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! :)

Back in town - Lots to do!

Well we're back from Diamond Harbour now, such a lovely quiet place there. Feeling refreshed and rather overwhelmed by how many things there are to do now! Over two weeks spring has seemed to have come and I'm noticing all kinds of little things that show it, plants popping out of the earth again and flowers blooming. It's funny coming back home after a holiday, it takes a while to adjust to responsibilities again. Although it's nice to be independent again :)

My parents just got back from China with some awesome presents, the best have to be the kites my dad got us. At the moment we are waiting for the wind to pick up enough to fly them, then definitely I will post pictures of them in flight, they aren't your normal kites!

Mum bought some incredibly soft Cashmere wool for me, not sure what to make with it as it such a special fibre. It's very fine so I'm going to ply it together before knitting with it.

They visited some traditional paper craft workshops over there too - The red one is a paper cut of a phoenix and dragon. Sorry about the relfection but I'm unable to take the paper out of it's protective sleeve.

The second is a traditional woodcut, printed in layers. Such bright colours, but the subject matter is very traditional; hair cuts and all. They look great decorating the walls.

I was a bit worried about the pot plants that sit on the window sills while we were away, but they were fine. In fact this particular viola has a total of 9 flowers on it! It's desperate to get pollinated and go to seed but without any insects inside it can't, poor thing. But if I did put it outside the cold would probably kill it. I love how one of the flowers is growing upside down :)

Oscar got me a great CD for our anniversary, all the way from America it took a good month to get here but is well worth the wait. If you get a chance, give the album The Shepard's dog by Iron and Wine a listen. I'd describe it as a combination of Gotye, Angus and Julia stone and his own unique style.

 Current projects:

• Grandma's Doily covered bedspread
• Finishing Mum's jumper
• Ten stitch spiral rug (Koru)
• Sheep PJ pants
• Mending felted slippers 

Finished this week:

• Bias woollen skirt
• Thrummed alpaca hat

To start:

• Costumes for Macbeth (I can't reveal on here what they are till after the play is finished!)
• New designs for my shop
• Clothing for myself and Oscar 
• Write up knitting patterns
• Other general projects like getting the veggie garden going again

That's all for the moment, back soon with more updates and photos about my crafting and kite flying!

Nina

Holidays...

Going on holidays soon and back in September. I hope by then I'll have a camera to help document and share my crafting on this blog more thoroughly! :) Should have some interesting pictures to share from the holiday too.
Back soon to those who view my blog!
PS. Don't be afraid to comment...

My shop

A few months ago I decided to start an Etsy shop to sell my handmade clothing. It was mostly driven by the fact that I had been looking for work for more than a year and had no success. I've always made things and often thought of selling my creations and Etsy seems like the right place to do that. It's been a slow set up but now I have 15 items in my shop and hopefully soon more to come. A few things lately have held me back from making progress, being sick, not having a camera to photograph with etc. I'm hoping that when I get back from a holiday soon with a family camera I can get back into it again. It's really satisfying to see my garments up online and out there for people to see!

Link to my shop: SewFjords

 A woollen cape-let modeled by a friend with a cut and slash collar. Perhaps one day I will make a tutorial on how to do the cut and slash technique, its a lot of fun!

 Houndstooth waistcoat lined with a recycled men's rayon shirt. I think these vests really flatter the female shape, and they look cute.

 A funky flared skirt made from upcycled women's shirts. This one has the original pockets on both sides from the shirts it was made from.

 Also available is a knit design I have written myself, a thrummed headband. It is also on Ravelry here: Aruhu thrummed headband

Here I am modeling it on that snow day, it certainly kept my ears warm and toasty on that cold day!

Making and maintaining an online shop is a slow learning process and requires a lot of self motivation but in the end it was a good choice to make. It's empowering to display and sell your own creations!

Snow day in May!

So this year in May it snowed. I know that was a while ago but now that I'm blogging again I thought it deserved a mention. Last year we got a bit of sleet, but on the 28th of May it snowed over night. When my boyfriend got up to go to work he opened the curtains and said "Oh my god, Nina, Snow, everywhere, look! look!" Having grown up in Australia, we never experienced snow in our own backyard before. So you can imagine how excited we were!

First thing we did was have a really good look at everything outside and have a walk across some pristine snow, made snow angels and rescued the veggie garden which was covered in snow. It's amazing how the snow falls and leaves outlines on the trees and collects on certain things, the clothes line for example had snow resting on the wires.

We made a snow man and later when we went for an explore around the neighborhood, rolled giant snow balls on the oval :D

The next day all the snow had melted and things got back to normal, it was like it never happened.
Such an amazing experience, hope it snows again this year before spring comes. The strange thing is how mild it's been lately, the weather seems to be getting more extreme and topsy turvy these days...