Saturday was Winter Solstice otherwise known as the shortest day of the year! In Brisbane that means
a difference of around 3.5 hrs daylight from the shortest to the longest day and further south in Melbourne it accounts for a difference of around 6.3hrs! It also means that as from today (Sunday) the days will very slowly begin to increase and point us towards Summer ....... but for now, and the next couple of months we still have Winter ....... so I'm taking advantage and knitting with my scrummy warm wool I have here in stash!
Joining in with FNWF, I worked on my Sirracco ..... this is worked on the side and I'm now past the halfway mark with part of the back done and another arm seam to go and then the edges to put it all together.
But I found we had some extra cooler mornings with some of those cold winds and figured I could use a cowl when walking to and from work ........ I decided on Valkyrie Cowl by Laura Aylor (Fogbound Knits) and I wanted to use this lovely soft worsted weight Tundra but there won't be quite enough of it .......... The Slate Luxury left over from the crocheted blanket I finished a couple of weeks back seems to be a close match
so I'll do a little bit of striping with them both ........ it seems to be working well so far - hard to believe it was such a close match. The Tundra is just a delight to knit with and I can't wait to be able to wear it! I managed to get into the cables section and had planned to keep doing that while watching some TV, but I wasn't too good at being able to keep track of the cables and the show so I didn't get as much done as I had planned
Yesterday as Pete was going around the yard he came across a fruit bat (still alive) but obviously got lost or was unwell ...... they carry disease so we didn't tend to play with it!
The garden is beginning to flourish and I was surprised to find that one of our summer glady's decided to flower ........ this is our favorite one - I dug it up before we left Bundalong and I'm pleased to see it has flowered here in the garden.
A couple of other things were found in the garden ...... a little bat stopped for the day to sleep it off .........
And we found these crazy little beetles climbing on the stems of the passionfruit - we have no idea
what they are and neither it seems do the neighbours so we don't know if they are good bugs or bad bugs ........anyone out there know what they are? Well it's Monday morning here now and I'm needing to get breakfast and get to work - have a great day everyone
Hugs
Sharm xo
Last year after moving here, I decided that come this winter up here it would be nice to have a ripple
blanket for our bed ...... so I started on a Queens Size Ripple Blanket using Luxury 8ply (dk) yarn from Bendigo Woollen Mills. Its lovely to work with, but was way to warm to be able to continue over the Summer months. Once it cooled down I was able to pick it back up and Ta Da ........ all finished! I decided to put a lace edge on either side of it to hang down and kind of finish it off.
Now, I had thought this had posted at the start of the week, however I've just returned and found it still sitting as a draft .........
And now I'm working on another knitted top ....... the photo has come out sideways so you may have to turn on your side to actually see . I'm amazed that the self striping has actually worked so well in this particular pattern! I had no idea it work like that when I started this and had expected pooling rather than striping! Hope you all had a lovely weekend! No long weekend up here, so its back to work this morning for me ....... catch you later!
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| "Tillandsia" completed |
I'm finally back on line after a number of months struggling with a failing lap top, an IPad that kept freezing on me and lots of "life"!!! (Including Hubbie having an accident with a 9inch Grinder cutting into his thigh - thankfully he didn't loose his leg and the leg has healed well, although it's been a bit of a treck with it).
Today I managed to purchase a new laptop and I'm so, so happy!!! After taking the old one to get fixed and not even being able to get back up on line before it crashed again (I was busy trying to download all my stored documents and photos onto a portable harddrive whilst it was working as I'd been told the motherboard may not last much longer ...... I got to turn on my laptop 3 times before it just would not turn on at all ........ and so I've been
hanging out for the June end of tax year sales Whooo Hoooo!!!! It was worth it as I've saved almost 50% off what it would have cost! ....... Anyhow, that's enough of that as I have quite a bit to catch up on it seems ...... and apparently the March post I thought had gone through was still sitting in a draft box and hadn't published. So here is the abbreviated version: First of all OPAM ........
March Finishes: These 2 Verandah Throw Cushions I had fun crocheting and I finished up a test knit "Tillandsia" which I'm really happy with!
April saw me finally finish "Brookhill " Shawl and I worked on cutting up some stash I had here (with the backing fabrics being around 20yrs old!) ....... I managed to work up a nice quilt for our bed
As for May ....... well I was busy working on the crochet blanket for our queen size bed and got as far
as part way through the border when I ran out of yarn ....... more has been ordered and I'm waiting for it to arrive ........ meantime I'm working on this knitting project which will be another top!
May was a time for celebration as I had my birthday; and we celebrated being in Maryborough a whole year together with Pete having been 1 year retired (and before you ask ....... I'm actually working 4 days each week so a little more than I was before our move).
During my time without being able to blog we had our 2nd eldest son land in hospital with appendicitis (going from the mine site out West Qld to Cloncurry hospital to Mt Isa Hospital for the opp); our daughter has had severe back issues; Pete's Accident, a nephew died ........ and amidst all that of course - I've been working ........ things have been just a tad busy around here. Of course heaps has also been happening in the yard and garden area ........ but I might keep that for the next post ........
In the meantime its great to be back ......I've missed blogland and I do hope to see some of my old bloggie friends drop back in again.
Hugs Sharm
Yesterday as Pete was going around the yard he came across a fruit bat (still alive) but obviously got lost or was unwell ...... they carry disease so we didn't tend to play with it!
