Am back from (not so sunny) Queensland. It rained a lot! We only really had one or two hot days and by QLD standards, they were not so hot. Christmas day was sunny, the rest was cool and filled with gently falling rain. So we ate and drank a lot with our friends, watched a lot of DVDs (Buffy, Six Feet Under, Pride and Prejudice to name a few) and we baked! I learned to make bread and am just itching to make my own today.
Oh and I did LOADS of knitting! Lots in the car, lots at our friends' house.
Remember the trauma of trying to learn to knit socks? Well I made a second pair while away, in under a week! Good grief. Everyone was amazed by the wonder of how fast I could churn these things out. And once I explained about self striping or self patterning wool, they were slightly less amazed by the wonder of the look of them. Oh well, had to do it really. They were so flabbergasted by my ability to create magical looking patterns AND knit on four needles at once. I let them be deceived by my greatness for a little bit, then told them the truth! Ah, non knitters. So easy to fool!
So, here are some pictures, including some scenery and ordinary things because Julie mentioned in her blog she wished people would post pictures of such things.
Here is my friend Tanya (the taller one) and me (the shorter one) wearing the lace scarf I made for her. She absolutely loved it.
And here are the feet of my friend Kylie (the brown socks) and Tanya's husband Glynn (the blue socks) wearing my gifts. They both loved them. Glynn wore his all day on Christmas day, despite it being over 30 degrees!
You'll notice that by the time I made the brown coloured socks (a basic K3, P1 rib) I had figured out how to make the toes less square!
And here is the dessert I made for Christmas day. They are Nigella Lawson's Slut Red Raspberries in Rose Jelly. Nigella specifies Chardonnay but we felt like using Rose. My God they were good. For the northern hemisphere readers, it's worth mentioning that it's usually far too hot on Christmas day to feel like eating something as heavy as a steamed pudding. Some do it. We all decided raspberries would be just as festive (and in season!). These were spectacularly good. And Tanya's table setting was lovely, I thought.
Next is a view we found somewhere around Gloucester, near the Hunter Valley. We took a more scenic route driving back from Brisbane, down through Armidale and into this gorgeous valley. A lightning storm was just starting when we arrived at this view. I wasn't able to capture it. But hopefully the photo shows the sun pouring down onto a gap between two mountains that made me think of a valley where hobbits might live. It was so pretty.
The sock I'm working on enjoyed the view, too, but it was getting quite dark by then (and hubby was complaining about the flash while he was driving - so selfish!) so it's not the greatest photo. But i had to have a Yarn Harlot moment, so this is it.
And finally, upon returning to Canberra yesterday, we found that instead of our vegetable garden looking sorry and neglected from our absence, it had instead turned into a jungle!
What a difference a week makes! I wish I'd taken before shots. The zucchinis have gone beserk!
So it was a fantatic week. It was SOOOO good (and so necessary for our sanity) to get out of Canberra for a week and relax with friends. I feel ready to face 2007 now. 2006 has been, for the most part, a pretty sucky year and it's great to move on and look forward to good things.
Now, I'm off to read all your blogs before I go and wade through the (beautifully rain soaked) jungle in my back yard.
Happy 2007 everyone!
Bells
xo
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