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Showing posts from August, 2013

Lovely "Yellow Brick Road" Cowl, for the lovely lady

I love the lovely lady who gives me lovely massage.  I can't begin to describe how much I love her.  I love her in many ways... Firstly, she gives me lovely massage. Secondly, she is just a lovely person. Thirdly, she and her lovely massage (which to be honest is less than lovely at the time), are the only reason I can still even contemplate knitting. I think in order, those reasons actually go second, third, first, in priority terms for me.  When I realised that item two on that list was the reason I loved her most, closely followed by item three, I knew I needed to make her something.  That, plus her truck sized hints about loving button up neckwarmers. I made the Yellow Brick Road Cowl, which you can find here .  This pattern is lovely and an easy knit. Here it is on Jesse.  In traditional form. I chose Cascade 220 (100% Peruvian Highland Wool) for this pattern, from The Stash Cupboard here in Hobart.  The original link to this pattern has many ways to wear it

Action Kivu - donation time!

Just a quickie to say I just gave to Action Kivu - a charity helping women and children in the Democratic Republic of Congo through various initiatives to send children to school and also via a sewing workshop. I can't imagine anything better than enabling people to make a living and secure place for themselves and their families via sewing and education.  If you feel that way too - please head over to Handmade by Alissa and donate .  There are some amazing prizes just for donating, and the fundraising drive ends tonight (US time) - so be quick about it!

Sew Sweetness Peas and Corn Lunchbag - Pattern Test

The lovely Sara of Sew Sweetness is quite clearly the bag queen (that sounds better than bag lady...).  I was lucky enough to pattern test her latest bag pattern, the Peas and Corn Lunch Bags pattern , and it didn't disappoint. This pattern includes instructions for the (pictured) round lunchbox, a square top lunch box and two reusable snack bags.   The zip top lunchbag is deemed advanced, with the round lunchbag being an intermediate pattern (I think the snack bags would be confident beginner probably).  I chose to make the lunchbox out of oilcloth which I had to hand.  Having never worked with oilcloth before, I decided to make the intermediate bag :) Overall the pattern was well thought out and easy to follow.  I love the little hints to make things go better and I am really pleased with the result.  I would be happier if I had in fact followed one of the hints to keep the shape more regular which I chose to ignore :)  One day I will learn to believe that peopl

Happy Birthday to Me!

A lovely lovely day and an amazing set of presents including: This gorgeous Fossil bag from Nick and the kids A great ring from my sister (sorry - ghastly picture...) A French curve - also from Nick and the kids (more on the plans for using this later...). It arrived from Tessuti, beautifully wrapped in a pattern piece from some McCalls pattern - great packaging! A nice glass of bubbles and a new Breaking Bad :) A family and friends party on Saturday and lots of love and cuddles from the small people (not pictured). What more could anyone want?

Haul from the craft fair (Melbourne)

For the last two years (three including this one), I have headed off somewhere to one of the craft fairs somewhere else in Australia.  We get one here in Tassie but there tends to be fewer stalls and to be honest, it's a good excuse to go fabric and other shopping elsewhere :) I have yet to revisit the previous posts on the craft fair - I like to check what I was planning and whether I fulfilled any of it in the intervening year, though it can be depressing!  I will do that later...meanwhile - here is the haul from this year, complete with grand plans for most of it :) (That's an Australian twenty cent piece for those who might know what that means in size terms!) This does not photograph very well at all (and to be fair, it was snapped in poor light...).  This is Italian wool and is black with a kind of textured stripe which is just about visible in the above picture.  Amazingly, this was $20 a metre at Cleggs.  I plan to remake my "smart" winter coat in