Softies

I remember that months ago when I first read about softies I just didn't get the whole softie-love thing. After having seen many beautiful examples on different blogs I now think that they're the cutest things ever :) I picked up this softies book and my daughter and I read it together - she fell in love with this lizard, and I got her to pick 2 fabrics from my stash. Today I finished her off, and presented my DD with her when I picked her up from preschool. She hasn't put her down since and has named her Rosie Kellie.





DD isn't your typical girlie girl - some of her favourite toys are her plastic dinosaurs, snakes, sharks and frogs. Rosie Kellie is now the best friend of a rubber komodo dragon, and they spent the evening spitting venom at some lions. DD has now requested that I make the crocheted Jack Sparrow pirate from the softies book (a little advanced for me just yet!). He is very cute though :)

A tiny bit of quilting

And I have done some quilting, a lone autumn leaf. I love the bee fabric, and the individual fabrics are so beautiful. But all together, it's quite LOUD. So I did one leaf, hid it for a while, and then decided that I'd share it with the world. Maybe it's not so bad after all...

Fabric makes me happy

I am going to make my daughter some clothes from the Ottobre magazines, so when Lincraft had a 50% off fabric sale this week I bought some great corduroys.







And then today I went to Spotlight and bought some lovely summer cotton fabrics, I am in fabric heaven!







The camera really hasn't done all the colours justice, they are so much richer in real life. I'm also eyeing off some of them for making more bags. But really I just want to wrap myself in them and love them because they are so beautiful! :)

I love messenger bags

I often have my 13 month old son on my hip in a sling when I go out, which makes it difficult to balance a handbag on the other side. Even when I don't have him I find it difficult to carry a handbag - it keeps wanting to slide off my shoulder and sometimes I just want to use both hands for whatever I'm doing and not for holding a handbag. So I love messenger bags, you know the kind with a big strap that goes over your head and across your body and the actual bag part sits next to your hip? Anyway, I found a great pattern, the Mischievous Gnome Messenger Bag. I'm really a novice sewer, I've only ever done my couple of quilts and a couple of nappies for my son, nothing more difficult than straight stitch. So if I can do this then anyone can! The pattern instructions are incredibly easy to follow, I ended up with a bag that looks really professional, I love the little details like the inside of the pocket and the square on the front. And it's been so useful, I've been carrying it everywhere.

Knitting in the deep end

Ok, so I have about 15 projects that I'm knitting all at the same time. Here are a few of them.

First there is my Central Park Hoodie. It's turning out really well, I love the colour of the wool and it knits up nice and quickly.


Then there is scarf number one, which I'm knitting for myself using the Falling Water pattern available on Ravelry. I'm using a baby wool and it's lovely and soft and warm. It's not such a quick knit, but it's one that I can do while watching tv etc so not much concentration needed.



Then comes scarf number two, which I'm knitting for my sister using the Persephone pattern. It is definitely not a quick knit, all those cables take time and concentration. I did end up miscrossing one of the cables and I had to frog it back almost to the beginning, but I'm getting the hang of it now.


Then we have some socks that I have actually finished! :) I made them for my mum for mother's day, the pattern is Primavera (available on Ravelry) and the wool is some lovely marino cashmere from the Knittery, called waterlilies.




Next up are a pair of knee socks that I'm making for my sister, they are a bit hard to see in this photo as they are in black wool, but they do have cables.


I started some Clessidra socks just to practice cables for the first time, talk about jumping in at the deep end! These are serious cables, 110% concentration and focus needed :) They also take aaaaages so they may just not get finished. They are really beautiful but I just don't have the time at the moment.







Then comes the pair of pants I'm knitting for my son, I'm using bamboo/cotton yarn from Lincraft which is lovely and silky. I've almost finished these, I just need to put in some elastic and finish off a couple of hems.


And lastly (at least, this is all I could find in my knitting box) is the hemlock throw I'm knitting for myself. This is a seriously beautiful piece of knitting, but my goodness it's doing my head in! It would not be an exaggeration to say that I end up unravelling every single row that I do and having to redo it about 3 times. I have since discovered that it's lace knitting, and that lace is tricky :) Anyway I love love love the colour and shine and softness of the yarn (Panda Magnum), and I couldn't think of a nicer thing to snuggle under on the lounge - at this rate I'll have it finished in time for the next ice age so that will work out well.


So lots of WIP's here, I guess that I should really try to focus on one thing at a time and finish things off, but my point of view is that, firstly, if I have lots of things on the go I will never get bored because I can switch around to different projects. Second, because I'm basically a beginning knitter this is like knitting school for me, so I'm doing lots of different projects to try out different techniques. And I'm getting much more confident and quicker with my knitting as a result - sometimes it's a good thing to jump in at the deep end :)

I'm still here...

I know it's been a squillion years since my last post, but I just haven't had anything worth putting on here! I've started so many things and I haven't actually finished anything much, I didn't really want to put works in progress pics up since that reminds me of how many wip's I have :) I've also started work again which has seriously interfered with my crafting time...

I have taken some photos of some knitting I've finished, and also a lovely messenger bag that I'm very proud of. I've just started a new quilt - actually it's an old one that I've just started sewing on after having cut out all the pieces months ago. I've discovered that my fabric tastes have changed considerably since buying the fabric for this quilt, but the design is so pretty that I'm going to persevere. I've also discovered that my sewing skills are improving and I'm much happier with how my seams match up etc. I'm now looking at some Ottobre patterns for my kids, as I just love their designs so much better than the average pattern you can buy in Spotlight etc. I also want to make some more bags, and buy some quilt fabric to make a throw quilt for myself.

Did I say I already had lots of wip's??????

Second quilt finished!!!

Finally I have finished all the hand quilting on my sister's birthday quilt, and I finished hand sewing down the binding last night. So it is only 2 months late :) Sorry about the squillions of photos, but I was so excited about finally completing it that I got a little carried away!