Nourish Me:: Week Nine - Keep Calm...

One must take ones Yuk's where one finds them.

Ok. So it hasn't strictly been a weekly post. I have been attacked caught up by the usual dramas of family life - 'She's got chicken pox. No, it's not chicken pox, it's just the exact symptoms of chicken pox in the exact order they usually occur in without it actually being chicken pox. Oh. Right. So we needn't have cancelled everything then...', cleaning, cooking, kinder, school tours, baby stuff, tantrums (mine and other people's), blah, blah, blah. It has been so busy and I have been completely exhausted by it all that, instead of posting, I've been sitting in bed watching True Blood again and knitting my little ass off. A friend told me about this little sign (above), based on the English wartime signs, and it made me laugh.  That's a good enough reason to include it here methinks.

SJK Handspun Blue Face Leicester Light-Bulky 

Apple of My Sky (109g-157yds) 

from SeeJayneKnitYarns on Etsy

Ah knitting. How I do love thee. It's been especially pleasurable because for the last two weeks I have had my good friend Docwitch, up here in the these thar hills. Oh what bliss. We have spent many days together touring Ye Olde Goode Op Shoppes (thrift shops), having lunch both in and out of my house, making fires, drinking wine, baking and yes, knit, knit, knitting. I have to say that Doc's knitting is of a different calibre than mine - i.e. it looks like it's supposed to and it fits it's recipients but it was just such a pleasure to sit and talk and knit and watch stupid YouTube clips together. It doesn't happen often unfortunately as we live in two different parts of Melbourne and though they are only 40 minutes to an hour away, it takes an awful lot of logistical planning to get us both in the same place at the same time. So I soaked up the opportunity to spend some quality time, with a wonderful witchypoo friend and her gorgeous daughter. Our little witchlings, though 4 years different in age, played wonderfully together, though I do recall Doc's daughter becoming a somewhat draconian schoolmarm and threatening to give Beanie 'the strap' if she talked out of turn in class! Ah twas fun indeed.
When they returned to their normal life in the 'cidee', I was then joined by the lovely Solyluna who will remain up here until early June. Oh but I shall be completely spoiled by then and shall be bereft when they leave me up here all by my lonesome. Until that fateful day arrives, I shall revel in all the time spent with such delicious company and top up my sorely depleted batteries. I don't think that either woman realises just how precious their friendship is to me nor how much they lift my spirits with just their presence and conversation. I am very blessed.

So knitting. I am, I fear, almost as big a yarn slut as I am a book slut - and that should tell you a lot about me. I have yarn envy, I covertly 'touch' other people's yarn, I fawn over their projects, I stroke the pretty skeins as they flaunt their colours and textures and invite me to buy. I start one project only to get unusually excited about something else and thus starts the slippery slide into the 'multiple projects on the needles' which justifies me buying a bit more of this lovely yarn, and oh, look at that one, it's so purdy.' abyss... I LOVE it though, knitting aside, I seriously think that I am developing some even more old ladyish qualities. I've started to make chicken stock regularly for goodness sake. And baking? Darning? Don't ask. Next thing you know I'll be drinking sherry and smelling of piss 'n' biscuits.

Lovely, lovely Noro

I am just about to complete a beautiful 'Rainbow Dress' for Beanie. It has knit up really well in gorgeous Noro silk wool and it has been my first big project on circular needles and I am hooked. Literally. Knitting in the round is so easy and it's so satisfying. No seams to sew up at the end (and I can't tell you how many projects I have lying around waiting for me to sew them up!) and no boring knit one round, purl the next - you just knit each round and miraculously, stocking stitch appears on the other side. It's magical. I am also knitting up something for my wee Bear and I hope to have that finished next week. It's so exciting. I spend most evenings just watching movies and knitting. I haven't yet mastered reading and knitting but one day...one day.

The glorious and amusing art of 'wool' or 'yarn' bombing whereby something ordinary gets a knitted makeover. 

Truly though, knitting and crafting, which it seems like I've been doing constantly in the last four months, is keeping me sane. When things get tough, and they have been, it is a balm to my shredded soul. There is something so meditative about knitting, something so soothing and calming. It brings me into the moment and gives me something to focus on beyond my cares and woes and day-to-day struggles. And the truly great thing about knitting is that its so easy to see progress and that is exceptionally satisfying. 


I've also been crafting up a storm for a number of swaps I'm engaged in. I will post more on those later, with piccies, but for now know that, in my blogging absence, I have been beavering away in earnest and enjoying myself (in this at least) more than is strictly proper for a woman in the autumn of my life.


I'd best be off. My knitting is singing to me like a siren. I'm so close to finishing the dress... But. Before I leave, I will once more share my latest sweet nourishy bites with you.

:: watching :: True Blood Series One & Two again. Oh that naughty, naughty Eric but then in series three there is that hunk of werewolf Alcide. Oh my. Be still my beating heart. Did I hear someone say 'doggy style'? Really. You ought to be ashamed. He's a person, not a hunk of extremely desirable man meat. Tsk. Tsk.

I like it Ruff!

:: loving :: I'll give you a clue...it involves yarn.


:: longing for:: some time alone. To sleep, to think, to write, to make stuff, to dream.

:: looking forward to :: comfort food, mulled wine and more knitting in front of the beautiful fire in our little coonara. The Winter Solstice - particularly the lantern parade that happens in our community every year. New crafting projects.

:: heading towards :: some scary soul searching and shadow dusting.

:: enjoying :: the heady array of flaming autumnal colours that surround me. I find myself holding my breath as I pass yet another tree on fire with colour - pinks and red and oranges and yellows abound but there is also scarlet and peach and honey and green and chestnut and russet and crunchy dark browns. Oh how they delight me daily. A work of fiction on audio cd in my car - The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton - it's terribly intriguing and lovely to read some fiction for a change.

::making:: wool roving swans, wool roving summer fairies, felt toadstools and yes, a rainbow dress for Beanie with my beautiful, colourful (almost all gone!) Noro wool. Ravelry pattern here. I'm still making lots of lovely soups - I made one today that was oven roasted vegetables and kale - mm mm mmmmm. I've also been making apple pies from hand picked organic apples from a friends farm. SO yummy. Recipe here. The only thing I did differently from the recipe was I stewed my apples for 10 mins in some dark muscovado sugar to soften them.

:: surprising myself :: by putting myself first for a change. I have made some small changes to our sleeping arrangements here at chez skarbek, changes to give me more sleep and it has had a positive knock on effect with the children. I am learning, slowly, that if mamma isn't happy, ain't nobody happy. It's only taken me 4.5 years to stop being so bloody guilty over every friggin' decision I make and to realise that no matter what my ideals, if it isn't working for our family then it's time to let it go.  

:: feeling :: challenged and, if I'm honest, a little bit afraid.

:: hoping for :: positive change, connection and acceptance.

:: grateful for :: good friends, good wine and the early dark.

And with a swirl of her (knitted red riding hood) cape...she was gone.


*excuse the awful spacing - my page seems to be having a 'moment'