January 4: knitting cricket, watching cricket

Late last night as we decided we were awake enough to watch another episode of Scrubs (we're enjoying the first series again, hilarious and even a little thought provoking) I pondered my knitting drawer and really didn't want to go digging for something half done to work on. So the only option was to cast on my first new project of 2014.

I visited my Ravelry queue and saw Cricket, by Melissa Schaschwary on the list, with a note to knit for Josie for winter 2014......yes!! I've been hanging out to knit this since I received it as a freebie last year. I even had a yarn in mind to use for it. While I love the look of it knit in a light colour (particularly in the robins egg blue on the Ravelry pattern page), a light colour on a two-year-old is insanity itself. I was sent some BWM 5ply Classic in a deep red called Waratah quite a few years ago, and loved it, but never had settled on a pattern for it. As soon as I had the Cricket pattern, I knew they were made for one another!

(The second possibility on my list was the Hine, a short sleeve layering top which I'd like to knit for Pascal but she was sound asleep, and needs to have input into her knits these days or she just won't wear them.)

And so I was very excited to cast this on last night. I just adore the elegant simplicity of this style. It's a modern version of a classic nanna knit. I'm looking forward to working the pockets. I've never done pockets before!p

Tonight I worked on it while watching the cricket which we recorded today to watch in quick time when we had the chance. It tickled my funny bone every time I saw the pattern name at the top of the PDF. Sad, I know.

It was a quiet old day today. Started out with another sleep in (next week will be a shock to the system as Luke heads back to work), but I did head out to the garden in my pjs to pick some fresh rhubarb to quickly stew (with orange juice and zest and a little sugar) before breakfast to have on our cereal. The naughty chickens make a bee line for the rhubarb whenever we let them out of their run, and I've been meaning to fence it off, but we'll divide the crown and replant in a different (protected-from-chooks) spot when it dies back this year, so it's been easier to just keep the chooks within their run. The leaves are terrible for the chooks and the chooks are terrible for the rhubarb, and after being left to its own devices for a while, the rhubarb has never looked better. I harvested twelve or thirteen stalks and ended up with about 1.3kg of trimmed rhubarb ready to use. And it was delicious.

I needed to head out to the supermarket for some supplies for pizza tonight, so I sat down to write a vague menu plan for next week. One of my biggest day-to-day failings is failing to plan meals, so invariably we are sitting down too late to eat because at 5pm I still have no clue what I'm going to cook. There's nothing particularly special on the list, leftover pizza, a BBQ (with a nice salad) a chicken curry and pulled pork. I will take some time across the next week or so to dig out a few healthy old favourites and get them back into the routine.

I'm dedicating a lot of the early part of this year to finally get my act together with managing this house. It always just seems so overwhelming to begin. The photo-a-day prompt today was "words to live by"). I thought about it for a lot of the day. I'm not a big one for those little sayings. Well, not true, I like them in the moment, but I don't have a life's motto which I use every time I need a boost or anything. I was thinking about the apparent insurmountableness of the task I have set for myself, and these words came to me: every great journey begins with a single step. This thought is credited to Lao-Tzu, ancient Chinese philosopher, founder of Taoism. (I didn't know this six hours ago.....). So with a little luck and a lot of hard work, in a few months, the house will be running like a well oiled machine. Watch this space!

I zipped out with my shopping list, which also included irrigation plumbing fittings, and Sopranos DVDs. It's amazing how quickly things get done without my gorgeous little cherubs in tow :-). As I was leaving, our front door was locked so poor little Roh couldn't get through the door to wave bye. Luke indulged him a little and let him call me and leave a message. He spoke so well I thought it was Pascal! Sometimes I forget how grown up he is.

Once home, there was time for a quick sandwich (late) lunch and a coffee before it was time to start the dough for the pizza. Once I had them all rolled out and ready to top, Pascal and Rohan came over to help and were given a pizza each to work on. Those kids sure can top a pizza!

After dinner and the usual bedtime routines, Luke allowed Pascal to set up a toys' picnic in her room and while I fed Josie, she and Rohan played for fifteen minutes and let off a little more pre-bed steam. Very cute.

Luke and I sat down to our quick-time cricket (it's almost like watching a twenty/20 match. Almost), with Lego and knitting, and there ends an easy Saturday.