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!" 

Comments

[Calvin]

Hey, James. I hope that life is treating you well. You look very dapper in your hat. Nice picture.

[Cath]

The penguin story received good coverage here as well (on BBC I think). It was a great story that certainly made me smile.

My good friend is about to adopt. I think I will direct her to the movie you mentioned.

[anne marie in philly]

LERVE the new pix, you handsome dude!

smooches all around! :-)

[paul e herbison]

Hey james as you never seem to be home when i ring.I am going to wish you happy birthday here and hope you get it.I know you are flatout all the time but you could slow down a bit. I hope you and ian are well.think of you lots of love your big brother.And by the way i am still having trouble with dads death to. my one true mate. i have tryed talking to mum like dad and use to but as you know we end up getting up set with one onther.All the best on the 15/07/2009 and yes he is getting older happy birthday bro.And give me a ring some time a. ps nice photo but i think the hat has to go.

[Tallguy]

Anniversaries, of any kind, need to be acknowledged. Mom reminded me this year that it is the 60th anniversary for Mom and Dad. The thing is Dad passed away quite a few years ago, so this should be a non-issue. But is is a milestone, and I think it amazed Mom that such a thing as 60 years was possible. It is an important date, no matter whether it actually exists. That first year, and other years to come, is always hard on anniversaries. I think it's best that we take note of it, and mark it in some way, since it is/was important to someone sometime. Even if it is a 39th birthday -- again! Very best wishes!