Woolly winter wanderings, the Warwick way

So, last weekend I escaped for the inaugural annual sanity sewing circle girls weekend. My sewing group (which kind of fell apart this year due to my reno and general domestic hoo-ha for the other girls)  were all still very keen to take some time out to recharge our worn out mama batteries.

It had dawned on me that while renovations are exciting (in a nausea inducing kind of way) they are also very, well BROWN. As in brown mud, brown timber, brown sawdust, and brown dirt and dust everywhere. And whilst I like the colour brown (it's black I'm not friends with) one can have too much brown. Especially in winter, when the days are equally grey.

 For a colour lover like me, all that brown is a big ask. And a weekend of riotous colour was just what the doctor ordered for my cranky pants mood.

With two of us able to crochet in a basic fashion and one keen to learn we headed west for the Jumpers and Jazz festival in Warwick. We booked into an all day crochet class and had grand plans to go op shopping (regional are always the best), sleep in, wear coats, scarves and boots, slurp hot chocolates, stay up late chatting and soak up eyefuls of glorious yarnbombing. It exceeded all our expectations and the drive home late on Sunday was filled with plans to go back next year.

For me, it was the perfect combination of gorgeous architecture and colourful woolly goodness.

The deciduous trees dotted either side of the main town street had each been claimed (by either groups or individuals) and had been adorned by either crochet,

or knitting,

or paper,

or felt

or fabric,

or recycled plastic.

Several had been done solely by children.

And some were just, ahem, interesting.

There were some gorgeous little shops to explore.

And pretty things to covet, (but not purchase as unfortunately I have other  porcelain items to throw wads of money at, you know the white vitreous china versions essential to a functional bathroom).

There were tiny details everywhere. Some required you to look up high.

Some were down at your feet.

Roboboy declares this his personal favourite, after spending an eternity trawling through all my photos.

And Liongirl predictably chose this one.

And I have to admit, this little yarny badger was pretty darn cute.

Me, I'm not sure I can choose a favourite, but I do have a few more to share in another post.

Running away to crochet

I have hit a bit of a reno hump. Or maybe it's a slump. That point in a renovation where you feels like it is never going to end and why on earth would a sane person choose to do this? I could whinge and moan about the endless unforseen problems that have cropped up and the extra money that somehow we need to scratch up. I could complain  that living in a rental house with no landline and no mobile reception except outside on the front porch (in winter) sucks, and discovering that the camera charger is packed somewhere in one of the 78 boxes under the house is not ideal for photo documenting a renovation.

 I could also add that moving house with a neurotic cat creates the added bonus of needing to wake up at 449, 458 and 512 daily to let the cat out, then in, then out again. This is instead of the cat deciding to urinate on a whole box of important papers like rental contracts, builders contracts and tax documents which you may or may not discover for several weeks. And lastly, if I was choosing to head more towards a rant, I could add that discovering that both your children are infested with nits, can only be topped by the growing awareness of your own very itchy scalp.

So instead of burdening you all with these renovation woes, I will leave you with this glorious colourful yarny image. Yes, I have indeed run away for the weekend for a spot of therapeutic crochet. To the Jumpers and Jazz festival in Warwick no less. Back soon with some colour, some crochet and hopefully a better personal demeanor and a louse free scalp.