The Monthly !!

That's what it seems to be lately doesn't it? No excuses - let's just say 'life' got in the way, so grab yourself a cup of coffee and let's chat.

It been a busy month for me in lots of ways but probably the most enjoyable occasion was catching up with an old friend who I hadn't seen for 15 years. We had an all day lunch at the golf club and talked and talked and talked - so much that I had a sore throat the next day. Molly handed me a little gift and said 'you might like this'.

It was a lovely surprise and a very good read. In a series of tender and touching anecdotes, Molly tells the story of her beloved pets' lives and their very special gifts. A real warm and fuzzy story and I can highly recommend it to any animal lover. You will need tissues at the end.

Let me tell you a bit about Molly and I'll quote this from the back jacket ...
Molly Oliver Sasson was born in the UK, where she studied piano and voice at the London School of Music. Later she became an intelligence officer with the Royal Air Force and this took her around the globe. Eventually she settled in Australia, where she worked for the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, retiring with the rank of Senior Research Officer. Her busy career has not prevented her from being a dedicated animal lover and for many years she was a successful breeder of Siamese cats. Today she lives in Bayside, Melbourne with her second husband, Albert, and continues her work for animal welfare groups.

While on the subject of books, I treated myself to another couple from the Bookdepository in the UK. I find their books much less expensive than buying them from the US and they offer free shipping worldwide. It usually takes about a week for the books to arrive. I figured these two books would come in handy for my charity crochet.



I've told you before I'm not a good knitter but enjoy doing it anyway. That jumper I told you about in my last post is still on the go, by the way ! Always on the lookout for super easy patterns, I found this on eBay and of course couldn't help myself.

And here's the little hat I made using that pattern


My very good friend Lucille gave me some yummy tomato sauce she made from her home grown tomatoes and I was going to tell you about a dish I made using that sauce but this post is getting a bit long winded so perhaps I'll tell you about it another time. Thanks for the sauce Lucy.

Have a Heart

While flipping through an old notebook, I came across this pattern for a little heart which I thought I'd share with you. I can't take credit for the pattern but have no idea where I got it from. There's not much to it and you can make one in about a minute - note: US terminology.

Pattern - Chain 4 and work all sts in the first of these chains. 3trc, 3dc, ch 1, 1trc, ch 1, 3dc, 3trc, ch2, sl st. FO & sew in tails.


I've been spending way too much time playing with my new computer and haven't done much in the way of knitting or crochet lately BUT I've decided to challenge myself and make this little jumper ..



from this book .....



Crochet is my 'thing' and I'm not much of a knitter these days but if I don't actually try then I can't expect to get any better can I ? Anyway, here it is so far ..



Its been awhile since Madison made an appearance here but she's just way too busy doing what cats do so well. In my next life I want to come back as a cat.

A whole new ball game

Its been ages since I've posted on here but have had major computer problems and ended up having to get a new PC. Its got Windows 7 - so very different from XP which I knew almost inside out and this is definately a different kettle of fish. There are some excellent features and on the whole I think I'm happy except I'm a bit concerned about all my music. A few hundred of my songs have gone missing so I don't want to connect my iPod or I'll lose them from that too. I think my laptop still has my iTunes library on it so I'll have to go back there and copy everything to an external hard drive and move them across from there.

Another annoying thing with Windows 7 is that not much comes with it in the way of software. I understand if you want Outlook Express you now have to purchase it and I've been told its around $230. Windows Live Mail which comes with Windows 7 is reasonably good and I guess will seem better when I'm more familiar with it. I forwarded a funny email to some friends and two of them told me they received it 8 times !! Don't know what went wrong there. I also had to purchase Microsoft Office 2007 - oh and of course also had to buy a monitor as this particular PC didn't come with one. All up, with the necessary things added, it put around $1,000 on top of the cost of the computer.

Anyway, enough of that ! I tried uploading a photo from my camera today and thought I'd see if I can upload it here. I apologise in advance if it doesn't appear as I'm expecting it but as I indicated, I'm on a real learning curve.



Well that was easy. Meet Furby ..... he, along with 2 other furbies sit next to me here in my little 'den'. On the other side there's a family of Mogwais - mum, dad and two kids, but you'll have to wait for another time to meet them.

Haven't done much crochet or knitting lately but I hope to have a pair of bedsocks finished soon. I'm making them for one of the Knit4Charities projects and they need to be finished by 25th.

Friday's FOs

When I received my Etimo hooks earlier this week, I promised myself to finish the scarf I was working on before trying out my new hooks. Confession time !! I couldn't wait so whipped up this little soap sack the other night.

Nothing fancy but at least I got to try my new hooks, and I must say they are wonderful.

The Bendigo Classic wool was beautiful to work with and I'm happy with the finished look of the scarf. It took about 150g so one ball was more than enough. The scarf measures 5 inches by 66 inches.

Not sure where this scarf is going but it is my colour so maybe I just might keep it for myself.

Today's project (yes with the new hooks) was this little premmie hat which will be going to the Gold Coast hospital which is one of the January charity of the month (CotM) for Knit4Charities. I have several other ones made and will be sending them off next week.

The charity I've selected for February require bedsocks so I'll probably get the knitting needles out for these.

Faster than a Flying Hook

My beautiful Etimo hooks were on my doorstep this morning and I am thrilled with them. I am so impressed with the fact that it only took four working days for the postal systems in America and Australia to deliver this package, and also to the Anderson Trading Company for their quick despatch of my order. I gave the 5.00mm hook a quick test drive this afternoon and can honestly say (in my humble opinion) that I think these are the Rolls Royce of hooks. As you can see, they come in a lovely pouch which also contains other tools of the trade.

And here it is closed ... very smart don't you think?

The handles are softer than the Clover Soft Touch hooks, but not squishy. Etimo hooks are manufactured by Tulip Co Ltd in Japan and I must say the Japanese have no sense of adventure (in this case anyway). There's a warning on the tag that says "This product should be used for crocheting purposes only." By the way, the hooks are made in Japan, the scissors made in Italy, the yarn needle made in Korea and the case made in China !! Just thought you'd like to know that.

Now off to play with my new toys.

Lucky Me

Daughter and son-in-law returned yesterday from their Christmas/New Year holiday in Belgium, coming from a chilly minus something temperature to our sweltering high 30s. In spite of the freezing temperatures, snow and ice, DD was able to bring some lovely gifts back for us. I was delighted with this gorgeous hand made Belgian lace table centre

this lovely yarn (Spazio made in Italy, Sheila Soft (the black ball) made in Germany)


I took the close-up of the Spazio to show you the unusual make-up of this yarn. Its a chunky weight and the suggested needle/hook size is 7.00mm or 8.00mm, so I hope to have enough for a nice scarf. The black Sheila Soft has a pattern on the back of the ball band for a thread through scarf. My last crochet related gift was this magazine


My daughter told me she was unable to get the crochet hooks I asked her to bring back, but she did, however, have a 'challenge' for me. There are some lovely thread patterns in this mag but the challenge is that they are all written in Flemish!! Just as well they have the international symbol patterns included as I can follow them.

I gave into temptation and ordered myself a set of the Etimo crochet hooks that are a hot topic on Ravelry. Scroll halfway down this page to see them.
I'm also awaiting delivery of three Addi Turbo hooks - also supposed to be top quality hooks. I can hardly wait to road test them.

Too Darn Hot

I don't have much to say today as its just too hot for anything !! Had to go to the supermarket this afternoon and boy was that an effort - into a hot car, shop not far enough for car aircon to kick in, back out into hot carpark, into lovely cool supermarket where I spent far too much time and money, then the reverse back home. At least my house is nice and cool so I think I'll just log on to FaceBook and tend to my farm for awhile. Stay cool friends.