Witty knitter

Knitting in 2011

People are putting up cute photo montages of their 2011 knitting. I can't be bothered working out how to do that, but here's my list of knitting completed in 2011 (15 items):

8 cardigans

2 scarves/neckpieces

2 prs of socks

2 hats

1 shawl

Interestingly, in 2010 it was 16 items but with a different balance:

4 shawls

3 scarves

2 pr socks

2 cardigans

1 adult jumper

1 vest

1 adult and 1 baby hat

1 baby jumper

I appear to be over my shawl flu, but I've contracted the cardigan cold.

 

Plus ca change...

In a couple of days it will be eight years since I started this blog. It has brought me some great adventures and new friends, and it has acted as a repository for my memories. I sometimes go back through it to look things up, and get lost reading my own adventures. (Tell me - is this weird? Or maybe I'd rather not know...)

Since I entered the most concentrated phase of my PhD work in the last couple of years I haven't blogged as much. My mind, you could say, is elsewhere. And I have been remiss - I promised pictures of your recent trip to NZ but didn't post them. I may get to this in the next few days because for the next four weeks I am a full-time PhD student. WHich means, of course, that procrastination will be my middle name. (Seriously? No. I have to get this thesis knocked into order and get it OUT OF MY LIFE! There will be NO PROCRASTINATION!)

Over this Christmas break both Sandra and I have been sewing, something I always enjoy greatly but don't ever seem to find the time for. We picked up some cotton fabric bargains in NZ, and have recently disovered a couple of fabric shops in Sydney. I have enjoyed the satisfaction of making something so much that I intend to it more regularly. I will post later with some details of what I've been making. Actually, I see that the second post I ever made on this blog was about sewing - the curtains I made for this house. Gosh, the house looks different now - here's a pic I took today. No electricity meter on the front, more decoration on the verandha, fence and gate have gone, steps are wider and not as steep.

Sadly, Sandra had to go to Brisbane a couple of days ago. Her mother (now aged 90) has fallen, and is in hospital with a gashed leg. As we have just had Christmas at home for the first time in three years (Sandra's brother did the Christmas visit for the first time) I can't begrudge her mother the time, of course, but it is hard. We were having such a lovely time, sewing and reading and cooking together, and had simple but important plans for New Year's Eve. (And, from an early entry on my blog, I also see that when I was about to have cataract surgery in 2004 an emergency required Sandra to attend her mother on the same day... and then there was my emergency achilles surgery surgery in 2007 a week after which... never mind.)

We're on holiday!

At the end of last week we flew to New Zealand and spent a couple of days in Petone, near Wellington. It's an interesting suburb on the Northern side of Wellington Harbour. It was once the home of several smelly industries that discharged their waste straight into the lower parts of the Hutt River, the Korokoro stream, and even directly into the harbour itself - a freezing works, soap factories, a battery manufacturer, a manufacturer of chlorine bleach... All of those industries are now gone or are operating in a much cleaner fashion, and the local area has become a much more desirable place to live. I loved there in 1987 and since then it has become much prettier - the mainly wooden houses are being brought back to life and the transport options to the city are much better - buses with wifi! (Sydney, take note.) It's commuter heaven: right on the water, low-rise and attractive, and a short bus or train ride along the harbour to work.

The motel was small but spotless, and the cafes on the main drag are really amazing. (BTW, we haven't had a bad cup of coffee since we arrived: kiwi cafe culture is grand, beginning with steak sandwiches in Hataitai when we arrived - Real Steak!), Best of all, Petone has the Holland Rd Yarn Company, where several skeins of Tash's hand-dyed yarn found their way into our bags. And two skeins of Fybrespates from the UK, which we didn't even see in the UK, grabbed Sandra's hand and forced her to shove it into her bag.

Then we travelled through the Wairarapa (another favourite cafe in Greytown, the Greytown Deli and Cafe), and had a coffee with James and Ian in Masterton. We've been in a hotel in Palmerston North for a couple of nights, but Sandra has flown to Auckland for a conference this morning. My daughter Lizzie and her daughters will pick me up in an hour or so and I'll spend a few days with them before I fly to Auckland to join Sandra. We've had two amazing breakfasts, one in Cafe Cuba and one in Barista - I lived in Palmie from 1991 until 1998, and it's good to know that the best cafes are still in business and still operating to a high standard.

We also found a fabric shop yesterday where cotton prints are presently $8 a metre. As I'm planning a sewing binge over Christmas, this was very exciting. I bought the ends of several rolls.

I'll post later with some photos from Lizzie's garden, and more adventures. Tomorrow I'm planning lunch with the lovely Deborah. Squeee!

 

Yarn shopping in the 21st century

Although there aren't a lot of bricks-and-mortar yarn stores in Sydney, and those there are don't have a huge range of stock (which is to expected, given the size of the knitting market here), it shouldn't be that difficult to get yarn. There are thousands of yarn stores on the knitternet. You see a yarn you like, you get online and order it. It should zoom into your postbox days to weeks later, no sweat. But complications, it seems, abound.

I have been on the hunt for replacement yarns for my Transatlantic shawl (see last post). It's been so much admired and complements my wardrobe so well that I want another the same. The green was easy; the multi-coloured one not so easy. It is, in the way of yarn, discontinued - which is probably why I had been able to get it on special about a year ago. I put in an order for a skein from the only US shop that claimed to have it, only to awaken the next morning to an email telling me that they had lied and didn't actually have it in stock, wouldn't be getting it in stock, and had therefore cancelled my order.

But the magic that is ravelry has come through for me again. A sweet woman in Florida had some in her stash that she didn't want, and sold it to me for a very reasonable price, with minimum postage - the whole thing cost about half what it would have cost from the store that didn't stock it. So I will be able to make another shawl for next winter. And of course, serendipitously, I had in the meantime bought another skein in the wrong colour (well, it's hard to tell online exactly what colour variegated yarns are, and of course I'd lost the tag, so I had to guess. Good story, huh?). It's the most wonderful toffee caramel butterscotch colour - oh here, let me show you - and it sits quite beautifully with the precious deeply saturated orange skein of Collinette Jitterbug that Emily and Clare gave me for my 60th. Precious, because, in the way of yarns, the recent batches of this colour are about half the saturation and not nearly as lovely. I know this because I excitedly ordered more from Sarah Durrant, only to be disappointed when they arrived with a note from her apologising for the wishy-washy colours, and offering to take them back if they didn't suit. So I returned them, thinking the universe was telling me that I didn't need a deep orange cardigan anyway.

Where was I? Oh, yes, the toffee/caramel/butterscoth skein? Perfect with the orange. So another Stephen West shawl in the future.

I find it interesting that everything appears to be so easily available on the internet - just a click or two away - and yet, often we return to the old community mores of helping each other out, just on an international scale and with strangers. Is it that we can't bear to not have something, so we have to go scrounging for it?

Sandra is away this week - her mother in Brisbane is celebrating her 90th birthday in good health, and Sandra is helping out, ferrying her around, taking her out for lunches with her friends and making up for the fact that we will be spending Christmas here in Sydney for the first time in three years. Her mother has made other plans this year, involving Sandra's brother - she's not entirely happy about that but she'll survive. We haven't quite got our heads round it yet, but if you're going to be in Sydney over Christmas we are hoping to have a few barbeque events. Once we've bought a barbeque.

Careless... so sad

My lovely Transatlantic shawl has gone. It wouldn't fit into my bag last night, so I tied it jauntily to the handle and stepped out smartly for a 20-minute walk across campus, where I met Sandra at Officeworks and bought a new monitor before we drove home. At some point the scarf became detached from the bag un-noticed by smartly-stepping me. I retraced my steps across campus this morning, reporting it in a few buildings as I went. I've reported it at Officeworks, and filled out a form at the Uni's Lost Property office, but I don't have much hope.

I hope I can get the yarns again. The colours were so perfect, and it has garnered many compliments. O me miserum!

Proof of life - knitting life

I offered to make cardigans for my granddaughters. They chose their own designs and colours: for Rebekah, a plain, stylish rusty brown and for Hannah a more colourful scadanavian-style yoked garment. I can't wait to see these girls in a few weeks. Their faces are changing so fast, and they are getting so tall! They both outgrew me in foot size a couple of years ago.

I have finished a lot of cardigans since we returned from Europe, and stripes are still a major theme. I've made the Ravelry pages pages public: here, here, here and here. (That last one really is that bright. I wear it with orange tights.) I made an odd little neck piece thing that feels really elegant. And I finished the Transatlantic Shawl. It is really lovely to wear; so soft and light.

Now I'm making another, lighter gardigan (but still striped!), and planning some more in cotton for summer. And I've blogged twice in a few days! Things are definitely looking up.

The slowly shrinking woman

Walking. That's the secret. Usually around 7000 steps a day, occasionally getting to over 10,000 and twice over 12,000. I do get to walk around the campus from time to time in my job, plus If I'm going out to buy a sandwich or coffee, I walk to the left around this track (the coffee shop is just a wee bit down on the right). This adds in about 1000 steps. Plus I park quite a distance away (another 3000 steps there and back). And I'm trying to eat smaller portions - the coffee shop sandwiches are really big, so I throw about 1/4 of them away. Most days I bring somehting from home, or buy a salad.

Result so far: over 5K down, which is about a third of my goal. If I get 2/3 of the way there I won't be unhappy. And I know I said I wouldn't mention any more health-related events, but the emergency root canal (yes, that does mean I have had two root canals in three months) was a doozy. Four visits and it's still not completed.

Yes, I am knitting. Photos when I can get to it.

I'm really working hard on my thesis at the moment. I'm taking all of January off paid work to get it under control, with the idea of submitting it in July 2012. So everything else in my life (except Sandra!) is taking a second place to that. Except - we are travelling to NZ for ten days in late November, to see family and friends, and a conference for Sandra. And I am taking two weeks off both work and thesis in December (until my thesis leave starts). And, the best news, once my thesis has been submitted we are planning a longish trip to the UK and Europe. Long-service leave for the win! But that's too far in the future to talk about yet.

Follow on from the sleep test

I saw the doctor this morning. I do have 'moderate' sleep apnoea. As I suspected, the restlessness in the second part of the night indicated that I was frequently stopping breathing and almost waking up as a result. I don't snore much.

However, none of my other health markers are a worry. My blood pressure is low, and although my cholesterol and blood sugar levels are above normal they are all lower than they were last year. The only thing that needs to change is my weight.

My weight has gone up a bit, and has stayed up, because of the trouble with my knees, which made it difficult to exercise. However, now that my knees are feeling much stronger and less painful I can walk, and get back in the pool. The doctor suggested 12,000 steps a day (eep!). This week I've generally done 5000, and one day I did 7000. So I need to try and build more into my routine.

In short, I don't need to use a CPAP machine, or a jaw-breaking oral insert. I need to lose weight.

And that will be the last health-related post from me for a long while, god willin' and the cricks doan' rise.

Sleep test is not fun

Sue hit that nail square on: sleep tests are not fun. It's like paying for a very expensive hotel (although Medicare does pick up quite a bit of that) and then discovering that it's very clean, but barely comfortable.

I got to sit in a very basic 'patients lounge' in which the TV didn't seem to have an ABC channel. There was fresh fruit, dip and crackers and tea or coffee. There were only two people in last night, and the other person didn't show him/herself, so I got to pick the channel. I found SBS and watched that for an hour or so, knitting away peacefully. Then I got into my jarmies and had a lot of leads attached. Two on each leg, two under each clavicle, two under my chin and an unknown number on my head - at least ten I think. All of these were taped to my face then up over and down behind my ears. Then straps around my belly and under my arms, with leads on the front to measure my respiration, and finally nose prongs with more leads. Each of these leads was plugged into a kind of peg board (with a strap so it could be hung off my neck when I needed to leave the bed to pee), which was then plugged into a wall unit.

I was then left to read until I wanted to turn out the light and sleep, which I did fairly quickly. Negotiating the leads when I went to pee was interesting; some of them hung round my feet, perhaps because I'm so short. Without glasses, in a strange bathroom, it was a challenge to get back to bed safely. The bed was very firm, which I'm used to, but wasn't very comfortable. Itb felt lumpy - I am so spoiled with our lovely wool matress topper. My hip ached quite a bit and the tooth that I'd had the root canal done in the night before was reminding me of its existence too. I popped a couple of panadol when I went to the loo, but didn't sleep as well after that - I had a lot of very vivid dreams. I'm not sure what that means but no doubt I'll find out next week when I see the doctor.

Today I'm at home, being a blob. I may nap in a bit. In the meantime I'll catch up on what was on the ABC last night.

 

Still alive

Despite being officially vintage and suffering from general decrepitude, I soldier on. My knee has been crappy. This is the knee above the achilles tendon snap of 2007 and the leg has never been exactly right since the accident. WIth intensive strapping, stretching osteopathic manipulations and carefully planned exercises it is feeling much stronger and, better still, is not painful.

A recent visit to my dentist, which, I'll admit was long overdue, resulted in a root canal, which was finished last night. They are such a pain; they take so many visits to do. The good news was my Health Insurance paid for more than half of it, and it didn't require a cap. But it's possible that another tooth will require a cap; I have to go back before Christmas for the final word on that.

And, worst of all, I may have sleep apnoea. Tonight I'm spending the night in a secure facility - as in, I will be secured by wires to the facility which will produce mysterious 'readings' of my sleep patterns. To reward myself, and because I'm expecting not to sleep much, I'm having a day off tomorrow. I'll tell you then how it went.

If you're wondering about the outcome of the sentencing matter we were talking about a month ago, just google Nora Zacardas for the local media's take on the final outcome. She will be in jail for a few months, and then on a good behaviour bond for 18 months after that. And the judge pronounced very very stronlyg on how much of a danger she poses to the community. She was taken straight from the courtroom to the prison.

See you tomorrow.