Cowls

My lovely sister knit me this gorgeous green Gaptastic Cowl. She was originally making it for herself, but I subtly planted seeds of doubt in her mind ("That colour is too bright for you, but it's perfectly suited to me!").
It's like wearing a warm hug.
My girl child was quite upset when I refused to share it with her, so I've quickly crocheted her a Calm Cowl. I used a few balls of Moda Vera Mousse in grey and brown on a 4.5mm hook. It's a little more dense than it should be, but that's what happens when you hook from the stash.

Tea Thyme

Tea Leaves Cardigan knit in Tosh Vintage Thyme.

Knit in only 35 days! Woohoo! I feel like a friggin knitting legend!

Rav'd

Cast on

Tea Leaves Cardigan by Melissa La Barre

Tosh Vintage in Thyme

Done!

I love a quick knit!

And the boy is very happy with them too.

Fingerless Mitts...

... for the boychild who admired his Aunt's splendidly soft pair.

Knit on ridiculously small Japanese circular needles.

Pattern found here (look in the sidebar for sucky thumb mitts).

The yarn is a mystery ball from the stash, chosen by the boy.

PS If anyone wins this Medina night out and is looking for someone to join them, I'm free!

Catching up

After all the last minute sewing I did to get my sister's quilt finished in time for her birthday, I don't think I could even look at my machine for at least a week. Add in some girl-child drama's and some weekday work that sucked up all my child-free hours, and I'm feeling a little behind in all my quilting bees (four) and swaps (five).

Today I was very productive! I made triangle blocks for Angela from Busy Bees;

triangles for Angela

more triangles for Angela

I made boxy stars for Monika from the Australasian Bee;

boxy stars for Mon

and I made 6.5 inch nine patches for Kate from Busy Bees.

Kate's nine patches

This is my favourite little detail, taken from the selvedge of an Ink and Spindle fabric.

Remind me later to tell you all about a screen printing day I did a couple of weeks ago at the Ink and Spindle studios with Lara from Harvest Textiles. So much fun! (if you look closely you may find a pic of me in their flickr pics)

For now, though, I have some knitting to do (I'm knitting a blanket!) and last weeks episode of The Wire to watch.

The Possum Pelt

Yay, finally finished last week - all I had to do for the last few months was cast off the sleeves and sew on a button. And yet, there it sat on the unfinished pile all through winter!

Anyway, done now. Used a button from my stash.

The free Shalom Cardie pattern is available as a pdf from here. I made a modification or two (not that I can remember them now!!). I think I reduced the number of rows in each of the top sections, maybe by 2 or 3 rows. I was also going to do 3 buttons holes, but forgot to do the 3rd. I'm happy with the one button though.
The yarn I used was a cheapy from Spotlight - I think it was called Mousse. A combination of wool and soy perhaps... Very soft, but very prone to pilling - as you can see in the pics above. It has only been worn 3 times. Oh well, I knew it as I made the purchase.

Sorry for the wishy-washy details - I'm blogging from 'work', so can't run off and find the leftover balls of yarn to give you more info.

FYI - I've named it the possum pelt, as it is a lovely browny-grey and super soft. Just like a possum. Feel free to feed me apples if you see me in the street.

Mid Winter Crafty Blues

I'm not too sure what's going on with me, I am seriously lacking in motivation! Crafty motivation, that is. There has been a bit of sickness in the last couple of weeks that has sapped some of my energy, but that doesn't really account for all of the loss of motivation. Even starting new projects has lost it's shine, of late. Maybe I have a case of the mid-winter crafty blues?

Shalom Cardi

I do have one project that I manage to have a go at every day. The Shalom cardigan is available as a free download on Ravelry, or you can find it here on Meghan's blog. It's a quick and easy knit. I plan to add sleeves to mine.
I haven't touched these hexies in more than a week, and they appear to be unable to reproduce on their own. I will continue that experiment for a little while longer, though, as I can't be bothered making any more for the moment. I do enjoy looking at them, though. (maybe that's why they're not reproducing? too shy, maybe??). I've slightly adapted the pattern from here to include more rounds. More rounds hopefully means less ends to tuck in at the end....

I'm (im)patiently waiting for the postie to drop off several parcels of fabric in the next week or so. I'm really hoping that having more fabric will inspire me. My sister has expressed an interest in buying a couple of quilts from me, but I can't even drum up any motivation for that!!

Geez, bring on the pot'o'tea and choccie biscuits, I say. (the motivation for those has not waned!)

Yay! It's finished!

I finally finished my February Lady Sweater yesterday! I'm so excited, it took me nearly 6 months, and it is my most ambitious knitting project yet.

I used just over 3x200 gram balls of BWM Aran in Dusty Blue.
The lace is full of errors, but I don't care because I FINISHED!!! All part of the charm, I say.

Christmas Gifts

This parcel of goodies is off to the UK, hopefully in time for Christmas! I've really enjoyed sewing up all these goodies, and I'm delighted that all the materials (except for a packet of textas) came from my stash.

This hat was knit by my sister for the newest of the UK clan - born early November.
Some Christmas tree decorations made from Yo-Yo's, buttons and ribbon.
A texta roll (there are plenty of tutorials out there for pencil rolls/crayon rolls etc, but really, it's not rocket science. I just made up the pattern based on the size of my textas.)
Tied with some grosgrain ribbon.
Some little shoes for the little man. Again, patterns for little shoes can easily be found on the internet. I used a pattern that I had when Ollie was a babe.
I made up two Nintendo DS pouches using a tutorial found here. My photos don't really do it justice, as I don't have the DS and games to model in the pouches.
Basically, the pouch has a large side pocket for the game console thingy, and three little pockets for the little games.

I've also posted off the gratitude wrap I made last week, and one of the pear pincushion I made a while ago, all packaged within a fabric basket for the new babe. The Christmas presents were wrapped in some home made Christmas wrapping paper (I'll have to post about that this week) and some handmade Gocco printed gift tags. All in all, a very handmade Christmas!

OMG a BSJ!

That's right everyone - believe it or not! I actually followed a knitting pattern *gasp* and completed an item of clothing *applause*. Ok, don't look too closely at it (notice I put up a poor quality photo so you couldn't see it in detail), it's very much passable - if given to a non'knitter, that is.

Nevertheless, I am very pleased with my achievement, and have already started knitting another!

For those of you who care, I used the Baby Surprise Jacket pattern from Knitting Workshop by Elizabeth Zimmermann. I used 4x50g balls of Moda Vera Harmony (from Spotlight) - well, I started the fifth ball half way through casting off, but I think I added extra rows when I wasn't concentrating, so 4 should have been enough. I used size 5.5 or 6 circular needles (con't remember).

All I need to do now is sew the seams and tuck in the ends (and wait for someone to have a baby!).

What to do on a wintery day...

It's a very wintery day in Melbourne today - so glad I took advantage of the gorgeous days we had during the week! Today is a day for knitting and cooking. 

Ollie and I made some ham and pickles scrolls, and some cheese and vegemite scrolls from a recipe in my bread machine cook book (the manual that comes with the bread machine). Very easy, and very yummy!

We also made this chocolate slice from sadieandlance. Quick and easy, and very reminiscent of one we used to make as kids. I added crushed peanuts and a handful of choc bits to my dry ingredients, very yum.

Now back to the couch to knit a baby surprise jacket! I'm not much of a knitter, so thought I'd try an easy pattern (not too good at reading patterns). I'll post photos of it when it starts to look like something.