Week 149 : Magenta baby cardigan

A baby cardigan.

It is being quickly gifted so not much time to photograph, not even enough time to block! I just gave it a quick burst of steam from the iron.

The pattern is Boy-o-boy by Carol Scott. I have made ten of these little cardigans now. They are my go-to pattern. They knit up quickly, show off a pretty artisan yarn (especially useful for odd skeins in the stash. I used a bit less than 250yards)

This cardigan uses Dream in Color Classy in the colour Absolute Magenta.
I have also had good results in Madelinetosh DK, Artyarns Supermerino, Mirasol Cotonani, Evoke Yarns Whisper, and Debbie Bliss Andes.

The buttons are simple translucent plastic from Lincraft. They are a very good colour match.

My Ravelry page is here.

Week 147, 148 : Blue socks, rainbow gothic sock yarn

I have finished the second of the three pairs I am knitting for my school friends. This pair is in Madelinetosh Tosh Sock in the colour Blue Nile.

I have cast on the third pair and hope to finish in the coming week.

I also cast on a pair with yarn I bought on Ravelry destash. It is Twisted Limone yarn in the colour Rainbow Gothic. My son really likes it. 

Today I have to travel back to the restaurant we had lunch at yesterday. My small knitting bag with this partly finished sock fell out of my bag and was left under the table. Phew. That would have been a great disappointment.

I like the funky colour striping so much I have bought three more Twisted Limone yarns on destash. The three are girly colour mixes and my daughter has dibs on at least two.

School summer holidays have just started. (This is day number 2!). I have lots of holiday crafting plans and that means I hope to blog projects other than sock knitting!

Week 146 : Advent Calendar

I saw a cute advent calendar on Pinterest a few weeks ago. I've been saving our toilet roll tubes in order to craft it. Its not quite finished yet. (Hence the pins holding the roof glue steady)



I used lightweight brown paper glued to the front end.






The day numbers are text handwritten in gold with a fine black pen outline.



Now just to fill with treats and Christmas messages and then glue the back card on. My kids are looking forward to popping each December day and finding out the little surprises inside.

Week 144- 145 Cotton voile dress and sock progress

I started a dress in a blue and white cotton voile. It is partially assembled and the lining is pinned inside.

The pattern is Vogue V1351 and first sewn in a lightweight wool crepe in Week 103

I was inspired by a china bracelet bought on Etsy and received in Week 139

The skirt requires some adjustment at the side seams in order for the border print to fall gracefully. The al-line pattern was unsuited to a straight line selvedge so i will have to make a different line down.

It needs a narrow navy belt too. The blue ribbon is a temporary trial.


i finished the Regia socks. the colour is called Persian Carpet.

Week 142-3 : More socks and some dye

A fortnightly update because there have been unbloggable projects.

One pair of socks for my daughter finished. The yarn is Dream in Color Starry in the colour "Milky Spite" (Sprite? Although the label says spite).

Such a pretty skein with its silver sparkle and soft pastel pinks and greens. My daughter loved it. So did I.. initially.

Such a disappointment then, to see it knitted up and looking so insipid. The colour of goose-bumped skin you might say. Not a flattering topper to a little girls boot. Still.. it is a pair done for school camp, off my queue!

I used only 50% of the skein. Since I did a little dyeing this weekend, I over dyed it with purple. Its now prettier! The silver thread pops (not that my photo shows this very well) and the purple is a semisolid. I think my daughter will love another pair of socks from this.

Next I wound a lovely skein from Augustbird. The colour was a pre-order called Songbird. With much enthusiasm, I bought two.

I cast on for my daughter.

I will share this skein with my friend who has a daughter the same age and the second skein will go into stash for myself some time in the future.

I still have socks in queue. Life is still packed full of must-do and urgent tasks. Sock knitting is proving very calming.

I have fabric cut out and a range of crafts put aside for the forthcoming school holidays at the beginning of December.

I will be soap making and screen printing too. Can't wait for some freedom to get stuck in to that!

Week 141 : Holiday sock knitting

I knit two pairs of socks whilst on holiday.

These first are the Sweet Georgia Yarn Tough Love Sock in the colour Snapdragon.
My nine year old daughter is very tall for her age. So whilst i knit a narrower sock than I would have for an adult, I still knit a 9" overall length.

They look good over her boots.

This is my boy, with his hand knit socks from a few weeks ago and in his boots complete with a little holiday farm-mud.

I finished his pair of socks. This is Regia Design Line with the colours "Landscape Fire" designed by Kaffe Fasset.

I've spent this last week painting school stage sets. Fun and creative but unfortunately unbloggable.  Still knitting socks though, trying to finish a second pair for my daughter before she goes to school camp. Hopefully soon I will have some time to revisit my larger project and my sewing table.

Week 139 : New socks, a hat and sewing plans

This has been the first week of school holidays. We are taking a family holiday, within Australia, next week so the next post will be a fortnight in Week 141.

This last week I finished a hat for myself in Madtosh ASAP. The colour is Candlewick. Here is is modelled by my daughter with the assistance of her spaniel Toffee. My daughter is a shy model and wasn't really keen to be photographed today.

Very simple knit in the round on 9mm needles.

Socks are still being knitted.

I finished the Regia Landscape colours 'Storm' socks. here they are unblocked.

I have cast on the second sock of the Regia in the colour mix 'Persian Carpet'

Its very pretty and I am delighted the way the colour changes in the yarn sets up the pattern.  Its all I can do to put it aside.

I sorted though my cupboard and sorted sock yarn for the 'queue'. Especially for projects to take way with me next week.

Here are the skeins I've chosen.

From left to right: 

• Sundara sock yarn (which I haven't entered into my ravelry list yet. I think the colour is 'Travels to Greece', 
• Sundara Fingering Merino Cashmere in 'Guava', 
• Jill Draper Makes Stuff, Esopus Sock in 'Monarchs and Milkweed'
• Copper Corgi Fibre Studio Sock in 'Stay Warm' (this was bought last year on our holiday in Savannah.
• Madelinetosh Sock in 'Cosmic Wonder Dust'
• Sweet Georgia Tough Love Sock in 'Snapdragon'

Above Shibui Staccato Sock in a teal, which was bought as part of a kit (with matched silk cloud yarn. I won't knit the shawl so I will use the sock and stash the lace weight)

I started two further socks.

The first was a Wollmese Pure in the colour Bluebelle. I bought three skeins of this in destash but decided it was a bit too vivid for a sweater project. Its been in stash for quite a while. I decided to wind one skein and see how it knit up.

Unfortunately I don't like the pooling. The not quite spiral, not quite level stripes are very off-putting. I've unravelled this and I think all three skeins will go to a weaving project one day in the future.

My next sock project is more successful.

Its for my daughter (so I reduced the stitch count, although I'm wondering if I reduced too much. I would like them to last more than a few months.) 

She picked the skein. Its the Sweet Georgia Snapdragon from the above selection. 

Its knitting up with pooling but she still likes it and its a fun mix of colour.

I didn't get to finish, but I cut some fabric for a summer dress. 

The fabric is a cotton-silk voile with a border print that I'll arrange to be at the hem.

I've cut Vogue V1351. I've made this dress before in Week 103, so I know my length adjustments.

I bought this very cute bracelet on Etsy. Its made from a recycled china teacup. I have a fondness for blue and white china and this was too pretty to ignore. 

The Etsy maker is 'StayGoldMaryRose' (I've linked her Etsy shop). Lots of very cute things!

My daughter is modelling this, it sits a little smaller on my adult wrist.

Week 138 : Still knitting socks

I finished the blue Schoppel -Wolle socks I started in week 135. A perfect fit for my ten year old boy who is about to go on school camp.

Here he is.

The yarn detail again :
Schoppel-Wolle Admiral R Druck in colour 1566 1641 wel / Variegated blues.

The pattern is The Sock Recipe otherwise known as a 'good plain sock' by Stephanie Pearl McPhee in her book Knitting Rules.


I cast on a new sock. This yarn is Regia Design Line Effects and the colour is Persian Carpet.
I am absolutely enchanted by the dyeing of the yarn which produces this 'fair isle' effect when I knit it up.

This sock is knitting quickly as I'm motivated to continue just a little bit more to see what happens with the pattern.


The school holidays are coming up however and I would like to finish at least one sweater. The closest one to finishing is the Plucky gradient yarn. Hopefully I'll be able to post that soon.

Week 137 : Finished NY Cape, new socks

I finally got to sewing buttonholes on my NY cape. It is now finished and ready for wearing!

I chose black leather buttons bought from All Buttons a couple of weeks ago. I used eight, four down the front and four (paired) holding the underarms together.

I am still knitting the second blue Schoppel Wolle yarn sock from my last post. I cast on a second pair in this Regia 'Design Line' sock yarn as well.

The colour is Landscape Storm by Kaffe Fassett.

I have three balls of this, but only need two for socks (when I bought this I wasn't a sock knitter and had a different plan for it). So I'm going to be left with a single ball which won't be enough for more socks. Perhaps fingerless gloves would be an option.

Week 135-136 : First sock

I didn't mean to miss a blog week, but the days just flew by.

This past fortnight I have made a sock. Singular as I still have to complete the second. But it is my very first completed sock and the first time I have constructed a heel. Also the first time I've had to graft stitches (for the toe). That isn't quite so neatly done and better not viewed in close up. I need more grafting practice (and to make myself a cheat sheet reminder so I know which step I'm up to).

I'm very happy with it though. The yarn is Schoppel-Wolle Admiral R Druck in a variegated blue. Learning to magic-loop made all the difference. I had tried socks before but that was with DPNs. The extra needles were fine if I was watching what i was doing but not convenient for my usual 'waiting in foyers' or 'supervising kids' sessions.

I immediately stashed a bit more sock yarn and have cast on another pair.


I finished two hats for my kids. Both are in Madelinetosh ASAP. The colours are 'Sun Rose' and 'Black Walnut'. I still have another two hats in the queue. 'Candlewick' and 'Vintage Sari' colours.

And then finally I saw some interesting jars in my not-so-local supermarket. They have a two part lid which I realised was exactly as I've seen on other "pincushion jars" in pinterst. I bought two boxes (of 12 and got to pincushioning. Its very quick to make when the lid already has the cutout.

These diamond pressed jars are smaller than the others Ive been making for my kids school fete. But I think for a very simplified sewing kit they might be very attractive.

I bought some larger jars as well, they have the same lid (so these are interchangeable) but the glass has a more prominent motif and also capacity measurement lines. I'm not sure if they'll look as good. 

So I made them up and if we end up preferring the smaller jar, I'll switch everything around and keep the larger jars for jam and pickle making.

Week 134 : Book Week Parade

Its Book Week again and my kids have very specific ideas about what costumes they would like to have for the parade.

So it has been a weekend of busy crafting.

Firstly my daughter wants to go as Anna from the movie Frozen.

I bought some cheap acrylic fleece and cut a cape, a sleeveless top and (with some cotton) a simple a-line skirt (elastic top).

The dress form isn't a nine year old girl size, so things aren't sitting very well. 

She painted the 'embroidery' design. Not that any of the fabrics were particularly likely to fray but the paint finish gave the edges a nicer looking weight.

We glued sequins on the cape spots and sprinkled glitter over the top of the paint. 

The real challenge is going to be the two hair braids. Hairstyling is NOT something I have very much success with.

My son wants to go as a wolf monster from one of his adventure stories. Usborne "Quest of the Gods, Shadow of the Storm Lord"

The key elements as far as he is concerned, are a blue wolf head, gold armour and the two swords.

We're not finished yet. I made the base pieces with box card and he painted them. Now that its dry, he has to add detail lines and stick on teeth.

Both costumes have to be finished for Friday's parade.


I haven't done very much other crafting this week. I finished a hat in Madtosh ASAP. This colour is called Cove. I added more stitches and length as its for my husband for those wintery dog walks.

I knit rows on the yellow Sundara cardigan and bought buttons! Little glass ones from my favourite button shop All Buttons in Newtown. I'm a few inches from finishing the body fabric. I might then go straight to the button band and do the sleeves last.