Crochet cowl (16/52)

I recently finished crocheting a new cowl, I don't need another one. However I'm fairly sure that you can never have too many! I made it using the wool that I spun back here.

I didn't have a pattern and with only 100g of wool I knew I needed to crochet something quite open otherwise it was not going to go very far, the plus side of that is it crochets up quite quickly.

It tones in perfectly with the colours in my garden don't you think?The bright pink leaves belong to a type of Coleus I think, but I'm unable to find a picture that quite matches it. Many years ago my Nana gave me a bouquet of flowers from her garden with a few pieces of this amazingly, almost unnaturally coloured plant in it. It's the sort of plant that obviously grows quite easily from cuttings as it took root in the vase, not one to waste such and opportunity. I popped them in the garden and they flourished! Isn't it an amazing colour? Nature is amazing!

Thrift Tuesday

Thrift Tuesday, could that be a thing? I'm not sure I've got the dedication to make it a regular feature but I've been missing the Op shop show-off a wee bit and I do have some thrifty finds and tips to share!

I've been mending so many things lately and I just decided to keep and eye out for a darning mushroom and boom! There was one tucked away in a local thrift store that I seldom visit these days. A bargain at just 50c. It's perfectly aged, I love all the scratches on the top, evidence of many a sock being darned on it.

I'm a total sucker for wooden beads and buttons, normally it's the natural ones that really catch my eye, but this time it was the floral poker-work on a few that made me buy the small bag of beads! It works out well as my daughter is in love with the brightly coloured ones and is already talking about the necklace she wants to make.

These fabulous finds are sitting on another recent thrifty purchase a linen tablecloth in just my most favourite shade of green! I couldn't believe my luck!

Would you link in to a Thrift Tuesday linky? Perhaps I could motivate myself to make it a "thing" if you do! 

Hopping along (15/52)

My daughter is in the last few weeks of being a Brownie, next term she will be a Girl Guide. We are busily finishing off a few clauses for the last couple of patches she wants to complete before moving up.

One of the clauses was to have a family member teach you a new skill to make a toy, it could be sewing, knitting, woodwork etc. We started with knitting and quickly realised that this wasn't going to be as easy as I thought despite finding an easy garter stitch dog pattern (remember knitting isn't really a strong skill of mine!). So sewing it was!

We had so much fun making these little bunnies, we raided my stash of eyes and were both surprised how different they looked with just changing the eyes. We sat together chatting and stitching, it seems we don't spend enough time doing that.

We stuffed them with left over wool scraps, talking about how much better that was than going out to buy a bag a fibre-fill. I'm hoping those little thrifty moments will have a life long impact on her thinking. Making something with what you have (we talked about how we could have embroidered the eyes if we didn't have any bought ones at hand), passing on skills and having fun together. All things that don't cost a great deal.

I think I need to make it more of a regular thing.

Guava love (14/52)

Just the thought of Guavas conjures up lots of magical childhood memories. We had a Guava tree in our backyard and visits to my Grandparents meant lashings of Guava jelly. What the Guava jelly was served on I can't quite recall, but that tart but sweet flavour is like a window into my past. I also remember being fascinated by the jars sealed with wax and cellophane.

A few years ago I put in a couple of red Guava trees in our garden, this is the first year that we've had enough fruit to actually make a decent amount of jelly. Three jars, and it's absolutely perfect! It teams up well with fresh pikelets! 

Do you have magical childhood food memories?

Kintted (13/52)

 A few months ago my husband bought a large bag of T-shirt rags from our local recycled clothing shop. It seemed we couldn't supply enough rags ourselves to keep up with his demand for them, so for a few dollars we had a giant bag of them. More than he needed so I went through and picked out some coloured ones that caught my eye, leaving him with the copious amounts of black ones to wipe up greasy car oil.

A few evenings were spent cutting them into strips, the perfect mindless activity to accompany some television time. I had some plans to crochet the strips into baskets, but in the end a new bath mat was knitted up instead. Knitting skills are seriously lacking here, it's garter stitch or nothing! I do quite like those rows of wavy garter stitch though.

There might be a few more colourful T-shirts disappearing from my husband's stash! I hope he doesn't notice.

Woolfest (12/52)

A few weekends ago I had the pleasure of attending the Auckland Woolfest with a couple of lovely blogging friends (thanks for the ride Leonie!). The weather was particularly nasty but we landed a perfect park right out the front and of course the cold makes for perfect wool/fibre buying weather.

I set off with a buying list in my mind, and a cash budget, fibre for spinning was at the top of the list. I am happy to report that I picked up everything I was looking for as well as a few things I didn't even know I needed!

This fibre "Gone bush" from Fibre 2 Go was spun up pretty quickly, I've got a small shawl like scarf in mind for the finished yarn, which I hope will crochet up as quickly as the fibre was spun.

Woolfest was a bit like being a kid in a candy store! So much colourful squishy goodness it was hard not to give it all a hug! I'll share more of my purchases over the coming months as I spin them up! Spinning seems the perfect way to spend these cooler evenings.

While taking the yarn photos I've discovered the little mossy world that is my BBQ table. It might need a sand and a coat of oil before the Summer!

Always changing

One of our favourite places to visit is the Auckland Botanic Gardens, it's free (if we can dodge the cafe!), local and ever changing. It seems that every we visit there is something new to see, new flowers, new plantings and foliage. As long as we visit the childrens' garden first we are free to explore the rest of the gardens at leisure.

We recently took some overseas visitors with us, I was blown away by all the blue flowers, I don't think I've ever seen so many different types of blue flowers in one place. The place was teaming with bees and bumble bees, busily going about their pollination duties.