August Goals Wrap Up and Stitching Progress

I just had a little read of my August goals to see how I went.

My One Monthly Goal was smashed, which I was really pleased about.

My Rainbow Scrap Challenge was also achieved early in the month.

I mentioned that I had some hand stitching option and needed to start some knitting or crochet.  Nothing else was set as a goal, seeing as we would be travelling.  I prepped quite a few things to take away with me.  There would be nothing worse than running out of projects while travelling…….as if.

Well, I have done better than I expected.

Firstly, I made a knitted eyelet lace covered coat hanger. How this came about, was that I was looking for some plastic tubing to cover coathanger hooks, which is getting hard to find and I came across some in the little craft shop in Coolah.  However, in the bag of bits and bobs was also quite a bit of the eyelet lace.  I’ve never tried knitting with the lace, so why not give it a try.  This was a very low cost project, as the wool was in Mum’s stash, I have oodles of timber coat hangers from when Mum use to make fabric covered coat hangers for a craft shop in the past and I have no shortage of batting off cuts to pad them.

What next?

I had seen that several ladies had added one more hexy flower to the centre of their Laundry Basket Quilts Mystery Quilt, so I thought I would too.  It didn’t take too long while sitting in our camp site at Mundi Mundi.

Next…. The Sashiko would be fairly simple to work on.  However, I wasn’t really enjoying it as the needle wasn’t working smoothly.  I had bought some special sashiko needles and when I ran my finger over the tip there was a burr.  Blast!  I got another out of the packet.  Every single one of them had a burr on the tip!  Not happy!  Fortunately, I had a chenille needle with me that was a suitable size.  Problem solved.  Now it was easy to stitch.

On the Thursday, when we sat down at the concert I noticed a young girl a few seat up from us working on a crochet giant granny square and another lady a few rows in front knitting a rug, so I went and got mum Sashiko.  A rather pleasant way to watch the concert.

I was going so well that I actually completed the panel that evening, once we were back at the van.  I’ve no idea what I will do with it, but I really enjoyed working on it.  Now, I’m itching to start the other panels I have at home.  What a pity I didn’t bring them with me.

Friday, being so cold, made me think of beanies.  I had the pattern and making for a beanie in my crafting basket.

I made a start while sitting in the queue, waiting for the gates to the concert area to open.  Yes, it really was freezing.

I didn’t get much done that day, it was just too cold.  More was done after the concert, back in the warmth of the van.

Saturday, saw me working madly on it.  I wanted to get to the crown shaping.

I didn’t get it finished that day, but it was all done and dusted on Sunday.

Mick has declared he likes the colour and it is nice and soft, so it is now his.  It is probably a bit too big on me.  I do like the way the crown decreases work.

I’m glad I didn’t have to pay him to be my model, seeing he is so cheeky.

I hadn’t expected to achieve nearly this much, but not having internet connection is rather good for productivity.

Now what?  I was starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel, or craft basket as the case may be.

I had popped in a couple of redwork Christmas stitcheries that were already traced.  That would do.  I must say I did slow down, as it took me several days to complete.  I miss having my really good LED light with me.

Now I was really struggling to find inspiration.  

I had popped in some sock wool and a started sock that I found in Mum’s stash, so have done a tension swatch, while sitting by the sea, ready to knit some socks…….and that is as far as I have got with them.  I’m not really enthused at the moment, so have packed them away for another day.

I’ve done nothing for the past three days.  This evening I have started another redwork Christmas stitchery, after I remembered that I had indeed packed my small LED lamp.  I’ll plug away slowly at it.

How am I going with my 15 minutes a day?

15 minutes a day/week = 4/7

15 minutes a day/August = 28/31

15 minutes a day/2023 = 228/242

Success rate = 94.42%. Down a bit, but still not too bad.

On the non stitching front, I have read 2 books and listened to an audio book.

I found this in a street library yesterday and read it yesterday.  A cozy crime story.  I also picked up another in the series and look forward to reading it too.

I found this 1931 book in a street library and absolutely loved it, especially as it was set in the area we were travelling in.  I will read it again, slowly, when we return home.  It’s a keeper.

I mentioned the audio book earlier and, as I said, it was a bit gruesome at the start.  We started to listen to the next in the series and I turned it off.  Too gruesome for me, although Mick likes them.

And that is a wrap for August. Now to plan for September, which will take a bit of thinking about.

I’ll just also mention another lady I met at the Mundi Mundi concert doing some crafting.  Isn’t it beautiful.  I wouldn’t be game to try and concentrate on such detailed colour work while sitting at a concert.  She even kindly gave me the pattern.  

Our Latest Travels - Mundi Mundi Bash - The Music

Where does one begin? There was so much happening at the Mundi Mundi Bash.

Once again, here is the line up.

All the music happens on this stage setup with the big screens on either side.  

WEDNESDAY

A beautiful, sunny, warm day.

There were a couple of bands on the Wednesday night, before the official start.  Tha Boiz are local music teachers from Broken Hill and put on a great show.

They were followed by Furnace and the Fundamentals.  We first encountered them at last year’s bash.  The most energetic party band, with all songs that we know and sing along to.

THURSDAY

There was a little rain overnight, so the weather wa much cooler the next day.  Coats, rather than tshirts.

Thursday saw the official concerts start. Shane Howard, of Goanna Band  had a choir of local kids from the far western region and they had even written a song together for the occasion.

Here we are, in front of the big Goanna Band sign. The significance of this is that we had our photo taken at one of their concerts back in the mid 80s, just after Mick had popped the question to me earlier in that night.  We looked a little different back then.

Troy Casserole-Daley was up next. He always comes across as such a nice fellow.

We have seen The Waifs before and they put on a good show.

By then, we had worked our way up to the very front of the crowd.  This is that they looked like from our position….and that’s just the ones standing up at the front.  Take note of the sky.  Most of the cloud from earlier in the day had cleared.

The Hoodoo Gurus were next up.

We took another crowd in the sunset photo.  Notice the sky has started to turn grey. We didn’t. Well, towards the end of the Hoodoo Guru’s set we noticed a sprinkling of rain in the lights and expected more of the drizzly stuff of the previous day.  Nope!  It straight away turned into horizontal rain and apparently 70kmh winds.  Everyone did a mad dash back to their campsites.  Fortunately, Mick had tied down our awning, so all was good.  Some faired much worse.  We didn’t worry about going back for the final act of the evening, although quite a few did.

FRIDAY

It was freezing with a cold wind.

We had pretty good seats near the front of the crowd, after having put our gear in the queue to enter quite early in the morning.  However, from where we were I wasn’t able to get many photos.  Here are just a few.  However, it was still a great lineup.  The performers must have been quite cold on the windswept stage.

There was a drone’s eye view of the crowd displayed on the big screen.  That’s a lot of people.

Many people take their chairs, eskies and bits and bobs from their camp site to the concert in trolleys.  Mick, being Mick, made a custom set up to just hold the esky and strap the chairs on top.  It works really well.

SATURDAY

Another day of great music, and fortunately, not as cold as Friday.

And, then it was all over for another year.  What a blast it had been.