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.

Rasberry lemon and yoghurt loaf

This recipe is from Sunflower Days and is a moist, healthy loaf/bread.  

It is a very easy recipe with only a 1/4 cup of olive oil (no butter), yoghurt, eggs, flour, lemon zest,

 and brown sugar - its pretty healthy, and tastes delicious.  

Meet Me at Mikes blog got me onto this recipe.  

It's now one of my standard bakes.

Did you notice my latest op shop find?
With an orange apple on it - it's a salt container (or is it salt cellar?!) - ceramic with a wooden lid.
I'm completely in love with it.
What do you think?  Hubby hasn't noticed it yet, am sure he'll
roll his eyes when he does.

Retro reads - James and the Giant Peach

Pip at Meet Me at Mikes has organised a retro readers club where we all read for the month of September a retro read.  This month it is James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl. Thank you Pip for suggesting/organising this. I just loved it as it's a novel way for our children to be involved in our blogging and we get to introduce them to our favourite books.

Now Roald Dahl was never a favourite of mine - as while I was an avid reader as a child - I never did read any Dahl. Having searched at my local op shop - I was successful in finding a pre-loved copy for $1. I was also successful in finding some other lovely things - a retro orange baking dish (this is the third one I've found, and they bake a pie beautifully), and some 1970s Australian craft books.  They provide some great inspiration and ideas for projects - and include sewing, knitting, crochet, needlework, macrame etc.

I've started reading James and the Giant Peach to Miss 4 year old - and am up to the part where James has met his insect friends.  It's a fantastic book and I suspect I'm enjoying it more than my daughter!  Oh well.

If you want to join in, go to the the link above to Pip's website and add your name to the list.  Pip also has a Retro Readers button you can add to your blog. 

Cheerio.

Shrug WIP

The Shrug I am knitting is coming along nicely.  Made of Sirdar snuggly bamboo yarn in pale pink - it has a nice, heavy drape to it.  My plan is to have it finished by the end of October - which is when we are all flying to Perth for my father's 60th birthday party.  The plan is to buy a nice frock for Miss 4years, and dress her in the pink shrug.

I have to say - the word shrug is awlful.  'Shrug' sounds clumsy and heavy.  Where as the actual piece of clothing is quite cute and romantic. I must find another word for it.  I've sort of been calling it a 

small cardigan when explaining it to Miss 4years, 'cause she looks blankly at me when I've used 'shrug'.

 

The pattern is from this lovely book - Easy Kids Knits by Claire Montgomery.  It's a perfect book for a beginner knitter as it includes all the basic info on how to knit - stiches, increasing stitches, casting off etc - but it also shows a variety of ways of doing things - like how to cast on in the continential methods, which is done with only one needle and this sort of cats cradle wrapping of the yarn technique.  Once I got the hang of it -it's much easier than casting on with two needles which is the only method I ever knew and used.

 

And what the final project will look like - just in case you didn't know what a shrug was 

(just like me until I saw the picture!). Pretty cute hey?

So I've almost completed the back and one sleeve.  All that's left is the other sleeve 

and doing the section around it to form the collar - its done with a circular needle, 

which will be a good learning experience. 

What sort of projects are you working on?  Are you like me and have a few going at the same time?  I have a crocheted African flower motifs project and my first ever amigurumi  project.  More on those to come.

I've got to finish up here - I'm meant to be working on a Uni assignment, but got distracted by the internet and blogging - and I have to run to go buy a birthday present for a little boy's birthday party that's today.  Off I go.  

Cheerio!