My embryonic twinset develops

Ooo, isn't that a lovely creepy thought .... an embryonic twinset developing - growing - starting to kick its little woolly arms - breathing - feeding .... but what would a twinset feed on? It would have to be wool moths, surely.

Do you remember this post? About my lovely new embryonic twinset, made out of this wonderful merino wool?

Well, it's certainly coming along. My mother and father came to visit for Easter (bless them, it saved My One True Love and I from a whole iss-yew about finding cat sitters for the furry babies, never fun at the best of times but practically impossible on big holidays like Christmas and Easter) - and mum brought the twinset to work on.

Here it is in its current form - isn't it delicate and beautiful? I love it!

That lacy detail is just wonderful; it's going to be the perfect trans-seasonal piece, to borrow one of the fashion pack's fabulous phrases. (Now say it with me in a Tim Gunn accent: "well de-sign-ers, that could be  the per-fect trans-seasonal piece! Make it work.")

Mum hasn't done a lot of knitting lately, as it gets too hot at home to even bear thinking about loading oneself up with woolly goodness in one's lap during the summer months. And while the twinset is technically my birthday present, and my birthday is roaring up quite a bit quicker than I'd like, of course I won't actually have ANY need for woolly goodness for nearly two months - because I'm heading off to Kununurra on April 27 and won't be back until at least the first week of June.

Mum says it should certainly be ready by then, so that will be perfect timing. And what a lovely present to come home to! 

Grow, little twinset, grow ......

(PS - my mum is now an official Project Runway addict too, thanks to me lending her a series to see how she took to it .....)

A twinset of the future - from the past

Here is a picture of my new twinset. Isn't it marvellous?

What do you mean, that doesn't look like a twinset? Well, if you're going to be so particular about it .... okay, it's not technically my actual twinset just yet. It is my embryonic twinset. My twinset in mind rather than in actuality. It is a twinset of the future.

My mother is an amazing knitter - she made me this basketweave top for my birthday earlier this year. And now she's going to make me a twinset out of this lot of merino.

I adore the salmony colour, this is certainly the colour du jour, and it's been one of my favourites for some time now. And wouldn't you know it, my mother just happens to have a big bag full of it! She dug it out of her stash while I was visiting over the weekend .... my mother has a stash of wool in her woolroom that is absolutely impressive. I definitely inherited my crafty gene, and my sense of colour, from my mother.

So this is a twinset of the future, but I'm going to choose a pattern from the past. I love vintage twinset patterns, and mum has a massive collection of them, so over Christmas I'll pore through the treasure trove and see what I can find. 

Maybe something like this pale blue number here?  It's very Grace Kelly. The delicacy of the neckline is lovely, and I think the bracelet sleeves would be perfect.

But perhaps I'd prefer something like this purple beauty instead? I even have lavender pearls I could match it with.



First though, mum has to spin it up into wool. She'll do that after I've chosen a pattern, between Christmas and March most likely, turning that big bag of merino wool into deliciously light four ply - perfect for layering in Melbourne weather.


Then she'll start knitting, and less than a month later, in April, I'll have my new twinset - and already I can't wait. I love my mum!

The new atmospheric ribbon jar

Ah ...... coming back home to Melbourne is always such a joy.

Nothing beats seeing My One True Love again after a few days in absentia - absence really does make the heart grow fonder.

And I'm always overjoyed to see the furry babies too; I miss their furry faces when I'm away. There's something very special about the welcoming smooch from a puss that hasn't seen you for a little while.

Along with all the other loot I brought home from Sydney, I also carried this beautiful glass jar, all wrapped up safely in six metres of cream polar fleece which I took onto the plane with me as carry-on (don't ask, even the flight attendants thought I was peculiar, and one exceptional wit [well, certainly a "-wit" of some kind] asked if I had brought my own parachute. I say: no one who works for Qantas is really in a position to joke about things like that since the oxygen-bottle-blowing-a-hole-in-the-side-of-their-plane incident last year).

But I digress. Mountaingirl gave me this gorgeous apothecary jar as a present for my birthday last month, and I think it's wonderful.

Doesn't it look absolutely spectacular all filled up with my orange ribbons? It's sitting on an orange patterned silk scarf that I use as a tablecloth for one of my side tables in the sitting room.

I keep all my ribbons colour-coded and in separate ziplock bags so they're easy to find. Mountaingirl though is slowly weaning me off the awful plastic and onto these divine glass jars, which look like the sort of thing you'd find in a fantastical lollyshop, or a dusty old chemist.

I love them, and my ribbons look SO much better when displayed properly. Thank you Mountaingirl!