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I finally finished my seamless jumper!

This one was designed using a tutorial on “how to design your own sweater” using any yarn and using some basic mathematics to determine how much yarn I had to use and stitches to cast on.

Knitting a square and then determining its tension and with a measuring tape to measure your neck, sleeves and body, you can pretty much determine the right amount of stitches to cast on.

It took a while to knit this up as there was a lot of counting and measuring.

The excellent tutorial by Tin Can Knits spelled it all out. I printed it all out and used it as my guide. Given that I’m also trying not to buy any more yarn and only use my stash, it’s the reason why I call it my “Stash Sweater”.

I don’t mind a striped jumper but this one ended up looking like a school jumper from Hogwarts unfortunately. Andrew keeps calling me Ernie from Sesame Street as it looks like the jumper he wears.

I could have done some fairisle pattern but I didn’t know if I was to run out of yarn so that’s the reason I opted for stripes.

I’m not entirely happy with it as the yarn splintered in the front of the work and it’s visible. However as I’ll only wear it at home now, it’s no biggie.

Michael McIntyre

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On Tuesday night, Andrew and I had a quick dinner at the Young and Jackson pub before heading over to Rod Laver Arena to see Michael MacIntyre. It’s the second time we have seen him and true to form, it ended up being hilarious.

I love his story telling and observations of Melbourne street life however the story about his blowing up of birthday balloons when he had COVID unknowingly blowing the virus into these things had me in stitches!

We noted that it was four years ago ON THE SAME NIGHT, Andrew and I were at his first ever Melbourne Show! Coincidence? Here’s us back in 2019 same place, same time, but four years younger! Certainly I didn’t “embrace my grey hair” back then. 🤣

Middle Park Meanderings

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I caught up with my good friend who I connected with on Twitter many years ago. When we catch up for a pub lunch and a walk, it’s always a laugh.

We talk about all the bizarre things we have seen online and before you know it, hours have gone by. She tells me what I’ve been missing on Twitter (like Elon Musk changing Twitter locations of tweets to Earth or Mars 😐, shows me some tweets then we have a debrief on what these may mean to society.

So we have some BIG conversations over a meal and wine as we pontificate, deliberate and laugh out loud. I think we are both at an age and experience in life that we say our truths and don’t care who listens in or thinks us heathens for thinking that way.

We had lunch at the Middle Park Hotel built in 1889 and is now one of these “gastronomic” pubs. The entire area has houses and terraces from this time and later with a spattering of art deco thrown in. A lovely area to walk and enjoy a lovely sunny winter day.

The Front Yard Is Nearly Finished!

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Our front yard was a bit of a disaster zone so once we finished landscaping our back yard, we decided to do the front as well.

The turf was laid yesterday and all that we are waiting for is a bit of tiling to be done then the sealing and that’s it!

We used to have the worst front yard on the street now it isn’t the best – but at least it’s one of the nicest. Once the plants grow, it’ll be up there as the best. Yay! Not bad for our home which was the first home to be built on our street (it was the display home when the land was zoned and houses built in the early 60s).

It’s unlikely we will ever move from our home so we are fixing it slowly so that there’s minimal maintenance as we get older. It’s taken a while for this to be completed because the weather hasn’t helped but it should be finished soon.

We decided to go for more paving that connects the front with the back area. We have a bin area behind a barrier where we can easily store the large bins. They also put Lilly Pillies which will grow and hide the bin storage in time also put pebble mix around the dwarf shrubs we planted some years ago.

Over time, we may fix the verandah and get a new kitchen and bathroom as the indoors are looking a bit dated but in all honesty, I don’t mind it. We have a “dumb” home that is comfortable and homely. Filled with artworks, cozy throw rugs, music, books…People feel at home when they visit but that’s because I think it reminds them of the houses they grew up in. 🤣

What I’ve Read

I just finished Hotel Du Lac by Anita Brookner who won the 1984 Booker Prize for this book.

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Whoa.

She’s now my female crush. I LOVED THIS BOOK that spoke to me. I have to dedicate another blog post to this woman and today, I’ll head over to the library to see if they have any other of her books.

She’s inspiring. She quit being an art historian at 53 and then she said she had “all this time” so she wrote one book a year for twenty years or so. She made me start thinking about my life and to stop making excuses and get my arse into gear.