Clara Vest

Just off the needles.

This is another freebie off Ravelry. The vest is called Clara Vest, if you want to Ravel it.

The Yarn I used is Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran Tweed 113 Russett. I used just over 6 balls.

I'm loving the freebies.

I have been working on this vest for a while. I'm not sure why it has taken me so long to finish it. It's not a hard pattern - it's really easy. I think I got bored part way through knitting in one colour. Don't get me wrong, I love the chocolate brown of this Jo Sharp wool. I think I've been spoiled with all the bright colour changes of Noro.

I didn't knit a button hole. I'm using this wooden red broach to pin the cardigan together.

Paper Castles

I came back from the shops yesterday and in the time I was away, Katie made herself this amazing castle from cardboard and paper.

She saw a castle at her brother's friend's place last week and wanted a castle of her own.

I'm so proud of her - instead of hassling me to buy one at the shops, she researched how to make one of her own.

She found how to make the castle here .

{This Moment}

This Moment

A Friday ritual. Single photo - no words -capturing a moment from the week.

A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savour and remember.

Silk Garden Sock

Look what just arrived in the post today!

4 Balls of Noro Silk Garden Sock Wool at $10.49US a ball!
Webs / Yarn.com have a Noro Silk Garden Sock Yarn Sale.....

I'm off to cast on a Kaleidoscope!...

Happy Knitting..........:)

A Bit of Winter Window Colour

It's been a bit cold, grey and cloudy up here so we made some window stars to brighten up the house. The star above is on our back door. Lou helped me with the folding of this star.

The sun shines through it in the morning, that is, when the sun pops it head from the clouds......:)

I love window stars as they always put a smile on my face with their bright cheerful colours. They look amazing when the sun shines throught them.

We made our window stars out of kite paper from Winterwood. I copied the star pattern from Crafts Through the Year by Thomas and Petra Berger. Don't look too hard at the Blu-Tack spots as we are renting - Blu-Tack is easier to take off than sticky tape.

Winter Sandcastles

Living up in the mountains, we are a few hours drive from the ocean. We have a stream next to the bush track near where we live to wallow our feet in instead. It has little fish and yabbies, and it can have a strong current just like the ocean if there has been a lot of rain.

My kids love this spot. We call this little bit of sand and water 'the beach'.

The environment is constantly changing at this spot. Some days there is more sand than others. The yabbies often come out to play, but this day it was a bit cold for them.

But it wasn't too cold for Lou to make Winter sandcastles....:)

Turtle Neck Vest

Here is another finished UFO that has been in my stash for a while now. Well, it's not quite finished. It is sitting gathering dust, sulking on my dressing table until I am able to go back to it to redo the shoulders and armholes. I'm not happy with the way the armholes sits. It curls up under itself at the back. I'm not broad shouldered - it's more my shoulder shape than a fault with the pattern. So I'll have to rip back and re-knit it. My hair is hiding it in the pics.

The Pattern is :- Turtleneck Vest from Eclectic - a Jo Sharp pattern book.

Frosty Mornings

Winter has greeted us with frosty mornings lately, which is very exciting for Lou, who thinks it's snow - and that must mean it's Christmas time! He doesn't understand that we live in the Southern Hemisphere and that it is usually hot at Christmas time for us, but he took great delight in telling any passer by on the bush track that it was Christmas time.

We found this cocoon. I'm not sure what it is but it has put itself in a precarious position on the bridge - straight underneath us was a steam of icy cold water. Lou found this little sticky insect sleeping bag quite interesting. We were wondering if its inhabitant has survived the cold or if it has perished in the cold overnight temperature.

Today I brought my camera on our morning walk, set it to macro and snapped away. I love the way the ice crystals have formed around this bridge nail. The bridge was covered in ice - little feet had to tread very carefully because it was very slippery.

These ice crystals look like hundreds of little stalagmites frozen onto the leaves and stems of the plants in the valley.

We do get snow occasionally here but it not enough to cover the ground. It tends to melt on impact. But my kids live in hope that one day this winter we will get an overnight fall of snow to cover the ground................:)

Noro Vest Design 26

Winter is here today and it's really cold up here in the Mountains. I'm sure it's snowing somewhere very close - I can feel the ice in the wind.

Autumn has skipped me by. I had all these ideas to post some beautiful autumny pictures on my blog. I've just been so busy, time has just flown by. I just haven't been on the computer all that much at the moment. I seem to go through phases of being on the computer a lot but in the last few months I seem to be on it a lot less. I have all these pictures I have taken that I can blog about but my life seems to be pulling me in another direction - which is not the computer! So sorry if I haven't been dropping in and commenting on your blogs in the last 2 months.

Well, I have gotten some knitting projects done, so I'm getting through my UFO's and ordering some wool on line as well. Webs have had a big sale.

This vest I started about 2 years ago. I made silly mistakes from sleep deprivation so I frogged it and started again. My knitting speed is getting faster - I got this vest finished in 3 days, which amazed me. I was sick in bed with a gastro bug so that's where I found the time to knit (after I stop chucking my guts up LOL...:) ).

The vest pattern is from Jenny Watson Noro Mini Knits Two. The wool I used is Noro Kureyon.

I found the increases on the side made it a little bit baggy on me under the arms and the back. If I was to knit it again, I wouldn't knit the increases on the back piece - maybe knit a few more stitches in the beginning. I didn't knit the 1x1 rib around the arm that the pattern stated. I just knitted 4 rows. The wooden button is from Lincraft.

Gem & Fossil Museum

The Gem & Fossil Museum...

It has been on our 'local places to check out' for a while now. Last week we went on a little road trip to Bathurst to see the Sommervile Collection.

I love the look of these amazing fossils with every detail preserved.

The collection is housed inside an old school building which has been done out for the Museum.
It was a private collection that has been donated.

Fossilised Dinosaur eggs

Here is collection of amber with insects

and a lizard entombed in the amber.

A closer look and you can see its backbone!



There were lots of beautiful specimens to look at but my camera battery was dying so I didn't get many pictures.

Pyrite

Not sure what this is called.

It looks like some sort of quartz sea anemone.

A beautiful pink Rhodocrosite crystal.

Outside the museum.

Gilet court d'ete

I finished this short sleeved cardigan today. It is a freebie off Ravelry. It's called Gilet court d'ete by Marie-Adeline Boyer. It is a quick uncomplicated knit, knitted from the top down.

The yarn I used is Noro Taiyo colour 6 which I got on sale for $9.49 US on WEBS web site.
I used 2 balls. I have enough left over to make Katie one as well...:)

Katie took these photos - she thought it was hilarious that she took a picture of my butt ( I edited the pic) when I asked her to take a picture of my back....:)

Noro Love...:)

Look what arrived in the post today!.....

Lois from the Knitter's Guild told me about some web sites that have Noro sales. I bought 7 balls of Noro Furin reduced at $7 US a ball. The Noro Kureyon Sock wool was $11.50 US. While the Australian dollar is so high I thought I'd get a few things that would be double the price over here in the wool shops. The web site I bought this wool from is Yarnbow and the shipping rate is $13.95 US. I'm eyeing off some Noro Retro at the moment.

I bought this Araucanda wool for $6.75 US.

Such pretty colours - I love the mix of pinks and purples.

"Chestnuts"

Today we set off to do some chestnut and walnut picking at Kookootonga Nut Farm. It was a beautiful Autumn day. I have wanted to go chestnut picking for a while now but I always seem to miss the season each year. This year I got an email from Anitra from the Fruit and Nutree Network about chestnut picking and roasting today at Kookootonga.

They are amazing looking nuts. They covered big old trees in bright green spiky pompoms and when they are ripe and go brown they fall to the ground where the kids and I picked them up, careful not to get spiked by the outer spikey shell.

As you can see in the photo, the kids got a bit enthusiastic and nearly filled the bucket (at $8 a kilo!). I'm not sure how many kilos we had. I mentioned to the kids before we got there we would only pick up a small amount and only get what we need, not to go crazy and fill up the buckets! It s hard not to it so much fun for them.

So we tipped out the bucket under one of the chestnut trees, picked out the fattest nuts and put them in the bucket. The rest we left there for the next person to come along and pick up. There were a lot of people so I don't think they will be there for long.

We ended up having just over a kilo, which I was happy with. The chestnuts and walnuts came to $17 all together. So, I was in budget. The person before me spent $100 on Chestnuts.

The bucket after the cull....:)

After picking, the group of us that were with the Fruit and Nut Tree network set up a picnic. A lady called Anne set up a portable BBQ, lit some BBQ coals, and we were set for roasting the chestnuts. We had to cut slits on one side because they can explode like popcorn, which a few did. We stood around and talked, watched and listened about what we can do with chestnuts and a bit of history about the nut.

Here, we are turning the nuts over. The smell that was wafting from the BBQ was amazing.

It's been quite a while since I have eaten chestnuts. I had forgotten what they tasted like but I remembered that I liked them. I think they where oven roasted when I last tried them but BBQing them gives them a nice smokey flavour. To me, they sort of tasted like a powdery sweet potato. They are best eaten warm.