Crocheting and knitting...

Last week I bought this nifty blocking board on Etsy and blocked all remaining squares for my Sea Colours blanket at once! Now I'm sewing them together, which isn't as much fun as making them was..



I've also made some progress on the 2017 Sydney Temperature Scarf. The first 8 months of the year are done, and the scarf now measures 119 cm:



I'm still a bit obsessed with crochet, and looking for crochet bloggers to follow. I would like to do a CAL (crochet along) - if you know of any that are about to start please leave a comment!

Current projects

After being away in Europe for the whole month of July, I finally found time to bring my 2017 Sydney Temperature Scarf somewhat up to date. I made it to July 16th before running out of yellow yarn (for days with a maximum temperature between 15 and 20 degrees Celsius). Now I have to wait until the new yarn that I ordered online arrives...

The scarf is almost one metre long now, with 6.5 months done, so the completed scarf will be almost two metres!



Meanwhile I've also made a start on my crochet baby blanket in sea colours - here are the first two squares!

My First Socks

Today was a dreary, miserable day here in Sydney (oh, how we miss Brisbane...), which meant that a lot of knitting was done. See here the result: I finished my first pair of socks!!!



I love them, they look great and they are so comfy!
I found the pattern (Basic Ribbed Socks by Kate Atherley, a free Ravelry download) very easy to follow and the yarn (Zitron Trekking XXL) a pleasure to work with.
And I had a ball making photos of the socks while wearing them!



Of course I have already started on a new project: a white cabled scarf, to go with my new black winter coat. The pattern is the popular Irish Hiking Scarf by Adrian Bizilia, also a free Ravelry download (gotta love Ravelry!) The yarn is a lovely soft merino from The Australian Wool Store on Etsy.



And here is the Sydney Temperature Scarf with the month of May added - which had the first day this year where the maximum temperature did not reach 15 degrees Celsius:

Socks

After knitting two pairs of gloves in the round, I felt I was ready to tackle socks. So when I read about this gorgeous self-striping yarn (Trekking XXL by Zitron) on one of my favourite knitting blogs (in Dutch, but worth checking out), I decided to give it a go. I ordered the yarn, bought a set of 2.75 mm dpns, and found a free Ravelry pattern that looked doable (Basic Ribbed Socks by Kate Atherley). The first sock is almost finished now, and I'm surprised at how much I am enjoying it!



The Sydney Temperature Scarf is also growing, and as you can see it's finally getting colder (yellow means 15-20 degrees Celsius):



Exactly ten years ago, on May 15th 2007, I started this blog. We had arrived in Brisbane only a few weeks earlier, I had been making quilts for less than a year and was waiting for my sewing machine to arrive from the Netherlands. In that first post I talked about an alphabet quilt I wanted to make for my boys - that quilt got made eventually (in 2011, and not with paper-pieced blocks as I had originally intended but with Spoonflower swatches of my calligram designs), as did lots of other quilts. Lately it's mainly been knitting, as I seem to have lost my quilting mojo a bit, but I'm sure I'll get it back at some point.

I have enjoyed the journey so far and I hope you have enjoyed reading about it. I plan to keep blogging, if only for myself, as I like having this online journal of my creative endeavours. To be continued!

EXTERMIKNIT!

When I saw the pattern for these Dalek Gloves on Etsy, I just knew I had to make them for my youngest son, who is a big fan of Doctor Who (I've made him a Tardis bow tie and a Doctor Who Cushion before).



It was my first project on four needles and a bit of a struggle at first...



But I managed it. There are a few mistakes, but luckily the recipient doesn't mind at all ;-)



Now that I have mastered knitting on four needles I may try to make some socks...



Meanwhile the Sydney Temperature Scarf is growing - I have finished February, which saw the first (and so far the only) day with a maximum temperature below 20 degrees Celsius (68 Fahrenheit) - the yellow row.

Sydney Temperature Scarf

I'm a little bit obsessed with knitting at the moment and keep surfing Ravelry, looking for interesting patterns. One thing that caught my eye the other day was the Temperature Scarf. The original designer, as far as I can tell, was Kristen Cooper, back in 2013, but many knitters and crocheters have taken the idea and run with it, making scarfs, cowls, throws, blankets and pillows.



The concept really appeals to me and I have decided to do a Sydney Temperature Scarf for 2017 with - very appropriately -  '4 seasons' yarn (pure wool 8ply). Using the Australian Bureau of Meteorology data (highest daily temperature recorded in Terrey Hills, our nearest weather station) and designating a colour for every 5-degree interval between 10 and 40 degrees Celsius, I have so far finished the month of January:



As you can see it was a pretty hot month - there was one day above 40 degrees Celsius  (104 Fahrenheit - burgundy), and quite a few in the 35-40 interval (rust). February was also hot, but also had the first day of the year when the maximum temperature didn't reach 20 degrees (yellow).

Gradually there will be more yellow and cream in the scarf - I don't expect I will have to use the white yarn (Sydney has rather mild winters) , but who knows...

Not sure yet if, once I've caught up to the present day, I will knit 2 rows of garter stitch daily or do a week or a month at a time. We'll see. I'll show my progress here from time to time.