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Tuesday 29 March 2011

Just a little peek

....... of what I have been doing


My first successful attempt at knitting in-the-round on circulars!!
It's a beanie by the way

Every other attempt had the stitches catching on the the needle and cable join
- well they were old circulars :-)

Thank you all so much for your lovely comments on my 'Leafy Lime' Shawl
I am pleased with it

Friday 25 March 2011

Lally Lou Lou Parcel

Hi everyone

Louise from Lally Lou Lou recently had a give-away for her 100th blog-post and I was the lucky winner - Yeah!!!!

Now this poor parcel went through a very long trip
And then it had to deal with Australia Post Quarantine  :-)

I'm guessing the word 'egg' was the problem in the description of contents
I did receive all the contents
Most dealt with the hardship better than others  :-)
And this is what was inside

All made for me by Louise!!!  ☺☺☺

A beautiful card - the lovely sparkles aren't showing :-(
A wonderful tissue cover in my favourite colours of red & white, with little British flag ribbons
And one, oh so adorable and cute, little crocheted Easter Bunny

Ok, I do have to admit something
I was showing hubby the package
And then when I opened it, he insisted on tasting British chocolate
For someone who does not eat a lot of chocolate, it disappeared very quickly  :-)
I did help a bit
So sorry not photo's of the little chicky Easter Egg which was originally inside the Easter Bunny

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you Louise
What a wonderful gift to receive
And in plenty of time for Easter

Thursday 17 March 2011

Chaos

Hi everyone

Yes I am still here
Just sitting in chaos at the moment
D2 and her partner have temporarily moved in with us
D2 has not lived with us for over 10 years and her partner never has
So we have squished 2 homes into 1 at the moment
And squished is a good word for it
There goes our freedom  :-)

I have had a finished project which I have been wanting to show you
But for some reason, I just could not get around to blocking it
And it has a long story to go with it
So grab a cuppa and some nibbles and here I go ....

Once upon a time (smirk) ......
About 6 years ago I started glancing at blogs, particularly knitting ones
I was absolutely astounded at the beautiful work I saw
Particularly when I chanced upon a few who were making lacy shawls with fine ply (2-3)
They were absolutely gorgeous
And a longing started
A huge longing, a craving, a want, a must-have

Yes I can knit
Yes I can do lace
But these shawls usually ended up with well over 300 stitches!!!!
And it was done with such fine yarn!!!!
My memory and patience is just not that great any more

So I kept looking
I found crochet blogs with just as amazing shawls
But I was not confident with my crochet skills
Granny squares were my limit
And I had to make the grey matter work to remember them

And then came Ravelry
I heard so much about it right from the beginning
I heard about the 'oh-so-long' wait to join
But that changed and yes it was wonderful!!!

Ever since I joined Ravelry, I have browsed and queued so many shawls - knitted and crocheted
I could not help myself
But no, nothing was started

And then only recently, from out of nowhere, I found a pattern - I loved the look, I think I could do it, I even had stash that immediately sprang to mind when I saw the pattern

Now to add another quirky thing
I have always had a fascination with leaves in knitting projects
The first project I made for my babies was 2 small blanket with leaves as the feature (sorry I can't find a photo to date, but I'm still looking)

Do do you remember this?


This project took me a while to do
Memory lapses ensured that I frogged it a lot
Even with a very easy pattern
So glad I chose a crochet pattern and not a knitting pattern
It would have ended up totally frogged  ;-)

And here it is ...




Am I the only one or can you all see those pretty leaves?
Leafy Lime

Now it is not fully blocked, not too sure exactly how to as it is made with cotton.
It has had a light steam block

Haven't worn it yet, so you will have to wait for those photos
But it sits lovely with the shaping at the top
It's light and delicate and semi-soft

Now to find a shawl pin!!!

Details here
The pattern is called 'Small Talk Shawl'
It is a beautiful, simple pattern repeat
I can already see this in autumn shades in a heavier weight wool, maybe something slightly silky .... mmmm

BTW - I should mention that hubby's team has made it to the Grand Finals
So another weekend spent on the side of a cricket oval
And another project to find
A very, very, very, very simple one this time - my concentration may not be on my fingers  :-)

Wednesday 9 March 2011

Crochet, Knitting and ...

Hi everyone

I have been very busy over the last week or so researching a surprise genalogy project for a friend.  I finally got it into a book format and printed and gifted to him last weekend.  He was very surprised and very appreciative too - surprised me with a some bottles of wine to say thank you ☺

So what did I do last weekend, other than surprise a friend?
Well hubby's cricket team made it to the semi-finals, so that means two days of cricket, not one

So on the first day, this was made

details here from a blog I have been reading Le Monde de Sucrette  - check out her rainbow poncho's - beautiful

and on the second day, this
details here

Both items are going to an up-coming charity for this month, NSW Women's Refuges

And then I got a surprise
Something on my Bucket List, not high priority, 'just a would like one day' kinda of one
But, oh what a very nice kinda of one

I got to ride in this

A Ford Mustang!!!
A favourite car of mine from w-w-a-a-y-y back ☺☺

And yes, it is left-hand drive

And so what is planned for this weekend?
Well, hubby's team won the Semi-Finals, so that means another weekend (two days) of cricket.
Better go looking for a few patterns and yarns to while away the hours ☺