Pretty damn SLACK

WOW - My last post was at the start of the year! How terrible.

It has been pretty hectic this year, with a bit of craft thrown in but mostly work. One thing that has caught my attention is socks. Yes socks seem to be the new fad that is sweeping the globe. They are sooo easy to transport and pretty darn quick to knit up.

I have been doing a bit of dyeing too.... A bit of sewing..... But to be honest, mostly working and bring up my two beautiful girls.

These here are my first socks. They were supposed to be Mermaidia - BUT for a sock and lace virgin i think i bit off more than i could chew. So after a few pattern repeats, I went plain. Sorry Christine - I really wanted to add to the projects on Ravelry!



Then of couse i needed to buy a cone of naked yarn from Vintage Purls to have a go at dyeing sock yarn... With varied results.

Here is an updated pic of the two other WIPs. Aren't they cute!?!

I dyed the above yarn from a taupe base, with Cake powder dyes. LOVE the intense colour that the powders give. Below is my WIP socks - I have used the seven of hearts DK heart lace panel, but on a 4 ply toe up sock pattern. Is knitting up really well.

Well, hope to be back to update sooner this time!

Time poor!

First of all, Merry Christmas everyone and happy New Year!!!

I have been very slack at keeping up with this blog. Life has just exploded, and I am finding it hard to keep up with recording all my projects. BUT I have taken photos of most of them - so please bear with me as I write a mamoth post today.





First up - I bought this pattern off Ravelry a couple of months ago - Itty-bitty Bolero. A really nice, easy knit. A bit of a learning curve with the old dpns - BUT we got there in the end. Next time i think i will knit the sleeves flat and seam them.

This is the 3-6month size on my average sized 10 week old.... The pattern is a little on the small side. Knitted in Patons smoothie. Took about 2/3rds of a ball.

Can't say that i made the flower *blush* - The Warehouse had them on special for 30c each!

Remember this??

I offered my skills to some friends with daughters..... Here are a bunch of skirts that i made.

A wee hat to go with the above ladybird skirt. I embroidered a wee ladybug with a button the the body, on the reverse white side. It looked very cute.

This is my beautiful, big girl. We had some photos taken at my hubby's work, just before Christmas.........

........And me and the little one.

I needed some timeout yesterday - my 2.5yo was driving me batty - So i dyed some 3ply baby wool. It is self striping yellows and blues. Cannot WAIT to finish the other singlet i am knitting, so I can see how this knits up. Watch this space....

This was a handmade gift for my best friend, Heidi. The wee bag is for her knitting, a dishcloth and some hand dyed yarn for her to knit a hat for her wee man.

One of the reasons that i have ben sooo time poor, is that I have started up a new design label and blog..... Rebecca Gunn designs. Here are a couple of photos from over there. January is all about the kitchen.... I am going to have themed months. I take custom orders - but also make up bits and pieces to sell. Go have a nosey.

Two hand oven mitt.

The watermelon dress.

Anddddd - last but not least... A wee pic of my littlest. She is sporting a beautiful Boheme that my friend Natalie made for her and some lovely watermelon capris that KJ made for her. Thank guys!

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: