Yarn Along

I thought I'd join in with Ginny and her Yarn Alongers today, I have been searching my cook books today, trying to plan a dinner party I'm throwing on the weekend.  I'm thinking an Asian shared table, so "Balance and Harmony" by the fab Neil Perry and "Bill's Everyday Asian" by Bill Granger, have been getting a good hard look at!   I have found quite a few yummy things that might make the final cut, but I have to keep in mind that after a couple of bevvies I often lose interest in the meal I have put so much planning into and only cook half the things I intended.  So the more I can do beforehand, the better.  The other option is I don't start drinking until I have cooked the meal, not very social of me!

I am going to make 

pork and prawn pot stickers, 

salt and pepper squid, 

crispy prawn toasts, 

chicken ginger soup,

 black bean braised pork ribs, 

yellow Thai barbecued chicken, 

fried rice with Chinese barbecued pork, 

and Chinese pickled vegetables   

Well that's the plan at the moment anyway.

And on the crafty front, I have been crocheting a few more rows on the mixed stitch stripey blanket. 

I have been letting this blanket slide recently, but I have seen so many lovely blankets that people have finished on Ravelry, I am feeling guilty I haven't updated the crochet along for a while, so it;s time to do another chunk and get it moving again.  I don't think too many people are waiting on my updates, I think most people are just going on their own way and coming up with great results, so I'm glad about that!

What have you been reading lately?

Yarn along

I'm joining in with Ginny's Yarn Along today, because I just finished reading 'Sharp Objects' by Gillian Flynn, I really liked it!  It is a creepy thriller, easy reading that keeps you turning the pages, I actually read it in a day (didn't get any crochet done yesterday!), and I have 'Gone Girl' by the same author ready to start next. 

I am still enthusiastic about my new blanket and have been bust making wheely circles ready to turn into squares, lot's of fun choosing colour combos, although I found I was taking ages deciding what colour to do next, so I have made a big list with about twenty colour combinations, and now I am just choosing one of these and making it and seeing how it turns out, much quicker, no decisions to make at all!

Have a great day!

Yarn Along : new crochet book

Hello, how's your week going? 

I thought I'd show you a book I picked up on the weekend for Yarn Along today, it is called 

'500 Crochet Blocks'  by Hannah Elgie and Kath Webber.  I am enjoying looking through the patterns for crochet blocks and different crochet stitches, and have found a few that I'd like to try. 

I think it is a great crochet reference type book.

A cute flower type motif, this is the lay out for each pattern, a good photo and then the pattern in written and diagram form.....

.......crocodile stitch, I have seen this on Pinterest, so it's good to have a pattern to try out, I think it could work as part of a softie, there is an idea brewing here!

......on each pattern page there is a reference to a variations page where several different versions of the patterns are explored, a nice idea, and a good way to see how creative crochet can be, the main patterns are used as a starting point and then you can see how you can change bits and pieces for different effects.

.......I like this diamond pattern.  I have been fiddling around trying to make a nice diamond shape for a while, so I am very happy to find one all figured out for me already!

This is only a small book, but it packs a lot into it's pages!

Which leads me to what I have been working on this week,  granny squares and stripy diamonds! 

 I have a few ideas for these diamonds, I'll have to see how I feel when I've made a few more.

( Oh, and I also bought the 'new' Country Living this week, Feb edition, we are so behind out here! Lots of nice eye candy in this one, some beautiful shades of green in the decorating, right up my alley!)

So what have you been reading and making this week?

I'm joining in with Ginny and her Yarn Along today.

Yarn Along, Blanket

Hello! 

I am joining in with Ginny and the Yarn Along ladies today.

So, I have brought out my crochet along blanket for the first time in weeks, so slack of me!  I have been busy with the star stitch blanket, so this one has taken a back seat, and I also had hit a point where I couldn't decide on what colour to use next.  I 'm hoping to add another 10 or so rows then do another update, although I am sure anyone making this with me must be fed up with waiting and got on with their own pattern.  

I have just added a dark blue stripe, and I think it gives it a lift, there are a lot of mid tone colours in this blanket!

I have been looking at  Lucinda Guy's Northern Knits Gifts this week, and found a few lovely things to add to my to do list........

.........this cardigan, I am planning to be the queen of the frock and cardi combo this winter, and want to knit a couple of cute ones for myself.  This is quite a big ask as I've never knit anything to wear myself.

........I love this knitted doll!  I can see a few of these with different coloured dresses and hair styles making their way into my knitting this winter.......

.......and this chicken door stop.  I love it, although I think the colour work in the body might be a tad beyond my skill level!

So there you have it, no fiction for this week, I'm still trying to choose something to read and haven't had a chance to look up some recommended books,  Maybe tomorrow I'll do that.

What are you reading and making?

Have a lovely day!

PS If you would like to enter my yarny give away there is still plenty of time!  Please do!

The post is here.

Yarn Along

Hello there!

Firstly, I'd like to thank you all so much for your wonderful comments on my last post, what a brilliant supportive community there is out there in blogland!!  I have really felt great today, with all your lovely encouraging, enthusiasm and good wishes, I guess that is what blogging lets into your life, the chance to connect with so many great people!  So, this little yarn shop is going ahead, 

and I feel really good about it!  ( and yes, I will be sending yarn to all corners of the world,

 just checking out the postage situation at the moment!)  

You guys are fab!  

xxxxxxxxxxxx

Onto today's post, I am joining in with Ginny's Yarn Along again, I have just finished 

 'The Book Thief ' by Markus Zusak, and what a read!!   I know I'm a bit late to the party with this one, but better late than never. This book really sucked me in, I couldn't put it down and read it in a day and a half.  Moving, thought provoking, amusing, sad, horrifying and original all at the same time, no wonder it has been so popular.  I was sorry to finish it just because I don't have something as interesting to go on with now.  

And on the crafty front, I have been continuing on with the star stripe blanket #3, I have about 10 rows to go and then an edge to do and it will be finished. Yay!  Maybe next week I'll have a finished blanket to show!

Have you read anything good lately?

What are you making today?

yarn along

Hellooo....

How are you all?  

I'm good, holiday mode is in full swing, the boys are sleeping in till late morning,  lots of time for some quiet crochet before the heat of the day sets in.  We are heading for a scorcher tomorrow, so will probably look for a swim at some stage.  Lots of icy drinks and lazing about in the shade,  holiday time really does suit me, I think I have a lazy streak that is able to indulged at this time of year!   haha..

Anyhoo, I am joining in with Ginny and the yarn along gang today,  I have been reading lots of lovely crochet, crafty type books recently, getting all inspired and full of ideas.  This one, 'Simple Crochet' is a lovely looking book with some very nice projects in it, and the photos are beautiful. I went a bit crazy before Christmas and bought a heap of new books, and am enjoying browsing through them now when things are more leisurely and relaxed. 

I have started working on another star stitch blanket this week.  It is quite exciting, a lovely reader emailed me and asked if she could order a blanket from me, of course I said yes!  So here I am with an actual crochet commission!  Who would have thought!  Anyway, I am quite chuffed and it is growing at a respectable rate, so hopefully will be finished before too long.

I hope you are all having a good week, and stay cool and safe in the heat, or stay warm and cosy in the cold to all the Northern Hemisphere ladies....

Talk soon  xx

Yarn Along.....

Hello.

I'm joining in with Yarn Along today.  

(Sorry about the poor quality photo, I had to take this after dark)

This week I have been trying to get a few rows done on the stripey blanket so I can update the crochet along.  I'm slowly getting there, I like to have a bit of a chunk done to post on the crochet along, so am madly hooking away most evenings.  Except that this is a time of year when there are lots of things happening in the evenings, eating into my crochet time!  Tonight we had an information night at the high school for Max who is starting there next year, it's the end of primary school for him, and for me the end of 11 years of being involved at that school, quite a milestone.

There is also night tennis finals to play in, award nights, a graduation dinner and various other commitments, all good things to be involved with, but I am missing my down time! 

As my boys would say, first world problems mum. Laugh.

Anyway, back to the yarn along, I have started 'Hidden Empire' by Kevin J Anderson, the first book in a big sci fi series. I think this will be a good one for the summer holidays, it has nearly sucked me in, I need to read a bit more to really get involved.

I enjoy a good sci fi, so if anyone has any recommendations I'd love to hear them.

One of my favourite sci fi authors is Sheri Tepper, has anyone read her books?  

If you like sci fi and haven't read anything of hers, give her a go, I love her stories!  

She used to publish a  new book each year around my birthday, and Gary would give me a lovely hardcover edition as a present, but I think she might be getting very old now as I haven't seen anything new from her for a few years, I hope she is still alive!

And for something completely unrelated, we had a glorious sunset tonight after a beautiful day, I think tomorrow is going to be very hot, so a bit of slothing in the shade keeping cool might be in order, and very likely a swim in the evening.  Looking forward to it already!

Stay cool if you are in Melbourne.

Have a great day!

Yarn Along and a bit of babble.....

Hello!

I am joining in with Ginny's Yarn Along today, and am still hooking away at the Cutie Patootie Pants.  

I am not sure if stripes were the best thing to do for these pants, as I didn't realise the pattern changed stitch widths within the rows, so my stripes are going to be thicker on the backside than the front.  

Oh well, I will see how they turn out anyway.

It was my birthday last week and I received a couple of lovely books, one of which was this one, 

'Whole Larder Love' by Rohan Anderson.  

(I seem to be reading a lot of non fiction, practical type books at the moment, ones you can dip in and out of as you like)

This cookbook is full of gorgeous photos and lovely little snippets of story telling about his food love affair.  I am not sure if I will actually cook a lot of the recipes, they are quite adventurous for a house of fussy, plain eaters, but I love where he is coming from with the food he makes.  

I am passionate about growing as much food in our garden as we can, and just love knowing I have been able to provide parts of our meals from outside the backdoor.  

We are a long way from self sufficient, (and am happy to support our local farmers for things that are beyond our capabilities), but I think there is so much satisfaction and sense of 'worthwhileness' in food gardening, I really don't know why everyone doesn't give it a go!!  It makes me really happy!

But I digress, back to the book, there are a lot of recipes for wild game 

(rabbit, hare, venison, duck, yabbies)

which is something I don't cook (or hunt, for that matter), but you never know, maybe if I'm feeling a little wild I might give the duck risotto a crack!  

Speaking of books, I have gone a little crazy recently on Book Depository, and seem to have parcels arriving every few days with lovely, interesting books for me to pour over, so I thought I might do a 'book sharing' post one day a week till I have shown you what I have bought.  

Trust me, there is a lot of lovely, colourful, inspiring, booky goodness coming your way! 

--------------------------------------------------------

Well, it has been a rather emotional, draining and long couple of weeks around here, but we got through the funeral and gave Jack a send off I think he would have loved. 

 Some positive things come from such a stressful time too, the strong bonds of family and friends, and a deeper appreciation of how lucky we are to have one and other,  and the great lives we are actually living right now. 

I'll be stopping to smell the roses of life and giving thanks for just being here in this moment, in this family, in this place.  It is a lucky feeling.   

I was feeling a bit nihilistic, the other day, you know, 'what's the point to doing anything, nothing really matters in the big picture, our lives are so fleeting, why bother with anything, there is no meaning to doing anything....'  that kind of depressing thinking.  Not like me at all.

I lost my purpose briefly, and so now I am trying to make sure I focus on the good, lucky life I have, and that the purpose of life is to actually get out there and live it, see where it takes you and make the most of each new day. I am sure that is what Jack and my grandpa would want. (my grandpa died on the morning of Jack's funeral, how's that for timing!) Lucky for me Gary is a very positive husband and keeps reaffirming all the good things we have got going for us.

Ok, getting a bit deep (morbid) there, time to finish up I think!  Sorry about that little tangent, I don't usually write about this sort of thing, but it's kind of how I am feeling at the minute, I am sure I will be back to my happy self shortly, I am going to crochet my way to happier days!

Oh, and thank you all for the fantastic response you gave my Christmas decorations, you are all so nice and supportive in this crafty bloggy community.

And yes, I will put together a tutorial on how I made them so you can all have a go at a bit of

 Crochet Christmas Cheer. Keep an eye out for it soon.

Um.... I think that's all for tonight, 

see yay later!

Yarn along....

Hello, today I am joining in with Ginny and her Yarn Along.

This week I have been trying to finish my Christmas decorations for the swap.  All the crochet bits are done, it just some sewing and adding a few embellishments left to do.  This is the fun bit, choosing extra trimmings and trying different things out till I find a combo that I am happy with. 

 They look a bit weird all unfinished, but I think they will be cute once I get them together. 

(Hoping anyway!)  

I think it is ok to go a bit over the top at Christmas time, I'll show you the finished things later in the week (hope you will be able to tell what they are supposed to be, Gary couldn't!!)

I have also been looking at a new crochet book that I got this week, Little Crochet by Linda Permann.

There are some cute things for babies and toddlers in here and a very nice granny square blanket that I might have a go at some day.

But these little Cutie Patootie Pants are the reason I wanted this book. I saw the lovely ones that 

 Shara from One Grey Elephant made, and just had to make a pair for a few up and coming babies (not my own!)

I am thinking of making them in cotton, as I have just received some new cotton from Bendigo. 

These 5 colours are from their new seasons colours, and I really like them, especially the kiwi green and the sky blue.

 These are the new colours mixed with some older colours that I already had, I think I can make some good colour combos with this lot.

I have 5 hours as a passenger in the car tomorrow, so might make a start on a little pair of pants.

Happy yarning on!

Yarn Along....

Joining in with Ginny for Yarn Along today......

Still making crochet circles for a my Christmas decoration idea.  

Hope to have a prototype to show you all soon. 

Today I received some books in the mail that we ordered a few weeks ago. 

 I love online shopping, I have usually forgotten what I have ordered by the time it arrives here, 

so it is like getting presents from myself!  haha...

Anyway, the books I ordered are some that I have been drooling over for a while so I am very happy to have them in my hot little hands.  

'Print and Pattern' and 'Print and Pattern 2'  both by Bowie Style.  

The Print and Pattern blog is awesome and although I've only peeked inside my books today, they look so full of colourful, eye candy gorgeousness that I am going to give each one of them their own post!

A lot of inspirational design and pattern to soak up inside these covers I think!

Have a great day!

Yarn Along.....

 Hello!

I'm joining in with Ginny and the other lovely crafters over at Small Things today.

So here is what I am hoping to work on tonight, I need to get a few more rows completed so I can do another update for the crochet along.  It seems silly to to an update with only 2 new rows, but I think I may have made this blanket a little bit too wide, each row is taking such along time! 

 Not to mention a heap of wool!!  Oh well, it will be an epic when I finish it, somewhere far off in the future! haha...

I have started reading a quick thriller called Fatherland byRobert Harris.  It is basically a crime thriller set in 1960's Germany in a world where Hitler did not lose WW2.  I am about 1/3 the way through, and so far it is an easy read.

What are you making today?

Yarn Along

I am joining in with Yarn Along today, so here is my current knitting,  the hexagon blanket.  I didn't get very far last night, still getting confused with the 4 needles, it is not coming naturally yet, but I will persevere and hopefully I will get in a rhythm.  

I am reading The Resilient Gardener by Carol Deppe which is an interesting book about food gardening for times of uncertainty.  Lots about seed saving and how to produce staples and get the most from your garden.  Carol is a very knowledgeable gardener and a scientist,  and her opinions make a really good read.  It is American based, but I think there is a lot  can take from her experiences and adapt to my gardening.  Yes, lots to mull over with this book.

What are you making and reading?

Yarn along.....

Hello!

Today I am joining in with The Yarn Along peeps over at Ginny's place here.

It has been seriously windy here the last few days, like trees down, black outs, and blocked roads windy, so a good time to stay indoors and get a bit of hooky done. ( Not actually what has been happening, work and normal hectic life goes on regardless of the weather.)

I have been doing a bit more of the mixed stripy blanket, progress is slow and I feel that everyone will be thoroughly sick of seeing this blanket by the time it is finished!!

And I have started reading one of Max's latest reads Toby Alone by Timothee de Fombelle.  This is a story I bought him a few years ago, but at the time he was a bit young for it and only got a few chapters in and then left it.  Recently he picked it up again and got stuck right into it and had it read in less than a week, he is onto the sequel now, and really enjoyed the first one.  

I was always intrigued as a child by stories about tiny people, and I still like the idea of whole worlds operating right under our feet but unseen by us.  This is a story about the tiny people who inhabit a big tree, and the adventures of one in particular, Toby.  I have only read a few chapters, but it seems like a pretty in depth story for a children's novel.  Courage, betrayal, abandonment and strength of character are a few of the themes that are being explored here, so it is a great story for my 12yr old to enjoy and hopefully learn a thing or two about human nature.

It is an english translation of the original French novel, so I don't know if much gets lost in translation, the story seems to flow nicely anyway. 

Are you reading anything interesting at the moment? 

Do you still like to read children's books?

Yarn Along...

Two posts in one day, a bit of a record for me I think!

Today I am making progress on a beanie using some lovely Noro silk garden, it is a little hat to go with a singlet my mum knitted my niece,  I really like the green flecked section, hopefully I'll get it finished this week, as my niece's birthday was at the start of July and this was supposed to be part of her present!

I am reading Bourke Street Bakery in an effort to demystify sour dough bread making, it is a great baking book, and these guys really know their stuff.  My biggest problem is finding the block of 20 hrs or so that you need to get this bread together, my days seem to be full of interruptions and I'm struggling to find a day when I can have a go.  I probably should start it off in the afternoon and cook it the next morning, but this is easier said than done!

Joining in with Ginny again  for yarn along.

Yarn along.....

Today I am joining in with Ginny at Small things for her yarn along linky thing where you show what you are working on at the moment and what you are reading...........

I dragged out my magic square blanket the other day and decided it was time to add a few more squares to it.  It is definitely a slow moving project this one, but it is nice to pick it up every now and again and knit up a few more colours.  I have a couple of nice multicoloured balls of wool that I want to add next, so I hope the enthusiasm lasts long enough to get that done.

I am reading 'A Dance With Dragons' by George R. R. Martin,  it is Book 5 of 'A Song of Ice and Fire' series, and I am really enjoying this epic tale.  So much more engrossing than the TV series (which is still a good show),  there is just so much going on in this story, it sucked me right into all the intrigue and power plays, it is hard to put down.  I think he is writing another episode after this one, which would be great, there are still so many story threads to explore.

I've also been looking at 'Gardener Cook' by Christopher Lloyd, that great garden writer (and grower!).

I am feeling very inspired at the moment to get stuck into my garden and just grow everything I can! 

I am hoping this Spring/Summer will be our most productive and beautiful garden since we have been here.  I am feeling like my knowledge and skills are finally at a level where I can actually get the garden growing how I want, and it will hopefully look a little like I imagine! ( A gorgeous abundant oasis of growing things!)

So anyway, have a great day, and happy yarning along1