I ran out of wool, didn’t have enough for the whole lace pattern. This should have been made with sock yarn. I used what I could find in the store in Auckland. If I had used smaller needles it may have worked, but I used what I had. To be honest, I was ready to be done, regardless of pattern or size. Her it is pre blocking.
A closer look. Usually I block cold a shawl, but I’ve been lazy lately. So instead, I steam blocked it.
This looks yellow because of the light. So I stretched and blocked. I knew as I was knitting that this is going to be a large shawl.
I am not happy with the shape. A crescent shawl shouldn’t have a triangular shape along the neckline.
Is it because of the ‘new’ method of increasing along the edge? Is it because once I started the lace there was no increase until halfway through the pattern?
Even hanging, that bump is there.
I like the lace pattern very much, extra lacy lace at the bottom would have been a better finish. It is what it is.
Sure, it looks nice, the top bunches up on my neck. More warmth there?
A front view.
Wrapping it with the bulk of the shawl in the front. Of course I will wear this and use this. I think that what I enjoy are the smaller shawlettes. The one I finished on the trip ended up being perfect. Keeps my neck and shoulders warm and isn’t so long long that the tails get caught in everything.
And now, onto the sweater from the yarn I bought in Auckland.
I have been doing puzzles for a while now. What is most fun is doing them with my 5 year old grandson. He is very good at it, and lets be honest, the puzzles he does are relatively easy. Not baby puzzles, he can a 300 piece in a few hours. He is also helpful when doing a thousand piece puzzle.
Here he is with his Hanukkah present, a 300 piece puzzle.
His parents gifted me with a 2000 piece puzzle. Once back from our trip, I pulled it out, along with the mat and the boxes for pieces. 2000 is a lot of pieces, but there are very defined areas here, unlike the Van Gogh almond blossoms that was all alike all over.
Organizing the pieces. All the border pieces stay outside. The sky goes in one box, what appears to be the house in another and so on. As I went along I refined the boxes, but that was later.
I got most of the frame together. It took until I was almost halfway done with the puzzle to complete the frame. Two or three frame pieces escaped my first sorting. So, time to start in on the interior.
Thank God the puzzle came with a poster that is larger than the image on the box. 2000 pieces is a lot! I could see details on the poster that I couldn’t on the box. I was getting very good at identifying pieces, knowing exactly where they would go. But I tried to restrain myself and not clutter up the mat too much. Going for the roofline, the red doors, the green balconies was ‘easy’. Well, finding the pieces was easy there is a lot of trial and error. At this stage I’m happy to get some of the sky in. One thing that happens frequently is one piece is missing, both above the red door and off to the side. Sometimes the piece is easily found, in other cases, I only filled holes at the very end.
Is this like watching paint dry? to me it isn’t, a lot of progress has happened here. Also, many many hours of work. This is the point where I realized that I had expanded the puzzle width wise way to much. So I’m gingerly moving the left side closer in. Big holes were suddenly filled, because even at 2000 pieces, it’s not as big as I had originally thought. Also, now comes the hard part. I’ve built all the very defined areas, I now have the path, sky, plants, grass and the bottom, which is a stone wall with ivy. Things are looking the same.
At this point, the puzzle size is complete, all the border pieces have been found and put in place. Although, another problem occurs, often I think I have the pieces in their correct place – they fit, they even fit two adjoining pieces, but it turns out I’ve made a mistake, nothing else is fitting, I have to go back and look at the back of two puzzle pieces to make sure it is a complete fit. This happened more than once!
Working on the path. By now I have pulled all pieces that even have a smidgeon of path. I am no longer matching color. I have now learned that this puzzle has about 5 different shapes and I’m getting the rhythm of how they fit together. So with the patch, I’m simply testing the shapes one by one. I will do the same with the sky. Often you have to twist a shape 4 ways to see if it fits. Notice on the left side, I am missing a pale blue sky piece as well as a water piece near the boat. Soldier on! Often the least expected piece is right under my nose.
I’m in a rush to finish this. On Sunday we will have a house full of people and the last thing I want is to try and move this. Yes it is on the movable mat, but it is creeping off the edges. I want this finished, not moved! Remember how moving it last time means I lost a piece that I only found months later! Yes, on the Van Gogh, I found the one missing piece among my threads months later.
The sky is complete, that missing blue water piece has been found. The one light blue sky piece is nowhere to be seen, and I’ve been looking.
And I’m done! The end was painful, what I did with the path, I did with the bottom the puzzle, I divided the pieces by shape and ignored the colors, I just kept trying until the pieces fit. So I have put together a 1999 piece puzzle, because one piece isn’t here. Oh and a good friend tells me this is an Amish puzzle. In most handcrafts people (like the Amish) make a mistake on purpose because they are not God. Well this is an Amish puzzle that proves my point, no one makes a mistake on purpose. They happen and people give them fancy names. Same thing here.
I was careful, I checked the floor, I checked everywhere, I wasn’t moving pieces. Sure pieces would fall on the floor and immediately get picked up. Joel and I lifted the black mat, maybe it crept under there? Nope, my curse continues, I am always missing a piece.
Then I moved the puzzle with the inflatable tube off the dining room table. It said it’s good for up to 1500 piece puzzles. Had I been more careful, I probably could have gotten it moved ok. But as you can see, it scrunched up. I’ve sent my son a picture, he will see it on Sunday, I have zero interest in fixing this now. I’m done. Then, unfortunately, its into the garbage, I do not give away puzzles with missing pieces.
Also, even though I bought myself a 1000 piece puzzle of quilt blocks. I am taking a long break.
I give the Art Deco tour in downtown Los Angeles through the LA Conservancy. We really have amazing Art Deco buildings here, not just in downtown. This is driven home to me when I visit other places that also experienced massive growth in the 20s’ and 30s.
I was surprised by Wellington, I’d say this is my favorite city in NZ, which surprised me. Usually the capitol city is not as interesting as the business hub. Think DC and NY. And yet, Wellington is a much more interesting city than Auckland. I love this sign, it is right near the WETA Studios, where Peter Jackson works his magic. Turns out a lot of other people do as well. Because the where Wellington is located – this is very true, the city is extremely windy. I experienced that while riding an electric bike, the ride was fun, but without assistance I never would have made it.
Getting pictures of buildings in crowded cities isn’t easy. Here is one of the better Art Decos’ in Wellington. Btw, maybe it rains a lot in the winter (we had what I call, a winter vacation with long days, because our weather ended up being cold and rainy). Most of the buildings have this overhang over the sidewalk, in all the cities we visited. Yes, it disrupts the line of the building, but I can’t make it disappear.
Side view of this building. This is where I have to give a lot of credit to LA buildings (not just Art Deco, the same is true of Beaux Arts). The materials used are much more expensive. There is granite, sandstone and incredible tile. In NZ, a lot of wood is used and looking at the decorations, it is either painted wood or some form of plaster, although probably not on the exterior.
Here is an example (Beaux Arts) of a wood building, made to look more like marble. Funny how we try and fake the wood, and they tried to fake the marble.
All the elements of AD, the piers shooting up to the roof line. The roof not being flat, as well as having a lot of decoration up there. Interesting windows, the change of windows on every floor is an interesting touch.
I wonder if this one is what we would call transition. It doesn’t scream AD, but there are enough elements to put it in that category. I think what grabbed my attention here were the spandrels. The horizontal area between the windows. These are made of some metal that has patina’d to match the paint of the building. This is one of the few that I saw use this material. In LA, you see this often, which brings me back to my first point. LA had a lot more money to spend on building materials than Wellington did.
Very simple building. What I like is the addition of two floors later on. Clearly more modern, and yet the addition is well done. It compliments the building. In America we have a federal law that when adding to a federally recognized historic building, one must make the addition different. I have no idea if they have such a law, but I love that they did that. The windows are larger, the color has changed, and yet it works very well.
Someone is updating an old building on one of the popular shopping streets. I love the colors. Reminds me of South Beach in Miami, where they saved the Art Deco and for the show Miami Heat, they painted the buildings bright colors. Some people feel this destroys the purity, me, I’d rather you update the paint but maintain the building.
Speaking of non authentic colors…. this is in Nelson, much smaller town, great AD. Looking at this building I think those overhangs were built along with the building. So that will differentiate AD in NZ and other parts of the world.
In Nelson, what I saw was more Streamline Moderne, the later stage of AD. By the 30s’ we have the depression, all over the world. So rather than vertical soaring buildings, we have the more horizontal ones. That sort of mimic an ocean liner. Very clearly seen here. Btw this building houses a movie theater, and it’s still in operation.
I love this! I’ve never seen a building like this. Art Deco to the hilt, but what an amazing style and shape. Yes, I hate the advertising, but businesses need to prosper. I may think of a building as art, but it must function, and if that means I have to overlook the signage, so be it.
Lovely, simple building, I even like the overhang. One reason I like it is because its’ a fabric and sewing machine store! We were here on a Sunday, so I couldn’t go in. There was also a yarn store around the corner, but it too was closed. Not only that, it’s up for sale. Anyone want a yarn store in Nelson NZ? Looked like a lovely place to live.
Finally, in Nelson, a Chabad Menorah. Chabad is everywhere in the world, welcoming traveling Jews. The only thing about this that makes me wonder if it wasn’t them. That night was the first night of Chanukka, not the second. And believe me, they know their Judaism. So it’s a mystery.
We drove four hours to Milford Sound, which is actually a fiord, but usually one a place gets a name, it doesn’t change. Well in communist, or dictatorships like China or Burma, they can change names of whole countries or cities. But a place like New Zealand, not so much. Although they keep adding more Mauri names to things.
We were so lucky, usually it’s a bus ride back, part way to an easier airport, or, it’s a bus ride back.
We were so fortunate!! All 12 of us fit into this Cessna, and it took less than 40 minutes to get back. Our pilot David sat next to the pilot, he said, he did a fine job.
This is a tiny airstrip, with these mountains and low clouds around us.
Posing in front of our swift transport back to Queenstown.
I didn’t have a great seat for pictures. So this is what I was able to capture. Just a few minutes earlier, we were in one of those boats, admiring the fiord from the water.
Stephen got great pictures and videos. The whole group was sharing, which is why I have images to share with you
Here we are, all scrunched into the airplane. It was quite comfortable.
Here we go, aeral views.
Snow on the mountains, we could see this from below, but what a treat to see it from above.
The clouds are low, but not low enough to keep us from flying! This was to make up for the helicopter trip to the volcano that we didn’t take. We tried to take another helicopter over Franz Josef glacier, weather didn’t permit. So this ended up being an amazing experience.
Looking down on a lake.
I still can’t get over this beauty!!!
Coming into Queenstown.
Often, it’s the experiences one has that make life so rich. I am so blessed to have had this whole experience of New Zealand.
New Zealand is two islands at the southern tip of the Pacific ocean, how many wars can it be involved in? Well, seeing that it is part of the British Commonwealth, it sent its’ sons far from home to fight wars that had nothing to do with it.
First war they were sent off to was the Boer War in South Africa. This set a very bad precedent. England now had a source of soldiers for it’s wars.
This beautiful clock tower is in the middle of Hokitika, a small town on the west coast.
Another memorial in Hokitika, one to the pioneers that settled the west coat. This coast, on the South Island is the least populated, most rural and really, cut off from most of the country. So it is nice that they honored their original settlers.
I’m sure there is a memorial in Auckland, it was our first day in NZ, I didn’t see it. I wasn’t looking. Second day, as we drove out and south, we visited the town of Waihi. The purpose, to see a large pit goldmine (Unfortunately, we didn’t take the tour, which I would have loved). Imagine my surprise when along the fence of the pit I saw this.
This is just a few of the poppies the line marched on and on.
A project by the local Lions club to honor all New Zealand soldiers who were part of Anzac, the South Pacific soldiers from Australia and New Zealand who took part in WWI. A year later and poppies are still here, even though it says on the sign that they were supposed to come down at the end of 2018 and that decedents can have the poppy. I didn’t have time to walk the length of the fence to see if anyone took their poppy. This is a definite downside to group tours – someone else’ timetable. Then again, had I not been on this tour I’d never even see this. So really, no complaints.
Joel got this coin among his change (sorry the image is fuzzy) I grabbed it. 2018 is the centennial of the end of the war, so NZ had this coin made in commemoration. Although Kiwis participated in many battles, the best known, which was also a slaughterhouse and useless battle was Galipoli in Turkey. This is legal tender, a year later, you can still get them as change. I did see a coin dealer, who was selling old coins selling these as well. Yishai loves coins and is a big history buff. We both listened to Dan Carlins’ podcast about WWI. So I knew that he’d want this coin. Otherwise, I’d have kept it myself. But then, I do have my Galipoli yarn…
This is how monuments are used today, as a place to pose and look pretty. Yes, this is a beautiful image, pretty girl, red coat, white marble. She never stopped to look at the meaning of the memorial. I did, in Rotorua, this is a memorial to the Boer War.
To a specific hero, who fought hard and lost his life in South Africa.
Nearby there was a memorial to the Maoris’ who died in WWI. I didn’t take a picture of the whole memorial. I’m a little pissed at the whole Maori situation. They arrived only 400 years before the Europeans – but that allows them to be considered ‘natives’. Their fellow Pacific Islanders who have arrived later don’t get that honor. These days, NZ is trying to make Maori a second legal language – but only those with Maori blood can go to the schools that teach the language. Instead of celebrating who they are as part of society – they are now becoming special. With rights that no one else has. Oh, and you want to see who most of the homeless on the streets of the cities are? It’s not the Europeans, it’s not the many Asians who have made NZ home, it’s the Maori. One more thing, since I’m ranting, if you want to talk about wars and bloodthirsty conquest – once again – the Maoris – but since they aren’t white – their bloody history is celebrated.
This predates the Boer war! Shelly Bay in Wellington was an army base forever. No more, now just a lovely place to go and picnic and see local artists. I’m sure Wellington had it’s own WWI memorial. I missed it. There was a memorial in the old cemetery, but we were running through it in the pouring rain. So all I saw was a small statue saying that 16 NZ soldiers from WWI, were brought back and buried there.
In Nelson, in honor of WWI.
Right on the lake in Queenstown, the most elaborate memorial yet. Looking at the four plaques, this area offered up almost 80 of it’s local sons. There were many others who were lucky to come home. Or maybe not, so many injuries among the survivors. Do you see the small black plaque on the right. Of course I went and took a close look.
A plaque added for WWII. New Zealand learned its lesson and didn’t send all of it’s young men to be killed in Europe. Or even in Asia for that matter.
A memorial arch in Christchurch. Yes, in memory of WWI. Btw, you see how orange this picture is? This is because of the fires in Australia, for weeks the ash has been blowing over to NZ. It made the weather cold, wet and rainy. It also turned the sky here red.
That is it, I’m sure I missed a lot of memorials. I’m glad NZ has remembered 100 years later. I so want to see the Peter Jackson’s movie, They Shall not Grow Old. Where he took real film and photos from WWI, cleaned it up and where possible added dialog. His grandfather was one of the many Kiwis who went to war. He came back alive and in his honor Jackson made the movie. Unfortunately, it is very hard to see, very few releases. I’m hopeful one of these day to be able to see it.
One of the first things I was able to do was buy yarn. I sort of knew, that it probably wouldn’t be the easiest thing to buy the best Merino in NZ. Export baby! That is where the best goes.
These are two Merino Possum yarns I bought the first day in Auckland. Yes, everyone is pushing Merino-Possum. This isn’t the American possum. It’s an Australian import. It is a pest, so they have figured out how to trap and use the pelts. Or just the hair. It is too short to spin on it’s own, so they add it to merino. It is a very nice soft yarn, but – I don’t think the possum adds anything other than being a soft filler. Oh and yes, they do kill the possums. They are pest – think of them as furry rats.
I had been knitting up a shawl from my friend Diane’s yarn. It started with a pattern and then I just knitted on my own. It was becoming to long and narrow. So no, there isn’t a pattern. I am very pleased with the shape and size of this. I wore it the rest of the trip. I am slowly renewing my shawl collection, many of the old ones are falling out of use – either fraying and getting moth eaten or simply old. This is what happens, nothing lasts forever and it allows me to simply make new ones.
The blue grey will become a sweater, as soon as I finished the first shawl, I cast on the grey for another shawl. This is Idina by Irina Anikeeva. Its a free pattern, google her and sign up for her newsletter. Of course it knits up quickly in the beginning.
I found this yarn in Wellington. It is sock yarn, it does have some acrylic. What made me buy it is the story. The wool is from NZ, it is spun in Turkey, it is named Gallipoli… I will have a post on WWI and NZ. This is part of the story. I have visited Gallipoli, it has a very sad history in WWI. So this touched my heart, Anzac (Australian and NZ troops fighting in what would become Turkey), fighting far from home in a useless battle. The poppy has become the symbol of WWI. So one of these days I will have socks, the wool came from NZ and the yarn was spun in Turkey, then returned to be sold in NZ.
Just like here, many yarn shops are closing. So imagine my surprise to find this yarn in a gift shop cafe that was open on Christmas Day. The shop was super busy, run by Chinese. This and New Years day are probably their Black Friday. I just took a picture, didn’t buy anything here. Although, there was pure merino.
We visited Mt. Nicholas Station (NZ word for ranch). That will get it’s own post, but guess what I found here???
Pure merino from a station that I visited! I saw some of the sheep, I saw the operation of how a sheep business runs. The owner must knit! She sends what they could consider the least valuable wool to the mill in NZ and back comes yarn! I am sooo happy! There will be hats for me and Joel and who knows what else. I didn’t buy a sweaters’ worth cuz I had no idea what sweater. (I brought the pattern of a sweater with me, but I had already bought the yarn in Auckland for that) In this case I wanted all the colors they had available. This purchase just thrills me!
On to a small town called Hokitika, they are best know for their jade. I found the yarn store. They had similar yarns to what I had already seen, but they also have sock knitting machines!
This is an old one which is still operational. No surprise, you take care of these machines and they work.
They sell new machines as well. I’ve heard of people who are buying them and making socks, much quicker than it will take me to knit up Gallipoli.
This basket with bear and booties was in that shop. Makes me want to knit up some more bears.
Back home, spent an afternoon with my knitting group, I’ve made a lot of progress. I’m more than halfway done with the lace portion. My friend Irene started this pattern before me. She didn’t have hours on a bus with beautiful scenery going by, so yes, I am ahead of her.
There are cities in NZ, they are not the reason to go visit. Nothing wrong with them, just meh. Of course a country needs strong, vibrant cities to survive. It’s just, as a tourist, a day is enough. Then on to the gorgeous nature.
We had a full day in Auckland, as we are want to do, we to the hop on, hop off bus. A good way to get a feel for a city. Of course, I got the iconic image of the Auckland skyline. Btw, this was one of the few mostly sunny days we had in NZ. Thank you Australia fires for really affecting the weather in NZ. But that is a different story, of how the earth balances itself out, but not in the way humans like.
It was Christmas time, so the alleys off Queen Street, had these large ornament decorations. Queen street is the Main Street downtown. There one finds Gucci and Louis Vuitton, with long lines of Asian tourists waiting to get in.
We turned a corner and saw this, huh? That is quite an effort for holiday decorations.
Yikes, front view, a little scary isn’t it? Also, I was told that this is permanent, has been scaring the kids for years!
Like most of NZ, Auckland is very hilly. So from far up the street, you can see this guy. I think at this point Aucklanders either ignore or actually take pride in this.
There were old buildings around. Auckland is an organic city, old, new, towers next to three story buildings. I like it that way, I have a lot to say about Christchurch, but that is a different post. Here I felt like I was in a vibrant city that is alive. It was a Sunday, so the downtown area wasn’t as busy as it would be any other day of the week.
The sky tower, very reminiscent of Seattles’ space needle. Might have been designed by the same guy.
Street murals. This is a huge trend all over the world. I’m not sure how I feel about this massive trend. I liked what I saw here in Auckland. I follow an account on IG #streetart_official. So I’m seeing the huge sides of buildings are being painted with murals. Sure, many of these buildings have large blank walls, and maybe viewed in the landscape and not small photos, it works better.
I LOVE this image that I captured. The textures, the shapes, the colors. I hear all my quilting friends saying – turn it into a quilt! Simplified that actually might work. But I doubt I’ll do that. I think I’ll just enjoy this image that I captured with my camera.
Visited the largest Anglican Cathedral. The Stained glass is truly impressive.
I’m biased, not Judson Studio impressive, but lovely glass. I only captured a few images, there was a lot more and each window was huge.
Parnell street, where old Victorians have become lovely shops and restaurants. We were there too early on a Sunday, so things weren’t really open and busy. Sundays are slower in NZ, and that is not something I will complain about.
Another example of all the gingerbread on a Victorian home that is now a shop.
I always say look up, it also pays to look down. I like what they did on the sidewalk.
I uploaded what I could while in New Zealand. When we travel abroad we rely on Wifi, don’t use the phone unless we absolutely have to. Certainly don’t use data. Unlike other people who sat on the bus on their phones. So now I can share more pictures easily. I should have named this post ‘Snow’.
We stayed at this lovely 1930’s hotel. Chateau Tongariro at the ski resort in the North Island. It is summer and there was a lot of snow on the mountains. This makes perfect sense, NZ is very far south, the mountains are high, there is snow on the peaks all the time.
Some interior views. Although this hotel was built in the middle of the Art Deco period, the interior has a lot of older elements to it. Which isn’t surprising, very few building are purely one style.
At this point our group was 7 people. Later more people joined in. Here we are enjoying a lovely dinner together. To be honest, this only happened when there was no choice of places to eat. People segregated out into groups. Group dynamics on a tour like this are very interesting. We got along, but I’ve learned, it is a very temporary friendship. You make do.
Another interesting thing I learned on this trip. All of us had iPhones, so we shared pictures via airdrop. A great thing, because sometimes someone else got a great picture, it was easy to share.
Here we are at the bottom of the ski resort. The plan was to go up the ski left. I’m thrilled to have brought my rain boots. I had a wool hat, but it was in the suitcase. Joel just bought those gloves, I didn’t have any at the time. Here we are posting on an old chair lift.
Joel with our guide Andrew. Thank God this is as far as we got. The Chair lift wasn’t running, too cloudy. I’m grateful, I can go up chairlifts, but they are meant to be one way. You ski down, I have gone down chairlifts and it is freaky and scary. My fear of heights kicks in big time. So I wasn’t sorry to miss out on that experience. We went for a lovely hike instead.
In the morning we woke up to this view – we could actually see the snow on the mountain. It was lovely.
With a corner of the hotel. On our travels we tended to spend one night in a hotel and then move on to the next. Not easy living out of a suitcase and moving every day. But there is so much area to cover and although I didn’t see ‘all’ of NZ, I saw a lot.
We drove around this range of mountains, by mid morning, the haze had lifted and there was a gorgeous snow peak mountain, with unreal green in the foreground as well as sheep!!! I haven’t touched up the photo, there is a reason so many films want to use NZ as a location. It is stunningly beautiful.
Look! Off in the distance, Mt Cook, the tallest peak in NZ. We were so fortunate to get such a beautiful clear view.
This was the view from our hotel room. Often people get here and never see the mountain. This happened to us years ago in Costa Rica, we never saw the Arenal Volcano. There is a reason why this mountain range is called the southern Alps. It really is like the alps, although to be honest, many things are different.
In the morning, we couldn’t see the mountain, the opposite of what happened at Tongariro.
As we drove away it began to clear a little.
At Franz Josef Glacier we initially saw nothing.
For a few seconds the next morning, this snuck through. We were supposed to take a helicopter ride, but those low clouds made it a no go, so we took a walk to see the glacier instead.
There it is, off in the distance. It has receded a lot in the last few years. It is one of the few in a temperate rain forest. Funny thing is, our guide was talking about how the road gets washed out all the time and soon they may just close that part of the country. Other people said – no way, they’ll figure it out. But if nature decides that this glaciers’ time is up, people might not want to come to this part of NZ. It is wet, grey dreary and full of awful sand flies.
Joel and the ranger, warning not to cross the ropes. Yeah, the ranger is just a cutout, still a cute image.
Many towns in New Zealand have a large statue that represents the town. I’m sorry to say I couldn’t get pictures of many of them, whizzing by in a bus. So when I saw this fish, I snapped a picture
I can’t remember the names of most of these towns, this one was on a lake. Trout fishing is the reason this became a big vacation spot.
A few days latter I saw this fish in Wellington. Just street art. So I started looking for fish.
In Eason I saw this fish on the wall of a community center.
As well as these door handles snapped like a fish.
So now I’m on a mission to find fish
Like this wall decoration in a wonderful restaurant,
Or these fish climbing a wall at one of the hotels we stayed in.
What is New Zealand without sheep?
Tomorrow we visit a sheep station, so I’m sure I’ll have more pictures.
People are raising more and more cows. The dairy industry
