Owl

Powerful Owl. As seen in Canberra and borrowed from the local abc radio website just for my Brown Owl pals!

Procrastinating lady on the Tour De France

Do you know the song that goes: 'Sophisticated lady...' made popular on the 'Come in Spinner' soundtrack? (I like the Ella Fitzgerald version, but I digress..)

My hubby likes to sing it to me with 'procrastinating lady...' as the words. He has witnessed my stellar ability to procrastinate for 14 years, and counting.

(See my Mixwit addition)

Last night in a moment of the above, I thought I'd get my Quickstitch wrist band done for the KAL. Super quick and easy, using stashed yarn. It was rather fun doing something silly like that! Anything to avoid Something Hard That Requires Concentration (my KAL project)...

Anyway, thanks to help from Bells who referred me to knittinghelp.com and to Madalyn who described an ssk perfectly to me, I am off and racing again on the lace pattern.

Since the race started on Sunday, I have already started another scarf (one can never have too many!) and my meterage for the World's Longest Scarf (Ravelry link). I think that if I get this green jersey it will be a miracle! Can King of the Mountain defer?

Anyway, one of the challenges by the organisers of the KAL is to link your project to France. Let me explain... National Lampoon's European Vacation makes me laugh. It shouldn't, it's a dreadful film. I just like the idea of the family winning Pig in a Poke (pig, piggle, very long bow...)
and having a painfully bad holiday. My experiences of France have been so different to this stereotypical view of the country!

I can link ANYTHING to France. Like in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, where the father can link any word to the original Greek etymology... (see how I digress, I cannot keep to the topic, let along one pattern!!)

So. Hubby and I spent a chunk of our honeymoon in France. I visited France in '96 doing my backpacking thing. "Forget Paris" and "French Kiss" are two of our favourite dvds to relax to. My French is poor and often confused for an Eastern European dialect. I love the IDEA of French food, but in reality balk at too much garlic.

I love France, the country, the people, the design, and try to keep travel memories alive by comparing things of the now to things there. I can therefore say that the piggle, for Miss 2, can be linked to France because SHE IS the embodiment of the cheeky Madeline in the books...
She says NON clearly and passionately. Her favourite colours are red, white and blue. She is oneday going to climb the Eiffel Tower and declare it a view worth the queue. She will marvel at the Musee d'orsay, the Musee d'orangerie, the cost of a baguette, have her portrait drawn in Montmarte, wonder why she never listened in French class when she needs to find the post office. She will go hungry so that she can buy a little black dress on the Champs Elysse, walk everywhere in lieu of the Metro, send her mother a postcard from Monet's Garden, sit for 3 hours in front of her favourite Van Gogh, talk to the gargoyles on Notre Dame. All of these things I wish for her in every stitch, and more. The piggle will always be as frustrating as asking for directions in Giverny, explaining that the flight was delayed 'a cause du broillard' (because of fog - spelling unknown!!), and as memorable as the dollhouse furniture in a hidden arcade in Paris.

Vive la tour!

Saved by the Bell!

Just going through the motions of shutting down the computer, and saw a lovely email from Bells who has offered me a personal tutorial on the lace pattern that has my knickers in a knot.

Knitters are indeed warm and wonderful people.

I may just get that Green Jersey after all!! However in retrospect I should have gone for the Polka Dot King of the Mountain!

This is... my most treasured childhood possession

Teacups in Treetops came up with this week's theme, and I love it. I seem to have become a little too lax regarding this meme, and so am making today's a priority.

Hildur was a gift from an old family friend who was I think the Managing Director of Toltoys (Aust), a toy company of the 1970s and 1980s. He showered us with toys when we visited him at his office in Little Collins Street in Town.

(We would train in, or tram on the old W-class, have a morning chocolate milkshake at the Myer cafe (underground - do you remember??), and get a rissole sandwich from the Coles Cafe. We would go to the office above a bank, and press 10th floor in the lift (it had a really distinct smell). Anyway...

She WAS white, fluffy, and adorable. (She's a rabbit!).

30-odd years later, she is grey, worn, bald in patches, and floppy, but for some reason she still lives with me.

The Great Cast ON (or over-ambitious project whinge 1)...

So I have been in bed since Friday morning when a revolting virus came to meet me. My immune system is totally gone to shit and I am totally sick of being sick! This time hubby has it also, and we are relying on the magnificent friends we have here to juggle the kids. The closest family are 700km away, so friends ARE family here.

As a result, no fabric sale for me! I was even meant to work there yesterday, but barely shifted from bed.

What I DID manage though, was to cast on for the Tour de France Knit Along (KAL), and miracle of miracles, I managed 6 rounds of rib in the round!! Yay me!!


So I then stopped as I had reached the hard bit. I am trying to decipher the abbreviations from knitty.com and transfer them to the needles.


I am lost when it comes to the lace pattern:
Lace rib (work in the round over a multiple of 5 sts):
Round 1: [p2, k2tog, yo, k1] to end
Rounds 2 & 4: [p2, k3] to end
Round 3: [p2, k1, yo, ssk] to end
Repeat rounds 1-4 for lace rib.

OK, sounds easy? ssk*?? wha'? Slip them where? yo what? Hurting my head... Too. Ambitious. Need. Mum!!

Trying REALLY hard not to toss it aside and do something tried and true...

*(SSK slip 2 stitches as if to knit, then knit those 2 stitches together).

Fabric Sale!

For any Canberrans out there, Addicted to Fabric are having a huge three day sale starting Friday for Bag Ladies, and on Saturday and Sunday for the general public.

25% off all patchwork and dress fabrics, including all recent releases,
50% off all McCalls, Burda, New Look and Simplicity patterns
$8/metre lots of patchwork fabrics
And MORE.

25 Dundas Court
Phillip ACT 2606

9am-4pm Saturday

10am-3pm Sunday

Be there!!!

Three days until cast on!!!

The Tour de France Knit Along begins on July 5th, and I am excited!! I am still not 100% settled on what I will be knitting..... The piggle from knitty.com is still up there, but also my infamous sock project. I really need to finish A sock!!!! I have a mental block that it's All Too Hard...

The piggle it may be. Miss 2 WILL look mighty cute in it...


Any Canberran knitters taking part that want to cast on together?

As I have chosen to go for the Green Jersey, I have a race to cast on and off between July 5th and twenty-somethingth when it ends. I also have to try something new. I am quite bad at trying new things, and like the comfort of tried and true techniques...

Knitting in the round. New.
Lace pattern. New.
Completing something that gets hard. New!!!

My team is Quickstep, and there are 11 of us. Lots of new blogs to explore like this, and this, and this!

And not so new blogs I already love like this, and this, and this!

Lots of new people, many countries, lots of FUN!

(I really have to try and refrain from using the exclamation mark... I think I over-do it. Often.. Sorry!!)

j

;-P