Bit Of Colour...:)

A bit of cheerful colour...:)

Monday's Hail Storm

Last Monday afternoon we had a huge hail storm in the upper Blue Mountains. It was a freak storm that even made the news. We had a channel 7 TV news crew interviewing one the neighbours 5 doors down from our house, and the TV network helicopters flying around over the house and the surrounding streets which Lou thought was amazing (he loves helicopters). It was a was a crazy afternoon. The storm only went for a short time but it was really frightening, watching out the window as the hail stones grew bigger and bigger. I have never experienced anything like it. The sound on the tin roof was deafening as the hail stones grew to ping pong ball size. Lou and I stayed in the middle of the house as I was worried about smashing windows. Our car-port roof had hail damage - the hail went straight through it. And my car ...... it's got hail stone damage all over it :(

Lou was very brave. We just held each other, hoping for the storm to pass with out any broken windows.

Here are some of the sizes of the hail stones, and over an inch deep of hail stones near my front door.

This one in Lou's hand was the size of a ping-pong ball. It had melted a bit while Lou was playing with it.

As soon as it was safe to go out side after the lightning and thunder had passed, we had a play in the ice. It's crazy, this is Summer! It was like we had a downpour of snow. Everything on the ground was white. Some parts of my garden were a couple of inches thick in hail stones.

So Lou and I made an Ice-Man. It wasn't that easy - the hail stones were like marbles and kept falling down but we managed to get the ice-man this high. Wow, it was so cold on the fingers. But Lou loved it. He loves the cold (he can't handle the heat) so he was able to play with the hail stones longer than me.

This was the street. It had melted a bit by the time I ventured out this far again with my camera. There was thunder and lighting still going on above me, so it wasn't safe to be outside. I am on top of a hill and lighting strikes the highest spot, so I waited for it to pass.

When I came out again I took these pictures. Some of the neighbours and I were out on the street shaking our heads in disbelief. We had all agreed that we have never experienced anything like it. We had our cameras out to take pictures to prove we weren't exaggerating about what had just happened. The lady across the road was devastated - it had just wiped out her veggie patch.

I looked back at my garden and saw the damage. I didn't notice it before because I had just been concentrating on Lou and playing with the hail stones. It kind of looked like snow and it did look beautiful. I didn't think to look at the damage it did my garden. It looked like it had been hit by a blunt whipper-snipper.

My herb garden, which was planted by the previous owner, was flattened :( (I'm sad about that). The smell of the herbs was really pungent and it looked like it had been hit by a mortar & pestle. The picture below is the garden near my front door.

We have had such a wet cold Summer up here, and all this week we have had thunder storms. I'm still a bit nervous .... we had hail here today but it only went for a minute. I've been a bit sad about my garden all week, so it has taken me a while to post about what happened on Monday.

Noro Silk Garden Top Down Cardigan

I have been working on this cardigan on and off over the last six months. I have been knitting it at friends places and even at the odd coffee shop outing. Slowly, I'm getting though it as my Ravelry list of favorites and queue list grow longer. My poor old fingers!...;) So much knitting. I would love to knit more but so little time. Meanwhile, my stash is quietly growing in my cupboard waiting for the right projects.

I just started one sleeve last night and worked on and off today, There is a few inches to go before I finish one sleeve. I did a bit more after I took this photo.

This pattern is a freebie off Ravelry written by Cosmicpluto Knits. It is called Top Down Raglan Cardigan and is really easy to knit. I like how I can knit it in the size that suits my frame, so the cardigan won't look like a sack on me when I'm finished.

The wool is Noro Silk Garden colour :-292. It has been in my stash for a while now. I'm glad that I am finally doing something with it. This Noro wool is a bit bright but I do love the colours.

The next part of this post

is a message for Bhodi from Marty the Ninja Cat!!!!!!!!!!

He just wanted to show you that he has been practicing some new Ninja moves for your next visit!......;)

Front Door

The view from my front door!...:)

Seasonal Tree

I've been wanting make one of these seasonal tree wall hangings for a while.

Two home schooling family friends, with whom I was having a craft days at their places last year, had these felted trees that they had made on their walls. I would look at those pictures longingly and kept thinking to myself I really need to pull my finger out and make one of these for my home. I always admired the seasonal wool tree pictures that I saw on blogs and in a book, More Magic Wool by Angelika Wolk-Gerche, which I bought a few years ago. So it has been on my craft 'to do' list for a while now.

Last week there was a felting day with a family support group that Lou and I are in. Just over a year ago Lou was diagnosed with PDD-NOS / Atypical Autism . This is the first time that I have ever mentioned it on my blog. I never really had the desire to talk about it so openly to the bloggerverse. This blog has mainly been about my crafty adventures, not my personal (well, Lou's) stuff. I have to say that blogging and looking at blogs has been my escape from this reality to keep me sane...:)

If you are a regular reader, you probably noticed that I've changed my blog name. The name Loopity Lou, which I started with a few years ago, came up because while I was breast feeding Lou, I would knit. Lou was on the boob a lot so I would pass the time by knitting. Being a bub, Lou would grab at the wool and get tangled in loops of wool. My nick-name for him was 'Loopity Lou'. I used to have to explain that to people who know us when I would mention the name of the blog. I would get a few odd looks knowing what was going on with Lou. I thought that now we have moved our home and had a huge change in our lives, my blog need a new name too. Anyway, I'm babbling on and getting away from what I was posting about.....

The family support group does activities for families (well, MUMs) and Wet Felting was one of those. We were meant to make a banner to represent our family. There was only a few of us there and I asked if I could do my own thing, which was OK. I've done wet felting a few times so I kind of knew what I was doing. I brought my own wool along just in case they didn't have the colour range that I would like to work with.

It was just as well I did, as I didn't like the colours that they had. I used their white pre-felted back, for which I'm grateful as it saved me so much time layering the wool to make the back of the wall hanging. The rest of the wool was from my stash from when I was needle felting. It was so much fun and a workout. I needle felted the tree into place lightly, being careful not to break my needle because I didn't bring some foam to needle felt into. I think needle felting the tree into place on the pre-felted backing help it to not distort in the wet felting process. I was worried that the tree would smear all over the place and be a waste of wool.

I'm happy with how it turned out. Now I have to find some old branches on the ground and sew them onto the top and bottom of the wool picture and hang it up on the wall. And as the seasons change, change the wool lying on top of it according to the season.

Raggle Taggle Gypsy Girl

I still haven't found the camera cable yet to charge up my camera and upload my pictures. So the next best thing - find a friend who blogs.

While I was out with my good friend Bhodi, she used the camera in her phone to take some pics of our crafting at the coffee shop today. I encourage you to drop into her blog, say hello and check out her art work and crochet. She was kind enough to put a picture of me and my knitting on her blog.

Now back to finding those cables ....:)

I'll Be Back Soon!

Hi to anyone who still drops by and reads my blog after this long break. :-)

I didn't expect to be so long away from blogging. Time has really flown by.

In that time we have had a new member to the family of the furry kind, a chocolate Burmese cat called Marty. I would post some photos but the camera cable and other bits to upload photos are still packed away in one of the many boxes around here. So my camera sits on my dressing table, flat battery waiting to be charged up .

Why is my camera cable packed in box? Well, I can proudly say that I have put my roots down in the Blue Mountains. Yep, my partner and I bought a house!!!!!!!!!............

No more renting. No more 18 year old clueless property mangers. I have a moved to a 1/4 acre block "upon a hill" (yes, new name for the Blog). The house has the most amazing views and after all these years I can have chickens again. In the last few rental properties, the landlords wouldn't let me have chooks. I'm very excited about that!...... I pinch myself.

So, I've been busy unpacking and getting a feel for our new home. I haven't been doing much crafting. My knitting is packed away, I have a few UFO's to complete and my wool stash is getting a bit crazy. Once I can find my camera cable and charge up my camera, I can start posting again very soon.