The Endless Summer

With only a couple more days left of January 2012, I'm pretty happy with how much stuff I've squeezed into it. My daughter starts her first day of school in a week (both her and I are very very excited!), as a result I've been very keen to really treasure my time with her.

We've been going to Ocean Grove beach, so she can try out the new boogie board Santa brought her. I must confess I felt a guilty sort of pleasure when she got 'dumped' by this tiny little wave. It's a bit of a right of passage to be tossed and turned by waves - I was proud that she got up and wanted to keep on riding more waves.

Also visited a Space in Film exhibition at ACMI and Scienceworks and have been playing lots of board games.

On the crafting front, I really want to finish a knitting project - a kiddies jumper - from this book.  I've banned myself from starting any new knitting projects until this is finished. Is this something you do too?

As a new knitting book arrived two days ago in the post (and it is absolutely scrumptious) there is now a new urgency to finishing this jumper. I'm planning on showing you some of my new book - more on that later....

Last night I blocked out the jumper. I was a bit unsure of how to do this - but after some research from the yarn label/books/blogland - decided on pinning it out, placing a damp tea towel on top, and gently steam ironing it.  This seems to have worked well.

Next step is stitching it all together, and knitting the neckline. Almost, almost finished.

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.

New years thoughts

Welcoming in the new year makes one think about the year gone, and the year ahead.  This past year has been full of new experiences and some real personal challenges.

My blogging started in August, here is a snapshot of the major craft projects...

My sweet flower granny blanket, design from Attic24. My first ever blanket, that now lies beautifully on my daughter's bed.

My crocheted seaman's scarf.

My amigurumi green tree frog. Made for a university assignment - my Uni tutor's loved it!

 My crazy bunny nugget.

Started my African flower hexagon pillow - still in progress.

My first ever big knitting project - a shrug.

The christmas dove.

The giant granny square blanket.

For 2012, my crafty plans include...

1. Yarn bomb something in the local area. (surburban Melbourne needs a bit of spice and colour!)
2. Do a crochet pattern out of one my vintage craft books. (I have soooo many books, it's about time I used them.)
3. Sew 5 pieces of clothing for myself. (I sew clothes for my daughter, but never for myself.)
4. Make or buy curtains for all my curtainless windows.
5. Crochet a queen size blanket for my bed.
6. Do a youtube cooking tutorial (crazy brave!).
7. Learn fair isle knitting.
8. Do crochet tutorials on my blog for my patterns.

The one thing I have learnt from the challenges of the past year - that I need to constantly challenge myself to do new and difficult things. I must get out of my comfort zone.

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.

Nonna Linda's Amaretti Biscuits

Baking biscuits for Christmas has become a tradition of mine for some years now.  Usually it's gingerbread men, but this year I really wanted to do some italian biscotti.

This recipe was given to me by my stepmother - whose mum (Nonna Linda) is the most amazing cook. It is a very easy recipe with fantastic results.

Last night I baked a batch and today my hubby and I gave half of them to our work colleagues.  The rest  will be brought along for Xmas lunch.

Here's the recipe for you all.

Nonna Linda's Amaretti Biscuits

1/4 cup of vegetable oil

1/2 bottle of almond essence (approx 25mL)

5 eggs

400g self raising flour

400 g caster sugar

500 g almonds

icing sugar to coat

3 tbls of cocoa

1 tsp of cinnamon

Process almonds in a food processor. In a bowl, add almond, flour, sugar, cocoa and cinnamon.

Beat eggs, add oil and almond essence.  Make a well in the flour mixture and add egg mixture, and fold together.  Roll into a ball and cover with icing sugar.  Grease trays and put balls quite separate. Bake in 170 degrees fan forced oven for 15 minutes.

My tips - when you roll the balls, I used a tablespoon to scoop some mixture out, and put some icing sugar in my hand as I rolled them so the mixture did not stick to my hands.

A bit of johnson love...

Ops shops, salvos, thrift shop...they have so many names. Just near my work is my all time favourite op shop where I love to duck off to during my lunch break. Here's my latest finds.

A retro orange crock pot - that cooks a beef and wine stew beautifully. I was sooooo excited when I spotted this little beauty on the op shop shelf.

And here's the ceramic pot itself - when the beef stew was ready I took out the ceramic pot and placed it right on the table.

And for some of my johnson love, love, love....

And these johnson cups and saucers and cake plate are my very first johnson finds.

What do I love about johnson crockery? It's Australian, it has Australiana stuff on them, they are very 60s/70s retro style, and I love that they are made in Australia.  There's not much crockery that was ever made in Australia. My mums a potter, so I've got a good appreciation of ceramic ware.  I also love that they are earthy colours, and have a solid feel to them.