Storm and Rainbow

Today in our local paper, I read a very moving story about a 12 year old girl named Dainere Anthony. You may already know about Dainere as Statewide has featured two stories about her in the past few weeks and her story has been on the front page of the Canberra Times. This beautiful, brave little girl suffers a rare form of brain cancer and was granted a wish by the Starlight Foundation. Rather than ask for a trip to Disneyland or something similar, Dainere, who has been blogging her journey, wished for a book to be published to help raise awareness and to help other people with cancer. A link to her blog is in my blogroll on the right hand side of this page. If you haven't seen the ABC programmes, click here and here to watch. I guess we can all learn a lesson from this courageous little girl - embrace life, live it to the fullest and take each day as it comes. Dainere's book is called "You Have to go through a Storm to get to a Rainbow".

As the days are getting rather chilly now, I've been enjoying the few hours of sunshine that comes through my dining room window each day and taking the opportunity to make a few baby items. My niece is expecting a little boy in the next few weeks so I made this little hat and pair of mittens for him.

Looking at the preview of this post, I notice that the hat and mittens look a funny kind of grey colour .... they're actually a nice baby blue so I'm not sure what happened there !!

I'm now working on a little cardigan and last night I indulged a little and couldn't pass up a great offer from JustCrochet in the UK. I now have another five beautiful pattern sets designed by Heather in my collection and think I'll start with a very cute pair of overalls when I've finished this cardigan.

The only other thing I've managed this week is a square for my partner in Australiacrochet's 7" square exchange. She prefers summer/spring colours so I hope she likes what I've done.


Before I go, have a look at this which I think fits nicely in the "what not to wear" CATegory.

You gotta laugh !!

Someone has a wonderful sense of humour ! Is it the news journalist, is it the cop or is it the drunk? It was reported on the radio this morning that a man in England who was suffering the effects of a night on the town, was seen squeezed into a bright pink Barbie car (capable of 6kms/hr), driving down the road. You guessed it - he was picked up by a policeman and charged with drink driving.

Then, a few hours later I heard Alan Jones telling people not to put all their eggs in one basket. The same, he advised, could be said for investments. One fellow put half his money into a paper towel company and the other half into a revolving door company. Poor bloke was wiped out before he could turn around. Ho Hum !!

One of the fun things about surfing the net is not knowing where you might end up. Tonight I found a site well worth an hour or so. Have a look at this site - here's a sample of what you'll find.



My mail-person (actually I think its a lady) brought a lovely surprise today. A few weeks ago a friend in the US who is in one of my crochet groups, posted a photo of an afghan he'd made. I commented on how lovely it was and he sent me the pattern which will definately be a WIM for me. I don't think I'd have the patience to make a huge bedspread but perhaps a babies blanket might be nice. Isn't the pattern gorgeous .....



and here's a close-up ....



Today I've been working on a baby's cardigan from a free pattern. Hope to have a pic to show you soon. I really appreciate being able to get free patterns but I do wish the people writing them would have them tested before making them available. I've already found two mistakes - the first one would have made one side of the front bigger than the other so I'm glad I picked that up. The second error could have been 'fudged' but I've changed it anyway. Its an all in one cardi and I'm up to the bottom part so the rest should be ok. Might even do a few more rows now before I go to bed.

Its that time again

I visit my blog every day so I can follow all those other blogs (the ones down on the right hand side of this page), and I keep thinking how slack I've been lately in not posting anything myself. Other than to say that the weather has turned very cold (great for crochet & knitting)I don't have a great deal to tell you. Guess I could tell you about some ratbag drivers I encountered when driving through Sydney last week but perhaps I should leave that one alone !!! Instead I'll just show you some of the charity things I've done recently.

I love the concept of this little poncho sweater as it sits like a sweater but looks like a poncho. Great for babies and toddlers. There are a couple of free patterns for this on the net - unfortunately the one I printed off had a problem with the mathematics so I had to make a few alterations to make it even on both sides.

The Knit4Charity group had a challenge to make the slippers with soul for a nursing home who had requested them so of course I had to have a go. They are the weirdest looking slippers but when on the foot don't look too bad. Because they are so stretchy, they mould to the foot with the little bar going across the top.

Knit4Charities has another challenge which I'm collecting for at the moment. Its called H4H (Help for the Homeless) and we are making beanies, scarves and fingerless mitts to be given out by Vinnies Night Patrol in Canberra. They requested big beanies as some of the people like to wear two at a time in an effort to keep warm.

Another quickie was the little gumnut babies hat. This was for my daughter & son-in-law's friends in Belgium who had a little boy a few weeks ago. The pattern for this is in the Lincraft Baby Book "Knit One, Purl One, Make One, Give One". It so easy, very quick and I think quite cute. The pattern calls for Fairy Floss yarn but I used Powder Puff which I think is very similar.

Today at CWA I learnt how to knit on dpn's (four double pointed needles) and actually surprised myself when I managed to do it ! I think I'm going to have to have a go at another beanie this weekend - probably start off on circulars then change to the dpn's when I get to the crown decreases.

While at Forster/Tuncurry last week I finished the scarf with that beautiful Bendigo Woolen Mills Luxury. Its turned out lovely and soft - I hope my friend likes it. This pic was taken not long after I started - the finished scarf measures 66 inches.


Well, I've rabbited on a bit haven't I ? I'll leave you with this little gem.

THE SENILITY PRAYER
Grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked anyway, the good fortune to run into the ones I do, and the eyesight to tell the difference.