Leanne

 Leanne has been a fantastic, fairly new addition to my friendship circle. I can't remember exactly when I met Leanne but she married Big Kev, a mate of Lulla and Moodge. Big Kev was an IT specialist so I had a bit to do with Kev when I used to work in IT. He even came up and consulted on some work I was doing for OEG once.

Leanne was working in the city when she met Kev and then she ended up being the web developer for the PCOS society for a while and then she had two children with Kev - the eldest, a boy, being the same age as my youngest, also a boy.

When our boys were babies we both took up knitting. I used to go to a knitting group that was all grandmothers or women who would have been. Leanne's knitting group was much younger and used to meet in Greensborough at a licensed café for a glass of wine and a knit. Both of us were on Ravelry, what was originally a beta website for knitting and crocheting enthusiasts that became hugely popular the world over, either looking for patterns, inspiration, joining groups, saving projects or posting our creations on there. 

Leanne was a lot better at knitting than me. She was prolific with her creations even to the point of sending me Christmas presents, a wash cloth, a pair of slipper socks. I probably managed to punch out a handful of knitted projects, largely driven by the arrival of a new baby in my friendship circle. When her daughter was born I knitted her an intricate lace cardigan but something told me it was not a good fit and Leanne may have unwound it or reknitted it. She was a much better seamstress as her original craft niche was patchwork quilting so her finishing off for knitting was also more polished.

Leanne has kept knitting and I have largely let my hobby fall by the wayside due to too much video and photography work coming in and a hell of a lot of weekend sport with the kids and other extra-curricular activities happening during the week.

Leanne also kept a blog for a very long time called 1000 projects were she would list a whole series of home improvements she had done. I was very jealous of that blog. I've tried a few times to keep one and every time I lapsed.

We tried a few times to catch up at the Bendigo Sheep and Wool show but I don't think our planets ever aligned. When Leanne's daughter was older and Leanne was ready to go, my interest in knitting had waned. We've caught up at a few different locations: Creswick (a mandatory visit to the woollen mills), Horsham and Natimuk on a freezing cold Queen's Birthday long weekend, St Arnaud when I was running massively late to get there (sorry friends, you know me!) and in Melbourne and recently for virtual drinks over Zoom with Wendy. It's probably high time I went to visit her once lockdown lifts.