Knitting Day

Yesterday I spent the entire morning trawling the net looking for knitting pattterns for "Illusion Knits". This is where when you hold the piece of knitting one way it looks fairly plain but when you tilt it at a different angle you can see the pattern knitted into it. Anyway I got totally sidetracked and ended up looking for patterns for baby hats in cotton...as I had some left over cotton yarn. Many hours and lots of patterns printed out later I did not make the cotton hat as I saw this picture for a cute little beanie with ribbons threaded through the fabric and tied in knots. It looked so cute and I knew I had a large stash of ribbon that would be suitable so the entire afternoon was spent knitting the beanie and putting the ribbons on.

blue cardigan.

Not real keen on the yarn in this garment. It was part of my aunt's stash that she knitted squares out of to make baby rugs for charity. Can't get her to knit any more so thought I would use it up (again for charity). It knits very unevenly but still I think it is rather cute.

Another cute baby bolero

Well as the weather warms up I will be doing less and less knitting but I have still have a few things on the go and here is my latest effort. Finally I have used up all the lavender yarn...still a bit of the purple left so will have to match it woth something else.

Cloudehill and Rangeview Gardens. Olinda

Last thursday we visited these gardens (again on Mark's suggestion...thanks Mark.)
There is a nursery and restaurant here also. We had a delightful "Chatter Platter" 3 tiers of yummy, meats, salads, dips, cheese and bread etc for lunch before wandering around the gardens.
Cloudehill is set up like rooms you can wander through while Rangeview (which can only be entered through Cloudehill ) is plantings in a hilly woodland setting.
Again I could not help taking lots of photos so here is a small selection.

National Rhododendron Gardens Olinda Victoria

Saturday week ago we ventured up to Olinda in the Dandenongs to visit The National Rhododendron Gardens...on the recommendation of one of Mike's work colleagues. Thanks Mark :)
WOW what a wonderful place to visit. It is quite extensive covering a large acerage on a hillside - 36.2ha to be precise.
http://parkweb.vic.gov.au/explore/parks/national-rhododendron-garden
We experienced beautiful weather (glad we did not go sunday...miserable and wet) and wandered around for a couple of hours taking in all the vistas and were gobsmacked by the stunning beauty of the rhododendrons and other trees and plants.
Below is a little selection of the pictures I took.