Knitting, Travel & Airport Security

We flew to Melbourne this past weekend to catch up with DS no1, his wife & our 4 year old GS-it's so nice to see them more often these days, without the long flight to London! They all seem to be settling in very well. GS can tell you where all the trams are going by the number & even remembered to tell me that on the weekend they ran a No.3 so we could get that is we missed the 96! Not sure what they'll teach him in school next year!

On the flight down I sat & knitted my socks on my small DPN"s without a hitch- no one said a thing. They cleared security with no problems & the knitting was sitting in the top of my bag so anyone could see it.

On the flight home our plane was delayed for take off & I sat & knitted again-many of the flight staff walked passed me without comment....then it only took one.....Excuse me, you can't knit on the plane. I'm not sure how you cleared security with them.....I'll have to confiscate them.

You can imagine my surprise as I'd been knitting for the previous 30 minutes & no one had commented, indeed I knitted around the USA & back to Oz from the USA & no one said I had a dangerous implement on board.

So take my knitting they did- to the Captain & Security meet me at the plane after we landed, walked me back out of the airport & handed me back my knitting! As most of the Flight Staff commented- not sure what I could do with them- I said- not even pick your teeth as they aren't sharp enough! looks like I'll be packing them on the next flights! Sure passes the time if I can knit.

While we were on St Kilda beach with the wild child one day we came across a group of Indigenous People dancing & someone taking a video of them- I snapped a few pics-not sure what it was all about.

I have completed the Lacewave socks & given them to Gemma-I think she was rather pleased to be a recipient of my knitted socks & now I've moved on to Embossed Leaves from the same book. I have completed 1 sock already & down on to the leg of the second-so well & truly underway with them.

Socks are so easy to knit-doesn't take long to get to the end of a needle & at 64 stitches all round -they knit up very quickly. The Wild Child has asked for matching socks to his fingerless mitts & beanie which he calls his rainbow lorikeet outfit!

DIL is wearing the socks I gave her for Christmas & is very pleased with them- I never thought in a million years I'd ever be knitting socks!

Ramblings of Mad Woman

My knitting has progressed well through the week. I have completed one of the socks of hideousness & am at the heel of the second one....perhaps I'll finish this one before we leave for Melbourne on Thursday morning.

We are off to visit with No 1 son & his family- namely the 4 year old GS. Apparently he has been throwing hissy fits & his parents are not amused-especially when he is out & does it. There is lots of advice on dealing with temper tantrums & small children & we do know they grow out of it-but at the time you'd like to give them away until they can be returned to you as reasonable young persons- about 25 years of age- give or take a few years!

Thankfully, none of ours were real hissy fitters-they may have thrown the odd one ,but it wasn't a regular occurrence- mine learnt pretty quick they never got their own way with me if they did resort to temper & tears. I also only fought the battles with them that were necessary- I never worried if they wanted to put a blue T shirt with the orange shorts- I let them pick their their own clothes from very early on-at least then they felt like they had some control over their own lives.

Lets face it, when rearing kids, by the time you know you stuffed it all up ,its too late! Some children should be born with an instruction manual- & not written in Chinglish either!

On the camera front, I wish I had never gone there. MOTH is getting very insistent that I buy a Sony- he even offered to buy me an A200 to see if I liked it or not-the more he pushes the more I want the Nikon D80-at this stage I'm not buying anything-I just can't stand the angst it is creating! I wonder what happened to free will in this family.....obviously not when buying a camera!

My sewing has been productive- I have written up the instructions for both my articles that are to be published, done the samples, photographed what I needed to & sent it to the editor! YEAH- even the articles are ready to be boxed & posted, hopefully tomorrow. Well before my deadline date.

DD dropped some fabric in this afternoon to make a slip for her to wear under a sheer top-that must have taken all of 45 minutes from drafting to finishing-only cost her $5 for the fabric a far cry from spending $45 to buy one.

As I was making this little slip up I was thinking that when I was her age we wore the sheer things without anything much underneath them ,funny how times have changed- we flaunted it all back in the day- these days it is better left hidden away- no one wants to see what I used to have any more! Lets face it- it isn't even where it used to be , anymore!! LOL

It would appear that many people are returning to sewing & crafting with the recession- great for all of us who have always done so & good for the businesses that sell the items- hopefully it will bring about a resurgence of crafting & sewing.

Until next timeOz-tralien

Flying Needles

During the week we changed areas at work. We do 3 months in one area & move on. This area I am now in will not go fast enough! Lynda, whom I follow at work, said the same thing!

One of my visits is eye drops.....3 times a day.....every day.....to be given 5 minutes apart.....and there are 6 of them.....sometimes 9...........it's very tedious, to say the least.

The first few days I suffered through Antique Road Show, I Love Lucy, Elliott Ness, M*A*S*H & Gunsmoke, willing the minutes to hurry by. This lady is blind & turns the TV up very LOUD.....she's not deaf at all, so I wonder why the TV has to be at full volume, perhaps to compensate for not having the visuals.

Larissa suggested I take my knitting in, to fill in time. What a brilliant woman she is! I've knitted a sock, the fingerless mittens to go with the hat & a bow tie scarf all this week! The 5 minutes between each drop is now flying & so are my needles & I'm not bored whit-less by the inane TV.

Knitting also is a conversation starter-my lady asks me each day what I'm up to , and how much more I've done.

Yesterday I went looking at new cameras. I like the Nikon D80. MOTH has been pushing me toward a Sony A350 because he has the A700 (& is coveting the A900) & he says we can share lenses. This sounds fine in theory but I have my doubts that it will work in practise. I also have to decide if I really want to start carrying around camera gear, as opposed to "a" camera.

This week I completed the red Ladder of Life socks for my GF's DH (scroll down to see pattern)-I'm sure he will love them & my GF will tell me not to encourage him!LOL

The bow tie scarf pattern was done with an odd ball I picked up at Spotlight. Patons Soft Haze in a very delicate pink. I knitted the scarf bit longer than the pattern as I found 12" choked me! The pattern is a free download from Ravelry.

Next were the fingerless mittens, to match the hat, all done in the wool I dyed with food colouring a couple of weeks back. I found these instructions difficult to follow- the mitts look like they should be longer to me-but hey, I have more yarn I'll try again with a different pattern!

Last night I started another pair of socks. What can I say- they are easy, very transportable & they knit up quickly. These ones are called Socks of Hideousness , have started these with some yarn I bought on EBay a few weeks ago.

I did start a shawl from my knitted lace of Estonia book, but felt I couldn't concentrate on the graph with the TV blaring & my lady talking to me!

Happy Crafting

Oz-tralien

Thanks for the Memories

Yesterday I went on my Redballoonday with Sydney Photographic Workshops.
This was a day that my family had paid for for as birthday present for me-it turned out to be a great gift!

What an excellent day I had.

My camera was by far the oldest & the least fancy- most of the group were sporting Cannon's with more lenses than a photographic shop & the professionals that took us!

We started out at lunchtime with harsh over head light & snapped all day until the sun had gone down & we had a lovely model, Annabelle, who posed for us & did the fire poise for us-spectacular on the darkened beach.

This is where my camera was limited as I don't have the shutter speeds like the full digital cameras, but I got a few decent shots off. The professional photographers were really great with me- trying different things to get the best from my camera & a lot of it is composition & the lighting-it might be nice to zoom in & get the fly on a nose, but at this stage I can live without it-I'm still not prepared to carry 6 KG of camera gear around with me when travelling!

MOTH had a look at my shots- declaring that he could do better & that a few of them were too postcard-y....but to me they are 100% on what I was taking 4 weeks ago! AND, lets face it- he would never say I took a better pic than he did!


La Perouse was an interesting place. I've lived in Sydney my whole life & never been there, that I can remember. It is obviously a popular venue for bridal photographers as there must have been at least 6-8 bridal parties there during the time we were there, all dressed in their finery, clambering across the rocks & rock pools. They, had at least removed stilettos for easy to manage thongs!

I came home exhausted & happy & had taken over 500 shots- this would never have happened back in the days of film- I'm also sun burnt!, but thankfully not too badly....

I'm sure a great day was had by all....and I may just go off & do a few more classes now!

Madly Snapping!

Week 3 of the photography class was last night. I am learning so much about my camera-let's hope its enough to get me by with the big cameras on Saturday, when I attend the Red Balloon day out with a professional photographer, for travel photography.

Each week in my basic digital photography class we have been given homework & not all of us produce the correct pics either! Last week I got the people pics right, but didn't get the night time, no flash one exactly how the teacher specified-all in the interpretation! Maybe I can do a better shot through the week.

No more pics on auto....lots on Program Mode & adjusting settings. I was surprised at the number in the class who had never turned their camera sideways to take a portrait shot! At least I had done that, many times.

We've taken pics without the flash, changed ISO's, changed the white balance, EV changes, learned about DOF & moved on to file types & sizes- boy have we covered some ground- the whole class has been great fun & informative & hopefully at the end of all of this I'll be taking much better photos! I find I am understanding my manual a whole lot better as well after doing the class.

I've added some pics to the blog, of a few I've taken over the past few weeks-let me know if they look any good or not! After all this time of having the camera I've finally figured out how to do a decent macro shot on it- the geranium buds are VERY small!

This last one was taken in the dark, with no flash,long shutter opening & no lights! Amazing- I did use a tripod!

Huskisson Triathlon

Only that our DD looks so much like her father, I would wonder these days if she had not been swapped at birth.

DD & her DH have taken up marathon & triathlon running. Our SIL has even competed in the gruelling Iron man event -saying to all that he hoped to complete the event in under 12 hours....12 HOURS!!!! can you imagine swimming, cycling & running for 12 hours straight? Not me- I get tired just thinking about it! (he completed it in 11:45)

DD & SIL have been in training for months-they tell me they have a 'down' time- I'm not sure when that was as they always seem to be running off to do squad training, cycle somewhere or 'just go for a 20 K run'.

DD even ran the legs off the dog & now she is no longer able to run with them-she said "I never ran her further than 10K!"-poor Ella, I bet she wishes she was adopted from the puppy pound by people less active!LOL

Anyway today was the Huskisson half iron man or long course triathlon- the weather was pretty well perfect- overcast, hardly any wind & just warm.

Only dedicated parents & followers would get up at 6am on a Sunday to go watch the start of the race- those less dedicated could lie in bed & get up at a more reasonable hour & just watch the ending.....but, no, we get up & gee them along at every stageIt amazes me the determination & guts of these competitors-you could see on the run section that a few had taken tumbles off bikes or had fallen while running- they were sporting bleeding knees, arms & even one poor fellow was running with a cut on his face! They just get up & keep on going! Or those that had cramps & were still trying to run with a hobble or a jumping motion, just so they could finish the race.....not me I'd have nearly drowned by the time I had to make it to the first buoy on the swim!

It was a great day & both of them did us proud.....and SIL tells us its only 6 more weeks to the Iron Man event this year- he's going back to do that one all over again!

Dye me a rainbow

Through the week I tried my hand at dyeing wool. To be more specific- dyeing with food colouring. How much fun was this & how addictive is it......I'm now looking at my yarn stash in a whole new light!

I scrummaged through my yarn stash & came up with some Cleckheaten 8ply wool I've had stashed for a good many years, in a winter white colour- just 2 balls & 2 smallish left overs, and, the hank of pure merino wool my MIL plied for me at least 22 years ago....still sitting in the stash- both perfect for the job!

Reading everything I could on how to attempt this new project-from here , here & here. These were all helpful, along with this one as well.

Armed with all my information I went shopping for a large container of white vinegar & some bigger bottles of food colouring- I bought 2 of each colour plus a rose pink & black for good measure- just the Queens brand in the supermarket. Scrounged around the $2 shops for clear squeez-ie containers but came home with sauce bottles- these were coloured (more on this later).

My technique was

1. soak for 30 minutes in warm water & a good slosh of vinegar,was maybe 1/3 vinegar to 2/3 water.

2. Squeeze out the excess soak ( I re bottled the water/vinegar mix to use again next time).

3. Mix food colouring, water & vinegar in the sauce bottles & pour onto the yarn that I had arranged on a tray & a microwave dish. I used the water/ vinegar in proportions that were suggested in the tutorials.

4.Microwave for 2 minutes, rest for 5 & repeat until I had zapped it for 10 minutes in total-the containers were covered in Gladwrap.

5. Leave it alone until it cools, although the desire to play with it & look at it is extremely strong when you first finish 'cooking' it.

6. Rinse in warm/cool water with a little detergent-squeeze it all through to get rid of any excess dye (there wasn't any in mine) & to get rid of the vinegar smell in it.


7. hang to dry & admire it every time you walk past it

8. Rope some poor sucker into holding hanks for you so you can ball it...many thanks to Grahame at work, who actually offered to do this for me

9. Accept all the wonderful comments that you will receive when you show everyone you can grab- even your non- crafty/arty-farty friends will be amazed.

10. Take pics.

What I found

All the tutorials on how to do this were very good & I took from each one & from my reading online what appealed to me most & did it as a combination of techniques.

The sauce bottles were hopeless as you can't really see the colour in them- I have purchased small popper bottles for $2.50 for 6, mine have apple juice in them & I figured even if they tasted terrible & I tipped them out, it was still cheaper than buying a plastic container of some sort.

I need to get more experience with mixing dyes to get the colour I really want- not just 'however they turn out'! My purple is nearly black & my orange is more a lime green- but hey! it's my first attempt & I'm sure a beanie for my GS out of the 8ply will be well loved!

Now I'm looking at the roving I've had stashed for years as well-this looks like it could be added to the dyepot as well.

Happy Crafting,

Pauline