A massive ball of wool

 Last week at crochet, one of our older ladies who had been without power fir a couple of days, used the time to sort out her craft room. Which meant she brought wool and fabric that she realised she was never going to use, to give away to anyone who wanted it.

One was a 4 kilo ball of wool.

She had bought it at an op shop a few years ago as she thought it was too good to leave there. 

She said it was not going home with her so I thanked her and thought that maybe I could do something with it. No one else wanted it. I saw it as a challenge. 

This is the mass of wool and an ordinary ball in front which is 100 grams.

Warren thinks it may have been the end of a carpet manufacture. It's quite thin as a single strand. We have cut off a sizable chuck and trying to unravel it so I can crochet it.

I have started a shopping bag using two strands mixed with another ball. After using it, it feels a bit dirty, it may be dust.

Main beach parkrun.

 This was the first parkrun in Australia and today was the 709th run for that area.

The mayor cane along and the sponsors Medicare had tshirts to give away. It was also a celebration for our family,  Warren's 200th parkrun and Sheridan's 100 locations.  Elder son joined as well. 

The alarms were set for 4am with a view to leave at 4.40am. Gps said ninety minutes to get there but we knew we needed to drive through Brisbane and out the other side so was giving ourselves a good fudge factor. We were parked up in 95 minutes so did make good time and got a decent park.

A fellow park runner does screen printing so they got special tshirts made.  Jason is wearing the sponsors shirt that were on offer. The parkrun shirts come in red for 50, black for 100, green for 250 and blue for 500, don't know if there is any more after that.

 

Postcrossing

 When we were on our tour of USA and Canada, I heard about Postcrossing from another traveller. She was quite involved in it and it sounded interesting so I looked it up and when we came home I joined.

Basically one sends post cards to other members. When ready to send some, a request is put in to the Web site and then they send an address with a profile to send to.

Once you receive a post card, take a photo and enter it on your account and senders know that you have received it.

I havent had that many yet about eight I think and sent about the same, I did four this week and all to Germany.

One of the first post cards I received its a quilt that her niece made for her and she had the photo made into postcards and sent it to me as I am into crafts.

I have been able to buy stamped postcards with Aussie scenes and animals on the, the stamps can go anywhere in the world so I don't have to get certain stamps for particular countries. 

My buy

 I went to Office works a couple of weeks ago to buy a calendar. I got side tracked looking at office chairs.  I had to go there and buy one about eight years ago as my then current one had snapped in two when I bent over backwards and found myself continuing on to the floor. It was my sewing chair and I had been sewing.

Anyhow I was interested to see the styles and cost that they currently had in stock.

Of course, we did buy one. My old chair had arms and were constantly getting caught when I changed positions from sewing table to sewing machine. Also the "leather" had been peeling off it. Very disconcerting at first to discover black pieces of something on the carpet. An investigation showed that the leather or leather was dropping from under the chair. It vacumned up quite easily but any excuse was good enough reason to buy a new chair.

This one has no arms to catch, a breathable back and a wide seat. It has had a good workout since buying it.

The week after purchase, while doing the groceries, Aldi had car seats for sale, I bought one for the old chair which solved the problem and it has been installed in the computer room.

A Christmas tree

 Out walking Lucy this morning at a neighbouring suburb when she stopped in her tracks and wanted to go into the shopping centre that we were passing.

I do have some interesting conversations, mostly I win as I have the lead.

I looked up at one of the trees to see that if has been decorated for Christmas, it was the only one that was in amongst others.

Further along was a flame tree in full blossom 

Three little pots

 I have been doing a lot of sewing over the last year and some of my sewing pins are being worn̈ and blunt.

Decided to replace them. They also get dropped and end up in the vacuum cleaner.

These are my pots of pins with a cotton reel for comparison. 

When we were first married, first or second Christmas, Warren's company gave their staff a Christmas hamper. I remember there was some cheeses and Christmas puddings, four individual one plus a larger one.  They did have lids. 

I can't remember when I started using these as pin holders but they have been with us for over 50 years. Now one serves on the sewing table ready to pin, the second one is on the side of the sewing machine for when the pins are removed and the third lives where I cut out patterns.

I have tipped them over on occasions but not too often. Wide packing tape goes over the top for moving purposes as they have moved house approx twenty two times. They must be the oldest household item that I have and will continue to use.  

More hats

 These photos are this fortnight's work, another 24 plus I took a couple of days off hats and made some shorts and skirts. 

 Getting known as the hat lady at U4Ks.

I try to m7x the fabric up so that no hat is the same as another.

I had some aboriginal final that I had bought in April Springs on our last visit. Most fabric were already cut and sold in metre square. I bought two, one blue and the other brown. I made a shopping bag with the blue piece and still had the brown. 

It became about four hats with other pieces.