Thursday 20 March 2014

Knitting!

Hi All

I have been rather tardy with my quilting lately as summer in NZ is way too hot to be handling too much fabric so I have turned to knitting for now.  I decided to make a patchwork blanket to go with a 'quilt as you go' quilt I am planning to make in the coming months. I chose the same blues/greens/greys & whites as the fabric I bought for the quilt. Jackie, you might recognise the fabrics as you were here in NZ with Joanne when I bought them and then again you might not as that was the day you arrived and hit the ground running around the quilt shops before going on to Hawkes Bay.  Here are the stack of squares I've knitted so far... I need 88 in total!!! So will be a while yet.

 
 

As well as knitting these squares, my son asked me to knit him a winter scarf as he has moved to Wellington for University and it is much colder there than up here in Auckland, not as cold as the South Island but definitely colder than here. The squares have been put on hold and the scarf is growing really well. I got the basic pattern from Joanne (thank you Joanne, Jason will be very grateful in cold, windy Wellington this winter), Jason chose the colours, chocolate brown, forest green and red burgundy and then he decided he wanted random width stripes. My mind is so neat that I really have to force myself to keep making sure they are different widths! Not an easy task!!! Here it is so far... (why do our toes ALWAYS want to sneak into the photo???)

 
 
It's about 1.3m so far. I think 2m will be sufficient, maybe not that long, will start trying it on me at 1.5m.  We have had the most lovely summer! weeks and weeks and weeks of hot, sunny weather. Not much rain at all which is very surprising for Auckland! I finally got around to organising some geraniums for my balcony. I wanted real terracotta pots not the plastic ones but they are so expensive and take ages to weather and give a rustic look, so I went on TradeMe (like eBay) and bought a whole lot of used ones for the cost of two new ones! Fab bargain. This is now my view from one angle of the balcony. I just love the deep reddy/orange flowers, they make me smile (and Wendy's bunting, see Wendy, I still have it and use it).


Wendy, I am expecting to see your 'circles' quilt on here shortly and Joanne, I think you have about 70 odd green circle blocks to put on the blog  too! Joanne did a fantastic job of completing 100 days of producing different blocks with a circular theme, such dedication! Well done Joanne, you are an inspiration to us all. She also has some other news to share from a trip out today... I will let you share that Joanne...

Anyway, that's me, believe it or not, after 8 years of study I have to do more!!!! which I should be doing now and not blogging. I have 8 banking modules to finish by the end of the weekend as am on a course for 3 days next week where I will be using what I have learnt (or learning what I thought I had already learnt!). There are 8 exams and you have to get 80% to pass and only 3 attempts to pass! each exam has randomly selected questions too meaning no two are the same, so you can't learn from the one you failed... aargh! (Luckily, I haven't failed one yet, 5 down 3 to go, better get back to it!).

Susan x

3 comments:

  1. Susan, Your knitting and balcony look fantastic! Joanne.

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  2. Loved to read your update Susan. Lovely projects and good luck with your studies (I really don't know how you can keep it up).

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  3. I will try to post some pictures, we are having some computer issues and I am not sure how to post pictures via the iPad. Love the knitted quilt Susan, the colours are wonderful. Green is obviously very in in New Zealand at the moment. W xx

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