Lazy day really – Apart from finally making up the second batch of plum jam.
I enjoyed a bit more crocheting in the comfort of the fire… This is Ruby’s shawl that I started the other day – (not quite one ball in)
These are the progressions on the other two I am also doing –
I also finally took some snaps of the rocks that came back out of the tumbler – this time polished up beautifully!
Still my favourite!
It’s lovely to see a little bit more colour out in the garden – a hint of spring. I get all excited and keen to jump into the garden – then the weather will turn feral on me again – it is after all, the last month of winter, so I have to try to keep that in mind!
Anyway – here are a couple of pretties for you!
Cheers!
Protea BudI love the fluffiness inside the flower
I have a nice little patch of these mini-daffodilsCherry Blossom – the promise of things to come!Winter rose still producing lots of flowers
I fully intended to sit in front of the fire today and crochet… that’s all.
Then I remembered wanting to chisel out the remaining packs of beef that were laminated to the bottom of the freezer – out with the hammer and screwdriver!! Happily Jeff took over the job, because I am short and its a long way to the bottom of the freezer 🙂
Then… because we started so sunny I put on laundry. And yes it was raining by the time it was ready to go out. And no – I never learn. Because Jeff had taken down my undercover line to repurpose it into a cat lead, I had to spend some time restringing the new line.
Of course – despite yesterdays gale force winds, nary a breeze today so all I achieved by hanging the clothes outside was to make them colder! (Fireside fixed them though!)
Then… I remembered my rock tumbler that was tumbling away in the shed. I figured the rocks must be about ready.
The polish stage really froths upRinsing
Once dry, most of them weren’t as highly polished as I know they can go… so I spent some quality nerd-time by admiring each one and forcing Jeff to stop whatever he was doing and join me in mutual admiration of all the colours and patterns before returning them to the tumbler for a few more days work.
I found this in the driveway of a local restaurant!! Its Calder River Agate – probably the nicest sample I have found!
So – I eventually DID get to my fire and crochet – I did a little more with the new wool…
But forced myself to get back to my original shawl as really, there is not that much further to go before its done.
In the middle of all this, cousin Jeff dropped off a rather soggy load of wood – slid his truck down into the yard and almost redesigned our vegetable garden!!! 😀
We are getting him to bring a couple more loads soon – we threw tonights lot under cover (Which is good because right now its PELTING down rain out there!) and will see about stacking it tomorrow.
Impossible weather today! One minute dark, blowing a gale and pelting down with rain… and then this –
Like butter would not melt in its mouth!
Five minutes later, turn around and see this approaching –
Our weather has issues…
So!! Decided to go into town and do the shopping I failed to do yesterday – I went out to get some wool and bread flour and came home without either, but with over 10kgs in sausages from a very generous cousin!!!
I had taken a nice rainbow photo over my cousins home so I went into the photo section of Harvey Norman to get an enlargement printed for them. Turns out 8×12 inch prints were free today! Yay!
I also noticed my cousin needed new markers (as we scratched around the room yesterday for 10 minutes looking for one that worked) so I got a bunch for him and it turned out “With Any Purchase of 5 or More Pens You Get A Free Desk Caddy” Sweet – Now he has new markers AND somewhere to keep them! 😀
My main aim today though, was yarn. Being a little excited over my recent (Almost completed) shawl, I wanted to get some other suitable colours to crochet up. Spotlight were having a 40% sale, so today was a good a time as any.
This one is a bit fancy….
The yarn buy of the day was this –
Soft and fluffy
Six balls in a pack for $5.99!!! Coooool! So I got two packs! I had to start crocheting it up to see what it was like… I have gotten a reasonable amount further than the photo below, but I think it will make a very nice shawl!
Just testing!
It’s totally the weather to be snugged up in front of the fire making stuff & watching a movie or two! Right now its minus one degree Celsius (30F) and there has been snow close by – you can really feel it in the air. We are going through wood at a faster rate than normal recently – a product of being inside out of the rain!
More on order!
With all the changes of sun to rain to sun to rain etc I would have expected more from the Rainbow Department… but anyway, here is todays try-hard rainbow.
The thing about clearing out a pantry – apart from how long it takes – is that your lucky chickens start getting real variety in their scraps.
Take for instance today – the above ‘chicken smash’ contained unmanageable potatoes (ie small, weird or old) half a box of out of date raisins, an opened packet of rice noodles, a teriyaki packet recipe base (long out of date) a few biscuits that had been hiding and had gone stale and the remains of some cereal that had also been there too long.
The girls were very eager
There was a lot of snatching and running
Anyway – I started with this:
And so far have gotten to this point:
Surprisingly little out of date stuff that had to be thrown away/composted or chickenified. I still have the top shelf to go and I have to sort all my containers into order!
Mostly its getting things back into their proper places. My mother totally didn’t give me her tidy & organised gene. Sigh. Aesthetically Relaxed is all very well… right up to the point you can’t access a walkway into your pantry. Then things have to get Serious. 😀 (like I am serious!!!) ha!
Whatever – I am sure by the time I am finished, it will totally stop that twitch that Jeff has developed every time he goes into the kitchen. Snicker
Evenings are lovely by the fire. I am back to the knitting as its hard to know where to stop with the crocheted rugs. I want to get a few of these face washers completed, as they will be part of Christmas & birthday presents – and cotton on small needles takes me an eon to finish.
Hope your weekends have been fantastic and your week starts brilliantly! (Well… as good as a Monday can be anyway)
I love turning up five minutes after Ruby & Margie have had a baking afternoon!! Poor Ruby. I didn’t let her cut that beautiful cake until I had gotten the photo I wanted so I could share it here 🙂
The weather has been continually filthy. Although I won’t complain about the rain – we needed it badly. We woke to no power for a few hours this morning – so I went on my walk. It must have been a wild and woolly night as there were branches and bark strewn everywhere and I counted 16 trees down across the pathway, or nearby.
Jeff was sleeping off a nightshift, and Mana & I mostly knitted. In the end we decided to pop over and see Ruby & Margie, have a cuppa, hear some stories and brush up on our crocheting skills.
Hasty photo – I wanted cake!!
While Margie taught Mana the basics of crochet, I sat with Ruby on the couch and asked about her early life in Natone – about 10 miles from Burnie, the ‘major’ town.
First crochet efforts
Even though your nearest neighbours were a mile away, people helped one another. If someone did a beast, all would often share. Meat that wasn’t consumed within a certain time had to be salted or kept in brine. It was better if people took turns to provide fresh meat.
The post was delivered to the shop about a mile from the house. Whoever went up to the shop collected all the post and left it in a box that was set up outside Ruby’s family farm. It saved a lot of people a long walk in a hilly area. Not many used bikes, the horses were mainly work horses & there were no cars.
Ruby’s father was the first to own a car in that district.
He had a large wagon (they called it a truck) a big flat affair that was about 5mt in length. He would load it up with produce (usually potatoes) and drive the horses into Burnie, where the produce would be put on the ship and sent to the mainland.
It was an all day trip – he mostly walked to spare the 3 or 4 horses that pulled the load.
On one of these trips in about 1924, Ruby’s Dad met a car salesman. The salesman offered him a car, and Ruby’s Dad said, I would buy one if I could drive it! The reply was “I’ll have you driving by this afternoon”
Would you believe it, he was! Got his licence that afternoon as well from the police station and drove it home!! Ruby, who was 8 at the time, said they couldn’t believe their eyes!! She can’t remember who brought the horses and wagon home!
Don’t you love the slipper booties???
Despite Ruby’s almost total lack of sight, she continues to knit. Bright colours on grey needles help.
Current projects
The cooler, darker (& decidedly wetter) weather will prevent a lot of time in her beloved garden, so she really needs something to be doing. She is not going to let a little lack of vision stand in her way!
Ruby is not happy ‘sitting around being a useless old woman’ Creating something, growing something, helping someone. It keeps her young!
These strips, Margie will sew into rugs when done, and very smartly, Ruby has three on the go at once. So that way if she makes a mistake on one, it can be put aside for Margie to sort out in the morning, and another one picked up to continue knitting!
A fun afternoon
Mana leaves us in a couple of days, so its nice to have some family snaps (& cake) before she heads off to the Big Smoke (er – Melbourne)
Making memories
And the cake was good – better than good. I was so engrossed in eating it, writing stories & relearning my crochet that I forgot to get the recipe! I will have to make Note To Self and post it at a later date (it had a pound of apples in it!!!!)
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.
Cuff detail
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)
Ready for stitching up
Simply sew up the sides and leave a gap for your thumb
Simple, yet handy 🙂
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)
finish up with 9 rows of above pattern. Cast off, sew up.
I am quite a fan of this pattern.
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! 🙂
