Tea cosy and misty sunsets

Ah another productive and busy week! Mostly spent on Macbeth costumes, they are coming along nicely now. I started and finished a tea cosy, which I think I got too excited about really... but it's very useful. Osk and I were out skip hunting and came across some really good finds - a bunch of good coat hangers, a perfectly working mouse which helps when using a laptop and a teapot. There's something about spring that makes people want to throw out a heap of stuff, mostly rubbish but some useful items that work just fine. So, the teapot needed a cosy, that way it would look a bit nicer and also keep the tea warm long enough. I've thought it was a good idea ever since I showed Oscar's mum how to make one, but never owned a teapot.

The pattern is Scalloped lace tea cosy by crochet roo. Found the stitch pattern incredibly confusing to begin with - but a photo step by step tutorial by a fellow Raveler helped a lot. The outcome is a really thick and insulating cosy that looks awesome and used up most of my scrap yarn. Think next time I'll try another pattern, like one from this book:

Last few days the weather has been quite strange, very low cloud, mist and a variety of wind, calm, sunny and cloudy. One evening the mist was taking over the surrounding hills while the sun was setting, quite spectacular! Cabbage trees look magnificent against the sky, but then again so do all trees. This particular tree attracts plenty of beautiful Kereru pigeons that like to eat the fresh growth as the tree flowers. Out kite flying we've noticed that they can do amazing swoops and dives, sort of like planes doing tricks in the sky. Amazing birds!

Quite enjoying the use of a camera again :) Haven't done much photography for a while.

Planning on selling some goods that haven't sold on Etsy at the next market day, hoping it goes well!

Projects on the go this week:

•  Macbeth costumes - One finished, one awaiting fitting, one half done and one not yet started. 4 Weeks to go! Or less I believe...
• Gran's bedcover - 5 doilies to go now! Must have sewn on about 55 by now.
• Christmas presents.... well planning anyway.

Projects finished this week:

• Tea cosy
• Resizing jeans
• Planted spring veggies and flowers, weeded bed full of nasty dock and buttercup :)
• One Macbeth costume

Baking done this week:

• Banana cake with lemon icing
• Date slice with lemon icing
• Lemon delicious. 

(All consumed within 12 hours of being made)

A few recent projects... and a duck!

Have a few projects to share that I've been working on lately, won't be able to share the Macbeth costumes till after October I'm afraid!

This is a patchwork projects I finished recently, a bright and colourful hexagon quilt! Quite enjoy the odd patchwork project and after looking around for new technique to try came across some lovely hexagon blankets.  Some arranged randomly, some tiny and most interestingly, in flower formation.

Now the traditional English paper construction look very neat, but it would take forever. The next technique of sewing hexagons together by machine and doing fiddly corners didn't appeal to me either. So instead I chose a simple method of sewing strips together and making each hexagon into two halves. Worked really well! A lot of arranging and putting away into piles was necessary to make it as I don't have a permanent spot of floor to assemble quilts, but managed to make it work without too much confusion.

What can I make with this piece though? It's not big enough to be a quilt at about 112cm long and 85cm wide. I was thinking a skirt, but think that'll be too bright and colourful even for me! Any ideas? It would be nice to make it into a garment...

Next project, just finished on Saturday, a woollen dress for me made with my favourite little triangle decorations on the neckline and also on the bottom hem. This fabric was only a scrap really, cost me hardly anything but has a beautiful drape and sheen to it. I'll get better shots of this when the weather warms up enough to wear it - spring is temporarily gone and harsh winter chill is back again! Thought my dress form could do with a bit of decoration, bells from Thailand and a Eiffel tower from France. Bit of a relief to work on something that isn't costume related, as they are all one colour really.

Above is a picture of the lovely cardigan my mum made me :) Pattern is Amelia from Knitty.com some years back. The panels of twisted ribs on the front, side and back create a great fit, and make it really comfortable. Yarn is some Bendigo Woollen Mill yarn that I bought myself with plans to make a jumper but that never happened. One day when I have more patience and perhaps larger quantities of yarn I'll have another go at knitting garments... So thanks mum for making this for me, she did a great job!

That's all I have to report on my projects at the moment, but I'll leave you with a picture of a sweet duck we met at the botanical gardens. She was missing a foot sadly and didn't try to compete with the other ducks over the food you're allowed to feed them, but she had a companion and we gave her some food to nibble on :) Very tame duck this one, just sat at our feet and stared at us with big brown eyes patiently asking for some food. Lovely creatures ducks. It would be great to own some one day...

 Current projects:

• Plying, dyeing and knitting up some boucle wool, circa 1950's?
• Macbeth costumes
• Gran's bed cover
• Lava flow cowl

Finished projects this last week:

• Blue woollen dress with triangle neckline
• Alpaca fanned lace scarf

Things to start soon:

• Oscar's birthday present
• Dad's gong covers
• Shop items!
• Re-size some jeans and make new clothes...

Baking bread

Short post today - been busy making costumes!

Today I made a loaf of bread which didn't rise very much at all till I popped it in the oven. Voila! It fluffed up to twice it's size, and made a lovely light, crunchy and fresh lunch with cheese.

 Before:

 And after!

The idea was that if I made one loaf instead of two at a time I'd have fresher bread every week, but this one is nearly gone! Osk seemed to like fresh bread and had a couple of slices too, it's nice to have others appreciate my baking :) Hopefully I can be back later with some pictures of my own projects... and maybe a new crochet pattern, if I find time to type it up.

Current projects:

• Macbeth costumes - 4 in total
• Fanned crochet scarf in alpaca
• Lava flow cowl
• Grandma's doily covered blanket

Finished this week:

• Mended felted slippers, hope they hold!
• Koru rug
• Mum's jumper she made for me
• Sheep PJ pants

Thanks for reading! :)