Summer Fun

Hi everyone!

I've been terribly slack with blogging for a while - there's been lots going on, and I haven't really _finished_ anything to show you! So, here's a little catch up post with a lot of photos and WIPs :) 

Christmas at the Lake was excellent, even though the weather was very variable. Sometimes it was too hot and humid to be alive, and then we had torrential rain - the lake even flooded in early January! 

But, bad outside weather makes for good inside baking weather :) I experimented with a few new recipes, and using the Thermomix to do the kneading saves me so much energy! My favourite bread recipe website expired though, so there was some frantic googling of cached pages to retrieve the recipes.

I did loads of cross-stitch. The Winter Sparkle is coming to life! It's now almost half done! 

I finished the Persian Tiles Afghan kit, which Anne sent me for my birthday :) It was so much fun to make, and I adore the pattern. Jane must have shares in a stitch marker factory though because the patten wanted me to have and use so many! I've asked my mum if she would like a king sized version as a summer bedspread :) (this pic is unfinished, I'm waiting until closer to the Easter Show to block it)

I made some teddies, of course. The little one is the Heart Teddy, and the rainbow one is the Cross Your Heart Teddy.

I also had some time and brain to have a play with some new patterns! Here are three colourful mandalas that I'm going to use as doilies (unblocked in these photos):

1. Starflower Mandala by Zooty Owl

2. Sunflower Mandala by Zooty Owl

3. Minimalist Cabled Mandala by Lilla Björn Crochet

I fell in love with this lacy star motif, and I'm very excited to start working on a version in midnight blue, with some of the star outlines picked out in surface slip stitches using silver thread! Here's a sample I did in a lovely grey mix lace yarn :)

Right now on my hook is another Zig Zag Tote Bag, this time with a leeeetle bit more planning in the colours - I'm doing a 24 colour rainbow! It's kinda nice to be doing something that doesn't require a lot of attention or counting (after the first few rows). Love rainbows :D

Phew! I think that's an update on me! 

Catching up!

Hello everyone! 

I haven't blogged much about everyday things for so long - between patterns and Melbourne, it's been a bit busy! Here's a little update on what's going on for me :) 

First, since it has been so long, a Sophie's Universe CAL update in pictures! I love the butterflies and the little plum tulips :) It is also big enough now to keep my knees warm while I work on it - very useful now that the weather is starting to get chilly of an evening. Only 3 more weeks to go!! 

I've also started on a new Crochet Along - Jane Crowfoot's Lily Pond Blanket together with Stylecraft Yarns. I wasn't that excited about it after I saw the initial photos, it seemed very dark. But now that I've made my first set of pieces, it really does look like ripples in a pond! I chose mostly Stylecraft Special DK colours to sort of match the Stylecraft Life DK set colours, but I think my choices are a bit brighter than the Special DK alternates provided.

I broke my yarn fast (again) last weekend at Spotlight's 40% off yarn sale. It was just too good to resist! I discovered some colourways of Moda Vera Bouvardia that I actually like, such as Tokyo:

and Sunset Dive:

And I am definitely excited about getting more of these yarns as they make such lovely Road Trip Scarves for my stall in June :) Fortunately Bouvardia is on sale for VIPs until 10 May, so I just have to get back to Spotlight before then! 

I also found a new Moda Vera Marvel variation called Magic Stripe - it has longer variegations in colour, and I think it works well for these booties! What do you think? I'm about to get started on a blue/green/white pair as well. 

But, our big excitement this week were the huge storms, rain and wind around Sydney and the Central Coast/Newcastle. We were fine here in Meadowbank (although the hot water was off for about a day due to damage to the hot water tanks), but up at the Lake House, things were a little bit different. There were trees down all over the place, they still have no power after 4 days, and the lake overflowed just a little bit! The combination of a king tide and the storm surge meant that the lake couldn't do its usual tidal thing at Swansea, so it got a tad overfull...

See that bench out in the water behind a tree? It's usually about a metre from the edge of the lake... The ducks thought it was all marvellous though :)  

We were meant to be going up there for this weekend to celebrate my mother's and my sister's birthdays, but without power we couldn't have hot showers or even make tea! Kiah and I quickly cleaned out the fridges and freezers, which were already defrosting, and just came home instead. It made for a long day, especially after getting evacuated from Spotlight at Tuggerah on the way! 

Tomorrow there will be birthday lunch at my parents' house - slow roasted pork belly, roast vegies and, by special request, red velvet birthday cake with salted caramel and white chocolate cream cheese icing! Wish me luck with the cake, I've never made red velvet before! 

I hope you are all having a lovely weekend :) Don't forget, if you are interested in participating in the Crochet Between Worlds Christmas Market, send us a message on our Facebook page! We are going to start organising in earnest at the end of May when I get back from the Great Ocean Road Marathon! 

Bits and Bobs on Tuesday

Hello everyone! 

Today is a bits and bobs day from me - photos from our weekend, and some pictures that you might have already seen if you follow us on Instagram (@crochetbetweenworlds) and Facebook! If you don't already follow us in those places, you totally should :P 

We went up to the lake house for the Australia Day long weekend, to give the kitchen bench a proper road test by making pasta and dumplings.

(note the duelling pasta machines :P )

We didn't get any photos of the dumplings as they got eaten much too fast. Next time!

Mostly though we lazed about crocheting and playing video games :) 

There were also some hilarious bogans elsewhere on the lake with a wonderfully unsafe contraption (that did look like heaps of fun though!). Make sure you watch this video with the sound, it really does make all the difference.

I've been working on some non-crochet projects over the last week too. Some little felt fridge magnets called to me after Spotlight had felt on sale for VIP members :)

Plus, I've started on the Sophie's Universe Crochet-a-Long by Dedri Uys. All the details can be found here. I'm really enjoying working on this project! I've been seeing the beautiful Sophie's Garden around for a while, so an organised, paced CAL seemed like an excellent opportunity. My sister is going to do it with me too, but her yarn hasn't arrived yet and she told me to get a head start and find the tricky bits ;)

This is the first 15 rows as at last night (and please excuse the terrible photo):

And this is the first 25 rows, which is all the information available so far:

What have you been up to this weekend? 

Snippets of a Lake Holiday

Hello everyone! I'm finally back from Christmas holidays at the new lake house :) While I haven't had very good internet access, I've very much enjoyed reading all your lovely comments on Anne's posts - she's definitely been picking up the slack for me over the break.

I'm afraid it's mostly a picture post from me today, as I am madly hooking up the border to my Rainbow Bargello Twist and Turn Afghan so I can bring you a full pattern, instructions and (correct) graph on Friday! 

If you follow my Wrapped with Love page on Facebook, or on Instagram, you'll have seen this riot of colour growing over the last two weeks! I met my goal of finishing the body of the blanket before the end of the holiday, now I have just three more rows of border to go before washing, blocking and loads of photos :) I had a pretty good spot to work on it while on holidays though.

Since you've all seen photos of the lake house already as part of my birthday shenanigans, I thought today I'd share with you some of my favourite things about the house, that I have particularly appreciated on this holiday! In no particular order, I love:

1. The spectacular view, and all the comfortable places to sit :) 

2. We still managed that great Aussie tradition of backyard cricket, but the outfield was a little damp.

3. The artwork we commissioned in Vanuatu is up on the wall, in the perfect place.

4. The kitchen is enormous and wonderful and I love it, even when my Dad is being a cheeseball :P Plus there's plenty of space on the main level for us to keep out of each others' way - after two weeks together this was very important! 

(Apologies for the mess, we were starting to pack up to go home)

5. My very clever sister organised a cool entry feature panel, with handprints of us and our friends who have come to stay at the house.

6. Actually, this one might be a favourite. On the original plans, the front door looked straight into the bathroom - hardly good feng shui, or even nice to look at. My sister amended the plans to move the door around the corner, and then hid it in the panelling. How to tell whether it's occupied or not? Just look at the lock! It says "Vacant" or "Engaged" just like a public toilet :) This might sound silly, but when we have a houseful of people who all have different conventions at home for bathroom door open or closed when not in use, it is MUCH easier than there being a queue formed and people potty-dancing about the place, and then discovering that there was noone in there all along...

Happy New Year everyone! 

And make sure to check back Friday for the 

Rainbow Bargello ta-dah and pattern :) 

Peace and Harmony Award

Merry Christmas to you all! We hope you had and are still having wonderful days with lots of love from your family and friends. We most certainly are!

Some days ago, our little blog got awarded the Peace and Harmony Award. Wow! Michelle and I agreed that Christmas would be the best time to blog about this award. After all, Christmas should be a time of peace and joy! 

We got the award from Jodi from Lupey Loops (she talkes about the award here)  and we feel very humble to be in included in her list of blogs which foster peace and harmony. Had we been awarded first, Jodi would certainly have been in our list. Like Michelle and me, Jodi battles with chronic autoimmune illness. Her blog is a great resource for people with chronic illness and she has such a positive view on life which shows in and between the lines she writes. :)

The Harmony & Peace Award is an invention of Barbara Mattio (IdealisticRebel). The award aims to "celebrate all those who promote Harmony & Peace, and who add Love & Beauty to the world through their Blogs and through their lives.  Their Positivity makes the world a better place for all of us."

Jodi included a very kind description of our blog: "The story of friendship between Michelle and Anne who live on opposite sides of the globe (Australia & Germany). They describe their friendship here and invite their readers to become a part of their friendship circle as they blog about craft, cooking and good company. Anne and Michelle prove that living in different hemispheres is no barrier to cultivating friendships." Thanks Jodi!! :)

We decided to honor the award by telling you about our Christmases in Germany and Australia. That way we can show you that Christmas on different sides of the world can be very different and same in spirit at once!

Anne

Christmas is a very special time of the year for me. It's the meaning and the whole atmosphere which I hold very close to my heart and every year I can't wait for the first advent; that is, for the start of the christmas season. 

We always have a real Christmas tree. The one at my parents' house is always up to the roof of the room and I remember the Christmas mornings when I woke up and raced down to see the decorated tree (my parents put the decorations up at night). Nowadays, I celebrate Christmas Eve with my boyfriend at home in Dortmund. Our tree is not as big as my parent's tree but still not small (1,65 m this year). We decorate on Christmas Eve and the tree holds a lot of memories as we put up glass globes we brought home from places we visited all over the world. This year the tree included globes from London, Paris, Groningen, Vienna, Sydney, Vancouver and Stockholm!

Christmas Eve (the day Germans celebrate) we go to church. It wouldn't be Christmas without the song "Oh du Fröhliche"! Afterwards we take time to cook and enjoy a good glass of wine. This year we had duck. Yumm! Lucky me - the boyfriend cooked it. He is so much better at cooking than me!

At night, we always take a walk. I love this outside time! It is very quite and peaceful and the windows of the houses are alight. One can see the sparkling Christmas trees and happy faces. What a wonderful and special time!

On the first day of Christmas, we drive up to the boyfriend's family. On the second day of Christmas, we celebrate with my family. Four generations! And the boys are certainly in the lower number: 8 female and 4 male! There has been only girls on this side of the family for a couple of generations!

I love giving gifts! I am usually much more excited about giving gifts than reciving some (I still love them though!). This year, I made sure to include our neighbours. We live in a house with 10 families. The boyfriend and I made chocolate on a stick which can be put in hot chocolate. We made three different kinds: Dark Chocolate with Red Pepper, White Chocolate and Milk Chocolate with Vanilla. I hope the liked their gifts! There were also some picture books for the small kids (I couldn't resist!). :) A lot of my gifts were handmade this year. My work ladies got little glasses with Christmas Milk Rice for example and my Granny got the blanket I showed you some weeks ago. I love giving handmade gifts as I hope it shows my love! 

Michelle

Christmas in our house has changed a lot since I was little. Then, all our celebration was on Christmas Day, and we would race down the stairs on Christmas morning to see what Santa had brought us. We weren't allowed to open any presents until after church - lucky there was a 7:30am service! My parents put a lot of effort into making us believe in Santa: chewed carrots and grass in the water bucket we put out for the reindeer, and Santa always polished off the milk and cookies we left out for him! After church, we had a lovely breakfast and opened presents. The big celebration was for lunch, and we always ate very very well.

One thing that hasn't changed about Christmas is that we have our extended family parties beforehand - sometimes in November! This meant that we (and everyone else) didn't have to rush around on Christmas to see everyone. Now we visit Kiah's family a few days after Christmas for a delicious lunch :)

Since we had the house at Lake Macquarie, we have come up here for the two weeks including Christmas and New Years. We have also started celebrating on Christmas Eve with a big dinner with friends and our immediate family. 

Then on Christmas Day we go to church up here, and then usually everyone has a nap! For lunch we have slow roasted pork belly with apple jam and lots of vegies. In the afternoon everyone relaxes and maybe has more naps!

Our family doesn't get very excited about Christmas decorations. We have a plastic tree which lights up itself, and a few things hanging around the house that Mum has made. Maybe when we have little ones again we will get more into decorations :)

The Harmony & Peace Award Rules are:

1. Give this award to seven bloggers who have added Harmony & Peace, Love & Beauty and Positivity to the world you live in.
2. Let them know that you nominated them.
3. Acknowledge the blogger from whom you received this award.
4. Display your award on your blog, because  you have earned it!
5. Continue to live in Harmony & Peace.

Phew, it is pretty hard to choose seven blogs only! I love reading every blog on my reading list because the tales from all over the world brighten my day and make me smile! So in our hearts all of them are nominated!

Anyway, here are our 7 nominees:

1. Funky Crochet: Ingrid is originally from Germany, used to live in the UK and now lives in Belgium. She is a great example how one can become part of a new world no matter where one originally comes from! She is a very kind lady and this year both Michelle and I received handmade Christmas cards from her! Thanks Ingrid for making our Christmas more colourful!

2. Mias Landliv: Mia blogs about her life in Norway and always includes wonderful and peaceful pictures. Whenever I read her blog, I feel at peace. It is as if her photos carry one to a different world!

3. Wool and Cats: Géraldine makes the world a better place though her amazing pictures. Every Friday she posts a weekend still and the pic is always amazing and full of harmony. She reminds one how important it is to notice the small things in life and the beauty of nature.  

4. The Little Bee: Alia's page isn't exactly a blog but she collects wonderful things on Instagram. Her Sunday Shawl is a wonderful example how a crochet pattern can bring together people from all different kind of cultures and countries. People from all over the world have crocheted the shawl and each one is loved. Crochet is such a wonderful and harmonious way to bring people together!

5. Vacuuming on Holidays: Bernie's blog is very new but holds a wonderful idea. Bernie says about herself that she is on her way to happiness and she documents her way on the blog. Each week she blogs about the things which made her smile. What a great idea! It is so important for all of us that peace and harmony can be all around is and a smile is the best way to show it! Smiling makes the world a better place (which is why I try to make sure to smile at as many people as possible!).

6. Woollybluebells: Helen is a wanderer between worlds like us. She blogs about special things from the UK and Germany - cultures she holds very dear in her heart. In German there is a word for her: Weltbürger. This means "world citizen". If there were more Weltbürger on the world, that is people who don't care about borders and enjoy different cultures instead, the world would be a way more peaceful place! Thanks Helen for being a Weltbürger!

7. Jet Georgette: Our lovely friend Alex from Perth blogs about clothes, fashion and style. The tagline for her blog is "self-esteem isn't a size tag", which pretty much sums up her philosophy! I love reading through her blog to get ideas for fashion and style for those of us who aren't a perfect size 8 :) What a great message to the world! We should all learn to be so accepting and at peace with our own bodies. 

Rainbow Afghan #1

Hello everyone!!

Welcome to all the new readers and welcome back to all the regulars! We love to read your comments - so thank you for taking the time to drop us a note! 

Today is just a short post as the fatigue is kicking my butt, but I just couldn't WAIT to share this with you all :) 

A few weeks ago I wrote about my lust for Stylecraft Special DK yarn (especially when it is on sale), and put up three sketches of rainbow afghan layouts. If you missed that, go check out the post here.

Thank you for all your kind comments, and votes on your favourite layout for me to start with. By a very close margin, the Twist and Turn won!

The layout did need a few changes from my pencil sketch as (a) I had 10 colours not 7 to work with, and (b) I wanted to make it a little bit closer to the original inspiration. Without further ado, the Twist and Turn Rainbow Afghan!

Now I'm really looking forward to the Christmas holidays, so I can get started on this little beauty! I will also be doing up proper graphs for the other two patterns as I want to do them as well! If you want to make an afghan using this graph please do so, but please link back to this blog!

I have set up an Instagram for my Wrapped with Love business, where there will be updates on my rainbow afghan projects over the holidays! My handle is @wrappedwithlovebymichelle - I'd love to see you (and follow you)! We also have Instagram for Crochet Between Worlds now, and you can find us @crochetbetweenworlds.  
 
My mother had an excellent idea for a project for visitors to our house at Lake Macquarie between Christmas and New Years. We are going to use the Hypno-Diamonds sketch as a guide, and get our guests to make some little granny squares, which we will join up into an afghan made by everyone! I'm super excited about this idea, and look forward to (hopefully) posting photos of the process, and the finished product! 

What are you up to at the moment? We'd love to hear about your Christmas holiday projects!