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!!

Yarn yarns pt1

I haven't done any knitting in a couple of months, at least! Just lost the mojo entirely, but I'm sure it'll come back soon enough.. luckily it turns out I have over a years worth of projects unblogged.. oops.

Like....

A Hotshot for Eli -

A Puffy Sleeved Shrug for Maia - 

A Sprout hat, which I sold (was a test knit for a designer who had already published, but needed feedback)

( that kid is 2 now!)

An Andalucia crochetted skirt -

A Daisy Sue babydoll - 

A Gail shawl for our playgroup fundraiser (sold for $100!) -

to be continued lol...

Our new garden

One of the first things I did when we moved into our new house was to put in a couple of small vege beds!

We, or at least I, didn't have a very good growing season unfortunately, but it's a long term process.. We've had a reasonable time with snap peas & kale though, so that's a start!

And sometimes things surprise you.. because I'm a neglectful gardener, a month after my carrots were supposed to be done - but were pretty pathetic at that point - I finally got around to pulling the rest of the tops out, and look what I found!! And that is even a full size dinner plate!!

 That's the best carrot haul I've ever had lol! And you've gotta love rainbow carrots, those purple ones are packed with antioxidants & all sorts of goodness..

Another thing I look forward to each year is the popcorn haul... we didn't have much success with that either this year, but it still adds up, and the kids love it!! They get to pick all the kernels off the dried cobs -

we ended up with a large teacup full of beautiful heritage strawberry popcorn-

I've got my winter seeds germinating on our kitchen bench in egg cartons - broccoli, cauliflower, spinach & kale - and for once I'm all prepared for the shortest day with bags of garlic & delightfully named potato onions!!

Colour

 Some of the women from our playgroup put together a stash of beautiful hand dyed yarns to sell at the advent fair. I had the *ahem* privilege of dividing a ginormous 1kg skein of undyed yarn into 100g lots.

 If you've never seen a 1kg skein, here it is -

 and of course the boy had to have a turn holding the yarnzilla too -

Of course me being the only long-term knitter who owns neither swift nor wool winder, I wound all 2170 metres of it by hand into balls, so they could be weighed properly, before winding them into individual skeins ready to be dyed.

I always think a drying rack never looks so pretty as when it is covering with freshly dyed yarn..

I dyed this one for myself too, it's 200g of blue & green gradient - 

and more recently, a little 50g skein -

and 50g of 12ply in graduated reds -

and Lexi did one for herself using koolaid -

I'm hoping I'll get a chance to do a heap more soon!!

The usual story.

Neglected blog, major catch-up needed, you've heard it all before right?!

Well here we go anyway.

Gradually!

Nuts for Knits

I confess, I'm scared of knit fabrics.

But I got "Growing Up Sew Liberated" from our library, and it had some cute, simple patterns in there, which I thought I should have a go at!

I've got a wee bit of precious merino fabric to use for the kids this winter, but I thought I had better test the patterns, and my skills, on something a little less important.

Enter the $1 remnant bin PJs!!

 I got the pink cotton knit fabric in a remnant bin years ago for $1, and was given the white cotton rib by a friend, also years ago, both have been sitting in my stash with me too scared to touch them! Despite it not being a tragic investment if it all went disastrously wrong, go figure. Add in a free pattern = cheap, happy girl PJs!!

I think I need to stretch the ribbing a bit more when I'm sewing it, so that it doesn't waver as much, using a twin-needle made it quite easy to actually attach too..... 

but hey, they're functional & don't look terrible!!! That's all I ask lol..

My big boy

My little big boy is starting kindy this week!! Funny to think that I announced being pregnant with him, on this blog all those years ago..

He needs a basic bag for kindy to hold a spare change of clothes, and a piece of fruit, so I made him this little drawstring backpack -

This is with a spare t-shirt & pants inside -

It's the perfect size for a 2-4 year old, and easy for them to open & shut.. It took me a couple of hours to sew, but most of that was the applique (exacerbated by my machine constantly skipping stitches & breaking the thread!! Methinks it needs the timing adjusted..). But it was dead easy and very simple, and does the job perfectly! I hope he like it...

Here's the tutorial link on Pinterest!

Ok, this is a tad embarrassing..

I just emptied out my to finish box.

I think this might be the crafters equivalent of a Rorschach test... says a lot about ones personality, but exactly *what* it says is a little harder to discern!

there is -

the fifty-million waldorf pocket dolls aforementioned.

3x pocket nappies cut out ready for sewing

a bed-wetting mattress cover thingy cut out ready to sew

3x pocket nappies needing their last 4 snaps each put on them (oops)

a dress needing 3 buttons sewn on (oops)

a pair of 3/4 pants for lexi that just need waistband elastic (oops)

a calico shopping bag that needs a hole overlocked (oops)

So umm... 4x 5min jobs, 1x 10min job, 3x 30min jobs that I've been putting off for, uhh, forever.

And the dolls.

Finish it February

On one of the forums I'm on, it has been declared Finish It February!!

This was my list on the 31st of Jan-

- Maia's 2012 winter cardi
- re-do sleeves on my disastrous Corona hoodie 
- overlock fraying prefolds - DONE! 01.02
- fix lexi's PJ pants - DONE! 01.02
- finish fifty zillion waldorf pocket dolls 
- whatever else is in my "to finish" box 
- button tree pic
- stain & reupholster chairs & dining table
- sew a bunch of baby gifts - one done! 01.02

Unfortunately, this is my "to finish" box, and the two knitting projects.

ONE dining chair has been sanded & given it's first coat of stain, all of the seats are done, and one of the backs. I'm not talking about the table.

And of course I have a bunch of clothes to make for the kids as per usual.

ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaeeeek.

Just to make the task even better, I'm trying to use my stash for everything too. And I do not have one of those wonderful craft stashes filled with gorgeous yarns and fabrics, and every thread and notion known to man. I have fabrics that were $1-2/m at spotlight. I have yarn that was <$3/50g at spotlight. My button stash is predominantly ones that my dad cut off old business shirts.

BUT I'm going to see what I can do! And since the big kids are away this weekend, I'm going to see how much I can get done during that time... Wish me luck!!

The first (and second) day of our Advent Calendar

Our Advent Calendar is a series of activities & outings, rather than gifts or chocolate..

The first day - Make our Advent Calendar!

(yeah, ok, that was just because I was too disorganised to have it done in time..)

Each peg has a tiny card with the activity for the day written inside it, and gets opened up & re-pegged each day.

Day 2 - Decorate our Xmas tree!!

(Yes, we have a fake tree... it was $8.47 at Kmart eight years ago.)

We have quite a few homemade decorations on our tree, but making more features quite heavily over the rest of the month (shhh!! secret.)

I'd love to see other people's activity based advent calenders too!!

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.