A knit free week?

We were at my niece and Felix's joint family birthday party on Sunday when my sister asked if I was still unemployed with sooooo much time on my hands. "Well, yes. Why?"

Some help was required for my niece, Eden, specifically for her dance group. Now my sister knows that I'd lay down in traffic for any of my nieces and nephews, so I said yes. How hard could helping out be?















There are 40 blue stars to sequin. Easy enough. It's the 105 pink ones I'm worried about.

So much for knitting this week.

Long? Not really. Lacy? Partly. Fun? Yes!

Today in Melbourne, summer is truly over. It started raining overnight and it's still bucketing down. To everyone getting soaked at Sound Relief - suffer. I couldn't afford tickets to the concert let alone buy my husband a birthday present. Oh yeah...Happy Birthday Felix!

It seems a round-up of my long lacy summer is necessary, so I shall recap what I managed to knit.














Technically I finished my Snowdrop Shawl in early November, but I'm counting it!














Next up was my Cascading Leaves Shawl, which I love because I know that Kaye - who owns it - loves it too.













Then I finished my Nosferatu Shawl in about two weeks - so fast!














Celtic Hearts was even faster. One week - I loved it.














Finally, my lace beret.

I don't feel that I stretched myself too hard making any of these, experience-wise. I've knitted lace before, and love it, but it's fun seeing just how many I managed to knit in such a short amount of time.

What to knit first...

Chantal once pointed out that the problem with pregnancy is that you have less than nine months to knit everything. As usual, she's right, so I'm taking advantage of my current unemployment to knit my fingers to the bone.

Recently I was worried because I didn't feel like knitting. Or reading. Or (shock horror) watching BBC dramas. This is when Felix started to worry. I asked my Divine J(udith) what was wrong with me and her reply was very comforting. "Koekie, you just moved back to Australia, you travelled for 50 hours straight, you're living on a sofa bed and you're pregnant. Just take the time you need to relax." I love Judith, especially after she promised to knit Podling presents in cotton. I loathe knitting in cotton - no give to it - but as Podling is due at the end of September, summer looms, so cotton it must be. Judith has taken a weight off my mind, and I have promised that the second I know the boy/girl question she'll be told.

I myself am a wool lover, but even I have made sacrifices. I have knitted a cotton tank top in Rowan Wool Cotton - *gasp*! That's about two hours from finishing, and once I find my camera again I can take pictures. It's somewhere around.

In the meantime, I've also started the Debbie Bliss Alphabet Blanket in Patons Merino Deluxe DK that was a present long ago from Damien from ACS. It's always great to put a lot of yarn to a great use, and this blanket is a one-of-a-kind.

Next up - a knitted christening gown?

6,561st reason to love Ravelry

I've been having a pretty rough time since we got home from Scotland. We arrived in time for the horrendous heatwaves (I fainted), the tragedy of the bushfires which brought back a lot of painful memories of 1983 for my family, and - selfish as this sounds while so many have nowhere to live - the torture of the pull out sofa bed. Which is the perfect size for one. Except that there's two of us.

Anyhoo, my rant on Ravelry about how some heartless sod had stolen my bag had caused many many lovely Ravellers to pop up and offer me wool and presents. The first offer (within minutes) cam from the very lovely Karen who offered me both a new diary and an anniversary present for my parents as part of the RAK (Random Acts of Kindness) group on Ravelry. I accepted happily and today my parcel arrived.

When you've been having a bad time, to see all of this makes you believe in the kindness of complete strangers.















Can you believe it? A bag, wind chimes, some beautiful soap from India, a worry doll (very necessary!), chocolate, a candle, incense, a charm with yarn dolls, a little wind turner, lots of tea (yum!) and - the ultimate - a Wedgewood picture frame!

I burst into tears and Felix just looked at it and pointed out - yet again - how fantastic Ravelry is. He's beyond right this time!

My mum has claimed the Wedgewood frame for herself, and is planning to save it for her 7th grandchild's picture, even though the baby isn't due until late September.

Oh, that's another reason for my bad mood - morning sickness. Because the 7th grandchild is coming from Felix and I.

Surprise!