I am miserable.  A dear friend, who wanted the baby she was carrying more than anything in the world, birthed her sleeping baby early this week.  She is devastated, I am devastated, everyone she knows is devastated.  No sadder thing could happen.  When someone dies, people across time and across the world get together to grieve.  Another dear friend who is grieving gathered a heap of us together so that we could comfort each other. But I couldn't go.

My fully vaccinated children were exposed to whooping cough (pertussis) at school.  At our lovely hippy school, populated with just the demographic of typical anti-vaxxers, left wing, middle to upper middle class, very educated, and easily swayed by the fear and pseudoscience of people like the Australian Vaccination Network. I'm not getting into the whole debate, that would take years and give me an ulcer.

There is a whooping cough epidemic on the east side of Australia right now, and it is caused by falling vaccination rates.  No brainer.  And my kids have been exposed to whooping cough.  They are mildly unwell, but thanks to their vaccination status I am not worried for their health.  But I am worried about exposing young babies who have not had the opportunity to be fully immunised against whooping cough.  These babies die.  I am not going to be responsible for another mother saying goodbye to the baby she will never hold again in her arms.

My kids have seen a doctor, have had swabs taken, and I will base our further activity on the results, which I should hear in a day or two.

So instead of grieving with my women friends, all mothers, for the baby that has died and for the hearts that have broken and will never heal the same, I am keeping my kids away from their kids, because it is the right thing to do.  I can't be with these women today, and might not be able to make it to the funeral for that wee babe who never had the chance to draw breath.

Fuck you, anti-vaxxers.  I hope you are happy.  I am miserable.


18/07/11 update - the swabs taken from my kids came back clear.  My kids do not have pertussis.  I can once again go and be with my friends, right now when we need each other the most. 

Thanks for kind words, and for strong words based on science and evidence, to counter the comment fuelled by paranoia, fear and misinformation. 

Please go and vaccinate your kids, and vaccinate yourself against whooping cough.  More info here.

Stage 8 - I finished the 50g of rainbow coloured silk tops that has been on  my Windwheel for over 12 months.  Hooray!

I didn't think to put a lego brick in the picture for size perspective (Lego bricks are my inclusion for standardising colours and sizes, coins are no good, most of the rest of the world doesn't know what Au cents look like), but the yarn is very very very thin.  Like super thin.  Think hair or sewing thread.  Next challenge is to navajo ply it, which will be a very long undertaking indeed.  I will have to move the kids out for a week to get it done.  Or even better, move myself out for a week.  Yes... good plan.

I was going to blog every day with my le Tour spins, but this week has been a bit hideous.

Here is what I can remember.

Day one - stayed up late knitting Party Wig, and stopped knitting to get in an hour or so worth of spinning rainbow silk on my Windwheel.  The singles that this silk is turning into is either cobweb weight or lace weight, and will likely end up being navajo plied to keep the colours together.  I've had this on the wheel for over a year and I would really really like it to be finished.

Day two - I only managed about 10 minutes of spinning of alpaca fleece on my teensy tinsy new turkish spindle.  The alpaca is part of the many kg of raw alpaca fleece I was given last year, and I washed it, dried it, carded it, combed it and dizzed it off into gorgeous soft delicious top.  When I tried spinning it on my wheel I couldn't find my mojo at all, so I am really happy that it is spinning up so well on the spindle.  I also managed a wee bit more rainbow silk on the Windwheel

Day three - some more alpaca on the baby spindle, and also a bit of time spinning laceweight merino/silk on my other spindle

Day four - spindling, both merino/silk and alpaca.

Day 5 - about an hour spinning rainbow silk on the Windwheel.

It is all I can do to get the spins done, I haven't managed photos yet.  Maybe this weekend.

 My friend was telling me about her birthday party and how the prep was making her tear her hair out, and I joked that I would make her a wig.

Two days until party. GO WIG GO!

I started using some pink Bendigo 8 ply, and knitted like the wind. All was going well until I started the decreases, and somehow the graphic on the Knitty pattern didn’t fit into my head properly, and I started decreasing on the sides instead of the front and the back. Once I realised my mistake, I frogged back to half way down the fringe (WTF is BANGS?) and picking up all the stitches in rib was too much of a pita so I started again. I was thinking of dyeing the pink wig since it was pastel and a bit boring, but had found some bright red 8 ply, so decided to make a new wig with this instead.

Cast on new wig. 24 hours until party. KNIT BABY KNIT!

I finished this wig, learned how to do a three needle cast off (awesome), sewed in ends, turned up the bottom of the wig and sat it in the bamboo steamer over some boiling water while I had a shower and got dressed for the party. Took wig out of steamer, dried it out while I found my shoes, wrapped wig and headed to party.

Party hostess loved the wig and wore it all party long.

Last minute wig knitting FTW.