Planning and organising and lots of jam making

This week has been all about...

:: lots of jam making. I've made up 6 kg of nectartine jam in four days to ensure the cheeky parrots don't eat them all.

:: planning my daugther's return to school (uniforms, sticking name labels on stationary, and contemplating how her school lunches can be healthier).

:: thinking about what to do with Miss 5 on her last day before school (ideas include going to Lunar Park or the museum??).

::organising a reward chart to go on our fridge . Am thinking school starting will be a good time to set down some new rules (Miss 5's keen so far). New rules around TV watching, the use of our new Ipad, her chores (feeding the dogs), piano practice and doing her school work (which really only involves doing her reader every night as she is still only a grade oner!).

::buying some Stylecraft yarn from Deramores (with a nice 15% off). I've been wanting to embark on a new crochet blanket so I indulged myselft and bought the style pack that matches Lucy's Attic24 Granny Stripe Blanket. I sooo love online yarn shops.

::progressing on my Patchwork bag. I've joined the squares together and done the handles.

I'm stuck though on which fabric to use to line the bag. I have some vintage sheets that would be perfect, though I'm not sure I'm ready to get the scissors out and start cutting them! I'm sort of tempted to go with the pink and purple fabric (it's a light cordoroy) as no vintage sheet would then need to be cut! But the yellow floral fabric looks lovely too, as well has the pink on the right. My favourite is the green on the left....but its a double bed size and I'd really like to keep it intact.

Do you have a favourite? I'd love to get some advice on this as am seriously stuck.

Cheerio. Lori

Year of Projects patchwork bag



 

  

My patchwork bag has been coming along slowly. The postie delivered the scrumptious yarn (Rowan Belle Organic DK) in late September, and I have only just finished crocheting the 27 granny squares. I've been away from blogging for a while but have been busy with work, family, life ... and illness. It has been a busy time for me, and only now do I feel like I'm able to recharge.

 

I've made the very sensible decision to take some extended annual leave to recharge my batteries, spend some quality time with my daughter while she's on school holidays and spend some time pottering around my house doing fun stuff like cooking, preserving and making. I've also started reading again.  

 

I've started crocheting the patchwork bag squares together, then onto the handle and making up the lining. I think I will use some of the vintage fabric I have been collecting. Ravelled here.

 

Ive also been working on covered clothes hangers from The Gentle Art of Knitting by Jane Brocket, another project on my list. An easy and portable project.

 

Here is my list for A 2nd Year of Projects.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.



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.

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?

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.

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!



Block a month

My pile of blocks is slowly growing - for the the ravelry Block-A-Month-Crochet-A-Long (BAMCAL). I'm using 8ply yarn, a 4mm hook, and odd balls of yarn from my stash.

Raveled here.

My original plan was to make an afghan blanket, but now I'll most likley use them as trivets and under pot plants around the house.

Busy days

My time away from blogland has been busy, busy...

My main focus has been preparing and helping my 4 year old go to school. I really wanted to focus all my energies on her first few weeks of school - the school uniform, the haircut, the new white socks, new school books and stationary, the school bag, the healthy lunch box and tinkerbell drink bottle, the art smock made from dad's old work shirt.

It's been a real adjustment for my hubby and I - rearranging our work schedules to fit around her school times - with my hubby and I dropping her off on different days, grandma picking her up on some days, after school care, before school care, change of work hours...phew!

My daughter is loving school, and loving the days she goes to afterschool care. It makes me very happy and quite pleased with myself that everything I am doing to help her make the transition to school is working.  It helps too that her school and prep teacher are just fantastic.

Meanwhile I have still been busy on the crafting front.

My granny blanket has made some progress, and I've now started joining them together, using the join as you go method.  My plan is to make this granny blanket for my bed.

I'm still unsure about the whole blocking thing.  The previous blankets I've made did not really need it - one was acrylic yarn, and the other was made with this same Vera Moda 8ply yarn.

I really need to investigate options for blocking. My idea is to get a large cork board and block large squares of these as I join them together. In the past I've used a towel or a piece of cardboard, but this time I really need something a bit more user friendly.

Have you used a cork board before?
Or do you use something else... foam mats, or just a towel?

The pattern for these grannies is from here and I've ravelled here.

Some lovely bloggers have recently given me an award, which I'm pretty chuffed about. I'm still a newbie to the whole blogging thing and I'm loving being connected to other crafty ladies around the world. So thank you for the award! I'll be back with more on the award once I've settled back into my blogging. Cheerio!

One a day project

My new granny square blanket is coming along nicely....well, the granny squares are... as I don't plan to join

them up until I get to 50.

I've done 12 in the last fortnight and I'm liking how the new colours - navy blue, hot pink, mauve, dark grey - are looking. I'm trying to use each coloured ball of yarn equally, but am sure my favourites are coming through.

I carefully stack them up every night to ensure I have some sort of colour balance.

Head on over to Gingerbread Girl and catch up on all the progress the lovely gals have made on their one a day projects. 

There's some amazing work being done.

I love joining in with Gingerbread Girls meme, it keeps me motivated, and I get some great inspiration and crafty ideas from the other lovely gals.

Cheerio.

One-a-day project

While I have been busy doing crochet, knitting and other general making projects, I have not been very good at documenting them on blog land. The lovely gingerbread girl has started up again with her one a day tuesday tallies, which has given me the gee up to do some blogging about what I've been doing.

Since I finished my previous giant granny square blanket I've been wanting to start a new crochet blanket project.  One that is BIG enough to fit a queen size bed. I stocked up on my latest favourite, affordable wool - Moda Vera 8ply - compliments of a sale at spotlight - and added it to the left over bits from my giant granny square blanket. All up I have 12 new colour balls, and 9 odds and ends - as well as many balls of white wool.

For the inspiration and pattern I've gone to Sols(tr)ikke, a norwegian blogger who does lovely crochet and knitting. I came across her blog a while back when I was searching for granny square blankets. Aren't the grannies adorable??? (though a bit out of focus)

Her pattern is easy to follow, and introduced me to the idea of doing double trebles in the corners of granny squares for a lovely effect.

So 19 done....many more to go.

Check out Gingerbread Girls blog, and see what other one-a-day activites have been going on. There's lots of new and interesting projects. 

It's late here, so I'm off to bed. Tomorrow I'll check in with the other one-a-dayers and see what they've been up to. You should to!

Cheerio...

BAMCAL

Thanks to the ravelry Block-A-Month-Crochet-A-Long (BAMCAL) I've been busily crocheting blocks to build into an afghan blanket. The great thing with this group is they provide 2 12inch blocks a months, as well as two 6 inch ones.  I've decided to crochet the 12 inch blocks in 8ply yarn, using up my leftover yarns and adding as I go.

This is my first crochet a-long, and so far I'm loving it.  It's a great opportunity to learn new stitches, and at the end of it I will have a large blanket.

Thank you to thornberry for alerting me to the start of this crochet a long.  You can join up here.

Christmas cheer

The turkeys in the oven, the table is set, and all the presents are now wrapped and under the tree.  Today has involved a tiny bit of last minute shopping (at 9am to miss the Xmas rush), a bit of kiddie craft, collecting a parcel from the post office, and the stuffing of the turkey with pork mince, dried blueberries and sage.

I'm having a Chrismas Eve dinner at home - then tomorrow we visit extended family. It will be a great Aussie Christmas with temperatures expected to reach 31 degrees (its not a real Christmas here unless it's HOT!).

My crafting time has been spent doing kiddie craft (the lovely stocking shown above, snowflakes and cards). I also have a new project - making begonia granny squares. The yarn is acrylic that I bought for almost nothing at a local op shop - and while the colours are great, it is a bit splitty and does not sit as well as I would like.  But I'm loving the pattern.

I hope you all have a lovely Christmas, and enjoy your day with your family.  And thank you for all your kind comments and support. It constantly amazes me how wonderful people are out in blog land.

Tuesday tallies

The giant granny square blanket is done. Complete after 52 rounds. Now covered in wrapping paper, to be sent away for a christmas present.

The plan is for it to be a lap blanket as it measures (when comfortably sitting on a couch) perfectly covering one's lap and feet.  To be honest I couldn't bear for it to have been much bigger, and was quite pleased when I was running out of wool. I found this a tad boring, going round and round and round.

I decided not to block it and left it as is. There's some slight curling at the edges, but otherwise it sits nicely.  I've found this wool - Moda Vera by spotlight wonderful to crochet with.  And the border I've done simply with double crochet in the orange. I tried a few borders (picot and scalloped) and they all looked strange.  So left it with double crochet.

On ravelry here

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Christmas projects

The Christmas projects...

1. My Christmas dove is now complete.  She will either end up on a wreath or the tree, not sure which.

2.  Holly leaf and berries in 75 Birds, Butterflies &Little Beasts to Knit and Crochet .

3.  Greedy for colour's christmas baubles.


4. Attic24 Christmas baubles

5. Christmas Socks from Le Monde de Sucrette blog

I found these two gorgeous advent calendars that are just too big a project to take on now, so are now saved in my ravelry....for next year...a holiday garland and advent garland.