Here’s how they were just after I finished them.

I’m told the Queensland based recipient of one of them has started calling it her Sunshine Dress and so the name stuck.

Here’s Alice in hers, taken yesterday morning in front of my zucchini patch.

Blondes in yellow! Such a great combination. I love it! The dress is reversible but this is the side she chose to wear on our outings yesterday.

Once again, it’s the same pattern I’ve used about half a dozen times for Alice – the Lizzy Pinny. Always a winner. I’ve been making them for about 18 months now so for fun, here’s Alice in the first one I made for her in September 2010, back when I was a total newbie.

Such a cutie. So little. I’m totally ready to move on to slightly more complex dress patterns, but this one is just such a winner with its simplicity as a sun dress. She gets so much wear out of them and I love choosing which fabrics work for a reversible pattern. I don’t think this will be my last!

Bells

Then something happened. I found out that I can no longer consume dairy. A series of tests, followed by a diagnosis of no more dairy, at least not for a long time was for this milk addict a life changing moment. No dairy? No cheese! No milk! No butter! No products that contain hidden milk solids. You’d be amazed how many products that rules out. It’s been a learning process. Three weeks in and I feel markedly better. I didn’t believe it would happen but it did.

So now I’m drinking soy milk in tea. That’s an adjustment and not one I’ve made well yet. I may yet switch to black tea but I’m not ready to do that. So if I’m at someone’s house and they don’t have any herbal tea on offer, now I don’t have to go without. I can take my tea with me!

At least, the need for a tea wallet was immediately obvious to me. Today I made one because really, who wants to carry a zip lock bag around in their handbag? Not me.

I even found some cute tea pot fabric in my stash.

It’s tiny. That surprised me. For some reason I thought it would be bigger, but it’s perfect for me! Fits in my hand nicely.

Open it up and look inside.

Ta da!

I totally think this is a bit of a twee little thing, but there’s a place for twee, right? It’s cute, it’s functional, it’s not entirely necessary but as I said, who wants to carry a zip log bag around? This is so much nicer.

The pattern is from here. One of the most commonly made tea wallets you can find on the net. And it took about 45 mins. Very satisfying.

Bells

I’m consoling myself, both on the weather front and the fact that I’m back at work, with knitting and sewing. How comforting it is to even write that sentence. There are so many circumstances in life where that’s a fitting sentence.

Anyway, life goes on and in the absence of any finished knitting to show you, I thought I’d share some recent photos. You’ve probably seen most of them if you’re on facebook or instagram. For those of you who aren’t, here’s a tour of all things creative in my world right now.

I made two little matching reversible pinny dresses for Alice and another little girl I know. Alice hasn’t received hers yet but will have it by the end of the week.

I needed to make these to restore my faith in my sewing skills, which have suffered a bit lately. This worked.

I’ve discovered the marvel that is Cascade Ultra Pima. It’s lush and highly addictive cotton and I can’t get enough of it. This is becoming something for Alice (big surprise there).

I’m in the grip of a cast-on frenzy at the moment (well, relatively speaking. I’ve not started too many new things, but there are a few). This gorgeous yarn (spun by 1FunkyKnitWit Margarita) is becoming a Hitchhiker scarf. It’s a match made in heaven.

See? It’s gorgeous.

I’ve nurtured my first artichoke bloom. I have grown them for the first time and rather than eating them, decided I wanted to see how they flowered, because I knew it’d be spectacular. Look!

And I’m hand quilting Alice’s Christmas birthday quilt.

I still can’t believe I’m hand quilting. This came as a shock. Like I’ve said before, never say never. I’d like to finish this soon because there’s a new quilt in the pipeline and my mum is making it too. She’ll leave me far behind if I don’t get a wriggle on.

So that’s January. As always, never enough hours in the day for it all. I hope you’re feeling busy and productive in your creative life too.

Bells

Four years later, I’ve earned a few stripes in lace and shawl knitting and so I revisited the Forest Canopy pattern because I felt over the break that I wanted something comforting to knit. I had a feeling that my very first lace piece was going to be just that and it was. It worked up in about 9 days between entertaining guests and watching a lot of DVDs in the heat.

It was everything I remembered it be – a delightful pattern that’s easily memorised. An all over lace pattern, I think it’s beautifully effective. If you were looking for a thrill-a-stitch piece, this wouldn’t be it. There is nothing exciting about this pattern. But it’s a simple, reliable pattern that proved itself again to be worth making.

It’ll be light enough to wear on cooler spring and autumn days, or even slightly cooler summer’s nights. It’ll be tucked inside coats in winter, just like the original and it’ll be much loved.

This time I used some yarn I’ve had in my stash almost as long as I’ve had my original Forest Canopy Shawl. Liza Souza sock yarn in Sage. I have to say this was kind of scratchy to knit with. But it was a generously sized skein so I got about three extra repeats of the pattern out of it and it’s washed up nicely.

I don’t think this will be my last Forest Canopy. Can’t imagine it.

Bells

Most were of course were for Alice – because little girl knits are just the best. I made only one for Willem which, although a sizeable and significant project, looks rather lonely. I’ve got plans for him this year and they’re all exciting!

1. alice in tshirt, 2. In Threes Cardigan, 3. Alice in her new purple cardigan, 4. jane cardigan 2, 5. Alice’s Acacia top, 6. Willem’s Jacket, 7. Baby Surprise Jacket, 8. Blue and Silver Baby Surprise Jacket, 9. Alice’s Swirly Hat, 10. headband – close, 11. acacia3, 12. Alice. Purple Cardigan. AFP Park

I absolutely loved making two Baby Surprise Jackets, almost back to back.

After years of meaning to get around to them, dressing two lovely newborns in them was just so special.

The red one in particular was extra special because it went to a baby I didn’t know, requested by a grandfather who felt his first grandchild should have something handmade – a job that would have been undertaken by his late mother. That was lovely.

My favourite Alice knit was the In Threes Cardigan.

It came together so beautifully, and I love that I made it from leftovers from Willem’s Alex Jacket. It made them even more connected.

There is a world of fabulous patterns for little people out there – and before I knitted extensively for children I really didn’t know how satisfying it could be. When Alice shows up at our house with her bag for the weekend and packed inside are garments I made, it makes me smile like a lunatic to dress her in them in the morning and watch her run around the  yard or markets in something that came off my needles.

There will be more of this in 2012. I’m absolutely certain of it.

Bells

1. Kai-Mei socks for Adele, 2. 198yds. of Heaven, 3. Featherweight Cardigan, 4. Willem’s Jacket, 5. Knotty Gloves, 6. veyla1, 7. Alice’s Swirly Hat, 8. Dashing mitts, 9. headband – close, 10. honey1, 11. Baby Surprise Jacket, 12. Alice in her new purple cardigan, 13. Embossed Leaves Socks, 14. Alice’s Acacia top, 15. Egeblad Doily, 16. In Threes Cardigan, 17. Nutkin socks, 18. Blue and Silver Baby Surprise Jacket, 19. jane cardigan 2, 20. Lilac leaf shawl, 21. karise shawl close up, 22. willem and alice pose, 23. mintfizz, 24. purple ball, 25. silver ball, 26. green ball, 27. acacia3, 28. Early Mornings Beret, 29. polly jean socks, 30. Adele’s Swirl Hat

Over the coming days I’ll do a retrospective of different categories. It’ll be for my amusement mainly but it’s always fun to share.

Just going through the photos from last year this morning has made me stop and think about what I knitted, what yarn I used, where my energies seemed to lie. I felt like I knitted almost entirely for Alice in 2011 but as you’ll see when I do that write up, it wasn’t that much at all. Not when I think about how many items for her I looked at and thought about knitting.

And I really thought I made more cardigans than I did.

The year ahead is always filled with so much promise. I recall at the start of 2011 wondering what I’d be able to look back on when the year was over, what plans were fulfilled and which were abandoned.

There were a few abandoned plans this year, several pieces of lace that never came to fruition, a couple of cardigans that I ripped out and are best forgotten.

But generally, as long as I’ve got a lot of happy knitting memories to look back on by the end of the year – lots of colour, a range of fibres, projects of different sizes and a few new skills thrown in, then I feel satisfied.

And if the people I love most are wearing some of the results of all those countless stitches and hours devoted to their creation, then I think it’s safe to say I can feel pretty good about my productivity and the fun I’ve had with it.

Here’s to a bright, colourful and ultimately squishy and soft 2012.

Bells

Here she is, chilling out at Christmas in her Spring Garden Tee. I love, love love the little lace cap sleeves!

It’s made from Bendigo Woollen Mills 8ply cotton in a colour called Daffodil. When I did a Bendigo order a while ago, I gave Sean the colour card and told him to choose something for Alice. Daffodil was his choice and it’s a good one. Yellow (or lello as she calls it!) works!

It’s a nice little pattern, by Alana Dakos. Slightly oddly written in that she has you put the sleeves on waste yarn to be bound off at the end. At the suggestion of a friend who had just made it for her daughter, I bound off the sleeves and kept going with the body. It seems utterly pointless to hold off the finishing of the sleeve caps until the end.

Here’s a shot of her wearing it standing up. We got her to pose with Willem (or Lillem!) during our Christmas festivities. They had lots of fun.

And another one.

I love that this top is both pretty and practical. Not to mention easy care. I think I’ll whip up another one fairly soon, in a different colour, because I can see it getting a lot of wear. I might make the next one a little longer though since she’s bound to shoot up like a weed over summer.

I’m pretty sure this is my last finished piece for the year. I’ve spent the last couple of days faffing around with starting stuff, ripping pieces out that I know I won’t finish and mulling over where my knitting will go in 2012. It’s always so fun to plan and wonder where I’ll be a year from now.

Bells

We didn’t plan on having her dress and shawl match but she arrived on Christmas day wearing the dress so we quickly set about taking the photos. Perfect!

The pattern is Karise and it’s a design by Kariebookish, a Dane who lives in Scotland. Isn’t it lovely? It’s made from a single skein of Cascade Heritage Silk, a lush and lovely yarn which was procured for me by a friend in Brisbane from Tangled Yarns. The colour is Purple Hyacinth.

I don’t think Adele knew what I was making for her, although she tells me she did see reference to it on my twitter feed at some point (spying!! Who knew!?) but I did ask her a while back what colour she was fond of wearing at the moment. She said purple.

So purple was what she got. With beads. I knew she’d love some extra bling.

They’re just little glass seed beads (size 6), lined with silver. Pretty and so fun to work with. I love beaded knitting, I’ve decided. There will be more of it!

I got to see Adele wearing it over Christmas. It was cool here in the evenings (and hardly warmer during the day) and so it got plenty of wear. It gave my mum and idea and she asked for a shawl to wear too. So out come the box of shawls and all three of us sat around the table on the deck facing the chill in the air with luxury yarns draped over our shoulders.

This was a lovely shawl to knit. The stocking stitch centre was soon over and the good stuff began with the pretty lace pattern and the beading. That too was over quickly. I think it all took about three weeks at most, possibly less. I did an extra repeat of the first chart and could have done more. There’s plenty of yarn left.

I need a shawl for myself made of Cascade Heritage Silk. It’s so soft and lovely.

Bells

I gave these shortbread stars as a gift on Thursday.

Later I made a bunch of other shapes – trees, bells (heh!) and more stars. Some of them, I hung on the tree. I want Alice and Willem to arrive and know they can nibble things hanging on the tree. That will be fun.

Speaking of Alice and Willem, a friend gave me an Ikea Gingerbread House kit saying it would be fun to make it for Alice. As I’ll have both of them here on Boxing Day, I thought they could share it/demolish it together.

But fun is perhaps not the word I’d choose to describe the cursing and carrying on that happened when I spent nearly two hours trying to get the bloody thing to stick together. I think my mixture was too thin, the afternoon too warm, my hands not steady enough – or something. Either way, with Sean’s help and some strategically placed glasses to hold the walls in place, we got there.

Then we decorated it. By then I was so over it I perhaps didn’t take the care I could have and slapped lollies on any where they would stick (see above comment about the icing being too thin….).

Here is what someone has amusingly described as my ‘renovator’s delight’ of a Gingerbread House. I share it because, well, it’s funny. Alice and Willem will love it (even if mine is not up to the standard Willem has become accustomed to from his mother!).

I’m reliably informed that not everyone gets them perfect first go. If I’m lucky maybe by the tenth I’ll make something passable. You do it for the love, right, and because you want to send your nieces and nephews home fuelled by sugar. Yes, that’s it.

Anyway, merry christmas everyone. It’s been a fun year and I’ve loved the sharing and the friendships. I’m on leave for a few weeks, mainly staying at home and spending as much time as possible doing this.

Knit, drink and be merry!
Bells
xo

Remember the quilt I started making for Alice for Christmas? The top of it was beautiful. It looked like this.

When it came time to actually quilt it, I got nervous. I know why. The other quilting projects I’d worked on were just for me. They were fun. I was new. I was learning. I went in with an attitude that spoke of not caring if I messed it up because I was just mucking around.

With Alice’s quilt, I was not mucking around. I was serious. And I felt serious. I remember calling my mum the morning I was going to start saying ‘I think I’m over-thinking this. I feel so nervous.’

And you know what? Those nerves didn’t help. Look what happened to the strip I’d sewn into the back.

Staggeringly bad warping. I did everything right. I pinned the quilt heavily, I did all that taping the back to the floor and smoothing it out that you’re supposed to do but nothing worked. I knew as I started sewing those straight lines that it was wrong, wrong, wrong.

The front looked nice.

But even though Alice is not yet three, and has nothing like an eye for perfection, I just knew I couldn’t live with the quilt with that horrid warping. I hope she’ll have this quilt for a long time – I don’t want it to be poorly made. I’m a newbie. It won’t be great. But it really shouldn’t be that bad either.

So I sulked for about a week (and I did really sulk – one day my mum asked me what was wrong and I said I was feeling down and we worked out that this bloody quilt was depressing the crap out of me).

The one night I sat down and begun unpicking the dozen or more lines I’d worked down the centre of the quilt.

Such a big job. It took me about three evenings. I figured that really, if she is to have this quilt for a long time, what’s a few evenings of ripping out? One day I can tell her I did that and maybe she’ll smile and think I’m crazy but it’s ok.

One night I got over zealous with the seam ripper and I nicked the quilt and there’s a hole but I’m going to applique or patch the hole and it’ll be ok.

Honestly the day this quilt is done I will feel like I’ve climbed Kilamajaro. It’s not even that big, as far as quilts go, but it’s been painful. I’m determined not to throw it in a cupboard and forget about it though I realise many would. I just can’t. I will just hate myself.

If anyone who’s got a clue can advise me how to avoid such hideous warping again, I’d be so pleased. One thing I’m doing is getting rid of the bamboo batting I was using. It’s way too slippery. I’ve bought some cotton/wool batting and I hope it’ll be better.

Oh and another thing? It’s no longer Alice’s Christmas quilt. She didn’t know it was coming so I’m not going to kill myself getting it done. I’ve knitted her something and bought her some books. That’ll be fine. Life’s too short to live with that kind of stress.

Bells