It's Cold Outside (and Inside!), Baby!!

Wow!  It is so cold down here in the Eastern Cape!  Even when the sun comes through for small visits, the temp seems to drop more and more.  We are definitely not geared towards icy cold winter weather, rather more temperate temperatures as we normally have a more Mediterranean climate.

With all the coldness in the air, my fingers stay frozen and it is very difficult to concentrate and work constantly on a project.  I have even been knitting with gloves on.  Imagine that!  Anyway, I did finish a knitted bag, must still put in the lining and will then start on a crochet bag of some kind.  Also busy cutting tulle to make a tutu.  This will be a first for me, so I do not count on it being the perfect piece of knotting and sewing done.  Will take a photo of it when it's finished.  Keep your eyes peeled for that one!

I have not taken any pictures lately.  Must be the cold or lack of opportunity, don't know about that one, must still make my mind up.  I have decided to just post a few pictures taken over the months.  

This was taken in the beautiful Prince Alberts Pass in the mountain range between the coast and Langkloof area.

The beginnings of the much loved Keurbooms river where my children used to play and swim in when they were small.

Agapanthus in the garden last year.

  Hope that you are having a sunny day wherever you are!

xoxo

Little bit of this, little bit of that!

Another cold, but sunny day!  Thermometer says 20degrees, but wow! does it feel cold in this house!  I need to get out into the sun today, for sure!

I have been busy sewing since rediscovering my precious sewing machine.  She is as old as the mountains (relatively, taking the latest models into consideration), but she still sews beautifully!  My granddaughter is the lucky girl receiving these new creations and although it is taking time to put these beauties together (ouma must go back far into the long ago of sewing girlie dresses), the dresses are looking better and better as I progress. A few photies to show off!  Also knitted her a lovely wool/mohair/poly mix bolero type cardi.  Fits well and has been worn quite often.  Shortish sleeves works well for busy little hands as the chest and back is cuddly and warm, while the arms are freed up for those busy hands.

 Shadow spoils this shot!  Photo taken against the bareness of the virginia creeper, but already starting to show spring shoots.  Tender leaves appearing.  Will try and capture those.

 A simple summer dress with material chosen by little Miss G herself!  Ouma added the lace and will add bright pink buttons on the bodice as soon as they are bought!

 The little blue green dress is a version of the pillowcase dresses the American ladies produce to dress the little North African girls.  Very easy to do, I might make quite a few, the design options here are endless.

Close-up of the summer frock, showing the lovely green lace.

This is the mohair/wool bunny jacket.

Lovely shirred dress! So easy to make!

Also, been working the garden a bit.  Between bouts of rainy days and few sunny ones, I try and get into the veg garden as often as I can.  Still a lot to do there, but we have been harvesting carrots.  Not big ones, but tasteful just the same! 

Lovely, yummy homegrown carrots!  What can be more appetizing, I ask you!

So, another weekend looming.  Hope our swimmers and athletes will do well during the Olympics.  We are already proud to be represented by them!

I wish you lots of sun and bounty this weekend and do what you need to do, for yourself!

xoxo

A Cold and Lazy Friday Afternoon

My camera's batteries are flat so I could not take any pictures of all the goodies I have finished over the past week or so.  I have decided that today is the perfect day to just post a few oldies and reminisce. It is a cold day, although the temp gauge says 17deg C, it feels more like 9.

 This is my granddaughter, Gabrielle, posing in three of the summer vests/tops I designed for little misses.  It takes some doing to get her to pose, but once she's feeling the vibe, there's no stopping her!

 Here she is showing off a wool jumper sporting a stick dolly as decoration.

 And although this was an acrylic sampler and feels hard to the touch, it is still one of my prettiest lap blankies.  Feels warm too.  As you knit and crochet, there are always some items that you like more than others.  Funny how that is.

 This is my very lovely and quite adventurous daughter before bungy jumping off Bloukrans Bridge on the Garden Route.  One of the highest jumps in the world!!  My heart went down all the way with her that day.  She acknowledged me watching her by giving a huge Tarzan call when going down and swinging  all over that gorge. 

 I know it is still far from December and holidays, but when I looked at this pic taken a few years ago of the totally eco 'Xmas tree' I made using a 'tolbos' or tumbleweed, I felt a little nostalgic.  A few dried bushes blew my way when we had heavy winds and they were so beautiful, I could not resist using at least one and turn it into something grand.  So it was turned into a beautiful silver tree filled with glass angels and colourful lights.  How absolutely beautiful!  That was my last Christmas in my lovely home that I miss very much.  I was just pulling everything together for my complete pleasure.  Nicely painted walls, all my pictures, my kitties, making cushions and nice things so that it is always good to go home from wherever you are.  

But life goes on and hopefully by now, the washing on the line has dried and must be taken off before the rain comes.  We are expecting a lot of rain over the weekend, so it will be wet and cold for at least the next few days. My son is busy making a fire outside on the covered stoep and will be making a Tandoori Chicken pot for us on a little stove that he has bought for this purpose.  So, at least the eating will be hot!

Cheerio,

Marl

Miserable weather, welcoming rain or is it the other way around?

F

 First of all, some beautiful summary flowers.  Just to cheer me up.  It has been raining and raining and raining.  Seems like forever.  We are very grateful for rain after last year's drought, but man oh man! when is it going to stop so that the sun, that faraway star on the horizon, can come shining thru?  I know that it is supposed to be winter, but need it be so cold and wet?  We living in the southern hemisphere, are too used to the sun always shining and are really not totally geared for cold spells.  To us, wearing a scarf, beanie and a pair of boots seemed to be the ultimate winter clothing.  We dress in layers and those are discarded as the day wears on only to be layered again in the late afternoon.  At least my garden loves the wet!

I could not get outside to take new pictures of my horizontal veg garden, but this was the beginning of it.  We used plastic gutters on wooden posts against the ugly cement walls.  They work well enough as long as they are watered daily, at times, 2x per day.  In the top picture, I have peas growing against some netting, they are much bigger now, already flowering.  So, one of these days, we'll be munching peas from the garden.  The second pic shows some tomato plants on top and salad greens in the second pier.  On the very last one, I have planted some baby spinach which, with all the rain, have now really started to look up!  I'll need to tie the tomatoes down (or up!) at some time, but for now I'll just feed them and let them grow.

Busy on a lot of projects at the moment, want to go to a craft market at some time during this winter still, but most of them are usually a disappointment to me.  Expensive and tiring and no money to be made.  And that is why one goes to these markets, to try and sell your goods.  It is expensive to just go for the fun of it, I might then just as well go to a movie or whatever for that matter.  It's not that I think that my goods are so superior to others, but on the other hand, I work neatly and also use the best materials that I can afford (which often is more expensive than I really can afford).  You want people to know that craftsmen who need to sell their goods, do try and give the best to the buyer.  Our goods are always more superior than mass produced imported stuff, that although those items are very cheap, they also do not last or are as warm as what you can sell to consumers. If you get my drift!

Wow!  The rain has stopped!  Must have heard me complaining!  Anyhow, let me go and finish what I am busy with.  Head spinning with more ideas, but time, money and money (did I mention money to buy stock?) are totally scarce.

Have a good day and week wherever you are in this wonderful world of ours!  Keep your head high and do the right thing at all times!

Marl

Silent, but no idle bone here!

Have not posted anything in some time.....

BUT, here's proof that I have not been sitting around doing nothing at all!  I have so many projects in mind, but oh, time, sweet time!!  Then I am also busy in the garden, trying to weed and plant for winter and just prettying it all up a bit!

Anyway, as they say, pictures speak a thousand words, so let me entertain you (HA HA):

 I might have had this pic up before, could not remember right now, but this is my variation on the ear flap Caledonian beanie of which pattern I have knitted a few off.  This one still needs something, like a flower perhaps, but I have not decided what it'll be yet.  Anyway, very nice and warm in 100% Merino.

 These lovely slouchy hats I have made using a pattern I found on Kirsten Spitzer's blogsite and for all the world I cannot remember what her site is called.  She has designed this for her sister, Shannon.  It really turned out fabulous.  The top one I have been knitting when I found the pattern and adjusted it here and there, but the berry one was made using her pattern entirely.  I have made another in a brownish colourway, the wool colour is called 'Russet'.  Also very nice!

 These are not mitts of some sort, but bed socks.  Found the pattern on Ravelry and I must say, it is a real winner.  Knits up fast, although this pair was again a variation of the original pattern.  Seems that I just cannot bake a cake in a conventional manner!  Need to change stuff around.

 This is my six week old grandson modeling a baby beanie with a huge knitted rose on.  You can see on his face what he thinks about all this!

 I have crocheted 3 beanies for babies, 2 with the bear ears and the third one with a variety of flowers that one can pin on depending what one wants that particular day.  We don't feel the same every day so why look the same?

 Then I have found my old trusted machine and all the bits necessary to sew things up again!  Joyful day!  Because I have really, really missed my machine.  She is quite old already, being bought in June 1983 and has up to date, saved my thousands on clothes.

 Just to get going again (and I had to use the manual for the machine again) I copied some patterns from a very, very talented lady called Dana (her blog can be found at www.danamadeit.com or just 'made').  She has 3 children of her own for whom she designs and makes.  Have a look, the patterns are so easy and quick.  The top little gingham one is the basic skirt pattern and you know, little girls can have as many as they want as this is so easy, you can even make it by hand!

This is why and how I stumbled onto Dana's blog.  I wanted to make a simple circular skirt for miss G, but could not find anything that I really liked and that was super easy and quick to make.  I could not remember what I have done years ago when my 'baby' (now 35 years old!) wore these!   Needless to say, I will still make lots more, for miss G as well as to sell.  Uses little material, quick to make, no seams to sew, but the hem and the stitching on of the elastic.  Have a go, you will not be disappointed.

Next blog I will show you how my peas are growing and all the gooseberry plants that I have transplanted into bigger pots so that they can grow big and strong before the final transplant!

Enjoy your weekend and life! 

M

The Grandson has arrived........

Well this is my new grandchild, a few hours old.  Of course now that he's celebrated a week on our planet, he looks bigger and much cuter!  Very quiet little thing, loves his feeding times which he now has often.

Granddaughter G loves her new brother and is very protective!  Even my brother's animals were protective (or curious?) when we visited there on Saturday past.

On the work front, I have been busy crocheting around blankets and stuff for the little one, knitted a few beanies as well as some bedsocks.  It is getting chilly on our side of the world and we might just have a very cold winter ahead of us.  Anyway, need to update my list of things to knit and sew and start accumulating stock for winter.  Need to look at new patterns for funky scarves and different beanies.

We are busy moving my bits and pieces from the storeroom where it has been kept for the past 2 years here to my children's house.  I was hoping that by this time I would have had a place to stay already, but life seems to hand out different from what you desire or want.   It would be nice to look at my stuff again at least and to find my paints and sewing stuff that I was missing so much.

I had this dream where I would stay in this cute and cosy little house with enough ground around me to be able to veg garden and keep a few hens, also a nice flower patch with a tree to leave a chair under for those times when you need to take a break or just read your latest mag.  A warm fireplace for the cold evenings, I would also get rid of the old TV as there is not much on anyway and a good book or visit from friends are much better company any time.  One can only hope........

Until the next time, hope that you all have a good week and lots to keep those hands busy.

M

Colourful Blanket

The stork party is over and now I can show the world the blanket that I have knitted for my grandson who's about to enter this world in a couple of weeks' time!

 The elephant I adapted from the pattern in our local Stitches mag and was designed by Dana Biddle.  I used the main pattern, but made small changes to make it my own.  Ears flop and tail and trunk, as per her pattern, left loose.

 The dark bit is suppose to be the dam and was waiting for ducks or hippo's to gather, but my hippo was a flop and I could not find safe ducks to put in the dam, so I opted to sew (very securely) two hippo buttons onto the water.

The tree is also from Dana, the sun and clouds my own, but I must say, the giraffe totally my own creation.  Sure that I would not be able to do another as this was trial and error, but it came out fantastic!  Very chuffed!  Hope the little one will have endless joy sitting and playing on this blanket.

That's almost another Monday gone!  Happy week!