What a week it was!

Last Monday, 1 July, DD and Younger Grandson had to come to “the big smoke” to see a cardiac specialist.Tests were done and the all clear was given! Hurrah!

On Wednesday, after seeing the specialist, WM, DD, YG and I headed north for a few days with the family to celebrate YG’s birthday. Little did we know the trip would take nine long hours – we arrived just before 1:30am! Just as well I had thought to ask SIL to collect our room key for the motel so we wouldn’t disturb the owners with our late arrival!

Thursday is the day the boys attend Day Care, so we three adults spent the day near the beach. The sun was shining but it was very windy. This is a view of Back Beach from the headland.

We saw some dolphins playing near these rocks but WM was unable to get a photo.

We tried to spot whales but we just didn’t see any. DD and I had almost given up and taken shelter in the warmth of the car when WM informed us that a whale had been sighted by a local who had told him where to look.

With renewed enthusiasm, we braved the cold – I wore WM’s fleece pullover which was in the car and DD wrapped herself in a small quilt (as best she could). At first we thought we were just imagining things but then we saw a whale breach! Wow! How exciting! WM wasn’t fast enough with the camera for that event but he did manage a couple of photos.

What do you mean you can’t see anything? How about this then?

We spent Friday with DD and the boys. We had a picnic lunch in the park near the playground. In the evening we went to SIL’s parents’ place to celebrate Younger Grandson’s birthday. There was food and drink and conversation but the most important thing to the little guys was this (made by their other grandmother):

YG wouldn’t blow his candle out so OG lovingly obliged!

On Saturday, WM and I went whale-spotting before heading out to DD’s again. Much to our surprise and delight, a humpback whale swam in much close than the ones we had seen two days previously. Taking photos is always a challenge – especially with a big lens and no tripod – but the memory of that whale just a few hundred metres away will stay with us for a long time!

In the early afternoon, WM and I had some one-on-one time with OG while YG had a nap.

Later WM took YG to the playground near the beach for some one-on-one time.

OG was given the chance to go too but he chose to stay at home! He likes to play games on the iPad, especially if it’s Grandmum’s iPad not mummy’s!

While DD was preparing dinner, OG helped Grandmum with her hand-stitching. Just look at that concentration!

All too soon our wonderful few days were over and it was time to make the long trip home.

Roll on October – I miss my grandsons already!

a brief summary of Camp

I arrived at the Knitters' Guild of NSW (Inc) Camp on Friday evening at 5:20, after an almost three hour trip - half an hour of which I spent travelling just four kilometres (2.5 miles). A police operation was underway in Castle Hill (a motorist been shot by the police the day before) so there were major roads closed in the area.

I was given a nice twin bed motel-style room with en-suite which I shared with a member of my own knitting group so the accommodation was much better than I was expecting. The word "camp" conjures up bunk beds and dormitory style rooms so it was a very pleasant surprise. The food was quite good and there seemed to be enough for everybody although those at the end of the queue missed out on pumpkin for dinner one night.

I took my camera, charged the batteries overnight and then was too busy to take any photos!

On Saturday I tutored an all day workshop on entrelac knitting. I am by no means an expert but I have knitted quite a few blankets in garter stitch entrelac so I am very familiar with the technique.

All the samples I prepared were knitted in acrylic (I don't like "wasting" wool for knitting samples and I hope they'll be protected from insect attack!) and unblocked: I wanted the participants to see what their work would look like on the needles - which is not always like a blocked piece; this is especially true of entrelac.

In the first session of the day, I taught the participants how the squares of entrelac are joined together. We worked in garter stitch: but some of those squares were knitted entirely in purl. The samples show the same square knitted in one handpainted yarn and in two contrasting yarns. The participants all made the sample with two yarns so that hey could see how it comes togehter.

After lunch came the harder session: not only did the participants learn how to knit traditional entrelac in stocking stitch, which meant making triangles at the base, sides and top of their sample, but I also taught them to knit backwards and asked them, if they could, to knit with the right side facing for the rest of the day. Knitting backwards is knitting the work from the right needle to the left needle; this saves turning the work around at the end of every eight stitch row which, with practice, is actually faster than knitting and purling.

Most of the participants got it and were happy to keep knitting that way (slowly) for the remainder of the afternoon. Some of them said they really enjoyed knitting backwards, which was a real bonus!

The sample shows the difference in size and finish knitting the same pattern in stocking stitch versus garter stitch - same needles, same yarn, same number of stitches, same knitter.

For the fast finishers, there was a bonus sample: lace entrelac. Well, a combination of lace and garter stitch as seen below.

I was given many thanks and compliments for the workshop which I really appreciated.

On Sunday I was exhausted. 8:30am-5:50pm was a long, long day for me! The weather was miserable, and got worse as the weekend progressed. I had planned to leave on Sunday afternoon after the intarsia workshop I was taking, but the combination of heavy rain and fatigue made me decide to leave at lunch time on Sunday.

I had a good drive home, despite the heavy rain at the beginning of the trip, and was home in about two and half hours. It was the first time in a very long while since I had driven that kind of distance (170km - 106.5 miles - each way) so I was quite pleased with myself.

I had a wonderful time (despite the weather and the exhaustion) and would encourage Guild members to start saving now for Camp 2013. And be sure to let the Committee know what workshops you would like to see at the next camp.

Sea Cliff Beach Escape

warning: photo heavy post

Last Otober, WM and I spent three cool and mostly wet days at Coalcliff, which is south of Sydney. We left home in warm, sunny weather and arrived at our accommodation as the storm front arrived. From then on, the weekend was cool and cloudy, with a fair bit of rain thrown in. We did not have the views shown in the photos from the linked webpage but the accommodation was clean and reasonably comfortable (except for the too hard bed). I found the living room cold. It had a tiled floor, which is logical near a beach, I guess.  The split system aircondtioner was in the bedroom (which was carpeted) not the living room, which didn't seem to make any sense! I sat and knitted with my feet on a cushion to insulate them from the very cold floor!

photo copied from http://seacliffbridge.com/ then cropped

We did go out quite a bit. We walked from our accommodation to this bridge. We walked the length of it - 665 metres (740 yards) - both ways. 

The photo on the right is a photo from the website describing the bridge. Below are the views taken by WM on the bridge on a grey and windy day.

The first one is looking south; the cliff face is the one closest to the viewer in the promotional photo.


















The next two photos show the view looking north, towards Coalcliff.

In this photo, you can see the old road.  It's towards the bottom of the photo; it has guard rails along the edge to keep the traffic from driving over the cliff. Above the road, you can see the fence that was built to catch rocks as they fell from the cliff face.

The road was closed indefinitely in 2003 after a land-slide. There was public outrage after the closure so the government built the bridge to replace the road. The bridge was opened in December 2005.



We walked on the beach. Coalcliff has to be one of the dirtiest beaches in Australia; not because of litter, but because the sand itself is dirty: it is very dark with the coal dust it contains. Mind you, it still felt like sand and it didn't smell, it just looked strange when one is used to golden beaches.

This creek could be almost anywhere in Australia (except the desert).

But turn around and this is the view!

copied from http://www.visitsouthcoast.com.au/gallery.aspx

We visited Bald Hill at Stanwell Park, a couple of kilometres north of where we staying. This is the view shown in the tourist guides (and one we have seen on several occasions). 

Below is the way we saw it - no it's not a black and white photo! The cluster of buildings to the right of the photo is Coalcliff, where we were staying.



On the Sunday we drove to Thirroul for lunch. We intended to have pizza at an award winning pizzeria. Thirroul is a tourist town a few kilometres south of where we were staying. Tourist town - Sunday - long weekend - not raining - pizzeria not open! Weird, huh?

We walked around Thirroul and eventually did find somewhere to eat lunch. No photos; we went out for lunch and left the camera at home!

WM missed the Grand Final of the Rugby League and his team was playing for the first time since 1999! Why? We had poor reception in our accommodation - blame the high cliffs above us! Fortunately, DD taped it for him so he got to watch it about twenty fours late! No one was allowed to tell him the score even though he knew his team had won!

It's nice to get away but when the bed is so hard one can't sleep, is it really worth it?

long weekend

warning: photo heavy post

The Queen's birthday holiday is celebrated in NSW on the second Sunday of June. WM had the previous Friday as an RDO so we decided to spend the weekend away from home. After a relaxing weekend away, there is nothing worse than being caught in the traffic snarls as people come back to Sydney after the weekend so we chose to go to Blackheath in the Blue Mountains (about an hour from home).

We stayed at Maybourne Cottage for four nights. It was a lovely, quiet weekend which included some bushwalking, some lovely views and some quiet times (for reading, knitting and watching TV). WM enjoyed the spa and playing with the slow combustion fire.

Blackheath is within the Blue Mountains National Park. Below are some of the dozens of photos WM took over the four days.

Grose Valley from Pulpit Rock:

Bridal Veil Falls from Pulpit Rock and Govetts Leap:

The "easy" path with a "few" steps to Pulpit Rock (yeah, right!):

Pulpit Rock (in the middle ground) from Govett's Leap:

reflections in the Megalong Valley:

destination - Walls Cave:

Greaves Creek canyon and stepping stones:

Walls Cave

a lyrebird: native to Australia

Australia's national flower: wattle (species = acacia):

Just passing through!

It has been two weeks since I posted but I'm still here! If you've signed up with The Winter of Textured Knitting don't panic, I'm still alive!

Last Saturday night WM and I went to the Opera House to hear the Sydney Symphony Orchestra playing The Best of the West End. The soloists, Simon Bowman [Phantom of the Opera, London] and Jacqui Scott [Cats, London], were fabulous, the orchestra was, as usual, superb and my only complaint was that the show was too short!

We spent the night at the Radisson Plaza Hotel - great customer service - and had breakfast in the Bistro Fax - delicious. DD, SIL and his parents joined us; they had spent the night in a serviced apartment after attending a 21st in the inner city suburb of Newtown. SIL's parents are from the North Coast and were flying out on Sunday afternoon so it was good to catch up with them while they were in Sydney.

WM and I spent the rest of the day at Manly - a walk on the beach, a stroll through the markets, a soft drink at the pub then a very late lunch at City Extra at Circular Quay - real food, great service! It must have been: we had dinner [before the show] and dessert [after the show] there the night before!

Anyway, the upshot of all that is that I have spent all of this week living day-to-day. Normally I prepare classes for the whole week on Saturday and only have to tweak them but this week I have had to spend time almost every afternoon [I don't teach on Thursdays] preparing for the following day. This has been very tiring; all the more so because WM and I had to go out on Tuesday and Wednesday nights! Busy, busy, busy!

But life is back on track; all my lessons for this week are prepared [except Friday but I have Thursday off] so I can now spend some time catching up with blogs [I have 92 posts to read] and writing this month's summary of The Winter of Textured Knitting members' work.

BTW, It's not too late to join in the fun - knit anything you want, from any yarn you want, in a textured stitch pattern - no pressure! Just write a comment if you want to be added to the list in the sidebar. Sorry, Tinkingbell, for taking so long to add you - I haven't been near my blog for a week! Welcome to our little band!

I'll be back soon! I'm off to sit in the glorious autumn sunshine and knit!