I'm reduced to this

Well it seems that I'm not the best blogger around. But it's not my fault. We had two computers at home and both of them worked.

In walks my husband to FIX them!!!!!!

I now have two computers at home that are totally USELESS!!!

I have exciting news.....and pictures that I'm just dying to share.....but I'm limited to updating my blog at the library.....so we'll all just have to wait.

So until next time
Yours in Yarn,
The Fibreholic

KIP Day...a late entry

Okay I know that I should be keeping up with this even if no one is reading. I suppose that I started this more for myself than anyone else.

DH started playing with the computer. Trying to put all the old files onto the new computer and ending up with a hard drive crashing and precious photos being lost. Sigh... I've never truly trusted these stupid boxes.

June 9th

Where were we???? Ah yes....Knitting in Public
In all honesty, I didn't get a chance to do that, unless you count knitting at the movies. My baby turned 6 and had his birthday party at the movie theatre. It was a blast although bringing five 6 year-olds and a 7 year old to the movies is not the way to enjoy a film.

Let me think back to my visit to Aus and I'll tell you a tale.
I got on the bus and was headed to Philip to check out Addicted 2 Fabric and Bead Street. I pulled out my knitting as I always did and proceeded to work on Stripes. A few stops down the road a shabbily dressed young man gets on the bus with a three foot long skate board. He had short curly blond hair with three long dreadlocks originating from the side of his head. "Hmmm" thinks I, "What an interesting looking character." Then he blew me away.

Out of his worn satchel, he pulls out his knitting. He was knitting something in garter stitch which could have been the start of a scarf. He was using a chunky (12 ply) yarn and knitting a very tight gauge (I could tell that the needles he was using were smaller than what chunky yarn usually calls for). It took him three tries to start his row but he was a proficient knitter once he got started. I was fascinated. Talk about breaking any stereotypes about knitters. I say this because apart from the SnB meeting I went to, he was the only one I ever saw knitting in public. (Aside from myself that is)

This happened during my first week in Canberra and I thought no more about it until the next week when I'm walking through City Walk coming from the supermarket. There sitting on a bench, chatting with a mate, was this knitting in public guy. This time he was working on something with in a green variegated yarn. And yes he had the skateboard with him.

Now if I were the Yarn Harlot I would have gone up to him and taken his picture with one of the socks. But alas, I am not. But I must say that the internal conflict in me as I walked back to my hotel was horrendous. Why should I take his picture when I've got no where to publish it???? What do I say????? How do I convince him??????

I've since thought of a clever cover story if the need ever presents itself again.

It looks like that time again. Yesterday I picked up my order of dye yourself yarn and today all the kids are at school. So it's play time for me.
Yours in Yarn,

The Fibreholic

Aussie Road Trip

How Lucky Can a Gal Get?????

It's Monday evening and DH and I had just finished supper, (We had a kitchenette in the hotel room) and were planning to head off to the movies.

We went to see "Mr. Bean's Holiday". Okay so we like weird humour! For a moment we thought that we'd be the only two in the theatre, which is good as I'm always afraid of getting kicked out of places for laughing too loud. But wait... in comes another couple carrying bicycle parts.

Oh wait... I digress.... Taph calls before we leave for the movie and offers to take me on a road trip throughout the countryside. My answer.... a resounding "YES".

Hmm so either the movie was actually funny or I was in such a good mood that anything could have been funny.

Thursday comes and we are off to explore and shop, get to see new sites and shop, visit new places and shop....again, I digress. First stop Goulburn. Now on my map in small red print under the name of Goulburn are the words "Big Merino".

He is affectionately referred to as "Rocky" and I don't think that Big quite covers it. After the photo shoot we head off to another town and stop at a coffee shop for refreshments. I should at this time point out that I don't have a map and am solely relying on my friend for navigation and transport. But more importantly, I'm still trying to get used to being in the left hand front seat without a steering wheel in front of me and being able to knit. That being said, I'll admit to not being able to remember the name of the second small town.

Next stop, Boorowa to visit Boorowa Wools. The store is only opened on Fridays and Saturdays. This is not turning out to be the shopping trip I had hoped for. But no matter......on to the Boorowa court House Arts & Crafts Co-op for a look around. They had turned an old courthouse into a craft shop...very neat....

On to Which Craft for a spot of lunch in the lovely town of Murrumburrah. I finally got to spend some money there. I bought some red Alpaca for bed socks and some quilting fabric. One piece has a aboriginal print and the other is a print of an Aussie map with Holdens all over it in different colours.

But wait .....let's not forget that this is a trip through the countryside. What this road trip needs is a little scenery.

LOOK STASH ON THE HOOF!!!!!

Did I mention that my camera doesn't do zoom either??????

Okay my last picture for the day....we came across a poor and pitiful creature badly in need of mojo. So out came the Sock.

HMMM come to think of it...no wonder they complained to the TSA about me. Actually I'm surprised they are still speaking to me.

Well gotta run

Yours in Yarn,

The Fibreholic

St Distaff's Day

St. Distaff's Day is a fictional holiday. Actually it didn't start out as a holiday at all. It was more of a call to get back to work after the 12 days of Christmas. It was also aimed at women.....but for fear of ranting I won't go any furthur.

So what are the crafty people of the modern age to do?

How do we honour the fictional patron saint of weavers and spinners?

Hold a crafting day of course!!!!!

So here in the Ottawa valley, each year, one of the local groups will take up the task to host this event. This year I was lucky as the location was only 20 minutes from my place. Vendors are invited to attend to give us reason to be separated from our money, and there are workshops to learn new things. I took a workshop on making Victorian buttons. "Victorian needle woven button on fabric covered mold with decorative thread work."

Okay so it's not the greatest picture. The camera is not the best for close up shots....but you get the idea. This was how buttons were made in the 1860's. Our instructor, Margot Dixon, is a knitter, weaver, spinner, all round enthusiastic woman ...... etc and is the dress maker at Upper Canada Village. She also organizes the yearly Spin-In held in Chesterville. (An event I never miss.) Unlike the Australian Heritage Village (don't ask), the UCV is a thriving National Park set in the 1860's depicting life in this part of Canada during that time.

Looks like Stripes found her way into the picture with Margot.

On a sad note I was to take fabric painting in the afternoon but had to rush off to work to teach the second half of my Toe-Up Sock class. All in all it was a good day and I exercised a great deal of self control in my spending. In truth there wasn't much to tempt me.

I'd better run......there is knitting and quilting to be done!!!!!

Yours in Yarn

The Fibreholic

Response from the TSA

Here's what the TSA had to say......

Dear Fibreholic

The Travelling Sock Association is a regulatory body set up to govern the rules and regulations regarding travelling socks.The TSA was formed in order that all travelling socks would have equal opportunities to acquire the greatest possible amounts of knitting mojo.

A travelling sock requires many experiences and a great deal of exposure amongst a wide variety of knitters and "others". Pictures must be taken. They can be taken against the backdrop of beautiful scenery, historical places or unusual or seemingly useless/tasteless monuments that a city has decided to waste money on to amuse tourists. More importantly, pictures of the sock must be taken with "people of note".

The use of the term "people of note" has caused some confusion as of late. We view the term, people of note as a general term. It can include any of the following but not limited to:

• fellow knitters
  
• local celebrities
  
• those rendering aid to get you to a knitting event
  
• those rendering aid for a yarn crawl or simply accompanying you on the crawl
  
• those acting as a tour guide during your travels
  
• the recipient of the socks
  
• someone with so much joie de vivre that the sock is naturally drawn to him or her
  

A blog is the most logical place to display these photos as they allow for the greatest exposure. A blog is easily set up and this should done before you depart on your travels. Because of the accessibility of blogs, not having one is not an excuse.

Knitting the sock in public is also a top priority. Places we suggest are on any form of public transportation, places where people gather or more importantly in the company of other knitters. If the knitters gather in a public place even more mojo is gathered.

As to what sock yarn to use on your journey, it matters not. All sock yarn is equal in our eyes, for it is the journey and the amount of mojo that is important. Choose a good quality yarn that speaks to you and you absolutely can't leave home without.

Stripes and Variegated spoke very highly of you and were delighted to both be chosen for your trip to Australia. They knew how excited you were about the trip.They wrote about their travels and experiences and we are satisfied with the results so far. It is unusual for two socks to be taken on a journey but it is not unheard of. Just to let you know, any mojo picked up by the second sock will be spread over both sock and vice versa.This way if the first sock is lacking mojo, then it can be made up. Because of the high recommendation, given to us by Stripes and Variegated we are confident that sufficient mojo will be acquired for both pairs of socks.

But please remember, because of the lack of pictures taken with the first socks, we will be watching you!

Yours in Yarn,

Miss Y.O. Purl

Mojo Acquisition

Travelling Sock Association

The Adventure Continues.....

Now where was I????

Oh Yeah...In Sydney.....the land of line ups.

Line up at customs, line up at quarantine, line up at the Quantas desk to get booked onto my local flight, line up to go through security, line up to to get on the bus to take me to the other terminal......then run to just make my flight.

I've been told that on Aussie domestic flights, knitting is a big no-no and they confiscate needles. Perhaps it was because I knit my sock on toothpicks (not literally) that they didn't say anything. Perhaps is was because I looked like some wacked out foreigner in need of many hours of solid sleep who was likely to go postal if her knitting needles were taken away.

This is how Wacky I really am.....

DH was attending a conference (which is why I'm there). Let's face it, there is a simplistic beauty in DH working and me being on vacation. Okay, back on track. A tour of a couple of vineyards/wineries was arranged and besides doing my best to avoid stepping in Kangaroo poop, this is what I take a picture of......




I'll go into my thing about chickens in more detail at a later date.......

Retail Therapy

So here I am....left to my own devices.....how do I start of my vacation? SHOPPING!!!!!! I've decided to break up the sightseeing with shopping trips. There is a pedestrian mall around the corner from me with a regular mall the next street over...I wasn't lacking for places that would take my money.

Prior to going to AUS, I checked out the Action bus system web site and got an idea of how to get to the really important places. You'll see pictures of that later.... (insert Sheepish Grin here). I also connected with the Canberra SnB while I was there. Two of the members, Karen and Camille took me on a yarn crawl throughout Canberra. They took me up to Red Hill lookout where I got to see this amazing view and have a wonderful chocolate drink.

In May, Ottawa is home to an abundance of colour from the massive beds of tulips that are planted every Fall. We celebrate this explosion on colour with the Tulip Festival. I missed it this year, but walking through Commonwealth Park I found a landscape company planting tulip bulbs for next Spring's Floriade. That really stood out for me as an indicator of how our seasons are shifted apart by 6 months.

I'd better go...things to do, places to go, people to see, yarn to knit....while I wait for my letter fromthe TSA.

The weather dudes say that it is going to be 33 degrees today, fortunately there is no humidity yet otherwise it would be UNBEARBLE!!!!!!!

Yours in Yarn

The Fibreholic

My Big BAAAAAAd Australian Adventure

Can you believe it??? I'm still pinching myself, wondering if it's true....No Wait....Here's my Visa bill....Yup...I actually went to Australia.

Here was my plan of action for my trip.

1. Buy portable DVD player on Wednesday night and charge it up ready to go for my flight on Thursday.
   

The DVD player doesn't work. :( Crossing my fingers that my 13 year old doesn't try to "fix" it while I'm away.

2. Make sure that I have enough knitting and reading to get me through a 5 hour stop over in Chicago.....hmmmm...doesn't Oprah live here.....maybe I'll pop in for a visit.

Severe thunderstorm in Chicago. The woman in the lineup, in front of me, kept telling me that "my 8:00 am flight was cancelled....yours will be too!" For an entire HOUR. Restrain myself from doing damage to her cell phone.

3. Don't have to go to Chicago to get to Sydney, so I ask for another way to get there. They fly me to Toronto then to Vancouver.

Turns out I didn't need a DVD player as there are monitors on the back of the seats. They are programmed with a wide variety of movies and TV shows.

4. Missed out on the last 10 minutes or so of a movie. No worries, I'll just watch it when I get on the plane in Vancouver.

Didn't have the cool monitors for the rest of the journey. Now I'll have to pay to rent the thing to see who survives the big final battle.

5. The flight from Vancouver to Sydney stops in Hawaii. DH is there over night. I'll call him and play "Guess where I am right now?"

Don't know where he is staying. It is 23 degrees at midnight. Rethink any plans to visit Hawaii during their summer.

5a. Could get on the same flights as DH but the travel agent tells me of a way to save $800.

Choose flights different than DH. $800 can buy me lots of stuff!!!!!

6. Arrive in Sydney dead tired with a lot of knitting done.

I'm dead tired but still have a long way to go on Stripes.

Yours in Yarn,

The Fibreholic