The First Week of December

The first week of the month has flown by in the blink of an eye.

I haven’t done a great deal of crafting, but that is OK.

Firstly, I finished the secret stitching, which didn’t take long.

Next, I removed all the papers from the Wensleydale Quilt blocks.  It was a good, mindless task to work on at my Wednesday patchwork group.

However, while doing so, I discovered an “Oops”.  Can you see it?  Yes, I had accidentally trimmed one block on the stitching line instead of the cutting line.  Just as well I had made 61 blocks and that this one was not one of my favourites.

For my Friday stitching group I was at a bit of a loss as to what to take along.  My first choice was to start my oatmeal coloured knitted beanie.  I had attempted to make a start the previous week at my Wednesday group, but do you think I could count on the casting on row? Not on your Nellie.  I put it aside for another day.  Well, Friday was the day.  Before I headed off, I cast on, putting stitch counters along the way and then was very careful not to twist the work when I joined in the round.  Then, I knitted the first round of rib, only to discover that I had in fact twisted it.  I put it down in disgust, as I was running out of time before I had to head in to the group.  

In its place, I quickly grabbed a cross stitch bookmark kit that I had bought in Wales back in 2018.  Surely I could at least make a start on that, and it would match my pretty tin.

I stitched the first colour and then started the second, only to discover I had missed a row of the pattern.  Blast!  Don’t you hate that!  I really should learn not to take cross stitch to my stitching days.  I will undo what I have done and start again, but that is a job for another day.  However, now that I have got it out I would like to complete it fairly soon.

After I returned home I picked up my knitting and had another look at it.  Guess what?  I hadn’t twisted my join after all.  It was just the way it was sitting.  Believe me, I was one very happy cookie to see that.  I was ready for a win.

This afternoon, while watching the cricket I made a little bit of a start on the ribbing.  I won’t do much more, as that will be good to work on this coming Wednesday, which will be our last for the year.

Speaking of my stitching groups, my Friday U3A group had their final day on Friday, which was followed by a lovely lunch.  We will catch up for lunch at some stage during January, but don’t return to our usual Fridays until February.  The Wednesday group also had a lovely lunch on Wednesday.  All very social.  We will continue to get together except for Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.

One of my December wishes was to extend the length of my linen knitted top.  Well, today I finally bit the bullet to get things started.  Firstly, I stitched up the side splits, before trying it on to see how much more length I want to add.  Well, you know what?  It didn’t look too bad once the splits were stitched up. I can get away with it….just, so I have decided to leave it as it is.  It will be fine for wearing around home and for very casual outings.  I wouldn’t mind knitting another version of the pattern, but a tad longer with no side splits, as it didn’t turn out too bad otherwise. We’ll see.  Good intentions often don’t get to be realised.

In the background, the inside of the house now has the decorations up.  Mick has been really busy at the bowling club, as they had their annual tournament this weekend.  He has been helping prepare the greens and grounds over the last couple of weeks and they received lots of positive comments, which was nice.  The plan for tomorrow is to get the outdoor lights up.  We are running a bit late, but better late than never, as they say.

We have continued to have rather variable weather.  Fortunately, the frost failed to eventuate, but we are glad we covered the veges, just in case.  Since then, we have had a maximum of 36C yesterday, with wind gusts of 85 kph.  Today, was much better, being calmer and cooler.

In the garden, the flowers have moved on from spring with the hydrangeas now flowering.

The fiejoa is just starting to flower, which will attract lots of little birds and hopefully provide a nice crop of fruit in the autumn.

In the vege garden, I picked the first zucchini yesterday.  For tea tonight I made Garlic Zucchini Bites.  Another new to me recipe that sounded rather nice.  The recipe calls for, among other things, zucchini, garlic, parsley, oregano, basil and chives, all of which I have been able to pick from our garden.  The egg is from our mate’s chooks.

They were definitely a success.  The recipe called them an appertiser, but they were nice for an easy Sunday tea.  The dipping sauce was also our homemade tomato sauce.  It was nice to be able to use so much of our own produce in the recipe.

Now, to go back and watch the end of the cricket test in Brisbane.

October Stitching Update

As you can maybe imagine, I didn’t get a great deal of crafting done during October, seeing as we were busy doing other things.

Here is what I did manage.

I have previously mentioned the Sashiko Bag for the Chookshed Stitchers Challenge.  I was very happy to have that done and it meant that I did at least have one finished project for the month.

I had shared the block I completed early in the month for one of Betty’s group quilts.

Well, I made another one to send down to her for another quilt that has been planned.

In addition, I made two blocks for a group quilt that my Wednesday patchwork quilt are putting together.

While making the blocks I have been adding to the pile of my Bonnie Lass leader and ender blocks.  140 down out of 396.  It is time to get cutting some more.  This is a nice slow bonus project in the background that really is making itself.

I did manage to progress the Christmas redwork stitcheries a little.  They have been good to work on at my stitching mornings.  Nice and mindless.

Finally, I have been slowly working away on my knitted top.  It would have been much quicker if I had just followed the pattern and knitted it flat, but due to the stripes, I made it hard for myself by knitting part of it in the round.  It has also been compounded by me not using the prescribed yarn.  I think (hope) it will all work out.  Anyway, the back is completed and I now just have to knit the two sides of the front v-neck and the ribbing around the armholes and neckline.  It didn’t get completed in October as I’d hoped, but realistically, it shouldn’t take too long to get done.  It doesn’t look much at the moment, but a good blocking at the end should hopefully sort that.

My stats for 15 minutes a day for the last couple of months were:

September = 30/30 (the best for the year)

October = 20/31

Year to Date = 211/273 = 77.29%  

This is way down on last year, but better than nothing.

October - What a Busy Month

This month has really been crazy busy.  It has been one of those times that you wonder how you had time to go to work.

Settle in for quite a read.

Let’s start at the very beginning…..

On the first of the month, Betty let me know that the organist from her church would be playing at our church.  That didn’t make sense to me, as there is an organ recital planned for the first of November and I didn’t know anything about this.  It turns out that there was a bus load of about 50 historic organ enthusiasts travelling around on an organ crawl, playing historic organs in churches.  Of course I popped up to have a listen.  There were only three of us locals there, so quite a treat.  Oh my, it was so nice to hear the Hunter Organ played so well.  I’m used to just hearing a basic organist.  At the end of the performance, they all sang a hymn, and it was a joy to hear so many male voices singing in the space.  Thanks Betty for letting me know this was happening.

One thing about Bathurst, is that we attract lots of car rallies and get together, due to having Mount Panorama.  On the first weekend of the month Bathurst hosted the National Rally of Ford Cortinas.  The Cortina was first released in 1965, so this was a very special rally, being the 60th anniversary. Oh dear!  They are as old as me.

Anyway, there was a display in front of the courthouse, where they closed off the street.  So many cars.  They were parked each side of the street, two rows up the centre and also on the footpath.  

I liked looking at all the different shapes they came in over time.

I think of a Cortina as being a low powered, rather boring car.  Yes, there were a few like that, but there were loads that had been somewhat souped up.  Eight cylinders, turbo chargers, you name it.  They actually won the Bathurst Car Race when they first came out.

The paint jobs were also rather stunning on some, while others were their original weather worn look.

The following week was the lead up to the Bathurst 1000 car race.  There was a parade of the cars and pantecs on the Wednesday, but the weather was rather foul, so for once I didn’t worry about going into town to have a look.

We did sit down and watch a fair bit of the actual race on TV on the Sunday. 

The weather became rather ordinary for the race as well.  Imagine driving around Mount Panorama at race speed in that sort of weather.

This was the view of The Mount from our house.  The top was completely hidden by cloud, so we were glad we were in the warm and dry lounge room.

I didn’t try a new recipe, but did revisit one I haven’t cooked for many years.  Gem Scones.  They are cooked in hot cast iron “Gem Irons”.  One of our neighbours was excited to have bought some, so it inspired me to get mine out and use them. We’ve had them for a very long time.  The batter is more like a cake than a scone mix, but you serve them up the same way.

The other reason to cook them was that we were having Chooky’s Mum, sister and another friend over for afternoon tea.  It was a great excuse to play ladies (and Mick) and get out the good china and table cloth.

We used Mick’s Mum’s cups and saucers and teapot.  There was the embroidered cloth completed by my paternal grandmother.  We used Mum’s silver teaspoons, sugar bowl and creamer and a couple of her plates and a few extra pieces that Mick and I have collected over the years.  It is so nice to get them out and actually use them.  It was also a good excuse to do some baking.

The following weekend was a busy one, as it was time once in for the church fete.  We were busy on the Friday setting up, followed by the big day on the Saturday.  As usual, I was on the White Elephant stall and Mick was on Bargains for Blokes.  It was a very successful event.

Just after we had everything set up on the Friday a storm it.  It was expected, so everything was covered.  At home we stood inside watching the hail come down.  Fortunately, not a huge amount and not large in size.

On the Monday after the fete, we had some friends from Queensland arrive for a few days.  The first couple of days were fairly quiet, but on the Thursday (last week) we went on an adventure.  We caught the train to Sydney for the day.  I will do a separate post on our day out.

They headed off on last Friday and I headed off to Rylstone for an outing with my patchwork group.  It was a beautiful day for a drive.  I may have done a little bit of shopping at Convent and Chapel Wool Shop.  Don’t you love the knitted sheep out the front.

It is such a gorgeous shop.  When we visited last year, Mick was suitable impressed, so much that he now asks if we need to go to Rylstone to the wool shop when we are heading in that general direction.

I loved the look of the Donegal Tweed wool they sell.  It is from the last remaining wool mill in Donegal in Ireland.  Don’t you love the colours.

This is what I bought.  

Yes, two balls of Donegal Tweed, some circular needles and some knit blockers. (The fake fur pom pom was from somewhere else.) I have chosen a beanie pattern that I wish to knit and it is Gansy inspired, so requires a fairly tight tension.

This is the reason I need to knit a new beanie.  Yep, I accidentally put the beanie I knit for Mick in with a normal load of washing.  Oops!  

This is what it used to look like.  Oh well, a good excuse to make a new one.  I want to make me a new beanie as well.  The blue wool is for Mick and the cream for me.

On the following day, the Saturday, my friend Lisa and I did our annual arounds of the open gardens in town. This is always a great catching up day for us both.

The next day, the Sunday, Lisa once again joined Mick and I and we drove to Orange to have a look at their open gardens.  We like to see what other towns have to offer.  The weather was grey and cold (11 degrees C), but we still had a great day out.

Then, on Monday, we packed the caravan and headed off.  Do you now see why I said it has been a busy month?

I think that is more than enough for one post, if you have lasted this long, so I will fill in the rest shortly.