Theme-a-licious - Jardin January

I wasn't planning on joining in with the theme-a-licious posts but, since January is about gardens, and I happen to be making a daffodil teacloth, I figured I might as well, so here is my contribution to the garden.

2 fifths of a daffodil teacloth

If you want to see who else has been contributing to the garden, check out

Theme-a-licious Jardin January Wrap-Up

Don't expect me to contribute to the Fangirl February part of this theme-a-licious year because it just isn't my kinda thing.

Richard.

Leave everything and follow Jesus

The reading this morning came from Luke 5:1-11

In a song that Bette Midler made popular a while ago she sings that "God is watching us from a distance". This seems to be the type of God that people like, one that accepts us just the way we are no matter what, protects and provides without interfering, and does it all from a distance.

When Simon (Peter) caught all those fish his reaction was to ask Jesus to leave him because he was unworthy, and probably because he knew what was coming next - leave everything and follow Him ("from now on you will fish for people").

When we have plenty we rarely think of praying to God, but when we are in need, we are quick to ask for help. We only want Jesus when we needs our "nets" filled, but it's when our "nets" are full that He really wants us to follow Him.

Is your God watching you from a distance or is He right by your side? I know where I would prefer Him to be!

Richard.

The Week That Was 28-01-2012

I wasn't real sure about doing a "week that was" post this week as this week wasn't anything special except for Australia Day. I almost called the post "The Year That Was" since tomorrow is my birthday but I think that may have just confused people, especially since I did one of those at the end of last year.

Anyhow, the only things I did that were different this week had to do with the pool being closed for maintenance on Wednesday, when Sue and I would normally go to aqua, and Australia Day which was Thursday, when we had a bbq in the park with a few others from church.

As for tomorrow, the only significance of the day really is that I have to change the number that I put on surveys that I fill out quite regularly. I think my wife has bought me a present and we have been invited to a friends place for lunch, so I guess there will be people that will make it a little special.

On another note, I wouldn't mind hearing how people cope with crafting, especially crochet or knitting, in the heart of summer. I'm finding some projects very difficult to work on because my hands get sweaty and that makes the yarn stick to the hooks and needles. I have still managed to make some progress, as people will see from my WIP Wednesday and FO Friday posts, but the heat has slowed me down considerably.

Something else that is going to slow me down this year is college. I decided last year that I would get myself a piece of paper to go with the almost 17 years of experience that I notched up in my previous job and will be studying Web Design (although that isn't the area that I'm experienced in) and will be a full time student starting on the 13th. I'm sure I will still be able to find some time to knit and crochet (I managed it while employed so managing it while studying shouldn't be too hard) so will still try and keep up the blogging and markets, it just means I won't have as much time to do these things.

That's about all that is news in the Roses' household this week.

Richard.

FO Friday 27-01-2012

Hi All,

Last week was kinda unusual for me as it was the first FO Friday post that didn't get any comments. It seems you people aren't really interested in hanging towels. Well, I guess that means I can't expect any comments this week either as the only FOs I have this week are ...

... hanging towels ...

... and only 3 of them this week. As I said on Wednesday, it has been a slow crochet week. What's more, I almost forgot to take photos and ended running out of light and having to use the flash.

Maybe next week I will have something more interesting to show, but I won't promise anything.

If you want to see more interesting FOs then check out Tami's Amis.

Richard.

WIP Wednesday 25-01-2012

It has been a slow week for crochet and knitting this week, although some people might not think so with all the things I've been working on. It's just been to hot to work on some things.

I took 4 projects with me to Howlong so that I could work on them while at the twilight market but only worked on 2, and didn't get much done on either of them.

Crochenit Cot Blanket

I tried working on this one first but was having such a hard time as the yarn was sticking on the hook. Someone has suggested using talc to overcome this but I didn't have any on hand. I also found that I needed to stand up in order to avoid getting too much sun on the back of my neck. I didn't even manage to finish one row before giving up on it for the day.

Angled Scarf

This was the second item that tried to make some progress on. I was a little more successful with this, adding about 6 rows. I thought that this one might be easier to work with as it is pure wool, but standing up to avoid the sun kinda made it a little difficult.

I have been making good progress on the Daffodil Teacloth.

Segment 2 of Daffodil Teacloth

I should be able to join this to segment 1 and get started on segment 3 before next Wednesday and maybe I'll post a pic of it before then as part of Theme-a-licious.

I also joined a TCAL this week. I usually avoid doing any sort of CAL because I don't really have the time, especially with everything else I'm making, but I figured I could do with a new pair of gloves.

Tunisian Crocheted Men's Gloves

The pattern can be found here and anybody can join Kim Guzman's TCAL by joining the CrochetKimCal group on yahoo.

No progress was made on the Toddler's Jacket or on my Hoodie, which is kinda disappointing for me. Hopefully I will have a bit more progress to show next week.

As usual, checkout Tami's Amis and Ginny's Yarn Along for more WIP Wednsday goodness.

Richard.

Love

I left my notes at church this morning so I'm borrowing Sue's.

The reading for today came from 1 Corinthians 13:4-6

What is love? Love is not just a feeling. Love is a choice no matter what the circumstances.

We are told in John 3:16 that God loves us so much that He gave us His son. Jesus tells us that the greatest commandment is to love God with everything that we are, and that we should love our neighbour. He also told the disciples to love everyone in the same way that He loved them.

If God loves us that much and Jesus commanded it then that's what we need to do, love everyone unconditionally, no matter what the circumstances.

May God bless you richly this week.

Richard.

The Week That Was 21-01-2012

Another busy week has ended without much out of the ordinary happening. It has been quite warm this week making it difficult to work on my projects at times (although you might think otherwise when looking at my WIP Wednesday posts).

Today we started work on tidying up the garage. This was brought about by necessity as we wanted to give away one of our old desks but we are yet to locate the screws that hold it together. If today's efforts are anything to go by, this will take a while.

Also today, I went to Howlong for a twilight market. Normally I do quite a bit of knitting and crochet while at markets but not today, it was just too hot. I did manage to sell a few items and that made the trip worthwhile, but since this is a once a year market it will be a while until I get to go back again. I did manage to learn something about another market that I've been trying to get into but can't get anyone to answer my calls. I've been told to just show up with my stall and they will find me a spot, so now all I have to do is find the market.

Anyhow, thaat brings me to my to-do list. It's going to be a couple of weeks before my next market so I have a bit of time to work on some of these.

Things to make to replace stock for my market stall:

Set of Wine Glass Socks
Large Turtle

Pink booties

White booties and sunhat

2 teapot cosies

Hanging towels

Rose Towel Hangers

Bottle Cosies in more team colours (I keep getting told that I don't have the correct ones)

Current Work In Progress:

Rose Clan Dress Tartan Rug (currently on hold until the weather cools)
Crochenit Cot Blanket (trying a method for doing rows that are longer than the hook)
Knitted Scarf
Toddlers Jacket
Jumper (sweater to you Americans) for me
Tea cloth in #40 cotton

Things I'm itching to get started on:

Crochenit Knee Rug (same as Cot Blanket and will also use up some of my stash of 8ply)
Crocheted Slocks
Something from my "99 Granny Squares" book
Something in Tunisian Crochet Lace (I'm thinking of modifying Ellen's Jacket pattern by substituting a lace stitch in the main body of the pattern)
Something from Ellen's new book.
A doily from an old pattern book I bought.

Australiana2.0 Table Runner

Banner for Stall

Table Runners for each Australian state and territory.

Tunisian Crochet Intarsia Table Runner

I also have loads of patterns for toys and other things that I would like to make sometime.

Richard.

FO Friday 20-01-2012

I've been quite busy this week trying to make progress on all my projects and get a few things done for the craft markets. This week's FOs are what I've been working on when the Daffodil Doily gets a bit too small for my eyesight.

Hand Towels, ready for market

I've been needing to do these for a while but hadn't bothered while I had the Christmas stuff out. Now that Christmas is over I thought I had better do some.

Check out Tami's Amis for more FO goodness.

Richard.

WIP Wednesday 18-01-2012

Hi all,

Another Wednesday and another load of WIPs to show off.

Progress has been made on the Daffodil Tea Cloth (I've been calling it a doily but it's really too big for that).

Daffodil Tea Cloth - 2nd segment

For those that are interested, I found the pattern as a free leaflet in Spotlight, but I'm sure it has been published elsewhere as Pat from Tasmania featured it on her blog.

The first sleeve for my hoodie is almost finished.

First sleeve for hoodie (Dawg by Drew Emborsky)

A couple more rows have been added to the crochenit cot blanket.

Crochenit Cot Blanket

Progress has been made on the toddler's jacket.

Toddler's Jacket (Zoom by Ellen Gormley)

I have no idea why the colours on this photo didn't come out right while the others all look OK.

I have also added a few rows to my angled scarf.

Angled Scarf

The ladies at Craft and Cuppa today didn't seem to think much of it but I'm sure it will start looking more scarf like as it grows.

All of this while crocheting tops onto towels (my FO for this week).

I have another market this weekend, so, unless I'm run off my feet with customers, I'm sure I will be able to make some more progress on a few of these.

As usual, checkout Tami's Amis and Yarn Along with Ginny for more WIP Wednesday goodness.

Richard.

One Army, One Mission, One Message

This morning we had a somewhat different message which came from IHQ. The launch of The Salvation Army's Vision with a speech from the General. If you don't know what The Salvation Army is all about that would be a good place to start.

There was a lot of good teaching in the message but I didn't take much in the way of notes. One thing that did stand out for me in General Linda Bond's message was "We do what we do because the love of Christ compels us!"

May God bless you richly this week.

Richard.

The Week That Was 14-01-2012

The end of another busy week and time to look back and reflect on what has happened. Most of the week was the usual, mundane business (gym, aqua, knitting and crochet) so I won't bore you with those details.

On Thursday we went to the gym for our regular weigh in and review of our programs. Sue was quite pleased with her results as she has lost quite a bit of weight since starting at the gym. She has been doing aqua and swimming only lately so her gym program is unused. One of the things she is pleased about is that she has lost inches, not centimetres (inches lost sounds so much better than centimetres apparently, even though the centimetre numbers are bigger). As for me, there has been very little change since my last weigh in, although I have gained a little muscle mass which is always a good thing.

Friday morning I had an appointment with the physiotherapist at the gym as I wanted to know if there were any exercises I might be able to do to help my crook shoulder. He was quite impressed with the amount of movement I had in my should and neck but seemed to think the pain in my shoulder was being caused by the bursitis but by the problem in my back and think that I may benefit from traction. I'm not entirely sure what that involves but it doesn't sound particularly comfortable. One thing he did say is that he thinks that my loose tendons and hyper-extendible joints may have contributed to my problem as I may have fallen to sleep in a position that "normal" people would find uncomfortable, possibly even painful, and stayed in that position too long. It seems there are benefits to being "normal" and downfalls to be "abnormal".

Friday was also Sue's son's (my stepson's) birthday so we headed up the highway to where he lives to share lunch with him. We're hoping that next year he can make the trek down to us, especially since his birthday will be on a Sunday, and he gets free train trips (we do to, but we use our to do things like visit my father for his birthday or head up to Sydney for appointments and holidays).

Today was market day in Myrtleford and it was a good day, unlike last month when I didn't get the stock out of the car because the weather was lousy. Today the weather was great, there was quite a big crowd, and I actually sold enough to make the trip worthwhile. Things weren't looking too good for a while as there seemed to be plenty of people around but nobody was buying, but towards the end of the morning I made a few sales so it turned out quite well. Now, of course, I need to review my to-do list to add in the things that I sold today, but I won't show it until after next week as I have a twilight market and may need to review it again.

I also received a couple of gifts in my email this week, 2 $10 vouchers from Spotlight, one for my birthday which is later this month and one that all VIP club members get, which now leaves me with somewhat of a dilemma. Since I'm on a yarn diet and need to use up some of my stash, what do I buy with this $20? I have until the end of March to spend my birthday voucher but the other is only good until next Friday.

Well, that was my week, hope your week has been good.

Richard.

FO Friday 13-01-2012

Hi All,

Another Friday with a couple more FOs to show off.

Tunisian Crochet Octagonal Short Rows Dishcloth v2.0

This was the feature of my third and final Tunisian Crochet Short Rows Tutorials. See how it was done by checking out my Tuesday Tutorial post.

Tunisian Crochet Toddler's Jacket (Zoom by Ellen Gormley)

I have finished my second Zoom.

Both of these will be added to my Madeit Shop soon (for some definition of soon).

As usual, checkout Tami's Amis for more FO Friday goodness.

Richard.

WIP Wednesday 11-01-2012

Another Wednesday and more progress to show.

I finished the first segment of the Daffodil Doily and started on the second.

First 2 segments of the Daffodil Doily.

I'm going to have trouble with the photos of this once I get to the 3rd segment as it's already almost as wide as the card table I use to photograph my WIPs on. This doily is going to be quite large.

While waiting for some sausages to cook on Saturday I decided to cast on another scarf.

Angled Scarf

I saw this design somewhere and remembered the description of how to make it but I can't remember where. It's a very basic garter stitch with a make stitch on one end and a k2tog at the other end of every even numbered row. The self striping yarn should add an interesting effect.

While taking a break from the the Daffodils I started another Zoom.

Toddler's Jacket - Zoom by Ellen Gormley

And I added another couple of rows to the Crochenit Cot Blanket.

Crochenit Cot Blanket

I think I also added a couple more rows to the sleeve of my hoodie, but it doesn't look much different to the last photo I took.

That's it for my WIPs this week. Check out Tami's Amis for more WIP Wednesday goodness.

Richard.

PS: I found another selection for you to have a look at. It's called Yarn Along.

Tutorial Tuesday - Tunisian Short Rows Octagonal Dishcloth #2

This is the third and final tutorial in this series.

I found that, with the first octagonal dishcloth, when I finished the last segment the yarn was in the wrong place to just go straight onto the border, so I decided to experiment with doing the short rows in the return pass, and this is what I came up with.

Using 4 ply cotton, I started with 25 chain.

Starting chain.

Then picked up all stitches along the chain.

All stitches picked up.

I then worked the return pass for 1 stitch (yo, pull thru 1 loop, yo, pull thru 2 loops).

One stitch worked back

I then did a tss in the last stitch.

tss in last stitch.

On the next return pass I worked off 2 stitches (yo, pull thru 1 loop, (yo, pull thru 2 loops) twice).

2 stitches worked off

tss in those 2 stitches.

All stitches back on hook

I kept increasing the number of stitches worked off with each row until all had been worked off.

First segment after 10 rows

First segment after all stitches had been worked off.

Then I worked tss in all stitches and started the process again.

tss in all stitches

yo, pull thru 1 loop, yo, pull thru 2 loops

tss in last stitch

yo, pull thru 1 loop, (yo, pull thru 2 loops ) twice

tss in last 2 stitches

And again I continued until all stitches had been worked off.

2nd segment complete and tss in all stitches

I continued in this manner for another 6 segments.

All 8 segments complete

I then slip stitched along the last row. I probably could have joined the last segment to the first at this stage but I wasn't sure how neat a join it would make.

After slip stitch along last row.

The yarn is now in the right place to do the border so I just kept going with a dc (US sc) in t the end of each row, cut the yarn leaving a tail long enough to sew up the seam, sewed up the seam and darned in the ends.

Completed dishcloth

I'm not sure that the joins between the segments or the edge look as nice on this version as they do on the first, but there are less ends to sew in.

There is at least one more version of the short rows that I could do (decreasing the number of stitches worked off in the return pass) but I'll leave it up to others to experiment with that.

As usual, any bouquets, brickbat or other comments would be most welcome.

If there is anything else you think I could show you, just let me know and I'll think about it, although I might wait until I get a better camera for taking close up shots.

Richard.

Laugh and Play

I like having the sermon notes available on-line, it save me having to remember what was said, especially since my notes are often sparse.

Here are the sermon notes from youversion.

Jesus laughed and played

Matthew 11:19, Matthew 19:14 NIV
The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.' But wisdom is proved right by her deeds." Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."
Go to Bible Reader »

Laugh and Play

Do you think Jesus was ticklish? What about play – do you think Jesus played? When you picture God in your imagination, is it usually a sombre, stern, serious person who is only interested in the weighty issues of life, death, sin, suffering, pain, and sanctification; or do you ever picture God laughing so hard there are tears running down his cheeks? Jesus said, “For the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who are like these children.” (Matt. 19:14). What picture does that bring to mind? When and why did our faith become nothing but reserved, solemn, seriousness? Yes life can be hard, faith is important, we are to approach God with reverence. But is reverence really only quiet, all dressed up, order? There has to be more to our faith and reverence then that. When we study the life of Jesus, do you know what we really find? Jesus loved to party! As we head into 2012 lets play more! Let us enjoy doing life with each other and with Jesus. Dinner parties, coffee dates or a barbie in the park... Let's show others that Jesus is the bringer of life!

My Notes

I quite like the picture that our CO painted with  this morning's sermon. People don't usually picture Jesus running around with other children, kicking a ball around and generally having fun, but why wouldn't he? He started off life as a child just like everyone else so there's a good chance that he did just that.

I also liked the picture of God having a laugh when we mess up in silly ways just as parents laugh when their own children do something silly but I know that He is serious when the situation calls for it. One of the things that happened yesterday was that we kinda got lost trying to find the berry farm, we took a wrong turn and had to backtrack, but we got there eventually. It appears that the COs got a little lost also and I'm sure God would have been more than a little amused at our shenanigans.

We should all be like Jesus and party and have fun (responsibly, of course). Worries will take care of themselves when you hand them over to Jesus.

I hope you all enjoy your week and that God blesses you richly.

Richard.

The Week That Was 07-01-2012

The first week of the new year and what a week it has been.

Apart from the usual aqua and gym workouts, that have been somewhat interrupted by the public holidays (the gym shortened it's hours for the Monday public holidays and only ran 2 aqua classes the last couple of weeks), we've still managed to stay quite busy with our craft and we also joined a bowling league.

The bowling on Wednesday night was quite successful considering the amount of time it has been since we last bowled in a league. I managed to bowl a credible 503 3 game series which is slightly higher than my average when I stopped bowling about 16 months ago. Sue was well below her old average but she still has to get used to bowling with 2 new knees (6 months today since the op).

Today we had a church outing to a berry farm, one of these places where you pay to go and pick your own berries, and I ended somewhat sunburnt. Before anybody berates me for not wearing sunscreen I should let you know that it takes me longer to get over the effects of sunscreen (a nasty rash that takes about 3 weeks with heavy duty antihistamine cream to get rid of) than it does to get over sunburn (about a week). I have tried a few different sunscreens but haven't found any yet that don't have this effect. Maybe next time I'll wear long sleeves as it was only my arms that got affected (I was sensible enough to wear a hat). Sue didn't collect any berries as she is allergic but I managed to get a little less than a kilo (a mixture of brambleberries and raspberries) so will be having them with my cherries for desert the next couple of weeks.

After picking berries we took the emergency services trailer to a nice picnic spot and bar-b-cued up some sausages for lunch before heading home for an afternoon snooze. This isn't a misuse of the trailer, we need to keep using it to make sure we need to keep some familiarity with. There would be no point in having it if we didn't know how to use it.

That's it from me.

Richard.

FO Friday 06-01-2011

Having received so many lovely comments for my first WIP Wednesday for the year, I wonder how my first FO Friday for 2012 will be received.

First up is an item that I actually finished a couple of weeks ago but held off putting it up as an FO until after I posted a tutorial on how I made it.

Square Tunisian Short Rows Dishcloth

You can view the tutorial on how I made this here. I have one more to show next week after I do another Tutorial Tuesday.

Of course, that isn't the only thing to show you this week. Astute readers of my WIP Wednesday posts will have noticed that there is another long term project that didn't feature this week, and that's because it's officially finished.

Knitted Scarf

This is from the yarn and pattern that I received from Red Heart as a daily prize winner about 6 months ago (I'm not a very fast knitter). I still have a little bit of the yarn left over and I have no idea what I'm going to do with it as it isn't the sort of yarn I normally get so doesn't match anything I have in my stash but I was kinda sick of knitting this and it's plenty long enough (about 11' I think) so I'm calling it done and moving on to other things.

Since these are officially my first FOs for 2012, I'm wondering if I shouldn't put the pics in a special folder so that I can make a collage of all my finished objects for the end of the year like I've seen on other blogs. Is that a form of stealing (taking other peoples ideas) or is it acceptable since there are so many others doing it?

As usual, check out Tami's Amis for more FO Friday goodness.

Richard.

WIP Wednesday 04-01-2012

My first WIP Wednesday for 2012 and I only have 3 items to show you as I didn't work on the jumper this week and I finished the scarf.

First up, plenty of progress has been made on the crochenit cot blanket.

Crochenit Cot Blanket

Another change of colour shows that I'm making definite progress.

The Tunisian Crochet Toddler's Jacket is almost finished.

Tunisian Crochet Toddler's Jacket (Zoom by Ellen Gormley)

Just one more circuit of the border then it's time to sew up the arm seams, sew in the thread tails and sew on a button and it's finished. With a bit of luck you might see this one on Friday as well.

Progress on the Daffodil Doily is going well with the first segment almost finished.

Daffodil Doily

This is the reason I'm making so much progress on my other projects, it's just too hard on my eyes (even with eyeball enhancers (spectacles)) working with #40 cotton and a 1mm hook that I can't work  more than an hour at a time on this. Working with a 1mm hook is also hard on the fingers as it's sharp enough to stick in.

It's a good job that the individual stitches don't show up in this photo or you might see all the mistakes I made but didn't correct. I'll just have to try to do better on the next segment.

See you all on Friday for my FOs. In the meantime, checkout Tami's Amis for more WIP Wednesday goodness.

Richard.

Tutorial Tuesday - Tunisian Short Rows Square Dishcloth

As promised last week, here is how to make a square from using the same method that I used to create the octagon in last weeks tutorial. Some might as why I would use short rows to make a square when I could get a square just going straight up but there are advantages to using short rows in this way. The variegated yarn give quite a pleasing pattern and the square doesn't curl. So, with further ado, here's one way how to do it.

First, I start the same way I made the first segment of the octagonal dishcloth.

The first half of one side of the square

Then, instead of doing one stitch and increasing by one stitch each row, I decrease by one stitch each row.

TSS in all except the last stitch

One less stitch in the next row

And again in the next row

Continue in this manner until you have the minimum number of stiches.

One side of the square complete

I know, it looks more like a triangle at this stage and it still curls.

Now it's time to get tricky.I normally repeat the last row before starting to increase again.

TSS in second vertical bar

Just as with the octagonal dishcloth I'm now going to increase the number of stitches by one in each rowby picking up the next vertical bar in the previous segment with each row.

TSS in second vb and in last vb of second last row of previous segment

TSS in next 2 vb and last vb of 3rd last row of previous segment

It's a little harder to do than on the octagonal dishcloth as the angle being created is a bit tighter, but otherwise it is the same process. Just keep going until you have all stitches picked up.

Half of the second side complete

Finish this side by decreasing each row in the same manner that was done on the first side.

Second side complete

It looks like a triangle again and the first side still curls, but that's OK because we'll fix it with the last side.

Make the third side in the same manner as the second. On the fourth side, the first half is the same as the previous 2 sides.

Three sides and half of the fourth complete

But now I'm going to get even trickier. One thing I like to avoid, if I can, is sewing seams, so, with that in mind, I'm going to connect this 4th quarter with the first as I go. To do this I insert the hook through the last stitch on the middle row of the 1st quarter.

The hook is now inserted (pity about the quality of the pic but it's the best I can do with my current camera).

Now I yarn-over, pull through the stitch and the last loop on the hook. This counts the same as the "yo, pull thru 1 loop" I normally do at the beginning of the return pass. I then continue with yo, pull thru 2 loops as normal.

Ready to complete the return pass

TSS across to the second last stitch as on previous quarters, insert hook in the next stitch back on the first quarter.

Hook thru next stitch ready for yo.

Ready to complete return pass

Complete the last quarter by continuing in this manner until all rows are complete.

If this sounds too difficult, you can always complete the last quarter in the same manner as the previous 3 and sew up the seam, I can't see that it would make a great deal of difference.

Last quarter complete, ready to do the border

Border started

As with the octagonal dishcloth, I use a simple dc (US sc) border with the only difference being that I add an extra dc in the end of the first and last rows of each quarter.

Complete dishcloth ready to have loose threads sewn in.

Because the rows are at 90 degrees to each other the quarters each counteract the curl of the other quarters they are joined with making a square that sits flat without blocking.

As previous, all bouquets, brickbats and other comments will be gratefully accepted.

Next week I will show you how I work the short rows in the return pass to make another octagonal dishcloth.

Richard.