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!

Caledonia Earflap Caps

Last week saw me starting on these caps.  I have been looking at this pattern for some time now and because of the colorwork (think weaving different strands of wools over and under and having rather tight knitting) I really wasn't in the mood.  But, sometimes all you need is a bit of boredom from doing what you are doing the same old way and you are ready to try something new.  That's how it was!  Bored to death with the same old, same old.

Anyway, did not turn out to be all that difficult!  Did not have all the different colours needed for the entire pattern, but I used what I had and even if I must say so myself, the caps turned out pretty good!  I am even looking at incorporating different designs on the cap as well as doing the cap without the earflaps.  Those flaps, by the way, look great on perky young faces, but not so perky on old faces like mine!  Still had a few balls of those 100% Merino wool from African Expressions in my stash, so I used those.  The wool really, really knit up so good, besides being soft and warm!  The pattern is from Creative Knitting Magazine, September 2011.  

 My granddaughter sporting the cap I have knitted for her featuring a pair of ears!  Extra ears have never hurt anyone!  This is the youth's small/medium size and I did not use the 4 needle method here, but 2 as per normal.  The pattern was basically doubled, so it looks different from the others.  Also, one has to be very careful when sewing up to make sure that the lines of the pattern matches up perfectly.

 When you see the original pattern, you will see that it does not look like my creations whatsoever!  I only used the tree chart and because I did not have excessive colours to play with, even the band around the hat looks different from that of the pattern.

 This was the first cap that I have done and for the flap I used a 6mm needle that was at reflection, way to big for these flaps.  They turned out to be more like elephant ears, but seem to look fine on men!  If only those ears could hear!  Cap turned out fine otherwise even if the flaps look a bit lopsided!

This is the children's cap that I have knitted for Gabrielle adding the ears as a playful element.  Changes here were the flaps knitted in garter stitch and the whole cap being knitted on 2 needles instead of 4, making the band wider and somehow looking different from when you knit up with the 4 needles!

So all in all, they turned out very well and look nothing like the original pattern.  Maybe when I have enough different coloured wools, I will do the original!

In the meantime, I am also finishing off a very beautiful little blanket for a special little person who is going to surprise us in April.  I really hope that this blankie will keep him warm and content for many years to come.

Happy Friday and have a great weekend!  Here the season is turning into a beautiful autumn that's bringing lovely cool weather after all the heat we had during summer!

Bag Story

Remember all the little blocks that I crochet a while ago?  Well, those have now been thrown together to make a knitter's bag.  Lots of little itty bits of wool have been used up and turned into a lovely, useful something!  I might even consider doing another! I have lined the bag, not to lose needles and hooks, using a very nice locally manufactured material.  Goes very well with the bag!

 Here are some of the initial blocks that I have done.  At that stage, I did not know what I was going to do with them all.  Some were blocks from a pattern for a beautiful jacket that I really want to knit for myself this winter.  A Rowan wools pattern, so I will have to substitute with local wool as the Rowan brand is frustratingly expensive here in SA.

 My granddaughter loves horses and when we visited the beautiful Kurland Estate a week or so ago, I took these photo's of her loving this equally willing horse!  The horse was eating grass from her hand and she was over the moon with the fact that the horse did not go away, but stayed for more attention from us!

 Here, at last, are the photo's of the finished bag. I really used bits and pieces even to do the bottom bit, but later switched over to the same colour that I was going to use for the handles.

 Other side!

 Inside, showing the beautiful lining.  Luckily, one cannot see how horrible my hand stitching is!

 I should have shown the handles better.  I used single crochet that makes a good hardwearing fabric and folded the strap over a piece of strapping to make it doubly strong.

I am very satisfied with my bag, it shows what I am doing at this moment in my life.  My work now, is after all, knitting and crocheting items for sale.  It is slow work, not always paying well in money value, but there is little that comes to the good feeling one gets when one has finished an item and it really looks good!

Next time, I'll try making a felted bag.  Cannot wait to do that!  Must just get all the correct materials together and then, wow, and hopefully, a beautiful felted bag!

Lovely day/Lekker dag!

M