Kids' swap

I have been helping Maree make a few things for a kids' swap on Ravelry, as she volunteered to help a friend with 6 kids to do swaps for.

Maree knitted hats in their favourite colours and I made a library bag for the younger boy and a bag to hold a collection of 'boy toys' for the older boy. We added some goodies to their bags as well.

The last hat (which is almost as fuzzy as the pic) goes in with a library bag made of dinosaur material by Maree with some fingerless mitts and a scarf.

Mum (Granny) is 91

Mum (Granny or Nell to many) turned 91 on Thursday. So we went to the Chinese Restaurant for dinner and came home to have a cup of tea and a piece of birthday cake with the present unwrapping.

The photo-taking episode went something like this:
Me: "Smile so I can take your photo...

You didn't look like you were smiling, try again...

No...............you were looking down that time. I'll take another one...

You were giggling too much and had your eyes shut, it's as bad as trying to get photos of the kids.



OK, finally this one looks alright."

Now she's laughing too much to cut the cake properly!

The yarny bits 17th Aug 09, part 3

Pam had an old hat (olive) to replicate (navy) and the job was nearly done. However if anyone knows where to find the original pattern we'd be grateful.

Chris was crocheting a colourful rug

and showed us the one she had finished while on her trip away.

Do 4 wheels make a vehicle? Aug 17th 09, part 2

If we put 2 wheels on each side and seats in the middle and peddled hard enough would we go anywhere?

Maybe I shouldn't watch Junkyard Blitz shows!

Fran, Elke, Kathy and I were hard at work at our spinning wheels.

Busy spinning group 17th Aug 09, part 1

Spring is obviously approaching and the travellers have returned so we had a busy Monday.

Fran bought a drop spindle at the Bendigo Sheep and Wool Show and demonstrated how she fills in time while waiting for the peas to cook for dinner. Her spindle stand is an antique flower stand for the bottom of a vase.

This was a close-up of the interesting texture in Cathy's handspun, handknitted jacket.

And Cathy caught up with instructions from Pam for her scissor fob.

Golden Hills.......

These pics are for anyone who isn't familiar with the beauty of Silver Creek. Our property is called Golden Hills (we inherited that name) mainly because this was a goldfield back in the 1850's-60's and the largest nugget found around Beechworth was found on the property not far from what is now our back door. But I often wonder if the name was decided on an afternoon such as this:

The hills and the eucalypts really, truly looked gold, and it was just a normal sunset:

Stitch'n coffee

I haven't been doing nothing.......up and down the highway gives you time to.......oh darn, I'm driving! I haven't mastered anything while I'm driving except talking. This trip, there was noone to talk to, but I did stop in Canberra to admire the quilts at the Craft and Quilt Fair, and as usual there were some stunners.

While I wasn't driving the highway I made this little crochet bracelet

and this woolly headband for Penny and Georgie to put in for their partner in the Ravelry Swap for kids.

***


This week offered something of a disaster at the Patchwork Shop with no power. Takes more than that to keep a bunch of patchworkers down, so we relocated to the Pantry for some Stitch'n'coffee.........wait a minute....... there's no stitching going on here...........just frivolity! Well, we felt Leonie could do with some frivolity after a bad week.

And finally, a respectable photo!

Yes, that is MY knitting, at least someone was being productive.

A bit of this and a bit of that.....

More swaps on Ravelry, this time Maree is helping with a swap for kids. Here is the hat in progress

and I am knitting a jacket for Georgia; soft, squishy, purple and huge. It's nearly finished. I think it will be loved because it is so soft. It's techno fleece and impossible to see the stitches.

This is what is on my wheel at the moment, some teal cashmere. Now those who know me will say "teal???" but be assured it isn't for me, it is for my partner in a Ravelry blue colour swap, and her favourite blue is teal. The cashmere is very soft, and was one of my finds at the Bendigo Sheep and Wool Show, from Fibreworks. There have been 2 problems. I wanted it to be as fine as sewing thread and it wanted to break all the time, so it is a little thicker to avoid breaking, and the colour is coming off onto my hands as I spin so I look like I am wearing teal gloves!

Patchwork 7th August 09 and winter musings

People seem to disappear in winter. Why do they choose to live in a cold area and leave when it is at it's best? This question has been in circulation in the back of my mind for the past 25 years as I have enjoyed the climate of the foothills of the Great Dividing Range, and shivered in the lovely coolness of winter with it's all-day-soul-penetrating-Silver-Creek-frost or the weeks of cloudy skies offering a joyous sprinkling of snow several times in between soggy showers. How nice it is to come in to the wood fire and thaw out and know that the bulbs are ready to make the most spectacular show in the garden in just a couple of weeks when the sun reappears.

There have been years when I would have been hard-pressed not to sell my soul to the devil if he offered a deal for getting rid of February forever and it's morale-destroying heat. That's the pits for me, the absolute bottom of the barrel. Do I need to disappear then? It's not a good option, gardens are shrivelling, animals are at risk and there are the dreaded bushfires. And I guess the only places worth disappearing to for some coolness are at the end of very long plane flights. This obviously needs some more thinking about!

Those of us who have still been enjoying the winter here have been busy. Kerry has been working on a gorgeous quilt, with beautiful appliqued flowers.

Maree has been knitting socks

from a genuine vintage pattern book

and participating in sock swaps with other sock knitters on Ravelry