jenwren's blog

Finishing Things

2010-08-01T02:49:19Z

I meant to get a second post in for July, but I wanted a photo in the sun of the finished Moonlight Sonata Shawl and the sun was not cooperative before I went out yesterday. So let's see if I manage to post more than once in August...

I have actually finished TWO projects in the last week. First off the needles was the Fruit Loop socks. Apart from modelling them for the photo below, I haven't worn them yet. I will in the next few days though.

Second off the needles was the Moonlight Sonata Shawl. I had wanted to knit 10-12 repeats of Chart 2 of this pattern. After 10 repeats, I had 25 grams of yarn left. I thought I would be fine to do one more repeat and the edging. I did have enough yarn for repeat 11, but then had only 7 grams left and could only have manage two rows of garter before casting off, instead of the 6 rows of garter the pattern called for. After a bit of denial and a look at various people's projects on Ravelry, I concluded that the 6 rows of garter were essential to the look, and two rows just weren't going to cut it. So I ripped back 2 rows of garter and the 11th repeat - three evening's work, without a lifeline (I should have put one in...) and knit the border properly. I'm glad I bit the bullet and did it, because the simple border is very effective.

I expected the yarn to lose dye when I gave it a soak before blocking, due to the crocking I mentioned in my last post, but it didn't really lose much at all. So I'm hoping most of the excess dye had already come off the yarn on to my fingers and there won't be any further problem. I still don't like the feel of the yarn, so I probably won't buy it again. There are so many yarns out there right now that there is no reason to knit one you don't like more than once!

The finished shawl is 127 cm across and 66 cm deep - a little smaller than I was hoping for, but a good size for wrapping around my neck, like my Flower Basket Shawl.

I cast on another pair of sock - this one in the Madelinetosh Tosh Sock, colour "Duchess". The pattern is a simple slip stitch one that gives it some texture, though it is mainly hidden by the darkness of the colourway. I'm loving the richness of this yarn and will probably seek out more of it after these socks are done.

I don't think I'll cast on more lace just now. The Kundalini Cardi is being neglected with all its monotonous stocking stitch, so I think I'll have to ration the knitting time and do a set amount of the cardi before the sock each evening to get some progress happening on the cardi. It's fairly predictable that the cardi will be finished about the time it becomes too warm to wear it!

Cardi, Socks and Shawl

2010-07-10T23:28:06Z

I really should work on blogging more often. But I prefer to get on and do rather than write about doing... I'm over the whole pneumonia/influenza now, and it's school holidays, so I have been 'doing' the 'doing'.

The Kundalini Woolganics Cardi is coming along nicely - I'm below the bust line heading for the waist. It is all stocking stitch though, so it is my mindless knitting project at the moment. It is a bit longer than in this picture below.

I have also been plodding along on a pair of Froot Loop socks in the Dream in Color Smooshy Cloud Jungle yarn from the frogged Leyburns. I started these just before I fell ill two months ago and have typically knit a pattern repeat per day most days. The first sock is finished and its mate has just had the heel turned.

Between the cardi and the socks, I wasn't feeling challenged enough, so I cast on another lace shawl - the Moonlight Sonata Shawl in Dream in Color Starry in the colour "Black Pearl". The yarn is 'interesting' - it is labelled as "98% superfine Australian merino superwash, 2% silver fibres". It feels kind of like acrylic to me, and it is crocking too, so after 4-5 rows I have black fingers. I'm not really worried by it as I expect it will feel nicer and stop crocking once I give it a good bath before blocking. The pattern was a real bugger to start with - perhaps it isn't right to have complaints when the pattern is free, but Chart 2 was a nightmare for the first few repeats. The instructions are also written out, so I followed them for the first repeat, then switched to the chart. It wasn't until the third repeat that I realised there were three different double decrease methods - I hadn't picked S2KP and SK2P were not the same thing. I didn't bother ripping back because I honestly can't tell the difference! I colour-coded about 10 of the 12 or so symbols on the chart with textas so I could keep track. I've finished 7 repeats, but the photo below is from half way through the sixth. I'm hoping to do at least 10-12 repeats in total, or more if this ball of yarn will go that far. The silver does give it sparkle, but it is hard to capture in a photo.

I have been spinning too, with the aim of doing a little each day (oops! I missed yesterday!). I'm spinning up 100 grams of the merino/silk blend I bought at Ashford last December, which I will probably ply with some natural grey merino from the stash. Sorry, I haven't got a photo of the single on the bobbin. Maybe next post.

Hecate Angorino Gaia

2010-06-13T07:31:43Z

I can't quite believe I knit an entire shawl in just under two weeks. Admittedly I wasn't working in those two weeks, and the yarn certainly wasn't lace weight, but it wasn't a small shawl either (finished size 210cm x 70 cm).

The shawl is based on the Gaia pattern (Ravelry link), though I made many modifications, so who knows, it may actually resemble some other pattern unintentionally. I omitted the reverse stockinette; made the eyelet rows without bordering them with knit rows except on the bind-off edge; and I made a shallow, broad triangle by doing 4 st increases on RS rows AND 2 st increases on WS rows with the WS row increases knit through back of stitch on RS rows. The eyelet rows were positioned by whim, since the colour transitions in the yarn were too frequent.

I've been wearing this shawl most of the week, despite the fact I now have enough shawls to wear a different one for each day of the week! I wore it to WWKIP day in The Rocks yesterday too. I'm really happy with the yarn, particularly as I spun it myself, and the heavier weight of this shawl makes it a delight for really cold weather. It definitely proved to be the right choice on Friday when we had an evacuation at school.

Speaking of school, I returned last Monday and managed (just) through the whole week. I'm still on antibiotics and had another chest x-ray on Tuesday (which I assume was fine or I'd have been contacted). The long weekend is very welcome!

I have now started another cardigan, with raglan sleeves this time. I've decided that round yokes like on the Tea Leaves Cardigan (which I really should get a good photo of) and Tangled Yoke Pullover don't suit my shape and are not as comfortable as raglan shaping, like my worn-out, favourite black cardi or the modified Mr Greenjeans. So this cardigan will be somewhat like Mr Greenjeans, with more stocking stitch, a lace panel at the bottom and moss stitch bands. The yarn is Woolganic Organic Merino 8ply in "Kundalini".

Visitors to my blog (as opposed to reading through an aggregator) may have noticed that the work in progress bars have changed - they are now linked to Ravelry so are updated more readily. One of these days I will finally fix the title bar - I've always intended that the big white areas either side of the text would be filled in. One day.

Good Riddance to May

2010-06-03T23:17:51Z

I've been meaning to write a post all week. Enough stuff has happened in the "can't make this up" category. Really.

Last week I had two good days, straight after finishing 20 days of antibiotics. Then I started going backwards, badly. Obviously, I hadn't quite shifted all of the chest infection of doom. So on Thursday it was off to GP#4 (I don't like #1 or #2; #3 was booked out and my own GP doesn't work that day). I handed over my discharge letter from my hospital visit two weeks earlier, it was scanned for my files, and I took it back since otherwise it would have been binned. I ended up with prescriptions for a 14 day course of another antibiotic and a Bricanyl inhaler, another medical certificate giving me all of this week off, blood tests and an appointment with my own GP for Tuesday.

Now, Calli, my faithful companion, has been doing an awesome job of comforting me while I have been ill. She has been near constantly on my bed while I was bedridden and on my lap while I have couch-surfed.

So I got home from the GP, and she followed me into my study and sat down. I went to leave the study and she must have moved - and I tripped over her. Cue drama. A wailing Calli looked practically murderously at me. I managed to calm her down enough to examine her left front leg and establish that nothing was broken, but she couldn't put weight on it and was clearly in pain. So we had to go to the vet. The vet suspected it was a dislocated elbow and gave her a shot of anti-inflammatories and pain killers. I had to take her home and return on Friday after withholding food for her to be put under anaesthetic for x-rays.

Calli had an uncomfortable night, but still had enough spunk on Friday morning to jump up on the dining table to demand the breakfast she was not allowed. She did get hugs instead.

It was a simple dislocation of the elbow, which the vet fixed, and Friday afternoon I collected a very groggy Calli and brought her home again. She was so wobbly that I had to shadow her around the house to stop her doing stupid things. Saturday was better, and by Sunday she had bounced back to practically normal.

Meanwhile, I was neither getting better nor worse with my chest infection of doom. I had some of the Bricanyl puffer on Thursday, but wasn't convinced it actually gave me any of the medication (it was a twist dispenser of a fine powder that you then inhaled without seeing it). I took it regularly on Friday and felt awful, but I had been making trips back and forth to the vet that were more exertion than I needed. Saturday was spent on the couch going nowhere. On Saturday evening I took my first puffer dose in about 24 hours because I was a little wheezy. Within half an hour I was having the most awful crushing chest pain. I did not want to have to go back to hospital again, least of all on a Saturday night. But once it became clear that the pain was not going to let up, I called my sister, and my brother-in-law came and took me to hospital.

Surprisingly, the Emergency department was no where near as busy as it had been on my previous visit. I took the letter from my previous visit with me which helped them quickly bring up my records without my needing to fill out forms. I also took the box the puffer came in so they knew what I thought had caused my problems. Crushing chest pains get you in the door quite fast too. The vein blood was taken from on Thursday was completely trashed by another cannula, and they gave me a shot of antihistamine in my other arm that hurt like hell. After a few hours of observations, they let me go home again.

On Sunday and Monday I felt awful. Late on Monday I finally coughed up some horrid stuff and the tightness in my chest finally loosened. Since then, I have been better and better each day. I saw my GP on Tuesday, had the second hospital letter scanned for my files, and had my allergy list updated. I already have a problem with prednisone (I had to stop the hospital from giving me that on Saturday) and with sulfur food preservatives. The Bricanyl is a sulfate (terbutaline sulfate, for future reference), so it might have been a sulfur reaction, or might have been simply an adverse side-effect of the drug. So both that drug and all sulfur containing drugs are now off-limits. I'm sure that's going to create some fun in the future for prescribing anything to me. The blood tests confirmed I had Influenza A.

So bye-bye May. You sucked. June is a nicer month already.

Knitting is all I do

2010-05-22T23:27:45Z

Being ill has benefited my knitting as I simply haven't had the energy for much else. But before I became ill, I knit the Alpaca/Gotland yarn I spun at the end of the holidays into a pair of wrist warmers. The yarn was a bit over spun, but the resulting wrist warmers fit the bill perfectly and will get plenty of wear this Winter.

The Tea Leaves Cardigan is almost complete. I need to reknit both cuffs as I forgot to change needle size and they are a bit loosey-goosey. Then it is just a matter of weaving in all the ends and blocking it. The photo below is from about 4-5 days ago. The body is longer, and I even had enough yarn to put a ruffle along the lower edge. A few things trouble me about it though - the hand spun yarn is a little uneven, and the last few balls tended to be thinner than the yarn the yoke was knit with. It seems mostly okay, but the area in the front between the armscyes and button band are a bit too ruffled and don't sit right. I'm hoping the neck edge has been a bit stretched during knitting and the blocking will help sort it all out. Or I may be wishing too much from blocking. There's no way of knowing other than to simply try it.

As much as I like the look of these round-yoked cardigans, I think raglan sleeves suit my shoulder shape better and I ought to steer clear of the round-yokes.

I am also knitting Fruit Loop socks in the Dream in Color Smooshy in Could Jungle. This was the yarn I used for the Leyburn socks, but hated them so much that I frogged it. The Fruit Loops are better, but I keep forgetting to get a photo...

Lacy Blanket Finished

2010-05-20T07:00:14Z

Baby blanket the third was gifted to my work colleague today in my absence. There was never any surprise that there was going to be a blanket after blanket one and blanket two. So the surprise this time around is that no one at work knew anything much about what this one looked like.

I chose to knit the "Tweed Baby Blanket" by Jared Flood. The intention was to knit the centre in dove grey and the border in blue/purple if it was a boy, pink/green if it was a girl or green/purple if it was unknown. As with the previous blankets, Bendigo Woollen Mills 8 ply cotton was used for its excellent weight, stitch definition and washability. The yarn does not come in grey. It doesn't come in blue/purple/green/pink shades that appeal to me either. It was dye pot time.

I'm good at getting strong colours on cotton with Procion MX dyes, as proven before with the second blanket and other garments like Daniel's jumper and Charlotte's Anouk. But black and pale colours have been problematic. I knew my "black" dye was actually bluish, and so would not come out grey at reduced colour saturation. I had bought a grey dye ages ago, but had never used it. Still, I threw 400 grams of cotton in a dye pot with the grey dye and hoped for the best. Unfortunately, what I got was not grey and too dark (below left). I didn't leave it in the dye bath for the usual duration, because I hoped to reduce the depth of shade. That didn't work. So I put another 400 grams in a new dye bath of much reduced strength. Still not grey, but actually a quite nice pale blue (below right).

I had to abandon all attempts at dyeing grey cotton. I could have knitted the two shades of blue, something like the two shades of grey used in the original blanket, but I feared if it was not a boy then it would suffer an identity crisis in a blue blanket! I came up with a new scheme - the centre would be in the colour "Parchment" that Bendigo does. The border colours would remain the same, and the pale blue I already had could be used as is, and some of the extra could be over-dyed to make the green or the purple and the only additional dyeing required might be for pink. I began knitting the centre panel before school started in January.

On returning to school, my colleague said she was not going to find out the baby's sex before birth. So I split 200 grams of the pale blue into two skeins, and over-dyed each to get purple and green. The day after the dyeing was done, she had a scan, and it was very evident it is a boy. Never mind - I liked the green and purple so much that I stuck to my revised plan.

The garter centre panel was tedious. I enlarged it to 221 sts on the diagonal so that there were nine pattern repeats of the border on each side rather than six, as cotton has less give than wool and would not block very large. It took 339 grams of cotton to make a 78 cm square. The border was a delight to knit but became tense towards the end as I nearly didn't have enough of the purple. The bind off was supposed to be icord, which is very yarn-hungry. I modified it to a suspended bind off (*K2tog tbl, pass stitch from right to left needle* repeat to end) and had just 4 metres of the purple left over (98 grams of purple, 41 grams of green used). The final size is about 90 cm square.

I got a picture message on my phone earlier of the happy recipient!

A Touch of Pneumonia

2010-05-17T05:07:27Z

Been through a bit of an ordeal over the last week. I've had sinus trouble since term started, which worsened at the start of May. Saw GP#1, who put me on antibiotics. I continued going to work, because I wasn't all that sick.

Then, last Monday, I developed a sore throat that went from non-existent to "swallowing razor blades" over about 2 hours. I left school early without attending a normal Monday meeting, calling in at a supermarket on the way home for Strepsils. On Tuesday I was no better (my nose started streaming) and I phoned in to work sick. I had to see GP#2 for a medical certificate, which I got, along with the opinion that it was hay fever (which I disagreed with). On Wednesday, the sore throat went and the coughing started. I was near the end of the antibiotics at this stage (yeah, yeah, not helpful as clearly viral). My neighbour, Mary, came and checked I was okay as she noticed my car hadn't moved and I hadn't brought in the newspaper.

Wednesday night was awful. I coughed more than slept until 4 am, and after that I could not sleep, and was too worn down even to cough much. I was having trouble breathing, but couldn't really acknowledge the seriousness of it (it was probably the point at which I should have called an ambulance...). I finally got up at 7am and realised I could barely move and things were very foggy. Breathing was hard (and still I had a shower - I am an idiot!). At 7.30 I rang my parents, 200km away. They worked the phone, contacting my brother and sister and found my sister could get me to the doctor, and they packed and drove to Sydney.

Unfortunately, the GP practice I go to is down near where I used to live. I've been going there my entire life except for the four years I lived in Armidale. I will find one closer to 'home' once 'home' is a little more static and definite. My sister is in a similar position, and also still goes to the same practice. So after a not-short car trip, I got to the doctor. GP#3 (I had wanted to see GP#2, just to point out it wasn't hay fever, but he wasn't available) managed to get some Ventolin into me, which improved my breathing (my hands went from white to pink), then sent me off to hospital with a referral letter of "pneumonia(?)".

So my sister drove me to the hospital-of-my-birth. I got into triage within about 20 minutes of arriving and then went nowhere for something like 2 hours. The emergency department beds were full since they had too many patients waiting for beds in wards and couldn't move anyone out. They couldn't get me out of triage because my blood oxygen saturation was "borderline" (I hate to think what it was before the Ventolin!). I was leapfrogged twice by sicker patients brought in by ambulance. My parents arrived shortly after I entered triage and my sister was able to go home. Mum and I listened while the poor nurse on the triage desk copped flak from some angry, selfish woman who couldn't understand that anyone was sicker than her.

Eventually the doctor had to come to triage and begin treating me. Then I finally got an emergency department bed. No pillow though - I heard one harried nurse complain that they go to the wards and don't come back. By the 1.30pm nurse hand over, I finally had a cannula in my arm, and was awaiting IV antibiotics, a drip, drugs and chest x-rays. The x-ray took the longest. Mum had actually gone back to my house to sort out things as by this point as it seemed clear I was going to have to be admitted. And then the x-rays came back clear - to the doctor's surprise. This meant they didn't have enough clinical reasons to admit me. I'm quite glad, in retrospect, since it would probably would have been a horrible night in the emergency ward. So Mum and Dad came back for me at 4.30-5 ish and I was released with Tamiflu, antibiotics and a medical certificate until 1st June. The "pneumonia" is probably debatable, but it is a faster communicated explanation than "influenza plus chest infection secondary to an upper respiratory tract infection".

Back home I managed a bit of soup for dinner (plus enough pills to make me rattle) despite nausea I had been suffering from all day. Dad headed back home to Port Stephens. He had been going to move my car to the bottom of my driveway so my Mum would be able to drive it, but it didn't happen. I tried to lie down and get some sleep, but the nausea made it too hard. I ended up throwing up everything, and then still feeling so nauseous and in pain that Mum nearly had to call an ambulance to take me back to hospital. Finally I managed to keep down a single Panadol and fell asleep. Two hours later I awoke in far less pain and then managed to sleep another five hours. Panadol is my new friend.

Friday was bed and barely getting up except for the bathroom. I moved to the couch in the evening and took delivery of a lovely white flowered cyclamen plant from my work colleagues in my department at school. I didn't sleep much better on Friday night because of coughing.

Saturday was half-spent in bed, the other half on the couch. One of my work colleagues delivered a white flowered cyclamen plant from the staff association. I didn't see it until she'd gone - then had a coughing fit from all my giggling about it (for the record, I love cyclamen and I didn't have any before this, so I'm very happy!). My coughing eased off and I got my first proper night of sleep.

Yesterday I had a shower and washed my hair - which wiped me out for the whole morning. I finally managed to sit at my computer for a bit. And I slept well again. Today, I'm at the computer more (hello blog!) and have arranged Coles Online to home deliver lots of groceries tomorrow.

Mum has been wonderful and will probably be here until Thursday, depending on how I am (although she has nearly run out of knitting - gasp!). Calli is in heaven since she now has two staff to service her needs, and my lap is near permanently hers to sit on - she's been my shadow. She didn't like it when I went on Thursday and did the biggest leap across my bed on Thursday evening when I returned home.

I'm not heading back to work before 1st June. The school has someone taking my lessons, which is a load off my mind. One friend has described it as being "wobbly as overcooked spaghetti" which is fairly accurate. I'm not taking visitors, due to the influenza and I've had the flu jab every year for the last nine years, including this one, so heaven knows what strain of flu I have. I don't want to give it to anyone. I'm not yet knitting all the time, but have stuff to photograph and put up here once I'm up to it.

Tea Leaves Progress

2010-04-17T07:37:00Z

I had meant to put these pictures up on Wednesday, but went to visit Sally in hospital (she broke her pelvis on Monday) instead. So I'm getting around to it now.

Here's the progress on the Tea Leaves cardigan. I've knit about 10 cm more since then. I'm not allowing myself to cast on anything else until I split it for the arms and body - the long rows of stockinette are a little dull for the school holidays.

I finished spinning the Hecate Angorino. Since finishing that spinning project, I've had out my WindWheel and have spun all 100 grams of the Alpaca/Gotland fibre I bought in New Zealand in under 2 days. I'll ply it tomorrow.

It's back to school on Monday for a very busy term 2.

Much done, little to show

2010-04-09T07:19:00Z

I have been doing a lot of knitting, but it has mostly been on the baby blanket #3, which I'm hiding until it is gifted in about six weeks' time. I finished the blanket two weeks ago. I needed some quick, mindless knitting to get me to the end of the school term, so I dug out the purple merino silk handspun I've had in the stash so long that I just had to do a search of my own blog to find when I finished it (February 2007 - rather apt post title!). In just 11 days I turned the yarn into a Lacy Baktus Scarf. Dead easy.

It's a bit wobbly as the yarn isn't very evenly spun, but I can see me getting a lot of wear out of it in Winter.

Having reached the school holidays, I had some time to plan the next project - another cardigan, desperately required. Two of my cardigans have recently been "retired" as they are wearing so thin and/or have started coming apart, especially at the cuffs. One has even had a new cuff knitted for it before. I have no excuse for my lack of cardigans, except perhaps because my large-knitting-project-energy has all been poured into three successive baby blankets in the past 14 months (there do not appear to be any more in the near future, thank goodness!). And I have an embarrassment of riches in the stash set aside particularly for another three or four cardigans! I have duly pulled out the yarn that has been waiting the longest for the purpose - yarn that my Mother spun for me before I took up spinning (the paper slip in the bag says "September 2005"), and which I dyed in 2007. I would like it to be a cardigan before it is old enough to begin school...

I figured out the reason this yarn has been waiting so long is because I'm scared that there will not be enough and will run out before a garment is complete. Since I had forgotten there was 600 grams, and instead chose something based on a figure of 500 grams, I think I'll be okay. The chosen pattern is the Tea Leaves Cardigan, which is designed for a heavier yarn. So, as I typically do, I've had the calculator out and I've made adjustments for my lighter weight yarn.

The swatch is gorgeous. I cast on yesterday and am already half way down the yoke.

I've been at the Easter show today, demonstrating spinning for the guild, and will be there again tomorrow. More progress on the angorino that I've barely touched since the Summer holidays. I hope to chain ply the second bobbin tomorrow.

Ishbel Finished

2010-02-18T09:57:09Z

School has been all-consuming since restarting. Adding to the busy-busy has been Year 7 Camp - a week of preparing the lessons for my classes in my absence, a week of rain and Sun and tents and too much heat and humidity, and a week spent chasing my tail trying to catch up to how things should be. That would be this week. Throw in a few storms, blocked storm water pipes, a lawn that desperately needed mowing - I could go on and on here, but I'm sure you get the picture.

Calli had to go into boarding for the week. I was away from early Monday morning to Friday afternoon, but the cattery hours meant she had to stay Saturday to Saturday. I finished Ishbel quite fortunately at knitting group on the Saturday afternoon after dropping her at the cattery. So I was able to block it on Sunday in her absence. No wrestling the blocking wires from her or messing with the T-pins or sitting on the knitting I'm trying to block.

Of course, lace looks awful before blocking:

While blocking:

I left it to block while I was on camp, so there was no "is it dry yet?" bother. I forgot all about it until my return. Since then it has sat around waiting for an opportunity to photograph it in suitable light. After work today, I finally found a moment to take a photo I'm happy with.

One thing I can share from what we did at camp was to make bracelets and necklaces from twisted reeds. I understood the principle of what we were doing straight away from spinning. It was quite flexible when wet, but is stiff and has shrunk a bit on drying. I was very happy with my beaded bracelet.

Calli didn't like boarding. She's over it now, thankfully, and it won't happen often. I missed her on the nights I was home but she was not. She might get to stay at my sister's in future - sadly Oscar, her cat of 16 years, passed away the day after Calli went into boarding.

I had a little knitting time while on camp, but virtually none since getting back, so the latest baby blanket is progressing slowly. The dyeing was eventually completed, but the story behind that will have to wait until after the gifting.

Hot Socks

2010-01-10T06:25:11Z

It is too hot to be wearing sock, but I finished these Jaywalkers this morning.

I have also been spinning the Angorino, filled a bobbin and chain plied it. I'm very happy with how it is turning out - I'm after long stretches of colour. They show up well on the bobbin:

But the skein looks very different.

About a third of the fibre is spun. I would have done more today, but the wheel is being temperamental and I find the best way of fixing it is to come back tomorrow!

I have also been dyeing more cotton this morning. The particular colour (which I won't name as it is part of a surprise) is one of my dyes I haven't used before and I underestimated its strength. So 546 grams (2 cones Bendigo 8 ply plus one ball of Lion cotton) of yarn are consequently much darker in colour than I wanted. I'm waiting for it to dry before I decide what to do next. Partly because colours are always darker when wet, and partly because I have run out of soda ash and can't do any more dyeing until I've got more.

I have a week and a half before I go back to school. It is too hot to do half the things I ought to be doing!

New Zealand Trip days 12-14

2009-12-24T06:05:53Z

If you'd like to start again at the beginning, I have updated the previous posts on the trip with more photos and links. (Navigation to the next post in order is down the right side.)

Christchurch - Sydney

Sunday started off clear and sunny and I headed into the city to the Arts Centre for the Sunday Markets. They were not as busy as the Nelson Markets had been. As well as the market stalls, there are many shops, galleries and studios. The Christchurch Guild of Weavers and Spinners have their guild rooms here. I am jealous.

At Wool, Yarn and Fibres (downstairs in the same building as the guild) there was an awesome range of fibres and yarns as well as made garments. Two lovely ladies were in charge of the shop and I had a chat to them as I decided on what to buy.

They had some lovely merino fibre, but I have so much Aussie merino... I came away with some natural grey alpaca blended with silk and merino. I browsed at a lot of jewellery and woodworking shops, but nothing 'must have' came my way. I had two hours on a parking meter, and when that was up there was little parking nearby to be had, and a parking ranger was busy booking cars. A cold change with possible hail was forecast, so I decided to grab some lunch and head back to the hotel. I spent a lazy afternoon doing little and watching the weather become wild outside.

On Monday the weather was fine, but it was windy and cold. It looked like it could be 20 degrees outside, but it was nine! I drove to Hands Ashford for a look around the shop. They had a good range of yarns, though it was still small. Lots of other crafts were also represented. By this point I feared being able to get everything in my suitcase and wasn't willing to buy anything much.

I took a bus into the city and returned to the Arts Centre to finish off seeing some places I hadn't had time for on Sunday. I visited the exhibits on Sir Ernest Rutherford in Rutherford's Den, then made my way across to Canterbury Museum. There were many families at the museum since the school holidays had started and the Great Museum Santa Search was underway. Various toy Santas, big and small, had been hidden among the exhibits, and the children needed to locate all of them. One, among the bird exhibits, was quite obvious, as was the one over the North Pole (I think it had a sled too) on a globe of the Earth. I spotted another within an environmental education exhibit that was a bit more tricky, but I wasn't really seeking them out.

By lunchtime the weather outside was a little more pleasant and I ate my lunch by a pond in the Botanic Gardens. I then strolled across the city (actually further than I thought it would be) to get to Knit World, a knitting chain store (I also visited the one in Dunedin). This place was large and had the biggest range of yarns of all the places I had visited. I nearly bought some Zealana merino/possum/cotton lace weight yarn, but the possum content put me off (I don't like possum fibre much). I took a bus back to the hotel and set about packing my suitcase and finishing off the last of my cherries.

Tuesday was a nice day and having squashed all my things into my suitcase and backpack (it would have been very hard to have got more in), I checked out of the hotel. My flight home was not until the afternoon, so I went to Riccarton House and Bush to kill some time. The fragment of bushland here is surrounded by a fence to exclude predators of the native birds and animals and you had to pass through an elaborate double-doored enclosure to enter and leave. Having almost always lived close to bushland in Sydney, I find it bizarre that the tiny remnant of bush at Riccarton is the only native vegetation left in all of Christchurch.

The Kahikatea trees are impressive and the bird life was prolific. After the short walk around the bush I spent some time with the ducks by the river. They were very hopeful that I was going to feed them.

After some lunch I headed to the airport and returned the rental car. I was very pleased to learn that as I'd paid the extra excess-reduction amount for the car, the damage to the windscreen would not result in any charge.

The flight home was much smoother than the flight over. And I finally got to see those pesky mountain peaks that had been hiding in cloud for so much of my stay.

The flight landed early and Customs and Quarantine were both almost empty. Quarantine didn't even want to see all the fibre I declared.

Some Statistics
The total distance I covered by car was 2680 km.
Total number of 'stash enhancement opportunities': 28.
Total stash enhancement: 6 skeins of yarn: 900 grams; 4 bundles of fibre: c. 1.56 kg.
Miscellaneous purchases: assorted beads/jewellery, silk skirt, hat; chocolate fish; DVD box set (and yet my suitcase was supposedly only 2 kg heavier, which is not possible).
Photographs taken: 258 stills, 4 videos on Sony camera; 93 stills, 2 videos on Apple iPhone.

New Zealand Trip days 10-11

2009-12-21T00:00:07Z

Nelson - Christchurch

Friday was fine and sunny - the warmest weather of the whole trip. I took a walk around town and visited Fibre Spectrum - an excellent shop run by a cooperative of local fibre crafters. I didn't end up buying anything though.

I then went to the World of Wearable Art and Car Museum. No photography is allowed in WOW to protect copyright so I can't show you how stunning the garments were. If it had not been for the video displays of models wearing some of the garments on the catwalk, I would not have believed they were wearable. I'd like to know how hard it is to get dressed in a dress made from wood...

Later on I went to the Bead Gallery in Parere Street (there is more than one gallery). Here, they encourage you to pick out some beads and make something on the spot for the cost of materials only. I ended up being in the shop until not long before closing time, putting together a necklace and matching earrings.

Saturday is the day of the Nelson Markets in Montgomery Square. I got there quite early, and at 8:30 am I heard a stall holder comment that the crowds were like 10 am already. I bought a muffin and Chelsea bun to have later, a bag of cherries and a packet of fudge. I also bought a ring and a silk skirt. I came away with the smell of hot nuts and waffles still lingering all the way back to the car. Mmmmmm!

Then it was time to leave Nelson and drive back to Christchurch via Blenheim and Kaikoura. The weather varied from misty rain to sunny and back again. I stopped to see the seals at Oahu Point. For afternoon tea I had an icecream at Cheviot and was amused by two boys - one on a tricycle powered by a small engine towing the second on a skateboard. I was too slow at getting out the camera for a photo.

On arrival at my hotel in Christchurch, I dragged everything out of the car and to my room for the first time since Dunedin. I have until Tuesday to make all my purchases fit either in the suitcase or my backpack or be mailed home. Some just needs squashing the air out, like the lamb fleece. Some is food that will thankfully be eaten by then!

- Originally posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

New Zealand Trip days 8-9

2009-12-20T02:33:37Z

Dunedin to Nelson

Back on the road again, heading North. I stopped at the Moeraki Boulders, where the tide was out and there were tourists all over the place.

At Oamaru I stumbled across Enterprise Beads and bought some strings of beads for knitting and some spinning wheel charms I will make into earrings. Nothing else terribly interesting on this stretch, since I'd visited Ashburton already coming South. On Wednesday night I stayed in Rangiora.

The Jaywalker socks reached the turning of the heel.

Thursday morning was clear and sunny. I made a last minute decision to take Lewis Pass to Nelson and return on Saturday by the coastal route, rather than the other way around, because the weather forecast for Saturday was not looking good. Mind you, the mountain tops were still hidden by cloud (it's a conspiracy against me!) and road works prevented my stopping at one scenic lookout.

At Brightwater I visited Hallblacks - another supplier of natural coloured fleeces, but she has also got a good range of commercial yarns, and, if it's your thing, lots of novelty yarns including some I've never seen before (maybe that's not hard since I don't usually look for 'dead muppet').

I chatted to Mary, the owner, for quite some time as she is a former English teacher and we were discussing education systems (among other things). I bought a prepared half fleece from a Lincoln lamb by the name of 'Curious'. Apparently the other half of Curious's fleece was purchased by a Melbourne chorister.

After a quick visit to the Visitor Information Centre, I checked into my hotel in Nelson. From my room I had a lovely view of the Church spire.

- Originally posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

New Zealand Trip days 6-7

2009-12-18T10:09:16Z

Dunedin

Monday morning in Dunedin I took a walk down to the Octagon and Visitor Information Centre then visited some (rather forgettable) yarn shops. Then I headed to Otago Museum.

I had the most decadent caramel slice and latte for morning tea at the cafe, to defrost from the cold outside, before looking around the museum. The museum exhibits were excellent and included odd measuring instruments on the stairwell, exhibits on Maori and Pacific Islanders, geology and natural history of the area, as well as travelling exhibits such as on Charles Darwin and a rather interesting one on dinosaur eggs. The museum has lots of hands on stuff for kids. I spent well over two hours and could have easily spent a lot longer there.

While back at the motel for lunch, the rain changed briefly to small pellets of hail. Once it stopped, I headed to South Dunedin to suss out a few more (again, forgettable) yarn shops and a Spotlight, just to see if it was much different to Aussie ones (it wasn't). Then there was more hail. I had a fantastic lamb burger and kumera chips from Velvet Burger for dinner. And it hailed some more. The hail in Dunedin was small, but further north at Timaru they had golf-sized hail that destroyed crops.

Tuesday's first activity was a tour of the Cadbury Chocolate Factory. This included climbing many stairs, eventually reaching about mid way up that purple tower, inside which we had to yell 'chocolate' loudly to trigger a fall of liquid chocolate to be released. Splattering chocolate everywhere - erk! I bought a hat and lots of chocolate fish in the shop. I love chocolate fish....

After lunch I took a drive to the Otago Peninsula. First stop was Clifton Wool n Things, which was down a ghastly steep gravel driveway. It started hailing again, and I wondered if I would manage to get the rental car back up to the road. It was well worth it though as the shop had piles of yarn hanks, fleeces and sliver as well as garment and so forth, all of natural coloured wool. I would have loved to have taken home some sliver, but it had too much VM for me to be confident of getting it through Australian customs and quarantine. So I came away with three hanks of 8 ply in 'Gull Grey' and a shade card.

I successfully negotiated the driveway back up to the road (it helped that it had stopped hailing) and continued on to Taiaroa Head. I photographed penguins and other bird life in the rain and enjoyed afternoon tea in the Albatross Centre.

- Originally posted using BlogPress from my iPhone