Hmmm

In between my larger projects this past month I have been making little baby things for a friend. I picked up this book at the library the other day and could not wait to have a play with it. If the cover does not suck you in the cute overload inside will.

I was pleasantly surprised to see the Autumn Leaves baby cardigan inside and could not wait to whip one up. It was coming along just nicely until row 18 when my instinct starts kicking in and saying no no thats not right. I probably should have listened but of course I went on knitting…...In all honesty, we were watching Twelve Monkeys with the kids, an oldy but a goody and I was paying more attention to the tv than looking at my knitting. A couple of rows were ripped back as punishment and then I finally stopped and hit ravelry for an explanation.

You can usually weed out an explanation somewhere if you look closely enough. Despite the fact that everyone is so damned nice and does not want to complain. sigh. Really I get it but its more helpful if you just pop something down in your notes to say what went wrong. I did find a couple that mentioned problems and then went over to the blog to compare notes.

This pattern is offered for free on the designers blog so I think its ok to spell it out. The instructions in the book are wrong. It has been rewritten on the blog to add the eyelets at the beginning of the row and also changes the use of skpsso to ssk. Much easier and neater too. That aside, the instructions on the blog are then missing the underarm cast ons  and the marker placements are different. So if you don't know how to work without a pattern by yourself this one is probably going to confuse you to no end.

Needless to say, I do love this design (Its very cute!) and am just continuing on from here in without the pattern. I have placed the markers directly in the middle of each underarm and will work increases either side if and when I feel like it. Thats my plan and I am sticking to it.

It must be the name I tell you. Do you remember a certain other Autumn Leaves cardigan in the adult size I was working on last year? The one that required pretty much rewriting the whole pattern to get the leaves placed right? This baby was a breeze compared to that one. LOL

I just realised I never did get around to finishing the bands. Whoops, my bad.  Must add that to my Feb, WIP pile.

Back to the book. "What to Knit when you are expecting". Its a beautiful book. Full of cute babies, gorgeous designs and the pictures are just lovely to look at. I am planning to buy a copy despite my little gripe here about this particular pattern because well the cute overload has totally sucked me in and I am going to have to give this one back to the library next week. :-)

Now I shall away and get back to it. Have a beautiful weekend all. Happy crafting!

Hugs xox

WIP Wednesday….and yarn along.

Oh Look at me, blogging two days in a row! There is hope for me yet!! haha! How are we all today? Well I hope.

So what am I knitting this week?

I have been busy in between all my test knits and baby knitting working on this lovely pattern…

Pic borrowed from Tracey's pattern page on Rav

Kallan Cape by Tracey Lee.

I first saw this pattern when it was released and added it to my very long queue on Ravelry. Then when I saw this months KAL on the Budding Down Under Designers group was hosted by Tracey I saw it as a sign to get kicking with it.

I originally planned to make this in a forest green but then ended up choosing Mink in Bendigo Woollen Mills Luxury as the green would probably have not have gone with much. This is more neutral.  So here is my effort so far…..

I did not get started till last week as I had to await my yarn arrival. I am sure I will not finish this by the end of the KAL but thats ok. I plan to enjoy it and finish it by winter. Maybe I will even get to wear it a little before I run away north as is my usual fashion when it gets too cold. LOL More likely,  I will gift it, if I don't wear it. I know I will love it though. If you like a bit of cabling, this is the project for you.

The pattern is not charted but is very well written with the hood being a separate pdf. You can also choose to print the whole version or just the off rows. Separate documents are provided for both. I opted to knit the cape first and sew the hood on later. Alternatively, you can start with the hood and pick up your stitches for the cape if you prefer. I figured it would get a bit heavy and its rather hot here atm so I did not fancy sitting under all that wool at once. Hence starting with the cape. :-)



What am I reading? 

I took delivery of Woodland Knits this week. Its a beautiful book and I had been eyeing it off for a while. I was introduced to Stephanie's patterns a long time ago when my oldest daughter purchased a copy of her Woodland Hoodlet. It was way out of her knitting skill range and she opted to try and email it to me, somehow it got lost and deleted and despite planning to buy it again we never got around to it. I did promise to knit it for her though so hopefully this year I will finally get around to it.

There are lots of whimsical, magical and just down right cute patterns in this book. My only gripe with it is the almost consistent use of chunky or bulky yarn. Not very practical for those of us who live down under, especially on the coast. Just finding the yarn is a chore in itself. Great for people who prefer a quick knit  I guess.

Anyway, that is not really reading is it? What I have been reading this week is the Ancient Future Series by Traci Harding. Or I should say RE-Reading….I have read them all twice before at least. I am onto the 3rd book in the series and enjoying them just as much as the first time I read them.

If you are not familiar with this series……you can find out more about it here.

I also just finished reading The Lost Child of Philomena Lee, by Martin Sixsmith,  I read the whole book yesterday afternoon and have to say I was a bit disappointed.

The cover described it as "The heartbreaking story of a mother and the son she had to give away".  I was expecting to hear both sides of the story and what happened to them both in general. It started out with the mothers story but once he was taken from her (she did not choose to give him away) at 3 years old, it pretty much tells the story of Michael's life  and we don't really hear much more about the mother at all.

To me this book went into way too much detail about Mikes personal life. More than half the book is about his political career and his choice of sexuality. Way way too much information. In fact I became both bored, then disgusted (poor Mike is not telling this story, it is hearsay from other people in his life, a life I might add that he chose to keep private for reasons of his own). This book made me feel really really sad. So sad for his birth mother and even more sad for him.

As one who tends to read through the lines a bit, I feel like his adoptive family were more than likely not fairly portrayed in this book. I am assuming that they chose not to get too involved in the whole story themselves. The man had issues and of course there are two sides to every story.

I will leave it at that, just incase you choose to read it yourself. I won't give away the whole story. I would have liked to have read a little more about his birth mothers life and their search for each other rather than all the fluff which was really no-ones business but his own. Thats just my opinion anyway.

Now enough rambling from me today. You have a beautiful day.

Love and hugs xoox

Whats in a bag?

My beautiful sister in law popped in last night with a bag of goodies for me. She has been having a mega clean out and although she learned to knit a little while ago, she is over it already. (insert shocked face right here!!!!!!). She was gifted this lovely bag of goodies and decided that they would get more use at my house.  

I think she may be right........Oh My Goodness......there is at least one of every sized needle in there, not to mention all the stitch holders and hooks. One can NEVER have too many of those you know? 

And full of yarny goodness, the rest of the bag certainly was. There is loads of acrylic yarn which will be sorted and probably shared with others. A couple of balls of lovely soft pure wool in blue which I just so happen to have some of myself. Now there is enough to make something baby with that. Yay! There are even some knitting books which I will also pass on to friends as I already have one of them and probably won't use the others.  And there was this Rainbow of  chunky yarn that I could not resist having a play with straight away. 

(Note:  I could not help but take pictures of it either. LOL Love the way the light and flash effects the colours so differently)

             

Chunky yarn is not common around here as it does not really get that cold that one needs it. Can't say that I love it as its acrylic and not so wonderfully soft. (Yep the yarn snob in me was rearing her head again. Sorry)  But at least I get to try out this little pattern I found in a magazine. And I am pretty sure my niece will love this rainbow of colour. 

Progress report on other things........the dress is coming along.........all make it up as you go.. and I guess going fine. Again, not loving the acrylic part but it was the only colour I had that matched. 

And the little cardigan is a bit slow going as I have not really had much sit down yarn time at all. Too much beach weather last week. :-) 

And the normal day to day stuff of course. Like keeping house, homeschooling, going to beach, reading, gardening, going to the beach again. LOL You can catch up with those adventures on my other blog. (link in sidebar). 

And now I must away,  we are going to work out or weight in gold today and I have a mountain of laundry to tackle. Juggling life is my forte! ;-) 

Have a beautiful week all. 

Hugs and smoochies xoxoxxox

My week......

In between crochet projects last week there was a little bit of knitting and op-shopping and wonderful book deliveries... yes I had a bit of a shopping spree at the the book depository and have added to my collection.......

*100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet (Lesley Stanfield)

*Gifted (Mans Kandis)

*Cute and Easy Baby Gifts (Susie Johns) 

* Sacred Plant Medicine (Stephen Harrod Buhner)

* Plant Spirit Healing (Pam Montgomery) 

I have already knitted a little sweater from the Gifted book as I borrowed it from the library. I want to add some felted details before showing it though.  Meanwhile I have been working on a sweater for myself, small portion of which is in the top picture.

I still need to get to the sewing part of this little project as it is holding up my trip to the post office...norty me! 

I found this half done project when looking for wool the other day. And of course I used a fair bit of the wool in my baby hoody so not sure if I will have enough to finish it. Woops. I will at least try to turn it into a vest or short sleeved cardigan though. 

And I made myself a new headband, excuse the shoddy picture but it as the best I could do pre-coffee this morning. LOL 

What are you working on right now? I am pretty keen to start a couple more baby projects but am really beginning to see that I need to finish all the half made ones first. There are still several more sitting around that I need to get too! Oh dear! 

Have a beautiful week everyone!

Hugs and smoochies xoxoxoxxo

Score...........

I should probably stay away from second hand books for a while. I mean really, I am getting quite a stash happening and am not sure I will ever be able to use them all. 

Of course though, whilst visiting the local school fair, I could not help but notice these lovelies piled amongst the old toys and books. And I mean REALLY would you leave them there when they were only $1 each and the two hard cover books were brand spanking new inside like they had never even been read? 

No? Me either! The one on the left is one I have wanted to buy for a while but never got around to buying, so I was pretty chuffed to find it there to say the least. The middle one is full of lacy loveliness. With loads of lace collars and edging ideas. My fingers are itching with excitement! 

The last book was purchased with the thought of me finally getting around to trying embroidery. Well Im not sure when I will find the time but I am hoping to get around to it ONE DAY! If not there are plenty of other needlework things to do in there. :-) 

I also bought this cook book as it has loads of yummy sweet recipes and even a few interesting food ones. I have been planning for ages to have a go at making one of those altered books but thus far have not had the heart to do it. 

I am such a book lover that the thought of tearing out pages, covering them with glue and such, kind of puts me off. However, I am all for the idea of having a book that is FULLY useful. I have so many recipe books that go largely unused and numerous favourite recipes on pieces of paper or online that I would love to put together in ONE book. So its going to happen eventually, as soon as I get my head around it. And of course find a spare 100 hours or so. :-)

My knitting and crochet projects are coming along well this week. There has been knitting in the car, even though I said I would not do that again. My first One a Day project is almost complete and I have been working on the little Melon Daisy cardigan too. Will try and do a picture update soon. 

What have you been up to this week? 

Hugs and smoochies all xoxoxox

Love Karisma

Another one for the to do list......

With all my talk about Vintage pattern book finds lately, I had to have a laugh when my man was cleaning out his office and old bookcase when he came down stairs and presented me with three very old knitting/craft books that I must have filed up there many many moons ago.

They were all from the 80's and two of them I think I will pass on as I really don't find any of the patterns appealing which is probably why I forgot I even owned them. But this one..........well, this one is full of interesting little gems....not all so much my usual choices of craft but interesting ideas, none the less.

After a quick look through I decided it was not only a keeper but just look at this adorable pattern.....

I am so going to have to make this one, the only problem is that it calls for 3ply wool. I have not knitted with 3 ply for many many years and do not have any at the moment. Its really not so popular these days and my favourite wool supplier only has it in white or cream. So I am wondering if it is worth the risk of using 4ply wool and smaller needles. I know it could work but I also know it will not have the same fine texture as 3 ply. Hmmmmm.

Well, I certainly have time to think about it before starting. With all the unfinished projects I have on the go. It will have to wait a little first before I get started. I so want to to make it right now, but I know if I do, something else may end up frogged. And we can't have that now can we? LOL Oh the temptation is too much for me!

Have a beautiful day everyone! Hugs and smoochies xoxoxox

So......

I may have gone shopping........

but in my own defense, this.....

and this....

and even this......

came in the mail this week. And while I was totally out looking for wool for my one a day project, I could not help but sneak in a few more. And my mum gave me a few of those balls too, so of course I had to start another project. I chose one from the last book and have made a start today......

Not very exciting so far as the back is in stocking stitch but the front is going to be a bit more lacy so more interesting. Will update you later. I am calling it the honeycomb cardi and knitting it with some of the wool mum gave me. Holiday pure wool in 8ply. Its lovely and soft, so nice to knit with. :-) Thanks mum!

I have of course made a start on my granny squares but am finding that I really need more solid shades as I bought some variegated wool thinking it would look nice but the squares are too small for it to take effect so the colour variety is not enough right now. I will keep looking. I am hoping some of my friends might have some scraps they can pass on to me. The picture above is some of the wool I have been using. The brown and cream are Moda Vera Merino and the others are Sean Sheep pure wool.

That said, these baby books are soooooooo yummy! I have already been shopping about online for MORE wool! The last book calls for Cascade 220 superwash which I have never used but I am amazed at the amount of colours it comes in so of course am going to have to order some!

Oh and just in case you are interested and all, I also picked this book up at an opshop for 50c. Bargain much? It looks like it sat on someones shelf and was never used. The pages inside are perfect. I must endeavour to make at least something out of it. LOL I also have a lot of these types of books which seem to decorate my bookshelf rather than get used. One day I hope. Maybe when the kids are all grown.

Have a lovely crafty weekend all. Hugs and smoochies xoxoxox