Things completed, and not…

Since we last talked (well, I talked you read) I have completed a few projects.

The sock on my head hat: perfect in its’ sloppiness and the colour makes me want to wear it all the time. The pattern is pretty simple and not too boring to knit, although I did stop just before the decreases started for about a week.

(crappy phone photo taken in our old place, The A keeps taking his camera with him so I can’t use it)

Granny square blanket: as big as I wanted it and the colours look great. Useful when our friend came to visit from the UK as she found it a tad chilly at night and we only have one duvet.

Missing Link socks (not completed) a pattern I made up and knit in a wonderful ruby red Patons Sock yarn. These are for The A and I have shown great example of second sock syndrome, the second one is ready for a heel flat but I have shoved it to the bottom of the knitting bag.

Sock in Progress

The A wearing said sock (ewww look at the nasty carpet we USED to have)

The Two Tone Shrug is an example that you should not only knit in the round as you forget how to purl properly and end up with a funky looking Stockinette stitch, but fear not, I have re-learnt to purl and am currently knitting up and entirely red Two Tone Shrug with a proper stockinette stitch ‘look’.

Still sleeping off winter is the Cobblestone jumper but as my good friend Mitzy Knits says, it will be completed some time after March 2010 ;)

What else? Oh yes! I am steaming ahead with a baby project for a family friend. It’s the Ribbed Baby Jacket (Rav link) I thought she was having a boy, but I was mistaken. I bought a brown alpaca mix wool so to make it more ‘girl friendly’ I will trim the bottom and the sleeves with some red. The mum-to-be has banned all pink so I think it’s just lucky that I thought it was a boy!

Must get back to my knitting now. Next week I shall be starting on the wedding invitations (for real!) so tune in as I get my hot glue gun, printer and sewing machine out after work and cross your fingers that what I have in mind works!

Craft update

An update in pictures:

Also on the needles: a drop stitch scarf and more granny squares!

Contemplating a stash enhancing click to the Bendigo Woolen Mills website for the Bella mittens and Owls jumper.

Tweed obsessed

I think I have become a little obsessed with tweed type yarn. This came with the addition of some Jo Sharp Silkroad DK Tweed, one ball in a beautiful icy blue and one in a wonderful pinky raspberry. I already have 4 balls of light blue Grignasco Tango and 4 balls of the same in red, and of course the cobblestone jumper for The A that is also a silk/wool tweed.

The wonderful thing about these yarns is how soft they are, not the typical scratchy tweed of yesteryear. Now made up of wool, silk, cashmere and alpaca tweed is something that I can now wear with joy (I hate scratchy things near my skin)

I have no clue what to knit with these yarns but the Jo Sharp will probably become a cowl, wristlets or beret/hat.

(Aren’t the photos great? I used natural light near the couch and backed the yarn with some white paper, I love how well the colour comes out!)

Wedding Craft Sunday

I'm not religious so on Sundays I do something else and when The A is away it's Craft Sunday!! Woo!! Can you tell I'm excited? In advance I apologise for the crap phone camera pictures, The A took his good camera up north with him in the hopes of doing some experimental photography (with exposure and the like)

Today I thought I would show you my progress of the paper flowers and felt leaves. So far I have a boutonniere prototype that I'm loving (no one else has seen it)

Would you buy something like this if it was on Etsy and it could be made into your own Weddng colours? I'd really like to know so please leave a comment about it.

The main flowers and big leaves are looking good too, though am thinking that it looked better without the red.

Here's my messy table with all my stuff on it. It will need to be tidied before Tuesday!

A gratuitous shot of my new reading/knitting/computer glasses that I got for $10 (yay for KMart!) It was the best out of about 15 I took, nothing like no make up and messy hair on a Sunday morning! The lighting makes me look like my chin flows right into my neck.... dear god!

And look how nice it is outside!!

NOTE: This post was going to be a lot longer, it took me less than 10 mins to write the long version but have spent almost an hour fixing all the blogger formatting probelms with spacing and paragraphing. I am seriously thinking of moving to Wordpress. ARGG!!!

Books

At first I had a little bit on the side that said what books I was reading, seeing as I was reading things in three days (like 'The Boleyn Inheritance' by Philipa Gregory which I finished this morning) I thought it was a bit useless and ended up not updating it as often as it needed to be.

Anyway, I went to the library (yet again) today and picked up some good ones. I found the wedding section, which was about 10 books in total, and picked up 'Anti-Bride Etiquette guide The rules and how to break them' it has some interesting stuff about invitations and how to deal with sticky situations. Not that there have been any situations but you never know ;) I also got 'Bridal Bargains' which is aimed at people in the US but they have some great insider tips on what to ask for and what you should and shouldn't be paying for.

I got the novel 'Like water for chocolate' which is one of my favourite films and always makes me cry. I have read the book before and thought it would be a quick but fun read while The A is away. I also picked up Suze Ormans' 'Women and Money', Suze is the financial gal on the Oprah show and I caught her on the tv denying a woman who was in debt and who wanted to get a loan to buy a thid car - needless to say she was great and really pounded into the lady, I think that was when I liked her! She makes a lot of sense and as I am already reading 'Five years to financial freedom' by someone else (the book is in the other room and can't be bothered to go look) I figure I might as well read her at the same time! Not that we are in any position to buy a house or car yet but it's a good idea to know what's going on when we do finally take that step. I don't want to sit at the bank and not have any clue what they are talking about and be able to get the best deal (which isn't always the one they offer to you first!)

I have also been experimenting with felt leaves and will take some pics when I can be bothered. They look great with the paper tissue flowers and I have mocked up a boutonniere to see the effect.

Right Now

eating:: orange and poppyseed cake with orange cream cheese frosting;

feeling:: happy that the laundry basket contents have more than halved, that The A will be here until Monday and that he will be gone only for a week, then a week back then again a week away;

listening:: Tori Amos (American Doll Posse) and some birds outside;

watching:: the tv is off and I'm looking at the palm trees waving around in the wind;

loving:: the new shampoo and conditioner I bought yesterday. My hair was getting frazzled and this stuff has worked MIRACLES and was half price at Coles.

admiring:: the paper tissue flowers I tried to make last night. 5 sheets of 500x750mm at $2 each makes these a cheap and lasting craft. I can make loads and use them as fake flowers to brighten up the flat (after I use them in my bouquet of course!)

enjoying:: checking off the things on my to do list, emailing people the forms they kindly said they would do for us;

researching:: how best to cook the two lamb shanks I bought yesterday for dinner tomorrow night, TAFE courses and jobs

Resources

There are so many places online resource DIY and free downloads for art and craft related paraphernalia. I found one that I had never heard of today and accessed some fantastic fonts and invitation templates. iDiY has mostly wedding related inspiration on it but I think that a lot of the things on there can be used in other instances.

Another craft place I go to for some (free!) inspiration is the Craftzine Blog, full of new and funky ideas, March has been repair month there and they had some great ideas for repairing your stuff instead of chucking it away (courtesy of the recession!)

If you are looking for some inspiration, looking at your favourite blogger's links list is often a great place to start, you will often find something that you were looking for through Google but with no success, or even find a new blog to add to your reading list!

Some of you will remember the iconic Obama protrait done of him in Blue, Red and Cream with Hope written underneath? Well now you can Obami-fy your own pictures! Here's one I did for fun of me and the Archaeologist as a mock 'Save the Date'

Afternoon craft

Productivity is high today.

Photo post!

I realised that my last few posts have been photo-less (how boring of me) and I know from reading other blogs that I don't tend to pay much attention when there aren't photos!

Currently:

Wedding planning with coffee (I made the full amount in our coffee machine, that's 10 cups. I don't know if that was a good or bad idea!). That is my wedding planner folder and one of our 'engagement mugs' (we bought 2 in Margaret River on the day the Archaeologist proposed, I love them and use them all the time)

Here's the inside, I put our colours on the front page. I did go to the Spotlight sale (BUSY) and managed to score the loot below for only $25. I already had the white and red fabric (I put it in there for those interested) I bought 1 m of the blue fabric ($3), some flower arranging wire stuff and a pinking rotary cutter. I'm going to use these for the fabric flowers.

Close up:

On a different yet exciting note I found this today:

If you can't read the label that's Fontina cheese (I have never seen it with a wax but maybe they do that when shipping it) I might use it in a risotto or in a lunchtime quesadilla with pastrami (yes I have weird taste in lunch meats! I also like corned beef and once ate a pack of 10 slices on it's own)

Little things

A lot of random little things going on here. The Archaeologist left this morning for another two weeks. Not too bad as at least it's only for two weeks not three this time.

We watched Insight on SBS last night. The debate was about the rights women have when giving birth here and comparing them to the rights in New Zealand. I think the overall point was that Midwives have more say in NZ whereas in Australia they are rarely used. Home birthing was also discussed (as well as cesareans) It costs $4,000 to have a home birth but only $20 to go to the hospital and have a Cesarean even if you don't need one. This doesn't seem fair to me. We also talked about why midwives are used to much in NZ and a friend of ours who recently had a 44 hour labour, apparently this was because a midwife doesn't get paid for anything unless she is there doing her thing when the baby gives birth. Our friend could have had an easier birth but because the midwife wouldn't get paid she wouldn't let them consult a doctor, telling them everything was going OK. Needless to say the next time they have a child they are coming over here to have it!

I bought myself a rotary cutter and mat to use with fabric and paper today. It will end up being really useful when making the wedding invitations and also in the future with fabric and any sewing I do. I will be spending the evening cutting out pictures and recipes from Magazines with it, making space on the bookshelves when we do a small clean up of the accumulated junk when he gets back in a few weeks.

We have also just heard that we will be getting our UK tax back. It will actually pay off our entire Credit Card bill! Hooray!! Add onto this the Tax that the Archaeologist will be getting back this year and that will pay for half my new Visa! Things are looking a lot better than we thought!

Edited to add: We had agreed that I could get a new iPod for my birthday (I have lost my first one) but we struck a deal that if I keep using his Mp3 player when my cell phone contract ends next year (2010) I can get myself an iPhone (as it has a phone and iPod player all in one)

Options

I'm musing over which winter item to knit for myself (once the Cobblestone is off the needles and on the Archaeologist) Just thinking about what pattern/colour/yarn to use is just as exciting as casting on! That's a good thing, I can't cast on for something else until I've finished my works in progress.

Option 1:

Eva Raglan

Calls for DK weight yarn which is good as Spotlight does a great basic range in loads of colours at about $2 a ball.

Option 2:

Owls

Calls for bulky/12 ply which i would need to source at a reasonable price. The bulkier yarn would make this a quicker knit.

Option 3:

Sweater with cables Ravelry link (free on Rebecca website, you need to put it into your cart and go through check out to be able to download it) Saw this on Stephanie Dosen's Ravelry notebook (pictured above) and fell in love, maybe it just looks great on her but the other ones on Ravelry look just as good.

Calls for 10 ply yarn

Option 4:

Welt and Rib Raglan (Ravelry Link)
Interweave Knits
Calls for DK/8 ply
I have this magazine so no need to source the pattern somehow. Could be a long knit.

Invitations - Take 1

It's a hot and sticky day here so I took advantage of that by staying in and doing some experiments with paper and glue. I said in the previous post that I was going to use Illustrator to do the layout for the invitations, turns out there is an error with the system and I can't save or print anything. So! Saving the graphic as a png I went to trusty Word. Many people hate Word but once you learn how to manipulate it to do what you want it can be quite useful.

I looked at a lot of blogs and websites to see what I liked and the effect that I wanted. Here is trial 1!

Here's the front, the ribbon goes all the way round and will keep all inserts (directions, places to stay, registry details) inside the card. Keep in mind that the paper and red card I used isn't great quality and I used a crappy paper cutter to get a straight line, the glue is craft glue which is why it's bumpy, but once I settle on a design I will get better card, paper, cutter and glue. The front bit has the same icon as in the front (close up of it later) and our names on it. I might just leave the icon and take off the names, or put initials.

In the inside I stuck the main part of the invitation to one side. Obvously some of the details aren't decided on yet and I have to settle on the correct wording. You can see the ribbon that will keep all inserts together in the card, they will be printed on proper paper and glued onto red card (like the thing on the front)

Here's a close-up of the icon that features on the inside and cover. It's the same red as the text but with 50% opacity. I found the font ages ago online, it's called Jane Austen, for this trial I used it throughout the whole invitation but I might limit it's use because of readability.

The paper craft aisle

I'm not really a fan of the paper section of the craft store. I never really thought it was worth buying a thing that rounded the corners of a paper for $30. Today I ventured into it though, I'm going to start experimenting with the wedding invitations (look, colour and what to say) I know we haven't got a date yet, but I figure the earlier I settle on a style the quicker I can send them out overseas once we get a date.

I am really leaning towards the red and aqua colour scheme:



It's fresh, fun and less fussy than other colour themes. So today I bought some red grosgrain ribbon, some aqua cards and envelopes, and a 'paper tear ruler' which creates a cute scoll-like border when you use it to tear paper.


Coincidentally the one I thought was the nicest was the aqua one! By doing the invitations ourselves means that we need to pick the wording, the font and content of the invites. Fortunately when we were in Bangkok on our way over here we bought some Adobe software (InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator) so I will be experimenting with those. I know InDesign really well as I used it at work in the UK, most people seem to use Illustrator with their DIY invites so I will have to spend some time getting to know how to use it.

Once I start experimenting I will take some pictures of the different ideas I have.