Happy 1st Anniversary DD and SIL

She doesn't look like this at the moment - twenty six days till her due date!

On the road again

WM and I are leaving home again. The doctor has given WM a week off to have a real holiday given that his annual leave was swallowed up travelling back and forward to my parents' town and spending time there.

We will spend a week in a "Pacific View" cabin at a semi-south coast caravan park. The weather forecast is for showers for the whole week but that's okay. There will be walks on the beach and along the walking track, some meals in local cafes and lots of reading and knitting - for me anyway; for WM photography and Sudoku is more likely. There may be even be visits to the local op (thrift) shops and the movie theatre! One never knows what may happen when one's week is completely unplanned (apart from the arrival and departure dates)!

This is the view I am hoping we will have from our cabin.

the photo was copied from the caravan park's webpage

Although I am taking my laptop and will have internet connection, you may or may not hear from me in the next week!

Hey it's good to be back home again

Thank you for all the good thoughts, wishes and prayers on the death of my father last weekend. The funeral was held last Tuesday. The service was simple (just the way he would have liked it), a lot of tears were shed and a lot of memories shared afterwards. My parents-in-law travelled the 1100 kilometres (690 miles) round trip to attend the funeral. They spread it out over three days by driving up on Monday and returning home on Wednesday. One of our very good friends also travelled 1024 kilometres (640 miles) to be there - he came and went on the Tuesday (a long drive solo!) and he barely knew my father; he was there to support WM and I.

My brother, his pregnant wife, my uncle (dad's brother) and aunt, DD and SIL left on Wednesday morning, and my sister and her children left on Thursday after lunch (she had to work that evening). WM and I were going to leave on Saturday but the forecast temperature was 43*C (109*F) so we decided to wait and come home on Sunday (which was still very hot until we were fairly close to home). It's going to be a tough few days for mum but she'll get through it.

As for me, the whole thing seems quite surreal and there a lot of tears left to be shed. So, thanks once again, I truly appreciate your support and prayers.

And now, dad's spirit is in heaven with his Lord and Saviour and his earthly body rests among the hills and in the valley which he loved and to which he chose to retire.

This photo was taken by WM, June 2009.

Love you, dad.

Friday Night Knitting Clubgive away

Several month ago, Carol from Pins and Needles sent me this book. I put off reading it for several months - it was to have been my reward for achieving a certain goal. I have not achieved the goal but have recently finished reading the book.

If you have not read it and would like to, please leave a comment on this post before the end of the month and I will mail it to you. If more than one person requests to book, I will do the democratic thing and pull a name out of a hat at random.

Dad's gone home to be with the Lord

Beloved husband, brother, brother-in-law, uncle, father, father-in-law,

grandfather, grandfather-in-law and great-grandfather-to-be.

We love you and will miss you.

3rd October 1928 - 16th January 2010

First "real" FO for 2010

This is the Scrappy Lengthwise Scarf (Rav link) I started last week.

This makes it the first FO to have been cast on in 2010.

Another first - I have posted some photos to Ravelry (projects) and added a list some of my stash (no photos - do you people seriously have time or the inclination to take photos of all your stash?). Oh yeah, I've added all my needles/hooks to the chart, updated my library and queued some projects for the future! Yay for holidays and time for "mucking about in boats" on the computer. I just hope my download time can cope with all these hours on Ravelry!

Three months' worth of beanies - some photos as promised

As I've said before, beanies are good travelling companions: knitted on circulars there's no danger of losing a needle and knitted in the round there's no need to get to the end of the row! They're also good for watching television when I really want to pay attention. And when the beanies are knitted for persons unknown, it doesn't matter what size they are - each will fit someone!

So here, in no particular order, are the beanies you haven't seen before. Most of them are knitted in leftover Carnival acrylic given to me by mum.

This one is in carnival colours!

A self striping yarn in soft colours.

This one started with the left overs of the previous beanie then four more yarns were added!

This one pooled in an interesting

fashion!

Showing here are two looks from different sides of the same beanie.

This one provoked my brother to ask for a Hawthorn (Australian Rules football team) beanie for his daughter due late March!

 This one is a sunhat beanie - it didn't work as I had planned but it still works as a beanie.

 This is the chevron version of the Moda Vera "Spell" beanies I seem to have been knitting forever!

I also knitted three regular beanies from the same yarn but I think you've seen enough of this yarn.

Then there was the Skyline yarn Leonie sent when destashing her "ack".
This yarn is 80% wool and 20% polyamide and has the most striking stitch definition of any yarn I have ever seen (including cotton).

It is, however, not a nice yarn to work with - feels more like nylon than wool.

This photo doesn't do the beanie justice but unfortunately I had no human head to model this beanie.

I was running out of pink yarn so I created a stranded colour ("fair isle") version.

Notice the stitch definition which works so beautifully in this beanie.

Thanks Leonie - I'm looking forward to dyeing the rest and seeing how it turns out.

This is DD's favourite - it nearly didn't end up in the charity collection at all!! LOL

And now, a self-striped beanie of my own hand dyed acrylic. It's funny how it striped. There are twenty or so stiches to a colour repeat but the way they kept ending up near each other created stripes but not pooling! Handpainted yarns are always fascinating!

And finally, a beanie as part of an ensemble which includes Elizabeth Zimmermann's February Baby Sweater (without buttons) and "Playful" socks from Babies and Toddlers: A Knitters' Dozen. All these are knitted in three different but coordinating handpainted acrylic yarns. Amazingly, these yarns are all supersoft from going through the dyeing process.

Not shown are the lenghwise garter stitch scarf I knitted from odds and ends of acrylic yarn while visiting dad in hospital or the bed socks I knitted for him because his feet were cold but which he was not allowed to wear.

Nor can I show you the baby blanket I knitted in Cleckheaton Baby Zhivago (colourway as shown) over 160 stitches on 5mm needles. It had a garter stitch border and a pattern stitch of ten stitches stocking stitch and then stitches reverse stocking stitch over 14 rows then reverse the squares. Between the garter stitch border and the blanket proper there was a yarn-over done on the right side rows to differentiate the border from the reverse stocking stitch. I designed the blanket so my mother could knit it during her stress but I ended up knitting it all myself. I cast on Tuesday night, knitted at home and the hospital and cast off and sewed in the ends on Saturday night. Four days for a 36" square - not bad! I didn't block it because all my blocking supplies were at home in Sydney and the yarn is 50% acrylic so probably wouldn't block anyway! The finished blanket was wrapped before I had a chance to take a photo and will be given to my brother and SIL on the birth of their daughter in about eleven weeks.

PS Leonie, I can't show you the knitting in the colour I didn't like - I pulled it out days ago. If you want to check the colour, It is Bendigo Luxury "Leaf".

home again, home again, jiggedy-jig

WM and I have been home since Tuesday evening and the previous three weeks seems like a distant bad memory. We have both had a massage, I've seen the doctor and had my hair cut and coloured - all appointments that had to be cancelled before we rushed off.

Since Tuesday I have watched some television (mostly tennis), knitted, blocked a baby blanket, sewed in some ends on another blanket and read most of Pride and Prejudice. I started it yesterday afternoon and am now at Chapter 47. I have played several games of Bejewelled, caught up with all the messages on the Knit4Charities message board (around 260 of them), read blogs, written drafts for three posts and will soon get around to taking photos.

Stretched out in front of me are four more glorious unplanned weeks. Time to watch the tennis, knit, nap, read and do the other hobbies that get put aside during term time. Underlying and over-shadowing those weeks however, is the knowledge that dad is dying and that, at any moment, we may have to put our holiday lives aside and make the return trip north.

At the beginning of December I had seriously been considering closing down my blog; I had lost the motivation to write and didn't think anyone would really notice my absence. But, during the height of the family crisis, expressing my pain on my blog was a blessed relief and I truly appreciate all the well wishes that came my way. You guys supported me through a very difficult time and I'm so grateful. "Thanks" is so inadequate but has never been meant more sincerely.

update

Dad is still in hospital and probably will be for the rest of his life, however long that may be. Perhaps his kidneys will fail; perhaps the cancer will take him.

Three days ago he was completely "not there" - the old, frail shell that housed my father was there but his mind was gone. The following day he improved but was still slurring and having trouble making grammatical sentences. Yesterday he was cheeky and bright. I haven't seen him yet today but mum said he visibly deteriorated in front of her for the couple of hours she was there.

In the past four days I have knitted an entire baby blanket for my niece (due late March) because my mother couldn’t face the relatively simple pattern she had chosen. She is stressed beyond thinking (as you can imagine). WM and I are heading home on Tuesday - after three weeks away from home and living with the uncertainty it's time for us to get back to some semblance of normalcy. I have a baby shower to organise - DD is due in just 7 1/2 weeks so I can’t leave it too much longer! I will show you photos of all of my knitting from November to now when I return home - WM could take photos but he doesn't have the software to download them!

I have started another project but I don't think I like the colour so have stopped to reassess the situation. This is annoying because I bought this yarn (over the internet) especially for this project and now I regret my colour decision. I need to think on this some more.

For those who believe, please keep praying that God's will be done in this situation. Thank you.