Pay It Forward

Today was an especially nice day in blogland thanks to Hilary. She has nominated me for the You Make My Day award, so thank you for making me feel so special and appreciated too.

The Purpose of this Award is as follows:

Give the award to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel happy about blogland. Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so they can pass it on. Beware you may get this award several times.

So here are my 10 nominations, which was hard to choose from so many lovely bloggers out there -

1. Corrie - She has just moved from Sydney to Melbourne with her family. She has a darling daughter Keira who is such a cutie, and soon will be joined by twins too. Corrie is a fantastic knitter and sewer and she also sells wonderful fabrics and japanese books too.
2. Beth - She has a fantastic sense of color with her knits and also has a cutie pie to knit for. I love what she knits as they always turn out so beautifully.
3. Laura - She is a mother of 4 children (I dont know how she does it), and creates her own knitting designs, spins, dyes, and keeps a weekly update of her weight loss too. I love reading of her family adventures and knitting ones too.
4. Kate - She is another mum who is extremely busy with twins (perhaps Corrie should contact you about that too), who sells gorgeous toys and bags, and knits great things too.
5. Karin - She is an excellent knitter who is always knitting something gorgeous for her or her 2 beautiful girls. She is so wonderful that she sends me a beautiful xmas card every year with a gorgeous photo of her family which I love getting.
6. Elli - I love the beautiful items that she knits, so gorgeous and the shawl she just finished for her mother is so beautiful. I also love the sweater that she knit for her sister too.
7. Claudine - A wonderful knitter and sewer who creates beautiful items. I just love popping in when she updates to see what new item she has created.
8. Knittens - She knits really beautiful handknits for her gorgeous baby girl and inspires me to create beautiful ones for gifts of friends who seem to have babies everywhere at the moment.
9. Rhonda - Now here is one grandma who is a fantastic knitter! I love what she makes for herself and her cute granddaughter too.
10. Jade - This lady is one talented person who sews amazing clothes and now has started crocheting too. It is hard to believe the beautiful toys were made when she just taught herself to crochet a few weeks ago.

So now it is up to you gals to nominate your own 10 blogs you love to read. Looking at my list it seems I have chosen bloggers who all have daughters too. It is nice to have a little girl to knit for and sew for and spoil with handmade goodness, and speaking of little girls mine has started in Grade 1 today. She was so excited to be going to school too to see her friends, but it makes me sad realising how fast this time goes when they are so young.

Tomorrow or Friday I will update my WIP's. I need to get back to doing that as lately I just seem to post FO's when they are done and dont seem to show any progress shots during the knitting. After spending the weekend trying to update some of my stash I seem to be getting closer to finish listing it all. Some of my yarns I have had since Lachlan was a toddler so keeping it in plastic containers it is still like brand new yarn. Perhaps some of it I will swap or sell later on as most of it I dont have plans for, I just bought it because I had something in mind, but you know how that goes, you change your mind or forget it was even in there! So I hope you all have a wonderful wonderful day.

A Vintage Knit

Look at the beautiful knitting book I discovered at my local yarn shop yesterday. I had no intention of buying anything, although I always look to see if there is anything new in. Imagine my surprise when I saw this beautiful book, Vintage Snuggly DK Knits which has 18 beautiful patterns for boys and girls. The design on the front cover is Design F, which I am planning on knitting next for Isabelle since this was her favourite. I already had some Snuggly DK in a pink/white colorway, and the size 66cms only takes 5 balls. It is a very pretty pattern. They also have some gorgeous berets, cabled boleros, chevron zigzag cardigans, hooded sweaters (and without hoods too), a cabled blanket, wrapover collared cabled sweater, a cable helmet which is rather cute, and a little zigzag chevron bag which is adorable. I do plan on knitting the vest pattern too which is very very nice. I think vests are great in winter for adding that extra layer of warmth. Once I get started I will have to show some in progress photos since I havent been doing that lately.

Ooh and look at what we received yesterday afternoon, a thunderstorm with lots of rain which lasted about an hour. Paul and Isabelle sat out on the verandah and watched it all, as Paul loves lightning and thunder. I took this shot with the camera although it is a bit hard to see the rain. We are supposed to be getting more thunderstorms today, so I will keep my fingers crossed for some more rain later on tonight. I will be watching the tribute movies to Heath Ledger tonight honouring his wonderful talents. I think it is so sad that he died so young and left behind his beautiful family too. What a terrible tragedy for his family, and for his fans too that we will not get to see how far his talent could take him. I do hope that his daughter will be brought up to know who he really was and not what the media portrayed him to be, and my heart goes out to his family. It must be so heartbreaking to lose a loved one. Well on that sad note I am off to go and have an afternoon nap as my eye has been twitching today (from not wearing my glasses whilst on the computer and staying up too late knitting) so hopefully that will settle it down for a bit, and since Isabelle starts school on Wednesday it is time to start getting up early in the morning and going to bed earlier too!

2008 FO No 5

It feels so nice to have a few items finished which were left over from last year. This hoodie was intended for my niece but I left it so late I didnt finish it. I pulled it out a few weeks ago and finished it up for Isabelle.
Pattern: Plain sweater with hood, size 7-8 years (71cms)
Yarn: Acrylic yarn from Big W, multicolored, about 3 100gm balls
Started: Sometime in 2007, finished 24th January 2008

I did a few little changes to the original. I omitted the pockets. I knit 8 rows ribbing for the sleeves and the bottom as st st would have kept rolling up. I also added a butterfly motif instead of knitting a heart one. Isabelle tried it on for the photo and then took it off as it was a bit warm yesterday to be wearing a sweater. I do think that I should have knitted a few more rows to the length as always Isabelle is tall and it could have been longer. Sorry for the blurry photo too, I never realised until it appeared on the post. Isabelle has popped over to my parent's house for a little one on one time without her brother, so I am sure in a few hours time she will be back. I am going to try and put a few items (toys) away so that the house looks a bit tidier than it has been for the last few weeks.

Yummy Yarn!

The lovely Roo had a little competition to guess how many socks she could knit with her wonderful collection of sock yarn and I was the lucky winner. I got to choose any skein I liked from her stash and chose some STR Little Bunny Foo Foo colorway, and I have to say it is absolutely beautiful. THANK YOU so much Roo for the wonderful gift of yarn, and I had such fun playing too. Now all I need is the perfect sock pattern for this beautiful yarn, any ideas anyone?

2008 FO No 4

This little buttoned up sweater is just so quick to knit up. I started it last week I think, and now have almost finished it. It needs 6 buttons down the side with the brown trim. One extra nice thing about this is you dont need to worry that it will fit over baby's head as it is sort of like a cardigan buttoning all the way down one side.

Pattern: Side Opening Jumper from Cleckheaton Book 948
Size: 9 months
Yarn: Cleckheaton Country Naturals, Brown 1 ball, light brown 3.5 balls

I just need to find the right buttons now so I hope I have some in my button box that I can use. There are also matching pants to go with the jumper but I decided not to knit those up.

I have also started knitting the Fog Sweater by Tiennie which is a fabulous sweater she designed herself. I am knitting it for Lachlan in royal blue yarn in a lighter weight, and i have decided not to knit the k1, p1 in the body as I dont want to run out of yarn. I am hoping by knitting the body in stocking stitch that the yarn will go further. I am sure to knit one for Paul later on too, so perhaps will purchase some of the gorgeous eco wool from Yarns Online to knit his up and then go by the original pattern. It is great knitting weather at the moment too as we have had some lovely rain for the past 2 days. I hope we get some more.

Tomorrow is also my mum's birthday so we are going there for dinner. I think dad is cooking (well at least he should) so now I have to figure out what to make her for a birthday. I will peruse my sewing books tonight and see what I can come up with. If not, then perhaps some fabric purchasing on the weekend should suffice.

Thank you too for the birthday wishes for Lachlan, and the lovely comments on Lynton too. I really do appreciate the time all of you take to comment, and it does make me feel so happy too, so THANK YOU! Lachlan also liked reading all his birthday wishes too.

2008 FO No 3

Pattern: Lynton from Rowan Coast book
Size: smallest
Yarn: Bendigo Woollen Mills - Pink Opal (about 10 balls)
Started: December 2007, finished January 16

I knit this for my sister's birthday, which was a surprise to her as i told her she would receive another present but did not give a clue as to what it was. She was quite happily surprised yesterday when I gave it to her. The shawl pin is still at my dad's as he was staining it for me and had gone away for a few days, so I have told her to get it from his house when he returns today. She tried it on right away and it fits perfectly too. Now I can finish off a few other knits that have been languishing in the UFO basket. It does feel good to finish a few items.

Lachlan's sleepover for his birthday went well too. The boys ate pizza and had cake, stayed up all night playing video games and talking. We went to bed about 11:00 so I am sure they stayed up until midnight. Luckily Lachlan's birthday is always over the school holidays so it doesnt matter if they go to sleep late. He got lots of phone calls from relatives too, and is quite happy to have received money for presents. He is at that age where no-one really knows what to buy for him so it is easier for him to buy his own presents. I am glad that Isabelle prefers presents to money at her age. I think it is much nicer, and she always loves handmade things too. The boys have gone out for a few hours to give me a nice peaceful rest for a few hours (hopefully) as they are so loud and noisy all together. I do like that Lachlan has really good friends, and I do hope that they stay friends as they get older too. Now I am off to clean up the house a bit from the boys, and try and finish off some more knitting.

14 Today

Happy Birthday Lachlan!
I cannot believe how quickly time flies by once you have children. 14 years ago today I gave birth to my son, and as I look back I realise how long ago it feels.
The photo above is from about 2 years ago when we went camping at Mallacoota. This is one of Lachlan's favourite hobbies to do, apart from reading and playing playstation games. We are getting him a Wii console for his birthday, although we have to wait until Jan 30 when there is more stock arriving in Australia. Apparently at the moment they are all sold out.
Lachlan is having his 2 friends over for pizza and a sleepover so he should have fun. His nana rang him this morning to wish him a happy birthday. He will visit his great grandmother this afternoon too, and my sister is popping up to have pizza and cake with us.
As for knitting, well I should have another FO to show you all tomorrow.

Baby Quilt

My best friend gave birth to a healthy baby girl yesterday afternoon, CHELSEA NICOLE, who is absolutely beautiful. This quilt had been sitting in the front room waiting to be finished so this morning I finished it off and gifted it to her at the hospital. Lots of baby cuddles, and Isabelle and Lachlan were instantly smitten too and had lots of cuddles too. Babies are just the sweetest little people on earth, and make you feel so happy too. She wasnt due to have her until the start of February so I guess she was in a hurry to meet everyone and be included. It is so exciting and I am so happy for my friend too.
Knitting has been getting quite a bit of attention too. Lynton is nearly finished for my sister, so today I shall try and finish up the last sleeve and attach it, and then I can give it a nice steaming and pressing, and hopefully give it to her tomorrow or Wednesday. I have a few other UFO's that I am going to try and finish up that are from last year too that never got written about and sitting around waiting to be completed. I figure if I finish 2 UFO's then I can start 1 new one. So far 2 have been finished and I have started another hoodie for Isabelle, so by the time winter comes along she will have lots of handknits. I am contemplating knitting one for Lachlan but he is at that weird age of 13/14 so he grows all out of proportion at the moment. I hope he has a growth spurt upwards instead of outwards like me so he will get a bit thinner and feel a bit better too. We shall see what happens as I have found a pattern that I really like and already have yarn for so fingers crossed I get motivated to start on it soon. Well that is all for now but I shall return on Wednesday for a special post!

2008 - FO No 2

Pattern: Design H Cardigan, The Snuggly Book of Baby and Toddler Knits Book 282
Size: 5-6 years, 74 cms
Yarn: Spotlight 8 ply pure wool, denim colorway
Balls: I think I used about 8 balls

I finished seaming this up last night, after knitting the back tab and ties. It fits Isabelle perfectly. It was quite an easy knit too. Luckily this photo was taken before the power went off for 30 minutes today. I then had to go and buy a new USB cord for my camera, and after numerous tries it decided to let me upload the pictures onto the computer. It is so frustrating when things like that happen to me, and very stressful trying to figure out the problem in the first place. Luckily all is working now, and the weather has decided to cool down too. Hooray! Hopefully no more 40 degrees for a while I hope.

2008 - FO 1

The first FO for 2008 is the Little Angels top. I loved knitting this pattern, so simple and easy, although the Caressa fluffy yarn Isabelle picked out made me itch. I found the blue two toned ribbon at Wildpurl on the weekend and it suits it perfectly. Here is Isabelle modelling it this morning. She didnt wear it for long though as it is a bit warm today.

Pattern: Little Angels from Sublime Book 607

Size: 66cms (24 inches)

Yarn: Caressa (about 3 balls), 1 bit of Zara yarn, light blue

Now onto finishing off the ballet wrap cardigan which only needs the ties completed, and finish knitting the back of Erin which is almost done. I need to rethink my sister's sweater too as I am not feeling the love for it anymore. She doesnt know I am making it so I might have a look today at some other options to make.

Thank you too for all your New Year's wishes for our family. This year I am going to try and lose some weight, get fitter, and do more things as a family unit. We didnt do much last year together and I think it added stress to us all. So bring on 2008 although not as quickly as 2007 flew by.