centripetal progress

 Oh my goodness, I cant believe how fast this is knitting up! I guess 6mm needles will do that.
I only got the wool on Friday and we've had a busy weekend but I've taken it along and its grown and grown.

 I've finished both of the sleeves

 The back piece (and the buttons for it arrived)

So now i'm working on the big circle piece. I learnt German short rows and let me just say, Germans know what there doing when it comes to short rows. They are less fiddly than the ones id learnt before and end up neater too

Here's a picture of the fabric I used as a background for these photos. I got two fat quatres at my dads work friends garage sale and its my very favorite! Now I need to figure out what I want to make with it because it needs to become something really great.

Benny used to play golf with his parents when he was younger and hes recently started going out again. He absolutely loves it and I love seeing him excited and tagging along to find mushrooms with his mum. Last night I made bacon and mushroom carbonara, yum!

knitting and thrifting

 

 I knitted another pair of stripey madelinetosh socks. I used the same pattern as my other pairs.

 As you can see in the picture I really should have taken a photo before wearing them while caring for small children. Oh weal, its an accurate picture of what my socks generally look like- play dough crusted.

 I received my wool for my Centripetal today, yippee!!!! Its not the wool I had planned on using but oh i'm glad to have this instead. I'm in love with these giant skeins. I almost want to use one as a pillow, its so soft. It also helps that it makes big novelty sized balls. The day care children were so excited for me to get out the skein winder and swift. (so excited that I almost needed ear plugs;) The wool is a bit thinner than I needed so  i'm knitting a larger size with a smaller gauge. We will see how that goes.

 On the weekend my dad and I went to some garage sales. I picked up this little cupboard. I've been keeping an eye out for something to raise the doll house off the floor for a good few years now and finally here it is. From the same garage sale I got a lovely house plant for 80c, what luck!

 Then on Wednesday I found these doll house dolls for 10c each at my favourite opp shop, perfect!
Maddison picked up the two on the left and said 'hey we visited them in Adelaide' I asked are they my Oma and Opa? and she said yes:)
So the new little dolls are Oma, Opa and their grand children

25

Today I had some visitors for my birthday and what a great day it was!

Oma, two of my aunties, Helena and Jo, my cousin Elly and my parents all came to visit and spoil me with yummy food

They also gave some birthday money and it wasn't too hard to decide how to spend it

 I've been eyeing off the Centripetal.

 Partly because its pretty but I think even more so because it looks fun and interesting to knit and put together. You knit a circle and then add in the upper back/shoulders piece and sleeves, how clever!

 I'm going to knit it with bendigo woolen mills rustic wool. I think ill go with 'sandstone' colour but I may change to 'aran' (plain white) at the last minute. I always find it so hard choosing yarn colours because its tricky predicting how it will look once knitted, and which colours would look best on me. I'm always so happy once its ordered so I don't have to keep second guessing my decision

 I will also add buttons and i'm deciding between these

...or these

toddler bonnets and mending

 the little hats are coming along nicely. The pink and white stripe has been in use already but still needs i-cord ties. I wasn't sure if the wool would be too scratchy or if it would even fit anyone- I improvised the pattern based the vague memory of on a newborn bonnet I knit. All the little girls tried it on and one claimed it as her own. Its a little small so without the ties it falls off. Each time she puts it back on with all her might, upside down, inside out or back to front, she doesn't mind. She sees me knitting the second one and exclaims 'hat, hat HAT!!"

 My favourite socks are being loved to death on these cold days. They dont look so lovely as the freshly knit pictures:)

 They were in need of some tlc so I learnt to darn

Ahh.... that's better!
Except after weaving from the inside I wasn't sure how the outside exposed stitches wouldn't unravel so I weaved another layer on the outside. It's not very comfortable so I will need to do some more research and perhaps try again. If anyone knows of a good tutorial I could follow I would appreciate the help

 We got two more trusty egg layers.
Our last two got into the habit of eating their own eggs so they went away to become Sunday roasts. Yes seriously! Let that be a warning to the new girls:)

I've been doing lots of sewing of the practical kind. Taking in jeans , fixing clothes and sewing bibs.
I cut up an old flannel cot sheet and over locked the edges to become face and hand cloths for day care. Ive made these a few times now.
I started off using regular face washes but even though I rinsed them after use, hang them over the side of the laundry tub (rather then let them sit scrunched up wet) wash and line dry them, they always ended up with little black dots, presumably mould.
I now use these flanel cloths instead and don't have so much problems, probably because their quicker drying. They are so easy too, I hang them in piles of three or so and they dry so quickly.
I do the same for nappy wipes too, except in a different print/colour so I can easily tell between the two.

around apple blossom day care lately

We've been...

 watering our snail and watching its seeds sprout and grow

 learning skills in practical everyday ways. Were making a pea 'cottage'. I put in stakes and angus was keen to help me thread the string that the peas will eventually grow up.

 He concentrated so hard and did a great job getting the string through the little star dropper holes. Who needs threading toys anyway?! 

Most of the peas have sprouted so soon I will post a photo. When the sprouts are big enough to see in a little photo!

Meanwhile Mitch was having the greatest time stomping and playing on a mound of dirt. "How cute" I thought. It was actually a mound of potatoes begining to grow. Oops!

 For the second time I knitted my hat. Here it is 3/4 way finished but I actually got half way through the decreases before deciding to start it over AGAIN!

 I decided to change the pattern and third time was the charm, now I like it. Thankfully because I wouldn't want to knit it a fourth time!
The pink project is a little pink stripe hat i'm working on. I supply hats for the day care children so that its one less thing for me to worry about sending home at the end of the day or loosing. I always find nice hats at the opp shops for 50 cents or so but I've decided to use up some of my half used balls of wool to knit hats for them to wear here this winter. I'd been feeling a bit bored at times with work recently. It occurred to me that what was missing was missing was my little on the go project for when everyone was busy

 So today while they were busy I ignored the overflowing basket of wet washing (the dark mountain by the table) and knit.

With a cup of tea. Bliss:)

 Eventually all the washing did get hung

 And the little girls 'washing' (otherwise known as their spare clothes dumped out from their bag) got hung and 'ironed' too

That poor plant maddalyn is picking from. A flower barely has time to bloom before being picked by the little girls. They love them, carry them around and some take them to bed and then home:)

Notice the bucket on Mitches head? At nap time he layed down and an absolute mountain of sand fell out of his pockets. It made me laugh so! My broom gets a good work out with these little sand pit lovers about

Ps, ive started a facebook page for my little Apple Blossom Day Care and would be so grateful if you would come 'like' us:)

an awesome day with my bestie sister!

I love these photos from catching up with AJ recently. At the botanical gardens where Autumn is at its best!

yep were two of a kind, as dorky as each other:)

knitting and planting (and twirling and tea partying)

M- Karen I need to do some knitting too
Me- Ok shall I start it for you?
M- No thanks, I know how

 M-See, heres my knitting! (so proud of herself :)

Twirling (them)
Knitting (me

 Here's some of the fairy costumes we got on Wednesday. They are loved! Now we need to make some wings

  and the snail pot too

 The girls absolutely love planting seeds. Georgia is about 18 months and in general is such an easy going baby but she is also the youngest of five in her family and is completely determined that she will do what the older kids get to do. Usually I would plant tiny seeds with the older kids and give the little ones a spade or  the marker pop sticks to play with and they are happy with that for a bit or toddle off and find their own fun but for Georgia that just wont do! So she is my little garden helper, she plants seeds, dropping most of them while she is focused on the one she is putting in the hole and waters them while stepping on the others that have already sprouted. She tries so hard and is so determined and focused. I just adore her helping even if it a bit of a case of one step forward two steps back sometimes. Planting in a pot with her was a good idea and she was so excited to be able to sprinkle all the seeds at once rather than one or two per hole.

mmm, pepermint tea and muffins! (can you tell what we had for snack that day?)