Yoyobon, they are lovely, do you give them as gifts?

I used to make items from crocheted squares, clothes as well as rugs.

I am restricted to staying at home mainly at present. I watch TV, prefer comedy shows and documentaries, world news and current affairs programs.

I make sure to take a walk around the Retirement Village every day for my circulation and enjoy looking at the gardens which are the result of other residents hard work!

My family and the Village gardeners look after my small areas as sadly I can not.

I don't cook much as their home-cooked frozen meals are provided by my family but I like to make soups in my pressure cooker for lunch and devise different ones from frozen vegetables and leftovers.

I call them "Nail Soup" from the Hans Christian Anderson story!

I do gift them to others when I can, but mainly weave for the sheer pleasure of the creative challenge. It was the same with the almost 75 pair of socks I knit in various complicated lacy patterns.......or the shawls i've knit using various stitches and patterning. It's all in the challenge, not the need for one more ______ ( fill in the blank !)

Sort of like having a bookcase of books.

Also, I must add that I am very happy and content to be home doing these things.

I'm not a shopper or a social creature. I guess 30 years of teaching cured me of being around people. Loved it when I did it, but I'm in a very different place now .

Bon - Those are gorgeous! I'm really very impressed.

The other things I do with my free time besides reading are playing Mah Jongg (two times a week, with two different groups) and working jigsaw puzzles. I run a neighborhood puzzle exchange from my garage that I started during the pandemic and now can't seem to close it because customers keep coming. I also have a group of friends, all approximately my age, who meet for Sunday supper at various local restaurants. We have from 6 to 12 people each week. That's always nice to look forward to.

I notice that some of us are not so sociable as we were and others are happy to be around people! I am mostly content to be on nodding terms with the other residents.

I don't have close friends. I like having i'net friends though!

Bon, your weaving is beautiful! I am a quilter, though I haven’t sewn a stitch in months! We’ve been building a house and getting ready to move, plus I retired at the end of March. Moving is finally done, though lots more unpacking and figuring out where to put things to come. We have a contract to sell our former home. Hopefully I will be able to quilt soon!

I also knit and crochet.

Donna

Carolyn, the desserts sound wonderful ! Tell me more about the banana pudding....

We have Carolyn to thank for her chocolate chess pie recipe, but our waistlines will never be the same again!

Yoyo, lovely work! I was introduced to weaving as part of an art course I did at college. As a beginner I found the 'threading up ( if that is the right expression) of the loom the most difficult part to master; very mathematical and complicated. It must take years to become proficient.

Besides reading which I try and 'do' for half an hour or so during the day and for a while in bed at night, I really don't have any 'hobbies'. I have always blamed it on lack of time, probably a lame excuse. Nor do we have a wide, or even narrow circle of friends. People in this semi-rural area are slightly suspicious of in-comers . . . and we have only been here for some 45 years. I know of no-one, even folk who have lived here for several generations, who might enjoy inviting others to share a meal in their home . . . although I was once offered a cup of tea when I had to deliver a message to a neighbour!

I do try and get outside each day, either for a walk, although the hills around here are rather daunting for my ancient knees and baggy lungs or, weather permitting, try and deal with weeds in our garden.

I find nothing surprising about Vee and her standoffish locals. It is quite normal for some people to make a practice of not even going inside someone's home however long they have known them.

An Englishwoman who came to visit family in Australia cut her visit short, saying she couldn't stand the way people dropped in all the time uninvited!

The Aussie way of life is very relaxed. We drove across the Nullarbor Desert West to East, which took several days, to drop some friends for a home visit and arrived at their destination in the night. We were promptly given a bed with a breakfast later by complete strangers.

Kentuckians are a friendly, hospitable bunch, but we refer to Vee's incomers as "from off."

Yoyo, here is the pudding recipe:

BANANA PUDDING

1 c. sugar

3 Tbsp. cornstarch

1/4 c. water

2 eggs, separated

1-1/2 c. whole milk

1 t. vanilla

2 Tbsp. butter

18 to 24 vanilla wafers

2 medium bananas, sliced

1/8 tsp. cream of tartar

2 Tbsp. sugar

Combine 1 c. sugar and cornstarch in a heavy saucepan; mix well. Stir in water and mix again.

Beat egg yolks, add milk, and mix well. Gradually add to cornstarch mixture. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture boils. Boil 1 minute, stirring, until thickened. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla and butter. Cool slightly.

Arrange half of vanilla wafers in bottom of a 9-inch square baking dish; spread with half the pudding. Top with banana slices. Arrange remaining wafers around outside edge of dish and spread with remaining pudding.

Heat oven to 400 F. Combine egg whites and cream of tartar; beat at high speed of mixer until foamy. Gradually add 2 Tbsp. sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. Spread meringue over pudding, sealing to edge of dish. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve warm or at room temperature. Serves 6.

Double recipe for a 9x13" pan.

That weaving is gorgeous, yoyobon! One of my friends in my main Ravelry group also weaves as well as knits.

I love to cook but at the moment bad knees and other issues prevent me from standing more than about ten minutes at a time, so I can't cook as much as I'd like to.

I read a lot and also knit and crochet, often reading as I knit :-) Most of my knitting/crocheting output goes to my Ravelry group, which collects clothing, accessories and toys, mainly knitted or crocheted, to send to refugees. Our main target is children, although we also include garments to fit older teens as well. Originally we sent items to Syrian refugee camps, but more lately have been sending to the Ukrainian refugees in both Ukraine and Poland. We've also sent them to Pakistan flood victims and non-wool knits have gone to Timor and Papua New Guinea and to refugees being resettled in Australia. In case overseas refugees are living in conditions where there are open fires, we only send garments which are at least 75% wool.

Now I have a grandson, I do knit for him as well.

Thank you Carolyn.....so this is what I used to make called Nilla Wafer Banana Pudding !

I appreciate that you make the vanilla pudding from scratch and I've printed out your recipe. My hubby adores banana pudding and this will be a nice treat ( for him) and a great temptation to eat too much of it ( for me ! ).

Colleen, I also read when I knit. 😁

When I taught and had a free period I'd walk the halls and read a book. Teachers would wonder how I could do that and I said that I knew the route by heart, there was no one else in the halls and I just kept moving !

You're welcome, Yoyo. I hope your husband enjoys it--and eats more than his share. One of my ladies just loves it but unfortunately has COPD so badly that she can't come anymore. Just walking from her car to the front door exhausted her even though she was using portable oxygen. It's so sad to become disabled.

Besides reading, I like to garden ( although Rosefollly has me beat all hollow in that respect). I also walk a lot for exercise, fresh air, and a change of locale. One of my loves is growing and working with herbs. My friends and family know that, at various times, they may be recipients of my homemade lip balm, and even, more rarely, hand cream.

As Rouan says, I do love to garden. Another of our sisters calls Rouan the herb sister and me the rose sister. My DH and I are in the process of downsizing to a more reasonably sized house and garden now that the children have all left the nest. I am expecting to do less and enjoy it more with a smaller place. I also like to sew - apparel, costumes, and quilts. I have tried my hand at knitting and have made a few things, but it does not come naturally to me.

I'm also not a weaver, though I am full of admiration for Yoyobon's gorgeous creations.

I have two main craft hobbies. I have been knitting since I was about 12, and still complete one or two jumpers a year. The other is cross stitch, and on the 1st of January 2023, I started a project to complete a copy of Seurat's A Sunday on Grande Jatte, since I love the picture and thought his pointillism style would be well suited to cross stitch. The finished item, which will completely cover the fabric, will be 3 feet x 2 feet.

In nearly 18 months, I have come this far - I have done about half of the next panel now.

That’s lovely, Kath! Do you have a pattern? The last cross stitch I did was in progress for at least 10 years. It has blending filaments (hate that stuff!) and beads and is quite large. I paid a bundle to have it professionally framed.

Two such talented and patient ladies!

I am so impressed with the work of you ladies, yoyobon, Kath and msmeow. Outstanding work. Thank you for these beautiful photos. I used to do a lot of needlework--crewel, needlepoint and quilting especially--but gardening took over my life for decades. Alas, I'm no longer physically able to do what I did so it's mostly containers now, which I enjoy very much.

I am also a passionate genealogist and could research all day and night if I could.

Kath and Donna and Bon - You are true artisans. Those photos are beautiful.

Thank you for your kind words.

Meow, I use a free website called Pic2Pat. You upload any photo and it will change it to a cross stitch pattern, with a choice of finished size, material (different counts of Aida or linen) and the number of colours you want to use - mine has 120. I have previously had one project professionally framed. It also had some filament, also many colours had one thread of one colour and one of another, which was a pain, and beads, white work and cut work. The cut work was the scary bit as the rest was finished and I wasn't convinced the whole thing wouldn't fall apart!

Such beautiful weaving, yoyobon!

I try to set aside some time each day for crocheting these days. In years past I did a lot of counted cross stitch, quilting, needlepoint, and knitting but crocheting is easier for me now than the other activities. For the last 9 years or so I've been making hats that get distributed among homeless people locally.

I also tinker with a few plants--some indoors and a few on the patio. A couple of angelwing begonias are part of the picture now, and they are new to me but I'm enjoying them.