Award Night

An obligatory bit of Knitting with bespoke stitch markers

I'm afraid I'm not the best with Blogger Etiquette. Several times I've been sent memes or other bits of Blog socialisation that I've neglected to answer and then felt bad about. The trouble is after reading all the feeds I have on my Blogline account and then (sometimes) commenting on them or checking out the interesting links they suggest, I find I'm all blogged out.

My Blog's upkeep is erratic to say the least. If I'm snowed under with work or life then I don't feel up to documenting my day-to-day trials of life. Despite this, while I'm travelling (or in the shower) I often find myself writing posts in my head about things I've observed or experienced.

Happyspider has written an interesting post about blogging and the Knitting 'Verse which does encapsulate my feelings about these interconnected activities. There seems to be a bit of a global "comment drought" about at present so I'm not too upset if my posts are not acknowledged. I've even stopped reading the Sitemeter statistics because I couldn't see the point in it.

Notwithstanding all these blog musings Lynne has nominated me for this Award and I feel very honoured, thank you Lynne.
In keeping with the spirit of the award these are the conditions I must fulfil to truly earn the Blue Ribbon.

1. Please put the award on your blog.
2. Add a link to the person who awarded you
3. You must nominate at least 4 fellow bloggers for this award.
4. Add links to the recipients.
5. Leave a comment so the recipients know they have received an award.

Witty Knitter
What I do, what I think and what I knit.
One of the first blogs I started reading from a very internets savvy, witty, knitter.

Birdchick Blog
To show the world that you can be a birder without being a geek.
I found Birdchick Sharon via Neil Gaimans Fanblog. I am fascinated by her bee posts and her wonderful bird photography

Knitting and Chocolate
Because they go so well together
Chocolate Trudi combines two of my favourite pursuits and always has something interesting to read about.

Disco Knitter
Knit One, Hug One....
Lara has been through some big life changing events in the past year - most of them centred around a little Spawn by the name of Inigo - but cute with it.

I could also have mentioned Pom Pom (but she already has the award) or web-goddess, or missyfee, or KnitTatPug or ... but I'm restricted to 4 choices and that's pretty good out of the 92 I have on my Blogroll. It's no wonder I don't have enough hours in the day.

No Fear

A pinch and a punch...for the first of the month.
And it's the first day of NaBloPoMo; "November... is the month in which you post something to your blog every day, in accordance with the National Blog Posting Month challenge!"

Without Fear or Favour I am going to attempt to change my erratic blog style to regular structured daily entries for 30 days. Topics will probably be about Knitting, Lighting, the Blue Mountains Flora and Fauna and a bit of New Zealand, because this is the blog of a Knitting Lighting Technician from New Zealand who lives in the Blue Mountains of Australia. No surprises there.

This stained glass Cat that can't purr is from the staircase of New Zealand's only castle. Located on the Otago Peninsula Larnach Castle was built in 1871 by the Australian born William Larnach, Merchant Baron and Politician, and both building and owner had a colourful and tragic history. The family motto was Sans Peur - without fear - someone obviously had a sense of humour.

The castle is now a major tourist attraction for Dunedin but I remember it from my childhood as a dilapidated and run down building with sheep grazing in the grounds. It's great to see it fully restored to its extravagant glory and to see that little idiosyncratic features like this little purrless cat survived the years of neglect.

Blogger!

Well, Blogger! - I gave in to the nagging that Blogger was doing and went across to the other side. Now I've lost all my sidebar buttons. I thought I had been careful and saved all the code but they're all over the place. I will have to go searching for them.

I've found the code now I have to get the buttons. And the web album link - what else did I lose?

Ruminant quadruped appreciation society.

Somewhere in this picture is a Julie and a Knitatpug - they are singing Handel's marvelous Choral piece "'The Messiah".
(hint: in the right of the box just above the double bass)

I'm afraid the only role I had in the performance of this masterpiece was to focus a light on the soloists downstage and then stand by (knitting) in case I was required there or for any of the other 4 theatres that were operating at the same time.

Softly humming "We like Sheep......"

The joy of Duty Shifts.

Purely in the name of science

As M-H has suggested I'm replying to a meme here purely in the name of science and to raise the knitter blog presence. It's a study in "contra blog-triumphal models of memetic bootstrapping". To help this poor desperate, on-the-bones-of-his-whatever research student he needs people to;

• mention it on their blog,
• link to his blog,
• then ping Techorati. (Don't know what that means but I'm about to find out).

Obligatory Cat Post

Cats and Knitting Blogs are apparently synonymous in the Cyberworld, so here is my obligatory Cat Post.

This is Trim. A noble and adventurous cat who, in his master's words, was
"The best and most illustrious of his race. The most affectionate of friends, faithful of servants, and best of creatures."

Trim now has pride of place on the window ledge (a place most cats like to sit) of the State Library in Sydney where he can keep a watchful eye on his Master, Matthew Flinders, who stands before him.

They traveled together from the Cape of Good Hope to the great Southern Land where this puss had the honour of being the first feline to circumnavigate Australia.

Grrr! Code problems

I have to learn about XHTML and CSS because the lovely template I was using for all my previous entries unaccountably added an extra column, thereby banishing the profile side bar to the bottom of the page. I don't know if it was as a result of my ill-advised fiddling or it didn't like the links and buttons I was putting in. It's all a learning experience I suppose - albeit a frustrating one.
09/05/06 Postscript - I fixed it! A problem with too many big photos kicking the frames out. It took a bit of trial and error to find though but I now know how to tweak a template.

Blog UFO

I don't want this Blog to end up like some of my knitting - in the UFO pile - so I have to be more disciplined about entries. I don't lack content - far from it. I have all my vintage patterns and knitted items ready to go, waiting for their moment of glory.

Case in point; here we have one of the first jumpers I ever knitted - "Militaire" from the Thorobred Scheepjeswol book. One of three patterns I completed from this book.

"Sophisticated, oversized sweatshirt, mixing smooth and textured yarns. Body drapes loosely and unbelted; sleeves fit - best pushed up."
This garment is a child of the eighties - big, blocky and yarn hungry. It's a very simple pattern of 2 large squares for the front and back and 2 small rectangles for the sleeves. Not very trickey and "stylishly simple". The yarn used was Thorobred Mohair Cable, a lovely soft wool with a slight sheen to it. The few jumpers I have made of this yarn may end up being refashioned as it has a great drape and feel.

My stripey Militaire came with me to the Great Wall in China in November '83, where it did its best to keep out the cold winds from the Northern deserts and I still have it today.