Autumn Colours

I'm enjoying the beautiful colours of Autumn at the moment. I'm feeling the cool change in the mornings and evenings as we move towards winter.

I received a parcel in the post the other week from my wonderful friend Mel - thank you, they're beautiful! I love the purple colour. They are just what I needed as I didn't have any knitted socks or beanies. They will come in handy - it does get very cold up here in winter.

Last week we went to a friend's new place she and her family have just moved to - 34 acres right on the bushland. She has the last house on her long street. It is so beautiful and peaceful, and it is only a few kilometres from the heart of town but it feels like you're in the middle of nowhere. We went for a walk on a bush track that took us to a crystal clear billabong.

Katie was enjoying the tyre swing. The sun was setting and the light was golden. I forgot my camera so I took these photos on my phone.

Once the sun set it was very dark. Lucky the moon was out so we could see our way back to our car.

Gum Leaves

Well, I did it. I finally finished my Annabel Cardigan. I finished it a few weeks ago but time is getting away from me again, so I haven't been on the computer much for the last few weeks. I've just been busy and all of us have been sick with the flu and a tummy bug, but I am getting some knitting done. I've started 3 new things - one I've almost finished (one little baby vest) but I lost my notes on where I'm up to. So that's on hold for a little while. I also have another baby cardigan and have started on a shawl.

It is such a wonderful feeling to finish a project after so long. I started this cardigan last year and put it down .... and there it sat.

I've been wearing it quite a bit and have had to take the pilling from under the arms. When it rained the other day, I got caught with out my umbrella and the cardigan got sprinkled on. The Cascade Eco+ did get a bit of a spongy smell about it. I haven't washed the cardigan yet, so maybe the smell might go after I give it it's first bath.

Katie took these photos for me. Here is my pregnant belly. I'm starting to really show now.

Noro Breeze

I've put this lovely shawl I knitted a few weeks ago up on Ravelry, but I forgot to blog about it being busy with knitting baby items. This is yet another freebie from Ravelry called Breeze By Simone Eich.

I was pleasantly surprised when the designer, Simone, contacted me on Ravelry to say how much she liked my shawl. It was a real boost to my knitting ego LOL ;) Some days I get overwhelmed by a the amount of talented knitters and crafty bloggers out there. I spend far too much time checking out other people's creations on Ravelry and Pinterest to see what other people are doing, rather than getting on with crafting and knitting myself.

This is the first shawl I have knitted that I have finished.

Yep, another Noro item! I do love Noro - I love the colours. I got this skein of Noro Taiyo Sock 5 at The Wool Inn a while ago and it had to come home with me. It sat there with the rest of the Noro companions in my stash, waiting for the day for a pattern to be knitted up. I did some searching on Ravelry and found that someone else had knitted up this shawl in the same colour way. It looked gorgeous and thought, this is it - I had to knit it up, and it looked like it was a simple pattern to knit up.

Lou's Woollen Egg

Lou did a little bit of Easter craft this week. Easter has just snuck up on me.

We made a wet-felted egg. I have a plastic egg that I use as a template and I gently needle-felted some white wool around the egg to get the shape, then add the coloured wool.

Here is some mixed coloured wool that I got from Spotlight a few years ago. Lou picked this wool out from the wool stash.

I filled the sink with warm water and Lux soap flakes, and Lou did the fun bit of rubbing the egg for a while and playing in the bubbles until the wool had shrunk around the plastic egg.

Here is what it looked like finished. While it was still wet, I cut a zig-zag half way across the middle, took out the plastic egg, re-shaped the felted egg then let it dry in the sun. On Thursday, Lou took it to school filled with little chocolate Easter eggs as a present for his teacher (which I forgot to take a picture of).

She loved it!  :)

Lego Chess

My kids are never cease to amaze me.

This morning, Mr F asked me if  I could  get the chess set down off the cupboard for him and Lou because they wanted to play a game. I didn't think much of it. I gave them the board and got on with a few things. As I was passing by the room  I saw this ........ 

I had a giggle to my self. I thought it was so cute and imaginative that they had replaced the chess pieces with their Lego characters, and the boys made up rules on the go. I could hear them working together to work the game out between them.

I couldn't find my camera - it is somewhere in this house. So I used my phone instead. My camera is probably right under my nose and I'm not seeing it, but I've been doing that a lot lately. Luckily, I have my house keys on a piece of leather attached to my handbag otherwise I would never get out the house. But I have been going around in circles looking for my glasses (LOL..).

I'm not sure how the game ended. It was packed up by the time I got back in from hanging out the washing.

A Very Green Little Cardigan

My knitting needles have been busy for the last few weeks, getting unfinished items knitted up and starting new little items for the baby.

I'm enjoying the little projects - they are quick and satisfying when finished, knowing that the newest member to my little brood with be wearing something that I made (and these little items are great for my stash busting too).

Here is the latest item I have made. It is called Bluebell Cardigan (a freebie from Ravelry of course). I knitted this up quickly and no hassles with the pattern, unlike another raglan pattern that I started then frogged after 2 attempts.

I used Noro Retro that I got on sale from WEBS Yarn.com a year ago when they where having a closeout sale - it was $4.95 US per skein. I bought it for Katie because she loves green, but she thought is was too bright for her when the parcal arrived so I knitted her a scarf instead. I have quiet a few skeins left over so here's 2 skeins down.

It is bright but I like it. I love how its different shades of green are broken with a little bit of white - it works quite well. I sewed these little white shell buttons on but I'm still deciding; do I sew more buttons onto this cardigan to close the front up or leave it at 3 buttons?

Nutwood Farm

It was such a beautiful Autumn day last Sunday, so we packed a picnic lunch and drove to Mt Irvine (which is another part of the Blue Mountains) to Nutwood Farm  to pick some chestnuts.

We packed everything but I forgot our gloves. Luckily, Nutwood lends out gloves and tongs. Mr F is doing a monster interpretation with his tongs.

It is early in the season so there were plently of nuts on the ground. There weren't many people there. Last time we went chestnut gathering there were lots of people at the farm.

Having tongs made it so much easier to pick up the fallen nuts.

These spikes were even going through the gloves.

Here is some of what we picked. I love the colour. I could imagine some wool dyed this yummy warm brown colour.

Mr F and some of his stash.

We also found a walnut - it was huge.

Here's Katie with what she picked.

It was quite a warm day and after sitting in the sun under a walnut tree, the boys got very sleepy. Here they are having a little nap. It was so beautiful and quiet by this time as we were the only people there. We had the place to ourselves and the boys could just lie there and relax for a while and soak up the warmth of the Autumn morning sun.

After we paid for the chestnuts, we bought some waltnuts at the stall. We didn't pick any walnuts this time as the last time at another nut place, they were rotten inside. Hopefully they will be ok inside this time.

Next to the stall there was a big field. We asked the lady if we could have a picnic there. She was fine with it so the kids ran off, picked a spot right out in the sun, and then they flopped on the ground. I talked them into relocating under a tree where we were not going to get cooked. We had a picnic lunch and the kids ran around. Here, I'm trying not to fall asleep, but I did for a little while, hearing the kids running around laughing and having fun.

As we were laying back, we watched the clouds pass us by in the sky, seeing shapes and images in the clouds. This one made us laugh because it looked like a roast chicken.

When we got home, we lit a fire and got the pot stove going and roasted some of the chestnuts. 

  

Here they are cooking nicely. Once they were cooked and cooled down a bit, we peeled off the outer shell and ate them while they were still warm. They were so delicious :)