Well, it is the third day of winter here, and another cold, wet day for us. I am feeling super unmotivated today - I can't get outside to garden!
My wonderful list of things to do I posted here on Monday is already looking a bit sad. I don't know how many there will be crossed off this week.
But I figure if everyone is fed, the dishes are done and some washing is drying in front of the fire, that is an OK achivement!
So Cuddlepie is building an enormous cubby house that apparently needs every couch cushion, dining room chair, quilt and pillow in the house.
And I am sitting in front of the cosy fire with this pile of books from my self-sufficiency library.
I really love flicking through old favourites. There is so often a wonderful gem of wisdom or amazing idea that you have forgotten all about.
Knitting for this week is, surprise, surprise - the Shoulders jumper! A few nights ago, I was into negative knitting territory as I had to rip back about ten rows. I just caught up last night and am now two rows ahead of where I was before the ripping back. Three nights of knitting, for only two rows! One of the joys of knitting, I guess.
I have also started a tea cosy - thank you to all who commented on their favourite! I have started the daffodils one, simply because I had all the right colours in my stash. And daffodils are my favourite flower. I have just ordered another 60 bulbs. I always wait to purchase bulbs and bare-rooted plants until the end of their planting time as they mark them down to clearance prices. I got 60 bulbs for the same price as 10 were at the beginning of the season. And I got 40 tulips bulbs for $10.80! I am in heaven with that great purchase!
Anyway, back to the tea cosy! It is super thick and will keep the teapot toasty as it knitted with two strands of DK. The flowers are knitted in DK and fingering on tiny needles.
And just by accident, I discovered that this pattern is available for free here. So you can knit your own daffodil tea cosy!
I would really like to make a few new tea cosies, so you may see some more in the coming weeks!
Reading at the moment is A Curse As Dark As Gold, which is a reworking of Rumpelstiltskin. It is a young adult novel, which I always enjoy reading. I have only read the first chapter but love it already.
And I received an email today - the second Miss Julia book is waiting for me at the library! Even better, tomorrow is my library day, so I don't even have to agonise over the decision of whether or not to make a special trip to pick it up!
And this will be my 200th post! Thank you so much to everyone who visits me and comments. I am really loving chatting with you all and meeting so many new friends in my computer! I would love you to join me on Google Friend Connect, as I have become such a technological wizard I have managed to add it! (Thanks to the wonders of Google finding some wonderful blog tutorials to help me).
My wonderful list of things to do I posted here on Monday is already looking a bit sad. I don't know how many there will be crossed off this week.
But I figure if everyone is fed, the dishes are done and some washing is drying in front of the fire, that is an OK achivement!
So Cuddlepie is building an enormous cubby house that apparently needs every couch cushion, dining room chair, quilt and pillow in the house.
I really love flicking through old favourites. There is so often a wonderful gem of wisdom or amazing idea that you have forgotten all about.
Knitting for this week is, surprise, surprise - the Shoulders jumper! A few nights ago, I was into negative knitting territory as I had to rip back about ten rows. I just caught up last night and am now two rows ahead of where I was before the ripping back. Three nights of knitting, for only two rows! One of the joys of knitting, I guess.
I have also started a tea cosy - thank you to all who commented on their favourite! I have started the daffodils one, simply because I had all the right colours in my stash. And daffodils are my favourite flower. I have just ordered another 60 bulbs. I always wait to purchase bulbs and bare-rooted plants until the end of their planting time as they mark them down to clearance prices. I got 60 bulbs for the same price as 10 were at the beginning of the season. And I got 40 tulips bulbs for $10.80! I am in heaven with that great purchase!
Anyway, back to the tea cosy! It is super thick and will keep the teapot toasty as it knitted with two strands of DK. The flowers are knitted in DK and fingering on tiny needles.
And just by accident, I discovered that this pattern is available for free here. So you can knit your own daffodil tea cosy!
I would really like to make a few new tea cosies, so you may see some more in the coming weeks!
Reading at the moment is A Curse As Dark As Gold, which is a reworking of Rumpelstiltskin. It is a young adult novel, which I always enjoy reading. I have only read the first chapter but love it already.
And I received an email today - the second Miss Julia book is waiting for me at the library! Even better, tomorrow is my library day, so I don't even have to agonise over the decision of whether or not to make a special trip to pick it up!
And this will be my 200th post! Thank you so much to everyone who visits me and comments. I am really loving chatting with you all and meeting so many new friends in my computer! I would love you to join me on Google Friend Connect, as I have become such a technological wizard I have managed to add it! (Thanks to the wonders of Google finding some wonderful blog tutorials to help me).
Congratulations on 200 posts. Looking forward to seeing the tea cosy all knitted up.
ReplyDeleteThank you! I hope to have it finished in a few days. The body of the tea cosy is good TV knitting.
DeleteI think I will have to look up help for the friend connect! Getting itchy crochet fingers (I can't knit!) for a tea cosy. Crocheting my cardi at the moment but I will be browsing ravelry for a free cosy pattern later on. I wish I could knit. I can purl and knit but try to put them together for a rib... oh what a mess!
ReplyDeleteAha, I think I have fixed. I had 'members' on when I should have the 'followers' gadget. They look the same but are different apparently. If you visit my blog again would you mind trying it out for me? Many thanks Jayne
DeleteAll done - and it worked! Glad you could work it out - sometimes it takes a bit of fiddling around.
DeleteSee I am the opposite - I wish I could crochet. One day, one day, I will teach myself or find someone to teach me. At the moment, I'm not sure I'm willing to invest time in learning. Much easier to just knit something which I know I can do and more quickly!
I would love to see your crochet tea cosy. Ravelry is such a rabbit hole - I can be on there for hours, looking at patterns.
Congrats on your 200th post! I love that happy dance picture - they man looks so funny :).
ReplyDeleteI also love that stack of self- sufficiency books you have! I'm going to note down a few of those titles and see which I can get at the library. Which ones out of that stack are your favorite?
Thanks so much! That dance picture was a front cover from Life magazine.
DeleteMy favourite one would be the second from the top - Down To Earth by Rhonda Hetzel. It is an Australian book, but a lot of her info is on her amazing blog. http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com.au/
Well worth checking out.
For gardening info, I love Easy Organic Gardening by Lynn Bagnall. But another Australian book!
I have so many books - self-sufficiency books are definitely my spending problem area. And yarn, of course!
Lots of fun reading and knitting going on there. 200 posts - yahoo!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks! I was pretty excited!
DeleteThat book by Sara O'Neill in your book stack as piqued my interest! And that tea cozy is crazy cute! Looking forward to seeing yours when you've finshed.
ReplyDeleteSarah O'Neil is a New Zealand gardener. Her blog is: https://gardeningkiwi.wordpress.com/
DeleteI should have the tea cozy finished in a few days, as I'm having fun knitting it. Plus with my other project being so big, I needed something I could finish!
All of those books look amazing! I've written down all the titles, as self-sufficiency is something I'd love to work towards. :)
ReplyDeleteA lot of those books are Australian or New Zealand, but all great books! I still read lots of Northern Hemisphere books and just turn the information around to suit.
DeleteGood luck with your journey to self-sufficiency; I'm only just starting and have so many things turning in my mind at the moment!
I have the exact same problem with those kind of books. They are so fun to read and reread! We are watching a show about fairy tale characters stuck in modern life (Once Upon a Time) and their rendering of rumpelstiltskin is awesome and now I want to look at your book!
ReplyDeleteI do have an addiction to self-sufficiency books! In fact, I was naughty and ordered another one this week. The Nourished Homestead by Ben Hewitt. People just have to stop blogging about all the good books!
DeleteI love Once Upon A Time. He does such an amazing job as Rumpelstiltskin.
congrats on the 200 posts. I accidently deleted your comment on my blog, I am so sorry. Thank you for posting the link to the tea cozy, looks a bit too advanced for me though. Love your work.
ReplyDeleteNo problems - I've done that to someone before! It is actually fairly easy. The body is judt 2x2 rib. The flowers are fiddly as they are on such tiny needles though.
DeleteI wish it was cold here, summer is brutal in the south and right now it is pouring buckets!
ReplyDeleteI love the tea cozy and would love to knit one for my home. I am a huge fan of hot tea and drink it year round.
200 posts? Congratulations!
Me too - I probably drink too much tea, but I love it! It is pouring here too, but it is freezing. I think it is humid where you are? I can just stand the dry heat we have here, but humidity would kill me.
DeleteMake the trip to the library - it will be worth it! Where are you that you are still stoking the fire!?!? We are moving to a new house at the end of the month and I won't have to be jealous of your woodstove - I will have one of my very own to knit in front of! Then perhaps I'll have to start on a tea cozy. :)
ReplyDeleteI can't wait - I so loved the first book! And there are so many more to enjoy!
DeleteI am in Australia, so just started winter here. We have been working on our firewood pile, but it goes so quickly.
Good luck with your move. That will be exciting.
Yes the cold has just hit here as well. I still had tomatoes setting on the bush and was forced to pull them all off the other day before the frost hit. Now I have to see if I can get them to ripen indoors. Anyway loving the look of your cosy fire. At the moment we have no heating except a reverse cycle aircon in one room and I would love to get a wood fire in the far lounge/dining room which is the coldest area of the house. I would love to have a list of your self sufficiency books (especially the Australian ones), Maybe you would consider doing a post of your top 10 sometime in the future. Living in town I can't be fully self sufficient but love to gleam ideas where I can.
ReplyDeleteHi Debbie, where are you from (if you don't mind me asking?!) Are you an Aussie too?! The woodfire is lovely. I hate to think what we would spend on heating without it!
DeleteThat is a good idea. I will make a list of my favourite ones. I have lots so it would be really hard to narrow it down. Maybe I'll do it in categories, definitely one category being Australian books.
Self-sufficiency is a very far away goal for me at the moment, but baby steps! We all do what we can.
You could make green tomato relish. My mum used to make it with the last of the tomatoes that weren't going to ripen.
DeleteI live in Dubbo. We have ducted gas heating that we used the first year we bought the house (3 years ago). I had a new born with reflux and was up most nights into the wee hours. I think our gas bill alone that year was $800 only for heating. Then it broke down and the one contractor we have called out didn't know what was wrong with it. The downfall of having electric or gas heating is the ease of turning it on day or night. Even littlies can do it and I find the children just turn it on whenever and up the thermostat. Even though we would have to pay for wood, I think I would enjoy it better. Yes I think I'm going to use one bucket of the smaller less developed tomatoes for relish and store the others in cardboard boxes and see what happens. I've just been outside and found my chilli plant affected by frost as well. I hope the fruit is alright though. If I pull the orange ones off hopefully they'll ripen on the kitchen bench. But again the bush was fully loaded and heaps of green ones will go to waste as they now have strange brown bruises on them. PS - My name is actually Therese, my daughter is Debbie, I must take it off my google account :)
ReplyDeleteHi Therese! Don't worry, bad memory! We've already discussed that you are in Dubbo - duh!
DeleteThat is what my worry would be. I have a 17 year old daughter who is always 'freezing' in our house, but it is because she doesn't want to rug up. If we had gas or electric, it would be set at 26 degrees day and night for sure!
Good luck with the tomatoes. I'm not sure about chillis - maybe you can use them orange?
Love the stitch pattern on your sweater and the tea cosy looks brilliant.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I am up to the flowers now. They are so cute!
DeleteDaffs are my very favourite flowers! We had a very daffodily wedding! I'll have to check out the cozy.
ReplyDeleteThey are my favourite flower and I don't know why I didn't have them at my wedding too. I'm nearly finished - should be ready for show and tell on Wednesday!
Delete