SOUR '日々の音色 (Hibi no neiro)'

I'm totally late to this party but I love love love this. When I was studying film this is the kind of creative enterprise which would have been darn near impossible without lots and lots of money and resources. Now a bunch of dedicated fans with web cams can produce something which makes me smile.

clean up clean out on offer one

spun, originally uploaded by Soozs.

OK this one isn't exactly a giveaway, though it won't cost you anything like the value of the yarn. I have around 900gms of Cleckheaton Merino Spun, a single plied 12 ply weight yarn that's 80% wool, 20% nylon. I have 2.9 skeins of dark aubergine, 1 lilac, 1 green, 2 skeins of each grey and red. I also have the original pattern book for this yarn.

I bought a big lot of this in grey to knit my spun jacket, and had a lot left over because, I can't explain why it would use so much less yarn than it should. I also had several balls of other colourways in the same yarn because I liked them all so much. I've knit quite a few hats (like this, this and this) and other bits and the stash never seems to diminish! I planned to use them to make a stripe felted market bag, but realistically it is stupid to store almost a kilo of wool for who knows how many years till I maybe get around to it.

I'm not really looking to sell it, but a little something in return would be nice. Make me an offer for a swap or something you can post to my new address so I don't have to pack, sort or cart it! Email soozs[dot]com[at]gmail[dot]com

clean up clean out giveaway one

This is GONE now - congrats Kate, hope it helps ease your back with velcro baby.


Mei Tai, originally uploaded by Soozs.

I have totally loved this Mei Tai baby carrier. Made by me* nearly two years ago from denim and a lovely white and red print 100% linen, it has been very useful. I used it to carry Wil on my back, hip and front from about nine months to about two years. He's too big and heavy for me to carry now, though if I was stronger the carrier would be up to the job still. It has good long straps suitable for larger figures, but they can easily be cut shorter for a smaller person.

I can't bring myself to send it to the op shop where those unfamiliar with the mei tei will have no idea what it is and it will just as likely sit ignored or get cut up or something.

So do you have a bub, or know someone with a bub who would use this kind of carrier? If so leave a comment and I'll pick a recipient in the next week or so. It weighs over 500gm, so I'm not offering to pay international shipping, but if you'll pay shipping I'm happy to send it anywhere.

Edited to add - this is really only suitable for older bubs - at least 6 months.

* if you google mei tai patterns you'll find this one as well as lots of pics and instructions on different ways to wear it.

winner

I'm only a week late, which in current circumstances is nothing short of totally bloody miraculous, but at last I can tell you Ren is the winner of the hat. I'll get the hat to you pronto Ren to keep wee Archie's head warm!

In the great packing nightmare I am discovering all kinds of things I don't want but which I feel too attached to to simply send off to the op shop. I'll be posting them here as give aways over the next few days so stay tuned.

I promise I'll try not to complain too much about the packing, though that will be very hard since I am totally hating it and it feels absolutely bottomless. The whole house is in chaos, boxes and piles and random detritus in every corner. Nauseating.

But all weekend we've packed while the kids have been off with the out laws and we kept saying two and a half weeks as we pass each other. While I cart rubbish and fill boxes and get despondent and D builds downpipes and puts up splash backs and loads up the roof storage we keep our eyes on the prize (can you hear the ocean?). He's trying to get the house in shape enough to pass our final building inspection before we go and I'm trying to stay sane.

I found enough time to pick the tiniest ever perfectly formed pink lady apple off the tree out the back. Our one and only apple this year which came from some weird second bloom in late summer, it was tiny but delish. The fruit trees are clearly showing the signs of too many years of drought and shockingly hot days. I wonder what they will do this year?

And all kinds of other things have been happening, but now that we've hit the sprint section I'm not sure they really matter.

spotted

new bed linen, originally uploaded by Soozs.

The advantage of having such a monumental stash. Need two new doona covers with matching pillow cases? No problem.

round 2

So it seems the house is sorted. I say seams because over the last week I have learned nothing if not to take nothing for granted. Getting shafted whilst under pressure does tend to make you mistrustful. Anyway, assuming I am just a paranoid old cow, this time in three weeks we should be waking up in our new house in sunny Queensland, listening to the distant crash of waves.

All of which means it's time for round two of this insane battle. The big pack.

As I walk from one room to another all I see are bigger and scarier packing challenges - what to take and what to leave behind? The kids toys and books, the bathroom medicines, linen and assorted paraphernalia, the kitchen collections of recipe books, tupperware and home made jam, the bedroom clothes, files....exhaustion sets in just surveying the damage.

But let's be clear here - the real challenge, the one occupying my mind as I lie awake at night, is the studio. For a while I seriously considered leaving it all behind. I imagined time with my family undistracted by the projects I wanted to get my teeth into. I thought about reading books and cooking interesting meals and just hanging out. And I kid of looked forward to a life unencumbered by stash and stuff and patterns and all the bits that make crafting so possible. I thought that would be very nice.

But everyone who knows me questioned my sanity on this point. Some people actually laughed in that cruel and demeaning way reserved for people who are clearly deluded and should know better. And it's true, I don't think I can go for so long without the capacity, the tools and materials, to make. I want to sew and knit and make the things it occurs to me we need while we are away. Such needs will arise as surely as the days come and go.

So yesterday I bought the lycra and lining for at least two new swim suits because I figure a daily swim should be motivation to really conquer swim wear. I also bought the last of a discounted cotton linen bolt at Tessuti which I was planing something nice to wear when it suddenly occurred to me last night that it might in fact be perfect for the base for a quilt. So there's two major undertakings right there. And I have a new book project to work on, so there's stuff for that, and there's quite a bit of lovely fabric that's just perfect for summer clothing. Last year in the clegs sale I bought some lovely bamboo yarn super cheap with tropical knitting in mind, and there's a box of cotton yarn I put aside for knitted checker and backgammon boards. And I'll be needing pattern books for all this too, so I'll be taking the Ottobres and all the associated pattern drafting bits and pieces as well as knitting books and mags. Of course I'll need to pop in threads, zippers, buttons, elastic, trims, interfacings and linings and all the everyday tools and gadgets I can't do without in the making room.

And I'm guessing there won't be a major fabric and habby outlet in Noosa (is there?!) so there's a degree of pressure to really think through all the stuff I might need. A bit like craft camp on steroids. And all this adds up to a complete shit load of stuff. So how do I draw a line in the sand, er stash, and say this goes and this stays?

While I know I can cope with whatever I take and I am sure I'll find whatever I truly need up there (or from the blessed internet), the packing is important because it is m chance amidst the hurly burly to really think through what this next little bit of time will really be about for me on a creative level. Do I really want to simply continue my life here up there? Or do I want to deliberately shift the focus by the inclusion (and thus exclusion) or certain types of materials and tools? Do I want to get clear and simple, or leave my options open? Do I want to force myself, through circumstance, to address projects and materials I have neglected because other things have been more immediate, more attractive, easier?

Vexing questions these.

I'll be thinking them through today while Wil naps and Amy and I are sewing doona covers for her and Wil to have on the single beds at the new house. We don't have single beds here and I had two lots of sheeting in the stash for exactly this purpose so we're preparing and stash busting at the same time. Brilliant. Let's call it warming up for the fight.

rows

buttons and light, originally uploaded by Soozs.

I had planned a lovely post for today.

A post that closed off a week in which I have felt very much like I was in a washing machine.

Churn, foam, churn, spin.

Empty out and start again.

I have spent so very much time on the internet, on the phone, filling forms and faxing paperwork. Narrowing and then broadening the focus. My children have been horribly neglected and I have been completely distracted. I have dreams and nightmares each night about houses and strange neighbours and getting lost and shafted and otherwise jiggered.

But in my post I was going to tell you about the lovely home we've just rented, the final sorting of the nighmare that has been going on for as long as I can remember.

It was a post I started writing in my head last night after we got the email saying it was all good for our rental in Noosa. I added a bit more in my head this morning as I called in favours to get a friend's aunt to make a final inspection before we signed, and then more as I booked Wil into his new childcare centre, established Amy's new school and exhaled, finally about to get going on the big pack and sort, finally able to concentrate on something in the here and now.

Everything all lined up in a neat row.

But when, just 5 minutes after breathing out the agent called to say, well, actually, there was another applicant offering a better deal for the owners it slowly dawned on me that perhaps we'd never been contenders at all. The other family had been negiotiating for some time and it seems we were perhaps just bait all along to get the others to sign.

And you see, I think that may have been my limit. The post, well, that's long gone. My nerves are shot people and the future looks grim.