It's his first Christmas and possibly last...we'll have to see how he behaves!

The newest addition to the family and full on time waster.

So much time, so little to drink!

Or should that be so much to drink and so little time?

Another fabulous afternoon of sampling, today was wines followed by a port and a cognac. I didn't mind the Cognac, the port I could have left as I could have done with most of the white wines. We only tried two reds and only one of them was remotely drinkable. At least I think so.

After all that excitement we had to practice opening wine bottles with the Waiter's Friend. Fool of a thing! is all I shall say on that experience.

This was followed by what was supposed to be non-dairy based mocktails. Inevitably some booze ended up in some of the drinks. Surprise surprise!
While they were few and far between, the non-alcoholic ones that were made mostly seemed to end up down the sink, I'm not talking about the remains of a drink here - were talking nearly full glasses.
I suspect it had a lot to do with people were just making stuff up, I don't think anyone really thought out what they were doing. And as for the Midori and cranberry juuice concoction, I wasn't surprised it ended up down the sink.

I made a good old stand-by the Cinderella Mocktail after flipping through the recipes supplied and not seeing it or anything like it I figured I might be able to pull some credit for something that might be "original"!

But instead of mixing the first ingredients and topping with lemonade I decided to go down the built road. I picked a hurricane glass, my personal fave glass. Added some ice, poured some pineapple juice over it, added some orange juice slightly less than the pine and then what was meant to be a dash of grenadine become more like three and promptly sank to the bottom of the glass - I wasn't expecting that! But it did as it settled make a real cool kind of "blush" at the bottom of the glass. I topped it up with lemonade which made this cool clear layer at the top and the juices sort of intermingled in the middle to make a yellow-orange colour.
Compleatly by accident I ended up with something absolutly fabulous darling!

While out doing some last minute shopping this morning I picked up the latest Simply Knitting and the new Yarn magazine.
I bought Creative Knitting the other day and I am a little annoyed it was wrapped in plastic because I couldn't see what was in it before I bought but having looked at it since it's better than last month's which I didn't buy at all.
Back to SK and Yarn, I was hoping to read them tonight after I got in from class but it looks as though my mother failed to drop them in with the rest of my shopping.

All good things come to those who wait I suppose, at least I have the newsletter from Janet Evanovich to peruse tonight, not quite as exciting or as much reading...

Until next time,
KNIT ON!

Welcome to RSG!

RSG for those of you not familiar is Responsible Service of Gambling something similar to RSA but still a whole different set of rules.

That's what I had the priveledge of doing tonight, I nearly didn't get there as I was going to trail back down all the stairs to see if I had perhaps ended up in the wrong place (which I hadn't but more on that later).

I couldn't see anybody from my class, it looked to be a whole different class so I had a minor crisis, only minor. And while starting back down the stairs I met some of my class who were all headed up so I followed back up - if I am going to barge into the worng class I'd rather not do it alone. Safety in numbers and all that jazz.
I can only presume for some reason best known to the powers to be that they would combine 2 (possibly 3?) classes together for this. The end result was total choas!

It wasn't a boring subject as I had first thought and turned out to be rather interesting but it was very hard to concentrate, most of them clearly thought this was some kind of social occasion and talked, rattled papers and generally fidgeted.

Edit: There was more here about knitting, but the daft white cat has struck again and is about to be struck!

It is, after all, Christmas I suppose....

You Are Vixen

Sexy and sultry, you're the one all the other reindeer dream about. Why You're Naughty: That fur pulling spat you got into with Dancer over Santa. Why You're Nice: Because even when you're nice, you're still delightfully naughty!

Which of Santa's Reindeer Are You?

Day Three Bar Wenching - all is not as it seems!

I am very disappointed to report Bar Wenching is not all I hoped for.

It does I agree Cindy, imply an olde worlde, bawdy songs and those huge tankards!

I suspect under the current laws governening Responsible Service of Alcohol, Food Hygeine and OH & S I'm not gonna find it - locally anyway.
Day Three has seen us trudge up many stairs and through much theory and paperwork. Another words in theory and with Monoply money I can serve customers, handle cash and work out bassic Foreign Exchange transactions.

But this afternoon we started to move into the world of the practical with how you set up a bar and a demonstration of the various methods of cocktail making such as build, layer, muddle, shake and stir. Although after we do Responsible Serving of Alcohol we find out the legalities behind the layered drinks. Can you or can't you? That is the question!

Did anybody else watch Grumpy Old Women on Christmas on Monday night? I know my father did and he was disappointed because it wasn't as funny as the Grumpy Old Men at Christmas. Which I have to agree with him about, but it was very true in otherways or at least I thought so. I am however disappointed that the GOW didn't seem to have as much of an aversion to Xmas cards as the GOM did. I absolutley loathe the wretched things.

I must dash my dear readers and see if I can put to use some of my ill bought liquer choices - these are not so much as declasse but criminally insane. Consequentially I have a big collection and not all of it will mix - well I could mix it but......I'm sure you understand.

Until next time,
Suzi.
A bona fide grumpy redheaded wench and damn proud of it.

Christmas is coming!

I absolutley hate Christmas!

This may come as a surprise to those who know me and my obsession for all things Christmas (I secured more Christmas movies the other day!)

Mostly my obsession stems from for Christmas in the vain hope that I will actually get a cool present, something I actually asked for as opposed to those things people think you will like. Soemtimes I wonder just who they were buying for.

My Christmas request if Santa is reading goes something like this:
1. Black clothing - plain black with no print or patterns preferably! Trying to buy plain black skirts is a nightmare!
2. You shouldn't judge a book by it's cover - so I'm going to watch the DVD (hopefully) and pass judgement. Here's my pick!
3. A Christmas alone! Contrary to popular myth this is not a bad a thing. Some of us just have no patience for all the crap associated with sitting round and making polite conversation with people we see once a year. Especially when I haven't done anything different to last year, had I, they all would have heard about it a lot sooner.
4. The RIGHT to say Bah Humbug! Why must we all like Christmas? Having just read The Secret Life of Santa Claus by Jackie French I think the Feast of Saturnalia is a lot more fun. It's all about eating, drinking and orgy's which is far more interesting than church services and other people's children.
5. If I had a dollar for all the Merry Christmas! I keep hearing I would buy my own private island and ban Christmas!

Bah humbug till next time,
Suzi Scrooge.

New! New! New!

I got an e-mail in my InBox last week, letting me know the new MagKnits was up. However while I have noticed my button for Knitty has updated I still haven't had the e-mail telling me it's updated? Where is it?

I also see the Yarn magazine print issue is out! Has anyone got a copy yet? I am going to start haunting newsagents from tomorrow.

Greetings and Salutations!

Did anybody else indulge in a fun filled Christmas extravaganza tonight?

I am of course referring to the Myth Busters Christmas Special and Grumpy Old Men on Christmas. The last one I missed the end of due to my Mother ringing me up. But my father apparently was taping it so I hope to catch a replay.

I am very thrilled having seen the Grumpy Old Men I am not the only one who dosen't like Christmas. I look forward to the Grumpy Old Women on Christmas, I could do a whole episode on that. A Grumpy Old Woman on Christmas.

But on more exciting news and it kinda has to do with Christmas, by Christmas with any luck I will be a fully qualified bar wench complete with the much talked about Responsible Serving of Alcohol certification.
Hmmm, me responsibly serve alcohol? Well I do when it's mine, but that's only beacuse I'm not big on sharing. The more they drink the less there is for me!

While this decison hasn't gone down well at work, well it's not real work it has made my Job Enforcer happy. It's made me slightly happy and also slightly guilty. Bailing on work at Christmas, but I'm going to get behind a bar! How cool is that?

There is a new additiion to the family, it's only a matter of time till this new addition comes to live with me having been catnapped, Ash is quite happy to get into my handbag - all by himself I might add. I'm just biding my time.

I hope to have a pictur of the former ankle biter soon - my ankles no longer pose any interest but they do however still bear the scars. Clearly adaft white cat in the making....

Until next time,
Suzi.
A bona fide cat loving redhead and damn proud of it.

Snagged!

This one I snagged form Isis in Life, who has a very interesting blog. Her crafty work ain't bad either.


Raeven Witch. you are the raeven witch. mysterious
and peaceful, you are a calm witch who devotes
herself to worshiping the moon in all its
fases. your song is "imaginary" by
Evanescence


What witch are you? (gorgeous pics - 7 different results)
brought to you by Quizilla

Yeah baby!

Now that's more like it, after discovering a pattern for a cotton bag that is knitted as opposed to the usual crocheted, and finally discovering the pattern for the knitted tree house (complete with instructions to make your own giant needles needed to knit it). What could top it?

Well thanks to Katie (who's blog my long term readers will be familair with in my list of frequently read blogs or it was until Blogger informed me it couldn't take me there because it didn't exist - damn Blogger! I'm sorry Katie but I thought you must have quit but I have re-bookmarked you!), on to the point, Katie directed me to this site - The AntiCraft!

Thankyou Katie I love it! And you were right the armwarmers were just my thing, a snowflake that morphs into a skull! the first issue is titled Your Going To Die Anyway You May As Well Knit and featured a very cool cover picture. And the patterns! This my dear readers is what Knitting on the Darkside is all about!

I noticed a project for knitting with wire - I love this idea althouh I suspect I would make a mess of it as I doubt wire is as forgiving as yarn. Actually speaking of knitting with wire, the last Saimply Knitting magazine had an article on it and alos in wither Better Homes and Gardens or Notebook there was a Lincraft Christmas special and they had knitted wire napkin rings. Hmmm, becoming less obscure all ready?

And onto other things beocming less obscure, after seeing the recent adverts for the tv show Celebrity Overhaul I decided to give tonight's episode a watch. Because they had a segment on pole dancing! Unfortunatly a bit of research shows that still, still the closest classes are in Melbourne. How disappointing!

But all is not lost my dear readers! My research has shown that there is a company in Queensland who with this latest boom manufacture poles - and they are portable! Yes, my dear readers, have pole and will travel.
The Pussycat Poles produce a full range from Basic to Deluxe (it spins) and they are all removeable so you can take them down when not in use, although some of them are semi-removeable which menas they have a lock that bolts into your ceiling. Who would have thought they could be so complex?

No, my dear readers you can't just buy a pole, you have to make decisions about your pole! As well as a phyisical workout once you've bought your pole you get a mental workout before! (Actually you could get one after if you have the semi-removable and you need to explain your new ceiling fixture, yes it's a ??????)

In conclusion my dear readers I have one last question for you - DO I MAKE YOU HORNY BABY? DO I?

Until next time,
Suzi.
A bona fide red head and damn proud of it.

In the velvet darkness of the blackest night......

Was anyone else excited at Barry Bostwick starring in an episode of Cold Case based around the Rocky Horror Picture Show?

I LOVE Rocky Horror! LOOOOOVVVVVVEEEE IT!!!!! So I was very very very excited.
And also a little disappointed, why dosen't our cinema screen it? During the year there are times where there is some utter rubbish on.
I know because I've seen it.

I finally picked up the needles and worked on one of my long lost and then found projects - the Hooded Scarf with Pockets out of Cleckheaton Angora Supreme. It's now a few rows longer.

I think all this wet weather has had a pleasent effect on me, it's very soothing for a knitters soul.
It's also put me in the mood for soup. Pumpkin soup! After tinned tomato soup (must be Rosella), homemade pumpkin soup is my fave food out.

And in answer to the querys about the apprentice Terminators, some of the young ones wern't bad at all. Not bad at all......

In closing today I have for you all a magical knitting link!

Until next time,
Suzi.
A bona fide red head and damn proud of it.

We Will Rock You!

You Are a Chick Rocker!

You're living proof that chicks can rockYou're inspired by Joan Jett and the DonnasAnd when you rock, you rock hard(Plus, you get all the cute guy groupies you want!)

What Kind of Rocker Are You?

*******************************************************************

My blog is worth $0.00.
How much is your blog worth?

Both pinched form Cathy.

Flotsam and Jetsam

We had our SNB meet-up on Tuesday, I didn't get alot of knitting done. SInce I've finished my camo scarf which I whipped up in no time, everything else has fallen by the wayside. None of it excites me enough to pick it up and finish it.

However I would give in to temptation and start something new, if I could decide what I wanted to knit.

My sister has finished her cat bed (Princess Snowball from the first SNB book). I'm thinking about making one for the Daft White Cat who is not bothered by thunder storms and sleeps on. But he is very taken with his "nest", this is a pile of shredded newspaper that came in a parcel I received. After tipping it out to fosick through it the DWC came to play in it and later took to sleeping in it. I haven't the heart to throw it away yet.

I watched the first episode of Billy Connolly's Word Tour of New Zealand last night. Last time it was on they had two episodes and advertised a third which never came on and nothing more was heard about it.

It's been some wild and wacky weather we've had here recently, but all this warmth is causing me to have feverishly wild ideas. Some time ago, one of my mum's friends relations was giving away her food dehydrator, unfortunatly the instructions to go with it were long gone. But none the less I snapped it up, actually this was earlier this year some time or maybe the middle? But another of my mother's friends has one - it may not even be the same brand let alone the same model but at some point we were going to get together with our dehydrators and have a lesson.

What made me think of this was mainly we're coming into the gorwing season and also because I've been meaning to make the Christmas pudding since August and the lady with the dehydrator is our pudding tie-upper as well.
Good thing she lives close to my mother!

Drying stuff and making the "leathers" can be done in low temp oven (suitable for all weather) or outside in the sun (although you need to be careful to watch out for bugs and marauding animals/children/MEN!* who are likely to hamper efforts).
(*These last are the worst pests of all, when growing anything they will interfere/overwater/dig up to no end and that first strawberry you are waiting forever to ripen so you can pick it - only to have it vanish!)

While on the topic of men and leathers, today at work we received some more Xmas puddings. Now two elderly ladies (I'll call them G and R) make them for us, after driving round the block twice uanble to get a parking space, R comes into the shop to tell me they are going to pull up out the back and unload.
Now just behind us the God Squad Motorcycle club has moved in and they must have had some event ontoday because there were heaps of them. So R and I are waiting at the back door for them to drive off so G can come down and unload. After the God Squad have roared off and I mean roared, G comes down with a box.

R says to her before this next lot go bring the car down to the door and we can unload and get out of the way.
Oh yes says G back to her and returns back to the car.
R who's watching her go starts laughing and turns and says to me, she's asked those fellows up there to carry the boxes in.

What followed was a mini procession of apprentice Terminators in black leather carrying boxes of puddings. So I suppose we can say today turned out not to bad after all. Mmmm hmmmm mmmm hmmm.....

Until next time,
Suzi.
A bona fide red head and damn proud of it.

Happy Halloween!

Yes, today is the day. And how unexcting it's turned out, I think because it's a Monday.

But in honour of the celebration I did party a little. This afternoon I went to see Doom. I wasn't sure what time it was on and popped round to the cinema after work to see what screenings were available and discovered one had started just before I got there. I became one of those late people I loathe, you know the ones who come creeping in after the movie's started and start scrambling for seats. Fortunatly the cinema was practically empty so I scored a seat at the back at the end of a row, realitively unoticed.

On the way home I was thinking about what I would write about it and the words "lacks substance" popped into my mind.
If your thinking about seeing it, wait for the video release.

As a huge fan of the game Doom and of the Rock I was hoping for good things, especially looking at the Resident Evil duo.

Doom failed to be creepy, the Rock was disappointing (not in his performance, more in his character). It was dimly lit and involved freaky things leaping out and attacking people and loads of big guns. But still I am not completly satisfied and this bothers me. As a huge fan of big guns-blowing stuff up genre, where did it go wrong?

On a side note anybody concerned about the Blood and Guts qouta, apart from a juicy autopsy it was pretty tame. Actually the autopsy is probably about the same as CSI, especially when they get one of their "decomposing" corpses.

I noticed posters for Tim Burton's Corpse Bride marked as Coming Soon, I can be optimistic. However I didn't see any adverts for Nightwatch which I keep seeing trailers for on SBS.

I'm off to check my fellow SNB'ers blogs and see what they are up to before tomorrow's meet-up. I am very excited!

Until next time,
Suzi.
A bona fide red head and damn proud of it.

All Hallows Eve

Another surprise! Slightly late for my birthday but still very exciting. Ages ago I entered a competion running through Farmers Union Iced Coffee and what arrived this week?

A Farmers Union Iced Coffee BBQ apron, I don't have a BBQ. But you know, I have the apron, maybe I can dress up and pretend. Here it is being modeled by the wonderful Sandra D.

Belated picture form my Birthday last Sunday.

Things that make you go Hmmmmmm!

You Are 60% Weird

You're so weird, you think you're *totally* normal. Right? But you wig out even the biggest of circus freaks!

How Weird Are You?

There may be some truth to this, I'll admit I may be a little odd, weird stuf fascinates me. In the grand scheme of things I don't perceive myself as one of the real weirdo's of the world. But clearly I would?

Swiped from Cathy.

Thankyous and Requests

First off a big thankyou to one and all who wished me a happy birthday. I can't thank you enough. Special thankyou to the Labradors - you go girls!

And now for a request - Roberta from Kittens, Mittens and Knit Things asked about he Beer Bread recipe. Ask and you shall receive! It can be found here at the Inn.

And whiule your all there the What is it? is still open for suggestions and ideas! I know Sharon and Cindy have had their thinking caps on. Probably knitted them themselves too.

Now I'm off for a date with Batman....How can a girl resist a man in black rubber?
Until next time,
Suzi.
A bona fide red head and damn proud of it.

Today is my Birthday!

Exciting? I think not baby puppy.

I've been knitting some Filatra De Crosa's Super Soft in a camofalouge print into the scarf featured int he latest Simply Knitting. The chunky ribbed one with the split to thread your scarf through.

I've wanted to make a scarf like this since I saw it in Stitch N' Bitch: The Knitters Handbook. I have trouble even with my long scarves unwinding and slipping. Very vexing.

I did a fair amount of bakign yesterday, I made osme Cappacino Cupcakes which need to be iced and dusted with cocoa so they really look like cappacinos.

There was the CHerry loaf which was bad.....I will take a photo if possible and show you all what I mean. And then there was the Crostata, I might use a bit less lemon next time. ANd never use bought custard agian, it was too something.

Shoosh you! After being so good all this mroing the White Cat is now goign to play up, he keeps looking out the windows. Somebody's making a lot of noise outside. Clearly it's making him restless.

Until next time,
Suzi.
A bona fide red head and birthday girl and damn proud of it.

Surprise! Knitty is not up!

After receiving my e-mail from Knitty alerting me to the fact their new surprise patterns were up I rushed over.

But NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! Knitty was DOWN! How could this be? I can only presume everybody else got their e-mail and rushed to see them!

And what do we have apart form some pumpkins in time for the Halloween season, a new awesome SKULL SCARF! And some other bits - that are not for the easily offended or faint of heart.

I had SnB knitting coven today, and was immense fun, Cindy and I learnt to make beaded stitch markers. Which was very cool! It's amazing how infectious craft can be, you start at one thing and learn a whole new thing.

Start at knitting and branch out into felting, crochet, beading.....where will it end? Will I ever become a bona fide craft diva? Stay tuned, to the same Darkside channel at the same Darkside hour and you can find out!

Until next time,
Suzi.
A bona fide red head and damn proud of it.

One of those days.

Have you ever had one of those days where everythign has gone wrong? Well I've had multiples of them.

I am looking forward to SnB tommorrow, I need my fortnightly session. I also really ne to knit, I've fallen a little behind. Mostly I'm too cranky to do anything productive lately - I'm going to blame the changing weather.

However having said that, I did make Beer Bread last night. Real easy, I mean all bread is easy but time consuming. But this was easy and quick! Dosen't taste half bad either, not at all beer like which is a shame.

Ah well, I have reclaimed my vodka from my mother, so soon we shall have crab, chilli and vodka linguine. Sounds promising.

Until next time,
Suzi
A bona fide red head and damn proud of it.

It's Here! It's Here!

My sparkly yarn arrived today! I am so excited. So in honour of this I am going to redig up the Firday Favourites.

1. The lady from the choir who told me I had lost weight - she's my new fave person!
2. Chili Quarter Pounder form McDonalds - It's back! It's back! And since when did you put pickle on it anyway? What kind of freaks are running that place? Clearly not my kind.
3. My new sparkly Opal yarn - it's so much more sparkly-ier than I anticipated.

Now for a non-favourite, the Daft White Cat who caused noise for most of last night and dove me bonkers. On th eupside he seems to have ignored my sock yarn and gone for a ball of pink acrylic. There's no accounting for some taste.

Until next time,
Suzi.
A bona fide head and damn proud of it.

I Spy With My Little Eye...

I saw while out and about yesterday the new Simply Knitting magazine, once again sealed in plastic. Ruining people's fun! Unfortunatly I have to wait till the end of the week and see what the budget looks like and see if I can buy it soon.

However what I haven't seen is a new issue of Creative Knitting which is supposed to be out this month.

Another thing I haven't spied yet is some yarn I bought on eBay which I am waiting impatiently for. It's some Opal with lurex!
We must get a photo when it comes.

I have been knitting, I've put everythign on hold to knt this beanie for City Mission, I figure i had better do one before the end of the month.

Until next time,
Suzi.
A bona fide red head and damn proud of it.

Well, well, well....

I've finally got some pictures to show you all that I do knit and it exists and it's not some flight of fancy on my part.

I also have the pictures I took last weekend of my first ever finished sock. That was exciting, until some boogelly woman told me I should take it back because I had a hole in it. Then it stopped becoming exciting and became "EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!" instead. Then she had the nerve to come and ear bash me about herself and all her problems.

As for the toddler hat I was knitting, 90 stitches seemed alot but the picture below speaks volumes about this hat. Ah, well back to the drawing board....

Also today Ihave a What Is It challenge for you over at the Inn - something to get you thinking.

Until next time,
Suzi.
A bona fide red head and damn proud of it.

This is me - the Infamous Knitter from the Darkisde! Modeling, would you believe a Toddlers hat in 12-ply?

So Sari Along Scarf in Recycled Sari Silk in the colour way of blue, green and white.

The nearly complete Alien Illusion Scarf from Stitch N' Bitch: A Knitters Handbook.

THE FIRST Sock!

THE FIRST Sock! A close-up.

There is an Alien amongst us!

Finally finished Thursday night, after I finally made the trip to Spotlight to fnally buy the much needed yarn, THE ALIEN IS COMPLETE!

I hope to take some pictures tomorrow of it to show you all, however at this stage it's ends are not sewn in and I haven't put the fringe on - I must sew the ends in first to do this bit.

I was too exhausted to knit anything last night, so nothing got done. But this afternoon I started a scarf out of my Sari yarn (blue/green/white). I am using the Japanese Lantern Scarf as featured on the Sari-A-Long. It's over a quarter done, but not quite halfway yet. Tomorrow pictures!

In an effort to reduce my stash, make space and actually get around to knitting something for others - Project Stashbusting For Charitys has begun!
To kick it off, I have started a beanie in toddler size out of some 12-ply. Unfortunatly that was about the quantity of that colour I had but I am sure it will be suitable for Mongolia Take Two.

If I haven't explained about Mongolia Take Two yet, some of my more long-term readers will know about my collection for Dulaan which was more of a success than I ever imagined. But now one of the ladies who knit for me for Dulaan is knitting and collecting knitting to send to Mongolia with her sister who is going to set up a school and teach English through her church group.

I'm afraid with all this other knitting, the sock has been temporarily neglected. I ripped it back on Wednesday because I really wasn't happy with it and started over, I'm still alittel uncertain so rather than rip it back and be too annoyed with it to start over I think some time out and a chance to look at it with fresh eyes is in order.

Until next time,
Suzi.
A bona fide red head and damn proud of it.

Blondes have more fun?

I read this joke on Stitch N' Bitch Melbourne and had to share.

A highway policeman pulled alongside a speeding car on the freeway.
Glancing at the car, he was astounded to see that the blonde behind
the wheel was knitting! Realising that she was oblivious to his
flashing lights and siren, the copper wound down his window, turned on
his megaphone and yelled, "PULL OVER!"

"NO!" the blonde yelled back, "it's A SCARF!"

Socks Are Out To Rule The World!

You quite like socks, but your not overly-obsessed
with them. You would have been a pair of
knee-length socks in any colour, and probably
stripy or something to make you that little bit
more interesting.


What type of sock are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

This reminds me of my fave and to date only pair of knee high socks which were stripey - black, blue and purple and the other colourway available? Look at the picture above....

I found this cool quiz on Cathy's site (again!).

A Ha!

The Opal Socks I'm currently knitting is Lollipop 1011 - Turquoise. The bottom colour way. Only I'm still on rib so my pattern hasn't shown up like that yet. MInd you I really like the Purples at the top I might have to get some of that.

Much excitement!

On Friday night I finished my first sock ever! And it fits as well which is an added excitment. It's officially done even all sown together. I will take some pictures soon and get them posted for you all to see.

And on another excitng topic - the NEW MagKnits issue is up! My personal picks are Urban Necessity and Nippertails, although Collar Me as featured on the cover intrigues me as well.

Until next itme,
Suzi.
A bona fide red head and damn proud of it.

What better advertising?

A big thankyou has to go BladesKissofDeath who is a fellow member from one of my many groups I belong to for allowing me use of this graphic!

Blatently swiped from Cathy

Your Brain's Pattern

You have a dreamy mind, full of fancy and fantasy.You have the ability to stay forever entertained with your thoughts.People may say you're hard to read, but that's because you're so internally focused.But when you do share what you're thinking, people are impressed with your imagination.

What Pattern Is Your Brain?

Beware the Were-Rabbit!

Yes, as the title suggests I have been to see Wallace and Grommit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit. And I have seen the infamous knitting scene! My only regret is I didn't have my needles as well....

It is absolutely wonderful and very funny, if you havn't been already I can't reccommend it enough! Also the short film before Wallace and Grommit - featuring the Penguins from Madagascar (I know of this movie but I haven't seen it) at Christmas - also very funny!

Also today I finally bought the September issue of Australian women's Weekly. They had some baking in thier food section this month and the pattern of the month is a knit lacey shrug. Unfortunatly the one pictured is very beige....

But putting that aside I am thinking of making one for myself for the warmer weather coming up. I was just thinking the other day perhaps I should take up some of this cotton knitting and make myself a summer cardigan. I want something with sleeves that's not to hot to wear over my short sleeve tops while I'm out and about in the sun.

On the home front, I have been baking again. If you want to see what I have made recently you will have to check my second home the Darkside Inn.
Which reminds me I have a graphic I want to post to show you all that relates very well to this subject.....

Until next time,
Suzi.
A bona fide red head and damn proud of it.

It's been a while

And unfortunatly instead of finsihing any of my UFO's I ahve started makign more WIP's.

The latest is a pair of socks in Opal Lollipop ??? It's a lot of blues wiht some white. Farbe 1011 - Partie 14. I'll see if I can track down it's actual name and post it here.

Since I last posted I've been to see Charlie and The Chocolate Factory with the luscious Johnny Depp only he was slightly less luscious as Willy Wonka. Teh chocolate factory however, halfway through the movie I had an incredible craving for chocolate.

Next on the list - Wallace and Gromit and the Wererabbit. I can't wait, and neither can my father. That's all I need a trip to the movies with another pop corn stealer. My mother came with me and my sister to Charlis and the Chocolate Factory. My mother dosen't like the cinema pop corn as she keeps tellign me but this dosen't stop her form eating it. Hmmmmm....

Speaking of C&TCF, I watched the final episodes of Blakes 7 Season Two the day after and in one of them they go to Freedom City - kind of like Las Vegas only out in space and with no law enforcement. At one of the casino's they had a speed chess champion The Klout, it was only the Ommpa Loompa from the C&TCF! Very exciting! Actually all of Blakes 7 was quite exciting.

The Daft White Cat is, well daft as ever, I don't think that will ever improve. But he at least apart form a few exceptions isn't a nusince at night anymore. IN fact he's gone form nusince to sleeping on the end of the bed to sleeping on thop of the wardrobe. Not hat I mind, because now I odn't wake in the morning in some very uncomfortable psoition with a white cat asleep on me - this lwasy results in pain from sleeping all twisted around.

We had our SnB - Knitting Coven on Tuesday at Cafi Centro. My second time in at the Cafi, it' was fabulous, the most enjoyable meet-up I think I 've had since we went Knitting in Public. The food is fabulous, I had their Hot Salami pizza which among other things includes gucamole and sour cream on it. It was the best pizza I have had in ages.

I bought the latest Simply Knitting last week and one of the things I am planning to make out of it at some point is the baby jacket, which includes directions for a prem size. My mother is in CWA and helps distribrute baby items through them to various things. One of these is the prem ward at our local general hospital.
Where beleive it or not, they actually have someone who does all the hand washing of the knit garments for them! Obvioulsy how else did I think they got washed? But in this day and age I think we're all used to just flinging stuff into the machine and away we go.

I've actually been doing a bit of baking recently, I do have some pictures but I am awaiting on them to come back to me. I have to get my own digital camera I can see, I can show you many of my half finished knit items as well.

I've just finsihed watchin gthe ifrst season of Magnum, I vaguley remember it. My mother used to like watching it, I was amused at watching Tom Selleck getting in and out of the Ferrari. Either it's a very small car or Tom Selleck is a very tall man. It was highly amusing watching him unfolding himself out of the car.

After much searching I located my Regia sock wool, after goign through every knitting bag I have - I knew it was in one of them. I will have to post a picture to show you them.

I will have to end this here as teh Daft White Cat wants to sleep on my desk, right next to the coomputer when I am workign here. Which puts him on my mouse pad, making my mouse hard to move, so I won't be makign any clickable links tonight. Maybe tomorrow.

Until next time,
Suzi.
A bona fide red head and damn proud of it.

Who said blondes had more fun?

You are Marilyn Monroe. You're a sexy bombshell who
knows how to get what she wants, but sometimes
people underestimate you or misread you and
you're seen for one thing instead of all that
you are. You can actually be very shy and hard
on yourself, and feel that sexiness is all you
have to offer to people. You will have your
success but be careful that you don't let
anything consume you completely. Feel better
about how smart you are.


Which vintage movie star are you most like?(For girls)
brought to you by Quizilla

I found this on Rachel's blog (very cool!) which I have discovered thanks to Cindy!

New! New! New!

New issues, are out and up! I am of course talkign about the new fall issue of Knitty and the first and issue of new online Australian magazine Yarn.

Cone of Silence

You know th eone Max and the Cheif sat in so no one could hear anything? I'm gettign me one of those.

Poor Bret (the black and white cat) was back at the vet yesterday, after looking like he was perking up on the weekend he went majorly down hill.

The vet rang first thing this morning, I'm all like yes how's Bret doing ever the optimist, and she's like not good he's just passed away. I rang my mum and she came round and I've blubbered for the last hour and a half.

So if you see me over the next week or so, I rather you didn't. I can't face speaking to anyone I know right now, so I won't be answering my phone either. I'll be goign to work serving complete strangers and then coming home to the Daft White Cat.

Not very exciting I know, I had the brief pleasure of a long awaited parcel arriving this morning. Talk about timing.

Suzi.

I have been tagged!

I have a tag to collect form Katt, and it's long overdue, fear not!

I will collect it an complete it, okay maybe you should fear we don't know what is going to come out. It is about my habits.....

Suzi.

No knitters here, just us cats.

I'm afraid there is no knitting to report but I have been having a tidy up of my kitchen cupboards. I could always take a picture of my sugar stash, it's bigger than my chocolate stash.
Something different huh?

Suzi.

We're all doing well.....NOW!

After two nights of driving me round the twist the daft white cat fianlly has the balck and white cat back home with him, but all he does is run away with his tail puffed out like a bottle brush.

Clearly I've brought an imposter home with me form the vet.

The imposter has sat around most of the afternoon, either in the bathroom, briefly in the living room before retireing back into his carrier box. He's since vacted the box, and the white cat is now hiding on top of a wardrobe and the black and white cat is under my chair.
Tonight might be another long night.

I attended my local SNB Birthday on Tuesday, worked on the sock Wednesday, and am now writing a very brief post on my blog. The white cat has kept me awake the last two nights so I am too tired to write anything. I just want to sleep.

Suzi.

A Side Note!

Anybody who tried to e-mail me recently but had mail returned, I'm a littel unsure as to what happened. My mail account isn't even a quarter full, but my inbox did have a lot in it. It was rather full of John Cena.
John Cena you ask? Well ask Katt she's the woman with all the answers.

What a day!

It's been one of those days, the balck and white cat has to go to the vets in the morning. So I have to get him in his box before I leave for work so my mother can pick him up and take him to his appointment.

He's behaving a little oddly and I suspect he may have another urinary infection, he's had it once before and behaved the same way. Poor little devil, mostly he sleeps in the litter tray and ocasionally barks.

Tommorrow is a busy day at work, we have a lot of meetings, I suspect I will do my best impersonation of a mad woman. Eeek!

In the afternoon, I am off to the Knitting Coven (how cool?!?!?!?) as Cindy refers to it. Or as it's more commonly known my local SNB meet-up. I'm looking forward to it.

I'm afraid that's it for today, I have to go check on the kitty cat and then do some last minute organising for stuff to take to my SNB. No time when you have to put kitys in boxes of a morning.

Until next time,
Suzi.
A bona fide red head and damn proud of it.

Write something insightful!

I'll try but honestly I don't know what to write about.

Aside form sifting through alot of long unread e-mails - that darn Matt Hardy. All that time wasted, so I try not to think about That Man. I get annoyed.

But yesterday I had some chocolate sponge and harressed my sister with pictures of Jeff Hardy. My sister is amused that despite the fact I have hundreds of pictures (there are even more of That Man) I know exactly what each of them are.

Stuff like that along with a number of other useless and vague things stay in my head. Nothing sensible or practical usually, but an amazing cornacopia of odd things just waiting to pop to the surface at the right time.

Despite this I have still been unable to find Thai yellow curry paste in my local Coles so I ended up buying red. It seemed closer than green somehow. I am planning to make Nigella's Yellow Thai Pumpkin Curry. After much debate about prawns (I think Nigella stressed fresh here as a must) I bought a pack of frozen prawn meat out of the freezer section near the deli. It's peeled and cleaned raw prawns ready to cook. Now they reside in my freezer awaiting the time.

I have been doing the occasional row on my sock, I had a brief disaster where I discovered I'd somehow started knitting backwards in the round and the inside of my sock was now on the outside. Arrghh!

After all that talk of Christmas I have gone into preperation, planning and trial mode. I even bought a turkey breast roll this last week, they were on special in Coles. It's stashed in my mother's deep freeze (at least I still hope it is) ready for when I am going to cook turkey for the first time ever. The first Christmas away form home I was going to cook one but my mother insisted on doing it and bringing it around. That was a good Christmas lunch, I even made this ice cream dessert/cake type thing which my sister couldn't stop eating. We have to have two desserts because my sister is one of these tiresome people who don't like Xmas pud.

I've also been looking out Christmas knitting patterns, after discovering Knit Christmas Stockings by chance in the local library knit section. They even have a pet one, a design for cats and a design for dogs. You know what the felonous felines will get next year, I don't think I'd get two done this year in time.

After the Devil Hat I think it's only fitting that I make a Pudding hat. I'll bring the pattern along on Tuesday if anybody wants to see it. Somewhere I have the Patons Christmas tea cosy patterns, my mother is desperate for the one that looks like a pudding.

And the link for the moment is this one for a Knitted Nativity Scene.

Until next time,
Suzi.
A bona fide red head and damn proud of it.

Christmas in August???????

When you talk of Christmas in Winter here in Australia most people associate it with the whole Christmas in July phenomenon.

But not at my work, they're having Christmas in Winter in August.

As being in charge of the display I had to do a Christmas theme, I had to fossick about and seek out what was left after last December. Not much.....Okay so provided nobody buys anything we should be safe. No people are buying things and we are stuck for anything to fill the gaps that keeps with the Christmas theme.
Who's idea was this? By December we'll no doubt have a wide choice of Christmas goods but now? ARRGHH!

This has marginally put a damper on my plans to make my Christmas Puddings this month, just marginally though. I figure if I get in early there's plenty of time to make more if my mother gets the whim to give them away again. And besides it won't be too hot this month to have boiling pots all day on the stove. The kitchen sure gets hot.

Also on the Christmas front I went to my local video store today and rented some Saturday Night Veiwing. Christmas with the Cranks and Bad Santa, the last one I'm very keen to see. As for the Cranks, well since I am the proud owner of A Diva's Christmas Carol and Santa with Muscles, it's bound to be good.

While viewing tonight I am hoping to get some more knitting done. I am pleased to report, my dear readers, that work has recommenced on the sock. The sock now has a partial foot. I am incredibly thrilled!

Until next time,
Suzi.
A bona fide red headed Scrooge and damn proud of it.

I've been tagged!

Thank you Sharon! Here we go...

TEN YEARS AGO
I was completing my final year of high school. Yeah! It was over - then I started college. Yuck!

FIVE YEARS AGO
Was the Millenium, and for once I was a grump on New Years Eve and didn't want to party. Following New Year's Eve I was? What was I doing five years ago? I think I may have been working or about to start working?

ONE YEAR AGO
I was still working part time, and I had also formed the Launceston Stitch N' Bitch. Now that is something I never would have seen myself do five years ago let alone two. But it's been an interesting journey, and I can't believe it's been this long or this successful! Excuse me while I wipe a tear....

YESTERDAY
I did housework, how completely awful, and on top of it I have had to try and transform my home into something from House & Garden for a rental inspection on Monday - consequentially I can't find my knitting. I had actually felt the need to finish my first sock.
In the end I just sat on the couch with the black and white furry lap warmer and watched Doctor Who. Very restful.

TODAY
I did more housework this morning, and will do some more tonight. Final vac and tidy up, only by now I've lost the will and can't be arsed. My usual method for dealing with sudden clean ups is to hide everything in a corner of my bedroom, fling a sheet over it and deal with it when I'm less pressed for time and/or the spirit moves me. Okay so after four years this tactic means that quite often I have to search from corner to the other along one wall. Untidy but manageable. At least I'm not making bombs or running a brothel out of the place.

TOMORROW
Is D-Day, so I am making plans now. Like make sure you are up and ready well before Officious Witch arrives so she dosen't have to stand on door step while you run away and finish getting dressed. I will try to keep a civil tongue in my head and will not glare at OW (alright so that was mildly satisfying because she ran away rather quickly) while trying not to tell her what I thought of her (OW attitude), her company (do you know how long it takes to get anything done - even a reply) and did she realise just what neighbourhood she was in? The only thing I'm missing is the five kids to half a dozen different fathers.
So when tommorrow comes, I will not stress, I will not mutter, I will smile, be polite and generally a nice human being.

Now I've had my rant and you all know I'm a non-bomb making lunatic, I'll tag some people.
I'm gonna go with Karen, Amanda and Cindy - because they are all far more sane than I am.

Random, not connected stuff.

I have a tag from Sharon which I will try to have up by tomorrow. It requires thought which requires use of my brain. Too much today.

I'm tempted to make this little bag - All That Glitters....

I love the name of this blog - Knitting for Boozehags

I don't know how I came across this, but it is so up my alley and makes a nice change from skull and cross bones don't you think?

And this one is simply because I love eating them M & M's! I highly recommend the Baking section.

Until next time,
Suzi.
A bona fide red head and damn proud of it.

15 seconds of Fame and Felonious Felines

Don't mix.

Do you think the precious angels showed the slightest interest that their under trod human subject was a radio star? No not at all.

But I enjoyed myself, and I think everyone did well. Looking forward to our birthday at the Monkey Bar now, the knitting with one hand technique could be interesting - I'll have to get Sharon to show me this.

And still with exciting news, I picked up my very own copy of Stitch N' Bitch Nation today from Fullers. Then some sock wool I'd ordered from eBay arrived. It's some Regia; I got a blue one and a purple one. I'll have to take pictures to show you all.

And I actually knitted yesterday; I worked on the Zhivago beanie. Slowly but surely. I wound up the blue/green/white skein of sari yarn and have got nearly all of it done bar a knot about the middle which I need to untangle (or possibly cut, it's reached that stage) so I can roll it into one (or two) balls and start knitting a scarf out of it. Of course if I could locate my 12mm needles it would be even better. I don't think my 10mm are in use maybe I could substitute? I tend to knit loose anyway so it should be fine, and the design is meant to be holey.

Until next time,
Suzi.
A bona fide red head with new knit goodies and damn pleased about it.

An Important Message For My Fellow Local SNB'ers!

VERY IMPORTANT NEWS!!!!!

Tomorrow, due to some scheduling problems with the venue that can not be named in conjunction with Stitch n' BITCH I have approached the ABC to see if the offer still stands of us going to them.

They seemed very enthusiastac about it, we would be more than welcome. However due to the fact that I need to get there from work we've moved the time, WE WILL NOW MEET AT 1PM.

I still like to see as many as possible there, I can't form a circle by myself. When I spoke to them on Thursday they we're very keen to get a picture of us all sitting in a circle knitting, so better come prepared with some WIP. I presume if there's a picture they obvioulsy want to talk to us about our knitting and the group, if so out of respect for our unnamebale prior venue can we try and keep them unnamed. Even if we don't meet-up there again, I still have to work with these people.

Does everybody know where to find our local ABC? They are at 45 Ann Street, next to the butchers up by St George's Square. If your involved with the scouts, you probably know the Harry Abbot Scout Hall is you'll be set as that fronts on to one side of ST George's Square.

Okay, hopefully this will find you all in time, those of you whose numbers I have I will try and call to make sure you've got the new details if I don't? Put it this way if you know how to get in touch by phone with one of our fellow SNB'ers a quick phone call might be in order to get the word around.
If anybody does arrive at the shop I'll re-direct them, provided they aren't too late. I can always leave instructions before I leave.

I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible tomorrow, at the ABC, 45 ANNE STREET, one side of St Georges Square, at 1PM!

Suzi.

What Kind of Rocker Am I?

You Are a Chick Rocker!

You're living proof that chicks can rock You're inspired by Joan Jett and the Donnas And when you rock, you rock hard (Plus, you get all the cute guy groupies you want!)

What Kind of Rocker Are You?

Oh My Goth!

I picked up the latest issue of the English magazine Simply Kitting today and once again am highly impressed with it's contents but once again a little less pages and pages of a how to guide, the same pages and pages in the last issue...it is a monthly mag after all - couldn't they alter it slightly?

What really caught my eye while I was flicking through was a letter titled Oh My Goth. A lady who was about to become a grandmother for the first time was starting to knit for a new grandchild, however her daughter and fiancee are Goths so the first sweater is red and will be followed by a purple one as she won't knit black for babies.

Awww what a shame! When looking through Stitch N' Bitch Nation I noticed a pattern entitled Baby's First Tattoo. It was a baby jacket with motifs knitted into it, the pictured jacket had blue birds but there were other graphs provided including a skull. How cool is that?

At least I think so, and you know I would so knit my baby something in black. With skulls on it.

Until next time,
Suzi.
A bona fide red head and damn proud of it.

Some of my UFO's

Here are some of my UFO's, I took a heap of photos the other day and forgot to upload them. Look for some FO's to come within the next week and tomorrow I hope to have a write up to go with my pictures of the Recycled Sari yarn.

This is a Drop Stitch Scarf in Caressa, I love the colour this is in. I've made the hat already. But that'll have to wait for anohter day.

This is my first atempt at a sock, I've finished doing the heel and just need to knit the foot.

A close up of my heel, how cool is that? I've knitted up to the heel of my first sock! Oh for anybody who wants to know it's Patons Patonyle. I'm not real thrilled about the yellow but you get that...

Most of you will remember the Alien Illusion Scarf, half a face and I'm done. Just have to buy more yarn.

And this is how long the Alien is.....

This is the UFO I'm trying to work on - the damned ribbed tea cosy that sends me round the twist! It'll be good when it's finished just the right amount of kitsch for my kitchen.

Rock On!

Ah, I still haven't knitted anything. This is getting bad, my slump has come back with a vengance.

I hate everything or more to the point, nothing motivates me to knit. This is causing an overwhelming temptation to start something new. Something new! Something new!
But what?

I watched Prey for Rock & Roll last night, it was very funny a little sad in places but very very amusing. It's based on a rock musical by Cheri Lovedog. Never more in my life have I wanted to be a tattooed rock chick, and I hope I still do at 40.
Growing old disgracefully baby! Here's to it.

After some googleing I'm having some trouble coming up with anything concrete on Cheri Lovedog aside from various reveiws of the movie Prey for Rock & Roll, one interview with Cheri about it. I'm afraid she's a bit of a mystery woman.
But despite that I can't reccommend this movie enough it really is that good. Starring the very lovely Marc Blucas (played Reilly in Buffy - thankyou Cindy! I thought it was but wasn't sure.) as Animal (who was one of my fave Muppet's, but then I think he was most people's fave.) in his all tattooed loveliness. Yum!

Tonight is Balde Trinity and I will have the opptunity to see how talented Triple Z H is.

Until tommorrow,
Suzi.
A bona fide red head rock chick and damn proud of it.

It's Official.

I have not knitted a stitch since Wednesday. However I am hoping to refind my motivation tomorrow, when I plan to wash my Recycled Sari yarn.
Now this I am quite excited about, then I can start planning to knit something with it!

Alright so it's not contributing to any of my UFO's. But you have to take baby steps, today one stitch, tomorrow one stitch....

I watched Elecktra yesterday. I was pleasantly surprised as I heard it described quite a lot as a dog of a movie. It wasn't the best movie I have ever seen, but it was a good movie all the same.
I love comic book heros and lets face it heros in general. I have a real soft spot for Bruce Willis, I think it's becuase he so frequently spends the entire movie looking a bit of a scruff. Loved him in Last Boy Scout.

Tonight, I may knit, but I am going to watch Prey For Rock and Roll. Nothing like rock chicks to make your Friday night. One of the guys listed in the stars has the tv series Buffy listed as one of his past projects. I think he looks like the guy that worked for the secret goverment agency that Buffy took up with.

I mean the guy, but I suppose also the agency, she sort of took up with them too.

Until next time,
Suzi.
A bona fide red head super hero wannabe and damn proud of it.

Some thoughts on nothing in particular....

Our ideas are for the most part like bad sixpences and we spend our lives in trying to pass them on to one another.
- Samuel Butler

My sister is currently knitting Tychus from the current issue of Knitty, she's making it out of a coffee coloured yarn with a contrast of cream. It's knitting up really well, I am coveting it muchly.

This is something I am thinking of making, and have been for a while. Where I work a customer brought in this pattern as a request to be made up, so I am hoping I get the chance to see before I make and decide if I do like it that much.
The yarn the customer brought in was called Grignasco Tyrol and was 60% wool, 30% alpaca and 10% acrylic it felt super nice but I hate to think what the price was on it.

People who don't hold DVD's by the edges piss me off, I did the video rental store over this afternoon. I finally got to rent Elecktra and Blade Trinity. I also got Prey For Rock N' Roll, I read a reveiw of this some time ago and never heard any more about it. When I saw it today I decided to grab it and check it out.
It's about an all female rock group and their lives. It sounds good.

As for Matt Hardy, no I'm still in a sulk over that one. I can't believe all these years my fave Hardy Boy was the spineless one. I knew I had bad taste but even so, I think I need a dose of Baywatch: Hawaii Reunion.

Until next time,
Suzi.
A bona fide red head and damn proud of it.

New Yarn! New People! New Books!

I am very excited because today I received some new Recycled Sari yarn I bought on eBay. I am very excited, apart form the fact that it has a bit of a funk. Hmmm, I'm hoping that will go when I wash the skeins.

I did some research and I gather washing your yarn in its skein, before winding it by hand, is the way to go . It's very beautiful looking. I got a black with flecks of red, bronze and grey - very awesome! And a blue with green and white flecks, which my sister assures me is going to look so good with my hair colour.
We'll see, I am a black kind of girl normally.

And on to more disappointing things, many of you my dear readers will be familiar with my beloved Matt Hardy. Even it's only from my mad ramblings here on my blog, but I am sad to say my beloved Matt Hardy will be just Matt Hardy for some time to come while I decide if he's going to be my beloved again.

Matt Hardy turned up someplace I never thought hoped to see him, if not ever then not in the near future.
Now I am going to have to sulk for a certain period of time. During this time I will wear the Devil Hat or the Pirate Hat, or possibly both at once.
Then I may make an effigy, if I do then I shall stick it full of knitting needles. After which I will possibly burn it, or just keep it propped in the corner for the cats to play with.
Then and only then will I have the answer and come out of my sulk.

I probably shouldn't have told him I thought he was becoming an obnoxious drunk, arrghh! At least Alice Cooper didn't disappoint - LIVE IN MY HOME TOWN! Why can't a girl have everything?

I am so excited about my new yarn! I am thinking of making a poncho pattern that was in the second last Creative Knitting. I just have to locate a 16mm crochet hook and learn to crochet.
I'm soooooo looking forward to the challenge!

Yesterday was my local SNB meet-up and I finally got to meet Cindy! Now I get to put a face to a name, and she was absolutely lovely and wearing green and knitting green socks (Cindy wears green like I wear black).
She also made these really nice little lemony morsels that YUM!!! Cathy did afternoon tea for our meet up yesterday - more YUMMY things. I did like the savoury toast, I heard something about chilli so that must have been it.

Cindy also brought along the new book Stitch N' Bitch Nation by Debbie Stoller. How exciting! I've been to my local and helpful bookstore and put an order in for a copy of my very own. I need to make something new, cool and unusual. I have to make ALLIGATOR MITTENS!

On that note I will leave you, I'm going to get my half done tea cosy out and look at it. And think about it. And possibly work on it. Then maybe I'll watch Resident Evil: Apoclypse, nothing like Milla kicking undead butt to make a girl feel motivated.
The fact that my truly fave thing about this movie is the Nemesis, is a bit scary because he's been getting rather more attractive every time I watch it. Have I seen it too many times?

Until next time,
Suzi.
A bona fide red head and damn proud of it.

I'm a Pirate.

I went to a 3-year olds birthday party at Hungry Jacks today. The joys of being an honarary Aunt.

I got a pirate invitation like the little boys that were invited, the 3yo mother didin't think I'd appreciate a fairy invite.

It was all cool I got to wear a Pirate hat, it turned out there was only one other pirate there. He was very young and very quiet. As all underling pirates should be.

I went to get serveittes twice actually, and both times the young people sitting at the table near by had a good look at me in my hat and had a snicker. Hmmmm....on the way out people stared at the hat as well.

What is wrong with the world when a woman can't wear a cardboard pirate hat at Hungry Jacks? Now I was going to have a rant about these people. Then it occured to me it'd be unfair to ridicule those less fortunate than me.
Clearly being repressed as they are they can't be enjoying life very much.

And Cindy as a follow up to Vogue Knit One Issue Two - the green jacket was very cool but the one that really took my fancy was the ankle length jacket in the Urban Cowgirls section. And I think the vaudville "strippers" if it's the one I saw was called Velevet Hammer. That was pretty cool. I wouldn't mind seeing that again.

Until next time,
Suzi.
A bona fide red head pirate and damn proud of it.

What Kind of Pirate Do You Think I Am?

What kind of pirate am I? You decide!
You can also view a breakdown of results or put one of these on your own page!
Brought to you by Rum and Monkey

Knit One, Number Two.

I have finally located and bought a copy of the second issue of Vogue's Knit One magazine, and I am absolutely thrilled with it. Worth the wait indeed, and the Urban Cowgirls section is even cooler than I first thought. There are a number of jackets I really like in this issue, but my fave comes form the Urban Cowgirls and is an ankle lenght jacket. Way cool!

I can just imagine how long it'd take to knit though, eep!

I may knit tonight, I really should knit something. But unfortunatly my slump has found me again, I don't know where it went but I wish it would go back again.

Tonight on SBS is the Webcam Girls. I think it may be a repeat if it is, I might still watch it as it had this really cool girl who is an artist. She spins and crochets and makes the most amazing looking hats.
Well, some of them anyway.

Until next time,
Suzi.
A bona fide red head and damn proud of it.

I want a tea cosy, I know what it is.

I thought I would start off today having a whinge but feared it would make me seem a bit too much like one of the current Big Brother housemates.

So instead I thought I would talk about some cool new things I didn’t talk about yesterday because I was putting together that incoherent ramble about Alice Cooper. I’ll try to re-edit it later this week and see if I can’t get it to make more sense.

The new Knitty is up and this issue is The Man Issue. I’ll admit I was wary about this issue, it’s very hard to find good patterns for guys out there. No end of hip, cool and very trendy women’s patterns, but something you could knit and a male would actually wear? Aside from a very plain dark hat….
Trust me on that one. I mightn’t have any to knit for myself, but I sell enough hats to men to know what they will and won’t wear.

Although I sometimes wonder if this isn’t based on choosing something that the female companion didn’t point out as nice.

Back to Knitty’s new issue. I’m very enamoured with a pair of gloves someone has designed for their husband when he’s outside smoking so he’s first three fingers of the glove are like a fingerless pair and the last two are like a normal glove.
Smoking aside, that’s not too daft an idea. As an avid user of public transport early in the morning I don’t think so anyway.

I noticed my local Harris Scarfe store now seem to be stocking yarn; I saw a display in their window as I was walking past yesterday. It looked to be mostly feathers, clearly there not out to bring anything new to the market then.

Also yesterday I finally went inside Fancy Shoes, I’d been past a couple of times but they weren’t open. Yesterday I went in and had a look. Now, I love shoes - but boots even more. Especially with REALLY high heels! Absolutely adore them, they consume even more of my life than Matt Hardy and knitting put together.

I’m also a huge fan of faux fur and anything animal print.
What do you think I found in Fancy Shoes?

High heeled boots made out of faux animal print fur! Pure heaven! And they felt really nice too; I haven’t got brave and asked to try them on yet because that’d be fatal. I’d have to buy them then.
That’d detract from yarn buying, I know I’m still on my diet, but it’s nearly finished which is more than I can say for my UFO’s.
And besides the diet has like most diets after a period of time, mutated, and with the inclusion of other people’s ideas for doing it I came up with the plan I’d donate to charity the equivalent that I spent on yarn.
And it’s working, mainly because I can’t afford to spend large amounts on both. Unfortunately.

In the great land of UFO’s, I picked up a tea cosy I’d long abandoned and did six rows on Saturday night, after that everything slowed down because I took back the next three rows too many times. It’s been momentarily put aside again.

Following on from that I will end with a quote form Buffy another awesome chick with pointy sticks.
“I want a room with a chair, a fire and a tea cosy. I don’t know what a tea cosy is but I want one.”

Until next time,
Suzi.
A bona fide high heel wearing red head and damn proud of it.

Alice Cooper Wrap Up Part Two.

Yes I should have written this half sooner, but I really didn't want it to be over....sob sob!

Anyway back to Friday night and Alice.
The lights came back up and the band have come out on stage and I'm peering at the stage looking for the Great Man himself.
He appeared from up the back of the stage in a cloud of smoke, and started singing Department of Youth (one of my faves!). I was soooo excited! It was ALICE COOPER LIVE!
Unfortunately this lasted all of about thirty seconds and everything became a little vague, nothing seemed quite real and I started to think I was merely imagining it this lasted through till ???? I remember I section of No More Mr. Nice Guy and bits of Dirty Diamonds what else I may have missed I'm a little unsure.
But by Lost In America (another fave!) I was kinda over that lapse and I was enjoying myself aside from the fact that I thought I would vomit any minute - not pleasant.
I can't put into any exact order that the following songs came in, I had a few vague seconds along the way. My vagueness was as conquered as my devil hat was finished.
But there was Feed My Frankenstein (my absolute fave), Only Women Bleed - but just before this was something from his Welcome To My Nightmare album the name of the song exactly escapes me, Poison, I think the Black Widow was in there somewhere, I'm Eighteen (another fave), Under My Wheels, and there were others either I wasn't familiar with them or I was vagueing out.

I did a lot of vagueing out, usually along the lines of OMG it's Alice Cooper! That's Alice Cooper down there!

The music aside, his daughter (I'm guessing it's the oldest one) was his dancer on the show, when she first came out she was in black and had a long black cape. She chased Alice, swooped her cloak over him and then back open again and he was gone - I suppose it would have been a dampener had he not been.
She came back later for Only Women Bleed, when they had been setting the stage up during intermission they had been placing body parts in various places on stage. One of these was a torso and head with blonde hair, during OWB it moved and stood up and it was his daughter doing her dancing bit. And, actually the song from Welcome To My Nightmare was after this because Alice stabbed her and then these guys came on stage and put him in a straight jacket and his daughter gave him a few good kicks before disappearing off stage.

This was followed by Balled of Dwight Fry (How did I forget this earlier? It's tied in first place with Feed My Frankenstein for all time fave), towards the end of this song Alice got out of the straight jacket and the two guys came back to get a hold of him. Then we got a guy who looked a bit like a hunchback, and Alice's daughter back wearing a short black cape over her red outfit and with what looked like a devil mask from where I was sitting (someone else's seat, did I mention the guys sitting to my left disappeared during intermission and never came back?).

The hunchback is saying "Citizens what shall we do with this man? Shall we burn him?", there’s a resounding NO and the devil creature is shaking her head.
Hunchback "Shall we electrocute him?", this was followed with another resounding NO and more shaking of the devil creature's head,
Hunchback "Shall we introduce him to the guillotine?”, resounding YES and the devil creature is nodding and miming laughing.
Over to the left of the stage was this large tomb stone looking object with a angel on top, but an Alice angel so kind of skeleton with wings, which is none other than the guillotine! How cool is this? I was highly impressed - but thinking back I remember seeing some people earlier when everyone was arriving had children with them. Small children, I didn't see the smallest there though. My mother told me she saw one very little one being carried out in it's dressing gown sound asleep at the end of the concert.

Anyway back on topic, Alice gets his head cut off. First the hunchback holds the head up and waves it around and then the devil creature gets a hold of it and she's running around stage with it and showing it to the audience. Now during the Feed My Frankenstein song Alice started putting a body together in an upright coffin to the right of the stage, (I know I'm going backwards now but the brain seems able to process everything if I start at the end and work back.), I was amused to notice he had difficulty getting the arms on at first. Then he changed sides and they seemed to go on all right then. But it didn't have a head.
Back to the devil creature she's holding the Alice head out to the audience and then snatching it back and holding it close sort of "Mine!" and then she takes it over to the body and puts the head on top.
Then she starts bowing down to it, like Wayne and Garth "We aren't worthy" style. Then the body comes to life, and it's Alice back and he chases the devil creature away.
Which was all very cool, body's coming to life and stepping out of a coffin, I so have to figure that one out for a Halloween. It'd be so excellent!

I don't remember what the first song after he came to life was but it was followed by Poison, then we had another song not sure really what it was because I was distracted by Paris. Hee hee, poor Paris. What was even funnier was to see Alice strutting around stage with a little bag with a little stuffed dog in it. He had the walk down rather well.
And that was it, he introduced his band finished and the lights came back up and there was a mass exodus again and I got a chance to see some more of the interesting people. The guy in the top hat who was in the paper Saturday. Quite a few of the guys had the black paint around the eyes a la Alice. Why didn't I think of that?

All in all, it was absolutely excellent! The ticket was worth very cent; it was so worth all that time waiting. In future I'll remember to wear shorter heels, buy a seat on the flat, take a baggage wrangler and learn some deep breathing techniques and mantras along the lines of "I will not vague out, I will not vague out".
My only regret, yes I do have one. Is that there was only one concert! I'm going to buy a lotto ticket and see if I can't get lucky or really lucky and become a groupie and follow the tour all the way around the world.....If only!

Until next time,
Suzi.
A bona fide red head who's already missing Alice and damn sad because of it.

Alice Cooper Wrap Up Part One.

I know this is later coming than I originally planned. But here it is now and in two parts to boot. I didn't think it would be so long!

Friday night my mother dropped me at the Silverdome and I'm walking up to the main entrance and all these people are giving me odd looks.
I'm looking at these people thinking "What? It is an Alice Cooper concert, just because some of us made an effort and didn't turn up looking like we realised we were out of milk and went to the supermarket and got lost."

I lined up to buy my t-shirt, after I realised most of the people standing around were doing just that, I hate that! Because you’re never sure where the line ends and I'm loathe jumping in anywhere lest I should stand in front of someone else.
While I was waiting at the counter to get served and getting a much better view of the t-shirts and listening with amusement as the lady working behind the counter had the exact same conversation twice about the "ladies" t-shirts with two different couples one right after the other.
To me these t-shirts looked like they might be child size, but apparently they were made out of something fairly stretchy but even then they didn't stretch a whole lot (I saw this demonstration twice too) and both times the ladies in question opted for a normal t-shirt. Then I noticed the guy standing next to me was in all black with an Iron Maiden jacket. Now that is more like it!

It was my turn to be served, I'm standing there money in hand because by now I've fully decided which t-shirt I'm gonna get and the lady comes over to serve me and I say to her "I want that one." and point with my hand that doesn’t have the money in it. So the lady turns around picks one up from the shelf marked extra large, checks the tag and then unfolds it on the counter and says to me "This is the extra large."
"I'll take it" hand with the money in it outstretched, the lady serving me has given me the once over and gone "Are you sure?"
Noooooo, I'm just saying yes and waving money at you because I'm not sure.

After purchasing the t-shirt, I made my way to my seat. This required some difficulty because at first I couldn't decipher which end had the door I was supposed to go through. I'm walking backwards and forwards through the main entry and I've noticed this guy staring at my head. Hmmm, just to test it I went back past again. I think it may have been the hat.
After finding my door, the easiest part of getting to my seat I then had to go downstairs to get to my seat because I was in the fourth row up from the flat - here for some reasons the heels on my boots seemed to have suddenly grown and didn't shrink till I reached the wooden steps the row before my mine.

Upon reaching this row an usher was on the step below me and she asked me if I was alright. I decided to pretend as if I actually had some class and that I had been looking for row letters and not merely struggling to get down the steps.
I brandished my ticket at her and announced to everybody in the near vicinity "I AM LOOKING FOR ROW G"
I thought I'd attempt to pull off an upper class attitude, everybody knows their eccentric and bossy.

The usher checks my ticket and points to the row she's standing at the end of and says "This is your row here, your seat is about halfway along the numbers are on the backs of the seats."
I start heading along the row checking numbers, I can see this middle age couple already sitting in the row about three-quarters of the way along, I'm continuing along checking numbers and I have this suspicion.....yep, my seat is right next to this middle-age couple. I can't really tell you what the look on their faces was it was hard to distinguish. They may have been amused, perplexed, worried or all of the aforementioned.
I've looked at the seat looked at my ticket, looked back at my seat and then looked at this couple. The woman smiled at me so I smiled back and that was our only interaction throughout the whole night.
On my other side I had these two guys who din's even speak to each other, they left after Billy Thorpe and never came back so I moved over a seat after Alice had started figuring I'd just move back when they came back. But they never did.

While waiting for Billy Thorpe to start I did some people watching. Clearly all the interesting people buy tickets for the seating on the flat, although one of the couples pictured in the Saturday Examiner, not the one with the top hat had seats on the other side of the middle aged couple I was next to.
All the interesting looking people, lots of Iron Maiden and AC/DC t-shirts, a few Alice concert t-shirts and lots of Goths and another guy in top hat and tails (not the top hat wearer from the Examiner).

Onwards and upwards, Billy Thorpe started and was very excellent. Well not too excellent to start with, at first there was music and he was singing something, what he was singing wasn't very clear. The start of his set seemed to involve a lot fiddling by all members of the band with their equipment. NO! Not that kind I know someone will ask.....
Towards the end of Billy's set the silent men on my left, the one sitting next to me got a camera out and took a couple of pictures.

After Billy finished, there was like intermission and a mass exodus as everybody went off in search of???? I think the bar was a popular choice looking at what most people carried back to their seats.
During this time the front of the stage started filling up, on stage a bunch of guys we're running around moving equipment either taking it away or putting new stuff out.
I started an internal debate with myself if I would lug all my stuff (bag, jacket, t-shirt) down there or if I'd just stay where I was and not lug sny stuff down there.
Then I cursed myself for not paying for a second ticket and bringing a baggage wrangler i.e someone to mind my stuff.
By the time I had this out I realised unless I moved faster than Superman (not likely to happen in my shoes) I wasn't going to get a good spot and I'd have to try and peer over other people, ah the joys of being short.
That pretty much solved that.

The really noisy and probably very happy people mostly seemed to be right up the back, at this point yelled "We want f'n Alice!"
Okay so we didn't get Alice, but I was amused. And going by the amount of laughter so were quite a number of other people.
The place started to fill back up again, sort of. The firont of the stage got awful crowded and the seats around me and to the front started to be occupied again.
Then the lights went out, the entire place went off, and then.......

Part Two tommorrow! And all about the Great Man himself.

Until tommorrow,
Suzi.
A bona fide red head and damn proud of it.