Hello my friends, its been a while again.  A rather busy year with plenty of extended family dramas to keep us busy. Sadly both my brother and sisters relationships broke down which meant lots of changes for both of them and their children. Lots of tears and hugs were shared and major moves and adjustments have now been made. Life was just down right sad despite my usual positive outlook on things. I did not feel much like blogging. I am trying to get my mojo back and thought I would start with some exciting news.

Last week I was privileged to attend the birth of my new nephew. My husbands brother and his wife are proud new parents of this gorgeous little guy. And my niece is super proud of her new little brother She cannot get enough of cuddling him.

Here he is wearing a little beanie whipped up by his Aunty K partly on the trip to the hospital and finished on the day after he was born…..

I hung around for the first week until he was settled in and then had to come home to catch up with my own life and chores. They live about 3 hours away from us so we can't just pop in for quick visits.

Today is my youngest girls birthday. She is 23. Wow the years have flown. I just finished a sweater for her yesterday. No time to block it but will hopefully share some pics and linky love once she tries it on later today. Here is a sneaky peek….

Peace and love to all. Have a beautiful day. xox

Whats on the needles? Whats off the hook?

Last week I made a promise to myself that I would NOT join in any more swaps, do any more test knits or join in any more KAL/CAL's as we are counting down the days to our yearly holiday and I want to plan something fun to take (LOL Last year I took a whole crate of yarn along). With this NOTness on my mind I decided that this month's knitting would be all about me. Because really I can't just NOT knit can I? Yes I shall make myself something. I had 3 balls of Bendigo Woollen Mills Stellar in Agate which I was dying to try and with much searching and deliberation over patterns I decided to go with Autumn Leaves by Janine Le Cras.

So far so good. Its all a bit boring really. A lot of plain old stocking stitch and I had laugh at other comments on Rav which pretty much summed it up as well. It all pretty much looks like this...although the colour is not quite this dull....

I managed to finish the body and 1 and half sleeves before I caved. Sezza is hosting a KAL you see, and my will power took a beating as I was getting fed up with all that stocking stitch and I have been wanting to make some socks AND of course a Winifred. You know I love those Little Winifreds and I have been wanting one for myself for ages.

Going to admit it took me about 2 seconds to talk myself into it and buy a copy of Winifred and Summer Strawberries.   After all I did have all this lovely yarn that needed using up even if the Poems sock yarn did not quite suit the pattern. I honestly thought I would cast on the socks and that would be my KAL project and the Winifred could go on holidays with me.

My needle situation thought otherwise and decided for me....snag snag snag... went the yarn and all it did was fuzz up as I tried to manoeuvre it along those toothpicks that are supposed to be needles......sigh.... I can feel a shopping trip coming on. I can.






For now however, I gave up and casted on for Winifred. Very optimistic and not sure I can get it done in just two weeks but hey you never know. I will not stress over it. I intend to enjoy it all....

Even if it does mean a whole lot more stocking stitch....LOL...... Thats ok, Since I took this picture I have  started the cable panel so its not so boring now.....

And the yarn is nice and squishy soft. Patons Dreamtime which I seem to have a whole lot of in my stash. :-)    If you would like to join in the KAL, you can find it over here. There are some pattern discounts too if you have been thinking of purchasing a Sezza pattern, now is a good time.

Now I must way and get some work done. Here is another one of those little Angel Pinafores and matching hat that I finished yesterday to leave you with a little something finished to look at. Have a great day all.

Hugs and smoochies xoxoxoxxo

Short and Sweet...

Hello lovelies,

Just a little bit of sweetness today. Made with some gifted Acrylic yarn which is surprisingly soft and hooked up mostly on the long car trip North.

A nice and easy project for a new baby. I used a 4mm hook and the yarn is DK (8ply) used under 100g.

The pattern is a free pattern by Sarah Sweethearts (link here).  One which I have had for ages, but never got around to, so glad I finally did, its really cute.

This is a really simple project with each row moving up in a slightly different spot so you do not even notice the joins. You can up the size by using a larger hook or it would be quite easy to add some pattern repeats into each section for an older child.


My WIP is a knitting one. I am working on a sweater for the hubby. So far I knitted most of the back and had to rip half back as the pattern did not make sense. I fixed it up yesterday and re-wrote the whole pattern down in hopefully a better order. Will see how it goes.

(I am currently right up on the border of NSW, 8 1/2 hours from home and planning to cross over today into QLD to take the kids to one of the theme parks up there, I have been posting pictures on my other blog, link in the sidebar if you would like to see pictures).

Love and Light xox

Little things.....

This week I have been trying to catch up with my baby gift knitting.  So far I have managed to knit these little lovelies. 

The little bootees are an all time favourite as they don't require ties and don't slip off little feet.  

I also made my very first Aviatrix. What a great little pattern. It was very quick to make and the instructions are easy to follow. I am going to make another one in a bigger size. The yarn is Naturally Loyal 8 ply which was lovely and soft. I still have a little left so I might use it in a vest with another colour. 

I am going to go offline for a weeks break. So hopefully I will get a bit of catch up knitting and crochet done. 

Love and Light to all. 

Hugs and smoochies xoxoxo

Sparkles......

Take a little vintage pattern and some bargain wool purchased for the grand old price of $1 for two balls from an Op-Shop and what do you get? 

Sparkles my friends, you get sparkles!!!! So named because this yarn has some sparkly bits through it that look so pretty when the sun hits them.  Not that you can really see it in the pictures here, you will just have to trust me on this one. ;-) 

The pattern is from Patons Royal Babies booklet which is full of lovely patterns for baby. I think I shall be making a few more from this publication. Very easy to follow patterns and very sweet. 

The yarn used is Craftworks Baby Yarn (with a sparkle of love) in 4ply, knitted on 3.25mm needles. I added the little leaf shaped heart buttons as they also have a bit of a sparkle to them and finish the little cardigan off nicely. 

I enjoyed knitting this one despite the repeated efforts of Miss Sibel the kitten to rip it off the needles. The yarn was nice to knit with, however the sparkle parts did tend to snag on the fine needles. It was also quite hard to pick up the stitches around the neck because of this. (There was not enough give in the yarn). The overall effect though is really nice. As you can probably tell, I did not block it before sewing. It would probably benefit from this process but well.........you know me by now. LOL Its going to get washed and spring back anyway. 

One of my girls has already claimed this one. She wants me to keep it for when she has a baby. We are getting quite the stash of "keepers" in this house and yet no grandchildren on the horizon as far as I can see. Hmmmmmmm.

Have a Beautiful week all. 

Love and Light xoxoxox

A little Ta-dah - finally...

After much laying around, I finally sewed this little cardigan together and gave up on the changing of the front edge. I was not 100% happy with the way it looked and am thinking that next time I am faced with such an edging I may need to up a needle size. OR not do such an edging to start with. I think I prefer a wider edging anyway :-) 

This pattern called for Ribbon through the middle to tie in a bow. I did not like that idea either and decided to make a little crochet chain instead. Working one row of sc along the chain and sewing in the ends.  I quite like the way it curls up. 

I then added two little flowers to the edges to fancy it up a bit. Ahhh looks much better now. Now I don't even notice the edging at all. 

The pattern is from The Debbie Bliss Baby Book and the decorations are my own. 

The yarn is 5ply Patons Heirloom. This was a quick and easy knit with the main part of the pattern being very simple. As I said, other than that I would change the front edging to add a little border and probably some buttons. 

Hope you are having a wonderful week. Hugs and smoochies xoxox