Proudest mumma on earth

(Those of you squeamish about bodily functions and their products should tune out now)

OK, I know this is supposed to be a knitting blog, but really I don't see it that way. I see it as a place to share about the entire Jolly Jumbuck family, so here goes!.....



Yes, that is what you think it is. Yes, I have a photo of a poo on my blog. Yes, I'm the proudest mumma on earth right about now. This is the very first time that sweet, lovely Matilda has done a poo all by herself, without being asked or told to go to the potty. She had a wee accident in her knickers, and I asked her to go change her knickers. Off she goes... and then comes back and says "I just did a poo". I assumed she was talking about the wee, so I said "No, you did a wee". A little later on I walked into the laundry/toilet and the above picture is what greeted me! Woohoo!!! She had even put her wet knickers in the laundry basket, wiped her bum independently, and put on fresh knickers! I was sooo happy and astounded.

She turned 4 on the 19th, and will be having her party this Sunday. It seems like she makes these milestone leaps around her birthdays... for example she took her first independent steps on the day after she turned two.

Now, I promise the next post will have *some* knitting content, even if it's just photos of her in her new Bloom dress with matching dolly from her birthday party :)

A breakthrough!

You know you're a parent when the *most* exciting thing in your day is your almost-4 daughter tells you she needs to go wee-wees, and then does a big one in the potty!!! Matilda hasn't been quite ready before now, despite many attempts at weaning her off nappies and into knickers, there would be many accidents and the occasional fluke, with a reluctance to use the potty. Sometimes she would tell us about the accidents after the fact, most times not. We were in panic mode about kindy this year, but thankfully we have ended up with a kindy and caring teacher who didn't bat an eyelid when I mentioned that she was not potty trained.

We had enrolled her in a private/independent K-12 Anglican school, all the way into the orientation day. Well it just did not *feel* right, and they were quite blase about her autism and need for extra help from an aide. So at the very last minute we made the decision that the best way to meet her needs would be to go through the public system... and luckily the local kindy had someone pull out at the last minute, so we got a place in it. When I went to visit the kindy and the teacher, all of my worries just evaporated. Mrs H genuinely cares about her kids, and it's not just a job being a teacher, it's a passion. And best of all it is within walking distance (quite a long walk, but nevertheless...), and M will have opportunities to make friends within the local community.

So anyway, I've been a fulltime mum for the past month or so, until the school term starts on the 1st Feb. Then it really ramps up, with kindy Mon and Wed, and early intervention therapy across the city on Tue and Thurs, leaving us Fri's for our regular playdates with her cousins which she really enjoys (and me too, Mandi their mum is such a rock for me).

It has been such a joy to see her bloom and blossom, and for her gorgeous personality to shine through. Neither Roy or I have much family support but that is OK. I do miss my mum and wish that she could be more a part of our lives, but she has a new husband and a new life now in the US and I've decided to stop being bitter about it and just deal!

The diet proves to be a challenge but I've decided to go with the flow and deal with that too. We'll do a review at the end of the year...

Haven't done much dyeing lately as it's impossible during the day with M, and there is no more daycare. And at night after her bedtime, I am way too tired to think about dyeing. So all I've been doing is checking my email for orders and taking care of them when I can, I haven't been on Ravelry for months now -- I do miss the community but not the time wasting and stress. I'm still knitting, although very sporadically compared to before. I've just finished a Bloom dress for M's 4th birthday with a matching one for her dolly. She is four in four days! Amazing it's been so long since we looked at each other and said hello.

I'm looking foward to school starting and having a few hours a week to myself, hopefully I can dye a little bit then. I'm really not that concerned about slowing down on the Jolly Jumbuck front, my priority lies with getting M through the early years of autism now. She will be amazingly "all right" at the end of it all. I am swamped by feelings of love and protectiveness for her that not much else matters anymore. And Roy and I are getting along better having come to an understanding. He is very busy at work and I'm busy doing the housewife thing. I even feed his offsider (employee and friend) most nights! We're all basically on the same diet, GF/CF with restrictions on eggs, tomatoes, etc.

The poor chooks, we can't even eat their eggs anymore. And we were surprised with a huge brood of chicks (15!) hatched about a week ago. We don't need any more chooks so will be selling the chicks ASAP.

On top of this all, we have another new addition to the family -- a puppy! I will introduce her soon.

Glorious Gradual Gradients

I've just finished up a big wholesale order of Gradual Gradient yarns:


There are 40 x 100g balls, in four different rainbow colourways (Primary Rainbow, Gypsy Rainbow, Sandry's Rainbow and Pastel Rainbow). The yarn is a sinfully soft organic and free-trade baby alpaca called Angel Touch, a sportweight yarn.

These will be exclusively available from Ecoyarns soon.

The wild, wild west

A lot has changed since I entered WAHM-dom by opening Jolly Jumbuck on Ozebaby way back in August 06. Back then, there were only a handful of dyers in Australia and it seemed a more genteel time. A time where etiquette played a larger part than it does now.

Dyers respected others' colourways, names of colourways, and even the base yarns used. If XY of OPQ Yarns was using Blackberry Ridge, for example, I would think long and hard before adding BBR to my line of yarns. If I named a colourway the same or similar to another dyer's, I would get a polite but firm email to please change the name on mine to avoid confusion.

Now, it's a free-for-all. Signature colourways have been replicated, yarn bases copied ad hoc, colourway names the same (there are some skeins for sale RIGHT NOW that have similar or identical names to mine)... it's easy to take it personally but I try not to. Or I would go nuts.

That said, it's time for a new direction in my dyeing. Rather than giving it up completely next year, I think I can be organised to have yarn prep nights before M's school days, and dye about once a week. I'm giving up "colourways". I'll be dyeing OOAK sets of skeins and that's all I will have for sale. This fits in with me and my current mood as an indie dyer in this environment.

*undyed yarn* LOVE

As some of you may have noticed, I'm trying to clear some room by having an *undyed yarn* sale. Well it's been going well and I've cleared quite a few totes -- creative storage is a must in this house.

I only skein up the yarn as I get the orders in, so I've been playing with quite a lot of undyed yarn in the past couple of weeks. I really do miss this part of dyeing, the skeins have so much potential and are just lovely in their natural state.

The sale was recently boosted by a large order from a very special customer... I can't wait to see what goodies she comes up with with all these "canvases"!

Matilda's NEW diet

We received some really disappointing news yesterday. I feel as though we are taking one step forwards, and two steps back! A bit of history...

A few months ago Matilda was diagnosed with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder), high functioning. Roy had done some research on the net and a lot of parents are finding better results with their autistic child on a GF/CF (gluten free, dairy casein free) diet. So we went on the GF/CF diet for about four months, it was a really hard slog. *Everything* seems to have gluten in it... even lollies of all brands. She was having her own packed lunch at daycare, usually extra's from the night before.

Then, we decided to get her tested for food intolerances with the Imupro 100 test. Not cheap, and getting the blood sample wasn't exactly a walk in the park either. So we went back to an unrestricted diet for about a month so that she will have gluten and casein back in her system. The test tests for IgG antibodies to specific foods.

The unrestricted diet was *wonderful*!! We were all much relaxed and happier, and Matilda was making leaps and bounds of progress with her speech and behaviour. She now speaks in full sentences and we can actually have conversations now. She has really blossomed in the past few months.

Well, yesterday the results from the Imupro test came back. Not only is she moderately intolerant to gluten, she is severely intolerant to cow's milk and chicken eggs (goodbye, chooks)! And also, she is moderately intolerant to tomatoes and bizarrely, watermelon. She is even slightly intolerant to rice, which is a staple of our gluten-free diet.

Now, I am not a great cook. I have about five or six dishes in my repertoire and that's it. With the new diet, two more dishes are now out of bounds -- spaghetti bolognese (with gluten free pasta) and quiche (with no pastry or really expensive GF pastry). And baked beans, her very favourite. I just don't know what to cook anymore, especially knowing that she has a slight intolerance to rice as well!!

So, feeling a bit lost and desperate at the moment...

Damn VM!!!

This is a frustration overload post. Last week I dyed up two 200g lots of Australian Superfine (17 micron) Merino top, in the Vegas and Wild Orchid colourways. I wanted to make M some pretty dresses, and since I haven't been able to knit anything but my handspun lately, I thought I would seriously enjoy the projects. The dye jobs turned out beautiful, I was really happy.

Well I hung them out to dry, BUT forgot to peg them. That night the wind was wild (it's often very windy where we are). The next morning I woke to find both rovings on the lawn, and coated in lawn clippings!! Roy had just mowed the lawn.

So now it's going to take me literally hours to pick out all the VM out of the roving before I can spin it! To add to my frustration, I just picked up my new Joy sliding flyer from the post office but now have nothing to spin!

By the way, Ashford NZ (they rock) found the last electric spinner (for my model) motor in captivity and sent it over. Dr Mike did the heart replacement surgery but Sadie was a little noisy, so Dr Roy opened her up again and finetuned things, now she spins like a dream! I only use her for plying these days as she has awesome huge bobbins and I really enjoy treadling with my new Joy.

We're going camping in one spot by the coast over Xmas, and guess who will be coming along? Suzie! (my Joy). I like to take her out to the back yard and spin while watching the horses next door. She's even been out to Citinits, travelling on the train. I'm so pleased with my choice of wheel...