A birthday and a finish

Recently a certain Gorgeous Man had a big birthday (starts with a 4 and ends with a 0).

We took the opportunity to head away for the weekend. We stayed in accommodation with some interesting recycled decor.

There was no electricity, so at night we used these lamps and solar powered lanterns. I don’t know how people did handwork at night back then.

We saw some wonderful scenery.

And Gorgeous Girl had her first experience with sparklers.

A little while ago I finished a shawl from some of this handspun.

It was my first, but not my last time, adding beads to my knitting.

 

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Bat(t)s and Monkeys

Recently I attended a drum carding workshop where we made some batts to use for spinning. It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed the process tremendously.

These are the two I made.

I’ve had a bit of waiting time lately, so my carry along project is coming along well.

Hand-spun sock.

This weekend we had an end of year function. The function was at a butterfly park and so we went a bit early to have a look around. Gorgeous Man made a friend.

This little fellow jumped first into my lap while I was squatting down to take its picture and then leapt onto Gorgeous Man. Gorgeous Girl insisted that she be allowed to get up close and personal as well.

I finally made an appointment with the oral surgeon that my dentist referred me too, and I’m going to be having all 4 of my wisdom teeth out in 10 days time. I’m not looking forward to that. They have to do it under a general anesthetic and the surgeon is predicting 5 days off work for recovery.

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We all went on Safari part 3

We didn’t try to fit a lot in while we were away. We were content to just relax around where we were staying.

Gorgeous Girl and I chilled out a fair bit near our cabin, she called it our holiday house which sounds very grand:)  while Gorgeous Man went bird and butterfly watching.

She was most taken with the log next to the cabin.

We managed a half-way decent self-portrait shot.

We also took walks around the grounds.

Gorgeous Girl is fascinated with pockets and sticks.

We eventually managed to convince her to swap that one for a more suitably sized stick…

On our walk we came across this:

It was a very cool experience.

Binding fabric has been washed (is hanging on the line as we speak) and will be cut and added to the quilt sometime over the weekend. Although tonight is “Knitting for me Wednesday” I’m throwing routine to the wind and planning to work on a coat for Gorgeous Girl instead. I’m on the downhill slope, so hopefully a finished object sometime soon.

My beloved camera broke beyond repair (stupid little plastic bits that are designed to stop working after 4 years) and so I am the owner of a new camera. I need to find the time to sit down with the new manual (which is on CD) so I can work out how to take halfway decent pictures.

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We all went on Safari…

But before we did, there was more knitting.

Gorgeous Girl asked for a hat and picked this yarn out of the stash.

The bottom of this hat was singles that I hated and so plied together. I didn’t have enough to finish the hat so the top is some n-plied sock yarn. You can’t tell the difference unless you look for it Fibre dyed and spun by me.

Dolly got a new hat too.

Also from self-dyed handspun. Gorgeous Girl was offered a choice of commercial yarn and handspun and picked the handspun. Kid’s got taste

Here they are modelling their new hats (actually they were sitting still watching Dora the Explorer, but I’ll take what photo opportunities I can get).

Gorgeous Man had been taking meetings in the north of KwaZulu-Natal. After he finished he was dropped off at the airport where he met up with Gorgeous Girl and I who had flown up to meet him. In great timing he arrived as we were fetching our luggage, so no waiting for anyone. Gorgeous Girl was very well behaved on the plane, though she did start shouting with excitement when she realised we were flying over Durban and that she was going to “see my Daddy soon!”

We then picked up the hire and drove up to Hluhluwe.

Gorgeous Girl was most excited to have a big girl bed (we are still using her cot/crib). We brought the animals from home. This is a small selection of the zoo that occupies her cot each night.

The bedhead was a woven reed mat. These were very cool and were also on the floors.

The next morning Gorgeous Girl spent some time running back and forth along the entrance to our cabin (we did the self-catering thing)

while Gorgeous Man went for a walk to look for birds and butterflies and I did this.

A bit of sun and some knitting. Note the fancy schmancy hire car which is much nicer than the 12 year-old piece of junk that we drive at home.

I didn’t get as much knitting done as I wanted to while we were on holiday as my shoulder and arms were giving me a lot of trouble. I took three projects and worked on one. I have an appointment with the physiotherapist/accupuncturist tomorrow so hopefully I’ll be feeling a lot better soon.

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A drive in the country

The Western Cape of South Africa is a stunningly beautiful place. Where we live there are high mountains that meet the sea. I can see both mountains and oceans from my window while I’m working. However, there are also large flat areas that in spring have marvellous displays of wildflowers.

We recently took a drive to see what we coud find. We were a bit early in the season, but there was still some nice stuff around.

The first place we stopped was a small nature reserve. They had added the board walk since we were there last. Gorgeous Girl loved running on it.

I’m hoping that she will have her eyes open in the picture Gorgeous Man took, but I love this picture for the sheer joy it shows.

We then went to this flower reserve on a hill.

The view.

Gorgeous Girl loved the daisies -

and the bugs on them.

They were kind of cool.

I had my weigh in at the gym today. Weight loss is less than a kilo, so not worth mentioning, but I did make it onto the Curves “Wall of Fame” this month: 2 cms off waist, 2cms of thighs and 4cms off hips = 10 cms total loss. Now to get there more consistently next month and keep heading in the right direction.

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Dyeing

Yesterday I got together with Z and we began the process of dyeing the 10 kgs (22 pounds) of white combed fleece that we had ordered. It was my first dyeing experience and I had an absolute tonne of fun.

Z owned a yarn store for many years and specialised in hand-dyed yarns, so I really was priviliged to learn from a master.

We started off with the biggest bowl I’ve ever seen. Here’s the bowl half way through:

In the bowl are two balls of fleece that I was dyeing while wrapped in the ball. One turned out a beautiful purple and white with a range of shades of purple. The other we over-dyed again scarlet and blue and is just awesome. Also in the pot is a green being over-dyed.

We had a lovely sunny day for drying the fleece.

While I was there I took some pictures of Z’s latest WIP to show you. She is recreating her yarn store in miniature – on 12th scale. But that deserves a post all of its own.

I had to dash off before the fleece was dry as Gorgeous Man was helping out with a stand for the SABCA at Kirstenbosch Gardens in the afternoon. So I don’t have the fleece here to show you pictures of the entire batch.

I think all-up we ended up dyeing a kilo and a half. So a whole lot more dyeing and other colourways to try.

Just across from the butterfly display at the gardens were people promoting the reptile version of the butterfly project.

Gorgeous Girl was most taken with the Burmese python.

I’ve also added another row to the fish quilt, but won’t inflict row by row pictures on you.

Right now Gorgeous Girl is sleeping, so I’m going to try and sneak in my 10 minutes of spinning for the day and some knitting.

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Views around Cape Town

Most of the time when we drive into Cape Town, I lament the fact that I didn’t remember my camera as there are some stunning views to be had.

Cape  Town is a spectacularly beautiful city, and I feel very blessed to live here. Last week was my work’s Christmas Party at the Round House Restaurant in Camp’s Bay.

On the way, I managed to snap a shot of the clouds coming over Table Mountain. I love the way they kind of  ‘spill’ over the edge.

Once at the restaurant, we sat on comfy chairs under umbrellas and watched the sun set over the water.

Then we went and ate yummy food under sails.

When it got dark, and the moon was full, Gorgeous Man and I wandered past the main restaurant for the drive home.

Well Gorgeous Girl is fussing, so I’d better go and rustle up some dinner.

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