Holidays are finally here!

Well exams are over and results are out and i am very happy.
Actually I lie holidays started as of the 3rd of July but in true geology style there was a field trip to Fowlers Gap from the 4th to the 9th. This was a weird thing as it was for a semester 2 course which we have not even started. But it is the only time it could be squeezed in to the schedule and field trips are an invaluable resource to a students learning. I must say it was a good trip despite the freezing cold temperatures and the mice in our tent. However I did survive the ten hour bus trip up and back and am now currently sitting in a comfy warm bed with knitting needles close by and a cup of tea in hand. This was one of the many stunning view we had while trekking though the Australian landscape.



Know while studying for my exams i did have a slight laps in concentration from the books when my sis complained of cold fingers in the morning on her walk to the bus. So I took a short break from my desk and relocated to the couch with knitting needles and some wool. This was the product of a couple of days work involving continued fittings and some imagination and maybe a few rows of undoing. But that is the true test of a good knitter, the ability to still smile while undoing a few hours of work. lol She is much warmer now and i am pleased to have gotten a bit of productive knitting in which eased the stress of study. I ran a simple cable through the top which I think just adds the finishing touch.




This was something that awaited me in my garden when i returned from my trip and i must same it is amazing the colours one can find with such cold weather.



These are also a quick knit up Little Ma did while I was away. A friend brought the wool over and asked if she would do her some gloves to also fight of the cold chill that Adelaide has been experiencing.



At the moment I, as always have lots of projects on the go, but am working on a pair of gloves for my brother. He saw the creation above, the black ones not he fluffy pink ones lol, and decided he too needed some homemade gloves. I am enjoying doing them because as usual i am making up the pattern as i go and it is actually looking very good. I must say i really like winter as gloves are such a great thing to knit.
I hope to do lots of finishing of projects this week so hopefully will have more things to blog.
Happy crafting

Book making and geology

I had a book making day with a friend the other week. she is an artist and painted this picture which i turned into a book for sketches.


I made two other books that day as well. The pink one is made the same way as the first which is sheets of paper folded in half. i used a hammer and nail to make the hole so all the pages were even. then i threaded a piece of string through three holes so it can wrap around the book a couple of times and then be pulled under those wrapped ones to keep it closed. i used some hand made paper we had made last summer.

This one was made with a fabric cover attached to a piece of cardboard. i then made five inner sections by folding about ten pages of paper in half and when five of those were done sewing them together and to the cover. don't think i have mastered that technique yet as my stitching looks a bit odd. will practice.

i have been looking after a friends house, cat and guide dog the last two weeks while they were in Bali. I must say it is a big change to have a trained and working guide dog compared to a training pup. The guide dog is actually the first we trained and has been working with a wonderful woman who by chance we have become good friends with. i say this because we were training our last dog Heidi in the market on the travelaters when a women asked if we were training and also said her daughter had an RSB Guide dog named V. we were so excited as this was our V. Adelaide is so small. Anyway she is soooooo incredibly patient. she has been coming to uni with me and Wednesdays are a very long day in which i start at eight and finish at five with only a two hour break in the morning. she had to sleep through geology, statistics and biology lectures and pracs. I was so impressed i decided to stop at the park on the way home even though it was starting to rain and get dark. she had lots of fun as she met Willow the very very big and furry dog like the ones which guard sheep.
I also had a geology field trip last weekend. i know it was a crazy thing to do as it was incredibly wet and windy. we went to Hallet Cove and Victor Harbor. we were on the beach at Hallet Cove looking at sedimentary rocks and bedding when the wind really picked up. by the end we were all laughing. enjoyed a hot tea and coffee when we arrived at Toc H camp. There were 91 of us on the trip. was lots of fun and was good to see the real thing instead of looking at lecture notes. we looked at lots of granite in Victor.