Thanks very much!

Thanks very much to all those who have read my blog posts over the past year. I appreciate the feedback, comments and suggestions, in the comment section and via e-mail. I also appreciate those who read and nod or smile and move onto the next blog! Wishing you all the best in 2019.

Our internet has been off for a couple of days after a tower was struck by lightning. It's another reminder of how tenuous our connection to the world really is.

Jumpy's Mum

Phew, I had to keep at it to get Mrs Kangaroo ready in time to travel to Australia with Annika tomorrow. She's all set now. Annika was concerned that Mrs Kangaroo's tail was going to get in the way on their travels. She suggested leaving the tail off altogether. But a kangaroo without a tail would be a bit sad. This morning the solution came to me - make the tail without stuffing:

 So, the tail is there, but can easily be folded away.

In making the kangaroo, I used a technique I learnt in the scissor keeper pattern to count rows using a contrast thread:

It's simple and works well. Now to remember it.....

Christmas Greetings

Mokala

Mokala is the name of the game reserve south of Kimberley in South Africa that we visited this week. We really did see a lot of different animals in our drives around it, from rhinos to meerkats. Here are a few of them, photos that my daughter Penny took:

Four rhinoceros enjoying the shade near a waterhole.

A kudu bull. Look closely to see his magnificent horns.

Buffalo. In the middle of the day, the herd was resting underneath trees, but when we went back later in the day, they were grazing very close to the road - perfect photo opportunity!

A springbok ram, licking a salt block.

An unusual animal we saw was the quagga. A quagga was thought to be a different animal to a zebra, and had become extinct. DNA testing of quagga skins in museums showed that it was really just a zebra with a different coat pattern. So selective breeding has been used to 'resurrect' the quagga. In the photo below, you can see a 'conventional' Burchell's zebra on the left, and a quagga on the right - the quagga has fewer stripes than the zebra.

I did make a start on the body part of Annika's kangaroo, but still have a long way to go.

Jumpy

Right, we have a baby kangaroo. Annika has named her Jumpy. I've made a start on the mother kangaroo:

Black is not generally considered a kangaroo colour, I grant you, but it's easy to match disparate balls, so hopefully I will be able to assemble enough yarn for the whole creature. The most important point is that Annika likes the idea of a black kangaroo.  We're going away tomorrow for a few days. I'll take my crochet with me, but I'm not sure how much time I'll find to work on it.

Wings

The owl has wings at last. And eyebrows. When Isabel heard that the owl didn't have a home, she said it definitely had to go home with her. Which is fine. But of course, fair is fair, Annika wants something from the amigurumi book too. It's going to be a unique kangaroo because it has to be made from yarn that is here. Annika has approved the colours, so now I just have to crochet as quickly as possible!

More Keepers

Since my granddaughters are here, they could choose the colours they want for their scissor and thimble keepers. Also known as Aunty Mary's Thing - you'll have to read Dedri's post to find out where that name originates. Isabel chose white with a gold thread for sparkle; Annika chose a variegated pink. Orange is for their mum Penny. They chose which thimble they want and the button. Together the keepers make a little bouquet:

At Last!

Monday my daughter Penny and her family arrived from Australia. Tuesday the parcel that Penny posted in June arrived! She could've saved the cost of postage.

As well as the yarn I asked her to send, Penny posted some shoes and other goodies. I will use the yarn, of course, but am thinking of knitting a top rather than crocheting one. Here's a close up of the label:

Ice Drop Version

I tatted another of muskaan's spiral snowflakes and then wondered if I could turn it into an icedrop. I could. It did take me a couple of goes, but the idea was sound. I think there's already a spiral icedrop, so this will have to be called something else. 

Practice Spirals

Muskaan's Spiral Snowflake is small, so I used thread left on shuttles to try it out, which is why my colour changes are a little strange. It's also why I used bare thread spaces instead of 2 ds chains for the centre of the second one. I really like the spiral, it has a wonderful sense of movement. The josephine knots and their placement are genius because they accentuate the spiral effect.

I must confess I was daunted by five pages of pattern! Then I realised that the pattern itself is only half a page. I needn't be put off by extra information.

Now that my shuttles are empty, I'll make another spiral in one colour.

Enough For Two More

I had enough of the wildlife fabric left for two more market bags, so I bought another metre of lining material in town on Wednesday. I've cut both out. That'll give me eight market bags and three small bags, from five metres of the main fabric.  Now to see how far I can sew before the power goes off again!

Thimble and Scissor Keeper

I've wanted to make this ever since I saw it on Dedri Uys's Look At What I Made blog. At last I got around to it. Here's a link to the pattern. I think my thimble must be smaller than Dedri's, I had to adapt the pattern a little, but it was pretty straight forward. This is for me. I'm hoping it will help me keep track of my scissors, which are forever disappearing down the side of the chair, or falling on the floor. But I may make a few more for gifts.

Chiascuro

I made these pot holders in black and white as a house warming gift for a friend. I was glad I looked up my previous post about pot holders because it not only had the links to the patterns, it had a reminder that I'd found a better way of starting the zig zag pattern. Aha, I'd forgotten that.

Mouse in Purple

I crocheted another mouse, with a purple dress this time. I had just enough pink for the inside of her ears, phew. Here she is with the owl (who still has no wings):

I had planned to write earlier in the day, but our electricity was off all morning. South Africa is experiencing 'rolling blackouts' - the state power supplier is switching different areas off for four hours at a time to conserve power. The Afrikaans term 'beurtkrag', meaning taking turns to have power, is more positive than blackout or load shedding, but whatever you call it, it's annoying! My plans to sew this morning went out the window. On the plus side, that window is now clean.