it wasn't even May the 4th

Scene: Earlier this week. My car, on the way to school. Son #3 and classmate/carpool companion in the backseat, engaging in a mock Star Wars battle.

Son #3: (whacking his friend with an imaginary light sabre) I'm Darth Maul! I shall kill you! (thwhack!)

Carpool Kid: I'm Darth Vader, I shall kill YOU! (THWACK!)

Son #3: Well, I'm Darth Sion! I shall kill YOU! (THWACK THWACK THWACK!)

Me: (in best mock Patient Earthmother type voice, pretending they're four instead of twelve years old) Now now Darths, no hitting. Use your words.

[ ... ]

Son #3: I'm Darth Thesaurus. I shall kill you with my words!

got the blues

No words this week, just photos.



New cardi, in Madeline Tosh yarn.



Ravelled, with copious working notes and more photos.

jammin'

I'm in the middle of end of semester assessment so think of this as a page marker.



I took advantage of the end of autumn fruit glut and restocked the pantry with plum jam, plum sauce and feijoa and plum jam.



A couple of jars went to the neighbours and my generous feijoa donor, and the rest went straight into storage. If I can refrain from hiding in the pantry, sneaking spoonsful straight from the jar, I'm hoping the supply lasts us until next autumn.

PS. The fab preserving labels came from a lovely reader across the ditch.

PPS. Feijoa info here for those who asked.

makings and a barter (edited)

I made this cushion for a friend's birthday recently. A birthday featuring a zero (no, not that one, the next one, which my circle of friends are now beginning to experience). The gathering was of a select group of 'inspiring women', (no male partners involved much to their collective chagrin) and boy were there some inspiring women there. Lots of CEOs, heads of departments and scary inspiring women with Important Jobs. The birthday girl woman spoke personally about each and every guest during her speech which was very touching and impressive but also served to make those of us who know her not through our high powered employment (but via book club or the gym) giggle even more nervously as we waited over in Under Achievers Corner to hear what she would say about us. (She said lovely things of course, but what we "do" didn't feature. Funny about that).*

* Edited to add: I think I've been misinterpreted, as evidenced by a couple of comments. The most recent commenter said s/he hoped my friend doesn't read this post. While I have answered in the comments, I'm copying it here in case my friend does indeed read this one day and similarly thinks I'm having a go, although I don't think she would. My reply in the comments:
Why, is it offensive? I thought (hoped) I made it clear that while my [very dear] friend knows many high flying women, she also values other more humbly-employed folk such as myself and finds us inspiring for what must clearly be reasons other than our employment.

I was trying to show that it was my insecurities (and those of the other 2 women who together joked about Under Achievers Corner) about how one is so often judged, often by oneself, for what one does in this world, rather than any prejudice on my friend's part. Also as I pointed out, my friend said lovely things about me and why she found my fellow bookgroup pals and I inspiring.


Anyway I was so pleased with the cushion that I made another one for our own blue and red loungeroom. It looks fabulous on the dark blue couch, so much so that I am now in the middle of making a matching strippy quilt. Gah! Must stop making strippy quilt tops, and start actually constructing quilts with tops, middles and backs.



The giant granny square rug is also finished. Wow, that was addictive. All housework, knitting, reading, and consideration of any members of my family went out the window for two or three weeks while I obsessively hooked, hooked and hooked some more.



It had the added advantage of using up a great deal a modest proportion of my yarn stash, about which I was becoming more and more uneasy. And we all know what happens when one reduces one's embarrassingly large stash. One experiences the dizzying heights of the moral high ground for approximately a week, and then one is entirely justified in taking advantage of the strongest Australian dollar in centuries and ordering more yarn. I am resisting further guilt by telling myself a) it was on sale and b) instead of less useful single skeins, purchasing a garment's worth (oh ok, two garments' worth) is far better value. (Any discussion of Yarn Miles will be shelved for another day, thank you).



The rug lives on the green couch in the general family living area (as opposed to the red and blue loungeroom) and looks very fetching. It is the perfect size for snuggling under with a book and a large English Breakfast. The cat approves also.



And finally, I made more soap. Soap fulfills several functions - it washes one quite beautifully (and fragrantly if you throw in cloves from the pantry or rosemary from the garden - added bonus if you have teenage boys in the home) and is a far more satisfying procrastinatory device than, say, playing Wordtwist on facebook. (See dizzying heights, moral high ground etc).

Ok. Have any of you seen the new bloggy barter thing going on? I like the idea, but prefer to test the waters here first with a smaller audience of my own gentle readers. *Takes big breath*. If anyone's interested, there are two things I would be very keen to receive right now. I would like to offer five bars of my soap in exchange for either one skein of Malabrigo Merino Worsted yarn in the colourway 'Amoroso',

which is the red/pink that looks like this when knitted up:



or, a little selection of quilting (or similar) fabrics in patterned reds, to help out with the aforementioned red strippy quilt to match aforepictured cushion.

Any takers? If you are interested and would like to leave a comment, please make sure I can contact you in return. (I'm talking to those of you who have made your profiles private. Just leave an email address in your comment or of course email me directly at suseinthesoup[at]gmail[dot]com).

ps. I've had a few folk ask if I am selling my soap. Sadly, to sell soap one needs several thousand dollars of insurance, so it's largely impossible unless, say, you were interested in buying a used match or a safety pin for $10, which happens to come with three bars of free soap. Hmmm, on second thoughts, better not.