The horrible chill was well in evidence today at the History Room - had to hijack one of my beanies to keep my ears on my head. At least I had a few visitors - five in total, and three of them even paid!

The kitchen is almost completely dismantled - I have one more cabinet to remove and that will have to wait till the day before they come so I can keep the dishwasher in operation till then. Tomorrow I will remove the corner cupboard from the bathroom and unless the weather is a vast improvement on today's chilly blast, will also dismantle the washing machine and put in its stabilising plugs to allow for safe movement.

I discovered I had left the freezer unplugged for three days, but it has been so cold that the contents were largely still frozen which was a relieve. Those bits that were soggy have been discarded and the dog is a happy boy.

Some more progress on the vest, but I have run out of the silvery grey wool and the new wool I spun is a closer match to the dark grey so I will have to revisit that and have another go.

Meanwhile woodchopping in the hobby of the day, and hugging the heater my priority this evening!

Was not looking forward to spending the day in the History Room yesterday- the forecast was for 9 degrees and cloudy so it should have been horribly chilly. As it was, it was sunny and warm so more than pleasant - the more so as I had not a single visitor. The result was sufficient light grey wool now spun to finish off the fair isle vest, and several more panels of patterns added to the same. I am now three panels from where the steeks begin, so be prepared for bad language as that progresses.

Since i had lost the small ball of light grey that remained I turned out both the bags I cart around and sorted their contents. Things tend to get shoved into one or the other as I pack up at the end of the day and chaos was reigning. I had found a fine DPN down on the oval as I walked Seb and brought it home. Turns out it was the missing one from the sock I started - I must have shoved it in my back pocket during one of those frenzied packing orgies. So that has been returned to the sock, the other set of DPNs has been returned to the needle drawer, and the two WIP are in one bag with the fair isle and its various balls of wool in the other. The other two WIPs are the sock and the second sleeve of the guernsey jumper I have been knitting for months (or is it years now?). Both get attention from time to time and will doubtless get finished at some future point - I would like to get the jumper done for this winter, so should perhaps give it some priority, lol. Still working on the increase rows, so it does require a bit of attention.

Today is also lovely and sunny but with a fairly strong nip in the air that discourages activity. So I have been reading, knitting, preparing a pork rump slow roast (now in the oven) and generally faffing about. Oh, I did get some wood in too.

I succeeded in killing the new vaccum cleaner (temporarily) so, after washing the air filter, set to work with the industrial strength model, aided and abetted by a new head from the new machine. Finally made some progress, and now the lounge and kitchen/bathroom area are dustfree and while still cluttered it is a fairly orderly clutter.

Between this I have been entertaining the chap who is going to help me put up the awning, but he measured the location of the concrete pads and they are 500mm too far from the house! Since the eaves are only 600 mm it is not ideal, so today I headed down to Hobart and talked to the shed people. They are sending someone to put in new pads, but can not give me a time.

The vinyl people failed to confirm if they were coming so I have a bit of extra time to sort out the space they will be working in, so I also bought a pot of paint to do the back wall of the kitchen.

I have to confess I have been hypnotised by the horror of Grenfell Towers (having been around those parts while in London) and watching the various rushings for cover by various responsible parties. I suspect terrorists are the least of London's problems if the Tories don't get their shit together and a pull a compassionate response out of their pockets.

Weather has been amazingly mild lately, despite the odd hard frost - and very little in the way of rain. Not a bad thing at this time of year since not much is growing anyway, and the heavy dews are more than adequate to the task.

I have been reorganising the loungeroom for the last couple of days - removing the bookshelves and other clutter and rediscovering the floor behind the building materials that were stacked behind the sofa. It was horrible. So I dug out the vacuum cleaner, pulled it apart and cleaned all its bits, washed the air filter, dried it and got stuck in. To little effect. So, since I hate vaccing anyway and this is beyond ridiculous, I threw it in the back of the ute and took it to Godfreys and traded it in on a Hoover machine with a power head. Nearly killed the Hoover, but I have a clean rug, and the newly exposed floor is getting attacked with a new proper bristle scrubbing brush tomorrow (along with clearing out the fridge and freezer of disposable goods as it is also tip day). I also picked up a new dishwasher as the one i have was one dollar at auction to the person who gave it to me way back when after she had used it for years also. At this point it is hard to distinguish between the black sludge that seems to build up in a dishwasher and the decomposing seals on the doors - it leaks, stops in mid cycle and sometimes decides it won't start. Better to get a new one while I have the money and the end of financial year sales are on. So I now have a Dishlex that is $740 retail, but which cost only $400. So I guess I won't be getting the lounge suite that started this entire process. Oh well. Freecycle will produce one at some point. Meanwhile I can vac and steam the current one and make it like new.

The proper bristle brush is made in Germany so is presumably good quality - the ones with plastic bristles are useless - I find the bristles start coming adrift almost as soon as you start work. This will be used to scrub the accumulated grime I inherited when I moved in and didn't have any water, and the additional offerings that have accumulated while the building materials were obstructing access. I may even start to pull the two layers of linoleum up if I get really excited.

Watching the Drum - women in financial distress. So glad I am not one of them and that I own my own home. There is no way someone on Newstart could afford to pay rent and eat - it's a blooming disgrace!

I had a day in the History Room today, but yesterday I treated myself to a visit with friends. Jenny is moving house (again) and has a few things to get rid of. I am particularly tempted by her sofa - much larger than mine and with matching chairs. I was worried it might not fit, but when I got home and looked at the present sofa, I realised how small it really is. I will find out what she wants for it and see if her husband will help deliver it (way too heavy for me to shift by myself). It has the added advantage of being on wheels, so getting in behind it does not involve rupturing myself with the effort. The other item is a fire surround - free! So apart from having to measure up my fireplace, I definitely will be getting that.

It was a lovely sunny day and we sat in the garden drinking tea and gossiping.

Not like today which was barely 7 degrees and heading down for a frost tonight.

It was back to reality today with a long and relatively lonesome day in the History Room. I had started the basque on that vest last night while watching the Lord of the Rings, so continued with that. I am half way up - enough to see how the colour changes create an optical illusion and to ensure that the colours work well together. I will post a pic once the basque is finished so you can judge for yourselves. but it may take a while. Two hundred and eighty eight stitches in a two-stitch colour-changing rib on 2.75 mm needles does not get you very far, very fast.

The usual grab  bag of visitors - though the first was amusing. He had no interest in the museum, but was desperate for some cut flowers for a lady friend he was planning to visit. Our garden is more aimed at survival than floral abundance, but he went off happily clutching a chrysanthemum surrounded by marigolds as if it was the most precious bouquet. He even made a donation. I was careful to cut them so that our resident gardener is unlikely to realise they are missing or I would get into terrible trouble - she takes her garden very seriously!

At least having the day off tomorrow will allow me to catch up on the washing (late showers, but I should be OK), and hopefully dismember sufficient of the remainder of the kitchen so I can steam clean the cement slab - thereby giving it time to dry out before Wednesday week when the vinyl will hopefully arrive.

I discovered I had vouchers for spending at the Lucky Ewe to supplement my winnings, and have enough to get me half way to a blending board. Since the angelina in the 'high commendation' art yarn was so poorly integrated, and I have a stash of sari silk as well, I am thinking a blending board would be a good use to put that money toward. It will also allow me to blend the silk fibre I have with various wools and so forth. But Rowena has shut the shop for a two month winter break, so I will have plenty of time to consider my options and monitor her website.

Today was the day to go back to the Campbell Town Show to collect my exhibits.

It was a gorgeous sunny day (for a nice change) and the drive up was only interrupted by having to clean the bank, and the inevitable eternal road works (astonishingly they were working today too!). Campbell Town is in the Northern Midlands, and you can tell - up there the farmers are much sleeker, wear more expensive clothes, and their women all look impeccably groomed (we are a rather hairier lot in the Southern Midlands). It was a lovely country show with woodchopping, shearing events and even a Smithfield Colly class. And I had the obligatory Dagwood Dog that I continue to digest in interrupted phases.

Here are some pics to encourage you to make the effort next year - a lovely day out and if you get bored with the show there is plenty of other stuff to do in Campbell Town.

 The photos on the right are my entries in the "Farmscape" class - sadly also-rans.

 The Wool-craft section was particularly well represented thanks to advertising on the Australian Spinners FB page and elsewhere! Some really lovely garments on display!

 And of course endless displays of wonderful fleeces and sheepies.

 Here I have recorded evidence of a Liberal member showing an unhealthy interest in being educated about alternative sustainable fuel sources.















But I guess, like me, you want to know how I went. I astonished myself I have to say, given that I only put in entries to make up the numbers and had no expectations of prizes.

So that was my day - I am now sitting in front of the fire patiently waiting to get out my 2.75, 60cm circular needle to start casting on for my vest!

Right - well I am no longer snorting and pacing, but still very annoyed with Centrelink - still, I am making progress with my grievance (after several bouncebacks - it's your responsibility to fix our stuffed up database...) and hope to have them sorted once i hear from my MP. If I hear from my MP - they all seem to be gearing up for elections lately.

Meanwhile I have been busy sorting out spinning and knitting, volunteering at the History Room rather more often than I wanted to (due to various staff absences) and generally getting on with it.

I have a pattern for a fair isle vest in six colours - using natural fleece colours. I also had a pack of four different colours of Shetland Wool (souvenir of the Spin In) so I have been busy spinning these up and finishing them, as well as finding a paler brown in my stash. That is a moorit fleece and has a nice lustre to it. For the lighter grey (1 black, one white, two each of brown and grey) I will be using the skein I spun for the Show, when I get it back. Each colour calls for 50gm and one requires 75 grams so I am well sorted with most coming out around the 70 gm mark or higher. The last two skeins dried today thanks to sunshine and a breeze, and I will wind them into balls later this evening. This is the pattern as it should look when finished.

It's knitted in the round with steeks for the neck and arm openings - a new experiment. Steeks are basically panels of stitches inserted into the garment that allow you to keep knitting in circles. Once finished you sew down either side of the centre stitch and then cut the fabric to create the opening (I think steek is longhand for eeek!).













While I have been stacking the firewood I have become aware of a wealth of lichens growing on it. Rather than consign them to the fire I am scraping them off and drying them to create dyes at some future date. I have one entire tonne of firewood covered in one species (with the odd additional species thrown in) and another that has a variety of other species.









It is also fungus season in a major way so I pulled up a toadstool and will dry it also. I have no idea what they are or what they might produce.

On another facebook page (mushroom and lichen dyers) I spotted someone had posted an image of a jar containing one part ammonia, and two parts water as well as the lichen so as to see what happened. Their jars had been going for a week or so. I popped mine together last night and this is what I now have. I think it is a yellow dye. I have two jars of it, so will experiment with one and use the other for a dyelot (once I have spun enough white and light grey yarn to play with,

At the History Room, we have decided to participate in Dark Mofo's installation - Journeys. Part of this is another installation called Paint the Town Red. I was put in charge of dressing the window for the display and this is the result (most of it, apart from the telly and the chair, came from my place).

As most Tasmanians know, there are some of us who place undue emphasis on our ancestors as the basis for our own importance. One of them called at the History Room today and I found it difficult to be pleasant. She opened her remarks by announcing she was a member of the First Settlers Society and went on to say she was here to talk about what involvement we might like to have in the celebration of the 375th (or some such thing) anniversary that is looming, with particular emphasis on Sorell. I suggested that Sorell had not existed 375 years ago, what with us having only settled Tassie a couple of hundred years ago. She looked at me with disdain and continued to rattle on about this anniversary. After ten minutes of getting no closer to the point, I interjected that I was still struggling to see what this celebration was all about. Burble Burble about the first global awareness of Tasmania (or the Great South Land), at which I twigged she was on about the celebration of the Dutch exploration of the area (1642). Once again, I tried to work out what this had to do with Sorell (which is not marked on any of the maps) and it turned out she was on about the Municipality as opposed to the town.
We parted in icy cordiality.