Wool on Sundays...

At this time of year, the knitting charity that I belong to, has the main focus on mini Christmas stockings rather that blankets, rugs, gloves, beanies and scarves. Many of our members, their friends and the members of the Australia wide knitting group K4C, work all throughout the year, on making the huge amount of stockings that we need...6000 this year I think it is!!

This year, I have already been given bundles of mini stockings that my friends have made...

The popular Jean Greenhowe pattern...

Another friend makes some in lots of pretty colours.

At the Zillmere Knit and Natter at the end of last month, a friend from Sisters of Stitch arrived with 135 stockings she had made for the group. She was able to see her stockings packed with sweets and bundled up ready to hand over to one of the many community groups that give these away as gifts to the needy.

Thanks to more generosity from friends and family, I was able to take a LOT of sweets to the Zillmere Knit and Natter! 

A trip to Costco with a cousin who is a member netted this lot; our cousin, a knitting friend and I bought these to donate. It's the best way to buy the lollipops; 100 for just under $20! 

And to finish the post, here is a photo from December 2013. I was recovering from an op and unable to drive. So sweet DH gave up golf for the day and drove me to the Scarborough Knit and Natter...where everyone was packing stockings...so he helped. 💕

Joining in with Janine over at the Rainbow Hare blog for Wool on Sunday. Janine's post this week was about making things for the approaching winter; whereas here in Australia we're looking for ways to stay cool! lol

Wool on Sundays...

My goodness the week goes quickly! So it's already time to link up with The Rainbow Hare blog to share some yarn related posts. Janine has written a post about a beautiful blue flower she has crocheted...the colour of the yarn is stunning!

Last week I decided to sort through the items in this pink box...

For a number of years I've put printouts from craft/quilting/knitting websites and photocopies of project patterns and instructions from craft mags in this pink box...and then have forgotten about them!  :-/. So I had a 'sort and turf out' session of anything that I knew that realistically I would never make.
 

But I did find items that I was delighted to see and keep. A surprise find was some patterns that I used to use in the 1980s...

A cardigan pattern that I knitted many times, both for my girls and for church fete stalls. It was torn from an English Women's Weekly. My mum had been buying the EWW since the 1950s and I bought it too in the 1970s-1990s...loved their knitting patterns. 

The other 'find' was this rather battered photocopied sheet. One of my neighbours ( since passed away) when I lived at Newmarket, hand wrote this pattern for baby slippers for me. And I made lots of these too...such memories.

In the envelope with Dulcie's handwritten pattern was this one which I wrote out by hand too for the same slippers...I wouldn't write something out these days! Lol

And today I posted the completed baby afghan to the collection point for K4C ( Knit for Charity) . One of the Charities of this Month was Mara's Rest Cottage. I also sent a colourful knitted blanket that I once bought from an elderly lady at the local markets. The lady was selling some of her handiwork and had very low prices on them. I offered her more money but she wouldn't take it, so I paid $8 for a brand new metre square rug. I always planned to knit up another border on the blanket to make it larger...never did, did I? Lol. But it's perfect for a child, so it's off to Mara's Rest too.
 

So these 2 are now on their way to the ACT and new homes.

Wool on Sundays...

Joining in with Janine's Rainbow Hare blog and the weekly Wool on Sundays link up.

 I occasionally check out op shops (thrift shops, charity shops) for anything that might be useful for the knitting charity I belong to. These items range from balls/bags of yarn to unfinished projects, including orphan knitted or crocheted squares. Last year I went to a favourite local op shop at Chermside and saw this bag with what looked like oddments of yarn. But a closer look revealed that there was an unfinished baby afghan in the bag.

 

There was plenty of yarn in the bag to continue working on the rounds to make the blanket larger...

I only work on this project when I go to the K4BN Knit and Natters and the reason for that is that it's the sort of project where I can concentrate on the Natter part of the occasion rather than the knitting/crocheting! Lol
But I will be spending more time on this project in the next few weeks, as I've found the perfect place for it to go to. I also belong to the Australia-wide knitting group, Knit 4 Charities Inc. Each month K4C has a number of charities that group members can choose from to make projects. One of the charities for April is Maya's Rest Cottage in the ACT and the requests were for knitted/crocheted toys, lap blankets and children's knitted/crocheted slippers. So my plan is to finish this soft blanket and send to K4C to pass it on.

Secret Santa Gifts Unwrapped!

Yesterday, being Christmas Day, I could unwrap my Secret Santa gifts. The first one I opened was from my SS in the Knit for Charities swap. And this is what I got...some fat quarters in the most beautiful colours. My SS knows what I like, clever lady!! ( My SS reads this blog!!) Thank you Secret Santa! 

  Now I was Secret Santa to another member of K4C and I sent her a knitted wreath that I had bought at our Parish Christmas Markets...

  Now back to the unwrapping....

Then I opened the parcel which had come from Michell in New Zealand. Michell was my SS in the Chookyblue SSCS.

And look at the lovely table runner that Michelle made me...the fabrics are gorgeous...the background fabric has gold flecks in it...beautiful! 

And Michelle popped in some other goodies, just to spoil me!

I love the Manuka Honey hand lotion and always buy a supply when I visit NZ, so I'm thrilled to try the lip balm! Thank you so much Michell! 

I was SS to Tonje in Norway. Tonje stitches but she also knits and that's what I focused on when I was deciding what to make her. Yes in the Chookyblue swap the items must be handcrafted by the Secret Santa. I love making Judy Newman's Dillybags and as I have a stash of 'knitting themed fabrics' I combined the two! By stalking around Tonje's blog, I established that she rather liked mice. So now I was combining those 3 bits of info. And this is what I came up with...

Knitting themed fabric hexies...

And a stitched 'Lily Mouse' from a design by Threads on My Socks, on a hexagonal panel appliquéd to the bag.

But that's not all! 

I forgot to take a photo of the two skeins of hand dyed Aussie wool that I placed in the bag. So next time I was at Knitch (a yarn shop in Paddington, Brisbane) I took a photo of the types of yarns I bought for Tonje.

Some sock yarn...

And an eight ply yarn...

Hopefully both ladies who had me as their SS were pleased with their gifts. I certainly loved mine! 

Scarborough Knit and Natter...

The first Monday of the month is the Scarborough Knit and Natter. DH knew that I really wanted to go to this so instead of him heading off to his usual Monday golf game, he drove me to Scarborough. We had bags of yarns that friends had given me for K4BN, some fabrics for some of the sewers, a gift card from Yarn Over that DH and I had donated for the Christmas Raffle and I had a blanket of donated squares that was ready to hand in.

Blanket made with squares donated by Stephanie and Julie from Sisters of Stitch

 I loved 'Show and Tell' as there were some beautiful blankets...

Gorgeous! This is a new pattern that Angela tried and loved doing it; she used indigenous colours

 And here's another one that Angela made

 Karen held up this one that consisted of lots of small crocheted motifs

Here Karen is holding up a jumper and beanie set in indigenous colours. Hmmm hiding behind that beanie eh?

And this one was knitted in strips by Helen. Then each strip was crocheted around in dc and then each strip  was joined...very effective!

A new member, Robyn, brought along some wonderful toys that she had sewn...

These will make lovely gifts for needy children...

The next photo shows a bag filled with mini Christmas stockings which have been made by many of the group's members.

Each mini stocking is filled with sweets and then community groups hand these out to the needy at Christmas functions. Karen had been asked that group provide over 2000 of these Christmas stockings. That's a huge amount and members of our sister charity knitting group, Knit for Charities have given us a hand to get that number.

At many of the K&Ns at the moment, members are filling the stockings ready for the community events.  Here's my wonderful DH helping fill mini stockings...

And here's the stocking fillers on the other side of the table...

We only stayed for an hour as I was starting to tire...but it had been a wonderful outing :-)