Tuesday 31 May 2011

Stash and ufos

Bringing my stash of knitting wools into the open is making me feel guilty, especially as I now need to buy some more of a particular nightshade coolour for the cardigan I'm working on.



I also came across an unfinished object - a scarf from several years ago which could be unpulled. It is too scratchy for a scarf.  Now what will I make from it?

Time to light the fire





Sunday 29 May 2011

May-be Jacket

I have started knitting up a cardigan pattern from the Simply Beautiful Sweaters book. I'm hoping it will be more of a jacket than a cardy. So far there are stripes in four different textures/colours, but I'm thinking about adding a feature stripe in a contrasting colour. Green? Hmmm. The hydrangeas get away with it, but I don't wear them.

Having my sister staying for a week was an opportunity to visit a few local places I hadn't been to before. It was great to find that there are two more local shops that stock gorgeous yarns including Touch Yarns, Rare Yarns and Noro. The Woollen Mill shop at the Agrodome is where I got the black and grape wools to match up with the hank of hand-dyed boucle that I had in my stash for a over a year. Then we visited the patchwork shop in Ngongotaha, Cottage Flair. Not a shop I'd ususally go to, but they have a lovely range of yarns. 

This on top of finding that Creative Yarns and Knits have opened a Rotorua branch of their Tauranga shop. Pretty exciting I thought. That is where the boucle came from.





Wednesday 25 May 2011

The Misses Cluck

My chooks are in residence in the coop. Edna is a White Sussex, Madge is an Araucana. Madge's eggs - when she gets around to laying - will be blue or pale green. Neither of these girls have started to lay yet. I can't wait.




Friday 13 May 2011

What to do with empty plastic bags?

Friday was for fun-with-feijoas, and clearing up the autumn leaves. Pottering in the garden inpired my choice of fabric for this bag.

Fueled by slices of feijoa and coconut cake, I made lots of jars of Feijoa Chutney made from Digby Law's recipe which is on the feijoafeijoa website. This chutney needs to mature a bit. I added a green chilli so I hope it will have a good bite.

I made a bag to hold those plastic bags that I never have enough of these days. It hangs of the back of the pantry door and sits flat. The fabric is from a very long kimono style robe I got years ago in Singapore. I think now the robe is shorter I might actually use it, so that is a bonus.









Tuesday 10 May 2011

Hoi An, Vietnam

The Hoi An Photo Tour run by Etienne has made it to No 2 for activities in Hoi An in Trip Advisor. This tour was a highlight of my week in Hoi An back in November. Etienne really helped me to understand a little about using the camera I bought in Hong Kong - a Canon Powershot S95 (read review here).








I thought I'd post a few of the pictures I took that morning. The full album can be viewed on Picasa here

Tuesday 3 May 2011

Feijoa glut



Feijoas were a treat from the supermarket when I lived in Dunedin. So it is bliss to have a tree in the front garden. High winds this week and they have all fallen to the ground - what to do? Well, feijoa sauce for a start. Next I'm going to try this recipe for Gorgeous feijoa almond cake. The neigbours have just dropped off a bag of limes, so watch this space.

Monday 2 May 2011

The coop arrives at Cooper Ave







So, hello possums! Here is the chicken house, future home of Edna and Madge. And here too is Little Coop, alias Eva, riding her bike along to the playgound by the lake.

I bought the netting and the wheels and the rest of the coop is from bits that Tom had lying around. Right, Tom made it. I have to say my workshop (the garage) is not up to jobs like this - not to mention my skills.

Now I'm on the look out for a couple of laying hens, and I guess a few tools for the job, like bales of straw, gumboots and a shovel. And a basket for collecting the eggs of course - talk about jumping ahead, eh.