Freaky head

I have a new computer. Its very nice and it has a webcam on it :) Yay!

So I am almost at the stage of getting back into knitting and posting, but to try out the photo thing, I've posted this ridiculous shot.

Hahahahaha!!!!

We are here and on broadband!!!

Yay - broadband finally installed and hopefully blogger will be a bit nicer to me now!
Hopefully......

Anyway, we are all settled into the new house, well we are in here, not sure there is much settling going on!

We have a new cat called Dermot - a silver tabby burmese who is just gorgeous! The house is OK, but needs a lot more space for all our stuff. Never mind - time will bring us the dream house.

Blogger just doesn't like my photos. What am I supposed to do about this???

Hmmm

Update

Hi to anyone who reads this.

I haven't dropped off the face of the planet - we have just relocated to another country so things are a little crazy at the moment. Also I have to update my software I think as blogger no longer accepts my photos anymore. Very frustrating! I am going to use firefox I think for Raverly, so I might see if that is happier with blogger too.

Needless to say, that will all have to wait for when I get broadband and we are in the new house. 3w or so.

I downloaded iTunes the other night, and it took 2.5hrs!!!!!!! And then my new iPod wouldn't work anyway as the operating system on my laptop is too old, so I have to wait until my new iMac is set up at the new house. All a bit frustrating.

So there it is - I'll be back!

Beautiful wool, but what to do??

I bought this wool from my LYS a few weeks ago for about $2.50 a ball. Its super stunning, 50% fine merino - those poor sheep :( - and 50% alpaca. Its Aymara
I've knitted the cream one up about 3 times now, and I haven't been happy with the result. Several scarf attempts later I decided to try dyeing the cream one, and then when I put it with the other 2 colours, well they go so nicely that I just can't do it.

It needds to be a loose knit scarf as while this is a fine wool, its very bulky, and goes stiff and scrunchy when knitted tightly, and thats not pleasant...

I just dont know what to do with it!!

Edited 2m later to include photos. Yay for broadband finally!! :)

Gorgeous fabric

I bought this today. I went in for 1 skein of DMC in red for my woolaholics kitchen swap, and saw this fabric. Loved it immediately.
Its 2.6m wide backing fabric, but far too nice to go on the back of anything I say. I would like to makea pinny for Jenna from it, teamed with Denim, and I think I would like to make a skirt from it for me. But I have no idea what pattern and I just dont have time to do anything now.
So it might go in the box for NZ where it will get used.

I think Tikki may like it too, so I might see if she wants a swatch to make something for her little girl.

The other thing I could do is use it for a bedspread - just an all over quilted pattern on it, some batting, a binding (I'm thinking scalloped) and voila - a new bedspread.

Thankfully the shop keeper marked it down for me in order for me to take the last of it on the bolt. There was 2m, and I really only wanted 1.5, so she knocked the price down from $35 to $26 for me. Ah a bargain - I love a bargain ;)

Wont let me load the picture on.... Grrr

Nemo Shorties

Man - you forget how much fun shorties/longies etc are until you knit them again!
I put all my other knitting down yesterday and made these shorts in about 6hrs. SOOOO much fun! And very quick too.

They are made with the picky pants pattern from LTK, which would have to be my favourtie pattern I think, and the wool was 12ply BFL from Jolly Jumbuk. Irene did a great job with the dye job, they are very bright and cheerful, and so soft! I thought it might have been a bit scratchy while I was knitting it, but when it was knitted up, just has such a nice drape, and feels so soft. Would be lvoely to have a winter jumper from it :) MInd you - not in these colours, might be a bit overpowering!

I've decided I'm not going to muck around with fancy short rows methods anymore. I do the best I can, its quick, there isn't much of a hole on the purl wrap, so who cares. I'm happy with them, and as you can tell from mr wiggle bum in the photos, he's pretty happy too.

Sock Yarn Swap

This was the sock wool I received in the Woolaholics sock yarn swap. Its great - 100% machine washable wool, and the colours are like nothing else I have in my stash, so thats very exciting :)
Bec also sent a pattern she thinks would work well with the wool, Ms Marigold ( http://flintknits.blogspot.com/2007/05/marigold-sock-pattern.html ), and I have to agree - I reckon they will look great knitted up.

Thanks so much Bec - I had to hide the chupa chop from Jenna otherwise I wouldn't get to have it myself :)

Mums Scarf

I bought this wool from a market for mum last year, and I've been trying to decide what to knit with it ever since. There was only 85g, and its handspun so there wont be anymore the same. Just the colour was lovely.
So finally I hunted for a scarf pattern. This was the one row scarf pattern, ( http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/archives/2006/10/12/one_row_handspun_scarf.html ) I only cast on 18 stitches, and knitted with 8mm needles I think?

Because it was so short, I blocked the buggery out of it, so the pattern is a bit poxy now, but at least it should go around the neck and be able to be fastened with a brooch. It was the 3rd pattern I tried with this wool, nothing else was working for me, and it was using too much wool for any length to be made, so they all got frogged. Needless to say, I'm happy to get this finished!

Happy birthday Mum - It will be sent off in the mail in the next few days.

A dress for a nappy

We have been on the hunt for new nappies for Hamish as he has had a massive growth spurt in the last couple of months, and finally looks chubby ;)
One of the girls on Nappycino wanted a swap for a nappy that I wanted to try, so this is what I made for her 2yo daughter. I tried it on Jenna, and its sooooo cute! Its more of a tunic than anything, but should fit on top of pants for a year or so, just by moving the buttons.
Jenna wears heaps of this style of pinny, and I love them. I recently made abotu 3 of them, 2 to give away, but they were the longer versions so I am going to hem them all much shorter before they go.
Actually a very good pattern this one - the pants and top in the pack were good too.

Good for me

I went for a run this morning. Well a walk run. Well a walk with a bit of running....
I have lost so much conditioning in a month. I couldn't even go a kilometre before I had to stop and walk. Netball finished a month ago, and I'm already unfit!
Anyway - it felt good, the sun is streaming in our windows at 5:30am now, and Jenna was asleep, Hamish was awake, so I thought bugger it.
Lets see if I can stick to it more than once. 3 times a week would be good.

Trying again....

Here are the sock swap photos..... See what I mean - GORGY!!!!

Sock Swapping Wool

Eeeek!!! I dyed this up today, and I'm soooooo happy with it!
One of them is supposed to go to my swapper, but I want to keep both of them!

I've done a really big repeat, each colour is about 60cm or so, so it *should* do two rounds or there abouts, meaning that it will form stripes for the person knitting. To be truthful I only knitted a couple of rounds of 2 different sock patterns in the flat, and took a guess from there, but all the same, it will form stripes.

So which one do I keep? I'm leaning towards the blueish one. I have some bought wool about the same colour as the pinky one, so the blue will add to my stash ;)

The wool is Patonyle, which has about 20% nylon I think, and it makes the acid wool dyes just burst with colour. So much fun to dye :)

Ok - a bit silly but this photo wont load......
Hmmm, off to ponder!

Painting fun!

Sometimes kids are so much fun :D
Yesterday we did some painting on the back lawn - wrapping paper was needed - and here are a couple of the photos.
Obviously there was a bit of mess to clean up. Not sure how much paint Hamish injested........ It said non-toxic on the side, so here's hoping no permanent damage!

Woolaholics Small Things Swap

I recently took part in a small things swap for this forum I belong to. I knitted a hot water bottle that I sent off to someone in Melbourne - I forgot to take a picture of it! Darn it all.
But this is the bag we received from a *J* in Perth.
Its lovely, Jenna is enjoying it, and especially hiding little treasures inside it! Its made from recycled Sari Silk, and is lined with green velvet. Thanks to our swapper.

Steiner Quilt all done :)

Yay!
Its finished and dropped off at the school. I'll admit it turned out a lot nicer than I thought it was going to, but I was still happy to give it away.
I hope they can raise some money with it.
Its being raffled with a granny squares crochet blanket that the parents and friends craft circle made over a few weeks.

Jessica modelling her hat

My sister sent me this photo this morning of my niece in her hat. Isn't that nice! She asked for me to put it on my blog next to the phot of Jenna in Jessica's hat. Done :D
Its very odd..... I didn't know she read my blog! Even more funny is I was about to post some pictures of soemthing I was starting to make for her birthday... Guess thats out until she's received it!

Very happy that Jessica has worn the hat. It will probably go a few more weeks until spring/summer starts hitting NZ in a big way.

Bloody Hawthorn Longies

Well despite all the drug allegations regarding this team, I decided to do the right thing by the father of my children and dye up some treliske and turn them into some Hawthorn longies for Hamish.
I'm actually pretty happy with them - they are a much more subtle shade of yellow and brown then the real thing, but thats fine by me!
Isn't my little man a cutie :D

Another swap - stitchmarkers!!

Its so nice being a part of these swaps. This was a stitchmarker swap on Woolaholics I participated in, and what a lovely swap I received. Its the cutest little beads on wire, and its great that something so simple can be so darned cute and useful.
Thanks to my secret swapper, muchly appreicated. Considering at the moment I use loops of embroidery floss.... this will make my knitting look alot prettier :D

Hat for Jessica

My niece had her 5th birthday this weekend, and I decided to make her something quick to go with her pyjamas for a present. I made this hat from soem thick and thin wool that I have had forever. While you cant see, the hat has several cables working up to the crown. It was super easy to make, and I got Jenna to model it for me. Doesn't she look impressed.... LOL

My not so secret swap

In the recent book swap for Nappycino, I was lucky enough to receive these goods from Tikki and Lily-Rainbow. Muchly appreciated and enjoyed by all.
Her charming husband dropped it off at my doorstep - I must have scared him last time with my angry face, so he decided not to knock this time :D

Yarn Swap

This arrived today in the mailbox for my yarn swap.
Very happy with it, looks like Treliske and its dyed red and blue with a bit of white remaining.

Jenna loves it too... She's already decided she wants a jumper and a hat and some gloves. Ahh - gotta love kids.

Thanks heaps to my swapper in NSW. :D

What a hottie!!

Jenna has become obsessed with having a hottie in her bed. Well actually she was obsessed with the wheat bag, but after dealing with her waking up a few times cause it had gone cold, I got smart and got her hooked on the hotty, which stays almost warm til morning!
At the moment the cover is a sewn up piece of polar fleece, which actually works incredibly well, its such a great insulator, but I decided to knit one, and found this pattern on the net.
http://www.yarnagogo.com/bawk_hot_water_bottle_coz/
I've knitted it up, and I think I may have stuffed up my gauge a little, but anyway, it almost fits perfectly, but before I make the next one I will definitly make some changes to the pattern.
I might do some different patterns on the next one too, the cable is nice, but kinda basic, so maybe I'll do an aran style one.

I love the roll neck on it, the bottle goes in and stays in, but no annoying buttons on the back for kids to play with.

There is a small things swap coming up, so I reckon I might make one of these in some yummy wool - depending who I get of course. And I will make one for mum and maybe my nieces too.

Our tassie splurge

This was the big ticket item we bought from the Salamanca markets on our Tassie holiday in April. The chap had all these wonderful mirrors with Tassie woods, and this sort of pattern we liked best, so it was made for us.
Obviously no two mirrors the same!

The border is Blackheart Sassafras, which is a surprise, cause my favourite tassie woods are actually myrtle and huon pine, and most of my furniture have these golden/reddy/honey like tones. This one is very different, but for some reason we both preferred it, and since we have such different taste, if there is ever anything we agree on, we have to get it!
So after we ordered, about 3-4 w later we got a call on the Tuesday night saying it was ready to pick up off the ferry at 6:30am the next morning. gee thanks... lots of warning. How to arrange a babysitter with all this notice!
In the end shane took an RDO, and he drove up.

Its mammoth, weighs about 25kg, so we needed a special rail system to hold it up, and finally it went up yesterday.

I love it, it looks like its meant to be there, and will be one of my most favourite wall ornaments for many years tocome.

God I hope it doesn't fall off!!!

A wee horse and plump pig

I finally got onto knitting a couple of steiner toys, and Jenna actually likes them!! Which is very exciting since she didn't like my knitted veges from a few months ago.....
Hamish likes them too, so they are an all round success.

Next I think I'll do the cat and a rabbit, cause Jenna is asking for a bunny. Then there is a small things swap coming up, so with a bit of luck my technique will be better by then that I can actually make some as a swap rather than just a couple of scruffy toys for my kids.

Hamish wore his woolly jumper today when we went out, and its HUGE, but he got lots of comments on it, so that was nice. He looked very, very snug :D

We did it! We did it!

Man the Dora line as above is stuck in my head at the moment. Jenna is saying it constantly - along with "I like this one" when she sees something she likes! Spotlight the other day was a crack up. "I like this wool mummy" and "I like these plates mummy" etc etc.

But I digress!

I finished my first article of real non nappy related clothing!!! Tikki loaned me a knitting book with animals in it a few months ago, and I am ashamed to say that I ignored the animals and knitted this jumper. I started it on out Tassie holiday, about 2-3m ago, and finally knocked it off today. I wasn't in a rush tofinish it because after I completed the back, I held it up to jenna and it looked like it would fit her! eek! I have issues with gauge I think.
So yes, it will fit Hamish next winter too, and he will swim in it now, so I was able to get started on some other knitting in the meantime.
I'll wash it tonight, (with his spewed on longies... grrrrr) and hopefully he can wear it in the next couple of days.

First patchwork block for the red quilt

This is the quilt that will be made from the fabric I bought from spotlight on special. I loved it, and it was sooooo cheap ($8/m). I've decided to do a sampler quilt from it, so I'll just slowly make a pile of different sized blocks, and some cool borders, and try and find a way to piece it together somehow. Its going to be very out there, but thats OK!
I've made some other blocks to go in too, but they aren't too exciting, just space fillers....... Maybe if I'm bored I'll post them one day :)

A kind donation

The steiner school that we attend for Playgroup is having a spring fair in October (I think???) and I offered to make a quilt for them to raffle off.
I had intended to make a quilt from all recycled materials - mens shirts and chenille/candlewicked blankets and then dye and piece them, but mens cotton shirts are so bloody expensive at St Vinnies!!
I got this pattern about 2 months ago, and I was itching to make it, so decided to pull all the spring like fabrics from my stash and put it together.
Gotta say I'm pretty disappointed with it :( It was supposed to be all florals, and the swishs through the quilt were meant to be yellow and green. Unfortunately I am apparently yet to learn the finer points of fabric selection, and my yellow florals had too much green in them, so basically it looks like spring compost.
Still, I have shown them it, and they still want it for the raffle, it might raise $20 or so :(, you never know your luck in the big city.....
The good news is though it only took me about 2hrs to cut and about 4 to sew, and it was heaps of fun to make. I've done all the number crunching and because I want to make it for a queen bed, I've calculated out the numbers to upsize it. So when I find the fabric that is die for, that must be in my life forever, I'll make the bigger version for me.
In the meantime, this monstrosity needs some batting, backing and binding, and some machine quilting and then its gone!
Valuable lesson learnt here - lucky a cheap one.

I'll be good now....

OK - I'm back!!
I haven't posted in my blog for a couple of months. I do things, and I think , Ohhh - I should really update my blog, and it never gets done.
But no point beating myself up, its not like too many people look here anyway, so I shall start afresh and get back into it.

Current WIP:
Cardy for me: knitted in 12ply army green bendigo wools, I'm making a winter jacket for myself from the latest Jet book. Its going well, but cause its kntited in one piece, its starting to get very heavy.....
Jumper for Hamish: I've just got to finish sewing the collar on. Pain in the bum cause I sewed it on the wrong way, so I had to unpick it, and I unfortunately nicked one of the collar rows, so then I had to mend it..... you get the idea. Pain in the bum!!!
Steiner animals: I'm on a mission to get a pile of them made. I've just finished the duck and I'm halfway through a horse. I have about 10 patterns, and plenty of wool, so they are fun little things to do in front of tv during the day when one kid is a wake, and one is asleep.
Clothes: I've started making clothes for Jenna, I have 3 skirts and 3 dresses on the go, plus I have about 5ts and tights cut out. Some of these are gifts for Jenna's cousin, so I need to get them finished and away. waiting for my new overlocker though.....
Cushions: I'm back onto my cushions - I've made a few in the last week, I have to have 50 made for the spring stall in October. I have about 20, so I'm getting there. But my colourways are getting better, so that means they are more fun to put together.
Quilts: Sitll working on my rainbow batik quilt, and I have a new red quilt going which is going to be a long slow one. Just pottering away on it.

Want to do:
I need to knit at least 2 soakers and 2 longies for hamish. I've skeined up some Treliske I have to dye in the next few days, and I just bought some 4BF merino dyed up which I should get in a week or so, so plenty of options.
I'd like to knit something for Jenna, but she's poxy, so its too hard to spend al the time knitting something for jenna and then she wont wear it.... I'll think about it though.
I just got a book fromt he library with fairaisle knitted nursery rhyme hats, scarves and mittens, so I think that might be on the cards. I have recently bought about 6 balls of 4ply bright green, so thats screaming to be knitted up.
I really want to knit some socks. Seems like fun.
I want to do some crochet. I have some great older patterns for kids clothing, that would be fun.
More clothes,
More cushions,
and a new colourwash bargello wall hanging. I have half the fabric chosen but its one of those things that you have to get perfect, so I really need to take my time finding the fabric for this one.

I'm sure there is more..... but now I'm up to date here I'll try and be better posting new stuff, WIP and finished items :D

Spots Galore

This is todays effort. You may recognise the fabric from the spotlight stash from last week - well I made the bag today, and I'm pretty happy with it!
I can't believe the pattern though. It was a freebie from spotlight in their stash of patterns, and I have to say it was almost negligent. All the easy things had mammoth instructions - the tricky things had next to nothing. I had to pin and "try out" the seams several times, but in the end it finally came together.
So not sure what it will be used for. All up it took me about 3hrs to sew, which considering how many times the quick-un-pick came out, is a pretty good effort.
I might make another, and it will be heaps easier.

Back to my glass of red - and a house without a toddler - go the stayovers at Grumps' house!!!! YAY!! But the newbie is screaming it up, he's fed, clean, but tired, and is battling sleep with his daddy while I am doing this.

New Fabric!

Yay for spotlight sales! It seems crazy to buy fabric when I can get it from mum, and I have plenty in my stash, but I saw these today and couldn't resist.
The spotty one I think will be for a new bag for me. I want a nice large sturdy bag, like a lined tote or something, I shall hold the fabric until I find the right pattern.
The red fabrics are going to be a new quilt. I think I'll make a sampler with it - I have 4.5m of the red floral, so thats the borders, and I have previously made a red/green quilt for my niece as a present, so I have lots of scraps that will work well in sampler blocks!
Fun fun fun - now just to find the hours in the day :D

Minkee.... Oh so soft!

I found out yesterday that Hamish has glue ear, and can't hear anything at the moment. Poor little guy :( so I I decided to make hime something nice and tactile for him. At Spotlight today in their 20% off sale, they had some lovely minky, so I grabbed a metre, and a pile of ribbon, and made this up today.
Man is minky hard to sew!
Pictured on the blanky is our new kitten Noni. She only comes out to play when the kids are in bed.... Poor thing doesn't know what has hit it with a crazy toddler in its life!
Oh - and the blanket got christened during nappy off time. A lovely wee across it which thankfully pooled, so I could clean it off before the thing got wet.

Bag Lady

I have a heap of second birthdays coming up. I've already made quite a few special bags for Jenna to put toys in. She has one for her kitchen toys, one for her blocks, one for her animals and I have yet to make one for her musical toys.

So I thought a nice thing to make for Jenna's cousin would be a bag for her - and I'll send it with a lovely Mr McGee book I bought today. Its pretty cute. I like the applique I've done on this bag - its very simple, but nice, but I changed the way I made the bag and now I have to come up with a new way of putting the drawstring on it. I'm thinking maybe a button flap....
Not sure.

This bag is also fully lined, so they become lovely soft but strong bags.

Knitted Veges

I'm on a mission at the moment to make lots of little knitted things. Stemming mainly from the steiner playgroup we go to where they have the most gorgeous little animals knitted :D I'm getting the patterns for these in the next couple of weeks, but in the meantime, I've started knitting some veges from some free patterns on the net.
I love them - jenna could give or take them to be honest. Maybe they will be more Hamish's thing......
So this is my carrot and my aubergine. Next up I reckon will be the banana, or maybe the broccoli. The celery is pretty cool too. The orange isn't bad either.
Actually I really want to be knitting these animals, so I would imagine that by the time I go to knit another one, I will have the patterns for the little animals, so I'll knit them instead.

Finished Piecing!

I've finally pieced together the quilt, and I've just got to get the borders on it. Surprisingly, it went together really easily. Gotta love 16" blocks!
I've chosen a green inner border, and then the main floral will be at least 8" border if I have enough fabric. Fingers crossed.

I have it booked in to get quilted in a week, so I better get my butt into gear and sew the last couple of things on it. Someone make my children sleep at the same time this week.... Please?? Pretty pretty please????

Shorties finished!

Well Jenna's shorties are done, and I'm happy to say she has worn them without too many grizzles!!!! YAY!
I will probably embellish them now that she has actually worn them, and I've still got to lanolise them, but they are done.
It was a new pattern (Shannon's) and I muffed it a little, but they are still totally wearable.

I'm all keen to use some more wool now and knit some more shorties - specially if she will wear them again!

Knitting again! Jenna's shorties.

Jenna starts at her Steiner playgroup in two weeks, and its all very earthy there. They have suggested what clothes the kids wear, mainly natural fibres and no logos!
I've decided to try and get Jenna back into woollen soakers - she hasn't let me put her in wool for about 4-5m now, so I have chose all the earthy block balls of wool from my stash, and we are trying to put it together into a pair of shorties that she can wear to playgroup.
Its all cheap wool, but thats fine as I fully expect them to get completely trashed at playgroup, so funny colours and crappy wool is probably a good thing.
The other great thing is she is actually letting me knit in front of her, cause they are "jenna's pants" and she's a bit excited about them!

Last Block!

Yay, Georgetown Lighthouse complete! It was a bugger of a block. Lots of fiddly points to match up, but cutting was pretty hard too. So it means I'm ready to start sewing them all together finally. I've done a quick check, and most of mums blocks are 16 1/4 inches, and most of mine are about right, so there is going to be lots of easing the blocks together. I hate easing.....
All up there are about 15 main blocks, and then about 8 split blocks that all need to be put together, and then I have to sew on the borders. So I guess it is about another 25hrs work or so.....
Check back in a few weeks!

Back onto my Northern Lights project

So about 5 years ago when I split up with my XH, my mum came over to console me, and brought me this BOM project that she had started and lost interest in finishing. Its a Marti Micthell project, and its going to be STUNNING!

Last week I started up again. I was pleased to find I only had 3 blocks to do, and now its only one block left. I did these two over the last week. I'm really happy with them!

I had a few problems with the Star of Fortune. I didn't follow the cutting instructions properly, and ended up muffing one piece of the fabric, so I had to hunt around to find something similar. In the end I had to reverse a couple of colours to have enough fabric to do the whole thing.
Then to make matters worse I cut a triangle in the border on the grain rather than on the bias, so when it came to putting it all together, no go. So unpicking and recutting and resewing. But its all together now, and most of the points match.....

So a couple more sewing days, and I'll be ready to put the whole thing together. OMG - A huge job as its a queen sized sampler quilt. Lots of pins and work there.