Knitting Nancy I miss you!

I wonder why I have a sudden yearning to knit something. I haven't knitted anything since I was a teenager, and then I got so frustrated I never finished it!
We have two second hand shops (op shops) at my local shopping square, one is cheap and junky and one is dearer and has much more order and shop dressing. I like both for different reasons, but the second one has a gorgeous old cabinet full of haberdashery. On Tuesday I rummaged around through the stack of old Paton's pattern books, a few I remembered from childhood as my Mum was a big knitter. The problem is I need a beginners pattern book, Ive forgotten everything except maybe casting on and knitting pearl and plain! and I was never that good at those anyway..Mum was always rescuing my lost stitches! Now Mums not here what will I do now? I have told a very knit savvy friend to expect me on her doorstep at anytime...she said " of course" but I could tell she really isn't expecting me to get past buying the wool and then leaving it in the cupboard for years. Ha!
We shall see, but I would like to give it a go again. Anyone have any beginners books or patterns they can recommend?
If my husband is really lucky I may even knit him one of these beauties!



ahh if all else fails I'll just have to bring out the treasured Knitting Nancy and knit a few rows on her.

Blondie and Twinings

When I was 17 I wanted to be Blondie, well Deborah Harry actually, not the other guys in the band Blondie...that's just weird! ;) Ive always been a huge fan of their music, At 17, I just KNEW that life would be so much better to be someone else, someone gorgeous, talented and sort after by every teenage boy in every bedroom in the world!

Thinking about that today on what was a rather hot Melbourne day I decided to listen to some Blondie while enjoying some English Breakfast tea and browsing through Country Living magazine with all it's beautiful interiors and grade II listed country houses and wishing I lived in the colder parts of the world (namely England)

Why do I always want to be someone else or live somewhere else, as if that will guarantee 100% happiness!

I feel as I if I spend quite a lot of my time feeling frustrated about ageing and at the same time wanting to finally grow up and deal with life! Listening to Blondie and delving into the world of country interiors is quite representative of my life at the moment! One foot in adolescence and the other in adulthood. While I don't want to lose the adolescent part of me completely I do need to only let it surface in a positive way, not in unrealistic fantasies of life as someone else. I do like being me, but if I could encase me in someone fitter, prettier and more dazzling, wouldn't life be better? ;)

2009 must be my year of letting go of the past and embracing the here and now! There is so much that is still wonderful to do and be....I want to be the person who doesn't wish they really did look like someone else or want somebody else's life or house or hair....etc etc...or want to be somewhere else as I so often do! I do feel I can do it, I do feel it's withing reach (even if it sometimes hides behind the curtains)

Let's raise our cup of Twinings to the present and our unique selves!