School Holidays

Hi all, today is the second last day of our Spring school holidays. Mostly the weather has been miserable, cloudy, wet and very cold. BUT today the sun is shining, we are all in short sleeves and my backyard looks like a green suburban jungle. The grass needs mowing again (after only being done a couple of weeks ago), and the fruit trees are growing new little leaves as fast as they can. The blossom has almost gone and the backyard is almost all shady again, instead of stark with "nude-y" trees!

My little Toby and I like to call them "nude-y" trees as this helped him to understand how/why they lose their leaves in winter.

The other day we were driving to an appointment when suddenly Toby called out, "Look Mum! There's nudey trees!!" His brother Mathew just curled up laughing in the front seat, so then I had to explain why we called them nudey trees. Both of my boys have Autism so they are very visual and very literal, which can make for some very interesting conversations!

Today we are staying home. You see today is a very important day, it's Grand Final Day in the AFL (Australian Football League), as last weekend was a draw..... YES..... a draw!!

Me and my boys watched it last weekend and spent a couple of hours watching the game and screaming at the tv. The two teams were St Kilda and Collingwood, and we are all die-hard Collingwood supporters. I don't follow the footy very much unless Collingwood are doing really well, and this year they have just flown up the ladder!

We decorated the front of our house with black and white streamers and balloons. Then we watched the game.... and it ended up a draw.... YES a DRAW!!!!

So it's a repeat of last week to hopefully get a winner! So many supporters are disgusted with this outcome and this has led to the rules in AFL being changed so this doesn't happen again.

Now onto CROCHET!

As you know I've been decluttering, and that includes my stash of yarn/fleece/roving. Last weekend my friend Marion of 'Spinning a Yarn' (a small business of spinning supplies, fleece, and Marion is a spinning teacher) came over and took a whole pile of my handspun yarns with her as she's having a market stall at a heap of local markets. We spent the afternoon weighing and pricing my yarns and her first market stall is this weekend, hopefully she'll do well!

I sorted out three huge baskets of odd balls of my handspun yarns that I dyed that not enough to do anything much with, and I've made three lovely crocheted blankets with them. Here's one. As you can see it was going to be for the back of our couch. Our couch looks quite tatty so I thought these blankets could cover it and brighten it up, BUT Mathew fell in love with the first blanket even when it was only half done and he nagged and nagged and nagged as he wanted it, so I ended up giving it to him.

Now he has his doona, a handmade patchwork blanket I made him and THREE hand crocheted blankets I made him as well, on his bed. It's a wonder he can move in his bed!!

This recent blanket is all completely pure wool so he must be incredibly warm!!

The second blanket is finished but I haven't taken a photo yet, and the third just needs a few rows added to it to be finished. I'm very pleased with how all three of them came out. It's an excellent way of using up those oddballs of handspun into something useful. The second blanket won't be going on the couch, that will be used by my eldest son and his girlfriend out in the caravan when they come to stay as they were cold last week because we'd run out of blankets.

Last week my eldest son Josiah (17) came home for the week with his girlfriend Clare (who I love to bits), and we had a lovely week together catching up. They took me out for dinner on Thursday night and it was so nice to get to know Clare a little better.

My three boys, Josiah (17) left, Toby (4)middle, and Mathew (13) right.

Seeya! xxx

The 50 Blanket Project

Last year when the Black Friday fires swept through Victoria in February, hundreds lost their homes and many lost their lives. On Mothers Day 2009 a church group made little bags of goodies for the mums and held a morning tea to give them out.

I had loads of crocheted and knitted scarves, hats, ponchos blankets and shawls that I had made but had no one to use them, so I donated them to be given out at this morning tea. One of the ladies told me that her sister's church supported an orphanage in India, and that if I had the time, the kids there would love a couple of my blankets.

So I happily said 'sure' and started making blankets. Well, six blankets later, when I was handing them over, I casually asked for more information about the orphanage and how many kids there were.

Well it wasn't long and the plight of these kids really broke my heart. They come to the orhanage with nothing and some girls are given to the orphanage just because THEY'RE GIRLS!! Girls aren't worth anything unless they have a good dowry, and can't work as hard as boys.

I was told there was about 50 kids, and that was how The 50 Blanket Project was born. I decided I would make at least 50 blankets so that EVERY child in that orphanage has a blanket and will know that someone on the other side of the world cares.

You might think omg where is she going to get enough yarn for 50 blankets? And how much is THAT going to cost her? Well, it has cost me nothing. I have NOT gone out and BOUGHT one single ball of yarn for this project!!

You see I love to buy yarn and when there's a sale on, you will find me happily buying a bit of this and a bit of that. Nothing too outrageous, just enough to fill that I-need-to-buy-yarn-today urge that all yarnies get!

So, you see had this stash, and I MEAN a STASH!! And THEN I started spinning.......

Well..... when one starts spinning, ones tastes in yarn often changes. These days I want fleeces and fibres and the thrill of spinning it myself. Spinning is soothing and comforting and satisfying in a different way to crochet and knitting.

So now I have fleeces.... and fleeces.... and fibres.... and......... well you get the idea. The thing is, in the next couple of years I want to move my little family out to the country, and I sure as hell don't want to move a whole truckload of yarn!!

So it's been an absolute pleasure to make these blankets for these needy kids, and have the pleasure of using these yarns AND watching my stash shrink too!! And shrink it has!! I have tubs that are empty, it's been a very long time since I had empty tubs that I didn't have to go out and buy empty!

So here's a few of the blankets I've made for this project, I've just finished blanket 46.