Tuesday, May 5, 2009

This....


...is what happens when friends know you can sew...

My roomie (and good friend) Bec is going to a Ball on Saturday with her fella (hey CS!!! *waves*). And he needs a waistcoat. This - this folks - is where I come in : )

Hmmm, how am I going to do this???

I figured that I don't have a mens waistcoat pattern (not to mention CS is a reasonably talltalltall fellow, so standard patterns are prolly not gonna fit), so my BRILLIANT idea is to get hold of one of his business shirts (or similar) and see if I can't draft a vague, waistcoaty shaped pattern...

Whaddaya think???
Did I mention its THIS SATURDAY!!!!!

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Day 5 of 31 (or 365) - mmmmmmm, F&N Grape Soda. Yummmmmmmmmmmmmm. Sugary, aghnnghghgnnnnghgngh (that would be the noise Homer Simpson makes when he drools peeps)

Monday, May 4, 2009

Wip Week Wrapup

Oh dear.
WIP Week wasn't wildly winning...
No matter tho' - I did manage to make a teensy-leetle bit of headway into the great unfinished projects hole. And at least now I know I only have 7 bits of unfinished craft business ; )

So, because there are ONLY 7 of them, I had a bit of a sit down and a sift through the detritus that is my craft room (good lord! It's like an historic excavation in there at times. What future generations will make of the different strata of debris, I simply do not know!!!).

And, after I crawled out from under the piles and piles of stuff and dusted myself off slightly (darn those cobwebby bits...), I managed to compile what I am going to call My Project Wishlist (or MPW...I love acronyms...hey! I work in a bank, it's all acronyms all the time...).

My Project Wishlist (in a sort of order, which will be subject to change and or addition without notice by the blog owner)
  1. Thimbleberries Block of the Month. A previously covered off WIP. SImply MUST finish this and get it off the back of the craft room door;
  2. Bento Box Quilt. Another previously mentioned WIP. This is just getting ridiculous;
  3. Hardanger Napkins - hmmm, perhaps these should be # 1 due to impending Mothers Day gift issues...
  4. Scarf - for a friend (yes, yes, OK it's ANOTHER WIP...I know, I know...);
  5. Knitted Afghan WIP. Only about, oh, 40 blocks to go...
  6. Les Lapins Cross Stitch. I suspect this is a bit of a long-term WIP. Although I do enjoy cross stitch and other embroidery, it is a somewhat laborious endeavour;
  7. Baby Blanket. Dammit. The child this was intended for has nearly started school. I've moved house THREE TIMES since I started it. IT MUST BE FINISHED;
  8. I'm going to make my first ever piece of clothing. A skirt for work. I have the pattern. I have the fabric. I have the lining. I have the other requirements, including an ability to use a sewing machine;
  9. I want to knit myself a pair of socks. I picked up some lovely self-patterning teal coloured sock yearn on the weekend;
  10. I got a GREAT Japanese craft book with felt cakes and whatnot in it. I sooooooo badly want to make some of this;
  11. Numerous baby items. One of my good friends is currently preggers and I have soooo many projects I want to do for her and bub. I think I'll just call them all # 11. A Clochette baby hat; fabric bibs; knitted booties; etc
  12. Fun Fur Kitschmas trees from Monster Yarn's blog. I have a ludicrous amount of novelty yarns, so this will be an excellent way to use these up (actually, this could probably go further down the list...);
  13. Make some toys for the Toy Society;
  14. Mending. Yes, that's right. Mending. I've recently lost a few kilos, which has resulted in almost none of my clothes being able to fit me properly. This has resulted in a great amount of expenditure both on new ensembles and also on tailoring those clothes I cant manage to sort myself. I hope you all appreciate the sacrifice I am making for the retail purchases led economic recovery.
  15. A rag rug. Saw a great pattern on Moda Bakeshop. Want.
  16. Lollychops Wendy Bird Pattern. I made one of these for a friend and it was fabulous. Therefore, I want more for me;
  17. ABC booklets for my littlest niece. I think I saw these on Craftypod the other day. 8-page booklets with a letter on the front for the kiddies to fill with pictures cut out from magazines, where the item in the picture starts with the letter on the front of the book. Geniusly (I don't think that's a real word BTW) way of learning ABC's;
  18. Key chain lanyard. I've got a swathe of access and security cards I need for work, and at the moment they are on a daggy black ropey lanyardy thing (which I dislike intensely);
  19. Use some of my Sublime Stitching patterns. Not sure what for, but inspiration surely MUST strike : )
  20. Bookmark pyramids. Fabric pyramids, filled with rice (or similar) to keep cookbooks (or similar) open;
  21. A bag for my swimming gear. Partifularly my training fins. Carrying them around in the clear plastic bag I bought them in is just, icky....
  22. Drawing. I used to do a lot of drawing in primary and high school and I'd like to get back into that;
  23. Geisha quilt panel. I bought this such a long time ago because I loved it. And you know what? It's sat in the bottom of my fabric basket since then. Time to shake a leg;
  24. Fabric covered bulletin boards. Too cool.
  25. Hmmmm, surely there's more....watch this space

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Day 4 of 31 (or 365) - I'm now seeing granny squares everywhere people!! The fashion parade that everyone has mentioned in the last week; The oppy; and last night on the news when someone was visiting a hospital somewhere. I vote Granny Squares for Prime Minister...

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Granny Along

(Visit Pip @ Meet Me At Mikes for some instructions about crocheting granny squares)




I don't think I was ever taught to crochet - I learnt to knit both from my mum but also at Brownies when I was a wee girl (just the basics obvy). My mum was a reasonably good knitter, and I can recall have all number of knitted ensembles for myself and for my Barbie Dolls too. Everything tricky that I know knitting wise I have picked up from patterns or books or natural attrition.


My Dad's Dad also was a knitter. He spent some time incarcerated in Changi Prison as a POW during WWII, and apparently learned to knit there. He liked to knit his own socks - but he was also quite an accomplished crocheter.





This blanket is one that he crocheted for me after I was born, and considering that Grandpa has not been with us for 22-years, it is something that I treasure deeply. Unfortunately, blankie has previously met with a small 'incident' (as can be seen in the lower left hand corner of the above photo) when my Mum & Dad's dog took a bit of a liking to it one day. Very distressing, but no one that I trust has been able to fix it, partly because the yarn is over 30 years old and we don't really know what it's made off...(please also excuse my feet peeping out of the end...)



It's quite unbelievable - to me anyway! - how tight the crocheting (crochetry??) is in the squares.


Anyway, despite this proud history...below are my own efforts at granny squares..



In ascending order of completion...


Uh-huh...


Did I mention self-taught from instructions found on the internets??? Only been crocheting for a week???


Could be PLENTY worse I reckon


(except I didn't take any photos of the really really baaaaadddd ones that I pulled apart...)


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Day 3 of 31 (or 365) - I bought some fabric yesterday to attempt to make my first ever item of clothing...a skirt for work...it has a lining...this may have been too ambitious...



Saturday, May 2, 2009

WIP Week - Update II

Hmmm - WIP Week is appearing to be a teensy bit of a washout...

Not a lot to report on updated situations vis a vis WIP's, only a little more work on the set of hardanger embroidered napkins.


I made the critical mistake of trying to work on these last night after spending several hours surfing the net...sadly the eye strain made it almost impossible, so I had to call a halt to proceedings and move onto my afghan project as I was having actual trouble focussing my eyes!!
I probably should have included a 50 cent piece for scale - or something - but the fabric is an incredibly small weave. The heart motif is only about an inch tall.
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Day 2 0f 31 (or 365) - Brown Owls here in Perth today, where we 'Granny-ed Along'. Fun was had by all (I hope!) with varying degrees of perfection : ) More on that later...

Friday, May 1, 2009

31 Days of Blogging

In an effort to not neglect my blog, I've decided (and in the spirit of those who blog 365 days) to attempt to blog everyday during May.


Starting today (umm, obvy!). Whilst the topics may not always be scintillating, I think it will get me into a good frame of mind for regular updates to become habits. After all, I seem to recall that it takes two weeks of doing something for it to become a habit!!


I guess we'll see how I go. Perhaps if I can stick it out for the entire month, I'll try another full month maybe all the way up to 365 days in a row!


Wish me luck : )

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Day 1 of 31 (or 365) - Gee this is easy really, isn't it...in bad news, went to the physio yesterday and it seems I have Greater Tronchi-something bursitis....Well, that would explain the searing, burning pain in my hip when I run : ( The bad (or good) news is no running for me for the foreseeable future 'cos if it doesn't heal properly then its cortisone injections in the hip for me...Quick! Someone just order me a zimmer frame and get it over with : )

Thursday, April 30, 2009

WIP Week - Update 1

Hmm, not too much progress on the WIP's. Have been a) slack and b) out for work function last night (and considering I did not get home until 11.45pm, there was NOT a lot of crafting done...).
Some more inches on the scarf (Project # 3).

Aaaaaannnnddd, that's about it really...
But I did ring and speak to my Mum. So I think I deserve props for that ; )




Wednesday, April 29, 2009

10 on Tuesday (on Wednesday)

Well, I've 'subscribed' to 10 on Tuesday from www.yanowhatimean.com/tuesday.

Altho a day late, here are my 10 Words People Would Use to Describe Me (or at least the 10 words I think they would use to describe me!!)
  1. Creative;
  2. Laughter;
  3. Friend;
  4. Cooking;
  5. Kind;
  6. Trustworthy;
  7. Reliable;
  8. Organised;
  9. Neat;
  10. Triathlons!!!

Hmm, I hope that's what people think of me and not that I'm some loud-annoying-neatfreak-pedantic-whiny-a$$ed-little-b!tch who doesn't know when the hell to shut up. That - obviously - would be bad...