Category: Knitting

Eau De Garlic

Wow.
Has anyone dehydrated garlic before?
I have a new cure for ‘dead rotting rat under the floorboards’
The smell in the house is amazing – walking in from outside is almost a physical smack!! Honestly, a vampire would last 2 seconds before vaporising!!
I spent quite some time peeling this lot which hasn’t put a dent in the overall supple of cloves I still have.
I cut the tails off, then put them in a jar, shook them vigorously then they peeled fairly well. Still took ages!
Anyway, I minced them up and chucked them in the dehydrator where they have been taking over the house ever since.
I am hoping to grind them into powder and make garlic salt. Will see how this first lot goes.
Was also thinking of mincing up into butter and freezing – easy to throw in the pan when needed.

Oh, here is the finished glove that I will need to take apart!

I think its pretty and I can now work out the sizing better.
This is the one I did the other day from different yarn

I have so many single gloves right now!!
I made another bag tonight but didn’t take a snap yet.

Most of the day was fairly domestic. My winter really isn’t so glamorous but I am enjoying anyway. Jeff and I promised each other that rain, hail or shine we would hike somewhere tomorrow!! I’ll let you know how that goes!! 😀

Cheers!

Garlic – Tick!

Hello! Winter is doing its best – starts off nice, ends up dodgy!
I picked a bunch of my thyme to put in my hanging basket to dry out. I haven’t tried drying thyme before. It smells so good!

I risked a bit of laundry – although its currently finishing off in front of the fire.
I also spent a LOT of time filling in forms and applying for a special registration for a ‘project’ next month. I’ll outline some details when I know a little more!

Finally… out to the garden to get the last of the garlic in. I was able to fit another 120 cloves in this patch, so all up I now have 180 planted! A good start to the growing season later this year. I want my out-the-front-stall to go well!
Since I have so many cloves I was also thinking of potting up a few just for the novelty value…

Seems I don’t have to rush off to court tomorrow. Their current trial must be longer than expected. We are not due back now until next Monday.

I got some yarn in the mail!! Exciting. I used a couple of vouchers that I had to buy them via Amazon.

I made a new style of glove out of one of them (the start of which is below)

It looks quite pretty, but the finished product is not quite right so I need to pull it all apart and try again!!
I enjoy these projects – I think I am in the middle of about 10!!
Once spring returns there won’t be as much time for this.

Hope everyone’s week is going along beautifully!
Cheers!

 

Friday!

Hello weekend!
Nothing exciting from me today – I think my wheels fell off a bit today. Energy bottomed out suddenly so I was quite slow.
The most exciting thing to happen today was going back to the doc and getting another B12 injection (this time it was ‘ow’) and got another blood test done.
She was running really late today but that usually doesn’t bother me. Their waiting room is very comfortable and I always take some knitting or crochet along. Since I rarely have schedules its not a huge issue. (Plus I was slotted into an already full schedule today so I figured she would be running late)
I pretty much got the other cosy cuff done for my friend so that was a plus!

OK… Cat people. I have a theory.
I reckon that humans give out some kind of attractive ‘I am getting up in a second’ pheromone that cats love.
Pip is uncannily good at jumping up on one of our laps mere seconds before the credits of any program we are watching roll. And – if we are watching a few episodes of something, he will put in his appearance on the last one.
Of course… immediately curl up and look dead asleep and comfortable so you can’t move.
He did this again tonight with precision timing and has done it so often its almost spooky!
Does anyone else have a cat that does the same thing?

Ok… reckon I should start edging towards bed (and yes, Pip has jumped up on my lap and has curled up asleep under my windcheater!! Sigh. Maybe a couple of mindless facebook games before bed then!)

Cheers

This cuff is now done, both waiting to be stitched. The rug is slowly getting bigger. I still have a number of balls of wool to work through, but each round is eating a lot of yarn!!

Pouring Rain = Craft Day

Large quantities of water have been sloshing out of the sky today. By mutual agreement, Pip and I kept the fire going and indulged in a bit of craftwork.
(Ok, Pip mostly ate and napped.)

I found a pattern for a string bag, so gave that a go.

I finished it off after I took this last photo. Might take it into town for a test drive tomorrow

I started on my other glove – then:

So moving on to other things because I didn’t have the heart to disturb him!

I needed a place for all my free-ranging recipes.
Jeff eats a ridiculous amount of cereal, so no probs finding a spare box.
I collect a ridiculous amount of craft stuff for someone who rarely gets around to doing any…

The dark day and artificial light do nothing to show how pretty these papers really are!

I might have to do some more. Next step is to actually put the recipes in there! (Don’t want to over do and rush this rash attempt at organisation though)

Still waiting for Pip to release my yarn, so I did the dishes and whizzed up a whole lot of scraps for the chooks. There is bread, herbs, carrot & potato peelings, a couple of apples and what-not.

They were pretty happy to have an afternoon snack.
The white girls wouldn’t come out of the coop so I gave them a share in there. (Sensible really)

Tonight the wind and rain has been howling in sideways! Have had to sort a couple of leaks that only appear when things really get wild!
Right now its eased off, but the next two days promise more of the same.
Good chance of getting my glove finished AND my blanket!

Cheers from Saturated Tasmania.

Hi Ruby!

Hello!! I know I know… an eon has gone by since I took some photos for you and did a Ruby-Story!
I don’t have a particular story today, but we did drop in for a cuppa, a catch up and a sticky-beak into her garden!

(Two adorable nurses!!)
We caught her photosynthesising out the back in her comfy chair!
She jumped up to go do ‘busy Ruby things’ (probably like make us coffee) but I managed to get her plonked back down so I could take a few snaps!

And we dragged Margie out for a photo too – and Macca!

‘Oooo there’s not much in the garden’ says Ruby.
Honestly… its a darn sight better than mine that’s for sure! I’ll take partial credit for the lettuce as I grew them from my collected seeds! Ha!

They decided to pop in some mini cabbages and broccoli into the hothouse while it was busy doing nothing over winter!

And look at this!! Carrots galore, parsnip and broccoli!

The old broccoli are putting out side shoots – while the newer ones are growing nicely!

Jeff picked a bunch of the lemons that were all up so high – I brought some back with the intentions of making some cordial. Margie wants to make lemon butter. mmmmm

We enjoyed our cuppa with Ruby, swapping the latest news.
She is in the middle of a few knitting projects, which is great as the daylight is limited and often the weather not so good for her to be outside!

She knits long scarf-like strips before Margie sews them together for knee rugs!

After getting home and attending a few minor tasks I thought I might take a leaf out of Ruby’s book and sit back with my crochet hook and forget doing anything outside, as the afternoon turned quite cool!
Hope your Sunday was great too!
Cheers

Cosy Fire

Hi there.
Honestly nothing exciting from me in the last day or two!
Today really was a bit miserable with the on and off again rain. Perfect opportunity to keep the fire going and cosy up in front of it with my crochet.
I also knitted a glove… just to mix things up a bit.
Anyway, my rug is expanding, its just that each colour lap around is taking so much longer!

Hope your day was fab!

Cheers

Outside Jobs!

Hi!!
Well… all day yesterday it looked light twilight! So dark and gloomy!
Today was the polar opposite with lovely sunshine and clear skies!
I figured that I should be getting back into some work. If I don’t have a plan I won’t get through anything.
I am hoping to do a small section of weeding and cut and split a few more of those fence palings, if not daily, then close to it. I also have vague plans of making sure I cook one batch of something out of the freezer per week to lessen the population in there of tomatoes, raspberries, plums and chillies

Its easy to get overwhelmed by all the work needed to be done. Also easy to think I will put in a big day and do heaps of gardening.
I erred on the side of sensible and picked one nice modest patch that needed attention.

I’ll add to my list of Things To Do a trip to the beach for seaweed. This needs to be ‘bedded down’ with newspaper and topped with seaweed so the weeds won’t come back so quickly.
All the garden stakes should be stored somewhere dry so I can reuse them next season

I reluctantly left the garden, brought up a load of firewood then got the tools out to cut/split kindling

Remembering how much my bottom hurt last time I sat on the besser block splitting kindling, I found an old rug and padded things up somewhat!

I don’t think I overdid things today, but I am a little tired tonight!

Yesterday I made a bunch of tags for my berets and finally took them down to the local handcraft shop in the hope that I will sell a few

Strawberries and cream coloured?

I think this new one below is real wool but have no idea where I picked it up from. Its really cosy.

Then last night I stayed up until stupid o’clock learning something new to crochet on youtube!

Eventually it will be  a blanket! I bought some new yarn to do it in today – sticking with some specific colours. I made a start on it tonight and its rather fun to do!

Anyway, back to the couch and fire for me!
Cheers!

Knit & Crochet

So many pluses to having Mum come and stay!! 🙂
Apart from the fact she is making me sit still and not dash about like a mad thing, its lovely sitting in the sun or by the fire chatting and attending to the knitting or crochet projects I am doing.
Mum has been sewing up my gloves and tucking in tails on my berets

I even got to start teaching her how to make the berets!

I’ll be able to drop off the set of Cozy Cuffs that are completed to the local tourist shop that requested them before I left on the Overland.
I will have to get to and make a number more so I have some in reserve if they want more. It is colder now so perhaps more likely people will buy them more often!

I also got a lovely surprise in the mail –  a box with some books and magazines from my Favourite Uncle!! 🙂  How great is that? One of the magazines has some interesting hiking articles that I am keen to get into and one of the books is a beautiful old collectable Enid Blyton! (Which Mum  took up to bed to have a read and revisit her childhood!)
Lucky me!

Hope your day was great too!

Cheers from the lazy one in Tasmania! 😀

Crochet Update

Hello!
Keeping pretty low-key the last few days.
We went into Burnie to shop for a few things.
According to one of the local hiking shops, women who have backsides bigger than size 10 don’t hike! No wonder I always find looking for clothes dead depressing and just don’t bother.
On a happier note I got some new bra’s and undies! Time to rummage through my ‘Foundation Garment Drawer’ and throw a LOT away. (I only note this down as its ludicrously seldom I shop for clothes of any sort!)

Moving on to a fun note – I got some yarn at a great price! The above yarn pictured was on clearance at $2/ball!! I was actually looking for different colours so I could finish some berets – but this was all they had left.
BUT the very helpful girl at Spotlight brought me up to the modern times and pointed out they were still available online at that price!
Came home and went madly shopping from the comfort of my computer chair.

While I have used some for presents, I still have a decent collection of berets. Plus I made another one tonight!
I think I mentioned previously I want to make a big lot of them, then I will get out there somewhere to sell them all at once before some other Knitting Nanna pinches my idea. (Currently haven’t seen any beret hats out there for sale locally)

I also need to get on and finish a pair of cozy cuffs – this is going in the prize box for the recent photo challenge that I ran. Its a thicker than normal yarn and I had to pull it apart a couple of times and revamp the pattern to get it right.

And – taaa daaa!
That massive shawl is done.
Its more blanket-like but I still can’t wait for the weather to be cold enough so I can strut about town wearing it!!

Anyway… time for me to put Pip to bed and get some shut eye!
Have a great Easter Weekend everyone!

Cheers

Busy Bees

No day of rest for bees today. (or for people cooking plums!)
Another lovely summer day.

The sunflowers at the back veranda are such a cheerful addition to the area. The bees are also enjoying them

This fellow was easy to photograph as he was so laden with pollen, he was moving like molasses!

I went over to visit a friend today who just had major surgery. Was nice to pack a basket of fresh food to take over as a care package!

I’m not really a fan of eating beans (unless they are raw so I munch on them in the garden while I work) so its good to have friends to pass them on to. Why do I grow them? I just like having them in the garden. It seems incomplete without them!!!

Well… my hothouse whitefly population has reached biblical plague proportions, so I figured I HAD to get something done.
I made a spray – base mix of one tablespoon of dishwashing liquid and a cup of oil. Then you add one teaspoon of that to a cup of water into a spray bottle. You need to keep shaking the bottle up as you use it to keep the oil mixed.

My initial observation is that it was very much doing its job. Less whitefly flying and lots just stuck to the leaves.
I’ll give the hothouse a good watering tomorrow and give it another dose tomorrow evening. I have high hopes. Getting tired of breathing them in!

My blanket-shawl is about 5 rows from being done. And while I am excited to finish it off, I got sidetracked with berets.
So I did two of those

You are actually meant to fold under by half the band and sew it in… and add elastic if necessary. But since I have a long face, if I perch something too high on my head I look reasonably ridiculous, so I liked leaving itthem as they were.

Anyway, I am a fan of making these berets as they are pretty quick to do and when you have a shorter attention span – its perfect! Plus perhaps a good thing to get a larger stock of for a market stall (if I ever get back to those!!!)

Hope your weekend was amazing

Cheers