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.

UFOs

I just don't seem to be getting things finished at the moment so I thought I would take a moment to celebrate some of my many UFOs.  These are just the ones that have a good chance of being finished in the nearish future - there are many many more languishing in tubs just waiting for me to dig them out and get working.

Oddly enough I dug this one out of a UFO tub but I have no idea why it was there, it is huge already and perfectly useful as a rug to snuggle up under on the couch.  It is a prime number rug - every prime numbered ring is in red.  I guess it could just keep getting bigger and bigger which would be cool, maybe one day when I have some free time.



This one is a kit I got from Prudence Mapstone at the last craft show I attended, basically some wools and a pattern for the square, you just mix and match colours as you please.  The yarn is Freetrade alpaca and is wonderfully soft.  he colours are not those that I would choose if left to myself but the work together wonderfully and I can't wait to see it finished.



I have just started work on the next round of crochet creatures and have been experimenting with feathers.  Trying to expand on the Gol Goroth design and work more detail into the wing structure and feathers.  I have a long way to go.



This is the beginning of a fantastic retro cardigan, I have only completed the front panels so far.  I am using a thicker ply than the original pattern to try and get it large enough to fit me - so far I think it is going to work.



I had enough wool left from Scott's lace rug to make another so started a different pattern from a doily book - it does not have that far to go I should really try and get it done before the weather gets too warm.  You really can't tell what the pattern looks like now it needs to be blocked before it will kook any good.



And lastly my African Flower rug (actually I do seem to have an awful lot of rugs on the go - I can think of at least three more that have not made it here) inspired by Pandatomic a Flickr contact who does absolutely marvelous crochet work.



Anyway that is just a few of the things I am pottering around with at the moment.  Later this week I will tell you about my new toy and share some of the things I have been making with it.

Saturday Llama Frenzy

Spring has sprung and with the wet winter we have had the citrus trees are going crazy.

My Seville Orange is fruiting for the first time.



Still a small tree so not quite enough for marmalade but looking good.



The lime tree has also produced its first fruit.



The lemon tree is also producing heaps of fruit including this fabulous mutant.



I had my first go at mitred knitting and made Scott some gauntlets.  It is really fun to do but a little tricky to get the finish up to standard.



I think they look kind of like something Link from Zelda would wear.



One of Scott's co-workers has been ordering purses from me so I have made another veggie burger purse.





And another apple slice purse, unfortunately I did not get a photo of the first one I made before I sold it



The worm was a special request.



I really like the colours in the red yarn.



I have been hard at work making market stock and have now made enough components to offer custom sandwich purses.  I have made centers with the purse frames of cheese, bacon, tofu and burger.  People can then choose from white or brown bread and add other things like tomato, lettuce, beetroot, cucumber and cheese.  I sew them all together in a few minutes and voila your very own sandwich purse.  I will try and get a picture of them all laid out nicely at the next market.

This month's market went surprisingly well considering it was so windy I had to pin all my stock onto the table to stop it from blowing away.  I have to get really busy, Christmas is not that far away and I need to make as much stock as I can.

We had a great day today.  Scott and Jenny and I went to Croydon to the Farmer's Market and the new Art Attack market that has started up.  It was a bit windy, wet and miserable but it was good to hang out.  afterwards we went back to Jenny's for tea and to collect this beautiful item.



Scott had been admiring Jenny's blue eyed llama sculpture every time we went over, so when we were visiting at the last Open Studio I told Jenny I wanted to buy it for him.  Unfortunately (or fortunately as it turned out) Jenny's husband David sold the original sculpture later that day - he did not know I had intended to buy it.  Anyway it turned out for the best because Jenny made this one especially for Scott, and there is nothing like having a talented artist make something just for you.



I love Jenny's work there is just something about her faces that is magic (she did the blue guardian sprit that I have posted about before).