WIP - Knitting - Baby Kina

I wanted to use some of my Ice Yarn that I purchased a little while ago but I didn't want to make another blanket using it. I decided that I would give knitting another go. of course it took a while to work out what project to begin. I finally decided on making a short sleeved Baby Kina. It's a paid pattern of Ravelry.

So far so good with the knitting but I believe I need to purchase some longer needles. Either that or some circular ones. I've been eyeing off a set or two on eBay.

It has been awfully warm for the past week and I am struggling with the heat indoors and wanting to knit. It hasn't stopped me but I am leaving it until the evenings when it's been a little cooler.

There were a couple of cooler days but it warmed up again rather quickly. I will be so glad when autumn finally arrives and this indian summer disappears! I need my cooler weather!

I haven't been able to knit for a couple of days. My right wrist and arm have been awfully sore. I'm not sure if it is to do with the exercise group I go to and that I pushed myself hard or it could be the fact that my medication for my arthritis has changed. It could be a possibility that it is both of these things. Either way it has slowed me down.

Christmas in Summer

We're all set to celebrate Christmas in our home. It's going to be a VERY HOT weekend. The perils of having Christmas during Summer! At least it's not going to be as hot for us as it will be for my family who live in South Australia.

We have our Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve. It's been our tradition for several years now and stems from Mark's mothers side of the family, who are from the Netherlands.

Since it's going to be a really hot day and I am cooking a roast dinner. I didn't want to  use the oven so I have opted to cook Lamb Obsession (using a lamb roast) in my slow cooker. We've had this a few times using chops or lamb shanks & it's a big hit so I know this will go down well tonight.

Tomorrow will be even hotter. Getting close to the old century mark (100°F - 38°C) but I am hoping that the weather bureau got it wrong and it will be cooler. The wonderful plus side of living in the southern hemisphere when Christmas time rolls around. At least it isn't as bad as when I was a kid in Adelaide. I am sure we had temperatures around 45°C and we even went outside to play in the heat. Far out we must have been either mad or we didn't know any better?!

We've lots of cold drinks at the ready. If it remains hot for a long period of time I will need to put my Diabetes Hot Weather Plan into action. I probably should any way just to be on the safe side.

Anyway, I have to get things ready to go into the slow cooker for tonight. I am looking forward to dinner just not the hot weather that's been predicted for the next few days. Thank goodness it should be cooler by the end of next week. Something to look forward to.

Stay cool or warm depending on where you live. Merry Christmas!!

Finished Item - Crochet - Temperature Blanket - Week 38

That's it. Complete. Other than the some of the ends need to be sewn in.

Mark convinced me to not pull the blanket apart to make two smaller blankets. He explained that with all of the hours and months worth of work it would be a shame to do so.

I made an arrangement with Angus for him to have the blanket to use on his bed. He was complaining how cold he has been. Considering he has a single bed it will fold nicely in half and be extra warm for him. I also explained that since I have used hundreds of dollars worth of yarn it will be his birthday and Christmas gift from me. I don't think he was too happy about that prospect.

All bunched up on the floor

There is so much purple. I know I love that colour but gee whiz I never though I would be using so much of it in this blanket.

I hate to admit it but I prefer then end with all the green and orange. It looks so much nicer and a lot more colourful. Which end do you prefer?

After 9 months of working on this baby I mentioned to Angus and Mark what project should I do now? Angus said how about another temperature blanket? Umm maybe not. If I did it would certainly be smaller than this one with more variations of colour for the temperature range.
For now I think I shall leave the temperature blanket alone and concentrate on something else.

WIP - Crochet - Temperature Blanket - Week 37

I am still thinking of pulling this blanket apart. 

Honestly there is enough yarn here to make two or three blankets.

WIP - Crochet - Temperature Blanket - Week 36

I am seriously considering pulling this blanket apart and making it half the size that it already is, in effect possibly making two blankets out of this yarn. I have use a lot of it.

The trouble is I was so good at the beginning of making this blanket that I was sewing the ends in as I went. It makes me wish I hadn't done that as it will make it very difficult to pull the yarn apart.

WIP - Crochet - Temperature Blanket - Week 35

Spring is officially here but I believe the weather has forgotten that it is allowed to warm up a little. Either that or winter just wants to pop up it's head again before disappearing!

At least we've had a few slightly warmer days this past week.

WIP - Crochet - Temperature Blanket - Week 34

Winter showed it's head this week. Thankfully spring begins at the end of next week. I am hoping to see some more green rows soon not. 

WIP - Crochet - Temperature Blanket - Week 33

Lots of blue this week. Spring officially starts next month. 

Perhaps the super cold days will be seen less and less now.

WIP - Crochet - Temperature Blanket - Week 32

Still a lot of purple. Even though the weather has warmed up a little. It just hasn't warmed up enough for me to used another colour. 

WIP - Crochet - Temperature Blanket - Week 30

Quite a bit of dark purple this week. 

It's been extra cold with those cold fronts blowing up from the antarctic.

WIP - Crochet - Temperature Blanket - Week 29

Lots more purple but with a dash or two of blue. We had a really nice day on Monday. It was more like spring weather than winter. I'm not complaining though. I got all of my washing dry and managed to go for a nice long walk in the sunshine!

WIP - Crochet - Temperature Blanket - Week 28

Lots and lots of purple means lots and lots of cool/cold weather.

WIP - Crochet - Temperature Blanket - Week 27

Back to lots and lots of light purple this week. I think, at this rate of consumption, I may need to purchase some more yarn in this colour.

WIP - Crochet - Temperature Blanket - Week 26

We're exactly half way through the year! I am so glad that I didn't keep going with this c2c blanket. By that I mean increasing it. It's HUGE already. It would never fit my bed properly if I had kept going. Even now it is probably too big!

This past week we have had some super cold air coming up from the Antarctic which made for a very, very cold few days last weekend. We are expecting similar weather this weekend. Let's hope that means I get to do some more dark blue and purple rows.

Any way, this is what week 26 looks like:

WIP - Crochet - Temperature Blanket - Week 25

As you can see there is still A LOT of light purple but we did have some really cold days. Thank goodness for heaters is all I can say. The weather bureau called it an arctic blast. I have to agree with them brrrr it was very cold! 

Issy enjoyed snuggling under the blanket while I crocheted.

It was so cold that we had hail and sleet yesterday afternoon. Sadly, there was no snow for us. We're not up high enough for that. The temperature did drop to 1.7 °C (35.06°F) when the cold front & hail arrived.

Brodie and I were out when in that blast and hail. It made the road very, slippery and poor Brodz slipped getting out of the car when we got to the supermarket.

WIP - Crochet - Temperature Blanket - Week 24

Yay I was finally able to crochet a row other than light purple! Only one row mind you but hey it broke up ALL of that solid purple. I just wish there were a few more rows of other colours thrown in to the mix.

I was 0.4C off doing a blue row today. Oh well. Maybe next week.

WIP - Crochet - Temperature Blanket - Week 21

Even though we have had some really cold weather lately we have also had some unusually warm nights. Especially for this time of year. In fact we had temperatures in the 20's  the other night. And since my blanket is based on the highest temperature for the day I've had to crochet some green rows even though cold fronts have come through and made the daytime temperatures very, very cold. Hence the green rows. The weather bureau has stated that we wont be getting many temperatures in the 20°C's range for quite a while.

WIP - Crochet - Temperature Blanket - Week 20

I Started decreasing the rows at the end of last week. It took me a while to get my head around the fact that I was decreasing now and not increasing. After all I was increasing each row for almost 4 and a half months. It's looking great though. I still love the random rows of colour.

WIP - Crochet - Temperature Blanket - Week 19

There have been lots of cooler temperatures this week. Cool enough that I have actually needed to turn the heater on. I'm not complaining though it makes walking outdoors so much nicer especially since I don't over heat as often.

I began decreasing my blanket last night due to the fact that each row is taking almost an hour to complete. It takes way too long to complete just one row. I know this was meant to be a year long project but as I have mentioned previously this blanket is HUGE and it covers more than half of my bed already.

WIP - Crochet - Temperature Blanket - Week 18

I thought the cooler weather had finally arrived but then some mild weather popped up at the end of this week. We have had some very blustery conditions early this week with wind gusts of 223 kph (138 mph) being recorded. Lots of trees have been uprooted or broken and anything that wasn't tied down was blown away. Many trampolines have been mangled or have 'flown' the coop.

Look at that I had my first row of PURPLE! 

I'm all for the cooler weather but that nasty wind can disappear. Sadly we are expecting some more rough weather starting from tomorrow.