Yarn Along

I apologise profusely to those who left comments last week and haven't received comments on their own blogs in return! You see, in New Zealand when my Yarn Along posts go up, it's actually Thursday here. And on Thursday evening, when I planned to check in and catch up we were hit with a monstrous storm. Worst in 45 years, with wind gusts recorded of 200 kms an hour. We were battening down the hatches and as the lights flickered we ran to collect a torch or two, just in case... just in time. With that, the power went out. Luckily, we have a wood fire and I had a fully charged laptop, so whilst others wondered what to do (it was only about 7:30pm, but it's winter here in NZ, it was dark and cold and scary sounding outside), I sat down with a cuppa tea with water boiled on the wood burner, the laptop playing a DVD of Downton Abbey and knitted by candle light.

I snapped a quick photo on my phone, this shows my current WIP

 

It's all about priorities right?

 

Truth be told, I should've been a little more forward thinking. The next morning we still had no power or phone, I'd used up all the bandwidth on my phone plan checking on others online and sharing photos in my knitting page on Facebook, all the battery on my cell phone and couldn't recharge it on the laptop because I'd bled it's battery dry watching 2 episodes of Downton! Luckily we had power back later on Friday, the phone was finally reconnected on Sunday.

 

I wish I had photos of our trampoline, because it looks more cave now like than trampoline. The storm produced some pretty significant damage, but there were no fatalities, luckily. The trains should be up and running tomorrow again and hopefully all will have power restored by the end of the week, though most do already.

 

 

Last week I also showed you a Hoodlum I'd almost finished. I've completed it now and so I took a few photos of it modelled by my daughter on the weekend. I love it to bits! I wasn't sure I'd like it as it is so bright, but it's just perfect! Don't you think?

 

 

And reading - well, as I was last week, I'm still listening to 'House Rules' by Jodi Picoult and I'm still really enjoying it! The simplified web synopsis is:  

HOUSE RULES is about Jacob Hunt, a teenage boy with Asperger’s Syndrome. He’s hopeless at reading social cues or expressing himself well to others, and like many kids with AS, Jacob has a special focus on one subject – in his case, forensic analysis.

Thanks for yarn-ing along! How's the weather at your place?

I promise to catch up with all comments this week too!

xx

j-j

Yarning Along

Here we are! Must be Wednesday again! Time for an update on what's on my needles and what I'm reading at the moment..

Knitting wise, I'm so so close to finishing the Little Hoodlum I'm knitting for my 6 year old daughter. She chose the yarn, which I never envisioned being a Hoodlum, but as I'm knitting this it's reminding me of a 90's garment, maybe a brightly coloured surfie style hoodie. I'm playing a bit of yardage chicken with the hood, so as soon as the main colour is used up I'll be kitchenering the top.

Maybe I'll have finished pics next week, hopefully! The weather really is not any good for taking outside photos today though. I did plan to go outside or at least snap some great natural light photos. These gloomy pics were taken at midday today. There's a cold front on it's way up the country and it's been cloudy here all day. We can normally see the sea from this window (see the double rainbow I took from the same spot earlier this week HERE) but today we can barely see the houses across the road!

And the book. I finished 'The Persimmon Tree' by Bryce Courteney this week and would thoroughly recommend it, especially listening to it as an audiobook. It was fabulous, I only wished there was another chapter at the end. I have heard there is a sequel 'Fishing For Stars' but the reviews are that it's drawn out and rather boring in parts so I'm not sure I want to go there.  I have this frustrating habit of needing to finish things even if I don't enjoy them anymore and don't want to get trapped reading it. Has anyone read 'Fishing for Stars'? Let me know your thoughts if you have?!

I've started reading listening to  'House Rules' now by Jodi Picoult. I love Jodi Picoult and I'm only a chapter or two in at the moment but I'm really enjoying it. The blurb says it's about a teenage boy with aspergers and a fixation on forensics who gets mixed up in a murder. I can't wait to get to the nitty-gritty!

 

Thanks for stopping by! I'd love you to leave a comment and I promise to pop by your blog and leave a comment too!

 

xx

 

Julia

Double Rainbows and yes, yet more talk of knitting!

We see a lot of rainbows where we live now. I think there have probably always been the same number of rainbows, but in our new house within the same area, we have a sea view and a stunning outlook - it's something we don't take for granted after years of feeling a little overlooked and hemmed in.

We've been experiencing rainbows pretty much every day this week, the combination of drizzly rain and sunshine is perfect for them isn't it? But there was a stunner on Friday, this picture can't even come close to how amazing it was as about a minute after taking this, it transformed into a complete rainbow with the lighter double rainbow outlining it. There was just no way to capture it in a picture though, it was just too huge and too close. So you'll just have to take my word for it!

I realised too late this week that I hadn't mentioned my KAL (knit-along) over on Ravelry HERE yet either. Everyone is welcome to join in (or just use the discount code ;) ) to knit any of my patterns during June. I know, I know, it doesn't leave people who are just finding out now much time! But there are smaller projects still eligible to be entered in the draw to win a prize - maybe just a dishcloth! And prizes for just loading a WIP (work in progress) picture too. I always welcome old WIP's too, the thought of languishing projects really upsets my just one WIP OCD!

Happy Knitting! Enjoy what's left of your weekend.

xx

Julia

Tidying Up Loose Ends

I hate things like sewing on buttons and weaving in ends. That could be why I'm completely in love with seamless knitting and why there are so many people knitting these days with so many fabulous seamless patterns to chose from!

Anyway, this poor neglected Primrose has been finished since last year but it took me forever to sew the buttons on and then even longer to finally get around to photographing it. It's been sitting in a 'to-do' pile sadly! But I finally got around to popping it on my Penny and taking a few photos this week! And it was well worth the wait and perfect for those just going into Summer in the Northern Hemisphere.

 

Whilst I'm sharing things I've finished lately, I also finished my first 'knitted by me, for me' socks. Love them!

 

Have you got a long unfinished WIP or not quite ready for wearing FO on your 'to do' pile? Maybe tonight's the night to weave in those ends or sew on your buttons!