Friday 8 January 2016

Wow three posts in a week, this might become a habit.

Today, my daughter and I went for a drive to Springwood.  I was hoping to find some clothes there, but the shop I wanted to go to is so chock-a-block full it felt overwhelming.  On the way back dropped into a yarn shop.  I had a pattern with me that I've had for a year or two, I only went to check on suitable yarn and prices - honestly - yeah right $100 later, walked out with the yarn and an interchangeable circular knitting needle.

Put my crocheting aside for the moment, have started on the back already.



Perhaps I should have gone to the beach instead like I planned to, would have been cheaper.

Think this one will take me a while

Thursday 7 January 2016

Getting an Owly start on Christmas.

Sorry about the punny title.

After days of rain we finally had some sunshine and blue skies today....... grrr...... had the last 5 days off and it rained for most of it, the blue skies and sun appeared just as I made the final turn into work.  Hopefully it'll be fine tomorrow, I have the day off.  Hard life hey?  I'll be working the weekend, then Tuesday, Thursday, Friday.

Have had the urge to start a crochet or knitting project, chose the yarn from my stash and then set about trying to find a suitable project.  How hard is it to find a 4ply woman's cardigan/jacket when I only have ten 50g balls?  I wanted something Boho-ish and most importantly free.    Spent a lot of time yesterday searching, only found one thing I really liked but it wasn't free.  Tightwad me.  I was trying to keep with a challenge of only using what you have.

Tonight there was a show I wanted to watch and I leafed through a craft magazine I bought last week (positive it was before I read the challenge ..... I think ..... well that's my story and I'm sticking to it).  Found a project similar to one I pinned yesterday, one I had all the fixings for.

This is how far I've gotten so far, it's going to be an Owl basket and could very well be the first Christmas gift project for this year.    You can see my ingenious idea of using an earring as a row marker.   I was going to use a marker I got from a friend at Christmas but couldn't find where I put it, thought it was with my jewellery box where I found the earrings.  Which I think are easier to use than the small stitch marker for this project.



And here is the MKII version, the hook earring kept falling out, which wasn't a huge problem as I could count the stitches but once I stopped increasing stitches I didn't want to run the risk of losing place. 

The yarn is 2 strands of Lionbrand Heartland, using 5.5 hook.  It's going quite quickly, would have been quicker it I didn't put it down to watch a show on The Crystal Cave.

Sunday 3 January 2016

Welcome to 2016

I'm an infrequent blogger, can't promise I will change, will try to make an effort.

Last year was an ok year, so many of my friends said it was a bugger of a year and are glad it's over.  Yes it had it's ups and downs but I am glad for the experience, knowing that I could overcome what was put in front of me.  Lessons learned are valuable.

My brother has had a couple of surgeries, some think just run of the mill surgery, I wanted to throttle a woman who told me that a knee replacement is a piece of cake.  But I had to remind myself that she has no idea of the physical difficulties my brother has and it would look bad throttling a 90 year old, no matter  how opinionated she is.

Brother's first surgery was to remove a plate put on his thigh to straighten his legs when he was a teen, they wanted the bones to heal before they did the knee replacement.  They found that he is allergic to one of the post op medications, full blown hallucinations and psychotic episode.  All he remembers was that he flashed back to the surgery when he was 13 and that all he wanted was Mum.  The knee replacement was in August and was the Surgeons "worst ever", he was happy with the result though.  It's taken the burning out of his knee but his hip is making it impossible for him to walk, he's not walked since before the operation.  The plan was to do both knees, then do both hips but it's the hip that is preventing him from walking, so he's getting his hip replaced next week.

Anyway back on the homefront, I've spent time since New Year in an attempt to clean and organise this place.  It's going to be an ongoing project, so far I've tossed the old tatty curtains from our back room, cleaned the room and removed a tub chair that I've not gotten around to recovering.  The room looks nicer without so much furniture in it and I rewarded myself with a plant.

Also started on the dining room, my collection of Arnott's tins have been washed, I had thought about clearing them out but do like them.  And if google is right, there's some value in them.

Also completed a quick craft project today, my second attempt at Macrame.   An unevenly knotted A RUSTIC jar hanger,  complete with battery tealight and a handful of gemstones.