happy mail day

Yesterday an unexpected parcel arrived in the post. I was very curious when I recognised the name of the sender; why was I receiving a parcel from her? I hadn't entered any "soft and smooshy" give-away that I could remember.

Had she decided to contribute to the donations for Australian Inland Mission (one of the April Charities of the Month over at Knit4Charities)? That didn’t seem likely so I hurriedly opened the packet and read the enclosed letter.

Here’s what I received:

Thanks, Anorina, I love it – all the more because it was totally unexpected!

It’s almost too pretty to stick pins in!

a story of good intentions (part 1)

Hello! It’s been way too long. When I don’t write on my blog, it’s very easy to form a habit of not writing on my blog! Many times I have had a great idea for a blog post but somehow, I just didn’t get to it.

I was going to write on the first day of March about how February had been my month for getting projects finished. I had written earlier in February about my “feeling flat” and that my solution to this issue was to finish some UFOs. It occurred to me that there were just to many UFOs around, and that if something were to happen to me, DD would be stuck with the task of deciding whether to finish them or throw them out. Since she can’t bear waste, she would feel obliged to finish them. We don’t knit to the same gauge so finishing my knitting projects would be a challenge, which would be made even harder by the fact that I rarely use patterns either!

So, in February I got stuck into some of my UFOs and even managed to finish a couple. The quilt and the blanket I have already shown in a previous post. These socks were started on 11th January so they could only be described as UFOs because I got second sock syndrome and cast them aside for something new!
This shawl was a WIP rather than a UFO since Ravelry shows me that I only started it on 16th February!

I am easily distracted. We had a crochet workshop at the Knitters’ Guild in mid-February and I caught the bug again. I made a small baby rug from 200g of 8ply (DK) acrylic yarn in girlie colours. I thought it was too small to be useful and too heavy for a baby (I had forgotten that crochet consumes yarn much more voraciously than knitting!). But my worst crochet nightmare came back to haunt me – it would not lie flat. I talked to the tutor of the crochet workshop. I emailed a blog-friend who crochets (Hi, Maria). I took my completed work to the LYS and asked for help. I was encouraged to block it and try my next project with less chains in the corners.

And so, of course, I began another crochet project while WM and were away in mid-March visiting Taronga Western Plains Zoo (hopefully, I’ll write a post about that later). No matter what I did, the curling continued. The acrylic yarn felt stiff and hard and, ultimately, I decided to rip out both projects. Well, actually, DD ripped out the first one for me while I fixed a problem with her knitting, and the second one sits forlornly in the frogpond! Of course, no photos were taken before ripping the first one but here are two photos of the second attempt. The second photo shows the curling problem.

 

Then, I suddenly realised that the Charity of the Month (CotM) over at Knit4Charities was for NSW Women’s Refuges. My good intentions to finish my UFOs were waylaid by my good intentions to knit a few things for this charity. While watching Castle one evening, I became aware that slouch hats were in fashion with younger women and so I looked on Ravelry for some patterns. Here is 2yo Older Grandson modelling my first attempt on varying someone’s perfectly good pattern to suit myself!
You can read my comments about my attempt on my Ravelry projects page. I haven’t taken photos of my other hats and I need to get them in the post so I doubt you’ll see any more of them.

I plan to write the second half of this post soon, but you have already seen where my good intentions lead!

parcels arriving

As a member of Knit4Charities, I am again collecting warm clothing and accessories on behalf of Australian Inland Mission, an arm of the Presbyterian Church. The parcels have been steadily arriving since Wednesday 27th April. DD found a home for the parcels as they arrived and the pile has been steadily growing.

This is the space between a bookshelf and a set of drawers that was empty so that I could fit in another set of drawers.

In addition to this 180cm (6 feet) tower of parcels, I also have these three bags:

I have bought another set of drawers but assembly will have to wait - DD wants me to hold off opening these until she comes home from her trip north to see the in-laws!

ETA: This was supposed to post on Thursday but Blogger was having maintenance issues. On Friday I received three more parcels so the tower of parcels would be more like seven feet now! My thanks to all the contributors; it'll be like Christmas in May when we open them all.

the first of autumn

In Australia, our seasons change on the first of the month (not on the equinox as in some other countries). Today is the first day of autumn - not that it felt any different to yesterday with the temperature forecast about 32*C (92*F) with high humidity. Yet there is a promise of cooler weather ahead.

The organisation I collect knitted items for, Australian Inland Ministries, is the charity of the month in April on knit4charities, as is another event I support: Sydney's Homeless Connect Day. I'm knitting as fast as I can but, as you all know, it's never fast enough! I have revisited some long neglected projects and have knitted new ones. I only cast on a new project when I have completed a UFO so that means relatively monogamous knitting is happening here.

I am currently knitting from patterns. That is unusual for me as I either use my "go to" patterns (especially for beanies and socks) or design my own patterns. Out of curiosity, I typed "charity" into the search box on Ravelry's pattern page and was stunned to get a very large number of patterns in response! I also trawled my friends' projects/faves to add to my Ravelry queue which is now so long (for me) that I'll never knit everything that's on there!

So here are a couple of my recently finished projects:

The Campus Scarf (Ravelry Link) knitted in Moda Vera Cynthia on 4mm (US 6) needles. I modified this pattern to use only 30 stitches because 42 was too wide. My scarf is a little narrow but it's long so it can be wound around the wearer's neck twice for extra warmth.

I'm ashamed to admit it but I finally got around to putting the zipper in this Tomten jacket! How embarassing - I finished knitting this in 2009!

More about my other finshed projects when I have photos to show!

knitting for charity

warning: photo heavy post

In April, Australian Inland Ministries was one of the "Charities of the Month" for Yahoo group Knit4Charities. I was the collection point and from late April dozens of parcels arrived at my house. Yesterday was the final tally before I handed the donations over to my contact - I was sent an amazing 449 items! The photos below are a desperate attempt by DD and I to record all the donations.

beanies / hats

 more beanies / hats

still more beanies plus socks, sets, mitts, hair ties, a teddy and a square

 jumpers and cardigans (sweaters)

 still more jumpers and cardigans

scarves, wraps and blankets

I can take a deep breath now, finish putting my study back in order (there are still postpacks and boxes in here) and get back to my knitting.

The Sydney Homeless Connect Day is on Tuesday 8 June and more scarves are required so that's what I'm knitting at the moment. The one currently on my needles is knitted in Moda Vera Spell that I picked up at Spotlight sale a couple of years ago for $2 a ball. I am down to my last 150g. The scarf will be 150cm (60 inches) when I'm finished. I've already sent some beanies and have knitted this pair of fingerless mitts.

In June I will be knitting frantically to complete one more blanket (afghan) for Wrap with Love - that's 28 ten inch (25cm) squares knitted and sewn together. I designed this slipped stitch pattern for a workshop I was tutoring. So far I've done two squares (hey, that's six percent!)

K4C CotM April 2009

As a member of Knit4Charities [K4C], I had the privilege again this year of nominating Presbyterian Inland Mission as one of the Charities of the Month [CotM] for April. The P.I.M. was formerly known as Australian Inland Mission and was founded by John Flynn who also founded the Flying Doctor Service.

It was such fun when the parcels start arriving. I saved them up, DD came to visit and we opened them all and set them up to take photos. We counted all the items and re-packaged them ready to deliver to my contact who is also a member of the Blue Mountains branch of the Knitters' Guild of NSW.

This year we collected 209 items. My contact commented that she was surprised there were so many; she thought every one was knitting for the bushfire victims. So, thank you to my fellow members of K4C, Wendy [a non-member], my mum and DD - the donations were gratefully received and will soon be distributed to Aboriginal communities around the nation.

Here then, for your viewing pleasure:
the beanies, mitts, socks and scarves [and a lone knee rug]

the cardigans and jumpers [sweaters for my US friends]

and the other items that arrived after our first photography session!

I am looking forward to doing it all again next year. There truly is a blessing in giving!