Happy Australia Day!

Yay for me! I've come good with my promise of photos.... Although I've got to admit that they aren't particularly good (I had to take them indoors and at night).

This is a birthday present that I am sending back home (recipient will be disclosed at a later date).

As I said, the photo had to be taken indoors, so its not a great representation of the colour. Anyway details....

Pattern: Ball Band Wash Cloth from "Mason Dixon Knitting"

Yarn: Sugar and Cream in Hot Green and White

Needles: US Size 6

Started: Jan 8th, 2007

Finished Jan 11th, 2007

To finish off the present, I took a trip to the Body Shop and....

I think the finished product is really cute!

Now, the book was a Christmas present to myself, so, my second finished project is also from the same book and it's even in the same yarn (hey, I'm trying to get my money's worth)! This one was taken without the flash and looks a little better.

Pattern: Baby Kimono from "Mason Dixon Knitting"

Yarn: Sugar and Cream in Hot Green

Needles: US Size 6

Started: Dec 27th, 2006

Finished: Jan 14th, 2007

I love the orange buttons with the green, very retro, and it should go well with another pumpkin baby beanie I made to go with it. This is also being sent back to Australia for some friends who are due to have a baby in April.

So there you go, I think I'm almost up to date with my finished projects however a hope finish my hat over the weekend or maybe a even sleeve of my cardigan now that it is behaving nicely.

Have a great Australia Day! Throw another snag on the barbie for me!

What Resolutions?

Ok, so one of my New Years resolutions was to be a better blogger and as you can see, I'm failing miserably. I can't believe my last post was on the 3rd of January (actually I can believe it, I'm not the best at keeping New Years resolutions). One resolution that I have kept however, is to try and bake more often and so far I have tried something new every week. To date, I have made the following:

Week 1: Banana Choc Chip Muffins (from scratch)
Week 2: Oatmeal Craison Cookies
Week 3: Brownies


One reason that I haven't posted (and unfortunately it's not because I've been too busy), is that when I've sat down at the computer the batteries for the camera haven't been charged (and trust me, I think my posts are a lot more interesting when I have photos to share). So the batteries are charging as I write and hopefully I will have some photos for you tomorrow. I've done quite a bit of knitting over the past few weeks (hey, it's been cold - perfect knitting weather) so I have some of my first finished projects for 2007. On the needles at the moment, I have my 2nd jaywalker sock, a hat and a cardigan. The cardigan was put in the naughty drawer for a few weeks after I became too annoyed with myself and the pattern. However, we made up on the weekend and are now in the process of completing the first sleeve.

In other news, we have had even more snow, though no where near as much as the 1 1/2 feet we received over New Years. Now the snow seems to have disappeared but we've we've been left with freezing temperatures - not ideal when the heater decides not to work every so often. Trust me, there have been a couple of early nights in bed with the electric blanket on!

We went to the movies a couple of weeks ago and saw "The Pursuit of Happyness" which was fantastic. I thought Wil Smith did a great job and was glad to see he has been nominated for an Oscar for it.

Our last piece of exciting news is that Elton John is coming to Albuquerque! Yes, you read it correctly - Elton John is coming to Albuquerque and we have tickets!!!!!! I can't wait, the concert should be excellent and it is in a relatively small stadium so we should have great seats. I think I'll go and get in the mood and listen to some Elton now. He has so many great songs, I'm not sure if I can pick a favourite - Your Song, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Rocket Man, Bennie and the Jets, Honky Cat....

Winter Wonderland Part II

So we ended up having a pretty quiet New Years Eve. All plans were cancelled because of this:

This was a view of our neighbours car on Saturday morning. Snow started falling around 9am on Friday morning and didn't stop until late Saturday afternoon. According to many of the locals, there hasn't been a storm like this one for a long, long time. We ended up with almost 1 1/2 feet of snow. So of course we had to do this:

Meet our new friend "Frosty":

And because the weather has been so cold since we made him on Saturday, he has hardly even melted!

One good thing about the snow, I got plenty of knitting done over the weekend. I finished my 1st Jaywalker Sock and knitted 1/2 a baby kimono. While we're on the subject of knitting, I thought I should take the opportunity to show you some of my finished projects from 2006.

This is my version of the tomato baby beanie which is in fact a pumpkin baby beanie. I knit this for Erin and her gorgeous daughter. You can see her wearing it here.

Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran

Needles: US Size #6

These are the Hedera socks from Knitty. I knit these for my second cousin Susan for Christmas (I hope they fit)!

Yarn: Knitpicks Bare Peruvian Wool Fingering Weight - dyed green by little old me!

Needles: US Size #2

This is a scarf I made nana for Christmas. The pattern was from the Interweave Knits Scarf Insert that I think was in the Fall 2006 issue and is called Split Leaf. Here is a close up:I really love how this pattern turned out. I used US Size #6 needles and was worried that they were too small but when I blocked it, it was perfect:

Yarn: 3 balls Knitpicks Andean Treasure in "Embers"

Needles: US Size #6

Finally, this is the Petal Bib from "One Skein", that I made for my niece Charlotte using some left over yarn.

Yarn: Knitpicks Shine Sport in "Grass"

Needles: US Size #6

Well, that's about it for now folks. I hope you had a Happy New Year (without too much snow)!