FIBRE ALIVE

Vote Baby Vote - Deee Lite

It's only a couple of days to go until the General Election in New Zealand... and I can't wait! Firstly because I love the fact that we live in a democratic country and I am able to vote. Secondly I'll just be glad when it's all over. It's been a shorter than normal campaign period due to the timing of the Rugby World Cup but in reality it's seemed like one of the longest... ever... and I blame the media and their reporting of the campaign. I have been really embarrassed at the poor standard of journalism which has seen real issues pushed to the background while the tea cup saga has gained all the attention. When you talk about self importance politicians usually tend to come to mind but these days I think the title clearly goes to TV journalists.

Right that's my grump over! For anyone who still has not enrolled to vote, tomorrow is the last day to register. So get in there and make your vote count. For those of you who are still uncertain about the policies of the various parties and how they might affect you I have a solution...

ELECTION FARM

Can you tell that New Zealand is still very much an agricultural nation?!? Some whizz kids have come up with this interactive site which gives you an overview of the political parties and their policies using a farm environment. I've already decided who I am voting for in my electorate and which party will get my party vote but I did have fun playing around on Election Farm. Check it out for yourselves.

In another sign of tough economic times I was saddened to read this week that the woollen mill in Milton (just outside Dunedin) is about to close and make all their staff redundant. The Mill has seen many incarnations of ownership over the years but has always played an important part in the history of the New Zealand fibre industry. Here is the news article I saw earlier this week...

WOOLEN MILL IN MILTON TO CLOSE...

I'm hoping that somehow there may be a solution worked out and perhaps new owners might be able to keep the mill going.

In terms of knitting this week... I finished the Santa Sack jock strap! I'm quite pleased with just how good it turned out. Bi-tone honeycomb certainly is my signature stitch! this little beauty will find it's way into the mail to Canada this weekend. On a side note... Ian likes it so much that he has even requested one for Christmas. Hmmm...

Ready for some flowers now???

It's springtime so we've had some peonies on display in the dining room and I thought they were too beautiful not to share them with you. (Yes that is my laundry in the background, I'm no domestic goddess!)

A Kind of Christmas Card - Morten Harket

Last weekend was a busy one for me travelling through to Fielding each day for a craft fair being held there. I decided that it would be cheaper to drive each day than to pay for a motel and because my friend Sally and I were sharing a stall it made sense to share a car as well. I had never been to this particular fair before but it was one that my Father regularly went to with his woodturning. 

The saturday was very busy peoplewise with waves of people pouring into the venue. I made the mistake of spending most of the day up on my feet talking and knitting while I was selling my yarns. Normally that isn't a problem for me and when I worked in retail management for Pascoes there were no seats to sit down so I was always on my feet. But when I was driving home on Saturday I started to get a little cramping in my right leg and I had to take my shoe off. When I got home I saw why... the leg I've had celulitis in had become swollen and tender. Luckily not a relapse, just a bit of swelling so on the Sunday I made sure that I sat down for most of the day... which was interesting in itself since I was wearing my kilt.

So in the end it was a successful weekend as Sally and I had a great time, we both sold stuff and we got to meet lots of new people and also got to meet people we had only known from online. I'll be back to the Fielding market next year for sure.

I was at the Post Office a couple of days ago and saw the poster with Christmas posting deadlines and decided that it was time to start getting my Christmas cards sorted. I happened to be at Paper Plus so I browsed through there huge display of Christmas cards looking for something that would appeal to my knitting friends who live overseas. Normally it's quite difficult to find anything combining Christmas and Knitting but this year I spotted this card...

Not only does the card feature knitting... but sock knitting!!! It was perfect and I couldn't resist buying a pack... a portion of the sale price also went to a Breast Cancer charity so it was a done deal.

Then just as I was about to leave the store I spotted another card with a sort of Christmas knitting theme...

An ultra cute Christmas Kitty!!! I might have to see if I can replicate this image using Jazz the cat... I'm guessing that I'll have to ply him with food to model for me.

And speaking of Christmas knitting... here is another project I'm working on. Red and white... Christmasey. Reindeer looking on... Christmasey. It's another knitted jock for a friend and I know I'm going to regret this but it's going to be called the 'Santa Sack' jock because it will have a double pouch which will have gifts in it.  

And as Christmas is partly about fun and games follow this link to a really cute game about testing your reaction time by tranquilising sheep. It sounds weird but it's fun and quite addictive when you keep trying to improve your time.

THE SHEEP DASH

Doozer Knitting - The Muppets

When I was a TV addicted kid in the 1970's the two highlights of my weekend viewing were The Wonderful World of Disney and The Muppet Show. Even Mum and Dad would watch the Muppet Show with me and laugh along with all the skits although I think they got a bit fed up with my Brother and I constantly singing 'ma na ma na' at the tops of our lungs. I don't even remember there ever being a Muppets knitting song but I was pleasantly surprised to find the Doozer Knitting song when I was doing a random google search a few days ago... it may even become the ring tone on my phone soon. 

About ten years ago I bought Mum a Tickle Me Elmo doll for her birthday, the sort that when you did tickle Elmo it would gigle and vibrate. Even now it brings a smile to my face when I look at it... it's not just kids who like to have or enjoy toys.

While this video clip doesn't feature Elmo or the Muppets it does feature two very cute knitted characters called Knit and Purl... did I say very cute???... I meant to say incredibly cute!!!

  

Although what would you call the baby... Make one??? The credits appearing on a ball of yarn at the end of the clips are a very clever idea. My thanks to wonkyfilms for being so creative.

My little by little premise is working ok so far and the latest mini stockings offerings are in red and green... and the next colours will be green and white. Can you tell that I'm quite traditional when it comes to my Christmas colours?!?

I'm running late for work this morning so instead of babbling on about Christmas knitting I'll leave you with another clip from Knit and Purl... I couldn't resist because it's about tickling!

 

Little by Little - Radiohead

I guess that as you get older you learn more about yourself and the world around you... well at least you're meant to learn from your experiences... I'm learning that my 41 year old body isn't able to do the things my 21 year old body could.

Back then I enjoyed rowing and thought nothing of going to the gym and rowing for over an hour at a time. It was something that I was good at and something that I felt a sense of achievement with... and you can't deny the effect of the endorphins running around your body afterwards. Since I stopped working in Wellington with a gym only a couple of minutes walk away I haven't been doing much rowing and I think that has also contributed to my moods and rubenesque physique. So earlier this week I decided to launch myself back into the rowing saddle... and it's amazing how much out of shape I felt... and realised that I need to respect my body and ease myself back into a steady routine. There's no need to try and row for an hour anymore and it's probably far more beneficial for me to just spend 20 minutes a day to build up my strength and stamina and forget about getting back to the level I was at last year.

It's amazing just how the kilometres add up when you start rowing. Concept2 is one of the world's most well known rowing machine brands and as part of motivating people they provide an online log book where you can record your distances and times and then compare that to other people. I started using the log book about four years ago and while I've been a little inconsistent with rowing due to various things I'm really pleased to announce that yesterday's workout saw me cross the five million meters rowed threshold! It'a quite an achievement and one that I'm rather proud of plus it's come right at the time when I needed a bit of a boost. My goal now is of course to head towards six million meters but... I'm not putting a time frame on it this time. I know that if I make the commitment to row often and for short distances the meters will add up by themselves, little by little, and I'll enjoy the exercise instead of forcing myself to do it.

I also decided it was time to treat myself with a bit of fibre indulgence. A couple of months ago I had ordered myself some undyed alpaca boucle yarn from a place called Flagstaff Alpacas  with the intention of knitting something for myself. I finally got around to dragging out my dyepots again and finally got the yarn dyed.

And here is the work in progress. The four different colourways will all be knit up in a modular pattern I've got worked out in my head... danger... and the plan is to knit one module per day. That way it will become part of a daily routine and I'll also learn a little patience and balance when it comes to my knitting. I thought it was kind of cool that when I wound the yarn from the hank into these cakes that the colours took on a tartan-esque argyle look.

I'm needing to learn the balance thing again because I tend to get distracted and start multiple projects but then discard them in favour of other things. Doing a little bit on each project every day will see good progress on all of them and again help me feel a sense of achievement when I see that progress. Another example are these mini-christmas stockings I've started to knit for the craft fairs I'm going to. I could spend a whole fortnight knitting these and nothing else but then I wouldn't have any time for making up sock yarn blanket kits, skeining yarn, knitting cable strips for a friendship quilt, knitting another jock strap for a ravelry swap, knitting for me, etc etc etc. Knitting always needs to be for fun and pleasure.

Here's something to make you think twice about animal husbandry... click on this like to see an article which appeared in the New zealand Herald...

Is it a sheep... is it a goat... no it's a geep!  

After some testing it turned out that it was a normal lamb but with an unusual gene combination which gave it a more lustrous type of fleece... hmmm I wonder what that would spin and knit up like???

To finish with here's a photo of our wisteria at the front of Scarlet Oak Cottage. I was very relieved to see that it had survived the windy stormy weather we had on Friday... we lost half the green fruit off the old plum tree though so I might be having a few discussions with Ian over how many plums I get to eat vs how many he gets to turn into jam... life is all about negotiation!  

On The Road Again - Willie Nelson

Thanks to everyone for your kind wishes for Jazz our cat and for me in my silly blue state...

The update I promised you is all good news. Jazz is home again and while he's not quite back to feeling 100% of his usual self he is well enough to get up to mischief again... yesterday we came home to find a dead bird on the back door step... as Jazz's contribution to the pantry no doubt. Then tonight he got fed up with me being on the computer and not paying him enough attention so he tipped over the wastepaper basket next to me in the study and proceeded to take all the paper out to make himself a bed. Can you tell who rules the roost in this house?!?

Thanks also for the comments on my new glasses. I'm not one for really promoting anything other than my own products or the products of friends here on my blog but I think I'll make an exception here. The company are based in Hong Kong and are called Zenni Optical, you can check out their website here. It's a really user friendly site and all the pricing on the website is in US$. My experience with them has been very good and I love the glasses I've purchased... one of the pairs I got just to wear at christmas time because they have snowmen on them.

And before I forget, the All Blacks did win the 2011 Rugby World Cup so needless to say there has been plenty of celebrating throughout the country. You might remember the supportive hay bales I posted a pictured a couple of weeks ago... well there's been a victorious addition to the front...

A replica trophy... classic kiwi country ingenuity.

I called this post 'On The road Again' because the Summer circuit of craft fairs is about to start and I've booked a place at a few of them... so here's the run down.

Fielding Craft Market, Saturday November 12th & Sunday November 13th, 10.00am - 4.00pm, Fielding Civic Centre, 84 Aorangi Street, Fielding

Craft Jam in the Plaza, Saturday December 3rd, 5.00pm - 9.00pm, Sunday December 4th, 10.00am - 2.00pm, Hawkes Bay Opera House, 101 Hastings Street South, Hastings

More details on the Fruit Bowl Craft Jam website

Craft Country Craft Market, Saturday December 10th, 10.00am - 3.00pm, Greytown Town Hall, Main Street, Greytown. The same day as the Greytown Christmas parade.

More details on the Craft Country website

Rotary Martinborough Fair, Saturday February 4th, 8.00am - 4.00pm, The Town Square, Martinborough

Rotary Martinborough Fair, Saturday, March 3rd, 8.00am - 4.00pm, The Town Square, Martinborough

More details on the Rotary Martinborough Fair website

Unwind Fibrecraft Retreat Traders Market, Friday March 9th, 1.30pm - 5.00pm, Pacific Park Hotel, Wallace Street, Dunedin. I'm also teaching two workshops over the weekend.

More details at unwindretreat.co.nz

It looks like I'm going to be a very busy boy but it's all going to be fun... especially as i usually wear my kilt to these events.

And what's a blog post on a knitting website without a photo of knitting...

This is a reversible mini jock strap I knitted for the teddy bear which I included as an extra gift to go with the Feliz navidad jock strap I knitted for a friend on Ravelry. Very cute!

 

 

I Get Weak - Belinda Carlisle

It's been a funny old week for me... some good things and some not so good things.

For the most part I'm able to take the good with the bad but sometimes I end up tipping the balance and for the past couple of weeks I seem to have been a little bit down in the dumps and tend to be dwelling on the negatives more than the positives in my life. I guess it came down to committing myself to a few too many things again and I got tired and run down... and unfortunately for me I tend to lose a bit of perspective when I get like that.

Then this past week I made the mistake of weighing myself and discovered that I was only a couple of pounds away from my all time highest weight... again. Just call me a human yo-yo but my weight does seem to go up and down with my moods. So what did I do??? I chastised myself and then soothed myself with... a block of chocolate... and then chastised myself again... but resisted soothing myself with yet more chocolate.

Then Jazz the cat appeared to be off his food... not just being fussy like he can be... he wouldn't even eat any raw mince or his all time favourite treat... ham. I took him to the vet yesterday and now I feel like a dreadful pet parent because Jazz has had to be sent to the pet hospital in Masterton. The poor little man was dehydrated, underweight, had sunken eyes, a rotten tooth and has possible kidney disease. I was also taken aback when the vet described Jazz as a geriatric cat. He's ten years old now but I tend to still see him as an over grown kitten who loves to play with wool and claw all my knitting projects.

I was so upset after I had to leave him there at the vet clinic that I walked to the supermarket and bought a LARGE block of chocolate and ate it all... and didn't even bother to chastise myself. Fingers crossed that if his treatment goes well we should be able to bring Jazz home sometime during the week.

To say that I'm not feeling overly good about myself at the moment is a bit of an understatement.

So what do I do when I get depressed??? I usually indulge in a completely unneccesary spot of retail therapy... and this time I bought myself five pairs of face furniture... otherwise known as prescription eye glasses. A friend (Hi Sharee!) put me onto an online provider of glasses and I had been putting off looking at the website for no other reason than I didn't think I needed any new glasses... or rather that I couldn't afford any new glasses. But when I did look I was completely amazed at the pricing and I purchased all these glasses complete with prescription lenses for less than the cost of my last pair I had bought locally... and that pair had been half the price of my previous Ted Baker or Gucci frames only.

So here's a photo of me wearing the most 'architectural' framed glasses I've ever contemplated wearing... I like them so much I even managed a half smile in the photo. I also seem to at last be starting to fall in love with the colour orange. I have two friends (Hi Kent and Dee!) who are huge devotees of the colour and proactively try to convert people to the colour so I guess it might also be a case of osmosis.

I'm also wearing the scarf I finished in Hamilton while I was visiting my Mother. At this stage it's going to end up being a gift as part of a facebook promise I made at the start of the year.

And I bought a couple of new tea towels, both Irish linen and at a ridiculous price... but then I feel my life is quite ridiculous some days. I bought this particular one because it made me smile and it reminded me of my trip to Northern Ireland three years ago.

Don't worry about me though... I'm not on a total downer. Last night I went to a dinner held to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the company I work for. Ian was away for the weekend and I wasn't really all that keen on attending but I'm so glad that I did. I ended up having a really good time... perhaps that was due to the wine that seemed to keep disappearing from my glass... and the delicious meal which was provided... or perhaps that's just another sign of my moderation issues! But I'm very pleased I went and I came home in a much better frame of mind as a result.

And of course knitting generally keeps my mood up and here is this weeks knitting output... three baby socks, cabled strips for a knitted quilt project and another scarf half finished.

It's such a beautiful day outside today that it's now time for me to shut down the laptop and sit in the sun and knit away the afternoon... the vitamin D boost I'll get is bound to keep me in a better mood for the start of the working week.

I'll give you an update on Jazz in a few days time.

Front Page News - Little Feat

A few weeks ago I mentioned that another designer had selected my Merino Mania yarn to use in a pattern... well... it was actually selected for three patterns... plus another colourway was featured on the cover!!!

Can you tell that I'm excited!!!!

Here is a sneaky peak at the other designs featuring my hand dyed yarn...

...In the harmony colourway...

...In the Festival colourway...

...In the Nightfalls colourway...

Great designs... in a great book... featuring great New Zealand yarns... life is good!

The designer is Belinda Too and one of her main objectives is to showcase quality New Zealand yarns alongside her own designs. This is her second published book and it follows on from the success of her first book which featured sock designs. The book is released this week and I'm sure that it will be a success. (I'll have copies for sale in the store next week). You can find out more about Belinda and her designs on her website Blendy Knits

Belinda is about to kick off a book launch tour so if you'd like to be one of the first people to see the book... and some of the featured yarns... check out these dates   

October 28th - Wellington - Paramount Theatre - 4.30pm - 8.30pm

October 29th - Wellington - Craft 2.0 - Chafers Dock - 10.00am - 4.00pm

October 30th - Auckland - Kraftbomb - Grey Lynn Community Centre - 11.00am - 2.00pm

And now for a very cute commercial which aired on New Zealand television a few months ago and always brought a smile to my face every time I saw it. It also came in second place in the annual Fair Go Ad Awards which screened on TV tonight.

  

You're My Inspiration - Chicago

Sometimes I have lots of design ideas floating around in my head when I sit down to start knitting, usually some ridiculously complicated pattern which ends up getting lost in translation between my brain and my fingers. Sometimes I like to take things a bit more easy and have some mindless simple knitting... simple and mindless would be a great way to describe myself some days!... and sometimes I like someone else to take the lead.

This week I decided to let Ian be my muse and provide me with some inspiration... hmmm a muse usually conjures up an image of a gorgeous creature scantily clad in a small amount of chiffon lying on a couch with beguiling eyes... hmmm yes I think that sums up Ian! 

Anyways I'm going off on a tangent again... we were going to knit our contributions for the latest friendship quilt for the Friday Night Sock Club and I sorted through my stash (although Ian considers it his too by way of matrimonial property) for some yarn for us to use. Originally I was going to teach Ian how to do cables but he decided he didn't want to learn anything new and while I was finishing off another project he started his square. He opted for simple but effective garter stitch stripes. When I saw his finished square I decided to do the same and used one of the colours he had so that they would be similar yet different but would balance each other nicely in the quilt. It was a wonderfully simple and quick knit for me... just what I needed on Sunday evening. Mine is on the left and Ian's is on the right.

Ian then got to work on a spot of Christmas knitting for one of our special friends... Renata who used to be our flatmate all those years ago when we lived in Wellington. It's a variation on the bactus scarf... seven rows knit followed by one row of purl and you increase by one stitch every eight rows until the midway point and from there you then decrease by one stitch every eight rows. It creates a very trendy looking scarf shaped like an elongated triangle.

Ian had knitted the same pattern in the same yarn previously and Renata loved it when she saw it and requested that Ian knit her one just like it. The yarn is a four ply merino sock yarn from Knitsch and the colourway is called 'Chelsea' which has this bold almost cobalt blue contrasted with a deep navy blue.

I was looking for a new project to get started on too and thought hmmm... I wanted to play on another variation on bactus myself but in double knit yarn and with multiple colours. So this photo shows my progress so far. I'll be using three colours of a merino Dk weight which I've dyed myself. I'm alternating two colours every two rows and will use the solid chocolate colour for the whole scarf but the variegated colour I'm using for contrast I'll only use up until the halfway point. From that point on I'll be using a caramel variegated colour for the contrast. Again it's a great simple and almost mindless knitting apart from remembering to do the increase every 8th row. I'm quite liking how it's working out so far and I should have it finished on the weekend but I'm not at all sure what will happen to it after that... it could become a gift or it may just get added to my existing scarf collection.

I'm catching the night bus up to Hamilton on Friday to spend a couple of days with my Mother and help her get to grips with her very first laptop. This is the very first computer she has ever used but already she's got herself a gmail account and is on facebook so I guess she's on her way nicely but I think I'll pack some extra knitting to keep myself calm... just in case. Either way I'm sure we'll still love each other after the weekend!

Now what was I saying earlier about my muse Ian... I'm sure there's some chiffon in my studio somewhere... "Ian ... honey... are you still on the couch???..."

Video Killed The Radio Star - Part Three

Sub-titled 'Don't Stop The Dance' - Bryan Ferry

 

It's amazing what people can do with a bit of modelling clay and some stop motion animation. Yes... the yarn in that knitting video was all created from modelling clay! I loved the 'no tears' colour changes which didn't result in any ends to sew in. The yarn certainly danced across the needles... just as any yarn should. My thanks to Claire Chapman for originally posting the clip.

Wow.. it's sunday already and I don't know where the week went. I was busy at work and for non work related reasons. I'm on the work social club committee and part of what we do is prepare a morning tea treat when a staff member has a birthday. That sounds nice... except that I also volunteer to bake a cake as well and... we had three birthdays last week as well as a shared morning tea on Friday as part of pink ribbon day.

For Monday I baked a chocolate and pear cake, for Wednesday Ian made ginger slice for me and for Thursday a lumberjack cake. For Friday it had to be a pink offering so I decided to make Belgium biscuits. For those of you who have never heard of them they are a type of spiced cookie which you sandwich together with strawberry jam and then ice the top with a pink icing. Well mine have always had pink icing, a colleague insisted that her Grandmother made them with white icing and sprinkled red jelly crystals over the icing.

So I did a split batch, some with white icing and some with pink icing. As I had some left over jelly crystals I also made up a few tumblers of jelly... with slices of banana in them... like Mum used to make for my birthdays when I was little. Sadly there is no rest for the wicked as we have another two birthdays next week and one person is leaving so... that's three morning teas next week. I baked a banana cake this afternoon and I'll ice it with lemon icing tomorrow morning... carrot cake on wednesday and I'm still undecided as to what to take on Thursday. What are your favourite tasty morning tea treats?

So I was looking forward to a nice relaxing weekend...

So let me see what have I done... I dyed more yarn, I caked yarn, I skeined yarn, I labeled yarn, I knitted sample baby socks, I photographed yarn, I added more rectangles to my sock yarn blanket, I posted a couple of gifts overseas, I vacumed, I baked, I cuddled the cat, Ian got jealous so I had to cuddle him too, I caught up on e-mails, I read a few blogs, listened to a pod cast, gave Ian a haircut... and took a little time in the sun this afternoon.

The blossom trees are out in bloom so they are a delight to look at including this one in our back yard.

Although I'm a little worried that the bark on it's trunk is starting to split... I haven't seen this particular tree do this before. The bark is beautiful because it has a sheen to it like silk.

I'd love to say that it will be an early night for me but the Rugby World Cup semi final featuring the All Blacks versus Australia is on tonight and I'll be staying up to watch it. Go the AB's!!!

I saw this show of support for the All Blacks on the way to Carterton... I never knew that hay could look so happy!   

 

As I Remember Him - Portia Nelson

Some say that time is a healer... they may be right but sometimes time is guilty of just allowing us to forget. One thing I can’t forget is the passing of my Father and I still find it hard to believe that he has been gone for two and a half years now.

One day earlier this year I was dyeing some yarn and one of the colours just reminded me of Dad. Don’t ask me why, perhaps the blues reminded me of his eyes, perhaps it was because it was sock yarn and I was thinking back to the socks I had knitted for him... either way I ended up calling the colourway ‘Douglas’ after him. I’ve put a skein of it away in my stash and every time I look at it I smile because it sparks off memories that I have of Dad. One day I’ll get around to knitting it up into  a pair of socks for me... perhaps I'll call that pattern Douglas too! Watch this space.

Some of you might remember the tribute to him which I wrote and blogged back then, for those who are interested here is the link...

I mention it again now because towards the end of it I said that I wanted to acknowledge his involvement in the sport of woodchopping by sponsoring an event at the Gisborne Agricultural and Pastoral (A&P) Show. I wasn’t able to make it happen in 2009 for various reasons but I did make it happen last year. I've made a commitment to the Gisborne A & P Association to provide sponsorship money for a five year period in return for one of the woodchopping events to be renamed the Doug Herbison Memorial. So this time last year Ian and I travelled up to Gisborne to go to the A&P Show and watch the woodchopping competition. I hadn’t been back to Gisborne for well over twenty years so it was quite amazing to see what had changed in the small coastal city... and the things that hadn’t changed at all.

 

We drove out to the village of Te Karaka where we lived for three years when I went to primary school... speaking of which here is the school I went to from 1976 – 1979.

... and the beautiful little church across the road... 

And this is the property we lived in. We rented the house off the local council for the princely sum of $5.00 per week... but that was big money back then... ten times my weekly pocket money. We also leased a paddock behind the property and cut the grass to make hay which we sold... it was also where our pet goat, Shelly, was safely away from Mum’s delicious flower gardens. It looks quite overgrown now but what was so nice to see was that a few of the trees were actually ones that we had planted.

 

Back in those days our telephone number only had three digits, Te Karaka 696, and we only had reception for one television channel... in black and white. My how things have changed... for the better?

We moved from Te Karaka into Gisborne when my parents bought the lease on a corner store there. Let’s just say it wasn’t exactly in the best part of town but it was in the days before weekend trading, EFT POS and big supermarkets. Mum and Dad worked extremely hard and the business was very successful while we were there. This is what the shop looked like when we drove by.

 Walking through the city was very interesting... the old shops I used to go to were still there... Muirs Bookstore, Colliers Menswear, Bramwells Pharmacy. I couldn’t resist making a purchase in each store and was even more surprised that Colliers Menswear used the same printed paper bags from twenty years ago. I’m assuming they must have bought in bulk way back then.

Anyway back to the A&P show and the woodchopping... despite some completely atrocious weather in the lead up the show the sun came out to shine and add proof to the claim that Gisborne is indeed the first city in the world to greet the sun each day by nature of New Zealand being in the first time zone and Gisborne being the easternmost city of the North Island.

So here a few pictures from the woodchopping.

 

I was amazed that some of the competitors in Dad’s memorial event were actually his contemporaries he used to compete against. It was great to see them still competing against younger men and still enjoying the sport. Woodchopping is always a spectacular crowd pleaser.

 

I couldn’t resist having a look at some of the home exhibits, carefully displayed behind animal fencing, I used to enter the knitting categories when I was little but I can’t for the life of me remember if I won anything or not.

This was in the dressed doll category... I wondered if the seamstress was channelling Liberace at the time. Spooky is a very good word to use...

Then there were the sheep... it is an A&P show after all...

And I found the wool class winners quite interesting too... not to mention a great trophy for this category.

I’ve been talking about last year so you’re probably wondering what’s happening this year, well... 

The 2011 Gisborne A&P show is on this weekend! Unfortunately I’m not able to travel up for it this year but I have sent the sponsorship money through to the A&P association to ensure that Dad’s memorial event can take place again this year.

So if you feel like seeing the country come to town and you’re going to be on the East Coast this weekend pop on down to the show. I can guarantee that you'll have a great day.