Yarnivorous

G'day all! Nathan got a new toy today.  We walked into the city, hopped on a rail bus (they are replacing the catenary and doing trackwork on the harbour bridge railway lines) and wound our way to Chatswood. My goodness Chatswood was crazy. Everyone wanted to go shopping there. It has an open air shopping mall, two indoors malls/shopping centres and a few hundred metres of shops lining the road to the carparks. People were everywhere. I had discovered that there was a sewing machine shop about a kilometre from the train station, so we went for a walk.  The cars were banked up in both directions - we were walking faster than the cars fleeing Chatswood. And we just so happened to find a second sewing machine shop that had not shown up on my search. We talked to them, we checked out the other place, we walked back to the first place and Nathan lugged home the overlocker you can see in wherever mobile blogger has put the picture. (oh, he did pay for it first. He said that his ...

G'day all! Oh yes, I am pumping out the posts today after days of quietness. I've been a busy bee since Christmas. You saw the hole in our wall, well it got worse and now it is better. Not watertight yet but better. What did Santa bring me for Christmas? Purple hair and a sniffle! (hence the tissue) (I bought myself the necklace) I finished my 22leaves shawlette some time ago, but it was only this week that I managed to block it and weave in the ends. This is a lovely shawl and quite easy to knit. I love the mesh. I love the leaves. I love the whole shebang! I recommend you go and knit one too, if you are a knitter. Or get a knitter to make you one if you are not a knitter. Lankakomero has some lovely patterns (this one now costs USD5 but worth it!). Here's a few Christmas presents I made for family: (For my sister in sin - she wanted a jellyfish) (Sister in sin's parents' bunting) (PiL's bunting) (Bunting for aunt-in-law) (Bunting hanging up - excuse th...

G'day all! My what an interesting day. I spent the morning hammering away at Christmas presents. I finished one batch at my niece's 21st - she is the third niece to turn 21 and the second last. I still have another niece and two nephews to make it to 21. I stuffed myself full to the brim on four different roasted meats and salad (I missed out on the crackling though, *sniffle*), and then followed up with some gf/df chocolate cake with berries. Mmmm. So here's three of the Christmas stars I've been making: (I finished another three but forgot to take pics of them before they were gifted and taken to Rosedale. Excuse the quality of the pics, I took them with the phone under poor light.) They are about a handspan wide (my hands are 10cm/4" across) and are made in various Christmassy materials. I bodged the pattern from Maggie Makes (scroll down for the star garland). Instructions on how to put the pieces together are at Linaloo . Oh boy, whilst I am at it, go lo...

G'day all! It was my birthday a month ago today. So of course now I am going to share pics of my loot. My good buddy Knittyinpink sent me two lovely books: (neither of which I've started making a project from but I will! They are lovely books and very inspirational, I've just been running after different things recently... But many thanks!) I also ordered some fabric from Hawthorne Threads : Some Castle Peep FQs in blue, and some Wild Thyme FQs and a little extra yardage. Goodness there is a lot of fabric in that lot of FQs. It isn't my usual colour style but I really like about 90% of the range so I got the whole lot. And some extra bits and bobs that took my eye. I especially love the swirly aqua fabric, like LOTS! I want more of it. It is a Michael Miller fabric. I have quite a bit of that manufacturer's stuff. It is odd how I collect more of certain manufacturer's lines than others. I do have a bit of Moda for instance but because a lot of their ...

G'day all! Knitting has taken a back seat these last few days. The weather has been lovely and I've been outside sewing up a storm. (OK, no storms yet.) A little while ago I managed to put a quilt sandwich together for a little pinwheel quilt. Yesterday I started quilting it. Along the way, the machine started playing up a LOT. Stupid machine! It started off so nicely and I was telling it how it was nicer than the Singer for quilting on - my Oz Janome was stippling away happily and the only major problem was the nut behind the wheel, so to speak (ie me). Then I started getting odd tension problems. Suddenly, after my third or fourth outburst of cussing at the machine and yet another round of unpicking, it makes a rather weird and scary noise and voila! It spits out the needle. Yikes! After I examined the needle carefully and declared it good, once tightened back in its holder, I had no further problems with tension until the top thread ran out. DOH! And Scroatfight ha...

G'day all! I am still here! Still alive! I feel better immediately after this chemo than I did after the last one but my knees are sore! Like tired sore. No, don't walk on us, we're tired! I don't think I'd be running a marathon with ooh tired erupting from my knees regularly but I wouldn't be even if I was "normal." Still we went out to Urban Burger for tea and I had a yummy burger and some chips. Now we see how I go this time around. I've got the burpy feeling again but nothing really bad so far (and have one more pill in reserve if it gets bad, and have heatburn (anti proton pump) medication if I need that). I don't want to start on the heartburn stuff unless I really need it cos I will have to keep taking it once I start. It isn't like gaviscon or anything that just puts a soothing layer on top, it turns off the acid secretion in your stomach. I sorta wonder how you can digest food and reduce bacterial infection if you don...

G'day all! The fugly socks are finally done! They took a while cos I only knit them on the bus or when I am out at something. (I have a really bad case of the hiccoughs, excuse me for a moment... ah that is better I think!) After showing them off at the meetup on Wednesday, they have been renamed to the fugly sand art socks. Yay! These are my PSC socks for May. Of course now I don't have any socks to knit so I think I will wind up some lovely yarn sent by the lovely Mrspao and start knitting that (though I really need lightweight socks for summer). Of course I really should test two patterns I am thinking of releasing but we are going away for this long (memorial day) weekend and I want something braindead that I can just knit knit knit (assuming I get the chance cos I'll be driving all the way to Mt Shasta, which reminds me, must find stuff online about what to see along the way). Details on Ravelry . -- This week, oh dear, so much of my energy went into making a pract...

G'day all! Thought I should let you know the second rainbow sock, now re-christened "the fugliest socks in the world!," is progressing. These are NOT pretty socks. But they are entertaining and I have improved my short row wraps quite a bit (by dint of some very scary dropping stitches/wraps off needles). I started turning the heel on the bus today, when I decided to go up to an op shop, see what they have in stock at the moment. It is the op shop I rarely bother going to, even though it is just under three miles away, cos they don't have much that I ever want. And again they didn't (though I did leave a CASHMERE sweater there! It just didn't feel as nice as the better quality cashmere pullover I had in my mitts). Savers is much better for sheets, sometimes has cashmere jumpers too. The other goodwill shop is better for tshirts. -- I've been getting the urge to do a little sewing, make some stuff for me. I've been looking at the patterns I'...

G'day all! Well not so good actually. Two days ago we were cruisin' along. Yesterday an Issue arose at DH's work so he came home after lunch cos it was better to get away than erupt/stew there. Anyway, the Issue might be so bad that we might be going Home somewhat earlier than expected. It is the uncertainty that kills me. (and him.) Plus the knowledge that we have to leave the country within 10 days of the job ending. I am trying to find out if we can re-enter on the visa waiver program or if we have to get a B2 tourist visa (and we have to pre-register too). 10 days is not enough to pack up your life and move on (can't imagine what it is like to be forcibly ousted from your home by war/etc). Before It All Erupted, I was happily engaged in making things like these: A pouch type bag, with gusset! A foldy up bag, secured with velcro. Now with added gusset! A foldy bag of Bad Cats, now with added gusset. I really like this material and the colour (not that colour sh...

G'day all! I've been a busy bee recently. I've been making things. Things like these: This one is my favourite so far. It isn't quite finished - I need some green thread to sew around the contrast unless I decide the brown will do instead. Mebbe brown with a pattern. Yeah! Scuse the wrinkles - guess I am going to have to get handy with the iron! This one is larger than the rest. Here's my question. Would you buy such baggies? Why or why not? What do you think is a reasonable price for a roughly 8" x 8" baggie (20cm X 20cm)? They are soft bags without interfacing. I've put my four from the other day into use and am happy with them even though they don't have cords to close them. Having my WIPs in bags is amazing for me - they usually get dragged around, dropped on the floor, tangled with each other.... I have a knitting FO to show off too, but that can wait for another day! anon!

G'day all! Recently I've been doing something a little different. Ta-dum! Do you love how wrinkly they are? At least you can tell they are 100% cotton. Why iron them if you are about to crumple them up in a bag? (The first one that I made plenty of mistakes on though it is one of my favourites and first in use!) If I make some to sell then I'll iron them. But not before. I've had fun with the fancy stitches on the sewing machine - some fish skeletons for the blue cat bag: and some pretties for the pretty bag. I *really* like the print on that bag - I want to get more of the fabric to make a summer top for me! They are a bit wonky yet but I am not fussed. They are for me! Oh and they are not all finished - I need to do a little hand finishing and couldn't find any of the needles I have, not a single one! Hasn't stopped me from using them. I've also made a few flannelette pillowcases cos I had some material and I do love soft warm fuzzy pillowcases. I do...