Hedera Finished

Pattern: Knitty.com

Yarn : Heirloom Argyle 80% wool 20% nylon

Needles: 2.5mm birchwood DPNS

Cast on: August 20th Cast Off: September 28th

No modifications to the pattern made.

Surprise Swap for Wems. (Abbey really)

I've been dying to show these off :D
Wems and I negotiated a swap. I got four beautiful nb nappies and Wems sent me some wool to knit up for her.
Orignally Wems asked for shorties.. but then told me to surprise her :) I had such fun knitting these.
I only just had enough wool! The wool was from Caroline Taylor It's Superfine merino silk and was so soft and beautiful to work with.
I made up the pattern for the skirt and made the increases for the flair by adding yarn overs to create a zigzag pattern.
Wems sent me the most wonderful email thanking me :D I'm so happy she liked them :D

Dress made from Op-shop fabrics

The fabric for this little dress came from an Op-shop in Pt Pirie. The buttons came from the op-shop in Gladstone and the pattern magazine (TopKids) came from the op-shop in Jamestown! The only new things i bought were some ribbon and thread.
It took me most of the day to sew this as the instructions were not the greatest and trying to trace the pattern from the pattern sheet near impossible. There were so many patterns printed on top of each other it was hard to follow them.
Lilly is very pleased with her new dress. The girls are not so happy as i still haven't made them new dresses.

Garden - what a difference a couple of weeks makes!

We're picking snowpeas and silverbeet for dinner!



The climbing roses are blooming. The raspberry is starting to flower. There is a cauliflower!! It won't be long before the broccolli is ready. The strawberry bushes have had a huge growth spurt. The seedlings in the green house are doing well and we'll start to plant things out in the next couple of weeks.

My sewing Mojo is back!!! - Yipeeeeee

After a huge clean up I can finally get back into my sewing space. I've just had no energy for sewing. The knitting has taken over during the winter. Now the sun is shining and the garden blooming I feel my energy returning. Peter helped me get my machine quilting frame down and will be getting me an old door and some sawhorses so i can move it off my cutting table and have it set up along the wall. Time to get back into the quilting too.


A summer dress for Lilly. A very simple Pillowcase dress. made from a pillowcase!



New shorts for the boys too. Fern and Rose are complaining I've not made them anything. may have to get back into the sewing room tomorrow!

Spring clean or nesting??

I have had a huge clean up this week. I was just so sick of living in a pigsty. Last Monday, Peter and I went shopping and bought two large wardrobes. One for our bedroom and one for the lounge. A new set of bunks to move Lilly out of our bed and into her own.

We had the kids clear their toys out of their room and move them back down to the "shed". Leaving just their beds and clothes in their bedroom. Peter did a huge clean of the spare room and moved the cupboards down to the shed and I used them to store some of my fabrics and sewing bits. I cleaned through my sewing area and can now see my machine again.

The new wardrobes arrived on Thursday. The one in the lounge is now storing all my knitting bits and pieces. As well as all the other junk we had piled around the room including books, magazines, paperwork, computer boxes. The robe in our bedroom now stores knitting patterns, yarn and other bits and pieces which had been in piles around the room.

Today I did a dust and polish in the lounge room. And made a tissue box cover. The kids wreck the boxes so I made a basic cover to hide the mess.

Another go at dying

i'm using landscape dyes for the first time. The colour reminds me of watermelons.

Happy 3rd Birthday Lilly

My baby turned 3 today. She's growing up. But still won't get out of nappies.

The upside of Peter going away for work

.. is the presents he brings home :D

The Elizabeths at Polka Dot, the fabric Shop in Alice Springs, know Peter well :D

My little parcels are now sitting on the couch beside me getting patted and drooled over.

HP Scarf for Peter

I finally finshed it! This was one very boring project! 170cm of knitting in the round. It was late for Peter's birthday.

72 sts in a round, 26 rows in a stripe = 1872 stitches to a stripe.
17 stripes X 1872 Stitches per stripe = 31,824 stitches!!!

I'm so glad this is finally off my to do list.

Small Things Swap!!!

I'm a member of Woolaholics and participated in the small things swap.
I was so pleased and excited when it arrived.
Isn't it beautiful? April did a fantastic job! I worked out who my secret Swapper was straight away as I'm a regualr reader of her blog!
Thank you so much April it's perfect :D :D

Socks

Hedera Socks ... just one finished so far. Knitted in /Heirloom Argyle sock yarn on 2.5mm needles



These are my Fybersplates Sock club Socks. The pattern is Raindrops. The wool is BFL Fybersplates in the colourway of Blue Lagoon.

Happy 10th Birthday - Fern

My "baby" turned 10.

Planting the Seeds for this years crop

The seeds from Eden Seeds arrived today so after school we got the kids to help plant them and put them in the greenhouse as we still can get frosts here.

Garden in Early Spring 2007

The lavander is just beautiful and is surviving well considering the lack of watering. The citrus has really put on a growth spurt and as soon as there is no risk of frost it will be getting a HUGE prune. Lilly loves collecting the eggs. Now the weather is warming the hens are laying again. They had stopped during the winter.



The hens are a mix of bantums and reds. The rosemary has passed the winter well.



The plum trees are budding! that's garlic in the bed and the peas are starting to flower.



We bought a cheap green house and are busy planting up the seeds. The flowering tree is a cherry plum, it produces tiny semi sour plums.The strawberries are starting to flower and the broccolli will also shortly be flowering.



The Mulberry Tree has fruit! the herb garden toook a bit of a battering through winter but the lemongrass is now starting to come back. The Herb garden need a severe weed! The Silverbeet grew well through the winter, the kids won't eat it but the hens love it.



The Celpar ( Celery tasting parsly) grew well through the winter and the Bok Coy is now going to seed. I'm hoping it will self seed again. The raspberry canes are shooting. The Rhubarb is flowering.. I never knew it did!



The Apricot tree is flowering as is the small plum. The cabbages are heading, Celery growing and the Cauliflower getting bigger.