Fun Summery Days

Denise and I had the greatest day together on Saturday. The weather in Adelaide was just perfect, nice and warm, but not too hot. Also the new East End Markets had opened up in the city, and we just had to visit.
Got quite a compliment about my knitting and designing skills that day. I was using my felted shoulder bag I made last year, and one of the craft stall holders commented on it. When I said that I made, it she mentioned that I should sell them. It got me thinking, while the bag may take me a bit of time to make, felted purses, small shoulder bags and coin purses would be perfect. Be a good excuse to perfect my pattern for the bag too.
Also picked up some jams and a loaf of sourdough bread while there. Then spent some time in at the Central Market and did the healthy thing. Bought lots of salad stuff, lots of fruit, large turkish pide, then went home and feasted on the whole loaf of bread and the jams while sitting in the backyard watching the cat meow at birds. It was so relaxing. Almost made me forget the housework! (Almost? queries Denise sarcastically)

Anyway, I have to go back about a week, because I had pictures I wanted to share but couldn't get them loaded onto my computer. Denise and I took our knitting goodies up to the Guardian Pharmacy to send over to Mongolia. We get our little thankyou badge in the mail after they order more in. In total we had 17 items this year, although some where items I finished just after last years closing date.
We had:

• 9 beanies
• 5 pairs of socks
• 1 pair of booties
• 1 pair of mittens
• and the Beige blankie
  

The socks were so much fun, playing around with different sizes, trying to figure out how the pattern worked and how I could adjust it. I've got some small mateless socks sitting in my knitting pot waiting for me to find the time to cast on a match.
There was another crocheted blanket that I was going to send off, but in comparission to the Beige Blankie it was tiny and I realised that it might fit a newborn but that's about it. So I hunted down some more mottled yarn and started hooking some more chains around and around and around. I'll let it continue to grow until I run out of yarn. The ball is 170g.
The Beige Blankie finally finished off at 1m square, which is a lot of beige, brown and muddy coloured yarn. Despite the holes in the blanket, it is actually quite warm. I'll miss having something so nice sitting on my lap as I work.
One thing is for certain, our little girl is not happy about losing her nice place to sleep. When laying the blanket out on the bed to photograph it, the cat decided that it was hers and she was going to claim it. She was looking at us as if to say 'Sorry mummy, this is mine and I'm not moving for you.' Thankfully we were able to get rid of the blanket and keep the cat. Although I have promised her that I am going to make her her own blanket out of the nasty big cone of super chunky yarn I picked up from the Goodwill Op Shop. $5 for a cone that is 10cm in diameter!!!
Other good news, my shoulder problems are slowly lifting. I spent a week of absolutely no knitting or crocheting, and it's worked. My problems have cleared up enough that the physio was able to get to the root of the problem, not just fix the symptom. So I'm doing exercises that are strengthening the core body muscles. It seems to be working. I'm slowly picking up my knitting again, and it takes me longer before I get to the stage of having to stop. I've got more movement in my shoulder than I've had since I started work. Its great, although I am very aware of my posture. No more slouching for me.
And because I can knit again, my Tubey jumper is now at a length that it covers the essentials, although not much further yet. And I've started on an urgent pair of wrist warmers for work. This spell of lovely warm weather has meant I went to work the other day in a t-shirt, only to realise that the airconditioner still works. In fact, with a completely sealed office, no open windows at all, the air conditioner will continue to work and spread its nasty cold germs. So by lunch time I was ready to go and sit in the sun to thaw out, only to go back inside and lose feeling in my fingers as I typed. So wrist warmers for work are the call for the day. And I've set myself a challenge too. I was knitting at lunch in the office lunchroom and one of the women who works in my area did the usual, "what are you knitting?" To which I told her wrist warmers. She laughed and commented "oh, they'll be ready for next winter then?" "No, next week!" I replied. I can get them done in that time, it just depends on whether wrist warmers also suffer from second sock syndrome.