weekending luck

 I'm quite a homebody, especially over the cooler months. We'll often spend the entire weekend at home and  in the depths of Winter probably the whole weekend indoors! It's quite lucky that most of my favourite pastimes can be done snuggled up inside, and made all the more enjoyable in the cooler weather. This weekend was a rainy, stay inside kind of weekend and I did just that.

I like to keep a stock of handmade booties and other wee things for gifting to new babies, my stocks have been running low lately. It's a good excuse to use some nice hand spun yarn and try out a new pattern. I've got several pairs finished now just awaiting the right buttons.

We did actually briefly brave the rainy weather to drop off a bunch of stuff to the local thrift shops, while there I picked up some amazing linens. Each is a large square tablecloth, two are in pristine "I can't bear to cut them up" condition. The bottom one with Autumn like leaves however has a number of holes and stains so that one will be made into some notebooks. Each tablecloth (1 metre by 1 metre) was just $1! Crazy I don't know how they slipped through the pricing cracks as teeny tiny pieces of linen were priced at $8 each! The young girl at the counter didn't bat an eye as she announced the "grand total" - I high tailed it out of there before I was found out. I felt like I was stealing them at that price. Lucky for my linen collection that we braved the rainy weather.

Do you like rainy weekends?

experimental

 I've wanted to make some fabric yarn  (spun on a spinning wheel) for a long time, but with lots of other projects on the go I haven't really had a chance to sit down and experiment. I did get a wee chance over the weekend, nothing like a rainy Autumn weekend to be nicely tucked up inside and creating.

I started out using a very soft vintage sheet that was a bit too soft to sew with. I'm not going to sugar coat it, it wasn't as easy as I had imagined. I stopped, did some online research and tried again. Still slow going! I'm not a patient crafter, ahem and that's putting it mildly if you ask my husband. SO there were some grumbles and then I decided I'd try another day, but it's been bugging me ever since as to why I couldn't get it to work how I wanted it to.

 I've heard the weather isn't going to be so great this weekend, so I might give it another try then. I've got a new idea about how I might go about it. Are you a patient crafter?

into the clouds

I'm pretty sure I'm no different to any other child (or adult), when lying on my back staring into the sky, I imagine what it would be like to sit in one of those fluffy looking clouds as they float on gently by. I have very vivid memories of this from my childhood, they look so inviting, don't they? 

 It's with these fond memories in mind that make me fall head over heels in love with this book - Mr Bear Branches and the cloud conundrum by Terri Rose Baynton (written and illustrated by! - super talented huh?). It also happens to be a finalist in the New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards. 

It's a lovely story about two friends, one with a dream of playing and sitting in the clouds and the other a "realist" or a spoil sport to put it bluntly!

It uses some pretty sophisticated language when describing why, playing/sitting in the clouds will never be a reality. This use of the correct terms delighted miss E who had studied the water cycle at school and knew all the correct terms. 

I know my two also harbour dreams to sit and play in clouds and we've laid on our backs together in long grass before, watching the clouds drift by. So I wanted to create a "cloud" for them. I told them to gather up all the pillows off each bed in the house, including the ones on mummy and daddy's bed (the ones they aren't allowed to play with!) and bring them to the lounge. 

They were just like this character in the book, Lintfrey Longfellow, they had "growing curiosity" as we placed the pillows into a circle and draped a crisp white sheet over. I hung a sheet behind them also. Then I dished out some "cloudy" snacks, popcorn with a meringue for afters. 

It was quite magical and we sat and read the lovely book. Made all the better by our cloudy surroundings for sure!

my camera didn't do a great job capturing the true magic of the cloud - so I magic'd them up a bit with pic monkey!

frogged

Frogged is a yarn term that I've only recently discovered. It means to unravel knitting/crochet, maybe

because you've made a mistake - or in my case, because I'm recycling! 

I found one of those enormous wrap style tops, the kind that are just a  giant rectangle with two slits for arm holes. It was just $3 and I knew that there was LOTS of yarn hiding in that rectangle. 

So I've started to unravel it, with plans of making a cardigan for Miss E, she loves the colour (me not so much though). I had in mind a tutorial to show you how to recycle yarn, but then I found this recycling yarn tutorial, so that should help you if you want to recycle too, and why wouldn't you?

Crafting can be expensive! Seriously, I think sometimes they see us crafters coming and rub their hands together with glee! Recycling yarn is a great way to keep costs down, look for big items in mostly the same colour, like jumpers or jerseys. These yield the most yarn.

I've read some pretty staggering statistics recently about how much textile waste is going to landfills around the world, kind of super scary stuff people! I know I can't change that too much by myself, but I'm determined to make a small difference how and when I can. For me personally that means trying to make careful clothing choices for my family (think quality over quantity and making the most of thrifted clothes) and I and recycle when I can! It's got to be better on the pocket too and that's always a win!

market + wee giveaway

When I was in Christchurch for Around the table, there was an amazing market on the Friday night. There was a huge array of talented crafters and designers there, seriously. Each table seemed to be filled with things I wanted to take home with me.  I was restrained by the cash I had in my wallet and that was probably a good thing. 

 I love this brooch by Little Fritter. I was taken by two brooches, this one that features some sweet liberty fabric and the other was an acrylic one shaped like a fantail. I wanted both, but after a lengthy decision I decided on this one, I can always buy the one from the Little Fritter shop!

 I loved everything from In my backyard, Stella and I both bought a print and some fabric scraps too - such copycats aren't we? I loved the wee scrap packs, mainly because I'm a terrible fabric hoarder. I just hate cutting into beautiful fabric, but you see the cutting has already been done! So I can happily use these pretty wee pieces.

I didn't buy this one, but it was included in the great goodie bag from Around the table. The super generous Emma from Emma Makes donated a notebook and pencil for each blogger attending the conference. Super duper generous I say! Check out her lovely Emma Makes shop.

And I know all of you NZ bloggers who missed out on attending Around the table, are feeling totally left out after all these posts popping up about what an amazing event it was. Here's you chance to feel (in a small way) like you were there. I've got the above items to pop in the post for a NZ blogger who didn't make it and would like a goodie bag of their own! The first comment of "yes please" will get the lot. My favourite thing would have to be the cool postcard by Stella! "I'm kind of a big deal on my blog"

*Open to NZ bloggers only, first comment by a blogger who didn't attend Around the table will win!  Giveaway closed
Congratulations to Sally!

bombed

Last week a group of kind bloggers got together to send off surprise packages to a lovely lady, nice huh?

You can read about what she thought and look at some of the other beautiful "bunting bombs" sent  here.

spreading the love

Two super blogging friends are having AMAZING giveaways on their blogs at the moment. Do check out their lovely blogs and while you are there, enter their giveaways supplied by super generous sponsors! 

image source - the golden adventures of a very dark horse

First up Stella's totally amazing Rainy day giveaway! Wow huh?

image source - green valley crafts 

Clare from Green valley crafts is giving away a pair of these beautiful shoes from All about Heidi

midday

I was meaning to post this over the school holidays but I didn't get around to it. I treated the kids to two midday bath sessions over the holidays. Once because we got a bit wet and muddy from our adventure, the other, just because!

It kept them occupied for quite a long time, playing in the bubbly water and you know what? They emerged calmer, cleaner kids! I Let them get into their pyjama's early too. An super easy not to mention cheap thing to do, a break from routine and they loved it!

crochet tips #1

So, it seems like everyone is interested in picking up a hook and having a go at crochet. I couldn't be happier about this. I LOVE to crochet and I actually have a deep need to always have a project big or small on the go. In the many years that I've been crocheting I've picked up lots of little tips and tricks. Mostly things I've learned myself from trial and error, I thought it might be helpful to share some of that knowledge here!

To start off I've picked the "adjustable ring" to share with you. Why? Well because once I discovered it I was surprised at the difference it made to the look of my crochet. You'll see. If you love granny squares you'll love this technique.Before we begin I must add that I'm left handed and I've flipped the photos to show the right handed way, fingers crossed they make sense to you right hand people out there. OK lets see what this adjustable ring thing is all about.

adjustable ring on the left - chain centre on the right

Ok from my lovely flashing gif above you can see two crochet buntings in action. On the left is the bunting triangle made with the adjustable ring method and on the right is one made with a chain centre. See how nice and tight the adjustable ring makes the centre? See how it makes the bunting a nice shape? And that sits flat? Amazing huh? It can do the same for granny squares too, making your blankets, cushions etc sit nice and flat without the need of much blocking (eek blocking I hear you cry? I'll cover that in another post!). 

To make an adjustable ring, you need to wrap the yarn around your fingers a couple of times, do the beginning chains as per pattern instructions. In the example I've chained three to stand as a double crochet, then do the required number of stitches into the ring.  Once you've done all the required stitches, put your thumb into the middle, the pull the yarn end until it's tight on your thumb. Make sure the ring is smooth and no yarn is popping up, then remove your thumb and pull tight. 

You'll end up with something like this, a nice tight centre! How cool is that? Below is the right hand pics. 

So when would you use this technique? Well for example this bunting pattern said "chain 6, then join to end to form a ring" - So in this instance you would forget about the chain part and just do an adjustable ring. It works well for hats and basically ANY pattern that suggests you "chain x amount" and then join into a ring. I find this works really well, especially if you are substituting yarn and find the number of chains the pattern suggest means that you can't fit all the stitches required into the ring. 

I'd love to share more tips over the coming weeks, and I'd love to hear from you if you've got a crochet question or something that's had you scratching your head that I may be able to help you with.