Wool on New Year’s Day!

Or should that just be, Wool on Friday? What’s my latest finish in all things yarny? 

A few weeks before Christmas, I finished a knitted baby blanket which was to be a gift to DsD1’s friend Amy whose first baby was due before Christmas. The parents knew the gender of their coming baby but preferred to keep it a surprise for the rest of us. 

I’d worked with a particular variegated Holiday yarn with pretty shades before, and had 2x100g in the ‘stash’, so decided to use it with some white Stylecraft Special, to make a simple ripple striped blanket. 

Baby Alyssa surprised everyone by arriving a little earlier than expected, but another week of knitting saw the project finished. 

I’m glad I chose that yarn as the colours go just perfectly with the white. 

Before I wrapped it, DH decided to ‘model’ it for me. 😁

I’m having a lovely quiet day this New Year’s Day. Being a Friday, DH is off playing golf so I’m enjoying just pottering...a bit of knitting, some packing away of Christmas decorations, sharing morning tea with Jimmy the dog, some decluttering, a lot of thinking about what I can do in the garden this year, a bit of reading...it’s amazing how much pottering one can fit into the 6 hours while DH is out golfing! 🤣

Wool on Sunday...

I noticed that Janine from the Rainbow Hare blog had just written a post for Wool on Sunday. As it’s been ages since I wrote any blog post, I thought I’d make an effort to remedy that situation. I have been pondering on the fact that I don’t seem to have done much in the knitting and crocheting situation this year, but I looked through photos on my iPad and found that perhaps I’d been a bit harsh with myself. 

Early in the pandemic, I did some Christmas knitting...I made some knitted decorations. The photo is masked with a call out as some of the recipients of these read my blog. 😉

Because of the increased demand for warm items for the needy in the community, for many months I focused on joining donated squares into blankets for distribution. To this end, I also crocheted the most granny squares, I’ve done in many a year...with that ultimate goal of providing yet another blanket or two for Knitting for Brisbane’s Needy to distribute. 

In the next photo, I have sewn some donated circles on donated squares. The circles were a bit wonky and squaring them up would  have also made a square that was a bit open. 

Some more of the blankets I put together for K4BN; I used bright colors, that’s for sure! 

I think that my tally for blankets was 11...but it could have been more. 

At one stage I started a baby blanket using oddments of yarn. The plan was to make it to donate to K4BN, but a week or so after I started I found out that my nephew and his wife who live in Sydney, had had a new baby daughter about 6 weeks before. ( my brother thought I knew so didn’t bother to tell me...hmmm 😜)  So the newly started blanket suddenly became baby Zali’s gift and I quickly finished it ready for posting. 

And then there was the throw that I knitted for our parish art and craft show, which this year was all online. DH warned me that it probably wouldn’t sell as being a photo in an online catalogue isn’t the same as seeing such an item in ‘real life’, but I wanted to feel as though I was contributing to our parish’s main yearly fundraiser. And it didn’t sell which meant I could take it to Sunday Stitchers that month as my Show and Tell. And of course, I have a throw available to give away if the need arises. At Sunday Stitchers, the lovely Helen took this  next photo of me holding up the throw. 

With the restrictions on meetings due to COVID-19, our regular Knit and Natters were discontinued for a time. Eventually a very, very small number of venues were reopened with strict protocols in place and with very restricted numbers. But at one Knit and Natter, we started bringing a chair and having an alfresco Knit and Natter beside the car park of the library venue. ( With the social distancing regulations, only 4 of us could meet IN the library...so that would NOT have worked!) 

And in these strange times I decided to use as my knitting bag, a bag I bought from the merchandise counter at The Addams Family Musical. It seemed appropriate 😉😜

Wool on...any day ending with a ‘y’.

From February 2016 I wrote dozens of monthly posts titled Wool on Sundays. The idea of bloggers sharing posts about fibre arts such as knitting, crocheting and stitching was the brainchild of Janine who organised the link ups through her delightful Rainbow Hare blog. 

Times and directions change, and this forum for sharing ‘yarny’ projects is no longer a formal monthly feature. And even though I’ve been a bit slack at blogging in recent times, I’ve found that I really miss chatting about projects. So here’s my version, Wool on any day of the week! Lol

In a previous post written in the last month, I showed some photos of blankets made for Knitting for Brisbane’s Needy; a combination of crocheted squares given to me and some granny squares made by me. The solid squares made by my friend Susan were perfect for a plan I’d finally come up with on how to use a big bundle of crocheted motifs that had been passed on to me a few years ago. 

Originally I thought I’d square them up by crocheting more rounds. But I went off that idea as the motifs were quite thin which I thought would not make the resultant blanket warm for the homeless. So I’ve stitched them to the solid squares; the stitches disappearing into the crocheting, so the backs of the squares are neat. 

All the squares laid out ready to be joined together...

Finished blanket ready to keep someone warm. 


A few months ago I bought some Bendigo Woollen Mill’s Classic 8 ply online. It took a while to arrive which wasn’t surprising as on the BWM Facebook page they showed a photo of huge wire bins full of parcels ready to be posted. The company had been overwhelmed with the support from knitters all around Australia. And apparently the orders are still coming in  as witnessed by this recent FB post. 

Some incredible statistics there! And this is what I’m making with my order...the variegated Shepherd yarn was in my stash...completely forgotten about for a number of years too 🙄😉

It’s lovely working with wool again. 

Wool on Sunday.

Once again it’s time for a Wool on Sunday post featuring all things ‘yarny’ in the last month. 

Most of the month was taken up with joining donated squares ( plus a few granny squares of my own) into blankets for the needy. What a great feeling it was to take along 6 completed blankets to hand in. 

And now the latest project that I’ve started is a knitted throw to donate to the Karuna Hospice’s Christmas Markets in late November. It’s in a mohair yarn because of 2 reasons. Firstly I have an abundance of the rather expensive Jo Sharp brand kid mohair which I bought on a whim online a number of years ago before I retired and I’m trying to use this beautiful yarn up. Secondly, I wanted a project using a light weight yarn, that I could take with me for the 5 weeks that DH and I are travelling and mohair fits the bill.

I used this same yarn to make a throw for Karuna last year too. This year, I’m adding a cream as a main colour in stripes. 

I started the throw at home last week, started the coloured stripes in Dubai (2 nights there) and have taken this photo on the bed of our Dublin hotel. 

This yarn goes a long way and I suspect there may be yet another throw made using it in the future perhaps. 😉😆
At this stage, Janine who organises Wool on Sunday, hasn’t published a September post  yet but here is a link to her blog The Rainbow Hare. 

here

Wool on Sunday; July

Once again I’m joining Janine from the Rainbow Hare blog here, in posting about yarn related activities in the last month. Janine has been working on a sweater but also writes about the building project in her garden. I’ve managed to work on a number of projects during the last month which probably explains the dust that has appeared on wooden furniture...and other housework neglect. 

I was determined to finish a rainbow throw that I was making for DsD3 and I did. 

She is so busy with her work that finding a good time to hand it over became problematic so the handover happened when she dropped in to a Trivia night that DH and I attend, on her way home from work. She needed a ‘joy boost’ and I like to think my efforts helped with that. 

In the last month I got to work on my usual contribution to our parish art and craft show...you guessed it...a knitted throw! 

Here’s the progress so far with just over 2 weeks to go until the show...all good for a finish on time. 

At Knit and Natters and Trivia Nights I’ve been crocheting squares...15 to be exact as that’s the number  of squares needed to add to the 15 squares made by Susan W, from Sunday Stitchers. 

Susan also gave me 2 balls of this variegated yarn and I used these 2 with gold/yellow and red yarns. The colours in the variegated yarn look a bit like the indigenous colours but it’s actually a navy or ink blue not black. ( it’s the colours of the Adelaide Crows footy team) . I think a needy indigenous person will love the blanket that Susan’s and my squares will make. 

These squares plus the bundle I wrote about last month have still got to be joined but it’s comforting to know that that will be done quite quickly when the knitted throw is finished. 

Years ago ( probably the 1980?) I knitted some kite shapes from a pattern published in a booklet in the Australian Women’s Weekly. The shapes came out very small so I experimented and made them larger. It was an on off project for years and I trialled various ways of sewing them together; eventually crocheting around each shape in black and then sewing them together. 

This photo has to have been taken before I had my cataract operations in 2009 but I suspect it’s possibly 5 years before that. 

I gave the blanket to a friend’s young daughter who had lost a finger in an accident...it was a perfect gift as E loved it. ( she’s just recently had her 21st birthday) 

After I gave that blanket away I started making another lot of shapes; every ball of 8 ply that I’d buy, I’d make one shape. Then for whatever reason, I put the project away. And came across it a few years ago.

But I couldn’t find the pattern and for some reason I struggled to work out the pattern from the pile of shapes...very disappointed with myself! 

And then last week on the K4BN Facebook page someone posted a photo of a throw made with those same shapes in that rib pattern. A few people commented on the photo and I wrote that I’d lost the pattern. Within half an hour I had a copy of the page of that booklet from another member of the group. I was so happy and grateful that someone had kept a pattern published in 1972!! 

I hope it doesn’t breach copyright rules to share it here ©?

Wool on Sunday...

Joining in with Rainbow Hare’s blog and Janine’s monthly feature, Wool on Sunday. https://rainbowhare.com/category/wool-on-sundays/

So what yarny things did I get up to in May? Most of what I did was for the charity I belong to...especially after I read these posts from the founder of K4BN on the group’s Facebook page. 

And...

But what about this post? This sort of thing breaks my heart...

So firstly some items I’ve made from donated squares;-

A baby blanket made with squares from Cheryl E

A large blanket mainly made with squares from Susan W



I had 5 of Susan’s squares left over...

So I’ve spent a week or so crocheting the 25 granny squares needed to make up 30. So I’ve crocheted in the car and at Trivia night at the RSL club as well as in front of the telly or sitting in the sun on the verandah 😉

And I’ve now got a bundle of 25 to make another blanket! 

And I thought I’d share some photos of a K4BN Knit and Natter...

 

This is at the Zillmere Community Centre and here are some of the May donations...it’s amazing what this group contributes to make life a little better for those in need.

So while we watch the first State of Origin match for 2019 with DH yelling at the TV ( coaching points maybe?) I’ll calmly keep on crocheting 🧶😆. 

Wool on Sunday

Joining in with the monthly Wool on Sunday over at Rainbow Hare.

With the cooler weather the knitting charity that I support  has been inundated with requests for warm items, especially blankets, beanies and gloves. 

Over Easter, I set to and joined some bags of donated squares into blankets...

And then there was a bag of smaller squares with a different style of granny square design. It made a lovely knee rug...

The lady who gave them to me normally joins her squares into rugs but she felt like a break from joining after donating quite a few of her rugs to the group. And I certainly didn’t mind helping out. 

I also had been storing some blankets that I’d made up in the warmer months from squares crocheted by a friend. Because so many items that left the K4BN storage shed for distribution , there was now room for more donations. 

These beautiful and warm blankets won’t be in storage for long; they will be distributed very soon. 

A total of 9 blankets made from the bags of donated squares that I’d been given to join. 

And at the moment I’m away interstate for a few days and in spare moments I’m using up some US variegated yarn that a friend brought back as a gift for me years ago, to make a baby blanket; most probably an item for K4BN.

And that’s Wool on Sunday for May 😄

Wool on Sunday

Once again linking with Janine’s monthly feature Wool on Sunday over on her Rainbow Hare blog. here

This month Janine wrote about 2 lovely projects...I loved both! 

So this last month I’ve finished another of my scrappy chevron throws with the same colour ways as usual because I usually buy yarns in my favourite colours! Lol

This is one of the 4 throws that I started mid last year; casting on, knitting about 6 inches on each then popping the started project into a ziplock bag. My reasoning was that I would be more likely to pick up a project that is already started and continue with it rather than dither around when I knew I had to cast on 200 stitches and do foundation rows. And it worked! I now only have 1 project left and 3 throws have, or will have gone to fundraising for charity. 

In last month’s WoS, I wrote about the rainbow baby blanket that I had made for our #5 granddaughter. This prompted DsD3 to suggest that maybe I could make her a rainbow blanket 😉. But instead of the waffle stitch pattern of Meredith’s blanket, DsD3 wondered if she could have something similar to Holly’s blanket that I made in 2017...

Holly on her blankie...note that ‘same old same old’ favourite pattern of mine. 😉😆

So here is the progress on this latest rainbow blanket using just the 7 colours. 

And I’m using a yarn brand I haven’t used before, Paintbox. It’s a lovely soft yarn and very nice to work with. 

With the weather looking like it might at last be cooling down, I look forward to some ‘good knitting weather’.