A new project

Casting on for another project tonight. Thanks to Eilleens blog I've become aware of a project over at the National Gallery of Australia that involves covering their foyer in knits. Yay! Anyone else planning on knitting for it?? I think it would be great to see my own little strip up along so many others in a national institution. Can't wait to see this once it's all up and finsihed!

I put on a vest with an S on my chest

I love the song Superwoman by Alicia Keys - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xK8t0gP4isE
"even when I'm a mess I still put on a vest with an S on my chest...I'm a superwoman" for me it's one of those empowering songs that picks me up when things seem so bloody hard.

My last post was a list of things that was happening for my little family and me and things were looking pretty crazy. I'm feeling like a bit of a superwoman though - I've been able to cross off quite a few things from the list...

- Izaak has had his speech assessment with amazing results. In one of the subtests his raw score last year was 9. This year?...................... 22!!!!

- Green swap is finished - well almost. I just need to wrap everything up

- Stashbuster swap is finished. A fair isle cowl in Noro and a little choccie. Again just needs wrapping

- Cowl swap is almost done. I just need to graft the two halves together. I've been trying to do a 3 needle bind off but I'm thinking, after making upteen mistakes, that I'm just going to graft them together.

- 1 essay almost done.

In other news I applied for a scholarship way back in March and this week found out that I have been awarded the Lorna May scholarship for 2009!! This means that I can buy textbooks for next semester and apply for a few courses that I've been looking at without having to worry about moolah ;-)

So all my juggling balls - uni, clinical, kidlets, family, housework, crafting - are still up in the air and I'm still sane! Miraculous!! Must be that vest....

So much to do... so little time

So in the next five weeks I have

- Woolaholics Cowl Swap

- Rav green swap

- Rav stash-busting winter swap

- My nephews 3rd birthday

- Speech review for Izaak

- 2 essays

- 2 exams

As well as the normal, everyday run of the mill stuff that happens around here.

How do you deal with deadlines? I could probably use a pointer or two!!

Knitting productivity

Some more finished things from this week......

Pattern - Aunt Maggie Slippers (Rav) (Non-Rav)

Yarn - Cleckheaton Nautico? (I think??)

Needles - 6mm straights

Comments - We have slate floors and it's FREEZING in the winter time. I wanted something quick and cheery for Izaaks feet so he wasn't so cold. These were perfect. I knit the two at the same time using 2 different balls which made them go even faster - they took one day and that was between shopping, cooking, eating, playing etc. Perfect fit. Lovely.

And of course if one has something the other seems to think that they must have the same. Charlotte picked an absolutely fugly yarn - but she tells me it's like beautiful rainbows. Anyway, the yarn was worsted so I used it doubled and decreased the cast on to 21 which ended up being a perfect fit.


Pattern - Girls cap sleeved spring shirt (Rav) (Non-Rav)

Yarn - Vera Moda Tradition

Needles - 5mm

Comments - I really like this pattern. It's the second Shelly Floyd pattern that I've knit now and they are simple but really lovely. I ran out of the purple yarn so had left it for a while then while attempting to find something in the absess known as the cupboard under the stairs I found another ball of tradition in a lighter shade of purple so added in a stripe on the bottom. I'm thinking it might need some duplicate stitch something on the top to pull it all together?? Anyway, it fits really well, will last for a while and she loves it - perfect!!

My nephew turns 2 this weekend and given how badly he has trashed the sock monkey that I gave him last year I decided a new soft toy was in order. Made up as I went along with fabrics/felt/buttons out of the stash this little monster was born....

Let's hope he likes it!

Collector Pumpkin Festival

Last weekend we headed up to Collector to their annual Pumpkin Festival which was great! Lots of yummy food, interesting things to see and lots for the kids to do. I was really surprised when they announced the heaviest pumpkin of the festival. How heavy you ask....

Yep - that's 253KG. It was huge! We did the totally tourist lean-on-a-pumpkin-for-a-piccie thing...

Then we checked out the decorator pumpkins - these were the kids faves... Patted the alpacas

Boys sat on tractors while girls had ice cream

Then needed to chill out after all the excitement!

Last but not least we had to have a squizz at the scarecrows on the way back to the car. This one caught misters eye...

A day in the life....

.... of my 3 year old

Fridays are special 'Mummy-Charlotte' time and we have gotten into a routine - dropping Izaak at school then heading to our local shops. We each get a trashy mag from the newsagent and then head to the coffee shop for a hot choccie and piece of cake to enjoy while we each read our respective mags. Charlotte's this week also had a bunch of 'bonuses' - stick on earings, rings, lippy etc - absolutely perfect for a three year old girl!


Stuart has been staying with my parents this week and so after our coffee we went to pick him up and the little miss couldn't have been happier to get some Stuie love!

She dressed herself this morning - pick the child of the knitting mother!!

And finally, we picked up the little master of the house whose day at school included art and craft today - meet the newest member of the household - Mr Green ;-)

Tomorrow we're off for a family adventure to the Collector Pumpkin Festival hopefully it will warm up a bit - we're all struggling with the temperatures at the moment!