Autumn is here!

A busy week so far with a couple of babies being born, baby 1st birthdays and my own birthday - a good time for knitting! Wendy & Dan had a little girl who I don't think is named yet - I will have to get cracking on something girly which isn't hard as I have a very girly coloured stash! Simon and Jeanny had a little boy called Joel. They hadn't let on what it was so I didn't do any pre-birth knitting. Last night I decided to knit up some hats - their baby is no doubt going to be in the Waitakere ranges, tramping along looking at birds with his mum asap. The design is my own using 3 strands of yarn to knit up a chunky quick cap - 1 soft mohair or crepe, 1 acrylic and 1 wool. I cast on 30 st on size 8mm needles, then knitted a 3cm border and then another 3cm in stocking st. To shape the crown I knitted 2tog every 5 st, purl the next row, k 2tog every 4 st, purl the next row etc etc. I picked up 4 st at the bottom sides and knitted little ear-warmers on the side and plaited the ties to finish. I think they look "choice" and I'd like to have a go at making some adult ones. I'm going to make one more brownie coloured one tonight.












For JoeJoe's 1st birthday I made cupcakes with crocs - he had a jungle theme - and I did some face painting. That was a bit scary but the girls were very patient and a tiger, cheetah, zebra were born. I made some animal headbands in case my artist face paintings were more Matisse/Picasso than Rembrandt - Lily is unwillingly wearing a Zebra! These were just felt tubes which slipped onto a headband easily.














And for my birthday treat I went to Tanuki's Cave for yakitori and Sapporo handles - very nice! I spent the day doing some OARSUM things - visiting a photography exhibition with CH, coffee, touring the Titirangi market, coffee, chatting and knitting at Knit Rangers. I then went through the whole "it's my birthday and I'll buy as much yarn as I want too" but luckily reason fell into step and I managed a trip to Spotlight without any purchasing. Actually that's a lie - I just bought everything I wanted on late night Thursday beforehand ;) Knit Rangers are still revelling in the Morningside deals and I'm tempted to have a look this sat after golf.

My current projects aren't getting very far - esp the quilt for Charlie as I've failed to find the power cord for my sewing machine! It was a bit embarrassing to ring the retailer and ask for another one - especially when you bought the machine so long ago! There are so many exciting wannabe/ongoing/ nearly-done projects around the house these days I have trouble giving crafting priorty. And autumn is definately here now - the silver birch in my garden is starting to shed leaves - EVERYWHERE. But that means winter is coming and it's less guilty sitting inside crafting when the rain is pouring on the Waitakeres!!

Hey here I am on the Kroad newsletter looking every bit the gypsy at the Cross St Carnival!

Have a neat week...