I am really getting into this knitting thang this year!
I knitted myself 2 Thorpe earflap beanies (Ravelry Link) over the last couple of weeks.

I’m still learning a lot with knitting and try to learn something new with each pattern I choose – these were my first attempt at doing something ‘top down’.
These were a heap of fun to knit- and the Malabrigo Chunky I think is now my new favourite yarn (I think I say this each time I try something new, but the Chunky is going to be hard to beat!)
Of course, it helped that knitting these in a chunky yarn made them knit up crazily fast!

I love earflap beanies- almost enough to make me wish I lived someplace cold- almost. Still, they are nice to have for travelling (yes, they were originally knit for Japan next month) and camping:)

The first one I knit fairly tight with US9 needles so it should be lovely and warm:

In Frank Ochre Malabrigo Chunky, and Azul Profundo Malabrigo worsted for the crochet edging and braids.

I finished up my second Thorpe last night:

This time I knitted it with US10 needles, so it came out a little bigger and not as tight- very comfy!
Yarn: Dark Earth & Frank Ochre (Stripes- using the yarn left over from the first hat) Malabrigo Chunky:

Well, I am back!

Late last year I fell in love with wool, yarn and generally all things that don’t mix the greatest with my lovely subtropical climate.

So how to keep my stash/collection from growing crazily out of control? I had my Ashford Knitter’s Loom, but really there is a limit to what I could make with that, so I decided to give knitting a try…

And omigosh i think I have created a monster.  So far I have been pretty good with finishing the things I start, but somehow the stash cupboard keeps getting more and more full…  But I also get to fill another cupboard with beautiful hand knitted things… win=win really…

I have a few projects I finished last year that I will update with over the next couple of updates, but for now, here is my first Finished Object of 2010:

My Peekaboo mittens  (ravelry link to the pattern)

They will be perfect when I am freezing my fingers, toes and butt off in Japan next month!

I knitted them in seed stitch instead of the stockinette the pattern calls for, and they are perfect for wearing over the top of the self-striping fingerless liners that Stacey is stitching for me (I promised I would knit her a pair of mittens if she made me some liners, a fair trade right? )

You can see a glimpse of the one finished liner in the pics:

My mittens are knitted in Malabrigo worsted, Azul Profundo colourway.  (I love love love Malabrigo!)

/squee!

For those that visit the site, I will be doing my posts in blue in the future to help differentiate between mine and stacey’s posts.  You can also find all of my posts (from January 2010 onwards in the ‘postings by jessica” category.

I will also be getting this site cleaned up and updated and looking great in the next couple days/weeks.  Stay tuned!

I can’t believe I have *finally* finished my mermaid!  Here she is!!!

Pattern: Mirabella – Bluebeard’s Princess by Mirabilia  Fabric: Crystal Meditation by PTP

I’m happy with how she looks, but she was a difficult girl!  The beading went badly, I spilt 7 packets of beads EVERYWHERE, and had to partially sort them (the rest are still currently loose in a tin!).  The seahorse on the left was re-stitched 4 times!  And the tail, oooooh the tail, I seemed to stitch that for FOREVER!

It’s such a relief to have her done.  I have promised myself that I will stitch small pieces for a while!

Close up of her tail beads:

It was a gorgeous day on Sunday, so we decided to head to our local botanic gardens looking for inspiration for our garden.

The gardens feature many different gardens, from tropical to arid.

To rainforest…

We stopped for lunch under a tree, and I whipped out my socks that I had finished the night before.

These little guys turned out far better than my last pair.  I finally understand how to pick up stitches, and what to do when you get holes.

I also attempted a different heel style called eye of the partridge.  Which turned out great!

I don’t think I would ever do a k2p2 rib again.  I think I prefer the look of a k3p1.  But I guess it’s all experience…

The sock bug has bitten me badly, and I desperately want to cast on another pair.  But I am close to finishing my cross stitch, so I’m trying to behave….

After lunch we headed to the herb gardens….(ok so this picture isn’t of herbs, but it was near the herbs I promise!)

We were a little disappointed by the herb gardens, a lot of the herbs they grow are just from nursery varieties.  It would have been nice to see different, or heirloom varieties.  

The gardens are still recovering from the drought we are having, and whilst they were still quite green there were areas that were neglected.  The vege patch didn’t look like it had been tended to for a long time, probably because they couldn’t afford to waste water on the vegetables.

We might check it out again in winter! It was a very pleasant day!

My newly completed cardigan….

Two weeks of blissful knitting. 

An easy pattern to learn. And a gorgeous wool to knit with.

I think I will be knitting at least another one of these….

Most of the container garden has survived!  (Excluding the few plants that fell victim to the cat)

Our cucumber plants are doing especially well and are now covered in flowers; hopefully we will see some baby cucumbers shortly…

Our tomato plants are still fairly small, but healthy, as are our silverbeet (who suffered a bit of damage in a storm we had but are recovering nicely.

Our lettuce, zucchini and Cumquats are also looking pretty good (if I say so myself;) ).

If we were able to pass the test we set for ourselves- to keep plants alive from seeds to beyond the seedling stage- we would trust ourselves with building our ‘real’ vegetable garden.  Basically, we wanted to see if we would remember to water and look after something that was ‘out of sight’ in the backyard…

In order to have enough sunlight in our backyard for our garden beds we are having a number of trees removed in the next fortnight (horrible chinese elms!).  

Our garden beds have arrived, and our new seeds have been sown so that we have nice strong seedlings to transplant when the beds are ready.

It is getting exciting!

I shall be posting the journey of our backyard’s transformation here.

We have had trouble finding a local, natural/organic butter, so last night I decided to give butter making a try… afterall it sounded pretty easy to do. 

And it was!

I just poured the cream into the Kitchenaid and beat it within an inch of its life. 

Once it had separated into nice firm-ish blobs of butter, I drained off the buttermilk -which is going to make some very delicious buttermilk pancakes tomorrow morning!

Then i rinsed the butter by beating with cold water, added some salt and drained off any remaining water by squeezing in some muslin cloth, leaving me with some delicious, fresh butter!

So easy!  It wasn’t even really messy or time consuming.

It’s been a couple of weeks since I last posted!  Work has been really hectic,  and not being able to not run is starting to catch up with me. It’s been 5 months and I am itching to start up again, but my shin splints just don’t seem to want to recover.  One step  forward two steps back. I’m actually considering joining a gym (arghh!!!) so that I can do more low impact workouts than I can at home.  So all this combined is making me tired and a little (a lot??) grumpy  

I have been crafting….slowly…..My poor mermaid is still not completed.  I have promised her to give her some more love and finish off her tail in the next couple of weeks.  I’ve found due to my exhaustion I’ve been knitting a lot more.  It takes less concentration, than stitching.

I’ve almost finished my vest (no updated pic), all I have left is to pick up stitches and knit the ribbing.  But I ran into a teeny issue, to pick up the stitches I needed a crochet hook, but alas I don’t own one.  So between waiting I cast on a simple cardigan.  I’m working with a new wool (to me) called Malabrigo, and oh my goodness, if clouds were strands of wool, they would be Malabrigo fibres.  It is the softest, most gorgeous wool I have ever had the pleasure in working with. Yum, yum, yum!

It has been so easy to knit, I am really looking forward to wearing it.  I am officially halfway through, so not long to go now!  

Both Jessica and I have the day off tomorrow, so I am looking forward to a sleep in, and maybe some more knitting, and stitching, yay!

I’m not really sure what to say today, except that I feel incredibly sad.  The words “Worst Bush Fires in Australian History” keep swirling around my head, along with the death toll that keeps on rising (173 last count this morning). And I am also feeling grateful, all my relatives who live in Victoria are all safe and accounted for and are in no immediate danger.  It’s all so devastating, I cannot imagine what all the people who have lost homes and loved ones are going through.  

Ok, enough with the sad talk, I do have pics to share today of craft I have been working on…..

Firstly, my mum fell in love with the wrap-around skirt I made the other week, and asked me to make her one.  So, being the good daughter I obliged!  I added extra length to it, as I felt the skirt was a smidge to short for me, and mum is more modest than me.

Fabric is in the Daisy Chain line by Amy Butler, with contrasting solid by Moda.

I have also been working on a knitted vest for winter.

I am up to knitting the back, then I just have to knit the ribbing around the neck and arms.  I was really worried that it wouldn’t fit, but I was able to try it on when I switched from knitting it in the round to knitting it straight.

On the gardening front, we had a “natural disaster” destroy some of our plants.  I was able to photograph the evil entity in action!

I *wish* all he did was eat the plants!  But he also dug them up.  He managed to destroy 3 cucumbers, 2 tomato plants, and all our cos lettuce.  Little Monkey!!

Stacey

Not much cross stitch going on at the moment.  The living room has been turned upside down whilst we clean and re-arrange everything.  Which means my stitching chair is unreachable, but that’s ok as I have been knitting up a storm!

I decided that it was time I taught myself how to knit cables, and what better project to knit in the middle of a hot summer?  Fingerless gloves  It’s not so bad, turn the air-con on and you can dance around and pretend it’s almost winter!

Ok, it’s still too hot to wear them.  And the ladies at my local craft group that I belong to were dubious that I would even be able to wear them in winter (”It doesn’t get that cold here” they said) however, they haven’t been in my house and experienced the frigid temperatures of a house designed to stay cool in summer, and therefore freezing in winter!

Either way I love them and will be wearing them when winter arrives!  To prove my point Jessica insisted I knit her up a pair as well.  So a lovely blue pair is currently on my needles.  She already has a pair of the  toasty gloves:

But the cabled ones are a little more dressy!