Making use of odd balls

Like just about every other yarn crafter who has been at it for a while, I have quite a big stash. A sizeable part of my collection is leftovers from larger projects or small amounts bought on sale; not enough to make more than a very small project. Inspired by the blanket from my PJ friends on Ravelry, I have decided to make some more. A local  church collects 20x20cm knitted squares so any that don't fit in can be donated and go to someone in need.

I will make a few different afghans based on colourways and fibre content, starting with wool. I am also aiming to put a photo of each square listing fibre, what else I used it for and the stitch pattern in my projects page on Ravelry. Here's to some lovely blankets and a much leaner yarn kitty.

A knitty and kitty new year

With the monsoon we have been experiencing and the lack of school run in the day I have been able to make some time for knitting. This is the Helena I mentioned in my last post, just about finished and ready to be gifted to our friend.

For mindless evening knitting, I have completed Baktus though don't have any photos yet as I have not sewn in all the ends. 

Other than that, there really is not much more to report other than the sad news that our very old cat, Venny has gone to kitty heaven where she is no longer annoyed by children, having to wait a whole two minutes for her food and the big cat next door. 

Craft to brighten a rainy day

I found a great tutorial to make these paper flowers at How About Orange a little while back. Today seemed like a great day to give them a go. We flipped though magazines to choose which pages to use and I pity B's future partner. She was immediately drawn to the Tiffany ad.

The girls have also been working on sewing some gift tags which I can't show here in case any of the recipients read this, and I am knitting another Helena for a little friend's January birthday, because nothing says happy birthday like a cardi in the middle of summer.

Long overdue update

I can't believe it has been almost a month since I have posted. This is a combination of several things including an obsession with Twitter, illness earlier in the month and I have been knitting up a storm.

My bump is growing beautifully and our wriggly little one is 18 weeks. It is such a relief to be past the nausea and other early pregnancy complaints. It is nice to enjoy all the foods I love again and even had a little of my Beloved's curry when we ordered Thai a few nights ago.

Speaking of the fella, we celebrated our 7th Wedding Anniversary this week. Time sure does fly!

On to my knitting. Last year while I was in Australia I became involved in knitting scarves that went along with swags for homeless people. I have decided to make a head start this year and have joined the Yahoo group Knitting for Brisbane's Needy. Here are a few things I have made so far that will be making the trip back to Au with us in two months time.

For my family I have made some doll hats and clothes, a soaker and a sweet little tunic for our bubba. The WIP is a kimino top that I need some motivation to finish.

Some friends in Australia will be having babies soon. Here are some little gifts I made and sent off.

The girls and I have been dyeing wool with Kool-Aid. It is unbelievably fun and easy to do. Here is our first attempt. (Katanya, it is the Merino I bought from you. I hope you are not offended that I used Kool Aid on it instead of a more professional dye!)

Further details about the knitting I have done this month can be found on my projects page at Ravelry.

So that has been our month. The girls are going very well. G can tell the time now and wears her watch everywhere. B is heavily into counting, adding and subtracting. She is also very insistent that our baby is a girl... we'll see.

Update

It has been a little while, so I feel I need to give a proper update as to what has been happening.

Baby
is growing beautifully and my hormones are doing all the delightful first trimester things.

FOs and WIPs

We have a simple but very useful pin cushion come knitting notions holder, the placenta WIP and a cardi for our little one from Debbie Bliss Special Knits. I still have not washed or blocked the cardi and will be sure to post a photo when it is done.

Shopping

Our lovely delivery man has dropped some lovelies on my doorstep in the last week or so. From the Knit Picks sale some gorgeous hand dyed Peruvian Highland Wool, some thin circs to enhance my needle collection and one as a birthday gift for a friend who is celebrating her special day next week. I also finally invested in a ball winder that G is giving a test ride here with some of the yarn from her own little stash.

Finally, I received some lovely BFL from a UK family business, World of Wool. I feel so unAustralian, but I must confess that BFL is my favourite wool to work with. It is so lovely and soft. This particular delivery actually still smells like sheep and seems to have a lot of natural lanolin left in. Yum.

Australia Day

So sue me. I am late talking about our Australia Day and what we got up to; baking lamington cupcakes. I don't have the patience to make proper lamingtons so instead we made vanilla cupcakes that the girls iced with chocolate icing and sprinkled with dessicated coconut. Add the Australia flag and they are just as good as a proper lamington. Our friends enjoyed them too. Oh and I watched a McLeod's Daughters season 8 marathon. Hours and hours of Hot Matt. sigh

Life in Australia has taken such a tragic twist in the last week and I urge everyone who has the means to visit the Red Cross to donate to the bushfire and flood appeal.

Her beauty and her terror-
The wide brown land for me!

Dorothea MacKellar OBE

I knew this day would come

Snap goes the knitpicks.

I have been working with wooden knitting needles for a couple of years now and this evening I suffered my first casualty. Naturally 4mm and of course my much loved knitpicks harmony.

Such a shame as I really have my groove on with this baby blanket and am past the halfway mark. Now I will have to wait for a replacement tip to arrive.

The silver lining is that I have been wanting to order a couple of extra plastic sleeves for my needles, 12mm tips and a set of DPNs for a little while so I took this opportunity to get them. If they arrive in time I will wrap the extra goodies to open Christmas day.

Rainy Day

So what is the best thing to do on a cold wet miserable day?

Well I guess it depends on how old you are and how many cold wet miserable days you have seen in your lifetime. I cherished the chance to sit with a cuppa and work on some knitting, the girls however had other ideas.

Fun times all round.

What's On My Needles?

I am usually the kind of knitter who is loyal to one article from start to finish without even thinking of anything else until I have sewn in that last thread. Having three projects on the go has never happened to me before, and I have to say I don't mind it.

Pictured we have a pair of newborn longies, a breast (stay tuned for more about that) a pot holder/placemat. Also in the photo is my knitting bag of choice for now- a rice bag. I wish we ate more rice so I could get more of these groovy bags.

Latest WIP

When I download photos there are always a few little surprises to be discovered; shots taken by one of my budding photographers. This one features my knitting bag with Josie's very grape longies peeking out.

For Cos

Our lovely friend Cos is off to Istanbul next week so will need some snuggly warm longies.

Enter some Yarn Bee wool in the sticky date colourway and we are set.

WIP- leggings for G

G lives in twirly dresses. As if there is any other kind for a three year old. I figured why not take advantage of the current trend of leggings and knit her a pair for winter to wear under said twirly dress. She just tried them on (how I love circs) and told me that they would look better with another leg so I had better get bacck to work. :)

Somethin' Stupid

I have knitted enough soakers in my time to know that you need smaller needles for the waistband, so how I forgot to on this project escapes me. To top it off, I had some waste yarn pulled through the casing, so I did not notice how huge the waistband is until just now. So I have to decide whether to keep going or to pull it apart and start again. This one is going over for Amber, so I expect that lots of nieces and nephews to come will use the soaker and I don't really want my sisters and mother to think "Lisa is a sloppy knitter" every time they change their treasures nappies.

Some good news is this week I saw a great idea which I have incorporated into this soaker; rib in the centre of the garment for a great fit and extra wool in the wet zone.

Now, to pull or not to pull is the question.

Sugar on Snow Update

I have finished the main hat / neck warmer part of Sugar on Snow I used a strand of beige and also some green. Unfortunately the green is too lime so I wasn't feel very motivated to finish it off, but G has been running around in the nud with just the hat on. No pic of that coming soon. :) Here is my work so far...