Vintage Baby Vest

My latest project is this very cute vintage baby vest
Absolutely love it!!!
I'm having a bit of a re-love affair with the faithful feather-n-fan pattern lately
I think my Nan is having a bit of a nudge here, from way up there :-)

My project notes are here

Using Bendigo Woollen Mills 3ply Baby Blossom

Pattern is available here

It will a perfect little summer top by itself

Or can be worn over a tee

For Sale here at Made For Little Ones

Yummy yarn

Quick post to share a project I made with a new yarn in Australia

Cleckheaton Superfine Australian Merino Wool - patterns & colours here

It is divine to work with and so soft.  

Sadly it is definitely a luxury.  

But sometimes we have to do these things to support our local farmers ;-)

Cardi is, of course, Aussie Swing (available on Ravelry and Etsy) and Booties are Acqua e menta - my project link

I just popped this set into my little shop - Made For Little Ones

Have a great weekend :-)

Knit 4 Charities Web Store

I would like to share a link with you for a group I belong to

Volunteers from round Australia, and a few overseas

Who knit, crochet, sew ...... absolutely any crafts

All crafting materials are supplied by the volunteers

And their projects are donated to charities within Australia

Occasionally, in special times, we support overseas charities too.

The group has a web store to help raise a small amount of money to offset a little of the postage costs.

Once a month a draw is held, and a few lucky donators receive a Australian Post Pak

These Post Paks come in very handy, sending our donations around Australia

Pop on over and have a look

BTW - the charity is not-for-profit

http://knit4charities.webs.com/apps/webstore/products

Yarn Advertising

Hi everyone

Anyone notice the new Target ad and all the Yarn Bombed Trees!!!!
And then the ABC ad that created knitted and unravelled people???

Seems Yarn is having its day!!!   Yeah!

Btw - personally I am not a fan of yarn bombing. I prefer to make functional items for people or animals

But anything that gives publicity for yarn is great in my book

Have a great yarn day!

Sights and Wonders

Just a couple of photos of our short break away in the Megalong Valley at Kanimbla, Blue Mountains

The sunset view

 

Our friendly neighbours

And some small projects.

Not much done, as I found the view entrancing

Wool at top is Bendigo Classic 8ply – Pumpkin, Aztec, Raven, Smoke & Brick Red

The other wool is a long held, but now used stash – Yeah!!!

Weight Loss & Craft

Yahoo!!!!

From Family Circle Winter Edition

and for the Crocheteers!!

Trend-setters!!!!

Pattern is included

 

There is also a scarf that is finger-knitted with a particular yarn

Pattern included – ha ha ha

 

I have absolutely no affiliation with the magazine

Tears …..

Tears of Joy

Funny saying

Very much an Oxymoron

But late yesterday, I experienced it

Yesterday afternoon

I became

a Grandmother

to a 3 week early

little (2.55kg / 5lb 6oz)

BOY!!!!!

He is an 7th Generation Australian

Do you remember

This post about the Koala who could not decide whether to be called Kenny or Katie??

?

?

?

?

?

Well it turns out his name is ………

Blinky Bill !!!!

And for those who have no idea of what I am talking about

Well here is a link

BTW – does he look scary without a mouth???

I have trouble stitching it – it looked very scary when I put one in

Where do you see it

Hi

To finish off the story of my trip I took at Christmas …..

We detoured on the way home via Auckland, NZ

Although the weather was not good, we made a little trip across the harbour to Devonport

And guess what greeted us as we got off the short ferry ride ??????

Devonport is a very pretty little town

Unfortunately the day we went was a public holiday in New Zealand, but we did get a very lovely breakfast and I was totally surprised when I spotted this ……

Very, very lovely and the lady who was working there was very helpful

Unfortunately I had no way of carrying yarn around with me for the day

Btw - Did anyone else watch the show last night "Then The Wind Changed"?

It was about Black Saturday and quite a few tears were shed by me

But I was delighted to spot some of the women from Strathewen creating a knitting project for the children - giant chickens!!!

They commented about how helpful the knitting and time together were

Camel Grannies

You just never know where you will spot Grannies

Courtesy of The Daily Telegraph

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/gallery/gallery-e6frewxi-1226255272205?page=3

BTW - It's Tamworth's Country Music Festival

Am I crazy ……

A bit of background first

It is mid-summer here

Well by the calender anyway

Our normal temps at this time of year are somewhere between 30-40C

But so far this summer, mid 20’s have been the norm

Now, I know that for a lot of you in the Northern Hemisphere this is very warm

But for us, it’s not cold, but it’s not warm either

But the humidity is super-high!!!

Old saying in Australia ….. if it’s not a drought, it’s a flood

While we are not flooding (me, personally) there has been a lot of rain this summer

So back to the crazy!

I had a urge to make ….

I had a need to make …..

I really wanted to make …..

A BEANIE!!!!!

But that’s plain crazy at this time of year

So what should I do?

?

?

?

?

?

?

I’m sure I heard you ALL yell

MAKE IT!!!

So I did

Button Tab Hat – check my Ravelry page for more info

Yarn is Cleckheaton Paintbox

BTW pity they are taking some of their operation of shore and some Australians losing their jobs, makes me re-think my support

Mods – Instead of casting off 10st, I joined in the round and knit the first 10 and last 10 stitches together.  I also worked 15cm before decrease, so that I could pull the beanie down over the ears if needed.

Next time I would leave a long tail before casting on to sew the button on with, just means it is anchored a bit more

Love it!!

N.B. – This post is written via Windows Live Writer.  See how this works.  Fingers crossed

Projects

Hi everyone

You may have noticed my lack of projects over the last couple/few/lots of months.

Well I have been crafting

Just felt that my posts were getting a bit b-l-a-h

But today I felt like sharing a few of my favourites with you

All have been Ravelled here

Borrowed the baby to see size and fit, as I sort of designed it.

Her Mum loved it, so bought it from me  :-)

By the way, you may have noticed a new button at the top of my side Bar

"Made It" - Made For Little Ones

Well that goes directly to a little shop I opened

I'm hoping I might be able to sell a few projects

At least enough to help pay for the ever-rising costs of posting away my charity items

Fingers crossed for me please

And you thought there was no crochet ......

I really wanted to make this pattern (old memories), but had so much trouble with the starting chain - no give and so very small.

Then I tried foundation dc/sc - that gave me the little bit of stretch and width I wanted.

Don't know why it took me ??? times to work that out   :-)

And for those in Australia

Hope the horses are lucky for you today!!!!

Stewing

Hi

I have had an idea stewing in the background for a while using Elaine from Down Cloverlaine's patterns.

She has a few new patterns out lately - which, by the way, she shares for free.

When I saw them, I knew immediately that I would be knitting two of them

Koala Cloth - details here

Baby Joey - details here

As for the idea - well, it needs a bit more stewing

Old but not quite vintage

Hi everyone

Anyone know what exactly makes things vintage?

I have always taken them to be roughly over 30 years old???

Anyway, I would like to share with you something I started all-but 29 years ago

And I also finished it well within a year

Must have had some time up my sleeve back then  :-)

Don't know how - as hubby frequently was away for work and three babes under 13 months!!!

Oh, that's it - hubby was away   :-)

Anyway, back to what I want to show you

For anyone who is interested here are the meanings -

A = Australian Flag

B = Brolga

C = Cockatoo

D = Dusky Hopping Mouse

E = Echnida

F = Flannel Flower

G = Goanna

H = Honeyeater

I = Ibis

J = Jabiru

K = Koala

L = Lorikeet

M = Magpie

N = Numbat

O = Orchid (native)

P = Platypus

Q = Quokka

R = Rosella

S = Swan (Black native)

T = Tawny Frogmouth Owl

U = Urchin

V = Violet (native)

W = Wallaby

X = Xtraordinary Lizard (Frilled Neck)

Y = Yabby

Z = Zebra Finch

Bye for now

mmmmmm

Hi everyone

I don't usually share recipes, but just thought you might like this one, which I found here

This was just after it came out of the oven and before it was found  :-)

Anzac Slice

1 cup SR flour

1 cup coconut

1 cup rolled oats

1 cup of sugar

1 cup of crushed nuts (I used dried fruit instead)

125g melted butter

1 tbsp golden syrup

1 egg

Preheat oven 180C and grease a slice tin

Mix all ingredients together. 

Press into slice tin and bake until golden (about 15-20 mins)

Could not be simplier

Hope someone else enjoys this too

PS - SR Flour is Self Raising Flour - Self-rising (or self-raising) flour is sold premixed with chemical leavening agents, usually baking powder
Golden syrup is a pale treacle.  It has an appearance similar to honey, and is often used as a substitute for people who do not eat honey. It can also be used as a substitute for corn syrup.
Molasses or dark treacle has a richer colour than golden syrup, and a stronger, slightly bitter flavour

Hope this helps Barbara

My Sunday

All photos were taken with my basic Mobile Phone

Browsing through here

Crossing on two of these

Driving on roads like this

Having lunch here

And enjoying views like this

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend

What did you get up to?

What's going on around here

Hi everyone

Well I want to make a gift for someone who needs a little bit of support at the moment

So since its cold, I thought scarf, so that when she wears it, hopefully it will feel like a hug - OK

Needs to be soft and squishy and wool - OK

Needs to be pink - her favourite colour and the colour of love - OOPS

I went stash-diving and I do not have ONE pink ball/yarn!!

Anyone would think I don't like the colour  :-)))))

Well, I don't wear it

But, I do love it on baby girls

So I just HAD to visit my LYS (wink, wink, nudge, nudge)

Thank goodness it had stopped raining for half an hour to walk up there The rain has not stopped since Friday, and the last two days have been really heavy and very, very windy

Is it pink enough   ;-)

Just a sidenote on something I have been watching on Foxtel lately

It's called "Edwardian Farm" more info can be found here

Two males and a female spend twelve months living the life of Edwardian Farmers.

The episode I watched today was beautiful with a lot of time spent at Dartmore - so pretty, yet so wild.

I love the series for the time-warp back in history

I know there have been American/Canadian??? ones showing how it was everything was done back then.  There was also an Australian one (sorry, can't remember the title), but instead of using Australians they had families from overseas.  Knowing the little I do of our history, I found a few flaws in the Australian version, that were obviously put there for the story line rather than reality .

I love these type of shows learning about the old-fashioned ways of doing things and the "new-fangled" inventions as they come along

Bye for now

Call me

Call me Crazy

Call me Insane

Call me Stupid

What do you do on a lazy long weekend Sunday in Sydney

When it must be one of the coldest weeks in many, many years

When it is miserable, wet, windy

Well, of course, that's where my name calling comes from

I wanted to go to the Blue Mountains

An approximately 2-1/2 hour drive

Where it is a lot more colder

Visibility was low because of fog between Leura and Blackheath

I wanted to visit an Antiques Shop at Blackheath

This one

Nope - I didn't take my camera

It was that spur of the moment

Photos from here - http://www.victorytheatre.com.au/

Wandered for ages through here

But I can tell you it was definitely more crowded

Did the sideways dance most of the way around

And had a wonderful lunch here

Photo from here -http://bluemountainsbest.com/properties/newivanhoehotel.htm

Now have I had my fill of the cold and miserable

Nope

(start the name calling)

Especially those in the northern hemisphere

I am after snow cold

Tasmanian Wool Co.

Lookee what I picked up in Hobart

At the Tasmanian Wool Co in Salamanca Place of all places

Supreme Possum Merino Yarn 4ply Silk!!!

A beautiful soft yarn

Bit of mixed feelings about this

I do love 'Our' Possums

Have had, over the years, quite a few as wild 'pets'

Well, they at times would hand-feed from us

Particularly one 'Mum' who we would see over many years

And I believe they are protected in a lot of areas of Australia because of their low numbers

But someone, somewhere, sometime, took Possums to New Zealand

Where they are now considered pests

Destroying their native wildlife and flora

Much like Cane Toads have become to QLD, and now unfortunately NSW, maybe even VIC

So they are 'harvested'

And rather than being a total waste

Their coats are put to use

As New Zealanders are almost like cousins, cause of their closeness and their love of living in Australia  :-)

I decided to buy some and try it out

Did I mention how soft this is

Very eager to try it out

Apparently gloves and socks are popular with possum fur

But this is special yarn with a mix of merino, possum and silk

So something special I think is necessary

Please pop on over to Kiwiyarns Knit if you would like to know more about it or just to read a wonderful blog about yarn and New Zealand in general

Guess what..........!!!!!

Yes, I'm wildly excited and very happy

I have been reading Jodie from Jellywares blog for a long time.

She is a lovely lady with a beautiful family

Recently she opened a shop in Cobar which sells yarn

Pity its a bit of a hike for me to visit, otherwise I could see me making fortnightly (ok weekly) visits.

While watching a video she uploaded to her blog last week, I spotted something which got me very, very excited.

Jodie mentioned that she was working on a project made with Malabrigo sock yarn.

Now this yarn has been on my radar for a very long time.

The reports from various crafty blogs has been overwhelmingly positive

But what really caught my eye was the colour she showed - a blue

Yes, I know, this is not one of my normal colours

But lately, I keep being drawn to various shades of blue to blue-greeny colours

Just not NAVY - Ugghhhh (an old school colour which turned me off)

So I jumped straight into an email and asked if she had anymore of that yarn in that colour

Yes, was her reply

So I acted fast

Now postage in Australia is expensive.  Its usually cheaper to fill up PostPaks to get full value

So I did

This is what the ever so helpful, Jodie, sent me  :-)))))

Blatant advertising - Jellywares Business Card in front

Malabrigo Azules - so soft and squishy

Malabrigo Terracotta - ditto

Jodie squeezed in some Beautiful buttons that blend perfectly with the Azule

And a very cute gift card - fantastic idea

THANK YOU JODIE!!!!

So guess what I have been doing while waiting (only a very small time) for this scrumptiousness to appear????

That's right perusing Ravelry for patterns - and now I am even more confused

I could just play with the yarn for a while, but I'd rather wear it  :-)

Any suggestions?????