Pollynanna

Exciting things are building in my busy busy world.  I have a dream.... it is a dream that involves yarn, needles, hooks and ME!

I would just love it to all happen NOW but this is something that is going to happen with time and lots of effort, love and ME!

Here's a few pictures of what I am making, some of it is patterns I have purchased and others ones that I have designed myself.  I am just loving how they are turning out and I love it when one of my hats is discovered and loved just as much as I love them.

I am selling them in my shop, they made it to a market in the weekend and hopefully we are going to develop a market of our own right in the shopping village I work in everyday.  So many wheels are turning, slowly slowly at the moment but i just know that when they all turn together so much magic is going to just be.

YarnBombing Greerton Style!!

It's happened!!!  The tree outside my shop has been bombed!  I can't describe how exciting it was to clamber up the ladder and start attaching my tree rug.  As it stretched around the trunk it just seemed to be made to fit - which it was of course.

I am sure that I will take so many photos in the days to come but this is the first of them and I think it just looks magnificent.  It makes the trunk just so huggable - in fact while I was taking photos I had a young girl just walk right on up and hug that tree.

Of course there are so many trees in Greerton and so many of them have their winter rugs in place.  The effect is stunning - you can't help but smile while you wander around looking at the work that everyone has put into their tree.  So many different ideas so many different results.   I am just estatic that it has finally come to fruitition.  I have added photos below of some of the trees... more to follow over the next few days.  How wonderful it is - just makes my smile a million miles wide.

drum roll........ Here's Autumn!!

After such a fantastic summer which just seemed to keep on keeping on - Autumn has landed with a bit of a bang today.  I managed to get out of the shop yesterday to snap some pictures of the leaves in Greerton.  We are so lucky to work in such a beautiful shopping area - it really does have the best of everything.

I couldn't resist these shots when I took the pups for a walk.... and walking thru the leaves kicking them was just a small revisit to my childhood.  The rain has fallen today so playing in the leaves won't be such a happy moment.  Definitely a great night to get home and snuggle in front of the fire with a huge pot of tea and some yarn to play with.  Oh and a big pot of soup on the oven... another form of bliss.

On the creating front I have been quite busy - my hats are rapidly mulitiplying which is super exciting.  I need to branch out into some new colours but for now this is where I am at.  I have knitted a couple too just to give my crochet hook a rest.  Love making them - really pleased with how they have turned out but I am ready now to try tweaking the patterns to make them mine.  It's all a work in progress but it is slowly becoming my happy space.

So Much To Make!

Where oh where to start.

I have had a lovely Easter break - three whole days off to myself, I didn't leave my sanctuary up here in the hills.  Just spent time with the dogs and all of the different personalities rattling around in my head.  There's the crochet diva that wants to cover every wee kiddie head in town.  My knitting hippie that wants to cover herself in knitted wares.  And then there is my quilting alter ego that would like to cover her grandkiddies and her own walls in colourful creations.  So I spent the three days dabbling in bits of this and pieces of that.  I was a lovely time and I managed a few pictures to share of what I am up too.

This was my venture into making some crochet garlands.  Over here on emmalamb's blog I have always wanted to make some flower garlands.  When I saw her post on making circles I knew I had to give it a go.  I had chosen the colours a while ago and with a few tweaks I sat down to go completley dottie.  I love how they have turned out but I am having a few  issues trying to figure out where I will put them or how to use them.  At the moment they are strung on the wall in my office looking a wee bit lonely.  They were originally planned to be used on my twiggy arrangement in the lounge but I haven't had time to make them look just right.  Time will find them there rightful home.

  During the weekend we did manage a drive in Mr Tom's passion, his 58 Chevy that he has had restored to perfection.  I always take advantage of this time to work on some knitting.  The last few drives this has involved my Ishbel scarf which I am making in a bamboo mix yarn.  It has grown quite quickly of late but now that I am at the lace stage it is no longer a 'driving' knit but has become a great 'cafe' knit instead.  It was a lovely drive to Waihi where we have a fantastic lunch sitting in the sun.

And then lastly I have to tell all about a wonderful yarnbombing project that is in the making.  For a few years now I have had an idea of bombing the trees in the shopping village where my shop is located.  At last I have people that think I am not completely off my rocker and through a lot of hard work and organising on their part it looks like coming to fruition this year.  How exciting is that?  The yarns sitting on my chairside table are just waiting to be hooked all around this old bike.  I need to find a new seat for it - but I can see how cool this bicycle is going to be.  Watch this space :)

I have a tree that I am going to warm for winter BUT I also have been given a bike to put my own little touch of crochet onto.  So I have the bike.... I have the yarn - just have to find the time and have a plan.  Not too good on plans so lets just go with the time and I think I can find some of that.

Caden's Blankie

I have been busy with this blanket for a few months now.  When the kids let me know that they had another bundle on the way I knew I had to come up with a lovely blanket.

I actually convinced myself that we were going to get a wee girl.... so I started two different girly versions.  So cute!  Luckily Lewis snuck a look at the scan one day and had a chat with the doctor and voila, another boy.  I had a minor head spin and went on a major internet rampage until I found this lovely blanket.  I thought it was so clever but liked the idea of circles in rainbow colours that would look kind of like a paint box.

I had made a blanket for Rydah a couple of years ago.  I loved the yarn that I used so decided to just continue creating with this yarn again.  It is a Sirdar BabyBamboo which is made up of bamboo and wool.  A good combination considering this family lives in Cairns and the cooler this blanket is the better.

I am so pleased with how it turned out.  I used this method of joining all of the blocks.  What a neat finish this method has achieved.  Lucy of Attic24 has so many great ideas and tutorials I find myself looking through her archives more and more.

So it is ready to be packaged up and posted off.  I am just finishing a small quilt I made for Rydah's birthday.  It is running a bit late but he will just love snuggling under it when watching tv or lying on outside to watch the clouds.  More on that project super soon.

A lovely side note of Caden's blanket proves that Nannies blankets are all powerful.  I finally completed the blanket on a Sunday evening.  I posted on facebook - "Finished!  A certain baby can arrive right now"  About 10 minutes later I received a text from my son announcing that Zoe's waters had broken.  If that isn't powerful I am not too sure what is.


I have just popped an extra photo to the right of the blanket that I made for Rydah.  It is knitted and was the first item I had finished in a long long time.  I see this blanket as the start of a my creating passion being reignited.  Thanks Rydah.












Well it been great writing about this wooly journey.  Now off to plan my next one... or maybe work on one of the ones I have already started.  Bye for now xxxx

My Happy Moments

I thought it was about time I started to remember the moments in a week that made me smile and gave me that little moment of total pleasure.  It's so easy for these to happen and then you don't think of them again, so writing them down here is going to jog my memories.

This week there has been a few special moments.  One hugely momentous one - the birth of my second grandchild.  The moment I get the text from my son telling me his son has arrived and everyone is well and oh so happy.  Isn't he devine?
I won't get to meet Caden Lewis until August so in the meantime the wonders of the internet will have to suffice.

My son, Lewis and his lovely partner Zoe are doing such a wonderful job of parenting and I think (with a little bit of Nana bias) that they make just stunning boys.

Here is Zoe with Caden and big brother Rydah who is just over 14 months old.  I just love that they have had two boys and they are going to grow up doing boy stuff together.  Their parents might not be so keen on all the stuff they will find to get up to but I think I might get to smile a smile or two when I hear about their adventures.

Well it seems that this news just overshadows all the other happy moments I have had this week.  I will save them for another post.

Enjoy your weekend - I will, the weather is Autumn perfect here.

When Lots of Small Things Make a Magic Moment or Two.

I just love it when different small things that have happened all combine and Boom! I have a moment or two of bliss and happiness.

So to make my tale a short one I got to meet with a fantastic group of fellow knitters and crocheters this weekend.  I think I found a most lovely pack of like minded folk that could sit and yarn their day away.  It was a super day - pictures shown here of us all here.  What a colourful group of ladies, both in appearance and souls.

So I headed home with a smile and some ideas of what I wanted to play with now that my baby blanket is all finito.  I awoke at 4am.... super time of the day..... and decided to have a play with some ideas I saw some of the other ladies working on.

A few months ago I struck gold at my favourite op-shop - I found these cottons all sitting in the corner waiting for me to discover them.  They have been sitting at home while I have wondered what I would use them for.  I had watched some bobbles getting created at our get together so I have decided to make a stripey colour laden cushion trying out some new techniques.  I got to finish off this part of it at the shop today and now am wondering if it is all too magnificent for a cushions... I am thinking what a wonderful cover for my wee granny knitting chair.  Hmmmm ..... the possibilities

So here's my first band of colour along with my other passion, beautiful stationery.  How many journals does a girl need?  I am going to have a play tonight to add a few more colours... just like crochet doodle really - what bliss! 

Ohhhh!  I had some more major news today - involving 10 little toes and 10 little fingers.  Super exciting.... will share this news tomorrow.