Yarn yarns pt3

but wait, there's more!

An ombre Potae -

A Pink Orchard cardi for Lexi -

A Fierce Little Dragon for a little boy's birthday -

A pair of Zigging hats -

A Kaipara shawlette for the ravellenic games -

and a Zagging skirt -

and there's still a couple of things that I haven't got finished photos of yet!!

Yarn yarns pt2

MORE forgotten knitting..

A Kaia Babydoll for Lexi - 

A pair of Doodlepants longies that I was meant to make while pregnant with Eli..

Yttrium for the knitted periodic table project - 

(Y? Because I could, lol!! *groan*)

A Pinny for a playgroup Dolly -

(plus new denim pants & shirt)

Mini hotshots -

Chunky beanies for sale -

A Dolce Beret for Lexi -

A Spring Butterfly & Poppy hat set for a friends baby -

A Little Winifred tunic -

still to be continued!!

My baby's baby

I finished my first proper waldorf doll!

Not the best photo I'm afraid, but here she is-

Since she was for my youngest's first birthday, she has a lovely soft bamboo velour body, with just the head & upper torso fully formed under her 'clothes'. In the traditional waldorf style she is made from 100% natural fibres - cotton stretch skin fabric, the bamboo velour, carded wool fleece for stuffing, and a strange but very cool feeling wool/soy blend yarn for her (immense amount of) hair! 

I knit her a little dress to wear, and crocheted a blanket too, which I haven't got a photo of yet.

I'm rather pleased with how she came out, except that the velour has a tendency to 'wick' the stuffing out :(

I'm working on a second one now, for our kindergarten's gigantic Advent Fair!

Oink.

I made a pig.

Just Pin it! Pin it good.

I've been rather distracted of late, in no small measure by Pinterest.

If you're not familiar with this new-ish procrastination phenomenon, it's a site where you can make your own virtual pinboards, then whenever you see something on the internet that you like, be it links or images, you can "Pin It" onto one of your boards. It's a bit like visual bookmarks/favourites.

People use it for collecting tutorials, patterns, recipes, party/wedding ideas, blogs/websites they like, or just images of funny things, ideas for their house, hairstyles & make-up, beautiful people, whatever you like!! (as long as it is reasonably polite).

BUT, this is where the dangerous part comes in, you can also check out what your friends have been pinning... and then you can browse what everyone has been pinning!!! So basically you can while away hours looking at all the weird & wonderful things that other people find interesting.

I love Pinterest.

Why? For a start, I love being able to see at a glance what I've bookmarked. When you have 20 "Girl's Dress Tutorial" bookmarks, it all gets little meaningless! But by pinning it, you can see which one it is! And, if you "follow" people with similar interests & aesthetic to you, it's like having your own little squad of personal net browsers, providing you with a heady diet of things you might like. Mmmm... megalomania...

AND I have actually been making things based on things pinned on Pinterest!!! So it is NOT a waste of time!! Thus my "Pinspiration" tag is born lol...

Here's something that I made this morning, for a little gift, based on this Pin -

My friend has been working SO hard on an event we're organising, the tickets & posters of which have a pinky-purple 5 petal flower on them.. so i made this on a whim, using scrapbooking paper, so it has a radius of roughly 15cm. It was really fun to make!!

not known for my punctuality...

Christmas!!!

yeah, i know, it's march... minor detail.

anyway, in a yarn sampler box i got ages ago there was 12 grams of 2ply alpaca. what are you supposed to do with 12g of anything?! what are you supposed to do with 2ply?!

turns out the answer is bookmarks.

crocheted butterfly bookmarks even.

cos we all know that reading is the ultimate in cool, especially reading books long enough to require bookmarking, and crochet has always been known for it's total chic, so the two together is pretty much a flawless combo.

so i ended up making 5 of these wee knick-knacks as gifts for various people! (i think they're pretty cute actually- but hey, i like long books & crochet)

still had some yarn left over too.. who would have thought that 12g of 2ply could go so far?!

(gold star to anyone who can name the book in that photo without googling!)

on a less successful front, the (compulsory) advent fair biscuit debacle.

stained glass window biscuits = fail.

they overflowed & stuck to the baking paper... and tasted pretty blah too.

i bet martha's snow cap cookies never turned out like this either-

note for future- bake sales are NOT my forte. At. All.

and on an equally successful front- how to make an actually quite cool bag look meh in one simple photographic step-

i made it for my 12 year old step-daughter for xmas - it's a Pleated Purse from this tutorial - and she loved it!! managing to please a 12 year old girl is quite a challenge sometimes, so yay ;-)

and cos i'm a total sucker, when i saw gingerbread house kits in the supermarket i HAD to have one for lexi-

needless to say she had a fantastic time decorating it with her daddy on xmas eve :-)

and with me she made simple paper decorations for our tree!

fun times :-)

i wonder if i can get the jump on easter....

Got Knits - pt2

more knittery goodness....

i knit these rainbow longies for eli when i found out i was pregnant with him, and now maia gets to wear them too!

and i started these for her 4 days before she was born-
they're NB sized "Pimp My Longies"
to go with the little shrug i had made her-

and my longest baby knit EVER... just finished, a NB sized Blossom
very cute, but i don't like 4ply!
the ribbon happened to come wrapped around one of her presents, and was a perfect match for the merino yarn!

and some more precious gifts for her...

a very soft & snuggly shrug (with matching socks!) from my friend serra-
with a little flower window detail on the back-
and a perfect little silky smooth summer vest from sha-

what a lucky girl!

(she seems to have developed a signature pose too ;-) )

Got Knits - pt1

My baby girl has knits, and plenty of them!

She's been blessed by me having friends who knit & write knitting patterns, friends who know the value of passing on handknits, and friends who have taught me to knit!

for example, some that i've done-
the prem size Blossom that i knit for paul's niece

the gradient dyed yarn Owlie Sleepsack
(highly, highly recommended!! she loves it & settles almost the moment she's popped into it, and it's much for convenient for big sibling cuddles than a blanket!)

a Pebble vest

a debbie bliss baby shrug
(yet to be blogged about, still finishing something to go with it!)

and some from my friends-
a newborn Spring Butterfly, knit by the designer herself as part of a set for twins, one passed on us by the lovely twin mummy

an extremely cute wee dress passed on by another kind friend
(not sure of the pattern, or who knit it?! someone on tnn anyway :) )

and a very special pair of overalls that were knit for Eli by an amazing friend, that i love getting to use again!!

she's such a lucky thing to be wrapped in so much woolly goodness, and that's not even all of it!!

secret.

i have to keep a secret.

i made something last week that took an outrageous amount of time, with copious amounts of hand sewing, for a present....

the present has been handed over to it's birthday girl, BUT one of my friends is planning to make a bunch of similar style things for sale at xmas, so i'm not going to publicize the idea just in case someone else beats her to it!
but this is the little wooden finger puppet doll that went with it lol..

paul painted her face & hair, and i dressed her in a cute scrapbook paper dress, coated lovingly in layers of Mod Podge, just recently available round here!!

but it's gonna be a while before i can share pics of the background ;-)

the forgotten files

the Kids Clothing Week Challenge reminded me that i had a pile of sewing done previously that i hadn't added to the archive!

firstly, a little cape & crown set-
on a forum that i occasionally frequent (so should that be "that i occasion"?? ;-) ) one of the members was having a rough time, so a whole bunch of people got together to put together a package for her & her kids!
so these went winding their way to a wee 3 year old boy, who i hope has enjoyed them since!

and for lexi-
a tie-top summer dress

some stripy 3/4 pants-
(ironing?! pfft.)

some peasant tops, i particularly like the ladybird fabric-
(blogger/picasa sigh..)

another summer dress-
covered in butterflies, and with a *zip* in the back! i'm so proud every time i have to use one of those..

and a couple of pairs of dress pants for my little guy-
and now i'm just working on a stack of winter knitting, and finishing off the list of to-do sewing left over from KCW!