Friday, September 1, 2017

Wombats and Baby Hats

Being a real animal lover, I have had the BEST time today at our CWA social meeting. Donna from the Sleepy Burrows Wombat Sanctuary near Canberra was our special guest speaker and she brought along a gorgeous 5kg baby wombat called Rosie.  But more of that later in this post.

I've been making some baby hats for my daughter to gift to two friends of hers who are expecting soon.


 I used Patons Big Baby 8ply with 3.50mm needles. The pattern is from a self-published booklet by Sandra Rose which I believe is no longer available, unfortunately.

A lovely surprise arrived in the mail for me a few days ago. A friend of mine was wanting to destash some of her yarn and offered to make a scarf for me from some gorgeous 8ply Bendigo Woollen Mills Alpaca Silk Blend in the colour Silky Coral.

Isn't it a pretty pattern. K had already made a couple of hats with the same yarn and she sent those as well, saying that if I didn't want them to donate them to a charity. Hats look terrible on me so I'll find a suitable place for them to go. Maybe to the hospital's beanie basket for people going through chemotherapy.


Are you ready to meet Rosie?


Here she is with Donna who was telling us how big Rosie was when she first came into her care. Rosie is now 5kg and is such a delight. Affectionate, cute, friendly, confident (in fact full of herself) and not a bit scared to wander around our rooms checking out everyone and their bags that were under the tables. She almost took off with one belonging to the lady sitting next to me. I wonder what was in that particular bag?


By the way, a full grown wombat can weigh around 40kg so Rosie has a lot of growing to do. We learnt that they are lactose intolerant, their teeth never stop growing and eating grass helps keep their teeth at the correct size, they have a very very long large intestine, do their poos in an elevated place (like on a tree stump) and said poos are never anything else but square.

During the visit, Rosie was due for a bottle. Here's a picture of our branch president doing the honours.


How cute is that?

I could go on forever - it was such an informative talk. However, I won't risk boring you anymore ...... except to say ......


Bye bye from Rosie. xox



Monday, August 21, 2017

Claudia is finished - Year of Projects update

Another week has flown by and its time for the YoP update. My Claudia scarf is finished, blocked and ready to wear! The yarn was an absolute dream to work with, albeit slow growing as it was 4ply (fingering). It started out as cream coloured Shepherd Baby Wool Merino and was hand dyed by a lovely lady I met awhile back who works at one of the yarn stores in my city. Last Saturday I called in to the shop to show Lillian the final product and asked if she would model it for me.



I find the process interesting and might take up Lillian's offer to dye some more yarn for me in the future.

Another item on my YoP list has also been finished. I love making the Angel Wings dress from the Bev's Country Cottage site (free pattern) and often use it for my charity donations. For this one I used baby 8ply acrylic with a 4.00mm hook.


Until recently I resisted the cake craze but when Lincraft released their second lot of cake yarn which was said to be softer than their original, I caved in and decided to try using it on a Road Trip scarf.


I was quite pleased with how the colour changes worked out with this project and have bought another cake in a different colourway but can't decide what to make at this stage.

Not much else to report - thanks for popping by. I'm now off to visit the blogs of other people taking part in the Year of Projects. If you want to know more, pop on over to Ravelry and see what everyone is doing.



Monday, August 7, 2017

Crochet Claudia Scarf

I haven't felt much like crochet or knitting this past week thanks to a dreadful upper respiratory infection that made me feel absolutely miserable. Things are on the improve and I've picked up the hook again and would like to finish off my Claudia scarf that I'm making with the gorgeous yarn hand dyed by Lillian. Here's a progress pic - not much yarn left so it shouldn't take too long before I can tick one item off my Year of Projects list.



Winter has returned with a vengeance here in the Australian Capital Territory! It is currently 6 degrees celsius, dull, raining and windy.  OK, we're still 3 weeks away from the start of Spring but this is ridiculous. I wonder if its not too late to prune the roses? A couple of weeks ago, I had to go to a meeting which started at 10am .... look what greeted me ... solid ice on the windscreen and at 9.34am it was just 1 degree.



On that note, I'll say bye bye and thanks for visiting.

Sunday, July 23, 2017

Hand Dyed yarn kicks off new Year of Projects



After failing miserably with the Year of Projects last year, I'm giving it another go this year. The idea is to create a list of things you want to make over the next 12 months, put that list on your blog and if possible link each project to the pattern on Ravelry. Then each Sunday write an update with photos of your work and post a link to your blog to all the other members in the Ravelry Year of Projects group. Its a great way to make new friends and be inspired by everyone's beautiful work. It is also a great motivation tool which, as you all know, I desperately need. So here's my list (excluding charity work which I'll be doing throughout the year)


I seem to be on a bit of a scarf thing at the moment but I do like 'almost' instant gratification and prefer quick projects. My stash also consists of lots of smaller amounts of yarn so its a good way to put it to good use.

A couple of weeks ago I was chatting with a lovely lady who works at one of our local yarn stores. She has recently started hand dyeing wool and very generously offered to dye some for me. I picked it up from her last week and have started the Claudia scarf which I'm thoroughly enjoying. I don't often work with 4ply (fingering) and am really loving the way it looks and drapes. Progress so far ....




Look at all those gorgeous colours in this yarn. The base is Shepherd Baby Wool Merino 4ply (machine washable) in off white. I have 150g (495m) which should give me a nice length scarf and I'm hoping to get it finished so I can show you next week.
Before I leave you, I promised Teresa that I'd show her a few pictures of my grandmother's butter (cheese??) dish. Teresa is interested in old crockery, glassware etc. and often posts pictures on her blog - along with lots of other interesting things like crochet etc. My grandmother was born in 1897 in Ballarat, in the state of Victoria, Australia. She married at the age of 20 so I'm thinking this dish is fairly old. I have it on my kitchen bench to keep the butter at a spreadable consistency. 




Well, that's it from me for this time. Thanks so much for visiting. xox

Thursday, June 29, 2017

Crochet Catch Up

I have been procrastinating!  Its been sooooo long since my last post and I imagine anyone who used to follow me has long given up and moved on to other bloggers who post more often. For months now I've been thinking I should start regularly posting again but to be honest I haven't had all that much to write about so just kept putting it off. So this post will just be a catch-up on a few things.

Stash enhancement (and there's been quite a bit of that) .. included two 100g balls of this King Cole Glitz


Can you see the shiny bits through it? I'm not sure what I'll be making at this stage but would welcome any suggestions.

Finished projects (not many of these I'm afraid as I've had a major dose of start-itis and very little finish-itis) .. My CWA branch had a function earlier this month and we decided at the last minute to include a craft stall. For my contribution I made three pairs of fingerless mitts and a cowl .. (oops, forgot to download the cowl pic). All three pairs of mitts sold @ $15 a pair so I was happy about that.


I've also finished a blanket for Oliver which I'm pleased to say that he seems to like. Here he is having an afternoon nap ..


And for Knit4Charities I've done a few items for 'angel' babies ..

Front
Back
Premmie Blanket


Finally, Nanna brag time ...  Oliver is now 2 years 7 months and is growing up way too fast.  Here he is playing on one of the sculptures at the National Arboretum here in Canberra a month or so back ..


My two grandsons are great mates and enjoy fooling around together. I think its been awhile since I've shown a picture of Ryan who is now 14.5 years old - here's one of my two boys.


Thank you so much for visiting.
xox