Monkey & Kitty and a new book too!!

Look at what arrived this morning at my house. Monkey and Kitty which I had ordered from Clair of Missy Muh. Arent they just adorable. I love their little faces and their little pot bellies too. Isabelle is already in love with the kitty and the monkey now has a permanent position next to the computer on my desk. I am sure tonight will be spent trying to think of a suitable name for each of them. Thank you Clair for making such cute animals! She is so talented and you must go take a peek at her blog if you havent already!














Oh and my third book arrived the next day that I was waiting on. I absolutely love all the cute and adorable patterns in this book by Lois Daykin. It is a must if you need to knit for little ones as a gift or if your lucky enough, your own baby. I love the teddy suit on the front cover, and there are lots of other wonderful knits too. I am going to try and knit up a hat from this book today, but more on that later.

I really love this little cardigan, and I wish it was big enough to knit for Isabelle. I am going to make it for my cousin's daughter, the one who was born about 2 months ago now. Shame on me for getting behind on knitting gifts. It seems just as I catch up someone else is having a baby. Must be the year for it I guess. I am sure that this little cardigan will be a delight to knit, and perhaps if I figure out the pattern I might be able to upsize it to fit my daughter too. I am still knitting away on the socks, and am on the gusset of the 2nd sock, so I am going to continue on that tonight and hopefully I will have a pair to photograph for you all soon. Happy knitting and have a wonderful wonderful day!

Sporty Car Coat

I ventured into my local yarn store yesterday and found the new Sublime knitting books. I bought the baby one no. 606 and started on something for my next door neighbour's son who is turning 1 in October. This is the start of the Sporty Car Coat, knit in size 1 to 2 years, and he is a big baby so it should fit him in this size for quite a bit. I am using some leftover Cara Mia in the charcoal color which I had used for my sister's vest. It is so soft and squishy to knit with but shows up the stitches quite well. It has some really cute patterns in it too, and the colors of their yarns are just beautiful.
I also finished knitting a sock, but that will have to wait until Lachlan gets home so I can get him to take a decent photo of it. You just cannot model socks and take a picture as well so I will post it tomorrow for you all. Happy knitting!!

Mabel the Monkey

Pattern: Mabel the Monkey from the Softies book

Designer: Louise of prairiemouse.typepad.com

I really liked making this little softie, although she took a lot of stuffing. I think the hardest part was attaching the tail on, but I like to think that she turned out okay. She is sitting on Isabelle's bed waiting for her to return home. Isabelle seemed to like the purple fabric instead of the blue and I could match this color much easier. Next on the list is Albert Monkey which is designed by Fiona of Hop Skip and Jump. I bought one of her bunnies last year and Isabelle and I still love it. I am hoping that my monkey will at least turn out half as good as Fiona's creations. Tomorrow I have a nice book to show you which I think I am going to love knitting out of. See you all then!

Monica

Hello everyone! The knitting has recommenced, although I never really stopped, I wasnt as enthused as usual about it. Two days ago I decided to knit up a quick little project to get my mojo back and I think it has worked.
Pattern: Monica from Knitty
Size: 6 years
Yarn: Cotton Ease - Not quite 1 skein of each color
Started: Thursday afternoon and finished sewing it up today.
Overall I really loved knitting this pattern, and it knit up so quickly too. The straps are the perfect length, which I was a bit worried about. I just estimated the length for Isabelle and it was just right. She has taken to wearing it now and wont take it off (dont you love it when they do that). She also had a haircut yesterday and got quite a bit snipped off, so now her curls have returned.

Lachlan also got motivated yesterday and weeded the old vegie garden (I should have taken a before photo) and has now planted some garlic, cucumbers, silverbeet, carrots, and snowpeas. I will try and remember to take a photo when it all starts growing so you can see some progress. I cant wait for some fresh vegies from the garden. I hope that he keeps weeding it too, as I think it will be good for him. Last year he planted some vegies, and after 2 weeks lost interest so it was left to me. I dont mind weeding as long there arent hundreds of them to do. If I keep an eye on it it should be okay. Oh and the postman dropped off some parcels yesterday in front of the letterbox inside of the fence. Luckily I was home otherwise it would have been ruined from the rain we had yesterday, or it could have been stolen. I think the post office needs to take more care with delivering parcels so they dont get damaged or stolen. I received my copy of Charmed Knits which is a really good book and great for any HP fan. Isabelle loves the wizard robe in it, and Lachlan likes Errol the owl. I quite like the bookmarks and Hermoine hat.

Also I bought Easy Knits for Kids which has quite a few nice patterns in it for young children. I really liked this book when I read about it a few months ago in a knitting magazine. It has some lovely patterns in it and nothing looks too complicated. I am waiting on some more knitting books to come, and fingers crossed that they arrive next week. I did order a third book with these two so I am waiting to hear whether it was sent with them or whether they were still waiting for it. Well that is it for now, must go and sort out some other things to finish up and cross off the list. Happy knitting!!!

New Books!

The mailman arrived this morning, with 3 packages. One was for Isabelle, a birthday present from her cousins filled with lots of lovely books. The other 2 were for me. The one on the left is by Lotta Jandsotter, and is a very cute book with nice projects in it and it describes how to print your own fabrics too. I ordered mine from Corrie and she sent it out so fast. Thanks Corrie.
Now the book on the right is the one that I have been so excited about. The Softies book is a book of soft toy patterns by some very talented women, and whose blogs I do read. I think there was only 2 that I hadnt come across before. I really do love all of the wonderful patterns in this book, and the photos of the toys are fantastic. I have already marked out 3 that I am going to try and make before the end of the week. Isabelle has been reading it this morning too, and pointing out all the toys that she loves in the book, and the ones we can make for her boy cousins. The monster was a hit with that one. Isabelle seems to absolutely love the giraffe by Kate, so that will be on the list to make too. I will take some photos once I finish one of them. I bought my copy through Sooz' blog since she had a lead to who was supplying them. I received mine in 2 days so that was excellent.

Oh and look who I spied whilst taking pictures of the books this morning. Bella snuggled up amongst the handmade dolls. I think I must have woken her up, and she is feeling much better now too, thank goodness. She must be tired though as she fell asleep in my bedroom on the rocking chair yesterday. She looked so cute snuggled up there too. Well that is all for now as I must go and do some organizing and look after Isabelle too. She still is not well, but does seem to be getting better day by day. Plenty of rest I say!

Raven

The above pattern is Raven from the book Little Knits by Rowan. I love this cabled hoodie and couldnt wait to start knitting it. I had some Cotton Ease in the stash which I purchased a few weeks back (yes I know I didnt blog about it), too guilty I think. The color I am using is Violet I think, correct me if I am wrong. It is a nice purple color and this is how far I got yesterday afternoon after casting on. The cable is only an 8 row pattern, and is similar to the Two for Tea cable from one of the Miss Bea book series.

I am hoping to finish the back tonight as Isabelle is home sick with a headcold and I seem to have the start of it too, feeling hot then freezing cold. Well lots of rest and knitting seem to be the order of the day. I have also purchased some wonderful new knitting books which I will show you when I receive them. I will post some other favourites out of the Little Knits book too over the weekend hopefully. Lachlan is off to his grandmother's house at the beach so it should be quite peaceful around here. Oh and our kitten Bella seems to have eaten something she shouldnt have yesterday. We had to take her to the vet's and wait an hour, as she had a bad tummy ache. She had to have an enema which she did not like, poor girl, and seems much better today. She is on some tablets for the weekend, and then next week has to have another visit with her sister Coco to be fixed up. I hope they recover okay. Meg seemed to take a few days to even eat and drink, so I hope they will be fine too. Oh well it is that time where I need to get off the computer and go have a shower and do some housework that really needs to be done before resting! Happy knitting!!

Rosie the doll

Pattern: Yuletide Rosie designed by Rosalie Quinlan
Book: Vol 7 No 5 Christmas In July Special Edition of Country Threads

I chose to make my doll a lovely green instead of the red one in the book, although I do love the original one very much. I finished knitting up the scarf and hat last week, but with all the birthday party celebrations I only just managed to sneak a photo this afternoon. I think she turned out quite nicely too, so thank you Rosalie for the lovely pattern.

P.S. Thank you all so so much for the wonderful birthday comments for Isabelle. I am going to read them all to her tomorrow as she is busy at the moment playing with her Bindeez kit. I will show you the results when they have dried. Now I must go and make some egg and bacon pie for dinner, yummy! See you all later.

Happy Birthday Isabelle!

Isabelle turns 6 today. She is my sweet, loving, beautiful, shy, smart, gorgeous girl. She makes me laugh and sometimes makes me yell too, but I absolutely love her to bits, if you didnt already know. I cannot believe that 6 years has already flown by. She made a quick entry into the world, arriving in 2 hours time. She was very alert and has stayed that way too. She wants to learn everything and try most things, although in front of strangers she is quite shy. She is wearing her new skirt that I bought from Pumpkin Patch for her. She loves to wear dresses and is very girly, although she can rough it with the boys just as well. Here she is dressed up for her party that she had at McDonald's on Friday night.

Here she is with her cousin L, her best friend A from kindergarten and E who is in her class, and also went to the kindergarten too. She hadnt seen A since her birthday party in March, and they got along so well and played like they had never missed each other. Isabelle adores her big cousin and they play really well together too. She received lots of lovely presents from her friends. We bought her a big furby for her birthday, and it talks, plays games, and dances too. Isabelle wanted to take it to school, but I told her no as it would probably get broken. I am sure she will be playing with it when she gets home tonight. I think it chats away as much as she does on a normal day so maybe my ears will get a little rest for a few days.I took this photo whilst the hostess was trying to take a picture. The children kept running off instead of staying to get their photo taken. Too excited and wanted to play instead. I managed to get a picture of half of them. They all had a great time. This is Isabelle's last class party for quite a few years now. We are having a nice family get together tonight, with Paul's mum, my parents and my sister too. I am cooking a roast chicken and beef, and nice roasted vegetables. After that we will have birthday cake for dessert. I always hope that my children have a wonderful life, and a few special friends too. So far, so good. Happy birthday my beautiful girl!

New Fabrics

Look at the cute fabrics I bought from Corrie's shop. The elephant one is for me, but I dont have a project planned for it as yet. The Hello Kitty fabric, well you would all know by now that Isabelle loves this fabric, and I plan to make a bag for her out of it. Perhaps I can sew one up in the next few days and pop it in with her birthday presents for Monday. I really cannot believe she will be turning 6! It seems as though the time has just flown by.

I also bought some trims. The owl one is my favourite. I just realised that they match Project Spectrum too. I have been very slack in knitting and sewing in the selected colors for the month. This period is orange, brown and purple. I do have knits in all those colors and I really should get my camera out and blog about them, but lately I have been all over the place and not really accomplishing much. Maybe I need to get the camera out and blog about them next week. Yes, I think I shall and maybe get motivated to get a move on too. I am hoping to pull out the Jethro Jacket for Paul and complete the back of it at least. I have not knit on it for quite a while, and it is sitting in that notorious WIP basket. Maybe I need to give it a clean out and decide what to finish. I have finished knitting the baby jacket I started on Saturday, but it needs seaming. I am trying to finish the sleeve on another one too so I can do them both at the same time. Well enough waffling on from me. I have to get myself off the computer and do some present wrapping, and hopefully some crafting too. Happy knitting!