Catching up

Hello.  Once again it has been a long time since I posted on here so I thought I'd do a catch up post.

The usual things have been going on in life as they do and my days have been filled with crafting either knitting socks or crocheting blankets.  The garden is there waiting for me to get into when the weather warms up but for Melbourne this takes quite a while.  

We bought a second hand caravan from good friends several months ago so have been enjoying planning our first weekend away which is happening soon.  I'll hopefully have photos to share.  In the meantime here are a few of the things I've been getting up to.

Hubby and I enjoyed a day out visiting the Yarra Valley Dairy, one of our favourite places.

 

We saw the Wedge tailed eagle in the distance while there.

I made these bed socks for Mum.  Not quite a perfect fit.

Enjoying the colours of some sock yarn I ordered.

A skein of sock wool I hand dyed using camellia petals, melaleuca bark beetroot tops.

Knitting of socks in progress.

 

 

More socks.  This pair went to Genevieve.

  

Enjoying some colour in the garden.

Hubby and I cutting down branches from the old pear tree in the back yard.  Sadly the tree was diseased and all the wet weather didn't help so down she came.

Working on a stripey throw. Pattern found here.  Using colours from Lucy of Attic 24 cosy pack.

Five jars of yummy home made corn relish.  Delicious with a cheese melted toastie.

Rainbow lorikeets visiting this weekend.  The might be colourful but they are noisy and agressive, not my favourite parrot.

See you soon,

Anne  xx

My first pair of knitted socks

Where has the time gone since my last post when I mentioned I was learning to knit socks?  Well it's been taken up a lot by learning to knit socks, this pair in fact.

Now I'm sure if there are any experienced sock knitters out there you will see the mistakes and flaws but it really doesn't matter to me because I've learned a new skill.  My socks are comfortable and warm, a tad large but that's o.k. too.  

 

I must say that knitting these socks have been a life saver for me as I've been very much under the weather the past few weeks with a small operation and coming down with a nasty virus the next day that still wants to keep me company.  I've had to rest so much and sock making has certainly made this time pass more bearably.  

My thanks go to Christine Perry and her delightful blog Winwick Mum and her sockalong where she has posted in three weekly installments the sock making process.  The tutorials are explained in great detail in both written instructions and photos.  Christine has tutorials for knitting socks with either double pointed needles, large circular needles using the magic loop method or small circular needles either 30 or 23cm.  My first pair of socks were made on dpn's, my second pair are being made on 23cm circular.  My thanks too goes to all the wonderful ladies on the Winwick Mum Sockalong FB group for their encouragement and help.  Christine will be leaving the tutorials on her blog so if you want to join the sockalong or even just learn to knit socks, it's not too late.

So this is the yarn I'm using for my second pair of socks.  It's bright and out there, just my style and I'm really enjoying the process now I know a little bit more about sock construction.  I have quite a few balls of sock yarn (the stash) to use so I dare say I'll be knitting socks for some time.  :)

Stripey wanted to get in on the act in the very early stages of knitting my second sock.  He just wants cuddles all the time and I'm only too happy to oblige.  He makes a good hot water bottle on a cold day of which there have been many.

I can't leave without posting a photo from the garden.  Dew drops on the last of the autumn salvias.

Anne  xx

Socks

Have you ever made socks?  I'm giving it a go and joining in with the sock-a-long at Winwick Mum's blog.  Crochet is my preferred craft with wool but this looked like a really fun thing to do and the encouragement received from other people participating has been wonderful.  I've spent an incredible amount of time casting on, knitting, losing stitches, recasting on, many many times and getting very frustrated.  I finally set aside my first ball of sock yarn deciding it was jinxed and restarted the whole process with another ball of yarn I had.  I had success this time with a minimum amount of mistakes.

 
 I've chosen to knit with four dpn's which has been described as a bit like knitting with a hedgehog.  Hopefully progress will be good from now on.  If anyone is interesting in knitting socks (this pattern is from the top down), Winiwick Mum is leaving all the details, instructions and information up on her blog so you can refer to it at some other time.  There's still time to join in with the sock-a-long if you are interested.

Anne xx

In my neighbourhood and what my dog did!

 Yesterday when I was driving to yoga class I passed this front yard all decked out with Christmas hats and giant candy canes.  I didn't have my camera with me so went back today to take this photo.  The house is set quite a way off the road so I tentatively made my way up to get a closer look.  I think it's rather a cute idea. 

 

Last Sunday afternoon hubby and I went to the local movie cinema to see the latest Bond movie which we enjoyed immensely.  In front of the car park and on the main road through our local town was this fantastic yarn bombed tree.  I took the following photos today too.

 

 

 Someone has put an incredible amount of work into this display and I love the bird cage too.

Now to the DOG!!!

I love my dog, I really do, but sometimes I don't like what she does.  In the last six months (please bare in mind we are talking about a 10 year old dog not a puppy), she has developed some not so nice habits like getting out of the yard, trying to dig under the gate and upending my pot plants on the back deck.  I did wonder if she was letting me know she wasn't happy that I left her for two months in May/June while traveling in Europe and the times I've visited Western Australia this year.  (She's always been at home and with family members).  She usually sleeps out on the deck at night in a very nice sheltered and warm kennel but as I was feeling sorry for her, we started to let her sleep in side.  She then developed another bad habit of sleeping on our lounge chairs which is NOT allowed.  Perhaps you may think I'm harsh but she is a pale Labrador and Labradors shed two coats of hair.  We have fabric lounge chairs and her hair gets stuck in the fibers resulting in vacuuming taking 30 minutes for one lounge chair. It's bad enough having two white haired cats let alone a dog that when she wags her tail, she sheds enough hair to stuff multiple pillows and cushions.  

Yes, it's a bit of a long winded story so if you are still with me well done and thank you for your patience.  In my wisdom (not so wise I since discovered), I bought a lovely big brisket bone for her thinking it would keep her busy during the night while she got use to sleeping outside again.  It did keep her quiet and out of my pot plants but two days later made her very sick with diarrhea and vomiting.  I felt so bad for her but she had to stay outside the second night because she was so unwell.  Apparently not too sick to do this though.

The guilty party.

  She is well again thankfully after a diet of boiled rice and chicken but I'm still not going to let her inside at night because she will be up on the chairs again.  We've tried putting things on the lounge chairs to stop her climbing up, so much so that we had boxes, bags and other paraphernalia nearly up to the ceiling.  We tried putting sachets of smelly things unpleasant to dogs like eucalyptus and tea tree oil on the lounges, we even sprayed eucalyptus air freshener near the chairs but to no avail.  After I cleaned up the above mess I decided that I would pour a liberal amount rosemary essential oil over the pot plants in an effort to keep her from upending them again.  It has worked for the last two nights, so fingers crossed she is breaking a bad habit.

Never a dull moment eh?!

May you all have moments filled with peace and well behaved dogs (if you have one) in the lead up to Christmas.

Anne  xx

 

Yarn ply confusion

Calling all knitting and crochet enthusiasts.  I need some clarification on how to interpret the discrepancies I'm increasingly finding with the stated ply of yarn on labels or no ply stated at all.  How is it that one acrylic yarn, Marvel Premium - purchased at Spotlight stated as 8 ply is much thinner than Carnival Soft 8ply acrylic bought at Big W?  The new Panda Magnum Soft 8  (Spotlight) ply is thinner than the Carnival Soft, which is to my understanding the same yarn marketed under a different label.

The Slouchy Hat that I have remade using the correct crochet stitches is too big although I tried to judge what ply the yarn was as it wasn't stated on the label.  Apparently I got it wrong and used the wrong size crochet needle.  I have printed out some conversion charts from the internet in an effort to try and eradicate confusion.  However confusion still reigns supreme!

Most yarn labels will indicate what size knitting needle is needed but does that relate to a crochet hook size too?  Moda Vera pure wool 8 ply (Spotlight) states I need a 4.5 needle size rather than a 4.00 as indicated on the label of the Marvel Premium, Carnival Soft and Panda Magnum Soft 8 ply yarns.  I do understand that these suggested knitting needle sizes are for gauging tension, but what do you do when you are using a pattern off the internet using yarn terminology that is different and a yarn with no stated ply?

The four yarns on the left are all supposed to be 4 ply.


I know I'm sounding like a winger here, but I do not wish to be limited to buying a particular yarn for a particular pattern, the yarns which are mostly unobtainable here in Australia anyway.  Is there such a thing as a measuring tool for working out the ply of yarns, a bit like this spaghetti measuring tool?  Yes I am getting desperate. :)

 

 O.k. another gripe over with.  Any suggestions or help offered would be greatly appreciated.  A photo of the finished Slouchy Hat coming soon and will be modeled by Miss G. as I look like a dork in hats and Miss C. thinks that hat is too dorky for her.  Thank goodness Miss G. is very much an individual and loves wearing stuff that is out there.

 Bye for now,

Anne  xx

A little bit spoilt

Yesterday I was a little bit spoilt.  The reasons why are not important, what I was spoilt with IS!  I was given this beautiful book from a VERY good friend who knows I've entered the exciting world of knitting and crochet.

How am I to choose which bag to knit first?  

This one?  It's got a cute flower on it and it's oh so pretty.

How about this one?  It's so glitzy with those furry ruffles.  I can imagine this bag in purple, yes, definitely a loud, bold purple.

I like this one too.  These are some of my favourite colours but I can equally imagine a bag like this in aqua and orange or hot pink and purple.  Even better black, red and white, the colours of my footy team             ST. KILDA.  Then I'd have a bag to take to the footy.   Interjection here:  GO SAINTERS!!!!!!!  Good luck for the Grand Final this Saturday.

 

 For those of you who have been reading my blog for a while will know how much I love owls.  Can you imagine my delight when I found this fellow sitting on my kitchen bench when I came out for breakfast.  Squeal!!!!  I couldn't stop hugging him.  Yes it's silly I know, I just couldn't help myself.

He's going in my garden room.

 

I love dragonflies almost as much as I love owls and these solar dragonfly lights (there are ten in a row) will be going on the outside of my garden room.

I also have the absolute delight of looking forward to going to a big book store with a voucher and some money to buy a few books.  Top of the list is Bazaar Style and then I think it will be a book on crochet.


Thank you so much to my family and friends who spoilt me rotten.  :-)

 Anne

The trouble with knitting a beanie. Part 1

Before I discovered the wonderful world of crochet which I attribute to Lucy over at Attic24, I dabbled in knitting.  I’ve made a few rather motley scarves

 

  with two more unfinished.  

  I’ve even tried making fingerless gloves and yoga socks which also remain unfinished.

 At the onset of winter I decided I needed a nice woolly hat to keep my ears warm on those early morning walks with my stubborn Labrador.  I faced a number of dilemmas; the business of making a knitted hat as you know is not one to be taken lightly, especially when you have limited knitting skills like me. 

So what type of hat should I knit?  A beanie or a beret?  Circular needles, double pointed or plain straight ones?  Plain seemed simpler to me and my chosen style was a beanie sort of thing, (a bit like this one without all the ribbing), a lovely pattern off the internet with clear instructions.  Did the ply of the wool I chose and the size of the needles I had match the pattern instructions?  Well just a teeny, weenie bit out but as I was anxious to get started (alright impatient), beanie making production was undertaken.

I merrily knitted away whenever an opportunity presented itself and it seemed as if I was making marvelous progress.  Miss G asked me very politely one evening if perhaps my beanie was indeed going to be rather big.  I had secretly been wondering that myself but not wanting to admit I had been rather cavalier in my attitude to wool ply and needle size matching the pattern, determinedly kept knitting.

Excitement is such an understated word especially when a project is actually finished and excited I was when it came time to sew up my beanie.  With each little sewing up stitch the excitement started to fade and my heart sank a little lower, this beanie was HUGE!!!! 


 When it was time to proudly don my beanie, it was SOOOO big it fell over my face down to my chin.  Of course the size of my beanie provided oodles of entertainment for my family.

Being the stubborn sort of person I am, I was determined to salvage my beanie. Perhaps I could cut it to size and machine stitch?  No.  Perhaps I could roll the edge up multiple times? Definitely not as then I’d look like I had a sausage around my head. 

 What to do?  I delved into the deep recesses of my limited creative ability and decided to roll the edge up and under once (o.k. twice) and stitch into place.  So now my beanie didn’t fall down to my neck but it was slipping off my head.  Perhaps if I sewed long running stitches just above the brim and gathered them in, my hat would be perfect.  Seemed like a great idea.  The final reveal….urghhhhhh, SHOWER CAP BEANIE THINGY!!!

  Oh I was disheartened.  But oh how I love Miss G, (she is so good for my failing creative ego) she was hopping around excitedly pronouncing my beanie/hat/shower cap thingy as AWESOME!  To me it wasn’t and intended consigning my hard work to the bin which in my opinion was where it belonged.  Miss G pleaded with me to let her try it on and well….. it looked perfect on her sweet little head.  She has a petite little head and lovely long hair whereas I have a large flat head with a square shaped face and short hair.  On me a shower cap,
on her slouchy sophistication all the way.

Obviously this isn't a photo of my beanie/beret but this is what it looks like on Miss G's head.

Here is my final result.

Let that be a lesson to me.  Follow knitting patterns to the letter, ply, needles size, pattern instructions, everything.   Have I learnt my lesson…. ummm no.  The trouble with making a beanie part 2 coming soon!