$10 Swap

I received my parcel from abcdee80 in the $10 swap and I am just so impressed. My partner has excelled in the bargain hunting stakes. Just look at the amazing things I got!





- Six skeins of lace weight yarn!
- A jar of buttons
- A zip
- A pattern for a bag
- Two garden catalogues
- Chocolate
- And a set of gorgeous stitch markers

Thank you again abcdee80 you made my day!

Bags and things

I have been beavering away on yet another Ravelry swap. This time its a $10 swap. The intention is to put together a parcel of goodies for your partner without exceeding a $10 limit. So for my partner I made these Always and Forever Fingerless Mitts from some leftover Tofutsie yarn.




And this Take Everywhere Bag from Knitted Favourites (this is the only link I could find!), which I knitted with some Cleckheaton Country Naturals 12 ply I picked up for a song at a country market.




I have filled the bag with some yarn I got at the Australian Country Spinners Millshop, handmade soap from my local Sunday market and a sweet smelling sachet to ward off nasties made by a friend of mine.

I hope my partner likes her bag of goodies.

Lilac Stole

I have finished my Lilac Stole. This was yet another pattern that formed part of the Summer Swatch Me project. It was a very easy knit because the pattern repeat was so easy to memorize.



I knitted this stole with ColourMart Cashmere Merino 2/14NM on 3.5mm needles. I added red AB 8/0 seed beads. This is a large stole, it measures 223.5cm x 40.6cm. One of the features of the stole that I particularly like is that the border is picked up and knitted on only one of the long sides of the stole.

A flock of sheep

Over on Ravelry there is a group called Aussie Karma Swaps. I have been having quite a bit of fun over there participating in various karma swaps. At the moment there are swaps running for sock yarn, leftover yarn, natural fibre yarns, the kitchen sink where anything goes and many others. My favourite is the handmade swap and I have swapped hand knitted toys for lovely totes and project bags. My last couple of swaps netted the following lovely goodies:

A gorgeous flock of handmade sheep cards made by Allison70. I think they are ever so cute.


And after watching the threads closely I finally scored some glass stitchmarkers made by the very talented sthrnx.


I have been knitting but the completed things I can't show you yet and the wips are just not very interesting at this stage.

A year later

And I am still working on my Summer Squares blanket. Despite all my good intentions my pile of squares is growing ever so slowly.



Last week I finally managed to add two more squares to the pile. I still intend making a queen size blanket so I still have a long way to go!



I really don't know why I am so tardy because I love knitting these squares. Perhaps its because there are too many distractions? Like this Featherweight cardi I have started for the ColourMart competition.



And then there's the Lilac Stole I need to finish plus all the knitting I've been doing for a couple of swaps I'm involved in (and forgot to take pictures) and then there's some socks I need to knit, not to mention that new laceweight calling my name.......

My summer is here already

I have finally had the opportunity to photograph my completed Summer Swatch Me Sampler. This has been a wonderful 12 week project consisting of the sampler as well as many other side projects and culminating in a design your own project.

 

 

 

 

The stats for my sampler:
Yarn: Australian Country Spinners 3ply pure wool (also possibly know as Cleckheaton Babysoft)
Needle Size: 3.5 mm
Finished Size: 91 cm x 137 cm
Beads: Miyuki Triangle 8/0 Amethyst Lined Light Blue

I am currently working on the Lilac Stole which is yet another of the possible Summer Swatch Me projects. The yarn for this project is ColourMart Cashmere Merino 2/14NM on 3.5 mm needles. And I am using size 8 seed beads in red.

 

And just to keep life interesting I have also cast on the Crest o' the wave stole in Touch Yarns Kid Mohair Merino 2 ply.

 

And next week, thanks to Mary, I will be casting on for the Featherweight Cardi for the ColourMart competition on Raverly.

From my window......

As a teenager and young adult in South Africa, my favourite radio program was one called From my window... the sea. It was a program that focused on literature, poetry, art and music. I spent many a hot summer's afternoon with my my bare feet on the cool slate floor, listening and dreaming to this program. While we were visiting Queensland last month this program often came to mind as I was presented with beautiful scenery - often while looking out of a window! So here are a few photos of some of the beautiful places we visited.







And I simply couldn't resist these sheep. Not quite sure what you would do with their fleece though....



As for knitting? Well I do have something to show but we have had so much rain that I have not been able to photograph it yet. After 13 years of drought I never thought I would be able to utter such words again. Victoria is awash at the moment with many unfortunate people experiencing flooding. Nevertheless it has given me great delight to walk in my garden and feel it squelch underfoot.