Bushveld Textures

When I started compiling this post I thought it would be one of those "a picture speaks a thousand words" type of posts without any text, but I just had to add my two cents worth...

First of all, for those of you not familiar with a Bushveld winter: It is the dry season. No cold and wet and evergreen here. Cold and dry, that's it.

Secondly, I test-drived my new camera and as you can see I still have a lot to learn about taking close-ups. I considered removing the ones that are out of focus, but in the end decided against it. I thought it would be a more honest representation on my experience. Warts and all.

That's it, folks. Enjoy.

A Shopping Centre with a Difference

A mall is a mall is a mall, right? Wrong! This is a Moo!-ll with a difference.
It is located in Irene, a village at the edge of Pretoria. This village is fast becoming a very sought-after location due to its proximity to Midrand and Johannesburg and all sorts of interesting things are happening there.

I haven't been there for a while, so was very surprised and amused by this wonderfully different shopping mall. Irene used to be a dairy farm in the country-side outside Pretoria. The working dairy is still there but is now surrounded by a bustling town. Obviously the farm spirit is still very much alive!

The cow-topiary at the entrance (still in it's winter garb)

Watch out!

Even the man-hole covers are themed!

The restaurants are built around a wonderful atrium with a fountain that keeps the children occupied while the parents take a coffee/lunch break. So much fun!
photo courtesy of the mall-website.

Free State Knitting Inspiration

How about a wonderfully inspirational story to kick off the weekend?

Once upon a time, not very long ago, in a small village somewhere in South Africa, a few grandmothers came together and decided to spend their retirement doing something useful for their community...

Alina Sr and Alina Jr hard at work

Salminah showing of her bed-socks

So they called themselves GAPA (Grandmothers Against Poverty and AIDS) and set to work. They started by planting a communal vegetable garden, doing all the work themselves. The proceeds from the garden are used to provide cooked meals for the poor in the community. All the cooking and preparing are done by themselves.

Selina and Beauty enjoying each other's company

Emily and Sanna

They soon realised that feeding the poor is not enough and started their next project. They found an unused house in their community and again, doing all the work themselves, they fixed it up and turned it into an old-age/frail-care home for abandoned old people. (AIDS take away mostly young, working-age people and leave behind children and old people who can't fend for themselves.)
The little house provides a home for 6 old people. The ladies from GAPA work in shifts taking care of these frail people day and night.

Sanna and Lydia concentrating on their lesson. (The 'teacher' is my mom, Anneke)

Some of the beautiful scarves for sale in the thrift shop

But as we all know, there is more to life than work and taking care of others. Everybody needs time to be creative, socialise and take care of thyself. This is where the knitting group enters their lives. Facilitated by the VVA (Vrystaat Versorging in Aksie) - a privately run welfare organisation, the ladies meet once a week to learn new knitting skills.

Their first project: Teddies for children who need some love.

Aren't they beautiful?

Their first project was making teddy bears using a plain garter stitch. This taught them the basic stitch, casting on and off, and finishing off a stuffed object. The teddies go to the welfare workers who hands them out to the abused and neglected children they deal with on a daily basis.

Every person in the old-age home received their own blanket

More scarves

Once they were familiar with the basics of knitting they moved on to the next step, this time knitting scarves. This taught them to knit in plain and purl and to add fringes. The scarves are for sale at the Welfare office's thrift shop and the proceeds are being used to buy new yarn.

When I met these industrious ladies, they were already hard at work on their third project. Bed socks. This time they learned about multiplication and reducing of stitches, as well as using more than one colour at a time.

Bed-socks to warm the heart (and feet!)

The next step will be to teach them basic business skills like calculating the amount of yarn needed per item and pricing a product. Their aim is to use these skills to earn some money to fund all their community projects.

More bed-socks

I met these ladies because my mom, Anneke, is their "knitting-teacher". We are both so inspired by these ladies' spirit of giving, sharing and hard work. In a country like South-Afica where there are so many needs it is great to find people who are willing to give of the little they have to those who have even less. And don't be mistaken, these women all have their own woes of arthiritis and bad backs, children who has died of AIDS, and orphaned grand-children. But they have faith in God and willing hearts, and that is enough to conquer any obstacle.

Even though they work hard and do not expect hand-outs, they can always do with a helping hand. They would appreciate any left-over yarn or other materials that can be put to use in any of their projects. Some of these ladies also do beautiful sewing and embroidery. If you have anything to contribute please contact me by e-mail.

...and they lived happily ever after. Have a great week-end!

Holiday time at last!

We are off on our 3 week holiday to South-Africa. We are all super excited and actually look forward to winter and cool (cold?) weather.

We will spend a week on a game farm in the Bushveld...

Then we will spend some time in my hometown, Pretoria, to visit friends and family..

And then we will spend the last week in the Free State visiting my parents...

Can't wait! I will try and post while I am there, but then again, I might be having such a good time that I won't even touch the computor...

Enjoy your holidays, if you are lucky enough to have some, and see you in a few weeks time. Bye!

(Photos from Google images)

Spiral granny squares - finished at last!

It's 2 months later and the blanket is finally finished!



I wasn't sure how big it will be, so I just carried on until I ran out of yarn. When I was about halfway I weighed the finished bit as well as the remaining yarn to get an idea of how many rows I had to make. I had to plan the border as the colours are different there.



The blanket is really soft and cosy. It measures 1.54m x 1.32m (60" x 52"), which is ideal to snuggle up on the couch...

Food, glorious food...

In the UAE, as in most other Muslim countries, the weekend differs from the rest of the world. We have our weekend on a Friday and Saturday and the working/school week from Sunday to Thursday. Friday is the holy day in the Muslim religion and are treated the way a Sunday would be treated in the Christian religion.



We as Christians in a Muslim country had to adapt and we do all our usual "Sunday-things" on a Friday. This includes going to church and spending the rest of the day with friends and family.


This past Friday I decided to do the traditional thing and cook a big "sunday meal", including roast leg of lamb, baked potatoes, veg, pudding, etc. I bought a butternut squash earlier this week and was looking forward to oven roasted pumpkin. As most fresh stuff is imported, butternut costs an absolute fortune and does not feature on our plates nearly as frequently as it did back in South Africa.



So maybe it was just because I haven't seen it in such a long time, that this orange pumpkin in this beautiful blue enamel oven dish looked so utterly delicious that I couldn't help photographing it like it was a piece of art...

I made a paste of garlic, honey, olive oil, some herbs and salt and coated the pumpkin in it. I then roasted it in the oven for about 45 minutes until soft and golden brown. Mmmmmmmm delicious!

(O, by the way, the table cloth is one that I bought years ago at Africa Nova, in Hout Bay, Cape Town. It is still one of my favourites.)

Reversable baby bibs

As I was sorting through the children's clothes this past week, in preparation for our yearly holidays to South Africa, I realised that Baby doesn't have one proper bib left. The ones that we acquired when she was born has all done their bit of mopping up drool and is not fit for use any longer. Now, as we are living in a place where a child can go without a shirt for most of the day, it didn't really bother me. But now we are going to mid-winter where she will be wearing several layers of clothing AND we will not do washing everyday as we do at home - so we need new bibs.



A while ago when we moved Baby into her own room I threw out the hooded baby towels and the receiving blankets which she wasn't using anymore. I knew at the time it can be recycled into something else, but didn't know exactly what. Now, I had the perfect project for it.



I found a pattern for reversible bibs (via Craftzine) on Made by Petchy's blog. (Check it out, she is very creative!). I had to make it a bit bigger as Baby is not so small anymore, but otherwise it worked perfectly. It has towelling on one side and fleece on the other side. It will hopefully be absorbent enough to keep the holiday clothes clean and dry.

Give-away!

If you are into vintage jewellery and other stuff, rush over to Ponder and Stitch and enter her first give-away! Now!

Colour inspiration

Summer in Dubai is dreary and dull. Unlike just about everywhere else on the planet, this is not the season to be outside. It is 40+C (104+ F) degrees outside, so inside (near the AC) is the place to be. Feeling a bit depressed by the bleak landscape and the heat, I decided to find something inspiring and colourful in my stash of craft goodies.

I don't usually buy fat quarters of other pieces of fabric without a specific project in mind, but this year I fell for the temptation of the fabric sales. (Must be the heat...) I still don't know what I am going to make with all of these, but in the meantime I will just enjoy planning all sorts of projects...

Here are some more colour inspiration from my floss boxes:

I wind the floss around paint swatch cards collected from the hardware store. It adds a bit more colour (and it's free.)

These are still waiting for my next trip to the hardware store...

And while we are on the colour theme, here is a sneak peek at a work in progress:

And another WIP:

I hope you enjoy your summer, wherever you are!