Mystery Revealed

I have a feeling that I won't be suddenly posting on the blog everyday. The November experiment (posting everyday or nearly everyday) ended up with the grand tally of 6 posts. We live and learn.

Since my last post we've had several events, but the first of these was our trip to the South-East to Kingston SE for my mum's 60th birthday party. Luke had a sleepover for scouts on the Friday night so we left home early on Saturday morning, picking him up along the way. The weather was just lovely, which was a change from the weekend of my dad's 60th nearly 2 years ago when we had temps around 40C. I don't have a lot of photos as I have never been in the habit of snapping everything. Some people seems to view a lot of events through the lens of their camera or video camera. Some moments are ideal for photo taking, but a lot of the time I prefer to enjoy the moment or event without worrying if I got a good shot of it. I also spent a lot of the day organising food and chatting to people (some that I haven't seen for some time). The younger kids had a great time as Mum & Dad have a cubbyhouse in their new backyard, and we really didn't see too much of them. They played quite well together as young kids do, even when they don't know each other well. Luke helped out with setting up and serving-he's at the age when he doesn't want to play with the younger kids, and there were no other kids his age there. I am also able to reveal the mystery project that I have been working on-a knitted lace scarf for my mum. It got favourable comments from quite a few people, and I was happy with the way it turned out. The yarn was 2 ply 50% silk/50% wool from The Knittery in the Denim colourway. This yarn is just lovely-the loveliest yarn I've seen. The pattern was "Scarf with Clarence Border" from Victorian Lace Today, and I really had to stop myself from casting on something else from this book for myself. It was a fun knit, and it only took me about a week, I think. Yes, I do tend to leave things to the last minute, but I went for something simple because of that.

Now, some pictures.....

The birthday photo shows Ron and my mum trying to get the candle to stay alight in the breezy conditions (and the lovely cake that my SIL LeeAnne baked & decorated for the occasion). The various pictures of the yarn and scarf are not the best in terms of colour-some were taken in bright sunlight, and others with flash. I think the picture of the yarn is the closest to the true colour.

Last week, Caitlin and her Brownie Guide group participated in a local Christmas Pageant, with the theme being "Nursery Rhymes". She was dressed as a cat for their nursery rhyme-The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe, and Ron drove his parents' vintage truck as their "float".

Only 1 week and 2 days before the end of school-we have 2 BBQs and one concert to go before then and then we have some quiet time before Christmas. This year we are having Christmas lunch at home by ourselves, with dinner at Ron's parents new home with his family.

Craft wise I've been busy finishing up the model I'm doing for Naomi from Stitches N' Spice, which should be done by the end of this week-I will take photos when it's finish. I've got a tea cosy to get finished for a knitting exchange, as well as some Christmas ornaments for the kids' teachers. I'm itching to get back to some WIPs-both knitting and stitching, so maybe there will be some more progress on some projects that haven't been seen lately-but not for a couple of weeks.

Please forgive the strange set out with the photos-I have great trouble with Blogger and the way it decides to display pictures-I don't seem to have much trouble uploading them-just getting them to line up in a halfway normal manner. I'm giving up today, and going to do something more productive.

How many days?

Only 4 more weeks of school to go! The year's just speeding by. The weekend's just about over too; just dinner and end of day things to do. Yesterday we spent most of the day in the garden weeding, mowing, and generally tidying up. Luke has been initiated into the way of the mower, so maybe the "normal" lawn will become his domain? We have about 1/4 acre that is basically paddock that Ron mows with a heavy duty push mower (it's too rough for a ride on). There's still more to do outside, but we got a good amount done-luckily it wasn't too hot yesterday.

Today we went into the city to the Botanic Park for Ron's work's Christmas Picnic. Even though the weather was hotter today, it was very pleasant in the shade. Everyone had a great time-Caitlin had her face painted, got a temporary tattoo, got a balloon animal from one of the many clowns, and went on one of the bouncy castles. Luke & Ron both went on the Circotron, and I had a nice back & shoulder massage. There was plenty of yummy food & drink, and a good time was had by all.

This week should be fairly straight forward-I was going to say "normal" but I'm not sure if that applies. Saturday will be an early start as we head down to Kingston for my mum's 60th birthday party. We will head back sometime Sunday in time for work & school.

I've been working on the secret project, which is coming along nicely, and have just realised that I will get a big chunk of knitting time in the car this weekend (at least 3 hrs each way). I also need to start Christmas decorations that I make for the kids' teachers each year, as well as my Embroiderers Guild Kris Kringle gift, and then there's the advent calendar that I need to sew.... Luckily I'm not planning on making lots of homemade gifts for Christmas this year!

The next couple of days are going to be much cooler than first thought-we were heading for 37-39C days, but now we've got 31-27C. Much more comfortable-and the forecast so far for the weekend looks to be warm (30C) but not overly so-thank goodness.

It's Heating Up

Well, so much for good intentions. First I had a day where nothing happened-well, nothing interesting anyhow. Then it got busy and I didn't have time to blog, and before you know it-here we are 9 days later.

Here's a few shots from the pageant-held through the main streets of Adelaide. We had a lovely day, but to get a good spot and allow for street closures it meant an early start for us (Luke & Ron left home at 5.15am, and Caitlin & I left at 6.15am). You can see the streets at dawn, and then later as the street began to fill up. We actually got to hear most of the bands (last year we seemed to be in a spot where every band had a break from playing).

Luke's camp went well, but he was very tired as he got home from camp on Friday afternoon, had scouts that evening, and then up at 5am for the pageant.

This weekend we hope to spend Saturday getting work done in the yard. Sunday is Ron's work family picnic in the Botanic Gardens. It's usually lots of fun, but the forecast is going to be fairly hot (36C) so shade will be at a premium. We've got another few hot days after that with 39C forecast for next Tuesday. We're hoping it will cool down after that as we have my mum's 60th birthday in the South-East at the end of next week.

Tomorrow will be me getting housework out of the way early so I can work on a secret project in front of the a/c and cricket before the kids get home from school, and the weekend begins....

Shopping!

I was going to take pictures of my purchases from our shopping trip today, but Ron had snagged the memory card from the camera, and now it is dark, so you will have to wait until tomorrow. Bobbie & I went to The Yarn Barn, which happened to have everything on sale, as they need to make room for new seasons stock. I picked up 8 balls of Jo Sharp DK Cotton in a nice blue, a skein of Filatura Di Crossa Centolavaggi (laceweight merino) in white, the Harmony Aran book, and a Fibretrends Mobius Scarf pattern. We next went to the Button Bar which stocks KnitPicks, and both stocked on up a few accessories we needed. Apparently the owner is also getting lots of Clover accessories-depending on the suppliers, maybe by the end of this month, or perhaps in January. We browsed Borders, Dymocks and Angus & Robertson, but didn't buy any books. It was good to see a lot of titles in print-some I thought I would like were not to my taste, and I did see one which I have ordered through Fishpond at a lot cheaper price. We also squeezed in a coffee and lunch break, before heading back to pick up kids, etc. All in all, a lovely day.


This afternoon has been busy with baking (supper for Luke to take on his camp) and packing, but tomorrow should be fairly quiet, so I should be able to catch up before a busy end to the week.













Here's a few more pictures from our holiday-kangaroos which would come and feed on the grass in the caravan park in Hall Gap (in the Grampians in Victoria), and various pictures around that area, including one which shows some burning off far in the distance.

Don't forget (especially those of you who don't read lots of blogs and may not know) that you can click on the photos to see a larger version.

Nearly every day

I knew I would miss a few days-because I've been blogging at the end of the day, it can easily forgotten with all the activity that happens.

Sunday was a quiet day as predicted, especially as we had a maximum of 14C and some more rain. The rain is more than welcome, but it does make strange to have the fire going in November.

I got organised and took some photos of some of my knitting-finished and in progress.

The pink/black thing is a lace sock (knitted in TOFUtsies-a soy/cotton/chitin[something to do with shellfish] combo). Next is the beginning of a log cabin blanket-similar construction to the quilted kind-the pieces are knitted together-not sewn. The somewhat bright item is a short-sleeved jacket I'm knitting for Caitlin out of Lincraft Bamboozle- a bamboo/cotton blend. Lastly is a cotton dishcloth-commonly known as the Ballband Dishcloth.

Tomorrow I am off shopping with one of our knitting group. Should be fun browsing craft and book shops together before the "fun" of Christmas shopping starts. Luke has a 3 day camp starting Wednesday and the weather looks great for that.

My Boyfriend's Back

Well, my husband's back. He got back this evening, and things are getting back to normal.

I took a look at my blog archives, curious to see what was happening a year ago. The main events early November were the craft fair, and the Christmas pageant. This year I have decided not to attend the craft fair. I told one of my friends at our knitting group this, and we decided that we would rather go shopping in the city, and also to the Yarn Barn, a LNS that is not so local to us. So hopefully this week we will be off to shop! Weather permitting, the pageant will be still on-next Saturday, in fact.

I was going to add a few more holidays photos, but blogger isn't co-operating at the moment.

Tomorrow should be a quiet day at home, with maybe some gardening and knitting.

Every Day?

Firstly, I want to thank those who read my blog, and those who leave comments. I am planning to write very regularly this month. In the US (and anywhere else that wants to join in, I guess) a thing called National Blog Posting Month, where participants post to their blog each day for the month of November. Being realistic, I don't plan to post every day, but would like to give it a go for most days. We'll see how it goes.

Ron is currently in PNG (Papua New Guinea), and has taken the camera with him, so I will have to use photos already downloaded, rather than taking anything new, for the moment.

Since I last posted we took part in the Long Walk. The weather was particularly nice-around 23C and sunny.

Here are a few photos I took during the day-vineyards, walkers, and a picture of the kids outside the Bridgewater Mill which was built by an ancestor, John Dunn.

The next day the weather was not so kind, with very nasty winds and rain which almost caused disaster at the wedding of Ron's workmate that we attended.

This tree top fell during the ceremony, but as it was on the other side of the winery, no-one knew about it until afterwards. Somehow it fell between all the cars, and hit nothing and nobody. We had a lovely time, and did much dancing, although many of our muscles protested with the aftereffects of the Long Walk.

I promised last post that I would have pictures of Caitlin's socks, and as it has been a while since I had a FO (finished object) to show-here they are.

They are knit using a basic sock pattern by Ann Budd from her book "Knitters Handy Book of Patterns" using Sullivans sock yarn. The yarn is quite thin, and as I have a fairly loose tension, I used 2mm needles. The first time Caitlin wore these, blue dye stained her feet, but after a wash (in the machine) the colour lightened and the yarn "bloomed" a little. The ball is a 120g ball, and even though these are a women's small size, I have quite a lot left. The main thing is that she likes and wears them, and they wash in the machine.

I think I will end off there-one of the advantages I can see about posting every day is that the posts won't be so long. All that "catching up" makes for big posts.

Where I go on and on....

I'm not going to do a holiday post at this time, since it's been about 2 weeks since we got back, and I have more recent events to chat about. I'm thinking I will find some photos each post and give a summary - but in snippets.

We did have a great time-were away for 10 nights and covered quite a few kms. I did get to Bendigo Woollen Mills, and Caitlin started knitting. She's not done so much since we've been home, what with school and other distractions. Here's a couple of shots along the way. We have Luke in front of several the the Twelve Apostles. You can probably see that the weather wasn't the best for coastal sight-seeing. Caitlin is posing on some beach area we found just out of Apollo Bay, just before we headed north towards Ballarat. The kids had a great time on the beach and rock pools, and found a friendly Border Collie to loved to play fetch. The final photo is in the Grampians. Caitlin is "posing" and Luke is looking his pre-pubescent self when asked to look at the camera.

Now, back to current events..... Since we arrived back: Ron has had his 20th school reunion, been up to the Cooper Basin for the week, kids have started back at school for the final term of the year, we had a school working bee on a day when it was 33C, followed a couple of days later with 15mm of rain and a max temp of 13C. Coming up we have a wedding this weekend (someone from Ron's work who's not been there all that long so I haven't met) with not many people I will really know-but at least Ron isn't in the wedding party this time. Oh, and before that we have the school's "Long Walk" which is held every 2 years and retraces in part the journey many pioneer women walked from up here in the Hills down to produce markets to sell and buy produce sometime several times a week. This year it is being held on a school day, so it's been structured so the younger children have easier and smaller sections to walk. Luke & Ron are doing the longest part, while Caitlin & I will be doing the intermediate section. The weather (considering what we've had lately) looks to be good. Later this term we have a camp for Luke, Ron going over to Papua New Guinea, Christmas Pageants, Christmas concerts, a 60th birthday party for my mum, and who knows what else.

Having got the other things out of the way, I will turn to craft (as I usually do). Most recently, we went to a garage sale that had advertised "knitting yarn" in the newspaper ad. Generally Ron pops into local garage sales looking for parts and tools for his car restoration project. He had standing orders to look out for ball winders, but had so far been unsuccessful. I didn't have my camera with me, but i saw what happens when stash goes bad. It was quite sad-most of the garage sale was in a garage (funnily enough) and the lady (who we found out later had been the knitter along with other arts and crafts) just kept dragging out boxes and garbage bags of wool and yarn. It hadn't been stored all that well so there was some dust and dead bugs to deal with (not that bad), but it was tragic-there was so much and it was such a mess. I wasn't the only person scrummaging through all this-there were quite a few. I ended up with 7 balls of older Patonyle (yellow, red, bright blue + one ball of navy), 27 balls of 25g Heirloom 4ply in teal, navy & red and a couple of balls of 10ply cotton. I also happened to ask her if she had a ball winder-and she did! I'm yet to test it out, but Ron has lubricated it with a silicone lubricant, and it seems to wind fine. Caitlin got a small bag of yarn odds and ends and we got this for $10. I was thrilled as I never seems to get any bargains from op shops or the like. I was fairly restrained and only got what I thought I would use for sure. I've finished Caitlin's socks (I'll post pictures next time with more details) and am currently working on a little cardigan for our latest family addition. Our nephew and his wife, Paul & Kristen, had a little baby girl, Holly, while we were away on holidays. I also have to stitch up a Christmas ornament for our annual Christmas exchange-I have found a kit that should be ideal-just need to go start it.

Talking of exchanges-I'm participating in a Tea Cosy Exchange-in which we knit a tea cosy for our secret partner, and maybe other kitchen accessories, and send it off with some related goodies for their enjoyment. To assist our partners, we are showing photos of our teapot, so they can knit something that will hopefully fit. Balls of Bendigo 8 ply, and Patons Patonyle added for scale ;)

And I've worked out one reason why people show close-up pics of flowers in their gardens (other than they look pretty)-it's so no-one can see the weeds.........

Easy as Falling off a Blog

You know it's been a while since you've blogged when you have to back and read what you last wrote about... The reason I have given up my procrastinating ways (for now) is that I am feeling poorly and don't much feel like doing anything else. I'm hoping I feel better tomorrow as we will be leaving on Sunday for a family trip (down to the south-east, along the Great Ocean Rd, up to Ballarat and Bendigo, and home via Halls Gap and the Grampians), and I have things to get organised as well as my Knitting group, a school meeting, and my Stitching group.

So, let's see. Since my last post we have : had the party (and sleepover), attended the 24hr International Pedal Prix, kept attending the Knitting group, had my stitching girls getaway weekend, and just general life.

Spring is here-and Summer is looking to be long and dry again. We didn't get much rain in August, so things will be drying out before long.

As far as crafting goes....I'm still stitching away on my model (on the home stretch now, but had hoped to be finished). Knitting-wise I have finished the beanie I had to reknit for Ron. I haven't knitted lately on the Mystery Shawl as it isn't a pick up and put down kind of project. Here's a bad photo of my progress. I am looking forward to getting back to this, but it has to wait, for now.

I've also started a little cropped short-sleeved cardi for Caitlin in a pink/orange variegated bamboo/cotton yarn from Lincraft. I haven't taken any pictures of that one though.

I have got a few pictures of the purchases I made at the Mt Pleasant Wool & Fibre Festival-better late than never, right?

I also got some more yarn (from the same seller as the pink) in a blue/green colourway, but my photography sucks, so you'll just have to use your imagination for now ;)

As you all know, I love to join in things. This summer I have joined Southern Summer of Socks which looks to be lots of fun and no pressure, except the pressure you put yourself under. Participants have been listing their own challenges, and I have decided to do the same.

1. Knit a pair of socks using the Magic Loop Method.

2. Knit a pair of toe-up socks.

3. Knit a pair of socks from each of Favorite Socks and Sensational Knitted Socks.

I think that will do for now. Both those methods will be new to me and I would like to try them as I currently am a top down, dpns gal. The reason for challenge no. 3 is that although I have these books and love them, I have not actually knitted anything from them-yet.

Oh, and I am on Ravelry as AussieLeo. I just checked and see that I've been on there since July 6-I still have to update lots of pictures on there, but it's lots of fun, and I love being able to see different people's projects.

Hopefully I will get to post before we leave-if only to let you know what projects I am taking with me! We plan to visit the Woollen Mills at Bendigo-and any other shops we see on our way.

Tag-You're It

I was tagged in Dishrag Tag-my team is "Downunder Dishies". Unfortunately the box didn't arrive on Wednesday as I could have knit my cloth on the bus trip down to Wakakirri rehearsals. The performance was on Wednesday night so we had 2 round trips to the city on Wednesday. The performance went really well with our school winning the "Best School in Public" award which is judged over the whole day including rehearsals and the night of the performance. Caitlin also got to be one of the school representatives who speak after the performance. She was the understudy for one of her friends who was fairly apprehensive about the whole public speaking thing, so Caitlin was prepared, and she did a great job. We don't find out for another week or two whether we make it into the finals.










Back to the Tag. The box was delivered (to my door by the postie) on Thursday around lunchtime. Here is what I got from Clare:


a huge ball of cream cotton, a ball of teal green Heirloom 8 ply cotton, 2 packets of yummy fudge, and of course, a "dishrag" knitted in cream cotton in moss stitch. It was all lovely, but I had to get cracking! I decided to use the green cotton for my knitted cloth, and chose a pattern from Dishcloth Boutique called Kitchen Cotton which was a pattern based on 1x1 rib.

Here is a picture of what I posted to Melanie on Friday: 2 balls of Sugar 'N Cream cotton, a couple of yummy treats, and my completed cloth. Whew!







I had the opportunity on Thursday to attend a knit-a-long in a nearby town (Stirling). There were only 3 of us, but I thoroughly enjoyed it (although I missed out on afternoon tea because I had to leave to pick up kids from school). I have instructions to bring WIPs, and my Knitpicks needles for some show & tell next week.

At the moment life seems all about "the party" which is in a week's time, but I am also working on the model, or knitting (beanie & socks) when that's not suitable. I went to the Mt Pleasant Wool & Fibre Fair today, but will save details for another post.

Must go watch Dr Who, do dishes, and stitch.