May 2016 – Page 4 – Head in the Clouds

Crop cc colour — Keeps me occupied on winter evenings

I had a request on what the pattern was on my cozy cuffs – so if you are a knitter you can DIY – I am not a very experienced knitter, so forgive the way I will deliver my “How To” 🙂

I use 4.5mm needles (US7) and cast on 32 stitches.

If I am using a cheaper acrylic I double the yarn to make it nice and thick. I only use a single if its pure wool or some other fancy soft wool.

I find this a good all round size, and you can adjust up or down for larger hands or kids.

I have two ways of knitting the wrist and finger part… for starters I will concentrate on the ribbed pattern (Above right)

Row 1: (Knit 2, Purl 2) repeat until end of row (2×2 rib stitch is this called??)

Repeat Row 1 for a total of 25 rows

Row 26: Knit

Row 27: Purl

I believe this is called stocking stitch and you do that for 20 rows! 🙂

Completed – rib stitches at either end and stocking stitch in the middle

To finish, do another 9 rows of K2, P2 rib stitch & cast off.

You will have this shape when done. (altho pictured is my new pattern)

Simply sew up the sides and leave a gap for your thumb

That slightly fancier stitch is pretty easy – you just have to concentrate where you are up to… I have been using it both with the cuffs & with cotton and small needles to make face washers.

I make my face-washers long so you can easily grab each end behind your back to scrub it! Practical !!

Cast on a divisible of 10, plus two extra. (So for the cozy cuffs again its 32)

Row 1: k1, (p4, k1, p1, k4) repeat twice, k1

Row2: k1, (p3, k2, p2, k3) repeat twice, k1

Row3: k1, (p2, k2, p1, k1, p2, k2) repeat twice, k1

Row4: k1, (p1, k2, p2, k2, p2, k1) repeat twice, k1

Row5: k1 (k2, p3, k3, p2) repeat twice, k1

Row6: k1, (k1, p4, k4, p1) repeat twice, k1

repeat rows 1-6 five times

Then 20 rows of stocking stitch

finish up with 9 rows of above pattern. Cast off, sew up.

Please send a message if I haven’t explained something right! Will be happy to try again.

I am teaching Mana to knit right now… she is doing great for a beginner! Her aim is to make a bunch of squares and sew them all together to make a blanket for her mothers birthday next April! I have five more days to act as teacher before she leaves us! 🙂

Cheers

I failed to capture the seriousness of the wind today!

Oh it was a feral day out there!! The wind was dislodging all kinds of gum tree bits that bounced off the roof all day!

The rain didn’t fall either, it hurled itself down with such vigour that it created an upward spray off the shed roof!!

Would have been soooooo easy to not go for a walk. But it was the first day of my new years resolution in May and I felt like such a slacker woosing out first up because of a bit of weather!! So I put on the walking gear, said see ya to Jeff and Mana – who both suddenly decided to join me in my madness. (Actually Jeff said I wasn’t allowed to hog all the idiot points) 😀

I was all prepared to take a selfie when we got home of me totally soaking wet and cold and miserable (and another 8kms skinnier) when, Tasmania, being Tasmania, the sun came out and shined for the whole hour and ten minutes!!

We took delivery of four gorgeous new hens this morning!! I will have to ask the lady when I see her next what they are again. (I’ll write it down)

We put them in the smaller portable chook run (that we borrowed off cousins ages ago and haven’t got it back to them quite yet!)(Its ok… apparently they don’t need it at the moment)

We fished them out late in the afternoon for a run about in the yard

Meanwhile, on the other side of the fence… I have started making warm mash late in the afternoon for the girls. Happy chooks, warm bellies, more eggs.

You should add a garnish of parsley. That way your chickens know you truly care.

Within seconds I have to step back as a LOT of this gets flicked all over the place during their enthusiastic scoffing.

I had to pick up another bucket of windfall apples of course, fetch more wood and a few other outdoorsy things. It was so great coming back into the house – enveloped in a cocoon of warm. So nice I went outside several times to get cold so I could enjoy walking back inside to the fire. (yeah probably weird but little things like that make me happy)

Kept dinner simple tonight – roasted some pumpkins to make up some soup…