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My kind of heaven

Thu, 2 Apr 2009 11:47:26 +1300

This is bliss. Pure bliss. Sitting in a cafe with a nice flat white (trim milk please), reading the newspaper and doing some knitting. No interruptions. No drooling dog putting his wet nose in my lap in the hope for a walk. No tantrums because the tip of someone’s crayon snapped. No ordering the coffee in a paper cup in case it’s “time to go”.

Just quiet. Me, my coffee, a newspaper and my knitting. Bliss. Pure bliss.

Another sock package

Wed, 1 Apr 2009 11:32:08 +1300

Ok, I admit I’ve got enough yarn stash to keep me busy for my whole life, and the next few.

But I love getting my sock packages. This is the third and last installment in the Summer Sock Club. And it looks like a rather interesting pattern. I’m not sure about the colour this time. I prefer stronger colours and Vintage Purls has this beautiful Chlorophyll colour that is probably my favourite green.

Anyway, my knitting is keeping me busy. I’ve started on my birthday scarf, but had to rip it out twice after realising that there was a mistake in the pattern (and the second time because I can’t count). I’m playing around with Aran’s colourful ball of wool. I tried socks, not enough yarn. A scarf, definitely not enough yarn - what was I thinking? A beanie, still not enough yarn. A smaller beanie, too small. I need some more wool.

I’m still knitting my Theodora socks (2nd sock package). And I broke my gorgeous Lantern Moon dpns which I was using for Lukas’s socks. Now that’s a tragedy. I loved those needles, they were smooth, easy to knit with, the exact right lenght and, I thought, nice and strong. But I guess not the right kind of needles to carry around in your bag. I always have at least one knitting project on me, preferably socks, which don’t take up much room. But I guess wooden needles aren’t a good idea. So I ordered some Harmony Nickel ones as my travelling sock dpns from now on. But I still have to pick out the little wood bits from the half knitted sock. Ugh.
(I broke three of four needles)

My Hobbiton Socks

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 12:52:15 +1300

After some fast knitting these last two days I finally finished my Hobbiton Socks. Frankly, they could’ve been finished much sooner, but
I’m not a huge fan of knitting cables so I kept putting them off and doing something else instead. Or starting a whole lot of new projects.....

I really love these socks. They’re part of the Lord of the Rings Socks Club, which has been re-named Lord of the Strings, which to me sounds a bit like some string orchestra club. So I’ll just keep on calling them LotR-clubs. But like someone on Ravelry said: who cares what they call themselves as long as the pattern and yarn are gorgeous. How true!

The yarn I got for this first installment is called Sushi Yarn by The Unique Sheep. What I like particularly about it is how cool it feels. Not cold, cool. Normally wool yarn feels soft but warm to the touch. But this one feels cool and really nice to touch. And very smooshy. It’s also a bit thicker than I’m used to in sock yarn. I had a look at what it was made of and the secret ingredient is bamboo. It contains 60% superwash merino, 30% bamboo and 10% nylon. So there you go. Bamboo.

Which reminds me that I ordered some sock yarn containing seacell. Seacell is made from seaweed. And I’m particularly curious to what it will feel like. And if it smells. Haha!

The Hobbiton sock pattern was quite easy to knit. Just lots and lots of cables. The designer, Lobug Designs, was inspired by the home of Bilbo, Frodo and Sam. There are lots of little hobbit holes connected by bumpy roads.

The socks are really comfy and a perfect fit. And I wish I could wear them all day!

Oh and can I share a picture of my shoes, which I bought especially to show off my all my handknitted socks!

Stories and yarn packages

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 10:05:29 +1300

I was reading my knitting magazine this morning and being rather early in the morning, my mind was still in dream mode. Here I was picturing myself and my mum on a warm sunny summer’s day, in a lush green meadow under some willows. My mum spinning her new wool on a perfect functioning beautiful spinning weel and me knitting along happily.....

CRASH, “AAAAAARGH!!!!!!!!”, BANG

Back to reality. This is real life. I reluctantly shake my head free from my daydream and get up to see what catastrophe has befallen my beloved bundle of energy.

It’s a lego block that’s stuck together. I help him, a bit grudgingly, and then realise what an amazingly intriguing construction he’s actually made. Naturally I’m not quite sure what it is so I ask him. It’s a robot. And for the next hour, I sit in his room listening to his explanation of the functioning and the life of the robot. With lots of CRASHes, BANGs and BOOMs. Life’s like that with little boys. You can’t have it without the decibels.

But I love his little stories. I love watching his beaming face and hearing his (rather loud and excited) voice spilling out tumbling words, all jumbled together, even more. Sometimes it seems our whole day is one long story. From evil butterflies, to Gnone Sharks (yes Gnone with an ‘n’) and Bone Shrimps and Dangerous Jellyfish. It seems there isn’t something he can’t make a story out of. And yes, I tried. Like throwing a piece of scrap to a dog, I throw him an idea or word and see what he makes from it. It’s amazing. Fascinating. And it asks for a lot of patience too. Imagine listening to an audiobook all day long, 365 days a year, and one that demands feedback from you. “Are you listening?”

And if I’m not listening to his stories, or watching him play out his stories, we read books. His favourites at the moment are the Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton, which we read last year. The Tashi stories from Fienberg and my personal favourite Araminta Spookie by Angie Sage. We tried Alice in Wonderland, but he found it boring and short of finishing the last chapters we put it way for later.

I love reading aloud to him and he loves listening to me. Unfortunately it’s the only time he does listen to me LOL I love making up the voices that go with the characters, and I can do a pretty good ghost! Boy ghosts, old ghosts, mean ghosts. I don’t really like giants too much. They make my throat tickle and cough. And I like doing little girls voices, especially snobby little girls. But I have to be careful and remember which voice I did with which character. Otherwise it’s “No mum, he didn’t sound like that!”. And I have to go through a variety of voices until I get it right.

This morning I got a package from Woolgirl. It’s my Glinda the Good Witch yarn package. I love getting her packages. They’re always full of extra goodies. My little boy loves them too. He gets the tissue paper and the glittery confetti (silver stars this time) and anything else I can bear to part with.

It contained a beautiful sock bag, a recipe for yummy cookies with a star and princess crown cookie cutters, a magic wand (now owned by a monster fairy), a book mark, a wand soap, notebook, pencil (ARE YOU A GOOD OR BAD WITCH), yummy liquorice pills (unfortunately I’m not the only one who likes them), a beautiful stitch marker handmade especially for this club, and not to forget a gorgeous pattern and madelinetosh sock yarn.

I love the sock bag. Sometimes they’re way too big, or flimsy. The best one I had so far was the one from the Vintage Purl Summer Sock Club. The perfect size, double fabric and cotton fabric on the outside. I’m not a huge fan of silk fabric. It’s too slippery and snags on everything. So anyway, now I have two good sock bags. Perfect.

I need to find a Wizard of Oz book and hope it’s not too boring to read and listen too. And I might get the DVD too. After all, there’s a few more of these Oz-packages coming in the next year and a half.

The Worm, The Bird & The Apple Tree

Sun, 1 Mar 2009 18:09:39 +1300

“Once upon a time there was a worm and he was in an apple which had fallen from the tree. A bird saw the worm and flew down to eat it. The worm saw the bird and he quickly made a hole in the ground and disappeared. And the bird flew off.”

Why do I knit dishcloths?

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 22:09:05 +1300

I love knitting dishcloths. I really do. I love the feel of cotton. It’s something I can knit in one or two hours. But the reason I really like knitting dishcloths is that I can experiment and play around with patterns and stitches. And instead of knitting useless swatches, you can actually use dishcloths. Or you can give them away.

I came across this gorgeous pattern this morning. Yes, I surf the internet for patterns. I can spend hours looking at knitting patterns. Fantasising and drooling over the most exquisite lace patters, which I couldn’t knit in my wildest dreams. So anyway, after my little session of drooling, I saw this dishcloth pattern. And now this is why I love knitting dishcloths: I looked through my yarn stash, casted on, and an hour or so later, voila!
One very interesting dishcloth.

I already know who I’m going to give this one to.

Btw the yarn is Peaches & Creme Premium Worsted Northwoods.

And the pattern is called Colorwave by Sara Baldwin.

Blue Sky Baby

Sat, 21 Feb 2009 21:51:18 +1300

I finished my Blue Sky Baby Socks last week and I’m rather proud of them, if I may say so myself :-) It took me three attempts until I finally got the size right. The first sock I knitted could’ve fit a giant. Haha! Which taught me that knitting a swatch really isn’t a stupid idea. But once I figured out my gauge and size, it was a easy and fun knit. I liked the pattern, easy to memorise.

So now I’ve decided that I like knitting socks. Socks are a smallish kind of project. I worked out that it takes me about 5 hours to knit one sock, depending on the pattern or it’s boredom level. So technically, I could knit a pair of socks in a week. Well, technically I could knit a pair in a day, but I doubt Aran would let me knit all day. So realistically, let’s say one pair every two weeks. That would make it 26 pairs of socks per year.
Anybody want socks for Chrismas this year? LOL

Btw I love the colour of Blue Sky Baby. It’s a merino and nylon mix. Hand dyed by Vintage Purls. You can have a look on her website, but you won’t find this particular colour. Morag dyed it especially for the Summer Sock Club. And this was the first installment.

PS I love the sock knitting bag that came with it. So handy!

Butterflies and Flutterbyes

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 10:20:10 +1300

I don’t like bugs. I really don’t. I also don’t like butterflies. I don’t know why. I think they’re pretty when fluttering around in the garden, but please don’t come near me. Oh, and I don’t like squashed caterpillars either. In case you don’t know, when they get squashed, they ooze bright green bodily fluids. Very icky! I know because my little boy had his little caterpillar pet in a paper cup and was waving it about excitedly. Unfortunately he didn’t notice it’s sudden disappearance. The unfortunate one landed on the ground and promptly got squashed by one’s foot. Very icky!

But all this didn’t deter him from wanting to see what happens to caterpillars and I obediently helped him collect and feed the caterpillars. I have to be fair and admit that it was my dear husband who did the feeding and caring. But I did my share by watched them (with a distrustful eye), making sure none of them got squished. Or out.

So without further ado, here’s the story of our little caterpillars.
(In pictures)

The End

Why unschool?

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 21:58:28 +1300

Children are curious about the world they live in. They want to explore and investigate what’s around them.
They want to know why, what and how things work. Why are there boy people and girl people? What is jelly made from? Where does the sun go at night? Why is chocolate brown? What happens if your nose falls off? Can I pat a lion? Why not?

But most importantly children play. Playing is a serious business. Through play children learn. Just think building blocks, story books, play dough, pretend play, dress ups, painting and drawing, kicking ball and going to the beach. And because children play all the time, they are constantly learning. The world is so big and there is so much to explore, children would never stop learning unless learning stops being fun.

Unschooling encourages and embraces this natural curiosity and lets the child explore the world at their own pace and interest. Instead of sitting in a classroom, they are out and about in the real world experiencing and exploring. And through their discoveries, they learn the skills they need for life. By helping out with shopping, they learn about planning, buying and selling and the mathematical skills they need for this. By caring for a pet, they learn about the biology and physiology of the animal, about taking responsibility and looking after an animal. Keeping a garden teaches all about nature, plants, bugs, seasons, but also nutrition, cooking, planning and maths.
Instead of being tested for right and wrong answers, they are encouraged to find their own solutions or to try their own ways and ideas. Instead of being in a classroom with children their own age, they interact with people from all ages, cultures and places. Volunteering at a rest home or a hospital (for older children) teaches empathy and socialising skills that cannot be learned in a classroom.

‘We can best help children learn, not by deciding what we think they should learn and thinking of ingenious ways to teach it to them, but by making the world, as far as we can, accessible to them, paying attention to what they do, answering their questions and helping them explore the things they are most interested in.’
Learning All the Time - John Holt