Two parcels in one day!

Coming home from swimming in Pakenham with Jane and the kids, swung past the post office to get the mail, and blow me down if there's not TWO schmancy parcels all for me!

I knew what this one was - fun Little Red Rding Hood Rosapomar ribbon for more skirts...

But the second one was my package for the Christmas swap! I saved it up til after the kids were in bed! This...

...became this! Wow! I was so excited! I felt like Christmas had come early, which it had!!!

A handmade card, chocolate candy, hot chocolate, fabric, a ceramic heart made by women in Sth Africa, quilting pins, sock yarn, bamboo dpns, a sock pattern, a bag pattern, a story, AND....

...my very first ever pair of hand-knit socks! I feel bowled over by Kristina's generosity! I love them! They fit me perfectly, so much so that I feel like Cinderella wearing the glass slippers!

I haven't taken them off yet! Thank you soooo much, Kristina, my Norwegian friend - you're ace!

Some completion

One finished quilt. Now I'll wait and see if it's adopted - no guarantees!

Piper took this one of Jas...

I made two Oliver and S Lazy Days skirts, a mermaid one for Piper, and a pink/green apples one for a friend turning five - forgot to get a photo of it before we'd wrapped it up! It was VERY satisfying to wake up in the morning and come out to two finished skirts, completed the night before. This pattern comes highly recommended for its ease, and I love that it's free - love the generosity of the craft community... Note to self: buy more fun ribbon!

Drawing today, loving watching Piper's creativity in action. She doesn't say she can't draw anymore, which is ace. I always love what she comes up with - today, dressing up a rubbing of a queen, above, and drawing lions in cages and a witch in a cave, with lights and darkness!

I attempted some too, but added too much, in the end. Still, the simple process of drawing is good in itself, hey...

Our art line in the loungeroom, to respect the creative output of my children and be inspired!

Swap package ready!

As I mentioned a while ago, I signed up for this Christmas swap, and seeing as the deadline for posting is today, I have finally pulled together my package! In doing so, it did strike me as odd that I was doing this for someone I don't know at all, and not for my friends, but there you go. Perhaps I can pull together something as bitsy and fun for said friends for Christmas...

For my unknown Norwegian friend, I brought together:
> Jo Sharp Alpaca Kid Lustre in Verona and Ripe
> DPNs
> Kiwi rock candy from the Gembrook Lolly Shop
> Lipton Chai Latte packets
> Toast/toasty fingerless mitts pattern from A Friend to Knit With
> A description of an Aussie Christmas
> And a handcut snowflake tree ornament from a bloke who works at the Mennonite Heritage Village in Steinbach, Manitoba, Canada.

Pretty global gift, in the end, with stuff from Australia, Japan, the US and Canada! Maybe that makes for too many airmiles!

Ready to be posted to Linda... Hope you enjoy!

Handmade love for Jasper Sage

I've been working on a jumper/sweater for Jasper lately, with yarn I brought back from Canada. I couldn't start it over there cos I needed to finish all those hats! I love the colours, browns and rust red, and how it's knit in the round - less finishing to do! I bought the yarn and pattern as a kit from KPixie, but you could also get the pattern off Ravelry. I bought enough yarn for one for Piper too, but the colours were terribly garish - not how they looked on my computer, so I sent that yarn back. This sweater is going in spurts, but I think I'll get to finishing it soon - I seem to be in a completion stage of life, the last few days. Although I couldn't bear knit any of it today, given it was 35 degrees!

And here's what I did two Sundays ago - laid out my whole fabric stash into vague colour collections, mainly just to reaquaint myself with what I have, but out of this mess came the idea for a quilt for Jasper. Well, not the idea, cos I've been thinking of that for a while, but at least a pragmatic direction!

I had thought at first to focus on a chocolate/emerald/turquoise kind of colour scheme, and bought a few bits, such as the elephants, with this in mind. But when I'd laid out all my fabric, this is what materialised for Jasper.

A neat stack of squares, ready to go.

The elephants, and some of the other fabric, came from A Little Goodness, but some of the other stuff has been with me for years, some of it ten years!!! I think that's why this project feels so satisfying, to FINALLY turn these odd bits of material into something of value. I have lots of ideas for using up more of my stash - I don't want to keep it for another ten years...

Strips ready to sew together - which I managed to do yesterday, and I managed to layer it all together today, so soon I'll post a completed project, right when Jasper has no use for a blanket whatsoever! Until it cools down a bit, anyway!