Thursday weigh-in #13

Weight: 77.7 kg

BMI: 27

Loss this week: 800g

Total loss so far: 10.3 kg

Pumpkin soup is my friend.

Yummy, yummy eggplant.

Nearly three years ago, I knit a tomato.

I didn’t want to knit a tomato, I wanted to knit an eggplant. You see, my sister was having her first baby, and I thought that she and her husband being the foodies that they are (he is a chef, and they run a catering company), they would love an eggplant hat for the baby. So I looked around for purple yarn. There was nothing even remotely right (this was before I had discovered the Blogosphere, so I had no idea of the resources that were actually available to me). In the end, I gave up and bought red yarn, which I turned into a tomato – just a simple little rolled brim beanie, with a green i-cord stem and four or five little sepals. It was a very cute little tomato, but it wasn’t the eggplant I had envisioned, so I was never completely happy with it. However, I gave it to my sister, and she loved it, and her little boy got plenty of wear out of it. At some point (I can’t remember exactly when), I mentioned the eggplant idea to her, and her response (as I knew it would be) was “Oh, that would be too cool!”.

Fast forward a couple of years, and my sister is infanticipating again. A few weeks ago, she asked me if I could make an eggplant hat, “because I love the foodie hats on my babies, and they always get compliments.” I said I was fairly confident I could find some eggplanty yarn at Bendi. Well, I didn’t even have to go all the way to Bendi – I stayed the Thursday night at Mandie’s place, and when I walked in, there it was hanging in front of her fire, just waiting for me: a skein of eggplant-purple sock yarn. The green, of course, is Donni’s famous “Sir Walter” colourway, some of which will comprise the leaves of this little bit of happiness. Should my sister’s bump turn out to be a girl, I’m thinking I will add a couple of little flowers.

So today, I wound Mandie’s gorgeous yarn into a ball and started swatching. For anyone interested in such things, the sock yarn is an absolute delight to knit with. I started out with my default sock needles: 2.5mm, which gave a fabric that was way too dense for a baby hat (but which will be completely perfect for socks). A quick change to 3mm, and I now have a soft, squishy fabric that will be perfect for a little baby head. 

Stay tuned for eggplanty cuteness.

Thursday weigh-in #12

I was really nervous stepping on the scales this morning. I didn’t go nuts at Bendigo, but I sure as hell enjoyed myself, what with the wine and the chocolate and oh-my-god-the-waffles-at-T’Hooft…

Weight: 78.5 kg

BMI: 27

Loss this fortnight: 800g

Total loss so far: 9.5 kg

WOOOOOHOOOOO!!!!!

The post-Bendigo post.

EGMTK! BFL Roving – blue/green/purple

BWM Rustic 8ply – to be a jumper for Sasquatch

FeistyWench at the Ravelry breakfast

BWM Rustic 8ply – to be a jumper for Boyo

RoseRed, Tinkingbell, Donyale & Ms Gusset at Posse HQ

Hand-carved bone buttons

Clothes from Wraptya

Dr Bones, Zephyrama & Tinkingbell at the Ravelry breakfast

Moggy & Me sock yarn – Sir Walter

KnightlyKnitter does her famous Happy Shimmy Dance

Dr Bones and Knightly Knitter

Winnings!

EGMTK! Sock yarn

My Bendi Bingo Card

Big chunk ‘o tree buttons

Apologies for the crappiness of some of the photos; I took them on my phone (which has been known to take good pics, but not when I was using it).

Not sure where to start: there was so much happening – the people, the shopping, the food, the fun, the knitting.

Highlights include:

• The Hustler Street Posse: Donyale, Knightly Knitter, RoseRed, Tinkingbell and Zephyrama – If you ever get the chance to spend some time with any or all of these girls, don’t even hesitate!
• Meeting the extraordinary FeistyWench (Rav-link), who organised all the Ravelry events over the weekend. She did a stellar job, and hopefully is now catching up on months of lost sleep.
• The Friday Night Ravelry Baa at the Shamrock Hotel – a gorgeous old Victorian pub, where the upstairs dining room was full of talking, laughing, eating, drinking, meeting-up-with-bloggy-friend knitters!
• Bendigo Woollen Mills and the legendary Back Room… so much woolly goodness!
• The Ravelry Breakfast on Saturday morning: 140+ Ravellers all crammed into a Girl Guide hall, eating pancakes, drinking coffee, fondling knitwear and winning prizes – that’s how I came by my beautiful little Spinning Woodie spindle and the bag of Ixchel bunny-fluff.
• Eating wood-fired pizza for lunch with the girls, while comparing shopping hauls.
• Catching up with some old friends – EGMTK! Mandie, Suzi, IxchelFibres’ Charlie  and meeting some new ones – Dr Bones, K-GirlKnits, LoomMonkey (and her brand-new hubby, Dave – they came to Bendi on their honeymoon!), EcoKnitMama, Ms Gussetting (and her fabulous Fluevog boots – I am SO getting me a pair!). If I missed anybody, I apologise; so many people, so few brain cells…
• Bendi Bingo – ’nuff said.
• Dinner at the Hustler St house on Saturday night – we stayed in with a select few guests, and ate and drank and laughed and talked and knit.
• Sunday brunch upstairs at a funky little cafe called T’Hooft - I ate way too much, but it was sooo good!

It’s a very good thing to be able to spend time with your people. Just 358 sleeps until it all starts again.

You can see better pics and more eloquent reportage at Donyale’s, Dr Bones’ and Knightly Knitter’s blogs.

Next time I’m taking the good camera.

I am home.

• Bendi was HUGE!!!!!
• People were fun.
• Wine, coffee and chocolate were consumed.
• Cash evaporated.
• Yarn was purchased
• Full update later – children are refusing to let me out of their sight.
• Here’s a teaser:

Since last we spoke…

I have (in no particular order):

• Finished re-knitting the back of the Fireside. I cast off last night at about 10.30pm, then pinned it out on the ironing board and gave it a light steam-block. I generally prefer to wet block, but I don’t have the time for the two-to-three day turnaround. All the pieces are packed, and I hope to be able to get some of the seaming done while I am away.
• Obtained a very cute new haircut, if I do say so myself. With the added bonus of the hairdresser saying “Oh my god! You’ve lost a ton of weight!”. Gotta love that.
• Filled the car with petrol and had the oil, water and tyre pressure checked at the service station.
• Packed my bags and loaded them in the car.
• Wound off a skein of Jitterbug for Bendi knitting. The colourway is “Sahara” and I bought it last year at Bendi, so it seems appropriate I should take it back. I have yet to choose a pattern, but I’ve narrowed it down to two or three, printed them off and they are in my knitting bag. I’ll swatch during rest-breaks.
• Filled the fridge with good healthy food for Tech Support, even though I know perfectly well that he will eat take-away the whole time I’m gone. Tonight will be pizza, because it is an unwritten law that pizza must be consumed during the State of Origin match. I was unaware of this until I married him (despite the fact that I also grew up in a League-loving household), but there you have it.
• Now I’m just killing time until Sharon calls to say she’s on her way. We are driving down convoy-style (and now you’re singing the song, aren’t you? You know the one I mean).

I’ll catch you later, peoples. I’ve remembered my camera, and I’ll attempt to blog from Bendi. If not, I’ll dish all the dirt next week. 

very loud swearing

So I cleared off the dining room table, laid everything out to start seaming up the Fireside cardi, and unfolded the pieces.

Guess what?

See that? DO YOU SEE THAT???!!! The rackin’frackin’ back is half-a-pattern repeat shorter than the sassafrassin’ front. Twelve entire #$%^&* rows. This is not a fudge-able stuff-up. This means that the back has to be ripped back to the armpit (or perhaps further – it all depends on where exactly the cock-up occurred) and re-knit to match.

No Fireside debut at Bendi, kids.

Imagine all the swear-words you ever heard. Now cube that number. Now shout it from a mountain top. I still think I said worse than that.

Packing for Bendi: step one.

I have this afternoon sent my boys off to Grandma’s house for the week. I must say that while I’m surprisingly untroubled by Mother guilt, there is a certain amount of Daughter-in-law guilt. My in-laws are wonderful people who successfully raised five children, at least one of whom was as charming and manipulative a child as my Sasquatch (that would be Tech Support, to whom Sasquatch is as Mini-Me was to Dr Evil*), and at least one of whom was as high-maintenance as Boyo, as well as FIL being a retired teacher/principal and MIL being a retired paediatric nurse. Still, I worry that my boys will be too much for them. T.S. assures me that all will be well, and that if anything goes wrong, he can be there in as little as four hours to sort things out, but I can’t help it.

Anyhoo, I am now about to make myself a coffee, which I will drink in blessed silence, and then put on some music of my choice and make a start on seaming the Fireside cardi. Tonight, T.S. and I will have takeaway Chinese for dinner and open a nice bottle of wine, which we will drink while having an uninterrupted conversation. Then I will celebrate Veal Appreciation Night (thank/blame Amy Lane for that), without anyone coming out looking for drinks of water or comfort after “bad dreams” (remarkably difficult to have those when you’re not asleep!). And then in just two (2) days, I’m heading down to Bendigo, where I will meet up with the rest of the Hustler Street Posse for three days of woolly debauchery! SQUEEEEEE!

You know what? The DIL guilt is fading really very quickly.

*It’s not that I think that anybody will actually need to follow the link to find out who either Mini-Me or Dr. Evil are, but there’s some fun pics there.

Dear Remote Primate Ancestors,

Thank you so very bloody much for the freakishly long arms.

While I admit that they make it easier to get things off the top of the wardrobe, they have put me half-a-day behind in finishing my cardigan. However, both sleeves are now done, and blocking in front of the fire.

Now I only have to seam everything up. Pray for me.

Love,

Kate

P.S. Oh. My. God. Do I ever love my blocking wires!

Thursday weigh-in #11

Weight: 79.3 kg

BMI: 28

Loss this week: 800g

Total loss so far: 8.7 kg

WOOHOO!!! See that “7″ up there at the front? That is a major milestone. I haven’t cracked the 80kg window since before I fell pregnant with Sasquatch. I’m feeling pretty smug today.

There won’t be a weigh-in post next week, as I will be in Victoria at Mandie’s, helping her get set up for Bendi.