Frankie and the Beige Blankie

Back from Ballarat and I have to say, I was mildly disappointed. It wasn't that cold that the really warm winter woollies were needed. It was still cold, and big warm jumpers were essential, but I ventured outside without my beanie several times (and considering my hair is once again short, I need the extra warmth in winter).
The knitted gifts were appreciated though. Denise's mum got the Red Tweed socks (not me or Rodney), Nan got the Port Wine socks with the white heel and toe, Pop got Alpaca wrist warmers, and Denise's dad will be getting blue twist wrist warmers. Everyone loved them (or will love them, Denise will be sending the wrist warmers for her dad up on Monday) and Nan even took her thin shop bought socks off straight away to wear her new woollen socks, and showed them off to everyone she saw. She told us that her feet hadn't been that warm in years. So this is spurred Denise to make lots of socks for her Nan. We've been out twice in the last day to get more sock wool, two balls of Sirdar Town and Country sock wool from Needle Nook and some really nice Sirdar Snuggly Fair Isle baby wool from Yarn Barn. Hmm, imagine how nice and soft that is going to be on the feet!!
Well I didn't get to take my crochet hook on the plane. Seems that while Jetstar's website only says knitting needles, there is a Federal law that goes into further detail, that includes crochet hooks and sewing needles. I'm going hunting those laws. But I think thanks to the latest security scare in the UK, knitting needles are the least of my worries. I can't justify paying $5 for a lousy bottle of water.
But I did learn how to finger knit. I picked up some balls of Moda Vera fluffy acrylicky yarn stuff from Spotlight (it's on clearance at the moment) and in the scarf pictured there are two strands. I was going to add a third strand of plain yarn but I forgot to pack it in the rush to leave at 4:45AM!!!!!
Denise watched me part of the way, and we decided that to make anything of any size to wear as a scarf, it would probably be better to make three of these ropes/mini-scarves and plait them together. Denise was going to make herself a scarf to go with her brown business suit for an interview. She was going to make three mini-scarves of three different shades of brown and then plait them. If only I'd known before I started on the Beige Blankie.
Talking of the Beige Blankie, I'm just edging it now. Finishing it off in dark brown. I'm enjoying making it now, despite how long it takes me to do a side. I sit with it across my lap like an old granny and it keeps me so warm. And Frankie loves it too. Whenever I work on it, she'll jump on my lap and cuddle down. She's going to be sad to see it gone.
As you can see, she was annoyed at being disturbed having private time on the blanket.
So far the tally of things to go to the Guardian Angel Program is:

• 5 pairs of socks
• 2 beanies
• 2 small crochet baby blankets
• The Beige Blankie
• 1 pair of mittens

I think that's a lot of good karma knitted there, and its given me a lot of fun playing with the different sizes of the kids socks.
Actually there were 6 pairs of socks to go, but one is about to be sent off to Ballarat for Denise's no longer pregnant friend. She had the baby yesterday evening, a baby boy we've been told. No name yet, but he already has some nice warm goodies being sent his way.
Also, I've decided to start adding instructions for some of my creations to this blog, namely some of my knitting patterns and vegetarian recipies. Denise and I are both vegies, and me not being able to follow instructions too closely, I've learnt how to fix my disasters and adapt meals to better suit us. I love cooking from Super Food Ideas magazines, although there are a lot of meat meals. So I use meat substitutes or extra vegies. And eventually they are so far different from the original recipe, there is no way you can call them the same thing. Same goes for many things I knit. I even knitted my felted bag designed on a free promotional satchel I got at uni. So they will start popping up between posts, and a drop down list is being designed to go in the side bar so you can search through them. That may take a bit more fine tuning though.