Wednesday WIPs - 16.10.2013

I haven't been able to do a lot of work on my WIPs this week due to being busy with the unpacking and moving things around. I thought about showing you what our garage looks like at the moment and telling you about all the things that are still in there somewhere, but I'll leave that for another day.

I have worked on a few things this week and found all my projects so I have plenty to work on when I do finally get the time. So, here are this weeks WIP photos.

AustralianaV2 - designed by me

A few more rows have been added to this.

Large Santa Stocking

I undid this one and started again with stripes. Hopefully I will have enough of the variegated yarn to finish it now.

Woollen Baby Blanket - Square 51 from "99 Granny Squares to Crochet"

No squares added to this this week, but I have sewn in most of the ends.

Box Stitch Baby Blanket

This isn't strictly one of my WIPs. I found it while unpacking. It was one of Sue's projects but she has been having problems crocheting for quite a while so I've adopted this one. I found some other projects that Sue abandoned but I have decided that I don't want to continue with those so I have frogged them.

There are still a few things I need to find in the garage and I'm sure they will be uncovered eventually, but I will be concentrating on those things that I want to put in the show (which is on at the end of this month) so don't expect too much variety in my WIPs for the next couple of weeks.

Check out the links in the sidebar if you want to see what others are making.

Richard.

Sunday Sermon - 13.10.2013

First, our 2 readings for today.

2 Timothy 2:8-15
8Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel, 9for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God’s word is not chained. 10Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.
11Here is a trustworthy saying:
If we died with him,
we will also live with him;
12if we endure,
we will also reign with him.
If we disown him,
he will also disown us;
13if we are faithless,
he remains faithful,
for he cannot disown himself.
14Keep reminding God’s people of these things. Warn them before God against quarreling about words; it is of no value, and only ruins those who listen. 15Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. 

Luke 17:11-19
11Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance 13and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”
14When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.
15One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 16He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.

17Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

When someone says "Good morning" to you there are a number of ways you can respond. How you respond has a lot to do with how you are feeling and your state of mind.

The border between two regions can be a very interesting place. It can be a no-mans land, a place of violence or a place where peoples from both regions intermingle. The group of lepers in the second reading was a mixed group. They came seeking Jesus and Jesus came to be found. He gave them a command and their obedience secured their cure.

How much will it take for us to give up our own efforts and fully rely on Jesus for a cure to what ails or troubles us?

Life is full of a procession of events, each one as a consequence of our own actions. How we respond to events will effect what happens next.

Of the 10 lepers, 9 returned to their old lives of slavery to the law, 1 returned to Jesus and was completely healed.

We all have a concept of 'us' and 'them'. While the 10 were all lepers they were all 'us' but after there were cured the Samaritan became one of 'them'. Jesus traveled the border where 'us' and 'them' were close together. Who to you is 'us' and 'them'? How do you respond to each group differently" Jesus treated both groups the same, shouldn't we do likewise?

Richard.

Saturday Shenanigans - 12.10.2013

Well, we moved into our new home a week ago and the place still looks like a bomb hit it. The garage is still full of boxes yet to be unpacked and sorted and furniture is still not where it's supposed to be. We have a lot of work to do.

This week has been taken up with unpacking and sorting so there hasn't been a lot of time for crafting. Unfortunately, neither Sue nor I have the energy to spend much time doing it, especially since Sue seems to have contracted some lurgy shortly after getting back to Australia from our recent holiday, so progress is slow, but it is happening.

There was a bit of work that needed to be done around the place when we moved in and most of that has now been done. A handyman came and mowed the lawns, weeded the gardens and got rid of some rubbish. We've had an electrician in to add a power point where the second TV sits and he also rerouted our aerial cables so that they were a little less conspicuous. The previous tenant came and collected the car that she left here. We also had a plumber come in to check the why the hot water system was leaking and he fixed it and the cistern.

While we may never get everything unpacked (we never have in the past so why should this move be any different) we do hope to one day be able to park the car in the garage which is something we haven't been able to for some time.

I hope your week has been good.

Richard.

Friday FOs - 11-10-2013

I wasn't real sure that I would have anything for today as we are quite busy with unpacking and sorting things out. It's hard work trying to find homes for everything. I did get a bit of time while watching TV and I made the effort to finish one of the Santa Stockings I was working on. Here it is.

Small Santa Stocking

That's it for this week. Checkout the links in the sidebar to see more FOs.

Richard.

Wednesday WIPs

In an attempt to get things back to normal as quickly as possible I have decided to show you the projects I worked on while I was on holidays as my Wednesday WIPs post since leaving the country back in July.

I took a couple of projects that I wanted to try and get finished for the Albury Show, which is on at the end of this month, as well as some yarn for making Christmas stuff. Unfortunately, I didn't get as much crochet time as I had hoped for so one of the projects I took didn't see any progress at all.

The first project I worked on was a Small Santa Stocking which I started just after leaving Sydney. One of the crew saw me and suggested that I would have it finished by the time we got to London. I think she underestimated how fast I crochet. Here is how it looked by the time we got to Hong Kong.

Small Santa Stocking ready to sew up

While in the UK we needed to take time out to do washing so I took that as an opportunity to start the next size up.

A medium Santa Stocking ready to sew up

And, of course, the next size, but I didn't get very far with this one.

Part of a large Santa Stocking

Unfortunately, I've almost run out of this variegated yarn so will have to figure out something else for the foot part of the stocking.

We had a few afternoons where we had done all the sightseeing we had wanted to do that day so we spent a couple of hours relaxing in front of the TV (they have some interesting game shows on in the afternoon over there), so I tried to find the energy to work on one of my show projects. I did manage five squares on my wool blanket.

Woollen Baby Blanket - Square 51 from "99 Granny Squares to Crochet"

Just three more squares then I can add some sort of edging and sew in the ends. All I need to do is take a break from packing every now and then and I might just get this one finished.

As usual, check out the links in the sidebar to see what everyone else has been doing.

Richard.

Monday Mayhem - Holiday Stash Enhancements

Yes, it's time to show you what yarn we bought while on holidays, so here it is.

Irish yarn made in Turkey

While in Ireland I did get to have a look and feel the wool produced over there and it was very course. It seems that Irish sheep are bred for their meat and not their fleece, so wool produced from their fleece is very course and only suitable for making outer garments, like jumpers (sweaters to Americans), and I had no intention of buying enough yarn to make a jumper. I ended up buying an Irish brand yarn just so that I could say that I bought some Irish yarn.

Scottish Wool

While visiting the National Wool Museum in Wales I found some samples of Scottish wool and since I didn't buy any while in Scotland I figured I would buy it here. It seems that the person that spins this yarn gets the fleece carded at the museum.

Welsh Wool

Of course I had to buy a sample of the yarn made in the museum just so that I could say that I had a sample of the local product so I bought this cone of undyed wool.

English yarn made in Turkey

I think the English have the same problem as the Irish, although I'm sure there are some sheep in England that can produce a good quality fleece. Maybe it's just cheaper to get the yarn made in Turkey. These ball of King Cole Twist cost me all of £1.00 per ball.

Crochet Cotton

I wasn't planning on buying anymore yarn but found this while wandering around a market attached to a shopping centre in Luton. The shop had a number of cones of various yarns at various prices but I just couldn't resist the price on this one. Just £5.00 for all this cotton.

Sue's only yarn purchase

Sue wasn't really into going into all the yarn shops as she was more interested in the sightseeing, but she couldn't resist buying this big ball in a shade of her favourite colour.

That's it for the yarn purchases. When I get all our yarn unpacked and stashed I might show you what it looks like but I'm not sure how long that will take.

I will try to show you the projects that I worked on while on holiday but I won't promise anything. Check back on Wednesday to see if I found the time to take the photos.

Richard.

Holiday Diary - Days 82, 83 and 84

Day 82

We got moving a little later than we should, managed to find a laundromat and get our washing done and then had a bit of trouble find a Post Office and a Bank. We eventually found both and got a tube pack for Sue's poster of Lee Mead and the cash for the car rental company.

We got back to the motel to find that we couldn't get into the room because they had canceled the key and we only had an hour to get everything packed ready for the flight home. Packing was very rushed and some things got left behind. Some because they were no longer useful, one because it wouldn't fit and one because I just plain forgot it, but we made it out OK, handing back the keys right on 3 o'clock.

We had a little trouble finding the right road to be on to get to the Virgin Atlantic Upper Class Check-in desk but we got there.

Only one photo to show from this day.

Here we all are, ready for take-off

Day 83

Most of this day was spent in the air over Russia and China but we did land in Hong Kong before the day was over.

Somewhere over China

There's a very big river down there

And a rather large city

Might have been a couple of cities

This is one busy airport

Day 84

Flying into Sydney is quite spectacular and I got some surprisingly good photos.

The moon just before sunrise

It was only just a sliver but it was so bright it kinda over powered the shot with everything else being so dim.

The sun peeking over the horizon

The Hawksbury River

Sydney Harbour

In some ways it has been a tiring and somewhat stressful 12 weeks and I'm glad to be back in Australia, but I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

Tonight we're settled into our motel room in Bomaderry after visiting with Sue's aunt and cousins, and giving them a few gifts. Tomorrow we drive back to Albury so we need to get some quality sleep tonight.

Now that the holiday is officially over life will return to normal (whatever that is) and this blog will return to its normal schedule (don't know how long it will take). I plan on trying to get a Monday Mayhem post done giving details of the holiday stash enhancements but I won't make any promises.

Richard.