Winter Warm-Ups

Well it's the middle Winter in Ballarat. Always a few degrees colder than Melbourne, we have gone below the tide line and reached -1C or lower recently. This is cold for us in Oz.  Given my sewing room now feels like going into coldest Siberia, I have slowed up on the sewing and surrendered my hard-working machine to the local Janome shop for a general tune-up and clean down  (I could hear it whisper a big thank-you for the respite). While that's happening I decided that knitting was a distinctly Wintery thing to do and dug out my wool stash and started knitting two jumpers for my sons. I'm proud to say that one is finished and the other one - a more complicated cable affair - is well on the way.  

Let's hope it ends up looking like this, although they must have paid the model danger money to wear that hat!

I'm addicted to YouTube and found some awesome videos on how to knit hats using circular needles (my new addiction). I'll share it with you here because it made it sooooo easy.

You could probably call my wool stash distinctly vintage now as some leftovers are 20-odd years old, so I was rapt when I could use up some of my wool to make a friend's son a slouch hat for his birthday made from 80s black-with-coloured-flecks wool using the mysterious circular needles.  We worked out that the wool was older than he is!  Also, here is my first effort made from colour-graduated wool and the YouTube video.

Meanwhile, a great winter pastime here is to watch the Tour de France. I am imagining myself in the warm European early summer and skimming passed gorgeous little towns - some of them I have even visited myself.  The Aussies are doing quite well but you have to admire all the riders for being such tough competitors.

Wherever you are in the world, keep cool or keep warm and enjoy your life. Keep your hands busy doing the things you love.

the Flash