Ways to save...

You could subtitle this post "Exactly how are we supposed to afford a race car anyway?", and you wouldn't be far off, but it's not just that. For a while now I've been looking at ways to cut what we spend. Some of the things I've implemented so far include using hankies instead of kleenex, cloth napkins instead of paper ones, reuseable menstrual products (you wouldn't belive how much money I've saved since discovering this particular product!), and, of course, I shop for myself and The Boy at this very exclusive boutique. I can't remember the last time I dropped $1.50 at Timmy's for tea. I make my own at work for $5.00 a month to the tea and coffee fund. Yes, I feel very virtuous, thank you!

It's interesting how House Man and I come at this from different angles. I see frugality and saving as a goal in itself--by spending less, I'm consuming less, and that in itself is a goal worth striving for. It's a good thing all on its own, and the financial benefit of having money set aside is just incidental. House Man does not see saving or living simply as a goal in it's own right. For him, if he's going to save, it needs to be for a reason. Anyway, I think that the race car might be just the incentive for him to start saving!

I'm looking for some good book or website suggestions to help with the quest to save more money. Anybody got some good places to go for ideas?

linen, anyone?

I need some suggestions for what to do with some laceweight euroflax. I have lots. It was going to be a flower basket shawl, but now I think I'd rather have something rectangular, not another triangle. It's red, real red, deeper and redder than the berry red looks in the link (at least on this pc). Any suggestions?

Also, I've found a pattern for the fingerless mits that Rose wears during the tearful last episode of the second season of Dr. Who. Those of you who watched it, I'm sure you noticed those mitts. Anyway, that'll be my next project!

Warning: Knit Content !

Finally, some REAL knitting content--for those of you who are following this, it's been a while. I've been scrambling for entries, and those haven't had much actual knitting in them. So, without further ado, I'd like to present waving lace socks:


And a pirate:

For Steph...

This is the car:

It's a Lola something or other. That's the driver in blue with the beard and the ball cap.

This is the pit crew:

Racing is expensive, so you have to save where you can. Child labour is cheap. That's not The Boy, that's Cousin G.

This is the track:


For those of you still with me, this is why House Man was in Wisconsin last week.

Seven Random Things

Okay, I got tagged by Miss Me, so here are seven random things about me. I'm not tagging anyone specifically, just anyone who reads this who hasn't played already, consider yourselves tagged!

1. I've had my rabies shots.

2. I once fell from the roof of a moving car. The driver was 8 years old.

3. I like to count steps as I climb them. There are 51 steps from the parking lot to the pedway at the Dartmouth ferry terminal. There are 13 steps to my basement.

4. I've never lived further than about 25 km from the sea. Not always the same sea either.

5. I'm still in touch with my first ever best friend--we met on the first day of primary school thirty years ago (Thirty years ago!!!! Fi, if you read this, isn't that the craziest thing ever? We've been friends for three decades!).

6. I used to watch Dr Who with my grandad every Saturday, and once met Tom Baker (yes, the Doctor with the long scarf) at Woolworths, where he signed my paperback of Doctor Who and the Dinosaurs. His hat is really green, not black like we thought, and my brother was too shy to try it on when the Doctor offered it to him!

7. My brother and sister and I watched the movie Beastmaster with Marc Singer so many times after taping it (with our first VHS, where the "remote" was actually attached with a cable!) that we still have many lines memorised, 25 years later.

So, there you go, more than you ever wanted to know.

I'm nearly done a pair of socks using Cherry Tree Hill, which is lovely yarn. So, maybe there will be some knitting content soon. What with House Man in Wisconsin for the last week, and trying to watch the entire second season of Doctor Who in a week so I can get it back to the library in time, I really haven't got much done this week!