January Knitting....still some to come

January has been a busy month all around. I have had 3 family birthdays, my wedding anniversary, some holidays from work (only 12 days before and after Christmas through to the New Year). Going back to work during Summer holidays is hard, especially since we have been having some very hot weather.

The past three weeks we have had some terrible bush fires across the country and some very close to where I live. We haven't had much rain and the ground is very dry with most of the grass being a very dry brown now, which makes bush fires extremely dangerous. Now since Saturday night we are having heavy rain with some parts of the east coast of Queensland flooding and now heading down the coast into NSW and expected to hit Sydney tonight, I am 2 hours south of Sydney on the coast. I live between the Mountains and the Sea as many would say. The ocean is a 5 minute drive to the east and the moutains a 5 minute drive to the west, a very beautiful place.

On Australia Day (26 January) we not only celebrated that day, my family also celebrated my parents birthdays (Mum 23 January (75 years) and Dad 29 January (76 years). We had a BBQ, with my eldest son and his wife cooking Surf and Turf, very nice, one of my nieces made a White Chocolate Mud Cake and decorated it beautifully. We talked about when my sister and I where growing up, we laughed so much my stomach hurt. I love having family get togethers. The weekend before we were down the south coast at Moruya with my husbands fathers family staying on a cousins property, playing cricket, feeding the horses, chooks etc, we had so much fun.

Having fun is very addictive, I can't wait for more great weekends with family, friends or even staying home pottering around the yard with my grand-daughter.

My January knitting has been hectic too, I am on a mission this year to knit more of my stash, which seems to grow more than shrink. I think I have enough yarn to do everything I need to, but having said that, I showed my sister my felted slippers and now she wants some for all her family.

I did finish some WIP's, not old WIP's but WIP's none the less. I finished my short sleeve cardigan with Celtic style cables up the front, I really can't wait for cooler weather to wear it. It won second place in Albion Park Agricultural Show the other week. I finished one of the two baby sets I am doing for a friends newly born grand daughters, and I am now on the second one.

I have been a part of a knitalong on Ravelry, the Mystery Sock knitalong, I am loving this, I get a bit more of the pattern each week, and the best thing is that I get to do other knitting while I wait for the next part of the pattern. The last part of the pattern is due on Tuesday 29 January which will finish them off with the toe.

I have knit a pair of fetching fingerless gloves which I gifted to a cousin's wife the other weekend as part of a "pay it forward" thing on facebook. I finished my grand-daughters lacey shrug and she has worn it so that is even better.

Earlier in the month I knit two pairs of booties in old pattern styles, these will go to Knit4Charities in the next couple of weeks. Last night I knit a wash cloth in hot pink for myself to use as a face washer, it is part of a Ravelry knitalong, dishcloth a month. Today I will get back to the baby set, I am up to the sleeves on that, then the yoke is knitted in one piece with the fronts, back and sleeves. It is a very old pattern which is in the new Patons pattern book Heirloom Collection, it doesn't have a name for the pattern it is Style 3 in the book. I had the same set when I was a baby, then I used it to dress up my dolls. I change the bonnet and knit it as a beanie instead. Not many...if any...people use bonnets these days, they all like beanies.

It is a nice rainy day, not too hot and not too cold, which is very nice after the heat we have been having.

Happy New Year

2013 has started out very busy with knitting. I was way behind in what I wanted to knit for the local argricultural shows held in January. I couldn't make up my mind last week if I would enter, I had some things nearly knitted and some just needed sewing together. I decided last weekend that if I finished knitting the short sleeve cardigan that I would enter, so I knit and I knit and then knit some more and finally got it finished and sew together, it is a winter short sleeve cardigan/vest type thing. I love it, it turned out really nice.

Other knitting for my local Albion Park Show to be held this weekend 12 & 13 January are a pink 4ply wool 3 piece baby set, 2 pairs of booties which I knit a couple of vintage pattern booties, a lace shrug/cardigan which is for my grand-daugher, a cotton summer top, a cotton swing dress which are also for my grand-daughter. I wasn't going to put the last two items in, but as I have been a bit slow on the knitting I decided to, to make up numbers.

 

 

Today has been the hotest day here in many many years, with "Catastrophic fire" warnings for the area I live and other places in NSW with very hot temperatures and high winds, it has not been  a good day for bush fires. Luckily we didn't have any in my immediate area, but not far away have been some huge bush fires. It is really good now as the RFS (Rural Fire Service) send out sms messages to most people with mobile phones warning them of the dangers in their area. It is still very hot and is not going to be a comfortable night sleeping in this heat, a southerly wind is due early hours of the morning which should cool things down.

 

Photos will have to come later as I don't seem to be able to select any to upload. Not sure what is going on with it.