A finish

I have a knitting finish.

Morning Surf Scarf in my hand-dyed, handspun yarn. I’m so proud of how this turned out!

Gorgeous Girl is a tad scarf obsessed at the moment (she turns clothes and fabric into scarves – shame it’s the height of summer…) and she just had to try it on.

I’m giving this to a friend, I hope she likes it. I have enough yarn left over (I hope) to make one for me. I don’t usually make the same project back to back, but I’ve cast on for mine already.

The bounty from the garden continues, last night for dinner the only thing on the plate that had been purchased was the sausages.

Gorgeous Man and Gorgeous Girl dug up one potato bush. This was the haul.

They are really yummy. Also an heirloom variety, but I forget the name.

Here is the candy striped beetroot ready to be covered in olive oil and roasted.

After cooking the beetroot was skinned and tossed in a garden salad.

This year, for the first time, the guinea fowl who frequent our yard have a large brood of chicks. It’s been really fun watching the tiny little babies turn into adolescents. Here is a really bad shot of them, but is the best I can get. They are really skittish!

This is our front yard. The wire will eventually become part of  a chook (chicken) coop. The photo is not crooked, my front yard does slope that much.

We had Christmas Round Two today as some cards and parcels from Grandparents and Uncles and Aunties in Australia arrived today. Gorgeous Girl is thrilled with her new handbag and book. Because of the way the postal system works (or rather doesn’t) she thinks that all major celebrations like birthdays and Christmas are extended celebrations.

I’ve been clearing up my craft room. The yarn/fibre stash is organised, I’ve sorted out the scrapbooking area (which is the top of a chest of drawers on which I store my supplies). Right now I’m working on the sewing table, which has turned into such a mess that I can hardly reach the sewing machine. I’ve made a promise to myself to keep the other desk in the room clear so that I can work without clearing it off first. Two weeks in, so far so good, and I’m finding it does increase my productivity if I don’t have to clear up junk before cutting out fabric or making a card.

What kickstarted the spring cleaning was a certain Gorgeous Man who signed me up for Library Thing. His Christmas present to me was to catalogue my entire collection of History books, which meant that the overfilled bookshelf was sorted out and tidied up.  He banned me from my craft room for three days while he worked on it.

Thank you for all the well wishes for Gorgeous Man. The antibiotics are working and he is feeling much better.

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There’s something to be said…

For not having a working car over the Christmas break. We are certainly saving money – no ducking out for take-away or hitting the shops for some post-Christmas shopping.

Gorgeous Man received a multitude of tick bites while he was away, and unfortunately has a dose of African Tick Bite Fever. If you Google it, you will see some lovely images I’ve just linked to a medical explanation with no pictures.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas (if you celebrate the day). Our Christmas was lovely. Gorgeous Girl had lots of fun delivering the presents around the room, and opening hers.

I just love this picture of her helping Gorgeous Man to open his gift. She helped to wrap it up.

Gorgeous Man’s mother gave her a plastic tote filled with crafty stuff and she has been gluing and painting and cutting to her hearts content since Christmas. My house looks like a confetti bomb exploded. She can’t cut out pictures, but she can certainly cut up the paper into lots of little bits, not too bad for 26 months.

I finished some spinning. This gorgeous stuff. Merino and bamboo in a colourway called Concord Grapes.

came from the Portland Fiber Gallery in Maine. Gorgeous Man bought it for me at the same time as he got the wheel. If you want some of this fibery goodness, you can check out their  Etsy store.

I don’t know what this is going to become yet.

Before Christmas I participated in Kirsten’s Mystery Sock Knit Along.  It was lots of fun, and I got to use this yarn that has been marinating in the stash for quite some time.

Inspired by the Santa layout, I did another layout for Gorgeous Girl’s scrapbook. This one is of her enjoying the chooks (Australian for chickens) at Gorgeous Man’s dad’s place in July.

I’ve decided that (once the car is fixed) I’m going to take a scrapbooking class. The newsagent at the local mall also has scrapbooking supplies and they offer classes. The classes are always on while I’m working, but I’ve got some leave coming up. I think it will be fun and it will give me some dedicated time to work on it.

Since it is summer here, we have been enjoying some bounty from the garden. This is the second lot of carrots that we picked, and the last of the lettuce. There are more carrots in the ground, but we tend to pick as we need them. The beetroot is an heirloom variety that grows red and white rings, I think it’s very cool. The dark green round thing at the back is a gem squash. We hadn’t had them until we moved to South Africa, but they are very tasty. And the light green round thing is an heirloom variety of cucumber – very fresh tasting.

The corn is now much taller than me (Gorgeous Man will tell you that this is not hard lol) and has lots of heads on it. We also have three varieties of pumpkin coming on. The watermelon is flowering, so we are hopeful that we will have some home grown watermelon before the summer is out.

I started hand quilting the fish quilt, but my frame has gotten brittle with age (it’s plastic) and is no fun. Also, it’s huge (what was I thinking!?) So I’ve set it aside until (I have the car back and) I can get to my local quilt store. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to convince the owner to do it on her long arm. Otherwise I’ll have to look for another long-armer in the area – easier said than done.

I’m also making a skirt for Gorgeous Girl – the tutorial one looks really cute. Let’s just say I’m going to reserve judgment on my version until it is finished.

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