Last day of Winter

I'm going to miss Winter. Here in Melbourne we had a very mild Winter with record breaking warmer weather. One of the things I love about Melbourne is the distinct seasons that we have. You won't see me holidaying in Queensland to escape the Melbourne Winter.  I love to rug up, don the shawls, scarves, mittens and the occasional hat. Everyone is still busy with their daily schedules but Winter is a season for more home time especially in the evenings, chatting around the fire, watching movies together as a family and hearty comfort food. Life stands a little stiller in Winter. I hope there are some more days to wear my yarn lovelies. I'm not ready to push them deeper into the wardrobe yet.

I recently took Stephen West's Shawlscapes class where he suggested we neatly fold all our shawls and put them on the mantle to admire. Now that's an idea! I share his passion for yarn and handknits and that they don't need to be worn to look lovely. Colour, line, shape, texture, these are little works of art.

My husband suggested that I was taking photographic evidence that I do actually fold these shawls neatly to put away but really I was trying to stop Princess Belle from claiming them as her own and in the process I now have piles of neatly folded shawls ready for the mantle!

As you can see she is persistant.

Cheers,
Lynda

Moonlit Conservation Sanctuary

Hubby and I had a lovely few hours walking through Moonlit Conservation Sanctuary recently. We took a picnic lunch and sat on the park bench and enjoyed a relaxed time among the animals. We purchased some special food to hand feed the wallabies and kangaroos. Some of the animals are in enclosures and many roam free so you can have a very up close interaction with a variety of animals. We enjoyed watching the frogmouths being hand fed and listening to the calls of the barking owls. The staff gave great talks on the dingoes, koalas, frogmouths and reptiles.

Dingoes

Swamp wallaby and baby

Tawny Frogmouth

Cape Barren Goose

Eastern Grey Kangaroos

Koala

Wombat

Unlike a zoo, this place has all native Australian animals. It's hard to look past the koalas and kangaroos but the Cape Baren Goose looks just like he is off for a walk in his gumboots.

Cheers,
Lynda

  

A Birthday Wish

"May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself." Neil Gaiman

I love this quote and it seems very appropriate for your birthday wish from all of us.

Cheers to you!

Love always,

Lynda

More holiday photos

Here are some more holiday snaps taken around Lakes Entrance.



Typical Aussie bush tracks

Colquhoun State Forest
White Stringbark and Silvertop Ash
 



Hubby standing by the 'danger' sign at the Stony Creek Trestle Bridge

Australian Black Swan
 

Raymond Island Ferry





This Raymond Island Ferry is one of my favourite snaps because it depicts a very common scene here in Australia. A family (not mine) eating fish and chips out of the paper spread open on a park bench and people lining the pier with fishing rods hoping for a catch, the gum trees, land surrounded by water, it's very Aussie. We were sitting in the car eating a meat pie and watching the goings on around us, also very Aussie!

Cheers,
Lynda

Time out

Last week hubby and I took some time out and went on a short vacation to Lakes Entrance. It's about three and half hours drive from home. The accommodation I chose was great and right on the esplanade so the views across the water from our room were very lovely. Being a seaside town everything revolves around the water but we also took in the sights around the area including a drive through the forest to see the Stony Creek Trestle Bridge, The Wyunga Park Winery, Nyerimilang Heritage Park and other local attractions. It was very serene and restful down in East Gippsland

Looking back to the hotel from the pier

Our accommodation, Bellevue on the Lakes

Sunset over the water, it was like a Summer's evening

Pelicans coming in to roost for the night

We had a lovely time away and I can't wait to plan our next trip.

Cheers,

Lynda

A memory blanket

When my mother died I kept her wool sweaters with the thought of felting them and making something as a keepsake out of the felted fabric. It took a long time before I could bring them out and felt them and even longer until I was finally able to do something with them. She was such a tiny lady and her sweaters were very small. To be able to use colours that went together and have enough squares to make a blanket of a usable size I added one of my wool jumpers to the mix. I left out some of the colours that didn't fit for another project.

To utilise as much of the wool fabric as possible I cut squares and rectangles. I  sewed them randomly together as I had varying numbers of the different coloured squares and placing them in a pattern or keeping the colours separate wasn't an option.

It's not finished yet but all the pieces have been pieced together.

Now I need to consider how to finish off the back and edging. That's for another day!

Cheers,
Lynds

The Lorelei Shawl

Oh what a lovely project this was to crochet. The pattern is the Lorelei Shawl by Kimberly McAlindin and  the yarn I used is Moda Vera Bouvardia in the colourway Blue Mix. I was drawn to the lovely long colour runs in this yarn. The colours are beautiful and there is enough wool in the mix to make it a nice yarn to work with and especially nice to wear.

It was good to mix it up a bit and do some crochet work. I don't do that very often but this pattern appealled to me and reminded me of the crochet shawls from years ago. It was very quick to make as the main motif is about 15 cms across. The overall size of the shawl/scarf is large. It's warm, soft and squishy and perfect for this time of year in Melbourne. It worked up very fast and the only hassle was weaving in the ends that I didn't weave in during the construction part.

It is toasty warm to double over and use as a lap blanket. I've been doing that every night since I finished it.

Cheers,
Lynda

Windward

This pattern by Heidi Kirrmaier  is one of my very favourites. For some reason it evokes special memories for me. I don't know if it was the yarn, the colour, the pattern or all of that but it was always very enjoyable to work on this project. I love the ragged edges and although I am usually ordered in my psyche and have a passion for things to be neat and even the weirdness of this pattern is what drew me to it. A clever construction and interesting to knit.

The yarn is from Moseley Park and it's a wool and bamboo sock yarn which gives beautiful drape to the scarf. I chose the colour with the thought of the rough, ragged cliff faces around some of Australia's coastline. The asymmetrical and ragged edges of this pattern bring to mind the very scenic rugged sandstone cliffs that yield to the forces of the ocean creating spectacular jagged rock formations.

It is also at home here among the Autumn leaves.

What to knit now? So many choices!

Cheers,
Lynda