Serenade......

Good morning my lovely friends. Its 6.30am and finally I have a quiet moment to pop in and say hello.

Its been a busy week down here. We have been celebrating Xmas a little early. My daughter has been for a visit from Melbourne and you may remember that I was owing her a little present which has been on the hook since June.

Those of you who have been here for a while will know that I had dramas with this one. Dramas that have taught me to trust in myself and to have a little faith and all that jazz. :-)  Why? The rest of you may be asking? Well, to cut a long story short (because it panned out to be a really long story),

• Daughter wants a long coat to keep her warm on cold winter Melbourne days.
• Mum picks out several for daughter to choose from.
• Daughter picks one from Melody Griffiths designs.
• The pattern calls for Noro silk garden and will cost way too much
• We improvise with Bendigo Woollen Mills Serenade.
• For the first time in ever, mum does a test swatch as she does not have a big enough hook. It measures up beautifully so we go ahead. 
• Mum begins to panic when the amount of rows called for look way to short. Pops online to order more yarn, which has of course now gone up. $104 later we are back in business but need to completely change the pattern to get this to work. 
• Many more rows are need and of course the jacket is not as wide as it should be. 
• The sleeves needed to be changed all together as we need several increases along the way.
• Next was the addition of a border all the way around. Which could have been wider but as daughter is on a weight loss mission at the moment, we did not want it to end up too big. 
• We did not make it as long as the one in the pattern because the gorgeous yarn is way too heavy. 
• In the end we did not really need to buy all the extra yarn anyway. Woops. We did use extra purple though. And on the bright side. Mum now has a marvellous addition to the stash pile. (Insert evil chuckle). 

Now I know my rambling must be driving the scrollers among you nuts so without further ado, here it is, finally as finished as its going to get..........

Drum roll please.........presenting the long awaited Stripy Serenade........... 

Ta-Dah .....

There was no time for blocking or being fussy as my girl is off home today and wanted to take it with her.  She is very happy with the results. I am very happy that it is finally finished. It is so warm and snuggly. 

I think we can say we have one happy customer, don't you? 

And now I must away. My time is up. The girls are awake and I must wake up the boys. Another busy day is in store for us here. Lessons for one, School for the other, Gymnastics, Long car trips, airport drop offs.....the usual mama shuffle of getting everything done and everywhere they need to be. :-) 

Have a beautiful day everyone. 

Love and hugs 

xoxoxoxoxox