Road trip: day 3

Morning at the Wang consisted of music videos and then a very large breakfast at our new favourite cafe. Mmmm, breakfast chips!

The first thing that drew us to Scribblers were the black and white tables, so TSS was a little disappointed by their only decent pepper-grinder...

We went by a yarn store and I saw a felted pear that was far inferior to the beautiful ones a certain lovely lady makes, so i took a snap for proof.

We then went to Wangaratta Woolen Mills, where there are a lot of signs to build the anticipation. the yarn fumes overcame me and I didnt think to take a photo of the inside of the shop... but be to fair, this is what we bought and it's a fairly decent reflection of what was once in the shops :p
bag in middle and left are mine... wasn't TSS a good girl? Her pruchases weren't even for her!

We then tore back towards Canberra, swinging by everything remotely resembling an op-shop on the way. The most memorable thing we saw would have to be this amazing sweater kit in Wodonga - with a pre-knit yoke! We didnt buy it, it smelled a little like moths and by that stage our purses were all a little light.

We made in to Canbbera by about 6.30 and collapsed in a heap.

BEST. TRIP. EVER.

Road trip: day 2

The morning in Bendigo began with the dawn chorus. That is, workmen drilling and reversing trucks for long periods of time. Sock knitting, however, took the edge off it all.

After a hastily consumed breakfast, and a few wrong turns, we ended up at the mill. We savoured the moment by exploring outside for a little while...

And then we hit the bargain room.
YUM.
Some damage was done, at least to our reputations as sane and rational modern women.

We hit some op-shops.
We dragged ourselves off to a strange mohair farm in the hope of a tour of cute animals but sadly no tour was available. The man who was manning the store was obviously VERY confused by our arrival and had some trouble dealing with idea that I am under 25, knit, spin and may not totally suck at either of the latter (I do totally suck at being under 25, i tend to swing rapidly between mental ages of 4 and 50).
Some nice spinning fibre was located but no photos were taken.

We then raced towards Mooroopna and made it there just the very minute that the SPC Factory Outlet Store closed. Luckily, TSS is far more persuasive than I am and talked our way inside to buy large quantities of tinned tomatoes.

We then proceeded to Wangaratta (or 'The Wang' as every local calls it, much to my amusement). We had a swim in the motel pool, ordered thai food and enjoyed some bevvies at the local pub while we waited.

We watched The Wedding Planner and I knitted my pink cardigan and we periodically shared idiotic grins of pure joy.

Road trip: day 1

So, bright and early at sparrow's fart on Sunday, TSS and I started on our mission to deprive Victoria of all bargain-priced yarn.

We saw a submarine, and pondered the logistics of having a submarine so far inland.
We saw a monkey. Nearby there were discarded socks, so I maintain it was a sock monkey taking a little breather.

We went through Albury, and viewed our accommodation for Monday night... and were less than thrilled. Any place with a drive-thru bottle shop, in my book anyway, is not high living.

We stopped off at Wangaratta for lunch and kind-of-accidentally-on-purpose changed our booking for the second night's accommodation. Oops! We ate a fabulous lunch at the worlds best cafe (Scribbler's, but they might change their name) which is friendly to both Coeliac's and Vegetarians.
We saw a beautiful dress in a window that could've been a great wedding dress (but when i tried it on the colour and cut was all wrong for me).

We pushed on to Bendigo and arrived about 5pm. We walked around the pretty gardens and lovely conservatory. Eventually we located our accommodation at The Fleece Inn. So pretty!

Dinner was on Coles and after-dinner entertainment was down to Roxy.

We admired the staircase and my amazing scarf cast on and off in one day.Then we went to bed and tried to sleep through the excitement about visiting Bendigo Mills in the morning.

TO BE CONTINUED

this way madness lies

my friends, I have to tell you: I am wreckage. I have 2 1/2 days of anti-biotics left and i'm still coughing my lungs up hourly. I've been back at school for the last three days and i'm SO behind. I mean, my classes are fine and everything but i've done nowhere near the amount of marking i wanted to have done by now. Is making me crazy.
So tonight i am at home, marking essay drafts which i will return to my kids at the Swimming Carnival tomorrow. Marking essay drafts is not a sanity-forward type activity.

I am not a fan of the whole sports carnival thing. When i was at school as a student i was always a conscientious objector. As a teacher, that doesnt go down so well. So i've nominated myself for patrol of my house area. Apparently this is a crappy job, but i quite like playground duty and i dont want to encourage the kids to feel crappy by being a judge. yech.

and before you ask, there is no way in hell that i am going swimming. I do not need my students to see my cellulite, thankyou so very much!

A few people have asked recently exactly how big the stash is. After recent binge-ful events there has definitely been some stash explosion. It may have tripled.

This is my yarn room, also known as the spare room (if Monkey is in ear-shot) or Vic's room (during the reign of terror). Those two boxes contain sweater quantities of yarn that are not in original packets. Is that weird? Plastic bags just dont stack the same way, and they dont make zip-locks big enough. The two baskets in the background contain happyspider hand-dyed and spun for the obdm wool day this year :D
This is the cupboard that was the wardrobe in this room. You will notice large quantities of woolbale (which i am a fan of) and merino spun, also lots of pale yarn for dyeing. there is also spinning fibre and assorted odd-balls.
This is my cupboard in the office. See what I'm saying about yarn packets stacking so nicely? This is my pride-ful cupboard, containing all the yarn i want on hand to inspire me. left to right, top to bottom by stack. Top-ish shelf: Anchor Magicline cotton and some Katia Arc en Ciel; 4 packs of Zara and 1 pack of Me, 2 packs 8ply cotton, 3 packs Patons Dreamtime, 1 pack merino et soie, a few straggling balls of Me for Mum's cardi, some white moda vera bamboo/cotton; 7 packets of Zhivago.
Middle-ish Shelf: 7 packets of Jet; 2 packs white Inca 3 packs machinewash 8ply, 1 pack machinewash 5ply; 5 packs cleackheaton country, 1 pack white Inca; 2 packs of cleackheaton country 12ply.
Bottom shelf: basket of handspun and some cotone; moda vera supremo, paul and harmony; moda vera paul, katia espiga and moda vera merinos wool acrylic; 6 packets of harvest 8ply.
Tubs underneath - sock yarn, laceweight and odd balls.

none of this covers the stuff i intend to sell on or dispose of somehow. There are five giant boxes in the living room that are either being listed on my ravelry sell page or else i might cave in to eBay again soon. If only to get my living room back.
now that my full sickness is displayed I feel somehow less dirty. So I am cleansed - at least til the next binge.

I leave you with a few thoughts from some essay drafts I am marking (five points if you can tell me what the novel is):

"Ralph, as a head, is very calm at the beginning of the book."

"If and when they are broken or are not followed, the society will most likely fall and crumble and people will go their separate ways which does not do well in trying to achieve one amalgamated group."

"Jack would rather have stayed on the island as long as he got his protein."

Think calm, well structured, grammatically correct and sane thoughts for me...

Peace out,
Ms Spider

PS. How unfair is it that my house colour is yellow? i own no clothing that colour, precisely because it looks awful on me!

back in the race

So the net's back up. Turned out our modem was busted (i feel rather guilty for suspecting bunny-chewed cords). My mind is slowly returning, save for the fact that i realised this afternoon that i'm coming down with the flu. This was, of course, after google-ing my symptoms, realising it wasnt low blood sugar because i'd been eating for once and it probably wasn't a brain tumour... started to get the body aches on the way home and that sorted the conundrum for me. Clearly i should have added "stupidity" to my list of symptoms, eh?

In the last couple of weeks a lot has happened. Our car died. We are car-less. I am used to buses but if it weren't for kind friends with cars, the cupboard would be distinctly bare (it's a pain in the bum to carry tins home....)
The bunnies got a bath after knocking over and then playing in the contents of a bowl of casserole. They were rather indignant.... and i would have been too. They looked like drowned rats.
Tomorrow they are having their testicles (pronounced test-ick-leeees if you please) removed and their immunisations. I havent told them yet... i hope they aren't too cross. Monkey said he would be very cross if i cuddled him, took him to the doctor and then the doctor lopped of his nuts. We'll see.

There has also been knitting.
I finished Monkey's tiger socks. It's very cute, he runs about wearing them and growling. he LUBS them.
Finished back piece of Mum's cardi. Slow going but the end result is gorgeous. i have about three weeks til her birthday so lets hope my bus gets delayed often to give me time.
I'm also onto the sleeves of the origami cardi. I love this. The Totem is just amazing, the feel, the spring, the colour... I am in love. Of course, doing the dratted sleeves at the same time feels like it's endless but it'll be done before i know it. especially if i spend all weekend hiding from the world.

I also did a little bit of online auction flirtation. Or perhaps, full blown commitment? It was all my faculty executive's fault, he showed me this sight where there were the contents of manchester stores that had gone out of business... for auction. at ridiculous prices.
Luckily i have some long-term savings squirrelled away, and after some talking myself into it... well. The first installment arrived yesterday, and this is a third of what i won.George, feel free to show your DH. This third of the new stash came to approx 600 50g balls. I have no (or very little) shame, i consider this to be an investment, and after working out what i dont want and can sell on and what i can overdye and sell on... i come very close to breaking even.
I dont know if i quite have the nerve to post a quantitive pic of the new stash... perhaps when it's all safe home. But curious parties may like to watch my incoming stash on ravelry... mind you, i've only scratched the surface.
do yourself a favour and dont watch my ebay sales too closely over the next month, paticularly if you are of a weak disposition.

I suppose it's everyone's right to tell me it's disgusting etc. feel free. But i am SO happy. I keep pinching myself. And i'm sorry if this came across as smug, i didnt mean it to. I was actually debating wether or not to mention it... but caved in, far too excited.
For curious parties, it was here. No manchester stores up at the moment but it could happen again, one never knows.

The fibre whore,
Ms Spider

ETA the link. all yarn is usually listed under online sales, homewares ang gifts and then manchester. it's a clunky site but perhaps worth the effort?

cool change

Today i had a visit from the lovely Jejune and dotter Othlon. There was sandwiching, bunny-snuggling, spinning and knitting.
after this pleasant interlude (and a little nap) there may have been some damage done at Cassidy's in Kingston. thats Filatura Di Crosa, 10 balls black, 10 balls baby pink, 10 balls bluebell blue and 9 balls dark denim-y blue.
Did you know Zara is being discontinued? Im not sure if i believe them, they might just mean that their supplier is no longer going to supply them. For whatever reason, I got 4 sweaters worth of yarn, $388.05 retail value of yarn for $78. Pretty happy really :D Feeling no guilt. honest! For those of you who are still interested, there is a sh-load of Zara in many colours, chocolate brown Me and mustard/poo brown Me, and a sh-load of NZ Haven (merino 8ply). There is some Zarina as well but not much and a varied amount of zhivago and the like. all $2 per ball. Go to it.

Oh and lest you think my brain can't cope with anything but 6ply socks... i finished the body pieces of my Mohair Cowl Sweater (Pattern from Knitting Magazine, September 2007). Yes, I am blocking the pieces but i find mohair on such an open guage is much easier to seam if first blocked. particularly in a grey this dark - i dont need to go blind early. I'll cast on the sleeves tonight (both at the same time or i lose interest after one and I'm not inclined to amputate in order to save myself from boredom). Have so far used 2 and 1/2 balls of Cleckheaton Studio Mohair. I had 8. I think i might have enough after all ;)

Am feeling a good deal better but it's still kicking my arse everytime i over-estimate myself. It's slow going.

And the bunnies are still in love.

Peace out
Ms Spider

sporadic-ness

Hi y'all. Been a strange week so far.

Monday i finished (and wore to work) my drop-stitch tank. HOT! Love it. It actually doesnt look as weird/blurry as in this pic but i havent blocked it and i was home alone. love it love it love it. This yarn is awesome. and it on;y used 5.2 50g balls ^_^

Monday night i freaked cos i didnt feel like knitting lace and had no appropriate project for my mood... SO i spun some of the EGMTK fibre and cast on a beret. You can see here how manic i am.. i'm about to run out of yarn and there is tons of fibre left... silly Spidey. Short attention span, really?

Yesterday morning i experienced that joyful right of passage as a teacher - having a kid spew in class. Of course i had to clean it up and then attempt to go on with the work. They were pretty well behaved considering.. but it did make for a unsettling start to the day.
And then last night we hosted the Starbucks christmas party... so a lot of grog and a lot of singstar was partaken of. I got to bed at a reasonable hour but no-one else did so i was a little short-tempered today. Doesn't hurt the kids i teach to get a good dressing down every now and then though.

In between all that excitement, however, i received a package from my ravelry Australian Knitters tea-cosy swap person; KnitsMcgee. Very exciting indeed (that's my own tea-pot - i just had to show how well it fitted!). I'm so spoilt, and it arrived on a day i had to clean up puke with an audience so karma clearly likes me.

So that inspired me to get off my butt and finish my own cosy. So i did. (great story Spidey, really!). Well.. actually i cast on this evening... but i can be quite diligent when i have to be. Too cute, right? That would be Happy Spider 12ply in Watermelon (the black bits i embroidered on with black seed beads). I'm going to have to post it soon or i'll be too attached to let it out of my sight.

Anyway, I'm pretty bogged down with marking. So i ought to go do some (yeah, my plan to do school work only at school is falling down a little... at least i held out a good long while!).

Peace out,
Ms Spider xo

coming up roses

Before i start going on and on (and on) about knitting, i thought i would show you all what's been happening in my garden (what with the rain and all).

What with the miraculous properties rain has (above and beyond tap water or grey water) my roses have exploded.
Napoli (i think. It's something Napoli... supposedly a minature but it got huge this year)
Just Joey, just expanding.Double Delight with white snapdragon snuggling it.
Black Beauty (not as dark as i was expecting but very pretty nonetheless.
There are more flowers but i'll save them for later in the week.

In knitting news.. i have been focused on that tank. oh yeah. in fact, if i am irresponsible with my english marking over the weekend i may very well be able to wear it tomorrow (w00t!).

I have also had quite a bit come in this week...
my EGMTK fibre club package for November... excitement!
Some more Fibreworks 2ply silk because i lub the purple one so much.and a certain enabler we all know may have made some miraculous purchases, one of which i shall show you.Naturally Merino et Soie 8ply... 10 balls. *drool*
you hate me now, right?
ah well, bound to happen.

Peace out,
Ms Spider xo

PS Happy end of the regime!

PPS Pomegranates are yummy.