Feeling Crafty

I haven't worked on any of my craft projects for ages, and I am currently feeling the crafty bug.  First things first, I need to finish the knitted blankets.  I laid them out and realised the size I was going for is just going to be too small.  So I have a couple of choices here.  I can knit for another year to get enough squares to make them big enough, or I can combine what I have and make one good sized blanket.

One blanket won.  That was the original plan but Ross wanted his own.  I have now convinced him that we can share one good sized blanket and snuggle under it together.  So I counted up my squares and I am 2 squares short.  Well, I was.  I finished another one last night.  So now I only need to do one more square and I can put it together.  YAY!

The other reason I want to finish it (other than I am sick of knitting squares) is that I have not done any quilting for ages.  I have been planning my first hand quilt for a few years (I usually work by machine) and have decided it it time to start.  All my fabric is at Mums so I am heading over there tonight to start picking colours.  I am doing a hexagon quilt and I want it to look like a field of flowers.  This project will probably take me a couple of years (especially the speed I work and how often I get distracted) but I don't mind.  I am looking forward to getting started on it.

I walked again this morning.  And I am feeling better for it.  Tomorrow Ross & I are going hiking.  Just to Shepherds Hill, but it will be good.  The plan is to do 2 loops which should take us a few hours.  It's hard to judge distance, but at a guess I would say 6-7 kms.  I am looking forward to it, and the hills will be a real test for my foot.

I hope everyone has a magnificent weekend.

xox

Knitting, Beading, Cooking

Sorry I have been absent for several days.  I will try and catch up on blogs shortly.

Friday I spent yet another day sick in bed.  I am certain it is related to lack of sleep.  However we now have a baby monitor and take turns having it in our rooms so we can all hear Grandad and we can all get some nights of good sleep.

Yesterday I was feeling a lot better and went to a WEA class to learn to make a scarfe/shawl.  It was called a rainbow scarfe, but that related to the texture of the yarn rather than the colours.  However I decided to relate it to my colours as well.  It was knitted "in the long" which means rather that doing 20 stitches and 200 rows, you do 150 stitches and only 25 rows.

As well as the scarfe/shawl we learnt some beading to go on one end.  I hadn't done beading before so I found it a bit challenging.  I ended up putting it down and concentrating on the knitting.  Mind you, I didn't finish in class. But when I got home last night I finished the scarfe, and I finished the tassels which I was super proud of.  This afternoon I sat down and all of a sudden the beading clicked and I ended up finishing it.  I am really proud of the result and it is a very unique scarfe I now own.

This morning I decided it was cookie baking time.  Mum was coming over for a couple of hours and since we have to sit in the kitchen (Grandad sleeps in the lounge) I thought baking cookies while we visited would be lovely. 

I made Chocolate Sugar Cookies.  The recipe said it made 7 dozen.  It made 10 dozen!  Luckily Ross loves cookies.  They are really yummy, but I am going to experiment with the recipe before I put it up as I think it could be better.

Mum brought over a bag of green veg from her garden.  I opened the bag and stuck my nose in and the first thing I thought was  - SOUP!  So I put the leeks, silver beets and spring onions in some veggie stock with a couple of potatoes and some fresh parsley and fresh spearmint from our herb garden.  I also did up some soup grains (spit peas, barley, lentils etc).  I blended the veg mix and added some cream then put back on the stove with the grains.  The result was fantastic!  I forgot to take a pic, but I will definitely make it again so will snap a pic then.

In all I have had a good weekend.  Thankfully the anxiety from the caffeine withdrawal is pretty much over with.  That was a truly horrible feeling to have all the time.  And hopefully the tummy pains are over with as well.  Am looking forward to getting back on the bike this week and also going for a couple of runs.

xox