New Zealand in winter is not a very 'white' place, especially in the lower North Island where we live. But today we woke up to a light dusting of the white stuff and the girls thought it was great!
They managed to get very wet making a little snow pile (not a man, just a pile). Fortunately, I made them hang up their jackets and gear in front of the fire to dry as soon as they came in, because the lots-more-adventurous-than-me Aunty T phoned at mid-morning wanting to go to the snow and take the girls for company!
(If you want to get to decent, make-a-snowman snow around here, you just drive to the foot of the Tararua Ranges at Holdsworth which is only about 15-20mins from our house.)
Being school holidays and all, everyone seemed to be out there, including Aunty N and the cousins, so the girls had a great time.
I quite enjoyed staying dry and warm at home (and it was nice and quiet too).
One of my little niece's had a birthday last week.
This is the little niece that has an abundance of toys to play with and spends as much time as she's allowed out on the farm with her Dada anyway. So what do you give for a present?
A knitted hat and mitt set of course!
Done in a nice bright red - easy to spot in the paddocks if she decides to go wander off to meet Dada without telling Mum first!
She was very excited when she opened them and nicely posed for photos.
And, if you want to make your own pair of mitts, I've put the pattern up for free
here on Ravelry. (The hat pattern is not my own, but it's free through Ravelry too -
Lina.)
Lina Mitts Pattern Details
One size - to fit an average child (approx 2-10yrs)
Only uses scraps of yarn - 83m/90yds of DK/8ply (mine is done in
Vintage Purls Max)
Guage: 22sts x 30rows over 4"/10cm on size 6/4.00mm needles in stocking stitch
We used to be one of those fortunate people who lived on a 10 acre block at the very end of a country road. Our house was up on a hill, nestled in the shelter of bigger hills, with views to the far distant ranges.
Unfortunately, it was a fair distance from town and the daily travel to work was a bit of a drag. So, with BigMiss nearing school age and not wanting to make a 1.5hr round trip twice a day (no bus), we made the hard decision to sell up and move to town.
We had always wanted to have a photo enlarged of the view from our lounge window to remember the place by, but never got around to it.
Recently, I won a competition on a blog and the prize was a free enlargement of a photo of your choice. Guess what J suggested? (I was thinking of one of the family/girls.)
Click to enlarge
This one.
It's the view from the top of the hill behind our old house (you can see the house near the edge of the hill shadow just to the left of centre near the bottom of the picture).
It's up on our wall already, looking fantastic.
(Make sure you stop by Angela's blog, Striking Keys, if I was forced to choose a favourite blog - I hate having to choose favourite anythings as it depends on mood so often - it would be hers!)
I seem to have quite a collection of circular needles in a combination of interchangeables and fixeds. And I never seem to be able to find them when I need them! So I decided that I would have to make myself a case to keep them in order.
Ages ago I had seen someone selling interchangeable needle cases on
Felt and then heard that she was developing a pattern tutorial for sale. I eagerly awaited for the pattern to go up and bought one. I went out and bought my supplies (spent a dangerous amount of time in the local Quilt shop) and cut the pieces out, ready for sewing it together.
But while I was making it, I couldn't help but think how big it was. I had wanted something compact, similar to a cheque-book sized purse that would fit nicely in my knitting bag. Instead it turned out slightly bigger than my A5 notebook. It's a fantastic design and has room for lots of stuff, complete with plastic pockets to keep the needle tips from falling out while still being able to see what's there.
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I was a little disappointed as the pattern never says on it what the final size of the case will be. And it doesn't come with pattern pieces, just dimensions to cut pieces out to without actually telling you what the pieces are for until you've put it all together (which by then is too late as I found out). Normally, I adjust patterns as I go to suit exactly what I want, which I would've done in this case if there were pattern pieces showing how big the final product was. So, I sat down and drew out a full size pattern of a new case in the size I wanted it to be and ended up with a completely different needle case.
This got me thinking, would anyone else be interested in a more compact sized interchangeable needle case for their knitting supplies? The one I've designed is approx 4.5"x9", can fit up to 14 pairs of tips, lots of cables as well as fixed circulars and has two zipped pockets (plus an optional third). I have the pattern drawn out to size on disc, it's a relatively simple construction and super easy to do up a pdf pattern for it. All I have to do is take photos of the process to demonstrate and I can have it available for testing. Is it worth doing, anyone interested?
Don't forget to check out all the other fantastic Creative Types over here!
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