The Garter Stitch Scarf

Nothing flash.  Nothing fancy.  Just a simple garter stitch scarf.  For my hubby.  Started last Winter when I was sitting with him in the hospital.  I needed something simple to focus on, so what better than row upon row of mindless knit knit knitting!!

So, why has it taken so long you may ask?  1.  Other projects got in the way.  2.  I got a full-time job.  3. I forgot about it.  4.  I got tired of those rows of knit-knit stitch.  5.  My daughters wanted a blanket each.  6  I took up piano lessons.  7.  I've been reading a lot and I can't read and knit at the same time (sigh... wouldn't that be brilliant?)  8.  It was no longer cold, wintery and scarf-like weather and seemed silly to knit a scarf in the summertime.  9.  My daughters still want a blanket each.  Is nine excuses enough?

Anyway, it's finished now, and you know what I love about a finished project?  The main thing is that something that has been lovingly worked is ready for use, but I also love to cross a project off my Very Long List of Unfinished Projects!!  I'm now ready to re-address The List and see What-Comes-Next.

I love it when Girl 2 asks very politely if she could "please have a scarf just like Daddy's but with brighter colours?"  And of course I will make her one, but I did suggest that perhaps I should finish her blanket first, so that's what my evenings are now filled with, bright and cheery crochet colours.  Will share some new squares with you soon!

I aspire to the cable stitch!!

Never a model about when you need one!!
Have a happy day.
Trudy

Autumn Days

The days of May are rollicking by at a steady pace, heading straight for Winter.  We're still getting beautiful blue skies, but with chilly winds that go right through to your bones there's no mistaking what month we're in.  I was even seen out and about today wearing a very silly hat rather than risk getting a cold head.  But I absolutely adore this time of year.  Definitely my favourite.  I love watching the leaves change colour and fall to the ground.  And I'm getting into preparation mode for Winter, collecting acorns.

Desperate for some flowers in the house I went searching in the garden and was delighted to find a single magnolia and a couple of branches of crepe myrtle (slim pickin's at this house).  Even so, I thought I could do something with them ... you know, plonk them in a vase with a little bit of water and a whole heap of hope for a lovely arrangement!

And you know what?  It worked.  I'm loving that simple little Autumn arrangement.

With this chilly weather comes my love of working with wool, so an unfinished scarf from last year is almost done, and I'll share a picture with you soon, right after I've deleted it off my list of unfinished projects on my sidebar.  And what a perfectly good time of year to finish a woolly scarf when it will get lots of use.

Hubby and I played truant today and went to a midday session of "Great Expectations".  It always seems so decadent to go to the movies during the day when everyone else is at work!!  Helena Bonham Carter was perfect as the jilted Miss Haversham.  She took jilted to a whole new level.  Very impressive.

Now it's raining and getting dark, time to close the curtains, put some heat on and get into my snuggly-warm dressing gown and hunker down for the night.

Hope you've had a happy Thursday.
Trudy

A Crafty Post

As promised, because deep down I think you like the crafty posts the best.  On my craft table at the moment there are three projects (I've hidden all the others, out of sight, out of mind ... it doesn't take much!!) so I can give these my focussed attention, and there has been a little bit of progress on each of them.  Not much, but a bit!

Firstly, here is a sneak peak at this month's project that I'd aiming to finish.  I don't want to give too much away, not just yet, but it's hand stitching which I love to do.  It's nice to be able to transport a project easily and sit quietly wherever you are, adding to it, tiny stitch by tiny stitch.

A bit of progress on hubby's scarf.  Hard to get too excited about this as we're into Spring and it's getting warmer every day.  I know it won't get used until next Winter now, so that's probably when it will get finished, hopefully just prior to the cold weather setting in.

And the reason the knitting is not progressing speedily is that I've been weilding the crochet hook.  Again two steps forward, one step back, and that's because I leap ahead thinking I know what I'm doing only to find that I actually don't.  It was starting to get that unwanted wavy look again.  Of course, I kept going because I thought it would all be okay, but then I thought I should do a stitch count (what a good idea, Trudy!) and found I had so many more stitches than I should have ... yikes!!  I then see my problem back four rows (oh yes, I'm always slow to pick up a mistake!!)  Instead of crocheting two stitches together, I did two stitches ... bloomin' well side by side.  What a ninny!!!!!

Anyway, I'm back on track with it and stop myself every time I daydream about this project becoming a scarf rather than a blanket.  But it would make a very snuggly scarf, don't you think?  And right now it's the perfect width.  Better get going on the next rows before I start wrapping it around my neck and heading out the door!

Rather like the look of a re-wound ball of wool.  Good really, because I'm seeing a few of those at the moment!

Seeya tomorrow in Blogtoberfest-land!
Enjoy your day, Trudy

Little Woollie Crochet-a-long

Do you know Julie, over at Little Woollie?  She's having a crochet-a-long of the mixed stitch stripey blanket kind.  I thought that as we were coming out of Winter and as I had just finished a major crochet blanket that I would screw up my eyes and put my fingers in my ears so I wouldn't be tempted by this fabulous project, but I have no will power and here I am about ready to jump right in!!

We are very lucky in our little country town that we have a shop that sells wool, and very lucky that the owner of this shop is happy to order in any colours that I need/want/love!  So while I had decided a little while ago to join in this project, I've been waiting for the wool to come in and now it has.

These are my colours.  These colours call to me all the time.  Very different to Julie's bright and cheery colours, which are gorgeous, but these are my colours and the colours I will love to work with.  I'm using Australian 8 ply wool by Cleckheaton 'Country' and Shepherd 'Colour 4 Me'.  They are just so scrum-diddly-umptious that I can't wait to get started!!

This year was my year for focusing on finishing all those unfinished projects I have piling up, finishing one a month (which reminds me that August is almost over and I've not been working on one of those projects, opps!) and here I am starting something brand, spanking new, but there you go, that's just the kind of girl I am!!  Oh, and while I'm confessing to new projects I'm knitting my hubby a scarf too ...

Any confessions of the crafty kind you want to get off your chest?
Have a lovely day, Trudy

While we're on the subject of Blankets

I think I have time for just one more blankety-blanket post before Winter is nudged aside by Spring, and the blankets are put away again until next year.  Thought I might offer you a bit of a showcase of woolly bits.  That is, blankets knitted and crocheted.  A feast of colour, as it were.

This first one is a knitted blanket, and the joy of this blanket is that many hands went into making it.  It was knitted, not only by me, but also four very special people in my life.  It was quite a few years back now, and I'm not sure how it came about that I was given such a helping hand.  I possibly bit off more than I could chew in the knitting department, felt overwhelmed and was saved by my Mum.  She stepped in and was the first to say she would do a few blocks.  Then my Aunt.  Then my best buddy.  Then, not to be outdone by the bevy of knitting women around him, my Dad did a block for me.  Yes, my Dad can knit.  Can knit, but doesn't make a habit of it.

This is a big, weighty blanket and is on my bed right now, ready for when it's time to snuggle under it.  I love the eclectic mix of colours, the mish-mash, the "let's finish this ball of wool, did I make you a jumper in this?"

This next one is a more recent addition to the blanket stack.  This one was made a couple of years ago.  Purpose-bought colours, and notice the grey and red?  This is more of a knee rug, in fact it's on my knees right now!!  Oh, now see what I've done ... I was calling them blankets, but deep down I want to say rugs!  I was brought up with the word rug, and just recently it seems they've become blankets.  Anyone else want to call them rugs?!!

Next up in the showcase of blanket-rugs is one I've shared before, but wanted to pop it in anyway.  This is the one I affectionately call the Nanny McPhee Granny, or the Nanny Granny.  Love those hundred squares.  Very uninspired by the sewing-up process at the end.

And now, a peek at my current work-in-progress.  Flowers!  I made a shawl in this design and enjoyed making the flowers so much that thought a whole blanket-rug in them would be quite something.  This is a project that's just jiggling along in the background of all the other projects I'm working on.  Not rushing this one, just enjoying the process, and enjoying using up all the left over wool.

I'm off to "Bedfordshire" to dream under some woolly stripes.
'night, Trudy

Yarn Bombing Venus Bay

We've just had a couple of relaxing days tootling away to nearby Venus Bay.  The weather wasn't perfect, well it was perfect Winter weather ... cold and drizzly!  Umbrellas at the beach?  No, we rushed back to our little house and hunkered down.  We'd taken all the pre-requisite games, books*, pens, pencils, and craft bag so we were all set to play indoors.

When we first arrived we noticed that someone, who had come before us, had done some yarn bombing on a big tree in the front yard and we then started noticing yarn bombing in different places all over Venus Bay.

Before we left for home, Girl 2 decided she wanted to do her first bit of yarn bombing and to leave it on the tree outside the kitchen window.  Being new to knitting, a simple little square of knitting was created.

And joyfully stitched to the branch.

There was a big smile for that little piece of knitting.

Isn't it just the cutest little piece of yarn bombing from a soon-to-be ten year old knitter?

We almost didn't want to leave it behind, but now have thoughts of some yarn bombing in our own yard.  This yarn bombing from Germany is fantastical and inspiring!

Have you yarn bombed?
Have you secretly wished to yarn bomb?  Go ahead, it's fun!!

Trudy

* Read "A Reliable Wife" by Richard Goolrick - couldn't put it down!

Finished Project for June

The reason some of these unfinished projects of mine are sitting unfinished - this knitting project, for example, has sat practically since woman first put wool around a long stick and called it knitting - is that my interest wanes.  And what can one do with waning interest, you may ask?  Turn what was to be something into something a little different.  Turn what was going to take a lot more knitting hours into something which could be cast off immediately.

So here is this month's finished project which started out with huge potential.

This was going to be a Seriously Long Scarf.  See my knitting skills are sitting pretty low on the scale of knitting skills, none-the-less a brilliant idea later and scarf becomes neck worm.  And neck worm is very happy snuggling around neck of Girl 1.  Inside-out mind you, and with her giving us her best spy look.

The downside of cutting off a project mid-potential is that there is Wool Left-Over, and Girl 2 has shown interest in having a neck worm too.  Of course.

Hope you're all enjoying a little bit of sunshine today.
Trudy

Knit 1 Purl 1

Remember I mentioned that I was off to learn how to knit socks?  Did I also mention that I don't really consider myself a knitter?   I can K1, P1, very slowly mind you, but four needles with pointy bits at each end, and a tubular shape with heel bits, what was I thinking?

Let me tell you how the day unfolded.  After having a delicious lunch at the South Melbourne Trader, my buddy (brilliant knitter that she is had gone prepared, ready to "turn the heel" for goodness sake!) and I set out for the suburb of Kensington in Melbourne, to a cute little shop called Onabee.

Onabee is packed full to the brim with fabulous things.  All those things that we like so much!!  There was wool and buttons and fabric and craft kits ... it's a little Aladdin's Cave of goodness, and I was easily distracted by everything around me.

And on the little couch where we sat for our class there was some beautiful and inspiring crochet blankets.  I became absolutely smitten with the one on the far end, the pattern is from Jan Eaton's 200 Crochet Blocks book, and the square is called Willow.

Maybe my problem was that I was dreaming about a new crochet blanket project, or wondering how many chocolate biscuits it is socially acceptable to eat in a two-hour class.  Is three okay?  But sock knitting was not a happening thing for me.  After quickly assessing my skill-level it was decided that four needles should become two, and we'd do a pattern that requires stitching up at the end, and after casting on my 66 stitches and painstakingly doing a few rows it was decided that a different size needle was required, so I began again.  And now take a look at my knitting when I pulled it out of the bag this morning ...

Methinks I need to just quietly pop this away for a little while and come back to it later;  to perhaps realise in life there are moments for challenges and moments for sitting in the comfort of knowing exactly what it is that you are doing!!

Hope you're enjoying a relaxing Sunday afternoon, and have a fabulous week.
Bye, Trudy

Finished Project for May

Time to tick another project off my list.  Yeah!!  This started off as a lesson in learning the art of making flowers with a crochet hook, and then deciding what to make with them.  For a brief moment it was going to be a blanket until I realised it would be years in the making and perhaps not the size of project I wanted to embark upon.

For a brief moment it was going to be a scarf, but I do like the idea of something just sitting there, behaving itself and not flapping about, so I stitched the two big flowers together and I'm calling this a neck warmer.  A Rose Neck Warmer, even though the flowers don't resemble roses at all!

This was purpose-bought wool and I remember having an idea in my head of the colours I wanted.  I was shopping with my friend and she was quite appalled at the colours I chose, but I was undeterred!!

I think there is a very fine line in wearable crochet between what is groovy and a bit different to what everyone else is wearing, and then downright daggy and embarrasing, and to be honest I'm not 100% sure which camp this Rose Neck Warmer falls into.  Perhaps I should wear it out in public and get some feedback?  I'll let you know ... !!

While we're chatting about keeping neck's warm, as we dive headlong into Winter, have you come across the very talented Sandra Juto?  She makes the most divine neck worms (yes, worms!!) and wrist warmers.  Her colours are gorgeous.  Love them.  Here are a couple of photos of Sandra's beautiful work.

Love these wrist worms!!  I think I may just have to make some for this coming Winter as wrist worms/warmers are one of my absolute favourite winter accessories!

Last Winter I was inspired by Sandra to make a neck worm, and I must say it has been mighty snuggly and warm to have around my neck.  I was home alone the day I wanted to photograph it, and it was very difficult without a neck in it, but I scoured the house for props in order to share with you and I think the fruit basket does the job nicely for being the right shape and having a head substitute!  What do you think?  Apart from the red and pale blue in the neck worm, the rest was one ball of wool, and from memory I think it was Noro.

Back to the Dear Jane Dolly Quilt, maybe for June's finished project?  Hmmm, we'll see!!

Bye for now, Trudy