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...

Happy Easter – I hope you all ate loads of chocs and hot cross buns – don’t worry if you didn’t because I ate extra to cover you! We headed down to Turangi to see the whanau. Such a massive family – I think 22 were staying at the bach on Sunday. My sister bought down her 4 week old baby – big girl, making funny faces all day. My sister was very good – completely motherly! I am going down in a couple of weekends to CHCH so the next two weeks are solid concentration on finishing the quilt.

Charlie, Tongariro River trouting fishing; fresh but not so sweet blackberries

We didn’t stay long in Turangi and headed down to Wanganui for Sian’s wedding – the hang-over the next day proved it was very good to catch up with all the girls from school. First time CH has meet many of them, he was particularly attached to little Lily and I think he had a good time even with the flu. We stayed with Toni-the-Pony and her mum which was lovely – great quiche on Sunday DM! It’s my birthday on Sunday and Toni-the-Pony gave me a lovely beret from the striped beret Louise Harding design, complete with flower brooch. She has such enviable tension and patience – I love her stuff - afterall it got me on the sticks!

I haven’t done any knitting in the last 2 weeks – still crocheting up the flowers for the rug repair job, swatching for CH’s jersey (which is just not working out!!!) and sewing the quilt for Charlie finished. LJW has been staying with us before her big move to Honiara – we had fondue the night before she left to farewell her, CH’s brother and christen our new dining table . I made her a blog so can’t wait to hear tales of knitting in the tropics!

My banquet hall!

Busy Bee

I've been a busy bee the last couple of weeks - work is finally gearing up for the year and back to it's hectic pace (I was loving the slow patch over xmas). Luckily I've been sticking ruthlessly to my rule of not starting new projects until the last couple are finished so the headless chicken style of my crafting isn't so apparent this month.

Project 1: JoeJoe's tank top - done! I'm pleased with the robot design but the tank is a little wide - hopefully he will keep a big milk belly and fit it still for winter. The Utiku wool has knitted up really soft and the colour is choice. It's his birthday party on the 29th and I'm lined up to do cupcakes and face painting - any hints for facepainting 1 yr olds!! The bottom photo shows the evil PJ who I found asleep on said tank while it was drying - luckily JoeJoe lives with 2 naughty beagles - so animal hair isn't so yuck!

Project 2: Sophie's tank top - done! This was a bit faster to knit up that JoeJoe's as I didn't have to play around with the gauge as much. I used Patons Bluebell wool which is nice for a littler miss as it's not as scratchy as the Utiku wool. The colours were ok - a second go and I probably would have used cream instead of white. I crotchet up a little flower for the front to break the stripes.

Project 3: Crochet Blanket - 50% done! I'm soooooo loving crotchet, well at least the one shape I can make. It's really good to use up little left over puddles of wool & acrylic - especially as I'm not trying to match the original colours.

Project 4: My sister had her first baby - Charlie Ann Stephen, 9.1lbs, DOB 15 /2 /08 9.35pm - so I officially join the "Aunty Club". I am doing a quilt in Erica Knight style, mixing knitting and sewing. I need to get this together before Easter and since my brand new sewing machine arrived last week there are no more excuses, hold-up or reason to procrastinate.

The Huskystar is the result of 1 year's craft stalls - something I'm pleased about immensely now I'm mortgage strapped! I did break my purchase rule though and stopped off in Utiku for some more yarn - got enough to attempt my first man-jersey - although I don't know how CH feels about wearing a colour called "Donkey"!! I also got this ginormous stuff - 1 kg for $22 - once I figure the gauge I might be able to knit myself a cool vest-thing (will have to draw you the picture in my head to explain it better).I'm also still thinking about the yellow kidmohair Emily gave me - currently thinking a sweet, lacey vest to wear to work - need to scout some patterns out. Would look cool over a black or white shirt or with coloured vests in summer. I've been keeping a look out for other signs that people are actually NICE still and I realised I mis-judged the world a bit. Every now and then there is a little something people do that is just quite frankly NICE and most of the time I just don't appreciate it: the lady in Taihape BP who gave me a large flat white when I bought a small; the man who gave me and LW free gingerbread in Rosehip Cafe or the old man who helped me up when I slipped over in the supermarket in my wet jandals. BE MINDFUL JASMINE!

In other non-knitting news: sadly my lovely friend Toni-the-Pony's dad passed away last weekend. I've known John Francis for half my life and it was just so sad to see him go. BUT it was so touching to see how close TTP, her mum & sis were - how they coped together even being the gorgeous individual personalities they are, a true measure of the unity of family! I did baking - choc chip bisc, yoyos with fresh passionfruit icing and hokey pokey bisc (below). Unfortunately in situations like these my best support usually comes from a pot, pan or supermarket trolley!I didn't get a chance to speak at the funeral but wanted to share my favourite 3 memories of JFB:

• Man-wig: TTP had to explain why her dad's head was a bit weird sometimes as this was the first time a chick from the sticks had ever encountered a tupee. JFB had a motto of working with what you've got and eventually the girls got the man-wig permanently off with his consent! He looked so good!
  
• French food: I credit JFB with introducing me to french food the day he cooked me and TTP a giant pot of french onion soup when we were hung-over. I looked on horrified through squinting eyes at this pot of brown liquid and swirrling onions - but loved it and have always raved about my first and favourite french dish!


• Food fight: when we were younger we used to always stay at JFB's place as he didn't have a curfew, we were close to the pub and usually scored a free drink at the cossie club before heading out - all important features for 17yr olds. One night we came home and had a massive food fight in his place - eggs, flour, tinned fruit, tom sauce and I even recall vegemite up my nose at one stage. It was so bad we had to get hosed off outside. JFB came out, saw the mess and simply told us to clean it up afterwards - no judgement, no telling off - even though the house reeked of eggs for months!

So goodbye John Francis - tis was a pleasure to know you sir!

Craftisms

Craftisms = the results of my crafting endeavours!

I had a brillant time at the Cross St Carnival - loved all the stuff and creators at Craftwerk. Such talented things - knitted tampon brooches, polymer clay cupcake earrings, cross-stitched skull & cross bone art. I was next this this gorgeous woman who makes cupcakes all day long! I sold some of my knitted handbags, scarves & brooches from last year, and made up some hot lace purses (which didn't sell well!), felted fridge magnets and some moreporks - made from vintage woollen blankets and filled with sand. I only made 8 and really didn't want to part with them on the day! I originally tried to make koru door stops but that didn't work so I tried fish shapes - but that seemed pretty stupid with wool! So the family of moody moreporks came along and sold out quickly.AND THEN...miracles happened. A lovely canadian called "Emily" turned up at the stall and we gossiped about all things knitting and got on to the fact she was carrying a large stash around with her which was becoming a bit of a burden. WELL 4 hours later she turned up with a big BIG bag of yarn for me!! I was blown away - are people really that nice or is it just canadians (I mean they do make maple syrup after all)? She totally made my day and I was ready to pack up my stall then and there I was so chuffed. Here's is some of the gorgeous yarn she gave me - plenty for adult types of projects so EMILY - thank you and keeping a lookout for my first big girls project!

Beautiful red/orange spun silk...scarve for moi?

Yellow kidmohair ... shrug/short cardi for moi?

Soft red silk/mohair ... little vestie...for moi?
NZ roving from Nova Scotia to be spun ... new craft to learn?

It was a total yarn-obsessed weekend really. Knit Rangers was brillant with so many people joining in. Catherynne won paitience award of the day for teaching me how to crochet granny squares - I need to fix the old blanket (see first picture) I massacred as a teenager by cutting "rosettes" out for my horse!

Summer Rocks!

:) yes, yes, yes summer is brillant this year. I've been in Auckland on and off for the last 10 years and this is by far the best summer weather ever. Sun, sun and more sun everyday (except for 3 days a few weeks back where it just bucketed down). Actually it's so hot and humid now that we're now pining for the cooler weather and quite frankly I've had enough Boysenberry Trumpets to last a lifetime on my hips. Here's a picture of Ta'Aroa (Capt M's boat) at Whangaparapara Harbour on Great Barrier Island after New Years.

And here's one of Bandit the Dog watching a tangelo sunset off the top of the Coromandel Penisula (after New Years).

I've finished the blue tank for JoeJoe and have done some stetches for the robot which will be stitched on the front in red. But it's all going on hold because I managed to get a stall at Craftwerk's Cross St Carnival so will be madly sewing & felting for the next 10 days! I have nearly finished the felted fridge magnets, started the HOT lace coin purses last night, have designed my BIG BOLD stall layout and am going to find vintage wool blankets for the cushion covers today.

And here is the 90% finished tank for Sophie. Unfortunately I didn't make my deadline of Waitangi Day but she didn't seem to mind too much (unless that funny smell was her way of poo-pooing my present-less visit!). I'ved knitted skinnier stripes on the front for something different. This photo is a bit old now as I just have the neck and arm bands to do. I think I might put some pretty flowers on the front too. Maybe learn a bit of crocheting off the girls at Knit Rangers!

Have a lovely weekend! I will be madly crafting for the carnival but might sneak in the Kumeu Wine and Food Fest AND maybe even be a foolish girlfriend and accompany CH to the "DRAGS". And yes thats cars he wants to see, not men in women's clothing.....