Back to all things Home ......

I've had a rather extended weekend with rostered days off on Thursday, Friday and again yesterday!  That meant I had time to get my cleaning, washing, numerous errands done including taking Scruffy to the vet yet again (this time for an injection to help with his arthritis and a check up on the toe) ....... getting all of that done left me to have the time to dedicate to some crafting!  I spent  a wonderful few hours on Saturday with a friend from the local Ravelry group meeting up at the café here in Bundalong and getting a one on one spinning lesson from her!  So my first actual  spinning of more than a tiny handful .......

 and then learning to ply it and turn it into a skein! A rather small skein I admit, but hey, it's my first ever and I'm soooo pleased!!!!  As has been the case in the past, I took my wheel up (another 2nd hand one which I thought was right), but alas it was missing a vital part! (This was the case with the other wheel I tried to learn on a year ago) .... Luckily Jill had brought her travelling wheel and let me learn the basics on it.  Hopefully the missing part will be replaced before too long.

 While I was out spinning and knitting, Pete was busy with some of his burls.  It's great to see him having time to do some crafting of his own, and I can't wait to see how these come out!  We've been burning these bits of wood for years in our wood fire without even thinking twice, until recently when our friend from up near Gympie showed Pete what he had been doing with some of them, so since Pete had a few here he is giving it a bit of trial .......

 It's been soooo cold here this past week I felt I needed a beanie that I could pop on for around the garden and out walking! A lovely easy pattern which I enjoyed making.  I picked up a couple of balls of Cleckheaton Country naturals from the Wangaratta Woollen Mills when I was there meeting up with the girls last week - I haven't used this yarn before, but I was really happy with it - lovely to work with, nice and squooshy lol and it feels quite warm!  In fact I'm sure I picked up a couple of balls of this when we visited Cowra a year or so ago .... I need to pull it out (or perhaps in with the stash now living in Qld??)

Getting back into basics I managed to get some baking done on Sunday morning as well. I really do enjoy baking from scratch and using whatever fresh ingredients I can ...... Managed to use some of our pumpkin for the scones, fresh walnuts for a date and walnut loaf that was still in the oven when I took the photo, and lemons from one of the ladies up the road for the lemon drizzle cake!  We are set for snacks for the week and then some!  Over the weekend I also set about knitting up a few swatches - it seems that Laura Aylor is having a Mystery Knit Along which will make up some type of shawl/ wrap ....... its all very mysterious ........  You can make it in either fingering

weight (4ply) or dk (8ply) and there are 2 sizes of wing span 70 inches or 80 inches. After wrapping a tape measure around me, I'm happy to go with the 70 inches and since I'm after a lighter wrap (hopefully for those cooler mornings/evenings down by the beach lol) I'm using fingering weight - some wollmeise in Igor and some 4ply Bendigo Luxury in Mink and mixing those with some delightful Cascade Heritage Silk - all from my stash I might add!  I think they look nice together, although it took 3 swatches to work out which size needle I'll be using ...... let me know if you plan on taking part in the MKAL!  Click on the link above to see more about it.  I love the way the colours look against the wood - seems it would be a lovely wrap to wear through the woods as well ..........

Yesterday I decided I needed to bite the bullet and get those houses finished off for the Down the Rabbit Hole BOM ........ it felt very good to get them finished off and sewn together! So now I'm caught up on the May pattern at last!  I had soooooo much trouble with these houses and I've had to add bits in and they sure would not get any prizes for sewing or quilting, but they are done!  I sure hope the rest of the quilt gets better from here .........    It's lovely to feel like I'm actually beginning to catch up on some home things again!