Snow and Socks

For the past 3 weeks it's been crazy busy in Amazonaland.

I've been dabbling with yarny projects and taking the Sonofaguns on a couple of adventures.

After making a big project such as my recently finished Staggy The Yarn Bombed Stag, I kind of usually feel a little burnt out so I spent time making things that don't require much brain work.

One such project is a granny square blanket for my boyfriends (AKA The Bear) own Bear cub. 

He requested his own blanket in his 2 favourite colours: lime green and bright yellow. Wowsers! Get me some sunglasses! Its super bright but what the Bear Cub wants, he will get!

It will be made up of 12 large green granny squares with a soft grey edge each, then another row of yellow. Then all 12 squares will be sewn together and edged in a basic edging of maybe moss stitch.

It's been hard working on one colour because #ihavetheattentionspanofagoldfish .

I also love following Winwick Mums blog and if you have heard of her, then you'll know Christine is the Queen of Knitted Socks.

Knitted.

Yes. For my fellow Crochet Queens that involves two things that look like very long crochet hooks without the hook thing on the end.

Now I don't know about you, but when I knit on super rare occasions, I feel like this guy...

But for some bizarre reason I decided I wanted to have some hand knitted stripey socks.

So I went to this gorgeous LYS Morris and sons in the Melbourne CBD and a lovely lass sold me what can loosely be described as small little stabbing things attached to garrot wire. AKA Magic Circle or Loop or something.

Everything has been going really well thanks to Christines wonderful Sockalong tutorials.

Until I reached the heel.  I have had to frog back 4 times.

Do you know what happens after you frog back teeny tiny knit stitches 4 times? You start to cackle hysterically when you discover that 'knit' rhymes with 'shit'.



Really? I beg to differ. <roll eyes>

So I despondently put it aside until I finish posting a tutorial I have been trying to write for my little amigurumi owl. I think I just needed a mental health break!

Down in the city, Melbourne has been giving us beautiful sneaky glimpses of Spring weather. Which made us leap into action to get in some last minute winter action. Last weekend the Bear and I piled the younger kids into the car for a day trip up to the snow.

Now I don't really do snow. It just seems kind of you know, cold and wet which isn't really very appealing on a regular basis. And I kind of never got into skiing because it involves moving very fast in a downward motion from a high place relying on some sticks. I did try it once.
Many years ago an old boyfriend took me for a day trip skiing with some work buddies. They put those long ski sticks on the ends of my legs. I decided to try skiing from the top of this little kids learners hill. 
I first laboriously walked up the hill sideways.
I looked down to the base of the hill.

Look, you know it may have only been an extra 2 metres higher over a 60 metre slope but I looked DOWN and said, "Nope." and then laboriously walked back down sideways, took off my skis, and happily skipped to the Snow Hut where there was a large fire pit and Hot Chocolates with a dash of rum waiting for me.

This time however we were simply going to Lake Mountain where there was a toboggan run and snow play area. Tobogganing I can handle!

The drive down through the Yarra Valley and up into the Victorian High Country is beautiful.

It was the perfect morning for ballooning and there were many about the valley.

Then we climbed into the mountains.  Now I know car driving pics are a bit boring but the scenery in the mountains is so amazing. The trees are taller than tall with lush tree ferns underneath. It's my favourite place to drive through.

Then we arrived!  It was a fun couple of hours of tobogganing and snowness. I even made a Sno-ala...
(Snowman/ koala)

As it's the end of the season, most of the natural snow had already melted from this resort, but resorts higher up in the hills were still very snowy.

Later that afternoon on the way home, we stopped by the Maroondah Dam Reservoir Park just outside of Healesville.  The only way to describe it is a dam with a park at the bottom of the dam wall.

On the right is the water bit and nice bush/ water things to look at...



And on the left is a massive drop down to the parkland...

It was the end of the day, so we decided after walking along the top of the wall to go home, but I first asked Bear to drive me into the park so I could use the loo. Which was a lie.

Because as I skipped down the path that led towards to toilets and out of view of the carpark, I really took lots of pretty photos of flowers!!!

"Oh yes Darling! I really really need to wee! I won't be long!!" <skips joyfully down the path hiding the camera in her pocket as she keeps going past the filthy 1970s dunnys and towards the arboretum!>

And then I came back to my very own little house to find this magnificence!
A tulip fully blown out in August? Crazy.

As I mentioned earlier, I am working on my amigurumi owl tutorial which has just finished being photographed. Hope to have it available for you soon!

xox

Louise

The Red Haired Amazona