Ocean Waves - Guest Post

Hi I'm Susie and the very lovely Lou has kindly invited me to guest post on her blog which is a huge honour and really rather exciting. I mused for ages on what totally brilliant subject would be perfect for such a stylish blog and then a truly incredible happenstance occurred. The great thing about the blogosphere is that it gives you the opportunity to meet like minded people, connect with their lives and share the moments that make life special.

I have never met Lou in person but we have stuff in common. We blog, we teach, we bake, we make, we love our children and are separated from some of our family by thousands of miles, way too long on an aeroplane and definitely more money than we could make from our craftiness (although actually Lou is so talented she could probably make a tidy packet).

When the opportunity to guest blog coincided with an invite from my sister to head off to Australia to look after her daughter whilst she had what turned out to be her son, I thought a bit of winter sun would be the ideal subject.

I arrived in Kiama, NSW, Australia on 1st February 2013 for a flying visit. Isn't it beautiful?

For some, having children is a breeze and for others like my sister and myself, it is a difficult and traumatic process. I did not sail through any of my pregnancies with a healthy glow. Instead I spent hours laying in hospital beds always fearful of the worst, too sick to eat, alone, frightened and anxious. My sister has suffered that fate that is all too common and has had to wait six years for her little man to arrive.

Of course I couldn't fly half way around the world to meet my nephew without some crafty endeavour. The day after he arrived and with my head spinning from the long flight, the excitement and soaring temperatures, I walked into a little yarn shop in Kiama and picked out a selection of ocean coloured yarns.

 The woman who ran the shop was brilliant and incredibly helpful. I loved that she didn't even know how to knit when she took over the shop from a woman who had run it for 40 years. We chatted and agreed on how neither of us had to the time and patience for knitting patterns with all that counting and concentrating. Any how I took home my package of yarn and my big needles and cast on a huge amount of stitches and began to knit.

I knitted on the grass outside school on the school run. I knitted on the beach. I even knitted on the way to the rain forest. It didn't take me long to realise the enormity of the task I had set myself and wonder why, when I am so bad at knitting that I had decided to knit a blanket and perhaps a small crocheted teddy would have been a better plan for such a short stay.

So I knitted and knitted and knitted. Yes I could have packed it in my suitcase, finished it at home and then posted it back but just ask the unfinished crocheted blanket that I've been working on for two years, how likely that would have been. No this was one project I had to finish by the deadline of my flight home (I'm in transit now as I type.)

........so did I finish this bad knitting challenge? Of course I did! The blanket is totally un-blanket shaped (very wide and not at all long) but it is completed and embellished with a crochet edge.

 It does so remind me of the ocean waves and will be warm and cosy as the autumn and winter approach the Southern Hemisphere. And when it gets too small for wrapping a baby, it works perfectly well for cosying up the big sister.

Thank you very much for having me and if you do ever feel like popping in for a chat, you can find me over at Ridgeway Cottage Anyhow. 

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