Category: The Life of Lara

It’s all here. Adventures in extreme knitting, the house of poop, and suburban permaculture. You may also find rants about politics, ecology, humanitarianism, responsible living, toe floss, and other topics not covered here. Expect profanity and irreverence. You have been warned.

Confessions

1. After giving blood this week, I decided that I was invincible, and took on the top shelf of our fridge, which has not been cleaned/sorted/organised since we moved in in August 2007. Brilliant.

I discovered some miso paste that expired in 2005. Two years before we moved into this house.

2. I discovered a some really, really sharp knives a few years ago in an Eastwood $2 shop. As a big fan of sharpness in knives, I now have quite a collection, and give them to friends as housewarming presents.

Apparently, I also left one in reach of a small child, and then turned my back for 15 seconds. I turned back to find the kid holding the very, very, razor sharp knife in his meaty little fist, with about 4cm of the blade INSIDE HIS MOUTH.

No babies were harmed today. Touch wood.

Normal

Inigo’s Iron levels came back today (from a test taken on the 15th of January), and it’s normal.

The paediatrician is concerned about his iron levels because I refuse to feed him any beef. No lamb! Not even chicken. And not a skerrick of fish!!!!!

Of course, the kid eats a bucket load of lentils, heaps of spinach, and has fruit five times a day. So he gets non-heam iron followed by vitamin c three times a day, he probably has higher iron levels than most omnivores, because I pay attention to his diet, and I work hard at making sure he is developing a taste for healthy food.

Score one for the vegetarian diet!

The Knitters Guild

I finally decided to join the guild a few years ago. Guild membership hadn’t seemed relevant to me previously, because my local group only met on Monday mornings – not a viable option for most people who work.

I attended a couple of Blue Mountains meetings, as they are held on a Saturday morning. I enjoyed the meeting, the people were very friendly (hi Lynne!), and if it wasn’t so far away, I would like to attend more regularly.

When I was off work pregnant, I went to a few Epping meetings, and enjoyed them, though I did feel like a total outsider.

Then we moved house, and Inigo was born, and I decided not to renew my membership. Asking my dad for a cheque and a stamp was annoying the first time, but when I was also dealing with a newborn, I made the decision not to rejoin the guild until I was able to join/renew online. BPAY, direct deposit, whatever, I don’t care. But if I actually have to go to a father/bank and a post office, I’m not doing it. If I REALLY, REALLY cared about something, I might bother, but the guild just didn’t seem that relevant.

And there’s the rub. In order for the guild to be relevant to me, and to rather a lot of other knitters, it needs to change. And it seems very resistant to change – if they won’t even consider publishing an electronic version of the paper newsletter in case people that receive the paper version “feel left out”.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t wish them ill, and I hope they continue to live long and fruitful lives – but I would like the guild to be more relevant to me, I would like to feel that my input (and attendance) was welcome, and that we had something to offer each other.

I am a big believer in Grassroots Democracy – one of the reasons that I love being a member of the Greens is that they listen to me and my ideas. The same doesn’t seem to apply to the guild. New ideas are shunned, forcibly, and innovation is stifled before it can gather a voice.

Some people that I respect and adore are trying to make a change from within, by nominating for the executive. The AGM is still a month away, and already the slings and arrows have started to fly.

So now, we the knitters that want change, find ourselves in a position of opposition without seeking it, and a decision needs to be made as to whether the intention of peaceful, and gentle influence is worth the pain and anguish, or whether it’s better to give up on the dream of change, and start again from the ground up.

As I stated above, I am not currently a member of the guild, and as a non-member, I have no business discussing guild business. But I do hope that someone from the guild reads this, and understands that all we want is to be heard. We don’t want to radically overhaul the guild, we don’t want to knock off the executive, we don’t disrespect, loathe, or despise you, we just want to feel that we have a voice in a guild that is relevant to us, and that the guild respects and values us as members.

So, I did it

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I went to the Blood Bank on Tuesday. I was 30 minutes early – I figured I was better off going in early than sitting outside stressing. And they took me right in 🙂

I filled in a mountain of paperwork, had a fingerprick test to check my haemoglobin (135, much higher than the 120 minimum – not bad for a breastfeeding vegetarian!), and then I was whisked into the collection room. They stuck a piece of plumbers pipe in my arm, and in 6 minutes and 45 seconds, I was done.

So, I walked in a quivering wreck, and I walked out a champion.

I’m so proud of myself, it’s ridiculous.

Blood

About two decades ago, I decided that I should give blood.

It’s really quite impressive, my procrastination. And I’ve been thinking about it ever since. Once I even went with a friend, just to watch, and see if I thought I could do it. It didn’t work.

Meg posted something about giving blood recently, and I clicked the link.

And then I filled in the form.

And yesterday, they rang me.

I made an appointment for Tuesday, 1.50pm.

It’s time for me to get over the needle phobia, once and for all.

I’m much cooler than I thought I was…

Nearly three years ago, I knit a cot blanket for little Lara, the first born child of my ex-flattie, and lovely friend, Anna.

It was made from Cleckheaton Country, in the most garish colours I could find, a basic feather and fan stitch pattern.

I loved it, Anna seemed to love it, and now it’s serving her second daughter, Ursula.

And today, I have seen it copied*.

Scroll down to the last picture, notice the blankie draped over the green cot in the background.

More pictures here.

*Of course they copied me! How impertinent to suggest that someone independently had the same idea at the same time 😉

2,000 comments!

Sometime in the next, um, week or two, we’ll hit 2000 actual (not spam) comments!

To celebrate, the 2000th commenter will get a little something from me.

And in previous competitions, I am pleased to announce the winner from my last foray.

And the winner is…

Absolute bias and not a random number generator was used to pick…

Andrea!

Who has just entered the Sydney property market. Pop on over and wish her luck!

Andrea, drop me a line and let me know what you’d prefer – some gorgeous silky black alpaca fibre, ready to spin, or some lace-weight from the stash.