School holidays/ staying in...

If anyone wants me, I shall be in Melbourne.

In 1928.

Hanging out with this amazing sassy lady!

...and possibly wearing a suitable hat!

Knitting basics - crafts for crazy times

I have notice there seems to be a bit of an increased interest in craft- including cooking, making and gardening - with the social distancing measures in place during these crazy corona times. The Age today had a lovely article titled “Virtually no social life? Think Again” featuring a 5 year old playing monopoly with his 11 year old cousin via FaceTime. And another story told of the rush of sales of seedlings, with people spending time at home and looking to plant a vege patch for “ something productive” to do, as well as for food production and mental health.

Several people on our wonderful local Good Karma Network ( big shout out to the admins - all volunteers - who do an AMAZING job moderating all posts!) have been asking about knitting, crocheting, and digging sewing machines out of storage to dust them off and use them or lend them to people looking for something to do with their teens at home!

I highly recommend popping over to Pip’s lovely blog “Meet me at Mike’s” for all things crochet ( as well as some ACE recipes, craft ideas, book reviews, tips on looking after yourself and just an allround wonderful read!).


As for knitting, my journey started about 10 years ago, when I bough this book from Scavengers at the Sydney Road Festival. Casting on was the tricky bit, and even a quick online search now has come up with mainly complicated cast ons. The Spruce Crafts has a great step by step guide with photos and videos, it looks like a great resource for beginner knitters.

Along with tips from my MIL ( because trying to cast on was the but I couldn’t get until she taught me the super easy knit cast on, which I have never seen in a knitting book!) and a how-to-knit book aimed at children I found at the Coburg Library ( I still have the photocopied pages!), I finally got the hang of it. You can find various scarves, beanies, blankets and shawls documented in my blog. I have not got the time or patience to attempt a jumper or cardigan! I haven’t done any blankets for a while as they take months. I already have  about 4 shawls on the go at the moment, and not much knitting actually being done!

My first go to pattern is from the above book. I still use this pattern to make cowls ( one ball of chunky yarn usually makes a cowl and I can have a quick hand made gift made in a couple of days if I am really serious about it. I even knitted at the cinema while watching “Hunt for the Wilderpeople” because I had a birthday gift to finish!

Gosh it has been a while!

crazy crazy times at the moment, hope everyone is well, staying home and keeping safe. I have been working from home - mainly emailing schools and trying out different online meeting platforms. It has been lovely to be able see my wonderful colleagues online!

I will try and go through my photos and catch up on some posts, not that there has been very much creating going on, not by me anyway! ( more on that later!).

 Some photos I did spot on my iPad -  I have been wanting to try solid shampoo bars, I did try one but it did nothing for my hair! A lovely work colleague bought me one from Lush ( because the shop is too overly scented for me to walk into!)
It smells nice and lemony and washes really well. I was looking around the house for a container to put it in ( it is perfect for travelling as it can’t leak) when I spotted this shoe polish container. The polish had dried up, so I gave the container a good scrub, and it is the absolute perfect size for my shampoo!

catching up

Sorry for the looming gaps between posts. Still having blog issues, ended up buying a new ( second hand) phone so trying a post from it now! Luckily I still have access to all my photos! 

I can finally show some of the photos I took the day we picked up Jango. We went for a bit of a drive on the way home, via Ballan, and I finally got to have a quick wander through the lovely Mill Rose quilt shop.

So many lovely fabrics!

A whole room of liberty!

Seriously if it wasn't for the cardboard box in the corner, this would look like the cover of a book!