Away!

I'll be away for the next two weeks - Amsterdam, Barcelona, Paris!!!! 

We will be seeing the Bad Seeds and Liars live, so my knees will be fairly wobbly, but any suggestions for must-see things would be welcome!

Sheep Auction

Remember my sheep? Here he is again, but snapped by a proper photographer this time. He'll be up for auction in Sandton during Wool Week (28 May to 3 June) as part of Cape Wool's wool campaign.

"Cape Wools SA, together with Sandton City, Nelson Mandela Square and The Campaign for Wool, will host Wool Week SA at Sandton City in Johannesburg from 28 May to 3 June 2013.

During this week, visitors to Wool Week SA can enjoy a static wool display on Protea Court showcasing wool products and related activities, as well as a sheep art exhibition. A school education programme will also be shown during this week with wool information aimed at school children.

A first for Nelson Mandela Square is the live sheep that will be displayed to the public on Saturday, June 1, followed by a sheep art auction that afternoon where Jo-Ann Strauss will be the MC. She, along with two models, will be dressed in wool by Hendrik Vermeulen Couture.

As part of the static display in Protea Court, Cape Wools SA will encourage local knitting groups to join hands and knit scarves for the Expresso School Scarf Drive. Wool yarn sponsorships for this project from African Expressions have already been secured. African Expressions has also committed to some finished scarves, which they are currently working on.

For more information on Wool Week SA, please contact Cape Wools SA at 041 484 4301."

(Probably the most exciting news is that the yarn donated for the scarf drive will be real wool. Not novelty yarn. This must be a first.) 

My Family on the Interwebs (part 3)

Another song by Ramon Galvan, filmed by Cheap Seats.

Of course Emile steals the show. That dog cannot resist playing up to the camera.

Local Listings

Pic from EmmaJayneSA

Beautiful cushion covers by EmmaJayneSA, a Durban Etsy shop.

Straightforward Mitts

A new set of fingerless mittens for me, because someone keeps losing theirs and taking mine. It's a free pattern: Straightforward Mitts.

Knit in DK rather than 4-ply as South Africa is permanently out of 4-ply, or at least that's what they told me at the yarn shop.

Local Listings

Picture from Moonseats

Now that I've found jeans (two pairs! three and a quarter hours!*) I need shirts - this one from local Etsy seller Moonseats is pretty perfect. (Also this dress.)

* Jeans with a narrower waist than hip measurement seem to be out of style. But Fashion Express has them for only R99, in case you're looking.

*And - can someone please explain what 'leg measurement' might refer to? Does it mean hip measurement? Does it mean both legs, or just one? I couldn't actually tell from the jeans, the sizes varied so wildly. And if legs, where exactly is it measured?

Tiny Knitting

 A friend gave me two skeins of linen-silk yarn that she'd dyed with logwood. It's so thin that she thought it might be weaving yarn, but I only know how to knit - and I love thin yarn.

Time to use my 1.5mm needles again! I picked stitch patterns that I thought worked with the colouring, cast on what seemed to be enough stitches, and knitted till I ran out of yarn. Result: thin, drapey scraps of fabric, perfectly suited for scarves that won't dangle in the ink when I'm printing on a cold winter's morning.