Silks in Hoi An

Another collage. It seems more economical to post pictures this way, but even I think I have been overdoing it lately. Well, one more - this time showing the gorgeous silks of Hoi An in central Vietnam. I'd love to have brought back some lanterns.

Simple pleasures

Making bread for lunch, waiting for the broccolini and silverbeet to grow...

Yarn to dye (four)

 

I have started to make myself a stripey cardigan based around a skein of hand-dyed wool that I bought at Creative Outlets in Tauranga a year or so ago. The skein is not going to be enough, so I popped over the shop last week and bought some boucle from the bargain bin, dyed in pale pinks and yellows. Into the sink with it. Then spread onto gladwrap and out with the drinking straws which served nicely to drip wine and black dye at random. A zap in the microwave...

Well, after drying it turned out the colour wasn't quite right, so back into a another dye bath with a purple. Too much! Rinsed most out before another bit of zapping to set the colour.  The final result is close enough, is what I'm hoping. Some stripes here and there, and it should meld in nicely with the other yarns.

Central Markets, Siem Reap

Just because I like to think about life beyond home in Rotorua (especially when it is raining), for you today I have selected some pictures I took in the markets in Siem Reap. I love the bags made from recycled sacks. The t-shirts are pretty cool too.

On the loose

 

Madge and Edna enjoying an afternoon on the lawn

I have worked out that I can let the hens out to scritch and scavenge. So far they have returned daintily to their house on being bribed by a handful of pellets.  

Party gal

You can't turn one without cupcakes!

 

Annie Jean turned one last week. My first ever bit of baby knitting can now be unveiled. 

I made the pink/red jacket first, but it had so many mistakes that it became just a prototype. It took quite a lot of unpicking and researching online to make any sense of the pithy pattern instructions. Frustrating, but I was not to be beaten. My second attempt is so much better. The pattern is from Elizabeth Zimmerman's Almanac and is called Baby Sweater on Two Needles, also known as the February Baby Sweater. Fit-wise it works, despite my fears it would be too small. My version of the pattern is short in the arms, but that turns out to be quite practical for a busy wee girl intent on exploring every little thing in her world. The colour looks gorgeous on her.

(not-a-bit bored) walk

Not long to the winter solstice, but still these lovely mild days.

Collecting shell grit for the chooks was a good excuse for a coffee at the beach. So off to Mt Maunganui for the afternoon. The walk around Mauao is closed because slips took out the path last month.