Well, it is about time for an update.

WOW, October has come and gone already!?!

Well, I have been rather busy, this is wee Catherine Olive Briar Gunn. She came a week early on the 8th of October. She is a really good wee thing. Sleeping lots and now smiling away to the world.

All these photos are a little outdated - i must admit that the camera has been dead for the last two weeks. SHAME on me. Some updated ones to come soon.

A race against the clock.

So I have finally finished the Amy Butler crib set for the baby. I also made some cushions and covered the change table mat.

I imported the fabric from fabric.com - it worked out to be 30% cheaper... which is quite a bit when you are buying 12 yards.

I scored this chair at the Sallies down the road for $35.00. I managed to find the fabric to cover it at Spotlight for $4.00 pm!!! YAY. It made for a very cheap feeding chair!

AND Poppy's room. I did this up a few weeks back, but kept forgetting to photograph it.

A little outfit.

Over the last week I have transformed half of the pastel watermelon into some garments.

I made this wee dress, loosely following the Rainbow Tikki dress pattern in NB.
Instead of the M1 increases I did KF&B - I find that i make eyelets when I M1 - and didn't really want holes all through the dress. :-)

I made increases every 7th row.

The wee hotpants are NB too - and think the two together will be really sweet.

The GREAT to do list!

With just over a month until I give birth, I have had a bit of a list of things to get through.

There have been quite a number of things that i have promised to friends... but also projects like Poppy's summer wardrobe etc that need doing. I have finally finished her new room (photos to come), now I just have the baby's room to complete (EEEEK).

I whipped up these pedal pushers the other day for Poppy.... SOOO easy to make - and all the fabric was from stash ( read: CHEAP). I have about 30 panels of different cotton fabrics to make into summer skirts for her.... but so far I have only made one up.

I FINALLY made up a pair of pants for Anthea. These have been on my to do list for some time..... I think it was the fear of the unknown that made me not want to start them. BUT I did start them and i finished them. GOLLY i hope they fit, as I felt like a junkie by the time I had finished - I had stuck myself with far too many pins!

The next project on my list is a flower girl dress for Poppy. Friends of ours are getting married in Queenstown the week after I am due. They have asked Poppy to be their flower girl...... SO I said that i would make the dress. I have made the mock up..... Just waiting on approval from Christine before we buy the fabrics for the real thing.

AND the last thing on my list is the Baby's cot set. I found an Amy Butler book called 'Little things for little ones' at a wonderful new bookshop in town called Minerva. (OMG if you haven't been there and live in Welly, DO IT NOW!). I purchased the fabrics from fabric.com the other day and they are being brought over by Lynn, a good friend of ours. I was budget and didn't want to pay the $49.95US to have it shipped here (OUCH!)

Here is what i have purchased - Amy Butler Lotus series.

I have also bought quite a few metres of plain fabric to screen print to this theme.... It will be my first proper screen printing venture - so wish me luck!

And this is the pattern....... AWWWW - I may make a hammock too, BUT i may just stick with our Nature Sway one if i run out of time!.

Licorice allsorts

A couple of posts ago, I was talking about the great TNN yarn swap.

Well, my swap arrived this week!!!!

The theme was 'Licorice allsorts'

I received some beautiful things.

• 100g of DK wool, in the most divinely bright colours!
• A birthday cake book - but not just any cake book, Mum used to have this book when i was growing up, and i used to spend H.O.U.R.S planning my cakes for years in advance.
• A wonderful recipe for 'Martian biscuits' - Little green gingerbread men with licorice allsorts as decorations.
• A crochet hook and buttons
• Licorice allsorts + a cookie cutter
• A pattern for a crocheted baby cardigan.

WOW!

On closer inspection of the pattern, the smallest size takes 160g of wool..... So I will be on the lookout for something to use this wool for. BUT for now, I had to make up a little crochet swatch to see what the yarn would look like:

Losing my marbles

Okay, maybe not my marbles - but my knitting needles. I spent a few hours the other afternoon making this holder...... The fabric is from a couple of fat quarters that i bought from Nancy's embroidery the other day. I used some bamboo fleece as batting.

I made the circular needle holder on the left - but then realised that they would just get in the way..... So the circulars now live in the pockets too.

Mike asked me why I hadn't put a flap on it - so the needles don't fall out - gaaah! I didn't think of that! - There may be a version 2..........

Another swap!

This one was a secret santa..... although I got found out faaaar too quickly! LOL.

The people i had for this were two little girls. Jasmine and Bella. Jas is 3.5 and Bella is 2. Their Mum had told me that they fought over many toys, so i decided to do matching gifts.

I enjoyed the themed yarn swap soooo much that i decided to theme this one too.

The theme: Domestic goddesses

I had a lot of fun buying little bits and pieces for these gifts....

• Headbands


• High heels


• Cupcake cases


• Sprinkles


• Tea towels


• Mixing bowls & spoons


• Cake mixes

I also made them semi matching aprons..... I reckon they WILL look like little goddesses - BUT Nicole may not think so when it comes time to clean up!

The great TNN yarn swap.

I took part in a wonderful themed yarn swap a few weeks back.

The swap needed to have a theme..... Within that theme you needed to give the following:

• 100g of hand dyed yarn.


• A piece of knitting bling.
  
• A food recipe.
• A small gift.

Unfortunately, the person i had hasn't posted pictures of what i made for them :( - I didn't take any photos of the full swap before i sent it to them BUT...... I do have photos of the yarn :).

The theme that i chose was: 'The desperate housewife's romance kit'.

• I made them a working yarn holder, to stop little fingers (or claws) tangling their wool. I blogged about the start of this project here.






• The recipe was for my famous caramello brownie mmmmmm.








• The gift was some red bamboo yarn & a clutch of Toblerones (cause we always know chocolate doesn't let us down!).




• The knitting pattern was a free fingerless gloves pattern off Ravelry, Called 'Berry hill'. Aren't they beautiful!

The yarn that I chose to use was 8ply, 100% wool in a scrummy light rose colour. I thought I would have a go at self striping wool..... MY way! What a laugh AND what a headache!!!!!!!!


Here are some pics of the process.......... I used a beer bottle and wound the yarn around it 20 times, then tied each bundle up with an acrylic yarn so i knew which thread to cut once it was dyed.

I had to be VERY careful that i kept the mini balls in order at all times! Imagine trying to untangle wet smelly wool...... EWWWW.

Once it was dyed (and still wet) I wound it into a hank on my swift, then I washed it with wool wash and dried it etc......

I LOVE the small parts where i tied it into mini balls that it stayed the pink..... As these will be uniform specks i am thinking that it will work a bit like Opal.

I really hope i get to see a FO of this yarn....... Watch this space.

Mmmmmm pastel watermelon

After getting sidetracked from work...... I decided to do a quick dying mission. It was all Razz's fault, I saw a beautiful dress she had knitted up with some yarn that Lou had dyed.

YUM - my fave wool in pastel shades..... I dyed it with a mixture of colours and media. Cool Aid in Cherry and black cherry..... Wilton cake gels in Rose, Christmas red and leaf green.

Now what will i make with it. The yarn is Utiku, Natural 8ply and there is 200g. Plenty to have a good play with!

My first bag and felting mission

Before felting.

We have a wonderful midwife, who almost caught Poppy 2 years ago and is our main midwife this time around. She is a little green fingered like me, so I wanted to make her a gift to say thank you. As you all know, time can be very sparse when a new arrival turns up, so this time i wanted to be prepared.

I am going to line it with fabric, I just don't know what type yet.

It is knitted in 12ply Cleckheaton spun Merino, which has a minor nylon content. I knew that it would felt well, as I made Poppy a pair of shorties in it last year and they accidentally went through the washing machine and shrunk!

After felting.

The Opps-dessa

So...... Everything was going great, I was speeding along being ahead of time for my sister's birthday. Then I realised that I had missed a YO (a full 108 stitches ago) - WAAAAAAAAH!!!! It is now sitting here semi frogged waiting for someone to help me pick up all the different stitches. I am so mad!!!!!!

When the kid is away......

My darling big sister came and took Poppy away for the afternoon. I was very thankful, as i had a few wee projects that needed my attention... AND i want to blog some of my recent projects.

Firstly, i sat down and sewed up 12 small pocket nappies for the bump. I remember Poppy growing through the NB, S and M sizes at lightening speed and i found it hard to keep up. This time i am prepared!

It is a shitty day in Wellington today..... So i thought it would be a perfect time to wash all the nappies in the house...... hmmmm where is my logic in that???? i don't know! lol.

I filled the 8.5kg washing machine 1.5 times! OMG that is a LOT of nappies.

The next job on the list was to re cover a wee foam chair that my sister Jo, had scored at the local hospice 2nd hand store..... It was looking well loved and well..... quite manky.

BUT not anymore. With some left over curtain fabric and a panel of minky *drool* I looks just like new!