March 29th

Today is our last day with Pat.
So work went by the wayside and we spent the afternoon chatting, drinking tea and craftin'.  My relationship with Pat is so easy, effortless.  I find this such a blessing.  We find ourselves constantly delving into interesting and thought-provoking conversation (Pat's had - and still maintains - a very fascinating life!) and often have the other laughing out loud.  I thoroughly enjoy this woman's company.

This is my current work station.  A fabulous mixture of craft, refreshment and my access tool to my inner sanctum and the outside world.  Just thought I'd share, cos it looks quite funny to me!

A good friend at my previous work used to affectionately needle me about my yarn activity obsession on a regular basis.  She would walk into the lunch room and see me perched on the couch, current project in my lap and needles or a hook in hand and stop dead in her tracks.  She would look at me with the full body dramatics that only a gorgeous, voluptuous Greek woman can and holler across the room at me "Hey Nanna!  What are you making now?"

I often told her I was crocheting her a string bikini, or a pair of nipple warmers - to which she would eye up my work and say "well, you've got a long way to go to cover these babies - keep stitching!"

I don't remember how it came about now, but a few days ago there was more mention of who out-nanas-who and I told her I would crochet her a blanket for work to keep her soon-to-be-arthritic knees warm (seeing as how she's a few years older than me *grin*) and she loved the idea.  So here we go.  My next crocheting attempt - the granny square!

A fabulous crafty friend forwarded me this link on a gorgeous blanket.

I loved the idea of choosing seven colours and mixing them around.  So these are my seven colours.  Yarn already in my stash - which I LOVE to find projects for.

Pat ran through a tutorial with me and I tried my hand at a couple of circles.

Please don't look too close!  Eep!

The one on the right was my very first attempt (it shows).

The one on the left was my second (a little better).

I was going to keep the first one as my indicator of how far I'd come and not actually use it in the blanket - but as it's a very first attempt, I'm thinking I'll include it for authenticity (if it doesn't end up being hugely different in size to the rest!).  We'll see how it all pans out towards the end.

 I received my much awaited package from Hong Kong today!

My yarn winder!  So now I get to turn a jumbled mess of gorgeous yarn from this...

into this!

Yay!!

Off into the city now, to pick up my beloved from work and treat ourselves to a lovely farewell dinner with Pat.  It's been so lovely having her stay and the last four weeks have flown by amazingly fast!

We're all looking forward to catching up again - perhaps with Ben and me doing the traveling next!

Ciao for now folks.  Have a lovely evening.

xx