Happy Easter Weekend

I have been off work recuperating from an operation, and have been making the most of my time knitting.

I finally finished my Peasy cardigan, not sure if I can call it that as I messed up the pattern, so the yoke is nothing like it should be. I need to buy some buttons and then it will be complete. In will get photos.

I have completed 2 cotton dishcloths for friend and a pair of fingerless mittens for my grand daughter.

I have also finished 4 pairs of felted slippers in various sizes. I am trying to get the size correct to fit my grand daughter.

Autumn.....waiting for cool weather

It is 4 weeks into autumn and after the last week of heavy rain, today the sun is shining, it will be another 4 weeks before it starts to cool enough to start thinking about getting warmer clothes out. I can't wait for autumn colour to start coming through.

I have finished listing all my stash on Ravelry, When I first joined I didn't see the sense in doing that, but now I have, I wished I had done it earlier. I love the fact that I don't have to go searching through many tubs of yarn when I want to knit something, I now just have to look in my stash on Ravelry and I can look at what projects other people have done as well.

I am still knitting my cardigan (Peasy pattern) it is a slow knit being all stocking stitch now. I have made a couple of pairs of felted slippers, a couple more dishcloths and I am currently knitting a drop stitch scarf in Knit Picks Precious in Pearl colourway. It looks really nice, I am loving the way the colours are knitting up.

 These two dishcloths were apart of creative knitting new stitch knitalong over 4 weeks

 this dishcloth is on the  12 months of Dishcloth forum on Ravelry, this is the March cloth for St. Patricks Day.

 These are knit with Bendigo Woollen Mills Murano wool. They felt well.

 These were made to a size in between child and Women's for my grand daughter, I used Cleckheaton California, it felted so well that they ended up the same size as the original child's size which would fit a toddler. So now I need to see if I can get another ball to make them a bit larger again to fit her.

Loving the way this is turning out.

dishcloth knitalong

I am in the knitalong for a dishcloth a month on Ravelry. I have finished the February dishcloth. It is a very pretty pattern. My grand daughter got a pre-loved wooden dolls cradle this week, it had a piece of foam uncovered for the mattress, so I made a cover, a pillow and slip and a sheet. I thought the dishcloth pattern would make a nice blanket for the doll cradle, so with two strands of 8ply pure wool I knit the same pattern instructions using same amount of stitches, knitting the repeats once more, it fit the cradle perfectly and my grand daughter loves it.

February is going to be "finish projects already started" to get them out of the way. Today I am back knitting the baby jacket I started around new year.

Ooops!

I missed blogging in January. My plan was to blog at least once a month....I need to take back control of things I love to do after a shitty 2013.
It seems like many are facebooking instead of blogging....I miss blogging and keeping up with my blogging friends.
I have joined the dishcloth a month knitalong on Ravelry. I have finished the first one ...January theme was a Cupaccino dishcloth.
Today 1 February I am off to KITGO a knitting group I started that is Knitting In The Great Outdoors. Today we will be meeting in a park at Shellharbour near the ocean swimming pool. It is a hot summer day so a swim will most likely happen while there.
My current knitting on the needles is a beanie by Jarrod Flood, Koolhaas, I am knitting it in Wendy Traditional Aran..
My goal this year is to keep knitting from my stash, I know I need to buy yarn for one thing this year so I will see how I go with my stash busting.
My other knitting for January is a 3 piece baby set it is currently waiting to be sewn together and finished.

 

I am back home after a lovely day knitting with great knitting friends, it was so nice with the sea breeze.

 

 

Tonight I finished Koolhaas beanie. Yah, my first item for next years show is finished.

 



and now it is October

were is this year going? I was planning on blogging more and we can all see how that went......it didnt.
I havent done much knitting, some felted slippers which I sold at the old fire station , a scarf for my aunty's 70th birthday on 1st September. I have knit a sample size of felted slipper for my grand daughter to see what size to make her, I need to sew them up and wash them to felt.

A woman I work with has just had a premmie baby son and I have knit him a tiny beanie with another one on the needles.

i have been a bit down lately with a pain down the right side of my neck and right arm whenever I would sit, this was excruciating pain which lasted over 8 weeks, with many different treatments which only gave temporary relief until I would sit. I havent had the pain for about a week now, so I am hoping it wont re-occur.
I bought a second hand pine low TV unit from Vinnies charity store, it was a bargain at $135. I will have to take some photos. I just took one with this tablet, now to work out how to publish it in my blog.

Nearly Tax Time and the middle of the year

where has all the time gone.....I will be thinking about Christmas very soon.

I have been so busy knitting for a sale at the Old Fire Station Community Arts Centre in Kiama with another sale coming up in a couple of weeks, I have been forgetting to take photos.

DH and I have been busy painting the inside of our home now that we are along in the house again. It is so quiet, we miss our family but they are enjoying being out in their own place and we are enjoying being home along again.

I have turned my son and daughter inlaws room into a guest bedroom, well in the process, the painting is done and the bed nearly put back together. My grand-daughters room is now my craft room...yahoo a craft room all to myself. I have started to move all my craft things from the study to the new room, a big job and a great way to remember exactly what I do have.

I have finished two projects for my grand-daughter, one I didn't get photos of, the black swing type cardigan, no buttons, what a bonus. Over the weekend while she was having a sleep over with us I finished her thick (20ply) very colourful top it is a sleeveless top with a hood with the side seams done up with two large buttons on each side and 3 large buttons on the front from halfway up to the top, very cosy and warm.

So back to the felted slippers for the Old Fire Station in a couple of weeks.....winter has really hit here, not that it is as cold as where a lot of you are from, but for us here on the coast when it gets down to tops of 12 Celsius, we really think it is cold. I had to get the gas heater out on Sunday to warm the house, not too bad going to not have to turn it on till now, even though most of my friends think I was mad, but it you haven't got warm clothes on in the house then the heater is not going on to warm you up in shorts and t-shirts, that is just a waste of gas and money.

We are in the middle of some very heavy rain and wind which has been going for the past couple of days and will be calming during the next day or so, don't mind the rain, I don't like the wind.

C. R. & K Daisy Designs Fairy Meadow - Annual Knitters Retreat

Its that time of the year! C.R. & K Daisy Designs Knitters Retreat ….everyone is welcome!

Date: Friday 3rd May to Sunday 5th May!
Venue: Mt Keira Scout Camp
Cost: $180.00…this includes food accommodation and classes! (BYO)
Theme for Saturday night: Spooky

Classes for Saturday: Tunisan crochet, exhaust dyeing and two coloured crochet.

Special guest presenter Claire Sullivan!

All stock sold during the weekend will be discounted by 30%!!!!

Contact Rae on 42854531 or email: raeheaton@hotmail.com

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.

January Knitting....still some to come

January has been a busy month all around. I have had 3 family birthdays, my wedding anniversary, some holidays from work (only 12 days before and after Christmas through to the New Year). Going back to work during Summer holidays is hard, especially since we have been having some very hot weather.

The past three weeks we have had some terrible bush fires across the country and some very close to where I live. We haven't had much rain and the ground is very dry with most of the grass being a very dry brown now, which makes bush fires extremely dangerous. Now since Saturday night we are having heavy rain with some parts of the east coast of Queensland flooding and now heading down the coast into NSW and expected to hit Sydney tonight, I am 2 hours south of Sydney on the coast. I live between the Mountains and the Sea as many would say. The ocean is a 5 minute drive to the east and the moutains a 5 minute drive to the west, a very beautiful place.

On Australia Day (26 January) we not only celebrated that day, my family also celebrated my parents birthdays (Mum 23 January (75 years) and Dad 29 January (76 years). We had a BBQ, with my eldest son and his wife cooking Surf and Turf, very nice, one of my nieces made a White Chocolate Mud Cake and decorated it beautifully. We talked about when my sister and I where growing up, we laughed so much my stomach hurt. I love having family get togethers. The weekend before we were down the south coast at Moruya with my husbands fathers family staying on a cousins property, playing cricket, feeding the horses, chooks etc, we had so much fun.

Having fun is very addictive, I can't wait for more great weekends with family, friends or even staying home pottering around the yard with my grand-daughter.

My January knitting has been hectic too, I am on a mission this year to knit more of my stash, which seems to grow more than shrink. I think I have enough yarn to do everything I need to, but having said that, I showed my sister my felted slippers and now she wants some for all her family.

I did finish some WIP's, not old WIP's but WIP's none the less. I finished my short sleeve cardigan with Celtic style cables up the front, I really can't wait for cooler weather to wear it. It won second place in Albion Park Agricultural Show the other week. I finished one of the two baby sets I am doing for a friends newly born grand daughters, and I am now on the second one.

I have been a part of a knitalong on Ravelry, the Mystery Sock knitalong, I am loving this, I get a bit more of the pattern each week, and the best thing is that I get to do other knitting while I wait for the next part of the pattern. The last part of the pattern is due on Tuesday 29 January which will finish them off with the toe.

I have knit a pair of fetching fingerless gloves which I gifted to a cousin's wife the other weekend as part of a "pay it forward" thing on facebook. I finished my grand-daughters lacey shrug and she has worn it so that is even better.

Earlier in the month I knit two pairs of booties in old pattern styles, these will go to Knit4Charities in the next couple of weeks. Last night I knit a wash cloth in hot pink for myself to use as a face washer, it is part of a Ravelry knitalong, dishcloth a month. Today I will get back to the baby set, I am up to the sleeves on that, then the yoke is knitted in one piece with the fronts, back and sleeves. It is a very old pattern which is in the new Patons pattern book Heirloom Collection, it doesn't have a name for the pattern it is Style 3 in the book. I had the same set when I was a baby, then I used it to dress up my dolls. I change the bonnet and knit it as a beanie instead. Not many...if any...people use bonnets these days, they all like beanies.

It is a nice rainy day, not too hot and not too cold, which is very nice after the heat we have been having.

Happy New Year

2013 has started out very busy with knitting. I was way behind in what I wanted to knit for the local argricultural shows held in January. I couldn't make up my mind last week if I would enter, I had some things nearly knitted and some just needed sewing together. I decided last weekend that if I finished knitting the short sleeve cardigan that I would enter, so I knit and I knit and then knit some more and finally got it finished and sew together, it is a winter short sleeve cardigan/vest type thing. I love it, it turned out really nice.

Other knitting for my local Albion Park Show to be held this weekend 12 & 13 January are a pink 4ply wool 3 piece baby set, 2 pairs of booties which I knit a couple of vintage pattern booties, a lace shrug/cardigan which is for my grand-daugher, a cotton summer top, a cotton swing dress which are also for my grand-daughter. I wasn't going to put the last two items in, but as I have been a bit slow on the knitting I decided to, to make up numbers.

 

 

Today has been the hotest day here in many many years, with "Catastrophic fire" warnings for the area I live and other places in NSW with very hot temperatures and high winds, it has not been  a good day for bush fires. Luckily we didn't have any in my immediate area, but not far away have been some huge bush fires. It is really good now as the RFS (Rural Fire Service) send out sms messages to most people with mobile phones warning them of the dangers in their area. It is still very hot and is not going to be a comfortable night sleeping in this heat, a southerly wind is due early hours of the morning which should cool things down.

 

Photos will have to come later as I don't seem to be able to select any to upload. Not sure what is going on with it.

tis the night before christmas eve

it is still hot and humid.....it is raining outside after an electrical storm and I am hoping that it cools things down for the rest of the night.

I have put the christmas gifts in the calico bags some of which are over 25 years old, I made them for my boys, nieces, friends boys and they are put to good use every year for gifts that fit, lollies etc.  and the newer ones are 4 years old and were made when my grandaughter was born and one for each of my two daughter inlaws.

I havent put Ruby's stocking out this year as sadly Ruby was put to rest on 1 December, she had a short but very dignified battle with brain tumors, then tumors in her liver and stomach. We miss her very much. She was only 9 years old. I have told DH and boys that we are not having any more animals, Ruby was the firsht dog I ever got attached too, it is like losing a very loving family member, well I guess that is exactly what she was....a very loving family member.

On the knitting front I am knitting a 3 piece baby set for the local shows in January 2013. With a list of things I would like to knit for the shows and only 3 weeks to knit them....Have a very Merry Christmas.... I am going back to knitting for a while before I go to bed.

Picture of Ruby and grandaughter Aahliyah