Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Winter Calving









The first of our expected winter calves has arrived, and I don't think we could have started the season with a cuter one! This little darling was born to her first-time Mama late Wednesday afternoon. We'd just arrived to feed the cattle, running a little later than usual, and noticed her mother, Gucci, was missing. Filled with excitement we hurried to the patch of trees where we could see her lying. Gucci had just given birth, and as we watched she stood and began to clean her baby.
We got close enough to guess that the new calf was a girl and confirmed it the next morning.
We decided to call her Maggie, as she rather looks like one, but her stud name will have to be something a little be proper sounding, especially with a mother called Gucci :-).
In looks Maggie is the female version of her Father, and being a Lowline baby is about the size of Rilla.

After what happened with our last calf we're a bit nervous about her, probably checking on her more than we should, and more than the good natured but suspicious Gucci would like, but she's a healthy little bundle and I'm sure that it'll all be fine this time around. Maggie certainly hasn't a care in the world. I can't tell you how nice it is to get up every morning and see a newborn calf skipping about the paddock.


Sarah x


Saturday, April 26, 2014

Tutorial: How To Neatly Stitch Knitted Squares Together





Thank-you for all of your lovely comments on my blanket! I've been asked by a few of you how I stitched it together, what method and thread I used and so on, so I thought that a little tutorial was in order. All the photos above are of the back of the blanket so that you can see what it looks like. All of the stitching is invisible at the front, and only a few stitches can be seen on the back too. 
Please bear with me as this is the first tutorial I have written. I hope it makes sense and of course if any of you have any more questions please feel free to email me or leave a comment. :-).

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I knitted my blanket in various novelty yarns, most of which were quite thick, although some were also very thin. I made them all roughly the same size and knitted most in Garter Stitch, although the ones with clearer stitch definition I did in Stocking Stitch. If your squares aren't exactly the same size it doesn't matter as you can kind of stretch them a little when you stitch them together :-)

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To stitch together your blanket you will need 
Crochet Cotton - I used a pastel rainbow as it's what I had
A Wool Needle
Scissors 


  1. Lay 2 squares flat side by side, right sides down.. Thread your needle with a good length of cotton and tie a double knot at the end
  2. Put the needle through 1 stitch on the back of your square (just glance at the front and make sure that you can't see the needle or thread). Pull gently through.
  3. Go through the same place again to secure the thread.
  4. Line the edge of your squares up

5. Put your needle through the edge of the second square, again making sure that you can't see needle or thread at the front. 
6. & 7. Pull through firmly 
8. Continue to stitch from side to side, keeping stitches firm and checking from time to time that you can't see the stitching on the front.


9. The front of your work should appear seamless like this


 10. When you come to the end tie off firmly and rethread your needle to begin the next square.


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I hope this helps those of you who asked with your blanket stitching! 
If you've got a favourite method of stitching together blankets, please feel free to share it in the comments below :-)

I hope you're having a good weekend!
I'll be back later this week to share some photos of our latest little addition to the farm.

Sarah x


Wednesday, April 23, 2014

A Multi-Patch Novelty Throw





 After frogging my vintage sweater I just didn't have the heart to cast it back on again. I looked through my books to try to find a fun project that I could complete quickly and easily, hoping it would rekindle my desire to knit my sweater.
Nothing took my fancy, so I continued work on my Mitred Blanket for a little while.
Then last weekend it was stormy and raining (due to the Cyclone) and I was looking through one of my chests of yarn (yes, I have a chest, plus various other containers. No, I'm not a yarnaholic) when I rediscovered my stash of novelty yarns and my stack of squares that I had knitted.
A few years ago I went through a stage of buying a ball or two of any novelty yarn that took my fancy and just knitting them into squares to see what the yarn looked like, intending to turn said squares into a blanket. I can't really remember just when or why I abandoned the project, especially considering it was almost finished.

So over the weekend I knitted up the few remaining balls, tucked in the ends on each square and spent 40 minutes arranging the squares until I was satisfied with the way it looked. I find it very peaceful to sew by hand and really enjoyed assembling it.

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To be honest, I didn't think I'd like the blanket at all. Novelty yarns aren't my thing any more. I simply finished it because I thought all that knitting was a waste if I left it sitting there, unassembled.
After arranging the squares I was hopeful that it would look better than I had originally thought, and then as I started to sew the blanket together I began to really like it. I actually love the end result and am so happy that I finally got it finished off. Small as it it, it's a lovely little throw to cuddle up with with a book and a cup of tea.
And after completing it I think I might be ready to return to my sweater.

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I'm joining Ginny for the Yarn Along.


What are you up to?


I hope you enjoyed the long weekend,
Sarah x




Thursday, April 17, 2014

Here & Now






Loving...rediscovering a knitting project that was almost done - and finishing it off! The best feeling.
Eating...homemade flat breads and salad wraps 
Drinking...warm milky hot cocoas
Wearing...jumpers and gumboots
Feeling...content
Wanting...more opportunities to play with my new Macro Lens
Thinking...about this electric fencing to make our bossy free range chickens stay in the paddocks they're supposed to!
Dreaming...of knitting lots of throws and accessories this winter



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I have to say thank-you to everyone who read my last post and took the time to comment. So many interesting thoughts and different opinions. 
But they all mostly said the same thing...we blog because we love it and in general the blogging community is a wonderful thing to be part of. 
My thoughts exactly! 
Thank-you so much for taking the time to share your thoughts with me, and for stopping by this space, I truly do appreciate it :-)

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Care to join me with a Here & Now post? I'd love to see one!
Hope all is well in your world,

Sarah x



Friday, April 11, 2014

Keeping It Real





Blogging can be a tricky business. There is a fine line to walk of sharing enough, without posting your entire life's doings on the internet. What amounts as enough and what amounts as too much varies from person to person, I suppose.

Amongst keeping my life private, I also like to keep this space real. I don't want to create a fantasy life on the internet, where everything is always perfect or the hiccups are only minor. But at the same time, how do you keep it real whilst keeping it private?

Can you have an interesting blog whilst keeping most of your life private?
A lot of the most popular blogs that I know of are quite personalised. They tell you what they do, where they go and post photos of themselves and their family regularly. You know where they live, what their tastes are and what month (or day) their birthday is.
I do enjoy reading blogs like this, and whilst I want mine to remain interesting, I'm also very conscious of not sharing too much of my life here, for everyone and anyone to read, and that can sometimes be quite hindering.

Sometimes I wonder what drives me to blog, taking into consideration that in "real life" I'm quite reserved about my doings, until I know someone well, and I'm really not that into sharing my life on the internet. I don't use Facebook for social purposes - my profile is completely locked down and any information that wasn't required to fill out isn't; I'm not a huge Twitter fan and Instagram is basically a photographic version of Chantille Fleur. What drives you to blog, do you think? And do you ever have moments when you feel you ought to delete it or post about less of your life?

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How do you maintain the balance? How do you keep your blog real?
I'd love to know your thoughts!

Sarah x

PS I hope you have a good weekend! If you are near this large cyclone please stay safe. We're waiting to see which direction it takes to find out what kind of preparations to take. xx


Friday, April 04, 2014

Floral Friday



 On a rainy afternoon a month or two back, my sister and I sat down with a cup of tea, a bucket of beautiful fresh flowers and various other bits and bobs. Just for fun, together we crafted a beautiful floral garland. It was a prototype, something we'd wanted to try for ages and I was so happy with the results.

It was heaps of fun and fairly easy, and I really don't have the best excuse as to I why I haven't gotten a tutorial up here for one!


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I'm joining Trishie and a group of other lovely bloggers for Floral Friday. This month's theme was Flowers as Art, and although I'm really not sure that a homemade floral garland counts as "art", I couldn't help but join in!

"Floral Friday is a monthly photography project with different themes each month. This series is about fun and taking time out to smell the flowers. To play along next time, please email me for next month's theme."


Happy Friday, and have a good weekend, won't you!

Sarah x

Wednesday, April 02, 2014

And Then Spud Found My Knitting




I was so excited the other day. I was so close to getting my sweater finished. Or so I thought.
The warm weather arrived for a few days - March has been awfully strange - and stopped me in my quest. But the heat subsided and I had every good intention of getting back to my knitting.

I was sitting outside one afternoon, doing some paper work and enjoying a cup of tea and chatting with my Mum. Spud went running past, but I didn't take any notice.
"Sarah, is Spud supposed to have your knitting??" 
As Mum spoke, I glanced quickly at Spud and screamed (I'm not usually the screaming sort, not even when I see a snake).
My book, notes and iPod went flying. My scream had made Spud drop the knitting in fright and I rushed over, grabbed it and ran inside like my stitches depended on it...which I suppose they kind of did.
I frantically darted to my needle jar and started jabbing needles into all of the dropped, unraveling stitches, desperate to save them.

I actually thought I had saved them, and was busy figuring out how to ladder back up the couple of rows he had unraveled when I realised there was no point. Right on the cast-on edge, Spud had chewed two generous sized holes.



I am glad that he only attacked the front, and left the completed back undisturbed. If he'd ruined the whole thing it'd probably be in the bin right now and I'd be choosing my next project. Which is slightly tempting....not the bin part, just ignoring the fact I have to knit the whole front all over again and beginning something new.

I told Spud he's lucky he's cute. I'm not sure he knew why.





I'm joining Yarn Along again over here
© Say Little Hen
Maira Gall