Wool on Sunday

On the first Sunday of each month I usually join in with another blogger’s ‘Wool on Sunday’ post where anything to do with yarn can be written up as a blog post and linked via a widget on the Rainbow Hare blog.

I’m a bit late but nevertheless here’s my first WoS post for 2019.

Firstly my most recent finish; the throw I started in late November.

Yeah...similar colours to others I’ve made lol. This year ‘the plan’ is to continue to make similar throws to use up the yarn stash, especially oddments of yarn. I made quite a few last year but there’s still a lot of yarn to use up. 

Next in this post is a big surprise from DsD1 who crossstitched this for me for Christmas. She only took up stitching in the latter part of last year...

I suspect it’s a take on the ‘Live fast and die young.....’ line uttered by John Derek in the 1949 movie ‘ Knock on Any Door’ although also sometimes (wrongly) attributed to James Dean according to Google 😉. 

And DsD2 and her husband gave me some beautiful hand dyed yarn which they bought in New Zealand. 

On the needles at the moment is yet another chevron garter stitch throw. There’s a lot of sport on TV here in Australia at the moment which DH watches for hours with the aircon going so I sit and knit in the lovely cool room with him. Unlike him I don’t shout at the TV or give coaching advice to the players. Lol 

A bit of a saga...

In one of my Wool on Sunday posts last year, I wrote about a knitting project ( a ripple stitch throw) that had been misplaced for a few years, and how I'd found it in a ziplock bag of yarns...😕
I had only knitted a few inches when I had put that project away and forgot about it.

Well I re-started the throw and when it was about 60cm long, I put it aside while I worked on other things.
Then, about 3 weeks ago I found out that my cousin Lucy, who already is battling Lymphoma had been diagnosed with thyroid cancer and was facing a fairly large operation. I wanted to do something for her and after a 'lightbulb moment', I decided that that something would be to finish that chevron/ripple stitch throw and send that to Lucy. So began some feverish knitting and because of the  hot weather, quite a bit of cranking up the air con!

But I must digress slightly...
One night there was a big boxing match here in Australia ( in Adelaide) and DH organized the 'pay for view' of this match and invited 2 of his golf cronies over to watch with him. My plan to spend the evening in another room was scuttled when one of the cronies brought his wife along...so I sat in the lounge with everyone. It wasn't long before I just had to pick up my knitting...the chevron throw project, and I started knitting.

After a while I sensed that one of the golf cronies ( not the one who brought his wife along) was looking in my direction. Eventually I looked up and smiled at him. He had a really nostalgic look on his face and he said quite wistfully...'My mum and my late wife used to knit...' How sweet...obviously some lovely memories for him.

Anyway back to my story...I finished the throw for Lucy last Saturday.

After the photo shoot the throw was folded and tied with ribbon...

This photo actually shows the colours more accurately than the previous collage of pics

Then posted on Monday. And Australia Post won through...yep the parcel was safely delivered to the Sydney address this morning, and I received this photo...the rug with its beautiful new owner.

Please keep Lucy in your thoughts as she fights her way to better health. 💕💕

It's finished...

Last Sunday morning I finally finished the throw that I had been making for Scott Alexander, who was the kind benefactor who provided funding for a storage shed for K4BN. It's taken a bit longer than it would normally take to knit such an item...but it was wider than I normally make, and as it was for an adult male I made it 180 CM long. So those factors,plus Christmas stitching and hot weather, certainly slowed things down! I used lots of special yarns from my stash, including yarns purchased overseas on holidays and a gorgeous alpaca yarn that was quite expensive...but so worth the splurge :-)

I got carried away taking photos before I handed the throw over...not directly to Scott, but to Karen who would hand it on to her neighbour, who then delivered this gift to Scott last Thursday. 

The close up still doesn't do justice to the lovely yarns that I used...and the colours are more vivid in real life...

During my 'quality control' inspections...I check for ends on the back...

The request was for one of my chevron/ripple stitch throws with lots of mauves...

The little bamboo lounge on our veranda is always being used to drape items for photographing...

The early morning sun's glare on the ripples...

I did warn that I took a lot of photos, lol

Finally the throw is folded and tied with a pretty mauve bow...

Goodbye throw...hope you have brought pleasure to Scott. 

FNSI...

Yes! last night was the 3rd Friday night of the month so it was Friday Night Sew In...or in my case, Friday Night Knit In. Wendy from Sugarlane Quilts blog hosts this worldwide link up of craft bloggers and you can find the post with all the links to last night's participants right here.

There's a bit of a story behind my project last night...it's a special request and the item is for a very special person who doesn't know anything about his eventual surprise! 

Scott Alexander owns Mountain View Daylilies Nursery and he donated a heap of money to enable Knitting for Brisbane's Needy to have a large shed erected which provides warehouse storage and packaging facilities for the group. ( Before this, Karen and Peter Croke had had their home, shed and garage, 'overrun' with boxes and bags of donations.)

A bit squeezy in the Croke's laundry :-)

Pouring the slab....

Part view of the outside of the shed...  

On the K4BN site there are a series of photos which show more photos of the shed being built...

Sadly, Scott is not a well man and has now entered a Residential Care facility, leaving his family to run the Nursery. One of his staff had seen one of my knitted throws and through Karen, had asked if I could make one for Scott. After his generosity to the group, it is my absolute pleasure to do this. I asked which design J had seen, and it was that old favourite of mine...the Chevron/Ripple! And would you believe, Scott's favourite colour is 'wisteria', but I was told to use whatever colours I like...so I'm having fun! So back to my FNKI...

Some of the lovely yarns I'm using, including a gorgeous variegated alpaca yarn and some hand spun and dyed wool yarn from Lisa, a member of Knit4charities. 

Another view...

The big ball of hand spun and dyed yarn...

The throw is about 90 cm long, so about half way...must dash off now and do a few rows. :-)