And now for some pleasant mail!

Wow, look what arrived in the post today! (albeit while I was lying down attempting to take a nap - really must remember to abstain from coffee in the morning if I'm planning to hit the sack in the arvo - let's just say I was rather wired! However, I had a whole lot of creative ideas while horizontal, so it wasn't a total loss)

So yeah, some lush fabric from Matatabi that I bought totally on a whim (late at night!), but man, I love them all! No excuse not to drag out the sewing machine now!

Some super cute character prints: the little gingerbread man (in the foreground), pink with hedgehogs, Sleeping Beauty(!), and characters from a Japanese fairy tale (that one was a bonus for forking out my cash!)...

Mice with apples (not that you can make them out too well in this shot!), pink cats, and squirrels on linen - what's not to love?!

Elephants and mushrooms, mmmm green...

And lookey here, she was willing to face the flash today - here's Piper in the cardigan that took me forever to finish (not that the pattern was hard or anything; in fact, it's a great pattern, I highly recommend it, and as I've said before, I love the wool. Both pattern and wool are by Vero).

And guess where I'm off to in about ten minutes???

STITCHING NIGHT AT MEET ME AT MIKES!!!! My first ever proper attempt at embroidery, except for this...

PC almost a PB!

Just did my first provisional cast on, with a crochet hook, thanks to this tutorial (scroll down past the invisible cast on, which looks like trying to spin a web on one's fingers!)! I have been putting this off for a while - I knew I needed total focus, and that's somewhat hard to come by. However, now the kiddos and the main man are in bed and I have this window. I'm feeling annoyed at the main man anyway, so feel no compulsion to go to bed - ha!

But really, I was just scared of this new technique, that's the bottom line... Once I got the hang of it, I didn't want to stop in case I lost the knack. And then I realised, it really isn't that hard! Funny how the unknown can seem so immense. I love how there's always something more to learn, with knitting (in my case, there's a whole world of knitting out there just waiting).

Anyway, I'm just raving on cos it's late. I'm gonna sit up and knit a hat for myself, with my brand new cast on...

And aren't these so beautiful!

Oh yeah, I finally finished the cardigan for Piper, but she hasn't yet let me take a picture of it on her. I'll have to sneak one sometime. It looks perfect on her - I think I just love the colours (red/pink/purple), and she loves the purple heart buttons... So bummer, no photos for this post, but here's one of her tackling an icecream in Kuranda, NQLD, a couple of weeks ago!

Extemes in the mail

This is the wristwarmer I started while visiting family in Atherton, QLD. I'm halfway through the second one and have been wondering whether I should give them to a friend whose birthday is coming up this weekend. This is a somewhat familiar dilemma: my desire to give a special gift takes priority over my desire to own yummy knitted stuff myself. After ruminating on this for a couple of days, I've decided to keep them for me, and buy my friend a good book. Feels like a good decision... (Here's me peeking into the neighbour's yard!)


The next issue is whether the black mohair (I'm knitting these with a strand of DK and a strand of mohair per colour) will go the distance. I should have divided it into two equal balls before I started, but oh well. Perhaps I will just leave it out, once it runs out, and then I'll have slightly mismatched wristwarmers made entirely with yarn from my stash, which will still feel quite satisfying, I believe...

And look what I've got in my hot little (fuzzy) hands - the premiere issue of mix tape zine! (And note the dishes done! But I confess, not by me, by a friend - thanx Jane!)

I've been reading the blogs of the editors, Nichola and Justine, saw that they were putting it together, and decided to buy it. I love that it's so local - they're both based in Melbourne - and combines craft / life with kids / recipes / enviro stuff. Haven't read it all yet - I'm savouring it! Nichola and Justine met up through blogland, found out they lived near each other, and became fast friends. I think that is so cool - so cool when the internet helps forge local connections, rather than perpetuating global loneliness...

Talk about extremes - on the same day I received this delicious zine, I also got hit with a speeding ticket! Didn't know whether to wriggle excitedly or swear and moan... Haven't paid the ticket yet. I have to psych up for these things. It's particularly galling, because... here's the saga! I was clocked 8km over the limit at 5am while I was heading to the airport a couple of weeks ago (to head up north). $138 for that, thankyou, come again! I knew I was speeding, but I was following my cousin, who had half of our luggage in her car, and I knew that if we got split up, it was going to be tricky finding her again at the airport. So she's hooning along, and it was all I could do to stick on her tail. Meanwhile, I'm still trying to wake up! My lesson is, next time, get my Mum, who was with me in the car, to ring her to ask if she could slow down a little. And now that I've copped this fine, I bloody hope she has too!!! (Just kidding, Kelli... well, half-kidding!)

Been away...

Just spent twelve rather impromptu days in Atherton, near Cairns. We'd planned to go up for a bit of a holiday later in the year but then my grandmother became sick, so it made sense to move it forward. Anyway, the long and short of it is that I haven't had any internet access for the whole time and therefore haven't been able to update this little blog. My previous post, dated only yesterday, was actually a draft from before I left that was just awaiting a few photos. Thought I'd post it anyway, even if it is late!

I took some knitting with me but didn't get to do much. For the first week I had the two kids to deal with by myself, with a bit of help from my dad, who travelled up with us. Felt like I hardly had time to scratch myself, let alone think of knitting! Once my partner arrived later, I was able to start a wrist warmer. Actually, I almost finished it, but I was hoping to finish perhaps two pairs, one for me and one for a friend! Slightly ambitious, for me anyway. I never seem to be able to accomplish as much as I would like to.

It was also more of a blokey space up there - we hung out a lot with my dad and his two brothers and my grandfather and my brother. Not to say blokes aren't crafty, but simply that the space tended more naturally towards backyard cricket, which is hardly my forte but I played anyway and enjoyed the run around!

Sorry for not having any photos to post, but we only got back early this morning (1am) and I really wanted to just get something up here...

Two items out the door

I've been trying to finish off a few bit and pieces lately. Spent an hour or two one evening with a friend which passed VERY quickly, but I did manage to sew the buttons on to this cardie which I started knitting before Jasper was even conceived! I haven't ever had to do loops for buttons before, and at the moment they're just literally a loop of wool. Dunno how long these will last - is there a proper/better way of creating a loop for a button. (Crochet?) Wouldn't you know it, he's almost too big for it already!

I also finished this (late!) present for a niece. I printed out the face on transfer paper and ironed it on, and then embroidered the text underneath - my first attempt at embroidery, so I'm pretty happy about that. The overall effect, though, makes for a rather quirky gift, not your usual Target or Pumpkin Patch purchase, or should I say Gap and Old Navy purchase, seeing as it will be making its way to Canada as soon as I manage to write a letter to go with it, and make it to the post office! Not sure how the mother of the recipient will take it (and really, that's who baby clothes are for, eh!) but oh well. Sending homemade gifts across the other side of the world is one of the few ways I can physically demonstrate my love... And they know I'm quirky already...

And I have finished one mitten! I remain hopeful that I will complete the second sometime soon, that this won't be a lonely single mitten for the rest of its life! The honeycomb pattern is interesting - makes for quite a thick glove. I haven't attempted any kind of blocking yet... It is also very warm, which is a good thing! I used waste yarn to knit an opening for the thumb hole, and even though I have never knitted a sock/mitten/glove before (the only extremities I've covered are heads), the pattern makes total sense to me. I realise I'm often able to visualise the finished outcome from reading through the pattern, which is helpful.

So yeaahhh, that's been it, lately, attempting to squeeze some crafting in, here and there, handballing my child at social events so I can pick up sticks... Feels bitsy and slow, but that's what I've got to work with at the moment. (Although, to my chagrin, I just discovered Auntie Cookie has two kids and still manages to create a prolific amount of things which are always gorgeous - how DOES she do it?? And what's my excuse going to be now??)

Creatively counting sheep

Is it bad to say that whenever I'm lying awake at night, I start thinking about how I could incorporate yo yos into a cushion design (for the Chocolate Lollipop challenge), and unfailingly, these thoughts send me into a deep slumber?! Like should I be glad to find such an efficient method of inducing sleep, particularly seeing as I have a two month old and need to make the most of all the sleep I can get, or should I be perturbed by my lack of excitement when it comes to yo yos???

Speaking of the challenge, I emailed them ages ago (on 01/07/07, to be exact) and I still haven't heard from them - I wonder if this is normal?

Anyway, for want of another image, here's one of Jasper, wearing a cute handknitted cardie I picked up from the op shop for $3.75!

Multi-tasking

The days go by quickly with two kids! Was feeling frustrated for a while there over my lack of progress on the mitten - I seemed forever to be working on the cuff, but now it's coming along nicely. I've started the honeycomb pattern which has made it much more interesting. Also, thinking about this blog, in the back of my head, has helped me find and name moments of creativity in most of my days, even if I haven't touched the needles.

So, Tuesday's creative endeavour was toasted muesli, thanks to Poppalina. My moment of inspiration involved adding a bit of bee pollen, which we just happened to have in the pantry. Actually, the jar of it has been sitting there for a while, being nutritious but at the same time, not quite straight forward to eat (tiny yellow pebbles that they are!).

I think I overcooked the muesli slightly, but it still tastes great! It was a brilliant move, adding cardamon powder, whoever thought of that. The question is, as always, will I have the time and inclination to make it again, or is this just a once off and next week I'll have to buy crappy stuff from Safeway once more? Probably the latter!

Wednesday's creative endeavour involved more cooking: making chocolate cake with a four-year-old, a three-year-old and a two-year-old (I was looking after a friend's two kids). Each child had their own bowl, the contents of which were amalgamated into one cake tin, and the end result was actually quite tasty! Unfortunately, I don't have any photos, being too busy dividing the ingredients into thirds, melting butter, helping mix, etc, to even think about dragging out the camera. The separate bowls saved arguments about who got to lick what at the end (that almost sounds rude!) but even then I didn't think of taking snaps! Oh well, next time... and enough about cooking!

Today Piper, Jasper and I went to the Toy Library in Malvern. Came home with a Noah's Ark, amongst other things, which is how I found myself sitting on the playroom floor with Piper, holding a plastic lion which was about to jump into a pool infested with barracuda fish (stay with me!), while juggling my DPNs to squeeze in a bit of knitting! I figured it was okay to knit if I could still use my mouth to make sound effects for the lion (or am I deluding myself and diddling my child out of a genuine, focussed playspace with a parent???)!

Actually, I'm getting real good at multi-tasking - here's a shot of me knitting while breastfeeding! It's an acquired skill (for Jasper and I!): I'm learning how to prop him just so and not jerk him when reaching for more yarn, and he's learning not to let the occasional poke in the head from a DPN affect his attachment! On the whole, we're doing very well!