My birthday celebrations have reached their conclusion today, with cake. Most years I’ve manage to stretch out the festivities for the month of April, but I’m happy to call it done this year with a visit from my siblings and kids this arvo.

Sadly the excitement of my siblings and kids scared the bejesus out of Purl who relegated herself to under my bed for the duration. But not before everyone commented on how fluffy Purl’s tail is. We don’t normally have a truck load of visitors at once, she’s not used to socialising yet. Do you think Purl’s tail is really big and fluffy?!

I know I should be knitting on Still Light… I know I really should be, seeing Louisa is once again back in front! (and it’s going really well). But, babies don’t wait. Yesterday I cast on ‘Latte’ a sophisticated baby hoody for a colleague at work. Of course she’s in her final weeks at work, and I finally cast-on, it’s not like I didn’t have an notice or anything. Never fear, it’s chunky 12 ply plus. It’s nearly done…

I’m calling this year the Year of Babies, just saying. I see a lot of fun baby knits this year 😉

I’ve been holding out.

No yarn purchasing. No fibre purchasing. Knitting on just one project. And the heater repair man has not been organised. I’m doing it rough. On the up side, I’m wearing woollens inside the house. More opportunities to wear wool is a very good thing.

Poor Purl, she’s more afraid of the vacuum cleaner than I am. It’s like I’m using up one of her lives every time I pull it out (don’t worry it’s not every week). I’m hoping she’ll get used to it soon, I have no idea where her new hiding place in the living room is. I’m terrified she squeezed herself into an especially tight place. Only a ‘treat’ coaxed her out.

Still Light is still going… I’m almost at the division of the pockets. This excites me as it will mean significantly less stitches to knit in the round very soon.

I had a great birthday, spending the day with my husband. No official yarny gifts this year, the first time since I began knitting seriously. But then NY did just happen…

These arrived at work, the day before my birthday. The biggest surprise of all. Yep, my husband still has it.

I went away this weekend, with my ‘other’ group of girlfriends. Of course each group of girlfriends are the ‘other’ group. It is very funny, and I like to joke about it, but whenever I spend time with my friends, each of them, I think how lucky I am to call them friends.

Once again we went to Daylesford, spa country. But this time we selected a different house to our usual as the house has gotten more popular and more difficult to book at a moments notice.

I had to take photos of this house, so that you would believe me. Karen described it as an MC Escher drawing! Stairs, random steps, nooks and crannies, she wasn’t far wrong.

From the outside, it looks like a regular Daylesford home…

Inside was another story…

I got heaps of knitting done! I took 3 projects and only knit on one. Still Light has progressed!

Much eating was done, lots of chatting and a ton of laughter. I even had time for a relaxation massage. I can’t wait to do it again.

This past week I’ve caught Purl doing this whilst she sleeps. She makes me laugh, she’s hilarious…

Visiting New York and being utterly cold has provided a bit of inspiration for our winter season of woollies.

Damian has chosen his yarn from my stash for this years winter set.

He doesn’t ask for much does he?

This will become some fingerless mitts (with half fingers) and a beanie (hopefully), I’m also going to be making a scarf with something to match.

I think I’ll be making my winter set out of the malabrigo I got from Seaport yarns.

Spending the last 4 days with Purl has brought me to one conclusion. She sleeps a lot…

Today is our last full day in New York. It’s kind of sad to be leaving, and I’m also dreading the flight home which doesn’t really help.

I have my toes crossed I’ll have cast off my Cookie socks before the flight, but if worse comes to worst, I will just finish them on the flight, watch movies and try to sleep.

Today I took Damian to the Met museum of art. Up until this morning, I don’t think Damian got that it was as much a museum than an actual art gallery. Apparently I didn’t do a very good sell job on it to him and he almost missed out! He loved it and I got to see some Egyptian mummies that I didn’t see the first time. It was a museum that we both enjoyed.

We then headed back to the Guggenheim, I wasn’t going to miss out. It wasn’t going to be an ‘Ettamogah pub’ * experience all over again. I had to see the inside too, for it to count. The building itself is magnificent, unfortunately the current exhibition didn’t thrill me, or Damian. But that was fine, it was over pretty quickly and I could tick it off my list.

* on grade 5 camp (so we’re talking a long time ago), the teachers took us to the Ettamogah pub, a pub in the middle of nowhere on the way to NSW because it was built on a slant (Damian says they just wanted a beer). They took groups of us up to the top balcony to see how dizzy we would feel. I managed to be standing in the wrong spot and missed out on this little experience. Of course I was gutted, I was a kid. Years later Damian took me back and took me upstairs to this pub, to see that there really was no fuss. I also don’t like missing out on things.

Tonight we’re having our last hurrah at The Gentleman Farmer. A lovely French restaurant we ate at earlier in the week. Some red wine will be drunk.

See you on the other side.

Today I visited the MoMA, whilst Damian went off to the Intrepid air and space museum.

I loved the Moma. I saw and breathed in the same air of the best modern art. My uni art history lecturer would have been proud (and wondered what took me so long). Modern art has always caught my imagination over all other periods of art. Whilst the MoMA isn’t anywhere near as large as the Met, it is by far my favourite museum.

I thought I’d go to the Guggenheim next. It turns out it’s closed on Thursdays. That was a real bummer. I may go back tomorrow if there’s time.

I then met up with Damian at the Rockefeller centre for a late lunch and I showed him some of the gems I was shown on the art and architecture tour.

I managed to find the earmuffs people wear around here at a street vendor. $4 bargain! I’m looking forward to wearing these in Melbourne.