First day of school – off she went very happily! Uniform too big, school bag absolutely huge, and a massive grin on her face.
And I haven’t cried (yet).
Crafty bloggers consistently amaze me with their kindness and generosity in the ways that they share their information and inspiration with others, hold giveaways, contribute to their communities and generally support one another.
I received a parcel in the mail today from Floss from Another Day In Paradise.
Beautifully wrapped in cute fabric and tied with a ribbon, with a lovely card attached. Inside were these:
Vintage girls clothes patterns, all in sizes 5 and 6. She’d seen them in an op-shop in NZ, thought of me and Miss Clare, bought them all and posted them to me here in Australia. What generosity! When I explained to Clare that a lady who we hadn’t actually ever met had bought these for her, she replied “wow, that’s REALLY nice”! They’re gorgeous – and there’s one for every couple of years from 1964 to 1980. Many have hand-written notes about who they were for, in which style, which fabric, etc. Thank you so so much Floss! We love them!
On the crochet front, I have been swatching to make the Empress Baby-doll top from Interweave Crochet for myself, but can’t seem to get anywhere near gauge in the cotton I’m trying to use. I’ve asked the gurus on Ravelry for help. I’ll possibly end up using the larger hook, but make the top in a size smaller than I’d originally anticipated. Hopefully then it will fit me!
In the meantime I may need to find something to do with some of that Jet yarn that will be quick, satisfying and not need to be terribly accurate with size. I think it’s going to be the “cold shoulders” capelet from Stitch ‘N Bitch: The Happy Hooker (thanks for the inspiration Michelle)!
Like many others who crochet, I have tackled the “Fat-bottom bag”, from the book Stitch ‘N Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker. And like many others – I love it!
I actually started this as a stash-busting project to use up the leftover Zhivago yarn from Stella’s dress. Of course, crochet and yarn being what they are, I ran out of the antique rose yarn about three rows short of finishing the body of the bag. So off I went to Spotlight, where I didn’t find the Zhivago yarn, but I did find this:
Patons Jet on clearance for $2 per ball! Yay! The yarn gods were smiling on me after all. My stash busting had now turned into stash building. But I digress …
I found a matching ball of yarn in the end (at Big W) and was able to finish off the bag all in the one colour (despite being from a different dyelot). The bag is lined with a cotton/silk print fabric using a tutorial found here.
The chrysanthemum pattern comes from here. I used a little of my new Jet stash to make it.
My mother is now considering making one of these too. It must be cute!
Wow Jodie, you really came up with a difficult “this is …”! How to photograph what really scares me? Yes, there are things that make me a little nervous or make me gasp with surprise, but what really scares me –
is the thought of anything happening to my children.
The latest apron theme from Tie one on is “Polka Dotted Lovelies”. This is my submission:
It’s a cobbler’s apron, made from a 1984 pattern (thanks to Mum’s pattern stash – you didn’t even realise I had this pattern, did you Mum!)
Rather than binding the edges with bias, I made it reversible. This is the other side.
The fabric is from Spotlight, ages ago (it was lurking in my fabric stash). The Tie One On gallery featuring lots of lovely dotted aprons will probably go up at the start of February.
I’ve jumped on the bandwagon to play the “this is” meme over at three buttons. So, this is my favorite cup.
Okay, it’s not a cup, it’s a mug. It holds a lot of black decaf, I can fit all my fingers through the handle, and I love the design. It was a gift many years ago from my good friend Megan. This is it’s usual spot – next to me at the computer.
For some reason I decided to join the 2008 12″ block crochetalong on ravelry (and on craftster). A new block is chosen each month, and by the end of year I should have enough blocks to make an afghan. The block for January is dreamcatcher. I decided that I’d use up excess Bendigo Woollen Mills 8-ply cotton to make my blocks. I started off with this blue one:
I like it! But it only blocks to 9″, not 12″ (which I knew was likely, since the pattern called for a thicker yarn and larger hook). Next step – to make another January block, since otherwise the afghan was going to be tiny. So off to the stash – there were three large balls of lonely DK acrylic from Lincraft that I’d studiously been avoiding. Their time was now. I crocheted up another block:
Hmmm, you probably now know why I’d been avoiding using that yarn. Hubby says that looking at it makes his eyes hurt. Time to do another cotton block, this time in lemon.
So now it looks as though I’ll be doing three blocks each month: two in the plain cottons (there are still four more colours in the stash) and one in the acrylic. Then I’ll figure out what to do with them at the end of the year. The acrylic blocks will probably all be joined together to make a small rug (Clare thinks it would be good for her doll). Hopefully the cotton ones will go together nicely in the end.
Each block took about 1.5 hours to crochet, so it’s a nice low-stress, highly portable project. I am already looking forward to seeing what the February block will be!
Lucky me! For the second time I have managed to win an Amy Butler pattern in a giveaway held on Scrap Bag by Ballarat Patchwork. Thank you ever so much!
It seems that both Ric Rac and Whippet Good also won the pattern (among others) – maybe we’ll need to have a “bag day” and all whip up some bags from this pattern!
Other bag patterns waiting to be put into use include these two:
“The Owl & the Pussycat” by Melly and me, and “Belle” by Nicole Mallalieu Design. Clare can’t decide whether she wants the owl or the pussycat made first (as if she needs more bags – oh yeah, I don’t need any more bags either, but that doesn’t seem to stop me).
My other recent craft pattern purchases are these two from Craft Apple.
I have used Craft Apple’s diaper bag pattern and craft apron pattern, and they’re well-written and well-designed (with great instructions). I’m looking forward to making these (eventually).
So it’s the usual refrain – so much to do, so little time!
After taking Miss Clare to the Hi-5 concert last weekend I rewarded myself with a browse at the Southgate Market. I came across an amazing stall of yarn and fabrics all grown, shorn, spun, dyed, and woven by the one family. Ixchel Angora Rabbit Stud & Fibre Art is in Gilderoy, and luckily for me (but probably not for the bank account) Charly is at the market every Sunday. There were so many beautiful yarns to choose from! I bought some alpaca:
Same yarn, but photo taken with flash – the true colour is somewhere between these two photos:
and some angora/merino sock yarn.
Check out those colours (although the camera really doesn’t do them justice)!
Obviously, I will make socks from the sock yarn (not that I’ve ever made them before – and will I knit them, or crochet them?) and I’m still not certain of what pattern I’ll use for the alpaca – possibly a vest of some sort for myself.
When I emailed Charly for further information about the yarn (my sieve-like brain had already forgotten what she’d told me on the day) not only sent a friendly reply, but some photos of the animals that the yarn comes from! The alpacas (Daisy & Chacoty)
and Cinderel the angora rabbit.
They don’t have a website yet but can be contacted by email on ixchel at iprimus dot com dot au. Or you can find them at the Southgate Craft Market on Sundays in Melbourne!
By the way, other than being a happy customer I have no connection to them – but I think that their yarn is worth promoting!
My cousin Freya turned forty today. I made her a Frenchy bag (to replace the bag I made her from vintage barkcloth fabric that fell apart in the wash). It’s the same Amy Butler pattern that I used for Donna’s Christmas bag.
The exterior fabrics are by Kaffe Fassett, and the interior pocket fabrics are from Moda’s Full Moon Forest line. I made the matching make-up purse from Nicole Mallalieu’s pattern. I fused a layer of thin wadding to the outside fabric of the purse – it really helps give it a more professional finish. I think I’m addicted to wadding for bag making.
The bag has the usual “thornberry” features – fully interfaced, both the exterior and lining (the fabric is fairly light-weight), with the exterior also fused with thin wadding. There is the usual key fob inside:
and a magnetic snap. As with Donna’s bag, I divided the interior pockets into two. I hand-stitched the lining to the outer along the seamline between the top and the body of the bag, rather than attempting to machine topstitch on the previous topstitching line as per the instructions – too difficult to get a nice finish, in my opinion! The hand stitching didn’t take long, and looks much better.
It is so difficult to photograph the inside of bags! I also did a little machine quilting around the red/pink flowers on one side of the bag – although you’ll have to look very closely to make it out! This fabric lends itself very well to feature quilting and/or beading – not that I had time to do either, but further embellishment would look really lovely.
And yes, she likes it! Happy Fortieth my Favourite Fizz!
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