And now for some photos

As promised, although these must be some of the worst photos of knitting ever. I was stuck inside, and my camera wouldn't play nice!

Anyway...The Zig and Zag blankets (still OTN, and will be for a while, as I want it to be a good size)

And the Aunty Lesley Hat:

And the lilac/trying to be lilac booties (still without ribbon, because I can't decide what colour to go with...)



The Train Cake

If you're from the 80s, like me, or were alive in the 80s, and you're Australian, you probably know what The Train Cake is. It's from the Australian Women's Weekly Birthday Cake book, and it is AMAZING. I've always wanted to make one, and my husband's 30th birthday is coming up. I think I've found my opportunity. Yes, I could wait until I have a, you know, child, but I think my husband will do. He's cute, and can be childlike, and he likes trains. And cake. He probably prefers the cake. That doesn't really bother me.

So, the plan is:

1. Ask Mum if I can borrow the cookbook. Actually just did this while writing this post. TICK
2. Figure out if it can all be done with natural food colouring. Thinking not, so start the process of accepting that.
3. Figure out if I really NEED to use packet cake mix as specified. Surely I could just make buttercake?
4. Buy trolley full of lollies.
5. Tell husband to get the HELL OUT of the kitchen while I make it!

His birthday is 7 June, so photos shortly after that I think. When I figure out how to post photos.

This blog is a secret (and a pattern!)

For some reason, I haven't told anyone about this blog. I don't really know why, or why I think it matters. For this reason, my husband is probably wondering why on earth I've suddenly taken to snapping photos of all my knitting. Come to think of it, so am I, given that I have no idea how to get a photo on here!

I must look that up.

So there will be photos to come at some stage! On the needles at the moment I have:

1. A Zig and Zag blanket, which I'm making out of 4ply (fingering) scraps in 12 colours. I love it, and you can find it here on Ravelry http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/zig-and-zag-sock-yarn-pram-baby-blanket
2. Two pairs of booties, in a pattern my auntie gave me. I learnt to knit from my Mum and Auntie Lesley, and these booties were the first lace I ever tried. I'm doing a pair in cornflower blue and a pair in a really light lilac. I'm actually skipping the lace part, and despite loving everything purple, the lilac to too light - it doesn't even look purple at all. The blue ones are lovely.
3. A yellow "Auntie Lesley" hat - another of her patterns. Dead easy, so I'll put it here. Use 2.75mm or 3.25mm needles (2mm or 2.5mm if you want a hat to fit a premmie). Cast on 80 stitches, then do 2x2 rib for an inch. Then do either garter or stocking stitch for 3 inches, so you have 4 inches total (end with a wrong side row). Then decrease - k8 k2tog to the end of the first row, the second row (and alternate rows) is knit (or purl for stocking stitch), the third row is k7 k2tog, the fifth is k6 k2tog, and so on until you're doing k1 k2tog. Then you just draw the yarn through the remaining stitches and sew it up. Easy as pie, looks cute with a pom pom or tassel, and together with the booties is a nice little baby gift.
4. Socks for my husband. I've made the first one, and I've just started the second. Socks are a new thing for me, and the first one turned out slightly larger than I was hoping it would. Ok, it's been nicknamed "enormosock". He'll wear them with his ugg boots. He'll have warm feet. He isn't complaining :)

For some reason, when I'm unsettled in life, I have lots of things on the needles. When I am centred and settled, I can knit one thing with amazing focus, but that all goes out the door at times!

This blog might also be about books

Specifically, books I'm reading, want to read and books that are trapped on my Kindle which my Mum has borrowed and taken to Africa. Here's a tip - don't let your Mum borrow your Kindle and take it to Africa. It's very upsetting.

Anyway, aside from knitting, reading is probably my favourite pastime. As a kid I was obsessive, and wouldn't leave the house without a book. It got so bad that I annoyed my parents. Yep, I read so much that my book-worm parents got annoyed and told me to read less. And it isn't like I was neglecting other things, I was always an active kid with lots of interests. The real demonstration of the obsession took a while to show though. At 16, I got my learner's permit, and my Dad thought it would be a good idea for me to drive to my Auntie's house, around an hour away. I'd been going there my entire life. I knew vaguely which direction to go in, but beyond that I was totally lost. It seems I'd never bothered to look out the car window on any of the hundreds of trips I must have made by then.

So, what am I reading right now? Crown & Country A History of England through the Monarchy, by David Starkey. I don't love it. To be honest, I was expecting more, which is probably a hard ask when the book considers every single monarch England has ever had. Each one only gets a few pages and it just feels like something, or possibly a lot of things, are missing. It's also kind of dry, which is disappointing when the subject matters seethes with intrigue.



The bookshop I bought it from is one of my favourite places in the whole world. Hill of Content, in Bourke Street Melbourne, is a lovely place to be. Everyone that works there knows lots about books (which should be a given, but we all know it’s not) and it is quiet and smells like books. Not like Borders, which is where I think books go to die. At Hill of Content the books are alive.

Knitting is relaxation for A Type personalities

That's what I say when people ask me why I knit, or express disbelief at the fact that I do. Wikipedia (because I've done the research people) tells me that A Type personalities are ambitious, aggressive, business-like, controlling, highly competitive, impatient, preoccupied with status, time-conscious and tightly-wound. A Type personalities are often high-achieving "workaholics" who multi-task, push themselves with deadlines, and hate both delays and ambivalence.

Wikipedia is right. Not particularly polite about it, but right.

And knitting is pretty much the only thing I do that is categorically un-A Type, and everyone who knows I knit is surprised and confused by the knowledge. Until they see me do it, they can't imagine that I'm perfectly happy to sit for hours making something VERY SLOWLY. What they don't see is that I can't sit still without knitting, and that it allows me to make something absolutely perfect. Ambition and control can creep into anything!

Anyway, I'm clearly new to this blogging game. Who knows if anyone will even read this blog? I'd love people to enjoy it, but realistically I'm doing this for me, and not for anyone else. Maybe blogging is therapy for A Type personalities? This blog will be about knitting, cooking, maybe sewing if I ever get around to learning, as well as my real life - lawyer, wife, daughter, sister and friend, sometimes all at once!