Yarn finds.

I went out in search of Op shops and reclaimed yarn yesterday, and came home with treasure.

The above selection came from the Red Cross shop, lovely browns and some grey marl. Plus one tiny ball of cream.

 In the lower picture you see what I found on my return to the Sally shop along the road here.

Some more lovely grey , more cream and along the bottom of the image, three tiny balls of dark bottle green.

So a couple more colours to add to my growing blanket. I really must take a look at the settings on the camera, everything is coming out all washed up!

I have to say, all of the yarns in this project have come from Op shops, my own yarn stash is currently sailing the high seas, somewhere between the Isle of Man and here in NZ. It is expected to arrive in Christchurch around 4th May.

*

I've continued with my almost daily walks in the scenic park here on our door step and have to say that I am still enjoying them. There are more leaves falling from the trees each day, there are also more and more toadstools popping up,( I should try to remember to take the camera in again.) There are also still plenty of butterflies around and the weather is still beautifully warm. I'm having to be careful not to overcook myself. Great for drying washing though! 

Till next time.

A quick update.

I've used up all the reclaimed blue yarn and switched to grey for now. I'm enjoying making this blanket, it is fun to work on, if a little warm! 

I really must do a little tidy up of ends, I didn't do a single one yet!

 I have some cream and beige to use up once my two balls of grey are done.(There were four balls of grey, but two were used last night.) Time to go hunting again to see what else I can find.

In other news.

Tony and Joe are both settled into their jobs now. Joe has already had one pay day and Tony is due his first pay day very soon too. Tomorrow I think.

I applied for a job yesterday, in customer services. Wish me luck. It won't stop me from looking some more though, I may not get the job or something else might catch my eye.

Time for a walk now, I don't think this sunshine will last all day!

Crafty Update

Here you have it, an updated image of my latest creation as promised.

 It's growing nicely.

Once I'm done with the blue I have more cream then I'll need to go hunting again to see what else I can find.

I have to say, it's very warm under this one while I work away at it, so it only gets short bursts. Maybe in a few more weeks I'll be grateful for it's warmth. 

There and back again!

I promised you a walk in the scenic reserve. Well here it is.

 There are paths through the bush.

 But it was rather wet in there following the rain brought to us by Tropical storm Lusi!! 

 So I opted to stay on the road, yes, you can drive through the scenic reserve too.

 There are ponds everywhere. If you spend even a little time in New Zealand you quickly realise that this place is all about water!

 Which of course means water falls. I often heard them on my walk, but couldn't always see them.

 Those houses on the ridge have a great view! I could also hear lots of birds and crickets. None of them would pose for the camera though.

 Amid the wild places there are perfectly manicured lawns for walking and playing. There are childrens play areas and a duck pond.

 Everywhere were signs of autumn.

 There were many plants that were new to me, and some that were very familiar.

 Even oak trees!

 As I approached the end of my walk, this came floating over my head, but had passed by the time I got home. Good thing as I had 3 loads of washing on the lines!

So there you have it, I walked from there

 All the way along....

 to here, and back again!

I covered about 8km. Not bad huh?

*

Now then remember I said we were hoping to move into a place at the other end of the reserve? It is just off Church street.

Well that all turned to custard! The previous tenant has left the place in an awful mess, we viewed it with the agent yesterday and changed our minds. It no longer looks anything like the pictures the agent showed us, we refused to accept the keys!

The agent was very understanding and has since showed us two other places, one of which we like. I'll tell you more once we sign up!

*

My crochet is growing. I'll try to get a picture in the next few days. I went back to the op shop and found more yarn. :-)

It now has some blue. 

*

Until next time.

Things to do.....

This morning I went for a walk in the beautiful Timaru Scenic reserve. I wish I had taken the camera. It was beautiful, I will be a regular visitor for sure and will take my camera along soon I promise. 

There are two entrances close to where we are staying with our in laws and I walked along to the one at the very end of the reserve, then I walked and walked, enjoying the scenery and listening to the birds. Once I got home I had a look at my route and realised that when I turned around to come back again I was actually at the far end of the reserve and very close to the rental property we will be moving into on 22nd March! Happy days, makes it very easy for me to get in there regularly.

*

It's not all been about walking and exploring though, I've been busy with my new crochet project. I'm about half way through the yarn I bought on my first visit to the Sally Army shop. 

I shall have to go back soon! I also plan to look about for other OP shops to see if they too have a yarn bin.

 I took this picture while sat in the garden, it's a wonderfully sunny day so the image is a little washed out, but you can still see how much it has grown.

being reclaimed yarn and hand wound balls I had to guess at the weight and type of yarn. Now that I have worked with it I'm certain I have DK (8ply) weight yarns here in pure wool. They are lovely to work with, even though they are all wriggly from being previously knitted!

*

Tony has come to the end of his first week at his new job and seems to be happy enough with it, but one week really is no time at all.

Joe started his new job today. Already he has gone from 3 days (21Hours) to 4 days a week! So he is happy too.

Me? I'm still looking.

Tony is still very supportive.

Crafting down under....

A lot has happened in two weeks! Tony has found and started his new job and Joe has a job and an imminent start too! 

I'm still looking, but Tony has said he is ok with that as we have only been here two weeks and he also said that he is happy that I will be free to get us settled into our new place, we're hoping to be able to collect the keys this time next week! Yippie.

Meanwhile I'm helping out here as much as I can. Lee and Steve have two daughters and they also have a Thai student living with them. With up to 8 people living here, there is quite a bit of laundry, so I've been keeping on top of that for Lee and having a good tidy up each day. Lee is especially loving coming home to a cooked meal, usually she has to tidy, do laundry and cook a meal when she gets in from work! So it's nice to be able to help out. And I do feel very much appreciated. :-)

But that doesn't take up all of my time, I've also been out and about. Last week, while Tony was still around we were shopping for items for our own place. This week I plan to spend a lot of time walking. Yesterday I was out for quite a while, just walking about, exploring and getting to know the neighbourhood. Our little place is about 25 - 30 mins walk from here, at a steady pace, I'm sure I could shorten that if I got A22 into gear!

I've also found time in the evenings for some crafting. I finished this pretty little blanket yesterday. I started it back on the Isle of Man. It's really not very big, just a nice size for a little person to snuggle under, and really shouldn't have taken two and a half weeks, but hey ho!

So what to do next? There is a Sally Army shop just along the road from us here, about 15 mins walk away. I spotted a sewing machine in the window the other day and vowed to investigate. When I got there yesterday I spied two great baskets of reclaimed yarn. :-)

It had all been un knitted and wound into balls for $1 a ball. Well it would be rude not to!

So I purchased a whole bag full and vowed to return when it's nearly all gone. 

 As soon as I got home I cast on for my next big project. A zig zag blanket.

 You start off with a straight chain then add the zigs and zags later, so I had to do a bit of guess work about how long the start chain should be. 

Hopefully it will be a nice size for a queen bed.And hopefully the Sally army will have more balls of dark blokey colours when I go back for more.

*

Right, time to empty the dish basher and get on with the day!

Settling in

We're into our second week here in NZ. Over the weekend we went for a drive around. We took DS Joe up to the lakes. It was a beautiful day. Mount Cook showed her top for once.

Joe enjoyed the look around and was especially pleased to see yachts skipping along in the waters. 

At Tekapo we were watched by this chap. He sat up there for a while before taking off in search of a snack!

Tony has a job already and will start on Monday. This week has been taken up so far with purchasing items we will need when we move into our rental place in a couple of weeks time. Yes, we have signed up for a rental place. We'll be making do, for a couple of months until our container arrives.

*

Very little crafting has taken place.