new home

well that was an awful lot of thinking wasn’t it?!?! And do you know what I decided? to start a podcast! I figured I liked talking more than writing.

You can find me here at
www.grannygcrafts.com

see you soon!

thinking time

So anyway, my Dad passed away last Thursday.  He had just turned 88 and after a couple of bouts of pneumonia, the doctors discovered lung cancer.  He was admitted to hospital and within a couple of days he was gone, it turned out his left lung was completely collapsed, his liver and kidney’s were slowing down. 

But what really happened though was Dad decided it was time to go and be with Mum, his wife of 60 years.  I was privileged to be with Dad for his last day here, holding his hand and  watch him lie in peace for the last few hours of his life, and finally witness the two rattly breaths just as he departed.   

You did your best Dad, and it was pretty good.  Thanks for everything.

Love you and give my love to Mum.

So to my most loyal handful of readers, I will be back to blogging in a week or so, as soon as my thoughts are collected.

cheerio

Thursday

ooh there is a definite chill in the air now, the winter woollies are showing up more frequently.  The socks I’m wearing are the first pair I ever knitted, they are too big, semi felted and have holes… I made these about 5 or 6 years ago before I knew about socks, I used rowan tweed – I think – at a very loose tension and before I knew about negative ease.  The colour is gorgeous though a cheerful chartreuse that makes me so happy to look at!

getting value for money

I loved my little day trip in Christchurch a couple of weeks ago, I just wish I had more time there.  The tram ride around the central city was so much fun.

great staff

great friends

lovely sights

and so sweet, honeymooners.  (we could tell by the henna on her hands)

so there you have it, my day in Christchurch!

Alittle bit late, but better late than never

camera

This photo was supposed to have had a shallow depth of field, according to my aperture and speed settings.  Obviously something went wrong, of course I blame the camera!  It’s a fujipix something or other and there are manual setting for aperture and speed but it obviously doesn’t give the same control as an SLR.

Now this photo’s depth of field was nice and shallow, but i had to use the macro setting to get the effect. Obviously not a suitable solution for many situations.

My other main frustration with this camera is the time lapse between being able to take sequential photos, there is a delay of about 4 seconds at least between shots.  Again fine if you are just wanting to take snapshots of people standing still, but sucks for anything action based like below

These shots were consecutive and as you can see a lot of action was missed.  I was aiming for non blurry too, but I do like the end result of these showing all the movement and action.

I could probably manage with the limitations of this camera, but my son is doing photography this year and I only just found out that this term will be digital.  I was hoping the fujipix would work, but after this playing around, I’m afraid I’m going to have to stump up for an SLR.

So I’ve been doing my research and because I have previously had Canon EOS’s back when I dabbled in film photography, I will probably go for an EOS 1000D.   A good solid entry level SLR, which is all I think I need, and pretty much all I can afford.  Just need to sort out the money this week and see how I go.

Here ends my justification!

toodle pip!

inspired

so these are all the outfits which made it to the finals of the creative fibre fashion parade – if you are wondering why the venue reminds you of high school art, it’s because it is in a high school art room…

These are a few of my favourites;

vintage inspired dress on right, nuno-felted merino silk fabric. v cute

what’s not to love about this, esp the hat !

I’m always a sucker for kids coats!

Lovely colour, simple design, looked good on catwalk and on static mannequin

totally impressed by handwoven shirt and jacket, hat a bit naff for my taste, awesome weaving and sewing.

this bridal outfit again looked good on catwalk and mannequin, this one two awards, first time entrant! and silk award

this looks a bit nana-ish on the static mannequin, but I loved it on the catwalk and just really liked the fabric

ooh, how did that get in there twice!

things to ponder

So anyway, when I booked my hotel for Timaru I just let my google do the walking and found what looked to be a gorgeous renovated old style pub/hotel.  I got half right.  The old pub/hotel half.  It wasn’t bad and they are in the process of renovating, the rooms were clean, comfortable, safe and cheap, so really not bad at all.

But there was one thing which left me wondering…

a wall mounted bottle opener right next to the loo….

I guess those southern men need their creature comforts…

trading in timaru

It comes as no surprise that I was the purchaser never the seller!

This baby came home with me

it’s my Majacraft tensioned lazy kate

bought from the Majacraft stand – here they are;

they really are such lovely people and they had a sign up advertising a tour they are running to Rajasthan and Gujarat in India.  I’d so go to India with them!  Luckily though I’ve already travelled to that region and seen such wonderful handicrafts there.  So if you are thinking about going, contact them for details – it would just be triple incredible to go with other craft people.  I also stocked up on spare bobbins for my suzy pro – very sensible aren’t I?

Now this chick is a legend, the one in the pink top

that there is vintage purl she looks much younger than her 80 years doesn’t she?  But speaking of legends, the woman on the left is none other than Margaret Stove the legendary lace knitter and author, she’s obviously stocking up on Morags beautifully dyed lace weight yarn.  I personally stocked up on items as well… so at least I have something in common with Margaret Stove..

Now as for this cheeky looking chick,

this is Michelle from needlefood, Michelle it sure was great to freak you out with my stalker-ish ways!  Of course I had to buy some of her yarn as well.. it wasn’t easy to resist at all.

I’ve been a long time fan of Touch Yarns and I finally got to meet Marnie the amazing yarn lady here;

Isn’t she fab?  I want to be her when I grow up…  In the meantime I’ll just fondle her yarn.. I was restrained at her stall and only bought some yarn, a pattern and some needles.. they were all for a gift to entice my friend Robyn over to the knitting side.  It’s not that I didn’t want to buy myself a shit load of yarn from her, but I just kept breaking into a stalkery nasty sweat at the thought of having to choose…  my lame-ass excuse was that I’m spinning all my own yarn now and don’t really need any more stash ::snort:: Marnie, if you ever read this, I was lying, the reason I didn’t buy any yarn was because I just couldn’t choose and was afraid of embarrasing myself when the credit card declined the $40000.00 worth of yarn I wanted! sorry…

oh oh oh, this photo is one of my fav’s

it’s our own little ravelry meetup!

Most awesome!

home again

I’m home, I’m exhausted and I’m just thrilled at having had a very awesome four days away.  Today was shared with my lovely friend Robyn in Christchurch doing fun touristy things which I will share later on.

But if like me you have been living under a rock lately, or perhaps in Timaru , watch this for a moment of absolute magic.  Susan Boyle on Britains got talent and if that doesn’t make you happy, try this

Happy times!

toodles

Winner!

The jacket and hat won another award – the alpaca award in the Creative fibre fashion parade.  This competition was judged by Susan Scarf who has worked in the fashion industry both in NZ and overseas for quite some time.

Just to refresh your memory, Jenny (pacanut on ravelry) wove the fabric, from mill spun yarn from her own alpacas, on an 8 shaft loom using a pattern found on weavezine.  The design and pattern was her own which she first trialled on a prototype with a lot of input from us at guild.

Once the pattern was cut I was then able to use the offcuts.  You may remember the base of my hat was from blocked buckram, lined with silk and then covered with the alpaca offcuts, all handstitched into place. The final decoration was decided to be two simple pheasant feathers.

I was so pleased to be able to support Jenny by designing a suitable accessory to her wonderful jacket, and I’m incredibly thrilled that this collaboration paid off!

With regards to the whole festival experience… well, it really has been an incredible fun filled, inspirational and educational four days, of which I will be filling you in on over the next few days.

But for now, I leave you with an image from the closing ceremony held tonight…

It’s all go in Timaru….