Got a Good Head Start Going

Geri's collection of hats is growing quite quickly. Her cream cloche is finished and is being put to frequent, good use. She reports it is very comfortable and has a zero itch factor.




Me thinks a hat addiction may be developing...




The next hat to hit her head is knitted in:

Blue Sky Alpaca Organic Cotton - Nut

from this pattern:

Not-just-for-chemo-reversible-cloche

This hat is actually part of a set that Geri has decided is a necessary addition to her wardrobe. It consists of the cloche with matching seed stitch wrist warmers and a scarf.

The other component in this set is a special Geri request ...

"Muuuum... do you think you could make me an Ice Cream Hat???"

Are you surprised? Me either!

The inspiration for this hat came from a picture that Geri spotted during an internet search - goodness knows what she was looking for originally, but the Ice Cream Hat caught her eye. The band of the hat will be knitted in the same taupe cotton as the rest of the set with the body in these two luscious ice cream inspired yarns:

Blue Sky Alpaca Dyed Organic Cotton - Shell

Blue Sky Alpaca Dyed Organic Cotton - Tulip

 The pattern I've sourced to use for the top is:

Swirl Hat by Gail Tanquary

but I'll be changing the band design to a simple cable pattern reminiscent of an ice cream waffle cone. It is knitting up nicely and should be finished in the next few days. However, the band will be my first foray into cabling and even though it is a simple cable, I'll be taking my time to avoid potential disasters.

Bringing up the rear is this little gem. I was planning to make a red cotton hat for Geri from this pattern:

Cloche Hat and Handwarmers

and as I've never used this stitch before I decided to do a test piece. I reduced the number of stitches cast on and set to. The stitch pattern seems complex at first but it is ok once you get going. I was working on this last October whilst Geri was in hospital and as I was sitting beside her one afternoon she looked over and said that it looked like a babies hat, as indeed it did! So that's what I turned it into. It has worked out to be a premmie size and is very cute. I'll be donating it to the Beanies for Babies organisation once I have a few other items to send along with it.

I have since decided not to use this yarn for the hat so it's back to the drawing board on that one ....

Surrogate Slippers and Toasty Toes

 WOW, so it's been three months since I posted. How did that happen? I have a lot to catch up on as I've been really busy both on the needles, in the garden and on the GeriPie front.

First up, Chris has managed to get out of India and is now based back in Melbourne. He came home on leave for a few weeks over Xmas and was feeling the cold, even though the weather in Wellington was pretty darn good if I say so myself!

Anyhoo, Pat took pity on Chris' blue feet and lent him his felted clogs. This resulted in one happy Chris with toasty warm toes. So, I decided to get stuck in and make Chris a pair of his own, even though I had sworn vehemently that I would never make anything felted ever again after the crazy measures I had to go to to get Pat's clogs to felt. I didn't quite finish Chris' before he left to go back to Melbourne for work, but I came close.

Once the knitting was finished I decided I'd try to avoid the frustrations I experienced whilst felting Pat's clogs and did a bit of research, the upshot of which was that I  discovered that lighter coloured wools don't always felt very quickly because the bleaching needed to achieve the lighter colour affects how the wool reacts during the felting process.

AH HA!!! Maybe that's why Pat's took soooo long ...

Felting day arrived and I prepared to go to war, following all of the suggestions I had come across in my reading -

* Put item in a pillowcase 
* Use a hot wash
* Use a low water setting
* Use towels or jeans to aid agitation
* Check felting progress every 5-10 minutes

and then slowly over the next hour I abandoned or augmented nearly all of them -

* Take item OUT of the pillowcase so they bash around more in the machine
*Turn the cold feed to machine off, discover water is still not  hot enough, so boil kettle 10 million times and add to the machine - ad nauseam
* Use low water setting
* Remove towels until only one remains
*Check felting progress sporadically at first as nothing happens - but DON'T get complacent as I discovered that the clogs went from Shrek size to Tinkerbell size VERY fast when I got the combination of temperature, agitation and water level correct.

As you can see, this time the process worked beautifully and Chris now has a good solid pair of clogs awaiting him on his next visit home. I guess he will require a second pair for his 'home-away-from-home' in Melbourne ...

On the Needles or Getting a Head Start...

 So, Masto just SUCKS!

For the third time in 2 years Geri is losing her hair. It's been happening for 6 months now and shows no sign of letting up. However this time, the hairloss is much more wide spread aka it is body wide.... Hmmmm not good me thinks.

 After previous hair dumps Geri has grown her hair back with varying success, but it's never been quite the same as it was in its heyday.

With her loss being so widespread and prolonged this time, Geri's battling spirit has taken a battering and is severely dented. You see she spends most of her life waiting ... waiting to feel better, waiting for the latest episode to abate, waiting to see doctors, waiting, waiting, waiting and waiting for her hair to grow back. Then once it approaches a length she likes, waiting for it to finish falling out once again before waiting for it to grow back in again. The current round in this cycle has been a deal breaker.

Geri wearing Heidi in Dark Rust

If Geri liked the skinhead look I guess life would be sweet ... in the hair stakes anyway. But the trouble is she loves long hair. To help her cope in the past we've bought her wigs so that she can feel a little less self-conscious about her non crowning glory. When her hair started falling 6 months ago, Geri immediately ordered a new wig - hey, what better way to experiment with a new hair colour and style! She decided to become a redhead this time. This is one of the wigs she's using at present:

Heidi in Dark Rust

Recently it became obvious that the hair loss wasn't going to stop any time soon and after a long discussion Geri came to a decision. She decided that she could control this aspect of her waiting. She could stop waiting for her hair to grow back. With this epiphany under her belt, Geri instructed me to shave off her remaining hair. I was pretty upset doing it but Geri found it empowering and indeed it was a symbolic 'flip the bird at masto' gesture for her.

Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina

The game plan is this: She will grow what's left of her hair long enough to be styled into the style that Audrey Hepburn
wore in Sabrina. Now, I think Geri looks incredible with short hair and that this style will really suit her, but Geri begs to differ because long hair is her overwhelming preference. So, on the days when she wants to have long hair aka most of the time when she is well enough to go out with me, she will wear her wigs but at least for the rest of time she will be stylish and glam in a short haired kind of way hehe. We reckon this is a win/win situation and a really positive way to deal with this nasty situation.

The other tack I am taking to help provide a third alternative is to knit Geri some more hats. She has pressed the Angora beret into service many times this winter and with 'summer' approaching some cooler additions to the hat wardrobe are in order. She rather likes the Cloche style of hat so an extensive internet search ensued. I found that Ravelry had a great range available and with Princess Geri looking over my shoulder to give each pattern the royal nod  - or otherwise,  I sifted through dozens of pages of patterns. This simple but sweet pattern is the first I am making:
 
Amelie Cloche Hat

using 4.5 mm needles and this yarn:

Jo Sparp Desert Garden Aran Cotton in Solstice

which I conveniently had lurking in my stash. It is knitting up at a cracking pace and will be finished before the weekend if everything continues to go according to plan.

Back to  my needles ... UP UP and AWAY!

Just In Time For 'Summer' - Angora adventures come to a close.

Geri's Angora scarf was a quick knit for sure. As you can see from the photos, I didn't stretch it much when I blocked it. The yarn is so soft that I figured it would just reduce back to close to its original size once the wires were removed so I only stretched it enough to open the lace pattern up enough to be visible.

Turns out I was right!




The past four days have been absolutely gorgeous here in Wellington with soft, windless, sunny spring weather so there's not been much call for such a warm, yummy scarf. However, just last week we had massive southerly; aka freezing, gales and heroic volumes of rainfall which induced country wide flooding and landslips.  If Geri had been well enough to be out the scarf would have been pressed into service pronto!

Incidentally, one of the slips was in Pukerua Bay with another just south of us. The southern slip derailed a commuter train coming north which was then hit by another commuter train that was going south ... my husband was on the next northbound train and so had a lucky escape. Good timing huh?

Communter Train Crash

I see on today's weather forecast that our short taster of Utopian spring weather is coming to an end with another 'exciting' storm system heading our way.  Time to batten down the hatches yet  again, wind the scarf around Geri's neck when we are out on Friday and ride the incoming storm out with good old Wellington stoicism. 

Hopefully, Geri won't need to use her scarf too much this 'summer' ...

Grow Baby Grow!

The kit set mini greenhouse and the two sun tunnels arrived. The mini green house sat on the window seat for about a week until I finally found the correct 'round-to-it' and put it together. I was further motivated to finally get it done this asap as the kittens had decided that the sheets of plastic that make up the wall and roof sections were great for chewing and jumping up and down on. NOT good karma for kitties!



The sun tunnels were pressed into service straight away. One tunnel is full of vege seed and the other now has flower seed in it. Some of the vege seed has been very quick to germinate, taking just 4 days! The empty tunnel; seen in front in this photo, has a couple of unique W.A.W.D.s in it ..... aka Wellington Anti Wind Devices hehehe. These old diving weights are very useful for this sort of thing here in Windy Wellington.

The mini green house went together without too much fuss and bother. It sat on top of my pattern drafting table for a further few days once it was all together whilst I figured out how I was going to stop it taking flight with the next little 'breeze' that passed through Wellington.
Silly me... I mistakenly imagined  that it would be safe from the onslaught of curious kitties if it was up on the table. HAH! Effie eyed it up, leaped up onto the table; then onto the peak of the green house, turned around and cast me an "Oh, you are joking if you think that will stop me" look and proceeded to use the lid sections as a kittie super slide. She is such a little monster and it is indeed fortunate that she is also very cute!

I'm hoping I've solved the potential; erm guaranteed, problem of flying greenhouses by building a heavy wooden base (with my son's help) and screwing the greenhouse to it. This will hopefully live up to the challenge of 120km/hr winds! The frame also provides a little more elevation for the greenhouse which means I should be able to fit 3 pairs of my Autopot hydroponics units inside it, which will be great for growing winter salad greens - or even summer ones for that matter if we have yet another bad summer.

The Autopots -

Autopot System

are something I brought back from Australia. It is a really great growing system and is perfect out on my very large front deck. I'm planning to expand the system some time next year as the units I planted up just after I got home are going really well. I use them primarily for salad greens and herbs at the moment and will increase the range of veges once I have more units.

Jen, Geri, Lyyne and 'It'

A few months ago our friend Lynne; who inhabits the same masto Facebook corner of the world as us, lost her treasured son Thomas in the most tragic of circumstances. There are no words to describe her loss and the pain and agony this dreadful event has caused her.

As I sat here on the other side of the world I felt compelled to do something more than offer words of comfort - which to be honest felt totally inadequate. Ideally what I wanted to do was to spend some quiet time with her, to wrap her up in a huge hug and to just be there. But, that was impossible so I did the next best thing - I decided that if I couldn't be there in person to give her a hug then I could be there in spirit with my arms being substituted by a shawl.

I decided to use this yarn:

Blue Sky Alpacas 50% Alpaca 50% Silk

And once again used this pattern from Knitty:

Knitty - Ella

After confirming Lynne's address I let her know that 'It' was on its way to her and awaited the day it would arrive. That was today. At last I've been able give Lynne that hug and that's a good feeling for sure.

Shawl prior to blocking

and after blocking.

Let the planting begin ... almost!

The terracing of the tyres is complete. Three Cheers for ME!! I'm now in the process of leveling the pathways, finishing the back-filling and adding compost. I'm also trying to figure out how I am going to handle a narrow strip of garden that remains along the back fence at the lowest point of the garden. It is too narrow for tyres so I'll have to be creative and come up with another option. I'm ruminating on that one at present and the solution will come to me in time I am sure. I am planning to plant Sweet Peas in this strip so I have a little time up my sleeve yet.

I am very pleased with how the vege garden is looking and have popped a few seeds and seedlings into the tyres that are filled and ready. The vagaries of Wellington's spring weather have made themselves felt this last week or so with some of the stormiest weather in over 50 years. Of course, it's not just Wellington that has been hit, the South Island is in the grips of terrible rain/sleet/hail/snow storms which are playing havoc with the spring lambing amongst other things. I really feel for all of those involved. It's pretty rough following right on the heels of the Earthquake.

With the knowledge that spring is an unpredictable and random event here with summer often no better, I decided I'd sort out some cold frames to start my seeds off in. It's also easier to keep the baby plants safe from the ravages of slugs, snails and my all time favourite - The Mystery Axe Murderer!

When I was growing food in the first incarnation of my vege garden I used to get very frustrated and was completely mystified by the fact that one day I'd have a healthy row of seedlings smiling up at me and the next morning when I went to say hello all I'd find was a row of little stumps, with the tops laying neatly alongside. It was as if some sadistic mini lumberjack had been through during the night and felled my burgeoning crops with their tiny axe. I never did work out who; or what, the culprit was and I'm not prepared to watch it happen all over again. Ergo, the cold frames. This way I can keep my babies safe through their infancy until they are ready to toddle on their own in their new homes down in the vege garden. I guess the dwarf sugar snap and snow pea seeds I have already planted are just going to have to take their chances though!

After investigating various possibilities; including making them myself, I came across a local company which manufactures a couple of products which pretty much met my criteria. The first is a cold frame:

Suntuf Coldframe

and the second is  slightly smaller model:

Sun Tunnel

They are due to be delivered today - yippee... I can't wait to get sowing.

Next up will be sorting out the hoop / cloche system for the vege beds so that I can attempt to circumvent the inclement conditions in order to convince the veges that it is warmer than they think it is!

For a bit of light relief during the construction of the vege garden I have cleared quite a bit of the bed directly above the vege garden. This is going to be a flower bed ... a lot of my gardening friends think I've had some sort of breakdown because to date my garden has been an almost exotic flower free zone; the only flowering plants in residence have been native species. In the past I've dabbled briefly with flowers, but as most of the plants I tried simply got torn to shreds in the wind I gave up. I did manage to grow a few roses in the old vege garden but they were never really happy and I ended up asking my mum to adopt them. They are all doing very well up in Auckland now and I get regular 'report cards' on their progress.

When I arrived home; after pondering and planning for 3 years about what I'd do in the garden if I was ever home for good, I could once again allow the urge to grow roses take root. This time however, I was going to be realistic and decided to put Rugosa roses in. These tough little customers not only handle the wind, but are more than happy growing in the teeth of salt laden gales right on the beach and will even tolerate poor soils. So far I've only planted three down the back. The remainder (5) are planted up in the top garden where I'm playing the 'wait and see if they will perform' game.

Myosotidium hortensia - Chatham Island Forget-Me-Knot

So, the colour scheme for this bed I'm working on is blue/yellow/white/purple/mauve - you get the picture! Already in the bed are my Chatham Island Forget-Me-Nots; which are just starting to come into flower now. They will be out of this world in a few weeks time! I've transplanted a crop of self sown seedling out amongst the roses and as more flower seedlings come on line from my cold frames I'll slowly fill the bed in. The three roses I've got in are:

Agnes

Schneezwerg and

Fimbriata which has a little pink in it but I can forgive it for that for the time being!

I am going to add a couple more roses as I slowly move the current occupants out.The roses are: 

Stella Polaris and maybe

Rugelda but she may be too tall for this location ... we'll see.

 Ok, where's my spade. Time to dig!