What I've been up to ...

I haven't done a lot of sewing this weekend, but I have cut a lot of things out. In fact, this weekend my focus has been on cutting out things from leftover SWAP fabric. I've had a pile of leftover fabric sitting on the bed in my sewing room because I didn't want to put it away while my memory of how the fabric handled was still clear. I cut a cropped jacket out of leftover red fabric, I cut black trim from an old dress to finish a SWAP garment, I cut another totally unplanned knit jacket because I wanted to get rid of the fabric and I cut three summer tops out of leftover knits. The one thing that was from new fabric was a pair of jeans and a pair of shorts for Grant's SWAP. It's a good thing that neither of us are particularly tall because I managed to get a both of these garments from 2m of denim. This is all that's left.

Another task I completed today was to finish a cardigan I've been knitting. On top of an enormous fabric stash I also have an embarrassingly large knitting yarn stash. I have decided to just knit it all. There's not a lot of call for knitwear in the subtropics. Fortunately I know a few ladies who have had babies recently, so they have all received knitted gifts. I get a lot of satisfaction from these garments as they have all been knit during the evenings when I watch television, ie time that is otherwise wasted. This one, however, I am particularly fond of.

It's from a Jo Sharp book called Knit Issue 1 and was published in 2006. I've made a few things from it before, but I haven't loved them the way I love this cardi. The pattern is in two lengths and I made the shorter one but in retrospect, if I'd known how much wool would be left, I'd have made the longer one. It has lovely shaping so it conforms to the body to avoid that frumpy look cardigans can sometimes give. The pattern called for alpaca which is probably closer to 8ply, but this is 5ply washable wool (Sunflower) from the Bendigo Woollen Mills and has produced a wonderfully soft and comfortable garment. A large percentage of my stash is from Bendigo Woollen Mills, so you'll be seeing more of it. I love their yarns because they come in 200g balls. The entire back and both fronts came from one ball, the sleeves and most of the collar came from another.

A few weeks ago when I posted the picture of the snake in my drawer, I was so delighted with the various reactions that I thought I would show you another creature who appeared this morning.

I have never seen one of these anywhere on my property before, so how it came to be in the house and inside a lamp is a mystery. I had to pull out a reptile identification book to find out what it was. Apparently, this very relaxed and unstressed visitor is a pink tongued lizard. He flashed his very pink tongue at me to confirm this, but I wasn't quick enough to photograph that. For Australian readers, this lizard is a close (but much smaller) relative of the wonderful blue tongue lizard. Now if I had the right camera I might be able to get a quick snap of the insectivorous bat that flies through my tv room every night ...