Waste Not Want Not?

From the sorting room of the Op Shop, this lot was seen as un useable. The majority of the bag contained short lengths of tapestry thread, but before it was to be tossed out as garbage it was rescued for me!

It looks a mess, does it not? See the black box to the left?

This is all fine cotton thread.

Now this is the inside and the contents of the black box.

They are some of the finest crochet hooks I've ever seen.

A very fine Afghan hook.

I am assuming that this is a winder for fine thread.

The bag also contained some unfinished patch work with many hexagon disc's, I know nothing about patchwork, so I'll save it for some one who knows about it and can use it.

You are probably wondering what I will be doing with all of those short lengths of yarn, well I'm just going to tie them together randomly and use my yarn winder to make crazy balls of yarn that I can then crochet with, what I'll make I am un sure of at this time.

Yarn Winder To The Rescue

I want to use this yarn for a new project, the problem is, that it is a 2 stranded yarn and the beginning and the end of the ball was joined together. A right mess. So I thought, why not give my new yarn winder a try out and make the balls of yarn into friendly user balls of yarn!

There we go! Mission acclompished!

Now I can see the beginning and the end of the ball, and I can also begin using the centre strand of yarn which is my preferred preference.

Snow Flakes, Visual Tutorial

Oh I just love a good visual tutorial! I made these snow flakes in about an hour, watching and making as the video played. I have to give credit to Joan over at Lets Go Yarning for posting the you tube link and of course to the creator of the learning video on you tube. It doesn't stop there though, she has many more, so it's worth viewing the link. I have just supplied 3 of her, you tube video's here, for the 3 snow flakes I made. I used the glow in the dark yarn that was sent to me from my US friend Linda. I have not blocked them as yet, I was just too excited about them and had to share them here with you all! I love the centre one, but I have run out of the white glow in the dark yarn, boo hoo. Oh the only thing I did different was at the end of each snow flake, I chained 10 then slip st back into the beginning of the ch 10, to make a hanger for them.

Christmas has come early with 5 little puppies

I've posted about my puppy breeding once before in this blog post. Last night another litter was born before the stroke of midnight on my daughter Cristy's birthday. I assisted my dog with the first born, then she was away on her own, she is a very good mother to her pups and goes straight into action on each birth cleaning and chewing off the cord of each pups arrival. It's truly amazing to see.

This is the first born.

In no time after the first born, there were 2 more.

Upon checking her tummy I still felt movement with in her, so I knew there was to be another. Here she is in action cleaning and chewing away the cord.

After the 4 were born and the long night, I did not expect any more and went off to bed, that was about 3.00 am. I was awoken before 7.00 am by hubby, who had to tell me there were now 5! Yes 5 puppies in all. You an see the 5th one in the centre of the picture below. He is a runt and not coping as well as the other 4, you can see his fur is wet, as his mother keeps urging him on and he is improving.

They are maltese cross and are lovely mannered pets.

Christmas Stocking and Foil Decoration

This is the finished result of the easy xmas item. If you can make a granny, you don't need a pattern to do this, just make enough squares to join them together in the shape of a boot.

I used the Tunisian joining method to join the squares. It is a very fast joining method.

And this is the end result of crocheting with the foil curling ribbon. It will be put up along with all of my other xmas decorations once I get them out and decorate for xmas.

Pattern Storage

This is my new pattern storage container, for home printed patterns, it is called an Executive File Carrier and the makers of these are Creation Plastics Australia. These can be purchased from Office Works and a few other selected stores. I happen to be friends with the company owners who supplied me with this one. The spray bottle is there for size comparison.

Suspension files need to be purchased for you to set up your file storage, the steel sliding rods are supplied with the container.

I have 10 suspension files in here, but there is room for many more.

I can easily carry it around with me if I need to.

This is another storage method I am using.

I am also a big fan of the page up. It holds up to about 24 pages at once, I use it all the time to hold and view my home printed patterns, this is also a product of Creation Plastics.

Easy Xmas Item, Watch and See.

What can you make from 12 granny squares? Well I made a little movie clip, just for fun for you to watch.

Flowers that grow in my garden

Now I am no green thumb at all and cannot even tell you the names of these plants. But what I do know about gardening is that I can break off parts of some plants and either stick them straight into the ground or into a bit of water and the cutting will survive, giving me another plant that I know I can grow successfully. These are all pretty hardy drought resistent plants and most of them are succulents.

A cutting from my Mum.

An old cutting from my Mother-in-Law


A plant from my Mother-in-Law, flowers mid year.


More cuttings I have put through out the garden.

I can take cuttings off this cacti, it flowers once a year.

This is a prickly little cacti, flowers once a year.

This succulent flowers just before xmas.

First time flowering for this one.

They are only tiny, but I never knew it flowered.

Xmas Swap/Exchange 2008

This year I was involved in 2 xmas swap/exchange. One being with HGTV (American Board) and the other with Crochet Lovers Victoria, (ravelry group from Australia). I made exactly the same items for both swaps. The milk ring decorations below, which I divided into 2 groups and my first time ever to make a doily, which I actually made 2 of.

The Xmas doily.

This is what I received from Bluechook a member of crochet lovers.

There was even a toilet roll in the toilet roll cover. LOL.

This is what I received from Vicky1205 from HGTV

It is such a thrill to receive hand made goods by others, they will be always treasured.

Crocheting Around With Xmas Curling Ribbon

This was a cheap packet of xmas curling ribbon that was opened and damaged, so it was discounted. It normally retails for about $2.30 and has 6 balls in the pack. You can crochet with almost anything so I thought I'd give it a go.

I began with the milk ring theory as I have used before and just covered the ring with sc.

I then continued with 2 dc in each sc around.

With the silver I did 1dc, then 2dc all the way around, but by this time it was starting to curl up a bit and I used up the entire ball of silver, I went on to the green and just did 1dc in each dc around.

I'll probably add some more of the gold and fill that gap with a hanger or something. I used a 6mm hook and could have gone a larger hook. This is just to show, just one of the many types of things we can crochet with, especially when they are a bargain medium. So watch out for the end of xmas sales, you never know what you can pick up to make for next xmas.

Tunisian and Cro Hook Learning

I highly recommend to visit this first link and watch both video's, much to learn from them, also while you are there, have a browse around the site.
http://www.crochenit.com/tutorials.html#basic

Here are some more links to see too.
http://hmmmk.tripod.com/Crohook.htm
http://kimguzman.bravejournal.com/entry/21484

Tunisian Scarf

I do like the look of the Tunisian St, but I must say, I find it a fair bit slower than crochet.

Below are some pictures of my very first Tunisian scarf. I used a size 6mm Tunisian hook. I used about 26 st's across, the yellow parts are made up of about 20 rows and the variegated was 5 rows, which I added the pebble st to in a couple of different ways. Once the scarf was finished and the ends were sewn in, I added a beaded fringe for that extra finer touch.

This has been made for my dear sister in law Robyn, who always brings me yarn or other crafty things I need, I'm very happy with the colour combo in this one. Hope you like it.

Printer Problems?

More of my Grandson's

Here are 2 of my other grandsons.

This trendy little fellow is Cooper (3)

This little cutey is Bradyn (9 months)

They are the sons of my second eldest daughter Cristy.

They live very close by, so I get to see them lots, lucky me. Poor little Cooper is so corrupted by his Nanny, he will only eat chocolate that has the cadbury label on it, he won't eat any jelly type lollies and he loves his soft drink, to his mothers displeasure. We sit at the table and just talk, talk, talk, we wave our hands around and use many facial expressions. His vocabulary is growing and our conversations are becoming longer and more interesting. Brady is still a baby, but he recognises me and I always get a great big smile from him.

Introducing 4 of my 4 step grand children

Introducing 1 of my 4 step grandchildren

This is Flynn he will be 4 in January 2009, he is the son of my step son Matthew and his Mother Sue-Anne. Flynn likes to fish and do lots of boy things, his Mum and Dad will be giving Flynn a brother or sister next year.

Introducing 3 of my 4 step grand children.

From left to right, Darcy (6), Bella (4), Lilly (8).

Darcy loves Ben 10 at the moment, Bella is into Dora and Lilly loves High School Musical.

So all of those types of things are on the commercial xmas list for this year.

I say commercial because that is how I think xmas gets now a days.

They all love coming over to Nanny Cath (me) and Pa's house for a sleep over. They love to get into the chocolates and soft drink.

But these days knowing how those things get kids hypo, I try to supply other things they may like.

But they always find Pa's lolly jar and raid it!

These 3 are a full on bunch so they do not need more encouragement from those so called evil additives.

They are the 3 children of my step daughter Beck and son in law David.

Yarn Winder Update

Boo hoo, I missed out on the new yarn winder in the ebay auction.

How ever some very kind people are willing to supply me with one, for the cost of postage alone.

These people wish to remain anonymous.

But a big hug goes out to the 2 kind people who organised this for me!

But for a funny story about this yarn winder, have a look at the rubber attatched to the wire where the yarn is held. I wondered why there was a rubber/eraser there, it must serve some purpose I thought, so I left it on. But I received a message from one of the above generous people, who informed me that they only put the eraser on the wire for postage, so as it would not tear through the packaging!

Funny Hugh'