Sunset after the rain!!

The long awaited rain started on Christmas night and rained steadily through Boxing Day and most of Wednesday. Wednesday night this was the sunset - the house was flooded with this gorgeous apricot light for about 15 minutes before the sun finally went to rest.

Biscuits and Bones Dog Coat Finished!

Well that didn't take long!! Once I had worked out the pattern directions - which were written in a weird way IMHO, it only took about 10 hours to make. My hand is sticking out of what will be the turtle neck, and the little cuff showing is a leg hole!



The pattern was a Patons one for Canadiana/Classic Wool/Decor; but there were four sections or panels of pattern block, and you had to do 1st row of panel one, followed by first row of panel 2, etc etc all on one row - as well as keep referring back to a gazillion types of cable abbreviations. So I rewrote and test knit the whole thing so that it is so much easier to understand and follow - I do not need to have to keep chasing backwards and forwards over a page like that to find the directions. Now that I have done this one - I shall be able to repeat these in my sleep - and it comes in four sizes which is very handy!!












It is so cute - biscuits and bones is the right name for it!!

So what is next on the to do list, dear reader, you ask ?? Well it is the Blue Hearts Afghan from the Country Heritage patterns which I promised dear Sandee in Atlanta GA almost two years ago!!! Plus I foolishly promised one to her brother Marvin, in his school colours - Georgia Tech - with logo!!! *SIGH*

For once I have nothing else demanding my time (knitting wise that is) so Sandee dear - yours is about to be started at long last! It is crochet this time - a nice change!! Wonder if it will be the original pattern that she ends up with LOL??? I never seem to leave a pattern alone, without tweaking it here and there!.

And here is what I am working on now......

I am halfway through a dog jacket for my daughter's new man's mother's dog ( what a mouthful)

The colour in the close up is much more accurate - don't know why the other is more blue!!



The aran pattern is called bones and biscuits!!!

The rib part is the turtle neck and the two little holes are for the front legs.

I am now on the decreasing part for the back. The dog is a nice little fellow name Fozzie - he is a shitzhu.

This new man in my daughter's life is definitely a keeper IMHO!!!! He absolutely adores her, can't take his eyes off her. She gave me this lovely photograph , framed, of her and my grandson, Tom, for Christmas. There is glass in the frame, hence the bit of reflection from the camera!!

She also gave me this lovely collage of all four of our grandkids - clockwise from top left, Lauren (Richard's daughter) and Tom;Tom, Caitlin Samantha and Lauren; Tom Samantha and Caitlin on Tom's 7th birthday; and Tom in the bath (he had just emptied a whole bottle of lavender hand wash in there to make a bubble bath) These were all taken last year.

I am a very lucky woman!!

What I have knitted in the last week or so!

This lovely little cable sweater can be found on www.tahkistacycharles.com There is also a hooded jacket version and a gorgeous little helmet to match.










I used Panda Angoretta in white. I did adapt the pattern a bit - inside the diamonds was a moss stitch pattern - and it was so fiddly to do, so I kept all the background in reverse stocking stitch - and it looks better IMHO!!!









The little jacket is leftover skeins of
Red Heart S/Saver in Summer Breeze, and Caron Simply Soft in Pink and Cream. The little hand buttons I got from Dave Rundell (daverun on ebay)











This hat is a very simple pattern I got on the net www.knittingabout.com/library/nrollbrim.htm

I used eyelash yarn and some left over 8 ply in Teal blue.

The knitting has slowed down somewhat over the pre-Christmas period - I am so glad to be back to normal - house is clean, and tidy. We had to take down the Christmas tree- well the cats knocked it over - so it was easier to put it all away rather than start again from scratch!!

RAIN at last!!

Yippee - it started raining here on Christmas night and has been raining on and off nice and steadily ever since - it was the best Christmas present we could have wished for. My grandsonTom said Grace at lunch on Boxing Day - " Dear God in Heaven, thank you for the rain, thank you for the presents, and thank you for the lovely lunch" You can see he got his priorities right!! Let us hope that this keeps up for a few more weeks, and then the catchments will fill up a bit!!

My Christmas Exchange from Maria

Looooooooook what I got from Maria in Pa!! And apart from what's in the pic there were two packs of Lindt Chocolates, one dark, one milk AND a CD of crochet baby patterns!!!

So generous - it was one of most exciting presents I have had for a long time!


Six skeins of TLC Wiggles yarn, 2 white, 2 pale blue and 2 grape, two skeins of Red Heart Strata in variegated blue and white.













Six beautiful tree ornaments made by Maria herself, and a gorgeous little angel, looks like it was hand carved.











Two of THE most elegantly appliqued velour guest towels, and two tea towels (dish towels) and a wonderful calendar with pictures of Philadelphia, including one of the Liberty Bell.


And this beautiful doily - a really nice large size, ideal to place in the centre of my silky oak dining table - which is what these gifts are sitting on in the pictures!!

Thank you Maria, everything is beautiful and what is even better, will get a lot of USE - I can't wait to knit with the Strata yarn and see how it turns out!!

Knit From Your Stash 2007

Knit From Your Stash 2007

Our Poinciana Tree

This is our house, showing the gorgeous Poinciana (or Flamboyant) Tree.This is the season for its flowering and this year it is very striking - probably because of the drought, the tree is putting out more blossoms for survival. A week ago we had a big thunder storm with very high winds and a branch broke off, laden with blossom - so I was able to get a closer look at these beautiful flowers.










Each flower has five petals, and five sepals like a star. Our Poinciana has one petal that is white with red blotches. and a yellow splotch where it joins the stem. It also has long stamens carrying a seed at the end, also red. The leaves are delicate and feathery and close up at night, which these obviously have. Once they were put in water for a day they revived beautifully.

And no, sadly we did not get enough water from the storm to relieve our drought conditions! We seem to get one storm after weeks of no rain and then this repeats for another few weeks. If only we could get two solid weeks of rain - just bucketing down like we used to get at this time of year!!

Look What I Found at the Garden Centre!!

Browsing at the Garden Centre recently ( at the Pick'n'Pay Aspley for you locals) I saw this wonderful little chap!! Isn't he beautiful??

He was happily wandering around amongst the potted trees, very fat as you can see, and obviously keeping all the insect pests away from the plants. The Garden Centre love
him being there!







Just look at that magnificent tail!!
He isn't a frilly lizard, nor a bearded dragon, some kind of water dragon we think.



This picture gives a better idea of his size - those are fruit trees to his left, about four feet high - so he is quite big. A little living dinosaur - isn't he fantastic??

I'm so glad I have adopted the habit of taking my camera everywhere with me!!

And more........

This set is a top down raglan - and the stitch pattern is pinched from another design in my pattern stash!!
This set came out of a Thorobred Soft for Tots pattern book.
This lavender jacket is the most popular of the four Precious Layettes patterns "Little Lamb"

The embroidered shawl in the picture was one I was paid for finishing - all four edges had to be knitted separately ( the lady had already done the centre) and sewn on and then there were supposed to be 85 clusters of grub roses embroidered in the centre. I had only a few days to do all this in - so I opted for 49 lazy daisies in yarn. Thank goodness the person didn't insist!!!!
It was all made in VERY fine pure wool on teeny tiny needles!! Never again as long as I live.....................................

More of My Baby Sets

This little set is a combination of Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Baby Surprise Jacket, the Red Heart Happy Baby Leggings ( free on this link http://www.royalyarns.com/fp/fpkntbaby.htm) and a little hat I made up and can’t remember how!

This little pink and white set is a top down raglan set, again no seams except for the sleeves! The booties I think are Michelle’s booties, found on Bev’s Country Cottage free pattern site. The bonnet is from Precious Layettes, with the jacket stitch pattern on it.

The little set on the right is another of the Precious Layettes Patterns - it is delicious but you do have to concentrate on the stitch pattern until it "computes" in the brain!! I sold this on ebay to a maker of "reborn" baby dolls. The grub roses are all hand embroidered - the yarn is Panda Angoretta.

On the right is an idea I had for making a baby shawl in worsted weight from a thread doily pattern.

It worked out fine - as you can see it covered my whole dining table!! There are so many delightful doily patterns - I must try this again soon!!

Some of my knitting over the last 2 years!

I have made a lot of different styles of baby knits over the last two years or so. I belong to a couple of knitting groups, Babysweaters, and knitbabysurprise, both on Yahoo Groups. Since joining these groups my knitting has improved in leaps and bounds. I was taught to knit at 4 years old by my father - he was knitting as therapy for a spinal injury received during World War II. So after 50 - odd years of knitting, you can STILL learn something!!

This little beauty is the Twist and Twirl Sweater and matching hat. Designed by Patti Pierce Stone, this pattern is available free for personal and charity use on this link: http://www.p2designs.com/images/patterns/set-TwistTwirl.html

There is a bonus pattern for little sockies with it!!!!


This little set is my variation on one of the Precious Layettes patterns #3202 by Leisure Arts . I love these patterns - four jackets, bonnets, booties and blankets, all the jackets knitted from the top down with the only seam being the sleeves, and not even then if done on circulars or dpns! I changed the bonnet to a hat, added a feather and fan stitch to the plain body, and used two colours of yarn and voila!

Would you believe this is the same pattern ?

Just a different yarn and a different stitch combination!!!

The hat is not from the Precious Layettes book - it is from another old Patons book I have !

All traffic stops on our footpaths for a family of black ducks. The parents must have been very vigilant, this is an unusually large family - seven ducklings to survive is quite a record.
This is me being watched by a friendly magpie - he wants the food on that plate!! By the way in this picture it is winter - I am wearing a jacket LOL!!!!
A little crested pigeon - delightful pinky-mauve, lavender and grey with plummy brown bands. We get lots of these here .
The pelicans are always here - these are cruising in Scarborough Boat Harbour.
They love to gather when the fishing trawlers come in nearby - they are guaranteed a good feed!!!!! 

These lovely galahs are right on the shore line here. Catching the light of the setting sun, their rose pink shows up so well!!
See the little white crest just showing on the back one's head?

Galahs are much more prevalent nowadays - when I first came to Brisbane in 1966, they seemed much rarer in the built up areas. In places like Tambo in western Queensland, they gather literally in hundreds! 

These gorgeous birds are a real favourite - galahs! they are a delicate grey with a white head and have the most delicious deep rose pink on breast and under the wings. Like most parrots they nest in "spouts" where branches have broken off in gum trees, leaving a hollow opening or spout. There is a baby inside this one below, but I could not get a shot of his little head poking out!
Galahs eat grass seeds mostly - we live right on the sea shore and they are often to be seen just wandering around the park like this foraging for food.
Behind these rocks in the picture below is the sea.
Galahs love to flock together and gather in great groups on the telegraph wires - sometimes so many of them that the lines come down!! this is only a small flock, taken a few houses down from us.