I did quilting!

I got all the ditching done on George's quilt today, tomorrow I'll stitch round the edge of the border to keep that in place and then I can start doing some free motion quilting.   I'm pretty happy with how it went, the spray baste did a wonderful job, no layers moved around and there are no puckers on the back at all!

My yarn arrived for the Frau Holle Mystery KAL today, I've already cast on as it started this morning.  

Which beads should I use?   I need more than I have, but not sure if I should go green or bronze.

I'm leaning bronze I think, possibly because they're available from a bead shop in biking range, but I do rather like the contrast too; never used contrast beads before.

Tomorrow is the beginning of my next weekend as a sole parent as Thomas is off to Judo.   Hope it goes well, Ian has the birthday party in the afternoon and I'm thinking George and I can head off to the storage unit together for the painting gear.   I'll also get more done on the quilt and maybe even some spinning or knitting.   Though I should really do something about cleaning the kitchen floor.....

Tired, but happy. Blogtoberfest #27!

Hard to believe it's October 27th already!

Very busy day today, no spinning or knitting, but I got enough done that I am whacked!

Spent two hours flushing the cars brake fluid with the help of my BIL (thanks Mike!), last night I made chocolate brownies especially for him, though I think I forgot to tell him that.   I jacked up the car, removed one wheel and put it back on later, learned quite a bit and the car now has new brake fluid in all 4 brakes.  The old stuff was quite dark.

I unlocked a DVD that locked itself in its case, it's the second one to do it but we don't know why.  The first time we broke open the case, but this time I found a couple of very strong magnets and did it the other way; now we can watch Harry Potter's final movie again.  The magnets that worked were from the boys shaker torches; I've now stolen them (they don't really work very well now) and will keep them in reserve for future DVD lockouts.

I tried out the test pots on our eaves and gable today.   The colours I chose are perfect, so now I've just got to get the paint and prep everything.    I can do all the gables except the one I test painted on today; can't do that one as it has earthquake damage so has to be repaired first.

The colour on the right is the original (I hate it), the one on the left is the new one and we love it!  

I think once it's painted the whole house will look really good.  Might have to paint the gutters too, they're coloursteel, but it's degraded a bit.

I got the quilt basted together using the 505 spray and it worked well, I think my can last time was well past its use by date.   I've put a few pins in, but not many.  Started on the lawn but then had to do the rest inside as the wind got up when I started putting the back on.  Hopefully there's not too much lawn in it.

All ready to go.

Caught Ian up on the swing yesterday, not quite where you normally expect him to be, see what I mean?

When I said "up on the swing" I really did mean UP!

Got some more gardening done today, after yesterday's epic driveway weed I got some weeding done in the raspberry patch; more scratches received by me.   Lawn has been mown again too, we're now at the point where it needs doing every week.  It does look good once it's done.  Seedlings are growing, though some seem to have stalled, might have to buy tomato plants after all.

Tomorrow if the weather holds I'll probably go to boot camp, but I'll make T stay at home to rest his knee I think.  If it's raining then I'll stay home and either quilt, knit or spin.   I think I've earned a break.

Yummy - finally! Blogtoberfest

The last two days I've been trying to get some Salted Caramel Macarons and failing miserably.   This morning I got to The Colombo at 10am and had to wait a little as they hadn't arrived!  So I popped into Spotlight to look at fat quarters.  I backed out pretty quickly, when you can see the cardboard through the fabric it's not good fabric.   The stuff on bolts had enough starch on it to walk out of the shop without assistance if it was that way inclined.
So I went back to Jaime les Macarons and waited, after a wee bit I left with this:

5 in there, I ate 4 and the boys and T shared the final one.  I regretted that later, lol.

I then went to The Art of Sewing and came out with some fabric to fill some gaps in my quilting stash, all fat quarters and will be used in the Patchwork Prism quilt that's in the planning stages atm.

Yellow, brown, green and orange to fill those gaps.

After I got home I worked on the quilt back, I'm really happy with this

It's too wide (that's our bed), but it'll work well for the back of George's quilt after some trimming.

I also got 3 rows done on the shawl, all the beading is now finished and I'm now on row 100.  I have decided that a change of needles is required as it's getting very cramped on the current needles, I need a longer cable so I've got that ready to go.    No spinning today, ran out of time, but I'm happy with what I got done.

Tomorrow, more knitting I think after the boys hit school and maybe some baking for Thomas's birthday.

Hemming

Hemming is one of my most hated jobs, I don't know why but I just don't enjoy it at all.  Today I did 2 hems for me and 2 for my Sister-in-law.   The two for me were both machine sewn, hers were hand-sewn and all were completely appropriate for the garment concerned.

2 machine sewn hems, one a full circle skirt, the other moleskin jeans.

Then I moved onto piecing for the back of George's quilt, done the first lot of jelly rolls, but my shoulder was a little unhappy so I stopped machine sewing after that; I've learned to listen to my body nowadays and this way I should be able to do some more tomorrow without pain.

Needs pressing, but I'm saving that till the next lot is done.

So then I moved onto knitting, I was in the mood and the boys were occupied on computer and x-box by then so I could do lace without interruption.   2 rows of pattern and one plain purl were achieved which was fantastic.

Little blue beads, pretty.

Tomorrow I'm going to pay a visit to J'aime les macarons for the third time in the hope that I might get lucky and get some salted caramel macarons.   Last 2 visits they were sold out.  I know I'm supposed to be giving up sugar, but I have done really well and cut down drastically, no hot chocolate in 2 weeks now.  A little icecream has snuck in though I'm afraid.    If I do get any of the macarons tomorrow I'm probably going to be horribly selfish and not share.
Tomorrow I'm also planning on more piecing for George's quilt, I'd like to get the back finished, I can't actually baste the layers together till the lounge is clear of children.   I will also try to get some more done on the shawl.

8.6 k's! Blogtoberfest

That's how far I went on my bicycle today!  I popped the panniers on the back and put all the information for the new garage in there before heading off to Durasteel to get a quote in process.   I should have the quote by the end of next week and tomorrow will be the discussion with Jay of Fix-It as to how things go ahead and what he thinks is earthquake damage that we haven't picked up on.  As well as the Scope of Works I have a list of my own.  Might have to give Skyline another call as well, get their quote from March reworked.

Got most of the housework done, mended T's judo gi pants and did the ironing too.   I still have a pair of trousers to turn up the hem and my full circle skirt to shorten by 3".   I'm not fond of hemming so have been putting it off.  Will do it on the weekend though as I will have another pair to do then.

I did get some knitting time though, finally got past row 88, have in fact finished row 90 and will start beading on row 92.

The beads I'll be using.

I also got some piecing done for the back of George's quilt

Isn't it pretty?  This will be running up the middle of the back of the quilt from top to bottom.

I've got a sore throat now, Ian's been winding me up all afternoon.   His spelling was like pushing the proverbial uphill, then tonight he's been stealing food and then jumped up and down on George's bed and has snapped one of the slats.    I love him, but right at the moment I don't want to see him again for a while.  Anyone else feeling that way about their kids at the moment?   Damn, I need sugar right now and there's no sweets in the house.

Quilt Top, Blogtoberfest

The morning saw me finish the quilt top:

It'll have a charcoal binding.   Now that this is finished I started to get everything together for the backing:

On the left is the striped flannel and on the right is a bunch of charm squares in some of the same solid colours as the top, with one surprise fabric in there.   No point in starting on it today as I need the lounge floor to cut the selvages off and cut everything ready for piecing.   I chose flannel for the squish factor, once that's done then I get to baste the top, batting and backing together; one of my least favourite parts of quilting.

In knitting news I've finished the third section of the shawl, but as it looks the same as before no photo, will start the final section tomorrow when there are no children to distract me as row 86 is supposed to be challenging.
I've also started the round toe for my sock, but like the shawl you can't really see any change yet; hopefully tomorrow it'll be finished too and I can cast on its mate.

Did a bit of measuring and diving into information from our insurance and mortgage files.   I've determined that even with the covered deck, house, kids play hut and the new garage building we will still be under the 40% section coverage we're allowed under local laws, so that's good.    That's only taking into consideration the part of the section that is buildable, we can't count the bit that goes to the street apparently so I haven't.
Tomorrow we have our second building company coming to have a look, then we will decide who we're going to use for the job.   I'm pretty sure the garage will be subcontracted so I'll need to get quotes and drawings for that fairly urgently.   I've got a couple of recommendations for that part, one of the companies we looked at last time made too many errors in their quote (double the number of double-glazed windows for example) so we won't be going back to them.   Rather exciting really!

Wet Day, Blogtoberfest

Been like this all day

Surface flooding is pretty common even on our side of town, hate to think what the eastern side is like.

I went to the guild for our meeting, did my wee presentation which went ok and I wasn't the only one.   There was some lovely work on display, especially Sonya's shawl which was amazing!   Some beautiful spinning as well.

This Merino/Silk bump might have come home with me, well, 2 bumps.   Both are the same base colour, one has the pink and the other doesn't.   A bit of a different choice for me.

 Before I can start this though I have to finish my current spinning which hasn't been touched for the last 2 weeks.

I got lots of knitting done on my basic sock, there was too much going on to concentrate on the shawl, I got about half an inch from the toe shaping, normally I'd have a further inch to go, but I'm trying a different toe this time which starts earlier.

Travelling sock

I got onto George's quilt when I got home and the middle is now all pieced and I've cut out the borders.

The grey bit on the edge is the border fabric.  Next step is to seam that together and then attach it, then the quilt top is finished.

Tomorrow is supposed to be boot camp, but it's going to be too wet out and to be honest I'm too tired.   Instead I think there'll be more quilting, knitting and maybe spinning.

Crafting day - Blogtoberfest!

Well, got the grocery shopping done but despite not getting many treats was still expensive.  Most of the meat was dated to expire and either use by today or freeze.   I think pricing's gone up, I also think it's time to stop buying stuff that's pre-prepared and start scratch making, will be better for us too.   Got hit with some horrible sugar cravings today too, I know what that's related to, will have to be stronger next month and not give in.

I did get some craft time though, 4 rows short of finishing section 3 of the Orchid Thief

It's starting to get bunched up on the cable now

Also some work on George's quilt, I'm loving this!

My piecing is getting better, I think I'll get the piecing finished tomorrow all going well, weather forecast is rainy.

I have spent a little money today on DVD's, which I shouldn't have and some on fish oil, which I should.  Will do better for the rest of the month.   My yarn from Vintage Purls arrived today too, it took a side trip to Palmerston North, but finally arrived.

This one is for Thomas

This one is for me, possibly for Catkin  with some gold that's on its way.

Tomorrow is guild, the first hour will be committee meeting, then I get to present a small item on doing correspondence courses through Creative Fibre, hopefully someone else will be doing it too, guess I'll find out.  Once that's done I'll be quilting and maybe knitting, the garden needs work but it's supposed to be pouring cats and dogs so that'll have to wait.

10 October, Blogtoberfest

I got something crafty done!

Top right corner of George's quilt.

Not 100% happy with one bit of my piecing, I have a small tuck, but I think the grey might have stretched and I couldn't get it to ease any better than that.  Hopefully it's the only one and in which case can be my one error so as not to offend.  Apologies for the photo, I used the cheap camera and had to adjust the brightness.

No knitting, but that's because it requires serious concentration and I can't do that when either of the boys are around, of course George was all day.

I decided to dress girly this morning, I think this is my favourite skirt in my wardrobe at the moment.

Crinoline is under the skirt, once again the cheap camera, but wasn't prepared to give the good one to eldest.

I love the look of the crinoline and the feel of it, right up to visiting the smallest room in the house where it suddenly becomes a right pain!    I wonder what the chiffon one will be like.   Oh, and the bare feet were only temporary, I put on my buttercream socks with my red shoes.

Tomorrow is the last day the boys have at home in the holidays (George is getting better so will be going to horseriding on Friday).    We're planning on washing the outside windows as the weather should be good.   Maybe some more quilting.   I should clean the oven, but I really, really don't want to!

October 8th, Blogtoberfest

No crafting today unfortunately, too busy working and on the phone.   I knew that I wouldn't get crafting done with George at home though.

Ian went swimming and to the Sensory Room with the Autism Society and he had a wonderful time, as did his caregiver so that was good.   George wrapped himself in the quilt his aunt had been using on Saturday night and watched movies, I refused to let him watch Cartoon Network as I can't stand it myself.  No X-box for him today after he booted his brother in the back with no warning; he whined of course but I didn't give in.

The phone calls this morning were to EQC to investigate opting out, after that chat we are definitely opting out, it's now just a matter of who with.   We were told our job was not a high priority and wouldn't be started till 2014 at the earliest; we only have storage covered till April 2013 and with a likely finish date of 2015 that means finding funds for that for 2 years!    Not an option.   Also Fletchers can't do extra work and we need the garage replaced with a different configuration and a little more space.   I've got one company coming around tomorrow, and have left a message with another.  Hopefully a friend of ours will come up with suggestions as to who to use that's happy to wait for payment until EQC pay invoices to us as we can't afford to cover them till EQC pays up.

In other news I think our quilt just got bumped down my to-do list.   On Saturday night my sister-in-law was snuggling into the Patchwork Prism Quilt I made a while ago.  Now it was my brother (her husband) who made us the gorgeous rimu coffee table that's now in our lounge for our Christmas present and I've been trying to come up with something to if not match that (as I don't think I can) at least make it obvious how much we appreciate it.   I'm going to make a quilt, probably the same pattern, but I'll check my books before making any definite decisions.   I have another blanket that would be a suitable batting, there's some old flannel sheets that I'll check for condition first for the backing and a stash for the front.   George's quilt will need to be finished first of course, but once that's done I'll concentrate on this.   I think my dress might have to wait too.

Tomorrow is going to be interesting, the weather forecast isn't great so we won't be washing the windows outside, might do some of the remaining ones that are mucky on the inside though.    There's the appointment with the company for opting out and the dreaded work.    I'd really like to do some work on George's quilt too, or maybe my dress if I can find room on the lounge floor to get the muslin cut out.  Wish me luck!

October 7th, Blogtoberfest

What a lovely night last night!   My brother and his wife arrived on time and everything went well for us leaving.  We got there early, partly because I'd forgotten that it's easier to get a park in town nowadays so we had time for a quick wander around town.   The BNZ building is looking very short now and there are so many empty spaces; rather sad.    There was some nice stuff though, the container shopping area (Re-Start) is looking good, and at the end of it on Oxford Terrace we discovered some street art that was rather wonderful!    The most gorgeous eel done in red on the road surface, it's textured too so you feel it as you walk over it and the footpath around had textured art too in various shades.   If the weather is nice on Thursday I may take the boys in to take a look.

Dinner was delicious, we had an entree of scallops, I had the duck (very rich) and Thomas had the backstrap lamb, dessert was sorbet and a creme brulee with chocolate.  Expensive, but if we could afford it we'd definitely go back.  The waitress was lovely and commented on my knitting and asked what I was making.  At the end she asked if I'd finished and I had to say no, socks take a long time to knit!   I think I got about 4 rows done, but as I said it's what I do to fill waiting times without getting twitchy, lol.

Today didn't start so well, George wasn't well this morning gastro bug, he's feeling much better now.  He'll be staying home tomorrow though as one of the activities tomorrow is swimming and even if he's feeling ok he's not allowed in the pool for another 2 weeks after one of those episodes; that and I suspect he got it from there in the first place.  Ian'll still be going though as he's fine.

I got some quilting done today, all the spokes on the quilt are now pieced and I set up on the floor to pin it all together

Pretend the bits of carpet between blocks is charcoal Kona solids, which is what it will be.

I got a good reaction from George so that's good, I rather like it myself too!

Quick photo's of knitting and spinning progress over the last couple of days

Just one repeat of section 3 to go, looking good!

Fronts of Central Park Hoodie now onto main cable chart in the ribbing!

2nd bobbin of English Leicester singles, still a way to go on this.

And finally a picture of my crinoline which is currently hanging to get some of the crinkles out.

It might take a wee while, it was pretty crushed when I got it, but it's better than it was.

October 4th, Blogtoberfest

The list I made for today:

1. Cleaning Windows
George did the lounge and conservatory and Ian did the dining room.  That's just the inside, but now they're mildew free which is nice.   The outside will mean a visit to the storage unit to get the gear to do the cleaning; might do that on Saturday as it's close to spinning.

2. Making bread
Despite me using the old jar of yeast and then having to add some fresh and whoops on one of the kneading bits it seems to have worked and didn't take a lot of time either!  I'll be cleaning the breadmaker and putting it on Trademe, if I'm going to make bread I'm just as likely to do it using the Kitchenaide as I am using the breadmaker.  It's a really good breadmaker and deserves a home where it will get used rather more often.

It was delicious, I'll be making more, lots more!

3. Maybe make some real pasta now that I have a drying rack for it.
Didn't get around to this, maybe on the weekend.

4. More gardening
We vacuumed instead, lounge/dining/kitchen now all sorted, but we did water the lettuces and seedlings.  Only things not showing any sign of movement yet are the celery, tomatoes and zucchini.

5. I want to start sewing George's quilt so he and I can decide on a layout
I did get started, 2/3rds of the way through the 2.5" strip piecing.

About halfway through the piecing.

6. Play another game with the boys
No, didn't do this

7. Work
done

8. Knitting - probably CPH as the shawl is a bit too involved to do when there is the potential for interruptions, as proved by today's little debacle.
Dyed 200g of sock yarn, I think it needs another dip in a tomato red as the crimson has come out a little too pink.   Might do that tonight.  The yarn was from the Milton Mill, 200g worth.  I've run out of time for knitting now, but tomorrow's a new day.

A bit too pink, that lighter bit is the mink yarn which has taken the colour differently.

I think I've also worked out what's causing my dry hands, it is likely the pump soap in the kitchen and I've just put bar soap there instead.

Tomorrow is going to be devoted to knitting, I'll drop the boys off at their day activity and then sit down and knit (please no tink).  A wee bike ride to Barrington to get some printer ink will be the only other thing aside from possibly some Xbox time.

Finished!!! Patchwork Prism QAL

Oh, I'm in love!   Yesterday I did a wee bit of free motion quilting in the middle of my quilt, it was a butterfly and once I'd done that I stopped as I didn't want any more, it was just perfect.    The binding was put on last night and now she's finished and she's beautiful.


Meet Beauty-A Patchwork Prism Quilt

All finished on display

On the couch, where she'll get used most often

Butterfly FMQ in the middle; love this!

The back, in flannel

Some quick details:

Front is the Prism Quilt pattern by Anna Marie Horner for Janome; I'm participating in the Prism QAL, see the button on my sidebar for details.
I used mostly stash fabrics; some from the pack of fat quarters I won from V&Co, had to buy a few browns and greens though due to a major lack in my stash.
The batting was an old cream wool blanket with some stains that washing didn't move.  It was a touch on the prickly side so didn't get used as a blanket often, this way it'll be used a lot.
Backing is Essentials Flannel by Wilmington; I got it for a very good price from Fabric Shack and it worked well for backing and binding.   Makes it nice and snuggly for winter; which is good considering winter has definitely hit here.

I took it into Stitch to show off this morning and it was very well received, some of the fabric I used came from there.   I think I might put it in the Summer Sewing Competition (see my sidebar for that button too); it looks summery to me and might help me think it's summer even though it's freezing cold!

Day 8 - A finish line reached

I've finished my little mystery quilt; all I need now are 2 cuphooks to attach it to the back of the sewing room door and it'll be in use.

As you can probably tell it's for holding fixed circular needles and seems to work quite well.   I will post the tutorial, but not right now as it'll take a while to get all the photo's downsized and write the whole thing up.   Might have to see if I can set it up in word and then copy it over here.    Still got to write up my mitten pattern too.
I'm really happy with it, a couple of things that I could do better; a little more fabric above the snaps to make it easier to grasp them, and I'm sure there's an easier way to put the hanging sleeve on the back; but aside from that it's exactly what I need.

I'm going to get some work done now, slightly achey after all the snapping unfortunately, but I still have to get the work finished even if I ache.   My workout tomorrow morning should fix that anyway.   Going to spend the night killing zombies with my beloved once the boys are in bed.

Day 5 Blogtoberfest

Fairly quiet today in some ways; I didn't go out aside from the school run, and I got a reasonable amount of sewing done.

1st up I finished my trousers and they fit perfectly!   Hopefully they'll get too loose soon and I can take the side seams in.

Ignore the tummy, that's a combination of the IBS and a little extra padding.  My personal trainer says my tummy muscles are really strong though, so at least that's one good thing.   I think the IBS thing might be improving too, so have hopes the inflamation will improve too.

Once I finished the trousers I did my first ever free-motion quilting on my mystery item; here's a peek.  The photo is part of my tutorial shots so the pins are what I used to hold the layers together; not a hint as to the use it'll be put to.  

My free-motion quilting leaves a bit to be desired, my tension went AWOL on me; but after doing some reading on The Freemotion Quilting Project I've got a few new things to try, including not dropping the feed dogs, but instead placing the stitch length at 0.  I also spent the rest of my spending money at her quilting shop getting some quilting gloves and a teflon glider thing for the machine bed.  Unfortunately I can't afford the nifty wee table she uses, but this should help; and considering I have a king sized quilt that I'll be quilting once it's all pieced I'll need all the help I can get!  Even if I could afford the nifty table it's probably not worth it, much as I'd like to think my machine will last forever I have to keep in mind it's as old as I am, and if Mum wants it back I really do have to give it to her seeing as it's still hers.
One day I'll get a quilters machine with a bigger harp, and hopefully some alphabet fonts too....

Tomorrow I have to go out for a bit, I need to get a stereo to PC cable so I can shift our tower down to the section it belongs in on the computer desk.   I've also got to drop off a colouring competition entry form for George at the mall; he'd like to come, but I hate Riccarton Mall and if he's going it has to be either the weekend which is too busy or school holidays which is just as bad!   Not to mention that for either of them it would be just me with both boys as Thomas is busy each weekend till after the comp closes and working in the week.

School holidays start next week, you might have worked that out from the last comment I made.   There are some plans in place; the boys have 4 sessions with the Autism Society's holiday scheme going to places like Orana Park, swimming, ten-pin bowling, a llama park, horse riding and an adventure playground.   We also have to go out and get them both shin guards in the first week as they start soccer next term with a special needs group.  In the second week their grandmother is taking them for up to 3 days; it may be less, depends on how they behave, lol.  Ian's being a bit defiant of late, so it may not be the full 3 days; we'll see.

Day 4 Blogtoberfest

I did something against my principles today; normally I only buy natural fibre products, but today I got some polyester batting.   It was price based in part and also based on the fact that this item will never go on a bed, it'll be on the wall.
Here's a photo of the fabric and batting to tease you (grin)

Any thoughts on what I'm making?   I'll be taking photos as I go and if it works as I have planned there'll be a tutorial afterwards.

In other sewing news my trousers are almost done.  Just buttons to go on the waistband and the hems to do; they'll be finished tomorrow.   They fit perfectly, but no photo of them on till they're done.

Not the best photo, but you can see the contrast pocket flaps on the legs; loving those, the hip pockets have the same fabric as a hidden lining which is a touch that makes me smile.

Got to try out a new to us game on the Xbox today, Left 4 Dead 2; great fun with Thomas as a co-op game.  We'll have to buy our own copy I think, along with Gears of War 3 when we can afford it.   Oh, and the latest Harry Potter has a release date of November 16, so we'll be buying that too; I'll have the full series of HP movies then as well as all the books.  I'm actually reading the books again at the moment, lol.

New shoes arrived for the boys today from NZsale.co.nz; love that site!   They fit well, the only problem is that they are shoe lace ones and neither boy has mastered tying a bow yet.  I'm thinking I might have to get some of those no-tie shoelaces for them so that they can manage them at school. 

A few wee things.

Thought you might like to see the bike that we went to so much effort to retrieve, this is Thomas' baby.  It's a Honda VT 750 cruiser styled bike and is definitely a nice bike.

It's lost a wing-mirror  but aside from that is still in good nick, a bit of paint damage but that was mostly pre-quake; only way to keep that perfect would be to never use it which isn't an option.   It's Thomas' main transport to work which means I have the car.

I've been working on my quilt, this is how it's looking with the blocks done so far laid out:

Worked out today I still need to make 90 blocks!   I had to order another jelly roll to be able to do that, will start cutting out the 2nd roll this week; may take a while to finish though as I have winter clothes to start on soon.  George has approved the material for his pyjamas (navy blue with lighter blue maple leaves), also have material for some trousers, tops and stuff for me too as I'm getting low on winter clothes.  Also need to make a couple of skirts for me too, so there's no way this quilt will be ready before this winter.

I have finished one knitting project though, my One-Sided Vest is finished as of tonight.  It still needs blocking, but fits well and feels firm over my pyjamas (that was what I was wearing when I tried it on).  Over my usual winter tops which are fitting it will be perfect.

So excuse the pj's.  You can't see the cable well in the picture, but it looks good and should show better after blocking.  The pattern had 2 errors that I found, one in the cable directions (T3F and T3B were the wrong way around) and the wording in the decreases for the neckline was written in such a way as to make you decrease every 8th row, when it should be every 4th row.  I've noted my project page though so anyone looking at the pattern can find it.  Don't see any point in letting the designer know as she ignored my initial question about the cable issue; not going to waste my time again.
The yarn though I love!   It's a yarn with body, not overly soft and with a nice fleck through it made from polyester.  The main component is wool though and I'd say it's something like a Romney.  The yarn is Naturally Tussock 14 ply and it feels like it will wear well.   I love soft yarns as much as the next person, but for something like a vest I want something that will last and look good for a good amount of time and I think this fits the bill nicely.   The yarn also comes in Worsted and DK weights from memory.

I will probably cast on something new as I'd quite like a bolero style and I have some lovely Noro Silk Mountain looking for a project, this would also allow a little stash busting.

Went to a spinning day yesterday, was concentrating on my knitting, but I won in a lottery 2 beautiful lots of fibre:

The first one I won is the one on the right, it's Vintage Purls Perendale and it turns out to blend beautifully with 100gm of Romney I have from another dyer, I'm going to ply the two together.  Both fibres are slightly stronger so should work well together, the Romney has more sheen so it should be quite special.
The second which I only won as everyone else had already won something is some Merino dyed by a lady in Oxford (I've spun her fibre before, yummy), it came with some bunny angora dyed to tone with the Merino.  I still have my current bamboo to finish before I can start on anything else, but this has bumped a few other things down the queue.

Earlier that day I got an email to say I'd won a blog competition for a book "Knitting it Old School" as well as sufficient yarn to make a mens jacket from the book as well.   I have no idea what the yarn is or what colour, but the example shown on the website is green.  Thomas took one look at it and informed me he'd never wear it, that's ok, wasn't planning on knitting that pattern for him anyway; I'm sure there'll be something suitable in the book that I can use the yarn for that I can wear.  Unfortunately my wee run of luck didn't extend to Lotto, but I can still dream.

Earthquake wise, our area is getting back to normalish.  Still boiling the water, still can't go to town as it's blocked of and tbh I doubt there's much of it left anyway.  Probably going to be 9 months or more before our house is properly assessed; I guess that gives me time to find more damage, like the dent in the boys bedroom door which I suspect is earthquake related; though I could be wrong.   A lot of people left town this weekend due to Ken Ring's prediction of another big quake; which he's since withdrawn.  His predictions have caused a lot of fear in a community that already has more than enough to deal with.  I'm taking a flower essence quake remedy which I suspect is helping.

Did a 50 minute bike ride on Thursday, felt great during it, but must have pulled something as I spent the next few days in agony with a really painful ribcage on one side.   It's much better now, but I'm still tired due to a lack of sleep for 3 nights in a row.

Post earthquake, again

Yesterday was not a nice day; today is also not nice and it looks like things won't be good for a while, and for some people never again.

At 10 minutes to 12pm yesterday we had another earthquake.  This wasn't as big in magnitude as 4th September, but it was shallow and centred near town.  It felt worse than the original to me as I lurched from the sewing machine into the bedroom (less stuff in there to fall).   Our house coped ok, my hot chocolate didn't so the keyboard is now full of sticky stuff.  Cleaned that up quickly, my neighbour was home for lunch and he came to check on me which was really nice.  They were staying out of the house.   After I'd cleaned up the hot chocolate and a couple of hazards from the floor I ran down the road to the school to pick up the boys from the school field.   Yesterday that field was full of children and teachers; today it looks like this:

You can see the liquefaction at the front, the little grey bits on the field at the back are where the kids were yesterday.   Today we went for a walk down to the local dairy.  We passed a lot of liquefaction on the way, I didn't take any photo's of the worst affected area as that would have been infringing on the privacy of the people living there; but you can get an idea from the following 2 photo's of the road near there:

the bottom shot is of the hole you can see my husband pointing at; it's a sinkhole about 2 feet deep with a lot of water in it.  Someone had put a rubbish bin next to it so no-one would drive into it.   On the street I previously mentioned my husband saw a car sunk into one of these up the top of the hubcaps, my father-in-law drove my sister-in-law's car into one of them during the earthquake; the car is stuffed, but he was ok which is all that matters.

When we got to the local dairy there was a queue which we joined as we were out of milk and now that power was back we needed some more.  He was getting very low, had already packed the milk into bags of 2 to 4 bottles.  We only got what we needed which was 2 bottles and a small pack of jellybeans for the boys.  I didn't get anything else luckily as I had to pay cash which I was getting low on.    On the way back there was another aftershock; there's been a lot and some have been over 5 on the scale.  

We dropped into school which was closed to show Ian his bike was safe, he's not happy about it, but it's safe and sound

His is the green bike, so safe and sound, even if out of reach.   There's a security camera nearby so it should still be there when school reopens.   I don't think it's going to be this week though, water has only just come back on at 1.30pm and the pressure is rather low and we're on boil notice so not suitable for school to open yet.  I hate to think what the lunchboxes will be like when we get back to school, but I'm sure it'll be able to be washed.

But annoying as all this is, we're lucky! No-one hurt and minimal property damage.  We know everyone is safe; so many people do not have that luxury.

I've not got much crafting done, was in the middle of sewing quilting patches when it started and the power went.

Will post more crafting photo's once things are a bit more normalised.   That might take a while.