Hydrangeas for mother

Tags

Mother's Day

It’s Mother’s Day in New Zealand on Sunday.

My beautiful daughter organised a very surprise bunch of flowers for me today on behalf of all three of my children.  Aren’t they lovely?  Winter hydrangeas.  Quite a different shade to summer!

I’m a lucky mum.

The hydrangeas have much meaning for me.  They were the flower I used to see as a child when we visited New Zealand in early summer.  My grandmother had an enormous hydrangea bush with huge heads of vibrant blue/purple flowers on it.  I loved to look at them. I still think of her when I see hydrangeas.  And my daughter remembered this, and got me hydrangeas.

All she wants to do is knit

Tags

Knitting, WIPs

All that yarny excitement of the past week has spawned a small tidal wave of new projects.  I can’t seem to stop casting on!!

That’s three sweaters, a pair of socks and a new design hat in my WIP basket. You’ll be pleased to see I’m making use of some of my newly acquired stash already.  That lovely orange (it’s not quite as bright in real life) is the yarn I picked up from Travelling Threads at the Creative Fibre Festival.  Eric needs a new hat and mittens.

The red project is the beginnings of Irish Moss by Alice Starmore.  I think it’s coming on nicely, but I won’t say much more about it just yet.

This is almost all of one sweater.  It won’t fit in the basket.

One giant-man-sized sweater almost done for my brother-in-law.  I figure that now the weather has decided to start cooling down he’ll need it fairly soon.

You might be wondering how the pattern writing is coming on for Tidal.  It’s not too far away.  I’m going to satisfy my OCD tendencies and test knit another version to make sure the pattern is right before I release it.

It’s a glorious afternoon, and best of all, there was a frost this morning!!!!  Ah, sweet relief, it’s finally becoming cooler.  On that note, I shall potter off and quickly mow the lawns before we lose the light.  One must make the best of good weather when it is here!

A grand week

Tags

Anna Gratton, craft market, Fibre Alive, Happy go Knitty, Knitting, Little Wool Co., New Zealand wool, Verandah Yarns, Wellington, Wellington Underground Market, Wonders of Wool, Wool

Wonders of Wool was great!!

This is some of my haul:

The rest of what you don’t see is a super amount of naturally coloured 100% wool  from Anna Gratton’s Little Wool Co.  For gorgeous sweaters that will keep me and my family warm.  You’ll see more of it when I start to knit it shortly.

Let us examine some of this yarny happiness in more detail shall we?

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you may remember the sad day when I told you that James of Fibre Alive had decided to stop dyeing yarn.  So yes, your eyes do not deceive you – I was so happy to see James at the market!!

After a break and a rest, James has decided to make a return to his love of dyeing, albeit in a smaller scale.  He has also added another base to his yarn selections!  And as of today, he has reopened his online store!!  Woohoo!!!  Happy jigs happening at this end.  I’m so happy I can once again enjoy his wonderful talent.

Of course, I had to replenish my stock of Happy-go-knitty yarn.  Especially self-striping loveliness!

I also was delighted to finally meet Sally of Verandah Yarns in person, and to acquire some of her gorgeous colourways.  So pretty, I’m thinking I should do a shawl with the yarn and not socks.  She manages to achieve a striking depth to her colours.  Quite masterful.

And finally, more lovelies from Anna Gratton.  I think I could have bought ALL her stock… but one must spread the budget around, and share nicely with other knitters…

The colour transitions in this hank of Little Wool Co. merino/mohair make my heart go bumpty-bump extra fast.

Alice made me buy this one (hehe, blame the co-shopper!)  Actually, I’ve had Lime lust for a while, especially after I saw her Wholehearted shawl in the same colourway.  

I didn’t think that a week could get much better when it was topped and tailed with a woolfest at each end.

What I didn’t count on was the wonderful people I would catch up with and meet, who turned the events not just into an occasion to add to my stash but something very special indeed.  We often talk about how knitting brings people together.  This week was very much an illustration of that point for me.

I’m going to be smiling for a while.  

Tidal

Tags

Anna Gratton, free pattern, hat, Knitting, New Zealand yarn, Wellington Underground Market, Wonders of Wool, Wool

It seems that this week is hat week!

Inspired by the gorgeous chocolate wool I used for the ribbed beanie, I decided to knit another in DK weight yarn this time.

I finished it last night.

This one is called Tidal.  The undulating twisted stitches remind me of how the exposed seabed looks at low tide.  Knitted in Anna Gratton’s Little Wool Co. DK pure wool naturals in the natural dark chocolate colour, Peat.

I really like it.  It does all the right things for me – looks good on my head, covers the ears and keeps the neck warm, and it’s not too tight and not too loose.   And there is just the right amount of patterning on the hat to suit my sensibilities.

I’m hoping to have the pattern ready in time to have a hard copy at Anna Gratton’s stall at the Wonders of Wool market, but no promises.  If it is, it will be free with yarn purchase (there will be 100g skeins of natural DK yarn as well this time).

In any event, the pattern will be available for download from my blog within the week.