Hello cowl

Issue 14 of Molliemakes magazine had a lovely Quince & Co knitted lacey cowl. I've been wanting to knit a cowl for a while - and our cold winter makes it perfect to wear.

It involved some new knitting techniques for me - a provisional cast on and a picot cast off. I loved doing this project (especially using the lovely cashmerino yarn) - and it's divine to wear. Think I might knit one or two up for a christmas gift.

Hello?! I always feel a bit shy about putting pics of myself here or on instagram, but sometimes its good to get outside one's comfort zone.

Ravelled here.

And this is my progress on my intarsia strawberry. All I need to do is add a few black seeds. Then I'll have to make it into something practical...it measures 10cm by 18 cm. A glasses case? Or a little purse?

My initial thoughts are to knit another strawberry the same size and make them into a glasses case. But can't quite figure out what to do with the opening. Do I just leave it like a pocket, or thread some ribbon through it like a drawstring? What do you think?

Cheerio. Lori.

Year of projects

A while back I completed one of my projects - in my Year of Projects list. Thought I better post about it before I forget! The list is part of Come-Blog-a-long, a ravelry group where we commit to our projects and share our progress (or lack of) and challenges.

The project was Floral Curtain Tiebacks from Cute and Easy Crochet by Nicki Trench. I chose this project from my list first as its quick and easy and made me FINALLY put up the curtains in my daughter's room (it's been a year since I painted her room and purchased the curtains...me bad). The curtains look lovely (a Spotlight purchase) and the tiebacks cute as. Ravelled here.



I'm already planning my next project on my list - and have made a very exciting yarn purchase. I've ended up purchasing the yarn online from Deramores as it would seem no Australian yarn shops stock the range of colours I need. It's a British yarn so not surprising.

I'm hoping my yarn package arrives soon...as would be nice to have a new project and new yarn to keep me occupied over the next few weeks.  I've been diagnosed with an illness that will require surgery and 4 weeks off work. So I plan to knit and crochet to my hearts content while recuperating on my couch at home.



I've been keeping myself busy (while waiting for my new yarn) by trying something new - a bit of Intarsia. Have you ever tried it? It's highly addictive. This book has been very helpful in teaching me how.

Cheers. Lori

African flowers

My progress on my one a day project has been slow.  This is partly due to being busy doing other life stuff, and also cause I've been doing other crochet projects.

To get a bit of motivtion, I've pulled out a pillow fill I had in my cupboard, that is a perfect size for my african flower pillow. I've pinned it on, and am slowly joining up african flowers.

I've propped it up on my piano so you can see my progress so far....

I'm linking up with all the other one a day projects on Gingerbread Girls blog. You must go and check out some of them, maybe you'll find the inspiration for your next crafty work.

Sweet booties

I never got the opportunity to knit any baby booties for my daughter - my knitting skills were not much then (but I did knit her a baby bonnet that was so small it would only fit a dolls head...)

Crea in the City put me onto this lovely bootie pattern that uses easy peasy garter stitch. While my tendency to not read patterns properly got me in a bit of trouble this time, it is an easy pattern.

This is a gift for my daughter's piano teacher - who had her baby about 4 weeks ago.

Ravelled here. I should mention there is a slight error in the pattern instructions - for the sole - 1st row should end with K3 (not K4) and the 5th row should end with K1 (not K2).

Year of projects blog a long....

I've always been a bit of a list writer, and the thought of having a list of knitting and crochet projects I want to finish this year really appeals to me.

I'm joining in with the Come-Blog-a-long ravelry group - where we commit to our projects and share our progress (or lack of) and challenges. I've decided to compile a list mainly from my knitting/crochet books, and supplemented by some of the projects in my ravelry queue.  I have sooo make crochet and knitting books that it's about time I used them.

So here we go....

Covered clothes hangers from The Gentle Art of Knitting by Jane Brocket

Why? I'd love to have them in my wardrobe and use up scraps of yarn. And I've yet to knit any of the lovely projects in this book.

Patchwork Bag from Cute & Easy Crochet by Nicki Trench.

Why? When I bought this book 6 months ago this was my favourite in the book. The thought of carrying around a bag like this fills me with awesomeness.

Floral Curtain Tiebacks from Cute and Easy Crochet by Nicki Trench.

Why? Quick and easy, and a must for my daughters curtains that are waiting to be put up!

Metallic Tunic Top from Plus Size Crochet by Margaret Hubert.

Why? This is the only one in the book that I like, most of the others are not quite my style. And its about time I crocheted something wearable other than a scarf.

 Cassia dress by Georgie Hallam.

Why? I've been wanting to knit one of her designs for ages...and she lives not far from me.

Sakasuma Jacket by Olga Buraya-Kefelian

Why?  It uses 2ply /lace yarn which would be a first to knit for me, and I'm almost finished knitting my first jumper/sweater for myself, and this would be a perfect next project. And I love wrap knits.

Chunky Roll Neck Sweater from Easy Kids Knits by Clare Montgomery

Why? I want to knit a new jumper for my daughter every year and this one has a nice chunky yarn.

That's 8 projects in total...5 from books and 2 from Ravelry. I've tried to keep my list reasonable, with a bit of room to do other stuff that grabs my crafty imagination.

Now I just need to decide which project to start first. Maybe the floral tie backs - this may get me moving on putting up the new curtains in my daughter's room. Do you have a favourite?

School holiday highlights

School holidays have been all about new experiences for my little one.

We had a day trip to Lake Mountain - the closest snow resort to Melbourne, where we could happily ride our toboggans, have snowball fights and build a snowman.  Her first visit to the snow.

The area was burnt out by bushfires only two years ago, the damage still evident in the tree scape. The trees in the resort area are a type of eucalypt that re-grows from their bases, so the burnt trunks stay bare of any leaves.

We had a lovely picnic in the snow with wares from the most fantastic french cheese shop in Healesville. Sooo much better than the greasy junk food available at the resort cafe.

The weekend was finished with some Pho Bo from Footscray and some kiddie yarn craft. The yarn weaving is now swinging in the breeze, providing a bit of colour in my vegie garden. I got the idea of this project from Linda at Natural Suburbia. I've made these things  many times as a child, but it has been over 20 years since I last did one! It was nice being reminded how. God's Eye is one name for them, do you know of any others?

Cheerio...am currently watching Pride and Prejudice with Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson and will now get back to it, it's quite a fun version.

Right now

Right now I'm...

:: loving being on leave from work for school holidays

:: planning activities and adventures with my daughter (think rollerskating, circus workshop and craft)

:: missing chocolate and sweet tea (as I'm challenging myself to eat no sugar in July)

:: watching Whip It for the first time, an awesome chick flick

:: flagging patterns in my many knitting and crochet books for A 2nd Year of Projects

:: packing snow clothes for our day trip to the snow (and little one's first EVER snow experience), think snowmen making, snowball fights and tobogganing.

:: mapping out my planned jaunt to Bendigo, to include op-shopping and a visit to Bendigo Woollen Mills factory...and some serious yarn buying

:: joining up my 43 african flowers into a pillow like this

What are you doing right now?

I'm linking in with gingerbread girl.

Johnson and vintage embroidery

My week of visiting op shops was not too fortuitous, but I did find some lovely johnson cups and saucers. I'm loving the orange saucers especially. My collection has really reached a point where I'm going to have to show some discretion about what I grab. A hard ask as I find it very hard to leave behind any johnson crockery, especially the beautiful retro ones. I do have the excuse that I'm on the look out for johnson plates for an instagram friend so am grabbing some stuff for her too.

My weekend has been busy with the usual stuff - housecleaning, kiddie games and a bit of dog walking. As well as the usual crafting. I've continued to do my one-a-day crochet project of african hexagon flowers.

Today I pulled out one of my vintage embroidery kits and stiched away while snuggled on the couch  watching this movie.

Yes, it's radishes. I've always had a thing for botanical prints.

I found this on ebay quite a while ago (there's plenty more of these type of kits on ebay now if you're on the lookout for one).

What about you...did you spend your weekend out of the rain and cold? What sort of things kept you busy? Or maybe you has some lovely sunshine enticing you outdoors.

I'm linking in with Her Library Adventure's flea market finds. Cheerio!

African flowers

I'm loving doing my hexagons and posting a pic on instagram each day. 

37 hexagons done, maybe around 15 more to go. The challenge will be joining them all into a square pillow shape. I've sort of worked out in my head how to go about it, hopefully it's as easy as I think it will be!

I'm linking in with Gingerbread Girls one-a-day meme and the lovely one-a-day projects. Cheerio!



Vintage crewel embroidery

I first posted about this vintage embroidery kit I bought on Ebay back in August and I've finally finished the last little puff flower. The orange is as bright and orangey colour (garishly retro?!) as it looks in this photo. It's quite small, and was mostly done in a couple of weeks. But I sort of forgot about it for a while and it sat unloved in my sewing basket.

It's now sitting on my bookcase, between The Godfather and Groundhog Day.

It can happily sit there until I find a permanent home on a wall somewhere. I've got a nice little pile of other vintage crewel kits to work on ...  stuffed away in a drawer. I'm off to investigate and select one. Fun fun.

Vintage finds

My weekend has been so much fun. With no uni studies to occupy my time, I have felt very spoilt and free. This was compounded by my five year old going off to see the football with her grandma, and hubby going off to do his footy umpiring, leaving me HOME ALONE for most of Saturday. I cannot remember the last time this happened. I pulled out the sewing machine and set myself up on the kitchen table and had some great fun with vintage fabric and ric rac. This is what I'm working on.

A tote bag for my new lap top - my first project where I'm using some lovely vintage fabric.

But no vintage fabric to be found op shopping this week. I did have some lovely johnson and pyrex finds.

Some adorable piecrust edge blue johnson tea cups and saucers, side plates, dessert bowls, and dinner plates.

A johnson milk jug and cake plate.

And some pyrex baking dishes, both that match others I have in my cupboards. The top one is a butterfly gold pyrex  and the bottom dish is a homestead brown with cobalt blue floral design.

I'm linking in with Sophie at Her Library Adventures. Go and have a look at all the other thrify finds.

I so wanted to grab this little beauty (?) for $10 at my local op shop....a granny trolley.

I could just image it re-crafted with a vintage patchwork cover, or maybe with a crocheted granny squares cover. But I resisted the temptation. I didn't get it, to the great relief of hubby.

What do you think....was I mad to have liked it?

Are there crazy (ugly) things that you like, that no one else does?

I'd love to hear of them...

One a day crochet

I'm going to play along with the One-A-Day meme at Gingerbread Girl. I'm so pleased Carole is back hosting this linkup, as I've really missed it. I've missed having something to give me a bit of focus and motivation, and I've missed catching up with all the lovely bloggers on their one-a-day projects.

The idea of one-a-day is to do one piece of the project each day - so that by the end of the week you will have seven componants done - 7 granny squares or 7 stripes.  I've gone through my craft basket and pulled out an unfinished project - one of my previous one-a-day projects that was never finished. Ravelry very unkindly remined me that I started it in April 2011 - which is a bit tragic!

It's my African Flower Hexagon pillow. Since my last post on this project it's grown by three hexagons. 

21 Hexagons

Pattern from here.

Ravelled here.

Yarn is mostly acrylic 8ply.

Joining method from here.

Pop on over to Gingerbread Girls blog and have a look see at all the other lovely projects going on. I'm off there now. Cheerio.

New wool and vintage fabric

I've been feeling stretched and squeezed by all my committments - family, work and my uni study - and have felt unable to do as much crafting as I would like. But that's now changing...at least for a few months. Yesterday involved doing my last exam for the semester, and a quick trip to my favourite yarn shop (Morris & Sons). I can now embark on a new project, clear of any study guilt (or not studying guilt!).

I deserved a little treat, and bought two balls of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerio yarn and some new circular knitting needles. The yarn is the most scrumptious thing - so soft, and knits beautifully. It's just unfortunate that it's so pricey.

My new project is from Molliemakes, a cowl pattern by Quince and Co.

I've been quite happy knitting away with lovely yarn and lovely needles.

I've also been planning my next sewing project. I've been sooo wanting to do a project with my slowly growing stash of vintage fabrics.

And my new lap top is really needing its own little home. A little tote bag. I'm still tossing up about which fabric to go with - and whether to make the whole thing with vintage retro colours, or have a neutral colour with only parts of it with the vintage fabric.

The tote bag is from this book...

It has some cute projects - none of which I've done yet. It is one of the many craft books that I have that give me inspiration, but I don't actually make anything from them! Well, for this little book, that's about to change.

What about you - do you have craft books sitting on your shelves unused?

Op shopping buzz

There is something about hunting in op-shops that gives me a buzz. And I've been getting that buzz a lot lately.

What I love about op-shopping...that heart stopping feeling when I spot an object I've been looking for, getting to share with my fellow instagrammers my lucky find, or showing my daughter a vintage object from my childhood that evokes lovely memories. My latest passion is for Johnson crockery, retro linen or vintage embroidery kits. And for vintage board games. 

My finds this week include some gorgeous salt and pepper shakers,

and some lovely tableclothes.

This last tablecloth is handstitched and my favourite find of the week. Apologies for taking a photo of it unironed, but I have yet to give it a wash.

Do you love visiting op-shops and thrift stores? And what objects are you hunting for?

I'm linking in with Flea Market Finds, be sure to go and have a look at some other thrify finds.