away from home

I will be away from my computer for a few days; if you have left a comment that needs moderation I wil get to it on Friday.

Thanks for reading.

blocked now awaiting borders

I knitted a blanket (afghan) in chained diagonal squares. I bought the yarn unlabelled in Wangaratta in 2008 and believed it to be acrylic; after all I only paid $20.00 a kilo for it. While seaming I realised it must have some natural fibre content (probably wool, though possibly mohair) because it kept falling apart as I tried to stitch with it. It's a boucle yarn which means there's an over-spun yarn (probably acrylic) wrapped around an under-spun yarn (natural fibre?). This is fine while knitting or sewing in ends that are attached but means the yarn disintegrates when cut for sewing.

Anyway, after sewing the chains of diagonal squares together the whole thing looked lumpy and I was disappointed as there is a deadline on the finished blanket and the yarn, like mohair, is very difficult to rip. Working on the basis that there must be some natural fibre (almost certainly mohair) involved, I decided to block it - what harm could it do? If it were 100% acrylic it would dry quickly and then shrink back to its original size (and lumpiness). If there were, by chance, natural fibres involved, it should block easily. Judge for yourself: natural fibres?

A wonderful thing about the magic of blocking (apart from getting rid of the awful lumpiness) is that it has grown considerably meaning that it only needs borders along the length to make it a little wider. I’m glad I had trouble with the two knitted on borders I made and went to the trouble of ripping them off – the new borders will be much more narrow!

I did have some help with pin removal – Tom was involved in a cat fight last night: through the window! He scrabbled around on the blanket and several pins were removed in the process (Please note: no animal was harmed in the making of this blanket!)

Now to remove the pins and see what happens…

I lost a little over an inch (3cm) from the width and slightly less from the length; I’m happy with that. What I thought would be 31.5 inches by 63 inches has turned into 33 inches by 70 inches. The side borders will therefore need to be 3 ½ inches wide.

Yay for the magic of blocking!

stash enhancement

I went to the Big Box Store again today. Moda Vera "Noir" (sock yarn) sells for $14.95 per 100g skein. I bought nine balls on special for $7 each. This yarn should make great men's socks for next year's Homeless Connect Day. It's darker than it shows here.

Moda Vera "Pure Wool 8ply" (DK) was on special for $1.50 per 50g ball - that's pure wool for $30 a kilogram: almost the same price as acrylic at one of the Capital Letter department stores and heaps cheaper than the other! Not quite as inexpensive as the Mill Shop in Wangaratta (but I had a wider choice of colours) and quite a bit cheaper than the mail order from the other well-known Victorian mill (although their yarn is softer). Needless to say, some of this also followed me home! LOL

I also have to confess to a kilogram of Bendigo "Neon" (a soon to be discontinued yarn) following me home from the Sydney Craft and Quilt Fair last week. This is also a lot darker than it shows in this photo - think charcoal instead of purple!

As you can see, I'm adding to my wool stash and slowly but surely using up my synthetics. If you have befriended me on Ravelry, don't be alarmed if my activity shows more stashing than I've admitted to, I decided today to take some photos of stash I already have listed  -  Ravelry only adds it to the activity page when there's a photo!

long weekend

warning: photo heavy post

The Queen's birthday holiday is celebrated in NSW on the second Sunday of June. WM had the previous Friday as an RDO so we decided to spend the weekend away from home. After a relaxing weekend away, there is nothing worse than being caught in the traffic snarls as people come back to Sydney after the weekend so we chose to go to Blackheath in the Blue Mountains (about an hour from home).

We stayed at Maybourne Cottage for four nights. It was a lovely, quiet weekend which included some bushwalking, some lovely views and some quiet times (for reading, knitting and watching TV). WM enjoyed the spa and playing with the slow combustion fire.

Blackheath is within the Blue Mountains National Park. Below are some of the dozens of photos WM took over the four days.

Grose Valley from Pulpit Rock:

Bridal Veil Falls from Pulpit Rock and Govetts Leap:

The "easy" path with a "few" steps to Pulpit Rock (yeah, right!):

Pulpit Rock (in the middle ground) from Govett's Leap:

reflections in the Megalong Valley:

destination - Walls Cave:

Greaves Creek canyon and stepping stones:

Walls Cave

a lyrebird: native to Australia

Australia's national flower: wattle (species = acacia):

Happy birthday WM

We've been together for 36 years and known each other for many more.

May God bless you today and every day - I love you.

comment moderation enabled

I received my first span comment today from a post way back in early 2008. I don't like the fact that people use my blog to sell their products - I don't do it myself and I don't want to read advertising!

So, as from today, all comments will be moderated. Sorry for the inconvenience.

sock it to me

Last week was my mum's birthday. DD, GS#1 and I went to visit her for a few days. While we were there, using the notes from the tutorial I gave last October and using dpns for the first time, DD knitted this (without much help from me). It is knitted in 8ply/DK wool that she hand-dyed and would fit a child about six months old.

I'm very proud of you, darling daughter.

Quilting Adventures in Knitterland Project 2 Chapter 1: piece by piece

DD and I decided to make a Modern Sample Quilt by Elizabeth Hartman from Oh Fransson. This site has been enormously helpful to us with step-by-step tutorials all the way.

The Modern Sampler Quilt is made from six sets of six blocks. Each block is made from two contrasting fabrics; thus twelve fabrics were needed for the blocks. We already had seven fabrics left from our previous project* so we added another five.

We decided to make our quilt blocks from a print and a 'solid' fabric.

Several weeks ago we cut all the pieces of the thirty six blocks using a rotary cutter. We stored all the pieces in plastic sleeves in a ring binder folder so they wouldn't get lost or mixed up (my idea and I'm very proud of it! LOL) - this is a long term project because we don't get too much time to work together on patchworking!

We also began piecing but didn't get very far. We made the first set of six blocks shown in the photo above and the second set of six blocks shown here.

A couple of weeks ago, DD stayed here for a couple of days. Between playing with GS#1 and attending to his needs, we have pieced slightly more than half the blocks. This photo shows the third set of blocks: I know these are called four patch blocks.

For the 4x4 patch blocks, I learnt the hard way that piecing sixteen 2 1/2 inch squares to make a block requires accurate cutting and accurate seaming! I had to unpick an entire block (and may have to cut some more accurate squares). I should also learn to check the direction of the birds in the print before I take the photo!

DD, on the other hand, has become quite good at straight accurate seams and almost flawless crossing points (I don't know the correct quilting technology yet).

This afternoon, WM and I are leaving to spend the long weekend in a cottage in the mountains for some much needed rest (for him). I will take plenty of knitting - the maximum temperature forecast for the weekend is 10*C (50*F) so I don't plan to be out and about too much! DD, SIL and GS#1 will stay here to look after the cat. Perhaps she will do some piecing on her own!!