The First Week of December

The first week of the month has flown by in the blank 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.