Good Food and Wine Show 2009

For the fifth year in a row (that makes it a tradition right?) my sister and I have set aside a special day for each other to attend the Good Food and Wine show. It travels all around the country and we attend it in Sydney.

The first year was the year Adele became a mother; it was her first big day out on her own away from her just months old baby boy.

Now, he goes out with his dad for the day and recounts stories to us of his adventures. That makes me realise how much time has passed since we first went along. I've been capturing our days for the last two years, and here's this year's wrap up.

This year we had tickets to see celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay. Here we are in the theatre (fourth row!) just before the show began, bright and early at 9:30am. We hadn't seen any of the show at this point. Photo courtesy of Adele's workmate, David, another show veteran.



We were a bit unsure about seeing Gordon Ramsay. Which is to say, we bought the tickets long before the scandal broke out in recent weeks. The scandal, if you don't know about it, involved him having a public slanging match with host of tabloid trash news program, A Current Affair, Tracy Grimshaw. It was all a bit juvenille and yet, it took the tarnish off the idea of seeing the man on stage. We went along anyway and I'm happy to say, we were thrilled with his show.



It was pretty hard to get a decent photo so this'll have to do. For those of you who, like me, fancy Mr Ramsay a wee bit, I'm happy to report he's just as appealing in person. Sure, a bit rough around the edges, but what hard working chef isn't? He was charming, funny and inspiring. The best celebrity chef performance we've been to. Much more interesting than some - hello Donna Hay, yes I'm talking to you!

Near the end of the performance, there was a give away of some great prizes. Adele will have it that I accosted the nice man who was on the floor handing out expensive kitchenware, but I swear, I was in the aisle seat! When I stood up, the $260 Analon frying pan fell into my hands. Honest! Adele was, I think, so mortified that I got it and she didn't that I damn well nearly gave it to her because I felt so bad! I didn't though. I kept it for me and it's huge and gorgeous.



The rest of the show followed in much the way it does every year - the two of us let loose like kids in a lolly shop, sampling goods (mostly olive oil, chocolate and wine) and filling up our backpacks with all manner of great treats.

I did a lot of this.



Adele did a lot of this (sampling Rocky Road and other chocolate treats).



We were happy.

And here is a sample of my goodies. See the iphone? Separate post on that to follow!

The olive oil in that photo is a special one I buy every year. Sean and I first bought some Pukara Estate olive oil on our honeymoon in the Hunter Valley in 2004. It's been dubbed our Honeymoon Olive oil ever since (no rude comments from you up the back!)

Outside, we met up with Will and his dad in Darling Harbour.



We returned home on Sunday afternoon and I'm now sick, with a nasty head cold. I know head colds are fairly lame in the scheme of illnesses a person can get, but geez that whole stuffed up head thing isn't a lot of fun is it? Unlike the Good Food and Wine show, which is fabulous fun and I'll look forward to the big day out with my sister every year we're able to go.

Long live sisterly traditions!
Bells

In the bleak mid winter

It's been a bleak week here in wintry Canberra. Drizzly days with icy nights.

I sometimes feel the need to qualify these sorts of sentences with statements such as 'but not as cold/bleak as it gets in Canada' (happy Canada day, by the way if you're from there). But it gets cold for here.

We are starting days in eerie dark, blanketed in other-worldy fog; we are going out at lunch time, clutching our coats to our chests, pushing forward into tunnels of frigid wind; we are coming home when it's dark again, hair flattening sleet driving us on to where it's warm.

The evenings are cosy, sleepy and, in some instances, productive.

We were greeted by a picture of cuteness earlier this week though, in the form of a puppy newly adopted into my brother's family.

I'd like to introduce Manfred.



Part Maltese terrier, part poodle, he was my brother's 30th birthday gift from his girlfriend. Manfred, as is no doubt predictable if you know puppies, went straight for any bit of stray wool when he was here on Tuesday night. I gave him a hastily found scrap of Cleckheaton Country and he went to town with it. This photo was taken in a moment of stillness. There weren't many of them as all the blurry photos I didn't publish would attest.

Every other night this week has seen me pushing forward on the WIPs in order to make room for the Tour de France knit starting on Saturday night.

I made reasonable progress on a new kimono for Baby Alice, who is fattening up nicely and threatening to outgrow the knits I've clothed her in to date. It's closer to finished than this photo demonstrates.

Bendigo Rustic in Pink Opal.

I made good headway on Ishbel #2. What happened to Ishbel #1 you may well ask? That's a story for another day. This one's made from Wensleydale the ever lovely Kylie brought back from the UK for me.



And on the bus I've been working on Lacy Mock Cable socks in Colinette Jitterbug. Pretty huh?



And finally, I swatched. Rowan Kid Classic. For the Garter Yoke Cardigan.



So really, I'm good to go. I'm ready to wrap up this dark week and head to Sydney to hang out with my sister at our annual day out at the Good Food and Wine Show. We've been counting down for weeks and now it's here. See you at the end of the weekend with a wrap up of a day I'm very much looking forward to, not least of all because we'll get to check out Gordon Ramsay who, it has to be said, has been amazingly quiet following all the scandal that's dogged his visit down under.

Bells

Lessons in Blocking Crochet

Remember the Chevron Lace Cardigan I posted about a week or so ago?

Back then it looked like this.



Mine, now that it's dry, is considerably longer. You would expect it to be longer now that it's finished, washed and blocked, wouldn't you? And it is. But it's too long. Or at least it was until about half an hour ago.

I'm not going to show you what it looks like now because it's sitting on my lap slightly unravelled. I finished it on the weekend (is the crochet equivalent of Off The Needles actually Off the Hook? If so, I like it!) and, very happy with the length, proceeded to soak and block it.

I watched it, as I laid it out on a towel, almost growing before my eyes, much like when Kylie blocked her Liesl last week. These lacy cardigans seem to take on a mind of their own once they hit the water. It's most disconcerting. You think you've got it all sorted; you get everything as right as it can possibly be and then the damn things go and expand on soaking.
It's not right.

Even Sean, who claims to have little to no views at all on what is right and wrong in the world of clothing declared it too, too long. We're talking below the butt too long which was not, as you can imagine, what was intended.

So right now, my lovely cardigan, is on my lap, ready for reworking. All I've done is unravel the band and 3 inches of the bottom. Oh the joy of top down garments! If this was worked from the bottom up, we'd be having a whole other conversation right now.

Was it the gauge? I don't think so. If anything my guage was slightly tighter than required. Was it the needle size? No, I went down a hook size. Was it the yarn (Bendigo Luxury)? I don't think so although I'd be interested to hear if anyone else has found it grows.

I think it was just that it's fairly open crochet. Lots of room for those holes to drag down.

But it's at times like this that the words of author Peter Carey flow through my mind. I'll paraphrase what he said when asked how he felt about rewriting drafts of his novels. Imagine, if you will, that he was a knitter, or croceter, and not an author.

"I figure we knitters do this stuff, we knit stuff and if we can knit stuff, we can knit plenty more. I quite enjoy throwing away good knitting."

Well it's not quite the same thing - I'm not throwing anything away, but I am undoing many, many stitches in order to get the cardigan right.

And that, in the end, is what really matters. Getting it right. A girl's got to be happy.

Finished garment photos to follow!

Bells

Knit Picks Haul

As those of us who live outside the US well know* Knit Picks does not ship to anywhere else in the world beyond the US border. Oddly enough, they appear to have changed their name, to customers outside the US, to Knit Pro. What the point of this is isn't really clear, since they don't appear to want to deal with the international market as far as their yarn goes. Thankfully there are distributors for their needles outside the US, but not the yarn.

Many of us have hypothesised that this is because a) Knit Picks don't feel they need the international business or b) their yarn is so cheap they figure the international postage costs would be more than the price of the yarn.

I imagine there's an element of both of these theories in the reasons why this company routinely fails to acknowledge international interest in their yarn. That sort of attitude pisses people off, I think. I know it irks me, as well as several of my knitting friends.

Quite rightly, one approach we can take is to declare that if they don't need us, well we don't need them. It's not like there is no other option for yarn. There's a huge yarn market out there, both locally and internationally and there are plenty of companies we can support in our purchases.

That said, I do like their stuff and while I won't go out of my way to acquire it, I'll happily accept an offer from a friend to bring some home for me if convenient. One such friend is Dianne. We've never met even though she only lives about 90 minutes away in the Southern Highlands. Dianne is American and returns home with astounding regularity. She brought me home some Knit Picks yarns a couple of months ago and I haven't touched them, if by touching them I mean actually knitting with them. I have, however, played with them a lot, dreaming of the things they might be.

It's not high end yarn. It's mid-range quality but the allure for me is in the colour. There are some gorgeous colours and their lace weights are particularly nice. I adore my Adamas Shawl made from Shadow and loved making Sean's birthday socks from their Essential Tweed. It's worn really well so it was only right that I ordered some more for him (see first photo below).



1. Flint Tweed, 2. Knitpicks Gloss Lace Raisin, 3. Knitpicks Palette Cream, 4. Knitpicks Essential Ivy, 5. Knitpicks Palette Lipstick, 6. Knitpicks Palette Black

One of the things that I'm confused about now that I have my order is why on earth I ordered FIVE balls of the Palette in black (see item 6 above). Two balls of it in red and white are for a pair of Endpaper Mitts. That much was very clear to me when it arrived. But five balls in black? I really ought to start writing down, when I place orders, what projects I have in mind. This is probably something obvious to many people and I'm just sorry it took me so long to figure out it's a good plan. I'm sure I'll find something to do with the black Palette - a shawl maybe? - but it's not something I'd have done deliberately. It must have been a typo. I wear so much black that I tend not to knit in it because I like to knit things that accessorise well with black. Sigh.

Nonethless, I am grateful to Dianne, my yarn mule, for bringing a lovely haul home to me, even if Knit Picks is a company who behaves as if the rest of the world doesn't exist. If the reason is that their yarn is so cheap (and it is REALLY cheap) that the international postage would cost more, they should look at companies like Bendigo Woollen Mills. Their yarn is astoundingly cheap and they post internationally. It's kind of arrogant to make that choice for customers, don't you think?

Bells

*Naturally I mean those of us who live outside the US and who also knit or crochet.

Pretty Crochet Pants

I've been working this week on a special gift for a little girl who turns one tomorrow. A pair of crochet pants, for George's little girl, Grace.



They're made from Cleckheaton Cocoon, a 4ply baby yarn in wool and nylon. Lovely soft and practical for a garment that will no doubt get a fair bit of rough wear as Grace learns to walk. I wanted them to be practical and pretty at the same time, hence the touch of frill on the bottom of the legs.



The pattern said that for the waist, hat elastic should be used but I looked at hat elastic and wasn't sure. I can't really say why, so I went with shirring elastic in the end (note to self: don't pull on it too hard, it breaks!). I'll have to see them on before I am sure it worked and might have to redo them since I'm not sure they'll go over a nappy or a fat baby tummy yet.

I might have done the three rows of shirring elastic too tight. But we'll see.



The pattern is from a book I think I'll get lots of use out of. It's Cleckheaton booklet #957, Master Crochet.



I can think of a little girl in my family who will look gorgeous in more items made from this book. Crochet is wonderful for baby girls, I think. So pretty and versatile and quite fast. I'm sure if I had knit these pants I might still be going.

I have loved very much immersing myself in crochet in the last couple of weeks. The Chevron Lace Cardigan is very nearly complete - just a little more of then band and I'll be done.


Bells

2009 Tour de France Knit Along

For some time now, I've been planning a special project for July. I'm not alone. Loads of others have been doing the same on Ravelry.

For the second year in a row, I'm participating in the Tour de France knit along. Anyone who knows me and my monstrous lack of interest in sport, and particular in actually watching yawn inducing sport, might well be surprised that I'd sign up for this, but the Tour de France is different. It's not sport in the usual way, I think. There's pretty scenery - and no I don't mean the cyclists - there are hours and hours of beautiful French scenery to watch. That's what got me in last year.

So to be honest, this event is really about the motivation get something substantial knitted up fast. Watching the race is really secondary. I'm not sure I even understand how it works. A bunch of obsessed guys ride their bikes around France. They wear different coloured jerseys. And it's hard. That's about all I understand.

But it's a great opportunity to really flex my speed knitting muscles and to focus on getting a single, decent sized project done in a very limited amount of time.

Last year I worked hard for three weeks and produced a cardigan for my sister, Adele. If you were reading then, you might remember it?



It was an achievement I was really proud of and I know Adele was thrilled with the end result but it was hard work, really hard, to get it done in that time.

This year I've been putting a lot of thought into what I wanted to do. I knew early on it would be something for me, most likely another cardigan, and it would be a piece that, although challenging in terms of size, would not just about kill me like last year's project did. For that reason, I scrapped early plans to knit a Tangled Yoke cardigan. I knew I had to be realistic. If I chose a fine gauge cardigan I'd struggle.

So I chose worsted weight yarn from my stash - Rowan Kid Classic in Peat.




And I matched it to the Garter Yoke Cardigan (Rav link).

I love the shape of it. I love the idea of it. Now that I've done a couple of top down cardigans, I'm in the zone. I'm good to go. I'm pretty confident that, dramas notwithstanding, I'll get it done on time.

By mid-late July, I'll have a brand new cardigan in luxurious Rowan Kid Classic. Happy happy joy joy.

Bring on July 4. I'm ready. Are you? Fancy joining in the fun? The Ravelry 2009 Tour de France knit along group is taking sign ups now. And you don't have to do a whole cardigan or garment. There are several categories, one to suit everyone!

Bells

Laying Low

We got out of town on the weekend. It was a rather necessary escape, just overnight, to do something different and unwind.

Our destination was Wollongong, just two and a half hours' drive. I have to say, it was very nice not to be going to Sydney. Not that we don't love going to Sydney to see family and friends, but we do it a lot and this was a pleasant change.

Our host was dear friend Kylie or KMS as she's most often known in the blogosphere. Wollongong is a coastal city and one of the things I love most is a wintry beach. Wollongong delivered.



Kylie, Sean and I plonked ourselves down in a cafe right on the beach and watched the storm clouds over the foamy waves. It was eerie and dramatic to knit, eat cake and watch a storm grow.

We paused briefly for photos on the shore before we escaped falling night.



We spent the evening tucked up in Kylie's adorable new home, a cottage that has been lovingly restored to perfection. Can you tell that two knitters were here?



All in all, it was a great mini-break. So much knitting. So much talking. Lots of eating. A few handyman or tech support moments for Sean. Twenty-four hours of laying low in someone else's home, feeling good, feeling at ease.

And I may have come very, very close to finishing my Chevron Lace Cardigan. Almost there. Stay tuned.

Bells