R U OK?

Today is "R U OK Day?" in Australia.

To take a quote directly from the website:

Connection is a crucial part of general health and well being to help in coping with issues such as stressful life events, mental health problems, relationship breakdowns and bereavement.

Staying connected and ensuring your colleagues, friends and loved ones do so as well is as simple as having regular, meaningful, conversations. So every day can be R U OK?Day.

As one who has suffered depression and lived with another who has suffered depression, this initiative is very important to me. Not all sufferers want to commit suicide but they certainly need to know someone cares - "get over it" and "it's all in your mind" doesn't help!

Please take the time to ask someone you care about "R U OK?" today - things are not always as they seem!

Aran weight - really?

Take another look at the baby blanket on the cover - the one that many visitors to the blog have been admiring. Does it look like Aran weight to you?

No, I didn't think so! More like 5ply wool [or similar] but hey, who am I to argue? According to the book, it's medium weight - Worsted, Aran, Afghan; or that which we, in Australia, call 10ply! The sample is apparently knitted in Bernat Satin which the company describes as "the perfect luxury knitting worsted weight yarn, ideal for all knit and crochet projects" and a "glorious yarn with a clean defined stitch" - it's 100% acrylic so I was right about the wool or equivalent!

So, this is the one I'll be knitting first because my brother told me on Friday that they are expecting a girl and I have lots of variegated pink, Aran weight Fiddle De Dee cotton to knit! I just have to finish  the lemon Tilting Blocks blanket I started for my little niece [before I knew she was a she]. That blanket will go to DD instead because grandbubby didn't want to reveal his/her sex just now!!

Here's the first public photo of Granbubby the First! DD and SIL have more up on Facebook but I don't want to turn this into Grandma's Brag Book!!

a postage surprise

Look what arrived in the post yesterday - a gift from my mother [the expectant grandmother and great-grandmother]! She thought I might like it!!

I am not a photographer!

I am not a photographer. I have owned a camera of one kind or another since I was eight years old. It was given to me by my paternal grandfather who loved photography. His son, my dad, travelled the world and took lots of photos.

I was astonished as a teenager to find my boyfriend at the time didn’t own a camera so I can honestly say that I introduced WM to photography by buying him a camera when we were in our late teens. It was a Kodak Instamatic; remember those? You dropped the film in the back, stuck a flash cube on top [if needed] and away you went! Everyone had red eyes from the flash being too close to the lens!

Now, WM is into Gimp [similar to Photoshop, so I'm told] and owns an SLR digital camera as well as an SLR film camera and a really, truly underwater camera. And he collects cameras!

I did photography at TAFE as part of my fine arts course. Heck, I even got a distinction for art photography! Not that I'm boasting, I'm just trying to state my case. You'd think with my family background, my TAFE experience and living with a keen photographer, I'd take photos as a matter of course. But I don’t!

As I said, I am not a photographer. I don't even have a camera on my mobile phone. I specifically bought one without a camera!

I do have a nifty little digital camera. It takes very short videos [so I'm told] and does lots of interesting things but I rarely remember to take it out of the house. When I do take it out I forget to use it. Like the sock workshop last weekend - I took the camera but it never even got out of its case. It lay all day on the table with my samples, yarns, spare needles and sock books.

This "not being a photographer" has interfered with my blogging. I have things I want to say and projects that I’m working on but I forget to take photos until it’s dark outside. Even though words are my livelihood, I still believe that “a picture is worth a thousand words”. How many words would one need to describe how a project is going [or not]? One photo can say it all!

But I have none to show you! Nary a one! And that’s why I haven’t posted in over a week!

of this and that and unravelling the mystery

warning - long photo-free post

Do you like my new-look blog? I found the sidebar made the place looked so untidy - it was almost depressing! And what better time for a bit of spring cleaning than the middle of spring? LOL

Last week, knowing that I had to return to both jobs this week [usually terms begin a week apart] I should have been preparing lessons. But what was I doing? Of course I was. A blog doesn't change by itself. First I had to find out how to make that table-link-thingy at the top there, then I had to write a whole lot of new posts and link them and then... well, I won't bore you with the whole pseudo-geeky story! Suffice to say I'm pretty happy with the new, uncluttered web-home!

Purple is my favourite colour but I'm thinking I might change the background to cream. Hmmm! I'll have think on it some more.

And, by the way, my lessons are all prepared! All sixteen hours of them - I may even have enough to take me into next week!

And the sock workshop? Well, we had about twenty attendees [I didn't actually count them]. We had some people knitting on 4 dpns, some on 5 dpns, some on two circulars and some on one - a challenge that was, I'm happy to say, successfully met due to the capable assistance of my friend D [who could knit and graft socks in her sleep] and the goodwill of the participants in helping each other.

Everyone seemed thrilled to have learnt a new cast-on [I know it as invisible cast on]. And those that mastered grafting were doubly pleased! And yes, most of the participants did finish the whole sock at the workshop.

Would I do it again? In a heartbeat! I love teaching/tutoring/facilitating and when it's related to my favourite hobby - what could be better?

"But what about the title of this post?", I hear you ask! Well folks, this may not come as a surprise to some, but back in June [on WM's birthday to be exact] I succumbed. I said I wouldn't but I finally caved in. Not because I didn't think it was a wonderful place - I knew it was. David Reidy [Sticks and String podcast] never stopped talking about when he got his invitation. He coerced, he cajoled, and still I stood my ground! It was me I didn't trust - too much time on the computer already, didn't need any new distractions!

But I gave in [I said that already, didn't I?] All because Kris - the Web Goddess - was coming to our Guild group to talk about the knitternet. We were asked to do it before she came and I finally caved in!

Oh, come on - read the title again! You can find me there as never2hot2knit but I warn you, I'm not there often! Too many distractions, too little time! *tee hee*