Winter of Textured Knits KAL final round up Act 3and thank you

And now, the end is near...

First up today: Rose Red. The pattern is called, appropriately, Rose Red. Have I given too much away? Look here for the complete photo and several others of the same beautiful object. Again I wish I had the courage to wear one!


This is unusual; I think it suits Rose Red beautifully.


This is an adaptation of an old favourite that is currently doing the rounds on the Interknits. Oops, have I given it away?


Scroll down to see this most unusual take on an everyday item.


There are so many textures here I didn't know what to show you. Make sure you follow the link and see all Rose Red's photos.


Leaving my home city [Sydney] where Rose Red also lives [but way over on the other side of town] and travelling south, we come to the national capital, home of RR's good friend, Bells. On 2nd July, Bells showed us these:


Read here about Bells day out at The National Gallery and see her wearing this in public for the first time:


These pretties look warm:


This was finished in the Tour de France KAL with time to spare! Well done Bells - the yellow jersey is yours.


Bells said these were a boring knit but her hubby likes them a lot.


And for the special girl in Bells life lookie here:


And so we say farewell to Bells and travel further south to the state of Victoria to visit our final knitter - Susan [otherwise known as Catsmum]. This is appropriate as Susan was the last one to join the KAL but this in no way diminishes her wonderful work. Susan has recently had major surgery so we wish her all the best for a speedy recovery and better health than she has endured in the past.

This is a pattern she has knitted once or twice before.


Some team colours for the grandson:


A pretty item in lace for the DIL:


A similar item in gorgeous alpaca:


Then this gorgeous piece of "lace" that's been a long time coming:


And another baby item:



Thank you to everyone who participated in the KAL and those who followed along by reading what we were up to! It's been great fun even if the round-ups were time consuming. Will we do it again next year? Let's wait and see, shall we? I'll be a grandmum and a new aunty by winter next year!

Winter of Textured Knits KAL final round up Act 2

Hello from a dust-coated computer from the very bad seven-hour dust storm we had on Wednesday [I'm allergic to dust so it's better if I just let it lie]

Presenting for your viewing pleasure some more beautiful textures.

First up Paisley Womble. The colour here is gorgeous, the texture is a bonus!

A popular garment on the knitternet in another beautiful colour here.

And something for Paisley's mum here.

I've knitted several of these; this one is stunning!


Over in the USA, Deniasha has been travelling, buying, selling and podcasting but still had time for this. While you're checking the texture out, scroll down on the same post for the gorgeous lace Deniasha has done! Beautiful.

And on the left of the screen we can see something that Deniasha has designed which many of us love. The finished product is here.



Tinkingbell has been on holidays but the knitting has not been neglected. Scroll right to the bottom of this post [if you can resist stopping to look at all the beautiful holiday snaps], and you'll find these:


And finally, for today, the lovely Jan who helps me out by putting all her textured knitting in one post and sending me an email with the link! Thanks heaps, Jan, I really appreciated it. Here is the link I was sent in mid-July. First there are these little pretties [full picture here]


This is cute. Some little girl in Afghanistan will love it. And there is a companion on the same page.
There is also another photo but I wasn't able to crop it successfully so please go and check them all out here.

Then in August Jan made my life easy again by sending me this link. Let me tempt you: First a present for an orange-loving grandson. Unfortunately, my cropping has completely missed the orange stripe!


Two more textured knits:






I wish I was confident enough to wear one of these [below] - I love everything about this one, the colour and the texture!


See you soon for the final post!

Winter of Textured Knits KAL final round up Act 1

Dear readers of this blog and members of WoTK in particular

Thanks for your patience. We have upgraded our plan and hopefully will never run out of plan before we run out of month! It didn't help that I also ran out of blogging steam somewhere back in late June!

Thank you for your emails of love and support; I really appreciated them more than I can ever express in mere words!

So, here, for your viewing pleasure, are the final entries of the Winter of Textured Knits KAL.

Up in sunny Queensland, Rell [who also lost her blogging drive for a while] has knitted this. A gorgeous colour and lovely cables. Well done Rell. The finished product is shown on her 9 September post [which I can't link to; sorry Rell].


This is not knitted, it is woven, but I couldn't resist showing you. It's made from plastic shopping bags and the final result is in this post.
Apart from weaving and quilting and renovating, Delighted Hands has had some time to knit and produced these in August. Check here for the full picture.
This was started during the KAL. Here's the finished item - how could I not show it?



Knitter Sue has knitted this. It's a Christmas present - how well organised is that? There were so many interesting textures, it was hard to crop the photo. Go here to see the finished object.

Then there was this. Aren't those buttons cute? To see the lovely Isabel wearing this, go here.




These items seem to have become very popular and Sue has two to show you here, another here and one more here.

another family announcement

My brother [who is 46 next week] and my sister-in-law [who will be 37 next month] were married in 2003. They are expecting their first child in early April 2010. I'm going to be an aunty as well as a grandmother!

My SIL may not appreciate hand-knitted items so I want to knit something that is special but not so good that she puts it in a drawer as "too precious to use". I considered a blanket. The one I have in mind would be simple garter stitch or basketweave in the centre with a fancy wide border knitted in 4ply [baby weight]. Fellow-grandmothers and mothers-of-babies: would this be practical? After all, when a baby is wrapped, most of the blanket disappears! Perhaps a beautiful variegated yarn and no fancy border? Your thoughts please!

PS DD is getting better; she is seventeen weeks into her pregnancy and only has morning sickness in the mornings now! Because she's a knitter herself, she will appreciate and use anything I make for my grandchild!

"Winter of Textured Knits" KAL July/August Muster #1

The round up has been delayed due to using up all our download time and being on dial up speed. Too slow to process all the photos from a dozen blogs! Please return for another look after 22 September!

day out

Yesterday I Had a lovely day out with my DD. We met at Strathfield station in the mid-morning and caught a train to Newtown for a day of culture and fun [and a little shopping].

At Newtown station we turned left into King Street and walked for what seemed like miles [but was probably a kilometre] before crossing over and walking back up the other side of the road. We had looked in the windows of a few shops but our first real stop was The Fiji Market [591 King St] which we had first visited on a Gourmet Safari tour. We loved the smell of the Indian spices and the feel and colour of the silk in the saris. But, pretty soon, all the aromas became overpowering to The Pregnant One and it was time to move on.

And so continued our slow ramble up King Street before a stop for lunch at Arabella Lebanese restaurant. The food [hommous, tabouli, fatoush and majadra] was some of the best Lebanese we've ever tasted and the serving sizes were more than adequate! We had to wonder why we were the only ones in the restaurant at lunch time!

Then came a visit to an ever-interesting shop: All Buttons Great and Small. We spent ages inside, ooh-ing and ah-ing over the cuteness/beauty/wonder of the buttons before continuing our ramble northwards, in and out of boutiques, second hand clothes shops, and shops selling artifacts from all over the world. After a long walk for The Pregnant One [henceforth known as TPO] we finally arrived at 47 King St - the supposed highlight of my day! Can anyone tell me what happened to Champion Textiles? Have they moved or gone for good? How disappointing, especially for TPO. It was a long walk in the spring sunshine with a full belly from that delicious lunch [at 489 King St]. And it seemed, for her, a long walk back to the station.

The day drew to a close with a cool drink at the Bank Hotel conveniently located quite near the station [our ultimate destination] and some comfortable lounge chairs a mere ice-throw from the ladies' conveniences! For non-drinkers, I don't think we've ever visited so many pubs [well, the ladies' rooms anyway!] in one day - luckily, pubs are abundant in King St.

We had visited Fiji, India, USA, UK, Africa, Lebanon, Himalayas, Turkey, Afghanistan, Thailand, China and Japan during our travels and never left King St! What a fabulous place - I encourage everyone who visits Sysney and is interested in cultures from around the world to visit Newtown at least once. And spending the day with my DD was the best treat of all!

But what happened to Champion Textiles?