Wool on Sunday

The first 'yarny' post for 2018; joining in with Janine over on the Rainbow Hare blog. Janine's post was a bit about Christmas and of course some of her projects. The shawl that Janine made is stunning. Check out her blog post Here.
I've started the year with 2 big bags of blankets made from crocheted and knitted squares which 3 wonderful ladies have given me.

Most of the squares had been joined up into blankets late last year, but most of those still had some ends to weave in. And there were still some bags of squares that needed joining. The perfect opportunity arose in the week after Christmas. DsD1 and her husband were staying with us and she enjoys the opportunity when staying with us, of some 'binge' Netflix viewing.
A series she had wanted to watch was available, so taking advantage of the aircon in the lounge room, I sat with her, and joined squares, edged blankets and neatened ends while DsD1 watched some monster terrorise a group of US teenagers. It took a couple of days to 'watch' the 9 episodes which meant that soon 13 blankets were finished ready! 😄
(The show was Series 2 of Stranger Things; DsD1 loves her sci-fi 😉)

Possibly I will make use of my stockpile of polar fleece to make blankets for K4BN as that will clear some shelf space in at least one cupboard. And sometime soon I need to make an effort to start some knitting for some expected new arrivals. I do tend to knit all year round; just smaller projects in summer.

My local yarn shop, Yarn Over.

At the end of this month my local yarn shop will close its doors and the business will then sell only online. Like a lot of local businesses,Yarn Over was never 'just a shop'. Both the present owner and the former owner always encouraged people to come to social gatherings based on a common love/interest in knitting and crocheting. Many groups would meet during each month and of course there were classes that people could attend. 

The knitting group I belong to, K4BN would conduct their monthly Knit and Natter at the store and member's purchases always attracted a 10% discount. And all customers could use loyalty cards to collect points for purchases and trade them in. And of course there was the staff...always helpful and friendly and ready to put the 'kettle on' for when regular customers dropped by...we could browse the shelves while we sipped or lounge on the sofas! 

Today was therefore the last Knit and Natter at Yarn Over for K4BN...and as usual we had fun...

There were generous discounts on stock...even a free giveaway basket to rummage through...our usual coffee/tea/ food goodies...but it was all tinged with a bit of sadness.

(All of us who attended were able to set up our User ID and password for the new website during the morning as well)

Paddington Knit and Natter

Last December I went to my first Knit and Natter at a delightful yarn shop called Knitch and I wrote about it here...

Yesterday when I went to the Knit and Natter there I found a few changes...
Firstly there was a coffee cart near the front door...

And the prices were very reasonable

In charge of the coffee cart was a young man called Brayden. He made the most wonderful cups of coffee and this talented barista also mixes his own blends of beans...the coffee was really good! Between customers Brayden kept busy...

A big smile for the camera...

The hat wasn't finished but Brayden modelled it for the camera...the yarn is Noro Silk Garden...

Later in the day I noticed a photo of the finished hat on the shop's Facebook page and the hat was indeed floppy just as Brayden had planned...it looked great!
Last December I purchased a number of wound balls of some special yarns that Anissa was selling. Two went for Christmas gifts and the one pictured below was a little extra I put in the recent Bag Giveaway that I ran on the blog...

Dorothy's name was drawn as the winner and she was thrilled to find the ball of yarn in her prize...it wasn't long before Dorothy sent me a photo of what she made with the yarn...
Take a look at this lovely scarf...the colour graduations are gorgeous.

So fellow Brisbanites I really recommend a visit to Anissa's lovely shop. If you don't knit or crochet, just drop in for a coffee perhaps? Anissa also runs a number of classes and the shop hosts a number of groups who come in to knit and socialise. Anissa is a great supporter of Knitting for Brisbane's Needy and her shop is stocked with so many divine yarns, kits and ideas. 

Albany Creek...

Last Wednesday the Knit and Natter group at the Albany Creek library had our last meet up for 2013.

 So that meant some special treats for morning tea...here are just 2 of the items we had on the table...

Fruit cake filled with lots of nuts...

Shortbread in the shape of Christmas trees...

And of course a Knit and Natter also meant more lovely items being brought in for K4BN...

crocheted blankets from Margaret...

 Knitted toys from Debbie...

I mentioned to the other ladies, the email from Karen (the founder and boss of K4BN) that I had read that morning. Apparently a community group had contacted Karen asking if K4BN could help 2 families who were in quite dire straits. No one else could recall such an email on the forum so now that I'm the proud owner of a 'dongle', thus having internet access when I'm out and about, I used my phone to check my emails...but the email wasn't here! I then checked Facebook and there was the message on the K4BN page...and that's why my friends had not seen it! So we read it out and everyone discussed how they could help. One lady, Noeline offered to donate a dolls' house and I offered to collect it from her place...which I did.
One photo before the house is put into the boot (trunk).

We put all the dolls' house furniture in this bag...

And I also got some plant cutting from Noeline's garden...how Maria-like! lol

The dollhouse and furniture, along with quite a few other items that have been collected will be given to a needy family early next week. 

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 :-)

Just a few things...

Firstly a big thank you to those of you who left such lovely comments on my post entitled, 'What a difference six weeks makes...'   All of your comments  encapsulated what that experience taught me...

Live life to the full!!

*March 7, 2011: DH and I get around and have met quite a few people on our travels...

As Janice said in her comment...'There is no doubt about it.... live every day to the full....make the most of every opportunity and enjoy whatever chances that come along'  

Or as Vireya commented...'Thank you for posting this. It's a lesson I need to learn.' 

And Helen made the observation...' Thank you soooo much for reminding us all how fragile our lives are and not to take them for granted :-))))))'

And Helen's comment reminded me of something that happened last year that 'quite shook me up'. You see as the years have gone along since 2002 I had started to dismiss my family's assertions that I had been so seriously ill, but last year the daughter in law of a couple in our parish died rather suddenly. I asked M whether her DiL had had cancer. Her answered 'floored' me! The young mother had been struck down by a mystery virus, it had attacked her organs and one by one these organs had shut down...deja vu!!! I was obviously very lucky that my liver was able to repair itself and no other organs were affected !!! 

Moving on now...
 I own a rather small car which I've named, Mitzi Micra. This car doesn't have a very big boot (trunk) space and lately those old sayings like, 'loaded to the hilt', or 'packed to the rafters' ,'loaded up to the gills' and even 'loaded to the gunnels/gunwales', have sprung to mind! lol
On the 3rd Wednesday of the month,  I collected the donations from our (K4BN) Albany K&N...the boot was already filled with a large box of blankets ( for the needy) given to me by a lady at Sisters of Stitch. Sharing the tiny boot space with the box was also a big bag of yarn that a friend got from an op shop for me...so those donations that Wednesday went in the back seat area!

Lots of knitted and crocheted items including some beautiful toys!

Then last Saturday I was able to hand over over all those things at that Knit and Natter, and I had room then for more things! lol    And I needed that space because, on the last Wednesday gone, I picked up many bags of yarn from Judie at SoS and some bags of squares and other items from 3 other ladies there. 
Look how generous these wonderful ladies are!

There are several bags of yarn here, plus a bag of beautifully knitted beanies.

 The wonderful thing about yarns and items made with yarns...they're rather 'squishy' and so even with a small car, I can get lots in! 

Now Tuesday this coming week, I can hand in all those bags of goodies ready for their distribution to those who need them. I will also have 4 knitted/crocheted blankets that I have worked on to go as well...3 of these blankets were just either sewing up other people's squares or finishing off an op shop buy  which was too small and obviously unfinished. My friend Jenny over at Justjen Knits and Stitches is also sewing up squares and she is brilliant at getting funny shapes and sizes to fit! lol

These 4 should be able to be squeezed in the boot too!!

And there may be another blanket sewn up out of squares by Tuesday too! 

* at Madame Tussauds' in Hollywood

Knitting and lots of Nattering and Aunty Gwen...

The last Tuesday of the month is the Zillmere K&N, and DH decided that he should drive me there, then head off to a nearby golf driving range to 'hit a 100 balls'. Then he would come back and together we would both go to the reasonably nearby Chermside Shopping centre. That was the plan but as we were driving along Old Northern Rd, I commented that I wasn't familiar with this route to Zillmere. He thought that I was heading off to Albany Creek K&N! Hmmm... the girls complain that he never listens to them either! lol (I did arrive at Zillmere Community centre eventually after a change of direction! )

Zillmere donations for this month amounted to over 120 items...including good sized knitted and crocheted blankets and patchwork quilts.

 I just love the cover someone has crocheted for the money donations' tin

For a little while, off and on, I have been crocheting 15 rounds' squares in indigenous colours. It's always handy having something simple like this to just pick up and work on without too much concentration required.
Originally another member was collecting up these squares and sewing them into blankets. Well she has started to join her squares as she goes and has no use for individual ones like mine. So I started to join the ones I've done already (12) . I'm double crocheting them together to speed up the process. So that's what I worked on, on Tuesday. Since then, I've started crocheting around the 12 (sewn into a 3 by 4 rectangle) and it won't be long before it is a single blanket size!

Now about Aunty Gwen...
Aunty Gwen is an Aboriginal elder who works for the Northern Territory Health department. Her job entails her travelling to communities, some quite remote. For a number of years Aunty Gwen has handed out jumpers to children in these communities because they didn't have anything warm to wear. After winter each year, Aunty Gwen collects all these jumpers and washes and mends them. There are some friends of Aunty Gwen's who have helped over the years by knitting jumpers.

Well, a friend of a friend  of a K4BN's member, told this member about Gwen. The matter was discussed as to how the group could help. Eventually it was decided that for our group's Summer Challenge, we would help build up a supply of new jumpers for Aunty Gwen. So for December to the end of February many of us have been working on that. Some members knitted quite a few each...I only started in early February  using a pattern uploaded to the group's pattern files, and just did the one. But I loved knitting it and will knit some more throughout the year. It's so quick to knit a child's jumper after doing my 200 stitch throws! lol

My contribution to the jumper drive...I love the variegated yarn in the stripes. It makes it so easy to get a colourful effect.

FNSI...

A week later this month; joining in with Heidi's regular monthly feature.

On Friday night I finished crocheting around a baby blanket for K4BN. I had noticed a number of softer pastel coloured squares among the squares that had been donated to the charity for sewing up. I started putting them aside and eventually I had a pile of 13. So I used 12 of these to make a cot sized blanket.

The little stocking still needs to be sewn up...

Then one more task before bedtime...I knitted a mini Christmas stocking, also for K4BN. We've had requests for several hundred of these as many groups who help the needy give these away with a small gift popped inside. The one I knitted on Friday night is the first of many I hope that I'll get done :-)