What could it be ?

Part 3 of the knitalong finished and I still haven't a clue ..

Part 4 arrived in my inbox this morning and all it involves is sewing the sides together - this would give a long tube without an opening. Next you have to push one pointy end inside the other.  Some group members are saying its a hat but why would you have a double thickness hat with the pattern on the inside as well as the outside? I'm baffled.  Guess we're just going to have to wait till the organiser has 'revealed all'. It has been fun - the knitting plus the chatter that has been going on in the group emails.

I forgot to mention yesterday that I'm still working on my tunisian cardi - I'm the master (or should that be mistress) of multi-projects-on-the-go-all-at-once. They say variety is the spice of life and believe me, I can sure do with some spice in life.

I downloaded two excellent apps for my iPhone today - "Knit-n-Count" and "Easy Stitch".  They were $2.99 each and I'm already thinking it was money well spent. There are stitch dictionaries, patterns, hook and needle conversions, row counters, pattern repeat counters, yarn guides and equivalents and so much more. If you have an iPhone and don't have these apps, I suggest you check them out.

Before I finish this post, I saw something funny on facebook that I'd like to share with you.

Meow I lay me down to sleep

I pray my bowl is full and deep

If I should rise before they wake

I will start to MEOW

Make no mistake !

~~~~~

22 Rows of Rib and Time for a Tim Tam

Phew .. I've just finished day 2 of a mystery knitalong with the Knit4Charities group. The Knitalong is a feature of the group's annual conference (Confab) and is something to do in between the different activities. The instructions are also posted on our group site for those of us who weren't able to make it to confab for one reason or another. Unfortunately, because of a couple of health issues, I wasn't able to attend this year but have been having fun with the mystery knitalong. Here was part 1 completed

At this point I wondered what we were making - perhaps a hat ?? Part 2 arrived at around midday today, and after 22 rows of rib, I'm not sure its a hat after all. What do you think? Wonder what it could be?

Sorry about the colour in the second picture - lighting is not so good at night. The first picture is very close to the actual colour. What has me puzzled is that somewhere along the line, another two colours will be used for this project. I've just received the email with Part 3 and at the end, after reducing down to 4 stitches it says to break off yarn - no mention of colour change. Now I'm really scratching my head. I hope to get Part 3 finished tonight as there is one more part which will be posted tomorrow.

Only one other FO to show you now and its this little doily which is very quick to make and ideal for a last minute gift.  I'm going to pop this one into a Mothers Day card I'm sending to my step-mother.

The pattern can be found here. Oh well, back to the knitting.

Squares, a sneak peek and a sinful dessert

This week seems to have flown by but I haven't achieved a great deal. The weather is turning very cold here now and I must confess I'm a bit of a wuss when it comes to creature comfort and love to be warm - very warm !! Its been a week of getting out of bed late (those polar fleece sheets are awesome) and keeping warm inside the house. The gas bill is usually sky high during winter but then who cares !! I'd rather be comfortable. I made these two squares for my partner in the May round of Australiacrochet 2 x 7" square exchange. She requested apricot and white so I hope she likes what I've done for her.

My interest in Tunisian has been sparked again and I can give you a sneak peek of a work-in-progress ..

This is my second attempt at this particular pattern (more details when the ta-dah moment arrives). For some reason I just couldn't get my head around how to do the stitch and had to abandon my first try. The penny dropped last week, (or was it perseverance kicking in)- I did a little practice swatch and discovered that the stitch wasn't difficult at all. I know one of my lovely readers will know what I'm making - can you guess?

Forgive me diabetes dietitian for I have sinned !!! Made the most yummy apple slice for dinner tonight - only using 4 ingredients and ever so EASY. We had it with a little bit of ice cream.

The recipe is here. Australians will be familiar with the 4 Ingredient recipe books but I'm not sure if they're known overseas. Every recipe only uses just 4 ingredients and they're super easy to prepare. There are several books in the series but lots of the recipes are freely available online.

Thanks for visiting and I hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend. xoxox

Nearly there

Oh dear, Blogger has changed how things are done here and I really am not quite sure what I'm doing. Fingers crossed it works out ok. These 10 little hats for the Darwin Special Care Nursery have brought my ‘challenge’ total to 46 so it looks like I’ll manage the 50 by the end of June comfortably. At the moment I’m making a scarf and beanie for my grandson in his team’s footy colours so that will leave just 3 more to do. Woo hoo. Reckon I’ve had enough of hats for a little while.

I seem to have been in a bit of a slump lately - not a huge amount of knitting or crochet, absolutely no book reading and generally not doing very much at all. I did have a great day out last week with my friend L. We went to a new restaurant which has opened up at the golf club we frequent every now and then. It was the full 'silver service' deal and we had a lovely time. Food was excellent too - Entree

Mains

And dessert

I hope to get a bit more knitting and/or crochet done this week. I think it’s time I resurrected my wool-eater blanket and see if I can get it finished, or well on the way to being finished by the end of winter. The weather is getting quite cold here now so it will be nice to have the blanket over my knees while working on it. I’ll try to get a few more rows done before showing you a progress pic. Before I finish, I must show you a pic of the little fellow I've been doggy-sitting for the past week. Tommy is in his bed here and was sound asleep before I took this photo.

My daughter picked him up about an hour ago so the place is rather quiet again - just our little Tasha and Madison to keep me company. Thanks for visiting and I hope you all have a lovely week.

The Tale of Two Teddies

Once upon a time there was a little 2yo girl who was given a knitted teddy bear by her grandmother. Teddy was a much cherished bear and accompanied the little girl everywhere she went. (Fast forward 34 years). One of the few childhood treasures that this woman kept was her beloved Teddy and he was carefully packed up in very heavy duty plastic and stored in the back shed. In the summer of 2012 disaster struck – it was discovered that something had eaten through the plastic and in fact had half eaten Teddy !! Heartbroken and very tearful, my daughter asked if there was a way Teddy could be repaired. (Short Answer) No. When a child is so upset, what does a mother do ?? Even though she’s not much of a knitter and has never attempted anything like this before, she gives it a go. I spent hours on the internet looking for a pattern that looked right and eventually came up with something just perfect. And so, I’d like you to meet Teddy 2 ..........

After making this guy and having time to think, I’m going to try to fix the original Teddy by making him a half-body - feet joined to his overalls which will be joined to the original Teddy’s waist. He’ll also have to undergo a small operation on his face but hopefully he’ll look ok. I hate to do this, but I think I need to show you a pic of poor Teddy 1 as he is now.

The happy ending ......... Daughter loves Teddy 2 who is now lying on her bed and he has been promised that he’ll never be put into the shed. I have divulged my plan for Teddy 1 (yes, she did want to know where he was) .. so now the thinking cap will have to go on to try to figure out how to go about making it happen.

A Knitting Teddy

You wouldn't believe it !!!! I was reading my friend Teresa's blog today where, among other interesting things, she mentioned her knitting bunny and showed a few pictures of her. Well .... I was browsing in our local Salvo's store this afternoon and look what I found .... a knitting teddy.

Its nowhere near as nice as Teresa's Beatrix Potter bunny and even though it was only $5, I didn't buy it. Came away with two knitting books and two interesting novels.

The postie had been while I was away and waiting for me in the letterbox were my two squares from Di in the monthly Australiacrochet 2 x 7" square exchange.

Here are the two I sent to Di ..

Now off to do a bit of knitting. Have a safe and happy Easter.

iCrochet

Haven’t blogged for almost 2 weeks but have had the hooks flying to keep my mind on ‘other things’. Some of you will know I had a bit of a health scare recently which resulted in day surgery to investigate. The results are in – everything is ok and I am relieved. Next on my ‘things to worry about’ list is probable cataract removal after the eye specialists appointment next week and then a hip replacement after that.

The number of hats I’ve made is now 36 so my aim of 50 by the end of June is looking achievable.

That brown blob under these 2 hats is a pure wool neckwarmer – all going to a charity.

Also tested a pattern for a designer this week –

I used Bendigo Woollen Mills 8ply for this one and whilst it was a well written, easy to understand pattern, I don’t think I’ll be making any more as the shells tend to slant to the left from the end of the increases to the edge and I’m not too fussed on this look. I did wonder if it would be better to turn after joining each round. It doesn’t look too bad on my foam model but I did have to do a fair bit of pulling and twisting to make it look straight.

When I was at the public library this afternoon I was instantly attracted to a big display cabinet full of colourful yarn. To celebrate the National Year of Reading (2012), the Dickson Library’s knitting group and the local community are trying to create Canberra’s longest bookmark – 4.7 kilometres long – the distance from Dickson Library to Civic Library in the city. The group is seeking community involvement in making bookmarks which, after the project, will be sewn into blankets and donated to local charities. I’m thinking I might knit a few bookmarks for them – just for fun and to be in it !! You can read about the project here

Til next time .. xoxox