February has been and gone

How fast is this year going, it is already March. My knitting has been busy, messy and enjoyable.

I had my felted slippers at work and was asked to make two more pairs. I was very happy that people thought they were so nice. I was fortunate that I had already decided to make more pairs mainly for selling at the Old Fire Station in June and had purchased more of the Murano yarn from Bendigo Woollen Mills.

I knit both pairs fairly quickly and then put them in the wash, here was my first brain fade, I put them in with a full load of washing and obviously not hot enough water, so back into the washing machine with 2 pairs of jeans and up the temperature of the water, they came out a bit better, but something was terribly wrong with them, they weren't all nice and soft and colourful, there were a bit rough and dull. So back into the wash again, they did shrink a bit better, but still a bit rough. So back to the knitting of another 2 pairs, this time I put them through the wash twice with two pairs of jeans, beautiful. So those two pairs sold.

I knit the February Dish Cloth (Ravelry) which was in true Valentine's Day pattern, I knit mine in a white/pink Peaches N Creme cotton, I love knitting this cotton, we don't have anything like it here in Australia, I did manage to buy some last year while in America, and in hindsight should have bought a lot more of it. I have tried knitting two 4ply strands of cotton, I have knit 8ply cotton and it isn't as thick when knit up as the Peaches N Creme. I may try two 8ply cotton together and see if it comes out closer to what I want it to be.

I finished another Patons Heirloom pattern in Mauve Bendigo 4ply Luxury, and both the mauve set and the pink set are now with the beautiful twins.

I knit a silk cowl for myself, I bought the Habu Silk in Santa Barbara at the Loop N Leaf shop, it is a beautiful shop, I also bought some lovely Alpaca while there and the Brooklyn Tweed yarn needed for a beanie pattern of his.

March is starting off very busy, yesterday was a funeral of my great aunt aged 97, the last of my grandmothers generation of her family, now it is my Mum's generation of the McEwan clan with the eldest being 82 years of age. It was really nice catching up with that side of the family, a pity it seems to be at funerals these days that we do catch up. My aunty Grace wanted to out live her father, my great grand father who died at 93 years of age, when I was a teenager. I have some great memories of both my great grand parents on my mothers, mother side. The McEwans came out from Scotland around 1880 to Joadja (southern highlands of NSW) where my great grand father was born. When he married my great grand mother (from Mauritius), they lived in Wollongong until their deaths.

I have my youngest son's wedding on Tuesday then my husband and I are going on a road trip to Craigie and Delegate to see where his great great grandparents and family are buried. Then going to drive down through the snowy mountains, through Thredbo to Khancoban, each winter when we went skiing I always wanted to see what was past Thredbo. Then from there to Corryong VIC, where the Man from Snowy River is buried, from there we will head to Albury then onto The Rock to visit with friends before returning home.