Another milestone for Knitting for Brisbane's Needy (K4BN)...

On Thursday Karen, the founder of K4BN, made this announcement...

******** NEWSFLASH *********
As of 28th May, 2014, Knitting for Brisbane's Needy's members, friends, family, anonymous donors etc have donated OVER 200,000 items since we started this group, 8 years 5 months ago!!!! 
We find this incredible, just think about how many people we have helped with all these fabulous items.
(and things like preloved clothes. toys, aren't counted...neither are squares until they are made into a blanket; nor toiletries until they are in a toiletry bag then only counted as one!)

What an amazing group to belong to. I'm also very grateful to my own family and friends who have given me items for the group to distribute. I often write posts about the group's Knit and Natters, where members meet for a few hours, work on projects and hand in finished items ready for distribution. Regular readers would know that I tend to only knit and crochet blankets, but mostly I join up donated squares into blankets of various sizes. In January this year I decided to focus on joining squares for a few weeks and made 8 blankets that month. It's about time I did some more joining I think :-)

I really admire the ladies who knit/crochet toys for the group...I've made the odd teddy, (and believe me they were odd...their faces had 'real attitude! lol) but I rarely make such items. But have a look at these lovely toys made by ladies at the Grovely Knit and Natter...

Someone commented that the doll that Karen is holding looked like Tina Turner! Lol

Then there were the lovely toys that were handed in at the recent Albany Creek Knit and Natter...

A closer view of that beautiful elephant in the back row :-)

And these lovely throw rugs were also handed in recently...

Dianne's amazing blanket.

Leslie's blanket made of kite shaped pieces...

Sharon's crocheted blanket in my favourite colours...

Val is holding up a crocheted rug made by a friend of hers...

And last week, the Caboolture News did a feature on K4BN and Karen and her husband Peter...this was the front page of that edition. The article inside detailed how the group started and how many people are helped each year by this wonderful couple who put so much effort into helping the less fortunate in the community. 

( I know you will be reading this post, Karen, so I just have to say that for some reason this photo reminds me of a Nativity Scene...perhaps it's the blanket over your head...or the toy animals! Lol

Finished!

I hope I haven't been confusing readers with my 'backtracking' and publishing posts about our recent holiday...on this coming Sunday we have been home 4 weeks...yes 4 weeks! Amazing really. (Be warned though, I will still continue with the occasional post about our holiday adventures!)

While we were away I bought some acrylic (Robin) yarn and was knitting strips with the idea of making a blanket eventually. 

I made 2 of these strips and it soon became obvious that there had not been enough yarn purchased to make the number of strips needed to make a throw. But the yarn had served its purpose; a mindless project to work on in the evenings and sometimes in the car on longer drives. 

Over the last couple of weeks of the holiday, I wondered what I could do to turn 2 strips into a blanket; preferably by using yarn that I already had in my stash at home. I decided that the solution would not involve knitting garter stitch strips of 50 stitches.

 Then I remembered some Caron remnant balls of yarn that I had bought a few years ago through EBay. The yarn had turned out to be thinner than I expected and I wasn't able to use it for the project that I had in mind at that time. But it would be perfect with the 8ply Robin yarn. I started knitting a WIDE strip with this yarn a day or so after we arrived home.

The very wide strip, almost finished...

I had decided that the 2 narrow strips could be sewn on either side of this strip to make a reasonable sized blanket. To tie in the new knitting with those strips, I did some slip stitch stripes of the colours I had used in those strips. 

Last weekend I finished sewing together the pieces/strips and picked up stitches and knitted a border all around the edge. 

Photo shows the garter stitch strip sewn to one side...

When I walked inside to put the camera away, Mister Eduardo thought he would do his 'quality control inspection'...good news is that he 'passed it'! Lol

Another look at Folkestone... sites with exciting redevelopment potential.

In my previous post about our stay in Folkestone, I alluded to the fact that our accommodation wasn't as salubrious as we had become used to during our trip.

We stayed at the Carlton Hotel in the Leas area; the hotel is described as a charming Victorian era building and reviews on both TripAdvisor and Expedia are mixed...some people rave about how wonderful it is and some people wrote quite derogatory comments. Very confusing!

The Carlton Hotel...looks like some painting and maintenance being done. Our room was in that middle bit; top left hand window of that section...

 So when we found the hotel we continued driving around the block to see if we could find the 'free carpark' that was advertised. We found the back entrance and DH proceeded to reverse the car into a spot...suddenly a man in a car behind us starting beeping his horn and gesticulating wilddly at us to move. DH put the window down and the man explained that the space was designated for ambulance parking...huh? Hotels have their own ambulances on call now do they? Obviously an invisible sign was somewhere showing this. 

There was already one ambulance parked there in the next space. What the? The man then proceeded to park and went along the broken-up pathway to the front of the hotel...turns out he was an employee of the hotel. 

When we ended up at Reception, for the first time in our trip we didn't have to fill out a form???? We were told that our room was on the third floor but the lift only went to the second floor. That was okay as some places we stayed at didn't have lifts at all...

When we opened the door to our room, the stench of stale tobacco smoke assailed our nostrils. Did it matter that DH had booked a non smoking room? probably not in the eyes of the management. 

The very modern TV???

The holey curtains which reeked of cigarette smoke...

The grubby bathroom...

The shower that didn't work but which managed to spit out rust particles rather than water drops...

The toilet lid had so much crud on it that we left it open rather than touch it...eewww wah!

The double room that had twin single beds...

The linen on the beds seemed clean but I slept with my coat as a blanket rather than let the hotel blankets touch my body...

We were booked in for 3 nights...DH was devastated...but we had paid up front so we were staying. The room was only a base; we would be out most of the day. We bought some large bottles of water  to boil for coffee and tea because of the old water pipes and the rust/dirt. But I boiled some tap water first to scald the cups and saucers. Hand antiseptic gel makes an excellent surface cleaner if you're stuck with grotty basins and bench top and we pretended it was a garret flat where some starving artist created beautiful paintings at the turn of the 19th century. I also did a 'Homes under the Hammer' reno in my imagination...the place had great potential. lol. 

(Luckily my Vodafone dongle still had credit as there was no free wifi available at that level of the hotel)

The other site I am writing about, is marked for demolition but the GFC has impacted on such big projects I guess. It's the old Folkestone Harbour Station, which we explored on our visit to the harbour area. This station is quite historical; the first Folkestone Harbour station opened in 1849. It was a busy station as boat trains operated between Folkestone and France. Part of the station's history includes the Venice-Simplon Orient Express. But it's a sad sight now... The tunnel under the English Channel, which opened in 1994 severely impacted on Folkestone when ferry operators moved to other ports in the South East. The last regular passenger services through this station were in 2001.

The old swing bridge area which allowed the trains to continue to the South pier...

The old station...

The top of the hotel across from the harbour, that is shaped like a ship, can be seen in the middle of the photo...

 Grass growing on the tracks...concrete sleepers stacked beside the line...

In all this decay though, we found a very interesting sculpture; literally in the middle of the tracks!

 Here is the sign that explained what it was all about...the figures had the most beautifully detailed  faces...

At the end of the station was a gateway which led to the old abandoned pier...we had seen lots of people carrying fishing rods heading through the gate. Apparently if you wanted to fish, it was 4 Pounds, but if you were just having a look, it was free...so DH went out and up the steps to the old pier...what's left of it anyway.

Great views though...

The Folkestone Lighthouse can be glimpsed in this photo...

The internet sites that I've looked through suggest that much of this area will be replaced by up to 1000 houses and various commercial premises. 

We loved exploring Folkestone and hope that the plans for rejuvenation, gentrification etc are able to proceed. 

The last image is taken from a website showing views of a pier when this area was in its heyday...

But it might be a good idea to avoid some of the cliffs in the area if this sign is anything to go by...

  

  

Some more of 'sometimes it's the little things, that mean a lot...'

On Monday, I decided to use the sprinkler, attached to the tap on our water tank, to water parts of our garden that were suffering from the dry period we have been experiencing here lately. A magpie was checking out the lawn and garden beds looking for grubs...I thought that he would fly away when I turned on the sprinkler as he was standing just near it...

But no...he stood there enjoying a 'shower'. I realise that birds can't smile but this magpie sure looked really happy. He/she stood there and then when the feathers were all drenched, he/she puffed out the chest and then then flicked the water off by raising his/her wings. 

Then my magpie friend flew up on to the fence where the spray still reached...

And then a turn to face the other way to 'wash' the feathers on the back!

The magpies that visit our yard are delightful visitors with their personalities.

Another little thing that happened to me concerned some plants; in particular some succulents that I planted in some latte type mugs as they were surplus (the mugs not the plants, lol) to requirements but  I could see their potential as plant containers. Earlier this year I planted little pieces of succulents that I have in our garden...

DsD2 agreed to take the plants to her place while we were away and give them a fine mist of water every now and then,and generally look after them.She brought them back last Sunday...

As you can see, they are thriving! And I think DsD2 and her husband might be fans of succulents now too! 

Folkestone, Kent...

Folkestone is a town which overlooks the English Channel and DH and I stayed there as a frugal alternative to accommodation in  Dover. We would later regret this decision but I will write about this in another post. Suffice to say that 'one can't win 'em all'...and that exercising the skill of finding humour in all situations and maintaining that sense of humour 'keeps you young ish'! lol
We stayed on the street which runs beside the cliffs of the landmark known as the Leas, which has magnificent views of the English Channel.

Obviously a fair bit of money has been spent on this area of Folkestone as the facilities for families/day trippers and tourists were extensive. DH and I turned left from where we were staying but to the right led to cafes and a lovely bandstand...here is an image of that, taken from the internet at this website.

There are a few paths on the Leas, but we stayed on the top one and worked our way down to the centre of town...still at the Leas, we noticed this old funicular which must be wonderful for those people at the base of the cliffs who would like a quicker way back to the top...

(Before we left Folkestone we also took a photo of the funicular from the bottom of the cliff...)

But back to our walk...
We turned left at this statue as there were barriers up around some roadworks...

We wandered around the winding streets...I noticed what looked like a person sitting on the roof of a building...

That brick building there...

We asked one of the shopkeepers if there was a story about the sculpture of a woman wearing togs and a bathing cap, sitting on the edge of the roof.

He said that an artist used to have a shop/studio in the building and had actually made 5 sculptures of people sitting  up there on the roof. Our informant said the other 4 had 'fallen off' which was a bit disturbing perhaps??? lol. Any way the artist had long since left the area, whomever he might have been.
Our walk then took us past houses and eventually we walked down some steep steps and walked along to the harbour area...

 To the right of the photo you can see some white cliffs...

On the left of the photo is the historical Martello Tower of Folkestone

Zoom in a bit now...

Looking inland from the harbourside there are some wonderful views of rather elaborate looking buildings...

And beside the harbour is this ship shaped hotel complex...

So even though Folkestone was really just a 'dormitory town' for our trip to Dover Castle, there will be another post about this town, so I can show some of the other photos we took. A bit like a compare/contrast type of exercise :-)