Surprise!

Seven years ago, next month, I started to feel ill, tired. Off to the doctors to see if it might be a spider, or insect bite. No, could have been the cleaning fluids. Went on for a couple more weeks so I went to doc to check for iron levels. All ok, Still feeling unwell, weary, I went back the next month to check for Ross river fever, or glandular fever. Again, all clear.

By this time hubby was taking time off to help with the kids, as I was unsafe to drive. That week, again, back to doc. "I've been a bit late," I say in my exhausted state. "Could it be because I'm so ill?"  "How about we do this other test...?"

 Guess what? Baby number 5 would be due in mid January 😍
I was 16 weeks along already, which didn't leave much time to make clothes. I didn't have much from the older kids as I didn't knit when they were born. I went on a knitting, and crochet, frenzy...

         Above are all Bendigo cotton, knitted

This baby bunting/ baby Jedi outfit is made with bamboo, knitted

A cardigan made with sock yarn, knitted

Another cardigan, in acrylic, knitted. Funky beanie in chenille, knitted

Gnome beanie in wool, knitted

Pant suit in baby merino wool, knitted

Cardigan in acrylic, knitted

Vest in wool & acrylic sock yarn, crocheted

Vest in wool & acrylic sock yarn, crocheted

Red and blue acrylic blanket, crocheted
The cream and blue wool blanket was spun, and woven, and crocheted, and knitted, by my friends at Ipswich Spinners

Double breasted, shawl collar, baby merino, jacket, with brass buttons, knitted, inkle woven

Bikie beanie, acrylic, crocheted

Inkle Craze

I'm trying to remember when I discovered inkle loom weaving. And who showed me how, but my memory refuses to cooperate. I am grateful to whomever it was. Inkle weaving is such fun

Warping up my first pattern, more than the basic strap

Sometimes I take longer to finish than I should as I spend time just enjoying process,

 and looking at the progress

Finished, about to cut it off the loom

I /may/ have got carried away, that first week....

 Using a pattern from about 1945, I made John a double breasted, brass buttoned, sailor coat with a shawl collar. The inkle piece is made with the same 4 ply pure machine washable merino. It helps the collar to sit nicely and adds a nice, fine, detail to the garment.
John wore it from age 3 months to about seven months. We just unrolled the sleeves gradually.

Babies never sit still 😄

Having fun

Project pending

One of our camp challenges was to make any item, in any manner, as long as it had something about a farm animal. I took a long time to think of something. (We have a year from learning the challenge to when the camp is held.) My idea was to try and create something totally unrelated to what you might expect, such as a chook tea cosy, a cow beanie, or sheep toy. 

How about a necklace? I remembered a pattern my mum sent me. It was to make colourful, miniature birds using fine crochet cotton. I just needed the yellow and orange. I used fabric glue on the tails, feet, and the felt comb. It needed a highlight, so I made up a pattern for the eggs. The only way to get them to sit correctly was to make a choker. I wanted to keep a farming theme, so devised a basic inkle pattern to remind one of citrus orchards, using one type of green, three types of orange, and three types of yellow. 

🐤It is certainly a statement piece 🐤

Cluck, cluck

I had made John a duffle coat for the winter. I asked hubby if he thought it was ok. He said it needed stripes. Ok. Where? Here, and here. And some here. Ok, I can make one long strip..... No, They have to be different widths! .....ok.....

So. Three different widths it is then, 5mm, 1cm, 1.3cm. The main body ones had to go all the way up and over the shoulder, and down the other side. All had to be hand sewn as the sewing machine would be too tight on the thick yarn.
When he wore it, it was like cuddling  a warm, wriggly, teddy bear 😊

Another year, our camp challenge was to make a bag, in any way, as long as there was some leather in it (I'll do a full post on that later).
I was inspired after a trip to a craft store, and I found Wonder Woman fabric, and at a quilting store, I found yarn and needles fabric. Aha... my secret super power. I had a satchel pattern. WW on the outside, knit fabric as lining. Added leather straps to hold the buckles. Then, wht to do about the strap? Trawling the craftstore- black, beige, pink.... what to do? Inkle loom. I used my floor inkle loom which can make a 3 metre length (you can just see it behind John in the sailor jacket above). Find a pattern in my books. Dig through my stash of 80 ct cotton for matching colours. Warping up took some time. Ninety-two threads wide. Weaving it was fun. And so very happy with the result.

Funky Granny Hat

Seven years ago I went to my maternal grandmothers' 90th birthday. Her name was June, we called her Mumzum- my eldest brother would say mums' mum but it got a little blurred, and it stuck.
I knew that she loved a pretty scarf, and groovy hats. I had made scarves before, so it was time to try a hat.

My spinners group had a workshop, run by a member, on how to make a funky type of hat using rather unusual resist templates. I wanted a really lightweight hat, something that would sit gently. I started with black merino, added a "hatband" of magenta merino, sprinkles of magenta merino around the crown. Over the magenta I curled strands of my white handspun silk, and drizzled strands of white and pink silk. The resist has an extension which to which I added dark, dark brown merino, making sure to only get the ends. After getting to a certain point, I put it on a wooden hat block...then, felt, felt, felt.

The extra piece of fabric can be twisted/twirled, tweaked into attractive shapes. With this hat, I twirled it into a rose,  curling it to accentuate the mohair. I secured it with a shiny black button from my stash.

In 2017, my grandmother passed away. I couldn't make it to the funeral, but was involved in the process as I was contributing to organising something special (each child, grandchild, great-grandchild, created a star template, to be stenciled with gold paint onto a shroud)
My mother was able to send me the hat I had made, enabling me to wear it on the day of the funeral 💜

Wedding Bells

 In 2013 we were living in Wagga when Anne, my eldest, and her fiancee Jack announced their wedding date. With only about 6 months to the big day I started on a shawl. White boucle cotton, crochet, very open and lacy, for a summer QLD wedding. It is lovely and delicate.         However, she didn't want a white dress. Something in the cream range maybe. So, using a heavier navy blue boucle cotton, knitting, and some embellishments, I made another shawl. But, it was too warm a fabric. So....another shawl, mid green bamboo yarn, in a semi-circle, knitted cat's paw pattern, with small beads crocheted all around the edge.
    All of this we were organising on skype, or by phone. And only 3 months to go. I was getting a  better idea on the colour but there was /still/ no
dress!! Organised a flying (literally :D ) visit, Fri night to Sun night. We went to see a few different places that sold what she liked, and last on the list was her favourite. It sold silk dresses. Anne chose a soft mushroom gold A line silk dress, with a black silk sash. And we had to get just the right pair of shoes. We also took Jack shopping for his suit.
I had taken a sample of the fabric and floss I was planning to use for a new shawl. It matched the dress beautifully. After making the shawl as per pattern, I used the floss to crochet all around the shawl, and then around, and around to make the lace border. The only colour I could find that matched the fabric was embroidery floss and it needed 12 skeins, each one divided in 2. That's 24 lengths, and then 48 ends to sew in! Then there was pinning it all out to shape, each of the points needing it's own pin and a corresponding pin to stop distortion of the fabric.

At last it was finished. Perfect. It was packed safely in my bag for the drive with the family up to see our baby get married 💓💖

It was a Wonderful day,
full of Happy Family,
and Joyful Moments

A Gift for Mother

On a shopping expedition in town, on one of her trips to visit, my Mother found a rather glamorous magnifying glass.
Sitting with a cuppa, and enjoying looking at our treasures, Mum mentioned me, maybe, making a felted cover for it. She said when I get around to it, I could send it down to her.
But.... I got an IDEA, and just had to make it that day, before she left.

I made a resist by tracing around the glass, about 3 cm larger all the way around. I used some white fleece, and highlighted the last layer using a variegated fleece. I worked and rubbed it while we had another cuppa. I then put it in the dryer, still wet and with the Lux flakes on it. I checked it for size every 15 min. Once i was happy with the size, a good rinse, and put in the sun to dry. When dry, I cut a buttonhole, and sewed it,  button, and the edge using embroidery floss, and made a cord with same.

My Mother took it home with her 😃

Friendship

 A week after I joined the local spinners group, another lady joined. She had emigrated from America and married an Aussie. I discovered she was somewhat homesick, so I thought of a project.

A Friendship Project
I had in my stash 2 bags of orange Ashford fleece. I gave her one of them, and explained the rules.
1. Make something for the other person, thinking about them, and what you think would suit them
2. No time limit
3. Made any way that suits the maker
4. No time limit

My choice for her, after a little while getting to know her and her husband, was a breakfast tablecloth. I knew that they liked to have brekkie together, every morning, on a small round table. I spun the fleece quite fine, and knitted a octogon spiral tablecloth, with a crochet lace border. It took quite a long time to pin out for blocking- I did get to the point of that'll-do, hence the wobbly edge, but was unnoticeable once taken up. My friend loved the gift.
Her gift to me was a project bag. Spun fleece, crocheted, with some black for base and handles, and then felted. I still use it. Will add the photo when I can find it in my files (or I'll take a new pic soon)

Felting Happy

A few years ago, one of our members gave a workshop on felting using a resist. I had done a resist piece with my sister-in-law using a cd which, while it all worked as it should, I didn't like the shape as it was very flat. This example used a vinyl circle. I also wanted to see how thin I could make the piece and it still hold it's shape, so I only added the thinnest of layers. The felting worked well, enough to hold it all together and to keep it's shape. While very thin, the fabric is strong enough to be used.

I was happy with the result. Shapely, useful, light, colourful. I still use next to my bed to hold hair ties and combs.

The Joy of Rainbows

For our 20th anniversary, we took our family to a resort on the north coast. We stayed at a lovely place, and we had a unit for the 4 days, 3 nights. We visited many places with the kids. As a special treat for me, hubby dropped me off at Jenny Kings' shop, and took the kids away to the beach etc for 3-4 hours! I spent a lovely time looking all over the shop, knitting,chatting with Jenny, going through the bookshelves, knitting, chatting with anyone who came and sat at the table, and knitting.

 I found a treasure among the shelves of fabulous fibres, A pure wool in rainbow colours, from Denmark. I knew I needed a crescent shape shawl  and hoped it would come out as it did. A friend, Joy, from m spinners group lent me one of her lace books. I found the perfect pattern. I spent 3 days knitting it, a bit over an hour to crochet the edge. Then another few hours to wash and pin it out, to really show off the stitches, and to make sure the points were pointy. It has been, and still is, my favourite to wear