Seasonal knitting

Hi, this is bit of an up-date of what I have been knitting (or actually mostly crocheting) and what my plans are for this year.

Spent most of my holidays crocheting various scarves, some for presents. I finished my Boteh scarf from Interweave Crochet, Spring 2007 in Handmaiden seasilk (Sangria) and sent it to my sis for her birthday.

I also made one for myself in Colinette Jitterbug (Marble). I wasn't sure how this colour would work out but I think it is great and so soft and warm.
Then I finished off the Open Diamond Scarf which is from Vogue Knitting on the Go: Crocheted Scarves II. The yarn is Holly Spring Homespun Scarlet Fleece in Poodle.

Being a new year, I have been having a bit of a think about what I am going to do with knitting and other crafting this year. I think I've gone a bit overboard with the knitting and especially the stash enhancement and in fact I've totally run out of storage space. I'm not sure why but I'm finding it very hard to stop buying yarn and I've really got far more than I will ever need. I think Ive been using yarn buying as a kind of stress release but it really causes more stress when you have to deal with the Visa bill. I also have too many magazines many of which I'll never use to make anything. So I've decided to:

1 Finish off as many of my WIPs that it is worth finishing and frog the rest.

2 Decide which yarn I will definitely use and sell off or give away the rest. This is going to be very hard because I love most of it. Some of it will be hard to even give away though! Unless someone out there really likes shiny variegated polyester ribbon!

3 Make a list of what I really want to make this year (after I finish the worthy WIPs that is) Most of my WIPs are on Ravelry.

This list might look something like this:

• Tangled yoke cardigan- Interweave Knits, Fall 2007
  
• Fifi - From French Girl
  
• Cobblestone for DH - Interweave Knits, Fall 2007
  
• Swallowtail shawl - Interweave Knits Fall 2006
  
• Chevron scarf - Last Minute Knitted Gifts
• Serrano - Knitty, Fall 2006
• Plus a range of socks and scarves.

4 Go through all my magazines and decide which I want to keep. I have heaps of those English knitting magazines which don't often have patterns I like.

5 I am also not going to buy any more yarn (well I am going to try not to buy more yarn) although I have already joined a couple of yarn/sock clubs. I'm hoping that getting a monthly yarn "present" will help.

6 Limited browsing of yarn shops on the Internet - except I still hanker after some Wollmeise.

That's enough for now. I'll report back on progress.

Cheers

Time for a catch-up

Well, it's a long time since I've been on here. Hope you all had a decent holiday and some fun over the Christmas/other holiday break. Lots of picture on this one. We all went off to Victoria in Australia for Christmas and met up with lots of my relations whom I hadn't seen for about 30 years. Really great to catch up and meet all their children and children's children. Here's a photo of one of our get-togethers.

We spent about two weeks in and around Ararat which was orginally a gold-mining town but is now a centre for farming and a "gateway to the Grampians". The Grampians is a pretty spectacular range of mountains near-by. We visited them twice, one day it poured with rain and we couldn't see much of the mountains and the next time it was about 40 Celcius and we couldn't bear the heat! Here's my mum sheltering from the sun.


We also did a trip to Bendigo and explored a gold-mine and took a tram tour.

We spent a couple of nights in Portland on the south coast. It was supposed to be mostly industrial (there is an aluminium smelter there) but it was surprisingly pretty and interesting and much less over populated than some of the other south coast beach towns. Here is where we stayed.

Finished our time in Victoria by taking a trip down the Great Ocean Road which is supposed to be one of the great drives in the world. I have to agree. It was spectacular.

That's part of the 12 Apostles - I think there are only 11 now though because one fell down. And of course the obligatory koala. The photo was taken by DD of a koala in the wild. Pretty good I thought.

And although I didn't do any knitting I did do some crochet. Crochet is easier on a plane especially with a wooden crochet hook which doesn't seem to excite the security people. Here's a scarf I finished.

Made from Cherry Tree Hill Sockittome, pattern is the Cluster Stitch Fiesta Scarf from Vogue Knitting on the Go: Crocheted Scarves II.

Enough for today. I'll be back soon with more of the knitting I have been doing. If you are on Ravelry you can see some of my other projects - I am Diantee.

Cheers