Fun yarn update

 It was a weekend of playing with yarn. I needed to make up a couple of gorgeous presents for my friend that I was seeing over the weekend so I quickly whipped up a couple of bookmarks for her to use. I am going to have to have some fun in between gnoming and make a pile more of these because they are cute and fun to make. Very quick to stitch up.

Both patterns were freebies I found through ravelry. I love their search engine!

 

The two ended flower pattern can be found here

While the Rose can be found here ... though this actually links to making the stem and then you follow it through to the rose pattern. Both flowers are really easy to crochet and took very little time but look absolutely gorgeous in the Bendigo Cotton. 

Now let's talk Gnutmeg the Gnome. If you don't want to spoil the mystery this is Day one and two of stitching so if you haven't got there yet don't keep scrolling. This is the last project I'm showing off so you're not missing anything but gnomes!

Day one we did the beard. I love how the nose was integrated into the pattern. It is so clever! I was really unsure about how it would turn out and ended up pleasantly surprised.

Then the second Day of knitting came out.... This one was dangerous!! I had to start knitting in the round and I realised after the needles were going every which way and the swearing was getting more pronounced that I really needed to rethink! So I did! I stopped what I was doing, pulled it back to two needles and worked from the two needles to start bringing it into the round. SOOOO much easier. I have a funny feeling this happened the last time I tried to start knitting in the round as well! 

As you can see here.. this was the end of day one's knitting. I took my knitting to watch the softball.

I am speculating here but I'm thinking this may be part of the hat. BUT I am not sure. We shall see as more clues get revealed!

Happy Stitching, 

Caitlin

Signing up for a knitting KAL

 I'm probably crazy... actually I'm sure I am but each year I see everyone doing the gnomemkal on instagram and I want to join in but I keep going nah... I can't do that!

SO this year I went stuff it! I want to join! So join I did! I signed up through ravelry but all the links are available on her website. 

If you search the tag #gnomemkal on instagram there are a tonne of photos of previous gnomes. The variety and options are seemingly endless and all sooo beautiful! 

I may even have put an order in for some gorgeous cotton from Bendigo woollen mills to knit it in! I'm going to do the purple shades :D Of course! I'm so excited and looking forward to what it will look like.

Happy Stitching, 

Caitlin

Me and my Knitted Bunny

I had to get dressed up for work :D So this is my idea of dressing nice to impress. I think I managed it but still in a very me way. I don't do fancy fancy. But I even managed lipstick and mascara. I did feel good all day. I've also been doing some work trying to get my hair to curl more. I have hair that is naturally wavy and I'm trying to bring that out rather than making it straight. It is a bit of a process but I'm liking how my hair is reacting. 

My bunny is all finished. Except for a few threads to sew in. She's all wonky and weird but I love how she turned out. I have been working on this project since 2015... so it has been WAAAY too long for such a simple finish. Particularly since all I had left to do were the arms! 

No matter how hard I tried I couldn't get the eyes to look the same but it still works. Now all I need to do is make a little pinafore dress for her and it will be perfect :D 

I hope you don't mind the lack of cross stitch at the moment. I haven't been settled enough to do much stitching and I find either knitting or crochet helps when I'm in this mood. I do have some designs that I have been playing with though ... I'm kinda excited to see how they turn out! 

Happy Stitching, 

Caitlin

Knitting Progress and Board Games

My friend had her birthday over the weekend and it was kinda awesome to see her again. We played board games and had yummy cake! It was nice to enjoy games again. I realised how much I missed my monthly board game nights. 

I forgot to get photos of the games I made for the night but I have been having some fun and finding board games to print and play. It is awesome how many games are available to be printed at the moment. Some you have to buy some you don't.

This is unstable unicorns, this is a copy a friend had but I managed to download and make up a copy as well from the tee turtle website. 

No candles so we had sparklers :D 

Rainbow cake :D

And now to the knitting! I have done all the parts for my bunny and now I'm in the process of sewing it together. 

It looks so cute :D and very lopsided. I couldn't manage to get the eyes to look right.... I've never been good at embroidering eyes on. 

I think I have the legs in the right spot? They're just pinned at the moment. 

Last night the kids wanted to play games with us so we played Bananagrams ... James won which isn't really that surprising. Though I wasn't far off. It's kinda a scrabble type game. 

And also Princess UNO. Because who wants to play with normal UNO cards?

I'm down to just the last two exams and then I'm done with my Master's degree. I will have a lot more time. But I am going to plan another games night with my friends sooner rather than later because I am realising that I have missed this so much. I miss talking with my friends and the interactions that come from playing games together. The reasoning and the ruthlessness .... and losing. I seem to have an innate ability to lose games but I enjoy playing them still. 

Happy Stitching, 

Caitlin

Crochet and Knitting Fun (also craft room sorting)

So it turned FREEZING this weekend across Australia! We're not even in winter yet and some areas of Queensland recorded their coldest days EVER! So the ability to actually stay warm was even more important and I cuddled up under my crochet blanket with my owl beanie on and I stayed there for most of the weekend! 

Comfy Blanket Anyone?? 

With a little break in the middle of the day so I could clean the craft room a little. Not being able to even WALK into the room was starting to make me feel bad but it had become the box dumping site... So NOT entirely surprising. 

This was at the start of Saturday afternoon...I was standing in the doorway of the craft room! 

By the end of a couple of hours I manged to get the room like this. Still a HUGE amount to do but I am currently happy with how it stands. I can walk in and out of the room and I can see the potential even if I can't currently get to everything because it's still in relatively neat boxes. 

But my bookcase is looking particularly neat and I love the cross stitches on top. They are a Faye Whittaker design that I stitched YEARS ago. They came from a magazine I bought not long after I first started stitching. I will probably move those from there and put some sort of hanger system down the side of the bookcase so I can have the three designs sitting there so you can see them as you walk up the hall. 

I made a promise when we moved to start being truly honest with myself about why I am keeping certain craft stuff and just because I spent money on it is no longer an acceptable excuse. Actually I'm making that promise with a lot of stuff around the house as we slowly go through stuff and sort it. Let's be real... if I haven't touched a craft for 5 years not just because I work and do uni but because in the small breaks I do have that craft is something I have no interest in spending my time on ... WHY am I keeping it? It's a hard question to answer because I spent money on that stuff and obviously I felt it was important at the time but now, it's really not. 

But ... it's not all doom and gloom

I was searching through the drawers and came across this toy... it's a knitables pattern for her bunny and honestly I'm shocked that it's still there. I found I had ONLY two arms to do then some sewing and stuffing and I'll have a finished toy! So I settled down to watch a movie with my knitting in my lap and off I went. I'm sure as I continue to sort boxes and drawers I'll find more projects like this that I started. Some I WILL finish because I still like them but some I know I need to frog or bin all the work I have done and start a different project because it's not my style or my interest anymore. 

I also found a new crochet technique that I wanted to try (well not a new technique .. just new to me!) and I started testing out some squares. It's called Mosaic Crochet and this pattern is the square from the Terrazzo Afghan by Tinna

I I really like how this square looks though it isn't finished in this photo. It is just a tester to try out the pattern and I found for this one at least I used slightly too small a hook for the yarn and it's a little too tight. I don't know if I am going to make a whole blanket but I think I will. It will be a great project to work on through the winter as it will be highly portable. 

So that is my weekend update... I'm hoping to finish the bunny this week and then also work out what I am going to actually do about making a blanket as I would need to go yarn shopping to make it actually happen. Hope you stuck with me this far :D 

Happy Stitching,

Caitlin

B is for...

Knitted Ball

When I was working as a teacher I used to pick up games from all the different places. One of the most common games was called Silent Ball. Almost every class seemed to have a version of it that they played. The rules were very similar. But not all schools had a ball. I needed something that could safely be thrown around a classroom. Out came the knitting needles. I think I used a pattern for a Christmas ornament or something and created this ball.

I didn't stitch it in the round but sewed it up at the side. You can kinda see the seam in the picture above.

The game was always awesome fun and I'm going to share the rules with you. 

Silent Ball

Rules

1. You can not speak, you must be silent while playing. (or you're out)

2. All throws must be underarm. No Pegging the ball. 

3. A bad catch and you're out. Bad Throw and you're out. 

4. You can't throw back to the person who threw to you (or you're out) unless it's the last 5 people. 

How to play

Throw the ball around the classroom until someone makes a mistake and then they sit down. The game continues like this until you have only one person left. It's as simple as that. Sometimes if the kids held the ball too long I would add a hot potato rule, meaning the ball would have to leave their hand within the count of three. You can make it as simple or as complicated as you want but have fun playing.

Happy Stitching, 

Caitlin

Day 14

If you have been very observant of my posts for Crazy January you may have noticed I have missed Day 13. I have decided that day didn't exist because I forgot to do a new start that day. I did do some cross stitching and I now have an update on Winter Fairy by Joan Elliott.

In December it looked like this...

and now it looks like this...

and an artistic view ...

Now although I didn't start a cross stitch project do you think it counts that I started a new knitted toy?

It will end up being a duckling, that is it's body there. It will be very psychedelic but I couldn't resist trying out this yarn.

Now to the whole point of this post I do have a Day 14 start. It's a hedgehog keyring that I bought ages ago and I finally decided to start it to have a break from Christmas ornaments. Actually I've had lots of breaks from Christmas ornaments the last two days.

Now I'm going back to Winter Fairy because it's calling me :D

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin

Another one bites the dust!

So I have another knitted toy finished :D I love this one! It will be a Christmas present I just need to work out who for!

First we start with a donut then we add a little hat :D

and up pops......

isn't it just the most adorable little head! I love this little guy! So happy and cute :D Just perfect for someone when I work out who!

Happy Stitching :D
Caitlin

A Chef, dinosaur and some flowers!

Well I have finished the little chef but shhhh..... don't tell my mother! It looks like her and will be her Birthday present in a month. Though it is 100% finished as I still need to make the donut for him to sit in.

I also finished the t-rex dinosaur I think I first posted about this guy at the end of January! I really didn't enjoy knitting him but I needed my needles to make the donut and the chef and all those guys. Because I didn't enjoy making him I didn't really bother to photo him until now because I am giving him away tonight to a little boy who will love him! Not sure why I didn't enjoy making him .... maybe because he's wonky!

I only have one set of size 3 needles that I use for my little toys so I can only have one toy going at a time. It saves my sanity!

I also have been busy with Sampler Aux Fleurs because it can easily go to school. So I have got a couple more motifs finished and one half done!

Sorry it's so wrinkly it gets shoved in the bag a little.....

I love this lace it looks so nice.

Done the flower in the vase and started the lacy flowers to the right.

Happy Stitching!
Caitlin

Little Toys

A friend asked me to crochet up a little toy for her kid and she gave me the pattern to do so. Here is what it will look like...

It's from a book called crobots.

Here is how far I am at the moment. Need to collect some of the parts!

I have also been knitting a little chef which will go inside his own donut for my mum for christmas!

He's not anywhere near finished can you tell?


Good news about the little ducky. I took him down to the local cafe to show my friend and someone there bought him off me. So I no longer have a duck in a donut! But I did get money for stash ...

Have fun :D
Caitlin

I LOVE knitting toys :D

So I've fallen in love with these dinosaur designs. I did say that it would be bad when I finished the hedgehog because it would start me on more projects.

So I've finished 2 little dinosaurs. They are so cute... only about 15cms long.and not exactly your typical dinosaur colours...

I also started a T-rex style dinosaur.

in bright blue :D I love this colour so much!

Oh and I did totally finish the hedgehog before I started these dinosaurs.

The soother just finishes the design and really makes it a baby hedgehog :D

Oh and I did do some work on Boxers :D

I do love this design. It is so much fun to work on :D

Caitlin

p.s. My grandma is all fine she now has her teeth and is feeling much better and expecting to fight the insurance company for her car. She isn't happy because my Grandpa gave her that car but she is very strong :D

p.p.s Oh it hasn't stopped raining here. We see the sun in small bursts and then it starts again. But not very heavy at the moment so areas haven't been flooding which is great! I can't wait for the rain to go away they're talking about it sticking around for most of this week... oh well!