Virtual Visit to 🇯🇵Japan I’ve been in a Japanese Culture Appreciation phase for a while now. I can’t get enough of it. It may have been inspired from all those novels I’ve read this year that take part in Japan. Or reading Japanese authors. It may also be because I’ve been living through the travels […]
Worldwide Knitting in Public Day
Saturday June 8th is worldwide Knitting in Public Day and one of the local libraries in the area, hosted an event for knitters and crocheters. They also had biscuits and a barista there for biscuits and coffees as well as baskets of yarn and needles for anyone to have a go. I decided to go […]
Knitting Projects
This month due to a lot happening where I had to drop everything and care for parents or the cat, I decided to start a few knitting projects of varying brain capacity. I needed some brainless knits that I could take with me when waiting at medical appointments or vet visits just to get my […]
A Crochet Project: Aquarius Sweater
With the change towards nicer weather (except for this week when we had bushfires on one day then flash floods the next and at the moment, it’s a cold 15 degree day), I thought it was time to start a summer crochet project. I have been using the Tejer Es Des Guapas YouTube channel to […]
Feels Like Covid Lockdown Days Again
I’m not going to lie, the weather lately has been crap. Endless rain, dark grey skies, dampness everywhere and freezing cold. We are stuck indoors although I venture out every morning for a few hours to head over to my parents house to do their cooking and shopping. Today, I vacuumed and mopped their floors; […]
Jersey Mimosa
Today at the U3A someone asked me if I was an artist and I thanked them for thinking that I was. I loved the idea that someone else thought I was even though I’m not. It’s the highest compliment. I was chuffed! Little did they know that I used to be in the corporate world. […]
Beanie Madness
I’ve gone on a yarn stash bender. That is trying to use up as much of my yarn that I have hidden in cupboards and under beds. I’ve uploaded about 10 different beanies I made this year onto Ravelry but that’s only half of them. Beanies are a great way to use up yarn but […]
New Crochet Skills
I’ve been getting into crochet with some vigour as I’m enjoying learning new stitches and projects. I decided to experiment with this project which is top down. I made it up as I went along and figured if I can crochet a granny square, then I can do this. So I joined a chain into […]
Teaching Hubby to Knit
It’s Tuesday CD night and tonight it’s the Burt Bacharach Collection. But you probably want to know why my husband is knitting. Well he was roped into it by his team at work. One of his team members is retiring and the whole section decided to knit her a blanket. Made of knitted squares of […]
What’s Wrong With Knitting in Public? Nothing!
This is what happens sometimes when you knit in public. Just watch what some commuters do. For me, I’ve had a couple take photos, others start conversations with me. Kids always ask their mums what I’m doing. Most just continue to look down at their phones. These shorts came up in my YouTube feed and […]
Finally Finished Glenan
I’ve been knitting a cabled hoodie vest by KD Design for a while. I’ve written about it here. There’s a few firsts for this project. It’s the first time that: For some reason, despite loving the feel of this yarn from the Bendigo Wool Mills, the pattern I found slow and cumbersome because I’m not […]
A New Crochet Top
I’ve had carpel tunnel in my right forearm which I believe is due to using the mouse and tapping away on my mobile phone. Or it could be because I grip my golf clubs a little too tightly or alternatively it could be because of the over zealous crochet which twists the right hand 🤔 […]
Learning to Crochet
This week I’ve been learning a new skill (thanks to YouTube) and I fell in love with it. My friend Renee who lives in Spain and is a fluent French speaker (we chat in French every week), recommended Yolanda Figueroa’s YouTube channel where she runs crochet tutorials of tops that she’s created. The garments are […]
New Knitting Skills
Sometimes it’s so easy to fall into habits that we don’t change over time resulting in becoming comfortable or even stagnant in our skills. For example, I like to cast on new stitches in knitting as if I’m knitting them. That is, I don’t use any fancy cast on methods or use anything other than […]
Yarn Stash
There’s something about yarn that gives me comfort. As a knitter. The more I knit, the more yarn I start to accrue over the years. Sometimes I buy it and never knit with it as I change my mind, other times people give me their stash. Most of all though, it’s yarn I have bought […]
Finished Avena
I’ve been knitting a seamless top down jumper with a repeated leaf motif around the shoulders of a design by Jen Steingass called Avena. Here’s what it looks like. It’s the second jumper of hers I knitted (see me wearing it below) which introduced me to colour work as I was building my knitting skills […]
Knitting In Public
Today was my first day of leave and it was filled with errands. Replacing tyres in my car, running to my LYS (local yarn shop) for a new needle, buying a new golf glove, going to the doctor (again!), going to get more scripts filled (again), doing my shopping, you get the drift. I thought […]
In Love With Stranded Colour Work
I’ve always loved fair isle jumpers. They’re the ones with the stranded colour work around the shoulder, sometimes on the sleeves and around the bottom on the rib. Northern Europeans seem to love them. In Australia, if you’re seen wearing one, you’re likely to be mocked. “Did your mum buy you that jumper?” If you […]
Trying New Knitting Techniques
One of the skills I wanted to learn was to be able to knit motifs around the shoulder of jumpers and recently, I came across the designs of knitwear designer June Steingass from Knit.Love.Wool. The reason why I loved these fair isle designs is they remind me of the chunky nordic jumpers and cardigans that […]
Knitting Owls
Recently, I found a great design by KDD to knit on a jumper and they were….Owls! In fact, the jumper design is of the same name. I bought the pattern and with highlighter in hand, scrutinised the pattern to see if it was something that I could knit. I would say that I’m an intermediate […]