Two very generous ladies sent me knitting-related gifts this past week.  Leanne sent Baby Knits for Beginners by Debbie Bliss and Maria sent two balls of yarn - one a cotton and one a mohair and nylon blend. Thanks Leanne and Maria, I appreciate your generosity very much.

So that leads me nicely onto today's knitting post. I've had a few people email lately asking about how to keep their edges tidy. As you know, I don't claim any knitting prowess but I do know about nice edges, so here are my tips for knitting that way.

We'll start with casting on. Start with a slip knot and leave a tail.

Next, do your cast on as normal making sure it is not too tight. A tight cast on doesn't give you a neat edge, it just makes the edge too tight and often you'll have loops coming out of it when you knit your second row. Knit the tail in with the first few stitches, making sure it knits through at least three stitches - that is enough to anchor it. If you have problems casting on not too tight, use needles two sizes larger, then change back in your second row. When you finish your project, snip off that tiny piece of yarn if there is some poking out.

The photo above shows the row when it's finished. You get a slight bump where you've knitted the tail in but that almost disappears when you keep knitting. When you do that second row of knitting into the back of the stitch, go back to your normal pattern.

Now, the sides - this is really simple. Start every row by slipping the stitch from one needle to the other without stitching it, as if you're going to do a knit stitch, and keep your yarn tightish. After that first slip stitch do whatever your pattern tells you to.

On the other side, end every row with a purl stitch. And that's it. You'll get these edges that look plaited/braided instead of the bumpy edges you usually get with normal knitting.

In the next day or two, I'm starting on a little hat for "Peanut", Shane and Sarndra's soon to be born baby boy. I'll be using the cotton above - it's an organic Japanese cotton.  Both these cottons are from the wonderful Eco Yarns. If you're looking for good quality yarn, check out Vivian's website.

And finally, if you're looking for an excellent socks tutorial with understandable photos and instructions, here it is.  

I'd love to know what knitting you're working on and if, like me, you do a few projects at once. And for all the crocheters out there, I hope you'll help me when I start crocheting soon. I'm just waiting for a book to arrive and I intend to do a couple of projects. I have been taught to crochet by my sister and my late friend Bernadette, but I always feel a bit lopsided working with only one needle. I intend to get over that and progress on from my usual one crochet row and I'll need all the help I can get.

We had a quiet weekend with a good balance of work and leisure. Some of the family came over for Sunday lunch - we had roast lamb and vegetables and Shane brought one of his lemon meringue pies, which was delicious. Jens and Cathy have just come back from a trip to the US so we heard bits and pieces about that. Shane and Sarndra are eagerly awaiting the arrival of their first baby, due in July. Sarndra was uncomfortable sitting for too long so she was jigging around the place trying to get rid of her backache. Those last few weeks of pregnancy can be so uncomfortable for some mums.

The rest of the time I read my "first pages" - that has to be returned in a couple of days, knitted and read. Hanno's been busy in the garden trying to catch up to where we usually are at this time of the year. He was on our roof for a couple of months, replacing rusty bolts and painting with a special sealant, in preparation for our solar panels. If we can catch up in the garden, it will save us a lot of money and we'll have fresh organic vegetables instead of the other stuff we have to buy.

Some time this week I'll make a few batches of soap and some liquid soap. I'll put some of it in my shop and I want to make up a little gift for my new grand babies - I'd much rather them have my soap on their beautiful skin than commercial soap or castile soap that is way too expensive.

An update on the vinegar - mine started bubbling and then died when it got very cold, so I'm leaving my next attempt for later in the year.  I'll get moving on some cheese making soon, a good wintertime activity for our sub-tropical climate and when I collect all my bits and pieces, I'll post about what I do.  I was going to buy a kit but if I can source all my equipment, I'm sure I can do it cheaper another way.  How is your vinegar going? If you started when I did, many of you may have good vinegar by now - depending on your climate of course. I'd love to know how it went for you.

Another week lays ahead of us. I'm looking forward to it and hope I'll come out of it with the projects I have planned all done and dusted. Do you have a busy week ahead too?

See this cupboard - it looks innocent enough but it hides a secret behind those bottom doors. It contains my tablecloths and it hasn't been cleaned out for about three years.  Eek!  Over the weekend, I'm tidying up this and my tea towel/jug cover/ napkins/ tea cosy drawer.  I'll be posting about it next week so if you want to join in, do so, take before and after photos and you can post links to your photos.  I wonder whose will be the worst.  I think know the answer to that already. 

Of course, I'm not saying that every single day goes according to plan and that everyone always agrees with everyone else; that would be untruthful, and maybe just a bit boring and unrealistic. But the kind of family life I work towards is for us all to celebrate our diversity and be supportive of our differing aspirations, while the family remains united. If we do that most of the time, our lives together will be enriched by the times we spend together and we will stay connected.

But this is an ever-evolving process that needs work, particularly now that our roles are changing - our children and their partners are becoming parents and Hanno and I are becoming grandparents, in addition to being parents. Change tends to mix it up a bit. One of the things I always do is to try and think outside myself and to put myself in the shoes of my DILs. I was in awe of my MIL, she was a strong woman and we didn't speak the same language. There was affection there but I doubt there was love. I only knew her for a couple of years before she died, but I like to think that had we spent more time together, we would have been much closer. And I guess that is why I often focus on my relationships with my girls. I want to love them because my sons love them but I also want to love them because I just can't help it. I want them to love me too.  And I think that has happened.


With the family as a whole it's difficult sometimes and very easy at others. I am at the point of my life when I believe most of my teaching about values, truth, respect and loyalty has been done and, happily, I see the fruits of that earlier work often played out before me. What I'm doing now is being quieter and just living true to my values. I give advice only when asked for it, I presume everyone knows right from wrong and that given a chance and a bit of time, they'll work out a solution based on their values and fine-tuned to suit their unique needs.

My way isn't the only way. I've stopped telling. 

I'm always thinking about ways to strengthen our family and now that we have babies arriving I want to start a new tradition. I've asked everyone and they love the idea. When it is not as cold but not too hot, we're going to have a family preserving day. We're all going to buy boxes of cheap fruit or vegetables, save our old jars and spend a full day together making jams, sauces and kimchee. There will be a big lunch served and everyone will go home with good quality food in jars for the coming months. In future years we might make elderberry wine or ginger beer or sourdough or cheese - all to be shared and taken to our various homes. As the children grow, they'll learn these skills and, I hope many years from now, will pass them on to their children. It will be a family preserving day in more ways than one.

So what happens now, do we all say "well done, we nailed that" and be done with it? No, we are a family that will evolve over time and now we have babies to nurture. This is ongoing work. Sometimes it will be easy to love each other, sometimes it will be harder. But we always have to remember our love and strength, talk about it, show it, be there when we should be and gone at other times, and take each day as it comes. We are people living in difficult times and that will test our family unit, but because we're so close, I can't imagine much we won't get through.

If there is one meal that is guaranteed to warm you deep to your core on a cold winter's evening, it's soup. It doesn't really matter what it is, soup nourishes us in body and mind; we seem to have this understanding that soup is good for us.  And of course that is true, particularly soups that are based on stock made at home with bones and herbs.

I guess my favourite soup is one my mother used to make and it's the one I make most often during winter - beef with barley and vegetables. I love the way the barley thickens the stock and makes a hearty meal. But sometimes you don't feel like a thick soup, then the one that comes to mind is homemade chicken noodle soup. I had the remnants of the roast chicken I made for the picnic and not wanting to waste it, I popped it in a saucepan with some onion, celery, parsley and bay leaves and simmered it for two hours until the bits of flesh still attached the bones just fell off and the flavour was at its peak. After that is was just a simple matter of adding some leftover chicken meat, tasting for seasoning and adding salt and pepper.  Soup done.

Put the dough in a plastic bag and place it in the fridge for an hour to rest.  Then, cut the dough in half - you'll have enough for a soup for four people and enough left over for two large lasagne sheets. Place the leftover dough in the same plastic bag you rested it in and store it in the freezer for another meal. Roll the dough out with a floured rolling pin until it's very thin. Cut it into short strips, or little squares that you can twist, and add them to the soup pot about 10 minutes before serving.

The noodles sink to the bottom but will rise again when they're cooked.  Just before serving the soup, add some fresh, finely chopped parsley.

Chicken soup is also known as Jewish penicillin because many wonderful Jewish mummas cook chicken soup when someone in the family is ill.  It's the soup you go to when you're feeling sick or when someone has the flu. It's a handy one to have in your recipe stash and the perfect meal for a cold winter's night. On the first night we ate this we had a piece of toast with it; and last night I made a small pot of milk rice which we had with canned pears. It was a delicious, frugal and simple meal.

I want to thank you all for the wonderful and interesting comments you leave here. I read every one of them. Some of them make me think more about what I've written or about the person who leaves them, but all of them are appreciated. I feel like I know some of you just by your comments. I am way behind answering my emails again, please forgive me if you've written and I've not replied.

I did up a full trough of crispy hearted lettuce - winter is the only time we can grow that here, as well as Crimson Globe beetroot, paw paw pumpkin, a seven colour mix of heirloom capsicums (peppers) and a couple of tomatoes. Already germinated and ready to plant are curly kale, cauliflowers, spinach, beans, Portuguese cabbage and nasturtiums.

This is the bush house you can see here in the background.  It's a simple structure Hanno built for me many years ago. It houses the germinating seedlings, sick plants, cuttings, ferns, orchids and the worm farm. It provides protection from the wind and sun and even in summer, it's much cooler in there than in the rest of the garden.

 This area still needs to be weeded. It is where the new seedlings will go.

 The tomatoes are already showing signs of wilt. It is that brown speck on the leaves.

 Further over there are capsicums (peppers), and a hot chilli.

 Here we have black kale, turnips, potatoes, red cabbages, zucchini and tomatoes.

 Cabbages, peas, lettuce, garlic, daikon radish and oranges.

We had a good weekend nicely portioned up between productive work, reading, knitting and our family. On Saturday morning I read through some of my book - in one of the final stages before it goes to the printer, and in the afternoon, I made cakes, a roast chicken and potato salad for our family picnic. Hanno picked up Jens and Cathy from the airport on Saturday night and we also said goodbye to Koda, after having her here with us for the past month. She is such a sweet dog but she became very attached to Hanno while she was here and then we had some jealousy problems and a couple of fights between her and Alice. In the end, I was pleased to see her go.

Sarndra organised a family and friends picnic on Sunday so we all met at the Roma St Parklands. The parklands is an oasis in the middle of our capital city that used to be a rail yard and then lay derelict for a few years. Now it's been beautifully planted with tree ferns and tropicals to resemble a rainforest garden. There are numerous waterfalls and streams and plenty of places to sit or have a picnic. To tell you the truth, spending time there yesterday restored my faith in modern life quite a bit. The parkland was packed with families socialising, playing and spending time together in the winter sun. There was a wedding taking place and a large group of people were playing The Amazing Race, having started in one of the outer suburbs and ending at the parklands. And in the midst of all that activity, children were playing, parents were carrying babies in slings or watching toddlers near the fountains, food was being cooked and eaten and it looked like everyone was having a good time.  Just a few blocks away the shops were packed but here in this oasis of sanity, people celebrated winter and spending time with their family and friends. I was enriched just by being there surrounded by it.

 This is about half of our group.

True to her promise that there would be a parcel in the mail for me, Jo's special delivery to Rhonda Hetzel (author) arrived. She made the mistake of adding "(author)" after my name so I've been taking full advantage of it and added it to a couple of emails I sent yesterday afternoon. Funnily enough, I've thought of myself as a writer for about 20 years now, but never an author. Self perception is a strange thing. Anyhow, I have the "first pages" here now, I have to read the entire book, add my thoughts and suggestions and get it back in two weeks.

Later in the day our guests arrived and soon after they settled in we all piled into the car and drove up the mountain to our favourite German restaurant for lunch. We have been eating there for about 14 years so it was lovely to take Sunny and Jamie there for the first time. Lunch over, we went into the neighbourhood centre to introduce the baby, then back down the mountain again, we headed for home.

Ten minutes after Sunny and Kerry left he started crying. He must have known! Hanno held him while I went to the kitchen to warm up one of the four bottles of breast milk Sunny left in the fridge. When the bottle was sitting in a jug of warm water, I took him from Hanno and, still crying, we walked outside.  He seemed to like the sun light and he settled for a moment while I introduced each chook by name.  But then he remembered he was hungry and started crying again. We walked through the garden, back inside, the bottle was warm and he fed really well. I hadn't lost my touch there, feeding - tick. He went to sleep again so I put him down close to where we were sitting. Then Kerry and Sunny called to see if everything was okay. Yep, he's been fed, had his nappy changed and he's sleeping - knowing that, they went to the movies.  Parents' phone call - tick.

Hanno and I watch some pre-recorded TV while he slept, I did some knitting, and he woke again about three hours later.  This time I was quicker with the warm milk bottle so there was whimpering but no crying. Koda didn't know what the crying was and every time she could, she stood looking at Jamie.

Kerry and Sunny came home about 9pm. Jamie had just had another feed and was sound asleep in my arms. They'd had a lovely night out, they'd dined at The Spirit House and really enjoyed their meal and their time together.  And Jamie, Opa and I? Well, we'd enjoyed our time together too. We didn't get around to reading "Ten little finger and ten little toes" by Mem Fox, kindly sent to me by my editor, Jo, but we'll get around to it one day soon.  We have plenty of time.