some more jumbo bobbins for my wheel! yippee!



They were out of stock at Christmas time so they came in a box with my other fibrey Christmas present from my sister and her Laddo. They signed me up for Fibre Club at Ewe Give Me the Knits!, and the first installment of fibrey goodness arrived this week.


150 or so grams of superwash merino in autumny colours. Maybe it will be socks? gotta love machine washable socks :) It might go all chunky and into an art yarn for a hat or a scarf...

I think that I need to work on getting my jumbo flyer mojo happening before I do anything with this fibre. Also I am waiting on an orifice reducer bush (fnar fnar) so that I don't have to screw the big orifice thingy on and off when I change flyers. Too many little bits to lose, and since Monkey 4 is now scritching around the floor very capably, the fewer little bits around to lose the better.

The Love of my Life ordered me a last minute Christmas present, hoping that it would arrive here before the 25th. The big day arrived but my parcel didn't.

Not very happy...

On new years eve, Mandie from Ewe Give me the Knits rang us to check our address since the parcel was returned to her, saying that there was no such address. WTF??? She had addressed it properly to us, using the same address that Australia Post has recognised and delivered to for the last 7 years that we have been living here.

She posted it again, and today it arrived.

I was a bit excited but mostly "it's about time"...

Before I could put the flyer on my wheel, I had to oil it and put a few bits together.

And then I had to change one of the orifice supports on my wheel. If you aren't into spinning, the orifice is the hole at the front that the yarn gets sucked into like a toddler eating spaghetti.
Myself, I still feel a bit weird when I think of poking stuff into my orifice, esp in polite company. Orifice. Heh heh. Anyhow, the orifice (heh heh) support for the new flyer was a teensy bit bigger than the old one,
so I had to get to the maiden (the wooden bit (seriously, maiden, orifice, spinning is a dirty business...)) with the bit of sandpaper that came in the kit of goodies, probably for that purpose.

Then I found that the brake band wouldn't fit (too short) and the quick modification I made using a hairband wouldn't work (too dodgy), so there was nothing fot it but to pirate some fishing line from TLOML's fishing rod. One of these days I am going to need to upgrade to a new postie elastic band instead of the old one that I am using.
I had a go at plying some singles that I spun more than 12 months ago, when I was only just pregnant with Monkey 4, and really nauseous. In honour of its history, I proclaim this yarn to be Funky Chunky Chucky. Don't say that too fast, if you do it will sound worse than me going on about orifices.

Friends of ours live in Western Regional NSW and have invited us to come and visit for the last three years, and for the last three years we haven't been able to go. We are terrible friends. This year they invited us to come and watch the fireworks that he sets off. Finally, after 3 whole years, we managed to haul ourselves 4 hours west to see our friends, the town and the fireworks. Not only did we get to watch the kabooms, The Love Of My Life got to help set them off. He was a happy man and assures me that the pyrotechnics licence course only takes three days and a thousand dollars to do.




We stayed with our friends in the most gorgeous, kid friendly and friend friendly house. It was marvellous!

Another high point of the trip was using this


to cook these.
Very enjoyable on both counts!

In the evening on New Years Day we were treated to Baked Alaska, which were so delicious that I just ate mine all up before I thought of taking a photo. Imagine me sitting and looking very content, with a belly full of brownie and icecream and meringue :)

I just StumbledUpon this link and had to share. The only improvement I could suggest is being able to choose the Right Wing Politician Of Your Choice. But shoeing George Dubbya in the head is a great start!

Throw a shoe at GWB here

Last year I was too sick to make my annual Christmas shortbread, so I am making up for it this year :) So far I have used 2kg of butter, and I am about halfway finished. Yum!

I have had a few dye jobs sent my way lately. Dyeing things for other people, especially dyeing expensive baby carriers for other people gives me such an adrenaline rush, after all colour is so difficult to describe, and to photograph, and usually the people that I dye for live a way away, so most communication is by email. Don't get me wrong though, I love it! I love the textiles, the patterns, the textures and most of all the colours. I love the process as well, splashing around with colour is one of my favourite things to do.

Mulberry Leo

This carrier started out as a Natural Leo Storchenweige wrap carrier.

His owner lives in Adelaide but was coming for a family holiday in Canberra, so she brought Leo with her so I could dye it while she was here. And lucky it worked out that way...

The leo was supposed to be a nice purply colour, but not to vivid, so we decided on a colour like dusky violet from Kraftkolour. I ordered the dye, and when the Leo came to Canberra (and it was so great to meet another babywearer that goes on holiday with the car boot half full of carriers!), he went for a swim.


but turned out an icky gun metal grey colour :(


His owner wasn't thrilled with his colour, and neither was I, so back he went into a magenta dyebath, and turned out a much better colour. He is now called Mulberry Leo.


I am not thrilled with Kraftkolour's mix of dusky violet. I think that I will stick to my old reliable dye supplier at dyeman.com, and stick to pure colours and play with mixing them myself.

Scarlet Vicky

Vicky was a yellow Storchenweige wrap that was living in Darwin and wrapping some gorgeous twins, and the twins were born on the same day as my Monkey 4. Vicky is yellow with yellow stripes, and the owner of the wrap really didn't do yellow so well, so she wanted Vicky to go red.

I put her in a strong bath of stock red dye from dyeman.com (see, nice and reliable!),

and she came out looking like Lego brick red, with subtle stripes. Her owner was really happy with her transformation and now calls her Scarlet.

Mulberry Osnaberg

When people see woven wraps, they seem to say "but can't you just make one out of fabric?", but up till now finding a fabric that behaves properly (ie not much horizontal or vertical stretch, but some diagonal stretch) has been a challenge. Recently the good women at TheBabyWearer.com have been going crazy for a fabric called Osnaberg. It is a roughish sort of fabric that is used for quilting and other things, but has the diagonal give that is so comfy when wrapping a baby to an adult.

Being the fabric addict I am, I decided to jump on this bandwagon and see what all the fuss is about. I sourced 3.5 metres at a local fabric store (at four times the price it is retailing in the US, what is with that???), hemmed it, gave it tapers, and gave it a burl.
Pretty comfy for a rucksack back carry tied under the bum, and doable for a reinforced rucksack carry tied at the front in the tails.

I need more practice with gradation dyeing, and wanted to know how the Osnaberg would dye, and had a whole heap of Kraftkolour dusky violet dye to use up, so I did a gradation dye with a blend of dusky violet and red. It turned out pretty nice.




and it kind of matches my bag :)

So many things happening at the moment!

The Love Of My Life has a new job, which is mostly wonderful but partly stressful.

Wonderful because his old job wasn't making him happy, it was making him pretty miserable. His old boss was a stinker who had no idea about managing or keeping staff. Wonderful because now instead of a 90 minute bus ride or 30 minute drive to work each day he now works in our spare room. Wonderful because our house is full of eye candy all day long.

Stressful because his old boss is threatening legal action against us. Stressful because some of his work needs to be done in Sydney and we don't live in Sydney, so he has been away three times in three weeks, once for the whole week. Stressful because I am used to my own space in the house during the day, and I am not in the habit of explaining where I am during the day.

But ultimately wonderful. TLOML is happy, and so we are all happy!



Making making making.

Spinning wool for the local show and to practice dyeing and navajo plying, and hurrying up as best I can with that so that I can get onto the kgs of fibre my sister bought for me when she went to Bendigo Wool Mills. What a fantastic sister :) Here is the fibre I dyed, it is merino roving (or is it sliver, I don't know the diffy), I am spinning it fine to look a bit like watermelon. Watch this space.

Sewing some more slings, for others and for me.

Sewing some clothing for me. I made a skirt, and have the fabric for another skirt, just waiting for me to sew up. I have to get better at altering patterns, then I can make some tops that fit. I want to sew some bags for my friends.

I am also crocheting a little bag for one of my friends. It is so good to sit and hook when Monkey 4 lets me.

I have been married to the Love of My Life for 10 years and three days and we are still madly in lurve. Thanks so much to my sister and her wonderful partner, they looked after Monkeys 1, 2 and 3 while the LOML and I and Monkey 4 went out for a wonderful celebratory dinner.

more details about more stuff going on to follow :)

We had a bit of a drama getting Monkey 4's birth certificate organised (paperwork is not the forte of our homebirth midwife...), but one of the complications involved my occupation.

For the last 8 years I have pretty much full time parented our kids (with the love of my life). I haven't had much paid employment since we started breeding. So when the ACT office of Births Deaths and Marriages asked about mother's occupation for Monkey 4's birth cert, I put Parent.

Turns out that Parent is not a valid occupation. I could be Homemaker, or Housewife, but not Parent.

WHAT IS WITH THAT??? Admittedly Parenting does not have very good (or any) superannuation, or health insurance, or workplace benefits. I do not get an hour paid lunchbreak on the days I work. I don't have to wear special clothes, apart from ones that don't show the puke or the snot stains. And I don't do housework (any more than is necessary). So I can't be a Homemaker. Geez.

So in the end I relied on the qualification that I will likely never earn enough to have to pay for, and put Teacher. I could have done a Smarty Pants effort and put in all of the occupations that are listed in that email that goes around every now and again that say how a mother is really about a thousand things at once, but really, I wanted to be a Parent.

I love being a Parent. It is the hardest and the bestest thing I have ever done in my life. It is intense, and all incompassing, and boring and exhilerating and difficult and heart wrenching and wonderful, all at once. It is a fecking hard job, and possibly the most important job on the planet. And I am proud to do it.

Just pissed off that the goverment won't let me be Only a Parent.

Something strange is going on. Maybe it has to do with the Large Hadron Collider being turned on, but probably not.

Something strange is happening to time. At least at my house. It used to take me approximately 24 hours to get the sleep that I can survive on, care for myself, care for three monkeys, maintain a happy marriage and social life, and even get a few extra things done. You will notice that housework didn't fit into the above list. With the addition of Monkey 4 into our lives, I have found that the 24 hours have stretched somewhat. Now I seem to be able to get the sleep I can survive on (survive, not crave, but there you go), care for myself (and who really needs a daily shower, it is winter!), care for FOUR monkeys, maintain a happy marriage and social life. Still no housework. No point changing everyone's life dramatically at this point in time.

This weird time stretch has been gradual, and hasn't finished yet. I can actually feel the stretch happen. A few weeks ago the time it took to care for Monkey 4 butted into the time available in 24 hours, and other things had to go by the by. But gradually the 24 hours are stretching to fit more in. Daily, I seem to be able to cram more in.

weird, huh?