Mother's Day Mitts

I missed Oma's birthday this year, so now that I have plenty of time I made her these for Mother's Day.  Hopefully they will keep her hands warm and her fingers free to do her Sudoku in the mornings.

The pattern is called Mitt Envy, free from Ravelry. I didn't quite manage to memorise the cable repeats, but it was still a fun and quick knit.

Up the duff knits

Just because I haven't posted here in a year doesn't mean I haven't been knitting!  

With baby due in 4 weeks I have had an excellent excuse for knitting small projects for little ones.

I've joined Ravelry.com and love it, it's great for finding patterns and project ideas, and for seeing what yarn will look like knitted up.  I've posted a couple of projects there, as leenbeanknits (with 3 million users it's tricky coming up with a unique username).

My first attempt at a garment (not including beanies and socks) was this 'Pebble Vest', made with the gorgeous yarn Debbie Bliss Luxury Aran Tweed - thanks Karla! It was knit flat on straight needles as one piece, with only one seam to sew on the shoulder- easy peasy!

The pattern is from Nikol Lohr, and is on Ravelry at http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/pebble-henrys-manly-cobblestone-inspired-baby-vest
We don't know if it's a boy or a girl yet, but who says blue is only for boys? This is such a pretty yarn, I had to make something cute with it. And there's still one skein left which I have plans for.
  
Then I made with this little beanie, inspired by Willow's strawberry beanie which looked so adorable on her as a baby. This is the blueberry version, using yarn I had in my stash from my birthday crafternoon.   I found the pattern on Ravelry http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/berry-baby-hat thanks to Michele Sabatier.



I still had yarn leftover so I made Georgie Hallam's 'Milo' vest, also from Ravelry http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/milo-3

It was so easy and knit in the round so no boring seams to knit together at the end (my favourite kind of project). I haven't blocked it yet, don't know if I will bother.

 

 

I also received some beautiful hand-spun yarn from my workmate Caris at Christmas. She spun it herself, from a mix of silk and wool.So on another workmate's suggestion (thanks Jackie) I made a baby blanket. Mum helped knit a few squares, and I had just enough yarn to finish it off with the bobble edging.  I love the result, especially the rustic colours.

Birdie num num

This little bluebird lives in our apple tree. 

She's been out there since my crafternoon party. I think she likes the shade. 

I've had to rescue her from the jaws of Albert a few times, but she didn't seem too fazed.

I've also finished my cowl, using the beautiful midnight purple bamboo/wool yarn with silver flecks from Mum. Was tricky trying to take a photo as the camera didn't like the reflectiveness of the yarn, but I did my best.  Here it is.

It feels so soft and lightweight, perfect for around the neck!

I see red

A couple of my favourite reds for the lead-up to the silly season.

We planted this kangaroo paw this year and it's flowering for the first time in spectacular tall stalks with furry-looking flowers on the ends. They open up one by one, and each afternoon a striped honeyeater visits, clinging on to the stalk and poking its beak down the newly opened flowers. The stalks have started to bend right over from its weight but none have broken....yet.


I can see why this was chosen as the floral emblem of Western Australia, as it looks stunning with very little effort.

And today I finished one of my red cable socks.

At this rate the pair will be done in time for winter next year.. I had a bit of a crisis after I turned the heel, because I tried it on and it felt too small. So then I put it aside and tried not to think about how I should've probably done a tension square first.   Luckily I couldn't bring myself to unravel it, so I kept going and now it fits fine, and I love it!

Knitting update

I had some organic cotton yarn for summer knitting tucked in my stash for about a year, and I finally found a use for it - knitted washcloths.  They're small enough to finish before I get bored and they're a fun way to try out new patterns.  Here's my 'ears of wheat' washcloth, with a moss stitch one underneath.

I've been making stacks of them!

Birthday Boy

Craig turned 33 on Thursday, so we had a few celebrations.  We went to Adriana and Juan's place last night for pictionary and nachos, followed by chocolate cake with racing car candles. 

Lula in the wild

This is Craig's latest creation. She is made out of corrugated iron sheeting and the plan is to stand her up in front of the fence with a light behind her.  Water will run down a sheet of perspex behind her. 

Custom made designs are availble to members of the family for $150 plus p & h.  Please supply design blueprints upon ordering.  Payment can be made by PayPal or credit card.

Pebbles, stones and sawdust

Here it is Mum, not bad hey?

The bushiest creeper has since died though, after they cut the gum tree down.  It was right on the other side of the fence, so this whole area was covered in sawdust afterwards.

I spent half the morning vacuuming up bits of sawdust which were wedged between the pebbles -

not much fun but it looks much better now!



Jeremy, the thirsty ant

Washington - How To Tame Lions

Fraggle Rock knitting song!

Fraggle Rock AND knitting!  I would never have thought they went together until I saw this! 

The funniest thing is at the end when one Doozer says "I'll shout if I want to, and do you know WHY?" and hthe other one says "Why?",  I thought he replied "Because I AINT knitting, I want to KILL!"  when actually he says "Because I HATE knitting, I want to BUILD!"

Garden spirits

We went to a barbecue at Craig's supervisor's house in the Perth hills last night.  They had a beautiful garden, and my eye was caught by a variety of garden spirits hidden in their little nooks.  Tiny stone birds pecked crumbs on the table, little tin mice hid among the flowerpots, and a frill-necked lizard watched us from a tree branch.  

My collection is only small but they add a bit of whimsy to the garden which lifts my spirits.  I took some of their portraits this morning.

Eva, who greets us serenely when we get home,

Luna, who watches over us at night,

Bella beatle, climbing up to get some sun,




and last but not least, Knee the Gnome.






Peppermint stripes

I found this peppermint cotton yarn in the market for 50c a ball and it inspired me to start knitting again.

I like this colour combination but I'm not sure what to make with it. Any ideas anyone?

It can't be too big a project as I only have two balls of the mint, one of cream and one of grey. And they're all different types of yarn as you can tell by the variable width of the stripes. The grey is wool, and the other two are cotton. Another knitting no-no I'm sure, but if necessary I can find some grey cotton to match instead. 

So send any ideas this way!

knitted rope necklace

I'd seen some of these around on etsy and knitting blogs and liked the way they drape so I thought I'd give it a try.

I made this on one big circular needle, just knitting round and round until it curled up on itself enough that you don't see the edges.  The trickiest part was switching from the white cotton to the grey wool, but as I didn't want the join to be too neat (and I wouldn't have been able to make it neat anyway)  I just picked up and worked with both yarns for a few stitches at each join.  Then I had to cut the ends and weave them in, which is not my favourite thing, but it made a staggered effect which I'm still deciding on whether I like or not.

Sweet peas & poppies

I've never tried growing sweet peas before so this year I put some in with the veges, and they've just started to bloom in the most beautiful soft colours.

 I'm having trouble uploading pics on here so there's more to come on flickr.





Ranunculs



Sparaxis, poppies and anemones



Winter projects

Over the winter I've made a few bits and pieces that I haven't gotten around to putting up here yet. But today is grand final day and my significant other is very much otherwise occupied, so what better time to put a few photos up?

These lacy cable socks aren't as hard as they look- there's no cabling at all, it's just an 8-row repeating lace pattern. I found it in a book called "Knitting 24/7" by Veronik Avery which has some great contemporary projects that you can knit without thinking too much.

Berni and I tried 'knitting in transit' on the train for the first time and I took these along with a photocopy of the lace diagram - I'm not quite ready to memorise lace patterns yet, but at least I didn't get train-sick.

Here's my phone pouch..

... and an ipod pod

Our first lemon harvest!

These are from the smallest of the three citrus trees we planted soon after we moved in. It's the only one to bear fruit so far, and the poor little tree was so weighed down with them that I felt sorry for it and picked most of the fruit before they were completely ripe.

They've ripened up now and taste delicious in Jamie Oliver's lemon curdy pud! It's much quicker to make than lemon meringue pie, and tastes great. Even better with some cinnamon sprinkled over the top before you put it in the oven. My new favourite winter dessert.

Winter days

It's getting colder and I'm getting back into knitting again.

This little beanie and booties are for my niece.

I found the pattern for the booties here, and made up the beanie pattern myself. Which explains why it looks slightly lopsided. The cables make it nice and stretchy so I'm hoping it will still fit.

The yarn is a lovely soft alpaca/wool blend, finer than I'd ever used before. I thought I would get impatient knitting with smaller needles (4mm) but because these are such small projects it didn't take long at all.

I had to re-learn crochet to do the trim around the booties, and it doesn't look quite like the picture, but I'm pretty happy with the final result, especially for a first try.

Next up: socks!

Keep on walkin'

I know it's been a long long time but I thought I'd say a little hello just in case anyone still checks this blog!

Not much new to report on the vege garden, just the usual winter crop of spinach and silverbeet, and the herbs are all doing well - parsley, thyme, oregano all thriving, and little basil seedlings still poking through where we pulled out last year's plants.

Strawberries are taking over where we planted just one seedling last year, but I don't mind! Hopefully we'll get more fruit this spring.

We also put in a passionfruit vine which is happily twining up the chicken-wire, and some tomatoes of course.

Front garden is coming along too now, we've made another bed with pinks and reds, and a few roses I bought for a bargain $2.oo each! They were just twigs with roots, and half-dead I think, but this morning I saw that one has sprouted little shoots.

And I planted two Albany Woollybushes in the backyard. They're natives that I've seen around here, very pretty with soft pine-like needles, like a little fir tree.

Albert's growing up, he fills up the whole photo frame now!

A rose by any other name

If only we had smell-a-vision.

I wasn't going to plant roses because they're so conventional, but one rainy day I found myself in the rose section of the nursery, and I caved.

I walked around sniffing every rose before choosing this one. It's a Hybrid Tea Bush Rose - Mr Lincoln.

It was only a bud when I bought it, but the other day it opened and I wasn't disappointed. It has the best fragrance!

It's doing really well in the sand, I can see why people fill their gardens with roses here.

Fairy surprise

Look who arrived in the mail today!

Thank-you to whoever sent her, she is lovely! Here she is prettying up my new desk - just the girly touch it needs to make it mine.

And my other news is that I've got a new job, starting Monday, so it's back to full-time work again for me! Who knows, maybe I'll blog more often now that I won't have as much time to, that's the way it seems to work with me. Got to have that pressure otherwise I'll find a million other things to do with my time.

I'll be the new children's librarian, so will do storytime sessions (Albert's giving me lots of practice throwing my voice) and craft activities (Mum and K, I'm sure you have lots of ideas there), plus selecting books for kids and young adults, yay!

I'll also be the one people come running to when there's a problem with the online library system, so G I might be needing to avail myself of your technical expertise there. And Papa and Liz you can keep me up to date with all the latest internet technologies and new gadgets.

Aren't families wonderful? Thanks for all doing such diverse and useful things, they really come in handy to a bit of a bookworm like me.