Keeping busy...

Saturday of last week, the family gathered to celebrate 2 birthdays; my 'little brother's' and also my nephew Rowan's. My brother is a 4th of July baby but Rowan was born on July 16.

My brother with his two youngest sons; Rowan is in the middle and at 17, is heaps taller than his dad.

Lucy and DD2...with the little miss eyeing off one of the birthday cakes!

On Sunday, DD1 and I went to Shorncliffe and lunched at Matthew Thomas restaurant. This place has beautiful food!
I kept calling the place Matthew Flinders for some reason! lol.

Monday I headed off to the Scarborough Knit and Natter...I took along some donations which had been given to me to hand in to K4BN...like this crocheted rug...

And these beautifully warm hats made from polar fleece scraps by Margaret. Margaret attends Sisters of Stitch and has just recently given me lots of other lovely donations for K4BN. 

Also at Scarborough we were shown a knitted teddy which was made from a knitted square! What a friendly looking chap he was! 

Talking  of squares...at Paddington Knit and Natter on Tuesday, Anissa, the owner of Knitch, the yarn shop we meet at, showed us a pair of slippers made from 2 squares...here they are modelled by Anissa!

Anissa had time to sit with us on Tuesday morning between customers, and her fingers were far from idle...

This is what she made in a short time...a little toy that will fit easily into a little hand and can be kept in a little person's pocket. 

Parking is somewhat of a dilemma in this busy part of Paddington. I had 'cruised' the side street near the shop looking for a parking spot knowing that I would have a steep hill to climb to get to the shop. All these side streets around Paddington are 'littered' with parked cars, but surprisingly for an old suburb, these particular streets, although very steep, are actually quite wide (ish). I saw a spot in this street and did a u turn to get to the space then drove past it...darn! So I prepared to drive around the block again when I saw a spot on nearby Enoggera Terrace which wasn't on a hill but is a street that branches off the main street that the shop is on. Sweet! That's my Micra on the left; it looks like it's near the wheelie bin but it's actually a safe distance from the bin and the ever present garbage truck . So I just have to cross the street in the foreground...

And the shop is just down there...

Now I know a hill climb is excellent cardio exercise but I knew that I would be loading up my car with donations as Anissa and her customers are soooo generous to K4BN...
This is what my boot/trunk looked like after the car was loaded  up...

 I moved a couple of bags so I could show the other bags that were hidden. There are knitted and crocheted items, including toys...

And there are bags of toiletry items. These will all be handed over at the Albany Creek Knit and Natter.
So after these few busy days I was ready for a quieter day on Wednesday...that's for sure! :-)

Some finishes and some more Knit and Natters...

A few posts ago I wrote about being in the mood to join knitted and crocheted squares into blankets for Knitting for Brisbane's Needy. I'm now almost finished #8 and even though there are still some bags of donated squares 'lurking' in my house, I will most probably move on to some other projects as soon as this 8th blanket is finished.

Thank you to those who commented on the rather striking colour schemes of those blankets posted previously, but really the credit must go to the lovely Glenda at Sisters of stitch. Blanket #7 was not colour coordinated by any means...this blanket used an array of odd squares donated from a variety of sources. The criterion for the use of squares in that blanket was size...any ones that were a similar size were used! Angela asked how I join squares. I mostly join squares using double crochet these days as it's quicker than mattress stitch and also quicker than a former technique I used on  (wonky edged) knitted squares where I did a row of double crochet around the edges of the squares and then whipstitched the squares together. 

So here is a photo of blanket number 7...a mismatch of squares but it will still keep someone warm this coming winter....

There were some knitted flowers in one bag of squares so I sewed them on this blanket to add a little interest :-)

On Monday I was finally able to take some finished items to hand in at the Scarborough Knit and Natter. Mitzi Micra's little boot/trunk was filled with the 7 finished blankets...

Completed blankets piled up on my lounge last Sunday night :-)

At the Knit and Natter, 'my' blankets joined a whole lot of other rugs that were handed in..

As usual the ladies who come to the Scarborough K & N had been very busy and there were bags and bags of items brought along to hand in, including some lovely indigenous jumpers...

And Robyn who held up everyone's items for Show and Tell was kept busy as some 'ends' not woven in were found in some of the items...yours truly had 2 ends left hanging despite checking over the 7 blankets the night before! 

Robyn weaving in an end on a beautiful scarf!

That was Monday...on Tuesday morning I went to the Paddington Knit and Natter at Knitch...a delightful store. 

Shelly, one of our members brought along a bag of Pookies that she had knitted for the Summer Challenge...

Gorgeous little Pookies!

And I handed in that chevron/ripple stitch  throw that I had been working on for the Mothers' Day Raffle.

All ready for a new home in early May.

Just a reminder of my Giveaway to celebrate 800+ blog posts. To be in the draw just leave a comment on this post here.  Draw will be on February 15

Tote bag from California Design Shop at QAG...

Some of the lovely items made by ladies in K4BN...

In yesterday's post I wrote about the Scarborough Knit and Natter but I didn't show photos of some of the donations that were handed in.
Firstly there were some lovely tote bags made by Robyn from odd blocks that had been donated to the group. Robyn lined each bag so they are lovely and strong.

Then a fairly new member Sharon, brought along some items she had made including 3 bags of beautiful dolls...these dolls are exquisite; they have beautiful clothes and the sweetest faces which Sharon paints on...

This is only a few of the dolls that Sharon brought in

 I just adored this little indigenous doll with her dreadlocks...

And a red head!

Yet another sweet-faced doll; these will be given to children in need. Many such children often have no toys of their own and must share, as in the case of refuges etc

Sharon said that while most of the dolls had eyes open, there was one who had her eyes shut...

Another member called Robyn (O), who brought in those gorgeous platypuses last month, came along yesterday with another big bag of toys that she has made...
These little guys are dressed in the cutest felt overalls!

Here are some more of Robyn O's beautiful toys...

And here is the other Robyn with one of the baby blankets that she knitted. Robyn also had made hats/beanies and an adult sized jumper.

 Nothing from me for K4BN at the moment...but when the Christmas swaps' items are all finished, I'll get back to work joining squares into blankets.

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 :-)