ANZAC weekend

mmm that's one long weekend over and out. I had a grotty head cold all weekend and little knitting down, just a couple of cushion faces with the Debbie Bliss silk cotton. They've turned out quite nice and although I'm tempted to show pics now I'll wait until I've sewn then up into cushions to show you.

Thank god its fig season - nothing like soft ripe figs to slide down one's sore throat. Meals all weekend were centred on baked or stewed figs with crumble, contreau or mascarpone cream!!! I spent the weekend at CH's parents who luckily didn't seem to mind my henious cold symptoms. I didn't even get to bake them my fejoa cake or make some ANZAC biscuits!!

Hope you had a better weekend, or at least got some knitting done, or at least ate some cake!

oh dear ... no self control

yeah - I was meant to avoid buying anymore yarn. that was the '08 rulz. and I broked it getting into the second financial quarter!! With 6 balls of Debbie Bliss silk cotton from AlterKnitives for $5 a pop:I'm going to use it to knit some cushions for my spare room, just swatching at the moment. Will probably do a rib stitch (large stocking st, small garter st) and then use the xtra chunky Wool Store yarn (behind) for a large moss stitch cushion. Together with a choccie coloured bed spread I think it will look lovely.

And back to other projects the rug is coming along. The photo shows the holes I was trying to mend. I had a lot of problems figuring out how to attached the new squares but ended up looping the sets of trebles ...

and then simply sewing the new granny squares onto it ...

and sometimes actually matching the yarn to make it look half decent ...

So as you can see there's not much left to do and I'll be guilt-free and warmer for it!

Go Husky, GO!

Yeehaaa! Here the Great Huskystar is sewing up Charlie's quilt in no time! A little joining of squares here... a little flattening of squares there...
and in a matter of moments I'm up to the backing!
I decided to use an old woolen blanket as the backing - a) to save money & b) cos I thought it would be warmer than polyester stuffing. As you may or may not remember I got the idea from an Erika Knight's bookNew Knits which is a quilt with mismatched knitted swatches. I'm loving the overall idea but feeling the colour choices are not my best idea yet. Oh well - Charlie is 6 weeks old - what's she gonna do about it! ;)

I HEART HUSKY!

I love my new machine - the Huskystar 224. Finally got round to powering up, winding on and threading it up on the weekend and it hummms! I got stuck straight into Charlie's quilt and was loving it so much I missed Knit Rangers - what a womble. I'll show you pictures soon as it's finished but just had to annouce the pure pleasure of sewing with a decent machine. I didn't realise what a pig my grandma's Janome had been all this time! Suddenly my fabric pile takes on a whole new shine.

I also saw several people over the last week wearing their beloved castingontrouble handknits - Lara wore her fetching knitted flowers gathered on her shirt - something I'd never considered but it looked great; and Lily made her entrance in her cosy jumper - she was swimming a bit but I'm sure she will fit it in time. It's so nice to see that people do appreciate things you handcraft!

Another busy week for me at work and I'm left wondering how I normally fit any crafting into life! Looking on the study floor there are boxes of yarn, jugs of needles and very few decent projects going. The crochet rug is now ready for sewing up but I'm have trouble trying to figure out how to attach the patches. Will post some photos next time of the dilemma. However I have finished up the third hat for Joel - it was in browny colours - all three look lovely and cute and feel rather soft.

I also managed to finish up a teacosy for the teapot LJW gave me - thats the brown one - the green one is a gorgeous one Toni-the-Pony gave me for my birthday a few years ago. Ahh she's such a clever lass.
While there wasn't much knitting being done this week there certainly is a bit of knitting & socialising. Tuesday saw a few drinks at De Post in Mt Eden with some Knit Rangers, tomorrow another SnB group and of course Knit Rangers on Sunday. I'm lacking a bit of knitting motivation at the moment as a shop in Ashburton has asked to supply my beanies so I'm trying to get some stock up. I am also trying to find another 100% NZ wool to reduce the wholesale price but not much luck so far. It's surprising how much of the standard yarn around is from Aussie sheep-a-roos.

Well I best be off to ready, steady, cook for KM and Michelle who are over to see my new dining table. I bought some lovely placemats from Trade Aid yesterday - chocolate jute, made by a Bangaledesh rural women's coop. It's such good value and makes me very proud not to depend on China for products. NZ just signed the first free trade agreement with China and I'm disappointed because I don't feel it really supports small countries. Even as a small time craft seller I notice the impact of cheaper, mass produced goods crowding my guys out. Anyway enough of that - support socially conscience trade and buy trade aid people!

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...