Book Week fun

Book week, is always something I dread. With five at school that means five costumes. Lots of drama and tears. Lots of negotiation on costume choices.

This year was a little easier.

Wendy came for a visit and with a lot of enthusiasm and love sat up to 1.30am and got up at 6 am to complete costumes.

When Wendy visits there are lots of squeals of delight and hugs. She picked the kids up for school on Thursday and was greeted with a chorus of fans chanting "Wendy, Wendy!" She felt like a pop star.

Liam is dressed as Mr Brainfright, Rose as Snow White, Fern as Rapunzel and Lilly as Angelina Ballerina. James had a 'meltdown' and refused to go to school. He doesn't cope well with the noise and excitement of Book Week. He hasn't been well and had a cold most of the week. I get so frustrated with him. I just wish sometimes he could at least pretend to be 'normal'. I love him just as he is but just every now and again it would make life a little easier.

New old Bread tins

I had some fun yesterday.  Wendy came to visit from Adelaide. We went  to explore the op shops between here and Port Pirie.

I've been searching for bread tins for a few weeks and yesterday I found some in an Antique shop in Crystal Brook.

I was so excited I had to scrub them clean and oil them up and make a batch of bread last night. Made for a late night!

But the results were worth it.

I'm using the Lauke Multi-grain bread mix.

I have tried making bread without a bread mix but I've not had a lot of success.

Silk Merino Handspun

I bought the fiber form Ewe Give Me The Knits. 

It's Ashford 20% Silk 80% Merino, in the Juniper colourway

I'm not sure what I'll make with it.

It has a beautiful drape  and luster from the silk.

It's spun at 14 wpi making it a fingering weight yarn

156 meters

2ply

I'm really excited by my spinning progress.

Still so much to learn.

I find it very relaxing, it's one of those crafts that is hypnotic once you start.

I think I've almost caught up with most of the projects I've complete in the last couple of months.

There's still Fern's Jumper but I'll have to wait until that's washed and we have decent weather for me to take some photos of it.

I've got Pete's socks on the needles.

I'm currently spinning up some EL X Merino fleece.

In the grease and from the fold.

I'm even using all the lingo these days and understanding it.

I've 3 plied some of it and back to spinning singles.

I need to invest in more bobbins I only have 6.

I'm building up a lot of handspun I better start using it!

I'd really love to find a craft I could specialise in and get really good at.

I do so many, I'm a reasonable tradesman in most, but none at the master level.

There's something in the air.

Brocolli, chard and eggs.

The little garden spider was an extra.

As we move into spring the winter veg is starting to produce. Lots of broccoli this season. I like broccoli you can pick the large center head and then continue picking the smaller florets.

Unlike cauliflower where you only get the one head and then feed the plant to the ducks and chooks.

The ducks and chooks aren't above helping themselves to the garden.

The black duck is one of our babies from last year. She's just starting to lay and a little flighty. She likes to visit the local schools and sit on the Priests roof. 

The cabbages are forming their hearts too.

The almonds are all in flower, spring isn't far away. The days are lengthening and the soil warming.

Time to get the soil prepared for the spring plantings. Still a little way off planting the tomatoes in the ground. Time to plant some seeds into punnets ready for the spring plantings.

What's a Quesadilla?

 Michael likes his with baked beans

I didn't know until a couple of days ago. 

And from now on they will be seen around here often.

A Quesadilla is:

A quesadilla (Spanish pronunciation: [kesaˈðiʎa], usually anglicized as /ˌkeɪsəˈdiː.ə/) is a Mexican food made primarily of cheese inside a folded corn or wheat tortilla and cooked until the cheese melts. Occasionally a second ingredient is added with the cheese to add variety to the dish.

From Wiki!

Pete and I like ours with rainbow chard cooked with chili, onion, garlic and cream cheese.

In my recent efforts to cut the grocery bill I've been making my own torillas too. The kids prefer wraps to sandwiches in their school lunch. The supermarket wraps are over $4 for a packet of 8! For us that is $12 a week just on wraps. So a little internet search and I came up with a lot of recipes and videos to show me how to make tortillas.

The Recipe I've been using:

Best Recipes Recipe

The video to show me how:

How to Make Tortillas

Tortillas Recipe

I make a batch the night before and the kids make fresh wraps for school in the morning.  I've reduced $12 for wraps down to around $3 for the ingredients! And the bonus of knowing what my kids are eating, no more preservatives.

Baking Bread

My bread maker (nicknamed the Darlek) is older than my eldest daughter. I bought it in 1997 on a trip to Alice Springs. She's started to make a few strange noises. And thirteen years out of an appliance is pretty good going these days. One big problem with The Darlek is that it leaves a great big hole in the loaf. Time to replace The Darlek, I started listing all I wanted in a breadmaker and after some advice from the ladies on Craftymama Forum I ended up buying....

Ken! Nope he's not a breadmaker! He's so much more. A new love affair has begun.

Ken has the power to knead my dough.

The speed to whisk my egg whites.

And the skill to cream my butter.

Lots of yummy smells have been coming from my kitchen.

My kids are now refusing store bought bread.

Ken came with a friend which minces meat. So now I can buy the topside on special and mince that a lot cheaper than buying Supermarket mince and I know what's in it!

I'm still learning to bake my own bread. I've been cheating a little and using a bread mix.

10kg of breadmix is less than $20 and makes 20 loaves. You can't buy bread for $1 a loaf.

Even though Ken is no cheap toy, he'll pay for himself pretty quickly.

He saves me at least $20 a fortnight on buying bread alone. Fingerbuns in the shop cost over $4 for a pack of 4. Ken and I make 8 for a lot less. Hot dog rolls that cost $4 for 6 I can make 8 for $1.

I still have The Darlek and he lives on top of the cupboard now for those days when I want to set and forget a loaf.

Rice Bubble slice - seriously nice

My kids go through phases with cereal. One week they love weet-bix and then they won't touch them for ages. Same with Rice bubbles. I've had a pack of rice bubbles sitting in the cupboard for a while and they need to be used up. 

A little web search and I found this post on Realmums.com.au. Looks like a fabulous forum. I've not come across it before. As the poster has no idea where this recipe comes from and it's probably one of those recipes that has been hanging around forever, I'm not going to feel too guilty reposting it here. I'll at least rewrite it for you and acknowledge where I saw it.

Rice Bubble Slice

125gms of butter

2 Tsps of golden syrup

1/2 cup of sugar

1/2 cup of coconut

5 cups of rice bubbles

In a large saucepan melt together the butter, syrup and sugar. And cook for a few minutes. Be careful not to burn. You are making a caramel so let it boil without stiring for a couple of minutes so its nice and thick and sticky. 

Take the pan off the heat and stir in the coconut and rice bubbles.

Press into a paper lined dish and put it in the fridge to cool.
(you can sprinkle a little extra coconut on top, if you wish)

Once cool take it out the dish and with a sharp knife cut it into small squares or rectangles.

It will be very crisp and yummy and moorish ......

I think this is going to be a hit with the kids. It's so simple to make. I'm wondering if I can do the same to the half pack of Cheerios and Cronflakes.

Knitted socks from Handspun

These were supposed to be for Peter.

I stuffed up. 

Being the lazy impatient person I am.

I didn't do a swatch.

The socks were way too big for Peter and a little too big for me.

Easily fixed, I'll just throw them in the machine and felt them.

Would they felt? 

Only by a small amount, just enough for them to fit my feet.

Looks like I have a new pair of warm socks.

The pattern is another freebie found on Ravelry

 Pattern: Father's day Socks from Lady Nea Knitsalot Blog

Yarn : My homespun spun from a romney cross fleece from Lucindale Handspinning Fleeces

Needles: Addi Turbos 30cm circs 3mm ( I love these for socks!)

I've now cast on another pair of socks for Pete.

This time with commercial sock yarn.

Pete has arthritis in his toes and he swears my hand knit socks really help with the pain.

Crochet bags - Dot's Little Ditty Bag

I did warn you I had a lot to catch you up with!

The pattern is a freebie found here :

Dot's Little Ditty Bag

Not lined because I'm lazy ;)

I started with the little blue one which is done according to the instructions. 

Next I increased it. 

Then I made the one with the long handle which is lovely and roomy.
A really fun pattern to play around with.

I used 8mm hook and 2 or three strands of yarn held together so very quick to crochet up. 

I did the two smaller ones in an evening.

The long handled one is mine and the girls each claimed the others.

These are rather addictive to make.

I was lucky enough to buy a large amount of Cotton/acrylic yarn form Kmart last season for 50c a ball, so I have lots of yarn to play with.

I found the pattern through Ravelry and there are many more examples and inspiration for crocheting your own Ditty Bag there.

Making Waldorf Dolls

Making Waldorf Dolls By Maricristin Sealey

Fabulous book!
Directions are easy to follow.
Ten doll designs. pattern for clothes too.

I made the first project in the book.

I made two because the kids fought over the first.

This is the Tiny baby doll.
Cotton velour for the body, wool stuffing, cotton tricot for the head and handspun wool for the hair.

I then went on to make the second doll....

I varied the instructions because I used my good tricot on the head and wasn't prepared to hide it under the velour. So I cut a hole in the velour and attached the head ;) I lightly stuffed the body too which is lovely and soft.

I bought my book through Winterwood toys when I bought the wool stuffing, cotton tricot and velour.

Disclosure : I wasn't paid or asked to make this review :) 

If you would like me to review a craft product, you think I would like to play with, contact me.

Weaving

I've been playing around with my loom experimenting with simple patterns.
I used my handspun natural coloured wools again and a 7.5DPI reed to make this little pouch.
I warped 6 grey, 6 white and then woven the weft 6 grey and 6 white, to give the pattern.

I spun the yarn from a Corriedale X Romney Fleece I bought from Wirrabarra a while back. It was a 1.3kg fleece and I've almost spun the lot now. Most has been spun into a DK weight. But I did experiment with a bulky weight too.

It didn't take long to weave this up on the Knitters loom. 

I now have a stand for my loom which makes it easier to work at it. 

I used some fingering weight plyed yarn in the warp, which I spun. 

For the weft I spun up some bulky ply.

It's 28cms wide by 110cms. I'm thinking about sewing it up into a bag. 

It's so soft and nice I'll just keep patting it for now.

Spin, weave, fulled, crocheted and stitched

Woven with handspun romney as warp and weft, on a 12inch knitters loom. 

Crochet flowers and leaves are in handspun corriedale X both fleeces came from Lucinvale Coated Spinning Fleeces at Mt Brian here in South Australia.

I used the 5DPI reed and once woven I slightly fulled the scarf before sewing on the embellishments.

I'm totally stoked with this :D

Spun and Knitted Argosy Scarf

I spun this yarn early last year.
I was just pregnant with Heather.
I'd bought the fleece off Jane at Moesley Park in one of her fibre Clubs.
The sheep's name the fleece comes from is Flora :)

I started knitting the scarf about a year ago.
It was my project for relief teaching when I had year 11 and 12 study group supervision.
The pattern is from Knitty and called Argosy

When I stopped relief teaching the scarf sat in my bag abandoned.
I finally dug it out and finished it.
Because it had sat so long the wool had become sticky from the lanolin still in it. So finishing it wasn't pleasant.
Now it's been washed and blocked it's beautiful.
I have another 80gms of sticky wool left, still in the ball.
I think I may try and skein it and give it a good wash before I use the rest of it.

Three New Yarns

Three New Yarns:

1st- 83 meters, 5 wraps to the inch making it a bulky Yarn.
Spun in Romney X naturally grey and overdyed. Fiber came from Jane at Moesleypark in October last years fiber club.

2nd - 6WPI  48 meters, RomneyX Corriedale Fleece came from Lucindale Coated Fleeces at Bt Bryan.

3rd - 11WPI making it about a DK weight (8ply) Merino 22micron commercial sliver.

I'm Back..

Did you miss me?

I'm rather hoping you're saying yes!

It took me awhile to realise I couldn't walk away from my blog.

After 4 years it's become a vital part of me.

How else will I record the growing years of my beautiful children?

The reasons I started this blog are still there, my dear friends.

So back to it!

I have a lot to share and catch you up with.

All my love,

Tracy

Missy Lissy

Here is Missy Lissy. 

I used a Womens Weekly pattern for her.

I crocheted a little dress for her.

No young lady should be seen without her Mary Janes.

nor her knickers!

Her hair must be brushed and adorned. Lissy likes to wear a headband to keep her hair out of her pretty black eyes.