Knitting

We went away over the easter break - had a whole week away in the lovely country town of Bright at the foot of the Victorian Alps.  I was going to take a heap of things to do with me but decided on a cross stitch I have been doing for 2 years now (japanese ladies on a bell pull) and a jumper to knit for myself.  The yarn is think and soft.

The pattern stated I needed 12 balls of yarn, but was short sleeve.  Having already owned 2 short sleeve jumper/tops I decided to make it long sleeve, so I bought 2 more balls of yarn.  I will admit to procrastinating on knitting this as the yarn is $5 per ball - not my usual thing to buy.  Decided to anyway as the yarn is soooo soft.

Imagine my surprise when I got half way thru the back before I had even finished 1 ball of yarn.  Double checked that I read correctly the quantities needed - yep correct.  Then something jumped at me from off the page.  The pattern states that the balls are 50g - guess what, they are actually 100g balls.  So I have bought twice as much as I needed due to incorrect printing!!

Finished my jumper with 5 balls to spare - youngest daughter really liked the colour and is into chunky handknits at the moment.  So she is getting a jumper too.  Luckily she is quite small for an 18yo.

My jumper is a disaster though.  Sleeves are 13cm too long, and there is this horrible puffy sleeve thing happening at the top of them too.  So I have unpicked the sleeves and will frog the yarn to redo them.  The left over can go into daughters jumper.  I may have to try and get 2 more balls just to be on the safe side - I would rather have left overs that be scrounging for yarn to sew it up with.  With left overs you can make a hat.

Quilt for Melb Gang Show

So, after managing to get information from my son about the theme to this years Melbourne Gang Show, I did some research on said theme and found some applique shapes that are pre-cut and ready to attach.  I also found a pattern that looks easy enough to do in the time I have to make a quilt.  I have doctored the pattern slightly to fit my idea of what it should look like.

Next I got hold of a ticket booking form for Gang Show - copied the dragon from it - did I forget to mention it is about a dragon??  I enlarged the dragon onto A3 paper and printed it out.  This gave the basis for the main applique in the centre.

The quilt will look like a number of picture frames hanging in 3 rows, with each row on the same ribbon.  The ribbon goes from the top of the quilt to the bottom of the quilt to anchor them.  There are 4 pictures in the end 2 rows and 3 in the centre row.

So I fused the pre-cut shapes to their background fabrics and then to work on the main dragon.  Once he was fused in place and I started to do the zigzag stitch around him I got to thinking.  Do I really want to donate this to Gang Show for them to do whatever with it?  What if they aren't doing a raffle this year?  The idea was for them to make some money out of it.  If it became a silent auction prize it could sell for way less than what I have paid for it in materials, never mind time.  What to do????

I decided to show my son and talk to him about it.  At this point I beginning to think that I could give it to him - after all he is now a patrol leader for the first time - this would be a sort of congratulatory quilt.

I talked him through the design of it, showed him the pre-cut images all fused down, then showed him the centre piece.  His reaction was amazing.  I forget how many times he said "oh wow!".  But the decision has been made - it's now going to be his.

After sitting there for a couple of weeks now untouched, today I cut the sashing to go around the images - the frames if you will.  Sundays are now officially "JOY" days - days for me to do what ever I like that gives me JOY.  Now all I have to do is convince everyone else in the house of this and to let me be to enJOY them.

Craft Room cleanup

OMG.  I found another 2 boxes of knitting yarn and a jumper I started about 2 years ago (only half the back is done).  There was a lot less rubbish than I thought there would be. 

I have now grouped things into seperate large bags - hopefully it will stay that way.

The whole purpose of the cleanup was so sort thru the stuff (no I am NOT a hoarder) and make it easier to access things.  With it all now in large bags, if i need to get into the cupboard or drawers it won't be such an effort/pain in the butt to do so.

Would LOVE LOVE LOVE to have a proper storage facility for it all.....  Wonder if I can get hubby to make me some shelves; hmmm......

Kitchen Update

Nearly done.  I have floor tiles and wall tiles, a working stove top.  Only needs to be painted and get the doors on.....

Knitting

I have found most of my kntting yarn and catalogued it (rather anal I know).  Found that I have a LOT of yarn in single ball quantities.

Went shopping today and bought some more.  A nice purpley colour to make myself a jumper.  Once I start it, that will be project #6 on the go.

There's a cream shrug half done, a blue blanket half done, a blue crocheted baby jacket about quarter done, a pink and white blanket in crochet only 1 eighth done and a thick knobby hat half done.  Plus there are quite a few projects I want to do too - a koala, a kangaroo, a couple of bags, etc.

I really should work on something each night whilst watching tv.......

Birds

Yesterday I bought a book on making cloth birds - OGM.  It is fantastic.  I have already scanned off some patterns and I can't wait to make them.  They seem so simple, even if small.  I think I will start with the Quail - no legs to contend with.

The lady where I got the book told me to send some pics of what I make from it so they can put them on their store's blog.  May do this too.

note:  4 weeks later and I have 'lost' the book.   grrrrrr

Clean out

Went through my clothes this morning and have bagged up for charity quite a bit.  A number of skirts and dresses are going, as well as some tops.  I even found lurking in the wardrobe a few craft projects that haven't seen the light of day for ages - they are going too.  As is the bag of 'winter' clothes that I had stored in one of those shrinky/vacuum space saver bags - not too sure what's in it, but they can go.

I would love to tackle hubby's clothes too - he has a ski jacket he doesn't fit into anymore as well as some thick heavy wool work jackets.  Somehow I think he would be most upset if did though.  Men!