FIBRE ALIVE

Tea for Two - Frank Sinatra

  In my last post Joe  commented on the jersey I wore to my Grandmother's birthday party. It's an oldie but a goodie... I knitted it about thirteen years ago and I call it my 'Unemployed Jersey'. About six months prior I had left Hamilton and moved to Napier thinking I was in love... well the relationship only lasted two months but I stayed in Napier for another four months stewing in my own juices, too proud to return to Hamilton. A friend came to visit and convinced me to return to Hamilton and start over again. I returned to Hamilton a month later and moved back in with Mum and Dad.

In the time it took me to get a job (one week) I managed to knit this Jersey... while watching quality TV shows such as Donoghue, Sally Jesse Raphael and Oprah. It came from a European magazine which had a special Men's edition of handknits... if I'm completely honest I chose this pattern not because of the design but instead because of the model wearing it... more specifically because of his sleek straight hairstyle. (Does the word shallow come to mind as you read this?) I went to my hairdresser and asked if I could have the same hairstyle but he just laughed at me and said it was an impossibility with my wavy hair. So I opted for the next best thing... knitting up the jersey the model was wearing in a perendale yarn which Mum had in her stash. Thanks Mum... I think I asked before I took the yarn!

I'm lucky that I've only ever been unemployed for one week of my working career and this jersey always reminds me of that week and makes me thankful that I get paid every fortnight. With my yarn habit I need to be working!

In Knitting news I have been busy on a few projects lately and this is a 'Regal' tea cosy I knitted up for the last meeting of the Sunday KNIT-Tea knitting group. Our theme for the meeting was 'All things Royal' and I decided to knit a crown tea cosy. I used up some of the mohair-craft mohair from my stash to create this sumptious offering and despite mohair not being your first choice for a tea cosy this one works by giving it the right touch of luxury. The coloured 'gemstones' I stitched onto the crown was the perfect finishing touch. The tea cosy proved to be a hit at the meeting.

 

I've also been busy preparing for a weekend of workshops by designing some patterns to show off my favourite stitch... the bi-tone honeycomb. The workshops have a mid-winter Christmas theme so I came up with this Christmas tea cosy in the bi-tone honeycomb in Christmasey colours complete with ribbon and bells. The photos above are both of the same cosy... I just knitted it in two pieces and reversed the colours to emphasis how different something can look when using the same two colours in bi-tone honeycomb. My next design for the workshop is going to be a Santa hat in red and white...

 I've also been having some fun doing some other design work for J.O.Y. I'm working on creating two separate mini collections of patterns based on two designs (JOY and Doug) and I hope to release them in time for the first birthday celebrations of the shop in August.

Here you can see me working on a scarf which will form part of the JOY collection using the Vintage Purls sock yarn in the J.O.Y. colourway. The pattern is based on my Mother's favourite stitch which seems appropriate as I'm naming the collection after her.

 

We all like cutsey animal stories, myself included,  and I certainly had a big smile on my face after reading this story last week...

Two homosexual penguins have successfully hatched an egg that was rejected by its parents - and are now proudly rearing the chick.

Z and Vielpunkt, both males, gladly accepted their "Easter present"' and began straight away with hatching the egg," the zoo in Bremerhaven in northern Germany said.

"Both happy fathers are now diligently handling the everyday care . . . of their adopted offspring."

Z and Vielpunkt are part of a six-strong gay community among the zoo's endangered Humboldt penguins, who rose to fame in 2005 when four Swedish females were brought in an unsuccessful attempt to "cure" them.

I don't think there's any need for a cure... in fact Gay parenting seems to be quite the thing at the moment. Ian, Edward and I went to six films in the recent OutTakes film festival and the final film we saw was called 'Patrik, aged 1.5'. It was a heart warming Swedish film of a married gay couple who moved to the suburbs and were wanting to adopt a child. They thought they were getting a child aged 1.5 years but there was a typo in the records and what they got was an anti-social homophobic 15 year old with a history of attacking people with knives! I guess you're wondering where the heart warming part comes in but it does and the mixed audience gave the film a resounding round of applause at the end. I won't spoil the plot of the film for you in case you get the opportunity to see the fim so if you see it scheduled to screen near you... go and see it, it's a wonderful film and well worth seeing. But don't forget to take your glasses as the film is in Swedish with English subtitles.

Today is Mum and Dad's wedding anniversary... another of the 'firsts' we have to go through since Dad passed. I sent Mum a card and presents like I always do because I didn't see any reason not to. I also sent her a card and some lottery tickets from Dad... and the great thing was that she won $10 on the instant kiwi ticket... not enough money to think about retiring yet but as Dad would say "It's better than a kick in the Pants!" 

Isn't She Lovely - Stevie Wonder

 

Isn't she lovely indeed! A week ago I made a quick trip up to Rotorua for a very special event... my Grandmother's birthday. What made it even more special was that it was her 90th birthday! Here she is carving up her decadent rich chocolate cake. I was also touched to see the necklace see was wearing, I had given it to her for her birthday fifteen years ago. I spotted it at the Christchurch Art Centre and had to buy it for her, it's made from mauve hand dyed silk twisted into balls. For something so fragile I'm amazed at how well it has lasted.

Anne-Marie was asking how my Mother was doing... well this photo tells the story. Here is Mum with Grannie at the birthday lunch. Mum is doing well but is still having a few difficulties adjusting to life without Dad. I know how she feels!

 

  Here I am with Grannie and my gorgeous cousin Julie. I'm wearing a jersey because it was a freezing cold day I wore this particular one because I knew that Grannie would be wearing her burgundy suit. There's nothing like being a co-ordinated family!

 

After the party I spent a couple of days with Mum at her place in Hamilton. On the way back I drove through the central plateau and here we have photo's of Lake Taupo, the Desert Road and Mount Ruapehu... covered in cloud. The weekend snow fall had melted but it was still a very cold and wet seven hour drive home.

 

Time for an update on the UNICEF "Unite for Mother's" Charity knitting project. Here we have my boss Karen and I presenting Sarah from UNICEF with all the blankets we knitted.

 

I promoted the project at my work (PSIS) and got several people at Head Office and in the branches knitting squares for the cause. I spent my lunch hours helping people with their knitting and sewing up the squares and used my train commute and evenings knitting squares, including a PSIS square for each blanket. The response was so overwhelming that we were able to present eleven blankets to UNICEF, my one, one from the Friday Night Sock Club, and nine from PSIS staff. It was the ultimate example of how kind and generous knitter's can be. The blankets have since been distributed to needy families in Papua New Guinea. On the left is the blanket of 25 individual squares I knitted. In the centre is a photo of all eleven blankets we were able to contribute. On the right is a closeup of one of the blankets with the PSIS square standing out.

Help - The Beatles

With winter on it's way (yesterday's delightful southerly was proof of that!) the season of charity knitting is upon us.

Yesterday I was contacted by Sarah who is the International Advocacy Manager for UNICEF NZ  and asked if I could help or participate in this great project...

 

It really couldn't be any easier to participate... all you have to do is knit or crochet a 20×20cm square and post or drop it in to UNICEF by Friday 1st May.  They require 1,400 squares.  1,400 represents the number of new HIV infections in children under 15 every day, mostly as a result of mother to child transmission.  The squares will be stitched into a giant ‘baby blanket’ which will be handed to MPs who are Mothers as a symbolic gesture this Mother’s Day. (Mother's Day is of course Sunday, May 10th this year... but I'm sure you all knew that already)

Following this the blanket will be separated into smaller baby blankets and will be sent to Papua New Guinea to babies and children who need them this Winter.

Please let Unicef know how many squares you plan to knit by emailing takeaction@unicef.org.nz  by phoning 0800 243 575 (NZ only) or (+64) (04) 496 9610.

Visit their web site http://unicef.org.nz/page/260/UniteforMothers.html to download the instructions on how to make your square (For knitter's it's easy, just use 6mm needles and double knit yarn, cast on 32 stitches and knit every row... yes that's right - garter stitch - you can do it with your eyes closed!) and where to post the squares to. For those of you in the Wairarapa you can drop any squares off at my place and I will take them into Wellington for you.

This is a great cause but with a very tight deadline. Please do what you can to help, even if it is justing knitting one square or donating some yarn from your stash to someone who can knit it up for you. Or how about this as an idea... phone your Mother and ask her to knit a square with you. It would be a perfect Mother/Child project to do together.

I have pledged to knit 25 squares (who needs sleep) myself which will be enough to make one of the mini blankets. I completed one square last night and have started on the second so I'm 5% of the way to my goal already... perhaps I will get some sleep in the next 10 days after all.

And don't forget to phone your Mother on Mother's Day... without her the world wouldn't a better place because of you being in it.

Survivor - Destiny's Child

Here is very brief story which made it onto the front page of Wellington's Dominion Post newspaper earlier this week...

SURVIVOR KNITS IN THE RUBBLE

An elderly Italian woman has told of knitting to pass the time as she waited 30 hours to be rescued from earthquake rubble.

The 98-year-old, who also did some crocheting, is one of at least three survivors found as the toll rose to 250.

 It just goes to show that a true knitter always has a project on hand no matter what the circumstances. I can certainly say that with all the train delays on the Wairarapa line recently I've managed to get more knitting done than expected and I can confirm that it's helping me get through the emotional rubble I've been stuck in for the past couple of months.

These Are The Days - Jamie Cullum

   

In the past week I've made some good progress on a pair of sock's I'm making for Malcolm, the husband of my sexy cousin Pauline. I'm using a casmere merino sock yarn from The Knittery and the colourway is called Earth which is a mix of brown, green and teal.. Malcolm has bad circulation in his feet so when Pauline asked me to knit him a pair of socks I went for the warmest looking yarn I had in the shop. The dye pattern has thrown up this amazing teal coloured lightning bolt and I'm liking it so much I may even knit myself a pair.

 

This weekend I decided to have another go at yarn dyeing. One of the sock competition categories advertised for this year's Knitters Weekend is a sock knitted in yarn you've dyed yourself. I had an idea in my mind of what I wanted to achieve and as usual what I ended up with was competely different... that's the great thing about being a novice dyer! I'm calling this colour "Fancy a drink" because I've dyed it using my favourite hot drinks... Blackcurrant, tea, milo and coffee (well I don't actually drink coffee but I thought it fitted in with the concept). After I finish malcolm's socks I'll make a start on knitting up this yarn into a pair of socks for myself.

 

This morning Ian came up to me with his hands behind his back and said he had something for me and to close my eyes and hold my hands out... sometimes this can be a rather exciting precursor to other things and other times it's something quite unexpected. Today he told me he was giving me a flower... it was rather sweet but what landed in my hands was... wait for it... a cauliflower from our garden. In a saving grace this 'gift' was quickly followed up by these roses and another treat from the garden, some silverbeet. It tasted fantastic with our dinner.

 

Speaking of treats my friend Anne Marie (from Philly) sent through a wonderful selection of buttons, collected by her and her knitting group,  for me to forward on to the Moriah school in Wellington. The school is collecting buttons to symbolise all the children who died in the holocaust... that means 1.5 million. This colourful collection will be very gratefully received. Also included in the package were some delicious chocolates... I would have shown a photo of them but they seem to have disappeared... OK so they haven't disappeared... Ian and I ate them all!

    

There was also another package of buttons in the package. These ones were made by a member of Anne Marie's knitting group, Regina. They are handcrafted from reclaimed and recycled clay and look amazing. Regina has a small business called Nature Buttons so check out her website... I'm sure you'll be tempted to make a purchase.

 

I'll leave you with this cute picture of Jazz in the shop... he thought that the sale bin of Opal was just the right spot to have a sleep this afternoon!

Flying Without Wings - Westlife

A very big thank you from Mum and I goes out to everyone who has written to me, sent e-mails or left a comment on the blog about the passing of my Father. It has been a bewildering few weeks for us but it has been made easier from all the support, thoughts and prayers of so many friends.  This picture is of a rose Judy, a friend of mine, gave me to remember my Father by, it's called Duchesse De Brabant and has a beautiful subtle fragrance. Ian has potted it up and placed it next to the front of the shop in pride of place so that everyone can see it. Getting back into a normal routine of sorts has taken me longer than I had expected, probably due to having to focus on Mum and helping her through her own current difficulties and that the Martinborough Fair has just taken place. Every year Dad would come and stay for a few days in February and March to sell his woodturning at the fair so it was difficult knowing that he wouldn't be coming visiting this year.

I couldn't bring myself to go to the fair in February but a lovely thing happened that day... I had opened the shop and a Mother came in with her three daughters. The youngest was quite distressed and when I asked why her Mother explained that they had just been to the fair and her daughter had bought herself a balloon but as they were leaving the fair a gust of wind took the balloon from her hand and it floated up into the sky. I gave her a packet of my favourite heart shaped candy and told her that my Father had just passed away and gone up to heaven and as that was way up it the sky I'd ask him to look out for the balloon and hang onto it for her. Just as I said that a monarch butterfly fluttered past us and the Mother declared that the butterfly must have been my Father's way of saying he had the balloon as the butterfly was the same colour as the balloon. Her daughter had stopped crying and was all smiles again... but I was back on the verge of tears!

Funny how only a few months ago I said to someone that I thought that grief was quite a selfish thing. At that point I was fortunate enough not to have lost anyone close to me. Now that I have lost Dad I have a whole new understanding of grief... I now know first hand that it is indeed a selfish thing but necessarily so.

Thank you also to everyone who has asked after my Mum. The news on that front is all good! Mum has had her operation and the test results came back confirming that the surgeon had removed all the cancer and that it had not spread to her lymph nodes. This means that Mum will not have to go through chemo or radiation therapy which will speed up her recovery. I was back up in Hamilton for a few days this past week staying with her and making sure that she celebrated her birthday. She had said that there was nothing to celebrate this year but I told her that she had just had her own death sentence lifted so there was an awful lot to celebrate and to be thankful for. So with that in mind I gave her no option to back out. One of the presents I bought her was this colourful cyclamen in a cute little pot with a princely frog on the side. (OK so you either like frogs or not... and Mum loves frogs). I told her that as she had just lost her Prince Charming this would have to do as a replacement.

  At her request I also knitted her a pair of socks using the London's calling pattern I designed last year. She said she wanted them to be pink and when I saw the Vintage Purls limited edition colourway of "Fuschia Frenzy" I knew it was meant to be as Mum and I both love fuschia's and Mum had given me three new varieties for my garden as Christmas presents last year. Mum didn't feel up to having a full length photograph of her taken but was delighted with the socks and proudly wiggled her toes in the socks for this photo. I did however inadvertantly manage to make Mum cry later that morning when I handed her an envelope. For every special event Mum had to celebrate Dad would always give her a card and written inside was "To My Darling from Your Darling" along with a lottery ticket. I saw no reason for this tradition to end with Dad's passing so I bought a card, wrote the usual message and included a lottery ticket. Mum then apologised for crying but saying that it wasn't sad crying. I told her there was nothing to apologise for and that it was just my way of letting her know that Dad would always be around. I was hoping that Dad might have been able to fiddle things from up there to make the right numbers come up in the lottery draw but alas that wasn't the case! :-) We spent the evening of her birthday at a new restaurant in Hamilton with uncle John, her twin brother, and his partner Sue. It was a nice relaxing time for us all and we still managed to get home in time for Mum to watch Dancing with the Stars on TV. 

I mentioned earlier that Mum had given me some fuschia plants for Christmas last year... well I was worried that during the peak of summer, when we had some incredibly hot weather and water restrictions were in place, that the plants had died. You can't beat the resilience of nature because they have all rebudded and are coming back into bloom. I'll leave you with this picture of the fuschia in the cat planter... it's called Winston Churchill.  

Gone Too Soon - Michael Jackson

DOUGLAS KNOWLES HERBISON 16/08/1930 - 30/01/2009

I've been a bit quiet the past few weeks as my Father passed away quite unexpectedly. I've been a mixture of sad, angry, hurt and confused, sometimes everything all at once. I don't really know what to say other than I feel cheated out of having more time with him but that's a bit selfish. Below is the tribute I made to my Father at his funeral. Most of you will never have met him but by reading it I'm hoping you'll have a greater understanding of what a fantastic man he was and why we're feeling such a sense of loss here. 

In his life Doug was many things to many people but to me he was simply my Dad, so my tribute to him today relates to what I thought of him as a Father and the things I got to know about him by nature of being his son.

So.. Mum and Dad, before I go any further I’ll apologise now for anything I say over the next few minutes which may embarrass you both!

Now, where does one start???

My Dad and Fatherhood…

A favourite childhood memory I have is of being lifted up into the air by Dad and being placed upon his shoulders. It was a feeling of danger and excitement all rolled into one but knowing that because he was there I was completely safe. It was also great having a Dad who was over six feet tall as it meant you got a great view of the world from up there on his shoulders.

I was lucky in that Dad was always around when I was a kid, he wasn’t the type of Father who went away on business or who chose to spend his evenings at the pub instead of with his family. Although having said that I’m sure that raising two boisterous boys like Paul and I would have driven most people to drink at some point! When he did travel it was for his sport, most notably woodchopping, and the whole family would go with him. We were all involved in the sport he loved so much. Mum competed in the Ladies chop and the Jack ‘n’ Jill events while Paul and I competed in the Boys chop. Paul even went on to become a very successful axeman in his own right. By following the Woodchopping circuit every weekend of the season we got to discover and explore most of the North Island which was something many of my friends were very envious of.

When we lived in Te Karaka in the late 1970’s school holidays were always fun because we got to go to work with Dad. Mum would pack Paul and I a lunch just like Dad’s and off we would go in the Jeep as acting Junior Noxious Plants Officers. We got to travel all around the Waikohu County doing what Dad did each day and on these trips if we behaved ourselves Paul and I got to take turns at sitting on Dad’s knee and steering the jeep on the return journey. If his Boss at work had found out I’m sure Dad would have been in trouble… but I’m also thinking that he would have been in even bigger trouble if Mum had found out at the time.

But for me there is one memory which stands out more than any other and it tells you what being a Father is all about and why my Dad was the best kind there is. This also dates from the late 1970’s when I was seven. Dad and Paul were out getting blocks for a woodchopping tournament when Dad had an accident and cut his leg with an axe. Most of you who know Paul know that he isn’t all that good at running but that day he had to run for help because dad’s life depended on it… and run he did until he could get help for Dad. He was rushed by ambulance to Cook Hospital in Gisborne and because Mum was too distraught to drive a friend drove us to the hospital. When we arrived I somehow managed to get my finger squashed in the car door and had to be taken to the Accident and Emergency department. The nurses there knew that Dad was in the Men’s ward and after I was treated, which consisted of being given a bag of ice to reduce the swelling, I was taken over to the Men’s ward and told that my Father was in there somewhere. Not being able to see Dad or Mum I became quite distraught and sat down on the floor and began to cry. Dad who was still very weak, he had almost died due to blood loss from the accident, didn’t know what had happened to me but he heard me crying. He started calling out to me “Jamie, over here” and kept calling until I heard him. I followed the sound of his voice and when I found him he wasn’t able to move but somehow he managed to find the strength to lift me up and tuck me into bed with him. Being the Dad he was he was more concerned about my squashed finger than the fact he had almost died only an hour or so before.

My Dad and loyalty…

Dad was a true LEO and in a truly bad pun you could say that Mum, Paul and I were truly his pride and joy. He was proud of all our achievements and would defend us to others no matter if we were in the right or not… and as a LEO let me tell you, he could roar when he needed to!

I remember once when Mum and Dad were going through a tough patch in their marriage. They were arguing a lot and I had had enough one night and told them both off saying that they were worse than Paul and I had ever been and that if they were really that unhappy they should get a divorce and be done with it. After which I stormed off to my room, as teenagers do. Dad came into my room a few minutes later and apologised saying that they hadn’t realized how bad the bickering had become but that neither wanted a divorce and they would work through their issues. He also said that I shouldn’t speak to my Mother like that. The next morning when I was having breakfast with Mum she apologised but also said to me.. you shouldn’t speak about your Father like that. It was obvious to me that they were going to stay together and it reminded me of something that Dad had once said.. “A good marriage is the first line of defense against the children”

There were several occasions when Dad tried to do the right thing but it just ended up going wrong. One of those times was when Mum and Dad owned the Dairy in Gisborne. When Mum and Dad got married only Mum had a wedding ring and it wasn’t until we were living in Gisborne that Mum saved bought him one as a wedding anniversary gift. One day Dad was out the back preparing vegetables to go into the shop and he decided to take his wedding ring off so that he wouldn’t get it dirty or scratch it. When he was finished he went to put the ring back on but couldn’t find it. Not wanting to upset Mum he kept trying to hide his hand but it wasn’t long before Mum’s eagle eyes spotted that the ring was missing. To say that she was not happy was an understatement but she just decided that it wasn’t meant to be that Dad would have a wedding ring. However later that year Mum and Dad were having a quick trip away to Napier and as they were walking past a jewellery store Dad asked Mum if she still wanted him to have a wedding ring. Needless to say by the end of the day Dad was wearing a new wedding ring and it never left his finger.

My Dad and honesty…

Dad taught Paul and I right from wrong and just in case there was any doubt he reinforced this by saying that given a choice it was always best to be honest and take the right path. When I was ten years old I lied to Dad about having bought something from one of my friends. When he found out he came to me and just said in a very calm voice “I’m really disappointed in you.” Those words hurt me more than any physical punishment I had ever received. After that I never lied to him again… now that doesn’t mean that I always told him everything he wanted to know, it means I never lied to him again.

In his business dealings Dad was always honest and his downfall was that he expected other people to be just as honest as he was. When we moved to Hamilton in 1985 Mum and Dad bought a furniture store and were ripped off big time in the deal, so much so that their finances were precarious to say the least and there was a very real possibility that we could lose our home. A few months later a man came into the store looking for the previous owner as he owed that man a sum of money and wanted to repay that money. He wanted to give Dad the money to forward on but Dad refused to accept it saying that he had no idea where the previous owner was and that he wanted nothing more to do with him. Dad could have quite easily pocketed the money at a time when he desperately needed it but instead he chose to stand true to his morals. I was so proud of my Father that day because I think many other people (including myself) in the same situation would probably have taken the money without thinking twice.

Now that’s not to say that Dad didn’t like to bend the rules sometimes. Back when we used to go out with Dad in his jeep in the school holidays he told us that the law stated that if the branch of a tree went over a fence line any fruit on that branch was fair game for anyone. That was fine but sometimes Dad would use his incredible strength to reach across the fence and drag the branch further over so that Paul and I could pick as much fruit as we could for Mum to preserve or make jam out of.

My Dad and technology…

I think it is incredible the way technology has moved on since I was a kid and I can’t comprehend all the changes Dad saw in his lifetime. I do know however that Dad always liked what technology could offer when it came to sport. When we lived in Te Karaka we were the first family in the village to have a colour television and Dad was thrilled to be able to watch the All Blacks, then captained by Graeme Mourie, play in glorious technicolour. Don’t worry, things weren’t all that extravagant as we could only receive one TV channel and there was no such thing as a remote control.

Dad was also excited when SKY TV came along and showed an interest in minority sports in New Zealand and would send film crews to cover woodchopping events and unlike TVNZ they would actually screen the footage. Strangely enough he never went that extra step and actually subscribed to SKT TV, I guess he was still watching his pennies and thought it an extravagance he didn’t need. It wasn’t until after he had stayed with me a few times and got hooked on the sports channels that he decided to have it at home himself but even then he was frugal in that he had a basic analogue package and only recently upgraded to a digital package.

There was many a time I caught Dad in the evening dozing off in front of the TV and then waking up and looking from side to side to see if anyone had noticed that he had been asleep. I never said anything because after the physical working life he experienced he had earned the right to relax in his armchair.

His two favourite sports were always woodchopping and rugby so it should be no surprise that he was a staunch Waikato Chiefs and All Blacks supporter. But Uncle John it must be said he was starting to warm to Rugby League and he was really excited when the kiwi’s won the Rugby League World Cup last year. I don’t know if it was because the Kiwi’s won or if it was because we beat the Aussies in doing so but either way he was very happy with the win.

And lets just say that he thought that Mum was the best wife on the planet when she came home one day last year with a big flat screen TV for the living room. Sport didn’t get much better when it was viewed on a screen like that.

My Dad and following in his footsteps…

When you’re a kid you always want to be just like your Dad and Paul and I were no exception. When it came to woodchopping Paul was in his element and was able to spend a lot of time with their shared success and love of the sport. I wasn’t so good when it came to woodchopping but I was able to help Dad when it came to the handicapping side of the sport. My being able to do the handicapping freed up Dad’s time to be able to concentrate on his own events and all the mentoring he did for others plus I still got to travel along with him to the competitions.

While I haven’t followed the same career path as Dad I have changed jobs several times just as he did and several times I have ended up in retail. Dad always gave me advice whenever he could but was also very upfront and would tell me when he had no idea at all if I asked him about something which he had no experience in. He also said to me that I should be working for myself and not for someone else and that when he won Lotto he would set me up in a business. Well he never did get around to winning Lotto but on his birthday last year I did manage to open a business of my own and I was very proud that he was able to be there on the day.

Strangely the one thing Dad is less well known for is what I have become more well known for in Wellington and that is knitting. I don’t know if it was something to do with having idle hands and not being allowed to watch TV and doing nothing else at the same time but as  kid’s Mum and Dad taught both Paul and I to knit. Dad had been taught by his Mother and I was always amazed at how differently Mum and Dad both cast on their knitting. Dad’s way is a very quick and simple method which is the only cast on I ever use.

I’ve been to various workshops as either a participant or an instructor and every time I cast on people ask me what the name of the cast on is and where they can get the instructions for it. Every time I just reply that it’s called “Dad’s Cast on” because that’s the only name I have for it and they won’t find the instructions anywhere but I’m happy to show people how to do it. So I guess you could say that Dad has become famous in Wellington without really knowing it.

I don’t want to go into the details of what happened to Dad last week except to say that one of the complications he experienced was that he lost the blood flow to both of his legs. In those last few hours with Dad I said to Mum that I wasn’t going to let Dad go up to heaven with cold feet. So in the days after Dad’s passing I knitted him the socks he is wearing today. They are made from possum merino yarn and as he had worked in the bush and saw first hand the damage that possums can do I think he would be pleased to know that his socks probably resulted in there being two less possums in New Zealand.

 

As another tribute to Dad I will be approaching the Gisborne A & P Show Association with a view to sponsoring a woodchopping event and donating what will be the Doug Herbison Memorial Trophy for that event. It seems fitting as it was at the Gisborne A&P show that Dad first chopped competitively and it was in the Poverty Bay area that he was most successful in the sport he loved so much.

In finishing I just want to say that my Dad was an incredible man and I have always been proud to say that he was my Father. He wasn’t perfect and nor am I… but he was the perfect Dad for me.

 

What makes life so much more senseless is that my Mother was diagnosed with breast cancer just a couple of weeks before Dad got ill. My advice for every woman reading this is to not rely on regular mamogram screening programs alone, you must keep up your own program of regular breast examinations!

The Sun Always Shines on TV - A-HA

I've always found it interesting how television permeates the whole of western culture... so much so that I'm sure that non-westerners mistake what they see on television for actually being our culture. As a kid TV was my babysitter, back in those glory days before it was illegal to leave children unattended after school. I am also constantly amused when people at work act horrified when the annual stats come out of how much TV the average New Zealander watches per day. (Currently that figure sits at between 2.5 - 3 hours) I'm amused because they all say they only watch about an hour per day yet they all know what is happening on all the evening prime time shows on all the differing channels. Most of them are usually home well before 6pm.

TV has always been a bit of a knitting backstop for me. If I'm knitting at home I tend to turn on the TV and settle into my favourite armchair for an evening of disater and mayhem... sometimes that's just what's happening with my knitting! I can easily knit away and watch TV for hours on end and usually in a normal evening watch at least four hours despite only getting home at 7pm. Shocking but true. The worst thing though is the lack of quality programming available and long gone is the old addage that only good things happened to TV characters. I'm appalled at how much death, destruction and violence is contained in an average episode of a drama show these days and for people to say that there is no research to say that it has a negative effect on children (and adults) watching it is incredibly naive.

But no more... We're going cold turkey on TV in our house! My mother is horrified and most people who know me simply don't believe that I could survive without one. The situation has come about as our 8 year old (non-plasma, non-flat screen this push button that) TV decided to die. Perhaps if I had kept to the average daily TV watching times it would have lasted another eight years... who knows. But we made the decision not to replace it and so far so good. I've actually got more achieved around the place and I'm going to bed at least half an hour earlier in the evenings. I've also re-discovered the delights of listening to Radio New Zealand National including hearing the inaugural oath word sequence fumble. I certainly don't miss the inept superficial reporting and presentation of the news, both local and international, or the trash I used to watch. Two weeks is hardly anything to celebrate considering how long and how many hours of TV I have watched in my lifetime but it's not as hard as I thought it would be.

There's more time to read the newspaper, speaking of which there was a nice follow up story on the J.O.Y. Garden Party in the Wairarapa Times Age last Thursday. Download WT2Article (1)  

And there's more time to knit. Brace yourselves for a shock people this is a photo of me and...IAN... knitting. This is a one time only occurance so enjoy it! When the reporter interviewed us for the article she asked Ian why he didn't knit and much to my surprise he said that he had been taught as a child but chose not to knit. I was expecting him to give his usual throw away comment of "Why bark if you have a dog". Even more to my surprise he came to me a couple of days ago and said that he wanted to grab some yarn from my stash and borrow some needles to take part in the Giant Sock of Greytown Community Project.

After a quick 30 second refresher course and asking me to cast on for him Ian launched into his first piece of knitting in over 40years. He was only interested in using the knit stitch so a garter stitch swatch it was. A little over an hour later he had progressed up to the point of casting off and with another bit of quick instruction re-mastered that and proudly held up his finished swatch. I think it's an incredible effort for somone who hasn't knitted for so long... if I were a cheeky person I'd say it was longer than I've been on this planet, good thing I'm not cheeky! When he was making a selection from my stash I think he remembered what Vicki Howell said on the first episode of Knitty Gritty "Grab a yarn that excites you and just go for it!" Ian's always liked pinky red colours so this yarn was a perfect fit. Don't ask me what the yarn is as I have no idea anymore, it was just in one of the many bags of yarn I have crammed in wardrobes and drawers around the house.

I also went to work on my swatch this morning and this is what I ended up with by lunchtime. The Bi-tone honeycomb has always been a bit of a signature stitch for me but I hadn't used it for almost two years so I decided to have some fun with it. I selected some Supreme Possum Merino with Silk yarn in the Rose and Leaf colourways and set to it. Halfway through I decided to reverse the colours to see what would happen... luckily I liked the end result. I am a bit biased though as I've always liked the two colours together ever since I saw a Kaffe Fassett needlepoint cushion with them. They feature in my living room and they are also the colours for J.O.Y. , nothing like a bit of originality!

If you want to find out more about the Giant Sock of Greytown project click here. I'd love to receive swatches from all over the world to add to the swatches from Greytown and the rest of New Zealand so get those needles clicking!

Things will be a little quiet around here for the next week as I'm catching the night bus tomorrow after work to visit my parents in Hamilton. There are a few health issues we have to deal with and make provision for. Hmmmm... Mum and Dad have two large flat screen TV's at their place... I wonder if I'll fall off the non-TV watching wagon while I visit. 

(I've Had) The Time Of My Life - Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes

Ian and I certainly had a great time last weekend and judging by all the thank you e-mails and cards we've received over the past few days (including a bottle of wine) a lot other people had a great time too!

It all started off with this great article in the Wairarapa Times Age newspaper last Thursday. Download J.O.Y. Garden Party article 

Then we had the FridayNight Sock Club and there was a fantastic turnout of twenty sock knitters, the best turn out yet for the Club. We started off outside in the Garden and then moved inside as the evening light began to fade. Morag of Vintage Purls joined us and got everyone excited about the Saturday sock workshop. As usual there was plenty of food and conversation to go with the sock knitting and true to form the meeting ran past 10pm... but I guess that happens when you're having fun.

We started Saturday morning off with a public talk by Morag where she told us about her early yarn adventures and how it led her to set up her own hand-dyed yarn company. That was quickly followed by our attempt to get as many people knitting socks in one place at the one time. Our official number was... drum roll please... 34! Not a bad number for our first go at it. We will try and increase that number each and every year we hold the Garden Party. This photo shows all the sock knitters happily knitting away.

Next up was the hat competitions... after all what's a Garden Party without hats! This is the hat I created for Ian, can you tell it's an homage to the classic Aussie cork hat? I used Vintage purls yarn to knit up nine mini socks which I attached to a straw hat and then knitted up a band which readVintage Purls and yes those are pearl like beads knitted into the band as well. It proved to be quite a hit but I decided not to enter it into the competition.

Here is a glimpse of some of the hats which were on display...

     

   

As you can see it was quite a colourful affair.

Then it was time for Morag's workshop to get underway. Here you can see the concentration on the faces of some of the participants as they were getting their heads around the magic loop and toe up techniques all at the same time! It was fun watching peoples faces as the 'lightbulb' moment happened when they just clicked and understood everything. It helped of course that Morag was such a great tutor! I can only claim responsibility for providing such good weather... it was a beautiful sunny day with the temperature up to 30 degrees celcius. Needless to say we were handing out sunscreen and filling up the water jugs on a regular basis. Ian was also tempting everyone with the home baking he had been doing over the past few days. The workshop was a complete sell out with all 30 places filled! Originally we were hoping to get 20 people but there was such demand we were forced to increase the workshop size and unfortunately for poor Morag we increased the length of the workshop by another hour.

After the workshop about 16 of us went across to Corner Cafe for a light dinner before heading back to Scarlet Oak Cottage for, can you believe it, a spot more knitting. It was two late nights back to back but I was up early the next morning to get ready for the Knit Pic - Knitter's Picnic. I was greeted with light rain and was a little worried about how long it was going to last but I needent have worried as the clouds parted and the sun started shining just before lunch time.

About twenty people turned up for the picnic and brought with them an abundance of food so we spent the afternoon knitting and eating together simply enjoying each others company. I couldn't have wanted for a better outcome.

The first ever J.O.Y. Garden Party was a resounding success! So much so that everyone left asking when the next one is going to be... oh well I guess I had better get planning.

Push The Button - The Sugar Babes

  Here we have it... my first official finished knitting project for 2009! I have been dragging the chain a bit with this one and finally sat down and sewed the buttons on this afternoon.

This is for a little boy who is about to be born any day now! I work with his Mother, Vicki, in the IT team at PSIS, or rather I worked with her until she started her maternity leave in mid-December.

The pattern comes from the Debbie Bliss book Nursery Knits and it is the tartan all-in-one. I guess you're wondering what happened to the tartan? I chose to knit the all-in-one in a cashmere/merino yarn from the Knittery in these beautiful shades of blue so there was no point in trying to find a contrast colour to make the tartan... besides I wasn't really feeling like following the graph for the design when I was only working on it in the evenings without natural light.

The observant ones will have noticed that it looks rather large for a newborn... and you'd be right! I decided to knit up the size for a six month old as everyone tends to buy newborn stuff and the baby grows out of it so fast. By knitting up the larger size Vicki will have something for her baby to grow into and when he does it will be winter here in the Southern Hemisphere, ideal weather for cashmere/merino.

        Onto my second finished project of the year! With the J.O.Y. Garden Party fast approaching I've been busily knitting away on the hat I'm going to wear to the event... it is a garden party afterall! The first photo looks rather scary and believe me it was a mission to sew in all the ends and then try and press the petals flat before sewing them onto the straw hat. In the end the petals would not press flat so I had to resort to using double sided tape to keep the petals in place while I sewed them on. I don't recommend pushing a needle through layers of double stranded yarn, double sided tape and straw hat... it's really hard on the fingers! The result has been worthwhile and everyone who came into the shop today commented favourably on it. Now I just have knit up something for Ian to wear...

In my last post I showed a photo of the stylish passport cover my friend Sarah sent me from London. Earlier this week she sent me through a photo of her on Christmas morning wearing the socks I knitted her as a present. She and some friends decided to escape London for a few days so they rented a cottage in the Cotswolds for a few days. It sounded like a good idea at the time but the weather wasn't great and the temperature plummeted but at least Sarah had warm tootsies thanks to the socks.

Thanks again for my present Sarah, I hope I can give it lots of use over time!

When I was little my Mother used to have a jar of buttons she kept on a shelf in one of the hall cupboards along with her other craft things. That jar was a treasure trove with all manner of buttons of differing sizes and colours. It wasn't until recently that I remembered about the jar when a friend of mine asked me if I had any spare buttons for a community project. The Moriah School in Wellington are collecting buttons, lots of buttons... 1.5 million buttons in fact. They are trying to collect one button for every child who died in the holocaust to gain a better understanding of what the number actually means. Once collected the buttons will be used in a series of art projects by the students which will also acknowledge the holocaust.

While Mum had a magical jar of buttons I had never created one of my own. I did however have a good rummage around my various knitting bags and assorted craft containers and came up with about thirty buttons which I donated to the school. So far they have collected almost 300,000 but are still a long way from their goal so I though I'd ask you all if you had a magic button jar at home and would like to donate any of the buttons to this project. If so... Thank You! You can send them to me and I will forward them on or you can send them directly to the Moriah School Holocaust Button Collection, P.O. Box 27 333, Marion Square, Wellington.