I need to get back to work!

You can get into a lot of trouble on the internet if you don't have enough work to do. Seriously. Trust me. I've done it.

So many great projects there, beautiful fabrics and yarns of all kinds, and creative people to follow.  But you need to boost your willpower before you look - so much temptation. Mine goes out the window at this time of year and I get excited about projects that I want to start for the year.

This summer I have been really drawn to some knitting projects.......but more of that in another post.

 For a long time, I have had my eye on this wonderful quilt

 

so I thought I might have this bubbling along  beside the other projects that I have.

 I sort of have an idea of the colours I want to use......starting with these.

GORGEOUS....can't wait to start - but I need to wait for the papers to come.......stay tuned!

Last week I decided that I needed to get out of town for a few days, so we took a short trip to the Goldfields region of Victoria.  We stayed at a lovely B&B called Keebles of Clunes.

 

A beautiful Country House with a glorious garden.

View from the breakfast room.

We had fun exploring Clunes, Creswick, Maryborough, Maldon and Bendigo.

We visited the Museum in Bendigo where they have this gorgeous Leonard French piece.

Lots of great food and wine throughout this region....a great short break if you need one.

And a bonus for me - I discovered that I can knit in the car (provided I don't have to read a pattern or look at my stitches) so I took a project along and got a heap done.

Here is a bit of it. My lovely daughter wanted a plain V-neck and we found this gorgeous Manos del Uruguay yarn last year that has been waiting for me to start. Knitting up so fast and really lovely to work with.

Have a great week. 

Deb

Old dogs.......New tricks!

I've decided this will be the theme for 2017. Fitting in so many ways for me, especially in relation to crafting.

When I first statred this blog, my two main motivations were to keep a record of my ordinary days, what my children were up to, how my garden was progressing, ordinary things, and to keep a record of my handwork, what I was doing, how long it was taking, things that I made that would one day be forgotten. Over the last few years it has been hard to find the time or the space  to keep recording as I might have liked. Now when I look back there are some big gaps; important things that I would have liked to record. So my plan for 2017 is to be a better blogger (aka diarist perhaps) and also to go back and fill in some of the gaps.

 My second motivation was to pass on some of the skills I have learned to a new generation of hand-makers through the wonders of the internet.

  It seems that many bloggers have moved on to instagram and snapchat. For me instagram does not meet my needs. I love to see the photos there, but this old dog likes to write some words too!

It seems too that the young hand-makers have some great new (to me at least) tricks that I can learn from them.

One such new trick, relates to the craft that I know best - knitting!

For some reason, since finishing work just before Christmas, I have been bitten by the knitting bug (remember it is summer here in Melbourne so this is really weird).

We have an interesting yarn shop (Woolarium) close by with many new yarns that I've never seen before. An unplanned visit there on Christmas eve saw me leave with some beautiful Shibui yarn and a shawl pattern which once started I could not put down.

The fabric is beautiful, soft and drapey, but because of the construction, looked a bit like a crumpled mess.  I needed to learn a new trick- blocking.  You can see this above....blocking mats underneath and the shawl pinned out on blocking wires. It worked a treat and the shawl is rather goreous.

For those interested, the yarn is Shibui - Staccato (merino/silk) in two shades of grey and a bronzey green. The pattern is the 3 Colour Cashmere shawl by Joji Locatelli (can be found on Ravelry).

So there you have it, my first new trick for the year successfully learnt. And my first blogpost too.

I hope the New Year has started well for you and gets even better as it goes along.

Deb