Update on Ash

My other nephew Ash, who is now 8 months old, had major heart surgery on Tuesday this week, and is recovering well at Starship Hospital   We expect he will be there for another couple of weeks.

Here he is in hospital the night before his big op:

Jas the Chatterbox

10 week old Jasper is apparently a total chatterbox.  Here he is chatting to his dad:

Disbelief

Thats how I felt when this happened on Saturday:

My poor car!  Thankfully E and I are fine    We came around a corner to find the rural postie’s ute on our side of the road, she was zigzagging across the road and cutting the corner *frowns*.  The front right of the ute took out my car, there was no room for me to pull over or stop in time.

I’d never been in a car crash before, its scary to realise that there is nothing I could have done to prevent it.  We are just lucky both vehicles were driving slowly (I drive like a nana at the best of times, and this was a pot-holey gravel road).

FO: Citrus

I actually finished this last week but I’ve been waiting to show it here because it was part of my Mothers Day Swap and I wanted the recipient to get it before I posted.  Yes I was a little late for Mothers Day but I don’t think my recipient minded too much (I hope!)

The pattern is Easy Ribbed Lace Scarf which  was sooooooo easy – just a 4 stitch pattern repeat which was good because I ended up knitting this at night when I was tired and I needed something that I could do quickly and without too much thought.  Even then, it still took me a bit longer to finish than I had anticipated, I haven’t had a lot of knitting time lately.

The yarn is Cleckheaton Bamboo which I love love love, its sooooo smooth and perfect for scarves.  OK so its not a warm woolly scarf, more of an accessory sort of scarf, but the recipient lives in the “winterless” north so I don’t imagine a woolly scarf would have gotten much use anyway.  Its 4 ply, so I cast on 4 more stitches than the pattern called for and then just kept knitting until it was 140cm.  That took less than 2x 50g balls and I could probably have kept going until the end of the 2nd ball and made it a foot longer, but I was in a hurry to post it.

Its called Citrus because that was the theme of my swap (it wasn’t a themed swap but I do like themed gifts!)  I added some Lindt dark/orange choccie, some mandarin herbal tea and some orange lip balm

Please excuse the terrible photography, I was in a hurry and using Mum’s camera and… yeah, not a good result.  So you have to take my word for it that the scarf looks about 50 times better IRL than it does in the pics.

FO by Sally: Aviatrix baby hats

So it turns out that the baby watchcap I made for Jasper tends to pop off his head – doh!  Jasper isn’t all that keen on hats anyway it seems, but its getting cold and his little noggin needs to stay warm, so Sally has made a couple of wee helmets for him that stay on.  These are knit on flats and have short rows.  She used Cleckheaton Country for both I think (her Ravelry projects page has some more details).

 

That one was a little on the small side so she made a bigger one:

Mission achieved: one toasty warm little boy!

Mothers Day Swap

A group of online mummy  friends decided to do a Mothers Day Swap, the idea being that the swap arrives prior to Mothers Day but we all wait until Mothers Day to open them – that way we can be sure of actually getting a Mothers Day pressie.  Plus with the added bonus that mothers know best what a mum wants for a pressie – while E got me a DVD of Elizabeth and Pride and Prejudice (yay!) other mums I know did not fare so well with gifts from the kids  (one lovely lady I know got presented with ugly tea towels by her hubby and 3yo son, how neat for her.)

My swap turned up on Saturday in mysterious circumstances – left in my back porch by a sneaky swapper!  They must have been very very sneaky because I live miles away from anywhere on a no-exit farm road and I usually hear every car that goes past.  So I don’t know how my swapper managed to leave the gift without either me or A noticing!

My gift was awesome, and just so very me.  I got a novel (I read heaps), some beautiful cabled wristwarmers (I have a thing for cabled wristwarmers)  and some gorgeous lace-weight yarn that is destined to be a wrap (a current knitting obsession, after doing a wrap for Mum and as scarf for E). 

The yarn is mohair/merino and its soooooo fine – I’ve never knit with 2ply before but I’m looking forward to it!  Its so lovely

I think the wristwarmers are Cleckheaton Country Naturals, and they are just delicious.  I think they are Evangeline, but I could be mistaken. Could only model one for the pic of course, because I was home alone with E.  Now I’m wondering if I should make the braided cable wristwarmers suggested for my Magic Yarn Ball swap or use that yarn for something else – I have to decide quick though because I want to hurry up and knit the MYB yarn asap to get to the goodies inside!  Does anyone have any ideas with what I should do with 100g of 8ply?  Maybe I should make myself a beanie, I do need one.

FO by Mum: pinafore

Mum just finished this wee dress for E, its an old fashioned pattern but I think its quite cute (even if E is looking bored!)

And since Mum had to learn to applique in the weekend when I made her do it on my yarn bags, she’s not afraid to try it again.  Look at the cute wee flower detail!

FO: Magic Yarn Ball

My MYB swap recipient was Kelly, so I gave her MYB to her when she visited the other day

She is an “autumn” sort of person – she likes greens and oranges and yellows and reds, and she wanted yarn for a beanie.  So I dyed 100g of Cleckheaton Country 12ply with forest green Americolour gel, and I was very pleased with the way it turned out.  Here it is all wound up with pressies in it – it turned out quite big!

Kelly decided to knit a Foliage  beanie with it, and very kindly did it that same night and took photos of the goodies inside, since I’d neglected to take any before I knitted it up.  It only used 50g so she has enough left over for another hat or something else.  Here is her beanie before she sewed the ends in:

 

And here is all the goodies inside it – I got all green stuff to go with the wool (well except the darning needles, hard to link them with a theme):

Mum helped me make 4x drawstring yarn bags (about A4 size) and gamely tried out applique for the first time at my request:

But the piece de resistance (IMO) was the felt pincushion I made – all that buttonhole stitch took me ages but I was soooooooo pleased with the result!   I don’t know if Kelly does much sewing but I figure she can keep her blocking pins in it when she isn’t using them to block shawls.  The wee tree and butterfly and matryoshka are just pinned on top for decoration, or to keep little fingers busy while mummy is blocking shawls

 

Bubbles

Fairy princess E and Kelly’s little girl had a lovely time chasing bubbles on Sunday afternoon:

FO by Mum: Waddleduck v.2

When we got to my parent’s house this morning, a wee pressie was waiting for E on her bed – a purple Waddle Duck!

He’s made from some lovely soft acrylic Mum got from KMart (yes I said lovely and soft and acrylic all in the same sentence!  It actually is!!!) and is lightly stuffed so he is soft and squishy and huggable.