thornberry

We were away (again!) over the weekend, so not a lot of crafting was done.  I have been reading these magazines which arrived over the past couple of weeks:

I subscribe to all of these!  Interweave Crochet only arrived yesterday, and as usual it has some stunning projects!  While visiting my parents I managed to do a teeny bit more stitching on my Brown Owls tote:

I have a few plans for lining the tote with complementary fabrics and adding them to the handles.  I’ve finished my name embroidery and just need to make a top to sew things on to!

But more importantly, I had a visit from the lovely quiltingmick from Canberra!  Lucky me - she had a few days visiting Melbourne and we were able to coordinate for an hour and a half.  It was the first time we’ve met “in real life” - and we had a great chat!  So much in common, sometimes it is spooky!  She gave me this gorgeous crocheted flower brooch, which looks absolutely huge in this photo!

Thanks so much Michelle - great to finally meet you and next time we might be able to go fabric & yarn shopping together!

Along with all the Melbourne women aged over sixty (or so it seemed), I went along to the Stitches and Craft show today.  Taking a baby in a pusher is a great way to have an economical time at a craft show, I must say!  It makes it quite difficult to get close to the stalls.  People either stop and coo and chat to bub, or they see the pusher and glower threateningly.  The Living Creatively stand was a highlight!  There is the most gorgeous crafty garden that has been created, complete with real grass and real rabbits!  I briefly met Kristen, Angela, Bianca, Kristine, Justine, Fiona,  and there were other crafty gals there too I didn’t get to chat to but whose names seemed very familiar.  It was a bit of a blogmeet!  My friend Nikki was demonstrating how to make bags (very professional with the microphone, I must say) and all in all it was the best stand there.  There were also some beautiful yarns available (Pear Tree Yarn was especially gorgeous), but I restrained myself from buying and instead took their business cards with those all-important online store addresses.  Some great felting stands, loads of beading/scrapbooking/cross-stitch/needlepoint/quilting (none of which interests me at the moment - although I did get a little excited about a super-duper fancy schmancy iron and ironing board - what am I for that to be a thrill?), lots of the same old same old, so it was great to have Living Creatively there to freshen things up.

So, back to shopping!  I have done a little bit of online shopping over the past month or so, and thought that it’s time that I shared it.

Lots of beautiful crochet patterns, great skirts (it’s about time that I learned to draft my own simple skirt patterns instead of relying on commercial ones), yet more crafty bags, scarves, placemats etc in the Simple Gifts book, and Style Rx is a terrific guide to dressing to suit your shape. 

Clover crochet hooks, from the USA.  Once again, it would have cost me more than double the price to buy them here!  Online shopping must really be doing some Australian retailers out of some business.  I can’t wait to give these hooks a try.  Maybe with my other new book, Vintage Crochet.

Oh, so many lovely things to crochet!  Like these:

among many, many others!

A week or so ago I also managed some successful op-shopping - fourteen old Top Kids magazines for 50c each:

and the Spencer & Rutherford handbag outlet sale had these trims:

As you can see, I had no need to go spending money at the Craft show after all!  I’ve got loads of lovely goodies to craft with and inspire me as it is.

Although while getting my sewing machine attended to again yesterday, I did spot this:

Well, I do have a major birthday coming up … maybe I can dream a little …

Warning:  this is a very photo-heavy post!

My mother found this with some of my grandmother’s things, and since I am interested in crochet, she has passed it on to me.  It’s “Today’s Woman - Granny Squares”, from 1978.  Here is a selection of what it has to offer.

Check that cover photo!  This top comes with the tag line “Love that Soft Look - pretty peasant blouson, in peaches and cream colour”.  Hmmmm.  Some of the other adult’s clothing:

Can’t say I’m dashing off to grab my crochet hook for any of these ones.  Maybe homewares is more promising …

Some of these are quite funky - and in other colour combinations, I think they’d look terrific!  What about the kid’s clothes?

Once again, I think some of these would look great in the right yarns and colours.  But I don’t think that anything can be done to save this:

Some things are so bad they’re good.  This is just bad.

The last couple of days have been good for mail!  These back-issues of Interweave Crochet arrived yesterday.

They both contain some really lovely projects.  I have flipped through plenty of crochet mags at the newsagent over the last few months, and I think that Interweave Crochet is definitely the best (although Crochet Today also has some nice projects).  It has a lovely mix of items and varying levels of difficulty, so they should keep me going for years!  I really want to make this blanket:

I know that it will take me years, but it will be a nice portable project (there are 126 squares in total, ranging from two-rounds to 12-rounds, in 18 different colours).  The hard part might be choosing the colours and deciding on the combinations for each sqare.  I’ll probably order some yarn from Bendigo Woollen Mills - they have a great mail order service.

In the past few days I’ve made a start on the Boteh scarf from Interweave Crochet Spring 2007 .  The yarn is Lincraft Bamboozle, which is a bamboo/cotton mix.  It has taken me a little to get used to (I’m used to wool) but is nice and soft and I think that it will make a great scarf.

It’s taken me a little while to get the hang of the pattern, but I think I’ve finally got it sussed now!  There was an error in the pattern description (but not in the diagram) which was published on their website.  It’s a good thing that I check websites!

I picked up a copy of the latest issue of Adorn at the newsagent.

After browsing the last couple of issues, I don’t think that it is a magazine that I’ll get regularly.  Craft: was there, but at A$24 it was way too expensive!  Maybe I can subscribe (I love the current exchange rate with the US) - I’ve been busy perusing US fabric sites as well.  Fabrics that sell for A$24 per metre are less than US$9 per yard!  I haven’t made any purchases though.

Thanks for the suggestions on lining for the Larger than Life bag.  I think I might go for plain purple, in a similar shade to the sides of the bag, since the handles will be made out of this fabric.  But I may go wild for the inner lining and pockets!

While many of you have been reading Harry Potter, I’ve been browsing these books and magazines over the past week or so.

I wonder how many of the projects within them are likely to come to fruition?  “Designer Smocking” has the most adorable children’s clothing - but I’ve never done any smocking!  I figure that since I can embroider (although I don’t do it often) I should be able to smock.  We’ll see!  I still have two unfinished embroidery projects from “Inspirations” sitting upstairs waiting to be completed - one started while Clare was still a baby - if I don’t get a move on soon Stella won’t fit into it either!

“The A-Z of Crochet” is an excellent crochet resource.  I am certain that it is going to be well used over the years.

And I love “Threads” and “Australian Stitches”!  I subscribe to both, and find that they often have excellent advice, tips and hints that assist in the quality of my sewn projects.

I’m enjoying browsing through these, although I’d love to be reading Harry Potter . . . but that would require extended periods of time and concentration . . . not likely to be found in this household at the moment . . .

We went out for brunch on Saturday, and luckily for me the cafe is right near two op-shops!  I had a little bit of success, which is unusual for me.

Two lovely old sheets, nice and soft and colour coordinated - these will be become some pyjamas for me, and possibly some dresses for the girls.  Two matching embroidered pillowcases - I will use these for the embroidery, and plan on making matching outfits for the girls with embroidered bodices.  I also found another pink embroidered pillowcase, which I will once again cut up and use for the embroidery.  And Clare liked the two little wooden toys!  All up (including a couple of novels) it cost me $12, so I’m pretty happy with that. 

If only I’d read Ric Rac’s tutorial about knitting needle bracelets before I went op-shopping - I know that I passed some knitting needles by!  Now I’ll need to go back (and with a new baby, that is no easy task).  Luckily for me though I have an uncle who loves to frequent op-shops - I think that I’ll suggest a new mission for him!

At the newsagent I picked up these two magazines.

I had been looking for “Adorn” for ages, and was amazed to finally spot it.  I’ve only browsed so far, and it seems to have some good projects, as does “Crochet Today”.  But with both of these I’ll see how much I actually do from them before I purchase the next issue.  My craft and sewing magazine stash is getting a little large now!