Market Bag

Last week I discovered that there is a yarn shop in walking distance of my workplace... Of course I had to check it out!



It's a lovely little shop called Teekays Yarns and as it happens they had a Mother's Day Sale on, so how could I not buy any yarn!



I chose this gorgeous Italian yarn called Geilsk Sommer - it's a mix of cotton, ramie and hemp. I needed a short break from the diamonds, so decided on a quick project: a market bag. I found the pattern on Ravelry, it's called the Carry Me Away Market Bag, designed by Yasmin Gamal.



The bag is crocheted with 2 strands of yarn. I had to go back to the shop for one more ball of mustard and two black ones for the top and the handles.



Very happy with my new bag. I've been wanting for weeks to visit the Farmers Market that is on every Sunday at our local park - this Sunday I will definitely do so!

Adding background to the Lone Star

Here's another update to the state of affairs regarding the Lone Star blanket. I've added the background to one corner now, and this is what it currently looks like: a shooting star!



I'm now up to 190 diamonds: 150 in the star and 40 in the background. Only another 200 or so to go...



I've been working on it (off and on) for two months now and still not getting tired of it. However, I have bought some yarn for my next project:



I decided to not go with my favourite blues for once, but to pick a red/orange/yellow palette. I have an idea about what I want to do, just need to figure out how...

I'll leave you with a pic of our adorable Barney, taken just after he had had a bath:



:-)

Urchins

This morning I hopped on my bike and rode to Surfers Paradise to check out the Urchins.



The Urchins are two large crocheted sculptures, designed by Choi+Shine Architects and made by 80 Australian crocheters. They are part of the Festival 2018 that is currently held at the Gold Coast as part of the 21st Commonwealth Games.



I first heard about the Urchins when a crochet blogger that I follow, Snakewood and Grace, announced on her Facebook page that she had been asked to contribute to this project and shared the process of making parts of the Urchins. They are made of 3mm nylon cord - it's called extreme crochet!





The installation can be viewed in Appel Park in Surfers Paradise until Sunday 15 April.



I was very impressed and can recommend a visit if you are in the area!



Meanwhile my own crochet project, the Lone Star Blanket, is slowly growing:



I am crocheting a lot while watching the gymnastics at the Games - mostly on tv, but I also made two diamonds at the Coomera Indoor Sports Centre, where oldest son and I watched the men's qualifications and team final on Thursday:



(This was during the break between subdivision 1 and 2 - there was no arm room to crochet when the competition was on!)

Easter

How was your Easter weekend? Mine was perfect - my yarn arrived on Thursday, so I spent a lot of time crocheting diamonds, while listening to an audiobook or watching Netflix (got through series 1 of Victoria over the weekend!)



I made twenty-three background diamonds - only 157 to go! (or more if I want the blanket to be rectangular instad of square...)



It was wonderful to have a break after the hectic first term of the year, settling in our new home. We are very happy here on the Gold Coast but it has been exhausting; new jobs, new schools, new clubs, finding our way around, making new friends. Especially doing all that for the second time in just over a year...

However, we didn't just stay at home and relax - we decided to explore some of the beautiful Gold Coast Hinterland and went to Mount Tambourine on Sunday and to Springwood National Park on Monday. There we did the 4k hike to the bottom of the Purling Brook Falls - it was very muddy and slippery after all the rain we've had, but well worth the effort!



You can find some more pics on my photo blog.
My youngest son has taken possession of my old DSLR and brought it along as well. Love this photo my husband took of the two photographers in the family :-)