Kangaroos and Knitting

No ... I Know those 2 things don't have anything to do with each other ... well not normally, although I am now entertaining the idea of trying to get hold of some Kangaroo fur and seeing if I can spin it so that I can Knit a Kangaroo - LOL (or maybe a Kangaroo wooly jumper?) ... it is just that I was planning on posting about Knitting for ABC Wednesday, when I just happened to see (and take photos of) some Kangaroos, and realised I could also post about those for the letter K ;-)

ok ... first - the Kangaroos ... actually they are possibly Wallabies - same kind of thing but usually a bit smaller ... anyway ... I was walking from work, around the base of Black Mountain (which is mostly one big nature park with lots of bush and some wildflowers and stuff now coming out ;-) and heading for the middle of the city (which is right next to the mountain/bush/etc) and I noticed a few "skippawobbellys" hopping down the hill toward the track ... they waited beside the track until I had walked past, before hopping across the track and down the hill ... and one had a joey in her pouch - and she was happy to stand there while I took a photo, or 2 ;-)

Mum and Joey are on the right, and if you look carefully near the middle there is another Kangaroo (or Wallaby - which is what these probably are ;-)
(so you can play Where's Wally With a Wallaby - maybe I should have saved this for a W post? LOL)

here is a closer up shot

... complete with red eyes - lol


and here is "mum" hopping back into the bush at the other side of the track:

(the green thing isn't a tree trunk - well - it probably was in a past life, but now it is a power pole - lol)

btw ...
Q: what do you get if you cross a Kangaroo with a sheep?
A: a wooly jumper.

Q: what do you get if you cross a Kangaroo with an elephant?
A: great big holes all over Australia.

[Andrea ducks and runs]


and now ... for the Knitting:
Usually, I crochet - I am way faster/better at it (and that is probably mostly why I seem to like it better) and I do quite a lot of crochet stuff, but sometimes I do actually Knit things ... usually fairly small things - lol - and often unusal things I am trying out, like those curly twirly scarves, made from a special yarn that you actually Knit (or crochet) along the side of, that seem to be the "in thing" lately:
Actually only 3 of these 4 curly scarves are Knitted

The green one was Knitted by my mum ... she sent it to me with a note saying she figured I probably wouldn't  have made one yet because it is Knitted and I crochet - lol
... so I had to tell her that not only had I made one - but I had actually Knitted one (the black and grey one) then crocheted one (the brown/orange one) and then Knitted another one (the brown one) ... and am also part way through crocheting another ... something ... with another variety of that type of yarn. (it might become a scarf or a beanie or a bag ... or get undone and made into something else - probably a bag or a beanie or a scarf - lol - or possibly an edging or a collar on a coat or something made from fabric, or different yarn)
btw ... I will eventually wear the one mum made - just not as often because the yarn is a lot stiffer and the scarf is thicker - but I probably won't wear any of them much for a while - Winter is over and the warmer weather is coming (not that one would think so at the moment - it is currently cold and wet and windy - lol)
anyway ... those couple of scarves are not the only thing I have Knitted this year - I also made these:
(the photos should all be clickable for a closer look ;-)

The small one (on the left) was made at a Textile art retreat I went to earlier this year - we learnt to use 3 (or more) yarns at once to knit these little bags (about the right size for a chatelaine to keep a tape measure/etc in ... or to use for a phone sock ;-)
We used a pile of yarn scraps, some of which were very short lengths and rather fluffy/fuzzy - we knotted those together and left the ends hanging out - and some of us "let it all hang out" a bit more than others - LOL
The bigger bag was made using some more of the fuzzy scraps (left over from what I kept to finish the little bag) and some green and black yarns that I saw in the op shop next to work, just after I got back from the retreat ... oddly enough - the green yarn was almost the same colour green as one of the yarns I used in the small bag - lol

Later on this year I found a few odd short bits of a sort of turquoise coloured yarn in my stash and was inspired to make another one of those knitted bags - so I started, and finished, this one:

I used dark blue as a main colour and used lots of other blues/purples/greens for the other rows, and left all the ends dangling when I changed colours each row - which resulted in the fringe around the top. The handle is actually one short bit with a hole in it, and one long side - which is threaded through the hole in the short bit so the handle is adjustable. (the other big bag is done like that too, but the handle is twisted cord and the long side is threaded through a loop in the short bit ;-)
The top bits of both big bags are crocheted (so is the handle of the blue one).

so ... I wonder what I will Knit next?

a Kangaroo? a Koala?  ... no - probably easier to crochet those - lol

(and I am not going to Knit myself any Knickers - now that would be ITCHY!)

... maybe I should Knit a garden hose?!