Ta-Dah! The Lily Pond!

Hello everyone!

Last week just got completely away from me - between Kiah's birthday, multiple movie outings, the fatigue (justifiably) getting cranky with all the fun things I was doing, going to the lake for the weekend AND still arguing with PayPal and Ravelry about our new patterns... I didn't blog!

But I did get my Lily Pond Afghan all finished, washed, and blocked, so I do have something to share with you today :D 

The Lily Pond, designed by Jane Crowfoot, was a Crochet-A-Long held in conjunction with Stylecraft Yarns. The event doesn't officially finish until next week, but I have been helping Stylecraft with a few secret projects, and had access to the final few patterns through that. 

Jane Crowfoot is a super famous crochet designer, and I love Stylecraft Special DK, so what could possibly go wrong!? It turns out, quite a lot - the Facebook group/s had a rocky start, the patterns were sometimes very hard to decipher, information was missing, and the translation between UK and US terms didn't go very well. I did not get the same great joy of working through this CAL as I did with Sophie's Universe, but that is a very very high bar! 

I didn't choose to go with the recommended yarn colours - it was a bit dark and dreary for me, especially the blues and greens. For a full list of the yarns I used, see my Ravelry Project page :) 

After all the dramas, I do actually love the outcome! The blocking was lots of fun - we ended up using about 300 pins to get all the flower petals to sit nicely!! I am so lucky to have a husband who supports my crazy crafty endeavours, although I think he was starting to doubt this after his third trip down to the junk shop to buy more pins... 

This afternoon, Kiah, Lily and I took a relaxing stroll around Anderson Park (the other side of the bay at Meadowbank from our apartment), taking photos of Lily with the river, the lovely sandstone and quite a lot of enthusiastic clover.

The colours and pattern almost danced in the dappled sunlight - it really does look like a real lily pond! 

Then, just as we were getting in the car to leave, Kiah said "Look! Under that tree with the undergrowth looks almost like a pond! One last photo?" 

One last photo :) 

Projects, WIPs and UFOs

Hello everyone! 

I can't believe how fast this year has flown by - how can it possibly be June already!? Hopefully after next weekend life can slow down a little bit, and we can get into a bit more of a routine... The fatigue doesn't like an exciting life at all! 

This week I'm going to tell you about some of my projects, WIPs and UFOs, to try and inspire me to get some of them done soon and out of the "to do" pile (and also to try and stop me picking up more new projects for a bit)!

Market Day

It has finally arrived! This Saturday is the Eastwood Uniting Church Annual Market Day, raising money for the Exodus Foundation. I am having a stall at the market, selling scarves and beanies (and hopefully taking some orders for more animals!). 20% of my sales and orders is going to support Exodus, so if you're in Sydney and want to check out my stuff, and get some super cheap toys, jam, cakes, books, clothes and white elephants, come on down!

My cousin Tracey, also a crochet artist, has sent me some very cute wool beanies and headbands to sell as well! You should definitely go check out her work at Cooper's Craft Corner :) 

My amazing Mum has been making me some organza bags for my customers - what do you think? A nice touch?

And, because everything we do is a family effort, my talented sister has made me a new set of tags for my wares. Don't they look good!

So, hopefully that goes well. I've decided if I sell 5 things, it'll be considered a success :) Any more is just a bonus!

Coming Full Circle Cardi

You know how you have those moments sometimes, when you see something and your brain just stops and shouts "WOW! MUST HAVE/DO THAT RIGHT NOW!!" Wandering through Ravelry about a week ago, I stumbled across the Coming Full Circle Vest by Lily Chin, and wow! I had to make it for me, right then. It's published in a book rather than online, but thankfully (?) there were so many errors in the published pattern that the whole thing is in the errata notes on Interweave's website! It feels a bit naughty, but the book is very expensive to buy when I just want the one pattern. 

Using Moda Vera Fayette in Pastel Mix (my favourite self-striping yarn is back in Spotlight! Yay!), I've been happily v-stitching round and round in circles for the last week or so :) It's not quite finished yet in this photo, but I wanted to try it on!

I'm up to the border now. The pattern asks for a shell/picot border, and.. well, after my Sunday Poncho I just don't think I can face more picots just at the moment. After a little Google image search (such a great way to look at lots of pictures!), I think I've decided on this two strand braid. What do you think?

Lily Pond CAL

After a slow start, I'm starting to enjoy the Stylecraft/Jane Crowfoot Lily Pond Blanket CAL. I'm not quite up to date at the moment though! The colours are just beautiful - very reminiscent of a pond. I'm glad I chose to do mostly Stylecraft Special DK with a few Life DK colours thrown in when there wasn't a Special DK to match, as it seems to be lighter and brighter than the original while retaining some deep colours for the deep waters of the pond.

The Order Mountain

I'm slowly working my way through my crochet orders. Fortunately my clients give me lots of notice so I don't have to be stressed about getting things done. Next off the rank is a cute pink and tan hippo, and then some Crocodile Stitch Booties in lovely Moda Vera Fayette Jewel Mix! Just like these ones, but adult sized ;)

Tumbling Blocks Baby Blanket - New Pattern

In between everything else, I've been steadily working on my Tumbling Blocks Baby Blanket Pattern - both writing up the (sometimes very odd) instructions for the squares, and crocheting away on the prototype. It's looking really good so far, if I do say so myself! I'm hoping to get it done and published by the end of July, but that really depends on the order list, work, the fatigue monster and whatever else falls in my lap in the next few months!

Overlay Crochet Purse - "Turkish Doorways" - New Pattern

Somewhere at the bottom of my cotton yarn bag is a half-done, half-written, half considered new pattern for a little coin purse (or pencil case or phone case or clutch - so many options!). I really need to pull it out, get it finished and written up, and then published, to get it out of my hair! 

And... don't even ask me about my cross-stitch. It hasn't been out of the bag in at least a month!

Do you have any projects that just feel like they will never end? 

How do you inspire yourself to finish them off? 

Catching up!

Hello everyone! 

I haven't blogged much about everyday things for so long - between patterns and Melbourne, it's been a bit busy! Here's a little update on what's going on for me :) 

First, since it has been so long, a Sophie's Universe CAL update in pictures! I love the butterflies and the little plum tulips :) It is also big enough now to keep my knees warm while I work on it - very useful now that the weather is starting to get chilly of an evening. Only 3 more weeks to go!! 

I've also started on a new Crochet Along - Jane Crowfoot's Lily Pond Blanket together with Stylecraft Yarns. I wasn't that excited about it after I saw the initial photos, it seemed very dark. But now that I've made my first set of pieces, it really does look like ripples in a pond! I chose mostly Stylecraft Special DK colours to sort of match the Stylecraft Life DK set colours, but I think my choices are a bit brighter than the Special DK alternates provided.

I broke my yarn fast (again) last weekend at Spotlight's 40% off yarn sale. It was just too good to resist! I discovered some colourways of Moda Vera Bouvardia that I actually like, such as Tokyo:

and Sunset Dive:

And I am definitely excited about getting more of these yarns as they make such lovely Road Trip Scarves for my stall in June :) Fortunately Bouvardia is on sale for VIPs until 10 May, so I just have to get back to Spotlight before then! 

I also found a new Moda Vera Marvel variation called Magic Stripe - it has longer variegations in colour, and I think it works well for these booties! What do you think? I'm about to get started on a blue/green/white pair as well. 

But, our big excitement this week were the huge storms, rain and wind around Sydney and the Central Coast/Newcastle. We were fine here in Meadowbank (although the hot water was off for about a day due to damage to the hot water tanks), but up at the Lake House, things were a little bit different. There were trees down all over the place, they still have no power after 4 days, and the lake overflowed just a little bit! The combination of a king tide and the storm surge meant that the lake couldn't do its usual tidal thing at Swansea, so it got a tad overfull...

See that bench out in the water behind a tree? It's usually about a metre from the edge of the lake... The ducks thought it was all marvellous though :)  

We were meant to be going up there for this weekend to celebrate my mother's and my sister's birthdays, but without power we couldn't have hot showers or even make tea! Kiah and I quickly cleaned out the fridges and freezers, which were already defrosting, and just came home instead. It made for a long day, especially after getting evacuated from Spotlight at Tuggerah on the way! 

Tomorrow there will be birthday lunch at my parents' house - slow roasted pork belly, roast vegies and, by special request, red velvet birthday cake with salted caramel and white chocolate cream cheese icing! Wish me luck with the cake, I've never made red velvet before! 

I hope you are all having a lovely weekend :) Don't forget, if you are interested in participating in the Crochet Between Worlds Christmas Market, send us a message on our Facebook page! We are going to start organising in earnest at the end of May when I get back from the Great Ocean Road Marathon!