Mar 28, 2010

provisionally casted


urggh, my photo's look terrible for some reason in blogger? all out of whack?

Anyways, this is the start of my Destroyed Cowl, using Naturally Sensation, a merino/angora blend aran yarn. I've got it on 5mm straights, and have used a provisional long tail cast on, so the ends can be kitchener stitched together making one big loop. The destroyed part happens when you drop stitches on either side, forming ladders. And we know how much fun intentionally dropping stitches can be!!

That was the best part of knitting my Clapotis!

Bones are all you See...



This is the start of my first knitted shawl. Well, to be honest not the very first shawl I've started, I frogged 2 different designs before I cast on this pattern. I just haven't been able to get my head around lace shawl patterns and charts yet. I don't think my ADD allows me too, not just yet. At ths stage in my life I think I just have to stick with simple, straight forward, uncomplicated knitting. Kind of a fight-the-battles-you-can-win stratergy. It's working, because I am knitting a section a night, when I'm normally unable to concentrateon anything. This is two nights worth, and I'm looking forward to watching it grow.

The design is Boneyard Shawl by Stephen West and it's downloadable via Ravelry. I'm knitting it on size 5mm circs, using Spotlights Moda Vera brand, Alpaca Blend. Soft and squishy. I like soft and squishy. I want to finish this and then hopefully move onto the Noosa Sunset Shawl using Malabrigo Sock. Time will tell!
And I can start watching my DVD box collection of Bones! I can't help but sing Luka Bloom's Bones too.

I've sewn buttons on the jacket, and have pre-washed the next lot of fabric for jacket number 2. I've worn the first already and received loads of compliments about how much the style suits me, so when you're on a good thing.... I've also sewn another pullover top, the same as the pink spotty one, but it's in the wash, cos I wore it to Farmworld yesterday. Lots of walking, and it was warm, dry and dusty at Lardner Park, not to mention hilly! The pattern is so comfortable to wear, I'm going to cut into my fave peice of stash fabric, the one in the pic up there, for another.

I'm off to take some pics of the finished jacket and the drying finished tops.

Mar 25, 2010

99% there....






Denyse Schmidt Flea Market Fancy decorator weight fabric (3m approx)
Stll needs buttons!
My only complaint is my own fault, I made it too short, making a 5" hem for veiw A, rather than a 2" hem, ued for Veiw B. I didn't read the back of the pattern page!

Mar 23, 2010

a productive cough

I've been sick for most of the week, just a cold, but with a nagging, stop-you-in-your-tracks cough. Which sucks the life out of me. Plus the little man has been quite ill with a dodgy bowel, currently under investigation, which is making him very sick and lethargic. To put it bluntly, he looks like crap. And it kills me when he wakes up sick and says to me, "Mum, I'm so tired of feeling sick all the time!". But we are getting to the (LOL!) bottom of it, and hopefully things will improve, because he's missing too much school! So we have been holed up at home two days out of five, hence the production of finished objects! But now for some WIP's!


I found this fabric at Spotlight a couple of weeks ago. I do a nursing shift every three weeks on a Saturday, and the hospital's just up the road from Spotty,(Up to 40mins either side of where I live, that one's the smaller one) so of course it makes sense, complete sense, to drop in on the way home, doesn't it? This fabric was $2m, and  think it's winter lawn? Not what I'd normally buy, but it was, like $4. Hmm. It's so soft and it was prewahed in that nice new Surf Twilight Sensations range of liquids...Anyways, I saw a vision of a top, with an undershirt in winter and a grey scarf, black jeans and boots. I had this pattern, from Indygo Junction, Garden Party Pullover, and it is seriously going together like a dream. Except I don't have the thread for the topstitching. The fit is perfect, a slight alteration to the side seam, but overall a good fit. I'll finish it today, when I get the thread....


Also on the cutting table (oi, too low, my back is killing me, Iwant a better one!) is my new light winter coat, version one. Also an Indygo Junction pattern, this is an unlined trench coat, Midtown Trench, and I'm sewing it with Denyse Schmidt furnishing weight fabric I got from Candelberry Country (which is for sale, and I'd love to buy it!!!) I'm so excited about this jacket and already have plans for another coat in a gorgeous red furnishing weight I picked up from Spolight in Fountain Gate. But once again, I don't have matching thread for top stitching! Yet.

This stash also came home from Spotlight, because I have a few gift orders for a few scarves. Plus some grey, for me, for the top up there! And I've got some malabrigo itching to become a Destroyed Cowl. (Rav Link)

Mar 16, 2010

Breathe easy...

I have 3 aromatherapy burners and humidifiers on in the house with Breathe Easy oil blend going.....bloody colds, but they seem to be working. So our bedroom humi will be going tonight with the good ol' BE, it might stop someone snoring.....

Anyways, this sickness, confined couch time and series 5 of Grand Design on DVD, does bring productivity, and help from a very slow computer uploading my pics (I think I maybe due for a newbie.....) and another crochet scarf flew off the hook, all 7mm crappy cheap plastic of it (the hook that is. Clover doesn't make my fave hook that big).

Tea Scarf by Pixeldiva
Cleckheaton Kaleidoscope, Col20
2 balls, @ 50g each, 65m each.
7mm hook



Maybe it's time to cut out some sewing patterns?

Crochet: The answer to the UFO blues.....

I haven't been able to produce any finished yarn stuff for
 A. VERY. LONG. TIME.

But a recent browse through Spotlight and a liking to the soft buttery yellow of Moda Vera's Mousse saw me wanting an Anne Scarf. A few evenings and some intensive rainy Labour Day weekend knitting in the van at Shallow inlet helped me produce this.

I adore it so....Especially with my fave accessories by ELK

And what quick finishing love it produced, flowed onto this;

A Malabrigo Worsted ruffle scarf, using Erika Knight's Essntial Crochet pattern and just a scant less of a full skein of Sealing Wax

Again with another ELK favourite.

Of course I'm crocheting another! And it's sad that while I've been waiting for Flickr and Blogger to upload my pics, I'm half way through it.

Labour Day Weekend

Shallow Inlet
Sunday Morning View


The calm after part 1 of the storm...Sunday morning.

My cheeky monkey.. Trev with attitude!

Mar 5, 2010

corners of my home

Another corner, still a work in progress. The walls need to be painted still. The pictures are photo's of our "collective" kids.

The figurine, a Willow Tree carving, means "Happiness ~Free to sing, dance...create!". I was drawn to it for the birds perched on her arms, but even more fitting for the meaning. I am finding that a lot though, I've been drawn to things and they have inscriptions or descriptions that mean positive, rebirth and freedom...appropriate!

My WIP knitting basket sits here too.

what are you wearing?

My boyfriend (oh, yeah, my fiancé) says that he knows when I've had a crap day, because I'm either eating chocolate or I've been shopping. I am trying to loose some wieght, so shopping is my poison. I've worked a few nursing casual shifts, so I've splurged. Anyways, in the spirit of sharing, this is what I wore yesterday. And yes, I have not made the bed.

shirt : Suzanne Grae (last winter)
vest : Sussan (my splurge item. In my defence I had a $50 voucher)
jeans : Target ~ yes they need ironing
shoes: RMK (happy shoes = smile : new shoes = bloody big blisters)

And today, this ensemble...although in all honesty, I'll be swapping the shoes for thongs, cos those blisters, OUCH! Oh look, I made the bed!



tops: Vigorella Body wear (Worn. To. Death.) last seasons nylon body wear, undershirt and tunic.
vest: Boo Radley (crochet round the top, so nice!)
jeans: Target again...(although I am so tempted by this offer)
shoes: Potland (no website? They are black "April" heels, very, very comfy!)



Also some happy mail. I'm loving the Ceylon dress, by Colette Patterns. I'm cutting out the paper pattern this weekend. No ideas for fabric yet though. Lots of paper cutting this weekend. Also some swedish tracing paper cutting too. I love the skirt on the front of Stitches. And the Kwik Sew pattern, the sleevless version is similar to a Vigorella jacket I love, so 'that's one for the "gotta make NOW!" pile...yep, it's a big pile!

Mar 3, 2010

opy jacket dreaming

I caught a glimpse of Nicole Ritchie's Winter Kate Opy Jacket in Who Weekly.
Love. It. So. Much.

Immediatley my sewing mind jumped into action and I was dreaming of a Raches origninal....So I scoured the internet, my pattern box, and my library. I think I may have found a pattern to draft my own Opy Jacket.

Even though it's not so "flowy", I was imagining a similiar kimono style jacket in Amy Butler's Love fabric range, such as the two lower right fabrics, which I think I can get locally.

I brought a couple of patterns on-line from Indygo Junction which are yet to arrive, and I also found this Kwik-Sew pattern, 3585. I also got some fabric from Spotlight to give it a go, while I wait for my delivery.

I picked this jacket from Indygo Junction, the Easy Artisian Jacket, as a close match to the Opy.

new shoes

I love shoes. Shoes, handbags, & jewellery. Accessories, one & all, God love 'em. Doesn't matter what "size" you are, you can always get a smile...and what amighty big smile these babies gave me!

a glimpse of my home

My favourite corner of my home at the moment

I've been working on this corner for a while, one of the last places in my new home, trying to find the right things to put in it.

It started with the print, it's called Rains, by an artist in Sydney, who apparently is an ex-monk.Anyways I love that the little character in it is collecting the rain in his umbrella, rather than taking cover. Kind of what I am atempting to do in my life, take control.

The clock is a bakelight alarm clock Ipicked up for a couple of dollars at a fete, and the ampersand is papermache, which I plan to collage on.

It all sits atop my nanna's singer sewing machine, which thankfully was not in the Callignee house last February.

It's warm today, I just mowed the grass dirt. Now I have dust down my cleavage!