thornberry

I have a relatively free weekend ahead, so am hoping to start (and finish) some sewing.  Maybe if I put my plans in writing I might feel compelled to follow through!  These fabrics arrived this week from the Amitie blog VIP club.  How incredibly cute!

I plan on using the fabric with the numbers to make a childcare bag for Stella.  There is a lot of stuff that a one year old needs to take with her to childcare!  I’ll combine it with a similar print that I bought from Retro Mummy, and I’m still deciding what plain fabric to mix them with.  I’m planning on using the Large Tote & Satchel pattern from Nicole Mallalieu, with loads of extra internal pockets, and I may incorporate some clear PVC over the exterior of the bag to protect it.  The delicious little red riding hood print will possibly become the bodice of a summer dress for Stella (which won’t be made this weekend - it’s way too chilly here in Melbourne to be thinking about summer clothes now).

This top is still cut out, waiting to be sewn.  Maybe I’ll get to it this weekend.  Clare also needs a pair of school pants - once again, fabric and pattern are all ready to go, and I can whip them up fairly quickly with the overlocker.  I’ll be embarassed if I don’t get at least that project done!

Speaking of school clothes and chilly Melbourne winter, I finished Clare’s school scarf and beanie.

The scarf was done without a pattern - it is just US double crochet (Australian treble) using two balls of Patons Superwash 8 ply.  The beanie is a modification of a pattern I found somewhere on the internet, worked entirely in double crochet like the scarf.  Easy peasy.  Elsewhere on the crochet front I have almost completed the Mossy Cowl, and hope to start on a scarf using the Pear Tree yarn.  There is also the matter of two June CAL blocks to complete (but I’ve got the rest of the month to finish them off, surely).

My fat quarters are all ready to send for the Vintage Sheet Patchwork Swap.  I’m looking forward to seeing what patterns I receive in return - and thinking of what I will do with them all.  Elizabeth has promised to have some great suggestions on her blog next month.

And to finish off - another op shop dress pattern.  This one is from 1977.

Wow ladies, bad hair.  And I’m still cacking myself at this post by Jodie of Ric-Rac.  So beautifully put (or should that be sung)?

This time it took me until June to finish the May Ravelry 2008 block a month CAL blocks, but finally they are done!  The pattern is Flower Burst.  As usual, the yarn is Bendigo Woollen Mills Cotton 8 ply, crocheted with a 4.5 mm hook.  Although the patterns are for 12 inch blocks, because of the yarn weight and hook size I am using mine end up as 9 inches.  In Lime:

and in Fennel (which was yarn meant for a different project, but now it’s made it’s way into this one):

This is how the squares are coming along so far (including a sneak peek at one of the June squares done in Fennel):

I’m about to introduce another colour - Heather, a lovely purple - since it was also in the stash (also originally intended for a different project).  Hopefully it will tone nicely and balance out the intensity of the blue.

And the Multicoloured square?

I’m only going to do one more block in this yarn which will be six, enough for a small doll blanket.  Then I’ll deliver the rest of the yarn to the op shop.  It hurts my eyes, and isn’t worth the effort.  Lesson learned - I prefer to crochet in quality yarns, preferably not acrylic, no matter how little it costs.

Somewhere over the past few weeks I slipped in a little bit of stitching time.  My Brown Owls tote bag embroidery is now complete!

It was lots of fun, and quite relaxing.  Embroidery takes a really long time though to cover a small area, doesn’t it!  I don’t think that I will become addicted - I’ll just do a little every now and then, when deemed necessary.  The tote bag will eventually get some fabric trim to match the rest of my “uniform” (an apron - still existing only in my head).

Nicole Mallalieu finally has a blog!  Yay Nikki!  Go over and have a look - it’s a great way to see what she is up to and she’d also love feedback.  I have SO MANY of her bags all planned in my head waiting patiently to come to fruition.

We were away in the country visiting my parents for the long weekend, and you know what that means - car crochet!  I’ve finished a few more 9 inch blocks, and a school beanie for Clare.  I’ll hopefully photograph them and blog them over the next couple of days.  Thanks also for the lovely comments about the cardigan - Clare wore it all weekend.

Do you remember me whinging about my learning curve when I started crocheting Clare’s Sweetpea Cardigan?  Unbelievably enough, it is actually finished!

I’m not going to worry about doing the silk ribbon embroidery on it as per the pattern instructions, as I think that it looks rather lovely as it is (and I’m over it).

The buttons really set it all off nicely - they’re from Spotlight - and the lacy edging was incredibly easy to do but quite effective.

And see those sleeves?  I crocheted FIVE sleeves for this cardigan - that is how many goes it took for me to get it right!  Lots of frogging going on there, I tell you!  But in the end I learned a considerable amount about gauge, drape, yarn substitution, reading schematics, and measuring as you go.  If I made it again I could do it in half the time.

The main thing?  It fits, she likes it and she’ll wear it!  Yay!  Oh, for those who like project details - the yarn is Harmony, by Bendigo Woollen Mills which is a wool/cotton/lycra mix (and has unfortunately now been discontinued); the pattern is Sweetpea Cardigan by Candi Jensen, from Interweave Crochet Spring 2006.

It’s Stella’s birthday today.  Now she is one.  Oh my goodness.

The past year has flown by.  I know that is a cliche, but it is so, so true!  Stella is such a delight and such a blessing.  She is a bubbly, happy little baby, curious about the world, wanting everyone to chat to her and interact with her.  Because she’s so tiny it seems strange to see her walking around, clapping her hands and waving to us.

This picture is her first birthday gift from us - something that will hopefully be special to her as she grows up.  It’s painted by the lovely Tiel of Tsk Tsk. 

Happy First Birthday my precious little one.  We are so incredibly lucky to have you.

When there isn’t enough time to craft, there still seems to be enough time to grow the stash.  Maybe it is my way of crafting by default - making plans, getting the supplies, and maybe then I’ll fool myself into actually getting things done.  In the past week these fabrics arrived:

The two on the bottom right are japanese prints from the lovely Retro Mummy; most of the rest are from the Flutterby line by Tula Pink for Moda.  Other than the three prints on the right hand side, I plan on using these in a quilt.  I have half a yard of each, but haven’t decided yet what pattern to use.

And what would stash building be without yarn?  At least I have definite plans for these.  This kid mohair will become a “mossy cowl”, from one of my Interweave Crochet mags (I think the pattern is available free online as well though).

This divine 12-ply 100% merino yarn comes from Pear Tree Yarns.  They had beautiful lacy shell-stitch scarves crocheted out of these yarns in a variety of highly covetable colours.  I can’t wait to crochet this one into a scarf for myself!  I’m going to try to do it without a pattern; I took a good look at the ones on display and I reckon that I can figure it out for myself.

The yarn came from the Victorian Handknitters Guild wool expo which was on yesterday.  There were loads of beautiful (and expensive) yarns to ogle.  I really, really like the Pear Tree Farm ones though - solids in beautiful colours, and incredibly soft. 

This post is actually a week late.  Whoops!  Hubby reckons that my entire fabric stash could fit this heading nicely.  Instead, I have chosen this:

I ordered this kit to make this teddy bear in - wait for it - 1995.  I still think that the bear is very cute - so why hasn’t he been made yet?  When will his status shift from “to-do” to “work in progress”?  Or even to “UFO” - unfinished object?  At the moment he’s not even a started object!

Rather than go to Magnolia Square on Thursday and look at things that I couldn’t afford to buy, I decided to go op-shopping.  And the op shop gods were smiling on me!

A vintage sheet to add to the fat quarters I’m sending off to the vintage sheet patchwork swap; some buttons; vintage hand-embroidered linens that will become part of clothing or a bag; a pillowcase that will become yet another pillowcase dress; extremely old knitting/crochet books; and a girls dress pattern that I’m sure I remember from my childhood.  Mum, did you make me a dress from this pattern?  The one with the short sleeves?  But the most exciting find of the day was this:

A complete set of Golden Hands craft magazines!  Oh joy oh rapture.  They are from the early seventies - Mum had a set when I was a child, and it went off to an op shop somewhere about ten years ago after I reassured Mum that “no, I won’t want these”.  Well, fast-forward ten years and yes, I do want these!  I had a look through a set at Brown Owls last week and realised what a fantastic resource they are.  I was absurdly excited to find them in op shop number three (of six for the morning) for the grand total of $12.

Clare was most excited with my other (unphotographed) op shop find - a pair of Barbie roller-skates for $5.  She has barely had them off her feet since.  I am also very proud of her - she wore her patch at school for two hours on Friday.  It is proving difficult to get enough hours of patch wearing done with only before and after school, so I suggested that she could take her patches to school and wear them there too if she wanted to - and she did.  What maturity for a five year old.  Thank you also for the lovely comments about Clare’s glasses and eye patch - they are all very touching and much appreciated.

As you can all tell, life has got in the way of sewing and craft in recent weeks.  I’m back in paid work two days per week, and between hubby’s new business, old business, and the kids, I’ve really only had time to dream about the things that I’d like to create.  Apologies also to all those people whose blogs I normally comment on but appear to be ignoring at the moment - I’m not really ignoring you, I’m still trying to keep up with your doings, but something has had to give and rather than it be my sanity (although some people would say that went a while ago) my internet time has become a little more limited.

But of course, I haven’t been able to resist doing a little bit of crafting!  I’ve had this little kit for “sweet treats” for a while, bought from eBay, and finally put it together.  It would have taken about an hour tops if I’d had uninterrupted time.  As it was, it took me three days.

These can now join the chenille chocolate cake and chenille cupcakes!  Hubby can’t understand why I’d want to make fabric food when I could be cooking real food that he could eat.  I did manage to fit in a couple of other crafty activities as well; another red crochet necklace as a gift for my cousin (no Freya, not you) and I cut out a few fat quarters for a vintage sheet patchwork swap.  And does ordering fabric count as craft?

 Nicole Mallalieu had a launch for her new Beach bag pattern on Sunday - what a brilliant morning, full of lovely nibbles, superb bag patterns, clever crafty people and generous giveaways.  It’s a good thing that you can never have too many bags - because each time I look at her range, I want to make more!  And last night was Brown Owls - yay!  I manage to get there once per month, and it is such a relaxing and friendly time.  This time the inimitable Aunty Pat was teaching us how to knit - except I was a rebel and continued with my crochet - I’m much better with the hook than with the pointy sticks!  I am rather excited that I am starting to build a new group of crafty friends through Brown Owls - thanks so much to Kirsty and Pip (& friends) for running it; I can’t quite get over their energy and generosity.

I have a huge list of things to do before I can go to bed this evening, so had better stop blogging and start ironing/hemming/folding/sorting/tidying/accounting.  Magnolia Square Market starts on Thursday; I’m considering a visit, but maybe I’d be better off saving my pennies for the Handknitters Guild mini wool expo at Brunswick Town Hall on Saturday 31st May (from 10.00am to 3.00pm).  Magnolia Square is a good place to get ideas, but the prices are way too steep for me to actually buy anything there.  But yarn, that could be another story …

About six weeks ago Miss Clare had to start wearing glasses.  We’ve been having regular eye checks since she was around three and a half years old, and they’d always been a little indecisive about whether she should wear them or not.  This time I took her to a different optometrist, who was fairly quick to prescribe them.  Clare has been incredibly cooperative in wearing her glasses, despite wishing that she didn’t have to.  Today, we had another checkup, and now she not only has to continue with glasses, but she also needs to have her good eye patched for an average of four hours per day in order to strengthen the weaker one.  So what does a crafty mum do?

I came across this wonderful eye patch tutorial at about the same time as Clare started wearing her glasses, and filed it away knowing that patching would be a possibility.  So today we made three different eye patches that slip over her glasses, eliminating the issues associated with stick-on eye patches and with the traditional elasticised “pirate” type of patch.  Clare chose the materials and decorations - there is another with a heart on the front, and another out of pink fairy fabric.  I am so proud of her - she wore her patch for around four hours today.  Well done my pirate princess!

Remember the crocheted dress I made for Stella months ago that I was unhappy with?  Now that she’s wearing it as a pinafore, I think it looks rather cute!  It’s definitely nice and snuggly in this chilly Melbourne weather.