warm and sunny

that's the forecast for today. 22 degrees! the sad part is why that excites me the most: it's warm and sunny enough to wash the couch covers. thank the heavens (also known as Ikea in this case) for removable, washable couch covers. they are so grubby, they are always grubbier towards the end of winter than at any other time (well, unless they've been spewed on- but that's different, right?) of the year. it's nearly impossible to get them dry in the cold damp days. they need sun. and warmth. and when i wash them i need them to be done in one day, it's dangerous to leave the couch nude for too long! but the covers will be done today! hooray!


another reason to be looking forward to today is that i am having a visitor. Erin is coming over to play! goody! well must go- lots to do.



* the pictures are of the farm animals at Gulf Station on the weekend- oh wait, sorry, it's my kids.

i'm just not a one project at a time girl

how long has it been? a week! crikey, sorry. what have i been doing all week? um, not a lot. i've been feeling a bit ugh actually. not sure why, i'm just really tired. but that's nothing different is it? oh well, it's just a little bit ugh. at least it's not a lot ugh, right? right.
i did start on two new knitting projects. i know, why two? your guess is as good as mine. i just can't help it!
i spent a good part of the day on saturday flicking through books and old magazines, ferreting through my yarn and fondling my favourite needles. i was searching for someting to knit, something. you know that one? that something that you know you will know when you find it, when the yarn and the pattern and the needles all just click? so i eventually started on the Strawberry Bud cardigan from Rowan Babies. i stayed up late on saturday night watching Heaven on SBS just to get through to the first row of *buds*. they are so lovely! i have all year to knit this- i'm making it in a size two, for next winter. yes, i know. it's pink. i am gong to have a lot of ends to secure when i'm done!

and so on sunday we went out for the day and i needed a small project to take in the car. i took a scarf i was knitting with the divine laceweight cashmere i bought myself for my birthday back in March. i had chosen a lace shell pattern from an old Mon Tricot book but it just wasn't keeping me interested, nor was it doing this beautiful yarn justice. it occured to me that there was a pattern in the latest Interweave Knits for one skein of laceweight yarn. and you know what, there was. thus, we have the beginnings of the Swallowtail Shawl.

so far i have done five repeats of fourteen on the first chart, i'm really enjoying it. ask me how i feel about it further down the track when the rows get longer and longer.......

we had a lovely day on sunday. there was a new foodie market on at the historic Gulf Station farm in Yarra Glen. i must admit that the market itself didn't hold my attention for very long but i just love walking through all the old buildings. the kids really had a good time too. it's a monthly affair i think- fourth sunday of the month.

ok, blogger says no more photos, i'll try again tomorrow. what a pain.

today we are going to discuss the knitting

i am a knitter. mental about it. when i have a particular project in mind or a dilemma to solve i have even been known to dream knitting.


here we have a couple of finished objects. i go through little phases where i lament my lack of finishedness when it comes to the knits but in reality i do finish many more things than i give myself credit for. but i do rip lots out and start again too. first up is the very pinkypink vest made from Marta's divine 8ply merino. this is the one i made with short row lengthened shoulders to accommodate a big noggin. and my conclusion on this method? fantastic! i don't know why i hadn't thought of it before. such a simple solution. as you can see it is being modelled beautifully for me by Archer. it's intended recipient has a girth several cms smaller than my little fellow so it should be a good fit. next is one of my favourite recently finished objects. i knitted it and sewed the whole lot together months ago but only got my act together to sew buttons on last week. it fits Ivy just nicely now and will be a lovely spring weather jumper. it's knitted with Bendigo Woolen Mills 4ply cotton (in lipstick, sadly a discontinued shade). the pattern comes from my favourite op shop knitting pattern book find of all time- Knitting In Vogue Number 3, Patterns from the 30s to the 80s...... by Christina Probert. It's the Lacy Yoked Sweater, originally published in 1951.

and then lastnight i was sitting on the couch watching Top Gear with the fam and had no knitting in my hands. strange. so i dragged out the Ruffles scarf (from the Scarf Style book) that i had grown tired of. don't get me wrong, it's a beautiful scarf and i am using more Marta's 8 ply merino (my favourite!) but it's the second one i've made and it is really very repetetive. if i get into a rhythm i won't even notice it will i? i should just get on with it! i am, i am. i think i must've added at least 10cm lastnight. oh all those shortrows.....

speaking of getting on with it, my house looks as though we let farm animals in at night to sleep on the couches. i had better do something about it.

yum!

this time last year i had a newborn and look what i have now. a cake eating, almost walking, five toothed, growling baby girl!

it's ok, the birthday dress went straight into a bucket of napi-san to soak.

happy birthday possum!

oh, and not only did Finn's class sing Agadoo (do do push pineapple shake the tree!) but they sang the Flying Purple People Eater song too! they did a fantastic job and now i can't get the songs out of my head. i will have to get Finn to teach me the dance moves they were doing, they had a great little bum wiggle thing going on. probably won't look as cute if i do it though!

my baby's turning one tomorrow!

wowee, what a day. Ivy's first birthday party. she had a fantastic time, the best things about the day? the blocks in a trolley (she got the hang of walking with it really fast!)

and the cake (it didn't take long to get the hang of that either!)

ok, blogger doesn't want to play, i will show photos later.

right now i need to go to bed, Finn's grade one class is singing Agadoo at school assembly tomorrow morning and i can't wait!

now coming to you in pink

ok, pink today. pink and red is what i always go for. i was trying to break away and be wild and unpredictable. but i always come back to the pink. the eleven year old me would be horrified if she knew.

do we like the blue?

i was wondering if i could fiddle with the html in my template to change the colour somehow. and i thought to myself, " what if i just type in the name of a colour and see what happens? i can just put it back the way it was if it doesn't work". so now my background is lightblue (it didn't like spaces). i am rather impressed with myself. i don't know if this is really the right colour, maybe i should fiddle some more.

or maybe i should just leave it at that before i totally stuff the whole thing up because really, i have no clue. and not even the foggiest notion how to fix anything!

head holes for big boofy baby heads

my voice hurts, it's no good for singing "miss polly had a dolly" i discovered thismorning. the babes didn't care, they wanted more. "heads shoulders mummy!!"

but, dreaded lurgy aside, i did have a productive weekend.

on thursday i headed into the big smoke to visit Marta's. i am knitting a vest, my favourite pattern from the Rowan Babies book. i probably don't really need a pattern to knit a vest but i like it when all the numbers are already figured out for me, i'm mathematically lazy. the pattern actually calls for Rowan All Seasons Cotton but i like to make it from Marta's 8ply merino. it's a lighter weight yarn but i like the looser tension. plus, any excuse to go to Marta's right? it's like a wool lolly shop, i could spend hours in there figuring out the best way to spend my pocket money.

i have made this pattern lots of times, although it has one fatal flaw, the head hole is too tight for big boofy babies heads. i have used several strategies to fix this in the past, using the stretchiest cast off i possibly could, buttons on the shoulder..... this time i am trying short row shoulders that are longer than the pattern calls for and i left the stiches live so i can do 3 needle cast off once i've done the front.


and this is another back piece of the same pattern. this one is knitted from some merino i dyed with food colouring. i still have to wind the second hank into a ball so the knitting has come to a standstill on this one! but you can see another neck widening strategy i am trying here. i decided to do moss stitch instead of ribbing at all the edges and i've put a little placket at the centre of the back.

i will eventually finish them both and be able to compare the effectiveness of all the methods. eventually.......

the sewing machine made an appearance this weekend too. another quilted bag, i'm hooked on this quilting thing, love it! i wanted to use this little apple print i made last week so i put it in the centre of a log cabin square then sewed those bits on either end to give it a cute shape. the floral fabric on the back is a sheet from the op shop. yay for op shop sheets!

the op shop sheet was also used to make Ivy's calico dolly a dress. so far she has bloomers and the top half of a dress, man those puffy sleeves and collar took ages. so i will have to sew the skirt on one night after the squids are all in bed. the dolly is a present for Ivy's first birthday, she is turning one on monday. my how time flies!

now i'm off to cough up a lung and then sing some more nursery rhymes. have a lovely tuesday!

dear blog,
sorry to have neglected you like this all week, i'm still here and i've been thinking of you. i know we are still geting to know each other and i don't want you to think i don't like you. i do, i really do. it's just been a bit of a slow week craftwise. i promise to be a better blogger next week. there will be crafting over the weekend....i can feel it in my waters.
yours sincerely, justina

a right scone

what a loverly sunday. i baked and i sewed and we had a guest for lunch (she just visited, we didn't eat her). and now it's almost dinner time. and then bedtime. i love bedtime.

it started with pumpkin scones. i'm no Lady Flo but i am a fan of the old pumpkin scone. my recipe comes from Stephanie Alexander's lovely stripey book. love that book, i use it for everything. yum. although she says to cook them all as one big lump and cut the scones into squares. i am so not in agreement on that front. scones simply must be round. so much more oh, proper. just proper.

then i got to sew. i saw pictures of a beautiful quilted bag in a Japanese patchwork book at Kitty-Craft recently and i just couldn't stop thinking about it. my lovely sister-in-law bought me a little surprise last week when she went to the quilt show in town, and these fabrics were screaming out to be made into a cute new purse. i couldn't find a picture of the book again so i'm not sure how my memory compares to the original but i'm so chuffed. it's the first 'proper' quilting i've done (i went to the quilt shop and asked the woman there for some squishy stuff, luckily she knew i meant batting!). i'm not sure yet who this is for, i don't think it's for me, but i might give it a little test, just to check that it works ok.

i pledge

The Wardrobe Refashion Pledge

I, justinamaria,
Pledge that I shall abstain from the purchase of "new" manufactured items of clothing, for the period of 4 months.
I Pledge that I shall refashion, renovate, recylcle pre-loved items for myself for the term of my contract.
I Pledge that I shall create and craft items of clothing for myself with my own hands in fabric, yarn or other medium for the term of my contract.
I Pledge that I will share the love and post a photo of my refashioned, renovoated, recylcled, crafted or created item of clothingon the Wardrobe Refashion blog,so that others may share the joy that thy thriftyness brings!

snot city

you know it's a good day when the baby wakes up with her face covered in crusty boogers. it seems the winter snifflies have made it to our house. i thought we might just get through the snotty season reasonably unscathed this year, but i was foolish wasn't i? it was probably me thinking just this week about how great it was that my kids have all been fairly healthy recently (we won't mention archer's infected nostrils!!) that brought it on. good one.

once i wiped off the crusty bits it's not all that bad. she is still well enough to harrass the teletubby.

i'm so lucky. lucky, lucky, lucky.

i 'm such a lucky girl. a couple of weeks ago the lovely justine at 62cherry (we share the same name, hehe) gave away some of her gorgeous little purses. and i got one! just as soon as i was able to wrestle it away from archer i put all my knitting thingimys in it. perfect. although archer still thinks it is his! thanks justine, we love it.

new (old) machine

i was lucky enough to me given a beautiful old Singer machine recently. it's a 99k model, electric. i finally had the chance to sit down with it and have a proper look and play. i discovered the manual in the box too, so threading it was a breeze (i think that without the manual it would have been confusing and involved swearing!)

i made a little smock for Ivy. the fabric is from Ikea a few years ago, i didn't have enough in one big piece so i pieced it together in stripes. the whole thing is made on the Singer apart from the buttonholes. i had to bring out the modern machine for those!

i signed myself up to become wardrobe refashionista thismorning! i'm pretty excited.

happy G day

who would have thought that lolly teeth make such beautiful roses?



this is my dear gerard's (G) birthday cake. never mind that it's almost two months late. it has pretty roses. and it's pink. he loves it!

fangs and 'towboy dirts'

see those fangs? they are causing quite a number of sleepless hours at the moment. ivy is growing teeth left, right and center and those top ones are enormous. ouch.

i did manage to do a bit of sewing over the weekend.

it's a cowboy shirt for a grumpy cowboy. it's made from a sheet we bought at the op shop and the beautiful buttons are from the huge Buttonmania vintage button sale last month.

heart of glass

i made mention of my slight obsession with printed glasses. today i have a photo for you. just the one, i don't want to frighten you off.

i have eight of these ones. nice shape yes? i was lucky enough to find four together at an op shop for twenty cents. i was rather pleased. they have a lovely round shape that sits in your hand just so.....i could go on and on.

ever since i was a teenager and first moved out of home i have been buying printed glasses from op shops. it used to be easy to find all the old vegemite and honey jar glasses for 5 cents but now it's increasingly rare. the old ladies in the op shops have become pretty ruthless with some of their pricing! but that hasn't stopped me buying, oh no. it seems i have a sickness. i simply cannot leave a pretty glass in the shop, it has to come home with me to crowd in amongst all the others!

in fact, the only glasses in my house that are plain are beer and wine glasses, and i don't like to use those. i'm such a glass snob. i have my husband pretty well trained, he doesn't bat an eyelid at any new additions to the family, in fact he thought it was pretty great when i discovered that i could support my habit through ebay! (i think he may have the notion that we could cash them all in for a retirement fund, i think he's dreaming with that one) but they make me so happy.

blankety blanks

the food colouring works. i dyed some pieces of blanket lastnight. the method is slightly flawed though. it wasn't until the third go that i managed to get an even colour throughout the piece. my first couple of attempts came out with a mottled, uneven look. not unuseable but not ideal either. but i have loads more blankie to get it right with. i am going to try out the dylon dye next.

the yellow at the top of the pile is the original colour and you can see the unevenness of the pink and black pieces. i will perfect it, i must!

oh christmas tree

so it was a fairly ordinary monday today apart from the appearance of the "christmas tree" on our dining room table........

we also went to the op shop thisafternoon. i was looking for a woolen blanket to do a bit of this with. i looked around and didn't find any but i did find a lovely glass* to match the one i bought from there last week along with a couple of skivvies for finn to wear to school. after i had paid i noticed the pile of new donations right near the front door and what do you suppose was sitting on top? uhuh, two pale yellow woolen blankets, yay. the lady gave them to me for $2 because they had a couple of moth holes. moth holes? pffft!

i have been thinking about whether i could dye them with food colouring the way i dye woolen yarn. i think i could. i figure if i soak the blanket in vinegar and then boil it on the stove in water with the colouring in it i might just get away with it.

and what will i do with my wooly goodness you ask? i am going to make ivy a dolly for her first birthday next month. well, i will attempt to, i haven't made a dolly before. we shall see!

*remind me to tell you about my extensive (read: obsessively large) printed glass collection next time we chat, i'll bring photos!

she sewed something! not by the seashore.

hello blog! let me tell you of my recent sewing adventures.......

after weeks of wincing and apologising to myself every time i looked at my sewing machine i finally had the chance to use the old dear. yay! i miss her when i don't have a chance to sew. one day i will have a studio of my own where i can leave the machine out all the time. one day when i am an old lady. but one day nonetheless!

i had the opportunity to sew not one but two entire garments, can you believe it? no, nor can i!
this one, the first, is a little jacket for Ivy. it is an old McCalls pattern i bought when Finn was a wee babe. i have made it in several incarnations but i must say this is my favourite. i added lining to the whole jacket to make it nice and snug.

cute huh? the body is some red corduroy i had hanging around, i didn't have enough cord for the whole lot so the sleeves and hood are denim from a pair of my old pants. the body and sleeves are lined with some nice warm pink flannelette and the hood is lined with some beautiful craft fabric i ordered from the internets. those are some funny little mouse ears you can see on the top there too! pink lace, red ricrac (i am a ricrac lover) and cute green vintage buttons complete the deal. and she looks super cute in it!

and then yesterday i sewed myself a blouse. it's a pattern from the women's issue of Ottobre magazine. i altered it somewhat (of course!) the pattern is actually a wrap top but i wanted button and the original also had a proper collar up the top but i left that off and decided to fold the lapels up so my boobs don't hang out (they have a dreadful habit of doing that you know). so it's gone from being an average blouse to a bit of a 60s mod number. makes me feel slightly less suburban housewife than the original would have. but i am not kidding myself here, i don't look cute in my new clothes the way the babe looks cute in hers!