February Crafting around the Cottage

 

Happy Valentines Day! Can you believe its mid February - a sure sign now that if you blink for too long this year is going to be over!  Each year seems to go by so much quicker than it ever used to - but then I also wonder if it just seems that way because we are all so busy with endless emails, social media, mobile phones with instant messages and all the endless IT stuff we are now linked to!  I'm sure things moved slower when the bills arrived in the mailbox and you had to wait till you were heading into town to go to the various places to pay them.  Phone calls were on the land line so you didn't have to constantly have incoming calls and messages whilst out doing things ....... anyhow - I digress and I'm very thankful that I still have a couple of snail mail friends ....... oh how I enjoy it when they arrive in the mailbox! But apart from writing some letters, I have also been busy in the craftroom ......

Let's begin with the Chookshed Challenge - with Deana picking out Number 8 this month.  For me

that is  socks/ shawl or a hand embroidery item to work on.  I decided to pull out an old WIP shawl - started back in April 2024 and thrown into the corner when I realised there were several charts I would have to work from.  Charts back then were quite a frightening prospect, but since having to work from charts for the colourwork gnomes, I feel like I'm ready to give it another go.  When I picked it up I had done to the dark brown and white band.  I've had to frog back to there after doing 12 rows and finding my pattern was completely out (got the front and back rows mixed up and the results were not so pretty) So after frogging I've made a bit of progress.

We've had our little granddaughter (Miss M) out visiting the past few weeks - she just turned 2 at the start of February and is very much "Daddy's Girl".  I pulled out the Scotty Dog pattern I had bought last year and made it up for her - she seemed to like it when I gave it to her today which was good.

And after discovering a little moth like creature had eaten holes through some of my yarn I've had to
throw out about 10 balls!  I haven't had a chance to check the rest - in fact I started to knit up a poncho ready for Autumn weather for Miss M and after a few rows found the yarn had been chewed into some smaller sections .......... so that got ripped out and thrown out once I realised how bad it was.   I've started for the 3rd time and so far this yarn seems to be ok !  This time in a purple colour.   I'm a little concerned how much damage there might be - even though I have sprayed in there at various times!  I was browsing some patterns yesterday morning and came across this poncho and kept going back to it - I really love it's simplicity and practicality.

The temperature tree cross stitch is slowly making progress.  I find I need my stronger glasses to work on it and can only manage about 7 leaves at a time when the lighter colours are being used.  We had a 10 degree drop in temperature earlier this week so my tree is going to be showing a variety of colours.

Early morning walks have been quite nice with the cooler temps and dawn just breaking - 

The other morning we even had a hot air balloon going over the houses here and down to the river before heading back to whereever it had come from.  Whilst they are more common around other areas, we don't usually see them here, so it was quite a nice surprise to the morning walk.

I've finished knitting another Gnome - this time Professor Fungi and I love how the tweed yarn has worked so well with him.  So that makes 2 Gnomes so far this year - I have plans for at least 1 more which I hope to have completed by the end of March.  I'll likely give them a rest for a while then I think as I have larger projects planned for the cooler weather.

And with so many young kookaburras around it wasn't long before we had to pull out another one from the pool.  This young one was only released a week ago from a wildlife rescuer just close to us and it seemed very thin so we contacted her and it turned out it was the same one - so he has gone back there to be fed up and given another trial release in a week or two.  

I'm off to sort out the roast for dinner and get things sorted ready for work tomorrow.  I hope you all have a fabulous week.  Hugs,

                                                   Sharm 

January Round Up

 It's the very last day of January - thankfully with a cooler change - we are down to just 30 C today (86f) which is such a relief after the week of high temps ranging from the mid 40s to 48 c 2 days ago (118.4f ) - its been a burning heat.  

Dog walks have been very early and you could see the colour in the Sun as it rose that it was going to be a scorcher ..... and a very pink sun when we had some of the smoke from the fires blown in which made it very eery.   

The council kept the sport field watered and it has been a lovely green reprieve for the doggos in the morning with the rest of the park area brown!

The animals and birds have been struggling ...... we had a young kookaburra dive too deep into our
pool and got stuck - luckily I happened to see the ripples in the pool as it struggled and I was able to scoop it out - it was totally drenched and obviously very tired from thrashing around in the pool.  Pete was able to lift the scoop up to the roof of the shed so it could dry off - meantime, its mates were flying over to keep a check and sat up in the gum tree waiting for it to dry out and join them - which it did eventually!  Poor Guy ...... we have a few bird baths and dishes of water in both the front and back yard that most of the other birds visit.

Soooooo - Finished projects for January - the 2 cushion pad covers for Miss Lucy; the bag for the boat safety equip for the van ...... and Gnombelberry (still need to get his backpack completed).

WIPs which were started in January include a sock with self patterning yarn,

 the Temperature Tree Cross Stitch (first week completed) and the branch for January

And I've started the 2nd Gnome for this year ....... Gnock from the pattern Someone to write Gnome about - which works well with my love of snail mail (although that has certainly dwindled over the past 10 years) ........ It's a very long hat!

And on other January news ......... my Run Down Under medal arrived showing my annual amount of kms I walked (and recorded) - I no longer am able to run - I need to pick up the pace if I'm to ever make it around Australia lol

And we had an overnight visit from Stace and John (and bunnies and birdies) - it was lovely to have them come and spend some time up here with us.

It's hard to believe that January has come to an end already and tomorrow we head into February - a short month - no doubt it will be over before we can blink - until then, Hugs Sharm xo