Jan Close- Feb Begins

The skies around here have been throwing out some magical colours with sunsets and sunrises - Pete

Sultana Grapes from our Vine.

took this one on his way to work the other day! (unfortunately, the photo just wont download - so maybe next time!).  January seems to have come and gone - its one of those months that begin with holiday and wind down mode, venturing into planning mode and it seems just as you feel ready to begin the New Year, its the last week of January ...... or the first week of February!  I'd meant to write a couple of posts by now, but time has a way of slipping through your fingers before you realise.  I've spent January working on a pattern for a cotton crocheted

market bag which I finished ....... and took to the farmers market last weekend to try it out.  I was really pleased with what I could fit into it (the slightly different shaped base), and the shoulder strap worked like a charm (no cutting into the shoulder with added weight in the bag).  I also like that its all one piece with just the one join which is crocheted anyhow giving extra strength to it.

  I prefer to work with cotton yarn during the height of summer as my fingers don't get sweaty like they do if I work with wool.  I decided to use some cotton I recently purchased and add some stash yarn to it to make one of Laura Aylors shawl patterns - mine will be a summer shawl (hopefully to use on a beach somewhere before too long!)  So this was what I worked on Friday night when I joined in with all the girls taking part in FNWF.  It's a free pattern called Touchstone and Laura now goes by Fogbound Knits if you are looking for her patterns.

 

I thought I'd finish here by showing this gum tree from our back yard (which I may have shown you

before)...... it's been slowly dying the past year although we made several attempts to save it - at one stage we thought we had as a branch of new growth came out looking healthy and strong, but then it started dying off as well.  Several breeds of birds still seem to be very fond of it, although they don't get to hide in the leaves quite like they used to be able to ........

Tomorrow is my Blog Anniversary - it will be 8 years since I started Country Fragrance ......