Whirling - one a day week 3

This week has been a whirl – a birthday party dinner at my place, a fly in visit from my father, planting tomato and basil seedlings, studying for my university exams,  preparing for our holiday trip…and a bit of crocheting and knitting!

As a result I've been a very slack blogger - only lurking on other people's blogs, and not blogging myself.  Me bad!

I’ve got the hang of join as you go method for the African flowers.  I used this blog tutorial as a guide.  I’m now at the point where I’m crocheting a new African flower and joining it up – and ignoring those in my pile as the colours are not quite right at this point.  They should be ok for the reverse side.

I made sure to take this photo during morning daylight – making it a bit better on the colours.

Its two more sleeps until we fly off to Perth to visit my family.  Having an Italian heritage - I have a very, very large extended family over there.  My hubby always finds it a bit overwelming! There's going to be a big bbq for my father's 60th birthday with amazing food.  My daughter is the only grandchild and great grandchild - so she will be completely spoilt and the centre of attention, the best way to be.

We will be travelling down to Margaret River, staying in a mud brick cottage in a middle of the bush - for a mini holiday on our own. For those of you who aren't familiar with Margaret River - it's a relatively small town with amazing beaches, beautiful forests, great winerys and lovely food.

Pop on over to Gingerbread Girls blog to have a look at the other one a day projects.

Cheerio.

One-a-day tally

Ok, I'm up to 26 african hexagon flowers - only 5 this week, but I have joined some up.

The colours don't quite show up right when taking photos at night - oh well.

I'm pretty happy with the black yarn surrounding the hexagons.  My plan is for them to be a pillow for my lounge - which is black colour. This is a pillow on flickr that I'm using as a model.  Have a look at the granny strip pillow next to it...how awesome is that?

Make sure you check out some of the other blogs doing one-a-day...there are some really diverse crochet and knitting projects going on.

I'll leave you with a yarn bombing story in my city....the yarn bombers are fighting back!  See how many bad puns you can spot in the story.

Cheerio.

Bunny Nugget

Here's little bunny nugget - he measures 2 inches high.  Isn't he adorable?!?

He's made from 4ply wool and size 2 dpns. Oh my, using such small yarn and needles was a CHALLENGE.  I had to rip him up and start again a few times.  You can tell I did the right hand ear second just by how much neater it is. His ears are 6 cast on stitches, knitted on the dpns. The best way I found was to have a book under the needles - to keep them straight in their little triangle.  Otherwise they became twisted which meant I had to start all over again.

The pattern does not specify the size of yarn - so if you want a bigger bunny, use 8ply wool.  Luckily my daugher has asked for a middle sized bunny next...Phew!


I found the free pattern via a blog, via twitter. Its from Rebecca Danger's blog.  She has some other free patterns of cute creatures.

I've ravelled my little project here, it includes the pattern link. I'd love to know if you knit one...and I should warn you, they are a tad addictive.

Garden round up

The weather is warming up and the sun is shining today.  After weeks and weeks of cold Melbourne weather, I think we have finally turned the corner to Spring and Summer.  While I sit here, hubby is diligently  mowing the lawn. 

Our vegie garden is very bountiful - and over grown.  My plan for the weekend includes getting in there and weeding.  I also have some new pea and zucchini seedlings to plant out - heirloom seeds from Diggers.

My vegie garden October round up... purple podded Dutch pea plant seedlings, seedlings trays, first time figs, and flowering sage with 7ft broad bean plants in the background. 

The broad bean seeds are from my Nonno - he has been self selecting these seeds over many many years. My family and I will be travelling to Perth soon, for my father's 60th birthday party.  I must remember to take some photos of my Nonno's garden to show you.  He is an extraordinary gardiner, good at both flowers and vegetables.

One a day - week 1

Tuesday tallies...I'm up to hexagon 21 for my one a day project.  I started doing one a day on Saturday - adding 3 to my growing pile.  Doing one a day is exactly what I need to get me working on this project that's been left, abandoned in my work basket.  It's African hexagon flowers.  I love making them but got distracted by other things - other craft and day to day life. I'm hoping to have the project finished in a couple of weeks.  My  next step will be to start joining as I go.

Here's my nice little stack of hexagons.

And all of them in their colourful beauty...the bottom three are those I've done since crocheting one a day.

My plan is to join them up into a rectangular pillow or maybe a hexagon.  I'm still searching blogs and flickr for some pillow inspiration.

Head over to Gingerbread Girl to find more one a day projects.  Some are now complete!

Amigurumi green tree frog (in a bird cage)

I embarked upon my first ever amigurumi (shocking word to spell!) as part of a University creative art assignment.  It was an opportunity I could not miss to merge craft with science. The crocheted frog in a birdcage is to symbolise the role frogs will play as an indicator species of climate change....they are the canaries in the mines.

I'm pretty pleased with how the bird cage came out.  I had to figure that one out myself - its made with jute twine, commonly known as hessian.  The base is made up of trebles, crocheted in a circle, and the bars are dcs supported by wire.  The peaked roof is trebles again, but with a decrease treble every 3-4 stitches. 

The green tree frog is made of Heirloom cotton 8ply yarn, and the pattern is from here, by Roman Sock.  She has some wonderful patterns on her blog.  I found the gree tree frog pattern to be very easy to follow.

More details on Ravelry here.

My daughter loved the frog - what do you think?

One a day project

Gingerbread Girl has put together a new ravelry group - One a Day - to help to tackle a big project.  The idea is that by doing one piece - a granny square or a row - each day, the project will get completed.  More info about it is on Gingerbread Girls blog.

I've jumped on board - as this will motivate me to get working on some WIP that are sitting around and not progressing.

The One a Day project I'm working on is my African Hexagon Flowers.  Apologies for the retro tablecloth - that detracts (or maybe distracts?) a bit from the flowers!

 

They've been sitting in my work basket for a couple of months now.  I'd done 17 hexagons and I need (I think) around 46.  My plan is to turn them into a pillow for our lounge room couch. I followed this tutorial  for the hexagons, but instead used a size 4 hook.

No success as yet on finding a pillow pattern or instructions, though I've found some lovely photos on flickr of rectangular, square and hexagon shaped pillows that will be a good reference.

Progress - 19 hexagons done, 27 to go.

My other WIP - the knitted shrug (mini cardigan) for my daughter - is now progressing well.  If you recall - I had completed around 2/3rds of it - and lost it...somewhere.  Over the weekend I had a conference I had to attend - where I had to sit and listen to a lot of speakers.  A perfect opportunity to do some knitting.  I got a few strange and admiring looks - it was NOT the sort of place one normally does knitting.  But, it means I'm now a third of the way through...good progress.  

Have you ever done your craft in some strange places?  It's a first for me.

OK.  I'm off now to check out and see what some of my favourite bloggers are up to before bed time.  Cheerio.

Lost but not found

I'm a bit sad today.  Last night, I went to pull out my WIP - from its little bag. 

And it was gone. Seriously GONE. 

Only thing in the bag was some needles and a measuring tape.  Thinking back - I realised I had taken it out of the bag when my hubby drove us to work.  I must have left it on my lap, and when I jumped out of the passenger seat, it (possibly) fell out onto the roadway. 

I was three-quarters done - all that was left was the edging collar. The photo is from when I was half way through. The positive is that I still have two balls of the yarn left, so I only need to buy two more if I decide to start again. 

My 4 year old daughter was very philisophical when told of the missing knitting - 'Oh well, you can do it again mum'. 

Yes I can. And I will.