Project Round-up To Finish Up The Year

Just about anyways. All that I am making now is pretty much Christmas presents, so I won't be able to share them for a few more weeks yet.

My knitting needles were in the KnitPicks binder when I got them, but I found it fiddly and rather bulky to store everything in there. Plus I also needed somewhere to store my collection of sock sized fixed circulars. So one day I decided to sit down and design my own, exactly how I wanted it. I used some nice sturdy denim from the op-shop, I think it was the same stuff I used for my bag, and some cute mushroom fabric for the inside. I only had 1m of the inner fabric, and I tried to use it as wisely as I could, but I also wanted to sew the inner, with as few seams as possible. So the pockets were created by folding the fabric in a sort of flat concertina style.

There is a velcro pocket up the top for my end caps and keys, and an open pocket for my needle sizer. The top folds down to protect the tips of the sock circs, and to keep the cables falling out, and there is a flap over the interchangeable tips to protect them.

In making things for myself, I finally ordered the Farbenmix LangeneB pattern from Crafty Mamas. I had some beautiful hemp denim (also from CM's) sitting around waiting for the perfect project, and this was it. Just gorgeous to sew, and a lovely pattern with a nice fit. Plus check out my invisible zipper!

In the making of things for others there has been some poncho style things for DD's teacher - quite literally a square of fabric with a neck hole in the middle, that her class use for simple dress-ups. I think I made about 11 all up. These are just the first 3, I didn't photograph the rest.

There was some baby gifts for some friends - the blanket took me ages, but looks pretty good. And the vest is a Milo, in a size 9 months so bub will fit it for next winter.

For the kids - I knitted some washcloths - mainly for practice and to whittle the stash down a little. A flower and a star.

Some more dyeing - the blue-y colour is an op-shop lot of wool, that was originally a piney blue-green and is planned for a cardigan for my DD. The purple, red-black, and purple-red-blue, are all BWM 4ply, originally Frost. They are all planned for socks.

And lastly, some soap (we are nearly finished this batch), some doll dresses for my little niece for her birthday and a shawl, that I used the wrong yarn for so it isn't very good. But it was good practice.

Cheers!

Wowsers!

I just had a quick look through my photos and there are quite a few projects I haven't shared yet!

So I am going to post the boring (aka ones that don't need much describing) now, and hopefully get back to updating ones that I want to write a bit more about over the next few weeks. As I would really like to get them all blogged before another year disappears (and it is traveling pretty fast!)

Birthday present for a 7 year old boy, back in July I think. Ottobre pattern - not sure which one, Stella and Hilco (I think) fabric from Crafty Mama's.

2 Ottobre tops for me - my standard, slight v-neck pattern. Both in Stella. I don't wear the white one much, because apart from the fabric being a lot thinner than the black, I feel like a giant dirt magnet (me + white = grub!) The black one ended up being 3/4 sleeves as I ran out of fabric.

Book week costumes - yes it was ageeeeeeeeees ago. Charlie and Lola. Easy. Farbenmix Olivia dress with improvised collar and button placket for Lola, complete with her butterfly hair clips.

Charlie is Ottobre again, teemed with a pair of jeans. Simple! I just printed out Charlie in the closest font I could find, ironed some double sided web onto the back of some felt and cut out the letters and stuck them on the top. When DS decides he doesn't want to be Charlie anymore, I will just pull the letters off.

Okay, I think that is enough for today :)

Cheers!

Remembering

This weekend just gone, my darling dog made the journey to Rainbow Bridge. She was very old (she would've been 16 in December) and she had finally exhausted the puppy spirit that she had always possessed. Every visit, except for the last one, I could encourage her to bark and jump around and wag her tail. Unfortunately on the last one, she just didn't have it left in her.

She lived a lovely life on the farm with my parents and various cats and dogs, and even though she never lived with me in the city (I could never have done that to her - she loved the farm life too much), she never, ever, forgot that I belonged to her.

I remember my Mum commenting on her weird behaviour on the days I was due to come home from Perth when she was only a few years old. She would run around barking and being a total peanut. Until I got home. Even when she was older and would happily obey my Dad, when I was there, his word meant very little :)

I can still remember the day that I brought her home. Dad had taken me to look at a litter of puppies, of which there were two left. His words were along the lines of "now don't go falling for the first one you see". Needless to say he went all gooey the minute she climbed on him. She climbed all over him in the car on the way home too. And I have never known a puppy since, to be able to escape from a tall washing machine box without tipping it over. That was her bed for the first few nights and we never did work out how she escaped.

So goodbye my beautiful Darcy. I will never, ever forget you and all the memories you helped to create.

xx

PJ Pants

boring, but necessary. Thankfully the flannelette designs are pretty funky! All from Spotlight - mine is last years stock, the kids are this years.

No, I didn't make them just now - these were made back in the middle of June. Except I hadn't taken a photo of mine, so this was taken today as they were having a swing on the washing line :) (except it has taken me a whole month to post this post, so it wasn't really taken today).

My pattern is Simplicity 3571 - I think I traced the seam allowances as 5/8" but only sewed these ones at 3/8" - it makes for nice roomy pants though.

The kids are Otto 4/2003 #34 in sizes 128 & 140. I didn't do the bias hem though, just made them a tad longer.

Styling of the kids pj's by them - flat pj people just in case you need help with your imagination ;)

Cheers!

Hmmm - Been Slacking Off A Little

I was just having a browse through my photos, and it appears that I haven't shown much of what I have made over the last few months. So I will attempt to update my blog over the next few days.....hopefully I can do that :)

So first up is a t-shirt I made for a birthday present wayyyyyy back in May. For an 8 year old boy, who seems to love my handmade presents almost as much as my DS does :D

Ottobre 301 design B t-shirt, with long sleeves. All fabric is Stella from Crafty Mamas - and I love the two colours together.

The stencil was free from the Ottobre site. It was a bit fiddly to trace and cut out - but well worth the effort.

I traced it onto freezer paper, and used Jo Sonja paints with a fabric medium for the paint - it holds up well. I have used it for a few projects now, and they still look great! (there is a plane top somewhere, but I can't find it lol)

Next up will be some boring but necessary sewing - luckily the fabric is cute and the clothing very comfortable!

Cheers!

Because The Kids Can't Have All The Fun...

Following on from this post, I did some dyeing of my own after I had helped the kids with theirs. Mine was more simple, as I was after a tone on tone sort of look, with speckles. And for some reason I wanted yellow. Actually I wanted orange, but I didn't have enough orange mixed up so settled with yellow and orange for the speckles.

The yarn is BWM Luxury 4ply - I am giving it a go to make socks for myself. The pattern is Diagonal Lace Socks by Wendy D Johnson. It is my first try at toe-up socks, and I am also doing them two-at-a-time on 2 circulars. Here is the wool wound into 2 separate balls to make it easier to do them both together.

It is slow going, but pretty straight forward. There are a few yarn overs in the wrong spot due to some "lack of attention" knitting sessions, but they will be hidden by my shoes (and I am pretty sure no one else will care except me, and I don't care enough to go back and fix them - knowing how it happened is enough knowledge for me - if I pick it up early enough I do stop and fix it).

I can't wait until they are finished and I can wear them (and cast on some more in a different pattern). I have plans for a pair of purple socks - I just need to dye the yarn :)

Cheers!

New Bag

A while back, sadly about 3 months ago now - where does the time go! - I made myself a new bag. Unfortunately the one I made here, was starting to wear out at the corners from such constant use.

I liked that bag, but I wanted a few changes - such as better pockets inside, a zip closure and a key clip at DH's request (so I wasn't always digging into the bottom of my bag for my keys).

 

The shape of my old bag was lovely, so I used that as a base to draft up my own pattern and cut out the sides. It was way too big, so I cut the front and back in half and removed a good chunk - this left me with the problem of seams in the middle of the pieces. Scrummy ribbon to the rescue. What a better to use up some of my ribbon stash :)

Midway through I chose to add a gusset(??), not sure if that is the correct terminology, anyway, so that the pockets I was planning sat in the right place and weren't wrapped down along the bottom seam. Oh the joys of designing something yourself :)

So inside I did 3 elasticated pockets, the middle one, due to a slight miscalculation on the designers behalf, incorporated a pleat hehe. A zippered pocket that sits between the lining and the outer, and a key clip. That key clip has been invaluable. No more scrabbling for my keys when running through the rain or with hands full of shopping.

I followed the instructions loosely for the pockets and the top zipper from The Bag Making Bible. It is a great book that covers many techniques that are found in most bag patterns - lots of pictures and clear instructions.

Fabric is denim from the op-shop, I think it cost a grand total of $1 for a huge piece, and some quilting cottons - possibly Michael Miller. The ribbons are Farbenmix from Crafty Mama's.

To go with it I made a small zippered pouch - to use some scraps hanging around.

Cheers!