Mediterranean Summer

Not for a book.

Not for a shop window.

Not for a gift.

Just because.




Gees that feels good.

Introducing Mediterranean Summer.

Meeting Kelly Doust

Kelly Doust, author of The Crafty Minx, comes to the Sunshine Coast!

And here we are together at Buderim Books where instead of talking as most authors do at book events, she made us all make something. 

No I didn't make the button neck art but I did make the lime green summer scarf.

If you were ever to find yourself short of an idea, then Crafty Minx is the book for you. Or the book itself will make a great gift or three.

It abounds with crafty clever ideas for hand made gifts.  It is just beautiful to hold and to look at.  Congratulations Kelly.

It was lovely to meet you.

Grown Up

I am so grown up.

I bought ART!

It is a dichotomy - buying art.   

To me it might seem a frivolous spend, to the artist - a serious sale.

I buy all kinds of junk and think nothing of it.  I buy ART and the 'importance' gauge soars.

I don't NEED it but it enriches my life so.

I have been following
Lynne Hoppe's blog for a while now, dropping in for my weekly dose of joyful, textural colour.

I think it was the bird that was the clincher, the tipping point, the gentle shove into adulthood.  This was one I had to have.

I purchased it for a very reasonable price and on Friday it arrived all the way from America.

America is sooo far away.  I know. I know.  Everything is far away from Australia.  Except Tasmania.  What?  Tasmania IS Australia.  New Zealand then.

Thank you for the 'thank you' Lynne.  I think it deserves a frame too.

I am in love with it all.









And this?

This is for all the Northern Hemisphere Autumn tree show offs.

This is how we know Christmas is coming down under.

(signed:  Just Jealous)

click on to embiggen

Enough!

Enough with the fishing already!

knit knit knit....

the little things....

A Clever Bloke

It is The Bloke's turn in the sun, just for a moment mind.

Today, tonight, his book is launched.

Yep.  We hoist it up, smash a bottle of champagne against it, and LAUNCH it off into the open ocean.

Well it is called
FISHES OF THE OPEN OCEAN






Some joys never change.




There will be FOUR book events over the next month in Brisbane tonight at Mary Ryan's, Park Road and then at the game fishing clubs in Sydney, Melbourne and the Sunshine Coast.

It is pardy pardy pardy til Christmas.

CLEVER BLOKE



...of course he couldn't have done it without a little help...

.... from that other fish lover in the house - Wes The Cat.

Done!

Today it is ...

done
finished
complete
over
concluded
signed off on
discharged 
wrapped up
sewn up
polished off
stopped
ceased

No not the jumper..
or
the little squares thingy, which has only just begun

the BOOK LAYOUT!

You know!  

The BOOK? 



REALLY 

Wild Tea Cosies?

Now that everybody and his dog has had their last two bob's worth - it is off to the pre-print colour match kings and then off to print in China.

These lovely women and men of the Noosa Arts and Crafts Association and their guests from all over the Sunshine Coast, invited moi to do the two things I love best (after knitting tea cosies that is) - talk about my tea cosies and show off my tea cosies.

So yesterday they got a sneak preview of the real things.  My little beauties.  My babies.  Waiting much more patiently than I possibly can, to have their moment in the sun.

The ladies and gentlemen were extremely generous with their ooohs and ahhs.

Thank you ladies and gentlemen.

Me and my cosies felt very special.

See the beautiful room with the hanging quilts and the wood panel walls and the sun and the trees outside.  Noice.

Photogenic

We have a new camera!

Yay!

Not the one from ebay.
That never turned up.
The one from the shop down the road.

Don't say it....
Don't say it....

Nah!  You said it!

"I told you so" indeed!

So anyway, the new camera bought from the shop down the road WORKS!
Aw Wes. Ya just GORRgeous!

P.S.  You don't think that I've been a bit OTT with the exclamation mark do you?!

Nothing to do with anything

I read YH most days. She's funny.


Today she does a big old rant about only wearing a bra when one wants the people one is pointing one's bosoms at to take one seriously...

...and  how breasts head down under as a result of kids and with that old dragon - age.


Now I doubt that she reads me but if she did, she'd learn..

... You can take 10 years off your melons just by holding your arms high above your head.

Seriously.

Knit Knit Knit

Knit Knit Knit Knit
Sung to Micky Mouse song.  Well (said in low growly voice)  One LIKES the Micky Mouse song!

errr  should one be worried now?

One did a tally this morning, a stock take, a count, an assessment..

... and one found FIVE projects started in the last ... err ... five days.

This Jo Sharp DK cotton, Kiwi colour, arrived in the post yesterday.

It was important to taste it, see that it wasn't poisonous, you know for the good of the ... for the good of the ... for Wes?

The 4mm Knitpicks were hanging about doing nothing much after the Sublime (dyed aubergine) came off the needles and were screaming out for more.

One obliged, that's all.

One USUALLY has socks of some sort on the go.

Nothing more to say about that.

The crochet bag is having a revamp, perhaps with a onion peel dye and the paisley lining.

Oh yeah.  That's crochet and dying and sewing.  That doesn't count.  FOUR projects.

The felted knit is a secret so one cannot tell you anything about it.  Important to have one or two secrets don't you think?

Extremely Chuffed

All that tea cosy designing, measuring, knitting, unravelling, measuring and knitting again....

....has paid off!

Zees little number is designed by moi, me, myself, ich.

Mind you one can't and shouldn't take ALL the credit.  One ought to refer to the Designer Knitting (known to American knitters as Vogue Knitting) magazine and an article by Jared Flood.

I looked at that funny little drawing of 3 cylinders and thought "I can do that!"

One only had to pull out once.  But then one was on a role.  A ROLE.

Or is that a ROLL?

Made with Sublime DK cotton and 2 x 4mm circular needles.

This isn't the yarn's original colour.  It was a sort of skin pink.  Don't know what I was thinking when I chose THAT colour but it wasn't anything a little bit of aubergine dye couldn't fix.


Waiting now for my Jo Sharp DK cotton Kiwi colour from Threads and More to start on number two.  Might change the sleeve band next time.  Make it less fussy.






Still no Nikon camera in the post.  Think this might be the first dud eBay purchase in about 4 years.  Hope not.  Otherwise $1,200 down the drain and still no camera.

Eeeeeek!



Still.
Extremely chuffed with knitted summer cotton top.

Not in a Pink Spin

Imagine my GLEE when I realised I wouldn't have enough green to finish the WHOLE job.

I would have to use COLOUR.

And the Lucky Man (aka The Bloke), for all his SNAGiness, wouldn't be seen dead in these.

IMAGINE my disappointment!



















I know!  Looooong aren't they?

Lucky LADY it is then.

LUCKY they FIT me so well don't you think?

AND .... I've been spinning and dying.

Got tricky with one slubbed strand and one fine even strand of Alpaca.

Now what to make with it....?

OK.  Just one more....

Sung to the tune of Holy Holy Holy (naturally)

Holy Holy Holy. Lord Sock Almighty
Early in the morning our feet shall rise to thee.
Holy Holy Holy. Myrthiful and flighty.
Sock in two pair-sons, blessed duality.

Doubting Masculinity

Hmmmm.

It has to be a Y chromosome thing.

Any man that doesn't do this when he sees a tea cosy, or doesn't at the very least suffer a raging internal battle with himself...

Weeellll (said in low growly voice)! He isn't a man really.

How Tea Cosies Changed the World

One knew this already but ...

Mobile phones suck as cameras.  Yes they do.  Especially after one is used to using a you-beaut-fabbo-proper-posh Nikon camera wot makes one look like a professional.

But what is one to do when one's you-beaut-fabo-proper-posh Nikon camera buggers up?!

First one has to learn how focus the damn mobile phone, then how to turn the flash off and on and then - and the most important part - how to get the photo off the phone and onto the computer.

Enter Bluetooth.  Yes.  One now has excellent skills in Bluetoothing from phone to computer.  One feels VERY clever.

I know Wessy.  I know!


Let's just knit some Sublime and be done with it.

Now stop reading this blog and let me prepare my overdue presentation for Pecha Kucha next Tuesday night at Villa Noosa, title...

"How Tea Cosies Changed the World"

Letter from a Road Trip - No. 2 - Cosies Galore

The next big adventure was to judge the CWA Crazy Cozy Competition in Exeter.

Ah the life of a Queen!

No not Exeter,  England.  Exeter in New South Wales.

This gorgeous felted fellow, Pot-a-roo by Melinda Binkens of Kiama Downs, won first prize in the Novelty/Fantasy section.

In a room of 400 cosies! Pot-a-roo beamed at me, shouting "Pick me.  Pick ME!" And well it is pretty damn clever don't you think?  And funny.

Lucky the other cosy judge, Jane Cush, Golbourn Regional Gallery director, chose it too. Lucky for her!

It is hard to tell but this is a 10 cup teapot tea cosy titled "CWA Catering Cozy" and it won the Traditional section.

Entered by the CWA Berry Branch.  Congratulations girls!

It is just so luscious and pretty and practical and... deserving.

Exeter in October is ALSO  freezing!

And here is moi in my (eccentric) knitted flapper hat and Melbourne coat to prove it.

Why is it a 'Melbourne' coat I hear you ask.

Because it is BLACK and LONG (ask any Melbournite) and oh aw-rite, I bought it in Melbourne.

So anyway... here are some more very beautiful, clever, funny tea cosies made by the women of the Southern Highlands and by women from much further afield too.

And even more cosies AND a very beautiful, clever, funny traveling companion (top left).

Click on photos to embiggen.

There were pipers and polies (rooting around in her handbag there) and pink ladies, representing those who have lived with cancer.....

....which is after all the purpose of the entire event....

....to raise money for nursing care for women suffering breast cancer in regional Australia.

The women of the CWA (Country Women's Association) raised more than $15,000

How FABULOUS is that!

Ah but like the notice says...

MUSIC MUST CEASE BY 12 MIDNIGHT

And it did.






Pop on over HERE for even more tea cosy photos.

Letter from a Road Trip - No. 1 - A knitting workshop

Things I learned on The Road Trip.  

(Yes I know.  Ms Yarn Harlot tells us what she learned all the time but damn it - I can do it too.)

I learned...

1.  that Bowral in October is FREEZING!

2.  that Wool Addiction is a vewy noice place to visit.  Well actchewally I knew that already!  I'm just saying it again.

3.  that girls just wanna have fun.  Even bikie chick girls.  (Yep.  Lizzy on the left is a Bikie Chick Knitting Girl.)

4.  that some Bikie-Chick-Knitting-Girls think knitting is so important they take two days holiday leave from work and travel all the way from Sydney to Bowral to play knitting.

5.  that inviting my girlfriend Alex  (top right) of 28 years to accompany me on The Road Trip was one of the best ideas I've had in a long time.

6.  that not only do Bikie-Chick-Knitting-Girls come a long way to play knitting but so do Bikie-Chick-Truck-Driving-Drag-Racing-Support-Team-Engine-Changers by the name of Donna (top left - aka Dorothy depending on who you ask) 

7.  that other girlfriends, Donna and Mary (top right) have best ideas all the time,  running away from Canberra to patchwork gigs and other fun stuff together often.

8.  that continental knitters, Anne (bottom left and also from Canberra) prove to be excellent teachers of teachers (moi) and do indeed knit faster than everyone else.

9.  that Debbie does tea cosies and not Dallas and that facials at the end of a day's knitting have soporific effects preventing knitting homework to be completed - not that one could tell looking at the cosy.

 

10.  that using the posh digital camera indoors without a flash to pick up the best colour doesn't always make for the clearest picture.  My sincerest apologies Judith (left).  Love your rose.


11.  That wool shop proprietors (that's Jill on the right)  like to show off their workshop handywork too.

12.  that beautiful young women just out of school can be so clever as to get themselves their first job in a wool shop.  How come I didn't think of that?


13.  that meeting Hilary (on the right) was just one of the many joys that spending two days in the front room at Wool Addiction provided.

Thank you everyone.  What an excellent adventure.