Busy

Sewing summer bonnets

Knitting blankets

Never Ending Scarf

Knitting has been very slow this winter. I decided to knit a scarf. When I saw this beautiful scarf hanging in the yarn shop I forgot that I hated knitting scarves and made one of those spur-of-the-moment decisions to buy a hideously expensive ball of wool. Not only was this ball hideously expensive…is was a mixture of dark colours and extremely fine. Did I say extremely fine? Like so thin it couldn’t get any thinner.

First off were the needles…..the only needles I had that were the right size were black. I soon discovered that dark hideously expensive, extremely fine yarn just isn’t good to knit on black needles. Next I tried some gold metal needles that I found in a ‘cheap’ crafting shop. No no….another set of needles that are not good….at night the light reflects off gold metal needles …trying to blind me with the bling.  Third time lucky with cheap grey plastic needles…not ideal…I am still hunting for some short bamboo needles…but as there isn’t a large selection of yarn stores in the city where I live I was stuck with cheap plastic.

I have spent most of the winter knitting and knitting this damn scarf that just seems to take forever to grow. I’m having to watch every stitch I knit. A dropped stitch means hours of unknitting to find it. It is really beyond me who would enjoy lace knitting with very fine yarn.

At present I am about 3/4’s the way through the ball of yarn. I just can’t pick it up again…I have knitted (and unknitted) the damn scarf too many times and am just so over it. I will pick it up again (hideously expensive yarns just can’t be left languishing in the corner forever) but first I need to do a few quick knits and see some finished articles.

OCTOBER BLOGTOBER

I will ignore the obvious…that I have been AWOL from the blogging world for six plus months. No excuses except ‘I have not been here’.  Although I have not signed up for Blogtober this year (partly due to changes with WordPress and my technical inability to get my head around them) I thought I would just play at blogtober to see if I can get my blogging mojo back into the rhythm.

Last week my sewing machine came out of hibernation as I volunteered to sew bunting flags for a local festival. I obviously suffer amnesia when it comes to bunting flags…failing to remember how time-consuming and tedious it is to sew up 100’s of them. Seven hours of cutting (yes I cut each out individually…am I crazy or what?) and roughly the same amount of time for sewing.  I won’t moan here about my back giving out…only lasting about 30 minutes of sewing at a time…oh the joys of advancing years.

As I dropped off the bag of finished bunting flags to the organiser I fretted to myself that I hadn’t sewn enough. I had run out of sewing time and had to be somewhere else for a few days. I needn’t have worried….there were plenty of flags to brighten the festival. My reward for those hours of cutting and sewing was seeing them hanging at the festival… the children enjoying themselves playing old-fashioned games under a rainbow of colour.

February saw me busy

one morning. A hectic dash to throw together a present for a wee girly friend who was having an owl themed birthday party. Procrastinating as always I left it to the last minute…the morning of the party….to throw a present together.

I was pretty chuffed with the results. A gorgeous owl pillow made entirely from stash, using what I had already here in the house. Not only that, but I created this pillow totally from scratch…no pattern and no time to find one so out with some lunch wrap and this was the result.

January’s crafting:

Lots of wee hats that were sent off to the local SCBU (Special care Baby Unit) for those wee babies that needed some extra special care the first few days and weeks in this world

There were more ..a whole set of red ones as well……..all knitted with 4ply yarn and knitted in the round on circular needles.

New Year Challenge

This has been sitting in the draft box since January….when it should have been posted.

I didn’t make any resolutions at the beginning of the year. Actually the New year passed with barely a flick of the eye lid as I battled with some dragons that needed slaying. From the depths of despair came an idea. An idea to spend the year dispensing koha ( a New Zealand Maori word meaning gift or donation) to people, an idea with the selfish beginnings of pulling myself up and out of the dragon’s lair by putting a smile on ’ face or helping in some small way to lighten another’s’ load. I would love for all the koha to be anonymous but at times it just doesn’t work out that way, though sometimes the intended recipient doesn’t even realise they are a part of my game and are  being koha’d.

For those of you who are in the midst of dragon slaying (or not as the case may be) and are thinking that this may be a good game for you I’ll give you a brief outline on how it has panned out for me for the month of January.

I have given myself a few rules. You may use my rules or make up a new set of rules for yourself.

MY RULES

• I must give the recipient a smile
• I must not expect anything in return and give gladly with love and from my heart
• I will not support cancer research
• I aim to koha at least once a week
• Koha does not have to be donation of money
• Anything goes (well…most within reason)
• You do not have to be there in person to actually see the smile
• I reserve the right to change or add or ignore the rules as it suits me

I have had a clear intention and have not had to look yet for a recipient. They have unknowingly come to me or have been put in my path.

Now for those who may be wondering how this pans out in real life day-to-day living here are a few examples :

It may be as simple as smiling at and greeting a random stranger as you walk along the street,  gifting a few dollars where there is a need, sharing a little of what you have, using up a little of your yarn stash to knit hats for babies that are born too early or sick, taking a few tablespoons of fresh ground coffee when you visit with friends, let your friends do the talking and you be a listening ear for them, give away clothing and possessions that you no longer need, play a board game with your kids, buy a ticket in a raffle or charity auction…… you get the picture.

A funny thing about this game is that once you start to play it those dragons seem to get  slayed real fast, leaving you with even more time to play the game. An even funnier thing is that after playing the game for a wee while you forget you are playing the game  and automatically  koha smiles without even realising it.

Doesn’t time fly

Seems that I misplaced my sew-mojo (and the knit-mojo) after my last crafty post in August. Lost in the chaos and clutter of my house (and no…I won’t be sharing any pics…it’s just too embarrassing)

A new year and a new start.

Actually I started in December when I joined in with Sew Funky’s Christmas decoration swap. We were put into groups and had to make 6 (I think it was six…December seems such a long time past now that we are into a new year) decorations the same and send them to the others from the group. I settled on Christmas baubles coz I had been meaning to make me a  set so thought others might like them too (and I still haven’t made myself a set as I kept gifting them away as fast as I made them). I didn’t take a photo due to a missing camera (which has finally turned up) and a missing notebook (that is still missing and I’m suspecting that it has been taken from our house). Never mind…thanks to  ‘D’  from Sew Funky  there is a photo of it on her blog here.  I have ‘borrowed’ her photo but I do urge you all to go take a look…and drool over the decorations that some of the other crafters have made.

I was in such a dilemma about what would match others Christmas colour themes and would they be good enough and …and…and…. Finally I settled on a sparkly silver yarn thinking that silver was a pretty ‘neutral’  and safe colour theme for Christmas. One thing that I totally didn’t take into consideration was the fragility of the bauble (which is a very thin easily breakable glass) and how I was going to post these so that they arrive in one piece.

The weeks leading up to Christmas became really hectic and I omitted to say thanks to the other crafters in the group for their beautiful decorations. With the misplacement of my camera there were no photos taken of the gorgeous treasures that I received and now they are safely packed away in the ceiling until another December rolls around. If you are reading this there is a BIG THANK YOU to those who added your love to our tree and an even BIGGER THANK YOU to D for all your time and effort in organising this.

Beaniemania

I’m slowly (ever so slowly) getting through my mental list of things I want to create.

Latest off the machine are beanie hats for Caj and Lula.

Both are reversible.

For Caj’s I’ve used two co-ordinating merino fabrics. (Looks way better on head head than off. )

Lula’s is merino / cotton lycra but just as warm and cosy.

Caj’s was intended for Caj but Lula’s became Lula’s because she was the first to say she wanted it. Though to be fair Zel had already grabbed an earlier one and Alice (aka MissFinn) had one of my trial hats by default that it fitted her gorgeous head of curls. Must take some photos of them in action.  Problem is, by the time I settle down to write up a blog post the kids are long in bed and I never think to grab a photo during the day.

Dinosaurs

Funny…I never thought of myself as such a great fan of dinosaurs but it is dinosaurs that have given me back my knit mojo after a good 6 month plus absence.

My friend Kylie was a test knitter for the Diplodocus sweater pattern by Kate Oates. (Photo above is from the sweater pattern…aren’t the colours great?).

I saw a photo of the  sweater that Kylie had knitted up and I was in love. I could just see it on my 6 1/2 yr old Caj, and I love knitting colourwork and fairisle which relieves the boredom of just a straight one colour knit. To entice me even further, this sweater is knitted from the top down, avoiding the need to seam it up when you have finished.

First step was to track down some worsted weight yarn as it is a weight that is hard to find here in New Zealand, especially  with no decent wool shops in town.  I got off to a false start when what I had been knitting up turned out not top be a worsted weight yarn as I’d thought but was more of a chunky yarn. Ripped it back and a hunt through my stash revealed a Woolorganics worsted weight that was perfect.  I ended up ordering a couple of skeins of fleece artist woollie silk  3 ply from Coloursong for the contrasting colours.

So far I’m loving how the colour combination is turning out and the yarn is feeling super soft and scrummy. I’m also loving how fast it is knitting up and how easy the pattern is to follow.  I’m already planning a ‘little sister’ version for Alice (aka MissFinn).

Finally finally

My sew mojo has returned. It was probably hidden away in the back room along with the bags of clutter fabric. Didn’t help that the foot control of my overlocker went AWOL while we were hanging out in Laos. After 3 weeks of fruitless searching I succumbed and ordered a new one. The down side of leaving a group of teens to turn our house into party central housesit while we were away.

I’m taking part in a toddler clothing swap with a group of friends so first up were a few items to help fill the box for start-up. I had forgotten how to sew…after countless attempts (including totally unpicking the garment) the first effort ended up thrown in a corner and I went back to an old favourite.

One wee tunic/top dress. Looked so cute on Alice (aka MissFinn) that it was tempting to keep it.

Next up were some hats. I’d gotten carried away when making hats for my lot and had lots of fun experimenting with different patterns and fabrics.  I was really wanting cosy hank knitted hats but with arriving home to the depths of winter and needing then NOW knitting wasn’t an option. I knew there was a reason to my madness, that my stash of fabrics would come in handy when one’s sewing urge is up and running in the early hours of the morning.

I find making hats to be very addictive. I play with the pattern, alter the pattern, try different fabric combinations, I even recycled some old t-shirts and woollen jumpers. I’m finding that cute hats  breed fast in this house especially now that the teens and young adults have rummaged through the fabric stash and  put in their orders.