The long awaited crochet scarf for my daughter, got around to taking a photo of it.Finally!!



The colour really is a lavender/gray/pale blue but on my screen the photo really does not do it justice. I may have to add more to the length as daughter keeps pulling it off while she wears it around the house - or it may be that because it's new she keeps wanting to look at it.

I am still plugging away at the shawl and it is almost moving from a travel on the bus project to a sit on the couch project. It looks the same as the last photo I posted but just bigger. That means I will have to start on something else - perhaps the aran sleeves would be small enough to lug onto the bus and knit. After all, the size is for a three year old, so the sleeves aren't that big.

Not finished unpacking yet.Ugggh. But at least we are getting on with living here and the children are happy with their room. I want to get the third bedroom ready for daughter to move into, as they are staying up quite late talking and what-not, and with sleeping in separate rooms they will hopefully get more sleep than they have been.

Father has visitors from Invercargill for a few days so we haven't seen much of him as he's busy entertaining. The children have asked a few times where Granddad is at tea time, as they are used to having him here often for his meals.

Hubby has been ill lately with some sort of stomach bug that comes with a migraine headache, so he's trying to get back into the rhythm of working and dealing with everyday stuff. GET BETTER SOON JAS!

Shawl is coming along slowly but surely, it is turning out quite soft too. Because it is nylon there might not be much warmth in it though, so will be good for the windy days of summer (if I have it finished by then!).

Sister is out of hospital today still without proper diagnosis, she will be an out-patient so they can keep an eye on her. Her pain seems to have lessened, but she is still in a serious condition. We will pray that she gets better soon!

While surfing knitting blogs I stumbled across Photo Friday, where the topic was 'clouds'. There were some great photos but this photo caught my attention and is what I have on my desktop today, I think this photo has great perspective and lighting, it almost looks unreal.

This is one of my cloud photos taken last December while at a local swimming hole just south of Christchurch.



We thought it was going to rain on us while we swam, but it just developed over the Port hills and stayed way up high in the sky. We could see it growing bigger and were all intrigued by it.

This is what I'm working on at the moment, it's a pale blue (baby blue I suppose) bri-nylon in 3-ply which I am using two strands of to make it thicker. The pic shows the contrast between using a flash and not, with my Alcatel for size comparison.



It is taking longer and longer of course the more stitches I add. No surprise there. I am adding one stitch at each end of every row to get the triangle shaping. Not using any pattern as such, just going to stop when it is big enough.

My daughter is a big three year old now, we celebrated by eating cheerios, chips and dip, enchiladas and cake complete with three candles. Granddad was here too, and we all had fun watching the children enjoy their food. At preschool they had sung the Happy Birthday song and daughter lapped that up! She is adorable, and I'm so happy she made it to three.

Have boxes in the third bedroom still, though the second bedroom that the children are sleeping in is mostly sorted now. My knitting is somewhere in that third bedroom and my plan this week is to sort down to it, so I can get on with the aran. I feel like doing cables again. Have had some sort of stomach bug this week so the shawl was a good 'easy' thing to work on while my head was thumping away.... but I'm feeling better now.

Here's an update on sisters knitting progress too, since taking this photo, she has knit the collar and done some more seaming.

Sister has also started knitting the same grandson a 2 X 2 ribbed skivvy, in a bottle green which looks really snazzy. Will have photos of the finished Tiger jacket when I manage to track her down and see it.

She helped us so much on moving day and before that too with having our kids to stay so we could get packing without kids running around looking in boxes etc. We were lucky that she was willing to do that, as I know most people pack while their children are in the same house, so we are very thankful for what she did.

Also hubby's Dad helped on moving day by loaning his car to tow the trailer (which he still drove, but only skidded once on a wet road where a painted arrow was) which was very heavy indeed as it pushed his car down the road nicely. We did three trips in all with me following in our car full of stuff too.

Of course we haven't completely unpacked yet, and the second bedroom has been used as storage until we know where to put everything. Hubby's sister has already stayed the night, and as we speak she is in hospital with a pancreas that is inflamed. The doctors reckon that all the pain she was in on Saturday night before I called the ambulance for her was her gallbladder passing stones! So she is probably in for an operation in the near future to remove the gallbladder, otherwise it will damage the pancreas. Her pain isn't so bad now that the stones have been passed but that doesn't mean she's over the worst yet apparently. Hopefully she can have her operation soon.

I'm listening to Hayley Westenra, Pure, at the moment and really enjoying her singing. She has such a pure voice and she's so young and talented. She is going to go far with her voice one day, not that she hasn't already!

And to top it off, she is only 17 years old.

We've moved house to a nice area, and the kids love the space and warmth of the new place. The carpet is the same colour as the old stuff too. Son and daughter will eventually have a room of their own, at the moment one bedroom is full of boxes and drawers so we can sort out room by room. The kitchen and lounge flow on to each other and there is a night store heater in the hallway. So far we have had the night store on, and it warms the bedrooms very well at night.

In knitting news, I have finished the scarf I was crocheting for daughter. She loves it as usual, and I will take photos soon of it. I have had the aran packed away, and as soon as I get the boxes above the knitting box sorted I will get it out and carry on with it. I am still on sleeve number one.

Wow, I've been flat out working and getting ready to move house. Very exciting I must say. Kids are running around wanting to move now, although it won't happen until next week. Did a load of garden rubbish to the dump today and that cost $69! That was a shock. Mmmm. Have lots to do with not much time, so the aran gets put away for a while. I do have a portable project that I keep in my bag though, which is a scarf I am crocheting for daughter. It is a pale blue/lavender/gray colour that will look beautiful on her. Have yet to take photos of it, but it is about 1 and a half feet long at the moment. Cool bananas. Took plenty of photos of the yard after the tidy up though, so we can see later how tidy we got it before we left.

I see Doug Hutchison is producing a movie called Dreambirds which has a neat storyline to it. Can't wait to see it. Also waiting for The West Memphis Three to finish so I can see more of Doug acting.



He was great in The Green Mile, wasn't he?

So after dropping the children at preschool I have a few minutes to upload pictures, then I have to work - what fun. This pic

shows the main cable in close up plus a wee bit of the side pattern. This is the back of the aran

before attaching any sleeves. Mainly because I haven't even started them yet! Will get around to them soon enough. Hubby is already asking how long it will take me to knit an aran jersey 'cause he likes the look of the little one. At least he'll wear it once I'm done doing his one. Son still hasn't worn the ladybird sweater I spent ages working on. Later.

Took progress photos today, and yeah they're still on the camera - so what. Son had fun with the camera today also, taking photos of everything that got in his way. Many arty farty ones and a few normal people ones. Some of his Dad fixing computers and some of his sister laying around on the floor pretending to be a cat. All in all, great fun was had by the son.

And again tonight he's up until 10pm, what's with that? Even I'm tired by then and want to collapse into bed, but oh no, he's mucking with a find-a-word book making up new games and in no way looking or acting tired. I think he's allergic to sleeping. He jumps out of bed early too, demanding "breksfist" and the tv on.

He missed his Dad tonight though and wanted him to come home from work early. Son does like it that his Dad works too, I can see he feels good about it when we get into the company car or when Dad is going away to work.

Daughter was funny today and wanted her preschool teachers to come and have dinner with us tonight! They just laughed. They enjoy her personality and tell me about it almost every time I pick her up. Apparently I'm going to have fun with her when she's a teenager, although I don't think so with the way she's growing up now.

Okay, I'll get the photos off the camera another time, they're looking good. The aran is done up to the shoulders, and I have the sleeves to do now. Should be fun.