5000 Poppies

To commemorate 100 years since the Gallipoli landings, and in honour of all our servicemen and women who served in WWI and since, in April this year there will be a field of handmade poppies 'planted' in Melbourne's Federation Square. The initial plan was to have 120 poppies at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne but this grew to a target of 5000, hence the name. As of November last year there were over 52,000 poppies collected! Now the target is over 100,000.

So this is my little contribution in dedication to Great Uncle Harold. I previously wrote about him here.

You can read more about the 5000 Poppies project here. If you are interested in donating a poppy contributions must be received by 15 March to be included in the installation.

Cheers

February Knit - His Golden Lair

The MegaKAL knit for February was Kourtney Robinson's lovely His Golden Lair and I loved this pattern. It had several different sections so was never boring, but still intuitive enough that you weren't constantly looking at the pattern. It contained charts but also a written pattern if you, like me, prefer.

The result is small enough that it can be worn wrapped around the neck as a scarf or around the shoulders as a small shawl.

This was my first attempt at blocking, and I would say it was only partly successful, the points not turning out quite as pointy as I would prefer. Perhaps I will block it again in the future, although the result may have something to do with the yarn being part acrylic.

Details Ravelled here.

What's on your needles?

x

January knit - Armonika Cowl

This year I have joined my first knit-along (KAL) and I have started with a biggie. It's a MegaKAL! We will be knitting a shawl or scarf each month of 2015. It will be nice to spend some time knitting for myself instead of crocheting for someone else. The KAL's developers are in the northern hemisphere so I shall spend the warm months knitting cozy things and the colder weather on lighter things.

Excuse the crappy photo, it was taken with my phone (although love the filters on Instagram!)

January's project was a warm cowl called the Armonika Cowl. I really didn't like the look of it at first but am quite fond of it now. The pattern however was not enjoyable. Extremely easy but too mindless for my liking. My mind tends to run away with me if a pattern is too easy and when it comes back down to earth it is usually with a thud. Mistakes everywhere! Some of them I fixed but some I didn't notice until several rows along and then I was too lazy to pull it apart. Hopefully the mistakes will not be able to be seen when it is worn!

I haven't bothered putting many details on Ravelry, mostly because I have no idea what the yarn was. I remember making something else with it a couple of years ago but frogging it when I didn't like the result. But here it is if you want to take a look.

What's on your needles?

Backyard Bees

We have bees!

Well, they're not ours but they have made their home right here in our backyard. Squeeee!

Can you tell I'm a bit excited about them?

Keeping bees in our backyard was always a plan, but a very distant one as we know nothing about keeping bees. We got lucky when friend's of Mr Homespun's parents were looking for a new home for their hives and we got a mention. ' Yes please' I said when the question was asked.

We still know almost nothing about them, but we are slowing learning. I know to observe and take notice of their flight path out of the hive so as to not stand in the way. Bees won't generally go around you, just straight at you!

I have also donned one of the funny jackets to get a close up look at them in action and they are fascinating. Unfortunately in my excitement I didn't think of grabbing the camera until much later. Close up photos next time.

This morning the first frames were removed for honey extraction! They were very full and smelt divine.

Do you have backyard bees?

xx

Happy New Year!

And, merry christmas too!

Haven't I been a bit slack lately? But as everyone is at this time of the year it's busy, busy, busy.

I hope you all had a wonderful couple of weeks, hopefully spending time with loved ones and eating far too much. Or was that just me?

I spent a day in the kitchen before christmas making blackberry jam, and plum cordial and jam from plums from a neighbours trees. I have lots of plum trees here, of several different varieties, and when I went to pick the ripe ones to make jam I found the bats had eaten them all in one night! So off I trotted to Dave's to buy a tray of his lovely cherry plums. Now several of our other plum trees are ripening so quickly we can't use them fast enough and need the bats to finish them off they are nowhere to be seen, so they are lying on the ground rotting. I'm sure we will have drunk chickens shortly if I don't get around to picking them all up as the fruit start to ferment!

My Etsy shop has also kept me very busy in the lead up to christmas, which has been great. This time last year I put the shop 'on vacation' so we could move house and therefore missed the busiest period of the year.

Anyhoo, hope your 2015 is even better than your 2014.

Cheers

Berry delicious

Yesterday's pickings of blackberries and blueberries

Is it considered foraging if it's in your own backyard?

I think so. And I have the scratches to prove it.

I know blackberry is considered a pest, but it's only a class 4, meaning it should be managed in a manner that reduces the spread and inhibits the plant's reproduction. I still wish to maintain a smallish patch just so we can enjoy the fruit.

Our blueberry bush is very tiny, only about a foot tall, but it still gives us an amazing number of berries.

Yum.

xx

Happy Summer!

The promise of a pomegranate

Today is the first day of summer and this year the season looks like it will be a shocker! We have already had several days of 40 degree (104 fahrenheit) weather, but so far these have usually followed quickly by a day or two at almost half that. My little Etsy shop has been very busy, it feels quite odd  spending my days making winter hats when it is so hot!

This week we have storms and rain forecast for the entire week. Exactly what we need to fill up the tanks before the early summer storms disappear, leaving us with long, hot days.

The vege patch is shaping up nicely, I promise to do a post on it soon.

xx