16 August

I recently started work on another two baby floor quilts, using some of the Oh Boy range.





I also bought some custom made knitting markers from a great etsy seller, Sunneshine. She is so lovely and she made up lots of samples for me to choose my sets from. I wanted smaller ones for sock and lace knitting, and these ones are so light and delicate.






And Miss M and I have been busy making brooches - we have to make so many because we keep forgetting to take them off her clothes before they go in the wash...

22 June

It has been pretty rainy in Sydney lately, so there have been a lot of indoor activities to photograph. I only hope that it fines up for the school holidays!

Lots of knitting going on - I finished the Icarus shawl, although I still haven't blocked it. I used a pretty Dream in Colour baby lace called Cloud Jungle. The soft colours reminded me of the colours in a pigeon's feathers, keeping in with the Icarus theme - in the myth Icarus flew too close to the sun with his wood, wax and feather wings; the wax melted and the feathers slid off, can you see that in the shawl?




Lots of tea drinking


snuggling up under the heater


playing with favourite toys


and taking photos of the wet world outside when we weren't allowed to go out into it :)

Spring Garden Tee

I couldn't resist buying this beautiful pattern from Alana Dakos (Never Not Knitting) last year, and I finished it in time for Miss M to wear last summer. It is the Spring Garden Tee, and I knit it from Bendigo Cotton.



The cotton knit up lovely and soft, with very nice stitch definition, and I just wash it in the washing machine with no drastic effects ;)



The pattern was very well written, nice and clear and straighforward for a newbie garment knitter like myself. I will definitely be knitting more of these in different colours for Miss M. Alana has also just released an adult sized version of this pattern, which I will also be buying!

31 May - still here!

It's been such a long time between posts for me, I have been so busy and the days are just flying by. I have a lot of photos from the last couple of months to share, although not as many crafty ones as I'd like.

My pincushions have been getting a work out lately with a couple of quilt projects I'm working on - photos of those later. The top pincushion is from Ruth :)


Since Miss M gave herself a haircut at school (!) we have been trying out new hairstyles. I must admit that it is easier to brush in the mornings now...


This drum kit was given to us by a mum who had had enough of it - shortly after these photos were taken we passed on the joy to yet another mum ;)



Woolly goodness - I'm not the only one who appreciates it!


I'm still not sure what I want this to be - I've cut pieces out and sewn bits together, and I just don't know. I love the colours though.

13 March

I still haven't had a chance to do anything particularly crafty, except to take lots of photos with my lovely new camera :) So here are a few photos from my week.

New cotton yarn, one of my favourite colours:





Photos from my kitchen windowsill:





Flowers in Oma's garden:



Have a great Saturday!

Lucky lucky me!

I was very lucky last year in a few blog competitions, and there are still two wins that I have to blog about.





The first one was via the fantastic podcast Never Not Knitting, one of my favourite podcasts to listen to. The competition was to win a signed copy of Susan B Anderson's 'Itty Bitty Toys', and my name was picked out of nearly 500 comments :) This is the cutest toy book ever, I could really knit all of the toys in here, but my favourites are the reversible toys. Miss M immediately requested the little reversible bird, and I found it a nice quick knit, and the instructions were very easy to follow.







Here are some other of the cute toys in this book:













Aren't they lovely?



The other win was via the podcast Craftsanity, another fantastic crafty podcast. In fact, this podcast was the main inspiration for me to branch out and try all the different crafts that I enjoy doing so much. I was lucky enough to win the book 'Design-It-Yourself Clothes Patternmaking Simplified' by Cal Patch, and this is one fabulous book! I just love every single garment in here, and I have read it from cover to cover and I find it very well explained and inspiring. Here are some of the great clothes you can make:













Unfortunately, I haven't had any time to make anything from these books this year, since this little person has decided that he doesn't need a daytime sleep. After a full day with him I am too tired at night to make anything!

Ta Da!!! - Linen Messenger Bag

After dragging my poor old messenger bag around for two years (and watching it get grubbier and grubbier, not to mention the horrors that my fingers would touch if I ever dug down to the bottom of the bag) I have put it out to pasture and made myself another one. The beautiful linens that I bought recently were perfect and I just love it :)









I used my favourite Sew Liberated Messenger Bag pattern - this must be the sixth one I've made. This time however I added an extra side pocket and also a separate zippered compartment in the middle of the bag - I can actually find things now!



I added some of the linen tape I bought, and I even used the lace tape that the etsy store owner wrapped my fabric with :)



That is one of my new year's crafty goals down - I haven't given myself too many this year so I won't be under so much pressure to get things done!