We're all aware of the dreadful devastation caused by the terrible bush fires in country Victoria. The wonderful thing about horrific events like this is the way that our community rallies to help those who've lost so much. Our central school’s student representative council is organising collection of goods to be sent down on a local transport company’s truck on Thursday. All the kids have been asked to donate something, toys, blankets, clothes, toiletries, anything except perishables. My town is small, only 1600 people, and none of us are rich but we are fantastic in a crisis! Over the past 5 years we have been through a major flood and raised money for so many locals that have been through accidents or illness. Every year we have a community theatre written and performed by locals to raise funds for local community groups. Makes me proud to live here.
There are so many groups collecting funds for the bushfire survivors, here's some links where you can donate.
If you shop at Coles supermarkets on Friday 13th Feb the profits are to be passed on to Bushfire relief fund.
Jaqueline from the blog Serendipity has a great raffle organised " Basically how it works is you need to go to the Australian Red Cross Website and make a donation of AUD$10 or above to the Victorian bushfire appeal. For every $10 you donate you will go into the draw for a knitting/fibre related prize. " She has some gorgeous prizes to win, there's even some Cashmere, so make sure you email a copy of your receipt to her!
Beyond pink and blue are "putting together bags of goodies for the kids / babies who have been affected by the bush fires. These bags will be given to the Emergency Relief Centers around Victoria.The aim is to provide some comfort and distraction while parents are dealing with what it is they need to face in the aftermath of their own tragedy." Knitters on Ravelry have banded together to make blankets and soft toys for those affected and to knit socks as a thankyou to the Country Fire Authority workers. The support for these projects is simply inspirational.
To all those affected, my heart goes out to you. Hopefully we can get lots of help headed your way!
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Now for some baby hats for a fundraiser, and of course one for my nephew-to-be. Bought some yarn online the other day, some to be for the fundraiser and I think I may have a little bit left. A kilo of undyed 12ply 
and 700 grams of rainbow dyed 4ply. 
I bought it direct from the Wangaratta Mill, for a ridiculously low price. Should get a few hats from that lot!
I may have to splurge on a 10kg bump, don't know if I can justify it considering my fibre stash that's cavorting in the paddock. It's just so much fun to see the colours develop and how they turn out when they're plaited up. I used food colouring for this batch, and with the remaining dye I decided to tart up some reclaimed yarn. This yarn came from an op-shop and was a very wishy-washy blue. 
Delicious.
We've had the vet out to vaccinate and drench them for internal parasites. According to him the goats are around 6 to 8 years old and should kid for us without any difficulties. You can see the one in the pic above with the blue bandage on it's head, poor darlin' broke a horn when we were unloading her, so she's been getting lots of TLC.
Their coats are pretty course and don't have much crimp, but their babies should be wonderful. I can't wait to have goatlings, and the Australian National Mohair Pool is only 20 mins drive away, so any fleeces I get can be sold to them. Of course I'll keep some mohair for myself, mmmmmm......yummy........
Six boys and a girl, a wonderful achievement for a first litter. DH had to crawl under the house to retrieve the little cuties, but once out they were happy snuggled up to mum. Dad Nipper is proud as punch too, but is not yet allowed visitation, Matilda thinks he's a bit too rambunctious for that. She lets us handle them though and is a wonderful mum. 
I loooooove the colour, and the silk content gives it a lovely drape and softness. I am hesitant to cast on yet as I still have my Twilight socks and Woodland Shawl on the needles, so it may have to wait a bit. Too hot for large projects at the moment anyway, bring on winter I say!
I decided that it was too splitty to knit as it was, so I got busy with the spinning wheel and plied two strands together. It's probably about an 8-10 ply (DK-worsted), I haven't worked out the wraps per inch yet, and 150 metres per 100 grams. There's nearly 800 metres of yarn, that's a lot of dishcloths! I used some fabric dye to brighten up 200 grams of it, but I'll leave the rest white for now.
I have cast on for a pair of Twilight socks from "2-at-a-time socks" using my hand-dyed sock yarn. I have done most of the cuffs and of course knitted the obligatory swatch. 
I love how the variations in the yarn create little flecks of colour in the fabric. I had to cast on something fairly simple as trying to knit my lace shawl is impossible with three teenage boys, a pubescent girl and a husband all clamouring for my attention. Oh well, there's always the dead of night when I can work on it, one advantage of insomnia! Meantime the socks give me something to do with my hands when watching the box. Although perhaps pointy sticks and a long cable are not the safest of instruments in the hands of an overtired, and overcrowded mother!
