At last Autumn has arrived

 We have had such strange weather lately. A couple of weeks ago it was quite hot but now there has been a cool change and it seems that at long last we are heading into Autumn. I am sure the plants in the garden are quite confused.

Technology changes

I rarely use the PC I am typing this on. I can't do a blog post on my iPad nor on my phone which has a small screen so have to resort to the PC. However I have just realised that when I take photos on my phone and send them to Gmail so that I can then resize them to be suitable for a blog post the options for resizing have changed. Years ago I was told to keep them under a certain limit for a blog post as Blogger was complaining about the size of photos at the time. 

What is your favourite stich for making dishcloths?

Due to the recent renovations, any craft projects I had on the go were put on hold due to the disruption of strangers wandering through the house and the constant dust that was subsequently generated by those strangers (tradies).  I really need to make some soap and will get organised with that soon but in the meantime I thought I would try and get back into the swing of things and crochet a dishcloth while refreshing myself on how to do the Iris Stitch once again.

 

Learning the Iris Stitch

At a recent get-together for members of the former Down to Earth Forum and the current Home Maker's Forum my friend Judy gave me a couple of dishcloths and I have been quite impressed with the fact that they don't go out of shape when they have been twisted and turned as I try to get the water out of them after use...unlike a couple of mine :-)

Bits and Pieces

As my 'upgrading' to Windows 10 and subsequent 'downgrading' to Windows 7...that really should be the other way around and it was no 'upgrade' that's for sure...our network settings have been out of plumb and currently we have times of the day when the internet cuts out on the computer after five minutes or so. I have been waiting until the NBN arrives which was supposed to happen last September but is now going to happen in April so that I can pay for the IT guy to come around and fix everything up. My sister had terrible trouble with the NBN so I am hoping it won't be so bad here. She doesn't even have the internet! So perhaps the problem will be fixed next month. It does make it difficult to write a blog post though.

Dishcloths and Sew Alongs

There seemed to be a lot of interest in the Garden Dishcloths to Knit book that I mentioned recently. So far I have only knitted one of the dishcloths in the book but plan to knit some more when my brain isn't being pickled by this protracted heat wave. If I survive the 38C days coming up on Sunday and Monday I will start on another one. It is a bit hard to concentrate when you have sweat pouring off you during such hot days :-) So now I have finished my dishcloths for January and February in the Down to Earth forum's Dishcloth Challenge as I am knitting one a month.

A Dishcloth Challenge

Over on the Down to Earth Forums one of the members started up a Dishcloth Challenge this month and some of the keen knitters are going to knit a dishcloth a week. Well, I am a slow knitter so decided to just knit one a month which is enough for me. I said I was slow :-) Anyway one of our experienced knitters showed us a photo of twelve dishcloths she has made recently and said she got the patterns from a book called Garden Dishcloths to Knit by Melissa Bergland Burnham. The dishcloths looked really nice so I took the plunge and ordered the book which was approximately $10 and was pleasantly surprised when it arrived to find that all the patterns are just plain and purl. Just up my alley and good patterns for beginners.