Who receives a cardi for a birthday present in January?

Our precious friend Millie. That is who.

It does feel strange when it is meltingly hot preparing to gift this, but at least it will be ready for the cooler weather. I have made this one with a machine washable nylon acrylic blend to keep things as simple as possible for Millie's Mum.

Pattern Helena by Alison Green Will

 Ravelry Pattern Page | My project page

Yarn sirdar snuggly DK

Needle 4.5, 4 and 3mm

Making use of odd balls

Like just about every other yarn crafter who has been at it for a while, I have quite a big stash. A sizeable part of my collection is leftovers from larger projects or small amounts bought on sale; not enough to make more than a very small project. Inspired by the blanket from my PJ friends on Ravelry, I have decided to make some more. A local  church collects 20x20cm knitted squares so any that don't fit in can be donated and go to someone in need.

I will make a few different afghans based on colourways and fibre content, starting with wool. I am also aiming to put a photo of each square listing fibre, what else I used it for and the stitch pattern in my projects page on Ravelry. Here's to some lovely blankets and a much leaner yarn kitty.

Flood

I am kind of double posting by putting this photo on both of my blogs, but I am trying to stick to very few words on 2011 in photos and I want to speak more about this image.

Of course everyone already knows about the floods that have rocked the eastern states of Australia including the so called inland tsunami and the devastation of our third biggest city. Now we have reached the time after the immediate threat. People can stop, breathe and assess what the hell just happened as the waters begin to recede and they can go back to what is left of their homes and businesses.

Eleventy billion tonnes of water has spewed out of the Brisbane river into Moreton Bay. So much debris is stretching way up and down the coastline. There is everything from what is left of boats to fruit, trees, wooden pailings, doors, toys and even this water tank which I spotted in Bramble Bay today.

The water tank became such an iconic sign of the severe ten year drought our state has recently climbed out of. Governments were subsidising their purchase in the hope that more households and businesses would take advantage of using their own water for things like garden maintenance, filling pools and the like. 

 

Now here this one sits in the bay. I would assume that it was not in anyone's yard because it would have been full of water so too heavy to move. Still, seeing this item sitting in the bay so far from where it belongs is very sad indeed. 

My blanket

I have something very special to show you today which has been created by twelve women from opposite parts of the globe who are different to each other in many ways. What we have in common is we love to knit and we also share the guilty pleasure of wearing PJs all day when we get the chance. About 18 months ago we took part in a swap where we would send knitted squares 20x20cm so we could each make our very own blanket in a colour scheme of our choice.

This is the photo that I shared with the group to give an idea of the colours I was hoping for was this one, taken near a family member's home.

The squares all arrived in the weeks before H's birth and as I have mentioned, life became rather hectic for a while so they sat in storage waiting. Finally I have made my squares to go with it and sewn them together. I love this blanket so much and feel like I am getting a hug from my PJ soul sisters whenever I snuggle up in it. 

 Project page on Ravelry

A knitty and kitty new year

With the monsoon we have been experiencing and the lack of school run in the day I have been able to make some time for knitting. This is the Helena I mentioned in my last post, just about finished and ready to be gifted to our friend.

For mindless evening knitting, I have completed Baktus though don't have any photos yet as I have not sewn in all the ends. 

Other than that, there really is not much more to report other than the sad news that our very old cat, Venny has gone to kitty heaven where she is no longer annoyed by children, having to wait a whole two minutes for her food and the big cat next door. 

New year, new blog

All of 2010 I visited my friend Jen's 365 One a Day blog and have felt inspired to do one of my own this year. I make no actual promises to post anything of real quality, but I am going to give it a go.

Please if you would like, pop on over from time to time.2011daily.blogspot.com

Craft to brighten a rainy day

I found a great tutorial to make these paper flowers at How About Orange a little while back. Today seemed like a great day to give them a go. We flipped though magazines to choose which pages to use and I pity B's future partner. She was immediately drawn to the Tiffany ad.

The girls have also been working on sewing some gift tags which I can't show here in case any of the recipients read this, and I am knitting another Helena for a little friend's January birthday, because nothing says happy birthday like a cardi in the middle of summer.

I really suck at blogging these days

Where has the time gone? Honestly this is ridiculous. My last post was in the holidays and now we are right at the end of term 4. We have been enjoying the warm, long days, all the yummy summer fruits and celebrating the lovely flowers in bloom. 

We sadly said goodbye to the jacarandas at the girls' school in preparation for new buildings. Come January the school will have sixty more children than it did 18 months ago when G started. G has the countdown to the holidays, and her birthday which falls in the first week. On the flipside, B has continued her countdown to the first day of prep. I have helped out in the tuckshop a few times his term and G's teacher has been kind enough to have B in class for the day. She had such a ball. 

 

H has a cleft clinic appointment in a couple of weeks. In the meantime we were at the gp this week for a bout of tonsillitis where we discovered that her left grommet is still in. On her right side there is a fluid build up

but no infection right now. That is the ear that tends to play up so we will keep an eye on it. 

Her speech is slowly coming on. We have been working on a few exercises to help get those front of mouth sounds happening. We are still signing with her and find it invaluable.

The GP also wants to keep a bit of an eye on her weight. Like her sisters and me as a toddler, H is a skinny minnie. I know that she is healthy and that this is just the way she is, but because she will need surgery again before her next birthday I will be watching this more closely than I did her sisters.

And me? I have finished breastfeeding now. My body had enough and it was getting to the point where I was just not getting enough each pumping session for the time I was taking to feel worthwhile. This has given me hours every single day and we don't need to rush home all the time for me to pump. 

I have knitted some longies for a little friend and some fingerless mits for a big friend. More about those to come. No promises for when I will actually get around to it though!