A Knitting Finish, and where’s our caravan?

It’s no wonder I’m rather slow with my knitting projects, as lately I’ve had several on the go at the same time.  This little baby jumper was started in the New Year when we were on our 10 week South Island caravan trip, and knitted off and on over those weeks.  Made with several part balls of donated acrylic yarn, I decided to do stripes and “bunny ears” as this design was called during my childhood.  I was so pleased I had completed the button bands and collar before starting the sleeves,  as the yellow ran out  part way up the sleeves.

This one is for donation

I'm still working away on my secret socks, and this pink and white pair is for one of my granddaughters.  Its always a good feeling to get the heels done, it will be straight knitting now until it is time for the toe shaping.

Secret socks for a gift

Robin took our caravan on a journey to Ohaupo  last week, it needed some work done up at the factory.  Although it is not booked in to the repair slot till later in September, the manager was happy to have it dropped off early as  Robin will be getting his second knee replacement operation next week.    Off he went along, leaving me and the cat behind.

There he goes

Travel on Saturday was in clear conditions.  Driving along the Desert Road,   Mount Ruapehu was nowhere to be seen, it was completely covered in low cloud.  He stayed at the Ohakune Club overnight and  I had suggested that Robin dine in the club that evening, but no, that didn't happen, the kitchen was closed and no meals available.  After a beer or two in the bar, he had to cook his own meal in the caravan instead.  It was very windy overnight with heavy rain beating on the roof.  Sunday was extremely wet for the drive to Otorohanga NZMCA camp.  Nothing much open there on a Sunday night except the local fish and chip shop, so that would have to do for his dinner.

Then a short half hour trip on Monday morning and he arrived at Leisureline Ohaupo to drop the van off into the care of Grant.  Ohaupo translates to “The place where the  wind blows at night”  It didn’t take too long for Robin to pack up the remaining food, his clothes and other bits and pieces, then he departed on the long drive home.  It was a very wet drive home for a good part of the day, and he noticed that the fuel consumption was certainly much less on the return journey, without the van on the back of the Jeep.  Robin was certainly rather tired after his long day, and after a home cooked meal he was tucked up in bed by 8.30pm!

We are lucky that our van can be stored at Ohaupo until Robin gets a clearance to be able to drive again, probably about 6-8 weeks, we can return to collect it. 

This took a long time

Finally, a finish.  This strippy boy’s quilt was made from donated fabrics from my elderly neighbour’s Dorothy’s stash which I received some time ago.  Dorothy’s quilting had slowed down over the years, but she had collected a huge stash of fabrics, with many suitable for children.  For this project I selected two WOF 1/4 yard pieces in navy to start with, one with areoplanes and helicopters,  and the other featuring construction machines,  plus some red and cream solids to make a strippy quilt.  The completed quilt top was pinned up ready for machine quilting a year ago, and then it sat patiently folded up over a chair in my sewing room.

Pinned up on the patio table

And there it sat, and sat and sat.  Till finally a year later I thought, why don’t I just get this quilted!  So I settled down to work, completed the quilting, and applied the binding strip.

Finally getting it done

I always enjoy hand stitching the binding down, this usually takes me several days, off and on, but I don't really mind as I find it quite a restful sort of job.  The pretty red and navy spotted backing was donated to me as well, and went perfectly with the quilt top, I thought.  I love the binding clips, after years of using pins for this job I finally bought some clips to use, no pricked fingers now.

Binding time

As I said earlier, this has taken a long time from start to completion.  But now it is finished and will be donated shortly to keep some little boy warm and cozy.

Ready for donation

Noah’s Ark

I’ve finally completed the last block in my Noah’s Ark stitchery project, which just happens to be the Ark.   Here it is sitting high and dry on   Mount Ararat, with a bluebird perched on top getting her bearings after all that time on the water.

The last block to stitch, Noah’s Ark

Here are all  the blocks together.  I took this project down to the South Island to work on during our ten week road trip.  It was so pleasant sitting outside under the caravan awning stitching away at all sorts of different places.  Since we returned home, the project has taken a back seat to other things, so I’m pleased to have finally completed the last of these little stitcheries.

All the stitcheries finally completed

The next step is the cut the little stitcheries apart, and assemble them with different coloured sashings around each block.  I’ll have to sort through my strips to see what I have in the required colours.

More RSC Sewing

There was one more lot of  Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks in yellow to finish up this week, my Horizon blocks.  This will be a donation quilt and I’m making it as suitable for an older or teenage boy, with the backgrounds being a mixture of black and grey.  The monthly splash of colours with a 1.5in stripe look good against the dark backgrounds, I think.  Nice and simple, just how I like it for donation quilt blocks.  I need to lay these out and do and count, to see how many more of these are required.

Horizon blocks with yellow

That didn't take too long, so I have started machine quilting a RSC top from last year.  This is a boy’s Happy Block quilt top which I had recently layered and pinned up.  I’ll continue stitching away next week and I hope to get it completed in the next week or so – let’s see how I go.   I always like to get  the binding prepared early so that’s all ready to go.

Quilting a boy’s Happy Blocks quilt

Gemma has been keeping nice and cozy inside, away from the cold wet weather, but it is winter after all.  I've been keeping inside too, with plenty of sewing and knitting to keep me happy.  As I often tell Robin, I’ll never run out of things to do.

Gemma on her tower

Out and About

I've had such a busy time out in the last week or so, one social outing after another.  And no, its not usually like that at all, everything just came at once.  We have been meeting up with a group of friends each month.  In the early years when we were much younger and fitter, we would go walking up and down hills, along the coast line, travel out out town for weekends away, visit gardens, exhibitions  and museums, all sorts of things.  As the years went by our numbers have dwindled as friends have passed away, and of course we are now getting older as our legs and backs keep telling us.  So these days we “Do Lunch”.  Six of us met for lunch in Paraparaumu, and very pleasant it was too.

Ashley, Helen, Calvin, Trish, Robin and me

After lunch we said our goodbyes, and called into the Coastlands Mall to visit the Butlers Chocolate Café.  We had recently gifted our friends Owen and Helen some drinking chocolate from Butlers for helping us with our caravan, and they absolutely loved it.  Why don't we get some for ourselves too, we decided.  So we did, stopping for one of their delicious cups of hot chocolate too.  Topped with cream, grated chocolate and marshmallows bobbing about, they are delicious.  And they come with a free chocolate too!

At Butlers Chocolate Café

The next day I went out to morning tea with a couple of friends.  We have a little group in our village and we go out to lunch each month, each taking a turn to choose where we go.  I wanted to check out a café  which had just reopened to see if it would be suitable for our ladies when it is my time to organize the lunch venue.    Yes it was, nice cabinet food, menu food and good coffee, what more could we ask for.  I forgot to take photos this time.

Then the very next day we had yet another lunch out, this time in Waikanae.  Another group of old friend, we were three couples who got together every three months or so.  Sadly, two of the husbands have now passed away.  The lunch was very nice,  and it was great to catch up again.  Both Shirley and Robyn are quilters, and Shirley also keeps busy doing baby knitting for the Neo Natal Unit.

 

Lunch at Relish Café

Then believe it or not, we were invited out on Saturday evening to help our friends Dot and Derek celebrate their 28th wedding anniversary.  We must have been talking so much that I forgot to take any photos.  But I remember my salmon and prawn meal was delicious, and Robin enjoyed his beef.  We toasted our friends and wished them well and very many more years ahead.

So that certainly was a very social week, out and about meeting up with friends, which is always nice to do.  In between all this going out I’ve done a little knitting, some piecing, and started machine quilting a donation quilt.  Gemma kept everything tidy after I’d finished sewing for the day.

She loves being curled up on my projects

Aunt Ev’s Dishcloths

I've just finished  knitting three of Aunt Ev’s dishcloths.  Not my own Aunt Ev, I’ve never had one of those.  And I have to say, that sadly, all my Aunts have passed away over the years.  I found this particular Aunt Ev on the internet, under “Make it Do” patterns, declaring that this pattern was Aunt Ev’s favourite dish cloth.

When we were on holiday over Christmas and staying with Robin’s sister and hubby, Kaye admired a knitted dish cloth I was using in the caravan.  So I gifted her the second one I had, and offered to knit a couple more for her, sometime…..  The months rolled by, and at last I have finished them, and can post them on their way.

Three dish cloths for Kaye

I knitted the pastel one first, unfortunately I could only get one cloth from this yarn.  I did better with the grey yarn, two dish cloths although I had to add a little of the remaining pastel yarn to the second one.  I’ll get them in the post this week, and I do hope Kaye likes them.

Yellow Stitching for RSC

Another month has rolled by, which  means another colour to use for my Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) blocks.  My Little Bricks were done first.  I’m making two versions of this.  Zig Zag blocks stitched in a row, then the original Little Bricks pattern, both versions very simple to make.  Not many big pieces of yellows in my stash, but I found enough small pieces of different yellows to make my blocks

Yellow Bricks in yellow

Happy Blocks were next, and they do certainly look bright and happy sporting their sunny yellow hues.  I found three boy themed squares to use, some more of those circus type animals, a caravan camping in the great outdoors, (bordered with cream, but that’s close enough for me) and a red and yellow airplane.

Happy Blocks for a little boy

It’s always easier to find many more charm squares suitable for a girl, than for a boy.  There are always plenty of flowers, and I also found irons for those laundry days, and some rather orange lady bugs on a yellow background.

So that’s my RSC sewing so far, although I do have blocks to make for another RSC project.  I plan to do these later in the week.

Have you ever received one of those mystery parcels which you just keep unwrapping to find yet another parcel, and another, and many more inside?  That happened to us last week when we were away at a caravan rally.  Our friends Helen and Owen handed us a rather large parcel wrapped in gift paper, to open at our leisure.  We put it aside for a while as we were off to Happy Hour with the group.  Back in the van we removed the gift paper and opened the large carton.  Inside was another carton, and about eight more, all sealed up tight and getting progressively smaller.  Finally, inside a black plastic box, we reached the end.  It was a name badge for each of us, stating that we had reached the total of 400 rallies!

All these boxes for the tiny name badges

Helen and Owen had recently achieved 100 rallies with our club and purchased new badges for themselves showing that they had reached this milestone.  Then they decided that our 400 rallies needed recognition too so kindly gifted us these badges.  So kind of them.

A Busy Morning

What could be busier than a 5.00am wake-up call?  Just as well we set the alarm on the cell phones to get us up early one day last week, now we are retired our mornings are no longer ruled by alarm clocks.  Robin was having a procedure done at the hospital and we had to be up, showered, dressed and on our way bright and early.  Driving to the hospital takes about 50 minutes but we like to allow about an hour, just in case.  And just in case it was, when we came to a complete standstill behind a long line of cars, with the road closed for a collision further along the road.  Luckily we had room to turn around and take the alternative route, so we weren't late for our check in time.

 

We made it in time

There is always a lot of waiting around, but Robin was eventually assessed, forms filled in and was finally whisked away.  I took myself off to the hospital cafe for a much needed cup of coffee and to relax with my book for a while.  And a rather stodgy cheese scone, but it filled the gap after our very early morning departure. I’m really enjoying Philippa Gregory’s version of “The Other Queen” telling the story of Mary Queen of Scots time as a prisoner in England.  Although I know the story quite well, I just cant get enough of these Tudor tales, and this author writes them extremely well.

 

Morning Tea

I had plenty of time to wait, so sat and did some knitting for a while.  This is secret sock knitting for a gift.  A young woman came and joined me at my table, and chatted about knitting.  She commented that I use my hands to knit much differently than she does.  Guess it is the way we were taught, but I’m certainly no expert. 

Secret Socks

After several hours waiting the call came through, Robin was ready to be collected.  The doctor came and talked to us, the procedure went well, but he will have a follow-up in several months time.  Time to get dressed and head for home.  On the way out of the hospital we came across a big pile of Covid tests, take some home, we were encouraged.  Sure enough we did, it’s always handy to have a couple of these at the ready, both at home and in the caravan.

Free test kits, to help ourselves

Once home, we both went for an afternoon nap to recover from our busy morning.  It had been a bit stressful too, of course, so I think that added to our feelings of fatigue.  No cooking duties for me that evening, we ordered in pizzas for a change.