Cupcakes!

No not the baked variety, but the sewing variety. This pattern is from the book Cupcake & Patchwork Cookery Collection by Julie Mackenzie. It has lots of beautiful things in it to make, and lots of lovely recipes for cupcakes too which I will try and make during the week.
I started this apron on Friday evening, drawing the pieces up to be cut out on Saturday. I ended up cutting the pieces out yesterday, and put the cupcakes on the bottom to be embroidered around, and then stitched it all together after dinner tonight. Isabelle now wants a pocket, as all girls like to put things in pockets. I think I will make one in the rose fabric and attach it to the centre. I had a lot of fun making this apron, and they even have one in adult size too, although mine would not be pink. By the way, the angel in the photo is a present my sister bought for me when she ran in

her run last week at Appollo Bay. I really like angels, and this one sits in my front hallway now hanging from the shelf. I think she is quite nice and cute, and I am so happy my sister thought of me. She did really well in her run reducing her time by 3 minutes so she is getting a lot faster now.
I have also been doing some knitting too, as the baby blanket nearly has 3 patterns done, the green cardigan only has a half front, 2 sleeves and the collar to complete it, and a few other things have been started and knitted on too. They will have to wait though as I am on antibiotics at the moment, yes sick again. I took a trip to the doctors on Saturday after I didnt feel well, and the right gland in my neck was very swollen, and my bottom lip was full of cold sores too. I must have looked a sight at the birthday party Isabelle attended at the bowling alley for her school friend. She had a wonderful time and at the end was picking up speed with her bowling ball too. I think in future we will have to go and have a game as I have not bowled for quite a few years, but it would be fun with the kids to do every now and then. Well I am off to lie on the couch and try and knit some more, although this scratchy swollen throat doesnt make me want to really do anything for too long. I hope to be a lot better by the end of the week, fingers crossed.

FO NO. 17

Baby Jacket with Ribbed Sleeves
Size: 6 to 9 months
Yarn: Cara cotton, 3 balls
I finally finished the gorgeous baby jacket from Special Family Knits today. I just finished sewing in the zipper, which is always a pain to stitch at the ends because of the plastic parts on it. It took me about 2 weeks to knit, but I was also knitting other things in between too, so it might have been done a lot more quickly if I had of only stuck to one project. I think it is very cute, although it is a lot brighter than the photo shows.

I also received my wonderful prize from Laura today. A beautiful skein of yarn which I think is just gorgeous and oh so soft too. Isabelle said that she loved how so soft it was and kept rubbing it against her cheek. It does feel wonderfully soft, and I will have to make something wonderful out of it too. Any suggestions? Thank you so much Laura, and it arrived so quickly in just a week too. Oh by the way Paul is much better about the car incident yesterday, as he went and made me some lunch for being nasty to me. Tomorrow he is back to work, so it should be nice and quiet here for me to finish up some things. I am going to be doing some sewing tomorrow for Isabelle, so I should hopefully have some things to show you all next week. Happy knitting and thank you for all the wonderful comments that you leave for me too!!

The Book Fairy Has Been Again!

I have been waiting for my book order to arrive for the last 2 weeks. That is not too long to wait for these though as they are all wonderful. First up Mason Dixon Knitting, which I first had the opportunity to look through and use courtesy of Gillian when she lived nearby. I really wanted to make some more dishcloths and a few other things from this book so I ordered a copy of it. Second book - Knitted Toys. Now I really like this book. It has a cat pyjama bag, a knitted pup, a cow cushion which I think is really cute, an owl which I love and has felt features on it and is so adorable. There is even a robot and a snake, some stripey mice, a flat ted with a really cute face, and even a gingerbread man too. I am sure this book will come in handy when needing to make baby pressies too, as they would be wonderful to make for gifts. I really like books by Zoe Mellor, and I think she always uses wonderful colors too. Lastly but not least, a sewing book by Amy Butler called In Stitches. I really like this book too, and it has some wonderful projects in it too. All of the fabrics are just gorgeous, and there are some really nice bags, pillows, document holders for photos, lounge pants, a sleeping mask and quite a few others too that I would love to make eventually. I did order a bag pattern from Corrie a few weeks ago with some gorgeous fabic, but as yet have not touched it. I am waiting for a day with no interruptions so I can start. Paul's work has been a bit slow, and even though it is nice for him to be home, it can be frustrating sometimes. I wont go into things, only to say I will be glad when he is back at work. He is in a bad mood at the moment, as I had just scraped the back of the car on the shopping trolley bay, and now it has yellow paint and scrape marks down one side of it. Of course he knows I didnt do it on purpose, although he did say that I really didnt need to be at the supermarket! I am dreading the rest of the day now, but at least I get to help out in Isabelle's classroom soon, which is always wonderful fun so it should help sort out the tension a little bit I hope. I hope you all have a wonderful day, and drive safely too.

Pink and Green, Pink and Green!

are Project Spectrum colors arent they. Well it seems that I cant get enough of them at the moment. Over the weekend I started 2 new projects, yes 2. I know the shame of it all and not finishing the other one that is so close to being finished too. First up is a baby blanket from a Sirdar book that I bought a few months ago now. I am using acrylic yarn, yes acrylic for a cot blanket, but is not rough or squeaky to knit with, and the colors are so pretty. I started knitting this one yesterday and completed about 30 rows of the pattern which is an easy one to remember.

I also started the long cardigan on the front cover of Special Family Knits on Friday night too. This one is for Isabelle and as you can see I have done just past the armholes. After all of this knitting, my shoulder and neck have been aching, so today I dont plan to do too much knitting as I want the pain to subside a bit. I had good news too last night when I phoned my aunt. We speak every few months, and she informed me that one of my cousins is having a baby, but wait for it, they are due next month and dont know what they are having. I will have to wait for her call to see what they have and then I can make something special for the baby. They already have a 2 year old daughter called Jindalee, so I cant wait to see what they name this baby. I will probably knit something for Jindalee too, as when they had her I had no time to knit anything and sent something store bought. I am so excited to be able to make them something, and perhaps I can knit something different that I havent made yet. Paul's friend's baby is due next month too, and then his cousin is due in August, so it seems that I will get to do a lot more baby knitting which I always enjoy making. Maybe I will just get out the baby books today and browse through some patterns to make and hopefully reduce my stash too. I hope you all have a wonderful crafty day!

Twirly Skirt

Here is the wonderful twirly skirt. I know the picture is a bit blurry, but we have been having lots of rain and thunderstorms so this is about the best I can do for the moment. It only took me about half an hour last night to make this for Isabelle, and she tried it on right away and tested it out. I did not make the ties at the waistband, instead only threading the elastic through the top of it.
The pattern can be found at http://houseonhillroad.typepad.com and is so easy to do. I made the borders in some blue spotty fabric, and the main has little leaves all over it. This at least reduces my stash as I did not have to buy anything for it at all. I do plan on making her some others for when the weather warms up in September.






I also started the Striped Cardigan from Special Family Knits last week but have not photographed it as yet. I think this will be a bit wide on Isabelle, but the girl in the picture looks like it is wide on her too. I am using Cara cotton from Spotlight, which I bought a few weeks ago, and they had all the same colors, so I thought why not use that. It knits up nicely, although the blue is a lot brighter, not a duck egg blue like in the book. I am going to try and knit some more on this once I have finished up a baby knit from the same book. It needs to be sent off soon as the new baby is arriving in a few weeks, and I want to make sure she receives my pressie in time. Thank you again too for all the nice comments about the guernsey too. I will be posting them off tomorrow, and shall wait to hear if she likes them. I must be going now as I need to pick Isabelle up from school, and this time I am taking the umbrella. Happy knitting and sewing!

FO No. 16

The Hooded Guernsey is complete! Yay for me. I am glad this done as I was actually getting sick of knitting the hood and it seemed to take me ages to finish it off. The sleeves were quick though, so that was a nice finish.

Pattern: Hooded Guernsey from Special Family Knits by Debbie Bliss

Size - 2 years which is a 71cm chest size so it should fit quite easily.

Yarn: I substituted cotton for 8 ply wool, (8 balls) but the cotton would probably have been better in the way it sits at the bottom. The 8 ply makes the bottom edging curl up a bit. I would still knit it again but probably in cotton next time.

Tomorrow I should have some new projects to show you. Sadly today I did not make it to Sunspun as we ran out of time. Paul's job took a bit longer than we thought, so maybe next time I will make it there. Thank you too for all your wonderful comments too, and sorry I havent had time to get back to you, but my email plays up sometimes, so I dont know whether the ones I reply to actually make it to their destination or not. Wait and see I suppose. Happy knitting!

Mother's Day!

I hope everyone had a wonderful mum's day. I got woken at 7:00 am so that Isabelle and Lachlan could give me their presents. Isabelle bought the dolphin plate at the stall at school. Isnt it pretty and sparkly. Lachlan actually made me these salad servers, which work really well. We just need to oil them with vegetable oil and I can use them. He is so talented with his hands. I also got the new Missy Higgins CD which I have not had a chance to listen to yet, but am surely going to try to during the week. Isabelle also made me 2 cards, and they bought me one too. Arent they just so cute and adorable. I think Isabelle was more excited about it than me, and thinking about her excitement always makes me feel soppy. I only really asked for one thing, no fighting between the kids for the day, which unfortunately did not happen, but I suppose you get 2 where they fight more than anything else. One minute they are best friends, and the next they are worse enemies. Oh well I am hoping they will outgrow that behaviour. Tomorrow Paul and I are going to St. Kilda and have a little browse around. I am hoping to pop into Sunspun if I can twist his arm. We'll see how I go, and I should have another FO for tomorrow too.

I've Been Tagged

It seems there is another meme going around blogland lately, and I have been tagged by the wonderful Jessica. Here are the rules as I understand them to be - Each player starts with 7 random facts/habits about themselves and writes them on their blog. They also need to tag 7 other people, then contact them via email or in their comments, advising them that they have been tagged and to read your blog. So here goes, although I hope you dont fall asleep reading!

1. When I was a little girl I used to love to draw. I would sit for hours at the kitchen table, or in my bedroom, just drawing pictures, which were usually images from storybooks, my imagination or something I had seen. My mother still keeps a portrait of my grandmother which I drew from a photo of her.
2. In Grade 5 some children in my class won a competition by doing a drawing of the Gold Field days. I was one of the children whose picture was chosen, and so our class got to visit an author. I cannot remember who it was now, but I remember it was very interesting learning about how a book comes together, with the writing and the pictures too. Pity I cant remember who it was, but I do remember they lived in the bush somewhere in a nice cottage.
3. Do you remember the show Shirl's Neighbourhood. Well it had Shirl Strachan (now deceased sadly), and Norm the Kangaroo. Well when my sister was 8 years old she entered their competition, and sent in a picture of my tiger that I had drawn. Well it got shown on television and my sister won a trip to Sovereign Hill for our family, a photo album, and a beach towel with Norm the Kangaroo. I thought it was just wonderful that she had won and it was on tv, although we did not have a video back then to tape it.
4. When I was in Grade 6 our class had a camp at Sovereign Hill. Now Sovereign Hill is like an old period town of 100's of years ago, which you have to pay to enter, and whilst there you can visit the goldmine, sift for gold in the creek, dress up in period costume, take a horse and buggy ride, go bowling and many other things too. It has a small school there too, and we used to go to a small house outside of Sovereign Hill, where we would dress in old period style of dress, then attend the school at Sovereign Hill. There we played all the old style games and learnt things from that period of time. On the last day we were filmed for a documentary skipping down the main street rolling hoops in our costumes. I dont know what the film was called, but I am sure it was for the ABC back then.
5. Now some other habits or memories, hmmm let me think. I cannot stand the smell of bubblegum or chewing gum. It makes me feel nauseous and I can always tell when someone near me is eating it.
6. I cannot sit still and watch television without knitting or sewing or reading. It drives Paul nuts because he thinks I never relax, which is probably true but I think it is just my anxious nature. At least this way I always get to knit when I sit down so I accomplish a bit more.

Now I am going to tag Gillian, Kate, Manda, Siow Chin, Katt, Sue, and last but not least Maryanne. I cannot wait to read all of your answers too! Hope you have a wonderful day, and a great Mother's Day too.

New Projects

Good morning! Today I am planning to start my Amy Butler bag, although I will only be washing the wonderful fabrics today that Corrie ordered for me. I need to buy some other things to help complete the bag first. I love the colors of the fabrics too, but I cant remember exactly what they are called. Silly me. The one on the left is the lining and the one on the right is the outer fabric. I hope I can do a good job of it, as I would not want to stuff it up. I have seen some wonderful bags made from this pattern so I hope mine can turn out just as great too. Next up, knitting content. I did start another jacket for my cousins' grandson, but I didnt like it, so I started this hooded guernsey from Simple Family Knits by Debbie Bliss. The pattterns are all so nice in this book, and this is the second one I have started from it. I will show and tell the other one when I have worked on it some more. This is what I accomplished yesterday afternoon, so it wasnt too bad for a few hours. I will need to knit some more on it today, after I have finished trying to find my resume. Yes, back to work for me as Paul and I really need the money (and me saying that after showing you that fabric too), so hopefully I can find something part time. I dont think I will go back to being a legal secretary though, so I hope I can find something in the afternoon after school hours, or between school hours. I know I am pushing my luck but I can only try cant I. Well that is it for now as my dad is about to pop around with a cabinet he put together for Lachlan's room, and now I can put it in there as on the weekend I actually changed around both of the kid's rooms so now they have more space and it looks much roomier too. Let's hope that they can both keep their rooms a lot tidier now. Happy knitting, and I really appreciated all those wonderful comments on the little sweater I knit too. Thank you so much!!

FO NO. 15

Pattern: Playtime Stripe Sweater from Miss Bea's Playtime book.

Yarn: 8 ply wool, orange/red/brown

Started: Last week, finished today

Size: 1 to 2 years

I have to say that the Miss Bea series always have fantastic patterns in them, and I have knit quite a few for Isabelle, and nieces and nephews. This one was originally knit in cotton, but I substituted it for wool. This one is for my cousin's grandson who is nearly 1 yrs old, so it should have a bit of growing room. He lives in Stawell, and I am sure it gets quite cold there. My cousin passed away 9 yrs ago from a brain aneurism and sadly had two teenage children left behind. She was only 40 years of age, and it saddened me greatly. Her husband who is a fantastic person, has raised them into 2 wonderful adults, and now her daughter has 2 wonderful sons, and so by keeping in touch with them, I decided to knit them some jumpers for winter. I have yet to cast on for the next sweater for the older one, who by the way is a real cutie, so maybe the same sweater in a different colorway will be a good idea, or perhaps a guernsey. I am hoping to cast on for it today, since Isabelle got to leave school early. She had her school fete after lunch, so after a quick round of showbags, lollies, hair painting, and playdough buying, we decided to head home. I think we may get some more rain, as this morning it was absolutely pouring. It is quite dark outside now, so hopefully it will hold off until Lachlan makes it home. By the way all the head lice was gone by Monday, so she went back to school on Tuesday and I helped out yesterday which was lots of fun. Two more children went home yesterday with head lice, and the whole school was checked. At least that way parents are notified, and have to clean their child's hair so it doesnt spread to anyone else. I have a few things to do before Lachlan gets home as I need to go and buy him some new school shoes as his feet seem to have outgrown the old ones, and this time they will be waterproof boots instead of runners. I just dont think that runners are very good to wear all the time in wet weather, not that we have had many days of rain, but at least I know his feet will be kept dry. I am sure that there will be a protest at the shoe shop, but I am prepared for it. So thats it for now, happy knitting!!!