It's raining, cats and hats

Wow, from beautiful sunny weather last week at the coast back to cold, wintery and wet weather in Canberra. I reckon I'd qualify as a weather forecaster - my car has been in a rather dirty state for about 2 months and last Thursday afternoon after I got home, I decided to take it to the car wash and even paid extra for it to get the extreme valet service. Well, wouldn't you know it - the rain started Saturday and we haven't had a dry day since. It did ease off a bit this morning which was convenient for the workmen removing a dangerous very tall diseased gum tree which was growing about 3 feet from my next door neighbour's house. This guy was incredible the way he moved around up there .. almost monkey like. The pic was taken from just outside my front door - that dark bit on the left hand side is my guttering.


On the crochet front, I've been making little premmie hats. Someone told me that as far as size goes, a good guide is they should fit easily on an orange. Don't know about you but we get enormous oranges here. I've been experimenting with different size hooks, different baby yarns and different number of increases. Our Knit4Charities group received an urgent request from Berry Street Foster Care for tiny premmie hats and small blankets so I hope my contribution will help.


Its been awhile since Madison (my shadow) has popped in to say hello to you, so here she is waiting by the back door while I was getting ready to go away last week. Maybe she thought she was coming too ?

Coast Day 3

Today has probably been the best weather wise - a lovely warm 27 degrees with just a gentle breeze. I have to show you this picture of the sun peeping over the horizon early this morning. This would have to be an extremely rare pic from me as I'm usually still well and truly asleep at this time of the day.

Must confess, I did go back to bed for a few hours.

Later in the morning I decided to go for a short drive to the beach as a trip to the coast just wouldn't be right without visiting a beach. I was expecting to be at Batehaven but maybe I took the wrong turn.

This is Caseys Beach which is only about a 5 minute drive south of Batemans Bay.

On the way back, I stumbled upon a Vinnies store and think I got a reasonable bargain. For $10 I got all this lovely stash plus the DVD.


Finally, back to Target for a few more DVDs they had on sale for $8.99 each.
The Thorn Birds; Sleepless in Seattle; and, Ghost.
Anyone for a girls night in soon?

Coast Day 2

Not alot to tell you today. Was planning a trip to Mogo which is a beautiful old town/village with lots of interesting crafty type shops, however, too many aches and pains put a stop to that idea. Maybe tomorrow ?? I did venture out for a little stroll around nearby shops but even that didn't last for long. Did manage to get a little crochet done but still haven't got anything finished to show. I brought a couple of UFOs with me and am hopeful that when its time to go home, I might have turned one or two into FOs.

The food is good and last night I really enjoyed the fish special at $8 (even though it was fried)..


And who would ever tire of the view?

Coast - Day 1

So we’re here at the coast and what beautiful weather – couldn’t ask for better. The trip down was pleasant and uneventful. I had planned to stop off at Australia’s first heritage listed town - Braidwood and take a few pics to share with you but only managed to get one of an old museum.

I think everybody in Braidwood was in town today as the shopping part of town was so busy. I need to find the bakery on the way home as my daughter tells me it’s the best.

It’s a pretty drive between Braidwood and the coast, even though you have to come down that mountain with all the hairpin bends etc. I love the way these trees line the side of the road – I decided to stop in the middle so here’s two views – east and west. The mountain starts about 10 minutes further on.



Batemans Bay has changed so much since I was here last which I must say was quite a few years ago. Like lots of other places, the main street is one-way and guess who sailed straight past the motel and got totally lost ? Yeah well, eventually got back to where I should be – not much different to what visitors to Canberra say …… you have to go round and round in circles and you eventually get there. The motel room is great – don’t you love the view from the balcony?



I’ve been here before and know that sunset can be quite stunning so I hope to get a nice pic for you later tonight.

Today’s mission – accomplished !!! Found Target Country – quite boring and nothing to extract any cash from me, BUT right opposite was the Bargain Box which just happens to sell yarn, amongst many other very interesting things. Like any self-respecting crocheter, had to add to the stash and support local business by purchasing this lovely Magnum. Four balls of 8ply and the bright red 12ply which I’m going to see how it goes with the Queen Anne’s lace scarf pattern. I really like this pattern and have seen some really stunning scarves made with a solid colour.


Nearly time for dinner so I’ll leave you with a this last shot from the balcony - its now low tide.

Why did I do it?

I really don’t know what possessed me when I bought this yarn. Its thin, a bit scratchy to feel, and is going to take an age to make anything with it ...

I’ve trawled through 140 pages of projects made with this yarn on Ravelry looking for a particular scarf pattern I was planning to use with this Noro Kureyon Sock yarn and would you believe, I couldn’t find it !!!! Rather than just add to my stash, I have started a V-stitch scarf (don’t need a pattern for that) and its not looking too bad. I think an open type of stitch works best for the yarn as there’s no complicated pattern competing with the colours. I’ll show you a pic-in-progress in a few days.

Had a play around with some Christmassy cotton (from the stash) this afternoon and am quite pleased with the way this hotpad turned out, although I think I might try it again soon and use a solid colour instead of the variegated. I’ve seen pictures of lots of these Starburst hotpads and the solid colours really appeal to me. Anyway, this one will be added to someone’s Christmas gift – hope she likes it.


I’ve been hankering for a trip to the coast for awhile so will be heading off on Monday morning to Batemans Bay for 4 days, and guess what? You’re coming with me !!!! There are plenty of things to do there but what I’m really looking forward to is sitting on the balcony looking out over the water, doing a bit of knitting or crochet, maybe reading a book or just lazing around in front of the television (something I rarely do at home).

Picture Perfect

That describes lunch today with my very good friend Lucy and a few samples of her beautiful photography. Words cannot describe the beauty of nature, captured in these following photos. Enjoy ...






Aren't they gorgeous? Thank you for allowing me to show my blogger friends some of your lovely photos Lucy.

Still feeling a bit um - shall we say 'sufficiently satisfied' (or you could say 'full') I'm going to just have a cheese and tomato half baguette for dinner tonight then I think I'll settle down for a little knitting. I hope to have what I'm working on finished soon so I can show you - maybe tomorrow.

A Pic for Pat

My crochet (and blogging) friend Pat asked for a picture of my slide and film scanner - here you go Pat ...

Sorry its only a picture of the outside of the box as I'd packed it all away before you left your comment on yesterday's post. Super easy to use .. you take the SD card out of your digital camera, put it in the slide scanner, put the slides (or film) in the holder, put it in the scanner and you'll see the picture on the little screen, push the button and hey presto .. its done. All you have to do when you've finished scanning onto the SD card is to put it back into your camera and transfer the pictures onto your computer as if you'd just taken them with the camera. The scanner converts to the .jpg format. Easy peasy !!

Slide Night

My new toy arrived yesterday and I've been having so much fun with it. I bought a Yashica Slide and Negative scanner which turns those old fashioned slides and 35mm negatives into digital images that you can save on your computer. Most of our slides are at my eldest daughter's place but I fossicked around and found enough to play with for a start. I must say I'm impressed with the quality considering the age of these pictures and I'd like to share a few interesting ones with you.


This photo was taken 35 years ago. Can you see what's missing? If you said the new Parliament House then you're right and here's a couple of the new 'house' being constructed..


On open days people would line up for hours to go inside as only a certain number were allowed in at a time as a safety measure ..


I don't know when I took this next picture but it was probably sometime in the 60s. Construction of the Sydney Opera House commenced in March 1959 and proceeded in slow stages over the next fourteen years. It was completed in mid 1973.


Only a little bit of crochet was done today - a coffee cup cozy which I'll use in a Christmas gift ..



This cozy was designed by the late Janie Herron (aka Crobeanie) and unfortunately the pattern is no longer available on the internet. Janie was a lovely lady and quite a talented designer. I'm so glad I saved some of her patterns back in the late 90's. My favourite little angel pattern is one of Janie's - I'll show it to you another day.

UFO Day

Just two little FOs (a child's hat and a face/dish cloth) but at least the pile is going down and I have now got two more pairs of knitting needles available should I feel the urge to start something else.


While playing around with my digital camera last night I came across these ..



Suppose I should confess - I didn't make those last three items - they're from this booklet which I'd actually forgotten about but am pleased to have rediscovered it and might try something from it soon.

The chicken or the egg

What did come first ? You might well ask the same question about what I've been doing this weekend. Made a cute little crochet pom-pom the other day so decided I really did have to make a hat to go with it ! I wanted to practice my knitting in the round and having 'jogless stripes' so that's what I've been up to. It'll probably go on hold after the postie comes tomorrow with my Noro Silk Garden as I have a scarf pattern I'm just itching to start. This Noro yarn sure is addictive.

I have a little friend who wants to pop in to say hello to you ....



This is Tommy in one of his rare quiet moments. He's such a crazy Pug who belongs to my eldest daughter and whose batteries just never seem to go flat. He likes to be everywhere - all at the same time. We love him dearly but look forward to when he grows out of his silly adolescence and starts behaving like a sensible grown up boy. Well, you can always hope can't you ? He'll be 3 years old in a few months time.

The Chain Reaction

Isn’t it funny how one thing leads to another ? I finished the Queen Anne’s lace scarf over the weekend – daughter saw it and reminded me that she has been asking for a Queen Anne tablecloth for years now however will settle for a table runner instead. She bought me an old pattern of the Queen Anne lace at an antique shop at Tarcutta awhile back and thought a tablecloth would make a lovely family heirloom. What she didn’t consider is that my poor old eyes aren’t what they used to be and thread work is something I rarely tackle these days. As luck would have it, I received a magnifier attachment for my Ott Light last Friday and it really does help so I’ve decided to give it a go – make a start and see how I go. I won’t be telling my daughter about it just in case it doesn’t happen.



For the record, the scarf is made with Noro Taiyo shade No. 1

and I used a 5.5mm hook. The pattern can be found here.
The pictures have been deleted but the pattern is still there and is about half way down the page.

Disaster struck on Saturday afternoon ! After I finished the scarf, I decided to do a bit more on my Reversible Hungarian blanket (wool-eater) but had to stop as my right index finger (where the hook rests) had a huge ‘dent’ in it between the two knuckles, and was quite painful. Knitting seemed a better option so I made a dishcloth which can be included in somebody’s Christmas present.

I hope all my Aussie friends have a nice win on the Melbourne Cup tomorrow.