A Big Sad Bad day

I'm feeling very tired and in a very strange place at present -

This morning I had to go to a friend's house to find out why he hadn't turned up for work for a day or so and wasn't answering phone calls. The upshot of the trip was the worst you'd expect in such a scenerio.

I expect the coroner to say it was natural causes but the police have sealed off the house as a crime scene and after lots of talking and phone calls and explanations and more phone calls I came home.

See ya Bruce - you cantankerous old bastard - I hope you're in a good place.

Rest In Peace

Swinging to the Whitlams

In the Drama Theatre last night the sound of the Whitlams filtered through the layers of concrete from the Concert Hall, adding an ambient sound of thunder to Don's Party. When the audience get really excited in the big hall the sound of their stamping feet is like hailstones on the roof.

In my capacity as swing operator I worked on both shows and noted the irony that each made reference to the great, iconic Politician Gough Whitlam. Like Witty Knitter I am not a fan of Don's Party. It is not about politics as I first thought but about delusion, repression and fulfilling social stereotypes - Alpha Male, Swinging Sixties, Perfect Wife. I found the characters fickle and shallow and couldn't sympathise with any of them.

I did get a good start on the next project in my knitting queue - Cobblestone in Merino et Soie. I have about 20cm on the needles and am already reconsidering the choice of yarn. The original garment was in a tweedy yarn that suits the garter stitch details. I love the softness and drape of the wool/silk mix but it isn't right for this pattern. It is perfect for Leo and as I intended it for this design when I bought it, back it goes. I have a good amount of unbadged Bendigo yarn in the stash that will suit Cobblestone better.

Knitting time, Spring time

Tori Amos doing a Sound Check and me getting some knitting time in.

At least these 'baby-sitting' gig have an upside to them. If I'm only responsible for the House Lights I can get in quite a few rows during the night.
The Rib Warmer is done and the poor lingering Pullover Flair is on the last few rows, which is fortunate because I'm on the very last ball of Country Silk.

Outside it's Spring and the smell of blossoms is everywhere - even in the concrete and granite surrounds of the House. I was pleasantly surprised by this show of blossoms as I was cleaning up equipment in the function tent tacked on the front of the building. I'm not sure if it's Orange Jessamine or the like but it brought a welcome respite to the fluorescent lighting and air conditioning of the interior.

I must remember to walk outside more often when I'm at work. It's ironic that the smokers spend more time in the fresh air than the non-smokers do and this view is certainly worth it.

This is why we don't have a cat

In our backyard this is a flock of Crimson Rosellas making the most of the grass not being mowed for a few months. Nearby two King Parrots took over the recently installed bird feeder and made sure no other creature could share.

The photos were taken through a rather smeary kitchen window with a fetching background of the washing on the Hills Hoist.

It is good to see the native birds return to the backyard. A pair of Satin Bower birds were scratching through the compost heap last month and the Honeyeaters and Wattlebirds have been making the most of the flowering Grevillia.

When our Moggy was living up here the only indication we would find of native wildlife would be a pile of bloody feathers or a mangled possum carcass. Puss is now living quite happily in the Inner Suburbs of Sydney practicing his hunting skills on the local rats, mice and cockroaches.

Green

I like green - it's all around me in the bush, on my blog and in my stash.
I collects skeins of green-hued yarn in all fibres, sizes and weights because it appeals to me so much. This is a small selection in the photo; clockwise from the top is Eki Riva alpaca/silk Natal, Touch Yarns Boucle, Claire Pattterson Mohair and a recent acquisition of Handmaiden's wool/silk Lady Godiva

For several months I have had them arranged so I can touch and admire them but I think I have finally found a pattern that can use some of these single skeins and still preserve their unique appeal.

Here is Lady of the Lake and the Celtic Vest, both sideways knitted patterns from Fleece Artist, previously only available to me in kit form.

I have been yearning for these patterns for a long while so when Little Knits offered them for sale with with a special offer of Fleece Artist Country Mo I snapped them up. I put off buying the Mo because I already had this lovely green collection of green mohair and because of several unfavourable reviews I read about the yarn.

I am nearly finished the Zimmerman Rib Warmer in the New York Manos del Uraguay - also green, all three skeins of it. Three skeins is not enough to complete this pattern by the way, but by a wonderful happenstance I have a ball of local market handspun that matches the colour exactly. The finished vest will have a Yoke of Blue Mountains Handspun to match the handspun of Uraguay.

Virginia Farm

This basket of goodies is a sample of the fibre, dyes, and yarns Virginia Farm had on display at their Sunday Open Day. We dropped in to the "beautiful homestead" after our intensive theatre day in the city and I was unable to reisist the Chocolatey goodness of these cakes of undyed handspun.


The young lad was very taken with the idea of doing some spinning like the ladies were doing - we had to gently prise him away from the many lovely wheels they had on display and distract him with a bit of stone skipping at the Nepean River near Agnes Banks.



This was definitely the calm before the APEC storm - we are now in the throes of a full lockdown and I am on 'standby' at work. If I can find a quiet place that's not full of Security guards, Police, Emergency Response Officers and people in suits talking to their wrists, I can get a bit of knitting done. The amazing thing is I managed to get 2 pairs of Addis through a full bag scan, twice, without having them confiscated.

(Don't mention that to anyone - I wouldn't want to cast aspersions on our security arrangements, I said they were Canadian)

Silent Movies

An intensive weekend in the city - Saturday was a quick visit to SSK where I saw wonderful shawls and exotic Goths and managed to mislay my latest copy of IK. Not such a big thing as it will be safely returned but it did have ramifications the next day in my impulse buying at the beautiful homestead in this photo.

While I was doing knitterly things, the young lad was being entertained at The House by Imagine Toi, "The legacy of Chaplin and Keaton lives on, as the extraordinary actor, clown and mime, Julien Cottereau, star clown of Cirque du Soleil’s Saltimbanco, brings his acclaimed solo show to Sydney. "

Later that evening in the Concert Hall we both saw the real genius of Silent Film Comedy in the SSO performance of Charlie Chaplin's "The Gold Rush". The House Seats I applied for at the last minute didn't come through, of course, so we squeezed in beside Sean the Sound operator and enjoyed the restored glory of Chaplin to the full sound of a Symphony Orchestra. It beats the Simpson's any day!

This was my favourite scene:

via videosift.com