birthday post

::today is my birthday.
I really wanted to cast off the jumper/sweater I have been knitting for my big girl before my birthday arrived.  I cast on in February!  It's finally off the needles and she wore it to school this morning happily! The "misti alpaca" is divine and squishy and warm and an amazing rich toasty brown.  I added length by picking up stitches with a pale grey silk/merino/angora for a rib, though it's very hard to see in the photo.
Annabel Sweater by Carrie Bostick Hoge
Ravelry notes here.

::the reason I was so keen to cast off the jumper was that I really wanted to cast on a new project with my new wool, some divine Shibui Cima in the fjord colour which I bought from our local; yarn store (LYS) just for the colour!!! yep. I am planning a Woodland Shawl after a glorious coffee date with my dear friend oggling together over my knitting patterns, which hilariously someone mistook for my PhD!! I have more patterns from Ravery than I could possibly complete in three lifetimes! I quite like the sound of Doctor of Knitting, don't you?

:: my birthday table which greeted me this morning with my present: a Tibetan singing bowl! It's divine, literally, and sings most mysteriously and enlivingly a perfect mellow C sharp!

::of course I treated myself: to a membership to the Australian greens, because they speak for me and are incredible and I want my children to have a real woodland to walk through with their children; and, a subscription to pom pom quarterly...what a great mag! not just eye candy, oh what eye candy! great interesting inspiring articles! what's not to love!

::my life has been rather dominated by my role as unofficial band manager for my dear talented singing birds. It's all been happening, with their crowdfunding campaign being a stunning success, their recording done and dusted, and the artwork for their EP being created by a beautiful and generous local artist this week! It's all very exciting and inspiring, and sometimes time consuming. So my knitting has been on the back burner.
Here are my pics of the cold wintry photo shoot on the beach last Sunday morning with Mara Ripani, our dear friend and photographer of young girls extraordinaire!

 bbrrrrrrrrr...the things you do in the name of ART!
connecting with Ginny for her Yarn Along