Rita's Shawl

Although I have been rather slack on the update front I have been working on a few things albeit slowly.  Up until the end of April I was consumed with finishing this shawl for Mum's 60th.  It is knitted in Brooklyn Tweed Loft in Meteorite (a little more yellow than I had hoped from the picture but it knitted up well).  The pattern is another Brooklyn Tweed called Leaves of Grass, it is beautiful and I cannot wait for Jared's next circular pattern.



It took ages to knit this - I totally underestimated how long the edging would take.





The middle did not quite block flat I probably should have put some more pins in.



For once I actually knitted the pattern in the listed yarn so I had blocking measurements - I was surprised just how far it was stretched out.

















Hopefully more to come on a new crochet art project soon.

Gardening and a New Friend

When Mum and Greg visited in January they had a bit of a frenzy in the garden and weeded out the bed outside the kitchen (among other things).  Naturally Corto being the giant ginger pain that he is decided he would dig it up to make a lovely dust bath, which in turn drove Scott to make a beautiful herb garden.



The netting is to keep out the possums, who while fluffy and adorable absolutely decimate any soft herbs we plant, they even eat the chili bushes down to the ground.



We have tarragon, sage, mushroom plant (weird but yummy crispy leaves that taste like mushroom, the texture really throws you), and black ornamental and quite hot capsicum.



Plus horseradish, parsley, thyme, jalapenos and black something or other chili, in the week or so since I took this picture they have all grown heaps more.  The wet coolish summer we have has has been brilliant for growing things.

Aside from the digging we have had more dog drama, everyone is fine but it did get a little expensive. GIR's lipoma on his front leg had grown very big, as had the skin tag on his elbow (called Pepe, don't even ask how it got it's own name) and the vet thought it was time to remove them.  There were way more stitches on the lipoma than I would have thought but GIR was very good and did not even need a bucket on his head.



He is all better now and the scar is disappearing nicely.  Of course a couple of days after GIR had his surgery Corto had to get in on the act by putting his paw through the glass in the back door.  Luckily he only got a little cut, particularly as it turned out it was not safely glass and shattered everywhere.  Expensive to fix but at least he was ok.



Just got a new member of the monster family from Loki Coki, such a great combination of crochet, felt and embroidery, I wish I has thought of it.



How adorable is she, now I just have to resist the temptation for another one.  Here she is in her new home, snuggled up with Cthulhu and Shoggy.



Been a bit disorganised on made things lately, I have a new rug but it needs to to be blocked and the weather has not been in my favour.  Did a colour variation on one of the Urban Threads designs for Mum, although it still needs to be sewn into a bag.

New Toy Frenzy

I said ages ago I would show off my new toy.



I have wanted one of these babies for so long.  I have been making bags for the market which look like this.





I was going to put off the purchase until I could afford some digitising software because the designs that come with the machine are so awful.  Then I discovered Urban Threads  who have heaps of totally brilliant designs and they are happy for you to put them on things you are going to sell.









I made his one for myself, I changed the colours around to something a bit more vibrant.



I also made some plain bags to see how the would go at the market.





I made Jenny's dog Bizzy a little jumper - she is a trembler.



I also finished Scott's second red rug.