Grand Canyon National Park

Just returned last night from a work trip to America. The conference in San Diego was amazing with 20,000 haematologist clinicians and scientists attending! Following the conference I took advantage of being in America and took a 3 day holiday to visit the Grand Canyon National Park. It was spectacular! To make it even better, it had been snowing and everything was covered in beautiful white snow! It was pretty cold, the maximum temp was zero degrees C, and it got down to -17C! Due to the ice and snow it wasn't possible to hike down into the canyon without crampons and snow shoes, but there were still lots of walks along the South Rim trails, full of amazing views. There were also plenty of Elk around, which seemed to be pretty confident around humans and came nice and close :-) A friend and I stayed the night in a cabin in the national park so we could experience a sun set and also a sun rise over the canyon. I'd say winter is a wonderful time to visit, no crowds of people, and the snow made it even more magic.
 

As the security people at the airport kindly confiscated my 'safety' (blunt) scissors and wouldn't allow me to take a crochet hook on the plane I did not get any craft done on the long flights between Australia and America. Hopefully should get some time to finish a few projects in the next month or so and post pictures up soon.

Introducing "Puss" n "Boots"

The exciting news is that last weekend we added two new members to our crazy household - "Puss" n "Boots". I have never really been a 'cat' person before, but these two are so adorable and I love them already. They were just under 6-weeks old when we picked them up - a bit young to be taken from their mother really, but they were unwanted by their previous owners and were advertised as a giveaway, so we happily adopted them. They seem happy playing and snuggling together, have already managed to figure out what the kitty litter is for, and are gobbling up kitten milk and kitten-size dry food already. Puss is more inquisitive and mischievous than Boots, and Boots is a little bit more cuddly and shy, but very quick to catch on to whatever mischief Puss is getting into! They are very gentle and snuggly when they aren't going wild playing together. When we cuddle them and they start purring their whole body vibrates it's so cute!

The kittens have pretty much stolen most of my spare time in the evenings now so not as much craft happening, especially as I can no longer leave half-finished knitting project lying round in case Puss n Boots discover them and think they would make a good chew-toy! I do have a few projects on the go but mostly they are for upcoming Christmas presents so I probably wont be posting pictures of them until after Christmas.

Kayaking for 'Girl's Day Out' 2011

Had a busy weekend. With some friends I took part in the 'Girl's Day Out' charity paddle to raise funds for cancer research and support for cancer sufferers and their families. It was a 6km paddle in Adelaide's West Lakes, and was lots of fun although my arms can really feel the effects of the headwind now! The kayaks were supplied for free by uniSA which was great.

I also made another pair of little baby booties, for another friend who is having a baby soon... and I also discovered by trial and error that the wheat bag I made recently is too fat to heat up properly...so I have made another one; smaller and with less wheat. The new one is about 15cm x 30cm and contains 3 cups of wheat.

Annual pilgrimage

Have just returned from what seems to be becoming an annual pilgrimage to the bogan V8 races in Bathurst followed by a few days on Sydney's Northern Beaches catching up with friends and family. J and I were both volunteer flag marshalls at the race, which involved 4 days of signing on at 6am (or 5am on the 4th day), heading out to a designated flag point around the track with a small team and waving all the flags and safety directions to the race cars, checking the track is free from hazards and helping out if there is a crash or some other incident. They were very long days, standing for about 12 hours each day in very rainy and foggy weather, but it was also interesting and fun, seeing a different side of motor racing and being a part of a volunteer team. The beanie I knitted recently came in very handy as it was freezing in the evenings.

In Sydney we spent most of the time catching up with as many friends and family as possible to see in a few short days, plus enjoyed some nice walks along Palm Beach, up the Smuggler's track to Barrenjoey headland, and also visited Bangelly head where we caught a glimpse of some whales and a big school of fish from the cliffs at the top.

On the craft front, not a lot to report. Managed to complete another 3 crochet granny squares in the car on the drive over to NSW from Adelaide, and that's about it. On returning home, all my veggies and herbs are growing well, and the sweet peas climbing up the trellis in the back yard are in full bloom and look lovely. I planted a whole lot of more seeds and seedlings this week too - chives, coriander, cherry tomatoes, strawberries...

Today I also made a wheat bag. I just got some wheat from the local pet shop, and quickly sewed up a little rectangle of fabric into a pillow shape, filled it with the wheat, stitched up the little opening, swept up all the extra wheat I managed to spill all over the floor, and voila - a cute and handy wheat bag to heat up next time it's cold or I have a sore back! :-) I had wanted to make one for a while and when I was in Sydney I saw some that a friend had made to sell in her Chiro practice and it inspired me to actually make one myself (thanks Georgie!).

Images from Port Willunga Beach

I seem to have a head full of craft ideas and projects but nothing in a finished state to share photos of just yet. I'm working on knitting another pair of newborn booties for a friend whose baby is due in November, also another plain vest (similar to the ones made here and here), but with some lovely light blue wool with little brown speckles in it. I have plans to start a cross-stitch tea-towel but am still deciding on the exact details of the design. I'll post pics of these projects when they are finished. For the moment here's a few photos taken down at Port Willunga Beach over the last week or so. I love going for walks and runs down at this beautiful beach, and I usually bring my camera with me to capture some of the ever-changing scenes.

Bathurst Beanie

Well things have been a bit crazy and busy lately, so I haven't managed to find much time to do any craft, let alone write about it on my blog! But this week I have started to make time for craft again - I really miss it when I haven't got at least one project one the go! I have been slowly working on my crochet blanket, just doing a square here and there (I've finished 10 squares now). In preparation for our Bathurst camping trip, I also started making a beanie for myself this week, and have just finished it. It was a very easy pattern. The beanie is nice and snug and warm. I made it with a multicoloured yarn that is a mix of blues and greens called "Scottish meadows".

Also, towards the end of August I planted some of the seeds for my purple carrots, assorted carrots, scarlet runner beans and purple-podded peas. They have just started to sprout this week...can't wait until they are big enough to harvest! :-)

Newborn booties

These booties were so easy to knit and look so cute! They were made following a pattern called 'Saartje's bootees' from http://www.saartjeknits.nl - the pattern is also available for free on the Ravelry website. The only slightly tricky bit was making the button loops as that bit wasn't described in the pattern. I just used a crochet hook to make a chain of stitches to create the loop. I'm sure it could be done in a neater way but that was the first idea that came to me, and I was dying to finish off the booties! They are definitely newborn size - very tiny, much smaller than the usual booties I have made in the past. These ones measure 7cm from toe to heel along the sole. I'm sure I will be making more of these!

I also received a lovely present in the mail this week from my crafty Aunt M...a cross-stitched picture of a scientist bear. Very cute and particularly meaningful since my PhD involved bear genetics and evolution! It's now sitting up on my bookshelf keeping some of my other bears company.

Craft & Garden Update

Things have again been very busy the last few weeks. The biggest news is that J's sister's baby was born, she had a little girl called Jasmine who is gorgeous. So I was able to finish off the green vest/dress I had been knitting for the baby by sewing on some cute flower buttons.

I've also made some progress with my crochet granny squares for the blanket I'm making...I've completed 7 squares now. I haven't calculated how many squares I'll actually need to make a blanket in case that freaks me out. But it's a good project that I can keep making squares for slowly in between other projects, eventually I'll have enough to stitch them all together into a blanket :-)

On the gardening front I have decided that in Spring I'll try to plant a few more unusual vegies in my garden, rather than just growing things that are readily and/or cheap to buy at the local shops. It makes it more fun to grow something a bit different anyway. So I ordered a few interesting packets of organic seeds from Green Harvest . My collection of seeds arrived the other day, including purple dragon carrots, scarlet runner beans, purple-podded peas and a colour mix of carrots that include red, white, orange and purple skinned varieties! Should be some fun and colourful times in my garden soon...pity I have to be patient and wait until spring to plant them!! I also made a homemade hand scrub which is meant to be great for cleaning dirt off your hands after playing in the garden. The hand scrub is made from 1/4 cup dried lavender (from my friend Hannah's parents garden), 1 cup coarse/rock sea salt, 1/2 cup oil. I found the original recipe on this blog, but as I couldnt find any of the coconut oil they suggested, I just used cheap baby oil and that seems to work well. It smells divine.

Knitted mobile phone cover

I just upgraded to a 'smart' phone, and while I'm finding it is awesome compared to any other phone I've ever owned, I am also paranoid that I am going to scratch or crack the touch screen in no time at all. Apparently the model of phone I bought is too new to have a specific cover available to buy so I decided to knit one instead. And a knitted one will be a lot nicer than a boring shop-bought one anyway. I searched on Ravelry and found a cute free pattern for a knitted smart phone cover on this blog site.

The phone cover is a mix of moss stitch and 1x1 rib stitch, and didn't actually take very long to knit. I'm happy with how it looks, but I will find out how effective and functional it is in the next week or so I'm sure. It may need a drawstring or something to keep the phone from slipping out in my bag.

I've also made some progress with my crochet blanket (getting a bit quicker at it!) and now have 3 squares completed.

Learning to Crochet....and Preserving Lemons

Apparently the number of craft activities I can become obsessed about is ever-increasing. The latest is learning to crochet. I have wanted to know how to crochet for ages....I have a lovely blanket that my Nanna crocheted probably even before I was born, and it's my favourite blanket that I pull out each winter. I'd love to make one myself. So with some (very patient) help from J's mum combined with some useful instructions I found in a lovely craft book: "Meet me at Mike's" by Pip Lincolne, I have finally managed to complete my first crochet 'granny square'! This will be the first square of my blanket. I have chosen a random assortment of wool to make the blanket so that I dont need to worry if I run out and have to buy different wool. The only restrictions I'm putting on it is that it has to be some shade of blue, and it needs to be 8ply wool (real wool not synthetic crap). Not sure how long it will take to make a whole blanket, it took me a fair while to make the first granny square but hopefully should get quicker as I get more experience...

Also we were recently given a massive bag of lemons from someone at J's work whose lemon tree had a glut of fruit. So I have made a couple of lemon tarts in the last week or so (but that only used 2-3 lemons per tart), so today I decided to use up a lot more of the lemons before they spoil by trying to make some Preserved Lemons for use in Moroccan recipes. I followed instructions in one of my cookbooks: "Cooking Moroccan" (ISBN 1-74045-448-0). Now I just need to wait about 4 weeks to see if it worked! :-)

Craft in May

May has just been so busy, haven't had a chance to update my craft blog. I did find some time to finish off a few projects, just haven't managed to take photos and upload them until now. I finished the sunny yellow 'little sisters dress' (with some help from J's mum with the crochet button loops since I haven't learnt to crochet yet) and attached some cute little red heart-shaped buttons. I also made another little plain vest, this time in a sage green colour. I still need to sew some buttons on, but as it's for a baby that is due at the end of June I am waiting to find out if it's a girl or boy before I decide which buttons would be best. I also knitted another pair of baby booties for another friend's baby due in September.

Autumn is here

I had planned a whole heap of outdoors activities for this weekend including a bike ride, but the weather turned grey and rainy and pretty much canned those ideas. Instead went for a little drive around the Willunga & McLaren Vale region and enjoyed the beautiful autumn scenery - all the leaves on the grape vines are turning golden yellow and red colours.

On the knitting front I finished another pair of booties (yellow ones knitted in a cotton blend rather than wool), and am about half way through knitting my first project knitted 'in the round' on circular needles. The pattern is 'little sister's dress' by Tora Froseth (http:/knittingalot.blogspot.com). It's very cute, but although I have learnt a lot by doing this pattern there are quite a few little bits I stuffed so this might have to be a trial run - I'll see how it turns out in the end though! I'm sure the next time I try this pattern it will be a lot easier :-)

Magic Yarn Vest

Back in 2009 my friend Kira sent me a 'magic yarn ball' for my birthday. The wool was hand-dyed by Kira and looks lovely - and she had wound it into a ball with lots of little knitting tools embedded in it, so as I knit and un-wind the ball little presents are revealled. It was such a cool present. However back in 2009 I had only just started to learn to knit and hadn't progressed past the basic scarf design, so I didnt get very far with it and the half-made scarf sat in my craft drawer for ages.

Earlier this month I unravelled the scarf and decided to use the magic yarn to make a cute little baby vest. The pattern is available free from Pickles website. I modified the pattern slightly (by mistake, but then I liked the effect my mistake had and decided to go with it rather than unpicking it). My modification made the little ridge of different stitches around the middle of the vest. I found the little flower buttons at Spotlight. I'm very happy with how this vest turned out, and I still have a little of the magic yarn left over! :-) Thanks so much for the great present Kira - sorry it took me sooo long to actually use it to make something!

Scarf weather

Making the fingerless gloves inspired me to finish the matching scarf last week. It had been sitting neglected and half-made for months in my craft project stash, so it felt good to finally finish it. I love the colours (they seem to match the colours in the ocean) and the merino/silk blend is so soft and warm. And now I have a lovely matching scarf and gloves just in time for the cooler autumn weather we are having now :-)

Fingerless gloves and a vintage find

As a bit of a change from the bootie madness of the last couple of weeks, I made a pair of fingerless gloves. The pattern was really quite easy - following instructions from TinyHappy's blog. I used 4.5mm needles and Moda vera Picchio fusion wool (it's lovely and soft, made up of merino and silk), and matches the scarf I started making last year. Now that I've made the gloves I better make an effort and finish off the matching scarf, especially now that it's starting to feel like Autumn here.

I also had a great find at a local op shop this week - a whole heap of 'vintage' knitting patterns, which from the looks of them date back to the 1950s and 1960s. Some of the prices on them are written in shillings and pence. They are classic, some great patterns, plus it's just fun looking through all the pictures with the hairstyles and props for the models. I can't decide which pattern to try out first! :-)

Bootie madness

The last couple of weeks I have been madly knitting handmade booties to give to my friends when their babies arrive. I'm pretty happy with the progress so far... now in addition to the purple pair from my last post, I have completed a sage green pair with pale pink and green ribbon as ties, and also a light blue pair with blue organza ribbon laces. Then last weekend I found out yet another girl I know is pregnant!! So I guess that means the bootie madness will continue for a little while longer...(three more pairs to make) :-) It is fun making them all, I cant wait for the babies to be born so I can give them the booties :-)