A word on the beaches...

It's hard to live in Newcastle, NSW and not enjoy going to the beach. The beaches and Lake Macquarie to the west are a major focus of the area as great places to live near or to visit often for watery fun. I've been getting out and about spending quality time in the salty air. For me the best time to be at the beach is late afternoon, with stormy rain clouds on the horizon. Makes for great photos...!

Bar Beach

Red Head

Stockton Beach

Mitten season

It's that time of year again where I become obsessed with finding a good fingerless mitten pattern. My perennial search uncovered this pattern recently, 'Camp out fingerless mitts', and I was spurred on by the photos accompanying the pattern. I used Noro Silk Garden Lite which is a combination of silk, mohair and lambswool, and comes in tempting colour spectrums. I have a bunch of it lying around from another half complete project....but that's another story.

The pattern was slightly challenging and fiddly, and my end result looked sloppy and holey compared with pictures. The thing that attracted me to this pattern was the 2 parts knitted in different orientations and grafted together. The thumb however, was lacking, and when I tried it on and imagined 5 degree temperatures, I decided a pattern with more thumb coverage would be better. A good try.

Small people knits

Finally! finished this gorgeous 'star-poncho' for my niece who is 1.5 years old. I found the pattern on pickles.no, and bought the pattern and wool as a kit. The star pattern was knew to me, but lots of fun to knit. The yarn is 100% Alpaca from Bolivia and comes in a delicious colour range. Very inspiring!