also doesn't look very used. It has wooden screws at the base to keep it open and to clamp it to a surface. I still think $49US is a bargain.

One the left are 3 bumps of hand dyed roving. The top is Targhee hand dyed in a colourway called fruit salad. The lower left is BFL and the left is Masham. These 2 came from Etsy Shop All the Pretty Fibers. If you can't tell, I am trying to get out of my colour rut of blues and purples.

The rest of today was spent in the garden, mulching in bare spots, weeding, etc. Hot today and it was tiring work. We found a cockatoo in the plumcot tree last night so removed all remained fruit anywhere near ripe. I dread seeing them in the big plum tree as that means making plum sauce. It isn't what I'd call difficult but takes time and always seems to happen when it's hot. I refuse to surrender my crop to the birds!

There is a new issue of Fiber Femmes out and my article about the Bendigo sheep show is in it. I am pleased with the result and the use of the photos. In retrospect I sound sort of passionate about agriculture, which is strange for a "city girl" like me but I really am interested in how we as humans produce food and fibre and live on the land. His Majesty's Spanish Flock continues to intrigue me as Sir Joseph Banks distributes the King's merino sheep to "progressive" English landowners who do things like try to cross them with Welsh mountain sheep or Rylands. Sir Joseph was trying to improve British wool but the idea of crossing breeds so diverse seems so strange to me. So far (1800) the merinos have not proven adaptable to cold and/or wet conditions and the heaviness of their fleece sometimes irritates buyers because of the extra work they have to do to clean it, even if the end result is superior.

The insurance assessor came today and we will get a new ceiling, the carpet removed from about half the bedroom (I was surprised to find the floor under the carpet was still wet) and my Moroccan rug cleaned. He didn't even want me sleeping in the room because the ceiling could fall, but we got a guy in within an hour who took it down and put up a covering over the hole. Once the floor dries out, we will get new carpet installed. I was so glad I could lay my hands on receipts for the ongoing maintenance of the roof to show we had been trying. I now think it was the hail, not tree debris that caused this because the storm the previous night with minimal hail and lots of rain didn't leak, but the hail storm essentially blocked all the down spouts. I don't mind paying for new carpet since it was on the agenda and painting once I figure out what colour to paint it.

There are so many new gorgeous sock yarns up on Etsy that I am looking at them with my tongue hanging out. I must stop this and finish what I started. Almost finished with the weaving: another foot and the first band will be done. The Bear dropped the top plastic box of the stash when we moved it out of the bedroom. The top box is all scarf/shawl yarn and there are such yummy things in there like Brooks Farm Yarn kid mohair in blues and greens and creamy spring yellow that the Forest Canopy Shawl would look so nice in. And I have to go back to work on Monday!

Firstly, I need to rant. I have spent all week wrestling with the ACT RTA about my motor vehicle registration. It was due Dec. 28 and they said to allow 5 working days so I electronically paid it Dec 21. All right I screwed up here. I made a typo in the first payment so I sent a second payment right away with the total amount. All the correct account numbers, etc. So on Jan. 2 when I had no valid car rego I called the RTA to find out what was going on. They told me they didn't work between Christmas and New Years (I was supposed to know this?). Then they had "lost" one of my payments. I printed out my bank statement and had the Bear deliver it because both payments were there. I was promised a call back. Yesterday I called again, went through the whole dance again and was promised a call back. This morning I called and was angry at the person who answered the phone (I didn't yell or anything but said I was really tired of this and they better get their act together). I was promised a call back "right away" at 11 AM. I dithered, was afraid to get into the shower than begin the long process of washing my long hair, finally gave up and did it anyway, read my email, read blogs, updated podcasts on my iPod, etc. Finally I called again at 3PM and was told they found my money and I would be getting a new sticker for my car. So much for "we'll call you right back." On Monday when I go back to work I will be driving with an expired rego and the traffic devils are known to cruise public carparks looking for violations but I hope I will safe in my hidden handicapped spot. The ACT government is not known for its intelligence but up to this point I haven't had a problem. Oh, and for you folks in the US, it costs $625 to register my car for a year which includes 3rd party insurance cover but I get no choice in the fee or provider.

On to fibery things. I have been weaving away and am within eyeshot of the end of my first band. I find this tremendously exciting and want to do this all the time when I should be doing other things. I really don't want to go back to work because I feel so much better healthwise, I do get a lot of things done (even of it is spent on hold with the RTA), and while I do love my job, not working is a lot more relaxing. I've also almost finished replacing the toe on the Bear's green socks which had a hole too big to darn. One toe has been replaced with blue with nylon reinforcement and this one is a heathery grey/brown Trekker with nylon. Nobody sees the toes of his socks and his feet are so big that they often have toes of something different.

A comment about the Internet world. It seems to me that the number of fibre-related blogs has exploded in the past year. I can't keep up with all the ones I find interesting so I sort of graze. Some aren't very interesting and some are simply amazing. I love "I'm Knitting as fast as I can" and others too numerous to list. With the volume of posts on the 2 spinning lists I read and all these blogs and podcasts, one could be inundated. But the high points are messages from long lost relatives who read my blog and found it interesting, pictures of my English penpal's grandchild with a promise to knit her something for next winter, and the other things that keep us all connected. We are definitely not alone in this world.

This is what the postie brought me this morning and I think I'm in love (remember sock yarn doesn't count when we talk about the stash). It's hand-dyed merino from Yarnahoy and it is so soft. The colours are not what this picture nor the photo on the website show, both showing a blue tinge to the yarn where in reality it is a strong green. I don't care; I just love it and I can't wait to knit it. However I first have to replace the toe on one of the Bear's socks (ripped it out and cast on new yarn plus added nylon reinforcement), finish his second grey sock (I have only knit about 3 inches) and knit a pair of cotton socks for me. The cardigan is steaming along and I am making good progress on one side of the front and have inserted the pocket. The light at the end of the tunnel is in sight. Oh, and the button bands. Ick.

I have been weaving and the inkle band has made significant progress. Listening to podcasts while weaving makes it go much quicker.

The clouds are gone and the sun is out and we are predicted to reach 29C today. I hope this dries out my bedroom further as the claims adjuster isn't due till Saturday. The insurance company thinks they can clean the oriental here but I don't think there is any place where it could be spread out flat to dry not under furniture. The damp is still playing with my joints; today it's my right hip that hurts. But it's a sign that the rest is working that I was so full of energy that I did 3 loads of wash (it was threatening to topple the laundry basket).

The poor garden got really shredded by the hail storm, The pumpkins are in tatters and I'm glad that some of the beans and tomatoes were sort of under cover of the fence and or neighbours shrubs. The weather summary for 2006 showed how severe the weather had been, although I can't find the maps that were shown on the TV news. According to the Sydney Morning Herald "south-eastern Australia experienced its second driest year on record" and overall the temperature was about .50C above normal. However this may be a severe el Nino event and we may see a change in a few months. Hope this isn't a false hope.

While we are on the subject of weather, you may have noticed I changed the persona of my weather pixie. She was wearing far too revealing outfits and nothing like I wear (jeans and T shirts rule). And she had short hair. So the new one looks more like me but it looks like the cat is gone for good because I haven't seen it on this version but I may be wrong.

Sydney's fireworks were great as usual. Someday I'd like to see them in person as the TV coverage is always looking the wrong way or is doing a close up when a wide angle is needed and vice versa and I do not want to see pictures of people watching the fireworks. I love fireworks in general but have missed Canberra's big show in March for the past several years because of the difficulty getting in and out of the location. Maybe this year we'll try and go to the Library to take advantage of the best view in Canberra. It will only take an hour or so to get home.

Well, 2006 left with a bang, actually many bangs, and lots of rain and hail in some places a meter thick. For details of the whole story click here. Our bit of Canberra is north and west of the area described in the story and the worst hit us a bit later. I shouldn't be surprised, but the Bear actually slept through most of it and it wasn't until the hail storm that he came out to see what happened. Unfortunately he didn't notice that the roof problem in my bedroom had returned and a minor waterfall was in progress. While this has happened before to a lesser extent, this time the water almost made it to the doorway and the Moroccan carpet was soaked all along the edge of the bed. Buckets, mops, sponges, fans and this morning we removed the carpet from under the bed (assuming our insurance will pay for its cleaning and drying) and I am hoping the insurance company can produce a plasterer where I couldn't. I wasn't planning on this but I think I will use this opportunity to replace the rug in the bedroom. It's a good thing I am taking this week off work

One of the things I did yesterday in cleaning up was to go through my issues of Handwoven and mark the items I am interested in to give some guidance when I take my weaving course. I already knew that twill was on my list as is colour and weave and I found some examples to try out. Of course, since all the issues were out, they all got wet. As usual, I am interested in bold colour and geometric designs, nothing fluffy. I would be happy to weave dish towels, place mats & napkins and work my way up to small rugs and a throw. I lust after rug looms but have no room.

We did some more cleaning up in the shed and I have found a few things to flog on ebay that were I think part of my MIL's cleanout. And 2 large Corningware casseroles which will become dyepots. I also pruned back the junior plum tree and discovered we had some plums! I had thought they had all fallen off but there are some and I had better pick them before the birds do them in. They are President variety and are small purple-skinned with green flesh. I was looking for something like what are sold in the US as prune plums in September. These are close but much earlier. I got the very first of our thornless blackberries as well. It appears that one doesn't prune blackberries, as nobody prunes them in the wild and they grow vigorously. I am going to try and get the old berry growth cut back early this year and not wait till I can't get to the compost bin. Our apricots were decimated by wattlebirds who take one bite out of a fruit and drop it on the ground. The other bad news is that there are no blueberries at our favorite pick-your-own place due to the late frost. The floods must have done something to add to our water catchment but the airport, where the official weather station is, got nothing.

Another successful ebay auction where I managed to snag a Swedish wooden swift for $49US including shipping from Sweden. I seems to pay to keep trawling for the odd bargain that pops up.

Here are my Noro purchases in one to three ball lots, from the left Transitions (which is wool, cashmere, alpaca, angora, camel, kid mohair and silk, which sounds like it's what was swept off the floor at the end of a day and whose color mix is about as homogeneous), Silk Garden, and Shinano which is wool & silk and gets my vote for the most interesting without being exotic. When one has limited opportunities to fondle Noro one can't say, oh I know what these feel like and I'll buy this. I have numerous one-ball Noro hat patterns and my vote goes with the Shinano which I also have 3 balls of. I might make a hat for A out of the Silk Garden, and look for matching/coordinating yarn for mittens. The Transitions is definitely the softest but I don't think would make decent mitten as it is spun too loosely and would either not last or would felt unevenly.

At the left is the ball of grey wool from the spotted fleece. I mentioned before that part of it was much lighter grey than the rest.

Before sitting down to blog I vacuumed the living room and both bedrooms and changed the linen on both beds. I would do massive amounts of laundry except the forecast is 80% for thunderstorms this afternoon, which I am hoping is right but am not willing to do laundry to prove. Since the cricket finished in 3 days instead of 5 I will have to turn to videos or DVDs or take naps. Most folks who are out and about are tracking down post-Christmas bargains and since there is nothing I want to buy, I stay home and listen to crested pigeons saying "Hoo!". They nest in the tree between the 2 houses and I watch the males display to the females each year. A variation on feral pigeon displays involving puffing your self up and making funny hooting noises.It must work as a new lot of crested pigeons appears every year. We also have baby magpies, blackbirds (introduced) and rosellas. There might be a willy wagtail nesting in the enormous rose bush that occupies the corner of the back yard but I am not sure since this would be the first year and I'm not sure what to look for.

All this blogging when not working. Today I put new linings in the living room drapes that face east and get the first summer sun. Somehow the lining developed mysterious holes when the Imp was a kitten. She tended to see shadows and try to catch them. The sheers on the front windows need replacing as well but they are only decorative whereas the liners are thermal protection.

I listened to the podcast from The Yarn Shop which in this instance is in Powatan, Virginia, a suburb of Richmond and a place I recognize from driving past signs directing to it a million times between Washington and Petersburg in an earlier life. The owner of the yarn shop in question also raises cashmere goats so that input is of value as well. Another site of interest I stumbled upon is also from a previous life, the Raleigh News & Observer which has a fibre column in their Lifestyle section.

To continue our weird weather we have continued cool weather and this afternoon had a thunderstorm with buckets of rain, and quite a bit of hail. It is prefereable to 40C and will help the zucchini I am grooming to be a blimp reach a size to become pickles. However, the blueberry folks informed me when I called that they had total crop failure and there would be no blueberries this year. Gnashing of teeth because I LOVE blueberries. I think I have just about finished off the rest of the berries by making berry jelly.

If you can't tell, I'm having one of those wired in the middle of the night spells possibly brought on my too much chocolate after a 4 month gap. I have been looking at the Harlot's Socks that rock and think that the sock wool I just ordered from the Etsy shop of Yarnahoy is at least as striking and easier for me to get. I also added a button to my bog template for knitting from your stash. Easy for me to say as with the exception of some summer cottony things I have only added to my stash in sock wool and handspun. Therefore promising to knit from my stash is a relatively painless promise. I am actually lusting to knit from my stash. I have finished the cardigan's sleeves and have half a pocket lining done then on to the fronts. Math4knitters clued me into worksheets for doing the planning for a top down raglan sleeve pullover so that's up there although I am not sure that my first top down should be for the Bear. He can be very agreeable until it's too late when he announces it binds across the shoulders or something similar when I've already reached the end.

It was equally spooky to look at my blog stats and find referrals from a French discussion group that's discussing Robertas. I was beginning to freak. I MUST got to bed!!!

Found it! Sticks & String. And a fun lot of more Aussie podcasts. Now I don't have to do my own especially because I don't sound Australian, do I?

I got my book on Lithuanian braids which are very colourful but look like they are woven out of extremely fine warp--thread-like almost. There is no way I can do an authentic replication but the design elements and colours are vibrant and interesting altho I will probably stay away from the swastikas, no matter how ancient the symbology.

I also meant to comment on how interesting His Majesty's Spanish Flock is.Apparently English sheeps' wool was washed on the sheeps' back before shearing and this techniques did not work with the Spanish sheep because of the heaviness of the grease they carried in their fleece. The Spanish washed the fleece in hot water after shearing and this added to the cost of preparing the wool for processing in England. Some comments on how the merinos were not used to the rich wet pastures around Windsor and suffered from various foot complaints because of this shows how they had been adapted to the high and harsher landscapes of Spain. I have just gotten to Sir Joseph Banks receiving the first wool from the merinos raised by Captain MacArthur in New South Wales (1801)and judging the rams' wool to be equivalent to the Spanish rams' fleece from the King's flock. His judgement was that the production of fine wool would be a good commodity for the new colony. Two hundred years later and our economy is tied to wool in both good and bad ways. The drought is having an adverse effect on the ability of wool-growers to maintain production and in some cases even maintain their breeding stock. From other viewpoints, we have been trying to grow wool in areas that are marginal in terms of agriculture and this is Mother Nature swatting us back into place (altho she should take it out on the rice and cotton growers as much as woolgrowers). I have also just read the Australian Bush Conservancy's report the numbers of feral animals removed from their reserves is staggering. Horses, camels, donkeys, cats, foxes, wild dogs in the thousands. The good news is that the threatened species bounce back (usually) when given protection from ferals

I have recovered my cardigan's sleeve back to almost the casting off part. Hooray! I sooooo hate reknitting. I rewarded myself by flickcarding and then drumcarding some of the feelthy fleece. I wound off the plied yarn from the spotted fleece so that I can now (or almost now) can ply the dragon hair and start spinning something besides camel down. I listened to Math4knitters podcast while I carded and I like it a lot, possiby because there is very little math in it and Laura is always saying how she couldn't learn math while growing up. This inability to grasp math, which in my case is really limited to arithmetic since I got excellent grades in all non-arithmetic math genres, is the one thing that stands between me and designing stuff and why I tend to tweak patterns rather than strike out on my own. I don't even trust that I have managed to figure out what numbers need to get added together or whatever, so a calculator doesn't necessarily help. I have used sweater design software and I like it for very basic designs. I will probably use it to design the jumper for the Bear which is next on my to-knit list and since he's so ginormous it will take forever and he won't allow me to do cables or anything to relieve the monotony, claiming they are too "fussy" whatever that equates to in bear land.

I went out and found more knitting podcasts to try altho I cannot find the one I have heard reference to several times which is supposedly from an Aussie bloke who knits. If somebody out there knows the name of it please tell me. I caught up on my podcasts of Lingua franca yesterday as well. Podcasting seems to be fraught with technical difficulties so I haven't jumped in yet. I also don't think I have a very attractive speaking voice which is one thing when I'm lecturing about something I know more about than my audience and quite another when I am supposedly entertaining (as I guess podcasts are supposed to be). I whipped off the article that has been percolating at the back of my brain for some months about the Bendigo wool show and shipped it off the Fiber Femmes, hopefully in time for their deadline which I missed several times already. I don't have much of a clue as to what my readership base is with this blog aside from a few identifiable friends so I don't know whether anything I do is really of interest to the average knitter. There's lots I could say about things like, my philosophy of socks, what the attraction is with raw fibre (occasionally), why I blog instead of knit sometimes (like now). I do resent knitting podcasts that are short on knittting content and unless someone lives a very exciting life, I don't much care for blogs without a strong underlying theme. About the only exception I will make to that generalization is Crazy Aunt Purl who is just so out there you have to love her or hate her.

It is quickly approaching my afternoon nap time. For some reason I get exceedingly sleepy around 3.30-4PM and sometimes manage to keep a nap at bay but today isn't going to be one of those days. And I got all the way here without vacuuming or laundry either. Shame on me for being a slothful slob who willl someday be eaten alive by dust bunnies.

I hope you all survived the holidays intact and healthy. I discovered that I was very much dependant on the anti-histamines I had been taking to be able to breathe at night. I forgot to get them and wondered why I was sleeping poorly, why my nose was running constantly, why I had a headache unrelated to the the volume of chocolate I ate. Then I realized what I had stopped taking because I thought it expendable. Out on Boxing Day to find an all-hours chemist and now my nose is no longer dripping and I slept through the night. It seems that almost all my Christmas presents were cat related for reasons that are hard to fathom. I especially like the cat craft book's suggestion that you save up all your cat's hair, learn to spin, and then knit the result.

Today my loyal postie brought my book on Lithuanian sashes whose photos and diagrams are fantastic, even if I can't read the text, and a package of ebay fibre: wool & mohair for socks and gorgeous silk. While I am dying to spin, I must knit furiously as I discovered almost at the end of the second of the cardigan's sleeves that I had started off with the wrong number of stitches. I had to rip all the way back to the ribbing and re-knit and I am almost back where I started from. I have reloaded my iPod with podcasts, there is cricket on TV so I must knit like the wind (apologies to Breand's podcast intro).

I mentioned that I listen to podcasts while I work or, as this morning, while I iron. Two of my favourite podcasts are Here on Earth from Wisconsin public radio, and Bush Telegraph from our own ABC public radio. Both transport me into environments that I would otherwise never visit, whether it's harvesting wild rice in the Northern hemisphere or listening to a carer of an husband with Alzheimer's in rural Australia. I encourage anyone who can afford the most basic MP3 player to download and listen if streaming is too tempermental in your locale.

I just forked over the $$ to sign up for the weaving course next term at the ANU. I look at the beautiful things other people weave and hope I can at least step on the lowest rung of this new ladder, so that I may on the future create things as basic as placemats and tea towels for our home. I don't think I will ever run out of things to learn and practice so that I will keep my brain alert as I grow older. Apparently that seems to be one of the keys in keeping healthy mentally in your later years; a mind that is still learning and active is less prone to dementia and (especially close to me) depression. Maybe even if nobody reads this blog, at least it will keep my brain ticking over, trying to find the right turn of phrase to capture what's going on between my ears.

On knitters' podcasts. I have trialed about 5 different knitting podcasts over the past 2 months and I am sorry to report that only one (Brenda's) is worth regular listening. Most of the others are either full of random thoughts like "I knit a red hat. I don't know who I'm going to give it to." or hysterical giggling at in-jokes that the rest of the world doesn't get. Or noises off the microphone that either prompt a long explanation or something disrupting the course of the podcast. Don't these people have notes before hand so they know what they are going to talk about? If they lose their place or get interrupted, can't they pause the recording and perhaps rerecord the bit where they fumbled around looking for the notes? Maybe it irks me (one of my favourite MIL expressions) because I used to do a lot of public speaking in my previous job and I learned to speak in complete sentences, to enunciate, and to talk at a speed and volume that were easy for people to hear and understand. People who do podcasts should learn to do the same things. I toyed with the idea of doing a podcast that was less cutesy and perhaps more witty and definitely more on-topic but I'm not sure what I'd cover that isn't in my blog already. (and as a naturalized Australian, I get annoyed when people in the US find our vocabulary in some way cute or even worth calling attention to in any way; the worst side of Americans is implying if not outright declaring that the American way is "right" and all others are quaint or wrong. Somewhere along the line I have morphed from being seen as a tourist into being treated as a permanent resident since I am no longer asked how long I'm here for, but instead how many years I've lived here) I am cutting back on the podcasts I listen to and want to listen to more music.

I made the third batch of berry jam today and this time I tried it by the seat of the pants method with bulk pectin and a guess at proportions. I am following the knitting tradtion that ignores all the yarn manufacturers warnings printed on patterns that if you use any yarn but that specified "your results may be unsatisfactory." When I first started knitting that instruction terrified me, especialy because I have a lot of old knitting patterns for yarns no longer made. Now that I have handspun I know that you are your own designer and anything goes. My first project involving hand spun is one the inkle loom as pictured on the right. While I know it's nothing special, it's all mine, from raw fleece to spun yarn to dyed and now woven. The colours are an interesting mix and nothing at all like what I was aiming at but they work, I think. I have only woven about 8" of a rather long warp and I have lots more yarn dyed. As I said earlier, I intend to weave enough to make a tote-style bag. English Leicester has such a luster it almost glows but is definitely high on the prickle factor so I might add some leather to the handles, and will definitely line it as anything sharp would poke a hole in it. The inkle loom is C-clamped to a little rolling kitchen work table with a ceramic tile top, one small drawer and wire baskets below full of crochet cotton at the moment.

One of the great frustrations in my life healthwise is forcing myself not to do things I want to do. I made jam this morning, which involved standing a bit. I would like to put the ornaments on the tree but that also invoves standing and if I did that my legs would be useless (i.e., in great pain) for at least one day. So I force myself to sit down, do computer stuff, weave a bit, watch things I've taped from the past month of TV, etc. It is also cool and damp today (it rained last night) and would be an excellent time to do gardening stuff but that's standing work too (I can't kneel). There is still the whiff of smoke in the air and things look bad in eastern Victoria. I keep thinking of that for our potential rural lifestyle.

ARGH. Headache, legs ache, generally want to retreat to my bed but even lying in bed makes different places (my back) hurt after a while. I managed to get the Christmas tree up and lights and garlands on yesterday but haven't got any ornaments on. The Imp only tried to eat the tree, but that's not unusual. I have to go pick up my new contact lenses so maybe after that. Missed another day at work but have accumulated flex time to cover. Just trying to focus my eyes hurts.

After a few quite cool days it's hot again. I must sit down with the Bear and prepare an emergency escape package during fire season so I don't have to think about that if we do get a scare. I made 2 batches of mixed berry jam, one with reduced sugar. It set but tastes different. More like fresh berries and less sweet? Hard to put my finger (or tongue) on what's different.

I finished one sleeve on J's cardie and one of the Bear's grey socks and have cast on the second. I've woven about 6" on the inkle loom and am somewhat satisfied with the results. I won the sash book on ebay so I expect some new ideas. The current project is the first almost serious inkling--that is,not just playing to see how it works. Since warp and weft are equal in weight it's not really warp faced weave but the colours are nice. Photos to follow.

This is what the Imp looks like when it's 35C (ca. 95F) as it was yesterday afternoon. The air was full of smoke from a bushfire 50 kms to the west. Then a front went through and at midday (noon) today it is by my thermometer 14F or about 54C and I'm wondering if I need to put on a heavier top or just keep cuddling the Imp who is curled up on my left arm purring. The limas were loving the hot weather and they are probably are wondering what happened to the sun.

The only knitting news to report is that I am de-stashing my books and have been ruthless in getting rid of those I know I won't use or have enough info in other books that I use frequently. They are all up on ebay (Australia). I have bought some bits & pieces of Noro on ebay to knit one ore more one-ball Noro hats. I love the colours and fibre blends of Noro but it just costs too much to knit an entire garment out of it. I am down to the toe of the first of the Bear's grey socks and am reinforcing the toes with nylon in addition to the nylon in the yarn.

More progress on cleaning out the *stuff* infesting the house. Any step is a step in the right direction. Because of the $$ involved with my eyes I will not be tracking down plasterers any more till after the holidays. The Bear bought his own Christmas present of an iPod nano. It's tres cute and electric blue. But it's so tiny I would surely lose it. Mine is an "old" 30G. and it's not half full!

Came home a little early because of developing headache. Not sure whether it's eyes or a morning spent on authority work. After I eat I will lie down.

Rules for people with kerataconus: Make good friends with a reliable optician/optometrist, one who is not terrified that you have a corneal irregularity or frightened of fitting RGP (rigid gas permeable) lenses on a graft. There are a lot of optometrists who would rather deal in fashion lenses (and charge accordingly) and can't believe how frequently your vision changes. When I was first diagnosed, the ophthalmologist I was seeing at time once practically refused to fit me with lenses because my eyes would be changing. So, you are going to leave me really visually impaired just because I'll need new lenses in 6 months? Make good friends also with an ophthalmologist/eye surgeon for the same reasons. Some surgeons are more comfortable dealing with cataracts and glaucoma and even eye injuries but kerataconus may be something they studied in eye-doctor-school but can be reluctant to do the sometimes radical things to your eyes. The doctor I was referred to when I got to Australia freaked when he detected a blood vessel approaching the graft. If the vessel reached the graft the cornea could be rejected and I'd have to get a new graft. He then told me two things I found out later were false. There was a SEVEN YEAR waiting list for corneas and once you rejected one the powers that dispense the corneas would be reluctant to give you another. So he told me to take the lens I had out of the offending eye and never wear a lens in that eye again, thereby causing me to be essentially blind in one eye. I asked for a second opinion and he sent me not to another doctor in Canberra but to Sydney, where that doctor only confirmed what I believed and that it was safe to wear lenses once the irritation that had caused the original problem had subsided. Back in Canberra the quack (my term of endearment for this Dr.) removed all the stitches from my graft in one session without anesthetic and sent me on my way. Ow is a very large understatement. Fortunately the Library was offering free eye check-ups for anyone doing computer-based work and I went to a different optometrist. When I saw on their list of specialties kerataconus I practically danced for joy. Now I have my eyes monitored and trust them completely and they referred me to a different eye surgeon who is fantastic.

Why am I going on about this today? I have been noticing some deterioration in my vision, both distance and close. I wear reading glasses for close work and the lenses seemed out of sync; what was clear at X inches for one eye was not clear for the other eye at the same distance. So I saw said wonderful optometrist today and I was not losing my mind (one of the things that has made me depressed is straining to see) and my vision has changed and I need new contacts and new glasses. So I'm looking at probably $1200 in eye stuff soon. I will be getting new lenses made by Nikon on my glasses that are sort of bifocals in that they grade from looking straight ahead at a computer screen to a stronger grade if I'm looking down to read (or knit). It will mean going back to wearing full size glasses for a lot of what I do at the Library and perhaps at home too. While I've hated wearing glasses for eons, I hate not being able to see worse. One of the many things I resent about my father's tight purse is that he deemed contact lenses for me as too expensive and I later found out that my eyes probably would not have deteriorated so fast had I been wearing contacts from an earlier age (they were one of the first things I bought when I had a real job). Penny wise, pound foolish.

Hot and dry again. All normal TV has left the screen for the silly season, where we get bad American shows that were cancelled or snippets of good ones or other unwatchable things. So I have been watching Bangkok Hilton which was a mini-series Nicole Kidman did when she was very young, and Season 6 of Gilmore Girls which might get shown here, except they stopped showing it in the middle of the 5th season last summer so who knows what they'll do this year. Foxtel has just added the Scifi Channel so there's lots to watch there. I saw the very first episode of the X Files last week. I am not a fan but it was kinda amusing to the the two before they really knew each other. I was quite cheery at work yesterday due entirely to loading Cheap Trick and Def Leppard onto the iPod and I came home and loaded all the remaining Def Leppard. Some reviewer once called them "the thinking person's heavy metal band" and I must agree. I was dancing in the stacks.

I have been totally negligent about my blog. On the one hand there is very little new stuff to post about. I am knitting grey socks for the Bear, J's cardigan, spinning Dragon hair, not inkle weaving. As well, I have been driven nuts by the black dog for a week. For those of you who had not heard this euphemism before (and I hadn't before I came to Oz), I have been depressed. But enough about me! This blog is supposed to be about.... me? I have no reason to be depressed bar the usual. Pain, mess, barking dogs, noisy neighbours (why do the girls next door have to converse at such a volume after I've told them already I can hear every word they say since their living room window is 3 meters from my bedroom window?). The nice couple across the street had a screaming fight (not the first) Friday evening with much yelling of the F word at the tops of their voices in the front yard, each telling the other to leave the house, ending with him throwing stuff in the ute and driving off followed by her playing some dreadful hip--hop type music so loud it set up a sonic vibration making their windows rattle. And all of this with 2 (3?) small children at home. I made nominal progress in our house, with the hedgetrimmer having left the building finally. I have been unable to find a plasterer yet as they either don't return messages, say they will call but don't, or say it's too far for them to drive. Canberra is not that big, folks. Why do people advertise if they don't want the work? Can I ask the newspaper to pull the ad because they don't really mean "no job too small"? And blaming it on Christmas when it's the first of the month is absurd.

Anything new? I have lima beans sprouted! I laid a new drip hose last night as the old one had spuing a leak and discovered limas. Wrestling a hose which has spent its formative months coiled in a circle to lie flat is not fun for me or the hose. We are due to go on more stringent water restrictions in a week or so because it hasn't rained, but drip systems are allowed. The possums have been eating my strawberries. They do not eat the other berries and I made the first batch of mixed berry jam on Sunday. I planted a miniature watermelon pair (yellow and orange) in the spot of the garden that has killed 4 different melon plants despite careful watering. I won't be sad if nothing becomes a melon but it's a waste of a great spot. I'll plant some silverbeet (swiss chard) there later in the season.

I plied the grey wool from the spotted fleece and got a bit short of a full (big) bobbin's worth. I want to spin more and knit less but J's cardigan is first priority followed by the grey socks. I am continuing to card the grey fluff and when I asked about how to get a more homogeneous batt was given the advice to flick card first before drum carding. Well, the result are much more satisfying but its's adding another whole laayer of work to the process and showing me how much short fibre is in this wool ( A LOT ) and I am again cursing myself for having invested so much effort already in this fleece when it should probably been composted. But the good fibre is silky and shiney and very soft. It's just the finding of the good wool....

I have bid on a book on ebay of Latvian sashes. In Latvian. I've seen some of the cotents of this book and I figure it will translate to the inkle loom. The last time this book was up nobody bid on it so maybe I'll end up with a totally useless bit of weaving junk. See how cheery I am?