Photo A Day January 1st, 2011

So, around here, one thing we are happy to promote in the kids, is a love of reading. Both myself and the MacBeast love to read, and what this picture represents is the haul of books from this christmas alone, for all four members of our family. It also represents what all four of us have spent a lot of time doing over the last week, and will most likely spend a lot of time doing throughout the year, too. It seemed fitting to have this as the first picture of the year. 

When it gets to the first day of 2012 and I go 'where did the year go, and why didn't I get as much done as I thought I would?' someone direct me to this picture. 

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Unwrapped, to wrap it up.

Well another Christmas, and another year, is now over. It's been, to put it mildly, a bastard of a year. Quite a few good and amazing things happenned. 

And quite a few shocking and downright nasty things happenned, and much of it took a toll on us. BUT - we are still here, we are still going strong, and we've just come through a decent christmas and fantastic New Years Eve. 

While many people do a photo collage of all the things they knit for the year, that is a bit much for me at the moment given I embark on the new year clean out, clean up today. Instead I will re-cap Christmas and show the few latest things. 

Every christmas Big Mac and I attempt to make hampers of home made goodies for our parents, siblings and as many of our friends as we can manage. This year was no exception. Included was Christmas tree Bark (thanks to Jade for the recipe), Crostoli, Lemon Cinnamon Shortbreads, Maple - chilli roasted nuts, Peanut butter balls, but my favourite inclusion was the Cherry and Apple Jam we made. 

It was made from organic split cherries which we bought from a local orchard - they were the tastiest cherries I have ever eaten, and true to form, made the tastiest jam, too. I'm really rather glad we have another two big jars of it sitting in the cupboard for ourselves. 

Also this christmas, I knit some things. (I know - surprise! right?) In fact, in the month and a half leading up to christmas, I managed to knock over two shawls and a pair of socks. Granted, the socks were finished in the car on the way down to my parents, and I don't have photo's of them because of that, but trust me. They got done. 

The first Shawl finished and off the needles was for my MIL (mother in law). It is knit from Zauberball yarn which is soft and single spun, with a slow colour change. The shawl pattern is called 'Shaelyn'. 

and just for a better idea of the colours

The second shawl, completed and blocked JUST in the nick of time, was for my mum. It's knit from Mayhem and Chaos Silk Lace, in the colourway 'Tusk'. 

The pattern is the Shetland Lace Triangle, which I have been meaning to do for a while, but have only just got around to. 

It's beautiful and silky and drapey and she just loved it. So strangle to hold something in your hands that encompasses your shoulders, but is so light, it is barely there. 

All up, a big christmas was had, with us crossing from one side of the state to the other over the course of week. We ere home in time to ring in the new year with friends, which was a blast for all of us. We look into the rest of this year interested to see what it brings!

And later, I will be back with the first photo-a-day for the month of January, to ring in the New Year. I'd like to say I will do a photo a day for a whole year, but I think I will just content myself with January as a goal. To start with at least. 

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Beginnings and endings.

So... to re-cap. I've been quiet a while. There have been reasons. Plenty of them. 

But, right now, here is where we are at: Master Mayhem has now turned FIVE. Unbelievable. Tomorrow, Miss Chaos turns FOUR. To me, this is even more unbelievable. 

We around here will be heading into summer at the end of this month. To feel the weather around, you wouldn't know it. It has been the mildest, coolest Spring season I remember. Also the wettest. I am hoping this translates to a mild summer also, as me and baking heat don't go so well. I'd be happy for the spring season to hang around a lot longer, with it's yummy smells, pretty flowers and all creatures.. well. Doing what they do this time of year.

Including me. 

Which brings me to the real reason there has been so little knitting or blog updating, or spinning, and the real reason why the thought of a searing hot summer fills me with dread. The wee Mayhem and Chaos family is growing it seems, and we are due to have a new addition joining the household in mid-May of 2011. For my own part I've spent the last 3-4 months mostly feeling insanely ill, and all knit and spin mojo exited the building. A few weeks ago I started feeling better, and began knitting again only to come down with a headcold. Which then turned into strep throat. And then morphed into headcold with strep throat and an upper respitory tract infection. Yay me. 

I was at my lowest point on Thursday when my diet for the day consisted entirely of iced water, and salty tears of self pity. By Friday I had begun to progress through the liquids - Iced Water - warm tea - soft drink - hot tea - soup. Saturday I progressed to those food forms which can be reasonably classified as 'goo'. Custard, jelly, yogo and ice cream. By last night I was proud of my progress to the level of 'mush' which is where I remain today. Pasta and mashed potato are my friends right now. This illness is a doozy and i think it will be at least another week before I am feeling right again, but I am taking it easy and resting up, per doctors orders. This is evidenced by the fact I am in bed, with my laptop, and don't particularly feel like leaving.  

I do have a finished object to show though, one measly one throughout all this. This is a 'Peasant Shawl' knit from Ixchel fibres BFL/Bunny sock yarn. 

It turned out to be an enjoyable, relatively quick little knit in the end, and is the start of the silly season knitting.  This little shawlette is destined to go as a gift for the kindergarten teacher who has taught Miss Chaos 3 year old kinder this year, and Master Mayhem 3 year old kinder last year. Her assistance has been invaluable throughout everything, and given that next year Miss Chaos leaves her care to step up to four year old kinder, I wanted to do something special to show our appreciation. I hope she likes it as i felt the colours were entirely up her alley. 

And so it begins. From here on out until the 25th of December there will be knitting, there will be baking, there will be hamper making and shopping. After christmas will see the shop ramp up again in a big way, with loads more updates, base yarns, fun times. I've loads of ideas! I actually really put my all into enjoying christmas and making it enjoyable for the kids too. Many more pictures of pretties and tasties and quirky links to follow for your madness and pleasure. I'll also post the recipe for my super awesome nuts :p

In the meantime though, I'd like to know - do you have a recipe which you would love to receive in a christmas hamper? In the past I've tried for a mix of Savoury and sweet nibblies, nicely packaged in cellophane bags and divvied up among family member so that everyone gets a bit of everything. If you were making one of those hampers to give as a gift, do you have a recipe to share which you would make? I'd love to see them :) I'll show you mine if you show me yours. 

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Old, new and so much more than blue..

So, we have finally finished moving, and cleaning up after ourselves. We are 95% unpacked and organised, and it is a relief to have a place that feels like home again. Of course over this weekend just gone, most of the state of Victoria has seen a LOT of rainfall. There's been flooding in and around Bendigo, and parts of Shepparton and Wangaratta are on evacuation watch due to rivers having burst their banks. 

The rain, when it came was relentless, ferocious, and dare I say it, impressive! We have a lovely balcony at our new house which gives me a sheltered view night and day of a fair bit of Bendigo. It's a really nice place to sit and watch the goings on of the street, and also a nice place to sit and watch the rain - if a little deafening given the tin roof, common of houses this age. 

The old house is not entirely filled with new things though. I may have mentioned it before but I LOVE alot of things that are old or quirky. I love to take old things and make them new again through re purposing of giving them some love! Or just finding some things that are just in need of someone to appreciate them. 

This is my little teacup collection, and some old glass jars (with proper cork toppers!) that are brightening up the mantelpiece in the lounge with a splash of colour. Yellow, red and orange were all gotten from the local opshop (or thrift store / charity shop for overseas readers :p  Hi Sarah! ~waves~) as a set for 7 dollars. The green one is not old at all, but is part of the Turkish Delight collection from T2, that BigMac bought me for christmas last year. The three small jars though, are rather special. All three of them I found while cleaning out mum and dad's pantry, and I am told they belonged to my great grandmother. I've been carting them about from house to house since I got them, though normally I put them on a windowsill to catch the light. 

Clearly after setting that up I was in need of some more colour. I had been working on some new pants for Miss Chaos that were destined to be the subject of this particular blog. However the pattern and I disagreed and in an uncharecteristic show of obedience, i did what the pattern said. FAIL. Stupid pattern. Result, unwearable pants. To make myself feel a bit better I pulled out a different pattern, the Bettsy Kingston Market Skirt (link to where I bought it, too!). I yanked out some fabric I bought from a season clearance at Spotlight a while back, and got funky with some bright colour. 

The result is a bright, funky skirt that should fit Miss Chaos through this Spring, Summer and well into next Winter too. In under an hour, no less. 

As an added bonus, I made it so that it is completely reversible (bonus as she can be a little bit messy). I reccomend the pattern! A line skirts are not exactly rocket science, but for the cost of this pattern, it has a size range from a baby girls size 1, right up to a ladies size 18. Yay for versatility! One for me, next. 

She likes it anyways! I think it looks super cute. 

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A Moo of Cow(L)s

So - the move is done. Mostly. There's still cleaning to be done, unpacking to be done, the usual detritus. But everything that must be moved across, has been. 

Funny thing about moving though. It always costs a lot more than you think it will. It always takes more time than you think it will. And there is always a lot more effort involved than you think there will be. 

Also, there's always hiccups along the way. Like Telstra. Oh yes. Let's not even go there, shall we?

So I can now share a couple of finished items, one of which was a gift I couldn't share earlier. 

A friend of mine proposed a 'sad mothers swap'. No deadlines, no massive budget, just a nice simple knitted item swap for those of us who have difficulty being involved in more traditional swaps because of strict deadlines that are often interfered with by the uh.. little people in life. 

I had some handspun singles of some Merino/Rose fibre, dyed by Mandie at Ewe Give Me The Knits. 

Heavenly soft, this stuff is just gorgeous, and being single spun it spun up into lovely, definitive stripes. Also being single spun means much more yardage out of one braid. 

I knit it up into a feather and fan cowl, and some Veyla inspired mitts. 

Cowls are one of my favourite things to knit. They are quick, can be textured, plain, lacey - you name it. With buttons, or without. Unlike a scarf, you can fold 'em up and stuff em in your back pocket. They are easy on and off for the constant shifts in temperature we enjoy around here. and you can make them snug, or loose, and if they are loose you can fold them over and secure with a shawl pin or a brooch or even a badge if you feel the need for a bit of extra warmth that day.

So I made another one. For me. 

It rarely happens that I see fibre and know exactly what it wants to be. But this one did. 

Purchased from Charly of Ixchel yarns and fibres at Bendigo sheep and wool was this wee 50g braid of Merino/Cashmere/Angora.

Which got spun up into 150 metres of 3 ply / Fingering weight yarn a couple of updates back. 

And has since become another feather and fan cowl, for me. 

Both cowls used pretty much the same pattern, but the first I knit on smaller needles, and threw a garter stitch round in there to take advantage of the stripey goodness. 

I love this shawl pin. You might have to tilt your head but it's a treble clef. 

Both cowls made with handspun, slight variant on the same pattern, both super warm and very soft. 

I like living in my tactile world, wherever it may be based. 

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Of Shawls and Spring and OpShopping

Everywhere around the place, bulbs are pushing their heads out of the ground, wattle trees are a riot of golden colour and cherry blossoms look like small pink and white firecrackers, going off with a fizz and a bang on the side of the road. Nature would have us believe it is spring, and in a week, the calendar would have us believing it too. 

I call bullshit. If you were in or around where I live today, that would seem pretty hard to swallow! I doubt it reached double digits in the temps all day long, it poured with rain and even after being in front of the heater for hours now - I still feel like I've barely begun to defrost. 

Today was spent starting to take the first (second, third and fourth) of many small loads of stuff over to the new house. So this may explain the frozen feelings. There was a nice interlude though, where I got to give a friend of mine a gift, someone who has been so amazing and supportive over the last 9 weeks or so of hell. 

For Lisa, in a riot of bright colour is this Multnomah shawlette. 

It is knit from Zauberball 'crazy' yarn, that I managed to score when I went down to the craft show at Jeff's Shed. 

It hasn't taken long to knit, is nice and warm, and the striping of the long colour repeats is so effective!

The main thing is that she seemed to like it though, and thats what it's all about :)

I also managed a score of my own the other day on a visit to the opshop. I was trying to find bench stools, and while I didn't find any, what I did find was a few metres of a really nice charcoal jersey fabric, and a pattern I quite like which the jersey will be perfect for. 

All for the princely sum of 4 bucks. Bargain!

I love me some opshopping and re purposing. 

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The House Of Mouse

Hi. 

My name is Cinder. I belong to a small Mister Mayhem. I was going to be named 'Arthur' but it was pointed out that I was, actually a girl. So he changed his mind and named me Cinder. As in, 'Like Cinderella Mum, duh'. 

Of the three mice that live here in our little cagey house, I am the smallest, the fastest, the darkest, and the most daring and brave too. When the dog got a little too close and tried to poke her face into the cage, I nibbled her nose. She won't be doing that again in a hurry. 

Also, because I am so small, I often get beat on by my other two sisters. We all live together. Ninja is a bossy so and so, and she nibbled my ear. Not cool, man. 

Hey! 

my name is Star, and I belong to Miss Chaos. Of the three of us, I am the most timid and easily frightened. But I have my own bag of tricks. I like to climb onto the sides of our cage, and sliiiide all the way down to the bottom. Occasionally I like to sleep on the roof of our little house too. It's a bit odd, but I like it. I'm the medium sized mouse within the three of us. I'm also a bit of a trickster. I like to get a laugh by waiting till Ninja is going flat out on the wheel, then I stop it with a paw, and watch her go shooting out the side of it. Ha!

Hello. 

I'm Ninja, and I belong to the writer of this particular blog. I'm the biggest mouse here, so don't forget that yeah? There's a definite pecking order that needs to be followed. My hobbies include sleeping, beating on my sisters occasionally, and I love the wheel. It's my wheel. I use it the most, I get it going the fastest - therefore - mine. 

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It's funny. We spent nearly a year reading Miss Chaos's favourite book 'Shh Little Mouse' I never thought of getting mice till we visited someone who had three of them in a cage. Then the kids wouldn't shut up about getting them. So we did, but I never for a moment thought they would be as.. interactive.. or downright amusing as they are. I could watch them for hours, living out their mousey little lives within the cage. They have squeaky little arguments with each other, they fight, they play tricks on one another, and they curl up and sleep all huddled together, tails wrapped around each other. 

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In other news, we picked up the keys to our new home today, and we start to move the smaller things across tomorrow, so that should be good. I also went to the GP this morning to find I have 5 infected spider bites on my back. I'm unimpressed, but would certainly explain why I have been feeling so craptacular. 

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I should have more purdy pictures soon. A couple of gifts for friends, one crazy colourful, the other muted and elegant, and a cowl for myself made out of the squishy green softness handspun in my previous post. Cast on last night, finished tonight. Hows THAT for a speedy little knit!?

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