Baudelaire and tea

I've been doing quite a bit of knitting, and I'm really enjoying it again, I think I got back my knitting mojo!

This is Baudelaire from Knitty:


The lace pattern is lots of fun; as usual, it took me a few attempts at the start, but now I've got it and am happily following the chart whle watching Lost in Austen on ABC iview. It's so lovely, the premise sounds a bit crazy (modern girl in love with Pride and Predjudice goes back in time and becomes involved with all the characters), but it is done really well, and has some really good moments in it, the casting is excellent too, even Mr Darcy. I actually like the Wickham in this one better than the BBC mini series. I found that Wickham was quite sleazy and although that is how he was in the novel, I thought he wouldn't have been that obvious, or Lizzy never would have fallen for him.

Anyway, back to knitting! The yarn so far is lovely to knit with, the slight changes in colour are gorgeous and add interest.

Hopefully this sock won't fall victim to 'one sock syndrome', I really feel like I am on a roll with it.

This is what it look like on my foot.

It was my first time to do the toe-up method, you can see it looks a bit pointy. That may not be so obvious when it's finished, but even if it's not, I don't mind, it is still a pretty sock and they are going to be used to wear indoors when it's cold anyway.

Embroidery project

I've got so many projects on the go at the moment: Knitting socks, crocheting a blanket, and I've also started this embroidery.


I had to spend some time away from home, and left at very short notice, so I didn't have anything crafty to do. I have been wanting to try some embroidery recently, I did use to do it when I was very young. Mum used to sign us up to classes at the Embroiderer's Guild during school holidays, and I still have the bag I made.

Anyway, while I was away, I bought this kit, and started stitching. I'm not really loving the pattern, but I didn't have much choice. I am enjoying the stitching and seeing the picture emerge.


Making really little stitches is quite meditative, and definitely less thinking than when knitting or crocheting, as you don't have to keep referring back to a pattern or even try and work out where you are. Sometimes, I pick up a piece of knitting, and it takes me a few minutes to work out where I am. And then, sometimes the reason I stopped was because I made a mistake and was too tired to fix it. So I have to work out where I'm up to, what I did wrong, fix it, and THEN I can knit. So as you can imagine, this puts me off!

But with the embroidery, I just pick it up and go!

Baudelaire Socks

I've cast on!

I'm knitting Baudelaire, designed by Cookie A. It's a free pattern from Knitty.

I'm using a beautiful yarn I bought in Sheffield, England over Christmas:



It is toe up, so that is a new method for me, have almost finished the toe, and looking forward to starting the lace pattern.

Things I liked this week

• This blog post in Gertie's New blog for Better Sewing about Fitting it all in. I love to hear how people with full time jobs fit in so much sewing/ craft and then time for blogging about it! One thing she mentions is that she goes to bed about midnight. Unfortunately, I can not function well on little sleep, I need to go to bed about 10-10.30!
• This amazing time lapse amigurumi video from Craft. So cute and creative.
• This info on Interfacing from U-handbag. This will be very useful when I start to design and create my perfect bag.

Back into knitting

I have done so little knitting since I came back to Australia ( now over three years ago!). But recently I've ben getting the itch again. I have a pretty big stash of sock yarn, but find it difficult to finish a pair. I decided to knit a scarf instead and I tried the Lace Ribbon Scarf by Veronik Avery on Knitty.

It's an easy lace pattern that's fun to knit, and I loved seeing which colour would make each stitch. I used Trekking XXL, which is a lovely sock yarn.

This is a close up of the pattern:



Here is the scarf in all its glory, I used the whole skein.



Now I just have to block it!

Updating my blog, and things I liked this week

I have finally got back to this blog. I thought I'd start today by changing around templates etc, but Blogger have added new features, and what used to take me hours, took about 10 minutes! I still need to change my header, but for the moment it's fine.

I've also been adding some new blogs to my feed, if anyone has any good suggestions for sewing/knitting/general craft blogs, please let me know! I usually check Google Reader on my phone when I'm catching the bus or waiting for something. I star anything I like or want to look at more closely, then go through the starred items when I'm actually at my computer. It saves time, and helps me from feeling overwhelmed by all the unread items on my reader!

A few things I starred in my Google Reader this week:

• New Liberty Fabrics, seen at a few places, but Meet Me at Mike's reminded me to check them out.

• Gorgeous Oilcloth Placement from Purl Bee
• Amazing Godzilla Quilt from Craft

Ottobre Autumn/ Winter 2009

I just got this magazine, a late Christmas present. It is the first Ottobre magazine I've had a chance to look at.

It has a few cute patterns, particularly the tunic in this pic: