Scatterday

It's Scatterday and here's my entry!



Today is brought to us by the letter G...with the categories vehicle, colour and household item.
First up we have a goat cart (not my picture, I borrowed it from here because I couldn't come up with a g vehicle, but a goat cart it pretty cool.

Next we have colour and green, because it's better than grey (which I thought about) and all my green embroidery threads, aren't they pretty.

Finally we have a household item, and graters. Do you think four graters (actually one of them comes with an additional grater attachment - see Dy's blog for more, that one is my favourite too!) is a little excessive for one household, especially as we really don't use them that often? Two of them I've never used. But they are shiny...

12 inch square CAL: July easy square

Here's my July easy square from the craftster CAL. Getting to the end now (only four left in total).


Pattern from here

More Swap Goodness

I've had quite a productive weekend this weekend (well, Friday and Saturday anyway. Sunday was a write off because my sister kept me up all night with a party...she even barged into my room at 3am and stole all my dress up costumes...then everyone jumped into the pool with them five minutes later - so she's got some replacing to do). Apart from that over the weekend I managed to:
- Tidy out my cupboard - including resorting out my fabric and washing more of it
- Clean my room
- Dust and vacuum my room
- Strip and make my bed (that would have happened anyway)
- Sort out my bookcase
- Polish my shoes
- Clean my fan
- One CAL square
- Embroidered two TAST bookmarks
- Started making some Christmas presents

My room wasn't actually that bad but now it's lovely...except for the damaged dress up box sitting in the corner waiting for my sister to sort it out.

In other news I received another parcel from the Aussie Shop the Swap (Yay!). This was from Velvet Rose and had a Rapunzel Scarf and 100g of Merino-Border Leicester Slivers. Now on with the Spinning!

Scatterday

I decided to join in the Scatterday challenge from Random Applique for a couple of reasons, to make myself take more photographs, blog more often, and also share a bit more about myself.



This weeks letter was L, and the categories were animals, food and sewing. There are four pictures because my two dogs won't sit together helpfully.

First we have animals (because I thought they'd look better next to each other) and their breed is Labradoodles (ok, so actually a cross breed but never mind). On the left is Deefa and on the right is Barney. They're getting on a bit, nearly eleven now, but still doing pretty well. One day I'd like to spin some of their fur up and make something. Ignore all the beer bottles behind Barney, my dad has just started home brewing and is collecting them. Although it would be nice if he'd move them into the garage.

Next we have food, which is lemons, because we had quite a few of them hanging around.

Finally for sewing, we have location (I may be stretching it a bit here). There isn't really a good spot for me to set up my sewing machine so it gets put in front of my computer (which is probably why I don't sew as often as I'd like). I have on occasion been sewing and tried to check my email (or craftster, or bloglines) at the same time which involves me putting my arm through the machine to use the keyboard. I'm that addicted to the internet.

12 inch square CAL: July experienced square

Wednesday's are my normal day off and it's nice having a day off during the week because you can do things around the house (eg craft) without disturbances, do a bit of shopping, and go places that may be closed on the weekend (bank, post office). Anyway, today I had to go in to work for a staff meeting. I figured since I was doing that I was entitled to spend some money at Spotlight (fairly close to work, although a bit of a pain to get to and I normally finish too late)...except I got asked to drop a dog home on my way back, which was around the corner from home so no shopping for me. I'm still trying to decide if this was a good or bad thing. Otherwise the going to work in the middle of the day did manage to disrupt me from doing anything useful.

Here's my July experienced square from the craftster CAL



Pattern from here.

Swap Goodies

I received a lovely parcel today from cyndiq, as part of the Aussie only Shop the Swap on craftster.

I got a gorgeous crochet hook pouch, which is fully lined with pockets for hooks and has a cute beaded zipper pull. I can see this will be handy for reducing the number of things dragging around with my crochet. At the moment I had various balls of yarn, scissors, measuring tape, hook roll, pattern. Now I can put my active hook, scissors, measuring tape and probably pens/pencils and bits of paper in the pouch.

I also got this lovely domino pendant. Isn't it cute! Now just to go somewhere that I can wear it.

Shawl-Collared Wrap Cardigan

Another jacket, I made this with some yarn I bought from ebay. A little hint - if you are making something, check your yardages/meterages? first. I ended up with about 10 grams of yarn left over - although the belt was skinnier than it should have been and I made a couple of modifications to the pattern - I didn't make sleeve cuffs or a pocket (not because of yarn shortages, but I would have run out if I didn't make the modifications)



It's the Shawl-Collared Wrap Cardigan from SweatBabe.com's Fabulous and Flirty Crochet and it was a fairly easy pattern to follow...I might just need to wait until the weather gets a bit warmer to wear it.

TAST Week 13: Knotted Cretan

TAST Week 13 was Knotted Cretan Stitch and I did end up using a similar idea to the ordinary Cretan Stitch.

So this one is called 'Pressed Sample 2'

12 inch square CAL: June Easy Square + Naughty Tree

I came downstairs on Saturday morning to discover a lot of leaves outside our front door and on closer inspection found this had happened...

Luckily that's not my car...and there isn't really a lot of damage. If you look closely in the picture the branches to the left are going in a different direction and are a slightly different colour...because they're off a different gum tree and came down on Thursday, cutting off the power across the road. After two reasonably sized branches have come down in a week we're getting a tree guy in to look at everything and let us know if we need to take any trees or branches down.

Anyway, I've finished June on the CAL now. Now just for July and August, although there will only be September after that so I've just got six squares left in total. Then I'll just have the TAST and hopefully I won't sign up for any other ongoing challenges after that...I also have a round robin swap and a shop the swap on at the moment...and I did want to take part in a Christmas ornaments swap this year (if anyone else is doing this and sees it come up on craftster, could you remind me in case I forget to look on the swap board?)



The pattern is from here

TAST Week 12: Couching

Week 12 in the TAST challenge was couching.



This bookmark is probably the one that's taken me the longest so far, but I'm really happy with it. It's so tactile and yummy.

Hmmmm...couching handspun yarn would be fun too wouldn't it?

A project from my first spinnings

I've been very good and used the first thing I've spun up to make a beanie.



I've wanted to make a slouchy hat for a little while and I got some compliments on this when I wore it out which was nice. The pattern was from here.

I really should get an action shot but it's very hard to take a picture of your own head and there isn't anyone else around.

TAST Week 11: Up and Down Buttonhole

Week 11 in the TAST is Up and Down Buttonhole Stitch which I had quite a bit of fun with.



I'd had a similar idea with a couple of other TAST stitches, but it hadn't quite worked out until now.

12 inch square CAL: June experienced square

So I had almost caught up in the craftster CAL, but now I'm behind again (5 behind I think, better get moving again!)


This one is the June experienced square, and the pattern is from here.

TAST Week 10: Barred Chain

Week 10 in the TAST challenge was Barred Chain and once I eventually came up with a design I then had to sew my two bits of fabric together...which was a little more complex than I anticipated - those curves are tricky! Once it was done (a little dodgily if you look closely) the embroidery was pretty quick.

First Spinning

Here is my first spinning attempt and I'm pretty happy with it. It's not quite even, and it's both overspun and underspun (and overplied and underplied) but at the moment I'm pretty sure it's useable! It's made from about half? of one of the Nundle Cheeses, which were pretty easy to work with because it was just one loooooooooong string of roving. The hardest parts were connecting a new bit when it broke a couple of times.


At some point I made even roll it into a ball.

Post Office Hat

My sister kept borrowing/stealing the last beanie I made so I said I'd make her a beanie if she bought me the yarn...three months later she did (when I went to Southland with her - she actually works there) and I made this.


It's the Post Office Hat which I've been looking for an excuse to make, and she initially said she wanted something really lacey so version 1 (not photographed)got frogged because it had really big holes in it (by that stage she'd forgotten she wanted something lacey). I've still got enough yarn to make her a narrow scarf, but she has to wait for that one (as she got the beanie the day after she bought the yarn).

Done in Patons Caressa DK - lovely and soft. Now I've just got to make her a matching scarf with the left over yarn.

More Pretty

Here's some more gorgeous roving that Meshell sent me. This one is from Celia's Basket and the colour is Jungle Flowers and it's lovely and soft and ever so pretty.


The cheeses I ordered from Nundle Wool Mills have also arrived so you should see some spinning from me soon...and I may have also won a couple of lots on ebay as well so I better get to work!

I've just counted the Nundle stuff - and it looks like while I ordered a kilo, I've got one and a half. Lucky me!

Pretty

I've just sent the lovely Meshell some books for her 110 Books to Read List (which has some great books on it) and she was naughty kind enough to order me some beautiful roving.


It's from Copperpot Woolies and the colours are gorgeous. I did however shred the paperwork that came with it (I was giving my desk a much needed tidy up and shredding anything that I didn't need and was the least bit personal - but now my desk is lovely and neat!) so I don't know the colour names.

This stuff is so soft I could use it as a pillow - except that I'd probably dribble on it and wreck it, so it's going to be spun up. Except, because Meshell has done this, she made me get a move on and I've ordered some plain roving to practice on first, so that should arrive soon too.

TAST Week 9: Cross Stitch

Week 9 in the TAST challenge was Cross Stitch which I've used a bit of in the past.

I started off with some plans for maybe some Assisi Work but I wasn't really happy with the design I came up with, so I went with a simple tree, which I think is quite cute!

TAST Week 8: Fly Stitch

I'm certainly starting to amass some bookmarks! Week 8 is Fly Stitch.



It was quite fun exploring this stitch and after doodling a little I came up with doing a dandelion (which is interesting because librarylass said my Week 3 bookmark looked like a dandelion). I ended up stitching this one at the craftster meet in the city (so it was a little while ago), but it seems the sewing together is taking a little longer than the actual embroidery.

Crocheted ATCs

I thought I'd have a go at making some crocheted ATCs the other day and came up with this series.



It's called 'The many browns of Australia' and clockwise from the left we have the beach (which is my favourite), the desert (with rocks) and a paddock (with sheep and trees). Even though they're not as obvious as I'd hoped they were still fun to make.

TAST Week 7: Feather Stitch

I'm really enjoying the way the TAST challenge is not only making me use more stitches, but I'm also looking at using different threads and looking more at designs.



While this week's design is fairly simple and admittedly I haven't branched out that much on the stitch, I have started using some Perle cotton, previously I've only really used the six stranded embroidery thread so it's nice to go in a bit of a different direction.

I ended up giving this to my mum as part of her birthday present and she really liked it.

Birthday Card

A bit of a break from all that embroidery today!



I whipped this card up quickly for my mum's birthday the other day. No real pattern, just made up (and frogged back!) as I went along, and glued to a card.

TAST Week 6: Algerian Eye (plus a bit of a rant)

Just a warning, I'm going to go off on a bit of a tangent and have a little rant before I get onto the crafty goodness. If you're not in the mood for me being annoyed just skip ahead.

Anyway, on Monday nights I work until 8pm when work closes, and then I'm on call for the rest of the night. Several times I've had people come in late with their pets for the last consult or just keep talking, so that I'm there until 8.30 - 9pm. Normally that's not too much of a problem because I know that people love their animals (but turning up on time is always helpful, and vets don't generally keep you waiting as long as doctors), but on Monday we got a call at 7.50 about a dog that apparently was having difficulty breathing and it's face had swelled up. The owners of the dog had to collect the dog from where it was and then come to us, so it was going to take them about an hour to get there. It sounded like this could be a pretty serious problem, especially as the dog was a week away from giving birth, so I advised them to go to an emergency center (which was about ten minutes from them) but after speaking to one of my bosses on the phone, he said that if they wanted to come in that would be alright. So I had to wait at work for an hour (on my mum's birthday as well), to see a dog, that ultimately was panting a little because it had a belly full of puppies and had no facial swelling. And unless, I leave work and come back, I don't get paid overtime. Then I started work at 8am Tuesday. And while I'm complaining, we've also got a vet away today, so I have to work extra hours...on my usual day off, for a month. At one point I'll be working 11 days in a row.

Alright, rant finished!

This is the first of February's stitches for the TAST challenge, and it's Algerian Eye.



Unlike some of my favourite craftsters I'm not a huge fan of pink (I think I overdosed on it at about age 5), and while I was making this it seemed very pink, but once I washed out the transfer pen it magically looked better and now it's a completed bookmark I'm really happy with it. Although I think it is still a bookmark to use on chic-lit!

TAST Week 5: Chevron Stitch

I've finished January with Chevron Stitch.


I didn't have a great deal of inspiration for this one and ended up going with a bit of a 'Frankenstein's monster' idea. This time I did tea and coffee dying of the pillowcase, and it's given some subtle colour changes. If anyone reads Discworld books, it's an Igor creation!

TAST Week 4: Cretan Stitch

Week 4 in the TAST challenge is Cretan Stitch. I've been going well so far with catching up! I've been using recycled pillowcases for all my bookmarks, and tried some tea dyeing on this one, and I'm happy with the aged effect it's given me.


I'm calling this one 'Pressed Sample' and I was going for the effect of a dried fern or leaf in an old book.

Crocheted Socks

I've wanted some hand made socks for ages (been drooling over all the gorgeous knitted ones on craftster!) but as my knitting skills are very rudimentary I've been looking for a good crochet pattern for a while. I did start one pair a while ago but I used the wrong yarn/hook size or whatever and after about 10 rows realised I had something with the drape of cardboard and so I gave up.


The pattern for these is from here and I'm proud of myself for making two, because I've abandoned other projects where I've had to make two things previously.
The second sock I did fits better because I made a few modifications, but they're not too bad!

TAST Week 3: Detached Chain Stitch

Here's week 3's TAST bookmark (yes, I'm going with bookmarks at the moment) and it's Detached Chain Stitch.

I did have a bit of an image going on here but it may have turned out a bit abstract. If you can guess what I'm going for then well done! If you can't then you can probably also congratulate yourself on being clean minded.

TAST Week 2: Buttonhole

Here's my week two TAST offering, with Buttonhole stitch


I'm calling it 'Buttonhole ciliates' as I was going for a microscopic organism look. I really need to make myself a light box so I can start taking some better photos.

TAST Week 1: Herringbone Stitch

After being inspired by some of the lovely embroidery around (such as here, and here and other places, but I'm too lazy to post any more links), I decided to start the TAST challenge. I figure starting so late I have no pressure to keep up because I'm already behind!



Here's the first week's stitch, Herringbone stitch made into a sampler bookmark.

12 inch CAL May experienced square

I'll catch up eventually! I really like this one, I quite like Celtic imagery and purple so this is very nice!



The pattern for this one is here.

Cute little wristlet

I made a little wristlet to go with my dress and jewelry. I figured that adding a bit of black to my bag and jewelry would mean I could wear black shoes.


I made it from a great U-handblog tute - the 'Rather Cheeky' Wristlet Clutch, which was really clear and easy to follow.

Wedding Jewelry

So I've got my friends wedding later today and I've ended up making most of what I am wearing, which was pretty cool. You've already seen my Frou Frou, so here's my jewelry.



It's a bit chunkier than what I'd usually wear but I ended up happy with it, although I did buy other beads and crystals before I decided I liked this arrangement best. I think I may have to start making a big effort to use more of my beads rather than buy new ones...but they're so pretty!

12 inch CAL: May easy square

See, almost up to date with the CAL. Although in two days there will be another two to catch up on!

The pattern for this one is here.

In other news/questions etc, I was just wondering about wedding etiquette. What time are you supposed to turn up? The time stated on the invite, or a little earlier? I've got a wedding to go to on Saturday and so far I've only been to two weddings (both my uncles) so I'm not quite sure of the rules!

Craftster Meet

Yesterday I went into the city to meet up with some other Melbourne craftsters. We met up at Max Brenner's (Mmmmm, hot chocolates) and ended up talking about crafting and other random things.

Everyone, apart from me, brought along knitting, (I took some embroidery) and it was great to see the variety of projects. There was a bag, a shawl, a scarf and a blanket (or a block from the blanket). It was really good to be able to meet other crafty people rather than just seeing stuff on the internet (although that's good too!).

Fulled Bag

Using some of the left over wool from my Frou Frou, and the gorgeous stuff Librarylass sent me, I made this crocheted sunglass holder (at least that was the plan).
This out of focus shot (I was impatient to start fulling) was after it was crocheted:

And this is after fulling:


I started off hand fulling but it didn't shrink much, so then I tossed it in the washing machine (which helped but not quite as much as I wanted), and then I tossed it in again and then it was perfect sunglasses size! Then with the addition of one of my vintage buttons it was done!

No pattern, just single crochet with randomly placed stripes until I had something that was about 1/3 bigger than I wanted it.

12 inch square CAL: April experienced square

Almost up to the current month with the craftster CAL! Hopefully I'll only be one (or even none!) behind when it gets to June.


The pattern for this one is here.

12 inch square CAL: April easy square

Getting there on thecraftster CAL this is the April Easy Square. I figure if I'm crocheting the May squares in May then I've caught up!


The pattern is here.

12 inch CAL - March experienced square

Catching up on the craftster CAL, this is the March experienced square. I have been laying my squares out in various patterns and blankets but still no decisions. I think at the moment I'll leave them separate and then maybe take some photos of various options once I've made even more and get some expert opinions.

The pattern for this is here.

12 inch square CAL - March easy square

With all the other things I've been crocheting and having fun with my sewing machine I've ended up getting behind on the craftster CAL.
This is the March easy square, and while the colours are pretty tacky, they do make me smile (so they can't be that bad!). I've probably got enough squares for a blanket now but I'm not sure if I'll make a couple of big blankets or a number of little blankets.

The pattern for this is here.

I've also been tagged for the seven random things by Librarylass so here goes:

1. I have this weird oesophageal spasm thing where I get food stuck in my oesophagus and I've had to have two gastroscopes to push stuff into my stomach. It's not just big things either, I've had cereal stuck (although that eventually moved by itself).

2. When I was little I was being a smart-arse and was reading a book upside down (out loud) to a teacher. She then hung me upside down by my ankles. It may have been inappropriate but I still think it's funny!

3. I may be a vet but I'm also a little bit allergic to cats. Although at my current job they've only just found out so it can't be too bad.

4. I learnt to tie my shoelaces through a dream. I was struggling with the whole rabbit goes into the burrow thing (that could be wrong because I still can't tie my laces that way) and ended up having a dream with a pair of shoes tying themselves all night.

5. I have almost no sense of smell. Sometimes I think that's a good thing.

6. When I was young I could have been an elite gymnast, but due to my short attention span I was already fed up with gymnastics (did anyone else infuriate their parents by starting sports, getting the whole uniform and stuff and then quitting after a couple of terms) and ended up giving the whole thing up. I don't regret it.

7. I don't drink alcohol. I think it taste yucky and while people tell me I just need to drink enough to get really drunk and then it'll taste fine that sounds a bit dumb to me. Anyway, it saves me money and makes my parents happy (because they have a driver - they drink)

There we go, seven things you may not have known about me. I'm tagging anyone who hasn't been tagged and wants to be. Have fun!

Look at the pretty colours...

Nothing terribly exciting to tell at the moment, so I thought I'd post some pictures of this candy coloured crochet cotton that I bought recently. No plans at the moment, but it was a bargain and the colours are lovely (have I said that enough). I think it'll be handy to have these around if I do decide to make something with crochet thread. They'lll maybe be used for bookmarks or something...

Frou Frou

I finished the crocheting for this a couple of weeks ago, but I've only just finished blocking it. Unfortunately during the blocking (possibly because I did it wrong) the main body stretched quite a bit, but at lease it just lengthened so it's still wearable by me.

It's nice and snuggy too, so I'll probably wear it a bit, although the sleeves do have a bit of a tendency to get in the way.


Sorry for the dodgy photo - self timer before I went to work! It's also a bit less grey, with a bit of a green tinge, although I wouldn't mind it a bit greener.

Kilt Pin

Just a quick project, this is related to the other project I've been working on for a few weeks, which hopefully will be posted soon once it dries.

I like green. and I was happy with the slightly random arrangememnt I ended up with here, particularly the bead on the end of the chain.

Toothpick holder

There are issues buying my mum presents, not because of lack of ideas but because, well, let me give you some examples:
1) Last year I bought her a James Blunt CD (I think it was for Mothers' Day) and brought it to Melbourne a few weeks early because I wasn't going to be in Melbourne on the day, but thought I'd wrap it and get my sister to give it to her. While I was there, she said she was going to the shops to get the CD, so I gave it to her early.
2) This year for Mothers' Day (next Sunday in Australia) I got her some new headphones. Last week, she said she was going to the shops to buy herself some headphones, so once again I had to tell her what I'd bought her and then she got it early.
3) My sister and mum both bought each other Pink tickets for their birthdays this year, so they ended up with 4 before they discovered it and had to sell two.

So as well as the headphones, I've made her a container for toothpicks, because she always needs them when we go out, and I've found a use for an Eclipse mint tin I've had for a while. Because of the location of the lid, it's not as easy to reuse as the Altoids tin, but I'll take what I can get in this country!

It's fairly simple with freehand embroidery and a random tooth, but it should come in handy, and at least it's not something she'll buy for herself!