February Challenge - check...

The knit challenge - and i must admit, i found it a challenge from start to finish. I had NO idea what i wanted to sew with knit. It even seemed hard to come by anything nice! Finally i went with the age-old fallback, a dress for my daughter using the Farbenmix Olivia pattern. Great pattern, beautiful shape and very wearable. I played it smart and let Nina choose her own fabric, it was a bit 'fine' and i would have preferred something a bit 'meatier' for ease of use but it's all part of the learning experience :)

Here she is modelling :) The hood has since succumbed lol, she said it made the whole thing look ugly so i took the scissors to it LOL.

Perfect: NO

Wearable: Yes

Repeatability: High

Two out of three ain't bad!

2 arrivals this week...

Yay for me! The slightly mad quilt lady held a giveaway earlier in the year and i was the lucky beneficiary! It's a georgeous little toddler dress made with the most georgeous fabrics, it's little recipient - my niece - is winging her way around Aus right now and the weather hasn't permitted me to get a decent pic of this little beauty but isn't it precious! Thank you sooo much ms Lottie :D

Also the arrival of a bundle for me from crafty mama's, this gorgeous knit fabric chosen by Nina will be turning into a farbenmix Olivia dress as part of my February sewing challenge from My Favourite, i've traced off the pieces and cut it all out now to find the time to put it all together! Never really sewed with knit before so i'm looking foreward to this challenge :)

FO drought...

In the middle of a bit of FO drought here and what makes matters worse is i feel as though i have too many things on the go to be 'allowed' to start a new project, i've got some georgeous gradient dyed yarn there that i can't wait to cast on and i've also got a craft swap to get creating on but all these WIPs are dragging me down, they are clockwise from top, piece #2 of a jumper for me, 2 shawls, an ishbel by Ysolda Teague and a Simple yet effective by Lauren Chau, a jumper for Oscar and 20 hex's of the blanket :)

I've commited myself to one hex a day of the blanket - balance not to be carried foreward from previous days efforts lol so in light of that i think i'll tackle the 2 shawls first, that will make some room for me to cast on some of the yummy wool i've got waiting for me!!

From little things......

Pattern: Hexagon how-to by Attic24

Yarn: Red Heart Eco-Ways

..... Big things grow :)

Remember when inspiration struck me in my previous post, Well a trip to spotlight found me diving into 20 balls of the above, nicely coloured, admittedly a bit nasty and most importantly, heavily discounted yarn. It's touted as 'eco-yarn', but on closer inspection only 30% of it is made from recycled materials, the rest is good ole Acrylic, but for a blanket, i'll admit that it's a good material especially as the recipient probably wouldn't be keen to look after anything too fancy!

I've got 9 months to fashion this little hexagon into apx 150 of the buggers to form a spectacular rug - here's hoping!!!!!

kez

Friends and FO's... and when inspiration strikes!

Friend being my sister, she came around today and did a bit of stash busting for me by making herself a zippered pouch like the one featured in "The Crafty Minx" book, i didn't get a pic of it but it looks totally cute in purple gingham and blue paisley and i've discovered a novel way of shifting fabric out of my stash to make room for new stuff, let someone else at it lol!!

A few FO's today, i bought this cute tea towel at my local oppie a couple of months ago and i knew it was going to turn into an apron cos it's kinda special, i don't know whether i've finished tinkering with it or not, maybe an embellishment in the girl's hair to tie the contrast fabric in better... The blue paisley used to be the most unflattering 'dress' i've ever seen in my life - honestly looked like a theatre scrub dress and i could NOT imagine it being worn anywhere else, it wasn't homemade either lol!

The little pinwheels - i think this is my favourite knitting pattern and the best $8 i ever spent haha The pink is for my niece or nephew to be, there'll be a blue one joining her and the blue hat is for a lovely lady at work who is expecting a new bundle very soon, i'll try and squeeze out a change roll between now and the end of the week if the mood takes me but seeing as i just made part of a birthday gift not due til April today hrmmmmmm..... lol!

Back to my title - when inspiration strikes, last night i decided that my very good and wonderful friend 'needs' a beautiful crochet blanket for her birthday, seeing as it took me 3 years to complete my last crochet blanket even the 9 month deadline could end up being shaky lol

I can't decide between this and this but i'm leaning toward the Babette and spent the better part of 2-3 hours last night going through many, many online yarn stores to find the right yarn for the job, stay tuned, this could get exy bwahahah

kez