Cheaper than therapy

A burst of colour in Perth's grey winter!

 

Perth is enduring a very, very cold, windy and wet winter.  Perfect for hunkering down and crafting away.  Not that I can - I have a day job to go to :) 

 

I am methodically sewing in ends on this crochet throw - nearly finished a year or 6 ago!  Also on my crochet granny squares and I'm starting to join them AND working on my V-stitch.  The colour burst makes me feel alive at the end and beginning (I'm having a coffee and crochet a few trebles first thing in the morning, sssshhh don't tell my walking buddy who's away in Europe, that I'm shirking my walking duties, but it's far too wet anyhoo, Margaret :)

 

Colour and crochet make me happy!

Crochet: V Stitch

 

I've taught myself a new stitch this past weekend and I am loving it long time!

 

It is really super easy and progress is super fast - like one of those AGV or TGV fast trains in Europe - this is the Vroom Vroom fast train stitch of crochet.  My thoughts whiz around in my head.  Dreams chattering wildly to me.  It's like sitting on one of those trains.  You sit whilst colours and scenery flash by, taking you to a new place, so you're stationery and mobile all at the same time.  It's an exciting feeling.  I really feel it on trains. Much more so than on aeroplanes.

 

I'm doing what I always seem to do with my crochet.  Totally random colour - just grab the next ball - one colour per row for this throw, so who knows what it will end up looking like. It's a total adventure. :)

 

Granny progress report

And I don't mean of the human variety...although Grannies are healthy and busy :). No I'm talking the crochet variety... 

Told you I haven't been idle :) 

mwah my lovelies :)

A little bit of hooky in my life (sung to the tune of Lou Bega Mambo No 5!)

I managed to squeeze in about an hour of crochet this weekend.  Lucky me.  Hopefully with winter on the way there will be more hours to come.....Life is soo ridiculously hectic lately.  I wish I could win Lotto, find a sugar daddy, not have to work full time....but I do and I'm lucky in so many ways....

I've just been making squares which I'll eventually sew together to make a totally random Nanny McPhee style rug. So far I've made 50 and I think I'm going to sew in the ends of these before I make more, perhaps even sew a couple together...or no?  Should I wait...I have this little discussion in my head as I hook away....

The little squares are going to be a scarf one day.  Just totally random squares of colour joined together...I'm just going to make one in every ball of colour that's going into the rug and see what I think at the end...

 

 

Random-ness

So my inner fairy godmother has helped me out and I've found a way around the disappearing upload box (i have tried disabling pop ups, plug ins...to no avail.  Now I'm uploading via my phone to a picassa web album to the blog...laborious but it works. 

Here are 2 pics I wanted to post of Gypsy.  I love them and I'm going to frame the one above. She was so pretty and I loved her little beauty spot on her nose :)

More photos....

 

My latest crochet project.  Totally ramdom squares for a blanket. But I can't edit this one aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh for the second time.

 

 

 

My eldest girl - George (nearly 20) - got a brand new grown-up bed which we installed yesterday.  Her pink and green quilt looks lovely on it.  It was my first quilt.  I don't think it will be there for long - she's decided the pink and green (so 12 year old girl!) colour scheme is going.  :)



Holiday snaps

So I promised some more pics and after days of trying to upload photos I seem to have finally pressed the right button somewhere to make it happen.  Why would my computer suddenly stop uploading photos?  One of the items on my "things to do this year'' happens to be computer courses.  Even though I work all day on a computer, there are aspects of it that are completely unknown and mysterious to me - and I lack the skills to figure it out myself, it would seem.  Take my blog - it's very stock standard and I would love to change it up a bit, but I struggle with that and it takes me hours trying to do something that I know other computer-savvy-bloggers do in 5 seconds.  It's one of the reasons I sometimes want to do away with my blog, in that I can't create the look I really want to create.  I am very time poor, so having someone show me would be a very constructive exercise I feel.

I digress (I do a lot I know)... here are some pics from my 2 weeks in Victoria.  Who else but me would go to (arguably) the shopping/fashion capital of Australia and return with wool and fabric only?

This is my hero piece from the pieces I bought.  I love it so much I want to base an entire quilt around it.  Now I know I'm not the only person who does that, am I?  Finds a piece of fabric as an excuse to make a quilt?  Below is a pic of my shopping...

Mum took me to the most fabulous shop called Morris and Sons. I'd never heard of it, but that means nothing.  This is an institution in Melbourne.  It's in the CBD!  Ma and I spent AGES in there browsing and I picked up the yarn pictured for my collection-of-many-splendoured-coloured balls for my granny square rug.  It is going to be G-OR-GE-OUS! Yum, yum, yum.

The fabric came from Jiddi's Patch in Geelong.  A great shop with LOADS of great fabric.  As you can (just) see I picked up some of the reprinted Flea Market Fancy range - this time in the green, grey and orange along with a few delicious bits.  I showed great restraint believe me.  I flew over with a suitcase full of fabric as I was going to get stuck into sewing - I had the beginnings of 3 quilts I hope to finish piecing the tops of !  I am nothing, if not optimistic!! Needless to say I worked on one of them, still unfinished.  So I flew home with a suitcase full of fabric too, in fact MORE fabric than what I flew over with.  I am a nutter! I also took knitting, embroidery and linocut tools.  

Here's a taste of what I did finish....

Yep that's it - one hat!  In 2 weeks I started and finished one hat!  I worked on other things I might add, however, only one item was actually finished.  I'm not a slacker you know!  :))

This is another Snow Hat by Rowan.  It's going to live in Chicago on one of my sister's heads... happily I hope!

I spent a lot of time enjoying the countryside.  It's beautiful country. Rolling hills, cattle, horse and sheep grazing.  I saw several native animals in the wild - koalas, an echidna, roos, owls, kookaburras and endless other birds.  Here's a few photos you can play "Where's Two-Thumbs? (the koala)'' with.  I promise there is a koala in every photo!.

It's always a thrill to see creatures in their natural habitat...

Hay bales were littered over fields everywhere

We ventured to and along different parts of the Great Ocean Road over the course of the 2 weeks. It is a spectacular coastline.

 A sign tickled my fancy in Apollo Bay.

The lighthouse at Aireys Inlet - lighthouses are  just so wildly romantic don't you think?

some local flora

Crochet Poncho

Found this in a surf shop in Claremont.  They also had some great crocheted rugs and cushions. Hand made in Indonesia by women who are paid well and love what they do - I had quite a chat to the shop owner.  He said he gets abused by some people who enquire as to whether he's aware that he's exploited workers in 3rd world countries - people that just launch into him without asking whether he knows where they're made etc...

I love seeing crochet in mainstream shops. Whoever believes that it's a nana craft...needs to get with the times... of course no-one who reads this would think that, but I still encounter people who have that mentality and have forsaken home made craft as a relic of times when women were bound/burdened by domestic life.  And women should have turned their back on it in the name of liberation and equality.  These skills are far too suburban for our more sophisticated lifestyles.... Give me a break!!  I feel so sorry for people who wouldn't be seen dead with a pair of knitting needles, crochet hook or utter the words patchwork, sewing or quilt!  They are unenlightened in my view.  Each to their own.....it takes all sorts...blah blah blah.

Weekend in Review

Weekends pass by in a blur just as the weeks do.  I sometimes think I put too much pressure on "the weekend".  I want it to be the classic storybook kind of relaxing and fun time - you know a proper weekend ... off on a picnic, eating delicious home made food, lying on a rug, soaking up the outdoors, walking through beautiful scenery...yep I'm delusional!  That happens NEVER in my life.  My weekends are so rarely restful and rejuvenating. They can be busier than the week I just made it through and I end up completely happy to go to work where I get to see the stuff in the Inbox go to the Outbox.  My weekends are filled with errands, jobs, taxi-ing the girls and catching up so I'm ready for the next week.  But Monday comes and I don't feel ready for the week?  I haven't had my PROPER weekend.  But is there any such things these days where we're all so busy juggling, work, kids, home, fun? I don't know but I'm trying to deliniate between the 2. To find someway where I feel there is a little indulgence or down time or break from craziness.
This weekend was very rare though - my girls went away to a music festival, so I had a few hours alone in the house (except for the pets).  It was bliss.  I was conscious though that there is a lot more of this to come as they are both talking of travelling and living away in the coming years. So before too long I'll be missing them and having lots of alone time. So enjoy the busy times now.  Although I look at my mother who is one of the busiest people I know.
I actually felt as though I had a bit of a weekend.  I still did groceries, cooking and jobs, but I also sewed and crocheted more than usual . 

One border finished on the quilt - my first attempt at mitred corners.  Okay, I know lots of room for improvement. The black border really finishes the quilt off.  I'm loving the quilt all the more for the border. It makes it so much ...bolder.  The black fabric has some terrible fraying disease - I've never sewn with a cotton fabric like it.  Now for the backing...thought I had that sorted, but the piece isn't nearly big enough, so I'm going to have to piece the back as well.  I am going to attempt to hand quilt this one, so check back in a year or two to see how I'm going!  Ha!

Several rows of the border for my rug done.  Loving it too.  Sounds obvious probably but it is really really adding another dimension to the rug and I'm loving it all the more too. I'm not sure how many rows I will do.  I'm just trusting that the rug will tell me when there's enough.  Then an edging of some description.  Something new.

A bit of cooking - all scrummy.  A chicken curry on Friday night, a good ol' fashioned beef stew on Saturday, absolutely DElishous.  The smell filling the house whilst I sewed was divine.  The anticpation of the meal to come...

Saturday night watching New Tricks on telly crocheting away.  My colourful leftover quilt spread over me.

Sunday morning coffee with girlfriends at a patisserie in the Perth CBD. 

www.jpsancho.com.au

We hadn't been there before - well worth a vist.  Busy and vib-ey on a Sunday morning.  I bought the girls a treat...ah memories of Paris last year....

Some more baking - my current favourite soup, Sweet Potato and Lentil and a banana cake. 

And some herb patch admiring...planted in an old wheelbarrow about a month ago and THRIVING.

And a then a Sunday afternoon rugby match in glorious sunshine.  My team lost by a point - their 5th straight loss. 

And then settling in with a cuppa and Sunday night tv viewing - the return of Downtown Abbey and some more happy hooking!

Knock me socks off... if it wasn't a proper weekend!  It just snuck up on me... just like that!

My Leftover Wool Crochet Rug

So the last couple of nights I've been sewing in ends on my stripey crochet throw.  Almost done, there are just a few strays left to go.  I left it folded and thrown over the sofa to greet me this morning.  Nothing like colour to make me smile first thing in the morning.  Walking into the living room this morning my eyes went straight to it.  Happy morning! Yes, I am actually making progress on some unfinished bits and pieces.  Not nearly enough crafty, creative fun time has been had lately. Perhaps it's the cooler weather that is helping me along?

 I snapped a few pics on my phone.  A few different views and close ups, so I could enjoy them all day. I might even make one my screen saver at work!

Not a great pic ...too close.  I wasn't sure about including the varigated yarn, but I have so much of it in my wool stash, and the idea was to use a bit of every colour.  Well that didn't work out - I still have balls and balls left.  I can probably make quite a few more RANDOM leftovery colourful rugs.

Tonight I will start the border.  This edgy is a bit wobbly.  I don't mind really but I would like to add another dimension to the rug.  She's telling me she doesn't feel finished yet, so I'm going to keep playing by adding a border.  Not sure what border exactly, just rows of double I think finishing a fluted edge... not sure but I'm looking forward to seeing what I come up with. 

another stripey view...

and another...

I like very much ... do you?

Oh my, oh my!

I'm having palpitations!  Look at this Christmas tree skirt from anthropologie!!  So exciting - it has caused major creative stimulation of the brain.  For years I have had the odd thought of making a Christmas tree shirt.  I've seen some gorgeous ones in shops, none I've felt compelled to buy, because I really want mine to be home made.  I've been accumulating Christmas fabric for years now with no particular projects in mind.  I've used some of it to creatively drape around the bottom of the tree for the pressies to sit on which has been perfectly fine....every year I choose something different and if the pets have a field day with it - it's no stress - just wash it and fold it an put it away again. But I never ever thought of a knitted or crocheted one!!  It was a slap to the forehead - this is my style!  Doh!  So now the journey begins, pattern, style, colours..... There's no time frame, no pressure...I am in my year of deleting wool reserves so no new wool can be purchased, but that's fine - I can design and plan away which is such an exciting part of the creative process.  I'm all tingly!

Thank you Anthropolgie - I do love you! 

Please share any other Christmas Tree Skirts or links to - I am on a mission to look at what wonderfully crafty blogland has to reveal...here's one I found today on a short blog browse The Hood: A Christmas Tree Skirt over at Fresh Lemons; so inspiring and providing lots of food for thought and idea generation for my own skirt. I mean how serendipitous is that!!! Spooky!

Contemporary Crochet - Pumpkin anyone?

I get such a buzz from seeing crafts used in retail any where - hark back to my touche crochet post.  Here is a jewelley shop in Paris using crochet veg in their window display! Isn't it fun? 

I saw lots of crochet brooches for sale in London as part of the 5 a day healthy eating campaign.  I think it was seeing it in mainstream retail outlets that was so cool.  It's not something you would see here - I don't think - but correct me if I'm wrong.  Don't get me wrong you can buy crochet brooches and all sorts at our wonderful handmade fairs but not in retail chain stores.  Perhaps it's coming, but I'm not sure - I felt generally there is a greater freedom of expression, call it quirkiness, individuality to expressing oneself via fashion in Europe.  We seem more conformist here?  Maybe it's simply the larger population and climate compared with us?  Perhaps it's our new, young country - still emerging and forming its identity. My daughters commented on it to though too and loved it and happily embraced it.

And that really had absolutely nothing to do with halloween!! just coincidence there's a crochet pumpkin in my day after halloween post!!!  I don't even know how subliminal I am.