Mildly Crafty

Knit Camp

2011-06-07T19:42:00.001+10:00

Read Julia's post on Knit Camp which we organised last weekend. It was fabulous!

Quinces

2011-05-09T18:15:00.002+10:00

I made quince paste today using this Women's Weekly recipe. I made a bit of a mistake in that I drained most of the liquid from the quinces after the first stage of cooking before it occurred to me that I was probably supposed to keep that water. The recipe said "weigh the fruit pulp" which I took to mean the fruit without the water but as I was doing it I realised I'd need it! I had to add more water to make it runny enough to puree, I suppose it would've been more fruity tasting if I hadn't done that. I also had to cook it for about 2.5 hours to get it thick enough.

Looks good though doesn't it!

DSC_0001.jpg

This has been keeping me busy

2011-04-20T16:48:00.000+10:00

IMG_0211.jpg

More info at the laburnum project.

Silly puppy

2011-03-04T19:04:00.002+11:00

This was last week.

Spider webs x flowers

And again this afternoon, he was happily sleeping in his bed like this!

Spider webs x flowers

Homemade Soap

2011-02-04T15:35:00.002+11:00

Julia, Jackie and I made goat's milk, cinnamon and clove soap!

The goats belong to my parent's neighbour, I'm going to visit them this weekend and thank them (the goats and the neighbour).

homemade soap

Somebody stop me!

2011-01-31T19:37:00.003+11:00

I am on fire today!

I just found this awsome pressing iron! I googled the brand name Hecla and found that there's one of these in the Melbourne Museum! This would've been made in Melbourne in the late 1930's. It needs some tlc but it's in pretty good shape considering it's 80 years old.

Hecla Pressing Iron

I also found this site while I was googling vintage irons, http://vintageelectricirons.blogspot.com/, wow they are seriously beautiful!

Close-up of the temperature selector dial.

Hecla Pressing Iron

I love the hand-shaped grip!

Hecla Pressing Iron

I also found a quite sturdy wooden step ladder. I'm not sure what I'll do with this but it was too good to leave behind.

DSC_0039.jpg

And I didn't take a photo coz I'm starting to get embarrassed but I also found a folding lawn chair and a Lawrencia 10 speed racer (it's got their name on it so I assume they used to manufacture bikes?). The bike's a bit dirty, the tyres are flat and the seat is ripped but it looks like a good one. Perhaps I'll make myself a fixie :)

Hard-rubbish love

2011-01-31T17:32:00.003+11:00

Thanks neighbours for the Ronson Electric Knife with wall-mounted holder!

Electric knife found in hard rubbish!

And Breville bread machine (this model is $200 new)!!! I plugged it in and it seems to work, I'll try baking some bread in it this week!

Bread machine found in hard-rubbish!

I'm going for a walk now to see what's in the other streets near my house!

See what EmilyKate scored!

Welcome to 2011

2011-01-08T08:47:00.004+11:00

Happy new year everyone!

I love this time of year, out with the old in with the new, resolutions still fresh and everyone excited about making the next year great.

I've made just a few resolutions which are:

make more homemade food staples, eg jam, preserved fruit, yoghurt, pasta
make more of my own clothes
exercise regularly
start work on writing a computer program that I've been thinking about for a while

So far I'm off to a good start:

My friends Julia, Jackie and I made Cherry jam yesterday (in 35 degree heat, uck). From 5kg of fresh cherries we got about 16 jars (3.6 litres) of jam and the total cost was about $34. It turned out beautifully. Now I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do with my 8 jars, it'd take us years to eat that much on toast :)

On a roll!

2010-12-08T20:07:00.002+11:00

I made another top yesterday afternoon using the same pattern as the first one but this time I crossed the straps at the back. I haven't decided but I might uncross them, it makes the front hang a bit funny and the whole top sits a little high.

Another new top

Back view

And today I made a dress! It was easy to make but it took me a lot of faffing about to get the straps the right length and in the right spot to cover my bra straps, it's really hard to do that on your own.

I also should say I used only stash materials and notions to make all three of these items, the only thing I had to buy was a hook and eye for the dress.

Pattern: Simplicity 8518
Size: 12
Mods: took in top edge of bodice by about 1cm on each side
Fabric: self patterned cotton

Dress

Blurry I know but you can kind of see the self-pattern on the fabric

Dress

Simplicity 8518

This is the pets hard at work napping while I was sewing away (that's the sewing chair at the bottom of the photo). I had to be careful I didn't roll the chair over Samson's paws sticking out there.

(Sooty has had a little operation, that's why he's got a shaved patch on his side)

Hard at work

Sewing

2010-12-07T13:09:00.002+11:00

Every year I say I'm going to get stuck into making my own clothes and I usually only manage to make one item. So here I am, saying it again this year :)

Yesterday I dragged out my patterns and fabric and tried to match them up. I put all the tricky patterns aside, best to start with something simple and so I settled on this top (which is actually a pyjama top) and some lightweight cotton that came from who knows where.

It didn't take long and the fit is just right so I'm very happy!

Details

Pattern: McCall's 4218
Size: small
View: E (pyjama top)

New Top

Back view

McCall's 4218

Visiting Cards

2010-12-03T13:16:00.002+11:00

I was just at my local post office and I saw these packs of "Visiting Cards" which are basically blank business cards and I thought, "I need those!". You may have read on my house blog that we're now "owner builders", so I've had to get quotes and so on from lots of tradespeople and I haven't had a card to give them.

Now I do!

Visiting Cards

Obviously I put my phone number on the other cards and left off my website, they don't need to know that :)

Visiting Cards

(the owner builder thing is also my excuse for not doing any blogging, I've been working my ass off organising house stuff)

New cushions for gran

2010-09-29T09:34:00.002+10:00

Several Christmases ago I promised to make new cushions for my gran. I took her shopping to choose the fabric, bought the inserts and then ... it sat in my craft room.

I couldn't let another Christmas go by without having them done so I got my act together on Monday and whipped them up using my own tutorial :)

Gran happy with her cushions

While I was making them though I realised my zipper insertion method was a bit of a PITA (I think I was feeling particularly anal about getting things perfect that day), so I tried pinning the zipper in with the zipper under the fabric and the fabric right side up. I just felt for the zipper with my fingers and pushed it around until it was lined up directly under the seam. And it worked just fine! No need for fiddly basting, hooray!

Cushion: pinning zipper

Cushion: sewing in zipper

I also changed the method for doing the box corners. I cut off a 1x1 inch square (measured from the seam line, not from the edge of the fabric) then folded the fabric as before and still putting the pin in the seam to ensure that they'd line up and sewed 1cm from the seam line. This made it easier to sew the seam at a 90 degree angle to the other seams whereas before I had to be quite careful not to get it wonky.

Cushion: box corners

So that's another job done. And today I want to sew up the Counterpane Clutch that I started about two years ago!

Jumpers done!

2010-09-25T10:18:00.003+10:00

I put in a big effort and managed to recycle seven jumpers! I was frogging and winding for hours! Feel very happy with myself though :)

There were a few that I couldn't frog coz the seams wouldn't come apart or the yarn was too delicate so the wool ones have been felted and the angora ones have just been put aside to make toys.

Recycled

I also tidied my craft room and labelled the boxes with my new label maker. I took a few things to the op shop and put a few others aside to give away or try to sell on eBay. Now I'm ready to tackle the fabric stash I think! I'll have to take a before picture :)

Used it!

2010-09-15T11:52:00.003+10:00

Made these two little teddies (from old jumpers) for my friend who just had twins, a boy and a girl.

Teddies

Use it or lose it

2010-09-12T16:49:00.003+10:00

I went into my craft room the other day, all ready to be inspired to create ... and then the mess and clutter hit me. I have so much stuff in there, it actually had the opposite effect and I just walked out again :(

I think the problem is that I have so many tools and supplies for so many different projects (and different crafts) that I feel guilty that I haven't used them all. I know some (most?) people loooove having a stash but I'm finding mine is like a weight sitting on my shoulders. So I decided to "use it or lose it"!

First I'm going to get rid of all the old jumpers I've collected which were to be either felted and made into something or frogged so I could use the yarn.

First item to be used was a colourwork shetland jumper that I tried to frog for the yarn but it was too fragile. So I felted it and made Sooty a new coat and Samson a new cushion.

Voilà!

Sooty's new coat

Samson's cushion

Knitting Methods

2010-09-10T18:35:00.004+10:00

Did you know there are many different knitting methods? I was taught English style by my gran when I was a kid and that's all I knew up until a few years ago when I discovered the Continental method on the internet and I thought wow that's amazing, I had no idea there was another way to do it.

But at knit camp I discovered there is also Portuguese style! Owlmania, Tricotetal and Tricotadeira were the object of much attention, everyone was saying have you seen those Portuguese girls knitting! They very kindly offered to give Jules a lesson, which then ballooned into a lesson for 10 people :)

Portuguese knitting lesson

So today I was reading Knitting in the Old Way (recommended by Jared Flood) and they were talking about Eastern Style knitting (as opposed to Western style, which continental and English style are versions of) in which the stitches are mounted so that the leading edge is behind the needle instead of in front and you have to wrap the yarn around the needle in the opposite direction. The book says the yarn is held behind the neck as it is with Portuguese knitting but when I tried this I found it impossible to do the knit stitch (in any elegant manner) and when I looked on youtube I found everyone was holding the yarn in the left hand, continental style. So there's two more variations.

And that reminded me that there's combination knitting (which I'd heard of but didn't really understand) which is a mixture of Eastern and Western in which the knit stitches are mounted Western style and the purls Eastern style.

While looking on YouTube at knitting videos I found that when knitting Western style continental there is another method of purling called Norwegian style.

Who knew there were so many ways to knit! Note too that all of these methods produce fabric that looks exactly the same, you can't tell after an item's been knit what method was used to produce it.

In summary, there's:

Western English style
Western continental style
Western continental with Norwegian purl
Portuguese style
Eastern yarn around the neck style
Eastern continental style
Combination knitting

So this afternoon I sat down and had a go at all of these, it was fun to break out of my comfort zone and feel like a knitting newbie again :) Out of all of them I think my favourite is Portuguese style, it's very easy to keep the tension , the purl stitch requires very little hand movement and the knit stich just a little more, probably equal to that required in continental style. I'm knitting a simple blanket at the moment, just knit and purl stitches so I'm going to practice my Portuguese style and see if I can get comfortable with it, I'll let you know how it goes.

Any one else game to try a new style? Are there any other's I haven't listed here?

Back in Oz

2010-09-10T16:44:00.004+10:00

Factor's Island in Loch Katrine

Well UK Knit Camp 2010 and my holiday in Scotland are over and I'm back to the real world. The trip went pretty much as planned (see my prev post for a rough itinerary) except I didn't go to Skye with Jules and her dad, I went back to Glasgow and Edinburgh instead.

If you're on Ravelry then you can read all about how UK Knit Camp went down on the forum. I'll just say that organisation wise it was a bit of a disaster. Actually I don't recommend you read the forum, it gets a bit nasty and I don't know about you but reading those kind of posts makes me feel all anxious and upset, even if it's nothing to do with me. So anyway, despite said disaster, Jules and I had a fabulous time! We made the deliberate decision to ignore all the bad shit and just focus on having fun with the teachers and other students we met and happily that was easy to do, everyone was fabulous! Everyone was friendly and approachable and we just geeked out on knitting for five days :)

My classes were:

Toe-up socks for travellers by Lucy Neatby: Lucy was great! She knows lots of good tricks, her class was really well organised and she had videos of all the techniques she wanted to show us so we didn't all have to look over her shoulder for demonstrations. She sells her videos on her website, worth a look if you're interested in learning new techniques.
Knitting Nature lecture and practical class by Norah Gaughan: Very interesting! Norah talked about her inspiration for her book Knitting Nature and how her patterns developed and then we had a practice at a couple of hexagon patterns from her book. She was a great speaker and very friendly.
Plan Your Own Aran by Jared Flood: Great! Learnt how to do cables without a cable needle. I hadn't seen the method that Jared uses anywhere else and it was quite easy to do. Also did crochet reinforced steeks, again quite easy once you know how. And he gave us lots of hints on estimating your gauge to begin with so that you can decide what cables you can incorporate into your design before you knit your test swatch. Jules and I left inspired to plan our own arans :)
Estonian Colour by Nancy Bush: Actually I can't remember the proper name of this class, I swapped into it at the last minute. It was a technique for incorporating colourwork into knitting, it looks like it's been embroidered on after the knitting's been done but it's actually incorporated at the same time.
Girasole Project Class by Jared Flood: The yarn for this class was supposed to be supplied, which I (and Jared) thought meant that enough yarn for the entire project would be supplied, but that wasn't the case, we just got one ball of yarn. So it was kinda a waste of time starting the Girasole blanket since we would just have to rip it out again. None the less we learnt some other useful bits and pieces. This would've been a great class for a beginner lace knitter/chart reader but as I'd already done a bit I didn't get a lot out of it.
Speed Knitting by Miriam Tegels: Miriam is the Worlds Fastest Knitter and has the Guinness world record to prove it (see her videos on youtube). She showed us her method which looks very simple and ergonomic when she does it, however I just couldn't get it to work for me :(

I might write down all the tips I learnt in another post. I think they'd be helpful for others and it'll help me remember too :)

In between classes we'd all congregate in whatever area had enough chairs and sit, knit and chat. Funnily enough it turned out that most participants weren't from the UK! I met people from: France, Germany, Denmark, Portugal, USA, Canada, The Netherlands, and there were probably other countries too.

I've got some pictures on Flickr if you'd like a look, some of them have descriptions but not all :)

Well helloooo there!

2010-07-07T11:16:00.003+10:00

Well I'm feeling quite refreshed after that little blogging break!

I've de-cloaked to tell you that I'm going to UK Knit Camp in Scotland in just under four weeks and I'm pretty excited about it! My good friend and knitting buddy Jules asked via SMS, back in January I think, if I wanted to go and (after I'd googled it) my first thought was don't be silly, I can't go all that way just for knitting. But then I had a second thought, why the hell not! And now the time is fast approaching when we'll be on our way.

Knit Camp is actually only on for four days but we're going to stay on for a few weeks and do some sightseeing while we're over there.

The plan is:

Arrive in Glasgow on Wednesday 4th August and go immediately to Lanark which is a beautiful historic town with a knitting mill
Stay in Lanark for two or three nights
Up to The Trossachs national park for two or three nights
Arrive in Stirling on Monday 9th where we are staying in the university dorms until Saturday night
Monday night Knit Camp kicks off and then there's classes Tuesday and Thursday all day and Wednesday and Friday mornings only
On the weekend is Ravelry Weekend with a market, classes, demonstrations and a BBQ in the evening
Sunday morning get the train to Aberdeen and check out the town then in the evening get a flight to Sumburgh in the Shetland Islands. Very excited about seeing the islands! Stay in the Shetlands for four days
Friday morning get a flight to Kirkwall in the Orkney islands and stay there for three nights or so
The rest is a bit unstructured, we'll play it by ear but the basic plan is:
Ferry to from Orkney to Scrabster (on the mainland), bus to Inverness where we'll pick up a car and drive down to Loch Ness. We will probably just spend the day at Loch Ness and won't stay there overnight.
Drive over to Skye and meet Jules's dad who is coming over to do some travelling with Jules after I go home
Check out Skye, Lewis, Harris and anything else that looks good over that way
I'll part with Jules and her dad and catch the train back to Glasgow and/or Edinburgh and see the city before I leave Glasgow on Monday 30th August

I am so looking forward to seeing everything!

Gotta go now and look for some t-shirts to take with me. Here's a picture of the Wallace Statue in Stirling.

Nice in the sunshine

2009-08-25T10:42:00.000+10:00

Watching the birdies

Knitting Group on Tonight

2009-07-23T10:32:00.002+10:00

Did you know that the new Morris & Sons store in the city is hosting a stitch 'n bitch on Thursday nights now? It's on tonight from 5-7pm. I'll be there until about 6:15 and then I'm going to the BurdaStyle club meeting at Tessuti. Busy, busy.

And here's a gratuitous photo of my cute boys.

Brothers

Another FO!

2009-07-20T11:57:00.002+10:00

Pattern: Star Crossed Slouchy Beret

Yarn: Rowan Cocoon 1.2 balls in colour 816 - Kiwi

Needles: 6mm for the ribbing and 9mm for the rest of the hat

This was so fast, I started it one night and finished it the next!

Like watching paint dry

2009-07-10T22:09:00.002+10:00

The slab for our house was poured today ... and the concreters are still there, waiting for it to dry more so they can trowel it really smooth ... and there were a few drops of rain as we left! Eeek. If it rains a lot it'll be too wet for them to trowel smooth and the raindrops can leave pits in the surface. We're not going to grind it back so it's really important that the finish is really good. Fingers crossed!!

Amy waiting for the slab to dry

Chiffon gathers

2009-07-05T21:36:00.002+10:00

Hmm, Just found this dress which is by Maggy London the same designer as the pattern I'm using and is very similar to the pattern I'm using, the midriff part is just thinner.

But how did they get the gathers so small!! Mine are kinda chunky :(

My first method, used on the neckline, was to sew two rows of stitching, both inside the 1.5cm seam allowance and then pull the top threads to create the gathers. But on the midriff I sewed the lines of stitching either side of the seam line (and then pulled out the threads after sewing the seams) and this produced a better result but still not as tiny as these gathers ... poo.

Anyone know?

Dressmaking

2009-07-05T20:45:00.003+10:00

I don't know why but I agreed to make a bridesmaid's dress for my brother-in-law's girlfriend. I think it was probably pride :) Don't want to admit that it's beyond me.

So, I took Tina shopping and we chose Butterick pattern 5134. Only to discover that it's been discontinued! Argh! It was the only pattern we even remotely liked so I called around and tracked down a copy at The Cloth Shop.

Then I put together a muslin of just the lining part to see if it was the right size.

It was almost right, just a bit snug around the waist so I added four centimetres and started on a full-scale test version.

It took 4 hours to put the bodice together yesterday! Blimey! The pattern is rated as "easy" but I would think that'd mean a beginner could make it and this definitely isn't beginner. I guess it's not that hard, but cutting out the flimsy fabric and doing the gathers was kinda fiddly.

So I'm really pleased with the way this has turned out so far. The gathers on the bodice aren't great but I did them a little differently on the sides of the midriff bit and they look much neater. I also learnt that it's a bit dumb to use white overlocker thread under black chiffon, it's totally visible - dammit.

Anyway, tomorrow I've got to add the skirt so Tina can try it on again on Wednesday. And then I have to do it all over again in the real fabric. Phew!

FOs

2009-06-30T11:11:00.002+10:00

I finally finished my cloche and blocked it on the weekend. I'm happy with how it turned out except for the fact that it's a bit too big, I made it in the large size instead of medium because the pattern was a bit confusing. I realised what I'd done but didn't want to rip back the work that I'd done. That'll teach me! I've felted it but it only shrank a little. It might be OK, I'll wear it and see how it goes.

Stats:

Pattern: Matilda (ravelry)
Yarn: 2 balls Jo Sharp Aran Tweed in black
Needles: 4mm DPNs and 40cm circular

Cloche

I also whipped up this leaf scarf/necklace last week.

Stats:

Pattern: Leaf Scarf (ravelry)
Yarn: Scraps of Jo Sharp 8ply Pure DK wool
Needles: 6mm

Knitted leaves necklace

Handknitter's Guild Wool and Craft Fair

2009-06-30T09:02:00.004+10:00

On Saturday I went to the Handknitter's Guild's Wool and Craft Fair at the Brunswick town hall. It was really good, like a mini Bendigo Sheep and Wool show (and without the sheep).

There were lots of wool and fiber producers there

Dairing who have a knitwear shop in Richmond and stock Habu yarns. I'd heard about them but never seen them until now, very unusual!
Andyle who had lovely coloured wool grown on their farm in Tarneit Victoria.
Shiloh Wool who have coloured fleeces and combed wool for spinners from Bellaraine Victoria.
Lara Downs who have angora goat and lots of other luxury fibers and are from Balliang Victoria and they've also opened a new retail outlet called Precious Purl at 397 Bruswick St Fitzroy. I can't find a website for them but their card says they're open Wed-Sat 11-4 phone 0423 514 668.
Ixchel angora bunnies! They have other fibers too but I love the bunnies!

And there were more of course but I didn't get their business cards.

I bought some 14 ply wool from Shiloh and wound it into a ball using my brand new ball winder and swift from Morris & Sons. It was so fun to wind it, my husband, sister and dad all watched the process with interest too :) I'm going to try dying it myself, eep! (yeah probably should've left it in the skein but I couldn't resist trying out the ball winder)

Shiloh Wool

House building blog

2009-06-26T18:40:00.003+10:00

I've started a new blog, The Laburnum Project to record the ins and outs of our house building. Take a look, it's gonna be pretty damn exciting!

Our old house was demolished today!

2009-06-12T21:55:00.001+10:00

I shed a little tear for it.

heart

2009-05-22T09:14:00.001+10:00

I only just noticed (because his collar was off) that Samson's white chest is actually heart-shaped, awww.

Samson

Rental

2009-05-05T18:10:00.001+10:00

Kitchen, originally uploaded by mildlycrafty.

I took some photos today of the house we'll be renting while we build. The house was owned by a little old lady (well I assume it was). It's so cute! Check out the other photos here.

brrrr

2009-05-01T11:09:00.002+10:00

Jeez it's cold! I'll be so happy when we have our new house because it'll be WARM inside instead of FREEZING!

I've had the heater (an old gas one) on all morning and it's just reached 17 degrees in here.

So, for your amusement, I thought I'd describe my outfit today.

Matt's sheepskin slippers (which are a bit too big)
knee high socks
navy blue trackies (pilled
singlet, long sleeve t-shirt and jumper that is a bit too small (also pilled)
Matt's beanie
Matt's fingerless mitts
my new shawl/scarf

I look pretty flash I can tell you.

Success!

2009-04-29T22:41:00.002+10:00

Success!

We signed the contract with the builder today to start work on our new house! Eeep, scary!!

Winter of hats

2009-04-27T22:33:00.002+10:00

I have twelve hats in my ravelry favourites! So I'm thinking of making this the winter of hats :)

First off the rank is two (!) Thorpes. I quite enjoyed this, it was really quick, quite easy and looks pretty good too. In fact I enjoyed it so much that I started a second one within 5 minutes of finishing the first :)

Thorpe

Hat #2

Next up is Matilda which was in a Frankie issue last year. The crown is constructed in a very similar way to Thorpe so the start has been easy. No progress shots yet.

And after that, I'm not sure, perhaps Felicity? But I might have to take a break from my hats to make a capelet (poncho?) like this one, which I LOVE! The girl who made it figured it out from a picture from somewhere. See it on Ravelry here.

Music and and actual FO

2009-04-14T17:21:00.002+10:00

I hope you all had a great Easter break. We went to Mansfield again and lazed about in the lovely weather.

So last post I said I was going to see Tony Joe White that night, which I did. His support act was Abbie Cardwell who I hadn't heard before, she was great, there's a couple of her songs on youtube if you're interested. And Tony was fabulous, such an awesome voice :)

Abbie Cardwell at the Toff in Town

Tony Joe White at the Toff in Town

Like a few other people I had a go at making hot cross buns over the break. They looked great but didn't have enough spice and sultanas in them for my taste, I'll try again next year :)

Hot Cross Buns

But the big news is that I finally finished my cable shawl, it was a lot of knitting (for me anyway). I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Stats:
Size: 156cm x 37cm
Yarn: 6.5 balls of Rowan Felted Tweed in shade #147
Needles: 4mm
Mods: Substituted a finer yarn which meant I had to do 24 pattern repeats instead of the 18 called for. I also made the ribbing on the side only 8.5cm instead of 10cm.

The scarf is constructed by knitting the centre panel lengthways then (on each side) picking up stitches along the length (on a really long circular needle) and knitting ribbing. There were 481 stitches to pick up! That wasn't fun.

Cable Shawl

Tony Joe White

2009-04-08T12:24:00.001+10:00

Going to see Tony Joe White tonight at the Toff in Town. Can't wait!

How to print double-sided

2009-04-06T18:39:00.002+10:00

I don't know if you already do this but I thought I'd share how I print out my PDFs double-sided on my bubble-jet printer. It's worth figuring out how to do this as it saves a lot of paper (and you know there's a million reasons to do that) and it also means you have less pages to file/carry around/post/whatever you're going to do with them.

So firstly you need to print out all the odd pages. To do this select "Odd pages only" on the print dialog as shown below.

Then you take out the pages you just printed and put them back into the paper tray. For my printer I have to put them printed side up with the top of the page in first. Note that you might need to do it differently to me if your printer works differently.

Then you need to print all the even pages, in reverse order. To do this select "Even pages only" from the print dialog and check the "Reverse pages" checkbox, as shown below.

That's it, pretty easy no?

And because I seem to forget how to do this if I haven't done it for a while, I wrote down the instructions and stuck them to my printer :)

(If you can't read that it says, Print odd pages, Put back in w top end in first + printed side up, Print even pages reversed)

In case you're wondering, I'm printing out the pattern for Thorpe, inspired by Pea Soup.

Weekend review

2009-03-30T11:42:00.002+11:00

Going for a walk with my cat and dog at the edge of lake Eildon (which is and has been dry for about eight years) near Mansfield, Victoria. Spent most of the weekend sitting on the verandah and crocheting, listening to the birds and to the cat stalking them. Ahh the serenity!

Walk with the animals

There are three op-shops near each other in Mt Waverley, here's my haul from them on Friday.

- two high-waisted skirts, one straight black velvet the other a fuller tweed (with in-seam pockets)
- vintage patent leather handbag
- crocheted cushion cover
- chinese checkers
- not sure what you'd call this, I guess it's kind of a hook rack, I'm going to use it in my craft room

Op shop haul from Mr Waverley

I love this handbag. The label inside says it's by Master Made Handbags, Sydney. Was $12, reduced to $6 because one of the handles is cracked.

Vintage patent leather handbag

BTW, I used Flogger to compose this post, it really is quite handy.

Flogger

2009-03-27T17:35:00.003+11:00

I think it might be time to introduce you to a little web site that I set up recently. It's called Flogger and it's here http://flogger.mildlycrafty.com/.

The short description is that Flogger is a tool to help you with photo blogging.

I was prompted to create it because I liked the way you could blog a photo easily from Flickr and it would format your photo nicely with a border and a link to the Flickr page for the photo and include the photo title. eg

Samson

But if you want to blog more than one photo then Flickr can't help you and it's actually a bit of a pain, you have to create the HTML yourself and it's quite time consuming. I searched around for a tool to help with this issue and couldn't find a satisfactory solution. So being the (small-time) computer geek that I am, I wrote my own program.

If you're interested please take a look and let me know if you find it's useful. I have set up a blog for it here http://flogger.mildlycrafty.com/blog/.

Hot Chocolate

2009-03-27T17:18:00.001+11:00

Hot Chocolate

I had this Italian (!) hot chocolate on Thursday from Sugardough in Lygon St, Brunswick East. It was goooood! A bit like drinking warmed up chocolate cake batter :)

I had some time to kill so I sat in the sun in their courtyard and drank my hot choc and knitted, ahh, so relaxing.

This weekend

2009-03-22T20:33:00.002+11:00

Hi, it's been quiet around here hasn't it. The problem is that I'm just not that into writing. I find it reaaally hard to say what I mean. Every time I think I have something I want to post it turns into an agonising internal debate about how to say it, how much to say, whether it's interesting anyway, etc etc. And often I end up deleting what I just spent half an hour writing. That sucks.

So anyway, I'm not deleting this. Here's what I did this weekend. Went to an antiques and collectibles fair in Burwood East, just because I read about it in the paper over breakfast and I thought it'd be fun. And it was! I saw a couple of really lovely silver mesh purses, like this one, I've always admired them but never thought of a good reason why I should have one, until now! It's my birthday in a couple of weeks so I told Matt he could buy it for my for my birthday if he wanted too :) Score!

Today we went for a bike ride along Gardiner's creek. We rode about 22.3 km and had lunch in Ashwood which was our halfway point. At lunch we read the newspapers and I was excited to see Pip the front page of the A2! Read the article here (minus picture of Pip looking very relaxed and crafty).

I'll leave you today with a photo of the heart I made Matt for valentine's day. I thought he'd think it was a bit lame but he actually thought it was quite cool. Made it all worthwhile :)

Valentine's 2009

Bushfires

2009-02-28T12:02:00.002+11:00

These are photos my parents took from their property in Musk last week. Luckily this is as close as the fire got to them. There were no houses lost in this fire, there were a few sheds and stock (alpacas I think) lost though. I was on the phone to my parents every couple of hours on Monday evening, Tuesday and Wednesday to check what was happening and it was a bit of a roller-coaster. One minute it would be everything seems under control and the next mum would say shit the fire is coming closer. I was pretty sure they'd be OK because the had sprinklers going all over their property and they have a big dam they could get in if they had to but still ... it was scary.

fire1

fire2

fire5

fire3

fire4

Kitty

2009-02-17T12:17:00.001+11:00

Samson

He's getting bigger.

Shawl, chair, suitcases and hand (ie random stuff)

2009-02-06T14:03:00.003+11:00

Phase 1 of Cable Shawl from Jo Sharp Knit Issue 6 completed. Ravelry link. The next phase is to pick up a bazillion stitches along the side and knit about 10cm of ribbing on each side. It's gonna take a while.

And I got two of these chairs from someone's hard-rubbish out in the street. They're in perfect condition!

Cable shawl and folding chair

Found these in someone's hard-rubbish, woot!

Suitcases

I think my new cat is causing contact dermatitis :( I used to really suffer from it when I was in high school. It would cover all of my fingers and I'd have to bandaid them all so that I didn't bleed on things. I never knew what was causing it but it cleared up when I moved out of home and just showed up again since I got the cat so I'm betting that's what's causing it. I can't get rid of my beautiful kitty so I guess I'll justs have to live with it. Really hope it doesn't get as bad as it used to though.

My hand

Vintage silk dress

2009-01-28T18:43:00.001+11:00

See my latest post at I Op Therefore I Am.

Vintage dress

Knickers

2009-01-19T10:49:00.000+11:00

My second pair of knickers made using Gemma's fabulous pattern (available here). The stretch ruffle gingham around the legs came from Clegs. I'm so pleased with these, they look really cute and the ruffles make them feel a bit more special :)

Knickers #2

A funny thing happened to me on the way to the gym this morning

2009-01-09T13:00:00.005+11:00

A very weird thing happened this morning. I was going to the ATM and I heard a crash behind me and saw two cars had hit each other and they both sped off around the corner! They were going quite fast I thought it must be road rage incident and they were chasing each other! Then I saw some people near the corner looked like they'd been hit or something, they were on the ground, so I ran over to see if I could help. Turned out that one lady had knocked the other over when she jumped out of the cars way, she had cut her mouth but was OK. One of the cars had stopped around the corner, she'd lost control and hit the light post next to the pedestrian crossing, just missed the ladies who were standing there! So it wasn't road rage, she'd just been unable to stop. The other car had taken off!

That's not the weird thing though. After it was all over and the police and ambulance had been, I went back to the ATM, but I couldn't find my ATM card in my purse. I tried to remember whether I'd had it out when the accident happened, if I'd reached the ATM yet, whether I'd dropped it or put in my bag in the rush. I couldn't remember! I went in to the bank to ask if anyone had picked it up. I told the cashier what had happened and she asked if I'd been at the ATM and I said I couldn't remember. Then I thought about it some more and realised I HAD been at the ATM, in fact I remember pressing the button to withdraw $300! It must have been at that point that I heard the crash and then I just ran off and left my card (and possibly money) in the ATM Isn't that weird! I can't believe I did that. I know that people forget things when something stressful/shocking happens but I've never had it happen to me. It felt totally weird to not remember what I'd done. And then to realise I'd run off without my money and it not to even occur to me what I was doing. Freaked me out a bit.

(ETA: my card was in the ATM, the cashier got it out for me. They money hadn't come out because I didn't have enough in my account, luck huh!)

Anyhoo, hope you had a good Christmas and new year and all the best for 2009!

Samson

2009-01-06T16:16:00.004+11:00

My new baby, Samson. Approx 18 weeks old, adopted from our local vet

Samson

He's asleep with his claw hooked in the bed!

Samson

Must've been hot, he got out of bed and lay like this.

Samson

Bookbinding with the kuties

2008-10-20T15:37:00.000+11:00

Made this at the kaotic kraft kuties. The cover is an old record cover, Louis Moreau Gottschalk Symphony - A Night in the Tropics.

Cool eh!

Ooh, just googled the album title and found it for sale here. Now I'm wondering if my copy was worth anything!!

Bookbinding

Cushion cover tutorial

2008-10-20T15:12:00.005+11:00

ETA: I made some more of these and revised a couple of things here.

I made these cushion covers and liked em so much I wrote down the steps in case anyone else is interested. Some of the photos have "notes" on them in Flickr so click on them to see the notes.

Start by cutting out your fabric. I am making a 50cm square cover with 2cm seam allowance so I've cut two 54cm squares.

Overlock (serger) the edges.

Cushion: 00

Put your front and back pieces right sides together.

Draw a line 2cm from the bottom edge of your cover (the zip will go in this edge).

Put a mark 8cm from each edge. This will be where your zipper starts end ends.

Cushion: 01

Now we're going to sew along this line and then unpick part of it after we've put the zip in. Doing it this way ensures that the fabric closes over the zipper really neatly.

Using your normal stitch length sew from the edge to the first mark 8cm along.

Stitch backwards for 3 or 4 stitches and then forwards to the mark again.

Change your stitch length to the longest you have and continue sewing to the next mark 8cm from the other edge.

Change your stitch length back to your usual setting and sew forwards 3 or 4 stitches then back to the marker and then forwards again to the end of the fabric.

Press the seam open. The better you press it at this point the better it'll look when it's finished.

Cushion: 02

Now with the right side down, line your zip up along the stitching line and pin it in place.

Cushion: 03

Now we're going to sew the zip in place with the right side up (because the stitches on top always look a bit nicer than those on the bottom). You can either baste the zip in place or you can leave the pins in but it could be a bit fiddly taking them out coz they'll be on the underside.

Cushion: 04

I basted my zip in place by hand.

Cushion: 05

Now put your zipper foot on your machine and get ready to sew at the edge with the zipper pull.

Cushion: 06

Now we're going to sew along both sides of the zip and across the ends of it so the stitching line will make a long skinny box around the zip.

Mark your fabric on the right side 8cm from each edge.

Starting at the first mark, sew down one side to the other mark. You should sew quite close to the zip but not super close.

Cushion: 07

When you get to the second mark, with the needle down, lift the foot and pivot your fabric 90 degrees and sew across the zip. Sew back and forth across the zip again to reinforce it.

Then pivot the fabric again and sew along the other side of the zip to the mark.

Cushion: 08

Now you need to move the zipper pull before you sew across the zip otherwise you won't be able to open it, disaster!

So, put the needle down and lift the foot and using your unpicker unpick some of the basting stitches and 5cm or so of the stitches that cover the zipper. (see note)

Cushion: 09

Now push and pull the the zipper pull until it is behind the foot.

Cushion: 10

Then pivot the fabric and sew across the zip as before.

Cushion: 11

And that's the zipper done! Give it a nice press to make it sit flat.

Cushion: 12

Now with the right sides together sew the other 3 seams 2cm from the edge. Pivot the fabric at the corners rather than sewing all the way to the end, it'll make the next bit easier.

Press all the seams open. Go on, I know it's a pain but it'll give you a better finish.

Cushion: 13

I sewed across the open end of the zip just to hold it together a bit better as it felt like the other seam might need some reinforcement.

Chop off the excess zip at both ends.

Cushion: 14

Now you could call it a day and your cover would be finished but I didn't like the pointy corners on mine so I sewed across the corners to give the cover a bit of volume.

Here's how I get it nice and square.

Arrange your cover so it's in roughly this shape then stick a pin into the seam and check that it comes out right in the seam at the bottom. Push it back up through the seam again. This should line them up perfectly. If you have a cutting mat with a grid (or graph paper) you can check that it's all square by putting the point on the darker 5cm mark and then making sure the sides cross the 5cm intersections. Umm that's kinda hard to explain, see the notes on the photo.

Cushion: 15

Now draw your stitching line across the corner. You can make it as deep as you like. I drew my line 3cm from the tip which makes it 6cm long.

Mark all the corners this way then stitch along the lines.

Cushion: 16

Then overlock (serger) the tips off and you're done!

Give it a really good press and then put your cushion inside it!

I'm using the 50cm feather cushions from Ikea. They're only about $8 (AUD) each and very comfy.

Cushion: 17

Woot!

Note that if you can get a zip with a zipper pull that sits really flat and which locks down into place it'll look even better.

Cushion: 18

Cozy

Cushion: 19

Make a whole set!

Fabric from Amitie

Cushion: 20

Stitching weekend over

2008-10-07T13:41:00.003+11:00

I've finished sewing my quilt blocks (by hand) and now I just have to sew them all together, quilt it and bind it, phew!

I stitched most of these blocks at the annual Amitie stitching weekend. Three days of hard stitching, chatting and eating lots! All meals were provided and they were very good and very generous serves so I feel like I might've put on 5 kilos. This week I'm going to have to be extra good, gym every day and no cake, chocolate, chips etc. I was good last night, I declined the apple pie and ice-cream I could've had.

It was a great weekend but I'm glad to be home too, I was exhausted yesterday! Strange given that I was sitting on my butt the whole time!

Quilt

More on the weekend on Justine, Fi and (probably) Jenny's blogs.

Weekend away

2008-10-03T08:33:00.002+10:00

I'm having a long weekend with 18 other ladies (including Fi and Justine) on a quilting weekend! We arrived last night and got some stitching in before bed. It's such a lovely day today, we're planning on working outside later on.

Gotta run, brekkie's ready.

Printing Supplies

2008-09-27T12:04:00.001+10:00

I bought these on Wednesday from Zart Art. Going to have a go this weekend, eek! The book is from Artisan Books, lovely stuff.

Printing Supplies

Social Responsibility

2008-09-21T20:23:00.003+10:00

The winner of the Sensis Social Responsibility Award (which is for demonstrated leadership and contribution by a business to the environment, people, education or the community) at the Telstra Business Awards was Etiko. Etiko makes fair trade sports equipment, shoes and clothes.

What was really amazing was that while Nick was speaking about the reason behind Etiko the whole audience went quiet and actually listened to him, up til then everyone had continued talking though all the speeches.

I think they're doing an amazing job so just wanted to give them a plug. Please go and have a look at their website.

We didn't win

2008-09-21T19:47:00.003+10:00

We didn't win :(

But we were one of 27 finalists out of 4700 entrants so that's pretty damn good.

PaperCut at the Telstra Business Awards 2008

I wanted to post some pictures of us looking all dolled up but they didn't turned out well. Bugger.

Shameless self promotion

2008-09-19T13:53:00.003+10:00

I just finished getting my hair done for the Telstra Small Business awards tonight. My husband's business PaperCut (they develop Print Control Software) is a finalist! So exciting! I'm so proud of him, he (and his business partner and staff) have worked really hard to build a world class product over the last 5 years. Love ya babe!

You can read about it here if you're interested. http://www.papercut.com/blog/.

I will post glamourous pics of us all dressed up tomorrow.

Saturday

2008-09-12T18:40:00.004+10:00

Google maps is so cool. I've created a map of the places I need to visit tomorrow, Saturday.

I don't think I've mentioned it before but we're building a new house! We're up to the choosing appliances, taps, baths, paint etc stage, soooo exciting!

Two thumbs up for the cookie recipe

2008-08-27T19:22:00.000+10:00

Ready

Set

GO!

Sooo goood!

It was really hard to tell if they were cooked enough in the centre because you take them out while they're still soft. After these had cooled for a few mins I could tell they weren't cooked but I'd already put the next batch in. I put them back in the oven after the others were done and they came out OK. I couldn't resist having a nibble while they were just sitting there. :)

Today

2008-08-27T16:09:00.002+10:00

BurdaStyle patterns are great but they take a lot of cutting out. Perhaps I'll get a guillotine?

cut, cut, cut

Toasted sandwich with tomato, Danish fetta, rocket = freakin yum!

Lunch

This skirt is basically a torus. What's really weird though is that when it's inside out it's a different shape.

Torus skirt - right side out

Torus skirt - inside out

Helvetica

2008-08-26T18:33:00.002+10:00

There's a documentary on SBS tonight called Helvetica.

It sounds interesting:

Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which recently celebrated its 50th birthday) as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives.

So put your computer down and watch TV! :)

In the kitchen

2008-08-26T14:47:00.001+10:00

Cookie Dough

Cookie recipe from the NYTimes. You have to make the dough then wait 36 hours before you cook them, arrgh!

Mmmminestrone

Making this for dinner tonight, yum!

Buttons

2008-08-11T13:51:00.004+10:00

Materials for my next bag project

I had my bag making class again last Thursday. We're free to make whatever we like now (using the skills we learnt making the first bag) so I'm making a clutch out of this red leather, Japanese fabric and possibly one of these buttons too (aren't they beautiful!). The leather is really soft and I was hoping I'd be able to sew it at home but the feed dogs leave marks in the leather and my machine finds it a bit tough to sew through multiple layers so I'll just leave it til class.

I bought the buttons at Buttonmania and while I was there picked up these ones as well.

Lady Button

Holely button

I also found this brochure for the Nicholas Building Open Studios which sounds great. I googled it so I could give you a link to more info but couldn't find any more than was on the brochure so I've scanned it for you. Click the link to view in Flickr then select All Sizes to see the largest size so you can read it.

(Please excuse the ugliness of this post, I usually use Flickr's "Blog This" function because it formats the post nicely but when I use the same HTML through Blogger it just doesn't seem to work. Grr.)

Charlie bag

2008-08-09T18:23:00.001+10:00

Charlie bag

I whipped this up on Tuesday night (actually it took me ages because I didn't read the instructions properly and stuffed it up a couple of times). You can see more details (and download the pattern) here at BurdaStyle.

There's a vertical pocket on the side that sits against my body so I can reach in and get my purse with my right hand without taking the bag off my left shoulder. So handy when shopping!

It's very roomy and the straps are quite wide so it's very comfortable to carry when it's full. I like it!

Clutch

2008-08-03T19:08:00.002+10:00

Clutch

I made this clutch handbag on Thursday night at my RMIT Introduction to Bag Making class. I am so happy with how it turned out. I used it today when we went to the movies (saw Dark Knight, it was pretty good) and it held my purse, tissue and phone just perfectly :)

The course is 6 lessons and we've only had three so far so we can use the rest of the lessons to make whatever we want. I'm trying to decide what I want the next one to be like but it has to be really simple and we haven't learned how to do gussets so I'm having trouble visualising what I could do. I think I'm going to have to go on a reccie in the city to look for inspiration.

More pictures here.

And check out my latest op-shop purchase here.

New pencil case

2008-07-27T18:09:00.001+10:00

New pencil case

I went to visit my parents last weekend and my mum found this piece of embroidery amongst her fabric stash. She said she loves doing embroidery but doesn't know what to do with it once she's finished it. I know what she means, there are lots of crafts I wouldn't mind doing but I don't know what I'd do with the results because I don't particularly want to decorate my house with them.

She said I could have it if I wanted it, so today I turned that lonely scrap into a lovely new pencil case for myself, I've needed one for ages, I keep losing or forgetting my pens when I need to take them somewhere. The back of it is a beautiful cream macro suede that was from a upholstery fabric sample (mum has hundreds of these, she was given them when a shop closed down).

I also went to the Bendigo Sheep and Wool show but it's a bit late to blog about that now isn't it. I've had a nasty cold all week so haven't felt like posting about it. I'll just say that I had a great time looking at the lovely yarn and patting the animals, two of my favourite pastimes :) you can see some of my photos here.

Jaywalkers

2008-07-03T18:35:00.001+10:00

Jaywalkers

Ta da! I've finished my second pair of socks and they're fabulous! They are the famous Jaywalker pattern (available for free on Ravelry). Raverly says 4480 people have made this pattern!

I'm trying to start a toe-up pair of socks but having trouble with the figure 8 cast on and with my guage and it's really shitting me actually. I love knitting but I always have trouble with starting a new project, it's so stressful choosing the exact right yarn, colour, size, etc etc. I'm tempted just to do the socks from the cuff down but I don't want to run out of yarn like I did with the Jaywalkers and have to buy a new ball which would be from a different dye lot. You can see the very different toe on one of the socks. It doesn't bother me too much but I'd rather it didn't happen regularly.

Crumpets - update

2008-07-02T18:22:00.001+10:00

Crumpets take 2

I had another go at making crumpets and these turned out much better, I put more yeast in so they were lovely and light. And heart shaped!

Handy pouch - update

2008-07-02T18:20:00.001+10:00

Handy pouch - inside

Made another handy pouch and this time I took a picture of the seams inside, neat aren't they!

Mobile

2008-07-02T17:08:00.001+10:00

Mobile

I made this mobile a couple of weeks ago from some thickish black paper (120gsm?) and a wire clothes hanger. The wire was a real PITA to bend (notice I didn't bend the ends of the short piece) and it's a bit too heavy really, it's very hard to get it to hang straight. I have since bought some very thin dowel and will give that a go with my next one but ideally I'd use some very fine wire. Does anyone know where to get some? I tried Bunnings but they only sell wire in rolls and it needs to be straight.

Notice the little swing hanging from the tree? I think it's pretty cute, if I do say so myself :)

Career advice

2008-06-20T14:04:00.002+10:00

If you haven't read this post from Holly at decor8 then get on over there. It's good to know you're not the only one who doesn't know what the hell you're doing with your career :)

Whoops

2008-06-11T18:38:00.002+10:00

I've had a bit of an unplanned blogging break. Not sure how that happened, I seem to have lost my mojo temporarily.

Anyhoo, Pip's recent guide to being a better blogger has motivated me to get off my bum and link to some of my favourite blogs:

Chocolate & Zucchini, it's very dangerous to read this before dinner time
Offbeat Homes, great if you like architecture and quirkiness
Fail Blog, some of these are a bit wrong but they make me laugh and that's what you need sometimes (and that's why my favourite TV show is Funniest Home Videos)
The Happiness Project, I found this via Linda's blog, it's so interesting that you can choose to be happier, check out the post on how not to nag :)

Actual craft content coming soon (promise).

Book Review - A Knitter's Book of Yarn

2008-05-16T17:15:00.003+10:00

I first heard about this book someone's blog (but can't remember who!) and it sounded like my kind of book. I love to know how and why things work the way they do and knitting is no exception.

So I borrowed this from the North Melbourne library on Wednesday (Box Hill library also has a copy) and I've finished reading it already.

The book is 255 pages and is divided into three sections, Fibre Foundations, Making Yarn and Ply Me A River and a fourth section at the back that has resources, glossary, recommended reading etc.

I found the first section, Fibre Foundations, the most interesting. It's all about the different types of fibres, where they come from, their properties and what those properties mean to your knitting. For example, Cashmere comes from the Cashmere goat and is sooo expensive because each goat produces only about 170-227g of of fibre each year! The fibre is very light weight, 30% lighter than wool, and very warm, 8 times warmer than wool, and it's not as elastic as wool. It has relatively short fibres which mean it will pill more than some other yarns because the ends of the fibres work their way out of the knitted fabric and get tangled with each other. Interesting, isn't it?

The second section, Making Yarn, is about how yarn is spun, dyed and a bit about various places to get your hands on it, eg fibre festivals.

The third section, Ply Me a River, is the biggest section (163 pages) and is devoted to the different types of yarn plies and patterns for each type. I only skimmed this section. The patterns were OK but my Ravely queue is already long enough :)

I summary, I highly recommend this book! I'm sure it will help me make better yarn choices when substituting yarns in a pattern (actually I don't think I've ever used the recommended yarn!), and I just like to know these things too :)

Handy pouches

2008-05-12T17:03:00.001+10:00

Handy pouches

I made these late last week. The blue one was for my mum for mothers day. I spent an hour in Spotlight choosing the fabric. Then when she saw the one I'd made for myself she wanted that one! So I gave her both of them :) I used this tutorial but I bound the seams on the inside to make it neater (forgot to take a pic of that, will do next time).

Off to make another for myself now.

Dodgy crumpets

2008-05-12T16:36:00.001+10:00

Dodgy crumpets

I attempted to make crumpets as suggested by Pip but they didn't turn out so well :(

I think I didn't put enough yeast in, never mind, I will try again!

I went to a SnB on Saturday. It was in Ringwood East and organised by Angela via the SnB Melbourne group on Ravelry. It was so nice to sit around drinking coffee, knitting and chatting and the girls were all very nice. If you live in the area I'd highly recommend coming along to the next one on May 24th.

And have you heard that June 14th is World Wide Knit in Public Day! Some of the girls on Ravelry are organising a KIP, possibly at Fed Square so take a look at this thread if you're interested in coming along.

The Meaning of Life

2008-05-05T19:07:00.002+10:00

When I was at uni (about 12 years ago, yikes!) I had this really weird moment. I was walking to one of my lectures, past a patch of garden that I walked past every day, and I noticed that it was covered in hundreds of mushrooms that hadn't been there the day before. And it was like a flash went off in my head, I thought ... they weren't there yesterday and they will be dead in a couple of days, such a short life, so what is the point of their existence???? ie WHAT IS THE MEANING OF LIFE!? That might sound kind of lame to you, everyone has wondered about the meaning of life at some time, but it was a really strong feeling, like I'd been shocked, it was really weird (and kinda hard to convey).

Ever since then I've been pondering this question, I used to like thinking about it on the way home, squished into Melbourne's overcrowded trains full of other people thinking their mysterious thoughts.

So far my pondering has led me to the simple conclusion that the purpose of life is ... to be happy, whatever that means to you.

What do you think?

Bamboozled

2008-04-27T22:08:00.001+10:00

Bamboozled

No not me ... it's the pattern name.

This used less than 1 ball of yarn and was quite quick and fun to knit. I love how it turned out. The cable stitches really stand up from the background and the slip stitch edges are very neat.

And it’s lovely and warm too.

Clapotis for Chelsea

2008-04-20T20:40:00.001+10:00

Clapotis for Chelsea

Last Saturday I went to Sunspun with my sister so she could choose a yarn for a scarf that I promised to knit her. I was trying to encourage her to choose a chunky yarn for a cable pattern I liked but unfortunately she liked the colour of this Rowan Wool Cotton the best. So I'm knitting my second Clapotis. Actually my first Clapotis was the second thing I knit after I started knitting in 2006. This one is going much faster than the first.

Pasta

2008-04-11T16:25:00.001+10:00

My new pasta machine

My sister gave me this pasta machine for my birthday. I've always wanted one of these! The machine feels great, it's really heavy and sturdy. We gave it a whirl last Saturday and found it was pretty easy. You just need to make sure you let the sheets rest for a while (eg 15 mins) to dry out before you try to put them through the fettuccine/linguine bit or you just get a gummy blob out the other end :)

And it was great fun turning the handle and seeing the fettuccine come out the other side!

Oh and an important point is that the pasta tasted great.

Hemlock Ring Blanket

2008-04-11T15:23:00.001+10:00

Hemlock Ring Blanket

I don't think I mentioned I was doing the Hemlock Ring Blanket. Well ... surprise! It's all finished. Sorry about the photo being a bit crummy but it's very bright outside today and very dim inside so this was the best I could manage.

Here's the stats:
Pattern: Hemlock Ring Blanket
Yarn: 7 skeins of Naturally Harmony in greyish brown
Time to knit: Approx 3 weeks (I'm a slow knitter though)
Verdict: Quite an easy pattern to follow and I'm very happy with how it turned out, two thumbs up

April fools

2008-04-02T09:02:00.002+11:00

Hi, it was my birthday yesterday! Yup, on April fools day. I'm the ripe old age of 34 now!

I was going to post yesterday but just didn't get time, I had a very full schedule.

MD and I left home for the city at 8:30am, he doesn't normally work in the city, he had to visit a client in the morning. I didn't have to be at my pattern making class until 10am but I wanted to get the train with him :). I was there at 9am so I sat in a little cafe in Degraves St and had french toast and coffee - yum. Pattern making went from 10am-1pm (we made a pants pattern). Then I met up with 10 of my old colleages for lunch, it was great to see them all again and hear what they've been up to. Then after lunch I met my mum who just happened to be in the city for the afternoon (my parents live in the country) and my sister who just happened to finish work early and we sat in a cafe and yakked and drank champagne! Very nice! And last night I went to my inlaws for dinner along with MDs brother and his girlfriend and my sister. And the weather was glorious all day!

I wanted to take pics of my presents but MD has taken the camera to work so I'll have to do that later.

I hope you all had a good April Fools day and didn't get fooled too much :)

Busy weekend

2008-03-30T20:25:00.005+11:00

I've had a big weekend. Yesterday I did my second screen printing class which was all about how to create photographic screens. The short story is ... buy a Gocco people. It is a bit of a PITA to create a photographic screen. You have to:

- degrease the screen (apply degreaser, leave a few mins, wash off)
- dry the screen
- apply emulsion to screen (kinda messy)
- dry the screen
- prepare the image (eg photocopy on to transparent paper)
- tape image to screen
- expose screen to UV light for 6 mins (using fancy rack to vacuum seal screen to glass and fancy big UV light)
- wash screen (very carefully, some of the screens we prepared didn't work, the emulsion all just washed off)
- dry the screen
- finally you can use the screen to print your images
- wash screen and squeegee

Phew! It was quite a process and frankly seems a bit too much bother for me to be interested. It seems to me that for a home hobbyist that a Gocco is really the way to go.

And secondly, today MD and I went on an architecture tour run by Stephen Crafti. It was great. We went on one last year at about the same time of year. The deal was that we met at 9:45am in the city and got on a bus and were driven to Toorak where we looked at two houses which were next door to each other. The first was a brand new house by Carr Design which looked pretty fabulous, it had a big courtyard in the middle and the main bedroom upstairs. The main feature was the amazing front door, it was probably 4 metres across and it pivoted on a hinge in the middle. It was cool but probably a bit OTT. The house next door was a much more modest 50's (I think) Robin Boyd house which was quite lovely. It was very modest but the owners had a great art collection and the living area had beautiful views of the garden. After lunch we we went to a fairly new house on Beaconsfield Parade by Buro Architects (the Middle Park House on their web site). It was VERY glamorous and very big. You can see their kitchen on the architect's web site but they also had a scullery kitchen behind it with another fridge, sink and oven. You can also just see in the photo their artwork on the left, there were about 10 Sidney Nolan "Ned Kelly" paintings. Not the kind of thing you see every day! And the last house we visited was the one featured on the cover of Stephen's book Making the Most of Small Spaces. From the street it looks like all the other terrace houses in the street but when you open the front door you see the view on the book cover. The whole downstairs is one open floor, it looks amazing. The kitchen is sunken by about a foot and all the storage, fridge etc is hidden under the counter top.

It was fantastic to see in person the kinds of houses that you usually only see in magazines, you can get a sense of what the house might be like to live in. I highly recommend going on the next tour if you're interested, Stephen can be contacted via his web site (and ignore the bit about the April tour being booked out, that's from April several years ago :). He said he might be running the next one in June.

(BTW we didn't take any pictures today, we didn't take the camera because we thought it wouldn't really be allowed but some people were taking pictures of every little bathroom, bedroom and kitchen detail, right in front of the owners even, seemed kinda rude to me).

Crafty people are ace!

2008-03-14T19:15:00.002+11:00

My stitching from the Stitches & Craft Show

I had such a good time today. The Living Creatively ladies were lovely and I met Hiromi, Angela, Bianca and Amelia and saw Fi and Jenny again.

I was sitting on my lonesome on the other side of the room in the morning which was a bit crappy, most people who went past thought I was just having a quiet stitch on my own! :)

But after lunch Jenny and Angela very kindly made some room for me between them and we chatted and demo-ed the afternoon away.

I'm continually amazed at how nice all the crafters I've me are. Working in the IT industry just wasn't the same - not that I didn't work with nice people, just that we didn't seem to have many things in common apart from work, and I suppose partly because most of my colleagues were male. I've just been having the time of my life over the past four months coz - a) I've met so many new people, b) they've been female, c) they love craft, d) they've been lovely people!

And to top off my great day Amelia gave me a (big) ball of orange cotton that she'd recycled and I'd been admiring - how generous is that! Thanks Amelia, I smiled all the way home (even in the 40 degree heat).

Stitches & Craft show

2008-03-12T18:05:00.002+11:00

I answered Pip's call for sublime stitchers to help demonstrate a the
Stitches & Craft show. It was a hoot! I didn't get much time to look at the other stalls but I did see some women making lace - freakin amazing!

Sorry I forgot to take pictures!! I will be back there on Friday so I'll take my camera then.

Stitchin'

2008-02-27T12:07:00.001+11:00

Stitchin'

Monday night was the inaugural Brown Owls meeting. It was so much fun the three hours just whizzed by. Pip and co have done such a great job of organising it, thanks guys, don't know what we'd do without you!

Unfortunately I didn't think to take my camera so I don't have any photos but you can see some that others have taken here. I sat and chatted to Corrie, Steph, Tish, Veronica and Cam who were all very lovely. It's so nice to meet other crafty people!

I had to do a runner at the end to make my train (they only run every half hour) and let me advise you not to try to walk through the park at night. It was pitch black, I couldn't see my feet! I had to backtrack and stick to the street instead. Luckily I made my train with 2 mins to spare.

Teddy

2008-02-25T12:26:00.001+11:00

Teddy

Made this little fellow at Sooz's Contemporary Soft Toys class.

The class was fabulous! Sooz was great, she was so friendly, enthusiastic and had so much great info to share. And the other class members were great too, sometimes you end up in a class full of people who don't talk to each other, that's so depressing.

Valentines

2008-02-15T18:32:00.002+11:00

I made this card and knitted heart for my husband and spent all afternoon making Lemon Pots de Creme and "Cannelloni with Spinach, Goat Cheese, Walnuts, and Roasted Garlic-Tomato Sauce" from Fields of Greens (sorry no pics).

I love this recipe book! I bought it years ago after I had to give back the library's copy because I'd re-borrowed it the maximum number of times. There are no photos in the book but you don't miss them because all the recipes just sound so delicious. Most of them involve a bit of work though, there's no quick after work dinners here. The cannelloni was fantastic (and there's enough left over for tonight, woo hoo!), the flavours were so good together. Roasted garlic is amazing, it has such a creamy, smokey flavour.

Quick tip: I used Latina fresh lasagna sheets for the cannelloni instead of buying the dried pasta tubes, they were so much better. Each sheet made 2 cannelloni so there's enough in the packet for 16 cannelloni. Just plonk 1/4 cup of filling on your pasta sheet, spread it out along the edge and roll into a tube - this also much easier than trying to stuff the mixture into a tiny tube!

Now time to go reheat the leftovers :)

Sorted for windy days

2008-02-06T13:33:00.000+11:00

Whipped this up this morning.

Not sure if it's heavy enough though. It's filled with rice that the weevils had gotten into :) Waste not want not! Perhaps sand would be better? But then it might trickle out through the seams ... hmm, I'll just wait until a windy day and see what happens. This is the tutorial I used, http://allittook.blogspot.com/2008/01/pryamid-door-stop-tutorial.html, very easy to follow photos and directions, thanks Rachael!

And check out my first post on I Op Therefore I Am.

Weekend wrap up

2008-02-06T13:00:00.000+11:00

So here's the results of my crafty weekend.

Firstly there was the screen printing class on Saturday.

The class was quite fun but it wasn't as good as I'd hoped it would be. I suppose it's hard to cover much in four hours but she really just gave us very basic instructions then left us to print whatever we felt like doing. The above print was my first attempt, the stencil was made by cutting out paper. This next one was made by taking a rubbing of the fig leaf using wax crayons. The wax blocks the holes in the screen. I really like how this turned out, I printed two so I might make something out of them.

There's another class in March on how to use digital images/drawings etc to make a screen which is what I'd really like to know how to do so I've signed up for that. I got to talking with one of the girls, Maria, in the class at lunch, she's into knitting and all sorts of crafty things too so I told her all about Ravelry. Hi Maria!

On to Sunday! I went to Gemma's for the Kaotic Kraft Kuties meet up. We were having a tote swap. Gemma made one of these tote bags for everyone (thanks Gemma) and inside were the first two issues of MixTape and a choccy (... hey! it's not where I left it in the kitchen - someone has eaten it, grrr).

And this is the bag made by Pickle that I received in the swap. Beautiful isn't it!

Shopping bag finished

2008-02-01T18:10:00.000+11:00

Ta da!

Shopping bag

All finished. I figured out how to make this by examining an old one that my gran gave me. It wasn't too hard but sewing the vinyl was stressful as it can't be pinned (the pin holes would be visible) and one mistake while sewing would mean I'd have to start again with a new bit of vinyl.

Next time I make one (will definitely make more) I'll use thicker vinyl as this stuff from spotlight was pretty thin, or perhaps I'd use leather? I saw some of these in Douglas & Hope yesterday that used leather and they looked really good (I'd already started making mine with the vinyl though).

Anyone know where to buy nice soft leather?

I thought I might write up a tutorial if anyone is interested?

Crafty weekend ahead

2008-02-01T13:00:00.000+11:00

I went to morning tea at Meet Me At Mikes yesterday morning and met some new people which was nice. Pip is always organising something for the crafty types to do, she's so generous - thanks Pip!

I've also bought a membership for Brown Owls, also organised by Pip. First class in Feb 25th so I'm looking forward to that.

I'm looking forward to this weekend too, I've got two crafty things on. First is on Saturday, I'm doing a screen printing class from 11am-3pm at Olive Grove Studios in Sydney Rd, Brunswick (they don't seem to have a website). I'm really looking forward to this, I've always wanted to be able to do screen printing. I'd love to be able to print some fabric then make something from it :)

Secondly, on Sunday I'm going to the Kaotic Kraft Kuties meet up organised by the lovely Gemma. We have to make a tote to swap which I've been working on today. Actually I'd better get back to finishing it ...

New Year

2008-01-30T12:03:00.002+11:00

Hi! I've had a slack start to the year haven't I? I wanted to wait to post until I had my new year's resolution figured out and then time just got away from me I guess. Anyway, here I am. So what is my new year's resolution - well it's a bit lame ... the short answer is "keep house better". The long answer is
c
- keep the house tidy (mostly do ok on this already)
- keep the house clean (this is the main prob)
- make ongoing effort to make house look nice, ie new cushions, pics for the walls, etc
- do something about the jungle garden (it looks very bad, our neighbour said he was going to pour weedkiller on it!!! (how rude to say that to me!) It's not THAT bad but it's not good.)
- try new recipes regularly and eat healthily

you get the picture.

My second resolution is to get fit and trim. I got that started this morning by going for a 40 min walk with the doggy. I plan to do this every morning, we'll see what difference that makes.

On to new business now. This is supposed to be a craft blog yet somehow I haven't posted many of the things I've made so I'm going to redress that now.

Over Christmas I made the French Market Bag. I've been meaning to make this since I first saw it on Knitty two years ago. It was pretty easy to knit, good for knitting while watching TV. I'm pleased with how it turned out though it's floppier than I expected. Perhaps it just needs more felting.

If you are a Ravelry user you can see it here.

Right now I'm making a string bag. I started out making Elisa Nest Tote and got up to doing the handles but I didn't like the way the icord was attaching, it was kind of lumpy and the seams on the sides were a bit wobbly too. So I ripped it out and made up my own pattern. I decided to make a solid garter stitch base (like the one on the Everlasting Bagstopper) so that the corners of things like books wouldn't poke out the holes. I also wanted to knit it in the round to eliminate messy seams and so that I could attach the icord to live stitches rather than to cast-on and cast-off edges. The most challenging part so far has been converting the Star Rib Mesh lace pattern (from A Treasury of Knitting Patterns) for circular knitting. It's embarrassing to admit but it took me about 5 hours to figure it out (I was watching TV at the time too, that's my excuse). My husband asked why I didn't just give up but there was no way I was going to let it defeat me, I'll never advance at knitting if I do that will I?

So here it is in the flat and in-the-round versions.

Flat knitting:

Multiple of 4 sts plus 1.

Rows 1 and 3 (wrong side) - Purl

Row 2 - K1, * yo, sl 2 knitwise-k1-p2sso, yo, k1; rep from *

Row 4 - Ssk, yo, k1, * sl 2 knitwise-k1-p2sso, yo, k1; rep from *, end yo k2 tog

Circular knitting:

Multiple of 4 sts

Rows 1 and 3 - Knit

Row 2 - * yo, sl 2 knitwise-k1-p2sso, yo, k1; rep from *

Row 4 - Remove beginning of round marker, k1, replace marker, * yo, k1, yo, sl 2 knitwise-k1-p2sso; rep from *

Here's a pic of the bag so far, you can't see the stitch pattern well in this photo so I'll take a better one soon.

I'm off to do some sewing now. Promise I'll post more regularly in future :D

Merry Christmas

2007-12-24T11:27:00.001+11:00

sooty and amy

What a wintery week it's been. It's so cold in the house now, I've had to put the heater on. It was similar weather this time last year too, I remember having to put the heater on on Christmas day.

Well we are ready for Christmas day tomorrow. We have just got everyone small gifts this year and have also bought everyone a gift from Oxfam and we've asked that our family donate to charity instead of giving us gifts this year. You might think I'm being a bit of a grinch but the rampant consumerism at this time of year really bugs me. Buying presents for people who don't really need or want those things just because that's what you're supposed to strikes me as really wasteful. I'd rather give that money to someone who really needs it.

Anyway, Merry Christmas everyone. I hope you have a lovely day tomorrow. (remember to eat lightly tonight, you're gonna need that space tomorrow :)

WAAAAKE UUUUUUP!

2007-12-16T10:09:00.001+11:00

Salvos

We live in a fairly quiet suburb. The only thing that wakes us up occasionally are the birds.

Well this morning it was a brass band! I opened my eyes and thought, that is not the alarm, that is not the TV, therefore there must be a brass band outside our house! So I opened the curtains and saw that there was! That got me out of bed fairly smartly.

Kids

2007-12-12T21:12:00.000+11:00

We went to visit my parents in the country on Sunday. Their neighbour has a few farm animals so we went over there to see their new kids. They had three, two were very shy but this one practically jumped into my arms! She was so cute, I really wanted to take her home.

The had sheep, alpacas and chickens too but I couldn't get close enough to any of them for a cuddle. I love animals, I grew up in the country and we always had a wide assortment of pets but now we just have a dog, Sooty.

I made tomato sauce for dinner tonight. It was good but not as great as I thought it might be and it was a bit too buttery. I'd definitely try it again as it was sooo easy to make but I think I'd put less butter in and probably add garlic. (Don't you think adding rocket to any meal just makes it look instantly gourmet!)

Done - just in time for summer?

2007-12-06T15:58:00.000+11:00

I finished my Hanami scarf this morning and it's blocked and dried already (it is 32 degrees here today!).

I really enjoyed knitting this, the pattern is interesting and the alpaca yarn is so soft. I can't wait to wear it ... next winter :(

It doesn't really go with a singlet does it?

Dukkah Pumpkin & Risotto

2007-12-04T20:20:00.001+11:00

Dukka Pumpkin & Risotto

I made this for dinner tonight - it was really tasty. Made a bit of a mess of the kitchen though.

Recipe from The Cook and the Chef, I love that show.

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/cookandchef/txt/s1930652.htm

Why are people so unkind?

2007-11-26T21:11:00.000+11:00

I caught a bus today, I haven't done that for a while, I'm more of a train user these days. Anyway, I was enjoying the trip, looking out the window and daydreaming when the bus pulled up at a stop ... and the driver proceeded to very rudely tell off the woman who had mistakenly rang the bell to early and wanted to get off at the next stop. Then when she got off at the next stop he yelled out after her "next time try to get it right so you don't inconvenience all the other passengers!".

My pleasant trip was shattered and I reckon hers was too. How humiliating for her to be yelled at like that for making a simple mistake. I was so pissed off with the driver. I was tempted to go and ask his name so I could make a complaint about him ... but then I was scared he'd yell at me too.

I get so mad when people are nasty for no good reason. Why do they have to be that way, it just brings everyone down.

First week over

2007-11-25T22:31:00.000+11:00

Well that first week flew by. What did I do:

- Did a few hours work each day for my husband. (He's co-owner of a small business and they needed some help while a staff member is away). I'll be doing the same next week too. It was kinda fun to go to work with him and see what he does all day.
- Got my hair cut
- Dropped Bob off at Meet Me at Mikes
- Did some clothes shopping in Bridge Rd
- Bought a print from Dickerson Gallery - it's titled "pot plant", it's a simple image of a pot plant but it's beautifully done and for some reason I just had to buy it
- Visited the Heide Museum of Modern Art, the gardens are lovely to visit on a nice day and the original house, Heide II is amazing, we sat in the courtyard for ages taking photos and just soaking up the atmosphere
- made some curtains for my craft room as it didn't have any and it got reaaly hot in there on Monday and Tuesday (it was over 36 degrees both days). They're very boring looking, but I made them from supplies I already had and they're only temporary (more about that another time) so it didn't matter much.

Curtains

Bob

2007-11-19T15:13:00.001+11:00

Bob

Here's Bob all finished. First thing he wanted to do was explore the garden.

My first day

2007-11-19T12:46:00.000+11:00

Ahh sleeping in is sooo good! I got up at 8am though, not much of a sleep in is it?

This morning I've been making Bob, he's nearly done now, just have to do the feet and stitch his eyes. He's for the Softies for Mirabel appeal. I will put up a pic when he's done.

One of the things I'm looking forward to doing is cooking more and eating better. My husband and I are in a bit of a rut (food wise only!), we cook the same four meals all the time. I've been inspired by Dinner Daily to commit to making a new recipe every night of the week. But I'm not ready yet, have to go shopping and I'm not venturing out today, it's 32 degrees out there now. Hot, hot, hot!

But I did make it to the deli that's only five minutes walk from my house. I bought some sourdough bread, marinated fetta and basil for my lunch. Yuuuum!

My last day

2007-11-17T09:13:00.000+11:00

It was my last day yesterday. It was a good day. I'd made sure I'd finished everything the day before - even staying back a bit to get it all done. So all I had to do yesterday was tidy up a few loose ends go to my exit interview, go to lunch, give a little speech about how much I'll miss everyone, cry a little then go to drinks.

It's a very weird feeling. I'm not sure what I'll do on Monday yet. I've got quite a busy weekend so I probably won't get a chance to think about it either. Perhaps I'll use Monday as my planning day. Or maybe I'll get my hair cut and get a massage :)