My Creative Space - and my 1st postcard!

My first postcard in the iHanna Postcard Swap from A Bird in the Hand

I have been very busy making postcards for the iHanna Postcard swap. I have the addresses for ten people to send postcards to, and will be getting ten handmade postcards sent to me!

I found the first one in my letterbox yesterday afternoon, isn't it gorgeous! You can see the others she made at A Bird in the Hand. It makes me feel a bit embarrassed about my own. I have been working on them a bit everyday this week, and am hoping to finish them today.

My creative space is the lounge room floor:

My idea was to create mosaic pictures with torn out scraps from magazines. I started putting the little scraps in shoebox lids, but quickly ran out of room, and am now using the floor. Of course, little pieces of paper are being tracked through the apartment....

I  should be finished them all by today, and tomorrow I'll do a post showing the completed postcards! If you'd like to see more handmade postcards, check out iHanna's blog post.

If you'd like to see more creative spaces, check out Kootoyoo

My Knitting and Crochet Time - 2KCBWDAY7

My Knitting and Crochet time by Polyvore

I've made a Polyvore set illustrating my knitting and crochet time. I would usually wear jeans and a T-shirt, and maybe a cardigan or hoodie if it's cold. I like to knit sitting on the couch in our loungeroom, looking out at our courtyard with little colourful snapdragons. I like to glance at my tropical fish, swimming in the tank,which is next to the couch. I get distracted by books and the internet!

I listen to:

Triple J An Australian radio station

Cast on A knitting podcast by Brenda Dayne

So Frenchy, So Chic A CD collection of cool French tunes

I drink:

T2 Blue Mountains Loose leaf black tea with a hint of sweetness

Dr Stuarts Wild Fennel Tea Tea bags with a strong licorice flavour

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And so ends Knitting and Crochet Blog week. I've had a lot of fun, blogging every single day, and reading other people's blogs too. I've learnt that it doesn't take as long to create a blog post as I thought, so I should just get to it! My most popular topics were my easiest, which proves that you should blog about what you love! I knew my unfinished socks would be a popular post, as it was always a joke at my knitting group night, and although I struggled on the creative day, once I decided to just take photos of my gorgeous alpaca toy, it was easy and effective.

In fact, if you were one of the people that loved my cute little alpaca, I am going to make him a regular fetaure of my blog! Whenever I travel, I'll bring him along, and have some fun photos of him in front of landmarks and tourist attractions. It should be fun!

Something to Aspire to -2KCBWDAY6

What I really aspire to is amazing fair isle or colourwork.

Recently I saw this Debbie Bliss Magazine (Issue 5), and was blown away by the sweater on the front.

V neck Fair Isle sweater by Debbie Bliss, Debbie Bliss Magazine Fall/Winter 2010

I've always loved this sweater from Interweave Knits:

Venezia Pullover by Eunny Jang, Interweave Knits, Winter 2006

These sweaters, and others like them, are so inspirational to me. I haven't done any colour work, so my goal for this winter is to learn, and make a hat. If that is successful, and I enjoy the technique, I will reward myself by purchasing the required yarn to knit one of these sweaters.

Have you seen any other Fair Isle style or colourwork sweater or cardigan patterns that you think I might like?

Check out other blog posts on this topic by Googling 2KCBWDAY6, or click here

And Now For Something Completely Different! - 2KCBWDAY5

Who doesn't love alpaca?

Where are they now?

These hats are hats that are no longer with us...Lost on the streets of distant countries.

The first hat, a simple cable beanie was knit for The Boy when we lived in Japan. I can't remember what pattern or yarn I used, and it was done before I had a blog, or even a knitting notebook, so I have no notes. It would have been one of my first projects. It was lost one evening, very sad...

The second beanie was knit without a pattern, just a basic hat, and random stripes according to how much yarn I had left. It was completed in England, for The Boy, and again, lost.

Now this sounds like The Boy is very irresponsible and disrespecting of hand-knitted goods. Quite the opposite. He is the most appreciative and supportive of my knitting and craft hobbies, and is always pleased and proud to wear something I knit him. I've heard him tell people (completely apropos of nothing) that the article he is wearing was knit by me. But everyone can lose hats, and this is proved by the fact that I too have lost one.

The third hat is the Cabled Newsboy Hat (Ravelry link) from Debbie Stoller's Stitch 'n Bitch Nation. It was the first project I made that used knitting in the round and cables. I was so proud of myself, and I loved wearing it. The yarn was a Japanese yarn, Puppy brand, and had alpaca in it. It was so cozy and warm. I lost it one day when we were in London, I had lots of bags with me and was getting hot and flustered, I took it off and put it on the top of my handbag. I realised soon after that I had lost it, we looked in the streets and asked at the counter of shops we had been into but it was gone. I do wonder what happened to it.

I've always meant to knit another one, this might be the year I do. And the boy has had the same beanie that I knit for him as a replacement for the other, he's had it for years now and not managed to lose it!

Check out other blogs posting on this topic by clicking on this link or searching for 2KCBWDAY4 in google.

Tidy Mind,Tidy Stitches - 2KCBWDAY3

My knitting organisation is non-existent at the moment. We moved back in September, and I still haven't actually organised my craft and knitting stuff. It is all kept in the corner of the spare room, but there is no order to the chaos.

So instead of just showing you a picture of clear plastic tubs overflowing with yarn, a little set of draws filled with notions, and piles of stuff currently in use, I thought I would show you my favourite organisation thing.

It is this little drawstring bag I made to keep in a small project, I use it to take my current pair of socks to my knitting nights, or on the bus. I fell in love with this knit themed fabric from Aunty Cookie. I have a metre of it, and all I've used is this tiny scrap. I want to one day make a super-dooper knitting bag and use this fabric as a feature.

Anyway, I try to keep in this bag a pair of small scissors, a tape measure, some stitch markers and a wool needle. Usually, these things have been taken out, and all that is in there currently is a tape measure and a couple of stitch markers rattling around in the bottom!

I really do love this little bag, every time I look at it, it makes me smile. Maybe I should make a few more, one for each currently unfinished sock (see last post!)?

Close up of Aunty Cookie Knit 1 fabric

Skill + 1UP - 2KCBWDAY2

On day 2 of the Knitting and Crochet Blog week, we are talking about what skills we have learnt in the past year. This is a difficult post for me, because I don't think I have gained any new skills. In my first year of knitting I was pretty fearless, and tried cables, entrelac, lace, felting, using charts and working in the round. The following year I learnt to use the Magic Loop and knit socks,with all the skills that they entail (short rows, turning the heel, kitchener stitch and working on teeny tiny needles).

There is still a lot for me to learn but I have got to a level where I can do most things, so haven't taken the next step to keep challenging myself with new skills. This happpened when I was studying Japanese. I got to level where I could understand basic conversation and day-to-day topics, and make myself understood, so I lost motivation to keep going. I was nowhere near able to have a proper conversation with people, and had a lot to learn, but since I could get by, I stopped studying.

The skill I would most like to aquire is the ability to complete a project, especially a pair of socks. I have to date completed two pairs of socks.



These are the unfinished socks I found after diving in my stash bin for a couple of minutes. I'm pretty sure there is one or two more somewhere! I think the next pair I start will be two at a time, which would be a new skill, and hopefully result in a finished pair. You can see that I often get to the toe decreases and give up. Why? Because I see a new project, life gets busy, I forget where I'm up to in the pattern, hundreds of reasons, no, excuses.

Now that I've got these out and all together, I'm going to throw them in a basket, and try and work on some of them.

To see other blogs with posts about learning new skills, check out this link.