the heatwave continues...

DSC03192, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

...and another dishcloth is made.

the heat is on...

DSC03191, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

...and I start dreaming of job opportunities in Hobart.

We're in the midst of an early season heat wave and I'm trying to be good and not use my air conditioning too much. So wool is taking a back seat whilst I knock out a few cotton dishcloths. I love this new pattern - "cotton leaf rag".

Cup day

The first Tuesday in November is the Melbourne Cup - "the race that stops the nation" - and we have a public holiday. In an annual fit of kitchen-domestic-goddessity, I baked my Christmas cake (Nigella Lawson's recipe from How to be a Domestic Goddess) and attempted to document my progress in photos.

Photo One: Make sure you use lots of paper when lining the tin.


Photo Two: Blurry. Fruit soaked overnight in brandy. Extra glace cherries because I love them.


Photo Three: Big mixing bowl just like Mum's. A heavy duty wooden spoon is your friend when preparing cake mixture.


Photo Four: Three hours later, a baked cake. Somehow managed to get the baking paper in focus rather than the cake.


And whilst it was baking, I made a box bag, because the fabric stash will not shrink by itself.

Another Liesl

IMG_0311, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

So that black bit of knitting that I was working on at the beach in my last post? Another Liesl cardigan. After all our exertions on Saturday, Sunday I just flopped and got into a knitting frenzy (can you flop and frenzy at the same time?) trying to finish this thing. I kept thinking, "it's nearly done, I'll just knit a bit more".
I hit a snag with the cast off - I didn't leave myself enough yarn, so I had to thread a lifeline through and rip back a couple of rows - not too difficult on this project - which slowed me down.
I finally sewed the buttons on while watching the final episode of Wuthering Heights, wondering why Heathcliff didn't put us all out of our misery straight away after Cathy died. It was never my favourite book. Love the Kate Bush song though.

On Saturday, we headed down towards Cape Schanck. It was a pretty warm day in the city, but we hoped it would be a bit cooler on the coast as we planned on a bit of bushwalking down to Bushrangers Bay. We were in luck.

Fog on the track.


We ate our lunch on the beach. It looks cold but it wasn't at all. Just foggy.


I did some knitting on the beach whilst J demolished a vegemite sandwich.


On the way back we saw an echidna....


...and walked through some funky looking jungly trees.

Hat quest: Relm

DSC03164, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

Of my hat quest, this is the best so far. Soft drapey merino-silk handspun , teamed with some simple cables makes a really nice beret. The only thing that worries me is that it may be prone to damage as it is so soft and delicate.
The pattern is Relm by Jared Flood (of BrooklynTweed fame) from Knit.1 magazine.
Project ravelled here.

hoot, hoot

Hoot clip, originally uploaded by Paisley Womble.

Just for fun. I love owls, so I couldn't resist Ysolda's quick little project. (And I mean quick - this took less than an hour, including sewing on buttons and sewing it onto the clip).

Ravelled here.