One Shade of Grey

Today has been cold and miserable - perfect for a 'stay in pj's all day' kind of day and that's exactly what I did.   Also a good day for crochet - did that too ..

I had some Bernat Super Value yarn in my stash and used Suzi's Perfect Pink Shells Bow Scarflet  pattern with a 5.50mm hook.  The only modification I made was to start with 68 ch instead of 50.

Well, today was National Knit in Public day here in Australia.  How did you spend your day?  As you know, I spent mine crocheting but I heard that our Prime Minister spent hers knitting .. (sleeve of a cardigan for her niece's baby) ..

Update - sleeve finished and (according to her tweet) she just has the lace edging to knit and the cardigan's done. Thought you might like to know that !!

Need to go find something to knit/crochet now. By the way, have you seen this doing the rounds on facebook ?

De-Ja-Vu

Just when I thought I'd seen my last pair of BLACK fingerless gloves, one of DD's work colleagues who bought some last winter, has now asked for a pair for her daughter.  I can't believe that Bendigo Woollen Mills don't have black in their Classic range as that's my preferred wool for these gloves. Ended up having to get  Luxury which is lovely but I really didn't enjoy making this particular pair because it kept splitting - not sure if it was the wool, the hook or me but I must say I was pleased when I finished these today.

An odd request I had from same DD which I first refused but later gave in (as you do when you're such a wonderful Mum lol) ... and at the risk of being considered quite mad, have tonight made some puppy slippers ...

When one of DD's work colleagues mentioned that she'd like a little Dachshund baby, Nat sprung into action, rang a few breeders and had found one for her about half an hour later.  Baby is 4 weeks old now and will be going to his new home in another 2 weeks.  Do you think the slippers will keep his little paws warm ?

Since we're talking about dogs, our house doesn't seem quite right since we lost our last little Japanese Chin a few months ago. I've been thinking about getting another dog but can't decide what I'd like. Thanks to the internet, here's a couple of pics of the breeds I'm currently thinking about - Boston Terrier, Chihuahua, French Bulldog.  What do you reckon ?

Thanks for visiting. xox

Don'tcha love it ?

Crochet Exchange Gift

With all the excitement about my new camera, I forgot to show you the lovely Mothers Day Exchange gift I received from my partner in the Australiacrochet group. K sent me this very pretty set - soap sachet, washer and scented sachet to put on a coathanger. Thank you very much for this lovely exchange gift.

I did warn you about the possibility of boring you with the pics from my new toy didn't I ??  I wanted to try the zoom so stood outside my back door and got this shot of one side of my yard. You probably won't be able to see the artificial butterfly on the tree trunk in this first picture

but from the same spot, zooming in - love it.

Without making any setting changes, here's a shot of my fruit bowl with the camera just about 2cm (1") away from it.

I've always had problems with colour not being correct but my new toy seems to be just what I've been searching for to overcome this.  Now I'm hoping that my crochet and knitting FOs might be less of a headache to photograph.  Yaaay

Seems like my fingerless mitts are back on the agenda for this winter. Today I received an order for a black pair from one of my daughter's work colleagues. She bought a pair for herself last year and now wants a pair for her daughter.  Will have to search the stash tomorrow and hope to find enough black wool.  I bought some gorgeous Bendigo Woollen Mills Alpaca in grey to make myself a pair of fingerless mitts for this winter but mine are going to be knitted.  Oh dear, so much to do and so little time LOL.

New Camera Alert

Updated my camera yesterday with the new Olympus SZ-16 and so far I'm impressed. One of my biggest headaches is with indoor pics when the light is not all that great.  Today was bleak - and I do really mean bleak so it was a good trial.

This is a week old hyacinth plant that I received from my eldest daughter and future son-in-law for Mothers Day, and this next one is a cyclamen I got from my youngest daughter and son-in-law.

Both pics were taken in a rather dull lit room so I am very pleased with the results.

Madison was doing what she does for most of the day and that is taking a cat nap. She doesn't like cameras and usually turns her head the other way, so to test out the zoom, I went to the other side of the room, called her name and managed to get this one ..

I'm dying for a nice day so I can go out and play.  Hope I don't drive you nuts with my happy snaps !!  

Have a great week and thanks for visiting. xoxox

Australian Wildlife and Home Sweet Home

Seems like forever since my last post but I've been 800 kilometers away on the mid  North Coast of New South Wales, at a beautiful place called Tuncurry. I'm happy to be back home again and would love to just sleep for the next week but of course that won't happen.  Wishful thinking !!

A very welcome and regular visitor we had at Tuncurry was this beautiful Kookaburra which was so friendly

When it was obvious that he trusted us and wasn't about to fly off, my future son-in-law approached him and the little guy was quite happy to be tickled ..

And if that wasn't enough, he decided to come a little closer and joined us under the deck. How's this for trust - my grandson enjoyed a little pat too ..

Seems the birds aren't the only friendly creatures up that way. This baby lizard was quite happy to pose for this photo before being returned to his home behind the shed.

As I was driving home yesterday, I had to stop to get these shots to show you ..

There are four of these little bridges across the Pacific Highway a little north of Newcastle. Can you guess why they're there?

Yes, that's right - a special crossing for all those little koalas, wombats, or whatever to safely cross what is sometimes a busy highway.  What I'd really like to know though, is who teaches the fauna about the use of these special bridges and how do they do it ??

Before I finish this post and head off to bed, I'd like to take the opportunity to wish all the mums a very happy Mothers Day.

xoxox

Crochet Inspiration

A couple of weeks ago I was inspired by Pammy Sue of Scotty's Place blog to make the Oveja Shawl (free on Ravelry) for my partner in the Australiacrochet Mother's Day exchange.  As usual I had to make a few modifications because of our 8ply yarn but the pattern is very easily adapted so you could use any yarn at all. I needed just over 400g of 8ply "Knitting Yarn" from the Top Dollar shop and used a 4.50mm hook. I did 64 rows of increases, 5 rows straight and 64 rows decreases.

Pop over to Pammy Sue's for the US yarn modifications and to see her lovely shawl.

For a bit of instant gratification, I made this little pouch the other day. You can attach it to your keys and pop a few spare dollars or even one of those trolley tokens in so you always have one when you go shopping. If you'd like to make one, there's a video tutorial by BobWilson123 on YouTube.  Only takes a few minutes to make.

Bendigo Woollen Mills have had their Murano 100% pure wool on special for $12.00 for a 200g ball so I just had to buy one to see what its like.  This yarn is usually only in their back-room and I don't know how long it will be on the website. I must say I love how its working up and the colours are striping nicely too.

That's just a small section of the corrugated garter stitch scarf I'm knitting - there's also green and purple there too.  Hope to have a ta-da on this soon.

Tomorrow I have to travel about 800kms north to attend to some urgent family business and I'm not sure how much crochet/knitting will get done, or even if I'll get the opportunity to write another post for a little while. Of course I'm taking my laptop with me as I don't want to miss reading my favourite blogs and keeping in touch with the world. I'll try and get a few pics to show you where I'm going - its such a pretty part of the New South Wales mid-north coast.

Thanks for visiting.
Dorothy
xox